Fifty-Three Games

Assassin's Creed COMPLETED

2011-06-23T01:28:00.001-07:00

I totally forgot this game was even on the list o_O

Progress for January 28, 2011 - Super Mario Sunshine - COMPLETED

2011-01-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

Woo.. beat it today. Bowser was really easy, but some of the stars in this game were just fucking evil.

Progress for January 21, 2011 - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - COMPLETED

2011-01-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

Why did Ganondorf have to be in this game? He has no bearing on anything. He's just shamelessly horned in for continuity purposes. Why does Nintendo have to continually retell the same story rather than giving us something new?

This game was absolutely spectacular, but I have to take off a half a star simply because of Ganondorf.

4.5/5

Full review... at some point. If anyone cares.

Progress for November 11, 2010 - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

2010-11-13T01:58:00.001-08:00

Okay... I was REALLY enjoying this game.
REALLY.
I've been playing it for hours on end, I've put over 30 hours into it, more than half of them in the last week alone. The level design, the music, even the control to an extent (playing on the wii) the art style, everything was absolutely wonderful. Combat is fast and visceral, and locking is more or less simple and responsive. I was actually dreading stopping for the night because of how much I wanted to keep playing, and that's after already sitting for almost 5 hours straight.
I was even loving the story. The dark twisted storyline that seemed to set itself apart completely from other games in the series.

And then they name-dropped.
As soon as they mentioned Ganondorf, I lost all interest in continuing.
I don't know why he's in this game. None of the other characters from the previous games are, except for Zelda and Link. But that's a given. I don't see why they had to cornhole Ganondorf into the game for continuity purposes. The game already HAS a villain: Zant. Why do they need another one?

Yeah, I'll keep playing. but seriously. GTFO my game Ganondorf :(

Progress for November 2, 2010 - Kingdom Hearts

2010-11-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Whose brilliant idea was it to hide the fucking difficulty setting? Apparently I have to play this game for TWENTY-THREE MORE LEVELS before I actually start make any progress in terms of my character's strength.

Fuck you, Disney. You took what should have been an excellent game and completely shit all over it.

Kingdom Hearts can suck my ass.

Progress for October 25, 2010 - Kingdom Hearts

2010-10-26T01:20:00.001-07:00

Nobody cares. Been playing it. About 15 hours in. Level 26.
Progress will be slow for a bit while I work on other projects.
Progress is really slow for FF8 as well. I'm about halfway into disc 2.

I want to play something more action-oriented next.. any suggestions?

Progress for October 2, 2010 - Eternal Darkness - COMPLETED

2010-10-03T00:48:00.000-07:00

Wheee! Well, technically. This game was fun as hell. But I still need to play through it 2 more times to get the true ending. I guess that'll be something to add to the 100% list.

Breath of Fire - Retrospective

2010-09-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Breath of Fire should come in a plain white box with JRPG stamped on it.
Not to call it a terrible game, but I can't remember the last time I was so underwhelmed and bemused by a game.
Well, maybe one time.
Breath of Fire follows such a generic RPG plot that you can almost play a drinking game with the number of cliches you find. Your character Ryuu is one of the last of a dying race *gulp* who is the only one that can defeat the big-bad. *gulp* You accomplish this by traveling all around the world from one town to the next *gulp* fighting progressively stronger monsters in each area *gulp* In most cases, you will be forced to solve the problem(s) of whichever town you visit before you can continue *gulp* Even while the evil dark lord is sitting in his tower brooding and listening to The Cure. Along the way, you must collect 6 McGuffins *gulp* (in this case Keys) in order to do.... something involving the goddess Tyr.
Honestly, I wasn't interested enough to care. After 6 shots, you'd be ready to pass out too.

Breath of Fire's only saving grace is the field abilities of the characters you acquire along the way, who just randomly HAPPEN to decide to tag along with you. This lends almost a metroidvania-like quality to the game, as your new abilities allow you to access previously blocked off areas. Bo can travel through trees unopposed and shoot his longbow and hunt roaming animals on the world map, Karn can pick locks and disarm traps and pitfalls, Ox can destroy walls and punch trees to collect fruit, etc. While this helps to give the characters much more identity beyond their in-battle skillset, it has the side effect of creating the most convoluted, twisted, backtracking, meandering, where-the-fuck-do-I-go-now? gameplay this side of Resident Evil 2. There are at least a dozen areas in the game where you have no choice but to talk to EVERY PERSON IN THE WORLD and simply HOPE they're the right person to advance the plot. And if that doesn't work, it's time to go searching the entire overworld map for glyphs and icons you may have forgotten about and see if it's time to play with them. And of course, this is all BEFORE you get the ability to fly around the world as a bird.

Breath of Fire is also WAY too easy. I understand that the GBA version (Which I played) is of a lesser difficulty than the original SNES version, but it's a problem that still requires addressing. The encounter rate in the game is brutally high, oftentimes forcing you into a battle every 10 steps, and watch the screen-fade/monster-appear/battle animation/victory/screen-fade sequence every time. If you stop to fight every one of these battles, you will be unfairly over-leveled for most of the entire game, which rarely makes enemies any threat to you. With an encounter rate so high, the only way to catch your breath and actually figure out the labyrinthine dungeons to get anywhere is to use the "mrbl3" item to keep enemies away for 100 steps, and I have a sneaking suspicion that's exactly what the developers intended, since the mrbl3 is one of the dirt cheapest items in the game. There were at least 2 times in the entire game where I simply dropped 300 gold pieces (a pittance) on mrbl3 items to avoid random battles for the entire dungeon, and STILL took the boss out without breaking a sweat, despite not gaining any experience along the way or actively taking time to grind for levels. You can even set the game to battle for you, which makes an already passive activity even less engaging, and once you manage to get Ryuu's final dragon spell, there is NOTHING in the game that can stop you.

Even control is clunky and unresponsive in this game. Navigating menus is uncomfortable, and even though the game was designed for the SNES, the L and R buttons are never used at all to my recollection, even though it would be a VERY welcome option to use them to navigate between party members from the status menu.

The whole of Breath of Fire just seems lazy. I can cut it some slack for being a SNES era RPG with a limited memory capacity, but Final Fantasy 4, 5, and 6 all came out on the same system, and they're all much better designed games with easier to follow, less-cliche storylines, more identifiable characters, and better music. The only tune I recall enjoying is the Big Fish music that plays when Gobi morphs underwater, and you almost never hear that anywhere else in the game.

The Good:

Classic turn-based RPG style is familiar and easy to understand for veterans and beginners
Field Abilities of party members add an interesting twist to an otherwise unremarkable game

The Bad

Cliche and boring story
Poorly presented plot-progression requirements
Unbalanced combat/leveling system

The Burning Question

When they named the minotaur character "Ox", did that decision take more or less time than deciding to name a dragon "Ryuu"?

The Defining Moment

Watching the trailer for The Nutcracker 3D on youtube as the auto-battle took care of the final boss for me.

Progress for July 19, 2010 - God of War - COMPLETED!

2010-07-23T02:03:00.000-07:00

Kinda snuck up on you this time, but who gives a fuck nobody reads this blog anyway.
expect a review whenever I get around to it. it's not like I have a deadline or anything.

BioShock and Diablo 2 - Retrospective

2010-07-15T00:48:00.000-07:00

You may feel cheated when I combine these games together into a single review, but when I stopped to think about it, they are actually very similar games. While they may follow very different control schemes, plots, storylines, are set in different fiction genres, and in fact belong to completely different game genres, the two games are actually quite similar in terms of basic thought processes.

You begin each game in a strange environment. People around you seem to have a vague idea of who you are, but you're more or less a stranger to them. However, they still need your help, and you are given a number of quests that you have to complete in order to progress.

As you play through the games, you will encounter various enemies. How you kill them is your own responsibility. The game does not discriminate against the way you choose to inflict damage, but certain enemies will be resistant or weaker to specific types of attacks. Switching methods of attack on the fly is key to defeating waves of enemies without too much headache.

When you kill enemies, they will give you loot. This loot is randomly generated and not fixed to any specific progression. Depending on what kinds of items your kills give you, you may choose to focus on a different method of attack; favor a different type of weapon. The difference between what weaponry enemies give you, what you choose to use, and what weapon is most effective against them is the general balancing act of the gameplay, mostly by choosing the most effective weapon for each situation, based on range, speed, strength, and ease of use. Necessity (or laziness), however, may tempt the player to focus on one or two main modes of attack, and only use others when absolutely necessary (or when bored).

The number of weapons you have access to in Bioshock is much, MUCH smaller than in Diablo, but the overall number of weapon types are more or less equal. Weapons can be infused with elemental properties: ice attacks will freeze enemies and make them easier targets, but fire and electrical attacks are also available. Certain enemies are much more vulnerable to particular elements, while others are resistant or even completely immune.

While Bioshock and Diablo both follow a more or less linear plot (You complete the same quests in more or less the same order in every playthrough) in Bioshock, every weapon and enemy you face appears in generally the same location every time, and in fact every map is identical to every playthrough. Every key item and weapon you find will be in the same location and found at the same point in the plot; in some cases these are even required in order to progress.

Diablo, however, gives you a wide selection of weapons. While any specific aspect of them can be simplified by attack speed, range, and whether it is used in one or both hands, these weapons are replaced with stronger varieties throughout the game, andyour choice of what you use is made more complex with the addition of magical modifiers. Magical weapons can be found that provide any number of bonuses, from increased attack rating, higher health and mana, elemental properties, and much much more.

Unfortunately, The majority of weapons you find will be completely worthless to you. Modifiers such as "low quality" "crude" "damaged" or "cracked" are just as common as an unmodified or "superior" weapon, and these weapons are generally not even worth picking up to sell back in town; they aren't even worth the space in your inventory. And even when you do find a magical item, odds are you won't be interested in the item's particular modifiers. But when you do finally get that perfect item you've been hoping for, it's one of the best endorphin rushes in gaming.

Replay value in Diablo 2 is made much higher than in Bioshock based purely on the sheer number of ways you can play through it. Every class has 30 skills, each of which has 20 levels of effectiveness. Since it's impossible to gain 600 levels, you will have to choose what skills your character will focus on for any individual playthrough. Multiply this by 5 classes (7 in the expansion) and the infinite number of maps that can be randomly generated, and Diablo 2 is a game that anybody can play through multiple times and never have the exact same experience.

But the burning question is: would you want to?

What Bioshock lacks in complexity, it makes up for in focus. While it doesn't do nearly as much as Diablo 2, what it does do is highly polished and enjoyable. It may not be as long, but the fact that it can be played through and experienced much quicker means the entire narrative arc can be enjoyed in a shorter amount of time, and gratification is easier to come across. The game is too short to become monotonous, and too focused to become diluted.

Diablo's enjoyment comes from the progression of your character and growing him/her based on your method of play. You become attached not only to your character, but even your items. You hesitate to throw away that awesome sword you found in act 1, that served you so well for two entire acts and matches your character's skills perfectly, even though it has been rendered obsolete by newer equipment and is taking up too many of your inventory slots. But eventually you bite your lip and sell it to the merchant with a heavy heart, replacing it with something that may serve you better, but has no nostalgic attachment... yet. But perhaps in time you will learn to appreciate this one just as much.

