Fable III wishlist

It looks like Lionshead Studio is planning to unveil Fable III more properly sometime next month. At this point, we’ve gotten just a rather bland teaser trailer and some bits of, admittedly, neat concept art. Industrial era, here we come. I rather enjoyed my time in Albion in Fable II, but there’s some aspects of the game (and of the RPG genre itself) that could change or stay in Fable III, or get dropped completely. My ultimate wishlist is as follows…

Stuff to keep

• The humor. If there’s one thing this series nails, it’s humor. Everything oozes laughs, from the tombstone engravings to the description on the back of every item. Plus, a lot of the character designs are goofy, but in a good way.
• Relationships. I like the idea that you can make anyone fall in love with you and choose to have a child with them (or not). It’ll be great fun picking the king or queen to rule beside me.
• Pigments. Customization is never frowned upon, especially in the RPG genre, and allowing us to dye our robes and courtly garments is a definite must. Losing this option would be three giant steps back.
• Fast-travel. Some people hate it; those people are not me.

Stuff to drop

• Co-op play. Kind of wasted space, I’m afraid.
• The dog. It’s what a lot of people associated Fable II with so it should stay there. Plus, if you’re going to be the ruler of Albion, you might not have too much time to play fetch with Beethoven.
• Can’t die death system. Makes for lame battles, especially when the DLC added potions to remove scars, the supposedly hardcore punishment for not fighting well. As I’ve mentioned before, dying is a great way to learn how to play a game. Let us die, I say!
• Ridiculous achievements. That one where you have to collect dolls, but there’s only one in your game and then you have to go online to find others who have the dolls you don’t have and then convince them to give it to you…that’s bullshit.

Stuff to tweak

• Game economy. Earning money in Fable II was surprisingly easy, especially if you were an evildoer. Steal and raise the monthly rent on buildings you buy. Easy peasy. Add in the fact that you continue to earn ka-ching ka-ching when you’re not even playing and well…it’s a bit lame.
• Consequence from actions. Shoot someone in the face “by accident”? Well, it’s okay. You can make everyone else laugh by doing the fart expression and they’ll love you all the same. This needs to be revamped tremendously. I want to be ostracized from society for doing something horrible. Or more likely…de-throned.
• The fighting system. I understand where Lionhead was coming from in developing a fighting system linked to only three buttons. I do, really. One for melee, one for ranged, and one for magic, which you can hop back and forth from to switch things up. Alas, it didn’t really make for a good time. You could totally button mash melee and call it a day. The spells, while effective, could’ve used some more…I dunno, pizazz.
• Menus. At this point, a game shouldn’t lag just to get into its menu hub. And even then, navigating them wasn’t the most simple task. I felt like I deserved a renown reward afterwards. Please make them more streamlined. I beg you.

I’m sure there’s more to want and not want for Fable III. Feel free to shout off in the comments below.

Death to death achievements!

In videogame terms, I die a lot. It’s one of the best ways to learn how to play, dying. Unsure if you can make that jump across the gap? Try. Think your rocket launcher will blast a hole beneath your feet to fall through? Try. Curious as to how long Banjo can hold his breath underwater? Try. What’s the worst that could happen? Oh…you died. Hmm. Let’s put quotes around it actually.

Oh…you “died.”

Well, try again.

Back in the day, you could die as many times as you had lives or hearts or hit points or whatever. You had something, and if you ran out of it, you ceased to exist. Also, falling off a cliff generally never worked out well.

Recently, dying in videogames is becoming a thing of the past. Suffer too much damage in Fable II, and you fall unconscious for a bit, only to wake with some scarring and experience drain. Charge head first and unprepared into a Big Daddy battle in BioShock and you’re revived in a nearby Vita-Chamber unscathed. Miss a Prince of Persia jump because you are too busy oogling all the pretty colors? Don’t worry. Elika will save you. And in the LEGO games I’ve been enjoying recently, you just explode into bits and reappear in a second or two, ready to punch, shoot, and collect all over again. No big deal.

