Today I migrated the okamiblog Archive to Brain Scrap House from the Blue Shinra Project. For future reference, these posts can be found in the “Old Stuff” section.
The first two Gaming Roundups, from 2007 and 2008 respectively, have also been transferred to Brainscraps; they can now be found, as well as the others, under Games.
Aside from possibly fixing a small problem with the site’s layout, that’s all I have for site business for awhile. The usual lengthy posts about games, games, and more games will resume shortly.
I’ve just installed and enabled the Disqus WordPress plugin here at Brainscraps, which will hopefully make commenting more convenient. It’s been tested (thanks, bitprophet) and it works, but please let me know if you run into any problems nevertheless.
There will be some other changes coming, mostly involving moving and collating old content I have written and stored on other sites to this one. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for some time now, so hopefully I can get the ball rolling on this soon.
So I decided to play Halo 2 after all. On console. If I wanted to continue with the series, I had no choice in the matter, seeing as how the PC version requires an upgrade from Windows XP, which I refuse to do.
Although I wanted to play the game, I wasn’t looking forward to wresting with the control scheme, and wrestle I did. Though I play them infrequently, I have long been accustomed to keyboard-and-mouse controls for first-person games. The Wii offers a excellent console-based alternative thanks to the Wii Remote, but the dual analog sticks that are standard for Xbox and Xbox 360 FPSes were unappealing.
In fact, they still are. Early on in Halo 2, I spent much of the time fiddling with the settings, trying to find the sweet spot that would make up for the right stick’s (or rather, the surrogate mouse’s) lack of finesse. Finally, I found an okay compromise by turning the camera sensitivity all the way down to 1 and vertical inversion on. The irony here is that, when I played Halo: Combat Evolved on PC, I had the sensitivity set at its highest level, 10, and inversion turned off! Anyway, on with the review, and please note that as usual, this covers single-player only.
Y'all know this guy.
The Xbox game Halo 2 is, in many ways, your typical sequel. At a fundamental level it offers more of the same, but also builds upon the first game’s foundation, with some decent variety in the environments, new weapons and enemies, and a slightly more complex story. Spartan 117, aka the Master Chief, is back, as is shipboard AI-turned-sidekick Cortana, and though there are a few brief glimpses of their respective personalities at work, such moments aren’t as prominent in this outing. Military caricature Sergeant Johnson is, oddly enough, back as well; unfortunately, the circumstances behind his return are glossed over in one of the earliest scenes.
Of the new characters introduced, the most prominent one is an intelligent and honorable Covenant Elite who eventually becomes playable for a significant portion of the campaign. With the human UNSC well established in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 spends less time with them and more with the Covenant, allowing the player to get to know both them and their motives a bit better. While splitting between the points of view of Master Chief and this Elite sometimes led to haphazard storytelling, I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the UNSC’s enemies.
The story, by the way, is still sci-fi cotton candy, even with the obvious effort to give gravitas to the Covenant’s quest. As in the first game, there are well-placed touches of humor here and there, especially early on, and the game upholds its predecessor’s tradition of general lightweightedness—one character in particular does so to a fault. On a similar note, though we get to see much more this time through a Covenant point of view, they still lack some of the depth of certain other popular sci-fi aliens. Also lacking is the emptiness that the first Halo displayed every so often, not to mention the tension which came about thanks to that game’s big plot twist. Thankfully, the environments, as before, are not at all greys and rust, and instead display varied and judicious applications of color.
Speaking of the environments, there’s a bit more diversity this time around, though those narrow corridors—which I’ve suspected are there for buffering purposes—are back in some areas. A strange bug popped up in at least two areas, one which caused semi-transparent overlays of parts of the environment to become stuck on top of my field of view; this bug was not game-breaking, but distracting and, at its worst, annoying. Vehicle sections once again appear on a regular basis, with tanks playing an especially prominent role this time around; however, as much as I like Halo 2‘s tanks, there seemed to be one too many parts devoted to driving one.
