I had recently shaved my beard off and was regretting the decision… perhaps playing Demon’s Souls would be faster than re-growing it?

So, at risk of being redundant to every paragraph ever written about it, Demon’s Souls is hard. But while I did get frustrated at points (many, many points), I never felt that the game was being unfair. No situation could not be overcome with a different approach (or, at worst, choosing another world to explore).

Make no mistake—if you don’t like being challenged (read: Failing 10 times before succeeding), Demon’s Souls is not for you. Lori loves RPGs, and Demon’s Souls is not for her (which might be for the best, given that I’d prefer my wife not be turned into a man). As she watched me play, I could feel her patience stretching to the breaking point as I replayed sections over and over, punctuated only by simulated bouts of Tourette syndrome.

But its difficulty also creates a tremendous sense of accomplishment—highs that match the lows. Returning to previously traversed areas to absolutely dominate foes which had caused you so much trouble in the past is incredibly satisfying. Likewise, the game is filled with fairly complex systems that require considerable effort to understand (or the help of online fan sites and wikis, of which there are many) but offer considerable rewards for their mastery. It is a game that requires your full attention, patience, and commitment—something not everyone looks for in their recreation choices. In the current console gaming climate, Demon’s Souls is a unique experience: an undeniably hardcore game in an era when game design has shifted decidedly towards mainstream accessibility.

Ultimately, the name of this site has the word “couple” in it.  This isn’t ManGamer.com (domain available!) and, while it is a game I wholeheartedly recommend to hardcore RPG or 3rd-person melee-combat gamers, Demon’s Souls is not a game for most couples. Lori and I enjoyed it greatly, however, and she can rest assured that her mate is indeed a man… though I’m hoping there was enough evidence of that beforehand.

Demon’s Souls is a 3rd-person (you see your guy in front of you) action-RPG exclusive to the PS3.

For those not familiar with the God of War games, they’re third-person action games that take place in a world (loosely) based on Greek mythology. They’re extremely visceral, incredibly violent, and awesome—and I mean that in the literal sense. These games have had the ability to make eyes widen and jaws drop, the first two console versions pushing the graphical capabilities of (the now 10-year-old) PlayStation 2 to their pinnacle; thus, many fans of the series have waited expectantly, wondering what spectacle could be accomplished on the first iteration available for the much-more-powerful PS3. In my brief time with it (about an hour, perched about three feet from a 50-inch plasma screen), it did not disappoint.

Dave: For context, I’ve played both God of War and God of War II, and I thought that both were superlative console action-gaming experiences. In both cases, while Lori did enjoy taking the controls at times, she generally preferred sitting back an watching me take the reins. Neither of us tried the PSP entry God of War: Chains of Olympus, though I’ve generally heard that it’s a worthy portable version of the experience.

Lori: Indeed. Though I did enjoy watching Dave play through the previous iterations of the God of War series, there’s nothing like the pure button-mashing goodness that these PlayStation titles have afforded me thus far.

Like the first two games, God of War III doesn’t waste time or start slow. Within the first few moments, you’re treated to the sort of daunting scale and thrilling action we’ve come to expect from God of War only, this time, paired with a level of graphical fidelity rivaling any entry of this console generation. The combination is impressive.

The gameplay and action itself are slick and smooth, worthy of a franchise that’s had some time to refine its mechanics. Indeed, there are a few welcome tweaks present; for example, during the frequent interactive cinematic fight sequences (QuickTime events—”QTEs” in gamer-speak), the button prompts are positioned on the edge of the screen that corresponds to the button’s position on the controller, allowing the player to know what to press whilst keeping their eyes on the action. And you’ll want to keep your eyes on the screen for this one…

… unless you’re not big on graphic violence, that is. Make no mistake: This is not a game for kids—or for kids to even be in the room. Maybe the next room. Playing as ex-Spartan Kratos, you do horrible, brutal things—and I’m told these sorts of actions (and, indeed, violent vengeance as a theme) persist throughout the game. On the flip side of the mature-themes coin, there’s plenty of partial nudity, and it’s also been confirmed that a sextastic mini-game is present, as in previous God of War titles.

Ultimately, God of War III is clearly poised to be the biggest (and most violent) of a series whose hallmark has been being very big (and very violent) and in doing so, it may become one of the biggest core console releases of this generation. For the many who have enjoyed the God of War games and wanted more (or maybe “MORE!”), GoWIII would appear to be all that—and a pound of flesh.

God of War III is a Playstation 3 exclusive and will be in stores on March 16th.

Photos by Michael Pierson.

Dave: This is a look at Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for Xbox 360 (also available for PS3 and PC). For context, I’m a fan of FPS games. I did not play the original Bad Company, but I have played and enjoyed most of the other games in the Battlefield series. Lori had little-to-no interest in playing or watching me play this title (having already recently played other similar games), though I did catch her laughing at some of the dialogue.

Much to Lori’s chagrin, I’ve cut short our virtual trip to Renaissance Italy to return to modern times so that I can point a gun at things in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the latest big modern military first-person shooter.

