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ArcBorealis

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[insert title] 11-3-12

While everyone else is busy playing the big game releases, I've found myself playing smaller and more odd games due to limited amount of money. At least I have SOMETHING to write about.

GAMES!!!!

PC games are primarily western or European made, which is what makes finding small, Japanese indie or doujin games on PC rather interesting to me. Last year I came across the Gundemonium Collection, a series of three 2D shoot ‘em ups that were originally on PSN a year prior. Now I have bought two doujin games from developer Edelweiss, after doing research on Fairy Bloom and discovering this isn’t the only game from that dev on Steam. More on the second one later.

Fairy Bloom Freesia is a 2D action game that is primarily about fighting enemies in 2D arenas. There are some RPG elements where you are earning mana to spend on new abilities and special attacks. Art style is pretty simple, but the game runs at 60 frames per second, making the fights feel pretty smooth. There’s also a story, but that’s something that you don’t need to pay any attention to. That is the game in a nutshell.

The way the action flows reminds me of Vanillaware games, which isn’t the best comparison since you associate those games with excellent 2D sprite work. This game is all 3D polygons, but the action feels very smooth, and as you unlock more moves and abilities, some battles will have you flying all over the screen, knocking enemies into each other trying to rack up high combos. It’s pretty fun, if you’re down with the structure of the game. I personally would’ve liked the game to have traditional levels with exploration or something, but the 2D arenas aren’t that bad either. Personal preference.

One issue I do have has to do with the special moves. The way they work is that you assign them to inputs that resemble special moves in Smash Bros. You got a special move for pressing the button without moving, and then moves for pressing the button and up, sideways, or down. The problem is that some of these moves have certain requirements in battle to activate. Some moves require you to be on land, others while in the air. And they can be assigned to any of these four inputs, which isn’t especially ideal when you’re trying to figure out your style of fighting and what moves you want. Would’ve been better to have a set for special moves specifically while on land, and another set while in the air. Or just have all of those assigned to a preset input.

Also, the game is 8 bucks, which in retrospect was a little bit more than I would’ve liked to pay. 5 dollars would’ve been perfectly fine. Still a decent game, and I was curious to check out the whole thing after playing the demo, so that’s the price I pay.

The other game from Edelweiss that I bought, and one that has actually been out since late September this year. I immediately knew I wanted to check out this one, because I am a huge fan of SHMUPs. One of my favorite genres in gaming. The idea of a shooter that switches between vertical scrolling, horizontal scrolling, and rail shooter perspectives seems like a cool and novel idea. From what I’ve managed to play, that idea works, and the game is pretty great, too.

The two perspectives you will mostly play in during the game are either vertical scrolling or horizontal scrolling. They change between these perspectives between levels, so while you play level 1 like a vertical scrolling shooter, the next level will have you playing horizontally. Occasionally the game will quickly change to a behind the back rail shooter perspective like Star Fox, and sometimes it will change into a Rez style shooter where you paint the cursor over targets and fire. The mid level perspective changes are used sparingly, but it does a good job of freshening up the action, especially during boss fights.

To facilitate the transition between perspectives, and what makes it different from typical doujin SHMUPs, is that Ether Vapor Remaster has 3D graphics instead of sprites. I like the idea of having shooters using this style, especially when my favorite game in the genre is Ikaruga, which uses 3D graphics and allows for some great background effects and gives it a sort of cinematic feel, which is what Ether Vapor tries to go after with its multiple perspectives.

There are quite a few things besides the 3D graphics and cinematic presentation that I also like about this game, in relation to my love for Treasure’s SHMUPs. The game has a system that unlocks credits and extends the amount of lives (or shields as the game calls them) as you continue to log in time playing, as well as set the points requirement for earning an extra shield mid game, something that Ikaruga featured. Boss fights are fairly elaborate, but not absolutely crazy in the Treasure tradition, but they don’t always stick to the same plane that your ship is on, and is again helped by the game’s switching between perspectives. More of a Radiant Silvergun thing than Ikaruga, you have multiple weapons to use from the start, although it’s 3 instead of the 7 that RS had. Each weapon has a different use, and the ways you can use them opens up some interesting strategies. Just playing some more yesterday I discovered a function of one of the weapons that ended up helping me in the fourth level, where I was constantly losing shields.

There are still problems that I have with the game. The game is pretty difficult, which isn’t a complaint as any good shooter should be challenging, but the problem comes in when it’s hard to see where a projectile is that doesn’t stand out enough from the background and everything else that’s appearing on screen. Thin red lasers often come to mind as an example, and it’s frustrating when you can’t immediately see them coming and they move too fast for you to react. There are pink bullets and bright blue homing lasers which are easy to spot, but those thin lasers are just terrible. The other problem is very minor in comparison, but the game is not widescreen. Resolution only goes up to 1600x1200, so you’ll either play it in windowed mode or play it on a standard def monitor if you happen to have one like I do, if you don’t want the image to get stressed.

I’ve only made it up to level 5 out of 7, and the game has continued to kick my ass hard, and even for the problems I have, I really like it a lot. Given the majority of doujin SHMUPs, this one exceptionally stands out with the perspective changes and the presentation. And because Ikaruga is my favorite SHMUP, I often put these kind of games through the lens of how it compares to that. Ether Vapor Remaster is pretty high up there in my opinion. Unlike Fairy Bloom Freesia, I absolutely felt like 8 dollars was well spent on this game. For now, this game may as well hold me over until Treasure decides to do Project RS-3 and make another great shoot ‘em up.

And the Rest

Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty

Finally decided to play this last weekend after going back to Normal mode as Zer0 and wrapping up side quests I was now overpowered for. The DLC was pretty fun, I found the humor to be overall better than in the base game, probably because they had a motif to go with or didn’t have to make stuff to cover 30 hours of game time. Looking forward to see how Gearbox does with the rest of the Season Pass DLC.

Hotline Miami

Due to time and just wanting to spread things out, I’m just gonna write something quick about Hotline Miami before it gets its own spot on the blog. Liking it a lot, currently going back through levels getting A+ ranks and finding the secrets for the puzzle. And as you already know, that soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.

Other Things

Two weeks ago was pretty big for me. As I had mentioned in my last blog post, I was gonna be taking part in the Extra Life charity by playing video games for 24 hours and raise money for children's hospitals. Guess what, I accomplished both. Well, I didn't reach the goal I had set for money raised, but I did make it through the 24 hours.

The marathon started with me playing 2 hours of Borderlands 2, as planned. Made more progress with my Mechromancer. After that, an entire campaign of Another Century's Episode R, which took me about 4 hours. For the next 3 hours I played the last bit of content I had left in RE4, Separate Ways. Didn't impress me as much as the main campaign, not something I'd miss. Then it took me about an hour to get through Juniper's Knot, and after that it was me playing Arx Fatalis until 11 PM. That game was pretty fun, that is definitely an Ultima Underworld inspired game.

After Arx Fatalis, I went back into Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines until 2 AM, and then switched out for Aliens versus Predator 2. Just did a quick run through the Alien campaign, took me about 2 hours. Decided I would do Hard Reset next, but apparently some content or something was missing and Steam had to redownload parts of the game. So I opened by 3DS and decided to play some of the free GBA games I got on there. The game finished redownloading, and played a bit until 5 AM. Also, during that 6 hour period I had the TV on just to make sure I wouldn't fall asleep so long as there was at least one distraction going on.

Last 3 hours were tough, as I was starting to get tired and it became evident that I was based on how I was performing on some of these games. I played bits of Virtua Fighter 4 Evo, Devil May Cry 3, some more RE4, Crazy Taxi, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Eventually in the last hour and 15 minutes I decided to play more Borderlands 2, and instead of making more progress with the Mechromancer I decided to keep pushing Zer0 through True Vault Hunter Mode. At 8 AM, I immediately went to bed. Thankfully there was a couch in the room that had a hideaway bed so I didn't need to go to my room.

Even with those final few hours being the most difficult part, I had a lot of fun doing that marathon. I was amazed that I didn't feel tired at all past 2 AM and only when I got to about 5 did it start to kick in. It was successful in the end, and I raised $237. This is something I hope to do again in the future, and perhaps with the ability to stream footage and not have to manage updating a twitter account every so often.

In Conclusion

Another blog post finished. Thanks for reading and all that. Can't think of much else to say.

Peace.

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[insert title] 10-19-12

Posted a day in advance, as I would have no time to write this up and post it on Saturday because of Extra Life.

GAMES!!!!

I have said this multiple times when talking about this game, but I’ll say it again. How the hell did I miss this game before?

It’s not surprising when a new game in a series, be it upcoming or recently released, prompts me to check out past entries. RE6 has been met with harsh criticism, and rather than play that to see just how much it fucks up as a game, I decided to play a game that would let me understand why people like it. Of course, Resident Evil’s gameplay took a major shift when 4 came out, so the question was do I try playing old school RE, or play RE4. I chose the latter, as I wanted to play something that I knew would have not controls that were awful.

15 or so hours later, after playing the main game and Assignment Ada, I really don’t care whether or not this is called Resident Evil. I like Resident Evil 4 because it is a superb, kick ass action game.

Granted, it takes a little while to come to grips with the mechanics of the game. First hour of the game had me struggling to find my rhythm fighting the Ganados and surviving in general. The first village battle that has you holding out until the bell tower rings was so brutal I chose to reload my save and do that scenario over just so I’d come out of it without my health in the red. By being smarter and searching the environment for supplies mid battle, I got my hands on a shotgun and came face to face with Dr. Salvador. The results were far better.

I continued playing, and as I improved my skills, I faced new and varied challenges, discovered neat, Kojima styled attention to detail in certain scenarios, and just had a damn good time in the course of my 15+ hour playthrough. From the village, to the castle, to the island, not once did I think the game was going for too long or should’ve ended sooner. You cover so much ground in the game, and new things are constantly being introduced and added on top of the game. That was one major part I found surprising about the game, even with the 48 times that I died during the course of the game. Not a dull moment at all.