Now, the debate currently is not towards dying in videogames/not dying in videogames. Instead, it’s about achievements linked to these. They are never fun, and they are rarely for those that die a lot (e.g., me). Instead, the challenge is always to not die…or die a small amount.

Sifting through my Xbox 360 collection, I found a couple death-themed achievements, and sadly, I’ll most likely never unlock them. First, they are full of The Stress. Second, they are a lot of work. Third, I’m really not a cheater, and so the whole save/restart a level if it doesn’t work out seems a bit silly to me. Doing it that way is not really achieving anything in the end. Anyways, here’s some I found:

Kung Fu Panda: Invincible (50 Gamerscore) – Make it through the entire game without dying.

BioShock: Brass Balls (100 Gamerscore) – Complete the game on Hard difficulty without using a Vita-Chamber.

Prince of Persia: Be Gentle With Her (100 Gamerscore) – Elika saves you fewer than 100 times in the whole game.

Yeah, right.

Gaming resolutions

Well, it’s 2010.

Guess I should baa baa baa along with everyone else and throw down some gaming resolutions. Let’s just go with three for now, but three that are actually obtainable. Everyone wants to complete their entire backlog and finish a game before buying the next one. Try being realistic for a change. Remember 1991’s What About Bob? It’s all about the “baby steps.”

Anyways, here’s my Big Three resolutions for 2010:

1. Finish an evil run on Fable II

Generally, when I get a game that offers moral choices and a good/evil/neutral sort of alignment, I will always play through it first as a good-nature male character. Always. Then the plan is to go back afterwards and experience the world from an evil lady’s view. Not sure what that says about my psyche. But there’s a problem as of late. It’s kind of boring playing Fable II over again as an evil lady…because it’s basically the same game I played as a holier-than-thou hero. You just have horns, and people kick your dog.

2. Unlock the full 1550 Gamerscore on Fallout 3

At the moment, I have 1,170/ 1,550 points (or 54/72 achievements). I’d love to get a full Gamerscore on a game that is not LEGO-based, and since Fallout 3 has no online achievements, this is totally possible. It just requires time and patience because it’ll involved two playthroughs for the evil and neutral achievements. No, I’m not into cheating and saving/reloading to get them at their respective levels. Gotta visit the Pitt, too.

3. Be more open-minded to game genres I’ve historically disliked

This is the doozy of the resolutions. Hardcore shooters, sports, and MMORPGs are often the game genres I’ve sneered at the most. Though the latter two are types I really never play. I’m trying to figure out why I don’t like shooters more…by giving them a chance. Did the demo for Left 4 Dead 2 and mildly enjoyed it. Am playing through BioShock at the moment…though I am dying a lot. Maybe it’s my reflexes or the fact that I’m scared of every sound, no matter how minute, but I’m working on this. Will also have to be more accepting of sequels, even if a lot of them feel more like shoehorning than progression.

And that’s that.

Have you any gaming resolutions for 2010? Please don’t say, “Finish my backlog.”

Do not feed the trolls

It seems that this post is getting a ton of hits and incoming links so it is only natural that the next step would be…troll comments. You know of them, I’m sure. They consist mostly of flame attacks and nastiness, serving no point whatsoever except to possibly illicit anger out of the author of said post. Luckily, I hold the power here and I don’t get mad easily. So I have to smile big and wide knowing that after these hateful sacks of sadness and anonymity typed up their lengthy diatribe they saw the following: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Now, I don’t want to give trolls too much credit here, but they have to know that their comment will never see the light of day. Let’s all laugh at that, shall we? Unless you’re a troll. Then no one will hear your piggy guffaws.

