Well I 100% completed Super Mario Galaxy 1 and it was an absolute blast to play through the levels again. Even if Luigi and his teflon boots could be a little challenging it was great to relive all of it again (I hadn't really played the game much since it came out) and it is only TWO DAYS until the highly rated sequel arrives here in poor forgotten Australia. At least I have plenty of other games to keep me occupied...
MGS: Peace Walker, 15 hours in, is great. It plays very similar to other games in the series with an emphasis on stealth in conventional and more bizarre ways. Also with the less viable option of charging through guns blazing, but it isn't really suited for it, especially considering the controls can sometimes be difficult to handle (although you do slowly master them). Added to this is the management of your base, involving sending men on missions and choosing what to research and develop, it is a very polished game and is really suited to being on the PSP. Given that most missions aren't too long and there are other even smaller missions that aren't part of the main story. The story is typically pretty good, if you are well acquainted with the universe and enjoy Kojima's style then you will probably enjoy it. Even if you aren't, the voice actors are all of the highest standard (especially for a game) and the graphic novel style looks amazing. Interestingly it has some quick time event's during them which are also alright and just add more variety. Peace Walker is simply one of the best games I have ever played, and clearly the best on the PSP, even with the short amount of time I've played it for it has justified me buying a PSP a couple of months ago which was mainly for this game. If you have a PSP this is the first game you should get, it is so compelling and replayable you won't need another one for a long time.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Now Playing (PEACE WALKER!!!)
Currently playing Super Mario Galaxy 1, in anticipation of the second (curse Australia and it's waiting times), and at 75 stars, it's just about to get to all of the really fun stars. I also weakened and bought MGS: Peace Walker before beating MGS1, and it is pretty amazing. But I am still not really good with the controls and really annoyingly tend to accidentally run too quickly behind guards (the analogue stick is terrible) and constantly getting caught when I try and do CQC (close quarters combat). But it is pretty awesome and has so much content, and I feel compelled to get an S rank in EVERY mission! But I am still trying to get through MGS1 and just got past the battle with the Hind (annoying helicopter) which took at least 6 attempts because I only had 3/4 health and 1 ration, and I was terrible at that boss, but I got past it and it is still pretty awesome, even though it has aged a bit. Of course I am still playing Yakuza 3 and have just arrived in what I think is some part of Tokyo, and it is really cool and much larger than the first city, it's still an awesome game that I am enjoying a lot. I am playing a lot right now because it's holidays, so I can just relax and play video games, hopefully I'll post a bit more too!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Yakuza 3...what, you mean Japanese GTA?
This is the first main assumption that many people have, and admittedly I sort of had about this game. Considering that it is advertised as an open world game about the Yakuza which many people know as essentially a Japanese version of the mafia it isn't surprising. But 10 hours in it is certainly nothing like it at all, it is more a story based beat-em up combined with several minigames which in themselves could eat up hours of your time, all whilst set in a believable modern day Japan which couldn't be mistaken for anywhere else. The large amount of story actually got to me a couple of times, not having played the two previous iterations, or having watched the summaries supplied on the disk, I really just wanted to play, and slowly get to know Kazuma (our protagonist who as I understand it was raised by a member of the Yakuza)and the 30 minute long stretches of dialogue felt like too much, especially early on in a game. While I still haven't completely fallen in love with the story the same cannot be said of the world. Running through this world is great fun and it is very clearly a Japanese game, even with real Japanese cities that constantly delight and surprise you. Then there is the brutal and fairly accessible combat which is always enjoyable, especially the epic boss fights. It is also amazing how many silly little side quests and mini-games there are to play. At this stage 100% completion of this game looks like a ridiculous prospect, but I might just try and do it, considering how fun this amazing game is turning out to be.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Batman: Arkham Asylum Review
Batman: Arkham Asylum (which I played on the PS3) follows on from the success of the Dark Knight and Batman Begins movies to offer a similar dark, brooding world and actually provide a decent franchise game.
