Thursday notes . . .

Again, not much going on gaming-wise. Looks like my new "thing" is to not finish any games I start. The latest casualties being God of War III and Heavy Rain. I was really into GoW, made it to the final boss, died a few times, and have since lost interest. I never fully got into Heavy Rain. It is an interesting game, but I can't really say it is a "fun" game. I hope to beat it eventually, if I ever get the urge to go back to it.

When I have decided to game lately I've been playing Forza III and Red Faction: Guerilla. Both are great games , yet I'm just not feeling gaming at the moment.

And I am actually glad. I'm getting more things done and enjoying my nights more now that I don't get home from work and sit in front of my couch for hours playing a game. Time flies when you are engulfed in a good game, and it is never a good feeling when you look at the clock, realize you just spent your entire night playing a game, and you now have to take a shower and go to bed because you have work the next day.

So, I hope to stay in this zone for a while. I don't anticipate any game coming out soon that will suck me back in. I haven't picked up Splinter Cell: Conviction yet (and don't feel the need to) and the only other game I want that is coming out soon is Red Dead Redemption. I'm not even that excited about the Halo: Reach Beta.

But I'll tell you what I am excited for. My damn Camaro. My VW Golf is hanging on by a thin thread and if my new ride doesn't get here soon I may be without a car for a while. So, I need it to get here for practical reasons, but I also need it to get here because the anticipation is killing!

In movie news, I saw Kick-Ass this weekend and loved it. Man, the movie caught me by surprise. I didn't expect it to be as violent and gory as it was. And I also didn't expect it to be as serious at times too. Plenty of funny, over the top moments, but the movie can be pretty brutal at times, leaving the viewer not sure if they should be laughing or shocked. But it was great overall.

Chiming in . . .

Not much going on in the gaming front.  For the past week the only gaming I have done are occasional matches of MW2, in which I have been doing average at best.

 

I haven't played Heavy Rain in over a week.  I was enjoying the game for the most part, then I got to one section that was getting a little annoying (have to hold down a ton of buttons at one time) and I turned it off.  Now, whenever I think about playing the game I remember that section that I am currently in and I decide not to play.  Hopefully I'll get back into it soon since I want to at least beat the game, yet at the moment I am not interested.

 

God of War III comes out today and I am definitely looking forward to that.  My schedule is hectic this week however so I won't be able to pick it up until Thursday the earliest.

 

That's about it.  The only other thing going on is that I am in the process of buying a new car.  My 2001 Golf has reached the point where the repairs it needs costs more than the value of the car.  So, its time is limited.  I have also completely fallen in love with the new Chevy Camaro and even if my Golf was in tip-top shape (which its not) I'd be looking to get rid of it anyway.

 

I've been researching the Camaro for a few months now and I am shopping around for a deal.  That seems to be taking up a lot of time.  I think I am spending more time on car sites these days than gaming sites.  I simply CAN'T WAIT to finally (hopefully) get this car.

 

Fingers are crossed.

 

2009 Game of the Year Awards

Alright, late as always, but here are my picks.  Will try to be brief, since this post always ends up being long. 

 

2009 Game of the Year

 

Batman: Arkham Asylum

 

Simply the most fun I had gaming in 2009.  Rocksteady really hit it out of the park.  Not only did they produce a great Batman game (which hadn't been done before), but it ends up being my favorite game of the year.  Impressive.  I played through this twice, which is something I rarely do anymore.  Last time I beat a game twice was with my 2008 GotY, Dead Space.  Maybe subliminally that's my criteria for this category.

 

Runner-up:

 

Demons Souls

 

It was a close race.  Batman had it locked up until I popped Demons Souls in my PS3.  Talk about an innovative title.  On paper, the things I like most about this game sound awful: No checkpoints, dying sends you back to the beginning of the level (even if in a boss fight), dying also then reduces your HP by half, etc.  But surprisingly, it is all those design choices that make this game truly special.

 

PS3 Game of the Year

 

Demons Souls

 

See my comments above.  It almost beat Batman for the top prize, so it easily wins the PS3 category.

