buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for 2006

Don’t let me down, 360

by 4 Comments

If you were to ask me if I thought you should get an Xbox 360, I don’t think I could say “yes” and feel good about it. Right now, outside of a couple games, there’s nothing compelling on the console. In fact, if I hadn’t got mine at such a deep discount, I’d be having some serious buyer’s remorse right now.

I’m with Tom over at G-Pinions:

There are only two X360 games I am interested in for the rest of the year – Viva Pinata and Gears of War. That is disgraceful. There are twice as many NDS games (Elite Beat Agents, Castlevania, Kirby and Yoshi’s Island). There are twice as many PS3 games (Resistance, flOW, Criminal Crackdown and Blast Factor). Hell, there are even more Wii games coming out this year (Red Steel, Zelda, Excite Truck, and Trauma Center) that I actually want. MS has a year head start and some great games coming out in the future, but this first year has been a complete disgrace.

I’m not even sure I want Viva Pinata. So as it stands now, Gears of War will probably be the only game I purchase for the Xbox 360 in the forseeable future. I plan on getting Forza 2 and Halo 3, but nothing else has grabbed me. The Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace have been a great success, but again, I’m just not pulled in that direction. I’m really hoping games like Lost Planet and Assassin’s Creed turn out to be great games and at some point I’d like to get around to playing the new Splinter Cell but right now, the 360 isn’t my console of choice.

Now that the Just Cause rental has been returned, I’m back to almost exclusively playing games on my DS. I’m still working through the campaigns on Age of Empires, finally getting some actual game time with Trauma Center and my order for Ouendan has been placed and will hopefully show up before the end of the week. That’s on top of quick gaming sessions of Meteos, Metroid Prime Pinball and occasionally checking in on my Animal Crossing Town. That’s a lot of gaming goodness from that little machine.

With the Wii right around the corner, I fear my 360 won’t see much love. I’ll eventually get a chance with Oblivion and some other games, but I’m currently in the throes of some serious Nintendo love. I hope it’ll last.

Yikes

by 8 Comments

The concept of the “Everquest Widow” is nothing new. Sure, World of Warcraft has been more successful than Everquest, and yes, there are “WoW widows” but it’s nothing new. A couple days ago, a post on Soul Kerfuffle was making the rounds last week, about a guy and his year in World of Warcraft. He talks of addictions, obsessions, and broken families. After I read that post, I found another post telling the story of yet another gaming widow dealing with someone “addicted” to gaming. For whatever reason, this particular blog post was rather poignant to me. Even though the game isn’t EQ or WoW, it’s still the same thing.

Maybe I’m just not dedicated enough, but I can’t wrap my brain around this. I cannot think of a gaming situation where gaming is more attractive, important or tantalizing than sex, EVER.

EVER EVER EVER.

I think the question of whether you’re addicted or not boils down to this: If offered the chance to be with your wife/girlfriend/significant other and you pass on it to play your game, level up one more level, finish your raid, whatever, I have bad news for you:

You, sir (or madam), are addicted.

Just Cause [360] – First impressions

by 4 Comments

just cause.jpgI think “Just Cause” is possibly the worse name for a video game. It tells you nothing. The game involves you, a super secret government agent, fomenting revolution and mayhem on a South American Island. It’s a Mercenaries-style game, a Cuban sandbox, if you will. What I can’t figure out is what the name refers to. Am I a loyal government agent, helping the revolucionarios and their “Just Cause” or am I a free-wheling mercenary who enjoys running over helpless old señoras on the sidewalk, “Just ‘Cause” I can. Because honestly, I can’t really find the motivation to do the former when the latter is so much funnier. There may be a revolution going on, but I’ve got civilians to harass.

So what about the game? Right now, after a couple days of playing, I’m not impressed. I’m normally not a graphics-whore, but if the gameplay isn’t fantastic, it’s the first flaw I notice. Just Cause has some serious last-generation-itis. I can’t tell if the intention was to have cartoony characters or if they’re just horrible looking models. The animations leave something to be desired as well. The main character runs through the scenery as if he played for the other team, if you know what I mean. Maybe I’m missing out because of my standard-def TV, but I’m not liking what I see so far.

A large part of the game driving around the island. There are plenty of vintage convertibles, motorcycles, and trucks of all kinds to drive around town in. Problem is, the vehicle mechanics are an absolute joke. I’ve driving dirt bikes up inclines that are physically impossible with a g of 9.8 m/s2. I’ve taken on jumps that would have absolutely destroyed the underside of a generic SUV, but I hit the ground and keep on trucking. Sure, maybe I lose a bumper or something, but it’s ridiculously inaccurate.

