...I am now employed in the game industry. The next step on my journey to total awesomeness has been taken.
I think I'm now at TOTA. Only 12 more steps remain.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Saw That Comming
I beat Castlevania: Lords of Shadow today. The ending was fairly epic. As I mentioned before the story is very well written and has plenty of twists to it. I knew there was supposed to be a big plot twist at the end because of a Game Informer article about the top ten moments in 2010. Number one on the list was an entry for LoS subtitled "Didn't see that coming". I immediately screamed and shut the magazine. I HATE spoilers or even hints about spoilers, or even knowing that there is something to spoil. I'm rarely surprised by movies/games/etc. and I like it when I get the chance to be. I had a feeling I knew what it was but I wasn't certain. About half way through the game I started to get a feeling about where certain things were headed. But then I accidentally found out who the last boss was which would have been a great surprise! I thought maybe that was what they were talking about. Turns out there are two big ending surprises, and the final boss was not the big one! It also turns out I was right. I love being right.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Vampire Killer
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is turning out to be a really good game. I have discovered that the key to its enjoyment is to play on the lowest difficulty. I was originally playing on "warrior" but I was pulling my hair out with frustration, so I dropped down to "squire". I know, kind of embarrassing to be a mere squire but that's how it is. The difference as far as I can tell is how much damage enemies do to you and (most importantly) how much life you restart with after a death. On warrior if you restart at a checkpoint you have as much life as you had when you got there. The problem is that I was being pushed into boss fights with 30% health and dieing almost instantly, over and over. Add in the fact that I had to look at a goddamn load screen and have to pause and select "skip cut-scene" every time and a controller throwing event was imminent.
Lords of Shadow handles health in such a way that the better you do the more health you can recover. Let me see if I can explain. Initially, the only way to heal is to find a health shrine and absorb all of its glowy green goodness. These are few and far between however so in the beginning of the game you're really playing to survive between these shrines. This wasn't too much trouble though because they place them before major encounters. Then you get light magic which you can use to heal yourself but it's not as simple as just casting "heal". Here is were it gets complicated. For most of the game you have two gauges, one for light magic and one for dark magic. These magics let you perform certain moves and abilities buy activating the magic and then performing the move. You have a limited amount of magic and you have to replenish your magic by absorbing neutral energy orbs. These orbs are dropped by enemies and can then be sucked up into either magic gauge with the left and right stick buttons. The problem is that you can't just defeat the enemies, you have to have a high focus. Focus is yet another gauge that fills up the more you hit enemies without getting hit yourself. It fills faster if you use a variety of combos. The higher the focus the more orbs the enemies drop. If you want to heal you have active your light magic and then hit an enemy. Some of the damage you do will be converted into health.
See the problem yet? If you want to heal yourself, you have to hit enemies without getting hit yourself long enough to make them drop orbs, stop to absorb the orbs (which makes you vulnerable for a second), then active light magic and hit some more enemies to actually get the health. And no, enemies hit while light magic is active will not drop more orbs. So you can see where entering a boss fight with low health and no light magic would be an issue.
Anyway, on "squire" the game feels right and balanced. All that bullshit I just explained above flows more naturally and is actually kind of fun. A lot of people point out (our maybe even complain) that this is a God of War rip off. I can see why people would say that, both games are overhead action games involving a chain weapon. But that's like saying Sonic the Hedgehog is a Super Mario Bros. ripoff because you run from left to right and jump on enemies' heads. God of War doesn't own the bloody action game genre. I would also point out that Castlevania has been around since 1986 and has always involved a whip. So who's copying who? Another comparison people make is Shadow of the Colossus. This is because of the Titan bosses that you have to climb up to defeat. I think it's also an apt comparison because both games are beautiful! Really both GoW and Shadow are great games so who cares if LoS is similar? That to me it's a good thing.
I do want to mention the story before I wrap this up. Much like Black Ops I didn't expect the story to be as good as it is, but finding out what happens next has become a real motivation for me to keep playing. Just like Black Ops I feel like I know how it's going to end, but at the same time I'm not sure. It seems like anything can happen. Lost did that very well, baiting you with little bits of subtle foreshadowing that you knew were somehow important but it wasn't clear how. I watched that show rabidly. I wanted to find out if my theories were correct. We've reached a point where more and more video games are able to deliver that same kind of storytelling. Having read comments from others I know I'm in for some surprises with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I can't wait to see what they are.
