This video here is the video which I'm referring to.
The controversy in question is contained in the second part of the show. Jason Rubin refers to the idea of charging gamers per object or feature similar to Farmville on Facebook. He cites the financial success of Farmville in getting bored mothers and teenage girls to purchase features for their otherwise free game. He puts forward the idea that gamers could pay $30 for a free play game initially and then pay extra for all of the rest of the features such as weapons, stages, levels, characters, etc. In theory this seems to function much like modern DLC, except DLC is created to prolong the experience of a game, whilst this idea is made almost solely to nickel and dime the people who actually care about playing a full game, aka the Maple Story method.
I hate to harp on the whole casuals vs. hardcore thing, but the audience for Farmville is very different than the audience for, say, Modern Warfare 2. Farmville's audience is willing to pay for those apps because, well, they really don't know any better. Let's be honest; Farmville is a desperately shallow game where every action is performed not in the interest of reaching an end game, or for fighting towards the end for some culmination of an experience, or to flex their intellectual muscles against a worthy opponent, or even to simply blow off steam by blowing off limbs. They play to occupy their time; they play because they would be bored otherwise. These aren't real games, and charging people more over the long run in the hopes of "getting people to play new IP's" or giving them the opportunity to "have the same experience for less money" is patently ridiculous. It's called Gamefly, it's for renting games. $10 a month for what will boil down to about 2 games a month when shipping and play time are factored in. $5 a game and you don't have to make dozens of micro transactions to unlock the full game.
Bottom line is, if they began doing to games what this panel was suggesting then you would start seeing a decrease in sales of games rather than an increase which is what they were trying to say. After all, why would you continue to buy an incomplete product? Would you buy a blender that you have to buy the extra functions for separately?
Monday, March 1, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Many Reviews and a special word.
Fable 2- Finally got to play this game. I traded in a PS3 copy of Bioshock which I happened to have and paid an $8 difference. For $8, I loved it. Had I paid the original $60 for this, I would have been pissed off. Let's start by saying that Fable 2 has one of the best first hours in any game, ever. The bleak winter streets which the protagonist and their sister endure is both loaded with a sense of character, beautiful art direction, and a sort of emotional weight. The story actually does pull you in with the death of your sister, the attempt on your life, and the resurrection of the Heros' Guild, which if you remember the end of the 1st game like I do, you will recognize... somewhat. The game sort of falls apart from there. Sure, it is fun but the whole system is very shallow. Sword combat is centered around mashing 1 button or mixing it up by holding 1 button, ranged weapons are kinda fun to use, but in the end break down to pressing Y in different ways over and over again, and while magic is fun to use it kind of destroys everything in the game in one hit towards the end when you have all of your levels charged. Seriously, your character will be fucking everything up by the time you reach the end. This is only helped by the very limited number of levels you can gain in each stat. In the original Fable, you had to plan out your character as you would not get enough experience to level every stat to its maximum level. There were about 4 seperate stats in each area with something like 8 to 10 levels for each stat. You had to construct a character. In Fable 2, every character will essentially be the same by the end of the game, as everyone will by fully leveled in everything. Now, there are some challenging enemies at the end of the game such as the highwaymen, spire guards, spire officers, spire shards (seeing a trend here, aren't ya?), and fucking zombie BERSERKERS!!! Yet, the challenge is meaningless as you can't die. Yep, that's right, you can't die! You don't even go back to the beginning of the area like in Silent Hill Shattered Memories, or even go to a fucking respawn spot like in the original Bioshock for Christ's sake! You just spring up like you just had a quick power nap and you're back to swinging and killing. Where's the fucking challenge!!! I know that old 8 and 16 bit games were ridiculously hard in order to arbitrarily extend their length, and I'm not saying that we have to go back to that era of gaming, but can't we have our challenge back!?
Now, onto the whole morality system in Fable 2; it's fucking stupid. Plain and simple. You can either be cartoonishly evil or a saint with a halo over your head. Unlike in Mass Effect where your moral choices are often more ambiguous and reflect a method of solving a problem, or in Fallout 3 where you are encouraged to try to walk your own path between the two extremes in order to avoid, you know, bounty hunters, Fable 2 asks you whether you would like to slaughter a town for Satan, or protect it's temple for God. Why can't I Mediate the two sides? Why can't I ask them to bid on me? I can just ignore the quest, but if I do that the game kind of looks at me like I'm misssing something important here! A quest that occurs later on in the game has you either saving your children or not saving your children. Why can't I just hire someone else to save them? The moral choice system seems to just be asking you what you want to look like. You can be an angel (Good and pure), a vampire looking thing (Evil and pure), a hellspawn demon (Evil and Corrupt, and might I say the coolest looking one), or a... thing with like yellow eyes I think (Good and Corrupt). You can tell they didn't put much thought into that last one. The moral system just affects your character cosmetically, and frankly, being evil and having your path cleared of Molyneix's (or however the hell you spell his name) fucktarded citizens of Albion who the player is supposed to really "connect with" is better than being good and having them swarm and block your path because they all "love" you so much. The last choice of the game is so stupid that my brain actually hurts thinking about it. I'm going to spoil it, so if you care skip far ahead. You are given the choice between resurrecting all the people who died at the Spire, resurrecting your family (who cares) and your dog (yays!), and getting a million dollars which really isn't all that much in the game. About enough to buy Castle Fairfax and fuck off! You need the dog to do the remaining missions in the game; without him the game pretty much ends unless you really just want to hang around and watch the fucktarded citizens crowd you. I would never resurrect the people who died in the Spire because I fear that the resurrected citizens would crowd my path even more! I would never pick the money because I can easily make it by not playing the game for a few weeks (yes, you benefit by not playing Fable 2; take that anyway you wish). So the only good choice seems obvious. There's the problem there; only one of the "moral" choices provides any sort of benefit for the player. In other "moral choice" based games the player will receive some sort of benefit either way, in Fable 2 only one choice really benefits the gameplay while the other 2 only serve the stupid fucking morality system!
