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Escape by Newsboys
Hi all. Things are still crazy-busy at work. I had to plan ahead and make use of a couple evenings' worth of free time just to make sure I got this LJ post written. X) Not much to say about life in general, just cruisin' along.
In game dev, I finished up the DynRPG plugin for transforming monsters (along with some bonus manipulations) and released it as DynBattlerChange. Then I decided to switch focus to the Bombercan project for a while. I've managed to get working the basics of spawning a bomb, having it sit there for its designated time, then replacing it with an explosion reaching out in the four cardinal directions. It's not very impressive yet, and doesn't actually do anything to other objects, but it's a decent accomplishment for the little snippets of time I've had to work on it, I think. X)
On NMR, the player of the One-Tail jinchuuriki decided it was time to off the character, so she ran a death plot about going nuts (she'd always been unstable), collapsing the Sunagakure administration dome, and running off to find and exact revenge on her "creator". Serendipitously, while she was planning for that she took part in a mission I ran and absorbed into her sand-body some unknown chemicals from a mutated rat in a burnt-out lab. The sand-body thing is supposed to be an effective defense, and she succeeded in her roll on it, but why ignore a convenient excuse for a tipping point, right? ;) I also took part in the final scene of the plot as Sousa, since she was looking for high-level characters to take her down. It wasn't easy even with her being outnumbered four-to-one, though. X)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:
In many ways, the Metal Gear Solid franchise are the most pretentious games in the history of gaming. X) They keep getting more and more grandiose, dramatic, and reliant on graphical and cinematic wow factor. I wonder if part of the reason for that is that the first game in the series was such a scintillating display (at the time) of the capabilities of the PlayStation, and the fans of the series got into a zealous belief that it was the awesomest thing ever, so as the series went on they had to run with that hype.
Remember how I said Metroid: Other M was a game that wanted to be a movie? Well, MGS4 is the same...but succeeds far more as a movie and significantly less as a game. X) Depending on how much trouble you have with the gameplay, you can spend more time watching cutscenes than actually playing. The cutscenes themselves are admittedly impressive, especially for something rendered in real-time. They're also a tiny bit more than mere passive experiences, occasionally offering the opportunity to hold L1 to see things from Snake's perspective or mash X to see flashback images overlaid on top of the current action. During the mission briefings at the start of each act, you can even control a little robot and have it wander around the carrier plane that serves as the base of operations, and there's actually stuff to find that will be mildly useful during the "full" gameplay segments.
All that said, the plot is a monkey's treasure tangle of bizarre twists, dramatic speeches, and anvilicious symbolism. They address the issue of how grafting Liquid Snake's arm onto his body caused Revolver Ocelot to get taken over by Liquid's will, and it actually does make more sense, but it's still pretty far-fetched. They make references back to previous games in the series, as games, and not-so-subtly guilt the player for thinking of war as a game. And of course, they lean heavily on the fourth wall in other ways, as the series typically does.
So, how about the gameplay? Like I implied, not great. Many of the same problems from MGS3: Snake Eater persist in MGS4, the most grievous being a lack of player perspective on enemy positions and movements. Since the camera follows Snake closely instead of providing a high-vantage overview of the area, you won't know where enemies are until you're almost within their visual range. Good for realism, bad for fun. There are also segments of the game wherein it's virtually impossible to get by without being detected, whether you know what's coming or not. The first act in particular involves navigating the streets of a city IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE, with each side of the conflict typically lining one side and firing across at each other -- until you pass by, at which point you become the primary target of at least one side. X) So, yeah, unless you really care about lessening the game's smug condemnation of you for blasting pixellated representations of people, or (like me) you feel compelled to try for stealth because that's what the series is traditionally supposed to be about, might as well go full Rambo most of the time.
