Shauntu شان: Game Blog

Game Blog July 2008

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:07:00 GMT

This month I played mostly on the DS; however at the end of the month, for my birthday, Farah surprised me with an Xbox 360! Now I can try out all the downloadable demos from the Live Marketplace in addition to looking into 360 games I have wanted to play…

(1st Timer) Alone in the Dark (Wii): Wow, this game is bad. I had read how bad it is, but didn’t remove it from my Gamefly queue in time, so tried it for a bit. Crappy graphics, crappy controls, got stuck for no reason, and had to blink the character’s eyes for 10 minutes for some stupid ‘immersive’ reason. The game has a DVD style Chapter select option, so chose to skip to the end, and couldn’t figure out how to open the door in front of me. Horrible.

(1st Timer) Civilization Revolution (DS): Played my first game on the easiest setting, and I kicked serious ass as Saladin. Actually, it made me realize that the easiest setting is way too easy, as I had all technologies researched, with a Nuke and Tanks while Montezuma, who suddenly thought he could challenge me, had Archers. Played a 2nd full game on the 2nd difficulty setting; still kicked ass, though the other civs did try to challenge me throughout and technology wise one was able to keep up rather well; however, my Ninja Knight Army wiped out the Arabs, and then later my Stealth Tank Army, accompanied by a Rifleman with a Great General, wiped out the Romans and the Spanish. Won a Cultural Victory in the same turn that I would have won a Domination Victory… Would have been my Game of the Month, if not for Professor Layton…

(1st Timer) Manhunt 2 (Wii): Wii’s likely most violent game so far, started disappointingly with, soon after starting to play, having a wheelchair drop down ahead of my character, and his legs getting clipped/stuck to them. Couldn’t move anymore, had to restart from scratch. Realized that tilted the Nunchuk changes the view and stops movement. Played up to the 3rd stage, where I got stuck with 3 weird dudes that I can't get past -- I still hate stealth based games, it looks like, due to their trial and error nature in dealing with enemies while hidden.

(1st Timer) Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy (Wii): A bizarre sidescrolling ship shooter where enemies attach to your ship, which becomes really fun when your ship has become bigger than the screen with dozens of enemy ships attached and firing. Played through the campaign mode up till the 5th Campaign, at which point it got too hard for me to be able to make progress. Played co-op with Farah as well, in the Arcade Mode, where once Farah used up all the continues, I played alone until I reached the 2nd mission of the 5th Campaign, at which point I was all out – but not before getting to a point once where I had enough ships attached firing enough bullets that the frame rate actually lagged a bit! Tinkered with the editor, and realized too much effort would be needed there – it really is quite extensive.

(1st Timer) Dementium: The Ward (DS): The goriest game I have ever played on the DS. Its a FPS, though in the first few chapters I have only had use of a nightstick and gun. The environment, a hospital with blood all over and enemies that look like humans with their chests ripped open (they form the shape of a mouth with the heart as the tonsil), is extremely creepy (other enemies are little sliding things that originated in the babies ward). Its also the first game to make me actually jump while playing – one of the primary focuses is the use of a flashlight, and while crossing a railing on the rooftop in the dark while it was raining, sweeping the flashlight around to see the scenery while I was crossing, an enemy climbing the railing right next to me suddenly coming to view when I swung the flashlight in that direction almost caused me to drop the DS. Very effective.

(1st Timer) Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS): A collection of puzzles and brain teasers, very effectively presented as the obstacles within a story where you are trying to solve the puzzle of a will. The brain teasers themselves are very cool – definitely stumping me regularly, but never unfairly; the hint system – unrelated to the scoring that is affected by how many times you try a puzzle – ensures fairness, while encouraging exploring the village for the coins needed for the hints. Its a charming village too, where everybody loves to present puzzles at the drop of a hat just cause that is what they love. Plus, a curious story too, with a treasure to find, a mysterious inheritance, a murder, and kidnappings of people not feeling well… my ‘Game of the Month’.

(1st Timer) Soul Calibur Legends (Wii): A very generic action game, where all the sword fighting is done with motions. The gameplay is rather repetitive, and for some reason while there is co-op, its only in a ‘Party’ mode, not the main Quest mode.

(1st Timer) We Ski (Wii): A skiing game, but didn’t play it much due to Alisha hogging the Balance Board.

