Apr 6, 2013 9:40 PM
April Gaming Update
Anime Relations:
Kenpuu Denki Berserk, Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago, Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen II - Doldrey Kouryaku, Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen III - Kourin
New Game Impressions:
- Tomb Raider - This will be both the initial and final impressions of the game due to finishing this over the month. So Square-Enix-Eidos have decided to completely reboot our gunslinging boobtastic adverturer to more of a hard earned survivor than a Indy Jones wannabe with tits, but it's results are downright fantastic! Seems like the creators want to get Lara in some of the harshest situations possible but then show her raise up and survive out of any dangers that come across her, and a lot of times you just want to say "Oh shit! Oh shit!" when this stuff happens to her. Right off the bat the world graphics and settings are simply amazing and almost every enviroment seems like one big leapers and climbers playground with some sandbox elements to them to have more control over your surroundings. I know Naughty Dog games have been prefecting the 3rd-person adventuring business with Nathan and the Uncharted series but Crystal Dynamics did a pretty good job handling the controls with Lara and made some slight upgrades, like instead of the standard roll move she almost crawls on the ground first and scuttles away to avoid things and then can leap roll away from danger. Now you don't get the dual wielding, infinate ammo, pistols right off the bat, this is supposed to be Lara first "rodeo" after all, but the first weapon you use is a simple bow and arrow and eventually this almost becomes your weapon of choice, especially if you want to go the more stealthy route. Later on you get a pistol, assault rifle and shotgun and each weapon can be upgraded with parts found in the world and by finding salvage, also each kill or special actions earns experience to unlock more skills and powers to help you get through the harder areas. When I was first hearing about the details about the game experience it almost seemed like the designers were going for a "Metroid" approach to the gameplay where certain areas where only accessable using certain tools and while you do earn better gear throughout the game there is hardly any backtracking or much exploring for that matter, the main game and story is fairly straightfoward. At certain camps you can go back to previous areas but their only purpose is in order to find more salvage or gain more exp. by doing map challanges, also there are optional tombs you can enter but they are only simple one-room enviroment puzzles and all of them are easy to find and solve and only gave you more salvage and parts. I believe it took me around 11-12 hours to get through the end of the story and that's even with going though the optional tombs and doing a little bit of exploring and hunting for stuff. Definatly had a real fun blast playing through it all and like to see this version of Lara get more fleshed out. After finishing you do have the option of going back to all of the areas you've visited but this time with all of your earned and upgraded gear to hunt for relics, documents and other things laying around (I hate those GPS things) and then there's multiplayer howoever I literally had no desire to try it and even most game reviews considered it was more of an afterthought. On another sad note, Crystal Dynamics has no future single player DLC in the works, I was hoping for maybe an extra island area to jump around in and only has plans for more MP content so once you are done, it's done. It's still a reccomended game experience to play through even if you are an older TR fan or just coming into the series. Maybe not worth the full $60 price tag but a game that needs to be checked out.
- God of War: Ascension - Our badass Greek God killer Kratos is back with more bloodlusting rage and his flinging chain blades of Chaos. After all of the awesome and amazing moments I've experienced playing God of War III I've been really curious what epicness Sony would bring to the plate next, unforunately it seems that they are somewhat running out of steam for this prequel tale. Now so far every single GodoW game has started out with an amazing tutorial/boss battle right at the start of the game but compared to all of them this one seemed the weakest, epecially following up from the battle of Posidian during III, but it still had some pretty awesome monents without a doubt. The graphic quality is still fairly impressive compared to the last PS3 title and still runs very smooth in every area and action you come across, but there were a couple times where the camera will pan out so far out you literally have to squint at your TV in order to see you controlling Kratos. I know it's used to show the vast scale of the enviroment and the stuff that's going around it but it's just kind of a weird visual design choice. Of course quicktime events are in full force with this title, maybe too much in force and the worst of them are the jumping and swinging events to leap ahead to the next area and usually they cause me the most amount of times for cheap deaths. As far as the combat for this title there are no new mythological weapons like big-ass swords, hammers, bows, metal fists, etc., your main weapons are the chaos blades and this time you earn elemental powers which each can be upgraded and unleash magic powers and attacks. You can pick up secondary weapons from enemies or around the area but they don't last forever and later you also get a time tool that lets you either reverse damaged enviroments or decay them. I'm about 7-8 hours into the main story and so far the game hasn't really wowed me as much as GodoW III did, it's still visually impressive but seems more of a "been-there-done-that" deal and when the game wants to try something new it's either not that great or it's just plan annoying. Then there's multiplayer which does seem like an interesting addition to the series and wouldn't mind trying it out a couple times after finishing the main quest, not sure it that will be a lasting keeper (or maybe until more MP DLC is released). Fans of the series will dig it but newbies should more stick with the older games, plus you can buy all of the older titles in one big PS3 collection for $40 now.
