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| 7/11/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy.  I've recently finished Ico and it really picked itself up in the last 10% of the game. It was a relitivly short game at about seven hours, though it really didn't need to be any longer. It finally took a much needed twist in the plot and it got better and better from there. If you liked Prince of Persia and are looking for a interesting, but not necessarily great game this one might not be a bad idea. Unfortunetly it does lack in a few catogories. It has almost no music, which gets incredibly boring after even just a short while. The only time you will here music is: when you're saving, choosing whether to continue or not after a game over and during the credits. It also lacks a battle system, almost literally. The game does feature a good deal of fighting, but it's all about hitting square repeatedly in order to initiate four attacks over and over again. The puzzles are challenging at times do to their nature of wanting you to do things which you didn't know you could do. It does pick itself up with increibly detailed backgrounds. it becomes frustrating because you relize that they cleary put a lot of effort into this game, but maybe not enough thought. Overall it was good, but not great. I'd cautiously advise considering it. 7/06/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy. What the HECK?! I've moved on to ICO, a early PS2 game that I recently recieved as a gift, and it is so frustrating! The game itself is a lot like the "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" in it's design, without the crazy acrobatics. It's also incredibly beautiful to look at. What's the problem? It has next to no story! Forget about plot twists, I've only just learned one of the two main character's names and I'm halfway through. I really want to like this game, but if you don't have a story to tell don't bother making the game. It's like writing an incredibly eloquent book about nothing. Nothing at all! It's driving me crazy! Seriously game makers, stop thinking you can get by with these half-baked games, because you can't. I can't wait for the day when people come to their senses and stop buying these stupid games, because ICO is just the tip of the iceberg. If I have to play one more game where I'm some crazy gun-wielding, demon out to rid the world of 2-D badguys which don't act or talk like anything dead or alive I'm going to go crazy. And someone is going to pay. 7/05/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy. As I'm sure most of you know Batman Begins has just come out in theatres and in keeping with that newly made theme I'm reviewing a Super Hero game, though not Batman. No, I'm reviewing Spiderman 2 for the Gamecube today. I've just finished it a few days ago, and it was...average. I'll admit, a lot of the gameplay was very enjoyable at some moments, but a good deal of stupid mistakes kept the game from really sticking out. Things such as normal thugs dodging your webbing from point-blank range. It continues with normal thugs blocking your super-strong punches, also from right next to them sometimes from right behind them. As far as plot goes it's okay, but becomes frustrating because the designers seemed to not know whether or not they wanted to stick to the movie or go someplace else. They did introduce new characters that had been left out of the movie, but none of them could really be used to their full potential because of the neccesary conections to the movie. The game only becomes more frusatrating when it starts glitching out, I can only imagine this was do to bad game testing, which I have no tolerance for. It's your freakin' job so do it right. Basically it's a good game that should have been so much better. It makes me wonder if the people who made really knew what they were doing, do in part to things such as a very erratic camera and a lack of mouth movement in both main and non-main charactors. The voice actors were good, mostly because they got some of the real actors to play their virtual counter-parts. Unfortunetly the rest of the voice acting was nothing special. All in all it was a better game than I make it sound, but if you aren't a big Spidey fan wait for the price to be lowered. 7/01/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy. Oh my goodness. It's an actual update. These stupid people actually updated. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be updating the site. ...heh heh oops... Oh well. For all those who care I finished Ace Combat Five and it was great. I wish they had kept it were you could refuel in-mission, but one can't have everything in a video game, for some unknown reason. The lack of refuel-ability led to make some missions just that much more difficult which got frustrating since you know you should be able to refuel, but for some odd reason you can't. Oh well. The story of the was very good and the gameplay was amazing. The characters are likable and the voice-overs are incredible. The game also has an action-intensive mode which continues the Ace Combat Four storyline for all you who need to be Mobius One again. All in all it's a great game, which I can say now with confidence since I've actually played it all the way through. 6/20/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy. I started playing Ace Combat 05 four or five days ago and it is amazing. It's like a combination of a RPG story with the amazing Ace Combat Flight sim system. It has a lot of really big improvments over Ace combat 04 in the form of a better AI system for your allies(and enemies) and a much improved story system. For those of you not informed AC04 had a story told in all stills with one voice over narrating the whole thing. In this game we've got full motion, pre-rendered graphics with excellent voice overs delivering a very good story that has a whole lot more feeling to it. When I said good voice overs I meant it too. This is the first game with a Japanese vocal track that I did NOT have to turn on to play the game. If you work up the money to get definetly consider it. Even it at it's rather large price I still say it's worth it with it's TWO modes, one of which is quite long the other less long, but still relitivly long. All in all it is an truly fantastic game, and I heartily recommend it. 5/23/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy. I can't take it anymore! I recently finished Final Fantasy VIII and was looking through all our old games to find something new. Eventually my hand fell on Star Ocean: the Second Story which I didn't have a whole lot of interest in, but I haven't beat it yet so I'll give it a try. I discovered why I haven't beat it yet. That game had so little thought put into it, it makes me sick. The writing is horrendous. I couldn't believe what I was reading. It didn't help that all the characters are really annoying and idiots. I'm just so sick of games that cost a lot of money to make and have so little to show for it. Especially when you get games that are pratically clones of eachother. It is just such a waste of so much, especially when I think of what me and my brothers could do with that money. For that matter what anybody who really cared about making games and realized just what kind of a gift that kind of money is. That's why video games aren't an art form. Because no designers think of it in that sense. It's just a video game. It's not considered a way to draw images and feelings of the way people see and feel and live in the world we live in and how people should change in a virtual world apart from the restrictions of our own. They're just data. Nothing more, nothing less. The thing is no one wants to try to make them seem like more than that. No one is willing to make a game where killing people in mindless warfare does more than make your country stronger. No one wants to make a game without tons of blood and undead demons. Designers need to step up to the plate and really start putting their heart and soul into making their games the best it is possible for them to be. Not the pumped out crap that we see today. 5/05/05 Hello Old Dice. It's me, Old Jimsy. I'm so sick of impossible games. Earlier today I found myself playing Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (no particular reason) and I was astonished at how hard it was. And it wasn't just hard in one way, it was hard on multiple levels. First of all missions. You get three lives after-which you're toast. This normally wouldn't be that bad, but in a game where you die and you could start who knows how far back and you have hardly any health, those lives are gone faster than your jaw can drop. Except the occasional one and a half minute board. Yeah those are real fun. Unfortunately for the player a lot of the missions are just to long to do on three lives. And while it's expected that you won't do most boards in video games in one attempt, I can only stand doing things I have already proved I'm capable of doing so many times. Especially when it comes to the end of a long board, flowing over with my frustration. I've already proved I can shoot down thirteen tie- fighters, why do I have to do it again? I just makes me so mad that so many games these days are becoming a chore to play for anywhere from 25-60% of the game. I didn't sit down to become incredibly mad, I sat down to relieve some stress in a world completely separate from my own. I think that game designers should offer more difficulty settings and less games that are just plain impossible. I'm just so sick of coming out of a mission say "man I'm glad that's over". I'd much rather have games where I want a mission select option because they are just so much fun. After all, playing games is supposed to be fun. Not a pain. |
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