Over a Candle

Today was my usual weekly trip to the comic shop. And every once in a while, I walk into the shop to find a surprise. I forget, sometimes, what I have ordered months ago. Two different items came in today. One I expected, and one I had forgotten about.

First the one I had forgotten about. It’s been awhile since I played Bayonetta on the PS3. With Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, and Disgaea 3, not to mention my actual life, I haven’t gotten back to Bayonetta to finish it. Though I keep meaning to. Maybe that’s why I had forgotten I had ordered figures of Bayonetta and her rival Jeanne from the game. But I picked them up today.

The other item was one I had remembered, and for some reason wondered if it was coming out today as I drove to the shop. Sure enough, the four disc soundtrack for Final Fantasy XIII came in, making for a spendy day. But now I have new video game music to listen to.

Be jealous! Be very jealous!

I think I’m prepared to write a review of Heavy Rain now. I’m not sure, mind you. I’ve only been playing for about four hours or so, but I have a feel of the game. I think.

That’s just the thing, it was hard to get a read on this game at first. Indeed, the first ten or fifteen minutes felt a little bit like a Sims game. You’re wandering around a house. You shower and dress. Your family comes home and you interact with them for awhile. Pretty mundane stuff.

Then something goes horribly, horribly wrong. I won’t tell you what, or to whom, but it’s bad. And then it becomes a Sims game for another ten minutes. Weird.

But after that it turns into a game. Well, sort of. Really, it feels like it turns into an interactive movie. It’s an odd entity, really. You control four different characters. So far (I think I’m almost through half the chapters, though I don’t know if it’s half the game yet), I’ve changed a diaper, used sunglasses that seem to share tech with Batman’s visor in Arkham Asylum, gotten into a couple of fights, tied my boss’ tie, and had a nerve-wrecking car chase. I’ve shot people I didn’t mean to, saved people who were badly wounded, and fought off a drug addiction (for the moment).

As bizarre (and oddly engaging) as the gameplay is, the story is the hook, here. This is a thriller staged as a video game. Someone is killing boys by drowning them. And for various reasons, these four characters are caught up in the attempt to find and catch the killer before the next victim drowns. This is a dark and heavy game. As engrossing as the story is, it’s hard, too. It’s tragic. And it just doesn’t feel like it is going to end well. Maybe it does. But I have a feeling that the choices I make matter.

That’s the thing, I sat down to play for an hour tonight, and I played for three and a half. I couldn’t stop. It wasn’t high intensity action most of the time. But it was intriguing. And horrifying at times. Sad and tragic. And I just keep hoping it will get better.

This is fascinating game. I’m not prepared to say I like it, but I know I have to finish it. It is disturbing. And dark. Did I say that already? If you like thrillers, it may just be something you want to check out. But it’s definitely not your average video game.

Final Fantasy XIII has been out less than a week, and I’ve got about eleven hours into it already. That isn’t a lot, by some measures, I know. But considering how little time I’ve actually had to play in the last five days, that quite a bit. And I’ve started to form some impressions about the game.

And basically, I’m in love.

The Playstation 3 came out three and a half years ago. I waited for nearly two years to buy one, with the release of Soul Calibur IV. But that wasn’t the game I really wanted the PS 3 for. The game I nearly waited for was this one. The game that I’ve been waiting three and a half years for finally came out, and it has not disappointed.

One thing that strikes me is that, over ten hours into the game, and I’m still on a very linear path. I have a guidebook. I could look up to see how long that’s going to last, but actually I don’t care. You see, while the story is leading you very carefully through the game – lots of cut-scenes and determining the make-up of your party, including the leader – it is so engaging a story, that I don’t care.

The graphics are gorgeous, so I love watching the cut-scenes. And the scenes are relatively short (so you can get back to the action) and really help fill out the plot. The story is just so… well, engrossing. The way they fill out the back-story of each of the main characters and bring them into the story. It just seems so much more thought-out than in other Final Fantasy installments.

As for the combat system, it is different. At first, it seemed just fine to me. But that was before it really kicked in. Once all the complications became apparent, it was nearly overwhelming. I was trying to pull tricks and stunts and realized I didn’t have time in the heat of the battle to do as much as I was trying to manage. But as I played more, I began to get the hang of it.

Each of your characters is assigned a role in combat. You can change those roles to have them perform different kinds of actions. (You only control your lead character.) There isn’t always time to assign individual actions. You have to work on getting the right skills (through an interesting leveling system) so that the AI can run the characters in an efficient and effective way. It’s a very different feel for a Final Fantasy game.

There is also an advantage to the game dictating who is in your party, and who the leader is. I’ve had to spend significant time playing five of the six characters so far (I haven’t had a chance to control the sixth, yet). This gives me a sense of how each of them play. When I finally do get a chance to set my own party, I’ll have a much better idea of what each of the characters can do.

