What I expected: Same old same old Hitman games. Huge moving puzzles that involve me killing things in a slick way.
What I got: Not the same old Hitman game. This has a story, albeit a predictable one, and the puzzles are not nearly as big, but they are just as fun.
What I liked: Gameplay - The classic Hitman killing is still there, and it is still awesome. There are so many ways to creatively kill someone, and so many different styles as well. Going in guns blazing is a legit fleshed out option here, and it is really tough (as it should be!)
Art Style - Not much to really talk about, but the game does feel like a game made at the end of a generation of hardware. Super slick, great lens flares, and the crowds are incredibly lively.
Sound/Dialog - There are some great clips online that contain all the fantastic audio clips from this game. The NPCs are brilliantly written. Some are just flat out hilarious.
Level format - In previous Hitman games, all the levels were completely separate from each other. They had no connection and they were just individual puzzles. Now, many are broken down into linear sections. This changes up the pace very well, and I never got bored or tired. I hope they continue that style for future games.
Challenge System - O boy this is amazing. Basically they have a bunch of "mini-achievements". You can't get all the challenges in one play through, but you CAN complete a challenge then restart from check point. Much like the rest of the game, it is VERY forgiving. You can even cheese some challenges you have to do a thing multiple times by finding a good restart point, do it once, restart. Tons of great inventive challenges. I love all the different ways I can kill people. My favorites are when there are challenges to kill a bunch of people in a mascot outfit.
What I didn't like: Story (NOT THE FACT THAT THERE WAS ONE): The story is pretty lame with the girl you are saving is a super hero, but I do like the fact that they tried to put one in.
The only other complaint I have is on the individual level basis, nothing really stood out. Yes, on the whole, I think this is the best Hitman game, but nothing compares to the Theater level in a previous Hitman game.
Final thoughts: This game is a perfect example of the biggest problem I have in games right now. There is simply just too many great games around. I honestly still want to 100% this game. It is just so great. However, at 32 hours, I felt like I needed to move on to the next game.
How much did I pay: $25
How many hours did I play: 32
Dollar per Hour: $0.78
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $60
Why? Best Hitman game yet, tons to do, tons of fun. Good length, and I could have spent more.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Deadlight
What I expected: MetroidVania game set in a modern zombie setting.
What I got: a mediocre side scrolling game with zero exploration and zero interesting mechanics.
What I liked: Nothing, everything is mediocre at best.
What I didn't like: The entire concept of the game. We have a million side scrollers, but this one doesn't do anything particularly well. The melee weapons are tedious and basically useless. The ranged weapons are incredibly effective, but you just don't get to use them often.
Story - boring and predictable. I don't what is meant to be interesting. It's incredibly obvious that his family dead THAT IS WHY THEY ARE BASICALLY GHOSTS, but he doesn't realize this? The militia taking over is a tired story line as well.
Weapons / Tools - Boring boring boring. A pistol, shotgun, and a FUCKING SLING SHOT? Who thought that was interesting? I realize they wanted a more realistic game, but they could have made a grappling hook at least.
The art style seems lazy. The black characters on a colored background kind of works, but it makes me wonder why it isn't more stylized or more realistic. Should have picked a direction and went with it.
Final thoughts: Literally everyone I have talked to who was excited about this game expected a MetroidVania game. They were specifically excited because they thought it was a MetroidVania game. I don't know why everyone expected this, but this is NOT what we got. Nothing about it is worth the time. No matter what you want, there is a better game out there for it.
How much did I pay: $2
How many hours did I play: 3
Dollar per Hour: $0.67
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $0.00
Why? No redeeming qualities, and not worth your time let alone your money.
What I got: a mediocre side scrolling game with zero exploration and zero interesting mechanics.
What I liked: Nothing, everything is mediocre at best.
What I didn't like: The entire concept of the game. We have a million side scrollers, but this one doesn't do anything particularly well. The melee weapons are tedious and basically useless. The ranged weapons are incredibly effective, but you just don't get to use them often.
Story - boring and predictable. I don't what is meant to be interesting. It's incredibly obvious that his family dead THAT IS WHY THEY ARE BASICALLY GHOSTS, but he doesn't realize this? The militia taking over is a tired story line as well.
Weapons / Tools - Boring boring boring. A pistol, shotgun, and a FUCKING SLING SHOT? Who thought that was interesting? I realize they wanted a more realistic game, but they could have made a grappling hook at least.
The art style seems lazy. The black characters on a colored background kind of works, but it makes me wonder why it isn't more stylized or more realistic. Should have picked a direction and went with it.
Final thoughts: Literally everyone I have talked to who was excited about this game expected a MetroidVania game. They were specifically excited because they thought it was a MetroidVania game. I don't know why everyone expected this, but this is NOT what we got. Nothing about it is worth the time. No matter what you want, there is a better game out there for it.
How much did I pay: $2
How many hours did I play: 3
Dollar per Hour: $0.67
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $0.00
Why? No redeeming qualities, and not worth your time let alone your money.
Thomas Was Alone
What I expected: A simple platformer with a low tech art style.
What I got: My favorite platformer of all time.
What I liked: Everything. Literally everything.
Art Style - super simple, yet meaningful. Each character is represented by a rectangle of differing scale and color. You have no problems identifying which character is which. The levels are extremely minimal and purposeful. Danger is obvious, yet it all fits into the world.
Narration/story - The narrator is perfect. His voice just fits. I want Danny Wallace to narrate my life. His voice is just perfect in the game. I didn't realize he voices the Brit in the Assassin's Creed games, and it's worth mentioning he does a great job there too. You may not believe that there can be such a great story in such a simple game, but it's so good. There is legit character development, which is shocking considering the characters are literally just a rectangle.
Length/Pacing - The game took me 3 hours, and I 100% the game. It was so much fun. The levels go by very fast, and the feeling of accomplishment comes quick.
What I didn't like: the fact that it ended.
Final thoughts: Everyone should play this game. There is no excuse. If you are reading this, you can afford this game. Go out and play it.
How much did I pay: $1
How many hours did I play: 3
Dollar per Hour: $0.33
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $10
Why? Because it is just perfect. Probably would pay more actually.
What I got: My favorite platformer of all time.
What I liked: Everything. Literally everything.
Art Style - super simple, yet meaningful. Each character is represented by a rectangle of differing scale and color. You have no problems identifying which character is which. The levels are extremely minimal and purposeful. Danger is obvious, yet it all fits into the world.
Narration/story - The narrator is perfect. His voice just fits. I want Danny Wallace to narrate my life. His voice is just perfect in the game. I didn't realize he voices the Brit in the Assassin's Creed games, and it's worth mentioning he does a great job there too. You may not believe that there can be such a great story in such a simple game, but it's so good. There is legit character development, which is shocking considering the characters are literally just a rectangle.
Length/Pacing - The game took me 3 hours, and I 100% the game. It was so much fun. The levels go by very fast, and the feeling of accomplishment comes quick.
What I didn't like: the fact that it ended.
Final thoughts: Everyone should play this game. There is no excuse. If you are reading this, you can afford this game. Go out and play it.
How much did I pay: $1
How many hours did I play: 3
Dollar per Hour: $0.33
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $10
Why? Because it is just perfect. Probably would pay more actually.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The Bridge
What I expected: A puzzle game in the spirit of M.C. Esher. Huge Mind Fuckery
What I got: A puzzle game in the spirit of M.C. Esher. Slight Mind Fuckery
What I liked: The controls are super simple, and I enjoyed the idea of traversing through a house for the various levels. The puzzles were also fairly fun to figure out. Once you beat the game, it unlocks the "Mirrored" world, which is all the same levels but mirrored AND with some extra level of difficulty thrown in.
I like how the Mirrored world really amped up the difficulty, but it should be noted I moved on before even finishing the first set of levels in the mirrored world.
What I didn't like: Once I hit the mirrored world I lost all desire to play the game. I suspect this is due to the fact that the world is too similar to what I already completed.
Final thoughts: Pretty fun game, that is a slight mind fuck. I
How much did I pay: $12
How many hours did I play: 2
Dollar per Hour: $6
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why? A cool creative game that deserves support, but $12 is a bit much for only 2 hours.
What I got: A puzzle game in the spirit of M.C. Esher. Slight Mind Fuckery
What I liked: The controls are super simple, and I enjoyed the idea of traversing through a house for the various levels. The puzzles were also fairly fun to figure out. Once you beat the game, it unlocks the "Mirrored" world, which is all the same levels but mirrored AND with some extra level of difficulty thrown in.
I like how the Mirrored world really amped up the difficulty, but it should be noted I moved on before even finishing the first set of levels in the mirrored world.
What I didn't like: Once I hit the mirrored world I lost all desire to play the game. I suspect this is due to the fact that the world is too similar to what I already completed.
Final thoughts: Pretty fun game, that is a slight mind fuck. I
How much did I pay: $12
How many hours did I play: 2
Dollar per Hour: $6
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why? A cool creative game that deserves support, but $12 is a bit much for only 2 hours.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Deadpool
What I expected: A terrible brawler with terrible writing about one of my favorite comic book characters.
What I got: A decent brawler with amazing writing about one of my favorite comic book characters.
What I liked: Writing: I laughed my butt off from start to end. Some of the humor is a bit immature (lots of boob jokes), but even those are charming in their own way. Deadpool is perfectly aware he is in a video game, and he never stops taking advantage of it. The ending of the game alone is worth the price of admission. Deadpool is captured perfectly, and I couldn't be happier. I don't want to spoil the jokes, but everyone you would expect shows up. Cable, Wolverine, Rogue, DEATH! *Swoon* someone who really loves Deadpool wrote a lot here.
