DS Lunch: 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

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.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

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.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Games that I can't stop playing & games that are just okay

It's been so long since the last post that I actually had to go and look at my GameFly e-mails to see what games I've had lately (Little King's Story, Beatles Rock Band, Punch Out!!, and Oblivion Game of the Year Edition). There's also been more Shadow Complex than I care to admit. That, Oblivion, and Burnout Paradise are games I keep coming back to. We have one of those unhealthy relationships where we know we're bad for each other but we keep coming back. What's that called? I googled it but couldn't think of the right search terms. Also, Google now thinks I'm headed for a divorce. Great.

So the "Game of the Year Edition" part of Oblivion is important. It seemed to be a cheaper route to getting the expansion content (Shivering Isles) that's still pretty expensive for some reason. I've played the crap out of the original game. I saw a 59 hour save for my main character. I think my secondary character has several hours invested too. And then I started a new one so I could try my hand at archery. After I figured out that the new content lives on disc two and gets installed to your hard drive I was able to send the discs back and use my own copy for the main game. Marginally legal but hey, lets run with it.

The Shivering Isles content is different enough from the main game to make it seem fresh and interesting. The prince that you do tasks for is insane, and pretty amusing. The developers seemed to take the DLC as an opportunity to change up the visual style for the world a bit too.

I've played through Shadow Complex several times now. Once for the story, once for the minimalist achievement, once for the completionist achievement, and I started again to keep on the way to the level 50 achievement. I'm obsessed. I know.

I spent a little bit of time with Little King's Story and didn't hate it. It had a neat art style that was almost cartoony, but semi-realistic too. I played it on the Brainy Gamer's recommendation but didn't fall in love with it the way he did. Fun for a while, but I don't often get into real time strategy games, which is what this sort of was.

Punch Out was fun for a day or so, but I quickly realized that it was exactly like the old one. Which I was terrible at. I could never get past Bald Bull back in the day, and couldn't even make it past Great Tiger in the new one. I suppose I should be shamed, but I realized I wasn't really enjoying myself, so it got sent back too.

Beatles Rock Band was absolutely beautiful and really pleasant to play. Also really short. Which is fine when you're paying by the day. A neat little tweak to the Rock Band formula was the carry over of your multiplier and star power from song to song when you play a set. I think they were called Challenges in the game. Basically, you'd play 4-6 songs back to back at a particular venue. This was after you played through the chronological story mode. Playing through this, I could have used more educational factoids or interviews like in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, but I still managed to learn a bit about Beatles history. Like I didn't realize they stopped touring and started doing a lot of drugs in the late 60's. Granted, there seemed to be some bonus content that explained the history a bit better but you had to seek it out.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Games I can't get out of my head

Since the last post I've spent some time with Saints Row 2, Scribblenauts, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and finally finished Shadow Complex. Reverse that order for my favorites. But lets start with SR2. I can't avoid the inevitable comparisons to Grand Theft Auto on this one. My favorite parts of GTA4 were the story and the world, both of which are just sort of mediocre on SR2. I got my fill of ridiculous gangsta fantasy though. This game doesn't take itself very seiously, which makes it fun. But I kept finding myself more drawn to the other games I mentioned, so it got sent back after a bit.

Scribblenauts is pretty neat. It's probably best when you can share your crazy solutions to the puzzles with other people playing it too. That's been my favorite part, anyway. This is a game you need to play around other people to have fun getting ridiculous ideas from them. Or at least compare notes with another player later. In fact, I think I'll play some when I'm done writing this.

Red Faction: Guerrilla didn't make that big of a splash but a few bloggers I follow really liked it, so I gave it a try. I'm really enjoying running around destroying stuff in a world straight out of a great Mars Sci Fi book. It's gritty, it's barren, and it's wonderful. I'm leaning more towards the 'destruction targets' rather than the 3rd person combat or other missions though. You've gotta love a game where your main weapon is a sledgehammer and you're encouraged to destroy everything you come across.

Finally, Shadow Complex is one of those rare games that I'm gonna keep coming back to. There's always more to collect or a new goal to shoot for. It certainly helps that just moving around in the world is at the same time effortless, familiar and enjoyable.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Prototypical

I've had Prototype for almost a month now. I haven't really been playing it for a month though. There has been all kinds of other stuff going on so I haven't had as much time for videogames as I'd like. Come to think of it, the only time I can remember having enough time was winter break in college. Ah...a whole month of nothing to do.

