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About this blog

Listen to what I have to say about a variety of games

Entries in this blog

 

Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox game with lots of things to do. I was going to say unlimited but that isn't the fact as that is truly not possible. And don't say no because I have a list ready to prove you wrong.   In the beginning, I never knew what this Minecraft was. In fact, I disliked all the videos popping up and my friend contently talking about it. One day, I made a decision to take a try at it... So I bought it. I know, what a weak soul I have... Or do I?   Really, what you see in the game is what you get. You, well I, start off in a newly generated world and there you go. No goals, no story, just your imagination. Unfortunately my imagination was much at that time since I had no idea how to build a crafting table at that time. But I'm guessing that's what most/some people had trouble with is: where to start. Me, I died a couple of times and finally watched a video tutorial. After which I learned recipes from my friends and later leading to the wiki itself (minecraft.wikia.com).   The design is not the greatest. I guess when you move far away it doesn't look half bad. But some do prefer the low detail work (not to mention the fact it has to generate every block out there... So I guess you win that round). I haven't played for years and years, the only pinpoint I can remember is the texture of the gravel being changed. So around there is where I started my experiences.   Is it fun? Is drawing on paper fun? The answer to both is yes. Of course a game where you can let your imagination go free is fun. Building anything you can with the resources is suppose to be. Does it stay fun? But of course! When you get into the survival aspect, you need to dig underground to obtain material that is need. After that I guess you could try out some servers that offer different gamemodes built by mods. Once you're done that, I think you'll head on the path of trying out the mods you find on the Internet. After that.... Well, TNT everything and try to make yourself crash. That's always fun.   But seriously, there are limitation which I disliked. Even though it was necessary, I for one, think it's stupid. The big one I'm talking about is Bedrock. A block that cannot be destroyed in survival and limits you from going further down. Basically the game tells you that you are going to far and nothing else is down there. What I would of wanted was a way to get to the nether. That would of been cool.   And once you tried the mods, there really isn't much to do anymore. Unless you're with friends, all you can do is know how to get wood, know how to get resources fast, and know where to mine diamonds (a big part of the game... Not really). Afterwards you enchant with the levels you gained and.... That's about it.   Though maybe I'm expecting much since technology cannot go as far as the imagination can. High expectation for a java based game? I think so. But this is on the lines of addiction really. I mean, there are so many people out there that play Minecraft for fun... AFTER MANY HOURS!? It's fun in the short run, but after you've tried everything... What else is there to try? I actually found this game boring in less then a year. I'll play it maybe when some friends are on, but I won't be able to capture that "first time" experience again.   In the end, I think the company did well for developing a game I see on the front pages of youtube. How far can it go from there? I'm going to say far but it's going to take a long time since the current users only pay one-time and depends on how many people they'll gain from here on. Unless they add their own mods at a price. Quote me on that!   6/10
kayden997

kayden997

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Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door

To start off, I want to mention that my first ever RPG was in fact Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. So some opinions stated may be because I compare the old to new, so I'm sorry for that.   The story sets off a few years after Paper Mario left off at. Peach finds a treasure map that leads her to Rogueport. She then sends Mario the map she has found and ends up kidnapped... I seriously forgot what happened in the beginning. Anyways, Mario heads over to try to save her. With the help of Professor Frankly, you traverse to many locations to retrieve the Crystal Stars which help lead you to the next. Once all seven are found, the Thousand Year Door will open... Because the Professor says it can only happen every ten years. Lucky me. Many antagonists are met along the way. The most notable one are X-Nauts, Lord Crump who be the general, and Sir Grodus that wishes to use the power held behind the Thousand Year Door to destroy the world.   The base line follows the same as the first Paper Mario but with minor tweaks. One notable one how combat is dealt with. Like before, you have your badges and two types of attacks (jump and hammer). The additions to this is the audience that you'll see every battle and your party member actually having health to fight. So what do I think on this? Well... The audience... Sure there are positives but overall I hate it. Sure it's good for quickly filling up your star meter (gonna call it that), but it ruins the atmosphere. Like seriously, I don't want some punk cheering me on when I'm doing a puzzle and I get attacked by a common foe. The only time it works out is mainly in the boss battles and that arena area. Other then that, I feel like I'm taken away from the level and placed instead in this stage for people... How used can you be, Mario.   A good think I can note is the changes made to the puzzles and anywhere not-in-battle. Basically you gain these curses which revolve you being paper and using it to interact with the environment. An example of this is going through a barred gate simply by turning Mario the other way (impossible, I know). With this added, it helps the game become not just a typical move, fight, proceed game. Now, the outside elements can be added to make not-being-in-battle more enjoyable for the player.   The characters in the game are simply awesome. It's a big improvement, especially the background stories with the party members you meet. Although, some characters I do dislike because they're not as useful as I would want them to, but it's a plus from useless characters like Sushi... Well for me at least. Since the characters are more thought out for battle situation, I did found myself using a wide variety of characters during boss battles... Except Goombella.   As for level design, most of it was unmemorable. Although they did a good job with the area designs, I had no real intention to go back. Not to mention there was no point to go back while the first Paper Mario had a letter delivery service (which was fun). Not saying that it was pointless to go back because if do want to get the star pieces, then by all means. But I found that most star pieces were more in the open in this one... Or easy to obtain. Was it harder in the first one? I guess so since the major required super jump or ultra hammer to obtain them from under the floor. Fine, you win. But that's not pointing out the fact that star pieces weren't as useful as it was back then, I mean, most of the badges you could buy were pointless and not appealing. I bought maybe a happy heart and the peekaboo but never used them. I didn't have enough badge points due to the fact I went all glass cannon.   As for the ending... Well I'll just say it wasn't anything good, surprising, or interesting. But they did put you back at Rougeport for you to finish anything you missed... But that means you cannot have your save at the last battle... Then again, the last battle wasn't anything good either. Just a bunch of bull you had to somehow guess when to defend. Sigh, oh well... I finished it because I had to get more heart in order to endure the pain.   Alright, so I know I've said a lot of bad things on every point here, but the good points surpassed them by a lot. The game is fun and is worth a playthrough. If you haven't played the first one... Well your opinion will differ greatly (not knowing how it began) but I guess that's life.   8.5/10        
kayden997

