Little Big Planet

I figured I should probably review a PS3 game, show I play all the consoles and not just the 360 and the Wii. I decided to go with Little Big Planet, a game that had a good deal of hype before it came out and was supposed to be one of the big hits of 2008.

Little Big Planet

Overall:

Little Big Planet is a platformer for the PS3 with a focus on it's unique art style and the ability to interact with your environment and character in a bunch of different ways, as well as the ability to make your own levels and put them up for others to see. It came out at a time when the PS3 was struggling a bit and it was supposed to be one of the games that was gonna help the PS3 start taking back the market (it didn't). You play as questioningly named "Sackboy" and you travel around the world helping different people in different cultures with a variety of tasks that usually revolve around getting something back that was lost or stolen.

Pros:

This game does have a very unique style that makes it stick out and easily identifiable(+0.75). It's kind of like cardboard cut outs that came to life and the world is made of them. So I give them kudos on standing out. The amount of accessories for your Sackboy are fairly varied and while they serve no purpose as far as gameplay is concerned (well, I suppose it helps tell the players apart in co-op) they do let you make your own unique character and having a bunch of options for your character is a plus in my book(+0.50). They did put an effort in making the levels using the cardboard cut off theme and sometimes it was neat to see how things unfolded(+0.25).



As mentioned above the game does have up to 4 player co-op(+0.50) though I played it with one other person and I think that would be an improvement over going it alone cause it lets you compete for bubbles against your friends and you get to share the game with someone else which is often a plus. No split screen, you just stay on the same screen (make sure not to get too far behind or you go pop) which is big enough to hold both players unless one decides to be a jerk and move ahead quickly to screw the other one over(+0.25). They even have special areas where you can get bonus objects and accessories only if you have at least a certain number of people involved.

Another good aspect of the game is the fact that they made an effort to have a strong online community where users could create unique fantastical levels and share them with anyone who has the game(+0.25). This didn't go without a couple of kinks, such as the level creator being confusing and hard to use in places as well as producing a large number of junk levels that are of low quality but some good levels did come of it and the attempt itself was noble(+0.25).

Lastly I did like the little checkpoint system(+0.25). If you died you went back to the last little circular door thing and 1/4 of the lighted circle around it would disappear and when the lights were gone you couldn't respawn anymore unless you activated another door (either further on or back earlier) so you weren't stuck with lives but you couldn't just die as often as you liked. You also shared these with co-op friends, so co-op didn't mean the game just got super easy. So if only 1 of 4 guys was left and activated a later door everyone would come back but only 1/4 of the door would be left(+0.25).
+3.25

Cons:

This game is a platformer at heart but seems like it spent a lot of time on style and not much on the core game mechanics. The platforming (and thus gameplay) isn't as good as it should be and I place the blame here on a slightly slow to respond control scheme(-0.25) and the weak sauce jump that Sackboy has(-0.50), it just feels like it should be a little more solid. Feels like they were working around a small jump instead of wanting it from the start(-0.50). A couple of spots did have difficulty jumps that were rather annoying as well (-0.25) (I remember one of the fire pit levels had a really really annoying part with spinning wheel things you have to grab on to).

The online component was a noble attempt but it never really took off on a scale that they hoped it would and like I mentioned was plagued by being hard to use and they had their expectations too high for user generated content(-0.25).

The game would have been better if it was just Sackboy exploring the world for the fun of it instead of trying to ram lame characters down your throat who you often never see again after one level (unless you count the cameo at the end)(-0.50) as well as a story that just was really forced(-0.50). I don't expect a platformer to have a really involved story and many of the best ones had no real stories or just a simple save the princess motif but this one was dumb and worse then if there was nothing at all. If you're trying to make a platformer focused on exploring a unique looking world with a couple of interesting set pieces like the foamy looking stuff you can grab onto then why not just have Sackboy exploring this world full of wonder and excitement? I guess they wanted to have a reason to have it end other then "well I guess this is everything" but they could have put the big bad guy in the background periodically stealing parts of the world or you'd see him screw you over by taking something and you'd have to work around it, then you could still have the final battle.