While I was jumping from rooftop to rooftop and running up buildings I got the sense that I'd done this before. It reminded me a lot of Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction from a few years back. That's not a slam. I loved that game. It made more sense once I learned that the same developer worked on both.

Prototype has an impressive array of stuff that it tries to accomplish. It's successful at most of it. The combat is varied, you can go anywhere, and there's even some stealth elements if you choose to play that way. Every once in a while I'm reminded that it's an open world game though. The only time you're ever allowed to control your character indoors is in one of several identical stadium-sized military complexes. Otherwise it's a cut scene.

The story isn't anything special but the video flashbacks you get when you consume another character and their memories are well done. Something about a huge military conspiracy with a crazy virus. It doesn't matter. Oh, speaking of the military, they're very early on painted as the bad guys. It's you and the virus versus them. Not you against all the crazy zombie mutant things, but you against the evil, lying Black Watch military dudes.

I'm not entirely sure how far into the game I'm in. Day 13 of 18 if that matters. But I'm starting to get bored with the repetitive missions. Go here, consume this person. Go there, kill that person. And I'm not even doing any of the non-story side missions. They give you experience points to spend on upgrades for your character, but there are so many you don't really need all of them. I spent mine on running and jumping upgrades since the complete freedom of movement was my favorite part of the game.

Part of the reason for this post was to help me decide if I wanted to keep chugging along on the story or send it back to GameFly and start on Saints Row 2. And Shadow Complex. And my new copy of Mario Kart Wii to replace my unplayable scratched one. Ok, so...to the 360!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Shadow Complex

I finished Shadow Complex this weekend, so I thought I'd devote a few blog-bytes to it. I won't repeat what other reviews of the game have said, but I will echo the consensus opinion that the game is definitely worth the fifteen bucks it costs to download it. If this game had come out twenty years ago, we all would have thought it was the most awesomest platform game evar. Ten years ago, it would have been a relic from an ancient era. Today, it's an awesome retro entry in a classic game genre that hasn't gotten a lot of lovin' since FPS and MMOMGRPG games came along. I guess everything is destined to get the "reimagning" treatment eventually these days.

Amongst the specific things I liked were the way it shows you a real-time comparison of your score versus your friends' scores (You have punched 30 dudes in the head. Dave has only punched 26 dudes in the head. Go you!) and the way acquiring new powerups gives you the ability to solve puzzles in rooms that you've already passed through; this latter feature could have made the game annoyingly repetitive, but they managed to pull it off. One thing that's been said in reviews is that the novel "play in 2D but aim in 3D" shooting style is too hard to use - I found it a little tricky at times, but it didn't really bother me, and I appreciate that they're trying to innovate. I also found it weird that the cutscenes were all about "Hurry and shut down the reactor before it's too late!" but the on-screen text would then encourage you to noodle around looking for hidden objects. But really my main complaint about Shadow Complex is that it was too short - I got about five hours out of it, and it seemed to end pretty quickly. Maybe I'll have to start a new game and try to collect all the hidden powerups.

Oh, something else weird: The game has almost no plot other than "average guy accidentally discovers Cobra's secret hideout and becomes Iron Man", but apparently it is set in the world of Orson Scott Card's novel Empire. Reading the Wikipedia article reveals that the bad guys are some kind of ultra-left-wing faction out to overthrow the US government. Okay, whatever... but the thing that really bugged me was that their master plan was to nuke San Francisco. If you ask me, if the world was really going to be taken over by vegans with combat mechs and tofu-powered armor suits, don't you think that San Francisco would be their headquarters, not their first target? "Oh, fabulous plan Trevor, we just blew up the only place where you can get a decent organic soy latte. Now where are we going to put our base, Philadelphia? Hipster, please."

Okay, cheap joke, but still you have to wonder.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Why Ghostbusters is so damn frustrating

Ok, so I was kind of excited about this one. From everything I'd heard it sounded like a winner. The whole cast was back to lend their voices and it was written by the original writers of the movies. But the gameplay is repetitive, the saves and checkpoints clunky, and other than the occasional decent joke...not much fun.

