Media Impressions March
Been playing and watching a bunch of things but haven't had the time to finish them.
Games:
Deus Ex: Human Revolution:
This is actually the kind of cyberpunk story driven game I've been looking for, it's a sci-fi game about the advancement of humans by merging themselves with technology and the possible side effects, reliance problems and the new class divide it could create.
The graphics are great and it actually shows they had artistic aspirations and art direction, which is something I wish more games would do, unfortunately the performance isn't exactly the best.
There's a lot of chatting to people and interesting decisions to make, even your combat actions and exploration effect what people say and think about you.
One thing I really like is how much they make the game mechanics into something that's actually part of the game, upgrades that give you new abilities are augments and all of the HUD is due to your eye augmentation.
Alan Wake:
Another game that's quite close to experiences I've wanted from games for a while, it's about a writer who's suffering from writer's block, goes on a holiday and then strange things start happening and his wife goes missing.
The story is told through narration and various pages around the environment telling you about things that haven't happened yet, which is really cool when you suddenly find yourself in those events.
The controls feel a bit clunky because of the third person perspective and I suspect the smooth animation is causing it as well, I wish the combat was focused around the light play you use to weaken enemies because that would have been something different instead of still relying on guns, those guns don't have a reticule either so you have try and aim with the center of the flash light.
Brütal Legend
It's pretty much Heavy Metal: The Game which makes it awesome, a lot of people talk about some horrible RTS element, so far it's just been squad commands which isn't too bad.
The combat isn't that great so far but I'm sure it'll get better once I unlock new moves.
The soundtrack is cool but it should have had a portable player for the track selection instead of only being available in the car.
Spec Ops: The Line
So far it seems like an incredibly linear game because it threw you straight into the action with a helicopter turret sequence, I know what the game is meant to be about so I doubt it'll shock me or anything but I have a feeling it's not going to be executed as well as everyone says it is. At least it looks kind of pretty so far but I'm sure that'll be twisted around at some point.
Anime:
Noein:
It's an anime series about a girl called Haruka who has the ability to distort time and space and a war between two future dimensions trying to find Haruka who could collapse all the different timelines into one.
It's a nice exploration of many worlds theory of quantum physics, the effects our decisions in the past have on the future and also a bit of time travel, it really made me realise how infinite alternate dimensions really would be.
It looks a lot simpler compared to other shows and has some 3D animation going on that doesn't always fit in, it also lacks consistency in the animation quality which is kind of a shame because I like the style.
Guilty Crown:
Is about a boy who gains the power to draw out weapons from people in the form of voids, he then finds himself involved with the rebels who are trying to fight for Japan's independence from the GHQ.
It strays into some cliches but I'm really glad that it doesn't spend whole episodes on boring school activities and instead focuses on the much more interesting rebellion that's going on.
The art and animation is much better than I was expecting and makes some great use of colour and composition.
Games:
Deus Ex: Human Revolution:
This is actually the kind of cyberpunk story driven game I've been looking for, it's a sci-fi game about the advancement of humans by merging themselves with technology and the possible side effects, reliance problems and the new class divide it could create.
The graphics are great and it actually shows they had artistic aspirations and art direction, which is something I wish more games would do, unfortunately the performance isn't exactly the best.
There's a lot of chatting to people and interesting decisions to make, even your combat actions and exploration effect what people say and think about you.
One thing I really like is how much they make the game mechanics into something that's actually part of the game, upgrades that give you new abilities are augments and all of the HUD is due to your eye augmentation.
Alan Wake:
Another game that's quite close to experiences I've wanted from games for a while, it's about a writer who's suffering from writer's block, goes on a holiday and then strange things start happening and his wife goes missing.
The story is told through narration and various pages around the environment telling you about things that haven't happened yet, which is really cool when you suddenly find yourself in those events.
The controls feel a bit clunky because of the third person perspective and I suspect the smooth animation is causing it as well, I wish the combat was focused around the light play you use to weaken enemies because that would have been something different instead of still relying on guns, those guns don't have a reticule either so you have try and aim with the center of the flash light.
Brütal Legend
It's pretty much Heavy Metal: The Game which makes it awesome, a lot of people talk about some horrible RTS element, so far it's just been squad commands which isn't too bad.
The combat isn't that great so far but I'm sure it'll get better once I unlock new moves.
The soundtrack is cool but it should have had a portable player for the track selection instead of only being available in the car.
Spec Ops: The Line
So far it seems like an incredibly linear game because it threw you straight into the action with a helicopter turret sequence, I know what the game is meant to be about so I doubt it'll shock me or anything but I have a feeling it's not going to be executed as well as everyone says it is. At least it looks kind of pretty so far but I'm sure that'll be twisted around at some point.
Anime:
Noein:
It's an anime series about a girl called Haruka who has the ability to distort time and space and a war between two future dimensions trying to find Haruka who could collapse all the different timelines into one.
It's a nice exploration of many worlds theory of quantum physics, the effects our decisions in the past have on the future and also a bit of time travel, it really made me realise how infinite alternate dimensions really would be.
It looks a lot simpler compared to other shows and has some 3D animation going on that doesn't always fit in, it also lacks consistency in the animation quality which is kind of a shame because I like the style.
Guilty Crown:
Is about a boy who gains the power to draw out weapons from people in the form of voids, he then finds himself involved with the rebels who are trying to fight for Japan's independence from the GHQ.
It strays into some cliches but I'm really glad that it doesn't spend whole episodes on boring school activities and instead focuses on the much more interesting rebellion that's going on.
The art and animation is much better than I was expecting and makes some great use of colour and composition.
Comments
Post a Comment