What was all the fuss about?

This blog week blog will be the last blog under the heading of game related blogs due to the fact that I have some other topic that I would like to talk about within the coming weeks that I have been putting off for sometime, so let’s get started with this week’s blog.

Now before I start I shall go out of my way to give you guy’s and girls a little bit of a back story behind today’s topic and to some reason why it has taken me so long to get round to play this game.

Now if we go back three years ago I had a lot of friends and family members telling me that I should pick up and play this game along with all the downloadable content that had been released for this game so far. Now back then and to this day I still don’t always have the money I would like spend on new games so when I heard that there was going to be a game of the year edition with all the downloadable content in the box I decided to pick up on the cheap. Now it took a few months before I got round to play this game for the first time, it was also the time in which I discovered that it was the worse time to try and play a game as big this with everything that was going on in my life at the time.

After playing the game for about five hours on the first day I discovered that I didn’t really know what I was doing and decided that it would be best for me to place this game back on the shelf until the time came around for me to sit down and play this game. That time came around in the shape of me being ill at the beginning of September and then having time off work only last week which in turn gave me the opportunity to actually play this game. If you have been unable to guess from what I have said so far I will now tell you that the game in question is Fallout 3.

Now the way in which I will go about talking about Fallout 3 is to first talk about now I went about playing this game and then what I like and dislike about the game with my overall thoughts at the end.

Now when I did started to playing I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing and that it took a few hours for me to realise how all the game mechanics worked. Once I understood how they all worked and what I had to do next I ended up running through the whole story very quickly and actually finding out that the story wasn’t as big the world lead me to believe. Upon getting to the last mission I realised that I hadn’t come across many of the side quest or collectables that. Upon realising this I decided that it would be best for me to go and do those parts of the game before completing the main story and moving on to the downloadable content. By the time I completed the whole game, I had spend just over ninety hours playing this game and almost from the forty hour make on found it hard to care on which was around the time that I had gotten to the last mission.

Now I will try and explain why I had found it so hard to go the rest of the distance and some of the dislikes that I encountered. The game was build to be a first person shooter, with a Role-playing game elements set in a post apocalyptic world. To me this sounds good and would fit the type of game that I would like to play but straight away I discovered my first two problems. One of them being that for you to be able to play the game you need to understand how the VATS system that was created to help you conserve ammunition when there isn’t much around. The system is a very good idea but after a few hours of using this system you begin to get bored of the slow motion animation that comes with the system, by the time I reached the forty hours mark the main story had mostly been completed and the system just felt like a chore which in turn leads me into my second problem.

Role-playing games (RPG’s) as a whole have always been big in every way from story to land and to a some point always running into lots of the side quest. I know that a lot of people don’t like do side quests when trying to complete the main story but I just found that the main story was located to a small part of the map and that I didn’t really needed to spend much time exploring the whole map. I do get that some area’s within an RPG should be found when you do your own exploring and that RPG’s can’t be linear because of the type of game that they are but for you to find some of the side quests you have to go to one location that takes you to another.

The other problems that I have with this game come near the end of the main story it’s self and with the downloadable content pack Broken Steel. First up I will start with the parts of the story that I didn’t like, what I mean by this is that throughout the whole story you are made to believe that the Enclave are the bad guys and the Brotherhood of Steel are the good guys but when you arrive at one point in the game when you are given to the choice to do the Enclaves bidding you already told by the story that you shouldn’t follow them. If you do decided to follow them then everything plays out the same as before but the cut scene at the end of the game changed slightly. The thing that I don’t understand is why give you a choice when the story ultimately tells you what to do and doesn’t change much (There will be a blog somewhere down the line where I look at story telling across all genres).

Now that we are talking about the end and choice this next two parts go hand in hand with each other because when you start the last mission the game becomes nothing more than a cake walk and easy which really annoys me. What I am trying to say is that in last mission you can simply stand back and let Flaks (If you have saved him) and Liberty Prime (The Brotherhood of Steels Robot) do all the hard work for you so you can just sit back and watch it all play out. I just feel get the feeling that the last mission should have been a massive cut screen that panned over the city as the Brotherhood and Liberty Prime made its way to Project Purity because even when I tried to stay close and get into the action Liberty Prime or Flaks had all ready killed them and cleared the path of me so I felt like hadn’t really accomplished anything.

The other part for me was you last choice when you do get to Project Purity, you can chose yourself, Flaks or Lyons to active the device. Giving you these choices I don’t have a problem with but how they affect the final cut scene and the start of Broken Steel. If you go in and active the device yourself, you end up survive and you are class as hero and did what your father did but if you send in Lyons or Flaks you are class as a coward. Now that would be true if you sent Lyons in but how does she not survive the radiation blast when you can. Second if you do decided to send in Flaks the super powered non playable character that can survive high levels of radiation into the chamber you are still classed as a coward when the game has given him to you. I just can’t understand how these two things work which leads me nicely into the problems that I encountered with the Broken Steel downloadable content.

