Work went late, but I was still able to watch the opening G4 coverage and the EA Spotlight of E3 2010. This year didn't get my hopes up for a particular title like in past years. The Old Republic was the only title I expected to hear about, but had heard about it for long enough to not expect anything groundbreaking (i.e. a release date).
But it's getting late and I have some quick thoughts to relate before I succumb to dreams of what I just watched.
From G4's coverage:
Spiderman - Shattered Dimensions (?) (I didn't get the full title so that could be wrong)
This looks promising and scary all in one. It seems like they took four different Spiderman games and rolled them into one. On the plus side, you get to play in different universes / time periods and time travel in games has been fun from my experience. However, with four different styles, I wonder if none of them are polished to perfection - OR - if the differences aren't as big as they made them seem. If I'm in the Wild West, I want to have a showdown at 20 paces. If I'm in the future, I want jet packs and laser beams. Time periods should affect gameplay so hopefully this game will follow that.
Power Gig:
The thought of having a rock video game actually teach you how to play the guitar - finally. I didn't understand how that would work though. A quick short demo of showing how someone played the game would have been nice. And the drums - I don't know. Maybe it's the same as with the guitar of not showing us, but I can't help but think there are going to be issues with the pads of the toms not being concretely defined.
Hunted:
The first look at this game didn't have me drooling for it, but the commentary of Morgan, Kevin, and Adam sparked more interest in it. I like the idea of being able to build up your own character and then play with it in a friend's game and then going back home and continuing with all the experience you earned with your friend. I'd also like to see more about the skill system and how it all works.
EA Spotlight:
Of the 10 games, I'm only going to comment on a subset of them here. I think. We'll see how tired I get.
Dead Space 2:
This is supposed to be a scary game. I didn't get it. Although, playing it so that it filled up my entire TV screen instead of 1/4, in the dark, by myself - might make it scary. When I think of horror games, though, I think of Silent Hill. I've only played the first one and it was recently, but it still had a very creepy feeling to it - despite the dated graphics. Dead Space 2 just seems to be commercial haunted house scares. However, I do want to play the first one and see if I get something different out of it. I think I even have a demo of it so that'll be a good start.
MMA:
I'm not a fan of fighting games or mixed martial arts fights. However, the announcement of Live Broadcast intrigued me. If there's not an MMA or UFC fight going on, will people actually log in to watch two random people duke it out in a video game? I think a lot of it will end up coming down to presentation. It has to look awesome for people to want to watch it. And since it's all virtual, does that open the door for increased violence? Did EA just announce that they're rebuilding the Colleseum?
Bulletstorm:
Cat and mouse is very accurate from what I saw. It's like the game encourages you to toy with your enemies. Could be a lot of fun, but hopefully there is more than achievements and trophies out there for doing all the combos. Sure they look good, but unless there are just a ton to do, you're going to do the same ones all the time, and that will get boring - eventually.
The Old Republic:
This may be the game that gets me into MMO's. And I hope it is the MMO that MMOs should be like. I want to add some of my tabletop roleplaying experiences and bring them to a giant, living, online world. The anquished Jedi that is contemplating turning to the dark side. The sith that really was a good man, but was lured by the power of the Dark Side and now fights with revenge in his heart. But I'll still play it without those too.
And the rest can wait for another day - it's bed time.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Adding Dimensions to a Childhood Favorite (3D Dot Game Heroes Review)
After a short break to watch Lost, I returned to 3D Dot Game Heroes. The game is obviously a throwback to the Legend of Zelda - most notably to A Link to the Past, and as I started playing it the nostalgia came flooding back.
Seeing the hero of legend place the sword back in the sacred forest, the bazaar salesman selling a single glass jar, and the incessant slashing of Miracle-Gro bushes to find a few bits of cash gave a sense not unlike coming back home after a long trip. It was comfortable, familiar, and I basked in it.
But just like coming back to your hometown years after you leave, not all things were the same. The difficulty definitely seems to be bumped up. I welcomed this as I didn't want to walk through the game like I owned the place. I had left, after all, and thus had given up rights to custody.
The variety of swords is welcome. It gives something to spend all of that money on - one of the flaws of the actual Zelda games (so much money and nothing to buy). But the gamut of swords seems to have taken the place of all the items. Maybe my inventory is just as robust as Link's, but it feels small.
As I progressed through the game, however, those waves of memory fell back and the tide ebbed. And as the waves of swords, jars, and sages fell back, I stood there wanting substance. Just as I have grown up since playing my SNES, so have my tastes. The Zelda franchise has always had a sense of history when playing the games. The sense that stuff had happened to make the world the way it was. That the goddesses had formed the world, left the mark of their power behind, and the sages sealed it up after a great war.
3D Dot Game Heroes doesn't have that same sense. I feel this is a downfall for the game. Just because I'm reliving my childhood doesn't mean that it has to be presented to a child. Give me some plot twists here and there, some decisions to make that affect the outcome, and some smart, witty banter. Take the game from spoof to satire. Make me think a little about what is going on in the game. Make me salivate about what's coming next. Do that, and I'll supply my own tide.
Still the game is enjoyable, and I'll play it because sometimes the kid in me wants to have fun too.
