Near has nothing to do with this, but we have different Vita pics, so I'm using them.
So, with the release of the Vita being counted in days rather than months now, the lack of a UMD Passport system announcement for us in the West was rather telling, but it seems like it's officially not happening. It's disappointing to be sure, but given that it was mostly a Developer/Publisher-side thing, the fact that they're not willing to bother is not so much of a surprise. Nor is it a surprise that the general populace of the internet isn't comprehending that it's not really a Sony issue, nor is it something Sony can do themselves. As I stated in the above-linked post, Sony as an entity cannot give you digital versions of games that are not theirs to give. Which is roughly 98% of the games on the store if not more because even the first-party games aren't developed by Sony, they're developed by first-party studios who are their own entity. It's rather absurd to blame this solely on Sony, but the internet is quick to do that regardless, so we shouldn't be too surprised.
The program, as it turns out, hasn't been doing too hot in Japan either, as several big-name devs/pubs who have tokenly signed on with the program still haven't put their money where their mouths are, leaving a lot, if not all, of their games out of the program entirely still. So the sentiment that 'at least Japan has the option' that you'll see in a lot of comments about this story isn't even all that founded. If anything here, that's the surprising bit since PSP sales actually did -well- in Japan, though not digitally which could be the rub, I suppose. Japan might be more keen on keeping their PSPs and playing UMDs than bothering with getting a digital copy, even if it is cheap. Couple that with the fact that some of the big names aren't putting their games up for cheap in the Passport Program and that is something of a recipe for disaster.
Once again, I kind of have to point the blame at Steam/Valve for setting up a digital distribution hub that seems to work outside of reality, though at the same time, I imagine licensing and such for a PC game is much less stringent than for a console/handheld game. It's hard to point at a PC game that isn't offered on Steam, at least a well-known one, so it's hard to even draw a direct correlation, but it's the same theory. We'll use Star Wars: The Old Rebublic, I guess, since it's Origin-exclusive (technically) and it's about all I can think of. Is anyone blaming Valve for TOR not being available through Steam? No, the blame is on EA. Oh, here's one, is anyone blaming Valve for Minecraft not being available through Steam? No, that's on Mojang. Or, if we're showing off the general internet mindset, it's all Notch's fault. (It's not all Notch's fault)
It's the same theory here; Valve cannot sell you a game that the Developer/Publisher isn't letting Valve sell you. Sony cannot sell you a game or a digital version of a game you already own that the Developer/Publisher isn't letting them sell through the Playstation store. And, I have to reiterate, sometimes it's not even the fault of the Developer/Publisher in so much as they're not willing. If anything, it'd be their fault for not including clauses that account for future digital distribution, but such foresight wasn't common to have even a few years ago, so it's hard to point the finger there. Bottom line, it is a rather unfortunate situation that everyone's involved in, and while a Passport System would have been nice, it just isn't going to happen for a multitude of reasons. Very few of them are actually Sony's direct fault. If we want our PSP games on the store and/or for a discount, throw it on the Pub/Dev to do so.
I want to like Alpha Protocol. Scratch that, I want to love Alpha Protocol because some of the things it does makes it worthy of that want for love. But I just can't, because Alpha Protocol is like that smart, good-looking girl who doesn't cover her mouth when she sneezes and belches in your ear. Some things you just can't overlook and you can't get with no matter how good the good is. Which is, as the title suggests, exactly like the relationship we all have with Sega. Sega does wonderful things, amazing things that just make your heart swell and your body want to swoon, but then it does things that throw you into a murderous rage because goddamnit Sega. I feel it's fitting since Alpha Protocol was published by Sega and certainly does nothing to shake the stigma certain games that have been associated with Sega have.
Mechanically, as a game, Alpha Protocol is pretty much uniformly sub-standard. Animations are stiff and jerky, the way accuracy is handled (there's a circle area that your bullet can hit any part of it, and the enemy usually takes up 30% of that circle) isn't very conducive to a Third-Person Shooter (at least one that isn't turn-based or the like), trying to throw a grenade or grenade-like object is pretty much an exercise in frustration, melee doesn't work in combat, and the list goes on and on and on. Pretty much every individual aspect of the gameplay itself needed tightening up bar -one- and that -one- thing is the sole redeeming factor of Alpha Protocol and honestly the only reason to play it. The Conversation/Relationship system that's implemented in the game is so varied and complex that you have to wonder if it came from some other game, since it certainly doesn't seem like it fits here unless they spent 85% of their dev time on it and the rest of the 15% on the rest of the game.
