I just played a couple hours of Guitar Hero 3, making it through the co-op medium career on the PS2. A couple notes:
I'm quite disappointed in the removal of the over-the-top Star Power animations. The characters I used seemed to barely acknowledge the star power activation.
I also expected the Japanese Pop Star to be more animated.
I thought you had to string together 30 notes to be a x4 streak, but I notice when the counter pops up (after x4 activates) it often starts at 27.
(edit: apparently it pops up at 25, before you hit x4... it was just going so fast in co-op it seemed to start at 27. Either way, it's an unnecessary distraction.)
Is it only my PS2 that takes FOREVER to save? If not, turn off autosave!!!
And my friends have confirmed what I noticed in the demo: the lead singer's face is the scariest thing in video game history.
More later. I'll probably pick up the game for the 360.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Skating Backwards
I spent the past couple days with the new Tony Hawk game... not very impressed. And I really liked the previous one, Project 8.
The one unforgivable oversight to this new game: no female skaters. I've had basically the same green haired female skater since Tony Hawk 4, and now she's M.I.A. This brings the chances of getting my girlfriend to play the game with me down to zero.
(Okay, the dreaded awful story mode in American Wasteland didn't allow for women skaters either, but that game had a totally separate Classic Mode which did. Ironically, I loved the Classic Mode on that game, which had been my least favorite aspect before. But that game had full co-op Classic Mode, and was terrific fun. So, of course, they didn't put that in any other game.)
This game doesn't add much of anything. It continues expanding on the "Nail" modes, which just slows the whole game down. I play Tony Hawk to do quick tricks and go sailing along at breakneck speed (and crashing horribly into concrete). If they want to breathe new life into the game, they need to focus on the atmosphere. Mainly graphics. Since Project 8, the cities and bodies look nice, but faces look horrifying. What disease is Tony Hawk dying of in this game? His sickly face tells all.
Let's see some beautiful weather effects. More dramatic lighting... make day & night times that really make a difference. Let's see some interactive debris that actually hangs around... right now you're always smashing through fences and walls, which magically disappear.
How about storyline choices that actually affect the gameplay? Remembering back to the "Underground" games... they'd give you a choice of what team to sign up with, but you'd still end up on the same team as Bam, and you're still going to Russia. Where's the replay value? Why not build a team that will get you different places? Then you can play again and try something new. And maybe the second time through, you have to face off against the final boss... the skater you created and took to the top last time through! It'd be a better option than just not playing for 11 months while waiting for the next game to come out.
I did play the other skateboarding game, "skate." Wasn't thrilled with that, either. My big complaint there was there is no continuous forward motion, like in Tony Hawk. You have to manually activate every kick start in the game, which can cause getting up a tiny curb a big annoyance if you start too close. This is a video game, give me some automation, please.
Oh, and it was too hard to break my pelvis.
As aggravating as skate was, I do want to go back and play some more. Just to see if I'd enjoy it after a while.
But, back to Tony Hawk's Proving Ground...
I've actually played the Guitar Hero III demo on the disc more than I played the Tony Hawk game. Am I the only one that is freaked out by the huge mouth on the lead singer?
There's really nothing much else to say about the new Tony Hawk game. You know what you're getting. Unless you're expecting to play your long-time female skater.
The one unforgivable oversight to this new game: no female skaters. I've had basically the same green haired female skater since Tony Hawk 4, and now she's M.I.A. This brings the chances of getting my girlfriend to play the game with me down to zero.
(Okay, the dreaded awful story mode in American Wasteland didn't allow for women skaters either, but that game had a totally separate Classic Mode which did. Ironically, I loved the Classic Mode on that game, which had been my least favorite aspect before. But that game had full co-op Classic Mode, and was terrific fun. So, of course, they didn't put that in any other game.)
This game doesn't add much of anything. It continues expanding on the "Nail" modes, which just slows the whole game down. I play Tony Hawk to do quick tricks and go sailing along at breakneck speed (and crashing horribly into concrete). If they want to breathe new life into the game, they need to focus on the atmosphere. Mainly graphics. Since Project 8, the cities and bodies look nice, but faces look horrifying. What disease is Tony Hawk dying of in this game? His sickly face tells all.
