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2010 Apr 27 tifa


Guy Blade Guy Blade---19:13:00


Too Much Static
A month or so ago, I got a random IM from Seabass telling me that not owning Deadly Premonition despite owning an XBox 360 was me doing a huge disservice to myself. I googled the game, as one does, and quickly found two wildly conflicting reviews: Destructiod gave it a 10/10 while IGN gave it a 2/10. Since the game was only $20 (apparently it was released as a "budget" title"), I added it to my Amazon cart and ended up picking it up a few weeks later when I had a super-saver capable cart.

I think Deadly Premonition was the answer to a question: "What would Silent Hill be like if you set it in a GTA-style open world?". The game begins in a relatively straightforward way for the genre. Francis York Morgan, protagonist and FBI profiler, and his apparently imaginary friend Zach are headed toward a small town where a young woman has been murdered. Something appears in the road causing him to swerve off and crash leading to the game's first "Other World" scenario. He's soon solving puzzles and fighting strange creatures.

As soon as you clear the "Other World", however, you end up in the town of Greenvale. Once there, you can drive around the city, perform side quests like helping the grocer rearrange the stock room, talk to your imaginary friend about the movies that you like, eat breakfast with the kindly old lady at your hotel and other such things. Of course, there is still that little murder investigation to carry out.

The game itself is rather fun and the plot was interesting enough to keep me playing. It is very easy to see why people might but put off with it, however: the game has graphical quality more on par with the previous generation of consoles; the controls are very rough and lack the polish that a commercial release should have; the dialog is rather campy; you often have to drive from one end of the map to the other which takes damn near forever; dialog windows during conversation and item pickups are so slow as to be interminable. Any of these could be a deal breaker for some people.

I would say that the game is important if not necessarily good. The game points at the horizon and says that a horror game can be scary without startling us every few minutes. It says that a horror game can use humor without losing its edge. Most importantly, the game shows that a horror game doesn't have to take itself seriously in order to deal with its story in a serious way. Unfortunately, it also shows us that being truly great does require getting the fundamentals down: shoddy controls and graphics that would have been just barely passable a decade ago bring down the game.

For fans of the horror genre and for people who care about its evolution, the game is required reading. For everyone else, if they want to know what kind of game can lead to an 8 point swing between two relatively respected publications' reviews, it might be interesting. Otherwise, I'd give it a pass.

Deadly Premonition: 0

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2010 Apr 18 terra


Guy Blade Guy Blade---03:24:00


On detectability
I routinely play a Dungeons and Dragons variant called Warlock. It is somewhat derived from pre-first edition stuff and has a somewhat different slant from most traditional DandD stuff. Although the discussion of such differences could easily fill an entire post, instead I'm going to talk about an experience from last night's game. I run two characters in this game: a thief specializing in bows and a mage who mostly does fire magic.

In this system, there is a rather large set of spells. As with most variants of DandD, there is an Invisibility spell. Also like most variants of DandD, it is mostly useless. Most enemies who you would want to not be seen by can see invisible anyway making the spell a useless useful spell. There is, however, another higher level spell called Indetectibility. This spell grants all the same benefits of inivisibility, but can only be pierced by someone using Detect Life. Although Detect Life is common among the undead, it is quite uncommon elsewhere. Given the long duration of Indetectibility (until dispelled or the character commits a hostile action) and the high utility, I researched the spell and have been having the character routinely have the spell up at all times when adventuring.

So far, I've had a couple of instances of the spell failing me. Once, we ran into some pseudo undead (apparently inspired by the Necrons). Most couldn't see me, but I'd been scouting ahead behind enemy lines while fighting types were engaging some of theirs and almost got caught. Luckily, our side broke their lines before any of them could engage me. A later time, in another player's universe, I ended up inside an enemy cone spell that caused instant death and failed my saving through. This left me dead and indetectible, though eventually the party figured it out and carpet bombed the room with dispel magic until they found my corpse to raise me.

Both of these previous instances were troublesome, but neither of them were especially unexpected. Last night, however, another of the players ran who hadn't been around much since I started doing this constant indetectibility plan. We ended up doing a quest where we went into a Norse-mythology themed area. After making our way there, we basically did a sort of "prove our worth" battle against some trolls and after succeeding were given the opportunity to challenge some of the "Valhallans" while some of the lower Norse Gods looked on for amusement. Essentially, it was an exhibition match. Before the match, there was some feasting and healing from our previous encounter, and one of the god NPCs told me mage (who was still indetectible) that fighting while indetectible was very dishonorable. I thanked the NPC for their advice, but explained that I liked staying alive and that being indetectible was generally helpful in that regard.

