HippoChippies

New Site!

2012-01-19T15:47:00.009-06:00

From this point on, I will be using hippochippies.wordpress.com for my new blog. Thanks for reading, and pleae follow me over there! Lots of new and exciting things are coming, you'll see.
It will
Blow your
Mind.

-Zach

Asura's Wrath demo

2012-01-19T13:49:00.001-06:00

I'm not even sure where to begin.

I knew almost nothing about this game until about 20 minutes ago. Now I know that I will pay my hard earned money to play so much more of it. This game has Bayonetta levels of crazy.

Some of my favorite games are the ones that do NOT have any limits to how insane they can get. No More Heroes and Bayonetta are two of the prime examples I go to when I describe my love for insanity in video games. I'm almost certain that Asura's Wrath will be another to proudly present among these wonderful examples of what a video game is capable of. This game is fucking nuts. When anything can get the response of me shouting at my televion "WHAT?!?!?" or laughing out loud hysterically at the events unfolding before me, congratulations, you win.

Asura's Wrath is an action game, and I'm still not even sure of what kind. The variety in the the sequences was really fun to see. I'm still not 100% sure how well the melee combat is going to work, maybe I'll get the hang of it with practice, but I really don't think its going to matter to me personally. The sheer amount of...of...things that I just saw was amazing. It provides a kind of action spectacle that I could watch for hours.

I was on Earth, threw a guy into space, killed him from space while I was on Earth, then later I went to the moon and fought a guy there. And it only got better. That was the most I've ever hated a "To Be Continued" screen. Asura's Wrath comes out next month and I will be there on day one.

I really hope the rest of the game is as good as the 2 chapters I just played. Pleasepleaseplasepleaseplease.

-Zach

Final Fantasy XIII demo

2012-01-19T13:12:00.003-06:00

I can't say I cared much for XIII and I'll have to echo myself for this. I found myself wanting to do just about anything else but play this game. I really wish I could get more into these, but I guess they just aren't for me. Their were a few noticeable changes from XIII, so if you're interested at all you should try it to see what they did. The random battles don't just magically pop up on the screen anymore, instead the enemy appears on screen and you have the option of running away or getting a preemptive strike before you are ever taken to a battle screen. There is also a new feature where you can collect monsters that you kill to come fight with you in battle, which seems like it could be interesting (for someone other than me). I doubt I'll be picking this one up anytime soon. NEEXXXXT!

-Zach

Demo Day!

2012-01-19T12:38:00.005-06:00

I have quite a few demos for 2012 games backed up on my 360 and just today the Resident Evil Revelations demo came out on 3DS. I figured it was finally time I got to them. So today I'll briefly be writing about how my experiences with each of these goes. I plan on getting to most of them today if I have time. Right now I have demos for Asura's Wrath, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, The Darkness 2, and Resident Evil Revelations.
Maybe they won't all be terrible. Maybe.
-Zach

GotY 2011 - Part 5 - Dark Souls

2012-01-17T12:59:00.002-06:00

I just finished Dark Souls. I went into that game expecting greatness, and I came out 62 hours (of game time over a period of a few months, not all at once, Jesus Christ) later with something more. Like Demon's Souls before it, you aren't given a whole lot of direction. Hell, you never even get a map. You learn by playing it, it teaches you things without ever having to say anything to you.

As frustrating as that can be at times, it really isn't like anything else you can go to the store and buy right now. Anything else bombards you with what the controls do, where you need to go, what your objective is, and refuses to let up. Dark Souls is comparable to a babysitter just working for a paycheck. He doesn't care where you go; he knows that when you get hurt (which you will), you'll learn not to do whatever you did again.

Dark Souls is a game about mistakes. You make a lot of them once because it wants you to. After that though, its up to you to learn from them. Even when you know what you're doing, it can still be tough if you don't have the motivation to go further in. This is a very hard game, and the difficulty will scare most people away. But once you realize how everything works, it starts to come together one piece at a time. This isn't like most RPGs. Yes, you level up with experience and your character gets incrementally stronger. But what is more important is how you as a player get better as well. The game is like a class that teaches you lessons the whole time you play it. When I came back to the game with my high level character, it had been a few months since I last played. I was demolished by everything. I had to get back into the groove of playing it before I could start being decent at it again.

