Earthbound and Dune 26.05.2016

In little over a week I completed the campaign of Doom (PS4) and I had a whale of a time with it. The game is relatively short (maybe 12hours) but it never overstays its welcome but this is a key factor of this fantastic game. Its balanced in such a way that every fight, boss encounter and level is such that just before it became tedious it ended. The plot is close to a retelling of the first Doom, taking control of the ambiguous hero (presumably from Doom & Doom 2) it was mere seconds before I was killing my first demons, unrecognisable from the footsoldiers of old but it was a couple of minutes before I fought the more familiar imps. I then died, a lot. The action is fast enough that death didn't feel so much a penalty, more of a chance to hone my skills in murdering the legions of hell. Early on without much prompting I was taught about the new glory kill system which kills enemies in gory, imaginative ways and how by doing this I got health bonuses which were essential to progressing. As much as this seems like a game with a reverence for its past it adds new features in creative ways. The chainsaw is now reduced to a short fuel supply, but using it helps build up ammunition reserves for other weapons, getting me out of tight spots on a couple of occasions. Certain scenarios do seem like retellings of things that happened in the first game such as the Hell Knight encounter from the end of act one, these nods to the games past don't feel tacked on, instead make the game feel likes its crafted by people who loved the originals and also understood what made them great. For as little plot as there is in the game (humans are using hell for an energy source it goes wrong) it's told in such an earnest tone that its funny without trying too hard. Having a silent protagonist helped me fill in the blanks to what my character was thinking throughout, sometimes when he was punching elevator buttons and smashing tubes it didn't take too much imagination. As I got deeper into the game, old foes continued to appear, pretty much all the demons from the original two games are here (minus two by my count) favourites of mine such as the Pinky Demon and the Cacodemon return with much more "charming" character design than the realism that was attempted in Doom 3 and the game bounces between Hell and Mars toward the end in such a way that the environments always felt fresh and cool to explore. 

The only slight complaint I had with it at all was that by seemingly avoiding the horror tropes of Doom 3 its not frightening at all in its bombastic approach. My memories of playing Doom 2 as a 13 year old was an underlying sense of fear, as comical as it seems now compared to today's games, the lighting and sound work in the game was terrifying at times. This reboot of Doom has decided to go another way and admittedly this way is a lot more fun. I played a bit of the multi-player and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would too. 

Doom isn't anything new, it has medipacks, yellow keys and zombies but in the week it took me to complete it felt like one of the most original games I've played in a long time, I'll certainly be playing through it again at some point. Finally the ending of the game is left in such a way that I can't wait to play the next game (if it ever comes).

My hours spent in Pokemon Yellow is now over thirty hours. I'd say I don't know how that's happened in such a short space of time but I do, traipsing back and forth fighting bikers, swimmers and young trainers to get my Tauros to an acceptable level and he's still floundering in the low 30s. It's bordered on frustrating at time, especially fighting the multitude of poison attacks at the moment but I'm still way into my Pokemon. What's surprised me the most is that there is much more of a conventional game in there (and an impressive amount for a gameboy cartridge) the plot is deeper, Team Rocket are up to something and it continually adds new things that I wasn't expecting such as bicycles and fast travelling. Still really enjoying it basically. 

Earthbound and Dune 17.05.16

Over the past few weeks I've been falling rapidly down a rabbit hole of capturing/killing (or knocking out according to my translation of the lore of the world) hundreds of Pocket Monsters in Pokemon Yellow (3DS). It's my understanding that playing the game on a 3DS will allow me to transfer my team of comically named creatures into future games via a Pokemon bank (whatever that is) and if its smooth that's a big selling point, I couldn't bare the thought of wading through tall grass to fight Pidgeys to level up my Squirtle even if the graphics are improved. 