Let's see some beautiful weather effects. More dramatic lighting... make day & night times that really make a difference. Let's see some interactive debris that actually hangs around... right now you're always smashing through fences and walls, which magically disappear.
How about storyline choices that actually affect the gameplay? Remembering back to the "Underground" games... they'd give you a choice of what team to sign up with, but you'd still end up on the same team as Bam, and you're still going to Russia. Where's the replay value? Why not build a team that will get you different places? Then you can play again and try something new. And maybe the second time through, you have to face off against the final boss... the skater you created and took to the top last time through! It'd be a better option than just not playing for 11 months while waiting for the next game to come out.
I did play the other skateboarding game, "skate." Wasn't thrilled with that, either. My big complaint there was there is no continuous forward motion, like in Tony Hawk. You have to manually activate every kick start in the game, which can cause getting up a tiny curb a big annoyance if you start too close. This is a video game, give me some automation, please.
Oh, and it was too hard to break my pelvis.
As aggravating as skate was, I do want to go back and play some more. Just to see if I'd enjoy it after a while.
But, back to Tony Hawk's Proving Ground...
I've actually played the Guitar Hero III demo on the disc more than I played the Tony Hawk game. Am I the only one that is freaked out by the huge mouth on the lead singer?
There's really nothing much else to say about the new Tony Hawk game. You know what you're getting. Unless you're expecting to play your long-time female skater.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Logic for Xbox
I finally got around to listening to CAGCast #94 from cheapassgamer.com. I'm only a week behind. Not too shabby.
Anyhoo, Cheapy & Wombat interviewed Xbox's Major Nelson, and brought up a couple items I was wondering when I'd hear someone talk about.
First up was the price of Microsoft Points. Although the conversation focused on using points rather than just straight monetary purchases on Xbox Live, I've always wondered why Microsoft is the console with the points not equaling American currency.
Nintendo: 100 Wii Points = 100 cents
Microsoft: 80 Microsoft Points = 100 cents
While a price difference isn't odd in itself, it always puzzled me because Microsoft is the American company. They're the ones that should be in sync with the dollar. Nintendo is Japanese. It just adds fuel to any argument about Microsoft's bizarre lack of logic in all their decisions.
The other issue brought before the Major... caps on the friends' list. A person can only have 100 people on their list. Major Nelson's argument was that the average user only has about 25 people on that list anyway. More flawed logic.
This average would be brought down by people with only a couple people on their list, but it would not take into account those who have maxed out already. Their input into the mean would be only 100, even though they might have 1000 if they were allowed that many. Shouldn't the average need to factor in the projected totals? Perhaps remove the cap from the list for a few months, then see where the average lies.
The most common suggestion for a solution has been to let people purchase more space on their friends' list. Most people probably won't be so quick to approve a new friend if it's gonna cost them money, so that's probably not the best way to expand the sense of community. Do people want to pay another buck a year just because they found somebody who is actually willing to play Big Bumpin' with them?
My solution is different. They should offer users the ability to make Xbox Live Clans. Surely this has been thought of before, right? People join a clan, for instance, made up of people who frequent an online gaming forum... then they add that Clan name as a friend, taking up a single space on their friends' list. Online Clan members would be listed in a new submenu. A simple patch could incorporate these Xbox Clans into multiplayer games for ease of use.
Now, the hosting for the Clan lists would probably be fee based. Websites or Sports Teams would probably pay to get their own clans started, to show off how many fans they have. Perhaps Xbox would offer smaller clan packages for less. It's a very doable feature.
And that's all I have.
Anyhoo, Cheapy & Wombat interviewed Xbox's Major Nelson, and brought up a couple items I was wondering when I'd hear someone talk about.
First up was the price of Microsoft Points. Although the conversation focused on using points rather than just straight monetary purchases on Xbox Live, I've always wondered why Microsoft is the console with the points not equaling American currency.
Nintendo: 100 Wii Points = 100 cents
Microsoft: 80 Microsoft Points = 100 cents
While a price difference isn't odd in itself, it always puzzled me because Microsoft is the American company. They're the ones that should be in sync with the dollar. Nintendo is Japanese. It just adds fuel to any argument about Microsoft's bizarre lack of logic in all their decisions.
