Well, tonight is the final night that one can spend in Paragon City. City of Heroes (don't forget the Villains) will close for good. It's still sad, the more I think about it, that it will end. I knew that going in to the game (as I do with any MMO), but it still sucks. I'm grabbing my last screenshots and demorecordings, playing until the lights go off. Actually, I'm staying up late just to see it through. I'll be really tired at work tomorrow, but it will be worth it. City is worth it. Once the end has happened, I'll compose more of my thoughts into more posts, and I'm hoping to make a video of them. It's the least I could do for a game with still the best character creator and level up customization that will cease to be. As I've said before, it's terrible that this happens to any game. How can it be classic if no one else can experience it?
All I can do is stand tall and face the coming storm...
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Clan of Champions Review
Once again, thanks to NIS America, I can bring you another review, this time of the PSN game Clan of Champions. In this game, players will take on the role of a mercenary for the king and root out the evil in an ancient ruin.
Graphically, the game is fairly standard. There's some good detail on some of the equipment like rust, dirt and such. There is also a good variety of armor and weapon designs, which is a plus. However, there are not many different stage designs. You will see similar courtyards and stone hallways several times while progressing through the game. In a similar vein, there aren't many enemy types, just the three playable races and skeletons. Though in a nice touch, enemies will have cuts on their bodies when you damage them. There's also lots of blood, especially when you damage and enemy near a wall, and leave huge splotches of blood on them. Thankfully, the skeleton enemies don't leave them, though.
There are no voices in the game. Well, unless you count the assorted grunts and moans as voices. All of the story is told through text on the quest descriptions. While it's nice that it so optional to read the plot, I fear most players will miss it and think it's not there. There's not much music, and some of the battle music reminds me of God of War.
The battle system takes a bit to get used to. If you have played the PSP game "Gladiator Begins", then you'll know how this works. You can attack high (triangle), middle (square) and low (X). There are three different styles: sword & shield, dual wield and close combat (fist weapons). Each has different strengths and weaknesses and can combo the attack heights a different number of times. For example, the close combat style can chain attack high three times, mid two times, and low once. Most times I wish that you could chain more attacks together. There's also a roll/dodge move, but it provides no invincibility (as far as I can tell). The enemy AI is expert at rolling and will frequently use it to escape constant attacking. The few times I need it, it doesn't seem near as helpful as theirs. I don't know if they actually have a different roll, or if their agility score is higher than it should be.
What really sets this game apart is how armor and damage are treated. Armor on different body parts takes damage instead of the player's health bar. After sustaining enough damage, the armor will be knocked off (shield or helmet) or outright broken (chest, arm and leg armor), which allows characters to take damage in the exposed region. It's fun to start wailing on a poor sap and shatter his (or her) armor so you can do some actual damage to them. Head attacks do the most damage, but helmets can be picked up again, so sometimes the best bet is to break the chest armor. Personally, going for lots of head attacks works more often than not, so I stick with that.
However, the same thing can happen to you if you aren't careful. Thankfully, equipment is not permanently gone, even if broken or pilfered by the enemies. Yes, pilfered because equipment on the ground can be picked up by anybody. This makes battles can be very fluid, but annoying when an enemy grabs your nice helmet or weapon. The only time this was a huge problem to me was the second to last level. While fighting the target, up to 4 skeletons at a time can join in to fight you. They also spawn in with no equipment, so they can steal anything you or your team drops. At first I thought the game was nice for spawning naked skeletons so they wouldn't be too hard to kill, but soon realized that it was worse for them to have nothing.
I suspect there are nuances to the combat system that I just don't understand. The in-game tutorial is fairly basic. I couldn't find any info for mastering the combat. Sometimes and enemy seems to counter attack (and are not using the skill that does this), as if there was a parry move of some sort. They also seem very adept at rolling out of harm's way, but I can rarely pull that off. Several times they get in a shot on me and I stagger back while being completely open to their teammate's barrages. Whenever I am double or triple teaming an opponent, my hitbox seems to push me to the side while my AI just gets in my way. Also, some of the "boss" characters have ridiculously high agility, strength and equipment durability. Later in the game, they are capable of destroying your at-level armor with a few hits. It's frustrating to get completely destroyed by the computer because they block, then counter, then unload on you while you stagger and you can't roll or block your way out.
