Most of the awesome action movies that involves crazy action involving swords and things that are sharp are usually going to be Chinese wire-fu films. They're good movies, but the wires are a bit much and it just gets hard to take seriously sometimes. American action movies are primarily just a ton of guns now too, and there's nothing too cool about watching guns; you just pull a trigger and you're done. Nothing too special.
I always enjoyed action movies, but there has been a lack of good action lately. This changed once Ninja Assassin came out.
I'm going to tell you now, the story is absolute crap, but that's expected of an action movie.
But do you ever go to see an action movie for the story? No, you see it for the action.
The fighting scenes in Ninja Assassin are just spectacular with a minimal amount of guns. The opening scene of the movie shows a gang being attacked by a ninja, heads fly off and limbs get chopped off, and you don't really see any of it happen. That is until there is only one man standing and a ninja appears out of the shadows, then BAM! Last man is dead, cut to Ninja Assassin logo. After that first opening scene you will there will be lots of...
a) Ninjas
b) Lots of blood
c) Action
d) Awesome
What I love about the movie is that they don't over do the ninja. You know, moving at the speed of light, fireballs, walking through walls and crap. They move at the speed of light about two times in the movie (speed of light might be an exaggeration, but inhumanly possible.) and occasionally become shadows, but for the most part when you don't see them, they're just hiding.
It's realistic with just a touch of fantasy.
With such a bloody, intense opening scene though, you would expect the action to only get better. Well, you're a little bit wrong. The action is still good, but I personally expected a little bit more from what you see at the beginning. Especially the last person the protagonist kills, you expect him to you know...rip him to shreds or cut his body in half. Nope, slash and walk away. It was a cool fight, but the kill was alright.
Here's a closing statement.
Ninja Assassin is a good movie for the action. Don't go walking into the cinema looking for a good story because you will be sorely disappointed. Walk into the cinema looking for awesome action, and you will be satisfied.
I have to give the movie a 8/10
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Halo Series: Part 2
Ready for some more of my own personal rants and some educated view points? Oh yeah, I'm totally ready.
This part will be focusing the game play of Halo.
Now before we get into things, lets look into some FPS that were on consoles before Halo's release in early 2001
Medal of Honor
Unreal Tournament
Atlantis
Half Life 1 (remake)
Agent Under Fire: 007
Red Faction
Time Splitters
Well, as mentioned before, Unreal Tournament was already for PC and had little to no multiplayer capabilities unless you were playing on PC, Medal of Honor was pretty good, Atlantis was dece at best, Half Life is pretty good, but then again there's PC that beats the console experience. Red Faction is alright, lack of multiplayer, Time Splitters was alright too, there's some multiplayer.http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1501321773395030274
BUT REMEMBER!!! PS2 ONLY 2 CONTROLLER PORTS!!! (I mean seriously, what's the deal, good system...but only 2 controller ports?!)
So Halo had some pretty cool things going on. It had solid controls, if you've ever played a good console shooter, Halo set a pretty good template for future shooters to follow. Now here's the thing with shooters before this, they were either all super high tech weapons that are like WOAH or old boring guns that are real.
You had a familiar and new arsenal at your disposal. You've alien (covenant) weapons, and human weapons. These have different effects and lead to different ways to play. Covenant plasma weapons would drain your shields alot faster than bullets would, but once you've got those shields down and all you have is a plasma rifle and pistol you're going to have a hard time killing someone with just plasma. On the other hand, bullets damage physical health faster than plasma, but as mentioned before is a bit slower at draining shields. So once shields are down, bullets will do a good job killing someone quickly. Added with frag grenades that do considerable damage and large splash damage, and don't forget about everyone's favorite plasma grenades that stick onto your opponents and a melee. This "sacred triangle" really diversifies game play allowing for different ways to play as opposed to the traditional "keep on shooting" mentality.
This allows people to have a mix of weapons to fit their style of gameplay. Personally, I generally like to carry a plasma rifle and some sort of bullet weapon whether it be a pistol, assault rifle, battle rifle, SMG, or sniper rifle. I quickly drain their shield and try and go for a head shot, or you know...spray. Added with grenades to throw around corners when occasion calls and some sticky grenades for mid-range low ammo desperate measures.
This triangle added with vehicles that are very difficult to destroy, makes for some pretty intense gameplay. Though hard to destroy, there are several means to destroy them, usually by hijacking it or killing the driver. Also in Halo 3 and ODST, an overcharged plasma pistol shot will temporarily stop a vehicle from functioning for about 5 seconds. 5 very precious seconds, by that time a grenade is set to explode in 1 second destroying the vehicle AND the driver. AWESOME
Added with a fresh console multiplayer experience and solid gameplay that is made to fit other diverse playing types results in a great gaming experience.
Vehicles + Easy Multiplayer + Sacred Triangle = Lots of fun
I would like to say that this post has been brief and I'm shocked.
This part will be focusing the game play of Halo.
