 | ||
| Made in about 15 minutes of browsing Initiation Station. |
If you haven't looked into Volition, Inc. and THQ's "Saints Row: The Third" much, but enjoy sandbox titles such as Grand Theft Auto, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Saints Row: The Third - Intiation Station
This morning I was given a link to key generator on GameSpot for Steam which would unlock "Saints Row: The Third - Initiation Station." This is of course better known as, Saints Row 3's character creator beta. It's a pretty nifty little thing, showcasing a lot of different options and customization for your character.
The Initiation Station, allows you to create custom characters for the upcoming Saints Row game. You can pick everything from hair, underpants and shoes, to more detailed things like tattoos, personality and taunts. Though the Initiation Station does very little, or nothing at all, in the way of setting up an environment or background for you. There are very subtle hints, particularly in the test voices, but little else.
If you haven't looked into Volition, Inc. and THQ's "Saints Row: The Third" much, but enjoy sandbox titles such as Grand Theft Auto, do yourself a favor and check it out.
If you haven't looked into Volition, Inc. and THQ's "Saints Row: The Third" much, but enjoy sandbox titles such as Grand Theft Auto, do yourself a favor and check it out.
TEAM ICO's Shadow of the Colossus
"Games are art too!" This is always what I hear whenever someone wants to discuss TEAM ICO's "ICO" and "Shadow of the Colossus." Granted, I agree, some games can be considered art, and gaming in a sense can sometimes be considered an art form, but why is that always the only thing I hear about these games? Well I'll tell you why, because once you beat them once, that's all they are, well placed ambiance and artsy enemies, at least, this is the case for Shadow of the Colossus.
A few days ago, I received the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus HD Bundle for PS3, thanks to GameFly. I was very excited at the prospect of finally having a chance to try Shadow of the Colossus, as it was both the visuals and the game play seemed appealing. An action adventure puzzle game with no minor enemies or levels to grind? No sprawling dungeons with loot and extensive amounts of side quests? Just your skills vs the colossi? Sounded amazing. I had no interest in ICO, but I popped in Shadow of the Colossus.
Right away I was drawn in by the beautiful visuals of our hero "Wander" and his steed "Agro" riding into a beautifully serene land holding what appeared to be a sleeping woman. Well turns out that's Wander's lover and she died... somehow. This is all "explained" if you can call it that, in the opening of the story. From then on, the most story you get is that you are to kill 16 colossi, because an disembodied voice tells you to do so if you want to bring your girl back to life. So begins our journey. There is a bit of tutorial, teaching you the basics, but nothing fancy, and this brings me to my first major complaint of the game, the controls. The controls are not unbearable, they are however, pretty stiff and honestly kind of outdated. R1 allows you to grip, or move slowly, depending on if there are things nearby for Wander to grip onto. Triangle allows you to jump, or mount Agro if you are standing next to her, or roll if you're holding down R1. Square causes you to swing your sword, which for the most part is completely useless, as there are no enemies for you to attack, other than colossi, which must be attacked in very specific locations in order to do damage, and that can only be done by holding R1 anyway. X allows you to call Agro to your side, or it's suppose to, most of the time the dumb horse doesn't respond or only walks a little closer to you instead of coming to you. Once you've mounted your horse, you must rapidly tap the X button in order to go any speed above "not quite as fast as a snail." I'm almost positive that simply walking would in fact be faster than riding your horse, should you refuse to mash the X button repeatedly for the next 8 or so hours of exploring.
This leads to my next complaint, while the concept of fighting only bosses seemed amazing... it in truth can get rather boring. The bosses themselves are amazing and quite fantastic to fight, but the 10-15 minutes spent going from the Temple in the center of the map to the place you're expected to encounter the Colossus, tends to get boring very quickly, particularly on the very out of the way bosses. The world is quite large and there are a lot of things to see, but not much to do. It does fit the atmosphere of a "Forbidden Land" very well, but it also leads to a problem of not having anything to do but progress the game, as most of the collectables do little to nothing for you.
