Are you ready for some outlandish statements? Good, because I'm really tired after watching the Lost finale last night and work is slow today and I can't stop thinking about Red Dead Redemption, so here goes:
1. Red Dead Redemption might just be my favorite Rockstar game ever.
Let me qualify that a bit.
RDR is not the groundbreaking, industry-shifting watershed moment that GTA3 was. But there's a difference between being groundbreaking and being a truly great game. My affection for GTA3 - more specifically, for the times I personally spent in GTA3 - helps me overlook a lot of that game's glaring problems, of which there are many.
As with each subsequent Rockstar open-world game, RDR, then, is simply the latest refinement of the ever-evolving open-world platform. In this particular case, it most clearly resembles GTA4. But it's where it differs that gets me all hot and bothered.
GTA4 was a staggering achievement; it managed to create the most immersive city ever seen in a game, while also creating a truly fascinating narrative around a singularly unique protagonist. But GTA4 still suffered from old ideas; the game's gunplay was still a bit tricky, even in spite of being retooled, and the punishment for mission failure was still brutal.
RDR fixes almost all of what was bothersome in GTA4, and I would expect/hope that GTA5 will borrow almost everything that RDR gets right. The snap-to targeting might make the game a little too easy, but frankly, I'd rather have fun with the story than struggle with the controls. If you fail a mission, you can continue from the most recent mid-mission checkpoint, which is fantastic. There's regenerating health and fast-traveling, which is crucial. You can save anywhere, at any time, which is essential.
And the world - oh, the glorious world - is a sight to behold. It's easily the prettiest game Rockstar has ever made, and utterly convincing at every turn. I do wish that the game would let you take screenshots - and I'd buy the PC version if only so that I could. I've had to call my wife in from the other room just to have her look at something - like standing on a cliffside watching the sun rise over the valley below.
But it's not just the graphics - it's everything. The wildlife; the random people in trouble; the "ambient challenges" - there is always something to do. I'm not the first person to make this comparison, but I'll make it again anyway - it reminds me an awful lot of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, because getting from Point A to Point B usually meant that you'd get sidetracked about a dozen times doing other things, which were always just as much fun as the actual missions.
According to Rockstar's excellent Social Club, I am just under 19 hours in and just over 42% complete. I don't know that I'll be able to finish the game before I leave for Jamaica next week; as much as I want to be done with the campaign before I go, so that I don't have to miss it, I kinda don't want the campaign to be over with, either.
2. The new Prince of Persia game isn't nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe.
Let me qualify that one, too - it's certainly not bad, and indeed it's the best-looking game in the series, and it easily has the best combat system. The problem is that it's arguably the least essential. There's nothing inherently special about it. It's not magical. The story feels slight and flimsy. Too much work went into the game to call it a mere cash-in for the movie, but I finished it in 6 hours or so and haven't thought about it since, other than to write this paragraph. It's certainly worth a rental, if you're a fan of the series and you're not already sidetracked with RDR or Super Mario.
3. I really want to like Alan Wake, but the opening chapter didn't grab me nearly as hard as I'd hoped, and RDR has pretty much overshadowed it for the foreseeable future.
That wasn't really all that hyperbolic; it's just the way the weekend went.
Showing posts with label gta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gta. Show all posts
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
GTA4: TBoGT
I got a message from Caro over the weekend, asking me why I was suddenly playing so much GTA4. The answer is needlessly complex:
1. I am freaking the hell out for Red Dead Redemption, and playing GTA4 seems to be the best way to prepare;
2. It looks really, really, REALLY good on my PC; and
3. I'm mostly just playing The Ballad of Gay Tony, since I'd never really given it more than a quick hour's play when it first came out.
I'm actually playing it on both my 360 and my PC. I was trying to match my 360 game's progress on my PC, but I ended up doing things a little bit out of order, and then I was trying to match the 360 back to the PC. THIS IS ALL TERRIBLY INTERESTING, I KNOW. The point being, I'm about 8 hours in, at least on the PC - and I'm probably a little bit behind that on the 360.
TBoGT is pretty amazing, actually. I soured on the first GTA expansion, The Lost and Damned, mostly because the idea of motorcycle gangs in NYC is totally ridiculous, and TLaD took itself pretty seriously. And also because I'd gotten stuck in one of those Rockstar-patented controller-throwing missions where the task is made incredibly difficult because of certain arbitrary parameters that you cannot deviate from. Specifically, in TLaD, it was the mission where you have to destroy a bunch of non-stationary vans by throwing molotov cocktails from your motorcycle. (Why that particular weapon, and not, say, a rocket launcher, which I could just as easily procure from the local gun shop? Why do I have to stay on the motorcycle? And why is this specific action so incredibly difficult to manage, given the game's control scheme?)
TBoGT, on the other hand, reminds me of the zanier sections of San Andreas; the cast of characters are very well acted and very, very funny (especially Yusef), and the missions are as diverse as they are insane. The emphasis in TBoGT appears to be on super-powerful weaponry and base jumping. I have thrown a celebrity blogger out of a helicopter, only to then dive after him and parachute to safety. I have hijacked an APC and bulldozed my way through Central Park. I have shot down helicopters with explosive shotgun shells from the roof of a moving subway car - a car that I eventually stole with the help of a helicopter.
Hmm. Maybe it's the wrong game to be playing in front of the gritty Western style that is Red Dead Redemption...
1. I am freaking the hell out for Red Dead Redemption, and playing GTA4 seems to be the best way to prepare;
2. It looks really, really, REALLY good on my PC; and
3. I'm mostly just playing The Ballad of Gay Tony, since I'd never really given it more than a quick hour's play when it first came out.
I'm actually playing it on both my 360 and my PC. I was trying to match my 360 game's progress on my PC, but I ended up doing things a little bit out of order, and then I was trying to match the 360 back to the PC. THIS IS ALL TERRIBLY INTERESTING, I KNOW. The point being, I'm about 8 hours in, at least on the PC - and I'm probably a little bit behind that on the 360.
TBoGT is pretty amazing, actually. I soured on the first GTA expansion, The Lost and Damned, mostly because the idea of motorcycle gangs in NYC is totally ridiculous, and TLaD took itself pretty seriously. And also because I'd gotten stuck in one of those Rockstar-patented controller-throwing missions where the task is made incredibly difficult because of certain arbitrary parameters that you cannot deviate from. Specifically, in TLaD, it was the mission where you have to destroy a bunch of non-stationary vans by throwing molotov cocktails from your motorcycle. (Why that particular weapon, and not, say, a rocket launcher, which I could just as easily procure from the local gun shop? Why do I have to stay on the motorcycle? And why is this specific action so incredibly difficult to manage, given the game's control scheme?)
TBoGT, on the other hand, reminds me of the zanier sections of San Andreas; the cast of characters are very well acted and very, very funny (especially Yusef), and the missions are as diverse as they are insane. The emphasis in TBoGT appears to be on super-powerful weaponry and base jumping. I have thrown a celebrity blogger out of a helicopter, only to then dive after him and parachute to safety. I have hijacked an APC and bulldozed my way through Central Park. I have shot down helicopters with explosive shotgun shells from the roof of a moving subway car - a car that I eventually stole with the help of a helicopter.
Hmm. Maybe it's the wrong game to be playing in front of the gritty Western style that is Red Dead Redemption...
Friday, March 26, 2010
on addiction
Pretty amazing piece about videogame and drug addiction, all set against GTA4.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/mar/21/tom-bissell-video-game-cocaine-addiction
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/mar/21/tom-bissell-video-game-cocaine-addiction
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Progress
The quest for 50K is going much better than I'd originally anticipated; I've got 6 weeks to get 327 points. I'm pretty sure I can get that relatively quickly from Assassin's Creed 2, with an assist from Left 4 Dead 2. So, hooray for that.
This past weekend was a little weird, gaming wise, but when I think about it it actually worked out to my advantage. The weekend's primary goal was working on music, but every once in a while I needed a break, and so I'd dive in to something on the 360; and since I'd finished Modern Warfare 2's campaign already, I didn't feel pressured to pick one thing and finish it.
I keep grinding away in Forza 3; I kinda messed up and bought the wrong car for an upcoming race in the Season Play mode, and so now I'm just going through tournaments in an effort to make that money back. I can't remember if I made the analogy here or in an email, but here goes anyway: Forza reminds me a lot of the Tiger Woods games, in that there's an absolute ton of stuff to do, a lot of which I've already done in previous versions in the franchise. On the flip side, Forza 3 does not in any feel like it's treading water, the way the Tiger games have for the last few years.
I'm also still running around in GTA4: BOGT, which is making me love the original GTA4 a little less. The game just feels dated; not in its story or setting, but in its actual gameplay mechanics. Combat feels incredibly clumsy, and the game is just brutally punishing if I fail a mission - I lose cash, armor (if I had it) and ammo (which doesn't get replenished), plus time keeps moving forward so if I had something I wanted to do at a certain time, I probably don't get to do it if I have to keep doing a mission over and over again. Saints Row will never be confused with GTA in terms of story and emotional resonance, but in terms of having fun and not being endlessly frustrating, it's not even really all that close anymore. The Houser brothers are starting to make a little bit of noise about GTA5; I know there's tons to think about in terms of making a great GTA game (story, setting, dialogue), but I would suggest that they also add some refinements, if not a complete overhaul, of the way the game is actually played. Let us recharge our health; let us have mid-mission checkpoints; let us not be punished so harshly for failure.
I'm starting to get really excited about 2010 Q1; specifically, Mass Effect 2. And it occurred to me that I never finished my 3rd playthrough of ME1, so I decided to give that a bit of a whirl. As it happens, I'd stopped playing near the end of the last DLC they released; said DLC was more or less a glorified combat tutorial, which is arguably the least successful aspect of the original game. But whatever - I turned down the difficulty and plowed through the last few missions and got 100 Achievements for my efforts, and then I saw where I actually was in the story, and then I decided to call it a day. (If you're familiar with the first game, I'd just gotten off the Citadel and hadn't yet started those first 3 long missions you get in order to advance the story; in other words, I'd have a looooooooong way to go.)
And then, in a bit of idle panic, I downloaded the Torchlight demo from Steam, just because I'd heard it was good and I was curious to see if my aging PC could run it. The short answer is yes, it can, and shortly thereafter I'd purchased the full version and now I'm totally hooked.
