Mirror's Edge Review

Even though I was only halfway through the game at the end of my last play session, I quite easily finished the game in a second. All told, the length was somewhere right around 8 hours. While that would normally feel short to me, after playing through 36 hours of Twilight Princess, it was a breath of fresh air. I thought about making a separate post to detail the time/stuff I did in my second session, but the game continued on being more or less the same as the first half -- this was not a bad thing. With that out of the way, my final thoughts:

Loved

• Grace/Momentum. When you are able to control Faith properly, this game just... flows. The speed is satisfying, the obstacles are interesting, and overall I felt like I was almost surfing through these levels. I've never played a game that had such a satisfying level of grace and momentum. Even the Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider games, which probably had influence here, never even came close to feeling as smooth as Mirror's Edge does.
• Visual Style. The minimalist/blank color palette coupled with the occasional strong colors worked really well. As I said before, the game felt like a real world with a comic book drawn over the top of it. I discussed this quite a bit in my Initial Impressions; in short, it was just good.
• Additional Content. After I finished the game, I saw that I could also do speed runs and time trials. While a speed run is nothing more than trying to get a good time on a specific chapter, the time trials are really fun. Basically, each one is a piece of one of the chapters. Each of them have approximately 5 checkpoints that you must race through. The obvious goal is to get through all in the fastest time possible, with 1, 2, and 3 "star" times to beat. To get a 3 star time, you not only need to have a flawless run, but take the best possible path. While part of the fun is trying to find these paths, the game also has an online leader board where you can choose any of the top 100 times and actually race a ghost of that time. I think that it is a great feature and helped me to find some new/interesting paths through some of the levels.
• Immersion. Games these days seem to be really ratcheting up the immersion factor and this game was no exception. When I started playing, I immediately turned off the targeting reticule (except in gun mode) which provided me with a completely hud-less experience. As I continued to play, I found myself doing something I haven't done in years: I was actually leaning into the jumps. Not my game character, ME. I realized I was leaning forward when trying to make some of the tricky long jumps and in one brilliant little section where you ride on a train dodging obstacles, I noticed that I was not only leaning side to side, I was DUCKING. It has been a very long time since I have gotten that into a game and it really speaks a lot for the immersion level.

Hated

• Momentum Breakers. Without a doubt, the speed/momentum is what makes this game. Because of that, anytime I hit something that would break/slow my momentum, it would be particularly aggravating. I've compiled a small list of some of the many things that would do this, all of which were ridiculously frequent. In my opinion, the game could have done without pretty much all of these things. The list includes but is not limited to:
• Climbing pipes
• Climbing ladders
• Crawling through a ventilation shafts
• Having to sit around and figure out how to climb up/get down in an interior location
• Carrying any large weapon
• Combat. Combat in this game just doesn't work very well. Disarming opponents generally felt satisfying, and actually managed to allow you keep quite a bit of momentum most of the time, but both hand to hand combat and gun combat felt clumsy. Every so often the game would throw a handful of enemies at me, each of which was wielding a very large machine gun. Regardless of the gun in my hands, they would hit me from 100+ yards while I would WALK towards them (large weapons slow you down) trying to line up my cross hair with the clumsy game pad controls. The only time combat felt any good were the couple of times I got an Uzi-like gun in my hands, as it allowed me to still run. I basically just ran right at the enemies spraying bullets. Now THAT was fulfilling.

While you would probably expect me to complain about the length of the game, I just don't think I can. A game like this could becomes really repetitive if it went on too long, but Mirror's Edge stopped right when it should have. The story was good, but not spectacular; it even left room for a sequel.

Final recommendation: GO BUY THIS GAME. I think you can get it for every platform for <$20 these days and it is easily worth that. Oh, and be sure to add me as a friend in the in game client. I WILL beat any and all times you post.

Mirror's Edge Initial Impressions

Having finally finished Twilight Princess, I installed Mirror's Edge on my PC last night. The first thing I noticed was how unbelievably long it took to install; it was seriously in excess of 20 minutes. The installation progress bar was also VERY uninformative. I'm going to throw one point (they were bound to get one eventually) to the console crowd for no/few installs.

Once in the game itself, I was immediately impressed by the visual style. The world itself has a relatively blank/white coloring scheme. The game uses strong colors to showcase certain features of the game. Anything related to the player character or "running" shows in a strong red. Police related events/areas are blue, offices show in strong greens and yellows. I don't think anybody could really do it justice just by explaining it, but it works VERY well. It feels like a realistic world with sort of a comic book drawn over the top of it.

Additionally, all the in-game cutscenes are done in a cartoon/comic style that is brilliant. Once again, it is a perfect fit for the game world and does the game a lot more justice than cutscenes done with in-game assets would. I definitely have to give the art/game designers at Dice props here, I think they put together a beautiful game.

The prettiness aside, the gameplay is a BLAST. I opted for a gamepad, as the game is mostly platforming, which I feel was a wise choice. It's a pretty basic left stick move, right stick look setup, with most of the action buttons (jump, slide, turn) on the various triggers. I'm not a huge fan of having jump as the left bumper (should probably change it), but it isn't that bad. I looked at the mouse/keyboard options, but most of them looked pretty bad in comparison.

The game does a remarkable job of marking you feel fast and/or coordinated. Once you get the hang of the controls, it's really easy to run from rooftop to rooftop jumping, leaping, and diving as required. My only real complaint in the acrobatics is the relatively slow speed at which you climb (either game designers in general set this too slow or I'm just impatient). When I found myself vaulting around the rooftops only to slow down dramatically when I grabbed onto a pipe to climb it, my sense of momentum was greatly impacted. I really feel like somebody as fit as Faith would be able to climb up a ladder/pipe a little bit faster.

The other main element of the game is combat. So far, I've had to do relatively little. Without a doubt, it is the weakest thing in the game. It's fun/easy to run a "blue" down and disarm him, but when I then have to deal with half a dozen other cops, the game definitely slows down. The gun combat feels weak and clumsy (especially with a gamepad). I'm hoping that it doesn't become too big a part of the game, although I've heard otherwise.

Regardless of my minor quibbles, I'm VERY impressed by the game so far. It's a lot of fun and definitely a breath of fresh air after slogging through Zelda. My initial recommendation is to go pick it up (it's super cheap on all systems) if you haven't already played it.

Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

Well, it took 8 posts and 36 hours of play time, but I finally finished Twilight Princess. I'll now regale you with my final thoughts:

Loved

• Quality. This game is just VERY high quality. It pushes the Wii to its limits, it's practically bug-free, and the level design is just superb. Regardless of things I may say down below, this is a GREAT game and there is just no getting around that.
  
• Similar but Different. Twilight Princess is a Zelda game. If you've played Zelda games, you'll know what to expect here. I appreciated that because well, I like Zelda games and this definitely was one. Twilight Princess did a great job of not only providing all the "classic weapons" (bow, arrows, hookshot, etc), but also providing some new, fun stuff as well, with the bomb arrows and the spinner being my two favorite weapon additions.
• The fortune teller. I thought this was a great feature. Secrets and gathering are staples of all adventure games, but they have a tendency to either be ridiculously tedious or practically require the use of a FAQ. By being able to go to her and have her give you a clue to the location of a heart container, it allowed the locations to still be "secret" without being super annoying to find. My only grief was that I couldn't use her to point me towards golden bugs and Poes.
  

