i know, i know. i've been talking a lot about TV lately. where's the movie reviews? where's the funny websites? where's the food reviews? well tonight i hope to get back on track with stuff that's not just TV. and i'm kicking things off with video games.
i started playing this post-apocalyptic first-person shooter / role-playing game (whew, what a mouthful) called Fallout 3, and within the first two hours of playing i came upon a decision wholly unlike any other i've ever had in a video game before.
to kill, or not to kill.
now, almost all video games present the player with the option to kill a major character, but they do so with blaring trumpets - they present it on a platter. press this button and the guy lives. press this button and the guy dies. and more often than not it's a matter of self defense.
nothing like this happened in Fallout 3. the guy was just standing in front of me and it was up to me to kill him or to let him live.
ok, let me back up. you play as someone trying to escape this "prison." you're trying to escape because your father (an important doctor in this prison) is missing and security thinks you know where he went.
in trying to find out where he went, security interrogates and kills one of his good friends. this good friend just happened to be a sort of uncle to you. now, you don't SEE the murder, but you hear about it and later see his dead body.
the man ultimately responsible for all this is the "warden" of this prison, the Overseer. to complicate matters, the Overseer has a daughter. she is your best friend. she aids you in your escape.
as you near the home stretch, you come upon a scene. the Overseer is interrogating his daughter with the help of a security guard. they want to know where you are. things are getting physical.
ok, first thing is first. the game actually allows you to just sneak past this scene and continue on with your escape (an amazing choice in its own right). of course, i was too emotionally invested in these characters to just sneak on past so i broke up the interrogation. i killed the guard (self defense) and my friend ran for it.
i was left face to face with the Overseer.
the option came up to talk to him, so i did. the only thing he was somewhat remorseful about was the death of my uncle. i questioned him about the interrogation of his own daughter. he basically said the needs of the many outweigh the few - even if the few are family. then he said i had to turn myself in. there was no way i was going to do that, so he started calling for the guards.
conversation over.
now i was left standing in front of him, unable to start another dialogue. i ran around checking for the guards he was calling for, but none appeared. then i checked on my best friend. she was ok but physically and emotionally shaken by the actions of her own father. i exhausted the dialogue tree and moved on, getting closer and closer to the exit.
then it hit me.
what happens to my best friend when i leave the prison? what is the Overseer - her own father - going to do to her if he was already interrogating her as he had been?
i had to go see what i could do.
i went back to the Overseer, but i still couldn't start another dialogue with him. he just kept yelling for the guards. then i pulled out my gun and aimed at him.
the game wasn't stopping me from killing him.
i put the gun down and went back to my best friend to see if she had anything else to say. unfortunately, she didn't. these were my choices:
1) kill the Overseer
+ prevent him from hurting his daughter/my best friend
+ small amount of revenge for killing my uncle
- best friend might hate me in the long run (she still loves her dad after all)
2) let the Overseer live
+ best friend won't hate me for killing him (though she could hate me for NOT killing him if he ends up ruining her life later)
- leaves my best friend in danger
- no revenge for the death of my uncle
i went back to the Overseer one more time just to make sure that the game really was letting me kill the guy if i wanted to. it was. unbelievable.
i thought the decision might be too big to make on my own. i mean what if this one action defines the rest of the game, or the end of the game when i eventually come back home? so i went online to see what other people did and do you know what i found out?
not only is the decision seemingly a minor one, no one else on the forums was talking about it like it was a major decision to be made! i was having my own crisis of conscience on a minor event in the game.
and that's what's so amazing.
there i was, not 2 hours into this 60+ hour game, and i am SO drawn into the world, so emotionally invested - by the dialogue, by the story, by the way the game presents itself - that i'm questioning whether or not to kill someone that ultimately may have no bearing on the game (or very little bearing).
i've never experienced anything else like it in a video game.
so many video games nowadays try and have choices that the player can make - Mass Effect, Fable II, KOTOR - but they usually end up boiling down to very black-and-white, scripted events. not Fallout 3.
and to think. if an event like this happened in the first 2 hours of the game, how many more events will there be like this in the next 58 hours?
if you couldn't tell by now, i am absolutely enthralled by this game.
-k
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Monday, November 3
Thursday, July 31
San Diego Comic Con - the reality
here we are, a week removed from the start of the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and it's time to put down in words what i experienced. to sum it up in two words, the San Diego Comic Con was crazy fun. crazy because of all the people and the countless things to do in a span of just 3 days. fun because it's nerd heaven and i got to hang out with some of my bestest of friends.
let's break down what has easily become one of my favorite extended weekends of my entire life.
Wednesday, 9:45pm
i depart for San Diego via Salt Lake City. why in the world Delta has me flying all the way to Salt Lake City first and THEN returning to San Diego i'll never know. all i know is that it was the cheapest flight i could get.
Thursday, 10:45am
i arrive in San Diego and meet up with Bill (my good friend from Phoenix) and Dave (one of my good friends i met in Vancouver). i quickly learn that Todd (another good friend from Vancouver) has not arrived yet (he should have arrived first). we end up waiting for him for over an hour. at the point when his plane finally lands we are hungry and hearing the call of nerd prom (the con).
noon-ish
we arrive at the hotel, drop our shit off, and head out to find some sustenance. as luck would have it, there is an excellent, EXCELLENT Mexican restaurant across the street. we eat up and head off for the trolly. see, since we booked our hotel sort of late in the game, we couldn't stay near the convention center, so we had to settle for a hotel a few miles away but right near the trolly that would take us to the con.
2pm
we finally arrive at the con. it is wonderous. there are people everywhere and it is only Thursday. the most packed days are to come. we hit the main exhibition hall floor and just walk around in a stupor. Bill and i manage to buy some toy exclusives (available only at this year's con), but otherwise we just sort of wander around.
3pm
Diego (the third and final friend from Vancouver) calls us and lets us know that he's arrived. we meet up with him and Outsourced Games (+ Bill) is reunited for the first time in a year and a half. it's great seeing everyone. if i were a girl i would have cried.
3:30-7pm
we all wander around the main floor - sometimes together, sometimes by ourselves - and just get lost in the nerdiness. no panels were attended. oh, and Dave showed off Saints Row 2 (there were surprisingly a lot of video game publishers showing off their wares at the con - probably because E3 was the week previous and was just up in LA).
the main floor is divided into several areas. first are the big companies giving away free stuff and showing off their wares. next are the artists and creators that aren't necessarily affiliated with any big company showing off their wares. and finally there's the retailers selling a bunch of shit. at the Chicago Comic Con (the only other one i've been to) the space was pretty evenly divided. this time around it seemed like more room was given to the big companies, followed by the small companies, and then the retailers. i was actually expecting a few more retailers. oh well.
7pm
we all 5 leave the con and grab a bite to eat in San Diego's Gaslamp District (right across the street from the convention center). the place reminded me of Vancouver sort of, but with even more bars and a little more upscale. we find a hole in the wall bar and get some bar food.
8pm
at this point Dave, Bill and i are pretty much done. our legs are tired from all the walking and we just want to head back to the room. Todd and Diego however want to head back to the con for some nighttime entertainment - there were a few panels they wanted to see. so we go our separate ways. Dave, Bill and i catch a cab back (too tired to walk the 10+ blocks back to the trolly station), grab a case of beer from a nearby liquor store, and drink, talk, and watch TV.
12-1pm
Todd and Diego return. we call it a night. Day 1 is a wrap.
Friday, 8:30am
we all get up and get ready for the day.
10am
we head across the street for some Mexican breakfast. and a beef taco. oh man is it good.
11:30-noon
we arrive at the con. we walk around for a while, trying to decide what to do. we finally split up, with Dave and i checking out the line for the Spaced panel. surprise surprise, the line is long.
now it's time to take a time out and explain something about the panels at SDCC that i didn't know going in. ok, so at SDCC you can attend one panel early in the day and then squat in the room until the panel you want to see comes up. you never have to leave the room! it's unbelievable. on top of that, they scheduled some of the MAJOR panels in the smallest of rooms! i wasn't able to see Spaced, MST3K, or JMS because of this screw up! so next year i'll know NOT to plan to see any big panels in small rooms and learn to squat in a room earlier in the day if there's an awesome panel i want to see later.
12:30-1:30pm
ok, so we got screwed out of seeing Spaced. that's fine, because there's ALWAYS another panel to see. so Dave, Bill (he met up with us) and i went to see the Spectacular Spider-Man panel (even though they'd never really seen the show). it was great. a lot of the voice actors were there and the creators were there too. it was a great panel with a good balance of questions from the moderator and from the audience. got to see a bit from season 2 and learned it won't be on until next year! oh well. i still love you Spectacular Spider-Man.
1:30-4:45pm
Dave, Bill and i hit the main floor and again got pretty lost in it all. to be honest, i can't exactly remember what happened. we probably hung out for a while, then split up, then got back together again. i know we took a look at some of the retailer booths. got another exclusive toy. Bill went off to meet up with some other friends for the rest of the day.
4:45-6:30pm
i split off on my own to check out the 24 panel. it started at 5:30, so i knew to arrive early and stand in line. i got up there (2nd floor, almost all the panels were on the 2nd floor) and there was already a pretty long line. no big deal i thought, the room was plenty big.
well, i barely got in. i'd say that at least HALF the people in this huge room (the third largest at the con) didn't leave from the panel before. damn squatters. anyway, maybe 50 people after me were let in and that was it. there was AT LEAST 300 more people after that that didn't make it in. that's nuts.
anyway, i got in and it was a great panel. Kiefer was there - along with the guy that plays Tony Almada and a bunch of the writers and producers - and they showed off clips from the season 7 prequel movie (airing in November) and talked about the upcoming season. basically they got me all excited for 24 again. i really think the year off did them some good. at least it sounds like it. oh and man was Kiefer awesome. he said it was his first time at the con. glad i got to see it.
6:30-7:30pm
met up with Dave, Diego, and Todd. we decide to take off and get some supper. after a lot of walking around and not finding what we wanted, we decide to grab a pair of bike taxis to take us to a fish market that's a little ways away. now, these are guys that have a cart for 2-3 people that they pull behind them on a bike. it's sort of like a modern-day rickshaw. so we get a price estimate on it and we all hear the guy say "two ninety-five." everyone but me thinks we're only paying $2.95 a person, but i'm worried that's WAY not enough and that he's going to charge us $295 for the 4 of us. so the entire ride there i'm completely nervous. we get there and he wants $25 per cab (so $50 total). we argue but i guess when we all heard "two ninety-five" what it really was was "twenty five." haha. whatever. at least it wasn't $295.
7:30-9:15pm
we eat at this really great fish market place right on the water. i've never been a seafood guy, but ever since Vancouver i've been a lot more willing to try foods, and being back with my Vancouver crew i felt it only appropriate to try something new - so i ordered the swordfish. freshly caught by the restaurant that morning. $30. oh my GOD was it good. also tried for the first time clam chowder (holy shit was it creamy) and boiled peel-and-eat shrimp. not a big fan of the shrimp. but the rest was excellent. even the creme brulee.
9:15-10:20pm
Todd was going to leave us to hang out with some Vegas friends in town for the con, so Diego, Dave and i had to decide what we wanted to do with the rest of the night. well, none of us had seen The Dark Knight yet, so we decided that's what we'd do.
oh what an adventure it was.
we all 4 grab a cab back to the Gas Light District. we tell the cabby to take us to the movie theater in the Gas Light District. he drops us off pointing a block away saying that the theater is there. ok, so Dave, Diego and i split off from Todd and go check it out. nope, no theater there. we walk around a bit more and finally ask someone. they tell us the theater is 5 blocks up, not even close to where the cabby told us it would be. ok, so we begrudgingly walk the 5 blocks and come to a theater. in the ticket window is a sign that says:
sorry, we're not showing The Dark Knight. try the so-and-so theater a few blocks up.
we ask the guy at the ticket counter where the theater is and he says it's only 2 blocks up, 1 block over. so off we go. in retrospect, we should have asked WHY they weren't showing the #1 movie in the country, but oh well. we get to the theater, get our tickets for the 10:20 showing (next showing was an hour later - at least we lucked out at something that night) and got ready for The Dark Knight. FINALLY!
10:20pm-1am
Dave, Diego and i watch what is:
- the best movie of this year
- my favorite comic book movie of all time
- one of my favorite movies all around
The Dark Knight does not disappoint. but that's for another post altogether.
we grab a cab back to the hotel (the trolly shut down at midnight, and besides, it was at least 20 blocks away from where we were at that point) and are greeted by Todd and Bill when we get back. we all talk a bit and then turn in for the night. end Day 2.
Saturday, 9-11am
we get ready for the day and head down for a free breakfast at the hotel. then we hit the trolly and head to the con.
11:45am-3:15pm
we arrive at the con and all head into the Dean Koontz panel. Dean Koontz used to be my favorite writer in high school, so to hear him speak in person was really awesome. half the panel was a prepared speech which consisted of personal stories that were rather humorous and the other half was questions from the audience that were pretty good. overall it was a blast. i really should start reading his stuff again.
then Todd, Dave and i became the very thing we hated: squatters. see, the Battlestar Galactica panel was in the very same room only an hour away, and if we were to leave, we'd have to get in a no-doubt HUGE line to get back in, so we stayed. we saw the Dollhouse panel with Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, and Hilo from Battlestar. the Dollhouse is a show coming out on FOX this January and, well, the panel made me a believer. i'll check it out.
FINALLY the Battlestar panel started and wow, a ton of the stars/creators were there:
- Ronald D. Moore, the creator/writer
- the main producer
- Tricia Helfer/Six
- Gaius Baltar
- Starbuck
- Starbuck's husband
- Lee Adama (wasn't scheduled to be there)
- Hilo (wasn't scheduled to be there)
oh, and it was moderated by Kevin Smith.
anyway, it was really great seeing all of them and hearing them talk about Battlestar - especially since it just wrapped up shooting a few weeks ago. unfortunately there were too many stars on the panel and not enough time. i think the moderator should have kicked it to the audience sooner because there was hardly any Q&A with the audience. panel should have been 2 hours instead of 1. oh well. got to see a longer teaser for season 4.5 (not coming out until 2009) and a trailer for Caprica, the prequel series. looking good! and Eric Stoltz to boot!
3:15-4:30pm
well, it was time to hit the main floor finally for the first time that day and pick up some more toy exclusives. Dave and Todd were with me, and we eventually met up with Bill. now, Bill was leaving us at 6pm to head back to Phoenix so i decided to grab a bite to eat with him, Todd and Dave before he left. i missed the JMS panel for this, but it's no big deal. JMS was in one of the small rooms. i'm sure i wouldn't have gotten in.
4:30-6pm
Todd, Dave, Bill and i grab a bite to eat at a Mexi-American bar a few blocks from the convention center. food was ok, beer was good. we had a good last meal with Bill. we said our goodbyes and Todd, Dave and i were off to the con for my last hour there.
6-7pm
i hit the floor one last time by myself and look around for any last minute purchases. i find one last exclusive toy that had alluded me up until then. finally, it's time to say goodbye to the con.
7pm-1am?
Todd, Dave and i head off in search of a bar to hang out for the rest of the night in. we happen upon Jolt N Joes (or something like that) and it's just perfect. we spend a good chunk of the night at the bar, then Diego joins us, and so do a few of Todd's Vegas friends, and we head upstairs to hang out. we have some more drinks and i do some drunk texting to Bill. ah, good times. it's a great blowout to end San Diego 2008.
2am?
we're back at our hotel. i promptly pass out.
Sunday, 8:30-9:30am
i somehow get up and ready for my flight at 11:30. i say my goodbyes to Dave, Diego, and Todd, have the hotel call me a cab and i'm off.
goodbye San Diego.
Epilogue
we've been talking since we've been back and everyone wants to make this a yearly thing. so watch out San Diego! come next year, we'll be back with a vengeance! and maybe we'll know what we're doing this time. like maybe we'll grab a hotel that's right there next to the convention center. oh! and we'll know all about squatting.
CRAZY FUN!!!
-k
ps - those that know me, watch out for pics. and i might do a post on the toys i got... though i don't want to seem too nerdy.
TOO LATE.
let's break down what has easily become one of my favorite extended weekends of my entire life.
Wednesday, 9:45pm
i depart for San Diego via Salt Lake City. why in the world Delta has me flying all the way to Salt Lake City first and THEN returning to San Diego i'll never know. all i know is that it was the cheapest flight i could get.
