Game Destroy

Not Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:56:00 +0000

I was going to make a longer post about a few things, but after spending more time at the hospital then I should have had too I'm not really in the mood, plus now it's just late and I can't really think about what I was going to post.

Two things, I'm glad I managed to finish up the Oboru bike kit for my Pest-X San model that arrived today, and that my copy of Vanquish finally finally shipped after all this time. Now I'm sure it'll probably take ages to arrive, but after the demo I really want to check out the full version.

The other stuff I wanted to mention I'll go into tomorrow or something, but now I think sleep.

New Games and Such

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:39:00 +0000

My copy of Fable 3 turned up today, I ended up getting the Collectors Edition, and I've gotta say they did a really neat job with the presentation of it. It's made out to be a leather bound book with a secrete compartment for the playing cards and coin. Though I didn't get around to playing the actual game yet.

A load of other stuff I ordered turned up today as well, so I spent time sorting that out. One was the Playstation Move pack that comes with 3 arcade shooters like Time Crisis: Rising Storm, Time Crisis 4 and Dead Storm Pirates which I'm most interested in. But I still didn't get around to playing that either once I'd set it up, I can't remember why. I ended up trying to tidy some stuff up and toss out a load of old boxes and junk. So I think tomorrow I might actually check it out.

Also that and DJ Max Portable 3 and Super Robot Wars on the PSP which I usually play that kinda thing when I'm at the hospital because they are portable. Hoping the new DJ Max is decent.

Things I've Picked Up Recently

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 23:25:00 +0000

I haven't posted much recently mainly because I've not played, or well finished many things worth writing up about. I did get through Halo Reach and found that to be quite enjoyable if not pretty much the same old Halo format with some elements taken from other games to flesh it out and make it a bit more varied. If you've played any Halo you pretty much know what you're in for.

After being a huge Sonic fan for many years I'd been looking forward to the new Sonic 4 for quite sometime, I grabbed the demo and was pretty pleased with it. Then only after buying it on XBLA and playing more of the actual game did I realise how how frustrating some of the crap they have put into this new game. Sonic was always about speeding through a level, collecting rigs and destroying enemies to get the chaos emeralds to finally become Super Sonic. My main gripe with the game is at times you cant see where you are going and end up falling into some giant chasm after flying across the screen, where unbeknown to you, you were supposed to attack something to keep your momentum going to get across, this would be fine if you could see the goddamn thing you are supposed to be attacking or landing on. Either way it just ruins a lot of it for me.

DeathSpank was one game that really surprised me recently and one of the few games I got all the achievements in and really enjoyed. So now I'm currently playing through the squeal Thongs of Virtue. The game does suffer a few similar things from the first game, but it's pretty much the same, though it does seem to take longer to level up, and finding locations to some of the quests can be a bit of a hassle at times, even after using the cookies. But it's one of those games you can just sit down and get sucked into and spend much more time than you intended.

I picked up the demo and then the full version of Hydrophobia the other day, but I've yet to play the full version yet, but it's sometime I might get around to soonish because I did find it interesting to play. Same goes for Super Meat Boy, even if that game is quite strange and I think it's going to cause me much rage quitting at times.

One main reason I've been gaming less is that I've just not really been in the mood of late, I've been building up a few model kits from Super Robot Wars and that's been taking up a bit of my time, I might put up some quick pics of the ones I've finished once I have done the little bits of detail on them.

I finally found a new mouse an keyboard last night after spending about a week trying to decide on what the hell you buy these days. I might post impressions of those if I can be bothered. Also I'm going to try and endevor to update the site at least twice a week if I can. I don't post much about my personal life but if anyone is interested in what else I get up to and do during my days, drop me a email and I might be willing to share how my cancer treatment and such is all going, and any info about that, even if it is a bit depressing at times.

Gritty

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:53:00 +0000

I recently played through Kane & Lynch 2. At first it was a game I had no interest in after all the bad press and reviews of the first game. Though after seeing some trailers, and being told this game had a unique gritty hand held look, I couldn't help but pick it up cheap. After playing through it though, it's just feels like you are constantly running down different alleys or corridors into a room where you end up trying to pick off enemies who constantly hide behind cover, it's not as if they use cover well, they just stay there, popping up and down while it takes a ridiculous amount of shots to take them out later in the game. The only reason I think I did finish it was because it's actually a fairly short game, thank god.

