Yes, I'm crazy. I've bought a console I already own which works fine, again. I had an old 20gb model 360 and between the lack of HDD space, which will become especially annoying once the fall update hits, and the lack of HDMI, I bit the bullet and got an Elite, as they just dropped in price. Completely out of the blue, it turns out I get a 50 euro rebate! Awesome, right? Elite for only 250 euros, sweet deal if you ask me.
Also after much cursing at the TV I beat The Force Unleashed on the hardest difficulty today (whilst waiting for my elite to arrive in the mail, which it did as the final cut scene rolled - talk about good timing). It was frustrating, and brought to mind that article I read recently on how to make hard games hard in a fair, challenging way. In TFU, everything is artificially hard: enemies have ridiculous amounts of health (Seriously, a stormtrooper can't get impaled, shocked, thrown against a wall and survive, that's just bullshit) and you die crazy fast. But through very cautious playing, abusing lightning and skipping all the hard fights that can be skipped (first room in the final level? Didn't fight a single enemy. If you've been there, you'll know how much that room sucks.). So now just to collect all the Holocrons and get 500 kills with the various force powers and I'm golden.
So I finished The Force Unleashed the other day, and got right around to reviewing it before people completely stop caring. After initially agreeing completely with Jeff's 3 star review, after an hour or 2 I got super into the game and it got a lot better, in my opinion. Read the review to find out why, I guess, and please comment if you, uh, have any comments. I will accept gushing praise, hate mail, death threats and cc.
What else... I plan on getting a 360 elite this week, as they've dropped to 299 euros, and I really want more than 20 gigs and HDMI. Tell me I'm crazy for buying a console I already own, I know.
Uh guess that's it for now. Still playing Yakuza 2, you lot should buy it so SEGA decides to bring Yakuza 3 over here as well. Makes me glad I own a PS3 with BC.
Ok, so all in the space of one day, I bought Crysis Warhead, Yakuza 2 and The Force Unleashed, and to top it off I still have Heavenly Sword on the backburner. And all of these games are pretty awesome. I am actually having a hard time deciding what to play. What a problem to have, eh? The crazy thing is that after some time with all these games, Yakuza 2, a PS2 game, possibly has me the most excited. It has this cinematic flair to it, with a pretty convoluted but interesting gangster story with interesting characters, and Japanese VAs that really make it feel authentic, which was kind of lacking in the last game. It got released at 30 euros too, so it's a steal. Even if you haven't played the first one, I really recommend picking this one up, it covers the events of the first one pretty thoroughly. Be prepared to watch a lot of cut scenes in the first hour or so though. It runs fine on software BC on the PS3 as well and supports 16:9.
Crysis Warhead is more Crysis, that's all you need to know. Except it's a little rougher around the edges. I've run into a couple of weird physics bugs, like suddenly standing on top of a building I was backpedalling into, and getting killed by walking into a stationary crate. Yeah... Also, on one ocassion, it crashed right back to the desktop. Grrrr. Let's hope it doesn't happen again, as the game is pretty awesome, especially if you like explosions. Man, this game has the BEST explosions. And a lot of conveniently placed oil barrels. But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The Force Unleashed, then. Only played the first two levels, but I'm liking it so far. The powers at first are very limiting compared to the demo and Vader's awesome repertoire, so you're mostly flinging stuff around and hacking dudes up, but it's good fun. And man, does this game look good. The environments are amazing. Character models slightly less so, but perfectly fine nonetheless. We'll have to see if I run into any frustrating issues some reviews mentions. I'm planning on reviewing all these games, probably.
Fancy that, an EA-published game on Steam! I was all set to go out and buy a boxed copy of Warhead come Thursday, but now I don't have to! And getting in on Steam is preferable than dealing with whatever DRM EA will force unto the game. I hope that sooner or later every publisher will add their catalogue to Steam. That would probably make me not buy a physical PC game ever again.
I wrote a Lost Odyssey review to flex my reviewing muscle. I finished that game about 2 or 3 weeks ago so it was still pretty fresh in my mind, so I thought hey, why not? As always, please comment, especially if you have any constructive criticism.