Lords of Shadow handles health in such a way that the better you do the more health you can recover. Let me see if I can explain. Initially, the only way to heal is to find a health shrine and absorb all of its glowy green goodness. These are few and far between however so in the beginning of the game you're really playing to survive between these shrines. This wasn't too much trouble though because they place them before major encounters. Then you get light magic which you can use to heal yourself but it's not as simple as just casting "heal". Here is were it gets complicated. For most of the game you have two gauges, one for light magic and one for dark magic. These magics let you perform certain moves and abilities buy activating the magic and then performing the move. You have a limited amount of magic and you have to replenish your magic by absorbing neutral energy orbs. These orbs are dropped by enemies and can then be sucked up into either magic gauge with the left and right stick buttons. The problem is that you can't just defeat the enemies, you have to have a high focus. Focus is yet another gauge that fills up the more you hit enemies without getting hit yourself. It fills faster if you use a variety of combos. The higher the focus the more orbs the enemies drop. If you want to heal you have active your light magic and then hit an enemy. Some of the damage you do will be converted into health.
See the problem yet? If you want to heal yourself, you have to hit enemies without getting hit yourself long enough to make them drop orbs, stop to absorb the orbs (which makes you vulnerable for a second), then active light magic and hit some more enemies to actually get the health. And no, enemies hit while light magic is active will not drop more orbs. So you can see where entering a boss fight with low health and no light magic would be an issue.
Anyway, on "squire" the game feels right and balanced. All that bullshit I just explained above flows more naturally and is actually kind of fun. A lot of people point out (our maybe even complain) that this is a God of War rip off. I can see why people would say that, both games are overhead action games involving a chain weapon. But that's like saying Sonic the Hedgehog is a Super Mario Bros. ripoff because you run from left to right and jump on enemies' heads. God of War doesn't own the bloody action game genre. I would also point out that Castlevania has been around since 1986 and has always involved a whip. So who's copying who? Another comparison people make is Shadow of the Colossus. This is because of the Titan bosses that you have to climb up to defeat. I think it's also an apt comparison because both games are beautiful! Really both GoW and Shadow are great games so who cares if LoS is similar? That to me it's a good thing.
I do want to mention the story before I wrap this up. Much like Black Ops I didn't expect the story to be as good as it is, but finding out what happens next has become a real motivation for me to keep playing. Just like Black Ops I feel like I know how it's going to end, but at the same time I'm not sure. It seems like anything can happen. Lost did that very well, baiting you with little bits of subtle foreshadowing that you knew were somehow important but it wasn't clear how. I watched that show rabidly. I wanted to find out if my theories were correct. We've reached a point where more and more video games are able to deliver that same kind of storytelling. Having read comments from others I know I'm in for some surprises with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I can't wait to see what they are.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
February Made Me Shiver
Almost a month since the last post. School has been kicking my ass. I really bit off more than I could chew with this semester and I've already had to withdraw from one class. So that's more of my money that Wake Tech gets for nothing.
Last month just kinda sucked. My new (to me) car broke a week after I got it and it's been in the shop since, getting one transmission part or another replaced, my mechanic's shoulders hung in a perpetual shrug. Then my computer got fried. Like the mother won't boot to BIOS fried. On the up side I bought this to replace it:
Samsung RC512. I spent waaay more than I wanted to but my desire to finally have a machine that could handle everything I needed outweighed my usual obsessive thriftiness.
I'm sure there was some other January bullshit but I'm too tired to remember any of it right now which I suppose is good. The TV and headphones (see last post) are awesome. I had heard some recommendations against the wireless version of the X11s but I'm kind of wishing I had gotten them. The cord is really long which is awesome but it gets in the way sometimes and I end up bumping the volume knobs accidentally. Also I have to take them off to go make a sandwich or take a bathroom break. That's right, I used to party chat in the bathroom. It happened and I'm not sorry.
