Acid for Blood

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed delivered the main thing I wanted and expected out of this game: to be a super powerful bad ass character that uses Force powers to kill and destroy stuff. I finished it about a month ago on Apprentice and got the Jedi ending.

The game play stayed true to what I experienced in the demo. My main problem with the game play was that sometimes I found myself fighting enemies off screen. This was irritating, however I got used to it. One game play feature I wasn't too keen on was the timed button combinations you needed to execute to do special moves on bosses. I didn't like it in the Resident Evil 4 demo, and I don't like it in this game.

(The following isn't a spoiler because you can see the battle right on the back of the game box.)

An irritating game play moment was the battle with the Imperial Star Destroyer. It was prolonged and tedious after all previous boss fights, which were much faster paced. Having said that, I felt accomplished after I finally brought that thing down.

The graphics were superb on the PS3. I had no complaints at all. The art design looked and felt like Star Wars, though I didn't particularly care for the bright hues of the jungle planet, and the dull metal hues of the junk planet were also not too appealing. However, the two locations did provide a nice contrast to the Imperial levels. I really appreciated all the graphical and artistic details in the game. I really liked Starkiller's costumes. The costumes and clothing in the whole game were really, really cool. Sometimes I would just stop playing and just pan the camera around Starkiller to get a better look at his clothes, and it was the same with the environments. The art team did a great job in bringing the Star Wars universe to life in this game.

The story was not nearly as good as the hype would lead one to believe, but I didn't believe the hype anyway, so I wasn't let down. I should probably play it again to get the Sith ending, and while it is a really fun game, I am feeling a little lazy to do that at the moment. One thing I also would have liked to have seen in the game is the use of Force powers for creation (healing) rather than destruction. Isn't the Force supposed to be able to do both? (Star Wars nerds, please correct me.)

I don't like the fact that the only unlockable characters you can play are male. Why do we get to play as Bail Organa, but not Leia Organa? Bail Organa. He's not that huge of a character in the Star Wars universe compared to Leia Organa. We can unlock and play as a number of different Stormtroopers, but not the other major character in the game, Juno Eclipse? Irritating. What would have been cool is if you could choose your sex and have the two actors play either of the two main roles, depending on which sex you chose. However, I speculate that if they wanted to have this option, it would have incurred additional time and cost, because they'd have to create another combat/animation rig for a female, because the body frame isn't the same, plus they'd have to do everything related to both sexes twice -- clothing, etc. I'm not a game designer, so I'm just guessing.

I also honestly don't see why Starkiller couldn't have been female. The character of Starkiller is pretty much the standard, boring white male with hardly any personality to speak of, which is typical for videogame protagonists. Since he had no personality to start with, they could have had this character be a woman just as easily as a man. The only reason you don't have a choice for gender is because yet again, male is the default and female the afterthought -- or not considered at all. There's no valid reason why Starkiller couldn't have been female. Rather than start off with male as a default, they could have decided at the very, very beginning that Starkiller was a woman.

Details aside, I quite enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Demo: Mirror's Edge

I just finished my first play through the Mirror's Edge demo. My impressions are positive on the whole.

My main problem with Mirror's Edge at the moment is the control scheme learning curve. The transition from 2D platformers to 3D platformers has been difficult for me. I'm actually not that skilled at first person or even third person platform games. The Metroid Prime games, which are in first-person perspective, had very tight controls for the most part, but the more difficult jumping areas frustrated me because I couldn't see my bloody feet. It was the same with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (speaking of which, I need to blog about this), which is a third person perspective game. Bits where I had to jump really far or very precisely caused me stress, and not necessarily the good kind of stress you get when you play games.