This week: Assassin's Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and the God of War Collection for PS3.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to Pandemic Studios, who very well might be getting shut down today. Mercenaries was one of my favorite games on the original Xbox, and Star Wars Battlefront was a lot of fun, and even Destroy All Humans! was worth a few chuckles. I'm hopeful that Saboteur will at least be a fine farewell from one of the more ambitious developers out there.
This past weekend was a little weird, gaming wise, but when I think about it it actually worked out to my advantage. The weekend's primary goal was working on music, but every once in a while I needed a break, and so I'd dive in to something on the 360; and since I'd finished Modern Warfare 2's campaign already, I didn't feel pressured to pick one thing and finish it.
I keep grinding away in Forza 3; I kinda messed up and bought the wrong car for an upcoming race in the Season Play mode, and so now I'm just going through tournaments in an effort to make that money back. I can't remember if I made the analogy here or in an email, but here goes anyway: Forza reminds me a lot of the Tiger Woods games, in that there's an absolute ton of stuff to do, a lot of which I've already done in previous versions in the franchise. On the flip side, Forza 3 does not in any feel like it's treading water, the way the Tiger games have for the last few years.
I'm also still running around in GTA4: BOGT, which is making me love the original GTA4 a little less. The game just feels dated; not in its story or setting, but in its actual gameplay mechanics. Combat feels incredibly clumsy, and the game is just brutally punishing if I fail a mission - I lose cash, armor (if I had it) and ammo (which doesn't get replenished), plus time keeps moving forward so if I had something I wanted to do at a certain time, I probably don't get to do it if I have to keep doing a mission over and over again. Saints Row will never be confused with GTA in terms of story and emotional resonance, but in terms of having fun and not being endlessly frustrating, it's not even really all that close anymore. The Houser brothers are starting to make a little bit of noise about GTA5; I know there's tons to think about in terms of making a great GTA game (story, setting, dialogue), but I would suggest that they also add some refinements, if not a complete overhaul, of the way the game is actually played. Let us recharge our health; let us have mid-mission checkpoints; let us not be punished so harshly for failure.
I'm starting to get really excited about 2010 Q1; specifically, Mass Effect 2. And it occurred to me that I never finished my 3rd playthrough of ME1, so I decided to give that a bit of a whirl. As it happens, I'd stopped playing near the end of the last DLC they released; said DLC was more or less a glorified combat tutorial, which is arguably the least successful aspect of the original game. But whatever - I turned down the difficulty and plowed through the last few missions and got 100 Achievements for my efforts, and then I saw where I actually was in the story, and then I decided to call it a day. (If you're familiar with the first game, I'd just gotten off the Citadel and hadn't yet started those first 3 long missions you get in order to advance the story; in other words, I'd have a looooooooong way to go.)
And then, in a bit of idle panic, I downloaded the Torchlight demo from Steam, just because I'd heard it was good and I was curious to see if my aging PC could run it. The short answer is yes, it can, and shortly thereafter I'd purchased the full version and now I'm totally hooked.
This week: Assassin's Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and the God of War Collection for PS3.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to Pandemic Studios, who very well might be getting shut down today. Mercenaries was one of my favorite games on the original Xbox, and Star Wars Battlefront was a lot of fun, and even Destroy All Humans! was worth a few chuckles. I'm hopeful that Saboteur will at least be a fine farewell from one of the more ambitious developers out there.
Monday, November 2, 2009
WIPTW: World Series edition
I am incredibly superstitious when it comes to the Yankees in the postseason, and the incredibly annoying feature is that the superstitions are always changing from year to year. During the 2004 meltdown against the Red Sox, I feel like I let us down; the first three games I'd listened to on the radio, and because I was traveling on the 4th game I ended up watching it on TV, which is where everything fell apart. This year's winning formula is apparently that I cannot watch any of the game on television, or even be in the same room if the game happens to be on. I'm serious. Within 5 seconds of me turning the game on, something bad happens to the Yankees; I turn the game off; they end up winning.
As a result, I've been able to get a bit more quality time on the 360. This weekend was all about Forza 3 and Borderlands, with a tiny bit of GTA4: BOGT on the side.
Forza 3 is definitely the best in the series. All the pre-release hype made special mention of Turn Ten's desire to make the game as accessible as possible for all kinds of gamers, not just driving sim enthusiasts, and to that end they have succeeded. The single-player campaign is long, robust, endlessly customizable, and thoroughly rewarding; just about every single race ends up giving you something new. And since I know nothing about cars, I feel much freer to simply buy cars that I'm somewhat interested in, since I can always auto-tune them up before a race if they're underperforming. The franchise is really only guilty of two things; recycling content and less-than-spectacular graphics. I suppose I can forgive the graphics; they're certainly not bad, they're just underwhelming compared to, say, DiRT 2. The recycling of tracks, though, does get a bit annoying; I feel like I've been driving the same tracks for years.
Ultimately, Forza reminds me a bit of the Tiger Woods franchise, in that they're both great time-sucks and, simultaneously, great for just a quick dip. If only Tiger Woods could make the same sort of advances in terms of keeping the game fresh.
Borderlands continues to be the game that keeps on giving. My soldier is now up to level 28, I think, and I feel like I just can't put the damned thing down. I have absolutely no idea what's going on in the story, and I couldn't care less; I pick up a bunch of missions in a particular area, I clear 'em all out, I score tons of loot, I cash them in, I level up, lather, rinse, repeat. That the game does a pretty terrible (i.e., nonexistent) job of letting you know which of your 10-15 missions is actually essential to moving the story along ends up freeing you to explore more of the world because, well, why not - there's loot in them thar hills, and sticking to the main questline would render a lot of it unexplored.
One can't help but be reminded of Fallout 3 when playing Borderlands, as post-apocalyptic first-person RPGs aren't really a dime a dozen. And yet the two games could not feel more different. Leaving aside from the drastically different art styles - which I don't really want to do, as Borderlands looks absolutely incredible and utterly unique - they move at completely different paces. Fallout 3 was slow, ponderous, and dark - and it absolutely worked in that particular context. Borderlands might as well be a first-person shooter, on the other hand, as it plays fast and furious. It's dark as well, but it's also zany. I think I enjoyed the overall experience a bit more in Fallout 3, and yet I'm probably having a bit more fun playing Borderlands.
Ultimately, Borderlands is clear-cut proof that a game - specifically an RPG - doesn't need a great story in order to be fun. That kinda sucks to admit, because I wouldn't at all mind being a bit more emotionally invested in what's going on in Borderlands, and it flies in the face of what Tim Schafer and Valve and GTA represent. We'd all like to see better writing and storytelling in games. And yet even without a clear motivation to get from one side of the game to the other in terms of story, here I am, compulsively doing missions and killing dudes and exploring and wanting to turn the game off after just finishing up this last thing and then holy shit, another hour has gone by, and look at all the cool stuff I have now.
I almost feel bad that I barely gave The Ballad of Gay Tony any time this weekend; I did a few missions, got a feel for the story and the characters, remembered how to get in and out of cover, and more or less left it at that. It's still good old GTA4, even though the game is starting to look a little rough around the edges.
Which reminds me - there's a lot of driving in both GTA4 and Borderlands (and Forza), and the controls are totally different for each game, and it takes more than a few minutes to remember which is which. I do wish there was some sort of control scheme that all game developers could agree on when it comes to driving in 3rd-person action games.
Jeez, I almost forgot - I also tried out the first hour or so of the new Ratchet & Clank game. It's good, fun, solid, and I just don't have the time for it right now.
As a result, I've been able to get a bit more quality time on the 360. This weekend was all about Forza 3 and Borderlands, with a tiny bit of GTA4: BOGT on the side.
Forza 3 is definitely the best in the series. All the pre-release hype made special mention of Turn Ten's desire to make the game as accessible as possible for all kinds of gamers, not just driving sim enthusiasts, and to that end they have succeeded. The single-player campaign is long, robust, endlessly customizable, and thoroughly rewarding; just about every single race ends up giving you something new. And since I know nothing about cars, I feel much freer to simply buy cars that I'm somewhat interested in, since I can always auto-tune them up before a race if they're underperforming. The franchise is really only guilty of two things; recycling content and less-than-spectacular graphics. I suppose I can forgive the graphics; they're certainly not bad, they're just underwhelming compared to, say, DiRT 2. The recycling of tracks, though, does get a bit annoying; I feel like I've been driving the same tracks for years.
Ultimately, Forza reminds me a bit of the Tiger Woods franchise, in that they're both great time-sucks and, simultaneously, great for just a quick dip. If only Tiger Woods could make the same sort of advances in terms of keeping the game fresh.
Borderlands continues to be the game that keeps on giving. My soldier is now up to level 28, I think, and I feel like I just can't put the damned thing down. I have absolutely no idea what's going on in the story, and I couldn't care less; I pick up a bunch of missions in a particular area, I clear 'em all out, I score tons of loot, I cash them in, I level up, lather, rinse, repeat. That the game does a pretty terrible (i.e., nonexistent) job of letting you know which of your 10-15 missions is actually essential to moving the story along ends up freeing you to explore more of the world because, well, why not - there's loot in them thar hills, and sticking to the main questline would render a lot of it unexplored.
One can't help but be reminded of Fallout 3 when playing Borderlands, as post-apocalyptic first-person RPGs aren't really a dime a dozen. And yet the two games could not feel more different. Leaving aside from the drastically different art styles - which I don't really want to do, as Borderlands looks absolutely incredible and utterly unique - they move at completely different paces. Fallout 3 was slow, ponderous, and dark - and it absolutely worked in that particular context. Borderlands might as well be a first-person shooter, on the other hand, as it plays fast and furious. It's dark as well, but it's also zany. I think I enjoyed the overall experience a bit more in Fallout 3, and yet I'm probably having a bit more fun playing Borderlands.
Ultimately, Borderlands is clear-cut proof that a game - specifically an RPG - doesn't need a great story in order to be fun. That kinda sucks to admit, because I wouldn't at all mind being a bit more emotionally invested in what's going on in Borderlands, and it flies in the face of what Tim Schafer and Valve and GTA represent. We'd all like to see better writing and storytelling in games. And yet even without a clear motivation to get from one side of the game to the other in terms of story, here I am, compulsively doing missions and killing dudes and exploring and wanting to turn the game off after just finishing up this last thing and then holy shit, another hour has gone by, and look at all the cool stuff I have now.
