Sol Survivor

Normally I'm not a big fan of turret defense games, but as these go, Sol Survivor is a damn good one. If you've played a turret defense game before (and who hasn't, there's so many), you get the basic idea: aliens land at platforms and move along a path towards a space colony, and you have to stop them before they get there by building defense turrets. Blow up aliens, get mass. You can use this mass effect to buy new turrets or upgrade old ones (u c wut i did thar?)

What separates Sol Survivor from other TD games are two things. First, there's an element of strategy that comes from only being able to access 8 turret types at a time. Most TD games give you all the turrets, then you just plunk down the best ones and win. SS has you select a executive officer before each map, which determines what turrets you're able to build. There's a pretty wide variety. Some do damage, some buff other turrets, some debuff enemies, some only affect ground units, some air... The turrets your X.O. can access affects your strategy.

The other thing that makes SS different is the ability to call for orbital support. Like turrets, each X.O. has access to 8 support effects. They all have either lasers or missiles for last minute attempts to kill something about to enter your colony, focus fire, to force your turrets to concentrate on one big enemy, and half of them have flare, for seeing cloaked enemies (the others can build inhibitor turrets, which do the same thing). Then there's some other things they can do like artillery strikes, gas attacks or dropping nukes.

There's quite a variety of enemies, as well. Some fly, some walk, some are cloaked, some have shields, some heal if you don't keep constant fire on them. You'll need a variety of turrets to stop them, especially in the later waves when they start sending bosses.

In the end, if you like TD games you should pick this one up, as it's one of the best I've played. If not... well, as I said, I don't normally like them, but this one kept me entertained for hours on end.

Dead Space

So I'm currently playing through Dead Space (1). I've heard a lot of good things about this game.

I can only assume they're talking about the console version, because the PC version blows. Seriously, the controls are so bad. I can barely go in the direction I want, and aiming precisely is nearly impossible.

In a move that's clearly designed for someone using analog sticks, the crosshairs move slowly at first and gradually gain speed, making it a chore to get your gun aimed in the direction you want. All the worse since this is a game where you need to cut off the long, thin, hard to hit limbs of enemies to do extra damage. And you can't turn it off.

If you haven't played this game yet and want to, get the console version. Avoid the PC version at all costs. It SUCKS. >.<

Dot Dot Dot

I'm done

It's now Jan' 20th and I haven't logged into FFXI since December. I don't want to. It's not fun anymore.

Haven't decided what to do with this blog yet. Maybe keep it around for FF14 info and random videos and junk. I don't know.

I'm around on FF14 on Mysidia server, at least as long as that game remains free to play.

It's been fun.

F.E.A.R.

Recently just finished F.E.A.R., which, according to the Steam page, is one of the greatest FPS's of all time.

But guess what? It's not.

It's a decent enough game I suppose, as FPS's go. The story goes like this: You're a new member to the First Encounter Assault Recon squad (get it? F.E.A.R.?) who deal with paranormal threats. Your first mission (which ends up being the entirety of the game) is against a powerful telepath who has taken control of an army of cloned soldiers who don't think for themselves.

And in just that summary I can point out so many problems.... Problem 1, the name. I get the feeling they came up with F.E.A.R. as an acronym first, then tried to figure out what it stood for. You can't really do assault AND recon on the first encounter...

But the bigger issue is that you're a member of a squad that deals with paranormal threats. But what do you fight for the entire game? Soldiers. Dudes with guns. Enemies that could come right out of Call of Duty Modern Warfare or somesuch. "An army of cloned soldiers" is seriously the most dangerous paranormal threat these developers could come up with? LAAAAME.

The actual gameplay is typical FPS fare. There's a bunch of weapons, most of which are pretty similar. You've got at least 4 semi-automatic weapons which are only marginally different from each other, crappy pistols nobody ever uses (though they're actually not that bad, but ammo is kind of rare), and a couple of special weapons like the plasma gun, triple-rocket-launcher and autocannon. But all the weapons are the same in the sense that you point and shoot. You've also got a fair variety of hand-to-hand moves, which you'll almost never use because going into melee will get you shot, and even if you do it only takes 1 punch to drop a normal guy anyhow. Finally, you can slow time, because THAT's never been done in a video game before.

Probably the most unique aspect of the gameplay is that you can only carry 3 weapons, and while that's restrictive it's also kind of interesting, as it forces you to choose what you really want to keep. Also, when you look down you can see your feet. More FPS's need to do this.

The best part of the game are the creepy moments and the atmosphere. Throughout the game you'll experience some pretty weird instances as your character's mind is psychically assaulted. The atmosphere is also pretty great; the game is literally dark, and more than once you'll find skeletons lying in pools of blood with bloody footprints leading towards the only direction you can go.

Unfortunately the whole experience is marred once you remember that the only enemies you'll be facing are the friggin' soldiers. Note to developers: soldiers do not make for a great survival horror experience.

The expansions (made by a different developer) are actually better than the main game, if only because they have more creepy moments. Unfortunately, neither one counts in the main series timeline. Still, if you liked the first game enough to play through it, then you might as well play the expansions too.

Bottom line: F.E.A.R. is not a bad game, but very mediocre. You'd get more of a horror experience playing Bioshock, and that's saying something. And as a straight up action FPS, it's only "okay". It's certainly not "one of the greatest blablablablah".

I haven't played the sequel yet, but I've heard it's better. I sure hope so.

Mirror's Edge

Let's talk about Mirror's Edge, a stylistic FPS without much S. The concept is you're a rooftop runner working for some secret group fighting against the oppressing forces of the city. The game is all about quick acrobatic movement and escaping enemies rather than fighting them. When you do need to fight, you do so unarmed or by taking weapons from your enemies, but usually you just run. As for the stylistic part, the game is mostly bright white. When color is used, it's usually to indicate the path you need to travel. It's also one of the few FPS's I know of where when you look down you can see your body.