Another major part of this game that I really enjoyed, once I got past the hurdle in the first hour, was the action. It’s certainly different than your typical 3 person shooter and definitely not as fast as other Japanese games. It’s slow and methodical, and different random elements like the likelihood of a Plagas revealing itself from a Ganado or the chance of a headshot instantly killing an enemy and so on. And the things you can do with aiming at particular body parts or any object in general. Shooting an axe that’s thrown at you out of the air makes you feel like a badass every time. Even with the random elements mentioned before, there’s still enough skill required during combat that you can easily leverage against those unexpected moments. Really well designed, top to bottom.

The combat in particular is what makes me consider maybe checking out RE5. Again, much like I don’t care whether or not RE4 is a Resident Evil game, I don’t care about RE5 being a Resident Evil game. I just want more of this kind of action and RE5 looks to be more of that.

One thing I’ve always heard about RE4 is that while it’s not “scary” like the old RE games were, it’s got a lot of tension. And I certainly felt it. The damage that a Ganado can dish out is rather significant, and that first village battle definitely solidifies it as you have to contend with mobs of villagers without getting trapped in a corner. And then there’s more. You have to hold out against them while trapped in a really tight spaces like a house, or a cage in the castle. I ended up running out of ammo in many cases, and some boss fights resulted in me using only my knife to do damage. The boss fight with the 2 El Gigantes comes to mind, as I dropped one into the lava, and the other I ran out of ammo and had to knife him until the Plagas revealed itself for the third and final time. Then there’s running from Salazar’s “right hand,” which was a right bastard. The regenerators and iron maidens were the only things in that game that were actually downright creepy. That heavy breathing and grey, featureless body. They reminded me of the Heaven’s Smiles from killer7, though without the creepy laughter. RE4’s got great action, and great tension to boot.

Of course, there have been multiple versions of RE4 released, so which version did I play? Because it was the one with the highest availability on Gamefly and didn’t require 2 discs, I got the PS2 version. Granted, things like the cutscenes being prerendered and in general technically inferior to other versions, I still had a terrific time playing through it. Of course since I’ve got the PS2 version, that means I can play the Separate Ways campaign, which I will be doing tomorrow during my 24 gaming marathon for ExtraLife. Since I am super stubborn about owning the original version of every game, I’m thinking I may not miss Separate Ways if I get the Gamecube version in the future. Assignment Ada was a nice distraction, but it is short, and hard, and kinda made me hate the Krauser fight more than I did the first time as Leon.

There’s still for me to check out in RE4, but I gotta say, I can’t get enough of that game. The action, the tension, the atmosphere and presentation, I loved it, even on the PS2. 2005 to 2006 seems like the highest point in Capcom’s history in my memory, having played Okami, God Hand, Devil May Cry 3, and now Resident Evil 4. Fucking amazing.

And the Rest

Nothing really new since last week. Was still playing Bloodlines and Thief until RE4 came around.

Other Things

Like I said at the start, the reason for this blog going up a day early is because Saturday I'll be joining other duders on the site by playing video games for 24 hours for charity. This year I noticed that the day for it falls on my birthday tomorrow, and felt like I should make my birthday something special this year by taking something I already do almost every day, playing video games, and play them 24 hours straight while raising money to give to children's hospitals. Don't know about you, but that sounds like a win-win to me. Thankfully I've had friends and family who are supporting me in this and have donated towards this as well.

So tomorrow the marathon starts. What will I be playing? How will I be presenting it? Well, I lack any proper streaming equipment, so I'll be doing updates via Twitter. If you are in some way interested in following where I am in my game playing, here's the link

Now then, the games. What will I be playing. More or less in this order.

  • Borderlands 2, playing either the Mechromancer class or starting Captain Scarlet and her Pirate's Booty
  • Another Century's Episode R, playing through an entire campaign of that game (not very long when you skip all the cutscenes)
  • Resident Evil 4, playing the Separate Ways campaign.
  • Juniper's Knot, a short visual novel I've had installed for months now but haven't tried. Should be a nice diversion.
  • Arx Fatalis. Whatever time I start it at, I'm gonna keep going hopefully to about midnight.
  • Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. Been a while since I've played it, this marathon provides a good excuse.
  • Aliens versus Predator 2, playing the Alien campaign. Just felt like it.
  • Whatever I can think of in the last few hours. Most likely just a grab bag of console games.

So that's the line up. Looking forward to doing this.

In Conclusion

I am at a lack of saying something other than thanks for reading, so...thanks for reading.

Oh, and if you feel like donating, here's a link. Would be great to reach my goal during this event. If it doesn't, well, 75% is still a good accomplishment.

Peace.

6 Comments

[insert title] 10-6-12

Even though I've technically moved onto other games than the main one I'm writing about, there are still things that can be said about Borderlands 2.

GAMES!!!!

I really didn't plan on getting this game at launch. All it took to convince me otherwise was going to the Gearbox panel at PAX, seeing footage of Borderlands 2 like the customization and the upcoming Mechromancer class, and then receiving a free season pass for the game. After being able to make just enough money to buy the game, I prepurchased the game on Steam so I would get those little bonuses with it. I am now on True Vault Hunter Mode, and while I am no longer spending the majority of my time on it, I still enjoy the hell out of it. It is Borderlands, but better, and even after spending 83 hours on the first game, I don't feel burnt out by this one. You know I've been keeping track of games that after playing them I think will be on my GOTY list? Here's another one.

What about the game's quality hasn't been mentioned already? The increased variety in worlds, the better enemy AI, the fact that the PC version is better than the first and looks oh so fucking awesome? Yeah, it's so great. Well, sometimes in the case of the enemies. It is great that they just don't run in a straight line all the time, they try to use tactics to take you down, but playing as Zer0 by myself, which I assume is part of it, I find myself dying constantly, even in the endgame on normal. Granted, I died a lot as Mordecai in the first game, but I did not feeling I was going through tough and unfun battles once I got my skill trees set up the way I wanted and had the weapons I wanted in the latter half. Here? There are some really really REALLY hard enemies that I just want to run past because they take so damn long to kill, and it takes very little time for them to kill you. A rocket launcher did solve the problem, but I then had to go and find a good one to use.

And now in True Vault Hunter Mode, its almost like an extension of that, where its only the badass enemies that take too long to kill. I probably should just stop playing solo and find some people to play with, because it is hard going it alone, at least as Zer0. I'm betting its still tough either way, but your not as fragile when playing other characters like Axton or Salvador.

Still, even with those frustrations in battle, everything else was very enjoyable during my first playthrough. I for one don't mind the new characters, I think Handsome Jack is a humongous asshole that you really genuinely hate the closer you get to the end, and Tiny Tina is just as obnoxious as she is funny. Actually, all these characters are kinda funny just on the merit that they are insane. They've all got some screws loose somewhere. As for the characters you played as in the first game, they're not all equal. I played as Mordecai in the first game, and seeing what he goes through during the game I felt particularly strong about. And Brick's reveal was awesome, in fact, everything with him then on was pretty awesome too. Roland was probably the dullest, but that probably comes with his background as a former Crimson Lance.

I'm glad that I got this game and really enjoyed the hell out of playing it. Unfortunately, I'm now broke, and more awesome games are coming out that I'd rather play on PC but can't because I got no money. Almost regret buying this game, but not quite.

And the Rest

Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines

I got this game for free courtesy of ArbitraryWater, and have played about 6 hours so far. It is pretty much Deus Ex with vampires, and has some problems still even with the fan patch applied. But the systems in place are cool, and the fiction behind the World of Darkness is interesting. More on this game in the future, I guess.

Thief Gold

That new Thief II patch retroactively works with Thief Gold, and after thinking about the game again, I decided to do a new playthrough, this time on Hard. Already done the first four levels, and as always, I like the sneaking missions with human enemies more than the undead missions. The new objectives on higher difficulties does help make the missions more interesting, depending on what the mission is of course.

Other Things

College is still going alright. I haven't done much else with that 3D model for my portfolio, and instead have been drawing stuff that might get in there. Probably easier and less time consuming than working on a model while trying to figure out Blender at the same time.

Also, two weeks from now is the ExtraLife charity, which I will participating in on the Giant Bomb team this year, because October 20th is my birthday. Right now I'm in the process of getting donations and sponsors for me, and already got one from a good friend of mine online. The rest I'll mostly be getting from family members, as my parents sound supportive of me doing this, mostly because of the charity aspect. That's good too, but this is also me getting to play games for 24 hours straight, which I've never done before and sounds exciting. So everybody wins.

In Conclusion

And that's it. Again, with the 24 hour marathon two weeks from today, I'll probably be too busy playing games to post a blog that morning. That's okay, as I'll just post the next one a day early. Friday still counts as the weekend.

Peace.

3 Comments

[insert title] 9-22-12

Would've created a new banner image for this entry had I not been so occupied with Borderlands 2. Damn you, Gearbox!

GAMES!!!!

I like giant robots. Especially of the Japanese variety. After watching all of Gurren Lagann early last month, it got me way more into the concept of super robots, whereas I was more familiar and interested in the real robot genre with stuff like Gundam and Armored Core. During that time of being obsessed with super robots, I watched Genesis of Aquarion, read in depth about the Super Robot Wars series, and I remembered a game that one of my friends had for PS3, called Another Century’s Episode R. Since my friend doesn’t lend games that are still in his backlog, I figured I’d buy my own copy. It only cost me about 25 bucks on eBay, atleast it wasn’t damn near a hundred dollars like it was with Max Anarchy (though I didn’t have to pay for it, the price was still kinda ridiculous).

Given that this is a Japan only series, and the contents would make localizing it absolute hell from a licensing stand point, here’s a brief summary of Another Century’s Episode. From Software, creators of Armored Core and other mecha games of varying quality, created a more action oriented version of Super Robot Wars with gameplay that could be compared to something like Zone of the Enders. And unlike SRW which was a mix of super and real robots, ACE started out primarily with Gundams and other series that fell under the real robot genre. This was the main focus for the series’ first three games on PS2, with at least one or two super robot additions.

And that leads to Another Century’s Episode R, the series’ first and only game on PS3, and compared to the previous game is quite different. The lineup of series is varied between real robot series like Gundam and Macross as well as super robot series like Genesis of Aquarion and Overman King Gainer. And again, it’s different compared to the PS2 games, though that results in ACE being a rather middling game. A middling game that I have no problem playing because you don’t see anything quite like this and I like the lineup of robots because there was at least one series I knew in and out before going in that I could interpret what the hell the characters from that series are doing.