Combat: Combat is simple yet effective. They do an excellent job of mixing gun-play and melee. Building up combos is fun, and the payoff for completing big combos is significant. They don't try to do anything fancy or over complicate things. You can buy combos through weapon upgrades which leads me to the next thing...
Upgrade system: After coming up with a bunch of different ideas on how to improve Hawken's talent trees I have a lot of opinions on upgrade systems. Deadpool's isn't very creative, but it IS fun. You can choose to upgrade/purchase any weapon at any time. They have a lot of basic, but useful upgrades. One of my favorite upgrades in game economies is anything that gives me more income. They have income upgrades, and I love them.....ALL OF THEM. They do have some interesting upgrades that give you crits on every X strike or health back.
What I didn't like: Art: This pains me to say as I know an extremely talented artist who worked on it. I do blame art direction, and not the actual assets themselves. I didn't notice any art bugs, and the texture quality was fine. It's just the fact that most of the environments are really boring. Sometimes they break to an 8bit world and that is great.
Length: The game is a very short 6 hours, but I am only complaining, because I didn't want the comedy to end. HOWEVER, if I had to choose between a longer game with a lesser density of comedy or what I got, I would choose what I got. I just really wanted the laughs to never end.
Challenge Missions: I don't mind Challenge missions, but the reason I didn't do them all was PURELY because they wouldn't let me choose a higher difficulty until I beat it on the lower ones. This means I would have to beat each mission AT LEAST 3 times. That's really annoying.
Final thoughts: A hilarious game that I think everyone needs to play.
How much did I pay: $0.00 THANKS PAM!
How many hours did I play: 6
Dollar per Hour: $0.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $30
Why? While short, the game is perfectly written. Well worth the 6 hours of your life.
What I got: A decent brawler with amazing writing about one of my favorite comic book characters.
What I liked: Writing: I laughed my butt off from start to end. Some of the humor is a bit immature (lots of boob jokes), but even those are charming in their own way. Deadpool is perfectly aware he is in a video game, and he never stops taking advantage of it. The ending of the game alone is worth the price of admission. Deadpool is captured perfectly, and I couldn't be happier. I don't want to spoil the jokes, but everyone you would expect shows up. Cable, Wolverine, Rogue, DEATH! *Swoon* someone who really loves Deadpool wrote a lot here.
Combat: Combat is simple yet effective. They do an excellent job of mixing gun-play and melee. Building up combos is fun, and the payoff for completing big combos is significant. They don't try to do anything fancy or over complicate things. You can buy combos through weapon upgrades which leads me to the next thing...
Upgrade system: After coming up with a bunch of different ideas on how to improve Hawken's talent trees I have a lot of opinions on upgrade systems. Deadpool's isn't very creative, but it IS fun. You can choose to upgrade/purchase any weapon at any time. They have a lot of basic, but useful upgrades. One of my favorite upgrades in game economies is anything that gives me more income. They have income upgrades, and I love them.....ALL OF THEM. They do have some interesting upgrades that give you crits on every X strike or health back.
What I didn't like: Art: This pains me to say as I know an extremely talented artist who worked on it. I do blame art direction, and not the actual assets themselves. I didn't notice any art bugs, and the texture quality was fine. It's just the fact that most of the environments are really boring. Sometimes they break to an 8bit world and that is great.
Length: The game is a very short 6 hours, but I am only complaining, because I didn't want the comedy to end. HOWEVER, if I had to choose between a longer game with a lesser density of comedy or what I got, I would choose what I got. I just really wanted the laughs to never end.
Challenge Missions: I don't mind Challenge missions, but the reason I didn't do them all was PURELY because they wouldn't let me choose a higher difficulty until I beat it on the lower ones. This means I would have to beat each mission AT LEAST 3 times. That's really annoying.
Final thoughts: A hilarious game that I think everyone needs to play.
How much did I pay: $0.00 THANKS PAM!
How many hours did I play: 6
Dollar per Hour: $0.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $30
Why? While short, the game is perfectly written. Well worth the 6 hours of your life.
Assassin's Creed 3
What I expected: A thrilling, *polished* adventure game that takes place during the American revolution. Once the game came out I expected it to be buggy as hell.
What I got: A slow to start, but ends with a bang adventure game that takes place around the American revolution. One of the worst polished games in recent memory.
What I liked: Literally everything on the water. The sea battles are so amazing, and so much fun. The promise of better sea missions alone has me salivating at the idea of AC4.
The setting/story. I love being around the American Revolution, and all the historical figures. They handled it actually surprisingly well. I love how the Templar plot doesn't actually revolve around the Revolution too much. Yea they use certain aspects to their agenda, but it's not like they are fighting for the British OR America. They have people on both sides. I was very concerned about how a Native American would play during the revolution, and they absolutely do address the....oddity that a Native American is fighting for the US.
Collectibles: O boy there are a lot of things to collect. You can upgrade your ship, house, and guns. You also have tons of side quests to do. Some are definitely better than others, but there are plenty of things to do. I spent 18 hours in game, but I think I could have EASILY spent double that. I am surprised to see how much fun it still is to climb all over and sync.
Story Missions: For the most part they are creative and unique. There are a lot of fetch quests, but they do a good job of having some interesting dialog along the way. Directing troops and firing cannons are awesome.
Kill Animations: Holy crap there are some amazingly brutal finishing moves in this game. Axes going into people's lower backs. There is a very big problem with this though....
What I didn't like:
Complete Lack of Polish: Animations don't line up right all the time. No joke the finishing moves line up correctly around 50% of the time. A sword going up a guy's neck and through his skull, cool! A sword going through the air a foot in front of a guy? looks lazy as hell. It's not just the animations though. A lot of the art looks unpolished. There are some incredibly low res textures in this game that get extreme close up camera time. There are some really bad popping, and the screen door method makes it even more obvious.
Story Pacing: While the story itself is very serviceable, the pacing of it is quite terrible. I didn't actually play adult Connor until 6 hours in. Playing as your dad in the beginning could have been cut down quite a bit, but his role is ultimately necessary to set up a nice little twist.
Combat: The biggest complaint I have is that it doesn't seem to be consistent. Some battles I would kill everyone in one blow, and others I would just wail away with them blocking every blow. Perhaps I was doing something different, but it sure didn't feel like it. X is the only attack button I have, which lead to some very boring combat.
Final thoughts: Ultimately, I wish they would have spent 6 more months polishing it. I realize they didn't have the time, and I also realize that they probably wouldn't have sold any more copies because of it. All the art bugs really annoyed me, and broke my immersion often.
How much did I pay: $25
How many hours did I play: 18
Dollar per Hour: $1.39
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $20 (Would have paid $60 if it was polished)
Why? The lack of polish makes it feel like a much lower quality game compared to much smaller games that spend the extra effort. The story is really fun though, and I did like the vast majority of the missions. ALSO SEA BATTLES ARE FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
What I got: A slow to start, but ends with a bang adventure game that takes place around the American revolution. One of the worst polished games in recent memory.
What I liked: Literally everything on the water. The sea battles are so amazing, and so much fun. The promise of better sea missions alone has me salivating at the idea of AC4.
The setting/story. I love being around the American Revolution, and all the historical figures. They handled it actually surprisingly well. I love how the Templar plot doesn't actually revolve around the Revolution too much. Yea they use certain aspects to their agenda, but it's not like they are fighting for the British OR America. They have people on both sides. I was very concerned about how a Native American would play during the revolution, and they absolutely do address the....oddity that a Native American is fighting for the US.
Collectibles: O boy there are a lot of things to collect. You can upgrade your ship, house, and guns. You also have tons of side quests to do. Some are definitely better than others, but there are plenty of things to do. I spent 18 hours in game, but I think I could have EASILY spent double that. I am surprised to see how much fun it still is to climb all over and sync.
Story Missions: For the most part they are creative and unique. There are a lot of fetch quests, but they do a good job of having some interesting dialog along the way. Directing troops and firing cannons are awesome.
Kill Animations: Holy crap there are some amazingly brutal finishing moves in this game. Axes going into people's lower backs. There is a very big problem with this though....
What I didn't like:
Complete Lack of Polish: Animations don't line up right all the time. No joke the finishing moves line up correctly around 50% of the time. A sword going up a guy's neck and through his skull, cool! A sword going through the air a foot in front of a guy? looks lazy as hell. It's not just the animations though. A lot of the art looks unpolished. There are some incredibly low res textures in this game that get extreme close up camera time. There are some really bad popping, and the screen door method makes it even more obvious.
Story Pacing: While the story itself is very serviceable, the pacing of it is quite terrible. I didn't actually play adult Connor until 6 hours in. Playing as your dad in the beginning could have been cut down quite a bit, but his role is ultimately necessary to set up a nice little twist.
Combat: The biggest complaint I have is that it doesn't seem to be consistent. Some battles I would kill everyone in one blow, and others I would just wail away with them blocking every blow. Perhaps I was doing something different, but it sure didn't feel like it. X is the only attack button I have, which lead to some very boring combat.
Final thoughts: Ultimately, I wish they would have spent 6 more months polishing it. I realize they didn't have the time, and I also realize that they probably wouldn't have sold any more copies because of it. All the art bugs really annoyed me, and broke my immersion often.
How much did I pay: $25
How many hours did I play: 18
Dollar per Hour: $1.39
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $20 (Would have paid $60 if it was polished)
Why? The lack of polish makes it feel like a much lower quality game compared to much smaller games that spend the extra effort. The story is really fun though, and I did like the vast majority of the missions. ALSO SEA BATTLES ARE FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, July 8, 2013
It's been too long
Hello anyone who actually reads this. It has been way too long since my last post. I definitely haven't stopped going through my list. I plan on focusing on updating this thing this week instead of playing. Here is a list of games you can expect.
