I wish I knew how to quit yOu(endan)
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What sets Ouendan apart from other games that rely on patterns is that it’s actually fun doing the same level over more than once. Even though the patterns are exactly the same, the music is so infectious and the rythm tapping is so satisfying that you never feel cheated when you fail at the level once again. It’s just “oh well, let’s do that again.” No biggie. That is the hallmark of a great game.
Another bonus is that it passes the “Wife Test.” Mrs. Buttonmasher loves this game. She is very casual gamer, so getting her involved with this game was something I didn’t think I could do. But all it took was one round at the easy level and she’s already hooked. In fact, she’s probably better than me at it. I only get to play when she’s done.
Speaking of the music, even though I have no idea what they’re singing about, I am now a huge fan of Japnese Pop music. I found all the soundtracks from the game and there are on heavy rotation in both iTunes and my iPod. It is so easy to listen to. Even the little buttonDaughter loves it.
So even though I have a pile of good games I could be playing, I just can’t quit playing Ouendan. I owe the Nintendaddio a huge thanks for recommending this game to me more than once.
Iron Mike at his best
From the underrated sports site, Joe Sports Fan, I present for you entertainment: Iron Mike’s Real Legacy, a look at Mike Tyson’s finest hour: Super Punch-Out for the SNES. It’s hilarious. Read the whole thing. Talking about King Hippo:
Hippo was a cross between Sloth Fratelli and George “the Animal” Steele, a massive, somewhat retarded beast that lacked the skills to stick with the polished Mac.
Anyone who can include references to the Goonies and classic WWF wrestlers in the same sentence is okay in my book.
Fish or cut bait?
Blog or play games?
After a relaxing extended Thanksgiving weekend (Happy belated Thanksgiving, BTW) I’m back to the old grind. Now I’m faced with the age-old question: Do some gaming or do some blogging?
I’ve got a large number of posts in varying stages of completeness in the queue, but I’ve also got two rented games that are already overdue but both immensely enjoyable calling my name. I’ve got Burnout Revenge, which is pretty sweet the second time around and I’ve got Lego Star Wars II which is a total blast. Decisions decisions.
Over the long weekend I took my 360 home to my parents house to hook it up to my Dad’s HDTV. He’s got an older Toshiba TV (this model, Toshiba 42H81
So I had a good weekend of gaming. I got Mrs. buttonMasher hooked on Ouendan. I downloaded all the Ouendan songs and they are on heavy rotation on the iPod. I also played the heck out of Lego Star Wars, co-op style, with my bro-in-law and really enjoyed it. It’s great to have a good Star Wars game after so many duds (I’m looking at you, Star Wars Bounty Hunter). The subtle humor they use re-telling the Star Wars story is a welcome laugh.
I also notice that I’m slowing morphing into a Gamerscore addict. I looked at the achievements for Burnout Revenge and lamented the fact that a large portion of them included playing the game online. That’s not a huge deal, but I imagine there probably won’t be many people playing Revenge online when they could be playing something else. (Wonder what that could be?) Anyway, if you’re on my friends list, I may be sharing a clip or two with you from Burnout Revenge. Gotta get those easy points!
So now that I’ve blogged a little, it’s time to go fishing. I mean gaming. You know what I mean.
Gears of War, a week later
I’ve noticed this a lot with games lately, but it seems like there is so much detail paid to setting the scene, creating the mood and starting the story that the rest of the game never lives up to the first few hours. I’m sure it’s not intentional and more of a consequence of schedule pressure and deadlines, but it’s unfortunate. Gears of War suffers a bit from this problem, but a bigger issue is a disjointed story. If you hadn’t been paying attention to the trailers and teasers before this game launched or if you hadn’t read the manual, you’d have no idea what was going on with the story. Then things happen so fast that there isn’t time to fill in the story. Things just happen, without a whole lot of explanation.
That being said, the pacing of the game is excellent. There’s no backtracking, no pointless objectives, just non-stop action. Checkpoints were seamless and the action moved quickly. This is the way action games should be paced. I just couldn’t believe how short the game was! I didn’t time myself, but I bet I didn’t spend more than eight hours here. That’s disappointing. Sure, I’ll spend some time trying the game at the higher difficulties and play a bunch of multiplayer, but the single player is just too short.
