Unimaginative Creativity

Opinion ~ Sonic Unleashed

2009-02-17T11:46:00.010-06:00

Okay, so you may consider this a bit late, but I've simply been too busy with other stuff in my life to game like I used to. Trust me, if I wasn't as busy as I've been, I would have gotten this game the second it was released.

I'm a huge fan of the Sonic series. The first video game that ever really grabbed my attention was Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and the first game console I had was a Sega Genesis ... with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. It was most of my life growing up. I stopped following the series so religiously at Sonic Adventure, mostly because at the time the thought of Sonic going 3-D almost offended me. (Now, of course, I love the Sonic Adventure titles.)

For those of you who have played the stupidly-named 360 title, Sonic the Hedgehog, you can understand why someone would have the low expectations I had for this title ... until I played the demo.

For whatever ridiculous reason, it was the end of January when I finally played the demo to this game, and holy crap, was I surprised! Could this be the new Sonic title I've been waiting for? It was so fast-paced and didn't seem buggy in the least. It was so surreal. "Could this really be happening?" I wondered.

"I mean, Sonic the Hedgehog (360) wasn't as bad as everyone said, but it still was pretty crappy. Still worse, though, were Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes. Can I find anything about this game to complain about? I mean, this is just one of the hedgehog levels. Will the werehog levels be as bad as everyone was saying?" (Yes, I was at least a little informed about this game before playing the demo. I'm not completely out of the loop ... yet.)

Since I was at a friend's house, I put down the controller after playing the one daytime level once through, and decided I was to buy this game. The very next week, the game was in my hands ... thanks to money I had set aside for Street Fighter IV. (I still can't believe how sudden that move was ...)

Anyway, upon playing the game until I got to a werehog level, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to play the ultra-fast-paced hedgehog levels for the time being. "Oh, well," I thought. "At least I have more of them to look forward to."

So, on with just getting through the werehog level it was.

* a while later ... *

"Whoa! This is actually pretty friggin' sweet. Sure, it's Dynasty Warriors meets Prince of Persia, but it's pretty awesome."

I was in a button-mashing frenzy. X, X, X, X, X, X, X ...

... X, Y, A, X, Y, X, X ...

... X, X, X, X, A -- "Whoa, waitaminute ..."

All I saw was me in mid-air before slamming to the ground. Without even really knowing for sure what had happened, I joked to my friend by saying, "Shoryuken!".

"Oh, well. Maybe I'll figure out what it was that I did." X, X, X, X, X, X, X ...

... X, Y, A, X, Y, X, X ...

"Wait, I think there's a command list somewhere ... Wait, here. 'Skills.' This must be it."

When my eyes came upon the name of the third move on the list, I stopped. I don't mean just my body stopped moving; I mean my heart, my brain, and everything stopped simultaneously. I ceased to function at all as I slumped to the ground into a ball of nothingness.

"Sho-hog-ken: Y, Y, A"

What ... the ...

Seriously. The move I had done was actually called the "Sho-hog-ken." Sonic places a claw above his head just before jumping, then crushing his enemies below.

"Sho-hog-ken." I just can't believe they went there. "Sho-HOG-ken." Couldn't they have gone with the more obvious (at least to English speakers) "Hog-dou-ken"? Guess not ...

Anyway, the werehog levels aren't all that bad. In fact, they keep me entertained, and add a bit of variance to the gameplay that makes the hedgehog levels that much more awesome. Now, if only the hedgehog levels weren't over in a few minutes when the werehog levels take about a half hour, I'd be 100% happy with it. If I don't get sidetracked by Street Fighter IV (which I probably will ...) I'll post a follow-up to this soon. If I do happen to get to Street Fighter IV first, rest assured that there will be a follow-up post to this. I guarantee it.

(By the way, take the time to pay attention the opening cinematic. Even if you don't care about the story, look at how amazing the graphics are. It's ridiculous.)

Rhetoric ~ Sonic and the Black Knight

2009-02-10T23:19:00.005-06:00

Normally I'd rant on a topic such as this, but seeing as this screwed my mind beyond repair, I'll just do this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_and_the_Black_Knight

/facepalm

Rhetoric ~ That Blasted D-Pad ...

2009-02-10T15:11:00.007-06:00

If you've read any previous blog posts of mine, you've probably noticed that I have an extreme dislike for the D-Pad on the 360.

Why?

Well, if you've ever tried playing Street Fighter on XBLA, you've probably realized that throwing a Hadouken at will is far too difficult of a task using the D-Pad on the 360's controller. I think I can get a better success rate on my Hadoukens on an NES controller. Even just going through menus on the dashboard can be painful at times. No one should have to stand for that. Why are we having problems in this generation of consoles on something that's been around for decades? It's ridiculous.

