I am not blown away by Mass Effect.
I'm only a couple hours into it, and it feels to me exactly like Knights of the Old Republic. In fact, the stage I'm on, the Citadel, is pretty much an exact copy of the port you arrive art early on in KOTOR. I've spent over an hour running errands for people and walking into the occasional ambush and intimidating people for fun. Same ol, same ol.
Not to say it's not fun or intriguing. There is more dialogue in these Bioware games than in some novels. And it is all voiced, which is especially nice. But even though you have lots of choices to make, it still feels way too scripted.
And I especially do not like the fact that you have six characters that can eventually join your crew, but only two of them will actually be there at a time. A common annoyance in pretty much all RPGs. I want a large posse! What's the point of having these people if they're not there to back you up at all times? And it would be nice to at least have more of a variety of crewmates to choose from. The first time you pick your squad members, you will see the silhouettes of everyone you can eventually have... sorta ruins the surprise. I want to be able to recruit some drunk in the bar, or at least the table dancer he's with. (Where's that game? The recruit-anybody game where it's more about surrounding yourself with human shields and live-wire testers.)
I gave Bioshock a four-out-of-four star rating, even though I lamented on how it failed to progress the genre or do anything really new. It just did the same old stuff well. At this point in Mass Effect, I'm leaning towards a 3 star rating, because as good as the storytelling and the character detail is... there are many problem issues. Excruciatingly long elevator rides and long empty hallways... and still there are game freezes to load some areas. There are occasionally some annoying jitters and popups in the graphics. And the combat isn't very smooth (Speaking of which, my character is a military commander and a war hero who single-handedly held off an invading squadron... yet she only starts with one pistol stat point?).
Another weird point with the game: I received an Achievement for completing Eden Prime (first level) when I killed the final enemy on the stage... however, I had not found & deactivated one of the bombs, which was the actual objective, so twenty seconds later I failed the stage and had to do it over. I unfortunately did not receive a duplicate achievement.
Showing posts with label video game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video game. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Sharing My Personal Bubble With Bigass Corporations
It's not very comforting to know that I'm paying fifty bucks a year to share my gaming information with who knows who.
I rented "skate." a few weeks ago, played it a bit... never really got into it because of its unusual controls and lack of automatic motion.
I finally logged into my hotmail account which is tied to my Xbox Live Gamertag... which I otherwise don't use. Usually I'm just there to clean out the inbox ever month or so.
There among the Microsoft newsletters and viagra spam was an email from EA, thanking me for registering my copy of skate with them.
Um, yeah. You're welcome.
EA will probably take this as an agreement for them to set up a facility on my lawn.
However, they did send a game tip:
To execute a Coffin, hold both grab buttons and the brake button at the same time.
I didn't even know there was a brake button. I never went fast enough to use it.
I rented "skate." a few weeks ago, played it a bit... never really got into it because of its unusual controls and lack of automatic motion.
I finally logged into my hotmail account which is tied to my Xbox Live Gamertag... which I otherwise don't use. Usually I'm just there to clean out the inbox ever month or so.
There among the Microsoft newsletters and viagra spam was an email from EA, thanking me for registering my copy of skate with them.
Um, yeah. You're welcome.
EA will probably take this as an agreement for them to set up a facility on my lawn.
However, they did send a game tip:
To execute a Coffin, hold both grab buttons and the brake button at the same time.
I didn't even know there was a brake button. I never went fast enough to use it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Early Morning Pontificating
Let me clarify something...
While I am eagerly anticipating Rock Band, I am doing so with an extremely cautious nature. I genuinely don't expect this to be anything more than a four-player Guitar Hero.
This caution comes from wisdom provided by of years of video game playing. Nowadays when I hear a game concept announced, the "coolness factor" is always surmounted by a sense of where it can all go so very wrong.
My trepidation towards Rock Band is only increased with each article and breaking news hype surrounding the game, because all of those press releases only focus on the track list.
I don't believe the track list can ever satisfy everyone. (Why is there no Huey Lewis, hmmmm?) Even if they put a song of every genre from every era, they'd still be too much of the "other" songs for people to groan about.
And what's the point of having so many master tracks if you're going to sing the vocals yourself?
Speaking of which, the only other singing/karaoke game I've played is Boogie, which you can hum along with and still score well. Will Rock Band be the same? And how close to the original do you need to perform? Isn't the point of being in a band and playing the song live is to vary your performance each time? Liven it up a bit? Jam? Obnoxiously throw in the name of the city you're performing in? Get the crowd to sing the words for you?
There are new features for Rock Band, of course, like making your own characters and designing your band logo... but again comes the caution when you look at Harmonix's leap between Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2 was adding more stats and an additional multiplayer mode. Will the tremendous jump to Rock Band be too ambitious and these new features end up as watered down versions of what they should be?
And one of my biggest concerns of all... where will I keep all this stuff? Will the Missus allow the drumset to clutter the living room between practices? How easily will the drum kit collapse for storage, and how many times can you do so before something snaps off and you'll be shelling out a hundred bucks for a replacement set?
Side note:
I went to Gamestop and asked about when they'd be getting separate wireless guitar controllers for the 360. Their book has them scheduled for February... for 80 bucks apiece. So, if you can find one, the Guitar Hero 3 bundle will run you $100, and Gamestop's current trade-in value for the game itself is $30...
My Rock Band concerns will not keep me from buying the game, of course. I have to get it to see if they manage to pull it off. We'll find out in two weeks.
While I am eagerly anticipating Rock Band, I am doing so with an extremely cautious nature. I genuinely don't expect this to be anything more than a four-player Guitar Hero.
This caution comes from wisdom provided by of years of video game playing. Nowadays when I hear a game concept announced, the "coolness factor" is always surmounted by a sense of where it can all go so very wrong.
My trepidation towards Rock Band is only increased with each article and breaking news hype surrounding the game, because all of those press releases only focus on the track list.
I don't believe the track list can ever satisfy everyone. (Why is there no Huey Lewis, hmmmm?) Even if they put a song of every genre from every era, they'd still be too much of the "other" songs for people to groan about.
And what's the point of having so many master tracks if you're going to sing the vocals yourself?
Speaking of which, the only other singing/karaoke game I've played is Boogie, which you can hum along with and still score well. Will Rock Band be the same? And how close to the original do you need to perform? Isn't the point of being in a band and playing the song live is to vary your performance each time? Liven it up a bit? Jam? Obnoxiously throw in the name of the city you're performing in? Get the crowd to sing the words for you?
There are new features for Rock Band, of course, like making your own characters and designing your band logo... but again comes the caution when you look at Harmonix's leap between Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2 was adding more stats and an additional multiplayer mode. Will the tremendous jump to Rock Band be too ambitious and these new features end up as watered down versions of what they should be?
And one of my biggest concerns of all... where will I keep all this stuff? Will the Missus allow the drumset to clutter the living room between practices? How easily will the drum kit collapse for storage, and how many times can you do so before something snaps off and you'll be shelling out a hundred bucks for a replacement set?
Side note:
I went to Gamestop and asked about when they'd be getting separate wireless guitar controllers for the 360. Their book has them scheduled for February... for 80 bucks apiece. So, if you can find one, the Guitar Hero 3 bundle will run you $100, and Gamestop's current trade-in value for the game itself is $30...
My Rock Band concerns will not keep me from buying the game, of course. I have to get it to see if they manage to pull it off. We'll find out in two weeks.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
GH3 quickie
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.
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.
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.
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)
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