 

Runner-up:

 

Uncharted 2

 

On a technical level, Uncharted topped every game released in 2009 (or before it).  Naughty Dog has fully tapped into the PS3's power and the result was a visual marvel that awed at every corner.  Throw in what I considered the best voice acting of the year (or again, ever), and you have one wild, entertaining ride.

 

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

 

The single-player let me down, as I didn't find it as memorable as CoD4's, but this series stopped being about single-player a while back.  The follow-up to my favorite online game continues the trend.  Yes, I have my frustrations about the connection quality sometimes, I hate the riot shield, Commando Perk, and anything Akimbo, but it is still the most fun I have playing on Xbox Live.

 

Runner-up:

 

Assassin's Creed 2

 

Taking the fantastic foundation of the first game (read: engine, controls), Ubisoft actually managed to make a game out of it this time, with a MUCH better structure, narrative and just about everything else.  A true example of a sequel taking all the flaws of its predecessor and fixing them.

 

Live Arcade Game of the Year

 

Secret of Monkey Island

 

I never played the original since I was never a PC gamer, but I always wanted to.  It was worth the wait.  Fantastic adventure game and a genuingly funny gaming experience.

 

Runner-up:

 

Shadow Complex

 

Metroidvania at its best.  Great job taking a classic gaming style and updating it.

 

PSN Game of the Year

 

FlOwer

 

This was the only PSN game I played last year.  Thankfully it was a good one.  The last few levels were a bit too weird and dark for my liking, but overall it was a very unique and relaxing game.

 

Best Sports Game

 

MLB: The Show 09

 

This is getting redundant.  Will any game take this category back?  The Show is simply the best sports sim out there (That I've played.  I hear the NHL series has been great the last few years).

 

Runner-up:

 

Madden 2010

 

Looks like the Madden team managed to finally back up their off-season promises .  For the most part at least.  It takes some slider tweaks, but Madden 2010 was probably the best in the franchise.  Keep at it guys!  Pretty soon you'll have this series where it should have been 5 years ago.

 

Best Graphics

 

Uncharted 2

 

Hands down easy win here.  Uncharted 2 is gorgeous from every possible angle.

 

Runner-up:

 

Killzone 2

 

If you would have told me prior to its release that Killzone 2 would NOT be winning "best graphics of 2009" I wouldn't have believed you.  The game is absolutely gorgeous.  But as great as it looks, Uncharted is the current king of making my jaw drop.

 

Best Multiplayer

 

Modern Warfare 2

 

I mean really?  This game won my 360 GotY because of its multiplayer alone.  It wasn't even close here.

 

Runner-up

 

Demon's Souls

 

As you can see, I am not much of an online deathmatch guy aside from MW.  I'm sure Halo: ODST could have been a contender here.  Or Battlefield 1943.  But not for me.  Demon's Souls, on the other hand, wins for its ingenious and unique way of incorporating multiplayer into a single-player experience.

 

Surprise game of 2009

 

Demon's Souls

 

I think I heard about this game for the first time a few weeks before its release.  Wow.  Not bad when your runner-up to GotY was a complete surprise.

 

Runner-ups:

 

Batman: Arkham Asylum

 

Sure, it looked good and I had high hopes, but somewhere in the back of my mind I didn't think Rocksteady was going to pull it off.  They sure proved me wrong.

 

InFamous

 

While I had heard of this title way before release, it didn't interest me at all.  The I played the demo and realized I should have been paying more attention.  Solid action/adventure title.  Bring on the sequel.

 

Shadow Complex

 

Didn't think much of this title when it was announced.  Little did I know it would be an homage to the great Metroid and Castlevania games from my youth.  Great title!

 

Biggest Disapointment

 

Full price for Halo: ODST

 

I thoroughly enjoyed ODST.  It was a fun experience that felt like classic Halo at times, but was different enough to feel unique.  But this is definitely NOT a $59.99 title.  This should have been released at $29.99.  $39.99 at the most.

 

Runner-up:

 

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

 

Not so much a disappointment since I became interested in the title close to its release, and even then I wasn't feverishly awaiting it, but after playing it I like many, many things about it, but technical flaws and extremely troublesome A.I. teammates really make this game far more of a chore than it needs to be.

