Oh crap

So i skipped ahead to God of war 2, basically just to make sure that I got two games done this month I'm just hoping that I can keep it moving...I got one thing to say about this game "THIS ISN"T A GOD OF WAR GAME" this is a really good imitation but its not a god of war game. Unless I was wrong about the first one, I think after I finish this I have to play it again. That fear of a God of war without David jaffey is starting to creep in again.
Time to get pissed at God of War 2
Also TIME TO SMOKE

The Shame of Defeat and The thrill of victory, while playing Panzer Dragoon orta.

Panzer dragoon was one of those games that I got frustrated that frustrated the shit out of me and did until I finally beat it. This is the third time I’ve came back to this game, the first couple weren’t very successful I remember having a hell of a time just getting past the first board on my first attempt at playing. On a side note brother beat this game in a week, I guess he deals with frustration better than I do because he said he “Whipped right through it” and I’ll never forgive him for that. It was the second time I played the game that I really got on a roll and break through to the end but got stuck on the boss. So basically it took three times at stopping and starting to really beat the game, as far as I can tell nothing has changed sense I played this game the first time maybe I have a little more patience for this type of old school shooter, we’ll see about that when I start playing Mega Man again.

But enough about my lack of video game skill, this game is “Old School” it feels like a Nintendo game in the way that every boss/enemy has a pattern to how they move and the way they shoot. The reason I was finally able to beat this game is because I finally realized that fact and was able to figure out his patterns then it was like bam next thing I know he’s a puddle of shape shifting goop. Another interesting thing about this game is the way that your character moves around the world, they figured out a way to make it feel like your giving directions to the dragon your riding as much as your controlling the little girl on top who shoots at the enemies. Basically you’re the center of 360 degree ratios’ and the enemies are coming at you from all sides, using the triggers on the controller to spin yourself around on that axis and to burst forward or backward to dodge enemies attacks. Along with its beautiful art style that I can only describe as vibrant colors with seizer inducing flashes of enemies, this game was stylized before they started using that word for Wii games as a substitute for shitty art.

All and all I’m really glad I stuck it out and finally beat it because I had a better sense of accomplishment from beat this game this I have for any of the other that I finished on my to way to shrinking my pile of shame. Thats two pretty much in the course of a week, I might have to change shuffle the order of my "pos" to make sure that I at least beat two games this month. Kotor is taking a hell of a lot longer then I thought it was going to.

TIME TO SMOKE!!

Another one done, took me forever to write it.

I have finished “Jade Empire”, and in my opinion most of the time if you want to beat a game all you have to do is play it, Jade was one of those games it wasn’t that hard in fact I just sort of walked through it. It was pretty easy once I figure out the rhythm of fighting there wasn’t a man or women in the Jade Empire that could stop me. After I completed most of the quests I was so powerful that the last boss was a piece of cake, the only weapon I really used my first sword skill and I cut him down like he was a regular enemy.

While I was playing Jade empire it struck me that its was basically an American take on Japanese role-playing fundamentals, It seemed to follow the same formula that square uses to make a rpg with a few small changes that make a huge difference in the way the game flows. The option of being evil just for the sake of being evil is huge when you look at the way games are made, not everyone wants to be the hero all the time. The role playing stereotype is that you’re the hero and are unquestionably good regardless of how many times you just barge into someone’s house and rummage through there stuff, Where as in a Bioware game you wouldn’t just rummage through there stuff if you wanted to be evil, you can kill them, steal there stuff then burn there house down. I think that’s why rpgs from Asia are not getting a lot of love as of late, the people playing them want a little variety in there games. Squares vision of the hero has become vannialified over the years and they are pretty much the same character with a new paint job every time they release a new game. In a Bioware RPG characters aren’t some emo kid or a plucky youth that has a gripe with the evil empire, they are pretty much what you make them to be. Your not forced into a boxed hero type the character is YOU, weather your saving a kitty from a tree or setting the tree on fire it breaks down to what you as this character want to do. What Asian developers haven’t realized about western gamers is that they have grown up playing there games and most of them are now adults who’s gaming tastes have changed as they grew up, most of them don’t want to play through some jerk off characters teenage angst. Maybe that’s why I find Biowares stuff more interesting now because I’m not being spoon fed the same characters over and over again. A little variety never hurt anyone, considering I’ve been playing the same game.

Bioware does abuse the dialogue tree on a regular basis there isn’t really a question of that, but the side quests and the way they are implemented and the way the quests add in little bits of story and context of the world around you through out the game. I’ve started “Knights of the old republic” a day ago and I’m seeing some of the same patterns in both games, it might be because it’s a Star wars game but “kotor” grabbed me faster then Jade did. When I started playing Jade, I couldn’t stand the side quest they seemed like a huge waste of time and a way to lengthen the game. It was like they just kept sending them at me over and over again. Now I see that Bioware replaced the grinding of old school rpgs with those side quests, instead of making you grind for four hours so that you can go fight a tough boss you progress though the game basically by just playing those added bits of the story, which is really nice because I don’t really have time to grind a lot anymore. They also as far as I know there aren’t any random encounters, which I always thought were really annoying. The side quest are really what gets you to the next level because they feed it too you in small spoonfuls of it, the exp ratio is tight too there isn’t a huge gap between levels which is why these games flow so well. I made it through Jade problem only killing 100 enemies throughout the whole game, so the focus of the game is on the story and not the next level. When is the last time a Final fantasy game wasn’t about the grind? That being said I don’t have square but there last couple weren’t good or even pretty good, they were lousy. Its time for them to take back there thrown and to take the power back, they have a dynasty of great games, too many for me to even write out here. Bioware has maybe 5 or huge games under there belt and they all seem to be good games or have good intentions with everything they make. Hopefully square can pull it together with final fantasy because with the economy the way it is any misstep could mean trouble with there new risky aqusitions.

TIME TO SMOKE!