I also wish the little stickers and objects you found had more use then MAYBE being used once for an optional little trinket. You could cover everything with a plant leaf or a star or a bunch of stickers, but there isn't much reason to do so and after trying it for 5 minutes you'll grow bored of it except to occasionally make your friend's Sackboy look weird(-0.25).
-3.00

Overall Rating:7.25/10

Borderlands

Interesting day, almost got arrested for walking at the watertower trail. Police guy saw me walking by the part that goes near the waste treatment plant and asked for my ID and took down a bunch of info. He knew my brother Matt (who is in the state police) so he didn't do anything, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn't? Funny thing is I've been going down there for years and mom has literally gone down there six days a week for over 15 years. Guy said they had to be careful after 9/11.

So yesterday I finished Borderlands, a new game out on the 360, PS3, and PC. I played the 360 version though the shots I've seen comparing it to other versions doesn't make the other versions look any better or worse. Being that I just beat it, figured it would be a good game to review (the reason for the lack of updates being my playing the game so much). Also with the new system of giving the pluses and minuses per pro or con, I think I'm gonna remove the Closing Remarks section as it's sorta redundant as it was where I weighted the pros and cons.

Borderlands

Overall:

Borderlands is a fun FPS/RPG from Gearbox Software and 2K Games (whom you might remember from Bioshock and Elder Scrolls IV). You play as one of four characters (each one representing a different class, well rounded Soldier, melee and explosive oriented Berserker, elemental focused Siren, or sniper Mordecai) exploring the planet Pandora in search of a mythical "Vault" that is said to contain riches and power for whoever finds it left behind by an alien civilization. Obviously this won't be easy and the planet is essentially a series of slums and bandit camps. The game plays as a FPS but the damage you do is determined by your level, the feats you take at each level up, the damage stat your gun has, whether you critted, your proficiency with that type of weapon, and whatnot. The damage you take is the same way (though I don't think the enemy can crit on you) and you can take all kinds of skills that raise your max HP or shields or improve reload time or accuracy. You take missions from various townfolk and bounty boards to further your progress or just do side quests for fun.

Pros:

This game has a lot of quests for you to do (+0.50) so you have a lot of ways to explore the game world and level. If you do a lot of the quests you should never need to grind (+0.25) specifically to level or find better weapons, though you certainly can if you want. Speaking of exploring, there are all kinds of little things to find if you go out and check out different areas. From little Clap Trap robots (saving them gives you a larger inventory to hold more items) to caches of weapons that are usually better then what enemies drop, as well as just finding little (or large) groups of bandits or wildlife to fight(+0.75). The wildlife tend to appear in packs with different kinds of strengths (Pup Skags, Adult Skags, Spitter Skags, Elder Skags, Badass Skags, Alpha Skags, Fire Skags, Corrosive Skags, ect for example)(+0.50).

Another positive aspect is the incredibly large variety of guns(+1.0). They have several types that you can earn proficiency in (shotgun, smg, rocket launcher, ect) but even within that group there are numerous different guns per each level. You might have a pistol made by one of the 8 or 9 different corporations that you have to be level 10 to use, but that corporation might have several pistols for level 10 and up characters but each one of THOSE comes with random little positives and negatives (Slightly larger clip size, faster or slower reload time, better or worse accuracy, a mod to shoot fire/shock/explosive/corrosive rounds ect.) so even two guns for the same level character made by the same company could have different stats and work differently. Obviously the commercial saying "87 bazillion guns" is exaggerating but I could easily believe the number of different combinations is in the millions. So you're always on the lookout for better and newer guns as you go (obviously higher level enemies will drop higher level guns).



Multiplayer is another big aspect of the game, they strongly encourage co-op (either split screen or via Xbox Live but sadly not both at the same time) and to keep things interesting the enemies get stronger and the loot they drop gets better with more people(+0.50). It also helps to have different classes out there to cover your weakness or get you up if you're down (you go into a L4D like thing where you're on the ground shooting enemies as your health drains, though if you kill an enemy you come back with a tiny amount of health, other players can revive you as well if they get to you fast enough).

I like the humor and style of the game as well(+0.75). All kinds of neat little references and fun enemies to fight. Who doesn't like blowing away a "Psycho Midget" wielding a machete or fighting a boss named "Mad Mel" who drives a vehicle not unlike a certain famous similarly named movie character? The game doesn't take itself too seriously and that's a good thing cause I think if they did it would be too "extreme" to work well(+0.25).