Which again leads to my next complaint. Collectables and lack of usefulness. There are 77 shining lizards in the game, killing them yields an item which, when collected, increases your stamina by a VERY VERY insignificant amount. Simply defeating a single colossus gives at the very least, 5 or 6 times as much stamina as finding a single lizard. There are 128, or thereabouts, fruit to collect which increase your health by a VERY VERY insignificant amount, again killing a colossus gives you far more and it progresses the story. After completing the game you are given the option to restart on a New Game+ style feature, which allows you to attempt time attacks. The reward for completing the time attacks, in sets of 2, are bonus items which increase your damage against the colossi, reveal the aforementioned fruits and lizards and other assorted things. All these things are good and useful, until you realize you've already beaten the game, and all these cool new tricks and toys you're earning, mean almost nothing for you now, you can't even import them to a harder difficulty.
Overall, the game was a very fun play through, once. Because of the various complaints mentioned above, the games re-playability falls quite sharply, unless you're into speed running and trophy hunting. While I consider myself a trophy hunter, I do not feel my time is worth spending repeating the game upwards of 6 times, just for a few trophies. I completed the game, the rest is just frosting for an already devoured cake. My opinion? Do yourself a favor, play Shadow of the Colossus, at least once, preferably as a rental.
A few days ago, I received the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus HD Bundle for PS3, thanks to GameFly. I was very excited at the prospect of finally having a chance to try Shadow of the Colossus, as it was both the visuals and the game play seemed appealing. An action adventure puzzle game with no minor enemies or levels to grind? No sprawling dungeons with loot and extensive amounts of side quests? Just your skills vs the colossi? Sounded amazing. I had no interest in ICO, but I popped in Shadow of the Colossus.
Right away I was drawn in by the beautiful visuals of our hero "Wander" and his steed "Agro" riding into a beautifully serene land holding what appeared to be a sleeping woman. Well turns out that's Wander's lover and she died... somehow. This is all "explained" if you can call it that, in the opening of the story. From then on, the most story you get is that you are to kill 16 colossi, because an disembodied voice tells you to do so if you want to bring your girl back to life. So begins our journey. There is a bit of tutorial, teaching you the basics, but nothing fancy, and this brings me to my first major complaint of the game, the controls. The controls are not unbearable, they are however, pretty stiff and honestly kind of outdated. R1 allows you to grip, or move slowly, depending on if there are things nearby for Wander to grip onto. Triangle allows you to jump, or mount Agro if you are standing next to her, or roll if you're holding down R1. Square causes you to swing your sword, which for the most part is completely useless, as there are no enemies for you to attack, other than colossi, which must be attacked in very specific locations in order to do damage, and that can only be done by holding R1 anyway. X allows you to call Agro to your side, or it's suppose to, most of the time the dumb horse doesn't respond or only walks a little closer to you instead of coming to you. Once you've mounted your horse, you must rapidly tap the X button in order to go any speed above "not quite as fast as a snail." I'm almost positive that simply walking would in fact be faster than riding your horse, should you refuse to mash the X button repeatedly for the next 8 or so hours of exploring.
This leads to my next complaint, while the concept of fighting only bosses seemed amazing... it in truth can get rather boring. The bosses themselves are amazing and quite fantastic to fight, but the 10-15 minutes spent going from the Temple in the center of the map to the place you're expected to encounter the Colossus, tends to get boring very quickly, particularly on the very out of the way bosses. The world is quite large and there are a lot of things to see, but not much to do. It does fit the atmosphere of a "Forbidden Land" very well, but it also leads to a problem of not having anything to do but progress the game, as most of the collectables do little to nothing for you.
Which again leads to my next complaint. Collectables and lack of usefulness. There are 77 shining lizards in the game, killing them yields an item which, when collected, increases your stamina by a VERY VERY insignificant amount. Simply defeating a single colossus gives at the very least, 5 or 6 times as much stamina as finding a single lizard. There are 128, or thereabouts, fruit to collect which increase your health by a VERY VERY insignificant amount, again killing a colossus gives you far more and it progresses the story. After completing the game you are given the option to restart on a New Game+ style feature, which allows you to attempt time attacks. The reward for completing the time attacks, in sets of 2, are bonus items which increase your damage against the colossi, reveal the aforementioned fruits and lizards and other assorted things. All these things are good and useful, until you realize you've already beaten the game, and all these cool new tricks and toys you're earning, mean almost nothing for you now, you can't even import them to a harder difficulty.
