So I was going through my old MP3's, MIDI's, and CD's the other day and was instantly reminded of my younger years. See, I came across some old OST's/Themes from the older days of games: Bloody Tears from Simon's Quest, Various themes from Mega Man, Street Fighter II Guile's theme, U.N. Squadron's Mission Select, Zelda's overworld, and the Final Fantasy theme. Then I was instantly struck with something; "Why has music been seemingly taken as an afterthought of today's games"? Why is it seemingly thrown waste side in today's games? It seems that all the importance is placed upon Vaseline smeared, overly shiny bump maps, HDR, Bloom lighting, and Blurring. Have developers forgotten that yes, visuals are the first thing to make an impact on someone obviously, but music sets the mood, and enhances the experience.

So then, I tried to think of some games instantly off the top of my head that weren't from the 80's and early 90's that had some really memorable soundtracks. What did I think of immediately, well Metal Gear Solids, Dead Rising, Final Fantasy's, Silent Hills, Resident Evil's, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, Star Ocean 3, and Devil May Cry's. Which actually ties into a lot of my older titles mentioned before, who were also under the same developers collective roofs: Capcom, Square Enix, and Konami. I'm glad to see these people haven't strayed from this aspect of music playing an important role in games.

My question is why have many Western Dev's actually overlooked this? Yes, there are a few stand outs buy not many. Bungie has done a great job on the Halo series OST, Insomniac has been pretty good too in their Ratchet series, including this Britney Spears - Courtney Gears Spoof (which was then used in a cartoon)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIpKc27Bh_Y

...And Uncharted: Drake's Fortune OST has been incredible. But what's going on with the rest of NA's and EU's guys? Why haven't these teams really put much effort into their titles?

I guess as long as well have the before mentioned Dev's out there, there's still a glimmer of hope for some great tunes. And finally it seems we're getting a jump in audio tech since the CD based machines now too. Kojima's filling up 50gb's of space with not only game stuffs, but also glorious Uncompressed audio (which is suspected with taking up the majority of space, though it's not containing multi-langs on one disc!).

Also, do yourselves a favor and check out the Videogames Live! stuff. They do covers of a bunch of great tunes old and new, from Pong to Zelda to Tetris to Metal Gear Solid to Halo. Here's a starter link: (Make sure to watch at least the part starting around 2:45 to get a laugh if you're a MGS fan :D

I don't think any game ever conveyed a movie-like experience like this. I know some people used to think the MGS games were the best ever at this, and I would've agreed, back then.  Uncharted really is that Hot Summer Blockbuster Action Movie.  It has an ultra-smooth beginning directly into some action, and the game just doesn't stop.  But it's not all shooting the pirates (and others).

The action even carries over into the platforming element. It's not a "wide open climb anywhere" type experience, it's a "OMG, I can't believe I jump from here to there, barely holding on by 3 fingers while my body slammed against that ledge" - literally. And literally as in the animation. Nate's animations are second to none.  This is the best animating game I've seen, ever.  Nate will more often than not, strike a new pose each time he takes cover.  It's not just "against wall cover 1" pose over and over. Also during this time, he reacts to bullets cracking off the cover, flinching when it happens. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the animation goes, check it out yourself. He's not a trained warrior, he's a scrapper, and you feel like you should give him a pep talk each time you take cover, tell him he can do this.  But you don't have to, he does it himself!

This game's audio is no doubt, what many movies should strive for. In mono, stereo, 5.1, 5.1DTS, 5.1LPCM, or my fav, 7.1PCM, Nate while hearing individual bullets whizzing by, ducking and reacting to these shots just narrowly missing, then rolling/jumping/diving into cover will say stuff like "Okay, Here We Go, Crap-Crap-Crap-Crap-Crap-Crap, Why me" makes him seem much more personable.  Then, in between the baddies talking smack to you, Nate will blurt out "You like that? Who's the man? That's going to leave a mark? Wow, I did that?".  This all while hearing wickedly believable gun sounds, monkeys and toucans chiming in, along with one of the best musical scores ever done by a legit movie musical score writer.

Speaking of writing, the story just keeps you coming back for more. Or more like, "I can do with 1 less hour of sleep what's going to happen next?". Amy Hemming really banged this one out. For sake of those reading this that may play, I'm not going to discuss the story and how it plays out.

Gameplay wise, it's Naughty Dog. Top-class here. Ultra-responsive and slick in and out of cover.  Running and jumping the animations blend really slick to convey your inputs. Cover is straight up Kill.Switch, as Evan Wells even said so. For those not familiar with that here, it's like Gears.  You can jump into, around, over and shoot from cover by peaking and aiming or blind firing. You can move from cover to cover as well.  Outside of the variety of weapons you have, you have your fists.  When you get up and personal, Nate will pound people with fists swinging wildly, drop kick someone wrestling style, or jump on their back and snap their neck all via a timed button sequence.  Some but not many QTE's are present in the game as well.

