It has been a while since I have posted anything and there are several reasons, namely Borderlands, Uncharted 2 and Netflix.
First off I finished the "story" to Borderlands and absolutely love the way that the game allows you to play through a second time from the beginning but with everything leveled up to give you a new challenge. I have to admit that I feel a bit silly for not realizing how to kill the final boss on my first attempt on the first night I encountered him, but I'll chalk that up to being tired. Borderlands is such a fun game that has such Civilization mind-set of "just one more turn" with the notion that it only would take a few more kills to fill that last bubble to level up or one more kill to finish a quest. Since I've played the game through to the final boss with the Hunter Mordecia and still haven't tried the other 3 classes there is plenty to try in this game.
Unfortunately I've become distracted for the moment and can't seem to get into Borderlands to try the game as a second play through though because due to a little negotiation I now have Uncharted 2. Thanks Andy!
What can I say about Uncharted 2 that hasn't already been said? I'm not sure that I can say anything new, but I'll give it a go. The game is so freaking amazing. The characters are phenomenal, the story (so far--I haven't finished the game yet) is griping, and the actual game play is a perfect blend of puzzles, climbing, jumping and shooting enemies. Visually the game just can't be compared to anything (except for the first Uncharted perhaps). Rich lush jungles meld with highly detailed city play. Lighting is amazing as well. Exploring caves you see sunlight pouring through cracks, illuminating details missed by many other games. Jumping from boulders or buildings is exhilarating and challenging. Many moments look like they are impossible but the animations used with Nathan Drake are done with such a level of detail that you expect Drake to miss a jump but he scrambles at the last second to pull off a true cliff hanger style escape from death.
Humor also plays a huge role in how good Uncharted 2 is. The subtle humor between Drake and Cloe as well as Elena and Drake are on par with great romantic comedies. Situational comedy also plays a huge role in the game. Whether Drake is getting the tar beat out of him from falling or the overwhelming odds against Drake, you can't help but laugh by how the game manages to put you into a situation and make it fun to survive. One of the early moments that I still get a good laugh from is when Drake is climbing around the outside of a museum and his temporary partner in crime is helping by talking through headsets to give Drake directions and alert when any enemies are near. Hanging from the edge of the roof, Drake is told to watch out, "Enemy above" and you pull the enemy down over the edge of the roof to watch him plummet to the ground four or five stories below. Your partner in the same urgent voice then says, "Enemy below". While it is dark, it is that same tongue in cheek humor that fills the cracks of the game to make every moment enjoyable.
Even though I have enjoyed playing Uncharted 2 for all of the humor, action and story, I also just received the Netflix PS3 streaming disc so I have spent a pretty fair amount of time using that feature now too. Having not used Netflix for any streaming before I have to say that this new addition to watching movies and TV shows on the PS3 is such a good thing. Navigation within each category is smooth and after selecting a movie or show the time to wait for the show to start is minimal. Some complaints have been made that the selection of streaming isn't that great, but for my money there is enough that I haven't watched to make Netflix worth the monthly fee. Another complaint that has been made is the fact that you have to put the disc in the PS3 to get the actual service to work. As a short term solution I can't complain. Granted "short-term" is still a year away before the service would be available as an installed app on the XMB, but the way I see it, if you want to watch a Blu-ray, you gotta put the disc in to watch that, so why not put a disc in to be able to access hundreds of movies to watch?
More later folks.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Old Haven Happiness
Last night I loaded up Borderlands figuring I'd play solo for a little while to hit level 30. Little did I realize that I'd get sucked into the game for four hours. I have been tooling around in the Rust Commons for several nights and starting to find that the game starts to feel a bit of a grind the further I got into leveling up while playing solo. Last night though changed my perception of the game back to the original enjoyment that I felt the first night I played the game.
After playing through the first main area you end up moving into a new town called New Haven which butts up next to the Rust Commons. New Haven is the starting point for many quests throughout the Rust Commons (East and West), as well as introduces you to many new characters to help drive the story along. I had enjoyed the game as I explored New Haven and the Rust Commons, but it never dawned on me that there could also potentially be an Old Haven.
