Infamous

Thought I'd drop in and leave a few words about my latest crush, Infamous. Although I think it's always written "inFAMOUS" in the game for whatever reason. Honestly, I didn't think I'd spend much time with this one after the first half hour or so. I wasn't impressed with the combat & controls. Not that it got any better, really, I guess I just got used to it. The main problem is that your basic attack that you use throughout the entire game just isn't much fun. You're presented as this guy with incredible electricity-based super powers, but you're stuck moving this tiny cursor around and shooting little wussy bolts at people. All the powerups I got (I played the good side of the coin, which may have been part of my problem) are too cumbersome or limited to really help. So you're stuck with your stupid peashooter-equivalent.

So why have I played it so much in the past few days? Not sure, really. The story is just okay and the open world city is drab, grey, and forgettable. I guess the draw is just the new twist on super powers and decent progression of events. Also your buddy Zeke provides decent comic relief. At one point he says that something "sucks donkey balls." So you've gotta love that.

So I mentioned that I picked one path of the whole karma/morality thing. Which you basically have to do if you want to make any progress on the upgrades. But the two things I really wanted to upgrade I couldn't. The peashooter that I already mentioned and your basic jumping ability. The city is so big that you want to get from point A to point B quickly. Surfing on powerlines and train tracks is new and sort of neat, but I found myself missing running up buildings and gliding like Prototype.

I know it sounds like I hated this game, but that's not the case at all. I'm just doing a much more thorough job of listing the things I haven't liked than the more difficult to describe parts that I did like. It's like Arkham Asylum in that I have a hard time finding a good stopping point. There's always "just one more thing" to do before I shut it off for the day.

So this is probably the worst blog post ever. I'm sort of distracted by The Jersey Shore on in the background, which I've never seen before. Okay, really distracted. This show is nuts. I gotta go.

Recap of several games after not posting for way too long

I just set down Zelda: Spirit Tracks for DS after the first couple hours of it. Not bad. It's whimsical. I'll give it that. And it's not overly heavy on the tutorial either. Since I'd played the first DS Zelda, I was happy to see that when you first get your sword, the trainer tells you to go do a basic attack, swipe attack, and spin attack. Come back and see me if you have questions. The developers obviously realized that there were a few people that have done this before.

What else is new? Well I finally got that PS3. I was planning on waiting until Christmas or later, but a deal came along. I got Metal Gear Solid 4 since it was one of the greatest hits or something and now half price. I figured that would be a good long single player thing in between GameFly titles. Speaking of that, Infamous is on its way. I hear it's like Prototype but much better. But back to MGS4. I haven't played a whole lot of the series, but I catch references they make here and there. I was worried about the reportedly long cutscenes, but after several hours in, I can't really remember ever wishing they'd shut up. It has the sort of pacing that makes you think "oh, I'll just play a bit longer"...and then stay for longer than you intended. That's good.

I played through Batman: Arkham Asylum and liked almost everything about it. The dark and twisted treatment of the franchise was fantastic. Can't wait for the inevitable sequel which they left themselves wide open for at the end. My main problem with the game was the controls. Specifically on the 360, the trigger buttons have a fairly long travel. There were times when I was supposed to press it quickly to throw a batarang at somebody, and it just wasn't happenin'. Maybe that's better w/ the DualShock 3? Anyway, I loved it overall and it had me thinking that I wish they'd let this development team get their hands on Zelda. A dark, mature, well done entry in that series could be just what we need. But I hear that's sort of the direction the next one for the Wii is taking anyway, right?

Lest you think I only play single player stuff, please note that I really enjoyed going through almost all of New Super Mario Bros. Wii with my wife. When she first jumped in, I had already made it to world 2 and she was having trouble getting back in the Mario swing of things. I don't think she's really played a Mario game since the NES days. Once we restarted on world 1, she was right with me all the way to the end of world 7 (no warping). I got her the New DS version a few years back, but I don't think it really grabbed her. And the competitive/cooperative nature of the Wii version just makes it a lot more fun. I only had to carry her (seriously, how cool is it that I literally carried her?) a few times. The unlimited continues were kind to her and the game is set up perfectly for people in our situation. Mario Galaxy tried with the "girlfriend mode" where she was my "star helper" but she quickly lost interest. Anyway, we had a blast. I can't wait to see how chaotic it gets with four players.

I think that's it for the game recap. I spent a few digital dollars on Flower and Critter Crunch on the PlayStation Store. I really liked the demo for Trine too. I may give that a try once I find some time or it goes on sale. That's all for now. Will I post again next week? Next year? Keep your Google Reader tuned in.