Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
I've been playing Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for the past few days and I'd like to dedicate this post to my newest nemesis, the Hagraven. But before we get into that, I have a hard time whenever I play the types of games where you design your character right down to the little details like length of bridge of nose, and how angled I want his jaw to be.
I'm all for the customization, but I could literally spend a week designing my guy if I really cared that much about it. I selected a Wood Elf, because it just makes more sense in terms of what I usually like to do in most games, which is control animals, and frolic through the forest with a long range weapon. But the Wood Elf male is extremely ugly, so I spent a better part of Sunday afternoon and evening trying to make him look human -- no easy task.
Being sneaky
In all games such as these, I always feel like aside from trying to win the main objective, my secondary goal is to try to attain ALL of the money in the entire game. In order to do this, you have to level up your character to the point where I'm able to sneak around so well that I can steal anything I want, and then be able to barter well enough that I can sell items for more than I paid for them. The idea, is to be able to pay people for services and then, wait til it's dark, and steal all the money I paid them back, and then do it again until I've exhausted their use. Further, I need to be able to steal every item in a store, and sell it back to the store owner, then buy his good stuff that I can't steal, and then pickpocket him so I can get all my money back.
If for whatever reason I'm unable to beat the game, I'd at least be satisfied that I stole and plundered to my heart's content.
The Hagraven
Like pretty much any game I've ever played, my biggest weakness has always been forgetting to Save my game. Yesterday, I traveled pretty much across half the "world" to get to this Hagraven, from which I needed some ingredient that I could use to save a really big tree in White Run, one of the towns. Don't worry, this story gets better. So I'm riding up to this big hill and I notice this weird looking old lady at the top. Easy pickings for my "Jon", who is an expert archer.
So I got off my horse, and me and Lydia (my bodyguard aka mule) go to work. As I approach, I just see her head bobbing up and down so I just take a few shots with my trust bow and arrow, and then BLAMO! A huge fireball hits me and takes me down to a sliver of health. So I started running towards the hill, thinking I can cut off the angles so she can't hit me. Wrong. BLAMO! If it weren't for me scarfing down a bunch of tomatoes and apples, I'd have been dead. I quickly (without really thinking about it) I press F5 to save the game. Big mistake. BLAMO! I'm dead. So I press F9 to load, and when the game comes back up, BLAMO! F9, while pressing the run key.. BLAMO! F9, while pressing the strafe key.... BLAMO!
Then I look up to see if I can load an earlier game. The next most recent save game was from 5 hours ago. Damn it.
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
November 30, 2011
May 30, 2007
A Wii Retrospective
It's hard to believe that I have owned a Wii for 7 months, because it feels like I haven't played it very much at all. In all honesty I haven't touched the thing in 2 weeks. I'm trying to think of the last time I played Wii by myself, as a form of entertainment (as opposed to a form of entertainING). I believe I haven't played it as a form of personal entertainment since.. well, February when I first got Wii Play.
Hard to believe that such a popular gaming system, one that continues to be difficult to obtain throughout the world, has completely lost its appeal to me. Although I do continue to look forward to Smash Brothers Brawl, my zeal for this gaming system has waned significantly. Yesterday in EB Games, I was lining up to pay for Guitar Hero for PS2. The guy in front of me had just picked up the last copy of Mario Party 8. Heck, I didn't even know it had come out. I could have easily lined up ahead of that guy if I had wanted one. (MP8 is probably one of the MOST sought after Wii games yet).
Now on one hand I'd fully admit that when it comes to entertainment, I am a person who loses interest in things rather easily, going from one thing to another, but to think that a few months ago I was trying to convince everyone how great and revolutionary it was and now, I barely even touch it. It's just a neat little white box on top of my speakers that collects dust.
The other day I spoke to Allan at church, he was explaining to me that the novelty has kind of worn off on him and he hadn't touched his Wii for a whole week.
Mind you, I think the Wii is a fantastic party system. But without company, I think this system is not nearly as great as everyone thinks. I haven't touched my XBOX360 in about 3 weeks either, so it's not like it's any more 'exciting' than the Wii. I have arguably the most popular game for it, Gears of War, and I haven't touched the system in 3 weeks. Think about that.
Meanwhile I haven't gone more than 48 hours without picking up the Guitar controller for the PS2. Guitar Hero games totally rock. All this talk about these next-gen consoles and here I am playing old-gen stuff. Just goes to show you how important graphics and cpu speed are -- not at all.
Just think, had I known all this today and not bought any of those systems, I'd be sitting at home, still playing Guitar Hero 2 (which I got for free), and be sitting pretty with an additional $1300 in my pocket. Such is the life of a gamer..
Hard to believe that such a popular gaming system, one that continues to be difficult to obtain throughout the world, has completely lost its appeal to me. Although I do continue to look forward to Smash Brothers Brawl, my zeal for this gaming system has waned significantly. Yesterday in EB Games, I was lining up to pay for Guitar Hero for PS2. The guy in front of me had just picked up the last copy of Mario Party 8. Heck, I didn't even know it had come out. I could have easily lined up ahead of that guy if I had wanted one. (MP8 is probably one of the MOST sought after Wii games yet).
Now on one hand I'd fully admit that when it comes to entertainment, I am a person who loses interest in things rather easily, going from one thing to another, but to think that a few months ago I was trying to convince everyone how great and revolutionary it was and now, I barely even touch it. It's just a neat little white box on top of my speakers that collects dust.
The other day I spoke to Allan at church, he was explaining to me that the novelty has kind of worn off on him and he hadn't touched his Wii for a whole week.
Mind you, I think the Wii is a fantastic party system. But without company, I think this system is not nearly as great as everyone thinks. I haven't touched my XBOX360 in about 3 weeks either, so it's not like it's any more 'exciting' than the Wii. I have arguably the most popular game for it, Gears of War, and I haven't touched the system in 3 weeks. Think about that.
Meanwhile I haven't gone more than 48 hours without picking up the Guitar controller for the PS2. Guitar Hero games totally rock. All this talk about these next-gen consoles and here I am playing old-gen stuff. Just goes to show you how important graphics and cpu speed are -- not at all.
Just think, had I known all this today and not bought any of those systems, I'd be sitting at home, still playing Guitar Hero 2 (which I got for free), and be sitting pretty with an additional $1300 in my pocket. Such is the life of a gamer..
March 26, 2007
Mega Man
Is this a killer costume or what? And he's got the picture perfect pose! Bring it on, Dr. Wily!
March 22, 2007
February 14, 2007
Review: Wii Play (Wii)
I pre-ordered this game and got it yesterday from the EB Games at Eaton Centre.
Wii Play is the game packaged with Nintendo Wii's, to my knowledge, for people in Europe and Australia and it comes with a Wiimote. It's $60, so really you are paying for a Wiimote and the game is a throw-in.
It has many games, similar to Wii Sports. But don't get these two games mixed up. Wii Sports has won many awards, including TIME's Best Game of the Year. Wii Play is a whole 'nother story.