It seems really really simple on the surface - at points in conversations you'll be prompted with an option thing towards the bottom that has a time limit. There will usually be three or four ways to respond in the conversation (all mapped to the face buttons of the controller) and they all generally carry their own 'mood' that reflects that portion of Thorton's personality. A response could be specific to the context of the conversation; for example, if they're talking about getting information from a particular source, Triangle might be "(Source's name)?" where Circle might be "Information?" which will obviously lead to elaboration on the subject that's selected when the timer times down. Or it might be vague and you'll get "Joking" set to Square where Triangle might be "Aggressive" which just basically sets the tone of the response, obviously. It all happens in real-time, by the way, so even though I mention timers, it doesn't disrupt the flow of conversation at all.
Now, those answers or the way you talk to someone will then affect your relationship with them one way or another. Not everybody likes to be talked to like a normal human being and will only respect people who are short and to the point versus someone who wants to joke about everything and anything. Likewise, there are some people who will simply be bored by Agents who are direct and humorless, as fun is high up on their lists of things they like to do while being a rogue agent, spy, or member of a para-military organization. The part where it gets really neat is that whether someone likes or dislikes you, and to what degree that is, it all matters. From as far as I can tell, the bulk of things all affect the story in one way or another, and it's not even a popularity contest; you don't have to make everyone like you and it is, in fact, kind of suggested you don't go that way. That actually played out for me earlier where a scenario played out really, really easily for me because someone liked me because someone else didn't like me. And it's moments like that where you forget the shit you've waded through because by God, that's brilliant.
Of course, directly after moments like that, you're hit in the face with full-force stupidity unfortunately. That same person who liked me because someone else didn't also thought it was a grand idea to charge up to two people who were wielding an SMG and Shotgun respectively and try to punch them to death rather than take cover. And of course, I had to make sure he didn't die, despite doing very stupid things like that. The whole firefight took at least half an hour to complete quite simply because it was absolutely stupid and the irony of the situation is that I only won it when I, myself, thought it was a good idea to run into a group of people and punch them to death. In my defense, I was wearing armor whereas this dude is not, but it is not logical by any stretch and I was quite annoyed by the whole exchange. Then, later on in a moment that would have brought about a ragequit if the game didn't have such a good rapport with me, I encountered a boss fight that is a classic game boss fight in the sense that I sneaked up on the guy, shot him in the face three times with super bullets and that only made him enter phase two.
And yet, I go back for more because of that goddamn Relationship/Conversation system. That's how good it is.
When Final Fantasy X for the PS3 and Vita was announced a while back, it was specifically billed as a 'remake', even though most of us (at least me) figured they really meant "Remaster" since that is kind of the thing to do now and it makes sense. Of course, the 10 versions of Final Fantasy IV alone will attest to the fact that Squeenix does, in fact, like taking their older Final Fantasy games and retooling/redoing them for reasons that always equal money, so it was a bit up in the air even though Remaster still made the most sense. Officially today, it has been stated that yes, they really did mean HD Remaster which doesn't explicitly rule out fiddling, as the Silent Hill Collection will certainly attest to. Though with the X remaster being 'early on' in development still, it's hard saying what all will make it in.
I think it's safe to say that if Squeenix decided to only take the PS2 game of Final Fantasy X as it was when released in North America and make that shiny, it's....not going to fly too well, since there's no way it's going to sell as cheap as the other Remasters out there, comparatively. (Generally speaking, a Remaster for one game is $15-20 since they usually come in twos or threes.) At the -very least-, Squeenix should really put some thought into making it the 'International Version' of the game which had quite a bit of extra things in it from what I understand. Beyond that, I'm not even sure what they can do to really sweeten the pot to make it tangible for the likely inflated pricetag it's going to carry, being the Squeenix that we all know and...know. The remasters aren't really known, as I said, for a lot of extra stuff, instead relying on the numbers for the sell, so with Final Fantasy X being the only game in the package, it's gotta have -something-. And it's a bit late in the game for them to suddenly say "Oh yeah, X-2 is going to be in it too".
It might all be a little moot from my point anyway, since I'm fairly on the fence on whether or not I'll even get it. I'm sure if I do, it'll be for the Vita since, hey, portable version of a full-size RPG is always nice to have for those times when I have time to kill and nothing exactly pressing to kill it on. I guess the extra things that go in it, if any, will determine at what point I throw down the cash for it, really. Since I bought the game at full price once already and shinier graphics and trophies aren't enough for me to throw down roughly the same amount of money for it again 12 years later. Final Fantasy X was one of those games that, while I was playing it, it was fun and interesting and stuff, but the minute I beat it I instantly had no more interest in it whatsoever and just didn't want to touch it again. That might've had something to do with how I dismissed Final Fantasy X-2 so easily with just the demo, since I'm not even sure when I played it all those years ago, that I even gave the combat a good try. And that was apparently the best thing about the game and one of the better fighting systems of FF games in general. I can't say if that's true or not and on some level it does kind of bug me.
