3 posts tagged “ds”
For starters, Mia is having her very first gallery opening in about 2 weeks. Its a solo show, her very first, and she's a combination of nervous, excited and a little gassy.... okay, maybe not the last part. Here are the relevant details:
And of course, more new content for AmpedIGO. Magical Starsign is a
new DS RPG coming out in October that looks pretty... and it should,
since its by the team who made Sword of Mana. Preview goodness here.
As we all know, I am teh best. I got a reviewable copy of Deep Labyrinth last week, and here's a preview from AmpedIGO.
There's an embargo on reviews of the game until it is officially
released in August, so this is a less biased account of playing the
game. Still, anyone who owns a DS and likes RPGs may wish to read
further ...
I can honestly say that if it weren't
for my friend Justin, I wouldn't have bought a 360 so soon. But the
truth is not about peer pressure, its about the potential for a few
freelance gigs with a small newspaper called the Washington
Post which I am hoping will help pay for my slight dalliance
(to the tune of a few hundred dollars). I hope. *shudders in his sneakers
So now that my pitch is completed, and word has been officially
announced that the projected price drop for 360s will not be coming any
time soon (phew! validation!), I thought it was time to put down my
initial thoughts on the 360 and, more specifically, the system-buyer
title, Oblivion.
Its probably important to note that I am just now coming off of my
World of Warcraft experience, an experience very akin to getting into a
drunken fight with your brother at Thanksgiving because he wouldn't
shut the hell up about his goddamn UI. Only instead of once a year, it
was every Sundayday and Thursday. I mean ... congrats, you enabled
Flexbar. What the hell does that even mean? Can't we just get back to
killing the same 12 bosses over and over again for the next year while
potentially sabotaging any real world realtionships I may have been
able to cultivate BEFORE becoming shackled to the Runecloth Grind of
Orgrimmar?
But the reason that's important to note is exactly in the gameplay
styles. One friend noted recently that while I was playing WoW, I would
have no need for Oblivion since it basically filled the same niche of
gaming. I am here to debunk the myth of Oblivion as an MMO.
Okay, for starters, the lack of an actual online experience and the
understandable absence of ANY multiplayers, let alone a MASSIVELY
present group of them, might automatically dismiss any claims of
similarity. To that I say this; stop being a dick. The truth in the
experience is one of the sheer level of immersion available in these
titles. While the standard Japanese RPG (Final Dragon Quest of Mana
part 73) presents roughly 40 hours of mostly linear gameplay with an
additional 20 hours of grind for the epic-style equipment (gear that's
exponentially better than the standard gear obtained only through the
main storyline), both WoW and Oblivion provide enough content for
literally hundreds of hours of gameplay and the potential for wildly
varying story and gaming experiences.
The major differences here are both profoundly in favor of Oblivion
for a gamer like me, though; the lack of a social aspect and the lack
of repeatable content. My own WoW experience was marked by the standard
socializing of the internet, riddled with racist comments and awkwardly
made tea-bagging jokes. Like so:
Jon: Hey guild, look what I just got from my 12,658th kill of the same monster: [Dagger of Wasted Time]
Guildmate1: Whoa, that dagger roolz0rzorzasaurusez. I hate black people!
Guildmate2: Nutsack! Your Mom! Chuck Norris joke I stole from a website everyone has already read!
And
truthfully, the majority of the hours I spent playing WoW were my
raiding hours, in which 39 friends and I would spent 8 hours fighting
our way through a dungeon hoping for the infintesimally small chance of
some Epic shoelaces to drop and improve our stats by .01%. But it
wasn't even the only-slightly brilliant interactions so much as the
"cred" that comes with owning a piece of Epic loot. You can't imagine
how much Cybering I got when I finally owned [Perditon's Dagger of Hot Chix0rz].
So
for someone like me, obviously smarter and therefore better than
everyone else in the world, playing a game online is more of a trial of
my patience than a chance to meet friends and exchange banter about the
local sports team and the weather. And the repeated content reminded me
about that saying about the defenition of insane; it's killing the same
boss over and over again in Molten Core and expecting anything but
Druid loot.
LOLZ!
ahem.
But
this is about Oblivion, and the truth is, Oblivion covers all the
bases. The content is expansive to say the least, with a flexibility in
both gameplay style and chosen outcomes. The inclusion of multiple
guilds, each with non-conflicting storylines, allows for players to
craft an archetype of their own, or follow the path of any kind of hero
or villain. The lack of an online component does away with the pressure
to compete or socialize, and allows for the freedom of hours that a
raiding schedule does not. Plus, unlocking the achievements feels good
every time.
The
real truth and beauty of Oblivion is not the amazing graphics, not the
more organized and somehow more palletable version of the Elder Scrolls
formula, its not the neat and organized quest tracking or the
complicated yet somehow simple system for leveling skills and
abilities. Certainly all of these things borrow heavily both from their
predecessors but also from the MMO genre. But the most intersting
aspect of Oblivion, one sorely lacking in MMOs, is the unbelieveable
amount of "replay."
And
I put "replay" into quotes because no two characters will be alike; not
for me anyway. Oblivion is a pinnacle for gaming not because of how it
plays as a singluar experience, but how it plays as a series of
independent genres. The game can be played as a knight in shining
armor, doing good deeds and saving the kingdom. However, try using
those strategies as a mage, and soon you'll be swimming in a pool of
your own bloody robes. The game can be played as a political intrigue,
as a guild experience, or even as a stealth game in two parts; playful
thief or murderous assassin. The stealth aspects of the game rival some
of the best stealth-only game outs there, and the run-and-gun version
of a magic user makes the game something more akin to a medieval FPS
than an RPG. Plus you can be a freaking Vampire!
Oblivion
comes as 10 games in one, and instead of looking only somewhat
smilingly at a replay, I find myself entirely excited for my next
playthrough. More than the hype versions of this statement, more than
any other game I have ever played before, Oblivion provides content to
make each playthrough of the game so entirely different than the last
that its almost impossible to compare them. And that is a truly
impressive feat for video games as an industry or an art form.
More thoughts on Oblivion later, but for now I remain impressed.
Also,
this news just in, but AmpedIGO has put me in touch with a contact at
Atlus, one of my favorite Japanese dev/publishers. Looks like I will be
receiving a reviewable copy of Deep Labrynth, a game I saw demoed at E3
that basically looks like an Oblivion rip-off for the DS.
INTRIGUED?! Stay tuned ...
