Tuesday, September 22
P2 IS EP AS DLC?!?
I just picked up my copy of Persona 1 at Gamestop today, it was there as "Ashley" promised and of course I'm the only one that pre-ordered it. How ner.....awesome am I? They were nice enough to even package the original soundtrack in with the game. Great! Unless you're one of those whiners complaining about how "THEY RUINED TEH MUSIC IT WAS SO MUCH BETER IN THE ORIGINL TEH JPOP SUXORS". You're just shit out of luck I guess. Anyway. Hopefully this game does well particularly as DLC on the PSN when it releases on 10/1. Why? Because as I've stated a long time ago, I think Atlus will look at the sales for this game for any possible re-releases of Persona 2, which is an even better game than this one. Seriously, even if you didn't pre-order, pick it up off of the PSN and at least give it a shot. You might be surprised. It's aged surprisingly well since 96. Good sales will hopefully finally = Persona 2 Innocent Sin FINALLY getting a translation and perhaps a remake of Eternal Punishment. At the very least the original Eternal Punishment will be available as DLC.
Friday, September 18
A Movie That May Make Transformers 2 Look Like A Masterpiece
Please don't bother going to see this piece of shit this weekend. I'm pretty sure it's nothing more than an evil social experiment by Hollywood executives to figure out how much money they can make without having to come up with things like special effects, a plot, etc. I'm serious. This movie is MST3K material if it wasn't for its lead star, Megan Fox. She should just go do porn. She'd probably make a lot more money.
Tuesday, September 15
Wolfenstein Review
This review has been up on GameFAQs for about a month or so now, but I figured I should get around to putting it on here despite the fact that I would be lucky if I got even 10% of the amount of people that have seen it on GameFAQs to read it here. I mean, I don't want to think this blog is a big waste of time or anything. Nah. Not like it really matters that I waited a whole month to post my opinions on this game. The entire FPS community saw it, uttered a "meh" under their breath, then turned back around and resumed playing Killzone and Halo. I should have done the same honestly. This covers the PS3 version specifically, but I don't think the X360 version is vastly different anyway.
Despite sharing the same name as the original, this game is not a remake of the original Wolfenstein all those years ago, but rather a sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was a pretty average shooter. Prior knowledge of that game is not required, but the main character, B.J. Blaskowicz returns, this time to the occupied city of Isengard to do that which he does best; shoot a bunch of Nazis. While the plot, like many FPS games won’t win any literary awards and merely serves as an excuse for you to fill Nazis full of holes, it isn’t completely uninspired as the Nazis harness the power of what’s called The Black Sun, giving them all sorts of various occult powers. This black magic aspect freshens up what could have been an insufferable plot, but with virtually no character development of any kind, the story will not keep most players interested enough to see it to its conclusion, forcing the game to rely solely on the game design itself to keep you intrigued. In short, you simply won’t fully understand what your objectives are, or you simply won’t care. You’ll just go where the marker tells you to go and be done with it.
Wolfenstein will not impress with its visuals. The look and feel of the game is just plain dated and the overall action is pretty tame when compared to Call of Duty or Killzone. While the backgrounds in Wolfenstein are fairly lush and detailed, the character models themselves seem outdated and the jerky, awkward animations don’t help matters much either. Sound effects much like the graphics, are passable, but won’t impress anybody. The voice actors seem bored in each of their roles which doesn’t help alleviate the problem of getting the player involved in what is already a confusing and boring plot. The particularly awful German accents from the enemy are especially noteworthy; many of the same phrases are repeated ad nauseum throughout combat. It all comes across as utterly ridiculous.
“I need a medick!”
“It’s ze American!”
“GRENEDE OWWWWWT!”
You’ll hear these phrases as well as a few others nearly every single time you run into an enemy squad. We know they’re German. Did they have to use such silly fake accents? It’s enough to give one a headache pretty quickly.
Just because I’m ragging on the fairly poor presentation of the game doesn’t mean the game is completely devoid of any merit. Initially the game starts off as a pretty run of the mill shooter and weapon selection is fairly meager, but the black magic factor saves the gameplay from becoming painfully boring. Early on you’ll obtain what is called the Thule Medallion and it allows you access to various Veil powers. One power works sort of like a night vision and makes the screen a greenish hue; your enemies are also illuminated in this glow in the dark hue, making them easier to spot. While in the Veil, you can sometimes even reveal hidden passages or alternative paths as well. This effect also gives the player heightened abilities such as super speed or the ability to slow time. Of course, a few enemies you’ll face have this power too, so effective management of your Veil powers is crucial to victory. The game never lets you rely too much on your powers. You have a gauge that will empty the more you use it, and while you do have the ability to shoot monsters called geists that act as sort of a bomb of sorts that when shot, sends shock bolts to any nearby enemies, the more you shoot eventually they’ll become angry and begin to attack you, the only solution to which is to deactivate your powers. Although your use is limited, when not in use, your Veil gauge will slowly refill itself and there are geysers which if stood in, can refill your powers instantly. The game does a good job of keeping you occupied with things besides shooting Nazis too. There’s various forms of collectible intel that reveals some more of the plot as well as unlocking various secrets, there’s gold often lying around in the stages for you to accumulate as well. When not on a mission you can essentially free roam the city of Isengard and visit various safe houses that allow you to power up your weapons and Veil powers using the gold you’ve accumulated from missions and from finding it on the ground. This “sandbox” style approach is easily the most entertaining aspect of the gameplay and it’s a shame that the city didn’t have more to explore. You’re usually limited to back alleys and roadways so there isn’t much free roam involved.
