No posts since May? In my defense I havent been playing many games, 360 hasnt been on in months. Fenix needs ot get off his ass and post ;) Any who, finally made some time to finish the standard story in Tales of Graces f, I have yet to complete the legacy and lineage portion, but it seems very interesting.
First and foremost I'd like to talk about the story. It does a great job of bringing heroes together (and apart) for a good reason. Its part cliche and part brilliant and is much less confusing than Abyss' sound based story. This stories theme has a lot in common with Vesperia, and thats a good thing since Vesperia is still my favorite Tales game and Repede is still my favorite character with Raven a close second. My only beef is you have a boss fight multiple times against the same guy, but when you win the fight, the story continues and after the fight the boss guy one hits some one, does the evil thing, then gets away...... same outcome as if you lost the fight. Would irritate me far less if it didnt happen multiple times. Ending is a little obvious and weak, doesnt conclude everything youre involved with very well, but that may change after I finish the lineage portion.
Gameplay is tried and true Tales real time combat. The combo system has been expanded on and is very fluid. They could easily make a open world 3d beat em up using the battle engine and it'd be a fantastic game. They have mixed up the combo system a lot, with the right gear and perks, you can rattle off a nice 20+ hit combo without any help. The title system has also been redone, you can earn and find titles, equipping the title and earning SP from battle will unlock 5 bonus attributes. For example wear a freeze charm so you can't be frozen in battle, wear it enough and evade freezing enough and you unlock the "freezeproof". You can then equip the title and earn perks like 5% less time frozen, that persist even after you change titles. All titles have a 6th perk, that only works when you both "Master" the title, and have it equipped. Its a pretty ingenious RPG element, and one I hope they use again in Xillia.
I took my time and did my best to complete everything first go round, so it took about 65 hours, a good portion of that was grinding (mostly for titles) and I didnt get sick of it, so that really says something right there. My only real gripe about the game was they harped on Asbel and Cheria's relationship a bit too much and the previously mentioned boss fight thing, but overall this one amazing title.
I give it a 9.5 out of 10
~Malenko
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tales of Abyss (PS2)
So for some reason I found myself in Gamestop a while ago and noticed Tales of Abyss for 3DS. Now not having a 3DS at the time (I bought a pink one for my fiancee but lacked one of my own), I wanted to play it and thought to myself that I knew this game came out for another platform before. A quick Google search on my phone and I found it was a PS2 game. Now of course Gamestop didn't have it in stock , wasn't sure they could order it, and it was $25 used for an 7 year old game. Keep in mind the 3DS version was on sale new for $20 at the time.
So obviously I didn't pick it up, mostly due to the fact I don't think I could log 50+ hours playing a JRPG on a 3" screen but I did start a quest (PUN!) to get the PS2 game. I stumbled across http://pcsx2.net/ which is a down right AMAZING Playstation 2 emulator which allowed me to play the game at a higher resolution that the original PS2's output, which is good because I didnt want to have to go dig my PS2 out of storage. So I snagged the game from Amazon for about $20 + shipping and got to work. I copied the disc to my computer HD, to improve load time, reduce wear on the disc and reduce the noise of the DVD spinning. If only I got the actual PS2 cover and instruction book instead of a blank CD case, oh wells.
Everything ran fine without a hitch, I dropped well over 50 hours in front of my computer doing everything I could in my first play through that was available all in glorious HD. Being a Tales game it always locks things away to keep the 2nd time through fresh, but while I appreciate them trying to keep a second play through exciting I just dont have the time or desire to replay a 50 hour game anymore. I would LOVE to try my hand at the replica dungeon as it sounds pretty awesome but I skirted my way through the Coliseum way too under-leveled (I did it in my 40s, all the guides suggest doing it in the 60s) so I would hate to dump another 30 or 40 hours of my life to not be challenged or even worse get there and be completely frustrated.
I love this game anyway, I looked up old reviews and most of them put this game in the 92/100 mark which I believe is dead on balls accurate. The active battle system (you actually run around the battle field and attack, or hang back and keep enemies from breaking your AI partner's casting) is amazing and significantly more fun that picking "attack" from a turn based menu. I actually played Tales of Vesperia before this on 360 and despite Abyss being a little older and running on an older platform the games are right on par with one another. I started the Tales games with Tales of Destiny, back when I was a reviewer for SegaSages (which eventually turned into gamefaqs.com ) I've already gotten "Tales of Graces f" for PS3 ready to go and I look forward to Tales of Xillia this fall and I hope Namco translates its sequel next year. This is a fantastic series with not a single bad game in the series, something Final Fantasy cant say , I'm looking at you Final Fantasy 8.
~Malenko
So obviously I didn't pick it up, mostly due to the fact I don't think I could log 50+ hours playing a JRPG on a 3" screen but I did start a quest (PUN!) to get the PS2 game. I stumbled across http://pcsx2.net/ which is a down right AMAZING Playstation 2 emulator which allowed me to play the game at a higher resolution that the original PS2's output, which is good because I didnt want to have to go dig my PS2 out of storage. So I snagged the game from Amazon for about $20 + shipping and got to work. I copied the disc to my computer HD, to improve load time, reduce wear on the disc and reduce the noise of the DVD spinning. If only I got the actual PS2 cover and instruction book instead of a blank CD case, oh wells.
Everything ran fine without a hitch, I dropped well over 50 hours in front of my computer doing everything I could in my first play through that was available all in glorious HD. Being a Tales game it always locks things away to keep the 2nd time through fresh, but while I appreciate them trying to keep a second play through exciting I just dont have the time or desire to replay a 50 hour game anymore. I would LOVE to try my hand at the replica dungeon as it sounds pretty awesome but I skirted my way through the Coliseum way too under-leveled (I did it in my 40s, all the guides suggest doing it in the 60s) so I would hate to dump another 30 or 40 hours of my life to not be challenged or even worse get there and be completely frustrated.
I love this game anyway, I looked up old reviews and most of them put this game in the 92/100 mark which I believe is dead on balls accurate. The active battle system (you actually run around the battle field and attack, or hang back and keep enemies from breaking your AI partner's casting) is amazing and significantly more fun that picking "attack" from a turn based menu. I actually played Tales of Vesperia before this on 360 and despite Abyss being a little older and running on an older platform the games are right on par with one another. I started the Tales games with Tales of Destiny, back when I was a reviewer for SegaSages (which eventually turned into gamefaqs.com ) I've already gotten "Tales of Graces f" for PS3 ready to go and I look forward to Tales of Xillia this fall and I hope Namco translates its sequel next year. This is a fantastic series with not a single bad game in the series, something Final Fantasy cant say , I'm looking at you Final Fantasy 8.
~Malenko
Friday, November 30, 2012
Welcome back Agent 47
The cold calculating killing machine returns for the first time in 6 years, and the developers did a great job of keeping the Hitman feel but improving the game and mechanics so that it didn't feel like rehash. I of course bought the collectors edition and it was not worth the extra scratch. This is the last "special edition" I'll ever buy, no fault of the core game, just fault of the "extras" which was just a gunpack you can unlock by playing the game anyway, and a behind the scenes DVD. The case was pretty baller though.
The "story" goes that your handler , Diana Burnwood went rogue for no apparent reason so the agency hires you to do the deed. When you pop her, she tells you to save a little girl named Victoria. Any more that than and it's spoiler central. Now while the story isn't Pulitzer prize winning it's enough to keep you going. I havent gotten to the end yet but I do kinda want to see how it all turns out.
Challenges are really the bright spot of this game. It sort of artificially extends the game by getting you to replay the same missions in different ways. In example, in the first real mission you can poison your target's cocaine and kill him, or you can poison his coffee to kill him, or you can poison his food to kill him. All 3 of those ways are a challenge and doing all 3 is in itself is a 4th challenge. Completing challenges increases your score multiplier and getting a high enough score unlocks new abilities for Mr.47 like decreasing damage taken or reducing recoil and reload times. So you'll run each mission a few times in an effort to make your abilities better to make the latter levels just a little easier.
Another innovative feature is the "Contracts" mode. This is where you can pick any completed mission and pick out your own targets and kill them in your own way. Once you complete the mission, and you have to escape the level for it to count, you can save it and upload the mission. The method of killing (weapon), outfit worn, hiding bodies, not getting caught are all factors it tracks. In china town you can kill cooks, cops, or vendors and not bother dealing with the kingpin or the drug dealer; so its very refreshing to play the same levels in new ways. You can also save the challenges you make and have a competition with your friends, unfortunately Im the only guy I know who has the game. Best part? NO ONLINE PASS
I'm still working my way through the campaign mode, the learning curve is pretty steep, even on normal difficulty. If you get caught there is a very small window of opportunity to get away without having to pull your guns and clean house. The way disguises work is a little suspect. If you take a cops outfit other cops can tell you arent a cop, and that totally makes sense to me, I guess there are no rookies on the force in Chicago, heh. I just dont see how if you wear a street vendor's clothes all the other , but I digress. Once you understand how the game works, you can deal with it. SOme of the missions have a suit only challenge and for some I just dont see how its possible, but I suppose when Im going for all the other challenges I'll find a way (or I'll google it). I can tell Im getting near the end because not only are the levels getting redonk but both sides of the story are coming together.
Up over 93,500 gamercore, hopefully I can finish up this game so I can go back and finish AC3, but Connor is a dooshbag :(
till next time
~Malenko
The "story" goes that your handler , Diana Burnwood went rogue for no apparent reason so the agency hires you to do the deed. When you pop her, she tells you to save a little girl named Victoria. Any more that than and it's spoiler central. Now while the story isn't Pulitzer prize winning it's enough to keep you going. I havent gotten to the end yet but I do kinda want to see how it all turns out.
Challenges are really the bright spot of this game. It sort of artificially extends the game by getting you to replay the same missions in different ways. In example, in the first real mission you can poison your target's cocaine and kill him, or you can poison his coffee to kill him, or you can poison his food to kill him. All 3 of those ways are a challenge and doing all 3 is in itself is a 4th challenge. Completing challenges increases your score multiplier and getting a high enough score unlocks new abilities for Mr.47 like decreasing damage taken or reducing recoil and reload times. So you'll run each mission a few times in an effort to make your abilities better to make the latter levels just a little easier.
Another innovative feature is the "Contracts" mode. This is where you can pick any completed mission and pick out your own targets and kill them in your own way. Once you complete the mission, and you have to escape the level for it to count, you can save it and upload the mission. The method of killing (weapon), outfit worn, hiding bodies, not getting caught are all factors it tracks. In china town you can kill cooks, cops, or vendors and not bother dealing with the kingpin or the drug dealer; so its very refreshing to play the same levels in new ways. You can also save the challenges you make and have a competition with your friends, unfortunately Im the only guy I know who has the game. Best part? NO ONLINE PASS
I'm still working my way through the campaign mode, the learning curve is pretty steep, even on normal difficulty. If you get caught there is a very small window of opportunity to get away without having to pull your guns and clean house. The way disguises work is a little suspect. If you take a cops outfit other cops can tell you arent a cop, and that totally makes sense to me, I guess there are no rookies on the force in Chicago, heh. I just dont see how if you wear a street vendor's clothes all the other , but I digress. Once you understand how the game works, you can deal with it. SOme of the missions have a suit only challenge and for some I just dont see how its possible, but I suppose when Im going for all the other challenges I'll find a way (or I'll google it). I can tell Im getting near the end because not only are the levels getting redonk but both sides of the story are coming together.
