Let's Talk About Overwatch

Overwatch is the newest game to be released by Blizzard Entertainment and has been out for a week now.  Blizzard has been well known to take existing games or inspirations and make it their own.  Warcraft was inspired the Warhammer universe and was almost a Warhammer game.  Starcraft was influenced by games like Command and Conquer.  World of Warcraft was Blizzard's take on Everquest 2 and is probably the most lucrative product out of all their creations.  Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard's own take on the Defense of the Ancients custom map for Warcraft 3 which spawned the DotA-like or MOBA genre of games such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, DotA 2, SMITE, and many others.  And Overwatch is Blizzard's own version of Team Fortress 2.  But it wasn't always that way.  Overwatch is the result of a 10-year development cycle on a project code named "Titan".  It was announced last year that the project was officially canceled, but about a month later Overwatch was announced as the game they were going to release from the result of their past creations.

With Blizzard's creation of Overwatch, they wanted to create Heroes rather than nameless classes to give them distinction, personality, story and depth.  Each of these Heroes would have their own weapons, abilities, and roles.  I love the game and enjoy playing each and every hero so far, but I couldn't help but see stereotypes, references, or what seems to be direct influences from other videogames and pop culture.

Story
Humans create Omnics, or sentient robots, to work and improve our world.  One day the Omnics turn on the humans and ignite a global war between humans and robots.  Overwatch is formed as an organization to stop these attacks and prevent further crime in the world.  The war between humans and Omnics cease, but crime continues to thrive in the world.  The public response to these crimes was to blame Overwatch's existence.  The leader of Overwatch seemed to have turned on the organization at one point.  A fight breaks out between Morrison (Soldier 76) and Reyes (Reaper) and the headquarters of Overwatch explodes.  Both seemingly survived, but Overwatch was quickly disbanded and the members went off in opposite ways.  Some became mercenaries, some vigilantes, and others criminals.  Finally, one former member of Overwatch reaches out to his former comrades and brings the crew back together as something big is seemingly going on behind the crime scenes.

The story immediately reminded me of Pixar's "The Incredibles".  Humans born of super powers become super heroes to stop crime only to have the public ostracize the heroes in fear of their abilities.  One of the members of the Super Hero scene wants to stop all the rising crime in the world and begins fighting on his own with later two other former Super Heroes joining him as he gets himself into trouble.

It also doesn't help that the first trailer that Blizzard put out was SUPER Pixar influenced.  But you know what?  I don't think many people cared, including myself.  It was full of personality and emotion that it captured the viewers interest in just the few minutes of watching it.

Character Breakdown (Controls based on default PC)

Offense Class

Genji - Genji Shimada

Looks like: Some of the frames from Warframe

Players claim Genji reminds them of Raiden or Grey Fox from the Metal Gear Solid series

Plays like: Kind of like Warframe - Throws shurikens instead of shooting bullets, sword attacks, run and jump around like a Ninja.

Abilities:
Left-Click - 3 Shurikens in a row
Right-Click - 3 Shurikens in a spread
Left-Shift - Dash forward with a poison induced slash
E-Key - Reflect projectiles
Passive - Double-Jump and Climb Walls
Q-Key - Brings out katana with strong melee attacks


McCree - Jesse McCree

Looks Like: Clint Eastwood in his Western movies

Players claim McCree reminds them of John Marston from Red Dead Redemption or Graves from League of Legends.

Plays like: Call of Juarez - from the rolling, fan the hammer, and quick-draw, it's very reminiscent of playing Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Single shot from the six-shooter
Right-Click - Unloads entire chamber
Left-Shift - Roll and immediately reload all 6 bullets
E-Key - Flashbang that causes opponent(s) to be stunned for a short duration
Q-Key - Marks all opponents into view and quick-draw for a quick kill


Pharah - Fareeha Amari


Looks like: Samus Aran from the Metroid series in armor design at least

Pharah's helmet reminds me of Eagle Riders/G-Force

Plays like: Quake/Unreal Tournament with the rocket spamming

Abilities:
Left-Click - Single Rocket shot
Left-Shift - Jump jet high into the air
E-Key - Concussive Blast that knocks enemies back and damages shields/barriers
Passive - Can hover in mid-air with Right-click or jump
Q-Key - Sends out a Rocket Barrage

Reaper - Gabriel Reyes

Looks like: Death from Darksiders 2


Plays like: His playstyle doesn't really remind me of any particular character or gameplay.  He dual-wields shotguns and can become ethereal-like to avoid getting hit.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with either shotguns
Left-Shift - Become ghost-like and phase through enemies and bullets
E-Key - A slow, short-distance teleportation
Passive - Collect souls from fallen enemies to regain health
Q-Key - Spin to Win, shoot all around you


Soldier: 76 - John "Jack" Morrison

Looks like: I can't say he really looks or reminds me of anyone

Plays like: A military shooter without ADS (aiming down sight)

Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with assault rifle
Right-Click - Shoot a set of spiraling rockets
Left-Shift - Sprint key, like in many military shooters
E-Key - Set a Biotic Field that heals for 35 HP per second
Q-Key - Aim-Bot, bullets lock onto enemies in view


