(note: for now, this article is a work in progress, as it will take quite a bit of time to edit the videos, upload them to YouTube, and write the commentary. Hopefully I'll have it completed relatively soon)
If you've read my review of Fallout 3, then you know damn well that I'm a huge, huge fan of the game. However, I was very disappointed to discover that you are not allowed to continue exploring the incredible world of the Capital Wasteland after you've completed the main storyline. Luckily I saved my game at a point just before the game ends, and so I was able to postpone the ending of the game and play one of Fallout 3's two expansion packs, The Pitt.
After installing the expansion, I soon received a radio broadcast asking for assistance. After traveling to the area specified in the broadcast, I slowly crept up to the sound of gunfire (my character mainly relies on stealth, so I wanted to surprise whoever it was that I was going to own with my sniper rifle). Apparently I got there too late, though, and the guy I was supposed to save got pretty pissed that he had to take care of all the bad guys himself (crybaby):
After listening to him bitch and moan for a little while, I decided to help him out. The first task was to acquire a slave outfit to use as a disguise. I could either try to persuade a few slavers to give me an outfit, or take one by force. Being the faithful disciple of Abraham Lincoln that I am, I decided to kick everyone's ass and let the slaves go free:
Next, I met the dude with the eye patch at the train station so that we could travel to The Pitt. Once there, he flipped out and started shooting some slavers, which was pretty awesome. After the dust settled, he basically gave me the "You're on your own, we're counting on you, don't screw this up, blah blah blah" speech and cut me loose:
I eventually found my way to The Pitt itself. The plan was to dress up like a slave so that the slavers would let me in. I disliked the subtlety of this plan, so I made my own: kick everyone's ass again. It worked well at first, but then I got jumped by a bunch of candy-asses with batons. Crap:
.
After being bludgeoned into unconsciousness, I woke up to find that the nerds had taken all of my stuff. Damnit. Then some lady helped me up and told me to meet her at her house so we could discuss how I was going to kick everyone's ass again. When I got to her place, she started explaining things to me, when some tool walked in and tried to intimidate me. Being a level 20 character, there really isn't much that intimidates me in this game, so I decided to stab him with a knife I found (he shot me a couple of times, but it really only tickled). Then I jacked his fancy, spikey armor. Owned!
Apparently no one noticed that Jackson was dead (or else they didn't care - he was a bit of a dillweed), nor that I was wearing his his armor and carrying his gun, as not a single person gave me a second look when I strolled across town to start my new job as "ingot collector". Before starting, however, I had to swing by and grab an "Auto Axe" from a guy named Marco (as you'll see later, I'm glad I did). Then it was off to play errand-boy:
Shortly after stepping outside, I witnessed a touching moment between two estranged brothers who were apparently reunited at that very moment. In a heart-warming gesture of pure love, John-john reached out to his brother Billy, in an attempt to make amends and rekindle their fraternal bond. Billy (who had unfortunately been irradiated to the point of being transformed into a bloodthirsty "trog") responded by trying to bite his brother's face off. At this point I felt that a little peer mediation was necessary, so I pulled out an assault rifle that I picked up on the way out and gunned Billy's ass down. John-john thanked me by peeing himself and running away. n00b:
By the way: Here's what a steel ingot looks like, in case you're wondering (took me a while to figure out what the damn things were, but once I did, they were pretty easy to find):
This doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I managed to stealth kill a trog with that auto axe thing, and I thought it was pretty awesome:
After killing some trogs, finding some steel, and giving that steel to the asshat in the mill, I returned to the nice lady who helped me up after the mean men beat me with sticks. She explained that Ashur, the head deuchebag of The Pitt, was about to give a speech and extend an invitation for a champion to fight for his or her freedom. The nice lady then graciously volunteered me to be the lucky schmuck to fight a cave full of psychos, in order to get closer to His Deuchiness and thus set the slaves' plan for revolution in motion. Eh, whatever:
To make a long story slightly less long: I signed up to fight in the arena. I fought all three rounds and easily owned the pants off all of my opponents (although I only recorded the final battle). The last guy, Gruber, was somewhat less impressive than everyone made him out to be - let's just say I blew his head off with a Chinese rifle. 'Cause I did. Watch:
More to come...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Left 4 Dead - Surviving Survival Mode (or not so much)
With Left 4 Dead's latest update, featuring a new gameplay mode accompanied by a brand-new campaign, there's a lot of zombie-killing for me to catch up on. Although Valve has done a great job at adapting certain parts of the four original campaigns to work well with Survival Mode, the newest map "Lighthouse" is currently the most interesting, offering a completely original experience for this game.
The first round I played with a few random strangers, and although our teamwork was about as harmonious as a troop of retarded monkeys with staple guns, it was still an incredibly entertaining experience. The new map is a blast to play:
Our teamwork didn't get much better, but that didn't detract from the fun (at least as far as I was concerned). This time around, the mentally-challenged primates and I opted for more familiar territory (the Crane scene from the Dead Air campaign), hoping to improve our game a bit. We still got rocked (notice I was the last one to die, though - w00t!):
After enduring a humiliating defeat at the hands of digital zombies, I decided to call in some of my whores from One World On-Line and do things the right way (thanks to <0w0|>DarkKnight, <0w0|>PuNcH, <0w0|>Sneaky-Biscuit© and eventually <0w0|>Killemall for helping me to delay my inevitable ass-kicking). This round went much better than the last two, but we still failed to do better than Bronze. Still, it was much more fun to have some actual teamwork going on - plus, these guys are hilarious:
The first round I played with a few random strangers, and although our teamwork was about as harmonious as a troop of retarded monkeys with staple guns, it was still an incredibly entertaining experience. The new map is a blast to play:
Our teamwork didn't get much better, but that didn't detract from the fun (at least as far as I was concerned). This time around, the mentally-challenged primates and I opted for more familiar territory (the Crane scene from the Dead Air campaign), hoping to improve our game a bit. We still got rocked (notice I was the last one to die, though - w00t!):
After enduring a humiliating defeat at the hands of digital zombies, I decided to call in some of my whores from One World On-Line and do things the right way (thanks to <0w0|>DarkKnight, <0w0|>PuNcH, <0w0|>Sneaky-Biscuit© and eventually <0w0|>Killemall for helping me to delay my inevitable ass-kicking). This round went much better than the last two, but we still failed to do better than Bronze. Still, it was much more fun to have some actual teamwork going on - plus, these guys are hilarious:
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Review
Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337ness:
A wise man by the name of Ben Parker once said, “With great power comes great responsibility”. I’m pretty sure he meant to add “and 1337ness” there at the end, but it must have slipped his mind. One tends to forget little details like that when one is fictionally slain by a fictional character. If he were still fictionally alive, though, Uncle Ben would no doubt be fictionally proud of his fictional nephew in his latest video game, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows..
Web of Shadows is not only the best Spider-Man game to date, but it is also an incredibly kickass game on its own merits. Building upon many of the stronger points of previous Spider-Man titles, the similarities and superiorities of Web of Shadows to its predecessors are almost immediately apparent. Not only has every aspect of gameplay been improved, but the game is driven by a completely original storyline that offers many pleasant surprises to Marvel Comics fans. This is like a breath of fresh air after playing through three titles that are confined to the setting and plot of the Spider-Man movies.
The graphics in past Spider-Man games haven’t always been the best for their time, and unfortunately Web of Shadows is no exception. The graphics are, however, the best in any Spider-Man game yet, and are adequate for its purposes. The buildings and (some) characters have reflective surfaces and only occasionally look slightly pixelated. The in-game animations are very well-done, but the character movement in some of the cutscenes is still a little awkward and clumsy. Spider-Man is especially well-done, as are most of the boss villains and allies.
The sounds you will find in Web of Shadows are typical for any Spider-Man game, movie or cartoon, from the classic “thwip” of Spider-Man’s webshooters to the ambient sounds of Manhattan Island. The voice acting is also surprisingly good, as the game features more characters from the Marvel Universe than any other Spidey title. Most of the voice actors nail their characters, even using the appropriate accents and dialects usually associated with a particular character. Oddly, I felt Spider-Man’s voice was the most out-of-place of all – his raspy, ditsy surfer-type voice leans more toward ninja turtle than web-slinger (although it’s still a hell of a lot better than listening to Toby McGuire). Thankfully, though, the dialogue is still great, and Spider-Man delivers some pretty hilarious smartass remarks throughout the game.
The gameplay is, hands-down, the best part of Web of Shadows, and that’s really what matters most. Although similar to previous games (i.e. a free-roaming city in which random crimes occur, and the player is given the option to intervene or not), nearly every aspect of the gameplay has been improved. Web-swinging is smoother, easier, cooler, and much more fun; combat is a blast, offering a ton of moves that can be executed in various combinations; collecting hidden objects - which used to be a useless distraction and overall pain in the ass – is now not only enjoyable, but improves Spidey’s speed and stamina throughout the game.
