Brent Ruhle's Blog
Pack Your Bags, You’re Going On a (Guilt) Trip
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It’s been a truly crazy past week. Travel seemed to be the main order of business. Starting last Monday I was sent to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for work. I never get to travel and experience new places as much as I would like, so to be in the Pittsburgh area the week of the Super bowl was a great time. I know Pittsburgh isn’t necessarily the most impressive location for travel but I’ll take minor victories where I can. Unfortunately, bad weather kept me in my hotel and further from the action then I would have preferred most of the time. Of course sitting in a hotel room as it hails outside has its own advantages, such as plenty of opportunity to get in some gaming. I only brought my DS for the trip, I’ve been completely glued to it since I bought it. I really never expected to enjoy the little system as much as I have. I consider myself to be a very hardcore console/PC gamer and never thought the quick pick up and play mechanics of a handheld would appeal to me, but I now stand corrected.
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Being in a new city, I knew I couldn’t visit a new place without checking out the local game stores. After stopping in two different Gamestop’s I came away with a copy of Star Fox Command and Front Mission. I only played a bit of Star Fox Command and felt kind of bland about the whole experience, I can see where it is supposed to be fun but things such as timed missions and limited turns per battlefield before game over really kill the game. I haven’t even touched Front Mission since I was busy beating Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin (that’s right! I’m finally caught up in the Castlevania series, now I just need to pick up Order of Ecclesia.) but I’m really excited about Front Mission, I loved the third Front Mission for Playstation and tried numerous times to get in to the original with various poorly translated ROMs, so I’m hoping this new hard copy is what it will take to get me through to the credits this time. Other quick notes about the week was even more traveling to Albany, and then more travel on top of that to NYC/NJ Newark area. The biggest regret about the whole experience is I wish I could have pushed it a week off so I could have made it out to Comic Con in NYC, I’m still lying to myself and saying I’ll make it down but the harsh reality is I can’t afford the tickets or the mileage for the trip. I’ll keep the façade up however until it’s came and went.
The Light, It Burns!
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It’s been a busy week, some would argue too busy. Gaming in general took a backseat to work and that is just never good news to report. I guess it isn’t all terrible though, in my constant journey to catch up as quickly as possible with the handheld side of the Castlevania series I knocked off Aria of Sorrow, that’s three down, three more to go. Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance for the Gameboy Advanced were really solid titles in the line up but they were never even in the competition of Symphony of the Nights classic greatness. It wasn’t until playing Aria of Sorrow when I finally had that great rush of “just one more part of the castle and then I’ll take a break” like I did in the days of Symphony of the Night.
I already decided to hop into Dawn of Sorrow and am already blown away by the visual presentation from the GBA to the Nintendo DS. Its funny playing a Castlevania that is really a direct sequel to a previous title, I don’t think that has happened since the days of the original and Simon’s Quest. I wish I was playing as Alucard but to be honest I’m more then willing to put Soma Cruz in second place as best Vampire Slayer at this point. Just one more part of the castle and then I’ll leave the house… really.
How the Weekend Was Won
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Put one scratch in the virtual bed post, Castlevania: Harmony of
Dissonance is down and I’ve moved on to Aria of Sorrow. Harmony of
Dissonance was a really fun adventure but come on, that difficulty
setting, obnoxiously easy, the bosses just came off as longer minion
fights, some even had the same graphics used. Still, I really enjoyed
the time chasing down Dracula.
This weekend actually wasn’t really spent on any game consoles or
handhelds, but it was spent behind a screen, a big screen. I think I
spent every night this weekend seeing a film, the best of the list had
to of been Slumdog Millionaire, not Danny Boyle’s best, but it was
worth seeing America’s take on the Indian life. Of course, with every
Yin, there must be a Yang, and in this circumstance, My Bloody
Valentine 3D came crashing. The fact that the movie was in 3D wasn’t
really a big problem for me, the fact of the matter is I wanted this
movie to be bad, I wanted to laugh at the cheeziness and I was
terribly let down when I found out this wasn’t any of those things,
but it wasn’t good either, it just was, major let down.
Destroy Castle. Repeat.