Tracer - Lena Oxton

Looks like: No character I can really think of
Plays like: It reminds me a little of Dishonored where you can weave in and out of battle with the blink ability without the peashooters

Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with dual-wield pulse pistols (reminds me of Earthworm Jim)
Right-Click/Left-Shift - Blink forward for a short distance
E-Key - Recall back 3 seconds from before with the same amount of health, ammo, and position
Q-Key - Throw a sticky bomb that does a ton of damage


Defense Class

Bastion - SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54

Looks like: Something out of Borderlands

Plays like: Any FPS that has a mounted turret scene

Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoot with a sub-machine gun in mobile mode and mini-gun in sentry mode
Left-Shift - Switch between mobile mode and sentry mode
E-Key - Self-repair by Healing 25% of HP per Second
Q-Key - Transform into a tank and suddenly you're playing Battletanx


Hanzo - Hanzo Shimada
Looks like: Heishiro Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur series
Plays like: Sniper with Huntsman (bow & arrow) equipped from Team Fortress 2

Abilities:
Left-Click - Draw and release arrow
Right-Click - Cancel draw on the bow
Left-Shift - Sonic arrow that reveals the positions of enemies behind walls and obstructions
E-Key - An arrow that scatters when colliding with anything
Passive - Climb walls
Q-Key - RYUU GA WAGA TEKI WO KURAU, shooting into walls and getting Play of the Game


Junkrat - Jamison Fawkes

Looks like: A Borderlands character

Plays like: Demoman from Team Fortress 2

Abilities:
Left-Click - Shoots frag grenades from the launcher
Right-Click - Detonates Concussion Mine
Left-Shift - Toss a Concussion Mine that damges enemies and propels them and yourself upwards
E-Key - Toss a giant Steel Trap that damges and immobilzes enemies that walk into it
Passive - Total Mayhem has Junkrat drop 8 live grenades on the floor when he's killed
Q-Key - RIP-Tire is a remote controlled wheel that can be detonated for massive damage


Mei - Mei-Ling Zhou

Looks like: Some people claim Ice Climbers, but I'm sure most people that live in extreme cold weather dress like this.

Plays like: An even more annoying version of Pyro from Team Fortress 2.  Instead of burning you, you're frozen just long enough to see how you die.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Endothermic Blasters, it's like a flamethrower that freezes instead of burn
Right-Click - It's like getting shot with a giant nail made of ice
Left-Shift - Encase yourself in a block of ice for invulnerbility and heal 37.5 HP per second
E-Key - Create a giant Ice Wall used to impede enemies progress or from them running away
Q-Key - Toss out a tiny drone that freezes and damages enemies in a large radius

Torbjörn - Torbjörn Lindholm

Looks like: Every stereotypical, smith-loving Dwarf from fantasy fiction; including Blizzard's very own Warcraft universe

Plays like: Engineer from Team Fortress 2

Abilities:
Left-Click - Long ranged rivet / Hammers turret to repair it or upgrade it
Right-Click - Close range, shot-gun like burst of molten metal
Left-Shift - Build a turret that detects and fires at enemies
1 & 2 Keys - Rivet Gun & Forge Hammer respectively
E-Key - Toss out Armor Packs for allies to pick up
Passive - Can pick up metal scraps from fallen enemies to create Armor Packs
Q-Key - He becomes stronger alongside his turret automatically upgrading to Level 3


Widowmaker - Amélie Lacroix

Reminds me of: A Night Elf from the Warcraft Universe

Plays like: Sniper from Team Fortress 2 with the charge mechanic.  007 Agent Under Fire with the Grappling Hook, and Blacklight: Tango Down/Retribution with seeing enemies past walls

Abilities:
Left-Click - Assault Rifle when not aiming, Sniper Shot when aiming
Right-Click - Aiming with Sniper Scope; Aiming will charge the shot
Left-Shift - Grappling Hook to get to higher places or to get to a new location faster
E-Key - Launches a Venom Mine that explodes and poisons enemies that's near its proximity
Q-Key - Infra-Sight lets Widowmaker and her allies see enemies heat signatures through walls


Tank Class

D.Va - Hana Song


Reminds me of: Ahri from League of Legends

Plays like: Sort of like a Mech, but not as clunky.  When she's out of her Mech, it reminds me of Zero Suit Samus where Samus uses a little pistol when she's out of her suit in Metroid Zero Mission.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Short-ranged Fusion Cannons in Mech, tiny pistol when out of Mech
Left-Shift - Boosts forward in any direction and knocks enemies back
E-Key - Brings up a Defense Matrix in front which block enemies projectiles
Passive - D.Va is ejected out of her Mech when it's destroyed
Q-Key - D.Va ejects her Mech to let it Self-Destruct and cause massive damage around it


Reinhardt - Reinhardt Wilhelm

Looks like: Mordekaiser from League of Legends

Plays like: I forget which other game had this one character that puts out a huge shield and swings a massive weapon, but I know I've played a game with a very similar mechanic.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Swings giant hammer
Right-Click - Wields a Barrier Field that can absorb 2000 Damage
Left-Shift - Charge forward and anyone caught that slams into the wall is probably dead
E-Key - Launches a ranged Fire Strike that damages enemies
Q-Key - Slams giant hammer in front of him damaging and knocking down all enemies in range


Roadhog - Mako Rutledge

Looks like: His face reminds me of something.  Not sure if it's Borderlands related.  But his large stature and play mechanics is totally The Butcher from the Diablo Universe.  He also reminds me a bit of Rufus from Street Fighter IV.