Hated

• You've found a blue rupee (5)! At the end of the game, this was hands down the thing that annoyed me the most. The very first time I encounter a rupee of a specific color, it's alright for it to show me this message. It's even okay for it to show it too me when I pull the rupee out of a chest. It is NOT okay to show me the message EVERY time I pick up a blue rupee in a new area. NOT okay at all.
• Climbing. I mentioned this before, but this was something that continued to annoy me throughout the rest of the game. It was just too slow. Period. Furthermore, the climbing controls were not very precise -- there were multiple times when I was pushing the control stick to the side and watched Link climb right off the bottom of the vines. It was hands down the WORST mechanic that has ever appeared in ANY Zelda game and was only slightly behind the rupee messages in annoying me.
• Mini-games. Again, already addressed, but they just didn't live up to the mini-games from previous games. They were alright, but I really could have used a couple of really solid bow/slingshot/bomb bug shooting galleries, and there just weren't any.
• Item progression/requirements. There were definitely some fun items in this game, but it really didn't do a very good job of working them into puzzles. While I felt like I used the clawshot and bow all the time, I was almost never forced to use the spinner. Also, the Dominion Rod was basically only used in the Temple of Time and in the lead up to the City in the Sky. The slingshot was NEVER used nor were the bomb bug things. The game could have done a lot better in working ALL the items into the game a little bit better.
• Pacing. This game started WAY too slow. I've completed entire games in the amount of time it took this thing to get started. I also felt like the game was just way too long. Something in the 20 hour range probably would have felt pretty decent too me, as it was, there were just lots of really long, relatively boring interlude sections.

I could probably ramble on for quite awhile, but that is most likely sufficient. So, in a sentence, how is it? It's a brilliant game. It really is. It's not without its flaws and it's definitely not a 10, but it is a really good game. If you are a Zelda fan of even a small degree, it's for you. I definitely enjoyed my time here, but I'm also VERY ready to move onto something else. Expect some Mirror's Edge initial impressions soon.

Oh, and playing through and reviewing a 3 year old game? I'm pretty sure I'm this guy.

Clever endgame subject here

The not so epic conclusion of my Zelda: Twilight Princess play through:

As I finished last time, I was standing right inside the entrance of the Twilight Palace. Right away, I ran into some twilight clouds, that when entered, instantly transformed me back into wolf form. After 3 rooms and as many clouds, I found myself face to face with an image of Zant, the evil king. He did little more than summon some minions and "die." Afterwards, I liberated an orb, a Sol, from what looked like one of those old "grab me and take me back to the start of the dungeon hands." I had no sooner freed the orb, than the hand came alive and started chasing after me. The next segment was basically a mad dash that had me taking the orb back to the beginning of the dungeon while trying to slow down the hand. The Sol had the additional benefits of not only dissipating the twilight clouds, but also acting as "keys" that could activate various switches. It was more interesting than I thought it would be, and was hands down the most unique dungeon (but not necessarily the most fun) so far.

After returning the Sol to the entrance, I was sent after another one, which was basically the same only with slightly different rooms. With both Sols liberated, my Master Sword was imbued with light (Light Sword, whoop!) and gained all the same powers that I had previous used the Sols for (getting through the twilight clouds, etc). I was able to use this to work my way through the rest of the dungeon and finally found myself face to face with Zant himself.

Fighting Zant was sort of a classic throw back fight in which he "teleported" us to various boss rooms and I was forced to use the strategies I had originally used for those bosses (boomerangs, magnetic boots, etc). This part felt a little weak to me, as it was the 3 boss rooms from the first 3 dungeons, the mini-boss room from the first dungeon, and the boss room from the 6th dungeon. It felt a bit disconnected to me... I really felt like they should have gone through all 7 with no mini-bosses. The final part of the fight was a pretty basic sword fight, and with that, Zant was dead.

Now, I'm not enough of a Zelda noob to think that I had finished the game, but I was basically expecting Ganon to come out right then and there and fight me. I was definitely surprised when I was sent to the Hyrule castle. Again, I figured that I was basically going to walk in and fight Ganon, but I was AGAIN surprised when it turned out to be a full dungeon.

I did NOT enjoy this dungeon. While I enjoyed the mini-boss fight from the Temple of Time, I didn't enjoy it enough to want to repeat it the 4(!?!) times that I had to in here. By the time I found the boss room (the dungeon really wasn't all that big), I was VERY ready to be done in there.

The final boss fight was definitely standard Zelda fare. It involved the following phases:

• A classic use the sword to bat the projectile phase
• Use arrows then sword
• Wolf vs. monster
• Horse back
• Mono y mono sword fight (ANOTHER ONE OF THESE?!?)

All in all, it was an okay fight, but wasn't all that compelling. It was NOT hard, and I don't think I ever even went below half life. The final sword fight phase was REALLY long and was downright boring. I can see why they put it as the final phase, but it basically just made it feel like the fight was ending on a low note. The cutscenes and the credits were crazy long and I finally saw that glorious little "The End" text appear on the screen. I felt like the ending was at least satisfying, even if it wasn't all that unexpected.

Expect a full review in my next (and final!) Twilight Princess post.

Windy Day

More Zelda: Twilight Princess:

As I wrapped up last time, I was sitting next to a broken cannon 298 rupees short of being able to repair it. I did a little Googling and decided the fastest and easiest way to earn the money would be to collect the rest of the golden bugs. The added bonus here is that it also would give me the largest wallet upon completion. Not wanting to spend time randomly wandering around Hyrule, I paid a visit to Gamefaqs and collected the bugs one by one. I was kind of glad that I didn't try to find them on my own, because even with pretty good descriptions, some of them were quite hard to find. Some (those crazy grasshoppers!) were actually hard to catch. With bugs in hand (pocket?) I went back to Agitha and went through the tedious process of handing them all in (one by one). I ended with 600 rupees (where did all those rupees go that didn't fit in my wallet?) and a new 1000 rupee wallet. A teleport, cannon fixing cutscene, and a cannon blast later left me sitting in a pool of water in the City in the Sky.

Once again, the game sort of snuck up on me here. I thought the City in the Sky was a prelude area to the Sky Temple proper. Nope. Once again, I was in the actual dungeon. Right off the bat, this dungeon had me using my clawshot quite frequently. It also made liberal use of the nearby Ooccas (intelligent chicken... things) to perform slow falls with gliding. Other than a VERY frustrating section early on involving a hidden diamond switch, the first half of the dungeon was pretty straightforward. Even at this early point, I found myself thoroughly enjoy the dungeon. It definitely felt like one of the more interesting both in setting and in puzzle design.

Before too long, I found myself in the mini-boss's room. This was a pretty clear fight (especially since he was using a clawshot target as a shield) and didn't pose too much of a problem. Due to my time on Gamefaqs, I knew I was going to get the double clawshot here. What I didn't understand was quite what it was. I had assumed that it was a simply my clawshot but with twice the length, as that was more or less what other Zelda games had done. When I opened the chest and pulled out a SECOND clawshot, I must admit I was a little bit surprised. The surprise faded VERY quickly as my mind suddenly pieced together exactly how I would be using two clawshots in the dungeon. The revelation made me happy.

This second part of the dungeon was one of my favorite parts in the entire game so far. I REALLY like the double clawshot idea. I found myself swinging around in a way that almost reminded me of Bionic Commando. It also made a lot of the remaining puzzles and challenges have incredibly interesting solutions. In one section towards the end of the dungeon, I had to stop a fan from spinning so I could dangle on clawshot #1 between the blades while using clawshot #2 to grab onto a switch. The whole idea/concept just felt really fresh and fun to me, even though it was basically just "another clawshot" dungeon.