Thursday, 10:45am
i arrive in San Diego and meet up with Bill (my good friend from Phoenix) and Dave (one of my good friends i met in Vancouver). i quickly learn that Todd (another good friend from Vancouver) has not arrived yet (he should have arrived first). we end up waiting for him for over an hour. at the point when his plane finally lands we are hungry and hearing the call of nerd prom (the con).
noon-ish
we arrive at the hotel, drop our shit off, and head out to find some sustenance. as luck would have it, there is an excellent, EXCELLENT Mexican restaurant across the street. we eat up and head off for the trolly. see, since we booked our hotel sort of late in the game, we couldn't stay near the convention center, so we had to settle for a hotel a few miles away but right near the trolly that would take us to the con.
2pm
we finally arrive at the con. it is wonderous. there are people everywhere and it is only Thursday. the most packed days are to come. we hit the main exhibition hall floor and just walk around in a stupor. Bill and i manage to buy some toy exclusives (available only at this year's con), but otherwise we just sort of wander around.
3pm
Diego (the third and final friend from Vancouver) calls us and lets us know that he's arrived. we meet up with him and Outsourced Games (+ Bill) is reunited for the first time in a year and a half. it's great seeing everyone. if i were a girl i would have cried.
3:30-7pm
we all wander around the main floor - sometimes together, sometimes by ourselves - and just get lost in the nerdiness. no panels were attended. oh, and Dave showed off Saints Row 2 (there were surprisingly a lot of video game publishers showing off their wares at the con - probably because E3 was the week previous and was just up in LA).
the main floor is divided into several areas. first are the big companies giving away free stuff and showing off their wares. next are the artists and creators that aren't necessarily affiliated with any big company showing off their wares. and finally there's the retailers selling a bunch of shit. at the Chicago Comic Con (the only other one i've been to) the space was pretty evenly divided. this time around it seemed like more room was given to the big companies, followed by the small companies, and then the retailers. i was actually expecting a few more retailers. oh well.
7pm
we all 5 leave the con and grab a bite to eat in San Diego's Gaslamp District (right across the street from the convention center). the place reminded me of Vancouver sort of, but with even more bars and a little more upscale. we find a hole in the wall bar and get some bar food.
8pm
at this point Dave, Bill and i are pretty much done. our legs are tired from all the walking and we just want to head back to the room. Todd and Diego however want to head back to the con for some nighttime entertainment - there were a few panels they wanted to see. so we go our separate ways. Dave, Bill and i catch a cab back (too tired to walk the 10+ blocks back to the trolly station), grab a case of beer from a nearby liquor store, and drink, talk, and watch TV.
12-1pm
Todd and Diego return. we call it a night. Day 1 is a wrap.
Friday, 8:30am
we all get up and get ready for the day.
10am
we head across the street for some Mexican breakfast. and a beef taco. oh man is it good.
11:30-noon
we arrive at the con. we walk around for a while, trying to decide what to do. we finally split up, with Dave and i checking out the line for the Spaced panel. surprise surprise, the line is long.
now it's time to take a time out and explain something about the panels at SDCC that i didn't know going in. ok, so at SDCC you can attend one panel early in the day and then squat in the room until the panel you want to see comes up. you never have to leave the room! it's unbelievable. on top of that, they scheduled some of the MAJOR panels in the smallest of rooms! i wasn't able to see Spaced, MST3K, or JMS because of this screw up! so next year i'll know NOT to plan to see any big panels in small rooms and learn to squat in a room earlier in the day if there's an awesome panel i want to see later.
12:30-1:30pm
ok, so we got screwed out of seeing Spaced. that's fine, because there's ALWAYS another panel to see. so Dave, Bill (he met up with us) and i went to see the Spectacular Spider-Man panel (even though they'd never really seen the show). it was great. a lot of the voice actors were there and the creators were there too. it was a great panel with a good balance of questions from the moderator and from the audience. got to see a bit from season 2 and learned it won't be on until next year! oh well. i still love you Spectacular Spider-Man.
1:30-4:45pm
Dave, Bill and i hit the main floor and again got pretty lost in it all. to be honest, i can't exactly remember what happened. we probably hung out for a while, then split up, then got back together again. i know we took a look at some of the retailer booths. got another exclusive toy. Bill went off to meet up with some other friends for the rest of the day.
4:45-6:30pm
i split off on my own to check out the 24 panel. it started at 5:30, so i knew to arrive early and stand in line. i got up there (2nd floor, almost all the panels were on the 2nd floor) and there was already a pretty long line. no big deal i thought, the room was plenty big.
well, i barely got in. i'd say that at least HALF the people in this huge room (the third largest at the con) didn't leave from the panel before. damn squatters. anyway, maybe 50 people after me were let in and that was it. there was AT LEAST 300 more people after that that didn't make it in. that's nuts.
anyway, i got in and it was a great panel. Kiefer was there - along with the guy that plays Tony Almada and a bunch of the writers and producers - and they showed off clips from the season 7 prequel movie (airing in November) and talked about the upcoming season. basically they got me all excited for 24 again. i really think the year off did them some good. at least it sounds like it. oh and man was Kiefer awesome. he said it was his first time at the con. glad i got to see it.
6:30-7:30pm
met up with Dave, Diego, and Todd. we decide to take off and get some supper. after a lot of walking around and not finding what we wanted, we decide to grab a pair of bike taxis to take us to a fish market that's a little ways away. now, these are guys that have a cart for 2-3 people that they pull behind them on a bike. it's sort of like a modern-day rickshaw. so we get a price estimate on it and we all hear the guy say "two ninety-five." everyone but me thinks we're only paying $2.95 a person, but i'm worried that's WAY not enough and that he's going to charge us $295 for the 4 of us. so the entire ride there i'm completely nervous. we get there and he wants $25 per cab (so $50 total). we argue but i guess when we all heard "two ninety-five" what it really was was "twenty five." haha. whatever. at least it wasn't $295.
7:30-9:15pm
we eat at this really great fish market place right on the water. i've never been a seafood guy, but ever since Vancouver i've been a lot more willing to try foods, and being back with my Vancouver crew i felt it only appropriate to try something new - so i ordered the swordfish. freshly caught by the restaurant that morning. $30. oh my GOD was it good. also tried for the first time clam chowder (holy shit was it creamy) and boiled peel-and-eat shrimp. not a big fan of the shrimp. but the rest was excellent. even the creme brulee.
9:15-10:20pm
Todd was going to leave us to hang out with some Vegas friends in town for the con, so Diego, Dave and i had to decide what we wanted to do with the rest of the night. well, none of us had seen The Dark Knight yet, so we decided that's what we'd do.
oh what an adventure it was.
we all 4 grab a cab back to the Gas Light District. we tell the cabby to take us to the movie theater in the Gas Light District. he drops us off pointing a block away saying that the theater is there. ok, so Dave, Diego and i split off from Todd and go check it out. nope, no theater there. we walk around a bit more and finally ask someone. they tell us the theater is 5 blocks up, not even close to where the cabby told us it would be. ok, so we begrudgingly walk the 5 blocks and come to a theater. in the ticket window is a sign that says:
sorry, we're not showing The Dark Knight. try the so-and-so theater a few blocks up.
we ask the guy at the ticket counter where the theater is and he says it's only 2 blocks up, 1 block over. so off we go. in retrospect, we should have asked WHY they weren't showing the #1 movie in the country, but oh well. we get to the theater, get our tickets for the 10:20 showing (next showing was an hour later - at least we lucked out at something that night) and got ready for The Dark Knight. FINALLY!
10:20pm-1am
Dave, Diego and i watch what is:
- the best movie of this year
- my favorite comic book movie of all time
- one of my favorite movies all around
The Dark Knight does not disappoint. but that's for another post altogether.
we grab a cab back to the hotel (the trolly shut down at midnight, and besides, it was at least 20 blocks away from where we were at that point) and are greeted by Todd and Bill when we get back. we all talk a bit and then turn in for the night. end Day 2.
Saturday, 9-11am
we get ready for the day and head down for a free breakfast at the hotel. then we hit the trolly and head to the con.
11:45am-3:15pm
we arrive at the con and all head into the Dean Koontz panel. Dean Koontz used to be my favorite writer in high school, so to hear him speak in person was really awesome. half the panel was a prepared speech which consisted of personal stories that were rather humorous and the other half was questions from the audience that were pretty good. overall it was a blast. i really should start reading his stuff again.
then Todd, Dave and i became the very thing we hated: squatters. see, the Battlestar Galactica panel was in the very same room only an hour away, and if we were to leave, we'd have to get in a no-doubt HUGE line to get back in, so we stayed. we saw the Dollhouse panel with Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, and Hilo from Battlestar. the Dollhouse is a show coming out on FOX this January and, well, the panel made me a believer. i'll check it out.
FINALLY the Battlestar panel started and wow, a ton of the stars/creators were there:
- Ronald D. Moore, the creator/writer
- the main producer
- Tricia Helfer/Six
- Gaius Baltar
- Starbuck
- Starbuck's husband
- Lee Adama (wasn't scheduled to be there)
- Hilo (wasn't scheduled to be there)
oh, and it was moderated by Kevin Smith.
anyway, it was really great seeing all of them and hearing them talk about Battlestar - especially since it just wrapped up shooting a few weeks ago. unfortunately there were too many stars on the panel and not enough time. i think the moderator should have kicked it to the audience sooner because there was hardly any Q&A with the audience. panel should have been 2 hours instead of 1. oh well. got to see a longer teaser for season 4.5 (not coming out until 2009) and a trailer for Caprica, the prequel series. looking good! and Eric Stoltz to boot!
3:15-4:30pm
well, it was time to hit the main floor finally for the first time that day and pick up some more toy exclusives. Dave and Todd were with me, and we eventually met up with Bill. now, Bill was leaving us at 6pm to head back to Phoenix so i decided to grab a bite to eat with him, Todd and Dave before he left. i missed the JMS panel for this, but it's no big deal. JMS was in one of the small rooms. i'm sure i wouldn't have gotten in.
4:30-6pm
Todd, Dave, Bill and i grab a bite to eat at a Mexi-American bar a few blocks from the convention center. food was ok, beer was good. we had a good last meal with Bill. we said our goodbyes and Todd, Dave and i were off to the con for my last hour there.
6-7pm
i hit the floor one last time by myself and look around for any last minute purchases. i find one last exclusive toy that had alluded me up until then. finally, it's time to say goodbye to the con.
7pm-1am?
Todd, Dave and i head off in search of a bar to hang out for the rest of the night in. we happen upon Jolt N Joes (or something like that) and it's just perfect. we spend a good chunk of the night at the bar, then Diego joins us, and so do a few of Todd's Vegas friends, and we head upstairs to hang out. we have some more drinks and i do some drunk texting to Bill. ah, good times. it's a great blowout to end San Diego 2008.
2am?
we're back at our hotel. i promptly pass out.
Sunday, 8:30-9:30am
i somehow get up and ready for my flight at 11:30. i say my goodbyes to Dave, Diego, and Todd, have the hotel call me a cab and i'm off.
goodbye San Diego.
Epilogue
we've been talking since we've been back and everyone wants to make this a yearly thing. so watch out San Diego! come next year, we'll be back with a vengeance! and maybe we'll know what we're doing this time. like maybe we'll grab a hotel that's right there next to the convention center. oh! and we'll know all about squatting.
CRAZY FUN!!!
-k
ps - those that know me, watch out for pics. and i might do a post on the toys i got... though i don't want to seem too nerdy.
TOO LATE.
Tuesday, July 22
San Diego Comic Con - the panels wish list
the San Diego Comic Con is but a few days away. it's my first year attending. i don't think i've been this excited for an event in a long time. here are the panels that, if i had all the time in the world, i would like to see while there:
- spotlight on Steve Purcell, creator of Sam & Max, now part of the creative braintrust at Pixar.
- a few panels on science fiction writing (if you've been reading the blog, i've been on a sci fi kick the past several months).
- Halo Wars and the Halo Universe. what can i say, i'm a Halo fanboy. also, with the ball being dropped by Microsoft last week at E3, maybe something will slip out this week about the new Halo game Bungie's working on.
- Entertainment Weekly is sponsoring a few panels that feature "creative visionaries" in fields such as comics and movies. the comics one is going to have Mignola, Kirkman, and Morrison. the movies one is going to have Kevin Smith, Apatow, Frank Miller, and Zack Snyder.
- bunch of Star Trek panels.
- Episodic Games: Rewriting the Adventure Game. a panel about a rather new trend in video games. i'm interested because of the talent at the panel.
- a bunch of Marvel Comics panels, though not as many as i would have been interested in attending in the past. i'm just not reading that many mainstream comics nowadays.
- a bunch of television show panels that will feature some/all of the cast and creators/producers. shows include: The Big Bang Theory, 24 (with Kiefer!), Heroes, Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and Chuck.
- spotlight on Max Brooks, author of World War Z (perhaps my favorite work of zombie fiction).
- one on one with Terry Moore, author of Strangers in Paradise, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Echo, and Runaways. SiP has been over for a year now, but maybe he'll talk about it a little... however, i'm really going just to get some news on Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.
- Watchmen (the movie) with the director and a bunch of the movie's stars. i'm psyched for this movie, since the director did 300 before this.
- a Spaced reunion, with the creators/cast. Spaced is one of my favorite shows of all time. from the guys that made Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. as good as those movies are, Spaced is 10 times better.
- a Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon panel with a lot of the voice actors and a few producers of the show. this is at the same time as the Spaced panel, so we'll have to see which one has the shorter line to get in. i want season 2 details!!!
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game panel, with Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson. if by some stroke of god Ramis and Murray show up, i will die a happy man (IF i'm there to see it).
- The Spirit panel, with director Frank Miller and cast members SAMUEL L. JACKSON and Eva Mendes. movie looks like the spiritual successor to Sin City. looks good.
- a Family Guy panel. even though i don't really like Family Guy anymore (the formula wore thin on me after the third season), i have to admit, it'd be pretty cool to hear Seth MacFarlane and Seth Green talk about the show.
- an Image and Vertigo panel. more comic panels. mainly interested in them because each panel has a few of my favorite writers/creators on them (Kirkman, Larsen, Buckingham, Morrison, Wood).
- a Venture Bros. panel with the creator and some of the cast. great, underrated cartoon airing on adult swim.
- a Robot Chicken panel with the creators and a few of the cast members. another adult swim program. would mainly go to see Seth Green talk.
- a Futurama panel with a bunch of the cast and crew. always been a casual fan of the show, would be neat to see the cast.
- Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and the Secrets Behind Turning Comics into Games. interesting because, well, i'm in the games business.
- spotlight on Dean Koontz! those that know me well know that i grew up on Koontz novels, reading them all through high school. his latest novels haven't interested me much - maybe my tastes just evolved - but he is still the writer of one of my favorite books of all time, Lightning. even though he'll be talking about his new books and new comic deal with Marvel (i.e. stuff i won't care about) it'll still be cool to see one of my former idols.
- Xbox Creators' Showcase: Gears of War 2 and Fable 2. 2 great games coming out this fall, both being shown off by their semi-famous creators. would be neat to see. hey, maybe i'll have my own panel at SDCC 10 years from now! ah, but as a game designer, or as a writer? hmm...
- spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski. one of my current writing idols. still can't believe that he was at a Chicago comic con back 10 years ago when B5 was in its hayday and i didn't see him (hell, i didn't even know who he was, or what B5 was). this time, i won't miss him. this is the panel i'm probably most excited to see.
- a panel on the creation of the upcoming survival horror game, Dead Space.
- A STARSHIP TROOPERS 3 PANEL! FEATURING NONE OTHER THAN THE STAR OF THE SERIES, CASPER VAN DIEN!!!
- a panel on the creation of the upcoming Bionic Commando and Bionic Commando Rearmed.
nighttime programming:
- Comedy Central's TV Funhouse with Robert Smigel. some of you may have heard of Smigel - he does Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Conan and Saturday TV Funhouse on SNL - but i know him best for this short-lived, wonder of a show called TV Funhouse. it's a reunion of sorts. should be a blast (whether or not i choose to go).
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 20th Anniversary Reunion. with the creator, producer, and i believe the entire f'in cast/crew! and Patton Oswalt is the host!! ENOUGH SAID!!!
- Spaced screening. the cast is back to screen their favorite episodes. if i don't make it to the earlier panel, i'm definitely hitting this one up.