- Bioshock Infinite - First we have dived into the underwater city of Rapture and now we soar to the flying cities of Columbia and yet again we are taken to an another amazing world where yet there is more to a lot of things that meets the eye. I am just going to flat out say: this game IS ORGASMICLY GORGEOUS! Even back in 2007 the original Bioshock wowed every gamer with the world's amazing graphics and style and still amazes me how Irrational Games can pull off their stunning visual and artistic feats with their new title, it's almost like playing through a 90's Disney animated film. Speaking of Disney, the perspective of the game is almost like going through a Disney or Universal theme park ride all through the eyes of our reluctant hero, Booker DeWitt and with him getting himself through hell and highwater while trying to get Elizabeth and her dimentional tearing powers out of their nirvana in the sky. Now the combat and gameplay are very similar to the original Bioshock mold but with some differences: you have your magic powers through "vigors" and each can be upgraded, not by "adam" but just money you've collected at vending machines and same goes with weapons. You can only keep two weapons on hand at a time, ala Halo, and also just like that game you get early on a regenerating shield armor. They've also ditched the storing of health and magic items and you will have to scavage them from enemies or the enviroment, however with the extra shield and having the potion storage would of made the game too easy. It may seem this game is almost a constant escort mission but it really isn't becuase Elizabeth never gets hurt and really helps you in some situations, like she'll throw you health & magic items, ammo, money or even weapons. Even while the visuals are awesome and the gameplay is quite fun the game just doesn't feel like a Bioshock game, actually I think it's more in tune to the Call of Duty series than anything else. I remember the original Bioshock was more about exploring and discovering things and each area had multiple side quests you can do but this game hardly has any of that and is a lot more straightforward. Sure you can look around some of the areas and find audio logs as well as power upgrades but you can't really go back to areas and look to see if you have missed anything. In addition you cannot save anywhere and only saves during certain checkpoints and some of those points are really spread out, you maybe playing through an area for up to 30 minutes before it even saves again. At least on the plus side there is no tacked-on multiplayer however Irrational already has future DLC in the works and you can even buy the first "season" for $20 although still curious what would be in store. 2013 gaming is still early in and I think this is a sure contender for game of the year but unfortunately doesn't quite live up to the original yet, but depends on how the later half of the game goes which I'm most likely halfway through.
