Early entry! An hour until my class gives me plenty of time to write some today's entry so I can get home and spend the entire night free of homework and writing. Know what that means? ... That's right. It means You Don't Know Jack.
Edit: Turns out I got busy D: Sorry for the really late update. Part 2 will come later today.
Okay so, before I get beheaded, I should point out that I am in no way comparing the two. I am just naming both of them because I can't decide which one I think I like more. I like them both a whole lot for very different reasons. I'll just make a neat little section for each.
Yakuza 3
"I saw my own son use a bicycle as a weapon!" If you want to know what the modern-day brawler is, look no further than the Yakuza series. I've already gone over why the series has the best character I've seen in gaming but why it's so much fun to play in the first place is an entirely different beast with a multitude of reasons.
The vast majority of your time will be spent running around the streets of Kamurocho and Okinawa, fighting dudes and picking up side-quests. I say this because while the game will directly tell you "GO HERE TO STORY" on the map, it'll only be a matter of seconds before you're distracted by something in the environment. See that Club Sega on the street corner? Go play in it. There's a killer 2D shoot-em-'up if you decide to. Shit, is that an indoor baseball practice range? Hell yes, it is! Go play! Try to beat the high score. That man wants to get pictures of some lady in her apartment? Well goddamn, you best help the guy! The side-quests are varied and there's an absolutely staggering amount of things you can spend hours upon hours doing. It's, honestly, pretty intimidating the first time when you're introduced to all this shit you can do.
And what do you do when you're going from place to place? ... Well, run, mostly. That, and some serious fighting. As you run around, thugs will come up to you and try to threaten you for walking around on their turf, because they want money or some other poor idea. Either way, it always ends with you seamlessly going into combat and BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF THEM WITH ADVERTISEMENT BILLBOARDS. The combat system is fairly easy to learn and gets a ton deeper as you progress through the game. You'll learn combos from dojos and random events in the game world and experience is spent in a set amount of categories that'll affect your character in different ways, so there's a lot of creativity to how you want to fight in there. Just about everything in your immediate environment can also be used as a weapon and the environment itself is interactive, allowing you to pick up dudes and pull off special moves on whatever is closest to you. A wall, a pole, a car, a bench, a bike, a sign, a door... just about everything is there for you to smash someone's head in.
And all of this is done with technically-great controls. Movement is super-responsive and the combat is intuitive and fluid. You'll more-often-than-not be surrounded by enemies and dealing with them by combo-ing moves off one onto another is never a problem. They've only refined the controls since the first game and it gets me very, very excited to see what Sega has in-store for Yakuza 4 this March.
I need to restart my computer now. Part 2 will be up later today.
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So, a while back I had posted a re-design of the Giant Bomb video player. It was inspired by the concept Dave threw up on his Twitter account and after some feedback from both him and the community, I set out to re-re-design it.
... like... last year. In November or something. I've been busy since but the free time I've had in school has made me finish it up some and I guess it's ready enough to be posted here. It's nothing incredible; really just an incremental improvement over the first design.
That said, I'm still way curious to know what you guys think! I'm not a subscriber (Paypal >:c) so I have no idea what the Theatre looks like, therefor kind of limiting my "keeping up to date with new player features" thing.
The main features would be the browser and it's ability to search, as well as to add any of the videos to your queue. I actually meant to add in a little "+" symbol on each of the videos' thumbails. Darn. I'll do it later or something. The other feature is the Tracking thing which I haven't come up with a better name for. It essentially allows you to browse through the video you're currently watching by breaking it down into thumbails with set intervals. For example, you could browse a QL by breaking it down into 30 second intervals and see where you want to pick up from or something silly like that.
My sincerest apologies for missing yesterday. I literally spent all... uhh... *finger counts* ... 4 hours of free time I had last night on homework, catching up on like... 3 classes-worth of work that I missed on one project. I ended up falling on my bed and crashing there on top of a stack of tracing paper, regular paper and pencils. I feel like shit today but that shouldn't stop me from posting anything today! Actually, it's kind of a bummer that I don't feel so hot and that I post something about...
