State of the Union

After my grand post detailing plans for more regular updates, life decided to knock me over the head with the same bag of bricks that's currently cracking skulls across the entire nation. Yes, I was laid off. Technically, I'm still employed for an undetermined amount of time but I've been told to expect the closure of my store by mid-February. Most of my free time has been spent worrying, looking for a new job, and more worrying so it's been hard to get motivated to write about video games when I'm more concerned with little things like how I'm going to continue paying rent.

That being said, I'll probably have a lot of time on my hands very soon and I can't wallow in self-pity, so ideally I'll be using some of that misery fueled energy to write. If nothing else, it should serve as a good look into the psyche of someone who's will to live is slowly crushed by a competitive job market in the worst slump in years. Fun stuff!

In a slightly happier update to one of my previous posts, on Christmas Eve, Castle Crashers finally received it's much needed patch that fixes the broken multiplayer and lost save file bugs. I'm still very disappointed with the way The Behemoth chose to handle the issue, but there's no denying that the game is a great little beat-em-up that I encourage people to check out.

As for what's next, I've almost completed Prince of Persia on PS3 so that's likely to be the next review. I definitely have plenty to say about it, keep an eye out for that later in the week.

A perfect storm of lazy and busy.

I realize starting a new blog and then immediately slacking off isn't the best way to get things rolling. Unfortunately, every free moment of my time recently has been taken up by the glut of quality games that have exploded into retail like a second Big Bang. Without going into proper reviews, here are some of my brief thoughts on three of them in particular:

LittleBigPlanet - I've already written about my thoughts on the beta and my enthusiasm for the game remains with the release of the retail copy. It's still not quite reached it's stratospheric potential, sorting through the random trash to find good user created levels is difficult and there have been multiple server issues. But the core game and the ideas driving it still remain just as fun, if not more so now that the controls have been tweaked ever so slightly tighter. Having played through the majority of the story mode with my girlfriend in co-op, I also have to make mention of just how much better it is with a partner. Seeing the interactions between our two characters, even when one of us was dying, provided many moments of amusement.

Valkyria Chronicles - This is probably the best surprise of the year for me. I had been keeping an eye on Valkyria since the Japanese release, as it's one of the few PS3 exclusive rpg's, and the graphics are rendered in a great looking sketch-shaded comic book style. The game itself is a strategy rpg, but with the movement and combat of a third person shooter. My surprise comes from the fact that there's so much depth to such an obvious concept. Each character has different potentials that can help or hinder you in the heat of battle and the rock-paper-scissors balance between units makes for a game that ends up far more tactical then is first implied. Even after playing and being impressed by the demo, I wasn't prepared for how jam packed with features and options the full game would be. It also helps that the storyline and characters aren't the horribly overdone anime cliches they appear to be. There's still some cringe-worthy dialogue, but for the most part the characters are all fairly mature and not the whiny or cutesy teens I've come to expect. The only downside? I'm fairly certain that Valkyria Chronicles will wind up as the most undeserving casualty of the holiday 2008 season. There are simply too many games being released all at once, and VC just doesn't have the same appeal as a Resistance 2 or even a Motorstorm. I'm confident that anyone who takes the chance on it won't be disappointed.

Mother 3 - I mentioned mature characters while talking about Valkyria Chronicles, and no game this season has more mature themes and characters then this... a 2 year old Gameboy Advance game. A group of excellent people over at starmen.net have been working on a fan translation of Mother 3 for quite some time and they finally completed the project in October. I completed the game in English recently and I'm saving my thoughts on the game for a full blown write-up, but I can confidently say that Mother 3 stands alongside Shadow of the Colossus and Ico as a champion in the "games as art" movement. I've never played anything like it. The team at starmen.net deserve a huge round of thanks and applause for not only translating such a wonderful game but for doing so for no profit and with the utmost care.


