Metal Gear Solid 2

It's taken me a long long LONG time to finally beat Metal Gear Solid 2 but I've done it! I was supposed to finish it over the summer but that never happened, I've been wanting to play it but never got the motivation to play it. (I blame it on Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft.)

I ended up playing it on very easy so I could get through the game and hear the story. Story aside the game play is very similar to the first Metal Gear with the addition of the very important ability to switch into a first person view.

Because it's very similar to the first Metal Gear in game play my first complaint is how clunky the controls maybe at times. Though you're not exactly driving a tank like you would be in Resident Evil but sometimes it's far from perfect when you're trying to grab and opponent from behind and snap his neck. You will also find yourself using your gun in first person most of the time also because the overhead shooting is again, rather clunky.

Game play sticks to the formula the first game made and improves on it.

After playing the game, it's not playing the game that you really remember, it's the narrative. Throughout the game, the protagonist Raiden (Jack) converses with his girlfriend Rose, an analyst who got herself involved in his mission. Contacting Rose on your codec allows you to save the game and a dialog regarding Raiden and Rose's relationship usually follows after your save. These conversations begin light hearted, evolve into something more of complaining and a bump in their relationship to a total cluster mind-fuck. (pardon the unclassy language but it's the perfect way to put it.)

From these dialogs and other conversations you learn the dark story of Raiden's past. The darkness doesn't end with Raiden's past; the game further delves into Otacon's character. Though the time focused on Otacon is brief the player sympathizes with him, especially after the death of his little sister. (A lot more sad than the death of Aerith if you ask me.)

Characters aside, near the last quarter or third of the game, strong themes begin to be expressed. After knowledge of the Patriots is learned conversations about history as we know it is discussed. How throughout time libraries have been burned, precious tomes and scrolls lost and destroyed affect history and what it is now. Except in this day and age, digital information can never really be destroyed, just sitting there for anyone to some day see. Useless information, opposing ideals to what these Patriots want, radical ideas and religion. Even though it is a game, such things made me wonder what was real or not. If what we're being taught now is just one big censored fabrication.

As with every Metal Gear game, I tell people that it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's definitely made with a certain audience in mind, so it's especially not made with the casual gamer in mind. If you ever get the chance to play this game, pay close attention to the character development, story and themes expressed in game.

3DS-PSP

It looks as if the Nintendo 3DS's design is finalized. The 3DS and PSP both feature some form of an analog stick (nub and nub-like thing.) The problem I see is that there lacks a second analog stick. This either limits the kind of games the handheld can have or makes playing it rather difficult, this statement is made with FPS in mind. There are several shooters out on the market for the PSP, and my opinion is that they do NOT play very well with just one analog stick.

Though the 3DS has a way around such a problem because of its touch screen (Metroid Hunters), an FPS could work out very well now since the 3DS has considerably powerful graphics. There's innovation, but there's also sticking with the familiar to allows those not too fond of new things to still game comfortably.

Which leads to the question. Would the 3DS benefit significantly with the addition of a second analog stick?

End of Summer

So Summer has made me totally neglect my blog, but now that the school year is rolling back again I'll be procrastinating and reading up on all of the latest news.

I hope I'll now be able to update regularly now that summer isn't going to be distracting me anymore.

New Fire Emblem

News of a new Fire Emblem game has hit the web. A trailer for a remake of the 3rd Fire Emblem on the SNES is being released on the Nintendo DS. Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem features Marth again. I'm extremely excited to see what this remake has in store for me, it's only a matter of time before they remake Genealogy of the Holy War, the fourth game of the series.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

So CoD: Black Ops right? I haven't looked at a single trailer, don't know a thing about it. I don't really plan on it either, and this is when I realized this would be a great opportunity to play a game with a lot of hype but not be effected by it. People are pretty excited for this, they look at trailers, blah blah blah, but I haven't really cared for it and I don't think I will. When this game is released this is my plan...

I'll spend a few good hours with the game until I know it in and out. I won't know a thing about it prior to when I play it. No skewed point of view, no biased opinion from anything I've read or seen, no excitement from hype. Nothing to look forward to, nothing to be disappointed by. Just a game, a blank slate that I have no expectations for, except to be a game.

I think this is really the best way to look at a game, is by treating it as a fresh totally new slate, unfortunately it's pretty hard to do that nowadays. That's why I'm going to force myself not to look into the game, and just play it when it comes out.

Call of Duty: Black Ops comes out November 9, 2010.

Halo: Reach beta overview.

The beta for Halo: Reach has been out for two days, I've had plenty of time to play and have fun. This is what I have to say. It is everything I expected it to be.

These are the things that I loved.

Armor abilities : While adding a new twist to the game play that makes the experience new, it doesn't completely change the game into a class based FPS like Team Fortress. This also allows for new game play styles while catering to old play styles. For example, players with the jet pack are given more mobility making them a great offensive soldier that gets into the heat of battle quickly; on the other hand is the armor lock allows for a supportive/defensive soldier.

I personally enjoy using active camo because I enjoy not being seen and sniping people down. Then there are the sprinters who aren't good for too much, though I have seen some very good utilization of the sprint, where a player has the energy sword or gravity hammer and sprints up and kills you. (I got killed several times in one match by players like this.)