The other issue brought before the Major... caps on the friends' list. A person can only have 100 people on their list. Major Nelson's argument was that the average user only has about 25 people on that list anyway. More flawed logic.
This average would be brought down by people with only a couple people on their list, but it would not take into account those who have maxed out already. Their input into the mean would be only 100, even though they might have 1000 if they were allowed that many. Shouldn't the average need to factor in the projected totals? Perhaps remove the cap from the list for a few months, then see where the average lies.
The most common suggestion for a solution has been to let people purchase more space on their friends' list. Most people probably won't be so quick to approve a new friend if it's gonna cost them money, so that's probably not the best way to expand the sense of community. Do people want to pay another buck a year just because they found somebody who is actually willing to play Big Bumpin' with them?
My solution is different. They should offer users the ability to make Xbox Live Clans. Surely this has been thought of before, right? People join a clan, for instance, made up of people who frequent an online gaming forum... then they add that Clan name as a friend, taking up a single space on their friends' list. Online Clan members would be listed in a new submenu. A simple patch could incorporate these Xbox Clans into multiplayer games for ease of use.
Now, the hosting for the Clan lists would probably be fee based. Websites or Sports Teams would probably pay to get their own clans started, to show off how many fans they have. Perhaps Xbox would offer smaller clan packages for less. It's a very doable feature.
And that's all I have.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Spider-man: Friend or Bore
I played through Spider-Man: Friend or Foe this weekend to review it for an upcoming episode of my comic. Not one of Activision's strongest outings, to be sure.
It's a very short game. You can probably whiz through it in 2 to 3 hours. If you go for 100% completion (as I did), it's closer to 7 to 8 hours. Of course, 100% upgrading all the characters just means replaying same thing over and over.
***
Game Tip:
To get most "tech tokens" to upgrade your characters, just replay the final level. You will only have three battles, and the boss fight. About ten minutes of play to net you over 3000 tokens for taking out the final boss. As opposed to longer stages which get you closer to 1000, if you spend the time to really max out your combo meter and break every single box on the level.
***
It's a shame that games like this are still being made. It doesn't really appear to have been created as a Spider-Man game. The characters are pretty much just plugged into it. (With terrible voices for the most part.) Webslinging never comes in to play. You can't crawl up walls. There is no spider-sense, apart from him saying, "You better believe my spider-sense is tingling." The game seems to just have been hacked out, and then as an after-thought they added the Spider-Man license to actually sell a few copies. That's nothing new, of course.
But after games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Spider-Man's other self-titled games, there should be no going back to the generic anyhero template for our favorite arachnid protagonist. It's just not right!
There are a number of Marvel comic characters appearing as playable characters... most of which I'd like to see utilized in a better game. Everyone of them has a couple of their own special moves, but nothing dazzling. You'll be sticking with Spidey, as he has a bunch more upgrades to his arsenal.
Okay, actually, not everyone has their own unique move sets... The Green Goblin and the New Green Goblin are both in the game... and they have identical moves. But you'll have to boost their stats individually to get that 100%. But their goblin gliders aren't playable. No one gets to fly. They're not quite so cool when they're running around on the ground with all the little people, are they? Okay, actually, it's more like "bouncing" rather than running. Weird animation choice. Of, and none of that fancy use of the analog stick... you're either moving full speed or standing still.
Oh, and there's no block button.
I am also not a fan of the character design in this game, either. Most of the cut-scenes make everyone look like blocky, clay beef hotdogs that were not designed with facial animations in mind.
And did the makers of this game forget they put the New Green Goblin in the opening sequence? He is seen being kidnapped alongside a bunch of villains, but he's never seen in the story again. You'll unlock him as a playable character unceremoniously after beating the game.
Speaking of the story (sigh), it was a cringe-worthy moment when it was hinted as to who was the main villain. I kept hoping they seriously weren't going there. But they did. And they didn't explain how he got the know-how to make himself evil minions. I think they must have wrote in Doctor Doom, then were told they weren't allowed him, so they said, "Hmm, who else is in Spidey's Rogue Gallery? Eenie Meenie Miney..."
