Raging all weekend!

I stopped writing on Superpad Unplugged, but still want to rant on games!  I've had one heck of a week that all started with trying out GunZ 2: The 2nd Duel.  It seems the game has finally is playable on Steam but still considered in Beta.


The first night it was out, it was so packed that I couldn't even log in.  The problem is that the servers can only support up to 4,500 players (as far as I know).  I loved GunZ: The Duel and was excited to try out the official sequel, and I tried my best to stay unbiased by not comparing it to the first one.  I knew K-styling wasn't possible anymore (being able to block, slash, shoot, parry, and counter using cancels and dashes), but there were many other differences that just really boggled my mind.  Blocks have a threshold.  Some weapons can go past blocks.  Melee cannot block grenade launchers and flamethrowers.  You can't recover from being slashed upwards anymore.  Games are still hosted Peer-to-peer which causes lag for everyone else sometimes.  So long story short: if you get caught in GunZ 2, you're pretty much dead.  There were many ways to escape and fight back in GunZ 1, but they took all those methods out in GunZ 2 and I don't know how I feel about that.  I have to admit the game is fun.  Campaign is still hard as ever, but the combat and feedback from attacks feel nicer and more visceral.  Not to mention that everyone's internet connection is faster and stronger than that of nearly 10 years ago.  PvP is solely Team Deathmatch now as Free-For-All doesn't exist.  I think I might have played FFA more in GunZ 1, so Team Deathmatch was a bit weird at first.  I did well for a few matches, and then after that I started doing incredibly poor.  I was ending games with 1 kill and 8-15 deaths.  It was infuriating when I block but an attack goes through it.  Getting hit by one grenade usually meant getting hit by a 2nd one and dying right away.  Being headshot with a sniper was a one hit kill and even if it isn't it's still 2-3 hits before dying.  That may not seem as bad at first, but if you have 3-4 of them targeting you at the same time, there's little you can do to counter it.  Sadly, this happened one game after another and I became more and more infuriated leading me to slamming my mouse a few times (which I REALLY do not like doing, I want to respect my equipment).  Unfortunately, I might have broke my mouse a little as the right click doesn't really "click" anymore and depresses down without me knowing while the left click feels kind of like that but not as bad.  The game is fun, but I feel like it's bringing out the worst in me and I feel bad that my friend had to hear me in such a state (yelling the entire time while we were in a skype chat playing the game together).  I wish the developers the best in GunZ 2: The 2nd Duel as GunZ 1 was ruined by hackers.  Unfortunately, my friends have already encountered hackers in the game such as aim-bots, god-mode, full special bar, spawn in enemy base, and insta-kill.  Fueling my rage, Call of Duty: Ghosts was free for the weekend on steam and I decided to try that out too.

I'm glad I didn't buy Call of Duty: Ghosts back in the Steam Winter Sale.  For one, the multiplayer side itself took up 25 GB of memory.


Why was it so large?  I'm guessing they didn't compress the assets and didn't optimize the graphics for the game which lead to some pretty nasty problems.  Aiming down sight would freeze up the game for a second or two or drop the frame rate or even skip a few good dozen or so.  The maps were so huge that I would run around for a good 2 to 3 minutes before either spotting someone or getting shot in the back.  I didn't feel it at first, but I realized that there is a decent amount of lag in the game that's invisible to the eye.  From my own perspective, enemies look like they pop out of corners and start shooting immediately where I stand.  But if I watch the killcam, they had a good 1-2 seconds before actually shooting me.  This has been a big problem for Call of Duty games that has never changed.  Other problems that occurred are aim-bot hackers (1 that was on my team and one I had to face) and every terrible stereotypical CoD player talking on the mic or chat.  We have people calling each other expletives, the confused guy that doesn't know what the heck is going on, the hacker, the smack talker, the homophobic racist, and people talking in different languages.  Despite the many problems the game has, I thought it was still kind of fun.  There were some things that they did right and changed that made the game very different from its predecessors.  One of the most mind-blowing experiences I had playing Ghosts compared to every CoD I've ever played was how incredibly team-orientated everyone was.  These players were all noobs like I was playing the game for the first time, yet we stuck together, swept the field as a team, looked out for each other, and reacted to each other's actions.  It was also a bonus when I ended up with a group of players on both sides who were just so chill and friendly to each other.  I think there are two major factors that are put into play that encourages players to do this.  The maps are big, so it doesn't really make sense to go off on your own to try to hunt down enemies when they might be traveling in groups as well.  Also, the players' characters call out enemy locations in multiplayer now!  They'll shout out things such as "Enemies out in the open!" or "Sniper on the catwalk!"  So it's similar to games like Left 4 Dead 2 where the characters will call out enemy types or if they're down.  Another thing I liked was how weapons and attachments are unlocked.  Rather than having to level up and grind your way towards an item, you can use the currency provided from victories and playing called "Squad Points" to unlock the weapon and attachments you want.  I also like that they brought back infinite running to the game as a perk.  So my knifing playstyle is a little closer to what it was in Modern Warfare 2 except for two or three things that kind of break it: You die twice as fast as you do in Black Ops 2 and you died pretty dang fast in that one already, maps are big and don't have as much cover or tight areas to sneak up on people, the latency lag and graphics lag will make you miss your target more often then you'd like.  I did well on some matches but performed terribly on many others.  So more yelling and raging ensued.  I had fun playing CoD: Ghosts this weekend, but I decided against buying it despite wanting to play the single-player campaign.

