Kinect the Dots

Don't judge me, I'm a huge fan of puns.

Anyway, with all the new buzz about Xbox 360's Kinect, I have to express my feelings on the matter. The idea of not needing a controller, of using your whole body to interact with video games is EXTREMELY exciting. Ever since I was a little kid "Virtual Reality" has been this far fetched dream, that one day we'll be able to stand in the place of these characters and physically do what they do (or rather, have them do what we physically do). And the Wii was supposed to be a monumental step in that direction, but I know I might be outcast for saying this, but I really don't like the Wii. On occasion, I have enjoyed games like Super Mario Galaxy, or Wii Tennis (and other Wii Sports games), but for games like Zelda or Dead Rising, I find myself just wishing I had a normal controller and didn't have to deal with the slightly inaccurate mechanic of point and click.

But I digress. Kinect is supposed to be completely controller-less, and have complete body motion capture technology. But, much like the Wii, it seems like all the games advertised for it are gimmicky games for families and little kids who don't "normal" video games. Games like "Kinectimals" and "Kinect Adventures!" or other games designed for physical fitness and dancing. Games like this are great for people who don't want to leave the house (or can't, in the case of mothers with small children) and who still want to have fun and get a workout. But for people like me, people who consider themselves "Gamers" it doesn't seem like there is much to offer. I have serious doubts that this 3-D motion capture will be done well enough to make First Person Shooters be more enjoyable than it is with a controller.

My other concern is that games will require tons of physical movement. No, its not because I'm super lazy, but sometimes after a long day of work I just want to sit down and enjoy a fun game without having to get up and dance around the room. I'll be honest, I could be horribly wrong. I have not tried the technology for myself, and I have not read a lot about the experiences that others have had with the device. I'm just expressing my concerns. New technology sometimes makes games take a small step back; trading off shiny new features for more important things like story or fun.

Once more, I could be wrong. Even more, I HOPE I'm wrong, I hope that it is as amazing as Microsoft wants us to believe and that someday when I can afford it, I'll be able to have hours of fun playing it alone or with my family. But we'll just have to see.

Reach for the Skyyyyy

I have had Halo: Reach for a couple of weeks now, but only been able to play online for the last week or so. And while I do love the campaign and Firefight mode, let's face it, the only reason any Halo game has been set above the rest is because of its amazing multiplayer. Hence why this review is coming so late after the release, because half the game is in the online play.

We'll start with the Campaign. The moment the story starts, we see a lone helmet lying on an ashen battlefield with a bullet hole straight through the face, then it cuts to Noble 6 (your character) putting on that exact same helmet (minus the burn marks and bullet hole). Letting us know that at some point, your character will most likely get shot in the face in the end. Kind of depressing way to start out, but then again this is a story about the "Fall" of the planet Reach, so really the whole time you're playing a game about a battle you know you will lose. So really, you should be expecting bad things to happen in this story. Anyway, back to the point. You play Noble 6, the newest member of Spartan team Noble, meaning you are part of a team and not some all-powerful lone ranger like Master Chief. Don't get me wrong, I love Master Chief, he's got a gruff manly voice and takes on all manner of insurmountable odds and comes out unscathed. But the game is much different, story and gameplay-wise, when you have other Spartans fighting by your side who, for story purposes, can't die. They don't really do lots of damage to enemies, leaving a bulk of the work for you do, but when 3 unbelievably powerful elites come at you, having an invincible opponent with a Gatling gun proves to be one FANTASTIC distraction, allowing you to get into position. The other thing this does, is to prove that the human military, at one point in the past, had better plans than pointing at things and saying "Master Chief, Kill!" which makes this in-game military seem like it actually has some realism to it, what with strategy and planning.

Now I'll just make a quick passover of my irritation. You know I hate spoiling things for people, so I'll be vague. When you beat the game, its satisfying and the story has come to a very good resolution....but THEN. There is something after the credits roll that really made me upset. And for reasons I can't say for fear of spoiling it, it angered me. And for anyone interested in hearing my reasons, message me, and I'll be happy to explain. Now, moving on.