Wii Play is kind of like a tutorial disc for the Wii system. It trains users on how to use the Wiimote. Each game is really just a test for you to see if you know how to use the Wiimote. Here is a review for each of the games.
1. Taanks
Tanks is actually fun, and it's quite challenging. You moved your tank around the screen that will often have walls and barriers, with the nunchuck thumbstick, or with the directional pad on the wiimote (if you don't have the nunchuk attachment -- since the game only comes with the wiimote), and you used the trigger B to shoot. The tank can fire up to 5 shots at a time, and then you ahve to wait for each shell to explode before you can fire more. Each shell bounces once off a wall before exploding on its next target. Each level pits you against anywhere between 1-6 tanks, and each of the enemies get progressively harder with themselves getting better and better weapons. After a few tries I got up to level 14. After every 5 levels you get a free life, and you start with 3.
This is a fun game, and I would almost say that I would have paid $10 for this game alone. And it's so simple. I'm sure I played a game just like this 20 years ago on my Atari 2600.
2. Mii Pose
Mii Pose. How do I explain this. Your Mii can pose in 3 ways, and you can switch from pose to pose by hitting A or B. Aside from that, you can tilt your Mii by tilting the wiimote. Now, bubbles start falling down with the Mii posed in a certain way and tilted, and you need to match your Mii (controlled by your wiimote) to the Bubble Mii.
This game is virtually unplayable.
3. Fiishing
Okay. You have this pole, right. And it has a hook. And you dip the pole into this pool, and the fish swim around. You wait, a fish bites, and you pull up on the wiimote and there! You caught a fish. The bigger the fish, the more points, and if the littlest fish bites, you lose points.
Another unplayable game beyond the first 30 seconds when you realize you have absolutely no control over that little fish that makes you lose points.
4. Find Mii
There are several modes that randomly appear in this particular game. Basically, your Mii, as in the one you designed yourself, will be on the screen with several other Mii's, some that you created, some that are just randomly generated, and you have 30 seconds to find him/her. The quicker you find it, the better, as you get more time added to your total for the next one.
The next one is a room of 15, or 20, or 10 Mii's, and you have to pick the two who are the same. It sounds easy but I got eliminated on one of these.
Another one is they are all walking up and down a street, and one guy is faster than the rest. You pick the fastest to move on. There was one level where they were all swimming and one was swimming faster.
Another one is to pick 2 who are not behaving the same as the rest. The one I got was, they were all watching tennis, heads going back and forth based on the tennis match, but two were looking in the opposite direction.
This game is somewhat playable. I could see it being fun in a party setting where two people are competing to find the matches.
5. Shootiing
This is duck hunt, only if you hit a duck, it's only a bonus. There's 5 levels:
1. Shoot targets.
2. Shoot clay discs
3. Shoot bugs?
4. I can't remember
5. 10 of your Mii's are running around a field, and UFO's try to grab them. You need to shoot the UFO's. You stay alive as long as there is at least one Mii left. Waves and waves of UFO's com.
6. Pool/Biilliards
This game has some really cool physics.. You can put some *unbelievable* spin on a ball. But I really can't see much fun in this beyond that. It is really crappy.
7. Piing Pong
This game had so much potential. Having played Wii Tennis, I really thought this would be THE GAME for Wii Play. I was wrong.
Ping Pong is nothing more than you moving side to side like playing Pong. You can't put spin on the ball, you can't even pick the direction really. You just act like the paddle and be at the right spot to have it bounce off you. It is really a complete waste of time.
8. Aiir Hockey
Imagine what I just described to you about Ping Pong. Add neon lights.
9. Some kind of cow race
You turn the wiimote horizontally. Twisting forward is accelerate, pulling back is breaks, and then turn it like a wheel for a car. To jump, you lift the remote up.
So you're a cow. And your goal is to hit other cows. And avoid hurdles. And finish the race. Again I'm sure this game is better with two players. It has to be.
I think that's all of them. If there was another, I forgot it because.. well, it deserved to be forgotten, much like these other ones.
Sound: 6/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 6/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it was practically free when you consider it game with a wiimote, which is btw, one of the hardest things to find in any store these days)
Fun Factor: 2/10
Overall score: 32/50.
Edit:
I liked this particular review, from 1UP on Wii Play:
"Play is made for people who don't really like games, and if you're someone who really does, that's a problem. Sure, most of these minigames are fun...for about 10 minutes. But hey, maybe your grandma will want to marry it."
Wii Play is the game packaged with Nintendo Wii's, to my knowledge, for people in Europe and Australia and it comes with a Wiimote. It's $60, so really you are paying for a Wiimote and the game is a throw-in.
It has many games, similar to Wii Sports. But don't get these two games mixed up. Wii Sports has won many awards, including TIME's Best Game of the Year. Wii Play is a whole 'nother story.
Wii Play is kind of like a tutorial disc for the Wii system. It trains users on how to use the Wiimote. Each game is really just a test for you to see if you know how to use the Wiimote. Here is a review for each of the games.
1. Taanks
Tanks is actually fun, and it's quite challenging. You moved your tank around the screen that will often have walls and barriers, with the nunchuck thumbstick, or with the directional pad on the wiimote (if you don't have the nunchuk attachment -- since the game only comes with the wiimote), and you used the trigger B to shoot. The tank can fire up to 5 shots at a time, and then you ahve to wait for each shell to explode before you can fire more. Each shell bounces once off a wall before exploding on its next target. Each level pits you against anywhere between 1-6 tanks, and each of the enemies get progressively harder with themselves getting better and better weapons. After a few tries I got up to level 14. After every 5 levels you get a free life, and you start with 3.
This is a fun game, and I would almost say that I would have paid $10 for this game alone. And it's so simple. I'm sure I played a game just like this 20 years ago on my Atari 2600.
2. Mii Pose
Mii Pose. How do I explain this. Your Mii can pose in 3 ways, and you can switch from pose to pose by hitting A or B. Aside from that, you can tilt your Mii by tilting the wiimote. Now, bubbles start falling down with the Mii posed in a certain way and tilted, and you need to match your Mii (controlled by your wiimote) to the Bubble Mii.
This game is virtually unplayable.
3. Fiishing
Okay. You have this pole, right. And it has a hook. And you dip the pole into this pool, and the fish swim around. You wait, a fish bites, and you pull up on the wiimote and there! You caught a fish. The bigger the fish, the more points, and if the littlest fish bites, you lose points.
Another unplayable game beyond the first 30 seconds when you realize you have absolutely no control over that little fish that makes you lose points.
4. Find Mii
There are several modes that randomly appear in this particular game. Basically, your Mii, as in the one you designed yourself, will be on the screen with several other Mii's, some that you created, some that are just randomly generated, and you have 30 seconds to find him/her. The quicker you find it, the better, as you get more time added to your total for the next one.
The next one is a room of 15, or 20, or 10 Mii's, and you have to pick the two who are the same. It sounds easy but I got eliminated on one of these.
Another one is they are all walking up and down a street, and one guy is faster than the rest. You pick the fastest to move on. There was one level where they were all swimming and one was swimming faster.