The actual game play is a mostly good with a few flaws. There have been many different descriptions of the in-game action. Some call it “stop-and-pop.” Hiding under cover and knowing when to pop out and shoot and when to blindfire, keeping yourself safe, is the name of the game. Me, I’d describe the game as a next-generation whack-a-mole. There were countless times where I’d be hiding under cover, being shot at by three different bad guys. I’d pop out to shoot and have to guess which of the three was going to pop up first. The first time it happened, I thought to myself, “I’m playing whack-a-mole.” What a buzz-kill that was. Where was the innovation? Where was the new game play? I sure didn’t find it.
After finishing the single player, I jumped on to Live to try out some multiplayer games. Most games are four-on-four, with different objectives like “killing the leader.” Most of the guys I ran around with were pretty cool and the games were fun but nothing special. The games are quick and demand teamwork, but with the pick-up ground aspect of matchmaking doesn’t really lend itself to developing that “teamwork.” Another problem with the matchmaking is the fact the game kicks you out to the main menu after the match is over. There’s no lobby or any other way to socialize. The games themselves are enjoyable but the overall experience was uninspired.
I was gonna try to jump into some co-op, but I haven’t been successful with that yet so far. Hopefully I’ll be able to give that a fair shake soon, to complete the experinece but overall, I’m satisfied. Not overwhelmed and definitely not blown away. This is not a 10/10 game. I would recommend this game with qualifiers. It’s short, yes, and it’s multiplayer experience is less-than-stellar, but it’s still a fun game.
Buckeye Blogging, Michigan game.
Wow, what a game! Instant classic in Columbus, Ohio State starts and finishes the regular season ranked #1. What a team!
You can read my semi-live blog of the game at my OSU site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray.
OSU: 42
Michigan: 39
So this new Zelda game…
It might be sorta, kinda good.
I was cruising my favorite meta-review site, Metacritic, checking out the new Wii titles when I browsed over to the new Zelda: Twilight Princess page. Right now, it’s clocking in at 9.8. I guess that would mean it’s a pretty solid launch title, right? Three reviews scoring it a perfect 100 and another at 99. IGN’s review hasn’t been integrated into MC’s score, but they gave the game a 9.5. Wow.
So this has to be the highest rated launch title, right?
I haven’t read any of the reviews, as I want to go into Z:TP completely unspoiled, so I’ll have to take these scores at face value. It just happens that said value is very high.
Waiting for my Wii
As I mentioned earlier, I was planning on picking up a Wii from Amazon.com. I figured I could get in on a preorder and be happy with that. There was talk that Amazon would resume taking preorders at some point. I held out hope. I believed!
Then I got this email from Amazon this afternoon:
Important News For Amazon.com Video Games Customers
The Nintendo Wii will be available for purchase on Amazon.com on 11/19, Sunday morning (PST). We will be limiting purchases to one per household and we anticipate that we will sell through our inventory very quickly as we’ve received email notification requests over 100 times greater than the number of units we will have available for sale (i.e., for every Nintendo Wii we’ll have for sale, over 100 people have signed up to be notified).
At this time, we do not have any information on future Nintendo Wii offers, but we will post updates on future availability in the customer discussions on the Nintendo Wii product page:
http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Wii/dp/B0009VXBAQ.
Thank you for your continued support of Amazon.com.
I guess I’ll be camping out in front of the computer Sunday morning (PST) whatever that means. Arrgh! Looks like the arrival of my Wii may be delayed for a while. A hundred-to-one ratio of Wiis to people who want them? I’m screwed.
Hacking the Wii giftcard
Target is handing out Wii GiftCards in anticipation of Nintendo’s release of this remarkable console. The cards are a bit thicker than your regular credit card and house some pretty nifty electronics. Pressing the button on the outside of the card turns on a ominous blue Wii glow that lasts about ten seconds. I’ll pop the case on this little thing and check out the internals. After that we’ll add a bit of functionality to the LEDs.
Instructables (via MAKEBlog)
HDTV advice follow-up
Thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions and comments on my request for HDTV advice. The over-whelming suggestion was to go with a wide-screen LCD monitor. While I initially had my reservations about the idea, I must say I was misguided. Read on for what was purchased, along with a quick review…
Read more
Blogging update
If you’re a sports fan (more specifically a college football fan), you’re aware of a little game this weekend (just look at the countdown in the middle of this page. It’s been there for over a month.). That’s right, the Ohio State versus Michigan game is HUGE. HUGE is actually the understatement of the century. This game is going to be HUGER than HUGE. It’s something that’s never happened — an undefeated Ohio State team ranked #1 in the country playing an undefeated Michigan team ranked #2. It’s basically a mini-National Championship, a prelude to the BCS Title game in Glendale.