Now before we get into things, lets look into some FPS that were on consoles before Halo's release in early 2001
Medal of Honor
Unreal Tournament
Atlantis
Half Life 1 (remake)
Agent Under Fire: 007
Red Faction
Time Splitters
Well, as mentioned before, Unreal Tournament was already for PC and had little to no multiplayer capabilities unless you were playing on PC, Medal of Honor was pretty good, Atlantis was dece at best, Half Life is pretty good, but then again there's PC that beats the console experience. Red Faction is alright, lack of multiplayer, Time Splitters was alright too, there's some multiplayer.http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1501321773395030274
BUT REMEMBER!!! PS2 ONLY 2 CONTROLLER PORTS!!! (I mean seriously, what's the deal, good system...but only 2 controller ports?!)
So Halo had some pretty cool things going on. It had solid controls, if you've ever played a good console shooter, Halo set a pretty good template for future shooters to follow. Now here's the thing with shooters before this, they were either all super high tech weapons that are like WOAH or old boring guns that are real.
You had a familiar and new arsenal at your disposal. You've alien (covenant) weapons, and human weapons. These have different effects and lead to different ways to play. Covenant plasma weapons would drain your shields alot faster than bullets would, but once you've got those shields down and all you have is a plasma rifle and pistol you're going to have a hard time killing someone with just plasma. On the other hand, bullets damage physical health faster than plasma, but as mentioned before is a bit slower at draining shields. So once shields are down, bullets will do a good job killing someone quickly. Added with frag grenades that do considerable damage and large splash damage, and don't forget about everyone's favorite plasma grenades that stick onto your opponents and a melee. This "sacred triangle" really diversifies game play allowing for different ways to play as opposed to the traditional "keep on shooting" mentality.
This allows people to have a mix of weapons to fit their style of gameplay. Personally, I generally like to carry a plasma rifle and some sort of bullet weapon whether it be a pistol, assault rifle, battle rifle, SMG, or sniper rifle. I quickly drain their shield and try and go for a head shot, or you know...spray. Added with grenades to throw around corners when occasion calls and some sticky grenades for mid-range low ammo desperate measures.
This triangle added with vehicles that are very difficult to destroy, makes for some pretty intense gameplay. Though hard to destroy, there are several means to destroy them, usually by hijacking it or killing the driver. Also in Halo 3 and ODST, an overcharged plasma pistol shot will temporarily stop a vehicle from functioning for about 5 seconds. 5 very precious seconds, by that time a grenade is set to explode in 1 second destroying the vehicle AND the driver. AWESOME
Added with a fresh console multiplayer experience and solid gameplay that is made to fit other diverse playing types results in a great gaming experience.
Vehicles + Easy Multiplayer + Sacred Triangle = Lots of fun
I would like to say that this post has been brief and I'm shocked.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Bioshock
Since the game came out 2 years ago I was always hearing about how great of a game Bioshock was. All I knew that it was a first person shooter and that it was good and it won game of the year. Had to be a good game right? Boy was it good. As my last post said, I was lucky enough to come across a copy of the game on PC for only $5, coincidentally I recently got a new laptop that had great gaming capabilities and allowed me to run the game on its full settings. Awesome.
Well, I went through a bit of trouble installing the game, mainly because I installed it during school during a study hall. I should have read the installation guide telling me that I needed an internet connection to be able to install it, unfortunately I was in my school's band room. I had to go through the trouble of finding a teacher cool enough to let me use the internet from one of the class computers and use it on my laptop. Voila, I got the game running, I launched the game with high expectations and an open mind.
I was blown away. This didn't stop any time soon. This is an awesome shooter, with some RPG elements that add spice to the game without turning it into a all out RPG shooter like Fallout 3 is.
In Bioshock, you play as Jack you're on a plane and it crashes into the ocean, you manage to survive the crash and swim onto an island. You're smart enough to go into strange mysterious doors and before you know it you're in a submarine to the underwater city of Rapture. You are in an unknown world and don't know what to do. Fortunately a man named Atlas manages to reach you via radio and asks of your help. You are asked to help him rescue his family that is lost in Rapture. This would seem like an easy task if all of the citizens of Rapture hadn't been turned into crazy, deranged, killers out to get you. Despite the fact you're in a city of lunatics, there is indeed a ruler, Andrew Ryan runs the city, mainly because he is the man with all of the ADAM.
Bioshock basically revolves around ADAM, a substance that genetically mutates and rearranges people's genetic make up giving them amazing powers in the form of plasmids and gene tonics. Plasmids work alot like magic, it uses something called Eve and it works just like an MP bar in RPGs. Plasmids are primarily used offensively, some being electroshock and incinerate. Electroshock zaps your enemies with electricity stunning them for a certain amount of time allowing you to get an easy head shot or hit them with your wrench. Incinerate sets your opponents on fire, and I think the telekinesis plasmid is rather self explanatory.