 

Best Sophmore Effort

 

Assassin's Creed 2

 

This is how you make a sequel.  Address its flaws, keep what works, add a ton of stuff.  Great job.

 

Runner-up

 

Uncharted 2

 

Even though overall I enjoyed Uncharted 2 more than AC2, the upgrade in overall quality was not as big a jump in Uncharted as it was in AC.  That is more of a compliment to the original Uncharted than a knock against its sequel.

 

My Most Anticipated Release of 2010

 

Last Guardian

 

Anything from Team Ico will be my most anticipated game that particular year.  These people can do no wrong

 

Alright, that's all.  One year I'll get this list out at the end of the year, instead of 3 months into the new one . . .

 

Darksiders

Back in the day, I was a huge comic book fan.  I still have boxes of them in my old room at my dad's house.  Towards the end of my comic book run, the very last series I began to collect was Battle Chasers.  I was actually done with comics when Battle Chasers came out, but once I saw my friend's copy of the first issue, I was back in.  I absolutely LOVE Joe Madureira's art style.  Especially his take on fantasy.  So Battle Chasers was right up my alley.

 

Of course Battle Chasers had a troubled history.  It would take months for the issues to come out and eventually, it just died off, ending after only 9 issues.  Apparently Joe was busy with other things.  Like breaking into the videogame business.

 

Well, fast forward to today and Joe is the creative director to Darksiders, which I picked up on Saturday, partly because I played the game at PAX and enjoyed it, partly because I love Joe Mad's art, but mostly because it comes with a code that you can redeem for a free copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla.  That's right, each new copy comes with this lovely code.  Since I always meant to pick up Red Faction, this 2 for 1 deal was too good to pass up.  Besides, the reviews for Darksiders were solid.

 

So far, about 5 hours in, I am really enjoying the game.  I love it when I am pleasantly surprised by a game I was initially not very interested in (inFAMOUS being the last that I recall).  In fact, I am REALLY enjoying it.

 

A large portion of my enjoyment is coming from the art style.  Like I said, I freaking love Joe Mad's work.  All the character designs are right up my alley.  Visually, the game is great, although it doesn't impress so much on a technical level as it does on an artistic one.  If you break down the visuals, there are plenty of other game that look better, but the art style and especially the color pallette, is just superb.  The color scheme is bright and colorful, which I was not expecting given the post-apocalyptic theme.  But I am glad they went against the grain here.  The world is vibrant and alive.  The game does have a "cartoonish" look to it, which I know some people don't enjoy (they want a darker, more realistic look), but like I said, I love Joe Mad's style and I think it suits the game just fine.  In fact, the visuals remind me a lot of the Jak and Daxter games on the PS2.  Large areas, colorful visuals, and an animated feel to the characters.

 

Gameplay-wise, you cannot read a review that does not compare the game to Zelda.  It certainly does have a Zelda-feel to its design.  You acquire new items and power-ups which you then use to reach previously restricted areas.  You mostly acquire these in a "dungeon" and once acquired, you use it extensively to solve that dungeon's puzzles and to defeat its boss.  However, for some reason, the Zelda-influence is not beating me over the head like it has to others.  For sure Zelda was a huge inspiration, but it is not the only game it borrows from.  Combat borrows a bit from God of War, but only in that it is often times brutal in execution, and weakening enemies often trigger a "finishing move" you can activate by pressing a button (these are always done by just pressing that one button however, no elaborate QTE like in GoW).  Enemies drop souls of various color which you collect, but what game nowadays does not use some variation of this?

 

The game's controls took me a little while to get used to.  They feel great and everything is basically mapped where you would expect it to be, but sometimes you are required to hold down various buttons and triggers at the same time to do what you want and that can get confusing.

 

On the audio-side, voice acting is actually very good.  War himself has an appropriate somber delivery and the other characters (which mostly consist of demons) have their grunting, gargoling, ethereal voices down.  I haven't noticed the music much, which means it at least is not bad.  Sound effects are excellent however.  I've been playing with my headphones, and the clanging of blades, environmental ambient sounds, footsetps on different terrain, etc., all sound excellent.