I died a lot in the Mirror's Edge demo, and it was slightly frustrating. I do need a lot more practice on what the tutorial considers basic moves. Some of them, like the jump-turn-jump move, which is a wall jump that changes direction, were really difficult for me. The part where I failed/died the most was the part of the tutorial area where you had to walk on a pipe that stretches across a wide gap. To balance, you had to tilt the controller or use the left analogue stick. I couldn't figure out how to balance using the analogue stick, so I just titled the controller. It was still difficult. I got slightly pissed off. Having said that, although I feel the learning curve is a little steep, I do think that I will attain a passable proficiency with practice. I felt accomplished when I successfully completed moves as instructed by the tutorial.

The graphics are really superb. I really like them. I haven't seen too many people yet, just an NPC and some enemies, but they look really well done. The environments and structures are really awesome looking. I love how the city looks. It kind of reminds me of the city in Ghost in the Shell, but a hell of a lot cleaner. The level was played in the day time. I hope there's a night time level outside, because I would love to see the city all lit up at night. The graphical detail is really impressive.

I couldn't tell much about character design in general from the few characters I saw, but what I did see, I liked. I really like that Faith, the character you play, and the other Runner, Celeste, are dressed in fairly practical clothing for what they do. They're wearing clothes that you may expect to find people wearing if they run and jump around on rooftops, delivering packages and trying to avoid police.

The music was fairly low key. It's modern electronica type music, which I like. It fits the atmosphere of a futuristic city. At the fast-paced bits, music played at a fast tempo. For the most part, there either wasn't music, or it was too unobtrusive for me to notice.

The user interface is almost non-existent. There is no health bar. You have a small aiming reticule, but you hardly notice it. I suppose Runner Vision, which allows you to see objects that you can use to help you navigate obstacles, could be considered a user interface of some kind. I had a look at the game options menu, and you can set distances to be displayed in Metric or Imperial values, but I didn't see any information displayed in the game play screen. Maybe this is a function of the full version?

Speaking of Runner Vision, it's an essential part of the game. I'd be exceedingly frustrated without it. It's helpful to see suggested routes and objects you could potentially use, though not all the objects that you can interact with are marked with Runner Vision, as I discovered through experimentation. Only the most obvious and required routes seem to be marked with Runner Vision.

Combat is pretty fun. I fought some hostiles, and managed to disarm them handily, though I did die a few times. They had guns, and I didn't. I think I prefer not using weapons. After I disarmed enemies, I dropped the guns rather than hold on to them.

The other Runner you interact with in the tutorial and introductory level, Celeste, seems interesting. Far less interesting so far is your character's mentor or guide, Mercury. Merc will probably annoy me just as much as Adam annoyed me in Metroid Fusion. Adam was one of the big reasons that Metroid Fusion is one of my least-liked Metroid games. Merc seems to serve the purpose of herding you through zones, and telling you to hurry up when you would rather he fucking shut up so you can practice and learn how to use the bloody contols.

You don't learn much about Faith at all during the demo, though by the end of it, there are hints of her being embroiled in something large. The tutorial starts off with Merc telling you that you need to practice your basic skills, because you're just coming out of convalescence after a particularly nasty fall. After the tutorial, there's an intro level. You start off with what is supposed to be a fairly routine delivery hand-off to Cel, but at the end of it, the police are chasing you down and trying to kill you. I was intrigued and wanted to continue playing. The plot is fairly linear, but this is not a problem for me at all. I enjoy games with strong linear narratives. I hope the story is as interesting as the trailers and demo make it seem.

I'm probably going to play the demo a few more times. I'm definitely getting the full version in November. I've already pre-ordered it, and decided to splash out for the expensive, but awesome limited bundle which includes an ultra limited Timbuk2 messenger bag. If you know anything about messenger bags, which I do because my brother is one of those cycling fanatics and he knows a lot about outdoor gear and apparel (and I have absorbed some knowledge), you know that Timbuk2 are pretty highly regarded in the messenger bag world because of their bags' durability and functionality.

I'm looking forward to playing Mirror's Edge, but I am probably not going to play it until December if my discipline holds out, because I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month. This also means I won't be playing Animal Crossing: City Folk or Chrono Trigger DS until December, either.

