lobotomy42

My gaming life died just a bit when I started working full time. And then died a bit more when I decided I hated my job and devoted more time to looking for a better job. (Ideally, one far away. More ideally, one in the UK. Anyone need an American web developer on their team?) And then it died yet some more when I started taking up rock climbing and dating as hobbies. But, after a few months in the closet, my video game time is coming back out. I couldn't stay away for too long! Huzzah!

So it took me long enough, but I'm almost finished this game! Woo-hoo! I've decided that I like it, even if I don't like it quite as much as Killer7. It's mighty awesome, though. The gameplay is slightly deeper than I originally thought, as well. Specifically, there's a bit of variety in learning wrestling moves and applying them. (You can do different moves depending on where you stand in relation to the enemy.) And combat gets harder, also. Eventually the one-button slam stops working and you have to think a bit about whether to try for a wrestling move or not. More thoughts when I finish.

Hahahahaha Oh man. I never saw your original post, but you inspired me to go play this game. It's hilarious! I'm sorry, this was probably the opposite of your original intent, but I am completely in love with this game and its song and will probably go show it to all my friends now.

I was actually just re-listening to my Strong Bad Sings e-mail the other day. Yeah, everyone's past them now, but there is still some seriously funny stuff in there. I am thus optimistic about the new games.

Ugh. I *detest* this game. It took all the clever charm of Superstar Saga and squashed it with a bunch of poorly executed slapstick jokes. The combat system was made worse, the game was into a *completely* linear one, and...well, the whole thing was boring. Consider: The premise was based around time travel, and the best plot development that the developers could apparently come up with was "babies." Or, taken another way, the developers so wanted to integrate babies into their game, that they introduced the idea of time travel just to have them appear. Maybe my opinion was soured because I'd played Superstar Saga before Partners in Time, but I really really did not enjoy it.

Things I Have Learned: Rez is awesome. I suck at video games I can't even beat level 3....

Oh man, is the new Ace Attorney out already? I'm still finishing up the third one! Damn, I'm slow. I'm passing on Professor Leyton - it seems very puzzley and not very plot-heavy. But cool otherwise! They're running a bunch of ads for it here in D.C. - I think to coincide with the Anime convention. I passed on the first Advance Wars DS. I should probably get this one.

LEGO Star Wars. Indigo Prophecy. Jade Empire. The two newest Tomb Raider games.

So this is a random thread from the past, but I've finally decided to collect all my thoughts together on this game and write a proper Dreamfall Review-Like Thingy *ahem* Anyway, here it is, as the first post of what may be a blog but what will probably never be updated and just sit there as a lonely review of dreamfall. I've been meaning to do this for like 2 years or something, but only now have finally gotten around to it. http://wapmmbah.blogspot.com

Everyone complains about navigating the city, but I didn't mind it, honestly. The story and thematic elements are disappointingly downplayed when compared to Killer7. This is much more along the lines of mindless action with the occasional catch-phrase-filled cutscene. No more long-winded speeches about god and death and purpose. Instead, the game is a celebration of video game conventions - pixelated graphics, blatant "level up" sound effects and arcade-style scoreboards are all very prominent. Gameplay features like scattered health packs, endless hordes of the same enemy, static environments and one-button combat stand out in stark contrast to modern attempts at realistic, interactive worlds with complex systems. Even the dreaded overworld can be seen in this light - a boiled-down blatantly "gamey" version of GTA's cities that in no way tries to hide the fact that it is just a glorified level-select screen. It's still very Suda, but it feels like he's sold out in some small way, and also making a comment about selling out at the same time. That being said, the game is more fun to play than Killer7. Swinging the Wii remote around wildly has never been so exhilarating and rewarding, especially as you learn how to do supplexes and such. It's not the deepest combat in the world, but it is extremely satisfying. The ridiculous amounts of blood pouring onscreen (in the U.S. version) is so...well, it's very fun.

Woo-hoo! Way to go on that clearing out of the backlog, miffy! I, on the other hand, have adopted the "embrace and extend" strategy to my backlog. That is, instead of fighting it, I simply acknowledge the backlog as a fellow living, breathing entity and allow it to grow and grow as it wishes. So, instead of finishing a bunch of games, I have, as of late, been starting new ones with wild abandon and put forth no effort whatsoever into finishing other games! Go me!

Alright, everyone, I got a replacement Wii from Nintendo, which has a new number. Delete your old entries for me and enter: 2547 0854 0557 7109 *sigh* How frustrating! At least my address book was copied over, so I still have *your* numbers.

I did this for awhile. But this past weekend I acquired an old 50" projection screen from a co-worker for $200, and I haven't looked back! Granted, my monitor went all the way up to 1080p, and this only does 480p/1080i, and is 4:3...but I honestly don't mind. It's huge! This goes a long way.

