As I wrap up my run through the Kinect Adventures "adventure mode", I just want to run through some short, but final thoughts on the game. The review stays the same, however. This is more of a minor insight on the inner-mini-games that comprise Kinect Adventures.
1) I rather like rally-ball, I'm fairly decent at it.
2) I never have felt so doughy than from the obstacle course on wheels.
3) A raft is really meant for 2 people, not 1....nor is it meant to float on clouds...
4) The bubbles man, the bubbles!
And finally:
5) Those fish are truly assholes...
Thank you.
--The N00basaurus
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Jump To Go Faster
My doughy gamer figure sits in this chair drenched in the sweat of success. That's how I feel about the Kinect from Microsoft for the Xbox 360. Despite my apprehension that the device would be like a yahoo messenger webcam that would be priced out to wazzoo, bogged down and laggy at it's best, I was completely and utterly mistaken.
It is, not only handy, but delightful. I'm having more fun than I did when I opened the box of my first "motion" controller. It is so much more than, you move here, it moves there. It's you move here, and it recognize "how". For instance, it can recognize hands from feet, head from knees, and that sort of bag. There are times, however, where it will "loose" parts of your body when you turn sideways or your arms cross in front of your torso, but at the speed it recalibrate, it's always only a minor issue.
This device is proving to be much like a newly released console. What I mean by that, is the fact that it will be defined by the games that utilize it, rather than like most accessories, where the console defines the accessory. So far I have only 2 games for it, I hope to get more in the near(ish) future. Mostly, I'm excited to see "what" comes forth from such a beast. News articles and blogs have been pouring forth with ideas and hacks and mods for the system, everything from augmented reality to remote controlled couches, but really, I'm mostly excited for the hard backed and decently funded game companies to really work some magic. I've been testing the slew of demos that are currently out for it, and each one I see promise for something truly awesome.
One of the flaws of the Kinect is space. You "can" play the Kinect in as little as 4-6feet, but position the sensor above the TV. Really, you want a shelf behind your flat screen to really get the most out of the system. Around 7-8ft is the sweet spot, however. The best face recognition, the best non-lagging movement tracking, everything is from a 2 space cone burst 8ft out from the sensor. Mostly if you live in a super cramped studio appartment in Europe or East Asia, this might not be for your living quarters. However, a lot of this is just a manner of repositioning your furniture so you don't have anything to destroy your shins as you flail and propel your body about.
There is a slight lag in the system. This is to be expected of any digital device. The Kinect is focused mainly on steady fluid movements of the human body. Something sort of upper mid-range out of all the motions we can carry out. This poses a minor problem in the shape of mind over matter. In a fighting game, as far as fighting circles go, the difference of who's hard core, and who isn't, is who can juggle their opponent the fastest. That's what wins. The Kinect, is a little unable to track incredibly fast movements of the human body. It has some speed, don't get me wrong, but as always biological muscle can be a little too fast for the current digital "eyes". It however, is not as near as finicky about movement as Wii controllers, but there is a slightly noticeable lag between fast and moderate movements.
So, without further adieu, here's the load-out:
Device: Xbox360 Kinect
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: Initial Rating 8. Rating may change depending on TBA games.
As I mentioned above I have 2 games for the Kinect. I'll review them both here, one after the other:
Game: Dance Central
Platform: Xbox 360 w/Kinect
Developer: Harmonix
Ah Harmonix, the wonderful people that brought us Audiosurf and the first Guitar Hero. Dance Central is yet another one of their petri-dish creations. Bumping and Thumping bacteria dropping down hard pumping bass beats making wonderfully, almost, science music at our fingers. It is easy to see that they tried to keep this game semi-close to other music games on the shelves right now *cough* Rock Band *cough* by listing artists, titles, and even album covers of past and present musical talents.
What I like about Dance Central is simply the fact that you, yourself, are dancing. Even if it's sometimes questionable choreography, your still moving. One of the things that has always been a major turn off for me in the music game industry, is that they never really have anything for you to "look at" while your doing things. It's always a Dance Dance Revolution type of setting. Dance Central, has a tiny smidgen of that in there as they try to teach you the moves. But the best part, is that your movements are represented by the avatar on the screen, so you can see how your doing. It's just fun to see yourself fumble about each step.
What I don't like about Dance central can be summerized into two parts. Part one: Some times the wording of the choreography is hard to understand. There's got to more difference in verbal explination between "Boom Boom Pop!" and "Bom Boom Pow!" in their respected directions of movement. However, once you slow it down a little bit, and really watch the visual que, I can work it out some times. Part two: This one is not a minor issue. There is this free-form mode that interrupts each song. Every song. Every single song has sparkly rainbow glitter time splinted right in the middle of it. They just plop it there. Least they could do is give you a few ponies to play with during the cute storm. When playing with a large group of people, free style mode would be great if it popped up randomly during 1 or 2 songs in an entire set, as something a little special, but every song it starts to become a chore. That, and with my schedule and location, when you play it all by your lonesome, it's just a time to go sit down and have a glass of water before the song starts up again. The game would benefit greatly if it had either an option where you could turn freestyle off completely, or have a play mode, like a workout mode, where it would just have smooth choreography all the way through without interruption. Other then those, the game is wonderfully done.
Rating: 7 Falcon PUNCH! Show Me Your Moves!
Game: Kinect Adventures
Platform: Xbox360 w/Kinect
Designer: Microsoft Game Studios
Every one of these move mechanic devices have come with a short mini game that I have liked to call "Here's how to show off your new toy." With the Wii, it was Wii Sports, for the Ps3 Move, it's mostly Sports Champions, but they have a few other things out like "Shoot" or other single verb games, but for the Kinect, it's Kinect Adventures. Although there are not that many games within Kinect Adventures, as like all the others, it's a series of mini-games, but each one has very entertaining game mechanics.
The hardest one for me is space bubbles. I just can't seem to move my avatar fast enough to pop the bubbles. That And I always end up off screen, lol. My favorite one is the dodge ball simulation. Yeah.
I don't really have much to say about it. I like the fact that you can walk off, some one else can walk on, and they are added into the game play. Even while you are playing, a player 2 can just magically appear and start playing at any time, is just amazing.
Way to go Xbox, yet another page in your book of major achievements, bravo.
Rating: 8 "Bonk!"
It is, not only handy, but delightful. I'm having more fun than I did when I opened the box of my first "motion" controller. It is so much more than, you move here, it moves there. It's you move here, and it recognize "how". For instance, it can recognize hands from feet, head from knees, and that sort of bag. There are times, however, where it will "loose" parts of your body when you turn sideways or your arms cross in front of your torso, but at the speed it recalibrate, it's always only a minor issue.
This device is proving to be much like a newly released console. What I mean by that, is the fact that it will be defined by the games that utilize it, rather than like most accessories, where the console defines the accessory. So far I have only 2 games for it, I hope to get more in the near(ish) future. Mostly, I'm excited to see "what" comes forth from such a beast. News articles and blogs have been pouring forth with ideas and hacks and mods for the system, everything from augmented reality to remote controlled couches, but really, I'm mostly excited for the hard backed and decently funded game companies to really work some magic. I've been testing the slew of demos that are currently out for it, and each one I see promise for something truly awesome.
One of the flaws of the Kinect is space. You "can" play the Kinect in as little as 4-6feet, but position the sensor above the TV. Really, you want a shelf behind your flat screen to really get the most out of the system. Around 7-8ft is the sweet spot, however. The best face recognition, the best non-lagging movement tracking, everything is from a 2 space cone burst 8ft out from the sensor. Mostly if you live in a super cramped studio appartment in Europe or East Asia, this might not be for your living quarters. However, a lot of this is just a manner of repositioning your furniture so you don't have anything to destroy your shins as you flail and propel your body about.