+4.5

Cons:

I noticed a couple of glitchy quests where an item you were looking for wouldn't appear unless you left an area and came back, but these were limited to a sub-set of side quests where you had to find parts of a certain kind of gun and one of them wouldn't appear where it should and you'd have to come back later (or the game would get confused and keep pointing you towards a part you already got, not sure which was going on)(-0.50). A smaller glitch I noticed was that some achievements just don't unlock when they should. Granted that doesn't interfere with game play, but it's something that's pretty easy to catch (especially since the two I noticed were ones you'd have to try to not get) so I would have expected better of them(-0.25).

The game has a good intro but after that the story is told via the quests (usually the little text you see after you complete it) or in-game and Borderlands isn't able to do it in a way that the Half Life series can(-0.50). The story isn't bad, it could just be presented better, except the ending, that was just sorta disappointing(-0.25).

Another problem with the game is that the environments do tend to start looking the same after a while, being mostly a desert/junkyard cross(-0.50). That's sorta the theme of the game, but it could use a few different areas (the last area looks different but you need a little more then that) that stand out throughout the game.

Lastly, the classes all have a focus but could use some more specification(-0.25). I'm not saying don't allow certain classes to use certain weapons as that would diminish the fun, but I know there is some overlap in the skill tree and if they had more options and less skills that all or several classes could learn I think it would benefit the game. Also, the player vs player aspect felt a little tacked on (-0.25). You can melee a friend playing with you to fight them (they have to accept) but there's no reason to and until you get ways to quickly heal yourself later on is a pain in the ass to recover from (especially if you lose).

-2.5

Overall Rating:9.0/10

River City Ransom

So, first time in quite a while I beat a NES game. I found this at a local comic book shop for cheap and got it since I had never played this classic.

River City Ransom

Overall:

River City Ransom is a Brawler/RPG on the NES. Ryan's (oddly the second player character you would probably not use in a single player game) girlfriend has been kidnapped by "Slick" who controls various gangs of high school students throughout the city. To get her back you have to fight through the city, defeat bosses, and get upgrades and new techniques to kick more ass. The game plays as a brawler but the damage you do depends on your stat for that type of attack, your speed on your agility stat, ect. The action is broken up by various malls that contain a variety of shops where you can purchase stat upgrades and get health restored (in this way the money the gang members drop acts as exp and money). It all leads to a final battle at the top of River City High School for the fate of your (friend's) girlfriend and the school itself.

Pros:

This is a unique little game in that while brawlers were common back in the day and RPGs certainly existed and became more popular later on, few games combined the two to the extent this one did(+0.75). Sure some brawlers would have minor RPG elements or you would have action RPGs, but each of those were mostly one or the other. So I give the game kudos for mixing both genres in an enjoyable manner. The game also has a quirky "So bad it's good" plot and dialogue that made it a cult classic in America(+0.50).

Another nice part of the game is the 2 player co-op available which changes things up a little bit since you and your friend are competing for the same amount of money and you can throw each other to high points or fight one another if the mood strikes you(+0.75).

The weapons are a nice addition and you get a variety to choose from that range from fairly fast with reach to slow and short range to spice up your standard brawler punch, jump, and kick mechanics (+0.50). You also get some neat unexpected interactions with them such as batting some thrown objects back at enemies if you have the lead pipe or being able to jump on rolling tires to run over your opponents(+0.25). The graphics, while not cutting edge by today's standards of course, are clear and you know what's going on the screen and it has a distinctive style that is recognizable(+0.50). +3.25

Cons:

The game is fairly short and even if you do go to max out your stats you're looking at only a few hour long game, less if you don't grind too much though being a NES game I suppose I can cut it a little slack in the length department(-0.25). Speaking of grinding, unless you're experienced with the game or similar ones to it, you'll probably have to grind for money a little bit more then you want to(-0.50).

Certain techniques are a little overpowered, such as the three that let you do three lightning quick punches, kicks, or weapon attacks and a lot of the food items you can buy aren't worth the money (and it's hard to remember what gives stat boosts to what unless you use a guide or write down a whole lot of stuff)(-0.25). The music isn't terribly memorable either(-0.25).