In conclusion, a shit load of hype does not make this game worth $60. Certainly I am happy with my $8 purchase, but with shallow gameplay, surprisingly low replay value for an RPG, and some rather poor design choices I say that Fable 2 is a visually arresting failure not unlike Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
Modern Warfare 2- It's pretty good. Not really worthy of the hype that's been pushed onto it, but few games are. The multiplayer works pretty damn well, but suffers from the same problem that all games on Xbox Live do; the Xbox Live userbase. All online services have their problems, but there is just something particularly irritating about XBL. Maybe it's simply how obnoxious the many 12 year olds are. Is it really so beyond current technological capabilities to develop a matchmaking system which syncs up appropriate age groups as well as skill groups? I would be willing to give Microsoft my age information, Social Security number, anything in order to be able to not have to put up with an obnoxious 11 year old call me a stupid ni**er over the microphone again. JESUS CHRIST THAT'S ANNOYING (I even had to break out the all caps to put that across)! Anyway, the story is rather goofy on the American side, while being unforgivably awesome when we are with the multinational spec ops. In the end, it's a good game with some awesome multiplayer if you can put up with XBL's userbase.
Bioshock 2- Okay, so I'm not actually finished with this, but I have to talk about a few things. 1. I have to agree with most people in saying that this is simply not as good as the original game. Though it has all the right elements, and the character models have been successfully updated, the game is still inferior to Bioshock simply because it borrows far too liberally from its predecessor. The story itself feels like a simple retread of Bioshock and Lamb feels like the Communist fill in for the Objectivist Ryan. It's not bad at all, it is still a great game but it simply doesn't feel as original as the first game did. 2. The option to turn off the Vita-chambers was a really great move! It greatly increases the difficulty of the game and helps it feel less like, oh I don't know, Fable 2! 3. I really don't know if it was a good idea to make the protagonist a Big Daddy. The Big Daddys are supposed to be these insurmountable foes; making the protagonist one must result in either, a. destroying the continuity by making the Big Daddy a weaker specimin or b. making the game a shit ton easier. Thankfully for challenges sake they went with a., but a. still messes with the story continuity. I understand why they did this, but I just don't feel it was a truly great decision.
I feel like I'm starting to get old. Modern games are starting to get far too easy. There are some challenges here and there, don't get me wrong, but I just feel that on the whole I'm beating these things way to fast. Bioshock 2 with the vita-chambers turned off, Mass Effect 1, and Fallout 3 all provided a challenge, but other games such as Fable 2 had me going until near the end of the game without dying once.
Also, I want to say something about what I've seen regarding Mass Effect 2; I don't like it. I really liked the whole beautiful world with darkness seething in its underbelly; it felt real. With Mass Effect 2 it seems that the beautiful part of the world was thrown out so we could make the game more EXTREME! The chick with the tattoos? Really, she is scummy looking and seems to embody everything that is wrong with video game representations of women. "How do we portray a character that is mentally damaged and anti-social?" "Well, we could load her up with tattoos to make her seem hardcore, shave her head because it makes the prison she was held in look extreme and harsh, have her dress in strips because that's like so awesome, and make her uber powerful and uncontrollable!" Christ just kill me now. I understand that they wanted to make the second chapter darker, but the first chapter was fucking dark enough! Especially the "Council dies" ending! Also, honestly how could Cerberus be more of a God damn threat to the universe than the Reavers?! Ooooo, they can make colonies dissappear without a trace; one Reaper could blow an entire planet to oblivion and level an entire fleet on its own! Please inform me how there could conceivably be greater threat to the universe than the Reapers? This is something that I've wanted to write about for a long time, but I have just neglected to write it. Now, granted I haven't played it yet, these are just my problems and concerns based on what I've seen so far. I've just checked the wiki, and apparently Garrus and Tali come back (two of my favorite characters WHOOT!), also it seems that 2 Reapers are the main villains. I guess that puts to rest my villain concerns, but it still raises a few WTF's in regards to what Bioware was saying about the Reapers being a lesser threat compared to the threat that will be unfurled in Mass Effect 2. Aidios Mio! Guess I'll just have to wait to play.
Update: I meant Collectors when I said Cerberus. My bad.
Update: I just saw Legion, and I have to admit that his presence may make up for the general annoyance I feel from Jack. He seriously kicks ass!
Update: I sent Bioshock 2 back without finishing it. That tells you how much it failed to pull me in. The game is just becoming repetitive. I don't feel it mixes up the gameplay, and I saw Rapture enough in the original game. At this point I'd rather just move on to Mass Effect 2.
Now, onto the whole morality system in Fable 2; it's fucking stupid. Plain and simple. You can either be cartoonishly evil or a saint with a halo over your head. Unlike in Mass Effect where your moral choices are often more ambiguous and reflect a method of solving a problem, or in Fallout 3 where you are encouraged to try to walk your own path between the two extremes in order to avoid, you know, bounty hunters, Fable 2 asks you whether you would like to slaughter a town for Satan, or protect it's temple for God. Why can't I Mediate the two sides? Why can't I ask them to bid on me? I can just ignore the quest, but if I do that the game kind of looks at me like I'm misssing something important here! A quest that occurs later on in the game has you either saving your children or not saving your children. Why can't I just hire someone else to save them? The moral choice system seems to just be asking you what you want to look like. You can be an angel (Good and pure), a vampire looking thing (Evil and pure), a hellspawn demon (Evil and Corrupt, and might I say the coolest looking one), or a... thing with like yellow eyes I think (Good and Corrupt). You can tell they didn't put much thought into that last one. The moral system just affects your character cosmetically, and frankly, being evil and having your path cleared of Molyneix's (or however the hell you spell his name) fucktarded citizens of Albion who the player is supposed to really "connect with" is better than being good and having them swarm and block your path because they all "love" you so much. The last choice of the game is so stupid that my brain actually hurts thinking about it. I'm going to spoil it, so if you care skip far ahead. You are given the choice between resurrecting all the people who died at the Spire, resurrecting your family (who cares) and your dog (yays!), and getting a million dollars which really isn't all that much in the game. About enough to buy Castle Fairfax and fuck off! You need the dog to do the remaining missions in the game; without him the game pretty much ends unless you really just want to hang around and watch the fucktarded citizens crowd you. I would never resurrect the people who died in the Spire because I fear that the resurrected citizens would crowd my path even more! I would never pick the money because I can easily make it by not playing the game for a few weeks (yes, you benefit by not playing Fable 2; take that anyway you wish). So the only good choice seems obvious. There's the problem there; only one of the "moral" choices provides any sort of benefit for the player. In other "moral choice" based games the player will receive some sort of benefit either way, in Fable 2 only one choice really benefits the gameplay while the other 2 only serve the stupid fucking morality system!