In between playing CoD: Ghosts, I went back to Black Ops 2 to play some multiplayer and the connection between people are pretty bad.  Most players were at 100 ping while others reached as high as 200 to 300.  And since most of the people still playing are the most dedicated players, it made it that much harder on me.  I tried my knife-only playstyle and did terribly on most all my matches except one when I went positive.  I didn't rage as much, but I did complain a lot from BS knife misses or from teleporting enemies.  With such bad lag, I kind of have to guess where they'll end up and not where they're actually at.  I also played some GunGames on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to unwind since I generally don't ever rage on that game and performed horrendously on most of my matches.  But I was able to relax a bit from playing a few rounds.  ORION: Dino Horde has also been free for the past week and is on sale for $1.  I find it funny that it did this when Takedown: Red Sabre also had a sale of $1 with an extra gift copy a week before.  I downloaded ORION: Dino Horde once again, as I've tried it before, and checked out the new "Conquest" mode which boasts itself for being an Open-World, persistent mode within the game.  It's a little misleading as it doesn't really have a save option or save your stats after dying.  It's an interesting concept and possibly the funnest mode I've played in the game thus far where it's similar to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in a large snow covered mountain and you have to travel far to your objective and fulfill them.  It's similar to survival mode, but there's a lot more traversing involved.  Still, the game doesn't really convince me to purchase it even at $1.  I also finally tried out "Loadout".  It's a free-to-play 3rd-person shooter with a cartoony look but a very mature theme.  The game is very bloody, violent, vulgar, and ridiculous, but I can see how it can be fun.  You can build your own guns by mixing and matching the stock, barrel, scope, magazine, bullet type and such and name it whatever you want.  I did exceedingly well being first place in most of my matches and winning the game for my team; however, I felt like most people were just getting used to this type of game and not even just the game itself.  So my victories didn't seem that big in my eyes, but it did help ease my mind after raging so much this weekend.

