This is difficult to write about, or Dragon Age: Origins is hard

Recently, with Dragon Age: Origins, I found myself doing something I can’t recall ever doing with another videogame. I changed the difficulty…from Normal to Casual.

This decision stemmed from playing the same scenario over and over again to no success; it was not the first Ogre fight as depicted above, but rather a small fight while on the quest for the urn of Andraste’s ashes, where two mages and a group of soldiers slaughtered my team each and every time. I even tried switching up combat tactics, but to no avail. I found myself unable to move forward in the game, and I couldn’t pinpoint why. Did I lack the skills? Is Dragon Age: Origins grossly unbalanced? Is it a mix of both questions?

It was not something I wanted to do, trust me. I want to play games as they are intended to be played. In my mind, this is how it works: Casual is a setting for those that can’t cut it, Normal is how the developers expect you to experience their creation, and Hard is for masochists. Rarely do I go up or down, always comfortable in the middle. I even maintained the same difficulty setting through Mass Effect and BioShock, eventually learning to save often and get better.

But the combat tactics are hard to manage and mostly unreliable, with Alistair constantly charging straight to his death no matter what I try, and the difficulty spikes in Dragon Age: Origins are about as predictable as picking the next set of winning lottery numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42). I’d end up using every last healing potion on one fight, and then have to desperately crawl my way on a wing and a prayer through the remainder. It made for tough, frustrating times, and was all around just not a lot of fun.

And I wanted to have fun, see more Ferelden. Thanks to Casual, I have. But I wish it didn’t to have to come to such drastic measures.

IMPRESSIONS: Just Cause 2

The demo for Just Cause 2 is undeniably the most open demo I’ve experienced so far. You are shown a mini cutscene kind of explaining why Rico Rodriguez is heading to the fictional tropical island of Panau in Southeast Asia. And then, well…you have 30 minutes to do whatever you want.

The developers would love (and reward you) if you devoted the next half hour of gaming to causing as much chaos as possible. The demo features an area of 35 square miles located in the desert, with light aircraft and many civilian and military vehicles available. There’s plenty to see and do…and destroy.

Controls take a bit getting used to, especially the grappling hook. I wasn’t comfortable using it until about 20 minutes had passed, and then I was zipping from building to building, car to car, tree to tree. It made getting out of tough situations a breeze, and using it to take down guards is fun and imaginative.

Right, back to causing chaos. Love that this is Just Cause 2‘s currency, and that the player is rewarded for going ape-shit. Since it took me awhile to get the hang of parachuting and moving from zone to zone, I caused very little chaos during my 30 minutes. Some chaos, mind you, but not enough to make newspaper headlines. Will try harder next time to, y’know, maybe hook a guard to a moving car and then crash it into some water tanks while parachuting off it to safety some many yards away. Amazingly, that’s all very possible.

Anyways, it’s a refreshing demo, one that I can see myself heading back into again and again to try out new stuff. Not sure if the full game would be for me as a lot of open-world games lose their appeal early on, but this is perfect for getting a feel for the game’s nuances and desires. Let the chaos continue!

Puzzle Quest 2: Electric Boogaloo

After attempting to win over the galaxies, the fun and addictive Bejeweled-to-the-extreme puzzle game is back…with Puzzle Quest 2! Don’t believe me? Well, check out this debut trailer:

As the vid shows, the basics are all there. You will travel around a map–though this one is much more detailed and Diablo-like, fighting monsters via matching gems. Spells get animations, and there’s loot to be earned. Even if they didn’t add new stuff to Puzzle Quest 2, I’d still want to play it. Because I’m a fiend, people. A gem-flopping fiend.

However, try as I might, I’ve yet to beat Lord Bane from Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. Can never get the upper hand on him and his “oh, let me take eight turns in a row and do 79 damage to you, too” tendencies. And now his generic yet profound name finally makes sense.

Watch me flout the Spirit Flute

I’ve progressed further with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, now ready to tackle the Sand Temple, but man oh man…it’s been a struggle. A struggle to not throw my Nintendo DS across the room out of frustration, that is. See, a lot of reviews have complained about how boring riding the train is versus the shippy freedom of The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass and that traveling between towns and temples is such a chore. It is. But here’s the biggest problem with Link’s latest outing:

Yup, music.

