Dark Souls: The Journal of Death Part 2

This looks like an appropriate setup for this game

Since my last Dark Souls post, I have made some more progress (and deaths) in the game.

But death isn't a big deal, even though you lose the souls you have found.  During my last post, I mentioned that as I crossed a bridge that had enemies I was prepared to take on, a giant dragon flew in and set me on fire, killing me instantly and losing souls that were acquired.

Fortunately, I was able to make it back to that point and pick up the souls that drop when you die.  If you are careful, death is not the worst thing that can happen because the souls (which is experience and also money) can be recovered if you get back to the point you died and collect them.  Most of the time I can do this, but it's still a good idea to use your souls once you save up a bunch.  First of all, you are going to need the extra levels and upgrades.  But more importantly, you can't take anything for granted in this game.  You could make a minor mistake and be killed even by an enemy that is supposed to not be difficult.

Anyway, what I discovered was a path below the main bridge that accomplished two things.  I avoided the dragon entirely, saving me another death.  Halfway through this lower path, you find a ladder you can knock down that gives you a shortcut back to the last campfire where you can restock your Estus Flasks and save your progress.  I was going to need it, of course, because a rat poisoned me shortly thereafter which would have killed me if I didn't rush back to the campfire.

Once I got past the rats, I arrived at the Undead Parish where some skeletons and a giant Armored Boar were waiting for me.  While the boar is strong, I don't know if it is considered a boss.  At first I thought the right approach would be to avoid the boar entirely, but then I discovered that the boar took significant damage if I got him to charge at me through a lit fire.  Since I had plenty of flasks, I let him charge at me twice and took hits, but the boar died and I was able to move on.  

After that I fought some more basic enemies and found a diverged path.  I could go right over what appeared to be a rickety, makeshift wood bridge, or left where there was something that resembled a church.  I read the messages left for me to give me hints (a key part of the game) and decided to go left which...was not my best decision.  I died fighting a giant knight.

Once I made it back that way I discovered that the path to the bridge led to a campfire and a blacksmith.  I upgraded a ton of stuff and beat some demon that shot lightening at me, and then proceeded further to more enemies in a forest.  I found a bunch of heavy armor by running around these other difficult enemies and went on to fight this moth that killed me.  To this day I don't think I have what I need to beat it, so I ended up retracing my steps.

Finally I realized that there was a path upwards in the church with the giant knight I talked about before.  The knight went down, and eventually I made my way up to the top of the church where I fought two gargoyles that I suppose were the bosses of the area.  Here's a picture.



This was a difficult fight since you had to shield yourself from fire from one gargoyle while the other gargoyle would aggressively attack you.  After 3 or 4 attempts I managed to be conservative enough to win.  The path unlocked, I climbed to the top of the tower, rang the ball and I guess "completed" that area.

It probably helped that I found a way to upgrade my Estus Flask to give me stronger healing.

At this point I continued to fight random enemies as I tried to figure out the next place to go.  I really had no idea.  Eventually I decided this weekend to go back to Firelink Shrine and retrace my steps from the beginning.  Around the part where the giant dragon lit me on fire I noticed there was a closed door which I now had a key to unlock and proceeded downward.

On a side note, I really like how the game puts in shortcuts back to the beginning.  The level design is really great because it is this huge world with clever little ways to quickly traverse once you discover them.

As I went further down, I eventually made it to a sewer with lots of poison/curse type enemies.  While these enemies were not difficult, I needed to be careful to avoid the status effects since they punish you badly.  I was cursed once and had to go all the way back to where I fought the gargoyles to find the item to heal my curse (at great expense of souls).  Eventually, I made it back down and stopped playing the game after losing one battle to this dragon.  It's a gaping dragon, apparently.  I don't know what that means, but it made a gape in me.



I wasn't damaging this guy that much, but I'm still confident I can take him down.  It may require some better weapons or a few levels, but I believe it's manageable.

That's where Dark Souls stands as of now.  More to come!

Dark Souls: The Journal of Death Part 1

This is burned into my retinas.

On Friday night I decided to take the plunge and give Dark Souls another shot and...it kept crashing.  Also, I had to mess with Games For Windows Live.  Clearly the game is fucking with me.  It wants me to understand frustration even while it tries to load.

After a complete uninstall, download, and reinstallation, I got the game running around midnight and got back into it.  Just picked up my save right where I left off, which was basically where the tutorial ended and I felt stuck.  Here's a picture.



This isn't really a spoiler, but there are several pathways it appears you can go on from this camp.  I tried two, which were the paths that I thought I had to take and just kept dying.  So my next strategy was to try to just kill a few enemies and go back and level, but I couldn't even manage to kill a guy and get back to camp to save my souls (experience awarded when killing an enemy that you lose if you die before saving).  I was starting to remember why I stopped playing.

