IN THIS BLOG:

Thoughts on the PS3's online capabilities, Demon's Souls and Borderlands.

 
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written any blogs of the video game variety, so I figured today was as good a day as any to plague Giant Bomb with my linguistic styling.
 
With that stellar introduction out of the way, I’ll move on to the blog proper, if you don’t mind. As some of you may know from my previous blogs, I recently jumped off of t he 360 bandwagon out of sheer frustration at the system’s frequent mechanical failures. Anyway, after tossing the thing in with the garbage, I toddled off to my local EB Games and picked up one of those new-fangled PS3 slims. A couple weeks later I can honestly say that I’m going to have to buy a new 360 sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, as a social gamer who really enjoys online games, I feel I’m just not Sony’s target audience. Why not? The Playstation Network is free, right? Shouldn’t that be a plus to a so-called “social gamer”? Well, while that is true, the old axiom “you get what you pay for” rings unfortunately harsh and clear when comparing the features of XBL with those that PSN offers. To someone long-pampered by Microsoft’s service, Sony’s online offering seems comparatively barren and neglected without so much as voice messaging or private voice chat.

 
However, none of this is to say that the console itself is lacking; the PS3 has some excellent exclusives both recently released and coming down the pike, it’s great to not have to cross my fingers every time I turn my console on and multi-platform performance on the PS3 is quickly closing the gap with the 360. With all that in mind, however, some major changes will have to be made to PSN for me to make the full switch.

Speaking of PS3 exclusives, I’ve been playing a lot of Demon’s Souls lately, a game which really seems to split the collective gamer consciousness down the middle. On the one hand there are those who embrace its old-school difficulty and… Well, it’s old-school difficulty. On the other hand there are those who violently reject the difficulty, those who the Bombcast aptly describes as “experience gamers,” a term that may seem derogatory to the hyper-sensitive 12-year-old ninnyhammers out there, but actually just helps delineate the difference between Atlus’s target audience and the audience that games like Uncharted 2 play to (a game that I have unfortunately not yet experienced; no pun intended).

Anyway.

 I’m finding I must fall somewhere between these two groups, since the difficulty of Demon’s Souls was initially extremely appealing; I yearned for something with the real meat and substance that my nostalgia-goggles tell me used to be present in video games. Unfortunately, while Demon’s Souls nails the difficulty, it doesn’t seem to really do a whole lot else all that well. The world isn’t terribly compelling, the storyline is fairly dry, archetypal fantasy fare and the game play itself can seem a little loose from time to time, particularly when fighting enemies that require a more refined strategy than “block, swing, block.” Also, there are times when I feel the game gets a little lost in its difficulty, to the point where I didn’t want to play by the rules anymore (ie, walkthroughs, tutorials, etc). While I’m all for a challenge, Demon’s Souls seems to like its difficulty a little too much, which is extremely salient in the second boss fight against a huge armored spider, due to your foe not having any discernible weak points or chinks in its strategy. It’s hard to put to words how disheartening and frustrating Demon’s Souls can be, but I guess that that’s only fair because it is equally difficult to explain why the game keeps you coming back for more punishment. I guess if I had to give Demon’s Souls a numerical score, I would give it three and a half stars out of five.

The only other game that I’ve had any time to play is Borderlands, which I’ve played a lot. I’m currently on my second play through as a level 45 Berserker and am still completely enslaved to the game’s curiously addictive loot system. What could have made Borderlands better, then? As far as I’m concerned, it just needed some more time in the oven. There have been significant technical problems (people losing entire save files to data corruption, excessive frame rate drops, etc) cropping up left and right, and the online componentneeded more testing before it was pushed to live, what with the connection issues and lag spikes that are all too prevalent. Anyway, I talked a lot about Borderlands in the blog just before this one, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. Four out of five stars. 
 
Thanks for reading,
End Boss.

Don't Worry, Bro; No Spoilers Here.