Another one is to pick 2 who are not behaving the same as the rest. The one I got was, they were all watching tennis, heads going back and forth based on the tennis match, but two were looking in the opposite direction.
This game is somewhat playable. I could see it being fun in a party setting where two people are competing to find the matches.
5. Shootiing
This is duck hunt, only if you hit a duck, it's only a bonus. There's 5 levels:
1. Shoot targets.
2. Shoot clay discs
3. Shoot bugs?
4. I can't remember
5. 10 of your Mii's are running around a field, and UFO's try to grab them. You need to shoot the UFO's. You stay alive as long as there is at least one Mii left. Waves and waves of UFO's com.
6. Pool/Biilliards
This game has some really cool physics.. You can put some *unbelievable* spin on a ball. But I really can't see much fun in this beyond that. It is really crappy.
7. Piing Pong
This game had so much potential. Having played Wii Tennis, I really thought this would be THE GAME for Wii Play. I was wrong.
Ping Pong is nothing more than you moving side to side like playing Pong. You can't put spin on the ball, you can't even pick the direction really. You just act like the paddle and be at the right spot to have it bounce off you. It is really a complete waste of time.
8. Aiir Hockey
Imagine what I just described to you about Ping Pong. Add neon lights.
9. Some kind of cow race
You turn the wiimote horizontally. Twisting forward is accelerate, pulling back is breaks, and then turn it like a wheel for a car. To jump, you lift the remote up.
So you're a cow. And your goal is to hit other cows. And avoid hurdles. And finish the race. Again I'm sure this game is better with two players. It has to be.
I think that's all of them. If there was another, I forgot it because.. well, it deserved to be forgotten, much like these other ones.
Sound: 6/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 6/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it was practically free when you consider it game with a wiimote, which is btw, one of the hardest things to find in any store these days)
Fun Factor: 2/10
Overall score: 32/50.
Edit:
I liked this particular review, from 1UP on Wii Play:
"Play is made for people who don't really like games, and if you're someone who really does, that's a problem. Sure, most of these minigames are fun...for about 10 minutes. But hey, maybe your grandma will want to marry it."
January 31, 2007
January 27, 2007
Killer app
FuGwah was telling me about a week ago about "killer apps". A "killer app" is the one game that causes everyone to buy a particular console system. Despite the Nintendo Wii absolutely *crushing* the PS3 in the war of new consoles, it has been Xbox 360 with Gears of War that has been flying off the shelves. Furthermore, because of the difficulty of finding an available Wii to buy, some people walk into a store, find there were no Wii's, pass on the available PS3's, and pick up an Xbox 360 instead.
There's absolutely no compelling reason to buy a PS3 right now for most people, except fanboys. As an anti-Sony person, I could not tell you what game I think might be the PS3 killer app. However at the same as a Nintendo Fanboy, I cannot tell you what I think might be the killer app for the Wii.
I think for Nintendo, because it has several exclusive franchises such as anything related to Mario or Zelda, resulting games from these franchises might contain a killer app. But then again when I look at today's gaming world and what people are looking for in general, it is about expandability, games that can evolve and have rolling content. For instance for a game like GoW, you could have new maps to play, online play will always be different depending on who you're playing. However with Nintendo, games like Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers, Wario games, Mario Party, etc etc, have no expandability. They're like arcade games.. you can play until you're sick of it, but the games themselves will never change.
Will the Wii ever have a killer app? Perhaps a new Mario game, or a Zelda game -- but you would only find fans of these franchises buying this games, and most of these people already have Wii's. Will Wii buck the trend of a console needing a killer app to survive? So far it has, but will that last, I am thinking probably not.
Of course the concept of a "killer app" is somewhat foreign to me. I've never been that kind of a person to buy a console just for a particular game, unless you count upgrading my computer for certain computer games. I didn't buy my GameCube for any particular game. I almost bought a PS2 just for Guitar Hero 2, and I doubt that game was considered as a Killer App. We had a Nintendo, and an N64 -- none of those consoles were bought for the purpose of playing any particular game. Perhaps there IS some hope of a successful console with no killer app..
Anyway, the only reason I thought of this entire subject was because I heard about a computer game that was in development. This game, is something that I have dreamed about for 9 years. As franchise, this game approaches the Warcraft franchise in terms of my favorite franchises.
Fallout
I read recently that Bethesda Softworks were now several years into the development of Fallout 3, and they were hiring more developers (graphics?) to get this thing into full gear. I must say when I heard this, my heart nearly skipped a beat. A game that I had been waiting for since the *second* I finished Fallout 2, has a strong possibility of being released in the near future.
I also read rumors of Fallout 3 coming out on Xbox 360. If there was ever a "killer app" for the 360, for me, this would be it. I would gladly pay $600 for the console just to play the next entry of this beloved franchise. Of course if it still comes out on PC, forget all that..
There's absolutely no compelling reason to buy a PS3 right now for most people, except fanboys. As an anti-Sony person, I could not tell you what game I think might be the PS3 killer app. However at the same as a Nintendo Fanboy, I cannot tell you what I think might be the killer app for the Wii.
I think for Nintendo, because it has several exclusive franchises such as anything related to Mario or Zelda, resulting games from these franchises might contain a killer app. But then again when I look at today's gaming world and what people are looking for in general, it is about expandability, games that can evolve and have rolling content. For instance for a game like GoW, you could have new maps to play, online play will always be different depending on who you're playing. However with Nintendo, games like Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers, Wario games, Mario Party, etc etc, have no expandability. They're like arcade games.. you can play until you're sick of it, but the games themselves will never change.
Will the Wii ever have a killer app? Perhaps a new Mario game, or a Zelda game -- but you would only find fans of these franchises buying this games, and most of these people already have Wii's. Will Wii buck the trend of a console needing a killer app to survive? So far it has, but will that last, I am thinking probably not.
Of course the concept of a "killer app" is somewhat foreign to me. I've never been that kind of a person to buy a console just for a particular game, unless you count upgrading my computer for certain computer games. I didn't buy my GameCube for any particular game. I almost bought a PS2 just for Guitar Hero 2, and I doubt that game was considered as a Killer App. We had a Nintendo, and an N64 -- none of those consoles were bought for the purpose of playing any particular game. Perhaps there IS some hope of a successful console with no killer app..
Anyway, the only reason I thought of this entire subject was because I heard about a computer game that was in development. This game, is something that I have dreamed about for 9 years. As franchise, this game approaches the Warcraft franchise in terms of my favorite franchises.
Fallout
I read recently that Bethesda Softworks were now several years into the development of Fallout 3, and they were hiring more developers (graphics?) to get this thing into full gear. I must say when I heard this, my heart nearly skipped a beat. A game that I had been waiting for since the *second* I finished Fallout 2, has a strong possibility of being released in the near future.
I also read rumors of Fallout 3 coming out on Xbox 360. If there was ever a "killer app" for the 360, for me, this would be it. I would gladly pay $600 for the console just to play the next entry of this beloved franchise. Of course if it still comes out on PC, forget all that..
