Game 41: Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden are NES and Xbox games with the exact same name. Ninja Gaiden for the NES came out in 1989 and Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox came out in 2004. I'm not sure why Tecmo and lead designer Itagaki didn't give the Xbox Ninja Gaiden game a subtitle, but it's too late to wonder, because there are officially two games under the name of Ninja Gaiden, just released 15 years apart. In first hour tradition, I will be only playing Ninja Gaiden for one hour, but because they are named exactly the same, I will first play half an hour of Ninja Gaiden for the NES, and then half an hour on the Xbox. This will complicate the review a bit, but I'll try to always make is clear what game I'm talking about.

This is an exciting time for the Ninja Gaiden series, as Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword was released last month for the DS and Ninja Gaiden II will be out in a few weeks for the Xbox 360. Remember, this is a new Ninja Gaiden II, not Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos which was released on the NES in 1990. Yeah, Tecmo does it again. I plan on playing Dragon Sword (not Dark Sword) someday as it sounds pretty cool, but this review is all about the first hour of the two Ninja Gaidens. So let's get right down to it. To start, the first thirty minutes of Ninja Gaiden for the NES.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - Begin Ninja Gaiden NES. I was about to press Start to begin the game, when a story cutscene began! Two ninjas are facing each other in a green field with a giant moon overhead. They begin running at each other with the game just showing their legs moving at high speed.
01 - They jump and meet in the air in front of the moon! Their swords clash and they both land on their feet. In classic movie fashion though, the ninja wearing pink then stumbles to the ground. Some text appears wondering why he fought and died, must be the main character, Ryu, speaking.

02 - A young man is on screen now, he looks young but he's got huge, muscular arms. He's reading a letter from his father. He tells Ryu to take the family's Dragon sword and go to America to meet an archaeologist named Walter Smith. "Ryu, be always brave..." "I will get my revenge!" Pretty epic!

03 - I press Start and the real gameplay of Ninja Gaiden begins. Act one. The game starts right off with Ryu in the streets. A is jump and B is sword slash.
04 - Enemies explode in one slash of my sword! There's some kind of ninja dog running around being annoying. Lame pup. Ryu can't double jump. Isn't it ninja law that all ninjas must learn how to double jump before anything else?

05 - There's an enemy above me and I have no idea how to get to him. Oh sweet I just jumped and attached myself to a street sign! Wow cool you can jump off of walls, this has to be one of the first games to ever allow that.

06 - I picked up some sort of power-up that when I jump I do a cool ninja swirl with my sword that protects myself.
07 - I have reached the first boss. I was fooling around so much in the first stage that my time almost ran out! It was actually really fun to hop around and jump off of buildings.

08 - Well, that guy really wasn't that hard. He was pretty tall though so I had to jump off the wall Chun-Li style to get over his head. He was really slow though so I just slashed him in the back a lot.

09 - A cutscene, our ninja thinks these thugs are following him. How could street bums be following a ninja?

10 - A "girl" appears behind him. She has a gun! She shot Ryu! And thus Act 2 begins.
11 - More cutscenes, Ryu is in jail now but the woman appears and gives him a statue and lets him escape. Odd. Ryu asks, "didn't you try to kill me?" Good question.

12 - I regain control and I'm now in some underground cave. Probably some evil overlord's lair.

13 - Ugh, the platforming is getting tougher now with small little areas to land on and anti-ninja bats flying all over. I fall in a pit. The level restarts.

14 - Man, there's like unlimited of these annoying ninja dogs. What the heck? I had to wall jump up a ladder to get to the next area above me, but then I wall jumped off and fell to where I should have been before and died. Lame!
15 - OH. You can climb the ladder like a normal video game character. Nice. The game was kind enough to let me off where I died just now.

16 - Sweet, you can throw shurikens by pressing up and B at the same time after you collect some.

17 - Oh no I died again! Game Over! Back to the beginning of Stage 2. Dang, a ninja dog just knocked me into a pit.

18 - Ryu just attached himself to a wall that I had no choice but to jump into the abyss. Game Over again.
19 - You can pick up a flaming shuriken that makes enemies explode. That's pretty cool.

20 - Woah, I finally made it outside the cave lair. Backgrounds look pretty good honestly. What the heck... there's like ghosts and dragonflies out here trying to kill me. Well, the dragonflies are for collecting stuff but there's bad men with machine guns!

21 - I made it to the end of the level and it looked like there was no where to go, so I went the only place I thought I could. Down. Died.
22 - Oh, you're supposed to climb a ladder down, not just jump. I got a sweet power-up though that put a ring of fire around me, so I was jumping from small pillar to small pillar killing guys instantly. But the invincibility ran out the moment I hit a guy with a sword and he knocked me into a pit, killing me.

24 - Game over but the game started me outside again, not bad. I got my vengeance on the sword wielding edge hogger with my awesome ring of fire.

27 - Man, this is such a hardcore platformer. There's this small little pillar I have to jump to and a guy is standing on it! Get off!

28 - Well, I finally got past him and got killed by the next guy. What's the point of 15 life points when you always die from falling off?
29 - This game wouldn't be nearly as hard if you didn't always jump fall back three feet after being hit.

30 - Begin Ninja Gaiden Xbox. Okay, that's enough of the original Ninja Gaiden! I admit, I suck at it! Now onto the new Xbox version! I select New Game and the game starts telling me about the "evil Dark Dragon Blade" and a really ugly full of jaggies sword appears. What the... this is nasty looking. The guy keeps talking to me in Japanese as I try to keep up with the subtitles. Whoever uses the sword will become evil.

31 - Oh, now the Dragon Sword appears, as opposed to the Dragon Blade I guess? This sword too is also made up of graphical jaggies. The Dragon Sword is owned by the Hayabusa family. A ninja appears in the background, it's Ryu!
32 - A wall of text appears, it is the Book of Fiends. This serves as the loading screen but the reading is pretty boring. Ancient tribes have struggled for thousands of generations. You know how long thousands of generations is? That's like a minimum of 20,000 years. That's a really long time. Still loading.

33 - More text appears, wait, it's the same stuff from before. Oh, the loading is finally done. Chapter 1 - The Way of the Ninja. Ryu jumps from the top of a waterfall and slices a brown-clad ninja in half. Sweet.

34 - Some woman is looking down on my from the cliffs, and then I get control. The gameplay is really smooth, feels like Assassin's Creed. Woah, the right thumbstick does not control the camera, just zooms me into Ryu's view. That's going to be annoying.
35 - Something got thrown against the cliff wall... it's a in-game hint! Must be from that girl ninja. The hint is about climbing walls, seems to work just like Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia.

36 - Ryu doesn't open chests with his hands, he kicks them open with his big, black boot. I receive an Elixir of Spiritual Life. Some vines are blocking my apparent path but Ryu's ultra-sharp katana can't cut them down. Lame.

37 - Not sure where to go...