The Differences. The glorious return of the Health system is a breath of fresh air. You have shields which go down and then recharge as always, but now after your shields are gone, you take health damage, which I thought would just be gone until you found a health pack, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Health is wonderful because it adds a sense of fear and loss to being damaged. In Halo 3, once your shields were gone, you could hide for a few seconds and POOF your shields recharged and you're good as new! But now, your shields go down, you get hit once or twice more as you run for cover. Then you wait a few seconds for your shields to recharge, and POOF you're...almost as good as new. Now you know that if you do that same thing and your shields drop and you get hit once more you will die. It discourages doing the same thing over and over and over until finally it works, which I appreciate, I like to think outside the box and I like to encourage others to do so as well....especially teammates.

The weapons are COMPLETELY different, and AWESOME. Playing Halo 3, I always heard varying complaints about the weapons given; a lot of people loved the Battle Rifle, while tons of others could not stand it. Most people just gave up on the Assault Rifle, while others (like myself) learned to use it to perfection and irritate everyone else who couldn't use it. I used those two example because a majority of the time those were the weapons available to you. The most commonly given to you in Reach, are the DMR, the Pistol, and a new Assault Rifle.

I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't just absolutely love the DMR, it is incredible. Its like the Battle Rifle's cousin, or rather, the Battle Rifle is the DMR's ugly and retarded cousin. It has a zoom function and is very accurate, but instead of the 3 round burst that caused your crosshair to ride up, it is a slightly more powerful single shot weapon with more bullets. The faster you fire it, the less accurate it becomes, but if you can keep a steady rhythm and a steady thumb, it kills things the way they ought to be killed; good and fast.

Now the Pistol, as with every Halo game, the Pistol is totally different. While it looks an awful lot like the original Halo pistol, its not. Think of the original pistol and the ODST pistol, and this new one is somewhere between there; It zooms, its powerful enough to kill someone with a single clip's worth of headshots, but if you fire it too quickly (and you can fire it VERY quickly) then it becomes really inaccurate. Everyone I've met either loves it, or respects that it can be a great weapons but they just can't use it well.

The Assault Rifle, is still very similar. Its a close-range-bullet-hose. This one seems to be a tad less powerful than Halo 3's, but it has a slightly larger clip, and instead of just being wildly inaccurate, it starts off with very decent accuracy which then declines the longer you sustain fire. So if you're in close, you can just hold onto the trigger and riddle them with holes, or if not, you can do short controlled bursts and remain fairly accurate from far away. But maybe that's just me.

Oh yes, another wonderful addition to the armory is the Needle Rifle. Its like a Needler, only not. Imagine the described above DMR, and then mix it with a Needler. Half mid-ranged rifle, half explody pink needles, ALL awesome. Like its human counterpart, the DMR, it zooms and has great damage and accuracy. I'm not sure yet, but it seems to me that it does a little less damage, but it shoots faster and stays more accurate, but I could be wrong. Regardless, it definitely has this one-up on the DMR, Supercombine. When you hit someone enough times in a short period of time with the Needler, those needles all explode simultaneously and kill the person, and you get a shiny pink medal for doing so. The Needle Rifle has the same thing, so even if you can't quite get a headshot everytime, just aim for center mass and plug them full of needles to they pop.

Ok, I could go on all day about the new weapons, so I'll just finish with this; I LOVE the new sniper rifle. Its not much different, at least that I can place, but for some reason or another it makes me happy. NOw I'll touch on the Armor Abilities, which if you don't already know of them, you are in for a treat. Instead of having pick-upable equipment like the almighty Bubble Shield, or the active camo, you know have one Armor Ability. During multiplayer, you choose a loadout and the beginning of the game and can change it every time you die, it consists of 2 weapons (generally they are the same for multiplayer, but some options give you different choices) and one armor ability. In Campaign you have to find them and swap them out just like you would a weapon. They are thus; The Jetpack, rather self explanatory, you hold the button and up you go. you only have so much thrust before you have to stop and let it recharge, so be careful and save some for the long fall downward (you can easily commit suicide with a jetpack). Evade, usually reserved for Elites only but sometimes Spartans can use it too, its that dive roll that Elites always use whenever you throw grenades at them, you can use it twice before recharging. Active Camo, it lasts quite while, and its efficiency is based on speed, so if you run with it active it just makes you a little blurry, but sit perfectly still and its almost impossible to see you. The bubble shield, same as before except its blue and if it takes enough damage it can be destroyed. Spring! This is the default ability, you will see it many times in campaign and games like SWAT has it as the only option. Simply enough, you push the button and you run really fast, but you can't fire while running, so its a trade off. And lastly, one of my favorites (The jetpack and this are competing for the favorite) Armor Lock. You pound the ground and are stuck motionless on the ground for as long as you hold it, while in armor lock you can't move, and can't BE moved, and can't be hurt in any way. If you hold it long enough, you build up a charge which bursts out when you come out and destroys nearby enemy shields, very useful. And when I say you can't be moved, I mean that if a rushing ghost is coming to destroy you, you can drop down into armor lock, and not only will you be fine, but the Ghost will essentially be slamming into a wall and will explode if he's going fast enough.

