I despise Gamestop. It seems whenever I wind up with some extra cash the magic of the “Buy Two Get One Free” Sale shows up and they get their grimy hands on another $60 of my hard earned cash. This time, I went and grabbed a few games that I thought would be fun, and one I have a long, love-hate relationship with.
The three games I picked up this weekend for some recreation were Damnation, Stoked and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, all for a total price of $59.00. Usually, I’d pick one of these and give it a good month-long playthrough, but to be honest, I’ve got some issues with these and they’re headed back to the store tomorrow while I’m running some errands. Well, two of them at least. Let’s start with the snowboards in Stoked. So I only got through the first hour of each of these, which is pretty important.
Stoked is a snowboarding game that seems like absinthefilm’s response to Shaun White’s Snowboarding, which I’m also going to give a go now after this one. Absinthefilm doesn’t let you forget that Absinthefilm did a snowboarding game about Absinthefilm’s riders doing tricks for Absinthefilm. Yeah. It’s not that they really beat you over the head with it, just that it’s everywhere. The gameplay isn’t bad, though you’ll have to learn the subtleties of diagonal versus left rather quickly. Yes, I realize I don’t mind this same system in UFC 2009, but it wasn’t a huge issue for non MMA fans to pick up. In this case, since me snowboarding is hilariously bad in real life, I was a bit lost by the mechanics though a second look reveals that the grabs are based on the location of the hand on the board. Unfortunately, having to turn and grab at the same time, often in opposite directions, gets really confusing and sort of made a barrier for me to get in. Also, so did bailing and the challenges which are pretty difficult from the get-go. Learn fast.
I did appreciate the changing conditions. I realized through a run that a challenge flag had appeared and my next time down the mountain that same day, it wasn’t there because the jump didn’t exist anymore. That was nice, but can get frustrating going for a 10/10 on each of the runs. The runs, by the way, are literally that. There’s no markers, no boundaries. I found that I had completed one run’s challenges starting on another run’s drop point. Cool, but hard when there’s six on the same side of the mountain and the challenges are all really close together.
There wasn’t anything online in the first hour, though all the times I played I was actively seeking a match or was hosting one. If it worked, it does a seamless drop-in-drop-out style of multiplayer, which is good. It just needed people to do it. There’s also a pretty active leader board community (Refreshed Weekly), but no fan sites to be found off of a Google search. Soo… it’s pretty much dead.
Replay… well, if I was a snowboarder living where there wasn’t a mountain, I’d probably get more value out of this game. I have to say that though the ideas put together here are fun, it sort of loses appeal quickly because there’s no variance in the challenges. Do this trick off this and keep going. Where’s a race? Halfpipes? I know it’s supposed to be a back country game, but I found a few natural ones that were begging for a high score run or two. Especially the mountain in Chile. That place is pretty cool.
Overall, I think that for the intended audience of the game, I.E. actual snowboarders in the off season, this game works pretty well for them, but for the rest of us, not so much. It’s value is already at 26.99, which is approximately half-life for a game, so expect it in a bargain bin soon. Also, I will note that if you’re a challenge-seeker, this is a great game to take time to master. For me, it’s not kicking my funk.
Onto Gears of Wa—Damnation… Well, the proof I have of this is that multiple people that have stopped by the room while I’ve been playing this have said “Is that Gears?” Yeah. That similar in look.
Here’s the similarities:
1.) Same post-apocalyptic grey opening sequence
2.) Enemies like to blob into the background
3.) Lotsa muscles everywhere.
Here’s the differences that occur in Damnation:
1.) There’s no cover system.
2.) There’s a vertical component to the game.
3.) Shit-tastic voice acting.
4.) Steampunk Westerns are inherently cool.
5.) There’s no cover system.
I’m not kidding. They ripped off Gears of War right down to the weapon select and even the main menu screen, but left out the best innovation in TPS in the past few years: A cover system that *works*. Instead, you get a crappy kneel tied to the B button that rarely helps, and a lot more blobbing. Seriously, it’s more like the “Hit my manly ass!” button than a real “cover my ass” button.
The vertical component would probably been cool, as it’s very Assassin’s Creed in styling, and rather fun to use mid-gunfight, but in the beginning, it doesn’t help much. It doesn’t even make sense as to why you’re going through all this jumping (Aside from the canyon setting) when you have an apparently intelligent doctor tagging along with you that has to be carrying more explosives than the two that are advertised on his back. You easily could blow through the walls with all the guns you’re carrying, but nope, gotta risk your ass jumping around.
I want to tie this next difference into the “Grey Blob” problem. The characters are sort of mixed together, just like how all of the enemies (A solid confederate grey) mix into the background (A solid confederate grey with minor tweaking). I forgot there was a native American chick running around with me because she and the doctor acted the same. Yeah. Plus, the voice acting sucks. Seriously, a line like “Blood, Glory and Bullets” had been said by the doctor in about the tone you just read that in. Deadpan. No emotion, no pop. That has to be done better.
I didn’t bother with online. No reason to—I don’t like this one, and actually put it down ten minutes into the game. Don’t bother. Seriously.
Finally, Oblivion. I love this game, and I hate it. This time around, the game’s age shows as the used disc I have, even installed to the HDD, has a few loading issues and such that cause a few headaches.
