Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

This a new blog dedicated to small things... 
 
Today's meal is overpowering in videogames. 
 
Is it bad? 
 
It seems so... as almost all games seem to avoid it.  
 
Almost every game featuring a super powered being creates equally strong enemies, not to mention villains, capable of stopping the train on its tracks. 
 
Probably due to the longevity of the game... Most people don't replay a game, just for the hell of it, and tend to go the next one on their list... isn't it? 
 
Also, if the game was easy, the creators of the game would have to include, alternative goals to just finish the game, like accolates and stronger and more powerful weapons and combos. Probably not many are interested in that... 
 
But wouldn't it be great if there was a game that was really unbalanced and broken in terms of equilibrium, yet there was such reward in the gameplay and the feedback of the world, that would keep the player comming for more? 
 
I for one am waiting for that kind of game. 
 
Not a Prototype with its homing missiles and gunships... 
 
Or a Infamous with its electric dependency... 
 
Or a Force Unleashed with its giant grey cyber troopers. 
 
A game that would give the sense of being the ultimate being! 
 
Is it asking too much? 
 
Is there any one being released out there like that? 
 
Cheers

Well, you have the film start with that really annoying and ponderous scroll up the screen. Not a fan of that. Then we're introduced to C3P0 and R2D2. Even way back at the tender age of 5 when I first saw the movie, I could sense that there was some sort of homoerotic partnership going on between those two droids. Very uh, very dainty mannerisms. Of course, it was pissing me off that R2D2 just made a bunch of clips and beeps. Didn't find him cute at all, just indecipherable. What's up with that? Who needs a trashcan with some beeping noises? 
 
Then we get the firefight that has a bunch of stormtroopers running in and dying because their armor does absolutely fuck all. Luckily, the Rebel guards have about the same level of marksmanship and no armor. Darth Vader comes in... he's not bad, he's kinda cool looking. But uh, then we get to Princess Leia. And ya know, I just don't find Carrie Fisher attractive. She's not a good looking woman. Not a fan of her. You kinda get the sense she's trying really hard to stay skinny by vomiting after meals or something.
 
Annnd then we get the two droids walking around this barren desert and bickering at one another. I dunno... it just seemed really... boring and mundane. Not much of a crowd pleaser. It's also a very one sided conversation, since the little shitcan can only make beeps and clicks. Fuck him... I really thought it was good that he got tasered or whatnot.
 
So yadda yadda yadda and... we finally come to the hero of the entire film... Luke fucking Skywalker. Our protagonist, if you will. A little whiny farm boy. Oh my God I cannot stand Luke. Or maybe it's Mark Hamill. Maybe Mark Hamill was the problem, but I didn't like him. And this was before his face got all mangled up in ESB. Dude really resembled some sort of mongoloid then. But in ANH, he was just really whiny and annoying and hard to stomach. The way he would just stare at those two setting suns like he'd never seen them before in his fucking life. You just didn't see why we should care about this guy, who whines about wanting to go join his friends at some academy. Or he's going to Toshi to get water vapor machines or something... it just doesn't inspire any sort of liking to this guy. Later on, we find out he also has a thing for his sister. What the fuck.
 
We meet Obi Wan Kenobi. Ridiculous name, of course. I can't see why anyone would think that's a name at all. Just gobbledygook. But whatever. He rescues Luke from those sand people. Which was sad, cause I really wanted them to kill Luke and maybe eat his entrails? But no, we get treated to more of Mark Hamill's hammy ass acting as he acts surprised to learn more about his father. We see the first scene with the lightsaber, which looks awful of course, because this was the original version of the film I saw, back on VHS. No special edition with the CGI yet. So yea, it just looks kinda like a bright snow sword at times. 
 
We go to the town and find Han Solo. Han Solo... really cocky and smarmy. Not as bad a character as Luke, but still not all that likeable. Plus, he hangs around with this walking bigfoot ripoff named Chewie, who again like R2D2 doesn't actually say anything we can understand. That's just annoying, sticking in characters that can't talk. Then again, this is from a guy who gave us great lines like "I don't like sand. It's rough. Not like your skin, it's smooth. Not like sand." Or something to that effect.
 
