Sunday, August 30, 2009
Progress for August 30, 2009 - Starcraft
*sighs* I'm about to hit the wall. This game is straddling the line between enjoyable and annoying. It's really quite remarkable; Sometimes I'm having fun, sometimes I'm completely bemused. And I don't know what to do about it. I know if I stop now, I won't get back into it for a long, LONG time. The strategy guide that came with the battle chest has been very helpful, but I have been trying every mission at least once on my own before consulting it. Needless to say, today's mission was an "on my own" attempt. I wasn't doing too badly. I took out the bunkers on the topmost expansion well enough, but I lost my Science Facility to the initial assault. I know next time I'll do better and hold it from the start. I'm sure that will make my Science Vessels much more useful.
Progress for August 29, 2009 - Starcraft
Well, that's another level beaten. Actually rather easy when you know how. But still, the Zerg protector units are ludicrously overpowered. And you know what? I'm pretty damn sure when I'm playing the Zerg campaign, they'll suddenly be crap.
Missions Completed:
Norad II
Total Complete: 20%
Missions Completed:
Norad II
Total Complete: 20%
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Progress for August 27, 2009 - Starcraft
I am really starting to hate this game, and I'm only 6 missions in. I tried 3 times to rescue the Norad II, and every time, the Zerg AI cheats. Honestly, how the hell is this supposed to be fair? You're up against an enemy that can control every one of its units at the same time, issue unique commands to every single one, AND use every unit more effectively than you can without even thinking about it.
The Zerg are supposed to be WEAKER than the Terran! How the fuck can 2 Mutalisks take out a missile turret, when the exact equivalent unit, a spore colony, can stand up to 8 FUCKING WRAITHS AT ONCE?
The Zerg are supposed to be WEAKER than the Terran! How the fuck can 2 Mutalisks take out a missile turret, when the exact equivalent unit, a spore colony, can stand up to 8 FUCKING WRAITHS AT ONCE?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Progress for August 23, 2009 - Starcraft
Yeah, I officially suck at this game. Mission 3: Desperate Alliance Ended with me surviving with about a dozen units left from my peak of 50+. I won, but only by mere seconds. My first real battle (Mission 5: Revolution) Took me about an hour and a half to complete, and I was constantly losing units and dropships. Literally. I couldn't figure out where the hell they went to.
I managed to beat this one as well on my first try, but it took a long time. There is just way WAY too much going on in this game for me to make intelligent decisions in time. I'm definitely more of a turn-based strategist.
Completed Missions:
Desperate Alliance
The Jacobs Installation
Revolution
Total Progress: 16%
I managed to beat this one as well on my first try, but it took a long time. There is just way WAY too much going on in this game for me to make intelligent decisions in time. I'm definitely more of a turn-based strategist.
Completed Missions:
Desperate Alliance
The Jacobs Installation
Revolution
Total Progress: 16%
Progress for August 22, 2009 - Starcraft
Thus begins my descent into insanity.
I am really going to try to enjoy this game moreso for the story than for the gameplay. That's not to say it's not a good game, but being bad at any game kinda makes it hard for it to be really fun for the player. I think the main reason I always get destroyed in Starcraft, be it by human, computer, or Korean, is that I play it as if I were playing an RPG or a city building sim. I spend time leveling up and building up my little units, occasionally fending off attacks from enemies until I either get annihilated by an all-out better player, or I have such a huge army that I can completely steamroll the opponent. The latter rarely ever happens.
Anyway, I played through the first 3 missions, including the tutorial, and watched the first movie. I'll probably do one more quest before I go to bed.
Completed Missions:
(Tutorial)
Wasteland
Backwater Station
Total Progress: 6%
I am really going to try to enjoy this game moreso for the story than for the gameplay. That's not to say it's not a good game, but being bad at any game kinda makes it hard for it to be really fun for the player. I think the main reason I always get destroyed in Starcraft, be it by human, computer, or Korean, is that I play it as if I were playing an RPG or a city building sim. I spend time leveling up and building up my little units, occasionally fending off attacks from enemies until I either get annihilated by an all-out better player, or I have such a huge army that I can completely steamroll the opponent. The latter rarely ever happens.
Anyway, I played through the first 3 missions, including the tutorial, and watched the first movie. I'll probably do one more quest before I go to bed.
Completed Missions:
(Tutorial)
Wasteland
Backwater Station
Total Progress: 6%
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Gun - Retrospective
I really liked this game. Unlike most of the other games I've completed during this blog, Gun was one in particular that I enjoyed from beginning to end. It never got boring, and in fact left me wanting to play more of it even once it was over. This was in part due to its short length; I just didn't want the game to end!