Its’ still the king of First Person RPG Games. I still want to play it, but chuck my controller out the window every time I do. Why? It’s simply because of how well it convinces you that you have a second life in Cyrodill. I carry a pair of pajamas around in my character’s inventory and even swap out of armor while in town. I have a few bad habits of hunting and “eating” at appropriate times and I check into an inn every night rather than keep travelling. (Something I’ll admit has increased my longevity in the game).
In addition, I would like to state that this game does have pretty worthy downloadable content. Shivering Isles, which I’m trading the game back in to get the similarly priced Game of the Year Edition so I can have it again, is awesome. Knights of the Nine adds in another storyline that’s a lot of fun, and the extra dungeon packs add in a lot more replay.
If you haven’t, drop the $30 on the Game of the Year edition to go play in this world. It’s a lot of fun.
I did appreciate the changing conditions. I realized through a run that a challenge flag had appeared and my next time down the mountain that same day, it wasn’t there because the jump didn’t exist anymore. That was nice, but can get frustrating going for a 10/10 on each of the runs. The runs, by the way, are literally that. There’s no markers, no boundaries. I found that I had completed one run’s challenges starting on another run’s drop point. Cool, but hard when there’s six on the same side of the mountain and the challenges are all really close together.
There wasn’t anything online in the first hour, though all the times I played I was actively seeking a match or was hosting one. If it worked, it does a seamless drop-in-drop-out style of multiplayer, which is good. It just needed people to do it. There’s also a pretty active leader board community (Refreshed Weekly), but no fan sites to be found off of a Google search. Soo… it’s pretty much dead.
Replay… well, if I was a snowboarder living where there wasn’t a mountain, I’d probably get more value out of this game. I have to say that though the ideas put together here are fun, it sort of loses appeal quickly because there’s no variance in the challenges. Do this trick off this and keep going. Where’s a race? Halfpipes? I know it’s supposed to be a back country game, but I found a few natural ones that were begging for a high score run or two. Especially the mountain in Chile. That place is pretty cool.
Overall, I think that for the intended audience of the game, I.E. actual snowboarders in the off season, this game works pretty well for them, but for the rest of us, not so much. It’s value is already at 26.99, which is approximately half-life for a game, so expect it in a bargain bin soon. Also, I will note that if you’re a challenge-seeker, this is a great game to take time to master. For me, it’s not kicking my funk.
Onto Gears of Wa—Damnation… Well, the proof I have of this is that multiple people that have stopped by the room while I’ve been playing this have said “Is that Gears?” Yeah. That similar in look.
Here’s the similarities:
1.) Same post-apocalyptic grey opening sequence
2.) Enemies like to blob into the background
3.) Lotsa muscles everywhere.
Here’s the differences that occur in Damnation:
1.) There’s no cover system.
2.) There’s a vertical component to the game.
3.) Shit-tastic voice acting.
4.) Steampunk Westerns are inherently cool.
5.) There’s no cover system.
I’m not kidding. They ripped off Gears of War right down to the weapon select and even the main menu screen, but left out the best innovation in TPS in the past few years: A cover system that *works*. Instead, you get a crappy kneel tied to the B button that rarely helps, and a lot more blobbing. Seriously, it’s more like the “Hit my manly ass!” button than a real “cover my ass” button.
The vertical component would probably been cool, as it’s very Assassin’s Creed in styling, and rather fun to use mid-gunfight, but in the beginning, it doesn’t help much. It doesn’t even make sense as to why you’re going through all this jumping (Aside from the canyon setting) when you have an apparently intelligent doctor tagging along with you that has to be carrying more explosives than the two that are advertised on his back. You easily could blow through the walls with all the guns you’re carrying, but nope, gotta risk your ass jumping around.
I want to tie this next difference into the “Grey Blob” problem. The characters are sort of mixed together, just like how all of the enemies (A solid confederate grey) mix into the background (A solid confederate grey with minor tweaking). I forgot there was a native American chick running around with me because she and the doctor acted the same. Yeah. Plus, the voice acting sucks. Seriously, a line like “Blood, Glory and Bullets” had been said by the doctor in about the tone you just read that in. Deadpan. No emotion, no pop. That has to be done better.
I didn’t bother with online. No reason to—I don’t like this one, and actually put it down ten minutes into the game. Don’t bother. Seriously.
Finally, Oblivion. I love this game, and I hate it. This time around, the game’s age shows as the used disc I have, even installed to the HDD, has a few loading issues and such that cause a few headaches.
Its’ still the king of First Person RPG Games. I still want to play it, but chuck my controller out the window every time I do. Why? It’s simply because of how well it convinces you that you have a second life in Cyrodill. I carry a pair of pajamas around in my character’s inventory and even swap out of armor while in town. I have a few bad habits of hunting and “eating” at appropriate times and I check into an inn every night rather than keep travelling. (Something I’ll admit has increased my longevity in the game).
In addition, I would like to state that this game does have pretty worthy downloadable content. Shivering Isles, which I’m trading the game back in to get the similarly priced Game of the Year Edition so I can have it again, is awesome. Knights of the Nine adds in another storyline that’s a lot of fun, and the extra dungeon packs add in a lot more replay.
If you haven’t, drop the $30 on the Game of the Year edition to go play in this world. It’s a lot of fun.
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