The creators of the latest update for TF2 no doubt thought it would bring ever-lasting prosperity to not only the players of the game, but also to them. But in giving them soaring profits and giving us access to these items, not only has playing the game itself felt cheapened, the whole concept and reasoning behind items has now completely changed as well. Before items were a status symbol, generally enjoyed only by the tf2 elite, who after many days, months or even years of hard-fought playing, or dirty idling, had miraculously earned the envy of every other player with a virtual hat, indicating little more than luck or perseverance. Whilst for some it was a big deal (those who felt it necessary to idle), the average player just grumbled a little a the sight of these hat adorned gentlemenne, knowing that with only 10 more weapons they could craft a random hat. Now, they are all about showing off how unique and special you are, because you have the wit to call your knife "buttsecks" and to paint your hat yellow, so the whole world can immediately recognise you as you frolic about, trading for more hats. Which brings me to the second failing of this update, who is actually playing the game anymore? In some servers you will be constantly bombarded by people trying to scam poor fools to part with their hats, and often at the expense of having a competent team. Some people spend more time in trade servers, desperate for a hat to show off how special they are, why not just play the game!
Sorry about this poorly written and poorly thought out vent, but TF2 honestly just isn't the same anymore...at least the Halloween Update wasn't too bad...
P.S. I'm just mad I haven't been able to scam a poor sucker into parting with an unusual... :/
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Silly Resi-5...
*May contain some spoilers if you really care, but I am pretty vague and I found the plot to be predictably average*
Resident Evil 5 comes across as very awkward really, its entire gameplay is still rooted in archaic practices that have long been left behind by most other games. There is an inventory with only 9 slots, you are unable to shoot and move at the same time and so much of the game is silly quick time events (although a modern phenomenon it is still an ancient concept). But generally, when played co-op these things can be ignored and it is a reasonably satisfactory game. Hell, these "poor" design features actually add to the experience. Having a limited inventory almost suits the survival/horror genre, adding to the stress and giving you another thing to panic over (even if that panic is considerably more mild than say an executioner charging you with his blade of doom), and whilst being able to shoot and move could be quite useful, it gives an actual choice between dodging and shooting, which may actual take some thought, as well as recovery item management considering you may actually get wounded from something that isn't unavoidable, rather than run around this boss avoiding his pattern and you should easily avoid taking any damage at all!
Clearly I actually enjoyed this game, even if it had a strange tendency for every single boss to have exorbitant amounts of tentacles (so many tentacles!...those Japanese...amirite?). And yet the final boss, what should be the pinnacle of the experience, appeared unbeatable. After at least 30 attempts, we were at our wits end. Seemingly to survive this fight one must have the button mashing skills of a caffeine maniac with an artificial wrist. Even GameFaqs was at a loss as to how to defeat this tentacled (of course) menace. Searching for this specific fight in google revealed that other people had had a similar problem in co-op, it simply seemed impossible...
Then we noticed a tenative entry, claiming that apparently, if very early in the fight you can snipe the tiny orange weak spot on his back with a Rocket Launcher you will be granted automatic victory. At this stage we were completely desperate, so the Rocket Launcher was equipped, why not have a quick ping at his back before trying to survive the most lethal quick time event in history. A couple of attempts to no avail, but there was no reason to stop trying, nothing else had worked.
I was in complete awe. Who would have thought it possible, especially from that kind of range...
Resident Evil 5 comes across as very awkward really, its entire gameplay is still rooted in archaic practices that have long been left behind by most other games. There is an inventory with only 9 slots, you are unable to shoot and move at the same time and so much of the game is silly quick time events (although a modern phenomenon it is still an ancient concept). But generally, when played co-op these things can be ignored and it is a reasonably satisfactory game. Hell, these "poor" design features actually add to the experience. Having a limited inventory almost suits the survival/horror genre, adding to the stress and giving you another thing to panic over (even if that panic is considerably more mild than say an executioner charging you with his blade of doom), and whilst being able to shoot and move could be quite useful, it gives an actual choice between dodging and shooting, which may actual take some thought, as well as recovery item management considering you may actually get wounded from something that isn't unavoidable, rather than run around this boss avoiding his pattern and you should easily avoid taking any damage at all!
Clearly I actually enjoyed this game, even if it had a strange tendency for every single boss to have exorbitant amounts of tentacles (so many tentacles!...those Japanese...amirite?). And yet the final boss, what should be the pinnacle of the experience, appeared unbeatable. After at least 30 attempts, we were at our wits end. Seemingly to survive this fight one must have the button mashing skills of a caffeine maniac with an artificial wrist. Even GameFaqs was at a loss as to how to defeat this tentacled (of course) menace. Searching for this specific fight in google revealed that other people had had a similar problem in co-op, it simply seemed impossible...