That series I keep mentioning is Genesis of Aquarion, with the titular Aquarion being a combining robot (similar to Getter Robo) ranging from about 46 to 51 meters in height, and its signature move is the absolutely ridiculously awesome Mugen Punch, an attack that extends the robot’s fist to incredible lengths, reaching the goddamn moon. So I chose that series as my first route, which led to me playing a few stages designed exclusively for Aquarion before the other series enter the story and everything starts going down a unified route. There are about 11 routes to play through, meaning you have to play through the game almost a dozen times, which means having to play the same 15 or so stages again with additional missions created for that route you’ve selected.

Even with the game’s middling quality, at least the robots play mostly different from each other. That thing with Aquarion’s height is accurately represented in both cinematics and gameplay. Aquarion is huge, while the Knight Mare Frames from Code Geass or the Arm Slaves from Full Metal Panic are the smallest (though Bonta-Kun is the smallest, once you unlock him). Playing as the Aquarion makes every enemy that is not a shadow angel look like a flea. Some of the units can’t fly while in certain forms (like the Valkyrie’s Battroid form), while the Arm Slaves can’t fly at all. Aquarion is the only combining robot in the game, and not only can you switch out the pilots with other characters from the series, but also you have access to all of Aquarion forms during a mission with a press of the right analog stick. Meanwhile the Valkyries from Macross have their signature forms they can transform into, from jet to Gerwalk to Battroid. And let’s not forget the various special moves you can perform that are from the robots’ different series. With all the attention to detail regarding accurate size and abilities, how could a game like this be disappointing?

Well, the problems come down mostly to the controls. For one thing, the game has an absolutely shitty camera and lock on system. When an enemy appears on screen, the game automatically locks on to it for you to attack. And it will randomly switch to the next target when it’s destroyed. Switching between targets is done by pressing L2, and the only way to cancel the lock on is to hold L2. During this you can move the right analog stick to move the camera. Holding those triggers on the PS3 controller aren’t fun, and when you let go of the trigger, the game won’t lock on to another enemy until a few seconds later. It makes no sense why they couldn’t have mapped the transformation abilities to the D-Pad instead of the right stick and then use that for camera control.

Other problems throughout the game are the boss fights, particular with huge, gigantic robots that will knock you away should you touched them when a part of them is moving, regardless of the speed at which they are moving that it would cause some sort of damage. The last problem with the game is the melee combat. All the attacks, even from the smaller units that don’t have to move as slow as the Aquarion, just feel really sluggish and deliberate that it feels disjointed from the speed at which you’re able to move and dash. Just shooting enemies is boring unless they are really weak to begin with, but the melee becomes more problematic when you include the above boss battles that I mentioned. It’s rather frustrating.

But despite all that, I’m willing to keep playing this game. I can admit to this one being a guilty pleasure. The gameplay is disappointing and it sounds like the PS2 games in the series would be far more playable and enjoyable, but I just like the series line up and the overall attention to detail with the different units. I’ve already played through the routes for Aquarion, Full Metal Panic, Macross Frontier, Code Geass, Gundam Crossbone, currently in the middle of an Overman King Gainer playthrough, and I’ll probably keep playing until I have completed everything. I don’t regret paying the price that I did for this game.

And the Rest

Borderlands

It would be pointless of me to write in depth about Borderlands now that Borderlands 2 is out now. I'll say that I have now finished all the DLC (excluding Underdome Riot), so I now know how Claptrap's New Robot Revolution goes. General Knoxx is still the best DLC.

Borderlands 2

The game I've been playing all week, and it's awesome. Next entry I'll have more in depth things to write about.

Alpha Protocol

I replayed a little bit of this the weekend before Borderlands 2 came out. Still flawed as ever, but the characters and story are still well done. I especially love the mission in Taipei.

Other Things

College has been alright so far, nothing real interesting to speak about that. As for my portfolio, I've been messing around in Blender trying to find how to best approach making a model in that software. Depending on how well it looks, I may or may not make it an item in Skyrim. Maybe Morrowind? At least I've had some experience in that game's editor.

In Conclusion

And that's it. Still going to continue with my bi weekly schedule for this blog. Next time the main game will be Borderlands 2. Speaking of which, I need to return to playing it.

Peace.

1 Comments

[insert title] PAX Prime 2012 Edition

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a blog post (a rather unexpected hiatus). Besides getting so engrossed in playing games that I was unable to write anything, I was getting ready for my trip down to Seattle last weekend. Why? Should be obvious.

PAX Prime 2012

Here’s the short end of my first trip to PAX Prime.

It.

Was.

Fucking.

Awesome.

Holy shit, I had a blast. And again, this was my first time. Last year the thought came to my mind that I should attend PAX, but I foolishly waited until I finished my junior year of high school to register, and the passes were sold out. This year I made sure to be on top of things, and the best I could get was a pass for Friday and Sunday. Still not the full three days, but I felt I would be able to see enough of PAX (or so I thought, until this writing). A few weeks before the convention, my dad called one of my relatives who has a job in the games industry, and actually got me a pass for Saturday. Now I would be able to experience all three days of the event. I was excited, and for good reason. I wasn’t in a position to write up my thoughts of each day on the site as the convention went on, so I retained as much of what I experienced in my memory and will now give you every detail I can recall from this last weekend.

The First Day

Riding into downtown Seattle from the Light Rail, I just followed the crowd of people who had their passes on them to the Hyatt for registration. Got my lanyard for my pass and saw a pretty good cosplay of Cammy while in line. Next was to head to the line outside the Paramount for the PAX Prime Keynote, hosted this year by Ted Price. The speech was very good, hearing him talk about how to and how not to make a game and how to avoid certain pitfalls in game development. I didn’t stay for the Q&A with Ted Price, or the Penny Arcade Q&A, as I wanted to get to the convention floor and start checking out demos in the exhibition hall.

I was planning to go to the Double Fine Adventure Adventure, but got side tracked by wanting to play some demos, as well as explore the convention center. First one I planned on was at the Nintendo booth, for Project P-100. It was the same demo I had seen from videos at E3, so I knew the general gameplay and what to do. It was rather interesting talking with people in the short line about the game and their reactions, some of which said they couldn’t believe they never heard of it before. So that was cool. And that Wii U gamepad is pretty comfortable to hold.

After that demo, I checked out Metal Gear Rising, yet another Platinum Games developed title. That was a good demo, very tight action. Sly Cooper Thieves in Time was next, and one I was a tad bit skeptical about, mainly because of Sucker Punch not being the developer. Hey, it’s a Sly Cooper game, and I think if the demo is indicative of the final game, it should be pretty awesome. I had not played those games in a while, but it was nice to instantly recognize the controls as something from that series, with both familiar and new mechanics. Lastly I played Deity over at the PAX 10 and was amazed to see the description of that game was entirely accurate. It’s a game that controls like Diablo and has stealth elements akin to the Batman Arkham games. Really cool.

After deciding I had played all I was really wanting to play on the Exhibition Hall, I proceeded to explore around the convention center, checking out various areas of interest and anything obscure or interesting. Heading upstairs I tried my hand at a contest in the classic console room, where I had to get the medal on Corneria in SF64 without taking damage, using bombs, and all wingmen survive. I got hit right before the boss, and decided that was fine. Went to the console freeplay area and played a few levels of Vanquish. Still love that game. Heading downstairs I played a rom hacked or bootleg arcade machine (whichever you wanna call it) titled Donkey Kong II. Basically the original Donkey Kong but with modified levels. Also harder.

I then made my way to both levels of Handheld Lounge, which Nintendo had demo stations for DS and 3DS games (plus the Kirby Anniversary Collection for Wii). While making my way back and forth, I kept coming across a stand near the escalators on the third floor for a game called Tentacle Bento. First red flag raised was the use of the word Tentacle, and the girls promoting it were in Japanese high school uniforms. After asking them questions and getting a pack of gummy octopuses with a slip of paper explaining the game, it was easy to tell that they were very knowing about the subject matter of this hentai card deck building game. Yeah, not even a visual novel. A card game.

Somewhere between 4 and 5 PM, I decided to make my way to the Pegasus Theater as I was planning to go to two panels that evening. While chilling outside the Sheraton, I heard a familiar voice, turned around, and it was none other than Ryan and Vinny exiting the Sheraton. Got to talk with them briefly, and I picked up Ryan’s Mii through Streetpassing. So that’s awesome.

Headed inside afterwards to get in line for the Mega 64: Panel That Is Kinda Like A Nerd Thing, and while sitting and standing weren’t the most comfortable things, it was nice to pass the time talking with other people in line. 6 PM came around and the panel started, and it was a riot. I have not watched any of Mega 64’s videos in a while, but when I do I always get a kick out of it, and it was pretty much that, plus some videos that were created for various things and shows but got rejected at the last minute for various reasons. Met Rocco on the way out of the theater and told him how much I enjoyed the panel, and that was great.

After that it would be 2 hours until the Giant Bombcast Live would start, so I took the time recharge my phone and 3DS as they were getting low on battery, then got back in line about an hour before the panel started. By that point, my legs were very titled, and I was still sweaty coming out of that last panel, so I was impatient to get back into the theater and grab a seat. Eventually I did, and that was a very fun panel. So much of it was fun, with Harmonix bringing donuts and inflatable balls to bounce around in the audience, and Brad Muir signing things in Dave Lang’s name for their version of the Lang Zone. Did I get something signed? Why yes I did. What was it?

No Caption Provided

Yep, that goddamn slip of paper for Tentacle Bento I had signed by Brad Muir. Even crazier was that Brad seemed to know about that game’s existence, that it was funded on Kickstarter and stuff. The panel was very great, and I spent some time afterwards talking with Brad and Will Smith, and then talked with Eric Pope, saying that I was excited for their panel Saturday night, and he said for me to expect tons of stupid stuff. And then I got my picture with Jeff, which was really great. I asked him about his fall during part 2 of the Olympic video game livestream just to confirm if it was staged or legitimate, and it was pretty much the former. Still a funny moment from that video. After that, I left the Sheraton and made my way back to my hotel room.