Bottom line? I think most people would actually get more overall entertainment and less frustration by finding a good Let's Play or even just a cutscene compilation on YouTube. X)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves:
It's sort of refreshing to play a game that I can complete within a week amidst all the RPGs and other such time-gobblers. Too bad that means I spend most of my time playing games that aren't like that. X)
Uncharted 2 is, unsurprisingly, very much like the first game in the series -- an action movie-esque cover-based shooter. Even the plot is pretty similar, with our scholarly rogue chasing after historical treasure and finding out it's really something horrific and powerful which he has to destroy before a tyrant gets his hands on it. They do shake things up a bit by introducing an old flame of Drake's, a fellow fortune hunter who comes along for the prize...and then halfway through the game they bump into the love interest from the first game. ;)
I will say they made some subtle improvements to the gameplay. Grenades are easier to use, having their own particular button rather than having to switch active weapon to them. I also found that the distribution of different weapons (remembering that you can only carry one pistol and one larger weapon) seemed more fortuitous to the situations which came after than before, although that could be partly because I was more familiar with what could be most useful. Finally, they contrived a few rather interesting fight situations. In one segment, baddies show up just as you leap over to hang from a street sign, and you wind up using the sign as cover and popping up to fire at them with your pistol. Of course, you do have the option of dropping down and running for more conventional cover, but why not take the unique situation and enjoy it? ;)
Bottom line? Another fun entry, not the greatest game ever by any means, but well worth the time and money.
Finding Teddy 2:
And here we have the game whose trailer made me think I'd want the original Finding Teddy as well. X) Finding Teddy 2 is a love letter to the graphical and gameplay style of the NES era, although it isn't shy about using colors, resolution, and graphical tricks far beyond what the NES is capable of. While the visuals are most definitely and proudly pixel-art, they're rendered with dynamic lighting effects and scaled in and out with the needs of the current environment. It's flippin' good pixel-art too, with lots of vibrant color and smooth animation. Just watching the heroine's dash animation as she blitzes across long stretches of lush environment is strangely satisfying.
In gameplay terms, it's mainly reminiscent of Adventure of Link in that it's a platformer with swordplay. You teleport into a world from a central nexus, explore until you find whatever critical MacGuffins are needed, trade them for access to the world's dungeon area, explore that sector, find an item that increases your general ability-to-traverse-places, beat a boss, lather-rinse-repeat. The control is a little awkward in some ways, particularly in regard to the dash mechanic. It took me quite a while to discover there was a button I could hold (RB on the X-Box 360 controller) to dash rather than double-tapping a direction, and after I did, I wished I could disable the double-tap option -- it too often registers as that when trying to move forward after crouching.
Speaking of, that's the win-all strategy for dealing with most sword-and-shield enemies in the game: crouch and attack to make them defend low, then stand up, move a little closer since your attack will have pushed them away slightly, and hit their head before they stand again. That disappointed me, because the randomized high/low defend/attack of knights in Adventure of Link was the high point of the game for me. Finding Teddy 2's knights are utterly manipulable, and have pretty much perfect defense apart from this one foible.
As the game goes on, some of the other enemies get pretty annoying too. Slimes are abundant and come in several different forms. Eventually you run into one that can turn invincibly electric with very little warning and an annoyingly long duration. Then there's one that leaves a trail of long-burning fire bits wherever it goes, so to kill it you have to wait for it to randomly move to a spot where it hasn't left fire...and then when you do kill it, it explodes in a shower of fire, so you have to run away and wait for that blaze to die out before you can proceed through. >.< The third boss is also annoying erratic, and the fourth is downright obtuse in how you're supposed to deal with it. XP There's an obvious setup for attacking it from above, but it turns out you're supposed to first get in a frontal hit (which registers as "haha I have impenetrable armor there" unless you get it a the verrrrry top of your jumping height at the right moment during his attack swing) and then smash down on it using your new super ability while it holds its shield aloft. Guide Dang It. :P
With all that said, the first two bosses are fun, and the bulk of the gameplay isn't bad, although you'll find yourself traversing the same territory over and over a lot searching for that next crucial item for progress. I would say it's a valiant attempt to capture the old-school charm with an artistically excellent new coat of paint, but it flags about halfway through. Get it if you have the patience and skill for a firmly demanding action platformer which dips occasionally into fake difficulty.