There is a slight lag in the system. This is to be expected of any digital device. The Kinect is focused mainly on steady fluid movements of the human body. Something sort of upper mid-range out of all the motions we can carry out. This poses a minor problem in the shape of mind over matter. In a fighting game, as far as fighting circles go, the difference of who's hard core, and who isn't, is who can juggle their opponent the fastest. That's what wins. The Kinect, is a little unable to track incredibly fast movements of the human body. It has some speed, don't get me wrong, but as always biological muscle can be a little too fast for the current digital "eyes". It however, is not as near as finicky about movement as Wii controllers, but there is a slightly noticeable lag between fast and moderate movements.
So, without further adieu, here's the load-out:
Device: Xbox360 Kinect
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: Initial Rating 8. Rating may change depending on TBA games.
As I mentioned above I have 2 games for the Kinect. I'll review them both here, one after the other:
Game: Dance Central
Platform: Xbox 360 w/Kinect
Developer: Harmonix
Ah Harmonix, the wonderful people that brought us Audiosurf and the first Guitar Hero. Dance Central is yet another one of their petri-dish creations. Bumping and Thumping bacteria dropping down hard pumping bass beats making wonderfully, almost, science music at our fingers. It is easy to see that they tried to keep this game semi-close to other music games on the shelves right now *cough* Rock Band *cough* by listing artists, titles, and even album covers of past and present musical talents.
What I like about Dance Central is simply the fact that you, yourself, are dancing. Even if it's sometimes questionable choreography, your still moving. One of the things that has always been a major turn off for me in the music game industry, is that they never really have anything for you to "look at" while your doing things. It's always a Dance Dance Revolution type of setting. Dance Central, has a tiny smidgen of that in there as they try to teach you the moves. But the best part, is that your movements are represented by the avatar on the screen, so you can see how your doing. It's just fun to see yourself fumble about each step.
What I don't like about Dance central can be summerized into two parts. Part one: Some times the wording of the choreography is hard to understand. There's got to more difference in verbal explination between "Boom Boom Pop!" and "Bom Boom Pow!" in their respected directions of movement. However, once you slow it down a little bit, and really watch the visual que, I can work it out some times. Part two: This one is not a minor issue. There is this free-form mode that interrupts each song. Every song. Every single song has sparkly rainbow glitter time splinted right in the middle of it. They just plop it there. Least they could do is give you a few ponies to play with during the cute storm. When playing with a large group of people, free style mode would be great if it popped up randomly during 1 or 2 songs in an entire set, as something a little special, but every song it starts to become a chore. That, and with my schedule and location, when you play it all by your lonesome, it's just a time to go sit down and have a glass of water before the song starts up again. The game would benefit greatly if it had either an option where you could turn freestyle off completely, or have a play mode, like a workout mode, where it would just have smooth choreography all the way through without interruption. Other then those, the game is wonderfully done.
Rating: 7 Falcon PUNCH! Show Me Your Moves!
Game: Kinect Adventures
Platform: Xbox360 w/Kinect
Designer: Microsoft Game Studios
Every one of these move mechanic devices have come with a short mini game that I have liked to call "Here's how to show off your new toy." With the Wii, it was Wii Sports, for the Ps3 Move, it's mostly Sports Champions, but they have a few other things out like "Shoot" or other single verb games, but for the Kinect, it's Kinect Adventures. Although there are not that many games within Kinect Adventures, as like all the others, it's a series of mini-games, but each one has very entertaining game mechanics.
The hardest one for me is space bubbles. I just can't seem to move my avatar fast enough to pop the bubbles. That And I always end up off screen, lol. My favorite one is the dodge ball simulation. Yeah.
I don't really have much to say about it. I like the fact that you can walk off, some one else can walk on, and they are added into the game play. Even while you are playing, a player 2 can just magically appear and start playing at any time, is just amazing.
Way to go Xbox, yet another page in your book of major achievements, bravo.
Rating: 8 "Bonk!"
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Clues? What clues?
So a friend of mine got the new L.A. Noire by Rockstar games, and we had an interesting few hours playing it. I did a couple cases, and well, I had to put it down. To be frank, it's not my kind of game. I'm not sure who's kind of game it is, it must be some ones, but it most certainly isn't mine.
Game: L.A. Noire
Developer: Rockstar
Platforms: Xbox 360, Ps3
Rating: 5 Gumshoes are just on the wrong feet.
I'm going to start off by stating what is good about the game. Graphically, it's decent. Face mapping on characters is well drawn out making their mouth and eye movements as well as facial expressions flow quite well. Physics engine is decent, not great, but decent. For a detective game, the crimes do seem worth your time to look into. Wiggling panties and hanging around the water-cooler were my favorite part of this game...
Now onto the bad. The game is a rail (I'd say "rail shooter" but it lacks the "shooter" part that is customary follower to that phrase). It is a sandbox game where they dumped out of all the sand, given you 1 toy, and eye you closely to make sure you play with it how they want you too. In layman's terms, the game is very rigid. There is 1 way to do things, and no room for deviation. The game mechanic is this: Your stuffed into an area. Theres a person in front of you, you talk to them. You can't talk to anyone else, but them and you can only say very few things. Then your stuffed into another area to pick up trash like a janitor. Once you have enough trash, you can talk to 1 other person. You can't talk to anyone else, no one else cares about your trash. Rinse and repeat. Peppered into this one on one duality, they toss you a few bones of car chases and gun play, but to be honest, it's not really enough to keep my attention. Cars, like in GTA 4, have a much wider turn radius than the narrow streets allow, leaving you crashing into buildings regardless of your "skill". You can't slap witnesses or people your interrogating. In fact, the cut scene NPC's lord the fact that they can slap whom-ever they please right in front of you.
What this game desperately needs, is player control. At the moment, as the game is, It feels like the game is desperately trying to get rid of the player element all together. As if being there, holding a controller, is some sort of burden for the game as it jumps from one cinema to the other. 3 things would have made this game epic:
Game: L.A. Noire
Developer: Rockstar
Platforms: Xbox 360, Ps3
Rating: 5 Gumshoes are just on the wrong feet.
I'm going to start off by stating what is good about the game. Graphically, it's decent. Face mapping on characters is well drawn out making their mouth and eye movements as well as facial expressions flow quite well. Physics engine is decent, not great, but decent. For a detective game, the crimes do seem worth your time to look into. Wiggling panties and hanging around the water-cooler were my favorite part of this game...
Now onto the bad. The game is a rail (I'd say "rail shooter" but it lacks the "shooter" part that is customary follower to that phrase). It is a sandbox game where they dumped out of all the sand, given you 1 toy, and eye you closely to make sure you play with it how they want you too. In layman's terms, the game is very rigid. There is 1 way to do things, and no room for deviation. The game mechanic is this: Your stuffed into an area. Theres a person in front of you, you talk to them. You can't talk to anyone else, but them and you can only say very few things. Then your stuffed into another area to pick up trash like a janitor. Once you have enough trash, you can talk to 1 other person. You can't talk to anyone else, no one else cares about your trash. Rinse and repeat. Peppered into this one on one duality, they toss you a few bones of car chases and gun play, but to be honest, it's not really enough to keep my attention. Cars, like in GTA 4, have a much wider turn radius than the narrow streets allow, leaving you crashing into buildings regardless of your "skill". You can't slap witnesses or people your interrogating. In fact, the cut scene NPC's lord the fact that they can slap whom-ever they please right in front of you.
