Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

2004 was a big year for gaming, with several heavy hitters like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Half-Life 2 releasing to critical acclaim and a lasting legacy. If there’s one game that I distinctly remember from this time period, however, it’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (San Andreas), Rockstar’s fifth entry in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series. Even though I wouldn’t have been able to play the game at the time, I remember that everyone talked about the game, including a number of students in real life, and how great it was, with additional praise from gaming news sources. I also remembered the “Hot Coffee” controversy and how it made the news at the time, along with the recall and rerelease of the game. Eventually, I heard enough hype that I actively sought out a copy, but couldn’t find a single one in any GameStop that I looked at (back when I actually bought all of my games at GameStop). Fortunately, the game was rereleased under the Greatest Hits label and I got a complete copy that way.

Sometime later and about eleven years ago, I tried to play San Andreas, but for whatever reason only completed three missions (or about an hour of gameplay) before I got epically sidetracked by other games, including Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the only GTA game I had played to completion. Since then, I wanted to try playing San Andreas again, but that interest didn’t fully reignite until I saw footage of the botched Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, glorified console ports of mobile ports of console games. With San Andreas now relevant again, I passionately played the original PS2 version over two weeks, with an in-game time of 24:07 and completing the main story with an overall percentage of 63.10%. With that goal finally accomplished, I can confidently say that despite its rough edges, San Andreas is still a game worth playing and has definitely earned its reputation.

Bully - Go, Bullworth Bulls!

There comes a point every year (summer, after the month of November) where new video games stop coming out, or at least the ones you're interested in, giving way to a drought. Unless you plan to keep playing multiplayer through this time, which some of you no doubt do, or you're like me and you review something new constantly/multiplayer isn't your thing, then you'll probably purposefully buy a shoddy game to say something about it or just buy a game off a digital store to say something about it. Another option however is to take the opportunity to finally go through your (potentially expanding) backlog of older titles. I chose this particular option when I finally decided to review the original PS2 release of Bully, since there's nothing coming out this December that I'm enthusiastic about. I had heard about the game when it first came out, as well as the Scholarship Edition, but I didn't have much of an interest in playing it until more recently when I finally got a copy. Bully, released to usual controversy by Rockstar Games in 2006, is a title that, while a mere six years old, felt like a nice change of pace from the PS3 and 360 games I have reviewed.

15 year old Jimmy Hopkins is in a sticky situation. He's been expelled from several schools prior due to his constant bullying, and he's only got one shot left before he gets sent to Juvenile Hall, so he's dropped off at a private school called Bullworth Academy while his mom goes on a year-long honeymoon cruise with her fifth husband. Immediately however, he is attacked by three bullies, but also makes friends with the shy Peter Kowalski and scheming sociopath Gary Smith. In a school with corrupt teachers and prefects who do next to nothing to stop the bullying, with the school Principal Dr. Crabblesnitch in fact encouraging it, there are five cliques constantly feuding with each other: The Bullies, The Nerds, The Preppies, The Greasers and The Jocks. It then becomes Jimmy's mission to gradually pacify and unite the five groups so that he may usher in a new era of peace for Bullworth. It also becomes quickly apparent however that Jimmy has no idea what he's gotten himself into.

As the story unfolds, the player gets to experience some character development from Jimmy, especially as he goes through the twists at the end of the game that reveal where Gary's true intentions really lie. His rise to power is handled in a way that I was actually invested in what was going on, including the internal politics of each clique being revealed from the perspectives of not only other cliques, but Jimmy's firsthand experience as well. There is a good narrative flow and I felt the ending to be very satisfactory in tying things up. All in all, a good campaign for those who like playing games for the story.

The town of Bullworth is pretty large, but is not limited by the PS2's technology in terms of the game's capability to render it. For the graphical abilities of the time, the game still looks great and is filled with varied environments and even residents who all have their own unique appearance and personality. Everything runs smoothly and the game's realistic visual style will remind Grand Theft Auto veterans of its parent games, though the choice of having it revolve more so around children and teenagers may throw some off. Jimmy may certainly be different from other protagonists that Rockstar usually makes, but he's still likable nonetheless and his somewhat customizable appearance suits him well.