Click to viewHi all. Things are still crazy-busy at work. I had to plan ahead and make use of a couple evenings' worth of free time just to make sure I got this LJ post written. X) Not much to say about life in general, just cruisin' along.
In game dev, I finished up the DynRPG plugin for transforming monsters (along with some bonus manipulations) and released it as DynBattlerChange. Then I decided to switch focus to the Bombercan project for a while. I've managed to get working the basics of spawning a bomb, having it sit there for its designated time, then replacing it with an explosion reaching out in the four cardinal directions. It's not very impressive yet, and doesn't actually do anything to other objects, but it's a decent accomplishment for the little snippets of time I've had to work on it, I think. X)
On NMR, the player of the One-Tail jinchuuriki decided it was time to off the character, so she ran a death plot about going nuts (she'd always been unstable), collapsing the Sunagakure administration dome, and running off to find and exact revenge on her "creator". Serendipitously, while she was planning for that she took part in a mission I ran and absorbed into her sand-body some unknown chemicals from a mutated rat in a burnt-out lab. The sand-body thing is supposed to be an effective defense, and she succeeded in her roll on it, but why ignore a convenient excuse for a tipping point, right? ;) I also took part in the final scene of the plot as Sousa, since she was looking for high-level characters to take her down. It wasn't easy even with her being outnumbered four-to-one, though. X)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:
In many ways, the Metal Gear Solid franchise are the most pretentious games in the history of gaming. X) They keep getting more and more grandiose, dramatic, and reliant on graphical and cinematic wow factor. I wonder if part of the reason for that is that the first game in the series was such a scintillating display (at the time) of the capabilities of the PlayStation, and the fans of the series got into a zealous belief that it was the awesomest thing ever, so as the series went on they had to run with that hype.
Remember how I said Metroid: Other M was a game that wanted to be a movie? Well, MGS4 is the same...but succeeds far more as a movie and significantly less as a game. X) Depending on how much trouble you have with the gameplay, you can spend more time watching cutscenes than actually playing. The cutscenes themselves are admittedly impressive, especially for something rendered in real-time. They're also a tiny bit more than mere passive experiences, occasionally offering the opportunity to hold L1 to see things from Snake's perspective or mash X to see flashback images overlaid on top of the current action. During the mission briefings at the start of each act, you can even control a little robot and have it wander around the carrier plane that serves as the base of operations, and there's actually stuff to find that will be mildly useful during the "full" gameplay segments.
All that said, the plot is a monkey's treasure tangle of bizarre twists, dramatic speeches, and anvilicious symbolism. They address the issue of how grafting Liquid Snake's arm onto his body caused Revolver Ocelot to get taken over by Liquid's will, and it actually does make more sense, but it's still pretty far-fetched. They make references back to previous games in the series, as games, and not-so-subtly guilt the player for thinking of war as a game. And of course, they lean heavily on the fourth wall in other ways, as the series typically does.
So, how about the gameplay? Like I implied, not great. Many of the same problems from MGS3: Snake Eater persist in MGS4, the most grievous being a lack of player perspective on enemy positions and movements. Since the camera follows Snake closely instead of providing a high-vantage overview of the area, you won't know where enemies are until you're almost within their visual range. Good for realism, bad for fun. There are also segments of the game wherein it's virtually impossible to get by without being detected, whether you know what's coming or not. The first act in particular involves navigating the streets of a city IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE, with each side of the conflict typically lining one side and firing across at each other -- until you pass by, at which point you become the primary target of at least one side. X) So, yeah, unless you really care about lessening the game's smug condemnation of you for blasting pixellated representations of people, or (like me) you feel compelled to try for stealth because that's what the series is traditionally supposed to be about, might as well go full Rambo most of the time.
