Thoughts on Tekken 6 and Prototype.

I got these today after I got rid of my wii.

I've been messing around with these games a little bit throughout the day, and I can say that I'm pretty pleased with everything so far.

Tekken 6

(Me Likes:)

-huge friggin' rooster. Like, king sized, and they're all unlocked from the start.

- lars alexanderson

- the cool "blur" effect that all next-gen games have for some reason.

- pretty environments. Some destructible ones too.

- lars alexanderson

- solid tekken controls. I.E. Jugglefest 2009.

- lars alexanderson

(What I think sucks)

- the "campaign" mode. It's total garbage, with a super cliched story that isn't really worth the time of day. And if you're a fan of tekken's story, get ready for some more head scratchers. The mechanics are dumbed down and sluggish when compared to it's arcade counterpart.

Why not go the route of normalcy and make individual storylines for each character through the arcade mode? Why should namco insist on making these mundane, half-assed single player modes for the sake of trying something "different"?

Why not make it play like tekken force mode at least? That **** was fun. Hell where's my tekken bowling?

Tekken 5 got something right where it allowed you to play through each charcter's story through the arcade mode, leaving that dumb devil within single player mode up to the players own discression.

I haven't tried any online modes yet because I know I'll get schooled. But i'm sure it'll be a decent experience.

Overall, it's Tekken with a new coat of paint, online capabilities and a huge roster. It's got the same mechanics tekken nuts are bound to love. I happen to enjoy the tekken series, so this tickles my fancy on many levels. What it gets right, it passes with flying colors, what it got wrong, fails miserably.

I noticed some topics on board 208 regarding the roster, and seriously, this is the largest roster to date, I could give two ****'s if kunimitsu, michelle chang, tiger, and forrest law are missing.

The newer characters are pretty damn fun to use. Zafina, leo, lars and miguel are my definite favorites.

I give the game an 8.5.

tl;dr

You'll love the game if you're a tekken fan.

You'll hate the game if you're not a tekken fan.

And if you're a fighting game fan looking for something to hold you off until ssfiv comes out, look no further than tekken 6.

Personally, I think it's pretty great, though not as great as tekken 3, tag tournament, or 5DR but great in it's own merit.


(Prototype)

A sandbox game where you take control of a dude named alex mercer. This guy is infected with a virus that gives him the ability to do pretty much everything. Ever.

(What I liked:)

- it's a sandbox game

- alex mercer's troubled personality. Even though the guy's a one man wrecking crew, he's also personally conflicted at the same time.

- alex mercer has a billion and one abilities, and leveling up is about as frequent as bathroom breaks with someone with a weak bladder. You're treated to all of mercer's abilities in the very beginning of the game, but it's pretty much foreshadowing of what's to come, so it backtracks to when the infection was first spread. But no worries since you will gain these abilities back pretty quickly early on in the game.

- satisfying, gratuitous, selfless violence on EVERYONE you see. Slicing a bunch of pedestrians (male and female) to hunks of meat, throwing them around and into vehicles, the river, helicopters, violent consumation sequences. It's strangley satifying, and it really gives the player a sense of empowerment, like you're totally un****withable.

Soldiers are common fodder for you to plow through, but you need to watch out for hunters and other otherworldly beings that you cross, because that's the real threat to you.

It's also incredibly satifying to take out an entire squad of police and military personel with absolute no regard for anything around you.

(What I didn't like:)

- the visuals are kinda piss poor for a 360 game.

-There's a lot of pop-up.

-Windows look like they're painted on buildings.

- new york city at times looks dull and lifeless, but when there's utter chaos amok, it's a total warzone.

- the way the developer's mapped nyc is highly questionable. I know the city enough to know that the manhattan/ brooklyn bridges are not like 20 blocks away from the empire state building. At least make an accurate map of nyc, instead of just pasting landmarks where they don't belong.

- product placement galore. And I hate it. I only expect it out of sports games, but why this? You'll see endless gamestop, game crazy, and dc comics advertisements along with fake advertisements throughout the city. It's totally wierd and out of place.

- voice acting is kinda decent, sometimes it get's hammy, and tons of forced swearing in an embarassing attempt to make the game "edgy".

Besides the negatives, there's a ton of fun to be had in this game. What it get's right the game pays off in spades, rewarding the player with a truly unstoppable force of a character. Powering up and leveling up are frequent, as you gain a ton of evolution points (the game's currency) for pretty much anything. The mission structure is good to okay, in a sense where it varies, but not so much, but not like assassin's creed 1 or brutal legend's secondary missions.

I give this game an 8.

tl;dr

You like carnage? Check this one out. Great game, visuals are sorely lacking, and usually visuals don't concern me too much, but c'mon it's freaking 2009, this game has no excuse for looking like a nice ps2 game on 480p.