The Second Day

I did not go to the convention center right at 10, because I did not have my pass for Saturday yet. I first went to visit a relative of mine who works at Nintendo of America and had worked things out to get a Saturday pass for me. We met up and had lunch, and also got to meet his brother that was also attending PAX and had recently graduated from DigiPen. We talked a bit about the school and stuff to do to get in, and at about 1:30, I headed over to the Sheraton to get in line for the XCOM panel. While waiting in line, I decided that to make things much more bearable waiting in line I would participate in the games and contests the enforcers were holding. Got two pins for making a video game icon with pipe cleaners (I made the Screw Attack from Metroid), and I participated in a speed paper craft building contest in order to win a 360 Fight Pad. All while Gangnam Style was playing (this would be a recurring trend throughout the day). After doing little fun stuff in line, the panel soon started. The XCOM panel was very cool, getting to see stuff that was rejected during development because of them not working out. Most of it was rather humorous, in a rather “wow, this is pretty stupid” kind of way. And Geoff Keighly’s presence pretty much made the panel’s alternate title “XCOM Enemy Unknown: The Final Hours.”

With 3 and a half hours until the next panel I planned to go to, I headed over to the annex of the convention center to take a brief look at the BYOC hall and visit the DigiPen booth on the same floor. Got some more information about the school, including an undergraduate’s admissions reference. After that, did some more walking around the convention center, checking out cosplays or other demos that I did not play but watch. Between 4 and 5 I left to go to the Hyatt and get in line for the next panel on my schedule: Which Interactive Lie Did I Tell? Again, the panel was great and was a cool insight into Chet Faliszek and Eric Wolpaw’s process when it comes writing games. Also discovered 2 amazing things that Eric said in the Q&A. Number one, the idea for the credits in Portal came from Eric watching the credits to God Hand. Number two, there was originally going to be a sub plot throughout Portal 2 where Chell was going to get somehow married to a turret, and the subject of the “Turret Wife” would be continually brought up. That last bit was rather hilarious, and someone suggested it be DLC. I’d sure as hell play that.

After the panel I got to talk with Chet and Eric along with other people who were at the panel. I thanked Eric for mentioning one of the greatest games of all time, God Hand, and I got my picture with both Chet and Eric. And after that, it would be 2 hours until the next panel on my schedule. Actually, I WAS going to go to the panel happening immediately after the Chet and Eric panel but just getting a glimpse at the line, I wasn’t sure if I would’ve gotten a good seat if I went right in at the back of the line, so I sadly opted out. At least there were other things in the Hyatt to keep me interested, unlike the Sheraton which didn’t have anything other than the enforcers. Instead, there were the Enforcers, a couple booths set up, and a Starcraft II LAN party going on in a nearby room. I did not go to that one, BTW.

There was a small area with PCs and people playing a puzzle game called Spacechem, and then there were demos of a game called Ironclad Tactics, a “real-time, card-based tactics game set in the American Civil War. With Robots.” Looked interesting, the guy in charge of the booth was very enthusiastic about promoting the game, said it’s free to play and has “no bullshit,” which was nice to see that amount of honesty. There was a table set up promoting a product from Kickstarter called “Skallops,” which are these laser cut half circles that look like Scallops. You can put playing cards in the slots on these skallops and build different objects with them. There was a spot nearby where people were sitting there and just building stuff with these things. There was an even an enforcer walking around with a hat on made out of cards and skallops.

I got in line for the next panel on my schedule just as there were people beginning to get in line, so I was up near the front, guaranteeing I’d get a seat near the front row. Before I did however, I saw Eric Pope and other Harmonix employees in 70s styled outfits entering the building. Getting a glimpse of that, and reading back over the description for the Harmonix Game Show Extravaganza, I had a feeling it would be amazing. And sure enough, it was. In fact, looking back on it, I’d probably say it was the best panel I went to at PAX.

It was a whole lot of fun, between hilarious shout outs from the audience, to Jeff being the “judge” of the whole game show from the back row, to the lightning round and inflatable balls bounced around near the end…again, it was a lot of fun. As I was on my way out of the theater, I saw both Jeff, Drew, and Dave Lang. Seeing Dave Lang there, I had my opportunity to jokingly say “hey, thanks for signing this at the Giant Bomb panel and shit.” It’s fun to give him so much grief, but it’s good that he’s in on the joke. Outside the theater Harmonix had some Rock Band pins and inflatable beach balls up for grabs, and I made sure to get one. I left the Hyatt satisfied and I headed back to the hotel room.

The Final Day

I had my pass for Sunday ready to go and made my way to the Unicorn Theater for the Twisted Pixel Variety Hour. There were things from a donut eating contest, to talk about LocoCycle, and an impromptu recording session with Chainsaw for potential dialog from the NPCs in LocoCycle (when you run into them). That was a fun panel, although there weren’t as much people there than the other panels I had gone to. Kind of a shame, but at least I got a good seat and a nice view of the Twisted Pixel guys.

Before heading to the Sheraton for the next panel on my schedule, I had some lunch in the convention center and visited the Castle Crashers area of the Exhibition Hall and got a capsule toy from one of those Japanese capsule machines they had there. With that done, it was off to the Pegasus Theater for the Ratchet & Clank 10 Anniversary Celebration. While in line, the enforcers came around and handed out free Cards Against Humanity packs (not the whole game, just small packs of white and black cards), as well as some Skallops. The panel was good, very nice to see the evolution of Ratchet & Clank since it started in 2002, and they had a demo of the new game Full Frontal Assault. Also, everyone in attendance got a code for the multiplayer demo. So that’s awesome.

I left the hotel to get a drink from Starbucks, and when leaving and returning, I noticed a line growing outside the hotel and wondered what it was for. After hearing that the line was for the Gearbox panel, which would be happening in two hours, I went “oh shit!” and got in line immediately. For all the panels I had gone to this PAX, it was as simple as just going into the hotel an hour before the panel started and there were a reasonable amount of people for start that I wouldn’t get stuck at the back. This panel however, people were waiting for it. Eventually I got inside, but the line was VERY long. Where my spot was in the line, it was halfway around the floor. And then it was delayed by half an hour. Luckily, having people to talk to in line, and the enforcers holding games and contests for fun made the long wait much more bearable. Participate in a game or two and got some more pins.

Eventually the panel started. Everyone got their free slice of pizza and a seat. Unfortunately, I ended up with a seat near the back, and while I could still see Randy and the other Gearbox guys up front, I still had to move my head around on occasion see past the people in front of me. They showed stuff for Aliens Colonial Marines, explained how they came up with a new weapon based on the stuff Hudson mentioned in his “state of the badass art” speech in the movie, and then got to Borderlands 2, which is what everyone was super excited for. The new trailer was shown, as well as an in depth look at customization and the DLC class, the Mechromancer. The skill trees behind that class looked incredibly varied and unique. Best of all, everyone in attendance got a free season pass for Borderlands 2 DLC (not counting the Mechromancer).

Great! AWESOME! And I don’t even own the game yet!

To be fair, I had a feeling they would’ve done something like this to follow up from last year’s Gearbox panel having everyone get a free copy of the game. Still awesome. If anything, this has given me the incentive to buy it as soon as I can rather than wait for the Steam holiday sale.

Unfortunately, due to the panel being delayed, and the Q&A going to 6 PM, I missed out on the final round of the Omegathon. Oh well. Next time, I suppose.

Back Home

Now I am back home, returning to mundane life after having a memorable time this last weekend. Of course besides playing games and visiting panels, I acquired some swag and souvenirs from the show.

No Caption Provided
No Caption Provided

From the pictures posted, I got.

  • 5 Rock Band pins
  • 1 Harmonix beach ball
  • 5 PAX Theatre pins
  • 1 Skallops pins
  • 12 cards and skallops
  • 14 Cards Against Humanity
  • 1 Age of Empires Online Steam starter pack code
  • 1 Ratchet & Clank Full Frontal Assault beta code
  • Borderlands 2 Season Pass
  • Paper Mario stickers
  • 1 Castle Crashers capsule toy
  • 1 Okami HD hat
  • 1 Ironclad Tactics paper craft
  • 1 DigiPen Arcade paper craft
  • Spacechem Paper Edition
  • 1 Magic the Gathering bag for carrying stuff
  • 1 Tentacle Bento promo slip autographed by Dave Lang

Got quite a fine amount of stuff. Most of that stuff is still arranged on my desk, the stuff on the left side atleast. I’ve already gone and used those skallops and cards to build something, and I can say that I could possibly get into this. It holds in place real nicely.

You can see the rest of the images I got from PAX here. Didn't get as many as I was hoping for but, again, oh well. There's always next year.

What Next?

Well, with college already underway, among other things, I’ve got quite a bit planned for the future, including this blog.

For start, I’ve decided to make each blog entry bi weekly instead of weekly and making most of those deadlines while missing a few. Since I’ll have to focus on college and other priorities, this will be helpful in giving me more time in two weeks to play a substantial amount of a game (or games) for the blog.

The other big thing is this. I’m planning to attend DigiPen next fall. I’m attending UAA for this first year just to get some general education courses out of the way and some credits that can be transferred. That’s why I visited the DigiPen booth at PAX and spoke with my relative’s brother, who had recently graduated from DigiPen. The big thing he stressed the importance of is having a portfolio. Obviously having no prior game development experience wouldn’t keep you out of attending, but it can definitely help make a case for why someone should be accepted into this school.

So, as something my parents suggested I do, I’m going to start working on said portfolio and start creating stuff. Not games, necessarily, but stuff like mods for instance. Items in Skyrim or maps in TF2 for example. In fact, that’s what I have planned. The latter I’ve had some experience in attempting to make as I’m familiar with using Hammer and even managed to make a rough layout for a Control Point map I had. As for Skyrim, I have not touched the Creation Kit yet, so I’m interested to see how different or similar that is to the Construction Set from Morrowind and Oblivion.

This blog will still be for me talking about games I’ve been playing, but if I have anything to show from my projects, I’ll share what I’ve been doing in its own section in the entry. I have some ideas already that I’m working on, but those would be saved for next entry since the bulk of this is about my experience at PAX. Plus this entry is already getting pretty long.

In Conclusion

That’s it. Coming back from a brief and unexpected hiatus, the blog will now resume as it always has. With a bi weekly schedule of course. And I already miss PAX. Wish it was next year already.