You do get a few annoying instant death pits but they're kept sparse(-0.25). Sometimes you feel like the enemies get some cheap hits in, especially when you're down and they pick you up and throw you around a couple of times before you can do anything(-.50). -2.00

Overall Rating:8.25/10

Closing Remarks:

This is a classic NES game I would recommend to anyone who owns a NES and enjoys brawlers and RPGs but doesn't mind a little more grinding then the average RPG. It's simple and fun and goofy enough to be something you remember and laugh at it in points but not so goofy that it gets on your nerves. It has a few hic-cups here and there and there is only so much you can do with 2 buttons and a D-pad but it's still an enjoyable game, even decades later.

Clay Fighter and Capclave

Yeah, been a little bit of a gap in updates. I was gonna do one yesterday but I couldn't stay up too late cause I ended up going to that literary con (focusing on fantasy and sci-fi) I mentioned to Chris, Capclave 2009. It was sorta interesting, it definitely felt like it was too small to be a 3 day con (I only went on Saturday cause I didn't feel like paying for a hotel and didn't expect it to be that that great). Since they didn't have enough stuff to fill a normal con for three days they decided to just have 5 or 6 rooms with stuff in it so some of it had to be done on Friday or Sunday. It took place in a Hilton hotel in Rockville Maryland which is a little north of D.C. and a couple hour drive.

Of course it rained all day which bogged down the drive there and back and made it longer (I hate driving at night in the rain in the city cause all the lights reflect off the pooled water and make it harder to see then if just one or two of those conditions exist) as well as a traffic snarl about 10 or 15 miles outside of Rockville but once I got into the city I found the Hilton and a parking lot easily enough.

Right off the bat the differences between this and game or anime cons was apparent in the older average age group (most people were 30-50 though I saw a sprinkling of people my age) and the lack of costumes though I saw a handful. They did still have a dealer's room and panels and it took place in a hotel so there were a few familiar aspects. The Dealer's Room sold mostly books which wasn't a big surprise though I saw a few shirts on sale (less in-joke/witty things and more cute cats and stuff) as well a few little nick-nacks like necklaces and stuff. There was also a room for messing around as well as to Chris's delight: board games. Wish they had listed it in the little con schedule (I saw people with a more in-depth con program but never saw where to get one myself) but they had it in the middle of all the main con rooms so it was easy to find. I didn't have anyone to play a game with and I didn't recognize any of the games (though I heard a woman say she wished she had brought Flux) and felt a little weird going up to a group of 50 year olds and ask how to play.

I went to three panels: New Media, Battles in Space, and No Trespassing in Space. All three had the same format of 5 or 6 "experts" at a table in the front of the room discussing the issue and occasionally taking a question from the audience. The New Media one was pretty interesting and was a group of various people that had some sort of radio or blog or book they did and all of them discussing how new techniques had arrived from the new technology and where they thought it might go. It was better then I thought it would be, I originally went in there to waste some time til the more exciting sounding space panels. The Space Battles one wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as I hoped. They spent the entire hour either talking about how Show/Book X didn't have realistic Space Battles because of whatever or talking about how hard it would be to have Space Battles in real life. When they were asked what was there favorite space battle their only criteria was how realistic it was. Wish they could have gotten over that and talked about other aspects of Space Battles. The last panel I went to was No Trespassing in Space and was about the decay of the American Space Program. It would have been interesting but they had this one Japanese guy there with an accent so thick you could only understand like 10-20% of what he said. He kept trying to take over the panel too, his intro to who he was, was longer then the other 4 guy's combined and he kept going on 10 or 15 minute rants that no one understood and the guy moderating it had to wrestle control away from him. And you could tell the Japanese guy was pissed about that, he looked like he was gonna start a fight the entire time. A shame really, cause the other guys had interesting things to say.

They had an Erfworld party in Room 824 (I heard about the con from the webcomic and they were having a little party for the fans) but I didn't drink anything cause I don't drink much and I had to drive back right after that. They had some shot of various liquor with a candy corn in the bottom you had to chew before you could swallow, everyone seemed to think it packed quite a punch. There was a dude there that looked just like Parson.

Now, getting down to game review business today I'm doing the SNES game Clay Fighter. I am also trying something slightly new on request. In addition to the normal review I'm gonna list how much each aspect added or detracted from the score. Ideally this will pin down how strongly I feel about each point. This is just on a trial basis, if it proves to be a pain in the ass to do I'll go back to the old way. The game starts at 7 (average) and gains and loses points along the way til it gets to the overall score.