And then...I found a different path.  All of a sudden the enemies were more manageable and I was actually making progress.  The game started to feel like it was making sense and I FOUND ANOTHER CAMPFIRE.  I was able to level up!  I finally managed to "get" it.  It seems like my big problem wasn't necessarily my skill in combat, but the path I set out on in the first place.

As I climbed this giant castle or ruin or whatever the fuck it was, I walked up to this bridge and this giant dragon just jumps on all of a sudden scaring the crap out of me.  Then it flew away.  Eventually I made it up to another bridge like area and fought some kind of minotaur called a Taurus Demon.



At my low level, it was pretty hard and I died the first time.  But after grinding a little bit I managed to make it through with one Estus Flask left at the end of battle.

Perhaps I should take a moment to explain the Estus Flask.  This appears to be the only healing item in the game but I don't know for sure.  As you can tell from the picture, the Estus Flask shows up in your active inventory just like your shield and sword.  If you press X on the Xbox 360 controller (I'm playing on PC with that controller) you use it.  But when you use it, your character stops for a moment leaving him totally exposed.  It's risky to use mid battle, but I had to so in order to heal I had to dash away from the action, use it, and quickly put up my guard.  You start off with 10 Estus Flasks that you can recharge at your camp.  I'm not totally sure why, but the first camp I found I had to kindle the fire before it would charge me back up to 10 flasks instead of 5.  To kindle the fire, first you have to use your humanity, which is the number in the upper left corner.  I believe this number goes up eventually after defeating a certain amount of enemies or just finding humanity after a battle.  Then you need one more humanity to kindle the fire.  Took me a little time. But whatever.  Just another part of the challenge.

Getting back to the Taurus Demon, I had to use most of my flasks to beat him.  If I was a more skilled player I think he could probably be beaten without that level of consumption, but keep in mind that for me and anybody else at this point in the game mastering the mechanics to the level you need to really crush these enemies is unrealistic.

Once you beat him you get the "VICTORY ACHIEVED" message, and unlike all of the other monsters in the game, this one does not respawn when you visit a camp.  After I won I proceeded along the path until I reached this bridge with a few enemies on it.  In my head I thought it would be no problem to take out these enemies, so I run in with my shield up and...that fucking dragon from before swoops in and lights the entire bridge on fire, killing me instantly.  At the time I didn't know if the boss I just faced would respawn, but fortunately he didn't and I figured out a way to move past the dragon without a fight.

That's pretty much where I stopped.  There are a few other things to note about this game.  The first is that you really have to be mindful about who you take on and when.  If you are carrying a lot of souls, you should really try to save and level up first before taking on something unknown.  You can recover souls that you have lost as a human after dying, but it's not always easy.  Reading the hints that are left for you on the ground (an online feature) can be helpful, but at times is cryptic.

My world was also "invaded" at some point and someone just showed up and killed me pretty easily.  I'm pretty sure that was another online thing.  From what I could tell, I was just dramatically underleveled to face this enemy, so I'm not sure if there was anything I could have done about it.  This is just another reason why it's wise to save often.  Fortunately this one didn't cost me too much.

I hope to continue playing tonight and make more progress.  For this game, I hope to continue making a journal since it is such a different experience.  Clearly, the satisfaction that anybody will get out of this game will be based strictly upon whether you can tolerate failure and challenge.  If taking your time with a game is not something that you enjoy, you should avoid Dark Souls.  But I found that as I made tiny bits of progress I enjoyed the game more and wanted to continue to take on the challenge.

More to come...

Dark Souls...should I do it?

I tried Dark Souls once when I got it for Steam a few months ago.  After patching it up to deal with the lousy port for PC, I quickly made it to the first area after doing the tutorial, died dozens of times, and just gave up.

But maybe I was doing it wrong.  When I'm trying a game for the first time, I usually take the try anything and everything approach.  Don't know what a weapon does?  Equip it.  Don't know what a stat does?  Oh well, buff it and see what happens.

This game isn't forgiving enough for that.  I need to get back to tactics that are more sensible for a game this difficult.  I need to grind it out a bit and make sure I'm going in the right direction instead of any direction.  If I collect a bunch of stuff, I should just go back and save before I lose it all.  There's no way I can't get through this game, right?

Let's switch gears and talk about NBA 2K14 and Lebron: Path to Greatness.  I probably follow the NBA more than other pro sports with the exception of tennis, so this series really is a personal favorite.  Unlike Madden, it actually does things that are interesting for people who are into the league and its history.


Lebron: Path to Greatness gives you two paths for Lebron James' future.  One is setting up a dynasty with the Miami Heat as you go for 7 championships.  The other has Lebron leaving Miami after this season (and getting his threepeat...spoiler alert I guess) and moving on to some other teams and playing with some surprising players.  There are definitely some funny moments as crazy events happen in this fictional future, and if you appreciate the sport you will get a chuckle out of it.

It's not for everybody, but if you are into the NBA I highly recommend it.  I did have some technical issues getting it running on my PC, but eventually I worked it out.  2K Sports has terrible support.

