I was going to move on to the next game review, but with how things how been going ugly, we have to chew though this subjects.
Caution: Longest Blogg Post yet!
Just recently, The gaming industry has been loosing A LOT of money: Nintendo lost TWENTY FIVE percent since of the year delay of good games for the Wii U; Microsoft lost a decent percent because off the Window's 8 Micro interface, the failed mobile systems, and Bing; and Sony lost A BILLON, but not only that, but around FIVE THOUSAND in the game industry.
Because how bad this generation of gaming, more jobs will be lost, especially since Irrational Games shut down because the main developer wanted to step away from shooters to work on more story-based games. Sure, some of the developers will be hired by 2K, but everyone and their mother knows that some will be lost because the industry wants to cut down just to save money so they can use it to make games.
The problem is that there are cancerous things the industry that are causing everything within from slumping over. In short, the gaming industry needs chemotherapy. Here are some ideas....
Free-To-Play games need balancing! The Free-to-play can be a fun experience, but power can be bought to where the term "pay-to-win" where buying the items for real world cash can be unfair to players that either want to play for free or just try the game. I guess that should also keyed the term "free-to-try," especially when Warcraft has a level cap for the "free-to-play" parts of the game.
What makes things worst for FTP can either make or break a game. Team Fortress 2 was a big example as the balance of power was unfair, and when Super MNC switched to the system, they lost more than what it was worth. Power can either make or break, no matter whatever the situation.
The recent, best example of power-balance is Loadout, as you gain the points to make your custom weapons and the only thing you can buy is cosmetics -- costume and other appeal items. Here, the power is balanced without worrying about power can be bought and sold.
Think outside the box and make new I.P.s! Yea, sure some reboots or sequels are O.K. at best, but I personally feel that ideas like this is better left twords indie-developers. But some games like Metroid, Kirby, Silent Hill, and other licenses has been scared because the industry cannot grow up and go out of their comfort zone. No matter the excuse for some people, as they are trying to defend their persona, these games have ideas that they should be on their own.
The biggest example are the rebooted series, as they might look good to some people, they DO NOT sell as much as the original, and are considered to bastercize to the orignal fans, causing a war between the fan-base to fight between each other like the Sonic Fan-base. While sequels can wear themselfs out like Silent Hill and resident evil, some ideas from the series could have been something brand flipping new!
The main issue with this trend is that it is it's a waste of potential and to the gaming industry,
this will burn a lot of profit, a main reason companies have to downsize and leave people out of a job. Companies like Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega tends to make this mistake the most. They still fallow a business model that is outdated in the last few generations.
They fear of leaving things behind, even if it hurts them financially. In the past, the gaming industry boomed withing the 90's as the gaming industry compete with each other, especially how Sega and Nintendo purposely started the counsel wars just to help bring the bucks home. Now, however, the world's economy has changed and people have grown in wisdom and intelligence in today's time. Sadly, they have to look ahead and move on.
Remaster, Remake, and Remix Wisely. While it's great that Double Dragon got a reboot, people have a responsible dislike to some reboots because sometimes. While reboots like Ducktales Remastered was OK at best, the game dose try too hard to marry both the game fans and the animation fans together. Many people who has not seen the show on Disney may feel awkward twords the Remastered game. If you don't want to burn out the "gamer" part of the fans, at least leave an option to auto-skip cut-seances instead of going into the pause.
Also, it's best not to add odd changes in games if it takes away from the original. An example of this would be Conker: Live & Reloaded, as it's just a remake of Conker: Bad Fur Day. While I do agree that the graphics are nice for the time and that it stands the test of time, the game did have unnecessary censorship. Most notably is The Great Mighty Poo, as a singing poop monster is the most musical boss in gaming history. While he dose look nice, it's sad that most of his son is censored. But I do understand WHY change in some remakes are nice, but in Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie felt that they didn't make enough change. That, and requires N&B for the bonus material.
Speaking of Rare, The biggest example of a flop remake is the Halo game, as it dosn't hold up as much as the original PC and XBOX version. While the devs at Rare DID do as much as they could since most of the team moved on since the Mycrosoft buy-out; This was considered the biggest mistake Rareware has ever done as it threw them back for two generations. But back on subject -- this shows that remakes arn't everything MOST of the time, just SOME of the time.
Exspectations must be lowered! As games like Sleeping Dogs felt to be underrated because the developers want almost a billion in money from sales. While I don't agree with some games not getting enough sales, games like Sleeping dogs personally did well. Another is the Wii U, as Nintendo was expecting to sell nine million while they only made three million during last year. This is part of the issue is similar with thinking outside the box, just more with sales.
