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!

RPGs are too addictive! Also, DNF is the most appropriate title ever.

Hi SuperViv!

OK, I'll probably follow your advice. No Oblivion! I definitely want to play Fallout 1, but I need to be on the right mindset. I can't just drop into the game, because I'm easily turned off by the gaming conventions and design contraints old games have. We've come a long way and now games are so user-friendly that it's hard to go back to the basics. I've read that Fallout 2 was broken because it was rushed out (always a bad sign for a game), though a fan-created patch fixes that. Then, there's a third game for PC, "Tactics", and one for consoles, "Brotherhood of Stell", but they are not RPGs anymore.

Of course I know Guild Wars! Actually, my first professional translation was an expansion for this game, Guild Wars: Nightfall. The text was so interesting that I bought two copies of the game afterwards, and I started to play it with my brother. That's the best way to enjoy it! I also bought the other games and played through most of the Prophecies campaing.

The thing with GW is that it's actually a MMORPG simulacrum, and it can be described as a regular RPG designed to be played with up to three other players in coop mode or solo. Great you can play solo! Though an early gate in "Prophecies" can only be opened with the help or another player. I don't know if they have changed that now that some servers (the Spanish one, at least) are completely deserted with no other humans in sight (and I did notice that the difficulty of some enemy encounters have been drastically toned down). It's a shame, because it's just a great game.

I think the best thing about Guild Wars is that it's so casual-friendly. You can play a bit, do a few missions, and then pick it up several months later. So I've been playing it for almost three years now. That's the only way for me; I don't like the WoW mechanism of buying your way into the game: once you start paying the monthly fee, then you just have to play. This creates a pressure on the player, a pressure I don't want or need. I don't want to give up my life for a f***ing game.

I'm still waiting for Did Not Finish... I mean, Duke Nukem: Forever. They should just release what they have as a shareware product (back to the good old times!), and call it DNF: The Lost Levels.

I've been playing Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazzard lately, and there's a jab at Duke Nukem ("Nuke Winter: Coming Soonish!) during the last level. Which is stupid, because Matt Hazzard is supposed to be Duke Nukem, and because DNF is probably better in its unreleased form that this boring mess of a game. Maybe one day I'll tell you what's wrong with it. Too bad, because it definitely had potential for greatness!

See you tomorrow!
Danda

The Fallouts and Guild Wars (or: The beginning of an addiction?)

Hi Danda,

Wow, if you really want to play all the previous games to any new series you start, you'll have your hands full, I tell you. I played Fallout 1, it was fun, and then I tried Fallout 2, but it was way too difficult. For me, anyway. And the first Fallout 3, I thought that wasn't even released? As for playing Oblivion first... well, that's a little far-fetched, I'd say. But it's not like I'd want to discourage you from it. It's a fun game, although so far not as gripping as Morrowind. It's easier to get into it, though, because it begins with a clever tutorial in a prison dungeon at the beginning of the game. Just like Fallout 3 had a nice beginning, where the tutorial was cleverly built into the telling of the background story. Bethesda does that well. However, as you pointed out, it's also a time consuming game, and when you're not completely taken by the story or you get side-tracked and do something else, you forget what you did before and then you'd almost have to start again to enjoy it. And then you'd have to go through the tutorial again. And it won't be as much fun the second time around.

At any rate, I did go out yesterday and bought Guild Wars - the first chapter, entitled Prophecies. A friend of mine talked me into it, since he is playing it all the time, and so I bought it knowing that he'd be joining up with me and explaining the basics. I can see how such games make people addicted to them, especially when there is someone else who has an interest in you playing. The graphics are pretty good, considering the game was released in 2005. But it's still being played four years later, and the good thing about this MMORPG is that you don't have to pay for anything else but the game itself. No subscription fees. That is certainly a good selling point.

The game has a story, of course, but you can also just go out and do quests for a long time, just building your character, learning the basics, looking around. The fighting is still a bit confusing to me. You basically just click on the enemy and your character starts beating on it, and then there are special skills you can use, some of which become available when you get adrenaline from fighting. So basically I just clicked on the enemy and then was frantically clicking on my skills, and many times I ended up winning. There's still a lot I have to learn. But it will be nice to have my friend teach me.


Anyway, I imagine if "normal" games are too time-consuming for you with their 100 hours (which I entirely understand, after all you're a casual core gamer!), you're likely to stay away from MMORPGs until you retire. But if you don't, get Guild Wars and we can kill monsters together!

And last but not least, let me tell you that that Bionic dude looks a lot like Duke Nukem (see image). Which reminds me, I think Duke Nukem Forever is coming out this year. Heh.

Talk to you later!
- SuperViv