It's funny because in trying to think of ways FFX HD becomes an easier sell, all I've managed to do is think of things that would make me not want to buy it even more than I already don't want to. Like if they changed the voice acting, unless they brought in the same VAs to try it again, I guess. Or, hell, as long as they just keep John DiMaggio for Wakka, I don't really even care. Then, knowing Japanese trophy design as I obviously do, I'm already dreading the "Get all the Ultimate Weapons" and "Unlock all the Ultimate Weapons" or whatever trophies that will inevitably be in there. I braved the lightning jump and that was....well, it was tedious, but not difficult. But the Chocobo Racing? Get 0:00 as a time on the course by use of the time bonuses scattered through it? Nah. Fuck that. Perhaps in the 12 or 13 years that will have passed before the game hits American shores again, I'll have gotten better at that or will have gotten to a point where I can be better at it, but right now I'm not relishing the idea at all.
But Blitzball...I wouldn't mind playing Blitzball again. Hmm.
It's been a while since the last time I wrote about the music in Chrono Trigger which is, honestly, kind of a mistake. The last time I talked about it, I only covered a small portion of it when, really, Chrono Trigger is one of those games that you could basically throw out any of the songs from it and have a fan. Since there's no other news going on lately, because why would there be any news going on for me to write about, I think now is the perfect time to really go into another portion of the music. Though really, there's never a bad time to reflect on Chrono Trigger's soundtrack.
The first song I want to showcase is one of the more upbeat tracks from the game. Which is a little odd since it comes from a character who's in a ruined world. Or, rather, a ruined future, which is thanks to the driving force behind the entire game, of course. Robo's Theme has gotten a lot of attention for being what it is, as well as the strange similarity it bears with "Never Gonna Give You Up", a song you've no doubt heard in the last three years because of the internet sensation that was the Rickroll. There's comparison/overlay videos out there and it hilariously does match up, but I'm not going to link one of those here. You can find it on your own, I'm sure. I have -faith- in you in this.
It helps that it's one of the related videos at the end of the song, of course. At least, of this time of writing it, it is, since who knows what wacky shennanigans Youtube is going to pull in the future, rendering said things like this useless. Regardless, it's not as in your face upbeat as some of the other tracks, but it's very optimistic sounding, which honestly fits Robo. Not that I would say any of the songs -don't- fit their purpose, really, since that would just be untruthful. Also a bit silly since it's blatantly obvious. Still, Robo's theme was one of the songs that, while it wasn't in my 'favorites', it was always something I was glad to hear and it remains as much to this day.
In keeping of the theme with personal...uh, themes, next up is one of the ones that you might not want to hear, despite it sounding equally nice. Lavos' theme carries a lot of different feelings and emotions with it, at least in what it tries to evoke, and that is once again quite fitting. This is generally the theme you hear when Lavos shows up and the world looks a bit screwed - in fact, when he's in the process of wrecking the world of the future, this is what you hear. Similarly, when you have to face him the first time (I believe), this plays, if only to remind you that Lavos is not something to be messed with which is, unfortunately, what you do right away. Because you're the main character, of course.
Lavos' theme is one of those classic songs that I would just absolutely love to hear redone with actual instruments and/or a full-out orchestral arrangement. I think the main 'dramatic' pieces of it would sound absolutely divine as violins personally, but maybe there is an even better instrument for them. I just feel that, despite sounding good as it is, the chiptunes possibly don't convey the full range of things that the song tries to put out there. Back then, imagination was good enough to elevate things but now that we have the ability and the resources to actually instill the full range of impact intended, but now it just isn't flying. That isn't to say that I don't think Chiptunes fill the bill, music-wise, but that that using a full orchestra could bring this song in particular to a whole new level.
For the last song, I'm going to go with a little dual-purpose selection. While it is still a personal theme as the rest of this post as been, it also serves as a nice contrast to the first Chrono Trigger Music post. Since I ended the last one with Magus' theme, it only fits that I end this one with Frog's theme, with them being blood rivals and all. Frog is one of the fan-favorite characters of the game thanks to a combination of his Sword skills, his 'unique' accent (that was taken away by CTDS's retranslation) and his backstory which is both intense and fairly tragic at the same time. For his time, I think he was a fairly well-realized character as well, as he was quite fleshed out; in fact, you're practically handed his life story over the course of the main story and eventually the optional content towards the end.