Actually, the music in Spirit Tracks is pretty good. It’s bouncy and bubbly when it needs to be, dark and alarming when enemies show up, and soft and ethereal during Zelda’s many musing moments. The trouble is with the Spirit Flute. This device is used in two ways. The first is to play tiny little riffs that will do a variety of things in-game: awaken statues, call birds, heal yourself, shine a beam of light, and find treasure. The other use is to open up hidden tracks by playing a duet with a Lokomo, which are minions of Satan. Er, not really. They are on our side, I think, but sure make Link work hard for their help.

Anyways, each time you meet a Lokomo, the songs get harder and more complex. You can practice all you want, but there’s no thumbs up/thumbs down to let you know you’re even close to playing it correctly. Do I hold this note longer than the previous one? Is it okay to accidentally hit another colored note? When should I start playing, when the notes light up or after the Lokomo stops? It’s a guessing game in the end.

So, after the eighteenth time of unsuccessfully jamming along with Rael, I had to put Spirit Tracks down and look up a video on YouTube, something I hate to do. Evidently, based on this vid, I was playing the song too well. You need to mess up a bit to get it right, not hold every note, just sputter a bit here, miss a beat there. Ugh.

I really pray that this was the last duet song of the game. My mind and lungs just can’t take any more…

Last two Fallout 3 quests completed

Over the weekend, I jumped back into the Capital Wasteland to finish up the last two quests tied to Achievements for Fallout 3. These were You Gotta Shoot ‘Em in the Head and Reilley’s Rangers.

The former quest I avoided during my first playthrough, as it most definitely clashed with my super-duper angelic nature and soul. Can’t just go around shooting people in the head, even if they are bigots and hate ghouls of all shapes and colors. Trust me. I kinda wanted to. Thanks to my evil, I could, and each and every racist Wastelander got what they deserved. Red-headed Samantha shot them square-on with a 47 damage Chinese Assault Rifle.

For reasons I don’t know, I just never picked up the latter quest from one sickly Reilly in the Underworld. Must have missed her. You can play it evil or good or neutral, and I actually achieved good karma by accident by helping the rangers out. Don’t worry. I remedied this later when back at Ranger Compound where I planted some conveniently-placed mines and slaughtered everyone that made it safely back home. Yeah, being evil can be fun, but I still feel ultimately guilty over the action.

Okay, that’s the last two quests down and out. I’m now at 64 out of 72 Achievements, and I really really want to get a full Gamerscore for Fallout 3. Can’t just have the LEGO games riding forever high on my list. All that’s left are the karma-related ones for evil’s LV 20 and LV 30 and playing a full neutral character, as well as finding all the alien recordings and steel ingots. Gonna need a map or walkthrough for those ones, methinks.

Creeping closer though. Must finish before Fallout: New Vegas drops…

IMPRESSIONS: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

The kart racer is dead, long live the kart racer!

Actually, it’s not so much dead. More like…hard to stand out in the crowd. See, Nintendo created the kart racer many moons ago with Super Mario Kart for the SNES, a game that still holds up remarkably well today. The fiancée and I play it a lot, actually, and I like to throw false information at her such as telling her about secret teleports hidden in spots of water. Alas, she’s learned not to trust my “advice.” Anyways, Super Mario Kart naturally spawned some imitators, the majority of which failed to live up to the flagship’s standards. Save for Crash Tag Team Racing; I like that one for reasons I’m not ready to say.

So the demo for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing felt very much like it should: formulaic. You select your racer, you select your track, you hit the gas, you pick up weaponry from floating somethings, and you zip along until you’ve crossed the finish line. We know how to play it; we’ve been playing this game for years.

Definitely the one place where Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing outshines Nintendo is in its roster. Given the game’s title and much like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, there’s a unique gathering of characters from all sorts of previous games. You can definitely play as the blue blur himself, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Big the Cat, moody Shadow, Ulala, AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, and Beat, among others (Banjo and Kazooie if you’re lucky to play it on the Xbox 360).

The demo only offers up one character to play (Sonic) and one course (a rather generic level). Driving is simple and fun, and getting Sonic to do his “all-star” move, turning him into Super Sonic, a speeding blue blur of death, is awesome. However, the track itself was very straightforward, and I never once felt like I would steer the wrong way or anything. Had an “on rails” sort of feel to it, despite not being that. The audio works well, with actual commentary happening live as you do stuff, but I did notice one of Sonic’s lines was taken directly from SEGA Superstars Tennis, which seems a bit lazy.