...and that's it! whew! now, that's all the panels that i WANT to see. i would be surprised if i actually make it to 1/4 of those.
i mean, first off, this is my first year at SDCC, so i'm sure a lot of time will be just figuring the whole thing out. i also need at least a day to just walk the floor and buy stuff/get a bunch of free shit. next, the lines for some of these panels i'm sure will be INSANE. some i'll be willing to wait for, most i won't. oh, and a lot of the above panels are happening at the same time - like i think the worst is there are 4 panels i want to see that overlap in a 2-hour period. so i can only go to 1 of those 4 panels, if that. and finally, i'm going to be meeting up with a bunch of friends i haven't seen in a while, so i'm sure i won't want to spend the majority of my time in panels (or in line for panels).
however, there are those that i'll do everything in my power to make. i need to see JMS, Dean Koontz, MST3K, Spaced, Terry Moore, Max Brooks, and maybe Spectacular Spider-Man. oh, and it'd be great to attend a few of those TV show panels - specifically 24, Battlestar, and Heros - but i imagine the line for those will be crazy long. crazy crazy long.
i'll let you know how it all went on the flip side. wish me luck!
-k
- spotlight on Steve Purcell, creator of Sam & Max, now part of the creative braintrust at Pixar.
- a few panels on science fiction writing (if you've been reading the blog, i've been on a sci fi kick the past several months).
- Halo Wars and the Halo Universe. what can i say, i'm a Halo fanboy. also, with the ball being dropped by Microsoft last week at E3, maybe something will slip out this week about the new Halo game Bungie's working on.
- Entertainment Weekly is sponsoring a few panels that feature "creative visionaries" in fields such as comics and movies. the comics one is going to have Mignola, Kirkman, and Morrison. the movies one is going to have Kevin Smith, Apatow, Frank Miller, and Zack Snyder.
- bunch of Star Trek panels.
- Episodic Games: Rewriting the Adventure Game. a panel about a rather new trend in video games. i'm interested because of the talent at the panel.
- a bunch of Marvel Comics panels, though not as many as i would have been interested in attending in the past. i'm just not reading that many mainstream comics nowadays.
- a bunch of television show panels that will feature some/all of the cast and creators/producers. shows include: The Big Bang Theory, 24 (with Kiefer!), Heroes, Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and Chuck.
- spotlight on Max Brooks, author of World War Z (perhaps my favorite work of zombie fiction).
- one on one with Terry Moore, author of Strangers in Paradise, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Echo, and Runaways. SiP has been over for a year now, but maybe he'll talk about it a little... however, i'm really going just to get some news on Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.
- Watchmen (the movie) with the director and a bunch of the movie's stars. i'm psyched for this movie, since the director did 300 before this.
- a Spaced reunion, with the creators/cast. Spaced is one of my favorite shows of all time. from the guys that made Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. as good as those movies are, Spaced is 10 times better.
- a Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon panel with a lot of the voice actors and a few producers of the show. this is at the same time as the Spaced panel, so we'll have to see which one has the shorter line to get in. i want season 2 details!!!
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game panel, with Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson. if by some stroke of god Ramis and Murray show up, i will die a happy man (IF i'm there to see it).
- The Spirit panel, with director Frank Miller and cast members SAMUEL L. JACKSON and Eva Mendes. movie looks like the spiritual successor to Sin City. looks good.
- a Family Guy panel. even though i don't really like Family Guy anymore (the formula wore thin on me after the third season), i have to admit, it'd be pretty cool to hear Seth MacFarlane and Seth Green talk about the show.
- an Image and Vertigo panel. more comic panels. mainly interested in them because each panel has a few of my favorite writers/creators on them (Kirkman, Larsen, Buckingham, Morrison, Wood).
- a Venture Bros. panel with the creator and some of the cast. great, underrated cartoon airing on adult swim.
- a Robot Chicken panel with the creators and a few of the cast members. another adult swim program. would mainly go to see Seth Green talk.
- a Futurama panel with a bunch of the cast and crew. always been a casual fan of the show, would be neat to see the cast.
- Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and the Secrets Behind Turning Comics into Games. interesting because, well, i'm in the games business.
- spotlight on Dean Koontz! those that know me well know that i grew up on Koontz novels, reading them all through high school. his latest novels haven't interested me much - maybe my tastes just evolved - but he is still the writer of one of my favorite books of all time, Lightning. even though he'll be talking about his new books and new comic deal with Marvel (i.e. stuff i won't care about) it'll still be cool to see one of my former idols.
- Xbox Creators' Showcase: Gears of War 2 and Fable 2. 2 great games coming out this fall, both being shown off by their semi-famous creators. would be neat to see. hey, maybe i'll have my own panel at SDCC 10 years from now! ah, but as a game designer, or as a writer? hmm...
- spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski. one of my current writing idols. still can't believe that he was at a Chicago comic con back 10 years ago when B5 was in its hayday and i didn't see him (hell, i didn't even know who he was, or what B5 was). this time, i won't miss him. this is the panel i'm probably most excited to see.
- a panel on the creation of the upcoming survival horror game, Dead Space.
- A STARSHIP TROOPERS 3 PANEL! FEATURING NONE OTHER THAN THE STAR OF THE SERIES, CASPER VAN DIEN!!!
- a panel on the creation of the upcoming Bionic Commando and Bionic Commando Rearmed.
nighttime programming:
- Comedy Central's TV Funhouse with Robert Smigel. some of you may have heard of Smigel - he does Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Conan and Saturday TV Funhouse on SNL - but i know him best for this short-lived, wonder of a show called TV Funhouse. it's a reunion of sorts. should be a blast (whether or not i choose to go).
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 20th Anniversary Reunion. with the creator, producer, and i believe the entire f'in cast/crew! and Patton Oswalt is the host!! ENOUGH SAID!!!
- Spaced screening. the cast is back to screen their favorite episodes. if i don't make it to the earlier panel, i'm definitely hitting this one up.
...and that's it! whew! now, that's all the panels that i WANT to see. i would be surprised if i actually make it to 1/4 of those.
i mean, first off, this is my first year at SDCC, so i'm sure a lot of time will be just figuring the whole thing out. i also need at least a day to just walk the floor and buy stuff/get a bunch of free shit. next, the lines for some of these panels i'm sure will be INSANE. some i'll be willing to wait for, most i won't. oh, and a lot of the above panels are happening at the same time - like i think the worst is there are 4 panels i want to see that overlap in a 2-hour period. so i can only go to 1 of those 4 panels, if that. and finally, i'm going to be meeting up with a bunch of friends i haven't seen in a while, so i'm sure i won't want to spend the majority of my time in panels (or in line for panels).
however, there are those that i'll do everything in my power to make. i need to see JMS, Dean Koontz, MST3K, Spaced, Terry Moore, Max Brooks, and maybe Spectacular Spider-Man. oh, and it'd be great to attend a few of those TV show panels - specifically 24, Battlestar, and Heros - but i imagine the line for those will be crazy long. crazy crazy long.
i'll let you know how it all went on the flip side. wish me luck!
-k
Thursday, July 17
E3 2008
E3 has become a shadow of its former self the past couple of years, but with all the great games coming out, it was pretty hard to tell this year. here's some of my thoughts on E3 2008.
- Microsoft shocked everyone when they announced Final Fantasy XIII was headed to their platform as well as PS3. this is the second major game Sony lost exclusivity on from last gen to this gen (the other being Grand Theft Auto) and i've gotta admit, i feel bad for Sony. i'm not mad at Square for pimping out their product (this generation, it's hard to stay exclusive to a console with the high costs of production), i'm just sort of upset at Sony for letting Final Fantasy slip through their fingers. oh well. good game Microsoft.
- Bungie (makers of Halo, one of my favorite franchises) had been set to announce something at E3 for MONTHS. then, at the last minute, Microsoft decided to pull the plug saying that they had already shown off enough and they wanted to save the Bungie announcement. supposedly it's another game taking place in the Halo universe, but whatever it is, Microsoft totally dropped the ball. Bungie had been planning this, the fans (who are pretty rabid when it comes to Bungie) had been gearing up for it, and then POOF - nothing. stupid Microsoft. we're still with you Bungie!
- the Xbox 360 updated dashboard is looking pretty sweet. sort of a mix of CD cover shuffle on the ipod, Microsoft Vista windows, and the old dashboard.
- NOT liking how Microsoft is copying Nintendo with their avatars (blatant ripoffs of Miis) and worried that they're trying to reach out to everyone at once and will end up not reaching anyone.
- Microsoft and Netflix partner up to offer movies on your 360 for free (if you have a Netflix account). might be time to get a Netflix account. something about having a queue of movies that i don't have to wait for to come in the mail intrigues me.
- Nintendo starts to disappoint even their most hardcore fans! FINALLY! first they announce the Wii MotionPlus add-on for the Wii Remote (at a $30 value) that basically makes the Wiimote do WHAT IT WAS ORIGINALLY ADVERTISED TO DO! wow. then, at their press conference, they completely snubbed their core fans in favor of their new casual fans. WiiMusic? are you serious? that's not a game, that's play - further proving my point that the Nintendo Wii is nothing more than a toy. hey, if a toy is what you want, that's fine. to each his own. me, i'm just glad i jumped off Nintendo's bandwagon a few years back, otherwise this E3 would have KILLED me.
- Sony had a pretty good showing this year (i'm very excited to see where their first-party titles and PlayStation Network titles are going), but most the third party titles showing up on 360 and PS3 decided to show their wares at Microsoft's press conference instead of Sony's. that, and the fact that Sony lost exclusivity on FFXIII, made their showing a little sad. they keep asking us to wait just a little longer for the games to come out. well, i'm waiting.
- never played the originals, but Fallout 3 looks AMAZING.
- Mirror's Edge looks like it might give me motion sickness, but i think it'll be worth it for the amazing, original experience it seems like it's going to offer.
- might get Ghostbusters: The Video Game simply for the fact that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script (from what was to be the third, never-made movie) and that all 4 Ghostbuters are back lending their voices to the game.
- both a James Bond movie AND video game look great? what is this, 1996? i'm pretty psyched to see the new Bond movie Quantum of Solace (after the last one kicked so much ass), but even moreso looking forward to the game that will have the first and second movie all wrapped up into one - using the Call of Duty 4 game engine. seriously, a Bond game hasn't looked this good since Goldeneye.
- other amazing single-player games: inFamous, flower, PixelJunk Eden, Dragon Age: Origins, Naruto 2, Killzone 2.
- games that just look like pure fun: This is Vegas, Wheelman, Mega Man 9, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Lips.
- role-playing games i must have: The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Final Fantasy XIII.
- psyched that co-op is making such a comeback! Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, and Borderlands are all must-haves for me. now, if i can only get another friend or two to pick them up...
- excited to see more of: I Am Alive, Darksiders: Wrath of War, Velvet Assassin, Bionic Commando, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Hydrophobia, The Agency, Damnation.
- looking forward to these games on the go for the PSP: Loco Roco 2, Patapon 2, Super Stardust Portable, Star Ocean: First Departure, Star Ocean: Second Evolution.
- Yakuza 2! early September! finally!!!
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO is finally confirmed. while i would have rather liked an announcement for III, i have to admit that an MMO set in the KOTOR universe may be enough to get me to play an MMO.
- the new Prince of Persia is beautiful - not only in its art direction, but also in its gameplay. this is my most anticipated game of Fall/Winter 2008.
- and finally, this is BY FAR the best trailer to come out of E3 2008. may i present to you, the trailer for Duke Nukem Trilogy. at 4 minutes in length, it's like someone just discovered After Effects on their computer and just couldn't stop himself. 4 MINUTES!!!
so there you have it. most shocking was that FFXIII is headed to 360. most laughable was Nintendo's press conference and continued snubbing of their core fans. most stupid was Microsoft denying Bungie their announcement. and most impressive was:
Prince of Persia
runners up: Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, Quantum of Solace, and Borderlands.
seriously, this Fall/Winter (when most of these games are slated to be released) looks to be as good - if not better than - last year. and last year was UNBELIEVABLE.
video games. gotta love 'em.
-k
ps - i could go on in great length about almost all the video games mentioned above, but i just don't have the time to go into them all right now. if you want to know how i feel about a specific video game above, you'll have to hit me up in the comments.
- Microsoft shocked everyone when they announced Final Fantasy XIII was headed to their platform as well as PS3. this is the second major game Sony lost exclusivity on from last gen to this gen (the other being Grand Theft Auto) and i've gotta admit, i feel bad for Sony. i'm not mad at Square for pimping out their product (this generation, it's hard to stay exclusive to a console with the high costs of production), i'm just sort of upset at Sony for letting Final Fantasy slip through their fingers. oh well. good game Microsoft.
- Bungie (makers of Halo, one of my favorite franchises) had been set to announce something at E3 for MONTHS. then, at the last minute, Microsoft decided to pull the plug saying that they had already shown off enough and they wanted to save the Bungie announcement. supposedly it's another game taking place in the Halo universe, but whatever it is, Microsoft totally dropped the ball. Bungie had been planning this, the fans (who are pretty rabid when it comes to Bungie) had been gearing up for it, and then POOF - nothing. stupid Microsoft. we're still with you Bungie!
- the Xbox 360 updated dashboard is looking pretty sweet. sort of a mix of CD cover shuffle on the ipod, Microsoft Vista windows, and the old dashboard.
- NOT liking how Microsoft is copying Nintendo with their avatars (blatant ripoffs of Miis) and worried that they're trying to reach out to everyone at once and will end up not reaching anyone.
- Microsoft and Netflix partner up to offer movies on your 360 for free (if you have a Netflix account). might be time to get a Netflix account. something about having a queue of movies that i don't have to wait for to come in the mail intrigues me.
- Nintendo starts to disappoint even their most hardcore fans! FINALLY! first they announce the Wii MotionPlus add-on for the Wii Remote (at a $30 value) that basically makes the Wiimote do WHAT IT WAS ORIGINALLY ADVERTISED TO DO! wow. then, at their press conference, they completely snubbed their core fans in favor of their new casual fans. WiiMusic? are you serious? that's not a game, that's play - further proving my point that the Nintendo Wii is nothing more than a toy. hey, if a toy is what you want, that's fine. to each his own. me, i'm just glad i jumped off Nintendo's bandwagon a few years back, otherwise this E3 would have KILLED me.
- Sony had a pretty good showing this year (i'm very excited to see where their first-party titles and PlayStation Network titles are going), but most the third party titles showing up on 360 and PS3 decided to show their wares at Microsoft's press conference instead of Sony's. that, and the fact that Sony lost exclusivity on FFXIII, made their showing a little sad. they keep asking us to wait just a little longer for the games to come out. well, i'm waiting.
- never played the originals, but Fallout 3 looks AMAZING.
- Mirror's Edge looks like it might give me motion sickness, but i think it'll be worth it for the amazing, original experience it seems like it's going to offer.
- might get Ghostbusters: The Video Game simply for the fact that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script (from what was to be the third, never-made movie) and that all 4 Ghostbuters are back lending their voices to the game.
- both a James Bond movie AND video game look great? what is this, 1996? i'm pretty psyched to see the new Bond movie Quantum of Solace (after the last one kicked so much ass), but even moreso looking forward to the game that will have the first and second movie all wrapped up into one - using the Call of Duty 4 game engine. seriously, a Bond game hasn't looked this good since Goldeneye.
- other amazing single-player games: inFamous, flower, PixelJunk Eden, Dragon Age: Origins, Naruto 2, Killzone 2.
- games that just look like pure fun: This is Vegas, Wheelman, Mega Man 9, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Lips.
- role-playing games i must have: The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Final Fantasy XIII.
- psyched that co-op is making such a comeback! Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, and Borderlands are all must-haves for me. now, if i can only get another friend or two to pick them up...
- excited to see more of: I Am Alive, Darksiders: Wrath of War, Velvet Assassin, Bionic Commando, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Hydrophobia, The Agency, Damnation.
- looking forward to these games on the go for the PSP: Loco Roco 2, Patapon 2, Super Stardust Portable, Star Ocean: First Departure, Star Ocean: Second Evolution.
- Yakuza 2! early September! finally!!!
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO is finally confirmed. while i would have rather liked an announcement for III, i have to admit that an MMO set in the KOTOR universe may be enough to get me to play an MMO.
- the new Prince of Persia is beautiful - not only in its art direction, but also in its gameplay. this is my most anticipated game of Fall/Winter 2008.
- and finally, this is BY FAR the best trailer to come out of E3 2008. may i present to you, the trailer for Duke Nukem Trilogy. at 4 minutes in length, it's like someone just discovered After Effects on their computer and just couldn't stop himself. 4 MINUTES!!!
so there you have it. most shocking was that FFXIII is headed to 360. most laughable was Nintendo's press conference and continued snubbing of their core fans. most stupid was Microsoft denying Bungie their announcement. and most impressive was:
Prince of Persia
runners up: Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, Quantum of Solace, and Borderlands.
seriously, this Fall/Winter (when most of these games are slated to be released) looks to be as good - if not better than - last year. and last year was UNBELIEVABLE.
video games. gotta love 'em.