It's a very regal sounding theme, yet also carries a very strong feel of determination. Possibly one of the best moments of the entire game is when this song kicks in for the event prior to 'storming' Magus' castle. 'Storming' typed as it is because it's a little hard to storm a castle with three people. (Since Chrono Trigger was one of the few games that at least tried to explain a party limit.) I won't spoil that moment for you, but suffice to say it's one of the earliest examples I remember of my love for "Artifact" weapons. It's mostly for game/story purposes nowadays obviously, but I think even now I'm always looking for another weapon that matches the standard of that one, and only a few have come close.
So there's another swath of Chrono Trigger's music laid bare for your enjoyment. It won't be the last time I do this, I imagine, since I love the soundtrack and I've shown that I am willing to do many installments of this to really show off the variety and the goodness that is there. Until next time, here's to game music, both classic and modern for being awesome in all sorts of ways.
So you might havenoticed that last night, a little while after the AssBro review went up, I tweeted about playing AssBro's Multiplayer despite saying I had not and might not play it a few times prior. This is basically because I had an opportunity to play the MP alongside my buddy Haplo, who you've likely seen comment on a post here or there, for the first time since he got his PS3 a little while ago. It helps that I honestly, really -did- want to play the MP, so pretty much anything, any tipping factor, would've gotten me to do it. I figured that since I actually did play it, I'd write up a little addendum specifically talking about my limited time with it to be fair to the review and to the game.
Starting up was a little rough as I had to sit through the little story segment that's attached to the MP that, while I appreciate they bothered to think it out at least a little bit, I dunno about it. If they're using Desmond's DNA memory, as it's suggested, why are they only using Ezio's time period? If anything, I'd figure they would do Altair's because Altair's time period was what Abstergo studied while they had Desmond in custody for the first game. Yet, that's neither here nor there, I suppose, and after that I was subject to the Introductory Session that shows off the main mode of play in a fairly nice manner, if a little unpredictable. That Introductory Session was the first, but not last time I ended up in it, as after a connection drop between Haplo and I, I ended up being dumped in it again. I don't know how, but what annoyed me more was the second time around, I didn't get all three kills incognito because the second guy insisted on running away right when I got close for absolutely no reason.
When Haplo and I finally got into a match that contained people who were not he and I, the chaos of the MP descended full-force. On the way to find my first kill, I was the subject of Haplo's first kill; something I doubt he is going to let me forget any time soon. Throughout the two matches we got to play, we exchanged kills, mine against him were all incognito where his third was not, yet the majority of the game was not spent interacting with one another but killing and being killed by the random people we'd managed to have join. At one point during the second match, I was actually ranked first by some miracle and only when one of my three pursuers, dressed in the garb of the Jester, came around did that change, but for that precious little time, I felt good. I felt really good.
The actual Multiplayer mode, I think, is probably the most brilliant thing to come out of the Assassin's Creed 2 trilogy, if just for the concept of it. I'm sure it's not original, but it's not something we've seen a lot, nor recently, so for that I have to trumpet it because it is, in fact, actually good. It's interesting because it's a game and a social experiment all in one; the game, in so many ways, urges you to try and stay hidden and strike right out of the unknown, but in doing so, you leave yourself open to much of the same. Yet if you run, climb, and do everything that isn't suggested, you then influence others to do the same, either to catch you or to get away from you, because you are clearly not one of the many, many NPCs bumbling around. I suspect it's actually the happy medium between both extremes that you're encouraged to find, but it'd take more playing to accurately pin down.
In fact, earlier today, that's actually exactly what I wanted to do. I am not a multiplayer person at all, so it's definitely telling when I boot up a game and specifically want to dive into the Multiplayer mode of it. I suppose it was just as fitting that my searches were met with absolutely nothing. After about ten minutes of searching for games, it became abundantly clear that I wasn't doing to find one, whether it's because of some server shennanigans or because everyone playing Assassin's Creed Multiplayer is doing so on Revelations I have no idea. Still, I was actually a little disappointed that all I had was the single-player portion of Brotherhood, yet I delved back into it and spent the better part of today finishing up some of the superfluous fluff, Courtesan missions, Thief missions, Flag collecting and the like, and in doing so I couldn't help but wish that I was playing the Wanted mode.
Assassin's Creed is a series that is very near and dear to my heart as the first one is one of 'those stories' that we all have, in regards to memories we have with our games. I guess you could say that I bought into the hype of the first game since I wanted the game so badly that I bought it, the collector's edition no less with the little figure of Altair, before I even owned a PS3. I was so assured that I was going to get a PS3 following that Christmas, whether I got money to help buy it or if I had to dip into money set aside for other things. And I did; in January following the release of Assassin's Creed the first, I bought a PS3 alongside a copy of (sigh) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year edition (well....I -meant- to buy the GotY version and had to switch the base copy that I -actually- bought for it) because I didn't know better against giving Bethesda money for a PS3 game.
