Gaming Weekend: Adorable Gardening Edition
EB/Gamestop had a special trade-in deal where if you unloaded three of your used games they fronted you an additional $20 in trade credit. Normally I would vastly prefer to trade games into Goozex where the value for such trade-ins is significantly higher, but in this case I had at least three games that I had basically ignored for months and wasn’t really planning on playing any time soon. Compound that with the fact that they had very low values on Goozex plus long lines of people also trying to unload them and very few interested in buying and the Gamestop deal worked out to be a better way to go (short term, I guess, although I don’t see a sudden jump in demand for Call of Duty 2 happening any time soon).
So I made the trade for Kameo, CoD 2 and PGR3 and got a copy of Animal Crossing DS for my wife (who had played a bit on my copy but wasn’t thrilled that she had to share a house, mortgage and town with me) and Viva Piñata for myself. Of course then when I got home my previously requested trade for Perfect Dark Zero had gone through and it was waiting in the mail so I spent the weekend taking turns between them.
Thoughts on each and details about a new Warhammer 40K campaign I’m joining after the hop.
Apparently, Rare Had My Number
Considering that I recently played through Kameo and this weekend was all about Viva Piñata and Perfect Dark Zero, I think that means I’ve now experienced all of the full retail games Rare has done for the 360. Say what you will about Rare and the price Microsoft paid for them or their output quantity, at least the games they do finish are pretty good.
Which is kind of a strange thing to say about Perfect Dark Zero considering that when I first bought the 360 I picked up the game as a rental and played through about one and a half missions before putting it down and writing it off. I didn’t plan to give it another shake but via the magic of Goozex it was really, really cheap (200 points) and I figured, “why not?” I won’t say that I’m relieved to have given it another shot but now having worked my way through the entire story mode on Agent difficulty, I can say I didn’t give it a fair shake the first time around.
To be sure, PDZ has some issues. Firstly, the art design—while decidedly Rare-like—looks less than next gen. A lot of the animations are clunky and some textures are pretty weak. Originally I didn’t allow for the game to have been a launch title and judged it harshly because it didn’t hold up next to later titles. It’s not that it looks bad, it just doesn’t really look like something the original XBox couldn’t have handled. Also the sneaking elements to the game are a) entirely optional, at least on the lower levels and b) poorly implemented so as to be incredibly frustrating even if you wanted to avoid killing everything in sight. I have yet to meet a first-person game that has really compelling stealth mechanics (though I confess to never having played a Thief title) and PDZ is not the worst offender but pretty close. Finally, I realize that the Achievements system was still in its infancy when this game was released, but only 10 points available in the first run-through of a game? Ouch. That’s a little excessive.
I’ve come to realize how much Gamerscore has influenced the way I play games. I try not to be too obsessive about my ‘score, and in fact the final tally is more a curiosity than anything else, but the regular secondary awards granted through the Achievements system has this psychological effect of giving minor victories in games (passing a level, beating a boss, finding a series of collectibles, etc) a sense of satisfaction that they otherwise don’t have. Take a game like Lego Star Wars II: A huge portion of the game’s longevity is tied into the second and third run-throughs of each mission to try and find hidden canisters and collect additional studs to unlock things in the Cantina store. Prior to Achievements, I would have had practically zero interest in carrying on with the game once I’d finished all the levels. Sure there might be more to see and do, but single-player games have always been about the accomplishment for me anyway: Seeing the end credits roll. Now that there is something semi-tangible that can serve to provide that sense of accomplishment aside from “beating” a game, I don’t mind going back and doing the things in games that I would otherwise have never had the inclination to do.
Which is why I was so disappointed with PDZ’s Achievement breakdown because beating Perfect Dark felt no different than beating a PS2 or GameCube game—sure it was fun to take the ride and the story was sorta interesting but after eight or nine levels of killing the same soldiers in various locations I started hoping that the game would be shorter rather than longer because it was a semi-decent game but it was becoming about the destination and not the journey. For me, the side effect of Achievements is the addition of enjoying the journey more.
On the plus side, Rare seems to have improved with their Achievement breakdown for Viva Piñata, whose 50 Achievements at 20 points each is very similar to Dead Rising’s and, I think, probably going to be more or less standard for most sandbox-style games that don’t have as much of a defined end (or at least not one that means the game is essentially “over”). I do mostly object to the egregious use of the “Secret” Achievement, of which over half of Viva Piñata’s list are designated. I appreciate that some of the descriptions contain game spoilers, but I think I’d prefer an option to reveal the descriptions, especially since the details are pretty sketchy for the most part anyway and it’s not like Viva Piñata is a really structured game where you’re on the edge of your seat to see how it “turns out.”
But Achievements aside, VP itself is a charming game that I have developed a sort of love/hate relationship with. Basically, this article summarizes most of why the game drives me insane. The semi-frantic pace of it all can be incredibly frustrating since the progress-making is too often interrupted by idiotic events that the player has no control over, especially fights between piñatas (which rarely make sense: I’ve had members of the same species fighting each other several times not to mention the would-be-comical-if-it-weren’t-annoying mismatches like a badger versus a moth). Alerts that are tied into these unplanned events are unreliable at best and useless at worst because often there is little that can be done. Some pests that visit the garden just to wreck your work can only be countered with certain other semi-difficult-to-obtain species which, if you lack them, means watching helplessly as your work or cash is sent spiraling down the toilet.
The lack of some obvious interface elements like quick jumping to a specific piñata or with the ability to scan around the garden makes for some trying times in VP. And the whole thing is compounded by the fact that there is a wonderful little game hidden in there, basically dying to get out. I certainly don’t hate VP, but tolerating the frustrations in order to enjoy the sometimes fleeting moments of satisfaction tries my patience. I’ve put about 14 hours in already so obviously there’s enough there to keep me coming back, but it’s one of those games that I really want to recommend but just don’t know if I can in good faith.
New Campaign Sees the Unhallowed Horde Emerge Onto the Scene Again
Ever since my friend moved overseas I haven’t had a chance to engage in much wargaming. This is about to change with my foray into a new ongoing campaign with a nearby gaming group that contains some of my old opponents as well as some new faces.
I’m quite enthusiastic: The set-up for the campaign is ideal for busy working folks like myself. Basically each participant is given several sectors of a pre-determined map to claim and defend. Then each month all players submit their monthly orders to the GM who notes wherever conflicts lie (ie where two players’ orders have their armies moving into the same sector) and informs both that a battle must take place. Then those players have one calendar month to schedule and carry out the battle, submitting the results to the GM.
Since getting regular games organized has been the biggest limitation to my gaming time, this is perfect since I’ll only have to do one or two matches per month and they can be done whenever is convenient for only the two participants. I guess this means I have to finally finish unpacking all my gaming stuff but I’m really amped to put the forces of Chaos back to work crushing the Imperium.