Friday, August 19, 2011
Alice in 3 Parts: Part 3
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Alice in 3 Parts: Part 2
I may not dress like a goth girl, wear dark makeup like a goth girl, or write depressing poetry like a goth girl, but I've always been more into the darker side of things, which is why a dark, grown-up version of Alice in Wonderland appeals to me.
When this game was first released, we weren't sure whether we wanted to get it. D. probably wanted it more than I did, because I had originally attempted to play the first game on the good ol' PC and was less than impressed by it (see previous post). There would have to be a mountainload of changes for me to think highly of Madness. The review I read in Game Informer didn't help. They gave it a 6.75 out of 10, and claimed that the original Alice game was far better, but I just don't get it. They, along with other reviewers, had a lot of nasty comments to say about Madness Returns, but I absolutely loved the game. I didn't run into any level glitches, and I guess I was so busy enjoying Wonderland to notice grainy textures. True, I don't play games just to review them, so maybe I'm not so jaded. When I pick up a game I'm looking to enjoy myself, not pick it apart piece by piece. So the frustrations reviewers experience, I simply didn't notice.
Alice herself is well-designed, a truly beautiful character. Each level in Wonderland has Alice in a matching dress. The art style is just wonderful. In a nod to its predecessor, there are familiarities in this game that people who played the original might recognize and enjoy, but there is enough new ground here that it doesn't feel stale or overused. My favorite part of the game was the level design. Alice can shrink at will, locating hidden pathways and traversing keyholes to obtain collectibles. She also has a triple jump ability, letting her glide through the air. This doesn't make the game overly easy by any means, but it helps ease frustration, especially if you die--usually you'll respawn right on the ledge you jumped off of.
The game makes use of minigames, breaks in the regular routine of things that annoyed some people. I honestly didn't mind them, and they aren't so overwhelming that they take precedence. I think too many people expect too much out of games these days. Alice: Madness Returns is simply a fun experience, and a breath of fresh air after attempting the original game. If I had to give it a score: 8.5 out of 10.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Alice in 3 Parts: Part I
At one point I owned an original copy of the game for the PC, but I'll admit I installed it, tried playing a few minutes of it, and gave up in frustration over the horrible control scheme. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a PC gamer, so if the controls are too hard to use, forget it. Cheap deaths do not make a game more challenging. At the time, I couldn't understand how anyone could expect a person to play a platforming game on the PC. I'm a casual PC gamer...I didn't even own a PC compatible controller at the time, and playing with a keyboard and mouse is generally not my idea of fun. So my earliest exploits into American McGee's Wonderland were unsuccessful.
Fast forward, eleven years later. A sequel (Alice: Madness Returns) is released. As an added bonus, EA offered a code to download the original game for free. Pretty sweet deal, right? Well, you'd think so. It took me about three hours to download Alice, and probably another half an hour to install it, plus the files for Alice: Madness Returns. So sitting down to give Alice another quick go was another exercise in frustration, but since it was released for my favorite system, and I got it for free I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. Maybe using a controller I was comfortable with would help me get over my previous dislike of the game.
I was wrong.
This game is terrible. Sure I like the character designs, but using a controller doesn't improve the control scheme at all. Jumping is difficult at best, and cheap deaths still abounded. To add to my mounting frustrations, I found myself having to save after every single jump since there isn't an autosave feature. I guess I'd expected the game to be updated a little, but it was a straight port of the old PC game, clunky features and all. The later levels were difficult to navigate, especially the mazes in Queensland, but the kicker is that I finally gave up at the Jabberwocky boss battle: Part 2. No matter what I tried, I died in one hit. I couldn't get any momentum going against this guy, and I must have died and reloaded at least fifty times. Talk about frustrating. Especially once I discovered that I was really close to the end of the game.
The battle system is completely terrible, as is the camera and the jumping. I liked the crazy weapons Alice collected, but after acquiring quite a few, I became overwhelmed. Why are there so many? And since there aren't any number keys on a PS3 controller, I had to scroll through the list with the D-pad.
The only reason I really sat down to play this game is because I thought Madness Returns might not make much sense without playing through the game the first time. However, that's not the case. I didn't really see much of a story in the original Alice game--Madness does a much better job at weaving a story into the gameplay.
My suggestion? Skip American McGee's Alice altogether. You're not missing much.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Completion of inFAMOUS 2
- I still managed to fall through walls and fences, though I never actually ended up inside a building as I did in the first game.
- At one point I was fighting ice soldiers near the ice tower and had just defeated a Crusher that was positioned on the second level, near a railing. The game kept replaying his death animation over and over, for about five or six times until it finally straightened up and let me continue blasting bad guys.
- A couple of times, I'd complete a certain part of a quest, only it didn't register on the game. The most memorable incident occurred in my evil playthrough, during a sidequest where I was throwing cars at Nix. I threw one, but the quest didn't update my objective, so I couldn't continue. I had to restart the mission and go from there. I also had missions where the guy I was following died. With no way to move forward, I had to restart the mission.
Monday, July 11, 2011
inFAMOUS 2
Friday, July 8, 2011
Dungeon Siege III
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Becoming inFAMOUS
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
First Post!
Hello, and welcome to a A Girl Gamer's Perspective on the video game industry. I'm sure there are probably plenty of blogs out there with similar themes or ideas, but here's the crucial thing about me: I'm a writer. A three-time published author to be exact. I have a drive to create, and that drive makes me keep trying new things until something sticks. This blog used to be dedicated to "House Hazards," otherwise known as renovations, but I realized I didn't have the time, money or desire to put into keeping that blog updated, let alone finding projects to do around the house.
Aside from writing, my other main passion is video gaming. This is something I generally have a hard time admitting to people, because many people still view this as mainly a 'boy's hobby,' or they think that people that play games don't have a life. The latter might be true, as video games are a big part of my life. Luckily both my husband and I are gamers, so we understand that need in each other to gain the next level, beat the next boss, or achieve the next trophy. I also grew up with two younger brothers, so that probably helped contribute to my interest at a young age. I got to enjoy the likes of Super Mario Bros. on the NES, Final Fantasy III on the SNES, and Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation, among other great games, so I grew up with gaming. We even had an Atari, on which I sank mad hours into Pitfall. Even my parents have been known to play the occasional Tetris (Mom) and Operation Wolf (Dad). At this stage, nearly everyone is a 'gamer,' even if you don't classify yourself as such.
An interesting game- related story:
A few months back, I was working overnights for a large retail store. People that work overnights are generally crazy, but not so bad once you get to know them. One night while we were sitting on break, the girl next to me broke out her cell phone to get a few rounds in on a handheld game. I'm not sure what she was playing, but the guy seated across from us asked if she happened to be a girl gamer (he already knew I was). Her response? "Why would you say that?" And she sounded seriously offended, which only served to piss me off. Of course, so did the original question. Just because someone plays the occasional game on their cell phone, can one classify him/her as a gamer? I suppose so, in the broadest sense of the word, but as a more hardcore gamer myself, I tend to be a little elitist. I look down on people who play a phone game for five to ten minutes while they're taking a break, or waiting at the airport, or waiting for their food at a restaurant. But that's really beside the point. She didn't have to get all offended, as if that's the worst thing someone could call her.
A little note on the background I chose:
I'm currently re-reading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, following along with Suzanne Johnson from Tor.com (http://www.tor.com/features/series/a-read-of-the-dark-tower) as she reads the books for the first time. This series is easily my favorite of King's works, so the gunslinger in the header kind of spoke to me. The template is actually called "GameDude." There's a bit of irony for you!