Metroid: Other M. A deceptive game

After having a few weeks to let this game stew in my brain a bit, I figured now was the time to say something about it.

I picked up the game with much skepticism that Nintendo had mad a cardinal mistake, giving Team Ninja the reigns with Samus Aran. That and the reviews of the game were all over the place. And yet, I still pre-ordered the game, just because of the name. I was afraid that maybe the developer responsible for such titles as Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive might make something the Metroid something of a strange fever dream of the above mentioned games.

Metroid is one of my favorite NES games of all time. In fact its one of my favorite game series of all time. The games back in day had this way of capturing your attention. It was just you and this alien planet for you to explore. The sounds, the sights -- you never knew what was lurking around the corner in the game. The music had this haunting sound to it, and was paced just right as you wondered the worlds the games had to offer.

This new Metroid title doesn't quite do all the things that I mentioned from the previous entries in the series. Nintendo sought to actually tell a story with Metroid Other M, making its major focus about Samus Aran and her past. They tried to make her seem more like a person, as apposed to a somewhat faceless character. Most Metroid games have made her out to be a hard as nails bounty hunter trying to stop something that threatens the galaxy. While this is not a negative, it certainly detracts from the idea that this a "traditional" Metroid title.

The story picks right up after the events of Super Metroid for the SNES, and goes full speed ahead with how Samus is feeling and how she is dealing with past events and the current situation. Having received a distress call from the "Bottle Ship," she sets out to investigate what has happened upon the ship. When she arrives she soon discovers that the Galactic Federation is already there, and a unit sent to investigate is under the command of her old commanding officer.

Without spoiling much more about the game, I found it to be a compelling reason to continue playing, though are there several things that I found marring to the overall experience. The voice acting in the game is flat and subpar. In particular, the voice actress for Samus was monotone throughout most of the game. It was not until later in the game that I found her to be a bit more emotional.

The way the game controlled was also in question, as Metroid Other M only uses the Wii remote to control. Holding it sideways like a classic NES controller, moving Samus around in a 3D space with only 8 directions because of the d-pad. After awhile I got used to it, and I found myself being able to pull off her various moves with ease. I found that firing missiles was a little cumbersome, though not nearly as annoying as I thought it would be. You must point the Wii remote at the screen and the lock on to a target to fire missiles.

There are also times in the game that force you into a first person view, like when you are setting up to fire a missile. You cannot move past these parts until you find the the item you are suppose to scan in the environment. I was actually stuck for about 45 minutes looking for the right thing to scan at one point.

Despite a few problems and quirks here and there, Metroid Other M is a solid title. Not the traditional Metroid title, and I am glad that Nintendo took a risk with their franchise. I can only hope that the next one is a return to form.

If you are a Wii owner looking for a good game, get this game.

The Yellow Light of Death

My PS3 died for the second time in its life span last week. I can say that I was not pleased when it did. It brought up a great deal of concern for my aging system. The main reason I am concerned is that it is launch 60gb system. You know, the one with the hardware backwards compatibility for PS2 games.

The Yellow Light of Death. This little warning light is supposed to turn on when the system gets over heated. It will shut down the PS3 in the event that happens to overheat. But that is just what the user manual says, and its not all that true. In fact something more sinister is at work on the inside of that black monolith. One of three things could happen that would cause the Yellow Light of Death to occur to your PS3:

1) Power Supply Failure

2) Your hard drive going bad or becoming unhinged from its connections.

3) The Cell, RSX, or both chips getting so hot, they literally cook themselves off of the motherboard.

Item number three is the most common issue, and what has happened to me on both occasions. This issue is very similar to the infamous Red Ring of Death the Xbox 360 suffers from (It should be noted that I have an Xbox 360 as well, which has only ever Red Ringed once). Sony had somehow garnered the the reputation that their system would not suffer the same overheating issue that its similarly powered rival has. It appears that is not the case, and despite the system being well ventilated, given enough time it just seems like the system will go kaputz.

