There’s so much to like in Borderlands. For starters, it’s Diablo meets first person shooters — that’s a match made in heaven. And after playing Gearbox’s take on the seemingly tough task of marrying the two genres, I believe they’ve cracked it. This is how you add role playing elements to your shooters, people. But even though they got many key areas right, there were a few issues of repetition which reminded me of another original franchise which debuted earlier this console generation.
I read that From Software’s Demon’s Souls was “tough, but fair”. I’d have to disagree. I’d say that it’s “tough and mostly fair”. I had the misconception of believing that Demon’s Souls was more like another “tough, but fair” game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but it doesn’t have nearly the consistency. I’d like to understand the rules of a game and see those rules upheld as I progress though the game. Unfortunately Demon’s Souls didn’t do that.
My deaths in Demon’s Souls can be categorized as follows:
Reckless deaths were my fault and mine alone. I either didn’t heed the warnings left by other travelers or I underestimated the relentlessness of the enemies. Sometimes I died without the warning from enemies or other players, so I attributed those uncommon deaths as “unforeseen circumstances”. That may seem frustrating, but it wasn’t for me — I considered it part of the learning process.
“I’ve got an idea! What if we put rocket launchers on her feet!”
“What if she could transform into a panther and a bird!?”
“What if her clothes was made out of hair and can transform into giant fists, spiders and monsters?”
Platinum Games went hog wild with the design of Bayonetta. You can get away with all sorts of shenanigans when your protagonist is 500 year old witch and not an established demon slayer.
It was clear who the target audience was for this game. The references to classic games like Afterburner, Resident Evil and Sonic the Hedgehog were strewn all over. These developers loved games and their work and it shows. If you know Hideki Kamiya by name and appreciate his works, you’ll feel right at home with Bayonetta.
How many months has it been since Heavy Rain was released? And I still haven’t had the game spoiled? That must be a record of some kind with all the GAF I subject myself to. Heavy Rain lives and dies by its surprises and if it were spoiled, I don’t think I would have enjoyed nearly as much as I did.
Update: An odd bug involving plugged in USB peripherals was causing a number of the performance issues I mentioned. I’m leaving the text relatively unchanged and updated my final verdict. Thanks to Joel of FrozenByte for the fix.
I’ve been wanting to buy the physics based puzzle platformer, Trine, since mid-2009. But I was always waiting and waiting for the eventual PSN release. When it was finally made available in North America, it was right in the middle of the 2009 holiday gaming blitz. I also heard unflattering things concerning the game’s performance. At $19.99? I’m wasn’t going to take the gamble on that. So I decided to wait and months later I was able to download it for $9.99.
I’m so glad I waited for the sale. This game does run like garbage and is fine example of a great idea marred by technical issues.
LTTP or ‘late to the party’ pieces are opportunities for me to catch up and write about games I missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.
I’ve never finished Diablo. In fact, I’ve never ventured beyond the second or third floor; it just didn’t click with me at the time. Time passed and so did the ever popular Diablo II. By the time I upgraded my computer and was willing to give dungeon crawlers another look, Diablo II seemed dated so I gave Dungeon Siege a tour.
I didn’t finish that either.
The next game I wanted to try was Mythos, but the demise of Flagship Studios put an end to that dream. The next logical game I would have been Blizzard’s Diablo III, but from the ashes of the fallen Flagship Studios rose Runic Games who put together one of the finest Diablo clones to-date, Torchlight.
I’ve tried to play Final Fantasy Tactics on three separate occasions. But no matter how many times I try, I eventually give up. This behavior wasn’t exclusive to Square Enix’s strategy role playing games either; Sega’s classic, Shining Force II, was also abandoned after numerous attempts as well. I’ve always wondered why. I’m not against turn-based games and I do enjoy strategy in my games, but something about these SRPGs simply didn’t click with me.