The storyline in a nutshell is that Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis, Venom, is succumbing more and more to the will of his alien symbiotic costume, causing him to forgo his oath to protect the innocent and thus driving him to cause widespread chaos in New York City. Venom creates more and more symbiotes, spreading his malice throughout the city and infecting its citizens, causing them to transform into somewhat less-powerful clones of himself. Initially you will have only a few infected civilians to contend with, but pretty soon the city will become overrun with venomites, creating a scene much like one would find in a zombie apocalypse movie. Spider-Man and his allies must then find a way to stop Venom and rid the city of its symbiote infestation.
Adding to the depth of the usual Spider-Man gameplay, Web of Shadows allows the player to choose the “black suit path” or the “red suit path”, based on decisions made throughout the game. As Spidey himself is infected by the symbiotic spawn, choosing the black suit path will turn Spidey into a darker, angrier, and ultimately more evil character, whereas the red suit path will have the opposite affect. Regardless of the actual path that the player chooses, however, you are still allowed to switch between Spidey’s red and black suits at will throughout the majority of the game. Each suit has its own arsenal of unlockable maneuvers, giving the player access to a huge array of special moves and combos between the two suits.
Another great addition to the gameplay is Spidey’s ability to summon an ally to aid him in battle (note: to those of you who landed on this site after searching "how to summon ally", you have to hold the button down until Spider-Man's head flashes a blue color before your ally will appear). If you have chosen the red suit path more often than the black suit path, you may summon either Luke Cage, Wolverine, or Moon Knight – all of whom are pretty handy in a pinch. If you choose the black suit path, you can summon Electro, Vulture, Rhino or Black Cat. Regardless of who you summon, allies will prove to be incredibly useful when dealing with hordes of symbiotes. When you’re finished with your ally, you may dismiss them at will and either summon a different ally (after your special meter recharges) or go solo until you feel you need their help again.
Spider-Man calls on Luke Cage and Wolverine to lend a hand.
Web of Shadows is an excellent game, especially if you’re a Spider-Man fan. The graphics and sounds, while not perfect, are fairly appropriate and do not detract from the experience of playing the game one iota. The gameplay is intense and incredibly addictive, and the amount of combat moves coupled with the ability to choose a path of good or evil makes the game highly replayable. However - if you own a PS3 or Xbox360, I would recommend purchasing or renting those versions as opposed to the PC version, as the PC version has some performance issues even on higher-end systems. Either way, though, there is little chance that you won't enjoy playing this game.
Screenshots:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337ness:
A wise man by the name of Ben Parker once said, “With great power comes great responsibility”. I’m pretty sure he meant to add “and 1337ness” there at the end, but it must have slipped his mind. One tends to forget little details like that when one is fictionally slain by a fictional character. If he were still fictionally alive, though, Uncle Ben would no doubt be fictionally proud of his fictional nephew in his latest video game, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows..
Web of Shadows is not only the best Spider-Man game to date, but it is also an incredibly kickass game on its own merits. Building upon many of the stronger points of previous Spider-Man titles, the similarities and superiorities of Web of Shadows to its predecessors are almost immediately apparent. Not only has every aspect of gameplay been improved, but the game is driven by a completely original storyline that offers many pleasant surprises to Marvel Comics fans. This is like a breath of fresh air after playing through three titles that are confined to the setting and plot of the Spider-Man movies.
The graphics in past Spider-Man games haven’t always been the best for their time, and unfortunately Web of Shadows is no exception. The graphics are, however, the best in any Spider-Man game yet, and are adequate for its purposes. The buildings and (some) characters have reflective surfaces and only occasionally look slightly pixelated. The in-game animations are very well-done, but the character movement in some of the cutscenes is still a little awkward and clumsy. Spider-Man is especially well-done, as are most of the boss villains and allies.
The sounds you will find in Web of Shadows are typical for any Spider-Man game, movie or cartoon, from the classic “thwip” of Spider-Man’s webshooters to the ambient sounds of Manhattan Island. The voice acting is also surprisingly good, as the game features more characters from the Marvel Universe than any other Spidey title. Most of the voice actors nail their characters, even using the appropriate accents and dialects usually associated with a particular character. Oddly, I felt Spider-Man’s voice was the most out-of-place of all – his raspy, ditsy surfer-type voice leans more toward ninja turtle than web-slinger (although it’s still a hell of a lot better than listening to Toby McGuire). Thankfully, though, the dialogue is still great, and Spider-Man delivers some pretty hilarious smartass remarks throughout the game.
The gameplay is, hands-down, the best part of Web of Shadows, and that’s really what matters most. Although similar to previous games (i.e. a free-roaming city in which random crimes occur, and the player is given the option to intervene or not), nearly every aspect of the gameplay has been improved. Web-swinging is smoother, easier, cooler, and much more fun; combat is a blast, offering a ton of moves that can be executed in various combinations; collecting hidden objects - which used to be a useless distraction and overall pain in the ass – is now not only enjoyable, but improves Spidey’s speed and stamina throughout the game.
The storyline in a nutshell is that Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis, Venom, is succumbing more and more to the will of his alien symbiotic costume, causing him to forgo his oath to protect the innocent and thus driving him to cause widespread chaos in New York City. Venom creates more and more symbiotes, spreading his malice throughout the city and infecting its citizens, causing them to transform into somewhat less-powerful clones of himself. Initially you will have only a few infected civilians to contend with, but pretty soon the city will become overrun with venomites, creating a scene much like one would find in a zombie apocalypse movie. Spider-Man and his allies must then find a way to stop Venom and rid the city of its symbiote infestation.
Adding to the depth of the usual Spider-Man gameplay, Web of Shadows allows the player to choose the “black suit path” or the “red suit path”, based on decisions made throughout the game. As Spidey himself is infected by the symbiotic spawn, choosing the black suit path will turn Spidey into a darker, angrier, and ultimately more evil character, whereas the red suit path will have the opposite affect. Regardless of the actual path that the player chooses, however, you are still allowed to switch between Spidey’s red and black suits at will throughout the majority of the game. Each suit has its own arsenal of unlockable maneuvers, giving the player access to a huge array of special moves and combos between the two suits.
Another great addition to the gameplay is Spidey’s ability to summon an ally to aid him in battle (note: to those of you who landed on this site after searching "how to summon ally", you have to hold the button down until Spider-Man's head flashes a blue color before your ally will appear). If you have chosen the red suit path more often than the black suit path, you may summon either Luke Cage, Wolverine, or Moon Knight – all of whom are pretty handy in a pinch. If you choose the black suit path, you can summon Electro, Vulture, Rhino or Black Cat. Regardless of who you summon, allies will prove to be incredibly useful when dealing with hordes of symbiotes. When you’re finished with your ally, you may dismiss them at will and either summon a different ally (after your special meter recharges) or go solo until you feel you need their help again.
Spider-Man calls on Luke Cage and Wolverine to lend a hand.
Web of Shadows is an excellent game, especially if you’re a Spider-Man fan. The graphics and sounds, while not perfect, are fairly appropriate and do not detract from the experience of playing the game one iota. The gameplay is intense and incredibly addictive, and the amount of combat moves coupled with the ability to choose a path of good or evil makes the game highly replayable. However - if you own a PS3 or Xbox360, I would recommend purchasing or renting those versions as opposed to the PC version, as the PC version has some performance issues even on higher-end systems. Either way, though, there is little chance that you won't enjoy playing this game.
Screenshots:
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Fallout 3 Review
Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337ness:
Every once in a great while, a game comes along that absolutely rocks my world. These exceptional games offer shockingly realistic graphics, physics and sounds, and reel me in with a story that is so engaging, so immersive, I often forget that I’m playing a game. I can count on one hand the number of such games that I’ve played: MYST (the entire series, really, but especially MYST and Riven), Quake (again, most notably the first two in the series), The Thief series, Half-Life (along with Half-Life 2), and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. After playing Fallout 3, however, I’ll either need to switch hands or grow a new finger, because this game is the balls.
If you’re the kind of person that’s looking for a quick and short review of the game, then you probably don’t need to read any further than the end of this paragraph. Let me sum it up for you: Fallout 3 is incredible. The story is gripping, the graphics are breathtaking, and the gameplay is as enjoyable as it is intricate. Go buy it. Go play it.
If you want more evidence of just why this game is so awesome or why you should spend your money on it, however, you should keep reading.
Fallout 3 is a first-person shooter/role-playing game that takes place years after nuclear war has ripped apart the United States of America. As a citizen of Vault 101 (one of several nuclear fallout shelters scattered around the Washing D.C. area) your life is comparatively sheltered – at first. You have all the food and purified water you could ask for, a super-smart dad who is constantly showering you with encouragement and affirmation, and safety from the mutated abominations that now prowl the outside world, which the survivors have come to call the “Capital Wasteland”. Your biggest concern is a bully who tries to look and dress like James Dean, but in actuality comes across as a giant douche. Oh, and you are eventually given the opportunity to kick his ass, which is a plus.
Meet Butch, the bully of Vault 101. This baseball bat ought to wipe that smirk off his face...