Being a former bully himself though, Jimmy can handle himself pretty well in a fight. Locking onto a target is easy, being either whoever Jimmy is looking at or whoever is trying to beat him up, and thankfully so since it is required for Jimmy to be the most effective in combat. Hand to hand is a great option, with better and better combos gradually earned from performing certain tasks, the strength of them altered in a similar fashion. The combos are easy to memorize and thus easy to input at the appropriate time. Jimmy can also be assisted by some impromptu weapons that are occasionally visible in the environment, as well as the various items he earns over time. These items are mostly used for the purpose of pulling off pranks, but their combat use cannot be denied, with such things as firecrackers, stink bombs and itching powder among others. These are extremely handy in the right moments, which helps bring a certain level of depth to combat, though if one wanted to get by on fists alone, they would be able to do so. Bully, as a result, allows you to fight the way a kid/teenager would, fighting dirty and improvising to get in a good hit should it come down to it, which makes every victory satisfying when faced with those tougher than you.

What also helps is how each clique goes up against Jimmy in a fight, their prowess entirely dependent on which one they belong to. The Nerds are naturally the weakest, since a few good hits will quickly break through their paper-thin defenses. Bullies are more generic, but put up a reasonable resistance early on and ironically aren't that much of a threat throughout the story. Preppies and Jocks on the other hand are more likely to give you trouble. Preppies are heavy boxers, which make their offensive strength higher than normal and are more likely to counter a grab. Jocks however have the best strength and defense of all the cliques thanks to their sports background. Though training will enable Jimmy to take them down much easier, they are the most trouble in groups, as their brute force tactics and lack of class, like the Preppies have with boxing, make it tough to even fully combo them. Then there are the Greasers, and later the Townies, who are more likely to use dirty tricks and improvised weaponry when dealing with the player, making up for their lack of strength compared to Jocks. The amount of variety present with every clique helps keep combat fresh and you on your toes, which helps it be more exciting when you proceed to take down entire groups at a time.

At certain points in the story, as Jimmy takes over each clique, there will be a boss fight. There is an interesting amount of variety between these fights, with some clever way of taking advantage of each unique personality trait form the differing groups. These can also easily be over the top, with the Nerd boss consisting of relatively high tech weapons in a location emphasizing cover and the Jock fight requiring Jimmy to throw back explosive-laced footballs before tackling the Quarterback (it makes sense in context). While these were all interesting, the only one that's disappointing is the final fight against Gary. The buildup in anticipation of this confrontation had me anticipating much more than a few wimpy strikes. Though the reason for his weakness can be explained away in-universe and the end result is still satisfying considering how much of a jerk he is, I was expecting a bit more from the main antagonist.

Around Bullworth Academy and its surrounding town, Jimmy can complete an array of mandatory and optional missions, most of which are actually pretty interesting. Its actually nice to see missions tailored to suit the game's more child friendly atmosphere (consider that it's rated T, as opposed to the M rating of the Grand Theft Auto franchise). While money is earned after each mission, there are also jobs made specifically to earn Jimmy some easy money, which basically boil down to manual labor. Still, the incentives for completing the jobs and most of the missions make it worth it in the end and they can actually be pretty fun to perform in the first place. The only place it may falter is when Jimmy has to go stealth. While I had no real trouble completing them, for the most part anyway, they can easily become frustrating due to the sudden level of precision required in Jimmy's movements along with careful glances at the radar in the corner of the screen. I can understand these complaints, since I'm pretty sure I came close to being caught a couple of times within a specific area.

The only other complaint I have about missions is that if you screw up at any point, you can fail the entire thing and be forced to find the mission again to retry it. The rub here is that some of them can only be accessed at certain times of the day, so the ones that can only be accessed late in the night will likely require the player to go through another in-game day just to get to it again. I learned to just avoid these missions until the end of the game to alleviate the frustration and get through the story faster. If it were possible to immediately redo some of these missions immediately instead of having to run all the way across town to get back, I would have been a little happier. Regardless, there's always something to do at Bullworth.

