December 23rd, 2008 Tengaport
Dead Space is another one of those ‘perfect’ games for me. I’m such a sucker for space-thrillers when it comes to movies, and survival horrors when it comes to games and Dead Space appears to be a great combination of the two.
Maybe it was because I was playing the game alone & with the lights out, but Dead Space creeped me the hell out. I was honestly scared as I walked around the dark and foreboding spaceship. The game immediately jumped into a very Alien-esque vibe, as I felt completely unarmed and unmatched for the monsters that lurked about. The sci-fi design and the sounds made the environments absolutely terrifying. As I walked down vacant corridors my heart raced in anticipation of what may come. I was no super-space marine here. The developers did a great job of making me feel I was literally fighting for my life.
I can’t recall the last time I actually ran from enemies in a game, let alone ran from them praying that the door was going to shut behind me. That is exactly what I found myself doing in Dead Space. My ammo was depleted, and my odds of survival were slim so I made several mad dashes to try and save my skin. Speaking of skin, the game does an stupendous job with it’s menus and HUD to keep you immersed. Kudos and hats off on an excellent job. Your suit displays your vital stats, your weapon displays your ammo count - my only complaint is not knowing immediately how much ammo I have left in reserves (aside from what’s already in the chamber). Perhaps there is a visual clue there that I haven’t picked up upon yet though.
I loved every minute I’ve spent with Dead Space so far, only stopping last night because I couldn’t take the stress anymore. The game reminded me of what first drew me into Resident Evil way back when. I’ve got high hopes for the remainder of this game, can’t wait to play some more.
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December 22nd, 2008 Tengaport
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I had one of my not-so-best gaming moments this past weekend during some public matches of Gears of War 2. It was the first time while playingGOW 2 that I frustratingly threw my controller, got up off the couch and abandoned my team (along with the game for the rest of the evening). Gears inconsistencies coupled with disconnections and round after round ofglitchers just got he best of me, and I completely gave in to the dark side.
When the playing field is level, I don’t care whether I win or lose - I’m playing to have fun. When the playing field is distorted (as it can be at times with Gears) each ridiculous death I suffer raises my blood pressure higher and higher. This past Friday as my shotgun missed point blank targets, my lancer had the stopping power of aNerf gun, and my chainsaw revved with the ferocity of a Play School toy I finally reached my breaking point. I began a downward spiral of getting decimated round after round. It was as if I left for a war forgetting to bring bullets along with my guns. Blasting away at my opponents did little to their health and even less to my score as I ended round after round with zero points. Despite my screen showing fountains of blood flying off my targets as I emptied clip after clip my shots simply just did not register to the game’s score keeper as if he was turning a blind eye to my best efforts.
As much as I love Gears of War I want to strangle the game for it’s network code. GOW1 was a blight to play on-line at times, but Epic seemingly fixed those issues with GOW2. Now it appears that they’ve only masked those issues, and after nightly, lengthy play time with the game that mask is starting to fall off.
Match to match I have no idea what to expect from Gears of War 2. Will I be firing blanks during the round, or will I actually be able to damage my on-screen opponents? More often than not my attempts to keep my head attached to my body prove to be futile as theWMD’s my enemies posses lay waste to my pee shooter. Sure, time after time I have the drop on them. I sneak up from behind, jam my shotgun into their backs and pulled the trigger repeatedly. This normally tried-and-true tactic is no match for their bullet dodging abilities and their Mike Tyson-like melee as they drop me to the ground in a supremeWTF moment. I change up my tactics to try and avoid repeating that scene. I keep my enemies at a distance only to see clip after clip of lancer fire do nothing to stop them as they run right up and obliterate me with the same one two punch shotgun melee.
This scenario repeated itself more times then I could bare that fate-full evening, until I reached my breaking point which caused the controller to fly from my hands.
While I know it’s “only a game” my anger boiled down to the simple fact that: I really like Gears of War, I want to keep playing it - but I am not having fun, and why do I want to play a game that is not fun?
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November 18th, 2008 Tengaport
As I write this I’m fighting a war with my eyelids to stay open. Last night’s Advance War battle raged on way past my bedtime. I had bested one of the three opposing forces on the map, but the two remaining CO’s refused to give up any ground. After the 10th time I said, “one last turn” my wife finally forced me to retire from the battle for the evening and call it a night. Judging by my exhausted state, I probably should’ve listened to her the first time she told me to put the game down.
That’s the thing with Advance Wars, once you’re in the thick of it - it’s nearly impossible to put down. That’s just where I’m finding myself again after a bit of a hiatus from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.
I was initially let down by the departure Days of Ruin had taken from previous Advance Wars games. The change in art style and characters didn’t bother me nearly as much as the striped down, ‘back to basics’ gameplay. What I’ve realized with the loss of overpowering CO attacks and additional skills is that Days of Ruin is raw Advance Wars at it’s core.
Days of Ruin leans much more towards a methodical game of chess now as opposed to a simple bout of rock, paper, scissors. The rock, paper, scissor mechanics are still there, but you’ll need to pack more strategy than firepower now if you hope to walk off the battlefield victorious.
I still stand by my original review of this game (short version: horrible story, drab characters, lack of features when compared to Dual Strike…) but it is still one of the best games I have played on my DS. Once you get into the rhythm, Advance Wars is pure, gaming crack. Just look at me, I’m strung out right now, and all I can think about is ‘one more turn’.