I almost feel bad that I barely gave The Ballad of Gay Tony any time this weekend; I did a few missions, got a feel for the story and the characters, remembered how to get in and out of cover, and more or less left it at that. It's still good old GTA4, even though the game is starting to look a little rough around the edges.
Which reminds me - there's a lot of driving in both GTA4 and Borderlands (and Forza), and the controls are totally different for each game, and it takes more than a few minutes to remember which is which. I do wish there was some sort of control scheme that all game developers could agree on when it comes to driving in 3rd-person action games.
Jeez, I almost forgot - I also tried out the first hour or so of the new Ratchet & Clank game. It's good, fun, solid, and I just don't have the time for it right now.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Super-Quick Impressions: RE5, Halo Wars, GTA:CW
One of the first things they tell you in acting class (well, one of the first things they told me) is that when you're in an audition, the directors can pretty much make up their mind within the first 10 seconds whether you're right for the part or not. It's true that sometimes a gut impression can prove wrong, but they're awfully hard to shake one way or the other.
I've been finding more and more lately that if a game, book or TV show doesn't immediately grab me, I tend to lose interest (and patience) very quickly. I'm not entirely sure why this is - either I've developed adult-onset ADD, or my standards have become unreasonably high, or maybe it's just that my bullshit detector is malfunctioning. In any event, I've been pretty busy lately and I've found myself having trouble getting sucked into anything (with the very notable exception of the now-defunct TV show The Wire, which I've been devouring like mad).
Hence, my quick impressions of 3 rather notable games.
With regard to Halo Wars, I'd played the demo and enjoyed it enough to let it remain in my Gamefly queue, although my 360 was in the shop when it arrived; when my 360 got back to me and I'd gotten over my initial infatuation with GTA4:L&D, I popped in the HW disc and quickly burned through the tutorial and the first level, which is exactly what the demo was. But as soon as the second level started, and the freeform nature of the game finally took hold, I found myself not really terribly interested or invested in what was happening, and I gave up about shortly thereafter. I'm gonna chalk this up to my own reluctance to dive in to the RTS genre, though; the game would appear to be very well made and even in my short time with it I didn't find anything that would otherwise turn me off, other than the nature of the game itself.
On the other hand, I'd played the Resident Evil 5 demo along with half the world and was utterly underwhelmed; the game felt antiquated in all the worst possible ways and the super-deluxe graphics only reinforced how un-modern the game actually is. I kept the game in my queue just for the hell of it, though, and when I started playing it over the weekend, I have to admit I found myself getting kinda sucked in to it. The controls are still 1997-ish but they weren't as offensive as I found them to be in the demo. It's certainly faithful to the RE conventions, for better or worse; even though I hadn't really played an RE game since the Dreamcast's Code Veronica, I immediately knew what I was in for. But it is true that the game is incredibly antiquated, and while I suppose I can respect Capcom's decision to err on the side of fanboy pleasure instead of actual 2009 playability, it's definitely going to need a dramatic overhaul in order to really stay relevant.
The "tension" that supposedly results from not having any ammo is really just an artificial frustration that immediately destroys the suspension of disbelief; for example, for a series that's already stretching that disbelief (leaving alone the whole "killing zombies" thing), are we really to accept that these trained soldiers we play as would enter a combat zone without carrying any additional ammunition? Here's my suggestion, as long as we're operating under the notion that limited ammo is a necessary component to a successful RE game: I think if you really want to heighten the tension, you should start the game with all the ammo you're ever going to get. You will think twice about taking a difficult shot if you know you're never going to get that bullet back.
I've only finished the first 2 missions, in any event, so it's not like I can really talk about the RE5 experience with any authority. That said, what I've seen is encouraging, and unlike HW, I'm still holding on to my copy.
Finally, my copy of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS arrived today, and I played the first mission just a short while ago during my lunch hour. And even though that really only amounts to about 10 minutes, I can already tell this is a better game than the PSP games, and certainly better than the GBA title. The novelty of seeing the word "fuck" on a DS screen is pretty goddamned hilarious, but more to the point - it looks great, and it has that all-too-elusive feel of its console brethren. It's not a compromised vision at all - it is clearly its own beast. I am very much looking forward to checking it out for real.
I've been finding more and more lately that if a game, book or TV show doesn't immediately grab me, I tend to lose interest (and patience) very quickly. I'm not entirely sure why this is - either I've developed adult-onset ADD, or my standards have become unreasonably high, or maybe it's just that my bullshit detector is malfunctioning. In any event, I've been pretty busy lately and I've found myself having trouble getting sucked into anything (with the very notable exception of the now-defunct TV show The Wire, which I've been devouring like mad).
Hence, my quick impressions of 3 rather notable games.
With regard to Halo Wars, I'd played the demo and enjoyed it enough to let it remain in my Gamefly queue, although my 360 was in the shop when it arrived; when my 360 got back to me and I'd gotten over my initial infatuation with GTA4:L&D, I popped in the HW disc and quickly burned through the tutorial and the first level, which is exactly what the demo was. But as soon as the second level started, and the freeform nature of the game finally took hold, I found myself not really terribly interested or invested in what was happening, and I gave up about shortly thereafter. I'm gonna chalk this up to my own reluctance to dive in to the RTS genre, though; the game would appear to be very well made and even in my short time with it I didn't find anything that would otherwise turn me off, other than the nature of the game itself.
On the other hand, I'd played the Resident Evil 5 demo along with half the world and was utterly underwhelmed; the game felt antiquated in all the worst possible ways and the super-deluxe graphics only reinforced how un-modern the game actually is. I kept the game in my queue just for the hell of it, though, and when I started playing it over the weekend, I have to admit I found myself getting kinda sucked in to it. The controls are still 1997-ish but they weren't as offensive as I found them to be in the demo. It's certainly faithful to the RE conventions, for better or worse; even though I hadn't really played an RE game since the Dreamcast's Code Veronica, I immediately knew what I was in for. But it is true that the game is incredibly antiquated, and while I suppose I can respect Capcom's decision to err on the side of fanboy pleasure instead of actual 2009 playability, it's definitely going to need a dramatic overhaul in order to really stay relevant.
The "tension" that supposedly results from not having any ammo is really just an artificial frustration that immediately destroys the suspension of disbelief; for example, for a series that's already stretching that disbelief (leaving alone the whole "killing zombies" thing), are we really to accept that these trained soldiers we play as would enter a combat zone without carrying any additional ammunition? Here's my suggestion, as long as we're operating under the notion that limited ammo is a necessary component to a successful RE game: I think if you really want to heighten the tension, you should start the game with all the ammo you're ever going to get. You will think twice about taking a difficult shot if you know you're never going to get that bullet back.
I've only finished the first 2 missions, in any event, so it's not like I can really talk about the RE5 experience with any authority. That said, what I've seen is encouraging, and unlike HW, I'm still holding on to my copy.
Finally, my copy of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS arrived today, and I played the first mission just a short while ago during my lunch hour. And even though that really only amounts to about 10 minutes, I can already tell this is a better game than the PSP games, and certainly better than the GBA title. The novelty of seeing the word "fuck" on a DS screen is pretty goddamned hilarious, but more to the point - it looks great, and it has that all-too-elusive feel of its console brethren. It's not a compromised vision at all - it is clearly its own beast. I am very much looking forward to checking it out for real.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
O Frabjous day!
My wife often reminds me that I can be overly pessimistic; she pleads for me to "think positive." This is easy for her to say; she hasn't had the same horrific experiences with UPS that I have, even though I once wasted a day off by staying home and waiting for a UPS package for her that still hasn't arrived.
My 360 did ultimately arrive yesterday, when it was actually supposed to, but I hasten to add that it almost didn't. I heard the truck pull up in front of my apartment and immediately bolted downstairs; I saw the guy in the back of the truck pull out some large-ish boxes and throw them on the ground. He saw me, nodded, and then.... remembered something... and then returned to the back of the truck, only to shortly re-emerge with my 360, which he did not throw to the ground.
My 360 died the night before GTA4: Lost & Damned was released; in fact, it died as I was double-checking to see if I'd kept my pre-installed copy of GTA4 on my hard drive. And so, after I re-connected everything and made sure it worked the way it's supposed to, I started downloading.
It's been a long time since I played GTA4, and as I was telling Gred in an e-mail this morning, it felt just like coming home. I'm only 3 or 4 missions in but I'm totally right back into it; it feels like forever since I played a game that actually featured different writing. I think my only real problem with L&D thus far is that I can't quite tell who's talking when we're all biking in formation; everyone kinda sounds the same. Nor can I get a read on Billy, the President of the gang; his line readings are a bit all over the place. Nevertheless - I love being back in Libery City, and I love that it feels just different enough to feel new.
And I must admit that I also love having my 360 back. Lord knows I tried making a go of it with the PS3... I really did. Still am, really. But Killzone 2's single-player campaign continues to underwhelm, and judging from my GameFly queue there's nothing I'm terribly excited about until The Agency, whose release date is "TBA".
My 360 did ultimately arrive yesterday, when it was actually supposed to, but I hasten to add that it almost didn't. I heard the truck pull up in front of my apartment and immediately bolted downstairs; I saw the guy in the back of the truck pull out some large-ish boxes and throw them on the ground. He saw me, nodded, and then.... remembered something... and then returned to the back of the truck, only to shortly re-emerge with my 360, which he did not throw to the ground.
My 360 died the night before GTA4: Lost & Damned was released; in fact, it died as I was double-checking to see if I'd kept my pre-installed copy of GTA4 on my hard drive. And so, after I re-connected everything and made sure it worked the way it's supposed to, I started downloading.
It's been a long time since I played GTA4, and as I was telling Gred in an e-mail this morning, it felt just like coming home. I'm only 3 or 4 missions in but I'm totally right back into it; it feels like forever since I played a game that actually featured different writing. I think my only real problem with L&D thus far is that I can't quite tell who's talking when we're all biking in formation; everyone kinda sounds the same. Nor can I get a read on Billy, the President of the gang; his line readings are a bit all over the place. Nevertheless - I love being back in Libery City, and I love that it feels just different enough to feel new.