The Force. Sooooooo ridiculous. Crazy mumble jumble. What is it, what does it do? I dunno, whatever George Lucas pulls outta his ass, apparently. New Age mysticism turned into a pithy little catchphrase in cinema. And that's the thing with Star Wars, it's not sci-fi, it's just sci-fantasy. A wizard did it, it doesn't have to make sense. Whatever, I hate fantasy.
 
The Death Star. Oh god, the Death Star. Why would you build a ginormous battle station with this one vulnerability that allows the entire thing to blow up? That doesn't seem like a very good design. The shaft somehow goes straight into the main core. Of course it does. It's the size of a small moon but they couldn't be bothered to have the shaft deviate in some sort of manner. It just goes straight. And no filters in between. Nothing to stop a missile or torpedo. 
 
It fires its super laser, which apparently consists of some five or six lasers converging at a point and forming one big laser that blows up planets good. Though of course, that's really silly. Five lasers firing like that would just pass through each other and you wouldn't be able to hit squat. Well, anyways... the Falcon gets trapped and brought inside a hangar bay. We see some hijinks ensue as they disguise themselves as stormtroopers. They go into the detention center and rescue the princess. And uh... then they get stuck in the garbage disposal unit. Now, this just seems unnecessary. It's a dank, stinky pit and there's not much humor to be had. It seems like there's supposed to be some sort of comedic value in being trapped with garbage but I didn't laugh. I did wish that garbage monster had killed Luke, since he's still as uninspiring and bland as ever. Unfortunately, they don't get crushed by the disposal walls. That's too bad. I would have found that very funny. 
 
Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi meet and duel. Now, I had actually thought that Darth Vader was pretty cool up until this point. I mean, he looked kinda cool, with that armor. But uh... that all went away as soon as they started dueling and we saw that he was even worse at using a lightsaber then this 80 year old arthritic guy played by Alec Guinness. Seriously... what is cool about lightsabers from watching this fight? It's like watching two retards trying to wrestle... they're both awful at it. And of course, the rotoscoping on the lightsabers isn't quite right so sometimes you can see that it's just a slightly glowy stick on the end of their handles.
 
So yea, Kenobi decides to commit suicide and they manage to escape... But of course, they now know about the Death Star's glaring weakness and figure they should go back and blow it up. How do they do that? Well, they fly into a narrow restrictive trench. It's just this trench along the surface, which is straight and unobstructed, leading to a hole that's straight and unobstructed. And of course, you've gotta wonder... if the trench is just leading to this hole on the surface of the Death Star, why even fly inside the damn trench in the first place? Why not just fly directly for the hole? Then you can maneuver all you want in space... not have TIE Fighters shooting you in the ass while some asshole on the comm tells you to "Stay on target. Stay on target." in this really wooden and robotic voice. Seriously, did anyone else notice how fucking retarded and annoying that lead Rebel guy was on the comm channel? I dunno why, but he chose to deliver the lines "Stay on target" in this hilariously bad inflection. Just repeated them over and over again too. It was so, so awful. Holy crap, I wanted that guy to die. 
 
And so this lame farmer boy blows up the Death Star. They get back and hold this really... shiny glaring ceremony. Lots of light bloom, to borrow a gaming term. I dunno what they were thinking, it's this really hokey scene. They get their shiny gold medals and then turn to the camera and smile smugly at us all. We, who just had to endure this retarded film. Luke and Han, with their big shit-eating grins. Ugh, just awful. Why would anyone think that was a good ending?

While we have seen some ridiculous attempts at DLC milking during this console generation (ie. Horse Armor in Oblivion, download-only cheats in Madden 10, and Avatar Clothing on XBLM), up until recently we hadn't seen much in the way of games forcing you to pay for old or previously-owned content just to get at some new goodies. Sadly, two upcoming games are set to break that mold -- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 'Ultimate Sith Edition' and Halo 3: ODST.
 
If you haven't already heard -- LucasArts recently announced a new 'Ultimate Sith Edition' of last year's hit, The Force Unleashed. The re-release of the game contains the entire original TFU experience, plus the all of the DLC additions to the game that are currently available on XBLM and PSN. In addition, it contains a brand new (non-canon) bonus level that has Vader's Secret Apprentice tracking down and eventually confronting the one and only Luke Skywalker on Hoth. Sounds like a good deal, right? Well it certainly is a great value, provided you were one of those who missed out on the game a year ago. But for someone who has already payed for the game, and perhaps some or all of the DLC, it probably isn't a worthwhile investment. Those customers already own most of the game's content, and probably don't have any reason to pick up the new version. Except...
 
