Malik
(4/9/12)
I noticed this morning
that I got an email from Amazon about downloadable PC games being on
sale. I decided to look, despite how I tend to find only games I
have no interest in within these sale emails, and was pleasantly
surprised. I have been wanting Darksiders for a while after reading
about the game in the last few months. I mean I have wanted a new
Zelda game, but the idea of Skyward sword is not one I liked
(because of how I have just learned to absolutely hate using my Wii
for anything besides as a Netflix box in my bedroom). Well, the
stuff I've seen on Darksiders described it as one of the best Zelda
games in a long time, despite not being a Zelda game. Plus, when the
premise is so unique (playing a Horseman of the Apocalypse), I
cannot turn it down.
Luckily, Amazon is slow
as hell for game downloads since their system is definitely nowhere
near streamlined enough to compare to even Origin...and not a damned
bit near the quality of Steam. I say this is a good thing since I am
now having a traffic jam of sorts on my game lineup. I have not
touched Infamous 2 for a few months and want to play more. I have
barely started SSX (but will currently call it the game I'm playing,
since it is fun and simple after having my brain destroyed by the
end of Mass Effect 3). I have a few Kemco RPGs I am wanting to get
back to on my Android phone. I need to get back to Journey since I'm
only 30 minutes into what should be a 2 hour game. I...well, I just
have too many damned games I need to play and nowhere near the time
to enjoy them.
On the note of my
current game of choice, SSX is pretty damned impressive. I'm an old
school player of SSX (the only game I enjoyed on the PS2 at
launch...and the only one I played for the first nine months of
owning the PS2). I didn't get into Tricky as much as the original,
and then I just stopped paying attention to SSX entirely since
Tricky had some "features" I just didn't get into as a game. So, for
me, SSX is the original launch PS2 title and revolves around the
shoulder buttons for your grabs.
The new SSX can still
use the old controls, but it's tailored to be played with the right
analogue stick as your trick input. Quite frankly, trying to play
with the should buttons might feel correct, but the fluidity of the
right stick feels less correct but far more complete. It's like
trying to play a 3D game with a d-pad versus an analogue stick. One
feels more natural at first, but the other is how the game was
really meant to be played. So, I'm making slow progress in SSX since
I'm determined to use the analogue stick for trick controls. This
has so far led to many falls off of mountains, but I'm happy to make
slow progress over making sloppy and fast progress.
Anyway, I have not
enjoyed an extreme sports title just this since the original SSX.
Tony Hawk lost me back with THPS4 and I could never get into the
Skate craze. SSX feels like a nice trip into nostalgia while
offering a lot of new ideas along the way. The best new feature is
how the game used real maps to generate courses, and this has given
some really fun areas to board down...as well as a lot more courses
than I have ever seen in an extreme sports game.
The only downside is
that the game, with its audio and movies, may kill my brain. I mean
the difference between extreme sports and just "bro'ing out" is a
fine line. SSX didn't tip toe the line and go to the bro side...it
ran past the line and never stopped running. The announcers are
inane, the music is entirely pop (extreme pop, but still definitely
popular music), and the story (yes, there is one) cannot even be
recalled in this post (for fear of it destroying all remaining brain
cells).
Malik |
Malik
(4/11/12)
Monday morning I started
to download Darksiders from Amazon. At $5, I felt like this was a
perfect deal for me. Well, except for the Amazon part. Amazon has a
very slow server, at least for me when compared to Origin or
especially Steam. Amazon also has the fault of having a one off
installer instead of an installation program which is persistent.
So, I wanted Darksiders, which is a game that clocks in somewhere
between 12GB and 14GB. Finally, last night I saw the light at the
end of the tunnel. I only had 1GB left to download as of 10PM last
night. I went to bed, hoping to finally have the file downloaded
before heading off to work this morning.
It was a nice
plan. I mean 48 hours of downloading would finally pay off. Well, it
didn't. Microsoft, from the looks of it, had an issue with this idea
and decided to leave my PC in a way in which it wanted to reboot
overnight. I am guessing the reboot came before that final 1GB was
done. This morning, I woke up to a blank rebooted desktop on my PC.
To make it even more painful, when I tried to load the Amazon
installer, I saw what I knew was coming...the game was being
downloaded, again, starting at 0KB and working slowly back up to the
final destination of being on my PC.
This is why I
really like Steam. When a download is stopped and a game is aborted
in its download, the pieces already downloaded remain behind to be
downloaded again in the future. Not like the Amazon system that
requires a now-or-never approach. It's bad when you have to leave a
PC on for 48 hours straight because of this. It's worse to expect a
PC to remain on for 48 hours to download one single file, since
between anti-virus, Windows Update, and the potential of a system
crash in a Windows environment, a Windows based PC is not one to
remain 100% functional for a single download for 48 hours.
At least I still
have the bro-tastic SSX to keep me amused.
Malik |