I'm surprised about how much I'm enjoying the game, I think this has a lot to do with my tastes and habits both inside and outside of video games. It feels a bit like the elements of Fallout games I really enjoy, the hoarding, the grinding out fights to earn XP and the tantalising concept that something really valuable or powerful could be right around the corner. It also seems to have taken influence from Earthbound (and other JRPGs I've not played I'm sure) and while it's not got the sharp whit constantly it can be genuinely funny at times, normally before fighting another trainer on my travels. I wouldn't say it's particularly subtitle but the characters I've met so far from the seasick captain of a boat and the two gamblers close by who announce in quick succession "I never loose" and "I never win" have a charm to them. Speaking of charm some of the Pokemons designs haven't aged well but the majority are lovely to look at, it helps with the most addictive part of the game I've found so far, the bond made with my party of 6, for the record I've gone with Nidoking, Spearow, Pikachu, Squirtle, Graveler and Weepinbell. All the forums I've embarrassingly visited seem to suggest this isn't the best combination but I've grown attached to Spearow through training him up from level 3 and most of the others I'd longingly looked at whilst I turned my nose up at actually playing the game. I've got my eye on a couple of additions, I'd be very happy if a wild Poliwhirl or Krabby popped up. With my little team though I've worked out viable tactic of combining my plant with my rock with my electric and in these early steps it seems to work, I say early I'm pushing 15 hours of gameplay. In the narrative of the game I've encountered team rocket a number of times, collected 4 badges and can chop down trees.

Basically it's all nonsense, but the right kind of nonsense for a commute or a half hour here or there, at times scratching that animal crossing itch while at the same time giving you a little more reward for your endless grinding. The game is over 20years old and I've been aware of it for all that time both in gaming and popular culture but I don't feel like I've come to it late, I wouldn't have had the patience for it when it came out or more importantly the access to the Internet which has both helped and amused me so far exploring this world.

The rest of my video gaming related actions this week were, reading FAQs and message boards about Pokemon, playing Smash Bros 4 exclusively on Pokemon stages with Pokemon characters and finally watching the Pokemon Sun Moon trailer a couple of times. I'm one step away from producing Pokemon fan art and that's not as frightening as it was a month ago.

Earthbound and Dune 09.05.16

I finished Starfox Zeros (WiiU) brief story this week, there where points when everything came together, especially the penultimate battle against Star Wolf and his companions. Here dogfighting worked, felt good and I even used the gamepad to target at points. Changing the Arwing into the chicken walker during the fight felt like the the best transformers game there never was and compact level it took place on was small enough so action was always close. The sad thing about the game though is the few good levels are majorly outweighed by boring or annoying levels. When the game has around 10 levels in to total to complete, factor in 3-4 of them I found no fun at all, therein lies the problem I had with it. If it had been an "attraction" at the much maligned Nintendoland game the value proposition for this game wouldn't be an issue. On its own though it just felt too threadbare and I plain didn't enjoy a lot of my short amount of time with it.

I got nowhere in Party Hard (PS4) and was happy enough to do that. A stealth game with a comical premise, your irritated at the noise/commotion a party is causing to the point of wanting to murder all the people attending. The levels are small enough to occupy a single screen and it's got a stylish 16bit look to it, complete with the chip tune soundtrack that does start to get annoying as I slowly worked my way through the couple of party's I ended. I've always assumed I'd be awful at a hitman game and this game confirms this, a number of times I'd get to killing the last few people and the police would catch me right at the end because of my over eagerness to finish the level. Despite my failing I am having a great time with the game, seemingly random events from aliens to robbers happen on the levels and will increase the death count, traps and places to hide also litter the levels and add a more methodical strategy to playing. Hiding places and escape routes are barricaded up with overuse which stopped me from cheating the levels much to my dismay at discovering this. The levels are compact enough that the really fun levels, such as the party on the ranch are really good fun and kept interesting by moving around items to help your murdering on attempts. Some levels aren't as much fun due to a more constricted environment but it's all snappy enough that it's not become irritating yet. Looking forward to carrying on with it.