So I’ll be busy this week blogging at my other site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray. We’ve got a lot of content this week that will be taking up my time. We’ll also be participating in CSTV.com’s Battle of the Blogs. Our piece will be up on Thursday.
So I’ll try to keep the posting here, too, but it may be too much. This week is just chock-full of stuff going on. The game on Saturday, the release of the Wii six hours later and this football geek’s head is going to explode. It’s gonna be sweet.
I’ve got some Carnival updates coming soon, too. Unfortunately our December host dropped out but Michael at MMOGNation (Zonk from Slashdot Games) has agreed to take over the hosting duties for December. You can get your submissions in whenever you’re ready. I’ve updated the Carnival HQ page to reflect the changes.
So I’m excited about this week. I’m excited about the Wii. I’m excited about “The Game.” It’s Ohio State/Michigan. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.
And if you’re wondering, I don’t really care much about the state of Michigan.
Wii is hitting the game-o-sphere
And it’s exploding! These guys got their hands on Wii’s, pre-launch. Lucky!
Here are some links for your reading pleasure.
Seth at The Gamechair got his Wii and put it through its paces. He mentions playing the bowling game in Wii Sports with his wife. It got me thinking about Mrs. Buttonmasher. She really likes bowling but I’m not a fan of actually going to the bowling alley, so this may serve as justification for my purchase of the Wii. Score one for making the missus happy! He also has some impressions of Excite Truck, Wii Sports and Zelda Twilight Princess. His piece about Zelda is an exceptionally good read.
Joystiq got their Wii and live blogged the whole experience. Looked like a lot of fun, I can’t wait to have mine in-hand. Everyone has mentioned the “Fitness” games on the Wii Sports They also looked at the manual in between Zelda play sessions. Speaking of Zelda, they also posted a point/counter-point discussing whether the new Zelda has “fallen flat” or not. Vladimir Cole says it did by basically bashing the fact that you can’t read signs from afar. Hardly a reason to say it falls flat. Christopher Grant provides the counter-point, pointing out that, “Twilight Princess offers the same brilliant core gameplay mechanics that have driven the series for the last twenty years.” Of course it does. Finally, they have a list of ten things you probably didn’t know about the Wii and its games. 5 heart pieces for a whole heart in Zelda?
Brian over at Kotaku unboxes his Wii. It’s like watching a nerd strip-tease. He also has a bunch of good stuff up, including his impressions with the controller, how backwards compatibly with Gamecube games look (a fresh coat of paint, he says). He didn’t seem impressed with Wii Sports. He did, however, have some good things to say about Zelda.
Destructoid (another blog favorite of mine, but renders horribly in Opera 9.1) did us the favor of posting links to all their videos and impressions in one place for your perusal.
I’m sure more Wii experiences will be hitting the blogs and I’ll try update this post as they come in.
As for my Wii plans, I’m still deciding. I currently have an Amazon.com gift certificate balance that would knock a big chunk of the price, so I may place an order with them. I’m on the “email alert list” for when they start taking orders but I haven’t heard anything yet, so I’m still waiting on that. Using Amazon for my Wii needs might delay the arrival of my Wii but I’ll have other diversions to take up my time until then.
Regardless, after reading people’s impressions of their new Nintendo console, I am getting excited about playing on myself. Very excited.
(On a side note, I noticed I’m still using the category “NREV” that I made when the Wii was still being referred to as the “Nintendo Revolution.” Guess it was time to update the category name!)
HDTV advice sought
Buttonmashing friend Bobster asked me for advice on getting a small HDTV that he can use as a dedicated Xbox 360 display. He wanted to keep it under $400 and wanted at least above average image quality. He asked me if I had any suggestions.
I’ve been researching HDTVs for a while now, but I’ve been looking at larger TVs, out of the range Bobster is looking at. Right off the bat I would recommend a Samsung LCD. I think a 23″ Samsung LCD (like this one) would fit the bill perfectly, but the cheapest I found was $569 at Amazon.com. I found this 23″ LCD TV by Olevia on sale locally at HHGregg for $399. I’ve heard good things about Olevia TVs and feel confident that it would be a solid 360 display.
