So I played some Dead Space the one day I broadcasted it on on Twitch, I thought it wasn’t a bad game at all. I think one of the things that creeped me out about it were some of the creatures that would jump out at me lol. I just provided a clip below from one of my twitch streams just as a prime example of that.
Over all I think the game over all is amazing and I think EA did pretty good on it, I haven’t played any the others yet as I’m still in the process of completing the first one, but once I’m done with that one I’ll be moving on straight to the other ones.
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Cuphead, for me, was one of the first games in years which immediately brought me back to my childhood. Yeah, okay, I’ll explain. Its difficulty is fast and demanding. The game doesn’t hold back on the player, but instead provides the routines, elements, and boss attacks, and asks you to: watch, play, and learn.
A game as difficult as this is not something I typically gravitate to - I lack the patience and resolve. But Cuphead gave me just enough that I felt compelled, round after round, to try “just one more time”.
I don’t think I had really tackled a challenge like this since I was a kid. I hadn’t dug my heels in the ground, wiped my palms on my jeans, and resolved myself to just. do. this. Since... who knows? This game made that feeling a beautiful necessity that I was happy to indulge.
And this does little to acknowledge the art direction of the game. It undoubtedly reigns King of the castle, if for no other fact that its meticulously hand-drawn animation (directly influenced by 1930′s era cartoons) brings to mind terms like, “zany!”, “wowza!”, “bombastic!”. By today’s standards, it’s pretty common to hear “holy shit - what am I looking at and how is it even possible?!”. Every frame, environment, scene, and boss, has been rendered with such detail and seeming intimate familiarity of its inspiration that it’s hard not to qualify the art direction as flawlessly executed.
The same argument could be made for its gameplay. Cuphead, from head to toe, contains tight controls coupled with smart and challenging rhythms for each boss. It’s a quick and contained mode of gameplay which seems to meld into your brain the more you play. So much so, that while playing co-op, I’d often look down at the controller and have to consciously unstick my thumb, still smashed into the ‘shoot’ button, because, well, I had been dead for 30 seconds or more.
I did find the jumble of chaos to be too much at times, made worse by the fact that Cuphead and his cohort, Mugman, look so damn similar that I’d sometimes confuse them onscreen. However, any setback in difficulty I ultimately contributed to the fact that I just needed to play more. This always made the game seem fair, and heightened my sense of accomplishment when I defeated a level.
Cuphead, as an understatement, is a mighty fine looking game. It’s hard to do it true justice with words because it begs to be experienced in order to appreciate all that it has to offer. From music to art to gameplay, it is the complete package, one which I am keen to enthusiastically share with others.
This doesn’t even take into account that my entire experience of the game was played couch co-op with my sister. This probably transported me back to my childhood more than anything. As we played, we’d coordinate our moves on the screen and talk each other through the challenge, we’d tell each other whether or not we planned to parry, and, if we noticed an enemy was transitioning to its next stage.
We’d scream, and yell at the screen as things became progressively more chaotic. Together, we’d unpeel our hands from the controller and take a deep breath between levels (ahem, deaths). I hadn’t experienced something so tense or exhilarating since the mine cart level in Donkey Kong Country, or, just about anything involving a pissed-off animal in Tomb Raider on PS1.
So, kudos to you, Cuphead. Bravo. (And take your time to luxuriate in this success - I think it’s going to take me a few years to beat this game, so I don’t mind waiting for an encore).
Just a few thoughts on the cast of Final Fantasy XV
So I haven’t played the game yet. I wanted to disclose that first thing. This is my opinion based entirely on my perspective as a gay male. I’m not planning on playing it until at least another week. After NMS, I’m done buying games at launch. ANYWAYS
So I knew a lot of people were very upset about the cast of main characters of Final Fantasy XV when they were revealed. For two entirely different reasons. Straight males were pissed that they were just a “boy band”, and there was no big breasted anime chick with pink hair. Other’s, were upset that there wasn’t any female representation there at all. But I however, am glad they made the cast like that.
