If you reach this site through http://www.inthirdperson.com, you probably already know this move happened. However, if you access this site through Blogger or through an RSS feed, I need to let you know that I'm now at http://thirdpersonblog.wordpress.com. Please update your information accordingly.
Why did this happen? A few days ago, my blog got shut down because Google robots flagged it as a spam blog. Apparently, they did not take too kindly to my blogging etiquette of giving credit and links to people I use images from. Because only IGN had decent Street Fighter IV iPhone images, I used a bunch of those and gave them multiple credits.
I immediately requested a review to have it unlocked, which I was told would take two business days. It did not. A few more days passed, I began to freak out, and then Google reset my lock and I had to re-request an unlock. It was at this point where I became scared for my writings. I didn't want to lose them because some robots thought I was polluting the Internet.
So, I moved everything to Wordpress. Ironically, just as I finished the process, Google unlocked this blog. Thanks.
It's kind of a bummer that I've done a bunch of extra work to essentially do the exact same thing, but I was very disappointed in how Google handled the situation and frankly, I prefer the extra blogging features that Wordpress provides that I can't easily implement here on Blogger. I think the move will be better in the long run.
With that said, I will not be posting anything else from this particular address. Please continue to follow me at www.inthirdperson.com and update your RSS feeds accordingly.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Image from Level Up NewsThe other day, I received my DJ Hero setup in the mail. Not having bought refurbished products before, and being a bit concerned over the condition of the stuff they sent me, I was very quick and thorough with my inspection. The game was opened, yet the disc and manual looked to be in mint condition. As for the turntable and mixer, it looked just fine as well. Considering the fact that I can't even get DJ Hero used for anywhere close to what I paid for this refurbished version, it was a steal.
Within a few minutes of playing DJ Hero, it's clear to see that it's one of the more technically advanced music games on the market. There is a steeper learning curve to it than most, partially because of all of the elements involved in handling it and the general unfamiliarity with turntables that I expect most players to have when first trying DJ Hero. At the expert level, you have to think about pressing the three buttons on the the platter, rotating the platter forwards and backwards for scratching and back-spins without losing track of where the buttons are, moving the cross-fader, turning the effects knob and activating the euphoria button at the right time.
If that freaks you out, it shouldn't (yet). There are a number of difficulty settings, with the beginner setting giving you the bare minimum and every difficulty setting above that gradually introduces new gameplay elements to the mix. There's no shame into jumping into the game at beginner. As for me, I started out at medium and had a blast. By the end of my first day with DJ Hero, I had begun gaining 5-stars on the early mixes on expert difficulty. I don't expect myself to be the next DJ Q-Bert anytime soon, but the thrill of tearing through a mash-up is pretty awesome.
Speaking of the mash-ups, the game is made up entirely of mash-ups. This "genre" of music isn't necessarily my bag, but these all sound great and are almost all fun to play. There are two downers though that come with this package. The first one is that the set-list reuses a lot of songs. A lot of the songs get used more than once, and at least one song gets reused four times. The other downer comes from the implementation of the music. Outside of the back-spins and the effects knob, there's no room for your own creativity. In other music games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, that isn't much of a problem, because you want to play the songs the way they're meant to be played. But the nature of DJ-ing lends itself to a certain type of creativity that you just can't do by replaying someone else's mix.
OK, I lied; there's one more downer in regards to the music in DJ Hero. The game also comes with 10 mixes which can be played with a person on the turntable and another person on guitar. I appreciate the gesture, but these mixes are the least fun to play and sound very forced. In particular, the guitarist is getting the short end of the stick, having to play fairly boring guitar charts. Even if the tracks were great to play, 10 tracks isn't much to work with. DJ and guitar mode will probably last you an hour at most before both band members run out of stuff to play.
If you're in single-player mode, you will be spending much of your time in the game's career mode. This mode feels very bare-bones, especially compared to the likes of Rock Band, which does a lot outside of the gameplay, such as a loose story and unique challenges to spice up the experience. In DJ Hero, you simply move from set-list to set-list, earning stars to unlock characters and accessories as you go. There's no story or extra motivation beyond that. The other weird design choice here is that songs are grouped into sets, and you can't progress unless you beat all the songs within a set. While I see the benefits in being able to play through multiple songs without having to navigate a menu, it is a bummer when you come up short on the very last song, and have to play through the entire set again to redeem yourself.
DJ Hero is a pretty good game that has reinvigorated my interest in music games. It's core gameplay mechanics are a joy to experience if you can overcome the learning curve. In order to compete with the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, it's going to provide a deeper experience outside of just mixing music, such as a more compelling single-player mode and more downloadable content. I look forward to seeing what improvements Freestyle Games has in store for DJ Hero 2. Personally, I'm praying for the ability to hook up two turntables to one mixer for "real" DJ-ing action.
Before I go, I should talk a bit about the value proposition that DJ Hero at regular retail price offers. At the price I paid for it ($50 refurbished), I can fairly easily overlook the game's shortcomings and scratch away. However, at regular retail price of $130, I don't know if I could justify owning the game for that much, even though I think it's great. As for the special edition of this game, which is $220 in my country, forget about it. If you can get this game for under $100 and you're a fan of music games, then this may be right up your alley. At regular retail price, I would pass.
Within a few minutes of playing DJ Hero, it's clear to see that it's one of the more technically advanced music games on the market. There is a steeper learning curve to it than most, partially because of all of the elements involved in handling it and the general unfamiliarity with turntables that I expect most players to have when first trying DJ Hero. At the expert level, you have to think about pressing the three buttons on the the platter, rotating the platter forwards and backwards for scratching and back-spins without losing track of where the buttons are, moving the cross-fader, turning the effects knob and activating the euphoria button at the right time.
If that freaks you out, it shouldn't (yet). There are a number of difficulty settings, with the beginner setting giving you the bare minimum and every difficulty setting above that gradually introduces new gameplay elements to the mix. There's no shame into jumping into the game at beginner. As for me, I started out at medium and had a blast. By the end of my first day with DJ Hero, I had begun gaining 5-stars on the early mixes on expert difficulty. I don't expect myself to be the next DJ Q-Bert anytime soon, but the thrill of tearing through a mash-up is pretty awesome.
Speaking of the mash-ups, the game is made up entirely of mash-ups. This "genre" of music isn't necessarily my bag, but these all sound great and are almost all fun to play. There are two downers though that come with this package. The first one is that the set-list reuses a lot of songs. A lot of the songs get used more than once, and at least one song gets reused four times. The other downer comes from the implementation of the music. Outside of the back-spins and the effects knob, there's no room for your own creativity. In other music games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, that isn't much of a problem, because you want to play the songs the way they're meant to be played. But the nature of DJ-ing lends itself to a certain type of creativity that you just can't do by replaying someone else's mix.
