Spider-Man for PS4 is a game that made me question my hard and fast rule on a five point scale. I considered giving it a 4, but realised that this is a console game when all is said and done, and that right there is where the game falls down.
As a Spider-Man story, it's superb. It's comic-booky as Hell, sure, but really nails down what makes Spider-Man/Peter Parker such a compelling character. He not only has to deal with murderous super-villains and the Great Responsibility that comes with his Great Powers, but he also has to deal with the every day shit we all have to deal with: work, relationships, and the desire to just be a decent human being.
...Ok, so I'm not sure we all worry about that last part. I would hope most of us do.
Peter's relationship with Mary-Jane is the star here, highlighted by a particularly relatable SMS conversation between the two. Literally everyone on the face of the planet will have one of these conversations in their life-time, and it's hard not to love and empathise with them both. They're both trying their best, and that shit is hard, man, even with the proportional strength of a spider. There's lots of other enjoyable nods to the comics, with plenty of in-game references, alternative Spider-Suits, and set ups for DLC and sequels that any Spider-Fan will enjoy.
Another enjoyable part of the game I'd like to touch on before getting into what I didn't like, is the web-swinging. While it absolutely didn't "make me feel like Spider-Man", which is literally all I heard about the game before going in, it never-the-less works very well. Early on I was frustrated, as the particular mechanics where not very well explained until I happened across a tip on a loading screen after failing a mission a few times for simply being too slow. This is something the Arkham games did better (a comparison I'll be making a lot), as it would have explained this mechanic and tested you had understood before throwing you into the mix.
Sadly, every other aspect of the game basically boils down to just that: The Arkham Series Did It Better. That makes it hard for me to go easy with my critique: if you're going to lean on someone else's ideas, you best do a good job emulating that experience.
Combat, for me was frustrating. You hit the attack button in an enemy's direction in an Arkham game, and Batman leaps across the field with an athleticism simply no man should posses. You do this in Spider-Man, known for his incredible agility, and unless you're next to the enemy, and he punches air. I get that there's the button for webbing that lets you zip across in much the same fashion, but I can't help but feel this should have been simply the animation and not required to be input manually. Another obvious and annoying comparison: dodging. You hit dodge in an Arkham game, and Batman will either move well-fucking-away from the enemy, or the character models will actually interact and interrupt an attack. Not so in Spider-Man, who instead does a fancy but pointless cartwheel, often leaving him within arm's reach of the enemy you're trying to avoid.
The stealth sections were particularly disappointing for me. This is partly because some aspects of the game absolutely ignore the fact you cleared a room without alerting any enemies and then flood you with waves upon waves of enemies, making you ask what is the point, and why should you bother doing it again? When this wasn't the case, and you could actually clear the room without having to fight anyone, it just isn't as refined as it could have been. In an Arkham game, they're almost like puzzles, which reward patience and careful execution. You work out patrol patterns and notice subtle but convinient spots littered around the guard's paths where you can take out your target. In Spider-Man, most enemies are static, meaning you simply find a vantage point and either launch at them like a Man-shaped missle, or drag them up to your high place and web them up there. To help marginly with this monotony, there will be occassional groups of enemies which simply require you to distract one while you take out the other, in the same fashion you've already done ad nauseam.
Thankfully, there's no Spider-Mobile sections that would have made me hurdle the disc into oblivion.
Spider-Man is a perfectly serviceable game, but people lead me to believe it was more than that, something special. God of War this is not, which had both a fantastic story and a sold game-play beat. I'd love to see more Spider-Man games in the future, as they absolutely nail the feel of a Spider-Man world. They will need to at least bring any future games up to the Arkham-standard, which they so liberally borrow from but don't execute anywhere near as well.
For me, I'm going to be happy simply watching any future DLC through the medium of YouTube videos.
Friday, 12 October 2018
Saturday, 11 August 2018
My thoughts on Filip Muicin.
Boy done fucked up.
