Malik
(3/14/05)
Well, despite what
I thought of the GDC, this year is turning out quite unexpectedly.
Usually the GDC serves as a chance for the major companies to show a
preview of what will wow us at E3. However, on top of the news I
posted on Friday of what Nintendo is up to, there is still more news
coming in that surprises me (of course I thought there would be news
back in January that would interest us geeks and...well, this is a
weird year, so far).
As I found at Gamespot,
Peter Molyneux and Lionhead had some nice things to show off in the
world of Black and White 2. There was a demo of this game shown off
at the GDC, and it sounds nothing short of amazing. The game uses a
far more simplistic approach to control (no HUD...just a left click
or a right click), but achieves a far more complex final control
scheme. You can protect your people, be a tyrant, play with your
avatar/pet, set traps for enemy warriors, set off natural disasters.
It is all so deep and yet so simple. However, I'll just skip the
major details since I'm still pissed off about Molyneaux
abandoning us XBox players with the "Fable Beta"
incident (as I call it).
So, I am still
playing mainly GTA:SA. I want to get back to GT4, but I have to say
that SA is a far superior game to almost anything else ever made
(well...besides the horrible glitches and flying planes being a
bitch). So, let me set the stage for a weird experience I had; I had
just bought Verdant Meadows (the abandoned airstrip...the dreaded
home of pilot school). I knew my next mission was the damned
"Learning to Fly" mission, so I decided to have some fun.
The first stop for fun is always Ammu-Nation. I had about $150,000
after buying the flight school, so I dropped some major money.
Namely, I was down to $75,000 after my shopping spree. I aimed to
never buy weapons again during the game (at least out of necessity).
I was fully armed with the 9mm (I'm hitman level, so I like the
duel-wield over the single Dessert Eagle...it gives a Chow Yun Fat
type of feel to things), duel-wielded sawed-off shotguns (the
running-man's shotgun), thousands of Uzi rounds, about 2000 rounds
of the M5, armor, and enough grenades to take down an army. So, I
decided that I had enough preparation for the fun ahead of me, and
started the one obstacle in the way; flight school.
I passed the easy
first two missions on the first try. Then I managed the somewhat bad
third mission on the first try. Then I passed the worst of the tests
(the fourth...take-off, fly through a circle of rings, and land) on
the first try. After that, I passed everything except the
loop-the-loop on the first try (loop-the-loop involved my controlled
not being calibrated correctly, so it took two tries...which meant
all the missions prior to this were with an un-calibrated
control...maybe that's the secret). Finally, I got to the sky-diving
test.
The sky-diving
test is the easiest one. All you have to do is free fall for about
ten to fifteen seconds, and then pull the cord and float onto your
target as close to center as possible. Also, I should mention that I
haven't saved since I bought all that ammo (prior to taking any
flight tests...but what could go wrong? You can't die in a test
situation...hell, if I fail a flight test, I end it with a big crash
to restart...and I'm still living after that). You should see where
this is going.
I start my free
fall, and then pull the cord when the game tells me to. The chute is
open, and I'm falling towards the ground. I'm not slowly descending
towards the ground...I'M FALLING WITH A PARACHUTE OPEN! I try to
wiggle the controls, but CJ is 100% unresponsive. Thus CJ hits the
ground and I'm given the regular chance to try again. So, as I start
to fall on my second attempt, I can see my health meter is flashing
and almost non-existent. In fact, once this test is done, I'd die
from the slightest hit from anything. That's how my health meter
looks, at least.
I manage to land
perfectly on my second sky-dive attempt. I mean I landed dead-center
of the target. I still get marked off 2% for unknown reasons, but
who cares? I sure don't. I passed the exams. I know this since it
says "mission passed" on the screen. I am king. Then, as
the mission passed message fades away, CJ falls to the
ground...dead. Along with all my weapons...all gone. Everything. At
least I wake up at...this is not the hospital...this is the Las
Venturas airport?! So, down to $75000, I try to reclaim the weapons
I can from the store (I was tempted to re-start from my last save,
but the prospect of my luck running out on flight school was too
much for me to face). Sadly, there's no way to quickly re-acquire
the rocket launcher stock-pile I got from one of Torreno's missions,
my katana, my brass knuckles, and my money won't go far enough to
refresh my sniper rifle supply (I had managed to get about 100
rounds for it from Snail Trail).
So, I'm at a point
in which I should be enjoying the game...but it's hard to continue
when such a lame bug happened. This is the worst glitch I've ever
seen on a GTA game.
Anyway, to not
just bitch...I found a killer way to finish the medic and
fire-fighter missions. They focus around starting the missions in
Angel Pine. There's a hospital, and thus the medic missions are so
easy. You only have about 6 blocks of city to cover on your routes.