While residing in Vault 101, your character is introduced to many of the fundamentals of Fallout 3’s gameplay, but in such a way that the momentum of the story-telling isn’t hampered. You choose your race, sex, and physical appearance at your character’s birth, you receive your first Pip-Boy (a device that acts as your menu, journal, map, inventory, stats page, and more) at age 10, and you take your G.O.A.T. (a test that will help determine what kind of player you will be and which skills you will use most often throughout the game) at age 16. All of these aspects of Fallout 3 are strikingly similar to the character setup used in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (albeit much better done), which isn’t a surprise as both games were developed by Bethesda Softworks.
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Ah, the beauty of the Capital Wasteland. Now if only I could find my pants...
The skills and perks made available to you in Fallout 3 are also very similar to those available in Oblivion. You can choose to be a stealthy player who is proficient at sneaking and picking locks; a brainy character who can hack computer terminals and provide more efficient medical care to yourself and others; a bullet-spraying, grenade-chucking commando who mows down everything in their path; or pretty much anything in-between. Also similar to its fantasy counterpart, Fallout 3 allows you to play the game as either a goody-goody, an evil-doer, or something of a neutral, based on decisions you make throughout the game. This provides for an extremely dynamic experience every time you play, as the outcomes from any given interaction could potentially take your character in several different directions.
No matter what your character looks like or how you conduct your G.O.A.T., you will eventually need to leave the Vault and brave the many dangers of the Wasteland. Up until this point, Fallout 3’s visuals are pretty decent by modern standards, although a tad boring, as the entire game thus far has taken place in the steel corridors you call home. When you first set foot in the outside world, however, the dull redundancy of the Vault fades from your memory, and your eyes are treated to the most beautiful post-apocalyptic wasteland that you’ve ever seen. The scenery is incredibly well-done, as the rich, vivid textures form a startlingly realistic landscape of decimation. Although the majority of the Capital Wasteland is made up of rolling, craggy hills, abandoned subway tunnels, and ruined buildings, these are so well-done that their aesthetic beauty keeps them from getting boring to look at. Character and object models are also superbly done, and certainly help add to the illusion that you are living in a gritty and unforgiving environment.
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The first time you step foot outside of Vault 101, your eyes are treated to catastrophic beauty.
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The Washington Monument has seen better days.
Although it might not be Fallout 3’s strongest point, the sound does add to the game’s repertoire of excellence. The ambient sounds you will encounter in the Wasteland are chillingly appropriate, whether you’re scouring the charred remains of a city or crawling through the darkness of a metro tunnel. Some of the weapon sounds can be a bit weak, but for the most part they’re very satisfying. The creature sounds are also appropriate, from buzzing bloat flies to snarling deathclaws (genetically engineered killing machines that are a pain in the ass to kill at first).
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These vicious deathclaws are just as scary as they look. Try not to pee yourself.
I’m usually pretty picky about the voice acting in a video game, especially story-driven games like this one. Graphics and gameplay are incredibly important, but the voice acting is really the vehicle that propels the story forward, and poor acting can ruin the flow of an otherwise great story. Thankfully, Fallout 3’s voice acting is, for the most part, as excellent as everything else. Like Oblivion, several characters are voiced by the same actors, but there is still enough of a variety to keep it from getting too boring. Another plus is that the voice of your character’s father is played by the great Liam Neeson, who also provided the voice for the character Aslan in the move The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Neeson is a very talented voice actor, and his performance here is no exception. He absolutely nails the role of an intelligent, caring father, and his praises for your good deeds in the game will actually make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Flashy graphics and immersive sounds are all for naught if a video game’s gameplay sucks, but Fallout 3 doesn’t have that problem. Here again you will find Fallout 3 to be incredibly similar to Oblivion - but that’s not a bad thing. Your character will start off at “level one”, leaving them relatively weak and initially incapable of many feats that need to be performed in the game. You gain experience points, or “XP”, by killing enemies and completing objectives, and after you’ve gained a certain amount, you reach the next level. Here we see a distinction in the gameplay between Oblivion and Fallout 3: In Oblivion, you advance specific skills by using them over and over (for example, your Blade skill is increased every time you attack with a sword), but in Fallout 3, you are given a number of skill points to allocate to whichever skills you like each time you level up. This is nice in that you can increase certain skills that you don’t necessarily use very often, but need extra points in to complete a certain task (for instance, there is a point in the game where you have the option of disarming a nuclear bomb, but you need an Explosives skill of 30 or more. I hadn’t used my Explosives skill at all at that point, but once I leveled up, I could allocate enough points to Explosives so that I could complete the task). The downside to this is that you really aren’t rewarded for using these skills, so there’s seldom motivation to develop any skills but the most useful ones.
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The level-up screen is easy to use, and provides an incredible level of customization for your character.
Perhaps the only thing I found to be irritating about the gameplay as the fact that your character can only reach a maximum of level 20. In Oblivion, your character can reach ridiculously high levels, allowing you to squash the toughest of foes with your little finger. In Fallout 3, unfortunately, once you’ve reached level 20, your character cannot progress any further, forcing you to hone only the skills and perks that you like best, or else start a new game to explore the other skills and perks you weren’t able to use the first time around. This was a fairly smart move for Bethesda, as it provides motivation to play the game through more than once, but personally I like attaining super-human status in an RPG, which I missed in this game.
Combat here isn’t as straightforward as most first-person shooters. At first, your character will do very little damage with whatever weapon he/she is wielding, and any projectiles you fire will be fairly inaccurate. You will get better as your character progresses and levels up, but this feature does prevent the game from being the typical run-and-gun type FPS. Another interesting feature is the incorporation of the V.A.T.S. system, a targeting system that allows you to freeze the action and target specific enemies or specific parts of an enemy’s body. The V.A.T.S. will show you the likeliness of your shot being a success, as well as the projected damage it will deal. This can be useful for lower-level players, as you are more likely to score a hit on an enemy using V.A.T.S. than if you tried on your own.
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The V.A.T.S. system lets you target specific areas on your enemy's body, allowing for greater accuracy.
Another feature that makes Fallout 3 so immersive is the sheer size of the game world. The Capital Wasteland is pretty huge (although not as massive as Oblivion’s Cyrodiil), and there are plenty of nooks and crannies for you to discover, as well as full-fledged cities. Some are downright impressive (like Rivet City, a settlement made out of a beached aircraft carrier), and some are downright creepy (as a teacher, I found the town of Little Lamplight to be the most disturbing – a city run entirely by children... I had a nightmare like that once…). The downside to the size of the game world is that there aren’t any kind of vehicles available for you make the journey a bit quicker. If you need to travel to a location across the map that you’ve never been to before, it could possibly take you a LONG time to reach. Thankfully, Fallout 3 allows the use of fast travel, as does Oblivion, which lets you instantly travel to any location that you’ve already visited.
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Welcome to Little Lamplight: Paradise for children like these; living hell for teachers like me.
I consider the game design and gameplay to be damn near flawless. That said, Fallout 3 does have some aggravating issues. Namely, Fallout3.exe crashes often, losing any unsaved progress up until that point. For me, the crashes became so frequent that they made the game unplayable. I scoured the internet in search of a remedy, and after trying everything I could find, I still didn’t find a solution. Unfortunately, I was forced to turn to a… less conventional means of fixing my problem, which I won’t get into here. Let’s just say it involves sharing things with my peers. I was disappointed to find such a glaring flaw in a game that is otherwise so incredibly awesome.
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Unfortunately, I saw this screen a lot when I first started playing Fallout 3. Hopefully Bethesda will get their heads out of their asses and fix this problem soon.
To write an exhaustive review of a game as deep and complex as Fallout 3 would take a long time, and would probably be so long that it would bore most readers. That said, I will just tell you that there is much, much more to this game than what I’ve described here – I only wanted to share the highlights in hopes of helping you make the decision on whether or not you want to purchase the game. In summation, I highly recommend Fallout 3. The game is incredibly fun, highly customizable, and the replay value makes it worth the money.
Gameplay footage:
Fallout 3's explosions are awesome:
Additional screenshots:
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Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337ness:
Every once in a great while, a game comes along that absolutely rocks my world. These exceptional games offer shockingly realistic graphics, physics and sounds, and reel me in with a story that is so engaging, so immersive, I often forget that I’m playing a game. I can count on one hand the number of such games that I’ve played: MYST (the entire series, really, but especially MYST and Riven), Quake (again, most notably the first two in the series), The Thief series, Half-Life (along with Half-Life 2), and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. After playing Fallout 3, however, I’ll either need to switch hands or grow a new finger, because this game is the balls.
If you’re the kind of person that’s looking for a quick and short review of the game, then you probably don’t need to read any further than the end of this paragraph. Let me sum it up for you: Fallout 3 is incredible. The story is gripping, the graphics are breathtaking, and the gameplay is as enjoyable as it is intricate. Go buy it. Go play it.
If you want more evidence of just why this game is so awesome or why you should spend your money on it, however, you should keep reading.