As far as other gameplay elements go, the new Covenant weapons are excellent, and it was great to be able to use the cool-looking melee-based Energy Swords this time around. For the UNSC, there wasn’t much new weapon-wise, though the submachine gun’s recoil was realistic but annoying, especially since I wasn’t fond of the controls to begin with. One of the big new features touted on the game’s back cover was dual-wielding, which could only be done with some weapons and proved cumbersome whenever I wanted to toss a grenade, but worked well in general. Two notable subtractions from the game’s features are the health meter and medipacs, but I didn’t realize they weren’t there until roughly halfway into the campaign. The battles themselves were about as balanced as they were in the first Halo (note that I played on Normal difficulty for both), and I found myself using many of the same tactics that I had before.
Speaking of battles, the worst part of the campaign was the final one. It involved taking down one particular unit and was set in an arena-style map consisting of three tiers (going from large up to small, and the middle one with holes in the floor), and a central beam of light which can shoot you upward. Combine this with a healthy amount of backup, and I found myself not only constantly lost amid the chaos, but also robbed of the satisfaction of a killing blow. The campaign concludes with a teasing cliffhanger, as if to push more insignificance onto the ending which, much like God of War 2‘s, hammers home the fact that this is the second act in a trilogy.
So where does that leave me? Ordering and waiting on a copy of Halo 3, of course! As much as Halo 2‘s final act disappointed, the game as a whole left me wanting more. Despite the fluffiness of the Halo universe as I have seen it through these two games, and despite having to put up with the clumsiness of the right analog stick, I want to spend more time with these characters and the beautiful and terrifying galaxy they live in.
Until recently, I had never played a Legend of Zelda game before. This is true. I had gone throughout my entire life never having rescued Zelda, the Triforce, and/or Hyrule from the clutches of evil. With the exception of Twilight Princess, which I had watched my husband play through much of, my familiarity with the Zelda franchise had been mainly limited to everything outside of the games, including the infamous cartoon show, some of the comics, and the characters’ cameos in the likes of the Smash Bros. series.
This changed for good when, after PAX, I got the urge to play The Legend of Zelda, and play it seriously. As I implied in an earlier post, the Omegathon bears much of the blame for this decision. In the end, though, I’m glad I made it.
The Legend of Zelda came out in the US in the mid-to-late 80s, when the Nintendo hype machine was starting to build the company up to incredible heights. Zelda and its shiny golden cartridge helped usher in a new franchise, one which is widely loved and stands apart from so many other games. Often I’ve wondered what the deal is with this series. Why is it so special? The answer is undoubtedly different for each person, but after playing through the original game, I have a new appreciation for Zelda in general.
The game opens with a simple title screen, which is followed by a brief bit of text which establishes the plot. The Triforce of Power has been stolen by Ganon, and Princess Zelda broke the Triforce of Wisdom into eight parts before being taken away herself. It is therefore up to Link, the hero, to find the scattered pieces of this latter Triforce and rescue the princess. What follows next is a list of all the items which can be found in the game, along with a note to refer to the manual for more info. Seeing as how I was playing this game via The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition for the GameCube, there wasn’t much information in the manual for this one game, and little about the items in particular. Still, I managed to figure out most of these details on my own.
My somewhat rudimentary but very useful overworld map.
Upon starting the game, I found myself in the middle of a path surrounded by green cliffs. A cave was in one of them. Walking eastward, I happened upon a forest full of monsters. At that moment, I realized I have nothing to defend myself with. I went back to the starting area and entered the cave. An old man was there with a sword; he said, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” And thus, my adventure began in earnest.
The game’s world is surprisingly big, but only little chunks of it are seen at any given time. There is a map at the top of the screen along with other crucial information, such as my health meter and the number of bombs I have on me, but it is Atari 2600 levels of crude. After wandering around and getting lost several times during initial play sessions, I decided to dig out some graph paper and draw my own map. This helped matters immensely. I must also note that the individual dungeons have in-game maps as well, but these are generally smaller in scope and much easier to read, and thus I didn’t feel the need to map these areas myself until I was past the halfway mark.