Assassin's Creed 3
Deadpool
The Bridge
Thomas Was Alone
Hitman
Dead Island
Company of Heroes
Botanicula
Quantum Condrum
Antichamber
Assassin's Creed 3
Deadpool
The Bridge
Thomas Was Alone
Hitman
Dead Island
Company of Heroes
Botanicula
Quantum Condrum
Antichamber
As far as playing goes, I'm going to focus on cutting out the smaller games. Next three on my list are
Deadlight
Iron Brigade
Toy Soldiers
If you are still reading this, thanks!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
What I expected: A metroidvania game with a killer art style. Basically another Shadow Complex.
What I got: A metroidvania game with a killer art style. Basically another Shadow Complex, but much shorter and not as satisfying.
What I liked: Art style. I feel like I'm writing about the art style in a positive way more and more often. This is a good thing I think. The shadow style is very reminiscent of the game Jose pitched for Guildhall, but with all my concerns addressed. Even though the environment is all black (with a few very select highlights), the enemies are all very vibrant.
Exploration: Even though the art style is all black, they very intelligently created a few very different environments. Exploring the areas was a ton of fun. I was always excited to get to the next area just to see what it looks like. I would post pictures, but I'm lazy.
World Map: Best world map I've seen in a metroidvania game ever. Wherever there is a progression gate, it marks it on your map and with the icon of the item you need to get past it. NOTE: it only does this for gates you need to get past. It does not mark "secret" areas. This makes progression easy, while maintaining the allure of exploration.
What I didn't like: Length: I beat the game in 5 hours. The campaign is super short, and I could rush through it much much faster.
The Ice World: The only area I didn't like was the Ice area. I hated this place for a couple reasons. 1) ruins the art style. Everything turns white and blue instead of black. 2) The crystals that bounce lasers around are EXTREMELY BUGGY. It is very hard to put the crystals in the sockets, and sometimes they don't even bounce light correctly. Hard to properly describe how frustrating this was.
Items: In metroid and Shadow Complex you get a lot of really interesting weapons and abilities to help you explore. In Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, you only really get weapons. I think this is primarily due to the fact that you fly around. There are only so many ways you can manipulate your movement here. Not like you can gain a double jump here.
Final thoughts: Really fun, albeit short, game. The art style is top notch, and would love to see more. I really wish the gameplay stuff was a bit more imaginative, but O well.
How much did I pay: $2
How many hours did I play: 5
Dollar per Hour: $0.40
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why? Basically everything I said in my final thoughts, plus I didn't feel like I wasted my time at all.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Psychonauts
What I expected: An incredibly memorable game that had the patented Double Fine humor. Everyone always talks about how this game was perfect.
What I got: A mediocre platformer at best, that does not hold up well with age at all.
What I liked: Honestly, not much.
Characters: Unique characters that all have their own distinct personality, and even if I don't remember their names (no fault of Double Fine, I'm horrible with names), I do remember their faces. The voice acting is all very well done. Note that I'm comparing the game to current games. Very few games have voice acting this good now, let alone back in 2005.
The world: The environments are all very imaginative. I really enjoyed the risks they took with creating a psychedelic world. It's a very hard to market this world, and it really is very imaginative and fun. The camp grounds are boring, but once you are in someone's head it's pretty great.
What I didn't like: Or why I think this is the most overrated game of all time.
Menu System: They tried to get clever with the main menu being an interactive 3d world. I hate this. I just want to play the damn game. Games try and do something clever like this every so often, and it's not. It's just frustrating and delays the time it takes to get me to your game. Additionally, when they did this, they make you run up. More specifically, they make you move the control stick UP. This is contrary to literally every other game in the history of man kind. You always start at the top of a menu and move DOWN. I ran all the way down, circled round the brain, coming up top. This is silly, and it's not clever.
Communication (or rather lack there of): They do a horrible job communicating what exactly they want you to do. Their approach is to give you no clue what to do, fail then they have an audio cue tell you what to do....SOMETIMES. They don't communicate what something is for. For instance, I unlocked the fire badge, and ok now I can set things on fire. I have no clue why I would use this ever. The only thing I have used it for is to melt some scavenger hunt item out of ice. It doesn't seem to serve a purpose. The game really suffers from an overall lack of game direction. The story and writing are all very cohesive, but it seems like they forgot they were making a game and not a book. The level that I've heard at least two people compliment very highly is the Milkman level. This is actually the level that broke my will to play this game. I continuously felt like I was doing something wrong, and only achieved the goal by accident. After the first stop sign, I felt like I was missing so many disguises. I spent so much time searching houses with TERRIBLE cameras. I eventually moved on. I eventually found the graveyard, and proceeded, but man why was it placed at the end of the level? These are things not limited by technology, they are things limited by basic understanding of teaching the player. Maybe modern games have made me stupid, but this game just feels like they made it for themselves and for no one else.
Cutscenes: They have tons of cutscenes all over the place. If you find them funny, which I didn't, I suppose that's ok. I just want to play the damn game. The level I enjoyed the most, was the Godzilla level. This would have been the highlight of the game if it wasn't for all the cutscenes that were placed all over it. An introductory one would be fine, and an ending one would have been great too.
There is more, but it's hard to remember because I spent a bunch of time yelling at my tv. I should start taking physical notes instead of just mental ones.
Final thoughts: I stand by my statement of this being the most overrated game of all time. I honestly couldn't finish it. I quit playing this game at the book repository. I couldn't figure out how to get past it. I tried using the dudes as shields like the guides say, but the room for zero must be zero, as I was only able to successfully avoid getting shot once. I really tried to finish it. I constantly felt like I was playing a different game than everyone else. I feel like this game is one you have to play when it was made, because it just doesn't hold up well in time.
How much did I pay: $2.00
How many hours did I play: 5
Dollar per Hour: $0.40
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $0.00
Why? Perhaps when it was made I would have paid something for it. Playing it now, there are just so many things (non graphical) that just date this game. Pity, considering I really enjoy all of Double Fine's other adventures.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Bioshock Infinite: The best game probably ever.
What I expected: A continuation of the Bioshock franchise. I avoid most media on purpose to keep my expectations as clean as possible. I knew that the theme this around was religion instead of politics.
What I got: A nigh flawless execution of Bioshock. A surprisingly violent shooter that tells an amazing story that I didn't expect at all.
What I liked: Everything but one thing.
Art: I loved the almost painterly style. The characters remind me of a less exaggerated Fable, which is a good thing. Columbia is a character all in of itself. If the game had no combat, I would play it just to walk around the environment all day long. Everything is alive and the inhabitants really feel like they are real people. I loved sitting down and just listening to all the little things everyone had to say.
Story: The story is by far the best I've ever experienced in a shooter. A lot of the story is done through Audio logs, but I'm ok with that. I would much prefer to listen to audio logs, and continue about my travels, then be forced to watch some awkwardly placed cutscene. The ending was breathtaking and beautiful. When song bird died, I almost cried. I will admit, I had no connection to him as a character, but the way he died and the emotion they showed in his eyes........perfect.
Characters/writing/ELIZABETH: The dialog between the two characters was so good. I really felt like they were real people developing a connection. I honestly think their dialog and relationship would stand up in the best of movie history. I actually cared about Elizabeth, and wanted to help her. I got mad at Booker when he turned the zepp to New York and not Paris. I have *never* gotten mad at a character's decision in a video game before. This was pretty amazing for me. I literally can't say enough good things here.
What I didn't like: I'm really reaching here....
Combat: It was good. Gun play and plasmids felt good, but not as good as Bioshock or Bioshock 2 (2 being my favorite combat out of the series). I really wish that I could choose to do more things with my plasmids, and half of the plasmids felt the same to me. The water one however, was really cool.
Gun art: The gun designs (art wise) are the most uninspired I've seen in ages. I don't believe they were created by the same team. Also unlike Bioshock, they don't visually upgrade. This really annoyed me.
Final thoughts: This is a game I will never forget. It was so fantastic, and memorable. Every moment was a gaming treasure to me. I have to go back and play the other Bioshocks now. I gladly purchased a season pass (something I have NEVER done before), and I honestly don't even care if the DLC never comes out. I'm glad the developers have my money.
How much did I pay: $60
How many hours did I play: 14
Dollar per Hour: $4.29
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $100
Why? My favorite game in my favorite game series. Considering I got XCOM for free by preordering this, this is a steal in value.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Tomb Raider: The best game so far this year
What I expected: Due to pretty good marketing I was expecting a pretty solid adventure game that reboots the franchise with the desire to make Lara a person and not a sex object.
What I got: All I expected and more. Definitely my favorite action adventure game so far. Solid adventuring (hey that's a word!), fantastic writing, fantastic everything really. I found myself wanting to take screen shots of nearly every environment. Only Bioshock Infinite makes me want to take more screenshots (B:I review tomorrow!).
What I liked: The entire single player campaign.
* I was especially pleased with the writing. Lara really does go from being a frail little girl who gets her ass kicked to a predator who is out to save her friends. My thoughts towards her evolved as her character did. This is some impeccable pacing and writing. All the dialog felt like real things people would say. I never rolled my eyes.
* Art Direction: Everything has a sense of mystery to it. The environments are all stellar. I really don't get how they actually made half of these environments on the PS3. There are some areas you come back to, and they manage to change them to make them interesting again. Lara especially is incredibly beautiful. Her texture work, animations, and voice acting is perfect. I literally can't wait to see what the team comes up with next.
* Puzzle design: Similar to the Lara Croft xbla game, they do an excellent job of designing puzzles. Finding out WHAT to do is the challenge not HOW to do it. They have some great visual ques, white paint basically means you can climb me. This actually doesn't pop out of the environment and does a great job of providing information.
What I didn't like: Multiplayer. It's not bad per se, it is just incredibly mediocre. It doesn't help that the mp crowd on PC was basically dead on day 1. I was never able to join a ranked game of any kind. Nor was I able to find a game (ranked or not) in one of the game modes. Rescue? I can't help but think if they wouldn't have spent any money on MP would they have broke even?