Which is a better game? Who can say. It's all a matter of how you play it.

Progress for May 1, 2010 - God of War

2010-05-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

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Progress for April 27, 2010 - BioShock (Take 2) - COMPLETED!

2010-04-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

Beat it tonight. If I'd have known I was this close to the end, I would have beaten it a long time ago. How come I always seem to beat these games near or after midnight? Never in the morning or afternoon?

Anywho. I got the good ending, but I didn't get the achievement for it because I accidentally harvested one of the last 2 little sisters. I'm not looking forward to playing through those last two levels all over again, but I'll probably do it later, since it's worth an easy 100 points.

This is going to be a tough game to review. May take a few days to get my bearings straight.

Progress for March 28, 2010 - Final Fantasy VIII

2010-03-28T23:40:00.001-07:00

I've been playing this one very slowly over the course of the last week or so. I'm only about 3 hours in; just finished the SeeD exam and got a rank of 8. I really don't know what to say about this game. This is one of those games that is so deep and complex that a "perfect playthrough" is almost impossible, especially the first time through. I've also found that trying to do these things perfectly really kills the fun of any game. So what if you can't get the super-awesome spell by collecting all of the randomly scattered chess pieces around the world and arranging them on the chess board in the final boss's room? Does it mean you can't beat the game? No, of course not, it's just for the insane completionist. I find it just more fun to play through based on my own mood and decisions and just let the game adapt. Unfortunately there are a good number of games that CAN be rendered unbeatable by this method; more an oversight on the part of the designers I suppose.

I am in fact having a lot of fun naming all the characters weird stuff.

Squall = Spoony
Quetzalcoatl = Lugia
Shiva = Cold Tits
Ifrit = Mr. Burns
Siren = Paris (Hilton)
This resulted in the somewhat amusing line:

Hooray for juvenile humor! ^^

Anywho.
Time: 3:01
Place: About to go down to talk to Quistis in the training area.

Clear Ring of Death

2010-03-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

I really don't know what to say as I write this. My 360 has betrayed me. Look at what it did to my beloved Fallout 3 GOTY disc!

Earlier today, my foot caught the memory card hanging over the ledge of the entertainment center as I was moving, which caused the console to make a terrifying clattering noise as it was jolted around, but I immediately took the disk out and inspected it for problems and there weren't any scratches like this. I continued to play, but about 3 AM this morning the dreaded "Disc Read Error" message popped up. I pulled it out, fearing the worst, and absolutely wanted to murder myself when I saw those ring-shaped death-scratches.

I don't think my xbox is still under warranty, and I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix the disc, I don't know how to fix the system, I don't have the money to get a new one, and I don't trust this thing anymore to put any more of my game discs into it to test it out. So that means no BioShock, no Assassin's Creed, not even any Mass Effect, which I haven't had a chance to play yet. I'm now limited to my downloaded games, which leaves Fable as the only "full retail game" I can play on it.

FUCK!

Progress for March 24, 2010 - BioShock (Take 2)

2010-03-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to get back into it, but I'm glad I did. I really liked the plot twist in the middle of Hephaestus. It almost averts the idea of having objectives in a shooter. Why are you doing these things? Well, the game told you to. Okay then!
The difficulty spikes are so strange, but even when the game kills you, there are absolutely no consequences; you just revive at a vita-chamber. In a way, this keeps you playing because you WILL be able to finish the game, simply through pure perseverance, but it does cripple the immersion factor and tension of being low on life. Others have criticized the game for this design choice, but since there's an option to turn it off, you can't really fault them. Personally I prefer to have the option than to simply have it nonexistent by design; it allows more players to play through the game, even if they're not good at shooters, or just not good at console controls.

Seriously, fuck console controls in shooters.

Progress for March 18, 2010 - BioShock (Take 2)

2010-03-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well, that was hell. I had to kill about 5 big daddies in this level, even though it only has 3 little sisters in it. For some reason those bastards just hated me and started attacking me due to some collateral damage. I suppose I could have let them kill me and just rezzed at a vita-chamber, but that feels like cheating, doesn't it?

Progress for March 16, 2010 - BioShock (Take 2)

2010-03-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

I played just a few hours today, I made it through the whole jungle mission and now I'm going on to.... whatever the third area is. I don't have the game on right now as I'm writing this, so I don't know the name of it. I'm really just trying to get to where I was when I stopped playing last time, that way I can actually start analyzing the story again.

An all-rescue run is hard to do on medium or hard... Sometimes I just want to rip one of those little girls open so I can get all the Adam I need. Too many tonics. Not enough slots.

Progress for March 15, 2010 - BioShock (Take 2)

2010-03-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

I started all over again, this time on Medium difficulty. It does add a lot of much needed challenge to the game compared to Easy. I'm still not going to turn off the vita-chambers, though.

I made it through the first couple of levels. I just got to the part where the submarine explodes, and I'm rapidly running low on things like first aid kits and eve hypos. I'm trying to get the good ending by rescuing all of the little sisters, since you're rewarded with a bunch of Adam anyway with the care package, so I'm not sure what the big deal is.

The game feels very similar to Fallout 3, but a bit less open. I do like the fact that BioShock rewards you for killing your enemies in creative ways, since you save on ammo and health, whereas Fallout 3 punishes you by not giving you experience for enemies that your hacked turrets and satellites kill. Saving ammo and health isn't as important in that game, since it is very easy to come by.

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Retrospective

2010-03-13T00:09:00.001-08:00

If you were to twist my arm, I could probably expand this list to a nice round 50, but I've already spent more time on this game than I should have.

30 things that suck about Majora's Mask:

The fish that constantly spawn just within range to hit you, and can't be killed without coming to a complete stop.
the slow as hell vertical movement of zora link underwater
the zora boomerangs that take 2 years to come back to you, leaving you unable to attack or even effectively move until they do.
the third combo attack of Goron Link and Zora Link, which never seem to hit anything, and takes 3 times longer than the other attack animations
that magical woosh animation that plays EVERY time you change your arrows
the inability to equip more than one type of arrow at a time (see #5)
jumping puzzles in a game with no jump button
the fish boss who stays stunned exactly 2 seconds less than is necessary to sink, attack, and get back to safety (see #2)
enemies that hit you with an inescapable 8 hit combo of 1/4 heart per hit, rather than simply dealing 2 hearts of damage to you
the lack of any type of camera control outside of completely recentering the camera
The lack of any way to center the camera if any enemies are in front of Link
the overly eager bank teller that looks like he's jacking off whenever you talk to him.
The unreliable "automatic" method of getting Epona to jump over a fence.
being told every time what every item you get in a chest does, including items that you pick up multiple times in every dungeon like keys and rupees.
The 4 pages of text that appears every time you talk to the bank teller, which inevitably leads to the player selecting the first option as a result of button mashing.
Getting a measly 5 rupees for putting 1000 rupees in the bank, which you generally only do when you're about to turn back time, forcing you to decide whether to deal with #15 again, or lose the 5 rupees.
the way rupees are never used to buy actual supplies, since bombs and arrows can be found in grass and pots all over the world, and thus just end up maxing out your wallet until you deal with #15 again.
Riding Epona. If you get near a wall. Any wall. At any speed. At any angle. Epona flips out and you have to wait 3 years to regain control.
Watching the same unskippable cutscenes over and over because you have to get a key item again.
Bubbles that curse you for too fucking long. Seriously, I timed it. it takes 60 seconds to regain the use of your sword. In game time, this is an entire hour.
that 1 second of ocarina time between when you can start playing, and when the game will actually start listening to the buttons you press.
inability to move up or down on the owl quick-travel map
how slow Epona moves, even with carrots
waiting for carrots to recharge.
Tingle. just... Tingle.
having to listen to Tingle's diatribe every time you want to buy a map
birds and bats that swoop down from above and behind link, which don't even deal any significant damage, but continually respawn.
that music that plays whenever an enemy is near that sounds like the trolley from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood
how slow link walks when charging his spin attack
being unable to pause when any message is on screen, even messages that are unskippable, but do not pause the game.

I won't officially go on record to say I hated this game, but it did piss me off many, MANY times. This is the kind of game that was developed to sell strategy guides. In most Zelda games, you are given a full heart container after beating a boss, and there are heart container pieces spread all throughout the world for you to hunt for. Even if you don't find these heart pieces, you tend to have enough containers just from beating the bosses; 10 in Ocarina of Time, 11 in Link to the Past. But in Majora's Mask, since you have only 4 bosses, you would be forced to go up against Majora with only 7 hearts. This makes Heart Pieces a very important commodity and creates a meta-game out of hunting them down. In a way, this is very innovative for the series, which makes the game not only free roaming in terms of location, but even to an extent the order in which you do sidequests.

The only downside to this is that many sidequests are VERY cryptic in terms of how you have to do them. Perhaps the dozens of Gossip Stones around the world give insight into this, but even obtaining the Truth Mask in order to talk to them is a completely optional task. While having this many optional sidequests works in a game like Fallout 3 or Grand Theft Auto 4, Majora's Mask kills it with the addition of the running timer. With that timer always running, and the clock always counting down to the time you'll be forced to start all over. Couple this with the fact that many of these events are linked to a particular time, or even a specific time AND day, and it brings echoes of Night Trap in terms of exploration and memorization.

While I praise Majora's Mask for taking risks with a series that has, let's face it, grown very, VERY repetitive in its age, there are a lot of design choices that prevent it from being hailed as the best in the series.

That award still goes to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Progress for March 9, 2010 - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - COMPLETED!

2010-03-09T22:43:00.000-08:00

Woo!

Progress for March 7, 2010 - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2010-03-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Well, there goes Twinmold. I don't really know what it is about this game. I guess it's a pretty standard Zelda game, but when a game is about exploration and puzzle solving, having a constantly running timer can be rather cumbersome. I'm quite glad they never did it in other Zelda games. I think tomorrow I'll go around helping some people, get some last heart pieces, and take on Majora. However that works.

Progress for March 3, 2010 - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2010-03-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

'nuff said.

Progress for February 21, 2010 - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2010-02-22T12:23:00.000-08:00

Ugh, fuck. Okay, I beat Goht (3 times, actually, but that's not important) and I was going around doing some sidequests. Getting the bomb mask, the giant bomb bag, beating shooting galleries, and getting ready to have my sword forged and get Epona, and then the game crashed. Fucking fuck. I don't know when the last point I saved was, but I'm not looking forward to replaying everything I have to. Ugh.. Oh well. 2 dungeons down, two to go.

Also. How come the bomb shop cators exclusively to a Goron clientelle, but the entrance isn't low enough for Gorons to enter?

Or for that matter, how come Goron Link can't even use bombs? He can use the powder keg, but not the normal bombs. I thought the Goron economy was based around bombs.

The Feature Creep Network

2010-02-19T12:00:00.001-08:00

You may have noticed the new navigation up at the top. Welcome to the Feature Creep Network. the FCN is a new online media network feature 53Games and other sites for movie and game reviews, Let's Plays, and general updates. Be sure to check out our latest series, Talking Pictures for our review of Avatar.