Positives:
This game actually makes you feel as if you are the great Caped Crusader, and it is as awesome and most importantly fun, as it should be. The combat is suitably brutal and plays as its name "freeflow" suggests. There's a suitable array of gadgets that all feel great to use and are implemented reasonably well. Whether grappling to save yourself from a missed jump, ziplining across deep abysses, hacking into security systems or wielding the trusty "batarang", it all gels nicely, allowing for
backtracking and collecting for the obsessive gamers as well as neat ways to take out enemies if you are more creative. There were also a lot of neat touches that just add to the great feel of the game, the hacking which relied on pointing the analog sticks in the direction that provided the most rumble was one of the better ways that the rumble feature has been implemented in a game. Also after a few hours of playing Batman would have stubble appear and they even made his batsuit (or whatever the hell it's called) get ripped up after particularly scrappy battles. There are also plenty of cameos and references to Batman's arch-enemies including Joker, Riddler, Croc, Poison Ivy and a few others from deep within Batman lore (which I am not really familiar with but it all appears to remain faithful to it). The boss battles are all reasonably neat, but I especially admired the battles against Scarecrow which seem to be a metaphor for the inner turmoil Bruce Wayne suffers, which were pretty neat (even if it was only about dodging his gaze, which meant the gameplay was average, but I appreciated the thought). Another thing that I enjoyed, even if it can piss you off a bit when you die a lot, is the way that Joker, or whichever boss you are fighting at the time, will mercilessly taunt you 
after every death, again they made sure to get all these little awesome details right showing how much thought and effort was put into developing it. I should probably mention the graphics which were really good and up to current standards and the sound was alright, in a way that it was not really noticeably good or bad.
Negatives:
The combat whilst generally pretty fun, could sometimes just be a case of constantly countering (especially in a room of 20 guys) and then it felt really boring. Also the stealth sections, whilst a nice idea to change up the gameplay a bit, didn't feel too amazing. It was just put on detective mode and slowly take them out one at a time, not getting caught, it was certainly not revolutionary, or allowing for too much creativity (especially given that their guns are really powerful and they have hack-bot aim). Also these two earlier posts (see here and here) mention a couple of minor negatives but they occur in other games as well and don't subtract too much from the overall experience.
Closing Comments:
Overall I just had a lot of fun playing this game and it made me want to keep coming back to it to finish up the story, which although not particularly interesting, led to lots of awesome gameplay moments. Even though I doubted the premise of Batman stuck in a prison complex there were enough different ideas and gameplay that it never feels too small or repetitive. This game is definitely good enough that I can see myself replaying it some time in the future to solve all the riddles and finish all the challenges. It was simply just a lot of fun and anyone who has had even the slightest urge to be a superhero should definitely check it out.
Positives:
This game actually makes you feel as if you are the great Caped Crusader, and it is as awesome and most importantly fun, as it should be. The combat is suitably brutal and plays as its name "freeflow" suggests. There's a suitable array of gadgets that all feel great to use and are implemented reasonably well. Whether grappling to save yourself from a missed jump, ziplining across deep abysses, hacking into security systems or wielding the trusty "batarang", it all gels nicely, allowing for
backtracking and collecting for the obsessive gamers as well as neat ways to take out enemies if you are more creative. There were also a lot of neat touches that just add to the great feel of the game, the hacking which relied on pointing the analog sticks in the direction that provided the most rumble was one of the better ways that the rumble feature has been implemented in a game. Also after a few hours of playing Batman would have stubble appear and they even made his batsuit (or whatever the hell it's called) get ripped up after particularly scrappy battles. There are also plenty of cameos and references to Batman's arch-enemies including Joker, Riddler, Croc, Poison Ivy and a few others from deep within Batman lore (which I am not really familiar with but it all appears to remain faithful to it). The boss battles are all reasonably neat, but I especially admired the battles against Scarecrow which seem to be a metaphor for the inner turmoil Bruce Wayne suffers, which were pretty neat (even if it was only about dodging his gaze, which meant the gameplay was average, but I appreciated the thought). Another thing that I enjoyed, even if it can piss you off a bit when you die a lot, is the way that Joker, or whichever boss you are fighting at the time, will mercilessly taunt you 
after every death, again they made sure to get all these little awesome details right showing how much thought and effort was put into developing it. I should probably mention the graphics which were really good and up to current standards and the sound was alright, in a way that it was not really noticeably good or bad.Negatives:
The combat whilst generally pretty fun, could sometimes just be a case of constantly countering (especially in a room of 20 guys) and then it felt really boring. Also the stealth sections, whilst a nice idea to change up the gameplay a bit, didn't feel too amazing. It was just put on detective mode and slowly take them out one at a time, not getting caught, it was certainly not revolutionary, or allowing for too much creativity (especially given that their guns are really powerful and they have hack-bot aim). Also these two earlier posts (see here and here) mention a couple of minor negatives but they occur in other games as well and don't subtract too much from the overall experience.