So there you have it, three games that are currently consuming me. This doesn't even take into account that I have yet to get my hands on Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge (although the demo was incredible), or Prince of Persia. I've even been contemplating checking out Gears of War 2 based on it's universally excellent reviews, and I wasn't a fan of the first. But for now it's off to enjoy another weekend full of the things I have to do fighting for attention with things I want to.

Crashed Castles

Imagine shopping for a new car. You've been waiting awhile for your new ride, and you can finally afford that massive Hummer that may be a little pricey, but hey -- it sure does look nice and besides, it's better for hauling the family around in then your old subcompact. Now imagine throwing down all the cash required for such an extravagance, and before you can even exit the parking lot the dealer informs you that if there's more then one passenger then the car won't start. Oh and did he also forget to mention that sometimes the keys will just randomly disappear, forcing you to drive all the way back to the dealership and start the process all over? Finally, as you near your breaking point, the dealership tells you a fix is on the way... just as soon as they get back from trying to sell that same lemon of a car to other markets. Meanwhile, you're left with a gorgeous ride with all the bells and whistles that is rendered useless by it's inability to actually transport you anywhere. And forget about a refund -- all sales are final.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what's been happening to Castle Crashers. After years of delays (the title was first shown at Comic-con 2005), developers The Behemoth finally announced that the 4-player beat-em-up would be released on August 27th. Despite the slightly higher then average price of 1200 points ($15 for those not familiar with useless codewords for money), Castle Crashers quickly became one of the most downloaded Xbox Live Arcade titles of all time. It also quickly became the most broken. From day one, the title has been plagued by two very nasty bugs. The first prevents players from connecting to a game online, which effectively kills the online cooperative multiplayer. The local multiplayer still works fine, but the Castle Crashers team was always heavily focused on their titles ability to let you play with your buddies whether they were in the same room or halfway around the world. The fact that such an important feature arrived not just crippled--but outright broken-- is troubling. Even more troubling is the second major issue: Castle Crashers will sometimes decide it doesn't like your save file, so it simply makes it disappear. You can try to recover it by signing out of your profile and logging back in, but there's still no guarantee that will restore the file. This wouldn't be so bad if Castle Crashers didn't require you to spend hours upon hours leveling up your character and unlocking weapons and other goodies, only to have all those rewards vanish one day randomly upon start up. The missing saves can occur in both online and off, making the game unstable to play in both states. Unfortunately, The Behemoth decided to attend the PAX convention on the day of the games release -- meaning all complaints fell on deaf ears as players crashed their message board servers looking for possible solutions. Finally, on September 2nd, they released a statement saying that they were aware of the problems and were already working a patch to be released as soon as possible. Excellent news.

Or not. As of this writing, it is October 13th, and Castle Crashers is still saddled with the same bugs that have haunted it since it's release date. The Behemoth has updated their developer blog multiple times, touting the sales of the game, showing off fan artwork, and worst of all: promoting the future downloadable content. It's somewhat of a slap in the face to be shown more bells and whistles that we'll be expected to pay for when the core game itself is still in such a state of disarray. In their latest blog post, dated October 12th, The Behemoth talks of attending the Tokyo Game Show while a few of their team stays behind to finish the patch. After completion, it then goes into testing which can take a few weeks. And if it fails testing? Well, then it's back to square one with the approval process starting all over. So, if all goes exactly according to plan, we should be enjoying a playable version of a game purchased in late August sometime around Thanksgiving.

I understand that fixing these types of things takes time, but as a consumer I feel frustrated with the way The Behemoth as handled the whole thing. If the title wasn't ready, it should have been delayed. No one likes to hear about a long in development game being pushed back even further, but releasing a game that is broken straight out of the gate is even more inexcusable. Attending trade shows while promoting a still broken piece of software and posting pictures of action figures makes it appear as if a prompt fix isn't a priority over selling more copies. I don't think any developer wants to release a product that doesn't perform up to it's standards, but they way they've handled the issue leaves a lot to be desired. And I think it's safe to point a finger of blame at Microsoft as well. If Halo 3 had come out with broken net code, I guarantee you would have seen a patch released within days. Take Bully:Scholarship Edition for an example; released with a glitch making it prone to freezing and crashing on some 360's, a patch was released a mere 10 days later correcting the problem. Why didn't the usual "few weeks" testing rule apply in that case? Doesn't Microsoft have the authority to fast track one or more fixes? On top of all this, those gamers who are dissatisfied can't even get a refund or any type of reimbursement as it's against Microsoft policy to issue refunds on XBLA titles.

