So… Guitar Hero 3.

I’ve been playing quite a lot of Guitar Hero 3 over the past few days and… Well… There’s something not quite right about it.

After discussing it with one of my friends I think we have come up with the key things that Neversoft got wrong with their iteration in the franchise, and they are as follows;

-Character designs – seriously speaking here, there is no cohesion between the character designs at all, when I first saw the lead singer I thought ‘Oh right, they have gone for a more exaggerated graphical style this time, that’s fine’ But then I laid eyes upon dirty old man Izzy Sparks and suddenly realised that the character designs just don’t gel at all. ‘Shark Mouth’ lead singer is using this completly over the top graphical style while others are going for colourful realism, next time it might be an idea to assign one person to character design.

-Song selection – When I was playing Guitar Hero 1 and 2, it was mostly a case of ‘I don’t know this song, Oh actually that was good to play’ or ‘that band has done better songs than this, oh wait, that was actually very fun to play’. In contrast, Guitar Hero 3 has been a lot of ‘I know this song! It’s awesome! Oh wait, that actually wasn’t that fun to play’. Of course, this is a sweeping generalisation, the classic Guitar Heroes had some duff tracks and 3 has some very fun tracks but on the whole, GH 1 and 2 were full of tracks Harmonix gave us because they knew they were fun to play, while GH 3 is full of songs people wanted to play while in actual fact, they are awesome songs to listen to but not that fun to play on GH.
- Les Paul – squishy buttons and a neck that moves under the force of expert level play does not replace the X-plorer in my heart.

- Songs that don’t feel right… – This one is up for debate, but some of the sections in the GH 3 tracks just don’t feel ‘right’. I would be very interested to see, for instance, how Harmonix’s version of lead guitar on ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ in Rock Band differs from that of Neversofts.

At the end of the day, GH 3 is a fun rhythm action game, but it’s far from being the best in the series as Eurogamer has said. Roll on Rock Band.

Assassin’s Creed. Go away :’(.

So I was happily playing Assassin’s Creed today, when I come to a section near the end of the game, and what should happen but I fall through the floor. Upon falling through the floor I die, and respawn back at my last checkpoint, when standing in front of me is a second Altair that also responds to my controller input.

Now, dual assassin death on its own is a cool prospect, and so I persevered with two Altairs. However, I soon learned that it was nigh on impossible to navigate the section due to a dodgy camera and a tendancy for the game to switch which Altair I was controlling on every pull of the left trigger.

So, naturally, I booted up my last save point by exiting the game and reloading. Imagine my horror when I fall down the game world for the second time, and the same glitch initiates. This happened roughly six times before I gave up, turned off the xbox and did something else for a few hours.

Upon returning to the xbox several ours later, I did so in the hope that the problem would be foxed. But alas, the problem persisted. And now I can’t finish the game. Great.

I really don’t want to play from the start, and I really hope it isn’t a problem with my disc, but right now I’m not in a good mood with Assassin’s Creed.  And it’s a real shame, because I wanted to find out the story.

The ending of Assassin’s Creed explained.

While I am yet to finish Altairs adventure, one of my good friends has finished it and written an extensive article analising and explaining the games conclusion.

It can be found here:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=175552

For anyone who has finished the game, the article is (I’ve been assured) awesome. However, if you haven’t clocked the game, the article is highly spoilerific.

An apology to Assassin’s Creed.

Dear Assassin’s Creed

I’m really sorry Altair, you see, I kind of got Mario Galaxy on the same day as you and lets just say that he shows you up. I thought I could alternate between the games comfortably but it really doesn’t work. Mario Galaxy is bright, happy, immensly solid and extremly diverse. While your, quite samely. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really liked what I have played of you, it’s just, Mario is such a good game, it makes most games pale in comparison to its sheer creativeness.

I will return to you and give you a fair chance in due time, just don’t feel disheartened if I run off to play Galaxy, it’s just one of the best games ever, and your going to have to live with that.

Yours faithfully

-Dala.

What makes a game your favourite game ever?

Right, my personal favourite game of all time is Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That is hard cold fact. However, I was recently musing on exactly why it is my favourite. Why out of the hundreds of games I’ve had the joy of playing, does Ocarina still stand out in my mind as the definition of what makes a game so amazing? And I pinned it down to these key points:

-Stand out moments- For a game to be genuinely amazing it must have standout moments that literally burn their image into your very soul, it should feature moments that when people ask ‘what part of the game did you like most?’ You have a list of things that the game did to astound you. For me, Ocarina was full of these, I can rattle of an essay of points in that game that made me love it, but when I think of a number of games I played this year, I’m lucky to pluck two or three things that those games did that genuinely wowed me.

-Visual Flair- It doesn’t have to be amazing, but a great game has to have a visual flair. In this I mean it must have great animation, great art design and a game world that feels cohesive. There is nothing worse to me than a game that features graphics that look out of place.

-The sounds of the angels- When a game has good music, it genuinely shows. So many games disregard music as simple ting a gamer expects, and not enough games use music to evoke genuine feelings and give the player the correct anticipation of a location upon entering it. As with visuals, when music doesn’t gel, it’s obvious, but when it really works, it’s magical.

-Fluid Gameplay- A no brainer, if a game is jerky or its mechanics are broken it’s not that good a game. When a game can entertain you for over fifty hours with a simple mechanic, it’s better than a technically deep game that bores you.