Gene tonics on the other hand, have permanent effects on you, just as long as you have it equipped on you. (I'm not sure if equipped would be the right word, but it's the basic idea) Gene tonics help you in various ways and are categorized in three branches: Physical, Combat, and Engineering tonics. Physical gene tonics helps in ways such that medical kits heal you more, eve hypos regenerate more eve, food and drink around Rapture you consume restore more health; physical gene tonics can even make you run faster, become invisible, and even help you get more money. Combat tonics on the other hand are rather self explanatory, they help you in combat; this could include more damage resistance, stronger wrench swings, or even setting opponents of fire or freezing them if they melee you. I will get into engineering tonics shortly.
Throughout Rapture, you will see automated turrets, security cameras, drones, locked vaults, and electric locks. All of these can be hacked to your advantage, you can hack turrets to shoot enemies instead of you, security cameras to send drones against enemies, have drones attack enemies, unlock vaults, and unlock some doors. Other things that can be hacked are the vending machines and medical stations. Vending machines can be hacked to reduce the price of items and have more items in stock, and medical stations may be hacked so the price to heal is reduced and if enemies happen to heal themselves it instead kills them. Hacking is a mini game, you have to get a pipe flowing with water from point A to point B, if the water overflows than the machine short circuits thus hurting you, or it sends drones out (Hacking is alot like the game Pipe Mania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Dream_%28video_game%29). To add to the challenge of hacking, there are over load traps, alarm tiles, and acceleration tiles. Overload traps instantly make the thing you are hacking short circuit, alarm tiles sends drones against you and acceleration tiles makes the water move faster. Thankfully, hacking isn't the only option, you can also buy out the item you're hacking or use an auto hack tool, which hacks the item with no effort. If you don't have enough money to buy out something or have no auto hacks and hacking is your only option (though hacking is never really necessary, it sure makes things alot easier) this is where Engineering gene tonics come into play. Engineering gene tonics primarily help you when hacking or interacting with technology. Engineering tonics generally does something like reducing the difficulty of hacks, reducing the number of over load traps or alarm tiles, or reducing the number of supplies needed to invent something at U-Invent machines. (U-Invent machiens may also be hacked, these machines allow you to invent things like autohack tools or unique ammo that is hard to find.) Hacking is only going to be as big of a deal as you make it to be, you will regularly come across vending machines and safes that can be hacked, and it is hard to resist the call to treasure and reduced cost of ever so useful med kits and eve hypos.
Every weapon save for the wrench, camera, and plasmids have 3 different ammo types, each with a different effect. The pistol and machine gun for example have anti-personnel, armor piercing, and regular bullets. Anti-personnel is effect against other humans, armor piercing against robots, and regular bullets...well...they're regular. Other examples of something more unique would be a trap bolt which stick an arrow on the wall and then shoots a sort of grapple off the arrow creating a kind of trip wire that is flowing with electricity. Ammo types really change the flow of the game and further adds to the RPG element of the game.
Ok...ADAM, this stuff made people go crazy, this stuff made people strong, this stuff game them super powers. This stuff, makes Bioshock so awesome. ADAM is used to purchase genetic upgrades at the Gatherer's Garden, here you can buy new plasmids, gene tonics, and can raise your max health and eve. ADAM is obtained by harvesting or saving little sisters, these creepy little kids are perfectly harmless, they would be harmless if they weren't always guarded by Big Daddies. To get to the Little Sister, you need to get past the Big Daddy, these guys are STRONG and you'll have some trouble defeating them, luckily you have a rather large arsenal of weapons. (I wouldn't use your pistol here) Once you've defeated the Big Daddy, you have the option to harvest or save the Little Sister, harvesting her will result in instant gratification giving you 160 ADAM for each harvest, while saving a Little Sister on the other hand will only give you 80 ADAM. Though only receiving 80 ADAM, every 3 Little Sisters you rescue rewards you with additional ADAM, some rare ammo or items, and exclusive gene tonics and a plasmid only obtainable by saving Little Sisters. Harvesting or saving Little Sisters also effects the ending you get once you beat the game. (I've played through one and experienced the happy ending, it was a pretty happy ending.)
You can go through the game without harvesting or saving one Little Sister, but you'll definitely have a difficult time doing so.
The environment in Rapture is stunning. Outside windows, you can see the beauty of what used to be an underwater metropolis, but what is now reduced to ruin and chaos. There are 8 different districts that you traverse in Rapture, some looking a bit more like the other, some alot more unique, such as a forest where Rapture gets all of its oxygen or an entertainment area with bars, a music hall, etc. The different environments keep the game fresh and interesting (as opposed to the monotonous halls that look exactly the same in Fallout 3)
Something I enjoy alot about Bioshock, is that not only is it an FPS that has RPG elements, it also has horror element to it. At times ammo may become scarce and you'll be left only with your wrench, and a grenade launcher which you don't want to waste. You will also be scared out of your mind some times, my first experience with a Houdini Splicer scared the crap out of me, I see the shadow of an enemy around the corner, and when I turn, what do I see? Nothing, he disappeared, then he reappears behind me, I scream, almost drop my laptop and stop breathing for a second. There are always times in the game when you will be genuinely creeped out, and that's just awesome that they actually manage to scare you. It's not a "Ew, gross" kind of scared or a "something popped out of nowhere and screamed" scared, it's a psychological kind of scared. When you see shadows, and you hear the taunts of splicers, when the lights go off and you hear voices, or when enemies are playing dead.