I honestly couldn't come up with an answer for this, so I chose what I thought to be most fitting to the subject and what kind of hit me in the chest the most. I'll keep it concise due to spoilers.
Essentially, the saddest scene I've ever sat through in gaming was the end of Persona 4. No one died, no one betrayed the group... it was just... Persona 4 is of a rare breed. It's characters are painstakingly well-developed and the journey you go through together is a series of events that form a Loctite-solid bond. By the end of the game, you feel a connection to each and every one of them. They... they kind of end up being your friends. Not your character's friends, I... I literally mean your friends.
So when the end finally comes around, something hits you. It might be happiness, it might be sadness. For me, it was emptiness. I was kind of literally transplanting my own emotions into the game's world and was feeling every bit of what was happening. It's something special-- something I don't think I've shared with any other game.
I've been wanting to do something like this for a while. I'll keep it shorter than I would normally because I'm quite sleepy. So let's kick it off by saying something I feel to be completely factual in every imaginable way:
The Shatter soundtrack is the best video game OST I've ever listened to. More so than the FF7 soundtrack, more so than Chrono Cross or Zelda or Halo or Pac-Man or fuckin' anything you can possibly think of. Heck, even more so than Rez. Why?
Because it's actual music. It's a 100% originally composed soundtrack that is so fucking great that you could give it to anyone and tell them "This is a music album." They would be so pleased from listening to it that they'd then ask you who this "Shatter" artist is and you'd be able to laugh upon your high-horse, knowing videogames are responsible. The thing I find myself going through when I listen to game soundtracks, either original or licensed, is nostalgia. Be it an old or new OST, you'll always listen to it and remember what level that song was from, what boss belonged to that theme or what inn played that music. That's not a bad thing, per se. It's just that it's never quite "right" after a set amount of time and no matter how great the OST is, you'll probably end up skipping the tracks in your playlist when they come on during a shuffle play.
The Shatter OST, though, is never like that to me. It's always fresh, it's always exciting and it's always so energetic and upbeat that it's impossible to not appreciate it on a level above the medium it debuted in. Soundtrack composer Jeremiah Ross (known as Module) concocted a collection of beats, riffs and synths so pleasurable to the ear that I literally cannot think of another soundtrack in the industry's history that even comes close to the full-album quality that the Shatter OST does. It's a perfect symphony of electronica, dance, old-school videogame tunes and rock.
And that's not even to mention it's in-game cohesiveness with the action happening on-screen. The sound effects were all composed alongside the soundtrack to keep a synergistic feel throughout the whole experience, no matter the stage. Everything sounds like the most delicately orchestrated orgasm of electronic sounds.
Go to sidhe.bandcamp.com and buy the soundtrack. You're a complete and absolute imbecile if you miss out on it. And if you don't like electronic music, then just give it a quick listen. It's got enough videogame shine to it that you might just nick a liking to it. ;D
So... Top Gear is kind of an amazing show. I watched two episodes in a row and immediately jumped onto the PS3 to drive an R8 on the Test Track like in the show.
... then I got way bummed out because holy shit the Top Gear track looks like ass in GT5. Ugh. Anyways, on with the blog!
Is it weird that I had to stare blankly into space for several minutes before I could drum up even a semblance of an answer to today's topic? I might just be missing out on the vast majority of video games that cover relationships that aren't portrayed like total hogwash. It has to be that or maybe I'm just far too busy playing games that involve guns and faces and the use of the former against the latter. Whatever the case, it took me some time to think but at the end of it, I think I've come up with the perfect one.
I'm sure the vast majority of you reading have played through the brilliance that is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and can already see why I've picked them as my favorite couple in gaming. An odd choice, considering they're never described as being an item and you'll never really see them acting as so. It's just easy to see that they are, even if they do throw insults and jokes at each other more often than not. It's not like they have to be established as being in a relationship or something like that for their chemistry to work. Both of their terrific characterizations and sublimely well-written dialogue makes every instance where the two are near each other absolutely entertaining to watch, whether it's discussing the completely rational fear of clowns or trying to reassure and take care of each other after losing a close friend.