Out of all the DLC that this game created the Broken Steel pack was the one and only that was able to give me a headache due to the fact even though I knew nothing about the pack, I already knew how it was going to play as soon as I was told what to happen. As soon as I was being briefed I knew we were going to be finishing of the Enclave and that something was going to happen to Liberty Prime but for I could happen this. The worse part of the pack was only going to show itself once I arrived at the Air Force Base, the DLC started to crash my console every five to ten minutes which by the time that I got around to finishing the mission I was already fed up the whole thing but the problems didn’t stop there. Once finished I decided to sell me stuff that I had collected from this pack but as soon as a fast travelled it crashed my console again, which at that point I decide to leave the game with the two outstanding achievements.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate this game or dislike it but those small things do put me off from carrying on and going back to the game later on. But let’s take a moment to talk about what I like about the game because there were large parts of Fallout that I enjoyed.

One of the best parts that I enjoyed was the way in which the main story was constructed, what I mean by this is that you start off looking for your father not knowing why he has ran away and by the end you feel a connected to him. The way in which I would explain this is that I wasn’t too happy with my characters farther to begin with but when I found out his motives I then could understand why he had done what he had done. Another thing that I did like was that the game did at least give you a few choices when it came to doing some of the side quest but on the flip side there weren’t that many.

The part of the game that I did have a lot of fun with once I got the hang of it was the repair system, every time you used your weapon or got hit your weapons and armour would decrease so you need to make sure that you had space in your backpack to make repairs. This then lead to me making sure that I had enough room in my backpack for double the items that I was using. For example I ended up using the Chinese Rifle and the Combat Shotgun a lot throughout the game.

The last part of the game that impressed me the most was the RPG elements of customising your character to how ever you wanted them. Each time you levelled up you would be give points to place into abilities that you wanted to us and after that you where then given the chance to add a special ability which they call perks. By the time I understood how this perk system worked I was always looking ahead trying to figure out what perks I wanted to get next so that I knew what I could spend my current perk point on now.

While playing Fallout there where large parts of the game that I did really enjoy but at the same time I saw a lot of unused potential within the game and to me this was the reason why in the long run I found it hard to carry on. The downloadable content to this game was good but it did suffer the same problems that the main game itself had and I would still recommend this game to others and worn them that the story isn’t that big.

Until next time.

Joking Aside

Today I have decided to take a look at something that to me has become more of a pain in recent years in my area and to some point has never had the same following as it does in some other places around the world. What I am talking about is Halloween and how much I dislike some parts of this said social event.

Before I get into the reasons why I have a love hate relationship about this event I will first give you a bit of a history. Halloween was original celebrated by Celtic rich areas around Britain to acknowledge the end of summer and the beginning of the winter, while Christian also celebrate it as All Hallow Eve which is where they celebrate those that have left this worlds to move on to the next before All Saints days. This is also the one time of the year that both Celtic and Christian also believe that those spirits that have been wondering the Earth have one last time to take vengeance.

As you can see from that very short history lesson the roots of Halloween go quite far back into our own past and even though a lot of people may not know the reasons behind Halloween by dressing up as scare and un-dead creatures you are in part acknowledging what it stands for even though you didn’t realise it.

Now I will try and example why I dislike Halloween and it all comes down to the way in which trick or treat is handled.

First off I need to make the point that down here in England mainly the South-eastern part of London not many parents like to take their children out to trick or treat but if they do it is something that has been prearranged in advance with houses in that area. I really don’t have a problem with this because it is done earlier enough in the night so that the parents can get their kids into bed at a respectable time and it is a bit of fun for the youngest.

What I dislike the most about this trick or treat is when you get teenagers aged from fourteen to seventeen deciding that they will attempt to dress up very poorly by placing something over their faces and come up to your house so that their can get some money from you. If you do decided ignore them, they then believe that they have the right to start throwing what they like at your house (I.e. stones and bricks one year). To me this is un-expectable due to two facts one being that it looks like they are begging you for money and coming across as spoiled brat when they can’t get what they want and second they are causing criminal damage to someone else property, what good is that.

I know that between being a kid and adult it can be hard but there are over ways in which to get around this problem but hay what do I know.

To me the best way to celebrate Halloween for me has always been a good old fancy dress Halloween party which consists of a group of friends and family getting together to play some classic Halloween games like bopping for apples while at someone house or function hall. Now I will be honest with everyone here and say that I have only ever been to two of these events and I have thoroughly enjoy myself each time along with everyone else.

