Something went wrong. Try again later

skrutop

This user has not updated recently.

3810 23630 100 100
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

On average, 40k

By skrutop 3 Comments

Went back and played Guitar Hero 2 for the first time in many, many months.  Sufficed to say, I absolutely destroyed my own scores and that was without remembering any star power paths.

Still can't beat Jordan, though.

3 Comments

Activision Re-selling GH Songs?...Of Course They Are

By skrutop 9 Comments

Activision announced that they're going to release a Guitar Hero Greatest Hits compilation for GH: World Tour.  They haven't said which songs they're going to take, but they're going to grab tracks from GH, GH2, GH3, GH: Aerosmith, and even GH Encore: Rocks The 80s.  While I am very tempted to mock Activision for their very obvious attempt at sucking even more money out of their premiere franchise, this move makes a lot of sense.  And it sure as hell is going to make a lot of money.  However, the guys at Rock Band have shown us that there's a lot of interest in taking GH tracks and turning them into full band songs.  They sold us Message In A Bottle, Monkey Wrench, More Than A Feeling, Police Truck, Synchonicity II, and Electric Eye, You Got Another Thing Comin' and YYZ, and felt confident enough to put Ace of Spades, Carry On Wayward Son, Round and Round, and We Got The Beat on the Rock Band 2 disc.  I'm not going to get GH:WT any time soon, but if I did I'd be happy to get the full band versions of some songs that Rock Band hasn't gotten around to.

My Top 5 songs from each game:

  • GH1: Cochise, Crossroads, Higher Ground, Sharp Dressed Man, and Take It Off
  • GH2: Carry Me Home, Cherry Pie, Girlfriend, Institutionalized, and Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo
  • GH3: Cult of Personality, Knights of Cydonia, La Grange, Lay Down, and One
  • GH80s: Heat of the Moment, Hold On Loosely, Holy Diver, Play With Me, and Seventeen
  • GHA: Walk This Way and...um...that's it.
9 Comments

Rock Band Can Still Make Your Day

By skrutop 8 Comments

I had another frustrating weekend last weekend, because my fiancee and I are still looking for wedding venues and haven't found a place that we really love, but doesn't cost a ton of money to rent.  Both of us had the blahs last night, so I decided to play some Rock Band drums to blow off some steam (drums are easily my weakest instrument).

If anyone's played Pretend That We're Dead, you'll remember that there are 5-6 drum fills at the end, where you run down the pads while keeping time with the foot pedal.  I suck at those, but I actually hit them!  Then there were some sets of 16th notes in the next song...and I hit those, too!  I NEVER hit those!  Despite myself, I felt really proud of myself for making that breakthrough.  Next up, DRUM ROLLS!!!

8 Comments

A Moment of Silence...

By skrutop 4 Comments

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to honor the memory of our dearly departed Xbox 360.  Now many of you will know it as skrutop's faithful companion.  Though we all laughed at its humongous power brick, and sometimes wondered why it was so damn loud all of the time, it's fitting to remember the joy it brought its owner, skrutop.

Unfortunately, time marches on, and we all grow older.  Despite its 18 months of dedicated service, the terminal case of E 74 was too much for it to handle.  Modern science could not stop God's plan, and now we can only help the Xbox live on in our memories.  Time will heal our wounds, as will getting another Xbox on the cheap.

Amen.

4 Comments

Yup, still playing Fallout 3

By skrutop 2 Comments

And not much else.  I tried some more CoD4, but I just can't get into it.  I think I just have too many problems identifying the bad guys from the good guys.  I also have a real problem with the "take 3 bullets, go hide, come back" gameplay.  It's also one of the major problems that I have with Gears of War.  Crouching and praying that I don't get hit again while I heal seems just stupid.  At least with Halo's energy shield it sort of made sense in context.  But why would a Marine heal up just because he's not getting shot?

2 Comments

Kristall, The Paradigm of Humanity

By skrutop 2 Comments

I'm heading into my third playthough of Fallout 3, which is pretty impressive on the game's part.  This time around, I think I'll stick with a relatively neutral character (mostly to get the achievements).  I'm going to aim to maximize my returns on every mission, now that I pretty much know what all of the rewards are.  I also realize where I've wasted skill points and perks in the past, so I have a much better idea of what I need to do to max out everything.  By the time Broken Steel comes out, I'm going to be a monster.

So, the new girl is Kristall, an African American female who I'm building as a brawler (high strength and endurance, specializing in melee).  She'll eventually be a super-lucky ninja.  Her source of power is her very, very pink hair.  Does the carpet match the drapes?  In a nuclear wasteland, anything is possible!

2 Comments

What I Did Today, by The Lone Wanderer

By skrutop 4 Comments

  • Woke up in Morarity's bar.  Butt ugly Ghoul bartender was the first face I saw.  Blech.
  • Wandered over to Tenpenny Tower.  Killed a bunch of shit on the way.  Decapitated a merchant.
  • Detonated bomb in the middle of Megaton.  God speed, fuckers!
  • Wandered back over to see the damage.  Moira survived.
  • Shot Moira.
  • Ran into some Megaton refugees.  Total dicks.  Mezzed them and sold them to Paradise Falls.
  • Went to Paradise Falls, collected money, shot all of the slaves.
  • Nuked Paradise Falls with the Fat Man I found.
  • Killed everyone in Tenpenny Tower.
  • Got a haircut.