-k
ps - i could go on in great length about almost all the video games mentioned above, but i just don't have the time to go into them all right now. if you want to know how i feel about a specific video game above, you'll have to hit me up in the comments.
Tuesday, April 1
i beat it! - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: KOTOR. it was one of the few games that almost swayed me to buy an original Xbox back in the day, but alas, it wasn't enough. i had tried a friend's copy of the game and found the battle system too hands-off and out of my control for my taste. so i never continued playing it.
when i purchased my Xbox 360 over a year ago, KOTOR was still a must-buy for me because it had many critics and fans raving... that, and since it'd been out for a number of years, i could pick it up for under $10 (and i do love my cheap games). well, next-gen games got in the way and i thought i wouldn't get around to playing KOTOR for a long time.
then i played Mass Effect and everything changed.
see, Mass Effect was created by the same developers that did KOTOR over 5 years ago. since i really liked Mass Effect - and since i'm on a huge sci-fi kick right now with Mass Effect, Star Trek: TNG, Babylon 5, etc. - i thought now would be the time to try KOTOR once again.
dear god why did i wait so long?
now, i've got quite a few "favorite games." if you scroll down a ways and look at my side bar, you'll see that there's over a dozen of 'em. however, among those games, very few of them are what i'd consider "near-perfect" - it's just that they are my favorites.
KOTOR is a near-perfect game - from its dialogue to its quest system to combat and story, it is just a damn well-designed game. perhaps the last time i felt this way about a game was after playing God of War, or maybe Ico.
the whole experience was just seamless. a marvel of game design. it allowed the player to make meaningful choices that affected how the game played out. these choices were not always black and white like in Mass Effect - i sometimes found myself using dark-side tactics to get what i wanted because i saw no other way.
what compounded these light/dark decisions was the wonder of a story. it's difficult to talk about it because talking about it would give away too much, but let's just say that many of the characters have things happen to them that bring into question both the goodness of the light and the badness of the dark. i played through the game as a Jedi, but after going through much of the game i started questioning whether or not i made the right decision - or rather, who would it hurt if i just played it a little more dangerous, a little more dark.
it was unbelievable. never has a video game affected me in such a way. BioWare found a way to set up a dialogue system, quest system, and overall story that made me question the light side.
oh, and the twist! now, since the game is 5 years old i had heard people talk, and i knew there was going to be a twist. i also knew in what vein the twist was going to be. however, when it happened, it caught even me off guard. what great storytelling. this twist was part of the reason i started to question the light side. amazing.
something i haven't even touched on yet is the combat and leveling up systems! when i first played the game a few years ago, i felt that it was too hands-off and out of my control. however, i think playing FFXII actually got me used to what type of combat system KOTOR has to offer. your characters basically go through the motions of what you tell them to do, but it happens rather rapidly. you can pause the action to take stock of what's going on and issue new commands, but really its meant to just be pretty much hands-off. what its doing is computing all these numbers and factors that are ripped straight out of Dungeons and Dragons and playing it out before your eyes. see, the combat and leveling up systems work so well because they borrow HEAVILY from D&D - a tried and true game.
playing KOTOR i could see how heavily they borrowed from it to form the basis of Mass Effect. however, i think in the process of trying to evolve with Mass Effect, they actually took a couple of steps back. it was too easy to identify the good and bad ways of doing things in Mass Effect, the D&D in action combat system was abandoned for a third-person shooter to no doubt appeal to a wider audience (but to its determent), and the story wasn't nearly as thought-provoking and twist-filled as KOTOR. however, i still like Mass Effect - it's just that i love KOTOR.
this is as close to a perfectly-designed game (specifically, a western-style role playing game) that i've ever had the honor of playing. it is perhaps the best game of the last 5 years.
score:
9.95 out of 10
-k
when i purchased my Xbox 360 over a year ago, KOTOR was still a must-buy for me because it had many critics and fans raving... that, and since it'd been out for a number of years, i could pick it up for under $10 (and i do love my cheap games). well, next-gen games got in the way and i thought i wouldn't get around to playing KOTOR for a long time.
then i played Mass Effect and everything changed.
see, Mass Effect was created by the same developers that did KOTOR over 5 years ago. since i really liked Mass Effect - and since i'm on a huge sci-fi kick right now with Mass Effect, Star Trek: TNG, Babylon 5, etc. - i thought now would be the time to try KOTOR once again.
dear god why did i wait so long?
now, i've got quite a few "favorite games." if you scroll down a ways and look at my side bar, you'll see that there's over a dozen of 'em. however, among those games, very few of them are what i'd consider "near-perfect" - it's just that they are my favorites.
KOTOR is a near-perfect game - from its dialogue to its quest system to combat and story, it is just a damn well-designed game. perhaps the last time i felt this way about a game was after playing God of War, or maybe Ico.
the whole experience was just seamless. a marvel of game design. it allowed the player to make meaningful choices that affected how the game played out. these choices were not always black and white like in Mass Effect - i sometimes found myself using dark-side tactics to get what i wanted because i saw no other way.
what compounded these light/dark decisions was the wonder of a story. it's difficult to talk about it because talking about it would give away too much, but let's just say that many of the characters have things happen to them that bring into question both the goodness of the light and the badness of the dark. i played through the game as a Jedi, but after going through much of the game i started questioning whether or not i made the right decision - or rather, who would it hurt if i just played it a little more dangerous, a little more dark.
it was unbelievable. never has a video game affected me in such a way. BioWare found a way to set up a dialogue system, quest system, and overall story that made me question the light side.
oh, and the twist! now, since the game is 5 years old i had heard people talk, and i knew there was going to be a twist. i also knew in what vein the twist was going to be. however, when it happened, it caught even me off guard. what great storytelling. this twist was part of the reason i started to question the light side. amazing.
something i haven't even touched on yet is the combat and leveling up systems! when i first played the game a few years ago, i felt that it was too hands-off and out of my control. however, i think playing FFXII actually got me used to what type of combat system KOTOR has to offer. your characters basically go through the motions of what you tell them to do, but it happens rather rapidly. you can pause the action to take stock of what's going on and issue new commands, but really its meant to just be pretty much hands-off. what its doing is computing all these numbers and factors that are ripped straight out of Dungeons and Dragons and playing it out before your eyes. see, the combat and leveling up systems work so well because they borrow HEAVILY from D&D - a tried and true game.
playing KOTOR i could see how heavily they borrowed from it to form the basis of Mass Effect. however, i think in the process of trying to evolve with Mass Effect, they actually took a couple of steps back. it was too easy to identify the good and bad ways of doing things in Mass Effect, the D&D in action combat system was abandoned for a third-person shooter to no doubt appeal to a wider audience (but to its determent), and the story wasn't nearly as thought-provoking and twist-filled as KOTOR. however, i still like Mass Effect - it's just that i love KOTOR.
this is as close to a perfectly-designed game (specifically, a western-style role playing game) that i've ever had the honor of playing. it is perhaps the best game of the last 5 years.
score:
9.95 out of 10
-k
Wednesday, March 19
i beat it! - Mass Effect
just beat the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect last night. it's a third-person shooter / RPG that has this sci-fi epic story that centers around the human race being accepted by the galactic community. i've been playing it almost every day for the past few weeks. ended up clocking in at about 35 hours of gameplay.
overall the game was good. really good. the main story was well written and it had a pretty damn satisfying ending. however, they should have peppered the villain in a bit more... just seeing what's up from his perspective (behind the scenes sorta) would have been nice once in a while - as it was, in the way i played the game, i saw him at the start and then again at the end. that's it.
the game is broken up into main missions and side missions. you pretty much decide what main missions you tackle when, when you do the side missions, etc. story-wise, the way things were revealed, i think there's a better way to play through the main missions than i did, but oh well.
the leveling-up system is a little broke, though i was playing on normal (maybe it'd be tougher on hard). you're kinda underpowered at the start of the game, and then get pretty damn strong pretty fast. i stopped using the cover system in most encounters after the first 1/4 of the game.
same goes for money. kinda broke system. you're hurting for it at the start, then in the latter half of the game you rake it in to the point where i was maxed out at 9999999 for the last 1/4 of the game. oh, and you really don't need to buy that much if you keep decrypting crates and lockers when you find them.
the controls suck. first, let me preface this by saying there are secondary force-like powers called "biotics" that many of the characters have in the game. they're cool, but i hardly ever used them. the reason i never/rarely used biotics is because you need to pause the action by holding down the right bumper and bringing down a menu. well yeah, who wants to constantly do that?!? you have the option to map ONE of your biotic powers (out of approximately 8) to the right bumper, but that's it. on the other hand, you've got wasted face buttons. X brings out your gun, but so does the right/left trigger. B puts your gun away. all Y does is replenish your health. WHY AREN'T THESE MAPPED TO THE D-PAD?!? that would free up 3 freaking buttons to map biotic powers to!!! it's sad really, because i wanted to use the powers and just didn't because it was too much of a hassle (especially when shooting things kills them pretty easily anyway). oh, and what the HELL are grenades doing mapped to the back button??? NOBODY uses the back button! as a result i used maybe 15 grenades total in the game (and most of them came from a mission where i had to use them).
the dialogue system was not all it was promised to be. in previews for the game the development team had talked about this robust system where you could change the tide of a conversation with a look on your face and you never knew what response would lead to what reaction. however, in the game, 99.9% of the time the "good boy" answer is at the top, the neutral answer is in the middle, and the "bad boy" answer is at the bottom. oh, and there's no interrupting people or turning the conversation with a look. also, some dialogue branches were obvious where they were leading you (i won't say more than that). at any rate, they promised a lot and didn't deliver. that said, the dialogue was still good, and so were the voice actors.
side missions were fun at first but ended up becoming repetitive and rather boring. they followed a pretty typical pattern: 1) go to a rather-bland cookie-cutter planet, 2) explore and survey the planet, 3) defeat the bad guys on the planet. these bad guys were holed up in 1 of 4 standard base types. there were at least 15 side missions like this.
there were other minor frustrations with the story that i won't go into here... one of them involves what one of the main mysteries ends up being. it's... not what you think it is. and it's a lot less... epic... than i thought it would be. that's all i'll say. it was a bit of a letdown.
the ending, however, was epic. honestly, if more of the main missions had felt like the ending did... wow. the main missions, as they were, were good, but not great.
there was a TON of texture popping and framerate issues. these are all technical issues that lessened the experience and took me out of the game a few times. it's unfortunate that the game couldn't have went through a bit more polish before being released.
the soundtrack is amazing.
when/if i play again, i'll be a class that nets me a sniper rifle, i'll play it "bad boy" style, and try it out on the hard difficulty setting. i'll also take 2 different people in my party. as it was i kept the same 2 people in my party for the majority of the game.
it may sound like i hated the game, but really it had a lot going for it. i guess i just tend to focus on the negative more than the positive. mainly i was pulled into the world by the great story, backstory, and characters. it was a very cinematic game. it's a pretty great game that lived up to my rather high expectations. if they can correct even half the things i listed above for the inevitable sequel, i'll be extremely happy.
score:
9.0 out of 10 (+/- .25)
-k
overall the game was good. really good. the main story was well written and it had a pretty damn satisfying ending. however, they should have peppered the villain in a bit more... just seeing what's up from his perspective (behind the scenes sorta) would have been nice once in a while - as it was, in the way i played the game, i saw him at the start and then again at the end. that's it.
the game is broken up into main missions and side missions. you pretty much decide what main missions you tackle when, when you do the side missions, etc. story-wise, the way things were revealed, i think there's a better way to play through the main missions than i did, but oh well.
the leveling-up system is a little broke, though i was playing on normal (maybe it'd be tougher on hard). you're kinda underpowered at the start of the game, and then get pretty damn strong pretty fast. i stopped using the cover system in most encounters after the first 1/4 of the game.
same goes for money. kinda broke system. you're hurting for it at the start, then in the latter half of the game you rake it in to the point where i was maxed out at 9999999 for the last 1/4 of the game. oh, and you really don't need to buy that much if you keep decrypting crates and lockers when you find them.
the controls suck. first, let me preface this by saying there are secondary force-like powers called "biotics" that many of the characters have in the game. they're cool, but i hardly ever used them. the reason i never/rarely used biotics is because you need to pause the action by holding down the right bumper and bringing down a menu. well yeah, who wants to constantly do that?!? you have the option to map ONE of your biotic powers (out of approximately 8) to the right bumper, but that's it. on the other hand, you've got wasted face buttons. X brings out your gun, but so does the right/left trigger. B puts your gun away. all Y does is replenish your health. WHY AREN'T THESE MAPPED TO THE D-PAD?!? that would free up 3 freaking buttons to map biotic powers to!!! it's sad really, because i wanted to use the powers and just didn't because it was too much of a hassle (especially when shooting things kills them pretty easily anyway). oh, and what the HELL are grenades doing mapped to the back button??? NOBODY uses the back button! as a result i used maybe 15 grenades total in the game (and most of them came from a mission where i had to use them).
the dialogue system was not all it was promised to be. in previews for the game the development team had talked about this robust system where you could change the tide of a conversation with a look on your face and you never knew what response would lead to what reaction. however, in the game, 99.9% of the time the "good boy" answer is at the top, the neutral answer is in the middle, and the "bad boy" answer is at the bottom. oh, and there's no interrupting people or turning the conversation with a look. also, some dialogue branches were obvious where they were leading you (i won't say more than that). at any rate, they promised a lot and didn't deliver. that said, the dialogue was still good, and so were the voice actors.
side missions were fun at first but ended up becoming repetitive and rather boring. they followed a pretty typical pattern: 1) go to a rather-bland cookie-cutter planet, 2) explore and survey the planet, 3) defeat the bad guys on the planet. these bad guys were holed up in 1 of 4 standard base types. there were at least 15 side missions like this.
there were other minor frustrations with the story that i won't go into here... one of them involves what one of the main mysteries ends up being. it's... not what you think it is. and it's a lot less... epic... than i thought it would be. that's all i'll say. it was a bit of a letdown.
the ending, however, was epic. honestly, if more of the main missions had felt like the ending did... wow. the main missions, as they were, were good, but not great.
there was a TON of texture popping and framerate issues. these are all technical issues that lessened the experience and took me out of the game a few times. it's unfortunate that the game couldn't have went through a bit more polish before being released.
the soundtrack is amazing.
when/if i play again, i'll be a class that nets me a sniper rifle, i'll play it "bad boy" style, and try it out on the hard difficulty setting. i'll also take 2 different people in my party. as it was i kept the same 2 people in my party for the majority of the game.
it may sound like i hated the game, but really it had a lot going for it. i guess i just tend to focus on the negative more than the positive. mainly i was pulled into the world by the great story, backstory, and characters. it was a very cinematic game. it's a pretty great game that lived up to my rather high expectations. if they can correct even half the things i listed above for the inevitable sequel, i'll be extremely happy.
score:
9.0 out of 10 (+/- .25)
-k
Monday, March 3
i beat it! - Call of Duty 4 campaign
i just finished off the CoD4 single-player campaign and i've gotta say - i understand what people were talking about now. it is an EXCELLENT game. heck, me feeling the need to post about it right after beating it is a testament to how good it is. quick notes:
- the trademark CoD way of showing the war from a number of different perspectives was in full force in CoD4, and even added a new trick to the bag - your characters could die at any moment. that's right, your characters could die during a cutscene and you couldn't do anything to stop it. it changed my perspective on first-person shooters. it was excellent. i do wish that there were one more perspective (you pretty much follow 2 people, i wish there would have been a third), but as there were only British and Americans on the side of "good" in this one, i guess that's all they could show.
- the reason i have good in quotes above is because this is the first CoD game to be set in modern times (with previous games being set in WWII), and we all know how modern war isn't exactly black-and-white, good vs evil. the war depicted is the Iraq War - well, it is and it isn't. really it feels more like an episode of 24, with 2 terrorist groups working together and grabbing a bunch of nukes. it really felt like something out of the 80s, painting the Muslims as evil terrorists - and i wish it DIDN'T do that. i wish it actually set the war in Iraq and took advantage of the storytelling tools (first-person multiple perspectives) to show just how gray modern warfare really is. i mean could you imagine putting us in the shoes of a Muslim? they'd never do that, as the developers would get too much flak from the media - but still, with the game the way it is now, it's almost doing more harm than anything. ignorant people playing it could come away thinking that all Muslims are terrorists. some may even call CoD4 wartime propaganda. read this article. i agree with almost everything the author says about the game. it's a great game that's a fun ride, but it's disappointing thinking about how much more it could have accomplished.