- Dead Space 3 - So again I was originally not going to even bother with this game due to some very average game reviews from most popular gaming sites and media and I actually bought "Ni no Kuni" instead however I am still a fan of the series and still wanted to play it eventually and when I saw the opportunity to buy it for just $40 I defiantely took the chance, also mutant alien metal boot stomping hardly ever gets old. So again Issac is back with his big-ass metal space boots ready to put some hurt on more necromorphs and stop the alien marker's power for good. This time around the game is more focused on creating weapons with wild attachments and powers instead of keeping 4 or 5 different weapons on hand at a time and defiantly saves up inventory space which can get limited in the older games. Speaking of saving inventory the creators have made just one universal ammo type for everything from machine guns to grenade launchers, also weird that these clips can even be for saw blade ammo too. You can only have two weapon types at a time but each weapon can have two functions, like on one I have a machine gun and shotgun combo while the other is a railgun with a wide line gun attached. I'm currently playing on just the normal difficultly and I am really shocked on how much health items you get, I remember having at one time in my inventory 5 double health bottles along with 8 of the single health one at one time either dropped from enemies or just finding them, although a good thing you can do at benches is "sell" the items for components and then use those to make better ones, so I'll just have 7 of the double health items instead of having all of those little ones. There was a large controvercy with this game where you can use real money for buying upgrades and they made it like a "pay-to-win" type game and, yes that option is available and so far it's only for earning more parts to make items and weapon enhancements but it absolutely does not make the game any better whatsoever and is not mandatory. Not only that, if you have the older Dead Space 2 save file it gives you a fairly nice pistol weapon "The Planet Cracker" and ok I will admit, I did buy one of the extra DLC packs, the "Sharpshooter" (I had $5 to waste, so what) and it gave you a bonus suit and nice weapon combo (that railgun/line gun item I said eariler), plus getting the limited edition gives you two more suits and weapon combos. Lastly one of the biggest new draws to the game is the online co-op and playing with a buddy enhances the story and even allows you to go on special missions that are not available through the regular single player, although sucks for me I'm playing on XB360 and only on a silver account and I have no plans to go gold (I'm more of a soloist anyway so EA can suck it). I was a little disapointed with Dead Space 2 and at least the new one does look quite a bit better than the last although I still think this hasn't so far matched the same scariness and creepyness and the atmosphere as the original title and does seem more action based. Overall I am still having a fun time with it blasting mutants and at least it's a hella lot more fun to play than Resident Evil 6.
Recently finished:
- Skyrim: Dragonborn - Originally released back in December 2012 on XB360 and I just finally got around to play through it. So for the latest (and possibly last) addition to your already insanely long adventure through the lands of Skyrim, Bethesda takes you back to the dark eleven lands of Morrowind (which I still love to see a HD re-release of), more accurately to the island of Solstheim where the 3rd expansion of Morrowind took place and it still just feels like going through another area of Skyrim. Here the main quest lets you take on the first Dragonborn where he has joined forces with corrupted deadric gods in order to take over the island and the rest of the realms. For $20 (although maybe a little cheaper now) you do get a fairly lengthy quest and even with a little side missions it did roughly took me 12 hours to finish until the final story battle. Then after the main quest it unlocks a secret dragon priest battle, in one of the most unfair battle areas ever, and it doesn't even give you a new mask! (boo!) You can also forge some new ice armor but it's only good if you are an expert in using light-classes and not so much for heavy dudes. Battling some of the new monsters were pretty neat, like the zombie ash spawn and the giant lurkers with tentacle attacks and I know there are probably at least 20 or so more quests and missions to through and places to explore but kind of stinks it's just mostly more of the same stuff you've already been through. If you just have to crave more dungeons to clear after tackling the 70 or so hours you've spent in Skyrim then by all means get this but for others I'd just stick with what the main game has to offer.
Also playing:
- A little Star Wars Pinball but nothing much else. Still like to finish Tales of Graces F one of these days now that Tales of Xillia will be released in the U.S. later this year. Also like to get Assassin's Creed 3 done and overwith too and I am giving the new 4th one already a thumbs down (I'd rather do my sneaky stabbing as a land-lubber). Gearbox just released the Ultimate Vault Hunter pack for $5 (personally this should be free but whatever) and gives you a 11 level cap increase and a 3rd playthrough option but rather wait for the new DLC mission pack that's coming in June. And again too many of other things on hold like the Ratchet & Clank collection, Zone of the Enders 1 & 2 HD and Ni no Kuni.