In conclusion, a shit load of hype does not make this game worth $60. Certainly I am happy with my $8 purchase, but with shallow gameplay, surprisingly low replay value for an RPG, and some rather poor design choices I say that Fable 2 is a visually arresting failure not unlike Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
Modern Warfare 2- It's pretty good. Not really worthy of the hype that's been pushed onto it, but few games are. The multiplayer works pretty damn well, but suffers from the same problem that all games on Xbox Live do; the Xbox Live userbase. All online services have their problems, but there is just something particularly irritating about XBL. Maybe it's simply how obnoxious the many 12 year olds are. Is it really so beyond current technological capabilities to develop a matchmaking system which syncs up appropriate age groups as well as skill groups? I would be willing to give Microsoft my age information, Social Security number, anything in order to be able to not have to put up with an obnoxious 11 year old call me a stupid ni**er over the microphone again. JESUS CHRIST THAT'S ANNOYING (I even had to break out the all caps to put that across)! Anyway, the story is rather goofy on the American side, while being unforgivably awesome when we are with the multinational spec ops. In the end, it's a good game with some awesome multiplayer if you can put up with XBL's userbase.
Bioshock 2- Okay, so I'm not actually finished with this, but I have to talk about a few things. 1. I have to agree with most people in saying that this is simply not as good as the original game. Though it has all the right elements, and the character models have been successfully updated, the game is still inferior to Bioshock simply because it borrows far too liberally from its predecessor. The story itself feels like a simple retread of Bioshock and Lamb feels like the Communist fill in for the Objectivist Ryan. It's not bad at all, it is still a great game but it simply doesn't feel as original as the first game did. 2. The option to turn off the Vita-chambers was a really great move! It greatly increases the difficulty of the game and helps it feel less like, oh I don't know, Fable 2! 3. I really don't know if it was a good idea to make the protagonist a Big Daddy. The Big Daddys are supposed to be these insurmountable foes; making the protagonist one must result in either, a. destroying the continuity by making the Big Daddy a weaker specimin or b. making the game a shit ton easier. Thankfully for challenges sake they went with a., but a. still messes with the story continuity. I understand why they did this, but I just don't feel it was a truly great decision.
I feel like I'm starting to get old. Modern games are starting to get far too easy. There are some challenges here and there, don't get me wrong, but I just feel that on the whole I'm beating these things way to fast. Bioshock 2 with the vita-chambers turned off, Mass Effect 1, and Fallout 3 all provided a challenge, but other games such as Fable 2 had me going until near the end of the game without dying once.
Also, I want to say something about what I've seen regarding Mass Effect 2; I don't like it. I really liked the whole beautiful world with darkness seething in its underbelly; it felt real. With Mass Effect 2 it seems that the beautiful part of the world was thrown out so we could make the game more EXTREME! The chick with the tattoos? Really, she is scummy looking and seems to embody everything that is wrong with video game representations of women. "How do we portray a character that is mentally damaged and anti-social?" "Well, we could load her up with tattoos to make her seem hardcore, shave her head because it makes the prison she was held in look extreme and harsh, have her dress in strips because that's like so awesome, and make her uber powerful and uncontrollable!" Christ just kill me now. I understand that they wanted to make the second chapter darker, but the first chapter was fucking dark enough! Especially the "Council dies" ending! Also, honestly how could Cerberus be more of a God damn threat to the universe than the Reavers?! Ooooo, they can make colonies dissappear without a trace; one Reaper could blow an entire planet to oblivion and level an entire fleet on its own! Please inform me how there could conceivably be greater threat to the universe than the Reapers? This is something that I've wanted to write about for a long time, but I have just neglected to write it. Now, granted I haven't played it yet, these are just my problems and concerns based on what I've seen so far. I've just checked the wiki, and apparently Garrus and Tali come back (two of my favorite characters WHOOT!), also it seems that 2 Reapers are the main villains. I guess that puts to rest my villain concerns, but it still raises a few WTF's in regards to what Bioware was saying about the Reapers being a lesser threat compared to the threat that will be unfurled in Mass Effect 2. Aidios Mio! Guess I'll just have to wait to play.
Update: I meant Collectors when I said Cerberus. My bad.
Update: I just saw Legion, and I have to admit that his presence may make up for the general annoyance I feel from Jack. He seriously kicks ass!
Update: I sent Bioshock 2 back without finishing it. That tells you how much it failed to pull me in. The game is just becoming repetitive. I don't feel it mixes up the gameplay, and I saw Rapture enough in the original game. At this point I'd rather just move on to Mass Effect 2.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and Left 4 Dead 2. A Horror game medley
SH:SM= It might not be saying much, but story wise this is easily the best Silent Hill since number 3. The reveal at the end of the game was a MASSIVE shock to me and the characters you meet along the way have, for once in a long while, an actual symbolic importance. This is a radical change when compared to Homecoming's cast of forgettable figures and Origin's "well they were in the first game" cast. The graphics are also surprisingly good for a Wii game and I actually haven't played a game with a frame-rate this high on any system. Aside from the slight slow-down during door opening sequences, the frame-rate is beautiful. Also, I love the little switches in the environment based upon your psychological profile. The Kaufman sequences are one of a kind and simply amazing. The chase sequences are loaded with tension and exciting.
