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.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Doos Eks
I read an article about this recently, and found it to be true, that there is always that one really big hit of game that you missed playing for whatever reason. I recently came into possession of the entire Deus Ex series, and have found them to be quite enjoyable. I missed the series the first time around, because I just really wasn't ever a PC gamer, and the fact that I have always entertained a PC that was less than gaming worthy in my days. Fortunately with technology constantly doubling it is easier to get a PC that can play more games for less money. My current laptop is nothing to write home about,(especially when compared to my roomate's monster alienware laptop) but it is more than capable of playing alot of the hits of yesteryear via Steam and other online resources. I had always heard good things about Deus Ex so when Steam launched their massive holiday sale I figured even if it didn't run or wasn't good the six dollar price tag for a full game wouldn't kill me. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised , as the game started up and ran without a hitch, and with no lag or slowdown. Finally I would get to try this game I had heard so many good things about.
Set in a dystopian future Deus Ex puts you in control of anti terrorist agent JC Denton, as he embarks on a long quest full of guns, conspiracy, and action. The game was praised especially for the myriad of options players had to conquer objectives, and while this is true I felt like the game pushed toward certain ways more than others. For example, players usually can opt to go in gunning, but without at least a little stealth and hiding, more often than not you will find yourself killed very quickly. Either way its only a minor complaint and once you get the skills you want to use in place, and a method of operating your JC down pat the game should move relatively smoothly for you. One more problem I found was there are a few too many situations where you can get insta killed, and many times you have no idea its coming. Also you had better be at least two football fields away from any kind of explosion or you'll be blowing up with whatever it is, or at least taking a ton of damage.
On a more positive note, the game's story while sometimes confusing, can be influenced by your actions and give you a varied experience each time you play. There are several instances where you can fight and kill a certain character, or just run from them and depending on your actions they may show up later to trouble you again. It makes sense yes, but think of how few games let you run from an encounter and actually give you ramifications for letting that boss live later on. Probably more so now than when Deus Ex first hit shelves, so for the time this was a relatively big deal.
Within the game you will also find a fair assortment of weapons and gadgets. You've got your hacking tools, your lockpicks, and of course weapons. Weapons are divided up based on weight and usage and you have a different skill level for each. You also may find weapon upgrades that you can buy and put on a certain weapon. This doesn't mean your weapons are set however. You can drop anything in your inventory at almost any time really and never pick it up again.
There's really just too much crazy stuff to mention here. After playing the game you can be in on certain in community jokes like "what a shame" and "A BOMB?" I'd give this game my recommendation. Its a bit dated now but the game play is still solid and definitely worth the time of going through.
Set in a dystopian future Deus Ex puts you in control of anti terrorist agent JC Denton, as he embarks on a long quest full of guns, conspiracy, and action. The game was praised especially for the myriad of options players had to conquer objectives, and while this is true I felt like the game pushed toward certain ways more than others. For example, players usually can opt to go in gunning, but without at least a little stealth and hiding, more often than not you will find yourself killed very quickly. Either way its only a minor complaint and once you get the skills you want to use in place, and a method of operating your JC down pat the game should move relatively smoothly for you. One more problem I found was there are a few too many situations where you can get insta killed, and many times you have no idea its coming. Also you had better be at least two football fields away from any kind of explosion or you'll be blowing up with whatever it is, or at least taking a ton of damage.
On a more positive note, the game's story while sometimes confusing, can be influenced by your actions and give you a varied experience each time you play. There are several instances where you can fight and kill a certain character, or just run from them and depending on your actions they may show up later to trouble you again. It makes sense yes, but think of how few games let you run from an encounter and actually give you ramifications for letting that boss live later on. Probably more so now than when Deus Ex first hit shelves, so for the time this was a relatively big deal.
Within the game you will also find a fair assortment of weapons and gadgets. You've got your hacking tools, your lockpicks, and of course weapons. Weapons are divided up based on weight and usage and you have a different skill level for each. You also may find weapon upgrades that you can buy and put on a certain weapon. This doesn't mean your weapons are set however. You can drop anything in your inventory at almost any time really and never pick it up again.
There's really just too much crazy stuff to mention here. After playing the game you can be in on certain in community jokes like "what a shame" and "A BOMB?" I'd give this game my recommendation. Its a bit dated now but the game play is still solid and definitely worth the time of going through.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Torentsu Games 2 The Return
Hey gang I'm back after a long absence to bring you the best in gaming. Forgive me for my departure but its been quite the busy Christmas season. I also picked up quite a few new games this holiday season, which I'm sure you'll get to hear me talk about in the upcoming entries. Lets see if I can get the full list from memory here:
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Deus Ex
Deux Ex Invisible War
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Star Wars KOTOR
The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (technically got in November as a gift from a friend)
I think that's everything. As you can see, alot of these are from Steam's amazing holiday sale, which is why I picked up all of these that I did. KOTOR was on sale for an unbeatable 2.42$ and I picked up both Deus Ex 1 and 2 for about 12 dollars total. My computer isn't really the caliber for modern day gaming, but thanks to Steam I was able to pick up a ton of old classics at great prices, without having to go through the trouble of hunting them down. Steam does have its problems, but I really have to give it to them for their exceptional library of old and new games that are seemingly almost always on sale at a great price. I remember that the first Steam game I ever picked up was the original Fallout which was about 5$ during the middle of the year. Anyway here is my official welcome back post for the new year. Expect to see me talking about some of the games above really soon. Probably the Deus Ex series which I have recently discovered and gotten into. Its one of those games I missed the boat on the first time around, but am into and ready to discuss now. Also expect commentary on Skyward Sword, and much more. Now with vitamin C and no MSG!