I finished the main game of Pokemon Y and I'm not sure how much further I will take it.  On one hand, I can see it being totally plausible and fun to get all of the Pokemon and truly mastering the game.  On the other hand, there are plenty of other things for me to play on 3DS, including picking Fire Emblem back up.

That's all for now.  More entries coming soon.  I'm IMTheWalrus610 on Steam, Twitch, PSN, and Xbox Live if you would like to reach out on those or Google+.

I had so much fun with one console launch I had to do it again. My thoughts on the Xbox One

There it is.  Pretty much exactly how it would look in your living room.

The question everybody asks me is which of the systems is better...is it the less expensive but supposedly more powerful PS4 or the more expensive and complex Xbox One.  Here's the answer.  Neither is better than the other, and nobody is going to care about the price difference or hardware specifications once they have the games and applications ready for them.  Nobody talked about the processor in the Xbox 360 when they were playing Gears of War for the first time.  Nobody cared about the clunky online platform in the PS3 when they were enjoying Uncharted.  The bottom line is that people are going to get the system that best fits their style of entertainment.  Everybody wants to make a console war.  I guess people find it entertaining (or perhaps mentally fulfilling) to take a position as if these consoles are like politicians or a religion.  The fact is that these are consumer purchases.  If one of these platforms totally dominated, we would all be worse off for it.  Sony would not be focusing on indie support now if it weren't for the success of Xbox Live Arcade, and Microsoft would not have ramped up Xbox Live Gold to include free stuff if it weren't for Playstation Plus.  And Nintendo is still in the wings delivering something completely different which is probably why the Kinect came along in the first place...it's likely a response to the Wii Remote and that kind of fewer button, non-controller interaction.

But hey, it's not very interesting for me to not take a public position on it, so here are my thoughts on the system, both positive and negative.

Let's start with the hardware itself.  Much like the Playstation 4, the design is sleek and definitely much more elegant than its predecessor.  When I removed my Xbox 360 from the entertainment center, it just looked old to me.  Perhaps I'm just spoiled.

The controller feels very nice to me with the analog sticks.  I've heard gripes about the positions of the triggers and bumpers, but so far it has not been an issue for me.  If I had to choose one, I would probably go with the Playstation 4 controller, but both are good.

The differences really start with the Kinect and how it delivers a totally different and unique experience from the Playstation 4 in terms of how it works with the rest of the devices around your TV.  There is an HDMI input for your cable box, and as a result you can do more interesting things with the Kinect.  For example, if I say "Xbox Watch ESPN" it just changes the channel to 570 (ESPN on FIOS) and it's done.  Sounds good, right?  Well...ask it to change to NFL Red Zone or NBA TV.  Those don't work so well.  It turned me to Lifetime, TNT, NBC...just not the channels I wanted.  That can be frustrating.  But when I say "Xbox Turn On" when I get home the whole thing turns on and tunes to whatever channel I was on last while I'm doing other things like feed the cats or put down my work stuff.  Overall it's a positive experience, but I found that I did have to go back to the remote control quite often.  The Xbox also features something called One Guide.  This is like a TV guide, but I think it's not so great.  If you channel surf, it's just way to slow.  I kept having to say "page down", which is obnoxious to others in the room and annoying to do.  When I use the remote, I just press down a bunch and it moves faster.  I don't know how it would work, but like a "surf" command would be nice for the system to just scroll through the channels at a reasonable speed.  Perhaps it exists and I just don't know about it.

The Kinect also can do other things like Skype calls or party chats, which I think work pretty well.  When I did a Skype call with a friend, the camera was smart enough to zoom in on him as he walked around his living room.  That was impressive.  What wasn't impressive is how it thinks my cats are people, so it won't do the same zooming quite as well in my living room.  Also, I can't get the hand gestures to work the way they are supposed to.  It feels slow and again it may have to do with the fact that my cats are in the room or that the room isn't oriented in a way the Kinect likes.  It's clearly a more sophisticated camera and microphone system than the PS4, but I don't know how necessary it is.  The PS4 actually seems to do a better job recognizing my face and not seeing my cats as people even though the camera is less powerful.  That is a software issue, so Microsoft should be able to fix it I imagine.

From standby, the system turns on very quickly.  But from a completely powered off state, it is extremely slow to boot up.  Much slower than the PS4.  Not a big deal, but worth mentioning.

The dashboard itself is awful.  It has that Metro UI that I never liked on the 360 or in Windows 8.  I think it's very colorful and artistic but has no logic behind it.  That said, if you are using voice commands to open applications and games (which works nearly perfectly) the dashboard is totally irrelevant.

The Xbox also allows some limited multitasking with the use of "Snap".  For example, on Sunday night I had the Broncos/Patriots game snapped to the side of the screen as I played Forza Motorsport 5.  This is a gimmick in my opinion.  I couldn't pay attention to the game on the tiny part of the screen while racing.  It's totally impractical.  Also, the video in the snapped portion of the screen seemed much less smooth.  I seriously doubt I will continue to utilize this feature.