Now for the problems. The WiiMote can stop sensing turns during chase sequences which has many times found me coated with enemies, and dead within moments. Also, though I don't have a true problem with the whole getting lost in the labyrinths during the Otherworld sequences, they are repetitive despite the game being short. This is mostly due to the fact that there is not much to do but run, toss off the raw shocks, light a flare, knock down obstacles or hide. Maybe they can add some limited capacity for fighting back like knocking back or stunning enemies in the next game. Also, can we be given the ability to sneak around enemies next time? Little changes like these help mix up gameplay as you usually just run with the lockers and such doing little to help and flares simply being like a star shield in Mario or Sonic. Hiding is useless as the raw shocks always find you anyway. Harry can't hide until they all go away, as the enemies stay in the room which makes running useless.
Though the changing forms of the enemies was neat, I didn't really get to look for an extended time at them which makes the enemy design changes rather useless. I can't slow up and look at them, so why change their forms? Not having enemies outside of Otherworld kills any tension for most of the game. Not to mention that the ice Otherworld was not as good as it could have been. It looked more like a regular freezer locker than the sick tundra I would have expected from an icy otherworld. The old Otherworld needed to be changed because it had become cliche, I know, but the ice Otherworld was just not frightening. Find something else! The game's pace needs to slow down and more needs to be added to the Otherworld. It felt rather barren and plain in Shattered Memories. Change it!
Lastly, the puzzles really need to be made more complex. I'm not retarded Climax!!! Opening a lock is not a fucking challenge for me! Don't go all fucking stereotypical Wii game on me! There were no good puzzles in the game, and the mementos were interesting symbolically but otherwise useless. I must say that I liked the Cell phone feature, so I would keep that.
Overall, very good but very flawed. I'm hoping to see an improvement next game. This one was a little too much like Indigo Prophecy in its execution, minus QTE's. Thank Christ for that!
RE:DC= Not a whole lot to say here. Really nice twist on the Light gun game with allowing the upgrading of the infinite hand-gun. The only problem there is that once you fully upgrade the handgun you don't really need any other weapons in two of the three sections. Steve Burnside and Alfred Ashford both greatly benefitted from the new voice-acting. Annette Burkin, however, got a character change not unlike Dahlia Gillespie in the Silent Hill movie, and just as iresome. Just as Dahlia was needlessly made the good mother, Annette became sane and helped Leon and Claire. You know, like in the game when she... shot... Leon... and... assumed... Claire... was... a... spy..... Oh fuck it! Annette still shoots Leon, but then she apologizes and helps him, even warning him against Ada. Ada is introduced with a scene that feels like a rip-off of Alice in the RE movies (AHHHHHHHH!!!) and Irons is given 1 line of dialogue (and it's not the epic "EVERYONE'S GOING TO DIE") and Ben doesn't even get that. He just gets some scribbles on the fucking wall!
I liked the Operation Javier segment, but felt that, like Umbrella's end in UC that it should have just been its own RE game. The CV segment was the best segment of the game, and unlike RE2 it was hardly diminished by being cut down to its major points. The problem was that RE2 didn't have a single, continuous story unlike CV, and the segment in CV that they cut (Chris on Rockfort Island) really wasn't all that important. That section just contained the Wesker story, and that mother fucker got practically all of Umbrella Chronicles so I say no big loss. Steve was actually a likable character and Alfred Ashford revealed himself as the superior villain to Alexia, despite her super powers. It just proves that having powers does not make one a superior villain (looking at you Wesker, Krauser, and Saddler).
I actually thought that the Operation Javier segment touched upon the greatest threat that Umbrella could pose, that is selling their BOW's to dictators who would have no qualms about using them. Though Javier is not fully developed, he's still miles ahead of fucking Sergei from Umbrella Chronicles as well as James Fucking Markus from 0. True, he's no William and Annette Birkin, Nikolai, Alfred Ashford, or Ramon Salazar but had he actually been given a full game who knows. I would have liked to have a full game where Hilda chased me the way Mr. X, G, Nemesis, and Lisa Trevor did but it is probably too late for that. Krauser is fleshed out a bit, and his solo missions featuring his commentary track actually provide a bit of depth regarding his character, including his fear of death and his anxiety regarding being a weak pawn in the US government's plans. You can see why he joined Wesker and infected himself with the Las Plagas. You can also understand his jealousy of Leon.
Conclusion= a fun light gun game but these original stories in the chronicles games really need to be made into actual Resident Evil games. Both concepts (Operation Javier and Umbrella's End) were superior to RE5, but I digress.
Left 4 Dead 2= I haven't been able to play multiplayer yet, but the single player is superior to the original. Ellis is my new favorite VG character, if only for his stories. I hope that one day I get to hear the end of one. I love this freaking game! Case closed!
Now for the problems. The WiiMote can stop sensing turns during chase sequences which has many times found me coated with enemies, and dead within moments. Also, though I don't have a true problem with the whole getting lost in the labyrinths during the Otherworld sequences, they are repetitive despite the game being short. This is mostly due to the fact that there is not much to do but run, toss off the raw shocks, light a flare, knock down obstacles or hide. Maybe they can add some limited capacity for fighting back like knocking back or stunning enemies in the next game. Also, can we be given the ability to sneak around enemies next time? Little changes like these help mix up gameplay as you usually just run with the lockers and such doing little to help and flares simply being like a star shield in Mario or Sonic. Hiding is useless as the raw shocks always find you anyway. Harry can't hide until they all go away, as the enemies stay in the room which makes running useless.
