Archive for 'Gaming' Category
Metal Gear: Tales of love, betrayal and SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE
3 July 2008This was written a whlie back and I forgot to post it? Oh well. Now that Metal Gear Solid 4 has released a few weeks back and I’ve been waiting for a price drop so my cheep ass can enjoy it, I figured I’d finally get this posted.
Way back in September of last year, I took a trip to Osaka’s beloved Den-Den Town with the intentions of picking various games. While talking with thetrin, I came to the realization that I no longer had a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2 in my possession. A cardinal sin, considering it is one of my most beloved games of all time. My goal was set. Get a copy as soon as possible.
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Mmm, Guilt Marketing
20 June 2008“Are you sure you want an Xbox LIVE Silver Membership, or do you want to go for an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership and experience games the way they should be played?”
Well, shit! If you put it that way what choice do I have, exactly?
The Issues We Face
14 June 2008So I decided to buckle down tonight and work on my recently (read: 7 months ago) started replay of SaGa 2, better known as Final Fantasy Legend 2 in the US of A.
Now, as I’ve played this game before I know pretty much everything about it. Hell, since in game Odin revives you when your party dies at the cost of having to fight him at some point, I played the game without dying once to see if Odin says something different. He does!
But that’s not the point. The point is I’ve played this game through quite a few times but I can’t remember everything. So to speed it up a bit, I thought I’d look for some maps. I mean, shit, they’ve got maps of most games up on the internet, so why not this one?
I’ve yet to find a good amount of maps. But what I’ve been able to find is Final Fantasy Legend 2 Fanfiction. That’s right! Poorly written stories featuring the characters from the game. It is horrifying. It bends time and space between it’s terrible claw. It almost gets sexual and then has a character interrupt it to proclaim that it is in fact a G-Rated Fanfiction.
It makes me cry.
The Critics become the Critiqued! Penny Arcade Adventures Ep. 1
27 May 2008I’ve been a huge fan of Penny Arcade and have been for years. Their humor just works for me. It’s frightening almost to think about how long it’s been since I started reading this comic. I mean, I was in highschool. Early highschool.
They’ve been making fun of and praising games and the industry behind them. But this past Wednesday saw the release of their own game. So being the loyal fan I am, I bought it.
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A Pointless Revelation!
30 April 2008You can’t rewind games.
I’m playing 龍が如く (released as Yakuza in the States) and if you talk to a character twice in a row, like in most games, they say the same thing over and over.
This feature in games is sometimes ridiculed and I myself always prefer when a character can say a few different things. But it never occurred to me until right now that this feature is just like rewinding a movie or flipping back a few pages in a book to reread something for further clarity.
In all cases it is a bit jarring, but sometimes necessary for your enjoyment. Can’t believe I’ve never thought of it this way.
Soma Bringer: The Revised and Final Impressions
1 April 2008I picked a class that wasn’t for me.
I’m getting way too self analytical these days? Anyway, after futzing around a bit in chapter 3 while on a train the other night I said “Fuck this. I’m not having fun.” and started again picking another class. My first attempt was at the Corps class which is basically a paladin. Boring for me in most other games and unsurprisingly boring in Soma Bringer. So I picked a Gunner and gave the game another go.
I flew through the first three chapters easily since I knew what I had to do and was having more fun. Chapters four through six weren’t as painful as my original run through the other chapters but my core issues with the game remain.
There really is too much text in this game. I want to read it all for Japanese practice and just because I hate skipping cutscenes. It was hard. I even enjoyed Xenosaga in all of its bloaty goodness. This was just painful. Perhaps it’s just the mindset aligned with the game-type? Diablo clones are not good places for excessive text. I want to be killing things.
And that brings up the other issue. In agreement with my previous fears the maps of Soma Bringer just got bigger and bigger and the enemy count didn’t increase enough. There were definitely some fun and challenging boss fights. But proceeding from the start of the chapter to the end was definitely a struggle at times. If I ever saw that I was approaching a slightly larger group of enemies I knew most of them would be easily taken out with a few shots.
The AI is unfathomably stupid. I set my healer to be in the back and, well, healing. She spent most of her time being hit in the air as she dared to go too damn close to the enemies. As my class was a ranged attacker I knew someone had to get in the thick of it but that’s why I picked a fighter as my third character. Why my healer couldn’t stop dying I couldn’t discern.
