For those that don't follow Drew on Twitter, here's the skinny. Him and Ryan are returning from their trip to Valve. This is apparently their gate number at the airport.
On Friday and Saturday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend PAX, and I must say it was probably the most amazing event I've ever been. Never before have I felt so, I don't know, comfortable in a place like this, you know? You just get this great feeling as soon as you walk in and realize that you share a common interest with everyone around you. Whether it's playing shooters, RPGs, adventure games, or whatever, you can relate to just about every person that you walk past. And that's great.
But enough introductions. I didn't get to play as many games as I would have liked to at the show mostly because the lines were just ridiculous, but I was able to find myself with a controller at various times throughout the show...
I Entered The Bastion
The Bastion booth. An optimistic Darren Korb can be seen, as well as Greg Kasavin .5 on the left and the back of Logan Cunningham One of the very first things I set out to do upon arriving at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center was to find Supergiant Games' booth and not only play Bastion, a game I've been very optimistic about since I heard about its inception, but also meet its creators and snag myself one of their hot bandanas. Frankly, it took a while to actually find their booth because it was relatively small compared to the larger exhibits flanking it. I immediately hopped in line after a small bit of disappointment felt after seeing that Greg Kasavin wasn't there.
Up to that point, all the footage I had seen of Bastion looked great, but the main draw for me was the narrator. I didn't realize how fluid and entertaining it would actually be to play until I started up the demo myself. It started up with our intrepid hero waking up on a bed and setting out on his adventure. Within 10 seconds, I accidentally fell off the ledge, and chuckled as the narrator (voiced by Logan Cunningham, who was there) commented, "He falls to his death." Even better, when I respawned, he remarked, "Just kidding." Great stuff so far.
As I began acquiring weapons, I started to love the game more and more. The combat felt more than just a simple button mashed. If you go up to the foes with large hammers and just mash the melee button, you're going to get crushed. But utilizing the extremely helpful rolling dodge maneuver, I was able to get around my foes just as they attacked to lay down some more hits. When things started getting crowed, I could roll backwards and quickly shoot some arrows into their faces and follow up with some hammer strikes as they got close. The whole demo just felt incredibly polished, and it only elevated my excitement for the final product. Supergiant Games is shooting for a Summer 2011 release. Can't wait!
Before I left, I met the man known as Greg Kasavin and exchanged some words. He's just as great a person in real life, I'll have you know.
I Experienced The Need..... For Speed....
Check out this nice blurry image of the Need For Speed World booth thingy!Need For Speed World was set up and up to 6 people could compete against each other in a single race, with the winner getting a free tee shirt. Free stuff man! Can't go wrong with that. Each racer had a nice set up consisting of headphones and a comfortable racing seat complete with pedals and a wheel. I somehow managed to come in first despite my lack of optimism after hearing a previous competitor comment on how random the sensitivity of the wheel was. And he was right. Sometimes I came dangerously close to completely spinning out into a glorious 180, while other times I wasn't able to turn sharp enough to take a corner. Either way, I beat everyone else and enjoyed a glorious applause from the group of people who were watching my screen. FREE TEE SHIRT! NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!
I Shot Dudes In SOCOM 4
They had us playing the game inside this little closed off bunker thing. It was cozy. Any opinions I give on SOCOM 4 should be taken with a pinch of salt, since I haven't played a SOCOM game in years. And even then, I'm pretty sure it was only the first one. Therefore, there's no way I can definitively say that this one is better or worse than any previous games in the franchise. All I can say is that I wasn't especially crazy for it. Nothing about the shooting felt right to me, and aiming down my red dot sight (achieved by clicking in the right stick after going into the standard over-the-shoulder aim mode) and trying to shoot guys was nearly impossible due to the strange and erratic sensitivity that wasn't helped by my gun's exceptionally large amount of recoil. Maybe it just takes practice? I dunno.
Either way, I got a multiplayer beta code for it. I don't have a PS3, so if any of you want it let me know.