 

I'm only 5 hours in, so I have plenty to discover and unlock, but so far, I have greatly enjoyed myself, and considering the free copy of Red Faction heading my way, this is actually one of the better purchases I've done in a while.

 

More Mass Effect . . .

I finished Mass Effect 2 a few nights ago.  Overall, I really enjoyed it.  It is better than the first one in almost everyday.  My total playtime was around 40 hours I believe.  I probably spent more time mining planets than I wanted.

 

Even though I clocked in over 40 hours, I felt like the main storyline was pretty brief and not as satisfying as the first game.  Looking back, you spend about 70% of the game recruiting your team and earning their "loyalty".  By the time your team is fully assembled and you take on the main quest, it is over in a heartbeat, and I found that disheartening.

 

The game's climax also wasn't as impressive as the first one's, in my opinion, although it was still plenty exciting.  I managed to finish the game without losing any teammates, since apparently you can lose multiple mates.  In fact, you can lose your entire time and even Shepard bites the dust if you make certain decisions, leaving Joker the sole survivor.  I find that very interesting and wonder how that will play our for the 3rd game.

 

I did enjoy the final mission, as you really have to assume command and make plenty of decisions about what to do and which teammates to send to do certain tasks.  I take it that this plays heavily into determining who survives, since choosing badly and sending someone not "qualified" for a certain job probably results in them not making it.  This is all just speculation on my point though.  Bottom line, that final missions was pretty cool and I wish there were more missions like that, where your entire team is involved.  I actually hope that all of ME3's main quest missions use a variation of this, since it makes more sense than 3 individuals going off and doing everything while the others are hanging out on the Normandy.

 

I want to do another playthrough, importing my new ME2 character, but I'm worried how that will affect my ME3 import.  I want to make sure all the decisions I made in this first playthrough are the ones to carry over to ME3, but I want to mess around in my 2nd playthrough and make some drastically different decisions to see how they play out.  Not sure how that will work.

 

Anyway, fantastic game.  I'd say early runner for GotY but it is only February, much to early to even be mentioning that.

 

Speaking of which, I've yet to name my GotY for 2009 . . .

 

Mass Effect 2 impressions

I've had zero time the last few weeks for much of anything, aside from
work, sleep and family issues. I leave my house in the early morning
and get home late at night.

I've struggled to squeeze in time with ME2 when I can. Sure, it cuts
into my sleep time (and boy could I use sleep time), but it also helps
get my mind off things and is a much needed and appreciated escape. So
over the last two weeks I've managed to give about 20+ hours to the
game.

My impressions so far are very positive. Leading up to this release I
began re-playing the original ME to polish up on the storyline. That
didn't work, and I just gave up a quarter of the way through, since I
started this endeavor just days prior to ME2's release and I ended up
with the shiny new copy of the sequel staring at me every time I booted
up the original. While those few hours with the original were still
enjoyable, on a technical level, the game didn't hold up as well. The
load times, stuttering and texture pop-in, are a much bigger deal now
than they were two years ago. And the combat mechanics feel even more
stiff and rough-around-the-edges. So I just read a quick plot synopsis
on-line, re-watched the game's finale on Youtube, and I was up-to-date
on the events of the first game (it all started coming back to me
anyway).

Well, onto the sequel. First, importing my character from the 1st game
was a snap. I hear that some gamers who have multiple characters are
having problems choosing the one they want to import, but since I only
had one, the import process was a simple one. Since we're on the
subject, I will say that the way they implement your choices from the
original game is very impressive. There are the big main choices of
course, which I won't spoil here, but it seems like there are a ton of
other smaller choices that carry over behind the scenes. Very cool.

On a technical level, the game engine has come a long way. No more
texture pop-in or frame-rate drops. The character's facial animations
are also improved. Movement is also improved, as just walking around
feels better. Environments and lighting are impressive, although some
of the environments "scale" is not as grand as I would have liked. It
is not the prettiest game on the 360, but it does an admiral job
considering the game's scope.