Now to the multiplayer. You have the usual gametypes; Free-for-All, Team slayer, Team Objective, and Big Team Battle. I've always kind of hated free-for-all games because I get most of my kills stolen from me, but there are some cool new games there now. Like Headhunter; If you kill someone, they die and a flaming skull pops out of their head and you can collect it and others, and take them to a scoring zone, BUT someone can then kill you and take all those pretty skulls you collected, first one to collect 15 or 10 at once wins. So if you like free-for-all and fun games, you'll love it. Otherwise, its good for a laugh every now and then and might make you enjoy them.

I've always loved Big Team Battle, and now its not much different except that you can only have a max party size of 2. This greatly upsets me because I often play with my two brothers as my guests, and so now we cannot play Big Team Battle :(.

However we can play Multiteam. Multiteam consists of 4 or 5 teams of 2 competing in all manner of crazy games. I don't know what kind of games, because we only vote for Rocket Race. You and you're partner share a Mongoose, and you both have rocket launchers. I believe you are invincible while you are on the mongoose, but once you fall off...not so much. You race around the map trying to get to the objective point first, giving you a point. First one to 15 wins. It seems simple, but when there are 5 Mongooses (Mongeese?) and 10 unlimited rocket launchers on the field, chaos and hilarity ensue.

The Arena is great. I much more prefer this than to the other rating system. You can play Doubles Arena (2 vs. 2) or Team Arena (4 vs. 4), aside from team size, they function the same. At the beginning of the game you start with 1000 points, and as you kill people or assist other kills, this goes up, but as you die it goes down. Betrayals are twice as bad as a death, as they should be, and you get a small bonus if you win. So each game gives you a rating, generally they range from 1000 to 1600. I'm sure somewhere they could be people getting into the 1700's and 1800's on a regular basis, but I've yet to see them. If you play at least three games, you get a daily rating, which is the average of your 3 highest scoring games. After getting ranked 10 days, you get a division assigned to you; Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Onyx. Onyx is the highest of the high, and apparently is super rare.

All in all, I have to say Halo:Reach's campaign is solid; good story, good characters, fun to play (I'm still upset that I didn't get to fight a single Scarab!). But its multiplayer is by far my favorite of all the Halo games. Halo 1 will always be fantastic in its simplicity and ease of play. Its mechanics might be "better" than all the others in a sense. But to me, Reach's multiplayer is by far the most fun, and isn't that one a game is all about? Being fun?

Assassin's Creed II

I actually finished Assassin's Creed II a while ago, but have been forgetting to write a review. So alas, here it is.

First off, I have to say that I love the story, the OVERALL story. The story of Desmond and the Templars and all that crazy crap, it intrigues me greatly. And I enjoy the character of Ezio. He's a suave Italian ladies man with a heart full of bloody vengeance and hatred, what's not to love? I found myself disliking him at first, but only because I missed Altair so much, and then I learned to love him. However, for all that, I was not such a huge fan of the rest of Ezio's story. Assassin's Creed 1 was all about the CREED, about a code of conduct and honor, it was the one thing that separated the Assassins from the Templar. Altair had to learn and grow as a character to overcome the desire for blind rage and bloody vengeance, and in the end he gave up his way of "Kill them all and everything will be solved" and then figured out the overarching problem, and saved the world. In Ezio's time though, there is no such creed. Not once do we hear anything resembling the tenants of the creed, or any sort of code of conduct other than, "Stop the templars". As far as story and fictional worlds go, the Assassin's Creed II is almost a completely different world than the first one.