For those who don't know, Filip Miucin formerly worked at IGN, and was recently fired on accounts of plagiarising a small YouTuber's review for the game Dead Cells.
I felt bad for him, not because I didn't think he did was he was accused of (he totally, totally did), but because this is a relatively young guy, probably not far off my age, who basically torched his career. A career no one gets into without being passionate about the subject: video games. Something I myself am passionate about. Maybe too passionate, but that's another conversation entirely.
I also knew for a fact that the internet, being the place for scummy, horrid people, where going to be scummy and horrid, not just to him, but his family as well. I knew it, and I don't even get paid to right my shitty little game reviews. Miucin must have known this when he made his choice. He must have known the risks. But then he did it anyway. And got caught.
Like I said, boy done fucked up.
I've just been made aware of his... apology video(?), and watching it definitely left me with some feelings. Enough feeling to make me take to blogger and write about shit I care about despite no one else sharing that feeling.
The video was bad. Just plain bad. I could visibly see that the guy is upset. He knows he made a mistake. He knows he's going to be paying for this for a long, long time. He knows what he really should be saying... and yet, that's not what he did. Maybe he can't. Maybe he's been advised against it. Maybe he didn't have a friend look over the video and tell him...
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."
He skirted around actually doing the thing that video should have been. He didn't really apologise to anyone. He didn't take responsibility for plagiarising. He took responsibility for being IGN's Nintendo editor. He didn't apologise to Boomstick Gaming, the YouTuber (who's name I don't know) Muicin ripped off. He said he has nothing but respect for Boomstick Gaming (which is good, I guess. You wouldn't want to rip off someone you don't respect).
His biggest cock up in my eyes is attacking (for lack of a better word) Jason Schreier of Kotaku, another video game news provider for writing a piece on relevant video game news: Miucin's plagiarism. Schreier also had another source providing another situation in which Miucin, once again, appeared to plagiarise another review for another game.
Schreier is someone I have a great deal of respect for. Hell, I bought his book for poops and giggles. He did his job with all the decency Miucin had owed to him, and Miucin threw it back in his face. Shame, maybe. He's been caught once already and it cost him his job. Evidence of him having done the same thing in the past doesn't help him resuscitate his dead career, I guess. If Miucin gets around to apologising to Schreier, I'll think better of him.
I really do feel for Miucin. I feel he's a guy who was plunged in the deep end without learning how to swim. People make mistakes, sure. I'm still dealing with some mistakes I've made in my life recently right now. Maybe that's why I pity the guy. The difference here though is most people make mistakes are manageable. People generally don't make mistakes that will haunt them to the end of their days. Mistakes that will compromise a career and a passion for something they love.
Miucin did. He really, really shouldn't have.
For those who don't know, Filip Miucin formerly worked at IGN, and was recently fired on accounts of plagiarising a small YouTuber's review for the game Dead Cells.
I felt bad for him, not because I didn't think he did was he was accused of (he totally, totally did), but because this is a relatively young guy, probably not far off my age, who basically torched his career. A career no one gets into without being passionate about the subject: video games. Something I myself am passionate about. Maybe too passionate, but that's another conversation entirely.
I also knew for a fact that the internet, being the place for scummy, horrid people, where going to be scummy and horrid, not just to him, but his family as well. I knew it, and I don't even get paid to right my shitty little game reviews. Miucin must have known this when he made his choice. He must have known the risks. But then he did it anyway. And got caught.
Like I said, boy done fucked up.
I've just been made aware of his... apology video(?), and watching it definitely left me with some feelings. Enough feeling to make me take to blogger and write about shit I care about despite no one else sharing that feeling.
The video was bad. Just plain bad. I could visibly see that the guy is upset. He knows he made a mistake. He knows he's going to be paying for this for a long, long time. He knows what he really should be saying... and yet, that's not what he did. Maybe he can't. Maybe he's been advised against it. Maybe he didn't have a friend look over the video and tell him...
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."