I'm currently playing through a few XBLA games, like the new Lara Croft game, but I'm waiting for my copy of Halo:Reach to turn up, which hopefully will be tomorrow.

Le Shank

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:40:00 +0000

After finishing up FEAR2, which overall in the end I found to be fairly repetitive, it's not a bad game it', though it just feel repetitive and it very similar to the first, just now you know whats pretty much coming for you.

Checked out the Scott Pilgrim game demo, I really like it, but on the X360 it just feel really sluggish at times, the movement and fighting just feel a bit sloppy compared to other fighters, unless its supposed to be like that to give it some "retro" feel. I just found it annoying.

I played through Shank which I think it s a really great 2D side scrolling beat em up. It does have it flaws like most games, and isn't a very long game, but I kind of like that. I find these days some games can just be full of filler and go on much longer than they need to killing any fun. The game has a few unlocks, and it's generous in where the check points are so you don't have to go to far back if you die (unless you play Hard mode, no check points there).

I checked out a small part of Lara Craft game and from what I've played so far I've liked. It's a little different so hopefully it stays that way, isn't too hard and doesn't want to make me rage quite, unlike the last boss in Shank, which until I figured out you only had to do one simple thing he was a piece of piss.

Oh for anyone having the achievement saving issue I think its for "Just getting started' where you kill 20 guys and get 5G, but it gets screwed up in the demo if you try to unlock it then. You need a USB stick, I used a Sandisk titanium 2GB one. Let the 360 format it or whatever it does under system options first. Then start Shank, go into options, select the USB stick as your storage device and start a new game, play till you kill 20 guys and get the achievement. Quit the game, unplug the USB stick, then go back into the game. You might want to set the HDD back as the save device under setting, but now you should have the achievement and your old save file.

New Things

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 04:13:00 +0000

So I finished LIMBO a while back, and while its a fairly short game, it's well worth checking out. In this case less is more. Also I finished up Deathspank, that was another one of those games that seemed just about right length wise and was quite a blast to play. I mean it isn't really anything new, but it just seemed to get most things right which made you want to keep on playing it.

At the moment I'm just trying to get through my pile of games I've started and stopped for some reason. I think I might try and finish up FEAR2, which had one of the best looking mech play section I've seen in ages, it's almost worth a play just to see it. It did get me thinking I haven't played a decent mech game in a while, but that just just had this really awesome switch to a gritty mech, letting you plow your way through a load of guys.

Also I might try and finish the first Penny Arcade game, for some reason I've suddenly decided I need to do that.

Nothing much else really, I did buy a new laptop. The new Alienware M11x-R2. For such a small unit it's goddamn powerful and gives Crysis a good run for its money, though I really haven't gamed too much on it yet, it's just a nice small unit which is what I was after. I'll write up some more about it and the Razer mouse I picked up for it, since I'm usually a Logitech fan.

And yes I am going to try and keep this blog updated for once, at least a few times a week I will really try and make the effort, it might not be gaming related all the time, but I'll find something to post about.

Back Into It

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:19:00 +0000

For a while now I've been trying to find the motivation to revive my blog, I always have the intention to write something but can just never seem to get around to it. So I thought I'd post up something now in the hopes that I'll keep it up when I feel well enough to do so, which I think is the other thing. Feeling sick from having chemo once a week doesn't help the whole process.

Anyway, I'm always picking up new games, and older ones when they are cheap or look interesting. I did this with Army of Two : The 40th day recently. I didn't hear anything great about the first game, I'm not sure what now, and I'm not sure what made me think the second would be any better, bit it's actually not a bad game, repetitive yes, very. I think I had most fun with the weapon customisation aspect, which would have been nice if it was more in depth but still fun to play with, I'd love to see more games off something like that. I'm kind of interested in how the first game was now, maybe I'll read up on it and see if it has anything going for it.

The other game I'm playing through at the moment is LIMBO, which everyone seems to be going on about. It's not bad, kind of just another puzzle platform game really, I guess the thing that draws people is that it's just very dark, not just because it's all black and white with hardly and sound. But the actual visuals of death are right up there at times, especially the animations of character you are playing dying. It's one of the better puzzle games I've played recently, a lot less gimmicks and junk, just straightforward gameplay.