 
 I just finished playing the first hour or so of Gearbox’s RPG-shooter, Borderlands, and I’m left with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Borderlands brings its Diablo-esque “loot everything” appeal home nicely, as I began to get that familiar giddiness every time I opened a chest, be it big or small. On the other hand, the PS3 version has some significant technical issues that kept me from fully enjoying the game. Among these were some pretty alarming frame rate drops (more severe online, but also present offline), texture pop-ins and disturbingly long load times between zones.

 
As for the content itself, it has the kind of charm you’d expect from the game’s art-style; though it’s gritty and at times gory, it never takes itself too seriously, and that’s definitely to its benefit. The quest line I played through was a fairly simple “fetch this, kill these and assemble this so you can fight a boss” affair, and in the context of an MMO-esque game, that usually wouldn't bode well; however, Borderlands is also a shooter, and let’s face it, if the RPG elements were entirely absent from it, you’d still be shooting shit, so the “kill this many of so-and-so enemy” quest style never really detracted from the experience.

Aside from the issues mentioned above, Borderlands is a mechanically sound game. The guns feel pretty good, and enemies (despite their “attack until you can’t attack no mo’” AI) pose a pretty healthy challenge.

Borderlands really is the Diablo of the firearms world, and if it can overcome its technical issues, I think it will find a healthy user base, particularly among those who played the Diablo series; if you liked (or loved) those games, you’ll definitely be down for what Gearbox’s newest title has to offer. I know I am.

Thanks for reading,
End Boss.

 With my XBOX 360 that is. I just can’t deal with it anymore; the other day I had my third 360 Red Ring on me. This after having just bought a 12-month subscription to Live (thankfully, I didn’t get a chance to put the code in before the damned thing burnt out). Having already decided that I would rather buy a PS3 than send my X-Brick to Microsoft for a good three weeks, I thought I’d try a home remedy that has had pretty positive feedback since its discovery. Well, whether I don’t have the technical expertise, am too hasty or just damned clumsy, I did something to further worsen my situation: as it stands, my ex-XBOX can’t even boot up, much less play games. I’ve decided it’s going to stay that way.
 
Tomorrow I’m going to drive to my closest game store, trade in all my games, my two controllers and my hard drive, and buy a PS3. I’ll probably pick up Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 as well if I have the cash (or maybe Arkham Asylum; I haven’t decided yet).

 
Now, I just want it to be clear that just because I’m frustrated with my current situation (and I am very frustrated) doesn’t mean I will henceforth hate the XBOX: it’s still a great console with some really top-notch games. Unfortunately, I just can’t put up with the shoddy hardware any longer, and although I know that the PS3 does have some issues similar to the Red Ring, I also know that they are far less common.

So, I guess anyone on Giant Bomb who has me on their friends list can go ahead and delete me. I may edit this space with a PSN tag once I get to that point. Thanks for reading.

-End Boss.

Hello Again, Giant Bomb.

 
It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog. I’ve been pretty busy with work, games and some creative writing (haven’t done any of that in a while; stresses me out) for the past few weeks, which is probably why I haven’t written any blogs; anyway, enough introduction.
 
I’ve been playing some games during my absence from blogging, the most notable of which are Batman: Arkham Asylum, Champions Online and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. These are my impressions of those games, in no particular order (well, maybe alphabetical, but that was unintentional):

 
Batman: Arkham Asylum: This game surprised me. I, like everyone else, had heard all the hype about how ambitious it was, had seen the innumerable trailers released by Rocksteady and read of the game featuring the (much acclaimed, apparently) cast of the animated series. Still, I was skeptical. Would Arkham Asylum be the first licensed game to break free from mediocrity? Was that even possible?

Well apparently it was, because Arkham did it. From scene one I realized that the world Rocksteady was presenting us with had been lovingly crafted in exquisite detail: the environments, character models and animations all evoked the dark, brooding world that Batman has become synonymous with. 