Peace.

9 Comments

[insert title] 8-4-12

Having a job sure has been helpful, as that means I get a little boost in money to spend on games. Rather than increase my Steam library with more games, I decided to show my PS3 some love and download two games from PSN. These are those games.

GAMES!!!!

Dyad is quite an interesting game to try and talk about. Screen shots don't give you a good sense of what the game is about, and video doesn't do much better either. After playing through all the main levels in Dyad, I can say that I understand what that game is about. But explaining what that game is to someone who has not played it isn't easy. It teaches you specific terms and lingo that only make sense to other people who have played the game.

So, for this blog, I'm not gonna both explaining what the game plays like and what the mechanics are. I'm just going to describe what my experience was like playing Dyad. The short of it is that my time with Dyad was awesome. I like it a lot.

The game does a good job of teaching you new concepts right up to the last level of the game, with the instructions using a mix of words and images of things in the level that you'll come across. Applying everything you learn about the game's mechanics makes the latter levels very fun and the visuals very crazy. There is an invincibility power up of sorts that when activated warps the colors in the stage, as well as the music, and combine that with the speed at which you're going in the level, things get pretty hectic. And everything that's happening on the stage is a gorgeous, albeit trippy light show.

I tried a couple of the trophy levels in Dyad, which have a single trophy associated with them and are rather difficult. I did not have all of them unlocked as it requires you to three star the levels, but from what I played, they did take quite a few tries, and I necessarily didn't feel the need to play through all those trophy levels. Just the regular levels were fine for me, didn't even bother with the remix levels. There is a special level at the end that has no end or time limit or anything. Just go as far as you can until the colors wear you out and you can't see the dots you need to hit.

Dyad doesn't take too long to get through when you just play the regular levels, but it is a lot of fun the whole way through. Good game for $15, or rather $12 for me as I got a discount for being a Playstation Plus subscriber, so that's nice.

Would not have known about this game had it not been featured in the new games section on the front page or briefly mentioned on the Bombcast or I Love Mondays. The concept of the game sounded very interesting, and what video I looked at of this game compelled me to buy it. It was only 8 bucks for me to spend as a Playstation Plus member, after all.

The concept of Malicious is a character action game focused on boss battles. You can approach them in any order you want, and defeating them earns you new abilities and skills. You know, kinda like Megaman. There's a total of 5 bosses you must face before you take on the big bad, and you have to beat those bosses in 30 minutes or you fail. A rather generous time limit, I must say.

One major thing about Malicious is that it is very floaty. This is very apparent from the movement of the main character, who just glides around the area. You can also jump, but rather than a single or double, you have a TRIPLE jump. And if you don't want to wait until you reach the ground again, clicking in the left stick will send you straight down, so that is nice. You start off with two different attack styles, melee and projectile, which you switch between with a press on the d pad. Rather simple start, but as you go on, the abilities that you acquire are really cool.

You get additional attack methods, including a sword and a lance, and you can even get the ability to jump six times in the air. Yeah, six times. You get expanded combos for your melee attacks, a shield, wings that let you fly around faster and ram into enemies for damage. There is some cool stuff you can do in this game, despite it being a rather simple game. And that's fine, nothing wrong with that. Again, for 8 bucks, there could've been worse.

There are difficulty settings in the game, but even on easy, the game can give you a good beating if you aren't careful. Two bosses in particular were very challenging despite playing on easy. I normally saved those two bosses for last once I had the abilities I wanted, specifically the wings that let you glide through enemies, and the lance, which has a really good heavy attack. I still haven't beaten the final boss, or haven't gotten around to it rather. Still, the fights themselves can be rather fun and challenging, though not something as fantastic as a game like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry 3.

Doesn't take long at all to get through Malicious, but I enjoy character action games and don't mind replaying this one every now and again. I definitely like the abilities you gain from the boss fights, in fact, having this style expanded into a much bigger game would be interesting to see.

And the Rest

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Bought the first one for Dreamcast, and my skills from playing Tony Hawk 2 matched up pretty well with this one. Yeah, there are no manuals, but I never used them much in 2, for some reason. Other than having to learn the maps in this game, I've had no problem accomplishing the objectives given. And after playing Mall and Downhill Jam, I understand now why people don't like those levels.

Things Other Than Games

Gave my two weeks notice to my job that I plan to quit on the 17th, giving me a week to myself before starting school again. It is an early morning job, and I wouldn't want any tiredness in the afternoon to get in the way of my studies. Of course, I won't have a source of income at that point, so I'll be looking for a job on the campus that I can go to in between courses.

I marathoned through Gurren Lagann last weekend and absolutely loved it, and not only that, but it had the effect of making me want to watch more giant robot shows, and then led me to Super Robot Wars and Another Century's Episode, and it's just been thinking about giant robots for the last week. And that's fine by me, because giant robots are awesome, real or super.

In Conclusion

So that's it. Another blog post finished. As far as what I've got planned for the rest of the month, I'm gonna do something with both Tony Hawk 1 and 2, and maybe something with Super Robot Wars (and possibly Another Century's Episode, as a friend of mine has ACE R for PS3). Also, I got Digital Devil Saga 2 from Gamefly so I hope to have that done by the weekend before PAX, which is also my last week of summer. Speaking of PAX, I got my passes, and I'm ready to go on the 31st. Can't wait.

Peace.

1 Comments

[insert title] 7-28-12

Two Platinum Games beat em ups. One being their first game, the other a game I had imported because I couldn't wait for it to come in 2013. Compare and contrast, however superficial their similarities may be.

GAMES!!!!

I had not played Madworld since it first came out in 2009. I remember it being a fun rental, heck, I ended up liking it more than others. I really liked the black and white art style, the story was surprisingly good and the dichotomy between Proops and DiMaggio's color commentary during gameplay versus the serious story cutscenes in between was a nice touch. And the soundtrack was great too, not being a fan of hip hop of just about any kind (a few exceptions here and there) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the tracks. This game had lots of style to it

I had only rented back when it came out, and I'm doing the same with it now. I probably could buy it for cheap at some point (hell, probably will). The style is great, but the gameplay does not quite match it.

That's not to say the gameplay systems are bad or don't have merit. It's a very good base for it. A beat em up that encourages you to use items in your environment or the environment itself to maim your enemies before finishing them off for huge points. I still found fun to be had in doing it, but in too many cases, it's easy to rely on the tire constraint followed by signpost through the head move. I at least made efforts to not rely too much on that combo, but that is most of what you are doing in stage one as that is the tutorial part of the game.

Personally, the high point of the game is either Stage 2 or 3, maybe both. From my memories of playing the game back in 2009, and playing it again now, I found those areas to be the most fun. Things like a gong where the reverb from throwing a dude against it gibs him, shaking up bottles, shoving them in enemies mouth, and send them flying, catapulting enemies to the (fake) moon. There is some good opportunities for unique kills, and they can be found throughout all the stages. But again, the rote tire and sign post combo is always present so even when you use those other environmental hazards to kill your enemies, you'll be starting most of them off with that combo.

The Blood Bath Challenges do emphasize the different ways to kill enemies a lot more than messing around in the main level. And in some cases, the stuff you do in those challenges can be applied to the main level. First stage doesn't really have a lot of that, there's no turbanator or giant dart board littered around the levels, but there are trains in the subway that you could probably get them to run over enemies (never really tried). First obvious example of applying the Blood Bath Challenges to the main level is the Money Shot, where you shake up drinks, stick them in enemies mouths, and sending them flying long distances. Those bottles can be found in the level and they're yours to use however you want.

There is indeed some variety to be had when killing enemies in Madworld, for sure. However, the thing that often hurts it, makes it feel like less, is the presence of tires and sign posts, or some look a like that has the same animation applied to it. They aren't meant to kill your enemies right away, but it would be nice to have something more unique to start your combo with every time. Regardless, I still had fun with Madworld. It's definitely got flaws, and I understand those flaws and why people don't like it. Guess the style was enough to carry me through to the end. Which is definitely good, as Stages 4 and 5, the game does start to get a bit tiring.

This game I was extremely excited to get when a very generous friend of mine on the internet offered to buy the game for me from Play-Asia. She paid over a hundred bucks to get me this game with the fastest shipping. For the price the game was going for, it seemed to be way to much, but because someone willingly offered to buy it, and I didn't have to save up the money, I now have the game. I can not thank her enough for doing it.

Anyway, the game. You could say it's like a Madworld successor, but whatever similarities those games have, they are rather superficial. Even the stories have no connection between them, it's like an alternate universe or something. It is still a beat em up. You have a finite number of moves you can pull off within the limits of the attack animations. It is however, deeper than what Madworld had for attacking with your fists, and the tires and sign posts are there as things on the side, not at the fore front of the fighting. Kinda like traditional beat em ups.

In fact, the game trades the whole environmental kills system for a traditional beat em up. At first it felt like them abandoning that old system was a cheap way out instead of fixing the lack of variety in it. But as I played more, the idea of this being a Madworld successor was less and less relevant. Some remnants of that past game remain, but the focus in this game separates it from that game greatly. You've got every button on the controller giving you various options in brawling with enemies, much more than Madworld. Light attacks, heavy attacks, grabs, guards and evades, killer weapons that you can bust out mid combo. When it comes to 3D beat em up depth, it doesn't beat God Hand. But this game may as well be a good runner up.

While the game has been promoted primarily for it's multiplayer focus, the game has single player mode with, once again, a surprisingly good story. There are two different sides you can choose from in the campaign, Black Side and White Side, but depending on which one you start with, you'll end up playing through both sides before returning to the one you started with as Red Side. Best comparison I can think of is like those 3D Sonic games Sonic Adventure and up, where beating all the available storylines unlocks a short, final story line that provides the true ending. Also, playing through the single player will unlock all the multiplayer characters, so there's another good reason to go through it if you want every character.

Speaking of which, I haven't done much with the multiplayer. No online yet or anything, just practicing in the simulator. It is fun to try out all the different characters and see what combos you can come up with, because they will be different for just about every character. So far of the characters I tried in the simulator, Durga is one of my favorites, if only because of his giant revolver in his right leg. I do want to try out Ai Rin, she looks like another character I would enjoy playing. Also, my copy of the game was one of the first print runs, so that meant that I got the Bayonetta code as well. Haven't played as her, but from videos that I've seen, her animations are straight out of her game. The style of combat in Bayonetta and Max Anarchy are different, but they did a good job of mapping her own combos to the game's combat system.

