Game Curmudgeons

Continuing with the previous theme, Mass Effect is pretty god damn awesome. Tiny nitpicks are the worst of my complaints(and so far, they’re all featured on Penny Arcade). The game likes to load. A lot. The loading screens tend to be very pretty though, full of nice graphics and sound. Nothing more than a few exquisitely animated frames with sound effects, but I can’t complain at all about them. The elevators, well, they’re slow, but often provide audio that reflects recent player achievements, or has information opening new missions. Moar! »

I should have put up some Mass Effect impressions by now, but I just spent the last 24 hours with the vomiting and not being able to sit upright. Right now the most basic of video games is prettymuch beyond my grasp(so is typing right now), but for those waiting, the first impression is “God damn, this is great.”

So there you go. When my mind and body return to some sort of proper function, as neither is working at full capacity alone, much less in sync, I’ll have more.

Is it too early to say “Holy shit wow”?

The Witcher is an RPG which drips atmosphere like nobody’s business, with great character design and some really great systems. Great graphics, an involving combat system(no more click and wait, for maximum effect, players will need to press the attack with good timing, maneuver themselves into optimum position, and good use of magic), and a hell of a story. Which isn’t surprising, given the extreme amount of source material to draw from.

It’s hard to say a lot surprisingly, as the game is just plain good. Even the voice acting is solid.

It’s premature to judge, but if you’re a fan of old school CRPGs with depth that doesn’t allow you to become the alpha and omega, and has real consequences for your actions, but has a truly modern method and responsiveness, there’s a good chance this game is for you. More to come after a few more days of obsessive play.

Portal-Short, super sweet, incredibly funny. Like TF2 it drips with style, and despite the short length of the first run-through, it features a good number of bonus levels, AND a second set of advanced test chambers once players finish the first The first playthrough for me clocked in at 3 hours, and was pure fun.

The early verdict is if you enjoy puzzle games, you absolutely need this.

More to come after I play some Episode 2, and advanced/bonus puzzles. As usual, Valve has chosen to include some great developer’s commentary, accessible after players finish a section.

DRIIIIIIFTIIIIIIIIIIIIING

Okay, that’s out of the way. Jesus H. Christ, I can’t stop drifting in this game. I’m not that far in, and I’ve hit a level where I get to drive a 1950s race car, and it’s a level in the snow which would take most cars 4 mintues to run. But because those things are notorious for sliding, AND it’s in the snow, I get 10:30. It’s still not enough, because the second I get to a decent speed, I start sliding to one side or the other, and then, the drifting returns rather involuntarily.

Everything in this game drifts. Motorcycles do it the least, and high end sports cars the most. The game is one big constant drift. And I have to admit, it’s fun.

PGR4 is managing to walk the fine line between arcade and simulation racer still. You can’t just go balls-out full speed into every turn, or you’ll smack into walls and lose your bonus points which are used to buy new and better cars or even places to race.

It keeps a good speed though, and a fair amount of tension, at least in street races. Events tend to be much easier.

Only, at this point, two real complaints. 1-Editing my paintjob is limited to picking a pattern and picking the colors, and rotating/scaling the pattern. Forza 2, as boring as the game is to me, really raised the bar for designing a paint job. I’ve seen cars with Harley Quinn perfectly recreated, and I expect that level now in my racers that go online.

Beyond that, motorcylces don’t have seperate front and rear brakes. Yes, I know, being bothered by this makes me one of the three people who bought Tourist Trophy, and one of two who cranks the Moto GP simulation setting all the way up. It’s not the end of the world, but as a result, motorcycles feel like they’ve lost a lot of their ability. No crazy slides and turns from manipulating the brakes individually. It’s stupidly hard to drift with a bike, in fact, the opposite of the rest of the game. Really ends up being a disadvantage in races that are scored by getting lots of points instead of speed.

Oh, I’m not fond of the music. It’s rare licensed tracks work for me, though the PGR tracks aren’t nearly as bad as, say, anything from EA Trax(excepting for Skate, which managed to avoid the usual emo and indie pitfalls for the most part). Lots of bad techno, bad rock, bad, well, everything. PGR4 is the poster child for custom soundtracks, but even if the one included wasn’t so bad, I’d be playing Dethklok over it. And really, I think we’ve all come to accept that My Chemical Romance does not belong in the Alternative Rock category. Microsoft, Bizarre Creations, please take note. My Chemical Romance does not belong in the same category as Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters.

More thoughts and a real review to come, after some time with the online functions and trip through career mode.

Update!: Apparently I just drifted so hard my TV couldn’t handle anything that fucking extreme. This morning it’s turning on, attempting to warm up, and shutting back down. I suspect I drifted the fan into oblivion, it makes a rather horrid noise then silences. Which is too bad, I was really looking forward to more career time. I guess that’s a good sign for the game’s eventual score.