Progress for February 2, 2010 - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2010-02-01T23:09:00.000-08:00

Deku Link is cute.
Anywho, pretty standard progress today. after a couple of hours getting re-acclimated to the area and doing the occasional rupee grind, I beat the first dungeon. I beat Odolwa... somehow. Honestly, I don't know how I killed him, but I was at 1/4 of a heart when I just happened to set off a bomb flower at his feet and he died. No complaints, but weird.
Looking at a walkthrough online, I see I missed a LOT of special items I could have gotten. Oh well. Tomorrow.

Progress for January 29 - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2010-01-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

Nothing really too major to report. All I did today was play through the obligatory first three-day cycle, and now the real game can begin.

One thing that's always fascinated me about this game is the way the first section is designed to be played through in exactly 50 minutes, otherwise you lose and have to start the entire game all over again. I'm sure more than a few kids have run into this, unable to complete it correctly on the first playthrough, and then being dumbfounded when the end of the world happens.

That kinda stuff can scar a kid for life.

Okami - Retrospective

2010-01-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

Stop me if you've heard this one. A wolf, accompanied by an annoying character that rides around on it, speaks for it, and taunts it repeatedly, runs around an ancient land, battling creatures of darkness in an effort to purge the shadows from the land. Along the way you collect new items and powers, that help you access previously inaccessible areas of what would otherwise be a truly free-roaming world.

Yeah, comparisons between Okami and the Legend of Zelda series (specifically Twilight Princess, also on my list) are inevitable. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Zelda's formula has been duplicated, copied, cloned, modified, and ripped off numerous times ever since it first exploded onto Famicom systems in the mid 1980's. You could even argue that Metroid, which came out 6 months later, even ripped off the concept, but in a side-scrolling presentation. Perhaps Metroidvanias should be called Metroidzeldavanias.

This style though, has proven to consistently yield extremely positive results. Games like Shadow Complex, which pay tribute to the style are excellent examples of what an unashamed clone can be. The Zelda and Metroid games are all among the highest rated of any game on the console. Even on the CD-I, the Zelda games hold the #2, 3, and 4 slots in popularity on Gamespot. Axis and Allies must be a pretty good game.

It's unavoidable to compare it to similar games, but even allowing for that, Okami is a damn fine game in its own right. I'm not going too much into the actual gameplay, because anyone reading this has likely already played the game, or at least heard enough about it. But for the uninitiated, you play as the goddess Amaterasu, who has come to Nippon in the form of a white wolf to fight demons. There's a deep story behind all of this about an evil eight-headed dragon named Orochi and a legend that goes back 100 years of a similar wolf fighting and defeating the same dragon, but in the end it all boils down to: "You're a god. Fight evil."

The thing that really sets Okami apart from other games aside from its Katsushika Hokusai visual style is the Celestial Brush mechanic that has you drawing representations of powers on screen in order to activate them. While this sounds fun in theory, it begins to get troublesome when you realize it's impossible for the game to walk the line between "simple" and "distinct" with all 13 powers' brushstrokes. I don't doubt the advanced technology that programmers must have pulled their hair out over when creating the Celestial Brush, but it's not perfect. You will end up using the same gestures for several different attacks, and others that use very similar gestures. The problem with context sensitive controls is you will almost always run into a time when the same context is happening simultaneously. This can result in creating a useless waterspout circle when you're trying to form a lily pad or gust of wind, or causing a trail of fire when you only want to use the slash ability.

The overall presentation of the game is enjoyable, and you can tell a lot of care and humor went into creating all of the memorable characters. If you can begin to actively HATE someone who doesn't exist, it's always a testament to the skill of the writers. One thing I could have done without, though, is the annoying nippon-ese that the characters speak in. It's okay for letting you know what a character sounds like, but it gets VERY annoying VERY quickly, especially when you don't want to skip the text because you actually want to read the story. This is actually a considerable detriment to the game, because I found myself skipping what I was fairly certain was a very well written story simply because I didn't want to hear the gibberish anymore and just wanted to get back to the gameplay. PLEASE, Capcom, put an option to turn the speech off in Okamiden, or omit it altogether.

Okami is a very good and very long game. This is the kind of game a kid who only gets one or two games a year could get for their birthday or Christmas and it would get them through many, many months down the road. If I were younger, I could definitely see myself devoting many weeks of my life to this game, seeking out every hidden bead, powering up every weapon, playing through multiple times to unlock every hidden reward and then looking back on the time with fondness 10 years later, just like certain gamers do now with games like Ocarina of Time or even the original Legend of Zelda. Okami is the kind of game that defines "instant classic."

The Good

Classic Zelda-esque free-roaming/dungeon diving gameplay
Unique Celestial Brush mechanic
40+ hour epic; very good value for the price

The Bad

Game might be a bit TOO long for the average gamer.
Nippon-ese gibberish gets grating after a while
Celestial Brush is not perfect

The Defining Moment

The second celestial brush appearing during the battle against Ninetails. I almost shit myself.

The Burning Question

Okay, so what exactly is the point of the whole time travel subplot? I'm usually really good at figuring these things out, and I'm pretty sure it's explained somewhere else in the game, but the nippon-ese kept me from reading too much further into it.

Progress for January 8, 2010 - Okami - COMPLETED!

2010-01-08T23:36:00.000-08:00

Woo! This game was... very... confusing. Characters and plot lines drop in and out with little to no setup, and function primarily to lengthen an already obsessively long game.

Anywho. Yami is dead. Nippon is saved. Full review later this week.

Final play stats:
Play Time 45 hr 36 min 5 sec
Days Passed 70
Saves....... 86
Deaths..... 0 (Pink tree)
Enemies Defeated 459 (green tree)
Money Gained 3,422,795 (green tree)
Demon Fangs 296 (green tree)
praise earned 4,269 (green tree)

Presents from Issun:
Karmic Transformer 1
Karmic Transformer 2
Karmic Returner
Stray Bead
Karmic Transformer 3

Progress for January 7, 2010 - Okami

2010-01-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Christ, how much longer is this game? I know I'm relatively close to the end, but I have no idea whether that's 2 hours or 20 hours away by this game's perception of pacing.

I just defeated Orochi for the second time. The time travel aspect was... interestingly handled. But I don't think it was entirely necessary.

Anyway. I'll probably continue tomorrow, after I take back some library books.

Progress for January 3, 2010 - Okami

2010-01-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, this game just keeps on going, doesn't it? You certainly get a lot of gameplay for your buck. I've made it to the frozen north, and I spent most of today searching around Nippon for extra praise and treasures in order to boost my ink and health, and to upgrade my combat abilities.

I bought the Golden Fury attack.

Amaterasu pees on the enemies.

I'm afraid to wonder what Brown Rage does.

Progress for January 2, 2010 - Okami

2010-01-02T01:27:00.000-08:00

I think I made a lot of progress today. I'm up to about 33 hours, and I just killed Ninetails. The battle with him scared the shit out of me when I saw that second paintbrush show up O.o but I still prevailed.

One thing that really pissed me off: Without any warning or provocation, the game completely cuts off your ability to travel outside of North Ryoshima, forcing you to make due with whatever supplies and praise you've picked up since then. There is one merchant available, but your ability to upgrade your stats during this time is very limited. If you aren't able to defeat the boss, you better hope you made multiple save files.

Progress for January 1, 2010 - Okami

2010-01-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to fall into the groove of this game. I think usually when I play a game like this, I try to do it perfect on the first playthrough. I grind for items, search high and low for every optional piece of treasure until it all just becomes monotonous and boring. I had the same problem with BioShock, and I think I'm going to have a similar problem with Fallout 3. But now in Okami, I'm just going from one objective to the next. I have too many games to get through to dawdle, and I hear Okami is pretty effing long.

I made it to north ryoshima coast, and now I'm trying to find the whirlpool to get to the dragon's realm. Sounds like fun!

Progress for December 30, 2009 - Okami

2009-12-31T01:01:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I have actually been playing this game over the past few days. I'm a little over 25 hours in, and I just cleared all of the green mist out of sei-an City. I spent the better part of today doing little side quests, gaining praise and yen to buy new items and powers. Tomorrow I'll head back to the temple and find the Fox Rods.

Seriously, Fox Rods? wtf? it sounds like what you get when you cut off a fox's arms and legs and freeze it.

Take THAT Alexey Pajitnov!

2009-12-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

Managed to do it on my 55th game. And that's counting all times I ever played, including when I was just starting out, not just the attempts at getting the pearl flower.

Half-Life 2 - Retrospective

2009-12-06T23:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I start wondering why I put myself through this ordeal. Games become more of a chore than something fun, and I begin to question why I even play them. Do other people find them fun? Am I just playing the wrong games, or am I just jaded? Am I not as big of a gamer as I've always considered myself to be?

Then I play a game like Half-Life 2, and it completely redeems my efforts. I'm fairly certain there's nothing I can say about Half-Life 2 that hasn't already been said a thousand times before by reviewers much more talented than I. But I can at least give my own praise to it. This game was absolutely incredible.

Even without playing the first game, I was able to be immersed into the sequel right off the bat as you're introduced to the unashamedly Orwellian City 17. Faceless masked guards will abuse their power, forcing you to throw trash away for them, whacking you with a laser-powered nightstick if you get too close, as annoying-as-sin flying cameras blind you if you do something as unthinkable as go exploring off the beaten path. This all does well to set the atmosphere for what can only be described as a truly cinematic experience.

Every mission in the game feels so distinctly different from the last, you start to wonder whether you're actually playing the same game. It's an excellent testament to the versatility of the Source engine and the talent of the Valve game designers. In one mission, you find yourself crawling through an underground railroad of back alleys and train graveyards, in the next you'll find yourself riding a one-man hovercraft through toxic sludge in an attempt to avoid a helicopter, and in another you'll find yourself arranging turrets to defend against a wave of spawning soldiers as you wait for a can-not-possibly-be-any-slower platform to reset itself.

Half-Life 2 straddles the amazingly thin line between physics puzzles and FPS action, with even touches of squad-based shooters, pokemon, tower defense, and Boom Blox mixed in. Level design follows a mantra I like to call "If you can do it, you probably should." You're never led through a level by any artificial means, instead the game expects you to explore and find your own path. While there is generally only one correct linear path through any particular level, it usually feels like you are free to go anywhere. This illusion of free will is a perfect metaphor for the game's oppressive government regime.

Other less tangible features like the game's sound, music, and voice acting are all top notch. When I told my mom I beat the game, she commented that she was glad she wouldn't have to hear the subwoofer anymore for every explosion. There are a lot of explosions in the game. Character design, dialogue, and storyline are all excellently handled, with a number of memorable characters that rival any summer blockbuster. Half Life 2 is a multiple oscar-award winning action movie or best-selling novel in video game form.

While no game is perfect, Half-Life 2 comes damn close. The largest problem is the plot progression of the game. In general, it feels pretty much like the storyline is only there to lead you from one level to the next. The phrase "When suddenly..." does indeed come to mind. You're hoping to go to the next area, when suddenly, something happens and you have to find a new way to get there. The game plays this trump card just a little bit too much. Also, while most people will get a kick out of the technobabble of the game, it feels like it's there to mask the fact that NOBODY knows what the fuck is going on. Your companion may tell you WHERE you need to go, but if you want to know WHY, you're probably going to have to consult the Combine Overwiki.

