I haven't done much, barely got out of the Human Noble castle that starts out the game. I can already see they have done their best to avoid the RPG junk that is repeated dialog trees. Nope, you get one shot at every conversation you have. If you try to talk again you either get the repeated 'goodbye' statement or only the dialog choices you haven't explored yet. They didn't however overcome the problem with the AI saying the same thing for most of the responses. So what if I get 4 choices if 2 of them make the AI reply exactly the same... it might be because I haven't seen the results further down the road though.
As for the violence, it is almost comical. I mean they tried to make it bloody and such, I'm sure so they can reach out to that "if it doesn't have gore I'm not playing it" PC and teenage crowd. The first fight I got in with some rats I might as well been fighting a fan throwing red paint through it. These are large rats for crying out loud... but in the end I looked like a dumb person wandering around the castle completely spattered... I wish I could buy a rag or something.
EDIT: I found out you can turn off this gore from the options menu. Just uncheck 'persistent gore' and instantly you don't look like a tool.
But I really like it so far. The dialog is more KOTOR than Mass Effect, I don't have to wait for me to say what I just said by selecting the response. The fighting is very much like KOTOR except instead of guns you have archers. I already want to play through the part I just did and try some new things.
Even my wife liked it. She happened to be watching and seeming she likes the Lord of the Rings type fantasy I said she might like this. She enjoyed reading the responses and watching the story unfold. She got bored when combat rolled in, but never-the-less liked the game. I don't think she would ever play it herself, but that's ok.
As I finished my playing for the night I went to look at the achievements and that is when it hit me. I hate achievements. Many a game has been tainted in my view by the achievement system. During the exit scene from the castles two achievements popped right in the middle, sucking me back to reality that there were 1000 virtual wastes of time I could go get. And as I read the list there were many achievements that I just didn't think would be fun to try and get right now or at all.
At first I thought it a good way to explore parts of the game I might have missed or a good way to know if someone else has really played the game or see what other people are playing. Then I realized, when I play games I explore the parts I care about. I will go back and do more and more as long as it is interesting to me. When I play for these points I end up exploring parts of the game that annoy me or bore me more than when I just play to enjoy it.
So I made a decision. I suppressed the pop-ups (notifications) and removed my gamertag from online so I don't have to be reminded of it when I look at GS or whatever. I would remove it completely but many games force you to have it just to play because the saves get linked to your virtual dork instead of just put out in a saves list for everyone to use.
I'm done with worrying or forcing myself to play for achievements. I did play some other games over the last two weeks. Mostly Lego Rock band, Excite bots, and Animal Crossing on the Wii. We played Rock Band with lots of inexperienced players. It was great. LRB is the best game for playing with kids and such. Everyone can have a good time and enjoy it.
Excite bots is ok. Once again all the praise it gets doesn't live up to the game. It is a simple racer with bugs, frogs, bats, you know 'cool' things as the racers. It has a bunch of odd ball minigames and is kind of fun to play around with. My boys like it just fine... it is going to take them forever though to earn enough stars to unlock everything though. The 'Trick racing' part of the game must be where the fun is at and the stars and I just haven't got good enough to earn them yet. The trick part is right over the top of my 6 year old's head though, but I hope he grows into it.
And Animal Crossing Wii is exactly what I thought it would be. The perfect game for my kids that don't like to lose and would rather do what they want to do when they play. Fish, shovel, catch bugs, etc. In the end you end up with nothing... it doesn't have a story, it doesn't have a plot, it doesn't have a point at all. It is a simple game used to waste your life away for nothing in return... from my perspective that is.
My kids on the other hand enjoy the fact they have a job, they get to earn 'shells' and buy stuff. They have to manage what they buy, what they sell, what they donate. So for them it does have an interesting learning aspect to it so it isn't all bad. It is also kind of fun to write them notes on the board and them write back.
I hope everyone is having a good new year. Until next time.
Let's get this over with quickly.
1) I've been beaten up for wearing a football (soccer for our pals across the pond) shirt. I was on holiday and was wearing an Athletico Madrid shirt in the middle of traditional Republican Spain. Not a good idea. I was actually hit three times that day for wearing that shirt, including an old woman in a motorized wheelchair. I was 8 years old as well, it's not like I was old enough to fully understand why Valencia province hated Franco. I've never fully forgiven the Benidorm public for that one.
2) I've started a bucket list. *Ahem* Here goes :
1. See Gamma Ray live
2. See Edguy live
3. See Accept live
That's it. Screw the Northern Lights or going to New York or naked skydiving - I wanna see Gamma Ray
3) I have intentions to learn how to play the keyboard one day. Seriously, hearing songs like thisand thiswith their simple, yet wonderful keyboard melodies really make me want to start playing the keyboard.
4) I'm really getting into sociology. The more I get into it, the more immersed I become. It's made me think a lot about things like what social claass I'm perceived to be due to my parents' occupations and the actual background I had. They don't match up.
5) I cannot abide the following words which are being used more and more in everyday life : Awesomeness, Loveage, Huggage, Lol, Soz, Boything.
6) Remember how on my last tag blog (which was forever ago) how I said I hated the Black Eyed Peas song I Gotta Feelin'? Well, I still do with the same intensity. Attention Scottish radio stations : STOP PLAYING THIS SONG. It almost makes me cry knowing that so many better bands across every genre of music are remaining undiscovered whilst The Black Eyed Peas rhyme sacred Jewish phrases with wishing to partake in nefarious deeds with disreputable women and mention that tonight's gonna be a good good night over and over and over and over and over and over and over and WE GET IT. Tonight will be a good night. Now shut up.
7) I don't own a console newer than the PS2. And to be honest, I don't really see the need to. GTA 4, Modern Warfare II and some game I can't even remember the name of (You fight zombies in a shopping centre) are the only games I want to play. The current gen doesn't interest me at all.
8 ) I live in Scotland's UFO capital. Seriously. I've seen about three in my entire lifetime.So long as they're not blowing up our planet,I don't particularly care about the existence of aliens, before anyone asks.
9) I really dislike Facebook. I'm fed up with all the various requests that I get and the amount of people who use Facebook to complain about their homework. If they spent more time doing homework instead of going on Facebook, there might not be a need to complain
10) I refuse to tag anyone as I wish to stop the perpetuation of this disease. I'm sorry I took all that time away from you. I really am sorry, dear reader. To make it up to you : watch this. It certainly made my day.
wow. it feels like i've been gone for ages, and i have but i've just been so busy what with the ton and a half of DVD's i got for my birthday ages ago and my New PSP i just haven't had much time for gamespot.
I'm loving the PSP so far all the games i've played have been awsome (Exept suprisingly Naruto which i thought was terrible) and i've got music and videos on it as well, it's sweet
Oh and my rooms getting redocorated, more awesomeness, so yeah things are going great for me right now