Seeing the hero of legend place the sword back in the sacred forest, the bazaar salesman selling a single glass jar, and the incessant slashing of Miracle-Gro bushes to find a few bits of cash gave a sense not unlike coming back home after a long trip. It was comfortable, familiar, and I basked in it.
But just like coming back to your hometown years after you leave, not all things were the same. The difficulty definitely seems to be bumped up. I welcomed this as I didn't want to walk through the game like I owned the place. I had left, after all, and thus had given up rights to custody.
The variety of swords is welcome. It gives something to spend all of that money on - one of the flaws of the actual Zelda games (so much money and nothing to buy). But the gamut of swords seems to have taken the place of all the items. Maybe my inventory is just as robust as Link's, but it feels small.
As I progressed through the game, however, those waves of memory fell back and the tide ebbed. And as the waves of swords, jars, and sages fell back, I stood there wanting substance. Just as I have grown up since playing my SNES, so have my tastes. The Zelda franchise has always had a sense of history when playing the games. The sense that stuff had happened to make the world the way it was. That the goddesses had formed the world, left the mark of their power behind, and the sages sealed it up after a great war.
3D Dot Game Heroes doesn't have that same sense. I feel this is a downfall for the game. Just because I'm reliving my childhood doesn't mean that it has to be presented to a child. Give me some plot twists here and there, some decisions to make that affect the outcome, and some smart, witty banter. Take the game from spoof to satire. Make me think a little about what is going on in the game. Make me salivate about what's coming next. Do that, and I'll supply my own tide.
Still the game is enjoyable, and I'll play it because sometimes the kid in me wants to have fun too.
Commander's Log 13.60.2010 (Final Fantasy XIII Discussion)
I'm approaching the end of Final Fantasy XIII and taking the entire game in there are things to discuss.
As stated many places, the game is very linear. And while that is true, I can't say I dislike it. In many other FF games, I found myself following the story and trying to do the side quests, but usually ended up missing some of them because they weren't very obvious to find. XIII tells you how many Cieth stone missions there are, and shows you the location of them on the map. There are a couple extra side missions, but for the most part seem to be well integrated into the story or will inevitably get accomplished through the missions.
The character development is refreshing in a way. I like the concept of the roles and paradigms and being able to actively switch them mid-battle. I do think that the character attributes system was lacking. I'm all for making things simple so new gamers can get into the game. But only Strength and Magic? Why not defensive attributes that can be increased as well? But overall it's nice to be able to choose (to an extent) how your characters develop.
The crafting system is nice, but I feel there are too many weapons in the game. I've only used one weapon for each character for almost the entire game. If my current weapon gives +100 Str and +98 Mag, why should I start using a weapon that only gives bonuses of +8 and +10? It's not like using the weapon increases it's abilities - just crafting items with it does. I do like how some items will increase the bonus applied to items when enough are used - it gives a bit more thought to how to use the items.
Finally, the battle system. At first I was dismayed that I could only control one of my characters at a time. I soon realized that I couldn't possibly control multiple characters at the pace of battle. In the end, I was okay with it as the AI for the other PCs seemed very intuitive and followed, for the most part, my desired behavior for them. The auto-healing after battle is okay; it makes inventory management much less important. While the die-hard RPGer in me doesn't like that, the rest of me is willing to give it up to try something new.
Overall, it's a good game and I've enjoyed playing it. I don't know that I'll replay it - so many other games to play among other things going on - but it will definitely get recommended to people.
As stated many places, the game is very linear. And while that is true, I can't say I dislike it. In many other FF games, I found myself following the story and trying to do the side quests, but usually ended up missing some of them because they weren't very obvious to find. XIII tells you how many Cieth stone missions there are, and shows you the location of them on the map. There are a couple extra side missions, but for the most part seem to be well integrated into the story or will inevitably get accomplished through the missions.
The character development is refreshing in a way. I like the concept of the roles and paradigms and being able to actively switch them mid-battle. I do think that the character attributes system was lacking. I'm all for making things simple so new gamers can get into the game. But only Strength and Magic? Why not defensive attributes that can be increased as well? But overall it's nice to be able to choose (to an extent) how your characters develop.
The crafting system is nice, but I feel there are too many weapons in the game. I've only used one weapon for each character for almost the entire game. If my current weapon gives +100 Str and +98 Mag, why should I start using a weapon that only gives bonuses of +8 and +10? It's not like using the weapon increases it's abilities - just crafting items with it does. I do like how some items will increase the bonus applied to items when enough are used - it gives a bit more thought to how to use the items.
Finally, the battle system. At first I was dismayed that I could only control one of my characters at a time. I soon realized that I couldn't possibly control multiple characters at the pace of battle. In the end, I was okay with it as the AI for the other PCs seemed very intuitive and followed, for the most part, my desired behavior for them. The auto-healing after battle is okay; it makes inventory management much less important. While the die-hard RPGer in me doesn't like that, the rest of me is willing to give it up to try something new.
Overall, it's a good game and I've enjoyed playing it. I don't know that I'll replay it - so many other games to play among other things going on - but it will definitely get recommended to people.
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