One bit of praise I will also give this game is the music. The score is, simply put, very well done. Its catchy and memorable thanks in part to its simplistic nature, plus it doesn't get on your nerves when played in a continuous loop, in fact being a score where I would actually love to listen to the tunes on a loop. By the same token the voice acting is also pretty impressive, with the characters actually sounding their age and bringing the right emotions up at the right times when it fits their personality. While I may not recognize anyone's name in the cast list, it makes me wonder if some ever went on to do anything more, since the voice actors clearly have talent here.

Before I end my review here, I'd like to bring up one thing regarding the controls, specifically the analog stick controls. I have no idea whether its from the fact that I had to replace my PS2 controller (I used it so much that I couldn't hold X down to save my life), but sometimes when controlling Jimmy there would be some light wrestling involved just to get him to move in the right direction, mostly when confined to the Boy's Dorm. I also had some minor camera issues, since sometimes there would be an environmental obstruction when I needed to win an important fight. Upon booting the game it was also possible for Jimmy to just constantly walk until aggressive control intervention was applied, though afterwards it never really bothered me again.

So overall, Bully is a very solid game from Rockstar. Its story is very well written, though one or two questions can come up, and its sound design is quite amazing. Its setting allows the development team to take a different approach to open world gaming, with a well varied environment and suitable missions. While there are some frustrations, they are easily overcome by patient players and the sense of satisfaction is well worth getting to. For those seeking a good open world experience on PS2 to fill in a rather big gap until another worthwhile one rolls around in the current generation, this will surely keep you busy and entertained for quite a while.

L.A. Noire - A Case Well Worth Solving

As someone who appreciates older movies, I was intrigued by the idea of a game where you could go around as a detective in the 40's and solve various cases. This became a reality when I first heard of L.A. Noire, a game that seemed to have a lot of promise as it was from Rockstar, a company noted for creating an enjoyable experience in their games. Developed by Team Bondi, L.A. Noire was also intriguing in that they attempted to use new technologies to accurately recreate a 40's Los Angeles and give it the atmosphere of Film Noir. After a couple of delays, I still waited patiently for the release of the game, filling my time by reading up on what they were going to do for it. When I finally got my hands on it, I started playing it in all of the free time I could get. After about 18 hours of play, I can say that while the game isn't completely perfect, it was very difficult to walk away from.

The story follows Cole Phelps, a former World War II veteran who joins the ranks of the LAPD. He begins as a Patrol officer, but he shows he is worth his salt and gets to handle cases for Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and Arson. At the same time, he must unravel a web of intrigue and deceit all while discovering the true difference between cop and criminal. Just like the plot of a true Film Noir, this line is blurred to the point where he eventually discovers that there is hardly any distinction between a marine soldier and a police officer other than the uniform. I really don't wish to give anything away about the game's story since it is peppered with plot twists, but I can say that there is a fantastically written overarching story connecting all of the cases together in a very big way.

The cases themselves are well-crafted and draw elements from cases in real life, including the unsolved Black Dahlia murder among others. It was amazing to see how they could take cases from the real world and infuse them with cases created for the game or even alter the real ones in a way that perfectly fits the narrative. The cases get more difficult to solve as they go on, especially the Arson cases where it is harder to find evidence, but that is really the fun of it all. The difficulty curve is gradual enough to give you a challenge as well as a good sense of familiarity each time, which is a really good way to exercise the mind when you have to constantly put the pieces together.

Cole Phelps, like all of the major characters, is written very well and very realistically. He is a man who wants to do his job and uphold the law, but at the same time he finds out that there is a limit to what a man can do in his shoes. What helps this is the fact that his voice suits him perfectly, enforcing the illusion that he is a real human being. In fact, I could not find a single flaw in the acting for any of the characters, even the minor ones, period. The difference between this game and any other game title is that Team Bondi used a new technology that would allow them to take the actual actors and map their movements and facial expressions, using them as the model for the characters while lending their amazing voice talents to fit them.

