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May 20th, 2012 at 14:35:53 - Batman: Arkham City (360) |
Started and finished Arkham City over the weekend. I thought the game was supposed to be longer. The previews went on and on about it being five times the size of Arkham Asylum, but it was all just space! There wasn't any more content, and probably even less buildings to go in. The campaign on the whole took me I don't know how long, but like a few hours Friday night, most of the day Saturday and like an hour to wrap up Sunday...maybe 12 hours or so. But it doesn't matter because it was awesome. The space wasn't a bad thing at all, as it let Batman focus on one thing he does well -- flying through Gotham. The controls and movement are way better in this game (or is it on Xbox vs PC?). Everything was tight and fluid, and the fighting is incredible. I didn't get it as much in the first one, but this one the combat really did it for me. I think it is mostly the Xbox controller, but there were also a lot of new moves, like practically endless combat techniques to master, and it looked and felt better.
Other than the larger amount of space with which to play in, the rest of the game is basically the same and sequel to the first one. All the characters are great, story is really interesting, game feels gritty as hell. This one was different in that Joker isn't like THE bad guy. There are a few villains prominent, and most of the ones you take down last time show up in side quests or just briefly -- Killer Croc, Bane, Victor Zsasz, to name a few -- and there are a bunch of great parts and story tie-ins with characters who weren't in the last one. My favorites were OF COURSE the ones that make Batman trip. Since the Sandman isn't in this one, and he was by far my favorite last time (besides Joker), I was thrilled to see that Batman still trips thanks to the Mad Hatter and Ra's al Ghul, both sequences of which were great, and both of whom turn out to be integral to the storyline.
I have to compare Arkham City to Assassin's Creed 2, which I recently played. They are both free-form movement/fighting action/stealth games. I like Assassin's Creed, I really do. But seriously, it has nothing on Arkham City (or the previous Arkham Asylum). Batman and Joker and all the rest are just infinitely more interesting than Ezio and faceless conspirator bad guys. Rich Venetian merchant bad guy vs. oh, I don't know...Victor Zsasz. Florentine nobleman vs. Mr. Freeze. Seriously, which are more interesting? Arkham City basically kicks the crap out of Assassin's Creed in most categories. The controls are tighter, the fighting is more fun, the location and characters are more interesting, the extras are more interesting and more fun to find and relate to the story better...on and on. The one thing I love about Assassin's Creed are the assassinations of course. Batman doesn't actually kill anyone, so there understandably aren't many of those badass moments when you've been hunting said Venetian nobleman for an hour and finally get him. However, what makes a Batman story a Batman story are the moral dilemmas he faces, such as what's it worth to stick to your guns and never kill. Then again Ezio's storyline revolves around him becoming an assassin, so they both work great. I'm glad I played AC first because I might have been disappointed if I'd played it after Batman...I do still have AC: Brotherhood, but I swear I will wait a good long time on that one to forget about Batman for a while.
Regarding the extras, good lord is there a lot of additional content here. I thought Assassin's Creed 2 had a lot with its 300 treasure chests and storyless sidequests to get you to assassinate someone or deliver a letter. Batman has REAL sidequests with stories that aren't just pretenses to get you to run through the city and deliver mail. Find Mr. Freeze's wife. Track down a sniper as he kills again and again. Answer Victor Zsasz's incessant phone calls as he leads you deeper and deeper into his homicidal beginnings. Oh yes, and bigger than all of them again is the Riddler. I love the Riddler. He placed 400...yes 400...Riddler Trophies across Arkham City. I found about 1/4 of them through the game. Wow. Many of them you just go into detective mode and find weak spots in walls or go the opposite direction of where you're supposed to or explore like usual, but a lot too are real brainteasers. He stepped up his game this time around. You have to make use of like ALL your gadgets and brains to get these Riddler Trophies. I have half a mind to keep going with my post-game to collect some more. Bonus: collecting Riddler Trophies unlocks Riddler hostage events, where you have to go solve a riddle before he kills his next victim. The last one I couldn't figure out because he cheats! Silly me, trusting that the Riddler would play by the rules. It's the only time I turned to a FAQ and when I read it I was like...wtf! Of course! All this is SO much more interesting than Assassin's Creed's "buy a treasure map. ok, now they're all marked on your map. go methodically search for them to fill your capitalist need to accumulate wealth." Games with Batman's type of extra content make me want to keep playing. Games with Assassin's Creed's type of extra content make me annoyed and want to finish the main game ASAP and never pick it up again. This is a really important lesson in game design for real. Putting things all over the map for players to collect because they are compelled to collect is cheap. Give them a better reason to collect, one that is meaningful, and not just in terms of in-game money. Batman is a great example.
