Final Thoughts on Halo Reach

What better way to start off my Halo Reach adventure than to rediscover a badass Halo 3 edition warthog! Months ago before Halo ODST was releast, I found this Halo 3 Warthog designed into a remote control vehicle while digging through a box full of toys for my store. The great thing about owning a store is being able to find cool products that spark your interests like this warthog. This was a lucky find and I’m glad I forgot about it until this new Halo prequel was released.

    Well, as far as final thoughts, there’s really not much else to mention about Halo Reach that we did not mention in our show. I truly feel that we covered enough of the important aspects of the game… So let me tell you about some of the little things that caught my interest throughout my Reach Experience. Three categories I want to cover are the language change done to the covenant, the button layout change, and the new abilities added to this series.

• Language Change Done To Covenant: While playing through co-op campaign online with my older brother, who’s in Germany, something came to his attention that he shared with me. None of the covenant tongue was translated! We played for nearly an hour and I didn’t even pay enough attention to it to realize it. If you don’t pay enough attention to what they are saying you realize, at most, that there is a lot of grunting and gibberish but you think they say a few things in English after a while of playing.

I like not knowing what they are saying and hearing weird things in the midst of battle. Especially after already hearing them speak English from past Halo games. Its fun to guess which English phrase the covenant are saying, from the past games, that would translate into the modern tongue of the covenant that Halo Reach uses.

• Controller/Button Layout Change: Out of the past button layout control changes made throughout the Halo Saga, the button tweak in Halo Reach effected me the most. The simple interchange between three buttons affected a dramatic part of my game play experience. Switching the Right Bumper (that used to be grenade change) into Melee, the right stick button into scope zoom, and the B button into grenade change affected my game play by taking away the efficiency of using button layout “Green Thumb.” While playing past Halo games, I always switched my button layout to green thumb (which switched the scope button with the melee button) to always make, in all Halo FPS games, the right stick button the melee action. This gave me a split second add-on, in most cases, to the speed of my melee (or so it felt).

In Halo Reach I felt that the button layout provided was done in a way that the right bumper was just as efficient as the right joystick button in terms of quickness between the scope and melee use in the game. I found that when using a scoped gun the original controllers were better for me and when using a gun with out a scope green thumb was better. After switching between normal and green thumb for a few matches, I realized that either way I was going to have to reset my original Halo reflexes to always keeping the right bumper at hand or shall I say finger tip. Having to always have a finger over the right bumper caused me to have to hold the controller different in order to be efficient. As simple as it sounds to adapt to, I had a bit of an issue adapting to it.

• New Abilities: I like the new abilities of sprint, jet pack and over drive (that makes you invincible for a short period). I think these new abilities sacrificed the cheap use of the past item abilities, such as the shield drainer, with more unique specialties that involve a new type of style to there use. I think it’s just a matter of time until gamers discover a way to use these special abilities to a cheap advantage. My favorite ability was the dodge attack. I liked being able to jump out of the way of attacks. It gave it a Gears of War feeling that “tickled my fancy.”

Another cool added ability was the epic slash in the back finishes that you could do to an opponent. I loved how they captured the satisfaction of catching a foe with his backside exposed…no homo…



Final Thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 3

The first thing I would like to mention about MGS3 was why I think Hideo Kochima choose such a far back setting such as the 1960’s-70’s.

To me it seemed he was sick and tired of always listening to people constantly make references to Snake being like James Bond. I think he decided to show people what Snake was doing during the time the first Bond videos were released. There were many references to James Bond throughout the game and I think he used the characters of the game to express his opinion as well as what others may say to his comment. This allowed me to better understand his opinion on the many debatable topics of MGS3.

The second thing I thought was kind of weird was the relationship between the medic lady, who also does your saving, and Snake.

Every time you would save she would give these movie references on actual movies released around the same time as the game setting but snake never watched any of the movies she mentions! It was like Snake had no interest in what she had to say but only listened to her because she was hot. She would take metaphors from the movie and relate them into some sort of far fetched words of wisdom. Snakes lack of relation to the movies made him seem very uninterested in what she had to say but yet he still found her to be “charming”. That’s most likely the reason he remotely paid attention to her. Oh, and him know that he was going to hit that shit when he completed the mission. I think Hideo took this approach to better educate the gamer on what time frame the game was based on and how to appropriately watch a movie.