The industry must accept to only received at least Twenty five to fifty of their normal expectation as this is the least dissapointment woudn't be as bad as it is today. Part of this is linked to the times, as the better the economy, the better the business that could be executed. Right now, the world is not as people would want and need it to be. This doesn't just effect your country as it effect the world as a whole as well.
The only way for the industry to survive is to adjust to with the times, but the gaming industry and companies of foren places like Japan are suffering because they refuse to adjust because of just simple pride. Companies like Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, and others has been effected as well because how they the impacts of events like how the tsunami caused the delay of the Wii U's games as company damages prevented them from mass producing. Things that happen outside do come back inside, as a cause will always have an effect.
Finally, Be nice to your fan-base, but ignore the trolls. They are the ones that spend the most of their time, money, and livelihood just to support the companies like Son Microsoft, uncle Sony, and great-grandpa Nintendo. They get hyped for upcoming games like Smash Bros., the next Halo, or even the next...Sony game. However, the hype train can be abused to bring in the "slaves" of the gaming industry.
The biggest criminal for abusing their fans have to be EA and Sega, as their current licenses like Dungeon Keeper and Most Sonic games can be abused. While Sega did get a few hits like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, the bombed Sonic with games like The Black Knight to even Sonic Lost World. While back to EA, They recently made Dungeon Kepper into a Pay-to-win game on the app-store. The heart and soul of Dungeon Keeper (and Original voice-actor) is gone...Unless you bought War for the Overworld, which I recommend to back.
While there are Let's Plays of games on Youtube, Game reviews, parodies, and so forth, most of these are out of love for the game and are more involved with the experience of the player. Sadly, The industy sees them as a block to profit, especially if the game is, in fact terrible like Garry's incident. The party then issue copyright strikes and take-downs on the channel they dislike the most, causing censorship on issues. These people are the ones the industry should apologize, as some abuse them by taking revenue as free advertizement or just purely attacking their business. While copyright law is very gray, this is static at best and NO ONE can copyright this nature, as like rain drops heard outside, it belongs to everyone!
We can only hope things go well within the industry, things seem to get worse later on the line. If The industry wants to prevent a crash, SOMEONE has to stand up like Nintendo did in the 80's. I believe that Inde-games could help bring the attention back to gaming, as games like Doom actually sparked the Shooting gen of games. The problem is the main solution for gaming is not clear enough, but at least the industry has something to look for...
UNTIL THE END OF US ALL!
Showing posts with label Software Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Software Review. Show all posts
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Monday, November 11, 2013
Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines
To be honest about myself, I have never played PC games until the later 00's with games like The Sims and the other bad games like Streets of Sim City and Sim chopper, but then I go back and forth because how the systems turn friendly and unfriendly tword the audiences, especially the bloody rivalry toward Work-full Sony and bloody lazy Microsoft, especially using Sony's game-play. Look's like someone became the corporate fat-cat. No offense meant to actually cool cats... Though they fight each other like white raciest twords the black raciest. What a bloody time of politics...
Speaking of blood and blood related issues, I just recently played though Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a Duex Ex like game with undead characters, where you play as a new-blood rookie trying to adjust of being a normal vampire...instead of a stupid one. Later, you must help the Masquerade stay masked while honing your survival skills.
I must admit I have both games and I actually prefer Bloodlines over Duex Ex because you don't have to put one eggs in one basket. You can make change your own race, make yourself into a smart ass hacker or a big ass brute -- whichever you like. However, you are stick with one image piece, so custom characters weren't revolutionized until later on in the gaming industry.
Oh, right: before playing the game, you must get the "unofficial" official patch because the game is actually badly unfinished. You can blame action-vision, as they rushed the project out the door and even closed the developer company that developed the game. We can tell that they where too focused on modern military shooters than just fun, creative gameplay.
There's a reason the company is in trouble...but not as much as E.A. Luckily, they formed a new company and make THE Fallout series. here's the real kicker: How come they didn't make a werewolf spin-off? They have different breeds as well as their blood-rival were-wolfs which have their own colorful back-stories.
But moving on, while the game plays like Duex Ex, you can preform Blood Magick which drains your blood that is required to living. Then you have to get more blood from humans or just go down to the rat-buffet in the sewers, which is much safer in some scenarios for couple of plot-points in the game.
