It's been a while, and I have free time on Christmas day! Yay!!! But I don't want to take too long on this blog as I do want to get onto playing some videogames. So I'll make everything brief.
Finals for Fall 2009 was rather difficult and taxing on my mentality, but I pulled through and studied like mad and managed to get an A+ in Performance and Camera, an A in PC Game Development, a B in Asian Art History - Indian Art (that was the hardest one), and a B- in Modern European Art History (That was second hardest). Indian Art was really difficult since I was memorizing long words such as places called "Gangaikondacholapuram", names of objects such as "Folio from the Kalpasutra & Kalakacharya-Katha" and artist names like "Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris 'Le Courbussier'". I can't believe I still remember it now actually, I'll probably forget when I start to memorize things for next quarter's classes. Anyways, I went back home for winter break and at the end of the 2nd week which means I only have one week left before going back (sadness....). I've been actually pretty busy with organizing my computer since I'm running out of hard drive, having team meetings and working on several game projects, and catching up with friends ever since I got back. I wish I had more time to spend with my friends since I rarely get to see them. Like some of you guys reading this right now I probably haven't seen for half a year to like 2-5 years (seriously!) But yeah, I'm going to enjoy myself today and play some videogames and just relax and not think about work and productivity.
Short Game Reviews (yay!):
[Borderlands] (PC - FPS/RPG)
Borderlands is a First-Person Shooter (FPS) with the game having the concepts of a Role-Playing Game (RPG). You run around, shoot people and monsters like an FPS, but you level up, gain new equipment, have skill levels, and statistics like an RPG. The game is fast paced during battle and strategic when preparing so it has a nice balance that makes the game exciting while not being too ridiculous.
The story takes you a desert like terrain where you fight off bandits and monstrosities of epic proportions to liberate the planet from the greed and corruption of those who seek power for themselves. Taking the role of a hunter, soldier, siren or Berserker, you and 3 other friends fight off hordes of enemies, fight for awesome loot, and try out 87 Bazillion Guns! The game is challenging, and it does affect the gameplay when one player is significantly higher in level than the other, but if you can find some friends who are around the same level who can cooperate with you or at least kill off the enemies, then you're sure to have an great experience playing this game. I play as a siren btw, I love assassinating~
Overall: 9/10
[Phantasy Star Zero] (NDS - ARPG)
I raved about this game quite a bit and for good reasons too. 4-Player co-op wireless play with 3 other people with the ability to play with others online. Online play doesn't even have lag!!! (for the most part). Over 300 weapons, tons of quests, a fair amount of customization, Phantasy Star Zero is a game worth buying providing hours upon hours of gameplay. The story differs depending on which race you play choosing from a Human, Cast and Newman like in the previous Phantasy Star games, but they relate to each other in some way or another. A period of time called the "Great Blank" puts all the people into curiosity of what happened to the Casts who've been turned off and suddenly loses all memory of the past and the conflicts between the newmans and humans.
I played the game for about 10 hours and still have quite a bit to do. I wouldn't be surprised if this game provided me with over 300 hours of gameplay if I had the time. I mainly played over the internet with my friend and did a few quests, got new weapons, and killed off boss monsters. It was really exciting getting to play with others online who had Japanese versions of the game. Whether they're from Japan or not is questionable, but it was great to know I was playing with people from around the country. The biggest thing I have against the game is that in the American Version, they took out the original Japanese title theme song that Hatsune Okumura wrote and sang and replaced with some generic theme. They did the same exact thing with Shining Tears on the PS2. Other than that, the backgrounds in the game look flat but can be sorta convincing of things looking further away. The timing in the combo can be a bit difficult to get used to, so that could affect gameplay. And like the predecessors before PSZero, you're going to struggle against certain bosses so prepare to go train/grind somewhere. As long as you do quests or play with a friend, the game will continue to be interesting. This is one of those games where people will either love it or hate it.
Overall:9/10
[Haze] (PS3 - FPS)
Good thing: unique game mechanics with the nectar and playing dead along with 2-player co-op split screen / 4-player co-op online. Bad thing: system is so broken when going against enemies in harder difficulty levels, storyline starts off good but really makes you gag at the end. To make things short, this game had great potential in many ways but fails at some point and makes you wonder why you're playing the game.