All that ranting aside, the game is incredibly fun. INCREDIBLY fun. The free-running is more fluid and interesting, the scenery is always beautiful and interesting, the combat is fluid and natural, and the culture is rich and inviting. I'm just going to assume that if you're reading this, you've played Assassin's Creed one, so I'll just cover the changes to that combat system. The ability to steal counter and steal your opponents weapon is phenomenal. There is nothing more enjoyable than walking into a fight with a heavily armored knight, he being armed with a halberd and you being unarmed, then watching with glee as he tries to hit you, you take that monstrous weapon from him, slap him in the face, and then run him through with it. *sigh* so awesome. This also leads into the next point of interest; new weapons. Before where you had the choice of fighting with a long sword or a short sword, you may now fight with a longsword, a dagger (each of which has many different upgrades and variations), a mace, a broadsword, an ax, the hidden blade (or blades) and the ever so awesome spear/halberd. Most importantly, each of these weapons has their own set of counter kills that incredibly entertaining.

The addition of a second hidden blade was a stroke of genius. Nothing says hardcore assassin quite like diving from a rooftop and landing blades first into the spinal columns of TWO unsuspecting guards, dispatching them instantly.

And most importantly, above all of the other marvelous changes, the greatest and best change of them all........swimming!!! I cannot even begin to express my frustration and utter rage when i would accidentally get bumped into the water, or make slight miscalculation in my jumping, and be instantly punished with death! I have almost broken many things in my room in my fury. But behold the light at the end of the tunnel, Assassin's Creed II allows one to freely fall and even swan dive gloriously into the crystal clear water.

And lastly, I'll not spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but the final boss fight left me with an empty and unsatisfied feeling. When I think of final Boss fights, I think of horrible fights of agony and difficulty. I think of legendary feats of skill or strength required to vanquish the foe. Assassin's Creed I did this rather well; a surprising final villain, with a surprising trinket of magic and mystery, making you fight all previous bosses at once, then having to fight that 5 copies of that final villain at once, all the while spewing his blasphemous plans and trying to sway your heart and mind to his cause. II, was not so heroic or legendary, it was lacking. And I'm sure you will all see what I am talking about when you see it, if you have not already.

All in all, I love this game, I spent many hours playing it even after I beat it, unlocked all achievements (except those damn feathers), and found every secret knook and cranny. Its a great sandbox, I highly recommend.

King of the Koopa

I know I said before that I was going to rant about why Bowser will forever fail, but I've changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that. Instead I want to talk about how wonderful the creation of Bowser as a villain is. Bowser is fantastic example of classic villainy; He's a monster, he kidnaps princesses (or at least one), and he hates the hero of the story. He has hordes upon hordes of minions a his disposal, but are any of these minions intelligent or skillful? No, they're minions. That's what minions are, cannon fodder to be sent of in waves to die for that chance when one minion might be able to accidentally hurt the target. It makes sense that his army of Koopas is completely stupid, because that's why he's the one in charge. He's the only one with drive and clarity of vision, the only one with a plan. And yes, the plan. Perhaps its just me, but isn't odd that Bowser continually kidnaps the Princess for no apparent reason? His plan isn't publicized to the world so that some shmuck can unravel it, no, he keeps it mysterious and secret. All marks of a great villain. I have a complete list and formula for all attributes great villains should have, but that's for another time.

Be Grateful

Taking a break from the many hours I spent playing Assassin's Creed II, which I will review upon completion, I decided to hook up my old Nintendo (or NES) and play some games. And I remember some of the frustrations I had playing them originally, but now being a much more experienced and skilled gamer...these things still frustrate and perplex me. I was just playing Mega Man 3. I'm a big fan of Mega Man, I mean he's a cool blue cyborg who strikes awesome poses every time he jumps or slides while he shoots robots and then absorbs their powers. What's not to love? I'll tell you what's not to love, one machine bumps into another half-machine, and the half-machine gets seriously injured and is sometimes so shaken by his being bumped into that he falls into a hole and dies. This has never made sense to me, and I'm so very glad its gone. Or at least I believe its gone, I haven't seen this sort of thing in a game lately, so here's hoping. Anyway, back to my point; Mega Man is made out of metal, or at least mostly, and the enemies are made of metal, why does one get hurt when they touch and not the other?