Another aspect of the overworld that I noticed early on is its openness. For instance, it is entirely possible to walk into the “Level-5” dungeon when you’re at a “Level-1” state. There are a lot more caves besides that first one, with more people to talk to (and/or get items from); also, the enemies get progressively harder the further out one explores. I can imagine being ten years old again, playing this for the first time and being genuinely impressed by this overworld. Hell, I found myself impressed by it here in 2011.
The wide variety of items available is also impressive. Aside from expected fare like health regenerators (hearts, potions) and currency (rupees, or “rubies” in the NES manual), there are secondary weapons such as the boomerang, which comes back to you on every toss—even if you move somewhere else in the meantime. However, it took me awhile to figure out how to actually use it (hadn’t yet downloaded the original manual at that point), and even afterward, it was pretty much useless until I got the upgrade. One item, the red candle, seemed not to work as described; same goes for the meat, until I found that it serves a very specific purpose.
My note-heavy late-game dungeon maps.
Certain items are needed in order to get further in the game, and become harder and harder to find as one goes along. One of the most devilish tricks the game pulls is the location of the Red Ring, which is the best armor available. On that note, there are (comparatively speaking) tons of secrets hidden throughout the game, especially in the overworld, in that old-school, tough-as-nails 8-bit-era way. There are hints about new items and areas scattered here and there, but a couple of them are awfully vague. Here then is the purest evidence that this is a video game from an era when such things were expensive, and (in this country, at least) were usually bestowed upon children as birthday and/or holiday presents, and thus had to last them for months on end. These days, such deeply buried secrets—especially those that are needed in order to progress—have rightly fallen out of favor amongst both developers and players, but there is, admittedly, an odd sort of satisfaction when randomly discovering something you had no idea was there. Still, that did not at all outweigh the mild frustration I felt over being unable to progress (or get a specific item) at certain points.
The game’s graphics are clear and simple throughout, with a limited palette that gets the job done. The animation is what one would expect from an NES game of this vintage, as are the sound effects. The Collector’s Edition does a good job of displaying everything in HD, though screens heavy with enemies are accompanied by an annoying slowdown. As for the music, it is repetitive. There are only about five or six pieces throughout the entire game, and two of them are heard constantly (on the overworld and in the eight Triforce piece dungeons), but are thankfully catchy. It’s little wonder then that these two pieces have since gone on to become much loved classics of game music.
All told, The Legend of Zelda has stood the test of time much better than other 8-bit games, and despite its more antiquated aspects, is quite playable today. It is a very important title in the history of video games, but it took my actually playing it to realize the weight of this importance. Its genre is hard to pin down—though I think it bears the greatest resemblance to a Metroidvania—but its influence is pervasive in many games that have followed since, clones or not. For instance, with only the first Zelda taken into account, a modern game series that strikes me as being very similar to it without being an outright clone is Grand Theft Auto. The GTA series’ open worlds, loose mission structures, hidden goodies, and so on are extremely reminiscent of its fantasy-based predecessor. I’m sure if I give it more thought, I can find touches of Zelda in countless other games, whether obvious or not.
My total experience as a gamer has been enriched by playing this one title—incredible it must have been then, and still fun today—and as such, I must recommend it to anyone wanting (or needing) a deeper sense of video games’ rich history. Finally, if you do play it, the excellent walkthrough at Zelda Dungeon is a great resource, should you feel the need for one at any point. After all, it can be dangerous to go alone.
Brainscraps Mailbag: So far, I’ve heard from one of the cosplayers featured in PAX Pix 2011, Part Four; a “cosplay credits” section has been added to the end of that entry (and its crosspostings). Anyway, here’s the email from Peter Jung:
Hi, I saw that you did a piece on the cosplay of PAX with a picture of me (as Community Outreach Gordon) on the front. Just wanted to say thanks, that totally made my day. I’m thinking next year I should start putting my email on the brochures, as they were a way bigger hit than I thought they’d be. Or just make a real HEV suit already. Anyway, glad you enjoyed it, I do it for the fans. And to say in a non-aggressive way to Valve, people still want a half life game.
Thank you,
-P.
