Bulletstorm's Flop of an Ending (spoilers)

If you've read my review for Bulletstorm (it's published on this fine website which I write for these days) you'll know I had a lot of fun with the game. If you haven't, I'll fill you in: I had a lot of fun with the game. It taught a very, very old dog some new tricks and put some life into a genre which is standing on its very last legs of originality. In fact, there was so much focus on blasting fools to kingdom come that there was very little room for story - and that was okay. As it happens, I don't really want justification for shooting someone in the posterior and being rewarded for it, or anything to signify that they are a thinking, feeling human being for that matter.

A lot of people, ie. everyone who touched te game, had a problem with the ending, for various reasons. This was mostly because of the suitably ballsy approach it had to the sales of the game by leaving no closure whatsoever and leaving it all up to a sequel - a brave move indeed, though understandably frustrating. However, my issue was related to the matter mentioned above; as in the last half an hour or so, the game suddenly gets almost totally emasculated, as if it took a giant kick in the 'nads by the reality of the situation, the reality which I had very much enjoyed avoiding.

Imagine a game where you shoot rabbits on a farm. Rabbits are the death of farms, breeding like crazy, eating and ruining crops, and using the world as their toilet. I'd be pretty happy taking a double barrel to the darn critters, but imagine if right at the end you are suddenly shown all their cute little babies, and reminded about how you took away cute little Bugs here's mummy and daddy. This is pretty much what Bulletstorm mysteriously feels the need to do at its conclusion. I felt no reserve about wasting endless hordes of screaming maniacs, brains melted due to radiation poisoning or some other absurd narrative construction, but when you are at last facing real humans, it suddenly wasn't so satisfying being given extra points for aiming a sniper bullet right into his reproductive organs. They aren't even evil humans, in fact, they are in the exact same situation as Grayson Hunt, the protagonist, was just a few years before - misguided and manipulated by the tyrannical General Serrano. The kind general even spells it out for you, shouting over the speakers about the 'good men you just killed' as you blow them to oblivion, bringing in a moral dilemma that you have no choice in choosing the bad way out of.

It's not that I'm against being forced to feel guilty in games, but this just isn't the right title to do it in. In GTA IV, I grudgingly kill off oncoming police forces knowing in context of Niko's story of a downward spiral into a world of crime it makes sense for there to be bloodshed of the innocent. I know the man doesn't feel good about what he's doing, but he's reluctant and desperate. In Bulletstorm, Grayson is still happily shouting dick jokes at his victims as he tears them apart, knowing full well not a decade ago they would have been his teammates, because that's the sort of game it is, and it makes sense against the right enemies. Instead, it felt like I had come to see The Mechanic and ended up seeing Apocalypse Now. Don't try and make me feel, Bulletstorm. I'm not here for your poor lessons in humanity, I'm here for you to show me how I can kill a mindless freak using only my foot and a giant cactus or a hotdog stand.

Alright, I guess I'll write about Homefront.

I haven't blogged in a while, but this time I have no lame, grovelling excuse to make, like 'wah wah wah I work so hard at college' or 'sorry I was burning down Infinity Ward' (I think I have actually used that one once) as the reality is I haven't been playing a lot of new games. Dead Space 2 was far too unexceptional to really rant about, and the shutdown of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero hardly bothered me in the slightest. My Xbox had a breakdown not two weeks ago, as did I - though I insist there is no correlation between the two - but with that not being particularly noteworthy, there simply hasn't been reason to blog.

Homefront, it seems, is something to write about. Kaos studios have never made a game that has hit big, but suddenly games bloggers, newspapers and even my beloved Roger Ebert Journal have gone berserk over the game's storyline and context. To be honest, it puzzles me that this is such an alien concept, when not two years ago the overwhelmingly atrocious and intensely boring Modern Warfare 2 campaign showed the 'big bad Russians' having the gumption to not only invade the US following a preposterously powerful EMP strike, but act like it's the 1940s and send in the army via parachutes. But North Korea, the country with the second biggest army in the world invading America? Ridiculous. How absurd. Heil Uncle Sam.

My thoughts on how the game will actually be are varied. The storyline, no matter what people and/or degenerate patriots say, I am looking forward to. With the writer of Red Dawn and co-writer of Apocalypse Now behind the wheel, I have hopes of a grizzly and emotional yet scarily believable tale unfolding, and from what I have heard from Jeff Cannata of The Totally Rad Show - a trusted source in my eyes - said hopes are likely to come true.

What I do worry about is the gameplay. Kaos recently released through various sites some footage of standard mission gameplay... and it's not fantastic. If there are many truly spectacular moments, with large set pieces and original dynamics, it's all yet to be seen. So far, all we've been shown is Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor etc. as the player runs and guns through streets, showing little of the 'impact of the kill' the developers were so eagerly talking about in interviews. It also appears to have fairly rough visuals, poor animation and a sense of unnecessary heaviness, considering the protagonist is not a fully kitted-out soldier. Have a look at this clip and see what you think.

That's my lot for now, I'll be renting the game upon release and, if the multiplayer lives up to a healthy, replayable standard, I may give it a purchase.

PS: I am now occasionally (and I mean occasionally) writing for an alternative culture site called Flush the Fashion. My Dead Space 2 review is up there.