Though the changing forms of the enemies was neat, I didn't really get to look for an extended time at them which makes the enemy design changes rather useless. I can't slow up and look at them, so why change their forms? Not having enemies outside of Otherworld kills any tension for most of the game. Not to mention that the ice Otherworld was not as good as it could have been. It looked more like a regular freezer locker than the sick tundra I would have expected from an icy otherworld. The old Otherworld needed to be changed because it had become cliche, I know, but the ice Otherworld was just not frightening. Find something else! The game's pace needs to slow down and more needs to be added to the Otherworld. It felt rather barren and plain in Shattered Memories. Change it!
Lastly, the puzzles really need to be made more complex. I'm not retarded Climax!!! Opening a lock is not a fucking challenge for me! Don't go all fucking stereotypical Wii game on me! There were no good puzzles in the game, and the mementos were interesting symbolically but otherwise useless. I must say that I liked the Cell phone feature, so I would keep that.
Overall, very good but very flawed. I'm hoping to see an improvement next game. This one was a little too much like Indigo Prophecy in its execution, minus QTE's. Thank Christ for that!
RE:DC= Not a whole lot to say here. Really nice twist on the Light gun game with allowing the upgrading of the infinite hand-gun. The only problem there is that once you fully upgrade the handgun you don't really need any other weapons in two of the three sections. Steve Burnside and Alfred Ashford both greatly benefitted from the new voice-acting. Annette Burkin, however, got a character change not unlike Dahlia Gillespie in the Silent Hill movie, and just as iresome. Just as Dahlia was needlessly made the good mother, Annette became sane and helped Leon and Claire. You know, like in the game when she... shot... Leon... and... assumed... Claire... was... a... spy..... Oh fuck it! Annette still shoots Leon, but then she apologizes and helps him, even warning him against Ada. Ada is introduced with a scene that feels like a rip-off of Alice in the RE movies (AHHHHHHHH!!!) and Irons is given 1 line of dialogue (and it's not the epic "EVERYONE'S GOING TO DIE") and Ben doesn't even get that. He just gets some scribbles on the fucking wall!
I liked the Operation Javier segment, but felt that, like Umbrella's end in UC that it should have just been its own RE game. The CV segment was the best segment of the game, and unlike RE2 it was hardly diminished by being cut down to its major points. The problem was that RE2 didn't have a single, continuous story unlike CV, and the segment in CV that they cut (Chris on Rockfort Island) really wasn't all that important. That section just contained the Wesker story, and that mother fucker got practically all of Umbrella Chronicles so I say no big loss. Steve was actually a likable character and Alfred Ashford revealed himself as the superior villain to Alexia, despite her super powers. It just proves that having powers does not make one a superior villain (looking at you Wesker, Krauser, and Saddler).
I actually thought that the Operation Javier segment touched upon the greatest threat that Umbrella could pose, that is selling their BOW's to dictators who would have no qualms about using them. Though Javier is not fully developed, he's still miles ahead of fucking Sergei from Umbrella Chronicles as well as James Fucking Markus from 0. True, he's no William and Annette Birkin, Nikolai, Alfred Ashford, or Ramon Salazar but had he actually been given a full game who knows. I would have liked to have a full game where Hilda chased me the way Mr. X, G, Nemesis, and Lisa Trevor did but it is probably too late for that. Krauser is fleshed out a bit, and his solo missions featuring his commentary track actually provide a bit of depth regarding his character, including his fear of death and his anxiety regarding being a weak pawn in the US government's plans. You can see why he joined Wesker and infected himself with the Las Plagas. You can also understand his jealousy of Leon.
Conclusion= a fun light gun game but these original stories in the chronicles games really need to be made into actual Resident Evil games. Both concepts (Operation Javier and Umbrella's End) were superior to RE5, but I digress.
Left 4 Dead 2= I haven't been able to play multiplayer yet, but the single player is superior to the original. Ellis is my new favorite VG character, if only for his stories. I hope that one day I get to hear the end of one. I love this freaking game! Case closed!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Best games of the decade! imo
Fallout 3- Best RPG and open world game. Amazingly renders a post apocalyptic world.
Silent Hill 2- The only game made, ever that I would consider close to being art. Brilliantly fleshed out characters, striking visual and auditory design, and frightening enemies make this the best horror game of the decade.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic- Bioware's first console RPG and the best Star Wars game ever made.
Left 4 Dead 2 (just edges out the original)- Puts you into the middle of a zombie outbreak like no other game ever could before it.
Resident Evil Remake- Took the original game and somehow managed to make it better. The 2nd best Resident Evil after 2 and 2nd best horror game after Silent Hill 2. It also is the best Resident Evil of the decade just edging out Code Veronica and 4 in my opinion.
Sid Meier's Pirates- Steeped in historical knowledge that it utilizes as a background mythology; this is easily the best PC game of the decade. Even better than Civilization 4 and Age of Empires 3.
Rachet and Clank: Going Commando- Easily the best platformer of the decade. Insomniac created this duo after dropping Spyro the Dragon. An awesome mix of Sci-fi related humor in the Futurama vein, a very tight platforming formula, and an imaginative mix of weapons. Going Commando was, I feel, the best entry on the PS2. I can't say anything about the PS3 games, as I haven't gotten to play them. However, they do look great.
Portal- Short, sickly funny, and difficult. What more can you ask of from this short yet creative little oddity from 2007?
Half-Life 2- Valve truly delivered this decade, and Gordon Freeman's second game (along with the additional chapters) was one of the best shooters of the decade. All I can say is Gravity Gun!
Disappointments of the decade-
Resident Evil 5- Not really bad as a game. It simply copied RE4, added in a gimmicky "potnah" so they could say the game wasn't racist, and failed to deliver on any of their promises involving sunlight-induced hallucinations and the need to find shade from time to time to survive. It also gave Chris steroids. Lastly, it ended the old series in an extraordinarily unsatisfactory way, in Africa no less for no real meaning. Like him or not, the post Raccoon City phase of the series was nothing without Albert Wesker. The final "battle" between him, Chris and Sheva feels underwhelming; certainly not the epic showdown myself and I'm sure many other fans were expecting.