When the enemies started playing dead, I was paranoid and shot every body on the ground out of paranoia, I lost alot of ammo, boy was that a bad idea.
Early on in the game, you run across a research camera. You'll find this camera to be indispensable later on in the game. The camera takes pictures of enemies (dur) but every picture you take of a certain enemy raises a bar that goes up for every picture. Once the bar is filled, you get some sort of bonus, this is usually a damage bonus to that kind of gene tonic. You can't just take pictures willy-nilly though, you need film to take pictures and pictures are also graded, so the higher grade you get the more the research bar is going to raise. If you don't take pictures you'll soon find it will take a clip of ammo to kill a single enemy.
I don't want to get into story, because in my opinion, it's rather hard to tell without giving away key plot points. The story is primarily told through radio messages and audio diaries scattered throughout the game.
Ok, so we all know Bioshock is a great game. I think it's great because of it's solid shooting, diverse setting, engaging story, wonderful integration of RPG and horror elements, and that the game can be played any way you want it to. (Stealth, gun slinger, tank, plasmid master,, etc.)
Gameplay : 10/10
It's just absolutely spectacular. For the sake of not being monotonous, just reread the review, it's basically all about the gameplay.
Story : 9/10
It's enticing, interesting, and makes the game worth while.
Visual Presentation : 10/10
The 50's feel of the game makes it charming. Though parts of the game feel waaay to similar to Fallout 3's cartoons*. (wow, I've referenced Fallout 3 alot in this review.)
The water effects are amazing and make sense since the game is underwater.
Lasting Appeal : 8/10
It's one of those games that you play through once and put away for a while, (thought you might play through again to experience the other ending) but then you pick it up again after a few months and re experience the awesome all over again.
Overall: 9.5/10 (not averaged or anything)
It's amazing, it's fun, it's scary, and it's diverse, you'll feel some sympathy, and you'll get mad. Bioshock won game of the year for a reason.
*If you thought, "Well...isn't Fallout copying Bioshock's cartoon pictures? Because Bioshock came out before Fallout 3."
No, not true, Fallout's cartoon icons have been around since the very first Bioshock that came out YEARS before Bioshock did.
Well, I went through a bit of trouble installing the game, mainly because I installed it during school during a study hall. I should have read the installation guide telling me that I needed an internet connection to be able to install it, unfortunately I was in my school's band room. I had to go through the trouble of finding a teacher cool enough to let me use the internet from one of the class computers and use it on my laptop. Voila, I got the game running, I launched the game with high expectations and an open mind.
I was blown away. This didn't stop any time soon. This is an awesome shooter, with some RPG elements that add spice to the game without turning it into a all out RPG shooter like Fallout 3 is.
In Bioshock, you play as Jack you're on a plane and it crashes into the ocean, you manage to survive the crash and swim onto an island. You're smart enough to go into strange mysterious doors and before you know it you're in a submarine to the underwater city of Rapture. You are in an unknown world and don't know what to do. Fortunately a man named Atlas manages to reach you via radio and asks of your help. You are asked to help him rescue his family that is lost in Rapture. This would seem like an easy task if all of the citizens of Rapture hadn't been turned into crazy, deranged, killers out to get you. Despite the fact you're in a city of lunatics, there is indeed a ruler, Andrew Ryan runs the city, mainly because he is the man with all of the ADAM.
Bioshock basically revolves around ADAM, a substance that genetically mutates and rearranges people's genetic make up giving them amazing powers in the form of plasmids and gene tonics. Plasmids work alot like magic, it uses something called Eve and it works just like an MP bar in RPGs. Plasmids are primarily used offensively, some being electroshock and incinerate. Electroshock zaps your enemies with electricity stunning them for a certain amount of time allowing you to get an easy head shot or hit them with your wrench. Incinerate sets your opponents on fire, and I think the telekinesis plasmid is rather self explanatory.
Gene tonics on the other hand, have permanent effects on you, just as long as you have it equipped on you. (I'm not sure if equipped would be the right word, but it's the basic idea) Gene tonics help you in various ways and are categorized in three branches: Physical, Combat, and Engineering tonics. Physical gene tonics helps in ways such that medical kits heal you more, eve hypos regenerate more eve, food and drink around Rapture you consume restore more health; physical gene tonics can even make you run faster, become invisible, and even help you get more money. Combat tonics on the other hand are rather self explanatory, they help you in combat; this could include more damage resistance, stronger wrench swings, or even setting opponents of fire or freezing them if they melee you. I will get into engineering tonics shortly.