However, that leads to an odd difficulty curve within the boss fights, as if you are not prepared, you tend to either die or use Mega-Man like exploits to kill the boss. And there are A LOT of bosses, so come prepare. Thankfully, there's a magick trick where you use your blood as a boomerang to hit your target and, sometimes steal some blood from them. As much as Link uses them to steal hearts in the Zelda series. God, I hope Nintendo doesn't make him a vampire; They already made him a werewolf.
A smart move, even though it can be a issue for speed-runners, is they made the missions linear so to prevent sequence breaking for people who want to know details about the quest. Some missions are ok, but when you know all the back-story and can predict who and what, then things can get somewhat dull.
Another issue is the money system, as they are dated and, even with good bartering, has little pay-back. you can often sell the "evil" human's weapons, but you cannot stack weapons like in the fallout series, where you can carry a huge stack of weapons and sell. I know this game was made when the better-designed interface in gaming where starting to appear, but sometimes you just have to grab them all. (tm)
The last issue is the endings. Yes, there is more than one ending, but some are just a different rendition of the first one. While, yes, the main-ending makes you feel like a total bad ass, the others felt like they where rushed in the last minute. If you guys want the best ending, the only hint I can give you is do NOT trust anyone, some of the fractions aren't even truly trustworthy. While there is one or two ending that is at least different, it dose feel like it's sequel bait.
In the end, Bloodlines is the game that help those disappointed in Duex Ex: Invisible Wars and help remind people how most RPG should be. Those who like Duex Ex and want a good game with a Halloween-type setting, this is a game for you. However, this game is dark and not recommended to squeamish people who have the phobia to blood. Seems I have more scaring to do
...Mwahahhaha!~
Speaking of blood and blood related issues, I just recently played though Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a Duex Ex like game with undead characters, where you play as a new-blood rookie trying to adjust of being a normal vampire...instead of a stupid one. Later, you must help the Masquerade stay masked while honing your survival skills.
I must admit I have both games and I actually prefer Bloodlines over Duex Ex because you don't have to put one eggs in one basket. You can make change your own race, make yourself into a smart ass hacker or a big ass brute -- whichever you like. However, you are stick with one image piece, so custom characters weren't revolutionized until later on in the gaming industry.
Oh, right: before playing the game, you must get the "unofficial" official patch because the game is actually badly unfinished. You can blame action-vision, as they rushed the project out the door and even closed the developer company that developed the game. We can tell that they where too focused on modern military shooters than just fun, creative gameplay.
There's a reason the company is in trouble...but not as much as E.A. Luckily, they formed a new company and make THE Fallout series. here's the real kicker: How come they didn't make a werewolf spin-off? They have different breeds as well as their blood-rival were-wolfs which have their own colorful back-stories.
But moving on, while the game plays like Duex Ex, you can preform Blood Magick which drains your blood that is required to living. Then you have to get more blood from humans or just go down to the rat-buffet in the sewers, which is much safer in some scenarios for couple of plot-points in the game.
However, that leads to an odd difficulty curve within the boss fights, as if you are not prepared, you tend to either die or use Mega-Man like exploits to kill the boss. And there are A LOT of bosses, so come prepare. Thankfully, there's a magick trick where you use your blood as a boomerang to hit your target and, sometimes steal some blood from them. As much as Link uses them to steal hearts in the Zelda series. God, I hope Nintendo doesn't make him a vampire; They already made him a werewolf.
A smart move, even though it can be a issue for speed-runners, is they made the missions linear so to prevent sequence breaking for people who want to know details about the quest. Some missions are ok, but when you know all the back-story and can predict who and what, then things can get somewhat dull.
Another issue is the money system, as they are dated and, even with good bartering, has little pay-back. you can often sell the "evil" human's weapons, but you cannot stack weapons like in the fallout series, where you can carry a huge stack of weapons and sell. I know this game was made when the better-designed interface in gaming where starting to appear, but sometimes you just have to grab them all. (tm)
The last issue is the endings. Yes, there is more than one ending, but some are just a different rendition of the first one. While, yes, the main-ending makes you feel like a total bad ass, the others felt like they where rushed in the last minute. If you guys want the best ending, the only hint I can give you is do NOT trust anyone, some of the fractions aren't even truly trustworthy. While there is one or two ending that is at least different, it dose feel like it's sequel bait.