So despite all the work I have to do I've made plenty of time for my habit. Lords of Shadow is an impressive game but it's god-awful hard. I have yet to turn that game off in a fashion that didn't involve screaming. The free download of Symphony of the Night was way more fun. I'm still trying to beat the game as Richter. Difficult but not to the point where I want to stop playing.
The last couple of days I put my borrowed copy of ES4: Oblivion in and quickly sacrificed some hours of my life to its beautiful altar. It really is a fantastic game! I never want to turn it off, to the detriment of sleep (always badly needed at this point) and food. I don't even know who's game it is. One of my wife's co-workers lent it to her months ago thinking she might play it (yeah right) and I tried it out. Thinking they would want it back I didn't let myself get too into it but it's been a while and they never asked for it back so... YOINK! Maybe It's like the monkey's paw, and they were just trying to get rid of it on some other doomed soul with a wish in their heart. A wish for awesome video games.
Last month just kinda sucked. My new (to me) car broke a week after I got it and it's been in the shop since, getting one transmission part or another replaced, my mechanic's shoulders hung in a perpetual shrug. Then my computer got fried. Like the mother won't boot to BIOS fried. On the up side I bought this to replace it:
Samsung RC512. I spent waaay more than I wanted to but my desire to finally have a machine that could handle everything I needed outweighed my usual obsessive thriftiness.
I'm sure there was some other January bullshit but I'm too tired to remember any of it right now which I suppose is good. The TV and headphones (see last post) are awesome. I had heard some recommendations against the wireless version of the X11s but I'm kind of wishing I had gotten them. The cord is really long which is awesome but it gets in the way sometimes and I end up bumping the volume knobs accidentally. Also I have to take them off to go make a sandwich or take a bathroom break. That's right, I used to party chat in the bathroom. It happened and I'm not sorry.
So despite all the work I have to do I've made plenty of time for my habit. Lords of Shadow is an impressive game but it's god-awful hard. I have yet to turn that game off in a fashion that didn't involve screaming. The free download of Symphony of the Night was way more fun. I'm still trying to beat the game as Richter. Difficult but not to the point where I want to stop playing.
The last couple of days I put my borrowed copy of ES4: Oblivion in and quickly sacrificed some hours of my life to its beautiful altar. It really is a fantastic game! I never want to turn it off, to the detriment of sleep (always badly needed at this point) and food. I don't even know who's game it is. One of my wife's co-workers lent it to her months ago thinking she might play it (yeah right) and I tried it out. Thinking they would want it back I didn't let myself get too into it but it's been a while and they never asked for it back so... YOINK! Maybe It's like the monkey's paw, and they were just trying to get rid of it on some other doomed soul with a wish in their heart. A wish for awesome video games.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
(new).jpg)
December Recap part 3
I got the duluxe package which came with a very nice art book, a CD with the game's soundtrack, and a free download of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for XBLA. I had some things to say about C:LoS but cares? I got Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! It's all I've played. I've come to the conclusion that there is no reason to make more Castlevania games. This is it. I have no problem putting it in the top ten best games ever made. EVER. How much do I like this game? I've played through it three times on the original PS1 version. This is my fourth playthrough. I spent eighty bucks on the collector's edition of this game. Every dollar worth it just to play SotN.
OK Enough gushing, it's pretty good but.... grklhrk... cruun!!...hruklemurrkk!! I WOULD HAVE THIS GAME'S BABY!!!! I WOULD GET DOWN IN FRONT OF IT ON MY KNEES AND SERVICE.... No! Focus! Control! Get a hold of yourself! You swore to leave that life behind you and you're not going to mess it up now!
So yeah Lords of Shadow is a game that I have, the end. Actually funny story, my wife had intended to buy it for me for my birthday. I had not asked for it nor even mentioned its existence to her. She was annoyed that I bought it but I was very impressed that she's learned my tastes to that extent.
December Recap part 2
I'm not going to write a full review of Black Ops. It's sold a bajillion copies and it's a great game. This you already know. I do want to talk about it though because a bajillion-selling game needs to be spoken of, the way an exploding gas main or nude co-worker needs to be spoken of. The situation demands commentary.
