Yep.
Monday, October 21, 2013
DAMN YOU GAMES! TAKIN' UP ALL MY TIME!
So I'm supposed to still be totally blazing through all of the Final Fantasies. But then I got my hands on Pokemon X. And now my hands are tied. But on that note, I should have a review for that up soon, so that's a thing.
Yep.
Yep.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Wherein-which I muse on the Pokemon.
Okay.
So, here we are just days from release of the next generation in the Pokemon franchise: Pokemon X and Y.
Me? I am stuck at a strong crossroads. Well, not so much anymore, but I was. So I feel like talking about what kind of crossroad I was once stuck at. You see, I am a Pokemon fan. Very much, through and through. I look forward to every new generation, and this one was no different.
At least, at first.
When the Legendary Pokemon for X and Y were revealed, I was quite impressed. They showed a level of imagination a step up from Black and White, which in and of itself was leaps and bounds above Diamond and Pearl. This could only be a good thing. But as more and more designs were revealed, my enthusiasm dwindled. The starter Pokemon weren't anything of note. And save one or two designs, they just seemed to steadily go downhill from there.
But I wasn't too worried. Game Freak had only revealed some 15 Pokemon, and didn't seem keen on revealing anymore, so I assumed I'd see some cooler designs in game.
It is at this point that I feel I should touch on the fact that Pokemon designs are very important to me.
You see, the gameplay of a Pokemon game rarely if ever disappoints me. It is a tried and true method that I haven't found fault with yet, and so much of my anticipation and enjoyment of a Pokemon game does not come from that. It's nice, but adds up to about 20% of my overall love for the game, if that. No, my true passion for Pokemon stems from the Pokemon themselves. I love seeing new Pokemon to catch and raise and journey with. I mean, if it was the same Pokemon every time, the tried and true gameplay would require strong changes. There would have to be a much stronger story. But with the core of my love coming from the new blood, I never have to worry about that.
I catch the new guys, I fight the gyms, I beat the evil team, save the world, fight the elite four, become champion, go home happy.
All is well.
Carrying on from where I left off earlier.
Not long after making the decision to wait out the game for other designs, Mega Pokemon were announced. This blew my mind. New designs for older pokemon?! At first, I assumed these would be branch evolution chains. Lo and behold they were not. No, they were temporary forms granted by Mega Stones. Okay. Taking the Digimon route. Not my favorite idea, but I can live with it. Besides. MegaAmpharos was now an Electric/Dragon type with luxurious hair. Fine by me.
Not too long after this though, things began to go south.
More and more designs continued to be leaked. More New Pokemon, and more Mega forms.
And they sucked.
Like...
EXTRA hard.
They made a fucking key ring Pokemon.
A key ring...
Ugh. I'm getting off track. Anywho, the rather dismal designs began to crush my hopes for the games. Damnit, if my enjoyment of the game comes from the new damn critters, and the new critters suck hot eggs, what the hell do I want to play the game for? Surely not the story?!
Argh...
Not long after I had reached a point of disgust with the game (something that occurred after they made the decision to make one of my favorite Pokemon, Gyarados, Mega Evolve into a giant ass shrimp...), I came across an interview.
And to be honest, it changed my whole view of the game.
I find myself now thoroughly looking forward to the game. I have to know just what they're going to do with the world itself. It seems they've stayed true to the main formula, but have made enough changes to garner interest. Without needing a million new cool critters. And if I really think about it, there are already 600+ of the little dudes, so I kind of don't need more. But there's still a huge part of me that can't stand the idea of dealing with such craptastic designs.
Or at least, there was that part of me.
As I stand now, I've gotten over that. There are a couple of new dudes I can get behind, and, mixed with some of my old favorites, I'm sure I'll enjoy my journey through Kalos just fine. And with any luck, the game will surprise me, and be one of the better outings in the series.
Here's hoping.
So, here we are just days from release of the next generation in the Pokemon franchise: Pokemon X and Y.
Me? I am stuck at a strong crossroads. Well, not so much anymore, but I was. So I feel like talking about what kind of crossroad I was once stuck at. You see, I am a Pokemon fan. Very much, through and through. I look forward to every new generation, and this one was no different.