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Deus Ex
Deux Ex Invisible War
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Star Wars KOTOR
The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (technically got in November as a gift from a friend)
I think that's everything. As you can see, alot of these are from Steam's amazing holiday sale, which is why I picked up all of these that I did. KOTOR was on sale for an unbeatable 2.42$ and I picked up both Deus Ex 1 and 2 for about 12 dollars total. My computer isn't really the caliber for modern day gaming, but thanks to Steam I was able to pick up a ton of old classics at great prices, without having to go through the trouble of hunting them down. Steam does have its problems, but I really have to give it to them for their exceptional library of old and new games that are seemingly almost always on sale at a great price. I remember that the first Steam game I ever picked up was the original Fallout which was about 5$ during the middle of the year. Anyway here is my official welcome back post for the new year. Expect to see me talking about some of the games above really soon. Probably the Deus Ex series which I have recently discovered and gotten into. Its one of those games I missed the boat on the first time around, but am into and ready to discuss now. Also expect commentary on Skyward Sword, and much more. Now with vitamin C and no MSG!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Gaming for the Holidays
Hello gang didn't you miss me? I know I didn't. Anyway I'm back here with another blog entry about gaming for these holidays. Its only November, but I already have a ton of gaming related crap to get caught up on (even in Skryim and I've done alot with that already!) My next two gaming conquest will probably be the much anticipated Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Saints Row The Third. I am bound to play a mainstream Zelda console release no matter what, and I just have to see how wacky and all out they went with Saints Row 3 . I was a big fan of SR2 because it was a sandbox game that let you do what everyone wanted to do, and of course that is run around and cause needless chaos in everything from hot dog trucks, to flying saucers. The game also does not take itself seriously, which is a somewhat rarity in the sandbox crime games these days. Oddly enough I already know exactly what to expect with Zelda. ( Running around in dungeons one of which will be fire themed, a forest themed one, and probably a water one among others)yet I'm going to play it anyway, and I will most definitely enjoy it(my face when it overtakes Ocarina of Time (cue trollface.jpg)).
As an aside now that the semester is winding down and free time will start popping up sporadically I've been getting into several oldschool CPS2 fighters lately, which started with me and my old internet pal in crime Sabin playing some Street Fighter 3 online(which is yes I know a CPS3 game). One CPS2 game I'd love to see get an all new non rehash entry is Darkstalkers, as it seems as of late the only real attention it has gotten was that PSP version a few years ago.
Either way until I get my hands on Skyward Sword, and Saints Row I'll be hitting up the excellent Skryim and some more Castlevania HD.
DO YOU VISIT THE CLOUD DISTRICT OFTEN? WHAT AM I SAYING OF COURSE YOU DON'T.
As an aside now that the semester is winding down and free time will start popping up sporadically I've been getting into several oldschool CPS2 fighters lately, which started with me and my old internet pal in crime Sabin playing some Street Fighter 3 online(which is yes I know a CPS3 game). One CPS2 game I'd love to see get an all new non rehash entry is Darkstalkers, as it seems as of late the only real attention it has gotten was that PSP version a few years ago.
Either way until I get my hands on Skyward Sword, and Saints Row I'll be hitting up the excellent Skryim and some more Castlevania HD.
DO YOU VISIT THE CLOUD DISTRICT OFTEN? WHAT AM I SAYING OF COURSE YOU DON'T.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Skryim First Impressions
So in my quest to thwart Microsoft and play Skyrim I had a curious idea to use a friend's xbox to put the game on my hard drive and play it from that. No doubt when I swap the systems back out I'll be greeted with my old pal the E66 screen, but either way this morning gave me a little time to try out Skyrim and see what its like for myself.
Right away players will notice that the game world feels much much more alive than Oblivion. While Oblivion had a good bit of stuff going on, Skyrim blows it out of the water. Characters look a lot sharper and more refined, a far cry from the pudgy sometimes puppet like characters of Oblivion. Everyone's favorite beast races have also undergone several aesthetic changes, which will make them much more pleasing to the eye, and more fun to play. Now granted I am only 3 hours into this game (and pretty much just on the main quest), but in that time I've done everything from fight dragons and bandits, to see a ram get ambushed by a bear(which promptly turned its sights on me). The gameplay is all there so far, and the mechanics have been improved as well. So far I've been unable to find a hotkey system for spells, which so far is my only complaint. Oh yeah improvements. For one thing the HUD has been minimized to show only what you need at the moment. It really gives more of an epic feel to pop the game into 3rd person and see your character in his armor of choice scaling a mountain on an epic adventure to wherever you want to go! I'm sure I'll have more to say once I get my Xbox situation situated which will hopefully mean a new model in the coming weeks. I almost hate to buy a new one but with the holiday season coming I know they will be on sale SOMEWHERE. This time I'm buying new. Never again will I buy a used console that I don't know the owner of. Its just screwed me too many times. The new gneration of consoles has brought us so much but look at all the pitfalls. Never did I ever have to worry about picking up a new NES or Gameboy and getting home to find my console won't play it. It was just never an issue, but now for all our technology and big business's concern for getting every dollar we quickly might be screwing ourselves out of the gaming of the old days.