Well, I agree that new, original characters might have been preferable to Vader and Yoda. On the other hand, as someone who still likes Star Wars, and mostly likes Soulcalibur, I don't really *mind* their presence. As I understood it, the plot of Soulcalibur was always basically "All these people from different times and places come together to fight over a sword." Which still works for Star Wars, honestly. Anyone who's gotten at all deep into the "Expanded Universe" of Star Wars realizes that it gets pretty ridiculous pretty fast, so it's not at all implausible that Yoda and Vader decided to take a space/time machine into the land of Soulcalibur to fight over a weapon. And universe mixing, honestly, is mostly a good thing. "Universes" usually suck - bringing them together and taking them that much less seriously can only be a good thing.

Has anyone played this game? I downloaded the demo last night based on shacknews' glowing recommendation. It seems totally awesome!...in a bad-ass, testosterone-driven, cleavage-displaying, pseudo-medieval-dialogue-laden way.

Can I just say something here? Fire Emblem. In Fire Emblem, when one character in your party dies, they're dead. Period. All further dialogue in the game simply skips the lines where they might have mentioned that character. (Other than the occasional "He's dead!" speech.) There's not even a Phoenix Down or a 1up to save you. Dead is dead is dead. It makes keeping your characters alive a very, very, very important thing to do. Granted, there are a few exceptions: If one of the main characters (of which, there are usually 2-3) dies, you get a game over. And some characters (usually children) are "critically wounded" instead of being killed, so that you cannot use them in battle, but they're still around for the cutscenes. This is kind of a shame, and lessens the impact on story-telling a bit, but I guess the writers can't account for *everyone* being missing at the big moment. Anyway, this isn't totally relevant - Fire Emblem is a fairly constricted single-player turn-based tactical-RPG, and so far most of the discussion has been about open-ended FPSs. But there it is! Death!

Alright, I take it all back! I just took a break from work to go get a single star, and died 4 times in the process. The easiness and relative shortness of the missions is what made this possible at all, and clearly there was still enough difficulty to trip me up. So I was wrong - this game is truly "just right." Maybe I've just gotten so used to difficult games that I can't appreciate balanced ones anymore.

Wow. Am I the only one disappointed with this game? I've been waiting for it for what seems like forever, and now I finally have it. But all I can think is "This is so insanely easy." Don't get me wrong, it oozes with ideas and gorgeous imagery. My only real complaint is that the levels seem to fly by, rarely taking more than 5-10 minutes per star. Except that seems like kind of a huge complaint. (And to be fair, I'm only about 40 stars in...so I imagine the levels will get longer and more challenging as I progress.) On the other hand, I just spent six hours playing non-stop and didn't even notice the time go by. So clearly the game is doing something right.

Ah, Quantic Dream! The studio that has never ever been pretentious about anything at all. Nope! No over-promises or ridiculous hype from these guys before. No, siree, certainly not.

When The Orange Box came out, I was gifted the original Half-Life 2 and really excited about it. But then, I played it for about two hours, got completely stuck, and quit. I've not replayed the game sense then. But yeah, I didn't love it. PC Shooters are not my favorite thing to begin with, but HL 2 really didn't grab me the way, say Prey or No One Lives Forever did.

Yeah, but the developers have acknowledged that the game is not really intended to be played this way. My guess is that actually playing the game will require the "over-the-shoulder" viewpoint. Which I'm okay with. Really, it all depends on the writing.

Oh dear god. This list could go on for PAGES. (Largely because I buy games faster than I play them.) Let's see... For the PS2, I'm working on Okami, which I bought a year ago. (!) I also have Dragon Quest VIII, which I enjoyed for 10 minutes before taking out, and Metal Gear Solid 3. For the GC: - Battalion Wars - Geist - Viewtiful Joe - Zelda: Four Swords...though I'm not sure how to finish this, since my siblings lost interest (and their gameboys) - Never actually got all the stars in Super Mario Sunshine - Pikmin 2 - Metal Gear Solid - Others, I'm sure For the DS: I'm in the middle of Phoenix Wright 3 at the moment. But I also have: - Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Viewtiful Joe: Double something or other - Super Princess Peach - New Super Mario Bros. - Touch Detective 2 1/2 For the PC: Half Life 2 + all expansions Jade Empire Neverwinter Nights A bunch of adventure games ...lots more Xbox 360: Let's put it this way. I'm still working on Kameo: Elements of Power. Which was a launch title. EDIT: Forgot the Wii, which has Elebits, Metroid Prime 3, Fire Emblem, to start with... And I'm going to stop here because I don't feel like listing all this crap.

I played a solid amount of this at a friend's house last night. IT WAS AWESOME!

Yeah, the space marine crap was....crap.

Wait...are you sure about that? In Prime 2 they had an un-acknowledged auto-save right before the final boss, so that if you hit "Retry" right after dying, it started you right at the boss again, rather than at the last save point...