38 - I find a locked door, no dice though.
39 - Oh, I have to climb a fallen tree that's laying over the vines I mentioned before.

40 - My first kills! I kick one brown ninja off the cliff and impale another with my dragon sword. Game is kind of bloody, but the blood doesn't stick around.

41 - I wall jump into a cave and then more brown ninjas appear. I kill them easily.

42 - I have just wall jumped into a building complex. It is the Ninja Fortress! Oh neat, I can throw shurikens, just like in the original.
43 - I get a map of the fortress and check it out, seems confusing. Don't think I'll bother with this much. Why is it angled? That's just annoying.

45 - I just fought about ten brown ninjas in a small, locked room. Is there a block button in this game?

46 - Apparently block is the L button. I discover a suit of samurai armor in a corner, but it is missing its mask. I probably need to find that.

47 - A ton more browns appear, when a ninja dies, its soul is transformed into a small yellow ball. What a ripoff of Onimusha!
49 - Ooh, white ninjas! These guys jump around like little hamsters. I wall jump myself and finish them off with a well timed slice of my blade. I think my biggest enemy is the camera though, this thing is obnoxious.

50 - Whoops, just fell into a trapdoor. I'm now underground and the anti-ninja bats are back (see minute 13). Some things never change.

51 - I find the Fangs of the Samurai in a chest down there and start to look for a way out, guess I was supposed to fall down here. Just noticed that Ryu does this sweet little flip when he throws shurikens while running.

53 - I'm out of the caves now and back to the Ninja Fortress.
54 - Just racked up a 17 hit combo on some bad ninjas and it restored my health. Nice. You can also jump on the heads of ninjas and it sort of leaves this shadow behind, pretty cool animation. Oh, a save point. Must be a boss up ahead...

56 - I insert the Fangs of the Samurai into the armor and get the Key of Courage. This room I have to keep running through spews new white ninjas every time. Get out of my way, I'm running out of time!

57 - Ryu reaches the Inner Sanctum and I get a hint on how to roll from my purple-clad female friend. I use the Key of Courage on the door.

58 - Oh snaps I just decapitated a white ninja! Awesome! Then another! You can hold Y to charge up a super attack that triggers a hands-off super combo.
59 - A man with long gray hair is sitting on the floor of a large room, he's wielding nunchucks. He stands up and shows off his nunchuck skills by twirling them all over, I'm not impressed. We begin to fight.

60 - Okay, this guy is a bastard. I have to use all of my healing potions to beat him but I eventually do by jumping off the walls onto his head. He was blocking everything else and breaking my block with his nasty combos. After the fight, we bow and then sit down on the floor and chill out! All that work for some tea! A moment later though my ninja friend runs in, it is Ayane from Dead or Alive! Ryu's village is on fire! Too bad the hour is up for Ninja Gaiden.

Time for some scores out of 10.
Story: NES - 7 and Xbox - 3
Definitely more story than I was expecting from a half hour of an old NES game! Ninja Gaiden (NES) sets up as a revenge story that really reminds me of Shenmue. Except Ryu Hayabusa became a ninja and Ryo Hazuki just asks for sailors. Becoming a ninja is awesome. Let's take a quick look at the opening scene with the ninjas in the grassy field. This was directed incredibly well for what is basically a 20 year old game. Nice backdrop with the moon and impressive close ups of our two opposing ninjas.

And definitely less story than I was expecting from a half hour of a modern Xbox game! The game starts off with a bunch of cryptic descriptions on Dragon Blades and Dragon Swords and then tosses a giant wall of text at me about Ancient Tribes. None of it seems to fit together. After that, there's not a drop of story until the very end of the half hour when Ayane runs in and announces the village I've never seen is on fire (what, is this an RPG?).

Graphics and Sound: NES - 6 and Xbox - 9
After the impressive opening cutscene, Ninja Gaiden on the NES quickly reminded me I was playing an 8-bit game. The graphics were sharp but the colors just seemed washed out. It looked great at the time but I can't hold it up against its peers infinitely. I believe the most impressive thing about the game's graphics were the backgrounds. They were well detailed and propped the game up a bit graphically. Ninja Gaiden's sound was pretty basic and there wasn't much outside the music.

The Xbox Ninja Gaiden looks really awesome, the graphics are gorgeous and the framerate is nice and slick. Definitely no major complaints, but that obviously means I have a minor one. I feel like the game is almost too sharp, I think it could have used some filters to soften some things up. Oh, and the blood and bad guys shouldn't disappear so fast! I want to see the marvels of my awesome swordplay!

Gameplay: NES - 6 and Xbox - 8
Ninja Gaiden (NES) has precise, but difficult gameplay. This is a tough platformer and I was really surprised that after I got Game Overs, I was restarted pretty close to where I had lost my final life. This is a great bonus as it encouraged me to keep trying without getting too frustrated. Many games these days aren't as kind! The controls are obviously simple on the NES, but we get the nice little bonus of throwing shurikens. If only you could throw them at an angle.

Well, you can throw shurikens at an angle in Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, and it's pretty cool too! Actually, the fighting is pretty great in the 3D action-adventure game, the hardest part is dealing with the camera. It just never did what I wanted it to do and I had a hard time keeping track of more than one or two enemies. Either way, cameras are never an easy thing to develop properly, especially when you have such a fast-paced game. Leaping around is very smooth and decapitating ninjas never grows old.

Fun Factor: NES - 7 and Xbox - 8
Though Ninja Gaiden for the NES is tough, it was actually pretty fun. The story was actually decently interesting even if it was pretty derivative. I really thought I was going to get owned left or right while playing but the first half hour must be tame compared to the rest of the game. The game had a few headache inducing moments but hard games can really be fun if they're still rewarding and not totally unfair.

The Xbox Ninja Gaiden is not as frustrating as the NES game, but it is still really challenging. I suppose in this game you get health potions instead of nicely placed checkpoints, but you get ganged up quite quickly and must fend off multiple enemies. This is totally different than a platformer and you must have your finger ready on the block button if you want to be successful. The boss just seemed unfair though, he was whooping on me and my health bar like there was no tomorrow, and I only beat him because I was being cheap. I feel dirty.

Minutes to Action: NES - 3 and Xbox - 5

Overall: NES - 7 and Xbox - 8
Yes, I am awarding nearly identical scores to the first half hour of both Ninja Gaiden games. Some of you may be thinking, how could you possibly award a 15 year old game only one point less than its modern day counterpart? Well, that's a good question and I will answer it: the games were obviously released in totally different video game eras. And they're each good, above average games when compared against their peers. Remember, this is just the first half hour of each game, which is even less than what I normally play! Both games are fun though, but surprisingly the NES version has a better story! The Xbox Ninja Gaiden just throws a block of text at you that really doesn't seem applicable to what I was then playing. Though it does seem kind of weird that the NES game's story hinges on finding some random American. Graphically, the Xbox version is near the top of its game. Both games get good scores, and I would recommend trying them both out! If only to get owned in both 2D and 3D.