The only other problems I would be able to bring up would be minor nitpicks. There are occasional glitches that ruin immersion, a slightly high difficulty spike in the middle of Nova Prospekt that I needed to cheat to pass, and there are a number of times I would have paid money for an objective arrow, but all of these are very minor compared to the absolute greatness of this game.

Anyone who thinks that video games are a waste of time, a stupid hobby, or not art, I urge not to bother with Katamari Damacy, Echochrome, or Braid. (Actually, no. Braid is still fucking awesome) Instead, play Half-Life 2. If you're losing faith that the game industry has anything more than space marines and World War II on its mind, play Half-Life 2. This is the kind of game that every other game wishes it could be. Fuck Metroid Prime. Half Life 2 is the Citizen Kane of gaming.

The Good

Puzzles make excellent use of the Havok physics engine.
Weapons are versatile and feel different enough from one another to avoid feelings of redundancy.
Level designs feel natural and varied, with dozens of noticeable locations and settings.
Every god damned thing I haven't mentioned yet.

The Bad

Many enemies can be annoyingly difficult to kill. Mostly the small ones. Oh, and Striders. I fucking hate Striders.
Overall storyline is seems to rely too heavily on "When suddenly..." plot twists and story progression.
Squad mates don't do shit except get in your way.

The Defining Moment

Spending an hour and a half killing Antlions, only to suddenly have them on your side, then discovering that they're better teammates than a human squad.

The Burning Question

Seriously, Gordon Freeman can't climb a chain link fence?

Progress for November 29-30, 2009 - Half-Life 2 - COMPLETED

2009-12-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

"You've accomplished a great deal in a very short amount of time."

I'd say that's about accurate. I just beat it in two marathon sessions over the course of 2 days.
This game was... Wow. It was incredible for all the right reasons. Every level I came across felt distinctly different from all the previous ones. At times it's a survival horror, at times it's a run-and-gun, at times it's a squad-shooter, and at times it's a puzzle game, all within the span of 13 chapters.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Review tomorrow or sometime soon after.

It's-a Me!

2009-10-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Progress for October 18, 2009

2009-10-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I beat Orochi. For the first time. That was probably one of the most enjoyably epic boss battles I've experienced since Shadow of the Colossus. I wanted to continue today, but I spent the afternoon finishing up a project I'd been working on all week. But now that that's done, I can... start working on the next project.

Yeah, I'm busy. But I have been putting time aside for games. I should explore the festival tomorrow.

"Who's the best?" A gaming essay from 53games

2009-09-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

I was hanging out at home, playing Starcraft, when a friend of mine came over. He had never played before, but thought it looked like fun, so he wanted to try out a local multiplayer match. I installed a spawn of the game on his laptop and hooked it up to my PC, setting the two systems up back-to-back on my desk. We connected to the LAN and set up the game. I picked Terran because it's the race I've had the most experience with. As I waited for him to pick, he looked over at me and asked, "Who's the best?"

I punched him in the face.

There is something so wrong about this simple question that begs an explanation as to why it even exists. In the interest of competitive spirit, I can understand wanting to be the best. But when you're starting out in a game, you're likely going to get your ass kicked no matter how much of an advantage you have.

I've been asked this question numerous times in various settings. I'd be showing my Magic cards to friends and one of them would ask "What's the best card in the game?" A question like this is not only pointless, but unanswerable. How do you define "best"? and for that matter, wouldn't it simply be one player's opinion in the first place? A card that is good in one deck might be completely useless in another. Or if you get a generally less useful card when the situation begs for you to use it, that's a whole different matter altogether.

The worst insinuation this question makes is that there actually is an answer to it. The primary reason Starcraft is so popular is that it is so wonderfully balanced. There is no "best race." Every race has distinct advantages and disadvantages over the others. Trying to determine the best is folly. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

You should be wary of any game where a player CAN answer this question without thinking about it. In a game like Clayfighter, it doesn't take any thought to pick Blob, because he's just broken as hell. This is indicative of the poor balance in the game, and makes the game that much less fun.

If he were to ask a question like "Who's the easiest to use?" or "Who's the best for beginners?" that would be a much more acceptable query. It shows he doesn't want to be overwhelmed. In Brawl, you don't want to start with a character like Jigglypuff, Olimar, or Luigi, because all of their little nuances require some experience to use effectively. Or in the case of Magic, using a Blue permission deck takes more strategy and knowledge of the game than using a Red spitfire deck or a Green overrun deck.

People who ask "Who's the best?" Almost seem to expect that simply by picking the best character in the game, it can overcome their lack of skill and experience. They don't want to learn anything about the game, they just want to win. They don't want to work to win either, they just want it handed to them.

It's not even a matter of giving the beginner an advantage over the more skilled player to even the playing field, like when I let my friend use Minion in Twisted Metal II. They want to pick the best character because they don't want to waste their time learning any strategies of the lower-tier characters. If they can't be the best, it's not worth their time to even bother playing. This same thing happens in the console wars. People who are only going to buy one system want to buy the best one. But in reality, they can have plenty of fun with any system. There are plenty of enjoyable games available for any system on the market, including the DS and the PSP. If you're a true gamer, you don't let should-haves and might-have-beens get in your way of just enjoying the game.

(Besides, everyone knows the Zerg is the best.)

Progress for September 16, 2009 - Okami

2009-09-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

Spent so much time playing yesterday, I completely forgot to put up the update.
It's going alright, I suppose. The game is actually rather slow to develop. You tend to spend a lot of time in towns doing fetch quests (fetch. Dog. yeah.) and the brief time you do spend outdoors is just to get to a new area.

I went about 6 hours straight and kinda got overwhelmed from that. I didn't even want to play again today. But I'll probably continue tomorrow. I still have to find that last dog before I can go on.

Elapsed time: 10 hours

Progress for September 15, 2009 - Okami

2009-09-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

Like Gun, I started playing Okami a long time ago. In fact, I bought the game at launch and even pre-ordered it to get the free caligraphy pad. But they were out of them when I went to go pick it up. Damn you Electronics Boutique!

After spending about 30 minutes skipping through the absurdly long intro, I finally reached the first save point. Unfortunately my memory card didn't have enough space on it. Luckily my sister's PS2 was available for my file-swapping needs. I don't know why more PS2 games don't have card file management built into them. At any rate, I was able to continue after 5 minutes of maintenance.

This game always reminds me of tuna fish and breathmints. Probably because the first time I played it, I was snacking on a "Starkist lunch pack" that contains tuna in a pouch, crackers, mayonaise and relish, and interestingly enough a breathmint for afterward. I suppose they take the term "tuna-breath" seriously. I don't know why I remember that among all other benign memories, but I guess it seemed unusual enough to merit a place in my brain. Right next to the license plate of our family's old station wagon that we got rid of 15 years ago. I don't even know my own car's license plate from memory.

Oh yeah, Okami! I'm 4:48 into the game and I have 5 of the 13 brush techniques. I just got the Water Lily and I'll be exploring the new area tomorrow.

Progress for September 15, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-09-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

Woo! Terran Campaign is fucking done!

This was easily the most time-consuming mission yet. It might look like I've been slacking off, but seriously, I've been playing almost every day. (Save for the weekends when I go out partying.)

I started off by following the strategy guide pretty much to the letter, but ran into massive problems when trying to expand to the central mineral deposits. I kept reloading the game, hoping to fortify the area before being overrun with siege tanks and ghosts, but kept butting my head against the same wall.

Checking online, I came across a speedrun hosted on SpeedDemosArchive.com which gave me my eventual strategy. A wraith rush.

I built the bare minimum of structures required to keep myself up and running (bunkers and supply depots, mostly) before working my way up the tech tree to build 3 simultaneous starports. Then I just started building wraiths. Once I had 2 control groups of 12, I brought them to the eastern border of the army and went all out. One time I had gotten SO close to completing it. I only had 6 wraiths left, but they were cloaked and undetectable, slowly picking away at the Ion cannon. I had it down to a mere 65 life when some damn science vessel drifted by and exposed my Wraiths. I hoped it would burn down on its own, but by the time I'd built an academy and comsat station to check, it had apparently been repaired. I gave up at this point.

I tried once more, this time only having 2 wraiths left from my original 24. But instead, I just kept building more. Before my two were exposed I had amassed a third strike force of 12 more wraiths with even more in production. I swooped in with my third group and finished the cannon off. Booyah!

I'm taking a hiatus from Starcraft for now. I have to send my laptop in to be repaired and this seems like a logical stopping point, since I'll have to relearn pretty much everything when I move over to the zerg campaign. I'll be playing Okami for a while now.

Missions Completed:
The Hammer Falls

Total Complete: 33%

Progress for September 10, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-09-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

I finally completed a mission without consulting the strategy guide! :D

It took me 5 hours and I depleted every mineral deposit and vespene geyser on the map, but I still did it!

I built bunkers and turrets all around my base, and around every ramp to keep the Zerg contained, then built up a small army of ghosts after I effectively harassed a good number of Zealots with Kerrigan cloaked and assumed it meant they were really good for that.

My basic strategy was to bring in my battlecruiser to take out photon cannons, then sneak my ghosts in to call in a nuclear strike, and then move in my dragoons and siege tanks to clean up the rest.

The strategy guide said to pretty much build 8+ battlecruisers and just annihilate everything.

That may have been a better way to do it, but it wasn't MY way.

Missions Completed:
New Gettysburg

Total Complete: 30%

Progress for September 7, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-09-07T19:45:00.001-07:00

Finally beat it. The mission time said 3:36, but I'm fairly sure it was longer than that. Probably because I was playing it on slowest speed so I would actually have time to think. I saved copiously, but I never had to reload an earlier save due to mission-ending mistakes.

I'm starting to get the hang of the game better. I'm noticing how many units of whatever type it takes to effectively take out various structures and units. And showing a nuclear missile right up an enemy's command center is just as cathartic as I've always heard.

The book is really helping me, but it's starting to get a lot more straightforward with its strategies. Will the next level be more of the same? "Use siege tanks and goliaths to slowly push forward into the enemy's areas. Repeat."

Once I finish the Terran campaign, I'm going to send my laptop in to be repaired, then I'll start on Okami. I'm sooo close to being done with this chapter. Just two missions to go!

Missions Completed:
The Big Push

Total Complete: 27%

Progress for September 4, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-09-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I beat Mission 7, and moved right on to Mission 8. After a 6 hour hiatus of course.

Mission 7 went alright once I built up a massive enough force of vultures, goliaths, siege tanks, and wraiths (quickly becoming my favorite unit). I was able to completely blow through the upper corridor without much resistance. I actually made it the first time I tried, but Kerrigan died the exact second I reached the beacon. It even delivered her closing speech over the "Defeated" dialog box. Damn.

I like how Mission 8 starts you right off with a bunch of add-ons that you can land all your buildings right next to, including TWO command centers with nuclear silos. As well as a pair of ghosts.

I detect nuclear launches in the future.

Missions Completed:
The Trump Card

Total Complete: 23%

Progress for August 30, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-08-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

*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

2009-08-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

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%

Progress for August 27, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-08-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

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?

