Hey folks! Long time no see, eh? Well, I sure wish that you know that I'm posting regularly on my website, http://www.perdiv.com! And on my twitter, http://twitter.com/caffeinegamer!
Be sure to check those out if you want more regular updates.
So, since I'm here, I'm here to talk about video games, right? I sure am. I'm here to tell you What's Up this month.
Unless you just arrived here in modern time from a hundred years in the past or so, you've probably heard of L.A. Noire. The crime investigation adventure game from Team Bondi and Rockstar that boasts the largest credits list for cast of characters in a video game yet. One of its selling points is that the team used a new facial scanning technique for capturing the actors' faces down to the smallest detail, and it looks amazing.
But it's so much more than just a facial scanning technology showcase. It's a game that's been in development for many years and the attention to detail is stunning. The writing is, for most part, excellent, and there are lots of interesting cases and characters.
I finished the game just yesterday, so I'll have a review for it up and running hopefully within a month after this post, so keep a lookout for that!
Of course, since Portal 2 was released just recently, I should get a review up for that too. I have so many things to say about that game, so much praise and love for it, but I'll keep that for another time. Gotta pack up my laptop now, work day's over!
Remember to check out my website and Twitter for more frequent updates, and keep your eyes peeled for reviews on hopefully both Portal 2 and L.A. Noire.
Until then!
Marcus out.
2011-06-16
2011-03-06
What's Up? - March Edition
Absence makes the heart go younder! Or, you know, whatever.
It's time for yet another edition of What's Up!
So, what is up this month? Some catching up, in the form of playing through the awesomely brutal Darksiders. Like many have said before, the game shares a lot of gameplay elements with the Zelda games, but it presents them in a more gritty, gory fashion. At first, it seems that all those similarities that people talk about were in fact very vague, but as you make your way to your first real mission, it becomes a lot more apparent.
These shared elements do not, however, make Darksiders feel like a Zelda clone, at all. It's a bloody, fast-paced, hack-n-slash-fest unlike anything I've played before, and I love it!
Other than that, I'm also playing Dead Space 2. Not a lot to say about it, other than that it's a sequel in the simple sense; more of the same and some extra stuff on top and a whole lot more variety in environments. It's a traditional sequel-treatment in the good sense that it's more of the brutal necromorph slaughtering. It's great!
I recently also played the first two episodes from the Back to the Future season, made by none other than the modern point-and-click adventure gurus at Telltale. As I'm struggling to express myself about them, I'll just begin by saying that I'm a huge fucking fan of BTTF. I love the movies and have watched them more times than I can count. As for the games, so far Telltale has given the franchise a more than righteous game treatment, managing to capture that adventurous and even the nostalgic feel you get from the movies. Kudos for that, Telltale! You've given us the BTTF-games that we've waited for so long.
That's all for this time. Keep on gaming!
Marcus out.
It's time for yet another edition of What's Up!
So, what is up this month? Some catching up, in the form of playing through the awesomely brutal Darksiders. Like many have said before, the game shares a lot of gameplay elements with the Zelda games, but it presents them in a more gritty, gory fashion. At first, it seems that all those similarities that people talk about were in fact very vague, but as you make your way to your first real mission, it becomes a lot more apparent.
 |
| Just a little teaser for what to expect out of Darksiders. Note that the icon hovering above the bad dude means it's time to fucking butcher him. |
Other than that, I'm also playing Dead Space 2. Not a lot to say about it, other than that it's a sequel in the simple sense; more of the same and some extra stuff on top and a whole lot more variety in environments. It's a traditional sequel-treatment in the good sense that it's more of the brutal necromorph slaughtering. It's great!
I recently also played the first two episodes from the Back to the Future season, made by none other than the modern point-and-click adventure gurus at Telltale. As I'm struggling to express myself about them, I'll just begin by saying that I'm a huge fucking fan of BTTF. I love the movies and have watched them more times than I can count. As for the games, so far Telltale has given the franchise a more than righteous game treatment, managing to capture that adventurous and even the nostalgic feel you get from the movies. Kudos for that, Telltale! You've given us the BTTF-games that we've waited for so long.
That's all for this time. Keep on gaming!
Marcus out.
2011-01-20
Perpetual Diversion and Lack of Checkpoints Rant
Hey all!
Some might've noticed that in the comments for a previous post, I promised Mii that I'd make another blog post before new years. As usual, I'm a bit behind schedule. Sorry about that!
Anyhow, this is mostly gonna be a mirrored post from my recently launched website; Perpetual Diversion! Perpetual Diversion is my sort of professional alias, my 'game company' (although it consists currently of just me alone.) There you'll find my recent projects, such as games or texture work and similar stuff and there's also another blog on there which you can follow. On there, I'll post anything that's related to my projects, or random rants such as the one I posted yesterday. Also, if a blog post from the Perpetual Diversion blog makes for a good mirror post on here, I'll copy it over and vice versa.
Enough chatter though, go visit my website, enjoy the awesomeness, and leave me feedback if you want! I very much appreciate it. Here's the checkpoint rant from yesterday's PerDiv blog post;
I just got back from playing some Pac-Man Championship Edition: DX and some Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.