At least, at first.
When the Legendary Pokemon for X and Y were revealed, I was quite impressed. They showed a level of imagination a step up from Black and White, which in and of itself was leaps and bounds above Diamond and Pearl. This could only be a good thing. But as more and more designs were revealed, my enthusiasm dwindled. The starter Pokemon weren't anything of note. And save one or two designs, they just seemed to steadily go downhill from there.
But I wasn't too worried. Game Freak had only revealed some 15 Pokemon, and didn't seem keen on revealing anymore, so I assumed I'd see some cooler designs in game.
It is at this point that I feel I should touch on the fact that Pokemon designs are very important to me.
You see, the gameplay of a Pokemon game rarely if ever disappoints me. It is a tried and true method that I haven't found fault with yet, and so much of my anticipation and enjoyment of a Pokemon game does not come from that. It's nice, but adds up to about 20% of my overall love for the game, if that. No, my true passion for Pokemon stems from the Pokemon themselves. I love seeing new Pokemon to catch and raise and journey with. I mean, if it was the same Pokemon every time, the tried and true gameplay would require strong changes. There would have to be a much stronger story. But with the core of my love coming from the new blood, I never have to worry about that.
I catch the new guys, I fight the gyms, I beat the evil team, save the world, fight the elite four, become champion, go home happy.
All is well.
Carrying on from where I left off earlier.
Not long after making the decision to wait out the game for other designs, Mega Pokemon were announced. This blew my mind. New designs for older pokemon?! At first, I assumed these would be branch evolution chains. Lo and behold they were not. No, they were temporary forms granted by Mega Stones. Okay. Taking the Digimon route. Not my favorite idea, but I can live with it. Besides. MegaAmpharos was now an Electric/Dragon type with luxurious hair. Fine by me.
Not too long after this though, things began to go south.
More and more designs continued to be leaked. More New Pokemon, and more Mega forms.
And they sucked.
Like...
EXTRA hard.
They made a fucking key ring Pokemon.
A key ring...
Ugh. I'm getting off track. Anywho, the rather dismal designs began to crush my hopes for the games. Damnit, if my enjoyment of the game comes from the new damn critters, and the new critters suck hot eggs, what the hell do I want to play the game for? Surely not the story?!
Argh...
Not long after I had reached a point of disgust with the game (something that occurred after they made the decision to make one of my favorite Pokemon, Gyarados, Mega Evolve into a giant ass shrimp...), I came across an interview.
And to be honest, it changed my whole view of the game.
I find myself now thoroughly looking forward to the game. I have to know just what they're going to do with the world itself. It seems they've stayed true to the main formula, but have made enough changes to garner interest. Without needing a million new cool critters. And if I really think about it, there are already 600+ of the little dudes, so I kind of don't need more. But there's still a huge part of me that can't stand the idea of dealing with such craptastic designs.
Or at least, there was that part of me.
As I stand now, I've gotten over that. There are a couple of new dudes I can get behind, and, mixed with some of my old favorites, I'm sure I'll enjoy my journey through Kalos just fine. And with any luck, the game will surprise me, and be one of the better outings in the series.
Here's hoping.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Oh yeah...
There's now a score guideline compendium page. Cause I don't feel like having to continuously link to the darn guidelines every time I put up a review. But yeah! It's all over there on the side. Under the header marked "Stuff!"
Yep.
Cobwebs all over the blog and other news.
Well.
I've certainly failed at maintaining something resembling upkeep.
Hopefully, that will change at some point in the near future.
My own horrible schedule-keeping capabilities aside, as far as news in my universe, I am currently undertaking a challenge to beat all 14 main line Final Fantasy games before the fifteenth game is finally released and consumes my soul. As of right now, I've currently beaten 1-3, 7 and 13, and am in the middle of 4 and 14. I suppose the easiest way to ensure that I gain a semblance of maintenance is to post along as I make progress.
Let's keep hope that I can make it happen, eh?
Oh. And for the sake of keeping in theme with the blog, some super quick reviews of the series so far!
And I mean super quick.
Games measured on a 1-10 scale.