And while you can play local-only co-op throughout the game, I must ask why is there always only two characters charging in to take on the world-threatening evil. If you have a dozen soldiers waiting to go into battle, wouldn't you send in a strike force larger than two? And Spidey is always one of the two. Doesn't he want a break? That was the one big flaw I had with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as well. 20 characters, but only four at a time. And I blame the script writers on that one. They could write a plot that necessitated splitting the forces up to take on simultaneous missions in different locations, then let the gamer decide who to send where before letting them play through each one.
Anyway, to sum up this very long rant with the most offensive problem with Spider-Man: Friend or Foe... it's boring. Only five locations. And you're basically just fighting the same four baddies over and over and over. Next-Gen indeed. (Sigh)
It's a very short game. You can probably whiz through it in 2 to 3 hours. If you go for 100% completion (as I did), it's closer to 7 to 8 hours. Of course, 100% upgrading all the characters just means replaying same thing over and over.
***
Game Tip:
To get most "tech tokens" to upgrade your characters, just replay the final level. You will only have three battles, and the boss fight. About ten minutes of play to net you over 3000 tokens for taking out the final boss. As opposed to longer stages which get you closer to 1000, if you spend the time to really max out your combo meter and break every single box on the level.
***
It's a shame that games like this are still being made. It doesn't really appear to have been created as a Spider-Man game. The characters are pretty much just plugged into it. (With terrible voices for the most part.) Webslinging never comes in to play. You can't crawl up walls. There is no spider-sense, apart from him saying, "You better believe my spider-sense is tingling." The game seems to just have been hacked out, and then as an after-thought they added the Spider-Man license to actually sell a few copies. That's nothing new, of course.
But after games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Spider-Man's other self-titled games, there should be no going back to the generic anyhero template for our favorite arachnid protagonist. It's just not right!
There are a number of Marvel comic characters appearing as playable characters... most of which I'd like to see utilized in a better game. Everyone of them has a couple of their own special moves, but nothing dazzling. You'll be sticking with Spidey, as he has a bunch more upgrades to his arsenal.
Okay, actually, not everyone has their own unique move sets... The Green Goblin and the New Green Goblin are both in the game... and they have identical moves. But you'll have to boost their stats individually to get that 100%. But their goblin gliders aren't playable. No one gets to fly. They're not quite so cool when they're running around on the ground with all the little people, are they? Okay, actually, it's more like "bouncing" rather than running. Weird animation choice. Of, and none of that fancy use of the analog stick... you're either moving full speed or standing still.
Oh, and there's no block button.
I am also not a fan of the character design in this game, either. Most of the cut-scenes make everyone look like blocky, clay beef hotdogs that were not designed with facial animations in mind.
And did the makers of this game forget they put the New Green Goblin in the opening sequence? He is seen being kidnapped alongside a bunch of villains, but he's never seen in the story again. You'll unlock him as a playable character unceremoniously after beating the game.
Speaking of the story (sigh), it was a cringe-worthy moment when it was hinted as to who was the main villain. I kept hoping they seriously weren't going there. But they did. And they didn't explain how he got the know-how to make himself evil minions. I think they must have wrote in Doctor Doom, then were told they weren't allowed him, so they said, "Hmm, who else is in Spidey's Rogue Gallery? Eenie Meenie Miney..."
And while you can play local-only co-op throughout the game, I must ask why is there always only two characters charging in to take on the world-threatening evil. If you have a dozen soldiers waiting to go into battle, wouldn't you send in a strike force larger than two? And Spidey is always one of the two. Doesn't he want a break? That was the one big flaw I had with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as well. 20 characters, but only four at a time. And I blame the script writers on that one. They could write a plot that necessitated splitting the forces up to take on simultaneous missions in different locations, then let the gamer decide who to send where before letting them play through each one.
Anyway, to sum up this very long rant with the most offensive problem with Spider-Man: Friend or Foe... it's boring. Only five locations. And you're basically just fighting the same four baddies over and over and over. Next-Gen indeed. (Sigh)
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Captain Glock America
And so, the new Captain America will carry a gun.
This is not the same Captain America who has been around since the 40s. He was killed off a few months ago, of course. It remains to be seen if he will be brought back to life during the bloated administration of the current Marvel Comics President. He will be back, undoubtedly. It's just a matter of timing, hype and sales.