I Was Educated On The Background Of Bioshock Infinite's Columbia
The first panel I attended on Friday was about the setting of Bioshock Infinite and how it came to be. Columbia and the world it's in was heavily inspired by the real world culture of America during the early 1900s, something that the team at Irrational Games seem to be well versed in. In addition to providing insight regarding the conception of the floating city of Columbia, the panelists also showed us some footage of a very early version of the skylines and a hilarious scan of a napkin drawing from (I think?) Kevin Levine (someone who was there could probably clarify who drew it, I don't remember exactly) given to the art designers "detailing" the transition from a city under the sea to above the clouds.
Overall the panel was brilliant, and had some great moments of its own. Ken Levine is a really great speaker, although he was at a loss of words when someone asked him during Q&A what the average size of a Big Daddy's penis was.
I Felt The Magic And The Love Of The Giant Bombcast, Live!
The thing I was most excited for on Friday was attending the Giant Bombcast, Live!. I lined up approximately three hours early because I knew that it was going to be mad packed. And mad packed it was. The line was huge well over an hour before it even started. About 30 minutes before the show, the Giant Bomb crew walked down the hallway to get to the theater. The eruption of applause and cheers from us waiting in line as they were just walking past was unbelievable. It must have felt amazing to be cheered on that loudly just by being present. Crazy!
After everyone was seated, a process that took probably 5 or 6 whole minutes, we were treated to an amazing live rendition of the Giant Bombcast theme by a band featuring John Drake on drums and Phil Reno on guitar (Reno or Remo?) I honestly can't wait for the panel to go on the site just so I can listen to that again. Ryan Davis was 100% correct when he said "That was the coolest shit ever!" Indeed it was, Mr. Davis.
If I were for some reason going to label one part of the panel as flawed, it would probably be the Q&A portion. Honestly, I thought it ran on for too long. The crew could have easily spent that time talking about the show, but all was well when Jeff did the most unexpected and incredible thing ever about halfway through. I don't want to spoil it if you don't already know what I'm talking it. Just you wait. It took a fraction of a second for everyone in the audience to catch on to his schemes when he started leading into it, but the excitement flowing through the room when we realized what he was doing was just amazing.
After the show they apparently stayed in the theater and chatted with some of the attendees. I really wish I could have stayed for that, but I needed to get back to the hotel. All was well though, because the next day this happened:
Vinny is probably the nicest guy you will ever meet. And Jeff is mad tall.
I Bought Persona 4 And Final Fantasy XII
What?
Yeah. I found myself with over $200 at the show and couldn't pass up these two games. Together it cost me $60 for both of them. I started playing Persona 4 earlier today and it's scary how strongly the Endurance Run memories are coming back. I find myself remembering the things that Jeff and Vinny said at certain points in the game and I hear them in my head. Voices in my head? You know it.
If You Weren't At PAX...
... why not? Seriously, what's up? Stop making excuses like "I live on the other side of the planet!" or "I need to save my money for groceries!" Screw food! Attend PAX next year. You won't regret it. It's an amazing feeling being surrounded by people who share a common interest and being able to be as nerdy as possible without worrying about people looking at you all weird-like. Plus, you get to see stuff like this:
And who doesn't want to see stuff like that?
(If anything, this blog has showed me that I should invest in a camera that doesn't suck!)
He's really glad you stopped by. Really, he is. It's that time of the week again! The time to release the Camel from its pen behind my shed and impregnate the Bloghara desert with my words. Or something like that. For the two or so people who actually care about my often times greatly flawed opinions, which themselves are often based on whatever insane mood I'm in at the time, I got a special treat for you today.
So I found myself with 1650 Microsoft Points on Saturday (don't ask me how I managed to get stuck with a 50, I still haven't figured it out) and was about to purchase the Dark Corners DLC for Gears Of War 2 when I remembered about Microsoft's delicious yet aggressively over-priced Games On Demand service. Curiosity leaked into my brain, and I thumbed my way over the the GoD section of the Games Marketplace and browsed the selection. Then, a specific box art for a specific game caught my eye. A game that I guess I've had a passive interest in for some time now, but never really acted on that interest for whatever reason. A game best described by quoting my reactions while playing, which mostly consist of irregular breathing patterns and occasional outbursts of "OH GOD WHAT WAS THAT NOISE."