Closing Comments:
Overall I just had a lot of fun playing this game and it made me want to keep coming back to it to finish up the story, which although not particularly interesting, led to lots of awesome gameplay moments. Even though I doubted the premise of Batman stuck in a prison complex there were enough different ideas and gameplay that it never feels too small or repetitive. This game is definitely good enough that I can see myself replaying it some time in the future to solve all the riddles and finish all the challenges. It was simply just a lot of fun and anyone who has had even the slightest urge to be a superhero should definitely check it out.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
I Want to See the World!
Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to finish Batman: Arkham Asylum and review it, but I have another little gripe I want to point out. Basically in this game, there is a "detective mode" which enables you to see places you need to go, track movements of people to know where next to go and also even the position of the enemy, allowing Batman to stealthily take them out one by one with ease, not allowing the bots with near perfect aim to shoot him down in only 6 seconds. The problem with the system, as the player, is that you never want to leave this mode, meaning you feel stuck with a worse, computer like graphical display rather than the relatively pleasant to look at visuals of the game. The sections where you are forced into stealth are pretty much impossible without detective mode and I would have missed plenty of riddles if I didn't often check the world with this mode. Unfortunately they have made it so there is little solution to this problem, so I will continue to miss out on the bloom filled gritty world and instead feel as if in a VR simulation.
This is what the player sees for too much of this game, whilst it is useful, I want to see the world!.
This is what the player sees for too much of this game, whilst it is useful, I want to see the world!.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
A Couple of Reviews Coming Up
Luckily I asked one of my good buddies, on here known as TheMasses, if he could contribute a little to this blog. He agreed and he said he might have a review of Alan Wake to put up. So now I will have someone to offer a different perspective, style, and 360 games. Also by tomorrow I will probably have finished the main story of Arkham Asylum and will put up that review as well. Peace Out!
Friday, June 11, 2010
When Sound Becomes Too Realistic
In some games recently, they have tried to make sound too realistic, often at the expense of me actually hearing what is being said. Right now playing through Arkham Asylum, often when Joker is on a screen you will have to be right near a loudspeaker to hear anything at all. When trying to just run around, which seems like the right thing to do considering that the screens are everywhere, I miss little snippets of dialogue because I don't stand still to watch a lame excuse for a cutscene. However if it would simply work while I ran ahead, it would be great, similar to Bioshock, when gameplay continues when story is told only through dialogue.
These audio diaries from Bishock allow gameplay and story to continue seamlessly, one way to not compromise either of them.
Another moment where this bothered me was in Uncharted 2. When your partner would talk to you, you had to be near them and facing them to have any chance at hearing what were often pretty humorous lines. Often when I was right next to them and standing the other way I would miss these exchanges almost entirely, and I only realised this when I turned the subtitles on.
So sound doesn't have to be ultra-realistic, especially when it is dialogue which often provides crucial backstory or is just plain hilarious. I don't care if I am not within 1 meter and perfectly facing the NPC, I just want to hear what they are saying!
