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Categories: Commentary
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I’ve been sick for the last few days, which means that I’ve been comfort gaming.
I tried playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary, but I found myself in a large room full of pillars and switches and evenly spaced handholds and the occasional mummy — all of which is great when I’m well, but distressing when I’m sick. Typically I love Tomb Raider’s open exploration, but I felt like a lost kid in the mall and just wanted to sit down until someone found me.
So I switched over to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I love MUA and it’s even better now that I have the Hulk because I can stomp my way through levels. MUA is the perfect comfort game because I can sit on the couch, press a few buttons, and am rewarded with an interactive comic book. In other words, very little brain power is required.
Do you guys have comfort games?
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someecards.com ecards for when you care enough to hit send
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Categories: Preview
Tags: demo, turn-based, xbox 360
I checked out the demo for Operation Darkness last night and, at its core, it’s the type of game I’d like to play. Beyond its core is a game with poor graphics and shoddy controls making it not the type of game I’d like to buy.
Operation Darkness is a turn-based strategy game with a supernaturally-infused WWII setting. You control a squad who are tasked with taking out Axis troops, living and undead. Basic movement orders are issued on a grid and squad members can open fire provided they are within range of the enemy. Weapons in the demo included bayonnets, hand grenades, and bazookas, which opens up strategy options even before you consider the game’s magic system. Deeper commands, like setting up zones of cover fire, also bolster the game’s tactical side. Sadly, nothing bolsters the game’s must-have side.
When a demo ends, I should be left with the feeling that I’d pay $60 on the spot to continue the gaming experience. That didn’t happen here. In Operation Darkness you issue orders from a third-person perspective so you can see a bit beyond what the squad members can see, but surveying the battlefield means fighting the camera. Let me be clear on this: the camera flails around like a drunken sailor.
Also, Operation Darkness looks more like Operation Washed Out. I’ve come to expect crisp, detailed graphics in my next-gen games. Here I saw generic buildings, muted colors, and generally uninspired effects. In short, there’s nothing in this demo that warrants the game’s $60 price point and I doubt Atlus can tighten this up by the June 24, 2008 release date.
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Categories: Review
Tags: ds, final fantasy, rpg
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo DS
Released: 3/11/2008Yuri and Chelinka are brother and sister twins raised by their father Latov in a small village. Chelinka carries a piece of magically imbued crystal, but she needs Yuri’s presence for magic to happen. Likewise, Yuri’s strength only comes from his connection to Chelinka. Their combination of magic and melee is enough to take down a monster which threatens the capital city of Rebena Te Ra, but it also attracts the attention of the sinister Hierophant Galdes — setting up a chain of events which, of course, threatens the very world.
Continued…
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Huh, I just dug up this entry I wrote in my Diaryland journal back in 2002. At the time I was hoping PCs would learn something from consoles, not vice versa.
Aren’t Computer Games supposed to be fun?
I think I found a solution to a game crash some friends of mine have been having, but I still can’t find an online walkthrough for my most recent purchase Myth III: Wolf Age. I love the first two games in the franchise, but this one seems lacking. First off, it’s by a different developer which seems to have alienated the fan base. Secondly, I had to download the patch and update my drivers to get the game to run. Now, I’m getting my ass kicked and am barely into the game. They’ve also decided to replace the hand-drawn animated cutscenes with low quality Quicktime movies. Hopefully, it will improve.
It seems like this is a standard problem in computer gaming. Developers constantly push back release times (weeks become months become years) and then release a buggy game that will crash your system if you attempt to play it before a patch is released.
No wonder people are moving towards platform games. Developers find the standardized systems much easier to program for (versus the myriad combinations of hardware and software on pc’s). Also, you can buy any PlayStation 2 game and know it’ll run on your PlayStation 2. Personally, while I feel that pc gaming is superior to platform gaming, platform gaming will eclipse the pc. Cause, darn it, it ain’t fun anymore.