January 16, 2007
wiiBrian
I made a new year's resolution to start working out, the goal being for me to reach "healthy status" by the time I reach 30. Lon challenged me to work-out a few months ago, saying that he does it so that he can glorify God for as long as is humanly possible.. or something like that. I think that's a pretty good reason to work-out. The other reason would have been to get myself into shape to attract women, but since I already have a girlfriend, I'm just gonna go with the glorifying God reason.
Let's not kid ourselves here.. eBrian and "workout" simply are not two words you will often hear in the same sentence, least not in terms of a "commitment" that will last longer than 2-3 weeks. Although I have a reason to workout, I'm not exactly *UN*healthy, so what's to keep me from going along with my current routine? I need more incentive.
I read this website about this guy who spends 30 minutes per day playing Wii Sports for 6 weeks, and he lost an impressive 9 pounds. If you look at the site, you can see before and after pictures of his gut, which have noticeably shrunk. I am seriously gonna do this.
I have taken pictures of myself, but I will wait until the "after" pictures. I am committing myself to 30 days of training. That is, 30 times that I will blog about wiirking out. I will post the results on the 30th, or on April 1, 2007 (whichever comes first). I am not going to check my calories, or all that stuff. I am simply going to weigh myself each time, and report how long I wiiked out.
Wiirk-out #1
Weight: 152 lbs
Workout time: 8:00pm - 8:37pm
Let's not kid ourselves here.. eBrian and "workout" simply are not two words you will often hear in the same sentence, least not in terms of a "commitment" that will last longer than 2-3 weeks. Although I have a reason to workout, I'm not exactly *UN*healthy, so what's to keep me from going along with my current routine? I need more incentive.
I read this website about this guy who spends 30 minutes per day playing Wii Sports for 6 weeks, and he lost an impressive 9 pounds. If you look at the site, you can see before and after pictures of his gut, which have noticeably shrunk. I am seriously gonna do this.
I have taken pictures of myself, but I will wait until the "after" pictures. I am committing myself to 30 days of training. That is, 30 times that I will blog about wiirking out. I will post the results on the 30th, or on April 1, 2007 (whichever comes first). I am not going to check my calories, or all that stuff. I am simply going to weigh myself each time, and report how long I wiiked out.
Wiirk-out #1
Weight: 152 lbs
Workout time: 8:00pm - 8:37pm
January 09, 2007
Post #1001
Firstly, I have updated the comments to haloscan so that anyone can comment. I think people have been having trouble commenting because of the new Google-login feature of comments.
Anyway, I've decided to make a non-Urbana post regarding all I did during my vacation that was un-related to Urbana. It will be in list form and not organized at all. Good luck.
-The flight was seriously boring because my brother slept the entire time so I had no one to talk to
-I watched the movie "Invincible". Pretty good feel-good, zero-to-hero story. 7/10
-The lady sitting beside us evidently never flew before, she was complaining incessantly at the flight, food (no meals), drinks, pilot, Americans.
-Went to In-N-Out burger. Very good. VERY GOOD.
-I bought a laptop at Circuit City, it's a Toshiba Satellite, M115. It's mostly Vista compatible, but then again, it's not like I'll be using Vista any time soon.
-Went to Carl's Jr. These burgers are amazing. AMAZING.
-Vegas is seriously boring unless you gamble, smoke, or have never been there before.
-Watched "Pirates of the Caribbean 2". Quite possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. 0/10.
-Watched "The Break-Up" again. What a depressing movie, although it does have its moments. 6/10.
-Went to a Japanese restaurant called Osaka, which is supposed to be ranked #2 amongst Japanese restaurants in Vegas. I'll admit, the food was good. But expensive beyond belief. I got a chirashi that costed enough for 4 people to eat at Sushi Bong.
-Are you still reading?
-I saw and played a PS3 at an EB Games. They had 3 available at the store, but everyone was asking about Wii controllers. Anyway, out of the 3 new consoles (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), the PS3 has to be the biggest waste of money out there.
-The Colts defense is looking good, but the offense doesn't. How will they fair against the Ravens? The future isn't looking so bright.
-Big (lucky) win by Seattle. I can't help cheering for these guys after they got robbed of the Superbowl by the NFL officials last year.
-Urbana was awesome
-Went to Red Robin, yet another burger place. Burgers were huge. I was still burping up burger meat the next morning.
-Watched "Apocalypto". I've decided that Mel Gibson is a mad man. Pointless movie, but good action and very exciting. So much blood. The blood "cloud" was a neat effect.. 7/10.
-We went to Primm, NV, for their massive outlet mall. I walked through the door, took a right into BR and bought pretty much ALL the clothes for the day. Sales after sales after sales. It was great.
-When I arrived in St. Louis, I quickly texted Ina to see if she was still there, she was. Thank goodness, because I'm pretty sure I would have gotten lost without her.
-We (as in the non-student T3Cers) texted a whole lot throughout Urbana in order to track eachother down. I can't wait to see my cell phone bill. Telus is 15 cents per message.
-The hotel rooms were nice, at the Adam's Mark. Allan refused to share beds so we each had to take a turn on the floor.
-In fact, one night he decided to try sharing so I had to only use half the bed. When I woke up I found him on the floor again.. he couldn't stand the tiny space. Unfortunately I didn't know so I was scrunched up the entire night thinking he was still there.
-Allan called Mils every single night. I thought that was sweet and romantic (or just responsible?) of him.
-I have 4 weddings that I know of, to go to this year. This is surprising because I thought my group was finished. I guess this is the second wave.
-I can't believe you're still reading..
-We have a dog, named Dusty. He's a pug. He's soooo cute. I am proclaiming that Dusty is the cutest dog in the whole world. He knows he's cute. When you call him for a hug, he'll take his fine time coming out.. he'll yawn a few times, stretch his legs a bit and saunter over. It's the cutest thing (although also annoying sometimes because you just know he's taking his time on purpose).
-My mom refuses to set the temperature at home above 70 degrees. That's 21 C. Maybe I'm spoiled but that is really cold to me. Plus I think 21 degrees there is different from here because I have a relatively smaller area for the hot air to cover, and it retains the heat. For some reason, it always feels cold in the house at Las Vegas. Except of course in the summer when it was 37 degrees.
-A lot of people are getting sick. It's some kind of cold virus, that just won't go away. I hope I don't get it.
-Dexter's season finale was quite possibly the most surprising twist I've ever seen. There is no way I could have seen that one coming.
-Speaking of television, my brother and I caught up on Smallville and it is confirmed that this show is going down the drain. One really exciting (but since quashed) rumor was that there would be a spin-off of Smallville for a live-action Justice League. The prospects of this would be unbelievable, but think of the budget too. They recently attempted an Aquaman spin-off that crashed and burned before the pilot even aired.
-During my stay in Las Vegas, I watched and caught up for the show Battlestar Galactica. This is a great great show. I watched all of seasons 1 and 2, and then what's left of 3 so far. This show is so awesome..
-I watch way too much television.
-My mom told me that Rachel Ray won #2 for most influential female. #1 was that first female speaker in US government whatchmacallit. That one is impressive. But Rachel Ray? Really?!?
