Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

 Serious Blogging Episode 1: Is creative still cool?  

   
In came through my mind one day that we have what is an exception in gaming. It seems that Nintendo's IP games are merely an exception these days, because all other games and game developers seem to have switched over to the "Accepted" FPS boat. I acknowledge that these games are fun, but when did every game have to switch over to the serious "badass" (stressing the quotes there) genre of men in their primes gunning people down in a first person view?

When I used to go to a game store, it would be hard to choose which game to pick because they were all so unique in their own ways. Now it is a question of which shooter should I get on my Xbox360. I must point out the obvious exceptions: Prince of Persia, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Viva Pinata, and Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. What a short list, and even Bioshock and Fallout 3 are FPS games, but they deserve recognition for being unique shooters. My arguement is that there are to many of them that do not stand out at all.

I think the biggest example of this is Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: World at War. Seriously, these games are good, but they do not do anything special. They make a "badass" (again stress the quotes) FPS with "DUDE MIND BLOWING" cutscenes all about some people fighting a war. Call of Duty Modern Warfare comes out soon, and that is no exception. Its using (abusing) the same engine and formula. There is no main character to this series, only a guy in his prime, gunning down people in a first person mode. There is nothing special put into this game, just a short campaign, a good online system, and some guns. Our gaming society accepts this game, and that would be cool, as long as it was not the only thing accepted. This is getting annoying when I walk down an isle and I am constantly reminded that half the selection is Gun games.  I admit, Call of Duty is fun, very addicting online might I add, but people, we must find balance. 1 year cycles like Madden and Call of Duty (whilst CoD is MUCH better) do NOT need to be selling well. They are taking up shelf space which other, better games need. 

I have been playing Dead Space these last two days and that game is intense as hell. It used to be that Silent Hill was more of the creepy atmosphere feeling and Resident Evil was the game with jump-scares. This game has both of em and it really works those terror-nerves. I am definitely no playing this one at night.  
 
I just got this 360 elite with Resident Evil 5. And since my old 360 red-ringed and my old 20 gig was maxxed out, i can only now experience the install to HDD feature and it really cuts down the loading times on Dead Space. Going from 6-10 seconds to 2 seconds to start the game. And no more in-game loading with doors not opening. Also played through Shadow Complex and playing through it again for achievements.  
 
I can only play these new games since i am still waiting for my data transfer kit to arrive.
 
Games i bought recently: 
Monkey Island: Special Edition 
Resident Evil 5 (got it with the system) 
Streetfighter IV 
Dead Space 
 
And games on the way this week: 
Ninja Gaiden 2 
Grand Theft Auto IV 
Gears of War 2 
The Simpsons 
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts 
 
Got a really good deal on them, so I am very happy. Some of these games are still 60 euros or at least 30 euros. 
 
AND: I finally hit 11k on my gamerscore!! At least on xbox live. Still working on the brewmaster meta achievement in WoW. (only lastst this week)

My summer vacation just ended, but luckily I had time to play a lot of games. In this blog I will list all the new games/content I've tried during the summer. The games are listed in no particular order.
 

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Platform: Xbox 360  

My most played game of the summer by far, because of it's addictive multiplayer. I even managed to earn the most time consuming achievements like reach 100000k XP, 5000 kills and 16 challenges. The game is not without flaws though as the singple-player could have been a lot better.
 
The Good 

• Great, addictive multiplayer
• Awesome destruction

 
The Bad

• Boring, broken, repetitive missions

 
   

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

Platform: Xbox 360     

Being a fan of the original Nintendo 64 games, I was curious to see if the new gameplay system would do the franchise any good. And it did! I've had a lot of fun playing the game so far, but stopped since it begun to get a bit repetitive. I will without a doubt return to this game at a later date.
 
The Good

• Unique gameplay
• Both funny and charming

 
The Bad

• The multiplayer component feels half arsed
• The missions will eventually become too repetitive

 
  
 

Spiderwick Chronicles

Platform: Xbox 360  
  
I bought this game very cheap awhile back and finnaly found some time to check it out. The game is a typical movie/game adaption and it is obviously meant for kids. That being said, the game is actually not horrible, but there is not much for an adult to enjoy in this title.
 
The Good

• Great children's game. I guess.

 
The Bad

• PS2-era graphics
• I have not personally seen the movie, and after playing the game I still don't know what it's about. Bad storytelling.

 
   

Left 4 Dead Survival Update

Platform: PC  
  
In my opinion, Left 4 Dead is an awesome game, but it's also Valve's worst game. I love everything about it, but it has never felt like a full stand-alone product to me. The game simply didn't ship with enough content. That being said, I was glad when Valve finally announced the first content patch, which added the new Survival mode.
 