Throughout Rapture, you will see automated turrets, security cameras, drones, locked vaults, and electric locks. All of these can be hacked to your advantage, you can hack turrets to shoot enemies instead of you, security cameras to send drones against enemies, have drones attack enemies, unlock vaults, and unlock some doors. Other things that can be hacked are the vending machines and medical stations. Vending machines can be hacked to reduce the price of items and have more items in stock, and medical stations may be hacked so the price to heal is reduced and if enemies happen to heal themselves it instead kills them. Hacking is a mini game, you have to get a pipe flowing with water from point A to point B, if the water overflows than the machine short circuits thus hurting you, or it sends drones out (Hacking is alot like the game Pipe Mania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Dream_%28video_game%29). To add to the challenge of hacking, there are over load traps, alarm tiles, and acceleration tiles. Overload traps instantly make the thing you are hacking short circuit, alarm tiles sends drones against you and acceleration tiles makes the water move faster. Thankfully, hacking isn't the only option, you can also buy out the item you're hacking or use an auto hack tool, which hacks the item with no effort. If you don't have enough money to buy out something or have no auto hacks and hacking is your only option (though hacking is never really necessary, it sure makes things alot easier) this is where Engineering gene tonics come into play. Engineering gene tonics primarily help you when hacking or interacting with technology. Engineering tonics generally does something like reducing the difficulty of hacks, reducing the number of over load traps or alarm tiles, or reducing the number of supplies needed to invent something at U-Invent machines. (U-Invent machiens may also be hacked, these machines allow you to invent things like autohack tools or unique ammo that is hard to find.) Hacking is only going to be as big of a deal as you make it to be, you will regularly come across vending machines and safes that can be hacked, and it is hard to resist the call to treasure and reduced cost of ever so useful med kits and eve hypos.
Every weapon save for the wrench, camera, and plasmids have 3 different ammo types, each with a different effect. The pistol and machine gun for example have anti-personnel, armor piercing, and regular bullets. Anti-personnel is effect against other humans, armor piercing against robots, and regular bullets...well...they're regular. Other examples of something more unique would be a trap bolt which stick an arrow on the wall and then shoots a sort of grapple off the arrow creating a kind of trip wire that is flowing with electricity. Ammo types really change the flow of the game and further adds to the RPG element of the game.
Ok...ADAM, this stuff made people go crazy, this stuff made people strong, this stuff game them super powers. This stuff, makes Bioshock so awesome. ADAM is used to purchase genetic upgrades at the Gatherer's Garden, here you can buy new plasmids, gene tonics, and can raise your max health and eve. ADAM is obtained by harvesting or saving little sisters, these creepy little kids are perfectly harmless, they would be harmless if they weren't always guarded by Big Daddies. To get to the Little Sister, you need to get past the Big Daddy, these guys are STRONG and you'll have some trouble defeating them, luckily you have a rather large arsenal of weapons. (I wouldn't use your pistol here) Once you've defeated the Big Daddy, you have the option to harvest or save the Little Sister, harvesting her will result in instant gratification giving you 160 ADAM for each harvest, while saving a Little Sister on the other hand will only give you 80 ADAM. Though only receiving 80 ADAM, every 3 Little Sisters you rescue rewards you with additional ADAM, some rare ammo or items, and exclusive gene tonics and a plasmid only obtainable by saving Little Sisters. Harvesting or saving Little Sisters also effects the ending you get once you beat the game. (I've played through one and experienced the happy ending, it was a pretty happy ending.)
You can go through the game without harvesting or saving one Little Sister, but you'll definitely have a difficult time doing so.
The environment in Rapture is stunning. Outside windows, you can see the beauty of what used to be an underwater metropolis, but what is now reduced to ruin and chaos. There are 8 different districts that you traverse in Rapture, some looking a bit more like the other, some alot more unique, such as a forest where Rapture gets all of its oxygen or an entertainment area with bars, a music hall, etc. The different environments keep the game fresh and interesting (as opposed to the monotonous halls that look exactly the same in Fallout 3)
Something I enjoy alot about Bioshock, is that not only is it an FPS that has RPG elements, it also has horror element to it. At times ammo may become scarce and you'll be left only with your wrench, and a grenade launcher which you don't want to waste. You will also be scared out of your mind some times, my first experience with a Houdini Splicer scared the crap out of me, I see the shadow of an enemy around the corner, and when I turn, what do I see? Nothing, he disappeared, then he reappears behind me, I scream, almost drop my laptop and stop breathing for a second. There are always times in the game when you will be genuinely creeped out, and that's just awesome that they actually manage to scare you. It's not a "Ew, gross" kind of scared or a "something popped out of nowhere and screamed" scared, it's a psychological kind of scared. When you see shadows, and you hear the taunts of splicers, when the lights go off and you hear voices, or when enemies are playing dead.
When the enemies started playing dead, I was paranoid and shot every body on the ground out of paranoia, I lost alot of ammo, boy was that a bad idea.
Early on in the game, you run across a research camera. You'll find this camera to be indispensable later on in the game. The camera takes pictures of enemies (dur) but every picture you take of a certain enemy raises a bar that goes up for every picture. Once the bar is filled, you get some sort of bonus, this is usually a damage bonus to that kind of gene tonic. You can't just take pictures willy-nilly though, you need film to take pictures and pictures are also graded, so the higher grade you get the more the research bar is going to raise. If you don't take pictures you'll soon find it will take a clip of ammo to kill a single enemy.