The game looks incredible like the last one did. Gotham's skyline, seriously, great job. Arkham City is divided up into districts, but I liked the way Arkham Asylum was set up better. So in City, there's basically Joker's district, Penguin's district, and government offices, and the TYGER zone. They're not too distinct and they're always infiltrating each other's space. Anyway, in Asylum, one of my favorite things about the game was the way the environment changed over the course of it. I particularly remember that as Joker gained more control over the asylum, he did some interior decorating and began leaving his marks everywhere, changing signs, painting walls, laying traps. The other transformation was Poison Ivy's base. That was incredible. Like that entire part of town got taken over by plants. There wasn't anything like that in City. The closest thing was when the steel mill got flooded, but that was nothing like the game-long transformations of Joker's and Poison Ivy's domains in Asylum. Oh, well I guess near the end there is one, but you're not really in the city like you were the rest of the game. It's still cool, but different.
So to wrap up, there are all these extra Riddler trophies to get. There are like 80 special levels where you fight and get points for leaderboards, including levels you can customize, fighting challenges and 'predator' challenges, and like 180 Riddler campaigns to play where you choose mutators in each level and have to play through like 3 levels using all the mutators they give you. Looks challenging! If I wanted to try and hone my Batman skills, I would have plenty of opportunity. And it's tempting, but unfortunately, as usual, I have a billion other games waiting. Perhaps I'll come back to it later to complete some more extras. There is also some Catwoman DLC with apparently a totally different storyline (and her own Riddler trophies!). I'm not big on DLCs, especially if the normal game didn't feel finished enough, but Arkham City rules, and I'm borrowing it from a friend, so I haven't paid anything, and am therefore looking into buying my first non-bundle-sale-pack DLC. We shall see if it appears worth it!
Play this game!
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May 20th, 2012 at 05:09:43 - Dead Space 2 (PC) |
Another excellent game, right up on par with the first one. There's really not much to say, especially if you know anything about the Dead Space games. It's like Dead Space 1, but...again. There are a couple new things, a couple new enemies, some anti-grav boots and more anti-grav flying sections that were cool. There were definitely more power nodes to upgrade weapons too. I mostly maxed out my suit, stasis, pulse rifle, and flame thrower. Last time I remember using the bolt thrower gun and the buzzsaw a lot. I changed it up this time and by the end was going with pulse rifle and flame thrower, with some javelin gun and line cutter tossed in for certain situations. The flame thrower was definitely my favorite.
The game is scary as hell and not an easy trip. It still masterfully lures you into rooms only to fill them with Necromorphs. A couple memorable moments include the elevator and the Ishimura. In the elevator sequence, you're riding up and up and up, and...queue giant enemies on the outside of the elevator! One after another, they bash windows and swing their claws at you, so you've got to dodge out of the way, shoot its weak points, turn to find the next one, and again and again, like 10 or 12 times. When I finally beat it my heart was racing and I realized I was gripping the mouse really tight. Seriously intense sequence. The other memorable moment is going back through the Ishimura, specifically the beginning. The Ishimura was the poor ship from the first game, and when I found out I had to go back in this game, oh man, I got anxious already. Then when you go in the Ishimura, it's just quiet. Just dead silent. There's hazard plastic up and it's obviously in the process of being cleaned and checked out to find out what went on last time, and it is SO SO SO creepy in there. And did I mention that it's silent? You go through rooms and corridors and nothing happens. You keep expecting something to happen but nothing will come for you. Then it gets a little less silent, and a little less, and still nothing happens. It's like 5 or 10 minutes of dread building up. I will probably remember that forever. There's stuff from the first game I still think about sometimes, like the asteroid blaster sequence where the gunshots form the drums to the soundtrack. That part was incredible. And of course the ending of DS1...the ending of DS references it. It's pretty funny and (spoiler) doesn't make you jump.