Silent Hill: Homecoming- Gee, let's take a series that is famous for its subtle, ambiguous scares and lonely, morally gray protagonists and make an 18 hour gory, profanity ridden love letter to that shitty Gans movie. Kill me now, please.
Dead Space- Yes it was one of the most gruesome games I have ever seen. It was also visually redundant and featured a "hero" completely devoid of any personality who spoke maybe 5 lines of dialogue throughout the games, not including screams. The enemies were kinda boring looking and the ruined, bloody spaceship stops being scary after you see it the 500th time. Every room looked almost exactly the same=lazy!
Halo 3- I'm on the opposite side of the fence regarding this game. Nothing really stood out. The single player campaign is alright, but nothing really stood out to me. The multiplayer is okay, but then again I'm not all that into deathmatches and such, and I felt that Team Fortress 2 was much better with those. I guess I'm just too much of a Valve fan. In the end, I was not impressed with it and I don't feel that it deserved the fanfare it received.
Doom 3- See Dead Space.
God of War II- Not bad, but it just seemed like a re-tread of the original. Maybe that's okay for some gamers, but I want something else from a sequel. See also, Resident Evil 5.
Final Fantasy X- Winner of gayest attire in all of gaming and most broken mini-games of the decade.
Resident Evil 0- Most pointless entry in the series featuring the most pointless character in the series coughcoughBillyCohencoughcough.
Did we really need to know Bravo Team found another freaking mansion after getting on a train? I always assumed that they spent those hours in the Spencer estate. We found all of their bodies there anyway! Also, why did we have to create Billy Cohen knowing he would play no further role in the RE series? It's bad enough we have poor Carlos Oliveira running around in RE limbo, did we have to give him company? Following ReMake I assumed Rebecca stuck to Richard but I guess I'm a fucking idiot!
Didn't get to play but wanted to-
Infamous
Ratchet & Clank: Future
Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
Fable 2
Games I could care less for-
Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4
Halo ODST
Call of Duty past 2
Uncharted
Killzone 2
Honorable Mentions for best games-
Super Mario Galaxy
Silent Hill 3
Resident Evils Code Veronica and 4
Bioshock
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Silent Hill 2- The only game made, ever that I would consider close to being art. Brilliantly fleshed out characters, striking visual and auditory design, and frightening enemies make this the best horror game of the decade.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic- Bioware's first console RPG and the best Star Wars game ever made.
Left 4 Dead 2 (just edges out the original)- Puts you into the middle of a zombie outbreak like no other game ever could before it.
Resident Evil Remake- Took the original game and somehow managed to make it better. The 2nd best Resident Evil after 2 and 2nd best horror game after Silent Hill 2. It also is the best Resident Evil of the decade just edging out Code Veronica and 4 in my opinion.
Sid Meier's Pirates- Steeped in historical knowledge that it utilizes as a background mythology; this is easily the best PC game of the decade. Even better than Civilization 4 and Age of Empires 3.
Rachet and Clank: Going Commando- Easily the best platformer of the decade. Insomniac created this duo after dropping Spyro the Dragon. An awesome mix of Sci-fi related humor in the Futurama vein, a very tight platforming formula, and an imaginative mix of weapons. Going Commando was, I feel, the best entry on the PS2. I can't say anything about the PS3 games, as I haven't gotten to play them. However, they do look great.
Portal- Short, sickly funny, and difficult. What more can you ask of from this short yet creative little oddity from 2007?
Half-Life 2- Valve truly delivered this decade, and Gordon Freeman's second game (along with the additional chapters) was one of the best shooters of the decade. All I can say is Gravity Gun!
Disappointments of the decade-
Resident Evil 5- Not really bad as a game. It simply copied RE4, added in a gimmicky "potnah" so they could say the game wasn't racist, and failed to deliver on any of their promises involving sunlight-induced hallucinations and the need to find shade from time to time to survive. It also gave Chris steroids. Lastly, it ended the old series in an extraordinarily unsatisfactory way, in Africa no less for no real meaning. Like him or not, the post Raccoon City phase of the series was nothing without Albert Wesker. The final "battle" between him, Chris and Sheva feels underwhelming; certainly not the epic showdown myself and I'm sure many other fans were expecting.
Silent Hill: Homecoming- Gee, let's take a series that is famous for its subtle, ambiguous scares and lonely, morally gray protagonists and make an 18 hour gory, profanity ridden love letter to that shitty Gans movie. Kill me now, please.
Dead Space- Yes it was one of the most gruesome games I have ever seen. It was also visually redundant and featured a "hero" completely devoid of any personality who spoke maybe 5 lines of dialogue throughout the games, not including screams. The enemies were kinda boring looking and the ruined, bloody spaceship stops being scary after you see it the 500th time. Every room looked almost exactly the same=lazy!
Halo 3- I'm on the opposite side of the fence regarding this game. Nothing really stood out. The single player campaign is alright, but nothing really stood out to me. The multiplayer is okay, but then again I'm not all that into deathmatches and such, and I felt that Team Fortress 2 was much better with those. I guess I'm just too much of a Valve fan. In the end, I was not impressed with it and I don't feel that it deserved the fanfare it received.
Doom 3- See Dead Space.
God of War II- Not bad, but it just seemed like a re-tread of the original. Maybe that's okay for some gamers, but I want something else from a sequel. See also, Resident Evil 5.
Final Fantasy X- Winner of gayest attire in all of gaming and most broken mini-games of the decade.
Resident Evil 0- Most pointless entry in the series featuring the most pointless character in the series coughcoughBillyCohencoughcough.
Did we really need to know Bravo Team found another freaking mansion after getting on a train? I always assumed that they spent those hours in the Spencer estate. We found all of their bodies there anyway! Also, why did we have to create Billy Cohen knowing he would play no further role in the RE series? It's bad enough we have poor Carlos Oliveira running around in RE limbo, did we have to give him company? Following ReMake I assumed Rebecca stuck to Richard but I guess I'm a fucking idiot!