Ninja Gaiden galore! I think that's enough of Ryu Hayabusa for a while. And ninjas, geez, I just realized I did Pocky & Rocky last week which featured a female ninja.

Wow.

Game 22: Psychonauts

Psychonauts is a multiplatform adventure game from the creative mind of Tim Schafer, creator of some of my favorite games: Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. Up until recently, I had never played Psychonauts, call me cheap or call me foolish, but it's the sad truth. Times have changed though and Psychonauts is now a free game at Gametap through the end of the year! That did it for me and now I've been suckered into downloading Gametap and Psychonauts to my PC for the low price of free. Not a bad deal.

A little more on Psychonauts, it was released in 2005 to relatively lackluster sales but has since gathered a seemingly rabid fanbase. It has also been released on pretty much every digital distribution method including Steam, Xbox Live, and of course, Gametap. There aren't a lot of developers out there who are brave (or stupid) enough to make a "funny game," but Tim Schafer has the quality resume, so let's see if the first hour of Psychonauts lives up to his predecessors.

For my shorter review on the whole game, please see my Psychonauts review at Beyond the First Hour.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I boot up the game for the first time, and it seems to sense I'm a Psychonauts first-time player and sends me right into the game. Now that just isn't right when I'm timing this game to the minute, so I spend a few minutes and finally make it back to what I think is the main menu (by the way, I have absolutely no problem with a game doing this, actually I think it's a good idea, but it was five minutes until I could reach the menu or even mess with the options). I'm running on top of a brain! I select new game and a cutscene starts with a tough sounding guy explaining the brain. The brain is the ultimate weapon! The first hour of Psychonauts has begun.

01 - It is the Psychic Age, and I am a Psychic Soldier. This scene is like one of those war briefings where an old yellowed projector is showing the brain with the commander yelling in front of it.
02 - He tells us that those who do not become Psychonauts will die! All the little kids start crying, including a kid with a tin foil hat on! Okay, no one is really going to die. The game looks pretty good, has that cool Grim Fandango-like art style.

03 - All of a sudden whom I assume is the main character falls from the ceiling crashing the party. The instructors try to psychically attack the boy, but they fail. His name is Razputin, or Raz for short.

04 - Raz apologizes for being late and is lightly reprimanded. The voice acting is also excellent. Great emotion and the voices fit the characters well.
05 - Well, maybe Raz's voice seems a little old for how young he looks, but it's still great. Raz explains to the group why he should be allowed to stick around the Psychonauts training camp.

06 - Raz can't have any paranormal training until he gets his parent's consent. He is very passionate about training to become a Psychonaut. Dogen explains that he wears his tin foil hat because he once made someone's head explode.

07 - The three instructors argue over Raz's mind, they all seem to have a plan for it. Loading.

08 - Time to create a profile... I leave his name as Raz. The profile creation screen all takes place in the kids' bunk. Class is at six tomorrow morning!

09 - An eye exam, probably the start of my training as a player. Some old guy explains PSI Challenge Markers and PSI Cards. Collection stuff I guess.
10 - Ah, they're actually for learning new psychic powers.

11 - Loading again. Raz walks out of his cabin and some kids yell not to miss Basic Braining! That's good stuff.

12 - I finally have control over Raz. WASD move him around while the mouse is used for controlling the camera. Since this game is also available for the Xbox and PS2, I can also use the PS2 controller I have plugged into my computer, but I'll stick with keyboard/mouse controls unless the platforming gets obnoxious.
13 - Tons of stuff to see in the area and collect. I find a purple arrowhead when digging up a plant. Talking to kids is as easy as pressing F, there's a peeping tom kid! Kid's parents allow him to watch R-rated movies! Hahaha!

15 - Tin foil hat kid is talking to squirrels. Creepy kid. All the other kids are carrying out conversations in real time too, neat stuff.

16 - The character's faces exhibit a lot of emotion. Must be the giant eyes.
18 - I spend a few minutes jumping on trampolines, exploring, and listening in on conversations by my classmates.

19 - Can't check out the rest of the camp until I get my Basic Braining Merit Badge. Raz is able to grind on things, he must have those awesome rollerskate shoes that I always wanted.

20 - A couple of kids tell me horror stories about the main teacher, Coach Oleander. Seems he threw some blind kids off a cliff for being late to class!
22 - I find a stinky PSI card in the outhouse...

23 - I head up a winding stairway to start my first objective.

24 - A cutscene starts as I approach the classroom, a kid warns me about the Coach, but then we're interrupted by some bullies. The leader looks like Carrot Top, definitely a psycho by the way.
25 - I approach Coach Oleander to start Basic Braining. I'm given the option to start training or to run around more... no sense in delaying the inevitable.

27 - A cutscene video starts as Raz is pulled into the doorway (literally) of Coach's mind. Loading.

28 - Raz and me are in the mental world now, but it's just a small room with a projector again! The Coach starts telling us about the greatest job in the world.

29 - I have to punch the projection of coach to proceed, here goes! I bust open a hole in the wall and proceed into his mind.

30 - The other weak kid runs in too and then is blown up by the mental obstacle course. Owned. Coach's mind is a war zone.
31 - YES! I can double jump!!!

32 - I collect my first "figment of the imagination," I need one hundred points to rank up, each figment gives me about three points.

33 - Raz also takes a moment to sort out coach's "emotional baggage," literally! It's an actual trunk!

34 - I climb some ladders and poles, controls are really great.

35 - Ouch, my first injury as I get burnt by some fire.

36 - I encounter Carrot Top and he boots me off a ledge. A cute looking girl saves me my holding me up in the air with her mind.
37 - I have to make it past a flamethrower... I find a ladder around it, but I also saw a sign that said "Classified Path," I can't ignore that! It takes me into a tunnel with lots of moving platforms.

38 - The controls hold up as I traverse them with ease.

39 - I rank up to level 2, I receive a new rank at level 10. That seems like a long way off!

40 - NOOO!!! Shimmy! My worst enemy!
42 - I manage to fall right near the end of my shimmy. I hate shimmying.

43 - A series of trampolines brings me quite high up, then climb a wall that's getting bombed as I go up!

44 - Dogen is up here outside a mine field. He tells me he keeps getting blown up, I tell him I'll help him across. I make it through just fine but Dogen gets blown up... back to help him.

47 - I manage to get tin foil hat kid through the mine field without harm, and he gives me some psychic arrowheads as my reward. I think this is what it costs to use psychic powers? No solid explanation yet.
49 - I'm inside a sealed warplane now, and there's a kid babbling directions, not sure if they actually apply to me or not. Left, right, soft right, left, then a side road, then they asked for directions, and then a lady had to go to the bathroom. That's what he said... just more verbose. Then they walked 3, 4, 2, and half a mile. Then a U-Turn.

51 - After smacking the kid around he tells me to hit the door instead... duh. I jump out of the plane! Loading.