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Categories: Commentary
Tags: blog banter, rts
The fifth installment of Blog Banter is, once again, governed under the auspices of bs angel. Blog Banter is a presentation of individual discourse united under the blanket of a common theme. Individual interpretations of the theme may cause some discrepancies. Concerned citizens should contact bs angel here. Beneath this entry are a series of hypertext links which will lead you to variations on this month’s topic:
Discuss one game you quit before completion because of a particular perceived flaw it had. What was that flaw and how could it have been fixed where you would have finished the game?
There are two reasons why I don’t finish games. Either they suck or I suck at them. The games that suck suck hard. And really, if the perceived flaw is that it sucks hard, then the only fix would be for the game to be a completely different game. For instance, Star Wars: Lethal Alliance could have been fixed by transmogrifying it into Star Wars: Dark Forces. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation would have been vastly improved if it turned into Tomb Raider II. I would have even played through Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel if it turned into anything else.
So let’s talk about games I suck at like any console-based RTS.
Continued…
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Categories: Commentary
Tags: batman, comics, dc, marvel
DC Comics just wrapped the yearlong Countdown to Final Crisis leading into Final Crisis which follows Infinite Crisis, Identity Crisis, Crisis on Multiple Earths, and (the biggie) Crisis on Infinite Earths — a 1985 series which either split DC’s history into Pre- and post-Crisisness or taught editors that it was easier to hit reboot than maintain continuity.
Thanks to Wikipedia, I don’t have to actually read comic books to keep up with them. For instance, Wikipedia tells me that in Countdown to Final Crisis Jimmy Olsen gained superpowers, became Mr. Action, and eventually turned into a scaled giant and fought Darkseid across Metropolis until “Ray Palmer emerges from Jimmy’s head, having shut down the device inside Jimmy that was storing the essences of the New Gods.”
You won’t see that on the CW.
Continued…
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Categories: Commentary
Tags: gamefly, hacks
Okay GameFly isn’t for everyone — in fact I have a separate article coming with complaints, but if you do use the video game rental service here are my suggestions for getting more out of it.
Save money – part one
GameFly can be expensive on an annual basis:
1 at a time $15.95/mo. = $191.40
2 at a time $22.95/mo. = $275.40
3 at a time $29.95/mo. = $359.40
4 at a time $36.95/mo. = $443.40
Unless you get bored of games quickly, there’s no need to go beyond the 2-game plan. The only exception to this is if you are sharing a GameFly account with friends/family. Splitting the 4-game plan between two people brings the price down to $221.70 ($18.48/mo.).
Save money – part two
Don’t keep games out forever. It’s tempting to hold on to hot games, but if you like them that much, buy them. GameFly doesn’t have a rent to own plan so the longer you hold on to a game, the more money you’re pouring down the hole.
Continued…
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Categories: Review
Tags: condemned, fps, horror, xbox 360
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Developer: Monolith Productions
Publisher: SEGA
Platform: Xbox 360
Released: 3/11/2008In the aftermath of the Serial Killer X case, Ethan Thomas is no longer an FBI agent. Homeless, drunk, and angry, he is tormented by hallucinations including the recurring manifestation of his personal demons. But with the city’s homeless population degenerating into monsters and the suspected murder of Thomas’ former mentor and SKX’s uncle Malcolm Vanhorn, Ethan Thomas is called back into action.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot, the follow up to 2005’s Condemned: Criminal Origins, continues the original game’s storyline expanding on a mysterious cult and filling out Thomas’ back story. It also ups the action and adventure, adding combos to the game’s melee system and deepening the game’s forensic investigations. If you’re new to the series, think CSI: Silent Hill with a bit of Fight Club thrown into the mix.
Continued…
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Categories: Commentary
Tags: flash, web game, zombies
Last night I played Armor Games’ Sonny for hours. Sonny is a free flash-based web game where you play Sonny, a newly resurrected zombie who still has his wits about him. This game is freakin’ incredible.
The majority of Sonny’s gameplay is JRPG style combat. With four character classes, a variety of skills and equipment to pick from, and a party creation system, this little game has depth. Plus, Sonny has solid voice acting, smooth animations, and great effects and music.
In the pipeline: Condemned 2: Bloodshot review (and Twitter?)