Overall, the game was a very fun play through, once. Because of the various complaints mentioned above, the games re-playability falls quite sharply, unless you're into speed running and trophy hunting. While I consider myself a trophy hunter, I do not feel my time is worth spending repeating the game upwards of 6 times, just for a few trophies. I completed the game, the rest is just frosting for an already devoured cake. My opinion? Do yourself a favor, play Shadow of the Colossus, at least once, preferably as a rental.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Dark Souls Personal Review
There are a lot of games in the world, thousands and thousands of them, without the Internet you'd probably never even know half of them existed either, I'd assume. That's how I felt about From Software's "Demon's Souls" for PlayStation 3 a few years ago. The game was a gem, a classic, it was even the console's selling point for me.
Let's fast forward a couple years and From Software, with Namco Bandai's help, have released "Dark Souls" for us to enjoy. If you aren't familiar with either Dark or Demon's Souls, let me fill you in, the premise of the game is that player's character is trying to stop the world from becoming corrupt and overrun by creatures of all natures. The game is praised for being excessively challenging, difficult and unforgiving, however, most people feel this difficulty is inflated by "poor controls, uncontrollable mechanics, unforeseeable traps, and unfair advantages for the creatures." Personally, I agree the game's initial difficulty is probably somewhat inflated the first time you pick it up, you have no idea how to play, the game's environments and inhabitants are new to you, and you have no idea what kind of things to expect from it. That being said, the difficulty drops just that much more, each progressive time you advance forward, little by little your personal skill increases, your environmental awareness reaches 'Bear Grylls' levels, and you can pick out traps and enemies from miles away before they can even react to you.
In Dark Souls, you are an undead, given the task of dealing with the dieing Flame, which gives the world life. To do so you must ring the Bells of Awakening and acquire the Lord vessel. Doesn't sound so difficult but let's be realistic here, would I have spent the first two paragraphs explaining the game's difficulty if it was going to be a cakewalk? Before we start, you are asked to create your own custom character, selecting a gender, name, physical appearance, adventuring class, and gift. Your class and gift have the most impact on early game play, and less so over the course of your journey, so you should pick whatever you think sounds the most useful to you in the most immediate sense. You can select to be a lightly armored thief, heavily armored knight, balanced warrior, ranged oriented hunter, magic casting sorcerer, fire wielding pyromancer, or healing cleric, or the dirty naked depraved, all these classes have different initial play styles and you should take a few moments to consider how you want to go about your adventure.
Your adventure starts in a rundown Asylum, a sort of tutorial stage where you are taught, via the game's unique Message System which allows players and some NPCs to leave messages for other players online to read but we'll get back to the online aspect later, how to perform the basic actions of the game such as attacking, running, blocking, dodging, jumping, lighting bonfires, and so forth. After an exciting encounter with your first boss, which may or may not be a simple affair depending how accustomed to the controls and combat you've become, you are treated to a cinematic of your character arriving in Firelink Shrine, the game's "Central hub" so to speak. You can speak with NPCs, learn Miracles, and choose for yourself how you wish your adventure to unfold, I won't go into to much detail but each path leads to a unique area of the world which feels challenging in its own way and grants you a feeling of actual adventure.
With all that said, the technical aspects of the game are pretty solid. The controls feel intuitive, but can sometimes get a little clunky depending on how much you're trying to do at once. I've accidentally kicked enemies, doing no damage, instead of attacking them for a kill more than once, because I was trying to move forward at the same time I attacked. However, the overall response time and input feels acceptable on both consoles. Only real minor complaint being the inability to cycle backwards through magic and items.
