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Dec 10th, 2012 at 01:33:41 - Beyond Good and Evil (PC) |
My sessions before the other day and the previous entry were no doubt positive. Since then, it's been half and half. Some of the things I didn't mention last time have really begun to irritate me to the point where I'm giving up. I do like the game for the most part, but there are a couple big things:
(1) The camera is terrible. Awful. This became a problem once I got into the Factory level, and now I'm 1/3 through the Slaughterhouse. It's the tight spaces that kill it for me. These levels are giant puzzles and quite maze-like. But the camera can't handle them. It zooms in to the floor. It follows Jade's legs. It does 360s going round and round and round. It turns Jade 180 degrees, then when I turn to run the other way, it swoops again, and I keep going the wrong way, swoop swoop swoop, running into guards and getting killed. You have very very little control of the camera anyway, so there's no way to fix it. It's not player error. It's just a crappy camera. And thanks to that, I've started feeling dizzy and feeling like I'm going to get a headache. Just kinda of reeling.
(2) The levels are mazes. While this is sort of fun because they are complex, it is also sort of annoying because the map isn't very good, and because the game does a really bad job at times of guiding you from one place to another. In a maze, a little guidance here and there would be much appreciated. The thing is sometimes it does guide you, but then there is some hidden requirement to continue. Example: Yesterday I was in the Factory. I'd taken all my pictures and found the code to the Loading Bay where it seemed like I was supposed to go. I enter, run around, look around, nothing happens. Hmm. Go back in the level, poke around, don't see anything new, different, interesting, go back to the loading bay, can't do anything there. Hmm. It seems like I'm supposed to go there, but I must be missing something somewhere else. I spent more than half an hour traversing the level, doing all these sneaky parts again, blah blah, and made it back to the loading bay, where again nothing happens. So I looked up a walkthrough and it tells me to point my camera up at a specific spot. Really? I have to go in the loading bay and point my camera around at everything to trigger a scene? Come on. I had previously taken pictures in the loading bay and pointed it at anything I saw, but I didn't do it in the right spot that it never told me to point it at, so nothing happened. I was kind of pissed. And now, today, I've done 1/3 of the Slaughterhouse and cannot for the life of me figure out where to go to get into the other 2/3. I don't want to start playing this according to walkthroughs, so I'm just stopping instead. Plenty of other games on my list to play.
(3) It's aging. So it's nice, it's pretty, it's interesting. Awesome. But unfortunately I just played Dishonored. And Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is in recent memory. And Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And I'm sorry Beyond Good & Evil, but you do not compete. I'm very interested to go back and play old games that I missed years ago, but the problem is that there are almost inevitably newer games in similar genres that are just better. In this case I've classified BG&E as a stealth game. Or is it an action game? Enslaved was a billion times better. Or is it an open world game? Saints Row 3 wins. Sigh! Oh and also, the title of the game made me think there would be some moral dilemma or philosophical questions being discussed through the story. There aren't. I'm disappointed!
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Dec 8th, 2012 at 10:56:46 - Beyond Good and Evil (PC) |
I finally got a chance to play this for more than an hour tonight. So far it's just been quick dips. I think I'll sink more time into it tomorrow too. So finally, extended engagement is possible and it is good!
I'm usually quite surprised when I like older games (9 years old here, and playing the original, not HD update). BG&E is a really fun original adventure game. Your planet is being constantly bombarded by attacks from some evil aliens, and the planetary defense force seems to be evil too, kidnapping people, and maybe even in league with the aliens. You are Jade, a journalist, who falls in with an underground opposition group, and it's your job to infiltrate enemy operations and uncover evidence of the planetary defense force being assholes and possibly in league with the aliens. Right now, I'm off to explore a factory where they're shipping kidnapped citizens. Then they ship them somewhere else, and finally it's bon voyage to the moon. I suspect the game involves going to these three places since the most expensive item in the shop is moon rockets or something which I figure I need to convert my ship to fly in space.
The story is interesting, and the characters are really good too. I especially like Jade who is a *gasp* normal female. She's clever, likeable, funny, has a job, and she isn't sexualized. It's refreshing. Her partner, Pey'j (pronounced Page) is funny too. He's a pig with good ole southern charm. He does mechanic-type work and is handy for his various special abilities. So far he can cut through fences with wire cutters and he can do a super jump and smash the ground, which when done on a button will launch Jade up to a ledge, or when done near enemies, will launch them up, break their defenses or make them vulnerable. Other characters that populate the world are humans or anthropomorphic animals - sharks, walruses, cows, rhinos...