Final thoughts: Amazing game, and if it wasn't for Bioshock Infinite, being so good, I would say Tomb Raider is easily the best game I've played this year. I can't wait for the sequel, but I do have concerns about how they'll evolve Lara as a character. Character development doesn't tend to happen much in non-RPGs, and it was a very enjoyable point to me.
How much did I pay: $45
How many hours did I play: 21
Dollar per Hour: $2.14
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $60
Why? Simply put I have no problems paying $60 for a game that engages me for 12 hours. I think I put about 10 hours into MP. Heavily recommend.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
What I expected: A generic puzzle game cashing in on Lara Croft's boobs.
What I got: An incredibly amazing game. A game that every level and game designer should play.
What I liked: The game is incredibly well thought out. They have a great interactive tutorial level (first level naturally), which does a good job of introducing the very basic tools in your tool box. It slowly introduces advanced movies, but literally everything in the game is basically explained in the first level. THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE TUTORIALS.
They have side objectives for each level, and when the time comes for you to achieve that objective they do a simple pop up reminding you, and informing you, that this is the area to do it. This is beyond fantastic. This puts a focus on solving the objectives and off of second guessing yourself (Did I just miss my opportunity?). Every non boss level has an objective for exploration, collect 10 red skulls.
The puzzles are all very unique and fun. The objective is almost always on the screen (when it's not it makes sense for it not to be). They hardly repeat the same puzzle, and create some unique timing puzzles too.
The timing was perfect. I beat the game in 7 hours (probably close to 8), and I have alternative objectives still to do (in the interest of time I am moving onto the next game). The time felt right, the pace of the game was great.
The art direction is solid, but nothing crazy unique. They do hit the feeling of a Mayan Temple on the head though. The last boss fight does a great example of marrying game design and vfx. The effect for the spike traps is perfect. It's simple, informs you of exactly when the spikes will pop.
What I didn't like: I honestly can't think of anything to say here.
Final thoughts: Great little game that needs to be played by every designer.
How much did I pay: $0.00 I got it for preordering the new Tomb Raider game.
How many hours did I play: 7
Dollar per Hour: $0
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $20.
Why? Great well thought out game that deserves a lot more money than zero. I'm not quite sure how they could have fixed that though. If they make another one, it will be a day one purchase for me.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Cortex Command
Quick post, because I spent so little time with this game. I'm forgoing my usual format to just explain why I only spent 20 minutes with this game.
Why did I only spend 20 minutes? Simply, no effort was done to introduce the player into the game. The tutorial is incredibly simplistic, and only teaches you controls, not themes of the game. I started the single player game, and I literally couldn't figure out how to do a single thing other than end the turn. I clicked everything. The tutorial doesn't cover this screen in the slightest. I know other people like this game, but I just don't have time to put up with games that don't have time to teach its players the first screen. Really annoying. Moving on to a game that is exactly the opposite.
Money Wasted: $1.00
Monday, February 18, 2013
Machinarium
What I expected: A simple little adventure game with a killer art style.
What I got: A annoyingly difficult adventure game with a mind blowing art style.
What I liked: Art style, Art style, art style, art style, art style, art style. I could go on. I love the art style so much. It has so much heart and character. Everything is mechanical, but everything is alive. The hand-drawn style really gives it a personal touch, but never feels campy or unfocused. The game is also short and sweet. Pretty great length at around 5 hours.
What I didn't like: My main gripe is a distinct lack of focus in most areas. It was hard to know what to do. I felt like I had to click randomly just to figure out my goal. Some of the areas are really hard to piece together, which I find annoying.
Final thoughts: Overly difficult game, but the art style makes up for it. I enjoyed myself.
How much did I pay: $1
How many hours did I play: 5
Dollar per Hour: $0.20
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why? Sweet little game, that I enjoyed. I view it much like Limbo, an interactive art piece. While I do like interactive art pieces, I don't like paying more than $5 for them.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Aliens: Colonial Marines (DRAMA RAMA BOMBA)
So most (all?) of you reading this will obviously know I worked on this game. I personally don't think I'm biased at all, but judge my comments accordingly. Also a disclaimer for anyone reading this that possibly made the game. I know you worked hard; hell, I know I did. Working hard is great, and you should be thanked for working hard. However, working hard doesn't (nor should it) protect you from getting criticized. Not everyone did a bad job on Aliens, but *clearly* some did. I have no interest in calling people out. I do however have extreme interest in pointing out where Aliens went wrong in hopes that we can all learn from ACM's mistakes.
What I expected: A pretty big mess. I expected a campaign that had the quality of being made in 9 months. I expected a versus mode that was buggy and never quite feels right, but ultimately was decently fun.
What I got: Considering what I expected from the game is based off the state of the game when I left Timegate, I had a pretty accurate view. The game is a pretty big mess, but versus mode is definitely the better of the two game modes.
What I liked: The art is by far the best part of the game. Specifically, the environments. Super specifically, Hadley's Hope, and *inside* the Derelict. The art in those two areas is nigh perfect. The nailed the art style. Not only did they make you feel like you were in the Aliens universe, they added what I personally feel is the natural extension to the universe. The things they added that weren't shown in the movies, didn't feel out of place. Some of the voice acting is extremely good. Specifically, Bishop's and Bella's. Versus can be really fun, when things click. The Raven level is also probably the best level in the game.
What I didn't like: O boy. Let's try and go down the list....
Challenges: These are really dumb. They are like achievements, but not quite. I have to do them in order, which is beyond stupid. One of the single player challenges is "kill 5 face huggers". I got EXTREMELY lucky in the fact that I got that challenge seconds before I entered one of TWO face hugger areas in the game. If I didn't get this challenge at exactly the right time, I'd have to quite the campaign and start over, or just wait potentially many levels to get to the on I was at. I don't even understand why this was put in the game. It makes so little sense. Why aren't they just achievements? I find it hard to believe that game designers had nothing else to do but design these. Pure waste of time.
Call of Duty: The game direction is largely wrong. What I mean by that is from the very core, the game isn't what it should be. Specifically, this is a Call of Duty Wanna Be. An Aliens game has no business trying to do that. This game should have been a mix of what made the Alien and Aliens movies so great. Survival Horror and a small squad of marines against impossible odds. This game is purely run and gun. 4 player coop should have been sacrificed for a solid single-player campaign mode, instead the opposite happened. It is obvious to literally everyone that there should be a horde mode where you just have to bunker down and defend a location against a horde of xenos. Undoubtedly Sega will be selling this as DLC. I personally think they could have saved the game if they just would have included this (and did a good job on it). I think this section could be an entire essay by itself, so I'll just end it with saying, when you kill something over 500 times in a game (where the hell did the Xenos find so many humans to infect?) the enemy loses all threat and meaning. Even in Aliens, which has the highest xeno body count of any Alien movie, not that many xenos die. For a good example of what this game should have been, look at the two demos they made. Both of those nail the survival horror mixed with action theme.
Art: While Hadley's Hope and inside the Derelict look beyond fantastic, the Sulaco and outside the Derelict look terrible. The Sulaco doesn't look like a marine ship, doesn't feel like one, and it doesn't look like it even belongs in the Aliens universe. There are flat panel monitors throughout the entire game, despite there not being a single one in the entire Aliens movie. I don't care that we didn't really have LCDs back in the 80s, that isn't an excuse to change things. You're supposed to fit the Aliens style; not change it. The outdoor areas are so entirely bland. This is mainly due to the lighting. Because of how their lighting engine works, outdoor areas are insanely expensive to light well, so what ends up happening is they have one giant directional light. I don't understand how this happened. I know for a fact they had someone tell them they can't do outdoor areas. I also know for a fact they were told to not include levels that highlight your weaknesses. (Full disclosure, this person was me; big surprise) This shouldn't be something you tell a company that has made multiple games before, yet here we are......where a good fourth of the levels are outdoors.
Xeno controls: It feels like things got worse since I was there. I constantly found myself pressing left to go right while running on walls. I was constantly getting stuck on ledges. I don't know why things are so bad, it seems like such a simple thing to get right considering AVP2 got it right back in 2001. Not to mention they had multiple people pointing out the problems all the time.
Versus: Jesus where to start on this one. Escape is the most rewarding mode...when teams are balanced. It's painfully obvious to many people that escape should have been the main (only?) game mode with a strong focus on it. Right now it just feels like they said "O hey you know we could kind of make a L4D like game mode...but we don't want to actually put forth effort." TDM is ok, but any well coordinated marine team will just turn TDM into survivor mode. Survivor isn't terrible, but it just alludes to the glaring omission of a horde mode, which is all anyone really wants. This brings us to the over all problem with this game...
Final thoughts: The people in charge do not understand what people want from an Aliens game. I know the higher ups at all companies claimed to love the Aliens franchise, but the direction they took the game clearly shows they don't love the franchise. There are so many things wrong with the game that I can't even address them. The sad part is this game could have been the best Aliens game ever, but it ended up being one of the worst.
How much did I pay: $0.00 (I got the game on my steam account while I worked at TG)
How many hours did I play: 16 (all of the single player and as much of versus as I could stomach)
Dollar per Hour: $0.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why?: Single player is incredibly forgettable, despite be supposedly the focus of the game. Versus was entertaining for the couple nights I played. In fact wondering around inside Hadley's Hope and the Derelict (especially infested Derelict) is probably worth $5 alone.
What I expected: A pretty big mess. I expected a campaign that had the quality of being made in 9 months. I expected a versus mode that was buggy and never quite feels right, but ultimately was decently fun.
What I got: Considering what I expected from the game is based off the state of the game when I left Timegate, I had a pretty accurate view. The game is a pretty big mess, but versus mode is definitely the better of the two game modes.
