Okay, 2010 is moving along at whatever speed relativity sees fit, and games are being played. My aim is to actually complete the damn things, something I've singularly managed to not do these past few years. So with this new single-minded spirit I've been giving Final Fantasy XIII a good going-over.
I have to say Final Fantasy XII is probably my mumber one PS2 game. Forget what the "it's not as good as VII" people say, taken as a game in its own right Final Fantasy XII is superb. It looks good, the battle system is brilliant, the Gambit and LIcense systems are deep and satisfying. Okay so the story is basically Star Wars, and the politics is a bit confusing, and a couple of the characters are not particularly engaging, but generally the game is a joy to play.
I really need to get back to it. I put a good 51 hours in so far.
So I was very much looking forward to XIII, surely they couldn't mess this up?
I'm 24 hours in and I am sorry to say it really isn't as engaging or enjoyable as XII. It is very linear, which frankly defeats the object of "adventure", not only in the story but the character development. Okay so you can assign points to improve characters' attributes in each of the 6 classes, but it's clear that they expect you to be at certain levels at certain points in the game, there are glass cielings in that regard.
The battle system is a step back, using an Active Time Bar-type affair, but because you only control one character you don't really feel as involved. You can change the Paradigm (combination of character classes) but it's just a bit too 'global' for my taste.
What cannot be faulted are the production values. The cutscenes are generally breathtaking, and everything is generally slick and gorgeous. Sasz is a really likeable character, and whoever does his voice acting deserves a medal.
It's not an awful game by any stretch of the imagination, but it really isn't grabbing me like its predecessor. A vital part of any RPG is managing your party, developing characters, and here it feels as though most of that is hard-wired into the game, which rather takes away from the overall experience.
PS: i'm reliablyinformed it's not Dodge but Dahj, or something like that. Fantasy names eh.
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Friday, 19 February 2010
No Excuses, Mo Remorse
Not updated this in a while ... played some games ... real life ... not feeling it ... all the usual stuff I start a post here with, and now onto the games:
Bayonetta - I liked the look of this, totally over-the-top action, sexy lead character, what's not to like? Generally enjoyable yet I don't think I was playing it right. It took me just over 35 hours to complete which included going back to early parts of the game to make more money in order to buy items. Some parts had me tearing my hair out, but the ending was suitably satisfying - and the dance video at the end was well worth it! Your inept correspondent made things difficult for himself, I wouldn't blame the devs.
Burnout Dominator - it may be just a budget racer with the Burnout name on it, but it does what you want: fast exciting arcade racing with no pretentions. It's currently my Saturday night game of choice and is surprisingly playable after a couple of ciders.
Mass Effect - you cannot move for talk of Mass Effect 2 at the moment. Friends, podcasts, forums, it's almost impossible to avoid the major love for the game. "But you have to play Mass Effect first!" they all say before spoiling he sequel silly. So I bought a copy during the Steam sale, spent a week downloading 10gigabytes of game only to find the poxy thing didn't work. A trip to Amazon Marketplace got me a 360 copy to play, and I duly started a new game. It looks superb, lovely shiny 70s/80s SF setting, it really appealed and was good to see after all the Middle Earth rip-offing. The combat was lacklustre and frustrating although after knocking it down to Easy (which is a bit too easy) things progressed faster. The story seems okay thusfar. I'm told all the faults of Mass Effect are sorted in the sequel - they'd better be!
That's it really, other than more Quake Live (getting worse at it for some reason) and Team Fortress 2 (ditto, but it's still fun).
More next time.
Bayonetta - I liked the look of this, totally over-the-top action, sexy lead character, what's not to like? Generally enjoyable yet I don't think I was playing it right. It took me just over 35 hours to complete which included going back to early parts of the game to make more money in order to buy items. Some parts had me tearing my hair out, but the ending was suitably satisfying - and the dance video at the end was well worth it! Your inept correspondent made things difficult for himself, I wouldn't blame the devs.
Burnout Dominator - it may be just a budget racer with the Burnout name on it, but it does what you want: fast exciting arcade racing with no pretentions. It's currently my Saturday night game of choice and is surprisingly playable after a couple of ciders.
