Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption

I'm really, really far behind in adding anything to this blog. I completely forgot about it for a while. Should the ambition arise I will go back and talk about other games I've played since that last post. It's been a lot.

Let's start off with Alan Wake. I've played the first two episodes. It's, in a word, great. The pacing is remarkable. The story has definitely pulled me in and has me genuinely interested. That's something that doesn't often happen for me with games other than RPGs. I don't want to spoil much so here's a basic rundown. Alan Wake is a fiction writer who heads to Bright Falls for some apparently much needed R&R. He's accompanied by his wife Alice. Strange things begin to happen both before the couple arrives and afterward.

There is some product placement in the game. My experience has only been Energizer batteries and a little exposure to Verizon Wireless via the phone Alan uses in the game. I've heard the product placement is pretty heavy, but so far I haven't found it distracting.

Light is the major weapon against your shadowy adversaries. I don't want to explain what they are here, that's better left for someone playing the game and discovering on their own. This, in combination with firearms, are the way you dispatch enemies in the game. Darkness is constantly around and standing in light is the only time in the game you are perfectly safe from harm. This is usually provided in the way of lamp posts. This is also where the game automatically saves each time.

Something else I found very interesting is the fact the game recaps the previous episode each time you load your saved game. It's presented like a TV show where there's a continuing storyline going on. The game will load up and the voice actor for Alan will say "Previously on Alan Wake" followed by a short recap of everything you did in the previous chapter. It's a thing all games could learn a little from, I think. I've often played deeply into a game and set it aside for whatever reason, only to come back and have no idea where I am or what's taking place in the plot.

It's a good game so far. Anyone with a 360 ought to check it out.

More gaming.

First and foremost: Contra 4 is fucking horseshit hard. This game has been kicking my ass so much in the last week I'm surprised I can sit down comfortably. The first few stages aren't that bad, but once you hit Stage 5 you *will* die. A lot.

I recently started playing Final Fantasy XII again. Only about 2 hours in, but it's as fun as ever. All of the characters are really interesting to me aside from Vaan, and really he's not so bad either.

Also started playing FF4 with a friend. A friend who's not allowed to use healer characters. That's now my job.

Other than those three games, I haven't played much aside from games I've previously mentioned. Aside from Rhythm Heaven, that is. Kind of a quirky game, but it's fun. It's a musical rhythm (o rly?) game, but nothing like Guitar Hero or Frequency. It's got a lot of humor involved in it, and I think that's what keeps the game from getting stale.

Once I get my DVD Recorder unpacked and hooked up, I'll probably be uploading some BlazBlue replays to YouTube just for the hell of it.

Well, that's all for now.

So... you like video game music? Like remixes?

Go here http://ff4.ocremix.org/ and download the album. Now.

What I've Been Playing Lately

First off, yeah, I got a blog. A split second change of my mind from not having one, in fact. Mostly all you're going to see here is stuff about video games, roleplay, and perhaps tabletop games. If you're not interested in either of those three things then you might as well move along. That said, here we go with my first post.

The main game I've been spending my time with is Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for the Nintendo DS. A friend had been playing one of the Fire Emblem games for the SNES and had been telling me about it. It prompted me to pick up. Shadow Dragon. It's a remake of the original Fire Emblem for the Famicom (NES). I've never played the original NES version, but Shadow Dragon is well presented. It continually gets harder as you go along, which is something I enjoy greatly in a game. The characters are interesting, and the tactics involved are deep. Easily a 9/10.

I also recently started playing Suikoden Tierkreis. Some of the music is definitely a throwback to the original two PSX Suikodens. This is a good thing. It's still a formation of six characters, but the runes have been changed to "marks of the stars" and a MP like stat has replaced rune uses. While it's not necessarily a bad change, I still liked the old system better. It made you pick and choose how you were going to use your magic, instead of allowing you to use it whenever you like (basically).

Lastly, I want to say HAI to mscatlady.blogspot.com just because. Yep. I changed my mind that fast. ;P