That awesome-sounding Hoth bonus mission that comes with the game? Yeah, that's ONLY available to those who purchase the 'Ultimate Sith Edition' in all its glory. LucasArts isn't making it available as DLC, or releasing it in any standalone form. So what does that mean for those dedicated fans who bought the game on Day 1 (at full price, no less), and shelled-out additional money to buy the various DLC that the game has received post-launch? It means that those loyal fans are essentially forced to pay for all of that content for a second time if they just want to get their hands on a piece of new content that could (and should) be released as DLC and for a reasonable price. Instead of catering to the faithful customers who helped to make TFU the fastest-selling Star Wars game ever, LucasArts has instead elected to use those customers' loyalty to the game as a way to squeeze some extra money out of them.
 
The other game "dropping" this holiday season that takes advantage of its dedicated customers to generate some extra money is Halo 3: ODST. Full disclosure -- I'm a big Halo fan. I'm of the opinion that Halo: CE is the single greatest console FPS ever created, and although I'm pretty disappointed with the direction that the series ( specifically the multiplayer) has taken over the years, I still manage to log a few games of Halo 3 online every week. Being the big Halo fan that I am, I bought Halo 3 at 12 AM on September 25th, 2007, and have purchased all of the subsequently released DLC map packs on the day of their release. In total, I've invested $30 into Halo 3 post-release content so that I can continue enjoying all of the available online playlists and continue to have some fresh maps to play. I still enjoy my time with Halo 3 (for the most part) and I consider my investment in the three map packs released thus far to be money well spent, but...
 
I want to play Midship again. I pity those of you who never played Halo 2 and never experienced this joy of a map. A perfectly balanced, close-quarters arena that demands the utmost in skill from its players, Midship is easily my favorite shooter map of all time. As a fan of MLG and as a former tournament player, I fondly remember spending hours upon hours just playing FFAs with friends on the map, and never tiring of it. Thankfully for myself and other fans, the map has been re-made by Bungie and is being released with ODST as "Heretic." Now, being a Halo fan, I already had plans to purchase ODST; therefore, I'm not too troubled that Heretic won't be released in a DLC pack like the other maps that Bungie has created for Halo 3 post-launch. I am upset, though, that I'm being charged full price for ODST, when I already own a significant portion of the content included with the game. For those who aren't aware, ODST comes in two disks. The first disk contains the new Campaign and Firefight, and the second disk contains the entire Halo 3 multiplayer experience, with all of the previously released DLC and 3 new maps (including the Midship remake). 
 
That package sounds like a pretty good deal for $60, assuming the potential customer never touched Halo 3. Dedicated fans of the game, on the other hand, are forking over cash for content that they've already purchased. Part of Microsoft's explanation for the game's price-point in the wake of the E3 announcement was that the inclusion of the full multiplayer mode and all of the available DLC made ODST worth more than a typical expansion pack. In reality, they just know full well that people like myself (who were already planning on buying ODST and really want to get in on some Middy-action in Halo 3) would be willing to pay full price for the game even though it has duplicate content.
 
It is my sincere hope that these two examples remain as outliers, and that this type of "forced repayment" for old content in order to receive new content never catches on. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that we'll be seeing it more often in the future, especially since both ODST and TFU: USE will likely be very successful at retail. Anyone else worried that this will become commonplace in the future, or am I complaining/worrying needlessly?

Well this weekend i manages to play some games, I played a lot of Bio shock and man i forgot how much fun this game is.  i beat it on easy got most of the achievements i only need 4 more to go to get that 1000, but overall the game is really great. Im actually thinking of just playing it again to get those 4 achievements then after that ill add it to my collection of good games.  Another game that i played this weekend was star wars unleashed, i was actually surprise how good the game was after reading all those bad reviews on it.   but i decided to get it and beat it in one day, I like  how they gave you the freedom to use your abilities in any way to  just throwing object at enemies or just slaming them into walls or the floor. iv still got a lot more achievements to go but i got some of them after my first run threw the game, i do also plan in getting back to later. Also i downloaded shadow complex on the 360 market place, im about towards the end when i got his g/f out of the base but he decided to head back in to stop them.  The game is pretty cool, many places to explore and items to get.  My guy is at lvl 14 i believe or maybe higher, i cant remeber its been a long weekend of gaming and so many things to consume. But i do remember i got that power suit and its pretty cool along with the form gun which it is my new favorite now. well that takes two games off my unbeaten games. i still have lost planet ,dead space and just cause  to go which im not really motived to play them lately but maybe next month ill get the courage to play it again  because next month there's really no games i really want, well just have to see.
 
