Tuesday, June 9, 2009
???
It might be kind of interesting to play a game where quickloading was allowed to undo decisions you've made, but it starts gradually making the gameworld more and more unstable, and your avatar slowly starts to remember the actions he's undone and has a hard time reconciling them with the current reality until he just goes completely insane and the player slowly loses control of the protagonist, as the protagonist rejects the player's intrusion on his life. It might not go over well with players though.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Street Fighter IV
I haven't been posting here because I've really only been playing Street Fighter IV. I was never really into fighting games before this one (mostly because I was terrible at them) but I decided to really try to learn how to play SF4. And now I like fighting games I think. I'll probably even pick up King of Fighters XII.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Gears of War 2
Comparing games to food can be interesting. It can't necessarily be applied to any game, but the titles that can be compared can make criticism or compliments easier to convey. For example, it is often better to enjoy a meal with company, much like how playing games cooperatively makes them much more interesting.
Some games are a crazy mix of everything, like a chicken pot pie or a stew. Open-World games are typical of this sort of thing. Lots of different sorts of activities, but the way it's cooked blends the flavors together.
Some games take something traditional and focus on it, perfect it, and season it just right, like a good steak. The indie community and shooter(horizontal/vertical, not first person) people tend to be the best at this sort of thing. The concepts are classic, but every now and then there's the right amount of spice to really liven things up.
First Person and Third Person Shooters tend to fall into the hamburger category. There's a lot of different varieties, but you basically boil down to the same thing. They'll get you through, but some of them may not be the best things ever to consume. Don't get me wrong, I love hamburgers and I love these games, there's just a lot of shit in both categories.
Gears of War 2 (with an exception for one of its modes, Horde, which is quite excellent) is pretty much the McDonald's Big Mac of video games. Like the Big Mac, it's mostly bland and tasteless. The game feels like it's designed by committee to appeal to as many people as possible, and lacks any sort of "chef's touch". Globally, both the Big Mac and the Gears of War series are seen as representative of American taste and interest.
Fast food has its place in society, even. It's not as cheap as cooking at home, nor is it nearly as good, but it's quick and there's no cleanup. There's nothing particularly wrong with having fast food, much like there's nothing particularly wrong with playing Gears of War 2. It's just a mostly forgettable experience with no real substance to take away.
Outside of the food analogy, there are a myriad of other problems. Level design, for example. Gears 2 dots its landscape with cover placed purely to serve gameplay, instead of having areas cleverly designed that would have it naturally. The problem is prominent in the underground areas of the game, with inexplicable flat rock formations just so the game has cover that it can provide you, especially in comparison to the act that follows, which features a fortress with retractable cover on its approaches which the enemy will try to lower. Many checkpoints
Despite all this, Horde mode is incredibly worthwhile, and probably one of my favorite co-op experiences of 2008. It's intense, focused, and well designed. If only the rest of the game were as interesting.
Ahhh well, there's always 2010 and Gears of War 3.
Some games are a crazy mix of everything, like a chicken pot pie or a stew. Open-World games are typical of this sort of thing. Lots of different sorts of activities, but the way it's cooked blends the flavors together.
Some games take something traditional and focus on it, perfect it, and season it just right, like a good steak. The indie community and shooter(horizontal/vertical, not first person) people tend to be the best at this sort of thing. The concepts are classic, but every now and then there's the right amount of spice to really liven things up.
First Person and Third Person Shooters tend to fall into the hamburger category. There's a lot of different varieties, but you basically boil down to the same thing. They'll get you through, but some of them may not be the best things ever to consume. Don't get me wrong, I love hamburgers and I love these games, there's just a lot of shit in both categories.
Gears of War 2 (with an exception for one of its modes, Horde, which is quite excellent) is pretty much the McDonald's Big Mac of video games. Like the Big Mac, it's mostly bland and tasteless. The game feels like it's designed by committee to appeal to as many people as possible, and lacks any sort of "chef's touch". Globally, both the Big Mac and the Gears of War series are seen as representative of American taste and interest.
Fast food has its place in society, even. It's not as cheap as cooking at home, nor is it nearly as good, but it's quick and there's no cleanup. There's nothing particularly wrong with having fast food, much like there's nothing particularly wrong with playing Gears of War 2. It's just a mostly forgettable experience with no real substance to take away.