Well after finishing off a series of quests the other night I was able to cross a draw bridge that previously had been raised which allowed me to find Old Haven. Old Haven reminds me of one of the better instances from WoW. I say this because several of the points I've encounted in Borderlands up to this point felt very much like simple extensions of the rest of the world of Pandora. Old Haven breathed life into action in the game that had started to fade. Now granted I have not played Borderlands at all with any other people at this point but the action has become very repetitive and predictable (albeit enjoyable). The premise of Old Haven is that a town has become over run by a group of mercenaries who have claimed Old Haven as their own after being paid to clear out a rival gang from the town. My excitement for Old Haven is squarely from the fact that unlike most of the combat locations in Borderlands, Old Haven is chock full of street fighting with enemies coming from all sides. Even when I thought I had cleared out an area I would find myself having enemies circle around me to try and ambush me. This was a total blast. I would love to see how Old Haven plays out with a full party and all the chaos that would ensue.
The best part of my whole Old Haven encounter was the fact that the story led me closer to the end of my journey to the Vault. While the story takes a backseat to the action in some points, there is definitely a good reason for wanting to play through to the end.
If you haven't picked up Borderlands yet (for PC, PS3 or 360) do yourself a favor and buy this game. Pick it up on PS3 and join me even.
More later folks
After playing through the first main area you end up moving into a new town called New Haven which butts up next to the Rust Commons. New Haven is the starting point for many quests throughout the Rust Commons (East and West), as well as introduces you to many new characters to help drive the story along. I had enjoyed the game as I explored New Haven and the Rust Commons, but it never dawned on me that there could also potentially be an Old Haven.
Well after finishing off a series of quests the other night I was able to cross a draw bridge that previously had been raised which allowed me to find Old Haven. Old Haven reminds me of one of the better instances from WoW. I say this because several of the points I've encounted in Borderlands up to this point felt very much like simple extensions of the rest of the world of Pandora. Old Haven breathed life into action in the game that had started to fade. Now granted I have not played Borderlands at all with any other people at this point but the action has become very repetitive and predictable (albeit enjoyable). The premise of Old Haven is that a town has become over run by a group of mercenaries who have claimed Old Haven as their own after being paid to clear out a rival gang from the town. My excitement for Old Haven is squarely from the fact that unlike most of the combat locations in Borderlands, Old Haven is chock full of street fighting with enemies coming from all sides. Even when I thought I had cleared out an area I would find myself having enemies circle around me to try and ambush me. This was a total blast. I would love to see how Old Haven plays out with a full party and all the chaos that would ensue.
The best part of my whole Old Haven encounter was the fact that the story led me closer to the end of my journey to the Vault. While the story takes a backseat to the action in some points, there is definitely a good reason for wanting to play through to the end.
If you haven't picked up Borderlands yet (for PC, PS3 or 360) do yourself a favor and buy this game. Pick it up on PS3 and join me even.
More later folks
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Borderlands is a blast
For fans of first person shooters AND RPGS, Borderlands is definitely a great game to play. Picking one of the four types of characters while riding on a bus in the opening moments, you learn that you are on the planet Pandora to find a mythical treasure known as the Vault.
The game hooks you in by giving you lots to shoot at and lots of loot to collect and sell. Quests vary from finding items to repair appliances or other machinery to killing X number of bad guys. As you walk through one area to another mobs spawn (or re-spawn if you've traveled past a location before) to give you experience points and loot. To help you stay alive you wear a shield that can be swapped out for an upgrade (as with all other weapons in the game). The shield takes the damage first and once it has been depleted your health will start to drop. Various shields will replenish faster or slower depending on the type you equip. Some even revive health.
Battles can be fierce, but given that each class type has a special weapon that can be utilized, combat seems to end in the players favor. Upon leveling up from killing enemies or completing quests, you earn a talent point that can be used to give your character an advantage in whatever style of play you prefer. With the Hunter, Mordecai the choices are Sniper, Rogue or Gunslinger. Similar to WoW, there aren't enough talent points to allow you to pick every talent to it's fullest. This gives you the choice to pick one talent tree to get the best of one type of play or choose from some of each. Talent point distributions like this really allow the game to give the player the opportunity to play their own way. Another nice touch with gunplay in the game is the fact that as one type of gun is used (shotgun, pistol, combat rifle, etc) the character increases their proficiency giving them a better chance for critical hits and better damage.