-I wonder if there are any naysayers of the TJ Ford for Charlie Villanueva trades left. Ford is a beast.
-My brother bought me Far Cry Vengeance for the Wii for Christmas. I haven't touched the Wii since I got back.. but then again I haven't really done anything period.
-I'm starting to get a little bit concerned that I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew, regarding my Perspectives project. Most people do these things in groups, of 3 or 4. I am doing it alone. 2 weeks left til the deadline..
So there you have it. A quick and brief update of my vacation.
Anyway, I've decided to make a non-Urbana post regarding all I did during my vacation that was un-related to Urbana. It will be in list form and not organized at all. Good luck.
-The flight was seriously boring because my brother slept the entire time so I had no one to talk to
-I watched the movie "Invincible". Pretty good feel-good, zero-to-hero story. 7/10
-The lady sitting beside us evidently never flew before, she was complaining incessantly at the flight, food (no meals), drinks, pilot, Americans.
-Went to In-N-Out burger. Very good. VERY GOOD.
-I bought a laptop at Circuit City, it's a Toshiba Satellite, M115. It's mostly Vista compatible, but then again, it's not like I'll be using Vista any time soon.
-Went to Carl's Jr. These burgers are amazing. AMAZING.
-Vegas is seriously boring unless you gamble, smoke, or have never been there before.
-Watched "Pirates of the Caribbean 2". Quite possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. 0/10.
-Watched "The Break-Up" again. What a depressing movie, although it does have its moments. 6/10.
-Went to a Japanese restaurant called Osaka, which is supposed to be ranked #2 amongst Japanese restaurants in Vegas. I'll admit, the food was good. But expensive beyond belief. I got a chirashi that costed enough for 4 people to eat at Sushi Bong.
-Are you still reading?
-I saw and played a PS3 at an EB Games. They had 3 available at the store, but everyone was asking about Wii controllers. Anyway, out of the 3 new consoles (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), the PS3 has to be the biggest waste of money out there.
-The Colts defense is looking good, but the offense doesn't. How will they fair against the Ravens? The future isn't looking so bright.
-Big (lucky) win by Seattle. I can't help cheering for these guys after they got robbed of the Superbowl by the NFL officials last year.
-Urbana was awesome
-Went to Red Robin, yet another burger place. Burgers were huge. I was still burping up burger meat the next morning.
-Watched "Apocalypto". I've decided that Mel Gibson is a mad man. Pointless movie, but good action and very exciting. So much blood. The blood "cloud" was a neat effect.. 7/10.
-We went to Primm, NV, for their massive outlet mall. I walked through the door, took a right into BR and bought pretty much ALL the clothes for the day. Sales after sales after sales. It was great.
-When I arrived in St. Louis, I quickly texted Ina to see if she was still there, she was. Thank goodness, because I'm pretty sure I would have gotten lost without her.
-We (as in the non-student T3Cers) texted a whole lot throughout Urbana in order to track eachother down. I can't wait to see my cell phone bill. Telus is 15 cents per message.
-The hotel rooms were nice, at the Adam's Mark. Allan refused to share beds so we each had to take a turn on the floor.
-In fact, one night he decided to try sharing so I had to only use half the bed. When I woke up I found him on the floor again.. he couldn't stand the tiny space. Unfortunately I didn't know so I was scrunched up the entire night thinking he was still there.
-Allan called Mils every single night. I thought that was sweet and romantic (or just responsible?) of him.
-I have 4 weddings that I know of, to go to this year. This is surprising because I thought my group was finished. I guess this is the second wave.
-I can't believe you're still reading..
-We have a dog, named Dusty. He's a pug. He's soooo cute. I am proclaiming that Dusty is the cutest dog in the whole world. He knows he's cute. When you call him for a hug, he'll take his fine time coming out.. he'll yawn a few times, stretch his legs a bit and saunter over. It's the cutest thing (although also annoying sometimes because you just know he's taking his time on purpose).
-My mom refuses to set the temperature at home above 70 degrees. That's 21 C. Maybe I'm spoiled but that is really cold to me. Plus I think 21 degrees there is different from here because I have a relatively smaller area for the hot air to cover, and it retains the heat. For some reason, it always feels cold in the house at Las Vegas. Except of course in the summer when it was 37 degrees.
-A lot of people are getting sick. It's some kind of cold virus, that just won't go away. I hope I don't get it.
-Dexter's season finale was quite possibly the most surprising twist I've ever seen. There is no way I could have seen that one coming.
-Speaking of television, my brother and I caught up on Smallville and it is confirmed that this show is going down the drain. One really exciting (but since quashed) rumor was that there would be a spin-off of Smallville for a live-action Justice League. The prospects of this would be unbelievable, but think of the budget too. They recently attempted an Aquaman spin-off that crashed and burned before the pilot even aired.
-During my stay in Las Vegas, I watched and caught up for the show Battlestar Galactica. This is a great great show. I watched all of seasons 1 and 2, and then what's left of 3 so far. This show is so awesome..
-I watch way too much television.
-My mom told me that Rachel Ray won #2 for most influential female. #1 was that first female speaker in US government whatchmacallit. That one is impressive. But Rachel Ray? Really?!?
-I wonder if there are any naysayers of the TJ Ford for Charlie Villanueva trades left. Ford is a beast.
-My brother bought me Far Cry Vengeance for the Wii for Christmas. I haven't touched the Wii since I got back.. but then again I haven't really done anything period.
-I'm starting to get a little bit concerned that I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew, regarding my Perspectives project. Most people do these things in groups, of 3 or 4. I am doing it alone. 2 weeks left til the deadline..
So there you have it. A quick and brief update of my vacation.
November 23, 2006
Review: Wii Sports (Wii, duh)
Wii Sports comes with the Wii Console as a throw-in. And as a throw-in, I believe this game is very much underrated. Wii Sports is comprised of 5 different games that are said to introduce gamers to the world of Wii, that is, using and getting used to the wiimote and nunchuk through various sports that are quite intuitive to the controls.
There are 5 sports included with the Wii Sports -- Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Boxing and Golf. What's interesting is that everyone who purchased a Wii in North America got Wii Sports -- but everyone else who bought a Wii around the world got a game called "Wii Play", which actually contains 10 different mini-games. The mini-games are: Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Fishing, Find Mii (variant of Where's Waldo), Pose Mii (not sure what this is), Shooting (Duck Hunt?), Pool, Charge! (apparently some kind of bull-riding game), and Tanks. Although some of these sound pretty stupid, it seems a little unfair that we don't get this package. The latest rumors are that eventually, we will get this game as a throw-in to a new controller, possibly in the new year.
I'm going to go through each sport and give each its pros and cons before wrapping up the game as a whole.
Oh, before I get into it -- What is a "Mii"? A "Mii" is a basic profile on the Wii console. Wii allows you to create profiles, which can be attached to your wiimote so that you can use your wiimote and profile on other Wii consoles. You can customize your Mii's appearance with an editor built into the Wii. It's a fun concept and I even made a Mii that looked somewhat like me, but all in all, it's pretty silly.
