Glog: GTA4 and FF7: Crisis Core
Posted: May 14, 2008 Filed under: videogames | Tags: FF7, GTA4, videogames Leave a comment »I must admit that I’m very content with my current gaming options. I am a gadget and gaming whore, so bought a PSP for my birthday with my birthday money instead of using it for all the stuff I really needed. I mostly bought it for FF7: Crisis Core. I loved FF7 and heard good things about Crisis Core so decided, somehow, that this was worth a new system.
I was 100% correct in my purchase. Crisis Core is awesome. The gameplay takes some getting used to, and it sometimes bugs me a little that you don’t earn experience points to level up, but the well-crafted story (again, this is from the perspective of someone who loved FF7), beautiful graphics, and customizable character development (yay for materia!) make it a great game overall. I also really like the mission system that lets you play a short game if you don’t have much time and gives you an additional chance to get phat loot.
GTA4 was another birthday present. I toyed with GTA3 but never got that far into it; I played enough to be know the basics of the series. GTA4 plays a lot like the previous installments to me; I’m sure people better acquainted with the old can, and have (there are too many reviews to link and they’re almost all 10/10 anyway, so there isn’t much reason to read), give a better idea of the differences. Here’s what I like about the game:
- Depth: There are a lot of missions, side missions, friends to make, and girlfriends to bang. You can play this game forever and uncover new angles to your character and to the world in whch he lives.
- Rewards: For someone who likes being rewarded, GTA4 is great. The rewards range from small (some guy likes you more) to huge (an ass-ton of money or guns), but they are always there. Some people complain about the chore of making and keeping friends, but I find the little thumbs up worth the effort.
- Quick play: If you don’t feel like playing for long or don’t have much time, you can turn on GTA4 and do any number of things for 10-15 minutes. You can do something to help your character like the aforementioned making and keeping of friendships, or you can grab a shotgun, shoot a cop, and run like hell. I haven’t used any cheat codes yet, but the use of these is bound to make the latter quick activity all the more fun.
- Story: The story is more than a little played out (handsome immigrant, dark past), but it’s still compelling enough to make you want to figure out what is going to happen next to poor Niko Bellic. Sure, sometimes he does things that are a little weird or seem out of character and sometimes his motivation isn’t entirely clear. It’s no FF7, but it’s still pretty good.
- Graphics: GTA4 looks really nice. I’m no graphics whore, but admit that graphics can add to a game in many ways. In GTA4, it makes the environment (so important to the style and play of the entire GTA series) seem big and real.
I’m only at the second safe house, so I have a long way to go in the story and the game. I’ll be playing for a long while yet, so I’ll keep everyone posted on what else I enjoy/hate about it.
The best part about these two games is play them at the same time. Crisis Core is for the Metro and late at night, while GTA4 is for other times.
Glog: Archery in Phantom Hourglass
Posted: April 10, 2008 Filed under: videogames | Tags: zelda Leave a comment »After about 100 tries, I managed to beat the archery contest in Phantom Hourglass. It is a lot of fun but harder than I thought. Here’s how the game works: the targets appear and move on the top screen and you are on the bottom. You tap the lower screen to shoot your bow. The targets start out moving and then stopping, but later move constantly across the screen. You get more points for hitting targets in a row without missing. You have 70 seconds to beat the high score of 1700. The first couple of times I tried I scored around 500.
Later in the mini-game, the targets you’re supposed to hit (ghosts) are mixed with targets you’re not supposed to hit (girls). My favorite part of the game is when you shoot and miss 3 ghosts, thread the needle, and wail some girl. I also love it when the Metro train lurches causing you to shoot wildly and miss after scoring 1300 points.
I managed to beat the first high score, but there is a second high score of 2000 that my brother claims earns you another heart container. To get that high a score you basically can’t miss a target. I’d love another heart container, but I need a break.