I don't want to get into story, because in my opinion, it's rather hard to tell without giving away key plot points. The story is primarily told through radio messages and audio diaries scattered throughout the game.
Ok, so we all know Bioshock is a great game. I think it's great because of it's solid shooting, diverse setting, engaging story, wonderful integration of RPG and horror elements, and that the game can be played any way you want it to. (Stealth, gun slinger, tank, plasmid master,, etc.)
Gameplay : 10/10
It's just absolutely spectacular. For the sake of not being monotonous, just reread the review, it's basically all about the gameplay.
Story : 9/10
It's enticing, interesting, and makes the game worth while.
Visual Presentation : 10/10
The 50's feel of the game makes it charming. Though parts of the game feel waaay to similar to Fallout 3's cartoons*. (wow, I've referenced Fallout 3 alot in this review.)
The water effects are amazing and make sense since the game is underwater.
Lasting Appeal : 8/10
It's one of those games that you play through once and put away for a while, (thought you might play through again to experience the other ending) but then you pick it up again after a few months and re experience the awesome all over again.
Overall: 9.5/10 (not averaged or anything)
It's amazing, it's fun, it's scary, and it's diverse, you'll feel some sympathy, and you'll get mad. Bioshock won game of the year for a reason.
*If you thought, "Well...isn't Fallout copying Bioshock's cartoon pictures? Because Bioshock came out before Fallout 3."
No, not true, Fallout's cartoon icons have been around since the very first Bioshock that came out YEARS before Bioshock did.
A place of old reviews
I've noticed, because I'm rather low income and I don't have the money for all the current games because they're all really expensive. I got Bioshock on PC for $5 recently; I got it because it was cheap and I happened to have $5 on me and someone who was 17+ of age that would buy it for me. You read reviews, and they'll say the visuals are stunning...well...what if the game came out 4 years ago? I suppose these are the reviews you want to read, because what was an innovation then, could become a regular must have in every game.
I should just rename this blog "The Behind Gamer"
Anyways, I've noticed a trend in reviewing rather old games. Games that were amazing back in the day, but what if you want to know how it stacks up to games now? This is where it's all at.
I should just rename this blog "The Behind Gamer"
Anyways, I've noticed a trend in reviewing rather old games. Games that were amazing back in the day, but what if you want to know how it stacks up to games now? This is where it's all at.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Street Fighte IV
So I thought that they were far enough and experienced to know to only make one game. Hey, Street Fighter IV, cool, not that many characters, but I suppose they would be diverse enough to enjoy thoroughly. WRONG. I don't think CAPCOM will ever learn. Super Street Fighter IV has been announced, I thought we were far enough and smart enough to know what we want to put in one game so we don't have to release it 5000 times over. I thought we could put everything we had in mind in one game, nope. Now, it's not confirmed, let's face it; if they're releasing Super Street Fighter IV, I think it's safe to assume Super Street Fighter IV Turbo, Super Street Fighter IV Hyper, Champion Edition, 4th Strike, Turbo Edition, EX, Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 3, Zero, etc. etc.
Then they'll end up combining them to make Super Super Street Fighter IV Hyper Turbo Tournament Edition : Grand Master's Challenge, Fourth Impact.
A bit of an over exaggeration, but don't you think it's about time they release one game with everythinig in it though?
Though I suppose it's tradition to release Street Fighter 5000 times and eat everyone's money.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Halo Series Part 1 : Multiplayer
I was on IGN and reading the reader's top 100 games of all time, of course I come across Halo, and this is what I read.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Ftop100.ign.com%252F2008%252Fign_top_game_15.html&h=2b18c3d112746cae59ca89bc06fdf277&ref=mf
You've got the phrase "one of the greatest games of all time" followed up with statements using the words "decent." Now what I don't understand is how a game of such great caliber can even have the word decent used in a description. It goes to show that people don't really have too much to say about it. What people fail to mention about Halo is that it really popularized console shooters.
So apparently one of the greatest games of all time is decent. Weird. I'm going to try to explain, why Halo was such a big deal.
Here's what I have to say about this.
Back in the day, the computer was THE machine to play just about all FPS. Think about it, it was 2001 and the PS2 and Game Cube just came out a year ago, Nintendo has never been known and remains to this day, not known for shooters. The PS2 on the other hand, didn't have much to work with in the shooter department, sure there was Unreal Tournament that was ported to the PS2, but it had no online functionality, not until 2003 and by that time Unreal Tournament was outdated and was replaced by Unreal Tournament 2003. So let's take a look back at 2001, anyone who wanted to play some hardcore shooters had to have a good PC that could run awesome games, then came along Microsoft with the X-Box and have a game called Halo. You're this guy in bad ass armor that looks like Samus, but you don't have boobs and you don't have a gun attached to your arm. What you do have though, is an assault rifle, the strongest pistol known to man, 8 grenades, recharging shields, and you can whack people with your gun like you're on steroids.
The people who happened to buy an X-Box are graced with 4 controller ports, internal memory and a FPS for a console that works.
