Ninjas, Wars, Souls, Others, and Swords

Sooo, in the past 1-2 weeks or so, I bought:

-Plain Sight (PC - Steam): Suicide Ninja Robots

Got this during the $2 sale on Steam and was sad to see barely 15 people total online playing it.  It might be because it was at night, but I feel cheated whenever I get an online intensive game and find that no one is on to play it (just like when I bought Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West).  Like Lead & Gold, it's a good game with interesting concepts.  You're a suicide ninja robot, one-shotting other players with your awesome charge katana strike while absorbing energy which makes you larger and change color.  If you happen to suicide after getting a few kills, you earn points while getting bonus points for getting anyone during the suicide explosion.  It's not very violent and it's very fast-paced.  It's enjoyable and an entertaining distraction.

-Mount & Blade: Warband (PC - Steam): Medieval, open-ended RPG goodness

I bought the original Mount & Blade off Steam for $5 and really enjoyed the open ended gameplay and the feeling of immersion despite the quality of the graphic and sound.  When I heard about Warband, I wasn't sure if I wanted it other than for its multiplayer.  Well, Steam had a $10.20 deal for it and I couldn't resist and got it.  I haven't played multiplayer yet, but about 5 minutes into the campaign and I was glad it wasn't exactly like the original.  The game follows a different story path and has improved its controls and animation.  It's a quirky game with odd moments, but the large army fights is quite exhilarating when you get to slice bodies and stab faces with an assortment of weapons!

-Demon's Souls (PS3): Relentless Action RPG with unforgiving difficulty

Came out last year (2009) in October and have been waiting for a chance to buy it.  It's been expensive for $60 and I've been at school in Irvine.  Well, just this past Friday on a random chance to going to Gamestop I found it for $30.  I really wanted a nice RPG to play that I would enjoy going back to with progression and challenge.  My friends in Irvine all warned me how ridiculous the difficulty was and I was excited for it.  Started it up, went through tutorial and got owned at the end (apparently, I wasn't really supposed to win against the boss in the tutorial).  The game is unforgiving with easy deaths, losing all souls (in-game currency) upon death, getting killed by other players invading your game through the online function, and humongous bosses 100x larger than you.  It can be very frustrating, but after getting used to the controls and game mechanics, it became very involving and interesting for me.  It was like a medieval version of Phantasy Star Online (one of my most favorite games).  Lots of weapons, methods of playing, and replay value.

-Metroid: Other M (Wii): A Metroid game done by Team Ninja of Ninja Gaiden Renown

Bought it today at Costco for about 5 dollars less~  I've been keeping up with this game for a while since I'm a big Metroid fan (though I haven't played Prime 2) and have been very surprised with its development.  Team Ninja collaborated with Nintendo to create a new experience for the Metroid experience, which was my first surprised.  It made me really excited thinking about using Team Ninja's ideas of fluid gameplay mechanics they've learned through making Ninja Gaiden with Nintendo's long history of successful Metroid games along with the rich background the series had already followed.  The 2nd surprise was that it was going to be 3rd person pseudo 2-D with first-person 3D hybrid gameplay.  It took a short while to get used to, but it can get very exciting once adjusted to.  I think the biggest surprise that didn't hit me until I bought it today was that you only use the Wiimote to play.  That's right, the WIIMOTE!  No nunchuck, no attachments, no gamecube controllers, just the wiimote.  What's surprising about it?  IT WORKS!  Team Ninja utilized the capabilities of the wiimote very well with the balance between horizontal, retro controls with the first-person perspective aiming of the sensor.  The game stays very focused to the simple mechanics while utilizing well planned puzzles and gameplay throughout the game that keeps it compelling but still fresh.  The game is easy to understand, but the fights can get a bit challenging.  The difficulty is just right considering it's from Team Ninja.  I knew it'd be difficult, but they make each battle balanced and fair.  Though, I'm not sure what the casual player or non-fan would think about the game, but fans and hardcore gamers would get a kick out of this latest installment.  The game has more cinematic scenes and story based dialogue that fans of the series would be familiar to which links events and people from Metroid 2, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion together.  The story is like a hit of nostalgia with a bit of film noire, similar to what Tecmo of the original Ninja Gaiden used to do.  I had loved the character Samus before, but this game gives her more character and feeling than any of the other ones have.  I can say now after just 2.5 hours of playing that I love it already.