OK, I lied; there's one more downer in regards to the music in DJ Hero. The game also comes with 10 mixes which can be played with a person on the turntable and another person on guitar. I appreciate the gesture, but these mixes are the least fun to play and sound very forced. In particular, the guitarist is getting the short end of the stick, having to play fairly boring guitar charts. Even if the tracks were great to play, 10 tracks isn't much to work with. DJ and guitar mode will probably last you an hour at most before both band members run out of stuff to play.
If you're in single-player mode, you will be spending much of your time in the game's career mode. This mode feels very bare-bones, especially compared to the likes of Rock Band, which does a lot outside of the gameplay, such as a loose story and unique challenges to spice up the experience. In DJ Hero, you simply move from set-list to set-list, earning stars to unlock characters and accessories as you go. There's no story or extra motivation beyond that. The other weird design choice here is that songs are grouped into sets, and you can't progress unless you beat all the songs within a set. While I see the benefits in being able to play through multiple songs without having to navigate a menu, it is a bummer when you come up short on the very last song, and have to play through the entire set again to redeem yourself.
DJ Hero is a pretty good game that has reinvigorated my interest in music games. It's core gameplay mechanics are a joy to experience if you can overcome the learning curve. In order to compete with the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, it's going to provide a deeper experience outside of just mixing music, such as a more compelling single-player mode and more downloadable content. I look forward to seeing what improvements Freestyle Games has in store for DJ Hero 2. Personally, I'm praying for the ability to hook up two turntables to one mixer for "real" DJ-ing action.
Before I go, I should talk a bit about the value proposition that DJ Hero at regular retail price offers. At the price I paid for it ($50 refurbished), I can fairly easily overlook the game's shortcomings and scratch away. However, at regular retail price of $130, I don't know if I could justify owning the game for that much, even though I think it's great. As for the special edition of this game, which is $220 in my country, forget about it. If you can get this game for under $100 and you're a fan of music games, then this may be right up your alley. At regular retail price, I would pass.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Image from Video Games BloggerAfter years of completely ignoring the game and weeks of contemplating whether or not I should give Mass Effect a shot, I finally grabbed a copy of the game. I'm a few hours in and have all six potential party members on my side. I have a lot to say about this game, which I'll dole out in a number of posts in the future.
What I wanted to focus on first is the scope of Mass Effect. Without question, this is the biggest game I've ever played. In a number of ways, the Mass Effect experience is absolutely colossal to the point that it's intimidating the heck out of me.
The team at BioWare really have created an entire galaxy for players to interact with. Starting from the outside and working inward, let's start with the planets. There are a number of different planets for you to explore for missions and assignments. Even the planets that you can't explore have an entire back story for you to read should you care to learn more about it. When you're in a planet or a space station, the environments are generally big, full of variety and full of life.
Speaking of life, it's the characters that inhabit the world of Mass Effect that really take this world to the next level of scope. There are an insane number of primary, secondary and tertiary characters. The game does an amazing job of fleshing out the stories of every character you need to know through countless hours of dialogue and back story to read. All the main characters in the game feel like they've lived a full life before you started playing this game. Secondary characters have a surprising amount of dialogue and back story as well. Even bit players have enough "meat" to their characters to make them feel like real people. In an age where most games have trouble humanizing their main characters, what Mass Effect is able to do with this entire world is blowing my mind.
Where the intimidation comes in is how how I control my Shepard to interact with this world. You're constantly put in situations where your decisions affect the world. I've already encountered a few situations where I completely changed the world. While I'm happy with the decisions I have made so far, I know that this world could be very different had I approached these scenarios differently.
So far, I'm liking Mass Effect quite a bit. It's not without fault, but overall I'm glad to be playing this. You'll be able to read more of my thoughts about Mass Effect soon.
What I wanted to focus on first is the scope of Mass Effect. Without question, this is the biggest game I've ever played. In a number of ways, the Mass Effect experience is absolutely colossal to the point that it's intimidating the heck out of me.
The team at BioWare really have created an entire galaxy for players to interact with. Starting from the outside and working inward, let's start with the planets. There are a number of different planets for you to explore for missions and assignments. Even the planets that you can't explore have an entire back story for you to read should you care to learn more about it. When you're in a planet or a space station, the environments are generally big, full of variety and full of life.
Speaking of life, it's the characters that inhabit the world of Mass Effect that really take this world to the next level of scope. There are an insane number of primary, secondary and tertiary characters. The game does an amazing job of fleshing out the stories of every character you need to know through countless hours of dialogue and back story to read. All the main characters in the game feel like they've lived a full life before you started playing this game. Secondary characters have a surprising amount of dialogue and back story as well. Even bit players have enough "meat" to their characters to make them feel like real people. In an age where most games have trouble humanizing their main characters, what Mass Effect is able to do with this entire world is blowing my mind.
Where the intimidation comes in is how how I control my Shepard to interact with this world. You're constantly put in situations where your decisions affect the world. I've already encountered a few situations where I completely changed the world. While I'm happy with the decisions I have made so far, I know that this world could be very different had I approached these scenarios differently.
So far, I'm liking Mass Effect quite a bit. It's not without fault, but overall I'm glad to be playing this. You'll be able to read more of my thoughts about Mass Effect soon.
Monday, March 15, 2010
"...like the thought of eating a steak topped with ice cream, the recently announced Street Fighter IV iPhone port has made me throw up in my mouth just a little bit. I can't imagine this being anything but an absolute nightmare to play." - Me.Up until the recent release of Street Fighter IV on the iPhone, I expected nothing less than garbage from this mobile port. In my previous post, I provided a bunch of reasons to support my initial feelings towards the final product. But then, the positive word-of-mouth online began to bubble. As a Street Fighter IV junkie, this was enough to push me over the edge and give this $10 app a shot. To my surprise, Street Fighter IV on the iPhone does very well considering the platform its on, providing players with a fun fighting game that controls well enough. This opinion is coming from someone with over 3,000 online wins on the XBOX 360 version. I'm definitely not the Diago or Justin Wong of the scene, and you don't have to trust any of what I say after this, but I've played enough Street Fighter to say that this version of it is really fun and I can't put it down.
Let's the get the obvious out of the way: no, this version does not have the best controls. The on-screen joystick does a good job of moving your fighter around the screen, but the precision to pull off special moves consistently isn't there. I could throw fireballs and hurricane kicks relatively easily, but executing a dragon punch is something I still can't do consistently. Charge moves were a bit easier for me, but I've read that some people have issues with that as well. I think if you really wanted to dedicate yourself to being an iPhone Street Fighter champ the "legit" way, you could practice on that interface and get pretty decent. For everyone else, I recommend enabling the "SP" button.