BUT THERE'S MORE!  I also finally completed Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone after two years of playing it!  According to steam, I put in 39 hours into it.  In game, I spent about 6 hours the first time around when I was playing on the hardest difficulty and then started over on the easiest difficulty because I couldn't handle all that grinding.  With my full run-through, it took 28.5 hours to complete.  I think it didn't count being paused and conversations as part of the gameplay time in-game.  I loved and hated the game at the same time.  I probably love it more than I hate it, but can't emphasize the amount of times this game has made me yell at it.  More than anything, I yelled specifically at the character "Sana" for not healing me when I needed it most!  So the game is a Metroidvania of sorts with the ability to take control one of three characters in the game: Arche the swords girl, Sana the healer, and Stella the fire mage.  The entire game takes place within 11 days which sounds short, but the whole experience from the game felt like a big adventure.  It's a heart-warming tale of friendship, growing up, making up one's weakness with their strengths, of trust, and of overcoming great obstacles.  That last one is especially important because that's what the player has to go through the whole game.  The game gets progressively better as you play and sadly gets worse as well.  The game flow involves some conversations, then traveling somewhere to fulfill a goal while fighting off monsters in-between the way there.  The two biggest problems I have with the game that breaks that flow is "knowing what to do" and "where the !@#$ do I go?"  The game suffers a case of "Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest" in which the game or NPCs hint at what you're supposed to do next, but is so obscure and sometimes so scripted that it's impossible to figure out unless to travel absolutely everywhere and talk to everyone multiple times.  Castlevania 2 and Metroid didn't have maps in-game for the NES, but they did have strategy guides with the maps on them.  Fortune Summoners doesn't have an in-game map or a strategy guide with a map.  Fortunately for me, there are GameFAQs that players have made that helped me get through the game.  But the directions were so specific that I had to check it in every room that I went through.  The other two things that isn't really a problem but pissed me off to no end was the enemy AI and allies AI.  Normally, I would complain about how stupid or lifeless the AIs are in a game; however, the enemy AI in Fortune Summoners are so smart and clairvoyant that I genuinely get so angry at them.  I love and hate this at the same time.  The enemies are so difficult to deal with sometimes, but I feel so good when I finish them off.  For the ally AI, they sometimes do that craziest combos and attacks to help, but other times they just want to troll you and stare at you while you die!  If I play Arche, the AI Sana doesn't always want to heal me.  But if I play Sana, the computer doesn't know to protect the healer and runs up!  Or if I'm tanking with Arche, the other two casters runs up into the middle of the battle and putting themselves in danger.  It's a tricky balance between them being incredibly smart and powerful while sometimes being profoundly oblivious to what's happening around them.  Fortune Summoners is such a cute game though.  The characters are adorable, the story is heart-warming, and the graphics is so vibrant and lively.  One of the major gameplay aspects I really liked was the combat system.  Arche has a complex arsenal of moves under her disposal that's akin to fighting game mechanics allowing her to attack fast, slash high, roll under, thrust forward, or flip back.  Sana was my least favorite to play as she focused more on healing, buffing, debuffing, and semi crowd-control.  Besides, the computer didn't really know how to protect me when I took control of her, so I played Arche most of the time to protect them while they did their thing.  Stella is such an amazing character.  She was the typical, stuck-up, rich princess that looked down upon everyone.  But when the story turned its attention to her, I warmed up to her and I ended up loving her character so much.  She has a huge list of spells to cast that does a devastating amount of damage.  I don't know how many times I've posted this same video of my friend playing the game, but it's an example of what Arche and Stella is capable of:


I also really liked the soundtrack.  The songs are whimsical and memorable.  The one track that really stood out for me the first time I played the game was when a large amount of enemies showed up:

The instruments don't sound realistic, but the composition of the song is so powerful and has such an impact in the game that it really bolstered the experience I had with the game.  It's such a funny contrast to have cute little girls in a colorful environment with sweet music bring out so much frustration and anger when I'm in combat.  In the last 3-5 hours of the game, I yelled so much that I wondered if it was worth completing the game.  I'm so glad I did, because I felt so happy and satisfied when I finished the game.  Fortune Summoners is a strange mix of making you feel happy and angry in a crazy roller coaster ride.  I did feel a little empty after I exited the game because I've grown so attached to Arche, Sana and Stella and the adventures that they had.  But I know for a fact that I won't be replaying the game any time soon.  It's just way too stressful, man! @_@;  If you're a hardcore gamer or just really like challenging games, I highly recommend picking Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone on Steam the next time it's on sale!

I also played some League of Legends with my friends the past few days.  I haven't done that in a while.  Hexakill mode is out right now and will disappear in a few weeks.  This mode allows 6 v 6 on Summoner's Rift.  I played one with my friends and won and played one with my sister and her friends and lost.  I played one ARAM by myself and won (I got Blitzcrank that match, yay!).  So it's kind of been up and down with LoL, but losing just added to the amount of failures I've had in the past week in other games so it felt a bit salty.

Other than that, I played a little bit of Alien Rage last night which obviously made me rage a bit (it's right there in its name!).  I actually kind of like Alien Rage because of how it looks and feels, but there are problems with it.  I'm only half-way through the game so I rather hold my thoughts on it until I finish it, but I'd say the biggest problem it has is that it has an identity problem.  It can't decide whether it wants to be an arcade-like shooter or a tactical one, because trying to be both isn't really working out all that much.  Going all out could get you killed rather quickly because of the amount of enemies firing at you; however, trying to take cover has its problems because grenade launchers splashes past it and hurts the player and a lot of the enemies rush towards where the player is to take them down immediately.

I think that's enough ranting for one day.  I feel a bit better.  I don't like losing my temper and getting angry, but maybe it's good for me.  Maybe I needed to let some emotion out and be more expressive.  The good thing is that I wasn't yelling at anyone in particular, just at the game and perhaps at my own inability to perform better.  I really need to get back on track and focus on my goals though.  I feel so inspired to work on some projects!  But I also feel mentally and physically lethargic recently and I don't know why.  Oh well, I'll find my way.

