Random Updates: Gaming
I'm alive! Yay. Recently acquired an Xbox 360 from my cousin, and signed up for Gamefly, so I've been going on a gaming binge. Finished the new Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii, as well as Mirror's Edge, for the 360.
Despite it's not having ANYTHING to do with Silent Hill itself in the end, I really, really enjoyed SH:SM. The profiling aspect was a great hook and, best of all, gives it a lot of replay value, because it changes not only the ending, but the way the story is told to you along the way. And even though this can give the overall story some loose ends that are left untied (for example, with all except one ending, the characters of Lisa and Michelle end up being entirely pointless), the core story was probably the best one they've come up with since Silent Hill 2. I totally did not see the end coming, and I absolutely loved the one I ended up with. I found it really touching, and, perhaps for the first time in a Silent Hill game, very satisfying.
And no, it really didn't need to be a remake of the first Silent Hill. Only the barest similarities between the original characters and the remake characters remained, and the original storyline was almost completely nixed in favor of a more psychological tale. I did like how Dahlia and *cough* others were designed to look like Heather. I thought that was a neat touch. But again, in the end, it didn't really have anything to do with Silent Hill itself. That should probably offend me more as a Silent Hill fan (after all, wasn't that one of the big complaints I had about SH4?) but the quality of the story and gameplay kept that from being too big a problem for me. And no, it wasn't exactly scary. The run sequences were intense, but not under-your-skin, have-to-pause-to-take-a-breath terrifying the way SH2 and even SH3 were. And even though the controls for the Wii in the run sequences were, in a word, FRUSTRATING, I still really, really enjoyed it, and can see myself playing it again in the future. A+
Also finished Mirror's Edge for the 360, which was very enjoyable, with very unique gameplay, at least for me. It was really immersive (I loved the lack of a HUD, which I actually thought I'd be lost without), the graphics were beautiful, and the story was intriguing (at least at the start). Best of all, at least from my perspective, the main characters were actually somewhat realistic, and very likable, which seems to be rare in games these days. I think a lot of that owes to the excellent voice acting, which was significantly less cartoonish than I'm used to in a video game, as well as the beautiful (but not indulgently so) character design and in-game graphics.
And even though a lot of my time in the game was spent doing levels over and over again (I'm owing this more to the fact that skill-wise, I'm a shitty gamer), I didn't get bored or even frustrated with it. Just challenged. In this case, its brevity (only 9 chapters) was a blessing. If it were any longer, the gameplay, fun as it was, would have gotten old. The story ran out of steam by the fourth or fifth chapter, and felt drawn-out (despite never really being resolved, lol). Still, in theory, I would like to see the continuation of the series, and what happens to Faith and her sister. But I am leery of another game if they don't throw some new features, or at least more varied level design, into the mix. But all in all, I really liked Mirror's Edge. A-!
Finally, I would just like to mention for a certain person (who is busy and probably won't read this anyway xD) and for my own personal satisfaction, that I picked up again and am almost done with Kingdom Hearts 2~! Yay, this is me, last to the party as usual! Although, playing it again, after all these years and after playing many other, better games...Kingdom Hearts has lost some of it's shiny appeal to me. Still, it's engaging enough to finish and possibly continue with the series. Especially if it includes more adorable lion avatars. I'm all over that shit.
Anyway, I suspect that it will continue to take up my time the next few days, plus I've got a backlog game list that I'm trying to tackle, so later, internet~!
Also, I need a gaming icon D:
EDIT: Oh shit, Spoony just posted 3 new videos. Goodbye, next three hours of my life~
Despite it's not having ANYTHING to do with Silent Hill itself in the end, I really, really enjoyed SH:SM. The profiling aspect was a great hook and, best of all, gives it a lot of replay value, because it changes not only the ending, but the way the story is told to you along the way. And even though this can give the overall story some loose ends that are left untied (for example, with all except one ending, the characters of Lisa and Michelle end up being entirely pointless), the core story was probably the best one they've come up with since Silent Hill 2. I totally did not see the end coming, and I absolutely loved the one I ended up with. I found it really touching, and, perhaps for the first time in a Silent Hill game, very satisfying.
And no, it really didn't need to be a remake of the first Silent Hill. Only the barest similarities between the original characters and the remake characters remained, and the original storyline was almost completely nixed in favor of a more psychological tale. I did like how Dahlia and *cough* others were designed to look like Heather. I thought that was a neat touch. But again, in the end, it didn't really have anything to do with Silent Hill itself. That should probably offend me more as a Silent Hill fan (after all, wasn't that one of the big complaints I had about SH4?) but the quality of the story and gameplay kept that from being too big a problem for me. And no, it wasn't exactly scary. The run sequences were intense, but not under-your-skin, have-to-pause-to-take-a-breath terrifying the way SH2 and even SH3 were. And even though the controls for the Wii in the run sequences were, in a word, FRUSTRATING, I still really, really enjoyed it, and can see myself playing it again in the future. A+
Also finished Mirror's Edge for the 360, which was very enjoyable, with very unique gameplay, at least for me. It was really immersive (I loved the lack of a HUD, which I actually thought I'd be lost without), the graphics were beautiful, and the story was intriguing (at least at the start). Best of all, at least from my perspective, the main characters were actually somewhat realistic, and very likable, which seems to be rare in games these days. I think a lot of that owes to the excellent voice acting, which was significantly less cartoonish than I'm used to in a video game, as well as the beautiful (but not indulgently so) character design and in-game graphics.
And even though a lot of my time in the game was spent doing levels over and over again (I'm owing this more to the fact that skill-wise, I'm a shitty gamer), I didn't get bored or even frustrated with it. Just challenged. In this case, its brevity (only 9 chapters) was a blessing. If it were any longer, the gameplay, fun as it was, would have gotten old. The story ran out of steam by the fourth or fifth chapter, and felt drawn-out (despite never really being resolved, lol). Still, in theory, I would like to see the continuation of the series, and what happens to Faith and her sister. But I am leery of another game if they don't throw some new features, or at least more varied level design, into the mix. But all in all, I really liked Mirror's Edge. A-!
Finally, I would just like to mention for a certain person (who is busy and probably won't read this anyway xD) and for my own personal satisfaction, that I picked up again and am almost done with Kingdom Hearts 2~! Yay, this is me, last to the party as usual! Although, playing it again, after all these years and after playing many other, better games...Kingdom Hearts has lost some of it's shiny appeal to me. Still, it's engaging enough to finish and possibly continue with the series. Especially if it includes more adorable lion avatars. I'm all over that shit.
Anyway, I suspect that it will continue to take up my time the next few days, plus I've got a backlog game list that I'm trying to tackle, so later, internet~!
Also, I need a gaming icon D:
EDIT: Oh shit, Spoony just posted 3 new videos. Goodbye, next three hours of my life~