Speaking of the buttons, Capcom made some concessions to the controls to make the gameplay better suited for an iPhone. Instead of using a six-button layout, users get four buttons: punch, kick, focus and special. The game comes with three different button layouts, but you're free to customize the location of the buttons and joystick, as well as the opacity of the buttons. You can get some variations in punches and kicks depending on your situation and what direction you hold the joystick, but the game basically goes with the best or most likely button you would press in that situation. For instance, as a Ryu player, I appreciated that when you jump in and hit the kick button, the game responds with a forward kick, giving me the ability to cross-up my opponent. If you come into this game knowing how to play each character properly, for the most part the limitations don't matter. When you manually do special moves, you will always do the hard punch or hard kick version of that move. Die hard players will notice and maybe be disappointed by this lack of depth, but I think within the context of this particular version, it's good enough.
The focus attack button works just as you would expect it to. As for the special button, it acts as a simpler way to execute special moves. The closest parallel I can think of to the special button is the way Smash Bros. uses its special button. You will get a different special move depending on the direction you hold the joystick. Street Fighter purists may scoff at "nerfing" the inputs, but those people can go into the options and turn this off. By default, this option is off. For myself, I love using the special button. I don't think it breaks the game, because real Street Fighter players know that the game isn't really about your ability to do special moves, but rather your ability to combine all your moves together into a cohesive offense. The special button will not turn a newbie into a grand master.
Working within the limitations of the platform, I much prefer enabling the special button. I don't feel like I'm cheating using it. I feel like it allows me to play this game more like I would on the 360 or the arcade, because it increases the likelihood of me properly executing my special moves. With some practice, I was even able to consistently hit Ryu's classic shoryuken FADC into ultra on the iPhone; a combo I can't consistently do on the 360 controller.
All things considered, I think the controls work well within this particular version of Street Fighter IV. If you can get over the fact that some concessions were made to streamline the experience, that manually pulling off special moves can be tricky and that activating super or ultra moves will take a bit of practice when in the middle of a combo, it's fairly good for what it is and it's surprisingly, a lot of fun to play.
Enough about the controls. How does the rest of the game stack up? As far as graphics go, it looks great for an iPhone game. To make this experience work, Capcom chose to go with sprites instead of 3D characters, and all the backgrounds are static images. It looks great nonetheless. I don't think the frame-rate is 30 frames per second, it does stay steady. The audio is identical to the arcade and home ports, making this feel like home for any seasoned Street Fighter IV veterans. The only major omission is the song "Indestructible", but that may be for the best. The game engine is 100% Street Fighter. Everything behaves the way it does in the other ports, meaning that all of the move properties and priorities are in place. With the exception of a few missing normal moves, you can still pull off most of the combos and juggles from its counterparts, which is pretty amazing considering the platform it's on.
The game comes with eight characters: Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Blanka, Abel, Dhalsim, Guile and M. Bison. It's a bummer that less than 1/3 of the Street Fighter IV cast is represented here, but I guess Capcom had to make cuts somewhere. Maybe they'll add more characters via DLC. Considering the eight choices they made, they were all pretty safe bets and odds are you already play one of those eight. I main Akuma, but Ryu and Ken are close enough, and my secondary is Abel, who plays just as I would expect him to here.
The only other bummers I wanted to mention are the loading times, battery consumption and sound options. The game does feature some loading times, which does hamper the quickness of the experience a bit. This game will also destroy your battery, as it is a processor-heavy game. I love the sounds of Street Fighter IV, but not giving me the option to listen to my own music or podcasts while playing it is a huge letdown. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to applications is when apps don't let me listen to my own music while I use them.
Overall, this version of Street Fighter IV on the iPhone has me eating my words. Capcom brought in the right amount of Street Fighter IV goodness onto a mobile platform, making it a lot of fun to play for lapsed Street Fighter fans or Street Fighter IV enthusiasts like me. At $10, it's a bit pricey as far as apps go. For me personally, it's a great game at $10 and I will definitely get my moneys worth. If you still can't stomach paying $10 for it, wait for the moment it inevitably goes on sale. Street Fighter fans will not be disappointed with this one.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Image from DestructoidAs a fan of music games, hip-hop music and DJ-ing, DJ Hero caught my eye the moment it was announced. At first, I had my reservations in regards to how it would control. Unlike my previous forays into video game musical instruments, I do have a bit of background in real DJ-ing, which skewed my perception of how it would work. While I am no DJ Shadow or DJ Q-Bert, I do have the ability to blend tracks on CD turntables and do some basic scratching. I was kind of bummed that the controller would only feature one turntable and I wasn't so sure I was cool with having buttons on the turntable. It wasn't until I got my hands on it a few weeks ago that I changed my stance.
It was Valentines Day of all days, and I was out on the town with my girlfriend when we walked by a video game store I'd never been to before. Maybe it makes me a bad boyfriend (or I have an awesome girlfriend, I'll go with the latter) but she was cool with us stopping by. At the back of the store, they had the Renegade Edition of DJ Hero set up with the stand. The game was set at medium difficulty, and without knowing beforehand how to play the game, I got it within seconds. It felt really good to flip the cross-fader and scratch the record in a way that sort of (but not really) simulated the feel of DJ-ing. I cranked the difficulty up to expert just for fun, and I lasted about a few seconds before I got decimated. In spite of the thrashing it gave me on expert, I was able to see that this game was pretty fun to play and I would love to work my way up to the point where I could fake DJ with the best of them.
The only major sticking point though, has been price. It launched in my country for $130, which is a lot to ask for in a one-player experience. Rock Band launched here at $170, but three people could play together out-of-the-box. For months, I have been keeping tabs on the price of DJ Hero, waiting for the most opportune time to strike.
Luckily for me, I was able to take advantage of a web-exclusive deal from a major retailer in my country that sold a refurbished version of DJ Hero for a much more reasonable $50. It sold out within a few hours, so sorry to my fellow countrymen and women who missed out.
I'm looking forward to getting some real hands-on time with DJ Hero in the next few weeks. I know that the game isn't perfect, but the core experience felt compelling enough the first time around to warrant a serious stab at it.