Max Anarchy is a ton of fun. May not be worth it for some to spend upwards of a hundred bucks for the game including shipping, but again, in my case I had someone who offered to do it for me. Still, this title continues Platinum Games' streak of quality games since Bayonetta. The fighting is fun, story is good, characters are diverse and interesting, oh, and the soundtrack is fucking awesome, tops anything from Madworld's soundtrack. Can't even begin to figure out what is my #1 track in this game. It's all so very good.

And the Rest

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

After watching the Tony Hawk TNT last week, I felt like I should hook up my Dreamcast again and start playing my copy of Tony Hawk 2. Guess what, that is still an amazing game. Also realized that I did not complete the gap list and that is the only thing left until I have truly unlocked everything in that game. Yeah, I could use a cheat code or something to unlock Trixie, but where's the fun in that?

Things Other Than Games

Not a whole lot of stuff I can think off. Well, maybe some. This last Monday was student orientation at the college I will be attending this year. From 8 AM to 4 PM that day. It was mentally exhausting. And speaking of exhausting, work continues to be, physically anyway. Still, the pay's good.

Watched some anime this week as well. I borrowed the series Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi from a friend of mine and watched through that. Also saw Ghost in the Shell for the first time, and that was an amazing film. After finishing those two, I've gotten on a kick to watch more Ghost in the Shell and go back through Gainax's catalog of shows, like FLCL, Panty & Stocking, and Gurren Lagann (the latter of which I've already started watching since last night). All of that eventually leading to me rewatching Evangelion, which the friend who imported Max Anarchy for me said she was planning to come up and visit me in December, and she's never seen Evangelion. So I'll save it for that, plus it seems interesting to watch someone's reactions to it for the first time.

Yeah, that's about it.

In Conclusion

Thanks again for reading. Lately I haven't been finding as much time to write the drafts for these things. So many games I want to play and anime I want to watch that I don't want to do anything besides that. Guess that's both a good and bad thing.

Anyway, for games to expect from me in the future, I bought Dyad and Malicious on PSN, for 20% thanks to being a Playstation Plus subscriber. Now that I've got a new account and a subscription, I guess now is a good time as any to start buying into that ecosystem.

Peace.

2 Comments

[insert title] 7-14-12

Just a tiny bit later than when I usually post this, but it's better than pushing it all the way to next week.

GAMES!!!!

Yet another game I bought in mid May that I finally got around to beating, which means I should try focusing on L.A. Noire now. Still, that's not important now. What's more important is sharing my experience with Psychonauts.

Took me way too long to get my hands on this game, but I finally got around to it. All I had played of the game before hand was the demo in Coach Oleander's mind. That was simple enough to get through, then I continued on to see what interesting things were waiting for me. Throughout the game I was treated to good platforming challenges, unique level designs, and some gags I did not see coming.

The platforming in the game is pretty good, though it's a lot better when you get the levitation ability, just because of the increased jump height and added momentum you get from moving. Other than the Meat Circus, there wasn't anything that had me really frustrated. This is the PC version, so while Double Fine said they made changes to the Meat Circus, having not played the whole game before I don't have any point of reference for what they did. I can say that protecting Little Oly was not very fun.

As a matter of fact, once you go to the asylum, starting with the Milkman Conspiracy, I noticed that the levels had a bit of a change in focus. The minds inside of the Psychonaut camp instructors were for the most part regular platforming levels. It was getting from start to finish and avoiding obstacles. Arriving in the Milkman Conspiracy, There was no finish line of any sort, atleast not one that's on a linear path from Boyd's house. I found myself going around collecting cobwebs, solving puzzles by using "disguises" to get past the secret agents. That's when I realized, this was a level that was designed as if it were a Tim Schaefer Lucas Arts adventure game of old. There are obstacles that platforming in the game won't get you around, so you must find the correct items that will get you past a particular area. And even when you complete that amazing level, the next three ones still retain that adventure game style of puzzle solving. Like changing the theater sets in one level to reach the catwalks, or playing a war board game with Napoleon Bonaparte. Odio's mind starts to focus more on platforming in order to solve the puzzle, but the end is reached ultimately from collecting four cards. The goals of the different levels start to branch, and I found that a nice mix up from the first few standard platforming levels of the game.

And I must say, the game is pretty funny and weird. There were quite a few things that caught me off guard with the game. One that wasn't so much funny but weird is the room early on in Milla's mind with the emotional baggage, and the entrance to a cage with fire all around kids whispering creepy things. The Milkman Conspiracy was hilarious, with all the dialogue from the secret agents, all voiced by Steve Blum, and the level ending with the awakening of the Milkman, and throwing goddamn Molotov milk bottles. And then he's holding one in real life in front of the asylum right until near the end of the game. Heck, even the silly actions that take place to set up burning the place down is awesome. And then of course, there is Mr. Pokeylope. I cracked up when I heard him speak. Excellent contrast to Sheegor's high pitched speech.

I didn't do much in the way of overworld activities, aside from looking for deep arrowheads to purchase a cobweb duster. I collected most of the figments, baggage, cobwebs, anything in the levels I tried to get and if I missed, I just moved on. I was more concerned with seeing the main story, and that part of the game was super enjoyable. When I do a second playthrough, I'm gonna do the extra activities and try to get absolutely everything, because I am a completionist to the core. Really fun game. Still can't believe I waited this long to get it, but it was worth it.

And the Rest

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

Got this for free because I'm now a Playstation Plus subscriber and now have access to free games. Played the demo a ton and had fun with that. The game is even more fun. Also, I've got over half of the trophies in that game, because apparently it's an easy S rank.

Vanquish

Played through the first act. I generally don't like dual analog controls for shooters, and a PC port or something is what I wish this game had just so I could play with a mouse. But I've tolerated it so far, and the melee has gotten me on occasion to get up close with enemies and duke it out. Fun game.

Things Other Than Games

Interesting events took place this last couple days. My new hard drive arrived on Thursday, and my dad gave me the 2 extra sticks of RAM he was holding onto for me. Since I didn't have work on Friday, I figured that would be the day I put the new stuff in. Inserting the RAM was easy as I had two extra slots left. Getting the hard drive in was more troublesome as I had to deal with a big video card in the way, along with a bunch of thick power cables. The new drive didn't come with a SATA cable, so I had to call my dad to find me some extra ones. He got some, and I hooked my PC back up in order to boot it up, just to see if it accepted the new RAM. Instead, I got this message

"Bootmgr is missing"

Tried to figure out what the problem was. Eventually I narrowed it down, after talking with my dad on the phone, that the cables connecting the main drive weren't fully plugged in. Because the same cables powering the hard drive also power the disc drive, I tried re plugging them in and swapping them to see if any were faulty or if there was just a loose connection. Same message showed up. I was close to panicking that I might have ruined my hard drive some how, that I went to my PS3 and played some games in order to cope with it.

Then my dad gets home with the cables, show him what I did, and do it one last time, and finally it boots up properly. Turns out I didn't have the power cable in all the way. The data cable was fine, it just wasn't getting power.

So that problem was solved, but there was another. Because of the length of the SATA power cable, powering the new hard drive meant cutting power to my disc drive. Yeah, basically no playing any disc games while my new hard drive is being powered. I decided to make the sacrifice, and now I'm looking if I can find a new power cable. Another problem that came up, though I eventually solved that night was getting the new drive to be recognized so I could transfer stuff to it. I tried setting up a RAID 0, and I ended up going into Disc Management, formatted the new drive, did some stuff, and presto, new 1 TB drive is up and running. I've already transferred my Steam folder over there, and am in the process of moving all my other game files. This now gives me three hard drives to use. One for my OS and other important application (Drive C), one for all my games (Drive D), and one for any miscellanous stuff (Drive E). That last one is a small drive from my last computer, about 75 GB. I could've ditched it, but there were still some important things on it, particularly the Keep of Metal and Gold torrent I downloaded not to long ago. 30 gigs of data I'm not willing to lose or re download.

That's really the one big thing of note. The other kinda has to do with games, but it was still great. I didn't want to wait any longer for Anarchy Reigns to come out here in 2013, so a very generous friend of mine on the internet offered to import the game for me. I normally want to do things on m own, save up for something myself, but it was too painful trying to wait for it. I wasn't making it any better for myself since I have character art for the game on my desktop and I've been listening to the soundtrack constantly. So Thursday night we set up the order on Play Asia, since that was the one place that had it available and cheaper than something like NCSX. So now I'm waiting about a week or so for my very first import game. That's pretty big. Big thanks to her.

In Conclusion

Well, that's it for another blog entry. Also, since I'm probably the only one who noticed, but it's been a year and a few days since I first started doing this blog series. It's been that long since I started doing this. Obviously there were gaps during times that I was particularly busy, but I still had the motivation to keep doing this blog. And I'll probably keep doing it for another year or so. I've still got so many games to play, and so many of them I want to write about, so I can't stop.

Peace.

1 Comments

[insert title] 7-7-12

Three japanese games, all of which not related by series, but that's not stopping from serving another blog with three games I talk about in detail.

GAMES!!!!

Originally a game that wasn’t at the top of my Gamefly Q but they decided to send it to me anyway. Fine by me, as I was definitely wanting to play this one for while. In fact, I played through it twice, if only because I ended up buying the DLC on a new PSN account I made this last weekend (though apparently I could’ve just started the DLC there, but I chose to go through it all again). I’ve gone through the main game twice and the Part IV Episode Pack once, and you know what? I don’t really care if it’s barely a game, but this is no doubt one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had this year. I’ve been paying attention to what games would go on my Top 10 GOTY at the end of the year, and this one is candidate number three.

The game part of it isn’t the main draw, even though for what little there is it’s a bit of light fun. I was intrigued at the idea of what’s basically an interactive anime. I like watching anime, so this would be right up my alley. This being a video game rather than an actual anime kinda gives it more impact to me than it would otherwise. The stuff that they show in this game is stuff that would seem common to someone that watches a lot of anime, but for video games, this has some of the biggest, craziest most elaborate things going on that hardly any other game seems to match. Even if the frame rate ends up going into the single digit, it’s worth it just to see just how many ships in an armada the game tries to cram all onto one screen.

