Mass Effect (PC)

After about 3 hours of Mass Effect on the PC, here's my first impressions:

Pretty good; not as good as KOTOR. I like the dialog choices, although the radial menu system seems much more fitted for consoles. I would have liked the ability to click on my choices with a cursor instead of having to move the mouse in the direction I think it should go. Also, it could just be my framerate, but the aiming feels laggy and inaccurate. I know it's a console port but Bioware is generally good at those, I expected more from them.

The graphics surprised me, and not in a great way. By default, there's this film grain effect that is really annoying. I turned it off after a few minutes. Not sure why they included that but it just makes everything look fuzzy. In addition, it has some really overdone motion blur that gets obscures your vision and doesn't add much to the immersion. I turned that off too. Finally, there's a persistant pixelation effect with shadows and many textures. This effect seems to be much less so on objects directly in front of you, which leads me to believe it might be an intentional "out of focus" effect, but it looks just awful and jaggy compared to the great effect in Assassin's Creed (I'll write about that game later). And this always makes shadows on character faces look glitchy and weird. This could also just be an issue with my own graphics card, since I've heard some cards can make graphics look pixelated, but even so, it's a dumb glitch that Bioware should really have fixed.

The gameplay is pretty good, surprisingly. I was disappointed to hear the game wasn't an RPG like KOTOR, but the third-person-shooter style gameplay actually works pretty well. The cover system is decent, although breaking out of cover feels sluggish, and the squad commands and powers are ok. It feels more gritty and realistic than the KOTOR fights where two guys stand in front of eachother, taking turns firing their blasters.

One bit of the gameplay that I'm not sure on yet is the Mako driving. The Mako is a sort of land buggy used for exploring new planets. You basically drive around alien landscapes, sometimes shooting stuff. The game's tutorial says you can just press E to get out of the Mako and fight on foot, which I would vastly prefer to do, but it's never worked for me so far. And the Mako itself, which uses decent vehicle physics, is also extremely glitchy. In my last game, the Mako got stuck in a platform and I was FORCED to reload my last checkpoint. The "return to ship" button did not work. And I still couldn't actually get out of the Mako for some unknown reason. So now I'm scared to go back to the Mako without saving right before each landing.

The storyline seems to be EXACTLY like KOTOR, just without any licensed Star Wars aspects. There's a renegade "spectre" (they're like Jedi/Sith combined), and he's commanding an army of what are basically borg ripoffs. He's searching for something called a "Conduit" which will bring back the "reapers" which were thought to be extinct for thousands of years. The reapers will help him wipe out the humans and probably take over the universe, or something. Apparently, his only actual motivation is that he hates humans and wants to kill them. Does this ring any bells? Malak, leading an army of Sith, searches after an ancient technology that will allow him to take over the galaxy with a newly mass produced army. Come on, Bioware, come up with something new for once!

Overall, Mass Effect doesn't feel like as polished an experience as KOTOR was. The combat amounts to third-person-shooter combat, which means that your success is less dependent on what items you have equipped or your characters stats, and more to how good you are at cover and aiming. KOTOR had a ton of depth in areas an RPG ought to, namely items and character stats. Mass Effect certainly has fun gameplay, but it feels more shallow in execution. The lack of any Melee combat (besides simple knockdowns when enemies get close) is probably the culprit, but who knows. Anyway, I'll keep playing with some cautious optimism that it will get better. So far, it's a good game, but nowhere near deserving of the high praise I've seen it receive from the mainstream gaming press.

Giant Robots!

This, of course, is based on the popular (and awesome) Dinosaur Comics. Check it out, seriously!

Here's some pictures of some awesome giant robots from Mech Warrior and Supreme Commander:

Mad Cat from the MechWarrior series of games


And here are the ACUs from Supreme Commander

I think I've said all I can here.

What am I playing?

Here's what I've been playing over the past week or so:

DOS Games!
Downloaded DOSBox and went back to a few old favorites - and games I'd never tried. Among these:

Descent: What a great game, and a start to an awesome series. Maybe this will refresh your memory a little?

It's essentially Doom, but with zero gravity and you fly a spaceship. It's a really unique game and still holds up well today. Try out Descent 3, the most recent one, for a real treat.

Escape Velocity: Arcade flight combat game, pretty cool for its open-world style gameplay. You can fly just about anywhere and shoot up everything you see, and explore for hidden tunnels, but there's always an objective arrow to your next target. The game is fun if a bit simplistic.

MechWarrior 2: Wow. I didn't know what I was missing but this game is insanely fun! It's basically a detailed simulator for large battlemechs. Much slower and more realistic than other titles like Armored Core(if a nonexistent vehicle can be portrayed realistically), it's much more immersing as a result. I'm already looking for the more modern MechWarrior 3.