The boss wasn't too far away, and I soon found myself on the very top of the city with a dragon flying overhead. This setup instantly reminded me of the 7th dungeon boss in Link's Awakening (on original Gameboy) which also had you fighting a dragon on a tower with the hookshot. Phase one of the fight involved using the clawshot and the steel boots to force the dragon to crash and break off some pieces of the armor. While this phase wasn't all that interesting, phase two was just plain awesome.

As soon as he broke free from his armor, it began to rain. This caused the nearby whirly plants to grow (the ones you can clawshot onto) and fly up. I then had to use the two clawshots to transition between two towers eventually grabbing onto the closest whirly. From there, I could zip between the whirly plants until I got behind him and then clawshot his back. While it was in no way the most challenging boss fight, I would definitely say it was one of the most fun I've had in any Zelda game. I repeated my aerial acrobats twice more and collected my heart container.

Back on Terra firma, I went to the desert to put the Mirror back together and go to the Palace of Twilight. As soon as I inside, I decided that I wanted to collect the rest of the pieces of heart. Why did I decide this? I really don't know. I generally don't like running all over the world doing collection quests and what not, but I sort of felt strangely compelled. I also knew that if I didn't do it now, I definitely wouldn't come back and do it after I beat the game. Lucky for me, Twilight Princess has a fortune teller (one of my favorite features in the game hands down) who, for 10 rupees will show you a picture of a spot where you can get a piece of heart. Since I had pretty much been everywhere by this point, I was able to find each and every one of them without too much grief. All in all, I think I ended up collecting about 15 pieces of heart in the space of about an hour an a half. As far as I know, the final two are in the Twilight Palace.

While this play session involved not one, but two different "go all over the world fetching stuff" outings, I would say it was one of the funnest ones I've had so far. I've basically done everything worth doing in the game (except the remaining Poes which have a bad reward and more fishing) other than the final dungeon. I have about 33 hours of play time. This game is definitely longer than I original expected, but hasn't dragged on even close to as much as I thought it would.

Prepare yourselves: next time I conquer the Palace of Twilight.

A Link in the Past

More Zelda: Twilight Princess:

When I finished last time, I was sitting outside the entrance to the Temple of Time. I walked through the gate and was very pleasantly surprised to discover myself transported back in time. In this time period, the sacred grove was in fact the Temple of Time! I thought it was a delightful Ocarina of Time cross over and it definitely brought a smile to my face.

Once inside, I activated the "Master Sword Switch" again, and then was on my way. The first half of the dungeon was pretty straightforward. None of the puzzles were all that difficult; they mostly they just involved shooting diamond switches or places weights on buttons or scales. Before I knew it, I was at the mini-boss. This fight was a classic swordsman vs swordsman fight and was quite a bit of fun. None of my auxiliary weapons did anything to him, so I was forced to rely mostly on my secret moves and Wii-mote waggling. Following the theme so far, he died relatively easily. The game once again surprised me by offering up the Dominion Rod.

When you use the rod, it sends a little green orb out (it has a finite range) that, if it comes in contact with a specific type of statue (they have obvious holes in them), puts the statue under your control. That is, it moves in all the same directions that you do, and if you press the B button, it will perform an action (generally swing a weapon). I had seen at the beginning of the dungeon that there was a statue missing and lo and behold, it was in the mini-boss's room. I then had to take control of the statue and navigate it all the way back through the dungeon. Generally I HATE having to retread steps in games, but having the statue along for the ride made all the puzzle solutions just different enough to make it all feel fresh. Again, there wasn't anything too crazy here difficulty wise, it just took a bit of time. Before long, I had him back on his spot and the door to the boss room open.

The dungeon boss was a very large spider hanging on the ceiling. His one single eye would open and close periodically. I was kind of surprised there wasn't a big cartoon sign that said "Put Arrow Here," as it felt that obvious to me. Each arrow shot would make him fall, where I would quickly take control of a nearby statue and pound him. After three hits, he exploded in typical Zelda fashion, I sheathed my sword, and I started looking around for the heart container. Instead, I saw... his eye! The eye sprouted legs and was instantly surrounded by other small spiders. It ran away from me with comical music playing in the background. I must admit that I actually laughed out loud at this point. I chased the eye down, applied my sword blade liberally, and collected my heart container.

The next dungeon on my list was "in the sky." I went to Telma's bar in Castle Town who sent me to Kakariko, who sent me with a note back to Telma. She then sent me on a bit of a wild goose chase to find something that could help Ilia get her memory back. If I was playing an MMO, I would have been complaining about "all these Fed-Ex quests." Ilia regained part of her memory and I was sent to the Hidden Town that was full of moblins. One bow and arrow shooting gallery later left me standing by an old woman who had Ilia's charm. She sent me back to Ilia who regained her memory and gave me the charm... an item which calls Epona (I GET THE CALL EPONA ANYWHERE CHARM THIS LATE IN THE GAME!?!). Ilia then sent me BACK to the Hidden Town to talk to the old lady who gave me the ancient language book. I then went back to Kakariko and talked to the scholar guy there. He then sent me all over Hyrule to use my Dominion Rod on various statues so I could obtain the missing word from my book. I eventually made my way panting back to Kakariko and had the guy read the book. That allowed me to move a statue and find an old/broken cannon, which I knew I needed to take to the cannon guy. I did that, but he needed 300 rupees (I had 4), so I quit.

I want you to notice how many times I used the words "back" and "sent" in that previous paragraph. That was intentional. This interlude section of the game was wildly annoying and frustrating to me. Hopefully the next couple of temples allow the game to finish strong... I've liked it so far, but some things in this game have definitely been sub-par. *fingers crossed*

The weather outside is frightful

More time in Zelda: Twilight Princess:

When I last played, I had just finished the Arbiter's Grounds (desert/sand dungeon). When I picked the game back up this time, I once again spent time just sort of wandering around looking for golden bugs, hidden grottoes, repairing the western bridge, and doing other similar things. As is usually the case, I soon grew bored and decided to make my way to the next dungeon. I was informed that a snow beast had been seen in the Zora domain and given a picture of said monster. After asking around, I learned that he had a rare fish in his hands that only the Zora prince was known to be able to catch. I made a quick trip to Kakariko and then ported back to the Zora domain to do a little fishing.

Now, let me explain something: nearly every time I've gotten stuck on a puzzle or problem in this game, it has somehow been related to the wolf senses. I knew that I needed to catch a Reekfish and use it somehow to "guide" me through the blizzard. In my mind, this involved catching a fish and then using it as bait for the yeti so he could come and fetch me (or something similar). With that idea in mind, I caught multiple fish and then tried everything I could think of to pick this fish up. I realized (soon, but not soon enough) that I was barking up the wrong tree. I did notice that when I caught the fish he left a little "stink" cloud on the ground. I figured that I must need to either bottle the scent or get it on me. I decided that the water was washing it off, so I devised a route from the fishing spot to the snow area, caught a fish, ran through the cloud, and then made my way to the snow region. That, of course, was also a failure. It was only after I had given up and was reading through a fishing FAQ did I learn I needed to sniff that stink cloud as a wolf to learn the scent. If my daughter had been home at the time, I'm quite certain I would have woken her with the sound of my palm colliding with my forehead.