Gun's strongest point is its spectacular storyline and voice acting, sporting such talent as Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Lance Henriksen (Millennium), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy). While it sounds cliche, the story literally had me hooked and playing the game from beginning to end almost non-stop, and I don't even watch westerns. See that jump from 37.2% to completion? That's all in one day, bitches!
That's not to say the game isn't without it's flaws. I won't comment on the difficulty, since I was playing the game on the easy setting, but the game world is considerably smaller than other games of the genre such as GTA or even Simpsons: Hit and Run. But this is occasionally a good thing when your horse arbitrarily disappears after completing a random side-mission, leaving you forced to hike back to the nearest town on foot. However, it does leave you realizing that you will be revisiting the same locations multiple times for different reasons, whether they be bounty hunting, pony express message delivery, searching for hidden gold, or progressing the storyline.
Unlike other GTA clones, Gun uses a refreshing mechanic normally reserved for action games. Known to most people as "bullet-time," The Quickdraw system lets you slow time and automatically target your enemies to quickly dispatch them. This can be lengthened by doing special feats like getting head shots, disarming enemies weapons, knocking enemies off of their horse, or trampling them with your own. While the Quickdraw mechanic is a life saver when you're surrounded by bandits who want your blood and money, switching between targets is a tad finnicky. Targets are always defined as being either left or right of your current lock-on, even if it is quite clearly above or below. So you will often find yourself pressing right to aim at the nogoodnick below the one you just killed. Additionally, moving targets can force the crosshairs to lock onto them more than once, so it can sometimes be difficult to aim at exactly who you want to kill.
The game also suffers from occasional glitches. In addition to the CRASH I got a few days ago, my game doesn't display any ammo or clip animation for the final shotgun upgrade, which led me to believe it had infinite ammo until I ran out.
Despite its flaws, short length, and smaller scope, the Gun IP is a strong newcomer entry into the sandbox genre. I look forward to seeing how the rumored sequels fare against similarly themed Red Dead Redemption from genre juggernaut Rockstar.
The Good
The Ugly
Defining Moment
Gun's strongest point is its spectacular storyline and voice acting, sporting such talent as Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Lance Henriksen (Millennium), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy). While it sounds cliche, the story literally had me hooked and playing the game from beginning to end almost non-stop, and I don't even watch westerns. See that jump from 37.2% to completion? That's all in one day, bitches!
That's not to say the game isn't without it's flaws. I won't comment on the difficulty, since I was playing the game on the easy setting, but the game world is considerably smaller than other games of the genre such as GTA or even Simpsons: Hit and Run. But this is occasionally a good thing when your horse arbitrarily disappears after completing a random side-mission, leaving you forced to hike back to the nearest town on foot. However, it does leave you realizing that you will be revisiting the same locations multiple times for different reasons, whether they be bounty hunting, pony express message delivery, searching for hidden gold, or progressing the storyline.
Unlike other GTA clones, Gun uses a refreshing mechanic normally reserved for action games. Known to most people as "bullet-time," The Quickdraw system lets you slow time and automatically target your enemies to quickly dispatch them. This can be lengthened by doing special feats like getting head shots, disarming enemies weapons, knocking enemies off of their horse, or trampling them with your own. While the Quickdraw mechanic is a life saver when you're surrounded by bandits who want your blood and money, switching between targets is a tad finnicky. Targets are always defined as being either left or right of your current lock-on, even if it is quite clearly above or below. So you will often find yourself pressing right to aim at the nogoodnick below the one you just killed. Additionally, moving targets can force the crosshairs to lock onto them more than once, so it can sometimes be difficult to aim at exactly who you want to kill.
The game also suffers from occasional glitches. In addition to the CRASH I got a few days ago, my game doesn't display any ammo or clip animation for the final shotgun upgrade, which led me to believe it had infinite ammo until I ran out.
Despite its flaws, short length, and smaller scope, the Gun IP is a strong newcomer entry into the sandbox genre. I look forward to seeing how the rumored sequels fare against similarly themed Red Dead Redemption from genre juggernaut Rockstar.
The Good
- Fantastic storyline
- A+ voice acting
- Comparatively small map
- Short storyline with not enough side-missions
Defining Moment
- Running around shooting buffalo and sheep with exploding bow and arrow after completing the story missions. POP!
- Why do I have less to say about good games than bad games?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Progress for August 16, 2009 - Gun - COMPLETED
And another one bites the dust. This game was fun as hell. I spent all of today playing through the rest of the story mode and almost all of the side-missions. All I have left to do are the hunting missions, which are made ultra-fun with my exploding freaking arrows.