What this game desperately needs, is player control. At the moment, as the game is, It feels like the game is desperately trying to get rid of the player element all together. As if being there, holding a controller, is some sort of burden for the game as it jumps from one cinema to the other. 3 things would have made this game epic:
- Multiple story paths: That is to say, that there should be more than 1 way to complete a crime case. More than 1 person to talk too. More than 1 area of clues. If you walk around, you should be able to find more people involved. Even civilians would know "something", sort of deal.
- Bipolar character interface: What I mean by this, is to have some sort of a meter for "good cop, bad cop". If a player does bad things as a cop (like blackmail and orphanage), they get bad cop points. If a player does good cop things (say buy the station a box of doughnuts), then they get good cop points. The overall number of points gives the player character a "reputation" and outcomes, options, and dialogue become available depending on that score. For instance, a bad cop might get the option to take a bribe, where a good cop might get a fruit basket on his desk.
- More Crime: As a detective, you are constantly in harms way. I'm not talking about roving gangs on the street, I'm just saying that there are always TONS of conspiracy theory's that people hire detectives to look into. I'm not talking about crack pot ideas like the sinister function of plastic shoe string tips, or the investigation of big foot, but I am talking about a wife who suspects her husband of cheating, or the girl scout with missing cookies. The lack of trivial side quests, the journey to side quest island, and the return to side quest island leaves the game unfinished.
Integration of 2 out of the 3 of these would make the game a more player friendly experience. My biggest issue with it, was the fact that whether you were there playing the game, or not, it didn't seem to matter at all.
That's that, case closed.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Press "A" to say "Apple".
In The Beginning, There was a blue hole in the wall. And for a time, it was good. The first thing I would like to say, is that I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post. Being in college and finding a job at *insert crap job fast food here* has eaten a lot of my time lately. That and I have been thinking and pondering on how to make this particular blogger.com game blog have much more pizazz than it does currently. Visually, that is. Not content wise, we're fine content wise, but it's so bland to look at. I know pictures and screen shots of the games I review would be a nice touch, but to be honest, I haven't quite figured out how to get the licensing to do that yet (haven't had time to do the research). Just keep in mind, some time, hopefully soon, this website will change into something interesting.
But anyways, on to business!
GAMES! Well, one game. There have been quite a few releases in the first person shooter box, as has been customary to Xbox 360's general yearly load-out. Sadly, I just don't have the money to purchase them all. I have also been playing here and there on the kinect, but not really deep into it to review it just yet. I plan on doing so in the near future, and first look seems favorable. There is always a certain line that I look forward too in the first person shooting gallery, and that's games by the almighty Valve. The creators of Half-lifes and Team Fortresses. From them and their affiliates have come a nifty little physics bending game called "Portal 2" . Now, mind you Portal was brilliant. It was a little short, but that was really it's only short fall. It was one of those games where it made you think, without being impossible.
Portal 2
Platform: Xbox 360, Ps3, PC
Developer: Valve
Rating: 9
I must admit, I wasn't excited for Portal 2 until about a week before it's release. I'm always...cautious around sequels They are either really great, or really crap, and most tend to circle the latter. Portal 2, has been a delight. There was a lot of "love" put into this game, and it shows in every nook and cranny.
So far, I've only played the single player. I hear the partner duo multi-player is amazing and even better, but I'm waiting for my schedule to line up with another friend of mine to really get into it.
The easter eggs were fun to stumble upon. The game was beautifully paced. One thing I really really enjoyed was the scale of epicness pressed out and onto the player from the scenery. A lot of times, in quite a few games, scenery is just eye candy, ever out and about, but never interacting. In Portal 2, quite a lot of it is looking down and up, and you go, down and up. The voice actors were delightful, some parts had me laughing in tears. It was fun to see the history of the company, and why things where what and where (which was what I wanted to find out in the first game, lol.) So yes, really enjoyed it. And the achievement of "Yes, that did just happen", brilliant. The end song, like the end song to the first game, was beautifully made, and a very nice progression away and out of the first one.
Now onto the sticky. Things that just didn't sit well with me. I didn't like how the beginning of the game had a lot of "Notes from the Underground", and the later stages just didn't. It wasn't progressive, as I feel wall art is something Valve should have as a continuing theme in all their games. Some of the levels felt too "constrained" and only offered one solution. What I feel like portals should be able to do is open multiple solutions to 1 problem, in some, if not most, areas. Though the story of the game was rather satisfying, it did feel just a little bit short, an hour or so, but not by much. Regardless, it was delicious. There's a point in the last boss fight where there is no indication of what to do (rather, there is a lack of a visual directional que at one point that left me lost for a few deaths.)
But really, that's it. Everything else was very very satisfying. Had a blast playing it, can't wait till multiplayer....DIBS ON ATLAS!!!!
P.S. I'M IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
But anyways, on to business!
GAMES! Well, one game. There have been quite a few releases in the first person shooter box, as has been customary to Xbox 360's general yearly load-out. Sadly, I just don't have the money to purchase them all. I have also been playing here and there on the kinect, but not really deep into it to review it just yet. I plan on doing so in the near future, and first look seems favorable. There is always a certain line that I look forward too in the first person shooting gallery, and that's games by the almighty Valve. The creators of Half-lifes and Team Fortresses. From them and their affiliates have come a nifty little physics bending game called "Portal 2" . Now, mind you Portal was brilliant. It was a little short, but that was really it's only short fall. It was one of those games where it made you think, without being impossible.
Portal 2
Platform: Xbox 360, Ps3, PC
Developer: Valve
Rating: 9
I must admit, I wasn't excited for Portal 2 until about a week before it's release. I'm always...cautious around sequels They are either really great, or really crap, and most tend to circle the latter. Portal 2, has been a delight. There was a lot of "love" put into this game, and it shows in every nook and cranny.
So far, I've only played the single player. I hear the partner duo multi-player is amazing and even better, but I'm waiting for my schedule to line up with another friend of mine to really get into it.
The easter eggs were fun to stumble upon. The game was beautifully paced. One thing I really really enjoyed was the scale of epicness pressed out and onto the player from the scenery. A lot of times, in quite a few games, scenery is just eye candy, ever out and about, but never interacting. In Portal 2, quite a lot of it is looking down and up, and you go, down and up. The voice actors were delightful, some parts had me laughing in tears. It was fun to see the history of the company, and why things where what and where (which was what I wanted to find out in the first game, lol.) So yes, really enjoyed it. And the achievement of "Yes, that did just happen", brilliant. The end song, like the end song to the first game, was beautifully made, and a very nice progression away and out of the first one.
Now onto the sticky. Things that just didn't sit well with me. I didn't like how the beginning of the game had a lot of "Notes from the Underground", and the later stages just didn't. It wasn't progressive, as I feel wall art is something Valve should have as a continuing theme in all their games. Some of the levels felt too "constrained" and only offered one solution. What I feel like portals should be able to do is open multiple solutions to 1 problem, in some, if not most, areas. Though the story of the game was rather satisfying, it did feel just a little bit short, an hour or so, but not by much. Regardless, it was delicious. There's a point in the last boss fight where there is no indication of what to do (rather, there is a lack of a visual directional que at one point that left me lost for a few deaths.)
But really, that's it. Everything else was very very satisfying. Had a blast playing it, can't wait till multiplayer....DIBS ON ATLAS!!!!