 Other then playing those  games i got two new games, i got batman arkham asylum for the playstation 3 because of course that dlc for playing the joker and got final fantasy dissida. I started playing batman last night im at the point where batman is at the Manson searching for that doctor research paper while battling jokers henmen in the process. My thoughts of the game its really good, i like the detective sequels in solving riddle's quizzes or trying to find someone. The fighting could of been a little better but im ok with it.   The story is ''ok'' nothing to crazy or anything it just fits this game very well.  For final fantasy dissida i havent even touch the game since yesterday so i couldn't tell you where im at or my thoughts, but i do have a day off on sunday and do plan in playing it either outside or in my room.   Iv also been trying  the co-op demo of lost planet 2 on the 360 market place, and so far im still very impress with the game.  i like the new not-snow planet and everything seem to be working fine as for now.  I haven't found any problems with the demo yet so, that's because i only played it like 2 times already. 
 
 Oh yeah  Remember two blogs before when i said i was searching to contain a rare game that was ''discontinue'' after one year of release?  Remember that game it was called something along the lines of tales of vesperia. Well after staying up all night around 4am searching the website on my computer, i actually went back to check those websites that i usually dont looked at and i found it. I found it at Kmart a place where people usually don't shop at that much anymore, they had one copy and i was excited so i woke up at 9am to get over there before someone gets it first before me. Luckly no one did and i was able to contain one copy of the game because thats what they had. Now im at home already to pop the game in my 360 and getting ready to play it, after i write this blog. I was going crazy not finding this game at store  and i though i would have to get it at a online store or something after reading some stuff at the blog, but i was one of the lucky ones to find it at stores.  Well there is lesson here to be learn when searching for something you want don't give up check those other websites that people dont usually shop at they usually have but i know ill get back in playing the demo  until the actual game comes out or something better.  Well that's what iv been up to on my gaming side, so what have you guys been playing?

Why does it seem like these day games just get harder and harder, is it because we are getting better and better and we need to stay entertained?  Games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed when on their hardest difficulty I can barely take 6 steps before being shot into oblivion, yet they base so many of their achievements and unlockables on this difficulty.
 
Doesn't it also seem like games are getting longer but also shorter? That might not make sense to some but it means "They are getting longer but are keeping the player entertained for a much shorter time period. It might sound a little wierd for me to say this but I never finished Halo 3's campaign mode because I saw how much fun people were having in the Multiplayer, same goes for Gears 1 & 2, and Call of Duty 4 ( I tried to finish it but my friend wanted it back). 
 
So maybe it is better for games to be filled with content that only lasts 8-13 hours instead of 15-19. This may just be me talking randomly but this is what i feel its gonna come down to.

I just spent the last week of my free time mopping up the final achievements for the Force Unleashed. For some reason the trivial award of a bleep-bloop and an increase in a completely meaningless number drove me to waste precious days of summer. There are many things I could have been doing yet I chose to spend it running the the TIE fighter factory over and over again just to get some points. This obsessive compulsive behavior has been confusing me for a while now. I still have no idea why I spent so much fucking time with the broken game. I found this game very fun the first time through. I played it on easy after hearing so much frustration about it. After playing this game over again of hard and replaying missions countless times, every single annoyance this game had was made exponentially more infuriating. Even with the constant stream of curses and enraged ramblings, I still chose to finish this game. Instead of feeling satisfied, I feel relieved. Surely everyone has had some case like this happen to them; or maybe I'm just crazy and have too much time on my hands.   
 
Have you ever spent way too much time on a game? 

 So I just borrowed Prototype from a friend and there are two things about the game that I really don’t like to see in games ever. In Prototype I experienced probably my least favorite cliché in video games: the arbitrary loose all of your abilities mission.