Borderlands also allows for four player online co-op and 2 player split screen local co-op. As of this writing I haven't had a chance to try out either because I have been enjoying my solo adventure. The way combat is set up, it is obvious that game play would benefit from having more than one class playing at a time and the ability to invite friends from your friends list to your own game is a nice touch. From the main menu of the game you can also browse for and join random multiplayer games which also allows you to see what level other players are at and what part of the world of Pandora they are in. This is really great as well.
Aside from not trying out a multiplayer run through the game I can say that this game will definitely occupy a lot time for me in the foreseeable future. My only complaint so far with the game is driving vehicles. Everything is backward in my opinion. Steering and moving forward are handled with the analogue sticks instead of the trigger buttons as is typical with most driving games. I think if I give the driving enough of a chance I'll be able to not drive straight into rocks or buildings and hopefully rather drive over bad guys as the developers intended.
This is definitely a must have game this holiday season. I'll keep you all updated as I spend more time in the world of Borderlands.
The game hooks you in by giving you lots to shoot at and lots of loot to collect and sell. Quests vary from finding items to repair appliances or other machinery to killing X number of bad guys. As you walk through one area to another mobs spawn (or re-spawn if you've traveled past a location before) to give you experience points and loot. To help you stay alive you wear a shield that can be swapped out for an upgrade (as with all other weapons in the game). The shield takes the damage first and once it has been depleted your health will start to drop. Various shields will replenish faster or slower depending on the type you equip. Some even revive health.
Battles can be fierce, but given that each class type has a special weapon that can be utilized, combat seems to end in the players favor. Upon leveling up from killing enemies or completing quests, you earn a talent point that can be used to give your character an advantage in whatever style of play you prefer. With the Hunter, Mordecai the choices are Sniper, Rogue or Gunslinger. Similar to WoW, there aren't enough talent points to allow you to pick every talent to it's fullest. This gives you the choice to pick one talent tree to get the best of one type of play or choose from some of each. Talent point distributions like this really allow the game to give the player the opportunity to play their own way. Another nice touch with gunplay in the game is the fact that as one type of gun is used (shotgun, pistol, combat rifle, etc) the character increases their proficiency giving them a better chance for critical hits and better damage.
Borderlands also allows for four player online co-op and 2 player split screen local co-op. As of this writing I haven't had a chance to try out either because I have been enjoying my solo adventure. The way combat is set up, it is obvious that game play would benefit from having more than one class playing at a time and the ability to invite friends from your friends list to your own game is a nice touch. From the main menu of the game you can also browse for and join random multiplayer games which also allows you to see what level other players are at and what part of the world of Pandora they are in. This is really great as well.
Aside from not trying out a multiplayer run through the game I can say that this game will definitely occupy a lot time for me in the foreseeable future. My only complaint so far with the game is driving vehicles. Everything is backward in my opinion. Steering and moving forward are handled with the analogue sticks instead of the trigger buttons as is typical with most driving games. I think if I give the driving enough of a chance I'll be able to not drive straight into rocks or buildings and hopefully rather drive over bad guys as the developers intended.
This is definitely a must have game this holiday season. I'll keep you all updated as I spend more time in the world of Borderlands.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Yoda....here's a spoon
In 2003 Genndy Tartakovsky changed the perception of a sinking Star Wars franchise. Mixing the art style of Samurai Jack with Star Wars and then forcing the story to be compressed into three to four minutes of action showed that a good Star Wars story could be told without bad acting or worse dialogue. In 2008 Lucas started airing on TV a CG re-imaging of the Tartakovsky stories that tells the official Clone Wars story since the movies only briefly allude the beginning and end of the fabled battles.
Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is set in the story from the 2008 series between season one and season two. The concept of the game is a mix between LEGO Star Wars, Little Big Planet, and Star Wars Battlefield. It takes some of the best aspects for each but some implementations are just not fully realized.
