How Killzone Multiplayer should have been
By now, regular readers will know that I don’t like Killzone 2 and the fact that the biggest disappointment lies within it’s unbalanced multiplayer. Truth is, once you unlock all your classes, you won’t feel completely rewarded. For example, I felt he same amount of frustration that I did when I unlocked the medic as I did when I unlocked the Saboteur as opposed to when I finally reached the maximum level in World of Warcraft. When that happens, you feel like you accomplished something and that now you’re ready to take on the tougher challenges.
Well, in Killzone 2, you still have to prepare to get killed by basic soldiers because your abilities will still match that of a soldier with the exception that you have one or two new abilities but you won’t have any real benefit. Sure … you can customize your classes to an extent, but you’re still at the same disadvantage as you were as when you first started.
That’s why, in my opinion – Killzone 2′s multiplayer failed not including the fact that the game mechanics are unfair. But I was thinking awhile back that if the game took a page out of Resistance 2′s book, then the outcome for Killzone 2′s multiplayer may have been different.
First Impressions: Street Fighter 4
So, clearly not learning my lesson from Killzone 2, I picked up Street Fighter 4 last night. However, the mentality behind it involved the fact that I had birthday money and if I put it in the bank it would go to bills. So when I went to Wal-Mart, I picked up Bioshock and Street Fighter 4.
Outside of the disappointment that was SSF2THDR, Street Fighter 4 was the first fighter that I picked up for myself. All the other ones were for my wife. There was something that I liked about Street Fighter 4 and I wasn’t sure what. Originally it was going to be a rental, but I figured that this was my birthday money, so I’d buy it on a game that I technically wanted.
And while Street Fighter 4 may not be my renaissance of gaming, it does show promise.
Publishers, stop whining about PSN fees
Oh, didn’t you hear? The PSN apparently charges game companies 16 cents for every gigabyte of download. This means, according to my calculations calculator, that if 1,000,000 people download something from a specific publisher … let’s say the GTA4 expansion pack, then Rock Star has to pay $160,000 to Sony for hosting. Now, let’s say Rock Star charges $30 for their content and 1,000,000 buy it. That’s a profit of $30,000,000.
Take that number minus Sony’s fees and what do you have leftover? Around $29,840,000. And, I’m no game publisher, but I doubt production costs for addon content cost anywhere near $29 million. So … why are publisher’s whining about how it’s unfair and costly to do?
Because they’re becoming more and more like scam artists.
Video Game endings suck these days.
If there’s anything I’m an advocate for … it’s about being rewarded for your work … Your hard work needs to be acknowledged. Whether it be by respecting your hire date and getting your raise on the right date even down to being thanked for making dinner … your work should get some form of reward. Even if it’s when you’re playing something that’s ultimately supposed to be fun. And that leads us to video games.
And honestly, with today’s technology … endings should be presented in a grand and epic manner. You want a nice closure to your game. And it matters even more when your games are big budget and big hype games. It’s a double-edged sword that game companies create – they make these big budget games that are supposed to be awesome but what is barely mentioned thoughout all the bragging is a nice, fulfilling ending. Companies can brag that graphics are great, sound is excellent, multiplayer is revolutionary, and all that fun stuff but when you finish the single-player you want a nice rewarding finish to what could have been a very hard game.
Ever since getting my PS3, I have only been satisfied with one or two game endings: Uncharted and Heavenly Sword. Everything else has been a pretty big letdown. And we can all thank Final Fantasy VI for that!
Review: Resident Evil 5
Why so quickly after my first impressions post? Well, I had the weekend to myself and all I did was play Resident Evil 5. There are some good things about the game and some bad things about the game. The game itself is under much criticism from all directions, apparently. The obvious one is the racism issue but then you also have people saying that the controls need to evolve and the issue that Resident Evil seems to be straying from it’s scary, puzzle-solving roots into more of an action-paced game.
So while many people review it as a great game, it still has a tendency to bog down opinions just because everyone has a gripe about the game – and it always revolves around those three topics. Still, it’s nice to see a big-name game getting criticism – because you don’t see that with Killzone 2, which definitely doesn’t have its flaws pointed out.
And again, maybe it’s because I’m recovering from that terrible game, but Resident Evil 5, in my opinion is a step in the right direction with the series and is still a blast to play.
First Impressions: Resident Evil 5
Having recovered from the bitterness I suffered thanks to Killzone 2, I went to the local Blockbuster to look for a game to rent – because, you know … buying a game without having tried it out is stupid. My choices were Saints Row 2, Street Fighter 4 or Resident Evil 5. What a choice of sequels! Considering rentals are now $8.99 I had to choose wisely – so I went with Resident Evil 5 … after all I liked the demo.