Instead of the traditional "30 bullets in a clip" and then you need to reload system, you can only use your proton pack for a set amount of time before having to "vent" it with a different button press. Kind of neat and different but it also highlights another failing. The overheat status and your character's health are displayed on the pack which you can see because of an over the shoulder 3rd-person perspective. This worked very well for Dead Space, but here the displays here are tiny and nonsensical. I can never see what they read in the heat of battle, when I need them most.

Every location has it's own set of ghosts to kill and trap but they end up just being the same type of enemy with a different "skin." I quickly got bored with this. And then when you finish fighting with them, you find yourself waiting (too long) for the other characters to finish their dialogue so you can get on to the next part. I never know if I have to get to the next invisible checkpoint or just wait for them to stop rambling. So I guess my complaint is that there's too much of the excellent voice work.

I said the save system is bad because I can't ever tell where I'll be when I shut off the game and come back. I've always thought it was dumb that the 360 can't see that I only have one storage location (hard-drive) so yes, that's where I want to save stuff. Why do I have to pick it myself? But this game is even worse because of the annoying (and dire) warning every time you start the game that save data will be overwritten when I pick my hard drive as the storage device. It's confusing but it seems to be the only option if I want to continue my career.

This leads me to another rant about 360 games in general. Why do I have to babysit them by pressing A about 10 times just to do what I want to do 90% of the time and continue my solo career. Press A to start. Continue Career. Load Data. Yes, from the hard drive. Yes, I'm sure. Yes, I know it will automatically save and overwrite it. The only game of recent memory that bypasses all this stupidity is the Grand Theft Auto series. You pop in the game, go make a sandwich and when you come back your character is all loaded up and ready to go. How hard is that?

But back to Ghostbusters. I'm not sure how much more I'll stick with it when I have Prototype and Shadow Complex calling me.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Bits & Bytes

So, lots of stuff piles up when you don't write for a while. Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed. I've got a lot in my head.

I got a new Android phone and one of my favorite apps so far lets me be an Xbox Live voyeur. It's got the unfortunate name of 1337pwn but it lets you add anyone's gamertag and see their online status and recent history. Sure you can do that all on the xbox.com site but this app uses the Android notifications to let you know when people sign on in more or less real time. Do I really need to know when people sign in? No, but it's sort of neat. Also, since you can add anyone (even people you're not XBL friends with) I added stephentotilo and giantbombing, two of my favorite game writers from Kotaku and Giant Bomb, respectively.

I've noticed lots of bloggers cheating by reposting stuff they've seen on Twitter and thought I might do a bit of the same. Oh, and I got on MTV Multiplayer again. I think Russ Frushtick over there must have a similar sense of humor as I do.

Speaking of Twitter, here are some of my thoughts from there on Guitar Hero: Metallica

In case you're wondering, Guitar Hero: Metallica is about 100 times more awesome than the Aerosmith one. Now back to rocking...
Odd that my favorite part of Guitar Hero: Metallica so far is PLAYING SOME SKYNRD! ...(man)

And really, this game is pretty cool. I'm almost finished with the guitar career, I may play around with the drums or vocals. It's nice to have that option since I have the original Rock Band kit that works with it...I think. Come to think of it, I'm not sure.

I also briefly played Pikmin for Wii. This is a remake of the original Gamecube game that adds some new Wii-specific controls. Since I never played the original, I can't say how much it added. It seemed like a neat concept and nice art style. I actually felt like I let the little guys down when it told me I lost a few pikmins in battle at the end of the day. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time, but the game didn't really grab me. So I sent it back.

Speaking of disjointed, the reason I'm writing tonight is because the wife is using the game TV to watch the So You Think You Can Dance finale. I will never understand why this show is on two nights a week. For an hour or two. Every week... It's not that I hate the show or anything. There just seems to be way too much TRL-style Woooo!!!-ing.

I took a trip recently and played a bit of DS. I'm stuck on the fiend lord in Chrono Trigger so I played a bit of Geometry Wars: Galaxies. I think I like that game. To paraphrase a friend: "Get these shapes off my Euclidean PLANE!" The worst thing about it are the controls that make my hands hurt. So I may need to get one of them on the Xbox.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Old Zelda

Just a quick note on something that's going on over at the Vintage Game Club. They've picked The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask as the latest game to play through. People play the chosen game at their own pace and post in the forum for whatever section they're on. Just another cool thing that one of my favorite game bloggers is up to.

