Happy Halloween, Walkers

Is it appropriate that I finally finished The Walking Dead Season One on Vita on Halloween?  Because I think so.  I very much think so.  Because The Walking Dead is very much a horror-themed game, but not exactly because of the zombies or the scares involving them.  No, no, that...that would be a little too easy.  I'm sure everyone knows this by now since I'm playing catch-up with the rest of the world, but Telltale's version of The Walking Dead presents real, gut-wrenching terror in the choices that have to be made by Lee, the man whom you assume control of for the entirety of the five episodes.  It's no spoiler to say that you hold lives in your hands, virtual though they might be, and the game makes sure you feel that weight which is impressive to say the very least.

I didn't expect that.  Call me cynical, but when I hear universal praise for a game, I expect it to be disappointing, hype aside, because it's just happened so many times before.  Portal bored and frustrated me, Bioshock convinced me that I simply have differing opinions on what makes a Hard mode hard and Assassin's Creed 2 managed to only get a resounding "meh" from me when all was said and done, because for all the right it did, it did so much wrong.  So I went into The Walking Dead expecting...well, not really expecting anything because I feared to be disappointed and secretly hoped to be overwhelmed.  Obviously, the latter happened, and in the good way, clearly, which is something that honestly surprises me given how these things generally work out.

It has to be stated, however, that the game is not a technical marvel by any means and will leave you wanting if you're intensely put off by such things.  Framerate hitches and drops are commonplace - even at times where such a thing is deadly - audio stutters are not uncommon and I even had a moment where Lee managed to break every amount of tension by moonwalking away from someone for...some reason.  I'm assured that it was not intentional.  I'm fairly confident that these issues are present in all versions of the game, not just the Vita port, and while it's no small thing, it's something that I'm willing to ignore for the sake of what the game offers otherwise.  It's well worth it, I assure you.

Not since the likes of Alpha Protocol have I seen a Conversation and Relationship system work in quite such an encompassing way as The Walking Dead's system manages.  I dare say that it's not quite as complex as Alpha Protocol's, and it has a feature that basically 'lifts the curtain' of it, so to speak, that tells you what decisions -really- matter, versus the ones that might not beyond a little context.  You can turn it off, and you might wish to as seeing "Kenny will remember that." or "You scared Clementine." in the upper left corner might make your meta-gaming instincts take over.  It's clearly these decisions that decide your path and who will be joining you -on- that path, which is sometimes based on that one decision alone, but other times decided based on that one and previous ones which is fairly clever.

I am now admittedly far more interested in The Wolf Among Us than I was previously, but the technical foibles of TWD as a whole have cemented my purchasing decision for me already.  As in, I will be waiting for the entire season to be out and discounted before I put money on the Season fully.  It's only the tipping point of the decision, however, as were they not present, I'm fairly confident that I would have a difficult decision to make.  I did really like TWD and found it...actually inspiring, as in don't expect this to be my last post of it, but the episodic structure would drive me crazy (I don't know how people didn't riot in the streets after Episode 3 came out and they had to wait for Episode 4) and I honestly have a lot on my plate as it is without introducing something that requires a long-term commitment as this does, technically, due to the protracted releases.  So it's far less of a issue than it is an excuse, I suppose.  Still, the waiting for the full TWAU Season One on Vita is going to be difficult...just as the wait for TWD Season Two will be excruciating.

seriously, the moonwalk just ruined that entire moment (near end of chapter 2) and it almost made me mad that it did so

Halloween Sales Are Here

In today's Store Update, there's, among a lot of other things, a rather large sale based around the Halloween season, putting a grip of Horror-themed games on sale for scary low prices.  (Yes, I fucking went there, no, I didn't have to)  From Resident Evil in a few different iterations, to Dead Island to The Walking Dead and even including The Last Of Us (which is a very specific sub-set of horror, I'm sure), there seems to be a little something for everyone no matter your tastes and all of them seem like good picks to get into the holiday season, as it were.  There are two games in the sale, however, that stand out a little more than the others to me, and it's because of some very specific reasons.