Regardless of that purchase, the first game I ever played on my PS3 was Assassin's Creed and even though it wasn't on a proper HD TV, I was in awe of the way it looked. I'll never forget climbing up the first viewpoint I was able to find after the intro and standing there for a full minute after synchronizing simply because I was admiring the scenery. While I remember the visuals of the game vividly, I remember the game proper less-so, which I suppose is telling, but I recall that I enjoyed the game a lot, aside from the really, really long and boring speeches from Al Mualim that culminated in getting a new or better piece of weaponry. Simply put, I really liked Assassin's Creed and was a little bothered after playing AC2 that people actually recommended skipping the first one because for all that AC2 did right, I feel it did a lot wrong as well and was not 'objectively better' than the first, which would be the only reason to skip it.
I say all this because the first Assassin's Creed has brought something out of me that 2 didn't: excitement. And that's something that Brotherhood failed to do as well, unfortunately. That isn't to say I didn't like AssBro, because I did.....more or less, which is the very point of elaboration this post is going to make. It's just that, AC2 and AssBro left me in a constant state of 'waiting for it' and whatever 'it' was, I don't know what it was, but I know it never came. Which meant my entire state of playing both games was enjoying what I was getting, but always waiting for that 'it', then being left with something of dis-satisfaction when it inevitably never came. Still the lack of that certain 'it' doesn't really detract from either game overall, but both games have their own individual things detracting from them all their own.
One of those detracting factors was certainly not the titular addition of the Brotherhood which adds a deceptively large amount to the game despite the relatively small time it's primarily featured in the game. A good portion of the main story in, you actually unlock it, then you 'have' to use it (it meaning your assassin disciples) a few times, then never again is it necessary but for your own personal amusement and enjoyment. Though I'm not sure I can claim it's under-utilized as, in the words of Chance from his first review (that he urges you eschew in favor of the second review that is shorter and he prefers) the Brotherhood is like "an overpowered magic spell on a cooldown." And it really kind of is. Basically, you have a little bar beneath your health bar that shows off whether or not your Assassins are ready to come out at your call, and if it indicates that they are, all you need to do is press L2 when there are guards nearby.
What happens then is that one or two of your recruits (depending on how many you have and how many are away on missions) pop out of fucking nowhere and cause a ruckus. There's a really, really good chance that they'll be able to kill the guards without a resistance thanks to the AI who still, still doesn't know how to recognize a shanking in progress, but even if a fight starts, your recruits stand a really good chance of toughing it out, killing their foes and running off to rejoin the aether or whatever they do. Only once did I ever stand a chance of losing a recruit in a fight and that was because it was less of a fight and more of a small-scale war between Borgia's men and my assassins, all in a near vain attempt to keep from being detected while escorting a senator to a place where he could hide. That took like twenty minutes to find for some reason. Still, what the Brotherhood gives you is a real sense of raw power that no other game, especially those with a similar theme of building up a faction, has yet to offer. You can literally walk towards a group of guards, hit L2 and walk by and away from them and know that they are going to die without so much as a press of the square button on your part.
Unfortunately, using the Brotherhood detracts from what I feel is one of AssBro's strongest features: the combat. (This is where you're going to start seeing a complete divergence of opinions from myself and Chance, by the way.) The introduction of the Execution Chain system really shows the development of Ezio that started in AC2 as a recruit himself, as it shows that he has been at this business of killing people for long enough that he's got it down to a science. Upon killing one foe, repeated strikes of the square button and the pressing of the analog stick into the direction of the next person whom you want dead, Ezio complies with that in short order, provided he's not attacked in the meantime. Meaning, things die really, really fast around Ezio and that's just the way it should be in my opinion.
Talking about Ezio's growth as an assassin leads comfortably into talking about Ezio's growth as a character....or it would, if I could properly articulate said growth. I'm one of the few who didn't see a whole lot of positive in Ezio in AC2 which was further cemented by the way AC2 ended in which Ezio showed faux-maturity that ended up biting him in the ass because it was stupid. So I'm not sure I could say Ezio even grew at all during AC2, yet was smug the entire way through it for reasons that I couldn't comprehend aside from "Hey, I've killed dudes and not died". However, he really tones down the smug factor in AssBro which is welcome and instead becomes much more cool-headed and authoritative which is fitting, considering his ascension to the role of Master Assassin. Which, despite being able to control/lead the whole Brotherhood of Assassins from fairly early on in the game, the actual, official ascension doesn't happen until a ways into it.