You are Gamerborn! The legend says you can play games and complain about them on the internet!
Right away players will notice that the game world feels much much more alive than Oblivion. While Oblivion had a good bit of stuff going on, Skyrim blows it out of the water. Characters look a lot sharper and more refined, a far cry from the pudgy sometimes puppet like characters of Oblivion. Everyone's favorite beast races have also undergone several aesthetic changes, which will make them much more pleasing to the eye, and more fun to play. Now granted I am only 3 hours into this game (and pretty much just on the main quest), but in that time I've done everything from fight dragons and bandits, to see a ram get ambushed by a bear(which promptly turned its sights on me). The gameplay is all there so far, and the mechanics have been improved as well. So far I've been unable to find a hotkey system for spells, which so far is my only complaint. Oh yeah improvements. For one thing the HUD has been minimized to show only what you need at the moment. It really gives more of an epic feel to pop the game into 3rd person and see your character in his armor of choice scaling a mountain on an epic adventure to wherever you want to go! I'm sure I'll have more to say once I get my Xbox situation situated which will hopefully mean a new model in the coming weeks. I almost hate to buy a new one but with the holiday season coming I know they will be on sale SOMEWHERE. This time I'm buying new. Never again will I buy a used console that I don't know the owner of. Its just screwed me too many times. The new gneration of consoles has brought us so much but look at all the pitfalls. Never did I ever have to worry about picking up a new NES or Gameboy and getting home to find my console won't play it. It was just never an issue, but now for all our technology and big business's concern for getting every dollar we quickly might be screwing ourselves out of the gaming of the old days.
You are Gamerborn! The legend says you can play games and complain about them on the internet!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
How Microsoft stole Skyrim.
Hello gang its your pal Torentsu here with another tale of disappoint me. So I pretty much have the best girlfriend ever. She got me a copy of Skyrim for my birthday and gave it to me early because she knew how much I wanted to play it. Anyway I got home just a few hours ago and excitedly turned it on to be slapped with the E66 error I had been previously given a few weeks ago. You see my Xbox is used, so whoever had it last obviously had a disk read error and the idiot (probably Microsoft) swapped the disk drive out without flashing it to the correct checksum. Thus when the new disk upgrade update came out I got slapped with an Error 66 and accused of being a software modder/pirate by the smug moron on the other end of the Xbox help line. Thus they refuse to fix my xbox, and I couldn't get online cause of the stupid update.
Flash foward a few weeks my two roommates and I start messing around with the Xbox hardware. One roomate had an old red ringed xbox so we decided to swap the disk drives and see what would happen. Sure enough I was able to successfully install the update. I'd have left that drive in but for some reason the old one refuses to actually play games, only DVDs. Either way I was back in business. Fast foward several months to the release of Skyrim. If Skyrim is in my Xbox it instantly red rings with E66. I'm not going to bother calling them, I know what they are going to say. Essentially my only option is to get a new Xbox. This may just be what I get for buying used, but at the same time its utter BS. I've been googling around and this same error is happening to some people who are using an out of the box Xbox. Despite this there seems to be no help coming from MS. They are much too worried about combating the small percent of people pirating Xbox games (vs the amount they are losing from used game sales ) . Either way I can safely say Sony will be getting my purchase when the next generation of consoles has come out. I'll most likely pay a bit more down front, but considering al lthe crap I had to get for my xbox, the fees to play online, and the poor poor treatment from customer service I will gladly skip taco bell a few weeks and pick up a PS3 instead.
Flash foward a few weeks my two roommates and I start messing around with the Xbox hardware. One roomate had an old red ringed xbox so we decided to swap the disk drives and see what would happen. Sure enough I was able to successfully install the update. I'd have left that drive in but for some reason the old one refuses to actually play games, only DVDs. Either way I was back in business. Fast foward several months to the release of Skyrim. If Skyrim is in my Xbox it instantly red rings with E66. I'm not going to bother calling them, I know what they are going to say. Essentially my only option is to get a new Xbox. This may just be what I get for buying used, but at the same time its utter BS. I've been googling around and this same error is happening to some people who are using an out of the box Xbox. Despite this there seems to be no help coming from MS. They are much too worried about combating the small percent of people pirating Xbox games (vs the amount they are losing from used game sales ) . Either way I can safely say Sony will be getting my purchase when the next generation of consoles has come out. I'll most likely pay a bit more down front, but considering al lthe crap I had to get for my xbox, the fees to play online, and the poor poor treatment from customer service I will gladly skip taco bell a few weeks and pick up a PS3 instead.
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