For the time being, the Xbox has the superior exclusive games.  Forza 5 is probably the best overall console launch experience for both systems in the sense that it is a complete game, looks incredible, and is just a lot of fun.  If you are a fan of the show Top Gear, it is a must buy for the tie ins to the TV show.  I also purchased Dead Rising 3 which is not available on other platforms but I have yet to open it.  All of the buzz surrounding that game is positive though so I'm sure I will enjoy it.  I hear the graphics are a bit lacking.  Killer Instinct I bought digitally and it's a strong sequel to the previous games.  It feels the same with a fresh coat of paint.  I purchased the ultimate edition, but for $20 you can get the game with all of the characters (2 are coming as DLC later).  If you like fighting games at all I strongly recommend it.  It's not perfect, but $20?  You really can't go wrong.  Does this make the system the one to buy on launch?  Maybe...it depends on what your tastes are.  But I don't think the PS4 will be lacking in exclusives and I would actually imagine that the exclusives I care about like Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, and The Last of Us (in addition to anything Japanese in origin) will be coming to the PS4.

For the time being, I prefer the Xbox One.  I just think that today I will get more value out of it.  But I like both systems.  I think they are well designed, the games look good, the controllers are awesome, and they have some ambitiousness behind the fundamental design.  Unlike the old days of the NES, these systems will continue to evolve with firmware updates that will enhance them even more.

I'm sure I failed to mention a few things about both systems...for example, I don't think I mentioned the PS Vita remote play on the Playstation 4 which works exceptionally well.  But I think if you are going to buy one or both of these systems, you have to make the purchase based on what is known about them for now and what matters to you.  I suspect that if you are into some of the bigger titles such as sports games or first person shooters, the Xbox will likely be the right choice.  If you prefer games that have a more specific niche audience, the PS4 is probably going to be a better decision.  You can't really go wrong though.

So which system is going to get my attention this holiday season?  The answer is...The Nintendo Wii U and 3DS.  I have been a very harsh critic of Nintendo for their weak online functionality, underpowered hardware, eccentric design, and lack of 3rd party support.  All of that stuff gets thrown out the window when you load up The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (expect a post just on this game) and you realize that you are having more fun with a game that runs at lower resolution on a weird looking system.  Nintendo has some significant problems as a company including getting people to buy their poorly marketed Wii U as well as having 3rd party publishers bring exclusives to the platform, but Rayman Legends, Super Mario 3D World, A Link Between Worlds, Wind Waker HD, Fire Emblem Awakening, Pokemon X/Y, etc. are some of the best games that came out in 2013.  I'll be doing a top 10 games of the year and honorable mention blog post soon as I complete a few more games, but expect to see Nintendo well represented.

This gets back to my fundamental point about new consoles.  People get into flame wars over hardware specs, backwards compatibility, online play, and other factors that don't have much to do with what games are actually on the system.  If the next Gears of War game comes out for Xbox and everybody loves it, nobody is going to give a shit about the fact that Microsoft initially wanted to get rid of used games or that the system is technically less powerful than the PS4.  DDR3 or DDR5 memory means nothing when you are enjoying the experience.  The Last of Us could very well be the game of the year, and it has a lower resolution and an inconsistent framerate on a platform that is 6 years old.

If you see one of these new consoles in a store and you really want to play Forza or Resogun, just get the system that has it.  I'm sure it will all work out in the end.  You will find plenty to enjoy on all of these platforms.

Comments and feedback are welcomed.  Feel free to share this or my other posts with friends.  You can reach out to me on Steam, Xbox Live, PSN at IMTheWalrus610, or connect with me on Google+ through this blog.

Playstation 4 Launch!

I was one of the fortunate people to procure a Playstation 4 for launch due to a preorder I got from Amazon almost immediately upon the announcement of the system.  Perhaps it wasn't the wisest decision to commit myself to spending that kind of money (as well as the preorder of an Xbox One...coming this Friday) without doing much research.

But why not?  Let's be honest...was I not getting these systems at some point anyway?  Did I really think I would go 5-7 years with just a PC, a Wii U, and one or neither of the 2013 launch consoles?

So this whole thing was inevitable.  Fortunately, I am pleased with my purchase so far despite the fact that it wasn't a necessary purchase.

Obviously, this is a much more powerful machine than the PS3.  I played The Last of Us over the summer, and while it looked very good artistically and technically within the hardware limitations of the PS3, comparing the graphics between a game like that and Bioshock Infinite which I run on my PC or Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 is a pretty striking difference.  The jump in resolution, draw distance, framerate, etc. is noticeable for anybody who has been actively playing video games.  They also did some nice operating system changes.  Things feel a bit quicker and more elegant.  Games and Applications launch quickly with reasonable loading.  The online functions seems faster.  And with the Playstation Camera I now have it setup so that the system recognizes that I am playing it when it turns on based purely on my face.