Wii Golf
The golf game is decent. You hold the wiimote like it were the shaft of a golf club, and hold A to swing. It measures how far back you swung from, your follow throw, and how quickly you swung. If you swing wildly, you'll shank the ball and it'll spin out of control and likely miss where you were aiming. I found this to be pretty tricky, because I would have just wailed it and now I have to control my swing. After a few holes (with scores of +8, +9 on par 4s), I settled down and managed to get a few pars and bogey's.
Wii Boxing
This particular one is not great. You require the nunchuk to act as your left (or right, depending on what-handed your Mii is) and basically you punch it. Overhead punches are jabs while low ones are body shots. I've managed to get a few uppercuts but they're almost always blocked. If you hold your hands up, you'll block punches to your face, and low for blocking body shots. If you hold the wiimotes to your waist and lean your body, it will detect that an your Mii will lean back and away. This is great for avoiding punches. The biggest problem with this game is that the sensor is unable to process quick flurries of punches. You need to punch by reach far forward, and then retract back to your body before you punch again. If you don't do this your Mii's arm reaches out for a punch and then stays out there. The Wii isn't very good at sensing that you reached back for a new punch. I find this to be the case for any action based on reaching forward to backward.
Wii Tennis
This is the best game in my opinion from Wii Sports. You hold the wiimote like the handle of a tennis racket and just play tennis. I haven't fully mastered it yet, I know that there is a way to get a very fast serve in, but I've only gotten it once or twice. Swinging fast or slow does seem to make a difference, and timing is a big thing, if you hit early, it will take a bigger angle, later, big angle the other way. Wii Tennis is doubles' only, so you can choose to control one player, or two. You can even control all 4, but I think you'd get tired pretty quickly. Wii Tennis moves the players around for you so all you need to do is swing. Often this is a lifesaver because if you are controlling two characters, if the front guy misses, you still have a chance with the guy in the back. I'm totally loving this game as I've found it provides a pretty good workout for the arms.
Wii Baseball
Wii Baseball is okay. There isn't a whole lot of control, you are either swinging (swinging low or high makes no difference) or pitching (throwing motion is standard, you can't actually control your pitch). By holding different buttons while pitching, you'll get different types of pitches like a fastball, curveball, sinker. For swinging as far as I can tell no amount of buttons will help you. I strike out a lot. A LOT. I've hit 3 homers out of playing about 10 times. You also don't run around the bases or do any of the fielding, it's all done for you. A single just means if you hit the ball and none of the infielders caught it. Even if it's a grounder to third base, it's an automatic out. If you hit it into the outfield and no one catches it, it's a double by default. I have heard of people getting triples.. I have never seen this yet. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward. What I do like about this game is that you can swat the bat around and imitate stances. For instance, Gary Sheffield and how he kind of shakes the bat a lot while he's waiting for a pitch. But it adds nothing to the swing so it's just for aesthetics.
Wii Bowling
Wii Bowling is second to Tennis. It's a whole lot of fun. You hold down B and go for the bowl, and when you release B, you release the ball. I have seen stories of someone letting go of the entire wiimote and have it hurtling into a television. I've seen screenshots of CRACKS in peoples' televisions because of this. This scares me A LOT. However, if you look past that, it's a whole lot of fun. You can put a lot of spin in the ball or none at all, depending on the orientation of the wiimote during your bowling motion. It's not completely realistic though, as I bowled a 186 on my first try. In real life the best I ever bowled was a 149, and I usually average around 60.
So, each of the games has it's moments and in particular, Tennis and Bowling. I would rank them in the following order:
1. Tennis
2. Bowling
3. Golf
4. Baseball
5. Boxing
Moreover into the game features is a training mode where there are mini-games for each of the sports and 3 different types of challenges that help you to hone your skills in each sport. My favorite one is a target practice with Tennis, where you are basically hitting the ball against a wall as practice. This is incredible for working out, and you really get a good feel for timing your hits and switching from front-hand to back-hand when needed.
On top of the training mode is an interesting tool that put you through 3-4 of the mini-games and measures your "fitness age". The first time I ran this thing, I scored 49 years old. Ouch. I did this a second time a few days later and scored 31. Now that's more like it..
The sounds are pretty mundane, nothing special but then again, how special should it be, you're just hitting a ball in most cases. Graphics are nothing special either, they're completely cartoonish-driven, the golf scenery is nothing to brag about. What I do like is that the wiimote emits sounds so when you hit a ball, you hear it get hit. This is and will be a great feature for likely any game for the Wii. Feedback sound is just a really great idea and other consoles should have thought of this too.
Overall I really enjoy this game, a lot more than I thought I would. If you'll recall I bought Call of Duty 3 because I wasn't sure Wii Sports would hold me over very long. But I often find myself popping that disc back in to try to beat those darn computers at Tennis.
Sound: 8/10
Controls: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it came free!)
Fun Factor: 10/10
Overall score: 45/50.
I haven't even played this game with other people yet, and I'm betting it will be even more fun, considering it was designed for multiplayer. I can hardly wait to have people over and watching the looks on their faces of smiles, determination and ultimately, frustration while playing this.
I think I might have them sign a waiver in case a wiimote goes flying towards my TV, someone must pay!!
There are 5 sports included with the Wii Sports -- Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Boxing and Golf. What's interesting is that everyone who purchased a Wii in North America got Wii Sports -- but everyone else who bought a Wii around the world got a game called "Wii Play", which actually contains 10 different mini-games. The mini-games are: Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Fishing, Find Mii (variant of Where's Waldo), Pose Mii (not sure what this is), Shooting (Duck Hunt?), Pool, Charge! (apparently some kind of bull-riding game), and Tanks. Although some of these sound pretty stupid, it seems a little unfair that we don't get this package. The latest rumors are that eventually, we will get this game as a throw-in to a new controller, possibly in the new year.
I'm going to go through each sport and give each its pros and cons before wrapping up the game as a whole.
Oh, before I get into it -- What is a "Mii"? A "Mii" is a basic profile on the Wii console. Wii allows you to create profiles, which can be attached to your wiimote so that you can use your wiimote and profile on other Wii consoles. You can customize your Mii's appearance with an editor built into the Wii. It's a fun concept and I even made a Mii that looked somewhat like me, but all in all, it's pretty silly.
Wii Golf
The golf game is decent. You hold the wiimote like it were the shaft of a golf club, and hold A to swing. It measures how far back you swung from, your follow throw, and how quickly you swung. If you swing wildly, you'll shank the ball and it'll spin out of control and likely miss where you were aiming. I found this to be pretty tricky, because I would have just wailed it and now I have to control my swing. After a few holes (with scores of +8, +9 on par 4s), I settled down and managed to get a few pars and bogey's.