The first time my PS3 died, it was give or take about 3 years after I bought the system. It took me awhile to get around to deciding what to do with my large black paperweight. I had heard of horror stories of people not getting back their original systems when sent for repair to Sony. I was reluctant to go through them in the event I didn't get my beloved 60gb Playstation 3 back. So I settled on a 3rd party repair, whom shall not be named. I went through the process of placing the repair with them, selecting the "reball" option, which was about $200.

The reball repair should have made the system last another 2-5 years again. The chips would have been replaced, along with the soldering and such. Unfortunately for me, this was not the case. My PS3 died some 6 months after after the supposed "reballing." After complaining with the repair place, I decided against going with them again.

It took me a little bit, but I did eventually find a local place to get the repair done. I dropped off the system, and the following day I picked back up. It appears all is well with the system, but who knows how long its going to last this time.

The question any readers should ask, if they have a PS3 is, will this happen to my system. The answer is probably yes. Does the PS3 Slim suffer from the problem? I have heard and read scattered reports that it too can get a Yellow Light of Death. Though it seems that the chance of it happening on the newer systems is not as high.

The next time my PS3 Yellow Lights on me, I am going to just screw it and perhaps sell it for parts and get a refurbished 60gb. Or maybe I will take my chances with a Slim, though I still like playing my PS2 games. If Sony still included the backwards compatibility in their PS3, then I wouldn't have a problem getting a Slim.

I hope it doesn't happen again, and if it does, Sony you better hope I don't just give up on your friggin' system.

This harrowing tale is brought you by Frustration, serving the greater good since the dawn of man.

Games Are Art, Aren't They?

This is all very late to the comment on, or even just mention, but awhile back a certain movie critic wrote of an article that created a bit of a stir in the gaming community, saying that games are not art, and will not be in any living lifetime of the current generation of gamers. I tend to agree with this statement, I felt a need to perhaps explain it for myself.

First, I have to answer some questions about games themselves. Can games be artistic? Is there art involved in creating games? Of course. But can a video game itself be considered a work of art? The answer is simply no. A game is a GAME...not something that can be experienced that a normal piece of art could be normally. Video games are defined by a set of rules, boundaries, and have some sort of end goal. In art, at least many forms of it, do not boundaries. Art can be interpreted openly and freely, in the eyes of the beholder.

Video games have a level of interactivity that no other medium has. It has a personal interaction with the player. Sometimes that interaction is an emotional experience, bringing the player joy, sadness, or even a sense of dread and fear. But this said interaction is sadly what prevents a video game from being art. Art does not have this level of interaction with a viewer. Art can elicit these emotions, but the artist does not grant the viewer with interaction. To simply gaze upon a painting is just that--gazing and experiencing what is before you.

This subject is really hard to fully explain, but interacting with something does not make it art. In a video game, it is often times a directed experienced, and you are being lead down a particular path, and more often than not to achieve a very specific goal. Art does not have this particular aspect. The artist might have a particular goal in mind for the piece of art, but person experiencing the art would not know what that goal is. Art is in the eyes of the beholder.

Fallout 3 and other ramblings

So I have been playing with Fallout 3 as of late, picked up the Game of the Year edition for 360. I had the PS3 version previously, but since I heard that the game is better on 360...at least in terms of the graphics. Everything else about the game seems to be the same. I never beat it, and now I figure is the right time to do so...or at least play it after I get through FFXIII. Which itself is quite the ordeal.

In other news, I went over to a friend's house and played a prototype Neo Geo game.The game is quite amazing. A game called Ironclad, a sidescroller shmup that is quite awesome. Divering routes like in Darius and a unique powerup system.

With my friend's permission, I may do photo posting of his little arcade. We shall see.

First Impressions of Final Fantasy XIII

After playing through the first 3, and the middle of chapter 4, the first impressions that I got of this game was how gorgeous it actually is. Nobody does graphics like Squaresoft, and its quite evident in this game. Playing this game on my PS3 thus far has been a visual treat.