Dark Souls has one of my favorite worlds ever in a game. Everything just seems to fit into place, and nothing seems too extraordinary to be there. It has such a strong, unique style and tone that you don't really see a lot in games.

Every enemy looks so wonderful and strange each time you wander into new areas. I can't think of a game where I was more amazed at how different the characters got until the very end of the game. You'll stumble into new areas a lot too, the game is built around exploration. As you grow and get more skilled, you'll be able to access new areas and see incredible things that no other game this year can do. There are so many places to see, and every single one of them is worthwhile and memorable. The first time I cut into a false wall and went into a giant tree that led to one of the most beautiful areas in the game, it stunned me. I could have easily missed this whole section of the game. Any other game would have four different flashing arrows saying "HEY LOOK AT THIS COOL THING WE DID COME HERE DON'T MISS IT. PLEASE LOVE US." but Dark Souls doesn't care if you see everything. If you miss half of the game because you didn't care enough to look for it, then its your fault.

There isn't anything else like it, and it definitely isn't for everyone. But for the few of us who can experience everything it has to offer, it rewards you more than most other games even come close to. The highs here are so much higher than nearly anywhere else.
I really can't stress enough how much everyone should at least try this game. If it isn't for you, you'll know pretty quickly when you can't kill the first boss after 30 tries and you break your controller in half. But really, its worth it.

-Zach

2012 Predictions!

2012-01-17T12:21:00.005-06:00

Time for a little in the 2011 stuff to think about the future! I usually like to make some guesses about what I'm going to think about the year to come, so I guess I should start before any big games actually come out this year. First off, I've made a list of the games I think I might enjoy the most by the end of the year. We all know how that turned out last time, but why not give it another shot?

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. Far Cry 3
4. Tomb Raider
5. Metal Gear Rising
6. The Witcher 2
7. Borderlands 2

......and those are the ones I have the most faith in.
Mass Effect 3 and Bioshock Infinite are way above everything in else my mind right now.

Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider both look pretty great. I loved Far Cry 2 and this one looks like it's doing some interesting things, hopefully they'll work out for it.
Tomb Raider just looks like something we just don't get enough of. I really hope it's as good as it looks like it could be.

I'm a huge fan of Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Vanquish, and to a lesser extent, Madworld) and Metal Gear is one of the best franchises ever created by human beings. I'm not sure how much of Metal Gear will actually be in the game, but I'm looking forward to it more because of how insane Platinum gets with action games. They know what they're doing.

Yes, I realize the Witcher 2 came out last year, but I'm waiting for the 360 version, so HA!

I really liked Borderlands, but I think there were a lot of things that could have been done differently to make it a better game. Hopefully they learned some things, and this one will be even better than the first.

Now I'm just going to throw out some names and talk about them as I see fit. These are games that either I'm not entirely sure about yet, or that I've heard a lot about but just haven't payed a ton of attention to them myself.

Ninja Gaiden 3
Prey 2
Diablo 3
Paper Mario 3DS
Luigi's Mansion 2
Metro Last Light
The Last of Us
The Last Guardian
Darksiders 2
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Overstrike
Syndicate
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Dishonored
The Witness

This year has a lot more unknowns for me than a lot of the years before. I'm really excited to be surprised by a lot of these, and possibly disappointed by plenty as well. 2011 was a fantastic year for games, and I really hope 2012 can come close.
We. Will. See.
-Zach

GotY 2011 - Part 4 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2012-01-10T14:06:00.004-06:00

This is another one that totally took me by surprise. I didn't even realize this game was coming out until it did, and even then I was skeptical that it was something for me. I hadn't played either of the original games in the series, but this is a prequel so I figured it wouldn't matter so much. Even after I started, it didn't hook me right away. I didn't really understand what kind of game it was or what I was expecting to get out of it.
Until about the second hour.

