Bioshock 2

Bioshock 2 is good. It got generally favorable reviews, and it's easy to see why. I kept playing longer than I meant to and I often played for long stretches at a time. It didn't keep track of hours for me, so maybe it was just a relatively short game, but I went through the single player very quickly. I played both it and the previous one on the 360 and got probably 70% of the available achievement points. I mention that because it illustrates how I played the game. I collected stuff.

I collected a lot of stuff. Not that I went out of my way tracking down every last hidden flashing thing to get 100% completion, but this game certainly strikes a chord with the loot collector type person. I often found myself picking through the fallen splicers' pockets while a battle was still going on. Or I'd be raiding all the cabinets without really making sure the room was safe to do so. This must have been an intentional decision on the part of the developers. You actually have to look down at dead enemies on the ground and push a button to collect their stuff. And they always have stuff. Occasionally you'll already be full of that type of ammo or whatever, but you never have to decide whether to pick up the new thing or keep your existing thing. Since there's no penalty for picking up everything, I almost would have preferred if you automatically picked up stuff as you walked over it, like lots of shooters do. Then maybe I would have spent more time devising devilish ways to dispatch deranged denizens of the deep instead of collecting crap (sorry, sentences are fun sometimes).

In the last game I was a bit schizophrenic with regards to Little Sisters. These are the young girls that help you along and collect genetic gunk from corpses. They're all about 9 (?) years old with identical brown hair and dresses. Anyway, I killed some and rescued some when the game gives you the binary choice. You are rewarded more if you pick a path and stay with it. So that's what I did in the second game for the Little Sisters. But you're also given a few chances in the game to either kill or spare some other story characters. The way they're presented isn't quite as black and white as the Little Sisters, so I ended up saving some, killing others. So I ended up getting the nice guy ending I think.

Some of the general sentiment about the game was that the original was a story masterpiece that stood on its own and the sequel was only made because they saw dollar signs. While I suppose that's partly true, the sequel never felt contrived and it gave me another chance to explore a beautiful and strange world again. I was happy to go back to Rapture.

The new addition this time around were the Big Sisters. A nice touch that fit in with the story well. But I had a lot of trouble with them on the Medium difficulty which was fine for everything in the game but that. Switching to Easy worked but I got bored with it as soon as I wasn't fighting them. So the difficulty is a bit uneven, maybe.

Once again I skipped the multiplayer portion and sent it back to GameFly pretty quickly. Although I was amused to get an e-mail from them saying I could 'keep Bioshock 2 for only $16!' while I was playing it. If I felt like getting into the multiplayer this would have been a steal. I see that Assassin's Creed 2 is on it's way next, so I'll be back with words about that eventually.

Wii and DS

The odds are pretty good that you or someone you know owns a Nintendo Wii or DS. These two systems are insanely popular. But to reach that large of an audience, they are in the hands of people who don't know about or even care about their full potential. How many of those Wii owners bought the system because they heard about this "bowling game" or "fitness board thing" and haven't done anything with them since? One study showed that only 54% of Wii systems have ever been connected to the internet. Since it's WiFi only, it might be a bit trickier to set up than just plugging in a cable. But once you get online, is there really much to do? You could buy old Nintendo games from the Wii Shop Channel or Wii Ware but then you have to deal with those stupid points. You could play games against other people. But without voice chat, it's sort of pointless. The only time I've tried to play MarioKart with friends we ended up using Xbox Live to be able to talk while playing.

And how many DS handhelds were bought to pet puppies or solve puzzles, only to be set on the shelf after the owners grew tired of those games? The DS is great, but other than some Brain Training games it can't seem to shake the stigma of being a kid's toy. What I'd really like to see is some Wii/DS integration. I think all they've managed so far is are demos of DS games that you can download from a Wii channel. The same sort of thing you can do from DS kiosks at stores and airports. No, I don't know what kind of integration would make sense. But I just think of all the people that have one of each and think there must be something that makes sense and would be fun.

So bring it on, Nintendo. Entertain me.

OMGsoCUTE!!

Little Big Planet seemed to be THE game to get a Playstation 3 for when it came out. The graphics, of course, were stunning. But it really showcases the connectivity of the box as well. Since I didn't play it until a year and a half after its release I had the fun of downloading and installing for almost 30 minutes before I could even play.

It's basically a different company's take on Mario. I'm sure it's much more than that, but I kept coming back to that feeling. Where Mario games have bright happy colors and simplistic levels, this has realistic graphics and sometimes somewhat dark story lines. It's not all run and jump. There are several "ride in this type of vehicle" segments that break up the familiar platforming. The hero's nature is really taken to heart. Your Sack Boy looks to be made of a tiny stuffed burlap sack and the physics keep reinforcing that. You can clutch onto soft materials or get catapulted across the level and land without a scratch like, well, a rag doll. You quickly start collecting costumes and accessories to make your sack person your very own. And this was the part that hooked my wife.

