I puchased Metroid Prime 3. Before I tell you about my experience with the game, I should first brief you on my history with the Metroid Prime series: I have very little history with the Metroid Prime series. Here's the extent of it: Long ago, I bought a used copy of the first Metroid Prime game and played it for a little while, until the game freaked out... the disc was a little scuffed up, which I had shrugged off, but now those little scratches and imperfections had prevented me from advancing. So I borrowed my friends copy of the game, figuring I could just continue with my save data and his disc, but the problem was that I also borrowed the brilliant Shadow of the Colossus at the same time, and decided to play that first. Of course I got swept away into the wonderful world of Colossus, and by the time I had finished with it (note: "finished with it" does not equal "beat the game" in this case, sadly), I had pretty much entirely forgotten about Metroid Prime. My friend's copy of the game is still sitting in my room, staring at me with its dead eyes.
But before all that happened, I had really been enjoying my experience with the Metroid game. I was really impressed at how the spirit of the classic Metroid series had been faithfully translated into this crazy first-person game. So I had been excited to enter that world again on my Wii.
The first thing I noticed about the game was that it was going to take a LOT of getting used to, control wise. I spent the first hour or so bumping into walls, spinning around, and generally having a tough time. Even at the worst of times though, I acknowledged that this was my fault, not the game's. Still, for a period of time long enough to freak me out, the experience was more frustrating than fun.
It didn't help that the very beginning of the game is extremely action-heavy. I participated in many battles with Space Pirates in wide-open arenas, with comrades fighting by my side. Not exactly the scenario you expect to encounter when you pop in a Metroid game. I want my Metroid experience to be dark, solitary, and focused more on exploration than combat.
I got my wish soon enough. Moments from when I touched down on the planet of Bryyo and began exploring, those wonderful old Metroid feelings came rushing back. I wandered around, confused and frustrated, looking for means by which to advance and finding nothing, and I loved it. Metroid!!! Somewhere along the way, I got a little bit better at the control scheme, but I don't think I've completely mastered it yet. Hopefully I will before things get too tough.
I really enjoy the game's scanning function. When I have no idea what to do or where to go, it's nice to be able to just relax a moment and scan everything in sight, searching for clues. It fits in really well with the feel of a Metroid game, and it has helped me many times.
So, I am currently in the Fire region of the Bryyo planet, and I made my way to the arena in which I am to fight the boss. Two spaceships circled around me, sending a couple of waves of Space Pirates down to fuck my shit up. I took care of them fairly easily, and then the boss emerged: My ice-themed bounty hunting colleague, who I suppose is bad now. Unfortunately, as soon as his entrance cutscene was finished, the game totally bugged out on me. The screen went black, as it normally does when transitioning from a cutscene back to real-time action, except this time it stayed black. I sat there patiently for a moment, hoping it was just an extraordinarily long load time, and then the Wii reset itself, bringing me back to the system's main menu screen. The disc channel had the default image showing, as if there were no disc in it. I clicked on it, and the Metroid 3 screen did finally load up, but I decided not to have another go at it right then.
Luckily, I saved right before the boss battle, but I'm worried. I hope that was some kind of isolated spazz-out, and not a fucked up bug that won't allow me to advance. I've read reports of people getting buggy Metroid discs, so I'm a bit worried. Oh well, at least that would be consistent with my previous Metroid Prime experiences.
Stay tuned...
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
I See Grids When I Close My Eyes
I got Picross DS, and it's amazing. I've been attached to my DS for the past few days. I got in the car with my friends to go to the bar, and sat in the backseat silently playing Picross until we got there. I sat with my girlfriend and played Picross until she yelled at me. I sit and play Picross in my bed. I play Picross on the subway. I play Picross while I take shits. Picross is amazing. That is all.
Monday, September 3, 2007
I Finished Seperate Ways!
I finished the first bonus game I tacked in Resident Evil 4, Seperate Ways.
This was really fun. I enjoyed going through the events of the game from Ada Wong's point of view. I also liked her hookshot ability quite a bit. My favorite part of this sub-game was probably the scene with the warship where I had to use the big cannons. Fun!