Clay Fighter

Overall:

This is a 2D fighting game for the SNES (not that the SNES had 3D fighting games) with a focus on quirky oddness and weird often non-human characters. In fact all the characters are made out of clay and you see bits of it fly off as a censor friendly fill in for blood. It was a bit of a cult classic but the sequels were not as well received and the series soon died upon their release.

Pros:

The game does a decent job of standing out from other fighters of the time with it's unique art style and some of the characters will probably bring a smile to your face the first time you see them(+1.00). Your basic fighting game moves are here so game play wise nothing is missing. The little things you hear the characters say when they win or lose are kinda cute, especially for the time period(+0.25). The music was good and fit the different themed stages for each character as well(+0.50). They do have a fairly varied selection of characters (though not a large amount, they're just mostly different from each other) and they do give them a few unique moves(+0.50). +2.25

Cons:

The story is pretty lame and while I often use the term paper thin in a case like this, I'm not even sure this game's story deserves that(-0.50). Also while I mentioned the basics of a fighting game exist here, that's all you get, the basics and nothing fancy to keep you coming back besides its style and a special move or two for each character(-0.25). The computer is also rather cheap at times, pulling off moves and moving with speed that seem a little beyond the set limits of the characters while other times they'll act rather lackluster and not do much at all(-0.75). I beat it as a kid by playing as Bad Mr. Frosty and sitting in a corner kicking until I got lucky and beat them and that seemed to work better then most other strategies I used(-0.25). The game also doesn't have much long term draw as it's not exactly deep and after a play through or two you've seen what it has to offer(-0.75). -2.50

Overall Rating:6.75/10

Closing Remarks:

Not a terribly long review simply cause there isn't a lot of intricate things to talk about. The game ends up just shy of average due to lack of any long term draw and some cheap AI which taint a game that does bring a unique style to the table. The bad story hurts it, but only a little compared to how bad it is because fighting games are a genre that don't rely heavily on them and if they even exist are just a reason to fight. The hit I gave it due to lack of variety of moves was also minor because they did give each character a few special moves.

Crackdown

I finished Crackdown with Colin today (well, technically yesterday but I'm writing this at 2 or 3AM so I still consider it the same day) and figured it would be a good time to review it.

Crackdown

Overall:

Crackdown is a third person shooter sandbox game on the Xbox 360. It was one of the early 360 games, so even though it's current gen, it's a few years old. You play as a super enhanced cop in a city that is practically controlled by three different gangs that each have their own 1/3 of the city. The police forces of the world have merged into one group known as The Agency and made their last stand on a central island, you're their last hope for taking the city back. You're tasked with finding a bunch of the head honchos in each group and killing them. Six guys that each control one aspect of the gang plus the kingpin. You can technically go for the kingpin first but the more of the little guys you take down, the easier he is (and he's still fairly hard so I recommend taking them down). You can take the three gangs down in any order you want (or even work on all at the same time) though there is definitely a suggested order as the power of the weapons each gang has is significantly different.

Pros:

This game is fun, especially when you first get into it and have a whole world to explore. You have 5 abilities that grow throughout the game (Agility, Driving, Strength, Demolitions, and Accuracy) and your ability to explore is drastically altered and increased as these go up, especially agility which lets you run faster and jump higher. The exploring aspect reminded me of Assassin's Creed mixed with Spider Man 2, you have to grab on to ledges and window sills to get up high, but we're talking about jumping up 4 or so stories of a sky scraper at a time and your forward jump can take you from building to building if you're high enough. The freedom to go to any part of the city right off the bat is nice too. There are a variety of activities to do besides just taking the bosses down, you can do races to increase your driving ability, you can do roof top running races to help agility, you can search for agility orbs hidden high up that increase agility, you can try to drive your car through stunt markers to help driving ability, and a few other little optional things. The super cars the Agency gives you at their HQ are neat and morph depending on your driving ability and you can capture gang cars to use yourself (though there isn't much point as the agency cars are better in every way and there is no disguise mechanic). They do have a bunch of radio stations in the cars and I believe they're different for different sets of vehicles (it just plays music, don't expect GTA radio station stuff). The feeling of jumping around and throwing huge trucks at bad guys and jumping from roof top to roof top while firing rocket launchers at guys is done well and feels fun. The agility orbs and hidden orbs (orbs that give experience to all stats) are nice as they give you an easy way to upgrade your stats and you don't have to get them all to max out your agility (there are 500 agility orbs, I know I'm not gonna hunt them all down). For most of the game you're left with a feeling of always having a bunch of options for things to do which is always nice.