It was Valentines Day of all days, and I was out on the town with my girlfriend when we walked by a video game store I'd never been to before. Maybe it makes me a bad boyfriend (or I have an awesome girlfriend, I'll go with the latter) but she was cool with us stopping by. At the back of the store, they had the Renegade Edition of DJ Hero set up with the stand. The game was set at medium difficulty, and without knowing beforehand how to play the game, I got it within seconds. It felt really good to flip the cross-fader and scratch the record in a way that sort of (but not really) simulated the feel of DJ-ing. I cranked the difficulty up to expert just for fun, and I lasted about a few seconds before I got decimated. In spite of the thrashing it gave me on expert, I was able to see that this game was pretty fun to play and I would love to work my way up to the point where I could fake DJ with the best of them.
The only major sticking point though, has been price. It launched in my country for $130, which is a lot to ask for in a one-player experience. Rock Band launched here at $170, but three people could play together out-of-the-box. For months, I have been keeping tabs on the price of DJ Hero, waiting for the most opportune time to strike.
Luckily for me, I was able to take advantage of a web-exclusive deal from a major retailer in my country that sold a refurbished version of DJ Hero for a much more reasonable $50. It sold out within a few hours, so sorry to my fellow countrymen and women who missed out.
I'm looking forward to getting some real hands-on time with DJ Hero in the next few weeks. I know that the game isn't perfect, but the core experience felt compelling enough the first time around to warrant a serious stab at it.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Image from DestructoidAs an adult, Mario games make me feel kind of weird. A game about a fat plumber and his brother romping around a magical world trying to save a princess from a giant turtle is not exactly adult fare. However, Mario games are also universally fun, regardless of age. In particular, I grew up in the early heyday of Super Mario 1, so 2D Mario games strike a very specific chord in my heart - sort of like how many adults still love watching Disney movies.
After months of - I admit - playing other games, I just finished New Super Mario Bros. Wii. For a number of reasons, I've pushed this game to the back of my queue, but never because it was a bad game. I'm just not often in the mood to play a Mario game nowadays. But every time I've booted up New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I've always had a good time.
I don't know what it is about Nintendo (or what it is about other developers), but when it comes to platforming games, Super Mario games still rule supreme after almost three decades. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is another example of a straight-up fun platformer. Mario controls as you would expect, making it easy for anyone to jump right in. The level design is top-notch. Each level seemed to have something unique to it, and often times things I hadn't seen done in a Mario game before, or twists on familiar elements that make things fresh.
Just by looking at it thought, you may miss out on the new twists that make this one great. Graphically, it's essentially the DS game on your TV. It looks alright, but it's definitely not the prettiest Wii game you'll ever see. The new power-ups are alright. The propeller suit is a fan favourite, while the penguin suit didn't do much for me. Ice flowers are cool too, once you get used to their projectile arc.
Of course, the biggest selling point to this game is 4-player simultaneous co-op. How did I go this far without mentioning it? Anyway, this mode is really fun and hectic. Having to work together to get through these levels does change the dynamics of the game to an extent. It also opens the game up for people of varying skill levels to all join in. I played this 4-player with my 3 year-old cousin, who because he had three older cousins playing with him, he could still have fun with it even though he wasn't very good.
The saving grace of co-op is "bubble mode". At any time, you can place yourself in a bubble to be invincible. However, one of your teammates has to pop you out of the bubble to resume control. If you're in a bubble when everyone else dies, then you all lose. Even with seasoned Mario veterans, it can be very tricky to run through a level together without strategically using bubble mode to get through spots. During hairy spots, we would have certain people go into the bubble and have one person run through by themselves because it would actually be easier that way.
The only real bummer to me about this game are the boss fights and lack of online play. With the exception of the final boss fight, the rest of them are trapped in 8-bit gameplay conventions. They don't vary much from what you faced in Super Mario 3. That last boss fight though...oh man! As for the multiplayer, I know that this game is best suited for on-the-couch multiplayer, but with most of the competition sporting some sort of online play, it would have been a nice touch.
For those who still want to play 2D Mario, you can't go wrong with the latest Wii installment. I've had a lot of fun with it and my cousins and I often bust it out when we're all together, but it's still fun on your own should you not have people to play with.
After months of - I admit - playing other games, I just finished New Super Mario Bros. Wii. For a number of reasons, I've pushed this game to the back of my queue, but never because it was a bad game. I'm just not often in the mood to play a Mario game nowadays. But every time I've booted up New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I've always had a good time.
I don't know what it is about Nintendo (or what it is about other developers), but when it comes to platforming games, Super Mario games still rule supreme after almost three decades. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is another example of a straight-up fun platformer. Mario controls as you would expect, making it easy for anyone to jump right in. The level design is top-notch. Each level seemed to have something unique to it, and often times things I hadn't seen done in a Mario game before, or twists on familiar elements that make things fresh.
Just by looking at it thought, you may miss out on the new twists that make this one great. Graphically, it's essentially the DS game on your TV. It looks alright, but it's definitely not the prettiest Wii game you'll ever see. The new power-ups are alright. The propeller suit is a fan favourite, while the penguin suit didn't do much for me. Ice flowers are cool too, once you get used to their projectile arc.
Of course, the biggest selling point to this game is 4-player simultaneous co-op. How did I go this far without mentioning it? Anyway, this mode is really fun and hectic. Having to work together to get through these levels does change the dynamics of the game to an extent. It also opens the game up for people of varying skill levels to all join in. I played this 4-player with my 3 year-old cousin, who because he had three older cousins playing with him, he could still have fun with it even though he wasn't very good.
The saving grace of co-op is "bubble mode". At any time, you can place yourself in a bubble to be invincible. However, one of your teammates has to pop you out of the bubble to resume control. If you're in a bubble when everyone else dies, then you all lose. Even with seasoned Mario veterans, it can be very tricky to run through a level together without strategically using bubble mode to get through spots. During hairy spots, we would have certain people go into the bubble and have one person run through by themselves because it would actually be easier that way.
The only real bummer to me about this game are the boss fights and lack of online play. With the exception of the final boss fight, the rest of them are trapped in 8-bit gameplay conventions. They don't vary much from what you faced in Super Mario 3. That last boss fight though...oh man! As for the multiplayer, I know that this game is best suited for on-the-couch multiplayer, but with most of the competition sporting some sort of online play, it would have been a nice touch.
For those who still want to play 2D Mario, you can't go wrong with the latest Wii installment. I've had a lot of fun with it and my cousins and I often bust it out when we're all together, but it's still fun on your own should you not have people to play with.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Image from HexusWith the Perfect Dark remake hitting XBOX Live next week, now was kind of a weird time for me to pick up the 2005 prequel, Perfect Dark Zero. I loved the original Perfect Dark, but I've never played this one. At the time, reviews for this game were pretty good, but this game has been the butt-end of many jokes since. I finally decided to take the plunge when I saw a brand new copy at the store for the rock-bottom price of $3.