- game could have been a little longer. i started playing it Thursday or Friday and beat it tonight (Sunday), so at about 2-3 hours of playing each night... i'd say it was about 8 hours long. the game seemed to take its time getting started, jumping around a bit, and then all of the sudden rushed to its conclusion. could have had another perspective, as i said above, or maybe another flashback level (see below).
- one of the levels is a flashback level. you're a sniper on an assassination mission in Chernobyl 15 years ago. that's right - this is after the Chernobyl disaster. you're running around in a dilapidated nuclear wasteland of a town... a modern-day ghost town. just this level alone was worth the price of admission.
i love CoD4 for what it is, but it could have been so much more. it was a beautifully told story that really got you caring about the characters BUT is there really that much to care about when there's no substance behind it? they really should have set it in the Iraq War, and they really should have had another perspective. it also could have been a little longer. all that said, this is still an excellent, EXCELLENT game.
CoD4 campaign
9.5 out of 10
CoD4 overall (campaign, multiplayer, arcade mode)
9.75 out of 10
-k
- the trademark CoD way of showing the war from a number of different perspectives was in full force in CoD4, and even added a new trick to the bag - your characters could die at any moment. that's right, your characters could die during a cutscene and you couldn't do anything to stop it. it changed my perspective on first-person shooters. it was excellent. i do wish that there were one more perspective (you pretty much follow 2 people, i wish there would have been a third), but as there were only British and Americans on the side of "good" in this one, i guess that's all they could show.
- the reason i have good in quotes above is because this is the first CoD game to be set in modern times (with previous games being set in WWII), and we all know how modern war isn't exactly black-and-white, good vs evil. the war depicted is the Iraq War - well, it is and it isn't. really it feels more like an episode of 24, with 2 terrorist groups working together and grabbing a bunch of nukes. it really felt like something out of the 80s, painting the Muslims as evil terrorists - and i wish it DIDN'T do that. i wish it actually set the war in Iraq and took advantage of the storytelling tools (first-person multiple perspectives) to show just how gray modern warfare really is. i mean could you imagine putting us in the shoes of a Muslim? they'd never do that, as the developers would get too much flak from the media - but still, with the game the way it is now, it's almost doing more harm than anything. ignorant people playing it could come away thinking that all Muslims are terrorists. some may even call CoD4 wartime propaganda. read this article. i agree with almost everything the author says about the game. it's a great game that's a fun ride, but it's disappointing thinking about how much more it could have accomplished.
- game could have been a little longer. i started playing it Thursday or Friday and beat it tonight (Sunday), so at about 2-3 hours of playing each night... i'd say it was about 8 hours long. the game seemed to take its time getting started, jumping around a bit, and then all of the sudden rushed to its conclusion. could have had another perspective, as i said above, or maybe another flashback level (see below).
- one of the levels is a flashback level. you're a sniper on an assassination mission in Chernobyl 15 years ago. that's right - this is after the Chernobyl disaster. you're running around in a dilapidated nuclear wasteland of a town... a modern-day ghost town. just this level alone was worth the price of admission.
i love CoD4 for what it is, but it could have been so much more. it was a beautifully told story that really got you caring about the characters BUT is there really that much to care about when there's no substance behind it? they really should have set it in the Iraq War, and they really should have had another perspective. it also could have been a little longer. all that said, this is still an excellent, EXCELLENT game.
CoD4 campaign
9.5 out of 10
CoD4 overall (campaign, multiplayer, arcade mode)
9.75 out of 10
-k
Monday, February 4
i beat it! - Assassin's Creed
i did the unbelievable this weekend. i beat not one, but two games. Halo 3 Campaign (see the post below) i had been working on beating for a couple of months now, and Assassin's Creed i played in November and December (until Christmas break), then didn't touch it until yesterday, at which time i played for 2-3 more hours and beat it. i guess i was close to the end. you can read what i thought about Halo 3 in the post below. here's what i thought of Assassin's Creed.
Assassin's Creed. i had been waiting to play the game ever since it was first announced that it was being worked on by the same team that did Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (an all-time favorite game of mine). then it came out, and reviews were mixed. i would have bought my own copy after a fashion, but ended up receiving it for my birthday. even though i had tons of other games to play that i bought before it, and even though the mixed reviews were getting to me, i couldn't wait to play it.
in the game you play as a man abducted by a big corporation because you have an ancestor that knew the whereabouts of an ancient treasure. how do they get the information out of you? well they have something called the Animus that they strap you into and you "relive" the life of your ancestor in a digital world. so there's story on 2 fronts - what's happening in the past to your ancestor, and what's happening to you in the future.
it's a pretty well fleshed out story (in the past moreso than in the present), albeit a bit confusing at times because of all the names and places being thrown around. what i didn't like is that it ends on a big-ol' cliffhanger in the present. the story in the past has one too, but it had more of a conclusion than the story in the present. i mean, of course there's going to be a sequel (like you can expect with almost every game nowadays), but couldn't there have been a little more closure?
the gameplay is a MUCH more simplified version of Prince of Persia - in fact, i'd go so far as to say that the controls are TOO simple. they're fluid, intuitive, but simple. it's hard to describe here, but one thing that bugged me is that there's no jump button - you simply run to the edge of a building and the jump happens automatically (think of 3D Zelda games). this means you're almost guaranteed to make the jump unless it's far too long. now, i don't mind the mechanic in some games, but in a game where jumping is KEY... to make it so EASY... i don't know.
the structure of the game was the other thing that bugged me. it got too repetitive too quickly. here's how it breaks down: you get your target, go to the assassin's guild to verify, go around town and find out about your target, return to the guild to say you're ready to strike, go assassinate the guy, then escape back to the guild. rinse and repeat. 9 times total. it got to where i couldn't play the game for more than an hour or two because i'd get bored. i think the total length of the game was around 12-15 hours.
for all my complaints, i did like how beautiful the game was. sure there were graphical hiccups (it could have stood to have another 3 months of QA done on it to polish it even more) but it was gorgeous walking around ancient Jerusalem, Acre, etc. oh, and the animation in the game was so... fluid. it was amazing. absolutely beautiful. i also liked how detailed the game was in its history. a lot of work was put into making history come alive.
so while the game disappointed in some ways, it delivered in others. overall i liked the game a lot, but didn't love it. if it's any measure, i'm sure i'll be getting the sequel.
8.75 out of 10
-k
Assassin's Creed. i had been waiting to play the game ever since it was first announced that it was being worked on by the same team that did Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (an all-time favorite game of mine). then it came out, and reviews were mixed. i would have bought my own copy after a fashion, but ended up receiving it for my birthday. even though i had tons of other games to play that i bought before it, and even though the mixed reviews were getting to me, i couldn't wait to play it.
in the game you play as a man abducted by a big corporation because you have an ancestor that knew the whereabouts of an ancient treasure. how do they get the information out of you? well they have something called the Animus that they strap you into and you "relive" the life of your ancestor in a digital world. so there's story on 2 fronts - what's happening in the past to your ancestor, and what's happening to you in the future.
it's a pretty well fleshed out story (in the past moreso than in the present), albeit a bit confusing at times because of all the names and places being thrown around. what i didn't like is that it ends on a big-ol' cliffhanger in the present. the story in the past has one too, but it had more of a conclusion than the story in the present. i mean, of course there's going to be a sequel (like you can expect with almost every game nowadays), but couldn't there have been a little more closure?
the gameplay is a MUCH more simplified version of Prince of Persia - in fact, i'd go so far as to say that the controls are TOO simple. they're fluid, intuitive, but simple. it's hard to describe here, but one thing that bugged me is that there's no jump button - you simply run to the edge of a building and the jump happens automatically (think of 3D Zelda games). this means you're almost guaranteed to make the jump unless it's far too long. now, i don't mind the mechanic in some games, but in a game where jumping is KEY... to make it so EASY... i don't know.
the structure of the game was the other thing that bugged me. it got too repetitive too quickly. here's how it breaks down: you get your target, go to the assassin's guild to verify, go around town and find out about your target, return to the guild to say you're ready to strike, go assassinate the guy, then escape back to the guild. rinse and repeat. 9 times total. it got to where i couldn't play the game for more than an hour or two because i'd get bored. i think the total length of the game was around 12-15 hours.
for all my complaints, i did like how beautiful the game was. sure there were graphical hiccups (it could have stood to have another 3 months of QA done on it to polish it even more) but it was gorgeous walking around ancient Jerusalem, Acre, etc. oh, and the animation in the game was so... fluid. it was amazing. absolutely beautiful. i also liked how detailed the game was in its history. a lot of work was put into making history come alive.
so while the game disappointed in some ways, it delivered in others. overall i liked the game a lot, but didn't love it. if it's any measure, i'm sure i'll be getting the sequel.
8.75 out of 10
-k
i beat it! - Halo 3
Halo. the video game series i've played the most of (by far). i've been playing Halo 3 multiplayer almost every single day since it came out last September, and before that i played hours upon hours of Halo 2 and Halo multiplayer. however, there is also a single-player portion of the game - well, it's not single-player per se, since up to 4 people can play... it's called Campaign mode. it continues and wraps up the story of the Halo trilogy. we all know the multiplayer is good (or i wouldn't be playing it as much), but how is the Campaign?
first off, let me start by saying i beat the original Halo with my friend Jake, but skipped playing through the Campaign in Halo 2 (or i played through some of it, but never beat it). to be honest, i've never been a huge fan of the story - it's a space opera where you're playing as Earth's super soldier, protecting it against 2 main enemies. pretty standard stuff.
so Halo 3 continues with the events that happened in 2 (in fact, 2 could be looked at as "Halo 2: Part 1" and Halo 3 could be "Halo 2: Part 2" in my opinion), wraps the trilogy up rather nicely, and leaves us with an impression of what Halo 4 might be like.
the gameplay was pretty solid for a first-person shooter. i played with my friend Jake again, and we played it on the highest difficulty setting. there were a few parts that had us dying again and again, but overall it was pretty easy. whole game took us maybe 12-15 hours.
no real complaints, but then again, no real commendations either. it was a solid experience that delivered but didn't astound.
my rating for Halo 3 Campaign:
8.75 out of 10 (+/- .25)
my rating for Halo 3 overall (Campaign, multiplayer, map editing toolset, video sharing):
9.75 out of 10
-k
first off, let me start by saying i beat the original Halo with my friend Jake, but skipped playing through the Campaign in Halo 2 (or i played through some of it, but never beat it). to be honest, i've never been a huge fan of the story - it's a space opera where you're playing as Earth's super soldier, protecting it against 2 main enemies. pretty standard stuff.
so Halo 3 continues with the events that happened in 2 (in fact, 2 could be looked at as "Halo 2: Part 1" and Halo 3 could be "Halo 2: Part 2" in my opinion), wraps the trilogy up rather nicely, and leaves us with an impression of what Halo 4 might be like.
the gameplay was pretty solid for a first-person shooter. i played with my friend Jake again, and we played it on the highest difficulty setting. there were a few parts that had us dying again and again, but overall it was pretty easy. whole game took us maybe 12-15 hours.
no real complaints, but then again, no real commendations either. it was a solid experience that delivered but didn't astound.
my rating for Halo 3 Campaign:
8.75 out of 10 (+/- .25)
my rating for Halo 3 overall (Campaign, multiplayer, map editing toolset, video sharing):
9.75 out of 10
-k
Monday, January 28
i beat it! - Eternal Sonata
i finished a video game this weekend! as most of you know, that's quite the rare occurrence for me. what did i beat? how did i like it? read on, dear reader!
i beat the RPG Eternal Sonata for the 360. started the game a little before Christmas and have been playing it for about an hour a night since then (well, not over Christmas break). clocked in at a little under 30 hours of game time, which is a little short for your typical RPG, but felt just about right for this game.
the basic plot of the game is that the composer Chopin is on his deathbed and he arrives in this (dream?) world. he meets up with a ragtag group that is going to the capitol city (think Wizard of Oz) and it goes from there. themes dealt with are life and death, alienation, love, and believe it or not, environmentalism.
while i loved the art direction and the story, the battle system became repetitive after only a few hours (more repetitive than other RPGs, and the game didn't do anything really about alleviating the repetition later) and the WAY the story was told and the characters developed (or not developed) really bothered me.
in terms of the way the story was told, there would be a bit where you'd be running around fighting or exploring (usually lasting about an hour), then there'd be 15 minutes of cutscenes - rinse and repeat. they could have cut the cutscenes up a bit and peppered them throughout the fighting/exploration bit.
in terms of character development, there were a lot of missed opportunities between characters, and declarations of love that came out of nowhere (with one that WENT absolutely nowhere). lots of underdeveloped characters. lots of underdeveloped and dropped plotlines.
oh, and even though i liked the overall length of 30 hours, to its determent the game rushed to its conclusion. suddenly i found myself fighting the main enemy of the game, then there was a bit more to finish up, and that was it. very anticlimactic. reminded me a bit of Radiata Stories.
however, when all was said and done, the story was quite whimsical and the game was absolutely gorgeous. the story let you fill in a lot of the blanks (maybe too many), but after reading some of the message boards and getting other people's thoughts, i think i've formed my own opinion now, and i liked the story overall. and as far as the art direction of the game goes, it was refreshing to see such a colorful and vibrant video game in the middle of all the browns and grays of modern gaming.
Eternal Sonata has its faults, but it has something that a lot of video games lack nowadays: charm. beauty. at under 30 hours (rather short for an RPG), it's worth a playthrough.
8 out of 10 (+/- .25)
-k
i beat the RPG Eternal Sonata for the 360. started the game a little before Christmas and have been playing it for about an hour a night since then (well, not over Christmas break). clocked in at a little under 30 hours of game time, which is a little short for your typical RPG, but felt just about right for this game.
the basic plot of the game is that the composer Chopin is on his deathbed and he arrives in this (dream?) world. he meets up with a ragtag group that is going to the capitol city (think Wizard of Oz) and it goes from there. themes dealt with are life and death, alienation, love, and believe it or not, environmentalism.
while i loved the art direction and the story, the battle system became repetitive after only a few hours (more repetitive than other RPGs, and the game didn't do anything really about alleviating the repetition later) and the WAY the story was told and the characters developed (or not developed) really bothered me.
in terms of the way the story was told, there would be a bit where you'd be running around fighting or exploring (usually lasting about an hour), then there'd be 15 minutes of cutscenes - rinse and repeat. they could have cut the cutscenes up a bit and peppered them throughout the fighting/exploration bit.
in terms of character development, there were a lot of missed opportunities between characters, and declarations of love that came out of nowhere (with one that WENT absolutely nowhere). lots of underdeveloped characters. lots of underdeveloped and dropped plotlines.
oh, and even though i liked the overall length of 30 hours, to its determent the game rushed to its conclusion. suddenly i found myself fighting the main enemy of the game, then there was a bit more to finish up, and that was it. very anticlimactic. reminded me a bit of Radiata Stories.
however, when all was said and done, the story was quite whimsical and the game was absolutely gorgeous. the story let you fill in a lot of the blanks (maybe too many), but after reading some of the message boards and getting other people's thoughts, i think i've formed my own opinion now, and i liked the story overall. and as far as the art direction of the game goes, it was refreshing to see such a colorful and vibrant video game in the middle of all the browns and grays of modern gaming.
Eternal Sonata has its faults, but it has something that a lot of video games lack nowadays: charm. beauty. at under 30 hours (rather short for an RPG), it's worth a playthrough.
8 out of 10 (+/- .25)
-k
Wednesday, August 15
on preorders
you may have noticed on my looooooong sidebar that i have a section for preordered video games. these are games i've already paid for so that when they come out i'm shipped a copy. you may also notice that the list has been growing.
now, those of you that know me know that i'm usually a spendthrift when it comes to buying anything, especially entertainment - DVDs, CDs, video games, etc. oh sure i'll buy stuff, but i'll usually wait to find it used or on sale. why then have i changed my habits?
well, i haven't really. every game up there i've saved at least $5-15 on, so i'm still getting my deals. and as to why i'm buying them now, when i have so much to play already? well, i want to lock in my deal, but also i've decided that i want to buy first-hand video games to support the developers and producers as much as i can from this point forward. since i'm a developer now it seems only appropriate.
secondhand, or used, video games aren't making the developers or producers any money, just the store that bought it back from someone and is reselling it. i was fine with this when i was supporting my local store back in my hometown, but now that my only main outlet for used video games is Gamestop, i'd much rather throw my support the developer's way.
but man am i going to have a lot to play in the coming months...
