Another week, another week's pay. Or however that saying goes. I don't really care. It was a pretty solid week, all things considered. Worked, wrote, read, played games, slept, repeated. I could live like this. Let's talk about games. Most of them I should have liked but didn't. One I should have liked and did.
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Gosh. I feel like an utter jerk. I don't like this
game, and yet I have every reason to. I love side-scrolling action platformers
(like Mark of the Ninja). The controls are good. The artstyle is interesting, although
it occasionally feels a bit...uncoordinated. I'm not really a fan of the
characters--amnesiac warriors are a bit passe, but at least the Navi stand-in
has more character... The combat is competent, but feels...flat. Like I can
just button-mash with no concern for timings. It's just...overall I am left
feeling very...meh.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
So this is the True Detective of Walking
Simulators. That is all. The story is good, the internal stories are good, the
graphics are gorgeous, the puzzles are good… Jeez. The ending ripped my soul out and ate it. Amazing game. It's the kind of game you can only really play once, though.
Mercenary Kings
So in theory I should really like this. It’s a Contra-style action platformer with 16-bit graphics and RPG elements. All
things I’m a big fan of. But something about it just doesn’t gel for me.
Mainly, I think, it’s the fact that rolls and jumps are noticeably delayed from
my button presses, which is pretty disconcerting coming off actually PLAYING
Super Contra fairly recently on the Super Nintendo. Also, the character barks
are atrociously repetitive. One of three lines every time I reload (which is a
lot)? Not cool, man. Just, overall, not grabbing me. It’s not BAD, but it’s not
great either.
Resident Evil 4
The controls are SO bad, unnatural, and counter-intuitive, I can't freaking play the game. Seriously. Is there a mod that makes moving and shooting possible? Or maybe shooting without holding multiple buttons? Or maybe not having aiming controlled by one stick when you AREN'T shooting, and another stick when you ARE shooting? By all rights, I should like this game. Great atmosphere, scary, tense, all that jazz. But the mechanics are so...foreign that I can't get into it.