Up over 93,500 gamercore, hopefully I can finish up this game so I can go back and finish AC3, but Connor is a dooshbag :(
till next time
~Malenko
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The harder you push it on me, the more I'm going to resist.
Halo is a lot like anal sex, if you're forced to do it as a kid, you wont really enjoy it much as an adult. Ok that's a re-purposed lima bean joke, but you get my point.
Last time I played Halo, it was the first one, on the first XBOX. I thought it was neat but I had better games to play and didn't think much of it. Halo 2 came out, and I don't think I ever tried it. I heard good things and the game looked really neat, but for some reason I never picked it up. Just not my cup of tea I guess.
Halo 3 came out, again heard good things, even bought a used copy but never actually put it in and played it. I almost went and got another used copy, but then it hit me. I don't think I really want to play the game. Fanboi elitism is probably the worst on that game, so I cant blame microsoft entirely for that. It feels like every time I go into gamestop/ebgames whatever you want to call them, they try to sell me a Halo game. I mean I went in there to pick up need for speed and its like "oh you like racing games? try Halo for a change of pace", I go in to get Saints Row 3 and I hear "Well if you like shooting stuff, try Halo", I even picked up a 3DS for Bonnie and I got "Im guessing this pink 3DS is for your girl, why don't you pick up Halo so you have something to play while she's on her 3DS?" Maybe I like pink, homophobe. Sides, everyone knows handhelds are just replacements for newspapers and magazines in the bathroom. EVERYBODY POOPS!
So now, I go into the gamestop in the mall and I pick up AC3 and they pitch me Halo 4, I just can't get away from them trying to sell it to me. I went back and picked up my Hitman Absolution but I beat them to the punch this time. I walk up and say "Man can you believe people buy that shitty Halo game? All I got was confused stares and my fucking game. So yeah I don't hate Halo, but I don't like or care about it either. You have your Master Chief and Cortana I have Agent 47 and Diana Burnwood.
Time to go kill shit and not have a neon orange glowing sniper rifle to do it either.
~Malenko
Last time I played Halo, it was the first one, on the first XBOX. I thought it was neat but I had better games to play and didn't think much of it. Halo 2 came out, and I don't think I ever tried it. I heard good things and the game looked really neat, but for some reason I never picked it up. Just not my cup of tea I guess.
Halo 3 came out, again heard good things, even bought a used copy but never actually put it in and played it. I almost went and got another used copy, but then it hit me. I don't think I really want to play the game. Fanboi elitism is probably the worst on that game, so I cant blame microsoft entirely for that. It feels like every time I go into gamestop/ebgames whatever you want to call them, they try to sell me a Halo game. I mean I went in there to pick up need for speed and its like "oh you like racing games? try Halo for a change of pace", I go in to get Saints Row 3 and I hear "Well if you like shooting stuff, try Halo", I even picked up a 3DS for Bonnie and I got "Im guessing this pink 3DS is for your girl, why don't you pick up Halo so you have something to play while she's on her 3DS?" Maybe I like pink, homophobe. Sides, everyone knows handhelds are just replacements for newspapers and magazines in the bathroom. EVERYBODY POOPS!
So now, I go into the gamestop in the mall and I pick up AC3 and they pitch me Halo 4, I just can't get away from them trying to sell it to me. I went back and picked up my Hitman Absolution but I beat them to the punch this time. I walk up and say "Man can you believe people buy that shitty Halo game? All I got was confused stares and my fucking game. So yeah I don't hate Halo, but I don't like or care about it either. You have your Master Chief and Cortana I have Agent 47 and Diana Burnwood.
Time to go kill shit and not have a neon orange glowing sniper rifle to do it either.
~Malenko
You shouldnt always let they lie
Sleeping Dogs that is. This title was originally True Crime : Hong Kong and I'm really glad Activition dropped it, so that some other more talented developer/publish combo could do something with it.
First and foremost I have to stress this is not a Grand Theft Auto clone at all, it honestly doesn't even feel that sand boxy either. While GTA focuses more on the weapons SD focuses more on hand to hand combat, yeah theres tire irons and guns, but its more batman arkham then Nico liberty city.
One little hidden extra AWESOME bonus? If you have a Just Cause 2 savegame on your hard drive, you get to wear Rico's outfit, which lets you stunt hijack from further away and looks baller as fuck.
The game is not much of a challenge, you'll die more from getting stuck or your car losing control far more often then from enemies. Out side of the main story its still a grind fest and an item hunt. One thing this game does right for the item hunt is give you ways to unlock all the locations on your map. The only bad part about that is the found (light grey) and not found (dark white) icons look almost exactly the same. Even after beating the game I still lacked the money to buy all the cars and clothes and enough "triad" experience to get that achievement, which is why Im prety much going to be locked at 770 cheevie points instead of 1000.
Theres also "real world" events that you just happen to come across, unfortunately I didnt find them all and I cant really be bothered to walk around an entire city and hope I meet the unknown magical conditions for triggering them. A neat idea but the execution is just a bit off.
All in all its still a good game, was worth the $40 I spent on it, its like a GTA with less guns, less walking, less humor, but more quick time button mashing.
~Malenko
First and foremost I have to stress this is not a Grand Theft Auto clone at all, it honestly doesn't even feel that sand boxy either. While GTA focuses more on the weapons SD focuses more on hand to hand combat, yeah theres tire irons and guns, but its more batman arkham then Nico liberty city.
One little hidden extra AWESOME bonus? If you have a Just Cause 2 savegame on your hard drive, you get to wear Rico's outfit, which lets you stunt hijack from further away and looks baller as fuck.
The game is not much of a challenge, you'll die more from getting stuck or your car losing control far more often then from enemies. Out side of the main story its still a grind fest and an item hunt. One thing this game does right for the item hunt is give you ways to unlock all the locations on your map. The only bad part about that is the found (light grey) and not found (dark white) icons look almost exactly the same. Even after beating the game I still lacked the money to buy all the cars and clothes and enough "triad" experience to get that achievement, which is why Im prety much going to be locked at 770 cheevie points instead of 1000.
Theres also "real world" events that you just happen to come across, unfortunately I didnt find them all and I cant really be bothered to walk around an entire city and hope I meet the unknown magical conditions for triggering them. A neat idea but the execution is just a bit off.
All in all its still a good game, was worth the $40 I spent on it, its like a GTA with less guns, less walking, less humor, but more quick time button mashing.
~Malenko
Monday, September 17, 2012
Done-ablo
I know , I'm SERIOUSLY behind the times on game releases. I got Diablo 3 on launch Day, and much like the rest of the world I started playing it a few days later, lol.
I finally beat Diablo 3 on inferno, it was after they nerfed inferno so I dont get much nerd cred from the picture below:
And right after that I had Bonnie hop on her Demon Hunter and I pretty much solo'ed Diablo again to get the co-op achievement and to get her the achievements and banner sigil unlocks.
I'm not going to have a long drawn out post about the game just a quick summary. Diablo 3 doesn't feel like Diablo. I played the ever loving crap out of D1, D2, and D2 Hellfire just fun games. A vast array of builds, self stat assignment , skill trees and creepy awesome levels and just generally a lot to do. Now not to take anything away from Diablo 3 it was quite a fun game, the first three times you run through it (this was pre-inferno nerf) but some of the mixes of elite mobs we just a gear check had nothing to do with skills or player ability. Now that they eased the gear check people are complaining the games too easy, when in fact the game isnt too easy unless you have the exact build for your class the developers wanted you to have.
Even moderately geared you can take down every story boss super easily (and almost all the elite mixes without too much difficulty) using this build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Malenko-1139/hero/3404414
Now that Ive beaten D3 on inferno with my barb I really dont see myself getting the other classes through inferno, and that's just a testament to how repetitive this game is. Each act can be beaten in under an hour, but I'll never get that achievement or the hardcore ones.
~Malenko
I finally beat Diablo 3 on inferno, it was after they nerfed inferno so I dont get much nerd cred from the picture below:
I'm not going to have a long drawn out post about the game just a quick summary. Diablo 3 doesn't feel like Diablo. I played the ever loving crap out of D1, D2, and D2 Hellfire just fun games. A vast array of builds, self stat assignment , skill trees and creepy awesome levels and just generally a lot to do. Now not to take anything away from Diablo 3 it was quite a fun game, the first three times you run through it (this was pre-inferno nerf) but some of the mixes of elite mobs we just a gear check had nothing to do with skills or player ability. Now that they eased the gear check people are complaining the games too easy, when in fact the game isnt too easy unless you have the exact build for your class the developers wanted you to have.
Even moderately geared you can take down every story boss super easily (and almost all the elite mixes without too much difficulty) using this build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Malenko-1139/hero/3404414
Now that Ive beaten D3 on inferno with my barb I really dont see myself getting the other classes through inferno, and that's just a testament to how repetitive this game is. Each act can be beaten in under an hour, but I'll never get that achievement or the hardcore ones.
~Malenko
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Rubberband AI at it's best!
Anytime you hear the term "rubber band AI" you should immediately think of Electronic Arts. Their AI has been doing that forever, and by "forever" I'm talkin back to the days of Road Rash on the Sega Genesis.
That being said I cant help but still enjoy "Need For Speed: The Run". Its a racing game with no circuits, it's all variations of point to point racing. Certain stages require you to pass X number of cars before the finish, in others you need to beat a certain rival or two (or three!), and yet in other stages you just have to hit all the checkpoints before time expires. I'm not super far in but there is plenty of variety and I cant say that I haven't had a blast playing. But to reference the rubber band AI above its really frustrating when you pull an EPIC dick move and wreck the #2 car into an 18 wheeler, get an 22 second lead then see that same car pass you right at the finish line.
One of the things that really seems to be missing is an upgrade system. It'd be nice to earn points/money/whatever to change out transmissions (or at least gear ratios), motors, turbos, nos, tyres,etc. Its feels very incomplete that car you get is the car youre stuck with until you hit a gas station or story marker and the game makes you swap out cars instead.
Speaking of swapping out cars, I cant imagine how much money Shell paid EA to make every gas station in the game a Shell Station , like with V power logos and all. I mean I guess its ok since gas stations on a road trip make sense, even if your car never runs out of gas. You'll just be racing along then you can pull into a gas station and change cars. My only gripe with this is, THAT'S THE ONLY TIME YOU CAN SWITCH CARS. You have to start a race, then go into a shell station and change cars. There's no pre-race menu and thats just dumb.