- kawitchate
now, those of you that know me know that i'm usually a spendthrift when it comes to buying anything, especially entertainment - DVDs, CDs, video games, etc. oh sure i'll buy stuff, but i'll usually wait to find it used or on sale. why then have i changed my habits?
well, i haven't really. every game up there i've saved at least $5-15 on, so i'm still getting my deals. and as to why i'm buying them now, when i have so much to play already? well, i want to lock in my deal, but also i've decided that i want to buy first-hand video games to support the developers and producers as much as i can from this point forward. since i'm a developer now it seems only appropriate.
secondhand, or used, video games aren't making the developers or producers any money, just the store that bought it back from someone and is reselling it. i was fine with this when i was supporting my local store back in my hometown, but now that my only main outlet for used video games is Gamestop, i'd much rather throw my support the developer's way.
but man am i going to have a lot to play in the coming months...
- kawitchate
Wednesday, August 8
Stranglehol-Y CRAP! stuff asplode everywhere!
just downloaded and played the 3 new demos on Xbox Live - Track n' Field, Eternal Sonata, and Stranglehold. impressions?
Track n' Field
i'm sick of Live Arcade games that give you NO demo time with the game. so i get to experience the dash and the long jump? wtf other events are there? would it have been so hard to let me play a round of each instead of making me do the long jump all 3 times? thankyouverymuch.
oh yeah, the game itself. it's Track n' Field! what more can i say? it's... ok.
Eternal Sonata
downloaded this back a few months ago off my Japanese account, but i was wondering if anything would be different with this version. nope! but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
i've been going back and forth on whether or not to pick this up on launch (or just get it used later), and after playing the demo again i'm placing my preorder very, very soon. lovely game. besides, if i wait i won't be getting it until early next year, as my dance card is full of other games that want to dance for the rest of this year.
Stranglehold
finally got a taste of the game that i *think* was at one point supposed to be a 360 launch title, or at least was supposed to come out well over a year ago originally. is it good? yeah it's good. max payne 2.0. i like the "dive" button, slo-mo is used ALL the time (also pretty cool), tough to run out of ammo for your main guns (makes for lotsa shooting), and DAMN duz stuff asplode everywhere!
that's probably the most impressive thing, the almost fully destructable environment. sure in the quiet moments when you slide on a table and a watermelon EXPLODES next to you as you slide over it don't exactly make sense, but damn it looks cool in the middle of a gun fight.
most unimpressive? the cutscenes. somehow they managed to make the cutscenes look worse than the in-game action. how they did that, i do not know.
has this game moved to my must-buy list? ...no. there's just simply too much else coming out this fall. had it come out LAST fall, or even a few MONTHS ago i would have bought it, especially with that sweet PS3 deal with the blu-ray movie. as it stands now, i'll be looking for this next year used when the drought hits.
- kawitchate
Track n' Field
i'm sick of Live Arcade games that give you NO demo time with the game. so i get to experience the dash and the long jump? wtf other events are there? would it have been so hard to let me play a round of each instead of making me do the long jump all 3 times? thankyouverymuch.
oh yeah, the game itself. it's Track n' Field! what more can i say? it's... ok.
Eternal Sonata
downloaded this back a few months ago off my Japanese account, but i was wondering if anything would be different with this version. nope! but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
i've been going back and forth on whether or not to pick this up on launch (or just get it used later), and after playing the demo again i'm placing my preorder very, very soon. lovely game. besides, if i wait i won't be getting it until early next year, as my dance card is full of other games that want to dance for the rest of this year.
Stranglehold
finally got a taste of the game that i *think* was at one point supposed to be a 360 launch title, or at least was supposed to come out well over a year ago originally. is it good? yeah it's good. max payne 2.0. i like the "dive" button, slo-mo is used ALL the time (also pretty cool), tough to run out of ammo for your main guns (makes for lotsa shooting), and DAMN duz stuff asplode everywhere!
that's probably the most impressive thing, the almost fully destructable environment. sure in the quiet moments when you slide on a table and a watermelon EXPLODES next to you as you slide over it don't exactly make sense, but damn it looks cool in the middle of a gun fight.
most unimpressive? the cutscenes. somehow they managed to make the cutscenes look worse than the in-game action. how they did that, i do not know.
has this game moved to my must-buy list? ...no. there's just simply too much else coming out this fall. had it come out LAST fall, or even a few MONTHS ago i would have bought it, especially with that sweet PS3 deal with the blu-ray movie. as it stands now, i'll be looking for this next year used when the drought hits.
- kawitchate
Saturday, August 4
Yakuza review
the first game in my PS3 - the first disc of any kind to go in my PS3 - and it's a PS2 game that i ended up finishing in the first play session. on the PS3. it's... ironic. or something. i knew i was close to the end, but i didn't think i was quite that close.
yes, i've beaten another game - Yakuza, for the PS2. here's my review.
i had wanted to get my hands on this game ever since i heard about it way back in 2005. it was an action adventure game with a semi-open world that took you into the heart of the Japanese crime organization, the Yakuza. now, being a fan of action adventure games with open worlds (semi-open or otherwise) AND being a huge fan of Japanese culture, this game practically SCREAMED "pick me up." so, after waiting for a price drop, i did. a year and a half though, it's a long time for expectations to build...
thankfully, in this case, the somewhat-high expectations hardly made a difference.
you play as Kazuma, an ex-Yakuza that's back from a 10-year stint in jail just as the shit is hitting the fan back home. you get caught up in a tale that is as big as involving the entire organization and as small as your circle of 3-4 friends that dissolved when you went to jail 10 years ago. it's a crime story, it's a Shakespearean story... it's an action story. there were twists (some you saw coming, some you didn't), there was death, and there was hope. it's a dark, adult story. pretty well written.
there are small side missions for you to do throughout the game as you travel through a semi-open city (that is just laden in everything Japanese contemporary, so beautiful), and then of course there's the main storyline. i clocked almost 20 hours of gameplay in on this game, which is pretty much perfect for an action adventure, and i could have played for maybe 5-10 more hours completing more side missions.
one note: to throw you right into this world, they throw around Japanese/Yakuza titles, terms, and names all OVER the place and, well, it's a lot to keep track of. while i found it quite refreshing, it might frustrate some people - i mean it even frustrated me once in a while, but usually it was more confusing than anything, but i'd eventually get it (and there's a dossier in the pause menu to help you out with some of the people).
gripes:
- there is a load time going INTO combat and another load time getting OUT OF combat. FYI - combat is, oh, 25-50% of the game. so you're running around the city and you see a guy that wants to fight. load screen. approximately 5-10 seconds later the fight begins. fight over. load screen. 5 seconds later you're back in the city proper. it's my MAIN complaint about the game, the main one that kept it from being truly great.
- the game CAN get quite repetitive: run around, fight, cutscene, fight, run around, fight, cutscene... i could normally only play the game for 2-3 hours at a time before growing tired of it. the one thing that saved it overall is the side missions, but those could be frustrating in their own rite.
- side missions were frustrating because you'd lose track of what you're doing for who, and so you'd normally check your journal inside the pause menu... except there IS no journal. all it says are the titles of the open missions you're on, and most of the titles are cryptic and/or involve names of people you can't keep straight. yeah. thanks.
- combat takes a little getting used to, especially since there is no "true" lock-on like us gamers are used to in 3D action games nowadays, and the camera can be a little wonky. eventually you learn that the dodge move is a friend of yours, so that if you find your "lock-on" is no longer locked on to who you want, you can dodge out of the way, shift the camera around, and lock on again.
- you're given lots of moves to do in combat, but i found myself sticking to pretty much one combo after i learned it.
- there were some camera issues in general, especially when fighting indoors.
- the voice acting takes a little getting used to (i.e. it's not that good). i heard that the Japanese version (which did much better in Japan, more on that later) had famous actors for the parts, so maybe they ran out of money when they were doing it in English, but whatever. it's no different from, say, a Capcom game.
now, with all that said, this game was VERY refreshing, and for that it earns high marks. i loved, LOVED the world, liked the story (both the larger story and then the more personal story right along side it), like the storytelling, and liked the characters. for its minor faults (and despite the damn load times), combat was quite fun and satisfying, and going around helping people with the side missions was also fun and satisfying.
i give it an 8.75 out of 10, with a margin of error of 0.50 (i could be convinced to go up or down 0.50 points if i heard compelling arguments). had there been no load times in and out of combat, had it been seamless, i would have easily given this a 9.25 or higher. it's just that refreshing of a game.
now, i said above that this game did really well in Japan - SO well in fact that SEGA released a sequel, Yakuza 2, a mere year later. and what's the status on the game coming state-side? there are rumors that it's coming this fall... but i wouldn't be surprised if we don't see it. there really wasn't much talk about Yakuza when it came out here, and i haven't heard of anyone else that's played it that i know, or on any of my sites, so i can safely assume it didn't do as well here. guess all i can do is hope for a US release. i'd really like to see what they do with a sequel (my gut tells me it'll be "more of the same," so i probably won't like it as much as the original, but i'd still like to play it), especially with where this story ended.
- kawitchate
yes, i've beaten another game - Yakuza, for the PS2. here's my review.
i had wanted to get my hands on this game ever since i heard about it way back in 2005. it was an action adventure game with a semi-open world that took you into the heart of the Japanese crime organization, the Yakuza. now, being a fan of action adventure games with open worlds (semi-open or otherwise) AND being a huge fan of Japanese culture, this game practically SCREAMED "pick me up." so, after waiting for a price drop, i did. a year and a half though, it's a long time for expectations to build...
thankfully, in this case, the somewhat-high expectations hardly made a difference.
you play as Kazuma, an ex-Yakuza that's back from a 10-year stint in jail just as the shit is hitting the fan back home. you get caught up in a tale that is as big as involving the entire organization and as small as your circle of 3-4 friends that dissolved when you went to jail 10 years ago. it's a crime story, it's a Shakespearean story... it's an action story. there were twists (some you saw coming, some you didn't), there was death, and there was hope. it's a dark, adult story. pretty well written.
there are small side missions for you to do throughout the game as you travel through a semi-open city (that is just laden in everything Japanese contemporary, so beautiful), and then of course there's the main storyline. i clocked almost 20 hours of gameplay in on this game, which is pretty much perfect for an action adventure, and i could have played for maybe 5-10 more hours completing more side missions.
one note: to throw you right into this world, they throw around Japanese/Yakuza titles, terms, and names all OVER the place and, well, it's a lot to keep track of. while i found it quite refreshing, it might frustrate some people - i mean it even frustrated me once in a while, but usually it was more confusing than anything, but i'd eventually get it (and there's a dossier in the pause menu to help you out with some of the people).
gripes:
- there is a load time going INTO combat and another load time getting OUT OF combat. FYI - combat is, oh, 25-50% of the game. so you're running around the city and you see a guy that wants to fight. load screen. approximately 5-10 seconds later the fight begins. fight over. load screen. 5 seconds later you're back in the city proper. it's my MAIN complaint about the game, the main one that kept it from being truly great.
- the game CAN get quite repetitive: run around, fight, cutscene, fight, run around, fight, cutscene... i could normally only play the game for 2-3 hours at a time before growing tired of it. the one thing that saved it overall is the side missions, but those could be frustrating in their own rite.
- side missions were frustrating because you'd lose track of what you're doing for who, and so you'd normally check your journal inside the pause menu... except there IS no journal. all it says are the titles of the open missions you're on, and most of the titles are cryptic and/or involve names of people you can't keep straight. yeah. thanks.
- combat takes a little getting used to, especially since there is no "true" lock-on like us gamers are used to in 3D action games nowadays, and the camera can be a little wonky. eventually you learn that the dodge move is a friend of yours, so that if you find your "lock-on" is no longer locked on to who you want, you can dodge out of the way, shift the camera around, and lock on again.
- you're given lots of moves to do in combat, but i found myself sticking to pretty much one combo after i learned it.
- there were some camera issues in general, especially when fighting indoors.
- the voice acting takes a little getting used to (i.e. it's not that good). i heard that the Japanese version (which did much better in Japan, more on that later) had famous actors for the parts, so maybe they ran out of money when they were doing it in English, but whatever. it's no different from, say, a Capcom game.
now, with all that said, this game was VERY refreshing, and for that it earns high marks. i loved, LOVED the world, liked the story (both the larger story and then the more personal story right along side it), like the storytelling, and liked the characters. for its minor faults (and despite the damn load times), combat was quite fun and satisfying, and going around helping people with the side missions was also fun and satisfying.
i give it an 8.75 out of 10, with a margin of error of 0.50 (i could be convinced to go up or down 0.50 points if i heard compelling arguments). had there been no load times in and out of combat, had it been seamless, i would have easily given this a 9.25 or higher. it's just that refreshing of a game.
now, i said above that this game did really well in Japan - SO well in fact that SEGA released a sequel, Yakuza 2, a mere year later. and what's the status on the game coming state-side? there are rumors that it's coming this fall... but i wouldn't be surprised if we don't see it. there really wasn't much talk about Yakuza when it came out here, and i haven't heard of anyone else that's played it that i know, or on any of my sites, so i can safely assume it didn't do as well here. guess all i can do is hope for a US release. i'd really like to see what they do with a sequel (my gut tells me it'll be "more of the same," so i probably won't like it as much as the original, but i'd still like to play it), especially with where this story ended.
- kawitchate
Thursday, August 2
very tricky R* - or - trendspotting
of course, along with good news (Halo 3 online co-op) must come bad news.
Game of the Year 2007 just became Game of the Year 2008.
Rockstar announced today that Grand Theft Auto IV will NOT be coming out mid-October as promised (i think the October date's been set for a year and a half now) - it will in fact be pushed back to fiscal Q2 2008 (Feb 1st - April 30th).
wow.
this is pretty big news. in the past R* has laid down the date for their GTA games pretty early in advance and has consistently been able to hit the mark. however, lots of companies are constantly pushing their release dates back nowadays, especially in the early stages of this next-gen cycle of consoles.
the main reason? dealing with the next-gen hardware AND software. R* said they're having trouble getting a handle on the new platforms, and i think it's a big problem for a lot of developers...
hardware: the Xbox 360 is supposed to be fairly easy to program for, but it's still a new system so there are going to be hitches, the main one being that these huge next-gen games are supposed to fit on a normal DVD for the 360, which some developers have come out and said is too small for their games - the PS3 on the other hand is supposed to be pretty difficult to program for but has all the space in the world on its blu-ray discs. all that said, more than a few games come out on the 360 weeks or months before their counterparts do on the PS3.
along with the differences between the two (and the Wii) is the fact that games can't be ported as easily anymore. the Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube used to be a lot more similar in their internal makeup which would facilitate porting - now developers need a team on the 360 version of a game, and at least a mini-team of engineers on the PS3 version (or vice versa on the consoles), and the Wii versions almost always get their own team.
software: there's been grumblings in the industry that Epic's new Unreal engine - which has been licensed by like half the developers - is having it's own growing pains. Silicon Knights even went as far as to sue Epic for not delivering the product and support they said they would (something i forgot to post on, but here it is). i don't know who's side to take, but it's clear that there's issues with the engine.
just this WEEK Lair for the PS3 was delayed 2-3 weeks, and Blacksite: Area 51 was delayed a number of months! here's more games that have been plagued by delays:
- Assassin's Creed
- Mass Effect
- BioShock
- Turok
- Stranglehold
- The Darkness
- Unreal Tournament III
- Metal Gear Solid 4
- Too Human
and these are just some games that had announced earlier release dates and were then pushed back months, even years! i didn't even list other games that never set any release dates and are just taking forever to be developed...
will things get better? i think so - somewhat. games have never had the most reliable release dates, but it's just been REALLY bad lately because of the new hardware and new engines. after a studio gets a next-gen game under its belt, they'll be able to better plan for the next one. best practices ftw.
now, back to GTAIV. am i upset? not really... i would have been had i preordered it (which i almost did). i'm more shocked really than anything, shocked that R* moved back a firm date for a GTA game. however, i've got PLENTY to play this fall/winter, so one less game is actually welcome in terms of my time and my wallet... that is, unless MORE fall/winter releases start pushing their dates back...
it could happen - hell, it's already happened for a lot of the titles coming out this fall/winter.
- kawitchate
Game of the Year 2007 just became Game of the Year 2008.