I started on MM over the weekend since I had a GameCube disc with lots of old Zelda games on it that I could play on the Wii. I only made it to the first dungeon, but it's nice to relive something from soooooo long ago (2000). And I love me some Zelda.

Unrelated: I seem to be becoming a regular on MTV Multiplayer blog via Twitter. If you can't tell from the neat little gizmo to your left, I'm dave_haas

A tale of two Wiis

I just got two Wii games in the mail today and they couldn't be more different. The zany, Japanesy family fun Excitebots: Trick Racing and MadWorld, the game that shouldn't be played within half a mile of anyone under 18.

I didn't immediately go for Excitebots. The graphics are underwhelming and the controls are a bit chaotic. Meaning that you're flailing your hands all over the place. You hold the Wii remote like a steering wheel, but there's very little steering involved. The bots I used on the opening tracks required very little left and right movement. It was more about knowing when to jump, boost, and wave around like an idiot. Maybe that changes later, I don't know. But once you get a feel for this, it's a little entertaining. Still, I won't be keeping this one for long.

MadWorld is f'ing nuts. And it is on purpose. It's sort of a take on Running Man where your grizzled character is supposed to kill dudes in the most inventive way possible to get points and please a TV audience. I'm really loving the running commentary from Greg Proops, a Who's Line is it Anyway? alum. You also may recognize his voice as one of the announcers from the pod race scene in Episode I. The art style is all black and white with splashes of red for blood. And there's a lot of blood. You'd think that depth perception would suffer but I haven't had any problems with that just yet. Everything I've seen so far has been over the top, vulgar, violent, and ridiculous. I love it.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Now Playing: Skate 2 and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Skate 2 is one of those games with a pretty steep learning curve. I figured I'd pick right up on this one since I played a few hours of Skate. Not true. I've already had a few challenges that I tried probably 20 times in a row before I passed them. I apparently can't railslide worth a darn. So maybe I'll shy away from challenges that include that. Anyway, I'm getting the hang of it and am appreciating the open world style of "do whatever challenges you feel like."

Oh, get this. I got an e-mail from the local library yesterday that the game I reserved was ready. Huh? Oh yeah, I scanned their list last year and put a hold on Lego Star Wars. And then forgot about it after several months. Either they don't have many copies or borrowing free videogames is a really popular thing. Or both. Probably both.

I've played both of the previous Lego Star Wars games before on PS2 and Gamecube. I figured I'd try all episodes I-VI on the 360. You know, since it was free. And, I'm ashamed to say, for achievement points. But whatever, the cut scenes (especially for IV-VI since I've seen those many more times) are great. These Lego games are great to play with kids or inexperienced gamers. I convinced my wife to play this with me years ago, maybe I can do so again. Wish me luck!

Catchup: Quantum of Solace and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

I mentioned that I was getting 007 Quantum of Solace and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. I did, and I played them. I tried, but just couldn't get into N&B. It's all about customizing vehicles and I never had much fun doing that. And I didn't put in the time to get to where the vehicles available were anything more than clunky pieces of crap. The helicopter was sort of neat and the game was occasionally chuckle-worthy, but...meh.

Quantum of Solace was also mediocre as shooters go, but at least I finished it. They had enough variety in "ways to kill dudes" and level design to keep my interest at least. Is it bad that I was glad that it was so short? Okay, I haven't seen the new Bond films it was based on, but I was COMPLETELY confused by the cut scenes with M tracking Bond via his phone. They're talking about where he is and what he's doing, then they suddenly decide to fast forward? Whatever, just let me shoot some more dudes.

Why I'm not getting an iPhone

They've been impossible to ignore lately with the launch of the new version, ads everywhere, and the tech press talking about them nonstop. They're even taking up a larger share of the market as people decide for whatever reason that they need one too. But I'm not getting one.

Why not? Mostly it comes down to carrier exclusivity. Since you can only get it on AT&T that really limits a lot of peoples' options. I'm technically out of contract with T-Mobile so that's not really the issue, but I've had them for almost 8 years with very few problems. Any small issue gets resolved quickly by their excellent customer service. T-Mobile doesn't get its reputation as the low-cost carrier by accident either. I'd be paying about $20 more per month for comparable amounts of voice, text, and data with AT&T and an iPhone.