The rest of the story is kind of hit-or-miss insofar as being an actual story versus being someone telling Ezio to go save this guy from getting killed because shut up and do it. Now, I exaggerate a lot in my writing, you know that and I know that, but there was literally, literally a section of the game, where I had absolutely zero fucking clue what was going on. Someone told me I needed to rescue this guy I was supposed to know from being killed while performing a play and I apparently needed to be in a Roman costume to do so and the entirety of the section went by with me doing it without having any idea why I was doing this other than the fact that it ended with me getting a plot key. Is it possible that I forgot some part of the story because I would periodically take breaks from the story by exploring the map which provided endless amounts of fun more than the story missions themselves? Yes. Entirely possible. But I would suggest that if I would rather run around to nondescript portions of Rome to buy up shops rather than continue the story, there might be something wrong with the story.
Then again, I might've rather gone off to buy up things around Rome because of a little Game-OCD that AssBro is all too willing to exploit. Where AC2 had actual attempts at explaining away their 'collect-a-thon' items, i.e. the flags, feathers, chests, AssBro merely assumes you're going to pay that explanation forward for this game because those things are still present and are not talked about whatsoever. If that wasn't bad enough, I am partially sure that there are some of these items that you can only collect while you're not actually in the proper streets of Rome, but rather the sewers and other such undesirable locations. I say partially sure because, while I've seen (and collected) flags in one of the Romulus Shrine missions (which take place in maps that are only available for the duration of those missions unless you re-select it from the animus) I'm not sure the game would make these items semi-missable. Of course, I have bought the maps that show me all the feathers and I'm pretty sure I don't see the one I'm missing on the main map, so I might just be wrong. And it's totally not cool if that's the case.
Similarly not cool is how the game handles some of the items it wants to sell you by putting them behind an arbitrary wall called the "Shop Quests" in which you take an arbitrary amount of goods to a store and trade them for the ability to buy a weapon or item. At least, I think it's the ability to buy the item, but I wouldn't know because I've yet to get all the items for -any- of the Shop Quests because what the fuck, why do you need eight rolls of silk, and other such oddities. These items that you need are only available through treasure chests scattered around the city (which I imagine have their contents randomly generated), chests found at the end of Shrine quests (since the ones throughout the Shrine maps have only had florins in them for me), rewards for high-level Assassin Contracts for your Brotherhood to perform, and off Borgia Messengers and thieves, the both of which you have to get via catching them as they are running away from you while there are also thieves that challenge you and carry said items on their corpses to be looted.
I was trying to think of some way to smoothly segue into the topic, but I really shouldn't try and dance around it: the platforming, what one would think is the main draw of the AC games, is simply not up to par in my eyes. This is pretty much exemplified by one of the new additions to AssBro from AC2 - The Borgia Towers. I'm going to be honest here and say that if there's one thing I love about AssBro it's....well, the combat. But if there's two things I love about AssBro it's combat and the majority of every Borgia Tower conquest. The majority because the actual climbing of the thing just sucks until you get the high-climb gloves or whatever they're called and even then it's kind of a chore. Scaling things is just tiresome since Ezio doesn't really climb all that fast and doesn't like to reach out towards things that he can actually grab onto despite slamming the stick in its direction and cursing loudly. And that's kind of true for the platforming as a whole in that Ezio just likes going places you don't tell him to go and doesn't go where you tell him to go. I can't tell you how many times I ended up jumping off a perch to my near-death because Ezio decided "Hey, I'm not going to jump on that beam that the control stick is being pointed towards because the grass looks so inviting I want to roll around in it." but that number is high, I assure.
It's the worst when the -game- doesn't even know where to let you go, which, I don't know if it's just a glitch, bad programming or -what-, but I had a really egregious example of terrible earlier today that pretty much cemented things for me in this department. Upon doing one of the latter Romulus Shrine missions, I came across one that revolved solely around platforming and the Full Synchronization task offered was "Do not lose more a full block of health." which I read as "Don't lose any health" because I don't think I ever took less than a full block of damage in the rest of the game. I'll get to full synch in a moment, but on my fourth attempt of fulfilling this accomplishment, I was right at the end of the shrine when I realized that I had apparently walked right by one of the giant glowing things I needed to shoot and had to go back to it. Fair enough, I guess, and I started climbing up the conveniently made way up when Ezio got to a point where he decided to reach to the left. And he grabbed something - what it was, I have no idea - and pulled himself towards it, but since there was actually nothing there, he then promptly fell to the ground and lost four squares of health, causing me to rage out. I did not jump. I didn't do anything that would have prompted me to fall, and there was no reason I should have fallen. But I did. And that problem (falling/jumping when or in a direction that I clearly shouldn't have) was a problem I had throughout the rest of the game, but that was one that could clearly, clearly not be called -my- fault.