Then, with the fire-fighter missions, you only have a small city to
start in and then a lot of straight streets with no side streets
(real easy). Plus, since the fire-fighter missions now give you
fire-immunity and the medic increases your life gauge, it's
definitely good to get those missions done, however quickly you
can.
Malik
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Malik
(3/15/05)
I was thinking
about the amazing new features and details that are being promised
by Peter Molyneaux in Black and White 2, along with the speech given
by Kaita Takahashi (Mr. Katamari Damacy) at the GDC (a summary is
found on
Gamespot, here), and I came to a couple of conclusions. I know,
it's a little early to form conclusions on a game that isn't out,
but just follow this...
B&W was a
really fun and innovative game, but it pushed technology pretty
hard. However, the major flaws with this game all seemed to come
from something other than the use of technology. The flaws were from
minor issues. The most annoying one I can think of is the lack of an
ability to skip certain dialogues. This is fine for a first play
through the game, but it really can annoy the crap out of someone
who had to restart their game for some reason or another...or anyone
who is just playing a second (or third, or fourth, or...) time. The
one that still sticks in my mind, over three years since I last
played B&W is when you encounter, early in the game, a trio of
ship-wrights. These little guys really like their ship/arc that they
are building. I say more power to them. However, they also like to
sing.
Anyone who played
this scene more than once will undoubtedly remember how you cannot
skip this song. It is long, it is annoying, and it wasn't even much
fun or informative the first time you played through it. My PC
freaked out at one point, when I was playing B&W, and I was
forced to restart the game (my save file got corrupted). So, when I
played through this again, I kept wanting to skip this several
minute long annoyance...but nothing would work. You could turn off
the game, you could watch the damned thing, or you could walk away,
grab a snack, eat said snack, and then return to the end of the
song.
So, Mr. Takahashi
said, at the GDC, how games are being based too much on new
technology and not enough on just trying to be fun. He also said
that we should work with what we have, technology-wise, before
worrying about the next generation of hardware. So, I propose that
instead of being so concerned about how amazing B&W2 will be,
with it's high level of detail and simulated ants, Mr. Molyneaux
should first address the more basic of issues...like if we can skip
the damned cut-scenes this next time around. I really could care
less about ants when I have singing people trying to piss me
off.
I hate the concept
of trying to play a game and have fun when I know that my time could
be better spent. If a game is good, then I'm usually happy...but if
that game turns to crap (like Xenosaga 2 did) and becomes a giant
time waster that gives little in return (like XS2), then I'll be
pissed. I want a solid return on my time investment. I mean in
GTA:SA, if I have to reload a game and repeat a mission, I have the
wonderful ability to skip most cut-scenes (and they usually are not
as long as the singing in B&W). That is a great feature that
inspires one to play the game again. A lack of this is a form of
punishment for those who would actually feel compelled enough to
replay a game.
Anyway, I'm still
playing GTA:SA...and loving it. This is such a great game the first
time through, and I think it feels even better the second time
(since I know enough to know what missions are worth a closer look,
how to control some of the bitchier of vehicles, like the airplanes,
etc). Plus, I never feel like I'm wasting my time. Even if I'm just
driving from point A to point B, I still know my driving skill is
increasing, and I never know if something amazing will happen at
random...
Like how I was
driving to Las Venturas last night. I was on the freeway when a car
cut me off one too many times. My vehicle burst into flames, so I
bailed. I didn't even try to cause what followed. A taxi zoomed
along side my speeding ball of fire, and then my car exploded. The
taxi caught fire, the driver got out, another car approached, and
then another explosion and a new vehicle is on fire. Then the
traffic jam started and I saw a police man go flying over my
head...shortly followed by his motorcycle. A total of 30+ cars blew
up in that horrible accident...plus, since I was fire-proof (from
doing fire truck missions), I was able to get a perfect view of the
carnage from the flames of the original few cars. It was nothing
short of amazing. It's this type of incident that makes me
appreciate all that Rockstar puts into their work.
Also, last night,
I saw the Japanese movie "Pistol Opera". Velveeta had been
wanting to watch this movie for a long time, so we finally watched
it...well, she watched it and I watched half of it before I started
to play Breath of Fire (GBA) on my DS. I hate it when a decent
enough concept is made for a movie, but the director, writers, etc,
decide that a more artistic approach is needed. The movie is
constantly filled with surrealistic visuals (like bright red flowers
in front of a drab house, or a little girl dancing for no point
while singing a poorly spoken song about Humpty Dumpty in very poor
English), very poorly scripted dialogue (I know translations can be
bad, but I doubt it's the translations that made the dialogue change
subjects every two lines), and very poorly choreographed actions (if
you get shot, react immediately, not a full two seconds later). This
movie would've been funny if it wasn't so damned artsy. This is the
worst example of why people often times try to steer clear of
art-films. Plus, the basic feel of this movie almost screamed "Tarintino
Rip-Off!", except without the witty dialogue (although, I think
the writters tried...and failed), well choreographed action, and way
too many surreal visuals.
