Previous REVIEWS
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You've probably heard the hubbub about GHIV already, with its five-piece drum kit and vocals and perhaps the addition of the ability to compose your own material. But GHIII isn’t a fish on the dock just yet. This iteration employs the same user interface we’ve grown to love (and hate on “expert”), but instead you follow the career of Aerosmith from their humble beginnings in Boston to the stadium-filling superstars they are today. Okay, okay—they’re a little lame and pretty old, but you’ll be shocked to find how many of their songs you know from front to back. And the interviews spliced throughout are neat to watch: They are an American Institution, after all. It’s a fun experience, and as you uncover more and more of their older tunes, you’ll begin to realize why Kurt Cobain named Rocks one of the fifty best albums of all time.
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Everyone loves rad ninjas, and Ryu Hayabusa may be the raddest. NGII is the latest installment in the next-gen Ninja Gaiden story, which follows the aforementioned ninja through a demonic underworld populated by evil ninjas, ghouls and monsters. Ninja Gaiden games don’t necessarily pull you in with their story—they don’t need to. The action-packed fight sequences and enemy encounters will keep you mashing your controller’s buttons until the very last drop of green goop falls out of whatever tentacled monstrosity you happen to be battling last. What can I say—it’s a must have for the summer.
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I recently purchased a 46” Sony LCD television, and I’d be lying if part of the reason were not in anticipation of MGS4. I’ve played all the Metal Gear games because I, like most American males, enjoy assassinating enemies with neat weapons from the comfort of my own home. Metal Gear has always brought that to the table, but what sets it apart from the pack, like SOCOM or Gears or Call of Duty, is the plot. The series always mixes fantasy with modern warfare, and the narrative is predominantly seen through the eyes of the complicated ex-Marine, Solid Snake. (He was in “the shit.”)
What works best for the series is how the game’s creator, Hideo Kojima, brings to the foreground the moral quandaries that soldiers face despite the sci-fi fantasy backdrop. Indeed, the crux of MGS4’s plot has to do with the impact of Private Military Corporations and their impact on warfare, an issue brought to light earlier this year with the military contractor Blackwater and its offenses in Iraq.
Metal Gear has always tried to make the player see the impact of heedless killing during, though we’re all certain to do so throughout the game in the name of purpose-defeating fun.
MGS4 is being released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 this summer to exceptional fanfare. It is reported to be the last in the series.