Monkey Island: I'm terrible at point-and-click adventure games and this one is no exception. It's really funny and clever, but I'm just unable to advance without walkthroughs and this really hurts my enjoyment of it.

Planetfall: What? An Infocom text adventure? Astounding! A fairly good one, too. I'm trying to play this one correctly by making a map and keeping track of things better, so I might have a chance of progressing a little.

Other Games
Aside from the oldies, I downloaded the recent free release of Trackmania: Nations. This is a racing game built entirely around time trials, with insane courses that include trick jumps, obstacles, and difficult layouts built on top of a good physics engine. I'm currently something like 15th in Connecticut. Some of the gold medals are just really hard to get, though, hindering my progression to the top of the ladder. This game can be downloaded for free here.

Another game I downloaded just today was FaceWound. It's a side-scrolling zombie shooter with impressive effects and ragdolls incorporated with 2D graphics. It's a lot of fun for anyone who has a hankering for shooting a zombie's head off and seeing a shower of blood. It can be downloaded for free here.

Finally, I'll finish this entry off with Rome: Total War. I haven't played it too much yet but I do love me some realistic strategy. Good luck sieging Sparta, because some bearded guy keeps kicking me into this pit after yelling about something. It's just getting annoying now.

Metroid Mania!

I'm not entirely sure why but I've had a hankering for Metroid over the last week or two. I'm currently stuck on Ridley in Super Metroid and Mother Brain on Metroid: Zero Mission, and I have games going in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I've been attempting the original NES Metroid but I'm not a big fan of that one.

What's so Cool About Metroid?
The name of the game in Metroid is "explore." This is both the series' greatest strength and its greatest weakness. It's awesome because, well, you get to explore alien environments, and you never know what's in store for you up ahead - or behind, but I'll get to that in a moment. It's bad because often you simply don't know where to go next. Most of the time this isn't a problem, but when it is I find it very frustrating.

At the start of each game, you basically land on a planet, and from then on you're free to go anywhere you wish. As you explore, though, you'll find many doors or geographical features that are impossible to conquer with your current abilities. This is what makes these games just so addicting. As you progress through the game, you get different suit abilities, beams and missiles. Once you get a new ability, you'll almost always want to go back and explore previous areas to see if you can get anyplace new. The feeling of getting all these new abilities is fantastic, because each one changes the gameplay and adds to your arsenal. Unlike a game like Zelda, where you use a new item to defeat the current and maybe part of the next dungeon before it becomes mostly useless, in Metroid you'll always be using all of your abilities as you explore for lots of puzzles, platforming, or combat. The game design is based around the use of your abilities, so each time you get a new one, the game world effectively expands around you.

This type of gameplay is a ton of fun at the beginning, and end, of the game. At the beginning, you have virtually nothing but jumping and a regular beam. Your initial range of movement is quite limited because there aren't a lot of places you can access. At the end of the game, you can go almost anywhere and you have so many abilities and weapons that you're essentially a walking, flying (screw attack), rolling death machine, and this is when you really feel like the powerful bounty hunter Samus Aran. And being immersed in a game is a big part of what makes a game stand above others - I'm also looking at you, Half-Life series.

As I said, I only really don't like it when I get lost in a Metroid game. With Zero Mission, and each Prime game, this is rarely a problem because the games give periodic hints about where you should head next on the map screen, although they never say how to actually get there, and you're always free to explore. In the NES original, and Super Metroid, however, there are lots of times where I just don't know where I should be going, and there isn't much fun to be had backtracking aimlessly around the world looking for any tiny detail you missed.

I want to end this on a positive note, however, and say that Metroid is one of Nintendo's best series. I like it better than the Zelda series by far. Metroid Prime is just an incredible experience so far, despite the sometimes annoying controls. And Metroid Prime 3 fixes the control problem completely with Wiimote aiming. I consider these two games to probably be the best in the series (Prime 3 over Prime, though).

Also, Samus is the hottest videogame character ever:

Metal Gear Solid

That's right, I've never played a Metal Gear Solid game before today. I am generally not a fan of stealth games, as I mentioned in my Deus Ex article, but I figured that what with all the hype surrounding the entire Metal Gear series, I needed to give it a chance. After a few hours at the first game, I'd have to say that it's pretty good. The gameplay itself isn't amazing, but what really makes the game feel above average is the style, plot, and characters that all come together to make a really fun atmosphere.