When this game hits you and everything comes together like it did for me, it hits hard. After you realize how many options you have, and that you can deal with situations in so many different ways, its a great feeling. I played through the game entirely stealthily, never killing anyone. The same thought echoed through my head the entire time I played it, "This is what I wish Splinter Cell had evolved into." Splinter Cell Conviction was a big disappointment for me because of the heavy emphasis on action over stealth, but Deus Ex let's you play the game exactly like that if you want to.

The conversation system is the game is equally as wonderful, similar to Mass Effect's dialogue wheel, you have a few options to say to everyone you meet, depending on what kind of person you want your character to be. Each of the side quests that you take part in have an interesting little story tied to them, and it just makes the world feel more alive. Add that to the hours and hours of tiny details throughout the game and this is one of the most realistic worlds I've ever seen in a game. You have the freedom to read emails between friends on computers, go into apartment complexes and see how the people there live their lives, and just do so many things that other games wouldn't dream of having in them.

The story is a mix of conspiracies, corporate struggles, betrayals, and more that I love to see in a game. My biggest complaint with the game is that the ending falls flat and doesn't deliver a great conclusion to the otherwise excellent story that was told up to that point. That barely detracts from the overall experience though, because I loved the 50+ hours so much that I played before it.

This is a game that gets so much right, I'd have a hard time not recommending it to anyone.

Also, you can literally punch through walls. Punch. Through. Walls.

-Zach

GotY 2011 - Part 3 - Ghost Trick

2012-01-10T13:38:00.002-06:00

Another of the 10 best games of 2011 is on a portable system? You're damn right it is.

Ghost Trick is one of the best experiences I had with a game all year long. Like a great book, I couldn't put it down. I plopped over 10 hours into this game in less than a week and it was sooooooooooo good. Probably half of that time was spent reading text, so if that isn't you're kind of game, it may be time to jump ship right now. But for the rest of us...

If you have any affinity to the Phoenix Wright games, you'll know how Ghost Trick creator, Shu Takami, operates. He makes crazy situations for his wonderfully written characters to get into, and always knows what he's doing with his plots. Sure they get pretty silly most of the time, but that's what makes them so fun!

The main idea of Ghost Trick is that, in the opening seconds of the game, you died. You have no idea who you are and no memory of your life. In trying to find these answers, what plays out is one of the best mystery stories told in any game I've played. Ghost Trick is primarily a puzzle game where you solve puzzles to prevent the deaths of others and every puzzle is wrapped around an important event in the story.

I could ramble on about how much I loved this game all day, so please just try it for yourself. You'll get to meet a hyperactive dog named Missile who is one of the best supporting characters of the year, and a investigator who DANCES to and from crime scenes.
He's the greatest dancer of 2011. TRUST ME.

-Zach

GotY 2011 - Part 2 - Super Mario 3D Land

2012-01-10T13:20:00.001-06:00

I love platformers. The variety in them is pretty crazy when you look at all the different things that can be done from within on genre. Some of my favorite games from 2010 year were platformers, Super Meat Boy, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and of course, Super Mario Galaxy 2. Mario is one of the biggest reasons why I, and lots of other people, have such a fascination with platformers. They did it first, and they're still doing it right today.

This year we have Super Mario 3D Land, another exceptional game by the Galaxy team. The game is perfect for a portable system. The levels are about 2 minutes each so you can pop in for a quick game, but there are so many levels you won't blow through them too quickly. I loved the variety in the level design, its always fun to go to the next level just to see what new ideas this brilliant developer is going to show you next. I've never been a fan of swimming levels in Mario games, and thankfully they keep them to a bare minimum here, probably less than 5 throughout the entire game. Pretty much every level is a pure delightful platforming challenge. And just when you think you're done with it, they throw another 8 hours or so of content on you.

The 3DS is being overlooked by more than a few people, but this is why you need to purchase the system. If you have any love for one of the best series in video games' history, don't overlook this game. It stands up to some of the best games in the franchise.

-Zach

GotY 2011 - Part 1 - Resistance 3

2012-01-03T00:18:00.002-06:00

I'll admit, at the beginning of the year I had no intention of playing Resistance 3. I had heard negative things about the first and second game in the series, so I didn't plan on giving this one a second thought.