Progress for August 23, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-08-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

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%

Progress for August 22, 2009 - Starcraft

2009-08-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

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%

Gun - Retrospective

2009-08-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

Fantastic storyline
A+ voice acting

The Bad

Comparatively small map
Short storyline with not enough side-missions

~~The Ugly~~
Defining Moment

Running around shooting buffalo and sheep with exploding bow and arrow after completing the story missions. POP!

The Burning Question

Why do I have less to say about good games than bad games?

Progress for August 16, 2009 - Gun - COMPLETED

2009-08-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

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!

Progress for August 15, 2009 - Gun

2009-08-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Kill.Switch - Retrospective

2009-08-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

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

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.

The Bad

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.

The Defining Moment

Throwing a flash grenade around a corner to blind an enemy, then diving over a tripwire and meleeing the guy in the face. Sweet!

The Burning Question

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."

Progress for August 12, 2009 - Gun

2009-08-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

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%

Progress for August 12, 2009 - Kill.Switch

2009-08-12T03:15:00.001-07:00

I just beat this game in a single day. It's that short. My final time was 7:19:11

Review tomorrow.

Progress for May 6, 2009 - BioShock

2009-05-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

Welp, another day, another chapter. I'm starting to really regret playing the game on Easy; It's, well, TOO easy. I'm spending too much time each chapter doing tiny minutiae like searching bodies for loot and components and hacking safes, all of which invariably lead to more of the same.

Maybe I should stop concentrating on the little stuff and just keep focusing on the quest items. Sure, I might miss some weapons and ammo. But it's not I couldn't do with some increased difficulty.

Progress for May 5, 2009 - BioShock

2009-05-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

These levels are TOO DAMN LONG! Every time I sit down to play, it's like committing myself to watching a double feature of 1984 and Metropolis. The back and forth between Andrew Ryan and Atlas is enjoyable to listen to, but I'm usually too busy tracking down splicers to pay much attention to them.

I'm starting to notice a lot of minor bugs. For about an hour, the same piece of Subtitle was plastered on the bottom of the screen, even after toggling the subtitles setting and refreshing the view multiple times. Also, the game has a nasty habit of interrupting audio log playbacks with new communiques from Atlas or Ryan, and then replaying an earlier audio log completely unrelated to the current ones.

I know bugs are unavoidable in games, especially in one this huge, but it really takes you out of the immersion when you notice polygonal seams in the water.

Progress for April 21, 2009 - BioShock

2009-04-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

Talk about night and day. This game is so completely different from Chrono Trigger.
I started the game on the easy setting, because I want to be able to appreciate the storyline without too much hassle. If all goes well, I'll be playing the game again at least once more on a higher difficulty.

The logistic issue I've noticed about BioShock is how long the levels are. I played for 6 hours today and just now made it to the smuggler's hideout. It's going to be tough to find the 1-2 hours I'll need to complete just one chapter.

So far, I have two minor complaints:

Dear 2K games, Don't fucking map a context-sensitive action to the same button that uses a consumable! I've wasted so god damned many EVE Hypo's trying to hack cameras and turrets just because the crosshair is half an inch out of range.
And once I'm into the hacking game, the controls are JUST sensitive enough to be annoying. If they were any less sensitive, you'd be ready for it and be able to overcompensate for their latency and inaccuracy. But because they're that specific kind of slow, you don't know what to expect.

But other than that, the game is as immersive and well-written as everyone has always said. I really think I'm going to enjoy this.

Chrono Trigger - Retrospective

2009-04-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Ask any Square Fanboy their top 5 Super Nintendo RPGs and you will inevitably hear Chrono Trigger at or near the top. For what it's worth, I did enjoy the game, and I can see where the game earns its "masterpiece" title. The graphics are impressive for its time, the combat system is somewhat unique, and it deals with a subject matter that rarely gets old: Time travel. However, there are many points in the game that shocked me not for what happened in the game, but for didn't happen. The game is given numerous opportunities to shock the player with an jaw dropping plot twist, but never pulls the trigger.

The game started off by lulling me into a false sense of epicness with the brilliantly written leene/marle quest. But then it degraded into a simple episodic. For the first half of the game, nearly every quest you do is self-contained and unrelated to the quest before it or after it. This style continues throughout most of the rest of the game; You find an area with a problem, you fix that problem, then move on to a new area. The locales and characters are all different enough so this doesn't feel very monotonous, but it is awfully shallow.

There were multiple times when playing the game that I thought I was sensing a devastating plot twist, gearing up to be blown away when it finally happens... only to be disappointed when it doesn't. The first time this happened was when approaching Magus to prevent him from summoning Lavos. You find out that Magus is trying to summon Lavos to destroy him, but is unsuccessful regardless of whether or not the party interferes. Now, tell me this isn't a much more dark and epic plot twist:

The party prevents Magus from summoning Lavos, but then discovers that he was trying to summon it in order to destroy the monster. By defeating Magus, the party THEMSELVES are responsible for Lavos destroying the world. Magus would have done it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.

Another time the game disappointed me was during the Dalton thread. Dalton has stolen a FREAKING TIME MACHINE! and all he wants to do with it is fly around the world as a king on some sort of airborne throne? What kind of evil overlord sets his sights so low? In my director's cut, Dalton would have taken the Epoch and used it to travel through time and rewrite history to make himself into a god. It worked for Kefka. This would have also done well to add several hours to an already short game.

Chrono Trigger is an RPG that tries to do too many things at once. It tries to have humor, irony, slapstick, plot twists, epic storylines, and even boasts 12 unique endings. But it tries too hard to cover so many bases, it simply stretches itself too thin to be effective. The game is 50 feet wide, but only 3 inches deep. I can only hope Chrono Cross is more my speed.

The Good

Excellent music. Some of the best ever from the 16 bit era.
Simple but satisfying combat that uses position as a legitimate tactic.
Perfectly balanced enemies and skills reduce the need for grinding to almost nil.

The Bad

Meandering storyline that defies all rules of the hero's journey.
Lack of character development for all but a few party members.
Frustratingly non-epic

Defining Moment

Chrono dying. Not because of how unexpected it was, but because it was the ONLY plot point I had managed to avoid spoilers for all these years.

Burning Question

Why is Marle doing Fire Sword on the cover of the game box with Chrono? Marle is an ice tech user.

Progress for April 20, 2009 - Chrono Trigger - COMPLETED

2009-04-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

Done. The ending did a lot to wrap up a lot of loose ends, especially when accompanied by the anime cutscenes from the PS1 version, Then when you think you're done, you find out you only got 1 of the 12-some endings in the game. I think only a total completionist or someone who really REALLY likes the game will go to such insane lengths to 100% a game like this.

Personally, I'm just going to watch the endings on Youtube and consider it done.

Expect a review tomorrow. I have many choice words to say about this game.

Progress for April 14, 2009 - Chrono Trigger

2009-04-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well, Almost done. I revived Chrono and completed 2 of the final missions. I'll likely be finished tomorrow and I can finally start playing something I want to.
Not that I'm not enjoying the game. I do like the relationships in the game, especially between Lucca and Robo, Even though Lucca's storyline and time travel experience reeks of Deus ex Machina.

Progress for April 10, 2009 - Chrono Trigger

2009-04-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in the game, and I'm starting to get tantalizingly close to the end, which is really the only thing that's keeping me going. I've had to replay parts of the game numerous times because my guide decided to fake me out. I will admit, Chrono dying DID catch me off guard. I'm shocked that with so many spoilers around the internet I caught that Magus would join the party, but never found out about Chrono.
I beat Dalton, and now I'm just going around the maps doing some sidequests. I did the Prometheus quest and defeated the sun stone. I suppose it's time to climb Death Peak now.

Legalese

2009-04-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Mark today. Thursday April 9, 2009, 10:49 AM Pacific Standard Time.

In regards to the upcoming Wii Game "Dead Space: Extraction" I am officially coining the phrase "House of the Dead Space"

That is all. Thank you for your time.

Progress for April 7, 2009 - Chrono Trigger

2009-04-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

I don't understand what the hell is wrong. I don't want to play this game. I've been holding off ever since beating Super Mario Galaxy. I don't want to start anything else until I've finished Chrono Trigger, but I don't want to play it anymore. Thus, I haven't really been playing anything the last few weeks except Rom Check Fail. Super Mario Galaxy was a deliberate distraction from Chrono Trigger, but I don't feel like putting it off anymore.

I suppose it's good practice. Part of being a professional is doing things when you don't want to do them. I've played games long after they got boring when testing at Vivendi and SnapTV, So this should be a cakewalk for me. Eyes on the prize, bro. Just keep thinking about the next game you're going to play.

New Games!

2009-04-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

This just goes to show you; it pays to make friends with people in other countries. Today I received a package from someone in Canada who was getting rid of his games. He didn't want to sell them, just wanted someone else to be able to enjoy them. So for the piddly sum of $10.50, I was able to ship this

Brigandine is the rarest of the bunch, which can sell for as much as $120 on eBay used, and this thing has all of the documentation and booklets still in the case.

But I didn't get these games to turn right around and sell them. In fact, I think that's the LAST thing the original owner wants me to do. I want to actually play them first.

Site update

2009-04-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

I tried recording a video of this. Three times. But every time, the footage was unusable. It reflects poorly on me a filmmaker and it's not up to my standards.

Anyway, 3 games are off my list, and they're being replaced by 3 others.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is gone. I last played it about 6 months ago, and honestly, I can't remember a damn thing about the story. All I can remember is it went ON and ON without ever getting anywhere.
In its place, I will be playing Bioshock.
Yeah, tough decision there.

Ultimate Spider-Man is also gone. I already beat it before I even started 53games, And getting 100% is the next step. But that means finding all the tokens, stopping all the crime, and beating all the races at the fastest time, which is FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE. So in its place is another game where you run around on rooftops, climb buildings, and help civilians: Assassin's Creed.

Finally, Doom 3 wasn't even mine. It belonged to a friend who sold it to me when he needed money, then I sold it back to him later. So to replace that, I have another game. A game with zombies, a number in the title, and is a PC FPS: Left 4 Dead.

Also, if you look to the side, you will see a video for my new ustream account, where I will be playing my games live for the select few who actually feel like viewing it.

Super Mario Galaxy - Retrospective

2009-03-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

This game was a very mixed blessing. It starts off simple enough and never really gets ridiculously hard. You can easily obtain the minimum required 60 stars before the game hits the infamous "Stops being fun" wall. However, it suffers from numerous design choices that seem arbitrary and capricious. The first of which is the evil, satanic, posessed camera.

During the height of 2D gaming, the camera was a non-issue. You never even thought about it; the game showed what was on the screen and you could see it. The closest thing we had to the camera being an enemy was scrolling levels where you could get crushed behind walls, and leaps of faith where you can't see the landing. But with the onset of 3D games, the camera suddenly became a living entity. Super Mario 64 knew this and not only anthropomorphised the camera as the oft-underrated Lakitu, but gave the players full control over where it pointed. For some unknown reason, this control is missing from Super Mario Galaxy. Suddenly, full 360 degree control of the camera becomes the exception, rather than the rule.

