Malik
(12/10/04)
This week had me
caught up with many things...personal, social, work related (which
is always the worst). So I had to keep things to a minimum to
help me maintain my sanity.
I've been playing
a lot of Metroid Prime 2, so that's where I started for today.
MP2 is a good game and a good part of gaming evolution, but it has
many flaws. Even more than the original had. So, I just
felt like voicing my complaint that is affecting my will to game the
most.
Beyond that,
there's some economical geek news that could effect the sports geeks
out there. While it's not my thing, it does have some rather
strong evidence of what a bad decision can do to our gaming budget.
Anyway, enough
intro. Let's get this shiz-nit rolling. I'm Malik, and
I'm your Bitchy waiter for the evening.
Up For A
Challenge?
Monday night I was
about one more death away from selling Metroid Prime 2 back to EB...just
one more death. For those who have played MP2, yup...I was at the
Boost Ball Guardian. This has to be the lamest idea to have ever
come out of Retro Studios. In fact, while some may call it a
spoiler, let me detail this...it's for your own good. After all, if
you want to play or buy this game, you should know about the worst
moment in the game (and from the strategies I read last night, this
is the worst moment of the game).
So, this battle
takes place in Dark Aether. That means that you'll be hurt each
second you are in the atmosphere, assuming you don't stand in a
light beacon/light crystal protected area (which make a small sphere
of light that not only negates the poison-like effect of the dark
air, but even slowly restores your lost health. Thankfully, all
bosses in the Dark Aether areas have included a handful of light
crystals to stand near (or light beacons to charge up to provide
temporary sanctuary). Not the case in this boss fight. As you fight,
you are constantly losing health, even when you are not being pummeled...even
when the fight is over, you are still losing health ((so, if you
survive with only a couple health units left, you will most likely
die after the fight).
Now this boss
starts off in an alien looking form (like most of the bad guys, also
called the Ing...). In this form you can pummel the boss with
charged light attacks, super missiles, or whatever else you can
throw at it. However, it will do the same to you...not light and
missiles, but the pummeling part. This includes hitting you with a
dark based attack that knocks out use of your radar and the rest of
your HUD for about 10 seconds (which can easily allow the boss to
sneak up behind you and then take care of business). After enough
time and damage, the boss will turn into a ball (like your morph
ball). In fact, this boss is called the Boost Ball Guardian because
he has your boost ball ability (which lets you charge up and launch
your ball form along the ground, dealing damage to everything in
your path and moving faster than anything else), and once he enters
ball form, he will use it. So, you have to turn into your ball to
see the arena (the third person of your ball form is the only way to
properly see in this battle). While in this form, the boss will also
summon lesser Ings to shoot at you and touch you for damage. So, if
this wasn't bad enough, I should mention that you cannot harm the
boss at this time, so it will dish out damage, and you will take
it.
After a while, the
ball form will change into a puddle of poop (well, it's a gray/red
puddle shape that follows you). This puddle will chase you and
remove your health faster than you'd ever think possible. At this
point, you can lay bombs and harm this thing...however, you will not
drop it's health any. WTF? Right? Basically, if you hit it enough
times, it will either revert to the ball form (in which case you're
screwed) or back to it's original form. At this point, you will have
about 5 seconds to fire as much shit as possible and pray that you
don't miss any (if it moves, it will dodge your assault). Also, if
you're using missiles (or super missiles) or your light shots at
this point, each miss means loss of ammo for a future assault.
Yup...this fight just keeps getting worse and worse. If you're
lucky, you may finally kill this thing after 3 or 4 rounds of the
ball (spoiler: Use super missiles...a lot of strategies say the
light beam charged up will do best...that's bull shit and it will
only deal about 75% of the damage that a super missile will
do).
So, I failed at
killing this thing 5 times. FIVE FREAKIN' TIMES! I only beat it the
final attempt because the game gods were kind enough to throw energy
pick-ups my way in a great abundance. There was nothing in MP
nearly this frustrating (especially when you realize that you can't
skip the boss monster intro cinematic). I don't know if Retro's
concept of boosting the difficulty was such a smart move. I've seen
more posts on message boards, while looking for a good strategy for
this boss (there are none...they all come down to not dying and
hoping that the smaller Ings will leave big health pick-ups if you
manage to kill them), on how people are selling this game or just
quitting because of this one boss. Difficulty is one thing, but
there is a line between something that's difficult and something
that relies purely on luck. This battle required more luck than
skill and strategy.
Solution
Game developers
have gotten their perspectives twisted in recent years with a lot of
concepts. First there was the birth of 3D platformers (started with
Mario 64) that made all developers think 3D was the only way to go.
I mean just looking at any 2D series that made a 3D leap, you can
see the problems...I mean, the best example would be Castlevania...the
game which is constantly fun on the PS and the GBA with the
wonderful 2D versions, while the N64 and PS2 have only shown us the
dark side of 3D. This even made Metroid go from a game in which you
duke it out with a monster to a game in which you either solve the
puzzle that is the boss or you (in the boost ball case) just rely on
nothing more than luck.
Then there's the
idea of challenge. Some game makers decided that challenge should be
boosted in games by raising the number of enemies you must face.