This time around, the soldiers at the wrong end of the barrel are Russian military—again showing that, when they want a conventional military adversary, game developers seem most comfortable creating a sort of neo-cold war gone hot. I should note that I’m only vaguely aware of the fiction established in the original Bad Company, and this sequel does very little to help me out with this—other than to show swaths of red and tiny Russian flags growing to cover regions on a map that I’m quite certain aren’t part of present-day Russia.  That said, I play these games for the action, not the plot, and I’m not too keen on sitting through a lot of unnecessary exposition anyway.

Dave: If rumours that the next Call of Duty will actually take place during the cold war era are correct, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to tell the difference… other than that they’ll be calling the enemies “Reds” and they can use trendy Soviet iconography.

The single-player campaign centers on the exploits of Bravo (“Bad”) Company, a squad of four US soldiers who, in the first game, went looking for gold (in a similar vein to the protagonists of films like Kelly’s Heroes or Three Kings). I’ve gathered from various game previews and marketing materials (rather than the game itself) that, having been reeled in, the crew is forced into military servitude once again. The members of Bad Company are a fairly colourful cast, where the player fills the shoes of Preston Marlowe, more-or-less the straight man of the bunch. Compared to most FPS games, the other three characters (Sarge, Sweetwater, and Haggard) offer a decent amount of entertaining dialogue, both in cutscenes and gameplay—the latter mostly during the slower moments between the more common frenetic combat sequences.

Lori: “You had me at ‘interesting.’” That still makes me chuckle. Evidently, it doesn’t take much to amuse me.

And the combat in Bad Company 2 is about as frenzied and chaotic as is comes. A key feature of the Battlefield franchise in recent years has been fully destructible environments, and they’re not afraid to show off that feature throughout the campaign.  Buildings explode and collapse, trees and wood fences splinter and disintegrate—in turn filling the air with dust, smoke, and various flying objects. Of course, the most relevant flying objects are still bullets, and the gunfire zings and pops with great effect—aided in no small part by some superbly deep and detailed sound effect design. The sights and sounds of battle are all there, and they’re usually coming at you from all angles. No doubt: when it comes to graphics and audio, this game is at or near the top of the pile when it comes to console games. From start to finish, I was treated to rich settings, impressive set pieces, and glorious expansive backdrops unmatched by most games. It may not have a particularly compelling narrative, but the action is in no short supply.

Indeed, BF:BC2’s campaign has got all the spectacle that military shooter fans have come to expect, but that’s also a clue to what is, perhaps, my only letdown: that I’m starting to get the feeling that I’ve done this all before. After all, it was just a few months ago that I was the nervous gunner in a Humvee convoy, or that I watched as jets streak through the sky to strike at entrenched enemy targets, and that I was faced with the threat of Russia invading the continental US—all in another game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Of course, the developers of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE) deserve a ton of credit for meeting the extremely high bar set by the developers of Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward), but the reality is that I played this one second, and the highs didn’t seem quite as high this time around.

Dave: As a note, I played the campaign mode on “Normal” difficulty and, as an FPS veteran, it was not particularly challenging (when compared to MW2 on the middle “Hardened” difficulty, for example). It took about 6-7 hours to complete at a fairly leisurely pace (I didn’t “review-rush” it). There’s no doubt that some may find that short, but I was reasonably satisfied in knowing the amount of content and entertainment present in multiplayer (next page)…

]]> http://www.coupleofgamers.com/2010/02/battlefield-bad-company-2/feed/ 3 http://www.coupleofgamers.com/2009/11/mw2-where-was-your-significant-other-last-night/ http://www.coupleofgamers.com/2009/11/mw2-where-was-your-significant-other-last-night/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:50:33 +0000 Lori http://www.coupleofgamers.com/?p=638 When I received the press invite to attend last night’s Sony/EB launch of Modern Warfare 2, I instantly thought of Dave. He wanted to finish Borderlands so he could commit his full attention to this new Call of Duty iteration, as he had been talking excitedly about it for weeks. As a result, I could only present him with a new wireless controller and an IOU for the game as birthday presents last weekend.

However, as it turned out, I was going to be in the area at the time, so I asked intrepid photojournalist/game designer Andrew Spearin to tag along. Though I’m not the kind of gamer to whom MW2 would cater (I’m an RPGamer myself), I figured it would be worth it to check out what my competition for my husband’s attention for the next little while would be—and, at the very least, if I should be jealous of my new rival for his affection…

Dave: It’s worth noting that aside from being a talented photographer, Andrew is no stranger to infantry combat games, having been one of the founders of the award-winning Insurgency mod for Half-Life 2.

When Andrew and I arrived at EB Games on Queen Street, a crowd had been transplanted from the queue in front of the store and was lining up in a parking lot across the street. Sony Canada had their PlayStation truck all set up to accommodate the myriad young’uns eager to play the game for a few scant moments before being herded back into line to await their coveted pre-order when midnight rolled around.