The game is, of course, The Dead Space. (Again, with a sly little "the" placed in front of the title for added effect. I don't know what that effect actually is, though).
This blog is dedicated to...
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos
By the gods, look at his hair.
Christ
OH SHI---
The Plasma Cutter is what every video game pistol should be "Scary" is not really the word I would use to describe Dead Space. I think "disturbing" and "unsettling" do the game more justice. Sure, there are some moments where the lights conveniently go out in a long dark corridor or room that I'm heading through and I find myself wanting to desperately get out as soon as I can. But most of the time I'm cautiously moving through the USG Ishimura at a snail's pace, listening to every sound, jumping and quickly spinning around at the clang of a falling pipe, staring hopelessly at the game's [awesome looking] inventory screen wondering whether I should drop a med kit or ammo in order to pick up a schematic for a weapon that just may come in handy at some point down the road.
The whole experience so far (I've played for a little over 2 hours) has been incredible. The atmosphere that the game establishes as soon as you crash into the Ishimura is frightening in a psychological sense. Much like Bioshock, I know absolutely nothing about the location I'm in. I'm actually finding myself actively seeking out the audio, video, and text logs not because I'm a collectable addict but because I'm dying to figure out what the hell happened to all the people aboard the vessel. When a game makes me this curious about my surroundings just two hours in, you know something is being done right.
Another one of my favorite parts of the game is the lighting. Shadows are one of my worst enemies in the game so far. A swinging light may cast shadows on a series of walls and pipes, creating silhouetted figures that look like necromorphs but aren't. Likewise, the sound design is truly phenomenal. Brad Shoemaker said in his review that you'll want to play Dead Space with a big bass-heavy sound system. But really, those are just a novelty and not a necessity. The game looks beautiful on my 42" Vizio and sounds great as well, even though I don't have an advanced speaker setup.
You don't know what could be lurking in those bodies, or around the next corner. And that's awesome. Even more, the game's pacing is just brilliant. I really appreciate that I haven't been pounded and pounded with necromorphs so far. Instead, I've probably spent more time nervously anticipating encounters instead of actually being in them. This is all fine and good, though. The game likes to have you explore the ship and go about your business without much interruption, calming you down to a level that leaves you totally unprepared when they trap you in a pitch black room with necromorphs jumping out of the walls. The use of zero-g segments and some environmental puzzling also offer a nice break following a vicious attack.
I'll admit it: I'm playing on Easy. I've really only played a Dead Space game twice. I remember trying out the demo for the first one a while back and hating it (if I recall I think I ran out of ammo within 10 seconds and was completely screwed, which left a bad impression on me). A few weeks ago I gave the Dead Space 2 demo a go and really enjoyed it, but I knew in the back of my mind that if I were to get it I probably should make sure I had played through the first one. Thus, my lack of experience left me with little confidence in my ability to survive, so I chose the easy road. Strangely enough, I'm totally thinking about giving the game a go on the hardest difficulty. The thought of limping through the ship with almost no health and low ammo is for some reason appealing to me...
As I'm sitting here writing this, all I can think about is playing Dead Space tomorrow night. I've made the executive decision that I will never play this game while the sun is up, I almost did today, but opted to continue watching Lost (season 6 so far is kind of a disappointment.... I guess). The game's atmosphere and general mood is just unforgettable, and I can't believe I waited this long to play it. Chances are, I'm going to head out and buy Dead Space 2 when I get back from PAX East 2011 next Sunday.