Well, that's about
it for today. Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy some GTA tonight
instead of being subjected to lame art-films.
Malik
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Malik
(3/16/05)
According to a
report at Gamespot,
Nintendo's President (Mr. Iwata) has announced that development kits
are out for the Revolution. It sounds like, for once, Nintendo is
taking the pro-active approach with the next generation. Usually,
Nintendo has been one of the slowest consoles to market in a
generation, but this may be the time that changes things. In fact,
this time around, it sounds like Nintendo has cleaned up a lot of
their old decision making problems (like taking too long to release
a console, focusing solely on children as seen with the DS, going
with online). This may be the year that Nintendo comes back to being
a giant in the game industry, once again. Not that they aren't big,
but they will be full-on giants again...assuming they don't mess
everything up again.
I'm still left
with a fear about the revolution, however. As online games have
gained popularity, the popularity of four-player split-screen games
has started to weaken. In fact, with XBox Live, most multiplayer
XBox games have been only four+ players online. So, if Nintendo also
follows suit with the Revolution, are we going to see Nintendo pull
back from split-screen? While a full screen with a full set of
team-mates, as seen with just about any online game, is a fun thing,
there's still something to be said for being able to play a game
with a bunch of people at the same place. It's just more personal
and social.
I mean last
weekend my friend Bastich was looking for a good four-player co-op
game (or at least something that's not direct aggression towards
each other), and we came up with a big load of nothing. There was
nothing that we could sit down with, with a few friends, and all
play together. There were a good deal of fun looking online
multiplayer games, but that is just not the same when we all wanted
to hang out and be social.
I'm just hoping
that this type of story is not going to become even more common when
Nintendo embraces the online world. Nintendo has always been the
last safe haven for people who wanted to play an offline multiplayer
game. XBox used to do this pretty well before Live came along, and
PS2 even did this somewhat well before the online buzz began with
them. Ultimately, while online works great on a work-night, when I
can't afford to waste my precious free-time with finding a way to
join a bunch of people for offline games, it just doesn't fly with
me on a weekend. I mean that's the time I want to hang out and be
social. Blah...I ramble.
Last night, I went
a little crazy with my game purchases. It started as what my friends
and I like to call "shoe-shopping for guys". That would be
some browsing at a game store. It started innocently enough, but
next thing I knew, nostalgia pulled me in. So, I bought Ys for the
PS2, Mr. Driller (at long last) for the DS, and then I went online
to see if anyone in the world sold It's Mr. Pants for the GBA. Well,
I found a copy for cheap online, so I also bought that. For those
who don't know, It's Mr. Pants is a really unique looking puzzle
game from Rare (published, I believe, by THQ) that came out a couple
weeks back, yet no stores seem to sell it...maybe it's the name, the
obscurity, the stick-figure looking dude in underwear on the
cover...who knows. All I know is this looks like a fun puzzle game
that no store seems to be selling.
Anyway, instead of
playing any of my new games, I was still too obsessed with GTA:SA. I
passed a few missions, sold some cars at the docks, and went on a
few violent rampages. Then I played Mr. Driller for a few games.
Then I thought about GTA. Hopefully I'll play some Ys tonight so I
can tell you all if it's really as average as the game reviewers
seem to think. It looks like a good old-school Ys game to me (which
may be why people think it's mediocre...).
Malik
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Malik
(3/17/05)
So, I still
couldn't break the charm of GTA:SA. I wanted to play Ys, but it's
just not going to happen all the well until I'm able to put GTA to
rest, once again. So, I played more SA...and Mr. Driller (I can
break the charm of a deep game like SA, but only for something short
and non-continuous, like Mr. Driller).
I got through a
couple more missions, including one of my all time least favorites.
In fact, thinking about it, I think this mission is far more
annoying, to me, than Learn to Fly ever could be. I'm talking about
Don Peyote. It's a simple mission of picking up two people on a
mountain in a dessert. Simple, right? Well, not really. You need to
bring a vehicle that can hold more than one passenger to pick them
up. As any who play GTA would know, the more passengers a vehicle
can handle, the less fun it will be to take up a steep and winding
dirt road up a mountain. So, after I got my Admiral (standard 4-door
car) to the mountain, it managed to flip over on a rock. So, I had
to find another ride.