With Street Fighter 4 only a week away and Tekken 6 releasing ... um, hopefully before the Apocalypse, I'm seriously thinking about modding the D-Pad to at least one of my 360 controllers. After doing a lot of research (by a lot, I mean seven minutes during my break at work) I've decided that this will be the method to attempt:

http://www.ufighterx.com/guides/videogame/360dpadfix/360dpadfix.htm

Of course, while the controller's apart, I might as well paint it or apply vinyl to it, right? That's something I'm still undecided on. If I actually get off of my sorry behind and do this, perhaps I'll let you in on the progress, although knowing me, it's pretty doubtful. (Please get off your butt, lazy 'tard, and fix your D-Pads ...)

Anticipation ~ Street Fighter IV

2009-02-02T10:09:00.006-06:00

I'm all over this like a Shoryuken to Sagat. Seriously.

Capcom seems to be acting as if Street Fighter III never happened, which is probably for the best. If you haven't been looking up screenshots and videos to this game, you owe yourself far too much to imagine.

The game is like the Street Fighter EX series in that it's rendered in 3D, but is played like a 2D fighter. The real difference here is that Street Fighter IV doesn't suck. It feels smooth like good old Super Street Fighter II Turbo did, and it does, in fact, look like that's the game from which this gameplay is based. What is new to Street Fighter IV are the "Focus Attacks" and "Ultra Combos".

By pressing MP (Medium Punch) and MK (Medium Kick) simultaneously, you can perform a counter move called a "Focus Attack". You can make a focus attack stronger by holding MP and MK longer, which can cause your opponent to crumple to the ground, allowing you to get a free hit. Hold MP and MK even longer, and the focus attack becomes unblockable.

The "Revenge Gauge", instead of filling when you attack, fills as you take damage. This gauge powers your "Ultra Combos", which are just like Ultra Combos in Killer Instinct, or old Level 3 Super Combos of Akuma, Sakura and Skullomania, just long, cinematic combos. Not much more to explain there.

An achievement list for Street Fighter IV has been released. Check it out.

This game will be made available for the 360, PS3, and PC. Again, a fighting game I'll want on 360 ... except for the 360's horrendous D-Pad. Seriously, why are there so many games coming out that make me hate the 360's directional pad more than I already do? The good news is that there will be Street Fighter IV controllers made ...

... by Mad Catz.

Seriously, why Mad Catz? They haven't made a single good product since their PS1 controllers, but that's another story altogether.

Also, arcade sticks are being made for the game. They look pretty sweet and are made ...

... by Mad Catz.

All right, seriously. These things had better not suck, because I'm probably going to buy one. I'm really starting to think I should just buy a PS3 and not worry about these D-Pad woes.

Anticipation ~ Legends of Zork

2009-01-30T16:12:00.009-06:00

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
>introduce post

Hello, sailor, and welcome to my first blog post in too friggin' long! If you haven't gotten any references yet, I shall turn you into a mallard! Yozozzo!

For those of you who were just threatened to have to waddle the rest of your lives (and didn't happen to bring a mirror or any other shiny object along with you) I am talking about Zork.

Zork, originally MIT hacker jargon for an unfinished program, was one of the first interactive fiction computer games. If you've ever played any of those FMV point and click adventure games, think of that, but with absolutely no graphics. That's right, the original Zork games were in pure text. You were described your surroundings and what items you could interact with, and you typed instructions to the game like "go west" (which could be shorted to simply "w") or "kill troll with sword". Being purely text, the games had a certain charm because you had to use your imagination. Infocom, the company that made the Zork games, made a slew of these text adventures, including Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

After the phase of text adventures, Infocom was bought out by Activision. The last Zork game released under the Infocom name also happened to be the first adventure graphical game in the series, Return to Zork.

Return to Zork was actually the first game in the Zork series that I had the privilege of playing. It was a CD-ROM based game, which at the time was, believe it or not, state-of-the-art. The opening cinema starts out showing the familiar white house and drops you off just outside the Valley of Sparrows that was. This game was notorious for punishing the player extremely harshly for doing things he/she didn't even realize was wrong at the time. The first screen can even render the game unbeatable if you don't dig up the bonding plant with your knife. If you cut it, it dies, and if you miss it, you can't tell your jokes later at the comedy club. As unforgiving as this game was, it was a huge enough part of my childhood for me to care about the Zork series today.

Activision made two more Zork games afterwards, Zork Nemesis, and Zork: Grand Inquisitor, the former of which, I never got a chance to play, but I understand it's Zork with a darker twist to it. Z:GI was over-the-top silly, and a blast to play. This time you're given a name (well, sorta). Known as "Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally-Ambiguous Adventure Person" (AFGNCAAP for short) you're given a spell book, which adds some pretty cool dimension to the gameplay. The game's puzzles aren't as ridiculous and unforgiving as Return to Zork (thankfully) and you're given a goal early on in the game. Obtain the Coconut of Quendor, the Cube of Foundation, and the Skull or Yoruk before Mir Yannick, the Grand Inquisitor.