Games buying this month:
- Nothing, although I wouldn't mind checking out the DC Comics fighter Injustice one of these days.
- Tomb Raider - This will be both the initial and final impressions of the game due to finishing this over the month. So Square-Enix-Eidos have decided to completely reboot our gunslinging boobtastic adverturer to more of a hard earned survivor than a Indy Jones wannabe with tits, but it's results are downright fantastic! Seems like the creators want to get Lara in some of the harshest situations possible but then show her raise up and survive out of any dangers that come across her, and a lot of times you just want to say "Oh shit! Oh shit!" when this stuff happens to her. Right off the bat the world graphics and settings are simply amazing and almost every enviroment seems like one big leapers and climbers playground with some sandbox elements to them to have more control over your surroundings. I know Naughty Dog games have been prefecting the 3rd-person adventuring business with Nathan and the Uncharted series but Crystal Dynamics did a pretty good job handling the controls with Lara and made some slight upgrades, like instead of the standard roll move she almost crawls on the ground first and scuttles away to avoid things and then can leap roll away from danger. Now you don't get the dual wielding, infinate ammo, pistols right off the bat, this is supposed to be Lara first "rodeo" after all, but the first weapon you use is a simple bow and arrow and eventually this almost becomes your weapon of choice, especially if you want to go the more stealthy route. Later on you get a pistol, assault rifle and shotgun and each weapon can be upgraded with parts found in the world and by finding salvage, also each kill or special actions earns experience to unlock more skills and powers to help you get through the harder areas. When I was first hearing about the details about the game experience it almost seemed like the designers were going for a "Metroid" approach to the gameplay where certain areas where only accessable using certain tools and while you do earn better gear throughout the game there is hardly any backtracking or much exploring for that matter, the main game and story is fairly straightfoward. At certain camps you can go back to previous areas but their only purpose is in order to find more salvage or gain more exp. by doing map challanges, also there are optional tombs you can enter but they are only simple one-room enviroment puzzles and all of them are easy to find and solve and only gave you more salvage and parts. I believe it took me around 11-12 hours to get through the end of the story and that's even with going though the optional tombs and doing a little bit of exploring and hunting for stuff. Definatly had a real fun blast playing through it all and like to see this version of Lara get more fleshed out. After finishing you do have the option of going back to all of the areas you've visited but this time with all of your earned and upgraded gear to hunt for relics, documents and other things laying around (I hate those GPS things) and then there's multiplayer howoever I literally had no desire to try it and even most game reviews considered it was more of an afterthought. On another sad note, Crystal Dynamics has no future single player DLC in the works, I was hoping for maybe an extra island area to jump around in and only has plans for more MP content so once you are done, it's done. It's still a reccomended game experience to play through even if you are an older TR fan or just coming into the series. Maybe not worth the full $60 price tag but a game that needs to be checked out.
- God of War: Ascension - Our badass Greek God killer Kratos is back with more bloodlusting rage and his flinging chain blades of Chaos. After all of the awesome and amazing moments I've experienced playing God of War III I've been really curious what epicness Sony would bring to the plate next, unforunately it seems that they are somewhat running out of steam for this prequel tale. Now so far every single GodoW game has started out with an amazing tutorial/boss battle right at the start of the game but compared to all of them this one seemed the weakest, epecially following up from the battle of Posidian during III, but it still had some pretty awesome monents without a doubt. The graphic quality is still fairly impressive compared to the last PS3 title and still runs very smooth in every area and action you come across, but there were a couple times where the camera will pan out so far out you literally have to squint at your TV in order to see you controlling Kratos. I know it's used to show the vast scale of the enviroment and the stuff that's going around it but it's just kind of a weird visual design choice. Of course quicktime events are in full force with this title, maybe too much in force and the worst of them are the jumping and swinging events to leap ahead to the next area and usually they cause me the most amount of times for cheap deaths. As far as the combat for this title there are no new mythological weapons like big-ass swords, hammers, bows, metal fists, etc., your main weapons are the chaos blades and this time you earn elemental powers which each can be upgraded and unleash magic powers and attacks. You can pick up secondary weapons from enemies or around the area but they don't last forever and later you also get a time tool that lets you either reverse damaged enviroments or decay them. I'm about 7-8 hours into the main story and so far the game hasn't really wowed me as much as GodoW III did, it's still visually impressive but seems more of a "been-there-done-that" deal and when the game wants to try something new it's either not that great or it's just plan annoying. Then there's multiplayer which does seem like an interesting addition to the series and wouldn't mind trying it out a couple times after finishing the main quest, not sure it that will be a lasting keeper (or maybe until more MP DLC is released). Fans of the series will dig it but newbies should more stick with the older games, plus you can buy all of the older titles in one big PS3 collection for $40 now.