Plays like: The Butcher from the Diablo Universe/Heroes of the Storm or Pudge from DotA 1&2.  But instead of eating you, he just shoots you in the face at point-blank after hooking you in

Abilities:
Left-Click - Fires a short-ranged blast of shrapnel from his Scrap Gun
Right-Click - Fires a mid-ranged shrapnel ball that scatters on impact
Left-Shift - Tosses his chain hook and pulls in any enemy it collides with
E-Key - Inhales a special gas that restores 300 HP
Q-Key - Turns his Scrap Gun into a Gatling Shotgun


Winston

Reminds me of: The Hulk.  He's a scientist, and when he's mad he goes berserk

Plays like: I can't remember which game I played that had an Electric gun similar to his and a spherical barrier like his.  But his ult does remind me of The Hulk.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Tesla Cannon; Slap enemies around in Primal Rage
Left-Shift - Uses his Jump Pack to leap far and high distances
E-Key - Drops a Barrier Projector that absorbs projects and various damages
Q-Key - Become The Hulk with Primal Rage and knock enemies off cliffs


Zarya - Aleksandra Zaryanova

Reminds me of: Heavy from Team Fortress 2 only because of her large stature and Russian accent

Plays like: I don't think I can give a comparable example.  I think there was a gun in Halo 3 that's kind of like her's, but it's been over 6 years since I've played Halo 3 (or any Halo for that matter).

Abilities:
Left-Click - Short-ranged energy beam
Right-Click - Short to Mid-ranged explosive charge with small splash damage
Left-Shift - Project a Particle Barrier on yourself
E-Key - Projects a Barrier on an ally
Passive - Damage blocked by any of the two barriers increases the damage of the Particle Cannon
Q-Key - Launch a Gravity bomb that sucks in all nearby enemies in one area


Support Class

Name

Looks like:

Plays like:

Abilities:
Left-Click - 3 Shurikens in a row
Right-Click - 3 Shurikens in a spread
Left-Shift - Dash forward with a poison induced slash
E-Key - Reflect projectiles
Passive - Double-Jump and Climb Walls
Q-Key - Brings out katana with strong melee attacks

Lúcio - Lúcio Correia dos Santos

Reminds me of: DJ Professor K from Jet Set Radio

Plays like: Jet Set Radio where you roller blade around and skate on walls.  But instead of spray paint, you use a Sonic Amplifier (a very loud speaker).  And JSR is very music influenced.

Abilities:
Left-Click - Fires off a set of sonic waves as projectiles
Right-Click - Blast a Super Sonic Wave to push back enemies and damage them
Left-Shift - Crossfade between exciting/relaxing music to give a speed/healing boost
E-Key - Amps up the volume, increasing the effects of his speed/healing boost
Passive - He can Wall Ride with his roller blades, just like in Jet Set Radio
Q-Key - He drops the beat with a Sound Barrier that shields all nearby allies with a temporary shield

Mercy - Angela Ziegler

Reminds me of: Medic from Team Fortress 2 from her playstyle mechanics to her German accent

Plays like: Medic from Team Fortress 2 with the ability to fly to opponents who keep running away from you and towards their deaths

Abilities:
Left-Click - Heals 50 HP per second with her Caduceus Staff; fires from her sidearm pistol
Right-Click - Increase the damage of an ally with her Caduceus Staff
Left-Shift - Fly towards a targeted ally
1 & 2 Keys - Switch between her Caduceus Staff & Caduceus Blaster respectively
Passive - Hold jump to glide down slowly
Q-Key - Resurrects nearby fallen allies with full health

Symmetra - Satya Vaswani

Looks like: I don't know, but her glasses are cool looking.

Plays like: I feel like I've played another game where a character puts down tiny sentry turrets, but I don't remember which game.

Abilities:
Left-Click - A short-ranged energy beam that homes in on nearby enemies
Right-Click - A charged energy shot with slow travel
Left-Shift - Set up to 6 Sentry Turrets that slows and damage enemies that come near it
E-Key - Creates a Photon Shield around allies that can regenerate as long as they're alive
Q-Key - Place a teleporter that connects back to spawn so that allies can get back to the front faster

Zenyatta - Tekhartha Zenyatta

Looks like: A robotic monk

Plays like: No one/No game I can think of.  He's a very aggressive support who can kill easily

Abilities:
Left-Click - Chuck a metal ball
Right-Click - Charge and Chuck up to 5 metal balls in a row
Left-Shift - Throws the Orb of Harmony to an ally that Heals for 30 HP per second
E-Key - Throws the Orb of Discord which amplies the damage they take by 50%
Q-Key - Be all Zen-like and reach Transcendence which grants invulnerability and heals nearby allies

Despite this mish-mash of characters and influences from other games, it all blends together cohesively in a believable environment.  I'm gonna go play some more right now!

