CO-OP 0201 -- Red Faction, Infamous, Prototype -- The Only Way to Fly
matt chandronaitWe’re back with fully-fledged CO-OP episodes (which happens when you have a season premiere, or so I’m told). We’re not usually into theme shows, but thanks to the crazy random happenstance of the game-release schedule, we bring you the unintentional comparison of three games that all take very different approaches to the term “sandbox.” What would happen if someone tried to play all of these at once, I wonder? More after the show:
First, Prototype. Will Tuttle (GameSpy) and Anthony Gallegos (GameSpy and Eat-Sleep-Game) join JayFresh in a rather candid discussion of the game’s successes and, unfortunately, it’s several faults. It seems this one may be the weakest sandbox on display this week, though it still has it’s own causes for being sought after.
Infamous, on the other hand, seems more universally loved in spite of it being a bit rough around the edges. Anthony jumps in on this one, again, joined by his RebelFM cohort, Tyler Barber, to chat with Matt about what makes this urban shocker (har har) such a delight.
Finally, in what may be one of the biggest surprises of the year (so far), Red Faction: Guerrilla adds two parts jammazing to one heaping gallon of explosion-sauce to create what Matt, John Davison (What They Play), and (rounding out the RebelFM/Eat-Sleep-Game cast) Arthur Geis agree to be a recipe for a game so fun it’s difficult to do it justice in one, brief segment. Yes, I’m biased since this one is my personal favorite, but I’d say that if you can only get one of these games, this is the one to choose.
Reader Comments (31)
Awesome! Downloading now!
So that's what Tyler looks like....huh...
There is absolutely no reason why anybody shouldn't buy Red Faction. Most fun I've had in a game since Perfect Dark(thats right I said it, Perfect Dark, not Golden Eye).
Great show to start the new season. Currently playing inFamous and wholly agree with the views given here. Now it looks like I have to get hold of Red Faction :)
Awesome. Red Faction for me was carefree fun, do what you want and pure awesomeness wrapped into one. So far probably my favourite game of the year. The times I said 'wow...' are way beyond counting ;p.
I loved how Prototype and InFamous received measured reviews, and then the Red Faction portion starts with, "Red Faction is fucking fun!"
"Isn't it?"
"That game is so good!"
The enthusiasm was tremendous, except Anthony, who looked like he constantly wanted to leave.
In the video matt says at the beginning "so much stuff to play, I got to catch up".
I wonder if your job to cover games is becoming harder because there are just too many releases on too many platforms. How many podcasts have covered 'godfather II' or 'Velvet assassin''? Last winter so many games got released at the same time that people playing 'Mirror's Edge", 'Dark Space' or 'Fallout 3' just didn't have the time to get into "Far Cry 2' or 'Total War'.
I did some checking and it looks like Q4 2009 is going to have even more releases than Q4 2008.
How will you find the time to cover that stuff or will only the games with big PR budgets behind them get the attention. At the recent E3, a lot of titles at the show didn't get covered because everyone was devoting (and rightly so) the bulk of their time on the big 3 press conferences.
Curious what you guys think.
Actually, Peter, that is very much the case. I mean, we have all the platforms, of course, so it's more a question of there just being too many awesome games out there to play. We actually do our best to cover games that we think are particularly interesting/important. Our CO-OP premiere on Revision3 did Noby-Noby Boy, for example :)
But yeah, once Q3 and Q4 roll around, it's really a tough call to figure out what to cover. Essentially, we just try to focus on the BEST, regardless of whether it's a AAA or an indie game. Still, I have to admit that being an Indie during the holiday season is tough. I'm extremely glad, therefore, that we've got the IGF at GDC time--it really brings to the fore the indie game development gems.
As to this Holiday season... man, you're right. It's going to be freakin' insane. I don't know how we're possibly going to cover everything and the answer is, really, we won't. We can't. Some of it will depend on feedback from our audience. What do you want to see? Other parts will depend on just what we think we should or need to cover in regards to importance to the medium. If we had the time/manpower to do an hour-long show every week instead of a 30 minute show, we'd be much better off, but that requires, of course, money. Le Sigh.