Rockstar announced today that Grand Theft Auto IV will NOT be coming out mid-October as promised (i think the October date's been set for a year and a half now) - it will in fact be pushed back to fiscal Q2 2008 (Feb 1st - April 30th).
wow.
this is pretty big news. in the past R* has laid down the date for their GTA games pretty early in advance and has consistently been able to hit the mark. however, lots of companies are constantly pushing their release dates back nowadays, especially in the early stages of this next-gen cycle of consoles.
the main reason? dealing with the next-gen hardware AND software. R* said they're having trouble getting a handle on the new platforms, and i think it's a big problem for a lot of developers...
hardware: the Xbox 360 is supposed to be fairly easy to program for, but it's still a new system so there are going to be hitches, the main one being that these huge next-gen games are supposed to fit on a normal DVD for the 360, which some developers have come out and said is too small for their games - the PS3 on the other hand is supposed to be pretty difficult to program for but has all the space in the world on its blu-ray discs. all that said, more than a few games come out on the 360 weeks or months before their counterparts do on the PS3.
along with the differences between the two (and the Wii) is the fact that games can't be ported as easily anymore. the Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube used to be a lot more similar in their internal makeup which would facilitate porting - now developers need a team on the 360 version of a game, and at least a mini-team of engineers on the PS3 version (or vice versa on the consoles), and the Wii versions almost always get their own team.
software: there's been grumblings in the industry that Epic's new Unreal engine - which has been licensed by like half the developers - is having it's own growing pains. Silicon Knights even went as far as to sue Epic for not delivering the product and support they said they would (something i forgot to post on, but here it is). i don't know who's side to take, but it's clear that there's issues with the engine.
just this WEEK Lair for the PS3 was delayed 2-3 weeks, and Blacksite: Area 51 was delayed a number of months! here's more games that have been plagued by delays:
- Assassin's Creed
- Mass Effect
- BioShock
- Turok
- Stranglehold
- The Darkness
- Unreal Tournament III
- Metal Gear Solid 4
- Too Human
and these are just some games that had announced earlier release dates and were then pushed back months, even years! i didn't even list other games that never set any release dates and are just taking forever to be developed...
will things get better? i think so - somewhat. games have never had the most reliable release dates, but it's just been REALLY bad lately because of the new hardware and new engines. after a studio gets a next-gen game under its belt, they'll be able to better plan for the next one. best practices ftw.
now, back to GTAIV. am i upset? not really... i would have been had i preordered it (which i almost did). i'm more shocked really than anything, shocked that R* moved back a firm date for a GTA game. however, i've got PLENTY to play this fall/winter, so one less game is actually welcome in terms of my time and my wallet... that is, unless MORE fall/winter releases start pushing their dates back...
it could happen - hell, it's already happened for a lot of the titles coming out this fall/winter.
- kawitchate
very tricky Bungie
i'm not sure whether to be upset or overjoyed at the news that came out earlier this week regarding my favorite multiplayer game of all time, Halo 3 - i think i'm somewhere in between (but leaning toward overjoyed with just a hint of cheezed-off).
remember, oh, a week or two back when i posted on Bungie coming out and saying they were probably not going to have online co-op for Halo 3, that maybe they'd be able to release a patch later that would allow for it? and how i ranted about games nowadays that have ANY sort of offline co-op had BETTER include online co-op?
well it turns out there IS going to be online co-op. for up to 4 freakin' players!
the first player, the one that forms the party, plays as Master Chief. any others that join him play as Brutes that are on the side of the Chief - at least for the majority of the game i guess (one of them is the Arbiter, who you played as half the time in Halo 2).
yeah, just out of the blue this week the news comes out of some showing of the game Bungie was doing in Amsterdam and they're like "oh yeah, the 4-player co-op, it's leading to all-new scenarios of gameplay and it's been fantastic!"
...
what the hell?!? you just publicly said a few weeks ago that you didn't even think you'd have online co-op ready for launch, and NOW all of the sudden it's there and it's for 4 players? uh, do you have an explanation for this? (for the record, i heard no explanation given).
so, while i'm happy - no, overjoyed - that they included NOT ONLY online co-op, but 4 freakin' player online co-op, the news is somewhat soured by the news a few weeks ago that there probably wasn't going to be any and then Bungie not offering up an explanation as to what happened in those magical weeks.
the news might further be soured by the fact that no one i know that will buy this game will buy it at the time of release... but i'm hoping for some online co-op maybe early next year?
i call Master Chief.
- kawitchate
remember, oh, a week or two back when i posted on Bungie coming out and saying they were probably not going to have online co-op for Halo 3, that maybe they'd be able to release a patch later that would allow for it? and how i ranted about games nowadays that have ANY sort of offline co-op had BETTER include online co-op?
well it turns out there IS going to be online co-op. for up to 4 freakin' players!
the first player, the one that forms the party, plays as Master Chief. any others that join him play as Brutes that are on the side of the Chief - at least for the majority of the game i guess (one of them is the Arbiter, who you played as half the time in Halo 2).
yeah, just out of the blue this week the news comes out of some showing of the game Bungie was doing in Amsterdam and they're like "oh yeah, the 4-player co-op, it's leading to all-new scenarios of gameplay and it's been fantastic!"
...
what the hell?!? you just publicly said a few weeks ago that you didn't even think you'd have online co-op ready for launch, and NOW all of the sudden it's there and it's for 4 players? uh, do you have an explanation for this? (for the record, i heard no explanation given).
so, while i'm happy - no, overjoyed - that they included NOT ONLY online co-op, but 4 freakin' player online co-op, the news is somewhat soured by the news a few weeks ago that there probably wasn't going to be any and then Bungie not offering up an explanation as to what happened in those magical weeks.
the news might further be soured by the fact that no one i know that will buy this game will buy it at the time of release... but i'm hoping for some online co-op maybe early next year?
i call Master Chief.
- kawitchate
Wednesday, August 1
PS3 and me
well, my PS3 arrived yesterday safe and sound. after purchasing it maybe 2 weeks ago, it shipped late last week and arrived Tuesday here - not bad. i was tracking the package as it went - started in Nevada, went East to Kentucky, then North to Ontario, and then to Honolulu. strangest trip i've ever seen a package take - it got further away with each step until the last!
anywho, didn't make a big deal out of it last night here on my blog because i didn't set it up. i know, i know - "you bought a $500 system and didn't set it up when you got it?" that's correct. 1) i don't have the correct cable to hook it up to my tv all nice (i'd have to unplug something else right now to plug it in), and 2) i'm still finishing a game on my PS2 and you can't transfer over save files to the PS3 unless you have this little device, which i should be borrowing from a friend of a friend this week.
even though i knew i'd have to play around with some wires in the back for now, i just had to set it up tonight - after all, there's things to sign up for and system updates to download. woohoo. how was the experience?
infuriating.
the cable i decided to use was the component cable i bought for my PS2 (actually meant for a PS3) a few months back that was supposed to make it look a bit better on my HDTV (it ended up just making the crappy picture sharper, not better per se). the reason i don't just use this cable with my PS3 from now on is because my TV only has one component outlet, and that's for my Xbox 360. i have an HDMI cable i ordered Sunday coming in the mail.
so i get everything plugged in and start it up. no picture. i turn it off, mess around with some of the cables, try again. still no picture. i think maybe it needs just a regular composite cable to get things started (the one it shipped with, same with the PS2), so i plug THAT in. picture.
i go through the registration of my PS3 and then turn it off to try the component cable again. more unplugging, plugging - no picture. i decide to put the composite cable back in. more unplugging, plugging - picture.
i realize there must be some setting INSIDE the PS3 that i have to tell it that i'll be using a component cord. so i find where that is, do what i think needs to be done, try it again (unplugging, plugging) - no picture. unplugging, plugging - picture.
i tried this more than a few times with various settings, but i could NOT get the component cord to work. i tested to see if it was the cord at fault by using it with my PS2 and it worked fine... so there's got to be something wrong internally with my PS3, some setting i have wrong.
anyway, it was quite the headache and after about 2 hours of playing around with all this i grew tired of it and didn't even get to start downloading any demos or games.
not a great start to this $500 powerhouse of a machine. i hope when i get the HDMI cable i'll be able to get IT to work.
off to play my PS2.
- kawitchate
anywho, didn't make a big deal out of it last night here on my blog because i didn't set it up. i know, i know - "you bought a $500 system and didn't set it up when you got it?" that's correct. 1) i don't have the correct cable to hook it up to my tv all nice (i'd have to unplug something else right now to plug it in), and 2) i'm still finishing a game on my PS2 and you can't transfer over save files to the PS3 unless you have this little device, which i should be borrowing from a friend of a friend this week.
even though i knew i'd have to play around with some wires in the back for now, i just had to set it up tonight - after all, there's things to sign up for and system updates to download. woohoo. how was the experience?
infuriating.
the cable i decided to use was the component cable i bought for my PS2 (actually meant for a PS3) a few months back that was supposed to make it look a bit better on my HDTV (it ended up just making the crappy picture sharper, not better per se). the reason i don't just use this cable with my PS3 from now on is because my TV only has one component outlet, and that's for my Xbox 360. i have an HDMI cable i ordered Sunday coming in the mail.
so i get everything plugged in and start it up. no picture. i turn it off, mess around with some of the cables, try again. still no picture. i think maybe it needs just a regular composite cable to get things started (the one it shipped with, same with the PS2), so i plug THAT in. picture.
i go through the registration of my PS3 and then turn it off to try the component cable again. more unplugging, plugging - no picture. i decide to put the composite cable back in. more unplugging, plugging - picture.
i realize there must be some setting INSIDE the PS3 that i have to tell it that i'll be using a component cord. so i find where that is, do what i think needs to be done, try it again (unplugging, plugging) - no picture. unplugging, plugging - picture.
i tried this more than a few times with various settings, but i could NOT get the component cord to work. i tested to see if it was the cord at fault by using it with my PS2 and it worked fine... so there's got to be something wrong internally with my PS3, some setting i have wrong.
anyway, it was quite the headache and after about 2 hours of playing around with all this i grew tired of it and didn't even get to start downloading any demos or games.
not a great start to this $500 powerhouse of a machine. i hope when i get the HDMI cable i'll be able to get IT to work.
off to play my PS2.
- kawitchate
Sunday, July 29
my love / hate relationship with R*
well last week i posted about my favorite developer Rockstar and why they are my favorite developer - GTAIV having a live, populated city, and their reaction letter to all the Manhunt 2 haters. THIS week they came out with 2 more news tidbits, one that makes me take pause and another that fills me with glee.
first, more GTAIV news.
one of the higher-ups at R* came out and said that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of GTAIV will be "identical" but that if you want the "complete experience" you should buy the 360 version because it will be having exclusive downloadable "episodes" next year.
now, this is the content that MS paid R* $50 million for, of course they're going to say you need to buy the 360 version. what upsets me is the trend this might lead to - developers holding out on a "complete experience" just to sell it to us later in the form of downloadable content. i mean what's the reason these episodes can't make it to release? if they aren't done, why don't you push back the release date?
downloadable content should be extra stuff, not something to get the "complete experience." i'm shelling out $60 for a game, i expect the complete experience out of the box.
i'm also a little confused because i thought there was a story like a month or two ago where R* was praising the PS3 processing power, speaking specifically about GTAIV, and so i figured that it'd look/run better on the PS3.
i wanted to buy the PS3 version because i'm pissed at MS right now because my box broke after 6 months of ownership - has nothing to do with fanboyism. however, if both versions are indeed identical, i may go with the 360 version just so that i can have the option of maybe downloading the downloadable content if it's cool.
why R*, why?
and second, R* announced a new IP coming exclusively to the PS3. this is in addition to L.A. Noire (think Chinatown) which is already exclusive to the PS3 coming out next year. they touted the power of the PS3, the fact that you can count on every PS3 owner having a hard drive, and the capacity of the blu ray discs as being some of the reasons why they're going with PS3 - and maybe as a "we're sorry" to them as well for GTAIV.
i'm excited because my love for R* isn't only for GTA - i really enjoyed Bully (which i played and beat just a few months ago), the Midnight Club series, and Manhunt (for the idea if not the execution). oh, and L.A. Noire looks like it'll kick ass.
R* - i love you. i hate you.
- kawitchate
first, more GTAIV news.
one of the higher-ups at R* came out and said that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of GTAIV will be "identical" but that if you want the "complete experience" you should buy the 360 version because it will be having exclusive downloadable "episodes" next year.
now, this is the content that MS paid R* $50 million for, of course they're going to say you need to buy the 360 version. what upsets me is the trend this might lead to - developers holding out on a "complete experience" just to sell it to us later in the form of downloadable content. i mean what's the reason these episodes can't make it to release? if they aren't done, why don't you push back the release date?
downloadable content should be extra stuff, not something to get the "complete experience." i'm shelling out $60 for a game, i expect the complete experience out of the box.
i'm also a little confused because i thought there was a story like a month or two ago where R* was praising the PS3 processing power, speaking specifically about GTAIV, and so i figured that it'd look/run better on the PS3.
i wanted to buy the PS3 version because i'm pissed at MS right now because my box broke after 6 months of ownership - has nothing to do with fanboyism. however, if both versions are indeed identical, i may go with the 360 version just so that i can have the option of maybe downloading the downloadable content if it's cool.
why R*, why?
and second, R* announced a new IP coming exclusively to the PS3. this is in addition to L.A. Noire (think Chinatown) which is already exclusive to the PS3 coming out next year. they touted the power of the PS3, the fact that you can count on every PS3 owner having a hard drive, and the capacity of the blu ray discs as being some of the reasons why they're going with PS3 - and maybe as a "we're sorry" to them as well for GTAIV.
i'm excited because my love for R* isn't only for GTA - i really enjoyed Bully (which i played and beat just a few months ago), the Midnight Club series, and Manhunt (for the idea if not the execution). oh, and L.A. Noire looks like it'll kick ass.
R* - i love you. i hate you.
- kawitchate
emulate this
to preface: i skipped out on purchasing an original Xbox because 1) my friend i lived with had one so i could get my fill of the Halos, and 2) there really weren't all that many games i wanted to play on it. by the time i was thinking of buying one - when i didn't live with my friend anymore - the 360 was already out so i waited and bought that last Christmas.
so now i'm going through playing the Xbox games that i missed - Fable, KotOR, Crimson Skies, Jade Empire, Panzer Dragoon Orta, the Halos, etc. - and emulation has been good with Crimson Skies, the Halos, and a few others... but DAMN is it bad with Fable!
you would think that MS would put forth the effort to have a good emulator for their only (?) first party (well, produced by) RPG, but nope. it's horrible!
everything is fine if i'm walking in a straight line and not turning the camera much, but once i start to run, turn the camera, or get in battle, the frame rate drops like a mo-fo. and heaven forbid if i get into battle AND start moving the camera... wow. i've actually thought i crashed the game - or my 360 broke again - more than a few times.
and the loading... jesus. i mean maybe it was bad in the original, but i don't see how it could have been THIS bad.
put another minus in the Microsoft column. this is exactly the reason why i bought a PS3 before they got rid of the emulator chip inside and went to emulation software for their games...
- kawitchate
so now i'm going through playing the Xbox games that i missed - Fable, KotOR, Crimson Skies, Jade Empire, Panzer Dragoon Orta, the Halos, etc. - and emulation has been good with Crimson Skies, the Halos, and a few others... but DAMN is it bad with Fable!
you would think that MS would put forth the effort to have a good emulator for their only (?) first party (well, produced by) RPG, but nope. it's horrible!
everything is fine if i'm walking in a straight line and not turning the camera much, but once i start to run, turn the camera, or get in battle, the frame rate drops like a mo-fo. and heaven forbid if i get into battle AND start moving the camera... wow. i've actually thought i crashed the game - or my 360 broke again - more than a few times.
and the loading... jesus. i mean maybe it was bad in the original, but i don't see how it could have been THIS bad.
put another minus in the Microsoft column. this is exactly the reason why i bought a PS3 before they got rid of the emulator chip inside and went to emulation software for their games...
- kawitchate
Monday, July 23
Rockstar for the win
i was reminded why Rockstar is my favorite video game developer this weekend when i read not one but TWO great news items regarding 2 upcoming releases, Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV.
first there was a lot more info released in a German video game magazine regarding the new GTA IV. what's got me most excited? the people that wrote the magazine said that the city feels ALIVE:
"The streets and sidewalks are populated, people talk on their cellphones, smoke, entertain each other, make pictures etc etc. The Hot Dog vendor tries to get Niko to come to his stand by shouting at him."
i'm so sick of games that have huge cities that are devoid of life (Spider-Man 3, Rogue Galaxy) or there's people but they do either nothing or walk the same predetermined path (Saint's Row, Final Fantasy XII).
this, in addition to all the other cool info that came out of the article, is why i think that GTA IV will be my pick for game of the year - and that's saying something this holiday season, with all the AAA games coming out.
ok, so GTA is set to rock, and then Rockstar followed up with a knockout punch by responding to a story someone wrote about how giving their Manhunt 2 game an Adults Only rating was a GOOD thing. and the thing rocks so much i'm just going to repost it here:
wow, what a well-written, clear, concise argument. and it came from a video game developer?!? but i thought video games were just for kids!
kudos Rockstar. i'm behind you 100%.
