Hey all its your old pal Torentsu. I've been a bit skidish on the blog lately, mainly due to having a lot of stuff going on graduate school wise right now, but I still haven't forgotten this blog or gaming in general.
I know I said I'd talk about all the Tekkens and then Mass Effect 3, and I still am, but before that I just had to post a blog entry about this new game I found called Rusty Hearts. I have indeed finished Mass Effect 3, and trust me I do have a lot to say about it, but for now here's my ideas on Rusty Hearts.
Having finished Mass Effect 3(except for the multiplayer), and still waiting on Guild Wars 2 I've been perusing around online trying to find a game (perhaps even an MMORPG) to kill a little bit of extra time while waiting. I tried picking back up Cabal but it was garbage, and then I downloaded 4Story which I am actually enjoying quite well, but then I found this free to play game called Rusty Hearts on steam.
The game itself plays like a 3D version of Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online. You go from a hub area into dungeons where you fight through waves of monsters while completing certain objectives. Also like DFO are the choices of characters. Each of the characters is a character with different abilities and their own back-stories. There's your sword vampire guy, your quick shooting pistol girl, your big sword girl etc. As of this writing I've tried out two of the characters, that is the basic vampire guy and the gunslinger girl and I enjoyed playing as both of them, but I'm sticking with the sword guy.
The game play is a solid beat em up style adventure, and the game throws hordes of foes at you for you to smack around and as the combo meter goes up, so does the fun! I found myself losing track of time going through the same dungeon over and over for a quest, but still having fun smacking all the enemies around.
As for sound and graphics, I was not disappointed. I have a laptop that is less than equipped for modern gaming, but RH runs like a charm and the characters and backgrounds are all beautifully done. The game uses a Cel shaded style of characters with anime style renderings for characters in menus and conversations. There is also voice acting for the main story, as well several rendered cut scenes that change depending on the dungeon you are in and what your current objective is. Speaking of story the game is almost certainly influenced by Castlevania as you choose to play as one of 4 adventurers who have come to town to uproot the evil count Vlad who has taken over the local castle. The music fits perfectly, and is comprised of faster tunes when needed but often times just right melancholy piano pieces. For any of you that have seen Big 0 you'll find the whole "style" of the music and story very similar.
Best of all RH is completely free to download and play. As seems to be the popular model nowadays players can choose to spend actual cash to buy items from a cash shop, but the game makers claim that given time you can acquire these items in game .
One last thing anyone who reads. If you've ever been interested in some of the more extraordinary origins of some of English's most used words I have to make a quick plug for
http://homewords99.wordpress.com/
Check it out, you might learn something.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tekken 1
Hey gang. I finally caught a moment to update this silly thing. I know I'm going to be busy with schoolwork, and Mass Effect 3 within a few hours, but inspite of this we're going to take a look at the Tekken series game by game for the next few post. To start things off we're going to talk about what else, but Tekken 1.
If you introduced anyone to Tekken 1 today, and they had only played today's fighting games, they might be a little less than impressed to say the least. Tekken as an arcade game had 8 playable characters, a cgi intro a few seconds and on the surface that was it. Each character had their own subboss character, but in the arcade version they were all unplayable, and so was series favorite Heihachi, who functioned as the game's last boss. Despite its lackings and sometimes awkward blocky graphics the original Tekken did alot of things right. Tekken was one of the first 3D fighters to incorporate the endless background. If you look at alot of the first successful 3D fighters (things like Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, Last Bronx etc) they all had you stuck in a cage, or in some sort of ring with leaving it either meaning a loss via ring out, or being stuck on the wall. The original Tekken and later entries in the series utilize stages with a scrolling floor that means you never get to the end of the map. It looks semi bizzare in the earlier entries in the series, but it kind works, and you'll be focused more on the action than the ground anyway.
I won't go into Tekken's sometimes out there storyline too much, but I will say that the first Tekken involves head of the Mishima Financial Group, Heihachi Mishima putting out a tournament who's rules say that whoever wins gets the company. The events of Tekken follow those who have made it to the final. As stated earlier 7 characters, their own nemesisies, and Heihachi himself. This cast ranges from everything from Heihachi's own son Kazuya, to a Bear named Kuma entering the tournament.
The playstation version uses inferior hardware to its arcade counterpart, but this can easily be forgiven because of all the added content. Not only did they make everyone playable, but sub bosses had their movesets updated to make them worth using in the first place as well. If you hack the arcade game(which I've done) to play as boss characters in the arcade version, you'll find their movesets are quite lacking compared to the playstation version. I can guess this is part of the reason why they were not made unlockable. Also exclusive to the PS version of the game is a complete sound remix, which can be toggled on or off in the options menu. Remixed and Original soundtrack would go on to become a staple of the Playstation Tekken series, and the music in Tekken 1 both remixed and arcade style is excellent to begin with, so you'll likely find yourself mixing it up on occasion to hear both types of tunes.
Though sometimes quirky and graphically odd the first Tekken is an excellent start to the series. While not too technical in itself Tekken 1 introduced several longstanding traditions into the series, while at the same time cutting a path for itself in the 3D fighting game market.
If you introduced anyone to Tekken 1 today, and they had only played today's fighting games, they might be a little less than impressed to say the least. Tekken as an arcade game had 8 playable characters, a cgi intro a few seconds and on the surface that was it. Each character had their own subboss character, but in the arcade version they were all unplayable, and so was series favorite Heihachi, who functioned as the game's last boss. Despite its lackings and sometimes awkward blocky graphics the original Tekken did alot of things right. Tekken was one of the first 3D fighters to incorporate the endless background. If you look at alot of the first successful 3D fighters (things like Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, Last Bronx etc) they all had you stuck in a cage, or in some sort of ring with leaving it either meaning a loss via ring out, or being stuck on the wall. The original Tekken and later entries in the series utilize stages with a scrolling floor that means you never get to the end of the map. It looks semi bizzare in the earlier entries in the series, but it kind works, and you'll be focused more on the action than the ground anyway.
I won't go into Tekken's sometimes out there storyline too much, but I will say that the first Tekken involves head of the Mishima Financial Group, Heihachi Mishima putting out a tournament who's rules say that whoever wins gets the company. The events of Tekken follow those who have made it to the final. As stated earlier 7 characters, their own nemesisies, and Heihachi himself. This cast ranges from everything from Heihachi's own son Kazuya, to a Bear named Kuma entering the tournament.
The playstation version uses inferior hardware to its arcade counterpart, but this can easily be forgiven because of all the added content. Not only did they make everyone playable, but sub bosses had their movesets updated to make them worth using in the first place as well. If you hack the arcade game(which I've done) to play as boss characters in the arcade version, you'll find their movesets are quite lacking compared to the playstation version. I can guess this is part of the reason why they were not made unlockable. Also exclusive to the PS version of the game is a complete sound remix, which can be toggled on or off in the options menu. Remixed and Original soundtrack would go on to become a staple of the Playstation Tekken series, and the music in Tekken 1 both remixed and arcade style is excellent to begin with, so you'll likely find yourself mixing it up on occasion to hear both types of tunes.
Though sometimes quirky and graphically odd the first Tekken is an excellent start to the series. While not too technical in itself Tekken 1 introduced several longstanding traditions into the series, while at the same time cutting a path for itself in the 3D fighting game market.
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