Probably the most disappointing aspect of the campaign is the idiotic enemy A.I. Not to say that this game is easy, per se, but rather that the only difficulty from the enemy comes across more or less with their numbers rather than their strategy. Enemies overall just seem sort of oblivious to the things going on the battlefield. Many will just stand in place even if a grenade gets tossed their way. They rarely try to come after you and when they do they don’t work together and many times you can just camp out in a spot and pick them off one by one. They’ll toss grenades to try to flush you out but you can just lob their grenade back at them no problem most of the time. Sneaking up on the enemy is sometimes embarrassingly easy. Most soldiers won’t even notice if you melee attack their buddies from behind. Even if they do notice you they’re fairly slow on the trigger at points and charging into battle and bludgeoning them with the butt of your gun is often far too easy. The only real challenging enemies are the sorcerers due to their increased health and super speed. The game does have fluctuating moments of difficulty, B.J. can be gunned down pretty quickly if you’re out in the open when a large pack ambushes you which seems to happen pretty often and can leave you screwed especially if you don’t have any Veil powers at the moment. While this ups the challenge factor somewhat, this unbalanced level of design often frustrates and mostly window dresses a flawed A.I.
There is of course a multiplayer mode of which up to 12 people can play, while it’s enjoyable it’s not nearly as entertaining or involving as the campaign and online can become boring fairly quickly. There are only 3 gameplay types to choose from and the selection of available maps is pretty sparse as well. Again, The Veil comes into play online also, giving different classes you choose different powers which mixes up the strategy a little bit. Online can be fun but it simply lacks the refined gameplay or the sheer intensity of much better shooters like Killzone 2. And really, that’s Wolfenstein in a nutshell. It’s a pretty pedestrian shooter with a neat gimmick attached to it to keep it from becoming pathetically lame. For casual fans it’s definitely rental material at best and even most FPS hardcores will find the game somewhat enjoyable but with its boring story and no real strong gameplay design to back it up, even they might want to go with a rental seeing as how there are much better shooters out there.
Despite sharing the same name as the original, this game is not a remake of the original Wolfenstein all those years ago, but rather a sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was a pretty average shooter. Prior knowledge of that game is not required, but the main character, B.J. Blaskowicz returns, this time to the occupied city of Isengard to do that which he does best; shoot a bunch of Nazis. While the plot, like many FPS games won’t win any literary awards and merely serves as an excuse for you to fill Nazis full of holes, it isn’t completely uninspired as the Nazis harness the power of what’s called The Black Sun, giving them all sorts of various occult powers. This black magic aspect freshens up what could have been an insufferable plot, but with virtually no character development of any kind, the story will not keep most players interested enough to see it to its conclusion, forcing the game to rely solely on the game design itself to keep you intrigued. In short, you simply won’t fully understand what your objectives are, or you simply won’t care. You’ll just go where the marker tells you to go and be done with it.Wolfenstein will not impress with its visuals. The look and feel of the game is just plain dated and the overall action is pretty tame when compared to Call of Duty or Killzone. While the backgrounds in Wolfenstein are fairly lush and detailed, the character models themselves seem outdated and the jerky, awkward animations don’t help matters much either. Sound effects much like the graphics, are passable, but won’t impress anybody. The voice actors seem bored in each of their roles which doesn’t help alleviate the problem of getting the player involved in what is already a confusing and boring plot. The particularly awful German accents from the enemy are especially noteworthy; many of the same phrases are repeated ad nauseum throughout combat. It all comes across as utterly ridiculous.
“I need a medick!”
“It’s ze American!”
“GRENEDE OWWWWWT!”
You’ll hear these phrases as well as a few others nearly every single time you run into an enemy squad. We know they’re German. Did they have to use such silly fake accents? It’s enough to give one a headache pretty quickly.
