Awesome

I've been trying to figure out how to say this succinctly for years. NSFW language. 

Fall of Cybertron review

There is a great deal to like about the new Transformers game: the environments are more varied so it looks more colorful than the last one, the controls are just as sharp as the previous game and the characters are dead on.

I like the setup: the player takes over a new character every two missions or so, and each character has a different special skill and transforming mode. It's almost like playing a series of mini-games, in the context of a larger story. 

And High Moon should definitely be praised for giving these characters lines and actions that feel like the characters. Not just the characters from the cartoon: it is clear to any fan that information from the comics and even the tech specs went into filling out the characters and I really appreciate it. As a child, it bothered the hell out of me that the cartoon evoked caricatures when I knew that these were complicated robots.

I know, I know. 

The rest of the game is very polished too: every gun does something different, upgrades seem to matter, enemy AI is a little predictable but not bad. The terrain seems to matter: all in all there is a lot to like! I've even started getting into the multiplayer aspect and that's been something I've enjoyed too, although I haven't seen a tutorial and that might've been helpful, explaining why some things are important/useful. 

The only real flaw in the game is the story. This is a real bummer, because the characters are well executed and the dialog is well written but...

Spoilers ahead:

Grimlock is meant to be the heart of this story: he and his team have been tortured and changed, so it is through him that we, the audience, should feel most connected to, because he wants revenge. None of the other characters have an arc: they are who they are. Grimlock and the rest of the Dinobots provide an opportunity to let non-Transformers fans in and empathize with this character who has had a wrong done to him and wants revenge.

The problem is, we don't meet Grimlock until after he's been changed. We don't know what he's lost or gained, we just know that he feels 'different'. One of the members of his team is dead but since we never meet him we don't feel that loss. I felt bummed, because I liked that character but anyone else coming into the series won't know who Sludge is. 

Similarly, we don't know what Grimlock lost. Swoop is enthusiastic about the change but Grimlock, you can tell just by tone, is not excited. Credit to the voice actor there, he did a great job conveying Grimlock's state of mind. However, because we meet Grimlock at the low, we don't see how he has fallen and it's more difficult to feel awesome when he finally confronts Shockwave.

Worse, there's no contrast between him and Optimus. There needed to be an opportunity to demonstrate how their relationship is similar to the Megatron/Starscream dynamic. By the time Fall of Cybertron is over, we know Megatron is a better leader because he's not as concerned with personal vanity as Starscream is. 

But in the case of Grimlock, we get a vindication of him over Optimus. Grimlock is right about the energon reserves and he makes Optimus's decision to flee the planet look bad. The consequences of leaving his post to find these reserves never fall on Grimlock's head because there's never a moment where Optimus and Grimlock really have it out--and one of the times to do that is before Grimlock is changed, so we can see what he's lost  even when he was correct because he disobeyed orders from Optimus, who was (or is shown to be) right.  

I probably care way too much about this, and it's a story flaw in a really good game. 

Max Payne 3

It's good. It's also the second strongest case of cognitive dissonance I've dealt with in videogames this year.

Essentially, Max Payne says: Do you like noir? Drunks? Gallows humor? Dead women? THEN HAVE WE GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU!

The whole game is played through this visual patina of alcohol haze and I like that but it's not reflected anywhere else. You still shoot grenades out of the air, shootdodge (bullet time) through environments killing 4+ dudes at a time, etc. The superhero elements are not really diminished.

It's weird, having every other scene with Max essentially tell you what a fuckup he is but by god he can kill every last motherfucker in the room. Despite being hammered.

The only real complaint I have about MP3 is the complaint I have with any game of this type: Let's build an incredibly tense shooter on rails! Then, let's force players to get off the rails to find clues and special weapon drops, breaking the tension and any sort of immersion, because they need to find these other cool things.

Why do that? There must be a better way, mechanically, to integrate the elements of uncovering the conspiracy and getting better weapons than having the player stop everything they were doing that was fun, in order to run around and look for shiny gold pieces or scraps of paper. 

Driver:SF and Spec Ops: The Line

Finished Driver SF and found it to be quite enjoyable. Lighthearted, well written, funny, good characters, goofy enough that the endgame didn't bother me, ridiculous as it was. It's fun and I almost wish I could've spent more time there but I was getting burnt out on everything and the music started to drive me crazy. I need to turn the radio off in these games.

