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...

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.

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.

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.

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.