The targeting system can be a pain but controls over all are good. Another big part of the game are the stunts you can pull off, like attaching your grappling hook to the back of a car and paragliding through the Cuban sky. The stunts work pretty well and jumping from car to car, Jackie Chan-style, is a fun diversion. Unfortunately doesn’t make up for other flaws.

Another major sticking point I see is the NPC intereactions. For a game where I’m supposed to be able to “interact” with the environment, the villagers and other non-essential, non-player characters are completely robotic. The only meaningful interaction I’ve found is for me to punch them. Not exactly the best way to build a relationship of trust when I’m punching the nuns in town. I was in a market with a guy trying to sell me his fruit. I jumped up on his fruit stand, knocked over his crates and nothing happened. Weak.

Not everything is bad, though. Underneath all my hang-ups could be a great game. Just Cause sports a HUGE map. There seems to be a lot of side missions and other content. I imagine there is a lot of content to uncover. Hopefully urging the locals to overthrow the bad guy will actually work. I’ll give Just Cause the rental treatment, hoping for the best, but I just don’t see it impressing me that much. It’s already failed with first impressions.

Stand strong!

by Leave a Comment

I saw Jet Li’s Fearless this weekend. It was a very enjoyable movie, even if it stuck to “the script” pretty closely. The script being that of a warrior’s arrogance, over compensation, failure, and finally, redemption. Based on a true story, the movie was good drama with moments of the mellow dramatic. There were scenes where Li wasn’t able to completely convey the character’s emotions, but he still held his own. The supporting cast was good, even great in some parts. (The Japanese actor who played Jet Li’s final challenger, Shido Nakamura, was most excellent) The martial arts were amazing and the cinematography was gorgeous. Although it moved slow in places, I really enjoyed Fearless.

It’s a shame that it’s Jet Li’s “last” martial arts movie. He is art in motion.

jet li.jpg

360 Demo Thursdays

by 3 Comments

Unfortunately, there won’t be a “360 Demo Thursday” this week. I downloaded the multi-player demo of Splinter Cell: Double Agent and I had a chance to try it out was last night, but Xbox Live was going through some growing pains, so I never got into a game. I was going to try again tonight but got caught up watching the NLCS and now it’s too late to start a new game. So this week’s demo Thursday has been canceled. It will return next week.

For impressions of the Splinter Cell demo, you can read Gabe’s impressions. He’s a fan of the series, you could say.

Someone forgot to tighten the levels

by Leave a Comment

Via Matt from PTB, it looks like the new Bubble Bobble game for the DS has shipped with a game-crippling error — there’s no level 30 boss. So ya, all those hundred levels you paid for? You ain’t seeing the last 70.

Opps. I’m sure Nintendo will make things all better, but this is pretty embarassing.

There’s a video of the “glitch” at Go Nintendo.

RIP, iPod Mini

by 1 Comment

May the most excellent piece of electronic gadgetry I have ever owned Rest In Peace:

RIP, my sweet Mini

It’s dead. I killed it. It’s a shame, too. I had recently purchased a replacement battery (from here) and tried to replace it myself. The battery itself is excellent. I was getting less than three hours on the original battery and decided it was time to replace it. I bought the battery, which came with a great instructional video on how to replace the battery. Everything went swimmingly and I was getting 6+ hours on the new battery. But then the click will started going flakey. So I disassembled the unit and made sure all the connections were good and I think that’s where things went bad. I crimped the little ribbon cable that connects the click wheel to the main board. Only I didn’t realize I had crimped it. So I patched it back up and it worked like a champ for another week or so. Then it went flakey again. It worked intermittently until it finally stopped working all together. I took it apart for the final time and noticed the ribbon cable had a tiny tear and some of the wires were frayed. It was my own dumb fault, crap!

As I said, it’s a shame, because I was really getting into podcasts. I have a whole post of podcast reviews half-done because I never finished listening to the ones sitting on the iPod. I don’t really like to listen to them while I’m at my desk, it was easier to turn them on in the car, while mowing the grass, that sort of thing. So I’m over a month behind on my episodes.

Luckily, I have a replacement on its way. I bartered with my brother-in-law and we’re making a trade — my old Xbox and some games for a new iPod Nano he got for signing up for an account somewhere. His wife is getting one as well, so they decided it was a fair trade. Hopefully it will show up before the end of the week and I’ll be jamming again on another piece of most excellent gadgetry. I can’t wait!