- Bioshock Infinite - First we have dived into the underwater city of Rapture and now we soar to the flying cities of Columbia and yet again we are taken to an another amazing world where yet there is more to a lot of things that meets the eye. I am just going to flat out say: this game IS ORGASMICLY GORGEOUS! Even back in 2007 the original Bioshock wowed every gamer with the world's amazing graphics and style and still amazes me how Irrational Games can pull off their stunning visual and artistic feats with their new title, it's almost like playing through a 90's Disney animated film. Speaking of Disney, the perspective of the game is almost like going through a Disney or Universal theme park ride all through the eyes of our reluctant hero, Booker DeWitt and with him getting himself through hell and highwater while trying to get Elizabeth and her dimentional tearing powers out of their nirvana in the sky. Now the combat and gameplay are very similar to the original Bioshock mold but with some differences: you have your magic powers through "vigors" and each can be upgraded, not by "adam" but just money you've collected at vending machines and same goes with weapons. You can only keep two weapons on hand at a time, ala Halo, and also just like that game you get early on a regenerating shield armor. They've also ditched the storing of health and magic items and you will have to scavage them from enemies or the enviroment, however with the extra shield and having the potion storage would of made the game too easy. It may seem this game is almost a constant escort mission but it really isn't becuase Elizabeth never gets hurt and really helps you in some situations, like she'll throw you health & magic items, ammo, money or even weapons. Even while the visuals are awesome and the gameplay is quite fun the game just doesn't feel like a Bioshock game, actually I think it's more in tune to the Call of Duty series than anything else. I remember the original Bioshock was more about exploring and discovering things and each area had multiple side quests you can do but this game hardly has any of that and is a lot more straightforward. Sure you can look around some of the areas and find audio logs as well as power upgrades but you can't really go back to areas and look to see if you have missed anything. In addition you cannot save anywhere and only saves during certain checkpoints and some of those points are really spread out, you maybe playing through an area for up to 30 minutes before it even saves again. At least on the plus side there is no tacked-on multiplayer however Irrational already has future DLC in the works and you can even buy the first "season" for $20 although still curious what would be in store. 2013 gaming is still early in and I think this is a sure contender for game of the year but unfortunately doesn't quite live up to the original yet, but depends on how the later half of the game goes which I'm most likely halfway through.