Also played Spec Ops: The Line and when I traded it in, the people at Gamestop said something to the effect of: There have been a lot of mixed reviews from customers.

What I told them was this: it's hard to like; but if you got something out of Apocalypse Now or Jacob's Ladder or liked Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness then you should play this game. It's got something to say, and it especially strong in it's critique of 'super realistic' modern warfare FPS, and it should be played for that reason alone: It has something to say.

It's not always fun. As a matter of fact, it was frequently not fun, it was very weird to play this game and have the violence I was inflicting be accompanied with horrific moaning and the option to execute enemies that were writhing on the ground in pain and posing no threat to me, along with hallucinatory experiences and things just generally becoming more and more fucked up.

However, having something to say is important and I think people should play Spec Ops because it will, if nothing else, give them something to chew on for a little while. 

Mass Effect 3 ending

I finally finished ME3 and have gotten to see what all the fuss over the ending was about. I played the unimproved ending because I wanted to get a taste for it and...I found it to be choppy. Characters popped in, or events happened post climactic choice that didn't connect with where I had last known they were at. The discussion I had with the Catalyst lacked exposition and I didn't really feel like this was as well fleshed out as it should have been. I knew the choices mattered but the weight of those choices wasn't really presented very well, I thought.

I read Film Critic Hulk's review of the ending though and I have to agree with him on many points: the game's story isn't there to answer your questions about how or why the Universe came to light. The story is there to remind us that we have been fighting wars like this for a very, very long time and the 'best' ending is one that strongly suggests that evolution is the best way forward, to the next cycle. 

I also watched the 'Extended Cut' endings (excepting the one I chose: I have another character to play and will likely pick the same choice so it will be interesting to see how things shift) and found those to be very, very illuminating. Suddenly there were conversation choices that hadn't appeared when I had played through and plot points to help the end sequences connect together. The drawback is that now the endings seem to have a little too much explanation after the fact and not quite enough before so again, players make the choice 'blind.' 

This may be intentional and if so, it feels a little weird for the series. Choices, especially big ones, were always given context so they could be meaningful. To have information dumped after the fact is realistic (we don't know the consequences until we make the choice) it's opposition to previous actions in the series can be a cause for discomfort. Plus, they don't really tell you anything: The Universe keeps going and you can count on shit getting weird again.

However, I am finding that I appreciate the stories and endings that tell me a bit less. I am thinking of the Dark Tower series which ends much the same way: everything starts over, except this time, Roland knows more. The Matrix trilogy does this too: Reboot but with a chance for peace.

Because what else can you do? Human history has been recorded for a long time and we still have the same stories being told to us about love, death, dishonor, greed, and courage. Why is that? 

I have to conclude it is because human beings are still working similar patterns. Not the same. I cannot conclude that it's the same: our behavior has changed over the centuries. But close enough, maybe so close, that it is difficult to distinguish between the cycles. Eventually, those cycles are going to change: either for the better or those cycles for humans, at least, will be eliminated.

What else can you say when you confront God, you know? What is God going to say to you?

"This is the best I could do. Now you have a chance to fix it: what is your choice?"

And the best ending has you starting over but evolved. The other three endings all lead back to where you start: either a fractured galaxy will evolve, or a united galaxy against a creepy overlord who just has 'your best interests at heart' or, in the added secret ending: You lose and the Reaper cycle starts all over.

How could anyone do better? To give the audience a simple victory would be to spit on all the complexity that Bioware had been working on for years! To insist on losing would be a terrible crime against an audience that was rooting for and cheering and hoping that this could be their generation's Star Wars. You cannot betray your audience in such a manner: That's one of the unbreakable rules.

So you have to take the difficult way out, which is to say: You got here, now start again. Good luck.

Not sure what else people could've asked for.

That said: All the complaints about the plot points not sticking together in the endgame, that I feel is dead on and I'm glad they addressed it. Also, the Earth sequence was savagely difficult for me and I'd had my galactic readiness up to 100%. I cannot imagine how frustrating it would have been if I had not done that. (Although I probably did not choose the best team so that's my bad. Even so, it was punishingly difficult.)

And that is that.