Seriously. I must have spent like half an hour tonight just launching them willy-nilly into herds of buffalo and cattle, and watching them go *POP*
Of course, review tomorrow. Good night, America!
Seriously. I must have spent like half an hour tonight just launching them willy-nilly into herds of buffalo and cattle, and watching them go *POP*
Of course, review tomorrow. Good night, America!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Progress for August 15, 2009 - Gun
Just lost an hour and a half of gameplay because the fucking game decided to crash and some designer decided it would be a good idea to create a game that doesn't automatically save your progress. Fuck you Neversoft!
Progress: 37.2, but it should be a lot higher. Fuck you.
Progress: 37.2, but it should be a lot higher. Fuck you.
Kill.Switch - Retrospective
I'm probably not going to go as in-depth into this game review as I have with others. For one thing, it really didn't last long enough for me to really find it memorable. An 8 hour timestamp tends to do that. But for as long as it did last, I did enjoy it. To a point.
The first issue I'd like to bring up is something I've noticed in a lot of recent video games, mostly ones that are based around real-world situations like Kill.Switch, Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, or the previous bane of my existence, 24: The Game. What on earth happened to calling guns what they are? In Wolfenstein and Doom, you had pretty standard weapons and they were called rather universal names: Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Rifle, Flamethrower, etc. The only exception to the rule was the BFG-9000, which gave an excellently ominous and mysterious feel to the weapon when you read about it and finally found one buried in the lava in Pandemonium. But Kill.Switch, like so many other modern games, uses this naming convention for every weapon in the game. Why do you have to call it an MCRT 300 or M1 when you can just as easily say Sniper Rifle or Shotgun?
Kill.Switch also very much lacks variety in its weapons. You basically have a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and then 7 different kinds of machine guns that all use different ammunition. This is really the only distinguishing characteristic between these guns; the fact that enemies drop ammo depending on the weapon they're using. So it's in your best interest to use the same gun as they are. With the exception of the first 3 I mentioned, all guns feel very similar to one another, with minor differences in accuracy, recoil, and clip capacity.
Kill.Switch's story is forgettable to say the least. The premise of the game involves a controller taking command of a field operative via a neural uplink. This means you are controlling a soldier, being controlled by another person, who is in turn being controlled by you. Gameplay-wise this, of course, means absolutely nothing. While the plot involves a rogue agent trying to use the main character as an instrument to start a war and then profiteer from the arms rush, the missions really don't get any deeper than "Go here" "Get this" and the occasional "Kill this person." And that's really all you need to enjoy the game.
For what it's worth, I did find Kill.Switch quite enjoyable. You literally can not just run right out into the open or you will be torn to ribbons within a matter of seconds. The entire purpose of gameplay is based around finding and utilizing waist-height and head-height cover. You can lean around corners or over low cover in order to fire, Which is also the only time you can use the scope on your weapons, but you can aim your crosshair at any time, whether hiding or exposed. You can also blindfire without exposing yourself, which greatly decreases your accuracy, but allows you to remain safely out of harm's way. This engine is very well done and makes most levels very systematic to complete, which is a plus for people like me who prefer a slow methodical approach to war than an overzealous twitch-laden trigger-fest.
However, the engine is not without its flaws. There are many times when the game's idea of "cover" will not agree with the enemy placement, and you will find yourself having to choose between not being able to hit anyone from a semi-exposed position, or being able to hit most of the enemies, but being fully vulnerable yourself. You can also only turn a limited amount in any direction while you're using cover, so many times you will be forced to completely reposition yourself to hit a target that is just out of range. Additionally, the location of the crosshair and your character's ability to actually hit that target are two different things. Often you will be able to see a shot in third person mode that you can't see in first person scope-mode -- The trajectory that actually matters.
Despite its incredibly short length (As I said before, I was able to beat this game in under 8 hours) Kill.Switch is an enjoyable playthrough, although these days it is forgotten in favor of other games that use cover like Gears of War or Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but Kill.Switch was one of the first to use the cover system, and if you like the newer games, it might be worth it to you to check out the system in its infancy, especially if you can find it in the bargain bin.
The Good
The first issue I'd like to bring up is something I've noticed in a lot of recent video games, mostly ones that are based around real-world situations like Kill.Switch, Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, or the previous bane of my existence, 24: The Game. What on earth happened to calling guns what they are? In Wolfenstein and Doom, you had pretty standard weapons and they were called rather universal names: Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Rifle, Flamethrower, etc. The only exception to the rule was the BFG-9000, which gave an excellently ominous and mysterious feel to the weapon when you read about it and finally found one buried in the lava in Pandemonium. But Kill.Switch, like so many other modern games, uses this naming convention for every weapon in the game. Why do you have to call it an MCRT 300 or M1 when you can just as easily say Sniper Rifle or Shotgun?
