The Supercheats Newsletter:March

A few days after Christmas, a mother was working in the kitchen listening to her young son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of ******* who want off, get the hell off now, cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of ******* who are getting on, get your asses in the train, cause we're going down the tracks."

The mother went nuts and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."

Two hours later, the son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking from the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon." She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."

As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are ****** off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the ***** in the kitchen."

Going into a game called Bulletstorm I expected a paper-thin story as an excuse for nonstop murder. Instead, I was greeted with a humorous, potty-mouthed opening that fleshes out the dramatic crash-landing of ornery fugitive Grayson Hunt. His quest for revenge on corrupt military leader Sarrano is a goofy sci-fi romp that does not deserve to have its cutscenes skipped.
Bulletstorm offers a degree of character control I have not experienced in an FPS since Mirror�??s Edge. Gray�??s kick, slide, and leash allow him to move through and interact with the environment with fluidity. In other games, it would be unthinkable to pull a foe from across the map, strap him with explosives, kick him back into his buddies, and slide away while detonating the bloody mess. Amazing moments like this are easy to pull off in Bulletstorm. The slow-mo effect applied to enemies after being kicked or leashed offers the perfect window of opportunity to boot them towards electric wires or cacti, and the game has a predictive way of guiding the poor soul where you wish. There were only a few instances where I accidentally impaled some sad sack with rebar instead of feeding them to a carnivorous plant. Other than that, racking up points with creative skill shots is a reliably cathartic experience.
Skillshots are necessary to gain points to spend on weapon upgrades and ammo, but they�??re riotous fun in their own right. Working similarly to trophies and achievements, players earn hundreds of points by dispatching foes according to dozens of general and weapon-specific criteria. For example, the "French Revolution" skillshot is pulled off by decapitating multiple foes with a chain flail, and "Fan-tastick" is earned by launching a foe into the air and impaling him into the ceiling with a rotating spike, turning him into a human fan. The weapons themselves are some of the most creative and entertaining I�??ve seen outside of an Insomniac title, including a quadruple-barreled shotgun that evaporates enemies like the playground scene from Terminator 2. Combine these weapon challenges with the general thrill of combat and you�??ll be hard-pressed to find a mundane encounter.
When you�??re not mowing through legions of foes, you�??re dropped into larger-than life moments, like one that has Gray fleeing a tremendous runaway cog on a tram while you blast gas tanks to knock the wheel off course. In another scenario Gray giddily guides a remote-controlled Mecha Godzilla lookalike through a miniature city, blasting apart buildings and enemies.
In addition to the single-player campaign, Bulletstorm offers Echoes and Anarchy modes. Echoes takes sections from single-player maps and lets friends compete with each other for the highest score. Knocking friends down the ladder is a nice distraction, but only score fiends will want to play this after beating the main game. Anarchy is a cooperative horde mode in which four players work together to earn skill points to progress through waves. Playing catch with foes using the leash and teaming up to kick a jerk into a gigantic Dino's maw is a good time, but the higher level waves are impossible without constant communication. Hooking up four consoles in a room among good friends is your best bet, but even then the handful of maps start to feel repetitive after your tenth time attempting to get past wave 15.
Bulletstorm is an exceptional shooter brimming with personality and originality, but the concept is spread too thin in the later levels. New homicidal toys are constantly introduced in the first three-quarters of the game, which makes the final few hours a little stale. Mix in a ho-hum ending and the stellar experience goes out on a bit of a low note.
Small gripes aside, there�??s no denying Bulletstorm is blissful action. Epic Games/People Can Fly�??s sadistic opus arrives at a time when most shooters do little more than let you blast dudes in the head while things explode. Bulletstorm has those things, but also lets you shoot a man in the testicles and kick slide his head off.
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Not being able to trust a game�??s protagonist puts the player in a precarious position. I found myself second-guessing Isaac�??s actions. Is he battling people infected with the virus? Is his mind creating apparitions? Or, worse yet, is it tricking him into harming uninfected people? The race to find a cure becomes Isaac�??s priority.