Missing Summer Break

It's near the end of June and Summer has begun. The difference now is that I don't get a summer break and I continue to work. I also don't get vacation time either. My birthday came and went faster than any weekend I've had in the past half year since I started working. I didn't do anything that special, but at least I had fun.

The day before my birthday, I just called over 6 friends over (4 of them made it), connected an extra PS3 one of my friends brought over and played Call of Duty: Black Ops the whole day. We had some pretty exciting matches online, and it was so different being able to yell out and coordinate with each other rather than trying to guess what other players are doing online. We played some Zombie mode too, and it was the first time I played with 4 players. It was still difficult and we didn't really get that far (I think round 16 was as far as we went). My parents cooked an incredible dinner and I had my aunt's family come over to join us. At night, we got our computers together to have a LAN night. Before we started, two of my friends presented me with a pair of Sennheiser headphones as my birthday present which I was surprised with and very happy with since I recently had two headphones break. We played Global Agenda (GA), which became free-to-play now, and I really enjoyed it. I've had GA since last July, but didn't play that much since it always took so long to load and it was graphically laggy for me. But I really wanted to play it with some friends and it was really fun. Unfortunately, one of my friend's laptop kept crashing and he didn't get to play that much. He was so tired that he himself crashed at around 1AM. We tried playing with random players for mission mode, but I realized that players are a lot more inexperienced than before because of the transition to free-to-play. I couldn't believe how bad some of the people were playing and kind of miss the quality of players the game once had. The good thing is that it's much more populated now. I think I'll be playing GA more, and I should after spending $35 to buy it last year. We switched over to good old Counter-Strike Source and played for a while, but my other friend got tired too (considering it was already 3AM). I continued to play GA with my friend who wasn't tired yet, as I was, and got him to level 10 so that we could play Player vs. Player. The first match was pretty bad and our team mates were rather uncooperative. The 2nd match we had was really fun though. Everyone was at the capture point, a lot of fighting was going on, and it was much more involving than the first match. By the time we finished, it was 4:43AM and we were both tired. I was thoroughly satisfied being able to play Global Agenda, it was a lot of fun. I kind of wish we had more time to play Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, but we ended up playing some more Counter-Strike Source the next morning. I played some Crysis 2 with my friend who knocked out first the night before and switched off on multiplayer while preparing to go play Tennis. Crysis 2 is a lot of fun, and I think I'm going to get it the next time it drops below $30. When we went to play Tennis, it was rather hot. Okay, it was VERY hot! I wore dark clothing and I forgot to bring water with me. There wasn't that much shade at all on the court and I haven't exercised for 3 weeks ever since I got sick. So after barely 30 minutes, I stood under the patch of shade I could get under and watched my two friends play. Unfortunately, my father wasn't feeling well, sooo we didn't go out for dinner that night. I barely remember what I did after dinner; I think I watched Dragon Ball Z Abridged videos and then went to sleep. Yeah, my birthday wasn't very special this time, but at least I had a bit of fun.

In news of games, I'm not even sure where to start. I guess I can talk a little about the stuff from E3 last month. E3 wasn't spectacular, and there wasn't that many games that were announced that no one didn't already know about. I guess one of the coolest news was the announcement of Nintendo's new system, the Wii U. It has a touch screen controller with a camera and microphone as well as a motion sensor device, and a traditional key layout with two joysticks, 4 face buttons and 4 shoulder buttons. The system will also support graphics synonymous to the Playstation 3. For games, most of the ones I'm excited about has already been announced before. I'm really excited for Dark Souls, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (kinda sorta), Blacklight Retribution, Elder Scroll V: Skyrim, and the one game I haven't heard until E3: Dragon's Dogma.

Most of these games won't be out until the end of this year or later next year. There also many other games that's worth mentioning that was shown at E3 such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mass Effect 3, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, 3DS games and such, but I'm still working on the predecessor's of those games so I'm in no rush to look at those games yet.

A lot of exciting new things have been happening on Valve's Steam program recently. Daily Deals have been introduced, and so a selected game will been on sale each and everyday now alongside with the usual mid-week madness sales and weekend deals. Steam has also started supported Free-to-play MMOs from publishers like ijji and Perfect World on their platform. It's nothing too new to me since Champions online has been on Steam for a while and recently became free-to-play as well as Global Agenda. Aside from those two, there were 3 other games that were announced as being hosted on the program when they launched the support. There was Alliance of Valiant Arms from ijji (which I have played already with an ijji account) and the other two are Spiral Knights from Sega and Forsaken World by Perfect World (which I've been wanting to play but have had trouble getting the client). The biggest plus for me on this new structure is being able to download the clients of free MMOs with less trouble. Aside from support 3rd-party MMOs, Valve also announced transitioning to a free-to-play model as well. Everyone's speculation was that DotA 2 was going to be free when it released (and it's still possible). Just last week, Valve revealed that their incredibly successful First-Person Shooter game Team Fortress 2 was free-to-play. Looking at it now, I'm not surprised. Their micro-transaction store has been surprisingly successful and Team Fortress 2 is generally $10 anyways. With items costing $15-$200, they might as well turn it into a free-to-play game to attract more customers. I would say that Valve is being greedy with it, but they have provided the players with so much service and free content with some of the best quality gameplay in online gaming that I hardly care. They also FINALLY released the "Meet the Medic" video that fans have been waiting for years for. The only one missing at the moment is the Pyro.

