Random musings
By vidiot 8 Comments
Trying to think of way's to one-up my previous video blog at Pax has been difficult. Lack of updates are solely based upon my current personal life, which has kinda gone a bit down-hill ever so slightly. Things have gotten quite better the last few weeks in a big way, and I hoping to ramp up with some more content here.
Yay! Content!
Game run-down
Valkyria Chronicles 2-
I remember when Valkyria Chronicles initially came out, and simply suspecting that other companies would be wise in at least taking notice of it's base mechanics and design. There's really nothing quite like it mechanically out on the market right now. It's this initial reaction that made me look over the fact this title is a PSP only exclusive, I simply wanted more VC and it's a bit annoying that other developers have not taken notice of the solid foundations that have been put into place here.
The story is also a definite strange side-step, that while good conceptually is terrible in actual context. The idea was that the first VC lacked in story regarding the main bulk of your squad-mates. So this game tries to rectify that short-coming....by focusing the entire narrative from the perspective of high-school students, and not the cool anime high-school students. So while it works to getting to know the different squad mates, the whole experience is hampered by a plot that seems like a downgrade in comparison to the first game.
A great strength for this generation of portable games, are games that act functionally as a full-blown single-player game and also something you can pick-up and play between classes. Being able to sit and dive into a story related mission on your own time is good, but having the ability to grind levels between actual classes or on the-go really helps, and it's nice to see that VC2 really incorporates this concept admirably. Both game type's existing almost independently from each other in your own personal environmental situation.
It's upsetting to see where the future of this series is going though.
Production values, and a shrinking market seem to be pushing too many Japanese developers into handheld gaming only these days. It's not surprising that VC3 will be PSP exclusive, yet at the same time, I find it a bit detrimental to the series. Just how much the game from a design and mechanic standpoint can grow on the hand-held, we will have to wait and see, but nothing from the recent TGS announcement has me interested in any real form. Knowing what this game, can both from a presentation standpoint and a gameplay standpoint, be on superior hardware is always running in the back of my mind.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
 | Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Last played on Sept. 21, 2010 | 200/200 P | 12/12 ACH |  7599 players |
S-Rank #34
If you need an easy S-Rank, look no forward to this. It feel s like Case Zero does, JUST ENOUGH, to justify a purchase. I was quite content with it and very interested in the final product. Developer Blue Castle knows the formula that made the original Dead Rising work, and it looks they're following through quite nicely....although there are a few points of concern...
1) Controls. I never specifically had a problem in combat, my main annoyance is the context-sensitive "B" button that does everything from picking up items to closing doors.
huh.
There were also too many times where Chuck would pick up things I didn't want him to pick up. Annoying, although not game-breaking.
2) Character models are great, although....ya'know, I dunno, they don't seem to be of the same quality as the previous game. Perhaps it's because the locations+zombie count is higher and the engine can't compensate. Speaking of which...again....about the game's engine....It seems spotty. A few people glitched out of the credits at the end of the game, and I had a situation where an object "spawned" in the way of a door.
This game hate's doors.
3) Loading times. Strange pauses during saving and loading, especially for a game saved onto the HD which is stranger.
I'm looking forward to it.
DMC!
There is something positive. I've been able to find a plethora of fantastic web images regarding this travesty.
A small sampling:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Panzer Freaking Dragoon Saga
I'm playing it on my actual Sega Saturn, and I hate that you don't know what this game is. So that's about it. More to come hopefully. I'm also having trouble getting into Halo's Reach singleplayer campaign based on the whole, know how this shit is going to end...thing.
Uh....
So I was looking at the Fable 3 achievements and I found these two.  | Long Distance Relationship | 10  |
| Get married to another Xbox LIVE player. | ||
 | Cross-Dimensional Conception | 10 |
| Have a child with another Xbox LIVE player. | ||
*stares*
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