Zork: Grand Inquisitor was released in 1997, and Activision has been wasting its rights to Zork until this very month. Legends of Zork has been announced to be a casual browser-based MMO. Check out the game's official webpage and sign up for the mailing list to know straight from the source when the game is ready to go.

Opinion ~ Guitar Hero: World Tour, pt. 1

2008-10-27T15:05:00.008-05:00

Wow.

I started off playing this thing with a couple friends, me on drums. It took a while to get used to the two cymbals being the second and fourth columns, leaving the first, third, and fifth columns for the pads. Before I mention any more about that ...

HOLY CRAP, THE PADS HAVE BOUNCE TO THEM!

I can actually play these pads almost exactly like a real drum. They feel like practice pads. You have no idea how happy this makes me. I had a little trouble with the green pad needing to be beaten to death to respond sometimes, but other than that the experience was amazing. I played the things for upwards twelve hours yesterday.

The guitar, simply put, is plastic sex. The strum bar feels like that of the original Rock Band guitar, but still clicks like all other unmodded Guitar Hero guitars. The huge bridge-positioned back button is great for control over star power usage to ensure hitting paths, but the start buttons sometimes accidentally get hit, which is not cool, but I imagine they'll move those away from the back button next time.

As far as the charts, guitar parts now have offset holds, meaning you'll have to hold one fret button down while playing other notes. Bass charts now have open notes, which are displayed like kick pedal hits on the drums and played by strumming with no fret buttons held down. Drum parts have accented notes, but I'm always hitting the drums hard enough to hit them.

The music selection in this game is amazing. Playing drums, though, makes me hate the Willie Nelson song because the entire song (until the last few measures) is just 16th notes on the snare. Also, I could've done without No Sleep till Brooklyn, but of course, I'm biased. I hate The Beastie Boys.

Rhetoric ~ Tekken 6 ... now on XBox 360?

2008-10-20T10:07:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this one.

I don't own a PS3, but planned on getting one before Tekken 6 came out. (Tekken is my game, after all.) Well, now I feel like I don't have to worry about it as much, because it'll be on a console I already own, the XBox 360.

Sure, I can get my achievements from it now, but the D-Pad on the 360 is ... horrendous. Pressing forward on the pad can result in moving forward, jumping forward, or crouching forward. It's just way too sensitive. The Playstation controller is much better suited to fighting games, which is why I'd truly rather even have Soul Calibur 4 on the PS3 as well ...

Well, apparently Microsoft is working on a new controller with an improved D-Pad. One can only hope the pad will be as responsive as Sony's D-Pad.

I'll probably end up buying it for both consoles since I am a fanboy and all, and I am looking forward to the gamerscore boost. (Please, Tekken 6, don't suck on the 360 ...)

Opinion ~ Monster Madness, pt. 2

2008-10-14T23:51:00.006-05:00

Okay, so not only have I figured out how much easier this game is with two people, but now I see that this game isn't as difficult as I first perceived at all. Of course, I'm only playing on the Thriller difficulty, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the second hardest of four difficulties.

Also, I figured out that I was wrong about having to complete the entire first chapter before turning the console off. Once you've completed a level, it's saved, but the menus don't make it so clear. You have to first select the chapter, then whatever level you want to play. Go, me. Oh, and Granny is hella easy with two people and molotov cocktails. Yeah.

I suck.

Anyway, I've got a printed list of acheivements and an XBox 360 MU now, so my friend and I have been going through this game trying to get as much gamerscore out of this as possible. I found out the hard way that if your partner gets an acheivement both of you would normally get, but you happen to be dead at the time, you don't get the points. Yeah, it sucks. I've actually worked on the game more than he has, yet he has more points.

Again, I suck.

If I have problems with acheivements in Tekken 6, there's something horribly wrong in the world. Yes, I'm cocky about my Tekken skills. I mean, I've gotta have something, right? Other than Tekken, I suck, as we all know.

Opinion ~ Monster Madness

2008-10-05T03:28:00.009-05:00

This is a game that I wanted to get the day it came out, but couldn't justify paying full price for. A few days back, I found it new for $20, so I decided to give it a try. I mean, come on. It's called Monster Madness, for crying out loud. Monster Madness. How could you possibly get any more straightforward than that?

Seeing as the sword seemed like the best weapon for me, I picked Carrie as my character. While playing the first of the game, I was able to, on "Thriller" difficulty, just hack my way through with only the melee weapon. The game at first, although oddly satisfying, seemed a bit too easy.