The visuals are extremely impressive in the context of the medium it’s in, and the same goes for the story. There is a small parallel between this game and the first God of War, involving the protagonists being betrayed and their families being killed/taken from them. Some sort of reasonable justification for why the main character is so angry all the time. Again, if it was done as a regular anime, it wouldn’t be anything special, but because it is technically a video game it’s more so. Plus, so long as the protagonist himself is not shitty I can find myself getting immersed somewhat into that role.

In fact, I found myself extremely engrossed in what was happening as the second act was wrapping up. This is spoilers if you haven’t played it yet, but I could not ignore talking about this particular scene.

In the second half of episode 12, the evil bitch Olga is launching an attack on the village that Girl and Asura are in. By this point, it’s already been established that what the Seven Deities have been doing to accrue Mantra for the battle with Vlitra is pretty despicable. But then Girl gets killed along with another villager as Olga orders the village be purified. Now she’s dead, and Asura’s is really really REALLY pissed off.

Then in a series of cries of anguish, hundreds of Shinkoku ships are destroyed and Asura’s had turned into his berserker form, he fires at the fleet from the ruins of the village that by the end of the episode, only Olga’s ship and 11 others are seen fleeing (yeah, I counted). All accompanied by In Your Belief playing in the background and Asura’s continued cries of sorrow and fury.

It’s rather common in most anime for the characters to increase their power exponentially when they’re mad or their other emotions are going crazy. The song that plays and Asura’s screaming end up making it more than just some standard turn of events for me. Both times playing through that section I was in shock of the shit that was going down, and even feeling a little bit of the rage Asura was feeling towards the Seven Deities. The best thing I could equate that to was when I watched DBZ as a kid and saw Goku turn Super Saiyan for the first time. A rather similar trigger to what makes Asura go berserk, by having someone close get killed right in front of them, and the transformation and surge of power leaves the enemy caught by surprise. It ended up feeling more powerful to me than I would’ve thought the game would do, beside doing crazy shit like the fight with Augus one episode prior.

The main game is an amazing ride, right up until you play through True Episode 18, and when you feel like you must buy the DLC because you loved the main game so much that you have to see how it really ends, despite how gross it is putting the true TRUE ending in the DLC. Regardless, I payed my seven bucks for it and got four more episodes to play and they were amazing as well. The final episode in particular has quite possibly the greatest Quick Time Event ever made in a game ever, right at the climax of the battle. I had a similar feeling in me from episode 12 that I felt during the final battle, right up to the credits. I said that the main game was an amazing ride, but now that I’ve seen it to the very end, DLC included, I can say it was a very memorable ride.

And then of course there’s the small slideshow bit right after the credits that is goddamn amazing. Holy shit.

Crazy that one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in video games is barely a game. But then again, I had a hell of a time with Neptunia mk2 even though the stuff I enjoyed was not the gameplay itself. It surprised me in spots and even sucked me in, showing off things on a humongous scale that I’ve hardly seen in video games. It’s worth experiencing.

This isn’t the first time I’ve played Bayonetta, but it’s been a long time since I have. Although that was on the 360 playing through the first third of the game, around the time it came out. I don’t have a 360, but there were people I knew that had games I wanted to play that I had no access to. Fast forward to now, and I borrowed a PS3 copy of Bayonetta from a friend of mine, despite knowing that I would be playing the inferior version, even with the patch that was released for it. And you know, I still wish I had a 360 for this game, but I’m fine for now having finally played through to the end of Bayonetta, and despite inconsistent framerate, I still feel confident saying it is the best character action game I’ve ever played.

Early last month I played through Devil May Cry, Bayonetta’s predecessor. Finishing that game and going back to this makes me appreciate the variety in the combat of this game. Devil May Cry had a set amount of moves you could do with the attack button and you could mix them up however you were able to, while using your guns to juggle enemies and keep the combo going. Here, you still have your guns, but you’ve got punch and kick buttons that let you string together various combos. Having an actual evade button rather than pressing the jump button and pushing the left stick in a direction is so much better. And while DMC let you switch weapon sets on the fly, Bayonetta lets you customize your sets and the ability to switch between them in game is instantaneous, rather than the brief animation Dante does when switching between weapons. For most of the game I had the Scarborough Fair in hands with Onyx Roses on my feet for Set A, and for Set B the Shuraba in hand with the Durga equipped to the legs. There is just so many ways you can approach the combat, and it all feels good.

Last time I played this game I was about a third of the way through, somewhere before the second boss chapter. Having played through it all and seen everything for myself, there is some amazingly crazy shit that happens. The Hang On and Space Harrier/After Burner segments were a ton of fun, and the major boss battles put the stuff in DMC 3 to shame. While those games have you fighting on a relatively stable battleground, boss fights in Bayonetta can involve you jumping around on floating rocks or even on a missle. It gets nuts, and it’s still unfortunate that the framerate on PS3 can’t display it at 60 FPS. Even when there aren’t bosses, the level design in general is really good. Especially when you get to walk on walls and ceilings that it gets rather cool.

Some point in the future, whether I decide to buy a 360 or if the next Xbox will be backwards compatible with 360 games, I do hope to play the 360 version of Bayonetta, the way it was intended. Even with being stuck with the inferior version of the game, I was able to still have a large amount of fun. Well, except for the quick time events that result in death if you fail them, those pissed me off a couple times. Still a great game.

Now this is indeed an intriguing game. This game is generally liked, while people here on the site are rather divided on whether they like it or not. I for one enjoyed just about everything in Catherine. Yes, even the block puzzles.

I say just about everything I enjoyed, but the one thing I actually didn’t like was Vincent. Specifically, whenever Vincent’s in a situation with either Katherine or Catherine and is trying to hide the fact that he is cheating. And yet I don’t think the stuff he says would’ve pissed me off had it been just a show or something that I was watching. But as a video game, I find it hard to connect to Vincent when he’s fumbling his way through breaking off from any of the girls. When playing the Persona games, the protagonists were not only silent, but you were presented with plenty of dialogue choices to give your input and affect the characters around you. Vincent is not such a character, and even with only playing through it once, I feel like the main bulk of the story remains the same, no matter whether you try to get back with Katherine (which is what I wanted) or break up with her. It’s only the texts you send and the questions you answer in the nightmares that affect what ending you’ll end up with. In fact, the cutscenes would probably be slightly forgivable if they didn’t show the meter fluctuate whenever Vincent freaks out. Always feel like that should indicate a dialog choice or something should come up, but it never does. Regardless of those gripes, the story told I found was pretty good. More so as something to watch, not so much play.

Everything else I like, including the divisive block puzzles. There are people who either love them or hate them, and I am in the former. For one I was playing it on easy, so I’m sure that had an influence in that, but the puzzles were good. Having the undo button is really handy for those times when you push a block the wrong way, and it’s not infinite. Even during the boss stages when something is chasing you I don’t feel frustrated. Again, probably because I played on easy, but starting the stage off it’s easy to climb up the blocks fast enough that you have enough time to figure out a more difficult block formation, and even then, figuring those out doesn’t take too long either. There were only a few levels near the end where I looked up a vid on Youtube, but that was rare. Nothing about it was frustrating. Some people dread leaving the bar because they’ll have to do the block puzzles. I however dreaded finishing the block puzzles because I’d have to watch Vincent do a shitty job of hiding his affair.

Speaking of the bar, that part of the game is really great as well. Just a great place to learn about the characters in the world, learn beer trivia, and play the Rapunzel arcade game. The beer trivia in particular was very interesting, and while I don’t plan to drink any alcohol ever, it was still fun to learn something new about a mixed drink or sake every night. You’ll also learn during that period of different people who die from the nightmares, and I only managed to save the journalist. Guess I ended up talking to him the most of the other victims, as my routine was talk with Toby, Orlando, and Jonny, drink until I am drunk, talk to Erica, Boss, and whatever other people I came across, with one of the mainstays always being the journalist. It’s a really fun place, and even though I’d rather not drink beer, the atmosphere of a bar seems rather appealing.

I’ve only played through the game once, getting the second best Katherine ending. I’ll probably want to play through the game again sometime, but the only reason I played through it this week is that I was the only one home, so no one in the family would over hear the things being asked or see Catherine nude. Still, I felt it was a great game, aside from my complaints with Vincent and not a big enough feeling of choice throughout the story. Enjoyable none the less.

And the Rest

Max Anarchy Demo

I made myself a Japanese PSN account just to play this demo. I had not looked at anything about it since when it was announced, and back then, I didn’t really have much interest. Now it’s out in Japan, and the stuff I’ve seen and played is actually pretty cool. Sucks that the game is already localized but Sega is dragging this out until next year.

Things Other Than Games

Well, this last week I was completely on my own, with my parents out of town and my sister dog sitting. Yesterday my mom got back, and my dad will be coming on Monday.

Work continues to be tiring but rewarding. The manager talked with me about the possibility of changing my work schedule to Monday through Thursday, with Monday not having to get in as early. Having to get up at 4 in the morning three days in a row sounds better than four, so I agreed. So now I work at the start of the week and still have the weekend off, with my paycheck every other week

Speaking of which, after last week's payday, I went ahead and bought that new hard drive I had my eye on for a while. I bought it with Super Saver Shipping on Amazon, so it won't be coming until some next week. It'll be nice to start downloading more games without having to uninstall games. It took me a year and half on this computer of mine to use up nearly 500 GB. With a 1TB drive coming, and since i plan to transfer my game stuff on to there, it should still take me some time to get close to filling it up. Oh, and I'll be getting some extra sticks of RAM courtesy of my dad, pushing the amount from 4GB to 8GB. Kinda unnecessary, but whatever.

In Conclusion

Well, that's it. Another three game blog. I've got a copy of Breath of Fire III I need to play, but I should probably focus on wrapping up Psychonauts so I can write about that for next week. Not to mention I've started playing inFamous again.

I mentioned it here and there throughout the post, but I made myself a new PSN account, no longer stuck under the sub-account label when I made my first years ago. Instead of making it a variation of "Alaska_Gamer" I chose to make it something I could still use when I'm no longer in Alaska, because surprise, I don't plan to live here forever.