Its everywhere else this game seems to suffer. For starters, the game so far has just been funneling me through basically a tunnel in each area, as I can really only go one direction to progress through each map. Secondly, the game has limited the battle system, ramping up complexity with each successive chapter completion. I can see the makings of a great battle system, but I am unsure how well its going to all come together once they give me full control. To me it seems more time has been put into the battle system than anywhere else.

Story seemingly has been put on the way side when it comes the game. Its clear Square wants to tell you a story, but you are thrown into the middle of it. The player must take the time to look at a "Datalog" within the menu system to get the any sense of a coherent story. While other games do this (i.e. Mass Effect), they at least given it as an option should want to know more about the world around you. For the most part in the above mentioned game, you learn enough about the world through the story itself and have a great idea of how things are working. In Final Fantasy XIII, I found myself scratching my head more often than not at what the hell an Il'Cie is and what a fal'Cie is (did I even spell those right?). There is no explanation at all at how the world works, why everything is the way it is, or why events are happening. Its all one giant fiasco.

Now...off to play some more Final Fantasy XIII, and confusion!

My Stint With Quake

The following is a story, a recollection of my memories and how I ended up playing FPS games, most notably Quake. This will be the first of many posts I hope to make; ones that involve perhaps a personal history with videogames in some way or a post going over to some kind retro game of sorts. But anyway, on the with the good stuff!

It all really started with the game called Doom. You know that one where you fight off hordes of demons on the moons of Mars? That was my first introduction to the FPS genre, and was really the first FPS of its kind to do anything significant. Full 3-D movement, vast environments. It also set the tone for what most FPS games do now: Blood, gore, guts, and lots of action.

My parents let me play Doom in the summer of 1993, and I loved it. id Software some how managed to create a holy grail in gaming. They knew it was bloody, scary, and well down right blasphemous. I mean you play as a lone space marine; you are all that stands in the way of the demons of hell and them getting to earth. It was something that I couldn't really explain. Maybe it was the way the game presented its action. Maybe it was the fast paced action. Mouse and keyboard controls were second nature to me, left clicks with a shotgun, blowing away the pink demons. I didn't really play many other PC games for two years.

Then in the summer of 1996, the gaming magazines, and the beginnings of the internet were rumbling about some new engine and game that id was creating. A game called Quake. The first time I laid eyes upon that game was when I set out to get at demo disc at the local PC store. It cost me $9.99 + tax. Probably the best ten dollars I ever spent. After I installed that game on my 486 DOS 6.2 PC, the graphics were unlike anything I had ever seen. The difference from this game and Doom was quite simply amazing. Full polygonal environments, and you could now look around with the mouse! And the gameplay was just as fast as Doom. Quake brought something to the table that Doom had introduced, but made it better; Multiplayer.

There was many a night of me and my friends hooking up over the internet with our 56k modems and playing games of Quake. Blood, rockets, nailguns, and giblets were all common place. I got to a point in that game where I would usually win every match we played. Give me a rocket launcher in that game, and kiss yourself goodbye. Those were the days...sitting back and drinking Mountain Dew will electrocuting your friends with the lightning gun.

Some time after Quake was released, id quietly began work on the engine that would eventually power Quake II. If I remember correctly, Quake II was not originally going to be called 'Quake II.” The press called it that, as id themselves had not revealed the name of the game. It became so popular that eventually id just decided to go with that, as it was a name and title everyone new at that point.The multiplayer in Quake II was fast and furious. I couldn't believe how awesome it was. The rail gun was my preferred weapon against people on the internet and my friends. I eventually got good enough that I played in several tournaments. Unfortunately I was not nearly as good as the some other players out there, like Thresh. He infamously won John Carmack's Ferrari in a game of Quake.