Bottom line? I think most people would actually get more overall entertainment and less frustration by finding a good Let's Play or even just a cutscene compilation on YouTube. X)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves:
It's sort of refreshing to play a game that I can complete within a week amidst all the RPGs and other such time-gobblers. Too bad that means I spend most of my time playing games that aren't like that. X)
Uncharted 2 is, unsurprisingly, very much like the first game in the series -- an action movie-esque cover-based shooter. Even the plot is pretty similar, with our scholarly rogue chasing after historical treasure and finding out it's really something horrific and powerful which he has to destroy before a tyrant gets his hands on it. They do shake things up a bit by introducing an old flame of Drake's, a fellow fortune hunter who comes along for the prize...and then halfway through the game they bump into the love interest from the first game. ;)
I will say they made some subtle improvements to the gameplay. Grenades are easier to use, having their own particular button rather than having to switch active weapon to them. I also found that the distribution of different weapons (remembering that you can only carry one pistol and one larger weapon) seemed more fortuitous to the situations which came after than before, although that could be partly because I was more familiar with what could be most useful. Finally, they contrived a few rather interesting fight situations. In one segment, baddies show up just as you leap over to hang from a street sign, and you wind up using the sign as cover and popping up to fire at them with your pistol. Of course, you do have the option of dropping down and running for more conventional cover, but why not take the unique situation and enjoy it? ;)
Bottom line? Another fun entry, not the greatest game ever by any means, but well worth the time and money.
Finding Teddy 2:
And here we have the game whose trailer made me think I'd want the original Finding Teddy as well. X) Finding Teddy 2 is a love letter to the graphical and gameplay style of the NES era, although it isn't shy about using colors, resolution, and graphical tricks far beyond what the NES is capable of. While the visuals are most definitely and proudly pixel-art, they're rendered with dynamic lighting effects and scaled in and out with the needs of the current environment. It's flippin' good pixel-art too, with lots of vibrant color and smooth animation. Just watching the heroine's dash animation as she blitzes across long stretches of lush environment is strangely satisfying.
In gameplay terms, it's mainly reminiscent of Adventure of Link in that it's a platformer with swordplay. You teleport into a world from a central nexus, explore until you find whatever critical MacGuffins are needed, trade them for access to the world's dungeon area, explore that sector, find an item that increases your general ability-to-traverse-places, beat a boss, lather-rinse-repeat. The control is a little awkward in some ways, particularly in regard to the dash mechanic. It took me quite a while to discover there was a button I could hold (RB on the X-Box 360 controller) to dash rather than double-tapping a direction, and after I did, I wished I could disable the double-tap option -- it too often registers as that when trying to move forward after crouching.
Speaking of, that's the win-all strategy for dealing with most sword-and-shield enemies in the game: crouch and attack to make them defend low, then stand up, move a little closer since your attack will have pushed them away slightly, and hit their head before they stand again. That disappointed me, because the randomized high/low defend/attack of knights in Adventure of Link was the high point of the game for me. Finding Teddy 2's knights are utterly manipulable, and have pretty much perfect defense apart from this one foible.
As the game goes on, some of the other enemies get pretty annoying too. Slimes are abundant and come in several different forms. Eventually you run into one that can turn invincibly electric with very little warning and an annoyingly long duration. Then there's one that leaves a trail of long-burning fire bits wherever it goes, so to kill it you have to wait for it to randomly move to a spot where it hasn't left fire...and then when you do kill it, it explodes in a shower of fire, so you have to run away and wait for that blaze to die out before you can proceed through. >.< The third boss is also annoying erratic, and the fourth is downright obtuse in how you're supposed to deal with it. XP There's an obvious setup for attacking it from above, but it turns out you're supposed to first get in a frontal hit (which registers as "haha I have impenetrable armor there" unless you get it a the verrrrry top of your jumping height at the right moment during his attack swing) and then smash down on it using your new super ability while it holds its shield aloft. Guide Dang It. :P
With all that said, the first two bosses are fun, and the bulk of the gameplay isn't bad, although you'll find yourself traversing the same territory over and over a lot searching for that next crucial item for progress. I would say it's a valiant attempt to capture the old-school charm with an artistically excellent new coat of paint, but it flags about halfway through. Get it if you have the patience and skill for a firmly demanding action platformer which dips occasionally into fake difficulty.