Still, being in the position of having TOO MUCH amazing stuff to cover is a pretty good problem to have, all things considered ;)
This is a great opening to another great season... I appreciate how you guys covered Red Faction: Guerilla, I'm now convinced to buy it :)
Great show, love seeing the whole RebelFM crew on. You guys do such a good job of editing and having relevant gameplay footage for the discussion, it's really fantastic.
And I love love love that Arrested Development was featured in the intro.
Prototype is the best god-damn game yet released in 09 and these guys are freaking clue-less for not seeing it.
Even Gamespot, Edge and Kotaku loved it!!!!
Red faction is taking a fu****n beating in the sales charts, as is Infamous - and there's a good reason for it - because they can't hold a candle to the outrageous fun that is Prototype.
Just try it for yourself, don't listen to girlfriend-less douche 'game journalists' for your opinions.
Keggles: If you don't like these guys (as your reply suggets), why are you watching the show? As for your comment about them being "girlfriend-less douche 'game journalists'", as far as I'm aware, that's just plain wrong.
Also, I don't believe Red Faction and inFAMOUS are taking the sort of beating in the charts as your comment implies, compared to Prototype. I don't think it's because inFAMOUS and Red Faction "can't hold a candle to the outrageous fun that is Prototype." either, I think it's because inFAMOUS is PS3 exclusive, where it is most likely to sell the least number of copies due to the size of the install base, and because Red Faction came out during E3 (where there was very little - to no - coverage of it, that I'm aware of) and was thus ignored. I'm sure there are additional reasons why Red Faction and inFAMOUS are selling fewer copies that I'm missing too.
I didn't realize that the guys at Gamespot, Edge, and Kotaku were all in relationships and are very nice guys, thus making them valuable game critics.
@Keggles:
I played all 3 and I'd rank 'em as follows: Red Faction > InFamous > Prototype. They're all fun games, but Prototype got old real quick for me. Red Faction is by far and away the best of the three in terms of fun and creativity (and to me, that's the main draw of this open-world "sandbox" genre). I don't think any of them are particularly strong in the story department though.
Prototype was HORRIFIC. I usually don't complain about graphics if the game has some redeeming qualities, but there were none. If I had played Prototype BEFORE I picked up inFAMOUS, I probably would've been slightly impressed, but inFAMOUS is clearly the superior of the 2 games. As for Red Faction, I've only heard great things about it, not to mention the multiplayer is supposed to be godly. I look forward to picking that up.
I don't really know why people are complaining about the graphical fidelity in Prototype. The developer probably (because I'm not in possession of many of the facts) had to find a good balance between the size of city, the level of interaction and the visuals. The fact that there are no load times when moving around the map and that there are thousands of normal people in the city, that can all be interacted with individually, leads me to believe that there simply wasn't space left in the memory to hold the graphics (because the city and all the people are seemingly constantly loaded in to the memory). Given that idea, I'm surprised the graphics are as good as they are, and that doesn't bug me at all when I'm playing the game (because I'm usually moving too fast to really take notice). Though the fact that every hive blows up exactly the same way to produce exactly the same skeleton of a building did bug me a little.
Wow, this is the first time I heard about this show (Area 5) and it's really cool.
@Matt:
thanks very much for the honest reply. I'll send you an email regarding the production of an hour long show and better funding.
@Keggles:
I'm not sure where you get your information that Edge "loved it' when it comes to prototype: they gave both Red Faction and InFamous higher scores.
I haven't played infamous, so I won't comment on it. But after seeing the review here on co-op, I'm eager to try it. I did have a lot of fun playing Red Faction, in particular disposing of enemies with the hammer or disintegrating everything with the nano rifle. I also enjoyed the timed demolition mini-games/side quests (I was obsessive enough to beat all the racing & demolition pro times).