All-told, I’ve begun to really like the combat system (though I’m pretty sure I still don’t have the hang of the eidolons, this game’s versions of the summons). And I love the story and characters. I’m glad I didn’t wait for this game to get my Playstation 3, but I’m equally glad this game is finally out.

As a postscript to this review, let me share a little something I picked up at the comic shop when I visited there on Saturday:

That is Lightning, Snow, and Vanille, three of the main characters of the game. Very cool. I just wish Fang had been out, too.

Last night, I finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins. I don’t want to give any spoilers for those who might be playing through the story. I will say, I found the story, including the ending, immensely satisfying. The gameplay was challenging without being too difficult. I only dropped the difficulty during three fights; two of them involved dragons. (I did drop the difficulty during the final fight. I think I could have completed it on normal difficulty, but I wanted to get to the end. Fighting the fight several times was interrupting the narrative too much. Maybe I was tired. But I wanted to finish the story. I had to see the end!)

The combat elements of the game were a lot of fun. But in the end, what really sucked me in was the characterization and the plot. I cared about these characters, including my own. It felt like a rich story that grabbed me. I couldn’t put it down, in much the same way I have trouble putting down a really engaging novel. I just wanted to know what would happen to these characters, how they might succeed, if they would. Overall, this was a fascinating game.

Which means, as soon as the credits finished rolling, I started a new character. Yes, I’m the sort of person that rereads novels and rewatches movies. In this case, though, some of the elements of the story can change depending on what choices you make.

My first character started off a bitter, oppressed, city-elf. She grew to care about the characters she interacted with and in the end, finished as a hero through and through. This time around, I’m trying to play a more… uh… “morally questionable” character. More self-interested. More on the outside. I know some of the choices that lie ahead of him, and how I want him to decide at those points.

Here’s the thing: I find it hard to play a “bad guy.” I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’d like to think, in the end, I will do what’s right. And thus, I find it hard to role-play someone who doesn’t meet me at least that far. I can role-play characters that don’t share my moral impulses. But all my characters wind up being good at some level. Playing someone who really is out for himself is a challenge. I’m not sure I can do it. Which means I’m not sure if I can finish this second playthrough the way I imagine it. But I want to see some of the other options and how they play out. So I’m a bit divorced from this character. We’ll see if I can finish.

I know some of my other friends have started playing the game. I hope you have as much fun with it as I did the first time through!

This morning, I opened my e-mail to discover a bit of information I had given up ever hearing: Final Fantasy XIII will be released in North America on March 9th of next year.

Of course, I’m not even halfway through my first play-through in Dragon Age: Origins, and I intend to play some more Borderlands before too much time has passed. I’m not sure when I’m going to get in all this video gaming. But the new Final Fantasy game will be out in four months.

I found all of this out when Amazon sent me an email offering the game as a pre-order. Given all the trouble I had with Amazon on the Dragon Age pre-order, I don’t know that I’ll be buying from Amazon. I just don’t know if I can trust them to manage a game release properly.

Still, now I know how long I have until the next time-waster hits my PS3. I guess I’ll have to redouble my efforts at playing video games. Maybe I just won’t sleep for the next four months.

Well, yesterday, my copy of Dragon Age: Origins finally arrived yesterday. I had to update my system, install the game, and download a bunch of extra content that had already been released, but I still managed to play for a few hours.

There have been a number of great games this year. However, with the exception of a game for the PSP that was fun but was rather standard, there hasn’t been much by way of RPG games for me this year. Dragon Age: Origins meets that need and then some.

This game is very, very immersive. The story, the characters (with their banter), the options… It’s all very engaging. I wish this game had come out during the summer, when I had more time to spend playing it. It’s incredibly addictive already.

The combat still seems a bit chaotic, as I haven’t quite fiddled with all the options enough. You can either switch between characters and give them all commands, or you can set up strategies for them to follow during combat and just focus on one character.

There is a lot of depth to the game. A lot of dialogue options to explore. A lot character customization. A lot of NPCs to talk to. (If you have played some of BioWare’s previous games, such as Neverwinter Nights or KotOR, you should be expecting this.)

So far I’m loving this game. There are some weird graphical glitches, and I’ve seen some people complain that they are game-breaking. I haven’t seen anything game-breaking. A few dropped frames, some weird pauses, nothing that makes the game unplayable. And they have only happened a couple of times that I’ve noticed. Overall, I really enjoy the visuals in the game.

I have heard that there are fewer problems on the PC version. I can’t confirm it, but if you’re worried about it, and you have a PC that will run the game, you might give it a try. I find the PS3 version perfectly fine.

This is easily the best RPG I’ve played in a long time. And in a year with Infamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Borderlands, this game is certainly in the running for game of the year.