Fallout 3 is a first-person shooter/role-playing game that takes place years after nuclear war has ripped apart the United States of America. As a citizen of Vault 101 (one of several nuclear fallout shelters scattered around the Washing D.C. area) your life is comparatively sheltered – at first. You have all the food and purified water you could ask for, a super-smart dad who is constantly showering you with encouragement and affirmation, and safety from the mutated abominations that now prowl the outside world, which the survivors have come to call the “Capital Wasteland”. Your biggest concern is a bully who tries to look and dress like James Dean, but in actuality comes across as a giant douche. Oh, and you are eventually given the opportunity to kick his ass, which is a plus.
Meet Butch, the bully of Vault 101. This baseball bat ought to wipe that smirk off his face...
While residing in Vault 101, your character is introduced to many of the fundamentals of Fallout 3’s gameplay, but in such a way that the momentum of the story-telling isn’t hampered. You choose your race, sex, and physical appearance at your character’s birth, you receive your first Pip-Boy (a device that acts as your menu, journal, map, inventory, stats page, and more) at age 10, and you take your G.O.A.T. (a test that will help determine what kind of player you will be and which skills you will use most often throughout the game) at age 16. All of these aspects of Fallout 3 are strikingly similar to the character setup used in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (albeit much better done), which isn’t a surprise as both games were developed by Bethesda Softworks.
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Ah, the beauty of the Capital Wasteland. Now if only I could find my pants...
The skills and perks made available to you in Fallout 3 are also very similar to those available in Oblivion. You can choose to be a stealthy player who is proficient at sneaking and picking locks; a brainy character who can hack computer terminals and provide more efficient medical care to yourself and others; a bullet-spraying, grenade-chucking commando who mows down everything in their path; or pretty much anything in-between. Also similar to its fantasy counterpart, Fallout 3 allows you to play the game as either a goody-goody, an evil-doer, or something of a neutral, based on decisions you make throughout the game. This provides for an extremely dynamic experience every time you play, as the outcomes from any given interaction could potentially take your character in several different directions.
No matter what your character looks like or how you conduct your G.O.A.T., you will eventually need to leave the Vault and brave the many dangers of the Wasteland. Up until this point, Fallout 3’s visuals are pretty decent by modern standards, although a tad boring, as the entire game thus far has taken place in the steel corridors you call home. When you first set foot in the outside world, however, the dull redundancy of the Vault fades from your memory, and your eyes are treated to the most beautiful post-apocalyptic wasteland that you’ve ever seen. The scenery is incredibly well-done, as the rich, vivid textures form a startlingly realistic landscape of decimation. Although the majority of the Capital Wasteland is made up of rolling, craggy hills, abandoned subway tunnels, and ruined buildings, these are so well-done that their aesthetic beauty keeps them from getting boring to look at. Character and object models are also superbly done, and certainly help add to the illusion that you are living in a gritty and unforgiving environment.
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The first time you step foot outside of Vault 101, your eyes are treated to catastrophic beauty.
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The Washington Monument has seen better days.
Although it might not be Fallout 3’s strongest point, the sound does add to the game’s repertoire of excellence. The ambient sounds you will encounter in the Wasteland are chillingly appropriate, whether you’re scouring the charred remains of a city or crawling through the darkness of a metro tunnel. Some of the weapon sounds can be a bit weak, but for the most part they’re very satisfying. The creature sounds are also appropriate, from buzzing bloat flies to snarling deathclaws (genetically engineered killing machines that are a pain in the ass to kill at first).
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These vicious deathclaws are just as scary as they look. Try not to pee yourself.
I’m usually pretty picky about the voice acting in a video game, especially story-driven games like this one. Graphics and gameplay are incredibly important, but the voice acting is really the vehicle that propels the story forward, and poor acting can ruin the flow of an otherwise great story. Thankfully, Fallout 3’s voice acting is, for the most part, as excellent as everything else. Like Oblivion, several characters are voiced by the same actors, but there is still enough of a variety to keep it from getting too boring. Another plus is that the voice of your character’s father is played by the great Liam Neeson, who also provided the voice for the character Aslan in the move The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Neeson is a very talented voice actor, and his performance here is no exception. He absolutely nails the role of an intelligent, caring father, and his praises for your good deeds in the game will actually make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Flashy graphics and immersive sounds are all for naught if a video game’s gameplay sucks, but Fallout 3 doesn’t have that problem. Here again you will find Fallout 3 to be incredibly similar to Oblivion - but that’s not a bad thing. Your character will start off at “level one”, leaving them relatively weak and initially incapable of many feats that need to be performed in the game. You gain experience points, or “XP”, by killing enemies and completing objectives, and after you’ve gained a certain amount, you reach the next level. Here we see a distinction in the gameplay between Oblivion and Fallout 3: In Oblivion, you advance specific skills by using them over and over (for example, your Blade skill is increased every time you attack with a sword), but in Fallout 3, you are given a number of skill points to allocate to whichever skills you like each time you level up. This is nice in that you can increase certain skills that you don’t necessarily use very often, but need extra points in to complete a certain task (for instance, there is a point in the game where you have the option of disarming a nuclear bomb, but you need an Explosives skill of 30 or more. I hadn’t used my Explosives skill at all at that point, but once I leveled up, I could allocate enough points to Explosives so that I could complete the task). The downside to this is that you really aren’t rewarded for using these skills, so there’s seldom motivation to develop any skills but the most useful ones.
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The level-up screen is easy to use, and provides an incredible level of customization for your character.
Perhaps the only thing I found to be irritating about the gameplay as the fact that your character can only reach a maximum of level 20. In Oblivion, your character can reach ridiculously high levels, allowing you to squash the toughest of foes with your little finger. In Fallout 3, unfortunately, once you’ve reached level 20, your character cannot progress any further, forcing you to hone only the skills and perks that you like best, or else start a new game to explore the other skills and perks you weren’t able to use the first time around. This was a fairly smart move for Bethesda, as it provides motivation to play the game through more than once, but personally I like attaining super-human status in an RPG, which I missed in this game.
Combat here isn’t as straightforward as most first-person shooters. At first, your character will do very little damage with whatever weapon he/she is wielding, and any projectiles you fire will be fairly inaccurate. You will get better as your character progresses and levels up, but this feature does prevent the game from being the typical run-and-gun type FPS. Another interesting feature is the incorporation of the V.A.T.S. system, a targeting system that allows you to freeze the action and target specific enemies or specific parts of an enemy’s body. The V.A.T.S. will show you the likeliness of your shot being a success, as well as the projected damage it will deal. This can be useful for lower-level players, as you are more likely to score a hit on an enemy using V.A.T.S. than if you tried on your own.
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The V.A.T.S. system lets you target specific areas on your enemy's body, allowing for greater accuracy.
Another feature that makes Fallout 3 so immersive is the sheer size of the game world. The Capital Wasteland is pretty huge (although not as massive as Oblivion’s Cyrodiil), and there are plenty of nooks and crannies for you to discover, as well as full-fledged cities. Some are downright impressive (like Rivet City, a settlement made out of a beached aircraft carrier), and some are downright creepy (as a teacher, I found the town of Little Lamplight to be the most disturbing – a city run entirely by children... I had a nightmare like that once…). The downside to the size of the game world is that there aren’t any kind of vehicles available for you make the journey a bit quicker. If you need to travel to a location across the map that you’ve never been to before, it could possibly take you a LONG time to reach. Thankfully, Fallout 3 allows the use of fast travel, as does Oblivion, which lets you instantly travel to any location that you’ve already visited.
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Welcome to Little Lamplight: Paradise for children like these; living hell for teachers like me.
I consider the game design and gameplay to be damn near flawless. That said, Fallout 3 does have some aggravating issues. Namely, Fallout3.exe crashes often, losing any unsaved progress up until that point. For me, the crashes became so frequent that they made the game unplayable. I scoured the internet in search of a remedy, and after trying everything I could find, I still didn’t find a solution. Unfortunately, I was forced to turn to a… less conventional means of fixing my problem, which I won’t get into here. Let’s just say it involves sharing things with my peers. I was disappointed to find such a glaring flaw in a game that is otherwise so incredibly awesome.
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Unfortunately, I saw this screen a lot when I first started playing Fallout 3. Hopefully Bethesda will get their heads out of their asses and fix this problem soon.
To write an exhaustive review of a game as deep and complex as Fallout 3 would take a long time, and would probably be so long that it would bore most readers. That said, I will just tell you that there is much, much more to this game than what I’ve described here – I only wanted to share the highlights in hopes of helping you make the decision on whether or not you want to purchase the game. In summation, I highly recommend Fallout 3. The game is incredibly fun, highly customizable, and the replay value makes it worth the money.