He skirted around actually doing the thing that video should have been. He didn't really apologise to anyone. He didn't take responsibility for plagiarising. He took responsibility for being IGN's Nintendo editor. He didn't apologise to Boomstick Gaming, the YouTuber (who's name I don't know) Muicin ripped off. He said he has nothing but respect for Boomstick Gaming (which is good, I guess. You wouldn't want to rip off someone you don't respect).
His biggest cock up in my eyes is attacking (for lack of a better word) Jason Schreier of Kotaku, another video game news provider for writing a piece on relevant video game news: Miucin's plagiarism. Schreier also had another source providing another situation in which Miucin, once again, appeared to plagiarise another review for another game.
Schreier is someone I have a great deal of respect for. Hell, I bought his book for poops and giggles. He did his job with all the decency Miucin had owed to him, and Miucin threw it back in his face. Shame, maybe. He's been caught once already and it cost him his job. Evidence of him having done the same thing in the past doesn't help him resuscitate his dead career, I guess. If Miucin gets around to apologising to Schreier, I'll think better of him.
I really do feel for Miucin. I feel he's a guy who was plunged in the deep end without learning how to swim. People make mistakes, sure. I'm still dealing with some mistakes I've made in my life recently right now. Maybe that's why I pity the guy. The difference here though is most people make mistakes are manageable. People generally don't make mistakes that will haunt them to the end of their days. Mistakes that will compromise a career and a passion for something they love.
Miucin did. He really, really shouldn't have.
Friday, 10 August 2018
The Evil Within 2: 0/5
I liked this game, but given Bethesda's shitty attitude towards consumers, I'm not going to recommend any of their products to anyone ever again.
For more details: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17661254/bethesda-sell-used-games-amazon-block
For more details: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17661254/bethesda-sell-used-games-amazon-block
Dead Cells 3/5
Dead Cells is a game for fans of rogue-like games. Which is not me.
In its defence, Dead Cells is the first rogue-like I've ever played, and for those unfamiliar, a rogue-like game basically involves you starting the game mostly from scratch when you die, with some added bonuses to help you develop a sense of progression despite being thrown back to the start. And die yo will. Often! Maybe you'll unlock some new weapons or tools (like bear traps or turrets) to experiment with, making the next play-through more interesting. Maybe you'll finish unlocking new upgrades or mutations that either complement your play-style or provide you with an extra health potion to get further to your goal.Dead Cells also has a couple of extra game modes to keep you going, such as the Daily Challenge Mode, where you're given a fixed level and weapons load-out and allowed to compete with other players for a high-score (which for me isn't as appealing as being rewarded with a new blueprint for your 1st/5th/10th completion, and nothing afterward), or its Streaming Mode, which is both great for allowing a streamer's viewers to participate int heir game, and useless for everybody else.
Dead Cells is also coupled with the Metroid-vania genre, which is arguably what made the game most appealing to me in the first place. Here you unlock certain character abilities which open up whole new areas of a map, traditionally, which may be hidden away in the very first areas of the game. In this situation, you actually want to go back to the start of the game, not because you died and were made to, but because there's new and hidden content that was always there without you ever knowing. Unfortunately for me, the Metroid-vania aspect of Dead Cells just doesn't work that well. You still unlock those Metroid-vania skills, but there's arguably no reason to, or at least I failed to recognise their benefit. I made my way to the penultimate area of the game without unlocking two of the four upgrades in the game. Those extra areas you now have access to mostly just offer a new game aesthetic to enjoy, and game is certainly pretty in it's pixelated way. Maybe they offer a couple of new enemies to learn how to deal with, which may drop a new blueprint for a new weapon or upgrade, assuming you make it out of the area alive. Thing is, new enemies means unfamiliar attacks, which are likely to kill you and send you back to the beginning which you're already intimately and regretfully familiar with.
