Drth Clck's blog: "What's new in gaming"

My computer is on the firtz right now, so I'm back to playing some console games. Not that that is a bad thing, it's nice to have a little variety in life.

I downloaded a played Castle Crashers this past week. I gotta say it was a cute fun game. It's a 2D platformer with a decent sense of humor. You play a knight that sets out to recover the kingdom's stolen treasure, as well as saving the four beautiful (doe-eyed) princesses.

The game has a world view where you can select which level you want to play, like Super Mario Bros. 3. Unlike SMB3, playing a single level may clear up to 3 areas on the map, allowing you to jump straight various parts of the level with out having to play the whole thing over again.

There are also some nice RP elements to the game. As you play, you gain money and experience. The money allows you to purchase better weapons, potions, and pets. The experience allows you to go up in level, which in turn grants you more skills.

Aside from the mechanics, there is some great cute humor in the game. It opens with our hero head banging to some renessaince music to set the mood, and continues on par.

Replayability is pretty decent as well. Beating the game allows you to unlock insane mode, which is basically the same game over again, but with enemies more appropriate for your new level. You also unlock new character models, which you can use to play the game again.

The places where the game could have been better. It would have been nice if the unlockable characters were more than just models. It would be nice if their spells looked different, or started with special skills or abilities. I was also dissapointed that when I started playing insane mode at level 30, the treasure at the start of the game was all level 1 treasure. It would have been nice if the weapons scaled with the new levels.

Overall, the game was great! I highly recommend it to anyone that wants a simple, fun game to play.

So, it's not exactly NEW. It's about a 6 months old now, but I thought it deserved a mention. Remember the old arcade game by Midway, 1942? It was one of my favorite games. There's just something I love about having to dodge an impossible number of bullets, getting powerups, and decimating the enemy. Not to mention, the boss fights were great! It wasn't just shoot him until he dies. You had to take out their guns, and back up guns. And dodge an impossible number of bullets. Well, about 6 months ago 1942: Joint Strike was released for XBLA (I assume PS3 as well). It was the old game again with updated graphics. And this time, you can play with a friend. If you both activated your special ability at the same time, you got a cool new joint ability. This new game is great! It has all of the fun of the old game, with the graphics of today. There are a few more games getting this updated treatment, and I hope to see many more. Contra anyone?

I've been putting off posting a review of Dead Space, as I really wanted to finish the game before I put one up. But as the game is going, I just don't see that happening. Dead Space was supposed to be the next great in Survival Horror games. The basic idea is you're a Space Marine (sound like every other game yet?), but I think you're regarded more as a Space Janitor. You're on a recon mission to ship that has been out of contact. Upon entering the ship you're quick to discover that it has been taken over by a bunch of monsters that are difficult to kill This is about the point that any sane person leaves the ship, and nukes it from orbit, but this is a cliche survival horror, so what's more important is sticking around, and watching people get slaughtered. So, did it succeed? Well it's creepier than Doom, that's for sure. I really don't believe a game can be all that scary, but it was certainly creepy, so it delivered, IMO. It was aslo very gory, so kudos there as well. Now begs the question, if it did well, why can't I finish the game? I think it all boils down to the fact that there is no auto-run in the game. You sluggishly walk from room to room. By the time I finish a level, I feel exhausted and need to take a break by watching some TV, or playing a different, more fast pace game. Also, the end of a level, really was the clear end of a level. There really wasn't much of a cliff-hanger encouraging me to move on to the next level. Yay! I did everything there was to be done in the MedLab, and I'm taking a tram to somewhere unimportant. Time to make dinner. Also, because of this constant walking, I felt very frustrated when encountering multiple enemies. There was no real duck and weave. Spinning around at lightning speeds to waste a baddie. Just walking around and hoping you don't get eviscerated. Overall, the game was well made, but it was just too sluggish to keep me happy.

Well, I noticed I was starting to regularly update my profile with where I was in the gaming world, so I figured I would be better off putting it down into a blog for all those (1) people that would have interest. If nothing else, I like blathering on about unimportant things. So, Fable II. I was a little reluctant to start playing the game, as I played the first Fable on the PC and was none too impressed, most likely just because the game was never intended for the PC. But, this sequel was a ton of fun. It didn't take me long to get absorbed into the world, and get a hankerin' to go home and play some more -- Love you Fubar, but I loved Fable II as well! Despite the great story and world, it could get very annoying with some of the bugs, and poorly designed puzzles. The game should have been held back for another month for bug fixes. Many people have reported game stopping bugs, and I ran into one myself. Luckily others had found the bug online, and I was able to get a fix, instead of stopping the game all together. I think the only other time I had to go online for help was with one of the Demon Doors. The door asked for meat, but when I brought him meat, he kept complaining that he still wanted meat. I won't give away the solution, but I think the puzzle could have been much better worded. On the lighter side, there were a few cute wording mistakes (I can't really gripe about them much, it would just be nitpicking). When you first launch the game a voice states "And so the story begins." I kept having to correct the voice "And so the story CONTINUES." Similarly, I was able get myself a zombie bride -- It was really cool! Someone later states "Your bride is dead!" while I reply to the TV "Ummm, actually... she's UNdead." Over all, given a few patches, this game is going to be amazing for the masses. If you're really wanting to play the game now, you'll have fun just be prepared for game breaking bugs. If you can wait a month or two, I would suggest it, so they can get a few of these bad bugs fixed.