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.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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.
Monday, October 13, 2008
I Play Games
Daphny is playing Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army. She is a detective.
This is my thing for posting about video games. Video games that I play, or video games that I see Daphny play, or whatever. Maybe I'll post little mini-reviews when I finish a game too.
Anyways, HELLO.
This is my thing for posting about video games. Video games that I play, or video games that I see Daphny play, or whatever. Maybe I'll post little mini-reviews when I finish a game too.
Anyways, HELLO.
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