IMPRESSIONS: Left 4 Dead 2 demo

I try not to judge a book by its cover. Similarly, I try not to judge a videogame by its…heck, they are different beasts than books and by the time a game is released the public has already been spoon-fed screenshots, trailers, previews, demos, and a landfill of hype. So a videogame’s retail cover means nothing in actuality, but what I’m trying to say is that I normally shy away from the crazy, fast-paced shooters of this generation because I feel like they are just not my kind of game. I’m talking about the Halos, the Gears of Wars, the Call of Dutys, and the Left 4 Deads. Last night, I put that theory to the test.

Left 4 Dead 2 comes out on November 17, and a demo for the zombie shootathon went up on Xbox Live at the end of October. Y’know, to gets folks excited. However, being a lowly wielder of the Silver account, I had to wait until yesterday to download it. Oh, lowly me.

The demo offers up two modes of play–single player and online campaign–within one of the game’s five episodes, The Parish, with the first two sections of that episode available for exploring. There’s no story introduction, and you’re dropped off a boat next to, magically, a table of weapons. Grab your gear and go. Go where? Forward. Then the zombies swarm (or maybe not, thanks to the clever and always thinking AI director), and here’s where the problems started…for me, at least.

One, nervous and unsure of how to play, I hung back and allowed my three other teammates to dole out punishment. A single zombie did not get through so basically I just stood in a corner watching. This is equivalent to watching an in-game cinema. I did nothing.

Second, when I finally did decide to shoot some zombies I ended up hitting my teammates more often. They scolded me, and I retreated to hiding in a corner, popping off a shot only when it was clear who what I was aiming at. This only worked in the open areas, like the park and streets. Inside buildings was a no-trigger zone. Was there a button for zoom? I couldn’t figure it out.

Anyways, you’ll travel down streets, through a dark kitchen, across a shrub-heavy park, all while shooting a variety of zombies. They are fast zombies, too, some jumping on your head and others spitting Ecto Cooler at you. The graphics are colorful and strong, and the physicality of everything is pretty impressive, especially how zombies fall differently under gunfire versus melee weapons. In dark areas, the light from your flashlight makes for eerie gunfights. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing with some of the items I found, and I just moved from place to place when it go too quiet until eventually the demo came to an end.

Then I played the demo a second time, and the entire scenario was different, which was nice. Very nice, and I slowly improved on shooting zombies. So I’ll pass on the full retail game, as I don’t have anyone to play with (and I’m assuming this is a great game for friends and such) and just replay the demo when I get a hankering for a zombie massacre.

At least now I can say with total authority that Left 4 Dead 2 is not my kind of videogame experience.

Grinding is Good and Bad and All We Really Ever Had

There’s been a lot of talk lately about grinding, some for it, some against it, and some just not sure how to define where it shows up. Here’s some links, all of which are worth a read and/or listen:

• Adam Sessler’s Soapbox says that grinding is good
• An interest article by Daniel Feit follows up on this
• And then there’s this direct response to Feit’s article by Gerren Fisher, which argues that if someone enjoys the gameplay mechanic attached to grinding then it isn’t a grind at all

Having named my blog Grinding Down for a reason, I feel equally mixed about this subject.

It’s a staple of RPGs, sometimes more prevalent than not, and I much prefer it to be an optional sort of thing. Cases where it has not been optional are Eternal Sonata and Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. In both these games, I found myself stuck at a boss fight that I was clearly not ready for…which meant wasting an hour or two grinding, fighting the same monsters over and over, sleeping at the same inn to heal for cheap over and over, and so on. This is depressing. There might as well have been a scratch on the game’s disc because this kind of grinding is basically stating, “You can not play this game any more. Not until you kill X more slimes/whatever. Ha ha, fooled you.”

I’m surprised I haven’t had to grind yet in Fallout 3. Or maybe I have and I just haven’t noticed. Playing as a sneaky thief, I don’t necessary have to be super strong to kill a room of ghouls. I can instead just sneak past them. All experience that I’ve gained along the way (now a Level 21) has felt natural and just enough to get me through the next section. Whereas in Oblivion, a game that levels you up so long as you constantly use the same skills over and over, grinding there is visibly obvious. Want to excel in blunt weapons? Better start smacking some mudcrabs around.