Other than that, I beat Heavely Sword (PS3) last Thursday:

[Heavenly Sword - PS3]

One of the launch titles for the Playstation 3, Heavenly Sword presents itself as an impressively developed game with realistic graphics, intelligent AI, fluid animations, and involving story.  It's an Action Hack 'n Slash that requires a lot of timing, prediction, and above all: patience.  The game boasts itself as being high quality with a team of high experience developers, actors, and all to create the most realistic facial expressions, the best scripting, etc.  I beat it within 4 days of light playing each night and beat the final boss in its 2nd and 3rd form on the 2nd try of each.  The first form took me forever for some reason.  The game isn't very difficult, but it can be rather annoying trying to fight enemies who always block and have priority hits on you.  To be honest, Heavenly Sword is a one play through game for me.  I found the game to be very frustrating with little motivation for me to go back to playing it again.  The story developed very well, but it was simplistic, predictable, but at the very least satisfying.  I liked the game, but not enough to play it again.  I did unlock a "Hell Mode" after beating the game, maybe I'll go back to it in the further future.

Graphics: 10/10 - Gotta give them credit for all the work they did.  Impressive for a launch title.

Sound: 10/10 - Same.  Had a lot of work into it and paid off.  Voice acting is top notch, though it can get rather strange in some scenes.

Gameplay: 8/10 - Lots of combinations and excellent use of color to indicate light/heavy and ranged attacks which allows for a more strategic game rather than just button mashing; however, I find myself using the same combo in order to break enemy blocks which defeats the purpose of doing different combo attacks.  They block too much and have too many priority hits.

Replay value: 5/10 - I didn't feel like playing it anymore after beating it.  Boss battles were tedious rather than epic, and minions were all turtles with stupid priority strikes that stun you.  If you have no other games to play, it'd probably be worth playing through "Hell Mode", but I'm done with the game.

Overall: 8/10 - Truly a game of its time, though I can't help but feel as if it was created just to show the capabilities of the Playstation 3's hardware.  I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but the dynamics of the game doesn't change too drastically as you progress.  If you haven't played it yet, rent it or borrow it from a friend.  It takes about 5-10 hours to beat depending how familiar you are to those types of games.  It's worth one playthrough.

Back into Games

Wow, it's near the end of August already!  I still remember being in elementary school and thinking that summer vacation was really long.  Now, it just flies by with so much more in mind of things to do.  I've been a lot busier than I thought with game projects, job hunting, and beta testing.  Beta testing isn't too bad, it's a choice and I help contribute to a developer and publisher when I'm playing and giving feedback.  I haven't been reading as much as I had hoped (real reading and not comics, I still read a lot of comics).  I've finally been playing more games and trying to learn more from them.  What I mean is I play more meaningfully by paying attention to every little detail.  Sure it's tiring, but it makes it rewarding when you're just playing for fun.

I've been playing a lot of League of Legends this summer and have gotten significantly better thanks to a friend who pwns in that game.  I just checked, and realized I have 121 hours recorded of gameplay on League of Legends, which beats my previous most played game of Team Fortress 2 with 113 hours.  I generally don't play games that much since I don't get the time, but I played TF2 a lot during weekends over the school year and I played LoL a lot at night.  I even got my sister to join me, and now she plays more than me.

I'm pretty much done with the music for the game project I'm working on, and I want to move onto new things now.  I have a line-up of independent projects I plan on starting and finishing as I've not made a real game in the longest time.  I'm also finishing up the RPG that our videogame development club started 2 years ago.  Besides that, I've found the time to beta test some games, and beat some current ones.  So hear are some short review/rants.

[Starcraft: Brood War - PC]

Yes, I just finished it recently.  I've stayed away from RTS games for a while since they took a long time to beat (same as RPGs) and been playing more fighting games and shooters.  Too make it short = Good story, hard gameplay, very nostalgic and awesome.  I already bought Starcraft 2: Collector's Edition but haven't really played it yet.  I've already heard the story was kind of disappointing from another friend, but others say they love it.  We'll see, I just hope it doesn't take me another 10 years to beat it.