These audio diaries from Bishock allow gameplay and story to continue seamlessly, one way to not compromise either of them.Another moment where this bothered me was in Uncharted 2. When your partner would talk to you, you had to be near them and facing them to have any chance at hearing what were often pretty humorous lines. Often when I was right next to them and standing the other way I would miss these exchanges almost entirely, and I only realised this when I turned the subtitles on.
So sound doesn't have to be ultra-realistic, especially when it is dialogue which often provides crucial backstory or is just plain hilarious. I don't care if I am not within 1 meter and perfectly facing the NPC, I just want to hear what they are saying!
Too many games!
As was evident in a previous post, I just got and have barely started playing 3 new games (RDR, Yakuza 3 and Batman: Arkham Asylum) but there are two more that in the next month I will almost definitely have to buy.
Super Mario Galaxy was an awesome game to play through, and continued the tradition of awesome 3D Mario platformers (though some say Sunshine was a disappointment, I thought it was one the best games of that generation). From all the reviews I've
seen Galaxy 2 is meant to be god-like and looks near certain to be Game of the Year for a lot of people. It has been thoroughly praised, and somehow has been seen to greatly surpass the original. Which playing through again has made me want the sequel even more. Currently 50 starts into my Luigi play through (you can play through the game again as Luigi after collecting all 120 stars) and it is as fun and amazing as I remember it being the first time around. All of this adds up to making the excruciating wait until July 1st all the more painful. It's surprising that Australia still has to suffer with abysmal waiting periods for top quality games. Considering Nintendo is probably the most successful gaming company right now, and Galaxy 2 their biggest game to date, it is unfortunate they haven't lifted their poor standard. I guess that's just what happens when you are a small, out of the way country like Australia and considering how good their games generally are they can afford to get away with it.
The other game that has been getting rave reviews
that I simply must have is Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker. Having only become acquainted with the wacky and at the same time ultra serious world of MGS this year, any MGS game now for me is a must have. But, going back to the problem of too many games, I still need to finish MGS1, which I was actually really enjoying, until I reached the fatal moment of ridiculous back-tracking. As soon as I realised I would have to go back all that way to get a sniper rifle I knew I needed a break from this game. It is even more ludicrous considering that the boss merely waits for you to get it, even though they have a hostage. Ah well, I'll try and ignore this and finish it, then I can buy Peace Walker and put off playing other games!
Super Mario Galaxy was an awesome game to play through, and continued the tradition of awesome 3D Mario platformers (though some say Sunshine was a disappointment, I thought it was one the best games of that generation). From all the reviews I've
seen Galaxy 2 is meant to be god-like and looks near certain to be Game of the Year for a lot of people. It has been thoroughly praised, and somehow has been seen to greatly surpass the original. Which playing through again has made me want the sequel even more. Currently 50 starts into my Luigi play through (you can play through the game again as Luigi after collecting all 120 stars) and it is as fun and amazing as I remember it being the first time around. All of this adds up to making the excruciating wait until July 1st all the more painful. It's surprising that Australia still has to suffer with abysmal waiting periods for top quality games. Considering Nintendo is probably the most successful gaming company right now, and Galaxy 2 their biggest game to date, it is unfortunate they haven't lifted their poor standard. I guess that's just what happens when you are a small, out of the way country like Australia and considering how good their games generally are they can afford to get away with it. The other game that has been getting rave reviews
that I simply must have is Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker. Having only become acquainted with the wacky and at the same time ultra serious world of MGS this year, any MGS game now for me is a must have. But, going back to the problem of too many games, I still need to finish MGS1, which I was actually really enjoying, until I reached the fatal moment of ridiculous back-tracking. As soon as I realised I would have to go back all that way to get a sniper rifle I knew I needed a break from this game. It is even more ludicrous considering that the boss merely waits for you to get it, even though they have a hostage. Ah well, I'll try and ignore this and finish it, then I can buy Peace Walker and put off playing other games!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
THAT HAT IS SO OVERPOWERED!
