Platform:<\/strong> PS3
\nPublisher:<\/strong> Namco Bandai
\nDeveloper:<\/strong> Namco Bandai
\nRelease Date:<\/strong> 11\/20\/07
\nGenre:<\/strong> Light-gun Shooter
\nPlayers:<\/strong> 1-2<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve been cappin\u2019 away at terrorists and terror bites with my bright orange Guncon 3 in Time Crisis 4<\/em> for a couple weeks now and have finally pulled myself away to report in with my final impressions (sorry, the game is such a blast it\u2019s been hard to stop playing). Contrary to the barrage of negative reviews out there thus far, Time Crisis 4<\/em> absolutely rocks and is a definitive exclusive for PS3 fans to praise and brag about amongst their Xbox 360 and Wii owning friends. Namco Bandai may have given those platforms exclusive love with the likes of Ace Combat 6<\/em>, Beautiful Katamari<\/em>, Eternal Sonata <\/em>(for a limited time) and Soul Calibur Legends<\/em>, but TC4<\/em> trumps them all!<\/p>\n

The bulk of Time Crisis 4<\/em> centers around two main story modes — Arcade and Complete Mission \u2013 both of which follow a thin plot about terrorists stealing some strange biological weapon of insects called terror bites. In Arcade mode, you play as one of two VSSE agents named Giorgio and Evan in pursuit of said terrorists through three stages of the on-rails, duck-and-shoot light-gun gameplay that the Time Crisis<\/em> series has become famous for in arcades and on previous PlayStation consoles. Complete Mission mode, on the other hand, mixes the formula up with an expanded storyline that blends the three arcade chapters with an exclusive set of FPS Guncon missions that put you in the role of Captain Rush, another against who has been called in by the U.S. Army’s Internal Surveillance Unit to help deal with the situation.<\/p>\n

As always, the plot is incredibly silly, the characters are clich\u00e9d and copycat, and the dialogue is about as campy as it can get. Don\u2019t expect to be blown away by PS3-pushing visuals either. The graphics look great for sure, perfectly translating what\u2019s seen in the arcades, but for picky graphics whores they don\u2019t quite measure up to the best the PS3 has to offer. But in the end it\u2019s all irrelevant, to me at least. Don\u2019t over analyze this stuff, folks. It\u2019s not meant to be serious, so taking it as such (which most critics seem to be doing for some reason) is a complete disservice to the game. I mean come on, who the hell plays a light-gun game for a serious, hard-hitting narrative? I know I sure don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

But anyways, back to the game\u2026 What you do get with Time Crisis 4<\/em> is an incredibly fun shoot-\u2018em-up that brings the arcade light-gun experience to home consoles with unprecedented quality and authenticity, not to mention virtually unlimited replay value \u2013 in addition to the story modes the game also features a ton of fun target practice mini-games, tough, quick-hitting challenges called Crisis Missions, a variety of unlockable special cheat settings and two-player co-op (more on that in a bit). Oh and I certainly can\u2019t forget the brand spankin\u2019 new Guncon 3 controller bundled in with the game. It\u2019s two-handed, dual-analog stick, 6-button design may seem initially daunting, but it\u2019s actually quite comfortable to use, is remarkably accurate, works with any HD or SD display you want to hook it up to (I\u2019ve played it on a huge projector screen and it worked flawlessly), and really couldn\u2019t be any easier to setup.<\/p>\n

Playing the game arcade style is as heart-pounding as the series has always been, popping in and out of cover to quickly cap away at attacking terrorists. The thrills are even greater now too with bigger, badder boss encounters and new multi-screen sequences that have you aiming off the screen left and right to rapidly switch back and forth between multiple waves of attacking enemies. On the higher difficulties it\u2019s also punishingly difficult with plenty of cheap, unavoidable hits to frustrate the easily frazzled and delight the hardcore arcade purists, and the customary arcade progression method that requires you to beat the game in one shot with the provided allotment of continues, or else it\u2019s back to the beginning of the game all over again.<\/p>\n

The new FPS missions, however, provide a more adapted console experience, melding light-gun play within the fully controllable format of a real first-person shooter. Guncon 3 in dual-fisted grip, you thumb about with one analog stick to move and strafe and use the other stick to adjust the camera (there are multiple configurations), all while pointing at the screen to shoot as usual. Playing this way definitely feels like trying to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time at first, but with practice it becomes fairly natural to maneuver. Granted, the AI is simple-minded and the level designs are vanilla, so you\u2019re never really challenged to make any split-second movements to test just how intuitive the control scheme is. But still, it works well. Taken as and compared to modern first-person shooters, the FPS mode is average at best. But it\u2019s mainly meant to be taken as a bonus mode to the standard arcade play, and in that context it\u2019s an entertaining side attraction to plow through in between the other modes.<\/p>\n

Before wrapping up here, there are a few caveats I need to point out. For starters, the Guncon 3\u2019s two-handed design doesn\u2019t factor in left-handed players. Traditional arcade mode play only requires one-handed use, so no problem there, but for the full FPS missions where two hands are required, lefties aren\u2019t going to be as comfortable with the controls. Another catch is the simple fact that the new Guncon is currently only available bundled alongside the game. So if you want to play co-op you\u2019re either going to have to wait until Namco Bandai releases the controller standalone or get two copies of the game, and at 80-90 bucks apiece that\u2019s a pricey proposition (unless you have a friend with the game as well, then you\u2019re all set). Also note that the Guncon and infrared sensors connect to the PS3 via USB (they aren\u2019t wireless), so if you\u2019ve got the cheaper \u201cgimped\u201d PS3 model that only has two USB ports you\u2019ll have to get a USB hub in order to have enough ports to play co-op. Online co-op would\u2019ve solved some of this, but unfortunately network play isn\u2019t supported.<\/p>\n

These issues are going to limit accessibility for some, but for the majority of players they shouldn\u2019t prove to be anything more than minor nuisances. As a solo experience alone, Time Crisis 4<\/em> is totally worth the purchase for all the modes and mini-games it has to offer, so don\u2019t let the slightly demanding co-op requirements push you away. Even among the recent rush of other high profile games like Uncharted<\/em>, Ratchet & Clank Future<\/em>, Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em>, Call of Duty 4<\/em> and UT3<\/em>, Time Crisis 4<\/em> has kept in circulation on my PS3 more than anything else. I\u2019d say that\u2019s a pretty strong indicator at how awesome this game is.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Platform: PS3 Publisher: Namco Bandai Developer: Namco Bandai Release Date: 11\/20\/07 Genre: Light-gun Shooter Players: 1-2 So I\u2019ve been cappin\u2019 away at terrorists and terror bites with my bright orange Guncon 3 in Time Crisis 4 for a couple weeks now and have finally pulled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42,49,3,418],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}