[Prototype - PC]

I personally enjoyed this game a lot.  It was a really good stress relief.  It's kind of like Grand Theft Auto in that it's an open city and you can go anywhere freely, with hack-n-slash fighting like Dynasty Warriors.  The story is confusing and gets very convoluted near the end, but it has closure.

I had mixed feelings about the ending since it was a bit of a shocker, disappointing yet still satisfying.  Everything made sense in the end, and it kind of made you feel cruddy.  I loved it though, getting to fly around everywhere destroying everything.

[Dead Rising: Chop til' you drop - Wii]

Haha, the ending seemed like it was never going to appear when I got to the last chapter.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised with the way Capcom makes their games.  The game had an awkward control scheme that's reminiscence of the Resident Evil series.  Once I got used to the controls, it was fun going around killing zombies everywhere.  I have to say that there were times where it just wasn't fun killing zombies anymore.

Prototype didn't feel like that though, it was always interesting going around killing and blowing things up.  For Dead Rising, I got more interested in the story and less on saving people since those missions didn't have much variation.  Boss battles were interesting.  There were many creatures and enemies that were more annoying than an obstacle.  I would have hated the game if it had ended on any of the possible scenes it kept presenting.  But it, like Prototype, had closure and was satisfying enough for me.  I'm not quite sure if I'll be returning to that game anytime soon.  I'm looking forward to Dead Rising 2 though, 2-player co-op!

[Alien Swarm - PC]

Free game on Steam created by modders hired by Valve.  It's a top-down action survival game that has its emphasis on teamwork.  I've tried it a few time and play mostly medic as I've been healers in a lot of class based games lately (mainly 'cause I'm tired of people not playing them correctly - go play a tank or dps if you want to kill, not a healer!).

It's fun, challenging, and very creative.  I haven't beat it yet, even though I've been to the last level twice already.  It's also open source, so I'm hoping to see more custom made levels, mods and tweaks by the modding community.

[Resistance 2 - PS3]

I haven't played much of it, but I hated how they took out 2 player campaign mode and only have single-player.  The multiplayer aspect is interesting since it's class-based, team orientated, and starts differently each time; however, the 2-player offline option is incredibly difficult against some of the rushes the enemies execute.

The only way I see the multiplayer completed is if you log online and play the 6-player co-op with it, which I'm not sure if people even play anymore since it's considered old and ignored compared to Modern Warfare 2.  There are some things I like about the sequel (more weapons, amazing art work, beautifully crafted levels) and there are some things I hate (no more 2-player campaign mode, change of voice actor, a mish-mash of other fps games combined together - Halo, Modern Warfare, Left4Dead).  I'm still going through with finishing it though.

[Army of Two: 40th Day - PS3]

I didn't plan on buying this, but I needed more co-op games to play with my sister and friends.  The game is okay as a basis, but with a friend on split-screen, the game is pretty exciting and a good game for bonding.

The controls and camera angle is rather uncomfortable, but I look past that since we're just playing normal.  I've only gotten to the third stage or so with a friend, and I'm still enjoying it.  I like how you get to modify your guns and pick other weapons from enemies to use for yourself without having to drop your own weapons.

[Resident Evil 5 - PS3]

Amazingly, I already beat it with my sister.  Again, had to get more co-op games, and RE5 sounded like a winner.  It can be frustrating communicating with each other and trying to get everything right, but it's still entertaining and enjoyable in the end.  The ending was much like Dead Rising where the end seemed like it was never going to happen.

Capcom loves those Boss-pre boss-final boss-ultimate form-final form type battles in their games (c'mon, you have to fight every boss in the game again at the end of every Megaman game ever made).  We died 22 times before finishing it, but it was well worth it as it felt very epic and worth the struggle.  Story didn't have a very conclusive or satisfying ending though.

[Goldeye Source - Half-Life 2 mod PC]

I remember playing hours upon hours of Goldeneye on the N64 with my friends, and this mod is a hit of nostalgia of it.  I have mixed feeling since I sort of like it and sort of over it.  As much as I'd love to keep so many games on my computers, I just don't have the time to play them all and the hard drive space to keep them there.

