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Old 06-28-2010, 08:50 PM   #1
bigdaddychacha
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Default Cha-Cha's Recent Gaming Thoughts

So lately I've been doing a lot of gaming. Probably part of the reason I've been more limited in my activity at avelegio.net (as well as orangedefense.net) ((bad Cha-Cha!))

I haven't had enough experiences with any one game or franchise to really start a thread narrowly focused on only that thing, so I'm just kind of doing a general one about a variety of topics. Feel free to discuss any or all of them, or bring in something else if its related somehow.

I beat (out of order) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 followed by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (1) over the past month or so. Mostly enjoyable games, very innovative and realistic in some ways (if not in others; I've never been much of a fan of the type of shooting game where the damage meter is basically, "Don't get too fucked up, wait for a few seconds, and you'll be fine." It's convenient, but completely divorced from the reality that 1-3 bullets can usually take you out of the fight, permanently. Of course, how fun would a shooting game be if getting hit once or twice resulted in a game-over? Obviously, there has to be a balance.)

I've also always thought that CoD games were extremely vague on characterization and over-relied on set-piece battle scenarios. Although they invariably feature 2 to 3 main characters, often times throughout the level (unless I was fighting in a very nationalistically specific location like Japanese islands or Leningrad) I would get confused about which of the faceless protagonists I was playing as.

I enjoyed the willful controversy of the "No Russian" level in the latest offering, though. It is interesting that the option of completely skipping the level was offered without gamerscore penalties and stuff. Also, the gunship level in the first game was fascinating, although I usually deplore "vehicle-levels" encroaching on my FPS experiences.

About two weeks ago, I picked up a PSP 2005 Series, which the electronics market people weren't about to sell to me unless I got it modded. For the first time since the days of the original Nintendo GameBoy, I possess mobile gaming capability again. I wasted no time in getting GTA: Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, and Chinatown Wars. A few weeks ago, I finished GTA: Lost and Damned, finally bringing to a conclusion my involvement in the 360 Liberty City trilogy, starting with Niko Bellic and following with The Ballad of Gay Tony and the previously mentioned. I don't have 100% on any of them, but I've completed the story missions at least. At that to Vice City and San Andreas, and the total number of GTA games I've beaten is 5. (There was a point where the wonky controls in GTAIII made it so that I could not bring myself to progress. Similarly, I just gave up at some point in GTAII for the Dreamcast where I had accumulated enough heavy weapons to consistantly enjoy my impromptu altercations with the cops.

Thus far, Chinatown Wars has been the one to completely blow me away. At first, I thought the concept of returning to Vice City and the Liberty City of GTAIII on a portable system was most intriguing, but upon playing briefly, I realized that they had largely imported the original X-Box experience, warts and all. The targetting system was still wonky and the driving was still more a case of blind luck more than practiced skill. I will return to them and attempt to finish the games, but for the time being, Chinatown Wars takes the majority of my time. It is set in the Liberty City of GTA:IV, and the overhead view is a surprising return to the helicopter pursuit motif of GTAI and GTAII. I'm glad that Rockstar took the risk of stepping back away from 3D, and it has paid off with the most interesting of their handheld games, so far as I can tell.

I also recently played Army of Two, which has been staring back at me from gaming shelves for nearly two years. It was fun, although perhaps kind of short. The weapon customizaton was fun. As soon as I finished it, I ran out and also picked up Army of Two: 40th Day. I haven't been as impressed with the sequel, although there are some control improvements (I guess) and more complex (if less historically-based) environments. One thing that I liked about the original was that it wasn't scared to put your characters in real world places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Mogadishu, and (less controversially, I suppose), Miami, Florida! I've grown very tired of modern military-esque games that skirt around the issues of the realities of terrorism, the real world places that those phenomenon hail from, and the events of 9/11. The first of these games, at least, even shows the events of 9/11 happening on a TV screen in the background and has you fighting in appropriate places. The second, thus far, takes places against (as far as I can yet tell) hypothetical enemies of complete fiction for some reason attacking Shanghai. The Zoo level was pretty cool, but otherwise I have been unimpressed with the level variation.

That's what's been on my mind, and in my game system(s), lately.
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Old 06-28-2010, 09:01 PM   #2
Feibelman
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Default Re: Cha-Cha's Recent Gaming Thoughts

1 to 3 bullets didn't take me out of shit.
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Old 06-29-2010, 02:59 AM   #3
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Default Re: Cha-Cha's Recent Gaming Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Feibelman View Post
1 to 3 bullets didn't take me out of shit.
I know, right? You take 1~3 bullets, then you wait for 5 to 10 seconds so you're okay again, then you get out of cover and take massive damage killing all other hostiles in your immediate field of vision, duck down to reload (although you're fully recovered before the next round is even chambered), then you rince and repeat that same chain of events for the next 45 minutes culminating in a climactic battle against a terrorist
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Old 06-29-2010, 03:08 AM   #4
bigdaddychacha
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Default Re: Cha-Cha's Recent Gaming Thoughts

helicopter gunships (those are all the rage with terrorists these days), a couple of respawns until you figure out the pattern, and then it's "Mission Accomplished," just like in real life...I knew video games had it right all along!
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