After Thoughts
I get to miss two days of school this week for PAX East, including a certain something happening on Saturday that I'll miss which will likely cause me to fail the respective class. Oh well! I'm really looking forward to some of the panels I plan on attending, including the Giant Bombcast and "From Background to Center Stage: Building Game Worlds As Main Characters" featuring Julian Murdoch, Ken Levine [Creative Director, Irrational Games], Shawn Robertson [Lead artist, Irrational Games], Nate Wells [Art Director, Irrational], Stephen Alexander [Senior Effects Artist, Irrational Games]. Should be a great show. Oh, and next week's Camel ride will probably have something to do with Tales Of Vesperia or PAX, although PAX will most likely be a separate thing. Thanks for reading, and be safe out there.
It's been a while since I hopped on to the saddle adorning the camel and took a road trip through the Blog-hara desert. In truth, I've spent much of my time the past few days playing Fallout: New Vegas, or rather, trying to play Fallout: New Vegas. But I'd rather not discuss the unreasonable amount of times that game has broken and frozen on me. Instead, I want to delve into this special little game I've been in possession of for a few months now called The Shin Megami Tensei: The Persona Three: The FES.
Of course, it's not actually called that, but I've recently discovered the joy in putting "the" before game titles as a sort of weird reprieve from the boring and oftentimes stressful events we humans endure. Try it. Did you try it? You're welcome.
This blog is dedicated to...
A Fabergé egg
For its beautiful glory can be found on the cover of one of my favorite albums.
Homage to the Brat Pack
Much like my scrawls on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit in the previous Camel's Eye, I've decided to focus on a specific aspect of Persona 3: FES, that specific aspect being the delightfully simple concept of S-Links. Even more specifically, the S-Links involving Junpei Iori and Akihiko Sanada. Even more specifically, the lack thereof.
When I first heard that it was impossible to start S-Links with these two guys, I was crushed. Especially Junpei given his entertaining yet sometimes incredibly frustrating personality. (Seriously, I've mentally fired him from the Shadow-bustin' squad more times than I'd like to). Regardless, my disappointment in Atlus grew substantially during that time. How come I can S-Link with Yukari but not Junpei? Surely there is a reason for this.
The Brat Pack is at it again And I think I found one. At certain points during the game, our intrepid Persona 3 protagonist finds himself in unusual and awkward situations with both Junpei and Akihiko. The first is the hilarious Operation Babe Hunt, for which this blog is graciously named after. The situation is this: all the girls have gone off into the forest, and our gang-banging' squad of misfits consisting of the protagonist, Junpei, and Akihiko find themselves on a beach full of honnies. Naturally, Junpei hatches up a marvelous plan to score some chicks, and the outcome is nothing short of spectacular. The three of them awkwardly stammer their way across the beach from girl to girl, trading awful pick-up lines and hitting on people in the most egregious ways possible. The best part was seeing Akihiko, who, up to that point, was portrayed as a popular ladies man, choke miserably when he finds himself face to face with a female in a bikini. Brilliant.
It would be a real shame to neglect the hot springs incident as well. During a trip, our heroes decide it's a good a time as any to go for a little dip in the hot springs, firmly believing that there's no way the girls will return. They got it all to themselves!.... right? Unfortunately for them, the exact opposite happens. Yukari, Mitsuru, Fuka (blegh), and Aigis (robot + water = ???) return. Our heroes realize the extreme danger they are in and realize that they must get out, but the odds are clearly stacked against them. The protagonist must lead Junpei, Akihiko, and Ryoji, who is totally not evil at all nuh-uh no way, out of the pool. I failed to do this, and Mitsuru executed us all. Given the fact that we were all fine afterwards, I'm not entirely sure what she meant by that. But who cares!?
I'm led to believe that Junpei and Akihiko don't have S-Links because it is through these moments that you really get to bond with them. You don't need to find them after school and eat noodles in a cafe to get to know each other better. You get to know them through these situations you have the misfortune (or fortune???) of finding yourself in. And that's awesome. Of all the events and grinding that I experienced in Persona 3, I'll probably remember the Brat Pack the most. These guys really helped to make Persona 3 one of the most interesting PS2 games I've ever played.
Until next ti--wait.
Recently I've had the displeasure of seeing a horrendous number of you say that you've never heard of The Black Keys. There's a video at the end of this. Do the right thing.
