Last night Paul did me a huge favor by coming over and helping me beat SSE. Prior to this playing that mode (for me) was basically like pulling teeth. It wasn’t that it was too hard or anything, I just didn’t think it was that fun. It was long, felt awkward at times and generally didn’t feel that fun.

But co-op changes everything and this is a great example. While a few things were still frustrating Paul and I were able to power through the last 60% of the game and I really enjoyed it. Of course, the joking around and wackiness was the most enjoyable part, but the game itself became much more entertaining as well. It almost felt as if it was designed to be played with two players from the start.

As Paul mentioned we coined the phrase “binch” which basically means “to pinch a bitch” or vice versa. Much binching was had. I don’t even know how that word was invented, but there you go. Put it in the Urban Dictionary or whatever.

I’m mostly just glad we unlocked a bunch of characters.. I feel like all that stress of having to beat SSE is gone and now I can actually play the part of the game I like.

Last night Paul came by and hung out. As always it was good times. We went to the Coney Island near my house that I’ve been meaning to check out for a few months now for dinner and it was totally great. There’s something about a Coney Island place with friends that is just fantastic in my opinion. The food was pretty good too I can happily say; not quite to Zorba’s level (and certainly not as good as Lafayette) but it was pretty damn good.

We headed back to the house where I gave a quick demo of some of the beats I’m working on and then moved on to Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the NDS. This is a game about solving puzzles. It’s very much like that comic shows actually. Every time you try and do something, a person tells you, “Hey, how about you do this puzzle first.” Being a jerk of a professor who acts like an insufferable know-it-all you have to prove to the simple villagers that their pointless mind games are child’s play.

The game is actually quite pretty, with very nice looking art and a level of animation for critical scenes that surprised me, even voice over work (which was hilarious on in its own way). We hadn’t really gotten too far into the game to see what exactly made the village so curious except for the obvious stack of homes reaching into the sky. We did, however, learn that I am an absolute bloodhound at finding “hint coins.” Must be from those days as a kid playing pixel-hunting adventure games.

The puzzles kind of attempt to fit with the game’s plot/story/environment but sometimes they’re pretty blatant about the “Hey, solve this math problem,” attitude the game has. That said, a couple that we came across were actually quite tricky and fun. I don’t really have any puzzle games like this that encourage actual critical thinking (I have to do a lot of that at work as it is…) but this might be worth picking up when I can find it used for cheap.

After that we watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords, one of my favorite shows as of late. Paul seemed to appreciate the dry and often wacky sense of humor that the show has, and that we both also share.

Before it was time to call it a night Paul helped me unlock level 5 in Rez HD. After failing on the final boss (making me realize just how bad I am at this sort of thing now) I realized it was after 11:00 and that I should probably head to bed.

I have no less than seven drafts sitting in my WordPress right now. Seven. Several of these are really good posts too… Or will be when I actually write them. Work is really hitting hard right now and I’m running on all cylinders to keep up. Hopefully I’ll get some time this weekend to do a little writing.

After talking to Jason for a bit a few things about Mass Effect came to light that I thought I mention as an addendum to my previous post.

While we both agree that the core storyline experience was great, we also agree that some of the side missions were a bit weak. There were definitely some good ones, but a lot ended up being more shallow than I’d hoped for. Additionally they all mostly followed the same structure of “learn about something, go to that planet, shoot a few guys, you’re done.” More could have been in this area to make things a bit more well rounded. Though I did think some of the Citadel side quests were more interesting and I completed most of those.

Another thing that would have added to the game would be more interesting loot progression. There’s really no unique items in the game. As Jason said, everything is just “gun 1″, “gun 2″, “armor 4″, etc. This takes away from some of the vested interest in your character.

Overall still a great game though. I’d give it a 9 out of 10.

Last night I beat Mass Effect. At the end I barely realized that I had put nearly 40 hours into the game. This is a big deal for me, since I usually am bad about beating games. (It’s true unfortunately, though I am getting much better about it.) I can say that, overall, it was one of the best experiences I’ve had playing a console RPG.

Sure there were a few technical faults (really bad texture pop-in, load times, basically things that wouldn’t have been there if they’d cached the game to the HD) but in general Mass Effect was a very polished gameplay experience that drew me in. The “moral choices” didn’t really go that deep, but the voice acting and conversations were done so well that it still managed to add a lot to the story line and experience.