Perhaps what's most frustrating about the whole thing is the fact that underneath all the excuses, broken code, and lost saves, Castle Crashers is a wonderful game. But all the brilliant artwork, the dozens of secrets, and the sheer fun of reliving your days in the arcade killing wave after wave of enemies with a few of your best buddies is sadly overshadowed by the myriad of poor choices made by both The Behemoth and Microsoft. Suddenly, that tiny import in the corner of the lot is looking a lot more appealing -- sure it may not have all the bells and whistles -- but at least you won't be stuck taking the train for months waiting for repairs.

Blue Dragon Review

Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Blue Dragon, is a name not unfamiliar to fans of Japanese role-playing games. His name has been attached to dozens of games over the years, in varying capacity, but he will forever be linked to his breakthrough hit: Final Fantasy. This is an understandable fact considering that alongside Dragon Quest, the Final Fantasy series laid the foundation for what players have come to expect in a Japanese RPG. Perhaps it's for this very reason that Blue Dragon ultimately suffers. Sakaguchi's production company, Mistwalker, with the assistance of developers Artoon have crafted a game that is of course borrowing heavily from the aforementioned titles but in almost every instance it ends up coming across less as nostalgic homage and more as simply uninspired.

If it weren't for the admittedly excellent graphics you would be hard pressed to find this game doing anything better then it's predecessors. There are refinements of course, but even those are done to a minimal degree. Combat isn't a random affair, you can see and avoid encounters, or you can even try and group different enemy types together in the hopes that two species will turn against one another in battle. However, much like most of the other aspects of the game, this rings rather hollow in it's actual execution. There isn't any interesting game play that arises from making monsters fight each other, oftentimes the only effect is a slightly shorter battle. The same complaint can be leveled at the job system which is used to power up your characters. On the surface, it looks like a deep and interesting way of balancing your characters with different skill sets (a thief character receives more agility per level, a fighter receives strength, etc.) . The surface quickly shatters when you realize that while some degree of customization is possible, by the end of the game you'll be in command of a party of characters with godlike powers and no real distinction beyond magic user or physical attacker.

Whether it's seeming unwillingness to evolve past other modern j-rpg's can be blamed on Mistwalker or just the nature of the genre itself, Blue Dragon is still a game that manages to succeed in some small measures. The marriage of Akira Toriyama's distinct character designs and the almost "clay-mation" style way in which they're rendered is exceedingly charming. The linearity of the quest, which seems crippling for the first two discs, greatly expands in the final third with the acquisition of an airship allowing you to embark on a range of optional exploration. And even at it's most cliche, it's clear that the designers understand how to craft a solid, if not creative, experience that remains fairly consistent throughout the entire game. I once read an article that compared j-rpg's to comfort food. Taking that analogy a step further, you could compare Blue Dragon to a really good bowl of frozen macaroni; it's never going to reach the delicious standard set by your grandmother's original recipe, but it's still a tasty substitute.

LittleBetaPlanet

Two games a year. As a child, that was usually what I could expect. In between Christmas and birthdays, my thoughts were spent pondering what I would choose next. I would often dream of some magical game that was everything to everyone. If you felt like racing, there was a car to drive. More of a sports gamer? Done. It's got baseball in it as well. Or maybe you just wanted to wander around an old forest and fight goblins, or jump across skyscrapers, or explore an underwater cavern. With the coming arrival of LittleBigPlanet, this magical game is closer to reality then ever before.