I have yet to play it, but I'm already second-guessing my purchase. I watched my brother play this game for a bit, and it was...dated. The original Perfect Dark is even more dated, but I played it when it was new and have built a strong sense of nostalgia around the game. Perfect Dark Zero on the surface looks old. The graphics don't hold up, the controls appear clunky in a Halo/Modern Warfare world, bad guys take a bunch of bullets to take out and the inclusion of arrows on the ground to tell you where to go feels like a crutch to compensate for poor level design.
With that said, the game only cost me $3 and I have yet to actually play the game myself. I think I'll give it a shot before the remake hits next week.
I have yet to play it, but I'm already second-guessing my purchase. I watched my brother play this game for a bit, and it was...dated. The original Perfect Dark is even more dated, but I played it when it was new and have built a strong sense of nostalgia around the game. Perfect Dark Zero on the surface looks old. The graphics don't hold up, the controls appear clunky in a Halo/Modern Warfare world, bad guys take a bunch of bullets to take out and the inclusion of arrows on the ground to tell you where to go feels like a crutch to compensate for poor level design.
With that said, the game only cost me $3 and I have yet to actually play the game myself. I think I'll give it a shot before the remake hits next week.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Image from KotakuYesterday at the Game Developer Conference, Sony finally announced the name and some more details about their new motion controller. The controller (and sub-controller) are now known as the Playstation Move. I'm not going to go into details about how the thing works, or what games were just announced to support it, but I'll be happy to direct you to places that have that type of information.
What I wanted to do is use this announcement as a jump-off point for my current perceptions of motion control. Back in 2006, I was all aboard the motion control train. With Nintendo - my favourite game company - backing this technology, there was nothing that could go wrong, right? Wrong.
I bought my Wii on launch-day and had a blast with it. For the next few weeks that winter, every party with family and friends was a Wii party. While motion controls did bring something new to the table, Nintendo's initial stab at motion controls brought with it a number of problems.
For anyone that has played a Wii, you've figured out by now that the Wii remote doesn't translate your movements 1:1 into the game. Rather, it reads a gesture you make and then plays out the action on screen if you've done the gesture properly. What happens in most Wii games is that you end up not truly simulating the motions you try to do. Instead, the remote doesn't read your motions correctly and does something you don't want it to do, or you end up doing "short-cut motions" that work just as well as the full motion, which kills any immersion the game was supposed to provide. Flicking your wrist to throw a bowling ball works just as well as a full-body throw.
The lack of buttons, poor game translations from regular controls to "Wii" controls, games going crazy when the remote isn't pointed at the screen and a sudden shift in focus towards casual games made a lot of what the Wii was supposed to be about not that fun for me. I have tried the motion plus attachment, but having to constantly reset the controller to work properly is a pain. Within a few months of buying the Wii, I caved and bought my first non-Nintendo system since the Atari 2600 because I wanted to play games that controlled with buttons, d-pads and analog sticks. I still love me some Wii Bowling and Boom Blox, but most of my gaming time is now motion controller free.
Regardless of how I feel, the Wii has basically won this console cycle, leaving Sony and Microsoft floundering to try and capitalize on the success of motion control. Sony has taken a very "me-too" approach with the design of their Move controllers, and Microsoft is going way out in left field with the controller-free Project Natal. While they both claim to have better solutions to motion control, I have my doubts. Watching the Playstation Move in the video below only further fueled my doubts, as the person in the video punches wildly in the air and the game does nothing to respond to his movements.
I'm not even going to get into the myriad of other challenges Sony and Microsoft have specifically in trying to launch these products into the marketplace. I just want to talk about how these control mechanisms work and what it'll take for me to fully buy into them as a main form of input. I'll break it down into three key points:
1) Accuracy
In my 20+ years of gaming, I've never had problems inputting a command with a button press. The game only has to decipher whether or not the button is pressed down or not. With motion control, there are so many more variables involved, and therefore, a higher percentage of error. It's so frustrating to play games like any Wii boxing game and see your physical energy go to waste when you throw a real-life hay-maker and see that my character is standing still.
The Playstation Move looks to be better than the Wii remote, but still appears to suffer from some accuracy quirks. With the Natal, we have no idea how accurate that setup will be when it hits living rooms around the world. I know it's a lot to ask, but I will always prefer pressing a button to doing a gesture if the gesture isn't accurate enough.
2) Purpose
Very early on in the Wii's life-cycle, a lot of third-party developers thought they could cash-in on the Wii hype train by shoehorning motion controls into traditional games. Time and time again, we've seen this strategy fail miserably. Often times in the case of motion controls, developers simply substitute a button press with a gesture, which usually doesn't feel good, doesn't accurately reflect the action on the screen and takes you out of the action more than brings you in.
Motion control games need to have a clear purpose for being in the game or don't bother. Developers need to create experiences that work with the strengths and weaknesses of the interface in mind and not force the player to flail their arms to substitute a button press. Throwing a baseball at a stack of blocks in Boom Blox feels awesome. Having to draw a star on the screen to activate slow-motion in Trauma Center feels awful and makes no sense.
3) It has to feel right
While this particular point applies to all motion controllers (even you, Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard), I'm most concerned about the Natal on this one. Microsoft has hyped this up as the most natural gaming experience ever, but I don't see what's natural about flailing your limbs around to hit balls that are projected at you or driving a car by pretending to hold onto a steering wheel and pretending to hit pedals with your feet that aren't there. The big promise of motion control is the ability to give players a more realistic and immersive experience. Poor motion control implementation just feels even more awkward and out of place than any button press would.
While I am currently not much of a fan of the current implementation of motion controls in today's consoles, I'm reluctant to write them off completely. I know that motion controls are here to stay and will improve with time. By the time these things work as planned, maybe I'll warm up to them more. I'm still not sure if I'll ever be ready to let go of sitting on the couch and pushing buttons, but we'll talk about that when motion controllers finally come of age.
What I wanted to do is use this announcement as a jump-off point for my current perceptions of motion control. Back in 2006, I was all aboard the motion control train. With Nintendo - my favourite game company - backing this technology, there was nothing that could go wrong, right? Wrong.
I bought my Wii on launch-day and had a blast with it. For the next few weeks that winter, every party with family and friends was a Wii party. While motion controls did bring something new to the table, Nintendo's initial stab at motion controls brought with it a number of problems.
For anyone that has played a Wii, you've figured out by now that the Wii remote doesn't translate your movements 1:1 into the game. Rather, it reads a gesture you make and then plays out the action on screen if you've done the gesture properly. What happens in most Wii games is that you end up not truly simulating the motions you try to do. Instead, the remote doesn't read your motions correctly and does something you don't want it to do, or you end up doing "short-cut motions" that work just as well as the full motion, which kills any immersion the game was supposed to provide. Flicking your wrist to throw a bowling ball works just as well as a full-body throw.
