Braid may not be my favorite game of all time, and I wouldn't even know how to fit it in there, but the experience of the whole thing, from earning each puzzle piece to deciphering the final one, hinted at by the cryptic epilogue, combined with the gorgeous graphics, fun gameplay mechanics, and superior soundtrack makes for one of the most complete games I have ever played.
After seeing the final scene play out in earnest, I had to stop and take in what just happened...
If the demo is any indication, even the game's loot and Diablo-rificness isn't enough to compel me to play it, even if I rented it. It's just missing too many components to be enjoyable.
When Ninja Gaiden II is the game you play to relax and unwind from all those other "hard" games, you're doing something wrong.
Seriously, get this: My gaming diet lately has consisted of...
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Soulcalibur IV
Unreal Tournament III
Tiger Woods '08
Ninja Gaiden II
Out of all of those games last night, the only one that wasn't infuriating me completely was, oddly enough, übertough Ninja Gaiden II. I progressed about 4 stages in a couple hours, completed a couple of tests of valor, and even unlocked both of the "do 1,000 of this" achievements within about 2 minutes of one another. But again, this is the game that chilled me out, so what had me all pissed off?
I finished Unreal Tournament III on Normal last night, and it was pretty easy, but the only difficulty that was going to net me any more achievements was Insane, and so without thinking twice about it, I flicked up a new campaign on the highest difficulty...and proceeded to lose the first match 5 to 10. Ouch. The game pressed on anyway, but now I have to actually WIN to progress, so that's going to be a problem...especially when I only got 2 kills in a 40-kill team deathmatch. I sincerely think that, on this difficulty, the game outright cheats. On more than 5 occasions, I tailed bots that didn't know I was there, but as I rounded the corner to chase them, a burst of flak was already headed my way, before I had even shown up. On top of that, the AI can turn faster than me even with my sensitivity turned up, because it doesn't matter how fast you're spinning, if you start firing your weapon, the game caps your turning speed at a leisurely twirl, which allows the "I-turn-like-I-have-a-mouse" AI to do a 180 and frag my ass. *sigh*
Secondly, I'm trying to beat the Tower of Souls modes in Soulcalibur IV. I have a great, appropriately cheap strategy with a pair of Astaroths that gets me through almost everything, but on floor 59, that Nightmare is just way too clairvoyant, and he counters, parries, and impacts every singly move I have. I can't even outrange him. *sigh* And that's not even considering trying to DESCEND the tower. All I have to say about that is, I HATE THOSE FUCKING CATS!
Geometry Wars is just aggravating because if I'm ever playing, I'm trying to play against my best scores, and so perfection counts. When I don't have it, or I glaze over and ram into a shape I couldn't see, well, let's just say I'm amazed my roommate hasn't told me to shut up yet.
Tiger Woods should also be a leisurely game, but because of the shot confidence system, my swings off the tee can be inconsistent. Take, for example, my game with a friend over the weekend. We were playing Best Ball against a CPU team. On one particular shot. I first sliced the ball out of bounds. The very next shot, I then hooked the ball out of bounds. It's worth noting that my stats are well over 100 apiece right now, and I still managed to *start* that hole on my 5th stroke. Yeah. Leisure my ass.
So, that is why I find the ultra-difficult, extra-punishing difficulty of even Normal on Ninja Gaiden II to be perplexing in just how soothing it is in comparison...
I must be crazy, but the more worrisome question is: why am I gaming angry now? I usually don't... :(
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So, I was moseying around the internet, as I am naturally wont to do, and after some Duke Nukem (sniffle) stumbles from the Duke Nukem High Resolution Texture Pack, I stumbled on to this from somewhere: Knee-Deep in ZDoom
I was intrigued by the minimalist approach to showing off the game, as it showed just enough to whet my appetite, but my curiosity was still roaring hungry, so I downloaded it and its ideal platform, GZDoom, and quickly got to playing.
...and here is the part where I lament being able to tell you just how fucking awesome this mod is...because I'm afraid anything I say will ruin one of the myriad surprises in store for legacy DOOM players, but suffice it to say, Knee Deep in the Dead will NEVER seem as cool once you play this mod.
All you need is GZDoom, Knee-Deep in ZDoom, and the .wad from a retail copy of Doom. Put them all in the same folder, preferably a new one for isolation's sake, and then just drag the Knee-Deep file onto the executable and have fun.
My personal recommendations: Turn off the music, and try to keep the game as dark as you can stand. I usually don't recommend either of those two options, but this time I totally am.
To think: I'm only half done with it, too. ^_^
EDIT: I packed up the game's components for a friend for tomorrow, but I figured, hey, why not share it. So I will.
I love Postal 2 for a great number of reasons. It's a great game for unleashing your frustrations, it's funny, the weapons are rather unique once you get past the guns, but most of all, I love it because you can actually beat the game without killing anyone, and for a game in which you can do horrible things to people on a whim when they take up space in a long line at the bank that you have to wait through to complete an objective, that's pretty awesome. Hell, I don't know of many games out there where you CAN beat it without killing anyone, or at least, without inflicting violence upon them.
Click to see my resultsSo, like any good sport, I gave it a whirl. I wanted to see, to test myself, if I could complete Postal 2 without killing anyone, and for the most part, I was successful, but I did fail in the long run as you can see here. I, in the course of my game, ended up with 2 animals that died by my hand, and I do not recollect when this happened. It was a general policy of mine, as you can see by the "Dogs Befriended" statistic, to have K9 body guards for when hostiles attacked me. I wasn't going to kill anyone, but there's nothing saying I can't have bodyguards to do it for me if the need arises. And yet, somewhere, I killed two dogs. I will have to try again some time. 2 Comments
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