Speaking of dumb, the story is pretty terrible. Now dont get it twisted I wasnt expecting a heart wrenching tale of love and and overcoming obsticles, but this story is cheese to the extreme. You play a racer who got into debt with the mob and they tried to kill you..... by duct taping your hands to the steering wheel of your Porsche. Why not club you in the noggin and dump your body in a station wagon, then sell the Porsche? Guess that's why mobsters get caught doing crime (and they leave their keys in the car and dont shoot their guns at you till you get in the car and drive away)
Im not racing through the game for the story, even though some cut scenes aren't skip-able and for some reason EA thought it'd be a swell idea to put quick time events in the cut scenes. Overall I cant say this game wasnt worth the 25 I spent on it in hell, I mean EBGames. And I lucked out, the online pass in the game was still valid, which unlocked some cars I cant use, but was still neat.
That being said I cant help but still enjoy "Need For Speed: The Run". Its a racing game with no circuits, it's all variations of point to point racing. Certain stages require you to pass X number of cars before the finish, in others you need to beat a certain rival or two (or three!), and yet in other stages you just have to hit all the checkpoints before time expires. I'm not super far in but there is plenty of variety and I cant say that I haven't had a blast playing. But to reference the rubber band AI above its really frustrating when you pull an EPIC dick move and wreck the #2 car into an 18 wheeler, get an 22 second lead then see that same car pass you right at the finish line.
One of the things that really seems to be missing is an upgrade system. It'd be nice to earn points/money/whatever to change out transmissions (or at least gear ratios), motors, turbos, nos, tyres,etc. Its feels very incomplete that car you get is the car youre stuck with until you hit a gas station or story marker and the game makes you swap out cars instead.
Speaking of swapping out cars, I cant imagine how much money Shell paid EA to make every gas station in the game a Shell Station , like with V power logos and all. I mean I guess its ok since gas stations on a road trip make sense, even if your car never runs out of gas. You'll just be racing along then you can pull into a gas station and change cars. My only gripe with this is, THAT'S THE ONLY TIME YOU CAN SWITCH CARS. You have to start a race, then go into a shell station and change cars. There's no pre-race menu and thats just dumb.
Speaking of dumb, the story is pretty terrible. Now dont get it twisted I wasnt expecting a heart wrenching tale of love and and overcoming obsticles, but this story is cheese to the extreme. You play a racer who got into debt with the mob and they tried to kill you..... by duct taping your hands to the steering wheel of your Porsche. Why not club you in the noggin and dump your body in a station wagon, then sell the Porsche? Guess that's why mobsters get caught doing crime (and they leave their keys in the car and dont shoot their guns at you till you get in the car and drive away)
Im not racing through the game for the story, even though some cut scenes aren't skip-able and for some reason EA thought it'd be a swell idea to put quick time events in the cut scenes. Overall I cant say this game wasnt worth the 25 I spent on it in hell, I mean EBGames. And I lucked out, the online pass in the game was still valid, which unlocked some cars I cant use, but was still neat.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
long time no post.... Toooooooooooooooony Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk
Been lost in the mix, working long hours and wasting too much time playing Diablo 3 (more on Diablo another time).
So Ive had some points just sitting on my live account, nothing has really caught my interest lately, then I saw Tony Hawk HD and I started flashing back to the old school Tony Hawk days on PS1 and Dreamcast. Saw the price at1200 points and I had my reservations on dropping $15 on a remake of a game I bought multiple times (all the tony hawks on PS1, DC, PS2, and even THPS2 remix on XBOX aaaaand underground 2 on PSP)
So I plopped down the points and downloaded the game. Figured since this is old school mine as well remake my old skater with the red hair, brown cargo pants, and green t-shirt with no logo but.... there's no create a skater, if you pick "you", you get your xbox360 avatard. While the idea is neat, your character looks really odd in the enviroment.
It ends up kinda looking like a nintendo Wii-tard skating around an xbox game. I can live without a character editor, but it just doesnt feel right in this day and age. Lets get on with the other problems with this title.
The major, major, MAJOR "UGH WTF" factor is the physics in this game. It just plays horribly. Collision detection is pretty bad, to the point where you'll bail on the half pipe and the game will stand you up in the ramp and you instantly fall again. I thought maybe I was looking at the past through rose colored glasses so I fired up the old Dreamcast and kicked some ass, then fired up the PSP with a PS1 emulator and kicked even more ass.
The Level selection is also suspect. Only 7 levels from the first 2 games, and while they Got some right, like the School II and the Hanger, they also included the Warehouse which is just just a little too similar to the Hanger to justify having both. I wouldn't mind it if they had more levels but why not include better levels like New York or redoing one of the "lost levels" like the construction zone?
Over all the levels arent too bad, the mall is still relatively fun despite the aforementioned shotty physics.
I'll take a break from the bad and mention the good, the sound track. Its a really good mix of the old tracks and the new tracks really fit in, only minor gripe is no "Del the Funky Homosapien" track but I'd be lying if I said I didnt really dig the music. The other good thing about the music is, when you restart a run or just do another run, it doesnt just end the track and go to the next it keeps playing, so its not so annoying. What is annoying however is every time you restart or just start a run at the school II it rings the bells, so by the time you finish all the goals and cash, you''ve heard that fucking thing ring like 500 times.
Last thing to really gripe about is the levels themselves. The just look a little weird with textures they have and the developers tried a little too hard with some things, for example pigeons and pigeon poop, flying newspapers, things of that nature. They should have focused more on how the game played then trying to slather icing on what is otherwise just a mediocre cake.
To summarize, if you loved the old tony hawk games, dont waste your money on this one. It doesnt let you relive the games like they used to be its more like some kids tried to remake the game and didnt quite get it right. If youre new to the tony hawk world and thought about buying this to get your feet wet, you'd be better off taking your $15 to a garage sale and picking up a PS1 and both tony hawk games. I'd give it a 4/10 just because I'm still feeling nostalgic about THPS
~Malenko
So Ive had some points just sitting on my live account, nothing has really caught my interest lately, then I saw Tony Hawk HD and I started flashing back to the old school Tony Hawk days on PS1 and Dreamcast. Saw the price at1200 points and I had my reservations on dropping $15 on a remake of a game I bought multiple times (all the tony hawks on PS1, DC, PS2, and even THPS2 remix on XBOX aaaaand underground 2 on PSP)
So I plopped down the points and downloaded the game. Figured since this is old school mine as well remake my old skater with the red hair, brown cargo pants, and green t-shirt with no logo but.... there's no create a skater, if you pick "you", you get your xbox360 avatard. While the idea is neat, your character looks really odd in the enviroment.
It ends up kinda looking like a nintendo Wii-tard skating around an xbox game. I can live without a character editor, but it just doesnt feel right in this day and age. Lets get on with the other problems with this title.
The major, major, MAJOR "UGH WTF" factor is the physics in this game. It just plays horribly. Collision detection is pretty bad, to the point where you'll bail on the half pipe and the game will stand you up in the ramp and you instantly fall again. I thought maybe I was looking at the past through rose colored glasses so I fired up the old Dreamcast and kicked some ass, then fired up the PSP with a PS1 emulator and kicked even more ass.
The Level selection is also suspect. Only 7 levels from the first 2 games, and while they Got some right, like the School II and the Hanger, they also included the Warehouse which is just just a little too similar to the Hanger to justify having both. I wouldn't mind it if they had more levels but why not include better levels like New York or redoing one of the "lost levels" like the construction zone?
Over all the levels arent too bad, the mall is still relatively fun despite the aforementioned shotty physics.
I'll take a break from the bad and mention the good, the sound track. Its a really good mix of the old tracks and the new tracks really fit in, only minor gripe is no "Del the Funky Homosapien" track but I'd be lying if I said I didnt really dig the music. The other good thing about the music is, when you restart a run or just do another run, it doesnt just end the track and go to the next it keeps playing, so its not so annoying. What is annoying however is every time you restart or just start a run at the school II it rings the bells, so by the time you finish all the goals and cash, you''ve heard that fucking thing ring like 500 times.
Last thing to really gripe about is the levels themselves. The just look a little weird with textures they have and the developers tried a little too hard with some things, for example pigeons and pigeon poop, flying newspapers, things of that nature. They should have focused more on how the game played then trying to slather icing on what is otherwise just a mediocre cake.
To summarize, if you loved the old tony hawk games, dont waste your money on this one. It doesnt let you relive the games like they used to be its more like some kids tried to remake the game and didnt quite get it right. If youre new to the tony hawk world and thought about buying this to get your feet wet, you'd be better off taking your $15 to a garage sale and picking up a PS1 and both tony hawk games. I'd give it a 4/10 just because I'm still feeling nostalgic about THPS
~Malenko
Monday, April 9, 2012
Back into the Wasteland Part C
Greetings from Jacobstown. Im still chuggin and pluggin away at Vegas. I picked up SFxTekken and Soul Calibur 5 yet I'm still playing this, so that tells you something.
So updates from the last post. I found a 4th Casino, the Atomic Wrangler didn't take long to hit the jackpot limit there either so again, I felt a little jilted that I spent so many points on luck for a game based in Vegas. I did get to take my winnings over to the doctor and get a few implants. Adamantium bones, self re-genning health, and tougher skin; I'm all about damage reduction and being like Wolverine. Ive also done some side faction stuff but I cant figure out if I should dump the floating robot eye and get rex, or keep the improved enemy finding. Ive also read I can get the other sniper from Novac to join me and he'll do it even if rex or ED-E is with me.
There have been a TON of Fallout 1 and 2 references linking this game to the past much better than Fallout:DC did. I meant yeah DC had the tree guy Harold, but it wasnt the same. Take a funny ghoul with a tree growing in his head and make it a lame tree with a suicidal ghoul stuck in it, Fail-tastic. Now in this one, Marcus is Marcus and he FEELS like the Marcus of old. Even has Michael Dorn (Lt.Worf from Star Trek TNG) doing the voice acting in this one too.
And hes not just there for show, he has things for you to do and the things he wants done fall in line with the Marcus of old, I was legit impressed, much more so than the passive mentioning of older Fallout people and places, and even Tandi being an answer to the trivia question in a side quest for the king. This is definately the game Fallout:DC should have been. Ive got an old bomber to get out of Lake Mead, hopefully the deathclaws wont rape my candy ass again. I would have loved to find a hedge stone or something for the "Chosen One" or even a broken GECK or waterchip.
Till next time,
T
PS Gamerscore is OVER NINEty THOUSANNNNNDDDDDDD
So updates from the last post. I found a 4th Casino, the Atomic Wrangler didn't take long to hit the jackpot limit there either so again, I felt a little jilted that I spent so many points on luck for a game based in Vegas. I did get to take my winnings over to the doctor and get a few implants. Adamantium bones, self re-genning health, and tougher skin; I'm all about damage reduction and being like Wolverine. Ive also done some side faction stuff but I cant figure out if I should dump the floating robot eye and get rex, or keep the improved enemy finding. Ive also read I can get the other sniper from Novac to join me and he'll do it even if rex or ED-E is with me.
There have been a TON of Fallout 1 and 2 references linking this game to the past much better than Fallout:DC did. I meant yeah DC had the tree guy Harold, but it wasnt the same. Take a funny ghoul with a tree growing in his head and make it a lame tree with a suicidal ghoul stuck in it, Fail-tastic. Now in this one, Marcus is Marcus and he FEELS like the Marcus of old. Even has Michael Dorn (Lt.Worf from Star Trek TNG) doing the voice acting in this one too.
