Friday, April 09, 2004
Coverage
Alright, Dan, you're right. Enough of this petty bickering about EA. I still don't think anyone who plays EA games regularly, such as myself, will ever understand Tom's argument, but I guess us arguing from such a subjective viewpoint isn't fun or informative to read. So, without further delay, I bring you a post not mentioning EA:
The UPS guy showed up at my door two days ago with a nice big box. He always says "sorry to bother you", and this time I relied "at least this time I'm wearing pants." I think we both wished I was joking. Turns out he was delivering the copy of Time Crisis 3 with the Guncon 2 I picked up online last week for $30 used. It arrived new, which was pretty bomb, and help EB score back some points with me (they've lost a ton since they started charging tax...boooo). The Guncon was kind of a hassle to hook up, but it ended up being worth the trouble since the game rules. I figured it would just plug into a controller port, but I never really considered how it has to interact with your TV in that "special" way. In the same way a sandwich interacts with my mouth when I eat it. You know. So I had to unplug my S-Video to use it which was kinda of lame, and reminded my how blah most games look without the proper wiring. It also uses a USB port, which isn't so much of a hassle, but still, an organizational hassle. So after like four months behind my TV I got it all hooked up proper style, and easily calibrated it on the TV. And as I said, the game rules. It's even better than the fucking arcade game. It's as fast-paced and visceral as ever, and being able to pause and not hold your arms straight out in front of you for twenty minutes really helps maintain sanity and tendons, respectively. The game is only three levels long, but each level is huge, and challenging as fuck. I got missle-launched in the face many a time, and not at my request. And besides being difficult at points, the levels are about ten times more inventive than any other lightgun shooter I've played. At one point I was running along the top of a train shootering guys, until the train fell half off of a recently exploded bridge. I then had to peek out looking down the fallen half of the train, shooting guys who popped out while others fell to their death. Think, um, Jurassic park when their camper slides off that muddy ledge after the T-Rexes do their thing. You know, that one part....with the angry dinosaurs...
This game, Breakdown, is one of the main reasons for me buying an X-Box. Well, one of the main reasons to buy one now. The other reasons are Halo 2, Fable, and The Stranger (Oddworld's new game), so I've got a while on those. So I'll probably pick one up soon, maybe even put my "free" Live account to good use.
I'm shocked and appalled that Naughty Dog can put together such amazing games in a year, as they appear to have done with Jak3. Wait, no, that's not right...I meant delighted! It's mind-blowing how fast a tight-knit, quality development team can work when they want to. I had my fair share of problems with Jak2, but it was totally fun and the city and characters they created were amazing. Even Tom rented it, and he never rents games. So while I'm a bit surprised to see them reusing characters and such from Jak2, it makes sense to not put such hard work to waste. And if any of the game takes place in desert wastelands, as is hinted at, it should be awesome. I've always thought that the more organic environments in platformers were always the best levels. Insomniac is also putting out a new Ratchet and Clank game this year, which I'm sure will be equally as awesome, if not better. Dammit, I should go start R&C2. It's also been hinted at that since the two development teams (ND and Insomniac) share their secrets with each other and are probably the friendliest competing companies around, that they might collaborate on a title, possibly even a PS3 launch title. If that happened, the result would probably give Mario a run for his money as the best platformer around. I mean, christ, that amount of design talent and programming skillz is scary.
And, finally, this is amazing.
The UPS guy showed up at my door two days ago with a nice big box. He always says "sorry to bother you", and this time I relied "at least this time I'm wearing pants." I think we both wished I was joking. Turns out he was delivering the copy of Time Crisis 3 with the Guncon 2 I picked up online last week for $30 used. It arrived new, which was pretty bomb, and help EB score back some points with me (they've lost a ton since they started charging tax...boooo). The Guncon was kind of a hassle to hook up, but it ended up being worth the trouble since the game rules. I figured it would just plug into a controller port, but I never really considered how it has to interact with your TV in that "special" way. In the same way a sandwich interacts with my mouth when I eat it. You know. So I had to unplug my S-Video to use it which was kinda of lame, and reminded my how blah most games look without the proper wiring. It also uses a USB port, which isn't so much of a hassle, but still, an organizational hassle. So after like four months behind my TV I got it all hooked up proper style, and easily calibrated it on the TV. And as I said, the game rules. It's even better than the fucking arcade game. It's as fast-paced and visceral as ever, and being able to pause and not hold your arms straight out in front of you for twenty minutes really helps maintain sanity and tendons, respectively. The game is only three levels long, but each level is huge, and challenging as fuck. I got missle-launched in the face many a time, and not at my request. And besides being difficult at points, the levels are about ten times more inventive than any other lightgun shooter I've played. At one point I was running along the top of a train shootering guys, until the train fell half off of a recently exploded bridge. I then had to peek out looking down the fallen half of the train, shooting guys who popped out while others fell to their death. Think, um, Jurassic park when their camper slides off that muddy ledge after the T-Rexes do their thing. You know, that one part....with the angry dinosaurs...
This game, Breakdown, is one of the main reasons for me buying an X-Box. Well, one of the main reasons to buy one now. The other reasons are Halo 2, Fable, and The Stranger (Oddworld's new game), so I've got a while on those. So I'll probably pick one up soon, maybe even put my "free" Live account to good use.
I'm shocked and appalled that Naughty Dog can put together such amazing games in a year, as they appear to have done with Jak3. Wait, no, that's not right...I meant delighted! It's mind-blowing how fast a tight-knit, quality development team can work when they want to. I had my fair share of problems with Jak2, but it was totally fun and the city and characters they created were amazing. Even Tom rented it, and he never rents games. So while I'm a bit surprised to see them reusing characters and such from Jak2, it makes sense to not put such hard work to waste. And if any of the game takes place in desert wastelands, as is hinted at, it should be awesome. I've always thought that the more organic environments in platformers were always the best levels. Insomniac is also putting out a new Ratchet and Clank game this year, which I'm sure will be equally as awesome, if not better. Dammit, I should go start R&C2. It's also been hinted at that since the two development teams (ND and Insomniac) share their secrets with each other and are probably the friendliest competing companies around, that they might collaborate on a title, possibly even a PS3 launch title. If that happened, the result would probably give Mario a run for his money as the best platformer around. I mean, christ, that amount of design talent and programming skillz is scary.
And, finally, this is amazing.
// posted by Nick @ 1:33 PM 
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