I’m going to definitely do another play through in the near future. Next character will be a hardcore jerk, I think.

One thing I really liked though was that the game didn’t end with a cliff hanger. It actually completed the story line so you felt some sense of finality. But they left enough open that there will be a sequel (or two). I’ll be ready and waiting for it.

As Paul mentioned I went over to his place to have dinner with P1 and P2 and play some Super Mario Galaxy, aka Super Bee Galaxy. From what I can tell the game is 90% bees and bee costumes. Joking aside, it was a lot of fun I have to say, and probably the best argument for getting a Wii yet (I don’t have one). I really enjoyed the game design. It is probably the most Mario styled Mario game since probably Super Mario 3 in my opinion (or possibly Super Mario 64). I also thought the art design was some of the best I’d seen in a Nintendo game in quite a while. They always have a nice consistency, but this one stood out to me for some reason.

The gameplay was very smooth as well. I have to admit I was a bit dubious about the “shake the remote to spin” mechanic, but it actually works quite well. Similar the pointer mechanic is pretty seamless as well, that is, except when your co-pilot player is trying to draw thunder clouds on the screen using his pointer trail. The “shoot star bits” with the remote thing is a little odd to me. Where do they come from? Why can it happen? No one knows. Well maybe someone does but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t make any sense. Luckily, neither does wearing a bee costume and crawling all over a queen bee to collect star fragments. So in that regard it all hangs together.

Really though, what is the deal with Mario and those stars? Every single thing is related to a star or a mushroom or some kind of crazy thing. I have to think that the stars are just a kid-friendly representation of heroin or something, and Mario is on a quest for his next hit. When you think about it like that all the crazy ass magic actually starts to make some more sense.

Still, great game.

To say that these past four days off work were good would be a bit of an understatement. It was a really, really well deserved and needed break and I took complete advantage of it. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s nearly been a week since the last time I posted, but it just so happens that part of doing whatever I wanted the last few days did not include posting. I can fix that now though.

Last Tuesday Paul came over and hung out. Despite my initial thoughts that I would resist Mass Effect and get it when I had more time to play it we somehow found ourselves in the car, heading to Meijer to pick it up. Boy, I’m glad I did, because it turns out it’s fantastic. Unsurprisingly, I’ve been playing a ton of it. Commander Jerj Shepard (Infiltrator) is having a good time roughing up the galaxy. Even if he’s a bit caustic, it’s for everyone else’s own good, so they better stay out of his way.

Thanksgiving itself was very nice. We always have a nice big get together at my parent’s place with family and friends and this year was especially good. Everything was basically perfect. I went over on the early side to help cook and prepare, which was pretty fun I have to say. A lot of people might not agree, but I like cooking and hanging out with my sister (who I don’t see too often) so it was nice. This year was a little different though; in past years I would stay at my parent’s place since I was just visiting from school or my own apartment in Lansing. Now that I have my own house it felt a little funny to go back to my own home, but it was actually pretty nice to go relax after the long day.

Friday was filled with purchases; no, not “deals” at crowded malls. I did my shopping from the comfort of my own home, on eBay (and Guitar Center later that day). Unable to resist anymore, I snatched up a Korg Kaossilator. Everything I’ve seen and heard about this device says to me that it’s pretty fantastic. They’re currently not out in the US (Japan has had them for a while and I believe it’s just now coming out in the UK) and won’t be for another 2-3 months. In Japan they’re sold out most places, particularly in the larger cities. Luckily, someone over there was good enough to put one up for only a $20 markup over retail, and that is a good enough deal where I will buy now rather than wait. That afternoon M1 and I headed over to Guitar Center for more musical goodness. I picked up a Firebox audio interface and a KP3 (so pretty), while M1 scored a new audio interface card himself for his computer. Then we went and hung out with M2 in A2. A good time.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with a lot of Mass Effect but also plenty of music. Later that afternoon I grabbed a bite to eat at my parents and then in a late twist decision everyone decided that they did want to go to the movies and see Hitman. Normally this is a movie I would pass on, but in this case if you go do some drinking before hand, and you go to a theater that serves alcohol, well, it can be pretty fun.

Is it Christmas yet? I could use some more time off I think.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat is actually the first Call of Duty game that I’ve really played, let alone bought. While the others were supposedly quite good (the second one in particular I guess) I never really was into the whole WW2 thing very much. Battlefield 1942 was about as much as I got into WW2 FPS games to be honest. The latest COD game however, is set in the present day (or slight future, something like that) and that suits me just fine.