52 - Some kids are happy to see me, they tell me I have to beat a game because the coach won't open a gate. Okay...

54 - Well that was pretty easy, just had to punch some cardboard cutouts of bad guys. Probably to train me in more punching. My reward is the gate is opened, and the annoying kids get blown up! HA HA!
55 - I have to bust open the vault in Coach's mind, he says he has nothing to hide.

56 - After I bust it open I get a black and white picture book titled "Oleander's Pride." Seems to be about the coach during the war. Oleander was quite the war hero.

57 - I encounter a little alien that can teleport me to places I've been before, no need for him now. Ouch, I'm in a field with a laser guided gun on me! I lose a little health as he tacks me good.

58 - Seems like a good time to save the game.

59 - It's pretty easy to avoid the machine gun by strafing. In the middle of the field I open up a hat box.
60 - Phew, I get past the machine gun finally and encounter Carrot Top again. Little punk. I raise another flag as my first hour of Psychonauts comes to a close.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 9
I'm really digging Psychonauts' story after the first hour and having never played beyond this, I look forward to going on. I really didn't know what to expect even though I'm relatively familiar with Tim Schafer's work, but looking back it really reminds me of Grim Fandango. Basically you have this crazy concept that the entire plot is based around, and the writers don't try to justify the quirkiness of it, you're just thrust in and you accept it willingly and simply enjoy it. Why do all these kids have psychic powers? Who cares. They just do and they're at a training camp for it. It'd be like asking J.K. Rowling why there are wizards. Anyways, Raz and the other kids are surprisingly fleshed out in such a short time, it's kind of like Bully but with psychic powers.
Graphics and Sound: 10
I don't have any kind of super computer but Psychonauts runs and looks awesome on it. I had a smooth framerate the whole time and it basically felt like I was playing a console game but with dual monitors and Firefox open. The graphics are crisp and there's some great artists being employed at Double Fine Productions. Facial features are super expressive and that leads me to the sound, specifically the voice acting. Simply outstanding in the first hour. The sound effects are perfect and the music fits the game perfectly. My only complaint is the use of the pre-rendered cutscenes, they look a little off and am not really sure why they were necessary.
Gameplay: 9
For being a PC platformer, I was thoroughly impressed. The controls were solid and I have very few complaints. One thing I noticed is that during the mini-game where you have to hit the cardboard cutouts of bad guys, it was sometimes difficult to turn around quickly. Secondly, the game introduced many collection items pretty quickly: cards, eyeballs, arrowheads, chests, and figments off the top of my head. I'm not a huge fan of collection quests or collecting tons of random things that I don't have any idea what their purpose is. Enough complaints though, gameplay was great. Oh yeah, +1 for double jump, -1 for shimmy.
Fun Factor: 9
Like I said in my introduction, not a lot of developers try to do funny games, and even less succeed. Psychonauts succeeds. The dialogue is funny, the situations are funny, and the character design is funny. The game is also fun to play - I have a rather large complaint though: the game is called Psychonauts and I never once got to use a psychic power in the first hour. It seems that if Raz has such strong inherent powers he would be able to whip out some telekinesis or something. Platforming is fun when done right but beyond the humor, the game doesn't really display any more uniqueness. Too bad.
Minutes to Action: 12
Overall: 9
Psychonauts' first hour is a little slow to the action, but hey, at least the opening cutscene is funny, entertaining, features full voice acting, and you don't have to constantly tap a button to continue the story (compare this to Okami's half hour opening cutscene). The characters are engaging, the plot is original, and the art style is top notch. The game has very few flaws except for the ones I listed above, which are few. Psychonaut's first hour is great, I don't know what else to say. I recommend it to everyone, especially fans of the old adventure genre.

Art by junoluver - used with permission.

Game 12: Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo: Combat Evolved was released along with the original Xbox and essentially defined the console, along with the entire last generation of first person shooter games. Halo was one of the most popular games of the last few years, basically only surpassed by its sequel and a few other select games. Featuring a two player cooperative campaign and a multiplayer mode that supports up to 16 players over system link (multiple Xboxes on the same LAN), Halo basically had everything gamers wanted, and definitely everything the Xbox needed to get the kick in the pants that it needed. The game sold millions and so did the Xbox along with it.

Halo is basically the opposite of a game like Beyond Good and Evil. It's extremely popular with gamers, readily recognized in mainstream media, and considered overrated by some (or many, depends on who you talk to). But with Halo 3 less than a week away, Bungie's blockbuster series is on the rise. But how does it all begin? Does the first hour of Halo start the series with a bang, or a fizzle? Read on and find out.

There are no pictures in this post because I am stuck at work dealing with a major support issue. I plan to add them later this week.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - The game is ready and I select campaign from the menu, I enter my name and then select my difficulty level. I'm actually a highly experienced Halo player so I'll choose Heroic (hard). Heroic is still decently hard for someone who hasn't played in a while (me) and hopefully will deliver a similar experience to a Halo virgin playing for the first time. Anyways, a cutscene begins, we're looking out into space (feels slightly familiar to another game's opening) but there's a giant ring just floating there. We see a space cruiser fly over us, the "Pillar of Autumn" is inscribed on its side.

01 - Now we're inside the bridge, listening to a man and woman talk. We made a blind jump to this ring to try and beat the bad guys here, but they're already waiting for us! It's a trap! 90 seconds until the battle begins. Turns out the woman's voice is from Cortana, a holographic computerized representation of the ship's artificial intelligence (that was a lot of big words).

02 - The humans send out their attack ships to deal with the Covenant (the alien race that we humans must not be friendly with). In the launching bay there's also huge tanks and the famous Halo Warthogs. We see a black marine captain yelling at his crew about the impending battle.

03 - The captain gives out word to "unseal the hushed casket." This means thawing out our hero, Master Chief. We see the big man in the suit stand up and stretch.

04 - Crap, my controls aren't inverted. Say what you want about inverted, but it's what I grew up with playing flight simulators and such. Well, I'll tough it out. I follow a soldier out of the room and then he gets blown up! Thanks for leading me out of the room, buddy!

05 - There's battles in every hallway I enter, but I can't participate directly yet, no weapons. Instead, blast doors are closed between the enemies so I can't get too close...

06 - I have to use my suit's flashlight in some areas, this isn't Doom 3 style darkness, but it adds some variety (and annoyance finding that flashlight button). Another marine yells for me to follow him to the bridge so I start trailing him through some more fire fights. In the distance I can see both little enemies (grunts) and large, human sized baddies (elites).

07 - I enter the bridge and a cutscene kicks in. The captain and Cortana explain the situation and Master Chief kicks in a few words here and there.

08 - They make the decision to abandon ship, but Captain Keyes wants to land the giant battleship on the ring! He gives me my mission: to get Cortana safely off the ship, because if the Covenant capture her, they'll know everything, including the location of Earth! (cue dramatic music)

09 - Master Chief sticks Cortana's chip inside his suit (hmm...) and the captain gives me his pistol, no ammo but I quickly find some.

