I need to start numbering these things.  Really.

- WTF? Seriously.  Like missing the point on the professional level.

The Force Unleashed is very good.

Many points of the games are missed. I’ll review.

1. THE GAME HAS INCREDIBLE FUCKING GRAPHICS.  Its hovering behind Gears of War 2 battling Dark Sector and Prince of Persia of the prestigious title of 2nd best looking title of 2008. I don’t think anyone is noticing how stupendous the game looks. Outside of the first level the game is sporting incredible texture work at every corner. And also incredibly consistent texture work.  I actually wandered about searching for poor textures on ANYTHING and came up empty. AMAZING looking STUPENDOUS graphics. Thank you.

2. PARAPHRASE WARNING. HELMETS ON!!

Too many reviews mention this as a bad thing:  ”You have many options of attack but you have no reason to use them.”

Yes you do.

Just because style isn’t tangibly graded doesn’t mean that you don’t need to attack creatively.

As a matter of fact I like the fact that the developers are letting us create our own action set pieces.

The game’s rhythm operates like so:

“Main Character walks into a room.  The room has 15 bad guys in it. There are also 25 pieces of debris you can manipulate how you see fit.  Main Character is also a Jedi.  Go.”

You DO have the option of walking up to every individual villain and pressing X until they are all dead.

You ALSO have the option of throwing your lightsaber at one guy, dashing to the next, hovering over him charging a fireball while waiting for your lightsaber to boomerang back to you, blast that fellow, catch your lightsaber, come down with a massive slam that stuns the surrounding enemies, dash to a juicy one, give him a double-palm thrust into a nearby explosive, catch one of the shards from the explosion, charge it with lightning, throw it into another guy, watch him explode, and observe your handiwork.

OH WAIT.

There’s one last guy standing in the corner firing single blaster rounds at you.

To which you can respond by walking up to him slowly, deflecting blaster rounds like oh so many spitballs, grab the gent, hold him in front of you, ask him what the fuck was he thinking,  toss him 300 feet into the air, walk away, and listen for the “OOF!!” in the rear speakers 7 seconds later.

OR you could have just pressed X on every individual villain until they are all dead.

If the choice is yours isn’t the choice easy?

If I am supposed to be a character of immense power, then why should the enemies all be reacting like a super-intelligent swat team? It makes the game a slog. If the developers goal is to make the game a slog (i.e. Killzone 2) then having to scratch and claw for every kill is perfectly fine. But if I am playing as the most powerful Jedi ever in the Star Wars universe just let the enemies stand around a bit waiting to get slapped around.

IF I am playing as evil incarnate (The Darkness) then the enemies can afford to stand there.

IF I am playing as my dreadlocked superpowered cop alter ego (Crackdown) then the enemies can stand there.

IF I am controlling the greatest ninja of all time (Ninja Blade) then, by God, the enemies can be a part of my highlight reel.

The path of least resistance is sometimes the path of the lazy.

Have some fun with the rest of the buttons on the controller guys.

3. Its easily the best Star Wars story ever. Episodes 1-3 could be easily forgiven if they simply released the Force Unleashed feature film in 2011 and had J.J. Abrams direct it. Probably the last game story I’ve cared about since Bioshock*, the Force Unleashed’s narrative (if the most visually unattractive portion of the game) is superb if you have even a passing interest in the Star Wars universe.

-Our man CRAYONSEED is correct.  You shouldn’t sleep on Infamous.  The main complaint I can imagine would be that its too much like a 3rd person shooter.

HOWEVER.

The kills are satisfying and the controls are smooth so I can’t deny another bid to let me destroy non-Americans.

Lose sleep on Infamous.

-I have obtained UFC Undisputed due to professional wrestling style birthday suprises. I have to report I only know one single thing about UFC. Brock Lesnar, former WWE superstar, is heavyweight champion.

That’s it.

So I am going in extremely raw** and I must say that I think the game is superb so far. Excellent graphics, spot-on (AMAZINGLY SO) collision detection, and a deep fighting system are working hard to keep my attention.

And I think its working.

More on this developing story later.

-A.

*I almost cared about the story surrounding Dead Space until I discovered that there’s never anywhere near a  happy ending and everyone dies making all Dead Space stories an elaborate obituary set in space.

**I know I know. Way to keep it mature guys.