Backloggery

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sun, 09 May 2010 00:39:00 +0000

Started to actually use The Backloggery, you can find me here.

Bordering On Things

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Still splitting my time between Forza 3 and Borderlands. I'm still finding both enjoyable, but I've issues with Borderlands. It's a good FPS, I love the style of it and the way it plays for the most part. But I can't help but take issue with some of the design choices they made with the game. I don't mind that it's mission based as opposed to a storyline, but this leads to repetitive issues. The main thing I dislike is going through an area, then being sent back on a different mission, in the same area, now I wouldn't mind so much but having everything respawn is just tedious at times, and that is probably my biggest gripe with the game.

Respawns are fine, but you should be given an option to respawn an area, and if you have to go back to an area for a mission it shouldn't be the same slog it was the first time. It's probably more of way of giving the player some extra experience points to level up, but it's the one thing that's sort of ruined Borderlands for me, it just makes it feel at times like an artificial way to increase the game length. Other than that at least it's not ridiculously hard and you do get some decent loot at times from redoing an area. Also at least there are decent weapons, I never thought I'd play a game with almost too many weapons to choose from.

Forza 3 I'm still a little mixed on, it's a great racing game, but I keep wondering too myself how it will compare to something like Gran Turismo 5. While Forza 3 looks good and plays well, I just find that it feels more arcade than realistic. I really like the amount you can customise the look of cars in Forza, while I'm not that great at the whole paint thing because I find it a bit frustrating at times, what you can do with it is insane.

Finishing Things Up

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:45:00 +0000

After finishing Arkham Asylum I put some time into Need for Speed Shift, which I liked to a point but was fairly under underwhelmed with, I think the same goes for Forza 3 though. After putting in a bit of time into it, I doesn't seem to really bring much more to the genre. I'm not sure what I expected over all, something more akin to Gran Turismo, though the GT series has just always felt more solid and slick and just overall more well done. I really can't put my finger on what it is with Forza, sure there is plenty to do, race and customise, maybe I need to look further than just the racing.

I finished Enchanted 2 in the last couple of day, that really is a game worth playing and really does live up to the hype. I never played the original Enchanted for some reason, but 2 is definitely worth checking out. Probably one of the best action games to be released in a quite some time.

So upon finishing Enchanted 2, I thought I'd spend some time with Borderlands. I thought it would be a great FPS style game, but I' not sure how long till I get sick of all the running and backtracking. Also unbalanced are kinda bullshit, trying to play as the guy with the Sniper rifle should be easy but it's just a giant chose to start with, I ended up restarting at level 6 and going with the soldier because the game seems to be aimed more towards close combat, until you upgrade items and can pop people with the sniper file without the lame reload and other bullshit you have to contend with.

Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:33:00 +0000

I ended up finishing Batman Arkham Asylum a few days ago and it is indeed a great game. There isn't much I can say again it, besides a few boss battles that were irritating but besides that it's a massive game with even more to do once you do finish it. Usually I'd stay away from anything based on a movie license in fear that it will be a quick cash in title, and usually rushed and sloppy. It's nice when something like Batman comes along and stomps on this theory.

I've been trying to get into Need for Speed: Shift over the weekend, and while it's a good game, there just feels like its missing something. It has a fair amount of modes, and you can customise your cars to a fair extent and there are a lot of challenges, but for some reason it just feels strange. I also dislike the AI, I've seen it do some annoying things, like beating you at the last moment to the finish like because you break on a corner where the AI will just ignore the racing line and smash through a corner at top speed.

I would keep playing Shift but my copy of Forza 3 turned up today and I have very high expectation of it, so I think I might put some time into that. Though I also need to start Uncharted 2 and finish WET at some point. Though I really do want to check out Uncharted 2, I need to get onto that.

Almost Forgot

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:24:00 +0000

One thing I almost forgot to mention in my last post was that I started playing Batman Arkham Asylum after reading so much about it. I have to say that this is one game in a long time that actually lives up to the hype that been around it. It's a really great action game and just seems to do everything well. The difficulty is pretty much spot on which makes you want to keep on playing because you aren't constantly redoing the same thing. It comes off as a fairly large game with lots of ares to explore and riddles to find and solve. Anyway I'll keep playing through the rest of it and see how it goes.