Gameplay footage:
Fallout 3's explosions are awesome:
Additional screenshots:
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Monday, March 2, 2009
Quake Live Review
Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337nees:
As far as first-person shooters go, Quake holds the all-time title of 1337est of the 1337. The original Quake was the first game that really sucked me in and had me up at all hours of the night, blowing away digital opponents in the most realistic, engrossing 3D world that had yet been created. I also enjoyed the subsequent titles immensely, including the pure death match game Quake 3. Also sporting the finest graphics of its time, Quake 3 provides intense multiplayer gameplay at blistering speeds, and has yet to be bested by any FPS released since. If you want to play Quake 3 and not get your ass handed to you, you had better be pretty damn good. And now, with the launch of Quake Live, you no longer have an excuse not to try your luck against some of the most hard core FPS players on the planet.
The idea of Quake Live is pure genius: Web-based deathmatch that you can access from basically any computer with an internet connection. You go to the website, set up an account, download a few files, and after about 10-15 minutes with a broadband connection, you're playing Quake 3 - for free. Yes, free. As in, you pay $0.00. Air isn't even that cheap.
The graphics, weapons, characters, maps, and pretty much everything else is almost identical to Quake 3.
The game itself is just about identical to Quake 3. The graphics, which aren't exactly top notch nowadays (but were at the time), the sound, the physics, and gameplay are nearly indistinguishable. In addition to the game content, Quake Live also provides you with a preliminary match against an AI controlled character to estimate your skill at the game, which is then used to give you a list of servers in which players of the same skill congregate. This feature is a definite plus for those who've never played Quake 3, and would like to try it without getting completely annihilated by superior players.
Best Pick servers are matched to your skill. I'd recommend starting there.
Classic deathmatch gameplay, easy accessibility and a built-in, on-line community are the obvious pros to Quake Live, but there do exist some cons. First of all, the initial setup on QL can be a bit on the long-ish side. It took me the better part of 15 minutes to register and get everything set into place, and that's being generous. Once I had everything setup and I played through the qualifying round, though, it was a breeze to connect to a server and start fraggin'. After around 3 or 4 hours of blasting n00bs with rockets, I took a break and came back to this:
I was used to the queue screen that I normally got when I tried to log in to QL (which normally only takes you a minute or two), but this screen persisted for a few hours, and I'm still getting it now even as I write this review. Alas, it would appear that one aspect of Quake Live that makes it so damn 1337 is also its downfall. The fact that all game activity is routed through one website (instead of being able to directly connect to a number of independently hosted servers, like in the original Quake 3), means that if that website is down or experiencing heavy traffic, everyone's screwed. I suppose that's the price you pay for not paying a price to play... I oughta trademark that frickin' sentence.
Annoying cons aside, there really is no reason for you not to give Quake Live a try, especially if you are a deathmatch enthusiast like myself. It's free, it's easy, and it's a hell of a lot of fun (that's what she said).
Gameplay footage:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337nees:
As far as first-person shooters go, Quake holds the all-time title of 1337est of the 1337. The original Quake was the first game that really sucked me in and had me up at all hours of the night, blowing away digital opponents in the most realistic, engrossing 3D world that had yet been created. I also enjoyed the subsequent titles immensely, including the pure death match game Quake 3. Also sporting the finest graphics of its time, Quake 3 provides intense multiplayer gameplay at blistering speeds, and has yet to be bested by any FPS released since. If you want to play Quake 3 and not get your ass handed to you, you had better be pretty damn good. And now, with the launch of Quake Live, you no longer have an excuse not to try your luck against some of the most hard core FPS players on the planet.
The idea of Quake Live is pure genius: Web-based deathmatch that you can access from basically any computer with an internet connection. You go to the website, set up an account, download a few files, and after about 10-15 minutes with a broadband connection, you're playing Quake 3 - for free. Yes, free. As in, you pay $0.00. Air isn't even that cheap.
The graphics, weapons, characters, maps, and pretty much everything else is almost identical to Quake 3.
The game itself is just about identical to Quake 3. The graphics, which aren't exactly top notch nowadays (but were at the time), the sound, the physics, and gameplay are nearly indistinguishable. In addition to the game content, Quake Live also provides you with a preliminary match against an AI controlled character to estimate your skill at the game, which is then used to give you a list of servers in which players of the same skill congregate. This feature is a definite plus for those who've never played Quake 3, and would like to try it without getting completely annihilated by superior players.
Best Pick servers are matched to your skill. I'd recommend starting there.
Classic deathmatch gameplay, easy accessibility and a built-in, on-line community are the obvious pros to Quake Live, but there do exist some cons. First of all, the initial setup on QL can be a bit on the long-ish side. It took me the better part of 15 minutes to register and get everything set into place, and that's being generous. Once I had everything setup and I played through the qualifying round, though, it was a breeze to connect to a server and start fraggin'. After around 3 or 4 hours of blasting n00bs with rockets, I took a break and came back to this:
I was used to the queue screen that I normally got when I tried to log in to QL (which normally only takes you a minute or two), but this screen persisted for a few hours, and I'm still getting it now even as I write this review. Alas, it would appear that one aspect of Quake Live that makes it so damn 1337 is also its downfall. The fact that all game activity is routed through one website (instead of being able to directly connect to a number of independently hosted servers, like in the original Quake 3), means that if that website is down or experiencing heavy traffic, everyone's screwed. I suppose that's the price you pay for not paying a price to play... I oughta trademark that frickin' sentence.
Annoying cons aside, there really is no reason for you not to give Quake Live a try, especially if you are a deathmatch enthusiast like myself. It's free, it's easy, and it's a hell of a lot of fun (that's what she said).
Gameplay footage:
Friday, February 13, 2009
Desire: Man's Strength, Man's Bane
I'll take a bit of a departure from my usual writing topics to publish something I wrote in college (not that many people are going to read it anyway). As I mentioned in my review of Legendary, I am fascinated with mythology. I wrote this essay to fulfill an assignment that required us to compare and contrast myths from two or more different cultures. I hope some will at least find it interesting.
Throughout time, romance has been one of the fondest themes found in stories from various cultures. Love between a man and a woman is often the most intense of storytelling elements, and in several myths the love a man has for his woman - and the lengths to which he would go to protect and preserve her - is a powerful motivation to embark upon the most daring and dangerous of journeys. It is a grand and ancient longing for a man to fight the battle and rescue the beauty, as many myths depict the valiant hero engaging the enemy in order to rescue, defend, or avenge his beloved. It would seem as if a man could meet any outward challenge when faced with such a feat - even if meeting that challenge meant that he would have to journey into the darkest realms of the cosmos, to the land of the dead, or to the underworld.
However, just as man’s inner passions are what drive him to perform such heroic deeds, so are they often his greatest bane, as we will see in the exploration of three different myths from three different parts of the world. The Japanese story of the “primal couple”, Izanagi and his wife Izanami; the Greek story of Orpheus and his wife Eurydice; and finally, from North America, the Nez Percé story of Coyote and his wife, all tell the tale of love and loss, and of man’s desire for his woman, which can both inspire him to heroism and crush the very purpose of his quest at the same.
In the First and Second Parts of the Kojiki, the oldest of Shinto scriptures, the tragic tale of Izanagi and Izanami unfolds. Izanagi-no-Mikoto (literally translated the “Man-Who-Invites”) and Izanami-no-Mikoto (the “Female-Who-Invites”) were last of the “Seven Divine Generations” of deities. The first man-and-wife couple, Izanagi and Izanami were the creators of the islands of Japan, along with many of the Shinto deities. Although divine brother and sister, the two gods went on to create numerous other islands and deities, until Izanami gave birth to the “Fire-Burning-Swift-Male” deity, which “through giving birth to this child her august private parts were burned, and she sickened and lay down” (Kojiki “Retirement of Her Augustness”). Mortally wounded by the birth of her fire deity, Izanami dies, and Izanagi, raging and lamenting the death of his beloved wife, draws his sword and cuts the head off of the burning god.
After beheading his son, Izanagi follows his younger sister to Yomi, the underworld land of the dead, in hopes of catching her and bringing her back with him to the realm of the living. Upon finding his wife, Izanagi calls out to her, saying, “Thine Augustness, my lovely younger sister! The lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making; so come back!” (Kojiki “The Land of Hades”). Izanami, greatly desiring to return, agrees to go with her husband if he agrees not to look at her, as she answers his plea with, “Lamentable indeed that thou camest not sooner! I have eaten of the furnace of Hades. Nevertheless, as I reverence the entry here of Thine Augustness, my lovely elder brother, I wish to return. Moreover, I will discuss it particularly with the deities of Hades. Look not at me!” (Kojiki “The Land of Hades”).