Finally, and not lastly, Graphics. Bar raised. This is the most overall impressive looking game to date on consoles.  Like the art-style or not, there's no denying the tech at work here. Self shadowing, perfect lighting, objects casting their own shadows, shadows being cast on stuff below through the trees that wave in the breeze. Nate's clothes will actually get wet based on how deep you get, in which, the clothes dry before your eyes over time. The textures are insane, the most detailed, sharpest textures you'll see in a console game. Whoever said a PS3 can't do textures, your crow is ready.  Streaming it in (a-la UE type fashion) sometimes shows of texture-pop in, but it doesn't happen nearly as often as others using UE, and the pay off is incredible.  There's so much more here to talk about, but I don't want to make "that big" of a blog.

Overall, IMHO Uncharted is the best Looking and Sounding game this gen to date.  More importantly, it's the most fun I've had with a game this gen.  The game gives you enough reason to comeback for more than as well.  You can blaze through this in maybe 8hrs, but don't, take your time and enjoy it.  Nathan Drake may end up as your favorite videogame character as well.

If you own a PS3, and you don't buy this game, you're short changing yourself, and you're part of the problem.  The game's AAA, and a "must-have" system seller.


 

So yeah, it's as the title goes... This is becoming rather painful on the magnetic strip on the back of debit cards this holiday season... Look what I alone am going to be picking up, and this pales in comparison to some out there:

Ratchet and Clank

Uncharted

CoD4

Unreal 3

A. Creed

Guitar Hero III

Rockband

And this is just my list alone... Doesn't seem so bad? Well, considering that 2 of these select titles are going to rack up to $270+tax themselves, it becomes a lil bit painful to think about... And there's people out there that have double the titles I do on my list (I didn't include portables in mine, and it still pales to some)... I actually dread thinking about this last handful of weeks ahead, and that I should just give my local EB/Gamestop my debit card to hold at the store...

But while the obvious depleting bank account coffers, why am I still happy?  Probably because it's been a long time since we've been nailed with so many quality titles in one holiday season...
 

So, like others that picked up the Limited Edition, my game disc was scratched. Luckily I knew ahead of time about this, and checked it soon as I walked out the door.

I just happened to finish the game, and as a Halo fan who wasted many of hours on H:CE and H2, I don't know what to think of the game.  I didn't like the Metroid style backtracking first off, secondly, I hate the flood parts. Even MORE than I did in the prior installments. I didn't really mind the ending, and a lot of people that "think" they know how it ends will be in for a surprise. I see what they did, and they left the series open to maybe go on, but in a different direction (far away from the flood hopefully).

Graphically, it's not really that impressive from a character and setting perspective. The lighting on the other hand, is great. Sound effects are the same as the others basically, musical score is good as usual. Control wise, this opens up a can of worms...

It "plays" like the other Halo's, which isn't bad, but unlike other genre's that get away with reverting to their prior mechanics, this is a game that needs a facelift-total in this department. FPS is a heavily saturated segment that receives a lot of attention. Sometimes when you move onto new controls, you can ruin the basic fun, but, it's not the case in this genre.  Call of Duty 4 beta has really spoiled me. The gameplay in there, is second to none in what I've played this gen. It's quick responding, very believable in motion, and at a realistic pace. As of now, it's the best so far this gen, topping out Resistance in gameplay regards. Maybe Orange Box and Unreal will put up a fight to this though, so we'll see.

These controls really put other games in perspective, and unfortunately, it does so for Halo 3, ESPECIALLY in the MP segment. H3 just feels so sluggish moving. And then there's the wonderful AUTO-AIM, which is so intrusive it's disgusting. Other games have it as well, but not to the degree that this has. I find myself fighting with the reticle because I want to put it where I want to for setting up that headshot, but I can't do it as it wants to move on it's own throwing off your timing.

Now, Bungie went all out with the community service features, that's for sure as there's SO much stuff you can do between vids, stat tracking, customizing appearances and such, and other devs need to pay close attention to these features. But, unfortunately, in the end, it doesn't help the fun factor of MP. Sadly, to me at least, it just not there. I expected this to keep me happy until Nov with my online gaming needs at least, but I'm already looking forward to Team Fortress 2, Unreal, and of course Call of Duty 4. At least I have one of most surprisingly fun games I've played in a long time, Warhawk, to fall back on...

Overall, still it's a really good game, just not the god-send that other review sites like EGM/1up proclaim it to be. Then again, Shoe wouldn't have it any other way there. Campaign is solid, minus the flood, MP I'm sure people will still play on for a while at least if it's community doesn't feel the sting that I did...

Halo 3: 8.5/10