Social failings

I lamented to some friends that I couldn't get laid in Mass Effect 2. I just couldn't play the characters in such a way that was mentally consistent with my imaginings AND hook up with someone. So all that was going to change in Mass Effect 3, right? Totally going to get it on. I am going to be devious instead, because fuck it: I saved the galaxy. Nookie deserved. Nope. Hit on the one lesbian of the crew, make it all awkward. My real life is supposed to contain the awkward situations, thank you very much.

Videogame update

So, I played Outland and thought it was pretty good. Until I got to the last section and got a big ol' dose of FUCK THIS. There was a moment that I realized I wasn't having any fun and the previous skills I'd acquired didn't seem to matters. So I quit, never to bother with it again. Bummer, because the artistic style was great, the controls were tight and there was a great deal to be said for it. But when I got to the end it felt like a bulletshitstorm and not a pattern I could defeat. I also finished Uncharted 3 and it did, from a gameplay perspective, what it was supposed to do very well. The story, however, feel on its face. Three times, the main character is asked: "Is what you're doing worth it?" Because it's shown that Drake is willing to ignore friends and lovers in pursuit of treasure. And it never seems to get any deeper than that. He's not on a mad quest to know who he is, he's not desperate to prove himself, or redeem his soul or avenge his friends. Nope. He just wants shiny shit to sell and nobody seems to get fed up with that. And that sucks a lot of the soul out of the game for me and I just don't know that I want to play any more of Drake's adventures. Now I'm knee deep in Mass Effect 3 and hip deep in Borderlands.

Dead Space 2 wrapup

Finished Dead Space 2 last night. I played the game on hard (survivalist in the game language) and it's the first time I've done that in a long time. I'd read the game was a bit too easy on normal though and since I'd bought the game I had no reason to go through it hurriedly so I played on hard.

I'm not sure I'm going to play through on hard again. Even with the FAQ guidance (which I was using to make sure I didn't miss any Gold Nodes-the critical components for upgrading your weapons and armor) that game would fucking stress me out.

So I found myself in a hurry to finish the game because I was looking forward to the anxiety being over. If I play it again, it'll be at an easier difficulty level but I may take a crack at other games on hard, because accomplishment is a reward that's nice to have. But the frustration level was, occasionally, a little too high.

That said, reflecting upon the experience; it was only frustrating when I went in without a strategy-or when the strategy would just barely miss. Everything had to be very, very precise at certain points and I tend to be a little sloppy when I play videogames.

It brings me to two points though: First, the end boss.

I felt as though I had very few metrics for whether or not I was actually doing damage and no metric for how effective the damage I was doing was. I realize that health bars are gauche now but I needed something to tell me how effective I was being aside from gruesome death scenes.

Second; at one point in the game you come across a regenerating baddie who chases you through rooms. It ceases to chase you after you...take an elevator.

Really? You couldn't have some kind of system or laser defense or something? This thing survives being sawed into tiny pieces and crawls through ductwork like a snake but the harsh environs of an elevator defeat it?

Aside from that, I rather enjoyed most of it, though it plays more like a bloody horror game than a creepy event that really sucks. Granted, for 15 hours that's a lot of atmosphere to try and keep up on. The occasional splatter is advised-and probably necessary if you want to put giant monsters in the game. When Dead Space 2 is creepy, it's seriously creepy-that those moments are few and far between is alright.

What I really needed was some proper audio. The mindfuck moments have a character-a fairly crucial one-not always properly audible and that's pretty relevant to sustaining the kind of dread that the game wants to put in.

The new guy

I recently got Left 4 Dead 2. 8 plus months (or so) after the game was released I was able to afford it and because I loved the original I was looking forward to playing the game. I could even afford the occasional DLC now!

L4D is noteworthy for me because it's the first game I played online and remains so for the time being. Because the mechanics of the game insist that you help each other out, leaving someone behind isn't quite forbidden but nobody wants to do it. Of course, I've had the experience of telling or being told; "No! Go without me I'm done for!" but for the most part when someone gets in trouble, you go back and help, right?

There is a 'but' of course.

I'm the new guy. I don't know the maps, I don't know how the new Infected work, or the new health devices. Yes, I read the instructions but it's a game; you have to play it to understand.

Which is why it has been so discouraging to be the newbie.

