April 2009 Archives

Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria seems to be turning into a really good show. The characters are awesome! ... actually it's a beautiful pastel take on World War 2 populated with loads of neat characters.

Saki makes me think mahjong is exciting, so.

The game itself is very nice. They've expanded Lara's movelist just a bit so that she can do 45 degree stuff, and interact a bit more with all the various aspects of the environment. The game was a solid Tomb Raider title, and a step forward, but it wasn't particularly revolutionary or push forward the franchise into a new generation.

The original concept that was advertised was that there would be less focus on combat, but that the environment would be Lara's main enemy. I didn't feel this at all at any point in the game. There were some good rain effects which made Lara soaked through and through (which looked good- the only graphical point I didn't like were Lara's forehead wrinkles), but otherwise, they had no effect on the gameplay.

Another point I was very disappointed about was the lack of bonus or extra content. Crystal D's Tomb Raider games have been pretty good about having bonus costumes you could unlock and wear to any stage you wanted, and unlocking them by finding artifacts. There was an incentive and reward to go into the nooks and crannies to search for those things. After beating TR:U, I was given a Treasure Hunt mode, which I assume lets me replay the game to look for all the artifacts I didn't get.

Well, there are a ton of them- not divided into gold/silver/bronze, but rather seemingly randomly scattered everywhere. They're not necessarily in particularly hard to find places (many of them are just sitting around in pots that you smash), so there isn't really a sense of accomplishment, and finding the relics really only gives you concept art. You can't put on whatever costume you want either, and there's also no Croft Manor bonus level (since it gets destroyed in the game).

The story itself was solid, though simple. The cinematics were amazingly done and I wished they were longer or more involved. The graphics were also good, which reflects on how well Lara looks as well (especially during the cinematics).

It's a solid game by itself, but other than the main game, there is very little to keep me playing. I can't even go back and rewatch all those nice movies that they put all that work into! So that's kind of disappointing. I like it, though, and am looking forward to what Crystal D will cook up next (while desperately hoping that it doesn't continue the trend of becoming somehow... comfortable in where it sits. Legend broke new ground for the franchise, and these games have all been improving on the same formula).

I like fanservice. =(

Square buying Eidos should affect the series somehow. I hope it's for the better.

I'm afraid of what's happening with Lara's Shadow and all those Xbox specific DLCs. The story should be wrapped up, so let's see where Lara goes next!

That's only part of the reason why I'm here.

The most important function of this building is that it's fully A/Ced. In the oh-so-terrible 90 degree weather outside, I'm hiding here and refusing to bike home.

I'm such a wuss.

But I ended up chatting a bit with Evan Chen, who I've not seen since like, PCC a couple of years ago. He's funny as ever. =] See his blog over here: http://rulebookoflife.com

I also tried to read Mason Chang's blog, but it was way over my head. Awesomely so. http://masonchang.com My friends are all grown up!

And it's とてもFUCKIN'暑い。

But since I installed Tomb Raider Anniversary (awesome Steam deal, btw), I've been getting blue screens related to PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. It's happened three times since yesterday. First two were while I was playing the game, but then after I restarted- a third time happened while I was trying to load a page in Chrome! (Chrome gave an error loading the page, which then became a slight hang into the blue screen again).

Well. At least my storage drive is intact. =] Looking up the error, it might be a problem with faulty RAM. The RAM I have in there right now, though, was RMA'ed only a couple months ago (it was some time after I'd moved here in Long Beach). I can't rule it out, but the other options are L2 Cache and Video RAM. =\

Microsoft also states it could be a corrupted NTFS volume. All the times my storage HD had its power yanked out while in use might have some repercussions, too. >.<

FLOCK! has you herding a group of sheep with your mouse-controlled UFO towards the "Motherflocker," while having to solve some puzzles and avoid dropping the sheep to their lemming-like deaths.

And Yet It Moves is a 2-D platformer written in TGB build around the twist that you can rotate the entire game world in 90-degree increments. It was an interesting concept that allowed for non-standard play and ways of maneuvering.

Braid, like AYIM is an indie-developed game. It uses licensed music from Magnatunes, and features some amazing art. Unlike AYIM, Braid has high production values and is one of the top-selling games on Xbox Live Arcade. It's all about playing around with the flow of time to solve platforming puzzles. It's an amazing game, and I'll probably end up buying this one.

All three of these games currently carry $15 price tags on Steam.

I heard about Magnatunes through Braid. The music in Braid was amazing, and was licensed for the game through Magnatunes.

Now with Logic installed, I've moved my MIDI keyboard back home and it's sitting comfortably in my room now. With a view into the backyard in front of the piano, it should be a good feeling to play and record on! I've also placed an order on Altec Lansing UHP336 earbuds. They should arrive in a week or so. I read on Amazon that they're repackaged Ultimate Ears Super.fi3's, which should be pretty good! I've never really worn earbuds before though. I like how they can deliver much clearer sound, but I've never gotten used to shoving them deep into my ear.