You start off the game playing the role of Shane Carpenter who signed up with an organization called Mantel who fights for the good of man. Mantel's greatest weapon is nectar, their drug that's injected into them everyone once in a while and can be controlled during the game that enhances vision, health regeneration, speed, and power. You're sent to fight off a group of people for the sake of ethnic cleansing and later find out that Mantel is actually trying to steal the ingredients from the people for profits and that nectar is actually killing the soldiers who use them. You then fight for the victims you were initially killing and have the ability to play dead, which doesn't always work since they keep shooting your body.....I won't complain too much since I bought the game for $7 and it had co-op so I could play with my sister, but I wouldn't give the game that much merit.
Overall: 7/10 if you can play online, 6/10 if you play offline.
[Wii Music] (Wii - Music)
This game didn't do too well in sales, and it has been identified being more of an advance toy or program rather than a game. It was for sale for $20 and I already heard about the bad reviews people gave about this game, but I really didn't want to give up this opportunity like I did with Ikaruga all those years ago when it was $20 at Costco (now it's like $70-100 on ebay, can't find it for Gamecube anymore). Well, the game was worth those $20 because the game, although very childish in many ways, is actually very interesting and does a very good job in just letting the player have a good time without actual failure. There are mini games such as pitch perfect and maestro where it tests your sense of rhythm and pitch identification where you can challenge for higher scores or even lose, but it doesn't really force the player to be in an environment where there is a winner and a loser.
You get to choose from 50 songs and 60 instruments and experiment with each one using the motions you would for that instrument. It may be a turn off for those who are not very interested in music and rhythm as it may not sound as nice if you cannot grasp the concepts of a steady beat and understanding styles. I don't like the fact that the instruments sounds extremely MIDI-ish and computerized, but the amount of things you can do in the game makes up for that. I haven't tried playing with friends yet in a custom jam, but I'm pretty sure it'll be fun since a lot of my friends are music orientated. You actually don't need any skills in music if you just want to pick up a wii-mote and start jamming away on the improvisation mode where you control the song anyway you please. I wouldn't mind calling this game an advanced toy, because it was a lot of fun just trying out all the instruments.
Overall: 8/10
That's all for game reviews, and here are 2 free games I wanted to mention before I go:
[I Want to Be the Guy] (PC - Action Platformer)
This game is unforgivably difficult for ANYONE to play. But if you're one of those patient people or a hardcore gamer who wants to prove themselves, this game is for you. Created by one guy using actionscript on flash, he created a game that has a surprise in every room of the entire freaking game. The game's concept is built around trial and error where you fail over and over until you've memorized every aspect of a room. It has a great system for making the player try over and over again because it shows that it's possible, but you just got to do it correctly. Try it now: http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/downloads.php
[Spelunky] (PC - Action Adventure)
Spelunky is a lot more doable than IWTBTG, but it doesn't mean it's easy. The game's concept is built around generating random caves the player goes through while collecting as much loot as possible. You have several items and can gain a lot more along the way. This game also has a lot of surprises that will piss the player off by showing that something is possible, but you gotta start over and do it again if you fail. Lots of hours gone by playing this game: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4017.0
That's all for now, I'm finally going to go play videogames, I took much longer than expected. Merry Christmas~
I'm super excited for Phantasy Star Zero since I enjoy the Phantasy Star series, the amount of weapons and story they're implementing into this game, and the ability to play over the internet cooperatively with people around the world!!! Castle of Shikigami 3 is actually getting somewhat old (about a year or 2) but I've been getting back into shooters after playing Touhou and Valkyrie Sky as well as re-watching the video Mushihimesama-Futari. It's also because CoS3 has 2 player co-op and I wanted something to play with my sister and friend over this winter break.
Yeah, that's Mio (mmm, I wouldn't mind having that figurine, but it's $88...- -;). She's my favorite character so far which surprised me since I play the Bass the least (I don't have one, I play my friend's). I liked the part in the first episode where Ritsu kicked Mio in the leg, made me sorry for Mio, but still laughed. I didn't know it before, but appearently EVERYONE loves Mio as I read stuff on forums and blogs. I don't blame them after seeing the amazing ending credits theme song "Don't Say Lazy" at the end of the episode.