Then we noticed a tenative entry, claiming that apparently, if very early in the fight you can snipe the tiny orange weak spot on his back with a Rocket Launcher you will be granted automatic victory. At this stage we were completely desperate, so the Rocket Launcher was equipped, why not have a quick ping at his back before trying to survive the most lethal quick time event in history. A couple of attempts to no avail, but there was no reason to stop trying, nothing else had worked.
I was in complete awe. Who would have thought it possible, especially from that kind of range...
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Achievements/Trophies...
When I first received my Playstation 3, I immediately discovered something new and frightening, almost threatening to tear apart the very fabric upon which I had previously valued my accomplishments within video games. I am of course referring to Trophies (achievements for an XBox).
When the first trophy appeared for simply completing a small collection of levels in LittleBigPlanet I was slightly bemused, why reward me for doing something a 2 year old could reasonably achieve? Why replace the previously meaningful rewards systems already present in many games? Or simply craft a game of such worth that provides such an experience that it is through simply the joy of playing this masterpiece that the gamer is justly rewarded. This trend obviously couldn't continue, as soon as companies realised that our desire for instant gratification and rewards could be targeted and exploited, trophies or achievements of some form have become almost expected of developers for this generation.
In the simple act of beating a game, something you would generally do anyway, you will generally receive (not really earned for me, as when you buy a game you should at the very least feel compelled to finish it, if not also find some replay value) at least 30-40% of all of the achievements there. It is the perfect hook, naturally when you see the pop-up sneaks into the corner of your screen and the satisfying noise indicating that you have achieved something, you will check out what exactly you have done to deserve this. Once on this trophies menu, even though trophies have never been a motivator to buy a game (I hope I never sink to the level of achievement-whoring that requires me to buy terrible games with ridiculously easy trophies, purely for the sake of adding to the horde), upon seeing the trophies available, it will invariably change the way you play, or maybe even how you think about the game. Say for example you avoided using melee attacks because they were slow, left your defense wide open, and there was less satisfaction in it for you than achieving a perfect head shot. But upon seeing this achievement for 20 melee kills, your natural gaming style suddenly changes. Arguably it could be seen as a positive, you see more sides of the game, it will change up the action, and of course you get the feeling that you have actually "achieved" something. But surely this breaks immersion, encouraging people to adopt different methods of gameplay then what their nature dictates could weaken the experience, not to mention the noise and pop-up when the achievement is obtained, as well as the compulsion to find out what has been achieved and what else can be achieved, purely to achieve that slight elevation in pleasure. It simply felt as if it was cheapening the whole experience, and merely providing a form of this across all my games to make me buy even more. Far from older systems of achievements where there are legitimately interesting unlocks and bonuses.
While I do make out for trophies being a negative on gaming, which at times they are, I guess they do have their uses. The perfect example for me is the game Mirror's Edge, which is the first and only game I have a platinum trophy for. After playing through the reasonably short story I was left feeling a little bit flat by ME, sure it contained some sections of free running/parcour bliss, but so much of that was ruined by what pretty much everyone who has played this game invariably brings up, unnecessary combat and jumping "puzzles" in small enclosed spaces. Sadly, it felt like a game I might never really have any other reason to play again. However seeing the achievement for a run through the game without firing at an enemy, for no reason other than there being an achievement for it, I thought why not, I put the difficulty down to easy mode and ran through.
The game had changed now. No longer were the levels confusing labyrinths that required annoyingly precise jumping as well as the need to handle weapons and stop your speed and flow. In this playthrough I could just relax and run, having gained a basic grasp of the controls so that a wallrun, turn, wallclimb was not even a threat anymore to my previously tentative fingers. It almost came naturally. Finally it felt as if the game was being played how it was originally intended and I loved it. It won me over enough that I felt compelled to complete all the speed runs and time trials, in turn resulting in me obtaining all of the trophies; and it felt like an actual accomplishment, considering their difficulty and the feeling of joy I felt whilst playing the game. So maybe they are not really such a bad thing, if they encourage you to go back to a game, or put more time into it, after all, it means we as gamers might get more for our money.
Onto something else, not entirely unrelated, I am about to continue a file in Pokemon Gold, purely for the sake of capturing all 250 Pokemon and having a good nostalgia trip, without even the enticement of an achievement! (sorry but Celebi doesn't count, I can't/don't want to glitch the game and there are never going to be any events for it). Wish me luck!
