Never buy a piece of crap!

Hi SuperViv!

I'm sorry that I took so long to answer. My wife was about to leave to Spain and I wanted to spend all the time I could with her. I didn't even touch any videogame these days. But I intend to catch up now!

So we all agree. Never buy an Acer laptop! You can quote me if you want! :D Next time I'll probably buy a Toshiba.

I can't play games like The Sims, I just can't. I don't like those games where you don't have a clear goal, and you just do it to improve your character, or the way you play. That's why I can't stand those fighting games in a fixed setting. You play, you get better at playing, then you play again, you get even better... And there's no end. I prefer if they say, "this is point A, get to point B", not going in circles while "having fun". For me, that's the same as sitting in a rocking chair. I need a story in my game, or at least a progression.

I also get bored with the Minesweeper. It's fun, but just for ten minutes. But I love Picross, which is basically the same thing but with a point, because after every puzzle you get an image with a funny animation. It's my favourite DS game so far. Well, or it was until I knew Rhythm Paradise! (wink, wink!)

I know some people disagree, but Ghostbusters is not a very good game. The design choices in some cases are dead wrong. I was stuck for two weeks in a boss fight because its attack patterns made it unwinnable if you were hit only once when your AI partners were down. That's bad design!

But if you tried the Wii version... Well, it follows the same template as the other versions, but in fact it's a different game. It reminds me of what Ubisoft did with Splinter Cell: Double Agent. With almost the same script and dialogues, they created two different games. I played the Wii version of SCDA and I really enjoyed it, and I was surprised to read reviews saying that "the changes to the Splinter Cell formula were disappointing". They were referring to the "bigger" versions, because the Wii game looks and feels exactly like the previous titles, so I bought the PS3 version to check what they complained about. I still haven't tried it, though.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to send an email to JR. He never replies because he's too busy (he just moved to a new place, and you now how exhausting that is), but I like writing letters to him anyway.

See you soon!

- Danda

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Hi JR!

So you decided to buy the new Painkiller compilation on Steam! I already own the GOG.com version, and everybody says that the sequel is not as good as the original. Often, when the original developers move on, the sequels just stop being any good. But you know, I'm such a completist that I'll have to buy it too :D

There's also a new Painkiller-like game in town: Dreamkiller. It's intended as a "spiritual successor" (the title makes it very obvious), but there's a catch: it was developed by the same people who... developed the sequel that nobody liked. Bummer! Of course, the reviews are not very favorable. Well, I wasn't going to buy it anyway...

What I'm definitely going to buy is this week's big new release, Uncharted 2. I really love the first title, quite possibly the finest PS3 release so far. The gameplay was great (some Prince of Persia/Tomb Raider platforming, a lot of shooting from cover), the acting was very good (note: I played with Spanish audio), and the music was amazing! It even has a title track that would be great in a movie. I don't usually buy full-prize, new releases, but this one definitely deserves it.

There are other new releases this week. We have Brütal Legend, which looks promising, but we'll see. Oh, and next week we have Borderlands. This doesn't look as good. I don't mean its look, because I like cell shading (I was one of the only ten people who liked Ubisoft's shooter XIII). No, I'm more worried about it's mechanichs. If I'm playing any FPS, I like being able to kill someone with a single headshot. Here, everybody has "health bars" floating above their heads, and I've seen some videos where you laboriously chip away the enemies' health emptying magazine after magazine on them. How stupid! But I'm being unfair, because I'm judging it as an FPS, when it's actually a "dungeon crawler" RPG in disguise. When you kill enemies, they will drop weapons with random statistics. That's something I don't like in Guild Wars and similar games: you have to check all the weapons left after you kill someone to see if it's slightly better than yours. After a while playing GW, I stopped checking or caring.

I don't know... I've never loved any game made by Gearbox Software. Half Life: Opposing Force was really disappointing, Brothers in Arms is an acquired taste, and in some ways it really annoyed me... But maybe Aliens: Colonial Marines will change everything. I certainly don't expect Borderlands to do that. Will I be wrong?

Now I'm looking forward to playing Uncharted 2. The buzz is really good about this one!