PCEDX is a great example of an old game receiving a complete overhaul in design, while still retaining most of the core elements and goals (and adding new ones.) I'll admit that I am a very, very shitty Pac-Man player, but Championship Edition DX is so thoroughly redesigned that you don't need to be good at the original Pac-Man to be pretty decent at scoring a good amount of points. I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking to pick up a Live Arcade game that can be easily picked up and played occasionally, while still being interesting enough to keep you occupied for hours as well.
Sonic 4: Episode 1 on the other hand, goes back to the series' roots and looks to recreate the feeling of the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles while still being a completely new game, and it succeeds at it in most aspects. This is not going to be an in-depth review of it, but there are a few things worthy of mention, those things being awkward movement physics (that are much too different from the physics of the first three/four Sonic games on MD/G) and an awful abuse of phaser-ish synth instruments in the music. Other than the aforementioned flaws, it actually is a good Sonic game. Levels are very well designed and the game is fun to play.
One major point that is bugging me about the time attack mode though (uh-oh, rant incoming), is that there are no checkpoints. To me, as a player, it is a horrible punishment to have to go back from the very start of the level, should I make just one simple mistake in my effort to beat the level as fast as possible. From a designer point of view, I think it is a bit of a poor decision. Having checkpoints and adding five or ten seconds as punishment when you die would be a lot friendlier. Or, why not even just leave the checkpoints in there? If you restart from a checkpoint, you'll be starting at a full stop anyway, so by the time you've accelerated back to full speed, you'll have lost a few seconds time.
A few seconds is all that's needed to be bumped down several spaces on the global leaderboards, so that's a punishment in itself if you're aiming for being nothing but the best. But, if that's your aim, you're already wasting your time, since there are apparently people who've cleared the levels in as little as 0'00''00!
Yes, I do realise that those records are hacked. It's pretty obvious.
Enough ranting though. Now, I'm going to get back to working on my essay on 'implementation of Dungeons & Dragons-systems in officially licensed D&D video games.'
Which basically means that I'll get back to playing Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon and get started with playing Baldur's Gate. Sometimes, homework is kind of awesome.
That's all for now, take care and play games!
/ Marcus
Some might've noticed that in the comments for a previous post, I promised Mii that I'd make another blog post before new years. As usual, I'm a bit behind schedule. Sorry about that!
Anyhow, this is mostly gonna be a mirrored post from my recently launched website; Perpetual Diversion! Perpetual Diversion is my sort of professional alias, my 'game company' (although it consists currently of just me alone.) There you'll find my recent projects, such as games or texture work and similar stuff and there's also another blog on there which you can follow. On there, I'll post anything that's related to my projects, or random rants such as the one I posted yesterday. Also, if a blog post from the Perpetual Diversion blog makes for a good mirror post on here, I'll copy it over and vice versa.
Enough chatter though, go visit my website, enjoy the awesomeness, and leave me feedback if you want! I very much appreciate it. Here's the checkpoint rant from yesterday's PerDiv blog post;
I just got back from playing some Pac-Man Championship Edition: DX and some Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.
PCEDX is a great example of an old game receiving a complete overhaul in design, while still retaining most of the core elements and goals (and adding new ones.) I'll admit that I am a very, very shitty Pac-Man player, but Championship Edition DX is so thoroughly redesigned that you don't need to be good at the original Pac-Man to be pretty decent at scoring a good amount of points. I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking to pick up a Live Arcade game that can be easily picked up and played occasionally, while still being interesting enough to keep you occupied for hours as well.
Sonic 4: Episode 1 on the other hand, goes back to the series' roots and looks to recreate the feeling of the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles while still being a completely new game, and it succeeds at it in most aspects. This is not going to be an in-depth review of it, but there are a few things worthy of mention, those things being awkward movement physics (that are much too different from the physics of the first three/four Sonic games on MD/G) and an awful abuse of phaser-ish synth instruments in the music. Other than the aforementioned flaws, it actually is a good Sonic game. Levels are very well designed and the game is fun to play.
One major point that is bugging me about the time attack mode though (uh-oh, rant incoming), is that there are no checkpoints. To me, as a player, it is a horrible punishment to have to go back from the very start of the level, should I make just one simple mistake in my effort to beat the level as fast as possible. From a designer point of view, I think it is a bit of a poor decision. Having checkpoints and adding five or ten seconds as punishment when you die would be a lot friendlier. Or, why not even just leave the checkpoints in there? If you restart from a checkpoint, you'll be starting at a full stop anyway, so by the time you've accelerated back to full speed, you'll have lost a few seconds time.
A few seconds is all that's needed to be bumped down several spaces on the global leaderboards, so that's a punishment in itself if you're aiming for being nothing but the best. But, if that's your aim, you're already wasting your time, since there are apparently people who've cleared the levels in as little as 0'00''00!
Yes, I do realise that those records are hacked. It's pretty obvious.
Enough ranting though. Now, I'm going to get back to working on my essay on 'implementation of Dungeons & Dragons-systems in officially licensed D&D video games.'
Which basically means that I'll get back to playing Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon and get started with playing Baldur's Gate. Sometimes, homework is kind of awesome.
That's all for now, take care and play games!
/ Marcus
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