A Cursory Look at Aion

First on my hit list of things to see at PAX was easy enough to accomplish. The game was being demo-ed at the shared ArenaNet/NCsoft booth. I got a chance to briefly play Aion: The Tower of Eternity to help test it before the NCsoft booth opened. It's a very other-worldly, very beautiful game. I think the art style is fabulous, though many of the female characters' costumes leave something to be desired (like more clothing, for instance). Flight is fun. I didn't have much time to try out aerial combat, but what I did experience piqued my interest. The ground combat was familiar MMORPG-style combat. I'll continue to keep an eye on Aion. Oh snap!

I'm fairly sure I won't be able to see anything tomorrow, but let's cross our fingers.

Demo: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I downloaded the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for my PS3 a couple of weeks ago, and it certainly looked exciting. The graphics were very cool, the music was all awesome and Star Wars-like, the story seemed intriguing, and the voice acting was pretty good (particularly the love interest of the main character -- I love English accents!). To be honest, this game hasn't been on my radar for the longest time, apart from knowing that Tara worked on it. For the past month or so, I've become increasingly aware of the marketing effort behind the game. I also share my flat with a super, super hardcore Star Wars fan who knows absolutely everything about the films and reads every single Star Wars novel in existence. So, I started paying closer attention to the marketing and to what people were saying about it. Twyst seemed excited about it in particular, too, and she reminded people yesterday on the Iris forums that the Force Unleashed demo was out.

I downloaded the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo for the PS3 earlier tonight. I started with the tutorial that teaches you how to control your Force powers. Ater that, I played through it twice on Apprentice, the easiest difficulty level. I thought about playing it on Sith Lord, which is normal difficulty, but I decided against it. I just wanted to get into the game and get started without too steep of a learning curve. If there's anything that discourages me from playing a game, and which makes me put down the controller and leave it for a different game, it's my impatience at having to learn a brand new set of control standards and conventions for every new game I play. I like Star Wars, but the only other Star Wars game I've played is Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II for the GameCube. That game was bloody hard for me, and a little discouraging, so I didn't want to go down that path again for this Star Wars game.

The game play was fun and forgiving. I thoroughly enjoyed hurling objects at people, cutting people down with my lightsaber, and generally causing mayhem -- oh yes, and completing the objectives of the demo. The controls were relatively easy to pick up, and I never felt overwhelmed from enemy attacks whilst I was getting the hang of what all the buttons do. My impressions of this game are favourable after having played the demo. I didn't know much about this game a month or two ago, but now I'm planning on buying it.

Spoilers for the demo follow below in my more detailed impressions, so don't read on if you care about that sort of thing.

The title screen prompts you to start the game, and the scene opens with a black screen and a short voiceover -- an exchange with Darth Vader and I guess your character's father. The scene fades into the image of a young, white male human -- that's you -- kneeling before Darth Vader. You can't choose your gender or customise your appearance, because it's not that kind of game. However, I daresay I would have liked to have chosen my gender. Anyway, so you're kneeling in front of Vader. He congratulates you on completing this stage of your training as his (secret) apprentice, and that he has a job for you. He tells you to go to this Imperial factory, where Rebel forces have started attackin, to kill a Jedi and bring back his lightsaber. Your character is all eager and such to go off and massacre Jedi and I suppose prove himself to Darth Vader. Vader adds that he doesn't want the Emperor learning of your shenannigans, so you have to kill everyone, Imperials included. Those knowledgable in basic Star Wars lore know that Darth Vader and the Emperor are on the side of the Empire. The plot thickens!

So you're dropped into the factory, and you proceed through it, killing everyone using your Force powers and lightsaber. The game play portion of the demo ends after you've destroyed a mini-boss, an AT-ST. A teaser of the game plays and you're shown cut scenes and game play footage from various locations in the Star Wars universe.