Examples like the one above are pretty much precisely why I grew to hate the Full Synchronization goal throughout completion of the game. Sure, it was apparently completely optional, but the context of the game didn't suggest as much, since it's introduced in such a way that might suggest you may not be able to continue with the game unless you get 100% synch on at least a majority of missions. This is not the case, and 100% synch is, as far as I can tell, not required in any way, not even for a trophy, and exists purely as a way to 'challenge' yourself because it's supposed to be a challenge. Yet there are too many examples where the Full Synch goal is put -just- out of realistic reach in such a way that generally lets you get through a mission mostly until it throws something at you that all-but ensures you'll fail through only a small fault of your own.
An example I used earlier for the Brotherhood's hardiness is what I'll throw this Full Synch thing out the window with as well. That mission, escorting a Senator around town where the Full Synch requirement is "Don't be detected", is littered with spots where the game actually spawns guards right near you so you have to tell the Senator to stay put while you find a way to deal with them in a way that doesn't get you spotted. I fell back on the Crossbow and Assassins for the majority of the mission only to find that, when I beat it, I didn't get full synch because it counted one of the detections from a failed attempt. Since if you fail full synch, you're supposed to go into the menu and hit "Restart memory" which starts the entire goddamn thing over again. I'm assuming there's no "restart from last checkpoint" option present in the game because the game basically autosaves for every little thing, whether it's finding out your assassin that you sent on an easy mission succeeded or everytime Ezio sneezes. (That may be an exaggeration.)
It bears mentioning that, despite my saying that I would probably check it out, I did not check out the Multiplayer aspect of the game before this post. I think there was maintenance going on today anyway, but regardless, I can't and won't comment on that part of the game because of that. Aside from saying that I still think it looks pretty cool and is actually kind of well-thought out if it works how I think it does, since I have seen some videos and streaming of the MP mode being played. Regardless, you probably can't review AssBro without at least mentioning the multiplayer, so I did. That's about all I can say on it; looks cool, didn't play.
The last thing I want to cover, before I get to the break-down is the fact that I love being able to get out of the Animus. There's not a whole lot to do aside from look for a few artifacts that, I guess, have no impact on anything, and check emails that I was lead to imagine meant something, but if there was something to be gleaned from them, I missed out on it completely. You can also have a few chats with the rest of the 'party' as it were, which provide quite a bit of entertainment, but they're pretty much entirely filler. One such conversation I remember well is where Desmond asks the History Major what happens to one of Ezio's conquests and he replies, basically, "She went home, got pneumonia and died", to which Desmond can only say "...Oh. That's kind of sad." to. I guess it helps that I -love- the dry wit of that guy, where I imagine others find him off-putting, but still, my point remains.
The Good
Combat is powerful and smooth and really translates Ezio's proficiency at his job
The Non-Climbing Parts of the Borgia Tower missions are Awesome and fun, because of all the different ways you can get at, and then kill, the Captains
Rome is big and beautiful and offers you a lot, should you choose to explore it
Being able to explore modern day Monteriggioni as Desmond was fun, if mostly unnecessary
Pretty much everything about The Brotherhood is enjoyable, provided you don't mind menus
Specifically separated from the above, calling in Assassins to kill guards never gets old
Buying/renovating buildings and landmarks is oddly satisfying.
The Bad
The platforming doesn't always works and chooses the worst times to not
The story is pretty poorly-paced with only flashes of brilliance here and there
Why do I have to collect 101 Borgia flags again?
Shop Quests are both stupid -and- unnecessary
Full Synchronization oftentimes calls for things that require far too much effort because the game intentionally tries to screw you up on it. It's never impossible, but almost always frustrating
The final mission was a prolonged boss fight and said boss fight was terrible
That Ending
Seriously, where the hell is the rest of the story? Oh right, In Revelations
Mogs Says
For all its faults, of which there are plenty, I still think AssBro manages to take what AC2 did right and make it better as well as introducing various other elements that it does right by. As such, there's a strong argument towards saying AssBro is a better game, though not fully. In its own right, AssBro is actually a pretty good game and while it doesn't lack in game content, it lacks in story content, for Ezio and Desmond both. Still, there is a lot of fun to be had with the game, and I'd definitely recommend it if you were a fan of the previous two Assassin's Creed games. Besides, if you want the entirety of AC2's story (which I think we all do), it's vital.