P.S. I'M IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
1 Track Mind
So my computer exploded and died in a dramatic fit of red dots and pixelated squares, which put a stop to my efforts on World of Warcraft. The worst part about it was that I was flying around to some quest point some where when it happened, so my hiatus won't even gain any sort of xp bonus for being logged off in a city or inn :/ Oh well. But all in all, that leaves me completely without a PC, which blows because I was looking forward to writing a review on League of Legend's new Co-op vs AI program to be launching soon (if not already).
While I was sulking about the death of an inorganic non-living friend, I decided to buy Dragon Age 2... to the dismay of my roommate. He gets very attached to games, and I usually don't buy one's that he's getting as a courtesy to his feelings, that and I don't play his games until he's had his hand at them. But he's moving out in a month or so, which means I wouldn't be able to play it anyways. So I went ahead and bought a 2nd copy for myself. I lucked out at the store which I got it from, as they had a few Bioware Signiture Additions left over from people who didn't pick up their pre-orders, so I snagged one :3
So onto the nitty-gritty of the review of Dragon Age 2.
Platform: XBOX 360
Rating: 8 It's as solid as bronze marigolds...
My first impressions are this, and simply this: It's a very solid well built game. Much like the same company's Mass Effect 2. Choices and dialog are well thought out, well written. A nice and deep story, which is a decent change from the recent military shooter games. Game mechanics are very smooth and stream line. Controls mostly fit well with what tasks are at hand. All of these things interweave together to make a very nicely packaged game.
I might be nit picking, however, I did have some issues with the game in several areas. The biggest problem I had was that the disk would some times not load or the Xbox couldn't read it here and there. Graphics issues like the ground disappearing, large swatches of textures turning into bright green, yellow, blue, red, glowing patches, and things like that. I had to cross my fingers at every loading screen, which there are many, and hope that I didn't get kicked out to my Xbox dashboard.
As far as in game issues go, SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH SO IGNORE IF YOU WANNA, in a way, Dragon Age 2 is a step backwards from Dragon Age: Origins. In Origins, each decision you make, every step of the way, has a feeling of "meaning" something. That is to say, if you do 1 thing, as opposed to another, you can see repercussions throughout the game, and deal with the consequences later on. In Dragon Age 2, you can pretty much do what ever you like, and the only real changes are dialog outcomes...which in their own right had me laughing pretty hard, but still. Through out 2 playthroughs, using decisions that are complete polar opposites, I was rather disappointed the outcomes are exactly parallel with only minuscule changes. Party members you loose, you still loose. The "how" might be different, they may die, they may decide to dress up like a whore and wonder the wilderness of another country for a few 100 years, but regardless, they are still gone. A character dies off during a quest no matter what...which sucks, because it seems that you SHOULD be able to save her at some point, but no. Hell, in the real world you could just say "Hey, there's been some stabbings, don't go out at night, and by no means, don't let any crazy fuckers buy you flowers.....with knives in them..." But no, you keep your mouth shut and she goes off to meat death....which the first time through made my jaw drop.
MORE SPOILERS: It's really as if what you did, doesn't matter. And in the grand scheme of the game, it really doesn't. The same betrayal happens, the same results, the same what ever. Regardless if I'm the evil but lovable female rogue who has a very distinct hatred for mages that makes her sadistic....or the snarky do gooder, who just happens to be your friendly neighborhood blood mage. Which brings me to another point that I was really sad about. In Dragon Age: Origins, learning new skills, new abilities, and becoming something, was special. Why? Because you had to go out and find it along your travels. Want to be an archer, train under some one with a bow. Want better crits? screw the pirate whore. Want to be a blood mage/blood rogue/blood sucking anything? Drink the vial of dragon blood like it was liquid candy. In Dragon Age 2, it's handed too you. No explanation, no waiting, no glory of conquest, just "plop" your a blood mage at lvl 7 and no one cares. I disliked that you could only be human. In Origins, you could select a small selection of races (dwarf, elf, human) but what made it great, was that each race had it's own story line to it. Poor dwarfs were serfs, rich humans were nobles, elves were basically slaves, that sort of crap. In Dragon Age 2...not so much, all three classes have the same exact intro. The only difference is which 3rd wheel character dies at the ogre. In Dragon Age: Origins, mages had their own special story line.... No one really knows your a mage. It comes up in conversation and dialog options, and has a few special options here and there, but really, nothing major comes from it. The last thing I didn't like was the fact that there was a very limited number of maps. There were about 3 building floor plans, 2 caves, and you visit them over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. The entire game I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to venture away from the 1 city, but no, your stuck there. It makes the game feel a little unfinished. As if there is supposed to be another town or city some where later, but they just never get around to letting you go there. As a cruel joke, they have characters constantly ask you if you want to leave, then just glaze over the fact that you can't.
Somethings I do like in Dragon Age 2, are the fact that exits to levels are abundant, and there's quick travel options scattered throughout. I like that the game progresses by skipping over boring sections. When they say "You work 3 years as _____ job" they just time jump montage to the "you finished working for 3 years" rather than having you waste time doing menial quests over and over. It got rid of a lot of busy work to allow for more plot. The characters were great....most of them. The whiny healer I just wanted an option to give him the knife to slit his own wrists, but all the other characters I really enjoyed. My favorite is Verrak or what ever...Dwarf + Chest hair + Crossbow. If you play a snarky character, which I recommend, always keep Verrak in your party, ALWAYS, the results get better and better as the game goes on.
Something that I'm surprised they didn't do, was a bigger quick map option. You can only hold 6 spells/abilities in the quick map, and they really should have a way to switch it out for multiple sets of 6 (like using the + pad to rotate sets). But other then that, and the spoilers above, I liked the game. It's quite solid and nice overall, and I feel that it's a great game to pick up if your into the fantasy RPG. The combat is decently placed, the difficulty is at a very nice scale making it a challenge at a very acceptable pace. Timing is done nicely in a WoW style cooldown format.
Conclusion (minor spoilers):
Could use more rogue armor, needs more maps, needs more places to go, needs more "special"ness by adding unique quest rewards and abilities from decisions and quests, needs more impactful decisions. Has a wonderful story, has great game mechanics, has great controls, beautifully written, art is spectacular, overall looks impressive, yeah, that sums it up pretty much.
While I was sulking about the death of an inorganic non-living friend, I decided to buy Dragon Age 2... to the dismay of my roommate. He gets very attached to games, and I usually don't buy one's that he's getting as a courtesy to his feelings, that and I don't play his games until he's had his hand at them. But he's moving out in a month or so, which means I wouldn't be able to play it anyways. So I went ahead and bought a 2nd copy for myself. I lucked out at the store which I got it from, as they had a few Bioware Signiture Additions left over from people who didn't pick up their pre-orders, so I snagged one :3
So onto the nitty-gritty of the review of Dragon Age 2.
Platform: XBOX 360
Rating: 8 It's as solid as bronze marigolds...
My first impressions are this, and simply this: It's a very solid well built game. Much like the same company's Mass Effect 2. Choices and dialog are well thought out, well written. A nice and deep story, which is a decent change from the recent military shooter games. Game mechanics are very smooth and stream line. Controls mostly fit well with what tasks are at hand. All of these things interweave together to make a very nicely packaged game.
I might be nit picking, however, I did have some issues with the game in several areas. The biggest problem I had was that the disk would some times not load or the Xbox couldn't read it here and there. Graphics issues like the ground disappearing, large swatches of textures turning into bright green, yellow, blue, red, glowing patches, and things like that. I had to cross my fingers at every loading screen, which there are many, and hope that I didn't get kicked out to my Xbox dashboard.