Most level ups for the different styles will unlock an attack skill that you can map to the controller or a passive that you can equip. There are lots of different attack skills, magic spells and passive skills that you can unlock in the game. When you first make your character, you get bonus stat points to customize them, but these are unfortunately the only time you can upgrade your stats without passive skills. Most attack skills are useful, but all are fairly mundane. They are meant to be somewhat realistic, so you don't shoot giant beams from your sword or crack the earth at your feet to attack. The magic spells are what will give the battles flair. I especially like the ones that give your attacks elemental effects, so you can do damage through the enemies' armor. There are lots of spells and skills to collect, and trophies accordingly.
There are 24 stages in the game, and completing one will open the next. Each stage can be done on 4 different difficulties. It would be nice if beating a stage would open it on all difficulties, but they don't. So, to get all the trophies, you have to do each stage 4 times, for a total of 96 stages. There's also 3 different weapon styles to level up and lots of gear to collect. This ensures that my completionsit nature kicks in and plays stages many times to stock the store with all the equipment. There's a lot of stuff to do, but it is still grinding. The stages are fairly short, though, which is nice for replaying them.
First off, I was surprised the game had a platinum. Well, since my friend claims there was supposed to be a disc version for the Xbox 360, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Most of the list is pretty standard, as you will have to beat all missions, on all difficulties, and get high ranks on them. You'll need to max out your levels and sell lots of things to the shop. Unfortunately, there's a few trophies for playing multiplayer (co-op and versus), but finding a game is near impossible. After sitting in a lobby for awhile, I got one person, but it would boot one of us when trying to start the level. I attempted it a few times to no avail. Admittedly, I have little desire to play versus, but I would try it out if I found anyone in those lobbies. It would be much more fun to play the game with actual players, since the teammate AI isn't too great. They have their moments, though.
While the levels are short, you are meant to do them several times to get more money, experience and equipment. So even though you grind a lot in the game, it doesn't feel very tedious to me, since the levels are short and you get stuff fairly quickly. I don't know how fun it will be to do all levels on 4 different difficulties, but I would certainly try if I could find some co-op lobbies. The game is very average on all counts, but I still had fun playing it. If you want to spend the $30, Clan of Champions is a decent game to play in short bursts or when you have some extra time. If I can ever get into a multiplayer co-op or versus game, I'll of course put an update here on my blog.
Graphically, the game is fairly standard. There's some good detail on some of the equipment like rust, dirt and such. There is also a good variety of armor and weapon designs, which is a plus. However, there are not many different stage designs. You will see similar courtyards and stone hallways several times while progressing through the game. In a similar vein, there aren't many enemy types, just the three playable races and skeletons. Though in a nice touch, enemies will have cuts on their bodies when you damage them. There's also lots of blood, especially when you damage and enemy near a wall, and leave huge splotches of blood on them. Thankfully, the skeleton enemies don't leave them, though.
There are no voices in the game. Well, unless you count the assorted grunts and moans as voices. All of the story is told through text on the quest descriptions. While it's nice that it so optional to read the plot, I fear most players will miss it and think it's not there. There's not much music, and some of the battle music reminds me of God of War.
The battle system takes a bit to get used to. If you have played the PSP game "Gladiator Begins", then you'll know how this works. You can attack high (triangle), middle (square) and low (X). There are three different styles: sword & shield, dual wield and close combat (fist weapons). Each has different strengths and weaknesses and can combo the attack heights a different number of times. For example, the close combat style can chain attack high three times, mid two times, and low once. Most times I wish that you could chain more attacks together. There's also a roll/dodge move, but it provides no invincibility (as far as I can tell). The enemy AI is expert at rolling and will frequently use it to escape constant attacking. The few times I need it, it doesn't seem near as helpful as theirs. I don't know if they actually have a different roll, or if their agility score is higher than it should be.