The lack of buttons, poor game translations from regular controls to "Wii" controls, games going crazy when the remote isn't pointed at the screen and a sudden shift in focus towards casual games made a lot of what the Wii was supposed to be about not that fun for me. I have tried the motion plus attachment, but having to constantly reset the controller to work properly is a pain. Within a few months of buying the Wii, I caved and bought my first non-Nintendo system since the Atari 2600 because I wanted to play games that controlled with buttons, d-pads and analog sticks. I still love me some Wii Bowling and Boom Blox, but most of my gaming time is now motion controller free.
Regardless of how I feel, the Wii has basically won this console cycle, leaving Sony and Microsoft floundering to try and capitalize on the success of motion control. Sony has taken a very "me-too" approach with the design of their Move controllers, and Microsoft is going way out in left field with the controller-free Project Natal. While they both claim to have better solutions to motion control, I have my doubts. Watching the Playstation Move in the video below only further fueled my doubts, as the person in the video punches wildly in the air and the game does nothing to respond to his movements.
I'm not even going to get into the myriad of other challenges Sony and Microsoft have specifically in trying to launch these products into the marketplace. I just want to talk about how these control mechanisms work and what it'll take for me to fully buy into them as a main form of input. I'll break it down into three key points:
1) Accuracy
In my 20+ years of gaming, I've never had problems inputting a command with a button press. The game only has to decipher whether or not the button is pressed down or not. With motion control, there are so many more variables involved, and therefore, a higher percentage of error. It's so frustrating to play games like any Wii boxing game and see your physical energy go to waste when you throw a real-life hay-maker and see that my character is standing still.
The Playstation Move looks to be better than the Wii remote, but still appears to suffer from some accuracy quirks. With the Natal, we have no idea how accurate that setup will be when it hits living rooms around the world. I know it's a lot to ask, but I will always prefer pressing a button to doing a gesture if the gesture isn't accurate enough.
2) Purpose
Very early on in the Wii's life-cycle, a lot of third-party developers thought they could cash-in on the Wii hype train by shoehorning motion controls into traditional games. Time and time again, we've seen this strategy fail miserably. Often times in the case of motion controls, developers simply substitute a button press with a gesture, which usually doesn't feel good, doesn't accurately reflect the action on the screen and takes you out of the action more than brings you in.
Motion control games need to have a clear purpose for being in the game or don't bother. Developers need to create experiences that work with the strengths and weaknesses of the interface in mind and not force the player to flail their arms to substitute a button press. Throwing a baseball at a stack of blocks in Boom Blox feels awesome. Having to draw a star on the screen to activate slow-motion in Trauma Center feels awful and makes no sense.
3) It has to feel right
While this particular point applies to all motion controllers (even you, Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard), I'm most concerned about the Natal on this one. Microsoft has hyped this up as the most natural gaming experience ever, but I don't see what's natural about flailing your limbs around to hit balls that are projected at you or driving a car by pretending to hold onto a steering wheel and pretending to hit pedals with your feet that aren't there. The big promise of motion control is the ability to give players a more realistic and immersive experience. Poor motion control implementation just feels even more awkward and out of place than any button press would.
While I am currently not much of a fan of the current implementation of motion controls in today's consoles, I'm reluctant to write them off completely. I know that motion controls are here to stay and will improve with time. By the time these things work as planned, maybe I'll warm up to them more. I'm still not sure if I'll ever be ready to let go of sitting on the couch and pushing buttons, but we'll talk about that when motion controllers finally come of age.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Image from IGNI'm officially 1/4 of the way through Dead Space, and there was something about the overall feel of the game that I thought was worth mentioning: the underlying sense of deja vu.
Normally, that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. And to Dead Space's credit, it does do a few good things to make the game stand out on its own, such as the emphasis on shooting limbs and everything that happens in space or low-gravity scenarios. But it's pretty clear to see that Dead Space is clearly built off of other influences.
The third-person shooting action and survival horror elements are directly lifted from Resident Evil 4. The story progression though big events or small collectibles such as audio logs came from Bioshock and Metroid Prime. Much of the space station aesthetic comes from Metroid Prime. Outside of games, Dead Space takes a ton of cues from the "Alien" series of movies.
To be fair, if you break down 99% of anything ever made, you can find all the elements that came before it to create the final product. In Dead Space though, the game doesn't try and hide where those influences came from. If anything, I really feel like they tried hard to at least match its influences in terms of quality, if not surpass them.
Throughout my experience so far, I always feel like I'm playing a mash-up of a bunch of other people's ideas. But damn, they're executed so well in Dead Space. The overall level of polish and detail so far is spot on with what I think this game should be. It's fun, very exciting and constantly scaring the pants off of me. There is a moment towards the end of chapter 3 where you encounter something that is 10 times more insane than anything you've encountered up to that point and I almost lost it. I was actually yelling at my TV and mashing buttons during a moment that required precision because I couldn't help myself.
All of the things it borrows from other games kind of makes Dead Space a more "comfortable" experience. Not in the sense of being less scary, but being able to quickly jump into this world and have fun. It's always in the back of my head that I'm not playing something wholly new, but as long as it stays this good, that's totally fine.
Normally, that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. And to Dead Space's credit, it does do a few good things to make the game stand out on its own, such as the emphasis on shooting limbs and everything that happens in space or low-gravity scenarios. But it's pretty clear to see that Dead Space is clearly built off of other influences.
The third-person shooting action and survival horror elements are directly lifted from Resident Evil 4. The story progression though big events or small collectibles such as audio logs came from Bioshock and Metroid Prime. Much of the space station aesthetic comes from Metroid Prime. Outside of games, Dead Space takes a ton of cues from the "Alien" series of movies.
To be fair, if you break down 99% of anything ever made, you can find all the elements that came before it to create the final product. In Dead Space though, the game doesn't try and hide where those influences came from. If anything, I really feel like they tried hard to at least match its influences in terms of quality, if not surpass them.
Throughout my experience so far, I always feel like I'm playing a mash-up of a bunch of other people's ideas. But damn, they're executed so well in Dead Space. The overall level of polish and detail so far is spot on with what I think this game should be. It's fun, very exciting and constantly scaring the pants off of me. There is a moment towards the end of chapter 3 where you encounter something that is 10 times more insane than anything you've encountered up to that point and I almost lost it. I was actually yelling at my TV and mashing buttons during a moment that required precision because I couldn't help myself.