Each run of Dead Cells is procedural generated, which you'd hope would breath life into each and every game, despite how many times you've tackled an area. This is not the case, at least not for me. Every crossroad is the same crossroad, every T-junction is the same T-junction, every zombie encountered is the same zombie. It's not so much breathing new life into each play-through, as it is breathing the same air you've already been breathing for 19 hours. That's not to say Dead Cells is a bad game: 19 hours is a pretty decent chunk of time to sink into a 20-30 dollar game. Combat is great, slowly learning an enemies tells makes them easier to tackle next time, and learning the subtle nuances of the game's rolling, which is both generous enough to get you out of most situations while also not infallible enough to be abused. The music has an encouraging rhythm to it, urging you on and on, rolling, slashing, jumping your way a little further than you did before, of farming cells for upgrades a little longer than before, or rushing through an earlier even faster than before. It's very much a game you can play how you like, if it rewards you how you want to be rewarded.
The vast number of weapons you can unlock does initially give you pause to think about how exactly you're going to use them to your advantage against those enemies. After enjoying a combo that allowed you to freeze or trap enemies in place, allowing you to roll past in order to stab them in the back for critical hits, how now are you going to use a sword that engulfs enemies in inflammable oil before you get access to something that will actually set them on fire? That is, you consider these things up until you get handed some trash boots you can slowly kick enemies with for the umpteenth time, and realise you can simply reset the game and hope for better drops. I feel like this game would greatly improve if if gave you the option to either choose your starting weapons (thus giving you the option to experiment later) or at least limit which weapons are dished out at the start (in order to not have to deal with the aforementioned boots).
Dead Cells is sadly not the Metroid-vania I hoped for, but its solid gameplay loop definitely held my attention for a little while depsite that. It's a game for people with half an hour to kill, who typically don't have the opportunity or inclination to devote time to games for extended periods. It appeals to those needing instant gratification, with flash combat and swift traversal, though it fails players who really yearn for a real sense of progression, when adding a new weapons to an already large random loot pool dilutes its worth. Dead Cells is both several shots of fortified joy and the morning after where I ask myself "why, why did I do this again?"
Your mileage may vary.
In its defence, Dead Cells is the first rogue-like I've ever played, and for those unfamiliar, a rogue-like game basically involves you starting the game mostly from scratch when you die, with some added bonuses to help you develop a sense of progression despite being thrown back to the start. And die yo will. Often! Maybe you'll unlock some new weapons or tools (like bear traps or turrets) to experiment with, making the next play-through more interesting. Maybe you'll finish unlocking new upgrades or mutations that either complement your play-style or provide you with an extra health potion to get further to your goal.Dead Cells also has a couple of extra game modes to keep you going, such as the Daily Challenge Mode, where you're given a fixed level and weapons load-out and allowed to compete with other players for a high-score (which for me isn't as appealing as being rewarded with a new blueprint for your 1st/5th/10th completion, and nothing afterward), or its Streaming Mode, which is both great for allowing a streamer's viewers to participate int heir game, and useless for everybody else.
Dead Cells is also coupled with the Metroid-vania genre, which is arguably what made the game most appealing to me in the first place. Here you unlock certain character abilities which open up whole new areas of a map, traditionally, which may be hidden away in the very first areas of the game. In this situation, you actually want to go back to the start of the game, not because you died and were made to, but because there's new and hidden content that was always there without you ever knowing. Unfortunately for me, the Metroid-vania aspect of Dead Cells just doesn't work that well. You still unlock those Metroid-vania skills, but there's arguably no reason to, or at least I failed to recognise their benefit. I made my way to the penultimate area of the game without unlocking two of the four upgrades in the game. Those extra areas you now have access to mostly just offer a new game aesthetic to enjoy, and game is certainly pretty in it's pixelated way. Maybe they offer a couple of new enemies to learn how to deal with, which may drop a new blueprint for a new weapon or upgrade, assuming you make it out of the area alive. Thing is, new enemies means unfamiliar attacks, which are likely to kill you and send you back to the beginning which you're already intimately and regretfully familiar with.
