Hello, Pixlbiters! Hope everyone is doing ok!
This past weekend I wrapped up my 2nd playthrough of Ratchet & Clank's Up Your Arsenal. I didn't collect all of the Platinum & Gold bolts, didn't level up all of my weapons....but I did acquire the RYNO 3. I still love the game and I'm keeping it on my PS3 in case I feel nostalgic.
This past week, I've spent almost every day at home going through the Tomb Raider reboot campaign. I bought the game back when it was last on sale for $21 and for whatever reason I wanted to try it out. Some people loved it, some hated it and that may have depended on whether or not you were familiar to the series before. I'm not and for reasons passing understanding I've never played a TR game before. While there are plenty of elements that I've seen in other games, I think the developers did a good job of harnessing the familiar and making a fun gaming experience. The look of the island and level design is gorgeous and well detailed, there's great sound design and I for one found the combat to be a lot of fun, once you got used to it. I thought the mo-cap and voicework performances were well done (bravo, Camilla Luddington).
The tone of the game is weird and schiznophrenic, though. It tries to be deadly serious but there are plenty of campy moments as well. Far Cry 3 did a far better job of demonstrating how mass murder (even when its mostly self defense) truly changed the protagonist but to be fair, it put that dark theme front and center. I'm not the kind of person who gets hung up about characters killing a bunch of people. They're fucking games, people. None of this shit is real. These asshole henchmen had it coming anyway. However, I can't make the same case for the many rabbits and rats that I shot; I kinda feel bad about that. Eh....thanks for the weapon upgrades!
With those 2 out of the way, I can finally focus on my rental copy of The Last of Us. So far, it's been a worthwhile experience. I can handle the stealth (the sneaking part anyway) but I fuck up the combat so much; I must have played that first encounter with the Clicker and those 4 runners 15 times before I wised up. So far, everything about this game has just wonderfully fell into place: the despair, the humanity, the depravity and the little tinge of hope.
I don't know who else here listens to the Radio Free Nintendo podcast but one or two of its hosts have been talking about TLOS and dismissed this game as a reskinned Uncharted. Just shut the fuck up, you hacks. They are different games. I get it; you're still "burned" by Uncharted 3. Move on, you malcontent goofs.
I really want to buy Assassin's Creed IV but I just don't know when I'll have time for it. Same with Diablo III. I could care less about next-gen systems right now.
Other than gaming, it's been a serious time for movies, especially blu-ray purchases. I bought The Hobbit Exteneded Edition last Tuesday and I'm still making my way through it. Barnes & Noble has restarted their Criterion Collection blu-rays & dvds sale from Nov. 5 through Dec. 2. I just came home with Richard Linklater's Slacker and Dazed & Confused as well as Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. I plan to make more stops before the sale is over. My wallet is going to kill me.
And next week, it's Man Of Steel on blu-ray. I'm so fucking pumped for this.
Anyway, enough rambling from me. Take care, everyone!
Sure,TLOS is going to be somewhat like Uncharted. It's made by the same team and it's a third person adventure game. But I think "atmosphere" and "narrative" can give two games of the same genre very different vibes. For example, RE 6 and Alan Wake have similar elements but I certainly wouldn't say one is the clone of the other.
The same pedigree may be involved but they also play differently in addition to the difference in tone and narrative. My disgust aside, I just think the RFN host that was talking about lacked the ability to express what irked him about the game so he took a lazy route and made that comparison. I shouldn't listen to a Nintendo-centric program for viewpoints on Sony games but those things can creep up.
I recall an episode of Nintendo World Report where the hosts verbally took a shit on the Vita a year after its release. NWR is a sister podcast to the other one. There's a strange, hostile view of Sony over there.
I imagine the stealth sets TLOS apart from Uncharted a great deal. I haven't played either game truthfully but impressions have led me to believe you have to be much more "careful" in TLOS.
I do remember there was a time when game journalism in general was being pretty harsh towards Japanese games & Japanese consoles unless an article dealt with "old school nostalgia".
Even if an American/Canadian game released on a system from Nintendo or Sony it would get pissed on.
It's been a tad better lately though. lol. As for these "journalists" you mention?? Maybe they're simply spoiled and jaded.
If they didn't simply like the game, that's fine, but don't be so snide and dismiss it just because certain elements are familiar. They're Nintendo fans: they should be perfectly comfortable with that trope. ;)
I really enjoyed the TR remake. I was never into the series until the reboot. As for R&C: UYA, yay for the RYNO 3!. I have played the first two many, many, many times, but UYA only twice. That sewer section is something else, took me forever to find all the bolts down there, but it was an excellent place to farm for bolts and level up my weapons.
That sewer section is so massive but it became better once you acquired the gravity boots and the map-o-matic (think that's what it was called). Such a great way to upgrade and get bolts.
thanks for the heads up on the Criterion blurays!
My pleasure. I'm sure their sales happen only twice a year so it's always best to take advantage of it.
My buddy from way up north came back to the area this week and we saw Thor: The Dark somethingorother. Meh. We were joking it was like Star Wars: Phantom Menace because you never really cared about any of the characters, and then we both realized we were looking at Natalie Portman, and then we laughed, it was even more like Phantom Menace. Ha! Anyway, he mentioned possibly watching that Hobbit: Extended Edition. So we might do that.
Up Your Arsenal is awesome, but I have always preferred Going Commando. I should really figure out where I hid those games.
I picked up Naked Lunch and Videodrome the last time B&N had that sale. Cronenberg made some pretty awesome and bizarre films.
I should pick up Videodrome next time I go back. I'm already considering future picks, which I'm sure will change.
Whatever you do, avoid Sweet Movie like the plague. It ruined the Criterion Collection for me for a while...
People usually attritube that title to Armageddon. :)
I did not realize that was part of the Criterion Collection. I do not see how that film even fits the bill to be considered part of the Collection. It isn't foreign, it is not bizarre, and unless I am mistaken, it is not even critically acclaimed...
I do not even know where to begin when describing Sweet Movie. It is a foreign film from the 70s that was banned in a lot of countries.
Armageddon was an early release (early 00's, I think) and while it was a well-produced set (yes, I did own it at one point) it seemed uncharacteristic even then. Criterion even put out an edition for The Rock. I think Criterion did that to boost sales and bring awareness to their brand to customers who probably didn't know about them by marketing titles like that.