The most frustrating aspect of this limitation is that it comes with no reason or logic behind its constraints. You will want desperately to turn the camera around in order to search for hidden ledges or line up a particularly difficult jump, only to be told "bernp!" by the sadistic little camera icon on the top right of the screen. Why? It's not like there's a tree or a wall in the way. It's just empty air! Other times, the camera will immediately swoop around to give you a different viewing angle when you're in the middle of crossing a narrow platform or trying to stick a landing. The player can usually use the C button to recenter the camera, but this too has a strange path of logic when it comes to where it believes "centered" to be. This can often mean looking up at the ground. Timed levels and Luigi's inherent lack of traction only magnify how frustrating the worst parts of the game can be.

Another issue present in this game started to develop in Super Mario 64, and continued in Sunshine and Galaxy. This is not a problem with the game itself, but the direction of the series in general. While it is not necessarily a bad thing, it is misleading. The problem comes from the concept of powerups. Super Mario Galaxy boasts numerous "powers" including Bee Mario, Boo Mario, and Spring Mario (One of the lamest powerups ever, by the way) as well as the Fire Flower, Ice Flower, and everyone's favorite, the invincibility star. While these powerups do change the way Mario moves and grants him new abilities, as well as new limitations, it's all simply a tease.

Look back in Mario's history, back to the original Super Mario Bros. How many ways were there to defeat Bowser at the end of World 1-4? If you were small, you could jump over him or run under him and grab the axe. If you were big, you could try to jump through his barage of hammers, or even simply run through the lizard directly. If you were Fire Mario, you could stand back and take him out with a few well-placed projectiles of your own. Or, if you were lucky enough to find a star near the end of the level, you could kill him that way. Super Mario Bros 3 took this idea and expanded on it even more, giving you frog suits, tanooki suits, hammer bros. suits, raccoon mario, fire mario, even super P-wing mario. The game simply gave you a goal, and didn't care how you got there.

Now look at Super Mario Galaxy. Almost every level has the exact same path through it. You solve the puzzles on one planet, or find your way through a maze or platform gauntlet in order to get to the fling star and jump to the next planet. Every powerup you recieve is only there to help you solve a puzzle. Every boss has a single correct method to defeating it, with one or two minor variations if you're lucky. Strangely enough, the flat world of Super Mario Bros. gave you more freedom than the free-roaming 3D environments of modern Mario games.

The next Mario game should get back to the series' roots like New Super Mario Bros. on the DS did. Give Mario a goal and let us find our own way to get him there.

Progress for March 30, 2008 - Super Mario Galaxy - COMPLETED

2009-03-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Mario and Luigi now both have all 121 stars. Now I never have to touch this game again.

But odds are I probably will. A few years down the line.

Progress for March 29, 2008 - Super Mario Galaxy

2009-03-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

What the fuck is wrong with the camera in Super Mario Galaxy? Super Mario 64 was one of the oldest 3D platformers ever. 3D movement and visuals were still in their infancy, and we were still graced with better camera controls than in Galaxy. I blame the level designers. Level designers become so proud of their work; all of the time they've spent tweaking every little nuance and vertex to make the level look perfect forces them to make compromises when it comes to the gameplay. They care so much about their work, it would pain them to death to have a player look at it in any angle other than intended, even if that angle isn't one of the principal directions or a 45 degree derivative thereof. So you end up trying to hold the joystick at an arbitrary direction halfway between left and up-left. Then as soon as you go to make the jump, the camera swoops around to put you in a completely different viewing angle, just soon enough to see Mario go careening into the abyss.

FUCK YOU! Is it too much to ask for a game where the camera stays nicely put and out of the way so we can see exactly what we're doing, exactly where we're going, and exactly where we're going to land?

All	Galaxy	Stars	Earned Today
\\|/	Good Egg Galaxy	******
	Honey Hive Galaxy	******	Cosmic Luigi Race
\\|/	Space Junk Galaxy	******
\\|/	Battlerock Galaxy	*******	Purple Coins on the Battlerock Battlerock's Garbage Dump Luigi Under the Saucer
\\|/	Beach Bowl Galaxy	******
	Ghostly Galaxy	******
	Gusty Garden Galaxy	******
\\|/	Freezeflame Galaxy	******
	Dusty Dune Galaxy	*******
	Gold Leaf Galaxy	******	The Bell on the Big Tree Cataquack to the skies When it rains it pours
	Sea Slide Galaxy	******
	Toy Time Galaxy	******
	Deep Dark Galaxy	******	The Underground Ghost Ship Bubble Blastoff
	Dreadnought Galaxy	******	Revenge of the Topman Tribe
\\|/	Melty Molten Galaxy	******
\\|/	Gateway Galaxy	**
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Robot Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser's Star Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Airship Armada	*
\\|/	Bowser's Dark Matter Plant	*
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Lava Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser's Galaxy Reactor	*
	Loopdeeloop Galaxy	*
\\|/	Flipswitch Galaxy	*
\\|/	Rolling Green Galaxy	*	Rolling in the Clouds
\\|/	Hurry-Scurry Galaxy	*
\\|/	Bubble Breeze Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sweet Sweet Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sling Pod Galaxy	*
\\|/	Buoy Base Galaxy	**
\\|/	Drip Drop Galaxy	*
\\|/	Honey Climb Galaxy	*
	Bonefin Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sand Spiral Galaxy	*
\\|/	Matter Splatter Galaxy	*
	Bigmouth Galaxy	*

Progress for March 24, 2008 - Super Mario Galaxy

2009-03-24T05:17:00.001-07:00

It's weird going to bed at 8:30 PM. You wake up at 4 AM with nothing else to do but face the day. And play Super Mario Galaxy. I'm not sure why exactly it is, but I really enjoy the Purple Comet levels, as long as they're untimed. Just the idea of exploration and collection I find really appealing.

All	Galaxy	Stars	Earned Today
\\|/	Good Egg Galaxy	******
	Honey Hive Galaxy	******	The Honeyhive's Purple Coins
\\|/	Space Junk Galaxy	******
	Battlerock Galaxy	*******
\\|/	Beach Bowl Galaxy	******	Beachcombing for Purple Coins
	Ghostly Galaxy	******	Purple Coins in the Bone Pen
	Gusty Garden Galaxy	******	The Dirty Tricks of Major Burrows The Golden Chomp Gusty Garden Gravity Scramble
\\|/	Freezeflame Galaxy	******	Freezeflame's Blistering Core Hot and Cold Collide Purple Coins on the Summit Frosty Cosmic Luigi Race
	Dusty Dune Galaxy	*******	Blasting Through the Sand Purple Coins in the Desert Bullet Bill in your Back Sunbaked Sand Castle
	Gold Leaf Galaxy	******
	Sea Slide Galaxy	******
	Toy Time Galaxy	******
	Deep Dark Galaxy	******
	Deadnought Galaxy	******
\\|/	Melty Molten Galaxy	******
\\|/	Gateway Galaxy	**
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Robot Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser's Star Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Airship Armada	*
\\|/	Bowser's Dark Matter Plant	*
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Lava Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser's Galaxy Reactor	*
	Loopdeeloop Galaxy	*
\\|/	Flipswitch Galaxy	*
	Rolling Green Galaxy	*
\\|/	Hurry-Scurry Galaxy	*
\\|/	Bubble Breeze Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sweet Sweet Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sling Pod Galaxy	*
\\|/	Buoy Base Galaxy	**
\\|/	Drip Drop Galaxy	*
\\|/	Honey Climb Galaxy	*	Scaling the Sticky Wall
	Bonefin Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sand Spiral Galaxy	*
\\|/	Matter Splatter Galaxy	*
	Bigmouth Galaxy	*

Progress for March 22, 2008 - Super Mario Galaxy

2009-03-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

I already got 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy with Mario, and I beat it with Luigi a few months ago after being inspired by the Mario Marathon to keep playing the game. I completed all 60 necessary stars over the course of a single night, so now I'm going to finish it all up.

All	Galaxy	Stars	Earned Today
\\|/	Good Egg Galaxy	******	Purple Coin Omelet
	Honey Hive Galaxy	******
\\|/	Space Junk Galaxy	******	Purple Coin Spacewalk
	Battlerock Galaxy	*******
	Beach Bowl Galaxy	******
	Ghostly Galaxy	******
	Gusty Garden Galaxy	******
	Freezeflame Galaxy	******
	Dusty Dune Galaxy	*******
	Gold Leaf Galaxy	******
	Sea Slide Galaxy	******
	Toy Time Galaxy	******
	Deep Dark Galaxy	******
	Deadnought Galaxy	******	Dreadnought's Colossal Cannons
	Melty Molten Galaxy	******	Burning Tide, The Sinking Lava Spire, Through the Meteor Storm, Lava Spire Daredevil Run, Fiery Dino Piranha, Red-Hot Purple Coins
\\|/	Gateway Galaxy	**
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Robot Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser's Star Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Airship Armada	*
\\|/	Bowser's Dark Matter Plant	*
\\|/	Bowser Jr's Lava Reactor	*
\\|/	Bowser's Galaxy Reactor	*
	Loopdeeloop Galaxy	*
\\|/	Flipswitch Galaxy	*
	Rolling Green Galaxy	*
\\|/	Hurry-Scurry Galaxy	*
\\|/	Bubble Breeze Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sweet Sweet Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sling Pod Galaxy	*
\\|/	Buoy Base Galaxy	**
\\|/	Drip Drop Galaxy	*
	Honey Climb Galaxy	*
	Bonefin Galaxy	*
\\|/	Sand Spiral Galaxy	*
\\|/	Matter Splatter Galaxy	*
	Bigmouth Galaxy	*

Chrono Trigger on Hiatus

2009-03-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

I know I've been neglecting 53Games for a while; I haven't been playing much of anything really recently. After a nasty fall, my DS is having trouble functioning at full capacity. The L button doesn't work right, and the hinge is cracked. Chrono Trigger will have to be on hiatus for a while. I'll probably start playing something else soon; either on emulator or console.

Progress for February 11-12, 2008 - Chrono Trigger

2009-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

I honestly don't know what to think about this game. It's a fairly standard RPG. Combat takes place right in the middle of the field; which is different than most games, but it's all just seeming so casual and straightforward. I reached a few sections where the game almost blew me away, but it didn't seem to continue to run with the idea.

I finished Magus' castle.. for what I assume is the first time. now I'm in the Tyrano fortress. I hope I have the drive to continue tomorrow.

Progress for February 8-10, 2008 - Chrono Trigger

2009-02-11T10:40:00.001-08:00

Oh crap, I have a blog, don't I?
I've tried to play this game on numerous occasions; each time I ended up getting unnecessarily bored for one reason or another and quitting for months at a time. So I end up at a standstill: I don't want to continue where I left off because I don't remember the story up to that point, and I don't want to start a new game because I'd have to play through the beginning all over again.

I'm playing the DS version, which seems to be a better translation than the SNES version. I'm also using a guide from one of my favorite LPers on youtube, HC Bailly. His videos have really helped me keep on track and not get lost, which is usually one of the reasons I quit playing any game.