The Good

• It's free!
• Greatly improves the replayability

 
The Bad

• I know I will sound like a sissy saying this but... it's frustratingly hard! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a challenge, but I don't want the challenge to be "find the most bugged spot on the map and camp".

 
   

Shadow Complex

Platform: Xbox 360    
 
Good XBLA games are starting to be a common breed. Truely great XBLA titles aren't. Shadow Complex is a truely great game that is worth a lot more than what it's charging.
 
The Good

• Great gameplay which rewards exploration
• Interesting power-ups

 
The Bad

• The framerate is rather unstable

 
  
 

Fallout 3: Point Lookout

Platform: Xbox 360  

Point Lookout is the 4th DLC for Fallout 3 which adds a new svamp to explore. The setting is simply awesome and I haven't seen anything like it in any other game. The main story mission is interesting, and almost anywhere you go in the svamp, something interesting pops up. If you like Fallout 3; buy it.
 
The Good

• Great atmosphere
• Interesting quests

 
The Bad

• Not much new quipment to be found

 
  
 

Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

Platform: Xbox 360  
 
The 5th and last DLC for Fallout 3, and this time you're going to space. Yes, space. I value the effort that went in to create this very unique DLC, but I can't help but feeling it's misfit for this game. All the DLC's content is happening on a single alien spacecraft, so if you're a big fan of corridor shooters, don't you dare miss this one.
 
The Good

• Interesting setting 

 
The Bad

• Boring level design
• The final boss battle is complete junk.

 
  
 

World of Warcraft 3.2 Patch

Platform: PC  
 
I'm not a big WoW player anymore, but I do like to peek inside everytime a new content patch arrives. The patch added a new raid dungeon, a new 5 man dungeon, renewed token drops in old instances and a lot more.
 
The Good

• Updated the token drops in all heroics which greatly enhances the replayability for casual players
• Hardcore players will probably find lots of fun in the new raid content

 
The Bad

• The new dungeon layout is boring

 
  
 

Gears of War 2: Dark Corners

Platform: Xbox 360  
 
The new DLC which added the "Deleted Scene" and 7 new multiplayer maps. The new DLC level is kinda what you would expect; it's a Gears of War 2 level. It is possible, however, to choose a stealthier approach instead of running right at them. It's not as good as I thought it would be, but it's still a solid product.
 
The Good

• The new multiplayer maps each have a distinct look
• The "Deleted Scene" chapter includes unique cutscenes and voiceacting

 
The Bad

• It's stupid that the chapter is not integrated into the game itself

 
  
 

Warhammer Online Trial

Platform: PC  
 
A friend of mine pursuated me to try a trial of Warhammer Online, and I must confess I entered the game with great skepticism. I leveled my character to level 9 until I decided I'd seen enough. The game is not bad, but having played World of Warcraft, the game just seems a little dull. I understand that the game is heavier focused on PvP than Worlf of Warcraft, but it didn't really come into play in my trial time.
 
The Good

• Lots of classes
• Public quests are a great addition to the genre

 
The Bad

• Seems weird to me that the best way to level your character is to PvP. I don't know if that's the case in end game, but I always gained a crazy amount of XP in PvP scenarios with my low level character.
• I often got stuck in the terrain. 
• Most public quests were impossible because it often required about 9 people to complete, which is an insane amount in a starting area.

 
  
 
I think that was all of them, so this marks the end of my list and my first blog post. What new games did you play?

I havn't really posted in a while I have been busy with exam results. The important thing is I am in at Loughborough doing Aeronautical Engineering. Either way I have been playing Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts this week and it seems pretty solid expect a review soon. I am also very tempted to get shadow complex the demo impressed me. The Wet demo also gave me a bit of fun reminding me a bit of Stranglehold which is neither a good or bad thing. I always love shooting guys in slo mo. First things how did other peoples results go in the UK and are you in where you want to be? Also Shadow Complex recommendations.

Sank a lot of time into Battlefield Multiplayer today so check out the review here I will be away next week for a bit but then I will be back with either Call Of Duty: World at War or Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. I would appreciate recommendations of which one to go for.

And, no, I don't mean Idolm@ster.

Being an expat in Japan who does not have great Japanese skills can be limiting. Especially when it comes to gaming. Lots of great titles come out here that never make it to the US, but the language barrier is high. Still, I do what I can and play as much as I can. With the advent of region-free gaming - big thanks DS, PSP, PS3 and moderate thanks Xbox 360 - it's easy enough to get my game on in English. I have the Japanese version of all those systems, and the 360 is the only source of frustration.

When it launched a fair bit of the titles were region locked. With the small install base in Japan, only the biggest names came out over here, and even then, some of the had all the English stripped out. (I'm looking at you NFS: Most Wanted!) The local version of PD:0 and Ridge Racer 6 had full English menus and gameplay, which was nice.