I love these games. These are two of my favorite survival horror games ever. I have a Wii one sitting around but haven't had the chance to play it. DS3? Please?
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May 20th, 2012 at 04:44:15 - Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (PS2) |
I've been burning through games faster than I can think much about them. Just trying to get this massive list shrunk a bit. I could have skipped this one though. Oh well! It was fun enough, but nothing special. I thought it would have some neat item/crafting system but that part, which was one of its unique bits, was just lame. The other unique bit that I did like was that you get Mana (otherwordly spirit-type beings) on your journey, and when you get one, sometimes it comes with a skill, like the Earth mana you can summon as a stepping stone, one of the others gives you a barrier to protect you from fire and other things on the map that hurt you, and at the end you get one that lets you fly some, which actually kind of renders most of the others useless. Each dungeon and area is a navigable map with obstacles and things that you need to jump and use your mana skills to get around. There are items and treasure everywhere to get you to try and reach places.
I'll explain the item system briefly. So there are like 15 or so different types of mana (fire, earth, dark, light, etc., etc.). In order to get mana, you can extract it from enemies, and more often, from items in the environment. So if you use extract element on a rock, you get some stone mana. Each mana you can hold up to 99. Ok so there are the obvious things like rocks giving you stone mana or fire giving you fire mana. Then there are like 100 other items, like various foods and plants, that also give you different types. These items respawn every time you leave a map screen and come back, so you have infinite mana of most types, basically. You use this mana to create items, which you find recipes for throughout the game. So your basic healing potion takes some water mana. You've got to use a Mana (creature) with a water attribute to help you make the potion. Some mana are more efficient with whatever mana type (water Mana is more efficient with water mana than the spirit Mana is with water mana, and the fire Mana can't even use water mana).
Does this sound needlessly complicated? It is. I think it just adds steps to getting a damn healing potion! Why can't I just find a healing potion? Why do I have to extract mana first, then tell my Mana to use the mana to make the potions. And I can only have 9 of each item in my inventory? Come on! You have to constantly go through menus and make potions...it gets old.
Atelier Iris has item shops where you can synthesize items. This is part of its whole "alchemic RPG" theme. You can create items for sale in shops. I didn't see literally any benefit to doing this. I did it a handful of times in the beginning. Shopkeeps will tell you what they want and provide you a list of ingredients. Very quickly after the beginning, the ingredients required to make things are themselves things you need to synthesize first. So then when you do make something, which is usually just some other ingredient, you can actually deviate from the recipe to make a better quality version. So for example there might be like worm-infested apple, dry apple, apple, sweet apple, or apple pie. Right, different versions. These have some bearing on the outcome of the synthesized item, like how good it is or something. Each item has a % and if you look at the shop it will tell you what the 'hot items' are and why. So like, the worm-infested apple I made might be the hot item because it's 'wormy' or something. There are lots of weird 'reviews' of the synthesized items...deadly odor, sweet and sour, heavy, adult...etc. Random townspeople will then tell you like 'i love the bread crumbs at mojo's bakery. i make them a part of my daily routine. i love the bread crumbs because it is deadly odor.' Seriously. The NPC comments on the items I made were kind of funny because they were usually horribly out of context. Anyway, this whole item synthesis served no purpose whatsoever that I could tell and I quit doing it almost as soon as I started.
