Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Dead Island...thoughts.

I'm writing this for people who have a gist what kind of a game Dead Island is. Maybe your on the fence about giving it a try or not.


Some games are great, some games are not and some are just okay. Dead Island could be any one of those depending on how you take it. Dead Island is one of the most broken, glitchy games I have ever played. The story is pretty terrible and predictable. Most of the voice acting as well as the cut scene animations are terrible. Texture pops are all over the place ant there is a lot of slow down where too much things are going on at once. The game freezes randomly (PS3 for sure) causing you to reset the console. The saving system randomly forgets where your last checkpoint really was. Some glitches caused me to start over quests because zombies would disappear or be stuck in walls making me unable to finish certain quests. Sometimes even joining a friends game that was less progressed then mine, erased my own progress and kept my single player progression to where I left off with my friend. 

Negatives aside. Dead Island is best played with a buddy or three. Its always fun killing zombies with friends. The multiplayer is  pretty seamless, aside from glitches. You can join a friends game or a friend can join your game anytime. One really odd game play choice, was having to make you exit all the way out to the menu to change the online options. Money always goes to everyone and items go to whomever picks them up. I think this promotes a better form of teamwork. You don't have to worry about splitting money or someone hording money, but it still has you having to trade items if need be. 

Guns are fairly prominent later in the game but they don't do kind of damage you would expect and clearly they were not the focus of this game. But the melee weapons are where its at. The craft system is decent. I just wish there was more crazy mods to use. The characters are quite different as well. Some skills all characters have but some are unique to one another. Logan is the throwing expert, he is best at long ranges. Xian is the sharp weapons expert and the damage dealer. Purna is the guns expert and is a great support character. Sam B is the blunt weapons expert and the tank character. All characters have 3 skill trees that you can level up. Fury, Combat, and Survival. Fury is a special "berserk" mode your character can enter to deal some quick damage to enemies. Combat is a skill tree for fighting. Survival can be anything from lock picking, extra inventory slots, to some more combat skill buffs. 


The game takes around 20 hours if you didn't do side quests. Doing all side quests adds 10+ more hours of gameplay. And theres a "New Game +" mode after you beat it. You can start the game again with your level, items, weapons, and mods in tact and further better you character. Dead Island has a lot of replay ability. There are a lot of nods to other games and lots of hidden items to find.

With all its glitches and how much frustration this game has caused me, Dead Island is an amazingly fun game, and I love it.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Good vs. The Evil, who wins? Me?

Good Vs. Evil

An odd dilemma I have sometimes when I'm making a blog post is should I talk about the negatives or the positives? People have an innate ability to find the negative stories more interesting then the positive ones. Maybe it's the 6 o'clock news fault. 90% of what they show is something terrible that happened to someone. Even things that were supposed to be good turn out to be negatives. Miscellaneous hotty gets married, means the average Joe doesnt have a chance anymore. "Jessica Alba got married?! OMG WTF!", "Why the f*ck did she marry that guy?!"

I haven't done too many review type posts. But for sure I would put the negatives on those types of things. Sometimes I just don't think I have to put in negative reasoning, unless I feel its actually needed.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Video Game Draft.

There is a large amount of games coming out in the next few months. Mostly FPS's in their 3rd iterations. Some are just FP's. Some action adventure. And a new version of a new fighting game.

First Person Shooters
Battlefield 3
Resistance 3
Rage
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

First Person/Action Adventure/RPG
Dead Island
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Action RPG
Deus Ex: Human Revolution


3rd Person/Shooter/Action Adventure
Gears of War 3
Assassins Creed Revelations
Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
Batman: Arkham City

Fighting
Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

With Deus Ex being out already that leaves 11 games I would personally like to get this year. Do I have the time for all these games? Probably not. And I definitely don't have the money to purchase all these. Within the time frame they are coming out. For this year I'll have to choose my main ones I want to get.

From the FPS category I pick, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. I originally was only going to get Battlefield and not MW3. But I'll go into that in another post.