What I liked: The art is by far the best part of the game. Specifically, the environments. Super specifically, Hadley's Hope, and *inside* the Derelict. The art in those two areas is nigh perfect. The nailed the art style. Not only did they make you feel like you were in the Aliens universe, they added what I personally feel is the natural extension to the universe. The things they added that weren't shown in the movies, didn't feel out of place. Some of the voice acting is extremely good. Specifically, Bishop's and Bella's. Versus can be really fun, when things click. The Raven level is also probably the best level in the game.
What I didn't like: O boy. Let's try and go down the list....
Challenges: These are really dumb. They are like achievements, but not quite. I have to do them in order, which is beyond stupid. One of the single player challenges is "kill 5 face huggers". I got EXTREMELY lucky in the fact that I got that challenge seconds before I entered one of TWO face hugger areas in the game. If I didn't get this challenge at exactly the right time, I'd have to quite the campaign and start over, or just wait potentially many levels to get to the on I was at. I don't even understand why this was put in the game. It makes so little sense. Why aren't they just achievements? I find it hard to believe that game designers had nothing else to do but design these. Pure waste of time.
Call of Duty: The game direction is largely wrong. What I mean by that is from the very core, the game isn't what it should be. Specifically, this is a Call of Duty Wanna Be. An Aliens game has no business trying to do that. This game should have been a mix of what made the Alien and Aliens movies so great. Survival Horror and a small squad of marines against impossible odds. This game is purely run and gun. 4 player coop should have been sacrificed for a solid single-player campaign mode, instead the opposite happened. It is obvious to literally everyone that there should be a horde mode where you just have to bunker down and defend a location against a horde of xenos. Undoubtedly Sega will be selling this as DLC. I personally think they could have saved the game if they just would have included this (and did a good job on it). I think this section could be an entire essay by itself, so I'll just end it with saying, when you kill something over 500 times in a game (where the hell did the Xenos find so many humans to infect?) the enemy loses all threat and meaning. Even in Aliens, which has the highest xeno body count of any Alien movie, not that many xenos die. For a good example of what this game should have been, look at the two demos they made. Both of those nail the survival horror mixed with action theme.
Art: While Hadley's Hope and inside the Derelict look beyond fantastic, the Sulaco and outside the Derelict look terrible. The Sulaco doesn't look like a marine ship, doesn't feel like one, and it doesn't look like it even belongs in the Aliens universe. There are flat panel monitors throughout the entire game, despite there not being a single one in the entire Aliens movie. I don't care that we didn't really have LCDs back in the 80s, that isn't an excuse to change things. You're supposed to fit the Aliens style; not change it. The outdoor areas are so entirely bland. This is mainly due to the lighting. Because of how their lighting engine works, outdoor areas are insanely expensive to light well, so what ends up happening is they have one giant directional light. I don't understand how this happened. I know for a fact they had someone tell them they can't do outdoor areas. I also know for a fact they were told to not include levels that highlight your weaknesses. (Full disclosure, this person was me; big surprise) This shouldn't be something you tell a company that has made multiple games before, yet here we are......where a good fourth of the levels are outdoors.
Xeno controls: It feels like things got worse since I was there. I constantly found myself pressing left to go right while running on walls. I was constantly getting stuck on ledges. I don't know why things are so bad, it seems like such a simple thing to get right considering AVP2 got it right back in 2001. Not to mention they had multiple people pointing out the problems all the time.
Versus: Jesus where to start on this one. Escape is the most rewarding mode...when teams are balanced. It's painfully obvious to many people that escape should have been the main (only?) game mode with a strong focus on it. Right now it just feels like they said "O hey you know we could kind of make a L4D like game mode...but we don't want to actually put forth effort." TDM is ok, but any well coordinated marine team will just turn TDM into survivor mode. Survivor isn't terrible, but it just alludes to the glaring omission of a horde mode, which is all anyone really wants. This brings us to the over all problem with this game...
Final thoughts: The people in charge do not understand what people want from an Aliens game. I know the higher ups at all companies claimed to love the Aliens franchise, but the direction they took the game clearly shows they don't love the franchise. There are so many things wrong with the game that I can't even address them. The sad part is this game could have been the best Aliens game ever, but it ended up being one of the worst.
How much did I pay: $0.00 (I got the game on my steam account while I worked at TG)
How many hours did I play: 16 (all of the single player and as much of versus as I could stomach)
Dollar per Hour: $0.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why?: Single player is incredibly forgettable, despite be supposedly the focus of the game. Versus was entertaining for the couple nights I played. In fact wondering around inside Hadley's Hope and the Derelict (especially infested Derelict) is probably worth $5 alone.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
L.A. Noire (Part 2)
This is written directly after I finished the story of the game. I'm going to skip most of the normal format.
The continues to be great. Everything I mentioned from Part 1 still holds valid. The story in Vice is pretty amazing, and it leads directly into the Arson cases. The second half of the story is so much better than the first half. Their goal of creating a great cop drama game was fully realized, and I really hope they get the chance to make a sequel. Sadly, it looks like Rockstar won't give the sequel to Bondi again.
Final thoughts: A fantastic game in a relatively untapped genre. I honestly would have never bet on it being so incredibly successful (critically) given that this is really the first game in the genre. I desperately hope Team Bondi gets to make new ones. They'll be first day purchases for me.
How much did I pay: $8
How many hours did I play: 29
Dollar per Hour: $0.28
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $40
Why?: Unique, and well done. A little long, but that's ok. There is plenty to do in this game, and they nail what I expect 1940s LA to be.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
L.A. Noire (Part 1)
So L.A. Noire is a very large game that I didn't expect to be so involved in. I've decided to write a mini-review at the 50% mark.
What I expected: Phoenix Wright with an amazing animation system, and a graphical style that I don't absolutely hate (ugh anime).
What I got: Phoenix Wright with a breath taking animation system, but with a few key differences. There are no court battles in L.A. Noire, which I consider a great thing. The court battles were precisely the reason I stopped playing the original phoenix wright (the only one I've played). The other major difference is the fact that LA Noire is a Rockstar game, which I suppose means it has to be open world. You can drive around and do other open world things.
Some thoughts on the game so far: The open world aspect feels completely unnecessary. You can't randomly kill people like you can in GTA (a very good thing as you are a good cop). There are little side missions, "Street Crimes", that you can do, but they have an order which makes the open world aspect, again, unnecessary. Personally, I think you could cut the street crime and all the outdoor chase scenes (car and foot), and you'd still keep the core of the game for a whole lot less money. I originally heard this game didn't sell well, and that the company was gone. After investigating it a bit more, it turns out the game sold amazingly well (5m copies well), and the studio is indeed defunct. It wasn't sales that screwed them, but rather rumors that they were "hard to work with." Probably not all that untrue, but who knows? ANYWAYS, I had ideas that you could just cut the open world bit to save a ton of money, but it seems that is completely unnecessary.
Things I like so far: The animation system is so damn good. I really can look into a character's eyes and tell if they are lying. If I have the proof or not is a different story. I love running around looking for clues. It maybe a really simple system of run around until the controller vibrates, but once you decide to let yourself get absorbed into the world, it's really fun. I love the interview process, listening to people's stories and responding is just so engaging.
Something they do that I like a lot, is the game isn't punishing....at....all. If you fail an action sequence (a chase or a gun fight) 3 times, you will be given the offer to skip it at no penalty. Personally, I'm ok with this, but I wish they would have given you an option in the beginning to play it without action scenes, but that's really minor for me as I like them. Another non-punishing thing about this is, as long as you just go through the motions you will finish the case. You may only have 1 star, you may have missed A TON OF INTERESTING STORY, but you will finish it.
Things I don't like so far: Car collecting. I hate this. It's there, and I want to collect them all, but its really hard to tell what cars you have, what cars you don't, and how to get them. Additionally, once you collect them there doesn't appear to be a way to quickly spawn one, or even drive one at will. I have no actual garage to go to to pick up the car I want to drive. It's really frustrating.
I don't like that sometimes the proof for lying isn't quite "proof". Sometimes it will count as proof sometimes it will count as doubt. So for instance I have a clue that is a testimony from a guy. This isn't "proof". There are other examples, but it's really just about learning how this game works.
The only other thing I don't like is the fact that this game doesn't really get interesting until Homicide, which you have to deal with traffic, which is....a bit boring. Homicide is amazing though, and so far Vice is just as good. I really can't overstate how excited I am for the arson cases.
More to follow.
What I expected: Phoenix Wright with an amazing animation system, and a graphical style that I don't absolutely hate (ugh anime).
What I got: Phoenix Wright with a breath taking animation system, but with a few key differences. There are no court battles in L.A. Noire, which I consider a great thing. The court battles were precisely the reason I stopped playing the original phoenix wright (the only one I've played). The other major difference is the fact that LA Noire is a Rockstar game, which I suppose means it has to be open world. You can drive around and do other open world things.
Some thoughts on the game so far: The open world aspect feels completely unnecessary. You can't randomly kill people like you can in GTA (a very good thing as you are a good cop). There are little side missions, "Street Crimes", that you can do, but they have an order which makes the open world aspect, again, unnecessary. Personally, I think you could cut the street crime and all the outdoor chase scenes (car and foot), and you'd still keep the core of the game for a whole lot less money. I originally heard this game didn't sell well, and that the company was gone. After investigating it a bit more, it turns out the game sold amazingly well (5m copies well), and the studio is indeed defunct. It wasn't sales that screwed them, but rather rumors that they were "hard to work with." Probably not all that untrue, but who knows? ANYWAYS, I had ideas that you could just cut the open world bit to save a ton of money, but it seems that is completely unnecessary.