Kill.Switch also very much lacks variety in its weapons. You basically have a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and then 7 different kinds of machine guns that all use different ammunition. This is really the only distinguishing characteristic between these guns; the fact that enemies drop ammo depending on the weapon they're using. So it's in your best interest to use the same gun as they are. With the exception of the first 3 I mentioned, all guns feel very similar to one another, with minor differences in accuracy, recoil, and clip capacity.
Kill.Switch's story is forgettable to say the least. The premise of the game involves a controller taking command of a field operative via a neural uplink. This means you are controlling a soldier, being controlled by another person, who is in turn being controlled by you. Gameplay-wise this, of course, means absolutely nothing. While the plot involves a rogue agent trying to use the main character as an instrument to start a war and then profiteer from the arms rush, the missions really don't get any deeper than "Go here" "Get this" and the occasional "Kill this person." And that's really all you need to enjoy the game.
For what it's worth, I did find Kill.Switch quite enjoyable. You literally can not just run right out into the open or you will be torn to ribbons within a matter of seconds. The entire purpose of gameplay is based around finding and utilizing waist-height and head-height cover. You can lean around corners or over low cover in order to fire, Which is also the only time you can use the scope on your weapons, but you can aim your crosshair at any time, whether hiding or exposed. You can also blindfire without exposing yourself, which greatly decreases your accuracy, but allows you to remain safely out of harm's way. This engine is very well done and makes most levels very systematic to complete, which is a plus for people like me who prefer a slow methodical approach to war than an overzealous twitch-laden trigger-fest.
However, the engine is not without its flaws. There are many times when the game's idea of "cover" will not agree with the enemy placement, and you will find yourself having to choose between not being able to hit anyone from a semi-exposed position, or being able to hit most of the enemies, but being fully vulnerable yourself. You can also only turn a limited amount in any direction while you're using cover, so many times you will be forced to completely reposition yourself to hit a target that is just out of range. Additionally, the location of the crosshair and your character's ability to actually hit that target are two different things. Often you will be able to see a shot in third person mode that you can't see in first person scope-mode -- The trajectory that actually matters.
Despite its incredibly short length (As I said before, I was able to beat this game in under 8 hours) Kill.Switch is an enjoyable playthrough, although these days it is forgotten in favor of other games that use cover like Gears of War or Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but Kill.Switch was one of the first to use the cover system, and if you like the newer games, it might be worth it to you to check out the system in its infancy, especially if you can find it in the bargain bin.
The Good
- Fluid integration of the then-innovative cover system.
- Clever AI that will use cover as well.
- Grenades actually feel necessary to complete certain levels rather than superfluous.
- Too short: only 5 scenarios of 3-4 sections apiece, plus a 1-section training arena.
- Insubstantial plot and pointless neural uplink story premise.
- Weapons are not very memorable.
- Throwing a flash grenade around a corner to blind an enemy, then diving over a tripwire and meleeing the guy in the face. Sweet!
- Okay, what is with the dot in the title anyway? It's always shown as in online listings as "Kill.Switch" with a period, but my punctuation knowledge tells me it's an interpunct, and should be "Kill·Switch."
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Progress for August 12, 2009 - Gun
Wow. Jumping from Kill.Switch to this was interesting to say the least. Gun is MUCH easier, and a lot more versatile. But I suppose that's why they call it an open-world game.
The most recent save file in Gun is dated April 23, 2007. Over 2 years ago. I'm probably going to be running into a lot of these kinds of situations where my previous save file is still intact, but I start the entire game over simply because I don't remember any of the storyline.
In essence, it's what's kept me from finishing a lot of these games; I don't want to start all over again because I've already made so much progress. But I don't want to continue from where I was because I'd be stuck without the storyline. So the games just sit there gathering dust.
Progress: 21.8%
The most recent save file in Gun is dated April 23, 2007. Over 2 years ago. I'm probably going to be running into a lot of these kinds of situations where my previous save file is still intact, but I start the entire game over simply because I don't remember any of the storyline.
In essence, it's what's kept me from finishing a lot of these games; I don't want to start all over again because I've already made so much progress. But I don't want to continue from where I was because I'd be stuck without the storyline. So the games just sit there gathering dust.
Progress: 21.8%
Progress for August 12, 2009 - Kill.Switch
I just beat this game in a single day. It's that short. My final time was 7:19:11
Review tomorrow.
Review tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