Thanks for your email, Peter! And once again, if your cosplay is featured in that post, please let me know and I will be happy to credit you.
One of my biggest regrets of PAX East 2010 was not taking very many pictures, especially of the cosplayers. Fortunately, and with the help of a few people at deviantART, I managed to find photos of many of my favorites. This time around, I did not want to repeat this mistake.
To start things out, here’s my favorite cosplay of the show, which I had teased in earlier posts: Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. Despite its simplicity (not to mention the somewhat slapdash application of the Black Mesa patch), it succeeds in two important areas: the cosplayer’s resemblance to the original character, and their creative approach. This Gordon went around PAX all weekend carrying a large display that humorously promoted Black Mesa; titled “Black Mesa Community Outreach and Hiring”, it included a special message from Dr. Breen, a list of civilian projects that involved upstanding partners such as Umbrella Corporation and Abstergo, a partially redacted hiring notice, and a section about famed curtain manufacturer Aperture Science. Overall, an inspired and funny cosplay.
Other cosplayers I saw over the weekend included Princess Zelda and Link, whom I sat next to during the marketing panel; a four-person Mortal Kombat II team consisting of Smoke, Scorpion, Reptile, and Sub-Zero; a White Mage, a Black Mage, and Aeris; two of Quote from Cave Story (the second of which is pictured here); and a Draenei from World of WarCraft.
Aside from the expected video game cosplays, there were a few distintively non-game ones. For example, over the weekend I saw The Tick and Arthur, as well as the Bimbettes from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (pictured). Crossplay, or cross-dressing cosplay, was also present at the show. There was a female Quote (the first Quote I had seen), a male Chell, and most memorably, a male Misty, shown here.
Of course, there were a few people dressed in costume who were not cosplayers, but actually on the job. Aside from the Halo: Reach characters at Halo Fest (see Part Three), there was a female Shepard at the Mass Effect 3 booth and a Plants vs. Zombies group made up of Disco Zombie and his backup dancers.
Still, even though I had managed to take many more photos this time around, there were some cosplays that I missed out on. Aside from those I’ve already shown and/or mentioned, I also saw Cirno (Touhou series); Bayonetta; an Enforcer dressed as Chun-Li; a yellow and black Heartless and other Kingdom Hearts series characters; Vanille (FFXIII); Frank West (Dead Rising) in boxers and a Servbot head; Catherine and one or two Vincents (Catherine); Princess Peach; at least a couple of Marios, another Link, and a Dark Link; and what I believe may have been an Alchemist from Torchlight. There were others besides, but I can’t think of them all right now.
Cosplay aside, there are several other, smaller things to mention about the weekend. As at PAX East, the longer lines were made more interesting by the Cookie Brigade and what entertainment the Enforcers had on hand. Across the street from the Paramount Theater (aka the “Main Theater”), a tank was parked in a vacant lot as a part of the promotion for World of Tanks. The Paramount itself is gorgeous inside, with high ceilings, fancy gilded detailing, and an overall feeling of grandeur.
We didn’t spend any time in the Queue Room this go round—save for a brief trip in and out to get the official swag bags, we didn’t have to. At this PAX, they experimented with letting people queue up wherever they wanted before the doors opened; this approach, while not perfect, worked out okay.
While in line, we would sometimes chat with people; at the Friday concert, it was with a couple who we had been in line with earlier that day. I also managed to meet up with some fellow Cheap Ass Gamers during PAX, and we all went out to dinner at a nearby Gordon Biersch on the Sunday night after the final round of the Omegathon (and a brief Child of Eden session in the Console Freeplay room), where the topics of discussion included cars and corpses, import figures, multiplayer gaming, and CAG itself.
What else is left to mention? We hit up the Gameworks across the street the night before PAX started and checked out (but didn’t play) the wide variety of arcade machines there, including some recent Japanese imports, such as a motion-activated rhythm game by Konami (not sure if it’s a Bemani game, technically) and a ride-on version of Initial D Version 3. On the first day of the show, I noticed a shrinkwrapped Jim Darkmagic portrait prominently displayed at the official PAX/Penny Arcade store. One of the stores in the Expo Hall (which I wish I could remember the name of) had these cool Portal 2 rubber keychains that I have not seen since. Another store sold anime merchandise, many of which were bootlegs. In the Tabletop areas, one of the card games really stood out from the rest: the anime-styled, maid-heavy Tanto Cuore. And, as you may have heard elsewhere, PAX scalping was taken to a whole new level with the presence of counterfeit passes.