Gaming sessions with friends, while you are all in the same room are slowly dying, and it just really sucks for me. Yesterday reminded me of the wonders of this type of gaming and why it is far better than single player, and online multiplayer.
With the rise of the internet, especially it being wireless, fast, and relatively cheap, developers are forgetting about people who actually want to play together. For my friends and I,and probably a lot of other people, it is not at all good for us. We have different consoles, not all of us have awesome internet, or xbox live, and we want to play it splitscreen because that is so much more fun anyway. Anyone who has had a split screen sesh knows how much more fun it is, the dirty screen peeking tactics, physical violence, and verbal abuse made possible with close confines and a long history of shenanigans and in-jokes.
Against all the odds we still try and play together, but out options are pretty limited, xbox 360 is the only console we have enough controllers for combined, but the range of games is limited. We all felt relatively unimpressed by COD4, sure it is alright, but it always feels too reliant on who sees who first, favouring camping, which isn't fun. On the other hand Halo 3 allows running around randomly and whoever has the better aim over 5 seconds. They have served us well, but the skill differences between us are also showing and we want a bit of variety, unfortunately there is pretty much nothing out there that supports 4 player gaming.
We were all feeling bored, exams were coming up and even I was thinking of leaving, COD just wasn't really fun anymore. Then my friend suggested playing James Bond Nightfire, a Bond spin off for the original XBox that looked, sounded and played pretty lame. They reminisced about how much better it used to seem, it felt like a dodgy GoldenEye sequel to me. Then a strange thing happened, we got really into this game. The hard to aim guns meant long, trash talk involving, showdowns. The bots gained mutual hatred and led to alliances to take down these all conquering hack machines. It was just hilarious and fun. One moment, highlighting the dodginess of the gameplay, i ran out of pistol ammo and charged my buddy with my nothing but my bare fists and my manhood. Literally five minutes later I was taken down, but despite what appear to be flaws it was much more fun than COD or Halo.
Then came the best moment, and will long remain a group meme for us. On a map suited to snipers Player 3 was playing as Oddjob, and Player 1 was casually strolling at the opposite end of the map. Suddenly, completely out of nowhere, Player 3 realises he possesses a mystical hat, and unleashes with pure optimism. "THAT HAT IS SO OVERPOWERED"
This video demonstrates how much it needs to be nerfed, seriously.
Now James Bond Nightfire has become one of the best games ever. Proving that just about any 4 player multiplayer game can be fun, so why not include it more? I know it would certainly get us very excited and desperately wanting that game. Why are we punished for having friends outside of the internet? Also, the more absurd the better, 4 player games are meant to be great for a laugh, and all about everyone having some legitimate shot at winning, hopefully developers will realize this and make more splitscreen games.
With the rise of the internet, especially it being wireless, fast, and relatively cheap, developers are forgetting about people who actually want to play together. For my friends and I,and probably a lot of other people, it is not at all good for us. We have different consoles, not all of us have awesome internet, or xbox live, and we want to play it splitscreen because that is so much more fun anyway. Anyone who has had a split screen sesh knows how much more fun it is, the dirty screen peeking tactics, physical violence, and verbal abuse made possible with close confines and a long history of shenanigans and in-jokes.
Against all the odds we still try and play together, but out options are pretty limited, xbox 360 is the only console we have enough controllers for combined, but the range of games is limited. We all felt relatively unimpressed by COD4, sure it is alright, but it always feels too reliant on who sees who first, favouring camping, which isn't fun. On the other hand Halo 3 allows running around randomly and whoever has the better aim over 5 seconds. They have served us well, but the skill differences between us are also showing and we want a bit of variety, unfortunately there is pretty much nothing out there that supports 4 player gaming.