10 - I get to kill my first grunts! Feels good.

11 - Now for my first real battle, a pretty intense shootout in a hallway, the elites can take a lot of hits! The A.I. seems pretty intelligent, hiding behind barriers and around corners, but the game is pretty lenient in terms of hit boxes. I lose some health but find a health pack attached to the wall and refill. If you don't know how Halo's health system works, you have both a shield and health. When your shield gets knocked out, you start losing health, but your shield will recharge itself after being out of harm for a few seconds. However, you won't get that health back unless you find health packs, which is what I needed!

12 - After picking up some sticky grenades from the Covenant, I put them to good use and attach them to a grunt. He knows it's on him and runs around screaming... right into all his buddies! Very satisfying death cries from that one.

13 - The covenant are docking onto our ship from our own pod launches, tricky bastards. I head into an empty one and grab one of their overshields, nice!

14 - I get whacked by an elite, and the grunts are chucking grenades at me. It's hard but I'm loving the excitement.

15 - The ship is very large and seems complex, but yet I don't get lost. There's really only one linear route, but there's enough hallways and different routes to sustain a lot of variety. This probably took a lot of effort from the level designers and I applaud them.

17 - You can only carry around two weapons at a time, so I'm constantly having to make a choice on what to keep. I decide to stick with the human pistol and assault rifle.

18 - I enter a room to find a two level fire fight going on. The Covenant are holding the upper level and we have to slowly pick them off, running up there would be suicide.

20 - A moment of dumb A.I. as an elite just stands behind a shield looking bored. I stick him good.

23 - I'm starting to notice a lot of cool scripted events: explosions, guys dying, fights in the distance, good stuff.

24 - What a fool I am! I dashed into a hallway only to find myself surrounded by Covenant! I back peddle out of there quickly while lobbing a few grenades, looks like they worked well.

25 - A marine gets stuck by a grenade, he runs around flailing his arms, then blows up. Ouch!

26 - I load up into the last lifeboat left on the ship, then we blast off. Master Chief don't need no seatbelt.

27 - We fly by the ring and then head in for a landing. No where else to go I suppose.

28 - Loading - then the next level starts. We're coming in too fast and have a crash landing!

29 - So Master Chief, the only guy who's not wearing his seatbelt, is the only one alive. I decide this is a good time to save and quit and update my control settings, must turn on inverted...

30 - I'm back in the game pretty quickly. This level is much different than the last, it's wide open, grassy, and there's blue sky above (and you can see the other side of the inner ring way up there in the distance).

31 - Cortana warns me of an incoming dropship, time to hightail it out of here, but I'm not sure where to go. I wander around for a bit and find the path I need to take just as the ship is landing.

32 - I'm getting shot at by flying ships, these guys pack a punch. I use the scattered boulders as cover.

33 - I'm still getting dogged by the small fighters, but I manage to take one down with a lot of pistol shots.

34 - As the second ship finally flies off, the dropship party is just reaching me! Time for a small skirmish with them. I find it hard to fight in such open grounds, you have to use the little cover given you very wisely.

36 - I enter a large field with a huge building on it, but there's a dropship between me and some marines. We work together to take them out, then meet up.

37 - I find some needed health on a marine escape ship. And then I get killed. I was too much out in the open and a red colored elite took me out with a bunch of well placed shot.

38 - I end up reloading right where I got the health, guess that was a checkpoint! As I pass a marine, he mutters "This is suicide!" Sometimes I have to agree.

40 - I pick up the Covenant weapon the Needler as my pistol is out of ammo. This is a heat seeking machine gun like weapon that shoots out pink needles. It seems pretty effective, but it's a lot of fun to use.

42 - Bad guys just keep coming from dropships, but a woman comes on the com telling us that more escape pods are landing and we should help them out. Time to head out... but I don't wanna walk there!

43 - Lucky for us, a marine dropship drops me off a big old Warthog! Warthogs are basically rugged jeeps that are very fun to drive. They're fast, and can hold a gunner and an extra passenger.

44 - I have no idea where to go so I get out so another guy can drive us there. Except no one will get in the driver's seat, guess I'll be exploring on my own!

45 - I head into a cave that Cortana explains was not made naturally (I'm guessing nothing on this ring "planet" was made naturally). The walls quickly become metallic like so I'm obviously heading into some kind of base. And I bet I know who's waiting for me.

47 - And it's the Covenant! I drive in the middle of a huge room and my gunner starts mowing down grunts and elites. I hop out to assist in the massacre.

48 - I get blown up by a sticky grenade! Stupid grunts and their lucky throws! But I get my revenge by sticking two straights grunts after I come back.

50 - I have to activate a bridge to move on, so I hit the controls and there's a cutscene as the bridge extends. Not sure if that cutscene was necessary but whatever.

52 - I drive out into open air in the Warthog, glowing markers on the ground mark my way. Thanks Halo!

53 - I approach a very rocky area, almost like a maze. There are marines in there fighting for their lives against the Covenant! Luckily, I find a sniper rifle and start taking down anything the dropships are dropping off. I meet up with the black marine leader from the beginning.

55 - Just noticing how great the draw distance this game features, the sniper rifle's scope really shows stuff off.

56 - I'm able to snipe enemies that are still in the dropships, effectively making their entire journey moot.

57 - One of our own dropships approaches, and I jump in. All the marines jump in too. But then it starts flying off and kicks me out! Guess I gotta get back in the Warthog and go... somewhere... on the ground.

60 - My hour runs out as I cruise around on the Warthog, with no clear way to go. I finally discover a group of marines clustered in a hill, and a huge battle is about to begin! Oh well. Looked like it could have been fun.

Now for some scores out of 10.