The way they move the plot forward and the non-related-yet-ever-so-amusing banter between the two is what makes Elena and Drake such a fun couple to see on-screen. And it's not like I haven't played any other games where there are romance and relationships involved. I have-- plenty, even. It's just that none of them play as naturally portrayed as in Uncharted, and that is something I sincerely wish developers start taking notes if they're going to start doing more of it.
I should preface this by saying I'm not trying to anger anyone and what you read is just my opinion and I more than understand what the little plumber has done for gaming. This is just my perception of Nintendo's mascot and take it for what you will.
I claim Mario to be racist against all retarded blue inflatable dinosaurs. Now there are probably a number of other characters I could picked instead of Mario's place (Angeal, Genesis and Axel all come to mind) but if there's honestly one character that I don't understand his overwhelming acceptance in videogames, it's him. I grew up as a Sega/Sony kid, so that's probably a strong factor into why I never really understood the whole 'console mascot' thing. Sure, Sonic and Crash were both tied to their respective systems as mascots of each but to me, Sega was about Phantasy Star and Sony was about Gran Turismo. It was beyond me but I could obviously see what Mario was to the Nintendo kids. The games tied to his name were the flagship games for that system and I'm fine with that. Really. The Mario games are great and I sure-as-shit enjoyed the fuck out of Super Mario Brothers and the subsequent NES/SNES releases.
The thing is that as soon as Mario was given a voice, I completely lost any sort of understanding as to why he was liked. Even as a kid, I didn't get why the character would appeal to me. Just... his voice is aggravating. I don't get why the jump from 2D to 3D made it so he was redesigned as a completely child-oriented mascot, even when it comes to voice. What? Kids will see him in all three dimensions? Well shit! Quick, get someone to make him sound like he just fell off a short bus to the school for special kids!
It's also worth noting that I can't shake the feeling that videogames, today still, as seen as targeted for kids because of him. I'm most likely wrong, considering the vast majority of children are now playing Call of Duty now (which is just as disturbing for a variety of reasons), but surely it can't help our problem with having our industry taken seriously, right?
But again, I fully understand what he's done for gaming. If it wasn't for him, Nintendo probably wouldn't have decided to make a mascot out of all of their characters and the company, as well as the industry, probably wouldn't be the same. He's a great mascot for the company and whether I like him or not is completely irrelevant because ultimately, the game's his in are still pretty fuckin' great. ... well, at least the platformers. The mini-game stuff... yeah. No thanks. But this is supposed to be about what I honestly think and I honestly think that Mario, as a character and a mascot for both a company and an entire industry, is nothing short of annoying thanks to his inconceivably childish portrayal.
I honestly shouldn't even have to explain this. We all dream of outer space, right? Those of us who believe in life on other planets will spend a good minute or two of our life thinking of the possibilities of that predicament and what it either entails for the human race or how it'll dictate the future. ... right? ... I KNOW I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE.
Point is-- I think about it a lot. I think about it a lot more than I normally would, thanks to Mass Effect, and it makes me ever curious as to what the rest of the universe is like. Either that, or what it would be like to live the in the Mass Effect universe. Different species living together and waging war against each other, having trillions of planets at your instant disposal thanks to the Mass Relays... It kind of blows my mind at times to think about it for too long because I don't know if I could just be suddenly thrust into that kind of a universe but I would certainly like to see it in reality. It's this that has made me wish more than once that I was Shepard's shoes. Not just because SHE is the ultimate space-badass but there's just so much to the Mass Effect universe... man. I can't even really say it in proper words. That shit is just awesome and I want to go to there.
I really thought I was going to miss today! Family issues and homework makes me late for everything. Heck, I haven't had a proper meal all day. Although the semi-non-processed KD my sister made for me was pretty cool. Thanks, Andrea.
At any rate, let's get down to this one. It's... it's gonna be a long one.