(1st Timer) Bioshock (360): My first played game on the 360, which happened to be a free rental from Hollywood Video (free Birthday rentals? Cool). Wow the graphics look good, and its very atmospheric as well. Though, the controls feel weird; the game would control so much better with a Wii Remote… I guess as far as controls are concerned with FPS games, I am spoiled…

(1st Timer) Solitaire (Cell): Played the included Solitaire on the cellphone when bored once. Solitaire sucks.

Mario Kart Wii (Wii): Played the Coconut Mall tournament, picking up the coins – managed to do it under a minute on my second try, which I think is pretty good. Then I later checked the rankings, and my brother did better. The 2nd tournament, a race through the Battle Mode map, DS Twilight House, I did better in, I think, managing to race the whole 5 laps in almost one giant unbroken powerdrift… I could have done better I suppose if I had made use of the powerdrift boosts. I also finished the first cup at 150cc, came 2nd due to a horrible first race performance, and unlocked the strange Birdo.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS): Continued playing, finishing the game. For a while, the gameplay seemed to be getting repetitive, but eventually the enemies got faster and you had to fight faster, and that made it quite a bit fun. After completion, submitted my score to the WiFi leaderboard, placed No 9121 on Normal difficulty (Head Ninja mode got unlocked upon completion). My ‘Karma’ score was 4,188,678; all the 30 top scorers shown were 999,999,999, which seems ridiculous as a difference. As an examp,e my uploaded score says 13 Chapters, 5:06 play time, 14 defeats, and 78 UTs; the 1st place person’s score says 13 Chapters, 5:04 play time, 0 defeats, and 3 UTs. So, what, is it the defeats that leads to this huge gap? No idea.

Boom Blox (Wii): Played 3 player multiplayer at a friends house, where the game again proved what an awesome party game it can be, instantly accessible by people of all types. Played it again for a few hours, 3 player multiplayer, at another friend’s house. The quick sample mode is awesome. The game is awesome.

Wii Fit (Wii): Dropped just a tiny bit.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Wii): Played the 2nd stage. I am really liking the extra variety and specialties given to characters. The camera killing characters by pushing them off ledges is a problem, but less than before due to being Widescreen.

Toki Tori (WiiWare): Completed more of the tougher 4th level (underwater) stages.

DEMOES:

(Demo) Pictoimage (DS): The objective: An AI person (showing gender and age) draws a picture, write out what it is. Umm, and that’s rather it. There was a mode to draw a picture yourself and have someone else identify it, I didn’t bother trying that.

(Demo) Carnival Games (DS): I haven’t tried the hit Wii version, as a couple of people I know have told me it stinks. The DS Demo had 3 minigames, and I really don’t understand the point after playing them, which took a minute to play through all 3.

(Demo) The Incredible Hulk (DS): Rather mindless 2D sidescroller where you beat up whoever is in the way, but it managed to be fun enough for me to play the demo twice… though I think it would get old fast if their isn’t variety in it.

(Demo) Kung Fu Panda (DS): Two of my recently enjoyed DS games (Zelda and Ninja Gaiden) have utilized touch controls for combat. This demo does the same, with an additional twist: the game pauses when you touch, allowing you to move the stylus around and see what move will take place and thus decide on exactly what you do, then performing the move when you release the stylus. So you can still have the fast combat, or you can have more precise combat. Intriguing idea, shows even the ‘quick turnaround movie license cash-in’ games developers can come up with unique gameplay concepts on the DS.

(Demo) Rock Band (Xbox 360): Tried the Bass Guitar on Medium in store, and was actually a bit disappointed. Bass doesn’t seem to co-relate to the music as much as Guitar and Drums do.

(Demo) Heavenly Sword (PS3): Tried out the demo in store, and was rather disappointed. The combat didn’t seem too fluid – I was just button-mashing and the heroine was just repeating certain attacks, and auto-blocking some attacks presumably when I wasn’t pressing buttons. Then again, games where you are placed in one location, with waves of enemies continuously dropping in for a while, tend to bore me. I need to be moving towards a goal or objective.

(Demo) Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS): Played the demo operation, removing tumors from a patient, on Easy, Normal, and Hard. The game seems like a much more polished version of the previous game; I also liked how it tabulated the score now, actually giving me a much better idea than the previous game as to how well I did.