So, the name is ArclightBorealis. Took me quite a while to come up with. Terrible with names.

And now that I've been playing my PS3 again, what with my new account and all, I'm gonna be signing up for Playstation Plus once I get my paycheck next week. Pac Man Championship Edition DX is free on the service this month so I HAVE to get it. Also, inFamous 2. Never got to doing an evil playthrough. And LittleBigPlanet 2. Damn, I already got a new hard drive for my computer coming, wish I had some extra storage space for this 40GB PS3 I have. Whatever, I'm hoping that this will get me to keep playing it more often.

Peace.

2 Comments

[insert title] 6-23-12

Let's rock, baby!

GAMES!!!!

It’s sure felt like a long time ago now, but it’s only been about a month or so since I bought this and the rest of the PS2 Devil May Cry games (plus Soldier of Fortune, which has a blog entry still pending). I really loved Bayonetta, but did want to play the series that proceeded Bayonetta in the character action genre. For around 20 bucks, I was guaranteed at least two good games and would enjoy them. Yeah, I went into this purchase knowing DMC 2 was bad and still got it anyway. I’m an idiot.

The original Devil May Cry and Bayonetta are 9 years apart from each other. I expected there to be very little differences in style and execution, given both games had the same director Hideki Kamiya. Playing this game, turns out the difference is a lot bigger. And age has set in on top of that for this title.

To regurgitate what just about everybody knows, Devil May Cry was originally going to be Resident Evil 4 but was changed to its own game when they realized the style and mood was different than what you’d expect from an RE game. Putting that idea in mind, various things come to mind that are proof of ’s previous form. The castle the game takes place in is very much this game’s Mansion from the original Resident Evil. There is no camera control, but unlike the static cameras and pre rendered backgrounds, the view is dynamic. There are still hard cuts in camera view that can make things disorienting and throw off where you’re guiding Dante, but the camera will pan around for some nice views, or around enemies nice and slowly while you’re beating on them.

Speaking of which, the combat in this game…compared to more modern character action games, it doesn’t feel right. It isn’t horrible, but compared to how tight control in other action games are, age has definitely hurt this part of the game. And the contextual stick directions and button attack moves are a bit frustrating to get a hold of because of the lack of camera control. When it says to hold the control stick in the direction of Dante’s back, he could be facing towards you and you’d have to press the control stick forward. The side roll is the worst for me as there are times where Dante just jumps up when I felt like I had the stick pushed in the direction to make him roll.

Regardless of those problems, I found fighting enemies to still be kind of enjoyable. The animations themselves are good, and when you get into a nice groove of getting S rank combos, with the camera slowly panning around the fight, it looks cool to say the least. It may not be the most fun combat system in an , which I doubt was the problem for people back in 2001, but I felt it still had some qualities to it.

As far as everything else in the game, I enjoyed the dumb music, Dante’s character is really cool, and the story doesn’t give a fuck about what’s going down in the last few chapters, between this really sappy and hilariously bad scene and a fucking plane falling from the floor above where Dante Mundas and still able to let them fly of the island. The disregard for telling any sort of good story is actually hilarious instead of infuriating, because they barely build up anything early on that would make you care if something like this happened.

So, I liked Devil May Cry. It’s not the best game in the series, nor is it the best character action game, but I feel it plays well enough today. I was disappointed thinking that the game would’ve felt more similar to Bayonetta, but hey, that’s my fault. It’s a game from 2001. It’s still far better than the next game I’m gonna talk about.

I’ll admit straight up, I was a FUCKING IDIOT for playing this game, even knowing beforehand that this game was nowhere near the quality of the rest of the games in the series. Still not sure why I bought it. Maybe I’m not fond of omitting numbered entries from a series of games that I own, maybe I wanted to see for myself how bad it was, even though I’m fairly comfortable with let reviewers tell me when a game is bad and to stay away. Regardless, there’s not turning back now.

I played about three fourths of the first disc of DMC 2 (yep, remember, 2 disc game), and it was bad.

I was breezing through the game without frustration, something that should’ve been nice after getting frustrated at parts of Devil May Cry, but the opposite effect took place. Without that challenge, and the gun juggling being completely broken and boring, I did not have fun. Combat as whole was a lot worse, with the only cool move that they added being wall running. But one move isn’t enough. Everything about it…I said DMC 1 game play didn’t feel right in comparison to other action games. In comparison to that, this feels WAY WAY WRONG.

And it’s not just the game play either. The style doesn’t feel cool or super exciting. Especially Dante. Personality is almost nonexistent, and the new characters introduced (for what few characters there are) don’t do much to help. And the bad guy looks like he should be a Tekken fighter. And Dante seems to love jumping off of tall skyscrapers diving head first. A detail that would’ve been awesome had Dante not thrown his charisma out the window, but here it was an odd detail to notice. Probably because he does it in one of the demo reels that plays before Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.

Like I said, I played about three fourths of the first disc before quitting, and because I was so close to the end, it was both soul crushing to quit and also a relief to quit at the same time. I had no interest in playing the second disc, especially since Lucia’s levels are pretty much Dante’s levels recycled. I’ll still keep the game, but I doubt I’ll ever play more of it. Again, I think it’s the numbered thing. This is why devs should just use subtitles instead of numbers to differentiate your game. Especially if it ends up being ridiculous like Final Fantasy.

Little aside, because this game is damn awesome, I somehow thought that after the disaster that was DMC 2 Capcom got Kamiya to help make Devil May Cry 3 not a crap game. Was surprised that it wasn’t, because the quality of this game, a game from 2005/2006 if you count the Special Edition (which I played) pretty much rivals my two other favorite character action games: Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta. This game is fucking awesome.

For one, it’s challenging, and the challenge is so well done that even when I get my ass kicked over and over again, I still want to get back in and try it again. The game has an actual level select, and for each difficulty you can play on, so you can always try levels over and over again should you want a better ranking at the end. And while you still have limited camera control, I felt that the contextual moves based on control stick direction felt much tighter than in DMC 1. In fact, EVERYTHING feels tighter than in DMC 1.

The game also starts off with a bang. For one, this cutscene plays, and then your first level has you IMMEDIATELY fighting. Tutorial windows will pop up occasionally between waves in order to briefly explain a concept, but you are given a taste of what the action is like right from the go. There will of course be moments of puzzle solving like in the other games, and those will be the game’s quiet moments so to speak. But when getting into a battle, the combat feels just so damn good. It’s sublime.

An excellent addition to this game is no doubt the Style moves. Dante has 4 upgradeable styles (plus two non upgradeable ones he receives later on). They’re designed for specific playing styles, be it swords, or guns, or dodging and so on. Since dodging is always cooler than blocking, and just fun to do, I pretty much stuck with the Trickster style the whole way through. The upgrades to that style are excellent too, as they’re great for during battle and out of battle, particularly the 3 dashes in a row when you want to get some place fast.

I mentioned the cutscene two paragraphs back, which I must say, is fucking amazing. And there’s more like it. And those scenes were motion captured. Craziness. I still get a kick out of that cutscene, or anything that has Dante being super stylish, just because it shows how much of a punk ass he is. He surfs on top of an enemy (which can be done as an actual move and is fun) while shooting both pistols, he shoots a cue ball with his gun and sends them all flying, he plants his feet on a rocket and starts surfing it, and then after getting his Devil Trigger starts free falling from the tower going crazy on a bunch of flying enemies…all before getting eaten by a devil whale. It’s stupid and over the top, and it’s so awesome.

Because I played the special edition, that meant that I had the rebalanced difficulty levels, which didn’t bother me as I had no context for it, normal was plenty challenging enough. Then there is the turbo mode, probably my favorite feature in the special edition. It boosts speed by 20%, and makes combat more fun, a tad bit more challenging, and the rest of the game just overall faster. Can’t really go back from that. And then there’s Virgil, who you unlock after beating the game with Dante. You pretty much play through the same levels but with a different character. Not a reskin though, as Virgil has his own set of styles. It’s interesting, but coming right off of playing as Dante, didn’t feel exactly right. Maybe after waiting a bit I’ll be ready to pick up as Virgil again without feeling disconnected.

Don’t really know what else to say. I fucking love this game. Go play it.

And the Rest

Geist

Was gonna get Eternal Darkness from Gamefly, but that looks like that’s never gonna happen. So I got Geist instead. Neat ideas, meh execution, and my save deleted itself as I was close to the end. More on it when it gets its own blog post.

Max Payne 3 Multiplayer

So last week after I posted my Max Payne blog I said I was going to be playing some multiplayer that afternoon. It did not take place that Saturday, because as it turns out getting a game of Max Payne 3 multiplayer is fucking busted. In the last few days I was able to try some of the multiplayer along with Ahmad and other people in the Giant Bomb PC community just to test it. When a match did get going, it was pretty fun. The shoot dodging worked rather well with multiple people, didn’t feel like there were any compromises, or atleast any that I could notice. If only those games could’ve gone on for longer and the process for starting a match wasn’t so broken. Disappointed about that.

Things Other Than Games

Not a whole lot of new developments. Work continues to be exhausting but it’s worth it for the paycheck. I’ve figured out what hard drive I’m gonna get for my computer, but I can’t buy it yet as I’m only taking 20% from my last paycheck towards the cost of this thing. The rest go into savings for college and stuff. And 20% of that covers just about half of the cost of the hard drive, so I’ll be able to buy it once I get my next check. It’s a 1TB western digital for 95 bucks on Amazon. And no shipping, too.

Today I’ll be heading to my friends house for some anime watching and other nonsense, as it has been for the last few months. I’ll be staying there for the night instead of leaving at 9:45, so all I can say is I hope things get ridiculous or weird real late at night. We’ll see I guess.

In Conclusion

Still not sure exactly what I’ll be writing about for next week. I have been playing a couple of Gamecube games, and I haven’t gotten around to playing more of Psychonauts and L.A. Noire in a while. Nowhere near finishing those two games, so I might as well start on those while I think of which order to write about the stuff I’ve been doing with gamecube games. Oh, and Asura’s Wrath shipped from Gamefly. Looking forward to finishing it.

Peace.

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