The feeling of helplessness is established early on, and the sequences that follow are drenched in suspense and ambiguity. Compared to Isaac�??s time aboard the Ishimura, Dead Space 2�??s scares are bigger, the tension is greater, and the threat created by the virus makes every shot you fire count. This is one of the most emotionally and physically draining games I�??ve played.
Dead Space 2�??s new setting, the Sprawl, a heavily populated space station built on one of Saturn�??s moons, contributes greatly to the heightened unease. The Ishimura housed only its workforce, whereas the Sprawl is a home for families. This means that the infection strikes children and even newborns. Battling a seven-foot beast that vomits acidic bile and tries to impale Isaac with razor-sharp appendages is one thing, but watching a mother cradle a necromorph baby will haunt my nightmares until I die.
The Sprawl�??s architecture is quite different than the Ishimura�??s. Well-lit shopping districts, personalized housing, and a rainbow-filled nursery all provide a false sense of security and normalcy to scenarios that are anything but. A room void of danger is often accompanied by a claw scratching a door, rattling footsteps overhead, or muffled screams coming from a distant area. The sound design is pitch-perfect, and the accompanying score makes the scares seem bigger than they really are.
Although Isaac still uses many of the same tools from his previous entanglement, the setting �?? and new threats that lurk within it �?? give Dead Space 2 a decidedly different feel.
The team at Visceral Games has gone out of its way to ensure that the player never feels comfortable during the game. Not only does Isaac hallucinate, but creatures burst through walls when you least expect them to.
At no point in this game did I feel that Isaac had the upper hand. Enemies are not only greater in number this time around, they are stronger and better protected. De-limbing specific necromorph types takes an entire clip of ammo. I often found myself using kinesis to hurl every object in a room at a monster, praying that one shot impales the beast or at least knocks it back long enough for me to reload.
While I appreciate the challenge the team has created, I have to call them out on the design of many of the combat scenarios. As Isaac is engaging a threat directly in front of him, foes will drop from vents behind him. If Isaac had a rearview mirror on his helmet, I wouldn�??t have a problem with this, but too many of my deaths came from an unregistered foe attacking me from behind.
Tack these unfair spawns onto a game that is brutally difficult to begin with, and many of your screams will come not from horror, but frustration. The balance is perfect through the first half of the game, allowing for fluid progression while still making you thankful for every ammo clip an enemy drops. As the plot unravels, the difficulty increases with each new encounter. Unbeatable foes are thrown into both puzzle and standard combat operations, and elevator rides are packed with necromorphs. I found that the normal difficulty setting felt more like hard or expert in similar games.
As drained of energy as I was at the end of battle, Dead Space 2 often rewarded my effort with action-packed cinematics. Some of these moments blend seamlessly with unique gameplay sequences, much like Uncharted 2 does. I won�??t spoil anything for you, but I will say that a sequence taking place aboard a train and another involving a needle are front-runners for Game Informer�??s Moments of the Year for 2011.
Disorienting zero-gravity sequences (of which there are many), and a handful of clever �??how do I open that door?�?� puzzles are peppered into the action at just the right times.
The excitement also stretches to Dead Space 2�??s multiplayer component, where players get the chance to hunt mankind as the necromorph legion.
In a similar vein to Valve�??s Left 4 Dead, all of the matches pit a human team against necromorphs. As the human team feverishly attempts to complete objectives, the necromorphs are tasked with slowing their progress, usually by ripping off their heads or chopping off their legs. I enjoyed my time playing as both sides. Controlling the necromorphs leads to cringe-worthy highlight reels, but these murderous thrills are matched by the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a well-oiled human team that coordinates tactics.
The matches are quickly paced thanks to spawn points that allow necromorphs to crawl out of a vent just feet away from a human opponent. The action is relentless, and post-match kill counts are usually through the roof. Each kill earns you experience points that unlock higher ranks (60 in total) and new armor as well as weapon upgrades. In two hours of match time, I reached level four. Another two hours got me to six. It will take days to reach the cap.
Dead Space 2 is a monster of a sequel, offering bigger scares and more excitement than I expected. I enjoyed Isaac as a silent protagonist in the original game, and I find I like him even more now that he�??s found his voice. I�??m still confused by the scientific explanations for the contagion and how it is linked to the obelisk-like Marker, but I like where Isaac�??s story is going. The tease for Dead Space 3 has my head spinning with questions.
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