Story: 5
Nothing too impressive, but Halo's first hour begins an intriguing tale of two warring races and a mysterious ring world. It doesn't try to be too deep at the beginning and it also doesn't have an unnecessary or prolonged opening cutscene. There seems to be a lot of potential for a great story and I think the game could have explored the human's relationship with the Covenant better, either through Cortana during actual gameplay or something. But we really have no idea why they're fighting or why they raced to his Halo ring. But then again, it's a first person shooter so I'm not expecting much.
Graphics and Sound: 8
The game looks and sounds great, this is somewhat surprising as it was a launch title for the Xbox and it took a while for another game to really match Halo in style and flair. Halo features a nice, booming soundtrack that is tied with the events in the game and kicks in at appropriate times. It also has many voices from the marines and even the Covenant who yell and scream some pretty funny stuff. The graphics don't look as great anymore, but they've held up pretty well comparatively.
Gameplay: 9
Halo features classic console FPS gameplay with some great improvements. All movement is performed with the left thumbstick while all looking is done with the right thumbstick. This is different from say Goldeneye 007 where strafing and looking were reversed. This seemingly minor change actually does wonders as you can now easily look around without accidentally moving, possibly exposing your position. Another big change is that throwing grenades and melee have their own dedicated buttons, allowing for many different ways to attack very easily. The typical multiplayer battle is well varied and pretty fast. The game is pretty unbalanced for new players when set up against veterans, but I also see this as a way to reward dedicated players.
Fun Factor: 7
The first hour of Halo was a blast to play, but I started getting the feeling of repetitiveness even early on. The wide open second level also presents the problem of it being TOO big. Sometimes I had no where to go and I could tell Bungie foresaw this problem and placed blinking lights to sort of light the path. The A.I. was both very good and bad at the same time, but mostly good. There were some well fought battles even in the early levels. And like I said above, the ship felt large, but also very manageable. I never felt lost in the ship even though there were seemingly many paths to take.
Minutes to Action: 5
Overall: 7
Halo does a lot of things right and few things wrong, but the things wrong kind of stand up. The first level was designed great, but the second level was just too large for it's own good. Even when you first start the second level, it is not obvious which direction to head in (and you're being shot at by two flying Covenant at the same time). I really wish the story would have been fleshed out more too, as there really was no motivation behind the races' actions. What it does right, however, is great gameplay packaged with amazing graphics and an awesome score. This is a great first person shooter and a must play for fans of the genre (who can stand FPS games on a console, some people can't - or won't). I recommend it to anyone with an Xbox or Xbox 360. You have a lot of catching up to do with Halo 3 coming out tonight!

Game 5: Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 is one of those games that just delivers. Hyped up beyond imagination, Valve fulfilled their grand promise and gave gamers one of PC's greatest games. Delayed, leaked, and delayed again, Half-Life 2 was in the oven for a while, but many people would agree it came out perfect. But how were those first few bites, how was the first hour of Half-Life 2? Let us enter the world of City 17 and find out.

I should probably make it clear that my computer isn't that great, and the loading times are probably longer than what an avid PC Gamer would own. However, this review isn't targeted to such a small audience and my computer (Athlon 1800+, 1GB RAM, and Radeon 9800 Pro) may well be representative of the average reader. Anyways, on with the game!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I click New Game and the loading begins. The clock continues running though.

01 - Still loading after the first minute, and then the opening cinematic starts. Not a typical cinematic, however, as we're staring right into the face of an elderly looking man. His computerized voice gives him a very creepy feeling.

02 - I can see the inside of a train behind the man's head, and he gives me his final words: "Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." Guess I should have plugged in my iSmell. I'm able to move around the train now, I walk up to a man and he looks at me and mumbles something. Credits begin fading in and out of the screen.

03 - The train docks and I get off. There's a giant video board above me of a bearded man. He's welcoming me to the city, how nice! Masked guards on the floor shove other civilians, and I guess I got too close to one of them as I get shoved too!

04 - There's trash all over, and I'm able to pick stuff up and chuck it! Seems like a good time to note that the action has started. I throw bottles and they shatter and objects realistically bounce around on the ground.

05 - I throw a bottle at a guard and he runs at me with a taser! I get zapped and my vision blacks out for a moment. Interesting effect. A guard tells me to follow him, there's no where else to go so I do. I'm able to peek into another room where a man is arguing with a guard before he shuts the peephole on me.

06 - I enter the room and the guard babbles at me in his garbled voice. There's blood on the floor and more trash. The guard takes his helmet off, it's Barney, from Black Mesa. I supposed this is Half-Life 2 so Black Mesa must have been the first game. Our past is left off at that. I notice his lips match his voice well as I throw things at him.

08 - Barney kicks me out of the room and I need to maneuver a box to continue on. As I head into the next room, a loading screen kicks in, I kick back to wait. And wait, and wait. Three minutes later, I've decided that my computer has frozen on me. I restart and find out it never auto-saved or anything, so I have to start over. Man, all eight minutes again!

09 - I'm back! A guard yells at me to throw some trash away that he just threw on the ground. Jerk. But it's these little things that really get me immersed in this police-state world.

10 - I head out a pair of double doors and find myself in an open courtyard. I'm surrounded by Eastern European architecture but in the distance is a huge tower that disappears into the clouds.

11 - I explore the square, trying to follow citizens into their respective buildings, but forcefields hold me back. Flying robots zoom around me, and take my picture! The flash temporarily blinds me in a very cool effect.

13 - I wander into an alley and see a walking machine that looks like a mini AT-ST out of Star Wars. I climb up a ladder to get over a fence and make my way down another alley.

14 - I see a man getting interrogated by some guards and another man sprawled out on the ground. The guards' crackling radios/speech creeps me out. I wander into a playground complete with teeter-totter, swings, merry-go-round, and cinder blocks. I mess around with the cinder blocks and teeter-totter for a while. The physics in this game are great.

16 - I enter an apartment - loading.

17 - Guards knock loudly on an apartment door and then kick it down violently. I hide in another room.

18 - The people here seem so desperate and sad. They're crowded around a window so I look out too, just some guards running around. The residents mention that they knew they would be coming. One man is listening carefully to a radio.

19 - The environments are incredibly detailed: peeling paint, stained floors, and rusted pipes. One guy motions me to enter his apartment, but the guards follow me! They start beating the residents so I hightail it out of there and head for the roof.

20 - Loading.

21 - I'm on the roof now, and I can still hear the guards causing trouble below. Some large maneuverable planes fly over me and start taking pot shots at me. This is getting serious.

22 - Shimmying! Well, I'm sure the guy I'm playing would be shimmying at this moment but I just quickly jog along the rooftops. I'm a little too careless as a moment later I splat on the ground.

23 - Loading my save, at least I saved, right? I continue on and as I enter another building from the roof, some guards surround me, all seems lost as I black out.

24 - A woman's voice appears and she saves me from the masked men. She seems friendly enough, so I follow her into an elevator. Turns out her name is Alyx, and she's quite pretty. She mentions that the bearded man I saw on the video before used to be my administrator at Black Mesa.

25 - Loading.

26 - We wander through a basement and then head through a secret passageway - through a vending machine!

27 - We enter a laboratory, there's tons of stuff to look at so I look around the room as the other characters talk. Someone mentions teleportation and my ears perk up, sounds like fun! Barney, the undercover guard appears, and lets me know that I've "stirred up the hive".

28 - Barney heads over to a security station and I'm able to watch no less than 10 TVs with different videos on them, very cool. Suddenly a monster appears, must be a head crab. The little guy scurries around and causes mayhem.

29 - I take advantage of the moment and hop into a sweet looking orange suit. Suddenly my health appears, I think I liked it better before when I was invincible!

30 - We all head into the teleporter room and Alyx hops into the machine. I'm suddenly having flashbacks of the beginning of Chrono Trigger. A power cord comes loose as the machine is whirring which gives me a chance to practice my E key tapping skills.

31 - Alyx is successfully teleported (I know this because I can see her on a TV - a remote view of wherever this teleporter goes to). I jump in, and await the bad stuff!

