Gaming Weekend: An Avalanche Edition
In what may be the biggest Gaming Weekend yet, I blast through one of the best short-form games I’ve ever played, take advantage of a surprise windfall to expand my library, try out a bunch of demos and finally—finally pick up the sequel to my #1 game of all time with some surprising results.
Overwhelmed
The sheer number of new games I’ve played this week cannot be overstated. It started with the acquisition of The Orange Box which was an anniversary gift from my wife. Then I found a handful of demos on Xbox Live Marketplace to try including Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal, The Simpsons Game, Every Extend Extra Extreme and Speedball 2. And finally I earned about $75 writing about video games last month for PlayFeed, which I felt was only fitting to funnel back into some video games so I went down to Toy ‘R’ Us to take advantage of their Buy 2, Get 1 Free promotion so I added three new games to my stockpile. As if I needed more to play with Halo 3 still waiting in the wings and two Gameznflix titles on the way. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love the variety of options at my disposal. It’s just a bit dizzying to stare at my game shelf and consider, “So… uh, what am I gonna play?”
Start at the Beginning
Let’s start with The Orange Box. To begin with, the box advertises that there are five games in here, but that’s a lie. There are three games in the box because Episode 1 and Episode 2 of Half-Life 2 are not different enough to qualify as full products. It should also be noted that Portal is a very short game and Team Fortress 2 is multiplayer-only. In terms of overall value, which has been cited as this game’s strong suit, it’s good but not demonstrably superior to what you get from Halo 3.
When I first opened TOB, I went straight for Portal, which is kind of strange since originally I had been pretty ambivalent about it. I appreciated the value add in the collection but make no mistake, I was all about HL2 (which I had yet to play despite loving Half-Life and listing it as my favorite game of all time) and TF2. But then I heard them raving about it on 1Up Yours and I decided that, as a quick play game, I wanted to experience it.
The challenge I face is trying to describe for you how much I adore this game. In context, the game takes about three hours to complete on the first pass and considerably less in subsequent efforts because the game—little more than a first-person puzzle title—offers no real variance so once you solve a map repetition is guaranteed. I know it goes faster because I played through it twice this weekend. You read that correctly. I had hordes of games to play and yet I chose to mash through Portal a second time less than twenty-four hours after finishing it.
People have made concerted efforts to avoid spoiling the game online which has made it something of a cool kids club for those who’ve trekked through Portal’s brief but exquisitely crafted narrative. But the intentions are altruistic because the game really deserves to be played with as little pre-conception as possible. Let me frame it for you this way: The plot in the game is rich and rewarding and yet there is never, at any point, any exposition. As much as you are told, you are left to decide for yourself and yet it is done in a manner I can only categorize as “expert” suggesting that while other games may accidentally leave room for interpretation via a process of omission, it’s nearly impossible to chalk the ambiguity of Portal’s narrative to anything besides calculated intent.
What I can’t decide is if the game’s brevity is a part of the inherent charm because it gives you just enough of a taste to get you hooked and then ends—though not abruptly but with triumph—leaving you breathless but demanding more. It’s possible the game is just too short and it deserves more, but there is hope that more may be to come in the form of additional maps to solve, possibly for a price which I believe I will gladly pay no matter how extravagant it may seem. I love this game that much.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the disc, there’s this little game called Half-Life 2 that I’ve been dying to play.
I don’t know how far into it I am; if the game’s length is comparable to the first game I’m about 25% through it. So far, I’m enjoying it but I’m not that impressed. Here’s the problem: When I played Half-Life, that game did some things that I had never seen in a shooter before and it did them in ways that even when they weren’t original were so well executed as to feel fresh. There is nothing particularly new and inventive about Half-Life’s narrative, but it sunk me into its world in a way that no game had to that point. In many ways it was more of a role-playing game than all the SSI and Square (before the Enix) games ever were because I became Gordon Freeman, trying to survive the brutal events of the accident at Black Mesa.
Since then, the landscape of games has changed. I’ve been immersed in games since then. I’ve seen great AI for human-like opponents. Even Half-Life 2′s big selling point, the Havok physics engine has been featured in plenty of games since then. I realize that a lot of my gripes are products of the date and time where I’m experiencing it for the first time, but I can’t help but be a little disappointed at how old-school it feels already. Simple things like a lack of ladder climbing animation, the speed of movement (too fast) and the concessions the game goes to in order for Gordon not to talk feel kind of… dated somehow.
But don’t let my nitpicking overshadow the fact that so far I’ve enjoyed the game. I feel like the plot has been a little thin so far and my favorite portions have been the few moments of tranquility where the game world, which I didn’t expect to be so well-crafted in consideration of events from the first game, begins to unfold. While Half-Life provided an insular but ultimately compelling narrative, HL2 epxands the scope believably in such a way that the events you took part in from the first title feel significant. In a way it’s a bit like playing Halo which is, again, part of why it frustrates that the game has to work so hard to keep Gordon from speaking.
And I’m sad to mention that I didn’t even get to play Team Fortress 2 other than a sleepy trial I did where I ran around a map by myself just before bed trying to get familiar with the controls. But I was so wiped out that I abandoned the effort after nodding off momentarily with the controller in hand.