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In a post many many moons ago I was in a sort of Castlevania trance after finally playing Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood, now with my recently purchased DS I find that the spell has come upon me all over again. The first real Castlevania game I ever played and successfully beat was Circle of the Moon so it really is only fitting that I return. As a kid I never understood the Castlevania games, I owned Simon’s Quest and the Pizza Hut downtown had an arcade machine that played the original Castlevania but still I would play the games for a little bit of time and end up stopping due to lack of interest. It wasn’t until the Metroidvania gameplay style was introduced to me that I finally enjoyed the games, something about the continuous world, the leveling, and the equipment clicked with me and I couldn’t stop playing. Also at this point it should be noted that I’m a sucker for games with a snails pace for innovation, I don’t quite know why that is but hand me the next Mega Man, Castlevania, or Dragon Quest and I always manage to find myself glued in, I guess people really do fear change. There is nothing better then when you enter the final area of these recurring games and you meet Dracula or Dr. Wily face to face for the big show down. Their repetition alone turns them into icons and defeating them becomes like defeating a legend, it always feels so rewarding to me.
In just this week alone I picked up the Harmony of Dissonance/Aria of Sorrow double pack (what a great deal), Dawn of Sorrow, and Portrait of Ruin. I’m about 38% of the map through Harmony so I would say I’m traveling at a pretty steady clip seeing as I started yesterday. I plan on picking up Order of Ecclesia after I make it through Portrait of Ruin. I’m really kind of disapointed to see that as the series progresses it starts to take on a more Anime feel and leaves behind the more Gothic aesthetic but I’m sure that isn’t going to be something to hold me back from enjoying them all. It’s time however for me to get back to storming the Castle.
Long Cold Nuclear Winters
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The Gamefly fairy blessed me with the gift of Fallout 3 this month
and I’ve been moving along at a steady clip through its main story.
My opinions at this point are rather up and down depending on what
time of the day you catch me. So many little things about the game
drive me crazy, it’s unpolished, the story is boring (so far), and
the environments are a repetitive mess. Yet every time I finish
playing and walk away for a few hours I find myself wanting to come back.
I remember when I was playing Oblivion I was absolutely glued to my
computer. I couldn’t wait to complete every guild quest and I’d spend
hours crouching around towns to get my sneaking skill up, but in the
world of Fallout, you can’t max the stats you use by simply continuing
to use them, instead you must place your points on the style you think
you’ve played the most. To me, that seems like a step backwards.
Oblivion’s leveling system had points that they gave you upon leveling
as a way to boost skills where you wouldn’t normally care to, maybe
you weren’t the best word smith, but every level you got 5 points
closer to being one if you wanted. Another thing bothering me is some
of the conversations seem to be broken. For an example, when I first
walked in to the town of Megaton I was greeted by the sheriff whom
simply said a few words of welcome, when it came time for me to
respond my second choice for a question was along the lines of,
“Why do you have a bomb in the middle of your city?” …
Wait. Bomb?! What bomb?! Later I find out that apparently there is a
bomb in this town and my character already knows about it in-game
even though I, the player, don’t know about it. Couldn’t we have set
up the conversation so he said that at first or not displayed that
question until after it was mentioned?
So, if this game is really as much of a pain as I make it out to be,
then why am I still playing it and why do I want to play it all the
way through? Your guess is as good as mine, but there is something
more than the some of its parts, something that only Bethesda does,
they do more then just make a game, they make living breathing
worlds. Everyone (and sometimes thing) has their own quirks and it’s
so amazing to just follow the characters around in their day to day
routines or jump in and be their savior, or the eternal thorn in
their side.
Broken Windows and Hanging Out in Shibuya
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I was given a special treat last night for all my hard efforts of picking up my apartment and reaching what I can only guess is the half way point of The World Ends With You, and that reward was a smashed car window and the inside rummaged like someone was playing Oblivion through my car. Its ok though, I’ve learned a valuable lesson here though that I think I should share with my fellow 1uppers… If you don’t leave things in your car, you should just leave the doors unlocked. Trust me, this seems like bad logic but I think I’m on to something. That way they can just go in, take a look around, and after not finding anything of value, they’ll take off. It’s a quick and easy way to save yourself 500 bucks. I’ll let you know how my test goes.
That’s not important though, back to the games! As I said, I’ve been hitting the mean streets of Shibuya with JPop in my ears while playing The World Ends With You. It’s a really great game and if you have a DS and even somewhat like RPG/Adventure games you should give it a shot. I think the combat is really the best part of the game. Actions on the bottom screen are made through the stylus by tapping, scratching and circling the screen, then while doing all that, you control the top screen by pressing the d-pad through a faux-Dance Dance Revolution step sheet. I have no shame in admitting that this is far too much for my tiny brain to handle and thank god the top screen will run on auto-pilot if you let it. Seriously, I have tried, I simply cannot do it. Does anyone else find it impossible to play both screens at once or is it just me? Any advice? I love the story so far, even though it did take some time to warm up to the main characters angst ridden teen strife. Neku (the main character) really grows during the adventure and you really start to root for his efforts to just figure out what the hell is going on here. I’m not all the way through the adventure yet and I’m assuming I’m at about the half way mark but I’m excited to see it through to the end.