Each run of Dead Cells is procedural generated, which you'd hope would breath life into each and every game, despite how many times you've tackled an area. This is not the case, at least not for me. Every crossroad is the same crossroad, every T-junction is the same T-junction, every zombie encountered is the same zombie. It's not so much breathing new life into each play-through, as it is breathing the same air you've already been breathing for 19 hours. That's not to say Dead Cells is a bad game: 19 hours is a pretty decent chunk of time to sink into a 20-30 dollar game. Combat is great, slowly learning an enemies tells makes them easier to tackle next time, and learning the subtle nuances of the game's rolling, which is both generous enough to get you out of most situations while also not infallible enough to be abused. The music has an encouraging rhythm to it, urging you on and on, rolling, slashing, jumping your way a little further than you did before, of farming cells for upgrades a little longer than before, or rushing through an earlier even faster than before. It's very much a game you can play how you like, if it rewards you how you want to be rewarded.
The vast number of weapons you can unlock does initially give you pause to think about how exactly you're going to use them to your advantage against those enemies. After enjoying a combo that allowed you to freeze or trap enemies in place, allowing you to roll past in order to stab them in the back for critical hits, how now are you going to use a sword that engulfs enemies in inflammable oil before you get access to something that will actually set them on fire? That is, you consider these things up until you get handed some trash boots you can slowly kick enemies with for the umpteenth time, and realise you can simply reset the game and hope for better drops. I feel like this game would greatly improve if if gave you the option to either choose your starting weapons (thus giving you the option to experiment later) or at least limit which weapons are dished out at the start (in order to not have to deal with the aforementioned boots).
Dead Cells is sadly not the Metroid-vania I hoped for, but its solid gameplay loop definitely held my attention for a little while depsite that. It's a game for people with half an hour to kill, who typically don't have the opportunity or inclination to devote time to games for extended periods. It appeals to those needing instant gratification, with flash combat and swift traversal, though it fails players who really yearn for a real sense of progression, when adding a new weapons to an already large random loot pool dilutes its worth. Dead Cells is both several shots of fortified joy and the morning after where I ask myself "why, why did I do this again?"
Your mileage may vary.
Saturday, 23 June 2018
God of War 5/5
I'm an old, jaded gamer. Sure, I don't have the time I used to have to play games. I can no longer run home from school, through on my console of choice for that evening and voraciously devour my media of choice.
My free-time is not as free as you might think, meaning any game purchases I make now have to be really worth while. I don't want to be an hour in only to discover the hard-earned cash I just put down on something I *thought* was going to be good (ah, game demos...) turns out to be something I'm thoroughly not enjoying. Something not living up to the hype. Something mired with micro-transactions, or made dystrophic by future DLC...
Not so, God of War.
The game is good. Really, really good. It's a fantastic mash of excellent game play and compelling, mature story telling. Not quite the brilliance that The Last of Us managed to achieve, but falling short of that bar in my mind is no great sin given how high the hurdle is.
For the record, I never played any of the earlier God of War games. I didn't know about about Kratos, the main character and Spartan of... Sparta, and his ongoing feud with the Pantheon of Greek Gods, who did various unpleasantires to him, such as tricking him into killing his wife and kid, and concealing from him his own nature as the son of Zeus, and so he proceeds to feed most of them their teeth.
At least, I think that's how it goes.
Fast-forward to non-ancient-greek-times-but-still-pretty-ancient-norse-times, we find Kratos still alive and kicking, or in this case chopping down trees, clearly still haunted by those ghosts he left behind in Greece. Enter Atreus, son of Kratos (or "boy" for short) as the two of them prepare for the funeral pyre of wife and mother, Faye, who's asked her ashes be scattered from the highest peak in all the realms.
And so our journey begins, with one of the Norse Gods picking a fight outside Kratos' wood-lodge for reasons to be explored...