One thing I was pretty disappointed by was the fact that the game just played the same Leon/Ada cutscenes from the main game. I was hoping to actually play out those scenes as Ada, instead of just watching them again. It would have been cool to lower myself down to a window and blast the Village Mayor in the back, or to shoot the barrels that allowed Leon to escape from Saddler. Oh well. Still a very fun, quick, fairly easy little game!
So now I just have to play through the Assignment Ada bonus game, and I'm done with RE4, except for the Mercenaries game which I don't really plan to spend all that much time with. Then I guess I'm going to buy Metroid Prime 3.
In other news, my wonderful girlfriend bought me a DS Lite! Almost just in time for the new Zelda game too! God bless her kind soul, and god bless Nintendo.
This was really fun. I enjoyed going through the events of the game from Ada Wong's point of view. I also liked her hookshot ability quite a bit. My favorite part of this sub-game was probably the scene with the warship where I had to use the big cannons. Fun!
One thing I was pretty disappointed by was the fact that the game just played the same Leon/Ada cutscenes from the main game. I was hoping to actually play out those scenes as Ada, instead of just watching them again. It would have been cool to lower myself down to a window and blast the Village Mayor in the back, or to shoot the barrels that allowed Leon to escape from Saddler. Oh well. Still a very fun, quick, fairly easy little game!
So now I just have to play through the Assignment Ada bonus game, and I'm done with RE4, except for the Mercenaries game which I don't really plan to spend all that much time with. Then I guess I'm going to buy Metroid Prime 3.
In other news, my wonderful girlfriend bought me a DS Lite! Almost just in time for the new Zelda game too! God bless her kind soul, and god bless Nintendo.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I BEAT RESIDENT EVIL 4!!!!
It only took 117 saves! Yeesh, that's an embarrassing number, but fuck it! I beat the game! Whoo hoo!!!
Chapter 5-4 was a god damned BITCH. I spent most of the first part of the chapter cowering in fear inside a tent while my buddy in the helicopter killed the bad guys. Every so often I would inch forward, scared to the point of tears, until I was prompted to take cover again. It didn't help that I constantly lost my sense of direction, and that I could never tell where the chaingun dudes were shooting at me from. But I made it through somehow. Eventually, the copter went down, and I was on my own again.
Luckily, the chapter gave me everything I'd been hoping for in terms of items. Ammo and health items were EVERYWHERE. I loaded up on enough ammo that even when I found myself in a room with about a thousand ganados, one of them with a chaingun, I took care of them with no problems.
I reunited with Ashley and we got the parasites removed from our bodies, thus ending the chapter, and leading me into the terrifying battle with the final boss.
Except it wasn't really all that terrifying. In fact, it was easy as shit. Between exploding barrels, grenades, and buttons that sent things crashing into Saddler's mutant body, I took care of him pretty easily, and in one try. Satisfied with a job well done, I figured I'd breeze through the token escape sequence and end the game with no problem.
The escape sequence sucked. It was ten times more annoying and difficult than the actual boss fight. I died at least twenty times while fucking jet-skiing. Jet-skiing! Are you fucking kidding me? If I had to hear Leon do his fucking Han Solo / Sawyer-from-Lost impersonation one more time, I was going to lose it. "Hang on, sweetheart!" Suck my balls, Leon! After a million tries, a lot of pattern memorization, and a cigarette break, I finally did it! Ashley and I escaped from the horrible island of the mutant Spanish insect monsters! Ashley wanted to fuck me, and I said no. I wanted to fuck Hunnigan, and she said no. The game ended.
The credits were really beautiful and sad. As they rolled, still pictures appeared of the ganados living their lives prior to being infected by Saddler and his goons. They farmed, tended to their families, played, loved one another. I thought of how many of them I mercilessly gunned down, and it made me sad. I'm not being cute here; it actually kind of got to me emotionally. I came close to crying at one point. Before you recoil in shock, I should qualify that statement by pointing
out that I cried not only while watching Home Alone, but also while watching Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. So it doesn't take a whole lot to make me cry. Still, good job, Capcom. That was the perfect way to end the game.