And I must admit that I also love having my 360 back. Lord knows I tried making a go of it with the PS3... I really did. Still am, really. But Killzone 2's single-player campaign continues to underwhelm, and judging from my GameFly queue there's nothing I'm terribly excited about until The Agency, whose release date is "TBA".
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
MGS4 v. GTA4
Still listening to Giant Bomb's 2008 Game of the year podcast - hey, it's 2 hours long - and the second half of the podcast basically finds the Bombers torn between choosing GTA4 and MGS4 as their game of the year.
I made my choice a few weeks ago, and I found it pretty easy to make. But listening to them discuss MGS4 makes me want to re-play MGS4 again. I forget how much fun I had playing that game, and even though it drove me absolutely goddamned crazy at times (my rant about Act 3 still holds*), it was still an incredibly absorbing experience.
But it's interesting to hear them talk about it because they are long-time MGS fans - or, at least, they are all quite familiar with the fiction that spans the entire series. I am not familiar with the fiction, at all, and I even looked at the downloadable MGS encyclopedia and it meant absolutely nothing to me. And I think that the whole insider-access aspect about MGS is what kept me from being more excited about it. I can forgive the ridiculousness of the storytelling, I guess, if only because it is so incredibly unique in its dedication to being totally ridiculous; the hard-core MGS fans would never accept anything less, and I have to admit that my memories of the insanity of the cutscenes are somewhat more forgiving, now that I'm not actually sitting through them and their excruciating craziness.
If you have a pro-MGS4 stance, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
* I've read (and listened to) a lot of discussion about MGS4 this year, and I must say - I'm still somewhat stunned that NOBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD talked about the awfulness of the Big Mama scenes in Act 3. Nobody even talks about Big Mama at all. Am I just an asshole?
I made my choice a few weeks ago, and I found it pretty easy to make. But listening to them discuss MGS4 makes me want to re-play MGS4 again. I forget how much fun I had playing that game, and even though it drove me absolutely goddamned crazy at times (my rant about Act 3 still holds*), it was still an incredibly absorbing experience.
But it's interesting to hear them talk about it because they are long-time MGS fans - or, at least, they are all quite familiar with the fiction that spans the entire series. I am not familiar with the fiction, at all, and I even looked at the downloadable MGS encyclopedia and it meant absolutely nothing to me. And I think that the whole insider-access aspect about MGS is what kept me from being more excited about it. I can forgive the ridiculousness of the storytelling, I guess, if only because it is so incredibly unique in its dedication to being totally ridiculous; the hard-core MGS fans would never accept anything less, and I have to admit that my memories of the insanity of the cutscenes are somewhat more forgiving, now that I'm not actually sitting through them and their excruciating craziness.
If you have a pro-MGS4 stance, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
* I've read (and listened to) a lot of discussion about MGS4 this year, and I must say - I'm still somewhat stunned that NOBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD talked about the awfulness of the Big Mama scenes in Act 3. Nobody even talks about Big Mama at all. Am I just an asshole?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
GTA DLC; TRU bummer; Gadgets
1. GTA IV DLC revealed (sorta)
It's not quite enough for a Guessing At Future Games feature here on SFTC, but it is certainly something to look forward to during the post-holiday doldrums of 2009. Everyone was wondering what DLC for a GTA game would look like, and this is apparently what it will be - a new character in a new story, and featuring "a whole new side to Liberty City" (which presumably means that it will take place in areas of Liberty City that were not central to Niko Bellic's adventures). No word on length or price just yet; I'm going to guess 800 Points, although I think I'd be prepared to spend up to 1200.
2. Tomb Raider's disappointing reviews
My fondness for the Tomb Raider franchise starts with Legend. Having never owned a PS1 or PS2, I never played the original games and so I never really paid much attention to how terrible the series had gotten (although I do recall playing a demo for whatever TR title was released on the Dreamcast, and absolutely hating it). Legend, however, scratched a very specific itch for me - it had all the fun Prince-of-Persia environmental puzzle solving that I liked, it had decent-enough combat, and it looked and played fantastic. Anniversary was more of the same, which was just fine with me, and so I have rather high expectations for Underworld.
Unfortunately, the reviews are starting to come in, and for the most part everyone seems to be a little disappointed in this one. I obviously can't agree or disagree, since my rental copy still hasn't left Gamefly's offices, but I must admit I'm a little bummed out by this. I'm curious to see if my fanboy-ism will blind me to the game's obvious faults, or if my knowledge of the game's apparent crappiness will only make these things even worse than they actually are; if nothing else, I'm certainly self-aware enough to know how easily swayed I can be by external opinions... except in the case of Metal Gear Solid 4, because nobody will ever convince me that MGS4's storytelling is anything other than a normal-mapped turd.
3. I am in need of a new cellphone. I covet the iPhone, but there's two big things preventing me from pulling the trigger:
I suppose I can wait a few more months for them to fix the bugs (and, by doing so, avoiding the crush when it launches tomorrow), but still: damn.
It's not quite enough for a Guessing At Future Games feature here on SFTC, but it is certainly something to look forward to during the post-holiday doldrums of 2009. Everyone was wondering what DLC for a GTA game would look like, and this is apparently what it will be - a new character in a new story, and featuring "a whole new side to Liberty City" (which presumably means that it will take place in areas of Liberty City that were not central to Niko Bellic's adventures). No word on length or price just yet; I'm going to guess 800 Points, although I think I'd be prepared to spend up to 1200.
2. Tomb Raider's disappointing reviews
My fondness for the Tomb Raider franchise starts with Legend. Having never owned a PS1 or PS2, I never played the original games and so I never really paid much attention to how terrible the series had gotten (although I do recall playing a demo for whatever TR title was released on the Dreamcast, and absolutely hating it). Legend, however, scratched a very specific itch for me - it had all the fun Prince-of-Persia environmental puzzle solving that I liked, it had decent-enough combat, and it looked and played fantastic. Anniversary was more of the same, which was just fine with me, and so I have rather high expectations for Underworld.
Unfortunately, the reviews are starting to come in, and for the most part everyone seems to be a little disappointed in this one. I obviously can't agree or disagree, since my rental copy still hasn't left Gamefly's offices, but I must admit I'm a little bummed out by this. I'm curious to see if my fanboy-ism will blind me to the game's obvious faults, or if my knowledge of the game's apparent crappiness will only make these things even worse than they actually are; if nothing else, I'm certainly self-aware enough to know how easily swayed I can be by external opinions... except in the case of Metal Gear Solid 4, because nobody will ever convince me that MGS4's storytelling is anything other than a normal-mapped turd.
3. I am in need of a new cellphone. I covet the iPhone, but there's two big things preventing me from pulling the trigger:
- I'm a Verizon customer, and I'm not looking to switch service providers; and
- There isn't nearly enough storage on the iPhone for me to use it as my primary music storage device.
I suppose I can wait a few more months for them to fix the bugs (and, by doing so, avoiding the crush when it launches tomorrow), but still: damn.
Monday, September 8, 2008
A re-appreciation of GTA4, because of how crappy Mercs 2 is
When it comes to ranking my favorite franchises - not single games, but franchises as a whole - I have no hesitation in putting GTA at the top of my list. As far as the games in the GTA franchise, though, it's not so cut and dried; all of them have their charms, even if the last-gen games are dated. Still, when I have to think about it, GTA4 is my favorite, even though I tend to think about San Andreas the most.
Anyway. This post is only kinda about GTA4. My weekend was spent with a bunch of new and semi-new 360 titles: Mercs 2, Tiger 09, Tales of Vesperia, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, and Infinite Undiscovery.
Infinite Undiscovery is intriguing, but underwhemling. Between IU and ToV, IU has better graphics and a better battle system, as well as a stupid story, stupid characters, a noticeable lack of music, and some rough edges.
Viva Pinata feels like an expansion pack, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; I did like the first game a great deal. If anything, my problem with the new VP is that there's too much stuff going on at once, and keeping up with managing everything is more frustrating than challenging. The game does a very nice job of showing you how everything works, and then, suddenly, there's a zillion species that I'm trying to get organized, and most of them have romance or resident requirements that entail getting stuff that I've never seen. Most annoyingly, you get a size increase at level 11; I stopped being able to deal with everything at level 10. I'm not sure that a moderate size increase would have helped me, though.
I made a tactical error in Tiger 09, which is going to haunt me for the rest of the year. I've decided to abandon the Tiger Challenge and simply play the PGA Tour mode, and since my character is a bad-ass and I've set all the tournaments to one round, I've been breezing along. However, I decided to skip one particular low-paying tournament to go straight to a high-paying Major, and after I did so I realized that even if I won every remaning tournament, I'd miss out on one particular Trophy Ball, and thus an Achievement, and that my time-saving choice will actually ultimately mean that I have to play through the entire Tour AGAIN.
Fuuuuuuck.
I finished the first "dungeon" in Tales of Vesperia; I'm still on the fence about it, although I'm not as quick to return it as I was for Infinite Undiscovery. Not quite sure what it is about that game that isn't resonating with me.
And as for Mercs 2... I'm done with it. Mercs 2 is actually why I decided to get back into GTA4 and go for 100%; I have little patience for bullshit, and Mercs 2 is chock full of bullshit. But even beyond the many design flaws, the technical issues and the stupid story, the thing that finally killed it for me was the in-game advertising. Yesterday I was stuck re-doing a mission that kept going wrong at the last minute, and I happened to look up and saw a movie poster for the new DeNiro/Pacino movie that's coming out. Why a Hollywood movie would be playing in war-torn Venezuela is beyond me, especially since I haven't seen any movie theaters in any of the cities, but more to the point, it was proof that EA felt it was more important to get in-game signage working than to fix all the other problems that game has. The first game generated a lot of good will - it was a GTA clone, sure, but it was striving to do more than just exist as an easy cash-in; it had its own identity and it executed on its vision exceedingly well. Mercs 2, on the other hand, does feel like a cash-in; it feels unfinished, unpolished and, most depressingly, it feels like it was designed by corporate suits instead of game developers.