After picking it up a few months after its release, I was treated to the best first person shooter campaign in years.

This is one of the few games that motivated me enough to finish it in two sittings. I played nearly to the end of the game in my first, then finished the last couple of missions the next morning. Then I immediately started playing it again.

The game never ceases to impress, and the quality of level design and flat-out brilliance behind the whole thing is reminiscent of Half-Life. By which I mean it is really fucking excellent. There is so much variety in enemy design, weapons and abilities you pick up throughout, and the locations you visit, that you really feel the love and care the developers put in to crafting this wonderful experience.

I LOOOOOOVEEEEEEEEEEEE this game. A lot. Really. Please go play it. Now.

-Zach

I am not stalling.

2012-01-02T00:46:00.004-06:00

Okay okay okay, maybe a little bit. But I just remembered I did something at the beginning of the year that will be really interesting to look back on right now. Before I played anything this year, I made a 2011 predictions list about what my Game of the Year list would look like by year's end. We can compare this to my actual list when I finish it. Yaaaaaay.

GAAAHHHH. I'm back. I've had this page open for about 20 or 30 minutes now. I just searched through 14 notebooks to find this. 14. I counted them. I looked through most of them twice. So that's almost like I went through 28 notebooks just to find this for you.
JUST FOR YOU.

I'll just leave this here now.

Game of the Year 2011 Predictions:

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Skyrim
3. Dragon Age 2
4. Batman: Arkham City
5. Portal 2
6. Uncharted 3
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. L.A. Noire
9. Dead Space 2
10. Gears of War 3

It's incredible how much the list has changed since then. About half of these games didn't even make my top 10 by the end of the year, and games that I hadn't thought twice about were far better than the majority of the titles on this old list. (Mass Effect 3 was delayed to 2012, as I had expected coming into the year, but I thought on the off chance it did come out it would be the best game of the year. Now it'll just have to be the best game of 2012. Maybe. Watch out for Bioshock Infinite, buddy.)

-Zach

Game of the Year 2011 - The Facts

2012-01-02T00:09:00.007-06:00

My goal at the beginning of making this list was to make a comprehensive #10, #9...#1, you understand. But one person making a list of 10 favorite games and saying without a doubt "This game is 1 rank below this but 2 above this" is nearly impossible. Trying to justify why one game places one space higher or lower than another is a matter of preference, and even that changes minute to minute. So I've decided to not assign arbitrary numbers to rank each game.

To clarify, the order of appearance does not reflect my enjoyment of each one. It'll read more as a "These are the 10 games that you shouldn't miss this year, and here is why."

Also, contrary to popular belief, I actually haven't played every single video game released this year. If I leave something wonderful off, I may not have played it! Sorry :s

Alright, how about we get to some games?
-Zach

Welcome back!

2012-01-01T23:44:00.005-06:00

I realize my writing on this blog is about as frequent as me actually studying for tests in college (see: infrequently) but I'm back. At least I think (and hope) so. I have quite a few ideas for new features that I'm honestly pretty excited to write about. This week, I plan on doing a countdown of my top 10 favorite games of 2011 as a sendoff to a great year, and to get that out of the way before the onslaught of 2012 really begins. Welcome to January 1, 2012. My New Year's Resolution is to actually keep this blog entertaining and updated as often as I can. Wish me luck. :)
-Zach

Portal 2

2011-07-20T19:01:00.001-05:00

Portal is one of my favorite games of all time. It is one of the few examples I can point to when the topic of a "perfect video game" is brought up. When Portal 2 was announced my expectations weren't extremely high; I didn't think anything could touch the perfection I had seen in the original Portal.

I stand corrected.

Portal 2 is without a doubt, one of the single most impressive accomplishments I have seen come out of any game studio. Valve took the foundation of the original, and expanded it in ways I didn't think could be done. While Portal's writing was pitch perfect for a short 3 hours or so, Portal 2 is consistently funny and entertaining enough to span 10+ hours. The puzzles are ingeniously well done, more-so than any other game in recent memory. The overall quality of Portal 2 is so outrageous, I'll be surprised to see anything this well polished for a long time to come. Portal 2, congratulations on being Game of the Year 2011... at least for now.