And this isn't exclusive to Mega Man, many many games have done this and it has almost NEVER made sense to me. Sure, some enemies are on fire or they radiate electricity, that's reasonable (I know I know, I'm using reason when complaining about the mechanics of a 20 year old video game, but you know what I mean)m but metal slightly touching metal should not be harmful to either side. The only time this kind of thing made sense is in Mario games, because none of it makes sense. If you start question why touching a goomba kills Mario, then you have start questioning things like "What the Hell is a Goomba?" "Why does that turtle have wings?" "Why does eating a mushroom make Marion gigantic, and why does eating a flower make him throw fire, and why in the hell does having a tail give him the ability to fly?" and lastly "How did a short fat Italian Plumber land the Princess of this magical world, and why does this princess ALWAYS get kidnapped? I mean shouldn't she have some damn security by now?". Wow, I went off on that tangent a little longer than I intended, but oh well.

To sum up, if you're ever upset when an enemy constantly seems to have too many bullets or is too accurate, just be glad that he can't accidentally bump shoulders with you and your legs falls off or explode into a show of tiny sparkly discs.

All this talk about Super Mario has me thinking, my next post will probably be a rant about why King Koopa (That's Bowser to you youngens) has failed and will consistently fail forever unless he changes his ways.

A little about my experiences

I've owned every system from the Atari to the 360 (excluding the PS3), I've hauled computers to friend's houses for all night Starcraft, rejoiced upon the triumphant defeat of the dark King Koopa before he became "Bowser", and raged in frustration as a passerby tripped on the power cord as I fought the final Boss. I remember the days when they were not called "Bosses", they were referred to simply as "the End Guy", a term which I believe to be self-explanatory. I grew up using "paddles" to play games, not controllers. I was there when if a game wasn't working, you simply blew on it as hard as you could and/or flicked the power switch for a few seconds. My earliest memory I have is playing Super Mario Brothers 3, and getting to World 7 all by myself, I believe I was 3 or 4 because I had not yet started Kindergarten. I've spent hours and hours waiting for the Midnight release of a game, and then spent the entire night and next morning playing with friends. I've lost track of time while playing a game in the morning and then suddenly realized that the sun had long ago set.

Now that I've made it look like my entire life up to this point has revolved around video games, and you have this image of me in your head of a 30 year old 400 pound slob whose gut is so large that I can rest a bag of chips on it while typing, someone who's never had a girlfriend and just trolls the internets to pick fights with random strangers online. That is not me.

I just wanted to show that I am a gamer, I am one of you, a man of the people and for the people. But my life is not video games, I just love them. My biggest passion in life is simply stories, as long as they are told well through whichever medium the artist (or artists) have chosen. Video games, movies, books, blogs, or word of mouth all have their upsides and their downs, and I love them all. But a video game, to me, is the most immersive medium of storytelling. Since you control the character, you begin to feel for the character. When he gets hurt badly by some bad guy, you wince, you feel a small jolt of fear for his well-being, if only just a subtle hint. If you let go and let yourself be immersed in the story, you can feel what he feels, and enjoy what he enjoys. And the fact that his (or her, as the case may be) life is in your hands, demands something of you. You are no longer a casual observer and sympathetic third party in this adventure, you are right there in the thick of things.

Who am I and why should you listen me?

My name is Promethyis, and I have been a gamer since I can remember, which is around 1990. Which gives me twenty years of video game experience, which I'll admit does not make me an expert, but it does mean I've got some perspective on the way games and the gaming world have changed over the years. As to why you should listen me, I don't care. This blog is just an outlet for me to pour out my thoughts and feelings about games, probably more for my benefit than yours, but I'm sure (or at least hope) you will get something out of it too.