At least, at the three hour mark.

Today, there will not be a review of Bioware’s new game, Dragon Age: Origins. My attempts at being a computer game slacker have been thwarted.

I was expecting to have blame my late day at school yesterday for the failure to play the game enough to write a review. I got to school at 8 am and got home around 9 pm. That sort of long day is not conducive to goofing around playing video games.

However, in the end, it wasn’t my work that kept me from playing. I had pre-ordered the collector’s edition of the game from Amazon. Originally, the release date for the Playstation 3 version was set at November 17th. But the date was moved up to come out the same day as the XBox 360 and PC versions.

While the date changed on Amazon for the standard edition on the PS3, the collector’s edition date never changed. And sure enough, at the end of the release day yesterday, there was no sign of shipping from Amazon. All the other versions are apparently shipping, but for some reason, the CE PS3 version is not.

People who bought the game from other sources apparently have gotten the collector’s edition for the PS3, so I have no idea why Amazon is unable to ship. But there you have it. I may be waiting another two weeks to play this game, assuming I get it at all. Amazon won’t tell its customers anything about when we might get the game or if we’ll get it.

In a way, it might be okay that I don’t get the game this week. I’m still hooked on Borderlands. And I don’t have much time for video games anyway, what with a large stack of grading coming my way tomorrow. Still, I hope I’ll get it some time in the next two weeks. And if Amazon doesn’t come through, I may have to rethink my willingness to give it my business.

So those waiting desperately for my review may have to wait a while longer. I’m sure you have better things to do anyway.

For the last few weeks, the little time I’ve had for video games has gone to Batman: Arkham Asylum. I probably could have finished Wet, but frankly, I lost the will to do so. I liked the style, loved the music, but it was just too frustrating to play. So I was working on playing through Batman on Hard difficulty to waste time.

This week has solved my video game lull. Several friends had mentioned Borderlands to me, and I finally decided to check it out. Everyone was describing it as a combination of First-Person Shooter and Role-Playing, a sort of Diablo in the first-person. I was intrigued.

I am much more an RPG player than an FPS player, but I do like the occasional FPS (Killzone 2, for example, was great fun, and I wasted a lot of Saturdays in grad school playing Marathon). After reading a couple of early reviews on line, I decided some retail therapy might help, so I splurged and bought Borderlands without any more deliberation.

After the hyper-realism of the animation in both Infamous and Batman, this is a switch. The animation looks hand-drawn, giving it a very stylized look. But it’s still a lot of fun to look at, and the motion of the enemies is great. That’s the first thing to note. The lighting changes at odd intervals, perhaps to suggest dusk, but then ramps back up to full daylight. Maybe I’m supposed to know why, but I don’t. Still, it adds to the atmosphere.

There are four possible characters to play as. Staying true to form, I picked the one woman character available. She can turn invisible and move for a limited amount of time (for sneaking up behind enemies and surprising them). Also, she’s excellent with ranged weapons.

And there are a lot of weapons in this game. You can carry two, and carry 12 more in your backpack. (Of course, you pick up a lot, and those slots have to take everything, including first-aid. So you find yourself having to find places to sell off unwanted items somewhat frequently after an hour or two into the game.)

I’ve already gotten past the first boss and started doing various optional missions. The combat is frenetic and fun, without being overly frustrating (unless you are going up against a bad guy and you’re under-powered… but some leveling in other areas will probably help with that). Aiming, reloading, switching weapons is all straight-forward. It works like it should, and thus stays out of your way of just enjoying the game. (It was hard for me to get used to using R2 to fire, instead of R1, but it didn’t take too long to adjust.) Picking up ammo and other drops takes a bit of thinking at first, too. I’m spoiled by the automatic pick-up in games like Killzone 2. But again, it doesn’t take much to adjust.

Enemies spawn when you reenter areas, so you can just keep killing to level up, as with typical RPGs, but you don’t enter into a different “battle mode” for those fights. Thus it preserves the FPS-style of just running everywhere and shooting.

The story line is interesting so far, but right now I’m just having fun exploring the world and getting better stuff. There is a leveling system, each level increases your health, and you earn skill points that can be used to learn and improve various abilities, allowing for character customization.

I’ve heard that the cooperative mode really makes this game shine. I believe it, though I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. But even if you prefer solo play or have spotty internet connection (like yours truly), this game is worth it for the single-player mode alone. At least so far, I’m hooked.

This is definitely a bright spot in the fall video game releases. It was a pleasant surprise, too, since I figured I’d have to wait for Dragon Age: Origins for my next fix. Now I’m wondering if I’m going to get enough play time in on Borderlands to satisfy me. If not, Dragon Age might have to wait, as something else occupies my precious, but very limited, video game time.