- Dead Space 3 - So again I was originally not going to even bother with this game due to some very average game reviews from most popular gaming sites and media and I actually bought "Ni no Kuni" instead however I am still a fan of the series and still wanted to play it eventually and when I saw the opportunity to buy it for just $40 I defiantely took the chance, also mutant alien metal boot stomping hardly ever gets old. So again Issac is back with his big-ass metal space boots ready to put some hurt on more necromorphs and stop the alien marker's power for good. This time around the game is more focused on creating weapons with wild attachments and powers instead of keeping 4 or 5 different weapons on hand at a time and defiantly saves up inventory space which can get limited in the older games. Speaking of saving inventory the creators have made just one universal ammo type for everything from machine guns to grenade launchers, also weird that these clips can even be for saw blade ammo too. You can only have two weapon types at a time but each weapon can have two functions, like on one I have a machine gun and shotgun combo while the other is a railgun with a wide line gun attached. I'm currently playing on just the normal difficultly and I am really shocked on how much health items you get, I remember having at one time in my inventory 5 double health bottles along with 8 of the single health one at one time either dropped from enemies or just finding them, although a good thing you can do at benches is "sell" the items for components and then use those to make better ones, so I'll just have 7 of the double health items instead of having all of those little ones. There was a large controvercy with this game where you can use real money for buying upgrades and they made it like a "pay-to-win" type game and, yes that option is available and so far it's only for earning more parts to make items and weapon enhancements but it absolutely does not make the game any better whatsoever and is not mandatory. Not only that, if you have the older Dead Space 2 save file it gives you a fairly nice pistol weapon "The Planet Cracker" and ok I will admit, I did buy one of the extra DLC packs, the "Sharpshooter" (I had $5 to waste, so what) and it gave you a bonus suit and nice weapon combo (that railgun/line gun item I said eariler), plus getting the limited edition gives you two more suits and weapon combos. Lastly one of the biggest new draws to the game is the online co-op and playing with a buddy enhances the story and even allows you to go on special missions that are not available through the regular single player, although sucks for me I'm playing on XB360 and only on a silver account and I have no plans to go gold (I'm more of a soloist anyway so EA can suck it). I was a little disapointed with Dead Space 2 and at least the new one does look quite a bit better than the last although I still think this hasn't so far matched the same scariness and creepyness and the atmosphere as the original title and does seem more action based. Overall I am still having a fun time with it blasting mutants and at least it's a hella lot more fun to play than Resident Evil 6.
Recently finished:
- Skyrim: Dragonborn - Originally released back in December 2012 on XB360 and I just finally got around to play through it. So for the latest (and possibly last) addition to your already insanely long adventure through the lands of Skyrim, Bethesda takes you back to the dark eleven lands of Morrowind (which I still love to see a HD re-release of), more accurately to the island of Solstheim where the 3rd expansion of Morrowind took place and it still just feels like going through another area of Skyrim. Here the main quest lets you take on the first Dragonborn where he has joined forces with corrupted deadric gods in order to take over the island and the rest of the realms. For $20 (although maybe a little cheaper now) you do get a fairly lengthy quest and even with a little side missions it did roughly took me 12 hours to finish until the final story battle. Then after the main quest it unlocks a secret dragon priest battle, in one of the most unfair battle areas ever, and it doesn't even give you a new mask! (boo!) You can also forge some new ice armor but it's only good if you are an expert in using light-classes and not so much for heavy dudes. Battling some of the new monsters were pretty neat, like the zombie ash spawn and the giant lurkers with tentacle attacks and I know there are probably at least 20 or so more quests and missions to through and places to explore but kind of stinks it's just mostly more of the same stuff you've already been through. If you just have to crave more dungeons to clear after tackling the 70 or so hours you've spent in Skyrim then by all means get this but for others I'd just stick with what the main game has to offer.
Also playing:
- A little Star Wars Pinball but nothing much else. Still like to finish Tales of Graces F one of these days now that Tales of Xillia will be released in the U.S. later this year. Also like to get Assassin's Creed 3 done and overwith too and I am giving the new 4th one already a thumbs down (I'd rather do my sneaky stabbing as a land-lubber). Gearbox just released the Ultimate Vault Hunter pack for $5 (personally this should be free but whatever) and gives you a 11 level cap increase and a 3rd playthrough option but rather wait for the new DLC mission pack that's coming in June. And again too many of other things on hold like the Ratchet & Clank collection, Zone of the Enders 1 & 2 HD and Ni no Kuni.
Games buying this month:
- Nothing, although I wouldn't mind checking out the DC Comics fighter Injustice one of these days.
Posted by
GodHandGuts
| Apr 6, 2013 9:40 PM |
Add a comment