I also didn't bother with 'mana synthesis,' which is where you can augment your weapons with mana to add attack or defense or fire resist or whatever. I didn't do it mostly because I didn't know if I could remove the mana once I attached it, and also because you can't augment equipped weapons. So you have to unequip your weapon first, then augment it. One step too many to care!
So all these things I didn't care about. I could afford not to care because this was the easiest game I have played in forever. I didn't do hardly anything extra and I breezed through it. There was one boss that killed me twice I think. Otherwise, no deaths and generally didn't even come close. It helped too that you can switch in alternate characters during battle with no penalty and they get to act immediately. And you can switch characters out when they die. So basically I had 5 attackers instead of the 3 on the screen.
This game would have been much better if it were more difficult. They could have helped with with more interesting battles. The game tags itself as a 'strategic RPG,' but it is hardly strategic. It is very mindless. 99% of fights were 'x, x, x, x, dead.' Just plain attack all the time, even on bosses! The only reason I did anything else (besides a couple bosses) was (a) to hit more enemies at once since some characters' attacks (the useful characters) hit multiple enemies at once, and (b) to hit enemies immune to physical attacks. There were a lot of REALLY annoying enemies who were immune to physical attacks. Two of your characters attack with magic, and they are both weak, so you have to bring in one of your other characters and waste mana just to kill these stupid physical-immune creatures.
Oh man, and maybe the worst of all is that at the end of the game I was still fighting enemies from the beginning! And there are like 10 enemy types with like 4 variations each. The notorious 'Puni' enemies had so many different types and they all looked the same with a different color. My god, it was so stupid. So yea, like level 50 at the end of the game, and here comes an army of level 1 punis. Will I win?! Why is this a random battle?! And the game makes you travel over a horrendous world map all the time, so even if you're not in the difficult areas mysteriously encountering simple enemies, you're in early easy areas encountering the same simple enemies.
I really sound like I hate this game huh? It really wasn't that bad, just some annoying things. The story wasn't anything special. There were forced romances, a couple 'what, you're my SISTER?!' moments and other things typical of dull stories. The high point though was the silliness of it. I liked the game in that it didn't take itself seriously at all. The characters were enjoyable. There was a cat girl, and I expected to hate her, but she was actually cute. I especially ended up liking her voice. And there were a lot of little side missions/side stories involving shopkeeps and other townspeople that I enjoyed.
Yeah, anyway, glad to get it off my shelf, but too bad it wasn't better. I think when I heard it was focused on items and it was strategic, I was somehow thinking of a non-grid-based Disgaea. Not even close!
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May 15th, 2012 at 08:55:42 - Diablo III (PC) |
Diablo 3 is out! Surprisingly the servers handled all the traffic. We couldn't log on for about the first hour and a half because the servers were busy/full, but after that, no problems. Minor lag spikes here and there that quit after a couple hours. P and I logged on. He made a Monk and I made a Barbarian because I want to whirlwind everything..but no whirlwind until level 20! It's all good because I made it to 15 before I stopped, so not too much longer. We had been on for 5 minutes when Am and Ad made it through, and we all partied together for a good hour before P had to leave. Four-player is not hard at all. The difficulty scales, but I also saw that 4 was easier than 3, 3 easier than 2, and I suppose 2 probably easier than 1, but I haven't played alone yet. I don't think I used a single health potion until it was just me and Am.
Things I like: Looks great, feels great, very high production value. It is weird playing a game, any game, where you can't manipulate the camera in any way. I find myself wanting to look at the environment but I can't. No matter, because what I can see is gorgeous, the lightning effects in particular.