- kawitchate
first there was a lot more info released in a German video game magazine regarding the new GTA IV. what's got me most excited? the people that wrote the magazine said that the city feels ALIVE:
"The streets and sidewalks are populated, people talk on their cellphones, smoke, entertain each other, make pictures etc etc. The Hot Dog vendor tries to get Niko to come to his stand by shouting at him."
i'm so sick of games that have huge cities that are devoid of life (Spider-Man 3, Rogue Galaxy) or there's people but they do either nothing or walk the same predetermined path (Saint's Row, Final Fantasy XII).
this, in addition to all the other cool info that came out of the article, is why i think that GTA IV will be my pick for game of the year - and that's saying something this holiday season, with all the AAA games coming out.
ok, so GTA is set to rock, and then Rockstar followed up with a knockout punch by responding to a story someone wrote about how giving their Manhunt 2 game an Adults Only rating was a GOOD thing. and the thing rocks so much i'm just going to repost it here:
Dear Mr. Fahey,
We are responding to the article Sick Filth?, in which you expressed support for the ban of Manhunt 2.
Although censorship makes you "deeply uncomfortable" and you found the ban’s rationale "a less comfortable topic", you agreed with the judgment of the British Board of Film Classification that no one - regardless of age or personal opinion - should be allowed to consider playing Manhunt 2.
We are still exploring our options for Manhunt 2, but how does banning our game support the industry or further the development of the medium? Unlike a heavy-handed editor or a critical review of a game, a ban is punishment for deviating from tradition.
A ban denies everyone the chance to consider, experience, or discuss the actual game. The only obvious victor is the status quo.
You seem to view banning Manhunt 2 as a way to protect the industry from scrutiny and unfair attacks. In fact, a ban is a triumph for the industry’s harshest critics, not an act of diplomacy.
A ban is only likely to encourage those who believe video games, already the most regulated medium in entertainment history, should be further restricted.
What about games make them deserve special treatment from the authorities? According to industry groups, the average games player is in his or her 30s, yet you support the widely held view that games are somehow a less sophisticated medium than cinema, only suitable for immature audiences.
In other words, although gamers can negotiate the boundaries between reality and fiction in other media, you believe we are incapable of navigating the same boundaries in videogames.
Yes, we have responsibilities as an industry, but as a creative industry, not as a pharmaceutical or weapons industry. Creative industries have always faced harsh political and legal criticism, and we know some of the movie industry’s more reactionary responses to scrutiny actually backfired.
We believe in a well-run ratings system. With the best rating system in history and the future of the industry and medium at stake, we don’t understand why it is necessary to effectively ban all games intended for players 18 and older.
Sincerely,
Rockstar Games
kudos Rockstar. i'm behind you 100%.
- kawitchate
Saturday, July 21
Rogue Galaxy impressions / ramblings / review
let me preface this post by saying that i don't often "beat" games. that said, when i put the effort forth to beat a game nowadays, it's got to be worth it, right?
well, i just beat Rogue Galaxy for the PS2 and here are my impressions (i'm not doing a full-on review, just rambling things off the top of my head):
- i thought i read somewhere that this game had 100+ hours of gameplay... well i clocked in at about 50 hours and even if i did all the side missions and extra stuff i think i'd only clock in at 75 hours max. now, was this a bad thing? no. taking into account the gameplay, story, etc. i think that 50 hours is just fine - i just remember 100 hours being tossed around and i expected a little more.
- speaking of expecting more, i expected to visit more planets (this same problem came up for me when playing Star Ocean: Till the End of Time). in a game that is called Rogue GALAXY, you'd expect to visit more than just 5 or 6 planets you visit over and over, am i right? Mass Effect for the 360, which comes out this fall, looks to be the first game to promise the galaxy and deliver (but we'll see).
- another big thing this game touted is that there are no load times going indoors to outdoors, and vice versa - once you're on a planet, there are no load times. while this was cool, i can't help but feel that they accomplished this by sacrificing something else... life. SO many of the planets felt like they were uninhabited, from the small jungle village to the bustling city. there weren't any people! ...or not enough for me, not enough to make it feel alive. this comment comes after just playing Final Fantasy XII, which i beat a month or so ago (impressions still to come), and the cities in it were bustling with life.
- going along with the above, the dungeons also were not only dead, but repetitive! the further i got in the game the more i could see how they would repeat level layouts just to make a dungeon longer! and man, the last 5-10 hours of the game is TOUGH to get through for this very reason... repetitive environments and dungeons that go on forever. i almost, ALMOST gave up right at the end - from where i thought i was going to have the final battle to where i actually DID have it, i had to go through a grueling 2-3 hour dungeon that repeated itself over and over... and for what? it just felt like stall tactics.
- i guess this happens in a lot of RPGs, but it stood out in this one... even though they eventually offered me 8 characters to make my 3-man party out of, i stuck with the same 3 people from practically the start of the game. what i DID like is that early in the game it forced you to partner up with certain characters because of the story, but then that got totally abandoned maybe 20 hours in. i think the game might have been better had they forced me to switch it up every once in a while.
- the three "main" characters of the game (featured on the box art) seemed a bit forced to me, or at least one of the characters did. the main character and the girl, they were fine, but the other hardened pirate, Zegram... i hardly played as him! reason being is that for half the story he does shady things and you're not sure who's side he's on... so why would i want him in my party? so i went with another character who, looking back, was probably weaker than Zegram in terms of combat. weirdness.
- this game features some of the more difficult combat i've experienced, or at least combat with a learning curve (i died twice in the first hour of playing this game). first, there's no magic, so my tried-and-true method of having a healer didn't work in this game. so what did i have to do? i had to use potions... a lot. a LOT a lot. seriously, i can't remember ever using this many potions in a game. for example, in a regular battle, it wouldn't be weird if i used an individual potion or three and then also a potion that healed all 3 members of my party. that's a LOT of potion usage.
- speaking of combat, i need to talk about the "special attacks" (can't remember what they're called in the game). now, when i play an RPG i more often than not use regular attacks and only rely on special attacks when i'm in a pinch, so naturally the special attacks were largely ignored by me in this game. however, in the last 10 hours of the game i started realizing that the special attacks are WAY unbalanced. now, there is a deterrent from always using a special attack in combat, as each character has a gauge (like a health bar, but for these attacks) and it depletes somewhat when you use a special attack. if you were to constantly use the special attacks, your gauge would be depleted completely after 5-10 battles, and there are, on average, 30 battles in between save points. however, there are potions you can take to refill your gauge, and late in the game you've got tons of them, so you could just fire off special attack after special attack and plow your way through battles. they try and stop this as well with the enemies that have shields, but just regular attack their shields away and then hit them with the special. where I ended up using the special attacks was in boss battles - and wow, WAY unbalanced. some of the bosses didn't even TOUCH me as i just fired away special attack after special attack. they really should have looked at this issue a bit more... i'm glad i didn't realize it until late in the game because it could have seriously made me stop playing.
- just as the special attacks are unbalanced, so is the money in the game. early in the game you're hurting for money - at one point i had to sell off items i didn't want to just to obtain weapons i needed to stand up to the bad guys at the time. but then you're just INUNDATED with money and you've got way more than you know what to do with because there just isn't that much to BUY in the game. i think at the end of the game i had over 700,000 in cash, and the most expensive items were only thousands, not even tens of thousands. oh, and this is after i experienced one of the better games that dealt with money, Final Fantasy XII, which had you sell off spoils from battle and walked a fine line of just having enough throughout the game. so yeah, Rogue Galaxy should have either held back on the money or gave me something to buy! some ultimate weapons, or alternate clothes - something!
- the story was average at best. see, i sign on to RPGs mainly for the story - well, either that or the combat system. Rogue Galaxy had a pretty good story, but not a GREAT story. the entire thing felt a bit too familiar and safe. however, there were a few characters that had interesting stories - Steve and what it meant to be "real," Kisala and her ultimate importance to the galaxy - and there was a lot of humor in the game, which was refreshing. however, the WAY it was told wasn't cool with me - basically it was all told in capping cutscenes, capping off the entering and exiting of a dungeon. while this wasn't ALWAYS the case, that's how it felt - i would grind away in a dungeon for 2 hours and be rewarded with 5 minutes of story... and played story at that. i don't know... it could have been so much more.
- the love story was too reserved, but perhaps this is just a flaw of Japanese RPGs. it was obvious the two main characters liked each other, but there were only a few cutscenes that alluded to this. and the end?!?
- the end of this game was... satisfactory, but not perfect. after you beat the final boss (which takes a good deal of time, as there's 3 iterations of it), there's like a 15-minute cutscene with what happens and the end result? most everyone goes their own ways, but the 2 main characters? left up in the air! then you see the credits and THANK GOD there's another scene... then there's a voice-over that confirms what i'd hoped from the start... but you don't get to SEE it? you don't get to PLAY it? which leads me to my final point...
- after the game is over, you can go and do another long-ass dungeon and obtain some treasure you can't get anywhere else. however, this dungeon isn't story related at all. at the end of the game, a few of the characters are going to rescue another character from herself, and i guess they do because there's a voice-over saying yay we did it... but why couldn't the extra playable dungeon be you rescuing your fellow comrade? i don't know.
so i'm thinking i should have named this post "Rogue Galaxy complaints" but honestly, these are my feelings after playing it. from reading all that you'd think i hated the game right? well you're wrong.
i started this post off by saying that when i put the effort forth to beat a game nowadays, it's got to be worth it. Rogue Galaxy was worth it, have no fear. sure i've got my gripes with the game, but overall it was a pretty good RPG - as good as Level 5s last offering, Dragon Quest VIII? no. but still, pretty good.
if i had to rate it out of 10, i'd give it an 8, with a margin of error of 0.25 (i could go up or down 0.25 points if persuaded to from other people's opinions on the game).
- kawitchate
well, i just beat Rogue Galaxy for the PS2 and here are my impressions (i'm not doing a full-on review, just rambling things off the top of my head):
- i thought i read somewhere that this game had 100+ hours of gameplay... well i clocked in at about 50 hours and even if i did all the side missions and extra stuff i think i'd only clock in at 75 hours max. now, was this a bad thing? no. taking into account the gameplay, story, etc. i think that 50 hours is just fine - i just remember 100 hours being tossed around and i expected a little more.
- speaking of expecting more, i expected to visit more planets (this same problem came up for me when playing Star Ocean: Till the End of Time). in a game that is called Rogue GALAXY, you'd expect to visit more than just 5 or 6 planets you visit over and over, am i right? Mass Effect for the 360, which comes out this fall, looks to be the first game to promise the galaxy and deliver (but we'll see).
- another big thing this game touted is that there are no load times going indoors to outdoors, and vice versa - once you're on a planet, there are no load times. while this was cool, i can't help but feel that they accomplished this by sacrificing something else... life. SO many of the planets felt like they were uninhabited, from the small jungle village to the bustling city. there weren't any people! ...or not enough for me, not enough to make it feel alive. this comment comes after just playing Final Fantasy XII, which i beat a month or so ago (impressions still to come), and the cities in it were bustling with life.
- going along with the above, the dungeons also were not only dead, but repetitive! the further i got in the game the more i could see how they would repeat level layouts just to make a dungeon longer! and man, the last 5-10 hours of the game is TOUGH to get through for this very reason... repetitive environments and dungeons that go on forever. i almost, ALMOST gave up right at the end - from where i thought i was going to have the final battle to where i actually DID have it, i had to go through a grueling 2-3 hour dungeon that repeated itself over and over... and for what? it just felt like stall tactics.
- i guess this happens in a lot of RPGs, but it stood out in this one... even though they eventually offered me 8 characters to make my 3-man party out of, i stuck with the same 3 people from practically the start of the game. what i DID like is that early in the game it forced you to partner up with certain characters because of the story, but then that got totally abandoned maybe 20 hours in. i think the game might have been better had they forced me to switch it up every once in a while.
- the three "main" characters of the game (featured on the box art) seemed a bit forced to me, or at least one of the characters did. the main character and the girl, they were fine, but the other hardened pirate, Zegram... i hardly played as him! reason being is that for half the story he does shady things and you're not sure who's side he's on... so why would i want him in my party? so i went with another character who, looking back, was probably weaker than Zegram in terms of combat. weirdness.
- this game features some of the more difficult combat i've experienced, or at least combat with a learning curve (i died twice in the first hour of playing this game). first, there's no magic, so my tried-and-true method of having a healer didn't work in this game. so what did i have to do? i had to use potions... a lot. a LOT a lot. seriously, i can't remember ever using this many potions in a game. for example, in a regular battle, it wouldn't be weird if i used an individual potion or three and then also a potion that healed all 3 members of my party. that's a LOT of potion usage.
- speaking of combat, i need to talk about the "special attacks" (can't remember what they're called in the game). now, when i play an RPG i more often than not use regular attacks and only rely on special attacks when i'm in a pinch, so naturally the special attacks were largely ignored by me in this game. however, in the last 10 hours of the game i started realizing that the special attacks are WAY unbalanced. now, there is a deterrent from always using a special attack in combat, as each character has a gauge (like a health bar, but for these attacks) and it depletes somewhat when you use a special attack. if you were to constantly use the special attacks, your gauge would be depleted completely after 5-10 battles, and there are, on average, 30 battles in between save points. however, there are potions you can take to refill your gauge, and late in the game you've got tons of them, so you could just fire off special attack after special attack and plow your way through battles. they try and stop this as well with the enemies that have shields, but just regular attack their shields away and then hit them with the special. where I ended up using the special attacks was in boss battles - and wow, WAY unbalanced. some of the bosses didn't even TOUCH me as i just fired away special attack after special attack. they really should have looked at this issue a bit more... i'm glad i didn't realize it until late in the game because it could have seriously made me stop playing.
- just as the special attacks are unbalanced, so is the money in the game. early in the game you're hurting for money - at one point i had to sell off items i didn't want to just to obtain weapons i needed to stand up to the bad guys at the time. but then you're just INUNDATED with money and you've got way more than you know what to do with because there just isn't that much to BUY in the game. i think at the end of the game i had over 700,000 in cash, and the most expensive items were only thousands, not even tens of thousands. oh, and this is after i experienced one of the better games that dealt with money, Final Fantasy XII, which had you sell off spoils from battle and walked a fine line of just having enough throughout the game. so yeah, Rogue Galaxy should have either held back on the money or gave me something to buy! some ultimate weapons, or alternate clothes - something!
- the story was average at best. see, i sign on to RPGs mainly for the story - well, either that or the combat system. Rogue Galaxy had a pretty good story, but not a GREAT story. the entire thing felt a bit too familiar and safe. however, there were a few characters that had interesting stories - Steve and what it meant to be "real," Kisala and her ultimate importance to the galaxy - and there was a lot of humor in the game, which was refreshing. however, the WAY it was told wasn't cool with me - basically it was all told in capping cutscenes, capping off the entering and exiting of a dungeon. while this wasn't ALWAYS the case, that's how it felt - i would grind away in a dungeon for 2 hours and be rewarded with 5 minutes of story... and played story at that. i don't know... it could have been so much more.
- the love story was too reserved, but perhaps this is just a flaw of Japanese RPGs. it was obvious the two main characters liked each other, but there were only a few cutscenes that alluded to this. and the end?!?
- the end of this game was... satisfactory, but not perfect. after you beat the final boss (which takes a good deal of time, as there's 3 iterations of it), there's like a 15-minute cutscene with what happens and the end result? most everyone goes their own ways, but the 2 main characters? left up in the air! then you see the credits and THANK GOD there's another scene... then there's a voice-over that confirms what i'd hoped from the start... but you don't get to SEE it? you don't get to PLAY it? which leads me to my final point...
- after the game is over, you can go and do another long-ass dungeon and obtain some treasure you can't get anywhere else. however, this dungeon isn't story related at all. at the end of the game, a few of the characters are going to rescue another character from herself, and i guess they do because there's a voice-over saying yay we did it... but why couldn't the extra playable dungeon be you rescuing your fellow comrade? i don't know.
so i'm thinking i should have named this post "Rogue Galaxy complaints" but honestly, these are my feelings after playing it. from reading all that you'd think i hated the game right? well you're wrong.
i started this post off by saying that when i put the effort forth to beat a game nowadays, it's got to be worth it. Rogue Galaxy was worth it, have no fear. sure i've got my gripes with the game, but overall it was a pretty good RPG - as good as Level 5s last offering, Dragon Quest VIII? no. but still, pretty good.
if i had to rate it out of 10, i'd give it an 8, with a margin of error of 0.25 (i could go up or down 0.25 points if persuaded to from other people's opinions on the game).
- kawitchate
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