The game looks visually pleasing as well, though the character creation screen does not do it much justice, the character models, armor, weapons, demons, monsters, environments and all that jazz, look fantastic. More than once I stopped to look around and just take in the area or observe some of the finer details of the weapons and armor, such as the Elite Knight's Armor, or the Mask of the Father, Mother and Child. All around good looking, with only a very minor complaint that when you die, you are reverted to undead form, which looks very bland and manages to detract from the overall appearance of the character.
While the audio of the sound effects and voice acting are typical of the genre, they do very well to fit the atmosphere of the game. No extravagant voice acting or over the top sound effects needed, simplicity at it's finest. However, the game's audio does manage to shine with the beautiful selection of music provided by Motoi Sakuraba. The tracks are only played during select portions of the game, however, they add quite a bit of impact to those sections by giving quite an epic feel to them. The music could very well be one of my favorite aspects of the game, and if you are lucky enough to pick up a collectors edition somehow, From Software and Namco Bandai have provided a downloadable soundtrack for your listening pleasure.
Really, everything about the game is a fairly good improvement from it's predecessor, Demon's Souls, except for one largely glaring issue. The online game play portion. Some people are reporting having no issues with playing online comfortably and while this is terrific the vast majority of players have been giving reports saying they cannot actively engage in online play, invading others worlds, being invaded, summoning friends and random players for difficulty boss encounters, all of these aspects of the game have become somehow, erratic and unpredictable or completely absent for some players. This is a serious problem, considering that a rather large portion of the re-playability of the game is the PVP and Co-Op! As we speak I have read rumors of a patch hitting soon to fix several bugs and glitches, as well as sort out the online problems, but this could possibly be to little to late, as most players who are familiar with these bugs and glitches have already abused them to their maximum potential and ruined what little fun could be had online for anyone who invades them or that they invade. This isn't to much trouble if you're just looking for a fun challenging game, but for those of you looking for a solid player vs player experience this could be an issue. Co-op remains relatively unaffected, so enjoy it!
Dark Souls ate a good several hundred hours of my gaming time, and of all those hours I would say 80% of them I was having a blast. The other 20% were either a pain in the neck trying to figure out why I couldn't find any friends or foes online or a good chunk of time spent replaying sections of the game I had just played, and died to random glitching griefers. I would recommend this game to anyone who's looking for a challenging adventure with an RPG spin. But if you don't think you have what it takes to stomach hours of replaying the same section of game over and over, every time you die, perhaps this game is not for you. If you do pick up Dark Souls, be prepared to die.
Let's fast forward a couple years and From Software, with Namco Bandai's help, have released "Dark Souls" for us to enjoy. If you aren't familiar with either Dark or Demon's Souls, let me fill you in, the premise of the game is that player's character is trying to stop the world from becoming corrupt and overrun by creatures of all natures. The game is praised for being excessively challenging, difficult and unforgiving, however, most people feel this difficulty is inflated by "poor controls, uncontrollable mechanics, unforeseeable traps, and unfair advantages for the creatures." Personally, I agree the game's initial difficulty is probably somewhat inflated the first time you pick it up, you have no idea how to play, the game's environments and inhabitants are new to you, and you have no idea what kind of things to expect from it. That being said, the difficulty drops just that much more, each progressive time you advance forward, little by little your personal skill increases, your environmental awareness reaches 'Bear Grylls' levels, and you can pick out traps and enemies from miles away before they can even react to you.
In Dark Souls, you are an undead, given the task of dealing with the dieing Flame, which gives the world life. To do so you must ring the Bells of Awakening and acquire the Lord vessel. Doesn't sound so difficult but let's be realistic here, would I have spent the first two paragraphs explaining the game's difficulty if it was going to be a cakewalk? Before we start, you are asked to create your own custom character, selecting a gender, name, physical appearance, adventuring class, and gift. Your class and gift have the most impact on early game play, and less so over the course of your journey, so you should pick whatever you think sounds the most useful to you in the most immediate sense. You can select to be a lightly armored thief, heavily armored knight, balanced warrior, ranged oriented hunter, magic casting sorcerer, fire wielding pyromancer, or healing cleric, or the dirty naked depraved, all these classes have different initial play styles and you should take a few moments to consider how you want to go about your adventure.