I'm about average at gaming and I try to keep a casual attitude about it. But no matter what; I still have to learn how things work. In Dead Center, I didn't know that the goal was to fill the car with gas-I didn't hear the characters tell me what the goal was. The people I was playing with didn't tell me, often ran ahead without me and one person even asked why I kept getting lost and knocked down.

"I'm new and I don't know the maps," I said, trying to sound cheerful but I couldn't escape the feeling that the other players were done with me. A few minutes later, they left, we failed the mission and I started over with bots.

Sigh. I kept at it and eventually people joined up, including another new player, and we got through the mission.

Last night I attempted to get through Dark Carnival. I found a room, waited, and when the party leader asked, "Are we ready to go?" I replied, "You bet!" and he said, "Not you," and kicked me from the game.

I didn't even know the guy and yeah, I shouldn't take it personally but it's hard not to. I'm new, I want to learn how to play and play better, I want to explore a bit and see what cool routes or jokes or things might be hidden in the game. I don't know many people who play online so I'm out there, trying to make new friends, in the casual sense of the word. And people don't want to show the the ropes/have fun with me, so it's hard.

Because I'm late. I'm the new kid at school and nobody wants to tell me where the lunchroom is.

Everybody is new sometimes and if you want people to keep playing the game you love, you have to welcome the newbies. I know not everyone is going to mesh and become best chums or anything as silly as that, but is it really such a pain in the ass to help a new player who isn't being a dick through one mission?

If it is, then play on a private channel so we don't muck up your good time. Everyone will be happier.

Resistance 2 (or, I wish I knew more people with PS3s)

Thankfully, while wading through the cesspool of boredom that was Lost Odyssey, I found a very cheap copy of Resistance 2.

Resistance 2 is in many ways your standard FPS; you play a sci-fi soldier, the aliens want to take over the earth, kill all of them. Sounds pretty familiar I'm sure. I'm going to hit the high points though.

First, the story stays apace of the subject matter. It's an action game, so the plot is just complex enough to propel you to the next junction, no further. This is fine, actually; look how well this idea worked in the latest Star Trek movie. There's no need to make things complicated; you good, aliens bad, go. However the story also remains true to itself. While there will inevitably be a Resistance 3, I can only hope that the events of this game are kept as cannon. By this I mean; Resistance 2 is not about how you StMFD, and there is now dancing in the streets. Do you save the day? Yes. Does it feel like you've just put off the inevitable? Yes.

What's also cool is that there is apparently a parallel story that is played as a co-op campaign. That just seems awesome and I can't wait to try it, I just wish I knew more people to play it with.

One of the critiques of the first Resistance game was that it didn't really shake up the FPS genre. I'd have to say that this is still true in the sequel. My response is simple: Who cares?

A good game, executed well is what I'm asking for. They deliver it. The missions were challenging, but not unfair. The parts I had to repeat I learned from and did better the next time. The crazy firefight sequences felt right (chaotic, hazardous, fun only because they weren't real) the creepy parts of the game made me edgy, and I was entertained. I had at least two "Ho-ly shit!" moments when I first saw what I was supposed to fight against, and very frequently felt just like I was in a well oiled action movie.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel if what you have rolls so smoothly.

Now that said, I have two issues. First, there were times when I was lost and didn't know where I was supposed to go next. It didn't happen often, but when it did happen the game lost a lot of momentum. There are even sequences where they put a tag on the screen that you're supposed to move towards, and I found this to be extremely helpful. At the same time what this demonstrates is some glitches in design. If I get lost in what is basically a shooter on rails, something is amiss.

Second, there were two moments in the game which depended on AI controlled characters to get to a certain point before the player could go any further, and the AI was being all daffy about it. This basically strands the player (or at least it stranded me) until I died. Fortunately, the checkpoint save system means that it's rare that a player will have to go too far in order to regain what she or he lost by dying. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was a mild pain in the butt.

Those minor complaints aside, I found Resistance 2 to be a hell of a lot of fun, and am looking forward to playing the co-op campaign. I hope there's some cool people to play it with.

I played Lost Odyssey so you don't have to

Honestly, I think I finished the game in part so I could write that headline.