Wii Boxing
This particular one is not great. You require the nunchuk to act as your left (or right, depending on what-handed your Mii is) and basically you punch it. Overhead punches are jabs while low ones are body shots. I've managed to get a few uppercuts but they're almost always blocked. If you hold your hands up, you'll block punches to your face, and low for blocking body shots. If you hold the wiimotes to your waist and lean your body, it will detect that an your Mii will lean back and away. This is great for avoiding punches. The biggest problem with this game is that the sensor is unable to process quick flurries of punches. You need to punch by reach far forward, and then retract back to your body before you punch again. If you don't do this your Mii's arm reaches out for a punch and then stays out there. The Wii isn't very good at sensing that you reached back for a new punch. I find this to be the case for any action based on reaching forward to backward.
Wii Tennis
This is the best game in my opinion from Wii Sports. You hold the wiimote like the handle of a tennis racket and just play tennis. I haven't fully mastered it yet, I know that there is a way to get a very fast serve in, but I've only gotten it once or twice. Swinging fast or slow does seem to make a difference, and timing is a big thing, if you hit early, it will take a bigger angle, later, big angle the other way. Wii Tennis is doubles' only, so you can choose to control one player, or two. You can even control all 4, but I think you'd get tired pretty quickly. Wii Tennis moves the players around for you so all you need to do is swing. Often this is a lifesaver because if you are controlling two characters, if the front guy misses, you still have a chance with the guy in the back. I'm totally loving this game as I've found it provides a pretty good workout for the arms.
Wii Baseball
Wii Baseball is okay. There isn't a whole lot of control, you are either swinging (swinging low or high makes no difference) or pitching (throwing motion is standard, you can't actually control your pitch). By holding different buttons while pitching, you'll get different types of pitches like a fastball, curveball, sinker. For swinging as far as I can tell no amount of buttons will help you. I strike out a lot. A LOT. I've hit 3 homers out of playing about 10 times. You also don't run around the bases or do any of the fielding, it's all done for you. A single just means if you hit the ball and none of the infielders caught it. Even if it's a grounder to third base, it's an automatic out. If you hit it into the outfield and no one catches it, it's a double by default. I have heard of people getting triples.. I have never seen this yet. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward. What I do like about this game is that you can swat the bat around and imitate stances. For instance, Gary Sheffield and how he kind of shakes the bat a lot while he's waiting for a pitch. But it adds nothing to the swing so it's just for aesthetics.
Wii Bowling
Wii Bowling is second to Tennis. It's a whole lot of fun. You hold down B and go for the bowl, and when you release B, you release the ball. I have seen stories of someone letting go of the entire wiimote and have it hurtling into a television. I've seen screenshots of CRACKS in peoples' televisions because of this. This scares me A LOT. However, if you look past that, it's a whole lot of fun. You can put a lot of spin in the ball or none at all, depending on the orientation of the wiimote during your bowling motion. It's not completely realistic though, as I bowled a 186 on my first try. In real life the best I ever bowled was a 149, and I usually average around 60.
So, each of the games has it's moments and in particular, Tennis and Bowling. I would rank them in the following order:
1. Tennis
2. Bowling
3. Golf
4. Baseball
5. Boxing
Moreover into the game features is a training mode where there are mini-games for each of the sports and 3 different types of challenges that help you to hone your skills in each sport. My favorite one is a target practice with Tennis, where you are basically hitting the ball against a wall as practice. This is incredible for working out, and you really get a good feel for timing your hits and switching from front-hand to back-hand when needed.
On top of the training mode is an interesting tool that put you through 3-4 of the mini-games and measures your "fitness age". The first time I ran this thing, I scored 49 years old. Ouch. I did this a second time a few days later and scored 31. Now that's more like it..
The sounds are pretty mundane, nothing special but then again, how special should it be, you're just hitting a ball in most cases. Graphics are nothing special either, they're completely cartoonish-driven, the golf scenery is nothing to brag about. What I do like is that the wiimote emits sounds so when you hit a ball, you hear it get hit. This is and will be a great feature for likely any game for the Wii. Feedback sound is just a really great idea and other consoles should have thought of this too.
Overall I really enjoy this game, a lot more than I thought I would. If you'll recall I bought Call of Duty 3 because I wasn't sure Wii Sports would hold me over very long. But I often find myself popping that disc back in to try to beat those darn computers at Tennis.
Sound: 8/10
Controls: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it came free!)
Fun Factor: 10/10
Overall score: 45/50.
I haven't even played this game with other people yet, and I'm betting it will be even more fun, considering it was designed for multiplayer. I can hardly wait to have people over and watching the looks on their faces of smiles, determination and ultimately, frustration while playing this.
I think I might have them sign a waiver in case a wiimote goes flying towards my TV, someone must pay!!
November 21, 2006
Review: Call of Duty 3 (Wii)
I bought Call of Duty 3 (CoD) on a whim. Standing behind the cash register at Electronic Boutique Games (EB) I pondered about when I would be receiving my Future Shop (FS) games in the mail. It was a Sunday so I knew it would be at least a couple days. Could Wii Sports hold me over for 2 whole days? I had heard Wii Sports has no depth at all. And having seen a cool video of a person playing Call of Duty 3, I decided this was the game to get, so I slapped down an extra $65 on top of my console, controllers, etc.
This being an impulse purchase, I was immediately cast into doubt when the guy beside me at the other cash registered pointed out to me that CoD doesn't have multiplayer. But with me being silly and basically too giddy to think rationally, I ignored him, signed the receipt and walked out of the store proudly, beaming from ear to ear.
Initially, I found the controls to be pretty awkward. While playing First Person Shooters (FPS) with XBox and GameCube, I had grown accustomed to sitting down, laying back and just playing FPS with my hands in my lap with the controller. But with the added remote controller aspect of the Wii, I now had to have one hand holding the remote and pointing it at the screen at all times. Little movements of my hand from side to side would make my guy turn left and right, while the nunchuk controlled movement forward, backward, and strafing. The biggest difference is that on a conventional console, you can only shoot at whatever is in the middle of your screen. Now, you can aim anywhere on the screen and then to make the guy turn, you need to point just outside of the guys' field of vision. So think of it as a rectangle "shooting area" within the screen, and when you pointed outside the screen, the player would turn.
So initially I had a helluva a time, even just getting through the tutorial. Another problem with the controls I found was that the grenade buttons (Left and Right on the directional pad) was too far up from where my thumb was resting, which was at the A button. Furthermore, to need to reach down again below the A button to the "-" key in order to commandeer vehicles or stationary guns a little troublesome. My hands were just too small or maybe my thumb was too short. In the tutorial I had to throw a grenade into a window, and I had a really tough time pointing above the window without making him just look into the sky, and then reach way up over to the grenade button. It really makes shooting and throwing a grenade at the same time quite difficult -- though I suppose it's a little more realistic.
I'm not going to make too much fuss over the graphics. The Wii's graphics are equivalent to XBox/PS2 graphics. I find this game a little darker than it could be. I'm also sure this game would look better on 480p, but unfortunately the component cables don't come out until December.
Eventually I did get used to the controls and started to kick some Nazi butt.