It was my frustration with everything that Mercs 2 was doing wrong that got me back into GTA4, as a matter of fact, and now I'm back in love with it, if for no other reason than GTA4 understands that RIGHT TRIGGER = GAS and LEFT TRIGGER = BRAKE. Mercs 2 commits many sins, but none greater than fucking up the driving controls and not giving an option to customize them; it took me too long to get used to the Mercs 2 controls, and then it took me a while to un-learn them and get used to doing things the right way in GTA4. Which is ridiculous, considering how much time I've spent with GTA4. DAMN YOU, Mercs 2, for fucking that up.
Anyway. This post is only kinda about GTA4. My weekend was spent with a bunch of new and semi-new 360 titles: Mercs 2, Tiger 09, Tales of Vesperia, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, and Infinite Undiscovery.
Infinite Undiscovery is intriguing, but underwhemling. Between IU and ToV, IU has better graphics and a better battle system, as well as a stupid story, stupid characters, a noticeable lack of music, and some rough edges.
Viva Pinata feels like an expansion pack, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; I did like the first game a great deal. If anything, my problem with the new VP is that there's too much stuff going on at once, and keeping up with managing everything is more frustrating than challenging. The game does a very nice job of showing you how everything works, and then, suddenly, there's a zillion species that I'm trying to get organized, and most of them have romance or resident requirements that entail getting stuff that I've never seen. Most annoyingly, you get a size increase at level 11; I stopped being able to deal with everything at level 10. I'm not sure that a moderate size increase would have helped me, though.
I made a tactical error in Tiger 09, which is going to haunt me for the rest of the year. I've decided to abandon the Tiger Challenge and simply play the PGA Tour mode, and since my character is a bad-ass and I've set all the tournaments to one round, I've been breezing along. However, I decided to skip one particular low-paying tournament to go straight to a high-paying Major, and after I did so I realized that even if I won every remaning tournament, I'd miss out on one particular Trophy Ball, and thus an Achievement, and that my time-saving choice will actually ultimately mean that I have to play through the entire Tour AGAIN.
Fuuuuuuck.
I finished the first "dungeon" in Tales of Vesperia; I'm still on the fence about it, although I'm not as quick to return it as I was for Infinite Undiscovery. Not quite sure what it is about that game that isn't resonating with me.
And as for Mercs 2... I'm done with it. Mercs 2 is actually why I decided to get back into GTA4 and go for 100%; I have little patience for bullshit, and Mercs 2 is chock full of bullshit. But even beyond the many design flaws, the technical issues and the stupid story, the thing that finally killed it for me was the in-game advertising. Yesterday I was stuck re-doing a mission that kept going wrong at the last minute, and I happened to look up and saw a movie poster for the new DeNiro/Pacino movie that's coming out. Why a Hollywood movie would be playing in war-torn Venezuela is beyond me, especially since I haven't seen any movie theaters in any of the cities, but more to the point, it was proof that EA felt it was more important to get in-game signage working than to fix all the other problems that game has. The first game generated a lot of good will - it was a GTA clone, sure, but it was striving to do more than just exist as an easy cash-in; it had its own identity and it executed on its vision exceedingly well. Mercs 2, on the other hand, does feel like a cash-in; it feels unfinished, unpolished and, most depressingly, it feels like it was designed by corporate suits instead of game developers.
It was my frustration with everything that Mercs 2 was doing wrong that got me back into GTA4, as a matter of fact, and now I'm back in love with it, if for no other reason than GTA4 understands that RIGHT TRIGGER = GAS and LEFT TRIGGER = BRAKE. Mercs 2 commits many sins, but none greater than fucking up the driving controls and not giving an option to customize them; it took me too long to get used to the Mercs 2 controls, and then it took me a while to un-learn them and get used to doing things the right way in GTA4. Which is ridiculous, considering how much time I've spent with GTA4. DAMN YOU, Mercs 2, for fucking that up.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Lego Indiana Jones and the Quest for Attainable Achievements
Funny thing happened yesterday. My copy of Lego Indiana Jones arrived via Gamefly, and even though I had a million things to do, I felt compelled to pop it in and check it out. About 30 minutes later, I'd unlocked 2 or 3 Achievements, and I suddenly realized it had been at least a week since I'd heard that sound or remembered what that felt like.
See, ever since I finished the story in GTA4, I'd sorta been half-heartedly trying to get to 100%, but it's a time-consuming process even if you are giving it your all, and I've got a long ways to go on pretty much everything I need to do. So aside from finally figuring out what I was doing wrong on the "Fly the helicopter under the bridges" Achievement, and somehow beating the CUBED high score, it had been many, many hours since I'd unlocked any Achievements. Add to that my time spent on my PS3 - Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds is pretty addictive, and I also decided to download Crash Bandicoot 2, just because - and you can see why getting a little over 100 points in just over an hour in LIJ would feel like a shock to the system.
As for LIJ itself: I gotta say, I'm really enjoying it so far, maybe even more than the Star Wars games. Maybe it's because I've always secretly liked the IJ movies more than the SW movies; maybe it's because I think the puzzles are better, and are a more natural fit with the source material; maybe it's because watching Lego Indiana drop kick a "Nazi" is always endearing and awesome. The humor is just as spot-on as it's ever been in this series, but they also do a pretty great job with the platforming (such as it is) - there are moments where this kinda feels like a Tomb Raider game, which is great considering what Tomb Raider games are emulating in the first place.
My rented copies of Ninja Gaiden 2 and GRID should be arriving any day now, and I must admit I'm not really looking forward to either of them. The previous Ninja Gaiden game utterly broke my spirit, and everyone's saying that the camera in NG2 is even worse than the first one. And the word about GRID - about how the 360 version suffers from freezing - is very disappointing, as I am a huge fan of DIRT and was really looking forward to this (although, of course, since I haven't actually played it yet, I have no idea how bad the problem is, or if it even exists at all).
And then MGS4 arrives next week. I've set up my Gamefly queue so there's no reason why I shouldn't get a copy immediately; and yet I kinda don't give a shit. I'm playing it because as a PS3 owner I feel obligated to play it, and so that I'll be adequately prepared when the first wave of discussion hits the 'tubes, but... as soon as I hit a cutscene that goes past 10 minutes and I lose track of whatever the fuck is supposed to be going on, I'm gonna sink back into my couch and wonder why I let myself get talked into something I knew I wasn't going to enjoy.
See, ever since I finished the story in GTA4, I'd sorta been half-heartedly trying to get to 100%, but it's a time-consuming process even if you are giving it your all, and I've got a long ways to go on pretty much everything I need to do. So aside from finally figuring out what I was doing wrong on the "Fly the helicopter under the bridges" Achievement, and somehow beating the CUBED high score, it had been many, many hours since I'd unlocked any Achievements. Add to that my time spent on my PS3 - Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds is pretty addictive, and I also decided to download Crash Bandicoot 2, just because - and you can see why getting a little over 100 points in just over an hour in LIJ would feel like a shock to the system.
As for LIJ itself: I gotta say, I'm really enjoying it so far, maybe even more than the Star Wars games. Maybe it's because I've always secretly liked the IJ movies more than the SW movies; maybe it's because I think the puzzles are better, and are a more natural fit with the source material; maybe it's because watching Lego Indiana drop kick a "Nazi" is always endearing and awesome. The humor is just as spot-on as it's ever been in this series, but they also do a pretty great job with the platforming (such as it is) - there are moments where this kinda feels like a Tomb Raider game, which is great considering what Tomb Raider games are emulating in the first place.
My rented copies of Ninja Gaiden 2 and GRID should be arriving any day now, and I must admit I'm not really looking forward to either of them. The previous Ninja Gaiden game utterly broke my spirit, and everyone's saying that the camera in NG2 is even worse than the first one. And the word about GRID - about how the 360 version suffers from freezing - is very disappointing, as I am a huge fan of DIRT and was really looking forward to this (although, of course, since I haven't actually played it yet, I have no idea how bad the problem is, or if it even exists at all).
And then MGS4 arrives next week. I've set up my Gamefly queue so there's no reason why I shouldn't get a copy immediately; and yet I kinda don't give a shit. I'm playing it because as a PS3 owner I feel obligated to play it, and so that I'll be adequately prepared when the first wave of discussion hits the 'tubes, but... as soon as I hit a cutscene that goes past 10 minutes and I lose track of whatever the fuck is supposed to be going on, I'm gonna sink back into my couch and wonder why I let myself get talked into something I knew I wasn't going to enjoy.
Monday, May 12, 2008
GTA4 wrap-up (spoilers)
Finished the story mode in GTA4 over the weekend. Should've written down my stats; off the top of my head, at the time I finished the story, I was a little over 66% complete, and had put in around 37 hours. I suspect I'll keep playing for a bit longer; I don't think I'll ever bother with getting 100%, but certainly there's lots of Achievements left, and ultimately I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Niko and Liberty City just yet. Right now I'm doing the Assassin missions and Brucie's races, while keeping an eye out for pigeons and stunt jumps.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I chose to kill Playboy X and keep Dwayne alive; I chose to kill Francis and keep the older junkie brother alive (can't remember his name); I chose to keep Darko alive, which surprised me a great deal (it should be said, though, that my controller has glitched out a lot in GTA4, and Niko ends up walking around in circles a lot when I'm not actually doing anything with the controller, and I think Niko glitched out and walked away while I was making up my mind).
But at the very end of the game, I chose to kill Dmitri, rather than do a deal with him. That felt satisfying. Then, of course, Pegorino had to fuck everything up, and the very final mission in the game was the first and only time where GTA4 fell apart for me.
The mission starts out with a long and somewhat aimless chase sequence - but it's not terribly difficult or unusual, or even particularly fast. Then there's a medium-length shoot-out, which can be made much quicker and easier with some strategically thrown grenades. But then there's a motorcycle chase on a beach, which IS unusual being that you're given the shittiest motorcycle in the game, and you're driving on incredibly wonky terrain, and THEN you're flying a helicopter that you've never flown before, with guns that you've never fired which makes controlling it that much more difficult, and the guy you're chasing starts firing rockets at you, which you didn't know he had, and - at least when I played it - you're SUPPOSED to get hit with one, which triggers the final scene. I fucked up the mission from the motorcycle sequence on about 5 or 6 times, and when you replay a failed mission you're stuck with the same stats as you had when the mission ended, so you're dealing with less ammo and less health; basically, it fucking sucked and I hated it because all my 37 hours of playtime left me thoroughly unprepared for the last 3 minutes of gameplay. /end rant
I'm curious to see how much longer I can stay engaged in the endgame, although certainly the multiplayer is reason enough to keep the disc in the tray. I played San Andreas for months after I finished it, and I think GTA4 is a vast improvement over San Andreas.