Now here's where Halo + X-Box makes the biggest impact. PS2 only had 2 controller ports unless you bought an add on allowing 4 people to play at once, and still not many games for the PS2 supported more than 2 people. So you have 3 friends over to play some videogames, oh darn, this isn't like Golden Eye where all 4 of us can play at the same time, darn. Well, Halo comes along, and all 4 of you can fight each other and have a fun time, but wait. They're taking it to the next level, despite the lack of XBox live at the moment, there was LAN. People could hook up two X-Boxes together to have 8 people playing each other, but wait, it doesn't end there. Up to 16 people could play with each other, provided you had 4 TVs, X-Boxes and 16 controllers. Despite this people still managed to get friends over to play Halo in a large group.
Halo you could say, is Golden Eye taken to the next level. Golden Eye had 4 of your friends duke it out, with Halo you could have up to 16 people fighting. Later on X-Box Live would be introduced to the world and a whole new era of gaming began, soon online multiplayer would be the norm and a game without it would be like a sin.
I would like to elaborate more on the multiplayer part. Prior to Halo, not many games allowed you and some friends to get together and play a game sitting 2 feet apart. I remember Super Smash Brothers and Golden Eye, those games were and remain gems to the gaming industry. We go into a new millennium and the shooter scene generally still remains in the PC world. Aside from games like Golden Eye, you can't really get together with friends and shoot each other up. This is what makes the biggest difference, even with today's online multiplayer which is so easy to set up and do.
Nothing beats you and a few friends sitting down and play a game together. Being able to laugh and talk directly to each other, punching your friend that stole your kill, and just being with your friends. Inside jokes are formed and unknown bonds are found. (I found out that my friend John and I make for a killer capture the flag team) You can't really do that with the PS2 seeing as how most games only supported upwards to two players save for a select few that supported 4, and you had to go through a bit of trouble to do that. Game Cube didn't really have any good shooters to play, they had Mario Party and Super Smash Brothers, but there is something different about shooters.
Here's what I have to say about the shooter party vs. other games.
The person hosting the party, would kick ass at fighting games like SSB etc. regardless of button mashers, when you own the fighting game, you are almost guaranteed to win.
In shooters, you never really have to be good to win. Hell you could suck but end up winning. Because there are so many ways you can kill and die. The noob of the group could always be on the search of the cheap weapon (coughrocketlaunchercoughplasmaswordcoughshotguncough) and own everyone, the kill stealer, the scavenger that picks up the scraps of a firefight and kills someone after he's killed someone else, the vehicle junkie, the screen looker. All of these contribute to a diverse experience that can give even the most inexperienced player an unfair advantage. There is always the risk of dying versus fighting games like Super Smash Brothers where I always dominate to the point where winning so much just isn't fun anymore.
Well, you might be asking, "Well, what about a PC LAN party?" you trying getting 8-12 friends together with computers good enough to run what ever game you'll be playing. Sufficient wires to connect all the computers, monitors, and not to mention SPACE for all of this, as opposed to a TV or two, an X-Box or two, and alot of controllers. It was just alot more convenient.
In a nut shell this is what was so great about Halo in the beginning. Being able to have 4 friends together and play a shooter hasn't been so easy and functional since Golden Eye. Not to mention you can go up to 16 players. In a time when multiplayer FPS at such a size required a ton of computers and wires, Halo put it into console size and offered lots of convenience, specially when the PS2 generally only supported 2 players and the Game Cube was sadly kinda a flop.
To be honest, Halo isn't a bad game, but it isn't an amazing game. It has good controls and is one of the best console shooters, it doesn't compare to what PC shooters had to offer. When you are not a PC gamer, but wanted something to shoot up, Halo was your answer. If you were a PC gamer, Halo was nothing special.
Halo delivers an experience that was not so common in the console scene at the time.
A first person shooter, with multiplayer that works well.
Part 2 will be discussing gameplay.
Alright.
This post turned out a bit longer and ramblier than I want it to be. Oh well, I hope I got my point across.
Personal Rant
On a side note, I'm not all too big on Halo. Though I do enjoy the series and have fun play the games. I generally think it's over rated. Thought it is undeniable that it has influenced countless games since it's release, people seem to like it for all the wrong reasons. I remember someone not really having a good reason to like other than other people liked it....and graphics. Though visual presentation is important it shouldn't be the prime reason someone likes a game. More on this topic later.
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You've got the phrase "one of the greatest games of all time" followed up with statements using the words "decent." Now what I don't understand is how a game of such great caliber can even have the word decent used in a description. It goes to show that people don't really have too much to say about it. What people fail to mention about Halo is that it really popularized console shooters.
So apparently one of the greatest games of all time is decent. Weird. I'm going to try to explain, why Halo was such a big deal.
Here's what I have to say about this.