What I've Been Upto Gamewise

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:25:00 +0000

So recently between feeling like crap and noting wanting to do much, I did actually manage to redo my gaming set up. I put in a new 42" Panasonic Plasma, the old JVC 32" LCD just wasn't cutting it anymore for me, plus I've had it quite a few years. I also finally replaced my old Xbox360 Pro with an Elite, the fans are much quieter in it, the DVD-Rom is still louder than I like, guess I'm just spoiled by the PS3 which always seems to stay whisper quiet.

I recently finished playing though HALO:ODST. I'm not sure what I was really expecting from it as a game, but it really just feels like a bit of a rush job. The main city it's based in is just a constant mass of similar looking roads, huge buildings and crossroads and everything looks the same, getting lost isn't fun either. You do get out of the city once to raid some animal reserve, but after that it's back to tunnels to get to the hive. To say that shit is repetitive is a understatement.

Fire fight more is interesting but it just feels like more of the same main game, which actually just feels like fire fight mode anyway. In the end it's pretty much just another Halo game, which actually feels like half an actual game.

I started playing WET on the PS3 while I was waiting for me new Elite. I liked the demo so picked up the full version, I'm really not that far into it. The demo does kinda gloss it up by letting you play all the super cool bits. One thing I found was that after completing the first main mission, you go to Rubi's hang out, where you can complete challenges, timed challenges, challenges you must complete in order to proceed. They aren't extremely hard, it's just that being forced to run around a timed course to advanced is archaic and tired.

I'm also replaying Modern Warfare at the moment, since it's been a long time since I've played it, and I've also got a copy of Need for Speed Shift that I've not checked out yet.

Why Always Bloody Why?

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:38:00 +0000

Why is it as soon as you want to do something, like play a bit of a game on Xbox Live, everything falls apart and nothing want's to goddamn work. I know I do have a bit of a strange set up for my networking for my Xbox, but most of the time it's fine. I recently had to switch my network setup over to a Linux laptop because my PC graphics card decided to die AGAIN after being sent back once and being "fixed".

Anyway for some reason, everytime I know hook up a CAT5 cable to my Xbox360 the controller doesn't want to connect for properly. So becoming so sick and tired of this constant shit I ordered the Wi-Fi Adapter. So hopefully that will fix one thing. Also I'm actually considering replacing my noisy Premium unit for an Elite, more so the new Modern Warfare 2 Elite that's being released. Noisy consoles piss me off so goddamn much, how can my PS3 be whisper quiet but the 360 sounds like a goddamn jet. Really I'm sick of having rebuy Microsoft consoles, people bitch about the Playstation and its history of quality, but I've never had an issue with any of mine, and they seem to be made to a much more solid level . I hope they don't skimp too much on the new slim, but I doubt they would want to compromise something like that.

Also I picked up Trine from PSN last night. It's not a bad game, puzzle based platformers aren't usually my thing because platforming can be done so badly. It's a little repetitive in bits, I mean the levels seem a bit same old same, but the use of the 3 characters to navigate them and solve puzzles is quite interesting at times, if slightly frustrating, but at least the spawn points aren't too far from each other. I'll see how it goes a I get further through it.

I'm actually really bored with a lot of thing at the moment, I just wish one of the few games I'd ordered wold turn up for goddamn. I've a feeling I'll be waiting a week or more though for a few of them.

Downloadable Games I've Been Into

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:15:00 +0000

Since I've been waiting for a few game to ship recently, and everything seem to be coming out at once over the next two months, so I spent some time on XBLA and PSN trying to find new things to play.

A few new titles I picked up like Shadow Complex which I think i mentioned recently which is a great title, like wise is the action/brawler Fat Princess. It wasn't something I was going to pick up at first but changed my mind and gave it a try. It's got quite a nice single player mode that I've got to get into more, but multiplayer is where most of the action happens. The game feels a bit like tug of war at times until someone get a foot hold and manages to grab the others princess.

What I've been playing the last few days is Flower which at first look seems really strange and you would think it wouldn't contain much substance. It's a fairly short game, with trophies getting you to comeback for more. But it's a nice relaxing game you can play at your own pace, there isn't any real goal besides completing the level and the controls are very simple, which consists mainly of tilting the Sixaxis, very much like Flow. For some reason I didn't notice Flower till I was looking at Flow on PSN, and I'm actually glad I picked it up.