The user interface is unobtrusive. You've got the standard life bar and a another bar that displays your Force power. There is a small map/compass under the life and Force bars. When you use your Force powers, the Force level goes down, but it recharges whenever your powers are not in use. I guess your life bar recharges when the life force of your fallen enemies is drawn into you; green glowy balls flew out of my enemies' corpses and into my body after I killed them. The point is, you don't have to worry too much about dying prematurely or not having enough Force energy to do cool stuff. You are prompted with visual cues whenever you can execute a button combo, and this is easy to understand, though I had to make a couple of attempts before successfully completing the sequence to destroy the AT-ST.

There are a few ways that you can use the Force to your advantage in battle. You can levitate objects and throw them at people, or you can use the Force to throw people around (the results are hilarious, because they scream so nicely). You can emit a telekinetic wave of force from your body to blow open doors or smash objects. You can use Force lighting to send jolts of electricity through people and objects. You can also use your lightsaber in combination with your Force powers to throw it and have it return to you. Apparently there are button combinations you can press to execute other awesome moves.

It's probably worth mentioning that I'm playing it on an HDTV. I have to say that I'm probably not the best person to do graphics comparisons between games on the PS3, as the only three games I currently own are Metal Gear Solid 4, Rock Band, and SingStar. Having said that, visually, The Force Unleashed looks great. Everything on the screen was so sharp and crisp. The reflections and details were very nice. It was great to be able to differentiate between different surface textures -- for example, the difference between Darth Vader's shiny helmet and Darth Vaders less shiny -- but not quite cloth -- costume. Oh, and the main character's grown-out shaved hair looks pretty realistic, which is cool.

Movement and collision were pretty awesome. I had a lot of fun throwing metal crates, droids, and humans around. What's really cool is that when I reached a bit in the game where I could bend a metal bulkhead to create an obstruction in the path of a passing TIE Fighter, the metal bent differently every time. There didn't seem to be one set way I could bend it.

I can't really say much about the enemy AI, except that I noticed that sometimes they weren't in the same places when I played through the second time. They didn't seem to follow set patrol routes, apart from the TIE Fighters and the AT-ST and its support troops. For example, the first time I played, I smashed through this metal door, and I saw a Stormtrooper right inside, being fired upon by Rebels. The next time I played through, I expected it to be there, but it wasn't. It was a similar case with some of the enemy positioning throughout the levels. Most of the time, they were generally in the same places, but since I guess they were fighting each other before I came into the room, of course they'd be moving around. Maybe my impression of them is more intelligent than they actually are?

I have no complaints about the audio effects, the music, or the voiceovers. I was very impressed with the voice acting. The sounds effects were all true to Star Wars, from what I could tell, too. I didn't find anything that stood out about the music, which I guess is good. I'd probably get a better impression of the music in the full version.

The level design was easy to understand. You were definitely herded into a particular direction, but it didn't feel too confining. I like exploring every single corner of a level, so I took my time to kill every single Imperial and Rebel in my second play through the demo.

Overall, this was a fun demo, and I'm looking forward to the full version.

Metal Gear Solid 4: I’m Doing It!

A couple weeks ago, one of the first things I did after moving to the area (the very day I moved to the area, actually) was to go to my local GameStop and pre-order the limited edition version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (as well as the limited edition strategy guide because the Sales Associate asked me and I'm a big sucker for MGS books with pretty pictures and words in them). This is a very odd thing to do because not only do I not even own a PlayStation 3 (or a television, but that's another story), I haven't even properly played Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. MGS4 is the sequel (in terms of the storyline) to MGS2. Why do this? Why get the game when I don't have the console? Nostalgia for MGS1, mainly.