As far as in game issues go, SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH SO IGNORE IF YOU WANNA, in a way, Dragon Age 2 is a step backwards from Dragon Age: Origins. In Origins, each decision you make, every step of the way, has a feeling of "meaning" something. That is to say, if you do 1 thing, as opposed to another, you can see repercussions throughout the game, and deal with the consequences later on. In Dragon Age 2, you can pretty much do what ever you like, and the only real changes are dialog outcomes...which in their own right had me laughing pretty hard, but still. Through out 2 playthroughs, using decisions that are complete polar opposites, I was rather disappointed the outcomes are exactly parallel with only minuscule changes. Party members you loose, you still loose. The "how" might be different, they may die, they may decide to dress up like a whore and wonder the wilderness of another country for a few 100 years, but regardless, they are still gone. A character dies off during a quest no matter what...which sucks, because it seems that you SHOULD be able to save her at some point, but no. Hell, in the real world you could just say "Hey, there's been some stabbings, don't go out at night, and by no means, don't let any crazy fuckers buy you flowers.....with knives in them..." But no, you keep your mouth shut and she goes off to meat death....which the first time through made my jaw drop.
MORE SPOILERS: It's really as if what you did, doesn't matter. And in the grand scheme of the game, it really doesn't. The same betrayal happens, the same results, the same what ever. Regardless if I'm the evil but lovable female rogue who has a very distinct hatred for mages that makes her sadistic....or the snarky do gooder, who just happens to be your friendly neighborhood blood mage. Which brings me to another point that I was really sad about. In Dragon Age: Origins, learning new skills, new abilities, and becoming something, was special. Why? Because you had to go out and find it along your travels. Want to be an archer, train under some one with a bow. Want better crits? screw the pirate whore. Want to be a blood mage/blood rogue/blood sucking anything? Drink the vial of dragon blood like it was liquid candy. In Dragon Age 2, it's handed too you. No explanation, no waiting, no glory of conquest, just "plop" your a blood mage at lvl 7 and no one cares. I disliked that you could only be human. In Origins, you could select a small selection of races (dwarf, elf, human) but what made it great, was that each race had it's own story line to it. Poor dwarfs were serfs, rich humans were nobles, elves were basically slaves, that sort of crap. In Dragon Age 2...not so much, all three classes have the same exact intro. The only difference is which 3rd wheel character dies at the ogre. In Dragon Age: Origins, mages had their own special story line.... No one really knows your a mage. It comes up in conversation and dialog options, and has a few special options here and there, but really, nothing major comes from it. The last thing I didn't like was the fact that there was a very limited number of maps. There were about 3 building floor plans, 2 caves, and you visit them over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. The entire game I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to venture away from the 1 city, but no, your stuck there. It makes the game feel a little unfinished. As if there is supposed to be another town or city some where later, but they just never get around to letting you go there. As a cruel joke, they have characters constantly ask you if you want to leave, then just glaze over the fact that you can't.
Somethings I do like in Dragon Age 2, are the fact that exits to levels are abundant, and there's quick travel options scattered throughout. I like that the game progresses by skipping over boring sections. When they say "You work 3 years as _____ job" they just time jump montage to the "you finished working for 3 years" rather than having you waste time doing menial quests over and over. It got rid of a lot of busy work to allow for more plot. The characters were great....most of them. The whiny healer I just wanted an option to give him the knife to slit his own wrists, but all the other characters I really enjoyed. My favorite is Verrak or what ever...Dwarf + Chest hair + Crossbow. If you play a snarky character, which I recommend, always keep Verrak in your party, ALWAYS, the results get better and better as the game goes on.
Something that I'm surprised they didn't do, was a bigger quick map option. You can only hold 6 spells/abilities in the quick map, and they really should have a way to switch it out for multiple sets of 6 (like using the + pad to rotate sets). But other then that, and the spoilers above, I liked the game. It's quite solid and nice overall, and I feel that it's a great game to pick up if your into the fantasy RPG. The combat is decently placed, the difficulty is at a very nice scale making it a challenge at a very acceptable pace. Timing is done nicely in a WoW style cooldown format.
Conclusion (minor spoilers):
Could use more rogue armor, needs more maps, needs more places to go, needs more "special"ness by adding unique quest rewards and abilities from decisions and quests, needs more impactful decisions. Has a wonderful story, has great game mechanics, has great controls, beautifully written, art is spectacular, overall looks impressive, yeah, that sums it up pretty much.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
2 swords yet so many throats...
Hey internet gamer verse, how ya be? It's been a while since the last game review, and lots of things are, well, being crafted for this blog. Among many things, one is a nifty user picture by a talented artist, more info on that at a later time (or just keep up with my FA www.furaffinity.net/user/fuzzyroo.)
Alright, I've been sucked into Wow for a while, and now that my computer up and died, it sort of left me swimming in a null void of gaming. I've almost had crack addict itches from the lack of button mashing. It's been intense.
So I dropped back onto fable 3 to finish up some things here and there. DLC I never did, it was entertaining, just wish there was...."more" Like a multi-tier quest rather than just one quest(ish) thing per download. But I finally found all 50 keys, so I feel happy about it all (Spoiler: Eagle Smashy Stick FTW). I also decided to pre-order Dragon Age 2 (2 days before release.)
On top of everything, I was even able to talk the place where I pre-ordered it from to give me the signature edition (something Bioware did if you pre-ordered the game before a specific date). How I got it was simple, there was some sort of midnight release that wasn't as big as they thought it was going to be and had about 6 copies of the special edition left over. Ka-cow, it's mine bitches. Difference between signature and regular, there's some DLC stuff that if you don't have the signature, you have to buy. There's also some promo gimics here and there (like downloadable sound track and that sort of crud).
I've only been playing it for a couple hours, only long enough to get out of the initial tutorial zone and into some sort of town area. My first impressions are hopeful. It looks like it might be a solid game shaping up. I have been seeing slight images that the game might be...well...a little short...but I'm hopeful that it won't be as bad as I'm worried it possibly could be.
More to come, off to class.
Alright, I've been sucked into Wow for a while, and now that my computer up and died, it sort of left me swimming in a null void of gaming. I've almost had crack addict itches from the lack of button mashing. It's been intense.
So I dropped back onto fable 3 to finish up some things here and there. DLC I never did, it was entertaining, just wish there was...."more" Like a multi-tier quest rather than just one quest(ish) thing per download. But I finally found all 50 keys, so I feel happy about it all (Spoiler: Eagle Smashy Stick FTW). I also decided to pre-order Dragon Age 2 (2 days before release.)
On top of everything, I was even able to talk the place where I pre-ordered it from to give me the signature edition (something Bioware did if you pre-ordered the game before a specific date). How I got it was simple, there was some sort of midnight release that wasn't as big as they thought it was going to be and had about 6 copies of the special edition left over. Ka-cow, it's mine bitches. Difference between signature and regular, there's some DLC stuff that if you don't have the signature, you have to buy. There's also some promo gimics here and there (like downloadable sound track and that sort of crud).
I've only been playing it for a couple hours, only long enough to get out of the initial tutorial zone and into some sort of town area. My first impressions are hopeful. It looks like it might be a solid game shaping up. I have been seeing slight images that the game might be...well...a little short...but I'm hopeful that it won't be as bad as I'm worried it possibly could be.
More to come, off to class.
Monday, December 27, 2010
That Time of Year Again.