Corpse Party and Corpse Party:  Book of Shadows for the PSP (Vita-compatible) are both on sale for half-off the normal price ($10 instead of $20) and are both definitely something you should look into.  Brought over to American shores by the always-wonderful XSEED Games, Corpse Party seems to invoke little else but disinterest when one looks at the basic sprites and presentation, but looks are quite deceiving.  Encapsulated in Corpse Party is one of the tensest, most fucking frightening experiences I've ever had in a video game and it's due in no small part to the minimalistic presentation (aside from the Visual Novel-esque full art static screens) and the Voice Acting.  To keep costs down, as well as hold true the actual mood of the game, the Voice Acting in the game is all the original Japanese and it...well...Nobody can do Horror like the Japanese.

I'm going to be honest with everyone here - I bought Corpse Party on a Halloween Sale last year and I was determined that I was going to enjoy the experience as everyone suggests.  Played on the Vita (for the crisper visuals, if just slightly), in the dark (to set the mood) and with headphones (to truly enjoy and experience the voice-work and the directional sound design) is supposed to be the key environment for some Corpse Partying.  I was doing that.  Here's a little useful tip:

Don't do that.

Well, actually -do- that, just don't be surprised when you find yourself in fear for your fucking life.  I played the first chapter of Corpse Party and got all three endings for it.  That was all I could do.  The chapter was not very long, but I still required three different sessions of gameplay to complete it because I got so tense and out of sorts that I just literally could not function.  It doesn't help that one particular scene is burned into my brain so that I can perfectly recall it at any given time, mostly thanks to the VA because nobody screams like Japanese women.  I should state that I do not regret my purchase at all - in fact, I encourage yours and I know I'm going to drop $10 on Book of Shadows as well.  However, I do so with full knowledge that I will likely never play it because it is fucking terrifying.

So basically my point is that Corpse Party and Book of Shadows are perfect for this time of year because the whole point is to get scared shitless.  There are few things that are $20 or less that will offer quite as many scares.

seriously, hearing that screamed line is never a good thing and it happens all the time and goddamnit brain -stop doing that-

Halloween Time - How to Celebrate?

So, it is the season and while I'm not much of a celebrator of the holidays, aside from Christmas, Halloween certainly adds an interesting temptation that not a lot of other times could offer.  I figure that I've changed a lot of how I normally do things this year, so why not actually get into the spirit of the times and do something?  Of course, the question this poses is just what do I do?  And, aside from going out and causing mischief or begging for candy, there's not a whole lot associated with Halloween that immediately springs to mind, but luckily for us there are certain other things associated with the spirit that counts.

The immediate thing that comes to mind, of course, is the Horror that's so commonly associated with the principle of Halloween.  I guess the way I could go about this would be to watch one of the few Horror movies I have or toss in Dead Space; the latter would likely cause the desired effect over the former, though, since Dead Space always knew how to send a chill up my spine no matter what.  Especially since when I left off, I believe I was trying for my Impossible trophy and the One Gun trophy at the same time, which is tailor-made for "Oh shit" moments, I would suggest.  That's sounding more and more appealing now that I mention it..

Then there is the possibility of finally sitting down and giving the Vampire:  The Masquerade books I bought a look over as the game has come up a lot lately in conversations I've had with others.  Not really in a sense that a game was to get organized, but more in the sense that people were talking about it and I could do no more than sit by and listen with a nod every now and then since I have, really, no knowledge on the subject.  And that's something I would love to change, since the lore and the mechanics of the game seems rather rich and detailed.  While I not play a game of it myself (outside of the off-chance of playing the PC game at some point), just knowing about it would be nice enough.

Hopefully I can find something to get me excited enough to really celebrate a day.  It might be a little obvious from my posting (or, recently my decision to skip a couple nights) but it's been a little rough lately, and while I'm not saying that for sympathy, I can't -not- acknowledge it.  The majority of this post has been me looking at the page and wondering just what to say next, which got a little easier, admittedly, towards the end.  Still, something of genuine excitement amidst the grind that I've been going through (both life-wise and game-wise) would be a nice change of pace.  Here's to hoping for one!