As he anxiously waited for his sister to return from inside the palace of the underworld, Izanagi’s patience began to grow thin. In his impatience, he broke off a tooth from the comb that was in the left bunch of his hair and lit it as a torch. Then, using the torch as a light in the dark palace, he pursued his sister in order to hasten their departure. Upon finding his sister once again, Izanagi discovered that her flesh was rotting, maggots were swarming about her carcass, and eight evil thunder deities were dwelling in her body. Horrified, the god fled the underworld, which dishonored his now wretched spouse. Izanami sent her demons, the eight terrifying thunder deities, howling and scratching after her beloved. Izanagi evaded the demons, distracting them by turning his comb into grapes and his headdress into bamboo sprouts. Now thoroughly enraged, Izanami herself began to pursue Izanagi. The goddess-turned-demon soon caught up to her brother and the two exchanged curses (Yamato “Izanagi and Izanami”). Narrowly, Izanagi escaped his sister’s wrath, which could have been completely averted had Izanagi complied with his sister’s request, instead of giving in to his impatience and his burning desire to see his wife.
Similar to the story of Izanagi and Izanami is the Greek myth of the musician Orpheus, and his wife, Eurydice. Orpheus was a magical minstrel who charmed all who heard him, including animals, trees, rocks, and humans. His wife, Eurydice, was a young dryad or wood nymph. The couple’s tragedy begins when Eurydice meets Aristaeus, the patron deity of the hunt, in the valley of the river Peneius, near Tempe. Aristaeus makes advances towards Eurydice, much to her displeasure, so she attempts to flee his lusting grasp. In her flight, however, Eurydice steps on a venomous serpent and is bitten. Eurydice dies from the envenomation and is sent to the underworld, leaving her grieving husband behind. Orpheus, however, is not content to leave his beloved in the realm of the dead, so he travels through a portal at Aornum in Thesprotis and descends to the very realm Eurydice was cast down into (Bonnefoy 201). Orpheus descends into Tartartus - the deepest, darkest region of the universe - in much the same way that Izanagi descends into Yomi for his wife.
As Orpheus enters this dark land, he uses his beautiful voice and his magical lyre to charm the ferryman, Charon, to take him across the river Acheron. After reaching the gates to the underworld, Orpheus again uses his lyre to charm the beast Cerberus, a mighty three-headed dog who guards the entrance to Hades, lulling the monster to sleep. After passing through the gates, Orpheus and his lyre perform an even greater feat by charming the heart of Hades, the lord of the netherworld. Hades thus agrees to grant Orpheus the safe passage of his wife, but on one condition: Orpheus is not to look back at Eurydice until they are both back under the light of the sun. But, just as Izanagi could not comply with his sister’s request for him not to gaze upon her, Orpheus’ desire to see his wife overcomes him, and he glances back at her just as they reach the edge of the sunlight. Eurydice then fades into an intangible smoke and is lost forever (Graves 112). Again, a man’s passions and desires take him into the depths of hell, only to have his prize snatched out of his hand due to his inability to control those same desires.
Poor Izanagi. Poor Orpheus. One is compelled to pity them for their inconsistent practice of will power, which leads them down the throat of the underworld at one moment, and strips them of their beloved wives the next. Perhaps the wise and cunning Coyote will be more cautious and heed the warnings he is given.
Coyote’s story is found in a myth of the Nez Percé tribe of North America, called “Coyote Was Going There.” In this story, Coyote’s wife became ill and passed away, leaving Coyote very, very lonely. The famous trickster could do nothing but weep for his loss, when suddenly a death spirit came to him, saying, “Coyote, do you pine for your wife?”, to which Coyote answered, “Yes, friend, I long for her...” (Parabola 66). The spirit then offered to take Coyote to the place where his wife was, the place where the dead dwelt, but only if Coyote agreed to do everything exactly as the spirit did, and to not disregard anything the spirit commanded him to do. Coyote enthusiastically agreed, and so the two set off.
The spirit took Coyote on a wonderful journey, which, to Coyote, seemed to be largely imaginary. The spirit picked berries, admired the many horses, and entered a very long lodge, all of which were invisible to Coyote. Yet, determined to be with his wife again, Coyote mimicked the spirit perfectly and obeyed his every command. As the two sat in the lodge, which seemed like an empty prairie to Coyote, the spirit explained that Coyote’s wife was preparing food for him and that they should eat. Once again, Coyote complied, and as soon as it began to grow dark, the lodge that was previously invisible slowly started to appear around him, along with the inhabitants of the lodge. Coyote’s wife was among them (Parabola 68).
Coyote stayed at the lodge for several days, and every night he saw his wife and deceased loved-ones. One day, however, the spirit came to Coyote and ordered him to go back to his home and to take his wife along. Coyote was to travel back over five mountains for five days, and although he was allowed to take his wife with him, he faced one stipulation: just as Izanagi’s wife told him not to look at her, and even more similar to Hades’ command that Orpheus not gaze upon his wife until they had reached a certain point, Coyote was not to touch his wife until they had descended from the fifth mountain. Coyote agreed, but as he and his wife were camping on the last night of their journey, the trickster was overcome with his desire for his wife, and as he rushed over and touched her, she vanished before his eyes (68).
Because of his impatience and his inability to control the desire that drove him into the depths, Izanagi was pursued by his furious wife-turned-demon, narrowly escaping his demise and ultimately separating him from his spouse for the rest of his life. Orpheus had a strong desire for his wife as well, yet he likewise lacked the will to restrain it, and thus lost his beloved. The mythical character Coyote possessed just as much longing for his spouse as his Japanese and Greek counterparts had for theirs, but he also was unable to control it, and so he shared the fate of Izanagi and Orpheus. Desire can indeed push a man to achieve the otherwise impossible, but, as we have seen in these three stories, it can often push too hard, thus thwarting his valiant quest.
Works Cited
Bonnefoy, Yves. Greek and Egyptian Mythologies (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992).
"Coyote and the Shadow People." Parabola. Summer 1997. 66-69.
Graves, Robert. Greek Myths (New York, USA: Penguin, 1955).
Kojiki. “Retirement of Her Augustness” and “The Land of Hades” Trans. B.H. Chamberlain, 1882. 29 April 2004..
“Yamato Glossary/Characters” Izanagi and Izanami. U of California, Berkeley. 29 April 2004.
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Throughout time, romance has been one of the fondest themes found in stories from various cultures. Love between a man and a woman is often the most intense of storytelling elements, and in several myths the love a man has for his woman - and the lengths to which he would go to protect and preserve her - is a powerful motivation to embark upon the most daring and dangerous of journeys. It is a grand and ancient longing for a man to fight the battle and rescue the beauty, as many myths depict the valiant hero engaging the enemy in order to rescue, defend, or avenge his beloved. It would seem as if a man could meet any outward challenge when faced with such a feat - even if meeting that challenge meant that he would have to journey into the darkest realms of the cosmos, to the land of the dead, or to the underworld.
However, just as man’s inner passions are what drive him to perform such heroic deeds, so are they often his greatest bane, as we will see in the exploration of three different myths from three different parts of the world. The Japanese story of the “primal couple”, Izanagi and his wife Izanami; the Greek story of Orpheus and his wife Eurydice; and finally, from North America, the Nez Percé story of Coyote and his wife, all tell the tale of love and loss, and of man’s desire for his woman, which can both inspire him to heroism and crush the very purpose of his quest at the same.
In the First and Second Parts of the Kojiki, the oldest of Shinto scriptures, the tragic tale of Izanagi and Izanami unfolds. Izanagi-no-Mikoto (literally translated the “Man-Who-Invites”) and Izanami-no-Mikoto (the “Female-Who-Invites”) were last of the “Seven Divine Generations” of deities. The first man-and-wife couple, Izanagi and Izanami were the creators of the islands of Japan, along with many of the Shinto deities. Although divine brother and sister, the two gods went on to create numerous other islands and deities, until Izanami gave birth to the “Fire-Burning-Swift-Male” deity, which “through giving birth to this child her august private parts were burned, and she sickened and lay down” (Kojiki “Retirement of Her Augustness”). Mortally wounded by the birth of her fire deity, Izanami dies, and Izanagi, raging and lamenting the death of his beloved wife, draws his sword and cuts the head off of the burning god.
After beheading his son, Izanagi follows his younger sister to Yomi, the underworld land of the dead, in hopes of catching her and bringing her back with him to the realm of the living. Upon finding his wife, Izanagi calls out to her, saying, “Thine Augustness, my lovely younger sister! The lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making; so come back!” (Kojiki “The Land of Hades”). Izanami, greatly desiring to return, agrees to go with her husband if he agrees not to look at her, as she answers his plea with, “Lamentable indeed that thou camest not sooner! I have eaten of the furnace of Hades. Nevertheless, as I reverence the entry here of Thine Augustness, my lovely elder brother, I wish to return. Moreover, I will discuss it particularly with the deities of Hades. Look not at me!” (Kojiki “The Land of Hades”).