Outside of the food analogy, there are a myriad of other problems. Level design, for example. Gears 2 dots its landscape with cover placed purely to serve gameplay, instead of having areas cleverly designed that would have it naturally. The problem is prominent in the underground areas of the game, with inexplicable flat rock formations just so the game has cover that it can provide you, especially in comparison to the act that follows, which features a fortress with retractable cover on its approaches which the enemy will try to lower. Many checkpoints
Despite all this, Horde mode is incredibly worthwhile, and probably one of my favorite co-op experiences of 2008. It's intense, focused, and well designed. If only the rest of the game were as interesting.
Ahhh well, there's always 2010 and Gears of War 3.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Mirror's Edge
Some games bleed out into the real world after playing them for a while. Katamari makes me look at objects and wonder how big my Katamari would have to be to pick them up. Mario 64 changes the way I look at corners and I think about triple jumping onto buildings. Grand Theft Auto grants me immunity to traffic law and encourages me to drive on the sidewalk, slaughtering as many pedestrians as I can before the cops show up.
Mirror’s Edge is one of these sorts of games. After playing for a while, you’ll start to look at buildings and wonder how you too can get up to the roof and then leap across to the other building to get up to the balcony of your apartment so you don’t have to unlock the front door. You can imagine how it’d play out in Mirror’s Edge, and besides big pads that let you survive infinitely high jumps (and assuming you’re in pretty good physical condition), odds are good it probably COULD work out like that.
As for the game itself, the time trial mode in it is particularly sublime. It takes bites of the levels you’ve run through in Story mode and makes you really refine your run through them, demonstrating the absurd level of craftsmanship they’ve used. Areas often have alternate routes that you’ve not noticed, accessible based on your momentum. This is done everywhere, even the training area you practice in the beginning of the game.
Later this year (maybe after Christmas) I’ll probably post my top 10 (about as worthwhile as anyone else’s, probably). This is the sort of game that would definitely be on it.
Mirror’s Edge is one of these sorts of games. After playing for a while, you’ll start to look at buildings and wonder how you too can get up to the roof and then leap across to the other building to get up to the balcony of your apartment so you don’t have to unlock the front door. You can imagine how it’d play out in Mirror’s Edge, and besides big pads that let you survive infinitely high jumps (and assuming you’re in pretty good physical condition), odds are good it probably COULD work out like that.
As for the game itself, the time trial mode in it is particularly sublime. It takes bites of the levels you’ve run through in Story mode and makes you really refine your run through them, demonstrating the absurd level of craftsmanship they’ve used. Areas often have alternate routes that you’ve not noticed, accessible based on your momentum. This is done everywhere, even the training area you practice in the beginning of the game.
Later this year (maybe after Christmas) I’ll probably post my top 10 (about as worthwhile as anyone else’s, probably). This is the sort of game that would definitely be on it.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Jesus what a waste.
This is a game that starts off so promising. It's not as compelling as a true Insomniac Ratchet and Clank game, but some of the weapons are pretty well designed, and a few of the levels (especially the dream level) are pretty well realized. The game controls amazingly well for a game that typically runs with twin stick controls, as well.
The main problem here is that the bosses are just terrible. You start to run into targetting problems on one boss, and there's only really one weapon viable against them for most of the game.
I've been a big fan of the Ratchet and Clank games ever since I played the second one. My dad and I went to Fry's, in one of his rare "I want to play a video game" moments. I had played the first game in the series and I didn't particularly like it (Although I can never remember why and I still need to replay it), but he wanted to get a platformer, we already had Jak 1 and 2, and he wanted to get a game that was greatest hits. That night we probably stayed up until 2 or 3AM blasting through levels and using the often interesting and wholly unique weapon set.
Since then I've played every PS2 Ratchet game with my dad, beating all of them. I typically even go back and play through the whole game again once or twice on Hard mode. I'll do that myself, my dad skips that stuff. One day I need to bring my PS3 over and have him play Ratchet Future. I'm pretty sure he'd enjoy that one a lot. I won't, however, be bringing by Size Matters for him to play. It's just not worth it.
This is a game that starts off so promising. It's not as compelling as a true Insomniac Ratchet and Clank game, but some of the weapons are pretty well designed, and a few of the levels (especially the dream level) are pretty well realized. The game controls amazingly well for a game that typically runs with twin stick controls, as well.
The main problem here is that the bosses are just terrible. You start to run into targetting problems on one boss, and there's only really one weapon viable against them for most of the game.
