Monday, September 24, 2007

A Shot of Tequila


Here I was getting all set to make a Zelda review and then my copy of Stranglehold came to my house. Between Stranglehold, WoW, creating a comic to publish, and reading the wonderful novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” by Susanna Clarke; Zelda has sadly been neglected quite a bit. But this will give me a chance to talk about John Woo’s Stranglehold!

First of all let me tell you I am a huge fan of Hong Kong cinema and during the heyday of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chow Yun Fat (Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Tony Leung Ka Fai get mad props from me as well!) I bought more VHS and VCDs than I should have. My father, who is one of the wisest, toughest men on the planet, always gives his wisdom in great sound bites. For example about my movie buying habits “What the hell is a black man doing with all these Chinese movies. You are either fluent in Chinese or like watching people kick the s&% out of each other.” And after that I started studying Japanese.

Anyways I digress, when I heard that the two legends Chow Yun Fat and John Woo were teaming to do the “sequel” to “Hard-Boiled” I was overjoyed but still had doubts for it was being developed by the people who brought us the gem of a game, “Fight Club.”

However, I am happy to say I am glad I stayed the course and bought Stranglehold. While it has a host of problems, it is extremely fun and satisfying. The biggest complaint I have had with the game as far as playing mechanics are concerned is that they put all this great action into the game, like sliding on a food cart and doing “drive-bys” from it, but the camera and targeting doesn’t always keep up with you. This becomes rather irksome when diving back and forth between the hordes of triads trying to kill you. Also while I am nitpicking I sometimes found the level designs (from the levels I have seen so far) to be a bit of a mess. It is hard to describe, but the levels themselves look good, but are just laid out poorly with few landmarks to help you find your way through them after you have killed every single soul around you.

But even with that Stranglehold is very much like playing a John Woo movie (his good ones!) complete with doves, Chow Yun Fat and standoffs. The things that are so appealing about this title for me is that I can play it for 2 hours or 20 minutes. It isn’t a time commitment, but it is still fun and enjoyable. And it is really quite simple. I think of it in someway a 3-D version of the classic shooters I used to play, like Contra or Rush N Attack!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Getting My Farm On





I wanted to take a break from Zelda (which is something that can’t be played on the train all the time for the simple fact that sometimes I have to talk into the mic which causes people to look at me like “what the hell is this crazy foreigner doing talking to his DS?”) and I saw that Rune Factory came out semi-recently so I dusted off my Japanese copy and restarted it again. Also while I started playing I really felt the need to buy Harvest Moon for the Wii, so I am going to write up a quick double whammy!

First off Rune Factory: Rune Factory is as the title plainly says on the North American version, “a fantasy Harvest Moon.” The story lead up is a little cliché our hero stumbles into a small town and is greeted by a young lady on the outskirts of it where we promptly find out that our hero is suffering from amnesia and has no idea where he is from or what his name is; so you make one up right there. Now for people not familiar with the Harvest Moon series (you are getting a quick education on it today!) it is basically a farming sim/RPG, completely with wooing one of the town’s eligible bachelorettes. Rune Factory doesn’t stray from that formula; but it also adds magic and monsters. The young lady you meet in the beginning lets you live at her farm and work there. But once you talk to the mayor you find out that there are caves you can explore and each cave can be farmed as well. Also, each cave is one season all year long; meaning you can grow strawberries in the winter! And this is key for exploring the caves as well, because there are monsters in them, and for every 9 squares of plantlife you grow and harvest, you get a small stamina boost that allows you to fight/work/do magic longer. So you have to know where to plant stuff in the caves and when they will produce, which also means you have to take care of them until they do produce.

This leads us to all of the other stuff you can do. You have the crafting skills cooking, forging, pharmacy, decoration, and another handful of skills like mining, logging, sword, and so on. In order to get better at these skills you have to use them, over and over and over again. (and over again) But before you know it you can make sushi, swords or your medicines. The game plays quite a bit like an off-line MMO; without the updates or the massive world. So as you might imagine it can get a little repetitive after a while. But Rune Factory is still loads of fun, and is a break from the norm


Quick Harvest Moon Wii impressions: I have not put a whole lot of time into this game yet but I want to give my thoughts about it compared to the older versions of the game. This version is hands down the best looking of them yet. Beautiful colors, art, and well thought-out town layouts. I really liked the story if this one compared to the older ones feels a little more “user-friendly”, as opposed to the older ones. The best example of that is the tutorial that get you started on, it is cleverly setup by having you get a part-time job on a farm so you can handle it on your own later. My only knock on it is the controls, at least for me so far, aren’t as fluid as they are in the 2D counterparts, and even the Gamecube version’s controls seemed a little tighter. However, this might just be me not being used to the nunchaku controls.

I have been having a blast but it is too early to say if this is the best Harvest Moon yet, but so far so good!



Tuesday, September 11, 2007

What's on the plate

Just a quick little update on my gaming as of late. Well in full WoW mode right now, after Bioshock other consoles seemed a little bland, and I needed something epic to keep me going. My DS is getting a steady diet if Zelda and Rune Factory. And I want to say something about Rune Factory right quick; it is basically an offline MMO. I am aiming to write something up for that as well. My comic is taking a lot of time from gaming and writing about, but I will get some more stuff up. Also speaking of farming games (Rune Factory) I picked up the Wii version of Harvest Moon today, and plan to get some time in on that as soon as possible; I just love doing chores in video games!

