Sunday, December 28, 2008

Weekend gaming wrapup

And a quick hello.
I have returned from some time off, and boy, lots of cool stuff going on.

First off, for Christmas, I got the very fun Infinite Undiscovery for the 360. While not being a killer title for critics, it did have some overall good reviews.
It has some issues like really bad voice acting, yet it DOES have a good story for playthrough. And as combat and mechanics go, it is an excellent RPG with fast paced realtime sword and magic play (you cannot even pause for health, etc.), and a minor crafting system that gets the job done.
Puzzles require some thinking, and overall visually it looks great and the controls are spot on.
Not bad for Square Enix first major exclusive 360 outing.

Also, since Christmas vacation started, Silent Hill finally came to an end. With a VERY frustrating end boss (thanks Danshir, you were not kidding) and getting the crappy ending (I think there were a total of 5 different endings...), I was not pleased at the outcome.
Lets just say, be a good person within the game and keep a moral center...prepare for a not too happy ending. I do not get that, and overall was ticked off. I took it back over holidays to sell. Figure thanks to the youtube generation, I feel no need to play though again for my endings, and instead watched the videos online.

But, thanks to Silent Hill being done, we moved on to Deadspace. Some things of note.
The game is VERY fun. You gain more ways to take control of the situation with various sci-fi like items (for example, using a Stasis module to slow down time to kill off creatures is quite satisfying). Puzzles are good and again another visual treat here. EA really went all out to make a new IP, and this is very impressive.
But, with that comment, let me say...whoever keeps calling this the "Scariest" game, really does not know horror.
The creepy factor is top notch, but it is more like Doom, in that it goes for the cheap scares, droppping stuff on you, things coming to life in front of you and jumping in your face.
But, there is no doubt, that along with Resident Evil and Silent Hill, this new franchise goes on my list.
This only leaves Alone in the Dark, for horror games, so, it also goes on my list to buy soon.

This past weekend saw the launch of Fusionfall. For Christmas, my son got a PC for learning to type and what not...but, also we plan to play a few games together.
Basically the Cartoon Network universe is setup for an MMO.
Install was easy, character creation wortked quite well, and in no time, my son was in and rocking.
Visually, I was impressed that a browser based game could look this good. The animations were well done, and the use of various characters who were quite recognizable, equals a better MMO than most of the available titles in the genre.
I will probably join him to play this. We will be setting up Xfire on his system to do voice also. More on this as we progress.

As for Tabula Rasa, I am still on hiatus. But, I plan to get my son up to speed, and may start a new character there. But, I am unsure if I will continue my main. The game really does start to get more boring as you progress, and I have just not felt inclined to log in. And with so many great single player games, I may just say goodbye to TR.

Otherwise, the holiday has been "Movie Madness" here, with Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight, Resident Evil (the new CGI movie, which for what they have done, is not too shabby), Hancock and tons of Netflix to watch, truly some great stuff...I have enjoyed all of these so far..and more to come.
And of course, the Doctor Who Christmas Special broadcast this past week, and that is queued up to watch soon.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a good Holiday, and will be talking at you soon..

Cheers

4 comments:

Midwest Gamer Podcast said...

Sounds like you enjoyed Infinite Undiscovery. Do you think it's my best bet if i'm looking for a good traditional Japanese RPG for the 360?

Matt (MWG)

Elementalistly said...

@MGP
Good question. It is NOT like FFX and more like Star Ocean in fighting mechanics (i.e: not turn based...)
It has all of the JRPG sensibilities though (including the story..right now I have 2 kids in my party who do magic...lol).
To be honest, the game remnds me of a mix between Star Ocean and .Hack
The pacing is good, though some zones are quite large, and you could go for an hour or more with no save spot.
But, I am a JRPG fan, but have fallen out of touch with the turn based games (got frustrated with the slowness of Lost Odyssey, even though the family love the setting, the characters, etc.)
So, based on this...faster paced, good controls, lots to do...
You could enjoy it.
Find it on sale is my suggestion..

Danshir said...

Keep at Lost Odyssey, it eventually gets fun*and hard at times* as hell. I'm glad to hear you beat Silent Hill. My wife got a bad ending as well*there are more then one..there is like 5-6 I think*

DeadSpace is indeed a BLAST but lacks in true horror. With Resident Evil going more action these days, I can only say " Wait for FEAR 2 ". Which is sad, I'm a huge fan of the horror genre*both movies & games*

Alone in the Dark is both a masterpiece and an epic fail. I loved it, but I tolerated the large amount of glitches and odd controls for the sake of the rest of the game. Thankfully I now have a PS3 instead of a Xbox*The ps3 version was changed to fix the problems addressed in the 360 version*

Woooo, long comment. I'll leave it at this, a game with a few creepy as hell moments is Condemned: Criminal Origins. Try it out. I'm going to try to find a decent MMORPG out there that I haven't played...wish me luck.

Tesh said...

Hmm... since I love the Star Ocean games, and could tolerate .hack, I guess IU is right up my alley. Now, to get a 360...

*unabashed Tri-Ace fan... I even love the Valkyrie Profile games*