Heavily hyped since it's reveal in March 2007, it's only now that I'm truly starting to understand the potential for creativity and why even at that early stage, the buzz was so strong. Last week, Sony released a number of highly coveted beta entries to a trial version of the game. While the beta version contains three of the story levels from the game, the real meat of it lies in the level creator. Developer Media Molecules has provided players with a wide range of tools in which to craft their own LittleBigPlanet levels and then upload them online for other players to enjoy. Despite only being available for around 1 week at the time of this writing, the amount of variety and the high quality of the user-created levels already available is staggering. Take the level entitled "Human Body" for example. In it, you must lead your character through a devious recreation of a body, figuring out how progress through the jaws, down the lungs, work your way across the chambers of the heart, and maybe even a short trip to the anus. While this is one of the more traditional platformer levels, other users have rendered a working pinball machine, a Space Invaders clone, a rollercoaster, and since this is the Age of Youtube, even one level that is nothing more then a giant Rickroll. Over the last couple of days, a few clever individuals have even worked out a way to play music via carefully placing switches linked to sound effects of their choice. It's these abstract ways of thinking that makes the potential for what's to come in the full release exciting.

It also might be where LittleBigPlanet will show it's greatest weakness. You don't need to be a C+ expert in order to produce your own level, but there is a steep learning curve. Even something as simple as creating a moving platform can be an exercise in complexity and frustration for those just jumping in. In fact, it's almost the entire opposite of the creators in Spore, a fair comparison given both games emphasis on user created content. Whereas in that game, you have a wide range of options that are easy to implement, you're basically making buildings, creatures, or vehicles that will all (for the most part) behave the same within the game world, regardless of appearance. While this allows for the user to feel like they are actually "creating" their character, at the end of the day, it's little more then a glorified game of dress up. But with LittleBigPlanet, you are actually altering the way other users will play, not just the scenery. What this translates to is that even the shittiest, slap-dash Spore creations still look pretty damn good with a minumum amount of effort. Try and rush through the creation of a level in LittleBigPlanet and all that you'll give birth to is a sloppy, unplayable mess that even Acclaim wouldn't have published. One of the key features missing from the beta in it's current state is a promised Youtube-style rating system that will allow you to assign a rating to a level after playing it, but think back on how many horrid videos you've seen with a rating of 5 stars.

Hopefully the community that springs up around LBP is a little more choosy. It's a game that will live and die based on not just it's ability to easily allow players to translate their thoughts and ideas into gameplay, but to also hook in the audience that will continue wanting to experience what other's have made. It remains to be seen if that's an obtainable goal, but I can say for certain that Media Molecules is pushing towards a future in which having access to only one or two games a year isn't so bad after all.

The First Of The Worst

Welcome to my new blog. Let me start by saying I find that most blogs are useless and mainly serve the purpose of elevating the author's ego by being an outlet through which they can complain about the same annoyances we all have on a daily basis. If you wanted to read about why I'm angry at "Anonymous Stranger X" for committing "Generic Nefarious Act Y" then I'm sure your desires could be fulfilled by a simple search of your friends in the social networking site of your choice. I'm making a conscious effort to avoid all that. That's not to say this is going to obliterate your expectations of what a blog should be, but I have a specific focus in mind. This will become my place to write about games, but hopefully in a way that's entertaining to both the people already playing them and the people who's sole experience with gaming is picking up a booger and sweat encrusted plastic guitar at a Best Buy kiosk and awkwardly rocking out to an Aerosmith b-side. I'll also be delving into writing about other forms of media, especially if it's related to games. Let me know what you think, positive or negative, it's all welcomed. I've already got a couple of (real) posts planned, and hopefully you'll see the first of those go up shortly. It's going to be my thoughts on the LittleBigPlanet Beta that everyone is currently scrambling to get into and it could CHANGE GAMING FOREVER. See? It's not even the first real post and I'm already spewing hype in a desperate attempt for readers. I've got this shit down.