I went out and bought a second controller hoping that she'd play along with me. I had history on my side here, since she played through all of New Super Mario Bros. Wii with me. A similar thing happened here in that I was quickly banned from playing without her since she didn't want to miss out on collecting any of the OMGsoCUTE costume parts. The level progression and gradual sense of completion appealed to me where the collecting and cuteness appealed to her. After we were deep into this I asked if she wanted to jump in to NSMB Wii again, but I think the choice of Luigi/blue/yellow Toad just couldn't compare to the customization available here.

The co-op is very intuitive. It seemed very natural to figure things out as we went along. "You go down there and hit that switch while I hang on to the handle up here" sort of thing. We played a few user-created levels and there seemed to be a wide range of competence there as you'd expect. I didn't bother with any of the creation tools. Every time you start a new level you choose Play Online or Play by Ourselves. We played online a few times and for the most part the other players that joined our game were really helpful. I'm not sure if the game even supports voice chat, but without a headset we were forced to use text chat anyway. It's done well but it relegated all our conversation with other people to things like "sorry" or "thx good game."

So I'm happy to say we both had a blast with this game and were always looking forward to another chance to play. Now it's time for GameFly Roulette to see what comes next.

Darksiders wrap up, MGS4 moment

Looks like my last post was about Darksiders. I finished that up and am about ready to start in with Little Big Planet. I've heard that it's a great game to play co-op, so I got another controller today so I can play it with my wife. Did some searching and found it for $20 off. So there you go.

I guess I didn't technically finish Darksiders. I got 2/3 of the way through the last temple/area/whatever. I enjoyed my time with it, but some of the puzzles or sequences seemed needlessly tedious. I really hated walking through sand, trying not to disturb the sand worm. It was one of those parts that I wasn't enjoying, so I hurried through. Which led to lots of frustrating deaths since you really need to take your time with it. I remember some of the same thing in Mirror's Edge. But what made me send it back was the scale room. There are three huge platforms hanging from chains in a room. The scales move in some nonsensical way when you move blocks onto them in order to get up to the top. Even following an FAQ which told me exactly what to do I still had trouble. And when I had to backtrack and manipulate the scales again for something else I quit. I think there were a few bosses left between me and redemption or something, but the story wasn't really the best part of the game, so I didn't feel bad about calling it quits and moving on.

I had mentioned that Darksiders borrowed a lot from Zelda. It also took inspiration from various other games, but the most surprising one was Portal. Ya, towards the end you get a portal gun. Very weird for a game of this type. You shoot orange and blue portals on sections of the wall and ceiling to get around.

I'm still enjoying Zelda: Spirit Tracks on the DS when I'm on the go and have been putting in a few hours here and there with Metal Gear Solid 4. Both are great, and I'll try to dedicate a post to one or both later. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fantastic throwback in MGS4. At the beginning of Act 4 you're headed back to Shadow Moses Island and you're thrown in to Playstation One graphics. You play the entire level this way. It takes a bit to get used to the slightly different controls, but they're similar enough to what you've been doing to get it. When you get inside the building it switches to Snake on a helicopter as it transitions again to crisp graphics. "I had that dream again!" he says as he wakes up and shakes his head. Fantastic. I didn't even play that original game, but I've never seen a better homage. You win Kojima. You win.

Zelda what?

So I got a little game called Darksiders. Largely based on the Giant Bomb guys' discussion of it on their podcast. They kept saying how blatant it was that Zelda was a big influence on it. A grown-up, darker take on it, if you will. You're a dude with a sword and you go around on quests. Sweet, I thought. Well, the opening sequence was about as far from Zelda as you could get. It's one of those scenes where you're thrown into a big battle fully powered up and kicking ass. You don't know all the button combinations for everything yet, but you don't really need to since you're kicking so much ass. Also, there are winged angel-demon dudes and people running in terror on a big crowded city street. It was in your face God of War style combos in a setting from Prototype. Zelda, what!?

But soon you're stripped of all this power and you're just a dude with a sword who has to go on a quest to save the world. There are a bunch of heaven/hell angel/demon things going on. Also, lots of macho guy-types with insanely deep voices. So throw in a bit of Gears of War, I guess.

But a funny thing happened about half an hour in. I started to really enjoy myself. I guess it's following the standard Zelda pattern of "there are 4 temples, you need to conquer the beasts in each one before you can go to the central...place." Also, you have what are basically heart containers as your health bar. So Zelda, it's not, but I'm gonna keep playing it and see where it goes.