I'd really like to get back into MMORPGs, but I also want to finish more of the retail games I have collected in the past few years. I tried out Eden Eternal during beta and it was pretty interesting. Once you reach a certain level, you can change into any class you want whenever you want. There still seems to be a lot of grinding though. Besides Global Agenda, I think the one MMO that will release that I'll want to get into is Guild Wars 2.

I seriously had no interest in the game until just a little while ago when I started to see some of the changes and new classes that they're adding to the game. The gameplay just intrigues me since it's Guild Wars 2 seems to want to aim for the "non-grinding" type of gameplay that its predecessors had. I never did finish Guild Wars Factions, and I would still really like to sometime soon. For other MMOs, I have barely tried out Spiral Knights and Forsaken World, so I'll be playing more of those as well as Vindictus which I have relentlessly have neglected, even after waiting for so many years for it to come out. There were a few other MMOs I wanted to try out, but I think I'm biting off more than I can chew. I know for sure that I'm doing that with retail games.

Last night was a very bad night to play FPS games. After a really long day of work and finishing up my other responsibilities, it was already 10:30PM. So I decided I wanted to play some FPS on PC to test out my new headphones some more, but updates were being downloaded and applied on Steam. So I started the night with Medal of Honor (2010) which I usually have no problem playing at all. Last night was just terrible as every shot I successfully landed didn't count as the server recognized that I was killed first. This continued to happen 5 games in a row. I understand that the game is laggy sometimes, but I've never had so many kills denied before. True, I was 2nd in the team every match, but I always ended up with a negative k/d ratio which is no good in my eyes. By the 6th match, it was already so dumb that I couldn't even move. I forgot about how badly implemented the spawning system was that players could predict exactly where you spawn and kill you before you even move. I gave up and switched over to Team Fortress 2 since I haven't played for so long. I was up to 5 kills and 5 deaths when suddenly the server shut down. I love Team Fortress 2, but one thing I really hate about playing it is how ridiculously long it takes to connect to server. I just gave up tryingn to connect to another server and moved onto playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2. My team was really bad in trying to attack in "Rush" and we were kept at bay the entire time. When we lost and switched positions to defend, we couldn't do a thing at all. 2 Helicopters hovered above our base, spawn killing my entire team and me. A ship was constantly barraging our cases and a ton of men rushed in to set the charges with no one being able to get near. After dying 10 ridiculous deaths and being backed into our last base, I gave up on that too. I just wanted to play something simple and kill in-game at that point, so I started up Counter-Strike Source and got into a gungame. Counter-Strike can seriously be one of the dumbest games to play sometimes as some people can take 3 straight shots to the head from a shotgun and not die while a single bullet from a pistol can take me out. I couldn't tell whether players were using aim-bot or not since gungames immediately respawn a player after dying, but it was still very frustrating nonetheless. I ended up negative every match and was pissed as hell by then. My last hope was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Guess what? I couldn't connect to a single game. 10,000 players online and I couldn't connect to a single game, that is sad. I think after last night, I need to take a break from multiplayer FPS games as it has betrayed me in every way. I ended the night playing Dynasty Warriors 7 and it did make me feel a lot better. I'm still so amazed on how great Dynasty Warriors 7 turned out and am really glad I bought it. I think I should focus on retail games and MMOs for a while, it's much less rage inducing.

Besides my regular everyday job for work, I have picked up two projects to work on over the summer. One of them got back to me yesterday and explained that the project will possibly slow down a lot more now which makes me think that it may not finish. I think I need a new rule on making music in that the game is at the very least playable or near finished before I agree to make music for it. The other project is one I previously worked with for the Game Jam Spring 2011 competition. The team wants to polish it up and host it on Xbox Live Arcade and needs about 7 more songs or so. Besides these two projects, I think I should consider dropping all other ones I had before to start moving forward and making my own games. I have yet to even touch the Starcraft 2 editor which I purposely bought to practice with. So I'm still practicing my art (barely) and still working with more music to prepare for my own game developments. I've been still trying my best to practice piano when I can, but I simply cannot play as well as I did when I was Jr. College which I practiced everyday back then (at least technically). I think I've gained a better understanding of playing music on the piano, but my dexterity and nimbleness has faded with the lack of practice. For guitar, I think I've actually improved a lot from what I used to be able to do. I'm thinking of doing some more demonstrations and practices that I have been doing on Facebook as an incentive to continue learning more. For violin, I have become more comfortable to use more parts of the strings and bow rather than staying near the top all the time. Can't say that I've improved that much more on violin though. I'll need to buy a new bow and I need to change my bent bridge. I'm hoping to go to guitar center sometime soon and finally get my first Electric Bass, which I've been wanting for a while now. So even now, I'm still staying very active in music. Writing is something I'm staying very active in with my blog: http://superpad.blogspot.com/ And it's also my main role for work to edit texts and create new ones. I'm really not sure what to do anymore since my future is so blurred right now. There's things I want to do in terms of career, and then there's things I want to do for enjoyment like playing games and reading books (yes, reading book. I feel like I can't since I feel like I'm wasting time reading a book when I really want to play a game). And then of course there are the things I need to do: have a steady job, build up experience in working, keep going to the gym to stay somewhat active, etc. I barely have enough time to work on game development, art, music, and reading/writing (not blogging). I guess you can say I feel trapped within my own life, but I suppose everyone does when they're stuck with what they don't want to do.