That is, until I came across a boss so cross, I was at a loss. That boss was...

Granny.

Seriously. Granny is where the game goes from too easy to be much of a challenge to being so damn hard that you wish you hadn't taken all that Viagra. It's kinda dumb, but the evil Granny is the wake-up call that it takes to realize that this game isn't exactly child's play. Seriously, this hag left me wanting to never eat my vegetables again. At least I got an achievement out of it:

Did Someone Order Chinese? 15G
"Set Grannies cat shield on fire. (on Thriller or higher)"

The name did make me chuckle, I'll have to admit, but check out the description. I'm a picky freak when it comes to grammar, so "Grannies" aggravates me, I'll be honest. Anyway, I honestly think I should have gotten an achievement sooner, but I guess I just suck. It couldn't have anything to do with the game's achievements being too difficult.

Prowler On The Roof 15G
"Collect all weapon parts in Streets of Suburbia. (on Thriller or higher)"

All right. I have patience, but not that much patience. I mean, I had to complete the entire first chapter in one sitting so when I started the game back up later I could choose the second one. That's patience, trust me. This achievement, needless to say, will not be earned by me, ever.

Anyway, Monster Madness really is an underrated game. It's Zombies Ate My Neighbors if it was made now. The controls were originally really bad, but the game's since been patched and dodging and jumping no longer require the pressing down of the sticks. Yes, that's right. Originally dodging was executed by pressing the left stick while holding it in the direction you wished to dodge in, and jumping was executed by pressing the right stick.

Genius.

Since that's been fixed and I don't have to worry about it, I plan on actually playing through the rest of the game. Although aggravating, it's pretty satisfying. Oh, and the boss of the first chapter is a zombie version of Bob Marley. Hell, yes.

Opinion ~ Magic: the Gathering - Shards of Alara

2008-09-29T17:27:00.007-05:00

Just to let you know, I haven't played a game of Magic in, give or take, a year. A friend of mine offered to pay my way into a pre-release event for the new set, Shards of Alara. Feeling all nostalgic at the offer, I accepted.

Basically, the theme is like Ravnica, only instead of ten two-color guilds, there are five three-color shards. Obviously, in a set with such a theme, you'll have to include some mana-fixing or else the set will be extremely slow in Standard. Well, they did just that. Apart from the "Comes into play tapped" lands that tap for any color of a given shard, there is an Obelisk for each shard. The Obelisks are artifacts that cost three to play and tap for any color of a given shard. There are also some lands that can tap for a colorless or be sacked with one mana to fetch any basic land that taps for a color of the given shard. There's definitely some mana fixing in this set to take care of the theme's three-color shards.

Now, from playing in the sealed tournament I played in, I noticed that even with the mana-fixing, the set is really slow and seems to focus a lot on creatures that cost more to play. Of course, in sealed, it's usually better to focus on the late-game anyway when building decks, so maybe that's the only reason it seemed that way. I'm not into Magic like I used to be, so I didn't really read the spoiler.

All in all, the set seems interesting and well designed as far as balance, but it doesn't seem to be as fun for me for whatever reason as when Onslaught and Mirrodin were coming out. Mirrodin may have been broken as hell, but it was fun as hell. (At least it was to me.)

Opinion ~ Soul Calibur 4

2008-09-24T05:02:00.007-05:00

Okay, so I'm quite the video game enthusiast, especially when it comes to fighting games. Soul Calibur, to me, has always lacked depth. It's the fighting game you play when you want to mash buttons to your heart's content and still have a chance at winning. Sure, I love it to death, but Tekken has always been my domain.

Since Soul Calibur 4 came out, obviously it's been on my list of games to get. I picked it up recently for my 360 and immediately fell in love with the replayability of its various single player modes and the character customization.

I haven't been playing my current generation games like I probably should be, so my current gamerscore is no real indication, but I am quite the acheivement whore. While playing Soul Calibur 4, I couldn't believe all the easy-to-get acheivemets I was unlocking. Of course, I don't want the easiest acheivements in the world, otherwise I would've just bought Avatar: The Last Airbender instead, but I do want acheiveable ones, unlike Guitar Hero 3.

Once I had obtained all the easier to attain points I could from Soul Calibur 4 offline, I decided to play on Live to get the online acheivements the game offers. This is where the problem came in. I quickly noticed that anyone online who was a high level got there through spamming single (relatively safe) moves and taking advantage of some of the game's retarded imbalances. (Yoda, anyone?)

By the time I get to level 20 online, I should be satisfied acheivement-wise for this game online. In the meantime, I get to struggle through scrubs in a game I suck badly enough in that the scrubs win.