Shape Up or Ship Out
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Set your goals for greatness and you are bound to achieve them. Sometimes you may fall short, but that’s ok, pick yourself up and keep trying! I didn’t really set myself up for a challenge I couldn’t handle but I did set the pace that I would put in some decent hours on games this weekend, and boy did I rock out some games. I put to rest Sonic Chronicles, Mega Man ZX, and made big strides through The World Ends With You (love that title) and Ninja Gaiden 2.
First off Sonic Chronicles. I really summed up nicely how I felt about it a few posts ago but I guess I should add that I did leave the game feeling just a bit disapointed. I guess I just wanted to see something that would have taken Sonic’s world on a unique adventure. It more or less felt like any given day in the world of the blue hedgehog only in RPG form. It didn’t have that extra level of polish and flare that Bioware is usually capable of offering so well.
I’d start talking about Mega Man ZX next, but come on! You and I both know what it was like. I don’t want to discredit the insane amount I love Mega Man games, but we know it has been a slow evolution through Mega Man’s catalogue to where we are now. Nothing has changed so much that you would be shocked, but what the Mega Man series does, it does well.
I’ll save The World Ends With You for another post and talk about Ninja Gaiden 2 here. This morning on my way to work I dropped Ninja Gaiden 2 in the mailbox to go back to Gamefly… without beating it. If jaws have hit the floor, and I’ve officially become the non-hardcore of hardcore gamers, I’ll take it. I just wasn’t feeling it. I played, beat, and enjoyed Ninja Gaiden, but I’m now tired of a game just being hard and kicking my ass because it validates my e-toughness. I made it to about the fourth level when, finally, I took a breath from launching my controller across the room in a flurry of expletives and realized I’m not enjoying myself here. The challenge outweighs the entertainment, why am I doing this when I can feel challenged in other games while still having fun? It wasn’t how I wanted to be spending the rest of my gaming this weekend, so I turned off the 360, wrapped up the game and sent it on its way this morning.
What the Heck is the Internet?
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Gaming culture has changed significantly since I was a kid unwrapping an NES for Christmas at 5. I remember my older brother helped me plug in the system and then played it for the next hour because he was “showing me how to play”. It was a great memory, and somehow I already knew I was joining a certain echelon of society. I was certain my future would hold 20 sided dice, computer programming and above all a never ending passion for the Star Wars trilogy. It’s funny to me how much of the typical gamer/nerd cliché I was as a kid but also how much I, as well as this culture, has changed since then.
For a frame of reference, when I was in third grade I was told by my optometrist that it was official, video games had ruined my eyes and I would need glasses. I was completely bummed that I was going to be the kid with the bottle caps everyone was teasing. Then I was told to pick out my frames, it was like being asked to pick out your own coffin to be buried in. So I accepted my fate, looked around and found gold, Nintendo glass frames. In what can only be described as the world’s greatest twist of irony, the company responsible for my horrible vision was now the same company selling me the solution, I was ecstatic, they even came with a Mario case to hold them! I begged my Mother for them and she caved. Now the bullying still started true to form in Elementary school but I didn’t care, I had Nintendo glasses and I was awesome! Flash forward to 2009, now for a lot of people, the thicker the frame, the cooler, and even I’m wearing contacts instead of glasses. I never picked up the 20 sided dice (not for lack of trying) and I hate the new Star Wars trilogy so much I almost can’t watch the original. Of course I did end up going into Programming, but with more graphic design attached.
Now looking at the game industry when I first got here we were a different breed. Most obviously the line-up was completely different, everyone knew Sega did what Nintendoesn’t and Mario could kick Sonic’s ass any day, and if you didn’t pick a side at the playground you were a sissy. Whenever people asked what you liked to do for fun at home there was always that awkward tinge of shame felt for you when you told everyone you were a gamer, or the distinct feeling that your essay on “What I got for Christmas” was a letter grade below everyone else strictly because it was about the games you got and what made Contra’s third iteration its finest yet. Now I enter conversations with coworkers and friends much older and they tell ME how great the latest game for their Playstation Wii60 is. They talk about how tracking down the Wii through some shady deal with a guy who looks like the merchant from Resident Evil 4 is their proudest moment, or how they really love that one game, but they can’t remember the name, but you have to shoot aliens and the main character is some Master Chief, and they swear up and down it’s not Halo 3. It’s really amazing bringing in this New Year and taking a moment to realize not what we have in store for the future but how far we have come from where we started.