Having beaten the main game, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new options opened up! I played through the first chapter of Seperate Ways, and it was slightly harder than I thought it would be... mostly because Ada's supplies are much
more limited than Leon's. Yo, but check this out: At one point, when I was entering the church, I had ZERO bullets in either of my guns, and my health was in the red zone with no healing items. So I went into the church like that, and was
suddenly swarmed by a roomful of ganados. I figured it was all over for poor Ada, but no! I DEFEATED THEM ALL USING ONLY THE KNIFE, AND FINISHED THE CHAPTER! How awesome am I? I very rarely have amazing video game moments like that, so I think I deserve to pat myself on the back a little bit. Of course, this means I'm going to start the second chapter in very, very bad shape, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, I'm reveling in having finally beaten this amazing game!
Yay!!!
Chapter 5-4 was a god damned BITCH. I spent most of the first part of the chapter cowering in fear inside a tent while my buddy in the helicopter killed the bad guys. Every so often I would inch forward, scared to the point of tears, until I was prompted to take cover again. It didn't help that I constantly lost my sense of direction, and that I could never tell where the chaingun dudes were shooting at me from. But I made it through somehow. Eventually, the copter went down, and I was on my own again.
Luckily, the chapter gave me everything I'd been hoping for in terms of items. Ammo and health items were EVERYWHERE. I loaded up on enough ammo that even when I found myself in a room with about a thousand ganados, one of them with a chaingun, I took care of them with no problems.
I reunited with Ashley and we got the parasites removed from our bodies, thus ending the chapter, and leading me into the terrifying battle with the final boss.
Except it wasn't really all that terrifying. In fact, it was easy as shit. Between exploding barrels, grenades, and buttons that sent things crashing into Saddler's mutant body, I took care of him pretty easily, and in one try. Satisfied with a job well done, I figured I'd breeze through the token escape sequence and end the game with no problem.
The escape sequence sucked. It was ten times more annoying and difficult than the actual boss fight. I died at least twenty times while fucking jet-skiing. Jet-skiing! Are you fucking kidding me? If I had to hear Leon do his fucking Han Solo / Sawyer-from-Lost impersonation one more time, I was going to lose it. "Hang on, sweetheart!" Suck my balls, Leon! After a million tries, a lot of pattern memorization, and a cigarette break, I finally did it! Ashley and I escaped from the horrible island of the mutant Spanish insect monsters! Ashley wanted to fuck me, and I said no. I wanted to fuck Hunnigan, and she said no. The game ended.
The credits were really beautiful and sad. As they rolled, still pictures appeared of the ganados living their lives prior to being infected by Saddler and his goons. They farmed, tended to their families, played, loved one another. I thought of how many of them I mercilessly gunned down, and it made me sad. I'm not being cute here; it actually kind of got to me emotionally. I came close to crying at one point. Before you recoil in shock, I should qualify that statement by pointing
out that I cried not only while watching Home Alone, but also while watching Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. So it doesn't take a whole lot to make me cry. Still, good job, Capcom. That was the perfect way to end the game.
Having beaten the main game, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new options opened up! I played through the first chapter of Seperate Ways, and it was slightly harder than I thought it would be... mostly because Ada's supplies are much
more limited than Leon's. Yo, but check this out: At one point, when I was entering the church, I had ZERO bullets in either of my guns, and my health was in the red zone with no healing items. So I went into the church like that, and was
suddenly swarmed by a roomful of ganados. I figured it was all over for poor Ada, but no! I DEFEATED THEM ALL USING ONLY THE KNIFE, AND FINISHED THE CHAPTER! How awesome am I? I very rarely have amazing video game moments like that, so I think I deserve to pat myself on the back a little bit. Of course, this means I'm going to start the second chapter in very, very bad shape, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, I'm reveling in having finally beaten this amazing game!
Yay!!!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
I See You've Played Knifey Gunny Before!