A Look Back - Legacy of Kain (Part 1)

I had intended to make this post at an undisclosed, later date when I'd re-familiarized myself with the Legacy of Kain series (Read:  Went through the Screenshot LPs of them in the SA Archives) but the series has been on my mind a lot lately, and with good reason.  It's Halloween, after all, so if there's any time to be thinking about Vampires, it's now.  And it's only appropriate that I capitalize on this prime opportunity now while the getting's good, but I still want to leave it open for myself to write on it again, hence the (Part 1) you may have noticed in the title header.  I thought it would be rather neat to do a post on the series as it is in my memory now (As in, I don't remember a whole lot), and then another when it's fresh; not only so I'll be able to be more clear on some of the more interesting aspects, but so that I'll be able to properly tell what was reasonably awesome and what's more nostalgia than anything.

It's worth noting that my only exposure to the Legacy of Kain series has been in fact only to the Blood Omen games and Defiance.  This is the first thing that I enjoy so heavily about the series in that it was told over two different protagonists and told in an incredibly smart way.  The Blood Omen games revolved around Kain, a Vampire who changed the world, where the other side to it, the Soul Reaver games,  followed Raziel who was more or less collateral damage in Kain's ever-growing acquisition of power.  The last game, Defiance, was a hybrid of both game types and, over the course of the story, changed you from controlling one character to the other.  It was, and remains to be, honestly brilliant to this day, in my opinion.

I hadn't even owned a copy of either Soul Reaver game until I happened upon them both at a garage sale for an exceptionally modest price and picked them up.  Being for PSOne and PS2 respectively, there wasn't a lot of chance that I'd actually play them, especially considering the latter portion of my collection of the games (Blood Omen 2 and Defiance) are both for the original XBox which I have no desire to plug back in anytime soon (and if I started the series, I'd likely want to play through them all again) but it was nice to actually have them.  Though, it's not as if I put a heavy amount of playing into the games of the series I had owned prior to that; in truth, I've only ever finished Defiance.  Which I find a little funny, considering that does nothing to prevent me from loving the series from nearly all aspects.

It's hard to tell whether or not that ignorance has made LoK better for me than it has a right to be, or if that devotion is well-earned; personally, I would swing towards the latter.  It's honestly the whole concept of the series that I love so much, the two-pronged approach (in a way that isn't a money-grab) and that the writing, direction and character work is all fantastic.  Should you have any reservations to accepting that at a base level, this would be the part where I bring up the fact that Amy Hennig, Head Writer and Creative Director of the Uncharted series, had her hands about that deep into the LoK series.  It's no wonder that the only game I don't see her listed in as Director and/or Writer for in the LoK series is Blood Omen 2, which I seem to remember being the, er, 'black sheep' of the games, if you will.  What I'm saying here, basically, is that the LoK series has the pedigree to back up my words, which could have been seen as mindless praise without something like that being brought up.

I imagine it is a bit unfortunate that my only time with Raziel was spent in Defiance, since at the point in which I started playing him in the game it was all so alien to me that I wasn't quite sure if I enjoyed it or not.  While the mechanics of both characters are somewhat similar, they're quite different as well and take a lot of getting used to, as I remember it.  That Defiance basically incorporated two entirely different games* into one for the finale is nothing short of really, really amazing to me, and one of the main things that really really blew me away when I first played it.  Of course, I was always a bit of a Kain fanboy, as I always embraced the philosophy of enjoying the good Bad Guy, so I really don't think I allowed myself to be properly introduced to him in all honesty.  Though I've inferred it, I should state right here that Kain, insofar as the overall series went was always the 'Antagonist' where Raziel was the 'Protagonist', despite the fact that you played as both of them (not only in both series, but in Defiance) and fought the other a lot.

I've strained and thought of it, but I can't really think of another game that's effectively done what the LoK series did, in letting you play as two characters that were 'fated' to go against one another as Kain and Raziel were.  I could suggest one game, but it would likely be a non-related spoiler, so I won't state it directly.  (But the clue would be a Capcom RPG in a series that has, unfortunately, fallen off the face of the earth)  But regardless of that, such an epic (and I use the word literally here, since that's what I would consider the overall story of the series to be) undertaking in this style hasn't been done since that I know about and it's honestly a damn shame.  To use an over-exaggerated idea, it would be akin to Nintendo making and releasing a game where, rather than Link, you play as Gannon(dorf), fresh off a recent defeat and aiming to regain his lost power.

Who wouldn't play that?