Hey everyone, it's been a while since my last post. Lots of things in my life going off like hand grenades of drama tossed into my little living room of productivity. But as the holiday that celebrates being 1/2 way out of the darkness of winter has passed, and the small fact that I simply can't sleep, I decided what a better time than any to toss you all a delicious update. Mmmmm tastes like chocolate.
Ok, this one's a bit of a post as I'm reviewing 3 games back to back to back. I am going to throw stuff out there in the order of "completion" or what ever cause some games just don't "complete." This review is on 3 RPG's so I feel comfortable linking them in one post.
The games: Fable III, Fallout: Las Vegas, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Let us put on our safety purple rubber laboratory gloves and get right down o business.
Fable III:
This was a little bit of a surprise for me. As it stood so far, my relationship from Lion Head Studios was that of a love/hate dynamic. They would throw out a game, such as Black and White, that I would love and then throw out, Black and White 2, which would be more of the same that I didn't enjoy quite as much as the original. This was how it was with their flagship creation of Fable. Fable 1 was a very nicely put together solid game. It wasn't the best game of all time, mind you, but it was more than playable. The story was great, the options were dynamic, It had lots of little things to do and see. But here's where we get to the biggest problem about the Fable series, hype. They promised quite a great deal with Fable I, skills that changed as they were used (swing a bat for a long time, and your strength is based on the swinging) and levels that would manipulate in certain ways, boarder-less levels, and all sorts of fun little tidbits. Hearing these, at the time Fable I came out, I sorta had a certain.... feeling that current tech wasn't as good as they were letting us to believe. Well, the game came out, and I was both right and wrong at the same time. Although Fable didn't do as much as was promised, It did do a great deal. The biggest achievement for me, was the story line. It was a big and very epic story, and I loved it quite a bit.
Continuing on, Fable II....was rubbish. The story was poorly written, you stumble through it like blind person with no arms to feel out what's in front of you, so you fall down the stairs. The "big game changing choices" you had to make were either not important, or made redundant and obsolete later (the biggest end game one is done away with in the DLC). The last boss was, well, anti-climactic. Not to mention the most overlooked problematic issue of fable II of all time: Single slot auto-save. That's right, the whole game resides over one save slot, which is an auto-save. They wanted to make your choices feel more "permanent", but what they didn't realize, was that if your game has an issue, say a bug, you can't "go back to an earlier save" and re-try it. Your either stuck, or you have to start from the beginning. And the BUGS! Quite a large percentage of U.S. players couldn't get the game to work, an even greater percentage had a game breaking bug, like a quest giver, one that's NEEDED, to continue the main story plot, either wouldn't be where they were supposed to be and just went missing, or would just smile dumbly at the player, not recognizing it needs to start talking again. And the hype continued: Cinematic fights, no real "one way to get places", fence hopping, interactive dog companion. The promises went on and on! Inclusive multi-player....ok the multi-player just wasn't. Sure you could join some one's game, but you get like 4 stock characters to choose from (no customization), and it's 2 characters that share 1 camera, even if your over xbox live, 1 camera. Really really poor idea. About the only thing they did deliver on, was the dog companion...and even then, it was pretty annoying for upkeep.
Ok, so why am I talking about the previous games for Fable III? It's because Fable III is a sort of "apology" for the previous games, primarily Fable II. Fable III was EVERYTHING they promised for II, it's what II should have been plus a little extra. It's as if the media director looked in on projects, and hyped up the wrong game (hyping 3 when they were releasing 2). The dog is less annoying. The guns work, the fighting works, the auto-saves stagger sorta. Enough that if something happens poorly, there's a chance you can go back within a few moments to where it might not happen again. The multi-player is great, and by great I mean right. Cameras are dynamic to playres (unless your playing on the same xbox, but that's not that big of deal.) The characters are YOUR characters, not some ugly stock model like in the last game. 2nd player can customize options, just gotta coordinate who's going to gun room when, lol. Clothing looks, decent. AND THERE'S NO LUMBERJACK GIRL BUG! (lumberjack girl: In Fable II part of the story plot has you in a specific outfit. Problem was, they made the outfit for a very specific male character model. When they put it on the player character, it over-rides what your character looked like, with what the male model looked like, even if you were female! So you get wide shoulders, a stocky torso, and a big cleft chin, aka Lumberjack Girl.) The most entertaining thing about Fable III is the evolving combat cinema kills. It's random, it depends on how your killing and what your killing with, but every once and a while, your character will kill in quite the funny ways. Level design needed a little bit of work in places. (invisible walls need looked at on some of the moving platforms.) I really liked the smooth level transitions, the loading times were not that bad really, if at all. The elimination of the menu system was a GREAT idea. Loved outfit selection. Needed a bit better color selection and well "more". It needed at least 1 other type of weapon in each category. The have heavy hammer, small sword, long rifle, dueling pistol, and that's it. They just needed one more type of gun and one more type of melee and the game would have been greatly more "open" to style. It needed a few more tattoo designs, and better collectible item rewards (about 4 chests or more give you gold. As not as redundant as the previous game, gold still doesn't really matter that much in this game.) Some of the weapon designs were great, some of the armor designs were amazing. The star power, as British star power goes, was phenomenal (only a little sad that a Dr. Who reference wasn't used, oh well, lol.). The characters were great, and wonderfully portrayed...though I wish your actions could decide if you could save 1 or 2. But yeah. (As a side note, so you all know this isn't all just butter and kisses, is that the last boss was disappointing. It really felt like it should have been a multi-stage fight, with the first stage that you are given in the game now, evolving to either 1 or 2 more stages of increasing pace and difficulty.)
Overall I give it an 8/10: It's got "That twinkle". There is something a little special about this game that makes it pretty spectacular.
Moving on:
Fallout: Las Vegas
This was a game that I sort of had high hopes for. I was really excited when my roommate picked it up, and let me start playing. It took me a bit of doing and qutie abit of time, but I did finish it. Well, I finished as much as I wanted out of it. However, after a time...it started becoming, "not worth the effort". This review is going to be a little bit short but really, there's not much to say that hasn't already been said elsewhere for Fallout 3. Basically the game is Fallout 3 with a semi-sorta new map, semi-sorta new characters, semi-sorta new weapons, a semi-sorta new plot, and most of all, new annoying "good idea, bad executions." The graphics aren't much different, the guns aren't much different, the game play isn't much different, the story.....leaves a bit to be desired. There's some funny and fun twists, but overall, it was...well....pretty restrictive. That's sort of the word of the game "Restrictions." Apparently Bethesda studios decided that the players were given too much freedom in Fallout 3 and Oblivion, so they decided do away with that in a couple of ways. The first was the largest restriction: quest and story. Sure you can choose who to ally with, your path of good or evil, but once you choose, your stuck. There isn't any deviation, or unique changes, your given the objectives, complete or not finish the game. Your choice. The 2nd way they restrict the payer is with faction. This was a very good "idea" but a very poor execution. The good idea was simple: you do good things for particular factions, they like you more and give you quests, items, houses, and what not. The bad idea: faction is based on armor. What your wearing depends on standing and rep. This was a really poor idea for a couple of reasons. The first reason, most enemies you fight are faction related enemies. All gear from faction related enemies, other than guns, ammo, food, and miscellaneous items, is faction gear. Your items and gear deteriorate at astounding rates, you might be forced to run around naked even though there's TONS of armor around you, you just can't equip it cause your allies might open fire. your companions will not wear faction armor that opposes with their faction, even though it's 100 times better than what they are wearing. And a personal thing for me, I can't wear trophies of those I've slain. The last way Fallout: Las Vegas is restrictive is invisible walls. They really narrowed the playing field, quite literally, with these. Preventing you access to so many areas cause you just can't figure out the "right way round" even though it looks like you could just "walk" to it. I got very frustrated with areas I should be able to jump to, or even casually stroll too, but just simply couldn't for some unknown reason. And that's pretty much it.