Just because I’m ragging on the fairly poor presentation of the game doesn’t mean the game is completely devoid of any merit. Initially the game starts off as a pretty run of the mill shooter and weapon selection is fairly meager, but the black magic factor saves the gameplay from becoming painfully boring. Early on you’ll obtain what is called the Thule Medallion and it allows you access to various Veil powers. One power works sort of like a night vision and makes the screen a greenish hue; your enemies are also illuminated in this glow in the dark hue, making them easier to spot. While in the Veil, you can sometimes even reveal hidden passages or alternative paths as well. This effect also gives the player heightened abilities such as super speed or the ability to slow time. Of course, a few enemies you’ll face have this power too, so effective management of your Veil powers is crucial to victory. The game never lets you rely too much on your powers. You have a gauge that will empty the more you use it, and while you do have the ability to shoot monsters called geists that act as sort of a bomb of sorts that when shot, sends shock bolts to any nearby enemies, the more you shoot eventually they’ll become angry and begin to attack you, the only solution to which is to deactivate your powers. Although your use is limited, when not in use, your Veil gauge will slowly refill itself and there are geysers which if stood in, can refill your powers instantly. The game does a good job of keeping you occupied with things besides shooting Nazis too. There’s various forms of collectible intel that reveals some more of the plot as well as unlocking various secrets, there’s gold often lying around in the stages for you to accumulate as well. When not on a mission you can essentially free roam the city of Isengard and visit various safe houses that allow you to power up your weapons and Veil powers using the gold you’ve accumulated from missions and from finding it on the ground. This “sandbox” style approach is easily the most entertaining aspect of the gameplay and it’s a shame that the city didn’t have more to explore. You’re usually limited to back alleys and roadways so there isn’t much free roam involved.
Probably the most disappointing aspect of the campaign is the idiotic enemy A.I. Not to say that this game is easy, per se, but rather that the only difficulty from the enemy comes across more or less with their numbers rather than their strategy. Enemies overall just seem sort of oblivious to the things going on the battlefield. Many will just stand in place even if a grenade gets tossed their way. They rarely try to come after you and when they do they don’t work together and many times you can just camp out in a spot and pick them off one by one. They’ll toss grenades to try to flush you out but you can just lob their grenade back at them no problem most of the time. Sneaking up on the enemy is sometimes embarrassingly easy. Most soldiers won’t even notice if you melee attack their buddies from behind. Even if they do notice you they’re fairly slow on the trigger at points and charging into battle and bludgeoning them with the butt of your gun is often far too easy. The only real challenging enemies are the sorcerers due to their increased health and super speed. The game does have fluctuating moments of difficulty, B.J. can be gunned down pretty quickly if you’re out in the open when a large pack ambushes you which seems to happen pretty often and can leave you screwed especially if you don’t have any Veil powers at the moment. While this ups the challenge factor somewhat, this unbalanced level of design often frustrates and mostly window dresses a flawed A.I.
There is of course a multiplayer mode of which up to 12 people can play, while it’s enjoyable it’s not nearly as entertaining or involving as the campaign and online can become boring fairly quickly. There are only 3 gameplay types to choose from and the selection of available maps is pretty sparse as well. Again, The Veil comes into play online also, giving different classes you choose different powers which mixes up the strategy a little bit. Online can be fun but it simply lacks the refined gameplay or the sheer intensity of much better shooters like Killzone 2. And really, that’s Wolfenstein in a nutshell. It’s a pretty pedestrian shooter with a neat gimmick attached to it to keep it from becoming pathetically lame. For casual fans it’s definitely rental material at best and even most FPS hardcores will find the game somewhat enjoyable but with its boring story and no real strong gameplay design to back it up, even they might want to go with a rental seeing as how there are much better shooters out there.
Thursday, September 10
More unpaid pimping.
I've gone and added two more links to the links page. You'll check them out won't you? Right? Right.
Wednesday, September 9
Dreamcast: The Little Engine That Couldn't
Wow, it has totally slipped my mind that today the Dreamcast turns 10. Doesn't seem like it, man does time fly by or what? I can't say that I really miss it though. I guess its because it only lasted barely 2 years. That's not to say that I didn't respect it or anything. Hell, the Dreamcast rocked. It should have totally ruled the world man. Well, actually this guy rules the world...
But the Dreamcast definitely came in at a close second. I mean, that console was the first to have many of the features that current consoles of today have. Let's not forget the excellent wave of games that was being released in 99 and 2000 for it. Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II, Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, the list goes on and on. This thing had no reason to fail and it definitely should have lasted longer than 2 fucking years. Of course it didn't as years of failed gimmicks, bad marketing and generally giving the finger to the fanbase caught up with them so much to the point that when a decent product finally was released most everyone else pretty much jumped on the Sony bandwagon by that point. Now I won't bother to get in depth as to why it failed and why it only lasted a meager two years because quite frankly it's already been discussed to the death and any further exploration of the topic would simply be kicking the dead horse at this point. However I will instead state that Microsoft is bearing some striking resemblances to Sega at this juncture with its constant useless add-ons of the 360, releasing the console way too early in an effort to get a jump on the competition and just generally angering some within it's fanbase for its unacceptable failure rate. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they're nearly as bad as Sega, hell the Saturn was the worst debacle in gaming history, but I'm simply saying that they're definitely traveling down an all too familiar road.
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