With the scent "learned," I was able to navigate the blizzard and make it to the top of Snowpeak Mountain and have my first meeting with the yeti. He wasn't a bad chap and provided me with the means to sled my way down the mountain. One mini-game later left me at his doorstep. As I walked in, I saw the usual introduction cutscene with the text "Snowpeak Ruins." I was a little confused by that as I figured it was just this guy's house. I sort of assumed that it was just a small area that I was to go through to open up the way to the dungeon proper; I was wrong.

As it turned out, his house WAS the dungeon. His "sick" wife sent me on some random wild goose chases after the mirror shard, which did little more than provide some new ingredients for the yeti's soup (which I helped myself to gratuitously).

All throughout this dungeon, there were icy blocks and barriers that I was obviously meant to break through later. I was certain that I was going to be obtaining the fire arrows (or something similarly on fire) and went about my merry little way.

Not long later, I found myself fighting the dungeon mini-boss. A mean suit of armor with a spiked ball on a chain, he provided me with a definite amount of annoyance until I realized that I could grapple behind him and swat his tail. To my surprise, the weapon I was granted was his ball and chain! Whilst equipped, Link's run speed is slowed as the ball is quite large. By pressing and holding the use button, he swings the ball above his head. Release the button and he sends it flying towards it's target. By using this weapon, I was able to destroy the ice walls and monsters and even cause some hanging platforms to start swinging. I was VERY impressed by this new item and was pleased that the game had once again surprised me with its dungeon item.

The rest of the dungeon was relatively uneventful. I really enjoyed the general setting of the place as it was a very non-dungeon style setting. This was most evidenced by the fact that I didn't even realize it was a dungeon until I was a third of the way through it. The end boss was quite easy and simply involved me throwing my ball at various sized blocks of ice.

Afterward, I did a little bit more exploring and soon received a letter inviting me back to Snowpeak for some sled racing. Always a sucker for a good mini-game (with rewards), I ported back and raced the yeti down the hill. After beating him quite soundly on my first attempt, I was quite disappointed to discover that there was NO reward. I brushed it aside and headed towards the next dungeon.

Next on my list was a trip back to the sacred grove area where I had obtained the Master Sword. To my utter consternation, I again found myself face to face with that very odd little guardian guy who kept summoning those weird puppet monsters. I still have NO idea what is up with that guy, but once again, he proved to be little challenge.

After besting him, I flipped the "Master Sword Switch," unlocked a new warping location and called it a night.

At this point, I'm definitely looking forward to these last few dungeons as the post-mid-game dungeons so far have been stellar. I'm also really hoping for a couple more cool items and not more "lame" upgrades (although I'm pretty sure I'm due for a hookshot clawshot upgrade and a new set of clothes before too much longer). I should be able to get through the next dungeon or two tonight. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes.

Master Sword and Mini-games

Continuing my Twilight Princess playthrough:

Last time, I had just finished with the third dungeon and was getting ready for the standard mid-game excitement that exists in every Zelda title. I must admit I was a bit disappointed by it this go around. I ran to the castle, talked to Zelda then went off in search of the Master Sword. Like always, it was in the forest.

The guy I found "guarding" the forest was... well... weird. He would disappear/reappear and then blow his trumpet to summon these puppet-like things. There was basically no explanation offered (perhaps later?) and the whole thing just felt a little odd to me. The final entrance to the Sacred Grove was guarded by two statues I had to move around in a little puzzle mini-game that was actually pretty interesting although not overly difficult.

With the Master Sword in my grasp, I was given two new abilities that I was hoping I would get:

1. I could warp at any time
   
2. I could transform between human and wolf forms at will

While both of these abilities were fully expected, I was grateful that the game didn't let me down. The ability to warp at will was definitely a welcome change.

With nothing pushing me seriously in any direction, I decided to check out the mini-games that were offered thus far. I definitely found myself a tad disappointed. I really enjoyed the bow/slingshot/bombchu mini-games from Ocarina of Time and felt that these didn't quite live up to what had previously been offered.

Description of games with my impressions of each:

• Up by the Zora domain along the river, there is a hut that offers a boat ride + bomb arrow mini-game. It was pretty much what I expected: ride down the river in the boat while shooting something (pots, in this case) with bomb arrows. I'm still not quite sure why they were bomb arrows instead of regular arrows, but it didn't make much difference. The real sticky thing here is that you have to steer the boat itself and if you bump into anything, you lose a point. I found the boat to be notoriously difficult to pilot (especially while shooting) and had to to this particular game about 5 times. Given that each run took 4-5 minutes, it was frustrating to say the least -- although the bigger bomb bag reward was a big win.
  
• Near the boat mini-game is the fishing hole. Fishing in Twilight Princess is done VERY well as it involves using the nunchuck to reel the fish in and the Wii-mote to cast and control the pole. You even have a canoe to paddle around the lake. While I think the whole setup is quite good here, after a quick glance online, I found that the rewards are relatively lackluster. That sort of disappointed me and I left. I'll probably come back though and screw around later.
• Inside the fishing hole, there is something of a hidden mini-game... you access it by going into first person mode and then looking at it. It's basically a Monkey-Ball-style game where you use the Wii-mote to control a box to make a ball roll along a path. Completing it rewards you with another fishing lure, but I found this game to be CRAZY hard. I gave up pretty quickly.
• Starting from Lake Hylia, you can summon a bird/dragon thing to carry you up the river towards the Zora domain. Along the way, there are big balloons you can fly into and pop: watermelons, oranges, and strawberries. As you'd expect, they are each worth a variety of points. Each time you get a specific kind in a row, the amount of points you get doubles. By collecting only strawberries, the 10th balloon is worth something like 5k points. The prize (a heart container) was obtained from getting ten thousand. This one took me a couple of tries, but wasn't that bad and was relatively entertaining.
• Inside Castle Town, you can go into a cage and are given 30 seconds to collect orbs. If you try this early in the game (I did), it makes it pretty clear you need the hookshot clawshot to get them all. I went back with it and got them on my second try. Quite easy and really not all that fun.
• Also around Lake Hylia (why are so many mini-games around the lake/river?), you can grab a chicken and attempt to glide out towards "Treasure Island." Basically, you just have to let go at the right time to land on a small platform containing a chest. I tried it once and figured I'd go back later.

There may be a couple of other mini-games, but that's definitely the bulk of them. Overall, I was NOT impressed.

With my mini-games done and my items upgraded (new quiver, new bomb bag, and a new wallet), I decided to press onwards with the storyline. It felt pretty obvious I was going to be headed into the desert next, mostly because it's the one place I hadn't been. A trip back to town followed by a trip back to the lake and then a pretty short canon ride later, I found myself standing at the edge of the desert. I then had to run across a ridiculously large area to get up to the next dungeon.

Dungeon #4 is the Arbiter's Grounds... whatever that means. This dungeon did something that the game has completely failed to do so far: surprise me. Initially, you work your way through a few rooms and eventually come to a gate which gets closed in front of you as four Poes steal some blue flames. While chasing after Poe flames is NOT a new Zelda concept, having to transform into a wolf to follow their scents or even to see/fight them is. This part of the dungeon was pretty decent and had some interesting areas, including one were I ran right by a Poe hiding spot because I wasn't sensing in wolf form. After I took down the four Poes, I ran through the locked gate into the next part of the dungeon.

This second half of the dungeon felt oddly disconnected from the first half. It felt like I should have gotten a weapon after defeating all the Poes, but I didn't... I was just sort of pushed into a new area. While this area was similar, it definitely felt different.

