baby art blog

silent hill : downpour

it’s quite low key – which is not the same as mediocre – ‘cept for today’s hyperactive gamers/reviewers who want nothin’ more than inane running round in circles nonstop for x hours shooting people in the head – it does however suffer glitchiness and annoying lag, tad long loading screens, chronically clunky combat, uninspired “monsters” (the sex dolls okay tho i guess) and unconvincing “aaargh!”s – nevertheless i enjoyed this quite a lot – it’s a fan-pleaser i think – atmosphere feels close to the original game – has oodles of exploration and snooping around – and puzzling puzzles but an unusually comprehensible story! (with the usual multiple endings – i got the “worst” one which is actually the best) [13hrs 10mins 15secs]

devil may cry hd collection (and 4!)

there’s been widespread fretting and anger re playstation 4′s rumored “anti-used games measures” (payment required to “unlock” pre-owned games) – but i think the only game i’ve ever bought secondhand was devil may cry 4 – and it froze half way thru which didn’t exactly thrill me – so i always buy new/unused and not bothered about the gossip myself – tho do think it’d be a nasty middle finger to their customers move by son¥ – but that certainly ain’t anything new – i predict in the near future we’ll be recharged for every time we hit the menu “new game” button on these games we (don’t) own (and can only play while being watched by big brother online) – anyway – along with the hd collection i re-bought dmc 4 new and probably cheaper than what i paid for that used copy! – hadn’t played dmc 1 to 3 before and pleasantly surprised – even with hd enhancement i had prepared myself for some crappy outdated graphics – but environments look great – especially loved dmc 1 – stupid difficult tho – screw that, i played on “easy” – yes i’m soft but it’s much more fun not dying – i’m supposed to be immortal, right? – an immortal with an effing life bar, pfft! – don’t think much of this character actually tbh – [5hrs 52mins 34secs] – dmc 2 utterly despised by fans – almost as much as dmc 5 which isn’t even out for at least another year?! (what i’ve seen of it looks really excellent but what do i know?) – at least (and likely because?) the normal setting is actually normal – i didn’t get far tho – due to a game bug (or defective controller?) the pause menu is effed – it autonomously selects and cycles thru all the menu items at high speed – trying to get it to stop at what i want a major aggravation (harder than the game itself) – tapping down to the next item set it off demonically scrolling again – wah!! – this game is jinxed for me?! – so dmc 2 unplayable garbage imho too – did persevere with it a bit and happily concur it isn’t worth playing – dmc 3 less dull but kinda over-compensating and trying too hard to be ubercool and ending up being trashy – the wacky wit is mostly just wack – but grit your teeth thru the cutscenes and the game itself is good – [10hrs 28mins 49secs] – dmc 4 i’m saving for another day now as my intended epic gaming marathon (attempt!) of playing thru all 4 games got nobbled – onimusha hd next desired!

fez

this month’s flavor-of-the-month award-winning indie art game – contrary to popular opinion it wasn’t really hyped much during it’s five year incubation period but received widespread gushing praise upon release – and some backlash animosity, made easier by some prattish remarks made by the game’s creator in the gaming community – i loved it anyway – a cute retro-graphicky 2D/3D switching puzzle platform game similar to crush on the psp – also integrates more nerdish pencil’n'paper required code deciphering – time for a myst revival?! – thankfully it can be “completed” ignoring much of that – the game has numerous blatant and subtle references to other games, mario bouncy mushrooms, zelda treasure chests, tetris, game boy etc – and plenty of other arty cleverness which kept it fun and endearing for me