Also, Halo 3 is getting ready to launch soon. Can’t say I am really excited, but I am sure I will buckle and pick it up in hopes that I won’t suck at it like I have throughout the first 2 games. Ok that’s about all for now, just a quicky for now!


Friday, September 7, 2007

blogs, blogs, blogs

Now that I have jumped into blogging, I have to say it is keeping me busy. I am running another blog called http://emerald-c-i-t-y.blogspot.com/ it is basically setup to promote a comic book that I have been working on for years with my close friend Jason Sutherland, and trying to play games to talk about here. Just started a WoW account and I am not much of a MMO guy but so far WoW is really cool!! Only level8 but have had some major fun just dinking around on it. Oddly enough it is only my second MMO I have ever played, but looks like I might be hooked! Anyways time to log back on to WoW! But please take a peek at my comic blog if you have time!

Monday, September 3, 2007

The Big Daddy Of Them All




Bioshock

First of all, I far from a hardcore FPS player, in fact only recently have I been playing them on the 360. Before that I really wasn’t into them at all. While I have played Halo on the first X-box, and enjoyed it, I still never really liked the genre that much. Just wanted to get that I am not an expert on the whole FPS genre out of the way first. But enough about me, let’s take a look at this true to its hype gem, Bioshock.

Bishock isn’t your standard FPS; it isn’t about just kicking tail, not that it is lacking in that department, it is really about telling a great story. Bioshock takes the medium, the video game, and uses it to the fullest to tell a deep, compelling, interesting story. I am going to do my best not to spoiler the story for you if you have not had the pleasure of playing Bioshock, but if you are extra sensitive about what you want to know maybe you can skip the next paragraph or two.

(Some Spoilers-pretty minor but skip if you really, really care!)
The game starts you out on a plane in 1960 with some inner monologue, followed by a plane crash. (By the way if you are reading this and have no clue what I am talking about then please do the following steps: 1) turn on your 360, or go to google 2) go to demos tab in live locate Bioshock, or type Bioshock demo into google search function 3) download and write me a thank note for Christmas.) After crash landing into the ocean you find a small island; in this island you find the path to “Rapture.” (dramatic isn’t it?) Rapture is a city deep in the ocean, so right off the bat you see that Bioshock is going to be something different. It is basically a sci-fi story set in 1960, and as soon as you get your first glimpse of Rapture, it sends off a 60s underwater, “Blade-Runner” vibe. Which is just plain out awesome when you think about it!

Once you arrive to Rapture via sub, you are thrown right into the fire, scary baddies in front you and no means to defend yourself. Luckily you find a clunky radio transmitter, which is where almost all of the character interaction takes place throughout the game. Now with radio in hand your guide talks you through getting a weapon and other means to defend yourself. But even as you get out of the sub it is easy to see that Rapture has been having a bit of a civil problem. These aspects are where Bioshock shines so brightly; you don’t really have somebody telling you “Rapture has been going through civil strife blah, blah, blah…”, but instead the evidence of such events lay in plain sight before you. Of course as you journey onward you find tape journals that tell small tidbits, as you are able to start piecing together the disturbing puzzle of what happened in Rapture city. (All this story and atmosphere and this is a shooter?)

I don’t really want to say much more about story, but I will say this, it is awesome. Combined with the fact that it is graphically beautiful and you have the recipe for a truly rewarding gaming experience. Another thing of note is that all of the story elements play out in real-time instead of being told through a cut-scene of sorts. (Half-Life 2 is another FPS game that does this and does it well) For me this style of storytelling made the immersion that more complete; simply because I never lost contact with my character, I was always him. The only thing that could have hurt this game would have been poor game mechanics. But fear not; Bioshock’s controls are so slick and polished, once you wrap you brain around the button layout it becomes second nature to play. And for the last point I wanted to make before I wrap this up is about Bioshock’s sound. Top-notch, you can hear almost everything from Big Daddies’ booming footsteps, to a can rolling across the floor. This really sets the tone in each area you are in and puts you deeper in this world that you are exploring.


In short there is no reason not to have this game in your gaming library. If you are like me and aren’t really into shooters; there is more than enough thinking and character customization in Bioshock to make you a giddy idiot. (I practically wet myself). The story and the way it is presented is nothing short of genius. I couldn’t stop playing until I finished the game and I have not been that captivated by a game, from start to finish, in quite some time. I can see how this game got perfect scores on a lot of major media sites, it is that good

A New Era Begins

Here it is the start of my blogging era! A little rusty on the game reviewing and whatnot, but still got the passion for it. Before I get into it all again I wanted to give a special “shot-out” to Gaming-Age (http://www.gaming-age.com/) where I got my big chance to write for a couple of wonderful years and got a chance to cover E3! Also, to NeoGAF (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/) which is where I have called my home for about 7 years and is simply the most amazing forum (in good and bad ways) on the planet never change guys and gals! Now that I opened that can of worms I have to say what’s up to some people by name because they might actual take the time to read my blog. So here it goes DDK, DCharlie, JohnTV, Evilore, WasabiKing, BishTL, and the rest of the modsquad, Phoenixdark, Beezy, DarienA, the whole NBA clique (even the Spurs fans!), Lyte Edge and if I missed anybody it’s because I am tired of typing names but you still rock.

Like I said before I started rattling off names like Stevie Wonder winning some sort of award. I was about to explain what this blog is. It is mostly about games; reviews and random opinions of what I am playing! Later I am going to whip up some impressions of some cool titles I have been rocking lately; that’s Bioshock for the 360/PC (this is one of the few games that lives up to the hype) and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS.

So check back in a day or two because right now I have to save Zelda, again.