As Andrew snapped shots, I said hello to Kyle Moffatt and spied Matt Levitan, director of marketing and public relations for Sony Computer Entertainment Canada, standing near the door. After sharing our mutual love of turn-based RPGs (and receiving the requisite ire of passersby), I asked him how excited he was about the night’s launch.

“I’m very excited,” he replied (excitedly). “My first Call of Duty was Call of Duty 3 on the PS3 which was…I don’t know if it was a launch game, but it was somewhere within the launch window…I really loved it and, of course, from that went Modern Warfare and World at War so, now, being able to see what Infinity Ward’s able to do with Modern Warfare 2, obviously, everyone’s very excited.”  (You may have read another article of mine previously belying his gamer-nerd status.) “I don’t think there’s much doubt in anyone’s mind that it’s going to be the best selling game this year, and everyone’s just going to be in its wake for the next six to eight weeks before the end of the calendar year. It speaks volumes to the quality of the game, without a doubt.”

Andrew took a few more choice photos and, though the idea of winning a 250GB PS3 (or a copy of the coveted Prestige Edition) was deliciously enticing, we figured that we were close enough to the other nearby launches to give them a little face time (despite not having a truck in their parking lot), so we went northbound to see what the other stores had going on. You know, sharing the love and all that.

]]> http://www.coupleofgamers.com/2009/11/mw2-where-was-your-significant-other-last-night/feed/ 0 http://www.coupleofgamers.com/2009/11/uc2-bringing-couples-closer-together-since-2009/ http://www.coupleofgamers.com/2009/11/uc2-bringing-couples-closer-together-since-2009/#comments Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:36:41 +0000 AndrewC http://www.coupleofgamers.com/?p=566

I played through all of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves with my fiancée Ashley, and we had a blast. Uncharted 2 was also the first competitive online multiplayer game that has ever caught her attention, so if you’re the only online multiplayer gamer in the relationship, this game may be your gateway drug.

As you all probably know, playing through single player games as a couple can be tricky. Having to take turns, and deciding when or where to pass the controller, usually takes away from the experience but, in Uncharted 2, it worked out perfectly.

Uncharted 2 is divided up into two major gameplay types: platforming and combat. Lucky for us, Ashley much prefers the platforming, and I like the combat and platforming equally. Going through the first half of the game, we were working in complete sync: Gunshot? Controller passed. Combat music over? Controller passed. Neither of us felt that the other was getting a larger share of play time until the second half of the game. Avoiding spoilers, the game becomes quite action-oriented, and platforming takes a serious back seat (read: the trunk). Even if the Designated Platformer in your relationship has nothing to do in the second half of the game, they won’t be overly upset because the presentation in Uncharted 2 is absolutely amazing.

Uncharted 2 is graphically beautiful. We hadn’t had such a big “wow” factor since we first upgraded to this console generation. The environments are gorgeous; sometimes you’ll be climbing up a mountain and take half a minute just to look at the expansive horizon that Naughty Dog created. On the topic of production values: the soundtrack, script, and voice acting are just as great as the graphics, and the game has an impressive lead. Nathan Drake is funny, charming and, unlike most game characters, believably human.

It’s very possible for players to generally feel a sort of kinship with Drake, because he is not the untouchable superhero that most game characters are made out to be. Nathan Drake gets beaten up so much throughout the progress of the game, it could have been retitled Uncharted 2: Nathan Drake Has a Series of Bad Days. We can relate to Drake; it makes him so much more human knowing he might just lose. We also liked how Drake would often jeer at enemies and shout PG-13 profanities when grenades would land near him, which were good for a laugh in tense situations.

Uncharted 2 has a great (online) multiplayer mode that we both agree is 1) lots of fun 2) boils down to grenade kills and punching people in the face. Although most of the weapons made it into the multiplayer mode, the game can be played fairly effectively via melee combat or 1-shot sneak kills. It may not please the hardcore crowd, but the multiplayer is definitely fun.

Both multiplayer and single player  modes have a “cash” incentive that allow you to purchase concept art, behind the scenes movies, game tweaks, multiplayer bonuses, and player reskins for both modes. The cash incentive is great, since there are some pretty awesome top-level skins for both multiplayer and single player.

Uncharted 2 is not without flaws, and the lack of local co-op is a huge one. Throughout most of single player, you’re paired with an AI ally who will assist you up ladders, help solve puzzles, or engage in combat. The game would have been great had it featured jump in/out split-screen co-op for single player. Ashley and I had a great time playing through Resident Evil 5, frantically yelling at each other to watch a door or pass an herb or ohmygodlookouttheresachainsawguybehindyou. Having this kind of experience in the world of Uncharted would have been beyond amazing.

Outside of the lack of local multiplayer, other qualms we’ve had with Uncharted 2 are largely around its length. Uncharted 2’s single player campaign falls a bit on the short side, clocking in at about 10-11 hours for us. Most games we prefer to be over and done with in about 15 hours, but the fact we’re taking issue with the length is a testament to how fun the game is and how well everything was presented.

As far as controller-passing single player games go, Uncharted 2 is probably the best we’ve experienced, despite the lack of local multiplayer. We would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a fantastic PS3 game to play solo or with their significant other.