Mass Effect - you cannot move for talk of Mass Effect 2 at the moment. Friends, podcasts, forums, it's almost impossible to avoid the major love for the game. "But you have to play Mass Effect first!" they all say before spoiling he sequel silly. So I bought a copy during the Steam sale, spent a week downloading 10gigabytes of game only to find the poxy thing didn't work. A trip to Amazon Marketplace got me a 360 copy to play, and I duly started a new game. It looks superb, lovely shiny 70s/80s SF setting, it really appealed and was good to see after all the Middle Earth rip-offing. The combat was lacklustre and frustrating although after knocking it down to Easy (which is a bit too easy) things progressed faster. The story seems okay thusfar. I'm told all the faults of Mass Effect are sorted in the sequel - they'd better be!
That's it really, other than more Quake Live (getting worse at it for some reason) and Team Fortress 2 (ditto, but it's still fun).
More next time.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
You're Not Alexander!
Okay, no I've not been on holiday, and yes I have played games:
God Hand - what a superb game this is! It's essentially a Streets Of Rage-style brawler but in 3D. Silly sense of humour, daft plot involving some fella who has a special arm. Graphics are a bit ropey but the deep, involving gameplay more than makes up for it. It's one of those games where, when you fail, you know you can do better next time.
It was the last game from developer Clover Studio who also did Okami amongst other things. It's a shame they had to go.
Borderlands - still a superb game but I was flagging. I'd recommend people play it in co-op as the single-player is a bit ofa grind after a while.
God Hand - what a superb game this is! It's essentially a Streets Of Rage-style brawler but in 3D. Silly sense of humour, daft plot involving some fella who has a special arm. Graphics are a bit ropey but the deep, involving gameplay more than makes up for it. It's one of those games where, when you fail, you know you can do better next time.
It was the last game from developer Clover Studio who also did Okami amongst other things. It's a shame they had to go.
Borderlands - still a superb game but I was flagging. I'd recommend people play it in co-op as the single-player is a bit ofa grind after a while.
Monday, 16 November 2009
A Trip Through The Borderlands
This last week or so I've mainly been playing Borderlands, a sort of post-apocalyptic FPS RPG with definite nods to Phantasy Star Online (although I know some people will beg to differ).
Verdict: surprisingly good.
You basically go about doing quests, gaining experience, levelling up, picking up loot, all the stuff you'd expect to be doing in a game like this, except it's a first-person shooter. Now regular readers will know how bloody useless I am at FPSs, but this one isn't too bad as far as difficulty goes. For a while I was really dominating the opposition until I discovered aim assist was on by default, but I turned it off and it got better, much better.
The devs claim there are thousands of guns in this game, basically they all have varying stats and effects (and often puke-inducing colours) and it's great when you come across a new more powerful weapon to try out.
The drawbacks? The menu system is rather akward, it takes ages to get at inventory items and they're not organised in a logical way, plus you have to press a button to compare the relative merits of new equipment which just makes things even more akward.
I had the pleasure of playing with a couple of people in co-op and it was very entertaining. Depending on the levels of the players and who is hosting it alters the enemy levels accordingly, so it is possible for lower-level players to speed-level as long as the other players are able to keep them alive - this is where good teamwork comes into play.
Generally it's a good game, lots to do, although the environment do become rather drab and repetitive after a while.
I need to step away from it for a short while as I've played nothing else all week and it's in danger of becoming a bit played-out, but rest assured I'll be striving to get to the end of at least one playthrough, despite my ineptitude!
Verdict: surprisingly good.
You basically go about doing quests, gaining experience, levelling up, picking up loot, all the stuff you'd expect to be doing in a game like this, except it's a first-person shooter. Now regular readers will know how bloody useless I am at FPSs, but this one isn't too bad as far as difficulty goes. For a while I was really dominating the opposition until I discovered aim assist was on by default, but I turned it off and it got better, much better.
The devs claim there are thousands of guns in this game, basically they all have varying stats and effects (and often puke-inducing colours) and it's great when you come across a new more powerful weapon to try out.
The drawbacks? The menu system is rather akward, it takes ages to get at inventory items and they're not organised in a logical way, plus you have to press a button to compare the relative merits of new equipment which just makes things even more akward.