I Shall Rate Him T (for Teen)
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Today is New Year’s Eve, I think I’ll set my resolution at trying to grow an online presence as well as continuing to enhance skills for my career. There, all set, now 2009 can officially start. The actual plans for how I’ll bring in this New Year allude me, but I’m sure by this afternoon my friends and I will have a solid plan. I suppose this was supposed to be the entry where we all gather around and take turns shouting off what is coming up this year in gaming that has us all excited but let’s skip that one, plenty of other people are taking care of that one.
Instead, how about we talk about the ESRB, or better yet, the use of the ESRB. First off, I think that the whole idea behind rating our games, keeping certain content to certain ages, is a good idea and I’m all for it. One of the most popular arguments in this industry is people claiming we have this glass ceiling imposed upon our games where we simply cannot go. That is just not true, if Manhunt 2 wanted to keep the gore, it could have, and it would have received an AO rating, so be it. In the film industry if someone submits a film the MPAA feels is for a much more mature audience it receives an NC-17 rating, and sometimes companies tweak it to get an R rating, and sometimes they release it with its original rating instead. The film industry knows what their content is and they choose how to release it as such, if its NC-17 they make it straight to DVD and they throw it up at every rental movie store in town for the pervs to catch. Why not in the game industry release our AO titles similar. With digital distribution being what it is nowadays on the PC, why can’t we just skip the whole store process and go online or mail order? I’m sure this approach would even save these companies on distribution. It should be noted however I do feel that the ESRB is overly harsh on game ratings currently, but that will change in time. Let’s all keep in mind that early TV and films were unable to show a married couple sharing one bed so instead put two beds spaced about 2 feet apart in the shot. Film rolled with the punches, and eventually they were accepted as the art they were. I’m not asking that we all sit back and take our knocks like men, but I am saying that we need to be reasonable and understand that the general population is going to need time to warm up to us, and acting like a bunch of hate filled outcriers isn’t helping our image.
Mega Lucky Find
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Economic times are supposed to be tough right now, but that hasn’t stopped me from continuing to spend money this week. Yesterday I had the fortune to visit my dentist for a follow up on my wisdom teeth being pulled. That in itself is not particularly noteworthy, however the Gamestop across the street is. After talking to the doc for a half an hour with hardware in my mouth I sped off into the Gamestop to scout some more DS games, they’re just so cheap and fun! I can’t stop! Someone, anyone, please put a hold on my bank account!
As I perused the walls for what they had in stock, I discovered that this particular shop was a lucky find onto itself. It’s location is perfect, just off of a tiny, unlit road; very few people come here. The shelves were stocked, titles no longer in other shops lined the store. The first find, and also my purchase for the day, was Mega Man ZX, I was always a hardcore Mega Man fan (I even bought Mega Man X: Command Mission just so you know I’m a little crazed) but really couldn’t keep up when they jumped to handhelds and always regretted it. Of course I couldn’t just leave without setting up a plan of attack for my next visit. I snooped around further and saw they had the entire Mega Man Zero and Battle Network series as well as Mega Man ZX Advent. Now I just need to convince myself I have to wait for another paycheck.
My only gripe about the whole experience though was the most pointless. The game box cover. I really didn’t expect these games to come with instruction manuals or even boxes, but why do they give you these Gamestop boxes branded with these faux street kids and “10% OFF WITH MEMBERSHIP!” tags all over? Can’t you just leave the box blank? Can’t you just go online and print the games original cover and put it in the sleeve? I know this is the collector coming out in me, especially since I just went online and printed the original cover to insert myself, so ok, maybe a bit obsessive. Beyond that though I think we can all agree on the used price stickers. What sadistic kid is putting fifteen “>>USED<< 12.99″ stickers on every single corner of the box? The little bastard even goes so far as to put the sticker directly on the cover art sheet under the pretty plastic gloss. Why?! Everyone knows they leave their sticky residue and never completely come off. What mad man is capable of this? I’d like to meet him so I can knock him out and slap a used sticker on his tear ridden face.
