Four under-rated games you should probably pick up

Hello again. It's me. I know, it's been a while. I've been busy you see.
Anyway. Business.

So I've been soldiering through a hefty backlog for some time now, and, for the most part, I feel pretty darn good for it (Apart from Aliens: Colonial Marines. Fuck you, Gearbox. Fuck you and the half-arsed product you sailed in on). It's becoming a spare time obsession that's mercifully not interfering with my University life and love life (I can multi-task - Yes, men can do it too), and I'm getting a  lot of fresh stories in my mind and system.

Through this adventure, I've touched on good titles (Mirror's Edge), some titles that are somewhere in the middle (Dead Island) and utter runny plop (Colonial Marines) but what's sticking to me are the titles that, at least to me, got an unfair rap from peers and journals that could do with a little love. So, to help give them a little boost (on my minuscule circulation) I'm compiling this quick list of four under-rated titles you should check out - And the best part is that most of, if not all of them, you'll be able to find in a bargain bin!

Anyway, cracking on!

Asura's Wrath (Capcom, 2012)

Asura's Wrath was an interesting experiment - One of the "original IP's" that Capcom tried in 2012 (Along with Dragons Dogma), the hack and slash style game put you in the shoes of Asura, a demi-god with a bit of an anger problem, who, as the life of a demi-god goes, is betrayed by the other demi-gods who frame him for the murder of the monarchy - And then, to add insult to injury they kill his wife and kidnap his daughter (But not before hooking her up to a giant machine to use her godly powers against him. Bastards). Naturally, Asura gets a bit cross and goes out in a mad chase for his revenge.

The gameplay centres around Asura's, well, wrath - The angrier he gets, the harder he hits. The aim of each bought is to get Asura to his absolute angriest, at which point he'll "burst", unleashing his full rage triggering a quick-time event.
Yes, a QTE. Calm down, this is a Capcom game. I remind you that Capcom is the only company who can do these right. Case in point, Resident Evil 4.
There's a plethora of them in this game, too. Countering an attack will trigger a rather quick QTE, which gives off a lot of visual eye-candy, and a shouty demon slam from Asura.

What's most interesting about this game though is how it's presented - Each level is presented as an "Episode", in which three "seasons" are divided (Suffering, Rebirth and Karma plus a DLC season, Nirvana) which is designed to give it the feel of a Japanese Anime series. Normally, I'd be against such a venture but here, it works for some god forsaken reason and I find myself genuinely enjoying the game (Even buying the DLC for Nirvana and the Lost Episodes which added fights with Street Figher's Ryu (Both normal and Evil) and Akuma) and the style. It's worth picking up, and certainly deserves better than the 71 that it currently sits on over at Metacritic. Check it out if you're a fan of Devil May Cry, God of War or just have a thing for angry men and Hindu/Bhuddist culture (From which the story is based upon)

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Capcom, 2012)

Huh. Another Capcom game. Makes you wonder if the gambles they took over the last couple of years with new IP's and trying to create new partnerships with western developers was worthwhile.

Coming again from said gamble, Operation Racoon City is a third-person shooter developed by Six Slant Games (The guys behind the Socom series) and Capcom that follows a hypothetical (note, not canon) Umbrella Secret Service, or USS squad through the outbreak at Raccoon city that set out the main events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident evil 3: Nemesis. Said squad is made of four members, which then in turn can be made up of many more characters with several different playstyles (from a straightforward assault, medic, stealth and even a little recon bastard that can slip in and out of invisibility like Harry Potter in the girls changing room) - The idea is, to mix and match tactics according to each mission and each scenario. Granted, this is where things start to fall apart. I chose Lupo, the assault style character and never felt the need to switch to another (However, that could be just because I prefer automatic weapons and straightforward firefighting) but, on the flipside I would never trade in the medic AI for the bloody world. 

Speaking of the AI, it's... questionable. Sometimes, it's a genius, with great aim and sometimes, it's a small child in a sweet shop on a sugar high running around getting blown to bits. This is forgiveable for the Zombie enemies, but gets a little irksome during the firefights with US spec ops troops and rouge umbrella operatives but, luckily they can aim straight (though like the close-combat options a liiiittle too much).