So then there was fighting. The opposing side had a few magic casters as did we, but during the initial phase of combat, something unfortunate happened. Apparently, one of the gods had cursed my mage by placing a marker over her location and making it so that she was incapable of saving against magical effects (generally in this system, saving against magic prevents non-damaging effects from working or halves the damage of spells). Combat began by my mage then taking two lighting bolts and being at more or less the center of a Sensory Deprivation spell. Essentially, for using a strategy that has been used against our own party repeatedly, I was punished severely by the night's GM.

Due to these effects, my mage--one of the highest level characters in the party--did a grand total of one point of damage over the course of the entire encounter. Since I was forced to use a Dispel Magic to get out of the effect that I was in, I was unable to cast any sort of damage dealing spells to help the party (mages must wait six phases between castings but movement, melee, and archery can happen every phase). We survived the encounter, barely, but with a much greater expendature of resources and with only two of ten PCs standing. The entire thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

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2010 Apr 15 rinoa


Guy Blade Guy Blade---20:01:00


Charted!
Being a multi-platform owner, I get certain advantages. One of these advantages is the ability to play the platform-exclusive titles for each system. Most recently, this meant that I played through Uncharted 2: Among Thieves--a PS3 exclusive released a few months ago. I actually finished the game on Sunday, but after looking at the trophy list ended up deciding to take a shot at the Platinum Trophy which ended up requiring me to beat the game on the two highest difficulties. I finished the second of those runs last night.

For those who missed it the first time around, the Uncharted series centers around Nathan Drake, a self-reported descendent of Sir Francis Drake and something akin to a treasure hunter by trade. This time around, he has been pulled into a scheme to find Marco Polo's lost ships and the treasure that was presumably within them. As with most things in Drake's life, this quickly degenerates into people shooting at him and buildings collapsing while he is in or on them.

Gameplay wise, it is very similar to the first Uncharted. It seems to use mostly the same engine which, despite the intervening time, is still very impressive. The gameplay is mostly of two forms: Prince of Persia style platforming and cover-based gunfighting sequences. I think this iteration of the series manages to blend the two styles of play somewhat better than the former in that it makes use of the platforming mechanic to create interesting encounters. For example, at one point, you are forced to carry out a gunfight while hanging off a telephone pole and scrambling around the various signs on it to maintain your cover. At another point, your entry into a room full of enemies is made via a scalable wall at the end of a platforming section. This gives you interesting retreat scenarios and greately enhanced cover, but limits your ability to make use of all of your equipment.

Perhaps the most interesting scenario, however, is the chase level. In this scene, you are in the back of a flatbed truck in a convoy. The enemies have spotted you on the truck and so enemies in other trucks are shooting at you, your truck, your ally's truck and basically anything else nearby. In order to survive, you have to jump from truck to truck, clearing enemies as you go, so that the you don't end up flying over a cliff in one of the trucks as it is taken out by your foes. The entire scene looks like it was shot for an action movie and is incredibly fun.

There is very little that I can really complain about in the game: the acting is extremely well done; the gameplay is mostly solid; and the plot is interesting enough to keep me playing. Perhaps my only complaint is due to my play through on the highest difficulty (which they call "Crushing"). On the highest difficulty, due to the increadible ease of dying, all of the relatively minor control flaws become glaringly apparent. Every time that I died due to the game refusing to make a corner transition properly or shift from one kind of cover to another made me spew curses. Luckily, the lower difficulties (even Hard) tend to be forgiving enough that minor control issues are unnoticable.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: 1!



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2010 Apr 09 rinoa


Guy Blade Guy Blade---21:35:00


Organization XIII
Last night, I finished Final Fantasy XIII. In this case, by "finished", I do not mean "beat", but instead mean "defeated". I'd been playing the PS3 version, so this means that I got the Platinum Trophy for the game.