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August 2nd, 2008 Tengaport
For about an hour today I had the joy of flying a small plane from Long Beach Island back to Lincoln Park. It was a bit unnerving at first, and then it was extremely unnerving. Greg (on the left) read me the heading and I kept us on course and at a smooth 2,500 feet up.
It was a fun time, despite the fact that I got a little nauseous from shooting photos (the reason we were in the sky) from so high while the plane bounced around.
The whole trip took about 3 hours total, which sure beats the hell out of driving 
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May 15th, 2008 Tengaport
Sam Fischer, what happened? I was there on day one to pick up Double Agent but for some unknown reason the game failed to live up to the joy of its predecessors.
I barely made progress in the single player campaign, and couldn’t get into the new streamlined multiplayer portion. I’ve still got Chaos Theory around if anyone is up for a game
Not sure if I’ll be joining Sam on any of his new adventures at this point. If I do, it most certainly won’t be on day one anymore.
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May 14th, 2008 Tengaport
Finally picked this little doozy up from Amazon for $19.99 (Scott, yours is at the folks house in your mail bin).
I haven’t put it through the paces yet (are there really even paces for such a device?) but I must say that the thing is MUCH bigger than I was anticipating. I honestly question it’s ‘mini’ status as the thing is much larger than the photo on the Belkin website makes it appear. It’s not just the near 5″ length, it’s the depth of the surge that surprised me which is probably around 2″s (not counting the plug part).
I guess what I really needed was a USB charger as opposed to a USB charger with 3 port surge protection. This might prove too big and bulky to end up in the carry-on, but for checked luggage it’s a no brainer.
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March 3rd, 2008 Tengaport
I was thinking this morning on my way in to work that while I do have a ‘currently playing’ list here I rarely ever comment on it. Usually I’ll post a bit about a game when I get it or trade it away, but never report on it while it’s currently spinning. Well, today that is going to change - here is my first Currently Playing Update for March 2008:
Xbox 360
I recently finished Tomb Raider: Legend. I was hoping to maybe relive some nostalgic Tomb Raiding moments, but the game sadly didn’t offer too many. The game itself wasn’t so great and while it wasn’t terrible by any means, towards the end I felt as if I was just going through the motions. While the new ‘next-gen’ Tomb Raider is looking somewhat interesting, I’m much more drawn to Uncharted on the PS3.
I was skeptical that a game with a ninja but no throwing stars could be any good. Well, N+ is just such a game, and despite the fact that your ninja doesn’t even have a sword it still manages to be a fun - yet frustrating at times experience. Fun and Failure both definitely start with F, and N+ offers you extra helpings of both as you traverse the games many levels. The object is simple - open the door, get as many gold coins as you can and get out. Doing all of this requires you to make tremendous leaps of faith, avoiding mines, sadistic shocking robots and crack-shot turrets.
Co-op is a blast, though sadly you’ll have to take advantage of the ’self destruct’ feature many, many times…
Lastly on the 360 is Call of Duty 4. This has replaced Halo as my go-to shoot em up. I can’t put my finger on it, but I enjoy the dynamic of COD4 much more than the circle strafing of Halo. Perhaps it is just because COD4 is new to me, and Halo is… well, Halo.
PSP
Pata! Pata! Pata! Pon! Finally got my hands on Patapon and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. I am surprised at the level of grinding the game requires. It doesn’t feel extraordinarily tedious, but I’ve been playing the hunting levels (the easy ones) over and over again in order to raise funds to build up my army. I feel like the game has a lot in store still, but after around 5 hours of playtime I’m still hunting. I’m really digging the game though, so hopefully I’ll have a strong army to take into battle soon.
DS
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin briefly took a back seat to Professor Layton and The Curious Village. Unfortunately, AW: Days of Ruin just doesn’t hold up to previous versions of the game. While I don’t mind the art change, the developers sadly stripped away too much of the game’s personality along with it. The new characters are meaningless to me, and while the core Advance Wars mechanics are intact, all the bells and whistles are gone. It’s still a good game, but if I had to pick between Days of Ruin and Dual Strike it’d be Dual Strike by a long shot.
Professor Layton is pretty fantastic. I enjoy good brain teasers, and the Professor has quite a few to offer. Some are extremely easy to solve, but others will give your noodle quite a workout. I haven’t been paying too much attention to the story in the game and have just been hunting out puzzles, but this is impeding my progress quite a bit. So now I’m taking the time to actually listen to what the villagers are saying before tackling their puzzles. It’s a great game, and much more of a workout for your brain than say Brain Age.
That wraps up the weekly ‘currently playing’ update. Next week will finally see the release of God of War on the PSP, so sadly my Patapon army will have to take a back seat for a bit. Perhaps Kratos can teach the little Patapons a thing or two about war and lesson my need for the constant hunting missions.
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October 5th, 2007 Tengaport
Still getting adjusted to WordPress here, trying to work out all the kinks before posing resumes. Currently I am having an issue with images disappearing when I post from my Flickr account. Apparently the alignment code is the culprit, just trying to figure out how to fix it.
For the most part I am enjoying the change. After I sort code issues I’ll start working on a redesign.
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