I knew what I was in for when I got this game; an old-school JRPG, where the good guys line up on one side and the bad guys on another and you throw swords and spells called 'Windus' (that's the 3rd level wind spell!) at each other. Random encounters, raiding people's houses for loot, some levelgrinding tedium; basically everything I experienced in Final Fantasy 7 only prettier. I still hated it.

In a game that plays for 50 hours or longer (I put in over 60) having a complex, weaving story is something that one comes to expect. What happens next? becomes a relevant way to prod the player from "random city on the coast that we start from" to "fucked up mountaintop that we must fight a strange griffin upon" to "remote village where no one goes to the strange house on the hill" and so on, and so on.

Unfortunately, the story is straightforward and mindbendingly dull. Kaim, the hero, is part of a group of immortals who have been part of the world for a millennia. His memories are lost, he knows only that he is a soldier. After a cataclysmic battle he is set on a quest that leads him to uncovering his memories and this, naturally, leads to saving the world.

Now, what I've just told you is the spoiler free version of this game but here's the problem: even if I told you the spoilers I would be adding absolutely nothing to the synopsis I just wrote. There are no big reveals, no twists or turns that aren't telegraphed like a atomic bomb tested in the middle of San Francisco. The villain is cartoonishly comic, and if it weren't for the Presidency of Bush Jr. I would deny that anyone that obviously evil could ever gain that much power in such a blunt manner.

There are a ton of short stories in the game where Kaim gets back chunks of his lost memories but there are at least two problems with this. First those stores are told well outside of the main narrative. They don't inform the current storyline (with rare exceptions) and they don't enhance Kaim as a character; he's still a brooding, humorless dick. Second, the presentation for these stories are a complete break from the game; the player has to sit there and watch as words are very prettily shown on the screen with a hazy nature background as scenery. There's no GAME there. In a medium that is supposed to be interactive they've broken the primary rule; disassociating the audience from the game.

It's understandable that the basic gameplay mechanics might become dull over time. Sadly, they are boring right from the start. Your muscle attacks with swords. There is no strategy there, because attacking with swords is a lot faster and better than using any of your learned skills. Your wizards cast spells. The spells they cast should be ones that are in opposition to the elemental characteristic of the enemy. That is, you cast Water against Fire, Fire against Wind, Wind against Earth, Earth against Water. I think. Sixty damn hours in and I still had to look up which element was best vs another element.

In this case, I blame designers. There wasn't anything intuitive about selecting the elemental spells in the menu, so those subtle reminders that would've helped me map out what to do weren't there. Going to the manual in the middle of a game is an indicator of bad design.

Bad design also comes into play when moving from place to place. Getting to and using the map is difficult, as there are two map screens; one that tells you the names of places and one that just shows you the world. Sometimes I just want to check where I am in relationship to a city but I can't just do that, I have to actually go somewhere because just seeing where I am on a map doesn't tell me anything unless I know where I am in relationship to another place. So I have to go to another place, even if it's where I just came from and that involves a load screen and waiting and boredom.

What's a real drag is having certain characters predisposed to death. There are two who have understandably low health points-the characters are children-but they're vital to getting through the game! So the player has to sit there and resurrect them time and time again, in hopes they will survive to the end of the battle, because dead characters don't level up. One of the best things in the game that I did was engage in a short sequence that made me a ton of money. Buying resurrection potions suddenly wasn't a problem, and I bought a ton of them. More than I can ever remember having to buy for an RPG.

Gameplay gets tiring, moving around is a pain in the butt, and the story is boring. Is there an upside?

There is; the character Jansen Friedh. A friend described him as 'what would happen if you put Bruce Campbell in a game' and that's not too far off the mark. Funny, complaining, interested in getting laid, interested in not getting the crap beat out of him, Jansen is the most human and likable character in the game. Sure his character arc is utterly predictable but at least it's fun to watch. Nobody else gives the story any tension whatsoever--they spend sixty hours being exactly who they are when you meet them.

So I say avoid it.

Finally, I'd like to thank these Gamefaq writers: German Dragon, INVAL1D, and Split Infinity. They made searching through the cities and getting through the maps far easier than the game designers did, and I am eternally grateful to them for the work they did.

Mass Effect

At this rate, I'll be up there with GamersWithJobs or something. Except tardier.

But: Mass Effect: I have completed it.