The most noticeable improvement is combat. The game's action sequences
play out much better than the original and come very close to feeling
like a dedicated 3rd person shooter during these sections. The powers
and weapons wheels return, allowing you to pause the action and plan out
your attack, but the overall feel of combat is a vast improvement. Good
thing too, since this game seems to emphasize combat more that its
predecessor.

A few notable changes in the sequel:

- The galaxy map works slightly different this time around. When
viewing the map within a system, you move a small version of the
Normandy around to the planets you wish to view/visit, instead of just
having the cursor toggle between them. To plot a Mass Relay jump to
another system you just head over to the nearest Mass Effect Relay and
then choose your location. There are now some systems that do not have
a Relay in them, requiring you to travel to them from the nearest system
that does. When traveling in this manner you use fuel, which you need
to replenish. This is an odd addition. Probably added for an extra
layer of realism or stratedgy (if you run of of fuel you need to burn
valuable minerals to get to the nearest fuel station) but overall it
seems like a pointless addition. Doesn't hurt the game mind you, I just
find it kinda annoying to have to buy fuel.

- No more Mako missions (which had you traversing the barren surface of
planets in search of minerals and resources). Instead you scan planets
now from orbit, using a cursor you pass over the planet's surface. I
wasn't a big fan of the Mako sections in the first game (touchy controls
and pretty bland, empty environments), but I'm not a fan of this new
system either. It is VERY time consuming (that cursor is slow as
molasses, even with the scanner upgrade), tedious, and I just feel like
I am wasting time when I could be out on a mission instead. Can't
anyone else in the Normandy's crew be taking care of planet sanning
while I am off on a mission or sleeping in my quarters? Seriously
folks, I am trying to save the galaxy here.

- You now have to manage ammo for your weapons as well. They don't
fully explain this either, since there was an actual explanation for why
you never had to reload or worry about ammo in the first game. They do
mention something about heat-sinks, to prevent over-heating, and it
being based on Geth technology, but that doesn't make much sense. It
seems like a step back to me. In the original you had unlimited ammo,
you just had to manage your fire rate so that your gun wouldn't
overload. If it did overload, you had to wait a bit for it to cool
down. This "new" Geth technology is just the regular magazines with
ammo we're using nowadays. You run out of ammo, change clips, and keep
firing. Where is the damn Geth technology? If they just wanted to add
a reload mechanic so that it can feel more like a shooter, that's fine,
come up with the heat-sink idea as a way to make you reload, but why the
limited ammo now? It just doesn't fit with the universe established in
the first game (and even discussed in the novel).

- No more loooong elevator rides. We just get load screens now. At
least the load screens are related to what is currently hapening, shown
in some animated skematic form. Or something, hard to explain.

- The Citadel is a shade of what it once was. It is just a few floors
of shops now basically (the sections you're relegated too at least, the
Citadel itself is the same, you just can't explore it anymore). I guess
a lot of gamers complained about running around in the Citadel in the
first game, but I found it impressive. Oh well.

I'm getting tired of writing, so I'll stop now. So far I have greatly
enjoyed the game and can't wait to see where it takes me. So far I've
only been recruiting team members and those missions have been a lot of
fun. I can only imagine how much better it gets when the real story
gets going. Because the main quest in the original game was phenominal
and the final mission/battle/ending was absolutely epic! Can't wait!

iPad

The much anticipated Apple "tablet" was announced today.  The iPad.  Basically a giant iPhone/iTouch.

 

I want one.

 

I'm a tech freak and I've been waiting for this thing.  $499 for the 16gb version, $599 for the 32gb and $699 for the 64gb.  Not bad.  Cheaper than I was anticipating.  If you want 3G support (service to be provided by AT&T on a NO contract basis), add another $130.  So I'm looking at $829 for the top of the line model.  I can live with that.

 

Now I have to ask myself if I should cave and get this upon release (in about 90 days for the 3G models, 60 days for wi-fi only) or do the "smart" thing and wait until next year when a better version is released with cool new features, better specs, and some of the initial kinks worked out.

 

What to do, what to do?!?!?!