Why not just get an iPhone and haxx0r it to work on T-Mobile then? While I'm sure I could manage this, it cripples the device in two big ways. There's always the chance that you could brick your shiny new toy by doing something wrong, and the 3G spectrums aren't compatible between the two carriers. So even if I got a 3G iPhone, it wouldn't be 3G on T-Mobile.

I don't know if you've noticed, but Apple makes some great music players. One of the motivations for an iPhone would be to consolidate my 60GB iPod with my phone. Now that they have a 32GB model that's solid state, that's awfully tempting. But I have about 38GB of music alone. I'd have to pick what gets on there and what doesn't. And still worry about leaving room for all the crazy apps that people seem to love. That just sounds like a nightmare where my OCD could flare up often.

If this reads like a list of rationalizations, that's because it is. These things are beautiful, and I've always had a certain respect for the great design that Apple manages to put into both its hardware and software. In fact this all came up again after my wife made the switch this week with a new MacBook Pro.

But no, I'm gonna do the sensible thing and stick with what I've got. But ask me again in a few years when the AT&T exclusive thing is up and maybe I'll have a different answer. :)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Quick update

I should post more often. But I haven't because I haven't been really playing anything new or interesting. I played F.E.A.R. 2. It was 'meh.' It actually made me jump a few times but I got fed up with enough little things that I sent it back.

I picked up the Big Surf Island expansion for Burnout Paradise. Actually I got it on the day it came out last week or whatever. I figured that I'd been playing a ton of that game anyway, I might as well have new stuff to jump off of. Oh, and more delicious achievements. They've been throwing us so much free stuff over the last year or so, I didn't mind giving them a few bucks for new areas and so they keep doing what they're doing. Between all the time I've spent in this game and SSX3 for the Gamecube, I feel like I know DJ Atomika very well. I like his style.

Other than that it's just been a bit of Galactrix on XBLA and GTA on DS. That last sentence NMA (needed more acronyms).

I've got Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts and Quantum of Solace on the way, so I'll be sure to post some thoughts on those.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

E3 "coverage"

So E3 is happening this week and while I won't pretend to be your comprehensive news source, I've kept an eye on a few blogs in Reader and I can tell you what I'm looking forward to. Keep in mind that I'll be renting most everything from GameFly, since I have a fear of commitment. And of spending a ton of money on games that I'll only really play for a few hours. Anyway, here goes.

Halo 3: ODST comes first since it was already on my list (as a draft in Gmail called "games to get") and just got some more information released. I'm not a rabid Halo guy, but I was extremely impressed w/ what they did w/ 3 and I'd like to see more.

A bunch of 2's are next. Red Steel 2 was entertaining enough the first time around and I'm interested to see what they can do with MotionPlus.

Crackdown 2 should be a blast. I didn't even make it through the whole game the first time since it got pretty tough, but I loved jumping around in the open world of the city and destroying stuff. It was pretty much GTA on steroids. The Hulk game had a lot of this too.

Left 4 Dead 2 should be fun. I had a blast with the first and I could use some more. I was sort of curious just to see what they'd name it since there was already a number in the title. I think the whole minimal storytelling part of the game really works for it. You can have an endless number of settings of 4 people all around the world just trying to survive despite the zombies.

Mario Galaxy 2 makes sense. Why wouldn't you make a sequel to the best platformer in 10 years or so? Super Mario Brothers Wii is even more interesting. Now you can finally make Mario jump higher when you lift the controller like we've all been doing for 20 years (you know you have). Nintendo completely understands its roots. And how to make money off them. I can't complain when the games are so dang fun, though.

Metroid: Other M seems like an odd title, but it's a good direction for the franchise to go. 2-D Metroid games are still fun. I enjoyed the heck out of Zero Mission and Fusion.

Finally, and XBLA game that piqued my interest: Shadow Complex. Mention Metroid and Contra in the same breath and you've got my attention.

I've certainly missed some things, but these are just what stood out from the coverage I saw. Enjoy!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

All day game session

I've gotten in a good amount of game time today. I've been switching between RE5, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, Burnout Paradise, and the new Bionic Commando. I've talked about all but the last two, so I'll make a few observations about those.