Didn't get to play but wanted to-
Infamous
Ratchet & Clank: Future
Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
Fable 2
Games I could care less for-
Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4
Halo ODST
Call of Duty past 2
Uncharted
Killzone 2
Honorable Mentions for best games-
Super Mario Galaxy
Silent Hill 3
Resident Evils Code Veronica and 4
Bioshock
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
There’s good things about it, and there’s bad.
The Bad: I’ve already been reading about the motion controls taking several goes to finally respond during the flight sections. This is not good at all, and a serious detriment to the game if it isn’t fixed by October. One of the most long running and pervasive complaints about 3rd party Wii games is that the controls are often unresponsive and gimmicky. The last thing that Climax wants to do on its first Wii outing is prove this an immutable law.
I also am a tad skeptical concerning the enemy design. The only enemies we’ve seen so far are these burn victims. that are chasing Harry. They don’t seem to be as imaginative as what was made for SH2, but they could be worse. They could all be Colin from the SH movie (CURSE YOU GANS!).
The Tundra otherworld is an interesting concept on the whole, and I’d really like to get a look at some other interpretations of the otherworld, as was hinted at in SH2. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but the otherworld in SH2 was not the one in SH1 and 3. It was moldy and damp rather than fusty, bloody, and occasionally fiery. I think that the decision is a good one that could conjure some Thingesque atmosphere, but I feel it’s being poorly executed.
The "tundra world Seems to just feature some solid, clear ice walls, a few ice spires, and some blue outlines on the doors. Fail. I want a massive blizzard, shrouded bodies trapped in the unforgiving ice, murky ice that I can’t see through with more harsh surfaces, the always surreal sight of blood spilled on the snow, and shadows and objects creating eerie shapes, fooling us into thinking that they’re monsters ready to spot us and give chase. Make a truly horrifying Tundra, not some way to show off the distortion abilities of the Wii’s "graphics engine." Designing a game to show off the Wii’s graphics engine is like putting fine silk sheets on the beds of a cheap roach motel. If they wanted to show off a graphics engine, then they should have gone with the PS360 batch of consoles.
Which brings me to the final possible bad point; the game looks like the PG-13 version of Silent Hill so far. Seriously, it feels like the game has been severely toned down in order to appeal to a "broader base." Need I say anything more about that aspect?
The Good: The reboot (which is what they actually are saying when they use the word "reimagining") of the series was a good choice. Frankly, after playing SH:H, it saddened me how much the Christophe Gans film had come to define the visual style of the series. Gans’s complete inability to utilize subtlety had completely turned the series into a Hellraiser knockoff. Not to mention the whole section at the end of the game was seriously channeling Hostel. The last thing I want in my SH game is an Eli Roth reference. What’s next, one of the enemies is going to be a flesh eating virus that consumes all the main... you get my point. Taking the series back to the root concept, a horror game inspired by the works of Lovecraft and King, was a desperately needed step. I like the more psychological thriller/ghost story direction they’re taking the series in, and it actually feels more mature for the first time in a long time.
The psychology aspect of the game’s engine, no matter how little it ends up affecting the main story in the end, is a good touch that reminds me a lot about what we learned in SH2 regarding the nature of the town and otherworld. This was referenced in SH3, but nothing was ever really done with it, and the otherworld in SH4 really never seemed very interesting past the first stage. The otherworld in Origins was just a copy of the otherworld from the Alessa/Heather/Cheryl story and brought nothing new to the table, and Homecoming revealed to us that despite the fact that everyone was viewing a different otherworld... everyone was really not viewing a different otherworld....?! This new mechanic should prove a nice addition.
The running mechanics actually look quite visceral and seem to truly give an accurate simulation of true flight and terror. I especially loved the moment where Harry knocks a locker down in an attempt to cut off the monsters’ pursuit. It felt so real and exciting. It reminds me that this is what Climax wanted to do with Origins, but couldn’t because in the SH universe at the time they had to make Travis a fighter to maintain consistency yada, yada, yada.
Lastly, the Half-life style of puzzles where manipulation of the world and some common sense is all that will be needed to get past puzzles is quite promising. Though I love the puzzles in SH1 and 2, the puzzles in 3 had become just fucking weird in its attempt to outdo the puzzles in 2, and this caused the developers so much stress that by 5 they had simply abandoned puzzles altogether. Origins brought back the puzzles, but after 3 games worth of cryptic riddles, there was little challenge to be found in Origins cognitive aspect, and Homecoming committed the greatest sin of all by adding a fucking sliding puzzle (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!). What’s next for SH, a rubic’s cube? The direction of utilizing puzzles that have solutions demanding the player to manipulate the environment is a breath of fresh air for the series.
Overall there’s enough to make an argument either way at this point. My one problem right now is that Climax is sooo confident in their product right now that the major flaw of the unresponsive controls may go unattended to, and we all know that a broken control system equals a broken game. It doesn’t matter how good everything else is. The game is up (it’s a pun, get it?). So as of this moment, I’m personally looking forward to seeing it, but I’m not going to be all that excited about it. I’m more excited about Alan Wake right now.
The Bad: I’ve already been reading about the motion controls taking several goes to finally respond during the flight sections. This is not good at all, and a serious detriment to the game if it isn’t fixed by October. One of the most long running and pervasive complaints about 3rd party Wii games is that the controls are often unresponsive and gimmicky. The last thing that Climax wants to do on its first Wii outing is prove this an immutable law.
I also am a tad skeptical concerning the enemy design. The only enemies we’ve seen so far are these burn victims. that are chasing Harry. They don’t seem to be as imaginative as what was made for SH2, but they could be worse. They could all be Colin from the SH movie (CURSE YOU GANS!).