So far, these things have been obvious. However, my final point is the reason I settled on as to why Ocarina remains my favourite game to this day.

-Little to no Hype- It was 1998, I had just got my N64, and I was eleven years old. I didn’t browse the Internet or read gaming magazines; my friends had just told me that Ocarina was awesome. I had played Link’s Awakening, so I knew about the franchise, but I was totally unprepared for what Ocarina would be. I had not seen one screenshot, not read one preview or been caught up in any hype, It was the third 3D game I played after Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie… And what a game it was. The un paralleled freedom, the side quests, the epic story, turning into an adult when I thought the game was going to end. Simply stunning. I blame Ocarina for my love of gaming, I blame Ocarina for my high expectations of other games, and I blame the Internet for not allowing me to love a game as much as Ocarina. Just imagine, playing one of the best games of recent years but with no hype, would you have liked it more? I would say you would.

 Mario Galaxy is due in the UK in a mere 2 days, people are heralding it as one of the best games ever, unfortunately, I have read about Galaxy and watched some movies. However, I trust that there will still be a lot to surprise me. Whether or not it has the ability to overtake Zelda as my favourite game ever remains to be seen, I just wish I could play it completely out of the know. In a way, I envy young children who will be brought into gaming with Galaxy, I presume they will champion it as their favourite game ever, primarily for the last reason I posted here.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

(Non finalised version)

To understand a critique of Dawn of Sorrow, it is required that one knows the primary factor that will affect any opinion upon the game. Ever since the success of the Playstation’s Symphony of the Night, 2D Castlevania have all been designed using the same template, and in many respects, copying it. For the uneducated, this design copies the Metroid formula of giving the player a location that is littered with items to help the player advance, mixed with some traditional RPG stat crunching and item equipping.

Playing as the emotionally depressed Soma Cruz, you and pretty much the entire cast of the GBA title, Aria of Sorrow, stumble across a plot to revive Dracula at an abandoned ‘base’ that shares a lot of design choices with Dracula’s abode itself. The plot leaves a lot to be desired, and plays much like a DS remake of the GBA title, but it’s enough to keep you moving.

The game looks great on the DS, with some nice sprites and screen filling bosses. The game also plays brilliantly with a nice amount weapons and gameplay so smooth you could spread it on toast. The very classic style of 2D monster slaying may be a tad retro to some, and the levelling and hit points that crop up may seem jarring compared to games such as Metroid where enemies simply take bullets and die. However, by showing the damage you deal to enemies the player gains a steady appreciation for how Soma is increasing in power.

DS specific elements are kept to a minimum, with the main inclusion being one item that allows you to brush away ice that appears within the castle. This seems completely pointless, primarily because it doesn’t make sense that some corridors have ice pilled from floor to ceiling, and thst the move itself feels eerily disconnected from Soma. The other, more practical, use of the touch screen is in defeating bosses. Upon their death, Soma must quickly draw a ‘seal’ to deliver the coup de gras upon the boss. This is a technique that feels good, however, if you miss it the boss will come at you with renewed vigour, so make sure your stylus is handy whenever a boss challenges you.

In terms of dual screen, its use is extremely practical in a game that requires frequent map reference. The top screen constantly displays a map that makes navigation a much less frustrating affair considering all it takes is a glance up, rather than having to bring up a map every five seconds. The only way this could have been better is if Konami had added the ability to doodle on your map so you could remind yourself where to use future abilities, because you will get lost.

Dawn of Sorrow can be a short adventure, if you don’t intend to see the true finale, but the lure of an extended ending, earning all items (including some special weapons) and a small number of alternate methods for replaying the adventure, it becomes a well endowed package for what initially appears to be a short game.

The final word to say on Dawn of Sorrow is simply this, if you have played Aria of Sorrow on the GBA, you have pretty much experienced DoS. DoS does everything Aria did, with an increased level of polish and shine, and in general, it does everything that SotN did on the Playstation. It is a fantastic game, but one you might have played before.

4/5

A selection of scores for recent games.

Well, in the face of being stumped for good post ideas at last minute notice, I’ve decided that I’m going to put a few numbers here that display how much I like a number of recent games.

360:
Bioshock – 8
Halo 3 – 9.5
Half Life 2 Orange Box – 10
Naruto: Rise of a ninja – 7.5
Virtua Fighter V – 9

 

Tomb Raider: Anniversary – 7.5
Wii
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption – 9
DS
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – 9
Tingle – 6.5
Sonic Rush Adventure – 7.5

More constructive post tomorrow. I’ll probably flesh out one or two of those opinions soonish.

 

Coming at ya like a chipmunk.

Yep, I’ve decided to start blogging again.

Daily? Weekly? Yearly!? I don’t know yet, I’ll see how it goes for a week at least. I would like to say I will update regularly, but if I don’t make any promises, I can’t disappoint anyone can I? At least that’s how I look at it.

So yea, my main aim will be to make this blog a little more personal than I did, I write a small numberof vaguely professional features/previews/reviews for www.dpad-magazine.com and so I’m looking to this blog as a more personal, chatty release for myself.

It will still be focused on games, but I will try and bring more to the blog. How true tat comment is, remains to be seen. I also hope to do more creative things such as audio of video casts, thanks to the wonderful internet these shoul be totally possible.

And yes, the fact that we are in the middle (well, nearing the end of) such a bountiful gaming harvest means that I should have a lot to talk about!

Hopefully speak to you soon, if I remember to update.

-Dala