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Lately, my "Monday Ramblings" column has basically been "What I've Been Playing Lately." There's nothing wrong with that, but ideally I'd like to use this space to share with you my thoughts on some of the bigger stories going on in the gaming industry. But sometimes there's not much going on, so instead you get these little tidbits about what's happening in my consoles. Joy!
- Much of my time this last week was spent with Infinite Space, the Nintendo DS space exploration RPG from Bayonetta developers Platinum Games. The official JD review of the game is actually coming at you this week from reviewer Caleb Newby, so I'll withhold my comments until after then.
- I finally finished Dante's Inferno, a game that isn't long but took me quite a while to get through. To me, the most interesting thing about the game is a conversation it sparked between me and JD's writer/illustrator extraordinaire, Gary Hodges. While we both loved Dead Space, we wondered whether or not Visceral Games has it in them to create anything truly original. After all, Dead Space, while good, is pretty standard survival horror. I believe it may have began its existence as System Shock 3 (EA owns the franchise and was rumored to be developing it at one point), but that's just speculation. And Dante's Inferno... well, we all know where Dante's Inferno draws its influence from.
- Dante's Inferno is done, and this will (hopefully) be my final comment on the game. I can't say that I liked the game at all, but I guess I can see why some people do. If you've never played any of the God of War games, it probably feels pretty great. It's bloody, violent and dark - much more gritty than sillier action games like Bayonetta. I'm not sure why Visceral didn't just call the game "Hell's Gate" or something like that. The game has so little to do with the book they've been accused of desecrating.
- Thanks to a code from Sony, I played through the first Heavy Rain DLC. Heavy Rain Chronicles: The Taxidermist is a prequel to the main game, and it's interesting experiment in expanding on the story of the main game. Look for my writeup tomorrow.
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