Things I like so far: The animation system is so damn good. I really can look into a character's eyes and tell if they are lying. If I have the proof or not is a different story. I love running around looking for clues. It maybe a really simple system of run around until the controller vibrates, but once you decide to let yourself get absorbed into the world, it's really fun. I love the interview process, listening to people's stories and responding is just so engaging.
Something they do that I like a lot, is the game isn't punishing....at....all. If you fail an action sequence (a chase or a gun fight) 3 times, you will be given the offer to skip it at no penalty. Personally, I'm ok with this, but I wish they would have given you an option in the beginning to play it without action scenes, but that's really minor for me as I like them. Another non-punishing thing about this is, as long as you just go through the motions you will finish the case. You may only have 1 star, you may have missed A TON OF INTERESTING STORY, but you will finish it.
Things I don't like so far: Car collecting. I hate this. It's there, and I want to collect them all, but its really hard to tell what cars you have, what cars you don't, and how to get them. Additionally, once you collect them there doesn't appear to be a way to quickly spawn one, or even drive one at will. I have no actual garage to go to to pick up the car I want to drive. It's really frustrating.
I don't like that sometimes the proof for lying isn't quite "proof". Sometimes it will count as proof sometimes it will count as doubt. So for instance I have a clue that is a testimony from a guy. This isn't "proof". There are other examples, but it's really just about learning how this game works.
The only other thing I don't like is the fact that this game doesn't really get interesting until Homicide, which you have to deal with traffic, which is....a bit boring. Homicide is amazing though, and so far Vice is just as good. I really can't overstate how excited I am for the arson cases.
More to follow.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Magicka and Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2
So I quickly "gave up" on these two games. I'm going to forgo the normal format, and just make a few comments on each.
Magicka
I originally bought this with Cody on the cheap so we could coop it up. I don't remember much about those few days, but I remember having some fun. When I went back to try and finish the campaign by myself, I was bored out of my mind. The problem I have with this game is the combining of spells is much more complex than it needs to be. Here however, lies the rub. The fun of this game is the needless complexity, it is fun to move your fingers really quick to cast big spells. Once you get over the fun of the complexity, which wore out quickly for me, you find that you only need a few selection of spells. I bound those spells to various macro keys on my keyboard, and that basically killed the game for me. Blasting through enemies quickly became tedious. The game lost all the fun. The art style is cool and the spell effects are really fantastic
All in all, I think you need to play this game in coop.
What did I pay: $11.88
How long did I play: 3 hours
Dollars per Hour: $3.96
What would I pay? $5
Why? I remember having having when I played with Cody, so I think that's worth something. Five bucks is worth a night of fun if you ask me, so I think that's about right.
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II
I tried really hard to like this game. I love love love love love the Warhammer universe, and I think I need to start reading those books. Beyond the franchise, I really like leveling the heroes. Gearing them up is fun, and they have a ton of personality. However, I just get bored going through doing the same thing in each level. The single player campaign has a boring story, and it just isn't fun. The encounters are all very similar, and again, I find myself just doing the same few actions with my heroes over and over. Perhaps this is a valid criticism for most games. I don't care, I felt it in this one. The other problem with this game is I can't tell if the game wants to be about the heroes or about the troops. The units are cool too, but I just don't care to use them. I wonder if the direction for this game would have been better if it was more similar to how Warcraft 3 was originally, squad based RTS with heroes. *shrug* maybe its just not for me. I don't know.
I tried Last Stand mode, which is basically horde mode with a single hero for each player. This mode confused the hell out of me. I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to play it. The only method that worked was using my teleport ability to kite enemies around while other players shot at them. This was incredibly boring. I don't get why its hard to make this mode work. Make weaker enemies that are easy to kill, but they eventually will overwhelm you if you don't properly use your abilities.
What did I pay: $4.29
How long did I play: 3 hours
Dollars per Hour: $1.43
What would I pay? $2
Why? Basically I would only pay to support the franchise. I don't really care for this game, and I think it maybe that I just don't care for RTS games in general. More on that later though. I wanted to like this game a lot though, I just couldn't get into it.
Magicka
I originally bought this with Cody on the cheap so we could coop it up. I don't remember much about those few days, but I remember having some fun. When I went back to try and finish the campaign by myself, I was bored out of my mind. The problem I have with this game is the combining of spells is much more complex than it needs to be. Here however, lies the rub. The fun of this game is the needless complexity, it is fun to move your fingers really quick to cast big spells. Once you get over the fun of the complexity, which wore out quickly for me, you find that you only need a few selection of spells. I bound those spells to various macro keys on my keyboard, and that basically killed the game for me. Blasting through enemies quickly became tedious. The game lost all the fun. The art style is cool and the spell effects are really fantastic
All in all, I think you need to play this game in coop.
What did I pay: $11.88
How long did I play: 3 hours
Dollars per Hour: $3.96
What would I pay? $5
Why? I remember having having when I played with Cody, so I think that's worth something. Five bucks is worth a night of fun if you ask me, so I think that's about right.
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II
I tried really hard to like this game. I love love love love love the Warhammer universe, and I think I need to start reading those books. Beyond the franchise, I really like leveling the heroes. Gearing them up is fun, and they have a ton of personality. However, I just get bored going through doing the same thing in each level. The single player campaign has a boring story, and it just isn't fun. The encounters are all very similar, and again, I find myself just doing the same few actions with my heroes over and over. Perhaps this is a valid criticism for most games. I don't care, I felt it in this one. The other problem with this game is I can't tell if the game wants to be about the heroes or about the troops. The units are cool too, but I just don't care to use them. I wonder if the direction for this game would have been better if it was more similar to how Warcraft 3 was originally, squad based RTS with heroes. *shrug* maybe its just not for me. I don't know.
I tried Last Stand mode, which is basically horde mode with a single hero for each player. This mode confused the hell out of me. I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to play it. The only method that worked was using my teleport ability to kite enemies around while other players shot at them. This was incredibly boring. I don't get why its hard to make this mode work. Make weaker enemies that are easy to kill, but they eventually will overwhelm you if you don't properly use your abilities.
What did I pay: $4.29
How long did I play: 3 hours
Dollars per Hour: $1.43
What would I pay? $2
Why? Basically I would only pay to support the franchise. I don't really care for this game, and I think it maybe that I just don't care for RTS games in general. More on that later though. I wanted to like this game a lot though, I just couldn't get into it.
Amnesia
What I expected: Simply the most terrifying game ever created.
What I got: Not just the most terrifying game, but the most terrifying experience of my life. Perhaps this says more about my life up until this point, but regardless, this game is insane.
What I liked: Basically everything. The technical aspect to the graphics is very low, like Quake 2. This doesn't get in the way of anything though. Their art style is that strong. They know exactly what they needed in order to terrify the player. The most advanced aspect to their game is the post process effect. It changes depending on your sanity level. The puzzles are fairly well done. They are clever, but not hard. The pacing of the game is nigh perfect. There is always something to do, and they keep you on the edge of your seat. They have some hub rooms that are very well lit, and they give a great sense of security after being scared out of your mind. The story is also really interesting, and I found myself going into dark rooms just in hopes to find more bits of the story.
What I didn't like: In hind sight I didn't like how many tinderboxes and oil there is. I horded them for a long while, and found out that I couldn't possibly use them all. There is a lot more security in this game than it appears. Obviously this is a very minor complaint.
Final thoughts: Honestly, this game scared the crap out of me. I put off playing this for a long time because the DEMO scared me to no end. I could tell I had a significantly higher heart rate through most of the game. I could only finish it by reminding myself, out loud that it is only a game.
How much did I pay: $1.42
How many hours did I play: 7
Dollar per Hour: $0.20
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $20.00
Why?: Incredibly well done. They deserve a lot more than the pitiful few bucks I gave them. Their next game I will probably pay full price for even if it takes me a long time to actually sit down long enough to finish it.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Trine 2
Soooo Amnesia scares the crap out of me, so I've been playing Trine 2 in the background....well it turns out I beat Trine 2 and the DLC Goblin Menace or whatever it's called.
Trine 2
What I expected: Trine 1, but prettier.
What I got: Trine 1, but prettier and a bit more depth. Ultimately, what I think most sequels should be.
What I liked: Dear lord the art direction is fantastic. Additionally it's a very beautiful game from a technological perspective. There is a very healthy amount of organic objects in this game, and they all feel exactly as they should. The DLC especially has some incredible vistas and environments. While we're on the subject of the DLC, this is exactly how I imagine DLC should be, a mini-expansion pack. It gave new talents to the talent trees, and gave brand new environments and enemies. One level inparticular, takes place inside a giant worm. Holy crap it is amazing. Everything feels like a giant worm's insides. Almost everything moves, and drips with slime. I almost wish there was a whole DLC pack dedicated to this level. The DLC also was much harder than the main game, this is also what I like to see in DLC.
Some Trine does very well is the feeling of cheating the game. There were many puzzles where I felt like I hacked my way through it, by building a very weird contraption that got me through it. It didn't *feel* like I beat it how they intended, but perhaps that's exactly what they intended. One of my favorite feelings in my gaming life has been world 1 level 2 of Super Mario Bros, when I jumped up on top of the level and zoomed past it. I felt like I broke the game, and that was awesome. Of course that was completely intentional, and that's how you warped ahead. Not enough games recreate that feeling.
What I didn't like: How I felt like I cheated the game....often. I felt like I was doing something wrong half the time. Every once in a while the feeling of cheating was great, but it happened multiple times in almost every level. Each time I felt like I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to do it. Maybe this is a minor gripe.
I also hated how it basically requires you to play through the game more than once to 100% it. That's a major frustration for me in current games. It seems like people like to introduce artificial replayability by making you play the game again to 100% something. Look, I don't think replayability is all that important. I think if your game is fun, people will replay it. Consider movies, there is zero reason why you should ever watch a movie again. Nothing has changed, no achievements to unlock by watching it again. Yet, we all watch movies more than once, because the feeling we get is great. I think great games recreate that great feeling without gimmicks.