But before I give Bobster my final recommendations, I wanted to ask my fellow Buttonmashers if they have any recommendations or experiences with HDTVs that fall in this price range (or experience with Oleviea TVs).
Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.
Gears of War, Day 2
Last night I had a chance to put a little more time into Gears of War. Like I mentioned earlier, I definitely should have started with the “Casual” difficulty, as I’m enjoying the game a heck of a lot more now. Things are easier (duh) and move along a lot faster than before. I should note, though, that starting at a harder difficulty may actually be beneficial as I now have the skills to take the bad guys out with ease. At the “Hardcore” difficulty there was a lot of “blindfire” shoot-outs (blindfire meaning shooting at the badguys while staying completely covered. You don’t have much accuracy, but you stay safe from their gunfire). The enemies on the Casual level are easier to take down and don’t really coordinate themselves as well as they did on the harder level. I hardly ever have to resort to blindfire. I can’t begin to imagine how tough the Insane difficulty level will be. I imagine there will be a lot of blind shooting.
So the game has become a lot more fun. I can actually progress without having to do the same part over and over again. That definitely helps out in the “enjoyment” department. But I’m also seeing some flaws that I don’t like. If I catch a bad guy heading for cover and I start blasting him, he’ll zoom to safety at an unnatural speed. It looks like he’s warping through air to get to cover. I see it happening all the time and I don’t like it. If I catch him exposed, I should be able to put him down before he gets to cover. It’s cheap to see him safe behind a barricade when I could have easily dropped him before he got there.
The way the game handles your teammates survival is another thing I’m struggling with. I see why they did it (at least I think I do) but it’s still bothering me. If one your squad members is hurt, you can go over and “revive” him. It’s a good system. But if your mate goes down and you don’t get to him before you finish a set checkpoint, he’s immediately healed and waiting by your side. I assume they did that so you don’t have to backtrack and revive your comrade and then head back to the checkpoint. I get that. It’s just breaks the immersion a little bit.
Even still, GoW has a great single player game here, as I’ve not even touched the co-op or multiplayer parts yet. These flaws I point out are pretty minor, but still little thorns in the side of the game. I’m hoping to make some more progress this weekend and hopefully give the online portions of the game a go.
Gears of War First Impressions
So, what to say about my first impressions? I’ll be honest — for the first half hour, I was not digging GoW at all. I didn’t like the controls, they felt too sluggish for me and things didn’t feel right. The action was intense, almost too much so. At times, so many things were going on around me that I was completely disoriented and going crazy trying to figure out what the frack was going on. I couldn’t tell my teammates apart from the bad guys. As soon as I’d find something to shoot at, someone was blasting me in the face. I had no idea how he got around me, but there he was, punching my face in.
Then I realized that all the mayhem was exactly how the game was supposed to feel. The bad guys were actually using a little bit of strategy. One guy kept me occupied with the other one flanked me. I finally got comfortable with the duck-and-cover gameplay and how to watch my back and things started to click. I was using the environment to my advantage and I was curb stomping grubs in no time.
I think my first mistake was not starting off with the easy/normal difficulty. I jumped right in with the higher difficulty and I think that hindered my progress. When I go back to the game tomorrow, I’m starting over with the normal difficulty. Call me a sissy, but I’d rather get a better hang of the game before I tried to tackle the harder difficulties.
Aside from the control issues I have primarily, I can say that Gears of War is, so far, an excellent game. The visuals are stunning. The details, like heat coming off the barrel of the gun to the sweat and grime on the soldiers arms, are amazing. I still can’t get over how good things look, especially on my standard-def TV. It looks FANTASTIC. The sound is great and the voice acting is a treat as well. Gears of War is one polished game.
I will say that the learning curve is probably going to be steep for a lot of people. I think it may turn some people off, especially those who will be hoping for a run and gun shooter. GoW certainly isn’t that at all. But if you’re willing to get past the learning curve, GoW is extremely fun. I can’t wait to get back to it.
In my hands
Actually, the instruction booklet is in my hands, as Mrs. buttonMashing is watching the end of America’s Next Top Future Coke Addict and then it’s time for Lost. But after that, It’s Gears of War time, all the time.
I’ll be hitting up anyone that’s on Live after I finish the first couple of levels. See you on the Jacinto Plateau.
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