Single player is pretty cinematic and entertaining. I haven’t gotten very far in it though, because the vast majority of my time has been spent playing multiplayer. This is where the game really shines in my opinion. It has a quasi-RPG-esque system where you level up (gain rank) by accruing experience through game matches. Most of the XP will come just from killing enemies, but you can also gain big bonuses by completing challenges for various weapons (kill x people, get x headshots) or other activities (blow up x cars, sprint x miles, etc.). There’s a ton of these that you progressively unlock as you level up. As you gain levels and complete challenges you’ll also unlock additional weapons and gear. It’s a nice system that always gives you a goal to work towards, which keeps the player engaged and really interested in doing well not just for the sake of it.

Technically the game is very impressive. There are a couple minor multiplayer issues that need to be resolved (minor bugs) and the net code has some prediction that makes you scratch your head occasionally, but all in all it’s really solid. For my money, this game has the kind of polish and attention to detail that makes it a contender for game of the year.

But then again I did just get Mass Effect. That’s another post entirely though.

I picked up Assassin’s Creed today after work and after playing it for a few hours I can say that it’s a remarkable technical achievement that has a lot to offer but does have some flaws that stop it from being as good as it could have been. Still, I’m not disappointed with the fact that I purchased it. Some word on the internet is that it’s “the most over-hyped piece of trash ever” and that “it fails to deliver in every way possible.” Well, neither of these are really true in my opinion. Yes, it was a very hyped game, and yes, it does fail to deliver in a couple areas that it probably should. But is it not entertaining? Hardly.

First, the bad points.

The primary problem is that the game lacks variety. This can either be a huge deal to you, or something that’s a bit of a bummer but not the end of the world. I’m in the latter camp. You could argue that most games are actually the act of performing repetitive tasks over and over again. The differences come in the presentation of how you execute those tasks. In AC they are lacking some of that presentation difference, as well as staying a bit too lockstep with their mission formula to accomplish the major goals. Some more variety in the types of challenges would be nice, but the lack of variety I mostly have a problem with is that the way you accomplish these goals is somewhat limited. There’s still some choice involved, but the outcome is essentially the same each time, leading to a game experience that is more linear than I expected it to be. As someone who can’t get enough of free-roaming games this is the biggest problem with AC.

A secondary issue (for me) is that the combat is a bit weak. This stems mostly from the fact that a design decision was made that the combat system should be focused on a more realistic style. While that’s all well and good it doesn’t necessarily translate to a great game experience in my opinion. It’s not too bad, it just (again) lacks some variety. If they’d made it so that the enemy AI would attack at you a bit quicker (and more than one at a time) and give the player some additional moves to avoid/counter attacks, thus increasing the challenge put on the player, it would be a far better experience. Still, I’ve found that by not leaning on the “defensive stance” system like a crutch and maneuvering my character a bit more quickly around the attackers it produces a slightly more cinematic and exciting fight sequence.

Now the good.

The environments are really something amazing. Graphically speaking this game is masterwork. From a character perspective it’s even more impressive, in terms of both art and technical achievement. The animations themselves are extremely fluid, and their new system for animation blending and fast transition is pulled off wonderfully. The result is some of the most eye pleasing animations I’ve ever seen in a game.

And that’s good because with the great free running system you’ll be looking at a lot of different animations. It also makes it (mostly) a breeze to get around the game; something that’s very welcome since one of my personal favorite aspects is the exploration aspect. Some people have complained that the collection tasks are boring, but I don’t mind them, and think they’re a good way to hunt around and explore the city. It’s things like that which let me use my imagination a bit, and that definitely adds value in my book.

The story, while a bit hokey, is also turning out to be pretty interesting. It’s one of those things where I just suspend my disbelief (like when you’re watching an action movie) and it’s not too hard to swallow. The execution (outside of the previously mentioned gameplay flaws) is more than acceptable, and while I’ve heard the game leaves off with a cliffhanger I can only hope this means that there will be a worthy sequel that addresses some of the problems I and other reviewers have mentioned.

Overall this is a solid game that - depending on how hyped up you were for it and what you were expecting - could either be a satisfying adventure/platformer/free-roaming hybrid or could be somewhat disappointing. If you’re really on the fence about it, rent it first. There’s no excuse not to rent, and if you’re someone who enjoys games like this I don’t think you can go too wrong buying it either.