It’s not the worst thing to ever hit a console though it definitely lacks innovation. If you don’t own a Wii or dusty SNES, sure, give this a chance. Otherwise, you might want to stick with what you know already.

And of course, it’s still hard to wrap your brain around the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the fastest critters around the gamesphere, is racing in a car. And losing at times. Oh well…

Introducing PlayStation Move, Sony’s Downfall

Okay, maybe not its downfall, but really, a motion controller this late in development and then so shockingly close to that of Nintendo’s Wiimote and Nunchuk…well, I just can’t see the PlayStation Move being a huge hit. The system is full of adult-oriented games from Heavy Rain to Uncharted 2 to Metal Gear Solid 4. Rarely does a more kid-friendly game release itself unto the wild, but with this new controller will come a slew of Move-heavy entries. Whether they will be gimicky or fun is for many to decide later. There’s a reported price tag of $100 for the whole kit and caboodle, which probably has no one reaching for their wallets. Ultimately, Sony has a lot of ground to make up. Not sure if this is the right path. Guess you could say they really need to move it, huh?

Sorry ’bout that.

Trouble in the SimCity

Last night, I gave SimCity DS a second chance. I bought it a long, long time ago while on a vacation and itching for something new, and I remember disliking it instantly. It’s based on SimCity 3000, but I really wish it had aimed more for the SNES version because, to me, that game exemplified quality city-building simulation. Sure, graphically, it was pretty bland, and the same can be said about the music, but SimCity for the SNES nailed the formula. It was not too fast-paced or chaotic, and it allowed the player to learn from their mistakes over time instead of constantly punishing them.

However, thirty minutes with SimCity DS just hit home the fact that this game is not made for a portable system, especially one with a tiny screen and stylus controls (though those are optional). Controls are iffy, mostly unreliable, and it seems like a disaster struck my city every few minutes. Besides that, there’s lagging and loading screens and 937 menu screens to sift through.

All in all, not what I wanted.

Anyways, I’m finishing up writing the review for The First Hour. Will let the entire Internet know when it goes live. Unless someone orders a tornado or alien invasion on me, that is…

Fallout: New Vegas rocks the purple sky

Finally, we get some official Fallout: New Vegas screenshots to drool over. Though most of these were already leaked thanks to numerous magazine scans, they can at least be shared over the Internet without a guilty conscience. In them, we get a glimpse at the new radial menu for controlling companions, more crazy-looking Super Mutants, and lots of clear, beautiful sky. That’s pretty interesting, and I suspect I’ll get tongued to death a number of times by radiated geckos because I’m just standing there, staring at it, loving it. Can’t wait.

Still wanna see some gameplay video though…even if it’ll be exactly like Fallout 3.

You can check out all the screenshots over at That VideoGame Blog‘s gallery.

Not a videogame-heavy weekend

As usual, my weekends are pretty booked up. I rarely spend them in my apartment, meaning I can only travel with my Nintendo DS if there is time to game it up. Alas, most often, there isn’t. Like this past weekend. The fiancée and I went out to visit some family, as well as register more for our wedding in October. Busy, busy, busy.

The most gaming we did together was played some more levels in Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins, a hidden items game borrowed from my mother’s collection:

It’s pretty straightforward. You have a list, you find the items hidden in the picture, you play a mini-game, you skip the superfluous plot-only text, and you search the new locale. But it’s not the worst thing in the world, and it’s a  fun way to kill thirty minutes.

Then, upon my return to my apartment, I popped in Dragon Age: Origins to…not play it. The server was down? Um, okay. That was odd. I’ve never been locked out of a videogame I purchased for a system I own on a TV I own and so on. Restarted the Xbox 360, and got in just fine the second time around. Weird.

Anyways, I wasn’t actually having much luck combat-wise with the mage so I tried out a new character, completing the Human Noble origin with a dual-wielding rogue. She was fiesty, but still not what I was looking for. So I decided to go for another origin opening, this time with a Dwarf Noble. He specializes in sword and shield attacks and has a cool beard. I’m liking him–and his intro story–very much.

However, I might go and do the origins for everyone else left (Dalish Elf, City Elf, and Dwarf Commoner) and then pick who’d I really like to play the full game with from there. I thought the mage would’ve been great, but all my other teammates rush to their deaths too quickly and he’s just then left in the corner casting Cone of Cold like a goof-head.

However, before any of that, I want to work on whatever my next review for The First Hour will be. XIII? SimCity DS? I really don’t know yet. Hmm…