Day 2 of Modern Warfare. I’m going to point out again that thus far I have only played the single player story mode of the game. I have been told repeatedly by friends and media that the special ops mode and the multiplayer are excellent, and what I’ve played gives me reason to believe that is true. But the single player story mode is disgusting. I know that’s an odd word to use about a game, but it is the only word that I can use to sum up my feelings about this thing. It’s not a game — I have next to no agency and most of the time the game proceeds no matter what I do. Narrative choices in this play are not only colossally stupid and entirely lacking in agency, but actually foul. The only reason I have not quit the story mode and gone on to the stand alone operations is because I want to see if any of this will make any sense: narratively, aesthetically, or ludologically. Spoilers within.
Chrono Trigger: Final Smack
Let’s say you’re not a JRPG player. Let’s say you’re not even an old school gamer. You don’t know what I mean by SNES. But you like games and you want to make them. PLAY CHRONO TRIGGER NOW. It’s an exemplary game. Mention it to your gamer friends and they will undoubtedly tell you at the very least that they remember it being very good. More likely they will say how it was a seminal game to them, and sparked a love for that crazy genre that lasts until today. Chrono Trigger deserves this praise, and this is coming from someone who once proclaimed the entire field of JRPGs as crap. Everything about the game is well-done, with only minor snags in an otherwise flawless experience. Gushing follows.
– February 8, 2010
Chrono Trigger Days#33: The Final Battle
Day 33 of Chrono Trigger and I complete the game. It’s a major difficult final battle which is tremendous fun, and then a very long set of closing scenes. The game ends as strongly as it began. I honestly cannot say enough good things about it. I can now understand why this was such a seminal game for so many people. It is a masterwork of JRPG design, plain and simple. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– February 8, 2010
Modern Warfare 2 Day#1: Shell Shock
I wasn’t planning on playing Modern Warfare 2, but a friend got it for me (thanks, Doug!) and I decided it was good for my game design chops to play like the best selling game I can remember. Modern Warfare 2 is a strange single player experience. There’s no denying that the game is gorgeous, but the play is very odd in that I often have no idea what is going on or how well I’m doing. I will certainly finish the single player, but it’s not at all what I expected. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– February 7, 2010
Chrono Trigger Days#30, 31, and 32: Beyond Death Mountain
Days 30-32 of Chrono Trigger bring me right up to the edge of the final battle. It’s a lot of clean-up, but the clean-up is filled with both good battles and lots of terrific narrative. This game is incredibly tight; there’s almost no quest in the game that doesn’t connect to a larger objective or advance a party member in a meaningful way. There is no grind in this game, just interesting gameplay the whole way through. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– February 5, 2010
Chrono Trigger Days#27, 28, and 29: Side Quests Across Time
Days 27-29 are basically characterized by my inability to find an objective I’m looking for, and instead completing a bunch of side quests. It’s a longer set of sessions, because I feel I’m closing in on the end. The most interesting thing about this set of session is that they highlight just how terrific the battle design in this game is. The encounters have some much interesting variety and strategic depth that this game should be a model for this kind of design. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– February 5, 2010
Chrono Trigger Days#24, 25, and 26: Prophesies Fulfilled
Days 24-26 are really interesting narrative moments in Chrono Trigger. The party ungoes several changes, and some major plot is revealed about where the main NPCs came from and the danger before us gets much more palpable. The artists in this game show their chops with some truly beautiful moments, but honestly, the prize this time goes to the writers who introduce some plot twists I honestly did not see coming. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– February 4, 2010
Assassin’s Creed 2: Final Smack
Assassin’s Creed 2 is a pretty good sandbox kind of game with pretty good gameplay as a whole. More accurately, it’s some very fun gameplay with some tedious stuff and some downright bad decisions. It’s a mixed bag, but the good stuff (the art of the cities, the Ezio character, the assassinating) is quite good, and I did enjoy the game overall. More info (and some significant spoilers in the comments — don’t read them if you’re still playing) below.
– January 27, 2010
Assassin’s Creed 2 Day#17: Il Mio Obiettivo Finale
Day 17 on Assassin’s Creed 2 and I finish the game. The ending is generally pretty good, although it goes off in a quite weird direction at the end. I go after my final target over basically the whole session with several false endings and lots of narrative explanations. Many fun game sequences there. Also I complete a couple of my long-standing achievement goals to significantly less fanfare than I wanted. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– January 27, 2010
Assassin’s Creed 2 Day#16: Tirare le Sciolti
Day 16 and the game is clearly now approaching an ending. I take out a major target and basically complete the plot stuff that needs to get done in Venezia. The plot is wrapping up into something that actually intersects the frame story, and perhaps most notably, I am completing a handful of the multitudes of achievement systems in this game. Add in some good Prince of Persia puzzles and some particularly great writing, acting, and art this session, and it’s a good session overall. Spoilers within.
Posted in Hardcore.
– January 25, 2010