I think that's enough ranting for one post. June was rather short, and I feel like I've accomplished very little. I'm really glad a few of my friends are back home for the summer, that's for sure. It feels really sucky to be working throughout summer when it's so beautiful outside (well, not today since it's all cloudy and cold) and it reminds so much of my past summers of being free from responsibilities and allowing myself to be carefree. This may be the year of the rabbit (supposedly brings tons of luck to those born in that year, which is my year), but so far it's been pretty sucky which very few occasions where I felt honestly happy. Now that my birthday has passed, I hope things will get better for me.

On Planets and Portals

Yeaaah, I missed last weeks post since I've been pretty busy with organizing my work.  I finished a major music project and got a little lazy, but at the same time started to work even more since I realized how much more I still have on my to do list.  So 2 weeks ago, I was supposed to beat Genji: Days of the Blade as part of my "1-game a week" mission in hopes of learning more about the design of games and the industry.  Well, I didn't finish and instead got caught up in other things:

[Zanac - Music Mix Project]

So I've planned this project out since I was in Jr. College but never found the time to do it.  And since I've improved on using music programs and have a greater knowledge in music, I decided to start and complete it within a week.  It was a grueling week with technical problems, sound balance, incompatibilities, and difficulty in finding appropriate instruments causing many hours just listening back loops in search of mistakes.  But I finished and it ended up being 8 minutes long.  I plan to make a gameplay footage of the original game and then match it up with the music so I can present it out to the internet.  I'm going to start building a portfolio of my work from here on out and see where it takes me.  I'll post it up here when I'm done.

[Lost Planet Colonies - Capcom - PC]

This was a satisfying game.  It wasn't long, nor did it feel too short.  The story, despite its bad voice acting and awkward 3D animation gestures and expressions, was quite captivating at a certain point and got me really into the game.  The open level battles was an interesting design choice that worked well for easy mode (which is what I played), but I can't imagine how players can survive in harder difficulties when the enemies are capable of constantly attacking the player the second they get up.  The gameplay was a little slow at times mainly because of large areas and the inability to run (faster, since he is running, but very slowly).  I don't want to spend too long on these reviews so here's the quick run down:]

Graphics: 8/10 (Though, not utilizing the greatest render and capabilities of the current generation systems for the environment, the enemies are very detailed and creative in their design and nature.  Those enemies were fun to kill~)

Audio: 7/10 (Sound effects were pretty good and really added to the chaos that occurred during a large fight.  Music was forgettable, except for the menu screen theme.  The voice acting was weird, and was not believable.  The overall experience in terms of sound was satisfactory.)

Gameplay: 8/10 (The game was ultimately fun in the end.  It starts out very easy and was a bit slow for my tastes until it gets to the boss battles.  The boss battles were really fun, especially when it got challenging.  The mix between puzzles, action, and shooting brought the game to life and had something that stood out from other action games.  But the levels themselves didn't get interesting until half-way through.  It makes sense to have the developer ease players into the game rather than throw them into the game, although Demon's Souls does that (dies in the tutorial boss...).  Controls were a little heavy, but bearable.  Running is slow, to me...using a VR (robot mechs) was pretty fun, but there were some reliance on them.  Dying was perfectly okay to me, haha.  It wasn't frustrating, but rather a learning experience.  Battles weren't particularly challenging if strategies are planned out, and it just didn't feel like Golden Axe or Genji when you died in those games.  But yes, the game was satisfying and I enjoyed it.)

Replay Value: 7/10 (Mmmm, not that I wouldn't want to play it again, but it's taking up a lot of Hard drive space, and I don't have much purpose into playing it again except for harder difficulties.)

Overall: 7.5/10 (I think it's worth playing through one time, but there isn't much afterwards other than multiplayer.  With its clunky controls and slow speed, I'm not sure if death match is such a fun multiplayer mode for the game.  Also, I'm sad there wasn't co-op on it.  2nd one does, and I'll probably try it soon.

[Portal - Valve - PC]

(Note: Song does contain spoilers, but it doesn't make sense till you play the game.)

I heard so much about this game and didn't play it since it was a short game that came with a few other games.  Got TF2 sepearately from a friend, then Half-Life 2 from another friend, and then with Valve's compatibility of Steam with Macs, Portal was free for whoever downloaded it.  I beat it and enjoyed it.  Played a bit of the first part again to listen to some of the commentary and found it to be very resourceful and interesting in learning about level design and making tutorials.