I had the pleasure of playing with a couple of people in co-op and it was very entertaining. Depending on the levels of the players and who is hosting it alters the enemy levels accordingly, so it is possible for lower-level players to speed-level as long as the other players are able to keep them alive - this is where good teamwork comes into play.
Generally it's a good game, lots to do, although the environment do become rather drab and repetitive after a while.
I need to step away from it for a short while as I've played nothing else all week and it's in danger of becoming a bit played-out, but rest assured I'll be striving to get to the end of at least one playthrough, despite my ineptitude!
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Stop Buying Games!
So, yes, I apologise, I'm slipping again, as far as the blog goes. However I have been playing some games:
Call Of Duty 4 - it's strange, as I think about it I've had no compulsion to go back to this. Whilst I could see why the multiplayer was so popular I found it a real chore and never felt I was in control. The best thing about games is when you feel you're improving, something happens that makes you realise you are getting better and that spurs you on. With CoD4 though I am not feeling that.
Beatles Rock Band - after a day out with my friend Michelle I was persuaded to pick this up. HMV had it for £25, about as low as it's likely to get this side of Christmas. I ploughed through the story mode in a couple of hours although I need to 5-star all the songs. As I've said before the presentation is stunning.
Fallout 3 Game Of The Year - I wanted to play this since it came out, and was pleased to see the Game Of The Year edition come out with all the DLC. Unfortunately it doesn't agree with my PC, at one point a reset borked my BIOS! I will keep the PC one for when I next build a PC, but if it gets cheap in the new year I'll try the 360 version. There really needs to be more SF RPGs.
I'm such a slut when it comes to games, I don't like it. I really need to stop buying games and complete the damn things first.
Call Of Duty 4 - it's strange, as I think about it I've had no compulsion to go back to this. Whilst I could see why the multiplayer was so popular I found it a real chore and never felt I was in control. The best thing about games is when you feel you're improving, something happens that makes you realise you are getting better and that spurs you on. With CoD4 though I am not feeling that.
Beatles Rock Band - after a day out with my friend Michelle I was persuaded to pick this up. HMV had it for £25, about as low as it's likely to get this side of Christmas. I ploughed through the story mode in a couple of hours although I need to 5-star all the songs. As I've said before the presentation is stunning.
Fallout 3 Game Of The Year - I wanted to play this since it came out, and was pleased to see the Game Of The Year edition come out with all the DLC. Unfortunately it doesn't agree with my PC, at one point a reset borked my BIOS! I will keep the PC one for when I next build a PC, but if it gets cheap in the new year I'll try the 360 version. There really needs to be more SF RPGs.
I'm such a slut when it comes to games, I don't like it. I really need to stop buying games and complete the damn things first.
Saturday, 10 October 2009
The Week In Games
It's been a varied week as far as games have gone:
Call Of Duty 4 - I have tried to keep on at this despite my ineptitude. It really is incredibly tough to get into still. I switched to Team Deathmatch so, as someone said to me, only half the players are out to kill you, and whilst it makes finding enemies a little easier I still keep getting killed because I cannot see them.
To explain, I don't have 100% eyesight, it's good enough for most things but you could say I'm slow at picking up detail. So when I turn a corner and don't see anything, then get fragged by someone I can't see, I have to ask myself am I bad at the game, is it my eyesight, was it just plain bad luck? Compared to other FPSs the enemy on this are pretty hard to spot.
Quake Live - such a convenient game to have as it just sits in a tab in my browser and within seconds I can be running about having fun. In contrast to CoD 4 the enemy in this are much easier to spot, although I did enter a couple of console commands to make the enemy bright green - I can spot them a mile off. Cheating? Not really, but it makes me wonder would I be any good if they weren't green?
Gran Turismo 4 - not totally sure why I am playing this again. I bought this on pre-order in 2005, played the hell out of it but never got past the Beginner Stadium. It's such a grind. But something drew me back, nostalgia? Who knows.
Painkiller Overdose - I bought this on Steam when they had their massive sale last Christmas, thought I'd install this and give it a go. It's a Doom-style FPS, no pretentions, just straight-up blasting. Very arcadey and no bad thing for it. However I'm finding it a bit of a pain. There's little or no damage feedback so you don't know when you're being hit, it has these awful voice samples that get very tiresome very quickly. Plus it has some technical issues that stop me playing more. Might have to uninstall this as it's not working right.