My Reasoning on Why MGS2 Is Nearly Perfect

I think Metal Gear Solid 2 was well deserving of a platinum+4 even though my fellow co hosts were more than surprised after hearing my metal. I normally wouldn’t give a game a near perfect metal like I did with MGS2 without it having RPG elements to it and more of a feel of fluency to the combat. However, I felt that if this game were to have these game qualities (even to now day’s stature) it would have taken from the story or the meaning of certain morals tied into the game. Konami, to me, was going for a strategy game that forced you to learn as your character (Riden) would learn. I felt the strategic game play and the odd controls of the game forced you to practice them through the VR training that the game refers to in the story

Some other reasons why Metal Gear Solid 2 was near perfect to me was because it was just as influential and inspiring as it was the first time I played it through, it was addictive even though it wasn’t a RPG and the game play was uniquely designed to fit the morals of the story.

The story was a big reason on why I gave it such a high metal. It wasn’t just the story being good that did it for me, it was the way everything tied into the story so well and the feeling of liberation that came from thinking on the game. Since the first time I played MGS1 I remembered how liberated my mind felt due to the story. After playing MGS2 I was even more liberated as if I was seeing more of Konami’s true opinion about morals and beliefs based on politics and war. I felt he had something to tell the world about these things and chose to do it through this well crafted fictitious game story.

Most of the times when I beat a game, I would not return to it unless there was some sort of RPG elements to it to where it can be done differently either through my character being different or the story being different. MGS2 had none of these factors and yet it was still addicting. Instead of gluing you in through customization, Konami used his amazing conspiracy story to create the addiction. You can even ask my fellow co hosts if they found something new in the games story every time they played through it. This game would not be what it is today if RPG elements were added. I think the story would have been subtracted from if RPG elements were added. The story is the main base of the whole series and to take anything from it would be disgraceful.

Even though the game play style wasn’t per say my taste, it fit the game perfectly. I like a game with more selection and freedom to it. If these gaming elements were added to the game, it would have taken away from the reasoning behind Konami’s action of making it the way he did. This game wouldn’t have been nearly as deep as it is to this day.

If I had to change my metal I wouldn’t go lower than a platinum+3. I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to not give it a perfect score.  All my reasons were mentally excused because of other factors that would have been altered for the worse. The precise detail that Konami added into the game was cleverly thought through and he showed you how aware he was of all of these things he did. He followed everything that was good about the first perfected series and even wasn’t afraid to add a debatable character like Riden in the mix. For a game to continue to have such an Influential and inspiring story as well as good graphics that can be well tolerated to now days stature is easily considered a classic to me and is deserving of a near perfect metal.

MY F#$% UP- My Rental Mistake Made Into A Side Quest

 

Like an idiot( I tend to be on occasion), I ended up renting the wrong game for our next show… How it happened?.. You mean why did I act a fool?

Well, after wrapping up the recording of our Early Bird Red Dead Redemption Podcast and during the process of us coming to closer upon our gathering on skype, Morgan finished off by clarifying the name of our next game for the show. He must have told me at least 5 times...

All I could remember each time he would repeat the name of the game was… “I aint guna remember this shit!” (All black just like that lol).

Something about the name Alan Wake just would not stick. (I couldn’t correlate it to anything that would help me remember it!). As my brain spoke these words, my mouth was silent and I just went on with our conversation.

The Game I rented instead was called Dead To Rights Retribution… With NO correlation to Red Dead Redemption (our previous gaming adventure)…. Yeah rite!!!

For some reason my subconscious became more aware of a game we just debated before the conscience side of my brain did. I guess that Early Bird Podcast must have left me loopy or something. Not enough coffee most likely.

While I blindly rented Dead to Rights Retribution from my local blockbuster, I tried to assure myself that this was the right game.

Here’s how it went:

I texted Morgan about 30min prior to my journey to the rental store and as I went through my daily tasks, opportunity approached for me to conveniently rent our next game for the show. With no reply from Morgan one of the first thing that came to mind after reading all the titles of both Xbox and PS3 games. Dead To Rights.

Why didn’t reading title Alan Wake (the third game listed in the Xbox360 section) ring a bell to me after hearing its name 5 or more times pronounced by a friend, that I actually listen to, no less than 45min ago? In most cases, like I’ve dealt with in renting past games, I would walk into the store and read a few titles and RING! RING! Ah, there’s the bell! Or RING! RING! Ah, its Morgan texting me the title of our next game for review!

This time there was nothing but an out-of-place feeling like I should have already known the name of the game. With no remembrance of the games title and no reply from Morgan, who must have been occupied with his Sunday chores or just thought I was joking, I based my actions off my gut instinct. I remembered reading a title, Dead to Rights, that most likely got stuck in my head due to our past game review Red Dead. Something about a dog on the title of the game case rang a bell like it got mentioned before in our past conversations.  I didn’t even know anything about this “Alan Wake” game so I couldn’t describe it to the store worker.

It could have been the early bird show we did or my inability to wait for Morgan to text me back with the title of the game and go to blockbuster inconveniently… But

Either way, I still ended up renting Dead to Rights instead of Alan Wake.