It was also in this area that I found something that turned out to be the most annoying thing in the game so far. In a particular room, you run between platforms with "slow you down" quicksand in between. To exit the room, you must pull open a door and then quickly run through it. As I was in this room, I suddenly found myself in the slow motion walk while on the solid part of the ground. It REALLY felt like the game had a bug in it where I was not exiting the slow walk when I got out of the quicksand. I found that the only way I could get it to return to the regular speed/animation was to fall into the quicksand and restart the room. It SO felt like a glitch, that I eventually looked it up online and found somebody else who ALSO thought it was a bug. The very short response to his question: "wolf senses." I quickly went back to the game, transformed into a wolf, turned on my senses, did a spinning attack to get the invisible rats off my back, and groaned quite audibly. While I appreciated what they were trying to do here, if your game mechanic feels like a bug, it probably isn't a good mechanic.

Before too long, I found myself at the "weapon" boss. This fight involved switching to wolf form to see him and get an initial blow in and then switching back to human form to sword/bow him. The battle seemed to be a very logical continuation from the Poes earlier in the dungeon, but felt really out of place where it was. I personally think this fight should have occurred in the gate room right after I got the final Poe's flame.

Anyway, after downing the boss I ran up to the weapon chest. For the first time in the game so far, I had NO idea what to expect. Inside was... the spinner? The spinner is a spinning platform that you can throw down and ride on. Its main purpose inside this dungeon is to ride over all the quicksand everywhere. Also, throughout that part of the dungeon, there are slots in the walls that the spinner can attach onto. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but needless to say, it's definitely unique.

As was to be expected, the spinner helped me reach the boss key and eventually the boss himself. The first part of the final boss fight involved me spinning around him while bumping off and smashing into his spine. After 3 hits, he "died" and I found myself on the floor next to him. With no heart container in sight, I was a little confused and also surprised by how easy he was. As I should have guessed, I still had phase 2 to get through which was a crazy spinner ride that had me hopping between two walls and trying to smash into the flying boss head. I quickly finished him up (even the second section wasn't too hard) and gathered up my heart piece. While this was hands down the easiest boss I had fought so far, the kill mechanic was without a doubt the most interesting and unique that I had so far encountered.

Once outside, I was introduced to the "rest of the story" which finally introduced Ganon(dorf) and let me know I had 3 more dungeons to look forward to. At that point, it was getting late so I called it a night.

While the mini-games ended up being a pretty big yawn fest, the change in the game to allow more freedom (via warping and transforming) coupled with the best-yet fourth dungeon provided me with one of the best play sessions so far. My expectations for the rest of the game remain cautiously high.

The Last Stand

I've still got a pretty big helping of excellent flash games to get through, so for today's Flash Game Friday I'd like to present you with The Last Stand.



This is another game that has been around for a while, long enough in fact to have a sequel. The gameplay in the two is more or less the same, and the first game still holds up surprisingly well, so I'm just going to lump the two together with a recommendation to play them both.

In both games, you play a survivor of some sort of zombie holocaust. Your goal: survive. Game play is a combination of keyboard and mouse controls, with the keyboard moving your character up and down on the right side of the screen, with the mouse controlling your shooting and your aiming. Each level represents a night that you must survive. All throughout the night, zombies of various shapes, sizes, and fitness levels stream in from the left side. Some are fast, some are slow, some have helmets, some are rushing dogs. All of them push toward you trying to take down your barricade (barricade has a basic health meter) and feast on the fleshy brains you are so selfishly hoarding.

During each day, you can spend time searching for weapons/survivors and/or spend time repairing your barricade (keep it repaired!). You can use found weapons to improve your awesomeness, with chainsaws and some serious assault and sniper rifles being some of the weapons to look forward to. Found survivors join you inside the barricade and help shoot the approaching zombies... although I generally found their skills to be relatively lack luster.

Survive enough nights (or get to the coast in the second one) and you'll eventually be "saved." For extra points, do it on your first try. I know I sure didn't.

The game play may be pretty basic, but the production quality is top notch. If you have even a passing interest in zombies and like shooters, I think you'll get a kick out of it.

Water, water everywhere...

When I left off last time, I had just finished up in the Goron Mines. I was soon sent towards Hyrule Castle Town in search of Ilia, the final missing "child" from my home village. The first thing I noticed as I was en route was how much larger this area was than previous ones. The twilight shrouded area covered all of Lake Hylia, the castle/town, the entire Zora domain, and even the surrounding areas.

I eventually found Ilia and even a handy map that directed me towards the water spirit spring. As it turned out, the source of the water for the lake (the Zora domain) was frozen and needed a little thawing. As I had just finished with a fire/lava dungeon, I teleported back to Death Mountain and very easily found what I needed for the defrosting. With the water running again, I visited the water spirit and was tasked with killing more "twilight" bugs. This batch turned out to be the most annoying yet.

As I previously mentioned, the area the bugs were in was much bigger this time. Even having them pinpointed on my map, there was a lot of vertical involved (that the map doesn't show) and there were a couple of them I couldn't seem to figure out how to get to. I spent a pretty good batch of time (1-2 hours) running all over this large region trying to figure out how to get to the last of these bugs. I did manage to find the last one and even made short work of the "boss" bug at the end. With the twilight cleared, my next task was to save the freshly departed Zora queen's son.

I already knew that he was back in Hyrule Castle Town with Ilia, so I ran back over there, something which was more annoying than it should have been because I didn't have the handy Midna teleports as Link. Once there, I learned 2 things:

1) Ilia had lost her memory
2) The Zora prince was dying and needed to be taken to Kakariko Village for healing

I found myself "volunteered" for escort duty and started trotting after the cart. The escort segment was relatively uneventful, except for a particular area where the cart kept hitting a bomb and then looping back on itself... I'm pretty sure it went in a circle at least 10 times. In all honesty, I'm still not even sure why it didn't loop that last time as I didn't do anything special. With the finally prince saved, the queen granted me access to the blue "hero of legend" clothes, which I had correctly guessed I would get for breathing underwater in the new temple. Not in an exploring mood, I ran directly for the temple at the bottom of the lake and got to work.

I found myself VERY underwhelmed by the lake bed temple. I could see right away that I was going to have to play the "redirect water to alter the water level" game and I was not disappointed. I got pretty stuck a couple of times, until I looked up to the ceiling and remembered that I had previously been instructed in the use of bomb arrows. A couple of well placed shots brought down some stalactites (stalagmites?) which I then used for advancement.

The dungeon was more or less throwing in my face the fact that I was going to be getting the hookshot... the connection points seemed pretty obvious. I eventually made my way to the mid-dungeon boss who was a pretty straightforward "kill the minions, then kill the boss" fight. He rewarded me with my expected prize: the hookshot clawshot. I grappled my way around the rest of the dungeon and finished off the boss who had a VERY obvious "you need to hookshot this thing then attack it" mechanic. All-in-all, the dungeon was a big yawn for me.

The dungeon also manifested what I consider to be the two biggest issues with the game so far:

1. The "hot spots" for clawshot attachments are WAY too small. I have a relatively steady hand with the Wii remote, but I had a pretty difficult time getting the cursor to line up perfectly with the spots. The game should really understand that if I'm in the general area of an attachment point that that is where I want to go.
2. Climbing (on vines, ladders, etc) is WAY too slow. I don't have any idea what designer thought "this feels about right," but the slowness is so noticeable I actually cringe when I realize that I have to climb on something. When you add in the fact that the controls often seem wonky while climbing (I'M PUSHING RIGHT! STOP GOING DOWN!), climbing is a chore I go out of my way to avoid.