Remote Play on the Vita worked flawlessly and setup very quickly.  In less than 5 minutes after bringing my Vita downstairs to set it up I was playing Resogun and mirroring screens between my Vita and TV.

Unlike some of the reports, I have experienced no hardware issues whatsoever.  That could change, and it probably will based on the amount of time I will put into playing the system.  I lost a PS3 and two Xbox 360s probably in part to design flaws but also because of the amount of operating time they had.  I suppose I consider that a part of the cost of owning these products.

The launch titles are limited.  Killzone is the big first party exclusive, and while the first half of the single player campaign was fun, I found myself frustrated towards the second half as the game went away from the big open first person shooting areas and into weak puzzles and stealth areas.  It just didn't feel fun to me.  I'm told that the multiplayer is better, but Halo 4 had a strong campaign and multiplayer.  So the bar has been set, and in my opinion Killzone does not reach it.  It does look and control well though.  I'm eBaying my copy, but I could see people playing this game online for a while.  But if you are like me and look for the single player experience first, and the multiplayer second, I can't recommend spending $60 on it.  Fortunately, I got it on Amazon in a buy 2 get 1 free deal, so hopefully once I sell it I will get my money back (and maybe a little more).

I also have Assassin's Creed 4, which is not exclusive to PS4.  I'm pretty optimistic about how that will turn out.  Everything suggests it's better than Assassin's Creed 3, which is one of the weaker games of the series, but I still found plenty to enjoy.

Need For Speed: Rivals is on its way.  For some reason Amazon didn't have it available immediately.  I'll get it soon enough.  It's another game I have faith in based on the series and what I read in the gaming media.

My favorite game in the system's launch window is Resogun.  It's a very simple concept that should be familiar to anybody who has played the classic arcade game, Defender.



If you subscribe to Playstation Plus, this game is free.  You should probably buy it anyway though even if you don't (why don't you?  $50 a year for the free stuff is worth it).  The game is an arcade style twin stick shooter that anybody can pick up and understand, but only the truly skilled will learn to master.  I suppose I'm biased though...I think simple and tight but fun experiences are great.  It's one of the things I appreciated most about the last generation of consoles.  Games like Geometry Wars, Super Stardust HD (same creators of Resogun), Super Meat Boy, and Everyday Shooter really became more mainstream as digital delivery of "indie" games became normal.  These types of games add serious depth to the overall pool of games available.

Another free title I got through Playstation Plus was Contrast.



This is a puzzle game where you have to switch between a normal 3D platforming experience and going into the shadows to solve puzzles.  In the picture above you can see that the character is climbing onto the shadow of the umbrella so that presumably she can jump onto the balcony.  It's a neat concept, but unfortunately the whole game feels thin.  I've only spent a little time with it, but the puzzles were very simple and the graphics aren't that impressive.  They could have done a lot more.  But again, it's free.  So I suppose I can't complain.  It's worth booting up.

Soon I will try to stream Assassin's Creed 4 via Twitch.tv if I can figure it out, and from what I can tell the process should be simple.  If you would like to follow me on Twitch.tv, my username is IMTheWalrus610.  I imagine that won't have to change for the PS4, but crazier things have happened.  So far I haven't done that much streaming on the PC, but maybe I'll get back into it.  Like most things with electronics, I like to tinker with features even if I don't end up using them extensively.

The big question is whether you should go out and buy a Playstation 4 today.  That really depends on the type of person you are.  I can't honestly say that there is an extremely compelling reason to go out and buy this system based purely on the launch titles.  But that being said, if you want to play next gen versions of things like Madden, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty, etc. and you don't have a high end gaming PC, the Playstation 4 is worth getting.  Also, if you are really into playing video games in general it's not like this machine will gather dust.  Yes, Killzone and Assassin's Creed are not going to be the two best games of the year, but like with the previous Playstation iterations there will be plenty of quality titles to go around over the course of time.  Buying a Playstation 4 on launch seems like a better investment than buying a Wii U at launch, although I bought that shortly after launch which was a mistake.

Quick Update

Since the last time I posted something, I've been mostly focused on Dead Space 3 and Pokemon Y.  I also put a little more time into Rayman Legends, and I'm that much closer to completely finishing it.

This art reminds me how good Dead Space 3 can look.  When you are floating around in space trying to find parts, you get beautiful views of planets and space junk.  Unfortunately, you don't get enough time in space in my opinion.

Dead Space 3 was fun.  I think the reviews are a little harsh, but the consensus is correct.  This is not as good as Dead Space 2 if you are looking for a survival horror experience.  I felt as if the game was pushing me into encounters with tons of enemies rather than scaring me and putting me in surprising situations that were uncomfortable.  I also continue to enjoy the anti-gravity parts of the game where you float around an area that has no sound trying to defeat enemies that sneak up on you while you try and accomplish an objective without air or gravity.  Sadly, after the first several chapters of the game, you get sent to a planet never to do things in space the rest of the campaign.  Why Visceral made the decision to do this is a mystery to me.  The game is called Dead SPACE.  Why would you take that out?