So, in conclusion, it was an incredibly fun weekend, and we’re looking forward to doing it again next year. To all the people who made this event so awesome: thank you. Finally, if your cosplay is posted here, please let me know! I’d love to give you credit.
ETA (09/10/11): Cosplay credits! Please help me add to the list if possible.
– “Community Outreach” Gordon Freeman: Peter Jung
Running concurrently (and adjacent to) PAX Prime was Halo Fest, a tenth anniversary celebration of all things Halo, and admission was free to PAX attendees. Although I had initially intended to avoid Halo Fest since I’m still new to the franchise, my curiosity got the better of me, and we found ourselves lining up by its entrance on Sunday morning. It was a longer line than I had expected, and though there were a couple of inconsiderate smokers upwind, the wait wasn’t bad. A guy in a Halo: Reach costume walked down the line shortly before the doors opened; at first, I thought he was a cosplayer, but soon realized that his presence here was official.
Acting on a tip from a PAX East exhibitor (some of the tabletop gaming companies were in the same wing of the convention center), upon entering Halo Fest, we circled around and picked up swag bags, each with a limited-edition Warthog Mega Bloks set included. From there, a quick trip to the Halo merchandise store was made for a couple of the things in the Part Zero pic. After I got all the goodies I wanted, it was now time to take in the event itself.
There were several little areas set up, each devoted to something different. Many of them were devoted to specific multiplayer modes, and there was also a small stage set up for Halo-related panels and presentations.
Near the entrance was a wall filled with images of fan-made tenth anniversary maps made in the map editor Forge. Some of these maps were really neat; my favorite is probably the one which contains an outline portrait of Master Chief made entirely of weapons.
Around the corner from the Forge screenshots were two pieces of artwork, a Van Gogh parody painted for the annual Child’s Play auction, and a wooden mashup of Mega Man and Master Chief. The same area held a glass case with recent and upcoming Halo action figures from Square Enix Products. Two of these Play Arts Kai were red and blue Halo: Reach figures originally released as San Diego Comic Con exclusives, and available for purchase at this event as well. The other two items on display were the upcoming Halo Anniversary Play Arts Kai, one of which—the silver Spartan Mark V—is slated to be a New York Comic Con exclusive. If you’d like to see these figures in more detail, I’ve posted additional pics of them on Tsuki Board (a shot of the Deus Ex: Human Revolution Play Arts that were shown, but not sold, in the Expo Hall is also in that set).
Scattered throughout the area were several sculptures and other displays: there were 1/1 scale statues of Halo: Reach characters, Mega Bloks versions of Master Chief and robotic flake 343 Guilty Spark (which, unfortunately, I had forgotten to get a picture of), a diorama of a battle scene, a photo area where you could get a picture of yourself gunning down a Covenant Elite, and a life-size, working Warthog built by Weta. It’s pretty much impossible to make out in the picture shown here, but on the front window by the driver’s side are little silhouette stickers marking units killed; in a bit of black humor, the top row included a couple of children and an old lady pushing a walker.
There isn’t much left to say about Halo Fest. Like the costumed guy outside, others milled about in Spartan gear, posing for pictures, and there was also an information booth of sorts, at which was an old Halo 2 promotional statue. Available at this booth were Halo Fest schedules, an issue of Official Xbox Magazine with articles about the series’ anniversary, and a couple of exclusive Halo-themed 360 avatar items (a Cortana Chip and an Energy Sword), among other things. Once we were done taking in all things Halo, a brief escalator ride brought us back to PAX’s Expo Hall.
In our next and final installment: remember that awesome Gordon Freeman cosplay I mentioned in Part Zero? Well, there will be that, and more!
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