We were all feeling bored, exams were coming up and even I was thinking of leaving, COD just wasn't really fun anymore. Then my friend suggested playing James Bond Nightfire, a Bond spin off for the original XBox that looked, sounded and played pretty lame. They reminisced about how much better it used to seem, it felt like a dodgy GoldenEye sequel to me. Then a strange thing happened, we got really into this game. The hard to aim guns meant long, trash talk involving, showdowns. The bots gained mutual hatred and led to alliances to take down these all conquering hack machines. It was just hilarious and fun. One moment, highlighting the dodginess of the gameplay, i ran out of pistol ammo and charged my buddy with my nothing but my bare fists and my manhood. Literally five minutes later I was taken down, but despite what appear to be flaws it was much more fun than COD or Halo. Then came the best moment, and will long remain a group meme for us. On a map suited to snipers Player 3 was playing as Oddjob, and Player 1 was casually strolling at the opposite end of the map. Suddenly, completely out of nowhere, Player 3 realises he possesses a mystical hat, and unleashes with pure optimism. "THAT HAT IS SO OVERPOWERED"
This video demonstrates how much it needs to be nerfed, seriously.
Now James Bond Nightfire has become one of the best games ever. Proving that just about any 4 player multiplayer game can be fun, so why not include it more? I know it would certainly get us very excited and desperately wanting that game. Why are we punished for having friends outside of the internet? Also, the more absurd the better, 4 player games are meant to be great for a laugh, and all about everyone having some legitimate shot at winning, hopefully developers will realize this and make more splitscreen games.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Now Playing
Just yesterday got Batman: Arkham Asylum, and it is pretty awesome! As is anything with the current generation Batman. It captures the dark and moody theme of the two most recent movies and makes a good licensed game. Everything 3 hours in feels great, combat feels as the name suggests (freeflow) and the finishing blows are suitably brutal. He moves with grace (gliding) as well as with gadgetry (grapple). Then there are the riddles which are the collectible goodness that adds more fun to it. I can't wait to play more of it.
At the same time I got Yakuza 3, a pretty good looking open world beat em up, it seems alright after an hour with it. The combat seems pretty neat and the characters and story relatively interesting.
Just a week ago I started playing Red Dead Redemption, which is pretty amazing. And no, it isn't just GTA with horses, it feels like much more than that, at least to me. It is an amazingly well fleshed out world that constantly impresses and sidetracks you, and John Marston as a character has really grown on me. Annoyingly I've gotten a bit sidetracked from it with those 2 other games but I will try and play some of all of them this long weekend!
At the same time I got Yakuza 3, a pretty good looking open world beat em up, it seems alright after an hour with it. The combat seems pretty neat and the characters and story relatively interesting.
Just a week ago I started playing Red Dead Redemption, which is pretty amazing. And no, it isn't just GTA with horses, it feels like much more than that, at least to me. It is an amazingly well fleshed out world that constantly impresses and sidetracks you, and John Marston as a character has really grown on me. Annoyingly I've gotten a bit sidetracked from it with those 2 other games but I will try and play some of all of them this long weekend!
Hey
Hey, as you can guess this is a blog devoted to the mystical art (yes i called it art) of gaming. It'll just be my thoughts on games I'm playing, probably some proper reviews, previews and all that sort of standard gaming fare. Plenty for you to look forward to if you are at all interested in gaming.
I currently own all major consoles (PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, PC) except for Xbox 360, mainly because I am simply against it for no good reason but remaining faithful to dear old Sony and Nintendo. (Maybe also because there isn't a compelling reason for me to get it rather than a PS3). My first console was the great Nintendo 64 which came with Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64, which led me on my path of gaming. Now I mostly enjoy action/adventure/platform games but pretty much every genre has a few decent games that are awesome to play.
I currently own all major consoles (PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, PC) except for Xbox 360, mainly because I am simply against it for no good reason but remaining faithful to dear old Sony and Nintendo. (Maybe also because there isn't a compelling reason for me to get it rather than a PS3). My first console was the great Nintendo 64 which came with Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64, which led me on my path of gaming. Now I mostly enjoy action/adventure/platform games but pretty much every genre has a few decent games that are awesome to play.
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