I love the ambiguity of the ending. Unlike the previous games, there's no triumphant scene, no winner-takes-all montage; Niko is a man in pain, still, and his life is as unsettled as it ever was. I could definitely see his story extending to at least one more sequel, or for as many as Rockstar would want to make for this generation of consoles; he is arguably the most compelling player character in the history of videogames and his story would appear to be far from over. He is a criminal with a conscience; a compassionate but cold-blooded killer; he is a human being, riddled with doubts and yet focused on the task at hand. I think it's telling that GTA4 is the first time the player has been offered the opportunity to actually make choices; Niko's really the first character they've created where you, the player, can actually feel the emotional weight of those choices, as those choices must weigh against Niko.
In any event, it's a masterpiece, even if that last mission sucked. It's a staggering achievement on a multitude of levels, and Rockstar has raised the bar yet again. I have absolutely no idea how they will top it, but if their previous track record is any guide, they most certainly will.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I chose to kill Playboy X and keep Dwayne alive; I chose to kill Francis and keep the older junkie brother alive (can't remember his name); I chose to keep Darko alive, which surprised me a great deal (it should be said, though, that my controller has glitched out a lot in GTA4, and Niko ends up walking around in circles a lot when I'm not actually doing anything with the controller, and I think Niko glitched out and walked away while I was making up my mind).
But at the very end of the game, I chose to kill Dmitri, rather than do a deal with him. That felt satisfying. Then, of course, Pegorino had to fuck everything up, and the very final mission in the game was the first and only time where GTA4 fell apart for me.
The mission starts out with a long and somewhat aimless chase sequence - but it's not terribly difficult or unusual, or even particularly fast. Then there's a medium-length shoot-out, which can be made much quicker and easier with some strategically thrown grenades. But then there's a motorcycle chase on a beach, which IS unusual being that you're given the shittiest motorcycle in the game, and you're driving on incredibly wonky terrain, and THEN you're flying a helicopter that you've never flown before, with guns that you've never fired which makes controlling it that much more difficult, and the guy you're chasing starts firing rockets at you, which you didn't know he had, and - at least when I played it - you're SUPPOSED to get hit with one, which triggers the final scene. I fucked up the mission from the motorcycle sequence on about 5 or 6 times, and when you replay a failed mission you're stuck with the same stats as you had when the mission ended, so you're dealing with less ammo and less health; basically, it fucking sucked and I hated it because all my 37 hours of playtime left me thoroughly unprepared for the last 3 minutes of gameplay. /end rant
I'm curious to see how much longer I can stay engaged in the endgame, although certainly the multiplayer is reason enough to keep the disc in the tray. I played San Andreas for months after I finished it, and I think GTA4 is a vast improvement over San Andreas.
I love the ambiguity of the ending. Unlike the previous games, there's no triumphant scene, no winner-takes-all montage; Niko is a man in pain, still, and his life is as unsettled as it ever was. I could definitely see his story extending to at least one more sequel, or for as many as Rockstar would want to make for this generation of consoles; he is arguably the most compelling player character in the history of videogames and his story would appear to be far from over. He is a criminal with a conscience; a compassionate but cold-blooded killer; he is a human being, riddled with doubts and yet focused on the task at hand. I think it's telling that GTA4 is the first time the player has been offered the opportunity to actually make choices; Niko's really the first character they've created where you, the player, can actually feel the emotional weight of those choices, as those choices must weigh against Niko.
In any event, it's a masterpiece, even if that last mission sucked. It's a staggering achievement on a multitude of levels, and Rockstar has raised the bar yet again. I have absolutely no idea how they will top it, but if their previous track record is any guide, they most certainly will.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Giant Bomb GTA5 thoughts; Boom Blox; Metroid Prime 3
1. The latest Giant Bombcast is probably the best one they've come out with thus far; it's funny without being "wacky", focused, and informative. They also have a rather nice discussion about GTA4 that I soooooo wish I could have been a part of; namely, what to expect in the next iteration.
Ryan and Jeff talk about how Vice City and San Andreas were not totally unexpected choices when the franchise moved to 3D - those were cities where GTA had apparently already taken place in earlier games. I'm not entirely sure I agree with their implied assertion that the city came first in those games, and then the story (Jeff mentions something quickly about Vice City seemed like a great place for boating, which was a new mechanic in that game); it seems to me that it wasn't the city but the films they decided to embody. Both Vice City and San Andreas don't even really bother hiding their cinematic inspirations, as it seems pretty obvious that the developers basically picked Scarface and Boyz in the Hood as jumping-off points, respectively.
More to the point, Jeff says that his expectations for a new GTA game have definitely changed since playing GTA4 - it's not the city that's the most important thing as much as it is the story, and I absolutely agree - although it should be said that this new Liberty City is a staggering achievement, on a multitude of levels (technological, artistic, geographic, architectural, the city just feels right), and the city goes farther than any before it towards making the story feel real and emotionally involving.
That said, the city is usually the first thing that Rockstar reveals whenever they're getting ready to release a new GTA game. Jeff talks about London (yay!) as something he'd like to see, but also raises a very interesting question, and one that I hadn't considered - would American audiences be alienated by the switch to an unfamiliar locale, considering how the GTA franchise is famous for its satire of American pop culture? I think it could work if the lead character was an American; certainly that would help the American audience see the city through a foreigner's eyes. London isn't that strange a place, anyway, and certainly there's enough of it that would be recognizable. I also think that Rockstar could do a lot with London, and not just in terms of "Austin Powers and ugly teeth" jokes. They're from Scotland, anyway - I feel like this would be right in their wheelhouse.
Anyway. It's kinda ridiculous for me to be theorizing about GTA5 when I'm still working on GTA4. I haven't had much opportunity to play this week; I'll maybe do a mission in the morning, before I go to work, and then I'll play for an hour or so before going to bed. Last night, for example, I decided to ignore the story and go over to the airport to get the 4-star and 500-foot wheelie Achievements, which I succeeded in doing. I died a few times after that, though, and in the process I lost a ton of money and weapons, and I didn't save my game. The Achievements aren't going away, though...
2. Brought home BOOM BLOX for the Wii last night, and my wife and I played through a bunch of the multiplayer; we had a great time, but both of our right arms are absolutely killing us today. Towards the end of our time we figured out that it's not so much in the arm motion as it is in the wrist, and we only figured that out because we couldn't really move our arms anymore.
The game is loosely similar to Jenga, but more destructive and more responsive. The physics are absolutely spot-on and you really feel connected to the action on the screen; the controls are very intuitive and responsive, too (although not totally 100% accurate). I'm not sure it's a game we'll be playing forever and ever, but certainly it's something we can pick up and play.
3. Had a rental copy of Metroid Prime 3 laying around for a while, and I decided to pop that in just to see if it was worth holding on to. Short answer - not really. The storytelling is sophomoric at best and the controls are irksome. I'm not a huge fan of the series so maybe that's why I was so quick to dismiss it; in any event, I played up until the first boss and then sent it back to Gamefly.
Ryan and Jeff talk about how Vice City and San Andreas were not totally unexpected choices when the franchise moved to 3D - those were cities where GTA had apparently already taken place in earlier games. I'm not entirely sure I agree with their implied assertion that the city came first in those games, and then the story (Jeff mentions something quickly about Vice City seemed like a great place for boating, which was a new mechanic in that game); it seems to me that it wasn't the city but the films they decided to embody. Both Vice City and San Andreas don't even really bother hiding their cinematic inspirations, as it seems pretty obvious that the developers basically picked Scarface and Boyz in the Hood as jumping-off points, respectively.
More to the point, Jeff says that his expectations for a new GTA game have definitely changed since playing GTA4 - it's not the city that's the most important thing as much as it is the story, and I absolutely agree - although it should be said that this new Liberty City is a staggering achievement, on a multitude of levels (technological, artistic, geographic, architectural, the city just feels right), and the city goes farther than any before it towards making the story feel real and emotionally involving.
That said, the city is usually the first thing that Rockstar reveals whenever they're getting ready to release a new GTA game. Jeff talks about London (yay!) as something he'd like to see, but also raises a very interesting question, and one that I hadn't considered - would American audiences be alienated by the switch to an unfamiliar locale, considering how the GTA franchise is famous for its satire of American pop culture? I think it could work if the lead character was an American; certainly that would help the American audience see the city through a foreigner's eyes. London isn't that strange a place, anyway, and certainly there's enough of it that would be recognizable. I also think that Rockstar could do a lot with London, and not just in terms of "Austin Powers and ugly teeth" jokes. They're from Scotland, anyway - I feel like this would be right in their wheelhouse.
Anyway. It's kinda ridiculous for me to be theorizing about GTA5 when I'm still working on GTA4. I haven't had much opportunity to play this week; I'll maybe do a mission in the morning, before I go to work, and then I'll play for an hour or so before going to bed. Last night, for example, I decided to ignore the story and go over to the airport to get the 4-star and 500-foot wheelie Achievements, which I succeeded in doing. I died a few times after that, though, and in the process I lost a ton of money and weapons, and I didn't save my game. The Achievements aren't going away, though...
2. Brought home BOOM BLOX for the Wii last night, and my wife and I played through a bunch of the multiplayer; we had a great time, but both of our right arms are absolutely killing us today. Towards the end of our time we figured out that it's not so much in the arm motion as it is in the wrist, and we only figured that out because we couldn't really move our arms anymore.
The game is loosely similar to Jenga, but more destructive and more responsive. The physics are absolutely spot-on and you really feel connected to the action on the screen; the controls are very intuitive and responsive, too (although not totally 100% accurate). I'm not sure it's a game we'll be playing forever and ever, but certainly it's something we can pick up and play.