So I got some more playtime in on Wet, the new game from Bethesda software (the people who brought us Oblivion). If you had asked me yesterday, after little more than half an hour of playing, I would have nothing but great things to say about this game. Now, I’m feeling a bit more conflicted.

This is an action game with plenty of death and blood. It’s clearly paying homage to 70s exploitation films, by way of Quentin Tarantino. It’s a very stylish game, with great graphics and an even better soundtrack.

Whereas Batman: Arkham Asylum was almost more of a puzzle game with action elements, this is much more an action game with a few puzzle elements. The goal here is body count. Or, if not the goal, certainly the means.

The arena levels, where you have to close off the doors permanently to keep new enemies from spawning, are a blast. Many of the other levels are running through hallways, chasing the guy you’re after, taking out opponents along the way. And then there are a few special sort of levels (riding on the roofs of cars going down the highway, and falling from a plane), plus some challenge levels where you have to run through an obstacle course in the alloted time.

This game is mixture of lots of fun, and maddening frustration. The first levels that started ticking me off were the obstacle course levels. I don’t think these really count against this game. I’m not great at platforming elements of games, and I figure it was just my inability to run, jump, and so on at the right time while being timed. So far, there have only been three of those levels, and I got through them eventually.

But then I found myself falling through the air after the plane I was on exploded. The first half of this level is okay: apparently your enemies are more concerned with shooting you as you all fall to your doom, so you need to shoot them first. After wiping out the bad guys, you are are left to try to get to the panel with the parachute before you splat. This requires dodging debris from the plane as you all plummet to the ground.

This is no fun. At all. I have never before been tempted to throw my controller. Certainly, I’ve never before been tempted to throw it through my expensive HD flat panel television. But I was ready to tonight. If any of the debris hits you, you die, instantly. And you have to start all over. This is amazingly frustrating. And it doesn’t feel like it belongs in the game. It doesn’t follow any of the mechanics established prior in the game. It doesn’t really feel like it fits the style of the game. It’s just a frustrating level that I had to play well over 30 times to get through it. And you have to get through it. I didn’t feel like I accomplished something at the end. I thought only “thank god.” And if I never play the game again, it will be because of that level.

And that’s a shame because there is a lot to like here. This is a fun time-waster for the most part. I don’t know what possessed them to put in these elements that seem to subtract from the fun.

So I’m conflicted about this game. I still think it may be worth playing. But be warned: there are elements you may not like. Maybe someone finds some of this nonsense fun. More power to them. I know not ever game is for me. But I really wanted to like this game. And part of me does. But part of me is disappointed that Bethesda didn’t create a more consistent, solid game. Even if you don’t buy it, this probably deserves a long rental. Until you start a level on an airplane. Then, be prepared to walk away. Or at least spend some time being frustrated. (And if you make it through without the frustration, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.)

Ronni and I played through six chapters (out of eight) in The Beatles: Rock Band game last night. We played 30 tracks out of the 45 that come on the disc (and 5 of them twice). The game play is much like the other Rock Band games, but there is a kind of pure joy at playing Beatles’ songs that it feels like a whole different game.

The animations, both the intro animation, and the dreamscape animations during the songs from the Abbey Road venue, seem to fit perfectly in with the look of the Beatles (think Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour). And when we unlocked our first prize, after collecting enough photographs, we were blown away. It was the recording that was on the Christmas record they sent to members of their fan club in 1963. Very cool.

The game brought back some fun memories from my childhood. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t have many memories from my early years, but I do remember being a Beatles’ fan.

There were four boys on the block where we lived. One was roughly my age. Another one was a couple of years older. And one was significantly older, but he always played with us. We had club houses and set up obstacle courses. We raced matchbox cars down the driveway. And, most relevantly, we had a Beatles club.

We had a pouch with pennies inside. Each penny was from a year that the Beatles were in existence. We would draw out a penny and find out what the Beatles were doing that year, what songs came out, things like that. Playing through this game feels a bit like being back there in our Beatles club. We get to hear songs in order that they were released. We get to play venues where the band played.

And playing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” reminds me of when the older boy we hung out with would imitate a record player being slowed down (by someone holding a hand on the album) and then speeding up to make the record faster and faster. He did it so well, we thought it hysterical. (I was five, what do you expect? Heck, I’d probably think it was funny even today.)

Of course, my being a Beatles fan ended – for a time – in a fire. It was a good, old record burning, to get rid of the evil, satanic records. My mom had become a fundamentalist Christian and became convinced that popular music was evil. She burned all her records and encouraged my sister and I to burn ours, as well. (My sister had been into the Monkees.) We did, and I didn’t listen to the Beatles again for almost a decade.

But this isn’t about bad memories, it’s about the good ones. And this game reminds me of the fun of discovering the Beatles as a kid in the early 70s. Definitely worth it.