Final thoughts: I really enjoy puzzle platformers that are quick to play and aren't very punishing. This game delivered on all points, and was gorgeous to boot.
How much did I pay: $4.37 (included dlc cost)
How many hours did I play: 13
Dollar per Hour: ~$0.34
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $15 (including DLC)
Why?: Incredibly pretty and solid game play. Good length too (I like games to be 12ish hours). No major complaints. What else is there to say? I didn't touch coop, but that's because I'm forever alone.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
007 Legends, A.R.E.S. and Ace of Spades
Ok I'm going to combine these three games, as the comments will be very short.
007 Legends
Wow, it is hard to imagine how you could make a worse Bond game. The premise is solid, I think. Basically the concept is to create a game where you go through all the cool moments of Bond movies. Forget plot, forget meaning, just a roller coaster. I vomited. This game is terrible. I spent 30 minutes in the game before I couldn't take it anymore. The graphics are terrible. Flat textures, low polygon counts, even the art direction is terrible. If you looked at screenshots of this game, you wouldn't be able to tell me what game it is. It's the very definition of bland and uninspired.
How much did I pay: Zero Dollars. I got it for free from a lovely marketing woman.
How many hours did I play: 0.5
Dollar per Hour (a common trait I hope to rate all my games with): n/a Free game
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: -$50
Why?: Because playing this game is a waste of time. It's terrible on every level. It's even a bad console port. The controls feel all sorts of wrong. I really would need to get paid to spend another 30 minutes with this game. I wish I could delete this from my Steam list.
A.R.E.S.
Cool little side scrolling game. Nothing really unique about it actually. You can upgrade weapons and grenades, which I always like, but it seemed like none of the guns were effectively all that different. Supposedly if you play it on hard there are secrets to find. I find this feature really dumb, as I now have to play it through again. F that. I did beat this though
How much did I pay: I bought this game as part of a Indie Royale bundle for probably about $5.
How many hours did I play?: 106 minutes.
Dollar per Hour: $2.83
How much would I pay?: $1.00
Why?: Ultimately forgettable, if not entirely unenjoyable, experience. Super short. At first glance it would seem that I over paid $1.83, but we'll have to see how the bundle totals up. Other games in that bundle: Gemini Rue, Sanctum, and Nimbus.
Aces of Spades
An interesting idea for a game. It's basically Minecraft with guns. Fun little experience in short bursts. Honestly, I'm not done with the game, but it will probably be a while before I return, as Hawken consumes my multiplier itch. The only mode I've played is where you have to destroy the enemy base. Fairly easy to do if left untouched, but hard to stay hidden. No real innovations in weaponry as you have your standard minigun, sniper rifle, etc. Not much to say about this game, but it is fun.
How much did I pay: Got it as a gift (THANKS CODY!), but it was $5 at the time.
How many hours did I play?: 2 hours.
Dollar per Hour: $2.50
How much would I pay?: $5
Why?: I like supporting new little ideas, and this definitely has a unique twist with being able to drill into mountains. Even at right now, I think it was a good purchase. Hopefully I get to play a bit more in the future.
What game is next? Half-Life 2: episode 2 review (random list picked it first), and I will finish a game I stopped playing on purpose...Amnesia. I quit playing that game, because I was honestly scared to death. This is going to be interesting.
007 Legends
Wow, it is hard to imagine how you could make a worse Bond game. The premise is solid, I think. Basically the concept is to create a game where you go through all the cool moments of Bond movies. Forget plot, forget meaning, just a roller coaster. I vomited. This game is terrible. I spent 30 minutes in the game before I couldn't take it anymore. The graphics are terrible. Flat textures, low polygon counts, even the art direction is terrible. If you looked at screenshots of this game, you wouldn't be able to tell me what game it is. It's the very definition of bland and uninspired.
How much did I pay: Zero Dollars. I got it for free from a lovely marketing woman.
How many hours did I play: 0.5
Dollar per Hour (a common trait I hope to rate all my games with): n/a Free game
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: -$50
Why?: Because playing this game is a waste of time. It's terrible on every level. It's even a bad console port. The controls feel all sorts of wrong. I really would need to get paid to spend another 30 minutes with this game. I wish I could delete this from my Steam list.
A.R.E.S.
Cool little side scrolling game. Nothing really unique about it actually. You can upgrade weapons and grenades, which I always like, but it seemed like none of the guns were effectively all that different. Supposedly if you play it on hard there are secrets to find. I find this feature really dumb, as I now have to play it through again. F that. I did beat this though
How much did I pay: I bought this game as part of a Indie Royale bundle for probably about $5.
How many hours did I play?: 106 minutes.
Dollar per Hour: $2.83
How much would I pay?: $1.00
Why?: Ultimately forgettable, if not entirely unenjoyable, experience. Super short. At first glance it would seem that I over paid $1.83, but we'll have to see how the bundle totals up. Other games in that bundle: Gemini Rue, Sanctum, and Nimbus.
Aces of Spades
An interesting idea for a game. It's basically Minecraft with guns. Fun little experience in short bursts. Honestly, I'm not done with the game, but it will probably be a while before I return, as Hawken consumes my multiplier itch. The only mode I've played is where you have to destroy the enemy base. Fairly easy to do if left untouched, but hard to stay hidden. No real innovations in weaponry as you have your standard minigun, sniper rifle, etc. Not much to say about this game, but it is fun.
How much did I pay: Got it as a gift (THANKS CODY!), but it was $5 at the time.
How many hours did I play?: 2 hours.
Dollar per Hour: $2.50
How much would I pay?: $5
Why?: I like supporting new little ideas, and this definitely has a unique twist with being able to drill into mountains. Even at right now, I think it was a good purchase. Hopefully I get to play a bit more in the future.
What game is next? Half-Life 2: episode 2 review (random list picked it first), and I will finish a game I stopped playing on purpose...Amnesia. I quit playing that game, because I was honestly scared to death. This is going to be interesting.
Darksiders II
Ok so I finished my first game with the new blog. I'm going to experiment a bit on style, so please comments are very welcome on just the format. Here goes nothing...
Darksiders II
What I expected: Darksiders I in purple instead of red. Bigger and badder.
What I got: Darksiders I in purple instead of red, but there is more! An actual loot system complete with gear with stats, a boring talent tree, and a very lengthy survival mode. Well it certainly is bigger, but I'm not sure if its more bad or simply more bad ass.
What I liked: The art style. Joe Madureira's direction is pretty amazing. Everything has such a wonderful grand sense of scale. At one point I came up to an undead human, and I said, "Wow this guy is small." He is literally the same height as my character. I was so used to fighting things so huge, it was jarring to find something the same size as me. Every environment is interesting, but the angel's area is one of my favorite. Everything there is just so massive and thick. It really gives the impression they've been there for a very long time. Controls were also pretty good. I could customize hot-keys for different abilities, which worked very well.
Something I thought was really interesting was the lack of quick time events. (Well there is one place at the end you have to quickly press "B" once.) A common debate among my ex-coworker Drew and I was "is it better finish off a boss with a QTE or a long animation that you naturally go into?" I'm not sure this game solves that argument. Most bosses go into a very long (and cool as hell) animation of you executing the boss. There is no QTE at all involved. To support Drew's idea that QTEs are stupid, it was very nice not having to worry about hitting a certain button. I was able to actually enjoy the animation. In fact I found myself wanting to rewatch them. (IDEA: Boss execution gallery). To support my idea that QTEs however annoying, do bring you somewhat closer to feeling like you are actually killing the boss. I think that was the case here as well. Once these animations started I didn't feel like it was me doing it. Well, it wasn't, it was automatic. All in all, I think Drew is more right. I would rather feel slightly disconnected and be able to enjoy the wonderful animation. There might be a better way to do these types of things. This is probably a subject worth talking about later.
Combat felt good. Death is very quick and nimble. There is no block button like War had in Darksiders, so you have to rely on dodging. I've been playing Hawken....a lot, so dodging came very naturally to me. This was a very minor thing, but it did make it feel slightly less similar to Darksiders. Combos were also simplified a great deal from what I remember in Darksiders. Combos are now more about timing than memorization of silly button combinations. Different combos now typically do different style of attacks, rather than more powerful attacks. This was a very welcomed change, and I wish more brawlers would do this.
The idea of having different builds with the great variety of stats that gear offers you. More on this in the next section....
What I didn't like: The gear system was a bit odd. The idea of it is pretty great, as there are actually quite a lot of options for you. However you quickly find out that gear is quickly out leveled, so there is no reason to search for that one perfect piece. However, that's the other problem, there is no way to actually search for loot outside of the Crucible, which is a survival game mode. You end up just taking gear based on a few stats that you decide are important (for me DPS and STR), and just kind of deal with whatever else. I think I would rather have a system that involved some type of crafting, or some way to get gear that I want easier. There is no auction house either, but I'm not sure that's a good idea after seeing what happened in Diablo 3. There are merchants you can buy gear from, but they just have a random selection of gear. It's basically the same as the merchants in Diablo 3, sure they can have good gear, but they probably don't.
While the art style is incredibly imaginative, everything else is very uninspired. Let's take this piece by piece.
Your tool chest is very limited, and mostly the same from Darksiders. They do have 2 new tools, which are pretty neat (time travel portal and soul split), but the rest are the same, and just kind of left me wondering why they couldn't think of new things. I personally think a hook-shot is a good device, and I would have left it in. On second thought they only have 4 tools total, which now seems incredibly small compared to what I remember in Zelda.