Bionic Commando is a pretty spiffy translation of an old 2D game into 3D. A lot of the sounds and items will be familiar especially if, like me, you just played through Bionic Commando: Rearmed not too long ago. Since the same company is responsible for both, they put some nice little design cues in to tie them together. Perhaps David Jaffe says it best:
@djaffe Keep coming back- time and again- 2 Bionic Commando. Cool lvl design structure; good viz; just fun. Feels old skool but new! Dig it!
It's got a few knocks since I can't always tell how much damage I'm taking and tend to die a lot. Maybe I'll get better as it goes along. And I really think they gave the guy dreadlocks just so it looks cool flapping in the breeze as he swings all over the place with the bionic arm.

Burnout Paradise, I don't know how to quit you! I had a blast with the demo when it came out, so I rented it and played a bunch. I even ventured online and played with random XBL dudes (I know!). I think I like it so much because it takes my favorite part of the Grand Theft Auto games (driving really fast and jumping off stuff) and makes an entire game around it. So when I found a copy for only $10, I had to pick it up. I've been picking up some achievements that I missed the first time around and enjoying the new free content that's been added. I hear the new expansion next month is all about big air, so I may have to buy that.

Resident Evil 5 is still good, I think I'll go play some more...

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Fiiiiiive

So it's been a while since the last post. But apparently one season ended and another began so maybe now my blogging night will be Thurs.

I spent as much time as I felt was necessary with MK Vs. DC and am on to Resident Evil 5. I'm really liking it so far. The controls took me a few minutes to get used to, but once I remembered how things were in RE4, I felt right at home. An over the shoulder view where you move like a tank and can't shoot and move at the same time certainly isn't what I would have asked for in a shooter, but in this game it just works. It seems like all the familiar RE4 sounds are there except the classic "what are ya buyin!?" guy. I miss him. Arranging and buying items without him works just as well, but seems a bit sterile.

I think I'm still towards the beginning of chapter two and I'm already seeing a lot of variety in level design and pacing. I actually had a ton of trouble in the very first segment where you have to fight off a seemingly endless stream of zombie dudes. It's such a departure from the plodding, slow corridor-fest of RE4. I didn't quite know what to do. My stupid AI partner kept getting herself killed since I thought I needed to camp out in one spot and kill everything I saw. I fared better once I started moving around and hunting for ammo. But I had to learn that by trial and error.

I mentioned my stupid AI partner which means I'm soloing this game that's supposedly designed for co-op. I want to go through it the first time on my own and soak up all the details. That seemed to be the right thing to do after my time with Left 4 Dead co-op. Not that I didn't have a blast then, it's just a very different experience. I seemed to get thrown in with guys who knew the levels really well and I was always running to play catch up. I think if I had a friend to play RE5 with rather than some random Xbox Live person, I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about it.

I should get in some quality game time in over the long weekend. I'll be travelling for part of it, so I'll play a bit of DS as well. I recently started up a game in Zelda:Phantom Hourglass again. I seemed to have waited the perfect amount of time for me to forget most of where I need to go, so it's like a new game all over again. Plus I'll be ready for the new one at the end of the year.

While writing this, I kept hearing the Idle Thumbs guys say Fiiiiiive over and over again in my head (from one of their older podcasts). So that's what you get for the title. If you've never heard them, you ought to. They're damn funny.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Silly games

That's right, it's Tuesday again. When my wife takes over the TV and I sign into Blogger. I just finished De Blob a day or so ago. I mentioned before how much I liked it. That I decided to stick with it to the end says volumes for the game. Sure it had a few minor control quirks, but the designers must have sort of realized that since there were relatively few sections that relied heavily on precise jumping. The difficulty at the end ramps up and offers a decent challenge. I eventually welcomed it after the very easy, lazy first levels where I mostly just wandered around in a 3D coloring book. One thing that did strike me as odd was that since there are so many challenges, you can finish the level without really accomplishing the main objectives that the guide characters keep telling you to do. Towards the end I'm supposed to go take down some big structure and free all the citizens (or something...I don't know, it all sort of blurs together after a while) but if you happen to get enough points through other means to open up the end gate, you can finish the level without actually doing that. "You're our only hope to save our world!...Or, you know just paint some stuff and find the exit and that'll work too." Anyway, since I'm not the sort of person that feels like I have to get 100% on every level (and due to the fact that it was rented) I sent it back and am on to the next thing.