I left quite a bit behind in the temple (at least according to the chests showing on my compass), but found I didn't care much. I did little more than watch the cutscene that occurs after you exit before calling it a night.

I'm now 12+ hours into the game with only 3 dungeons down. This game is seeming like it is going to be crazy long, and I'm not sure in a good way. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens after the mid-game denouement... hopefully things become more awesome somehow.

Somebody call a waaaambulance

As I mentioned previously, I've been playing quite a bit of the Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer lately. While it's been a lot of fun, and I have actually found some pretty decent servers to play on, there are a couple of things about the game that are driving me nuts. Interestingly enough, neither of them have anything to do with the game itself, but rather the people who play it.

First of all, the VAST majority of the public servers out there have a ridiculously high maximum number of players. In my opinion, there are very few maps in the game that can adequately accommodate more than 12 or so players. However, the average max number is usually two to three times that. I absolutely fail to understand how that is fun. It honestly seems like it would get to the point where you couldn't even move without seeing somebody and potentially getting shot. On hardcore mode or similar, it seems like it would be nothing more than spawning with a nearly instantaneous death. I've seen 30+ people playing both killhouse and shipment -- two microscopically sized maps. I just don't see the entertainment value there.

Secondly, and more annoying, is the way people cry ALL the time. It is a rare occurrence when I'm not on a server that has a guy who seems to want to complain about everything every time he dies... as if I'm somehow doing something unfair. Case in point: Last Stand.

Last Stand is one of the perks in the game that you can choose from. Basically, when you get killed, instead of instantly dying you drop into prone with a pistol. A single shot with pretty much anything can you kill (even a flashbang), but you get a few precious seconds to get some kills in. For some reason I don't understand, this seems to be the most hated perk. I find myself using it fairly frequently because I'm often ridiculously effective with it... yet every time I use it and get a kill, I instantly look to the chat area to see the complaint.

In a single play session (an hour or so), I had two different people basically go off on me for using it. In the first instance, I had my sniper rifle out and was looking out a small hole. The next thing I knew, I dropped into Last Stand due to a shot in the back. My reflexes kicked in and I quickly shot the fool in the face. Immediately I see (or something similar):

LameD00D: OMG, last stand is for noobs

He was pissed because, in his words, he shot me in the neck and I should have died. I replied:

Morinar: If it wasn't so effective, I wouldn't use it

I felt like my point was made.

The next map began soon afterwards and I very early on found myself with a tidy Last Stand kill on an obviously veteran player (Rank 55). This guy began by calling me a noob for using Last Stand, added that I shouldn't use Martyrdom either, and finished by telling me that I shouldn't be using the M16 anymore because it was a "noob" weapon and I was in my late teens. My reply:

Morinar: Why is it so important to you to dictate how to play the game to me?

I even explained to him that if he didn't like me using the mechanics that are BUILT INTO THE GAME, he was welcome to go play a different game. He "politely" declined my invitation.

I just don't understand why these people freak out so much... perhaps they are all 10 years old or something (likely) or have the maturity of a 10-year-old (more likely). I mean, I HATE claymores in that damn game. I think they are way cheaper than any perk the game has. But I don't complain every time a claymore takes me out. I respawn and go find somebody else to kill.

Perhaps someday everyone will be more mature, although I know I'm certainly not going to be holding my breath.

Dino Run

For today’s Flash Game Friday, I want to present to you all another one of my favorites: Dino Run.

The premise is simple: run. What are you running from, you ask? Also simple: extinction. As the game begins, a meteor can be seen striking the earth in the background. The “doom” (fallout) immediately starts “chasing” you. Each level sends you on a mad dash away from certain death.

While the premise may sound deceptively simple (it really is honestly), the game actually has a lot of depth. There are little dinosaurs to eat, power up flowers to collect, and even secret eggs to find. By collecting/finding all that you can, you can level up your various abilities (speed, acceleration, jumping, and strength). Level up your speed to max, grab a speed power-up, and then use your speed boost for some wicked velocity.

As the game progresses, it becomes very difficult to escape extinction. The doom cloud moves faster and faster, the stegosauruses (stegosauri?) work hard to block your path, and the terrain gets ridiculous difficult to navigate. I definitely recommend you keep playing and trying to find to all the eggs… it really is a blast.

I think my favorite thing about this game is the great retro feel to it. I’m a huge sucker for old-school 8/16 bit games, and I especially love modern games that try to recreate that feel (I still desperately want to make one, so if you have art/design talent, let's mix in my programming skill and throw something together). PixelJam really nailed the old school vibe here.

For extra fun, see how long you can stay in the doom and how long you can ride on a tumbling boulder. I don’t remember my best doom surf, but I’m pretty sure it was in the 30 seconds range.

Have fun!

Link to the Past

I've been in a very Zelda-like mood lately, what with my time in Twilight Princess and all, so for today's Throwback Thursday I thought I'd discuss the best SNES game ever created (it is... I promise*): The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (LttP).

LttP came out for the Super Nintendo back in 1992. In paying homage to the original Zelda game, LttP could be purchased as a special edition gold cartridge in addition to the standard gray SNES carts. Being but 10 years old at the time, I was a huge fan of all things Nintendo/Zelda and I was very proud of my gold cartridge.

The game starts with you being awakened by your uncle with rain pouring down in the background. In typical gaming fashion, you chase after your uncle, obtain his sword, and use it to save the world. The game also introduces you to Princess Zelda quite early, something which was a big departure from the NES entries in which Zelda was just a nebulous entity you only saw at the end of the game. Doing it this way really made your goal much more tangible.

With Zelda safe (for now), the game finally "starts." In what became typical Zelda fashion, the game has you working through a series of dungeons. You begin with a set of 3, followed by some sort of mid-game denouement, with a final set of 7. In LttP, the mid-game excitement introduces you to the Dark World. Without a doubt, this feature was probably the single thing that made the game so amazing.

Initially, your travel between the worlds is limited to special portals, but before too long, you get a mirror that allows you to travel between the two at will. While the worlds are very similar (often just a small darkening of the hues), there are some minor differences. There could be a bridge in one that isn't in the other or even a missing cave in the light world. By traveling back and forth between the two worlds, you are able to get to places and things (and a fair number of secret areas) that you couldn't get to otherwise. While this game mechanic may sound really familiar to people who have played later Zelda games (young vs. old Link and twilight-covered areas vs. normal areas), LttP really pioneered the idea. Such a thing had just never before been seen in a Nintendo game.

The game had a pretty large number of all of the most beloved Zelda items (bow, bombs, etc), but without a doubt there was one that trumped them all: the Pegasus Boots.

Ahh... the Pegasus Boots. In subsequent play throughs of LttP, there are exactly two parts to the game: the time before you get the boots (the crappy part) and the time after you get the boots (the good part). What did these magical boots do you ask? Simple: they let you dash. Hold down the 'A' button and Link winds up and then flies across the screen. I have exceptionally fond memories of dashing from screen to screen, dashing into trees (to knock out secret items and entrances), and especially dashing into enemies for a quick kill. I'm not sure why the simple act of running fast adds so much awesome to a game, but I promise you, it does.

While LttP definitely set the stage for future Zelda games, there are a few things that were never seen in later Zelda games. Most notable in my mind are the two canes in the game. One of these, when used, makes Link invincible for the duration of his magic meter (not very long). The other actually creates blocks that can be used to depress switches. There are some other pretty unique things to the game, but as far as I know, no other Zelda game had anything like the canes.