There are other animals too. At the beginning of the game Jade gets an assignment to catalog all the organic life on the planet for the Science Center. She has a camera that she uses to take photos. Take photos of normal animals, friendly NPC sharks and things, and enemies too, and they get uploaded to the Science Center, and for every 10 you take, you get a pearl. Pearls are one of the types of currencies, spendable on cool upgrades like said space rocket, a missile system for my boat, and other stuff. Pearls are hidden in caves, behind locked doors, won through various minigames like speedboat races and gambling games, from beating bosses, buying them in stores, and doing various other events. It's really varied all the things you can do in the game! So far I've explored some caves, done speedboat racing, explored more generally on my boat, found hidden islands, got robbed by a pirate and chased them down through a speedboat obstacle course, investigated a town, played some game that was some tabletop version of shuffleboard, shopped a lot, took photos of lots of animals, and more. The other currency is...I dunno what it's called. Credits or something. You get them in more mundane ways, killing enemies, breaking boxes, taking photos, etc.
The game looks really nice for being 9 years old. I'm impressed even now by it. The music is also excellent, and I recognize a couple old songs they got.
I am looking forward to pushing on in the story, and more than that, exploring in my boat. Hunting for pearls too. There are some neat looking things to buy!
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Dec 5th, 2012 at 11:13:52 - Tower Defense: Lost Earth (Other) |
Also, a quick post about this Android game. Best. Android. Game. Ever. I am a big tower defense fan, and this one is dead solid. It's also got tons of content. I've been playing I don't know how long...this entire semester probably...and I'm halfway through the campaign levels. What's been extending its life for me is the achievements. Each level has a number of achievements: beat it on easy, beat it on normal, beat it on hard (though beating it on a higher difficulty does not count for the easier ones too, so you do have to beat each level at least 3 times), use your special move, destroy all the crystals, don't lose a life, and use rapid deploy 25% of the time.
Here's my order: First, I play a level on normal to get a feel. If I can do it without losing a life, or with destroying crystals, I will, but it's not always a good idea to try for like the crystals without beating the level once. Then I play it on hard, and usually use the special weapon here. Then I play it on easy to get the rapid deploy on 25% of the waves. This just makes waves come faster, which is obviously harder on your defense. And I'll get whatever other ones I didn't manage to get on my normal or hard playthroughs and play easy over and over until I get them all.
There are also multiple game modes, some kind of store where you can buy extra damage and things, which you unlock with crystals, which you accumulate from beating levels and getting achievements. There are still two towers I haven't unlocked yet. They're still adding enemy types. Recently they added a healer, who is a bastard. He's real fast, runs by enemies and heals them if they've been injured, and can really mess you up if you don't have towers placed at spots after where they heal other enemies.
HIGHLY recommend this tower defense game for peoples' phones. It's a blast.
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Dec 5th, 2012 at 11:05:27 - World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC) |
Bought MoP on Cyber Monday, not really because I wanted to, but because it seemed stupid not to. P started a trial, and I figured what the hell, I'll check it out. I played one day and that was cool. Then P bought it and I didn't follow him. Then I opened my WoW account to see how much time I had on the free trial and my 6-month subscription had auto-renewed a few days earlier. Woops. I canceled it already so no more auto-renewing. Then it turns out, on Cyber Monday, that P's purchase didn't go through somehow the week before. I commented that it was half off for Cyber Monday and he bought it immediately. Then I figured, oh well, I might as well cough up $20 since I just accidentally paid for 6 more months. I'll see how Panda-land is, level one character, and PvP at 90 very casually. How is it so far?