Graphics: 10/10 (Graphics were beautiful, clean, beneficial to the gameplay, and well designed).

Audio: 9/10 (All the audio had a purpose in the gameplay of Portal and served as a indicator to what the player had to do, what to look out for, and cues of what to do next.  The music wasn't memorable (except for the incredibly, well written score for "Still Alive") in the game, but it added to the environment and mood of the situation of each event).

Gameplay: 9/10 (It was puzzle heavy and didn't have too much action, but I didn't mind too much.  The game was enticing with the "what's next" method of progression and its underlying storyline was pretty captivating as well adding to the player experience.  The later stages of challenges where it became open-ended made it even more interesting since I started to experiment with many different methods of solution.  It was a gratifying experience).

Replay Value: 7/10 (Honestly, I would only play it again for the commentary so I could learn from it.  I like the puzzles and all, but I think I would prefer to play Mirror's Edge again.  I guess I want more action?)

Overall: 9/10 (A must try game, though I wouldn't necessarily say a "must buy" because of its length in game play.  My sister beat it in one sitting at night at a friend's house, so it's very possible just to borrow the game or play at a friend's house and be done with it.  I enjoyed it).

[New bought games:]

I actually bought quite a few lately and didn't even realize it, haha.

Blacklight: Tango Down (PC)

Remember me going off on how excited about I was on this game?  50% off on Steam for $7.49 and I immediately bought it.  I do not regret it; however, there are not nearly enough players on.  The gameplay is challenging in both mission mode and competitive modes, the graphics and futuristic and unique, the sounds and animations are pretty impressive for a cheap priced game, and the replay value is quite high.  I like the leveling and customizing as I spend a lot of time changing parts, looks, and stats of my load outs.  But it's very sad that I can't even play a simple death match since no one plays the game.  I got into a few full games twice and it was a wonderful experience, despite the amount of times I died.  I am mainly playing the game solo on Black Ops (mission mode) to level up and get more weapons and parts.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC)

I bought it during the 33% off sale with DLC packs for 50% off.  Finally got the game!!!  Amazed of how small the community for the PC has gotten compared to this spring and now.  Do I have to talk about how awesome this game is?  C'mon, you guys know this is an awesome game.  I mainly bought it for its multiplayer.  If you say multiplayer is super BS, I can't argue with you.  But it's part of the game, and BS sometimes happen for you too.  So its broken parts kind of (try) to balance it out for everyone.  I enjoy it, despite getting spawn killed 32 times in a row...

Okami (Wii)

Not sure when I'll ever get around to beating this game since I have a huge list to finish, but I did try it out a bit and was captivated by its artistic feel in the gameplay and visuals.  I'll be sure to finish it one day.

NBA Jam (Wii)

Bought it this past Saturday.  This game is HARD!  The developers did a good job of making smart AI computers, and even a better job of revitalizing this lost treasure amongst the masses of realistic basketball games out in the market.  I don't own any other Basketball game since I don't find a need to buy over 20 iterations of one, but NBA Jam was a golden game back in the SNES days that provided awesome summers I had with my sister playing sports games on our SNES.  This game definitely brought that same charm and over-the-top gameplay into our current generation console (sorta, it's Wii) and still made it fun.  There's so many unlockables and plenty of game modes that I think I'll be playing this game for a while.  I also really needed another multiplayer game on Wii, I have too many one-player games.

Vanquish just recently came out and it looks amazing.  I saw it at E3, but lines were too long so I didn't get to try it out.  Reviews are looking positive so far.  I'll probably buy it in the future, but for now I need to finish some uncompleted games.

Hmm, I don't remember what else I wanted to say.  I'm working mainly on these things this week:

-Beat Genji: Days of the Blade (PS3)

-Beat Half-Life 2 (PC) Maybe?

-Arrange the piano versions for the Zanac Soundtrack

-Pratice Body form in Drawing

-Start up gaming blog

-Learn the rest of a piano piece (Waltz 64 No.2 by Chopin is what I'm aiming for)

-Finish reading one Book (It's very hard to start reading, and just as hard to stop reading...)

-That's already a lot, but finishing up some game projects would be nice.

That's about it, cya later~

To Blog or not to Blog?

I've been wondering if I should start a public blog that concentrates on Videogames in its every aspect: as entertainment, art medium, business model, the industry, influences, etc.  If I were to start one, who would read it?  There's already hundreds of blogs dedicated to videogames already.  The difference would be that the blog would have my own opinions and insights to them.  But it also arises the question of "who cares?"  It's a troubling debate, but I believe it would be a good way for me to continue improving my writing and prevent it from deteriorating from not being in school and from my unstructured writing here on this blog.  It might also help me get a job as a game reviewer?  Not sure, but I write so much on videogames that I feel I should start that new blog.