A recent blog by one JJ "The Weather Man" Weatherman reminded me that I once did one of those weekly blog shindigs for a while before I sorta fell outta the loop. But thanks to his inspiration, I have gotten back on my feet with a vengeance! Although I guess you could say that I was also indirectly inspired by those who inspired him, and also those who inspired those who inspired him. Oh boy.
It's been a while since I've seriously sat down and written about games, mostly due to a recent addiction to the television show Lost that has claimed my life for well over a week now, but with calming music playing in the background, a bowl of chocolate ice cream, and a sentence that is already way too long, I think I can do this.
Mayhaps.
This blog is dedicated to...
William Mapother , for his face gives me nightmares.
The Few, The Proud, The Annoyances of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
I actually have a review in the works for this delightful racing game, so I won't be voicing my opinions on the overall package in this space. Instead, I invite you to join me as I look over the top five most annoying things about Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit that fortunately don't drag down the game too much despite being incredibly frustrating at times.
Teamkills
Good a time as any to be a douchebag, right? NO! In the game's online Hot Pursuit mode, four cops must stop four racers before they reach the end of the course. In the event that all four cops are wrecked, the racers keep going until everyone left on the track completes the course. If you come in first place, you get an extra 2,000 Bounty. But if one racer crosses the finish line, all the other racers get 5,000 Bounty. Despite this, the game turns into a bloodbath when the cops are gone and it's just racer on racer. I can recall one race in which a fellow racer and I had less than a mile to go. On the final turn, I overtook him and entered 1st place. He immediately started an EMP which I could not avoid, and when it hit me it destroyed my car and took me out of the race.
It's moments like this that are extremely infuriating. There are definitely times where I have been unintentionally taken out by a teammate, whether it was being slammed into after a turn or running into a friendly spike strip, but those are nowhere near as annoying and mind-numbingly frustrating when a greedy racer needs to essentially teamkill you to satisfy his Bounty boner.
Auto Busts
Come on, at least give me a chance! Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is a terrible driving game when you are going under 20 MPH. The handling of the cars when you are trying to get going from a dead stop is just terrible. The acceleration isn't fast enough, and it's hard to push cars out of the way. One of the things a cop can do in Hot Pursuit is pin a racer against a wall so they can't move. If they keep them there for a few seconds, they are automatically busted. While this may make some sense from a realistic standpoint, you can't help but feel robbed by the game's poor controls at low speed. There's just no way to get out of it. When you're on the road, you at least have some ways to defend yourself. But when you hit a roadblock and become stuck on the wall, it's enormously frustrating to get pinned even further and get taken out of the race as a result. Just a plain silly design decision.
Chopper Teamkills
Choppers are the John Locke of the police force.... (I had to put a Lost reference in here somewhere. Forgive me.) By pressing Up on the D-Pad, a cop can call in a helicopter that flies over and ahead of the racers and eventually drops spike strips on the road. The thing is, the AI for the helicopter is so unpredictable that calling it in is a risky move that could ruin you or a fellow cop. You see, often times I've had friendly helicopters drop spike strips directly in front of me, and it's impossible to avoid at 200 MPH. Thus, I hit the spike strip and proceed to foolishly yell at my game like a children for allowing this egregious error to happen. Heck, one time a friendly chopper dropped a spike strip on an upcoming roadblock so I couldn't even see it. I hit that one too.
Criterion really needs to fix the AI for the choppers to stop this from happening. The strips are easy to avoid if you see them coming from afar, but oftentimes you'll turn a corner and BAM! Game over for you.
"Get To The End Of The Track As Fast As You Can Without Hitting Anything" Events
I managed to snap a picture before my racer became dead... The career mode in Hot Pursuit is definitely not the game's main draw, but it's there when you need to do some offline racing. The thing is, however, many of the events in the career are not racing of any kind, but different forms of time trials. We've all seen them before, but Hot Pursuit goes the extra mile to make them as annoying as possible. In each of these events, you are given a car that goes faster than any car on a legal street should go, and you have to drive that car to the end of the course. Every time you hit something, seconds are added to your time. So the basic goal of these events is to drive as fast as possible without hitting anything. That is just a crazy expectation to make, and it's even more annoying when you are trying to beat a friend's time and you end up hitting a wall because--SURPRISE!--you couldn't take that sharp turn at 240 MPH.