Chapter 5-3 was intense! It basically consisted of two long drawn-out boss fights. Neither were all that difficult, but they were both pretty intense and stressful, because they spared you not a second to think about your strategy or figure out what to do.
Last time, I was in the middle of fucking around with It on a bunch of suspended cargo containers. As it turns out, the realization I came to after dying a couple of times was right: It was unkillable until after I got through the cargo puzzle thingie. Once I knew this, it was fairly easy. I wasted not one bullet on the monstrosity, and just avoided his attacks as I made my way through the crates. Once I was back on solid ground, I found a nice little deposit of ammo, which couldn't have come at a more perfect time. Then it was time to face IT. This was shockingly easy. At first, I just ran around in circles for a while (my default strategy in all video games), scouting the area and avoiding his attacks via button prompts. My first line of defense was blasting two exploding barrels, fucking him up good. After that, it took just a handful of magnum shots to send him back to Hell. No problem!
Then it was time to face Krauser again, which nearly gave me a heart attack. I screamed at my television a lot. Mostly things like "FUCK YOU!" and "WHAT IS THIS, A FUCKING MEDAL OF HONOR GAME?? EAT SHIT, GAME!" I take it all back. It turns out, it was all my fault. You see, I had heard a hot tip that the knife was the most effective weapon against Krauser, and so I thought I had the upper hand on the game. As soon as Krauser first attacked me with his insane super-powered jumping around, I tried stabbing him and nothing happened, except that he brutally murdered me. This scenario repeated two or three times before I realized that something wasn't right. Remembering my problems with IT, it occured to me that Krauser was probably also unkillable until I completed my other objective in the area, which was to find two pieces of some stone. So, in the next go-around, I just blasted his ass with shotgun fire when he showed up, and low and behold, he retreated, allowing me to advance. He showed up to annoy me a few more times during my quest for the stones, as did some crazy flying robots. I was actually pretty grateful for the presence of the robots, because they went down with one handgun shot each, and left me good prizes. Finally, after finding all the stones, it was time to face off against Krauser fo' rizzle, which meant that it was finally time to use the knife. Sure enough, three or four stab stab stabs, and he went down. I grabbed his piece of the stone, and exited the area, ending the chapter.
Chapter 5-4 seems badass. My rescue helicopter has finally arrived, and while I'd like to just hop in and leave Ashley behind, I guess that's not an option. I died early on in this chapter, and then quit. I'm not sure exactly how to approach this situation: Do I just hide in the shadows and wait for the helicopter to kill everything, or do I slowly advance through the level, killing things on my own? I'm honestly not sure what the game expects of me here. I'm guessing a mixture of the two. We shall see! I'm so close to the end, I can taste it!
In other news, Super Metroid really is one of the best games ever. It's been so long since I played it last, I forgot just how beautiful and perfect it is. Everything is balanced so perfectly, particularly the balance between being confused and frustrated, and the feeling of satisfaction when you finally solve the problem at hand. Plus the graphics are so pretty, even 70 years later or whatever. I'm plowing through this shit. If you've never played this game, definitely download it; you won't regret it. If you have played it, download it anyway, and remind yourself how wonderful it is. One of the greatest games on one of the greatest consoles ever.
Last time, I was in the middle of fucking around with It on a bunch of suspended cargo containers. As it turns out, the realization I came to after dying a couple of times was right: It was unkillable until after I got through the cargo puzzle thingie. Once I knew this, it was fairly easy. I wasted not one bullet on the monstrosity, and just avoided his attacks as I made my way through the crates. Once I was back on solid ground, I found a nice little deposit of ammo, which couldn't have come at a more perfect time. Then it was time to face IT. This was shockingly easy. At first, I just ran around in circles for a while (my default strategy in all video games), scouting the area and avoiding his attacks via button prompts. My first line of defense was blasting two exploding barrels, fucking him up good. After that, it took just a handful of magnum shots to send him back to Hell. No problem!