This new technology aids the meat of the game, the interrogations. When you ask a question during an interrogation, you can confirm that what they say is the truth, doubt their statement, or call them out for lying. When you do accuse them of lying, you had better back it up with hard evidence, but fortunately you can back out of it if you feel what you have isn't sufficient enough. It is normally possible to figure them out by looking at their facial animations, and a lot of the time there are obvious tells when they are lying. It's interesting to note though that it is actually harder to determine when someone is telling the truth, since the suspect is occasionally very confident with their own lie. A lot of the time it comes down to doubting or lying anyway, so that makes it even harder to uncover the truth.

If the player is having a hard time searching for clues or interrogating people, or if they are just plain stumped, there are a few handy fail safes in place to ease the process. You can ask your partner for help to figure out where to go next and you can look at your notebook at any time you need it to help narrow your options down and keep track of all of your evidence. But the biggest gameplay mechanic is a lifeline known as Intuition Points. Using an Intuition Point, which you collect by leveling up, can be used to locate all clues in a crime scene, take away one answer in an interrogation, or see what the community picked and make a decision based on that. I tried my hardest not to use them so I could prove to myself that I had good deductive skills, but I found myself using them on occasion to figure out the correct flow of a conversation.

The setting of L.A. Noire is in 1940's Los Angeles, and as far as I can tell, it is recreated near flawlessly. The environment is rendered down to the tiniest detail so every building is unique. Only rarely did I experience popup graphics, which is a pretty good sign for an Open World game. One of the few things I noted was the fact that the set from Intolerance was in the game despite that fact that it was burned down in 1919, but I will admit that it does make for a great backdrop for some of the action that happens during one of the cases. Still, it was fun to get to see famous landmarks like the Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian theaters from back then, among other places like the Keystone movie lot and the aforementioned Intolerance set.

While this game is superb, that does not mean that it is exempt from having its own share of flaws. While 1940's L.A. is very large and there are 50 landmarks to discover, there isn't much need to memorize them, as your minimap while driving is more than enough to get you to your destination and you can just get your partner to drive you there for you to save time. There also isn't very much incentive to explore the city due to the fact that the collectibles, hidden cars and golden film reels for some of Hollywood's most famous movies, don't enhance the game in any way except to say that you have them. The controls are also done pretty well and respond great, but it can be a bit of a pain during platforming segments such as scaling the L.A. Public Library or chasing a suspect on the Intolerance set.

At the same time, playing multiple cases in a single sitting can make them look very formulaic, making it sometimes feel as if you are just going through the motions. However, this is easily remedied by playing the game in bursts of a couple cases at a time, like what I ended up doing. I also enjoyed the Street Crime that would come up on occasion, but even then there were some that I ended up not enjoying all that much. The gunfights, melee, and chase sequences were also integrated very well into the game and serve as good breaks in the drama, but it seems like there could have been a couple more of those every now and then since they don't occur too often in the main story. It is also possible to skip action sequences if you screw up too many times, which I very rarely took advantage of.

One other thing to note is that if you screw up a case, it will continue on despite this and even allow you an alternate path to the end, but you will overall beat the case no matter what. You are also graded at the end of each case and even get the option to try them again from the main menu at a later time, which gives the game a bit more replay value. However, the game doesn't alter the story if you do something differently than intended, making the game more linear than other games of the genre. This isn't really a bad thing, as it helps to enhance the atmosphere of the game being like a movie. Also, a couple of story elements seem a little rushed, mainly a sudden romance for Cole and a rather abrupt ending, although this doesn't take too much away from it overall.

While L.A. Noire does have its flaws, it's a very well polished game to the point where these don't seem to bring the game down very much, if at all. The game is methodically slow, but that helps you feel more like a real life detective in a Film Noir setting. With an exceptional story and some of the best acting I've seen in a game as of late, it's hard to not recommend other gamers to give it a shot, especially if they have played a Rockstar game before. If you haven't been interested in Film Noir before, you may very well be after playing this game.