I'm still debating whether I should keep it.  I'm mainly keeping it now as game testing experience since I communicate with the moderators on the servers when playing.  I remember seeing a Goldeneye preview at E3 on the Wii, but not sure if that's going to be purchase worthy.

[Land of Chaos Online - PC]

Another free MMO, except there isn't grinding or point-n-clicking.  It's an action RPG that plays like a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena - DotA style gameplay) in 3rd-person where ranged players have to aim and melee characters have to combo into their attacks rather than just click once.  The game is rather buggy, unbalanced, and its experience has a lot to do with the community.  I love the game a lot, from its core concepts, graphics, gameplay, to it music and leveling system.  I don't really like all the voice acting, but that's not a big problem.  What I really hate about the game so far is how reliant the game's experience is on the community.  Much like Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, and Heroes of Newerth, the game can change heavily depending on who you play with and who you play against.

The team can be very obnoxious and do everything on their own and get you and themselves killed.  There are a ton of trash talkers who will complain and blame every little thing on other players when the team starts losing.  There are also a lot of moments where it doesn't feel very fair such as the recall spell which brings the player back into their own base.  When executed, the player is invulnerable to all attacks and spells.  This leaves the other player defenseless if they happened to use all their spells and ultimate attack, especially if that person that warped out has a buddy behind them to clean up after weakening you already.  I have a lot to say about the game and I should probably give feedback to the dev team, but I feel there will be a lot of flamers and trolls on their which will make my honest opinions look bad.  I love and hate the game at the same time, not sure if I'll continue to play it after it's officially out.  Ignore the weird singing in the trailer/opening of the game.  The music in the game really is incredibly awesome.  It's like a mix of Granado Espada with Dynasty Warriors.

[Heroes of Three Kingdoms - PC]

Nothing much to say.  Another MMORPG by Perfect World and their same engine.  The game is interesting and immerses a lot of historical excerpts of the Three Kingdom era into the game, but I simply couldn't push myself to play the game any longer after about 5-10 hours.

I'm walking to objective points about 50% of the time, talking to NPCs 30% of the time, and possibly fighting barely 20% of the time if I'm not crafting, organizing my backpack, or reading through text.  I want to like the game since I love the history behind the Three Kingdoms of Ancient China, but the game consists mostly of walking.

[Soul Master - PC]

Very interesting combination of Action RPG and RTS.

I find it challenging and exciting, but felt like it lacked variation after a while.  Each character has about 4 skills and only 3 of the characters are available at the moment.  This is actually one game I'll considering continuing.

[MicroVolts - PC]

This was the game that had controversy of it being a copy of Team Fortress 2 with its trailer of HAVE Online.  They changed the name and revealed that it was a 3rd-person action shooter.  I really wanted to try it and finally got the chance to beta for them.  Unfortunately, there were only servers in Germany, United Kingdom, and Turkey (or was it Hungary?  Something to do with food, lol).

So, I lagged a lot and experience a lot of preposterous moments where I was shot when I was well behind a wall, or getting melee from a distance or headshotting someone four times with a sniper with no results.  Those in Europe in those cities were okay, but for those who weren't suffered the consequence of lag.  Overall, the game is very fun to play and reminds me of the days of Army Men with levels made up of our everyday home like the kitchen or backyard.  I have to admit that some weapons are rather overpowered such as the chainsaw and the sniper that could take out people with one body shot.  It's a fun game that doesn't take up much hard drive space.  If they ever come out with an American server, I'll probably start playing it again.

[S4 League - PC]

Yup, finally started playing it with the American server out and all.

I missed playing Gunz: The Duel and wanted a slick shooter of sorts, so I started playing S4 League and really enjoy it.  Fluid animations, fun gameplay, incredible music, and exciting matches make this a must try.  Doesn't take up much hard drive space either.

[Dynasty Warriors Online - PC]

OH MAN, IT'S ACTUALLY COMING OUT IN AMERICA!!!  I LOVE YOU AERIAGAMES!  I'm very exciting for its release and have already signed up for beta.  I love Dynasty Warriors!

Epic epic trailer~

'Kay, that's it for now.  I'm gonna hit the gym and possibly play some music at a friend's house.