The game does bog down at the last mission (the one with the tank) and I wished enemies wouldn't respawn so quickly or appear out of nowhere in endless waves like they did. But even these minor gripes didn't completely overshadow the fun I had.
Prototype is another matter: I couldn't care about the character, the mechanics, the story or the lack of interesting gameplay. While it was fun going around the city with the gliding ability, I found the controls to be abysmal, with my character overshooting or running 'too far' when I didn't want him to. I also found myself sometimes grabbing the person next to my target because of the imprecise controls or accidentally killing the target himself because my blade swung too large.
The placement of energy orbs became a tedious task so I abandoned trying to find them mid-game and I got fed up of the pointless cut scenes that I stopped trying to find the key people to unlock the "web of intrigue". (early on, I watched all the cut scenes, by mid game, there were so many that I simply skipped them).
But worst of all, the game bogs down and stops being fun at all. On normal (not casual) 2/3rd into the game, if you make 1 mistake, you're bombarded by several tanks, 5 helicopters shooting an infinite number of missiles at you and you have nowhere to hide. Even if you try to fly away, there's little you can do: changing shapes gets automatically detected and trying to kill all the surrounding enemies is impossible as more come to fight a few seconds later.
I won't go into the endless battle with Elizabeth Green or the supreme hunter on the carrier at the end: both were endless button mashing. They were a chore and they weren't fun. They could have made a AAA title, instead it gets an F.
Area5 + Rebel FM = Christmas in June!
First and foremost, great episode. Red Faction looks like a fucking blast and after seeing this weeks show I'm very inclined to at the very least give it a rent. InFamous I've been playing the hell out of since it came out. I'm having a lot of fun with it, one of my favorite PS3 titles so far. One thing I haven't seen anyone mention is the music, one of the favorite things about the game. Keep up the great work guys, started watching the show since the move to Rev3 and really loving it!
Great show as always, I just wish I could afford buying all those games. It's just to damn expensive buying console games where I live :/
This episode proves we need a new vocabulary when describing games, or that journalists need to better understand their responsibilities to the medium/artform/community when choosing terms to represent what it is they are describing. Specifically, I am speaking about John Davison's comment that Red Faction can pass for not having a story because it "revels in its videogameness". Though we understand what Davison means, weak stories should not be indicative of "videogameness". If anything, Red Faction would be made better by including a narrative where the player has a deep responsibility to lay waste to the opposing forces. I understand RF and its intent, and I too believe that some games can "just be fun", but we need to stop excusing lack of emotional content because of "an adherence to videogameness".
To say it more succinctly, we should not make excuses for choices in design that do not look to progress the medium. RF is crazy fun, but it's lack of a fulfilling narrative does NOT make it more "videogamey".
Having said all that, I love the show and hope you all keep pushing forward.
Best,
Chris Bell
That is the first time for me on these web site.... I have to say that is great you make a perfet cover of these games.
The same red faction seem awesome. I need to buy it now. i hope only that it is not so exepensive.
bye
Does anyone know the title of the song that starts @ 20:33 of this episode?
thx
what for a great web seite.... that palys sounds very good, and i am passionate of these kind of plays.
i will try soon that and then i will write another post.
bye
hey hi.... i tryed this play in demo. that is like you describe, very good. i adwice that to everybody and i say you congratulations for yours blog.
bye
I freaking love Red Faction. I have been trying to convince my friends that it is awesome, but they all seemed to think the demo was "blah," which is shocking to me. I really enjoyed the single player (demo master levels are awesome) and I'm absolutely hooked on the multiplayer. Just wish I had a team of friends to play with.
what do you mean hasselhoff wasn't in die hard 5?!!
you'll pay Tom Cruise!
I swear!
(thundercats theme song)
that play is cool. you gived me a good advice. thanks for sharing and i ´ll visit your blog again to see if you have other tipps
that play is cool. you gived me a good advice. thanks for sharing and i ´ll visit your blog again to see if you have other tipps
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