As he anxiously waited for his sister to return from inside the palace of the underworld, Izanagi’s patience began to grow thin. In his impatience, he broke off a tooth from the comb that was in the left bunch of his hair and lit it as a torch. Then, using the torch as a light in the dark palace, he pursued his sister in order to hasten their departure. Upon finding his sister once again, Izanagi discovered that her flesh was rotting, maggots were swarming about her carcass, and eight evil thunder deities were dwelling in her body. Horrified, the god fled the underworld, which dishonored his now wretched spouse. Izanami sent her demons, the eight terrifying thunder deities, howling and scratching after her beloved. Izanagi evaded the demons, distracting them by turning his comb into grapes and his headdress into bamboo sprouts. Now thoroughly enraged, Izanami herself began to pursue Izanagi. The goddess-turned-demon soon caught up to her brother and the two exchanged curses (Yamato “Izanagi and Izanami”). Narrowly, Izanagi escaped his sister’s wrath, which could have been completely averted had Izanagi complied with his sister’s request, instead of giving in to his impatience and his burning desire to see his wife.
Similar to the story of Izanagi and Izanami is the Greek myth of the musician Orpheus, and his wife, Eurydice. Orpheus was a magical minstrel who charmed all who heard him, including animals, trees, rocks, and humans. His wife, Eurydice, was a young dryad or wood nymph. The couple’s tragedy begins when Eurydice meets Aristaeus, the patron deity of the hunt, in the valley of the river Peneius, near Tempe. Aristaeus makes advances towards Eurydice, much to her displeasure, so she attempts to flee his lusting grasp. In her flight, however, Eurydice steps on a venomous serpent and is bitten. Eurydice dies from the envenomation and is sent to the underworld, leaving her grieving husband behind. Orpheus, however, is not content to leave his beloved in the realm of the dead, so he travels through a portal at Aornum in Thesprotis and descends to the very realm Eurydice was cast down into (Bonnefoy 201). Orpheus descends into Tartartus - the deepest, darkest region of the universe - in much the same way that Izanagi descends into Yomi for his wife.
As Orpheus enters this dark land, he uses his beautiful voice and his magical lyre to charm the ferryman, Charon, to take him across the river Acheron. After reaching the gates to the underworld, Orpheus again uses his lyre to charm the beast Cerberus, a mighty three-headed dog who guards the entrance to Hades, lulling the monster to sleep. After passing through the gates, Orpheus and his lyre perform an even greater feat by charming the heart of Hades, the lord of the netherworld. Hades thus agrees to grant Orpheus the safe passage of his wife, but on one condition: Orpheus is not to look back at Eurydice until they are both back under the light of the sun. But, just as Izanagi could not comply with his sister’s request for him not to gaze upon her, Orpheus’ desire to see his wife overcomes him, and he glances back at her just as they reach the edge of the sunlight. Eurydice then fades into an intangible smoke and is lost forever (Graves 112). Again, a man’s passions and desires take him into the depths of hell, only to have his prize snatched out of his hand due to his inability to control those same desires.
Poor Izanagi. Poor Orpheus. One is compelled to pity them for their inconsistent practice of will power, which leads them down the throat of the underworld at one moment, and strips them of their beloved wives the next. Perhaps the wise and cunning Coyote will be more cautious and heed the warnings he is given.
Coyote’s story is found in a myth of the Nez Percé tribe of North America, called “Coyote Was Going There.” In this story, Coyote’s wife became ill and passed away, leaving Coyote very, very lonely. The famous trickster could do nothing but weep for his loss, when suddenly a death spirit came to him, saying, “Coyote, do you pine for your wife?”, to which Coyote answered, “Yes, friend, I long for her...” (Parabola 66). The spirit then offered to take Coyote to the place where his wife was, the place where the dead dwelt, but only if Coyote agreed to do everything exactly as the spirit did, and to not disregard anything the spirit commanded him to do. Coyote enthusiastically agreed, and so the two set off.
The spirit took Coyote on a wonderful journey, which, to Coyote, seemed to be largely imaginary. The spirit picked berries, admired the many horses, and entered a very long lodge, all of which were invisible to Coyote. Yet, determined to be with his wife again, Coyote mimicked the spirit perfectly and obeyed his every command. As the two sat in the lodge, which seemed like an empty prairie to Coyote, the spirit explained that Coyote’s wife was preparing food for him and that they should eat. Once again, Coyote complied, and as soon as it began to grow dark, the lodge that was previously invisible slowly started to appear around him, along with the inhabitants of the lodge. Coyote’s wife was among them (Parabola 68).
Coyote stayed at the lodge for several days, and every night he saw his wife and deceased loved-ones. One day, however, the spirit came to Coyote and ordered him to go back to his home and to take his wife along. Coyote was to travel back over five mountains for five days, and although he was allowed to take his wife with him, he faced one stipulation: just as Izanagi’s wife told him not to look at her, and even more similar to Hades’ command that Orpheus not gaze upon his wife until they had reached a certain point, Coyote was not to touch his wife until they had descended from the fifth mountain. Coyote agreed, but as he and his wife were camping on the last night of their journey, the trickster was overcome with his desire for his wife, and as he rushed over and touched her, she vanished before his eyes (68).
Because of his impatience and his inability to control the desire that drove him into the depths, Izanagi was pursued by his furious wife-turned-demon, narrowly escaping his demise and ultimately separating him from his spouse for the rest of his life. Orpheus had a strong desire for his wife as well, yet he likewise lacked the will to restrain it, and thus lost his beloved. The mythical character Coyote possessed just as much longing for his spouse as his Japanese and Greek counterparts had for theirs, but he also was unable to control it, and so he shared the fate of Izanagi and Orpheus. Desire can indeed push a man to achieve the otherwise impossible, but, as we have seen in these three stories, it can often push too hard, thus thwarting his valiant quest.
Works Cited
Bonnefoy, Yves. Greek and Egyptian Mythologies (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992).
"Coyote and the Shadow People." Parabola. Summer 1997. 66-69.
Graves, Robert. Greek Myths (New York, USA: Penguin, 1955).
Kojiki. “Retirement of Her Augustness” and “The Land of Hades” Trans. B.H. Chamberlain, 1882. 29 April 2004.
“Yamato Glossary/Characters” Izanagi and Izanami. U of California, Berkeley. 29 April 2004.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Legendary Review
Note: Most of the people who have landed on this review have done so after searching for a fix to that pesky elevator glitch towards the end of Legendary. So, to make it easier for those frantically searching for a solution to this aggravating problem, I thought I'd post the fix here, where people can find it more easily. You're welcome.
Open the PandoraEngine.ini (C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\My Games\Legendary\PandoraGame\Config-Folder) and search for
"MaxSmoothedFrameRate=300" and play around with the value. I had to change mine to 30 in order to get it to work, but some have had success with 60 or other values. Good luck.
Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337ness:
Mythology has always fascinated me - specifically mythological creatures. As a child, I practically inhaled anything to do with dragons, griffins, trolls, ogres, etc. I've probably read just about every book and seen just about every movie that features these monsters, and I continue to search for more. That said, I was very excited about the first-person shooter Legendary, by Atari, which promised epic battles with some of the fiercest creatures from various mythologies around the world.
In Legendary, you play as a thief named Jack Deckard, who is commissioned to steal the mythological artifact Pandora's Box. Mr. Deckard, however, is apparently a ginormous dumbass, and for some reason opens Pandora's Box before attempting to steal it (perhaps he lives under a rock and has never heard the idiom before, but I doubt that), unwittingly releasing a horde of savage creatures upon the planet. Fortunately, his arm is also emblazoned with "The Signet", which gives him some fairly cool mystical powers.
Deckard done a bad, bad thing.
Since he's pretty much screwed the whole of humanity, Deckard feels compelled to right his wrong (as I would) and fight the creatures, with the assistance of a secret society that is trying to find a way to put the creatures back into Pandora's Box. The plot thickens as yet another secret society (the bad guys) join the fray in an attempt to use the creatures to take over the world. The story is not what I would call deep or engrossing, and if I didn't like crappy Sci-Fi movies as much as I do, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed this game at all...
Moving along to the graphics: Legendary's visuals are not by any means top notch by today's standards, although they would have been awesome about 6 or 7 years ago. That said, they aren't terrible, and there are a few specific places in the game that look pretty damn cool. You'll get to experience a small variety of landscapes, which include the monster-infested streets of both New York City and London; an ancient, creepy castle; subways, waterways, and underground tunnels; and several indoor facilities, including the stronghold of your arch-nemesis. Most of the environments are fairly well-done, the quality slightly less impressive than BioShock.
The creatures are the main draw of the game, and you can tell this is where the developers focused most of their attention. Legendary throws a satisfying variety of monsters at you, including werewolves, minotaurs, griffins, fire drakes, and pixies to name a few. Most of the creatures not only look great, but behave as one would expect a mythological abomination to. Werewolves are tough but agile, able to scale walls and hurl objects at you; griffins slash at you from the sky and shake the ground when they land; minotaurs tear through walls and other obstacles, wielding war hammers and ramming their prey with their horns. The two boss creatures - the golem and the kraken - are simply huge, and will stomp your ass into oblivion if you're not careful. Hell, they'll stomp your ass into oblivion even if you are careful. You gotta have respect for giant monsters.
"Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look to the sky with hope!
And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake... the Kraken!"
Don't bother shooting the golem - your bullets can't harm him. He's kind of a bastard that way.
