Currently Playing ~ 11-27-15

            I’ve been playing a lot of The Witcher 3. I’m exploring around in addition to following the main quest, and find it to be a very great game. I have complaints: no quick load (and sitting through the story setup each time you do a manual load) and the combat control feeling more built for a gamepad and awkward with a keyboard and mouse. But my overall view is that The Witcher 3 is great. I find it visually stunning even with the graphics settings at medium. (This game also reminds me that I need to get another stick of RAM.)

            With the Witcher 3 going, Fallout 4 got pushed to the side. I’ll pick it back up once I’ve satisfied myself with Witcher 3. I also have been playing Shovel Knight—fantastic game—and started up Metroid Fusion, though I may not get back to it in full until I’ve beaten Shovel Knight. I’m passing on Star Wars: Battlefront, am putting MGSV in my on-hold backlog pile (along with MGSIV, by the way), and am passing on getting either an Xbox One or PS4. I have plenty of new releases, gigantic Steam and GOG backlogs, dozens of Thief fan missions, and a Wii U and 3DS. I couldn’t handle anymore games!

            My next entries in both the top ten lists will be coming within the next week. Otherwise, signing out. ~

My Top Ten Favorite PC Games - Number 10

~Intro~

            Unlike my top ten favorite Nintendo games list, this list of my top ten favorite PC games is in order. This doesn’t mean it was easier to choose ten PC games, as it was actually more difficult, but it was easier to order the ten I chose.

           

~10.) Quake II~

            When I first started Quake II, I was playing the demo of it on an old laptop. I fell in love with it as soon as I had started walking forward and fired my laser pistol at the first baddy. I can go for first-person shooters that feel powerful, and everything in Quake II exudes a sense of power.

            There’s the explosive arsenal of weaponry, with gun models much bigger than in any of id’s games prior to Quake II. There’s the dirty, dusty, sunbaked ‘foundry-and-factory’ sci-fi atmosphere. There’s the metal music, optional, but if turned on drives the gameplay with its surge. There’s the sense of being a hardened marine, taking it to a twisted cyborg enemy in a desperate, heavy-duty war.

            Quake II is a first-person shooter dripping with power. It’s an addictive game with great weapons, shooting, and replay value. The soundtrack is great, though overpowering, and if you turn it off, you can discover some well-done atmospheric sounds. I love all the noises the baddies make as they idle.

            Unlike Quake, a game divided into four episodes, and unlike Quake III, a game centered on deathmatch, Quake II is a standard single-player campaign and multiplayer mode. The single-player’s not too short or long, and the missions offer enough variety. They evolve well too, as more powerful and varied baddies start coming in with the mid-range and late-game missions. At the same time, the arsenal of weapons gradually builds up. I’ve played Quake II through plenty of times, and it remains one of my ‘go to’ pop-in-and-play games.

            This is why I list Quake II here at number ten. I replay it all the time, and consider it one of the top pre-Half-Life FPS games.

            Of course, in addition to the single-player, there’s the multiplayer, and the large number of mods for the game. I haven’t done these as much, but suffice it to say they are there, and another part of Quake II’s greatness.

~Random posts on games: 11-18-15~

I’ve been playing a lot of Metroid lately. I struggle to decide which is my favorite: Super Metroid or Metroid Prime? When I was playing Metriod Prime this morning, I thought: I’m annoyed by all this first-person platforming. And these boss fights are unwelcome. I want some of that solid 2D platforming in Super Metroid, and less of these annoying boss fights. Then this evening I played Super Metroid. I got annoyed by some of the 2D platforming, and am now stuck at an annoying boss. I also missed the visor-action of Metroid Prime and longed for that game’s first-person immersion.

The grass is always greener, I guess. I love both these games, but in trying to decide which is my favorite, I have to pick out the negative qualities and weigh them against the other’s positive qualities. My indecision here is one reason I am not putting an order to my top ten Nintendo games list yet. Right now I’m leaning more towards Metroid Prime, but that could change. Both are some of the greatest games ever made, that’s for sure.

As for recent games, I’ve got both Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3. I love Fallout 4, but graphical problems because of my PC configuration (something in there not ticking with Fallout 4), and hard-coded key binds that don’t jive with my left-handed mouse-ness both mar the experience. And it makes me just want to play Skyrim. Glad Fallout 4 is out of the way—get to The Elder Scrolls VI!

The Witcher 3 is great, but I can’t get into the combat. I either want hack-in-slash like Skyrim or pause-strategy like Dragon Age Origins. All this dive, block, jump, potion, bombs, secondary item…and all that with a keyboard and mouse setup…blah. I have it on ‘Just the Story!’ difficulty for a reason.