Glog: Phantom Hourglass
Posted: April 2, 2008 Filed under: videogames | Tags: videogames, zelda Leave a comment »After a long hiatus from The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (PH), I picked up the DS the other day to continue Link Jr.’s adventures. Of course I had no idea what to do next. I sailed around for a couple of hours, shot a frog with a cannon, killed some big monster (it was guarding an island; this should have tipped me off to the fact that this island was my destination), broke my fucking salvage arm twice, then finally looked up what I needed to do at Gamefaqs. I use Gamefaqs a lot, but generally try to avoid it until I’ve exhausted my own leads or if I’m pursuing something in the game that isn’t necessary but that I want to do because I’m a completionist (e.g., the last few bugs in Twilight Princess or an extra missile tank or two in any Metroid game or, best example, Chocobo breeding in FF7). I really don’t like to use it when I’m stuck on the plot in a game because the FAQs, while good, often give away plot pieces that I want to discover on my own. I asked my brother for help, but he’s a dickweed and didn’t call me back. I think he’s still mad at me for even playing PH without beating Windwaker first. In the end, I found my way to the Temple of Courage.
It takes a lot of time just to get to the Temple of Courage (especially if you take a month or two off from the game), so I’m glad that the dungeon itself was pretty short. I died a couple of times towards the end because I was exhausted, but generally proceeded smoothly through the Temple.
There is one enemy in the ToC, however, that exemplifies a trend in DS games that I don’t like. There’s a big-eared rabbit thing that requires you to make a noise in the DS microphone to stun so that you can kill it. There are other examples from PH where you have to use the microphone to get an item or kill a monster. I don’t like to use the microphone because of the two places I most often play my DS: on the Metro or in bed at night. When I’m on the Metro with crowds of other people, it’s more than a little embarrassing to be blowing on or clapping at a tiny machine. In bed at night next to my wife, I feel bad waking her up because my video game requires shouting. Now that I think about it, it would probably disturb my dog, too. Let’s just say that yelling at a DS is disturbing all around. But last night I had to kill a couple of these rabbit-eared monsters, so I quietly turned over and blew as softly into my DS as possible. Boy, that is disturbing.
I’m probably headed back to the main temple (the one that kills you just by walking through it) next, which is sure to piss me off. I hate that place, even with more time in my hourglass. It gives me an excuse to go back to the main town and customize my ship, though, which is always fun. I picked up a few new pieces while trying to figure out what to do next, so I’m going to mod that baby up.
Strikers Charged is fun
Posted: August 14, 2007 Filed under: videogames, wii Leave a comment »My predictions about Super Mario Strikers: Charged (SMS:C) were spot on. I had a friend come over this past Saturday and we played for about 5 hours straight, to his great frustration as he only won a single game. Yesterday I played online against my brother and his friend for a couple of hours. Playing competitively on the ladder would take a lot of time (the leader as of yesterday had 100 wins; I have yet to play 20 ladder games in total) and would require dealing with stupid, cheaty moves. I had some great series against my brother. In fact, the last series we had going was quite the nailbiter. I won the first game 7-6 amidst a frenzy of megastrikes by both sides, then my brother came back to win the second game 1-0, with the game’s only goal being scored in the last 15 seconds. Then we got disconnected before we could play the deciding game. It was quite sad, but I wasn’t all that torn up about it (I probably would have lost). The stability of the Nintendo Wi-fi connection has not been that great during these first few weeks of SMS:C, but once Nintendo gets a few more weeks’ experience under their belt and the server load drops in September when school starts stability will probably be less of an issue.
HOLY CRAP!
Posted: July 11, 2007 Filed under: videogames Leave a comment »In what will be hailed as a miracle throughout the khreniverse, I fucking beat Spellcraft: Aspects of Valor for the first time last night. After so many failed attempts, it is an enormous relief to have this win. There are many games out there that I have never beat, though I cannot think of any single one that has haunted me as much as Spellcraft. It could be that the game itself, from a gameplay perspective, is not that challenging, or it could be that I really like this game. Most games I don’t beat because I go through my own personal cycle with them: I get bored and leave the game for enough time to forget my progress. I then come back to the game and decide to start over instead of trying to figure out what to do next to continue my previous attempt. I’ve done this many times with many games. There are very few games that I have stopped playing right at the end simply because I cannot win. Spellcraft was one such game, and now I can scratch it off this black list. I’m so happy.