A journey filled with much ass-kicking, axe-throwing, and everything in between. The game's combat is appropriately "arcadey", I'd say, pretty accessible to all but filled with enough nuance to keep people engaged and challenged at higher difficulties. And the game it's self also paces the combat and the story rather well, as Kratos endeavours to be a good father to his son whilst also tearing demons and undead apart with his bare hands. It makes for an interesting dynamic, and the story is told well, only with one part nearer the end of the game seeming a bit blunt and unnecessary, perhaps to be further explored in inevitable sequels.
While the game is mostly linear, there's enough open-world vibes there to encourage one to stray from the beaten path, side-quests to pursue, loot to... loot, and beasties to maim. Littered inbetween the comings and goings of Dad and Boy are interesting pieces of dialog between the two. These dialogs are thoroughly improved by Mimir, another character who accompanies our two lads (though, accompanies might be a bit of a stretch, as you'll find out) on their trek.
Mimir is great. I love Mimir.
Given my penchant for wandering, I managed to achieve most of what I believe the game has to offer as I slowly plodding along to the end of the game, something which came up rather abruptly, all things considered, but still tied together quite nicely with a nod toward the future, as I have aluded.
I'm eager to see where our lads go next, and surprisingly, not soured by the idea of future DLC. Let's see how that goes.
My free-time is not as free as you might think, meaning any game purchases I make now have to be really worth while. I don't want to be an hour in only to discover the hard-earned cash I just put down on something I *thought* was going to be good (ah, game demos...) turns out to be something I'm thoroughly not enjoying. Something not living up to the hype. Something mired with micro-transactions, or made dystrophic by future DLC...
Not so, God of War.
The game is good. Really, really good. It's a fantastic mash of excellent game play and compelling, mature story telling. Not quite the brilliance that The Last of Us managed to achieve, but falling short of that bar in my mind is no great sin given how high the hurdle is.
For the record, I never played any of the earlier God of War games. I didn't know about about Kratos, the main character and Spartan of... Sparta, and his ongoing feud with the Pantheon of Greek Gods, who did various unpleasantires to him, such as tricking him into killing his wife and kid, and concealing from him his own nature as the son of Zeus, and so he proceeds to feed most of them their teeth.
At least, I think that's how it goes.
Fast-forward to non-ancient-greek-times-but-still-pretty-ancient-norse-times, we find Kratos still alive and kicking, or in this case chopping down trees, clearly still haunted by those ghosts he left behind in Greece. Enter Atreus, son of Kratos (or "boy" for short) as the two of them prepare for the funeral pyre of wife and mother, Faye, who's asked her ashes be scattered from the highest peak in all the realms.
And so our journey begins, with one of the Norse Gods picking a fight outside Kratos' wood-lodge for reasons to be explored...
A journey filled with much ass-kicking, axe-throwing, and everything in between. The game's combat is appropriately "arcadey", I'd say, pretty accessible to all but filled with enough nuance to keep people engaged and challenged at higher difficulties. And the game it's self also paces the combat and the story rather well, as Kratos endeavours to be a good father to his son whilst also tearing demons and undead apart with his bare hands. It makes for an interesting dynamic, and the story is told well, only with one part nearer the end of the game seeming a bit blunt and unnecessary, perhaps to be further explored in inevitable sequels.
While the game is mostly linear, there's enough open-world vibes there to encourage one to stray from the beaten path, side-quests to pursue, loot to... loot, and beasties to maim. Littered inbetween the comings and goings of Dad and Boy are interesting pieces of dialog between the two. These dialogs are thoroughly improved by Mimir, another character who accompanies our two lads (though, accompanies might be a bit of a stretch, as you'll find out) on their trek.
Mimir is great. I love Mimir.
Given my penchant for wandering, I managed to achieve most of what I believe the game has to offer as I slowly plodding along to the end of the game, something which came up rather abruptly, all things considered, but still tied together quite nicely with a nod toward the future, as I have aluded.
I'm eager to see where our lads go next, and surprisingly, not soured by the idea of future DLC. Let's see how that goes.
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