As like with most things in the world it is always comes down to the minority who spoils it for the majority and if you do want to throw something at someone house let it at least be toilet paper or eggs.

Until next time.

The Dark Times and Beyond

Last week I took some time out to talk about how good Sonic was for me while I was growing up and I covered every game that I had played from Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Master System all the way up to Sonic Heroes. If you have read last week’s blog you could see that I really enjoyed every game that I had played up to that point and that I was also mentioned something called the “Dark Times” for the franchise and for me this all began with a small little game called Shadow the Hedgehog.

Now before I get into this game I should point out that in my last blog when I spoke about how Shadow had changed completely from the end of Sonic Adventure 2 to the beginning of Sonic Heroes, and that I felt the character was completely different from Shadow I enjoyed loved at the end of Sonic Adventure 2. So when it came to creating Shadow the Hedgehog, Sega and Sonic Team decided to use the Shadow they had created in Sonic Heroes which to me was one of the biggest mistakes.

Now when I heard about Shadow the Hedgehog was in development I had hope that with this story they were going to create a completely new Shadow the Hedgehog similar to before but when I got home to play the game I was completely disappointed with it. The reason for this was due to the fact that the game felt nothing like a Sonic game which I guess was the point of the game but they stuck Sonic characters in the game and gave Shadow the abilities to use guns and vehicles which was something that had never been done before and as I said before it just didn’t sit well with me. If you wanted to create a character that uses guns and vehicles then you should have at least done it at some point in the previous games to enable us to get used to it instead of throwing it in right at the beginning of the game. I am not agree with the use of guns and vehicles in the series because I don’t and I am glad that when I did get round to playing Sonic 06 they had removed that from the character. The other thing that I didn’t like about this game was the amount of ending they decided to have with this game, in my honest opinion six would have been fine but having so many was as if they were trying to extend the life of the game. There is so much wrong with this game along with so much potential that I do hope somewhere down the line I am able to create a blog on how to create a better Shadow the Hedgehog from what we were given.

If you haven’t already guessed by now this is the game for me that created the “Dark Times” for the franchise and the last Sonic game to be released on the then current generation of consoles. Now with no new Sonic game going to be released until the days of the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii I had to find some other way to get my fix for Sonic content, so what better way to do so than to go back in search of old Sonic titles that had been released up to this point until I could afford a new console.

Oh boy how could things have gone from bad to worse for me within a short time span, I should also point out that most of the games that I ended up play where on the PC through an emulators.

First up was Sonic 3D Blast and let me tell you this game doesn’t even come close to its name. Bad controls, bad graphics and a very bad camera angle all in all made this one of the worst Sonic games that I had played. If I could find away to remove the memory of this game from my mind I would do anything for it, the whole goal of the game if I remember correctly was to collect five birds and take them to the goal ring with you. You would think that this wouldn’t be so hard but that is where you would be wrong because this little birds fly in a line behind you and if one of them gets hit and you don’t know about it you can end up spending the next ten to fifteen minutes trying to find it. This game wasn’t hard it was just frustrating and something I would not recommend to anyone.

Next on the list was Sonic R, trust when I say that this game is something that you will find at the bottom of the barrel and something you should never touch. This to me is the worse game I have ever played and it single handily made me not touch any Sonic racing game until two years ago when I picked up Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing which is a Mario Kart clone but a good one though. If you still don’t believe me then go look it up on You Tube.

The next lot of games that I decided to play where a bunch that shall we say again didn’t sit well with me and that I didn’t play more than an hour of. Those games are Sonic Chaos, Sonic Spin Ball, Triple Trouble and Sonic Labyrinth. First up we have Sonic Chaos which is for the Sega Master System but with Tails added on, think Sonic 2 on the Sega Mega Drive. The game controlled like the pervious Master System games but I just didn’t enjoy the game and didn’t understand where I was going for half the time. Sonic Spin Ball was a Mega Drive game and like Sonic Chaos I didn’t know what the hell me goal was, I understood that I need to get to the top of the level but each time I went up I so easier fell back down again. If you understand pin ball physics then you might be able to play this game better than me. Lastly we have both Sonic Triple Trouble and Sonic Labyrinth. Sonic Triple Trouble tries to be a Sonic 3 and Knuckles clone but is nowhere near it by a long shot and as for Sonic Labyrinth let’s just try and pretend that I never saw or played this game ever. The best way that I could describe this game is if you have ever played Kirby’s Dream Course, because it is like that game but one hundred percent slower and boring.