Quake II introduced some awesome customization options, one of the most prominent was a feature that allowed the use of custom player models. My preferred player model was one based around the comic Calvin and Hobbes; Calvin's alter ego Spaceman Spiff. Eventually though, time moved forward, with the introduction of Quake III Arena.

In December 1999, Quake III was released to the PCS. The game had no single player component, as its focus was multiplayer. I loved that game...still do, but it was also the last version of Quake that I seriously spent time playing. Combat was fast and intense, moving much faster than an previous version of Quake. Again the rail gun was a personal favorite, but I also enjoyed using the lighting gun. Shocking opponents to giblets was fun and entertaining.

For years after that, I played Quake III exclusively. More and more FPS games followed and I played Quake III until I simply couldn't play it anymore. My tastes evolved a little more as Halo and Killzone 1 came out. Quake simply fell off the radar for me. There is still a thriving hardcore community out there, but chances are if I went back to any one of the Quake games, my head would be blown off the second I spawned.

I love FPS games...and I would love to go and play some more Quake again; get back into that groove. In the mean time, I have an RPG called Final Fantasy XIII. Expect something on that soon.

Mass Effect 2: A review

Having just completed a play through of the above mentioned game, I thought I would share my thoughts and reflections of the game with the readers that have stopped by and read my blog thus far. The game clocks in around 40hrs if you have gone to do all the side missions available and the trust missions of the characters. I got about 43hours out of it with the launch DLC quests and character (Zaeed). Also I should note that I will attempt to make this review as spoiler free as possible, just going over the mechanics, gameplay, and graphics of the game.

Mass Effect 2 continues the story of Commander Sheperd and his quest to stop the Reapers. The events of the game take place some 2 years after the first game, and the galaxy seemingly at peace. However, not all is well as a new threat has emerged that Sheperd must stop. This new threat is a race of alien beings called the “Collectors.” Commander Sheperd must find a way to stop them before they wipe out all life in the known galaxy.

To start, the game is much improved over the first game in many areas, and some areas they streamlined several of the systems. Gone is the inventory management of the first game, replaced with a weapons load out before the start of each mission. You can also edit the load out of each character at any point as long as you are back on the Normandy. Throughout missions and exploration of hub areas you will find upgrades that are necessary to not only improving your equipment, but also Sheperd and his fellow crew members.

Exploration of other planets was a major portion of the first Mass Effect. Though many of the environments in the first game were repetitious and somewhat annoying as you had to drive some long distances in a vehicle just to get to some warehouse or enemy base that looked like every other environment that you had been on in some other planet. Mass Effect 2 does away with this by replacing the exploration with a planet scanner, helping you collect resources to improved your upgrades and finding places to land and complete side quests.

Another one of the streamlined areas is the leveling system, and how you gain experience. You can no longer gain experience points by killing enemies. Instead, you gain experience simply by completing missions and side quests that you acquire through the course of the game. At first, I was a little apprehensive with this approach, because it limits the amount of experience and how many levels you can gain. However I found that Bioware did an excellent job balancing the experience you would gain from missions. If you want those extra levels though, I would recommend seeking out as many side quests as you can. Also, when you gain levels, you are given a certain number of points to distribute to different skills and attributes. Again this has been streamlined by the number areas in which you can put the points.

The graphics of the game are much improved over the first Mass Effect. In the first game, it appeared that the graphics engine was not all well optimized for the game, as textures would often pop in, and come into focus in many areas, particularly in the Citadel. Also load times were a bit of an issue, as they masked many of the loading sections of the game with a mandatory elevator ride. In Mass Effect 2, the graphics load in without a hitch. Many of the sections have been replaced with a loading screen of some kind when traveling between areas or when you are on the Normandy.

Where the first Mass Effect had issues with its shooter mechanics, Mass Effect 2 is much better in the handling of everything. I cannot quite explain it, but it seems they took a few cues from Gears of War 2 when improving upon the shooting and fighting in the game.

Final Thoughts:

I was greatly impressed with the game, and was glad to have played it. Everything, and I mean everything that they could have fixed or improved, Bioware did. I don't think I could have asked for a better game.