From FP/AA/RPG, I plan on getting Dead Island. Going by the trailers alone, I think Deep Silver did an amazing job from artistic standpoint. They never really show too much in the trailers, which can be bad and good at the same time. I know its a first person zombie survival type game, with some RPG elements thrown in. Its supposed to have a huge map to roam around in and 4 player co-op with drop ins, drop outs. It seems very melee orientated, instead of using mainly guns. In a way makes it more realistic. I really hope this game turns out well and has co-op free roam. As much as i'm excited about this game I'm still gonna wait for the reviews before spending my money on this one though.

The 3rd Person/Shooter/Action Adventure games I want to commit to are Uncharted 3 and Batman: Arkham City. I been a Uncharted fan since the beginning, I still feel Uncharted 2 is one of the most well made games of this console generation. And what can I say of about Arkham City. Arkham Asylum was the best Batman game ever made and I'm a decent sized comic book nerd. Arkham City looks to be even better then it predecessor.

I'm excited for the free update to Super Street fighter 4: Arcade Edition (called Ver. 2012). Because Yun and Fei Long are broken. But the only brand new fighter I could think of and the only one I want to get this year is UMvC3. Balance changes, 12 new characters, new colors, costumes and levels, MODOK dressed as Elvis, I'm sold. Capcom, you have my money yet again.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

MvC3 Impressions


So it's been about a week since the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. I think I've had enough time with it to form a decent opinion on the game. In short, it's great! But it's missing some things I wish it had.

I started actually trying to get good at fighting games with 3d games like Tekken and Soul Edge/Calibur. Then with Street Fighter 4 iterations. So I made a transfer from 3d back the new age of 2d fighters. I am, in no way an expert at fighting games but I'm more then competent to hold my ground. I've played all the versus games, but was never good at them nor did I try to be. Especially with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. But I watched a lot of high level MvC2 play from tournaments over the decade so I understand the game to an extent. The extent that I never really played it to get good. So I thought MvC3 would be a good time to start. I know the concept of the game pretty well, but execution is a different story.

One thing I should say is if you love MvC2, you will probably have a dislike of the game at first because it is different from its popular predecessor. But you have to realize that it is a "new" game and take it for what it is. They did however streamline the game with the (Wii exclusive) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom button layout , so that anyone can have fun with it. Aside from the button layout borrowed from TvC, the games engine is also running off the one created for TvC. So the game physics are reminiscent of TvC as well. That being said, everything else is practically that over the top MvC2 style a lot of us grew to love. If you've ever seen a "Versus" (not counting the Capcom vs. SNK series) game played at a high level then you know these games can get crazy. It takes some time to get used to. If your new to the Versus games, knowing exactly whats going on with all the colors, explosions, fire balls, beams, and characters popping up on screen at once can be a bit jarring at first. OMG WTF BBQSAUCE MARVEL CHARACTERS FIGHTING AGAINST CAPCOM CHARACTERS!!!!!

Aesthetics
I'm really diggin' the comic book art style that they incorporated into the game. It was mentioned before that they were going for a moving comic book style, I think Capcom pulled it off extremely well. The backgrounds make  more sense this time around. Your not fighting on a flying ship, desert, or in a theme park for absolutely no reason. Although I didn't mind that either. The backgrounds are relative, like the Danger Room (X-Men) for the training stage! How genius is that?! The Daily Bugle (Spider-Man), Metro City (Final Fight), Demon Village (Ghost n' Goblin's), Kattelox Island (Mega Man Legends), Hand Hideout (although Electra is more related to this level she is not in the game, but Wolverine is also related to it), S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier (name speaks for itself), Asgard (Thor), Tricell Laboratory (Resident Evil) and Fate of Earth (Galactus, boss stage only)

Gameplay System
Mvc3 uses a six button layout. 3 Attack buttons (Light, Medium, Hard), 1 Special button (S Has several uses), 2 assist buttons(A1, A2).