When the first trophy appeared for simply completing a small collection of levels in LittleBigPlanet I was slightly bemused, why reward me for doing something a 2 year old could reasonably achieve? Why replace the previously meaningful rewards systems already present in many games? Or simply craft a game of such worth that provides such an experience that it is through simply the joy of playing this masterpiece that the gamer is justly rewarded. This trend obviously couldn't continue, as soon as companies realised that our desire for instant gratification and rewards could be targeted and exploited, trophies or achievements of some form have become almost expected of developers for this generation.
In the simple act of beating a game, something you would generally do anyway, you will generally receive (not really earned for me, as when you buy a game you should at the very least feel compelled to finish it, if not also find some replay value) at least 30-40% of all of the achievements there. It is the perfect hook, naturally when you see the pop-up sneaks into the corner of your screen and the satisfying noise indicating that you have achieved something, you will check out what exactly you have done to deserve this. Once on this trophies menu, even though trophies have never been a motivator to buy a game (I hope I never sink to the level of achievement-whoring that requires me to buy terrible games with ridiculously easy trophies, purely for the sake of adding to the horde), upon seeing the trophies available, it will invariably change the way you play, or maybe even how you think about the game. Say for example you avoided using melee attacks because they were slow, left your defense wide open, and there was less satisfaction in it for you than achieving a perfect head shot. But upon seeing this achievement for 20 melee kills, your natural gaming style suddenly changes. Arguably it could be seen as a positive, you see more sides of the game, it will change up the action, and of course you get the feeling that you have actually "achieved" something. But surely this breaks immersion, encouraging people to adopt different methods of gameplay then what their nature dictates could weaken the experience, not to mention the noise and pop-up when the achievement is obtained, as well as the compulsion to find out what has been achieved and what else can be achieved, purely to achieve that slight elevation in pleasure. It simply felt as if it was cheapening the whole experience, and merely providing a form of this across all my games to make me buy even more. Far from older systems of achievements where there are legitimately interesting unlocks and bonuses.
While I do make out for trophies being a negative on gaming, which at times they are, I guess they do have their uses. The perfect example for me is the game Mirror's Edge, which is the first and only game I have a platinum trophy for. After playing through the reasonably short story I was left feeling a little bit flat by ME, sure it contained some sections of free running/parcour bliss, but so much of that was ruined by what pretty much everyone who has played this game invariably brings up, unnecessary combat and jumping "puzzles" in small enclosed spaces. Sadly, it felt like a game I might never really have any other reason to play again. However seeing the achievement for a run through the game without firing at an enemy, for no reason other than there being an achievement for it, I thought why not, I put the difficulty down to easy mode and ran through.
The game had changed now. No longer were the levels confusing labyrinths that required annoyingly precise jumping as well as the need to handle weapons and stop your speed and flow. In this playthrough I could just relax and run, having gained a basic grasp of the controls so that a wallrun, turn, wallclimb was not even a threat anymore to my previously tentative fingers. It almost came naturally. Finally it felt as if the game was being played how it was originally intended and I loved it. It won me over enough that I felt compelled to complete all the speed runs and time trials, in turn resulting in me obtaining all of the trophies; and it felt like an actual accomplishment, considering their difficulty and the feeling of joy I felt whilst playing the game. So maybe they are not really such a bad thing, if they encourage you to go back to a game, or put more time into it, after all, it means we as gamers might get more for our money.
Onto something else, not entirely unrelated, I am about to continue a file in Pokemon Gold, purely for the sake of capturing all 250 Pokemon and having a good nostalgia trip, without even the enticement of an achievement! (sorry but Celebi doesn't count, I can't/don't want to glitch the game and there are never going to be any events for it). Wish me luck!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Super Mario Galaxy 2!
Well I just got my copy of this game two days ago on launch day here in Australia, but at least it was worth the wait. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is amazing and constantly delights and enchants anyone within the vicinity of the warm glow it emits. At this stage (I am about 70 stars into it at them moment) it is at least equal with it's predecessor, if not slightly better, because it has more variation with a LOT more galaxies to explore. The two player co-op mode has also been given an upgrade and they have significantly more influence over the game, now they can pick up coins (even purple coins of which 100 gets you a star) as well as being able to kill some enemies. This is a game that is very easy to get lost in, when I bought it I played it for about 3 hours without even noticing how long I had been playing for, the game just sucks you in with a good balance between challenging and simply satisfying levels. It is so easy to play for hours because Nintendo have somehow squeezed every last bit out of the Wii to make it look really great and certainly good enough for this generation of video games. Writing about it just makes me want to play more, time to go get me some more stars!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Woo! 100% Completed SMG1, Bring on SMG2! Also Peace Walker raving!
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.
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.
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.
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