Cons:

This is a rather short game. You can kill most of the smaller bosses in 5 or 10 minutes if you know what you're doing and of the right power level to take them on and the big bosses might take 10 to 15 minutes. Some of the extra side stuff isn't terribly good (Stockpile missions of finding 100 orbs in a given area for a tiny bit of agility are boring and not worth it) or much too difficult. Even with maxed agility of 4 stars I still had problems doing some of the rooftop races that were meant to be done at 2 stars and the driving ones were only slightly easier. The story is sorta thin and just enough to give you people to kill, but they gave little bios and background info on each boss so they did try some, it just wasn't enough to be considered a good story. The stunt mechanic in cars is done sorta sloppily and doing stunts is very difficult except in one or two areas on the map until you've maxed out driving (the hardest stat to max out) and even then it's still somewhat difficult. I can't really recall any of the music from the game except the car stuff and I had to look in the manual on how to lower the volume or turn it off as a lot of it isn't terribly good. By the end you've sorted gotten a little bored of the system: you run in and blow away a bunch of guys making a beeline for the boss while hiding once in a while to get your health back (they do try to mix up the later boss fights with having to go through elaborate areas and stuff but it's sorta the same thing but a little harder). The melee mechanic is sorta weak as usually there is little reason to kick someone rather then shoot them assuming you have anywhere near a decent gun (and little reason to shoot them instead of blow them up unless innocent civilians are around to give you an experience penalty) but they do make it level up faster then shooting or demolitions so you don't have to do it as much to get it maxed out (and it does let you lift bigger stuff so it is useful in that regard).

Overall Rating:8/10

Closing Remarks:

This is a really fun game for the first half (it would get a 9 or so if the whole game was like that) but after you max your stats and get used to how going after the bosses works it gets a little boring. While some of your abilities are a joy to use (Demolitions, Agility, Accuracy) others have little use or are hard to level up (Strength and Driving). Overall this is still a good game with a lot of fun in it, it just needed some different end game stuff to keep it fresh.

God of War

This week turned out to be sorta busy. I went on one of my frequent Back Bay Cruises in Virginia recently. It's later in the year then we usually go but I hadn't gone much during the summer so I decided to go. They have a 4 hour trip in the morning and 2 2 hour trips during the afternoon (the afternoon trips used to be a single 4 hour trip but Captain Barry decided to have two trips and charge maybe 2/3 the cost of the 4 hour trips to make a little extra money). First he shows off the town of Chincoteague Virginia where it's based off which is nice for the tourists but a little boring if you've done the trip before. Then he goes out to the barrier islands and you get to explore them and they change every year so it's always different. On the 2 hour trips he just does tourist stuff and stops on 1 or 2 nearby islands so I tend to shy away from those. The trip I went on was a 2 hour one cause I'd have to get up at 6am or earlier to make the 4 hour one but since it was just mom and I on the boat we skipped the tourist stuff and went straight to the islands. One of the ones we went to is normally closed off because an endangered bird species nests there during the summer but by October they're gone so it was opened up. That was where I found most of the stuff, a whole bunch of whelk shells, horseshoe crabs, and the egg cases for whelks and this giant badass piece of driftwood I kept for some reason. I didn't take any pictures cause I'm so used to going on Captain Barry's boat that it doesn't seem like something to take pictures over (though dad takes plenty on the trips he goes on). We also saw two different pods of dolphins out swiming around and jumping out of the water so that was cool. They came really close to the boat too.

A crazy asian woman has been calling my mom and leaving messages in a foreign language. She called while we were riding up for the boat trip and mom flipped out at her and told her she would call the police if she didn't stop. I told her it probably wasn't a big deal (I honestly thought the whole thing was sorta funny) but later on when the lady left messages on mom's cell while we were on the boat mom called and talked to a detective (since then she hasn't called back).