Then it was time to face Krauser again, which nearly gave me a heart attack. I screamed at my television a lot. Mostly things like "FUCK YOU!" and "WHAT IS THIS, A FUCKING MEDAL OF HONOR GAME?? EAT SHIT, GAME!" I take it all back. It turns out, it was all my fault. You see, I had heard a hot tip that the knife was the most effective weapon against Krauser, and so I thought I had the upper hand on the game. As soon as Krauser first attacked me with his insane super-powered jumping around, I tried stabbing him and nothing happened, except that he brutally murdered me. This scenario repeated two or three times before I realized that something wasn't right. Remembering my problems with IT, it occured to me that Krauser was probably also unkillable until I completed my other objective in the area, which was to find two pieces of some stone. So, in the next go-around, I just blasted his ass with shotgun fire when he showed up, and low and behold, he retreated, allowing me to advance. He showed up to annoy me a few more times during my quest for the stones, as did some crazy flying robots. I was actually pretty grateful for the presence of the robots, because they went down with one handgun shot each, and left me good prizes. Finally, after finding all the stones, it was time to face off against Krauser fo' rizzle, which meant that it was finally time to use the knife. Sure enough, three or four stab stab stabs, and he went down. I grabbed his piece of the stone, and exited the area, ending the chapter.
Chapter 5-4 seems badass. My rescue helicopter has finally arrived, and while I'd like to just hop in and leave Ashley behind, I guess that's not an option. I died early on in this chapter, and then quit. I'm not sure exactly how to approach this situation: Do I just hide in the shadows and wait for the helicopter to kill everything, or do I slowly advance through the level, killing things on my own? I'm honestly not sure what the game expects of me here. I'm guessing a mixture of the two. We shall see! I'm so close to the end, I can taste it!
In other news, Super Metroid really is one of the best games ever. It's been so long since I played it last, I forgot just how beautiful and perfect it is. Everything is balanced so perfectly, particularly the balance between being confused and frustrated, and the feeling of satisfaction when you finally solve the problem at hand. Plus the graphics are so pretty, even 70 years later or whatever. I'm plowing through this shit. If you've never played this game, definitely download it; you won't regret it. If you have played it, download it anyway, and remind yourself how wonderful it is. One of the greatest games on one of the greatest consoles ever.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Hello, Umbrella. How've Ya Been?
After a not-so-brief hiatus, I have dived headlong back into Resident Evil 4. Well, if by "dived headlong" you mean "played through one more chapter". But oh jesus christ lord mamma, WHAT a chapter!
It started with me having to kill a few more Arghs and ganados, thus wasting much of the little ammo I had left. Following that, I reached the infamous "wrecking ball" segment. A few friends had warned me about this segment, claiming that it was one of the hardest parts of the game. I must say, I don't see what all the hoop-dee-doo was all about. Basically, I had to fend off enemies for like half a minute while Ashley smashed a hole in a wall, and then run through that hole. It really wasn't that big a deal; I did it in one try without wasting too much ammo or getting injured, and the worst thing that happened was that Ashley got hit and required a herb. No biggie.
What came next was, in my opinion, much harder. I had to ride on the back of a truck and fend off ganados that ran at me as Ashley drove through a series of tunnels. I died several times attempting this, mainly because I kept running out of ammo after the first couple of ganado swarms. Finally, I utilized a balanced mix of grenades and gunplay to get through this part. Unfortunately, this pretty much completely depleted my grenade supply, so now I have no grenades AND no bullets for any of my guns. The most frustrating part was that as the truck barreled away from the ganados I'd just blown to shit, I could see all the little red ammo indicators popping up as their bodies disintegrated. I even tried to jump off the truck a couple times, hoping to grab some of that sweet sweet ammunition, but the game wouldn't let me. So close, and yet so far.
And thus ended Chapter 5-2. I played through a bit of 5-3, but I got to a point where I was running around on cargo containers, trying to open doors while being hounded by the horrific "IT". I got killed a couple of times trying to do this, and then gave up. I think I have a decent strategy for when I tackle the segment again though: I will just run by IT and avoid his attacks, rather than wasting magnum ammo trying to kill his ass. I'm sure that once I get past this annoying door puzzle nonsense, I'll have to battle him for reals anyway, so I'll save my precious magnum bullets for that. I know I keep saying this, but oh god I hope there's a bunch of ammo lying around somewhere soon!!