But I still enjoyed it enough to run through the entire campaign over a weekend, and it's a fairly decent sized campaign.  I think I missed some of the optional missions, and I haven't done the co-op missions yet, but I clocked about 12 hours into the campaign.  I imagine you could get several more hours in by being more thorough than I was.  That being said, if you don't enjoy the action as much and you really need that survival horror feel, I could see you growing impatient and not wanting to spend extra time on it.

The bottom line is that it's a solid game.  I've played a lot worse, and the game does look good.  The story was satisfying enough for me.  And you can probably get it for cheap.  But play Dead Space 1 and 2 (especially 2, which is one of my favorite games of all time) before moving on to this.  If you find the action in those games unsatisfying, you might be turned off by this game.

Go ahead and search for Pokemon X on Google without the Y.  Make sure there are small children in the room.

A couple weeks ago I downloaded Pokemon Y (only because others I knew bought X) since I had some eShop credit and a spur of the moment pledge to purchase the game in exchange for borrowing Beyond Two Souls.  I sort of dismissed it as a gimmick and that I was past Pokemon.  I was wrong.

This game is super addictive.  I played Pokemon way back on Game Boy with Pokemon Blue (I think...now I can't even remember), so I knew what I was getting into.  But they did a great job modernizing this game, in particular with the online features.  The fact that you can trade Pokemon and battle with people throughout the world is a huge leap for the series.  It probably should have already happened by now, but now that it's here the game is a much more robust experience.

It's a simple RPG...it won't really challenge you.  But the beauty of the game is you can really play it in the way you want.  Like a particular kind of Pokemon?  Just train a bunch of them and ride them the whole way.  Want to use different Pokemon at different times?  The Experience Share item allows you to build different parties without boring grinding.  The main objective of the game and the story are extremely basic.  In fact, I would say the plot borders on stupid and ridiculous.  It's definitely got that Japanese tone where they talk about cleansing the world and ultimate weapons and other tropes.  But this game is targeted to a wide audience including children, so I expected broad themes.

If you like RPGs, collecting things, handheld experiences, multiplayer, etc., you can't go wrong with it.  It's one of the best games of the year.

That's where I'm at right now.  This weekend I plan on putting more time into a few things if I can.  NBA 2K14, Batman Arkham Origins, Spelunky, and Tales of Xillia are all possibilities.

Gone Home AKA Diet Myst

When I want that sweet Myst flavor without all of the incomprehensible puzzles, I play Gone Home.

Gone Home is the perfect test case for Steam Friends and Family Sharing, which is how I was able to play this entire game without spending a dime.  While I have some very positive things to say about the overall experience, I can't recommend that anybody spend $20 on this game.

I don't want you to mistake that statement for thinking that this is a bad game.  In fact, I'm not even sure it is a game.  You can't fail.  It's not really a challenge.  But I enjoyed the 2 hours or so I spent absorbing whatever it is that Gone Home is supposed to be.

When you boot it up and start a new game, you hear a short answering machine recording (not voicemail, this takes place in the mid 90s) telling you family that you are coming home from your long trip overseas.  Upon arriving, a note is on the door telling you that nobody is home and not to look into it any further.  So you read the letter, think about what is says...and then you spend the rest of the time doing the exact opposite because otherwise it wouldn't be fun.

Once you figure out how to get in the house, you start to learn about your parents and sister, and the game slowly drops you clues to understand who these people are, what they have been up to, their personal struggles, and you eventually get an idea of the truth.

I'm not going to get into the story much further than that because it could easily spoil the experience.  But to solve the mystery you will have to look around for notes, recordings, keys to locked rooms, etc.  It's not hard to figure out if you just pay attention.  Even if you are diligent, chances are you will miss a few things, and that's OK.  While my experience playing the game left a little ambiguity at the end, I still understood what was going on when I was finished.  This is definitely not something you will want to go back to again and again.  It's a one time experience.  There aren't really any alternate ways to play it or different gameplay modes.  That's not a knock on the game.  It's just a very simple experience.

But if you are interested at all in stories about very personal things like love, frustration, longing, ambitions, and disappointments, Gone Home will be a good use of a couple hours, certainly as much as a quality movie or book.

What makes this effective as a story telling vehicle is the writing.  This story is entirely from your perspective and as I said, nobody is home.  So you never meet the other characters.  And yet the lives that the game tells you about through the clues it leaves you in the house paint a very lucid picture of who these people are.  I really find it incredible that a game can make me empathize with characters that I never met.  To top it off, the environment is great.  While the graphics are not high end by any means, the use of sound effects, music, and journal entries read aloud by your sister truly play with your emotions.  I felt like I knew this family at the end of the game even though the only image in my head is based on a stupid family painting on the wall.