I give it a 7/10: So far so good. The game is decent, not great, but decent. Could really have used a more dynamic choice in characters, a drastic overall of guns, and a redesign in faction mechanics, as well as a demolition project against inviso-wall incorporated.
And Last
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm:
To be honest, I'm just blown away. I have not been able to put this down, and that's saying something as I'm generally not a "massively multi-player" friendly kind of player. I tend to keep to myself, loathing the existence of other characters, wishing that this time would be the time that they broke their legs from jumping 1 too many times (I swear some keyboards have the space bar worn down to a little nub.) But yeah, this has been a very, very, delightful experience. I have yet to play this fully, I have yet to get to the new end game content (levels 80-85), and I have yet to play the new Goblin race. I have been playing levels 1-65 on the werewolves side of things, and besides a few bugs here and there, minor graphic issues, really, or just wrong sound file put into to wrong emote, issues with animations not syncing and just little tid bits like that, overall, it's great O.o. And that's a lot for me to say, as a lot of you know how bad I find World of Warcrack. But Blizzard has made the game....enjoyable. Questing, although still a burden some times, is easily accessible, you don't have to run from one continent to the other to continue, it's all a straight linear line of "if your on this land, go to point X, that land, go to point Y". The random dungeon que makes finding dungeons easier, gear looks decent so forth and this and that. The werewolves, wholly crap the werewolves. It's those little extra things that I so enjoy. The tidbits that have nothing to really "do" in the game, except sit there and be awesome. Levels 1-13 are amazing as you follow the story of your dying people and their heavy "curse" (but as a furry, it's not really a "curse" as much as a "better way of life" lol). The thing that kills me is that the werewolves are a Victorian age British civilization. Accents, architecture, culture, dress, and everything. Even greater, they have a werewolf only quest for top-hats. Yes, only World of Warcraft werewolves get top-hats. The level design for the re-imagined areas are pretty awesome, the big scars, burnt patches, and craters are interesting, as well as the big whirlpools of death spotted here and there (jump, it's fun). I like that the biggest baddest monster (the big dragon called Deathwing, that's the expansion's mascot) comes into random relms, and torches them. I have yet to see it's destruction first hand (I am always 2nd too late, but just in time to see the flames die down), but it looks spectacular. I love the phase tech all over, it makes it seem like your quests actually "do" something rather than "oh, thanks for your time, bye now sucker!" I like the battles all across the land, the Npc's not really doing anything but it looks like they are battling. It adds a bit better air of conflict and a greater scope of what's going on. I'm enjoying all the "underwater" shenanigans as I did play out the humorous "sea legs" first part to the lvl 80 content. Yeah, just enjoyment all around. Oh! And I like how they "specialized" the class talents. Each class gets a choice of 1 of 3 specializations, and depending on that choice depends on what bread and butter move they get. So you can just watch people play and say "oh, your this type of that class". Just a bit of fun there.
Overall World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is getting a 9/10 a Diamond in the Rough. I think that people should at least play the 10 day trial if they can, lol. All in all the changes they have made are great, some refinement is needed but it doesn't subtract much from the overall game. I like it a lot, lol.
So yeah, GOOD TIMES!
Oh and some movies I've seen, not really revies:
Tron was amazing, I nearly raved to the music right there in the theater, just needed glowsticks.
Harry Potter, was...ok, wish they wouldn't do the Michale Bay shaky camera fights and do some choreography instead :( Wish the 2nd part was released at the same time, so you could just sit for 4 hours and watch it from start to finish :(
And there ya go. Enjoy.
Ok, this one's a bit of a post as I'm reviewing 3 games back to back to back. I am going to throw stuff out there in the order of "completion" or what ever cause some games just don't "complete." This review is on 3 RPG's so I feel comfortable linking them in one post.
The games: Fable III, Fallout: Las Vegas, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Let us put on our safety purple rubber laboratory gloves and get right down o business.
Fable III:
This was a little bit of a surprise for me. As it stood so far, my relationship from Lion Head Studios was that of a love/hate dynamic. They would throw out a game, such as Black and White, that I would love and then throw out, Black and White 2, which would be more of the same that I didn't enjoy quite as much as the original. This was how it was with their flagship creation of Fable. Fable 1 was a very nicely put together solid game. It wasn't the best game of all time, mind you, but it was more than playable. The story was great, the options were dynamic, It had lots of little things to do and see. But here's where we get to the biggest problem about the Fable series, hype. They promised quite a great deal with Fable I, skills that changed as they were used (swing a bat for a long time, and your strength is based on the swinging) and levels that would manipulate in certain ways, boarder-less levels, and all sorts of fun little tidbits. Hearing these, at the time Fable I came out, I sorta had a certain.... feeling that current tech wasn't as good as they were letting us to believe. Well, the game came out, and I was both right and wrong at the same time. Although Fable didn't do as much as was promised, It did do a great deal. The biggest achievement for me, was the story line. It was a big and very epic story, and I loved it quite a bit.
Continuing on, Fable II....was rubbish. The story was poorly written, you stumble through it like blind person with no arms to feel out what's in front of you, so you fall down the stairs. The "big game changing choices" you had to make were either not important, or made redundant and obsolete later (the biggest end game one is done away with in the DLC). The last boss was, well, anti-climactic. Not to mention the most overlooked problematic issue of fable II of all time: Single slot auto-save. That's right, the whole game resides over one save slot, which is an auto-save. They wanted to make your choices feel more "permanent", but what they didn't realize, was that if your game has an issue, say a bug, you can't "go back to an earlier save" and re-try it. Your either stuck, or you have to start from the beginning. And the BUGS! Quite a large percentage of U.S. players couldn't get the game to work, an even greater percentage had a game breaking bug, like a quest giver, one that's NEEDED, to continue the main story plot, either wouldn't be where they were supposed to be and just went missing, or would just smile dumbly at the player, not recognizing it needs to start talking again. And the hype continued: Cinematic fights, no real "one way to get places", fence hopping, interactive dog companion. The promises went on and on! Inclusive multi-player....ok the multi-player just wasn't. Sure you could join some one's game, but you get like 4 stock characters to choose from (no customization), and it's 2 characters that share 1 camera, even if your over xbox live, 1 camera. Really really poor idea. About the only thing they did deliver on, was the dog companion...and even then, it was pretty annoying for upkeep.