What really sets this game apart is how armor and damage are treated. Armor on different body parts takes damage instead of the player's health bar. After sustaining enough damage, the armor will be knocked off (shield or helmet) or outright broken (chest, arm and leg armor), which allows characters to take damage in the exposed region. It's fun to start wailing on a poor sap and shatter his (or her) armor so you can do some actual damage to them. Head attacks do the most damage, but helmets can be picked up again, so sometimes the best bet is to break the chest armor. Personally, going for lots of head attacks works more often than not, so I stick with that.
 |
| The only thing more painful than the cuts is using bactine on them later. |
However, the same thing can happen to you if you aren't careful. Thankfully, equipment is not permanently gone, even if broken or pilfered by the enemies. Yes, pilfered because equipment on the ground can be picked up by anybody. This makes battles can be very fluid, but annoying when an enemy grabs your nice helmet or weapon. The only time this was a huge problem to me was the second to last level. While fighting the target, up to 4 skeletons at a time can join in to fight you. They also spawn in with no equipment, so they can steal anything you or your team drops. At first I thought the game was nice for spawning naked skeletons so they wouldn't be too hard to kill, but soon realized that it was worse for them to have nothing.
I suspect there are nuances to the combat system that I just don't understand. The in-game tutorial is fairly basic. I couldn't find any info for mastering the combat. Sometimes and enemy seems to counter attack (and are not using the skill that does this), as if there was a parry move of some sort. They also seem very adept at rolling out of harm's way, but I can rarely pull that off. Several times they get in a shot on me and I stagger back while being completely open to their teammate's barrages. Whenever I am double or triple teaming an opponent, my hitbox seems to push me to the side while my AI just gets in my way. Also, some of the "boss" characters have ridiculously high agility, strength and equipment durability. Later in the game, they are capable of destroying your at-level armor with a few hits. It's frustrating to get completely destroyed by the computer because they block, then counter, then unload on you while you stagger and you can't roll or block your way out.
Most level ups for the different styles will unlock an attack skill that you can map to the controller or a passive that you can equip. There are lots of different attack skills, magic spells and passive skills that you can unlock in the game. When you first make your character, you get bonus stat points to customize them, but these are unfortunately the only time you can upgrade your stats without passive skills. Most attack skills are useful, but all are fairly mundane. They are meant to be somewhat realistic, so you don't shoot giant beams from your sword or crack the earth at your feet to attack. The magic spells are what will give the battles flair. I especially like the ones that give your attacks elemental effects, so you can do damage through the enemies' armor. There are lots of spells and skills to collect, and trophies accordingly.
 |
| He's not The Rock, but he sure is electrifying. |
There are 24 stages in the game, and completing one will open the next. Each stage can be done on 4 different difficulties. It would be nice if beating a stage would open it on all difficulties, but they don't. So, to get all the trophies, you have to do each stage 4 times, for a total of 96 stages. There's also 3 different weapon styles to level up and lots of gear to collect. This ensures that my completionsit nature kicks in and plays stages many times to stock the store with all the equipment. There's a lot of stuff to do, but it is still grinding. The stages are fairly short, though, which is nice for replaying them.
First off, I was surprised the game had a platinum. Well, since my friend claims there was supposed to be a disc version for the Xbox 360, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Most of the list is pretty standard, as you will have to beat all missions, on all difficulties, and get high ranks on them. You'll need to max out your levels and sell lots of things to the shop. Unfortunately, there's a few trophies for playing multiplayer (co-op and versus), but finding a game is near impossible. After sitting in a lobby for awhile, I got one person, but it would boot one of us when trying to start the level. I attempted it a few times to no avail. Admittedly, I have little desire to play versus, but I would try it out if I found anyone in those lobbies. It would be much more fun to play the game with actual players, since the teammate AI isn't too great. They have their moments, though.
While the levels are short, you are meant to do them several times to get more money, experience and equipment. So even though you grind a lot in the game, it doesn't feel very tedious to me, since the levels are short and you get stuff fairly quickly. I don't know how fun it will be to do all levels on 4 different difficulties, but I would certainly try if I could find some co-op lobbies. The game is very average on all counts, but I still had fun playing it. If you want to spend the $30, Clan of Champions is a decent game to play in short bursts or when you have some extra time. If I can ever get into a multiplayer co-op or versus game, I'll of course put an update here on my blog.
Monday, November 26, 2012
It's a Hard Lock Life
My friend recently picked up his WiiU preorder, and wanted to play Nintendo Land with him to try it out. He at least updated the system so I didn't have to sit there for 5 hours while that happened. On a side note, the "menu" screen looks like an absolute mess. It's safe to say I'm not a fan of that. Anyway, he popped in the disc and we...proceeded to sit there for another 20+ mins while that updated.