In the end, Bloodlines is the game that help those disappointed in Duex Ex: Invisible Wars and help remind people how most RPG should be. Those who like Duex Ex and want a good game with a Halloween-type setting, this is a game for you. However, this game is dark and not recommended to squeamish people who have the phobia to blood. Seems I have more scaring to do
...Mwahahhaha!~
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Phatasy Star Online 2
Don't get me wrong Sega; you are still making games, but when it comes with Sonic, not even Mario nor Super Smash Bros. can save him from his demise. Even good characters like Earthworm Jim had to die off just for new characters to show off, even though I must admit that I do miss him. The thing is if you are too focused on a mascot games to be released annually and rushed, then you can expect not making good returns for your little company. However, I know they can make money of Typing of the Dead: Over-kill, if Steam stop over-posting old games just to sell the Steam-Box.
Speaking of which... The best way Sega is making money is the Free-To-Play games, especially games like Spiral Knights. I tried but the micro-transactions for play-time is a real buzz-kill and for it to recharge normally would literately take a day unless YOU BUY for more play time. No thanks, Sega! Until you make a game that you don't have to play for power, for the most part, then I won't play any of your games...hey, whats - ?!
Then, without warning, Phantasy Star Online 2 was released as a Free-To-Play game last year. A sequel successor to a cult-hit Phantasy Star Online for multiple ports from Dreamcast, PC, and the Nintendo Gamecube. Sadly, I never played on the DreamCast servers, but I played on the GamCube servers. Dispute the occasion cheating, Frozen Screen of Deaths, and the deleation of my character data, after finding a safe haven, I had fun. If you are wanting to try the game for yoruself, the final official version is the PSO:BB private servers ran by the fans of Phantasy star.
But, wait. I don't see that game anywhere! How are you playing it? Well, truth be told, I am playing in the Japan servers of the game which also means few English players, though there are a few that understood English...or just people like me who use the unofficial translator, which are ran by Gamespy's PSO-World personal programers. Though, I cannot condone these, as constant as translator tweak programs can sometimes be frowned by outer companies -- However, some games like Dragon-Ball Z online embrace such mods, so never-flipping-mind...
But back on subject! The game plays somewhat like the Spin-off, Phatasty Star Universe, which was underwhelming to some the classic PSO-fans. However, they refined the controls with Keyboard shortcuts that are shorted by pages because now you can change your class without any cost and as well as your side-class. In summery, It's old PSO meets refined PSU, which actually works very well. Thankfully, the game is compatible with ALL types of controllers from 360 to the PS2 USB controller but you do have to juggle from that and the keyboard as well. While this can get use to, some my find that annoying at first before they could adjust. Just make you set everything up as for shortcuts and the new implemented skill-trees.
As for the story, it faces the JRPG issue that it can drag itself out as it's more focused more of an episodic anime than just a normal MMO game. It could be OK to some, but the fact that everything from new stories, new areas, and new weapons take time to come sums up to face the same issues that Phantasy Star Universe has.
Let me help you sum the story up: Dark Flaz has escaped his tomb once again, but this time, gathered himself his own army of Ex-Arks to become the evil "rangers" to try to destory the Arks as part of his revenge upon the races. Speaking of races, the DUmen are back from the portable series later in season two (...OOPS, SPOILERS) and it's rumored that the beast race might return as well, but I have a feeling they'll be different this time around. There are some more nice additions as well which you have to see for yourself.
Is this the perfect game? Not entirely, as the Free-to-play part of the game is what drags it down, as well as other shenanigans. For one, there's new stage occurrences called Emergency Codes, which are where some of your experience during your main objective of the map. The problem is that you're at mercy when multiple code: attacks or duels which can leave with some awkward times.
While you can buy things from clothes, weapons, and techs, Ten-Star Weapons can only be bought with "10* weapon pass" which you can get with point that you have to actually spend money for. Usually, Normal weapons can be found by normal or by getting booster tickets from events to help find rare items, get more experience, get boost in mesta drops, or all the above! Sadly, sometimes the rare-boost tickets aren't that effective, so use them wisely.
If you want to enjoy the game, play this with friends and start your own clan! You can gain points from Team Client Orders so you can build your team and your abilities. You can also get more experience from Client Orders that you can send your assistant, known as machine partner, to run a few of these errand for you. However, they cannot do ALL the client orders as some do require your attention or they can only be done by players only.
Besides all this, I recommend trying this game. Bring your friends over, have them try it, play together, but beware of the spammers, prevs, morons, and fools by clicking on them and adding them to the blacklist system. Play this game as you would with Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon: play for at least one to two hours, assign Client Orders to your partner, then take a break to check on your town to discover your favorite character moved out and left with another man. There's one new tail for the bar-keeper!