Legendary offers you a very limited variety of weapons, most of which work well enough. You start off with a hatchet, then eventually gain a pistol, shotgun, sub-machinegun, assault rifle, heavy machinegun, rocket launcher, molotov cocktails, hand grenades, and a flamethrower. Most of the weapons look pretty decent - albeit extremely generic - but only a few are really fun to use. For some reason, the developers of Legendary picked the the number of weapons you can carry as one of the very few aspects of the game they wanted to keep fairly realistic. Aside from the axe and throwable objects, you are only allowed to carry two weapons, so you'll often have to set one down to pick up another. This can be frustrating at times, as there might not be enough ammo available for your favorite weapon in certain places, so you'll have to sacrifice it for a weapon you might not enjoy as much.
Like many of its contemporaries, Legendary allows you to use iron sight aiming with most of its weapons, which is pretty cool.
The sound is as mediocre as everything else in the game, particularly the weapon sounds. The firearms sound ridiculously dull and non-threatening, which doesn't add much excitement to combat. The same is true for explosions - a detonating grenade sounds more like a water balloon popping that it does an explosion, which is pretty lame. Thankfully, most of the creature sounds are fairly appropriate, although they're nothing spectacular. The voice acting is decent for the most part, but there are a few horrible performances (mostly the male voice actors that try to pull off a British accent - and fail miserably). Overall, the audio in Legendary is just so-so.
The majority of the voice acting is okay, but whoever did the voice for this character is an obnoxious twit.
Legendary's gameplay is fairly unique, although it obviously borrows a little here and there from a few other games. The shooting is pretty straightforward, as one would imagine. After killing a creature, however, you have the ability to absorb its "animus", by using the signet on your arm. Stored animus allows you to heal yourself, perform energy attacks that knock back enemies, or interact with special objects or devices. These little perks come in handy, but animus isn't always easy to come by. Only mythological creatures will yield animus when killed (human opponents simply fall over and die), and most creatures require some sort of unique action to be taken in order to more effectively dispatch them. Werewolves, for example, must be decapitated after they are knocked down, or else they will rise again and attack, and minotaurs are especially vulnerable when their backs are facing you (which is usually accomplished by dodging a charging minotaur and then opening up on it when it passes). Most of the creatures are downright tough, and it will usually require quite a few bullets to bring them down.
Ummm... ouch?
Minotaurs carry large hammers and are friggin' hard to kill.
Overall, Legendary isn't a bad game. Its graphics, sounds, and story line are severely lacking for a game made in 2008, but regardless it is still a fun game to play (probably no more than one time through, though). I wouldn't say that it's worth the $50 price tag, so you might want to wait for it to go down in price (or borrow it from a friend who was a big enough sucker to pay full price for it). I realize that it's gotten some pretty rough reviews, and although it certainly isn't anything close to the greatest game ever made, I'm not sure it deserves such negative press. I played through the entire game once, and aside from one very annoying glitch (clipping through the elevator on the last level - the solution to which can be found here) I enjoyed it immensely. In summation: Legendary is a game I would definitely recommend, but not at the current price.
Additional screenshots:
Open the PandoraEngine.ini (C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\My Games\Legendary\PandoraGame\Config-Folder) and search for
"MaxSmoothedFrameRate=300" and play around with the value. I had to change mine to 30 in order to get it to work, but some have had success with 60 or other values. Good luck.
Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Replay Value:
1337ness:
Mythology has always fascinated me - specifically mythological creatures. As a child, I practically inhaled anything to do with dragons, griffins, trolls, ogres, etc. I've probably read just about every book and seen just about every movie that features these monsters, and I continue to search for more. That said, I was very excited about the first-person shooter Legendary, by Atari, which promised epic battles with some of the fiercest creatures from various mythologies around the world.
In Legendary, you play as a thief named Jack Deckard, who is commissioned to steal the mythological artifact Pandora's Box. Mr. Deckard, however, is apparently a ginormous dumbass, and for some reason opens Pandora's Box before attempting to steal it (perhaps he lives under a rock and has never heard the idiom before, but I doubt that), unwittingly releasing a horde of savage creatures upon the planet. Fortunately, his arm is also emblazoned with "The Signet", which gives him some fairly cool mystical powers.
Deckard done a bad, bad thing.
Since he's pretty much screwed the whole of humanity, Deckard feels compelled to right his wrong (as I would) and fight the creatures, with the assistance of a secret society that is trying to find a way to put the creatures back into Pandora's Box. The plot thickens as yet another secret society (the bad guys) join the fray in an attempt to use the creatures to take over the world. The story is not what I would call deep or engrossing, and if I didn't like crappy Sci-Fi movies as much as I do, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed this game at all...
Moving along to the graphics: Legendary's visuals are not by any means top notch by today's standards, although they would have been awesome about 6 or 7 years ago. That said, they aren't terrible, and there are a few specific places in the game that look pretty damn cool. You'll get to experience a small variety of landscapes, which include the monster-infested streets of both New York City and London; an ancient, creepy castle; subways, waterways, and underground tunnels; and several indoor facilities, including the stronghold of your arch-nemesis. Most of the environments are fairly well-done, the quality slightly less impressive than BioShock.
The creatures are the main draw of the game, and you can tell this is where the developers focused most of their attention. Legendary throws a satisfying variety of monsters at you, including werewolves, minotaurs, griffins, fire drakes, and pixies to name a few. Most of the creatures not only look great, but behave as one would expect a mythological abomination to. Werewolves are tough but agile, able to scale walls and hurl objects at you; griffins slash at you from the sky and shake the ground when they land; minotaurs tear through walls and other obstacles, wielding war hammers and ramming their prey with their horns. The two boss creatures - the golem and the kraken - are simply huge, and will stomp your ass into oblivion if you're not careful. Hell, they'll stomp your ass into oblivion even if you are careful. You gotta have respect for giant monsters.
"Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look to the sky with hope!
And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake... the Kraken!"
Don't bother shooting the golem - your bullets can't harm him. He's kind of a bastard that way.
Legendary offers you a very limited variety of weapons, most of which work well enough. You start off with a hatchet, then eventually gain a pistol, shotgun, sub-machinegun, assault rifle, heavy machinegun, rocket launcher, molotov cocktails, hand grenades, and a flamethrower. Most of the weapons look pretty decent - albeit extremely generic - but only a few are really fun to use. For some reason, the developers of Legendary picked the the number of weapons you can carry as one of the very few aspects of the game they wanted to keep fairly realistic. Aside from the axe and throwable objects, you are only allowed to carry two weapons, so you'll often have to set one down to pick up another. This can be frustrating at times, as there might not be enough ammo available for your favorite weapon in certain places, so you'll have to sacrifice it for a weapon you might not enjoy as much.
Like many of its contemporaries, Legendary allows you to use iron sight aiming with most of its weapons, which is pretty cool.
The sound is as mediocre as everything else in the game, particularly the weapon sounds. The firearms sound ridiculously dull and non-threatening, which doesn't add much excitement to combat. The same is true for explosions - a detonating grenade sounds more like a water balloon popping that it does an explosion, which is pretty lame. Thankfully, most of the creature sounds are fairly appropriate, although they're nothing spectacular. The voice acting is decent for the most part, but there are a few horrible performances (mostly the male voice actors that try to pull off a British accent - and fail miserably). Overall, the audio in Legendary is just so-so.
The majority of the voice acting is okay, but whoever did the voice for this character is an obnoxious twit.
Legendary's gameplay is fairly unique, although it obviously borrows a little here and there from a few other games. The shooting is pretty straightforward, as one would imagine. After killing a creature, however, you have the ability to absorb its "animus", by using the signet on your arm. Stored animus allows you to heal yourself, perform energy attacks that knock back enemies, or interact with special objects or devices. These little perks come in handy, but animus isn't always easy to come by. Only mythological creatures will yield animus when killed (human opponents simply fall over and die), and most creatures require some sort of unique action to be taken in order to more effectively dispatch them. Werewolves, for example, must be decapitated after they are knocked down, or else they will rise again and attack, and minotaurs are especially vulnerable when their backs are facing you (which is usually accomplished by dodging a charging minotaur and then opening up on it when it passes). Most of the creatures are downright tough, and it will usually require quite a few bullets to bring them down.
Ummm... ouch?
Minotaurs carry large hammers and are friggin' hard to kill.
Overall, Legendary isn't a bad game. Its graphics, sounds, and story line are severely lacking for a game made in 2008, but regardless it is still a fun game to play (probably no more than one time through, though). I wouldn't say that it's worth the $50 price tag, so you might want to wait for it to go down in price (or borrow it from a friend who was a big enough sucker to pay full price for it). I realize that it's gotten some pretty rough reviews, and although it certainly isn't anything close to the greatest game ever made, I'm not sure it deserves such negative press. I played through the entire game once, and aside from one very annoying glitch (clipping through the elevator on the last level - the solution to which can be found here) I enjoyed it immensely. In summation: Legendary is a game I would definitely recommend, but not at the current price.
Additional screenshots:
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