Now I have to figure out what to do with the Mini. It still “works” in that the hard drive is perfectly functional and has a new battery. A replacement click-wheel is $50+ which didn’t make sense to me (I’d rather put those 50 bucks towards a new iPod w/video), so now I have to decide what to do with it. Surely someone on eBay is looking for a iPod to cannibalize!

Gilbert Arenas will own you

by 1 Comment

I’m still working on a larger post on this topic, but this was too rich to pass up. If you’re an NBA fan, you know who Gilbert Arenas is. If you’re not a fan, he can be described as a guy who’s seen as a little eccentric (maybe old-fashioned) and is pretty grounded, considering his talent and fame. But honestly, most people will say he’s just weird. Anyway, there’s an article in Esquire that plumbs the depth of his mind and is quite an intriguing read.

Why am I bringing this up on Buttonmashing? Because there’s a Gilbert Arenas has an video game playing style that most of us are familiar with. Gilbert has a huge library of DVD and video games. In fact, he says he wants them all. He plays Halo. So he’s a gamer. And of course he plays NBA 2K6. To the point – he’s good at NBA 2K6:

… he will take on all comers at Xbox. He won’t just beat you. He will beat you by as many points as you want. Just name the amount. He treats it like a golf handicap. For this game, he’s giving away two hundred points to his friend John …

There’s a minute and a half left, and Real Gilbert is up by 191. Then Game Gilbert gets a steal and throws a long pass—only to have LeBron pick it off. “Sorry, Gilbert,” says Gilbert. “You can’t stop the King.” As the game ticks down, the Cavs and Gilbert—Real Gilbert—are up by 201. John has the ball and is running the clock down for the final shot. At the last second, Antawn Jamison flips in a layup that makes it 331–132. John screams, circling the room, knocking magazines here and there. The man just got beat by 199 points and is ecstatic. Gilbert shakes his head.

That is just rich. I love the delicious irony that the real Gilbert is playing as LeBron James, the player that had him so spooked in the playoffs last seaso that he missed two CRUCIAL free throws at the end of the game. Gilbert Arenas doesn’t miss many free throws. But now, he’s playing as LeBron and referring to him as the King. I love it.

So, to recap: Gilbert Arenas can KICK YOUR TRASH at NBA 2K6 and he’s not afraid to prove it.

360 Demo Thursdays (Tiger Woods 07)

by 2 Comments

I had planned on trying an older demo this week, catching up on some of the demos that came out before I bought my 360, but the Tiger Woods demo dropped earlier this week and I thought that would be more enjoyable. Even though I haven’t been kind to EA lately, I read Tycho’s praise for the demo on Monday and had to give it a try. Tycho groks, as they say, golf.

The download itself comes in just under a gig and presents a pretty sparse demo – you play as Tiger, you’re given a handful of holes and your thrown into the game not needing much else. The last Tiger Woods game I played was TW ’05 on the Xbox, which I loved, but it had too many frilly extras I didn’t care for. Luckily, the basic swing mechanics were the same, so there wasn’t much of a learning curve.

With such a basic demo, what could be gleaned? A lot. Tycho followed up his initial praise with a more substantial post yesterday and it succintly captures the truth — this looks like it is going to be a good game of golf.

EA Sports, surprisingly, is headed in the right direction here. Gone is all the hyper-drama. No more flaming drives. No more shots of your swing from thirty different angles. No more controller-shaking heart beats. Just a simple golf swing, a flying, spinning ball. It starts with the crisp sound of metal on ball and ends with the soft thud of ball landing on green. No dramatic zooms into Tiger’s squinting eyes as he wills the ball into the hole. As far as I can tell, there’s no “doing the worm” after sinking a long putt. Just the golfer, the swing and the landing. Quite beautiful in its simplicity.

I also like the changes to the putting game. It’s different from the 2005 version (not sure how it matches up to the 2006 version). Gone are guessing what “4 feet long, 19 inches left” looks like. Now you see the contours of the green and where they break. Very intuitive and much easier, in my opinion. This change alone makes me very happy.

But not all is perfect. I still don’t like that you can add spin to the ball as its flying through the air. That’s bothered me since TW2003. It just doesn’t fit for me. I also wish they put a big Swoosh watermark on the screen and get it over with. Every shot of Tiger has two or three prominent Nike swooshes on full display. We get it! Tiger and Nike are synonymous any more. We don’t need you to shove it down our throats. It sure would be nice if the game was cheaper, though, with all the eyeballs your advertising to. But that’s a different rant.

Overall, I’m very intrigued by TW07. They’ve distilled previous versions of a decent game into a game that is approaching reality. Based on the demo alone, Tiger Woods 07 may be the first 360 game I actually purchase. It was that good.