The game switches between playing as two Jedi or two Clones. As Jedi you have lightsabers and the force, and playing as Clones you have guns and explosives. Game play is a cross between button mashing when playing as a Jedi and twin-stick shooter when playing as a Clone. Jedi can also jump on top of droids to either take control of them or (after paying for an upgrade) make the droids dance. Combat for either type of play is mostly competent and intuitive but the game developers have added a tutorial throughout in the form of Yoda instructing players how to play. The problem with this tutorial form is that you can't turn it off (but you can skip by pressing O) and the tutorial messages are repetitive and break up the game play. Annoying are you, yes Yoda.
By the time I played through the first Act of the game I was accepting of the fact that even though I'm a smart gamer and can figure something out on my own, I would inevitably have Yoda pop up to explain what I'd already figured out.
In the description above I describe the game as a mixture of LEGO Star Wars and Little Big Planet. Playing through the levels you can collect little blue orbs for points which can be spent to buy combat upgrades, droid-jak upgrades, droid dances, masks and hats, and cheats. I liken the game to Little Big Planet because there are different depths of field that you can jump from. This is the one of the problems that makes this game frustrating. Yoda (in one of his annoying tutorials) says that you can jump and the Force will land the Jedi where he's supposed to go. But Yoda lies. There are many times where jumping is critical to move forward in the level, but the Force doesn't seem to correct the path at all. Fortunately death is meaningless in this game. You die, but re-spawn very close by from where you died. There is no penalty for death, no loss of blue orbs or Jedi points, so even if you miss where you're supposed to jump to and die, you can keep trying....again and again and again.
Apparently I'm a bit more critical than my kids. They really enjoy this game. They like the ability to make the droids dance (it's cute but breaks the moment of battle), they like the ability to change hats and masks, and they like the ability to replay missions as different Jedi than from the first "story" play through.
Multiplayer in the game is handled by allowing both players to play on the same screen as the partner to the main character (Jedi or Clone). The kids really enjoy that too.
Overall, the game has some very annoying quirks, but when presented to young Star Wars fans, the game is not bad.
Also, for those who want relatively easy trophies, this is worth playing too.
Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is set in the story from the 2008 series between season one and season two. The concept of the game is a mix between LEGO Star Wars, Little Big Planet, and Star Wars Battlefield. It takes some of the best aspects for each but some implementations are just not fully realized.
The game switches between playing as two Jedi or two Clones. As Jedi you have lightsabers and the force, and playing as Clones you have guns and explosives. Game play is a cross between button mashing when playing as a Jedi and twin-stick shooter when playing as a Clone. Jedi can also jump on top of droids to either take control of them or (after paying for an upgrade) make the droids dance. Combat for either type of play is mostly competent and intuitive but the game developers have added a tutorial throughout in the form of Yoda instructing players how to play. The problem with this tutorial form is that you can't turn it off (but you can skip by pressing O) and the tutorial messages are repetitive and break up the game play. Annoying are you, yes Yoda.
By the time I played through the first Act of the game I was accepting of the fact that even though I'm a smart gamer and can figure something out on my own, I would inevitably have Yoda pop up to explain what I'd already figured out.
In the description above I describe the game as a mixture of LEGO Star Wars and Little Big Planet. Playing through the levels you can collect little blue orbs for points which can be spent to buy combat upgrades, droid-jak upgrades, droid dances, masks and hats, and cheats. I liken the game to Little Big Planet because there are different depths of field that you can jump from. This is the one of the problems that makes this game frustrating. Yoda (in one of his annoying tutorials) says that you can jump and the Force will land the Jedi where he's supposed to go. But Yoda lies. There are many times where jumping is critical to move forward in the level, but the Force doesn't seem to correct the path at all. Fortunately death is meaningless in this game. You die, but re-spawn very close by from where you died. There is no penalty for death, no loss of blue orbs or Jedi points, so even if you miss where you're supposed to jump to and die, you can keep trying....again and again and again.
Apparently I'm a bit more critical than my kids. They really enjoy this game. They like the ability to make the droids dance (it's cute but breaks the moment of battle), they like the ability to change hats and masks, and they like the ability to replay missions as different Jedi than from the first "story" play through.
Multiplayer in the game is handled by allowing both players to play on the same screen as the partner to the main character (Jedi or Clone). The kids really enjoy that too.
Overall, the game has some very annoying quirks, but when presented to young Star Wars fans, the game is not bad.
Also, for those who want relatively easy trophies, this is worth playing too.
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