Graphically, it's quite nice too. The game models are detailed, and though most of the main characters are covered head to toe you can tell them apart with ease thanks to characteristics assigned not only with the combat class, but also personalities (notably the demoman has a prosthetic leg which he is VERY touchy about and a rather short temper, even telling command to "Eat a bag of shit" on several occasions) and the enemies and lovingly re-created and updated from RE 2 and Nemesis - Even the big guy himself appears for a boss fight with a rather pretty model. I feel though that I should mention a small problem with the technical side, when the game becomes manic (IE: lots and LOTS of enemies), I did notice some stuttering and framerate issues that where not game-breaking.

Overall, it's a fun action game. Granted, fans of the series expect horror, and I understand why but if you can look past that, you'll have a barrel of fun. It's certainly not 52 material as Metacritic says, definitely worth a play and a pick up.

Aliens vs Predator (SEGA, 2010)

The other game from the Alien franchise on home consoles this generation, AvP was produced by SEGA, but developed by British developer (and now publisher - Cheers for keeping 2000 AD alive guys!) Rebellion who also happened to direct the very first AvP game which hit the Atari Jaguar. 

The game presents three, rather short (but quite satisfying) campaigns, one for each Alien, Predator and Colonial marine (Which I should add blows Colonial Marines out of the water, hilariously) each with their own playstyles - Predators are all about the technology, using stealth and traps to earn kills, let down only by switching between visors to help hunt targets - A needed balance to make them vunerable), Aliens are about using the environment and speed leaving the Marines with the guns (Seemingly on top, but VERY easy to sneak up on and disorientate) and this comes off VERY well not only in single player, but in multiplayer which sadly died on my platform of choice, Xbox 360 rather quickly. 

This game lives in fame for more than that though - It's probably the most violent game of this generation, earning a ban in several countries, an 18 here and a AO with the ESRB in the USA thanks to the executions for Aliens and Trophy Kills for Predators. 

Needless to say, it's massively entertaining to a sick son of a bitch like me. 

Overall, the game is pretty solid. Graphically, it's quite nice and it plays well - The only letdown is that the campaigns are quite short. However, you do get three of them, so it's fine by me and definitely more worthy than the 68 it sits on over at Metacritic. Pick it up!

Lollipop Chainsaw (Warner Bros. Interactive, 2012)

Can anyone else say "Cult following"?

From the madness that is Suda 51, the twisted bastard that gave us the wonderful No More Heroes, came last years Lollipop chainsaw - a hack and slash game that put us in the role of Zombie hunter by night, cheerleader by day just-turned 18 Juliet Starling in a bonkers Japanese horror/comedy film on the levels of Vampire girl vs Frankenstien girl (2009, Nishimura) that will live on in memory for years to come. 

Why? Juliet is, well, unintentionally fucking hilarious.

Dragged along for the ride is Juliet's boyfriend, Nick who, after loosing a little weight (namely his body) find himself as a decapitated enchanted head on his girlfriends belt. He is the straight man to the comedy, and the only one in the madness who seems to have any grounding in reality while his girlfriend happily chainsaws her way through hordes of undead, and bosses that stick in memory (for all the right reasons). It's the kind of game that we need every once in a while - Gaming has gotten into a bad habit of being INCREDIBLY pretentious. Yes, we need some "artistic vision" here and there to give validity to the mode and to push boundaries, but don't forget the fun. Even Stanley Kubrick, greatest director who ever lived made a comedy (Doctor Strangelove in 1964, don'tchaknow) and it seemed a lot of critics have simply stuck their heads in their arses on this one. IGN slammed it with a 5/10, claiming it juvenile and crude as did Gamespot, whipping it with a 6.5. More though, decided not to be snobbish towards it and gave it the praise it needed - a 9/10 from Destructoid, along with a 36/40 from Japanese magazine Famitsu cement it with a rather unbalanced 70 on metacritic. 

I actually called this the best game of 2012, and I stand by it. I first played it at MCM Expo last may, and rushed to pre-order it when I got home and the magic remains. If you have a sense of humour, you're going to love this. If you just want to bash a game because it stars a blonde cheerleader with large breasts (even though the point is to openly mock the over-sexualisation of women in games) stay away. You might find that fine art and photography is your thing. Along with horn rimmed glasses and Christmas sweaters in July.

Oh, did I mention that Juliet is voiced by Tara Strong? Get to it, slackers.

And that rounds off the list! Do feel free to ask me about any of these, and also PLEASE go out and buy one or two of these titles and make your own mind up. It's great taking my word, or anyone else's at face value but don't act like it's your own opinion. That makes you a jerk. A really big jerk.

All the Best.