Besides that I'm mostly waiting for whatever good game is out next, probably The Force Unleashed next week. Also, Yakuza 2 is out for the PS2 next week over here. If you're one of the 12 people who played
You're entering a WORLD OF PAINYakuza, like me, you might actually be excited for this. I know I'm looking forward to it. Few things are more satisfying than smashing a dude's skull in with a bicycle. I just hope it runs well on my PS3 with software BC, or I will be sad panda. The first game was great up until the endgame, where the developers decided to dump 90% of the story and the bad guy turned out to be someone you'd never seen before. That was dumb. But kicking the crap out of people never ceased to amuse me. I only hope the second game introduces some more moves into the variety, as the first game was basically jacking dudes until you got your HEAT meter up and you could do awesome environmental and item moves.
Also still playing lots of Rock Band. Hit the brick wall on expert drums, Don't Fear The Reaper and Foreplay. Fuck it, I've got tons of DLC to play, I'm already amazed I can actually drum most songs on expert.
I just dug up this old picture, thought I'd post it. Isn't it awesome? Also yeah I know it's a shitty score, I think it was the first time I did that song on expert.
Finally did a review. Please leave a comment, especially if you have pointers about my writing. I'm trying to learn how to write real good-like, so any help is appreciated.
On another note, that is what I've decided I want to do. I know it's corny as hell, but I've spent the last 2-3 years thinking about what is I want to do with my life, after finally passing high school, trying university (didn't take, not a bookworm), and now I've decided that games journalism is pretty awesome. I completely share Jeff's passion and view of games reviewing as a more personal thing rather than this sort of uniform review approach, and I think I know enough about games (seriously, crazy amounts of useless game trivia stored up there) to actually be decent at this. And I think editorial "we" is just dumb. A review is one man's opinion, and it shouldn't pretend to be anything else. At the same time, you'll have to find the best way to get across the quality of a game and the type of people it will probably appeal to, which is kind of what I tried to do with my Too Human review. TH is a great example of this, as it's a game that you'll either really like or be more indifferent about, depending on your like or dislike for the genre, and I think the game's reviews demonstrate this perfectly. The metacritic ranges from like 5 to 9. It's not the kind of game that is just broken, but it does have some flaws, but if you really like the genre, you'll probably find it worthwhile. So I found the Too Human review a very good exercise to write, reconciling its flaws with my gravitation towards massive loot-whoring.
Also if you have a games website and you're looking for contributors, hit me up! Experience is good.
Yeah, criticizing a game for having major bugs is well and all, but I shouldn't have reviewed it so harsly, a blog post would've sufficed. Especially since you can't edit/delete review, and I thought you could. Whoops. I was just kinda heartbroken over not being able to play such an awesome game with my friends. Hey, I'm learning this thing as I go along.
Also I want my feed to update again because it's pretty awkward having some posts of me having a go at a dude at the top.
Yeah, not that anyone probably cares, but I've been meaning to review Too Human, but I can't actually pull myself away from the game long enough to write a review. Here's a preview: I like it a lot more than most reviewers, but it's far from a perfect game.
Besides that, still waiting on Castle Crashers to get fixed, because getting all psyched up to play some co-op with a buddy only for the game to crash 5 minutes later is pretty soul-destroying and I can't take that anymore.
So yeah, thanks to The Dark Knight I am now a complete Batnerd and have been getting into several Batman comics of late. After Batman Begins, I already read Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, but I decided I wanted more. I scoured the internets, looking for whichever books people say Batnoobs should read first, and I ended up with the following:
The Long Halloween Dark Victory The Killing Joke A Death In The Family Knightfall: Part One Hush Arkham Asylum
And just for kicks, I'm going to write mini-reviews on all of them! Except Arkham Asylum, because I haven't read it yet.