Most Versus games use something coined a Magic Series. Which means lighter attacks in most cases combo into the next highest attack. So in MvC3, L > M > H > S is the most basic combo for most characters. Although you can do this same series in the air, the most general combo to execute in the air is M > M > H > S. Because using the light attacks in the air usually pushes the character too far from the opponent. The S button is capable of linking together after any attack button generally.

The Special button does a number of different things. From the ground it can "launch" opponents into the air. From the air it can knock the opponent back to the ground if you don't hold any directions. Or preform an air exchange. Air Exchanges tags another character in, in the air and continues to combo. From the point character you can air exchange twice (from point character, to assist 1 to assist 2, in that order). You can also choose what direction you want to preform the Air exchange. Using down S. in air exchange combos builds more Hyper meter. Forward/Backward S. build slightly less meter. Up S. builds the least meter but does the most damage overall. If the opponent can guess which way your going to hit them, they can break the combo. If the opponent presses the same direction with S. your air exchange combo will be stopped.

Some moves in the game have a property called OTG (off the ground). What these moves do is hit the opponent off the ground so you can continue to combo them. For example, X-23's Ankle Slicer, Wesker's down/forward H, or Deadpool's Katana-rama. Hyper combos are preformed with the correct direction notation and 2 attack buttons. These super moves can usually combo after special attacks or normal attacks. All characters have at least 2 Hyper combos, some have up to 4. Most Hyper combos cost one level of hyper meter. Some characters have a level 3 hyper combo. These cost three meters and are invincible at start up. Meaning, in the beginning frames of animation that character cannot be hit. Level 3 hyper combos also ignore damage scaling. Damage scaling basically means the more hits a combo has in it the less damage it will do over time because the damage will be scaled back. There is also damage scaling after a throw (all characters have throws, can be preformed in the air or ground with Forward+H or Back+H). I believe it is 45% dmg reduction off the bat. Command throws on the other hand do not count.

Something new to the Marvel Vs. Capcom series is the X-Factor system. This is preformed by pressing L+M+H+S. X-Factor increases in bonus' the less characters you have left on your team. X-Factor increases speed, and damage. It also regenerates the point characters red health. Usually only the assist characters regenerate their red health. You do not take chip/block damage in X-Factor. X-Factor also resets damage scaling and block stun. X-factor is a very powerful system and knowing when to use it is an important strategy.

Movement is probably the most important thing to know how to do in MvC3. A lot of the cast can fill the screen with projectiles, so knowing how to jump, super jump, double/triple jump, dash, air dash, wave dash, triangle jump, box jump and teleport can be vital to success. Not all character have all these ways of movement, so experiment with you team and see how they can move.


Characters

Marvel:

  • Captain America
  • Deadpool
  • Doctor Doom
  • Dormammu
  • Hulk
  • Iron Man
  • Magneto
  • M.O.D.O.K (Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing)
  • Phoenix
  • Sentinel
  • She-Hulk
  • Spider-Man
  • Storm
  • Super-Skrull
  • Taskmaster
  • Thor
  • Wolverine
  • X-23
  • Shuma-Gorath (Downloadable Content/DLC)
Capcom:

  • Amaterasu
  • Arthur
  • Chris Redfield
  • Chun-Li
  • C.Viper
  • Dante
  • Felicia
  • Haggar
  • Morrigan
  • Ryu
  • Spencer
  • Trish
  • Tron
  • Wesker
  • Viewtiful Joe
  • Zero
  • Jill Valentine (DLC)


I'm content with the character choices they've made. Since everyone plays very different from one another. Their diversity is well rounded even with "female versions" of some characters like Hulk and Wolverine. Don't get me wrong though, She-Hulk and X-23 are very different from their male counterparts. Adding lesser know characters like Amaterasu, Taskmaster, M.O.D.O.K and Dormammu to the cast to mix in with the marque characters was a great idea. And finally being able to see old video games characters like Haggar and Arthur make their comeback is great feeling.

