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dj

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The mind melting is over

By dj 4 Comments

This past week was an extremly hectic one due to finals. My grades were is such a state where I had to study and do well on them. So my past couple of weeks have been hell. Now that thats over I can get more time for gaming. 

The small bit of gaming I did get done was finishing up Far Cry 2 and starting Mirrors Edge. It's refreshing to finally use my 360 again.
4 Comments

Lighting the savanna aflame

By dj 4 Comments

After delving into Far Cry 2 I'm starting to really get into it. The gunplay is really enjoyable and feels pretty satisfying. There are a large variety of weapons that all have their own unique feel so its always fun to pick up something new. One feature that I really enjoy is having a little armory that you fill with all of your preferred weapons ready to go at any safe house. Thats always really convenient. Sadly every mission devolves into, go here and kill this or blow up that. Since you have to do a whole lot of that after a while it does begin to feel repetitive.  In order to try and mitigate the repetitiveness I try to change up my tactics for each mission. Far Cry does leave alot of room for you to tackle each mission in a variety of different ways. For you could go in guns blazin' and smoke fools or you could throw a couple of Molotov's sneak around the back and slice em up real ninja like. 
While the gun play feels rather generic the setting does a good job of carving out a unique niche. It's extremely refreshing to see some colors other than gray or brown. Being set in Africa allows for a whole lot of variety. Everything from lush jungles to expansive deserts are featured. Changing your surroundings up keep the repetitive game play fresh. This world is so much fun to explore, it is a big difference after exploring the oppressive world of Fallout 3. Both present very different ways  to tackle open world game play. Each game encourage exploration but Fallout makes the world so barren that its no fun to explore. Far Cry's setting is always changing and keeping it fresh so you want to explore the breath taking scenery. 

While most elements of Far Cry feel like they have gone through alot of polish the story feels like it was filler just to have a bullet point on the back of the box. You play as a ruthless mercenary just looking to get paid. The story revolves around to rivaling factions on different sides of a civil war. Problem is that I can't see any difference between the two factions. The story fails to motivate me to care about anyone because in the end it seems everyone just wants you dead. Even when you are doing missions for this faction all of their forces will still shoot you. I don't understand why they can't just tell them to not shoot at the guy doing missions for us. 

From what I hear this game is somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty hours. That really worries me because I'm already getting kind of sick of the repetitive game play and lack luster story. While the setting is quite the looker it still can't cover up the fact that Far Cry 2 is just another run of the mill shooter.

4 Comments

Grim Times

By dj 2 Comments

Rumors of the 1UP network being bought by UGO were grimly confirmed to be true. 1UP is one of the most prestigious gaming publications with an extremly talented group of writers. It's sad to see the business side get in the way of such great writing. The state of Ziff Davis foreshadowed this eventually happened but I always they could get their stuff strait and save 1UP. As far as I'm concerned this also effectively spells the end of gaming print magazines. EGM was the one voice that seemed like they were ready to say the truth with no fear of the possible backlash from the games industry. It felt like they were actually giving you their opinion as opposed to just regurgiting PR bull shit. The end of 1UP is the end of an era, I can only hope that there's light at the end of this grim tunnel.

2 Comments

No one can hear you scream in space

By dj 11 Comments

You lookin at me?
You lookin at me?
For my birthday my parents got me a copy of Dead Space. Ironically even with the severed hand on the cover of the box my mom still wondered whether or not this would be a violent game. When this game first came out there was alot of positive buzz surrounding this game and it got me way psyched. I was highly anticipating this game so when the demo came out I downloaded it immediately. After playing it I was left frustrated and angry. The demo threw you into the middle of a level with very little guidance on how to do anything. It just goes to show that a demo can sometimes do more harm than good. After that my opinion of that game went way down. If it were not for my friend Dan basically begging me to give it another chance then I would have never played Dead Space ever again. It's a good thing that Dan is extremly persistent.

 Dead Space is one of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had. Even though its a third person perspective, Dead Space is the most immersive game I've every played. I knew that the graphics were stellar from the outset. While the aesthetic is fairly generic sci-fi, there is enough of a difference to carve out its own niche. The audio in Dead Space does an amazing job at creating a very creepy atmosphere. When a monster appears the audio spikes and makes every confrontation extremly dramatic.

The arsenal of weapons in Dead Space feels extremly visceral and powerful. I like how all of your weapons make sense in the context that he is an engineer and all of his weapons are tools of his trade; well, except for the assault rifle. Hand to hand combat is completely useless and does not help when you are surrounded by a swarm of enemies. The best you can do is hope you never have to use it. It seems like Dead Space robbed Fable 2 of its little bread crumb feature. However it does it much better because it only appears when you ask for it as opposed to being constantly there.

One other note, Issac's suit looks bad ass!
11 Comments

All RPG's should do this...

By dj 25 Comments

Fable 2 was a rather disappointing experience for me; The combat felt really shallow and the story was equally weak. While the art style was very appealing to look like it was not enough to cover the other weaker components of the game. The one thing that Fable 2 did well was the golden bread crumb trail. As you could probably infer it's a trail that constantly points you towards your main objective. My friends says that like the arrow in Bioshock, this trail ruins the experience by making it extremly linear. I would argue that it just makes the whole experience more stream lined. Unlike Fallout 3 I always knew what I had to do. There was never a moment where I just stare at the screen and wonder where the hell to go. I love that, it cuts down on the frustration that happens when you don't know where to go.

Hopefully Dead Space will be better at fulfilling my expectations.