The laptop speakers are nice and loud, but they definitely don't have the audio fidelity I need to write music. I'm excited for when I get those earbuds, though! =] But that said, any serious focus on music will have to wait for a bit.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what my options are for school. Registration is soon.

Game-nerd time.

KOF12 may have K' and Mai as characters in the console release! That means I'm suddenly interested again. XD K' has always been my main character 'cause he's got the cool style... and Mai is good for her hawtness and increasing the female-to-male ratio of the character roster. (The only two women were Athena and Leona before!) So... unless someone awesome is also announced for the console release, I'll probably be using K', Mai and Leona. I'd have to learn Mai and Leona from scratch, though.

DOD:Source. We're slowly picking it up again, and it's now been reinstalled on my MacBook. In the end, it's gotten more serious play-time than TF2. =] It's nice to be able to play from a laptop now though! I really like my new computer. Because it's a new computer and it's fast. =]

OSX works well with this computer (as it should, seeing as how it's an Apple)- it's quick and comfortable to use for chatting, internet and writing stuff. Most of what I use a computer for. The touchpad design is very intuitive, and I really hope this catches on. I'm glad that it can boot up Windows, too, for when I need versatility (mainly for games at this moment).

OSX boots fast.

Vista runs everything.

...is basically what it comes down to here.

Anyway... I'm in a good mood. Today was Eunice Chou's birthday party. Sang for the first time in front of an audience of her students. They complimented me on my voice a lot, and it was nice to hear! Though during the song, I tried to do it from memory but really fumbled and messed up when I tried to look at the music. =[

It's a 46-ish GB installation! Oh, my HD space! But I'm excited. =]

Most of the time was spent watching stuff and hanging out at Jon's place (watching stuff). There was Tetsuwan Birdy, an anime about a kid who ends up sharing a body with an interstellar investigator tracking down alien criminals because she accidentally destroyed his body. It had neat characters, and a cool chemistry between Birdy and the main character, since they basically spend every waking moment together. Refreshingly, the anime completely ignored any comedy issues resulting from gender-swapping (also, the body took the form of whichever entity that controlled it).

Second was Toradora!, a romance drama. It was really cute! I like all the characters, and at the beginning I cheered for Aisaka Taiga to end up with Takasu, because their friendship chemistry was really fun. Kushieda was also really cute and energetic, but it seemed like Takasu had the most fun memories with Aisaka. Kawashima was completely unlikeable at first, but became a very sympathetic (however background) character. The ending of the series was a bit rushed, though, and Aisaka and Takasu's turn-around from friendship to romance felt rather rushed. By the end of the series, I was cheering for Kushieda to end up with Takasu. I don't hate Aisaka- I think she and Takasu are amazingly close friends, but Kushieda and Takasu may have been a more romantic couple.

Kawashima and Takasu would have been sweet, and totally steady because of Kawashima's maturity, but it wouldn't have been quite as fun to see. In the end, I felt very mellow after watching it. A sort of sweet melancholy.

Then I watched the first season of Shikabane Hime. It was rather dark and sad, with antagonists and demons that turn out to be little girls, or people with sad lives that return as malevolent dead. Also, they killed off Minai, who was really nice, beautiful, yet abused all the time by her handler. It made me feel a little empty inside. =(

Yesterday, I watched Rambo and Transporter 3 back to back. It's sad how terrible Transporter 3 is. I really wanted to watch that movie, too! Rambo was way over-the-top somewhat campy violence, but it was 92 minutes of pure awesome. It basically spent 20 minutes establishing the bad guys as assholes, 10 minutes introducing the other characters, and then spent the rest of the time showing Rambo killing the assholes. I liked it. =D

Transporter 3 could have been a decent movie, but it was plagued with a gimmicky plot, sloppy writing and over enthusiastic editing. Yes, rapid cuts that gradually slow down during the middle of an action sequence do a good job of conveying the chaotic mess during the fight that winds down gracefully into a lull in the action. It also does a wonderful job of completely muddling up Cory Yuen's choreography into an incomprehensible mess. So instead of watching an action movie, I feel like I'm just sitting in front of a screen and absorbing a half-assed plot.

Transporter 3 was also made worse because I watched it immediately after the awesomeness that was Rambo.

After playing SF3 for several years, I got to like the game a lot because of the way I'd been trained to fight. It was exciting, and all about reading your opponent's moves and staying that one step ahead. For me, there was a thrill in guessing during that split second what my opponent would do next, and I felt a tinge of reward for every hit that I landed- even if it dealt only minor damage. (Ironically, I felt little joy when I landed super arts, because I felt that there wasn't very much prediction involved).