And hes not just there for show, he has things for you to do and the things he wants done fall in line with the Marcus of old, I was legit impressed, much more so than the passive mentioning of older Fallout people and places, and even Tandi being an answer to the trivia question in a side quest for the king. This is definately the game Fallout:DC should have been. Ive got an old bomber to get out of Lake Mead, hopefully the deathclaws wont rape my candy ass again. I would have loved to find a hedge stone or something for the "Chosen One" or even a broken GECK or waterchip.
Till next time,
T
PS Gamerscore is OVER NINEty THOUSANNNNNDDDDDDD
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Back into the Wasteland Part B
Well, I didn't expect to be in Vegas like 8 minutes after I wrote that last post. The main story is moving along, and a good portion of the side quests are well thought out and make you actually WANT to complete them. The multiple courses of action I loved so much from FO1 and FO2 (and that were pretty much absent from FO3) are thankfully back this go `round. I plotted and schemed with a cohort of my enemy to ambush my would be killer in his room but ended up running into him on the Casino floor and my plans went to shit. I decided to go kill some time at the tables before leaving the one area of the game I was really looking forward to getting to.
I was a little disappointed that there are only 3 casinos, and that after you win like 10,000 caps they wont let you gamble anymore. That sort of foiled my plan to blackjack my way into having killer gear, but I got a pretty swell piece of armor "on the house" for being a high roller. I have yet to win a single game of Caravan , despite me buying and looting every card that comes my way. I just want to win 3 for the stupid cheevie cheeve :/
I'm back off into the wastelands, headed for Caesar and Fortification Hill....I had to kill even more feral zombies , I mean Ghouls, yeah, they are nothing like zombies. I still plan to do as much as I can before the pending faction choice comes up (spoilers?) Hopefully I can play from that point and see all the endings before doing operation "achievement clean up" I'm strongly considering the expansion packs for this gig (and the ones for Saint Row as well!) and not just for cheevie points.
I was a little disappointed that there are only 3 casinos, and that after you win like 10,000 caps they wont let you gamble anymore. That sort of foiled my plan to blackjack my way into having killer gear, but I got a pretty swell piece of armor "on the house" for being a high roller. I have yet to win a single game of Caravan , despite me buying and looting every card that comes my way. I just want to win 3 for the stupid cheevie cheeve :/
I'm back off into the wastelands, headed for Caesar and Fortification Hill....I had to kill even more feral zombies , I mean Ghouls, yeah, they are nothing like zombies. I still plan to do as much as I can before the pending faction choice comes up (spoilers?) Hopefully I can play from that point and see all the endings before doing operation "achievement clean up" I'm strongly considering the expansion packs for this gig (and the ones for Saint Row as well!) and not just for cheevie points.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Back into the Wasteland Part A
I know what youre thinking "Didnt this game come out in oh ten?" it did. This "review" is for the people like me, who had a bad taste in their mouth from F3 and may have other wise passed over this title.
And back to the west coast, where Fallout belongs. First things first, the title of the game is deceptive, I'm over 10 hours in and Vegas is still off in the horizon. I'm on my first play through so I'm trying to do as much as I can on the initial play through, so I know what I can skip next time. I'm sure if I lowered my head, holstered my guns, and ran full speed, I could be losing all my caps at blackjack as we speak.
Let me start by saying this game *FEELS* more like Fall Out , much more so than Fall Out: Washington DC. My MAJOR gripe with FO:DC was the zombieeeeerrrrrr Feral Ghoul population, Im pretty sure I single-handedly cleaned out every single one from the subway tunnels (with almost no gun skills but man was a smooooooooth talker). Thankfully there have been a relatively small number of "Feral Ghouls" to dispatch this go `round, I killed more of those in DC than Ive killed zombies in all the Resident Evil games combined.
The writing, dialog, everything feels more Black Isle Studios. I've done a little reading at No Mutants Allowed ( http://www.nma-fallout.com/ ) and found out the reason for this is some ideas from Van Buren and some people from the real Fallout 1 and 2 teams worked on this game. I suppose this is the closest we'll ever get to a real sequel. If only the instruction book was the same style as the first two games, bound like an old ledger book from grade school
So now some minor complaints. Keep in mind I really like this game so far, so none of this stuff bothers me all that much. First off, the graphics. The seem a little bland and unpolished, and all the interiors of everything seem to look alike. The game is massive so I'm OK with quantity over quality and nothing looks terrible but this game doesn't live up to some of the other 360 titles. Weak mapping and confusing building layouts are counter productive, I ended up drawing maps on paper to find my way around. The one-two punch of the bad layouts is you frequently need to traverse the same floors multiple times, like the REPCONN building.
SAVE FREQUENTLY. Srsly. I was messing around and tried to pick pocket Davison (no spoiler on who/what he is) and I didnt save first, so when I reloaded the save it was firefight central, and I hadn't saved for a good 30 minutes before that. You can save pretty much anytime anywhere so theres no reason not to. This saving mechanic makes it easier to goof off, lets you play in as small of chunks as you want....the downside is it makes the game a tad easier.
A ton of DLC has been released, I may wait until I finish then see if I can pick up a complete collection game cheap or just just get the DLC ala cart. So far Im not hating this game even if I didnt get a poker chip or lunch box with purchase.
I will follow this up after finishing the game or at least getting into the Casinos. Until then, Im out.
~Malenko
PS Operation 100k still isnt done, heh
And back to the west coast, where Fallout belongs. First things first, the title of the game is deceptive, I'm over 10 hours in and Vegas is still off in the horizon. I'm on my first play through so I'm trying to do as much as I can on the initial play through, so I know what I can skip next time. I'm sure if I lowered my head, holstered my guns, and ran full speed, I could be losing all my caps at blackjack as we speak.
Let me start by saying this game *FEELS* more like Fall Out , much more so than Fall Out: Washington DC. My MAJOR gripe with FO:DC was the zombieeeeerrrrrr Feral Ghoul population, Im pretty sure I single-handedly cleaned out every single one from the subway tunnels (with almost no gun skills but man was a smooooooooth talker). Thankfully there have been a relatively small number of "Feral Ghouls" to dispatch this go `round, I killed more of those in DC than Ive killed zombies in all the Resident Evil games combined.
The writing, dialog, everything feels more Black Isle Studios. I've done a little reading at No Mutants Allowed ( http://www.nma-fallout.com/ ) and found out the reason for this is some ideas from Van Buren and some people from the real Fallout 1 and 2 teams worked on this game. I suppose this is the closest we'll ever get to a real sequel. If only the instruction book was the same style as the first two games, bound like an old ledger book from grade school
So now some minor complaints. Keep in mind I really like this game so far, so none of this stuff bothers me all that much. First off, the graphics. The seem a little bland and unpolished, and all the interiors of everything seem to look alike. The game is massive so I'm OK with quantity over quality and nothing looks terrible but this game doesn't live up to some of the other 360 titles. Weak mapping and confusing building layouts are counter productive, I ended up drawing maps on paper to find my way around. The one-two punch of the bad layouts is you frequently need to traverse the same floors multiple times, like the REPCONN building.
SAVE FREQUENTLY. Srsly. I was messing around and tried to pick pocket Davison (no spoiler on who/what he is) and I didnt save first, so when I reloaded the save it was firefight central, and I hadn't saved for a good 30 minutes before that. You can save pretty much anytime anywhere so theres no reason not to. This saving mechanic makes it easier to goof off, lets you play in as small of chunks as you want....the downside is it makes the game a tad easier.
A ton of DLC has been released, I may wait until I finish then see if I can pick up a complete collection game cheap or just just get the DLC ala cart. So far Im not hating this game even if I didnt get a poker chip or lunch box with purchase.
I will follow this up after finishing the game or at least getting into the Casinos. Until then, Im out.
~Malenko
PS Operation 100k still isnt done, heh
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Habitual Line Crosser (Street Fighter x Tekken)
So, while Capcom and the Internet hotly debate the meaning of words like "value" and "customer" and "entitlement", the game; Street Fighter x Tekken has finally been released. Against the cries of all my convictions I bought it because frankly, it just looked too damned fun to miss. The catch is that in doing so I pat Capcom on the back for practices that previously caused me to relegate their games to Gamefly only status, but I'm not the one on trial here, they are!
So, the simple truth is, despite its turmultuous development cycle and release, SFxT is a suprisingly solid game. Being a crossover, it won't exactly be winning any awards for creativity or innovation, but it does manage to mash together a couple mechanics from the core franchises with some new goofy ones to create an enjoyable wholesome punching people in the face type-environment.
The flow of battle itself is most akin to SF4, with footsies and safe jump-ins playing the pivotal roles. Where Tekken comes in is the wealth of moves that are now designed to stun or juggle or even bound on counter hit or when pumped up to EX with a meter of super. All those situations in SF4 where you were like, I should be able to tack another move on the end there, now you can... except for all the times you can't. While the engine is pretty flexible, the game does seem to have some rather arbitrary rules on what juggles when and how. I'm sure with time it will become second nature what works and what doesn't, but at this point I am frequently mystified when even a super passes clean through an enemy floating helplessly through the air.
The other major deviation from its parent series is the tag mechanic. On paper its a minor rewrite of Tekken Tag's "2 guys 1 ko" system with some mandatory tagging when certain moves are used, but without a hit there's no safe (or free) way to tag out, so a good bit of strategy is just waiting for your enemy to press the panic button and putting him in traction for it. As a result, the team emphasis is heavier on complementary characters than just guys you're good with. That big damage tag combo you put together isn't really meaningful if you have no good way to get in or out of the match without eating one yourself.
Fortunately the (current) cast is pretty well rounded so whatever your fighting game archetype of choice is, you got a few options for team mates. Pixies, shotos, grapplers, zoners, they're all in there. If you wanna call the SFers easy mode you can because their movelists are pretty straight forward, fireballs, uppercuts, and rekkas. The Tekkens are at least a little wilder on the surface, as they all have a bunch of canned strings and chains in addition to a selection of heavy hitting moves buffed up to SF style specials. The lines are certainly blurred here and there with characters like Juri getting almost Tekken style combo freedom and mix ups while Jin has been granted weird space controlling fireballs, so there's no guarantee a love / hate of a character will be carried over but I wouldn't say at this point anyone has been done injustice. Boring Tekken characters like Julia and Ogre have been animed up to where they actually stand out from the cast, while SF fossils like Ryu and Zangief can use stuns and bounces and the games weird charge up super mechanic to really spice things up.
And that's all very good news, because despite its big boasts, the game is certainly missing some polish. Out of the box (lets re-read this review in 9 months, shall we?) SFxT has a number of features that should be really impressive, but compared to its major rivals there's lots of cut corners that mire its potential. It is one thing to wave off the preschool writing in the arcade mode, no alternate costumes and a record low # of palette swaps. But the fight request is woefully inadequate (even to SF4 and MvC3), and the couch co-op mode (which only works on PS3, mind you) barely accomplishes what MK did just as well a year ago. Some olive branches have been extended when it comes to extraneous single player content but the trials and missions and tutorials are still inferior to KoFs, there's nothing at all to unlock, and the games singular unique feature (gems) are equal parts complex and inneffectual in actual application. Certainly, the pros will turn out some fantastic youtubes by its hand, but for the regular joe gamer it just doesn't hold your hand anywhere near enough to get you interested, and it doesn't engage you enough in battle to make you want to stay for dinner.