I patrolled the
roads and near-by towns for about 30 minutes, only finding 2 door
SUVs, semi trucks (only two door), and all type of motorcycles.
Eventually I found a Burrito (van). So, I had to drive at a ridiculously
slow speed (since vans will tip over it you look at them funny) up a
winding mountain...then I had to drive carefully back down to not
flip and kill my passengers. Then, I had a minor cop chase, in an
easy to tip vehicle. That was a major annoyance. Luckily, when I was
returning to Las Venturas (you ultimate destination), I came across
a Cab (Taxi), and that made the last couple of miles far more
bearable.
It's not that Don
Peyote is anywhere near being a hard mission; it's just a very
annoying mission since you will have a good deal of problems if your
vehicle you take from LV is either not a 4-door, or it gets destroyed
prior to picking up your passengers. You'd imagine there could be
some 4-door SUVs floating around the wastelands...I mean, I would
imagine this.
At least the rest
of GTA was smooth sailing last night and brought me the type of fun
that no game (other than Xenogears) could bring me in a second
play-through. Which is why I think I'll have no chance of playing Ys
until I lay GTA to sleep again...which only will come with a thorough
beating of the game.
I also started to
realize that the seller I bought It's Mr. Pants from on half.com
may be jerking me around. It's been about 46 hours without a
confirmation. I'm not surprised, since this seller is listing the
game for about half the price of anyone else. I'm expecting to be
denied Mr. Pants...but I'll just go with something more responsive
and reliable than independent sellers once the deal is canceled due
to no response. At least cduniverse.com
has the game for a massively cheap price (around $17).
Anyway, I'm
thinking of whether or not to write a review for Mr. Driller (DS). I
mean it's a fun game, but I don't know if it's really worth a
review...I mean it's like reviewing Tetris or Columns. Which means
it's a short and boring review. But then again, I need to write
something, since there's nothing to bitch about this week. So, who
knows.
Malik
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Malik
(3/18/05)
As an RPG geek, I
found this, at Gamespot,
to be rather interesting. It seems Sega has finally revealed some
details about Phantasy Star Universe. Not much...but a little more
than the trailer from E3 last year showed. It seems this title is
slated for release on the PS2 and PC in Japan. So, sadly, there's no
word of a US release...yet. However, given Sega's track record of
bringing PS games to the US, I think it's not too early to get our
hopes up. I just hope Sega doesn't pull some sort of Japan-only
crap.
Also, it seems the
plot is slowly being revealed. In another star system that's
separate from Algo and the PSO universe, an alien race is
terrorizing a group of three life-sustaining planets. It's up to the
Guardians (which is where our new heroes will be from) to protect
and defeat. Pretty standard for a brief plot summary, but PS games
always shine in the deeper details.
Beyond that, all
the news is still focusing on business. I mean game stocks are
booming, product line-ups are being shown to the world, and WoW is
still growing in population (far faster than I bet Blizzard can
handle...). It's all pretty standard issue.
On that note, I'm
still doing my standard issue stuff. In other words, I've been
pumping more and more time into GTA:SA, and no time at all into Ys.
I know, I bought the game, so I should show it some love, but SA is
too much game to give up when I'm somewhat close to finishing it,
again.
I also had my
Half.com order for It's Mr. Pants get confirmed, so I canceled my
CDUniverse order. However, for those looking for this most elusive
of games, I'd check out CDUniverse, which has the game, and has it
for half the price of anywhere else (except the seller I am getting
it from on Half). I just hope this game is worth the hassle.
On another random-ish
note, those on the East coast are in luck. Less Than Jake (the band
that holds me in their influence like only Xenogears can) is going
on tour soon. It will be a bunch of Fueled By Ramen bands playing
with a bunch of Drive Thru Records bands...with LTJ headlining.
Should be some really good shows...which won't come to the West
Coast...blah! Also, LTJ is selling an extremely limited release of a
new B is for B-Sides remix CD, only at these shows. So, I'm extra
bummed about this. Anyway, on the odd chance that someone who hits
this site goes to the concert and buys an extra of this CD, email me
and I'll be more than happy to buy it from you...before I have to
resort to being price gouged on Ebay.
Anyway, my weekend
will hopefully hold some time for me to be re-introduced to Ys. It's
been about 5 years since I've played a Ys game, and I now have one
sitting in my living room...staring at me with such a sad look...it
wants love...it does. Too bad that GTA:SA demands so much of my
affection too. Anyway, I'll try to play some of Ys this weekend and
then get back to you all on Monday about how good it was. Despite
how it's been torn apart by reviews, I have a good feeling...I mean
it's Ys, after all.
Malik
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