The characters have great presence. They act like you would think they would from their respective places in fiction. Dante is a show boat and has a ton of his moves from Devil May Cry. Deadpool breaks the fourth wall on many different occasions, even saying some MvC slang memes from IFC Yipes (One of the best MvC2 players in the world). Characters have some specific pre/post match banter with one another. Some Marvel characters with history together even call each other by their first name when they tag in. For example X-23 and Wolverine call each other Laura and Logan. Or Magneto and Storm call each other Erick and Ororo. Viewtiful Joe calls Hsien-Ko "Lei Lei" because that is her name in Japan and Joe is a fan of the Japanese culture. There are some lines straight from the comics as well. These small touches are subtle but very cool for fans.

One thing I think everyone that has the game knows, is that Sentinel is very strong in this game, as he was MvC2 but in a slightly different way. For one, he can dish out a ton of damage, especially in X-Factor. Has the most health in the game, pretty simple damaging combos, and has super armor on a lot of his normals and some of them even nullify certain projectiles (Normals are the attack buttons pressed by themselves such as L, M, or H. in MvC3's case. Super Armor is a property where the move can "absorb" a number of hits). But I can understand Capcom's reasoning behind this. Sentinel is a very slow hitting character (although he's decently quick moving, if you know what to do). He would get hit out of a lot of his moves and be totally garbage if he didn't have something to help him out. Aside from those great stats, Sentinel has one of the best assists in the game, Sentinel Force. As it being one of the best slow moving projectile assists, it does very well to cover characters trying to approach their opponent. Sentinel is great all around character. In my opinion though, you shouldn't really have him on point. For that fact that his Sentinel Force assist will greatly help your team, and he is just ridiculous with level 3 X-Factor.

Then on the other hand you have glass cannons like Phoenix. If she gets caught in ONE decent combo she will die. For a comparison, Sentinel has around 1,200,000ish HP and Phoenix has like 420,000 HP. She does have some ways to get around that though. Phoenix has a good run away game, can dish out good damage and has good mix ups to pop open the opponents defense. She has her Healing Field hyper that can heal her health very quickly if you are close enough to the opponent. And then her trump card, Dark Phoenix. Probably most powerful character in the game. To gain access to Dark Phoenix, Phoenix has to die and you must have 5 levels of hyper meter. Dark Phoenix can literally kill an entire team by herself, but her health slowly drains automatically. This can be remedied with her Healing field Hyper and or X-Factor. But your still in danger of getting caught in a combo if your not careful.

I don't feel that any character is adherently weak as of yet, but I think there are better characters suited to be an assist then to be on point at the moment. But as time passes I believe we'll start seeing that everyone has the juice to be great point character. I could probably go on for awhile about each and every character so I'll just stop while i'm ahead.

What I think is missing, and what I want to see...
There are some little things I feel are missing from the game. I understand it could of been a development time issue or something along those lines. Anyways, this isn't big deal but I would like to see more levels to play in. There are only ten and only nine are playable in versus. I'm ok with no replay theater, I can live with that, we have something called the internet. But for recording my own matches, that kind of sucks. So I wouldn't mind have at least a save match option. There is no watching the other matches going on in the online player lobbies. So if you're playing with more then two people in the lobby, the people not playing are sitting there looking at nothing. Sounds pretty boring to me. In the lobby I would also like to be able to edit the teams you can save. There is also no "rematch" option in the pause screen, I found that really odd. Say someone needed to do a button check, change their buttons whatever, you would have to go all the way back to the character select screen to start the match over. Last but not least I would like to see...
From Capcom I would like to see:

  • Strider
  • Jin
  • Sigma
  • Some other Mega Man Villains
  • Frank West
From Marvel

  • Omega Red
  • Carnage
  • Havok
  • Mr. Sinister
  • Ghost Rider
  • Psylocke
  • Gambit
  • Doctor Octopus
I could go on with characters I hope they add but I'll just leave it at that. There are a ton of things I missed but if I keep going I'll end up writing a small strategy guide. But if you really have more questions feel free to ask. Some things if failed to mention:
  • Team Dynamics
  • Delayed Hyper Combo (DHC)
  • Dashing
  • Wave Dashing
  • Triangle Jumping
  • Box Jumping
  • Unblockables
  • Using Assists
  • Hit Stun
  • Block Stun
  • Simple Mode
To name a few...maybe next time!