Unpredictable/Rubber Band A.I.
And just like that, Johnny Racer received a sudden boost of speed and won the race! Rubber band artificial intelligence is the bane of a racing game's existence. Hot Pursuit is guilty of utilizing this in the game's career mode, which is just another reason for me to not bother going through it. During a race, some cars will blow ahead of you at the start while others will hang back. Later on, those same cars that were falling behind earlier might come rocketing by you. On the other hand, you might find yourself blowing past the cars ahead at lightning speed and a few seconds later you'll see them creeping up on you in your rear-view mirror. It's frustrating and just baffling that this kind of AI still exists. Sure, it keeps the race competitive, but it's not fun when a car zips on ahead at the last second to take the lead and the win.
However, despite these annoyances, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is still a totally rad game that you should probably play if you like racing. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Bolo Santosi, The Reapahzzz, and Ancestral Skulls, Scorpio!
I've basically hated Just Cause 2 for the past few months. A while ago, I decided to get the achievements for getting 100% in X number of locations and for collecting X number of resource items. This completely destroyed the game for me. I wanted nothing to do with it after running around Panau for hours grabbing 1000 upgrade crates. By yesterday, whilst scrolling through my achievement list in search of something to distract me from Netflix for a while, I found Just Cause 2 looking at me. I looked back. Suddenly, a shriveled hand erupted out of the television screen, grabbed me by the throat, and forced me to put the game in and beat it on the hardest difficulty.
This came up when I searched Just Cause 2 on Google Images. I'd be lying if I said I knew why. So that totally didn't happen, but I had you fooled for a second! .... no? Whatever! Despite my animosity towards Just Cause 2 that lasted for several months, I found the game to be quite enjoyable again when I started playing. I had some great concerns regarding the hardest difficulty, but in actuality it isn't all that challenging. The biggest struggle so far has been ammo, since I never seem to have enough (enemies do seem to be bullet sponges this time around). The fact that the game does a poor job of letting you know how damaged you are besides the health bar conveniently (sarcasm) located at the top corner of the screen certainly doesn't help either. Regardless, base jumping off buildings and landing on cars and then taking those cars over the edge of mountains hasn't been this refreshing in a while. I really gotta bow down to Avalanche Studios for the amazing physics incorporated in the game. Just yesterday, I drove a limo into the forest at amazing speeds and when I fishtailed into a tree, the limo spun around as fast as a helicopter blade for several seconds before slamming into the ground. And I just drove off as if nothing happened. Just another day in Just Cause 2, really.
So I expect that by... I don't know, the middle of May, I'll have the game finished on the hardest difficulty (I keep saying that because I frankly don't know what it's called.... Hardened I think? I hate that word.) With only four achievements left, I'm hoping to acquire my beautiful S-Rank in the game relatively soon I hope. Getting 75% will most likely prove to be difficult, possibly mind-destroying, but I'm willing to give it a go.
So
Is that is?.... I believe it is. I could share my recent adventures in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, but I think I've written about that series enough. By now, you should know that Brotherhood is rather amazing and that you should probably go and get it right now if you haven't already. I did get Tales of Vesperia a few weeks ago, but I have made the executive decision to save that for another time. I plan on writing a blog about Lost on Screened, since that show is just too amazing to ignore. I started season 5 earlier today and I hope to wrap up the show probably by the end of the month. Stay tuned!.... or don't :(
When I wrote this blog, I was hoping there would be more gambling. So says Mr. NCR Trooper.
