How do I know that I'm a gamer? Well, last night I had a dream. A key piece of the plot to said dream involved a bunch of wild animals suddenly showing up and attacking the house. There was a flea-infested dog, a boar, and a horse, that I can remember. As the horse runs up against the front porch, trying to reach the door, he pulls the "no pathfinding teleport" thing (you know, where an NPC will rub up against a wall they can't quite get around until they suddenly just teleport around it or clip through it?). To top it off, he rears back and bashes the door, only to have his hoof clip right through it.
Do my dreams have poor pathfinding and bad graphics?
Are they seriously going to make Arthas killable in Wrath of the Lich King? Really? The best character that series has to offer, and you can just gank him? Blizzard had better not be taking WoW as series canon, or else they've just lost me as a fan of the series. That is, assuming they make another true Warcraft game ever, in the first place.
As you can see, I've once again become to inundated with games to post any updates. I'm wrestling with several RPGs at once here, with Fallout 3, Fable 2, a little Sonic: Brotherhood of Steel (oh wait, that's "The Dark Brotherhood"); and on top of that, I have Gears 2 and possibly Mirror's Edge coming up. Thank God for the piss poor economy... the lack of work is giving me more time to play these games!!! Oh, wait... *checks wallet*... *son of a*!!!
Oh, and I haven't forgotten how awesome Ever17 is yet. In fact, I've probably played through the story 10 separate times now (getting all of the good endings first, then the bad endings, with a few playthroughs beforehand to see all the subtle things I missed not knowing the whole truth behind what was going on).
I'm now waiting patiently for bits and pieces from a Remember11 translation project. That game seems even more refined, although I like the characters from Ever17 a whole lot more. Remember11 is a whole lot more mystery and intrigue, and a lot less "dating sim" than Ever17 (though you really can't call Ever17 a dating sim, you certainly do have romances between the different girls in the game), at least so far. The only bad thing is that, unlike Ever17, I've already sort of figured out several major plot points which I don't think I'm supposed to have known yet. I know I figured it out because I've read a couple different product descriptions that unfortunately flat-out tell you that is what is happening.
Is it weird that I want to finish Remember11 more than any of the other games I've mentioned in this post? Yes, even Gears 2. Man, I wish I knew Japanese, or that the people translating it would get wotking a little faster, or if KID never went bankrupt in the first place.
Funny to think that the last time I posted I was playing a whole different set of games, once again. For the past few weeks, I've had my head wrapped around the Japanese visual novel "Ever 17," which, were it to be able to be classified as a true "game," would have the greatest video game story ever, without question. However, I don't think I could lump it in to that category, considering the only interaction you get is the choice between what your character says at certain points, or something to that extent
Still, Ever 17 is a revelation. I'll be writing a whole lot more about it later, when I have the time, but what I have to say now is that, if you are reading this and haven't played it yet, go do it now. The english translation is a little rough, but strangely enough, it works just perfectly when it is needed the most; which is quite a feat, considering the complex subjects that they need to get across to the player in order to ultimately understand what is going on.
Writing reviews is only possible if you can actually finish a game. Unfortunately for me, I'm dying to write a review, but I just haven't been able too finish a game as of late.
I've been jumping from game to game with such frequency for various reason; the top of which being an acute lack of interest. For example, I was playing Company of Heroes and enjoying the game very, very much for about a week. Absolutely loving it. I even wrote earlier that it was revitalizing my interest in the RTS genre. I was enjoying it, that is, until I hit that one timed level. What is the big problem with one little timed level? Well, I have an openly admitted problem with anything that has a time limit. Considering that my major strategy in COH, or any RTS, really, is always to dig in real tight with base defenses and gradual resource domination, a process which takes a whole lot of time to accomplish, my only viable strategy suddenly becomes useless when a time limit is involved.
Yes, I suck at RTS games because I cannot adapt. I can't move fast enough to create the units necessary to rush in without losing them all in the scuffle between rushing back to my base to build more units and fighting a war halfway across the map. So I gave up. I recently reinstalled Windows, and never bothered to reinstall COH.
But really, the biggest problem is that I've just had so many games to play. Spore, Pokemon Platinum, Neverwinter Nights 2, Tales of Vesperia... all games that take a whole lot of time, and time is not something i have a lot of.
Though come to think of it, Of all those games I just listed, Spore is a game I've technically "beaten." I've made it to the center of the universe, at least. I think to fully "beat" Spore would involve capturing every planet in every solar system for complete universal domination, but anybody with that much time on their hands and with that much of a drive for one single game woudl have to be a madman.
Spore is a great, great game. I'm on my second playthrough right now as an economist (technically, my title is "Bard"). My first run was all militaristic, which really was easier and more fun, I do have to say.
It's nice to see F.E.A.R. retaking its name. Sure, the name really didn't mean anything to me, personally, as an informed gamer that knew the internal and legal struggles involved; but now we can all rest assured knowing that the fate of the sequel will not reflect a lack of that familiar name.
I'm all over the place right now when it comes to gaming. I started playing a little GTA IV at the beginning of the week, but haven't really picked it up since.
I've been playing little bits and snippets of Doom 3, but I really can't stand all the "BOO!" scare tactics that game uses. Like, it will be fairly obvious that something is going to happen in this upcoming ominously lit room, but whatever it is will still scare the hell outta me, and I just can' t seem to play more than a few short bursts at a time because of it. I have the same problem with all "scary" games, though.
I've been playing a whole lot of Neverwinter Nights 2. Unfortunately, I'm starting over for the 3rd or 4th time now because each time I've lost my previous savegames somehow. Despite the games quality, playing through those same Act 1 quests can get really boring, and worse yet, I'm already loathing my choice of classes (a fighter/weaponmaster/duelist) for his lack of power and lack of interesting tactics. So I'm already thinking of starting over AGAIN, or figuring out what is entailed in importing a different, equally levelled character into my current game without breaking everything I've done so far.
Finally, I've gotten my hands on a copy of Pokemon Platinum (the Japanese release, obviously) just tonight, and played roughly 2 minutes of it so far (enough to get to a point where I can save it). I can tell you that I'm already thinking of putting it down and waiting for the english release, however painful that wait may be, because the main changes from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are story related, and I can't understand a lick of what is going on beyond what I already know. Still, I suppose my curiousity and love for all that is the Pokemon RPG series will keep me poking my head back in. The game looks amazing, which says a lot about me, I suppose, considering how much of it is just not that different.
I had an interior battle today. Spore VS Tales of Vesperia. Tales won it.
So how could a game like Tales of Vesperia win my cash over a messianic game like Spore? Well, after seeing the early reviews of Spore, I've realized that the game is exactly what I always figured it would turn out to be: a brilliant design without the fun and innovative gameplay to back it up. I'm sure it's still a great game, but I'm looking for a game that know I'll personally have fun playing, and I've fallen in love with the Tales series since Symphonia.
I'm sure I'll get Spore eventually, once it drops in price or I grow bored enough to buy it. I always planned on getting the game. But I did think it amusing that I chose a JRPG of less than stellar critical acclaim over the almighty Spore, for the time being.
Log in to comment