It's been a while since I've written a blog. Thanks to my re-found love of comic books, I've been knee deep in trips to the local comic book store and spent little time actually playing a video game. It's been a good change of pace, however, so I can't complain much.
So what HAVE I been playing?
To start, I've gotten pretty deep in Sacred 2 now. I spoke about this in a previous blog at some point, but Sacred 2 is an INCREDIBLE hack 'n' slash RPG that is bogged down by bugs and...at times...poor optimization (why should I have to stream-load every three steps that I walk in a village?!). When I first jumped into the game, I hadn't read the manual or anything. I pretty much went in and said "let's fuckin' do this". Word to the wise: read the manual. There's not really any tutorial to vividly explain to you how a lot of stuff works in this game, like the Combat Arts system. However, after starting up a second character and really taking some time to figure out everything, as well as sitting down with the manual for a bit at my side, I get the game now...and it's WONDERFUL! For those who are looking for a deep-as-Hell RPG in the same vein as Champions of Norrath or Titan Quest, Sacred 2 is a no-brainer to pick up. Hell, I'm 32 hours in on my Shadow Warrior...and I've only seen 42% of the map so far!!!
We got some new games in at work, so I've been playing around with those as well.
I think I like The Rookie more than Master Chief. Halo 3: ODST - I hated Halo 3. It felt like they did so much to make it uber-noob-friendly and completely ruined a great multiplayer experience for me. MANY people will disagree with that, but whatever. I had no excitement for ODST until a couple weeks before the release of the game, and after playing it...man, that game is pretty awesome. It's sad that it lacks a strong online component. Firefight is cool and all...but I hate to say that it just doesn't equal up to some of the other "survival" modes that are out there. The campaign, however, is pretty fun and definitely has a sting of difficulty on the higher levels. All this, personally, is thanks to reverting things back to the way Halo 1 was: no recharging health, limited ammo for guns, and tons of super strong enemies. I'm looking forward to actually plugging into the Xbox I usually play on and busting out some achievements on that, and I might even be up for doing some of these Vidmaster achievements just for the Hell of it!
Thor is SOOOO OP! Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - I finally read Civil War about two weeks ago. I know, I'm late to the party. Nonetheless, when I plugged in this game and that moment hits when Captain America is confronting Maria Hill, and he jumps out of the window and lands on that fighter jet...I almost creamed my pants to see how true they were remaining to the comics. I've picked Anti-Reg for my first playthrough, solely because I wanted to play as Captain America. HOWEVER...there comes a point in that story (around 60% or so) where things deviate pretty hard from the Civil War track...unless it's all stuff that was included in side stories outside of the main Civil War arc. Basically, it made me sit back and say "you KNEW this was going to come at some point, Josh". It did. I mean...seriously...NANITES?! Grrr... Nonetheless, the game is a MASSIVE improvement over its predecessor. The way your boosts work is so much nicer than trying to equip all this equipment on people, the Autospend function actually doesn't suck, the difficulty in the game isn't crippling but it isn't shitty either, and I'm not falling asleep after ten minutes of gameplay! Definitely recommend this game for everyone.
This looks a little cooler than it actually is. Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes - I've been wanting to check this out for two main reasons: I like Star Wars and I likeKrome Studios' Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games. Unfortunately, I'm not so excited after playing it. It's not that the game doesn't have an interesting premise to it, but the execution turns out to not work quite as well as one would hope for. The platforming elements feel like they were ripped directly from Prince of Persia, with specific rail walking and wall-climbing...but those elements were then beaten with a baseball bat and stuffed into the game as a segway to relatively boring combat. You can "jack" droids by hopping on top of them, hitting X, and then using them to destroy all the other droids. It kind of defeats the purpose of being a fucking Jedi, doesn't it? You can actually jack ANY kind of droid in the game, as they will also play into some of the *ahem* "puzzles" in the game. That pretty much boils down to "there's a rock in your way, and this explosive robot can be thrown into that rock and blow it up". This is the part that really pisses me off...because again...YOU'RE A FUCKING JEDI! There are these moments when you play as a clone trooper, and the only way that I can describe that part is "why?". You use the left and right analog sticks to steer around a completely linear path and then shoot a bunch of bad guys. Add in the fact that you never seem to truly die, there's no real difficulty in the game (I know that it's meant for kids, but seriously, Master difficulty levels take about 5 minutes to get through), and the many bugs and bad controls that are featured in this game...and I'm just sad that it wasn't able to be made better. If you are looking for a good Star Wars game, this is not the direction to look. If you are looking for some easy achievements, though, you could definitely do it with this game. ALSO...how the FUCK do I take off those damn masks?!
I'm going to be digging into Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band at some point before next week, because after that, I'll be picking up a copy of Brutal Legend and HOPEFULLY beat that game before the 20th hits. Borderlands is right around the fucking corner, and I cannot WAIT!
One last thing: the last blog I wrote was a counter-bet to Snide's Halo 3 ODST contest. Unfortunately, I have not heard from Snide any official confirmation that he will accept that bet. Due to this, I'm cancelling said bet. HOWEVER...I'm still going to be donating $50 to Locks of Love, as I think flat-out cancelling the bet without someone getting something out of it is kind of crappy. I've never backed out of a bet before, but since I haven't heard any word on it, I just don't think the bet even exists at the moment. Once I receive the thank you letter from Locks of Love, I'll post up a picture so you guys know that I'm not just blowing smoke up your asses.
It also doesn't hurt that...well...apparently, long hair still has its advantages. = D