That being said, for a fighting game put out by Capcom post-SF4 it is a remarkably rewarding experience to play. The extended feature set has a bit of an after taste, and you may outright vomit if you spend any time at all researching the dlc situation, but it has a damned fine engine running under the hood and a lot of new toys for a cast of characters that have grown tired and antiquated in their host series'. I've had the opportunity to work with it against the cpu, local vs, and online vs and I can't honestly say any of it was a bad experience, which is a damned good sign for gameplay no more ambitious than punching people in the face. So I say keep your internet blinders on and enjoy the ride.
-F.
So, the simple truth is, despite its turmultuous development cycle and release, SFxT is a suprisingly solid game. Being a crossover, it won't exactly be winning any awards for creativity or innovation, but it does manage to mash together a couple mechanics from the core franchises with some new goofy ones to create an enjoyable wholesome punching people in the face type-environment.
The flow of battle itself is most akin to SF4, with footsies and safe jump-ins playing the pivotal roles. Where Tekken comes in is the wealth of moves that are now designed to stun or juggle or even bound on counter hit or when pumped up to EX with a meter of super. All those situations in SF4 where you were like, I should be able to tack another move on the end there, now you can... except for all the times you can't. While the engine is pretty flexible, the game does seem to have some rather arbitrary rules on what juggles when and how. I'm sure with time it will become second nature what works and what doesn't, but at this point I am frequently mystified when even a super passes clean through an enemy floating helplessly through the air.
The other major deviation from its parent series is the tag mechanic. On paper its a minor rewrite of Tekken Tag's "2 guys 1 ko" system with some mandatory tagging when certain moves are used, but without a hit there's no safe (or free) way to tag out, so a good bit of strategy is just waiting for your enemy to press the panic button and putting him in traction for it. As a result, the team emphasis is heavier on complementary characters than just guys you're good with. That big damage tag combo you put together isn't really meaningful if you have no good way to get in or out of the match without eating one yourself.
Fortunately the (current) cast is pretty well rounded so whatever your fighting game archetype of choice is, you got a few options for team mates. Pixies, shotos, grapplers, zoners, they're all in there. If you wanna call the SFers easy mode you can because their movelists are pretty straight forward, fireballs, uppercuts, and rekkas. The Tekkens are at least a little wilder on the surface, as they all have a bunch of canned strings and chains in addition to a selection of heavy hitting moves buffed up to SF style specials. The lines are certainly blurred here and there with characters like Juri getting almost Tekken style combo freedom and mix ups while Jin has been granted weird space controlling fireballs, so there's no guarantee a love / hate of a character will be carried over but I wouldn't say at this point anyone has been done injustice. Boring Tekken characters like Julia and Ogre have been animed up to where they actually stand out from the cast, while SF fossils like Ryu and Zangief can use stuns and bounces and the games weird charge up super mechanic to really spice things up.
And that's all very good news, because despite its big boasts, the game is certainly missing some polish. Out of the box (lets re-read this review in 9 months, shall we?) SFxT has a number of features that should be really impressive, but compared to its major rivals there's lots of cut corners that mire its potential. It is one thing to wave off the preschool writing in the arcade mode, no alternate costumes and a record low # of palette swaps. But the fight request is woefully inadequate (even to SF4 and MvC3), and the couch co-op mode (which only works on PS3, mind you) barely accomplishes what MK did just as well a year ago. Some olive branches have been extended when it comes to extraneous single player content but the trials and missions and tutorials are still inferior to KoFs, there's nothing at all to unlock, and the games singular unique feature (gems) are equal parts complex and inneffectual in actual application. Certainly, the pros will turn out some fantastic youtubes by its hand, but for the regular joe gamer it just doesn't hold your hand anywhere near enough to get you interested, and it doesn't engage you enough in battle to make you want to stay for dinner.
That being said, for a fighting game put out by Capcom post-SF4 it is a remarkably rewarding experience to play. The extended feature set has a bit of an after taste, and you may outright vomit if you spend any time at all researching the dlc situation, but it has a damned fine engine running under the hood and a lot of new toys for a cast of characters that have grown tired and antiquated in their host series'. I've had the opportunity to work with it against the cpu, local vs, and online vs and I can't honestly say any of it was a bad experience, which is a damned good sign for gameplay no more ambitious than punching people in the face. So I say keep your internet blinders on and enjoy the ride.
-F.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
400 is too many.
My disdain for pointless scavenger hunts is extensive, so its nice to know that Rocksteady put the same love and affection into what is typically the industry's favorite replay value killing achievement ruining "feature" as everything else in the game. Unfortunately, no matter how interesting / rewarding you make "collectibles" the reality is 400 is just too many.
The game seems to get it as well, as for all the riddler trophies that need a gadget or some sort of creative intuition to collect, there are quite a few that are just sitting there or hang waiting to be picked up. Certainly, the narrative can facilitate the idea that the riddler left some easy ones just to screw with Batman, but the last hundred or so just seem kind of pointless.
Still, Arkham City's scavenger hunt extends the olive branch in so many other ways, it seems almost trivial to complain. Its still light years ahead of the competition, and its not like I didn't get all 400 of them in the end.
In any event, this will be the last of my Arkham coverage for a while, I've got lots of games I'd rather dive into than beating my head against mission mode for the riddler's approval. Like Outlands, whose color change mechanic has gone from from cute to mouth frothingly tedious in less than a week of gameplay.
The game seems to get it as well, as for all the riddler trophies that need a gadget or some sort of creative intuition to collect, there are quite a few that are just sitting there or hang waiting to be picked up. Certainly, the narrative can facilitate the idea that the riddler left some easy ones just to screw with Batman, but the last hundred or so just seem kind of pointless.
Still, Arkham City's scavenger hunt extends the olive branch in so many other ways, it seems almost trivial to complain. Its still light years ahead of the competition, and its not like I didn't get all 400 of them in the end.
In any event, this will be the last of my Arkham coverage for a while, I've got lots of games I'd rather dive into than beating my head against mission mode for the riddler's approval. Like Outlands, whose color change mechanic has gone from from cute to mouth frothingly tedious in less than a week of gameplay.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Balls deep in the Row
I'm posting this about 75% through the "story" of Saints Row 3. I'm not going to sugar coat it and say it's a fantastic story because its not, and its not supposed to be. What is, and what it does perfectly, is let us run through a city acting like a total asshole and have a blast doing it.
First I start will the Pre-order and collectors edition crap. Of course I pre-ordered it and got the octopus gun that shoots mind control mollusks and I got Professor Genki's Manapult but honestly, I barely used either of them and the Shark gun DLC puts the octopus gun to shame. Being as it was my birthday, my GF Bonnie got me the collectors edition of SR3 which came with headphones. Headphones that don't work with xbox live and are pretty chunky with a big ass SR3 logo on the side, they haven't and probably will never leave the box, unless one of my nephews or something want them. No extra missions. No art book. I am dissapoint.
That's really the only glaring bad thing about this game. I know when games are hyped like this, they usually come up short but in all honesty this game delivers what it promised. The storyline missions are varied and pretty eventful (though none have lived up to the escaping the airplane from the beginning ....yet). All of your favorite , well MOST of your favorite mini games are back from the 2nd Saints. Heli Assult, despite much improved controls, is still there and still pretty frustrating. FUZZ sadly enough, was no where to be found. New mini games include "Guardian Angel" which is just Heli Assult but the CPU flys the choppah, and "Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax" which is actually a pretty fun rendition of well, a mix of Smash TV and The Running Man; it also makes it easier to hit that "kill 200 mascots" challenge. Septic Avenger, Fight Club, Crowd Control also go the big ugly axe. Freckle Bitches was no where to be found on the map either, in fact you cant even buy food for your dpad menu anymore.
Ah yes, the challenges. Remember all the goofy shit you can do for respect, like driving in the oncoming lane? Well the game now tracks that stat with a purpose. Once you do it for 10,000 feet you get a cash and respect bonus. Some challenges are pretty tame like "compliment 50 people" some are a real pain, like nailing 15 base jumps. Most will come in time playing the game, others you are going to have to make time to do this. They mention FUZZ a lot in the description, so I believe this is part of the replacement for FUZZ. Ironically, you can buy a Steel Port Police Department uniform in the game.
One thing I really liked and appreciated in SR2 was completing mini games to unlock perks. Do this, you get unlimited pistol ammo, do that and you don't take fall damage. Unlocking perks like that is gone, now you buy the perks with cash you earned. This was done for 2 reasons, something to spend money on, and getting perks that you couldn't because you cant beat a mini-game.
The refined controls are reason enough to head back into the row. They changed the priority of the cars so that the players car has more mass/inertia. Its a godsend, no more getting bullied by a pinto when you're driving a SWAT van. Powerslides, burnouts, even getting up on 2 wheels is just easier to control and that saddest part about that? Racing is no where to be found =( Perhaps some real honest to goodness DLC will come out. Ive been eyeballing the "Season Pass" DLC but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger. God knows I didn't really use the MK Pass like I thought I would.
The graphics are a big jump. They are as much of an improvement over SR2 as SR2 was over SR1. Lower poly counts but improved textures do wonders for the visual appeal. Pop ups still happen but they don't affect gameplay. Occasionally you get some weird glitches, for example, traffic signs getting stuck inside the car, cars sunk into the ground, and more than once I "Bo-Duken'ed" into a car and for some reason took a ton of damage and died. Thankfully dying just takes away some money, you keep your guns so you can jump right back into the game.
Overall I am having a fantastic time, I'm 20 hours or so in and still having fun just goofing around. I plan to finish up the "story" after I get a few more "insert gang name here" specialists killed. Brutes are brutal, but I gotta say, its a good Rowvember.
First I start will the Pre-order and collectors edition crap. Of course I pre-ordered it and got the octopus gun that shoots mind control mollusks and I got Professor Genki's Manapult but honestly, I barely used either of them and the Shark gun DLC puts the octopus gun to shame. Being as it was my birthday, my GF Bonnie got me the collectors edition of SR3 which came with headphones. Headphones that don't work with xbox live and are pretty chunky with a big ass SR3 logo on the side, they haven't and probably will never leave the box, unless one of my nephews or something want them. No extra missions. No art book. I am dissapoint.
That's really the only glaring bad thing about this game. I know when games are hyped like this, they usually come up short but in all honesty this game delivers what it promised. The storyline missions are varied and pretty eventful (though none have lived up to the escaping the airplane from the beginning ....yet). All of your favorite , well MOST of your favorite mini games are back from the 2nd Saints. Heli Assult, despite much improved controls, is still there and still pretty frustrating. FUZZ sadly enough, was no where to be found. New mini games include "Guardian Angel" which is just Heli Assult but the CPU flys the choppah, and "Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax" which is actually a pretty fun rendition of well, a mix of Smash TV and The Running Man; it also makes it easier to hit that "kill 200 mascots" challenge. Septic Avenger, Fight Club, Crowd Control also go the big ugly axe. Freckle Bitches was no where to be found on the map either, in fact you cant even buy food for your dpad menu anymore.
