Ruptunex's Blogs

Well here's my most recent attempt at a blog. This time around I'm not going to blog on anything specific and I intend on blogging about gaming for the past few weeks. They will be in segments so if a particular segment bores you or you're not interested, feel free to skip on ahead.

First up we have Home. I was one of a few who got into the Closed Beta a few weeks before the open beta was (abruptly) released a few days ago and my impressions were less than stellar to say the least. At least to begin with. At first i just started wandering around. There seemed to be a few neat features and after I'd downloaded all the sections, I took a wander around into the Home store. And since it was a closed Beta, everything was free. And I bought it all. When the beta was released, I was surprised at how expensive everything was. I mean $1.90 for a T-shirt? It's just not cool. A quick estimate says that I've saved a good $100 on buying everything up before the closed Beta ended.

After trying on some new clothes, I decided to check out the Home Theatre. Very neat concept, It seems to have a lot of promise. I saw the new Watchmen Trailer which was very Slick. And it definately cemented my resolve to see it. Also on offer was a Eurogamer show about Media Molecule, the developers of LittleBigPlanet. There seems to be great promise to this Theatre, With Six Screens and more room for more, we could see a lot more trailers and perhaps even TV shows. 

After my stint in the Theatre I decided to check out the Bowling Alley. I didn't see much point to the bowling Alley. You could play pool, chess, bowling, and a few arcade games which to be honest were very average and you'd see them on your cellphone. Though I got very excited when I saw an Echochrome Arcade machine, but it's some sort of variant on the game which is seemingly crap. Oh. And did I mention that if someone else was playing pool, bowling or an arcade machine, you couldn't? Because they are blocking the way? It's seemingly stupid. I can't imagine how hard it'd be to play them now that Home has been released to everyone. There really is no need for this. It just creates unnecessary queues. Which is really stupid.

After fiddling around with the Bowling Alley and deciding that the games are shockingly bad. I checked out my new "summer house" which I downloaded. And started decorating. And I'll tell you, It's addictive putting stuff into your house. You just wanna make it looks nice. Overall, Home seemed very Underwhelming but there a few glimmers of hope in there. If Sony can fix a few problems and pour in a hell of a lot of content in there, it has the potential to be great. That's the keyword guys. Potential. But Home will Live and Die, Like LBP in a sense, based on the community that uses it. So don't just let Home sit there untended to. Play it every now and then and hook up with some mates and hang out, or check out some new stuff.

Next up we have something a little more personal, Rock Band. Every since i got this game in October I have played this almost religiously. And after a month I started played Expert on Drums. At these higher levels of diffulty, the game requires a lot of kick on the kick pedal. Very demandeing, but I was managing to hold up quite nicely........

Until the pedal snapped. Man. This was a kick in the teeth. I was so gutted. I couldn't play anymore and I had three options. Take it back to EB and wait for a replacement, buy a new third party one from Ebay for close to $150 NZD including postage, of reinforce and fix my existing one. Well I don't have $150 so close to Christmas so that was that option out the window, I didn't want to wait a long time for a replacement, which would most likely end up snapping in a few weeks.

So I decided to tape back together and reinforce my existing one. And man was it a fantastic decision. Three layers of Cardboard later and my Pedal is all nice and fix thanks to someone with great Artistic crafting skills. (It wasn't me by the way. It was my Girlfriend. I have the crafting skills of a three fingered pleb) And the kick pedal is MUCH better than it was before it snapped. It feels just as responsive and now I feel as if I can do double kicks fast without it even flexing or feel any kind of danger. So I am Extremely happy. Anyone else notice how the DLC recently has gone a bit downhill?

And finally we have Prince of Persia. My thoughts on this game should be well known by now. I love it. Made by the creators of the previous Princes of Persias, Ubisoft Montreal, and the creator of the franchise, Jordan Mechner, was also on board for some input.

For those who aren't too sure on what the game involves, It's pretty much a 3d platformer. The game is made on a heavily modified version of the Scimatar engine, which is the engine used and created for Assassin's Creed, the game feels rather smooth. The engine certainly may have it's bugs but it works quite well. The artistic design is fantastic, Cel-Shaded graphics are a form of art style which you either Love or Hate. I wasn't too fond of the announcement when I'd heard this but it has worked out beautifully. The world is so gorgeous and the visuals are very impressive.

So the game may seem easy. You've all hear that "you can't die" but it really is just taking away the unrealistic nature of coming back to life and it works fantasically. The platforming sections are very nicely handled and fluid, if a little simplistic. It offers none of the challenge of Mirrors Edge but it just seems so much cooler when you pull off long sequences. the Open world isn't that open. Each area is rather linear but it works nicely. You can still access different areas at different times so it has the element of choice. Which is nice.

The combat is a shallow affair but it's more about timing than button mashing which is this game in a nutshell. And unlocking the combo sequences is really fun. The 14 hit combo is REALLY impressive to pull off.

People have said The Prince is a complete jackass but his true character shows as you play the game and work your way to the fantastic ending. Which i guess shows a change in a character and is what happens in most games.

Some of the Trophies/Achievements are rather difficult. Finding all 1001 light seeds takes a steel mind and a lot of dedication. Though in saying that, I got 60% of the trophies first time through. There are also some speed runs for those that like travelling between places. This is a game that is greater than the sum of it's parts. Everything that may be "flawed" about it works so well together that you rarely notice the "flaws" unless you are really hung up on it. This game is definately a contender for Game of the Year. So if you haven't yet, give this game a try out. You won't regret it.

And that's my input for the next few weeks. Hope you all have a great Christmas and enjoy your gaming

""Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.""