Truthfully, I’m fine with grinding so long as I don’t know it is happening, so long as it is an enjoyable aspect of the game and not jarring, so long as the reward is worth the work. I have fought and defeated Emerald Weapon in Final Fantasy VII, and this was during the days of “no Internet guides”; all I had was my thumbs and the knowledge that I needed to have Cloud and the gang at incredibly high levels. So I spent a weekend grinding. This involved fighting, fighting, fighting, take a potty break, fighting, lunch, fighting, fighting, fighting, dinner, fighting, fighting, potty break, possibly a shower (I can’t remember anymore), fighting, fighting, and then bed. Once I felt battle-ready, I saved and then took Emerald Weapon down after much stress and sweating. The question remains…was grinding to gain XP to be strong enough to beat a boss to gain even more XP worth it? Not really. In addition to experience, you get the Earth Harp item, which is tradable for the remaining master materias. Meh. I could’ve been outside reading or something. That part of my youth is gone, and I have nothing to show for it.

Oh well.

Insert epic orchestra score

“An opportunity missed is an opportunity wasted.” – Seed, Suikoden II

That’s a good quote from one of my all-time favorite games to try and get this ball a-rollin’ again. The lack of steady content can be blamed on many things, but mostly this: time. I won’t go into a long tirade where I am all wah wah this and wah wah that. I’ll just sip this water, take a deep breath, and prepare to take this videogame blogging thing to a new level.

Pun intended.

Two new Xbox Live Arcade games downloaded

Needed a little pick-me-up last Friday evening, so I purchased some Microsoft Space Bucks and downloaded Shadow Complex:

…and Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers:

I’ve had only a limited amount of play-time with both games, but so far they’re not terrible. In fact, Shadow Complex is quite impressive for an Xbox Live Arcade title, doing many a things great. Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers is not the MTG I’m used to playing, but now that I lack a group of friends to play with it does a decent job of filling said void. More later as I continue to work through ’em…

Did I mention…?

…that I beat Assassin’s Creed recently and was severely disappointed in its “ending”?

…that I checked out the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum and thought it was okay at best, but the actual combat felt clunky and foreign?

…that I’m a few steps closer to achieving a full gamerscore for LEGO Batman?

…and that I solved my second mystery in Magician’s Quest Mysterious Times and it involved fishing and then fishing and then fishing more?

Forgetting where I’ve stopped

The worst part about jumping back and forth between different videogames is that some get forgotten much more quickly than others. And then they sit, bereft of friendship, collecting dust. Every now and then they get picked up again, but once past the start screen it is evident that I no longer know what is going on and what I should be doing. Some good examples of this are Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King and Xenosaga.

Concerning the former, I’m pretty far along. I’ve fought the main bad dude (some jester villain with an evil…cane?) a few times and was, for a certain period of time, collecting monsters to fight in the battle arena mini-game. But that’s it. Where I’m supposed to go next is anyone’s guess. Sure, I could look it up in an FAQ guide or whatever, but that would involve some heavy reading to first determine what I’ve done and what I haven’t done yet. So I shut the game off and go back to familiar grounds.

The latter, Xenosaga, is first and foremost a disappointing game. Yet I’m sick in the head and can’t stay away from JRPGs. Every time I load it up, I’m in some stupid, maze-like alien ship. Wander this way, wander that way. Avoid fighting flying mutant bats and giant golem creatures. It’s pretty annoying. I gave up on it mostly due to the lengthy cutscenes, but at this point I’d kill for one to give me some understanding of plot happenings and all that jazz.

It’s a shame because I know that eventually I want to finish these games and to do so I’m going to have to start all over. Boo to that.