It's one of those days again, I'm afraid. Nothing too interesting in my life that I can write about it (not yet at least, I have something in the works, but it requires a little more time with the subject material), and there's not really something news-worthy that is also something I can go on about for four or five paragraphs. But there are a lot of little stories that I can cover in a broad swath of text, so that's what I'm going to do. First off, as you might suspect from the above image is the fact that The Simpsons Arcade is finally coming to consoles starting with PSN on the Seventh of February. I imagine the graphics will be a little nicer looking, perhaps up to par with its iPhone brother, but it will also support up to four player online multi-player since, let's face it - it's an arcade game. It's meant to be played with more than one person. I -imagine- given the type of game, Couch co-op is possible as well, but it doesn't explicitly say that. Anyone subscribing to Playstation Plus will enjoy the game at the easy price of "Free" where the rest of us can expect $10 which is likely a small price to pay for nostalgia and also playing a Simpsons game that doesn't suck.
Much like the rest of us in the same age range as I and, I suspect, the bulk of the 'main' gamers out there who do like we do - read the news about games, get excited for everything and just generally live it in a bigger capacity than most, I have fond memories of playing The Simpsons Arcade. Not sure if anyone out there knows what this is, but when I was but a tot, my older siblings would sometimes take me to a place called Chuck E. Cheese which was, well, a place where you took kids to run around and do whatever and have fun in while you either unwound yourself with a few games or just tried to catch a breather amidst the chatter and clamor of dozens of other kids adding to the shouts of your own. There was all the standard fare for a playground as well as an arcade section and little games that would win you tickets for prizes like at a midway or what have you. And while my sister loved Skee-ball and I sometimes helped with that, the real, main reason, the main draw was the arcade section where there were plenty of games, but there was also The Simpsons Arcade. And while I don't remember a single thing about the game, I remember playing it, and I suspect that's enough.
On the topic of releases and release-related news, Naughty Dog released this video above that shows the making-of process of the trailer that went out at last year's VGAs in so much as you get to see some of the mo-cap work done compared to the very, very bare-bones animation that Naughty Dog apparently shines to a mirror polish with tools that may just be infused with some sort of magic. It's a neat little look into the world 'beyond the veil' as they say, and aside from that, I daresay there's some voice-over by the main character that isn't in the trailer proper. In fact, there -is- some voice-over that isn't in the trailer proper since I just watched it again and holy shit. My interest in the game just sort of regrows rapidly to a fever pitch whenever I really think about it, only subsiding to acceptable levels when I don't. I honestly can't wait for the release and hope that some of the nonchalance its met with is slapped back in a few faces. If people are so willing to accept questionable genre attempts from other studios, then 'just another zombie game' from Naughty Dog should turn quite a few more heads than it has. But there's still time yet, of course.
The final bit of news comes from the world of Lollipop Chainsaw which, you might have noticed, I've completely neglected talking about for...well, ever now. I assure you this is intentional and for purist reasons as I know in my head what the game was, so when I play it when I buy it, and I will do both of those things ASAP, I can see where the game has gotten which will surely give it a little bit of an unfair advantage over other games, but I don't even care because it's Lollipop Chainsaw. I'm sure the graphical presentation won't impact my overall view of the game that much anyway, so no real worries there. Though I have caught the headlines here and there of the game, I've mostly ignored them by and large for the above mentioned reason, as I want to know as little about the game as possible.
But the headline "Lollipop Chainsaw Boss Battle Composer is Also a Zombie Boss" was a little too tantalizing to pass up on and in seeing that and the article itself, I've found quite a bit of new pearls of information. I think, if anything, Lollipop Chainsaw has been a very very interesting experiment on blending East and West if you really look at it: the story being written as a joint-effort by James Gunn and Grasshopper Manufacture through a collaborative effort brought about by Warner Bros., and now the fact that, while Akira Yamanoka is the main composer of the game, Jimmy Euringer of Mindless Self Indulgence is the composer for all the boss music and is, in fact, the Punk Rock Zombie Zed that we've seen in so many trailers already. (If your memory is a little foggy, he is the boss who attacks by yelling profanities which then materialize into words that fly towards poor Juliet.)
I was originally going to do a Music! post dedicated to Mindless Self Indulgence because of this fact, but I decided against it for a few reasons. The bulk of them being that while I enjoy MSI, I'm not sure I like it, nor am I sure that it's something I'd want to freely toss out here for you, since you might then take that as an indicator of acceptance and enjoyment or something. And while I don't -not- accept the music because, hey, it's music what the hell else do you need?, I also don't need to really throw it out there in the same type of post that's covered music from Nier, Chrono Trigger and the Sonic games. Which is a really fancy way of saying "I stumbled across a cover of a Method Man song and went, 'nope.jpeg'." But I did want to bring up that story at least because, hey, Lollipop Chainsaw.
That's about it for tonight though, kiddies. If all goes well tomorrow, I might just have the first review of the new year posted up. Maybe. I kind of have to decide if I got into the game enough to qualify for actually reviewing it. Guess we'll all just see how it turns out!