Mass Effect is a story driven game, and I really mean that; a large chunk of the gameplay is a 'Choose your own adventure' game, where the conversations that the player had tend to influence the outcome of the events around you. The major plot points remain the same, but in between those are mini-quests that you choose to do or not, and those choices allow for certain stories to develop. The completion of those stories gives you more experience and potentially access to other goodies.

After that, the game divvy's up into two main gameplay elements: shooting and driving.

The shooting elements are pretty well managed I think, and one could spend hours, no kidding, mixing and matching the gear used as armor and weapons for this part of the game. This goes a little overboard, and it becomes cumbersome because the inventory screen isn't very easy to move through. I had to scroll down individually to each item to get to the next one. Being able to move through pages would've been easier, as would the grouping of items by name.

Once thrown into combat though, I found the game really easy to work with. The fighting scenes worked well, my squad rarely got stuck, and the environments were challenging enough that moving through them kept me on my toes. I didn't mind that spaceships or bases had the same layout; that's the way things get built, so I didn't care. The planetary environments were cool enough that I was happy.

Moving around the planetary environments, however was another story. Driving was a pain in the ass because the control for the tank turret could also cause you to move in the direction it was pointing. As a result, moving in a straight line was a challenge.

Now, BioWare (the developers) did the right thing by making it pretty much impossible to flip your vehicle and end the game, but they also didn't do themselves any favors by including so many mountains to try and climb over, slowing and sometimes even stopping my progress. The maps were only mildly helpful for navigating terrain; the places I wanted to go could be marked with a flag, but finding them on the map was sometimes a real chore. Terrain was marked by light blue and black, but locations I wanted to find had icons that were small and did not readily stand out against the light blue.

Secondly, there was frequent combat done from the vehicle, and the targeting reticle was frequently obscured by the environment. That was a huge pain in the ass. I couldn't see where I was firing, and that meant I would miss, or waste a cannon shot just to see where my bullets were going.

But there was no getting around this; any mission you wanted to take on any planet involved driving there, and inevitably confronting enemies.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed this game. Big space adventure, the ability to choose how to handle situations and people, and enough detailing that I can geek out without having to become hardcore. Fun stuff!

Assassin's Creed

I finished Assassin's Creed for the PS3 last weekend and while I enjoyed quite a bit of it, the flaws in the game are problematic enough that I understand why it got such mixed reviews.

I liked the basics of the game; climbing things and jumping around rooftops, as well as stealth assassinations. But all the other missions seemed to be flawed. Picking someone's pocket feels like an awkward exercise in timing, instead of patience and skill. Combat is mostly a one button mashup affair, with the only skill being pressing a 'defend' button at the appropriate time. So anytime you have to fight someone, it becomes rather dreary with repetition. Since 2/3s of the missions are fighting based, it becomes a chore. Worse, since I am unable to dictate my moves, when I would defend then counter, I would end up punching someone instead of using my sword and I had no idea why. When surrounded by 5+ enemies this becomes an issue. It seemed like the game just decided for me; harder opponents will be ones you can only punch, weaker ones you can slice at.

Well, fuck that; give me a reward/penalty system or something, so I can decide which is best.

The stealth aspects are also implemented unevenly; all of the 'boss' missions require virtually no stealth, so it feels like I spent time learning how to behave stealthily, but there's no payoff for that. Once the boss mission is completed, you have to run for your life--there's no way to stealthily commit the deed, and then sneak away to get a head start. Exploring the city is fun but since the soldiers can follow me anywhere, it rarely feels like there is a payoff for exploring, beyond finding new missions to do and seeing the beautiful panoramics of the city.

One thing that really, really peeves me about games that encourage exploration is that the 'little bonuses' they reward you with are...well, a total pain in the ass without any payoff. Grand Theft Auto started this with the 'find 99 drug packages' thing in GTA3, and AC has a 'find the flags' and 'defeat the Templars' subgame. But there are 60 Templars, and 420 flags to find! On top of that, the map is not very helpful at letting you find those things. It should be, and there are 2 reasons why.

First, I only have so much time. Game developers, help me out! I want to play your games, but if you keep putting in things that must be stumbled upon at random, then I have no choice but to prioritize and say; Fuck that. I appreciate that some people have gone through the trouble to find all the flags and Templars and make a handy set of maps, but why should I have to go to a website to help me do something in the game like find flags? It breaks up the whole experience, and is just a pain in the ass. If I can't be a boss, or can't find my way into something, sure, I want to be able to get help. Who doesn't? But stumbling on random packages is...well, it's not fun, it's work, and that's not why I play games.