The next thing turned out to be Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe. This game is just as silly as De Blob, it just doesn't realize it. There's at least a little bit of explanation why all these people would be fighting each other but I guess story isn't really necessary in fighting games. Which I don't ever play. The graphics aren't that impressive and the character models are odd and exaggerated (think way larger than necessary boobs and incredibly muscular limbs). All of this aside, I'm sort of enjoying myself with this one. I guess that's the beauty of low expectations.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

de Blob

I threw this game in my queue on the strength of a few good reviews from some game critics. The premise is offbeat, different, and a whole lot of fun. It's pretty simple, really. You start with black and white world that the evil dudes have come and sucked all the color, life, and fun out of. Your job, as an animated paint blob, is to color it back in, thereby free the residents from a boring, colorless life. You do this by moving your character in a 3D space using the Wii nunchuk, occasionally flicking the remote to jump. You collect paint and everything you touch turns your current color. Also, when you touch something paint-able it adds an element to the current music.

The cut scenes that explain the ridiculous story look amazing. Think Monsters Inc. I have no idea how they get it to look so great on the underpowered Wii. They're actually sort of funny too, and give you at least a flimsy reason as to why you're painting this section of town or landmark. There are tons of mini challenges in each level which are sure to keep the OCD collector-types busy. But there is also a main goal that you need to accomplish to make it through to the next level.

My two complaints are one minor, one major. As far as I can tell, there's no way to quickly save your progress, it only saves after each level, which can take a while if you happen to get turned around. Not a big deal. What is a big deal is the stupid waggle controls that developers feel they have to use when a game appears on the Wii. There's a huge A button right on there that's a perfectly acceptable solution for jump. Use it! But you can't, and the combination of this unresponsiveness and the less than ideal camera makes technical jumping sections needlessly frustrating. Luckily, these sections don't seem to happen all that often in this fairly kid-friendly game.

Speaking of kid-friendly, this would be an excellent game to share with a youngster, and it sort of reminds me of the Lego series. There are tons of little objectives, bright, shiny objects and little penalty for failure. So, in short, it's a fun little game that you ought to take a second look at.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Tomb Raider: Underworld

I finished this one up earlier today after a long session of co-op last night at a friend's. There's no co-op item in the menu, but that's basically what we did. I played and he was my navigator and second pair of eyes. He'd watch the walkthrough on YouTube if we got stuck and point me in the right direction. He said he didn't mind doing this since he'd played all the original games on PS1. It was good for me to get some historical perspective on the series, actually. I started with Legend, so I'm relatively new to the series. I was complaining about glitches and bad controls and he said with a smile, "that's all a part of the fun!"

I can't help but compare this game to the new Prince of Persia. Underworld gives you so many more moves and freedom of movement, but with that comes lots of problems. There were several times that I fell to my death because I was angled just a little bit wrong on a jump. PoP simplified and streamlined things so much that a failure of that sort almost never happened. You had a good two second window where you only needed to push a single button to pull off some crazy looking manuever. Assasin's Creed was forgiving in this sense too. You just pointed your character in the right direction and he figured it out. I'm not sure I prefer this "easy mode" but maybe a hybrid of the complex controls of Tomb Raider and the forgiving ones of those games could be just what I'm looking for.

There were a few times where I was so frustrated with this game that I almost quit. While each level is very visually unique, within a level it's easy to get lost. Every corridor looks the same. And when you're in an open area of ocean, it's very easy to get turned around in a 3D space. I read somewhere that the designers were trying to make this game with less hand holding and more of a "figure it out" sort of vibe. I think they succeeded. So much so that it was frustrating at times. My old standby, GameFaqs.com wasn't much help since it was all text-based, so I had to actually see it on YouTube.