The Tundra otherworld is an interesting concept on the whole, and I’d really like to get a look at some other interpretations of the otherworld, as was hinted at in SH2. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but the otherworld in SH2 was not the one in SH1 and 3. It was moldy and damp rather than fusty, bloody, and occasionally fiery. I think that the decision is a good one that could conjure some Thingesque atmosphere, but I feel it’s being poorly executed.
The "tundra world Seems to just feature some solid, clear ice walls, a few ice spires, and some blue outlines on the doors. Fail. I want a massive blizzard, shrouded bodies trapped in the unforgiving ice, murky ice that I can’t see through with more harsh surfaces, the always surreal sight of blood spilled on the snow, and shadows and objects creating eerie shapes, fooling us into thinking that they’re monsters ready to spot us and give chase. Make a truly horrifying Tundra, not some way to show off the distortion abilities of the Wii’s "graphics engine." Designing a game to show off the Wii’s graphics engine is like putting fine silk sheets on the beds of a cheap roach motel. If they wanted to show off a graphics engine, then they should have gone with the PS360 batch of consoles.
Which brings me to the final possible bad point; the game looks like the PG-13 version of Silent Hill so far. Seriously, it feels like the game has been severely toned down in order to appeal to a "broader base." Need I say anything more about that aspect?
The Good: The reboot (which is what they actually are saying when they use the word "reimagining") of the series was a good choice. Frankly, after playing SH:H, it saddened me how much the Christophe Gans film had come to define the visual style of the series. Gans’s complete inability to utilize subtlety had completely turned the series into a Hellraiser knockoff. Not to mention the whole section at the end of the game was seriously channeling Hostel. The last thing I want in my SH game is an Eli Roth reference. What’s next, one of the enemies is going to be a flesh eating virus that consumes all the main... you get my point. Taking the series back to the root concept, a horror game inspired by the works of Lovecraft and King, was a desperately needed step. I like the more psychological thriller/ghost story direction they’re taking the series in, and it actually feels more mature for the first time in a long time.
The psychology aspect of the game’s engine, no matter how little it ends up affecting the main story in the end, is a good touch that reminds me a lot about what we learned in SH2 regarding the nature of the town and otherworld. This was referenced in SH3, but nothing was ever really done with it, and the otherworld in SH4 really never seemed very interesting past the first stage. The otherworld in Origins was just a copy of the otherworld from the Alessa/Heather/Cheryl story and brought nothing new to the table, and Homecoming revealed to us that despite the fact that everyone was viewing a different otherworld... everyone was really not viewing a different otherworld....?! This new mechanic should prove a nice addition.
The running mechanics actually look quite visceral and seem to truly give an accurate simulation of true flight and terror. I especially loved the moment where Harry knocks a locker down in an attempt to cut off the monsters’ pursuit. It felt so real and exciting. It reminds me that this is what Climax wanted to do with Origins, but couldn’t because in the SH universe at the time they had to make Travis a fighter to maintain consistency yada, yada, yada.
Lastly, the Half-life style of puzzles where manipulation of the world and some common sense is all that will be needed to get past puzzles is quite promising. Though I love the puzzles in SH1 and 2, the puzzles in 3 had become just fucking weird in its attempt to outdo the puzzles in 2, and this caused the developers so much stress that by 5 they had simply abandoned puzzles altogether. Origins brought back the puzzles, but after 3 games worth of cryptic riddles, there was little challenge to be found in Origins cognitive aspect, and Homecoming committed the greatest sin of all by adding a fucking sliding puzzle (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!). What’s next for SH, a rubic’s cube? The direction of utilizing puzzles that have solutions demanding the player to manipulate the environment is a breath of fresh air for the series.
Overall there’s enough to make an argument either way at this point. My one problem right now is that Climax is sooo confident in their product right now that the major flaw of the unresponsive controls may go unattended to, and we all know that a broken control system equals a broken game. It doesn’t matter how good everything else is. The game is up (it’s a pun, get it?). So as of this moment, I’m personally looking forward to seeing it, but I’m not going to be all that excited about it. I’m more excited about Alan Wake right now.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Philly Parade!*^$&#%^@%!!!
Best Fucking Day Ever!!! This was a once in a lifetime experience! The fucking city was going insane! I couldn't believe Broad Street; people were hanging off the street lights, dancing on the roofs, banging and climbing on the cars in the street! My friend and I were almost crushed between emergency vehicles, and then we were almost run over by a tow truck! Breaking through police barriers, walking over a sea of beer cans, watching port-a-potties being tipped over with people still in them, pushing through massive crowds of people, and watching the events from inside the Lincoln Center!!! It was absolutely fucking awesome!!! Fucking Badical!!! Truly amazing!!! I feel sorry if you lived in the area and couldn't make it; a few of my friends couldn't get off from work and were unable to go! The only event I could liken it to was when the Soxs won the series a few years ago! I hope Chicago gets a win soon, because if they do I'm driving to Illinois just to see the celebration!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Some extended time with Mario Galaxy
I'm absolutely floored by this fucking game! The physics and level design are absolutely mind boggling, and the controls are rather intuitive for a Wii game. I first played this game for a little while back last Christmas at my cousin's house. I'm the first to admit that I wasn't all that impressed with it at first. I felt that the controls often worked against you, and that the camera angles were nausea inducing. Yet, almost a year later I got to playing around with it on my roommates Wii. I've had a complete change of heart; the game is a fucking work of art, and really did desrve the game of the year award for 2007! Don't get me wrong, I still think that Bioshock and Mass Effect were just as good, but in their own ways. Bioshock was the Mario Galaxy of FPS's, offering some of the most well-designed and breath-taking environments in a game, ever. Meanwhile, Mass Effect had likely the most immersive story ever put into a game, and also involved running around the universe kicking serious ass!
Now, don't think I've softened up on the Wii; I'm still not a big fan. It's just that this time, Shigeru Miyamoto was in top form!
Now, don't think I've softened up on the Wii; I'm still not a big fan. It's just that this time, Shigeru Miyamoto was in top form!
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