Likewise, when I played Fallout: New Vegas, I was hoping there wouldn't be crazy amounts of dialog repetition. But alas, I guess I was expecting too much. Nevertheless, strange dialog repetition is a very minor issue when compared to some of the game's more egregious and flagrant issues, which I'll address soon enough. Still, New Vegas is quite an entertaining game, which pleases me and disappoints me at the same time. Shouldn't broken games be looked down upon? I guess New Vegas is a sort of special exception. It still has that addictive open-world gameplay we've come to expect, and it's surprisingly easy to look past the numerous flaws that it does have to have a grand ol' time searching through busted houses, taking all of the junk inside, and then selling it all for bottle caps.
But this isn't about what makes New Vegas a game worth playing. Rather, I want to take a look at the things that keep New Vegas from truly being better than Fallout 3. The things that drag down the experience in some parts, but aren't game-breaking enough to ruin the entire experience.
The Mojave Wasteland [& The Things It Makes Us Wish For]
Read a review for New Vegas and you are almost certain to see the reviewer lamenting the large amount of bugs and glitches that occur at random during the game. However, you are less likely to read about the absolutely ridiculous use of invisible walls, which is one of my biggest issues with the game.
See those mountains in the back? Yep, you get to walk all the way around those! The Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3 was, for the most part, relatively flat. There were certainly some areas of the region that could be considered mountainous, but for the most part there wasn't much in your way. New Vegas is basically the exact opposite; the geography is littered with cliffs, gigundus (not a word) piles of rocks, and bumpy hills. I might have accepted this change of scenery more easily if it weren't for the fact that almost all of these cliffs and hills cannot be climbed over. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've been forced to hoof it around a seemingly small incline simply because an arbitrary barrier blocked me from getting over. There was one occasion where I needed to get to a facility that was basically located inside a ring of rocks. As I came to this wall of rocks, I managed to find a path up. I got to the point where I was on top of the pile, and I could see the facility, but an invisible wall prevented me from dropping down. Instead, I had to go back and walk all the way around until I found a road that went to the facility.
I shouldn't have to tell you that invisible walls are frustrating, but they are even more annoying in open world games like this. It's weird to say, but some parts of this game just feel strangely linear due to the layout of the geography and the stupid barriers placed all over the place that you can't see.
Ants And Cazadors Aren't The Only Bugs In This Desert
New Vegas shipped with over 200 script and quest bugs. Two hundred. That is way too much to be acceptable. But even after a patch that supposedly fixed all those, there are still some issues that you will likely run into.
I'm not even going to write a paragraph on these bugs. Instead, let's do a bullet point list of bugs I've experienced off the top of my head, shall we?
Sadly, this glitch has not happened to me. Crossing fingers!Clipping issues and ant problems abound! It's very rare that I see a Giant Ant that isn't hilariously glitched in some way. On one occasion, I was crossing a dry lake and spotted at least 5 Giant Ants crossing to my right. At least 2 of them were standing vertically on their heads and moving across the sand, their legs twitching curiously in the air. On several other occasions, I've run across Ants and even Radscorpions that were stuck under the ground with only a stinger or a leg above ground signaling their presence.
Hey there, friend! NOW DIE! One day, I found myself conversing with an old lady at her garage who had lots of dogs. After finishing the conversation, I started walking away. I got about 5 feet before her and her dogs suddenly hopped up and attacked me! I didn't even do anything! This has only happened to me once, thankfully, but my god was it weird and startling at the same time.
PIP-Boy doesn't believe that I finished this quest! Upon completing a quest one time, I saw that all the steps were grayed out but it didn't register as finished. Come on!
Locked Up [They Won't Let Me Out]! New Vegas has frozen on me a grand total of three times. The third time, which happened a few days ago, was preceded by a drop in the framerate that was so low I could count the frames. It lasted for about 10 seconds before it all just died on me, tragically.
Freezeframe! I'm almost afraid to go into VATS. Much like the invisible walls, I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've activated VATS and watched in amazement as my character literally just stood there without attacking. Thankfully, VATS does end after a certain amount of seconds, but apparently you can now take damage while in VATS. Because of this, I've died on a few occasions because my character stood there and soaked up bullets like he was enjoying it.