All of the things it borrows from other games kind of makes Dead Space a more "comfortable" experience. Not in the sense of being less scary, but being able to quickly jump into this world and have fun. It's always in the back of my head that I'm not playing something wholly new, but as long as it stays this good, that's totally fine.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Back when I first lost my job, I made a vow to myself that I would not buy any games until I got a job. I admit, I made this vow to myself in hopes that my drought would not last long, and that I could hold out with my current stash of games.
Well, I'm a bit sad to say that I'm revoking my vow and I still don't have a job. I'm still applying for jobs everyday and I've had a few interviews, but as someone who has bought games for most of their life whenever they wanted, trying to stop is real, real hard. It got to the point where thinking about buying games became too much of a distraction; taking my focus away from finding a job.
I'm a bit sad that I've caved. I kind of feel like I let myself down and that I don't have the discipline to hold out. However, over this past month, I have held out far longer than I ever have before.
I will begin buying games effective immediately. In particular, I'll be eying the Mass Effect series, but I'll make sure to be smart with my money moving forward.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Image from Video Game CentralAfter playing The Lost and Damned, I wasn't sure what to expect from The Ballad of Gay Tony. While the Lost and Damned did a lot of things to separate itself from the core Grand Theft Auto experience, I don't think all of it was worth while. I really loved the characterization in The Lost and Damned, but there was a very distinct point where the focus gets taken away from the main conflict and when you finally come back to it, the conclusion doesn't give you the payoff you were hoping for. All the while, I was struggling to get re-acquainted with the Grand Theft Auto controls.
I'm currently about 8 missions into The Ballad of Gay Tony, and it's starting off on much better footing for me than The Lost and Damned did. Controls are no longer a factor with me, now that I've had the entirety of the TLAD to get used to them. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I'm not thinking about them any more when I play. While this game is currently lacking in innovation in comparison to TLAD, where it has it beat hands down so far are the missions. The game doesn't really have any "warm up" missions and goes straight into the crazy stuff. The second mission features you hitting golf balls on a driving range into a guy tied to the vehicle that picks up golf balls. From there, it's been increasingly bombastic and awesome.
My only gripe so far with Gay Tony is the plot and the characters. The story of Luis and Tony is probably the weakest of the three GTA IV stories, even though both characters are very likable. The main story arch is built around one person having to clean up another person's mess, which kind of has been done to death in this series. This even happened in TLAD, but it was offset by a great tension between Billy and Johnny. The antagonists in TBoGT just aren't as strong.
Thankfully, Rockstar got the missions right, which is the most important part of any GTA to me. TLAD had some missions that felt almost broken in design to me, which upset me more than anything else in that game. Everything so far in Gay Tony has been smooth as butter. I can overlook a somewhat weaker story when I'm busy driving away from a biker gang, the cops, a tank and a low-flying helicopter and throwing remote sticky explosives at them all.
I'm currently about 8 missions into The Ballad of Gay Tony, and it's starting off on much better footing for me than The Lost and Damned did. Controls are no longer a factor with me, now that I've had the entirety of the TLAD to get used to them. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I'm not thinking about them any more when I play. While this game is currently lacking in innovation in comparison to TLAD, where it has it beat hands down so far are the missions. The game doesn't really have any "warm up" missions and goes straight into the crazy stuff. The second mission features you hitting golf balls on a driving range into a guy tied to the vehicle that picks up golf balls. From there, it's been increasingly bombastic and awesome.
My only gripe so far with Gay Tony is the plot and the characters. The story of Luis and Tony is probably the weakest of the three GTA IV stories, even though both characters are very likable. The main story arch is built around one person having to clean up another person's mess, which kind of has been done to death in this series. This even happened in TLAD, but it was offset by a great tension between Billy and Johnny. The antagonists in TBoGT just aren't as strong.
Thankfully, Rockstar got the missions right, which is the most important part of any GTA to me. TLAD had some missions that felt almost broken in design to me, which upset me more than anything else in that game. Everything so far in Gay Tony has been smooth as butter. I can overlook a somewhat weaker story when I'm busy driving away from a biker gang, the cops, a tank and a low-flying helicopter and throwing remote sticky explosives at them all.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Image from NerdlesBack in 2008, I was very intrigued by Dead Space. After E3, the buzz going around was that it was like the evolution of Resident Evil 4. Since that game is one of my all-time favourites, Dead Space was very much on my radar. The reviews came out great and it eventually went on to sell at least enough to warrant a greatest hits re-release.
So why didn't I pick it up back then? I don't know, really. At the time, I know I was busy with Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead. After I was through with those games, I would always look at that box every time I went into a game store, but never acted on it. I even saw this game brand new for $10 and still didn't buy it. For whatever reason, I just kept passing it up.
That is, until this past Christmas break. Using a gift card I received, I picked up Dead Space...and let it sit on my shelf for two months while I played through Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Lego Rock Band, The Lost and Damned, Borderlands and Silent Hill: Homecoming.
I'm only about half way through chapter 1, but dude...Dead Space is kind of rocking my socks. For the few of you who aren't familiar with this game, I'll give you a quick rundown. You are an engineer who has been assigned to fix this giant space station. You and your crew crash land on the space station, and quickly realize there are aliens on it. In terms of tone, mood and atmosphere, this game is very much like the movie Aliens.
What the game is currently lacking in innovation, it makes up for in polish. Even in 2010, Dead Space graphically is one of the best games out there. Audio wise, my goodness. It has some of the most amazing sound of any video game. The ambient sound really sets the tone of the game and does a great job of freaking you out to the point where you're not sure if those creepy noises are coming from the game, or something in the other room of your house. Leading up to the release, EA was hyping up how the game doesn't have a heads-up display in the traditional game sense. Instead, information such as your health and amount of ammo in your clip are displayed on the character himself and all menus are pulled up within an in-game floating "screen" that you can look around. This is supposed to keep you immersed in the game, but I would have been fine with a regular HUD. Nice touch nonetheless.
In terms of the horror elements of Dead Space, it's about on par at this point with Resident Evil 4. The "horror" you feel mainly comes from jump scares and the tension you feel when your character is physically threatened, which is a lot. If you're looking for a more psychological horror experience along the lines of Silent Hill though, then this isn't it.
Image from Neoseeker
The one thing that has me tripping up at this point are the controls. Granted, I've played this game for less than two hours at this point, but some elements of the layout and how they work are taking some time to adjust to. For instance, when you're not aiming your gun, the right stick acts as an independent camera control rather than controlling where your character is looking. What this means is, you can swing the camera around so that you're actually looking at the front of your character. It's weird when I try and look around from the perspective of my character using the stick and instead it moves the camera independent of the character. I'm also not a fan of left bumper acting as the run button. Having that handled by pushing in the left stick would work much better in my opinion.