FFI:
Super-basic and bare bones, but a fun experience during travel. Takes joy in giving you no idea where to go next. Kinda makes me feel like a kid again.
6/10
FF2:
Just as basic and bare bones as far as combat is concerned, but with a far more valiant attempt at making a story. Level up system is cause for fury, but game is easily made fun when you discover that pretty much everything in the game short of a few enemies and the last boss can be defeated via liberal use of Teleport.
6/10
FF3:
Backslides a bit in the story department into more basic territory, but is more fun than the other two in takes place in a more enjoyable world. Evokes the feeling of wanting to be a hero as a child. Plus, I'm always down for class switching.
7/10
FFVII:
I love this game. The world easily creates a sense of immersion, and the characters are beyond enjoyable. Graphics haven't aged well by any means, but when playing it on my PSP, I find it easy to ignore that.
8/10
FFXIII:
I feel like this game had serious potential that just got wasted. The battle system is quite fun once you finally have the ability to toy with it as you want, and switch party members as you want. And the world is beautiful, if a bit generic at times. The game itself is linear as fuck, and I find myself totally unable to care about any of the characters, or even the game's prominent story issues until nearly the last chapter.
4/10
And I suppose that's that for now.
Yep.
I've certainly failed at maintaining something resembling upkeep.
Hopefully, that will change at some point in the near future.
My own horrible schedule-keeping capabilities aside, as far as news in my universe, I am currently undertaking a challenge to beat all 14 main line Final Fantasy games before the fifteenth game is finally released and consumes my soul. As of right now, I've currently beaten 1-3, 7 and 13, and am in the middle of 4 and 14. I suppose the easiest way to ensure that I gain a semblance of maintenance is to post along as I make progress.
Let's keep hope that I can make it happen, eh?
Oh. And for the sake of keeping in theme with the blog, some super quick reviews of the series so far!
And I mean super quick.
Games measured on a 1-10 scale.
FFI:
Super-basic and bare bones, but a fun experience during travel. Takes joy in giving you no idea where to go next. Kinda makes me feel like a kid again.
6/10
FF2:
Just as basic and bare bones as far as combat is concerned, but with a far more valiant attempt at making a story. Level up system is cause for fury, but game is easily made fun when you discover that pretty much everything in the game short of a few enemies and the last boss can be defeated via liberal use of Teleport.
6/10
FF3:
Backslides a bit in the story department into more basic territory, but is more fun than the other two in takes place in a more enjoyable world. Evokes the feeling of wanting to be a hero as a child. Plus, I'm always down for class switching.
7/10
FFVII:
I love this game. The world easily creates a sense of immersion, and the characters are beyond enjoyable. Graphics haven't aged well by any means, but when playing it on my PSP, I find it easy to ignore that.
8/10
FFXIII:
I feel like this game had serious potential that just got wasted. The battle system is quite fun once you finally have the ability to toy with it as you want, and switch party members as you want. And the world is beautiful, if a bit generic at times. The game itself is linear as fuck, and I find myself totally unable to care about any of the characters, or even the game's prominent story issues until nearly the last chapter.
4/10
And I suppose that's that for now.
Yep.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Happy New Year!
2012 has come and gone. It had it's ups and downs, but was overall a pretty righteous year. To celebrate the oncoming 2013, and the memories of 2012, here's a video of my year. A retrospective, if you will.
The Goodness 2012
Enjoy.
Oh, and just saying?
I survived the apocalypse. I want that on a t-shirt.
Yep.
The Goodness 2012
Enjoy.
Oh, and just saying?
I survived the apocalypse. I want that on a t-shirt.
Yep.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Le Parkour!
So, I finally got around to cranking out a few videos representing myself and my friends doing the fine art of le parkour. Freerunning. Jumping on stuff. Whatever it is that you want to call it! Check em out.
The Summer Fling series.
Part 1: Cool Summer
Part 2: Flipside
And while we're at it, here be a link to the official StuffMax channel, on le U-TOOB.
Clicky!
Keep an eye out for part three. It be on it's way.
Yep.
The Summer Fling series.
Part 1: Cool Summer
Part 2: Flipside
And while we're at it, here be a link to the official StuffMax channel, on le U-TOOB.