It should also be noted that as someone who grew up in the 1990s, it reminded me of what that time was like.  It's almost like I forgot about cassettes, answering machines, and handwritten notes instead of email.  There are even Super Nintendo cartridges, but I wouldn't forget about those because...well...you know.  I suppose this era makes it easy to create the mystery and story.  In 2013, they would be able to settle the story pretty quickly with a few text messages.

If the game was $5, I would recommend you go out and get it right away, and I think even non-gamers can appreciate it.  It's not like it's difficult.  Not really a game either...sort of an interactive story.  It's an exaggeration at best to say that it's like Myst.  Myst requires you to think and consider your actions.  Gone Home doesn't do that, which is either a good or bad thing depending on your perspective.  The big problem I have with it is that it's $20.  For something that you can only do once, isn't a technical marvel, and doesn't even have variation with the story telling, that's just a bad deal.  Since it is on Steam, you can expect that at some point it will be $5 or less.  You can wait until then.  Or you could share it from a friend with Steam if you are on the sharing beta.

Rayman Legends is great, so why won't I finish it?

After playing Rayman Origins on Steam, I was sold on the idea of a sequel immediately.  It helped that Rayman Legends was originally announced as a Wii U exclusive.  At the time this game was announced, the only Wii U game I spent any significant time with was New Super Mario Bros., and I consider that to be a disappointing game simply because it felt like a rehash without something to draw me in aside from the fact that it was finally in HD.  For some reason, I had a lot more faith in Ubisoft to deliver on a follow up on Rayman Origins.   Rayman Origins was a beautiful mix of tight gameplay that anybody can pick up and polished presentation.  The bright colors and cartoony feel with both the graphics and music made this game really stand out for me.

But then the game's launch date got pushed back, and then Ubisoft announced it would be coming out not just for Wii U, but pretty much every platform.  A game that I had hoped to play in February or March was now coming out in September.  That said a lot to me about how 3rd parties view the Wii U as a viable platform, but that's a discussion for another time.  I ultimately did get the game for Wii U due to the touch screen functionality as well as the fact that my Wii U was gathering dust.  If I wasn't going to play Rayman on Wii U, was my $350 purchase destined to be a Zelda machine or fodder for the eBay pile?  It had to be played on Wii U.

It was a good choice.  Fortunately, Rayman Legends takes what Rayman Origins did and improves it at every level.  The controls feel just as tight, except now the checkpoints are spaced out better so levels are more manageable to complete.  The animated look of the first game is improved upon with even more polish, which I didn't think was possible.  And the soundtrack once again stands out.

Getting back to gameplay, once again this game can be played by anybody who is interested in a typical platforming experience.  If you enjoy Mario, there is no reason to not play this game.  Rayman has a few different abilities, but the fundamental style of play is similar.  Except Rayman Legends (and Origins) is much better than New Super Mario Bros for Wii U.  Not only does it look better, but the game is just more fun and offers way more variety in the gameplay.  Both games have standard "scroll to the right" platforming levels, but Rayman throws in secrets everywhere to encourage you to take your time and get 100%.  Sometimes a teensie (think stars in Mario 64 or star coins in Mario 3D Land or New Super Mario Bros) is hidden under some fog, or if you climb to an obscured area you enter a door that takes you to a sort of mini level that can be completed in about a minute to find a secret teensie.  Most levels have 10 teensies you can find, and depending on the level sometimes I find them all.  So far I haven't worried too much about getting 100% completion of a level, but I put forth the effort to try and get most secrets.  Other levels are side scrolling shooters, or runners where if you go too slow you automatically die.  The screenshot below is one example of this in multiplayer.

This multiplayer allows friends to join into the normal single player campaign at any time.  I've done this a little bit, but like most platformers that utilize this feature I find that I'm usually pushing the pace, leading my friends to die more than they would probably like.  You can also do online challenges that have you compete with people over the Internet to see who can defeat enemies quickest or collect the most lums on a particular level.  They even have a sort of dodge ball style competitive game.  

Some levels also force you to control Murfy with the touchpad.  Murfy can do things like block fireballs from hitting Globox (who you switch to for these segments instead of Rayman).  An example is below.

On this level, Murphy can destroy those fire/eyeball things, and move the platforms so that Globox (which is now AI unless you have a friend) will not jump to his death.  There are also Murphy puzzles where you rotate the gamepad to change the gravity on the screen.  Sometimes the AI isn't perfect, but it's good enough.  My frustrations with it were minimal.  I don't think it's quite as fun as the typical levels, but again, it's a nice change of pace.