At one point in the midst of all this, I had a fairly awesome encounter with Krauser. He was all like "Umbrella, Umbrella, Wesker, Umbrella, Umbrelladee-doo... oh wait, did I say Umbrella? I have said too much, comrade. (knife knife knife)". I must say that after all this crazy Salazar/Saddler/ganado/gigante/plagas stuff, it's pretty satisfying for elements like Umbrella and Albert Wesker FINALLY come up in this game. Don't get me wrong - I love the game, but as a big Resident Evil fan, it does seem very disconnected from the rest of the series. It's nice to see some connections, even if they turn out to be loose or superficial (which I'm thinking they probably will). This game is a masterpiece, no question, but their decision to change up both the storyline AND the gameplay style really makes it feel like something completely different. Different is good, but in the world of video games, part of the satisfation of playing a new game in a franchise is that sense of familiarity mixed in with all the new stuff. I hope they take this into account when creating the next Resident Evil game.
See you next time, when I will hopefully boast of toppling the mighty IT.
It started with me having to kill a few more Arghs and ganados, thus wasting much of the little ammo I had left. Following that, I reached the infamous "wrecking ball" segment. A few friends had warned me about this segment, claiming that it was one of the hardest parts of the game. I must say, I don't see what all the hoop-dee-doo was all about. Basically, I had to fend off enemies for like half a minute while Ashley smashed a hole in a wall, and then run through that hole. It really wasn't that big a deal; I did it in one try without wasting too much ammo or getting injured, and the worst thing that happened was that Ashley got hit and required a herb. No biggie.
What came next was, in my opinion, much harder. I had to ride on the back of a truck and fend off ganados that ran at me as Ashley drove through a series of tunnels. I died several times attempting this, mainly because I kept running out of ammo after the first couple of ganado swarms. Finally, I utilized a balanced mix of grenades and gunplay to get through this part. Unfortunately, this pretty much completely depleted my grenade supply, so now I have no grenades AND no bullets for any of my guns. The most frustrating part was that as the truck barreled away from the ganados I'd just blown to shit, I could see all the little red ammo indicators popping up as their bodies disintegrated. I even tried to jump off the truck a couple times, hoping to grab some of that sweet sweet ammunition, but the game wouldn't let me. So close, and yet so far.
And thus ended Chapter 5-2. I played through a bit of 5-3, but I got to a point where I was running around on cargo containers, trying to open doors while being hounded by the horrific "IT". I got killed a couple of times trying to do this, and then gave up. I think I have a decent strategy for when I tackle the segment again though: I will just run by IT and avoid his attacks, rather than wasting magnum ammo trying to kill his ass. I'm sure that once I get past this annoying door puzzle nonsense, I'll have to battle him for reals anyway, so I'll save my precious magnum bullets for that. I know I keep saying this, but oh god I hope there's a bunch of ammo lying around somewhere soon!!
At one point in the midst of all this, I had a fairly awesome encounter with Krauser. He was all like "Umbrella, Umbrella, Wesker, Umbrella, Umbrelladee-doo... oh wait, did I say Umbrella? I have said too much, comrade. (knife knife knife)". I must say that after all this crazy Salazar/Saddler/ganado/gigante/plagas stuff, it's pretty satisfying for elements like Umbrella and Albert Wesker FINALLY come up in this game. Don't get me wrong - I love the game, but as a big Resident Evil fan, it does seem very disconnected from the rest of the series. It's nice to see some connections, even if they turn out to be loose or superficial (which I'm thinking they probably will). This game is a masterpiece, no question, but their decision to change up both the storyline AND the gameplay style really makes it feel like something completely different. Different is good, but in the world of video games, part of the satisfation of playing a new game in a franchise is that sense of familiarity mixed in with all the new stuff. I hope they take this into account when creating the next Resident Evil game.
See you next time, when I will hopefully boast of toppling the mighty IT.
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