32 - Much the opposite of Chrono Trigger, it is I who get into trouble with the teleporter and I start seeing scenes from around the game I'm assuming. I even land for a moment in the bearded man's office freaking him out!

33 - I land directly outside the lab and immediately get my picture taken by one of the flying machines. I think it's time to get out of here before the lab gets compromised.

35 - Barney yells down to me and throws me a crowbar. Thanks Barney, not like you could have given me your gun or anything, right? Well, a crowbar does the job on the flying camera, very satisfying. Techno music begins beating and I can see hundreds of birds (maybe cameras?) flying out of the citadel tower.

36 - I'm getting shot at, can't really fight back with this crowbar.

37 - I feel a little lost, and there's a train heading right towards me. I end up getting squished in the confusion of getting shot. Whoops!

38 - I reload and head through a parked train. So obvious afterwards.

39 - Out of the train area, and into an alley. I turn my flashlight on and the game starts loading the next area.

41 - I turn the corner and hear a woman's scream! I head towards it to see two guards harassing a pair of ladies, I charge at them with my trusty crowbar! Their heads cave in easily to the hard metal. Ouch.

42 - I pick up their guns and try it out on the next guard I see. Works nicely. Next thing I see is the exploding barrel, not very original, but very fun. Explosions are even more fun in this beautiful land of physics.

43 - I jump onto a moving train, and then off it right away to get across. I feel like a real adventurer.

45 - Guards start rolling flaming barrels at me, nice A.I. I shoot the barrels quickly but get hurt by the shrapnel.

46 - The techno music starts up again.

47 - I jump in some dirty water to avoid being shot at and wade my way through it. I meet up with a man and an alien in an abandoned train car and they inform me they're part of the Underground Radio. The situation in City 17 must be pretty serious, if you haven't realized that already.

48 - Loading.

49 - There's a monster hanging from the ceiling hanging his tongue down... reminder not to get stuck in those.

50 - I turn the corner and walk into a courtyard - and a auto-machine gun. I hide behind some wooden crates, not very smart as those are quickly torn apart by the bullets, so I head behind something a little stronger.

51 - I take out the gunner and head into a sewer hole. Looks like I'm in another Underground Railroad station, but this one has been emptied out by the patrols. A radio is barking out communication between other Railroad stations.

52 - The machine gun! I line up behind the stationary gun and wait for my prey. Stationary guns are completely worthless without a bunch of dumb A.I. to run out in front of it - and Half-Life 2 delivers the goods.

53 - My fun is spoiled though as soldiers start rolling exploding barrels at me! Dang you gameplay man who ever invented exploding barrels! Once that threat is over, someone starts shooting rockets at me!

54 - I'm unsure of what to do for a moment as the rockets have disoriented me, but Flight takes control and I run out of the danger zone.

55 - When running, I end up getting picked up by one of the ceiling monsters! Ouch! I shoot it a few times and it releases me.

56 - I jump into a small room filled with about 20 feet of water. I'm unsure of where to go next but then the exploding barrels start falling again! I dive underwater and watch (and listen to them explode). It's a scary but very well done sequence!

57 - An exploding barrel opens my next path and I jump out of the death trap. I shoot another barrel in the distance and it nearly takes out an entire bridge.

58 - I jog into a room with a ton of ceiling monsters - there's a conveniently placed exploding barrel next to me, so I feed it to them and blow it up when one of them picks it up. Pretty resourceful if I do say so myself.

59 - I wade through some more water and dodge some more exploding barrels...

60 - Final minute and one final shootout with some soldiers. Also one final exploding barrel too. As the final loading screen appears, I can see a teeter-totter and cinder blocks in front of me...

The first hour of Half-Life 2 is up, now for ratings out of 10.

Story: 7
This is a difficult category because there's really not a lot of story directly presented to you. However, there's a lot of background story on the city and its current situation available to the interested player. Various radios and TVs play propaganda and relay messages between the Underground Railroad creating a world that is desperate and foreboding. When I was in the apartments visiting the down-and-out residents, I was reminded of the main character in the novel 1984 and his illegal visits with a woman and the fear they had of being caught.
Graphics: 10
Not sure what else to give this, even my older computer renders this game beautifully. The textures are what stand out the most as they give so much to the atmosphere. The character models also look great. The game looked wonderful almost three years ago and still looks great.
Gameplay: 9
There's so much interaction and the advanced Havok phsyics engine makes the world feel incredibly realistic. All the "cutscenes" after the short opening still let you run around as the characters in the background talk. The two weapons in the first hour are quick and feel very natural in the game. The enemy A.I. seems relatively smart and kept me on my toes. There is an excessive use of exploding barrels though, and seem to be the answer to almost every situation that's presented early on.
Fun Factor: 9
The first 15 minutes move pretty slow but kept me interested through the amount of interaction. The last 45 minutes are almost constant action and explosions. The game kept me moving and it was fun the whole time (except for the five minutes total of loading...).
Minutes to Action: 4
Overall: 9
Another great first hour, as was expected from a blockbuster like Half-Life 2. Valve knows exactly how to pace their games and their one game every five years is proof. There's about five minutes of loading in the first hour and some of the conversations that you have to hang around for can be quite dull. The downside of never having any real cutscenes is that you can't skip them or at least speed up the dialog. The voice acting is of course top notch and the graphics were groundbreaking for their time. Probably more groundbreaking is the amount of interaction Half-Life 2 offers, and people who have played the full game can testify that the first hour would barely scratch the surface in what's to come. But as far as first hours go, this is almost as good as they get.

Game 4: Indigo Prophecy

Indigo Prophecy (also known as Fahrenheit to the rest of the world), is a Shenmue-esque psychological, crime, and investigation thriller taking place during a New York City winter. I consider the Shenmue comparison a compliment as the gamplay techniques used in these types of games can lead to some very fun experiences. But at the same time, this style is not for everyone. We will see how well the developer Quantic Dream pulls off this gameplay in the first hour of Indigo Prophecy.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - New game and the all important opening begins with what appears to be cherry blossom petals falling down with the developer and publisher names doing their fade in and out. There's a voice over undoubtedly foreshadowing all the events in the game, but I'm paying more attention to the beautiful New York City cityscape in the distance. The game sure looks great and it's obvious the artists spent a lot of time on this scene. It's made an impact on me at least.

01 - Snow is falling heavily and the lights of the city are blurred. The credits begin
fading in and out very movie-like. Reminds me of the cinematic opening of Metal Gear Solid 3.

02 - The camera begins following a crow and it lands on bathroom window and we get our first look at the crime scene. Of course, it's not a crime scene yet. There's a man at a urinal and another in a stall. My controller starts vibrating to the rhythm of a heartbeat. I'm starting to get into this.