Game Blog April 2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:28:48 GMT

I'm crazy, I know. I like to spend time looking at statistics and analyzing patterns and cataloguing all sorts of stuff. I not sure how many people know this about me, but I used to pore over Cricketers statistics when I was in high school and make lists of all the books I ever read.

That said, I like to think that is human nature. I wonder whether most will agree?

Thing is, I also like to commentate on stuff. Anyways, I felt like doing something totally 'catalog' and 'commentate' worthy, probably totally nerdy to some. I felt like trying out keeping a monthly log of games I played and commentating on them. Not so much reviews, as opinions and observations. Both on new games I played as well as older games I played. Whether I played a game only a bit or a lot. Obviously, writing at once rather than as the month goes on, I could forget about something I played or I might mistakenly have something I played earlier than April and mistakenly placed it here. Oh well, still counts, my brain!

I'll note, I lost my DS and bunch of games last Thanksgiving (); Farah got me a DS for Valentines, and just before and during April, I picked up some of my favorite DS titles again at bargain prices, usually used -- which is why this list is so heavy on old DS titles!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii): My main game from March, continued playing it through April, unlocking all the characters, finishing the story mode, playing Classic, Boss Rush, and All-Star modes with a few characters. Completed all the solo Events, as well as the co-op events with Farah. Continued playing the story mode in co-op with Farah, which is at about 35% or so complete now. Got 1 Boss Trophy, fighting Petey Piranha on Intense difficulty. Completed many of the challenges, unlocking lots of good music tracks, some neat stages, etc. Built a few more custom stages. Didn't play it online much, though did use the spectator mode and 'gambled' a bunch.

Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (DS): Played it pretty frequently for minutes a day, generally about 5-10 minutes every few days. I tend to do a few of the training exercises each time, alternating between them, usually 3 of them at a time. I actually still enjoy 'Reading Aloud', where you simply read a passage from classic English Literature, the farthest from any 'game' type activity ever. Oddly, the exercise where you count people entering and leaving a house, once a favorite, is now my most boring exercise. Unlocked a few of the training exercises.

Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS): Generally, I tend to play the 2 Brain Age titles as a pair. I also tend to not do the Daily Test, rather, only doing some of the training exercises. In 2, my favorite is actually Word Scramble, with rotating letters you form together anagram style. My most boring one is one similar to the house guests one from 1, where you keep track of what position a runner ends up in as others run past him. Unlocked a few of the training exercises. BTW, the piano playing exercise has the worst piano playing controls I could imagine, yet I can't help but choose that exercise at times to hear what classical piece will be played this time.

(1st Timer) Jam Session (DS): A sophisticated simulated Guitar, that is more a utility software than a game. While I could see that it's a pretty accurate guitar simulator, I can also see that with 'real music', I am unfortunately pretty hopeless. Thus, only really tried this for an hour. Also, my fingers hurt using the D-Pad as 8 chords/frets.

(1st Timer) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii): Now this kind of Guitar I can get into -- fake guitar playing what is basically an elaborate 'match the colored buttons with the accurate buttons on the fake guitar peripheral'. But its so much fun! You get in a groove, the music is great, everything looks wobbly after playing it due to staring at moving colors for 4-5 minutes a song, and the Guitar peripheral with the Wiimote attached (giving it a built in speaker for feedback when making mistakes as well as vibrations when rocking out) is a pretty cool 'controller'. Plus, Alisha loves to rock out with me when I play, holding a PS2 guitar I have and pretending to play it while I play. Awesome. Completed all 42 songs on Easy, defeating Lou the Devil at the end and unlocking some 'bonus' songs. Completed a couple of Medium songs...

Picross (DS): Picture Crosswords, one of my favorite 'logic puzzle' games ever. Started it from scratch again after having lost it Thanksgiving -- and finished all the Easy puzzles in a brief sitting. Still fun, but I look forward to the larger, more sophisticated puzzles where I actually get stumped again.

Elite Beat Agents (DS): My favorite lost game. The used copy came with *** Chieftain Difficulty already available, which was fine by me as I had already completed all the songs on * and **, and had been midway through *** anyway! Completed a few of the *** songs, which are tough and take a bit to get used to the beat. I need to find my earphones for best performance in this one...