In proper Zelda tradition, the game ends with you using light arrows to fight Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda. The ending is fully satisfying and I guarantee you will have enjoyed your time.

In conclusion, let me just say that there is a very profound reason that this game ranks so highly on top games of all time lists. It was WAY ahead of its time, had a great story, great items, great dungeons, and was overall just a lot of fun. If you've never played it, it's easier than ever. You no longer have to scavenge an old SNES or resort to a shady ROM site, just fire up the Virtual Console (or play the GBA version!) and knock yourself out. I promise you won't regret it.

(*Editor's note: Super Metroid. I'm just saying.)

Goron Mines

After the wife went to sleep last night, I found myself with some available TV time and decided to continue my Zelda play through.

When I stopped on Sunday, I had just finished the Forest Temple and was in the middle of the twilight surrounding Kakariko village trying to find all those little darkness bugs. I've really found myself enjoying the twilight segments that have you playing as wolf; they provide a nice diversion from the rest of the game. While I certainly wouldn't want to be in wolf form all the time, the back and forth works out very nicely. My biggest problem with these segments so far is that I spend nearly all my time with my senses turned on, trying to see the bugs and places to dig. This is a problem because I've actually missed obvious things (like a crawl space into a building) because of my limited field of vision while in sensing mode. I suppose that that exists to keep me from having it turned on all the time, but which ever mode I'm in, I tend to always feel like I'm missing something.

Anyway, I finished clearing the twilight and started making my way up Death Mountain to straighten out the Gorons. I was quickly sent back to my home village to find out how to best the Goron strength. I thought it was a little early in the game to be getting the Power Glove, but didn't think much of it. Once back home, I received a sumo wrestling lesson from the mayor... something which I found was surprisingly difficult until I realized I could basically just mash the 'A' button and win nearly every time. He then provided me with the Iron Boots so that I wouldn't be moved as easily by the Gorons. Huh... no Power Glove for me.

I made my way back to Death Mountain and up to the Goron lair. Another mash 'A' sumo wrestle later and I was granted access to the mines. I wasn't too surprised to be in here, seems like the fire dungeon is always the second one (I'm guessing it'll be water next).

I wasn't quite sure how the Iron Boots would be used in the mines (I was expecting to use them to sink to the bottom of water, which I did), but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure where I was in the mine, but I found myself standing on a switch which needed more weight to depress it. I quickly tossed on my Iron Boots and was ripped towards the ceiling! I'm sure I made some sort of little squeal of delight as I'm prone to do.

The rest of the dungeon had some great puzzles and segments that involved using the Iron Boots to magnetically attach myself to walls and ceilings and get to places I couldn't normally get. I thought it was a VERY nice touch and something I had never seen in a Zelda game before.

I finally reached the mini-boss and was given my new dungeon item: the Bow. I was sort of expecting it, but admit I was a little disappointed as it didn't make much sense to have the Bow in the middle of a Goron mine. The game explained it by saying that they were guarding the weapon of the hero of legend or something like that. It felt weak to me. It was like they wanted this dungeon to be the second one and also wanted to give the player the bow at this time, but couldn't really come up with anyway to tie the two together.

Regardless, the rest of the dungeon was pretty short and the final boss had a great kill mechanic that involved my Bow and my Iron Boots. It was ridiculously easy, but still quite enjoyable. Once back outside, I did little more than buy a bomb sack (I CAN MAKE BOMB ARROWS!?!) and then call it a night.

I must admit I'm pretty impressed with the game so far; they have done an excellent job of making a game that fits the Zelda mold so closely, yet still seems to throw some new and interesting things at me. Can't wait to see where I end up next.

Eff Pee Ess

Filling the gaps between my various single player escapes lately has a been a variety of FPSes. I've found a new-found (re-found?) love of the multiplayer shooters lately.

Topping the list has been Call of Duty 4. I've had the game since last October (birthday present) and blasted through the single player campaign (real masochists play on Veteran), but never touched the multiplayer. Whilst looking for another game to play together, Plisskin (Rhaenoth? He's going through an identity crisis), and I decided to give it a try as we both had it installed. He had pretty much played it to death and told me what a blast it was. Boy oh boy, was he right.

The multiplayer in CoD 4 has an almost RPG element to it. You get experience points for killing enemies, completing objectives, completing rounds, and completing challenges (achievements). Get enough experience and you level up (55 levels in all... all the way to 5 star general). As you level up, you unlock new weapons and new perks. The perks are really cool and let you do things like shoot a little harder, run a little farther, and even pull out a pistol right before you die for some last ditch killing. I don't quite know what it is, but for me, there is something absolutely compelling about the system. I find myself doing "just one more round" so I can get the last 3 headshots I need with a specific weapon so I can complete a challenge. The system sort of always pushes me to want to play a little bit more; it's definitely awesome. I think the best thing about the whole system is that while you are definitely at an advantage at higher levels, you can still be VERY competitive early on. I've even topped the leaderboard a few times.

I was a huge fan of CoD 1 and 2, so the play here was instantly familiar, right down to the kill cams. Infinity Ward did a great job of bringing their WWII shooters into modern times. I'm definitely a fan. I also foisted the game onto my cousin this last weekend who instantly fell in love with it. If any of you all want to play, be sure to hit me up.

Second on the list of multiplayer-ing has been the always venerable Team Fortress 2. TF2 is a game that I have played off and on since it was first released back in 2007. I've always liked the idea of the game, but something about it never quite grasped me. As I've been playing it more lately, I'm really starting to have fun with a couple of the classes.

Tonight, I played 7 or 8 rounds as a Heavy with some deadly results. At one point, Rhaenoth got on me as a Medic and charged up his Kritzkreig; the bloodbath that followed was absolutely redonkulous. I think it'd be fun to video tape me when I play a Heavy; I constantly find myself holding down both mouse buttons (the right button spins up the gun) with my mouth fully open in some sort of twisted, silent war cry. Good times.

Last and probably least is Left 4 Dead. I'm still a huge fan of this game, but the AI companions really leave me wanting. I still really want to find a couple more buddies that we can play through with. This week, we tried out the first completed user-created campaign Death Aboard. The campaign has you travel from a prison across a sinking barge with a decent finale at a lighthouse. While it lacked the polish of a proper campaign (the pacing/pathfinding in the finale event was pretty poor), over all, it was excellent. The highlight for me was definitely the sinking barge where the whole level was tilted at 20 degrees; it was a VERY nice touch and something I haven't seen done a lot in games.

We're always looking for more people to join us in our multiplayer matches. We hop on Skype (so we can make fun of each other) and let it rip. Be sure to hit me up if you have any of the games (or others!) and want to join in.

Exactly the same only different

This morning, I found myself sitting on my couch watching my daughter and exceptionally bored. Without many other options, I decided it was finally time to start Zelda: Twilight Princess. The fact that I haven't played the game until now is borderline criminal, as it was basically THE game I purchased a Wii for. Furthermore, I've owned the game since Christmas. I'm really not sure I have any excuse here other than playing the Wii forces me to oust the wife from the TV, which, while possible, isn't a trivial undertaking.

That all being said, I'd have to say I'm enjoying it so far. My biggest complaint so far is just how slow the game starts out. It's a very classic "screw around in the fairy/elf town getting a feel for the game" Zelda start. It took me well over an hour before I even really did any fighting. Additionally, just when I thought the game was really "starting," it introduced the twilight realm to me, including my twilight form, which further delayed the game really getting going. Now, don't get me wrong, the story is interesting and it has all been quite enjoyable, but I really just wanted to get in the meat of the game.