Growing up gay and playing video games, it’s always been super apparent just how catered towards straight males had things made for them. There’s always hot babes, and hot chicks. Beat the bad guy, get boobs. Even one of my favorite games of this generation is one of the biggest offenders, The Witcher 3. Even going as far as punishing you decision making wise, for opting out of straight sex scenes, or romantic scenes at all. I didn’t like how the main story was affected just because it made me uncomfortable to have to sit through that.
So when I saw the cast of FFXV, and I saw just how beautiful these boy band members were, I got super excited. Now there’s finally a big AAA game, where there’s fan service for me to enjoy. And they makes me really happy. Despite how depressing life actually is.
Hey, remember that post about waiting a while to do the pacifist run of Undertale?
I lied.
Hell of an ending. I’m a hardcore psycho gamer that has no time for sappy feel-good indie piles, so I was impressed that Undertale resonated emotionally with me.
While it’s not quite as good as Earthbound, it’s a lot closer than any other game that’s tried to ape it. Some of the jokes get annoying, but most of them actually made me laugh. Gameplay is a little on the easy side, but I’m glad that Toby put the effort into making the effort of making engaging gameplay. This is REALLY refreshing in comparison to the glut of indie game developers who hate games and want to be taken seriously as artists while shitting out the most shallow and unengaging stories ever told.
On a final note, I went into this game with absolutely no knowledge of it. The first time I heard of it was when multiple friends told me I HAD to play it, so I put my faith in them and bought it without even looking at the store page. I’m glad I did, if I had known about the whole “You don’t have to kill anyone!” blurb I would have focused on that, which would have made my first runthrough less natural.
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For the most part it’s pretty boring, just grinding up your killcount for each area. Most bosses go down in two hits, although the two that actually fight back put up a HELL of a fight! Took about an hour to take care of Undyne, and 20 tries to take care of Sans. Really exhilarating to make it through those, almost makes up for the rest of the slog. Only character I regret killing is Papyrus, RIP my bestest skeleton friend. My first run-through is still fresh, so I’ll probably sit on it a while before finishing off with a Pacifist run.
this blog is going to loosely be a collection of gaming-related ideas and possibly longer-form reviews, so i thought i'd put a few things down, mostly for my benefit. these are my current opinions, and are obviously subject to change in the future.
in general, my opinion on game writing is: "if it's present, it might as well be good." if this comes across as a lack of enthusiasm for game writing, it isn't so. i absolutely *love* a well-written game, and i'm fully supportive of all efforts to improve game writing in the industry, from a technical standpoint, and absolutely from a sociological standpoint.
what i do not believe is the idea that writing is the savior of gaming. the idea that gaming is at the verge of some grand evolution, the idea that it is a medium waiting for a Citizen Kane moment. in the past ten years, i'd venture that there has been more focus on the plots of games than there ever has been in the history of the medium, and all this effort has resulted in a slew of games that play like bad action films.
maybe that's not so concerning, though. a vast majority of film and fiction is terrible, so what of it if a vast majority of games are terrible?. what IS concerning is what the reputable gaming press consider good. Bioshock. Spec Ops. metafictional games that, at their core, seem to lament the fact that they must be games at all. even if they don't actively fight against their game mechanics, there are still cases like Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: IV, and Max Payne 3; both games commended for "Oscar-grade writing", both games that seem to have absolutely no clue how a game narrative actually functions.
i am nowhere near the first, to accuse most plot-heavy games of being action films where you press buttons a few times in between scenes. i honestly don't care that much- they are trash, (though, sometimes enjoyable trash), and widely recognized as trash. i wish, however, i had a nickel every time a flaw in a metafictional game like Spec Ops is explained away as a commentary on that flaw in other, much less clever games. when our most acclaimed game stories are complaints that writing game stories is too hard, we aren't looking at a vibrant, young medium. we have a stagnant, confused medium that has no idea what it's future direction should be.