I haven't leveled all the way yet. I'm just into 89. I picked Nachtluz, my paladin, since he's been my general favorite. It took me a little while to remember how to play, even after playing so long before. They completely redid talents, which I think suck now. They stripped away nearly all choice you had in customizing skills. There used to be the typical RPG talent trees. Now, every 15 levels, you pick 1 of three talents. All three on any of the levels are sometimes functionally equivalent so there really is no choice. For example, the level 15 talents for paladins are all movement speed talents. Do you want a very high movement speed bonus for a short time? A medium movement speed bonus for a longer time? Or a slower movement speed bonus permanently? You see what this means? By level 30, you've essentially made 0 choices and your character is the exact same as all others of your class, except for spec. Basically they rolled most of the old talents into the specializations, so you do get several more things from the beginning. But there's nothing *new.* I couldn't imagine my character being static for 30 levels. Actually I'm looking at them now and the talents are just so boring. The level 30 ones are all variants of a stun/slow. The rationale I've read for this from players is that "everyone used cookie-cutter builds anyway." Bullshit. There were many tough decisions to be made and that made it fun. *Now* there are cookie-cutter builds. One build for each spec and PvE/PvP. Because players have no choice otherwise. Glad I only have to go 85-90. On the one hand, I'm happy because I have a spec that works, but on the other I'm annoyed that I can't tweak much.
Ok so fair enough. Changes. It's more accessible overall, also with the cute panda bears. I thought it was stupid when I first heard about it, and it's still a little silly for me, but they've done an excellent job with the expansion's content. The Pandarens, as they're called, are drawn up from Chinese culture. They are monks, beer-brewers, do martial arts, and the entire of Pandaria looks like Chinese mythology. The quests are more or less the same thing they've always been in terms of what you have to do. There have been a couple amazing stand-outs though. When Mists of Pandaria is telling stories, they are excellent. This is when quests shine, when they are supported by really good storylines. When quests don't shine it's because the killing x enemies / collecting x things overshadows the story. The fighting is basic, dull, easy, repetitive, etc. by this point. So I appreciate the quests that are more story heavy, and there are more of those in this expansion. Unfortunately Mists of Pandaria dropped a lot of the awesome quests, and the best storyline (so far) in the first zone. There was one quest chain where you had to listen to 3 of your allies recount this mission they went on and why one came back nearly dead. So you talk to the first, and as the NPC narrates with voice, the game puts you in that character's shoes to act out the events s/he is narrating. Then the next NPC takes over the story, and the next, and you play this really cool tale of their expedition and learn what happened to them and what dangers are out there. It was *awesome* but it was right near the beginning and the only time there has been anything deviating so much from the typical quests. I feel like they thought it was a risk to innovate their quests and storytelling and probably didn't want to take it too far, but they really should have.
There are other cool things now with regards to quests and storylines. First of all, there's a good amount of voice acting now, so for main events you get that instead of just text. Quest chains are more organized and interrelated. At the end of chains now there is sometimes a cinematic! Sometimes too there are what I call "raid training" boss fights at the end that are pretty fun. Some of these spread over multiple quests and are much more involved than anything solo in the past. I like these. They are like unexpected rewards.
The rest of Pandaria is nice enough. The music is excellent. It's all Eastern and sounds great. The architecture is awesome too. All the buildings are all Chinese-flavored. I mean, I live here in Singapore. There are lots of temples and old Chinese-style buildings. Pandaria's buildings look like them. Really good job nailing the style. The lay of the land isn't as exciting. I haven't found any great zones particularly. There's a cool spot here and there. I think again the first zone was my favorite. It had lots of cool trees...
I played all the dungeons I could so far. They're fun enough. One takes place in a brewery and I thought was really dumb. But they're just dungeons, same as always. More streamlined, but that's this whole expansion. Everything is simpler, streamlined, quicker. Crafting also got a makeover and is super fast. I maxed out mining almost immediately and learned all the blacksmithing recipes I can really quick.
That's about it I think. I've just been playing out of rest experience every day. I suppose I'll hit 90 in another week and see what the new battlegrounds are like. I've had some good open world PvP battles while questing. I can't imagine anymore playing on a PvE or RP server. I'd be bored out of my mind just questing. I like that horde try to kill me because I usually kick the crap out of anyone who touches me at my level. There was one hunter though who I couldn't touch. But my best grudge matches were with another paladin and with a warlock. Both of them we went at it for like an hour, across multiple zones, while doing quests, camping one another, trying to aggro enemies onto one another. In the end the warlock whispered me from an Alliance character, added me as a friend, and said I made his day. We talked for a little bit.
Oh, there's this website called openraid.org that P had been using to do cross-server raids last time he was playing. They're having a fun-run on Monday which we signed up to do. I've never done one before and am excited. Everyone makes a level 1 human on a particular server, and there going to be event organizers there taking names for registration. They'll tell us where we have to run to, and you just have this level 1 human death race to see who can make it to the goal first. I expect to die a lot, but also have this strange notion that I think I can win. New ways to play an old game!
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