To Do Tomorrow:
  • Get my hands on some power armor.  Used is fine.
  • Find dad.
4 Comments

Gears of War: The Same Fight Over And Over Again?

By skrutop 10 Comments

I played through a bit more of Gears of War last night.  Now, I'm still really early in the game, but I've already had the same firefight a half-dozen times (emergence hole, duck against a wall, shoot, wait to recover health, push forward).  Is that basically how the entire game goes?

Also, I traded GTA IV for Call of Duty 4.  I'm not a huge FPS fan, but I'll admit that CoD4 gives a freakin' amazing first impression.  Hopefully I'll get a bit better about figuring out which Russians to shoot at some point.

10 Comments

On Quick Time Events

By skrutop 2 Comments

As Leon tosses aside the manhole cover, he breathes in the fresh Spanish country air and continues his journey to rescue Ashley.  He's thinking of his recent epic battle with two giant trolls.  The distraction causes him to lose focus, and out of nowhere a truck comes barreling down the road right at him. 

PRESS "R1+L2!"  ........  YOU ARE DEAD!

As Leon tosses aside the manhole cover, he breathes in the fresh Spanish country air and continues his journey to rescue Ashley.  He's thinking of his recent epic battle with two giant trolls.  The distraction causes him to lose focus, and out of nowhere a truck comes barreling down the road right at him. 

PRESS "L2+O!"  ........  YOU ARE DEAD!

As Leon tosses aside the manhole cover...

Does that sound at all familiar?  Quick time events, or as Ben "Yahtzee" Crosshaw more accurately labels them, "God of War-style 'Simon Says' color matching sequences," have become so ubiquitous in gaming over the last three years that they've quickly evolved from an interesting novelty into a tired cliche. 

No, no, no. To kill a griffin you hit X, then Y+X, then R2, THEN L1....DUH!
No, no, no. To kill a griffin you hit X, then Y+X, then R2, THEN L1....DUH!
These annoying reflex-tests have shown up in just about every genre over the last few years.  Action games (Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones), survival horror games (Resident Evil 4), beat 'em ups (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance), first-person shooters (Clive Barker's Jericho), and even fighting games (Soul Calibur III) all thought it'd be fun to add them in.  Quick poll: How many times do you watch the cutscenes in a fighting game before you just skip them?  Because of the quick time events, you cannot not skip the cutscenes in Soul Calibur III's story mode.  You had to watch the entire scene.  Every. Single. Time.

The least understandable aspect of the concept is that, during the normal course of the game, your character will lose a bit of health after being riddled with bullets, gutted by daggers, and flattened by clubs dozens of times.  But God help you if you miss hitting that "X" button by a fraction of a second, it has the magical power to instantly dispatch the protagonist.  Game designers shouldn't pick and choose; when designing a game, they need to decide at the outset if the character is nigh invincible, or an easily killed bullet magnet.  Players should know whether it's better to wade into every situation with their monster smashing boots laced up high, or they should put on the kid gloves and be a little more discretionary about taking on too many foes at once.  This "instant death" scene takes away that continuity.

Simon's penalty for missing a button is much less severe than Resident Evil 4's.
Simon's penalty for missing a button is much less severe than Resident Evil 4's.
Granted, some uses of quick time events make better sense than others.  God of War popularized them primarily because they were used to good effect in some minor cases.  Pressing "O" repeatedly to pull a struggling minotaur onto his own spear gives the player a certain appreciation of just how strong those ancient Greek monstrosities really were.  But how many times does the player need to mash that "O" button over the course of a 20-hour game just to open up a door before the entire exercise is merely a gimmicky chore, rather than a "deeply immersive feature?"

I can understand where the designers are coming from, in a way.  Too many games use cutscenes as a crutch to spell out the story, and they can be boring to watch.  Introducing some interactivity is a way to keep the player engaged while trying to move the story along.  However, there's a major flaw with that idea.  When quick time events are involved, the player is waiting to see what button is going to pop-up instead of paying attention to the story.  They're not watching the cutscene; at best they're tangentially figuring out what's going on with Spider-Man while putting most of their attention into simultaneously mashing "A" while spinning the right analog stick counter-clockwise.

To all of the game designers out there, knock it off with the ham-handed attempt to keep us engaged in your story by making us look at the screen or die.  Instead, here's a simple alternative: Tell a better story.  Cutscenes are not inherently boring; they're just typically made poorly.  A well-done story, with good dialogue and interesting characters, will keep our attention far better than putting up a big sign that says "PAY ATTENTION OR I WILL KILL YOUR CHARACTER!"

blogger's note: I wrote this awhile ago, but never got around to posting it.  My sentiment itself is getting a bit stale, but QTE's still drive me crazy.  The games listed are a few years old now, but designers still insist on using QTEs.
2 Comments