Tempted to buy an Xbox One for Halo 5 and Rise of the Tomb Raider. I’d also use it to play Metal Gear Solid V, which I do not want to play on the PC. But I’m holding off…think I’ll wait until Christmas. I’m mired in a gigantic backlog now anyway. But I may get Metroid Fusion off the Wii U’s eShop soon. 

My Ten Favorite Nintendo Games - Entry 1

~Intro~

            It took me a long time to finish a selection of ten favorite Nintendo games. It was taking me even longer to list them in a top ten order. So, I decide to scrap ordering the ten I had chosen, and now will post simply my “Ten Favorite Nintendo Games”, in no order. I plan on doing one each week, along with one of my top ten favorite PC games (though I was able to order those).

            I’ll start my favorite Nintendo games with one that, were I to order the list, would certainly be in the top five if not the top three: Metroid Prime.

~Metroid Prime~

            Metroid Prime is one of a kind among Nintendo games. There is no other Nintendo game that offers solitary exploration and non-linear structure in a first-person perspective. Being a connoisseur of first-person games with adventure or role-playing elements  (System Shock, Thief) I have a special taste for the kind of game Prime is.

            Prime translates the Metroid game experience brilliantly. It perhaps is the most satisfying 2D to 3D translation of Nintendo’s, right alongside, if not ahead of, Super Mario 64. Much of the game’s structure and gameplay is Super Metroid through and through. The Prime-specific elements, such as scanning enemies and reading log entries, gives the game a flavor of its own, saving it from merely being just “a Super Metroid in 3D” (though that wouldn’t have been bad).

            Like most Nintendo games, the Metroid series takes gameplay traditions and dilutes them into simple and accessible mechanics. The first three Zelda games did this brilliantly, diluting the very complex dungeon-crawler experience of CRPGs into a more understandable design.

Metroid does this too. Samus is basically a role-playing game hero, leveling up and being able to do more and better because of this. But, instead of being built out of the D&D ruleset, Metroid is built on a simple design of finding new items that upgrade Samus, allowing her to explore more areas and defeat more enemies. Metroid Prime is a ‘Nintendo-take’ on games like System Shock 2. Samus’ beams are like keycards, and her items like RPG character upgrades, though they don’t cost cybernetic modules (and save stations don’t cost nanites). A Shock 2 comparison is a stretch, and I use it to illustrate that Nintendo’s games, like Metroid, are accessible hybrids of many gameplay designs.

Prime isn’t easy, but it is accessible. Despite this, there’s a lot going on in the background. There’s the beam, visor, and suit upgrades; the health and missile expansions; additional power-ups (morph-ball bombs, grapple beam); scans of creatures and objects; and log entries. I love the backstory that the log entries create. This is another element of Prime that can be compared to something from Shock 2, in this case Shock’s PDA audio logs.

Prime’s accessible yet complex gameplay is coupled with a well-crafted atmosphere. The music and visuals both make the game very aesthetically pleasing. The music’s role is made more important by how it builds up with additional layers as you progress, notably in the Tallon Overworld and Chozo Ruins sections. Visual effects with Samus’ visor, such as water droplets smearing down it, or her eyes reflecting in it when being hit by certain attacks, enrich the game’s flare.

Prime also allows players the satisfaction of feeling more and more powerful as they progress. As you first explore Tallon IV, you feel inadequate. You can’t blow up Benzium materials. You can’t grapple. Enemies take a lot of shots to defeat. But, before you know it, you’re blowing up every rock, swinging around like Donkey Kong, and melting enemies with the Plasma rifle. I love games that give you this feel of progression.

There are a couple things I dislike about Prime. One, first-person platforming is awkward, and in Prime there’s a lot of it. In most cases it isn’t done poorly, but there are a few instances where it is annoying to jump delicately from one platform to the next. Two, there are some ridiculous boss battles. These in themselves are not bad, but when they come out of the blue they halt the flow of gameplay and inspire frustration and woe. I think of Thardus and Omega Pirate. This is a nitpick more particular to me—I’m not fond of boss battles (except in JRPGs). Given how much I love exploring around in Prime, getting stuck at one big baddy grates on me.

However, any negatives I can think of with Prime are vastly outshined by the game’s positive qualities. The successful translation of the Metroid formula into 3D, the non-linear exploration and player upgrading, and the excellent sound and visuals make for one of the best Nintendo games ever made. I’d also call it the Gamecube’s best and one of the best ever.