I haven’t finished Rocksteady’s homage to the Dark Knight yet, but I have chosen a favorite moment which I believe will be hard to top (spoilers ahead!): when Batman encounters Scarecrow for the second time and is injected with a large amount of said villain’s hallucinogen… Well, it was the most fascinating, entertaining break in the fourth wall I’ve seen since Metal Gear Solid’s Psycho Mantis battle. From experiencing the game’s initial cut scene again as the Joker to the moment where the game “glitches” and locks up for a few seconds (I actually restarted my XBOX because I thought it had red-ringed) before returning you to the madhouse, Arkham Asylum had me scrambling to pick up my jaw.

Certainly there will be people who say, “yeah, but it isn’t all that hard to do that stuff.” And you’re right; it isn’t. But that’s not what makes it so great. What makes this breaking of the fourth wall great is its rarity; very few developers have the stones to go that far just to fuck with the player’s head. I for one am glad that Rocksteady is saddled with a sizable pair. Anyway, I’ll not rant too much on Arkham, but I will say this: go get this game. Rent it, buy it, do whatever you have to. You owe it to yourself to at least give it a look.

 Champions Online: Cryptic sure knows how to carve a niche. They did it first with their City of Heroes/Villains game, and it looks like they’re set to do it again with Champions. There was a lot of buzz surrounding this title (at least within the MMO-world), and for good reason: it’s a solid MMO with some real flair. That being said, it’s not perfect; I’m finding the difficulty (or rather lack thereof) is a real problem, with almost all content being solo-able, even the “super villains.” Perhaps this was in Cryptic’s game plan, but it just doesn’t seem all that smart to make your MMO (a genre of games that relies heavily on community to succeed) an insular experience. To be fair, I’ve heard there are endgame instances (or “lairs,” in keeping with Cryptic’s comic book theme) that require five or more heroes to band together to defeat tougher enemies and complete more complex objectives, seemingly in the same style that World of Wacraft so successfully implemented. I’ll probably write more about Champions as I climb the level ladder, so I’ll leave off on this: Cryptic has created a solid MMO and it’s worth a look for fans of the genre; just don’t expect it to revolutionize much.

 
 

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Oh man, I was so excited for this game. After reading Marvel’s Civil War story arc, I was starving for more. When I heard that MUA 2’s storyline was being lifted right from said arc I was, in a word, stoked. Did MUA 2 deliver? Well, yes and no. Yes, it’s Civil War, but there’s enough changed that I felt cheated when approaching the end of the game. Many of the events that made the comic pack such a punch were conspicuously absent from the game. That isn’t to say that MUA 2 is bad: the mechanics are rock-solid (fans of the original will be pleased) and the art style (also lifted from the comics) is fantastic; I just wish Marvel had made more of an effort to keep the story intact. Still, I recommend the game for fans of the original MUA as well as Civil War fans; just don’t expect to get the full story.

As I said, I’ve also been doing some creative writing; you can check that out here.

Thanks for reading,
End Boss.
 
P.S. My XBOX did actually red-ring, days after playing Arkham Asylum. Motherfucker.
P.S.S. Giant Bomb's image insertion process remains fucking nightmarish.

HOPEFUL

 Is what I feel after spending the past two days roaming Cryptic's comic book universe, vanquishing the forces of evil alongside friends and strangers alike. Despite it's bumpy (and that's putting it very politely) start, once you actually gain access to Cryptic's spandex-clad RPG, it's quite enjoyable. The storyline and world that support it are classic comic book fare: you have your good guys and your bad guys, your Avengers and your Sinister Six (albeit under different monikers), your evil plots to take over the world and valiant efforts to defend it and so on and so forth; and thankfully, the writers at Cryptic clearly never took the subject matter or themselves too seriously.
 
The combat system, despite having some bugs to work out here and there and not being all that inventive (abilities are still assigned to number keys, the tab key targets enemies, etc.) is solid and relays the necessary information loud and clear via crisp character animations that, with the exception of the odd hiccup, begin and end exactly when they're supposed to.

All-in-all, if Champions can overcome its technical failings, I can see nothing else stopping it from having a successful future and bringing a little (much needed) variety to today's MMO scene.
 
Thanks for reading,
End Boss.