Like this, only there's so much more button mashing than you could possibly ever imagine. I paid a visit to my girlfriend at work the other day and had a short-yet-all-too-true conversation with her boss the other day. They both work at the EB Games I used to work at and we were just casually talking about stuff when a family comes to the store asking for Dante's Inferno. Apparently, another store called the store we were at and had asked to put a copy of the game aside for them. Thing is, neither my girlfriend or her boss received any call about it and were left confused. They didn't have a copy of the game so Jay, the boss, had to go tell the family who had grown impatient and annoyed that they didn't have a copy and had never gotten any call. Stupidity ensued and so began a conversation of just how obnoxious most customers are. Fortunately, that is an unrelated story and I should probably dive into it another time but what this whole thing leads to was Jay telling me that some of the most annoying customers he gets are the Dynasty Warriors customers. Those 40 some-year olds who know you're wrong about DW and will threaten your well-being if you tell them otherwise. I agreed, as I've had to deal with them more than a handful of times.
... then I, in the most defeated of ways, had to admit that's I'm also one of those guys. ... Alright, well, I won't get outraged if you tell me you don't like the series because I can more than understand why anyone would be totally against it but I unconditionally love Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors and even the awful, awful Dynasty Warriors: Gundam games. I highlighted Samurai Warriors 2 because it's without a doubt the one I played the most. I aggressively hate that I lost my Xbox 360 save file of it but somewhere in the netherworld of lost data, there's a Samurai Warriors 2 file with like... 90 hours on it and it's mine. However, to not make this the most archaic explanation of a completely unfounded point of view, I will refer to the games as Dynasty Warriors.
What I love about the DW games is that, more than any other game or game series, I can just completely turn my brain off and play them while still having the time of my life. Yes, it has performance issues. Yes, it has terrible voice acting. Yes, the soundtrack is even worst (which the odds of being so are astronomical). Yes, the gameplay is repetitive. Yes, the graphics are lacking in every possible area. Yes, it's historically inaccurate. Yes, it's done NOTHING for ANY genre in video gaming for the past god-knows-how-many years. Hack n' slash games have evolved greatly since Dynasty Warriors 3/4 and the transparent additions they've done to the franchise since has done nothing to put them back into first place. So let's de-construct everything I wrote about up there. I'll take every argument I've ever been told about why it's garbage and then tell you why I agree and why it totally doesn't bother me. Heck, in certain cases, I'll even tell you how you might be wrong! You'll learn something, kids! Aren't you thrilled?
"Yes, it has performance issues."
I couldn't be more bummed out when I popped in Dynasty Warriors 6 into my PS3 for the first time and saw that the draw distance was worst than my own vision (-7, for those of you how know what that means). This wasn't a PS2-port like the Xbox 360 version of Samurai Warriors 2 was. This was a built-for-next-gen version of the series and they still couldn't find a way to get a bunch of dudes on screen at once and not have it bog-down gameplay? Ninety-Nine Nights did it, and that game was a piece of shit! And even with like, 50 dudes on-screen it still managed to lag. I got kind of angry at the game and decided I just wouldn't play it because I knew I was in for a bumpy ride if they couldn't even get that shit straight. ... yeah. That... that didn't last so long.
"Yes, it has terrible voice acting."
BUT MY LORD, I MUST PAY FOR MY COLLEGE TUITION SOMEHOW WHICH IS WHY I WAS HIRED FOR THIS VOICE I don't know who at Koei is responsible for hiring these talentless imbeciles but he deserves a medal. An award. A fucking 3-feet tall trophy. And then he deserves to be pummeled to death with it. Already that they bastardize the characters into some weird pseudo-fantasy acid-trip designs but that they give them ear-shatteringly poor writing and voice is just... man that shit should be illegal. I can't even defend this one. It's just... it's just awful. In every way.
"Yes, the soundtrack is even worst [then the VO]."