As you might have guessed by this point in my life I had, had enough of bad Sonic games to last me a life time and to a point it had also put me off the franchise completely because I just had this feeling that Sonic Team and Sega where going to continue to throw out bad Sonic games. How there was one game that to me bought the end of the “Dark Times” of the franchise but before I talk about that game I will talk about the two games that I bought after this said game and those games in question are Sonic and the Secret Ring and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG or Sonic 06.

First off let’s talk about Sonic and the Secret Ring. I will be the first person to admit that this game was not the best but it did create one good thing for the franchise that did go into some of the later Sonic games and that was for Sonic to only be able to go in one direction which was forward. Now Sonic and the Secret Ring was the start of the Storybook Series and that this game was based on the collective works titled Arabian Nights. My biggest problem with this game is the controls, yes Sonic Team tried to simplify the controls to just the Wii remote which was good idea but for some parts of the game the controls just become too frustrating which in turn made it impossible for me and my girlfriend to complete this game.

The last game for in the “Dark Times” was a little game called Sonic 06, a game that a lot of people to this day believe to be the worst Sonic game to be ever created. For me that title belongs to Sonic R but I would agree that it is one of the worst Sonic games out there, like I said with Sonic Heroes I believe that this game need a lot more time in development and that to a point Sonic Team and Sega had completely lost touch with series as a whole. The best way in which I can explain myself is that if you look at the main story you can see that it is all over the place and everything just seems to happen without explaining how they got to that conclusion. Another great example is the amount of bugs that litter the game making some of the levels unplayable like all the super speed stages. The other main problem with this game comes from the load times, as it just takes too long for the game to load and takes you away from experience. There are probably some redeeming features to this game and part of me would love to replay the game again but due to want I already know about the game it makes it hard for me to go back.

After finishing the story part of Sonic 06 the next Sonic game that I played was the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version of Sonic Unleashed but as I also mentioned I also played a Sonic game before the Secret Ring and Sonic 06 which was the Wii version of this game. Both games follow the same story but the only differences between the two version is that the Wii version of the game has a lot less levels and the towns that you could visited where map based with sections that you could click on. Of course you could say that the graphics where different between the two games but that is what you would expect from a HD and Non HD gaming console. Sonic Unleashed was also able to correct a lot of mistakes that the pervious Sonic titles had done, for example the game would go from 3D to 2D in certain parts of the game trying to make you feel like you are playing one of the Mega Drive classic. Another part that they had also correct was the 3D parts of the game in which they had taken the best bits from Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic and the Secret Ring to try and streamline the levels which was a good idea. Now the last thing about the game was the ability to become a Werehog, now a lot of people didn’t like this parts of the game mainly because like myself and others, Sonic games should be fast and having a character that is slow and chucky like the Werehog just doesn’t set right. I will admit that I didn’t enjoy them as much as the day levels but when I first started to play the Werehog stages I did enjoy them but there were just too many of them throughout the game and that the last level also started to annoy me because you would go from Sonic to Werehog and back again so many times. As a whole I really enjoyed this game and for me it ended what was known as the “Dark Times” for me because it was as if both Sonic Team and Sega decided to respect of their character again.

The last game that I have played in the Sonic series was last year’s released Sonic Generations and by god who would have guessed that they had got so much right. I will be honest with you and say that the story for this game was not the greats and to a part very forgettable but to be able to playing some of your favourite levels from the last twenty years in both 2D and 3D was something that you could only dream of. I would have like them to have at least put more levels into the game but I think I could live without them. My only other problem with this game was the final boss battle due to all the other characters comment at the start of the level and throughout, but if you change the volume controls you can remove that from the game.

I know that since I started this part of the blog I haven’t really said much about the graphics and the reason for that is since Sonic Heroes the graphics as a whole haven’t really change apart from getting bright and a little be more smooth each time round. It is as if Sonic Team and Sega have found the graphic style they have been looking for and have only tweaks it when needed to.

After everything that has been said and done I am still a fan of the Sonic Series and yes I will admit that I am one of the sad people that will probably end up buy the next Sonic title when it is released but if Sega and Sonic Team can continue to create Sonic games in the same calibre as Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Generations then there shouldn’t be a problem.

Until next time.

Addtion notes

Now before I end this blog there are a few Sonic titles that I have missed out and not spoken about because of two reasons, one being that I have bought the game and not played them or that I have bought this games and have started playing them and not completed them. Examples of these games would be all three Sonic Advance games, both Sonic DS games, Sonic 4 episodes 1 and 2, Sonic Colours and lastly Sonic and the Black Knight. I will be honest and say that I have seen my sister play this game and based on what I have seen I have very low hopes for this game and have no wish in playing this game.