3. Had a rental copy of Metroid Prime 3 laying around for a while, and I decided to pop that in just to see if it was worth holding on to. Short answer - not really. The storytelling is sophomoric at best and the controls are irksome. I'm not a huge fan of the series so maybe that's why I was so quick to dismiss it; in any event, I played up until the first boss and then sent it back to Gamefly.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
What to look out for in GTA5, if EA successfully acquires Take Two
*shudder*
For starters, the radio stations would be replaced by the all-seeing, all-knowing DJ Atomica, the music would be considerably less eclectic, and the ZiT in-game feature that lets you know what song you're listening to would simply be replaced with actual text pop-ins, the way every other EA game does.
After all, your cellphone would actually be an iPhone, or a Verizon LG8600, or a RAZR.
The GTA games are known for, among other things, their incredible attention to detail when it comes to satire, and this goes all the way down to the fake commercials on their radio stations, not to mention the tons of signage and branding for their fictional properties - BurgerShot, Sprunk, Cluckin' Bell, etc. EA, on the other hand, is known for their incredible devotion for gratuitous in-game advertising; it would surprise absolutely no-one to see an EA-published GTA take place in a world with real commercials and real billboards for real products, which you could then buy in-game. Imagine getting a health power-up from eating a Big Mac!
Let's see... we've got the EA Trax soundtrack, we've got the gratuitous in-game advertising... well, I suppose we can extend that to Branded Achievements. Drive for 1000 miles and get the GoodYear Tires Achievement; crash into 200 cars for the AllState Insurance Achievement; snipe 100 headshots and get the Johnson & Johnson "No More Tears" Achievement.
Of course, it would be hard to imagine any wholesome product that wouldn't be attacked from the Jack Thompson side of the fence if it allowed itself to be placed in a game this subversive, notorious and controversial. (It hasn't stopped UbiSoft from putting car commercials in Rainbow Six games or Nextel devices in Splinter Cell games - or car commercials in Crackdown, for that matter, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.) This is a long way of saying that GTA5 can't feature any more killing of hookers for points. (Which doesn't happen in the actual GTA, but I digress, again.)
So the storyline and cast of characters would have to be switched up. Which would mean that instead of featuring a compelling and epic narrative about the troubles of a European immigrant fresh from the horrors of war, we'd get a 10-15 hour story about Bobby Flash, a streetwise white kid from the suburbs who hopes to be a skateboard champion but who runs into a gang from the other side of the tracks, probably featuring tons of ridiculously over-the-top FMV cutscenes that likewise fill up the Need For Speed franchise - hey, maybe they can throw in a Need For Speed billboard or two, while they're at it!
For starters, the radio stations would be replaced by the all-seeing, all-knowing DJ Atomica, the music would be considerably less eclectic, and the ZiT in-game feature that lets you know what song you're listening to would simply be replaced with actual text pop-ins, the way every other EA game does.
After all, your cellphone would actually be an iPhone, or a Verizon LG8600, or a RAZR.
The GTA games are known for, among other things, their incredible attention to detail when it comes to satire, and this goes all the way down to the fake commercials on their radio stations, not to mention the tons of signage and branding for their fictional properties - BurgerShot, Sprunk, Cluckin' Bell, etc. EA, on the other hand, is known for their incredible devotion for gratuitous in-game advertising; it would surprise absolutely no-one to see an EA-published GTA take place in a world with real commercials and real billboards for real products, which you could then buy in-game. Imagine getting a health power-up from eating a Big Mac!
Let's see... we've got the EA Trax soundtrack, we've got the gratuitous in-game advertising... well, I suppose we can extend that to Branded Achievements. Drive for 1000 miles and get the GoodYear Tires Achievement; crash into 200 cars for the AllState Insurance Achievement; snipe 100 headshots and get the Johnson & Johnson "No More Tears" Achievement.
Of course, it would be hard to imagine any wholesome product that wouldn't be attacked from the Jack Thompson side of the fence if it allowed itself to be placed in a game this subversive, notorious and controversial. (It hasn't stopped UbiSoft from putting car commercials in Rainbow Six games or Nextel devices in Splinter Cell games - or car commercials in Crackdown, for that matter, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.) This is a long way of saying that GTA5 can't feature any more killing of hookers for points. (Which doesn't happen in the actual GTA, but I digress, again.)
So the storyline and cast of characters would have to be switched up. Which would mean that instead of featuring a compelling and epic narrative about the troubles of a European immigrant fresh from the horrors of war, we'd get a 10-15 hour story about Bobby Flash, a streetwise white kid from the suburbs who hopes to be a skateboard champion but who runs into a gang from the other side of the tracks, probably featuring tons of ridiculously over-the-top FMV cutscenes that likewise fill up the Need For Speed franchise - hey, maybe they can throw in a Need For Speed billboard or two, while they're at it!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
GTA4: stats recap
Tomorrow, May 5, will mark the first day I've had to go to work since GTA4 was released; I thought I'd put up a brief selection of GTA4-related stats before I turn in for the night. I'll do a fuller recap tomorrow.
- 51.07% game completion
- 26 hours, 14 minutes, 17 seconds
- 51 days (in game)
- 67 missions passed
- 6 deaths
- 410 people killed
- $430,812 on hand (the vast majority of which came from the Three Leaf Clover mission)
- Favorite radio station: Liberty Rock (I'm guessing this is tabulated by in-car airtime; in terms of the actual music, my favorite stations are Fusion and IF99; for what it's worth, I didn't bother checking to see what the game says my least favorite station is, as I know it's the hardcore station)
- 9 pigeons
- 3 jumps
- 11 Achievements, worth 95 points
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
A quick and dirty defense
I saw a movie recently; it started out with 2 thugs slicing up a prostitute, featured multiple brutal beatings, and ended with a massive bloodbath, including the murder of the town sheriff. Was this movie considered pornographic? Was there a massive outcry? Were pundits up in arms, talking about how sick and depraved Hollywood was?
Actually, the movie was "Unforgiven", and won 4 Oscars.
When I've surfaced every few hours from GTA4 to check my real-life RSS feeds, I've noticed that my "Games" folder has been filled - and not just from Gamepolitics.com - with story after story about people getting all bent out of shape about GTA4 - it's a murder simulator, it glorifies violence, it - well, let them say it:
And, of course, there's always the "you can have sex with prostitutes and then kill them to get your money back" line... These kinds of arguments are infuriating, because they fail to address what the game is actually about. It's an easy thing to say; it's similar to how the mainstream media always gets annoyed with bloggers and immediately invalidates anything a blogger says because "they're unwashed and live in their parents' basement."
Actually, the movie was "Unforgiven", and won 4 Oscars.
When I've surfaced every few hours from GTA4 to check my real-life RSS feeds, I've noticed that my "Games" folder has been filled - and not just from Gamepolitics.com - with story after story about people getting all bent out of shape about GTA4 - it's a murder simulator, it glorifies violence, it - well, let them say it:
The glorification of killing of any police officer is just wrong. I mean, it desensitizes people to the real mayhem that’s going on out on the streets, and we already have a real problem with people not valuing human life.
People don’t seem to have a problem turning guns on cops, and this game — I know it’s just a game, but people sometimes have trouble separating reality from fantasy.
* * *
There’s a new world of entertainment here… But what does it contain? In this case, [protagonist Niko Bellic] kills, maims, has sex, then kills and maims some more, while also stealing various forms of transportation…
What “Grand Theft Auto IV” affirms is the pleasure of eschewing decency for obnoxious violence…
And, of course, there's always the "you can have sex with prostitutes and then kill them to get your money back" line... These kinds of arguments are infuriating, because they fail to address what the game is actually about. It's an easy thing to say; it's similar to how the mainstream media always gets annoyed with bloggers and immediately invalidates anything a blogger says because "they're unwashed and live in their parents' basement."
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
It has begun
I'm not sure I know how many hours I've put into GTA4 today. I ended up waiting in the midnight line last night; got my copy at around 1:00 or so; ended up going to bed around 3:30. Started playing again this morning at 10:00, and have been pretty much going straight through until now, 5:30pm, with a few breaks in between...
I'm so tired and incoherent. I feel slightly hungover, even though I've been totally sober throughout this whole process. Actually, it's more like: I feel like I haven't blinked all day.
So I'm not really in any position to discuss the game. I can say that I've surprised myself by mostly adhering to the main story and side missions; I haven't really done any adventuring (I guess I'm saving that for when I unlock Manhattan). I've gone on a few dates; I've shot some pool; I've not gotten drunk yet. I've killed people, both accidentally and on purpose; I've also finally discovered what this game's "hidden package" is, and it's a little weird. Appropriate, but weird.
I suspect I'm speaking into the void, now, anyway - you're all either already playing it, or you're waiting to get home to start playing it. (Or, you're not playing it at all, in which case: why not?)
I'm so tired and incoherent. I feel slightly hungover, even though I've been totally sober throughout this whole process. Actually, it's more like: I feel like I haven't blinked all day.
So I'm not really in any position to discuss the game. I can say that I've surprised myself by mostly adhering to the main story and side missions; I haven't really done any adventuring (I guess I'm saving that for when I unlock Manhattan). I've gone on a few dates; I've shot some pool; I've not gotten drunk yet. I've killed people, both accidentally and on purpose; I've also finally discovered what this game's "hidden package" is, and it's a little weird. Appropriate, but weird.
I suspect I'm speaking into the void, now, anyway - you're all either already playing it, or you're waiting to get home to start playing it. (Or, you're not playing it at all, in which case: why not?)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Weight of Waiting
I am compelled to keep blogging in this space - even more so than on my other, "real-life" blog - because the wait for GTA4 is turning into an all-consuming hunger. I've already taken time off from work for it (even though I have a legitimate and necessary reason for doing so that has nothing at all to do with it), and every time my RSS reader dings, I become inexplicably giddy at the thought of getting new GTA4-related information.
And so today I'm trying to figure out what other soon-to-be-released games I can recall getting this bent out of shape over. This list isn't necessarily reflective of my all-time favorite games (although certainly most of these would make the list); this is simply a list of the games that I absolutely could not wait for any longer.
