Sitting here watching a terrible documentary (something I’ve been doing with a surprising degree of frequency lately), it occurs to me just how bad my head is hurting from playing video games all freaking day. Also it occurs to me that there are very few good or bad documentaries that have been made about video games. The only two I know of are High Score(about Missile Command and Asteroids classic play) and King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters(Famous one about Donkey Kong). Both aren’t very good in cinematic terms but King of Kong is a far more educational and interesting flick. High Score looks like something that someone would have made for MTV back in the day. I have seen some incredible looking fighting game documentaries that are HOPEFULLY coming out. Like King of Chinatown and Pixel Kombat. Both look wonderful and certainly better than anything I’ve seen so far in video game documentaries. So Hopefully they will both get DVD releases and will be able to be seen by those who would finance just efforts not just steal them like every one does with I GOT NEXT.
So to my game playing. I enter into the Halo Reach Beta with the other million plus people yesterday. The game is great, the gameplay is so solid it feels like a rock. However, the armor powers are currently not exactly useful and the fact that the armor has been rebalanced so that it is actually harder to kill someone is also kind of silly. The standard amount of health in Halo Reach Multiplayer reminds me of Battlefield Bad Company 2 where most guys take a full clip before they die. In this game you usually use around half a clip on the normal rifle. The game is fun but it’s not perfect, I hope the beta information that they are constantly collecting will help them balance things. Also, of course, the Beta has only rolled out a limited number of modes and there is still no way to pick to play as an Elite all the time. Which is what I was looking foeward to. But as with some many other things in video games. You know a good game when you feel it; and Halo Reach is a good game. At least in multiplayer anyway.
Also played about three more hours of Super Street Fighter IV and as it is early I may play a few more hours this evening. I love this game; it is the best combination of skill and accessibility. And by accessibility, I mean that if you work hard, you can get better. Unlike a game like Starcraft 2 where you must actually learn things outside of the game AND work hard. These days it seems like all games can be put mainly into two categories. They are either Halo(accessible to everyone, even little kids) or Starcraft 2(accessible to only the hardcore). Don’t get me wrong, I love Starcraft 2 but am I ever going to have time to get any good at it? Probably not. At least not while I’m trying to become a competitive Super Street Fighter IV player anyway.
The reason I don’t have trouble with learning a game is that, I usually really like watching Youtube videos of people playing said games. Or in the case of Super Street Fighter IV, watching replays on the Replay Channel. I even don’t mind going back through my own matches looking for flaws. It’s not a problem, in fact I actually like it. Is this too much for a video game? Perhaps, but if I wasn’t doing this I’d be watching TV where I probably would learn even less. So I guess it works out in the end. For some reason from the moment that video games were shown in a competitive way in video form I got all jazzed. I was less jazzed when it never took off. But maybe someday, the long tail is getting longer every day. Pretty soon we will all have our own internet TV stations with content filled from around the world catered specially to our interests. I reserve the all video game content channel now.
A couple of weeks ago I started playing Need for Speed Shift for the XBOX 360. It was a late to the party venture that I figured I would give an hour and then quit. I ended up playing every night for about a week and then I played about 3 times for the past two weeks. Once Super Street Fighter IV came out I stopped playing. But today I dropped it back in. I’m starting to think that I’m done with the game. It has some horrible controls that take some real getting used to. The handling of the cars is overall very squirrelly especially at high speeds. In contrast to Forza 3, the game is absolute garbage. But the A.I. in the game is all ways competitive even if it is sometimes super cheap. The cars overall look really good and the tracks while a little too samey for my taste are a step up from Forza 3. I would have really liked to see Need for Speed work up a better customization system for parts/vinyls/paint. At a certain point in the game(this is before the supposed end), you get to feel like your killing time and not really having your eyes on the prize anymore.
So if I wouldn’t be writing this blog post right now, if it weren’t for my headache. In fact, I would have never even shut off the XBOX 360 if it weren’t for the beginning of the headache. I guess I should be taking a break from staring at a screen; but I don’t feel like I’m staring because I glance up, watch TV, etc… So whatever…
A game review you will not see on the site is that of Splinter Cell Conviction. I just did not want to finish playing that game. Why? It seems to be making fun of it self. While they are doing this super serious bull story, they continuously have these moments where the game reminds you in a pretty serious way that, “Hey man, your playing a game here!” Which I didn’t appreciate at all.
I really hate the escort, sneak, and timed missions. It’s just crap. I know the argument could be that there are only so many things you can do within the context of a Splinter Cell game. But the other problem here lies in the A.I. which lines up to be killed. I would just be happy for levels 1-5 of Splinter Cell Conviction with descent A.I. and not the conga line of death I’ve read some of the Splinter Cell books and I have to say that the games don’t do Sam Fisher justice. Assassin’s Creed 2 out Splinter Cell’s, Splinter Cell. Kills are too easy and with their crappy Mark and Execute feature, the game basically allows ANYONE to get through the entire game REALLY easily. And not just on the easy setting. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with making a game easy enough for anyone to play and finish. But what isn’t good is to make the game patiently SO easy that anyone watching it will laugh hysterically at the ease at which the game plays out. I really like the gameplay in Splinter Cell Conviction, now if only the A.I. would have made it a challenge for me to get through. I also got really tired of the ridiculous one liners that the guys you were taking out kept spouting. They say the same three or four things over and over. No matter the situation. Why didn’t they just have them not say anything. It would have been more realistic and less ridiculous. I really would have liked to see a return of Mercs versus Spies. That was the best stealth style multiplayer I’d ever seen. Maybe they do a version of it for the new Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer game that Ubisoft is working on. But again, everything is either Starcraft 2 or Halo. I guess Ubisoft wants Splinter Cell to be Halo.
That’s all for me, if you want to play me at Super Street Fighter 4 and kick my butt; my GT is HadesTimer and my PSN ID is DevilsAlias. I welcome all game invites. Just don’t expect me to be competitive yet.
Oh and my headache STILL hasn’t gone away, I guess no more games for tonight.
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