So, a new white guy with identical physique will step into a shiny variation of the same costume, well-armed to take on the world. This is not the symbol of America as the character was created to be. The defender of our ideals that needed only a shield to deflect attacks on our apple pie and baseball. The new one will be more of a reflection of where we are as a society, I suppose. But without even a fictional symbol of our idealistic values, do we even care to become better than we are?
Cap has been replaced before. He has long been part of the government in some capacity, at least as a semi-official spokesman. Spats with the ever-changing administrators have, more than once, lead to Steve Rogers giving up the mantle of Captain America. His temporary replacement in the late 80s turned out to be a violent sociopath, not that such qualities stopped him from continuing his superhero career. And the original would return and all would instantly be made right again.
This is just the latest swirl in the downward spiral that is modern comic-crafting. (Don't get me started on the overblown Civil War that lead half-assedly to Captain America's death.) The golden rule for mainstream comics: Every character must be "bad-ass." Those too quiet, too wimpy, too light-hearted, and, heaven forbid, too goody-two-shoes... all must be replaced with someone so shiny and awesome that they will sell every single variant cover we can slap them on!
***
Marvel Exec: "Speedball? Whoa, too goofy! We can't be seen with that! Bring in the phoney-baloney angst and make him hurt himself all day long! My god, I'm brilliant!"
***
I suppose the writers have to take most of the blame. They do have all the real power. They could fight bad decisions forced on them, or be bold enough to walk away. But it doesn't happen. They just aren't good enough as artists to write with subtlety. Or worse, they feel they can't be seen writing with subtlety. They all feel they much make a lasting impact; they must leave a legacy. Better to be known as the nutbar that destroyed a decent comic than not to be remembered. But they must not realize they aren't truly leaving permanent work. It will all be undone, retconned and wished away. I don't remember what writer killed off Superman. All I know is Superman is around now, and that story was terrible.
It's a sad state of comic books today, when the status quo is look upon as the worst enemy. It's really not. It's really not. But here's to the new Captain America, wavin' the flag and bustin' some caps in evil's ass.
This is not the same Captain America who has been around since the 40s. He was killed off a few months ago, of course. It remains to be seen if he will be brought back to life during the bloated administration of the current Marvel Comics President. He will be back, undoubtedly. It's just a matter of timing, hype and sales.
So, a new white guy with identical physique will step into a shiny variation of the same costume, well-armed to take on the world. This is not the symbol of America as the character was created to be. The defender of our ideals that needed only a shield to deflect attacks on our apple pie and baseball. The new one will be more of a reflection of where we are as a society, I suppose. But without even a fictional symbol of our idealistic values, do we even care to become better than we are?
Cap has been replaced before. He has long been part of the government in some capacity, at least as a semi-official spokesman. Spats with the ever-changing administrators have, more than once, lead to Steve Rogers giving up the mantle of Captain America. His temporary replacement in the late 80s turned out to be a violent sociopath, not that such qualities stopped him from continuing his superhero career. And the original would return and all would instantly be made right again.
This is just the latest swirl in the downward spiral that is modern comic-crafting. (Don't get me started on the overblown Civil War that lead half-assedly to Captain America's death.) The golden rule for mainstream comics: Every character must be "bad-ass." Those too quiet, too wimpy, too light-hearted, and, heaven forbid, too goody-two-shoes... all must be replaced with someone so shiny and awesome that they will sell every single variant cover we can slap them on!
***
Marvel Exec: "Speedball? Whoa, too goofy! We can't be seen with that! Bring in the phoney-baloney angst and make him hurt himself all day long! My god, I'm brilliant!"
***
I suppose the writers have to take most of the blame. They do have all the real power. They could fight bad decisions forced on them, or be bold enough to walk away. But it doesn't happen. They just aren't good enough as artists to write with subtlety. Or worse, they feel they can't be seen writing with subtlety. They all feel they much make a lasting impact; they must leave a legacy. Better to be known as the nutbar that destroyed a decent comic than not to be remembered. But they must not realize they aren't truly leaving permanent work. It will all be undone, retconned and wished away. I don't remember what writer killed off Superman. All I know is Superman is around now, and that story was terrible.
It's a sad state of comic books today, when the status quo is look upon as the worst enemy. It's really not. It's really not. But here's to the new Captain America, wavin' the flag and bustin' some caps in evil's ass.
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