It's a great concept, in theory. Buuuuuuuut...

Problem 1: Some enemies are just plain invincible. Sometimes you have a choice between fighting or running, but sometimes you've got to run because you just can't win, period. That WOULD be fine, except when coupled with the much larger problem...

Problem 2: It's not always clear where to go. Yeah maybe the pipes light up and sections of the catwalk, telling you you need to use the pipes to get to the catwalk, but it isn't always clear how. Sometimes there's so much color that it's not clear at all where to go. And if you're being chased by tons of invincible guys with machine guns (see problem 1), you don't always have time to look for a path.

You do get a hint button, but it's nearly worthless. Yeah, I need to get to the door way the hell at the top of the room, but how do I get there? Game's not gonna tell me. And sometimes it just doesn't give you a hint.

The main character, Faith, is appropriately named, because I've made more leaps of faith in this game than I can remember. I just quit for a while after one spot where I feel to my death about 10 times, and I wasn't even being chased. I just can't figure out where to go. To say this is frustrating is an understatement.

Oh, it might help if Faith didn't only grab onto pipes and ledges when she felt like it.

Bottom line: Great concept, some parts are fun, but the experience is marred by shoddy controls and unclear pathways.

Edit: I got past that troubled part by taking a leap of faith, falling to my death, but I guess jumping far enough ahead that I cleared some checkpoint, because I respawned past the gap. That's kinda sad.

Just Cause 2

So recently I picked up Just Cause 2. It was released back in March, but I overlooked it. I wish I hadn't, 'cause it's hecka fun. Then again, I got it for cheap through a Steam sale, so maybe that's a good thing. :D

Anyhow, you play as Rico Rodriguez, the most badass Latino man since El Mariachi. He works for a US agency called... um, the Agency. Recently an island off the coast of Asia, considered key strategic importance by the US for some reason, has come under new leadership, so Rico is sent in to blow the place up.

Yep, that's your primary objective: blow stuff up.

Or more precisely, you advance the game by doing story missions. You unlock story missions by doing stronghold missions, and you unlock stronghold missions by earning chaos points. I think you can guess how you get those.

Normally I don't like sandbox games, but I find Just Cause 2 to be very enjoyable for a number of reasons. The biggest of which is that you can call an airlift to get to any area you've been to before, which is a godsend compared to games like Grand Theft Auto 4 or inFamous, where you spend several minutes just trying to get to where you want to be.

And it's a good thing, too, because the island is huge. You've got a large variety of locations, from urban centers and jungles to snow-covered mountains and deserts.

Rico also possess a completely manually controlled grappling hook and an unlimited number of parachutes, which makes foot travel alone hecka fun. There's 104 vehicles spread out among land vehicles, helicopters, boats and planes.

In addition to getting around, the grappling hook can also be used as a melee weapon, used to pull guys off ledges, or hook things together. That last one is supposedly a new mechanic from Just Cause 1 (which I haven't played), but there's not really much use for it. You can hook a guy to the back of a vehicle and drag him to death, but you'll probably get shot a few times doing it. You can hook him to a ceiling, then attack him as he's helpless, but you'll probably get shot a few times doing it. You can hook him to a can of helium, shoot said can, and watch him fly off into the sky, but... you get the idea. It's might not be as flashy, but it's much more effective just to shoot the guards in the head. You can also hook a car to another car (not much point) or a statue to a truck, which will let you pull the statue down (kind of a point, since otherwise you need to use grenades or heavy weapons to destroy it).

Cool that there's variety, I guess, but it seems odd that there's only 10 guns. I'd have expected a game like this to have several versions of the same gun, like a glock and a desert eagle, with slightly different stats for each.

Speaking of guns, you can dual-wield any combination of one-handed weapons, which is kinda cool, but not really much use. It's hard to dual wield weapons with different rates of fire, and if you have two of the same weapon, they draw from the same ammo stock.

You can also call a chopper to bring you weapons and vehicles, but I haven't seen much point to that. Weapons are easily obtained from enemies unless you need the more rarely found grenade or rocket launchers. The dealer has some unique vehicles you can't get elsewhere, but it's unlikely you'll use them more than once, and vehicles are also easily obtained from civilians or enemy troops.

Any problems with this game, then? Well, aren't there always? The one that stands out the most is that many of the bases and villages are carbon copies of each other. The worst is the oil platforms. There's maybe 10 of these, and each one is exactly the same as the others, right down to item locations. LAZY.

There's no cover mechanic. Sure you can move behind a wall or duck behind a box to avoid getting shot, but you can't glue yourself to it like most other third-person shooters would. You also can't crouch and fire, which is annoying because your enemy can.

I also find it annoying how once you catch the military's attention, it almost always ends with you running away or dying. If you kill them, they send more guys. Kill them and they send a chopper (they LOVE sending choppers). Hijack the chopper (the easiest way to be rid of it) and they send more, and so it just goes on until you die or escape, which is annoying if you haven't found all the items or destroyed all the objects (you get bonus chaos points and money for getting 100% completion in an area).

Finally, there's the accents. Oh god, the accents.

The island natives have terrible pseudo-Indian accents. The worst offender is one of the faction leaders, Bolo Santosi, who is obviously trying WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too hard on an accent. Her voice is so annoying >.< The guards aren't much better, spouting lines that I can't understand, but sound like "He's going out on the sleigh!" Your guess is as good as mine.

But these are minor complaints at best. I've been having a blast with this game, and would definitely recommend it.