If I'm reaching for compelling arguments that dropping $500 for a games console is a good idea, it's because there are a bunch of PS3-exclusive games on the horizon that I'd like to play, including MGS4. For example, though I don't really play the Final Fantasy games, FFXIII is looking pretty intriguing. The next game set in the world of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus is going to be a PS3 exclusive. I also want to play Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War, which is a completely historically inaccurate (Mages? During the Hundred Years War? Really?) hack-n-slash game that didn't get super good reviews (now that I take a look). However, I played it at a friend's house and it was a lot of mindless fun. Oh and there's Tekken 6 (and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection). I love me those Tekken games, even though I'm not super good at them. It's not PS3 exclusive, but I'm also dying to have Rock Band.

The 80 GB PS3s have been phased out of retail. The only PS3s currently available in stores are the 40 GB versions without PS2 backwards compatibility. The 80 GB PS3s feature backwards compatibility through software emulation, which is not ideal, however limited backwards compatibility is better than none at all. There are rumours that the 80 GB PS3 will be phased out completely, to be replaced with a 120 GB or even a 160 GB version at the same price point. There is no word on whether this verson will be backwards compatible, but it's a safe bet since the 40 GB model lacks that feature. Perhaps it's better to wait for the one with the larger hard disk, but is it worth the wait when I could be playing MGS4 at launch?

Even if I don't get a PS3 in June (Those things are expensive; maybe I'll just get a Wii), I will still have a copy of MGS4 Limited Edition. With the special artbook. I also got my Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD pre-order bonus the other day. It's currently comfortably nestled amongst boxes of CalorieMate and some Japanese promotional material for Metal Gear Solid games. All of these items are temporarily housed on the mantle above my fireplace. It's kind of a Metal Gear Solid shrine because -- why not? Besides, my flat is still cluttered with boxes and I haven't yet had time to decorate it properly. So in the event that I don't buy a PS3, I'll at least be able to read the artbook and look at the DVD. Sigh.

Oh, by the way, Naked Snake (from MGS3: Snake Eater) was right: CalorieMate really is damn good.

Filthy Hobbitses

About a month ago, I was seriously considering getting back into World of Warcraft. Even though there are so many things I dislike about the game, most of which stemmed from being on a PvP server, there are also many things that I like about it. I stopped playing almost a year ago, but I was never very hardcore. My Warlock only got up to level 34, and although I desperately wanted my Felsteed (the level 40 mount) so I could ride about on this demonic black horse with flaming eyes and hooves, getting ganked so often ticked me off to no end. The plan for getting back into WOW would have involved transfering my Human Warlock to a PvE ("Normal") server getting her the mount, then creating an Undead (or Blood Elf) Warlock and having the Horde character as my main. I have never liked the Alliance. The only reason I had a Human character was because the people I was playing with a year ago were Alliance, so I never got to play the character I truly wanted to play. However, monthly subscription fees deter me from starting up the game again unless I know I can devote a lot of time to it.

A friend has recently given me access to his spare/unused Founder's account on Lord of the Rings Online. I played in the LOTRO beta earlier this year, and I liked the game. The level of grind, to me, seemed to be similar to WOW, but it was more palatable. In LOTRO, at least you earn titles for all the grinding you do. I created an Elf Loremaster on the server. I really liked the class when I played. The plan as of now is to hang about Middle Earth for a while, as well as hang around Tyria (Guild Wars).

The Bonus Mission Pack in Guild Wars came out last week, and I haven't had a spare moment to play it yet. Shocking for a Guild Wars Super Fan, I know! I do still have Portal to finish, and I'm not sure how long I can fend off spoilers at work. I'm just so busy these days!

Portal + Half-Life 2 = ?

I now have both Portal and Half-Life 2 due to the generosity of colleagues, Toktic and Artaxs. Artaxs gave me Half-Life 2 on Monday, explaining that I was the only one of his friends on Steam who did not already own the game. He had just bought the Orange Box and he had a spare Steam gift to give. Upon my return to the office on Tuesday, I discovered a Hallowe'en/Christmas gift on my desk from Toktic -- a bit of cash to purchase Portal. Hurrah! Thank you both!