So why didn't I pick it up back then? I don't know, really. At the time, I know I was busy with Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead. After I was through with those games, I would always look at that box every time I went into a game store, but never acted on it. I even saw this game brand new for $10 and still didn't buy it. For whatever reason, I just kept passing it up.
That is, until this past Christmas break. Using a gift card I received, I picked up Dead Space...and let it sit on my shelf for two months while I played through Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Lego Rock Band, The Lost and Damned, Borderlands and Silent Hill: Homecoming.
I'm only about half way through chapter 1, but dude...Dead Space is kind of rocking my socks. For the few of you who aren't familiar with this game, I'll give you a quick rundown. You are an engineer who has been assigned to fix this giant space station. You and your crew crash land on the space station, and quickly realize there are aliens on it. In terms of tone, mood and atmosphere, this game is very much like the movie Aliens.
What the game is currently lacking in innovation, it makes up for in polish. Even in 2010, Dead Space graphically is one of the best games out there. Audio wise, my goodness. It has some of the most amazing sound of any video game. The ambient sound really sets the tone of the game and does a great job of freaking you out to the point where you're not sure if those creepy noises are coming from the game, or something in the other room of your house. Leading up to the release, EA was hyping up how the game doesn't have a heads-up display in the traditional game sense. Instead, information such as your health and amount of ammo in your clip are displayed on the character himself and all menus are pulled up within an in-game floating "screen" that you can look around. This is supposed to keep you immersed in the game, but I would have been fine with a regular HUD. Nice touch nonetheless.
In terms of the horror elements of Dead Space, it's about on par at this point with Resident Evil 4. The "horror" you feel mainly comes from jump scares and the tension you feel when your character is physically threatened, which is a lot. If you're looking for a more psychological horror experience along the lines of Silent Hill though, then this isn't it.
Image from NeoseekerThe one thing that has me tripping up at this point are the controls. Granted, I've played this game for less than two hours at this point, but some elements of the layout and how they work are taking some time to adjust to. For instance, when you're not aiming your gun, the right stick acts as an independent camera control rather than controlling where your character is looking. What this means is, you can swing the camera around so that you're actually looking at the front of your character. It's weird when I try and look around from the perspective of my character using the stick and instead it moves the camera independent of the character. I'm also not a fan of left bumper acting as the run button. Having that handled by pushing in the left stick would work much better in my opinion.
There is still a lot of time for this game to get better (or worse), so I will reserve final judgment until I'm finished with it. I look forward to seeing how this plays out, because it's off to a great start.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Over these past few weeks of unemployment, the game that has monopolized my time is Modern Warfare 2. Having played multiplayer for just over 24 hours, a lot of that was "not fun". I say that in the sense that for every time I killed someone, I died about 2.5 times. There were games where I would kill two people and die 20 times. The core mechanics of multiplayer are fantastic, but the competition is hella fierce. Most of these people also have an extra two years of Modern Warfare 1 experience as an advantage on me. As far as I know, the game doesn't do anything to keep low-level players from playing high-level players, so you pretty much have to play the best-of-the-best every time you hit the battlefield.
Being a hardcore gamer and one with experience playing other first-person shooters, I was able to analyze my play, recognize my mistakes, do my best to correct them and equip my character with the right load-out to fit my style. Now when I play, I regularly score over 1,000 points with a close-to 1:1 kill/death ratio. Sometimes, I even dominate the field. The game has become a lot more satisfying and fun to play now that I can play at a level I'm happy with. Granted, I wouldn't consider myself "good", but I can get by. I had to go through this same curve when learning Street Fighter IV. I lost a lot at first, but was willing to put in the work to get better until I did.
For others though, I can totally see how this is a very unappealing experience. In the grand scheme of things, you shouldn't have to play a game like you're training for a sport. I've heard so many people talk about their avoidance of playing online first-person shooters with the general public because the level of competition is just too high. Usually the story goes, "I die, then I re-spawn and immediately die again before I even have the chance to move!" I got lucky with Modern Warfare 2 clicking with me in a way that I can get by. Most of the time when it comes to competitive online gaming I'm not so lucky.
Labels:
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Monday, March 1, 2010
It was the year 2000. Clutching my pre-order receipt that I've been in possession of for over a year, I went down to the local video game store to pick up my copy of Perfect Dark. Its spiritual predecessor, Goldeneye, blew my mind with a great single player campaign and at the time, God-like multiplayer. I must have put in hundreds of hours into that game, easily. Everything from trying to unlock all of the cheats in single player to all-out assaults on my friends and loved ones in multiplayer. Looking back, Goldeneye is one of those games that defined that whole generation of gaming.
With that said, I had high hopes for Perfect Dark. Everything that I had read and seen about the game seemed like an improvement on what was my favourite game at the time. I was quick to pre-order it, which would come back to burn me when the game was delayed multiple times. The anticipation was killing me. By the time the game was ready to ship, the reviews for the game were glowing and I would almost shake at the thought of finally getting my hands on it.
Did the game live up to the hype? I know a lot of people dismissed this game when it first came out because it wasn't Goldeneye 2, but they missed out on a game that was amazing for the time. Everything about it, from the graphics, to the controls, to the gameplay, trumped everything that Goldeneye had to offer. Single player had a lot more to offer in terms of mission variety and multiplayer was insanely customizable. To this day, Perfect Dark is one of the few FPS games with bots. Gears of War has horrible bots and Modern Warfare 2 doesn't have bots at all. Between my cousins and I, this was the go-to party game for a long time. I'm pretty sure all of our profiles have over 100 hours logged in, easily.
The only things that held it back were two-fold: it wasn't Goldeneye and it was a bit ahead of its time. Despite being the superior product, Perfect Dark did not have the charm of Goldeneye, which really hurt the game's perception among the masses. Among gamers that played the game, some were turned off by the technical failures of the game. It wasn't for a lack of tech-savvy on Rare's part. This was clearly a side-effect of pushing the Nintendo 64 farther than it was capable of going, even with the ROM expansion pack. The frame-rate would dip dramatically in spots, particularly in co-op, which is practically unplayable.
Maybe when Perfect Dark gets released on XBOX Live this month with HD graphics and upgraded frame-rate, people can finally overcome its technical faults and see it for what it is. Though maybe what it is now, is an out-dated game that is light-years behind the Halo's and Modern Warfare's of today. My expectations for the re-release won't reach the highs I felt about 12 years ago, but I'll be ready to toss out Laptop Guns on day one when this comes out.
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