25 Comments

The Wasteland Is Harsh

By dj 11 Comments

Upon first sight I believed that I would hate Fallout 3. The setting and game play did not appeal to me at all. While in theory the idea of an apocalyptic wasteland sounds awesome there is one thing you gotta realize. They call it a wasteland for a reason, everything is barren and there is this horrid atmosphere of death. While I should have expected this from Fallout 3 it still gets me. The more time I spend in this world the more I want to leave and search for a tree to hug. I was initially not a fan of the game play. Games like Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War 2 have raised my standards for gun play; While I realize that’s not what Fallout 3 is going for I can't deny that it has definitely shaped my opinion. Every weapon I have encountered so far has just made me feel like I'm playing with an air soft gun as opposed to a rifle. My friend keeps telling me that V.A.T.S. takes care of all of those issues but I would disagree. I don't like the feeling of getting a headshot in V.A.T.S. It does not give that satisfying feeling like shooting a locust head of in Gears 2 has. I want to be responsible for an exploding mutant cranium, not a dice roll. The only reason that I keep trudging through it to be honest is the name. It seems that everyone loved Bethesda and their work and the Fallout series but honestly that whole thing is starting not to matter. I think it’s just that I'm not a fan of western RPG's. I much prefer JRPG's myself. Though I will finish the game first before I make my final decision.

11 Comments

In the end we all bleed the same

By dj 5 Comments

It shames me to say that I never played Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. But at the time of its release I didn't hear anything about it. Which would explain why it seems that no one else has played it. But after watching the trailer for the next Riddick game, Assault on Dark Athena, I am way stoked. Apparently it takes Escape from Butcher Bay and adds a whole new campaign. The game play displayed in the trailer hints at a really visceral hand to hand combat style. I'm kind of worried that it might not work out or get the feel right but I will remain hopeful that it will end up all right. The craziest thing about this whole thing is that its coming out of Atari. They have been slowly going down the drain for several years now. I hope that this is a sign of a bright future at Atari. Perhaps the whole Phil Harrison thing effected this somehow? 

  

5 Comments

Back to the cruel master

By dj 5 Comments

All I wanna do is play the game.
All I wanna do is play the game.
We all know by now that Gears of War 2 has one of if not the greatest shooter campaigns ever made. The feeling of taking part in an epic war is a much needed change from the almost lonesome duo against the whole Locust army. All of the weapons feel really powerfull and makes you feel bad for the person on the buisness end of your weapon. I have not gotten a chance to play Horde due to the problem of roping up a solid group of friends to play with. Though I am really excited to try and hear nothing but praise for it.
The thing that I have not been able to get a concrete opinion of is the multiplayer. While Epic has put out a patch that speeds up the matchmaking it still does not cut it for me. Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 can get me into a match in less than a minute very consistently. But for Gears 2 there are times when its really quick but most of the time its a very slow and agonizing wait. Once you get into a match you rarely experience any lag which is a huge plus. However I'm not sure if the game play is well suited for quickness. Most matches and encounters devolve to shotgun duels. Which is awful because the shotgun is so inconsistent. For example, I would shot someone three times in the back then he would casually turn around and split me in half with one shot. Or you be in the middle of a fight and get sawed by another player. 

After getting into it more the multiplayer is feeling better. I think that I'm finally getting into the nuances of the game but I still am not sure if I will play this a month from now. I have a feeling that after a few months the pool of players will boil down to the small group of elite players, so I'm trying to get in while I can. The one thing that I would want changed is the shotgun and matchmaking speed. Both of which could easily be solved by later patches. The question is which will come first the game fixes I want or me not wanting to play this game anymore.
5 Comments

Doesn't Measure Up

By dj 15 Comments

I think that I am broken. I went out to the insanity that was Black Friday and didn't find any games that I had to have. The only one that had that effect on me was Gears of War 2. I did have alot of games I was looking forward to but it seems like not all of them panned out. Mirrors Edge seems like an admiral effort. Sadly I can't get together four people for Left 4 Dead. From what I can tell I don't like the combat or look of Fallout 3. The only games I want are Fable 2 and Dead Space, and I'm not clamoring for any of them that badly.

Last year on the other hand had tons of games that I had to have; Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, God of War 2, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Bioshock, and Rock Band. Now I'm not saying that this years releases are bad I'm just saying that they don't suit my personal test.

15 Comments

Late to the party

By dj 3 Comments

Its about damn time.
Its about damn time.
I've never been a big fan of the GTA series. I tried to play GTA 3 and Vice City back on my PS2 but never got into it. The game play felt slow and clunky, the graphics were mediocre and the missions were repetative. GTA IV has alot of these same issues yet for some reason I find this game really compelling. The game play was improved alot however the shooting does not have a very visceral feel. All the people just feel like hollow rag dolls ready to drop at a hat. The cover is extremly messy and seems like they just tacked that on, most of the time I just have to resort to taking out a shot gun and blasting away as opposed to methodically picking everyone off. The movement in GTA IV also gets on my nerves, it also feel slow. I think that speeding up the movement speed would have helped out alot. The driving threw me for a loop to being with but after getting acustomed to it, I found it to be somewhat enjoyable.

The only thing that has been making me want to play this game is writing. While the story is just a run of the mill gangster action film type thing the writing makes it really fun to watch. It also introduces a really compelling cast of characters that I actually want to see what happens to them. The humour is uncanny considering that the people that make this game are in Ireland (I think thats right). Without the writing I don't think anyone would even tolerate this game. The game mechanics are mediocre at best and the story is cliche but that unique Rock star style makes all of that not seem like much of a big deal.

I guess you could call that a review.
3 Comments