Hardcore Isn't
This isn't really a flaw, but it's something that stood out to me that was disappointing. For my second playthrough, I chose to play through the game on the all-new Hardcore mode. This mode was supposed to make the game harder with the introduction of dehydration, starvation, and sleep deprivation meters. The thing is, these handicaps really don't mean anything. Food and liquids are so darn prevalent that it's practically impossible for your character to get so thirsty or hunger that your stats are affected. When my dehydration meter hits 100 after a while(it takes 1000 to die), all I need to do is open up my PIP-Boy 3000 and drink a water, of which I have dozens. When my starvation level starts getting relatively high, I can easily correct that by eating a piece of fruit I scavenged off the body of a stupid guy I killed a few hours earlier. What about sleep deprivation? That meter actually goes up so slow compared to the others that it might as well not even be there.
I was expecting a real challenge in hardcore mode, but sadly I was not presented with one. The only real drastic change in hardcore mode involves crippled limbs. If you get crippled, you must see a doctor or use a doctor's bag. This can make the game pretty rough for the first few hours, but once you get stronger and obtain better armor, the fear of breaking a leg diminishes.
It Ain't All That Bad Though
Lockups, invisible walls, and ants that can handstand aside, New Vegas is still a game I would recommend to those that enjoyed Fallout 3. The plethora of new weapons, some really interesting new quests, great music, and a story that is far more interesting than Fallout 3's are some of the things you can expect should you decide (and you should) to take the plunge into the Mojave. Be careful, though, for patrolling the Mojave just might make a nuclear winter seem like a pleasurable thing.
I'll be the first to blow you away with my amazing wish list for this upcoming Christmas:
Assassins' Creed: Brotherhood
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Yep, that's it. It's even shorter than my list from last year, but it doesn't really bother me all that much. I've noticed that as I've gotten older, my view on Christmas has drastically changed. Ever since I first understood how great Christmas is, my mentality has been "Oh man, in a few days I get lots of awesome stuff!" Now, however, my mind is completely focused on just counting down the days till Christmas break. Christmas just seems like.... an afterthought now. Considering how much high school sucks, I just can't wait to be able to sleep in for several days in a row.
But whatevs, what do you want for Christmas?
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So I downloaded the Dashboard update today. Here are my thoughts on it.
Technical failures abound! It took me a good thirty minutes to actually download the update. I tried about 10 times in a row, restarted my Xbox, failed another 5 or so times in a row, tested my connection, perfect connection, restarted Xbox, tried again, failed, restarted, failed. Finally I switched to my dad's Xbox LIVE account and tried it and it successfully downloaded the first time. Weird, but that shouldn't have happened.
Holy motion sickness Batman! I don't know what was up, maybe my eyes just need adjusting, but switching between the panels on the dashboard really, really hurt my eyes for some reason. Something about the tiles swishing in from the side and popping forward was painful to me. Hopefully I get used to it.
What happened to voice chat? It was a weird revelation when I joined a party with my friend today and we both discovered that we sounded like we were talking through some ghetto telephones. Audio quality sounds like it may be a bit clearer, but it was kinda irritating. Again, probably another thing I'll have to get used to, but it's a bit shocking at first.
Fast Guide is fast! First of all, I don't know what to call the menu thing that pops up when you hit the guide button so I'll just call it a Guide. Anyway, it definitely seems noticeably faster, although I neglected to go to Quick Launch when I was online to see how long that takes to load up. I'll have to check that out next time. Does anyone know if it still takes an ironically long amount of time to load up Quick Launch?
New Colors and Sounds! Simply put, I'm all for new colors and sounds, so all the white is a plus for me.
Freakishly human like avatars! At first I was creeped out by the redesigned avatars, but I kinda like them now. Seems a bit more mature in a way and less goofy.
That's all that comes to mind right now. Has anyone else experienced the same things I have, particularly the slight motion sickness from the dashboard? Sounds weird when I say it, but I might not be the only one.
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