A 30-Year Old Guy Walks Into a Toy Store…
Yesterday was Toys ‘R’ Us’ last day of the Buy 2 Video Games, Get 1 Free promotion. I had some money to spend on games and I thought it would be worthwhile to use it on some games in keeping with the $60 a Month concept of using only $60 of my monthly income from work on games and letting any extra I spend come from outside sources. It took me two stores to find the two games I knew I wanted: Beautiful Katamari and Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. The third game I was planning to play by ear and in the end I grabbed EA’s NHL hockey game because it was a very reasonable $29.99. Except I didn’t look closely enough because what I grabbed was NHL 07, which ain’t worth $30 new. So I didn’t unwrap NHL 07 and I hope I can return it today for something else. But I did get a chance to play Katamari and Zelda a bit last night.
Beautiful Katamari is a game that as far as I can tell was designed for folks like me: Latecomers. Most of the reviews fixate on the fact that BK is fundamentally the same game as it’s PS2 and PSP predecessors and say it like it’s a bad thing. For me, a guy who missed those games when they were new but was belatedly intrigued by the concepts, it’s wonderful that this game exists. I loved the miniscule three-minute demo they dropped on an OXM disc several months ago but so far I’m a bit confounded by the game’s desire to punish me for wanting to wander around and see how big I can make my Katamari. The time limits imposed and the size restrictions make the game elements of BK almost too much for me. I think that in general I’d rather have a game where you’re scored based on how well you do (how big your ball gets) but don’t have the tight time frame or the maximum size. Since the failure screen is a repeating and unskippable sequence that goes on for too long the first time you encounter it and is excruciating each subsequent time, getting stuck like I have is no fun whatsoever. It’s still a clever and joyous little game, but it reminds me some of Viva Piñata in that it works so hard to shoehorn a game on top of its framework that it hinders fun instead of enabling it. Just let me mess around, or at least give me an unlimited mode or a super-n00b difficulty level so that I can enjoy the game on my own terms. I don’t mind a challenge sometimes but that’s not what I’m looking for from a peppy little kiddy game like this.
Zelda, on the other hand, is a game I can not yet find any fault with. It’s no secret that I loved Wind Waker, especially its lovable Saturday-morning art style (haters, there’s the door: Your Twilight Princess Link was pants, period). That I have a chance to revisit this is beyond joy-inducing and then they throw in some wonderful stylus controls and… well, I want to hug this game, that’s all I’m saying.
I’m very early into it, having just worked through the first mini-dungeon to get to the other side of the first town, but I’m already really, really enjoying it. Between this and the Link to the Past GBA cart, I’m beginning to erase the stain of TP from my memory.
The Rest of the Stuff
- Halo 3 – I did play a bit more Halo 3 multiplayer this week, but once Orange Box stepped in, Halo had a hard time finding its way into my 360. I’m starting to fall behind the curve in terms of how well I play which means I often end up on the losing end of things so my rank isn’t going up very much any longer. I recall this being the point with Halo 2 where I more or less gave up playing online.
- Trauma Center – I made my way through a few more surgeries last week before I got swamped with other games. I like how the game’s story is pretty simple so it doesn’t require close attention to follow (unlike Phoenix Wright). It makes the game a good one to stretch out over a period of time. I’ve never lost interest in the game, but I don’t feel like it’s something I need to blast through in one sitting. Also, I’m strangely loving the little puzzle sections they just introduced. I still think the GUILT strains are more annoying than actually challenging, but it’s such a good game in most respects that I’m willing to forgive it quite a bit.
- Puzzle Quest – There was a moment while I played through Portal where I was afraid that I might not make it back to PQ with all the fun I was having with Orange Box. But the lure of role-playing puzzles is too strong for one such as I to resist. I’m only a few more battles away from rebuilding Sartek and I’ve been working at acquiring all the Runes so I can try my hand at a Godlike item. I’ve already done one that was pretty intense and it only took me a couple of tries. After too long with the balanced character approach to Leveling up I decided to focus more on Fire, Battle and Morale stats with a smattering of others here and there. It’s worked out quite well so far as my base attack with three white skulls is now +14. When I get on a roll, I’m not afraid to say that I can deal out 50 points of damage or more in a single turn.
- Viva Piñata – I put in a small amount of time on VP mostly just doing nothing but letting the game run. I still need a dozen more hours for the cursed last achievement (play for 50+ hours) and I’m determined to get 1,000 points from this game. Unfortunately, as with too many achievements, it feels more like work than fun.
Demo Watch
- The Simpsons Game – I may not be the biggest Simpsons fan in existence, but I appreciate what they do. I was pretty surprised with the quality of the game and though it was probably too much to take in for the time of night (or morning as is more appropriate), I thought it looked like a game I would definitely rent and enjoy.
- Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal – I was not impressed with this game. Plastic-y looking models, bad camera, crummy beat-em-up gameplay and no real humor. Pass.
- Every Extend Extra Extreme – My only real complaint with this game is the fact that it is so hypnotic and deliberate that I’m afraid it might put me to sleep if I played it too much. It’s remarkable in small doses, but I wonder whether the 800 point price tag isn’t a little steep. I plan to try the trial/demo a few more times but I don’t really see myself buying it unless I find there is something much more compelling lying under the surface.
- Speedball 2 – Craptastic. Couldn’t even play it for three minutes.