In waiting for Street Fighter 4, I read articles by Ono that talked about promoting a new way of fighting that would encourage ground-based movement, and encourage a type of reading your opponent akin to boxing. The focus system was touted as being a new invention that the game would revolve around.

I could probably count on my two hands the number of times I have seen my opponent use a focus attack in online play. I can also count on one hand the number of times me using a focus attack had actually changed the tide of battle.

I was delighted that Sakura was in the game, and determined to focus on using her. She was very easy to pick up, and had a familiar feeling to her. Then I played El Fuerte, and he was totally fun and different. To deal damage with him was very very difficult. His offense was completely wrapped around his mix-up and unpredictability. Completely fun!

But after my experiences in these last two weeks playing the computer AI and fighting online, I've finally become disenchanted.

AI:

The method of making ground movement a viable method of attacking was done by neutering air attacks. Anyone with a solid anti-air attack could solidly deny ANY jump in. In designing the AI, Capcom has capitalized on this. Harder difficulty AI will simply instantly react to your attacks.

If you jump, you will eat a Shoryuken, Tiger Uppercut, or some high-priority anti-air attack. The designers have also seen it fit to make sure that the AI focuses on perfectly zoning your character.

There are few things more infuriating than moving around on the stage and watching the CPU Ryu keep just at that right distance, as perfectly as if we were performing a waltz. If I dash, he instantly reacts with a sweep. Instead of utilizing AI that takes into account common player actions and performs the appropriate actions, or one that will evenly blend its movements around attacking and defending, the AI in SF4 is overall wrapped in a defensive shell.

It keeps its distance and punishes the most minute holes in offensive execution, then returns to hiding. The game seems to be designed around this concept.

Online Play:

I began playing online first with Sakura, winning a few rounds and losing some. In every round I saw, there was one common denominator: I was doing all the work. Fewer than 10 opponents I faced moved forward at the beginning of the round. Almost every single opponent begins the round by hopping backwards into a defensive posture.

That's fine, except the entire game began to revolve around me fighting turtle after turtle after turtle. The opponents who were, "good" that had 1500+ BP were the ones who punished harder when I made a mistake. The characters I saw online?

Ken

Gouken

Akuma

Ryu

Sagat

Zangief

These are all very solid (and honestly, boring) characters to fight. These characters are either ridiculously overpowered or have a solid anti-air.

Zangief can deal in 2 hits what I deal to him in 5. Also with the way grabs are calculated in SF4, Zangief's throws can outprioritize everything. The rest of these men all have fireballs and uppercuts. I probably wouldn't mind so much if any of them actually tried to attack me, though. Instead, they wait.

Many bouts I've lost against my opponents when I have a tough time trying to work my way in and crack their defense. These same opponents are the ones that sit there absolutely dumbfounded as to what to do when I don't attack. Honestly. I've wasted 30 seconds in a round when I just decided to break off my offense and wait. I wait. And the opponent just throws fireballs. Crouches. Spasmically crouches and stands, waiting to execute an uppercut incase I jump in. I don't. They wait some more. Then I get fed up and go in to attack, and get hit by a shoryuken.

The Solution:

As hard as I try to fight with El Fuerte, I have a very tough time winning. Out of a random lot, I lose against around seven opponents to every one I defeat. The ones I defeat offer me no sense of gratification because, honestly, they don't know how to play!

With Sakura, I can win against more of the people I fight. It's a hard battle, but I try to work my way through their defense, and her abilities to combo and punish work well when I do land something. However, there are some opponents that I just cannot crack.

Sagat.

This was the last straw. Out of frustration I chose Sagat, who I really never used before in my life. I worked HARD as hell using El Fuerte, and I had to work a little bit less with Sakura to win.

I won almost every round I played using Sagat. How? I backed off, and threw tiger shot after tiger shot. Then when they get cheeky and try to approach, a nice tiger uppercut or tiger knee knocks them back into tiger shot range. By simply staying back and throwing fireballs, I was able to defeat 80% of my opponents without so much as breaking sweat.

The Challenge Mode stages against the CPU were very difficult to play using Sakura, and even more so as El Fuerte. On stages where I struggled to beat 3 opponents, Sagat was easily able to take down 10 with me hardly even trying.

Multiplayer data: I stopped around 1000BP. I hovered around 500-900BP, winning some and losing some. Using El Fuerte, the only opponents I surely beat were those with 0BP (or sub-100BP). Using Sakura, I could defeat opponents around 800BP. Using Sagat, I could beat opponents with 2000BP, and probably higher, except there aren't that many to fight.

The sum of this rant: Offense is punished. Defense is rewarded. Sagat is so overpowered, I feel like I'm cheating when I pick him.