HEY GUYS WE'RE JAPAN WE HEARD YOU LIKED GUITARS HECK WE HEARD YOU LIKED THEM SO MUCH THAT IT'S PROBABLY ALL YOU WANT TO HEAR, RIGHT? COOL GOOD 'CAUSE THAT'S ALL THE MUSIC WE HAVE SHIT THERE'S LIKE DRUMS IN THERE BUT REALLY IT'S JUST GUITAR. IF WE TRIED WE MIGHT OF BEEN ABLE TO GET A DRUM MADE OUT OF GUITARS BUT WE DON'T HAVE THE BUDGET FOR THAT SO WE GOT SOME GUYS TO SHRED SOME SICK RIFFS AND PUT IT IN THE GAME DURING EVERY FUCKING IMAGINABLE SCENE.
"Yes, the gameplay is repetitive."
I will make no excuses to the nature of DW's combat. You hit the Square button a lot. Sometimes you'll hit the Triangle button, but you might want to wait on that one. That's some advanced shit right there. It's button-mashing at it's finest and despite the small amounts of guarding, dashing and dodging you'll do, you'll still be hammering on the same button over and over again just watching the kill count go up. It's like how Call of Duty rewards everything you do when you kill a dude. The constant addition of points... it's satisfying. It really is. The only difference is that in DW, the addition is just dudes getting sliced. Once that kill-count gets up into the hundreds (and even thousands), you know shit is mad real.
And in DW's defense, some of the additions they made to the combat in DW6 was actually pretty substantial. They added a terrific skill-tree system that let you gradually upgrade your combat abilities in a way that made the repetitive nature of the fighting feel fresh. Upgrading would unlock different combo paths for you to perform in-game depending on which part of the tree you started building towards and it made playing through with a character a lot more engaging than it's previously been in the series.
"Yes, EVERYTHING ELSE I WROTE UP THERE."
This is getting far too long for something you've already gotten the idea of. No, I'm not particularly fond of the graphics. And as a history nut, I'm kind of annoyed at how trivialized and generalized the events of the dynasties and events they portray are. Ultimately, though, everything requires to be approached with a little suspension of disbelief and Dynasty Warriors is where I let all of that shit out. I spend the vast majority of my gaming playing the stuff we all play. Dead Space, Persona, Call of Duty, Gran Turismo, You Don't Know Jack, Need for Speed... I love all of them and will always be fair to them if they end up having major problems. I take that shit seriously on some level and I feel like I enjoy the experience more because of it.
But sometimes, it's just fun to put in a game and forget about all of those "standards" I hold everything else to. I know what to expect out of a DW game. If I didn't, I wouldn't of bought it. What I want is something I can sit down for an hour or two. Play while either listening to the sounds of poor audio design or play a podcast over it and just zone out for some time while I take a chill pill from the serious gaming I love to do the rest of the year round.
I'll attach this one to the General Discussion forums because despite being a continuation of my long-ass series of blogs, I think it addresses thoroughly enough the issue of "why do people like Dynasty Warriors?".
Ugh. So tired. Long day... but not long enough to prevent me from writing today's entry in my 30-day series of blogs! Let's get JIGGY WITH IT, shall we?
ARGH MY APPENDIX I was only seconds away from saving the version of the banner you see above that included a screenshot from Rule of Rose before I stopped and started thinking a little bit more about what I was doing. In reality, I've yet to play Rule of Rose and despite really wanting to, I don't really have the time to get around to that right now. So I, instead, stopped and looked around through my game library in search of something I've played that I know people seem to hate for no reason. It took a while but when I reached my PSP games, I instantly found what I was going to write about. It's a terrible, terrible shame that both regular gamers and fans of the Metal Gear series dismiss Metal Gear Ac!d 2 because it's one of the best titles the platform has to offer.
"But Aura," you say, "surely you can't be saying that a card game spin-off, of Metal Gear no less, is a good game! I mean, it's a card game! CARDS!"
"A valid point." I reply after some consideration. "A valid point, indeed. However, you're missing the bigger picture, here."
"And what's that?" you ask after I give you a very stern yet thoughtful look.
I scream at your face, "You're forgetting that you're an assbutt!". right before I punch you square in the nose.
... or at least, that's how I imagine every conversation going whenever I tell people that MGA2 is a terrific game. It generally plays out more like "Haha, right. As if that shit would be good."