My history with Resident Evil is kind of a rocky one. Outside of the first one, I really didn’t care for the series. The controls were kind of funky and the controls made it rather difficult to kill enemies coming from all directions. The controls overall just killed the feeling for me. I had also gotten tired of the story – “zombies infesting the town” got kinda’ old … especially after the second one. Then you had tons of spinnofs and it kinda’ got out of control. Resident Evil 4 took a step away from zombies, but the controls were still really frustrating for me and killed the mood for me. So when I downloaded the demo for Resident Evil 5, I wasn’t expecting much but it was a rather delightful change in my opinion.
And now I can say that Resident Evil 5 is, in one word, awesome.
Review: Killzone 2
It’s a first folks! It’ll be a first for the internet! I will be bombarded by Killzone fanatics, FPS fanatics and PS3 fanatics telling me I have no skill in first person shooters, am gay and that they had sex with my mother. Because I am apparently the only one throughout the entire internet who thinks this. Get ready for it. Are you ready? Brace yourself … Killzone 2 sucks … bad.
If there was ever a game to use as an example of, “Rent before you buy,” this is it. I’m going say before I start the review that this review is based more on personal opinion rather than a personal viewpoint if that makes sense. I try to give a game an equal pro and con when reviewing and take my experience out of the element to hopefully give a more equal review when people read it. In other words, I don’t sweeten it up because I like it … I try to review as fair as I can.
But I can’t do that for this game merely because my personal experience is why I stopped playing it and sold it on eBay. It was either that, or I was going to shatter the disc. I was going to lose either way, so I might as well get some of my money back for it.
My actual review is after the jump but if you just want to read this blurb then read this: It took about four days to make me think it … but seven day for me to know 100% that this game was a complete waste of $60.
Online Multiplayer: The Future of Gaming
What do games like Killzone 2, Left 4 Dead, Little Big Planet, Noby Noby Boy, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Resistance 2 and Rock Band 2 all have in common? They all have online play integrated into the game. While this is great to help the game last longer and ultimately help you feel like you’ve made your money’s worth … the truth is that games are starting to shift towards multiplayer being the main focal point rather than single-player.
Games like Little Big Planet, Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 all share a same formula … years in development and the end result is a rather short single-player experience but a pretty in-depth multiplayer. Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 offer a level-up option in their multiplayer games while Little Big Planet almost completely leans on it’s online abilities.
Well, that’s great and all but what happened to having the single-player being the forefront of a game? Why do all these games have a “weak campaign/singleplayer mode” attached to it?
Review: Noby Noby Boy
It was $5 … it was from the creator of Katamari Damacy (a very fun game) and involved a giant worm that could stretch, eat and help Girl grow to connect to other planets … what a steal it was!
Unfortunately Noby Noby Boy is considered a GamExperiment and is a game with absolutely no real point to it other than to help Girl grow. The worst thing is that you can easily make your main character grow without having to do anything. So really, why not just make your character super long, report it to the Noby Noby Boy servers and then call it a night?
Well, there’s no reason you can’t … and it completely ruins the initial attraction of the game.
Killzone’s multiplayer isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
Update: After doing some internet searching I was able to read up on what all classes will be capable of (up until now, I had a hard time finding someone who could dissect what each class) and with what I know now I’ll say that some of my frustrations involve capabilities of the Scout and Saboteur class. With that in mind I’ll say that another “mutliplayer” review is deserved since I haven’t unlocked everything yet. I’ll review the multiplayer again with my official review of Killzone 2.
I actually had a decent post about this … but good ol’ Internet Explorer decided to crash on me … yet another list of bugs that came out of the blue on my laptop and I lost all my work. It’s nice to know that a browser that has been around for over a decade freaks out when an ad on GameFaqs.com tries to load. Oh well, Microsoft, maybe one day you’ll get it. Yeah, and Apple will lower their prices.
So here’s the short and sweet version. Killzone 2′s multiplayer gets great ratings. It’s bullshit. The game’s multiplayer is frequently cheap, irritating and sometimes boring. You can shoot your shotgun into someone three times up-close to kill them, but then right after they respawn they’ll be able to kill you with the same shotgun, one hit, from across the room. Let’s forget about the fact that shotguns are – for the most part – short range weapons. Enemies don’t appear on radar when they should. If they’re above you or below you, they won’t show up. Even if they’re on the same level as you, they sometimes won’t show up until after they’ve killed you. This may have something to do with the “cloaking” skill you get later on … but that’s still pretty damn cheap.
First Impressions: Killzone 2
Boy, if any game is getting hype these days … it’s Killzone 2. Move over Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV … Killzone 2 is the big game on the PS3 these days. Naturally, with all the hype surrounding it and the big emphasis on how deep multiplayer is … I was kinda’ hooked on the hype. SO, when the demo was released for everyone the day before it was released, I downloaded it. It crawled Thurday night so I waited until Friday morning. Say what you will about Charter, but when you download at 1MB a second, that’s pretty damned good.
So I played the demo and actually ended up going out and getting the game. Three days into it I’m asking myself if it was a mistake. It was strictly an impulse buy and I didn’t follow my own rule about renting first.
And … I think I should have.