The game doesn't force you to just go to the right...some levels move up and down or even in a circle.  Other levels are mazes or force you to swim underwater stealthily.  And the best part, in my opinion, are the music levels which are runner style levels in which the notes and rhythm of a song is played out by collecting lums (coins), jumping over obstacles, and defeating enemies.  Boss levels are also fun and creative.  This gets back to my main criticism of New Super Mario Bros.  When a game like Rayman looks better, has better sound, is more fun to play multiplayer, offers more gameplay variety, and actually utilizes the touchscreen, it makes Nintendo's effort on New Super Mario Bros seem weak by comparison.  It's not that Mario is bad, but compared to this (and Super Mario 3D Land which also offers a new feel), you feel that New Super Mario Bros was something thrown together with less care.  In fact, in the Wii U version, you can actually play with a Mario costume on Rayman.  It's like Ubisoft knows they made a better Mario game.  It would be OK if Mario was a $20 game and Rayman was $50, but Mario is still a $50 game.  

So why haven't I beaten this game that I have owned for nearly two months now?  Aside from the fact that it had to compete for my time with GTA 5, NBA 2K14, Wind Waker HD, Pokemon, and many other titles, I find that Rayman is a tough game to put long sessions into.  That's probably a personal issue.  The game at times can be tough.  None of it feels unbeatable to me, but you will die...a lot.  So when you are doing a level that requires you to climb to the top of a tower that is falling into quicksand, you might die 20 times to finish a level that really only takes a minute to finish once you do it right.  I wouldn't call it frustrating...for the most part I feel like I'm the one making the mistakes, not the game.  But after playing for 30-40 minutes, especially if I had a tougher level to deal with, I was ready to play something else.  The way I play games, which is really to relax and detach, I don't always want to focus as much as I need to in order to finish these challenging levels for hours on end.  30 minutes is about as much time as I want to put in.  If that means I only get 25 teensies out of the 700 I would need to get 100% in the game, that's fine.  I'm not in a rush to finish.  Part of what makes Rayman great is that even if I don't play it for a couple weeks I can just pick it up and get back into it.

If you have a Wii U, this is a required purchase in my opinion.  There is nothing better on the system, especially if you want to play with friends or if you are a looking for an experience that can last you a while.  I don't think I will get 700 teensies because I will want to move on and play new things with the limited time I have, but if you are into completing games this is perfect.  I haven't played it on other platforms, but the same rules apply.  If you are into platformers, buy this game.  It's one of the best games of 2013, and I suspect it won't get the recognition that more popular titles will get during game of the year discussions in December.  That would be unfortunate, because I believe it deserves the praise and attention that many imperfect titles in the game of the year debate will receive.

Comments are welcome.  My next post is going to be about Gone Home, which I completed last night in less than 2 hours.  

The First Post...It Begins...

It's been quite a while since I have done anything like this, but I have decided to get back into blogging.  This time, rather than focusing on things like current events, politics, movies, or pop culture, I'd like to make this blog dedicated to something that people may actually consider my opinion on: Video Games.

In a strange way, video games have an important connection to my biography.  I was born in the early 1980s.  Obviously this is before we entered an era of constant communication, data synchronization, sophisticated graphics, modern gaming genres and styles, free to play games, indie development, annual franchises, a true console "war", expensive gaming PCs, digital distribution, and an entire media machine that exists to report on (and in many ways promote and advertise) the gaming industry.

I feel that my generation was really the first to be immersed in video games their entire life and so everything that happens in gaming culture is easy for me to digest and understand.  My father probably looks at video games as a whole the way I look at Minecraft.  My dad doesn't understand why I could or would spend so much time playing so many different games as an adult, but I can't truly understand why so many young children would want to play with low resolution Legos.  But I haven't been immersed in Minecraft the way I have been immersed in console and PC gaming as a whole over the course of my life.  

Growing up surrounded by video games since before I went to school and sticking with it all of this time turned me into something of an expert on the subject.  For the past 25 years of my life, this industry has advertised and geared their products directly to people like me.  I'm not in the game business or anything like that, but I generally have an understanding about where these products are going as well as what will work and what might not be as successful (i.e. Virtual Boy).  Most importantly, I know what makes a game "good" or "bad".  Sometimes that will change based on who I am talking to.  I know Angry Birds is a game that hardcore gamers don't enjoy, but my dad and sister love it.  Is the game bad just because someone like me can't get into it?  I don't think so.  At the same time, I consider a game like Grand Theft Auto V to be a major accomplishment and a compelling experience.  My family wonders how someone like myself, who is seemingly normal, can get so much fun out of an experience that essentially allows you to be a consequence free sociopath.  Frankly, I think it's just a matter of perspective and exposure.

So why am I writing all of this?  What's the goal of this blog?  For a little while now, I've been considering documenting the progress and thoughts I have on the video games I play.  Video games deserve the same level of discussion and evaluation that would be given to other major parts of our culture such as literature, music, film, etc.

I want to use this as an opportunity to journal my thoughts about the video games I play and start a conversation.  I enjoy sharing my gaming experiences with people and I look at this as just another opportunity to help people understand what's out there and what they should know about it.  There is no set format...just free flowing thoughts.

I hope whoever reads these posts will find it interesting, even if they don't agree with everything I have to say.  Constructive feedback is welcome.  Enjoy!