Ah yes, the challenges. Remember all the goofy shit you can do for respect, like driving in the oncoming lane? Well the game now tracks that stat with a purpose. Once you do it for 10,000 feet you get a cash and respect bonus. Some challenges are pretty tame like "compliment 50 people" some are a real pain, like nailing 15 base jumps. Most will come in time playing the game, others you are going to have to make time to do this. They mention FUZZ a lot in the description, so I believe this is part of the replacement for FUZZ. Ironically, you can buy a Steel Port Police Department uniform in the game.
One thing I really liked and appreciated in SR2 was completing mini games to unlock perks. Do this, you get unlimited pistol ammo, do that and you don't take fall damage. Unlocking perks like that is gone, now you buy the perks with cash you earned. This was done for 2 reasons, something to spend money on, and getting perks that you couldn't because you cant beat a mini-game.
The refined controls are reason enough to head back into the row. They changed the priority of the cars so that the players car has more mass/inertia. Its a godsend, no more getting bullied by a pinto when you're driving a SWAT van. Powerslides, burnouts, even getting up on 2 wheels is just easier to control and that saddest part about that? Racing is no where to be found =( Perhaps some real honest to goodness DLC will come out. Ive been eyeballing the "Season Pass" DLC but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger. God knows I didn't really use the MK Pass like I thought I would.
The graphics are a big jump. They are as much of an improvement over SR2 as SR2 was over SR1. Lower poly counts but improved textures do wonders for the visual appeal. Pop ups still happen but they don't affect gameplay. Occasionally you get some weird glitches, for example, traffic signs getting stuck inside the car, cars sunk into the ground, and more than once I "Bo-Duken'ed" into a car and for some reason took a ton of damage and died. Thankfully dying just takes away some money, you keep your guns so you can jump right back into the game.
Overall I am having a fantastic time, I'm 20 hours or so in and still having fun just goofing around. I plan to finish up the "story" after I get a few more "insert gang name here" specialists killed. Brutes are brutal, but I gotta say, its a good Rowvember.
Monday, November 14, 2011
And the award for the ballsiest licensed game ending goes to...
So, I put Batman's plot down this weekend, capping 2 week long nightly gaming binge and leaving only the side missions, riddler trophies, new game plus, and challenge rooms left to do. Thom has already bailed on the 1K, so its up to me to claim the highest Arkham City % on my friends list. Its a shame that an excellent game so effectively packed with content and unlockables has to be mired by some of the most predatory cockpunch style dlc tactics in use these days, but that's the way it is. In the long run, knowing there's two more full characters and seven costumes already done that are just being held back to make an extra buck really tarnishes the games majesty, no matter how many kitchen sinks they dropped into it.
Still, despite whatever insults Warner Bros. may lay at my feet, Rocksteady, I take my hat off to you. Twice in a row now you have made the concept of action games, licensed games, DC comics games and Batman games all shine at once, a feat only Spiderman has otherwise achieved, and only because Activision is just gonna keep slamming him into the wall annually until they get a hit. Wherever it is you decide to take your talents next, I will happily follow.
Meanwhile, Deus Ex waits patiently in its Gamefly sleeve praying that I will accidentally knock it off the shelf and into my Xbox one of these days. Days ago, it seemed likely that Deus Ex would be next, a cyberpunky shooty distraction to keep me from immediately diving back into Dark Souls and getting my feelings hurt. Now, I have an angry space marine revving his chainsaw gun, and the Third Street Saints breathing down my neck in addition. And that's disregarding Hydrophobia, Trials, Outland, and whatever else I got lying around the living room unplayed.
The good news is, barring a Gamefly send, I'll have nothing new in my queue until I wrestle with the decision to buy Anarchy Reigns next year, and after that, probably nothing until SFxT, which flip-flops between guaranteed buy and waste of space with each new tidbit of information Capcom eeks out onto the internet.
Here's hoping that craving I had for some multiplayer demon slaying action stays just a craving, and doesn't blossom into another month of grinding in Castlevania: HoD.
-F.
Still, despite whatever insults Warner Bros. may lay at my feet, Rocksteady, I take my hat off to you. Twice in a row now you have made the concept of action games, licensed games, DC comics games and Batman games all shine at once, a feat only Spiderman has otherwise achieved, and only because Activision is just gonna keep slamming him into the wall annually until they get a hit. Wherever it is you decide to take your talents next, I will happily follow.
Meanwhile, Deus Ex waits patiently in its Gamefly sleeve praying that I will accidentally knock it off the shelf and into my Xbox one of these days. Days ago, it seemed likely that Deus Ex would be next, a cyberpunky shooty distraction to keep me from immediately diving back into Dark Souls and getting my feelings hurt. Now, I have an angry space marine revving his chainsaw gun, and the Third Street Saints breathing down my neck in addition. And that's disregarding Hydrophobia, Trials, Outland, and whatever else I got lying around the living room unplayed.
The good news is, barring a Gamefly send, I'll have nothing new in my queue until I wrestle with the decision to buy Anarchy Reigns next year, and after that, probably nothing until SFxT, which flip-flops between guaranteed buy and waste of space with each new tidbit of information Capcom eeks out onto the internet.
Here's hoping that craving I had for some multiplayer demon slaying action stays just a craving, and doesn't blossom into another month of grinding in Castlevania: HoD.
-F.
Friday, November 11, 2011
I'll post something better after Batman, I promise.
I told myself I was going to make Monday my official write about video games day, but then the only thing I did last week was play Batman. At current, I don't really have anything better than Llinrac (or anyone else on the internet) to say about it, but maybe after I 100% done on it. In the mean time I thought I'd look back and round up some of the gems between now and the last time I lost interest in this. It was either this or hate on Capcom some more and really, they're making that so easy its not even fun anymore.
Saints Row 2: Now Llinrac already gushed about this, but I want to say if you're a fan of dicking around in sandbox games, BUY SR3. If this game is any indication, the guys at volition could care less about narrative or theme or pacing but good god do they know what tickles your inner twelve year old.
Outland: An action platformer infused with a lot of Limbo's minimalist personality. You don't do much more than race around shadowy environs and swing your stick at things, but its so well done, you don't really feel like you're missing out. The games real depth comes from its light dark system, where the player can hot swap (in)vulnerabilities to color coded platforms, enemies, and bullets. Truth be told, I've only scratched the surface of what it has to offer, but I can already tell the frantic red/blue switching is going to get incredibly complex.
World of Keflings: You know, underneath the years of twitch gaming and torture trained reflexes, I've got a soft spot for any game that presents me with nothing more than a canvas and a loose set of goals. This low rent fusion of Sim City (90%) and Starcraft (10%) gives you a couple flowcharts worth of construction and resource management framed around rebuilding the absurd lives of the Keflings. There's a lot of buildings, resources, and a small chores to motivate you through its "plot", but by and large you just put troops to work and turn a map of trees and stone into houses and towers. The icing here is that you get to stomp around in your own avatar's low res boots, putting your adoring fans to work with a slightly more personal touch than the standard disembodied "God's Hand". More to the point, resources never seem to run out and there's no rigid quick do this then do this or you can't do that mission structure. The worst thing that could happen is you put to many people on crystal duty and have to reassign some units to logging and take a potty break.
Trials HD: Simply put, this is the closest anyone has come to capturing the magic of Excitebike without slapping on a bunch of stupid modern gaming features. I played the demo for Trials on a whim (because it was on sale) and after about 15 minutes worth of jumps, spins, and crashes I happily surrendered my wallet. Its nowhere in the neighborhood of say, Super Meat Boy in terms of soul crushing trial and error, but if you want to put your loose understanding of motorcycle physics to the test (or just take your frustrations out on a disposable non-descript motorcyclist) you can't do much better than this.
-F
Saints Row 2: Now Llinrac already gushed about this, but I want to say if you're a fan of dicking around in sandbox games, BUY SR3. If this game is any indication, the guys at volition could care less about narrative or theme or pacing but good god do they know what tickles your inner twelve year old.
Outland: An action platformer infused with a lot of Limbo's minimalist personality. You don't do much more than race around shadowy environs and swing your stick at things, but its so well done, you don't really feel like you're missing out. The games real depth comes from its light dark system, where the player can hot swap (in)vulnerabilities to color coded platforms, enemies, and bullets. Truth be told, I've only scratched the surface of what it has to offer, but I can already tell the frantic red/blue switching is going to get incredibly complex.
World of Keflings: You know, underneath the years of twitch gaming and torture trained reflexes, I've got a soft spot for any game that presents me with nothing more than a canvas and a loose set of goals. This low rent fusion of Sim City (90%) and Starcraft (10%) gives you a couple flowcharts worth of construction and resource management framed around rebuilding the absurd lives of the Keflings. There's a lot of buildings, resources, and a small chores to motivate you through its "plot", but by and large you just put troops to work and turn a map of trees and stone into houses and towers. The icing here is that you get to stomp around in your own avatar's low res boots, putting your adoring fans to work with a slightly more personal touch than the standard disembodied "God's Hand". More to the point, resources never seem to run out and there's no rigid quick do this then do this or you can't do that mission structure. The worst thing that could happen is you put to many people on crystal duty and have to reassign some units to logging and take a potty break.
Trials HD: Simply put, this is the closest anyone has come to capturing the magic of Excitebike without slapping on a bunch of stupid modern gaming features. I played the demo for Trials on a whim (because it was on sale) and after about 15 minutes worth of jumps, spins, and crashes I happily surrendered my wallet. Its nowhere in the neighborhood of say, Super Meat Boy in terms of soul crushing trial and error, but if you want to put your loose understanding of motorcycle physics to the test (or just take your frustrations out on a disposable non-descript motorcyclist) you can't do much better than this.
-F
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Forza Win!
Remember the good old days when Gran Turismo was the most amazing game ever? We kept wondering when the next great racing game would come out and be the "Gran Turismo Killer", I'm sure we never thought it'd be Gran Tursimo huh? I'm happy to say that the days of riding along the wall and AI that just runs a line around the track (while not giving a shit if you are there or not) are long gone.
Forza on the original Xbox was an amazing game that many people passed over. Forza 2 on the 360 was even better; more tracks, more cars, more to do. I thought Forza 3 was pretty much the perfect racing game, from jaw dropping graphics to jaw dropping physics. Forza 4 is down right RIDICULOUS!
First off, graphics. While not leaps and bounds above Forza 3, they are an improvement. More colorful backdrops, better textures, and the cars seem to "pop" more. Tracks have an amazing sense of depth, and an unreal draw distance. You can literally see a mile down the road, Cars have more factory paint colors to choose from than ever before, and panels can be painted individually so you can rice as much as you can race. In addition to all the on-track eye candy, you can now set your home space (backdrop) from many different on-track locations to the set of Top Gear. You are doing something right when even the asphalt looks good.
