Hot Fuzz

Well, that was a fantastic film. It wastes no time in getting on its way, with comedy from the first scene to the last. The film’s brilliant sense of stupidity is portrayed well while Simon Pegg manages to keep his character as a stern work headed individual, no small task considering the other actors. My personal highlight was the inclusion of Bill Bailey, I didn’t see that coming! Then alongside the great pace and comedy, the film features some nicely over the top gore, some hilariously unbelievable moments of, and it’s all very British. It’s hard to talk in depth about the film without spoiling some of the better setpieces but needless to say, see the film.

The state of games in the UK

Yes, it’s another link and I think it says everything sufficiently.

Sad indeed.

Nintendo on Wii in 2007

Comments made after looking at this list.

Now, to me that is a strong list of titles. I would be happy with Smash Brother, Metroid and Mario alone but to see Animal Crossing appear on the list alongside Battalion Wars 2 and Wii music makes me very happy indead.

But it’s not all good news, one title I am worried about is DK Bongo Blast, hopefully it will use the bongos but the worry that wii’d up controls give me isn’t good. However, I didn’t think that Jungle Beat would be much, and I was pleasantly proved wrong so hopes are optimistiv for Bongo Blast being a refreshing racer.

As for Kirby, Project H.A.M.M.E.R, Disaster and Forever Blue they are all titles I see have some promise, but I need to see some evidence of their Wii brilliance before I can get myself excited.

But anyway, the sooner I hear about Animal Crossing Wii and it’s potentially expanded Wi Fi features the better…

Zeldathon hiatus.

yes the Zeldathon is on a hiatus due to the explosive glory of Crackdown (amoung other things). I’ll see if tomorrows post can’t be something worthwhile.

Crackdown again!

Yea, so I’ve been playing even more Crackdown so what, it’s awesome!

I’ll tell you one of my favourite things about it, the mission structure. The way the game doesn’t give you missions per sae, but instead allows you to coe in conteact and then seemingly says ‘do them when you want’. And then, if that wasn’t enough, the variety that you can use in tackling a mission is nice enough that a player can do it how they want. Take me for example, I carry around a sniper and a rocket (for sticky situations). I normally move around the rooftops or high spots near the generals hideout, snniping guards and then I go in with melee’s going everywhere to reach, and kill, the general. Now take my friend, he carries a shotgun and machine gun most the time and goes head first at enemies, using ground cover while mowing them down. You could even use a vehicle if you so wanted to mow people down, or a pistol and go for headshots. Then there are alternate points of entry to bases due to your jumpng abilities as well as secret caves etc.

So yea Crackdown is pretty awesome. Apart from the voice, that guy sucks.

Crackdown

This game, is fun.

I love so much about it, the freedom of movement you have while on foot, the ability to climb up, look down and genuinly feel impressed with yourself, the brilliant precision with which you can make jumps, the very open ended mission structure, the game looks great, it runs smooth, the agency cars are fun to drive (other cars not so much, until I get my driving skill up I assume), the fun of throwing corpses at pedestrians.

This game is awesome.

Should game protagonist’s speak?

How important is it that the main character speaks in a game? Look at Gears of War, Dead Rising, Resident Evil 4 and the main characters speak. Through speech we can see that characters thoughts about things, their emotions to a situation and exactly what they think. Now, take a look at Zelda, Okami, Oblivion and see that your character isn’t speaking (Oblivions choices don’t count as speech). Through this lack of speech, do you feel more in control of the character? Do you feel like your emotions are played through the character more successfully because the character doesn’t have a voice, and thus doesn’t have a say?

So, what am I babbling on about? Well, it’s quite simple, through a lack of character voice; do you as the player feel more in tune and thus in control of the main protagonist? This line of thinking has come to me after playing Okami and Twilight Princess. While Twilight Princess is a good example, Okami is far more prominent due to the amount of speech. While playing Okami you are accompanied by Issun, the wandering artist, who perches on Amaterasu’s head and when you meet key characters, Issun takes the primary role of negotiator, while Amaterasu (your character) stays mute. I felt that through this, I was able to form my own opinions of characters and events while Issun portrayed the designers intended reactions to the scene and through this I felt more in control of Amaterasu as its thoughts were more or less my own.

Am I saying that this should be how all games play? Surely not, Gears of War and Dead Rising set out to create film style experiences and as such, character development is a key component of their structure. But in RPG games at least, I feel that the main character should be silent to help the player sink easier into the role, just compare Final Fantasy X to Final Fantasy VII and you will understand what I mean.

Zeldathon day 32 – Majora’s Mask completed.

And that’s it, the mask went down like a flaming mask… Made of wood.

The boss? A bit random, I didn’t like him much in comparison to the epic OoT boss or the intelligent item use of Link’s awakening, which is a shame because Majora’s Mask opens briliantly, but the final boss is a bit… Meh. As for the ending, it’s nice. A good sense of closure and the mask is still alive and could be ressurected for a future game, I also liked how the credits change dependant on if you have certain masks.

So, overall I really liked Majora’s Mask, I feel a lot of the game’s aspects are incredibly tightly designed and that the sidequests are second to none (in terms of Zelda games). This Zelda is really the best for characterisation and setting, the dungeons are also quite complicated but, well, there are not enough. Add to this the fact the game takes a minor dip near the end, and it’s not quite up to the dizzying high of OoT but it is still a fantastic game. Seeing the mask mechanic developed into a full, thirty hour epic Zelda would be great, as would be seeing the return of the bombers notebook and large plethora of sidequests.

so, the list…

1. Ocarina of Time

2. Majora’s Mask

3. Link’s Awakening

4. A Link to the Past

5. The Legend of Zelda

6. Adventure of Link

Next up is… The Oracle games. I think I will attempt ages first, followed by seasons. I’m over half way there now, but actual university work (as well as several tasty looking game releases) are creeping up fast, however I will continue to persevere slowly. May the way of the Hero lead to the Triforce.

Zeldathon day 31 – Majora’s Mask… Only the moon left.

Bah, the stone tower took longer than expected due to me not looking up. Curse that third dimension! Anyway, great dungeon but boring boss, it really is a shame after how ace the dungeon is. Could have been even more complicated if it allowed you to twist and turn it when inside (with permanent effects), but the room that required turnidge and blok pushing was a nice little room.

So, tomorrow I head to the moon and to finish MM!

Zeldathon day 30 – Majora’s Mask, half a dungeon.

wow, thirty days eh? To be honest, I haven’t played as much as I would have liked the past few days but it’s still a lot of Zelda.

So what did I manage today? I beat the king of Ikana, got the statue song and did half of the stone tower. This dungeon is nice, long climb to the entrance and then the mouth still looks forboding, there should be more dungeon entrances like it. The genius of this dungeon is that it gets flipped about half way, the fact the ceiling is littered with chests and switches makes you wonder, and the fact it seems small but is actually double the size due to the flip is brilliant. I will hopefully finish Majora’s Mask tomorrow!