Medal of Honor didn't receive as grand of a review from critics and gamers as EA had hoped and landed an average of 7/10 on all 3 platforms (PS3, Xbox360, PC).  The many trolls, haters, and fanboys had downgraded MoH by comparing it to the upcoming Call of Duty and past Modern Warfare games.  I haven't gotten a chance to buy the game and play it myself, but this is what I think from the open beta:

[Medal of Honor - Electronic Arts - PC Open Beta]

The game blew away all expectations I had on this game.  The graphics are amazing, the environment immerses the player into the situation with realistic sounds, smooth gameplay, and unique multiplayer experience.  The multiplayer is fast-paced, but is very team orientated.  This is both refreshing and the bane to the experience.  The gameplay demands that you work cooperatively with your team mates in order to fulfill the objectives.  Most all First-Person Shooters do not have this element within their multiplayer, despite it being a team-based game.  Even in Modern Warfare 1 & 2, people will most likely run off on their own to get kills and brag about how they had to carry the team without working with the team to capture points.  Well, in MoH you have to work with your team if you even WANT to get kills because of the way the level was designed.

This can also be a problem.  The level is designed so that there are very few options of which path to take and it can be very open ranged.  So if the opposing team played the game enough and memorized the spawn locations, it's possible to fall into a infinite loop of spawn kills.  This happened a few times when I played, and I could not do anything about it.  It also doesn't help if your team goes off on their own and keep getting killed.  When I'm playing a good game, the team is in a line pushing forward carefully and strategically.  When both teams are playing well with their team mates and there isn't server lag, the experience can be more exhilarating than many other FPS games out there.  Besides lag, poor design choices for spawning, and the reliance on good team work, the biggest complaint I would have on the multiplayer for MoH would be the limited amount of customization the game allows the player to work with.  I think I mentioned it before in the last post, but there's only 3 classes with only 8 levels on each class making a total of 24 customizable parts and weapons.  Compared Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the amount of content is very shallow and kills a bit of the replay value from the multiplayer.  Many gamers have expressed their hatred of EA copying CoD:MW2 in MoH.  Well after playing the game, I can't say I agree.  The gameplay feels distinctively different from MW2 as strategies change and gameplay is utilized differently during a fire-fight.  In MW2, you want to keep moving and press on forward.  In MoH, players will take cues from their team mates when to move up, when to support, when to cover, when to attack, etc.

Because I haven't played the actual game yet, I can't give a concrete score or opinion of the entire game.  But given the chance to play open beta multiplayer, I will possibly buy the game in the future because of how impressive the experience was.

You can check the critic reviews at Metacritic.com.

Anyways, I've been reading news a lot more recently.  Sure over 75% of those news are related to videogames, but it's a chance for me to learn more about the industry.  The amount of changes and the pace the world moves at shows the prevalent evolution of technology and modern living (or at least the deterioration of our lives).  Some quick news:

-Vindictus went Open Beta today.  Sucks I don't have enough Hard drive space for it.

-Dynasty Warriors Online goes Closed Beta tomorrow.  I already downloaded it.

-DotA 2 officially announced by Valve:

Need I say more?  I found it funny and strange right from the beginning when they copyrighted the term "Dota" just recently.  Pendragon and Guinsoo (who worked on DotA and then went to Riot Games to work on League of Legends) expressed their concern over the copyright and how it might affect the community.  I understand what they're saying and how it might affect the modding community of DotA, but perhaps it's time for DotA to evolve.  Valve is well known for embracing the modding community and bringing those games to greater heights, making them better (Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat, Killing Floor, etc.).  Along with bringing all the original 100+ Characters from DotA, the game will be enhanced and the limitations of the Warcraft 3 editor will be taken off as Icefrog (one of the original developers of DotA and work on Heroes of Newerth) now has the resources and know-how to create the dream creation of DotA he had always hoped for.  I hope I can one day do something of that nature and lead a game project of my own.

That's about it for short news I think...I read an article about story writing in videogames!

While reading through comments about the issue of Valve's copyright over the term "Dota,"  I found out about two games:

[Gang Garrison 2 - 2D online version of Team Fortress 2]

The gameplay is similar to games like Soldat, Gunster: Rain of Bullets, and Booster Trooper.  I downloaded it, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.

[Monday Night Combat - Xbox Live Arcade Game]

It's supposed to be a word play on Monday Night "Football" where the game scenario is like a sports game in a futuristic, Team Fortress 2-like setting with influences from DotA where the two lanes of computer AI attacks the other side with players attacking the other team while defending their main base using towers.  So it's a mix of Team Fortress 2 and DotA.  I gotta say that it caught my attention, but too bad it's not on PC.  I'd probably buy it if it was, haha.

Lastly, despite the arguments between Infinity Ward and Activision and the rivalry between EA's Medal of Honor with Activision's Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops certainly looks impressive and is a step up from Treyarch's last CoD: World at War.

The graphics look so clean and slick!  The customization is limitless, even compared to Modern Warfare 2.  I'm going to have to resist buying it though since I already have a large amount of FPS games within my library of games.  As someone who's going into the industry, I should really balance myself and play a wide range of genres (which means I should really play those PS2, Gamecube, Wii, PSP, DS, and PC games that are just sitting there untouched...).

I've been overworking so much that I end projects and work at 10PM or later now.  I'm about to do some drawing right now too since I didn't the past 2 nights.  I know I can't do everything, but I would really like to.  Doing my best then, now, and in the future.