Over the past few days, I've made it a good 8 hours into the game. I've gotten the Masamune and just re-recruited Frog before bed last night. Now to take on Magus and beat the game! (yeah right)

24 The Game - Retrospective

2009-02-04T16:34:00.000-08:00

This game will go down in infamy alongside Super Mario Land 2 and 8 Eyes as "games that have caused physical damage to my property." Super Mario Land 2 cost me a Game Boy and 8 Eyes cost me an entire laptop hard drive. 24: The Game cost me... A frying pan.

The game can be described in 2 words: Frustratingly addictive. Or maybe addictively frustrating. Missions run the gamut in length from 3 to 25 minutes, so they don't take that much investment to play through... If you're lucky. If not, you will find yourself staring down the exact same mission over and over, each time wanting the last 5 minutes of your life back. You forget everything else, including pots of water boiling on the stove, because you can't let the game win like that. This game will suck out your soul and force you to go through hell in order to get it back.

As a fan of the series, I figured this game was a must-play. In a way, it is, because the story presentation is very well done. In fact, everything that isn't an action sequence is a fun distraction, but the on-foot and driving missions are mediocre at best, and unplayably annoying at worst. The controls are a mess, with completely different context-sensitive actions sharing the same button. If you're standing a few inches off the mark, you'll end up punching a surrendered assailant instead of checking a dead body for ammo, and thus hurting your mission percentage.

24 does do a few things right. The lock on system feels very natural for a third person shooter and makes it easy to pinpoint your weapon and go for the headshot, but switching targets is unresponsive, like all the other controls. The hacking and computer simulation missions are an enjoyable departure, and the interrogation missions are probably the best parts of the game. But these oases are few and far between in a desolately mediocre desert.

24 is not a terrible game, but it is terribly mediocre. The highs and lows of the game average out to a fairly unremarkable playthrough. As a third person shooter, it has almost no staying power. The only way I can reccommend this game is if you're a hardcore 24 fan and you have the patience of a saint.

The Good:

Storyline by the actual show's writers and cutscenes done in the show's style truly sell the game as part of 24 canon
Voiceovers by the actual 24 cast.
Computer scanning minigames and interrogation missions are fun, albiet brief.

The Bad:

Crippled and unresponsive controls make playthrough needlessly frustrating.
Mission objectives are often unclear, forcing the player to rely on trial-and-error in order to complete them.

Defining Moment:

The game says "Your car is on fire, press Δ to exit" but your passenger says "Don't leave me, please!"

Burning Question:

See January 12, 2009

Progress for February 4, 2009 - 24: The Game - COMPLETED!

2009-02-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

The following takes- oh who the hell cares anymore.

I beat it this afternoon. That's all there is to say about it. The last 2 hours was some of the least enjoyable I've experienced in a while.

That is all. Review tomorrow.

Progress for January 16, 2009 - 24: The Game

2009-01-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

The following take place between 3 PM and 10 PM

24: The Game is just as addictive as 24: The Show. Once you finish an hour, they're always sure to leave you with a cliffhanger that makes you want to keep playing. It's a fairly effective way to keep the player interested in what would otherwise be an overall mediocre action game. The more I play, the more I dislike the driving levels, but the more I'm starting to like the standard mission levels. It's made better by the fact that the game is set in and around Los Angeles, my hometown, but I highly doubt the in-game map of the freeways are very accurate.

Progress for January 12, 2009 - 24: The Game

2009-01-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

The following takes place between 6 AM and 3 PM

To celebrate the return of 24 to Fox after the writers strike, it's a no-brainer which game I'll be playing next.

So far, I've been enjoying the game. The cinematic cutscenes are expertly done, following the layout and presentation of the TV show perfectly. Oddly enough, I'm enjoying the puzzle-based minigames more than third-person mission levels.

The worst thing I've encountered so far is the driving mechanics of the game, the worst of which so far was in mission #13 where Tony has to escort Lee Jin Yu to CTU while EVERY SINGLE CAR ON THE ROAD tries to stop you. Apparently whoever's in charge of the hit has enough men at his disposal to have 2 black vans and 3 silver sedans in every square mile of Los Angeles.

Couldn't someone with that kind of money just buy an island somewhere and retire?

Paper Mario - Retrospective

2008-12-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

Many people consider Paper Mario to be the sequel to SNES masterpiece Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The game was developed by RPG juggernaut Squaresoft, so not only is Mario RPG touted as one of the best SNES RPGs ever, but also one of the best Mario games ever. Paper Mario was Nintendo's attempt to build upon the established Mario RPG format. Without Squaresoft's hand in the development, the core gameplay and feel of the game is very much altered from its predecessor. This doesn't make the game bad; just different.

Paper Mario picks up the torch by using the same revolutionary attack system SMRPG introduced: Timed Hits. By pressing the attack button at the right time, you could increase the strength of your attack, or decrease the amount of damage you took from enemies. This seemingly simple idea was nearly unheard of in 1996, but it makes combat a much more active experience. Instead of simply inputting your commands and waiting for a minute or so for the actual battle to play out until you get another turn, you had to actually provide additional input as the combat ensued. This kind of system rewards the player just for paying attention to the game they're playing.

Unlike SMRPG, Paper Mario is a much shallower game, both in complexity and story. This makes Paper Mario an easier game to comprehend, but leaves a lot to be desired for players who loved the depth of SMRPG. The story revolves primarily around Mario, with only passing footnotes on his 8 companions. Paper Mario is very linear, especially by other RPG standards, which makes story progression easy and straightforward, but also painfully predictable. As you might have gathered from my previous posts, I was practically able to tell you the whole story before I was even a few hours into the game.

Paper Mario is not without its charm, though. The Action Attack system is more versatile and easier to use than in SMRPG, and the Badge system lets you customize Mario's abilities to match your play style. Additionally, the characters and story scenarios range from dryly comedic to hilariously memorable. It also marks the first time, to my knowledge, the word "murder" is actually used in a Mario game.

Paper Mario is a fun and satisfying romp, but gamers looking for a hardcore 100+ hour RPG will have to look elsewhere. Paper Mario is likely intended as an introductory RPG, similar to Quest 64 or Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It gets gamers interested in core RPG mechanics like HP, magic, and experience points without making it an overwhelming situation. This makes the game an excellent gift for RPG fanatics trying to get their friends or family into RPGs, but series like Final Fantasy or Tales are too complex.

Paper Mario is available on the Wii Virtual Console for 1000 Wii Points.

The Good

Memorable characters and dialogue
Princess Peach sub-missions add a break to the more action-oriented Mario gameplay

The Bad

Formulaic and predictable story
Too short for the player to really get time to appreciate the interesting characters
Too easy for any experienced player to find challenge.

Defining Moment

Mario being accused of murder
Guessing correctly that the final Star Power attack would be called "Star Beam"

Burning Question

Does "The game was fun and all, but seriously Square. Give us back Geno and Mallow!" count as a question?

Progress for December 16, 2008 - Paper Mario - COMPLETED!

2008-12-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

And once again, Bowser goes down! The fight was satisfyingly challenging, but not overly difficult. The only thing that got tedious was that every time he charged up his star power, I just used Star Beam and removed it. This happens every 4 turns, and Bowser can't be hurt while he's using the Star Power, so the only possible way to continue the battle is to use Star Beam. And since Star Beam costs absolutely nothing to cast, and its only purpose is to eliminate Bowser's Star Power, there's no reason to wait or use it any time other than immedately after he powers up, making it both repetitive and ultimately pointless.

I was impressed with how expansive Bowser's castle was. It doesn't disappoint as a final dungeon; It's about 3 times as long as any other dungeon in the game and the enemies are certainly not pushovers. Dry Bones are the most annoying enemies in the game.

Final Stats
Play Time- Just about 31 hours (There's no way to see the final time, so I just estimated up from the last save file)
Level: 25
HP: 50
FP: 40
BP: 30
Coins Collected: 3878
Badges Collected:54/80
69/160
Tayce T.'s recipes: 1/50 (I didn't even bother at all with this subquest.)
Quizmo's Quizzes: 5/6
Battles: 511

I don't think I'll be going for 100%. It seems pointless, unless someone can give me a good reason to.

Progress for December 14, 2008 - Paper Mario

2008-12-15T05:24:00.000-08:00

Thus begins the final countdown. One more star to find, then the inevitable Bowser battle. Will I try for 100% completion? It's entirely possible. But we'll cross that hurdle when we come to it.

Time: 23:33
Level 18
Coins: 9 (I bought a lot of stuff from the arms dealer in the sewer)
HP: 35
FP: 20
BP: 30
Star Spirits: 6
Star Pieces: 3 (I also bought a bunch of badges from Merlow

Progress for December 11, 2008 - Paper Mario

2008-12-12T03:56:00.000-08:00

This game is just going by faster and faster, isn't it? I already have 5 of the 7 stars and I'm halfway (I assume) through getting the 6th.
I've maxed out my BP at 30, so now I have to actually put some thought into what skills I boost. But since I have 2 of each HP Boost and FP Boost badges, I can further customize my characters based on which bosses I'll be going up against. Not that the game really merits a great deal of strategy. It's a rather easy game overall. I should be able to finish by the weekend.

Time: 21:00
Level 17
Coins: 209
HP: 30
FP: 20
BP: 30
Star Spirits: 5
Star Pieces: 41

Progress for December 10, 2008 - Paper Mario

2008-12-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

Up.... too.... late. Registering.... internet domain names. Creating.... website content.... for friends. Having trouble..... staying awakr.
Saved 2 more Star Spirits...... 3 more to go.
4. Itchy. Tasty.

Time: 15:57
Level 14
Coins: 382
HP: 25
FP: 15
BP: 27
Star Spirits: 4
Star Pieces: 26

Progress for December 9, 2008 - Paper Mario

2008-12-10T05:08:00.000-08:00

Another day, another star spirit. Paper Mario seems to be pretty linear thus far, but I am enjoying the numerous side-missions that become available as you unlock new weapons and information. I also like how they use the Princess Peach stealth levels to break up the gameplay a bit and bring the player into the psyche of exactly what's going on while Bowser has the Princess captive. Not many of the other Mario games do that.

Time: 9:16
Level 10
Coins: 728
HP: 25
FP: 15
BP: 21
Star Spirits: 2

Progress for December 8, 2008 - Paper Mario

2008-12-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

The journey begins anew! The last time I tried to play this game, after about 8 hours in, the A button stopped working due to all the pressure and sharp presses that a game like this requires. All the action prompts have wreaked havoc with its ability to snap back to its un-pressed position. A shame since the controller itself is really nice otherwise.

Paper Mario starts out, like every other Mario game ever made in the history of mankind, with Bowser a being jerk and trying to take over the world and the only person who can stop him is Mario. Not exactly Pulitzer material, but there you go.
I like the way the game handles levels and skill growth. Rather than give you a random increase of each skill at each level, the game lets the player choose a flat increase of their Health, Magic, or Ability points.

I'm about 5 hours in. I've gained 3 party members and rescued 1 of the 7 stars needed. Why the hell do mario RPGs always need you to find 7 stars? Oh well.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Retrospective

2008-11-30T00:36:00.000-08:00

I LOVE THIS GAME!

