The Nintendo Revolution has a new, stupid name.
There’s this game called Loco Roco for the PSP which looks like a mix between Gish [link 1, link 2] and Camel Try. Check out some gameplay vids. I tried to get my roommate to download the demo, since he has a PSP, but he’s a sack and won’t do it.
Obviously, there’s been a bit of a redesign. Nothing spectacular, but a bit cleaner, with more contrast. I’ll be removing people’s accounts unless a strict ‘game-related-only’ rule when posting is adhered to. When I get time and/or motivation, I’ll be moving the Linker and blog to my other domain.
The last game I finished was Shadow of the Colossus, which, in contrast to my design skills, was spectacular. A writeup will come shortly. It impressed me so much that I went out and bought Ico, the previous game the same developer had worked on. No time to play it yet, but I’m hoping this weekend will show some gaming action. In my quest to accumulate more games that I can’t play, I also bought two GBA games this morning: the Mother 1+2 compilation, and Mother 3 (Mother 3 was only recently released; both games are unavailable in America). This’ll hopefully give me some incentive to bust out the (rusty) Japanese skills. Perhaps I’ll do some FAQ or translation action.
This was a game which I didn’t play, due to the fact that I wasn’t much of a computer game player back in the 80s. It’s a side-scrolling adventure game, in the vein of Prince of Persia. Looks like the author has redone the game with vector grapics and hi-res backgrounds; I’m gonna have to give it a shot.
anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/
Buy my DS.
A few weeks ago I had the strange desire to play videogames. All my friends hear me complain that I don’t have enough time to play games anymore, but on occasion I’ll have a weekend where nothing is going on. It was then that I decided to rent Black, a first-person shooter for the current-gen consoles. I hadn’t really researched the game much before its release, but from cursory reading of gaming websites, I had obtained a vaguely positive impression. I was also somewhat intrigued by the advertising: the TV commercials presented the idea that the game was all about a destructable environment, and a lot of shooting.
With all this in mind, I went to a local Blockbuster to sign up for a membership and rent the game. This was undoubtedly a mistake, as I was basically forced to sign over my soul for the membership, and then pay $8 ($8!!) to rent the game. I can remember when I paid A DOLLAR to rent a game, but that’s beside the point. I opted to rent the Xbox version, since I was used to playing FPS games (read: Halo 2) on the Xbox controller.
Booting the game up, I am almost immediately disappointed. The video introducing the story behind the game is shot in a very poor fashion, and cobbled together with some even worse editing. It was obviously done this way on purpose, but the end result is something not very enjoyable to watch. Also, the video (and the introduction on every level) is not skippable. The story is presented in a piecemeal way, with a soldier being debriefed after an incident: his recollections of what happened are the levels played by the player. I was able to come away with the knowledge that the soldier was trying to find some weapons smuggler, but not much beyond that.
In terms of the actual game, I was also less than impressed. Here I was, led to believe that the maps were totally dynamic, and could be destroyed at will. Unfortunately, not true. Structures in each level can be destroyed only in strategic places, such as when an enemy is standing behind them. This means that almost every enemy is hiding behind some destructable, and the player is expected to blow up the enemy’s cover before riddling him with bullets. Such events are sadly predictable. You’ll notice that, when being shot at by tons of hidden enemies, that they conveniently placed a gas tanker near their cover. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out where to shoot. The gist of all this is that the environments are NOT dynamic, and in fact rather boring.
Another problem with the game is that the emphasis is on shooting: a lot. Trying to sneak up on baddies and get rid of them with a silenced pistol is pointless; a direct shot to the head won’t drop these guys. The way to play is running out, guns blazing, and keep shooting ‘till they drop. Although I tend to prefer games this way (wanton violence), I also like to be precise, and play the game the way I want to. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to play a game in a certain way, and being hampered in that due to constrictions placed by the developers.
In a world where emphasis is placed on graphical quality, Black fails to impress. It looks slightly better than, say, Quake 2. Probably on par with Quake 3. Enough said.
The level design and game goals are yet more frustrating factors. Too often, the levels are extremely open-ended and bland, with no distinguishing scenery to give players any sort of landmark. Many, many times, I literally wandered in circles within each map. As we all know, another extremely frustrating aspect of gaming is not knowing where to go next. An expansive game world with many things to do is one thing, but non-linearity (including that in map design) can only be taken so far. The goals within each level are also trite and boring: all about collecting certain numbers of arbitrary objects, or destroying them. If the player exits the level without completing a certain number of these objectives, they must replay the map.
Overall, Black is a disappointment. Its many problems make the game not even worth a rental. Which is why I didn’t finish it.
So, I ordered one of those keyboards today. I currently have a worthless, worthless Dell keyboard. I’m kind of excited; supposedly even expert typists look at keymarkings a lot, so removing them forces you to memorize the layout of the keyboard. I usually don’t look, but some keys (like the numbers/symbols) I can’t hit correctly on the first try. Plus, the keys are weighted based on usage frequency and position. Hott!
I’m contemplating writing reviews of videogames this weekend, pending free time.
I’m also contemplating selling my Nintendo DS in anticipation of the DS Lite.
Too much contemplation!
Edit: Also, the blog is moving to nathandemick.com, while b-g.com is turning into this.