Eventually, I found myself in the first dungeon: the Forest Temple (*yawn* seriously guys? Starting with the Forest Temple again?). Not far inside, I had a rather annoying thing happen to me.

The first real room in the temple has a big "I'll break if you throw a bomb at me wall," which I realized existed as the cutscene was playing that showed me raising a stair case right in front of it. I probably spent a good 5-10 minutes looking around trying to figure out if I could still get at it; I couldn't. I contemplated reloading a previous save, then realized I just didn't care that much.

Let me diverge for a brief period here: I HATE it when game doesn't allow me to go back (especially in an open game like this) to get stuff I missed. If you ever read a FAQ for a game and it says, "MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS BEFORE YOU DO THAT," you've encountered a game feature I think is stupid. Okay, end rant.

I continued through the temple, freeing monkeys, which were used in an interesting way to help me cross some no-bridge areas (they would hang from a rope in a line and I would swing from monkey to monkey). Shortly afterward, I found myself fighting the mini-boss, which in class Zelda fashion meant I was going to be getting a new weapon. As much as I was pretty sure I was about to get the boomerang (don't you ALWAYS get the boomerang first?), it looked like I was going to get some sort of cool wind blowing device as there were obvious places to use it. To my semi-surprise, I got the "wind" boomerang. I decided to give them half points for that, only because the wind mechanic actually turned out to be really cool. Of course, anybody who has played the game knows that the wind from the boomerang can be used to put out flames, which allowed me to make that wall covering staircase disappear and then use a bomb flower/insect to enter therein (it was a yellow rupee or something similarly worthless, *sigh*).

The rest of the temple was relatively uneventful. The end boss was interesting enough even if the kill mechanic was pretty obvious (wind boomerang + bomb + flower head = boom). With the boss dead, I picked up my first heart container... about 4 hours into the game.

So how is it? It's fun. It's a Zelda game; if you like Zelda games, you'll like this. It rehashes pretty much ALL the Zelda cliches (horse, trapped kids, Forest Temple, the weapons, etc, etc) which definitely put me off a bit initially, and it definitely takes a while to get going, but all-in-all I'm impressed so far. The twilight world and the wolf form are both great ideas and work quite well I think (probably more on both in the future). I probably won't rush through the game, but I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of my play through.

Stackopolis

For this week's Flash Game Friday (yes, I know it's Saturday... shut up), I'm presenting Stackopolis. Stackopolis is a flash game I discovered a couple years ago; I played through the entire game in one sitting. While it doesn't necessarily have tons of replay value, that first play is definitely a good time.

Basic idea: you are a city building planner (builder? architect?) and you are given a set of building blocks that you must rearrange in a set amount of time to create a building that matches a blueprint provided to you. Does that make sense? Probably not. Just go play it.

If you are like me (and I know I am), you'll start playing this and then continue to play it until you finish. The game mechanic is simple but, once again, strangely addictive.

Oh, and make sure you look the blueprint. I started replaying it a few days ago and forgot about the blueprint. Want a new challenge? Try creating the building merely from the artists rendition. It's... harder.

Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did -- leave some comments and let me know what you thought.

Halp! There's pop culture in my post-apocalyptic future!

First off, let me apologize for not posting for a few days... I contracted a ridiculous diarrhea/vomiting illness (including both at the same time) that sort of stopped me from doing much of anything for a few days. Hopefully my posting schedule will pick up in the coming days.

For today's Throwback Thursday, I'm going to be discussing Fallout 1 and 2. For those of you young'uns who have only played the third Fallout game... shame on you. The originals were truly brilliant games. To start us off, I'll give some basic background of the games.

Both Fallout 1/2 are played from a 2D isometric perspective (think Diablo 2) as they were both released back before 3D graphics were the norm. Also, unlike Fallout 3, the combat in the game is entirely turn-based. Basically, just imagine that you are always in VATS when you are in combat.

As far as story goes, Fallout 1 has you leaving good old Vault 13 in search of a water purification chip, while Fallout 2 has you leaving your tribal village (you are a descendant of the original vault dweller from Fallout 1) to find a G.E.C.K. Sound familiar? In both games, you trek all across the west (California, Nevada, etc) fighting bandits, mutants, and solving local squabbles. Both games have traits, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, and skills all similar to Fallout 3. Additionally, in both games you accumulate an entire party of followers (somewhere between 1 and 5 if I remember correctly). Okay, background aside, let's delve into some of the interesting stuff.

In my opinion, one of the greatest things about these original Fallout games is the way they reference pop culture pretty much constantly. At one point (I think in the second game), you find a little wishing well. If you attach some rope appropriately you can climb down. On the ground, you'll see a bunch of bottle caps (the game's currency). Try to pick one up, and you are greeted by this:

This is MY dream, MY wish, and I'm taking it back. I'm taking them all back.

I don't want to exaggerate here, but that is pretty much the most awesome thing in the history of the world (you caught the reference right? If not, more shame on you). Also, throughout the course of the games you can find a Star Trek away shuttle that has crash-landed, King Arthur and his men (in full power armor) looking for the Holy Hand Grenade (then later find them fighting a VERY deadly rabbitrat), and even have a run in with the bridge keeper who asks you 3 questions (his robe is a SOLID piece of armor).

The other thing I really enjoyed in these games was the over the top combat. In my playthrough of Fallout 1, I took the Bloody Mess Perk, which unlike Fallout 3, does nothing more than make things explode more. Call me sadistic, but it is very fulfilling to walk into a big crown of bandits and watch all of them explode and/or vaporize as my alien blaster hits each of them in turn. Of course it does add insult to injury when one of those bandits lands some sort of crazy crit on you that hits for 3 times your max HP and you watch pieces of your own torso fall off... stupid bandits. All of this should still sound familiar to somebody who has played Fallout 3, but where do you think they got the idea from?

As far as rating the two games, in my opinion, the first game is MUCH better than the second. The second game really didn't have any improvements by way of graphics, interface, or items. The story in the second game felt much more convoluted to me as well (I'm a tribesperson, who is a descendant of a vault dweller and I need a GECK, no wait, I don't, I need to rescue my people, but I do need a GECK, but wait, there is one right by them). The second game was also a fair amount longer than the first -- too long in my opinion. I had started the second game last year around September, then got bored of it and only just picked it back up and finished it this last weekend. Finally, the second game had one other crazy flaw: disabling the "get the hell out of my way" flag from various NPCs. Allow me to provide an example.

At one point in the second game, I had two normal companions in my party and I freed an intelligent deathclaw who also decided to join me. This guy took up 2-3 times the space of a normal NPC. During the 10 minutes or so I had this fool in my party, I manged to get stuck in no less than 3 different rooms. Basically, I would walk into a room, say between a bed and a wall, and this deathclaw would walk in behind me... and then just stand there. No amount of clicking or yelling at the screen would get this idiot to move. I literally had to reload the game. In another place, I took take an elevator up a floor, and then it would placed the NPCs around me... in such a way that I couldn't move. While this deathclaw seemed to be particularly bad (I was tempted to kill him just for that), it definitely happened in other places as well, and while I suppose it might have been a problem in the first game, I certainly never noticed it until I got to the second one.

So what's the take home lesson here? The first Fallout game is great fun. I'd recommend it to anybody, especially if you are already a fan of the series via Fallout 3. The graphics really aren't that bad, and it is surprisingly playable even today. The second game is just okay, and if you play the first one and find yourself craving more old school goodness, check it out, but it really doesn't add all that much.