Ok, so why am I talking about the previous games for Fable III? It's because Fable III is a sort of "apology" for the previous games, primarily Fable II. Fable III was EVERYTHING they promised for II, it's what II should have been plus a little extra. It's as if the media director looked in on projects, and hyped up the wrong game (hyping 3 when they were releasing 2). The dog is less annoying. The guns work, the fighting works, the auto-saves stagger sorta. Enough that if something happens poorly, there's a chance you can go back within a few moments to where it might not happen again. The multi-player is great, and by great I mean right. Cameras are dynamic to playres (unless your playing on the same xbox, but that's not that big of deal.) The characters are YOUR characters, not some ugly stock model like in the last game. 2nd player can customize options, just gotta coordinate who's going to gun room when, lol. Clothing looks, decent. AND THERE'S NO LUMBERJACK GIRL BUG! (lumberjack girl: In Fable II part of the story plot has you in a specific outfit. Problem was, they made the outfit for a very specific male character model. When they put it on the player character, it over-rides what your character looked like, with what the male model looked like, even if you were female! So you get wide shoulders, a stocky torso, and a big cleft chin, aka Lumberjack Girl.) The most entertaining thing about Fable III is the evolving combat cinema kills. It's random, it depends on how your killing and what your killing with, but every once and a while, your character will kill in quite the funny ways. Level design needed a little bit of work in places. (invisible walls need looked at on some of the moving platforms.) I really liked the smooth level transitions, the loading times were not that bad really, if at all. The elimination of the menu system was a GREAT idea. Loved outfit selection. Needed a bit better color selection and well "more". It needed at least 1 other type of weapon in each category. The have heavy hammer, small sword, long rifle, dueling pistol, and that's it. They just needed one more type of gun and one more type of melee and the game would have been greatly more "open" to style. It needed a few more tattoo designs, and better collectible item rewards (about 4 chests or more give you gold. As not as redundant as the previous game, gold still doesn't really matter that much in this game.) Some of the weapon designs were great, some of the armor designs were amazing. The star power, as British star power goes, was phenomenal (only a little sad that a Dr. Who reference wasn't used, oh well, lol.). The characters were great, and wonderfully portrayed...though I wish your actions could decide if you could save 1 or 2. But yeah. (As a side note, so you all know this isn't all just butter and kisses, is that the last boss was disappointing. It really felt like it should have been a multi-stage fight, with the first stage that you are given in the game now, evolving to either 1 or 2 more stages of increasing pace and difficulty.)
Overall I give it an 8/10: It's got "That twinkle". There is something a little special about this game that makes it pretty spectacular.
Moving on:
Fallout: Las Vegas
This was a game that I sort of had high hopes for. I was really excited when my roommate picked it up, and let me start playing. It took me a bit of doing and qutie abit of time, but I did finish it. Well, I finished as much as I wanted out of it. However, after a time...it started becoming, "not worth the effort". This review is going to be a little bit short but really, there's not much to say that hasn't already been said elsewhere for Fallout 3. Basically the game is Fallout 3 with a semi-sorta new map, semi-sorta new characters, semi-sorta new weapons, a semi-sorta new plot, and most of all, new annoying "good idea, bad executions." The graphics aren't much different, the guns aren't much different, the game play isn't much different, the story.....leaves a bit to be desired. There's some funny and fun twists, but overall, it was...well....pretty restrictive. That's sort of the word of the game "Restrictions." Apparently Bethesda studios decided that the players were given too much freedom in Fallout 3 and Oblivion, so they decided do away with that in a couple of ways. The first was the largest restriction: quest and story. Sure you can choose who to ally with, your path of good or evil, but once you choose, your stuck. There isn't any deviation, or unique changes, your given the objectives, complete or not finish the game. Your choice. The 2nd way they restrict the payer is with faction. This was a very good "idea" but a very poor execution. The good idea was simple: you do good things for particular factions, they like you more and give you quests, items, houses, and what not. The bad idea: faction is based on armor. What your wearing depends on standing and rep. This was a really poor idea for a couple of reasons. The first reason, most enemies you fight are faction related enemies. All gear from faction related enemies, other than guns, ammo, food, and miscellaneous items, is faction gear. Your items and gear deteriorate at astounding rates, you might be forced to run around naked even though there's TONS of armor around you, you just can't equip it cause your allies might open fire. your companions will not wear faction armor that opposes with their faction, even though it's 100 times better than what they are wearing. And a personal thing for me, I can't wear trophies of those I've slain. The last way Fallout: Las Vegas is restrictive is invisible walls. They really narrowed the playing field, quite literally, with these. Preventing you access to so many areas cause you just can't figure out the "right way round" even though it looks like you could just "walk" to it. I got very frustrated with areas I should be able to jump to, or even casually stroll too, but just simply couldn't for some unknown reason. And that's pretty much it.
I give it a 7/10: So far so good. The game is decent, not great, but decent. Could really have used a more dynamic choice in characters, a drastic overall of guns, and a redesign in faction mechanics, as well as a demolition project against inviso-wall incorporated.
And Last
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm:
To be honest, I'm just blown away. I have not been able to put this down, and that's saying something as I'm generally not a "massively multi-player" friendly kind of player. I tend to keep to myself, loathing the existence of other characters, wishing that this time would be the time that they broke their legs from jumping 1 too many times (I swear some keyboards have the space bar worn down to a little nub.) But yeah, this has been a very, very, delightful experience. I have yet to play this fully, I have yet to get to the new end game content (levels 80-85), and I have yet to play the new Goblin race. I have been playing levels 1-65 on the werewolves side of things, and besides a few bugs here and there, minor graphic issues, really, or just wrong sound file put into to wrong emote, issues with animations not syncing and just little tid bits like that, overall, it's great O.o. And that's a lot for me to say, as a lot of you know how bad I find World of Warcrack. But Blizzard has made the game....enjoyable. Questing, although still a burden some times, is easily accessible, you don't have to run from one continent to the other to continue, it's all a straight linear line of "if your on this land, go to point X, that land, go to point Y". The random dungeon que makes finding dungeons easier, gear looks decent so forth and this and that. The werewolves, wholly crap the werewolves. It's those little extra things that I so enjoy. The tidbits that have nothing to really "do" in the game, except sit there and be awesome. Levels 1-13 are amazing as you follow the story of your dying people and their heavy "curse" (but as a furry, it's not really a "curse" as much as a "better way of life" lol). The thing that kills me is that the werewolves are a Victorian age British civilization. Accents, architecture, culture, dress, and everything. Even greater, they have a werewolf only quest for top-hats. Yes, only World of Warcraft werewolves get top-hats. The level design for the re-imagined areas are pretty awesome, the big scars, burnt patches, and craters are interesting, as well as the big whirlpools of death spotted here and there (jump, it's fun). I like that the biggest baddest monster (the big dragon called Deathwing, that's the expansion's mascot) comes into random relms, and torches them. I have yet to see it's destruction first hand (I am always 2nd too late, but just in time to see the flames die down), but it looks spectacular. I love the phase tech all over, it makes it seem like your quests actually "do" something rather than "oh, thanks for your time, bye now sucker!" I like the battles all across the land, the Npc's not really doing anything but it looks like they are battling. It adds a bit better air of conflict and a greater scope of what's going on. I'm enjoying all the "underwater" shenanigans as I did play out the humorous "sea legs" first part to the lvl 80 content. Yeah, just enjoyment all around. Oh! And I like how they "specialized" the class talents. Each class gets a choice of 1 of 3 specializations, and depending on that choice depends on what bread and butter move they get. So you can just watch people play and say "oh, your this type of that class". Just a bit of fun there.
Overall World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is getting a 9/10 a Diamond in the Rough. I think that people should at least play the 10 day trial if they can, lol. All in all the changes they have made are great, some refinement is needed but it doesn't subtract much from the overall game. I like it a lot, lol.
So yeah, GOOD TIMES!
Oh and some movies I've seen, not really revies:
Tron was amazing, I nearly raved to the music right there in the theater, just needed glowsticks.
Harry Potter, was...ok, wish they wouldn't do the Michale Bay shaky camera fights and do some choreography instead :( Wish the 2nd part was released at the same time, so you could just sit for 4 hours and watch it from start to finish :(
And there ya go. Enjoy.
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