So we booted up the game and....sat there while the ever helpful "Monita" talked in small, slow sentences so we could understand her and told us all about Nintendo Land instead of letting us pick a game to play. After that was done, my buddy wandered over to the Metroid mini-game so we could get started. I figured he would start with the Legend of Zelda one, but I guess he wanted to be nice and try Metroid first.
We accidentally did the ship vs. people multiplayer, so after a round of that, we quit to do the co-op one. After going through the controls again, we started it up. While hard on my wrist (my friend puts his sensor bar in a terrible location), it was kinda fun. After 3 rounds we decided to switch ship and ground so we could try the other. Right as we went to start the round...the system hard locked on us. Yeah, buzzing sound and all. Ouch. Since I'm sure something as basic as this was tested (despite only really promoting their friends there, yeah, still bitter), it must have been the system.
After unplugging the machine to get it to reboot, we again started Nintendo Land. Again Monita came around to ensure we couldn't just play the game we wanted and explained about the train that would I guess take us around the 1 screen park. I say "I guess" because I didn't really care and just wanted to skip her talking to me. As I had the gamepad, I just started jumping while she was showing the train.
Can you guess what happened next?
Hard lock. Again. So...we assume the WiiU/ Monita doesn't want us to actually play the game and called it a night. I think they obviously hired the wrong people. My wife thinks they must have partnered with Bethesda. Either way, not a good way to show off your new system, especially when it has barely been out a week. Why did I want one of those again?
Oh, right.
So we booted up the game and....sat there while the ever helpful "Monita" talked in small, slow sentences so we could understand her and told us all about Nintendo Land instead of letting us pick a game to play. After that was done, my buddy wandered over to the Metroid mini-game so we could get started. I figured he would start with the Legend of Zelda one, but I guess he wanted to be nice and try Metroid first.
We accidentally did the ship vs. people multiplayer, so after a round of that, we quit to do the co-op one. After going through the controls again, we started it up. While hard on my wrist (my friend puts his sensor bar in a terrible location), it was kinda fun. After 3 rounds we decided to switch ship and ground so we could try the other. Right as we went to start the round...the system hard locked on us. Yeah, buzzing sound and all. Ouch. Since I'm sure something as basic as this was tested (despite only really promoting their friends there, yeah, still bitter), it must have been the system.
After unplugging the machine to get it to reboot, we again started Nintendo Land. Again Monita came around to ensure we couldn't just play the game we wanted and explained about the train that would I guess take us around the 1 screen park. I say "I guess" because I didn't really care and just wanted to skip her talking to me. As I had the gamepad, I just started jumping while she was showing the train.
Can you guess what happened next?
Hard lock. Again. So...we assume the WiiU/ Monita doesn't want us to actually play the game and called it a night. I think they obviously hired the wrong people. My wife thinks they must have partnered with Bethesda. Either way, not a good way to show off your new system, especially when it has barely been out a week. Why did I want one of those again?
Oh, right.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
I've Got Some Great Friends
While I was working the other day, one of my friends from one of my older jobs stopped by. He's also friends with the store manager of my work. He mentioned that he wanted to play Fear 3 with me, but of course I don't have the game. It was on sale a few weeks ago on Gamefly, but I didn't know that my 3 buddies had it and would want to play it with me. Instead of just letting me be poor, my buddy ran over to Gamestop and bought me a copy. Damn, my friends are cool. The horde mode called "Contractions" is really fun. I've come to the conclusion from this, Gears 3 and Warhammer 40K that I really like the co-op horde modes against waves of enemies. Thankfully the concept caught on, so it tends to be in several games. It's a lot better than arena fights, even though they are painfully similar.
While working on Thanksgiving day, one game at our store had a game I wanted on sale for $5 (Shadows of the Damned). Great price, so I was going to get it. My other friend set it aside for me, but surprised me by buying it with his other stuff and gave it to me. Again, I have some great friends.
I've got another game to review, called Sine Mora. I'll get that review up soon after my Clan of Champions one. Just another busy week around my house!
While working on Thanksgiving day, one game at our store had a game I wanted on sale for $5 (Shadows of the Damned). Great price, so I was going to get it. My other friend set it aside for me, but surprised me by buying it with his other stuff and gave it to me. Again, I have some great friends.
I've got another game to review, called Sine Mora. I'll get that review up soon after my Clan of Champions one. Just another busy week around my house!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)