Little Big Planet

I picked up Little Big Planet the day it came out.  I reserved at Gamestop to get my free code for the God of War based pack which came with costume parts, stickers and stuff.  I've only played it a little.  It's not that it's not good.  So far, it seems like a lot of fun.  The problem lies in Standard Definition. Right now, I'm playing in SD and this game really is geared for HD play.  Also, it has co-op play and I think it would certainly be fun for teh Mrs. and I to play this game together. I'll update when I can really give some details on the game.

Ninja Gaiden 2

Ninja Gaiden 2

I'm a pretty big fan of the Ninja Gaiden series as a whole.; dating all the way back to the NES version that took me a Game Genie and long time to beat the first time. Eventually, back in 2003 I believe, A new beautiful version of Ninja Gaiden graced our consoles on the Xbox. Holy Cow! this game was awesome! It was fairly ridiculously hard, but still a lot of fun. There have been few games that I've been as mad at as this game though. I even broke a controller playing it.

Well now in 2008 Ninja Gaiden 2 has been released. In was released in June the day before my birthday, but as I was saving for a PS3, I didn't play it until now. Sadly, I am currently away from my 61" HDTV so I was not able to really take in some of the beautiful graphics that Team Ninja always does. However, even on my 32"ish SDTV the game looked great.

I had already played the demo which was also most of the first level, thus I had learned some of the new game elements such as the Obliteration technique; the technique that allow Ryu (the main character) to perform an instant kill if an enemy has already lost a limb. Pressing Y while next to an enemy who is missing an arm or leg sudden makes your character perform a variety of animations like kicking a guy in the face to raise him up and then cut off his head. It's quite satisfying. The gameplay itself didn't seem to change that much from NG1; which is a good thing. It's fast, the camera is always facing the wrong way, but pressing a butoin will put it behind you, everything that made the first game great... Okay, the camera sucks, but you get used to it on these games.

There were a lot of weapons in this game, but I found myself using just a few of them. There are weapons for every situation you need. Pure brutality, crowd control, quickness, and vulgar displays of power; a plethora of style. Each player will probably pick a weapon they enjoy most. I myself alway enjoy The Dragon Sword. It's the best well rounded weapon in the game. The projectiles weapons are also pretty sweet. With the ability to charge them, which I believe started in earlier editions of the NG1 expansion packs i.e. NG Black and Sigma. There are only one type of arrow this time, and an upgraded spear gun helps with the inevitable water sections.

One thing that I felt that NG1 had that NG2 didn't was a streaming story. By that I mean in NG1 it felt like you were going through an adventure and had reasons for being where you were and most of the areas where very intertwined. In NG2, as nice as it was to go to different places around the world, it felt just shoved in. The only explanation of why you were anywhere was a quick one line about someone's trail leading here. It just seemed odd.

As far as enemies and bosses, everything seems to be the same from NG1, just with a different skin on it. There's the standard ninjas, the ninjas with incendiary shurikens, some big monsters, and some bosses are that are cheap and annoying until you find the pattern or weakness; and even then they can be annoying.

I played on wuss the first time through as I didn't want to become so irritated that I didn't want to play. I'm a little older than I was when NG1 came out and have less patience with games. Overall NG2 is enjoyable if you like NG1. The Crystal Skulls seem to be a waste of time unless you want the achievement, but there are a lot of things to pick up and do as Ryu.

Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

9-21-08

***Warning! May contain Spoilers!***

Real life got in the way of playing this game for a bit, but I spent most of the day yesterday playing through the rest of the game I started the day I got it.  Personally, I really enjoyed the game.  It's been getting a lot of criticism, but for me I noticed some things and just let it go.  Perhaps it's my love for Star Wars that blinds me to such problems, but I'm glad I was because I enjoyed the game overall.

The first issue I noticed on my 360 version was that there were little hiccups throughout the game; the game would just stop for about a second.  It's similar to when an achievement is unlocked on almost any game.  It wasn't that frequent but enough to notice and wonder what the deal was.  

I read the other day that the environments look great when you first start a level but become boring and uninspired after you start going through them; or something close to that...  I found that the environments were great throughout.  I sometimes wonder what people really want from a game.  I wonder if they even know what they want from a game.  I can't imagine how they would have made the areas better; they had a definite look and feel to Star Wars, especially the original trilogy.  

The major issue I've been hearing about is the targeting.  I certainly had some issues with the targeting. Trying to lock onto a crate or an unfortunate Storm Trooper can be difficult when they are right next to each other.  Essentially, you have to point your character in the direction of the person or item you wish to interact with.  So if you want to grab a crate to chuck at a enemy far away while you destroy the Trooper right in front of you with your Lightsaber, you may have a hard time if the Trooper is in front of the crate.  While this annoyed me from time to time, can someone explain to me a different way to do the targeting?  My other beef with the targeting is once you have a hold of said crate, you have to aim it at the target.  This is actually where I had the most annoyance.  I don't how many times I had something to throw, thought I was pushing the right direction and the item went flying toward something else.  I would have maybe liked to see a new targeting reticle on a target that the item was "pointed" at.  My targeting issues came to a head, at least for me, during what should have been one of the coolest moments in the game.  Pulling the Star Destroyer down.  What a great idea to implement in this game.  I felt the whole idea behind this game was to take the Force to next level.  Pulling down a Star Destroyer was a perfect idea for this.  However, what a pain in the ass.  The reoccurring waves of TIE Fighters that allow the SD to get back on course make it a pain.  And while they give you stuff to throw at the TIEs, it almost always went flying off toward these random towers on each side of you.  With a little practice and timing you eventually can kill the waves of TIEs quick enough where the SD doesn't get back onto course.  I understand making a challenge in a game, but let's not take the super cool moment and make it frustrating.

I've only beat it once, and I choose the light side ending.  I'm on my second time through the game to grab the Holocron pick ups and do secondary objectives that I missed.  I plan to do the dark side ending this time around.  I know I could just play part of the game to get the other ending, but as I have to get the pick ups and stuff, and I did actually pay for a game to play, I'll just get there again.

All in all, a fun game.  It has it's faults, but then again, what game doesn't?  I would certainly recommend this game to any Star Wars fans out there.  It tells a good story and its just fun wielding the Force like you can in this game.