Archive for the ‘Gaming’ Category
This coming Thursday, June 12, 2008, is the launch date for Metal Gear Solid 4. I had already reserved a copy of the Limited Edition at Gamestop quite some while back and it’s been an bearable wait. I didn’t spend a lot of time fawning over the previews of the game and only recently lost a good chunk of time watching the latest trailer and video advertisements for the ingame PMCs (Private Military Company). From all that I’ve seen, MGS4 seems to take elements from the previous installments and make them better. For example, the cumbersome, and irritating, camouflage mechanic from Metal Gear Solid 3 has been streamlined into the Octocamo, which is an electronic camouflage system that when activated, automatically blends with whatever surface Snake is next to.
Other changes also helps ease gameplay, like allowing Snake to walk/shuffle while crouched. It has always pissed me off when I had Snake crouched in previous games and tried to move, only to find him going into the prone position. But the best part, for me anyway, is the near certainty that MGS4 won’t do the switcheroo on us like what happened in MGS2.
After watching the trailers, I already have some expectations on the quality of the graphics, which isn’t really a good thing, but with the quality that was in the previous games, I have faith that I won’t be disappointed.
Hanging out with some friends was the soft fluffy cake of the night. The icing? Video games. We played TetriNET and while I was far from dominating in the game, I did well enough to survive for a bit. The best thing about TetriNET is its unpredictability where you could be doing well, then suddenly you get swarmed by the other players, jacking up your well thought out tetris with block bombs that blow up your pieces and send them scattering, or the ‘ole switcheroo replacing your neat little stack with their near critical one. The added screaming of anguish is something to relish upon hearing from others and a dreadful thing when it comes from your mouth.
The next game we tried to play was Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Unfortunately, we had a few issues on some computers and it took a long time to set up. Then, while we were in the process of playing, our rigs went out of sync and the session crashed. After trying to recover the session, we decided to try another old game we used to play, which was Quake III Arena. Man, did that bring back memories. One of my friends and I would jockey for domination of higher platforms to use our rail guns. Rocket jumping and blowing people up in mid air were all the old encounters. Even shooting our own teammates while they were jumping to get them killed from either a further landing or missing the ground entirely.
The final game I played (I had to leave earlier than the others) was a few rounds of poker. I did okay but still lost as I know nothing of playing poker, other than what combinations there are. I was hoping to give Team Fortress 2 a go with them but only two of us was able to buy it and set it up before game night. Maybe next time?
And for the record, I was the only one on a Mac (with boot camp and Vista, of course). 
Last week I picked up the game Mass Effect and it’s been an awesome adventure. I’ve been able to complete the main campaign due to not doing all the side quests. The story is engaging and has its cool moments. The NPC companions you get have their own unique personalities and regularly interact with each other and your character. Their abilities are as varied as their personalities and compliment your character well regardless of the class you’ve chosen.
Speaking of classes, the one I’ve chosen to play at first is the Soldier class. While this class doesn’t have access to Tech (affects weapons, shields and mechanical enemies) or Biotic (similar to Star Wars Force powers) abilities, it’s pretty robust and can lay out some nice damage. It’s the only class that can train in all the weapons used. The weird thing is, even if another class can’t train in, say, assault rifles, they are nevertheless equipped with it and can use them. This confused me at first and I had an NPC use a weapon it could never train to use better, and that lead to quite a few needless deaths.
In combat, there is a cover system but it’s more unwieldy than any other cover system I’ve played with. All that’s needed to take cover, is to press up against a hard surface while you have a weapon drawn, you’ll snap your back against the cover and can move to any side to lean out and shoot. If the cover is low enough, you could also stand up and fire. What’s unwieldy about the cover system? It’s easy to get to cover, whether you want to or not. Also, many enemies tend to rush your position just as often as they try to outflank you and it’s a bit sluggish to get out of cover status so it can get a little frustrating to have enemies pound on you while you wait the second or two for your character to leave cover.
Aside from the weird mechanic that every class is equipped with all weapons, even if they can’t train to maximize their use and the slow cover system that’s not all useful, combat in Mass Effect can be pretty fun. While hit and miss rolls are handled in the background, the fighting has a good real time feel and with the ability issue commands (like attack, advance, take cover, etc.), there’s a neat tactical feel.
Combat’s not the only thing going for Mass Effect. The stories within the game are well created. While you’d expect the main story line to be well done, side missions are also well crafted and provide more information than just “go here, kill this, retrieve that” bland stuff. The graphics and sound are also top notch and with all of this packaged together, Mass Effect is well worth the money and wait as it was ported to the computer. It has great replay value as you can explore different classes and can even restart the campaign with a character that’s already completed it, maintaining his/her weapons and equipment and experience. At the moment, I’m starting over with another Soldier, intent on completing at least 90% of the side quests this time around.
To those that don’t or have yet to play an MMORPG, like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, you’re missing out on some fun. While you can spend the holidays with friends and family in meatspace (and really, that’s the best way), you can also spend some time in game with friends and family and spread the holiday cheer there.
In World of Warcraft, there are little devices that transforms your character into gnomes wearing festive green or red outfits. You can punk instance bosses for purty green or red santa hats, obtain special items that transforms your mount into a reindeer, craft holiday themed clothing and munch on food stuffs made by players or sold by in game computer characters.
Now why should that replace real life celebrations? It shouldn’t! It’s wonderful little extras that the developers put in for those that want to also party hearty in game. And come Christmas day you can check out certain cities and grab presents! I know I’ll be spending quality time with my family but I’ll also spare some time to visit friends in game and wish them happy holidays, which I couldn’t do normally as nearly all of them reside thousands of miles away (California, Washington, New Zealand!, etc).
Crysis is a waste of hard drive space.
That is all.