The game feels like a military-themed anime in the style of Ghost in the Shell or Appleseed. There's lots of futuristic technology like invisibility cloaks and giant robots, but also that little bit of realism associated with sneaking around and dying if you've been spotted in an inconvenient location. This last point I can't stress enough because this game will kill you. As with most stealth games, it's a lot of trial and error. You try sneaking on this route, they see you, you die, you try a different route, and just keep repeating until you get past the guards. This gets easier when you get a cardboard box to hide under (yes, apparently no guard will think twice about a cardboard box lying in random sections of a military base). Still, the game really feels like you have to go through the game the way the developer wants you to. It's very linear and story-driven. This is both a good and bad thing. It's bad because it means there's little room to experiment with tactics. You just sneak through the game, and you either get caught or don't. If you get caught, you try to run and either die or don't. If you don't, then you have to hide until the alert timer goes back to zero, at which point you just attempt to sneak through that section again. It's usually not practical to use stealth kills or anything unless you absolutely have to. It's possible to create distractions to lure guards around, but I find that usually unnecessary.

Now, the linearity is good because of the story. The plot really does add a lot to this game. I find if I treat it as an interactive movie instead of a game as such, it's a lot more enjoyable to experience. The cutscenes are good, the dialog is good, and voice acting is good. The gameplay feels like just a vehicle to let you travel between cutscenes, but honestly, I don't mind. OK gameplay coupled with an awesome story and sense of style (gotta love Snake sneaking around in a cardboard box, or the occasional sexual jokes and other things thrown into the game for humor) makes this a fun game.

So why am I playing this all of a sudden? The Metal Gear Solid Essentials collection is upon us, which puts all 3 MGS games into one collection for a measly $30. I call that an amazing deal and I was curious about whether I should bother with it, before playing the first game. Well the answer is definitely "Yes." If I ever end up getting a PS3, I'll definitely get MGS4 as well. If you're a fan of stealth gameplay, I can see why this series might just be one of your favorites. If you aren't, like me, you'll still probably enjoy it for everything it offers outside of the sneaking. And even the sneaking isn't bad.

BRAWL (part 2)

Last post I talked about the gameplay changes between Melee and Brawl. I want to mention some character changes between Melee and Brawl and my take on the newcomers. I'm not going to mention everybody, so If I forget anyone, it probably means I don't really care about them that much. Whine about it to me online if you care so much.

Characters that were changed from Melee:

Mario - his down-air was changed into what was his down-B in Melee. I like that change since I hardly used his down-air in Melee, and it's a nice approach to short-hop into a down-air in Brawl. His down-B was changed to his FLUDD from Mario Sunshine. It's essentially a water cannon. It has to be charged, and pressing down-B again once it is charged will shoot water, at whichever angle you put the control stick, pushing the opponent away. It can be used for edge guarding, and potentially to keep the opponent from hitting you with an aerial attack while you prepare a counterattack for when they land next to you. I'm not personally a big fan of this move, but it could grow on me if I work out more ways to use it. His forward-air has become a very powerful spike for edge guarding.

Bowser - he's gotten a little faster, but his only big change is his over-B. Instead of the claw attack, it is now a grab move where he will flip upward and then slam the opponent down for some good damage and knockback. What makes the move great though is it lets you "bowsercide" by taking the opponent over the edge of the stage with it. You're guaranteed to die as well but if you're up a stock or more it's great. Just like Kirby's back throw from Melee.

Mr. Game & Watch - wow, they made him even better than before! Of course I'm only mentioning him because he was my main in Melee and will definitely be one of my mains in Brawl. So, what changed? For starters, his up-B. It is still an amazing vertical recovery move which can also hit opponents, but on top of that he opens a parachute at the top of the jump which lets him float slowly, allowing for lots of horizontal recovery as well. And as if that weren't enough, he can do any aerial attack after his up-B. He can conceivable juggle somebody with an up-B into a forward-air. Another important change is his up-air, which will now push people upwards with wind if he is underneath them but does not hit them when using it. I haven't found that many uses for this besides escaping from opponents doing a down-air at G&W. The final change for the G&W is his down-air, which will now propel him downward at a pretty fast rate, but takes a pause after starting the move before he starts attacking. Because of the startup lag, it can't really be short-hopped as an approach, but it's good for countering jugglers, or even after an up-B. Also, I heard today that it's possible to cancel the downward momentum by pressing down after the move starts, which lets it be used as a spike. I'll be trying this tonight for sure.

Newcomers:

R.O.B. - I love ROB and I really want to figure him out, but he's difficult to play as. He has good short-hoppped aerial approaches with his forward air, he has some powerful smashes and aerials, and his spike is my favorite in the entire game. His recovery is one of the best in the game. He has two projectile attacks, his laser and his gyro (one energy and one physical, which is good against characters that absorb energy projectiles) that both do good damage and knockback. His weaknesses, however, are serious. When he gets forward momentum going, it's difficult to stop. He's a heavy character, which means he won't get KO'd easily, but also that his control in the air is lacking, and it's difficult to juggle people. His aerials are all laggy except his forward-air, so they require considerable timing to work right, and they make juggling very difficult.