Closing Thoughts
If you are a fan of fighting games, Marvel comics, Capcom games, and over the top insanity then this game is right up your alley. It's simple enough for a beginner to grasp within a short time and complex enough to last for years to come. The beauty of this game is that it heavily promotes creativity. It's a game for the fans. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, MvC3:FTW, MvC3: For The Win, that new Crack!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Blargh!

So, it's day three of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. My right wrist is in pain. I'm quite sure it's just sore, really sore from all the button pressing on the arcade stick. I hope it's not something dumb like carpel tunnel or something. I haven't played that much on stick in awhile. But I never remembered it being this bad when started playing Street Fighter on stick. Granted MvC3 has like eight times more button pressing going on. In hopes that it's just sore I will continue playing Mahvel because it's awesome.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

It's Mahvel Baby!


Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is almost upon us, just 3 more days away. But a lot of people have gotten there hands the retail copies and not so legit ones. It's funny though. There was so much hype around the game before the final build out. Then people get their hands on it and some hate it because they think X-Factor'd Sentinel is broken. Which he is a powerhouse even before X-Factor (from what I can see, from videos). But this just goes under the fast judgement heading. From what it looks like so far he's just being exploited right now. No one has figured out a game plan around him yet, thats really all I think it is. I still believe Sentinel will be a dominant force in the game years from now, but you can't judge a fighting game in just 2-3days. If you think its fun to play, but once a certain character beats the crap out of you, you hate the game, then you need to get in the lab and figure it out.

I can't wait for MvC3. I'm just as excited about this as I was with Street Fighter 4. 3 more days! Get Hype!

Friday, January 21, 2011

God of War


My first experience with God of War was when it came out on the Playstation. I got it for a friend of mine for his birthday. I ended up seeing the final boss fight and ending on a random day at his house. I didn't think too much of it because I didn't really have a strong inkling to play it at the time, despite it's amazing reviews. But it practically became the innovator of the Quicktime Event or QE. What a QE basically is, is a predetermined cutscene. It puts the player in a sort of mini game of button presses. Each button the player gets correctly the cinema keeps moving on until it finishes or the player gets it wrong. If the player should get one wrong the cinema will end with the player most likely taking damage.

Skip forward to 2011. So today I have finally beat all three God of War games (no, not all in one day). I was one of the late bloomers to the series and started playing it when the HD versions came out on the PS3. I believe I got the HD collection a month after it came out, and GoW3 sometime after because it was on sale on Amazon.com (God Bless you Amazon).

I started playing GoW1 when I got it, but got stuck and frustrated so it ended up on the back burner for several months. When I finally decided to get back to the game it probably took me 2 and a half weeks to beat all three GoW games.  I'm quite happy the way they turned out. GoW1 in a nutshell is the beginning of Kratos' journey. It provides a background and provides the sole reason for the series to exist. It's also probably the most frustrating of the 3, at least it was for me anyways. GoW2 was more refined and in the end it's a gap filler from GoW1 to GoW3. But it's still a great game in my opinion, Santa Monica Studios really stepped it up. I think I would have been a little salty how it ended if I knew that I couldn't start the next game right after the credits were over. GoW3 is one hell of a great cinematic experience for anyone. The graphics are some of the best on the PS3. The quicktime event's are even more over the top. Huge objects are moving all around you, while the ground your standing on is also moving. It's a spectacle to watch and play. I must say I didn't expect the ending to be that way, but the after credit cutscene was kind of predictable after I saw the ending one.