One strange title I picked up was Linger In Shodows. It's not so much a game as a interactive demo. If you know what sort of things the guys in the "demo scene" produce you get the idea. I only really picked it up out of curiosity, it's good to kill 20mins, and is interesting, but aside that you get what you expect, and interactive video demo.

Other stuff I picked up are older title that have been around for a while thing like Castle Crasher, Burn Zombie Burn and Wipeout Fury HD that I actually picked up ages ago but haven't put that much time into. Though it is a great add on, Fury HD has some really interesting new race modes as well as all the other additions.

I'm sure there are some others, I just can't think of them right now. Hopefully a few titles I've ordered turn up soon, I'm quite looking forward to WET, Need for Speed Shift, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Finding Things On XBLA

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:34:00 +0000

I don't tend to buy a lot from XBLA, I usually find the games a bit lite on content and not really worth checking out. So when something like Shadow Complex comes along I was actually really surprised at the quality and content of it. After seeing EPIC were attached to it, and trying the demo more than cemented the fact that this is a solid solid game, especially for an XBLA title.

Shadow Complex is a little different to most games of it's genre, it's a mix of 2D side-scrolling shooter and 3D action levels. So you are limited by overall moment in the level but depending where you move or jump to, you an shoot in a 3D arc. It's confusing, and so is the aiming until you play it for a few minutes to get the general feel then its pretty natural. The other difference in this game is that you have an experience system that levels up as you progress, you also quite new guns, armor, and abilities. There are also some basic puzzle elements to the levels and certain weapons are needed to pass certain areas.

Overall the game for some reason reminded me of the original Metal Gear Solid, minus all the stealth. It might have been all the vent crawling I did, or the exploration which is encouraged to find ammo upgrades for the various special weapons you have.

On of the great aspects though is the action, the combat isn't overly hard and you won't find yourself dying often and even doing so you spawn not too far. This makes fighting soldiers in special suits, mechs and some of the games huge bosses great fun, because they aren't impossible and require you to just think a little about what abilities you need to uses. The only thing is at times you can feel a little lost in the compound and it's many rooms, and might have to back track to get to a few things, but the games make thankfully can guide you where you need to be, so it's not a huge problem.

Things Taking Up My Time

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:23:00 +0000

So after spending some time on and off I finally finished working on my F-25F Armored Messiah Valkyrie Alto Custom. It's a pretty decent kit like you'd find with most high end Bandia's full moulded in colour with decals so you only really need to do small paint touch ups. Because this kit is a one that transforms into other modes, decals and pain are an utter pain with this, so it's best to make the kit the way you like and just leave it, other it's just far too many headaches and fixing up small marks.

I'm almost tempted to pick up the Ozma Custom version too, but I've a few mechs, the reason to get the Alto Custom in the first place was because I wanted something in a more jet style. Maybe I'll look into the other Macross Frontier kits sometime. Though I know of a few kit's that look promising in October, so I way wait till then.

Book Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:26:00 +0000

I finished reading All You Need Is Kill a few weeks ago, I've been meaning to write up my thoughts about it, I'm reading Neuromancer at the moment and I'm nearly done with that. I'm not sure if it's me trying to read something like Neuromancer when I'm tired or if it really is just a fairly complicated book in parts, it just seems to jump around a lot, which at times makes certain parts of it hard to follow. For the most part it's ok, just at times it seems like I've missed something or that something isn't explained as well as it could be.

All You Need Is Kill is an interesting book, the storyline for it is fairly unique and interesting, it has a very game/manga feel to it and you can see that the author gained much inspiration from similar action sci-fi games. While for the most part it is a good one, one thing that does bog it down is one aspect of the main story. Because the hero of the novel has to relive every day after being killed in combat, the author tends to repeat a lot of the start of each day for the first part of the novel, so you get this constant feeling of re-reading the same part of the story over and over, also there are a few thing within the book that are explained more than one which isn't really necessary because for the most part it's a fairly simple and straightforward story. Overall it's an interesting book, if a little short, I'd love to see a squeal that expands on the story, characters and world within.

A Bit Of Lite Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:30:00 +0000

Because nothing much of interest has come out recently, and a lot of the titles I'm actually interested in aren't out for a while I haven't found myself gaming much. One thing I did pick up that was quite good was the deal on Steam which was for 10 indie games. Usually I'm not one to buy indie game, not because I dislike them or they aren't any good, it's actually quite the opposite of them. Indie games are great, you usually find an interesting little gem that's fun and different. The reason I tend to not buy them though is that I'm either unsure if they will actually be decent or if they'll hold my attention long enough. Even with the 10 pack from Steam I found that a few of the titles didn't interest me that much, but most of them were decent especially for the price.