I have both games installed on my computer now. I took each for a short spin, just to make sure the settings were all right. It's been difficult to avoid Portal spoilers. Not only has it been difficult, it has been annoying. Soon I will discover what everyone is talking about. I'm planning on finishing Portal before November, though Half-Life 2 will have to wait till later for more intense gaming.

Hellgate: London Beta Impressions

Likes

• Lots of action -- Fighting is satisfying.
• Great graphics -- Despite my hardware's age what I see of the graphics does not detract from my game experience.

Dislikes

• Storyline was not compelling enough -- This the deal breaker for me. The sense of urgency in Hellgate: London felt contrived. Players are dropped into the story. I didn't feel any affinity for my character or for the London that Flagship studios created.
• Inflexible skill trees -- You can't even pay money to re-allocate your Skill points. I understand that this is the same as it was in Diablo, but you know I've never played Diablo. Am I spoiled by Guild Wars's flexibility in this respect? Probably.

Conclusion

If you enjoy action, Hellgate: London is probably worth investigating. Hellgate: London is great for those who want FPS-lite, since the gun-wielding Classes are less demanding to play than in full-on FPS games. Anyone who loved Diablo will probably find Hellgate: London enjoyable. If you don't need to feel strongly attached to your characters, to the story, or to the location, Hellgate: London is probably worth a look, too.

I stress that I played the beta version for a total of about five hours. There were no cinematic cut scenes in the beta. Flagship Studios reports that they will be adding a lot of content on the October 31 release date, so take the information in this post with a grain of salt. It's possible that the added content in the full version may make the game more immersive for me, but what I've played of it isn't enough to convince me to buy it.

Portal or Hellgate?

A friend of mine showed me Portal last night. I may have to get it. Portal is annoyingly packaged in a compilation called "The Orange Box" which contains other games that I don't care about. Really, should I care about the three Half-Life 2 games in The Orange Box when I've never played Half-Life 1? I don't play FPSs, so I'm not particularly interested in Team Fortress 2, either.

Apparently I can download Portal from Steam for $20. My list of games I can purchase for the remainder of the year only includes Hellgate: London, so I will have to make a trade if I want Portal. I haven't played the Hellgate: London beta in a couple of weeks, and internet people tell me that there's a new build. I'll see what this new build is like and then make my decision.

By the way, I joined this new-fangled Steam Community. If you want to add me to your Steam friends list (or any other game-related friends list), my user ID is located on my Contact page on this blog.

WarBook

I just started playing WarBook the other day. WarBook is a Facebook application in which you create a hero, select what type of hero it will be (character class), and build a kingdom and army to conquer other lands. You can set up trade agreements with other players, but your character class limits how many agreements you can have. You can also join an alliance/guild, which is composed of a number of different kingdoms/players.

As you can imagine, WarBook is rife with griefing. People who are more than twice your level will regularly bombard you with attacks because you're an easy mark. Knowing this, I decided to make my Hero a Visionary, the defensive character class. The Visionary has a 25% reduction in casualties when attacked by an enemy kingdom, and it is 25% cheaper for the Visionary to acquire new lands when compared with the costs for other character classes. So, if I lose lands to an invading force, I can recover those lands a lot cheaper than other classes. Each class has an Elite warrior type, and the Visionary's Elite has the highest defensive score compared to other classes' Elites.

My kingdom has been attacked on a daily basis pretty much since Level 2. One particular Level 5 Magician has been pummeling me with multiple attacks per day since I hit Level 2, but I've been able to withstand the onslaught. However, since my attack score is weak, I haven't been retaliating. I want to level up a bit more so I can be sure any attack on this fool will be painful.

If you're on Facebook and would like some diversion during the day, check it out. If you're one of my Facebook friends, please send me a message so I can send you a WarBook invitation, cos then my kingdom gets gold for inviting you. *grins*

EDIT: So apparently there might be level restrictions on attacking rival kingdoms now. I asked a higher level friend of mine to attack this guy, and he couldn't attack.