Others have decided to make their action games into puzzle based
games (you don't shoot the foe until it croaks...no...you shoot off
it's left arm, then it's right arm, and then you shoot the red
target that appears in it's chest...then you repeat as the arms
re-grow for about 10 total chest shots).
No matter what,
however, this all comes down to one classic issue. When a new game
is made from a classical franchise, the developers need to keep
things true to the original. If you want Metroid to become first
person, that's do-able. I mean it's one change. Now if you want it
to only have 4 weapons that cannot be used at the same time, that's
another change. Now if you want the bosses to be puzzles, that's
another thing. When you keep stacking these changes, all you do is
corrupt a good franchise that has had loyal fans and a solid game
play style. In fact, the fans don't matter nearly as much as the
solid game play that made the first few Metroid games so likable. If
something is not broken (and a series cannot be successful if it's
broken), then leave it the hell alone. There are plenty of ways to
make a sequel to a successful franchise without ruining the basics.
A sequel is an expansion from the original and therefore doesn't
need to be completely re-invented from the ground up. Hell, Retro
didn't even touch anything between MP and MP2 except for the
difficulty...so, why couldn't they leave everything anole and make a
truly classical Metroid (even in first person, if they chose)?
There's no excuse for treating a classic series with this abuse and
contempt.
Cheap Games No
More?
According to an
article at Gamespot.com, at the recent UBS Media Conference
Take-Two executives have announced that an end to low priced ESPN
sports games may be soon. The primary reason behind this
announcement seems two fold...the first and most obvious of these is
greedy. If a company can make more money, then naturally they will
strive to do so. Game publishing and development is a business, after all.
Secondly, the reason is because Paul Eibeler (president of Take-Two)
said that research has shown that the price of a game is not in the
top two or three reasons a gamer buys a game.
First, a little
back ground. For those who haven't noticed, this year the ESPN brand
sports games have all come out at a price of $20 for the consoles.
This is a major step back from the previous year's releases that
came with a standard $50 price tag. Part of this price shift was a
definite bid to out-compete EA and their sports titles (which would
you buy, a cheap game or an expensive one if they are both pretty
close in quality? You don't need to answer that one). Also, another
part of this move was to add some further motivation for people to
buy the latest sports games. Year after year, we see only the
slightest of changes to the major sports titles from the previous
version, yet the game still would carry a $50 price tag. Plus, the
trade-in value (at most major retailers) for sports titles has hit
the floor (you'd be lucky to get $2 for a trade-in of one of last
year's sports games). So, this major price drop has been a nice bid
to reinvigorate the gaming crowds desire for new sports games.
So, with the next
generation of consoles coming along soon, Take-Two executives have
started to say that the likelihood of premium pricing ($50 per game)
for sports games is likely to return. While the timeline for the
price increase is not yet set, it could be said that it will
definitely go back to the normal prices by the time the first sports
games hit the next generation of consoles. However, this increase is
expected to come even sooner in anticipation of the next
generation...which makes as much sense as raising the price of the
PS2 to $300 in anticipation of the PS3 selling for that price when
it finally arrives.
Deep down, this
type of price shift was originally a great idea. I mean the lowering
of prices for a series of games that remains relatively unchanged
from year to year. The actual development time and cost of these
games are far less than for a game that is original and unique.
However, to charge full price for these games is only an insult to
the geeks. Plus, when the trade-in value of these games are little
more than pocket change, it only adds further insult to know that
that $50 2004 football game means shit compared to the 2005 version,
and will get no more play out of it. If the trade-in value is little
(if you can even consider it anything more than an insult), the
initial price is great, and the lifespan is a mere 1 year, it's the
consumer who's getting ripped off and should be ready to make
pricing their number one motivating factor for buying (or not
buying) a new sports game. Price is not the ultimate factor for all
games, but it should for sports games.
Solution
Deep down, the
solution is quite simple. If the ESPN line of games never dropped in
price (which was mildly stupid from a business aspect but really
good from a moral standpoint) then there would be nothing to talk
about. However, the price drop did happen. So, the solution is to
either stick with this too the end (at least the end of this
generation) or to be ready for some fallout.
I mean the sports
games that never had this price shift will continue to keep their
loyal business. However, the games that suddenly jump $30 (or 150%)
in a single year will hurt. They will feel a good deal of pain being
known as the games that obviously cost little to make (or they would
never have been sold for so cheap at launch) but cost extra to
buy.
This type of
practice will only serve to disenfranchise the consumers. In the
end, ESPN will still sell quite well (since, in my perspective and
the perspectives of countless consumers, they are the better sports
games...but, to each his/her own), but there will be an obvious
fallout. This can be expected to not be as strong of a case when the
next generation hits, but until then...in this generation games
should not jump from low to high prices. So, the solution,
ultimately, is to keep the value prices until the next generation
(at least).
Conclusion
So, things were
kept a little shorter this week. I've been doing it a little
too often lately, but I at least have my reasons. I mean
there's been a lack of things to bitch about for several months, and
then I just had too much to do this week. I'll try to work on
this problem, as I work towards whatever I need to better in my
life, but I can't make any promises...well, not until the next year
(call it intuition, but I smell some big news coming our way quite
soon). So, with nothing else to say, I will fade out for
another week (fade out from Bitchings, that is). If you want
to, for some reason, you can write
me or put your thoughts to the forums.
Peace.
Malik
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