03 - The man in the stall opens the door - brandishing a knife! He staggers towards the man who is now washing his hands; the screen is flickering between different scenes of terror. *STAB* The man falls to the floor and the killer climbs on top of him, stabbing him in the heart! (it sounds violent, and it is, but it doesn't look too gruesome)

04 - Suddenly, the man realizes what he's done, his trance-like mood is snapped and he starts freaking out (so am I!). A meter appears in the bottom right and it looks like the man is going into depression. I'm immediately reminded of the sanity meter and how much that set Eternal Darkness apart from other horror games. I gain control of the killer and the action begins! I begin with dragging the dead body into the stall next to the one I occupied just a minute before (even this first action I take seems to affect future events - more on that later).

05 - I am now able to interact with the bathroom using the man: I can wash my hands, dry them, look at myself in the mirror; it's all very Shenmue. I wash off the blood on my hands and regain a little sanity.

06 - There's a broom in the corner and I grab it to wash the floor. It seems mildly effective (another decision that will have affects on near future events). All of a sudden the screen goes split screen (24 style) and we see a police officer get up from his seat in a diner and start walking. By the tense music that begins and the timer that appears on top of the screen, the cop is undoubtedly walking towards me in the bathroom! This is actually really freaky and done really well. For the next few seconds I look around the room trying to find anything else I can do.

07 - I check the window, no luck, it's barred. I'm basically out of time and by the time I make it to the door, the cop enters. I dash out as he walks in and haul out of the diner by just running straight. As I run out, the waitress yells that I didn't pay and then the split screen reveals the cop finding the body! As I dash into the snowy NYC night, the cop starts yelling about no one leaving the diner and how there's been a crime. I wouldn't be able to hear him normally but the split screen allows me to see what's still going on in the bathroom.

08 - I run around town for a bit, keeping more of an eye on the other screen showing the cop checking the body. The whole time the music is pumping and my heart is racing.

09 - I climb into a taxi and tell the driver to head for Brooklyn. It seems I have escaped for now.

10 - If this blog were called "The First Ten Minutes", I would award Indigo Prophecy an easy 10 out of 10. But there's still 50 minutes left - plenty of time to let me down. Back to the game, two people arrive in a car outside the diner I just ran out of. From the sounds of it, they're the investigating police. I then get control of the female cop, looks like I'll be investigating myself!

11 - We get a look into her thoughts, she "feels" that something is different. Well obviously, otherwise we wouldn't be playing it.

12 - Together, we enter the diner and I walk over to the male cop and start up a conversation. The conversation is interactive like how Mass Effect's dialog promises to be. It should be mentioned that (on the Xbox at least) nearly all interaction with the world is done with the right thumbstick. So if you want to pick something up, you wander over to the object with the left thumbstick and sort of press up on the right thumbstick like you're picking it up.

13 - The game allows me to switch to the male cop, Tyler, on the fly, which is definitely a cool concept in a non-platformer.

14 - After walking around for a moment, I switch back to the female cop, Carla. I suddenly notice something, maybe it was my excitement before that let me overlook it, but the controls for walking are pretty wonky. The camera is very different from your typical 3D adventure and your character never seems to go where I want him to go except when walking totally straight. Indigo Prophecy seems to have inherited some of the bad gameplay aspects of Shenmue, unfortunately.

15 - I begin some investigation work, starting with the waitress who saw me run out. She can remember my (the killer's) face and figure perfectly, which is not good for me; I think.

18 - After speaking with the waitress for a few minutes and gathering some more information about the victim, I take Carla and check out the table where the killer had been sitting.

19 - Carla finds a few things of note on the table and I head into the restroom.

20 - The crime scene looks the same to Carla, but I can interact with things differently. However, the camera is jumping around and I have a hard time zeroing in on objects of interest.

21 - I switch between Carla and Tyler and find something intriguing: each investigator can find different clues and they comment on objects differently. This makes the crime scene more interesting as I can now look at it through a third pair of eyes.

22 - Besides the investigation, the officer pair begin bantering revealing their characters thoughts and motives.

26 - I feel like I've finally investigated everything in the bathroom with both officers. We found the murder weapon (knife from the diner), the killer's blood in the stall next to the victim's, and the broom I used to mop up with. The officers question each other on who's blood it may be. It seems that my first action has unusual repercussions: if I had dragged the body to the stall the killer had bled in, the question on who's blood is this would never have come up!

29 - I leave the diner after having Tyler check all the evidence in the restaurant, I think I've found everything. Turns out there's also an emergency door in the back, maybe if I had run out there in the first place the waitress would never have seen me...

30 - The game switches back to the killer, Lucas, he's waking up in a mess of bloody sheets. He's decided to go to work, but his sanity meter tells me he's depressed. I find him some pills to take and listen to the radio for a minute, he recovers a little.

31 - As I explore Lucas' apartment, I find a ton of things to interact with. This is spoiled some by the flaky controls, much like how Shenmue was spoiled too.

32 - The phone rings and I use the split screen to help me find the phone. The answering machine picks up first, but I'm able to interrupt it. It's a friend, we decide to meet in a park to discuss my situation.

33 - I check out the newspaper and find my story is on the front page. Really? A murder on the front page of a New York newspaper?

34 - Lucas says out loud (reminding me) that he can't go to work all bloody. I head into the bathroom and bandage up, turns out Lucas slit his wrists while under the trance and that's why there was so much blood in his bathroom stall.

35 - I look in the mirror and the victim's face appears next to mine! Freaky! It's easy to tell that this is more than a typical murder and that there's going to be a lot of psychological things going on.

37 - A policeman appears at the door, at least I think. A bunch of colors appear on the screen and flash like the Simon game. A moment later it says I failed. Failed what?

38 - Controls are still bothering me while walking around the apartment.

39 - Lucas experiences a flashback from last night, hard to forget that. I see the dirty clothes from last night and the game provides a split screen of the washing machine. I feel like I'm playing the Sims.

40 - Suddenly, a police man is really knocking at my door! He yells at me to open up and a timer starts. It's getting tense again as I gotta make sure it doesn't look like I'm hiding anything. I run into the bedroom and make my bed quick to hide all the blood.

42 - I open the door to the cop and a suspicion meter appears. He starts asking me questions and I think I'm answering them "wrong" because his suspicion is starting to rise quickly. The officer said the neighbors heard screaming and called the police. He asks if he can come in and I let him.

43 - The cop checks out the bathroom and then the bedroom. It's an intense moment as he opens those doors because I may have forgotten something. Turns out, everything is okay and he leaves. Phew. I leave too to meet my friend.

44 - At this point I can continue Lucas' story or take control of Carla, the female police officer. I choose Carla. Reminds me of the moment in Final Fantasy VI where you choose between three different groups, but you have to complete them all eventually. However, it's not clear in Indigo Prophecy if you will have to complete all characters to continue on. She's heading into work this morning at the precinct to start further investigation. The office is huge and I wander around for a while.

47 - There's less interaction here and I'm feeling overwhelmed by the amount of doors and offices. I finally find Carla and Tyler's office and head in. I get to play Yo-Yo! Once again, I think of Shenmue and all the little minigames that provided.

48 - Carla calls Tyler and he's still in bed.