Should I Play or Not?

PLAY this game.

A fitting first post

Welcome to the first blog post in this blog, which will serve as an introductory post about what I intend this blog to cover and be about, and who I am as a person. It will be a short little blurb (I hope).

So to cover what this blog is all going to be about, videogames. Maybe I will throw some news up here from time to time as well. I want to do some specialized posts to, maybe looking back on history of video games or a review of an older game. I also intend to put up my own reviews, and when I attend a covention, I will attempt to put a blog about what I have been doing there.

And now a little about myself. Where should I start? I guess it would be best to start by saying that I started playing games when I was very young. It must have been in 1988 or so when I started playing video games. I was handed an NES controller over at a cousin's house, and I was immediately captured by what I was presented with on screen. Super Mario Bros. was the first game I ever played. I played just about every major NES game, (To name a few, I played Zelda I & II, Metroid, Tetris) with a few here and there that not many people may have played. Some of those titles included a shmup called Jackal, an overhead RPG called Crystalis (Probably my favorite NES game of all time.)

Sadly I had to part ways with my cousin, and when it was time to get home, I longed to play those videogames that I played when I was over there, and sure enough it was a matter of time before my parents had enough me and my brother's nagging. The funny thing is, the way I had gotten my Nintendo was a little...strange, to say the least. It was, I think a Sunday morning, and I didn't want to eat the bacon that my mother had made for me for breakfast. My dad told me that if I finished my bacon, I would have a Nintendo later that day. My mom took me and brother out shopping and sure enough, when we came back, there sitting on the dining room table in a "Babbage's" (Yeah, remember that store?) bag with a brand spanking new NES in the box waiting to be hooked up to our TV in the living room.

After a few years, in 1991, the Super Nintendo came out, and it was time to upgrade. I remember reading a Nintendo Power with all the pictures and screenshots of what the system looked like, and what the games looked like. I was blown away. Unfortunately the NES we had went by the wayside and we traded in the system. We got the SNES and the rest is history with Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy II, and Final Fantasy III. There were plenty more that I played, but none are coming to mind at the moment.

The whole Genesis and SNES console war thing passed me by. I was a Nintendo fan through thick and thin. I even had every single variation of the Gameboy. I completely skipped what Sega had to offer when it came to their stuff. (Except for the Dreamcast, but that is a different story.) Sometime down the line, I think it was sometime in 1997, me and my brother ended up with a PlayStation (One of those originial grey systems). Final Fantasy VII was quite an amazing game at the time, and for many it still is. Most of the games I played on that system were RPGs, as I had begun to mature and appreciated deeper storylines. Final Fantasy VIII, Star Ocean The Second Story, Thousand Arms, and Grandia were all games I really loved on that system.

For Christmas 2001 one, we managed to get a Playstation 2, and that system was pretty much the first DVD player we also had. There were some many games that I played that naming just one is a bit hard, though I guess that one that sticks out in my mind was Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. The depth of that game was quite awesome, and the amount of content in that game was enough to keep you playing for at least 80+ hours.

Eventually I graduated from highschool and got my own job and I was able to afford my own systems, and I ended up with and Xbox, which was the first system from Microsoft. It was quite the amazing system, having its own hard drive to save games to. Halo was a game that brought many people together and was also the game that gave Microsoft a foothold in the videogame market. There is much else to say here except that I bought Fable, Halo 2, and Panzer Dragoon Orta (probably several other games that I am not mentioning too...)

But anyway the rest is history when it comes to the later generation systems, namely the Xbox 360 and PS3, both of which I currently own, and I am currently updating my personal game library with new games almost every week and month. At the moment I also own several classic systems that I never got around to playing when I was younger. I own a Turbo Grafx-16, Sega Saturn, & Dreamcast. I am looking to get my hands on a PC-FX, a Virtual Boy, and a ZX Spectrum next.

Until next time...