Metroid Prime Pinball (DS): My favorite pinball game ever, replaced anew. Looks like whoever used it before didn't even play it, certainly never made the high score tables. Played through it in the amazing 'story' mode a ton, eventually making it to and beating Metroid Prime and thus unlocking the higher difficulty and all the boards in 'High Score' mode. Awesome game still.

(1st Timer) No More Heroes (Wii): Started it and played it through about the first 4 assassins. Looks like 7 more to go. The 'grinding' you have to do between assassination missions to be able to start them looks like it could get tiring. Game is ultraviolent, completely weird and wacked out, and language can be offensive at times, not to mention the plot being totally crazy at times, so stopped playing it while my mom was visiting.

(1st Timer) Bully (Wii): Tried this rental due to all the positive reviews the older PS2 version had received, and was honestly under-whelmed. I could see merit in the school environment, with the game making a point about bullying the bullies, and the classes were interesting, but so much of the game boiled down to running around the map to meet people to get missions then going to place to complete mission, that it got boring before the game was due. Plus, the combat motions were too simplistic, simply swinging the Wiimote and Nunchuk.

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii): Farah and I pulled out this old game from the shelf and played a few co-op on-rail shooter stages -- which are still fun and the Rabbids are still crazy. Then I completed all the Rabbid Songs minigames, swinging the Wiimote and Nunchuk like crazy maracas.

(1st Timer) Mario Kart Wii (Wii): Comes with Nintendo's version of the 'Wii Wheel' shell, which really does make the game better! I honestly didn't think a new Mario Kart game would be anything special, and now I think this is likely the best one ever! Playing online with my brother and his wife has been flawless, and trying to beat Kamran's ghost saves on the beginning stages has been so much fun, that I can see myself playing this game for a long time. Farah loves it too, and we have played it online a lot since I picked it up. Got a 2nd Wii Wheel too! I will have to end up saying that this is my 'Game of the Month'. Also, Alisha loves the Wii Wheel, she likes twirling it around pretending to play :).

(1st Timer) Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Wii): Got it in a deal with Mario Kart Wii, and have tried it out once, completing basic training camp and playing 1 Exhibition match against the CPU. The controls, where you get to play as the whole team at once, are revolutionary and amazing, compared to most sport games where you only play as the person who has the ball at any given time.

Wii Sports (Wii): Lou visited early in the month, and ended up playing a few hours of Bowling. He's too good now, though took him a bit to warm up so was still close in the beginning. Played Power Throws mode, where he showed me how he rebounds off the rails on the side, and I showed him how to knock out all pins in Round 10 by rolling the ball on top of the rails. Something I had not actually been able to pull off, but he went ahead and practiced for a bit and was able to do it!

Big Brain Academy (DS): I never scored too high in the DS game, like a C, even though on the Wii game I have done much better (B+ I believe). With playing the Brain Age games, figured I would give this one a try again, by actually trying out the various challenges in different difficulties. After getting better in them, was able to score C+ in the test. BTW, I can now say with authority that the Wii sequel of the game is indeed a lot better and a lot more polished.

(1st Timer) Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA): My current 'old GBA game', deleted the used save files from the used copy and started a new one. I have to admit, the gameplay is completely different than any other RPG I have played. Leveling up through the use of individual weapons enough times is novel. The lack of exploration of the game world feels unusual (you basically never move your character, only using menu commands to move, look in places, etc -- all with limited 'explore points' that you get in battle), yet I am enjoying exploring the new ideas and gameplay concepts in the game. Have finished 2 chapters so far (another oddity, chapters in an RPG where you thus cannot 'explore' previous areas even if you have collected some 'explore points'). The story of being a 'Grim Angel' summoned to destroy the land of Riviera, and all humans ('Sprites') living there, before the land turns into a demon's base, only to turn on the Gods to save Riviera instead, could be interesting.

Balloon Fight (Wii VC -- NES): Kamran sent me Balloon Fight and I ended up playing it a few times. Still fun for such an ancient game.

End Thoughts: Well, I played a nice variety of games between the Wii (8) and DS (7), a Wii VC title, and even a GBA game, played on the DS, for a total of 19 games played during the month. A lot of music based games, too, I'll note (3, plus piano exercises in Brain Age 2 and Maracas in Rayman Raving Rabbids). Overall, actually a pretty big month for gaming...