The thing that gets me about these missions is only about half of them actually feel right. For how much I hated it and groaned when the developers made me run around without my abilities, I begrudgingly accepted it as it made sense story wise in Prototype. I still grumbled to holy hell the whole time and shot through the levels as quickly as possible to get it over with though....

It always pisses me off, always. If you want to challenge me, challenge me. Throw in a boss the causes me to utilize all of my abilities. Or how about enemies that constantly change their tactics? Don't dumb me down so you can pretend to challenge me because anybody can kick a kitten. And this is why I dislike these missions most of the time; they feel extremely arbitrary. These "gamey" moments can really pull you out of the game and ruin any potential immersion the game has developed.

I’m not saying that it can’t be done right ever. These types of missions if implemented correctly makes the user feel vulnerable and cause them to play more cautiously. For numerous RPGs this tactic is used to usually push a key point of the narrative through, and to also make high level characters feel as if they are under a greater level of danger. The Fable series has done this TWICE and every Thief game has this type of mission at least once, and both of these series did these missions rather well. However even then most of the times it feels like a stall tactic to length the game experience that rarely contributes to the story in a successful manner. It’s as if developers feel like their video game should religiously follow the heroic cycle.

Now I want to talk about the second thing I really hated about Prototype, the beginning. This is another gaming cliché that I really don’t like. In Prototype the game showcased all of the abilities you will receive by the end of the game, it didn’t take anything away from you per-say but it showcases what the game would be like latter down the road.
 
I hate this.
 
The preview of powers introduction is just a love and hate type of thing, and I hate them. Sure I like getting a feel for what I will get in the future but I also loathe having the surprise ruined. This is something that I never liked about Assassin’s Creed. Sure the degrade in power in Assassin's Creed was tolerable and made sense for the story, Altair is being punish for being reckless blah blah.... But why ruin the surprise? Assassin's Creed wasted everyone's time by teasing us with full abilities then taking them away. What really annoyed me about it, personally, was that they weren't even all abilities that required the items you lost.
How the HELL do you forget physical dexterity, countering, and the ability to grab onto ledges mid air? Did they give Altair a frontal lobotomy as punishment?  Altair just "forgets" these atributes because he's gone down in rank. Altair can't perform his mission as well not because he can't find the equipment; it's simply because of a 'rule' that he can't use them. Like I said before these “gamey” limitations just feel looney and ruins the immersion of the game; which is one of the few truly flawless aspects of Assassin's Creed.
 
Also if there is one thing I learned from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it's that an awesome powers introduction beginning could be a sign that the game is more of a bottle rocket than a fireworks display.
 
This is one of the reasons why I am looking forward to Assassin's Creed 2. Instead of starting in the middle of a guy's career and getting dumb down for penance, we get to be at the beginning of a new character’s career and work our way up. It makes me feel like I am part of the story from the ground level instead of feeling like I’m some middle manager coming in after the company got off the ground, so to speak. It is also this same reason why I’m simultaneously looking forward to Metroid: Other M. The concept that I’m going to play as Samus as she is trying to establish herself has a lot of potential.

Okay, okay, you probably knew going in reading a blog that complained about loosing abilities that the Metroid series would at least get a mention. However with the Metroid series I feel more ambivalent about loosing abilities and then having to collect them. That's right, the Metroid series is one of those times where I think the  cliché is done correctly. Prime was a progression, parallel worlds in Echoes was a progression,  and Other M appears to be a heck of a progression, but item collecting is a (hopefully) constant aspect of the series.  Removing the weapon spilling stops it from being a Metroid game. Metroid (like most Nintendo) is about a very specific game play style that persists throughout the franchise. If I play Halo I expect the story to involve a bloke with power amour and badass weapons of mass destruction to jack fools, if I play Metroid I expect item hunting. Now when dealing with the backtracking that shit is getting old and it better not be in Other M or else I'll bitch about it with no feelings of remorse.

In the end I stopped playing Prototype on my friends’ Xbox 360 not necessarily because of the issues mentioned above but because that game is JANKY AS HELL! Jesus the pedestrains are idiots who are satisfied with me running them over with a tank, and the game doesn't look all that great. But then again you might as well just bitch about one thing and piss off a few people than bitch about a lot of things and piss everyone off.

In an unexpected turn of events, Lucas Arts announced two new levels to expand the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game.