First I'd like to praise the campaign's story. It's not often I want to keep playing a game to find out what happens, and it's certainly rare for an FPS. It's not that Black Ops wasn't predictable. I had an inkling of the outcome and I wasn't far off. I think I wanted to keep playing to find out if my theory was right. The campaign itself had some bumpy spots where fun gave way to frustration but for the most part I enjoyed it.
I was disappointed to hear that titles and emblems would not be unlocked in multiplayer via the completion of challenges. One of the things I liked most about MW2 was that not only could you customize your title but you got those titles by feats of awesomeness. In this way your title/emblem was both an expression of your personality and a way to show off what you'd accomplished. My title/emblem combined the following:
"Kill every member of the enemy team without dying (at least 4 enemies)."
with
"Kill an enemy, Pick up his weapon, then kill him again with his own weapon."
I felt that was a combination that both spoke of who I was and what I was capable of. While I was disappointed that you would be able to have whatever you wanted I was excited that emblems would be custom creations using a layer system similar to Forza's. Once I unlocked the emblem feature I went strait to work to create my dream emblem... only to find out how limited it was. You only have 12 layers, the color pallet is shallow, you have to buy layers AND shapes, and shapes cannot be skewed or warped, only turned and resized. Even as limited as it is it's fun to create emblems, and there is a prestige element in that you have to pay for everything, and shapes are unlocked by level a little bit at a time. So you can't have a bitch'n emblem without spending some time in the game. I've seen some pretty impressive emblems, and I'm going to try to take some pictures and post them here.
Gun Game. The wager match thing is a cool idea but it's overshadowed by the best of its 4 gametypes, gun game. Holy crap this game is fun. It's got the raw feel of bare bones deathmatch but you get to use 20 different guns in one match (assuming you do well)! There is no thrill greater than scoring that final tricky kill with the ballistic knife. There is no agony like the sting of someone's backstab sending you back to the crossbow at the last second. The first time it happened to me I howled like a grieving mother over the corpse of her child. It was... bone chilling, unreal, amazing.
Also, glitchy networking. Fix it.
Finally, how cool is it that you can play with the old DOS-esq computer? It has ZORK!
cd C:FUN
First I'd like to praise the campaign's story. It's not often I want to keep playing a game to find out what happens, and it's certainly rare for an FPS. It's not that Black Ops wasn't predictable. I had an inkling of the outcome and I wasn't far off. I think I wanted to keep playing to find out if my theory was right. The campaign itself had some bumpy spots where fun gave way to frustration but for the most part I enjoyed it.
I was disappointed to hear that titles and emblems would not be unlocked in multiplayer via the completion of challenges. One of the things I liked most about MW2 was that not only could you customize your title but you got those titles by feats of awesomeness. In this way your title/emblem was both an expression of your personality and a way to show off what you'd accomplished. My title/emblem combined the following:
"Kill every member of the enemy team without dying (at least 4 enemies)."
with
"Kill an enemy, Pick up his weapon, then kill him again with his own weapon."
I felt that was a combination that both spoke of who I was and what I was capable of. While I was disappointed that you would be able to have whatever you wanted I was excited that emblems would be custom creations using a layer system similar to Forza's. Once I unlocked the emblem feature I went strait to work to create my dream emblem... only to find out how limited it was. You only have 12 layers, the color pallet is shallow, you have to buy layers AND shapes, and shapes cannot be skewed or warped, only turned and resized. Even as limited as it is it's fun to create emblems, and there is a prestige element in that you have to pay for everything, and shapes are unlocked by level a little bit at a time. So you can't have a bitch'n emblem without spending some time in the game. I've seen some pretty impressive emblems, and I'm going to try to take some pictures and post them here.
Gun Game. The wager match thing is a cool idea but it's overshadowed by the best of its 4 gametypes, gun game. Holy crap this game is fun. It's got the raw feel of bare bones deathmatch but you get to use 20 different guns in one match (assuming you do well)! There is no thrill greater than scoring that final tricky kill with the ballistic knife. There is no agony like the sting of someone's backstab sending you back to the crossbow at the last second. The first time it happened to me I howled like a grieving mother over the corpse of her child. It was... bone chilling, unreal, amazing.
Also, glitchy networking. Fix it.
Finally, how cool is it that you can play with the old DOS-esq computer? It has ZORK!
cd C:FUN
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