New Weapons: Because Halo: Reach is a beta, Bungie made weapons look different and perform differently. I noticed the assault rifle isn't quite as effective as it was in Halo 3, but still managed to get the job done, but I personally prefer the new DMS (Designated Marksman Rifle) and Needler Rifle. The DMS looks to be the replacement or equivalent of the battle rifle, it is semiautomatic and equipped with a scope, a few shots to the head with this will take down an enemy in an instant. The Needler Rifle functions similarly with a scope also, but seems to deal slightly less damage but being a needler if you manage to stick enough needles into your opponents, they'll explode. This is especially convenient when the target you are trying to snipe is dodging many of your head shots, you can always hit his body enough times until he explodes into pink mist. Another weapon I would like to give praise to is the return of the scoped magnum! Put in the hands of a skilled player the magnum is an all purpose tool of mass destruction, a few well placed shots to the noggin will take any opponent down in an instant, but prepare to have expert aim if you want to do this.

The new plasma launcher is really something to mention. Though I've never personally used it, it proves to be a very effective tool of destruction and a more than adequate inducer of anger. This weapon will launch up to 4 plasma grenades at varying speeds depending on what you do, this will usually end up in one man killing you, your buddy and possibly the other two people on your team. You will either a) get stuck with one of the grenades, b) get killed by a surrounding grenade launched by it, or c) both. I hate that weapon with a burning passion.

New Maps: Sword Base and Power House are both incredibly enjoyable maps that allow full utilization of all armor abilities. There are no unfair sniping nests or clog points that break the flow of the game and are both very easy to navigate. I look forward to seeing the other maps Bungie has up their sleeves. I hope they bring back Blood Gulch for the sake of nostalgia. Highground was fun, and Powerhouse is fun too, but you can't beat the tradition of Blood Gulch.

Voting System: As opposed to the old veto system of Halo 3, players in the pregame lobby are given 4 game type-map option to choose from, one of the 4 is a none of the above option. As the countdown clock goes down players pick which mode/map they want to play on and the one with the most votes is the mode and map played. If none of the above is picked, a new set of 3 options is presented and the process repeats again. I think it's very beneficial to have multiple maps to choose from, as opposed to vetoing one map to find that the new map chosen is far worse, or else the game mode is odd ball or something similar to that...

Assassinations: There's nothing like sneaking up behind an enemy and holding the melee button and see the camera go into a third person view and you see your character stab your opponent in the back as they helplessly watch themselves get killed. This new feature is incredibly satisfying and just plain fun. It's a lot like tea-bagging but it actually accomplishes something and looks much cooler. The best part is they can't do anything about it and just have to watch themselves die as I silently laugh at their pain.

I could go on and talk about how awesome it is, but it gets kinda boring. Let's talk about the kinks of the beta. It's good, but what about the bad? Nothing is perfect right?

It's a beta: There are still bugs that need to be worked out. Does anything need to be explained?

Missing some weapons: There are some weapons missing. Something to mention would be brute weapons like the brute shot and mauler. Despite Brutes not being part of the story of the game, it would be nice to have them online to add some more variety to the game. The carbine is missing but you could say the needler rifle replaces it, but I still think the carbine could have made a return. Not to mention that the SMG/Spiker is gone, I appreciate those weapons for close range encounters because of their fast rate of fire.

Dual Wielding? I know these are the third generation of Spartans and that they're not as great as the second generation like Master Chief was, but I don't think that necessary means we should throw out dual wielding. I personally think it takes off a layer of strategy and variety while playing online.

It's still beta, and so far they have only released two maps and a few game modes. Here are a few things I am looking forward to.

Elites: There is now a distinguishable difference between Elites and Spartans besides appearance. Elites have different armor abilities, one of which is a dodge making easier to get to safe cover. Once you take the different Spartan armor abilities and then throw in Elites and their abilities, I hope to have an awesome, diverse game of team slayer.

New Game Modes: Generator defense and head hunter look to be very exciting game modes that could become very competitive. Head hunter not so much, but Generator defense seems to a great new addition to team game modes. Then there is Spartans vs. Elites, which seems to be a very interesting new addition. An on going match between Spartans and Elites, I like that. I don't know much, but I know that I'm excited. I'm very excited for all of these new game modes and look forward to playing them

Overall, the beta is an incredibly fun experience. There's nothing extremely bad that seems to take away from the experience; sure there can be some additions to make it better, but it is no doubt, still, a very good game so far. It's still a beta and there's still room for improvement, and I'm extremely excited to see what else they could add on to an already spectacular game.

Uninspired sentience

So the thought crossed my mind after Avatar hit Blu-ray and DVD, that every single idea of extraterrestrial, sentient life is tightly bound by existence as we know it on Earth.

I don't think I have ever read a book, seen a TV show or watched a movie that doesn't have humanoid aliens. If the aliens aren't humanoid, the way they do things is very similar, an example I can think of right now is Jimmy Neutron. The alien race they meet in the movie are sentient slime balls in floating robotic suit things. They have robotic arms and hands, all technology and behavior is all human-like. Take a look at Avatar and all you have are tall, blue people with tails, pretty uninspired and uncreative. Take a look at just about any form of media that involves aliens and you will most likely see this : A head (occasionally two), two arms (maybe a second pair), fingers, feet, eye(s), boobs. For some reason we think that the only intelligent life out there will look like us. It may be the case, but probably not.

Two examples where the above ideas do not apply that I can think of are in the old 90's cartoon Dexter's Laboratory and Star Wars. I recall a certain episode of Dexter's Lab where sentient, parasitic gooey things fall to Earth from a meteor and use his family members as their hosts. Next comes the Hutt race from Star Wars, they're giant balls of fat. I don't know if that's what they are, or else they are extremely obese humanoids.