From a plot perspective, FFXIII begins in the middle. You're immediately dropped into a large fight and have little idea why you're fighting or what you're trying to acomplish. In fact, the game very slowly doles out backstory through flashbacks over the course of the majority of the game. The game diverges somewhat from the standard Final Fantasy plot in that your character don't really know what they're supposed to do for a good majority of the game. Although you have enemies, you spend most of your time running from them due to their sheer numbers.

Gameplay wise, it offers and "Active Time Battle" system with a few twists. Firstly, unlike older ATB systems, there is no option to put it in a "slow" or "wait" mode--enemies will continue to attack if you are paralyzed with indecision about what to do. At the same time, the game severely limits how much actual consideration the player needs to do. The default action for each "round" is for them to automatically carry out their role. Also, each of your teammates will automatically carry out their role without any input from you. In fact, you can't control your teammates at all aside from setting which role they are currently tasked with. Now, these roles are actually quite important to the game system. The game has six roles: Commando, Ravager, Saboteur, Synergist, Medic, and Sentinel. Commandos are the big damage dealers. Ravagers are elemental damage dealers that build the "stagger gauge", Saboteurs give negative status ailments. Synergists provide positive status effects. Medics heal (who knew?). Sentinels draw enemy attacks and take less damage from attacks. The game lets you select up to 6 "sets" of roles for your party and during combat you can quickly switch between them as the battle progresses. For instance, you might begin a battle with a Commando/Ravager/Ravager configuration to help build up an enemy's stagger gauge, then switch to a Commando/Commando/Commando role to put out maximum damage once its stagger guage is broken. Since there is no way to slow down battles, this leads to rather complex interaction as you attempt to build stagger chains, keep healed, apply buffs and the like.

The game is divided into 13 chapters. For the first 10 or so of these chapters, the game is essentially a straight line with no sidequests and no ability to decide who will be in your party. I consider this to be something of a failing. For the most part, until you reach chapter 11, you're just along for the ride. The game also very slowly gives access to new abilities and roles during this same period. Some people have likened it to a 15-20 hour tutorial and they may have a point. At the same time, the game will periodically inflict fights on you which can only be beaten through good tactics--leveling, button mashing, better equipment--all of these will have little effect.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy or the JRPG style of games, there is much to enjoy here. The game is certainly one of the most visually impressive games that I've ever played, but that alone doesn't make a great game.

Sticking to my previous scale, I'd say this game is probably a zero. It certainly has things that give it appeal, but the extreme linearity coupled with long payoff times make it suspect. In many ways, you could say that it is in a Mass Effect 2 sort of situation: the game is technically good in many ways, but has some obvious flaws that make it difficult to give a blanket recommendation. This is made doubly important due to the pedigree of the game.


Final Fantasy XIII: 0



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2010 Apr 07 terra


Guy Blade Guy Blade---01:48:00


So yeah
Several game companies have recently started having loyalty programs. Nintendo offers rewards in the form of "coins" which you get for registering a first party title, providing feedback on it, and certian other things. They also provide a "membership level" which is based on how many coins you've accumulated during their fiscal year. Though I've not yet spent any coins, my initial registration of all of my first party games ended up netting me a plush Mario hat last year due to reaching the "Platinum" level.

SquareEnix seems to have begun to do something similar. They offer rewards in the form of "points" for registering games. I only have three games that they created that I purchased since they instituted this system: Dissidia Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Final Fantasy XIII. I registered all of these games a while ago and today got my notice that their "year" ended a few days ago and so I could get my rewards. I'm apparently going to get some postcards.

All of this, however, is not the point. What is the point is the new "social networking" site that SquareEnix has bolted onto their otherwise functional website. They allow you do things like posting to a journal, list what games you're currently playing and other such things. Additionally, you can use their Flash-based system to create an avatar. When I first joined up, I decided to fiddle around with it a bit and made a female avatar. Apparently, this has unforseen implications. Once you create an avatar, the only things you can change about it are the clothes and equipment. Eye color, skin tone, hair tone, expression, gender--all of these become fixed. Furthermore, the gender select becomes your gender as listed in your public profile and is unchangable. Therefore, as far as SquareEnix is concerned, I am a female named "GuyBlade". So yeah.

I'm not really sure why every game company feels the need to roll their own social network. Throw Bioware in there and I now have a remarkably large number of "social network" accounts related purely to gaming. Also, I hope they begin to do it better. Unless they offer an API for carrying out tasks like journal posting, it seems highly unlikely that more than a handful of people will ever use them.

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