The game does happen to shine and thankfully where it needed to the most. Multiplay. There are some ridiculously difficult hidden bosses within the chapters. Taking them on by your lonesome with the AI is tiring and nearly impossible. Doing this with friends makes it a blast. It’s truly a shame that this game doesn’t have wifi play as getting friends together to play is the biggest challenge I’ve had with the game.
That said, it was a good run if not too wordy. I don’t think I’ll touch the game again unless my friends want to take on some of the bonus dungeons. Soma Bringer does a lot of things right but needs more combat and better design for its maps. I look forward to a sequel.
Way to go, Sony
24 March 2008So I found a copy of Vib Ribbon today that cost me less than a MOS Burger. Now, MOS Burgers are fairly priced and delicious so this made Vib Ribbon quite a steal.
Now, the PS3 was originally backwards compatible. And it had a PS2 in it, so it was supposed to be practically flawless. Or so I recall reading. Now, this feature has since been scrapped and that’s why I picked my PS3 up when I did. I want and need this feature for my large collection of games.
I think I’m going to have to buy a PS2 again.
Seriously, I get weird bugs once in a while when booting up some games. Sometimes they play flawlessly. Sometimes the video and sound just blink in and out on Persona 3. FF7 had massive slowdown during the final boss fight and FF8’s battle transitions looked fucked up.
Now I’ve got Vib Ribbon which loads slow as hell and sometimes fails to load at all. Goddammit, Sony.
Soma Bringer: The First Impressions
9 March 2008Soma Bringer is a lot like me. Beautiful on the inside, average on the outside, a bit too wordy and made a few mistakes during the developmental stage that will prevent being the best it could be.
First is the opportunity to pick one of the characters to play as and then a class to go with them. Characters determine starting statistics, classes add to those statistics and determine what weapons and skill that will be usable during the game. After that the talking begins.
There’s really a lot of text in this game. It probably wouldn’t surprise you that this came from many of the same people that brought us Xenosaga. I’d comment on the story but my Japanese isn’t catching enough of it and I really only bought this game to whack shit. And whack it good.
I’ve only just gotten through the second act and it seems this is where said whacking begins to pick up. I’m still disappointed. There isn’t enough to kill. The enemies are sparse and so far rather easy. If it picks up that’d be great, but so far I’m not happy. The maps keep getting bigger and the enemy supply isn’t filling up that much. Another oddity is that enemies don’t respawn until you power off the game and load it back up. This helps a bit for boss fights as their HP remains what it was if you die and make your way back, but on the occasion which you have to do a little backtracking, which isn’t much at least, there’s not a goddamned thing to do.
Much like Diablo is the presence of awesome and mostly awful loot. There is an inventory limit, but don’t worry as sending items to your storehouse is as simple as pressing X. Too simple really, as I’ve accidentally sent some items without meaning too. Luckily, stackable items don’t go away instantly as you need to specify how many will go so there’s little chance of accidentally sending away your entire potion stock. And since loot doesn’t disappear until you power down the game, there is little fear of leaving something behind.
Right now I’m liking the potential but not liking the game. I’ll stick with it though since everyone else I know who has the game is having a blast.
Sixth Time’s a Charm
13 February 2008So I’ve finished playing Final Fantasy IV DS a while back. This would be the fifth copy I’ve owned (FFIIUS, FFIV Wonderswan Color, FFIV PSX, FFIV GBA being the previous four). The only copy I don’t have is the Easy Type. And I guess if you count the fact that the original Japanese version is different from the US one (besides the language, I mean), you could really count seven versions of the game. Let’s not even get into regional differences of the other versions.
So yeah, there are lots of versions of FFIV out there. Is this a good thing? All these ports and remakes? Well, since new gamers are born every day I’d argue it is.
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Fantasy Devil May Finally Cry
12 February 2008So I was musing around my thoughts and came to a brilliant realization. Both the Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry series have a lot in common. I main difference is that I don’t hate Final Fantasy. Sure, Devil May Cry lacks about 8 installments on Final Fantasy but in this day and age of milking and whoring I’m sure they’ll catch up eventually. Or maybe they’ll pull a Halo and end my suffering. Alas, this is Capcom who I think now have more Mega Man Series than there are days in a month.
Anyway, onwards to my rambling comparisons! (more…)