Metaknight - This guy is really fun to play as. He's fast and juggles like no one else. He can build damage on an opponent very quickly while avoiding it himself. He only has two weaknesses: he lacks KO power, and he's light so he can be KO'd easily. Now, his recovery is amazing because oh his ability for multiple jumps and glide after them. And with his up-B, he has a second glide as well as vertical recovery. If, however, he gets smashed at any decent percentage he's probably going to die. As for his KO power, this can be fixed in 1vs1 by excessive edge guarding, but in a FFA Metaknight has serious problems.

Sonic - I don't like him. Yeah he's ridiculously fast, but his juggling and combo ability is a little lacking, and his KO ability just doesn't exist. His recovery isn't even that amazing compared to other fast characters like Meta. His best move is probably his neutral-B, but that has virtually no knockback.

Solid Snake - Very tough to play as, and I'm not very good with him. I've heard he can be very good, but his moves are generally so laggy I find it hard to hit anyone. His regular smashes and B moves are just about all projectile attacks like grenades and remote detonators, and they're all pretty laggy. I end up using his tilts and neutral A attacks on the ground and his neutral, down, and back aerials, but even those can be hard to hit with. One thing he excels at is power, and his ledge guarding is good thanks to his B-over missiles. His recovery, however, just plain sucks. When you use his up-B, his momentum keeps him going horizontally, but you lift upward with a helicopter. It's very easy to get caught underneath a stage from this, and there's even a bug where you can grab the helicopter as it rises, which will virtually always kill snake.

Pit - As far as I'm concerned, Pit is just cheap. His recovery is easily the best in the game. He has about a zillion jumps as well as a glide and he isn't even that light. His aerials are good, his ground smashes are pretty good. He doesn't have great power but he's still more powerful than Metaknight and has nearly the same combo ability. His B-over is cheap and spammable when you get caught in it, and his arrows just keep coming. Pit is just a real annoyance to fight.

That's all for now.

BRAWL

I'm only writing this right now because my hands hurt too much from playing Super Smash Bros: Brawl. This is obviously an amazing game. If you've payed attention at all to the reviews then you'll probably know many good reasons, but I'd like to go a little more in-depth into the gameplay, which most major reviews failed to do. How exactly is Brawl different from Melee in terms of the pure gameplay? How are the characters different? Let's take a look:

Firstly, the major gameplay changes. Air dodging is totally changed. You no longer move in the direction of the control stick when air-dodging. You simply become invincible for a few frames while your aerial momentum continues. This ties into the next change, which is that you can also do multiple air dodges in a single jump and do any attacks, specials, or jumps afterward as well. The reason for the new air dodge appears to be twofold: one, it removes wavedashing, which was clearly a glitch in Melee and changed the gameplay significantly in competitive play. Secondly, and more importantly, it's very important for the balance of the game. I'll get into exactly how in a moment, but in general the new air dodging means that you can defend against ledge guarding and juggling much better.

The regular dodging has been tweaked, too. In Melee, some characters (like Game & Watch) had horrible dodging, while some characters (like MewTwo) had really amazing dodges, and this was one factor of Melee that led to imbalance. Well, in Brawl, just about every character has good dodging. Some are still better than others but the dodging has been balanced much better. This also makes up for the lack of wavedashing. In Melee, some characters with terrible dodging pretty much had to wavedash to stay competitive. In Brawl, that's no longer an issue at all.

The gravity has also been changed. Characters are generally more "floaty" than in Melee. This is most noticeable with the fast-falling characters like Falcon or Fox, but it affects everyone. What this means is an overall slower game, with more difficult combos and juggles for the attacker and easier escape for the defender. In my opinion this helps the game's balance but some people might miss the juggling and combos.

Speaking of combos, an important feature of Brawl is the "stale technique" system. If you repeat a move too many times in succession, it will lose power. To restore the effectiveness of the stale move, you need to use other attacks to balance it out. If you save your most powerful smash for when the opponent is at a high percentage, it will be far more effective than if you spam that smash over and over to get them to that high percentage.

One feature worth mentioning is the random trip. At seemingly random times, when dashing, you'll just trip and fall down. This has gotten me killed and also saved me at times, so it's sort of neutral, but I also sort of wish it wasn't in the game. I have a theory that trips become more frequent the more you are winning, but that remains to be proven.

Brawl on the whole is slower and more strategic. Off-stage play is very important, mostly because each character has very good recovery. Unless you knock a character out with a smash attack, they're probably coming back to the stage. To deal with this, you're going to need to follow opponents off the stage to finish them off. Most characters have a spike attack that sends the other character downward to their death when used off the stage, but some characters like Metanight have their entire play style revolving around jumping after an opponent, using an aerial to knock them out, and then flying back. The new mid-air dodge can counter these attacks, but this is the new style of play for Brawl, and it's a lot of fun.

That's all for now. I hope this week doesn't give me carpal tunnel.