When I reflect on it I'm not sure if any of this was really satisfying. CoD 4 was frustrating, I'm not really my best on Quake Live of late, GT4 is still a grind, and Painkiller Overdose, well, a bit of a let-down.
I need that boost of fun you get when a game is going right, when you can feel you're getting into it and can't really stop. I've not felt that in a good while, sadly.
Call Of Duty 4 - I have tried to keep on at this despite my ineptitude. It really is incredibly tough to get into still. I switched to Team Deathmatch so, as someone said to me, only half the players are out to kill you, and whilst it makes finding enemies a little easier I still keep getting killed because I cannot see them.
To explain, I don't have 100% eyesight, it's good enough for most things but you could say I'm slow at picking up detail. So when I turn a corner and don't see anything, then get fragged by someone I can't see, I have to ask myself am I bad at the game, is it my eyesight, was it just plain bad luck? Compared to other FPSs the enemy on this are pretty hard to spot.
Quake Live - such a convenient game to have as it just sits in a tab in my browser and within seconds I can be running about having fun. In contrast to CoD 4 the enemy in this are much easier to spot, although I did enter a couple of console commands to make the enemy bright green - I can spot them a mile off. Cheating? Not really, but it makes me wonder would I be any good if they weren't green?
Gran Turismo 4 - not totally sure why I am playing this again. I bought this on pre-order in 2005, played the hell out of it but never got past the Beginner Stadium. It's such a grind. But something drew me back, nostalgia? Who knows.
Painkiller Overdose - I bought this on Steam when they had their massive sale last Christmas, thought I'd install this and give it a go. It's a Doom-style FPS, no pretentions, just straight-up blasting. Very arcadey and no bad thing for it. However I'm finding it a bit of a pain. There's little or no damage feedback so you don't know when you're being hit, it has these awful voice samples that get very tiresome very quickly. Plus it has some technical issues that stop me playing more. Might have to uninstall this as it's not working right.
When I reflect on it I'm not sure if any of this was really satisfying. CoD 4 was frustrating, I'm not really my best on Quake Live of late, GT4 is still a grind, and Painkiller Overdose, well, a bit of a let-down.
I need that boost of fun you get when a game is going right, when you can feel you're getting into it and can't really stop. I've not felt that in a good while, sadly.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Dead Again
Sometimes I don't know why I bother. Am I complete masochist?
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer, grrr! That's the best thing I can say at this point in time. It says I've spent just under 2 hours on the multiplayer although it feels much, much longer.
Each round is a dictionary definition of 'futility', constantly being caught out by the other players, not being able to track down said players, being killed as soon as I respawn, finding one victim only to be killed by another player. With each death my mood sinks and I have to kid myself I'm actually enjoying it.
It's fair to say that, like most online shooters probably, coming into something like this so late on is not exactly going to make things easy, in fact it's about the least-accessible online game I've ever played (bar Counterstrike). I had resigned myself to this, yet it doesn't make it any easier.
Just when I think I'm doing okay, making some progress, I'll have a couple of rounds where I don't even score. Every kill I get feels like Christmas: they come once a year, on average.
Should I keep on with it? Will I improve? Will I ever be able to compete? Am I doing it wrong? How are you supposed to find your opposition? These and other questions will have to wait until my mood improves.
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer, grrr! That's the best thing I can say at this point in time. It says I've spent just under 2 hours on the multiplayer although it feels much, much longer.
Each round is a dictionary definition of 'futility', constantly being caught out by the other players, not being able to track down said players, being killed as soon as I respawn, finding one victim only to be killed by another player. With each death my mood sinks and I have to kid myself I'm actually enjoying it.
It's fair to say that, like most online shooters probably, coming into something like this so late on is not exactly going to make things easy, in fact it's about the least-accessible online game I've ever played (bar Counterstrike). I had resigned myself to this, yet it doesn't make it any easier.
Just when I think I'm doing okay, making some progress, I'll have a couple of rounds where I don't even score. Every kill I get feels like Christmas: they come once a year, on average.
Should I keep on with it? Will I improve? Will I ever be able to compete? Am I doing it wrong? How are you supposed to find your opposition? These and other questions will have to wait until my mood improves.
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