Play Impressions – Connection Tour 2008
August 12th, 2008
Monday a few weeks back, actually more than a few weeks ago, during the start of E3 2008, Nintendo’s tour of Australia (dubbed the Connection Tour) came to my state. I was fortunate enough to attend the event sampling some of the demos on offer. General impressions were a little disappointing, the budget was low in contrast to previous tours with limited demos on display with many of already released titles. In fact numerous games weren’t shown that were stated to be present in a newsletter put out by Nintendo Australia which added to the disappointment. Namely Sonic Chronicles (DS) and Cooking Guide (DS) which I was eager to try out. It did seem a little strange though that Sonic Chronicles would be on display, I don’t even think press have had access to this game at the time.
Despite the omissions, what was on offer was adequate with the best titles consisting of Samba de Amigo (Wii), de Blob (Wii), Guitar Hero Aerosmith (Wii), Guitar Hero on Tour (DS) , Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (DS) and a series of DS Touch Generations games including Maths Training and CrossWords. Here are my collective thoughts on some of these games.
Samba de Amigo
On learning that this game was going to be present at the event, I wanted to prepare myself by watching some YouTube video of the Dreamcast version so that I knew exactly how to play this title before I went hands on. I regretfully forgot to watch the video but not to worry Samba is very easy accessible title.
I had a pretty rough run though. For one, the difficulty was set to Hard for some bizarre reason and the game froze on me after selecting a song beyond the demo’s scope (Hey Macarena). While it was easy enough to understand the play mechanics (6 circles representing up, down left right, diagonals, shake Wiimote and nunchuck in direction of respective circle) my nunchuck often struggled to be recognized, particularly in diagonal gestures. Maybe it was just the context of the event but it was a little concerning.
Additional MGS4 Commentaries
August 4th, 2008
It’s been well over a month since I first finished Metal Gear Solid 4 (you can read my original impressions here). Since then the constructive discussion regarding the game has been limited to the “IT’S ART!!!!” versus “tHE story SUX!!” argument evading any attempt to define this complicated title. Most notably though a few bloggers shared their own opinions on the matter, although there are so few of us to make any real difference.
Basically that’s my excuse to plug away at a few more ideas about the game that have developed over my time away.
Past, Present, Future
Before I get into it though, I ought to contextualize MGS4 within the scope of the previous games. I personally regard the original MGS, MGS3 and Metal Gear II as my three favourite titles in the series. Each of these games finds a steady equilibrium, harmoniously balancing the numerous gameplay constituents that the series is famous for, such as action, stealth and non interactive narrative.
The other main benefactor of these games comes from the storyline which is ambitious but never to the point of harmful. In each of these games, the story is generally comprehensible, believable and balanced well with the gameplay. While ‘fantasty’ based elements are a rarely discussed staple of the series, these games use it only for metaphoric purposes and never to conclude storyline plot holes (ie. the magic fairy did it). For example; Psycho Mantis is a psychic who can do all sorts of unreal actions (floating, controlling minds) while it’s not real, it by no means damages the game in any way, only enhancing the experience.
MGS4 and The Three Flavours of Filler
August 2nd, 2008
Wow! I’ve been going a little crazy when it comes to writing about games lately and have about a months worth of pre-written articles in the bank! As you can imagine isn’t a common scenario for me which is why the following article is even more of an embarrassment.
Recently Michael Abbott of Brainy Gamer fame wrote up a second round of Metal Gear Solid 4 commentaries after being prompted by questions from another blogger Steve Gaynor. I too had a few things to say about the game and had infact said some of them already in one of those pre-written articles, waiting to be posted on the site. It was as I was writing up my comments over at his blog that my creative juices took over and a selection of great ideas sparked, refining my original concept. In the end I was so pleased with my conclusion that after much moral dilemma I decided that it’d just be best if I post all of my thoughts here as they were far too developed to remain as a single comment. I am indeed an embarrassment.
You can read Michael’s post here. My comments are a bit messy but I’m sure you’ll get through, there are, of course, spoilers but no deal-breakers;
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