I've started reading a lot and recently finished reading the Bridge Trilogy by William Gibson, it's quite a good series of books, it has one of those setting that gives a feel of a more futuristic modern day, as opposed to a completely over overhauled future. It worth a read if you are into your cyberpunk, especially since novels in the genre can be a bit hit and miss at times.

I'm currently reading All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurzaka. It's a Japanese novel translated into English, a friend introduced me to the publisher, and I was instantly drawn to it. I'm not sure if it was because of the story, that involves a lot of combat and soldiers in mech type suits, or that the cover illustration is by Yoshitoshi ABe who just happened to work on one of my favorite anime's Serial Experiments Lain. Although it's a little slow to start I'm quite enjoying it now and have found it to be quite a page turner as the story progresses.

Various Things

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:09:00 +0000

I've been a bit slack recently with updates, I will try and make it a more regular thing again now. I haven't been gaming as much recently, I've picked up a few things recently mainly the new Wipeout HD content update known as Wipeout HD Fury which adds some interesting things. I also check out King of Fighters 12 on the PS3, which was slightly disappointing considering it just feel so stripped down, it's basically a pure arcade port with online play, both of these I'll get back to at some point.

What I did pick up a couple of weeks ago and spent a bit of time playing was The Conduit on the Wii. I went into this game not knowing much about it, besides being from SEGA which I mistakenly thought would offer some sentiment of quality, the other thing being I'd heard it was a decent FPS for the Wii. Both of which are, wrong.

At first glance it's not a bad game, but once you get into it you realise that you are playing some kind of rehashed FPS from the 1990s. The main thing The Conduit offers is a few gimmicky game play mechanics and the motion controls, which some reviews seem to say are great, I'd say, they're not. The best thing I can say about the controls is that they are "ok" once you get used to them, they aren't great by any stretch, and some how getting stuck in the corner of the screen beside and object is just ridiculous.

The reason I say that it feels like something from the 1990's is because for one it's buggy, enemies spawning behind doors that don't open, but which you can then shoot through the door anyway is just poor. Enemies randomly spawning from thin air and in waves then taking pot shots at you from across a map while you struggle with awful controls it really not on in a modern day FPS. Oh the graphics are also pretty horrific for the most part, besides a few nice effects they are just bland and pixelated, just like most Wii games. For a game that was supposed to be a serious FPS and killer app for that Wii, it's just a disappointment in most areas.

Something Different

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:34:00 +0000

I haven't posted anything in a little while for a couple of reasons. One was not really feeling well, and even just sitting here I didn't feel like trying to put anything down. The other was that I've just become a bit disinterested in gaming recently, not just because of the number of releases having slowed, I think it's just time I took a bit of a break, which is what I've been doing. I even received a copy of The Conduit the other day, but have yet to even boot it up.

Anyway it happens now and again, I get the urge to do something else besides game *shock*. Recently I've been more interested in completing a Five Star Stories kit I've had half done for ages but lost motivation to work on, those things are like that, mainly because if you rush them, they just look awful, plus they aren't exactly cheap. I picked up a couple of other new ones while i was in a mood, one is an old school Virtua-On kit, which I'm hoping is better than a previous experience I had with one. You can never tell how the molding is on some of these kits, especially from some companies. Except Bandai, they are pretty much always extremely high.

Dope oh and something else.

Teach Me, Boobie Lady!

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:44:00 +0000

You might want to watch this first. Bit of fun from the BlazBlue Story mode.

I spent a bit more time with BlazBlue and it's various modes. Mainly story mode for now. It's pretty much your standard 2D fighter story mode, lots of text and single battles and such. However it does have branching parts and once you finish it you get a completion rating. This basically just leads you to playing story mode over and over for each character to get 100% for them. Playing certain ones also unlocks new eps of the video I linked above. As usual the story mode doesn't seem to explain what the hell is going on unless you get the Perfect ending for a character I assume, because so far everything I've seen so far is quite random.