MGA2 is a seriously good-looking game. The cel-shaded stuff looks *perfect* on the PSP's screen. Metal Gear Ac!d 2 is a stupidly-named game that is completely non-cannon to the core MGS story and sets you up on an island with the mission of infiltrating a secret base. What follows from there is a surprisingly well-paced and thought-out story that carries you from stage-to-stage, in which you'll engage in stealth and combat using a series of playing cards that you assign to your deck. Complicated enough, for you? Nah, it's nothing. The game does a fantastic job of easing you into how combat and movement works with some learn-as-you-play tutorials that set you up more-than-sufficiently for the bosses and levels that follow. Everything you do is governed by a set amount of moves you can take during your turn. Certain cards, like special abilities or certain weapons, will use up more than one move count and will force you to strategically plot out your course throughout the stage, making it far more tactical than just the "use this to move" and "use this to blap blap dudes in the face" thing you would probably assume MGA ends up being.
Slick UIs make my snake go solid. Menus is where you will build your deck using booster packs that you purchase and upgrade the cards you already have. There's a ton there for you to tweak so if you want to play a specific style, the cards will very much let you do so-- provided you build your deck the proper way. It's also worth adding that the game's presentation is jaw-dropping. As a design student and avid graphic artist, I nothing-short-of envy the UI team that worked on MGA2. The menus, the in-combat UI, the cutscenes, the intro video... everything is slick and stands out like no game you've ever seen before.
If you own a PSP, do yourself the favor of picking Metal Gear Ac!d 2 up. It's incredibly cheap now and you're more-than-most likely to find a copy of it used at your local EB/GameStop. You'll also get to play your PSP again, which is something we're all guilty of kind of wanting to do whenever we see that bastard son of ours just gather up dust. It's fun, it looks amazing and it's addictive as hell once you get the hang of how the game flows. I sincerely hope Konami revisits the series because it's a rare, experimental gem that turned out far better than most give it credit for.
I'll attach this one to the Off-Topic forums for views' sake but since I'm unsure if having one of these posted every day on the forums would be considered spam, I'll keep to my blog after this one.
The yakuza with the heart of gold. This one was so very close to either going to Nathan Drake or Batman (seem familiar, anyone?) but after some heavy considering on the public transport to school this morning (of which sucks, by the way. 45 minutes to get somewhere underground when it takes me 15 minutes by car?), I knew this was the only choice I could allow myself to pick.
Kiryu inconveniently looked into a mirror and is blinded by his own awesomeness. There's a bunch of stuff I like about the Yakuza games. The brawler-esque combat, the modern setting, the gang/political-centric storylines, the side quests, the minigames... it's a series that's intricately well-crafted and there's no better proof than the franchise's main protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu. Every entry in the series (save maybe for the Japan-only Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!, which was set in the Edo period) has taken considerable effort into developing his back-story/current character and it more than shows. SEGA and Amusement Vision put all of their talent and skill into making Kiryu a character with an incredible amount of charm, wit and bad-assery while somehow managing to include a legacy of stories and events. From his orphan-raised, yakuza-influenced childhood to his ascension of the Dojima yakuza clan's ranks, Kiryu's character story just gets more and more interesting as you keep uncovering it.
His entourage is a brilliantly-developed cast of characters and the story of both his clan and the problems they keep finding themselves in as other families fight for power is nothing short of fascinating. Both Yakuza and Kiryu are two instances where I find myself wishing I was involved in said names when playing most other Japanese RPGs. And that's something I don't ever think of with any other names in gaming.
If there's one thing I would like for you guys to take away from this blog, it's don't let the genre tag "JRPG" or "Action RPG" scare you away. Do yourself a favor and play *any* of the Yakuza games. They all have episode recaps for the previous games and it's, in my opinion, by far and beyond the most under-appreciated series on consoles right now. They're not just terrific games, they're a stage set for what I hold as my favorite character in gaming.
I'll attach this one and possibly the next one to the Gen. Discussion forums for views' sake but since I'm unsure if having one of these posted every day on the forums would be considered spam, I'll keep to my blog after that one.
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