Shadows of the Damned

2011-07-20T18:50:00.003-05:00

Suda 51. Shinji Mikami. Akira Yamaoka. Three of the brightest minds in the Japanese gaming industry have come together to create a fantastically odd new game. It doesn't take very long to figure out that this game knows what it is, and it proud of it every step of the way. If you are familiar with Suda (No More Heroes, killer7) you'll understand what kind of game this is. For everyone else, I promise that you haven't experienced anything like it before.
The characters and writing are as excellent as ever, and the shooting mechanics will be familiar to Resident Evil 4 fans. While nearly everything about the game is great, it never reaches the highs that I expected from this team of masterminds. A few things just seemed a bit off (like the weapon upgrading system) but nothing really feels broken. I definitely enjoyed this game, and it did a lot of very cool things that I hadn't seen before. I can hope for a sequel to fix a few of my little gripes, but for now we have one of the most unique games of this generation.

Child of Eden

2011-07-20T18:38:00.000-05:00

Playing Child of Eden with Kinect your first time through should be a requirement. The pure joy that comes from controlling the delightfully orchestrated chaos that is happening onscreen rivals anything you'll play this year. Using your hands to control this game really does feel like the future, and is the most exciting use of Kinect I have seen so far. This is an excellent game, it feels like you are inside the mind of an artist. The visuals and the sounds all come together to make a wonderful symphony that you are in control of. Child of Eden makes you feel powerful like no other game has done before.

Game of the Year in January?

2010-02-11T11:00:00.004-06:00

I just finished Mass Effect 2. If I play any game better than this all year, I'll be very surprised. This game was without a doubt, one of the best games I have ever played. What makes it so great? I loved the original Mass Effect, despite it's flaws. The combat wasn't the greatest, but the character interaction was amazing. Mass Effect 2 fixes nearly everything that was wrong with the first one, and improves upon the best parts. BioWare completely scrapped the combat system of the original, and in its place is a new system that is extremely familiar to anyone who has played Gears of War. The story is fantastic, and the dialogue is some of the best I have ever seen. Every moment of this game is unforgettable, and if you own an Xbox 360 or gaming PC, you must own this game. Mass Effect 2 is undeniably a major improvement over the original in every way imaginable, and has earned its place as one of the greatest games of all time.

Halo 3: ODST

2010-01-12T18:43:00.003-06:00

Halo 3: ODST is a very solid addition to Bungie's greatest franchise. The game is split up into two parts; sections where you are a lone rookie ODST, and sections where you are a trained ODST in a squad. The sections that have you playing as the Rookie wandering the streets of a destroyed city are something that I hadn't seen in a Halo game before, and were a nice change of pace to the Halo formula. After every few minutes of wandering the dimly lit streets though, you will trigger an event that forces you to play a typical Halo level as a soldier from a squad of ODSTs. These levels are very fun and feel like nice formulaic Halo levels. Does ODST bring the franchise into completely new territory that we've never seen before? No, not really. Does it do enough to make fans of the brand satisfied? Yes.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

2010-01-05T11:24:00.004-06:00

Destroy everything! That's the hook of Red Faction: Guerrilla. You are given an arsenal of weapons, an open world, and a game engine that allows the destuction of anything you can touch. The arsenal you are equipped with by the midpoint of this game leads to some of the most fun I've had all year. Sticky bombs that you can detonate at any time? Check. A rifle that desentigrates anything (or anyone) that you can see? Check. A giant thermobaric rocket launcher capable of destroying half a village with one shot? Check again. Throw in the ability to drive a truck THROUGH A BUILDING in order to rescue the hostages inside, and you have yourself a pretty enjoyable 10-12 hours of gameplay. Sure, the story is forgettable, but remembering that I got to stick bombs to a guy's face is good enough for me.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Review