Back in the day, the computer was THE machine to play just about all FPS. Think about it, it was 2001 and the PS2 and Game Cube just came out a year ago, Nintendo has never been known and remains to this day, not known for shooters. The PS2 on the other hand, didn't have much to work with in the shooter department, sure there was Unreal Tournament that was ported to the PS2, but it had no online functionality, not until 2003 and by that time Unreal Tournament was outdated and was replaced by Unreal Tournament 2003. So let's take a look back at 2001, anyone who wanted to play some hardcore shooters had to have a good PC that could run awesome games, then came along Microsoft with the X-Box and have a game called Halo. You're this guy in bad ass armor that looks like Samus, but you don't have boobs and you don't have a gun attached to your arm. What you do have though, is an assault rifle, the strongest pistol known to man, 8 grenades, recharging shields, and you can whack people with your gun like you're on steroids.
The people who happened to buy an X-Box are graced with 4 controller ports, internal memory and a FPS for a console that works.
Now here's where Halo + X-Box makes the biggest impact. PS2 only had 2 controller ports unless you bought an add on allowing 4 people to play at once, and still not many games for the PS2 supported more than 2 people. So you have 3 friends over to play some videogames, oh darn, this isn't like Golden Eye where all 4 of us can play at the same time, darn. Well, Halo comes along, and all 4 of you can fight each other and have a fun time, but wait. They're taking it to the next level, despite the lack of XBox live at the moment, there was LAN. People could hook up two X-Boxes together to have 8 people playing each other, but wait, it doesn't end there. Up to 16 people could play with each other, provided you had 4 TVs, X-Boxes and 16 controllers. Despite this people still managed to get friends over to play Halo in a large group.
Halo you could say, is Golden Eye taken to the next level. Golden Eye had 4 of your friends duke it out, with Halo you could have up to 16 people fighting. Later on X-Box Live would be introduced to the world and a whole new era of gaming began, soon online multiplayer would be the norm and a game without it would be like a sin.
I would like to elaborate more on the multiplayer part. Prior to Halo, not many games allowed you and some friends to get together and play a game sitting 2 feet apart. I remember Super Smash Brothers and Golden Eye, those games were and remain gems to the gaming industry. We go into a new millennium and the shooter scene generally still remains in the PC world. Aside from games like Golden Eye, you can't really get together with friends and shoot each other up. This is what makes the biggest difference, even with today's online multiplayer which is so easy to set up and do.
Nothing beats you and a few friends sitting down and play a game together. Being able to laugh and talk directly to each other, punching your friend that stole your kill, and just being with your friends. Inside jokes are formed and unknown bonds are found. (I found out that my friend John and I make for a killer capture the flag team) You can't really do that with the PS2 seeing as how most games only supported upwards to two players save for a select few that supported 4, and you had to go through a bit of trouble to do that. Game Cube didn't really have any good shooters to play, they had Mario Party and Super Smash Brothers, but there is something different about shooters.
Here's what I have to say about the shooter party vs. other games.
The person hosting the party, would kick ass at fighting games like SSB etc. regardless of button mashers, when you own the fighting game, you are almost guaranteed to win.
In shooters, you never really have to be good to win. Hell you could suck but end up winning. Because there are so many ways you can kill and die. The noob of the group could always be on the search of the cheap weapon (coughrocketlaunchercoughplasmaswordcoughshotguncough) and own everyone, the kill stealer, the scavenger that picks up the scraps of a firefight and kills someone after he's killed someone else, the vehicle junkie, the screen looker. All of these contribute to a diverse experience that can give even the most inexperienced player an unfair advantage. There is always the risk of dying versus fighting games like Super Smash Brothers where I always dominate to the point where winning so much just isn't fun anymore.
Well, you might be asking, "Well, what about a PC LAN party?" you trying getting 8-12 friends together with computers good enough to run what ever game you'll be playing. Sufficient wires to connect all the computers, monitors, and not to mention SPACE for all of this, as opposed to a TV or two, an X-Box or two, and alot of controllers. It was just alot more convenient.
In a nut shell this is what was so great about Halo in the beginning. Being able to have 4 friends together and play a shooter hasn't been so easy and functional since Golden Eye. Not to mention you can go up to 16 players. In a time when multiplayer FPS at such a size required a ton of computers and wires, Halo put it into console size and offered lots of convenience, specially when the PS2 generally only supported 2 players and the Game Cube was sadly kinda a flop.
To be honest, Halo isn't a bad game, but it isn't an amazing game. It has good controls and is one of the best console shooters, it doesn't compare to what PC shooters had to offer. When you are not a PC gamer, but wanted something to shoot up, Halo was your answer. If you were a PC gamer, Halo was nothing special.
Halo delivers an experience that was not so common in the console scene at the time.
A first person shooter, with multiplayer that works well.
Part 2 will be discussing gameplay.
Alright.
This post turned out a bit longer and ramblier than I want it to be. Oh well, I hope I got my point across.
Personal Rant
On a side note, I'm not all too big on Halo. Though I do enjoy the series and have fun play the games. I generally think it's over rated. Thought it is undeniable that it has influenced countless games since it's release, people seem to like it for all the wrong reasons. I remember someone not really having a good reason to like other than other people liked it....and graphics. Though visual presentation is important it shouldn't be the prime reason someone likes a game. More on this topic later.
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