Story, probably my biggest complaint. I never felt any sense of urgency at all. I know my brother War is in trouble, and I want to help him, but we never see the trouble he is in, we never hear why I need to go right this second. There really isn't a big bad guy in the game, which is annoying. Something I loved about Wrath of the Lich King, was Blizzard discovered that you should be introduced to the Big Bad immediately, and often. I beat this game, and I'm still not sure who the enemy really was. I know I know it's this dude I killed, but really? He showed up only once before and said I was a jerk. At one point in the game, I was actually wanting this game to be over, so I could move on. This is probably the most damning thing I can say about this game, which I generally liked.
Talent Trees are also boring. You have to spend so many points to make an ability great, and with that you can only really level up 2 abilities, which seems kind of lame. I'm sick and tired of games doing piece meal talent trees. Give me the entire ability damn it! Don't make my spend another point to get an extra 5% damage.
The dungeons were kind of lame too, there are many side dungeons that you encounter in the early game that you can't 100% without tools from very late in the game. I hate this type of design. Lock off the entire dungeon, not just half of it.
Final thoughts: I literally just finished the game, and I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. I'm not sure if its the sub-par (compared to the first one) story, the uninteresting talent tree, or the unimaginative tools. I can't stress how great the art style is though, I really enjoyed most of this game despite its flaws.
Now I'm going to try an experiment Cody and I talked about....
How much did I pay: $60/50 (whichever it was when it released)
How many hours did I play: 30
Dollar per Hour (a common trait I hope to rate all my games with): ~$2.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $40
Why?: It is a lengthy game. I spent 30 hours in it, and I hardly touched the crucible, which could extend the life of the game for many many hours, and I didn't have the time to do New Game +. I do wonder how good the gear situation gets once you hit the cap. I did think of some really interesting wrath on critical based builds. For all the complaining I did, I did enjoy the game. I just wish they focused more on making a great story, like Darksiders.
So I over payed, but not by a terrible lot. I honestly hope they get to make Darksiders III, as I can't wait to play Pestilence or Famine. Sales seem to imply they won't though. Sad.
Darksiders II
What I expected: Darksiders I in purple instead of red. Bigger and badder.
What I got: Darksiders I in purple instead of red, but there is more! An actual loot system complete with gear with stats, a boring talent tree, and a very lengthy survival mode. Well it certainly is bigger, but I'm not sure if its more bad or simply more bad ass.
What I liked: The art style. Joe Madureira's direction is pretty amazing. Everything has such a wonderful grand sense of scale. At one point I came up to an undead human, and I said, "Wow this guy is small." He is literally the same height as my character. I was so used to fighting things so huge, it was jarring to find something the same size as me. Every environment is interesting, but the angel's area is one of my favorite. Everything there is just so massive and thick. It really gives the impression they've been there for a very long time. Controls were also pretty good. I could customize hot-keys for different abilities, which worked very well.
Something I thought was really interesting was the lack of quick time events. (Well there is one place at the end you have to quickly press "B" once.) A common debate among my ex-coworker Drew and I was "is it better finish off a boss with a QTE or a long animation that you naturally go into?" I'm not sure this game solves that argument. Most bosses go into a very long (and cool as hell) animation of you executing the boss. There is no QTE at all involved. To support Drew's idea that QTEs are stupid, it was very nice not having to worry about hitting a certain button. I was able to actually enjoy the animation. In fact I found myself wanting to rewatch them. (IDEA: Boss execution gallery). To support my idea that QTEs however annoying, do bring you somewhat closer to feeling like you are actually killing the boss. I think that was the case here as well. Once these animations started I didn't feel like it was me doing it. Well, it wasn't, it was automatic. All in all, I think Drew is more right. I would rather feel slightly disconnected and be able to enjoy the wonderful animation. There might be a better way to do these types of things. This is probably a subject worth talking about later.
Combat felt good. Death is very quick and nimble. There is no block button like War had in Darksiders, so you have to rely on dodging. I've been playing Hawken....a lot, so dodging came very naturally to me. This was a very minor thing, but it did make it feel slightly less similar to Darksiders. Combos were also simplified a great deal from what I remember in Darksiders. Combos are now more about timing than memorization of silly button combinations. Different combos now typically do different style of attacks, rather than more powerful attacks. This was a very welcomed change, and I wish more brawlers would do this.
The idea of having different builds with the great variety of stats that gear offers you. More on this in the next section....
What I didn't like: The gear system was a bit odd. The idea of it is pretty great, as there are actually quite a lot of options for you. However you quickly find out that gear is quickly out leveled, so there is no reason to search for that one perfect piece. However, that's the other problem, there is no way to actually search for loot outside of the Crucible, which is a survival game mode. You end up just taking gear based on a few stats that you decide are important (for me DPS and STR), and just kind of deal with whatever else. I think I would rather have a system that involved some type of crafting, or some way to get gear that I want easier. There is no auction house either, but I'm not sure that's a good idea after seeing what happened in Diablo 3. There are merchants you can buy gear from, but they just have a random selection of gear. It's basically the same as the merchants in Diablo 3, sure they can have good gear, but they probably don't.
While the art style is incredibly imaginative, everything else is very uninspired. Let's take this piece by piece.
Your tool chest is very limited, and mostly the same from Darksiders. They do have 2 new tools, which are pretty neat (time travel portal and soul split), but the rest are the same, and just kind of left me wondering why they couldn't think of new things. I personally think a hook-shot is a good device, and I would have left it in. On second thought they only have 4 tools total, which now seems incredibly small compared to what I remember in Zelda.
Story, probably my biggest complaint. I never felt any sense of urgency at all. I know my brother War is in trouble, and I want to help him, but we never see the trouble he is in, we never hear why I need to go right this second. There really isn't a big bad guy in the game, which is annoying. Something I loved about Wrath of the Lich King, was Blizzard discovered that you should be introduced to the Big Bad immediately, and often. I beat this game, and I'm still not sure who the enemy really was. I know I know it's this dude I killed, but really? He showed up only once before and said I was a jerk. At one point in the game, I was actually wanting this game to be over, so I could move on. This is probably the most damning thing I can say about this game, which I generally liked.
Talent Trees are also boring. You have to spend so many points to make an ability great, and with that you can only really level up 2 abilities, which seems kind of lame. I'm sick and tired of games doing piece meal talent trees. Give me the entire ability damn it! Don't make my spend another point to get an extra 5% damage.
The dungeons were kind of lame too, there are many side dungeons that you encounter in the early game that you can't 100% without tools from very late in the game. I hate this type of design. Lock off the entire dungeon, not just half of it.
Final thoughts: I literally just finished the game, and I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. I'm not sure if its the sub-par (compared to the first one) story, the uninteresting talent tree, or the unimaginative tools. I can't stress how great the art style is though, I really enjoyed most of this game despite its flaws.
Now I'm going to try an experiment Cody and I talked about....
How much did I pay: $60/50 (whichever it was when it released)
How many hours did I play: 30
Dollar per Hour (a common trait I hope to rate all my games with): ~$2.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $40
Why?: It is a lengthy game. I spent 30 hours in it, and I hardly touched the crucible, which could extend the life of the game for many many hours, and I didn't have the time to do New Game +. I do wonder how good the gear situation gets once you hit the cap. I did think of some really interesting wrath on critical based builds. For all the complaining I did, I did enjoy the game. I just wish they focused more on making a great story, like Darksiders.
So I over payed, but not by a terrible lot. I honestly hope they get to make Darksiders III, as I can't wait to play Pestilence or Famine. Sales seem to imply they won't though. Sad.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
O and BEER! (Mendocino's Blue Heron)
So I've decided I'm also going to post my reviews on beer here as well. My cousin and aunt have very graciously signed me up for a beer club, and this is as good as place as any to put my ramblings here. While I love beer a lot, I'm not very knowledgeable in a lot of the flavors. This means, that most of my reviews will be quite...stupid.
First out the gate: Mendocino Brewing Co. Blue Heron Pale Ale
It's not bad. It tastes like a decent pale ale. Not very hoppy at all, but has some boldness to it. Kind of surprising given how mild the spices are. A question I always ask is "Would I order this again or try something new?" Given how much I like to try new beers, this is quite a difficult measure. The Blue Heron does indeed fail to reach this bar. This might be due to the fact that if I'm going to order a pale ale, I'm probably going to order an IPA. Overall its drinkable, but very forgettable.
First out the gate: Mendocino Brewing Co. Blue Heron Pale Ale
It's not bad. It tastes like a decent pale ale. Not very hoppy at all, but has some boldness to it. Kind of surprising given how mild the spices are. A question I always ask is "Would I order this again or try something new?" Given how much I like to try new beers, this is quite a difficult measure. The Blue Heron does indeed fail to reach this bar. This might be due to the fact that if I'm going to order a pale ale, I'm probably going to order an IPA. Overall its drinkable, but very forgettable.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
What's the plan?
Alright so my current plan is to go down my Steam game list, alphabetically, and play every game I have. There are going to be exceptions, for instance, I'm not going to replay games I've already played. I will however write a post about them, or rather, what I remember about them. For games that are never "done" like Skyrim, I'll write about my thoughts about it at the time when I get to it. Additionally, I'm going to skip over some games I own, but don't really care to play (e.g. Arx Fatalis).
Now I am starting out of order. I am currently playing Darksiders II, and I plan on finishing it before moving on to Ace of Spades. Expect a post about Darksiders II soon, as I'm like 2/3 of the way through.
Now I am starting out of order. I am currently playing Darksiders II, and I plan on finishing it before moving on to Ace of Spades. Expect a post about Darksiders II soon, as I'm like 2/3 of the way through.
It begins!
Well it's about time I start a blog to document all my opinions and whatnot. I think this will be mostly about gaming, so be prepared to hear my opinions on things! Matt Moore, I'm going to give you all the info you need to be good at your job.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)