I also saw Zombieland and liked it a lot. I sorta messed up and thought Colin had bailed on me to see it with his girlfriend but the plan was for all three of us to see it on Friday so I saw it early by myself which messed things up. Regardless, I enjoyed it a lot and the surprise guest star was awesome. I recommend it.

Lastly of importance before I get to the game reviewing was my date! A girl named Tarin I knew from when I was young and my dad would take me to the firehouse. It was nice to see she hadn't become a wild hambeast since I last saw her. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and got along pretty well. We decided to go see a movie sometime in the near future but didn't lay any exact plans then. Hopefully this will go well. Actually I had met with a high school friend the day before at Ruby Tuesday's but you guys know I'm not gonna complain about eating the same thing twice in two days.

I'm not quite far enough in Crackdown to review it (Colin and I are playing it together so I can't just power through it) so today I decided to review God of War (the first one).

God of War

Overall:

This is the first of the highly acclaimed ultra violent hack and slash series, God of War. You are Kratos, "The Ghost of Sparta" and instrument of the Greek Gods. You used to lead Spartan soldiers around to kick all sorts of ass until one day you were going to die in battle until the Gods gave you supernatural powers in exchange for doing their bidding. Now Ares, God of War, is going on a rampage and destroying Athens and Athena wants you to stop him (the Gods can't fight eachother so they need you to do it). Kratos has some backstory with Ares but that would be a bit of a spoiler. Kratos has access to his chain blades and various magic he gets from the Greek Gods as he progresses through the game. The game focuses on fluid combat with lots of combos and dodging and moving around.

Pros:

This game has very fun and fluid combat mechanics and it's easy to string combos together. You also have a large variety of moves to choose from. Your weapons and magic level up as you spend the experience orbs you get on them so you have some light RPG elements mixed in. There are also a bunch of secrets hidden throughout the game behind hidden walls and over ledges and stuff that upgrade your health and magic meter so you have some exploring to do. The bosses are also very impressive and definite "Oh shit!" moments that are memorable battles. The graphics were very good for a PS2 game and the cut scenes were very well done so it gets a nod for it's character visuals though the backgrounds are hit and miss. The audio is ok and does it's job of bringing the game to mind when you hear it but isn't something that I would say is incredible, it's marginally in the pro category.

Cons:

They throw in some other melee weapons but they're generally not worth using as they're never better and you have to relearn all the timing and moves all over again. While there are hidden goodies, the game path itself is rather linear which isn't a huge complaint as it doesn't detract from the game very much but it wouldn't hurt to have a few branching ways to do things. While the bosses are awesome it would have been nicer if they had more of them as there are only 3 or so (the second game does this but makes the fights a little less epic). There are a few tricky bits that are a pain in the ass (usually instant death stuff or non-combat related things) and anyone who has beaten the game remembers the hellish spike wall thing near the end of the game that I know frustrated many gamers. While the combat is very engrossing it can get slightly stale after an extended time with it but it never gets annoying or painful. The story also takes itself a little too seriously when it's about a guy that half the time sounds like the guy from the Doom Comic (the RIP AND TEAR guy).

Overall Rating:8.5/10

Closing Remarks:

While the cons seem a little big compared to the pros for it to be an 8.5/10 most of the cons tend to be rather minor while the pros are pretty significant. Overall this is a fun game that won't win any awards for it's writing but has a fun combat system that has spawned several imitators (usually a sign that you did something right). You feel powerful kicking ass and taking names as Kratos and while the non-combat parts aren't as fun as the combat they do serve as a nice break from the hack and slash part and without them the combat would probably get boring. If you have a PS2 and don't mind intense violence and like action games with a tiny bit of platforming and RPG then I recommend this to you.

No game review today

I know I've been a little lax in updating in the last couple of days. That's partly cause I'm been playing some Crackdown which will be reviewed in the nearish future when I get a little further in it (so far it's fun and hovering around an 8 or so).

I finally got around to washing my car which I had been meaning to do for a while (don't get too excited Chris). It's gonna get cold soon so I needed to get it done as soon as I could. I noticed a few tiny flecks of paint missing in spots. That dumb cat my mom has keeps jumping up on the car to sleep and I think it's claws might have done some damage.