Other aspects of the game include: Setting up explosives, paddling a boat, driving a tank, driving a jeep, operating turrets, wrestling enemy soldiers. I had the most trouble wrestling. Basically there are times when a german will get the jump on you and you find yourself face to face with him and he's trying to use the rifle to choke you to death. A little window pops up to show you how to manipulate the controller to fight the guy off, and the subsequently knock him in the face with the butt of your gun. It sounds easy but it is NOT.
The most fun I had outside of plain running and gunning, was the driving. It's a whole lot of fun. You hold the nunchuk at 9 o'clock and the Wiimote at 3 o'clock, and you just start driving as if your hands were on a wheel. This is absolutely great fun! The Wiimotes vibrate and give off sounds and I had a great time driving this one jeep through a tank area, whenever one fired upon us, you'd feel a strong rumble from the wiimote. It was absolutely great and gives me great insights as to how great a racing game will be. Possibly a Mario Kart or something of that sort.
If there's one thing I would have to complain about Call of Duty 3, it's the value. With no multiplayer capabilities, this game has limited replayability. Once you finish all the campaigns, there's nothing left except to try it on a harder level. This creates havoc because you're spending $65 on something that might last a month tops, but more likely, 2-3 weeks. If you were a kid and had more time to play, I could see someone finishing in less than 2 weeks, which really limits the value of this game.
One other thing that bothered me was how far back they put you when you die. You could spend 20 minutes getting through a mission and if you die right before you complete, you're sent all the way back from where you started 20 minutes ago. That's a big pain -- though if I recall correctly, the Call of Duty series has always been this way.
So in summary: Call of Duty 3 is very fun. Lack of multiplayer gives it low value and low replayability. Adjustment is needed to get used to the controls. Sounds are great, though a little repetitive -- when your mate yells out "Outta here!" for billionth time, I am thinking "shut up!". Cutscenes are great, good conversation and voice acting. Graphics are average. I think they could have done better, though I really have nothing to compare it to at this point.
Sound: 7/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Fun Factor: 10/10
Overall score: 38/50.
If you like FPS games, you will like this game, regardless of it's longterm value. That I am quite sure of. I love FPS, but I'm also looking for longterm value.
Note: I called EB to see how much I could get for this game if I traded it back. It was a measely $22 -- for a 2 day old game!! I then found a person on RedFlagDeals to trade with. I'll be trading CoD for Super Monkey Ball tomorrow evening.
This being an impulse purchase, I was immediately cast into doubt when the guy beside me at the other cash registered pointed out to me that CoD doesn't have multiplayer. But with me being silly and basically too giddy to think rationally, I ignored him, signed the receipt and walked out of the store proudly, beaming from ear to ear.
Initially, I found the controls to be pretty awkward. While playing First Person Shooters (FPS) with XBox and GameCube, I had grown accustomed to sitting down, laying back and just playing FPS with my hands in my lap with the controller. But with the added remote controller aspect of the Wii, I now had to have one hand holding the remote and pointing it at the screen at all times. Little movements of my hand from side to side would make my guy turn left and right, while the nunchuk controlled movement forward, backward, and strafing. The biggest difference is that on a conventional console, you can only shoot at whatever is in the middle of your screen. Now, you can aim anywhere on the screen and then to make the guy turn, you need to point just outside of the guys' field of vision. So think of it as a rectangle "shooting area" within the screen, and when you pointed outside the screen, the player would turn.
So initially I had a helluva a time, even just getting through the tutorial. Another problem with the controls I found was that the grenade buttons (Left and Right on the directional pad) was too far up from where my thumb was resting, which was at the A button. Furthermore, to need to reach down again below the A button to the "-" key in order to commandeer vehicles or stationary guns a little troublesome. My hands were just too small or maybe my thumb was too short. In the tutorial I had to throw a grenade into a window, and I had a really tough time pointing above the window without making him just look into the sky, and then reach way up over to the grenade button. It really makes shooting and throwing a grenade at the same time quite difficult -- though I suppose it's a little more realistic.
I'm not going to make too much fuss over the graphics. The Wii's graphics are equivalent to XBox/PS2 graphics. I find this game a little darker than it could be. I'm also sure this game would look better on 480p, but unfortunately the component cables don't come out until December.
Eventually I did get used to the controls and started to kick some Nazi butt.
Other aspects of the game include: Setting up explosives, paddling a boat, driving a tank, driving a jeep, operating turrets, wrestling enemy soldiers. I had the most trouble wrestling. Basically there are times when a german will get the jump on you and you find yourself face to face with him and he's trying to use the rifle to choke you to death. A little window pops up to show you how to manipulate the controller to fight the guy off, and the subsequently knock him in the face with the butt of your gun. It sounds easy but it is NOT.
The most fun I had outside of plain running and gunning, was the driving. It's a whole lot of fun. You hold the nunchuk at 9 o'clock and the Wiimote at 3 o'clock, and you just start driving as if your hands were on a wheel. This is absolutely great fun! The Wiimotes vibrate and give off sounds and I had a great time driving this one jeep through a tank area, whenever one fired upon us, you'd feel a strong rumble from the wiimote. It was absolutely great and gives me great insights as to how great a racing game will be. Possibly a Mario Kart or something of that sort.
If there's one thing I would have to complain about Call of Duty 3, it's the value. With no multiplayer capabilities, this game has limited replayability. Once you finish all the campaigns, there's nothing left except to try it on a harder level. This creates havoc because you're spending $65 on something that might last a month tops, but more likely, 2-3 weeks. If you were a kid and had more time to play, I could see someone finishing in less than 2 weeks, which really limits the value of this game.
One other thing that bothered me was how far back they put you when you die. You could spend 20 minutes getting through a mission and if you die right before you complete, you're sent all the way back from where you started 20 minutes ago. That's a big pain -- though if I recall correctly, the Call of Duty series has always been this way.
So in summary: Call of Duty 3 is very fun. Lack of multiplayer gives it low value and low replayability. Adjustment is needed to get used to the controls. Sounds are great, though a little repetitive -- when your mate yells out "Outta here!" for billionth time, I am thinking "shut up!". Cutscenes are great, good conversation and voice acting. Graphics are average. I think they could have done better, though I really have nothing to compare it to at this point.
Sound: 7/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Fun Factor: 10/10
Overall score: 38/50.
If you like FPS games, you will like this game, regardless of it's longterm value. That I am quite sure of. I love FPS, but I'm also looking for longterm value.
Note: I called EB to see how much I could get for this game if I traded it back. It was a measely $22 -- for a 2 day old game!! I then found a person on RedFlagDeals to trade with. I'll be trading CoD for Super Monkey Ball tomorrow evening.
October 18, 2006
The Nintendo Wii
I am, by all means, a Nintendo fanboy. I lined up on Monday morning at 7:15am (just as the sun speak out above the horizon) in front of my local EB Games store in the hopes of getting a pre-order for the new console by Nintendo, the Wii. 7:15am is nothing as the people in the front of the line had been there at 9pm the night before, and I'd count myself lucky because only 2 more people behind me got a Wii pre-order that day, everyone else went home empty handed.
Here is a great article about the Wii that surely should inspire your imagination.
Here is a great article about the Wii that surely should inspire your imagination.
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