...
Oh, before I forget: please help by fighting for this game to come to the west! By fighting for games like these, we show to foreign developers that we are interested in games like these! We managed to get Earthbound on the Nintendo Wii U's Virtual Counsel, so why not this game as well?!
Thanks....
Speaking of which... The best way Sega is making money is the Free-To-Play games, especially games like Spiral Knights. I tried but the micro-transactions for play-time is a real buzz-kill and for it to recharge normally would literately take a day unless YOU BUY for more play time. No thanks, Sega! Until you make a game that you don't have to play for power, for the most part, then I won't play any of your games...hey, whats - ?!
Then, without warning, Phantasy Star Online 2 was released as a Free-To-Play game last year. A sequel successor to a cult-hit Phantasy Star Online for multiple ports from Dreamcast, PC, and the Nintendo Gamecube. Sadly, I never played on the DreamCast servers, but I played on the GamCube servers. Dispute the occasion cheating, Frozen Screen of Deaths, and the deleation of my character data, after finding a safe haven, I had fun. If you are wanting to try the game for yoruself, the final official version is the PSO:BB private servers ran by the fans of Phantasy star.
But, wait. I don't see that game anywhere! How are you playing it? Well, truth be told, I am playing in the Japan servers of the game which also means few English players, though there are a few that understood English...or just people like me who use the unofficial translator, which are ran by Gamespy's PSO-World personal programers. Though, I cannot condone these, as constant as translator tweak programs can sometimes be frowned by outer companies -- However, some games like Dragon-Ball Z online embrace such mods, so never-flipping-mind...
But back on subject! The game plays somewhat like the Spin-off, Phatasty Star Universe, which was underwhelming to some the classic PSO-fans. However, they refined the controls with Keyboard shortcuts that are shorted by pages because now you can change your class without any cost and as well as your side-class. In summery, It's old PSO meets refined PSU, which actually works very well. Thankfully, the game is compatible with ALL types of controllers from 360 to the PS2 USB controller but you do have to juggle from that and the keyboard as well. While this can get use to, some my find that annoying at first before they could adjust. Just make you set everything up as for shortcuts and the new implemented skill-trees.
As for the story, it faces the JRPG issue that it can drag itself out as it's more focused more of an episodic anime than just a normal MMO game. It could be OK to some, but the fact that everything from new stories, new areas, and new weapons take time to come sums up to face the same issues that Phantasy Star Universe has.
Let me help you sum the story up: Dark Flaz has escaped his tomb once again, but this time, gathered himself his own army of Ex-Arks to become the evil "rangers" to try to destory the Arks as part of his revenge upon the races. Speaking of races, the DUmen are back from the portable series later in season two (...OOPS, SPOILERS) and it's rumored that the beast race might return as well, but I have a feeling they'll be different this time around. There are some more nice additions as well which you have to see for yourself.
Is this the perfect game? Not entirely, as the Free-to-play part of the game is what drags it down, as well as other shenanigans. For one, there's new stage occurrences called Emergency Codes, which are where some of your experience during your main objective of the map. The problem is that you're at mercy when multiple code: attacks or duels which can leave with some awkward times.
While you can buy things from clothes, weapons, and techs, Ten-Star Weapons can only be bought with "10* weapon pass" which you can get with point that you have to actually spend money for. Usually, Normal weapons can be found by normal or by getting booster tickets from events to help find rare items, get more experience, get boost in mesta drops, or all the above! Sadly, sometimes the rare-boost tickets aren't that effective, so use them wisely.
If you want to enjoy the game, play this with friends and start your own clan! You can gain points from Team Client Orders so you can build your team and your abilities. You can also get more experience from Client Orders that you can send your assistant, known as machine partner, to run a few of these errand for you. However, they cannot do ALL the client orders as some do require your attention or they can only be done by players only.
Besides all this, I recommend trying this game. Bring your friends over, have them try it, play together, but beware of the spammers, prevs, morons, and fools by clicking on them and adding them to the blacklist system. Play this game as you would with Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon: play for at least one to two hours, assign Client Orders to your partner, then take a break to check on your town to discover your favorite character moved out and left with another man. There's one new tail for the bar-keeper!
...
Oh, before I forget: please help by fighting for this game to come to the west! By fighting for games like these, we show to foreign developers that we are interested in games like these! We managed to get Earthbound on the Nintendo Wii U's Virtual Counsel, so why not this game as well?!
Thanks....
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