I've been a big fan of the Ratchet and Clank games ever since I played the second one. My dad and I went to Fry's, in one of his rare "I want to play a video game" moments. I had played the first game in the series and I didn't particularly like it (Although I can never remember why and I still need to replay it), but he wanted to get a platformer, we already had Jak 1 and 2, and he wanted to get a game that was greatest hits. That night we probably stayed up until 2 or 3AM blasting through levels and using the often interesting and wholly unique weapon set.
Since then I've played every PS2 Ratchet game with my dad, beating all of them. I typically even go back and play through the whole game again once or twice on Hard mode. I'll do that myself, my dad skips that stuff. One day I need to bring my PS3 over and have him play Ratchet Future. I'm pretty sure he'd enjoy that one a lot. I won't, however, be bringing by Size Matters for him to play. It's just not worth it.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
This Game Is Wizard
This Game Is Wizard is a fantastic little puzzle platformer for Windows. It's apparently a remake of Wizard for the C64, a game I've never played before (I was an Atari 800 kid). The puzzles and platforming stuff gets pretty clever in the later stages and starts really requiring some foresight to get every treasure on every level. It seems like the game is still in development, so maybe we'll be seeing more levels in the near future.
I've managed to get 100% of the treasures on every level, but I've not gotten 100% perfects (you get 100% perfect if you get all treasures without getting hit).
I've managed to get 100% of the treasures on every level, but I've not gotten 100% perfects (you get 100% perfect if you get all treasures without getting hit).
Haze
Copied from a post I made on SelectButton:
Haze isn't a terrible game, just a really really dull one.
For a little while, I thought they were going to wind up doing some neat stuff with their subtitling, because while you were a Mantel soldier, certain lines of dialog wouldn't completely line up with the subtitles shown. I thought maybe they were going to make that into another way that Nectar alters your perception or something. Alas, once I switched over to the Rebel side, dialog STILL didn't match up. This game just feels tedious and kind of rushed.
They spent a lot of time hyping up their asymmetrical or asynchronous or whatever the fuck they called it combat, and in the end it didn't really amount to much. The only real "trick" that Mantel had was Nectar, and that was pretty much necessary to fight the rebels because those fuckers blended into the scenery really well. The rebels have a lot more they can do, but just about all of it is useless. They also don't need to highlight the enemies because they already stick out like crazy. The fastest way to kill them is still to just shoot them a lot.
Other than that it's strictly by the book. Generic shooting sequences, generic vehicle sequence, generic guns, generic sequences. Nothing really stood out much at all. They were trying to be all "Why is Mantel here, anyways?" for a little bit, but then they just go and tell you like fifteen minutes after you switch sides anyways.
I don't really get how this game came from the same guys that made Second Sight.
Post Update:
I'm not bothering to finish this game. It's just not compelling enough to spend any time with it. Haze doesn't do anything wrong and also doesn't do anything right. There's just nothing here worth experiencing.
Haze isn't a terrible game, just a really really dull one.
For a little while, I thought they were going to wind up doing some neat stuff with their subtitling, because while you were a Mantel soldier, certain lines of dialog wouldn't completely line up with the subtitles shown. I thought maybe they were going to make that into another way that Nectar alters your perception or something. Alas, once I switched over to the Rebel side, dialog STILL didn't match up. This game just feels tedious and kind of rushed.
They spent a lot of time hyping up their asymmetrical or asynchronous or whatever the fuck they called it combat, and in the end it didn't really amount to much. The only real "trick" that Mantel had was Nectar, and that was pretty much necessary to fight the rebels because those fuckers blended into the scenery really well. The rebels have a lot more they can do, but just about all of it is useless. They also don't need to highlight the enemies because they already stick out like crazy. The fastest way to kill them is still to just shoot them a lot.
Other than that it's strictly by the book. Generic shooting sequences, generic vehicle sequence, generic guns, generic sequences. Nothing really stood out much at all. They were trying to be all "Why is Mantel here, anyways?" for a little bit, but then they just go and tell you like fifteen minutes after you switch sides anyways.
I don't really get how this game came from the same guys that made Second Sight.
Post Update:
I'm not bothering to finish this game. It's just not compelling enough to spend any time with it. Haze doesn't do anything wrong and also doesn't do anything right. There's just nothing here worth experiencing.
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