I also plan to see Zombieland later this week with Colin and his girlfriend Kelly, not sure which day as it seems to depend when she comes down. Hopefully not on Friday cause I managed to land a date then with a girl I used to know when I was younger. Hopefully it goes well and she hasn't become a psycho freak. Also at some point I'm hanging out with my friend Matthew Tilghman from high school. And tomorrow I'm going on a boat trip so this week has been somewhat more active then usual.

Progress on Secret of Mana has been slow due to Adam having a hard time getting over frequently but we have gotten further then Colin and I got (though I noticed Adam and I are still a lower level then the party was in Colin's file mostly due to Colin and I getting lose in the seasonal forest for hours.) Eventually I'll review Secret of Mana as well.

Not too much else to say. Fox1337 of LUELinks is having a charity topic that's been a bit of a hit on the board. He's donating money to some group that feeds hungry children for every person who colors their nose black. Kinda weird when LLers get their parents in on it and you see 60 year old men with black noses and whiskers in sharpie being posted. But at least it's for a good cause.

Eternal Ring

Recently I've been reviewing some good games (or at least games I like a lot) so I wanted to find one of the games I own that I just hate and think is an utter pile of crap. When I think of bad games I often think of this one, a release date RPG for the PS2 called Eternal Ring.

Eternal Ring

Overall:

This is a first person RPG dungeon crawler made in the early early days of the PS2. You (Cain) have have been sent by your king to an island that is being explored by some excavation team and your goal is see what's really going on there and I think to find the Eternal Ring (though it might be that you find out about it after you arrive). You explore different parts of the island with a sword and the ability to use various magics depending on what rings you've found or made and have equipped. There is no separate screen for battles, you see the enemy on the screen and then you fight them or run by them ect.

Pros:

Having one world with enemies on it you can see instead of random battles is good, I can deal with random battles but it's a lot more fun to have something else where you can see enemies like say, Chrono Trigger. I also thought the ring creation system could have had potential (not to say that it did it well, just that I could see a decent system being made from the idea).

Cons:

This game has a paper thin story. That wouldn't be a big deal if it was a racing game, or a football game, or something else where a story is of relatively minor importance. This is an RPG and they try to push this terrible story talking about the king that sent you and how he's trying to struggle free from the advisers that have the real power in the kingdom.

Another issue with the game is one of gameplay. The sword you start the game with is worthless and crappy, it's subpar in the starting dungeon and quickly becomes unusuable later on, even when you find an upgrade for it. Not only is it so weak that you shouldn't use it, but the first person combat is clumsy, meleeing in Goldeneye is an apt description of it. This wouldn't be a huge problem if the magic aspect of it was well done but sadly it's not. The process to make the rings is confusing and you have little measure for what elements are good against which monsters as the damage you do isn't shown, but it's very possible you could sit there and hit the same monster with an element it's resistant to and have no idea whether you're using the wrong element or whether it's a strong monster.

In general it's rather difficult to know whether you're underleveled or over leveled and if you do want to level up it can be difficult to find a good place to do it. There is no inn or place to get your health and mp back so wasting mp could literally get you stuck in the game since your sword is too weak to help you and you have no place to go get mp back from that isn't a finite item you find somewhere. They have a village but it gets destroyed after the first dungeon, I kept assuming they would have some place to rest and get your health back. So being stuck with finite items for mp and hp, and not being able to tell how to hurt monsters effectively makes you constantly feel like you're on the verge of being stuck forever. I literally just ran through most of the dungeons after a while and got lucky enough to find a monster that was weak to one of my rings and use it to level up on for a bit so I wouldn't be too far behind.

Also the last boss is a giant fetus in a bubble that joins you on the trip back to your kingdom and then turns into a naked man thing. Don't usually spoil the ending here but that was so special I felt it needed to be said.

The music was non-remarkable and the back of the box makes fun of Final Fantasy (Who said fantasies had to be final?). Not that Final Fantasy is above being made fun of, but you need to bring something to the table a little better then this or it's just laughable.

The dungeons were bleak looking and fairly linear with no puzzles either. Nothing sticks out about this game besides how bad it was.

Overall Rating:2/10

Closing Remarks:

Besides passable graphics for it's time and a magic creation system that could have POTENTIALLY been decent (but wasn't) this game has nothing going for it besides not having random encounters. If your best feature is not having a bad feature common in other games, you know you're stretching. Don't get this game, you'll thank me.