So this one was interesting to see, it looked great, and for the most part pretty good. It can just get frustrating in the controls department. Another thing that surprised me was the title. I assumed it meant that the whole game took place underwater, which wasn't exactly the case. It was more of a reference to the Norse underworld. But whatever, that just means more jumping and less swimming.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Quick thoughts

I'm thinking that you could start overlapping my blogging schedule w/ my wife's crappy reality TV show watching schedule. It's Tuesday and that means it's Biggest Loser night at this house. And not Tomb Raider: Underworld night. I started this yesterday and I'm liking it so far. The wide open ocean sections look like they might be a bit overwhelming, but we'll see how it goes. Endless Ocean is also on it's way from GameFly, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to get lost in the deep blue sea.

It's not really worth it's own post, but I've noticed lately while playing some Guitar Hero: World Tour that rhythm games can put me in sort of a trance. I suppose that's not that uncommon, due to all the repetitive motions and your zoned-out state concentrating on the music. For me, I'll remember random events from the past that have nothing to do with the music. They're usually good memories, and I get to smile to myself and think of what we did on that canoe trip years ago, or old friends I haven't thought of in years. Anyone else do this?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Me and game consoles: a short history

I've had an idea to run down a history of what consoles I've owned for a while. I just never bothered to write it all down. But the wife is preventing me from playing more Galactrix on 360 with ANTM, so I'll sit here and type.

It started, as it did with many others, on an Atari. My much older brothers had an Atari 7800 in all it's fake wood grain glory. So I got my start on Missle Command, Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Donkey Kong, which came on a crazy white cartridge by some company named "Nintendo." When that old hardware eventually crapped out, I asked for an Atari 2600 for Christmas. There were rumors and commercials of a new system but I had done my research (you know, in the JC Penney catalog that passed for the "internet" back then). That Christmas (1985?) I rocked out with a new 2600 and great new games like Pole Position and Battlezone. It only took me a month or two to figure out that I'd made a terrible mistake with my Santa Claus request. The new NES was awesome and I had to have one.

So just a few months later my birthday rolls around and I have a new Nintendo. I soon had what I still consider to be the best game I've ever played, The Legend of Zelda. This dude had a sword! And he could go anywhere he wanted! And fight Octorocks and stuff!

The NES kept me occupied for quite a while. During this time the seeds of my game madness were sown. I subscribed to Nintendo Power. I read every article. I played something new and awesome called "two player simultaneous" games. Before, my friends and I had to take turns on levels or something. Now we can beat up dudes at the same time! Totally rad.

Since I read Nintendo Power all the time I was understandably excited about the Super NES. The painful months between its release and the next birthday or Christmas nearly killed me. I had to make do with my stupid regular Nintendo and play Super Mario World at friends' houses. But I eventually got one and the next Zelda came shortly after that. The Super NES brought with it incredible digitized graphics, one of the best entries in the Metroid series, and a great (looking) Star Wars series.

A similar process repeated itself for the Nintendo 64 even though I was in High School by that time. Let's just...not think too much on that. The 64 upped the graphics again and brought with it the craziest controller I've ever seen. The standouts for this era were Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. My college roommates and I spent waaaaay too much time playing Goldeneye and Mario Kart.

Nintendo took their sweet time coming out with the next console and I'd already gotten a Playstation 2. I rationalized the expensive box saying that I needed a DVD player anyway. To my credit, I still have never bought a standalone DVD player. The PS2 had great realistic sports games and a completely different focus than what I was used to with the Nintendo systems.

Metroid, and the promise of an upcoming Zelda pushed me over the edge and I got a Gamecube. So I split my time between the 'cube and the PS2. They actually complimented each other nicely because of their different focus. I had two systems for the first time and was lovin' it. Later, the new Zelda went in a weird direction that took me quite a while to get used to, but I think I eventually started to like it.

I managed to get an elusive Wii on the day it came out. No, I didn't camp out all night. I just went to the store about 15 minutes before it opened that morning and got in line with all the other antisocial dudes. I was towards the end of folks that got one, but I wasn't about to camp out. Of course I played Zelda again and all the crazy waggle games.

Not too long after I got the Wii, I picked up a used Xbox 360 since I'd been keeping an eye on the games released for it and there were quite a few that seemed worthy. Once again, I had two systems that complemented each other very well. The crazy and different games have a place on the Wii, along with all the classic Nintendo franchises. The 360 (in beautiful HD) gets used for everything else. They've done a tremendous job with the online portion and I've already talked about how well they did points.

So that's it. Maybe some other time I'll talk about portable consoles (original GameBoy, then DS) or why I don't play PC games.

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