Second, if you're going to put in these little things, make it worthwhile! I climbed all the towers and got my viewpoints because it was fun to look around and then leap off. When I completed the game, I saw that I had a 'task done', so I went to look at it. All it told me was; all view points completed. Well, SHIT, I'm glad the act of doing it was fun to begin with, because I get nothing else out of the deal.

Finding a flag, or beating a Templar (when your combat system is weak), isn't inherently fun, and there doesn't seem to be a bonus for doing the thing that is fun, so what's my motivation? (Xbox owners can say; you get accomplishment
points, but what the hell are accomplishment points good for? It's just a trophy badge to let other people know you 'did' something, and at 36 just being able to finish a game is my accomplishment. I have, as a great friend of mine says, a host of responsibilities I'm trying to ignore, don't make me work to ignore them.)

So help me out; if I'm climbing the viewpoints, open up the map so I can find more stuff, which leads me to exploring more and learning more stealth stuff, and so on.

My final complaint is; the finale of the game involved the weakest parts of the game; combat. Sigh. All those hours learning cool stuff wasted.

Assassin's Creed developers; I enjoyed your game. I liked the story. I liked climbing around cities, and I liked figuring out how to be stealthy (even if it was frustrating occasionally) and although the random beggar bugged the hell out of me, I enjoyed the experience overall.

But please step it up for the next game, because I'm only willing to accept this game up to a point, and then I get worn out.

Awesome, if you're evil

So, I'm playing Bioshock, right? And it's rather wonderful. Really an amazing experience.

And I go to the Gamefaq boards, to see what people are talking about. I haven't gotten stuck yet and needed help, so that's good, but I like to be social about my gaming when I can.

But if you go to the linky...well. I suppose you just have to see it for yourself. I've rarely seen such ignorance buttpummeled so hard.

Thinking

I've been thinking I need to 1) move my web site to a new URL and 2) redesign that bastard.
I wonder if I have enough aesthetic sensibilities to actually be a decent web designer.

Ah well.

#1 is b/c Earthlink broke me with their poor service during the move. I might be stuck with them for another year, but that will be it.

And of course, #2 is b/c it just hasn't been tweaked with in years. I may have to check and see if gentlemanvillain is taken...

All that said; that's why I haven't been doing much updates of my own site.

So here's the Xbox 360 review:

It's loud. Disturbingly so. You notice it during gameplay.

FEAR, the only game I've currently played, is atmospheric, short on story (unfortunately), and has some mild control issues, but plays well overall...and there's the constant fan whirring under it all.

The controller is a bit ooky, with the large trigger buttons and then the smaller trigger buttons. I have found it easy to slip and miss-hit a button on the trigger schemes.

I'm not too worried about the Red Ring of Death in part because I keep the machine in a well ventilated place, in the basement, which is cool (although it may move up for reasons listed later) and I lay the damn machine flat, so the huge venting ports can vent. Plus the fans that could wake Jesus. But either way, there's the RRD warranty at this point, so why get my knickers in a bunch?

I know nothing of the Live situation, as of yet. I'd have to pay another $100 for a Wifi attachment, and why the fuck should I do that? The PS3 comes that way out of the box I'm told, so...

Moreover, I can just move the 360 upstairs and hardwire that fucker up via ethernet cable, and that's currently the plan.

Keep at it MS. You will get the console right someday.

In the meantime, there is Bioshock to play, and that'll do, pig. That'll do.

Manhunt 2

Does anybody else think that the whole AO rating of Manhunt 2 is just a big PR stunt?

Because it's all I've been fuckin' reading about for the past 3 days or so, and I just can't help but feel a massive 'ho-hum' about it. It's not like the first game was all that revolutionary. Or even really good. It was Metal Gear Solid with more fucked up kill scenes and a nihilistic plot.

My guess; Rockstar won't miss the publishing date of the game, because they already have a backup available. However, until I read reviews of it that say the game is worth playing, all the hype in the world isn't going to stir me from all those other responsibilities in my life that I have to get busy ignoring.