Clicky!
Keep an eye out for part three. It be on it's way.
Yep.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
DmC demo thoughts.
I am a long time, big time Devil May Cry fan. Played through and loved 1 and 4, could care less about 2, positively worship 3.
I've been primarily against this game from moment one, but as more was released, at the very least, I became open to seeing what was on the plate before spitting on it and sending it back.
Now I've tried the appetizer. A.K.A the demo, for those not following the analogy. Here's what I thought.
Looking at it from a gameplay perspective:
The game plays like a pretty solid action game, though the holding of the triggers to switch between styles is annoying, and the shoulder mounted roll buttons feel unnatural. The lack of dedicated lock on button is also sorely missed. Despite my annoyances, the combat is still strong enough to stand on it's own as an action title. The platforming is nice, though nothing to scream home about. The sections where the world tries to kill you have no sense of urgency, though. At no point did I feel I had to hurry to avoid dying. This held true in combat as well. Even on the harder difficulties, the demo holds little challenge, and enemies move like trained circus animals, making them ridiculously easy to avoid and toy with. The new Dante of DmC doesn't move as slowly as I thought he would, but still feels a bit slower than the games of old, which is slightly disappointing.
As a successor to the Devil May Cry franchise, however, the gameplay feels somewhat... lacking. Now, I understand that this is but a demo, so at some point I'll have to get hands on the full moveset before I let this be set in stone for me, but between the (currently) small movelist, slower paced combat, easier enemies and an overall feeling of a lack of gameplay fluidity, the game doesn't seem to be holding up. This goes double if your natural instinct is to try and play as if this was DMC (capital M for differentiation) and not this newer, but unfortunately not better edition. The playstyles simply don't mesh beyond triangle to slash and square to shoot.
And from an aesthetic/overall feel standpoint:
The game doesn't much remind me of a DMC game, but whatever feel the game is trying to achieve that isn't a DMC game, it's doing well. Everything about the in game world seems well thought out and planned to match the overall grungy, dirty feel of the game, which is good. The menus and little touches to the HUD and score meter portrayed as smudges and splashes are somewhat nice, alongside the sickly color scheme of the whole game. The game has moments of extremely minor slowdown during shifts in viewpoint during a cutscene, which, while not a huge issue, is somewhat marring.
New Dante himself feels like a cocky little snot, but he also seems somewhat insecure, as if he's trying hard to be this extra tough guy, since he doesn't know what the hell he is, which I imagine was the intention, if this is in fact an origin and coming of age story. It's not my favorite portrayal of that character type, and I definitely don't like it as a portrayal of Dante, but that's more due to enjoying Dante circa 3 and 4 so much. His old school unabashed cheesiness went over better with me than this new false confidence tough guy.
I sincerely dislike the way the demons are portrayed, however. Visually, they are a stunning, grotesque sight, which is totally cool. But they speak as if simple, crude humans. Now I don't mind the simple, or the crude. It's the human that I mind. I would assume there are demon language versions of the insults slung back and forth between the boss character and Dante, but instead, she resorts to simple human swearwords. I think that would have been much cooler if Ninja Theory had created a demon vernacular with demon swear words to be used in an equally crude fashion instead, separating the rock bottom demons from the top rank, cool as a cucumber demon lords.
I also really just don't like the battle music.
I do, however, hope they expand significantly on the back story, or at the very least, the story is paced far better than it is in the demo. Because the whole thing seems like an aimless mess that's attempting to be a sharp and gritty analogy for the world we live in. And failing in most senses, coming across more as snooty and overbearing. Anvilicious, even.
And that's pretty unfortunate, considering the overall idea of the reboot is to try and establish it as a serious work of art as opposed to a cheesy fun video game.
The most unfortunate part of the whole thing is that it's attempting to carry the Devil May Cry name without any of the Devil May Cry soul. That really brings the whole shebang down for me.
All in all, I doubt very highly I'll be purchasing this alternate Devil may Cry. If someone were to pick it up for me, I'd probably give it a go, but I don't believe it's worth my money.