2009-08-26T15:12:00.008-05:00

I had a few points left to spend on the Xbox Live Arcade, but I wasn't sure what to buy. I already bought Braid and Castle Crashers, and quite a few other titles that aren't worth mentioning, and was looking for something new. I scanned through some "Best of XBLA" and found Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I read plenty of reviews claiming that this was the "Best Castlevania game ever", and saw that it was at the top of almost every XBLA list. I had never played a Castlevania game, but after seeing how a lot of people had ranked this game at the top with Braid, one of my favorite games of 2008, I decided to give it a shot. After playing through Castlevania SOTN, I can safely say that it is one of the best experiences that I have ever had with a game, and it should not be missed.
SOTN is a game that you really get sucked into. Once you start playing, you will realize how immersive the game really is. First off, the map is huge. The world is very big, and each area in it has something unique to see and do. Each area has new weapons, enemies, boss fights, and character upgrades. There are a lot of secret areas hidden within certain walls, containing more items and places to explore. Each time you enter a different area, you are welcomed in by a new song. The soundtrack of this game is among the best I have ever heard. Every area has a new tune to go along with it, and each one is terrific. It's fun to go around and check out new places on the map, because there are new enemies in each area, who all have different attacks, act differently, and drop different items. Each new enemy is a new challenge to figure out the best way to defeat it. The boss fights in SOTN are also great. Each boss fight is just as memorable as the next, and each fight takes a different strategy to win. The RPG elements of this game also add a new depth to the exploration. Each enemy or boss you kill nets you some experience, and over time, your skills will increase. This increase isn't as big as some of the jumps between one piece of armor to the next, but the addition of leveling up as you fight is very nice. There are a wide variety of weapons and armor in the game to increase your stats. Most of them are basic RPG style improvements, (better swords increase attack power, better armor increases defensive power) but some items give you special abilities. A few examples of these are a sword that gives the chance of enemies dropping gems that can be sold for money, and a piece of armor that increases in defensive power depending on how much of the map you have explored. These small touches make finding new items an even more fun experience. The player also has access to magic abilities that can be activated by pressing specific button combos as long as you have the required amount of magic points avaliable. Some of these combos can be tricky to pull off, but when you have the option of draining a room of enemies of their health all at once, they are well worth mastering. Some of the items you find in the game are called "Relics", and each relic gives you a special ability. Some give you the ability to turn into a different creature, like a bat or a wolf, some are character upgrades which mostly allow you to access more of the map, and some allow you to summon "Familiars" such as a fairy or a demon to heal you or help you in combat. The game also includes a teleportation system, which allows you to teleport to specific points in the game that you have previously visited, which is very nice when you find a secret area that you missed on the opposite side of the map of where you are. Saving in the game is also good, because other than being a purely mechanical aspect, reaching a save point fully restores your health and magic. After exploring each and every room in the castle, you will probably have played for about 10 hours, which is well worth the $10 I spent on it. Personally, I believe that this game is much better than most $60 retail games released today, and is a bargain at its current price.

Exploration in games is a great motivator

2009-08-26T14:31:00.005-05:00

I love games with a good sense of exploration. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Fallout 3, and plenty of other games stay in my memory of how because of how great the exploration is. Being able to go where you want, and always being able to find something new is one of the most fun things that you can have in a game. In Wind Waker, you can sail around the world, and each section of the map contains a new place to explore. In Castlevania, you can travel around the map to find new abilities and power ups for your character, and each area you enter has memorable scenery, music, and enemies. In Fallout 3, no matter where you go, there is a good chance that you are going to find a new quest, a new building, or a new character to interact with. I feel that the element of exploration is important to just about any game, because you are being rewarded for seeing more of what the game has to offer; and if a game doesn't feel rewarding to play, is it really very fun?

Scribblenauts could really be great!

2009-08-25T17:49:00.000-05:00

Scribblenauts is a game where just about anything is possible. You can use thousands and thousands of words to try and solve puzzles. The amount of insane ideas that I have seen put into this game before it has even been released is just awesome. There are really a LOT of different ways to go about solving a single puzzle. It's always fun to explore the boundaries of a game of what you can and can't do, but Scribblenauts seems to push that concept to its limit. I really hope it works and plays as well as I want it to. Scribblenauts is scheduled to be released on September 15, 2009.

Welcome to Zach's Video Game Blog!

2009-08-25T16:04:00.000-05:00