The game and it's style reminds me a lot of the original Guilty Gear. With it's limited character roster and style of gameplay, it just has a very similar feeling of ARC Systems going back to their roots with this. It's defiantly not a bad thing as Guilty Gear was getting a tad weird and strung out. This seems to tone it back a bit, while keeping their awesome style of fast gameplay. Though this game does tend to kick it up a notch in the difficulty division.

Time Well Spent

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:48:00 +0000

I've been splitting my time between a few things of late. Prototype, BlazBlue and Eve Online. Also re-reading 1984 and doing some graphic stuff now and again, which I might post up sometime.

Eve Online is one of those games that I've played before, and the kind of game I love the idea of, but really don't have the patients or will power to play it far enough to reap the benefits. That and, well like most MMOs I always get bored at some point and move on. Also it's a massive time waster, worse than most MMOs because you are always looking at ship fittings and skills to train, I swear I spend more time doing that than playing at times.

I've decided, after reacting a certain point in Protoype, and gaining a power that seemingly kicks arse, that this game is much better than Infamous. The havoc you can wreak, kicking helicopters out of the sky and slicing people in half, what more do you need. Pff, lightning.

As for BlazBlue, I spent a few hours checking out the various characters and working my way through Arcade Mode, which has a lovely cheap, special spamming boss. God I hate that shit. I ended up playing Ragna as he seemed to fit my style the best. The game plays very similar to Guilty Gear, so if you've played any in the series you know the style. I've not touched Story mode so far, but I'll dive into it sometime soon.

Prototyping

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:38:00 +0000

I spent some time over the weekend checking out Prototype and I actually prefer it over Infamous, even though it's quite similar and has it own flaws. The actual feel and style of the game is much more hectic than Infamous, the city you are in feels much more alive and full. The controls at times feel a bit loose, they aren't as tight as I'd like, however the gameplay is fairly fluid for the most part. Traveling around the city is quick and easy, and unlike Infamous you don't spend ages climbing up a building, you can just sprint up them.

Prototype has the usual story missions and side missions, though side mission have little use besides something else to do plus gaining some experience points used to buy and upgrade abilities. I think it's that Prototype seems like a faster paced game, plus the selection of abilities is a bit more varied as opposed to Infamous where everything is just electricity. Taking out enemies feels more satisfying also, most go down without much fuss.

I'll play a bit further into it, no doubt I'll find something that really takes the shine off things, I hear there are some parts that are ridiculously hard.

Also my copy of BlazBlue turned up today, it's something I've been waiting a long time for so I'll be sure to put up some impressions of it as soon as I can.

Das Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Rav) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:45:00 +0000

I've never really considered myself a collector of games. I'm not sure where you make the distinction between someone who is and isn't because I'm also not someone who trades or sells games. The main reason for that is because as I've found in the past you always regret because you always want to play that one title you don't have.

So reading the article about collectors on GI.biz struck a chord with me because it's something I find myself pondering now and then. Like most people, I use and various download services mainly for convenience or because they are the only way a certain title is available. Most of the time I don't have an issue with this, but there are a few things that do tend to bother me. The biggest issue obviously is no having that actual physical copy that of something. Maybe I'm old school, but I like to have something to show for my money, especially when it costs as much as some games do.

The other issue to me is titles costing the same amount as a retail or physical copy. It's not that a digital download necessarily has less value to me than a physical one, but why am I paying the same amount for just data, which I then have to download, spending more time and download quota on. I live in Australia, we don't have internet at an ungodly speed, or uncapped downloads, so yes, if for any reason I need to reacquire certain titles it's a hassle. Yes, you can back them up sometimes but that's another issue.

Something else I've thought about is the downloadable content available for titles that seems to be released these days. Mostly things like expansions, because they are larger and more expensive. What's going to happen when something like the Xbox360 is a retro console and you want to play a game with a specific expansion, but for whatever reason you no longer have that expansion installed. On a PC this isn't an issue, those kinds of things are always available somewhere. But are Microsoft going to offer this content that you've purchased on Live forever? I'm sure there is something in their TOS regarding this, but still, you may have paid money for something you can no longer access.

Which all leads back to the start of what I was saying. You are essentially paying the same price for an item, which acts like an unlimited rental. If the distributor decides to cancel their service at any given point, you most likely won't have further access. Though regardless of price, this would still be an issue. I think for the moment, I'd much rather have the disc on my shelf, knowing I can access whenever I like.