On to sounds and music. I read that they re-recorded pretty much everything, but the engine noises dont really sound all that much better or different than Forza 3. Everything sounds like it should, except when I hear a Honda Civic driving near me on the highway it usually sounds like a bumblebee. Music remains a weak spot for this series, the good news is you can load up your own MP3s and race around the track to those instead of whats included on the disc. Ironically I typically race with no music, so you have more than one option here. All the voice over work is done by Jeremy Clarkson, of top gear fame, and you can tell this man loves cars and was a great choice.
Most importantly, game play. I know what you're thinking, this is a race game, all you do is race. Thats not exactly true. They have great mix of different race type, way more than just doing laps around a track. There are modes where all you do is , for example, try and pass 50 slow moving cars in 2 laps; another where you are doing a point to point race against 1 other car with traffic in the way. They really mix up the types of races, the car restrictions, and the objectives. Driving around the Top Gear track while knocking down bowling pins? Yes please! Getting back to my point with AI in racing games, Forza really shines here. On the easier difficulties the computer's cars aren't handicapped, they just drive differently. They'll brake too early into turns, not take the best lines, and even bump one another and you. On the higher difficulties their cars aren't artificially improved and there is no "rubber band AI" , they just take the best lines are the best speeds and race super clean. Only the very best can turn off all assists and best the CPU on expert; and I think that's the way it should be. If you want to see a big difference between the AI in Gran Tursimo and Forza, park your car on a straightaway blocking as much of the track as you can and see what happens.
Last and least, achievements. This has the best mix of achievements in a Forza game so far. I really only have an issue with 2 of them. 1 involves importing a save game from Forza 3 and the other involves running a race with a Kinect. Neither one involves skill and both require a purchase outside owning the game itself, not cool.
To sum it up, this is the best racing game available for consoles. Its not perfect but its close. If you haven't ever played a forza, go pick up a used copy of 2 or 3 and see what you've been missing.
~M
Off topic: I finally 1k'ed Mercanaries 2, I guess that's kind of on -topic.....cause that game had some retarded AI. I Don't think I'm gonna be able to crack 100k this year, Im 13k short with 2 months to go. Tonight I wipe the dust off of Hitman:Blood Money and maybe chip away at OneChanBara. Don't judge me, Ive been working on my arcade racing cabinet (a converted Pole Position) and I was in Taiwan for 2 1/2 weeks :)
Forza on the original Xbox was an amazing game that many people passed over. Forza 2 on the 360 was even better; more tracks, more cars, more to do. I thought Forza 3 was pretty much the perfect racing game, from jaw dropping graphics to jaw dropping physics. Forza 4 is down right RIDICULOUS!
First off, graphics. While not leaps and bounds above Forza 3, they are an improvement. More colorful backdrops, better textures, and the cars seem to "pop" more. Tracks have an amazing sense of depth, and an unreal draw distance. You can literally see a mile down the road, Cars have more factory paint colors to choose from than ever before, and panels can be painted individually so you can rice as much as you can race. In addition to all the on-track eye candy, you can now set your home space (backdrop) from many different on-track locations to the set of Top Gear. You are doing something right when even the asphalt looks good.
On to sounds and music. I read that they re-recorded pretty much everything, but the engine noises dont really sound all that much better or different than Forza 3. Everything sounds like it should, except when I hear a Honda Civic driving near me on the highway it usually sounds like a bumblebee. Music remains a weak spot for this series, the good news is you can load up your own MP3s and race around the track to those instead of whats included on the disc. Ironically I typically race with no music, so you have more than one option here. All the voice over work is done by Jeremy Clarkson, of top gear fame, and you can tell this man loves cars and was a great choice.
Most importantly, game play. I know what you're thinking, this is a race game, all you do is race. Thats not exactly true. They have great mix of different race type, way more than just doing laps around a track. There are modes where all you do is , for example, try and pass 50 slow moving cars in 2 laps; another where you are doing a point to point race against 1 other car with traffic in the way. They really mix up the types of races, the car restrictions, and the objectives. Driving around the Top Gear track while knocking down bowling pins? Yes please! Getting back to my point with AI in racing games, Forza really shines here. On the easier difficulties the computer's cars aren't handicapped, they just drive differently. They'll brake too early into turns, not take the best lines, and even bump one another and you. On the higher difficulties their cars aren't artificially improved and there is no "rubber band AI" , they just take the best lines are the best speeds and race super clean. Only the very best can turn off all assists and best the CPU on expert; and I think that's the way it should be. If you want to see a big difference between the AI in Gran Tursimo and Forza, park your car on a straightaway blocking as much of the track as you can and see what happens.
Last and least, achievements. This has the best mix of achievements in a Forza game so far. I really only have an issue with 2 of them. 1 involves importing a save game from Forza 3 and the other involves running a race with a Kinect. Neither one involves skill and both require a purchase outside owning the game itself, not cool.
To sum it up, this is the best racing game available for consoles. Its not perfect but its close. If you haven't ever played a forza, go pick up a used copy of 2 or 3 and see what you've been missing.
~M
Off topic: I finally 1k'ed Mercanaries 2, I guess that's kind of on -topic.....cause that game had some retarded AI. I Don't think I'm gonna be able to crack 100k this year, Im 13k short with 2 months to go. Tonight I wipe the dust off of Hitman:Blood Money and maybe chip away at OneChanBara. Don't judge me, Ive been working on my arcade racing cabinet (a converted Pole Position) and I was in Taiwan for 2 1/2 weeks :)
Monday, October 31, 2011
The other Dark Night
While the rest of the gaming world gorges itself on Batman and drools uncontrollably at the latest incremental update to military warfare simulation, I have been drooling uncontrollably in response to a different sort of dark night, the one that imprisons your soul after a few hours alone with Dark Souls.
If you care about gaming and your don't know the scoop on Dark Souls, let me just cut to the chase and say its hard. Like that's it, that's what it is. Its hard. And surprisingly, its enough. Plot? Meh. Music? So so. Graphics? Alright, I guess. But make no mistake, Dark Souls is chock full of every uncompromising middle finger japanese game design has given over the past 30 years or so of modern gaming. Ever been shot at from multiple directions while platforming? How bout enemies that don't recoil? Single use power ups you can waste? Enemies that block even while attacking? Save points that restore dead enemies? Ranged attacks you can't aim? Invisible enemies? Bosses with instant kill attacks? Loss of unspent experience points / money upon death? Illusory floors? All these dick moves and more can be yours for the low low price of an almost excellent romp through a desolate third person action adventure game.
And make no mistake, "almost excellent" isn't any sort of slam on the difficulty, or even the premise of a game hinged upon difficulty. I am no slouch when it comes to difficult games, and truth be told, this game is often so unforgivingly cheap, that it frequently borders on entertainment. You see, there's no concession to it. This isn't like some artificially puffed up difficulty mode or a "hardcore throwback" game that presents you with a world you should be able to dominate and then whips you with an unfair damage : health ratio.
Dark Souls is a desolate and unpleasant game, filled with scenarios that are commonly and obviously beyond your means. A knight in obsidian armor with a sword as big as you stands directly in front of the only available doorway or A rickety bridge crosses a giant expanse, enemy archers cocked and ready on both sides or a crumbling stone staircase leads down to a pitch black cellar with growling in it or A giant blood red dragon sits perched on a tower, staring dead at you with hungry eyes. Dark Souls never says "come on in, you'll be fine.", it never gives you the impression you're going to be alright. It says "I don't know what you're doing here, you are going to die repeatedly for whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, and you are going to lose way more than you gain in the process."
Its a kind of game that makes you bitter and cynical about playing because there's isn't just an ambush up ahead, there's an ambush up ahead that explodes and has spikes and spews acid and transports your entrails to hell. Unfortunately, Dark Souls is also sitting on you shoulder, daring you to risk what little you've earned on the foolish notion of progress. Do you go just a little bit further and peek around the corner into oblivion or take the long back track to re-up your health and supplies, regenerating every non-boss thing you've encountered thus far. There's no status screen or mission log to tell you where to go next, and no map to tell you where you've been. Just that greedy gamer intuition that nags; "I know the next save point is around the corner" or "There's something good in that chest, I know it." or "you can kill this boss with only two healing drinks, trust me."
Its made up of all those wonderful feelings the adventure genre has lost in the last 15 years or so, because it is truly up to you. Its liberating, in a way few other games have been, to stand there at any given moment and time and have no idea what you're supposed to do next. Should I go this way? Can I kill this guy? Do I need a new sword or more magic? Its all up to you, and whether you fail or succeed the game is never going to say "good job, here's a cookie". Nope, its just going shrug and drop you off at the next overwhelmingly unfair situation and see what you do next.
Despite all this thematic genius, Dark Souls greatest failing is its arrogance. At times it is clear that the design staff was so caught up in making a tough game, they forgot it still had to be a playable game underneath or people wouldn't keep coming back for abuse. Not quite to the degree that some other games have tripped over their own premises, but enough to frequently sour the (already pretty dour) mood. Player controls are clunky, and in many cases outright stupid. The real time menu system does not utilize your combat controls, but still disables them anyway. You can't strafe or back up unless locked onto a target, so fleeing from ranged enemies is a chore. At merchants, you can't compare what you're buying to what you're wearing. And how bout the ability to use healing items that you don't need? A tiny inventory screen without an auto arrange. Are these deal breakers? No, but these are easy fixes / concessions that have been around since the psone. Wolfenstein 3D had a strafe lock, why can't this? You can almost hear the dev saying "We took it out because that would've made the game easier."
And the ai? Can only be classified as juvenille. True story; I never even got to fight the games first real boss because he knocked me off a cliff and then jumped off himself, giving me the kill for free. Some enemies can hit you through walls, while others will keep swinging / shooting at you even when you're hiding behind a wall because they never forget your position. Many can get themselves stuck in walls or accidentally / walk off cliffs. And for all their giant imposing terror, most bosses can be killed by simply staying as close as possible and circling them with light attacks. Sure, they have one obligatory "get off me" attack and practically kill you if you make a single mistake, but once you figure out how to compensate? There's no strategy, just a test of reflexes.
But, for all its arrogance I would not disparage Dark Souls too much. Even with a myriad of minor flaws (that I understand plagued its predecessor as well) the game presents an experience that is truly rare, an actual adventure. That sort of wonder a large open world used to inspire in players before Mario 64 taught devs how to paint giant arrows into the background, and GTA taught us how fantastic waypoint paths over maps could be, and MGS gave us endless radio chatter to remind us whats going on and who the bad guys are. Provided of course you have played a game with a shitty camera and questionable backstab mechanics before and that you can live with the words "YOU DIED" on screen every few minutes, Dark Souls has a lot to offer. There's even a multiplayer component which I have deliberately left out of this review because a) to spoil it would tarnish its genius implementation and b) I still don't 100% understand it.
-F.