I was first introduced to Puzzle Quest a year ago during my time working on The Spiderwick Chronicles at Vivendi Games. Some of us would play it on the testing consoles during lunch and breaks. I'd never seen anything like it before, but I was intrigued. I got the game as soon as I could spare the money from my paycheck.

Puzzle Quest is amazingly addictive, just like its forefather Bejeweled, but Puzzle Quest takes it to the next level and adds an amazing level of strategy to the game. The game really shines when you're low on life, planning every move several turns in advance, trying to prevent your opponent from matching those last few skulls it needs to kill you while simultaneously trying to gain enough mana to turn the tables.

Puzzle Quest is also a blast to play against friends. Unlike Pokemon, you can scale yourself to the level of your opponent, making combat less of a math problem and more of a fair measure of skill and strategy. My only regret is getting the DS version, which has no online play capabilities save for wi-fi battles against people in the same room as you. If I want to play against my friends from the comfort of my own home, I'm going to have to install the PC version and play through the game all over again. Not that that would be a bad thing.

Puzzle Quest is probably one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a long time. But it relies critically upon the backbone of the core bejeweled-like gameplay. If for some reason you can't stand match-3 puzzle games or RPGs, there's a chance you won't like Puzzle Quest. But for the rest of you who want something addictive that you can play for 10 minutes or 5 hours, Puzzle Quest is an absolute must own for any system you have.

The Good:

Amazingly addictive core match-3 puzzle gameplay.
Multiple classes and spells add high replay value even after completing the game.
Monster capture, spell research, and item forging puzzles add fun modifications to the main gameplay paradigm.
Memorable characters and dialog make the story worth continuing.

The Bad:

Level cap of 50 is too easy to reach before the end of the game, but experience uselessly continues to increase. Why not a more logical cap of 99 or 100?
If you set up your skills and equipment correctly, the enemies offer no challenge to completely annihilate. Not even the final boss is much of a challenge.

Defining Moment:

Buying the game for my mom, and discovering that she plays it even more than I do.

Burning Question:

Why the $#@^! is there an entire western continent that you never explore? What's the point?

Progress for November 29, 2008 - Puzzle Quest - COMPLETED!

2008-11-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

This ending really caught me off guard. I had sensed that the game was reaching a climax when they spoke of Lord Bane, the God of Death, and I was hoping I was reaching an end point; I was starting to think the game was unbalanced since I'd already reached the level cap a considerable time before the end. If it didn't end here, I would have been really peeved.

Lord Bane does not disappoint as a final boss. He forced me to completely change my combat strategy. I decided to give up trying to use my spells and went purely for physical damage. I spent the last 20,000 gold on boosting my battle skill to level 66 and focused on matching skulls more than anything else. I only used Deathbringer when I could afford to miss a turn; Lord Bane's resistances were 20% in all areas. But I killed him in only the second attempt, which I owe mostly to my absurdly high battle skill.

Anywho. Expect a retrospective soon. Ta ta!

I am not alone

2008-11-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

Apparently backlog syndrome is not a practice reserved for myself. Many other gamers come across the same problem, so much so that Tom Endo of The Escapist has written an article on the matter analyzing the current state of the gaming industry. What do you think? Do games these days defy you to finish them as part of a flaw in their own design? Let me know.

To Do: Finish Any Game

Progress for November 19, 2008 - Puzzle Quest

2008-11-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Deathbringer is fucking amazing! I've been able to deal upwards of 250 damage over the course of two attacks as long as I get my mana high enough. Some battles don't take longer than a few minutes. The only problem is if I run into an enemy with a high fire resistance I need to fight them the old-fashioned way.

I've also been using Sense Blood a lot. It's an excellent way to get an obscene amount of EXP in a couple of battles. I rushed through the 40's like nothing; I'm at level 49 now and only 3000 EXP away from the level cap of 50.

I expect my strategies will start to change when I reach the cap. I'll be more focused on gaining gold in order to build my skills at my citadel than gaining experience in the battles.

In fact, I think I'll start doing that now. one level won't make that much of a difference.

Besides, I'm still about 10 hours further in the game than my mom.

Progress for November 9, 2008 - Puzzle Quest

2008-11-09T21:22:00.000-08:00

I have a competitor. You'll never guess who.

My mom.

I got her the PC version for her birthday, and she is completely addicted. She's only a few quests behind me. I beat Gruulkar about 4 tonight, and my mom just went up against him at about 8.
I'm still at a lower level than her, only 34. She's maxed out at level 50 already. So I suppose it's an accomplishment that I've gotten further than her at a lower level, but it's still a little embarassing. I can't even compete against her head-to-head since we're on different platforms, so the only real way I can dominate her is to beat the game before she does.

Still Alive...and Dead

2008-11-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything in the last month. Have I not been playing any games? There is one game I've been playing for about 6 hours a day every day: Webcardz. But this doesn't really count because it's actually my job. For the last 2 and a half months, I've been doing QC Testing for SnapTV Games. While I do enjoy the money it provides, it's been wreaking havoc on the time I have for games.

Even though it's not on my list, you can expect a video review once I beat it.

xkcd rips off 53games!

2008-09-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

A person with humorous observations on life?
A stack of games being played one after another?
depriving oneself of a new game until they're finished?
It's like looking into a mirror!
(53games does not condone absurd claims of theft that are baseless. 53games does condone the castration of people who don't understand sarcasm when they read it. Check out www.xkcd.com)

Progress for September 15-20, 2008 - Puzzle Quest

2008-09-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

Sort of a meta-update all crammed into one week. I haven't been able to play much Bully with stuff like work interfering, so I've been playing a lot of Puzzle Quest on the bus. I have no idea how far I am from the end of the game, but it looks like I still have a LOT of map to cover. My warrior, Sadonyia, is at level 29. I've been pretty much spamming her red mana affinity the entire game and just spending my extra gold to boost the rest of the skills (it costs just as much to raise any skill from level 0-10 in gold, but experience can cost up to 3 times as much to raise it the same amount. It just seems economical to me.)

Mostly I've just been grinding for gold and runes, as well as spells from captured creatures. I like capturing creatures.

Oh yeah. I spent 3 hours on wednesday night trying to learn Call the Horde. I can count about 5 times when got within 15 gems of the goal totals before there were no moves available. I know randomness is what makes a puzzle game worth playing multiple times, but FUCK!

Progress for September 14, 2008 - Bully

2008-09-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, well, there's not too much to report. I've been playing some minigames, doing a few story missions, odd jobs, etc. Bully doesn't really translate well from a storytelling standpoint.

But if you MUST now.
Pinky is a total overbearing bitch. She's comes from a long line of in-bred preppy socialites who want to keep their money in the family.. at the expense of their own genes. Her family wants her to date and marry her first cousin (which is apparently legal in that jurisdiction) but since he showed up more than 3 minutes late to their date, she wants nothing to do with him anymore.

Whatever writers they got for this game weren't afraid to break every taboo in the book with wanton disregard for tact and decency. It's a thing of comedic beauty.

Complete: 28.61%

Progress for September 10, 2008 - Bully

2008-09-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy with work, so trying to stay on a competent sleep schedule has sort of eaten into my gaming time. I only got about an hour in today.

Passed Gym.. so that's one more class I can stop going to. I'm tempted to just pass all of the classes so I'll have nothing keeping me from doing all the missions back to back, and I'll have all the power ups as well.

Complete: 22.71%

Progress for September 6, 2008 - Bully

2008-09-07T04:53:00.000-07:00

Alright, now we're talking! The game is really starting to open up now. I've passed 3 of my classes (English, Chemistry, and Biology) so every so often I'll get free periods when I won't have to stop my missions and haul ass back to school and I WON'T get cited for truancy.

I can really see myself 100%ing this game, including all of the little "x out of 100" missions like the G&G cards and rubber bands, now that I have them mapped out.

I'm actually shocked and a little pissed off that art class is giving me so much trouble. It's essentially Qix, and I've been kicking ass at that game since the 5th grade. I've failed level 2 twice simply because the game doesn't have the common sense to make the collision boxes the same size as the sprites. Seriously, wtf Rockstar?

Completed: 21.16%

Progress for September 2, 2008 - Bully

2008-09-02T00:40:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to say today. Expect videos more often now that I'm playing a console game and thus am able to capture footage easier than on the DS.

"Hattrick vs. Galloway"

"Prep Challenge"

Completed: 16%

Progress for September 1, 2008 - Bully

2008-09-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

A new month, a new game. I'd heard a lot about Bully even before it came out on the PS2. Apparently parent groups wanted the game banned based purely on what they THOUGHT the subject matter involved. Then they played the game. The term "foot-in-mouth disease" comes to mind.

So far, Bully seems like it is to GTA what Small Brawl is to the Twisted Metal series. The game feels very similar to GTA in the mission format, map appearance, and even the types of objectives you need to complete, except scaled down to take place in a school instead of a city. I'm enjoying the cathartic motion-controlled melee system, although I was slightly disappointed there wasn't an option to swap the Wii remote and nunchuk left/right orientation.
But then, I was also disappointed when Link in Twilight Princess for the Wii suddenly became right handed. I guess other game designers don't care about laterality as much as I do.

I'm only slightly more than 5% through the game, according to the in-game tally, so I have a considerable ways to go.

Metroid Prime Hunters - Retrospective

2008-08-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

The Metroid series has always been one of my favorites from the gaming universe. I'd heard a lot about the game from friends, and even though it was a launch title for the DS, I never got around to playing it until just this month.

Overall, I found the game enjoyable, but it lacked the level of polish that the other Prime games have. While some of this can be attributed to the smaller screen and lack of processing power on the DS, the rest is actually a fundamental flaw with the game itself.

There are a total of 3 bosses in the entire game, 2 of which you fight 4 times apiece. While the bosses change slightly each time in order to seem harder, the learning curve built into the game doesn't adapt as fast as the player; Every version of the boss is actually slightly easier than the one before it.

I admit I'm not the greatest gamer in the world, especially when it comes to FPS games. Even so, I didn't run into any points in this game where I simply could not continue due to difficulty. On the one hand, this was helpful in keeping me interested in the game, but I can't help feel like better players will end up getting bored quickly.

But no reviewer worth his salt will talk about Metroid Prime Hunters without mentioning the multiplayer. This is where the game truly shines. Some would say it's the only reason to actually own the game. In a way, I'd compare it to Super Smash Bros: Single player is fun for a while, but multiplayer is fun forever. But as a primarily solo player, I can't help but think the game would benefit from being able to play as the other 6 hunters in the regular story mode.

The Good:

Shockingly good graphics and online gameplay for a handheld title, especially an early generation DS title.
6 new bounty hunters vastly expand the game universe.

The Bad:

No way to play as the other 6 hunters outside of multiplayer.
Controlling the game on a DS Lite results in cramps in the left hand after only a few minutes of intense combat.

Defining Moment:

Finding out I beat Slench 4 before Slench 3, and discovering that it was actually far easier than Slench 3.

Burning Questions:

So, the great power in the Alimbic cluster was just a big powerful monster that killed everyone?
Why doesn't Nintendo make a sequel to this game for the Wii with online play? It could easily be their answer to Halo. They could have multiple story lines for each of the 7 hunters, essentially septupling the single player mode's life.