kayden997

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Farcry 3

Ahhh, what to say about it. Well for starters, I did not like Farcry 2's single-player. The large area with nothing to do but drive, drive, drive. Or if I'm unlucky, walk a long way.     The difference between the two is huge. For starters, in Farcry 2, you had the option to pick I think 4 character... Maybe 5. In the 3rd one, you only follow one, Jason (Bourne). Why is it such a problem, well all you can go about for the 4 characters is their background story. Once you read that, none of it comes into play in the main story. So it's utterly pointless to think of them as characters and more as skins (not much voice either). Farcry 3 took a good step by removing this option because it left them with actual story, which is what Farcry 3 is all about.   Jason's character is good to an extent. For one, I do not understand how someone can go from afraid to "a true warrior" in just seven hours (that's how long it took my to finish this game). After looking back, I'd be pretty piss if some jungle psycho killed my brother and my friends are captured.     As for the friends and Jason's girlfriend, they're meh to me. More like cannon fodder to continue the story; mission is to act as they would and continue the story. But if we compare Farcry 2's friends (which are the character you did not pick), I guess number three did it right. Almost forgot one character whom made most of this game great, Vaas. Yeah, he was the psycho I was talking about.... No wait, maybe it was Hoyt... Arg, either way Vaas was a bad-ass villain. I actually wanted him to win at one point because his character is just so complex. Oh, there was this one part in the trailer I watch where he said "I am you" or something. I look down at the comments to see someone stating that Vaas is Jason's split personality. Oh, did I ever laugh at that remark. Only time I saw that happen was the movie Fight Club. Great movie... Still, I was sad when Vaas died. That meant I had to deal with Hoyt who was apparently more "psychotic" then Vaas......... *Shakes head* As for gameplay, Farcry 3 offers a wide variety of gun to try, challenge to tackle, and vehicles to take a shot at... Well maybe not the vehicle part.     What made this game stand out for me was the hunting part. That's right, hunting wild life is a necessity to store more items, have for coin, and ammo at your disposal. And no, just because you shoot a tiger in the head with a gun doesn't mean he'll die in one shot.... Because that's what really happens.     One thing I found out is that it's best just to spend an hour just gathering the best material for ammo belts. Once that's out of the way, the story will become a heck of a lot faster. I'm not even going to talk about the herbs because, truthfully, I only used the one to find animals from a distance. The rest was just too much effort for little outcome. But someone can prove me wrong on that.     Back on the subject of guns, sure there's a selection of gun to choose from; all of them firing bullets at a different strength (no surprise there). One problem I found was I didn't really use much of the guns they offered. My main weapons was usually the one that enemies always carried (for easy ammo). There was a few time I did pull out my bow or sniper to one-shot a heavy armored enemy, but scarce bullets turned me off using it often. Although, this is coming from a normal difficulty. I could be completely wrong if I played on the hardest; needing those special guns more so. Oh, I forgot the mention that you buy extras for the guns (sights and what not) and camouflage as well.       Continuing on gameplay, because there's a lot to talk about, there is somewhat of a stealth system in Farcry. And no I'm not talking about Hunted: Deamon's forge where you choose the top area to snipe, but once you get there the enemies see you and... There goes your "stealth". And no it's not perfect stealth like Metal Gear Solid.... A bit below that... Actually a lot below. When it comes to scouting, you can use you binoculars to pin point enemies and see them through the wall. Neat. There is a vision metre where it tells you if they see you; at that moment, you have a grace period to fine cover. But note, once they slightly see you, they'll start walking towards you. How do you make them move away? Well, interestingly enough, you can actually throw a rock to make them check the area the rock lands at.   Now this is where the stealth has it's... Realism push down a notch. As long at you are sneaking and they cannot see you, you are inviable. Right, so that means you can sneak behind them or sneak right beside them? Well, I could. I don't know if this was an overlooked bug for me, but it was pretty awesome following this once guy for a minute... Okay, I killed him before that.   Speaking of killing, when you level up, you gain a point of which you can use to learn a new ability. There's even an ability for extra health. Well, not ability... But I don't know what to call them. I guess I'll just end that there.     Graphically, well games now are obvious in their graphics. But the graphics were stunning. Not the best, but effort was definitely made. Although, there were points where they used some poor excuse for graphics that just made me shake my head in shame. Here's the scenario: You are buried under a pile of dead bodies. You climb out safely. You look back to where you climbed out from and you see a dirt ground with read stains and 3 or 4 dead NPC bodies... No hole... Just tinted red ground... It's like they feel people don't have the processing power to generate eleven NPCs and render them.   Anyways, I'm practically running out of thought on this game. So I'll just conclude with a wrap up of some sort. The game is definitely a big improvement from Farcry 2. It includes an actually story instead of running around shooting people. You meet with a lot of characters in the game, but only few are note worthy. The amount of things to do in the game is overwhelming at first, but becomes a great experience in the end. Some parts of the game are actually difficult in normal difficult. Which is actually for the normal player... But I do wonder about the hardcore players.     8/10
kayden997

kayden997

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