Weekly Wrap-up in Gaming - March 7 - 13

So, I wasn't exactly true to my word from last week.  I said I'd have Sly 2 and 3 done this week, and ultimately, I just wasn't able to do that, because Sly 2 was, well, rather lengthy in comparison to the original.  So lengthy that I didn't even get to finish it until the other day, wherein I immediately began Sly 3 and began to see why some people didn't like it/care for it.  But we'll get to that one in a bit, now is Sly 2 Talk time, since I've beaten it.

While I am a firm believer in saying that there is no such thing as "too much of a good thing", I liked Sly 2, but felt it went on a little too long.  Or, rather, that there was a little too much reusing going on.  The first time it happened, it really made sense, and it was actually a little interesting to end up going against the same set of foes a second time in a different location.  Unfortunately, Sucker Punch must have thought that as well, because that's what the rest of the game turned into.  Which, some places it worked; I liked the set of foes that came with Jean Bison and the settings they were in.  I couldn't stand Prague though.  Neither time.  Well, I don't think the second was still Prague, but saying the boss is a bit of a spoiler, even though the trophy list spoils, well, every game.

By the end of things, I came to loathe playing as Bentley as well, since hacking games were inevitable and, well, Sucker Punch doesn't make stick-shooters for a reason.  (The reason is that, if the Hacking Mini-games are any indication, they are not very good at it.)  Also, I guess they really wanted to push the idea that Bentley attracts danger (Which, well, plays a key point in the ending) since his jobs always seemed a little more perilous, or at least put you in situations where one hit was too much.  (Bad Juju Bomb, Crypt Battery) (I'm noticing that all my complaints are really in play during the two Prague sections.  Hrm.)  "The Murray" was always pretty cool, though.  Except for the Tank-sequences.  Screw the Tank-sequences.

There's not a lot I can say about the ending without being too spoilery, so.....I'm going to be a bit spoilery.  Sooo, ahem, SPOILERS BEYOND:

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Well, Clockwerk is probably my least favorite boss sequence of anything that I can think of, and Clock-la isn't much better.  In fact, it's pretty much the same fight; stupid shooter section with horrible controls that goes on far too long, followed by a bullshit-platforming sequence.  At least, I think that's how the Clock-la sequence went.  I know both of those were there, and I'm pretty sure in that order, but I'm not 100% positive I remember it right.

The story kind of falls flat towards the end, as well.  Oh boy, Neyla's a double-agent, let's all act surprised!  In Prague, she only kept yelling, "NO THAT EYE IS MINE IT'S MINE IT'S MINE" and all, like she was interested in collecting it for more than evidence.  The surprise bitch-turn was a little unexpected; I certainly didn't imagine she'd just up and kill Arpeggio like she did, but, well, it happened, and was pretty much the high-point of the end-game aside from the Sly parts of the ending itself.  I really got to enjoy the relationship between Carmelita and Sly and liked how it worked out, even though I would have liked to see her introduced to the gang proper.  In fact, that's what I figured would happen in the third game, certainly not what ends up happening.

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SPOILERS ABOVE

So, all-in-all, I really did like Sly 2, certainly more than the first game, but I wish they could have paced it out a little better or made it seem like it was a little more than a game-padding thing.  Maybe switch around two of the sections so you go up against one boss, then the next.  Or something.  And a slightly better ending wouldn't have been too much to ask for.

I've not made it too far into Sly 3, much like I hadn't gotten too far into Sly 2 last weekend, so there's not a lot I -can- say about it.  Something I would like to say is, Dear God, Sucker Punch do a better job of locking down Voice-Actors.  Everytime I listen to Carmelita I just want her to not exist anymore.  And "The Murray"s VA is clearly not the old one, yet is trying to voice him exactly like he was.  It does not work out.  I'm pretty sure Sly and Bentley are the only two returning VAs, which is really just a shame.  I grew to enjoy Sly 2's voicework on the whole, so to be put into basically the same game where it's all different is a little off-putting.

I would like to take a brief moment to talk about the Mini-games packed into the Collection.

They suck.

And now I would like to take a less-brief moment to talk about the Mini-games packed into the Collection.  The ones I'm talking about, of course, are the extra ones they made(?) specifically for the collection, that people thought would require Playstation Move to play.  They do not, but Move does make them much better.  And one of those things that I noticed that really made me happy was that, after calibration, it'd set you up with a color, and then when you picked a character, the Ball would change to that characters color.  Blue for Sly, Green for Bentley, Pink for "The Murray", and Yellow for Carmelita. Little touches like that just make things a little neat.  Much neater than the games themselves.  They take about a minute to complete each, and you'll likely get both trophies per game on your first try, or definitely your second.  There's eight; four for just playing the games, and four for getting scores specifically over a certain amount.

They really don't do anything and feel like something you could throw together in flash in an afternoon.  A shooting gallery, a different shooting gallery, an RC copter race and....I forget.  I think another shooting gallery.  It really really gives the impression of an afterthought which is genuinely unfortunate, as I was hoping for something neat to come from Sucker Punch in regards to Move.  Doesn't really give me a lot of extra hope for inFamous 2 in that regard at least.

Anyways, beyond that, my PSP has been neglected once again, as I only played a little bit of Valkyria Chronicles 2 this week, once again simply grinding.  Though I did attempt one of the two final missions, started driving my tank, had it killed by interception fire from the bullshit boss character and went, "NOPE".  I'm really hesitant to say whether I'll ever bother to truly finish the story, which bothers me a lot actually.  Because I know I don't want to deal with that and whatever abomination the final mission throws my way.  Oh well, it was a great game while it lasted.

And again, no flash games this week, so I suppose that's it for this edition!  I might do a different post next Sunday if my gaming week is as uneventful as just playing basically one game again.  Or I might try playing more games!