Caving in to the Hype...I remember people ranting and raving about Shadow of the Colossus, but I stood clear because good god the demo was lame. The demo was lame because the entire cutscene runs at sub-30fps. Wtf. I am told the developers attempted to do with the PS2 what could not be done...reasonably. I mean VP2 looks a gajillion times better. So I came away from the demo thinking, wtf this feels half finished and I spent 10 minutes riding on a horse shining light at the sky.
I didn't "get it" and I suppose at the time it wasn't "For Me".
But since I hooked up the LCD/TV Tuner at my desk the PS2 revival has been insanely strong. Once again ive been collecting the various PS2 games I deem 'worthy' of my ownership and playing through them with the resolve of actually finishing games. So at 20 dollars Shadow of the Colossus got a chance.
The framerate is still bad in cutscenes, the horse is still a zombie, but the event of slaying your first colossus is a neat feeling. The sense of scale is most excellent and the animation and colossus designs are just....well neat. Neat is about as far as I will go with this game because it does feel a little half baked. I wander around on my horse, slay giants, and thats about it. Granted there shouldnt be quests out of context and I realize the colossus themselves are the dungeons, but while this design mentallity may be entirely on purpose, it doesnt change the way I feel about it.
I killed the first colossus after a lot of tries. The tutorial (spirit guy) got on my case because apparently stabbing the colossus in the ass repeatedly, while making it angry, was not how to bring the giant down. When it did fall I did feel a sense of accomplishment I dont even get from most B-Level action games these days. The thing was giant. I kicked its ass.
Then came the second one, and that took more time. It was during this fight I realized how....janky the controls were. It was clear I couldnt use some actions during certain animations and I had to learn to watch for windows to control my character. I suppose that too is intentional, but when im trying to fucking stay on the panic mixed with lack of control mostly pisses me off.
I do like the horse controls deep down inside. I think a lot of people hated the horse controls because the camera sucks. I mean sure you can position it on your own and make it not suck, but the game should be able to do that to some degree on its own because im already leading this horse around. Im sure zelda fans will go OMG HORSE BETTER IN ZELDA, but I sincerely doubt it.
Anyway, its an awesome 20 dollar game...
I've got SOUL but im not a SOULDIER lolzSo I am almost 34 hours into Valkyrie Profile 2 and STILL in chapter 3. This is not a knock against the game, it is a knock against Nippon Ichi games which trained me to be an OCD freak that needs to collect everything and grind to get ultra uber powerful rewards or just make your characters as gods. So I will be getting the two special swords from a few characters at the start of chapter 4, my team in general is a crazy beast.
Id like to say how much spheres rock this game. It adds a bizzare pokemon atmosphere to the title which drives me deeper into my compulsive disorder. For example:
I collected these spheres...a few of many I have restored and now OWN. 2 x Experience/Bigger Bonus/120% attack/Drain Life. These arent the proper names but it describes what they do.
Now if I place the drain life sphere on a dias, all monsters I fight, will lose life in a battle. Now when I mean lose life I mean 80 hp a ...well roughly translated a turn. While VP2 appears somewhat real time it is goverened by a system of turns under the hood. As you use the battle system more you will start seeing the turns pass as you play and this will result in you dominating battles. Understanding this system is key.
ANYWAY, so I fight some enemies and their HP is just diving. Well I equipped 2 x experience on myself, which doubles the experience I gain, but takes away any earned money from a fight. Screw money, I have 350k and nothing to buy. The Bigger Bonus sphere results in more crystals dropped in a fight. The 120% attack sphere is there so I can get enemies to overkill faster which results in more crystals with every hit the enemy takes past the overkill mark. Jawesome. Not to mention skills like Training which boosts a characters received EXP to 150%.
Also, the Einjajejeyrear you get in a dungeon are a randomly drawn set of three. For example I have the fortune/misfortune of drawing an archer almost every time. So once I had them leveled up 5 levels above their 'free soul' level, I freed their souls and took the stat bonus items from them and pumped them into my archers. So you can effectively liquidate class types and pump them into whoever you wanna keep.
I would also like to reinforce that money is not an option in this game, but the construction of the items in the shops that are 'special' requires time, and there is no way a player can get out of grinding in VP2. Its just the way the game works. Ill be moving on to chapter 4 today, god willing.
Vista RC2 and Creative Oh Creative WTFI got Vista RC2 running on my main PC and thus far its been great. The ATI videocard drivers I donwloaded provide such a boost to games like Company of Heroes its mind blowing. Creative drivers on the other hand were a bear, and getting them to work was pure fucking chance. But it works now so ta da. Such a pretty OS, and now everyone can actually enjoy Media Center without getting some OEM release on the down low.
PSU? Nah F U!So I am not going to even bother with PSU. I was talking to some fanboys on #GA just last night and they were of course being PSU apologists. I mean even tho the game is essentially the same stuff we've seen but prettier, the combat system is meh, the lag is WTF and YOU ARE STILL REQUIRED TO PAY FOR A GUARDIAN LICENSE to play even with Gold XBLive membership.
Listen, if you cannot create a game that competes in content with the big pants MMORPGs, dont go trying to charge me 10 bucks a month for it. I played PSO to death, I do not want to play a clone made by the same developer.
So whatever, im gonna cancel my pre-order and play some WoW if I ever get the itch, I refuse to pay 50, plus XBLive membership, plus a guardian fee.
Also, anyone like bjork who compares it to WoW is off their rocker. WoW is 20 dollars retail now and 15 a month but the amount of new stuff we get each patch is fucking staggering. If idiot fanboys keep making allowances for bad decisions we will be playing shitty games forever.
See Also...Drinky's Faggoty RPG Gaming Forum Experience
http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=1402.0PSU Beta on XBoxLive
http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=1422.0