(That was the most unbiased version of this demo review I could give. My inner fanboy screams with tightly bridled hatred and longing for vengeance against the fiends who have ruined my beloved series... But that's not important at the moment.)
Yep.
I've been primarily against this game from moment one, but as more was released, at the very least, I became open to seeing what was on the plate before spitting on it and sending it back.
Now I've tried the appetizer. A.K.A the demo, for those not following the analogy. Here's what I thought.
Looking at it from a gameplay perspective:
The game plays like a pretty solid action game, though the holding of the triggers to switch between styles is annoying, and the shoulder mounted roll buttons feel unnatural. The lack of dedicated lock on button is also sorely missed. Despite my annoyances, the combat is still strong enough to stand on it's own as an action title. The platforming is nice, though nothing to scream home about. The sections where the world tries to kill you have no sense of urgency, though. At no point did I feel I had to hurry to avoid dying. This held true in combat as well. Even on the harder difficulties, the demo holds little challenge, and enemies move like trained circus animals, making them ridiculously easy to avoid and toy with. The new Dante of DmC doesn't move as slowly as I thought he would, but still feels a bit slower than the games of old, which is slightly disappointing.
As a successor to the Devil May Cry franchise, however, the gameplay feels somewhat... lacking. Now, I understand that this is but a demo, so at some point I'll have to get hands on the full moveset before I let this be set in stone for me, but between the (currently) small movelist, slower paced combat, easier enemies and an overall feeling of a lack of gameplay fluidity, the game doesn't seem to be holding up. This goes double if your natural instinct is to try and play as if this was DMC (capital M for differentiation) and not this newer, but unfortunately not better edition. The playstyles simply don't mesh beyond triangle to slash and square to shoot.
And from an aesthetic/overall feel standpoint:
The game doesn't much remind me of a DMC game, but whatever feel the game is trying to achieve that isn't a DMC game, it's doing well. Everything about the in game world seems well thought out and planned to match the overall grungy, dirty feel of the game, which is good. The menus and little touches to the HUD and score meter portrayed as smudges and splashes are somewhat nice, alongside the sickly color scheme of the whole game. The game has moments of extremely minor slowdown during shifts in viewpoint during a cutscene, which, while not a huge issue, is somewhat marring.
New Dante himself feels like a cocky little snot, but he also seems somewhat insecure, as if he's trying hard to be this extra tough guy, since he doesn't know what the hell he is, which I imagine was the intention, if this is in fact an origin and coming of age story. It's not my favorite portrayal of that character type, and I definitely don't like it as a portrayal of Dante, but that's more due to enjoying Dante circa 3 and 4 so much. His old school unabashed cheesiness went over better with me than this new false confidence tough guy.
I sincerely dislike the way the demons are portrayed, however. Visually, they are a stunning, grotesque sight, which is totally cool. But they speak as if simple, crude humans. Now I don't mind the simple, or the crude. It's the human that I mind. I would assume there are demon language versions of the insults slung back and forth between the boss character and Dante, but instead, she resorts to simple human swearwords. I think that would have been much cooler if Ninja Theory had created a demon vernacular with demon swear words to be used in an equally crude fashion instead, separating the rock bottom demons from the top rank, cool as a cucumber demon lords.
I also really just don't like the battle music.
I do, however, hope they expand significantly on the back story, or at the very least, the story is paced far better than it is in the demo. Because the whole thing seems like an aimless mess that's attempting to be a sharp and gritty analogy for the world we live in. And failing in most senses, coming across more as snooty and overbearing. Anvilicious, even.
And that's pretty unfortunate, considering the overall idea of the reboot is to try and establish it as a serious work of art as opposed to a cheesy fun video game.
The most unfortunate part of the whole thing is that it's attempting to carry the Devil May Cry name without any of the Devil May Cry soul. That really brings the whole shebang down for me.
All in all, I doubt very highly I'll be purchasing this alternate Devil may Cry. If someone were to pick it up for me, I'd probably give it a go, but I don't believe it's worth my money.
(That was the most unbiased version of this demo review I could give. My inner fanboy screams with tightly bridled hatred and longing for vengeance against the fiends who have ruined my beloved series... But that's not important at the moment.)
Yep.
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