There is a surprising amount of depth to the combat. I thought it would just be all hack and slash, left-click left-click left-click, but lo and behold there is thinking involved! Okay, with 4-player, it was pretty mindless. We went on an utter rampage. But when it was just me and Am, we were pausing to strategize, to talk about skills and specs, etc. So this depth comes with very few buttons, but each button is highly customizable. You have your left and right mouse clicks, then hotkeys 1-4. Each of these inputs has like 4 skills that you learn as you level up. So left click has 4 skills, right click has 4 different skills, 1 has 4 different skills, etc. You can only bind 1 skill of the 4 to each button at any time, but you can change which skill that is very easily and (I think) in the midst of combat as long as the skill you want to move isn't on cooldown. Then each skill has like 5 runes you can augment the skill with, which you can also change at will. So, for any given button, you have 4 or so skills and 5 or so runes. That's like 20 combinations FOR EACH BUTTON. And you have 6 buttons. And there are 5 classes.
One of these probably suits 99.99% of people's play styles. There are CC options, single-target options, AoE options, life leech options, knockback, + damage, cleaves, mobility options, a crazy amount of stuff. THEN on top of that you have your equipment! As a barbarian, do I want to focus on HP, strength, finding magic items, life leech, or all of the above? Do I want to be more defensive with a sword and shield or more offensive with a massive 2-handed weapon? There are so many combinations and so many situations within which to use them. I 'respecced' more than a few times in the few hours I played. For some reason I kept finding more powerful 1-handed weapons than 2-handed ones, so I spent the entire time with a sword and shield, which led me to more defensive combinations of skills and runes. Am says that though 2-handed weapons have roughly the same damage as 1-handed ones, they have a wider arc and hit more enemies to make up for it. I dunno about that, but I figure I'll try it out soon. I went all out with offensive abilities during 4-player, played around with different combinations when there were 3 of us, and hunkered down to a defensive AoE combination when it was just Am and I. He did the same. When it was Am and Ad and myself (they were both wizards), they decided one of them would go AoE and one single target. I find this huge range of options empowering, and it amazes me that by level 10 after just an hour or two, we are talking all this spec and strategy.
Needless to say, the game is VERY easy to pick up and get into. You just kill kill kill and loot loot loot. Everything is streamlined. The only consumables are health potions. No scrolls of any kind. Everyone gets a town portal spell. You can teleport nearly anywhere instantly, including right next to any other player character in your game. There is a story, though I had no clue what was going on because Am and Ad were moving so quickly (they both played beta). It bothered me at first, but by the end I couldn't have cared less. The story is just the context for killing and looting. It could be about unicorns and cupcakes and I'd probably have just as much fun. That said, I am interested in it, especially since it's obvious so much work went into designing the world of Sanctuary, and I'd like to play alone or just with P at a slower pace sometime.
Things I didn't like: As fun as killing and looting my way through Hell is, at the end of the day, that's all it is, and I've done it before. Sure, Diablo 3 is by far the best example of this type of game I've ever played, hands down, but this hack-and-slash type of game isn't what I want anymore. When I was a teenager, I played the shit out of Diablo and Diablo 2. I had a bunch of high level characters, I'd go on Mephisto runs and Baal runs. I knew how many Stones of Jordans anything else was worth. My brother was a 'scammer' and sold Diablo 2 items on eBay with his friends after school and I used to really enjoy watching them trick people out of their items...a bit mean, sure, but it was funny because people kept falling for it. Anyway, point being, this is another game you can find an excuse to play over and over because you can ALWAYS get better items. It never ends! I understood that to some extent when I quit playing Diablo 2 in my dorm room freshman year of college trying to acquire all of every set piece (my friend and I kept a tally). When I REALLY understood what it is to play a game that doesn't end was that final disenchantment with WoW last year, that had been building for some time, that I only couldn't stop bothering with because I had to raid and maintain relationships with guild people for work...not that I didn't like the guild people, but I just had to do it, and at some point I realized I could do that forever. Until some new genre comes along and (pretends like it) offers something new that doesn't end, I've no interest in maxing character levels and repeating the same content over and over. So on some level, yeah, this is disappointing because there's a certain magic when you can become so involved with a game so as to play it endlessly, and I'm...smart? wise? jaded? experienced?...enough to see through the smoke and mirrors. It kills some of the twinkly-eyed magic, but knowing how the tricks work doesn't depreciate their value. A great game is still a great game.
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