1. On the 360, there's been a lot of big titles to get excited for - and believe me, I've been foaming at the mouth for most of them, especially Mass Effect - but I guess I'd have to put Oblivion at the top of my list, which was a surprise to me even while it was happening:
3. On the PC... well, to be honest, it's been quite a long time since my PC was my primary gaming center, and I can't recall being amped up for a game that I knew I was only going to be playing on my PC. I did get excited for Neverwinter Nights, I guess, but that wasn't an all-encompassing hunger. And I'm not afraid to admit that I've been looking forward for Duke Nukem Forever for, well, forever - and when they finally get around to releasing DukeNukem 3D for XBLA, I will DEFINITELY be going crazy for it.
After that... well, I'm not sure. When I was a little kid with an Atari 2600, I really can't recall getting excited about new releases, because (a) there was no internet, (b) since my parents bought the games for me, I had no choice in the matter as to what to get excited about. If anything, I would get excited to get games that other friends of mine already had. Same thing with my brother's Sega Genesis, which I never bought games for, either. But by the same token, we could play all those old games OVER and OVER and OVER again - we didn't necessarily need anything new when we could keep having fun with what we already had. (Boy, I miss those days!)
So, what about you? What games have you been unable to sit still for?
And so today I'm trying to figure out what other soon-to-be-released games I can recall getting this bent out of shape over. This list isn't necessarily reflective of my all-time favorite games (although certainly most of these would make the list); this is simply a list of the games that I absolutely could not wait for any longer.
1. On the 360, there's been a lot of big titles to get excited for - and believe me, I've been foaming at the mouth for most of them, especially Mass Effect - but I guess I'd have to put Oblivion at the top of my list, which was a surprise to me even while it was happening:
I'm not even sure I myself knew how much I was looking forward to Oblivion; certainly I got really caught up in the hype over the last few months; I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition, I sucked up every available preview and direct-feed morsel I could find; I even watched some of Gamespot's 12-hour playtest, which I had originally dismissed as being the most retarded idea I'd ever heard. Here's the funny part - I bought Morrowind - twice, for both PC and Xbox - but while I really appreciated the concept, I never got further than reaching the first quest-related town of Balmora before I lost interest. Between the two platforms I probably put in a total of 8 hours. Why, then, was Oblivion such a coveted purchase? Why was I so deeply enamored with a sequel to a game I'd hardly put any effort into? Was I a sucker for PR? I don't even own an HDTV, so it's not like my inner graphics-whore/crack-addict was going to receive that sort of gratification...2. On the Xbox, I was tempted to say it's the GTA Double Pack and/or Fable (I was also excited for KOTOR, but not to the same extent, even if its become one of my all-time favorites), but I think it has to be Psychonauts, which had been first announced in 2002 and was one of my primary reasons for buying an Xbox in the first place (along with the Oddworld games, which, sadly, weren't all they could have been). That Psychonauts managed to still be awesome under the weight of years of expectations is a remarkable achievement, even if the Meat Circus ended up driving me (and many others) totally batshit insane.
3. On the PC... well, to be honest, it's been quite a long time since my PC was my primary gaming center, and I can't recall being amped up for a game that I knew I was only going to be playing on my PC. I did get excited for Neverwinter Nights, I guess, but that wasn't an all-encompassing hunger. And I'm not afraid to admit that I've been looking forward for Duke Nukem Forever for, well, forever - and when they finally get around to releasing DukeNukem 3D for XBLA, I will DEFINITELY be going crazy for it.
After that... well, I'm not sure. When I was a little kid with an Atari 2600, I really can't recall getting excited about new releases, because (a) there was no internet, (b) since my parents bought the games for me, I had no choice in the matter as to what to get excited about. If anything, I would get excited to get games that other friends of mine already had. Same thing with my brother's Sega Genesis, which I never bought games for, either. But by the same token, we could play all those old games OVER and OVER and OVER again - we didn't necessarily need anything new when we could keep having fun with what we already had. (Boy, I miss those days!)
So, what about you? What games have you been unable to sit still for?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Back in NYC
It's been a while since I've posted here, which is understandable as I was in London all of last week and, therefore, completely out of the game-playing loop. I came home to find a GameFlown copy of Condemned 2 waiting for me, which was nice, except... I played it for about 30 minutes and had to turn it off.
The problem with Condemned 2 is simply that it's relentlessly bleak and ugly and fucking horrifying, and that's not necessarily a mood that I can just jump into after coming back from a vacation. I still do absolutely want to play it, but I need to be in the right mood, and as of yet I've just not been yearning to climb into an abyss of morbid death.
To be honest, I've not really been yearning to play much of anything these days; I do need to finish Lost Odyssey (and I really, really want to finish it), and now that it's been patched I want to start up on Bully. But I'm not, like, making time for those games right now; I've not kicked my wife out of the living room because I've got to get my fix.
That being said, I think it's fair to say that I am officially beyond-hyped up for GTA4, now that the info and screenshots are coming on a regular basis and we're getting massive previews in magazines. I am indeed contemplating taking that week off from work. I've written more than a few times on my old GS blog about my infatuation for the franchise; it's one of the only game franchises that I care about so deeply that I feel protective over it. I might even go as far to say that it's why I enjoyed Saint's Row as much as I did; SR was the most obvious clone there's ever been and nobody was ready to hate it more than me, and yet it was also the most playable and genuinely enjoyable, and it actually raised my expectations for what GTA4 needed to do. If SR had any particular failing (aside from being unoriginal), it was that it was forgettable; I spent a great deal of time playing that game, but I find that I can't really remember anything about the city, whereas I remember almost every inch of GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas, and for me, that's really the make-or-break criteria for these sandbox games - the sandboxes themselves. There's lots of games now where you can simply run around in a nonlinear fashion, exploring at random or just blowing shit up, but the GTA games absolutely excel at creating memorable, believable environments. SR was just a city; it had all the major elements a city needs to be plausible, but the city itself didn't really have any style. GTA3's version of Liberty City may be primitive by today's technological standards, but that city made sense. Vice City was very clearly a place; you knew right off the bat where (and when) you were, and San Andreas took that concept and multiplied it by a billion.
So what gets me so incredibly excited about GTA4, then, is that they didn't take my idea of expanding on the LA/SanFran/Vegas concept of San Andreas and blowing it up to be the entire country of England (although, let's be honest, that would fucking rule - who wouldn't want to blow up Stonehenge? and can you imagine that soundtrack?); instead, rather than painting in broad strokes, they decided to reinterpret Liberty City to be as real and as detailed as possible. Now, maybe it's just because I've lived in and around New York City for all of my 32 years, but I absolutely cannot wait to run around and see what this new Liberty City is like. My favorite moments in playing GTA games have always come from simply exploring what there is to see. I've said it before and I'll say it again; one of my all-time favorite moments in all my years of gaming was going to the cliff behind the mobster's house in GTA3 and watching the sun rise, if only because that was the first time I'd ever been given the opportunity to do something that innocent. (I suppose I'll have no choice, then, but to go down to the Liberty City equivalent of the South Street Seaport and watch the sun rise there, too, since that's something I've actually done in real life.)
Work beckons. Anyway, this post was simply to say that I'm still alive and will (hopefully) be posting more frequently, even if nobody's reading. I actually do have some other things I want to talk about - especially about my initial disappointment in what's happening with GiantBomb.
The problem with Condemned 2 is simply that it's relentlessly bleak and ugly and fucking horrifying, and that's not necessarily a mood that I can just jump into after coming back from a vacation. I still do absolutely want to play it, but I need to be in the right mood, and as of yet I've just not been yearning to climb into an abyss of morbid death.
To be honest, I've not really been yearning to play much of anything these days; I do need to finish Lost Odyssey (and I really, really want to finish it), and now that it's been patched I want to start up on Bully. But I'm not, like, making time for those games right now; I've not kicked my wife out of the living room because I've got to get my fix.
That being said, I think it's fair to say that I am officially beyond-hyped up for GTA4, now that the info and screenshots are coming on a regular basis and we're getting massive previews in magazines. I am indeed contemplating taking that week off from work. I've written more than a few times on my old GS blog about my infatuation for the franchise; it's one of the only game franchises that I care about so deeply that I feel protective over it. I might even go as far to say that it's why I enjoyed Saint's Row as much as I did; SR was the most obvious clone there's ever been and nobody was ready to hate it more than me, and yet it was also the most playable and genuinely enjoyable, and it actually raised my expectations for what GTA4 needed to do. If SR had any particular failing (aside from being unoriginal), it was that it was forgettable; I spent a great deal of time playing that game, but I find that I can't really remember anything about the city, whereas I remember almost every inch of GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas, and for me, that's really the make-or-break criteria for these sandbox games - the sandboxes themselves. There's lots of games now where you can simply run around in a nonlinear fashion, exploring at random or just blowing shit up, but the GTA games absolutely excel at creating memorable, believable environments. SR was just a city; it had all the major elements a city needs to be plausible, but the city itself didn't really have any style. GTA3's version of Liberty City may be primitive by today's technological standards, but that city made sense. Vice City was very clearly a place; you knew right off the bat where (and when) you were, and San Andreas took that concept and multiplied it by a billion.
So what gets me so incredibly excited about GTA4, then, is that they didn't take my idea of expanding on the LA/SanFran/Vegas concept of San Andreas and blowing it up to be the entire country of England (although, let's be honest, that would fucking rule - who wouldn't want to blow up Stonehenge? and can you imagine that soundtrack?); instead, rather than painting in broad strokes, they decided to reinterpret Liberty City to be as real and as detailed as possible. Now, maybe it's just because I've lived in and around New York City for all of my 32 years, but I absolutely cannot wait to run around and see what this new Liberty City is like. My favorite moments in playing GTA games have always come from simply exploring what there is to see. I've said it before and I'll say it again; one of my all-time favorite moments in all my years of gaming was going to the cliff behind the mobster's house in GTA3 and watching the sun rise, if only because that was the first time I'd ever been given the opportunity to do something that innocent. (I suppose I'll have no choice, then, but to go down to the Liberty City equivalent of the South Street Seaport and watch the sun rise there, too, since that's something I've actually done in real life.)
Work beckons. Anyway, this post was simply to say that I'm still alive and will (hopefully) be posting more frequently, even if nobody's reading. I actually do have some other things I want to talk about - especially about my initial disappointment in what's happening with GiantBomb.
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