Monday, January 31, 2011

Vanquish

Today I'd like to talk about a simple, yet mildly addictive game that proves a previous point, "Vanquish".  For those who don't know, Vanquish is a fast moving, third person shooter where you are wearing an advanced suit of armor with a rocket on it and wielding a multi-tool like gun.  An inaccurate description, I know, but simple enough. The point is that the whole game happens very fast and moves quickly.  Imagine playing Halo while your game system is hopped up on speed.

Anyway, while a lot of people complained about it's short game time of 6 hours (which I don't find too problematic, since I only payed $30 for it) and also railed on it's supposed simplicity, I think that those make it a decent game.  It's what I call a cleanser.  It's a game I can pop in, play for half an hour to an hour, and it makes me feel more relaxed.  Like Army of Two.

The point is a simple one and it is this: I used to relax and play through several hours of RP games and now I find myself more enthralled and having much more fun playing Vanquish which, if anything, is the exact opposite of a standard RPG.  It's fast, violent, crazy, and fairly story-shallow despite it's political-ish story driving the whole thing.

Bulletstorm is another good example of this. It moves fast, however you do need to think.  Except it's only about how to kill people violently and hilariously.  Methinks I'll have to try and snag Mass Effect 2 and see if it holds my favor or not.  Honestly, though given it's combat, it's still a shooter, really.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

What Happened to Me?

I remember sitting down to Chrono Cross for a 15 hour session and thoroughly enjoying every second of it.  I remember the feeling when you discovered Tidus was just a dream.  I remember the joys of knowing that I'd cleared the FoW and mapped 100% of an area on Star Ocean.  Suddenly, I find myself unable to play a RPG for any great length of time.  Even a couple of hours begins to grate on me.

Shooting games however?  I can dive neck deep in Vanquish.  I can spend hours conquering the Covenant.  I can spend whole days running and rerunning Army of Two and Borderlands.  So, what happened?  Am I a product of the times?  As stimulus has increased and moved faster and faster, I need my entertainment to do the same to compensate?  Or, has my brain somehow malfunctioned and I now require a lesser amount of game to make me satisfied?

Maybe Mass Effect 2 will help.  It's a huge RPG... but you also spend a great deal of time shooting your way through things.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Slo-mo is bullshit.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand brings new meaning to the overuse of CGI (especially on blood) and the overuse of slo-mo (like every time a weapon moves). Why the fuck is Slo-mo so goddamn trendy now in action things? In the Matrix, it was an interesting mechanic for illustrating the bullet-dodge (at first), but since then...

 I mean I saw this one copish action flick and every time someone fired a bullet time nearly freakin stopped.  It's just retarded.  Yes, they're fighting.  Yes it's impressive.  But I don't need to see one split-second punch stretched out over the course of a minute or two.  Maybe if it's the extra-dramatic ending punch where the hero becomes the victor.  Then, sure.

I'm also left wondering how long some of these movies would be without the slo-mo and if maybe it's just a lazy-ass way to extend the play-length.

Monday, January 17, 2011

New Job, New Hassles

So, got a new job. Inbound IT tech support.  Seems like the only major problem I have is that I'm supposed to be empathetic.  How can you be empathetic about someone's TV not working?  Sure, if they're old and don't happen to do anything BUT watch TV, but c'mon!  Some dude is watching TV and wants to freak out because it's not working this second?  It's a little over the top, I think...  Either way, I find it hard to empathize with them and it's hurting my scores because of it.  Conservatively, I think I might just blame it on elves or something.