The Long Halloween
Set shortly after Batman's origin story as it is told in Year One, The Long Halloween centers around Batman trying to find a murderer who kills on holidays. Harvey Dent, before becoming Two-Face, tries to help Batman and Jim Gordon catch the killer. This book has a very noir-ish vibe going on, with very sombre colors and imagery. Harvey Dent is presented pretty well here, you can tell The Dark Knight's Dent has at least some origin in this book. I feel the story goes on for a bit too long. Every chapter has one murder in it, and usually also an appearance by one of Batman's many enemies, and I couldn't help but feel they were in it for the sake of it, as sort of obligatory fan service more than anything else. Sometimes they are suspects for the murders, but oftentimes they just cause a little chaos and escape/get caught by the Batman. Nonetheless an enjoyable tale, and the origin of Two-Face makes it a worthwhile read for those getting into the world of Batman.
Dark Victory
The direct sequel to The Long Halloween, it follows in much the same vein as Dark Victory. A little too samey, in fact. The story once again focuses on killings commited on holidays, and the tone of the book is practically identical. It's a bit briefer, but I couldn't help but feel it followed the Long Halloween's formula a little too strictly. Harvey Dent is once again a central character, this time as Two-Face, and eventually, Dick Grayson, Robin, makes his debut in this continuity as well, but he doesn't add all that much to the story. The only insights we get into Bruce's character are once again just some musings on loneliness and trust. Not bad, but not essential by any means.
The Killing Joke
Let's get this out of the way: You NEED to read this book. It's written by Alan Moore, he of Watchmen fame, and it shows. It's a very brief one-shot graphic novel, but its brevity as a virtue. It tells a tight, fast-moving tale, while at the same time deeply examining the personality of the Joker and his relationship with Batman. The art is very good as well, very different from the noir-ish look of the last two books. Probably the primary inspiration for Nolan's Joker. Absolutely essential.
A Death in the Family
Once again a Joker-centric book. This time he crosses a line never crossed before: He kills the second Robin, Jason Todd. It takes place after The Killing Joke, so Batman already has it in for the Joker well and good. The art style, for me, is a bit of step back from TKJ, it's a bit more old-school, for lack of a better description. It's worth reading, because Jason's death is a very significant factor in who Bruce Wayne is today.
Knightfall: Part One - Broken Bat
Another significant event in this book: Batman is utterly defeated, for the first time ever, broken by a man named Bane. If you've seen Batman & Robin, but don't have any other experience with Bane, forget everything you know about him. He isn't a dumb, strong oaf. Much like the Batman, Bane studies his opponents, learns to think like them, before fighting them. Bane frees all the inmates in Arkham Asylum and watches as Batman deals with them one by one, being weakened after each encounter. I really enjoyed this book. Every chapter deals with another of Batman's rogue gallery, and fighting them all brings out a lot of his character, his mortality, why he does what he does, the rage he feels for some of his foes (Joker, in particular). It doesn't feel as much like a string of encounters with villains for the sake of it like in The Long Halloween, each of his foes brings out something different in Bruce. Very much a worthwhile read.
Hush
The most recent book on my list, Hush was published in 2003. It features a much more modern comic book look, with computer coloring and bold shapes, whilst still feeling like a Batman book. Sort of like in Knightfall, someone has set Batman's enemies against him for a specific reason, a mysterious, bandaged man in a raincoat. At the center of this book, more than in any of the other ones, is the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman, and his blossoming relationship with Catwoman. The story is definitely very character driven. Also much like in Knightfall, Batman's villains once again act largely as catalysts to bring out different elements of his character, and I think more than any of the other books, this one made me appreciate just how complex and enigmatic a character Batman really is. He is interesting, not because he is an everyman, like Peter Parker, but because he is the exact opposite. Stinking rich, with a terrible trauma in his childhood, and a terrible burden and feeling of guilt. His relationship with Catwoman, as Batman, is a new thing for him; he's making himself more vulnerable than he has ever been before. To say more, I feel, would be spoiling, but I consider this book absolutely essential, up there with The Killing Joke. Essential.
So, wow, that turned out longer than expected! If you read all that, mad props to you. If you have any other reading recommendations for me related to Batman, feel free to comment. 2 Comments
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