If you care about gaming and your don't know the scoop on Dark Souls, let me just cut to the chase and say its hard. Like that's it, that's what it is. Its hard. And surprisingly, its enough. Plot? Meh. Music? So so. Graphics? Alright, I guess. But make no mistake, Dark Souls is chock full of every uncompromising middle finger japanese game design has given over the past 30 years or so of modern gaming. Ever been shot at from multiple directions while platforming? How bout enemies that don't recoil? Single use power ups you can waste? Enemies that block even while attacking? Save points that restore dead enemies? Ranged attacks you can't aim? Invisible enemies? Bosses with instant kill attacks? Loss of unspent experience points / money upon death? Illusory floors? All these dick moves and more can be yours for the low low price of an almost excellent romp through a desolate third person action adventure game.
And make no mistake, "almost excellent" isn't any sort of slam on the difficulty, or even the premise of a game hinged upon difficulty. I am no slouch when it comes to difficult games, and truth be told, this game is often so unforgivingly cheap, that it frequently borders on entertainment. You see, there's no concession to it. This isn't like some artificially puffed up difficulty mode or a "hardcore throwback" game that presents you with a world you should be able to dominate and then whips you with an unfair damage : health ratio.
Dark Souls is a desolate and unpleasant game, filled with scenarios that are commonly and obviously beyond your means. A knight in obsidian armor with a sword as big as you stands directly in front of the only available doorway or A rickety bridge crosses a giant expanse, enemy archers cocked and ready on both sides or a crumbling stone staircase leads down to a pitch black cellar with growling in it or A giant blood red dragon sits perched on a tower, staring dead at you with hungry eyes. Dark Souls never says "come on in, you'll be fine.", it never gives you the impression you're going to be alright. It says "I don't know what you're doing here, you are going to die repeatedly for whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, and you are going to lose way more than you gain in the process."
Its a kind of game that makes you bitter and cynical about playing because there's isn't just an ambush up ahead, there's an ambush up ahead that explodes and has spikes and spews acid and transports your entrails to hell. Unfortunately, Dark Souls is also sitting on you shoulder, daring you to risk what little you've earned on the foolish notion of progress. Do you go just a little bit further and peek around the corner into oblivion or take the long back track to re-up your health and supplies, regenerating every non-boss thing you've encountered thus far. There's no status screen or mission log to tell you where to go next, and no map to tell you where you've been. Just that greedy gamer intuition that nags; "I know the next save point is around the corner" or "There's something good in that chest, I know it." or "you can kill this boss with only two healing drinks, trust me."
Its made up of all those wonderful feelings the adventure genre has lost in the last 15 years or so, because it is truly up to you. Its liberating, in a way few other games have been, to stand there at any given moment and time and have no idea what you're supposed to do next. Should I go this way? Can I kill this guy? Do I need a new sword or more magic? Its all up to you, and whether you fail or succeed the game is never going to say "good job, here's a cookie". Nope, its just going shrug and drop you off at the next overwhelmingly unfair situation and see what you do next.
Despite all this thematic genius, Dark Souls greatest failing is its arrogance. At times it is clear that the design staff was so caught up in making a tough game, they forgot it still had to be a playable game underneath or people wouldn't keep coming back for abuse. Not quite to the degree that some other games have tripped over their own premises, but enough to frequently sour the (already pretty dour) mood. Player controls are clunky, and in many cases outright stupid. The real time menu system does not utilize your combat controls, but still disables them anyway. You can't strafe or back up unless locked onto a target, so fleeing from ranged enemies is a chore. At merchants, you can't compare what you're buying to what you're wearing. And how bout the ability to use healing items that you don't need? A tiny inventory screen without an auto arrange. Are these deal breakers? No, but these are easy fixes / concessions that have been around since the psone. Wolfenstein 3D had a strafe lock, why can't this? You can almost hear the dev saying "We took it out because that would've made the game easier."
And the ai? Can only be classified as juvenille. True story; I never even got to fight the games first real boss because he knocked me off a cliff and then jumped off himself, giving me the kill for free. Some enemies can hit you through walls, while others will keep swinging / shooting at you even when you're hiding behind a wall because they never forget your position. Many can get themselves stuck in walls or accidentally / walk off cliffs. And for all their giant imposing terror, most bosses can be killed by simply staying as close as possible and circling them with light attacks. Sure, they have one obligatory "get off me" attack and practically kill you if you make a single mistake, but once you figure out how to compensate? There's no strategy, just a test of reflexes.
But, for all its arrogance I would not disparage Dark Souls too much. Even with a myriad of minor flaws (that I understand plagued its predecessor as well) the game presents an experience that is truly rare, an actual adventure. That sort of wonder a large open world used to inspire in players before Mario 64 taught devs how to paint giant arrows into the background, and GTA taught us how fantastic waypoint paths over maps could be, and MGS gave us endless radio chatter to remind us whats going on and who the bad guys are. Provided of course you have played a game with a shitty camera and questionable backstab mechanics before and that you can live with the words "YOU DIED" on screen every few minutes, Dark Souls has a lot to offer. There's even a multiplayer component which I have deliberately left out of this review because a) to spoil it would tarnish its genius implementation and b) I still don't 100% understand it.
-F.
Friday, October 28, 2011
The Goddamned Batman
Arkham City is quite fantastic. Pretty much everything I hated about the first game (that I didnt even bother to finish) got fixed and I ran through the story in this one in just under 10 hours. Side stuff has its own intertwined stories and uses part of the Riddler side quest to unlock them (solving riddles, not collecting trophies.Speaking of, Riddler trophies are a bitch goddess. Its great that you dont just walk over them and pick them up, you need to solve a little puzzle. The down side? 400 of them. That's just too many.
Voice acting is top notch; Kevin Conroy returns as the voice of Batman and of course Mark Hamill does just an amazing job of playing the joker. Most of the other voice acting is pretty good, especially Harley Quinn, but I'd love to punch the guy in the face who thought it would be good to add all the goofy break up and other cheesy effects to the Riddler's lines, especially in the pause menu. The random chatter in the city is a nice touch, but you will hear the same thing said over and over eventually but most of it is pretty hilarious.
Graphics are improved over the previous game, and not being in the confines of 1 fairly small island (which you can see off the west coast of Arkham City) is a huge plus. Some sections of the game feel very borrowed from the first one for example the part where you walk on ice feels exactly the same as the sewer section of the first one but the boss battles are all very unique and . The models are definitely more detailed but the thugs themselves still look pretty generic.
I wasnt mad that I spent $60 on this, but I dont like the fact you almost have to buy a strategy guide to get all 400 riddler trophies
Voice acting is top notch; Kevin Conroy returns as the voice of Batman and of course Mark Hamill does just an amazing job of playing the joker. Most of the other voice acting is pretty good, especially Harley Quinn, but I'd love to punch the guy in the face who thought it would be good to add all the goofy break up and other cheesy effects to the Riddler's lines, especially in the pause menu. The random chatter in the city is a nice touch, but you will hear the same thing said over and over eventually but most of it is pretty hilarious.
Graphics are improved over the previous game, and not being in the confines of 1 fairly small island (which you can see off the west coast of Arkham City) is a huge plus. Some sections of the game feel very borrowed from the first one for example the part where you walk on ice feels exactly the same as the sewer section of the first one but the boss battles are all very unique and . The models are definitely more detailed but the thugs themselves still look pretty generic.
I wasnt mad that I spent $60 on this, but I dont like the fact you almost have to buy a strategy guide to get all 400 riddler trophies
Friday, July 15, 2011
No More Madness
So, I sent Alice: Madness Returns back early yesterday. Early being defined as before I finished it / farmed it for achievement points. Truth be told the game isn't . . . terrible, it's just not good. If this were a just and fair world there would be a second release tier for games like this, not quite budget / indy, but not quite blockbuster either. It would be priced somewhere between $30-$40 instead of $50-$60, come with some sort of freebie (like a soundtrack) to sweeten the deal, and a disclaimer that it's not a top flight title.
Alice is the kind of game that used to come out in droves back in the early psx days, the kind of game that was loved by its designer, but not necessarily its developer or its publisher, so it got released early, or got its budget slashed, or just generally lacked the kind of resources necessary to make it what it should have been.
Its functional enough, you go from room to room via platforming and switch hitting, dispatch waves of enemies with at least a couple different weapons, all the while waiting for the next cinematic to happen and explain whats going on. The downside is the camera's not great, the combat is pretty boring, and the way the game flows is disjointed and confusing. And not confusing in the clever way its trying to be, with charming flowery dialogue or cryptic and interesting characters. No its confusing in that, wait a minute, I was just there now I'm here for no reason sense, or the what they're talking about has absolutely no relevance to whats going on, and my personal favorite feeling: if anyone actually played this, it might actually work right.
I might be able to see past some of it if I was a huge fan of the source material (alice) or even its predecessor (american mcgee's alice), but I'm really not. I was just looking for a trippy game, with an interesting protagonist, and gameplay that wasn't all take cover and shoot (western), or double jumps and air combos (eastern). Alas, while I wouldn't say Alice is a total failure, nothing is going to happen in the last 4 chapters that is more interesting or entertaining than what happened in the first that I did complete.
Which is a shame, because from what I've read its one of the few games with a proper attitude towards replayability and achievements. After a level is completed you can go back any time to get more secrets and collectibles, and its even broken down into little dvd like chunks so you don't have to play through the whole level to get that one thing you missed inches before the boss. I can certainly appreciate that, and believe me as I was sealing up the gamefly envelope I gave serious consideration to powering through it just for the 1k. Fortunately that version of me was killed and buried in the Afro Samurai dvd sleeve.
-F.
Alice is the kind of game that used to come out in droves back in the early psx days, the kind of game that was loved by its designer, but not necessarily its developer or its publisher, so it got released early, or got its budget slashed, or just generally lacked the kind of resources necessary to make it what it should have been.
Its functional enough, you go from room to room via platforming and switch hitting, dispatch waves of enemies with at least a couple different weapons, all the while waiting for the next cinematic to happen and explain whats going on. The downside is the camera's not great, the combat is pretty boring, and the way the game flows is disjointed and confusing. And not confusing in the clever way its trying to be, with charming flowery dialogue or cryptic and interesting characters. No its confusing in that, wait a minute, I was just there now I'm here for no reason sense, or the what they're talking about has absolutely no relevance to whats going on, and my personal favorite feeling: if anyone actually played this, it might actually work right.
I might be able to see past some of it if I was a huge fan of the source material (alice) or even its predecessor (american mcgee's alice), but I'm really not. I was just looking for a trippy game, with an interesting protagonist, and gameplay that wasn't all take cover and shoot (western), or double jumps and air combos (eastern). Alas, while I wouldn't say Alice is a total failure, nothing is going to happen in the last 4 chapters that is more interesting or entertaining than what happened in the first that I did complete.
Which is a shame, because from what I've read its one of the few games with a proper attitude towards replayability and achievements. After a level is completed you can go back any time to get more secrets and collectibles, and its even broken down into little dvd like chunks so you don't have to play through the whole level to get that one thing you missed inches before the boss. I can certainly appreciate that, and believe me as I was sealing up the gamefly envelope I gave serious consideration to powering through it just for the 1k. Fortunately that version of me was killed and buried in the Afro Samurai dvd sleeve.
-F.
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