She Returns!

I realized I never wrote anything on Valentine's Day before!  Well, let me tell you a story:

My date isn't going to be here until tomorrow.  And even when she gets here, I won't be taking her out...yet.  I'm still processing the first encounter and don't even get me started on the 2nd encounter.  At first, I hated her and all her friends.  But after a bit, I started warming up to her and some of her buddies.  I feel really good about this 3rd encounter, though I'm not prepared for it yet.  A lot of people don't seem to like her at all.  I'll give her that chance.  My friends say that it's not worth it.  "She's just an angry, pink-haired tsundere with no personality!"  Maybe it'll be okay.  I kinda like tsunderes!

So yeah, I pre-order Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 and it arrives in the mail tomorrow!  I pre-ordered it to get the Yuna and Cloud Strife costumes and because I'm very excited about the game.  But I don't think I'll be able to play it quite just yet.  I FINALLY started playing Final Fantasy XIII and am about 10 hours in (still in the 'process' of finishing the game) and will work towards finishing it and FFXIII-2 (haven't even 'started' it yet) before I actually start Lightning Returns.  With the first 2 hours of Final Fantasy XIII, I immediately hated all the characters.  All the characters are based off emotions.  Lightning is always angry.  Snow bi-polar and changes his emotions on a whim.  Sazh can't finish his sentences as he's dubious on his stance in an argument.  Vanille is way too happy for her own good.  And Hope is the worst out of all of them with being portrayed as weak and helpless while blaming everyone else around him for everything.  With about 10 hours into the game, I'm starting to like Lightning a bit more as she shows some compassion towards the other characters.  I'm hoping I'll warm up to the rest of the cast as I get deeper into the story.  I tried out the demo of Lightning Returns and really liked the combat system as it's a lot more action-orientated and require a lot of cycling through skills.  Sadly, Lightning Returns has the lowest MetaScore out of the FFXIII series by critics and users alike.  Some people didn't like the story or characters, some didn't like the ending, others hated how it's action-orientated and not turn-based, while some just join in on the band-wagon and throw out vague comments such as "it's a boring game".  I really like the character design to Lightning but do think she has a shallow personality from what has been revealed in the first 10 hours of FFXIII so far.  I started liking her a bit more when she started showing some concern or understanding towards the other characters and that's when I realized her character archetype was that of a tsundere.  A Tsundere is a very common character archetype in animé where the character acts cold and/or indifferent to the other characters and ends up being more friendly near the end or in another method, they're resolute and show no compassion in the outside but hints on kindness and understanding in the inside.  I actually didn't know about this until I watched Lucky Star and it pointed out Kagami Hiiragi being a "Tsundere" so often.  That's when I realized I liked a lot of characters that are "tsundere".  I don't think it applies to actual girls in real life though.  So yeah, I'll be going through the FFXIII series this year and hopefully get around to Lightning Returns soon.


Getting back to the topic at hand: it's Valentine's Day and I don't have anything in particular planned.  I'm not disappointed and it's not surprising to have anything happen while I'm in the environment that I'm in.  This is why I've got to get a job outside of this city so I can meet more people!  I don't have anyone to celebrate Valentine's Day with, but that's okay.  Still not in the game industry to work towards my goal, that's not as okay.  I'm more concerned about my ability to get a job right now more than anything and it's something I'm working hard towards.  My portfolio is shaping up nicely and I'll have to do some more editing on my resumé.  In the meantime, I still want to work hard on producing more music and getting better at it.  It's been a pretty productive month so far with more projects lined up for me.  I also started making music for a game one of my friend's is developing for the android market.  In terms of gaming, I'm a bit worried.  I've already spent a lot of money these past 1.5 months into this year and I've already bought more games than I have completed.  I have to be careful about that since I'm more focused on completing specific games rather than large quantities of them.  And most of those specific games take a long time to complete.  Still, because of Valentine's Day, there were a bunch of sales I couldn't possibly ignore.  So I picked up 5 more games today.  Overall, I think the year started off alright so far for me.  I wish I was working out more consistently (been doing 2 times a week instead of 3) and getting work done a lot faster as well as completing games faster, but I realize that I have to pace myself if I want to get anything done.

Have a great and safe Valentine's Day, everyone!