Over time, I've learned to make do with what I could get here, both local versions and the US imports. The real treats come in the Asian territory releases, though. These are NTSC-J, and will run on Asian and Japanese systems - which are not the same thing. These releases come from Hong Kong and are usually the US version of the game with Chinese subtitles and an English/Chinese manual.

They also cost less than their Japanese counterparts.

Generally only about $10 less, but still, when Play-Asia will give free shipping to Japan, it's worth ordering online.

But what about this has to do with finally having a great reason to own a J-360?

How about Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for $9.90!

Brand new copy, free shipping and it'll only run on NTSC-J consoles.

My copy just arrived today! ^.^

After reading heaps of praise for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, I wasn't surprised too much at how it turned out, although I'm coming away from it a bit less gushy than most of the things I've read about it on Giant Bomb. It has some niggling issues that at times made me put it down for an extended period of time. I just finished up getting most of the single player achievements (except for 60 TT Trophies and collecting every last Jiggy), so I'm gonna move on from it for now.

It's a little ironic that one of the things that stuck out was the whole collect-o-thon aspect of the game that is made fun of by the characters in the game in reference to the previous games in the series, even though Nuts and Bolts isn't really all that different in structure and arbitrary tasks. Even though you're doing things with vehicles this time around, going from one Jiggy challenge to the next gave me deja vu of going through the motions of a 3D platformer. It's like the game is one massive troll to the series fanbase cleverly disguised as Rare kicking itself in the teeth for the players' amusement, since pretty much everything is just as arbitrary as it ever was.

Speaking of the vehicles, maybe it's just me but they never really feel like you want them to. Even if you have this awesome idea, the game tends to somehow penalize you for it in some random way. You can balance and weight a vehicle perfectly, slap on some jets for speed and a liberal helping of spoilers to keep it on the ground, but it'll still go airborne on the smallest incline and spin out from the smallest graze, and it'll still handle like crap regardless. It felt like making vehicles that are only slightly better than what your opponents were using was better than making a powerhouse speed demon, and that was a bit of a killjoy. Even for things that weren't races, it felt like you had to sacrifice alot of the cool stuff you get so your vehicle wouldn't spin out or overshoot marks or fall over or get stuck on geometry or whatever.

For what it is, K&B is pretty good. I didn't come away hating it, even though some of the vehicle stuff could be frustrating, and not for any of the good reasons. For now, I'm gonna move on to Mass Effect. Perhaps I'll review them both, along with Viva Pinata, once I'm done with all three.

There isn't much to say that Ryan Davis didn't say in his review, but the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island is really awesome. I think people who were worried can belay their fears of it being a total mess. It's an episodic title, so it isn't particularly long or anything, and the days of frustratingly inane pixel hunts are over (thank god) so it feels light and breezy, but the feel and humour of the series is definitely intact, and because of that it's worth playing. I might wait for it to be released as an individual episode if you're not a prior fan of the series or still on the fence, since you can only get the full series in a package at the moment.

The wasd movement/mouse interaction isn't really that big of a deal, even thought the wires that get crossed don't really uncross by the time you finish the episode. It's not the kind of thing that will frustrate you and put you off playing the game, it just feels a little bit weird, and stops you playing with one hand, which was a little bit of an inconvenience because I was eating at the time. That's probably the only sleight against it, really, unless you're the type that would be upset about the lack of difficulty or have your panties in a twist about the artstyle.

On another note, I put a little time into all the three games I noted in my last blog. Some thoughts:

Mass Effect:

• Starts a bit slow. 
  
• Vehicle segments are terribad.
  
• My character has a huge nose because the head in the face creator only tilts a little to the side and clearly doesn't offer quite enough perspective. Subsequently, he looks like a snooty French military officer, which doesn't fit the voice actor at all. 
  
• I died alot early because I didn't utilize cover.
  
• I want to expect that dude who wants info on the Watchers to make some giant cyborg super-Watcher that starts shooting lasers out of its eyes and rampages through the Praesidium, but then I remembered this is a western RPG.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts:

• Don't overthink things or you'll waste alot of time making complicated vehicles that end up working terribly.
• Rare kicking themself in the teeth repeatedly makes for funny dialogue.
• Jinjo's are still annoying.
  

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise:

• Threatens to suck the very life out of me.
• Seedos is holding out on me. Seriously.
• The girl at the Costalot store is no Tom Nook.
  

I'm thinking I might leave Mass Effect til last, since it's gonna require alot more consistant playtime. The other two I can pick up and play whenever. The fear in my mind though, is that I may never get to the point where I get back to Mass Effect...