Your adventure starts in a rundown Asylum, a sort of tutorial stage where you are taught, via the game's unique Message System which allows players and some NPCs to leave messages for other players online to read but we'll get back to the online aspect later, how to perform the basic actions of the game such as attacking, running, blocking, dodging, jumping, lighting bonfires, and so forth. After an exciting encounter with your first boss, which may or may not be a simple affair depending how accustomed to the controls and combat you've become, you are treated to a cinematic of your character arriving in Firelink Shrine, the game's "Central hub" so to speak. You can speak with NPCs, learn Miracles, and choose for yourself how you wish your adventure to unfold, I won't go into to much detail but each path leads to a unique area of the world which feels challenging in its own way and grants you a feeling of actual adventure.
With all that said, the technical aspects of the game are pretty solid. The controls feel intuitive, but can sometimes get a little clunky depending on how much you're trying to do at once. I've accidentally kicked enemies, doing no damage, instead of attacking them for a kill more than once, because I was trying to move forward at the same time I attacked. However, the overall response time and input feels acceptable on both consoles. Only real minor complaint being the inability to cycle backwards through magic and items.
The game looks visually pleasing as well, though the character creation screen does not do it much justice, the character models, armor, weapons, demons, monsters, environments and all that jazz, look fantastic. More than once I stopped to look around and just take in the area or observe some of the finer details of the weapons and armor, such as the Elite Knight's Armor, or the Mask of the Father, Mother and Child. All around good looking, with only a very minor complaint that when you die, you are reverted to undead form, which looks very bland and manages to detract from the overall appearance of the character.
While the audio of the sound effects and voice acting are typical of the genre, they do very well to fit the atmosphere of the game. No extravagant voice acting or over the top sound effects needed, simplicity at it's finest. However, the game's audio does manage to shine with the beautiful selection of music provided by Motoi Sakuraba. The tracks are only played during select portions of the game, however, they add quite a bit of impact to those sections by giving quite an epic feel to them. The music could very well be one of my favorite aspects of the game, and if you are lucky enough to pick up a collectors edition somehow, From Software and Namco Bandai have provided a downloadable soundtrack for your listening pleasure.
Really, everything about the game is a fairly good improvement from it's predecessor, Demon's Souls, except for one largely glaring issue. The online game play portion. Some people are reporting having no issues with playing online comfortably and while this is terrific the vast majority of players have been giving reports saying they cannot actively engage in online play, invading others worlds, being invaded, summoning friends and random players for difficulty boss encounters, all of these aspects of the game have become somehow, erratic and unpredictable or completely absent for some players. This is a serious problem, considering that a rather large portion of the re-playability of the game is the PVP and Co-Op! As we speak I have read rumors of a patch hitting soon to fix several bugs and glitches, as well as sort out the online problems, but this could possibly be to little to late, as most players who are familiar with these bugs and glitches have already abused them to their maximum potential and ruined what little fun could be had online for anyone who invades them or that they invade. This isn't to much trouble if you're just looking for a fun challenging game, but for those of you looking for a solid player vs player experience this could be an issue. Co-op remains relatively unaffected, so enjoy it!
Dark Souls ate a good several hundred hours of my gaming time, and of all those hours I would say 80% of them I was having a blast. The other 20% were either a pain in the neck trying to figure out why I couldn't find any friends or foes online or a good chunk of time spent replaying sections of the game I had just played, and died to random glitching griefers. I would recommend this game to anyone who's looking for a challenging adventure with an RPG spin. But if you don't think you have what it takes to stomach hours of replaying the same section of game over and over, every time you die, perhaps this game is not for you. If you do pick up Dark Souls, be prepared to die.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Preliminary Post, Welcome to the Blog
So yeah! I've never actually done a blog like this before. I decided that sharing my daily finds and interests might be a fun endeavor for a gamer like myself. I'll post the reviews I'd like to do, miscellaneous shenanigans, so on! For now this is all I'm posting will post up a blog related post later in the afternoon. Though thanks for the visit if you are reading this before then!
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