Did I return Dead to Rights? No! I had a felling that what ever Allan Wake was, I would still have enough time to beat it and also have time for this rental mistake. At least my gut instinct was right about that! As of Now I’ve devoured Allan Wake and am now digging Deep into Dead To Rights with at least 2-3days before our next show and today being my day off, I would definitely say that my gut feeling prediction is DEAD on.

So check out our alan wake/mario podcast for my thoughts on DTR:Retribution in our sidequests section of the show.

DEADLY PREMONITION- FINAL THOUGHTS

During my Deadly Premonition experience, I felt the full effect of the game both physically and mentally. Physically meaning when I’m playing the game and mentally by how much I think of the game throughout my daily life.

When I was physically playing Deadly Premonition, it felt like the story got better and better the deeper I indulged into it. However, once nearing the end I got the full effect on how Japanese the game actually was. If you have ever watched a season finally on an anima, then you just mite know what I mean by Japanese. They tend to over encumber you with more questions than answers and shit just gets really weird and bizarre.

The story was the main reason why I was so enchanted by the game and why I continued to proceed on forth to closer of the big mystery. It kept me personally “profiling” the case just as much as York himself… And some. I actually discovered what a symbol was that took him all the way to the end of the case to properly identify.

Even after closure, I still think of the game. My thoughts are usually based on the metaphors that are tied into the story and trying to figure out what it all means, to the corny vocals the enemies blur out such as the random things they would say when you shoot and/or kill them.

In conclusion, this game has done a lot for me mentally. For instance, I now feel more comfortable to talk to myself out loud more than I did before I played it… Yes I’m a little crazy but NOT insane… Nor do I have split personality like the character. It’s just more like clarifying my thoughts out loud. Haha!

IRONIC INSODENT

Before I began to play Deadly Premonition we did a BIG 3 SHOW. In that show I was talking about how, back in my younger days of gaming, I would make inside jokes with fellow friends that were based on games. These inside jokes were usually based off of poor graphics and hilarious sounds as well as saying creatures and/or characters would make throughout the game.

One of the main games that we would always joke about was Golden Eye for the N64. I and a few childhood friends had some jokes made up based on the actions and movements the enemies and scientist would make. We also joked about the sound effects they used for when a character would get shot. (I give a demo on those sounds in the show).

[Heres a video of some good old fashion Golden Eye N64 Game Play if your not familiar with it or just can’t remember:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp-w4LzpIpo

 Also in the video, if you go exactly 2:00min into the video, you will hear my favorite old school sound effect that I talked about demonstrated in The Big 3 Show]

I also mentioned in the show that now days, games have such good graphics that its hard to find good joking material based on that matter. A day or two latter, we decided to do Deadly Premonition as our next game to cast and it blew me away on how much joke material they give you!

Ironically, I was to eat my own words when I said, “games now days have too good of graphic to mach on.” Of Corse this game is a rare occasion but it was so ironic that the game would come out rite after I said that. The graphics were so horrible that I was having  PS1 and original Xbox flashbacks. I’m just glad there weren’t any N64 flashbacks. If that would have been the case, it would have been untoleratable… Then again there are a lot of characters who mold into walls much like in Golden Eye but still Deadly Prem was not as poor.

If this game came out when I was younger and with my past gaming companions, we would rip this game a new one!!! I do have my fellow SPT gaming partners’ to joke with but now that maturity has hit us it seems like we don’t have the time to mess around the way we did back in our adolescence.

To me, making fun of a game is a way to keep that game alive and remembered. It may be considered as immature to some but to use the joke fluently helps keep the game fresh in your mind.

It seems that Deadly Premonition was aware of there horrible graphics and decided to appropriately mock themselves in a joking matter by throwing in corny vocals and lines characters would say. They also had some unique characters that would say or do things that would make me grin.

They did an outstanding job on making each character full of personality to what they had to work with graphically., I would highly consider purchasing any future games from this company even if the graphics stayed as it is as long as the stories are to be as good as Deadly Premonition

Deadly Premonition Smoking Incidents’

About a third of my way through Deadly Premonition, I discovered the effects of smoking.

I learned that by smoking, you can make time fly by so that you can start your next objective quicker but something else can also happens… something that can kill you… No not cancer!...Undead. Lots of undead will come out and hunt you down.

I learned first hand how dangerous smoking can be by deciding to light one up after a diner scene. Instantly after the dreamy cinematic view that you go into once you select the smoke, i was attacked by multiple numbers of undead. I killed most of them and was just about to reach a phone to save from but was shocked by what attacked me next. A hell dog came out of nowhere and mauled me to death! I was more shocked about an enemy like that existing in this game than I was about dieing.

Has anyone else experienced any crazy smoking stories or incidents’ occur to you?