Gaming Round Up

I should have thought of a title that ended with an ‘E’ word so I could make a Zork reference :)

Ghostbusters, PC

Doesn’t suck. I’m as surprised as you, really. Now I’ve only spent an hour with the game but aside from the cinemas looking really lame compared to the game — I run 1920 x 1200, everything maxed — it feels like the same old Ghostbusters, just as I remembered. I truly lost all my mouse aiming skills but my wired 360 controller made it feel just like, well, playing it on the 360! The loss of multiplayer on the PC is still lame, ditto the lack of Steam achievements, but I do have to fight the urge to keep playing with everything else on my to do list. Seeing as I didn’t even have to spend the $4 thanks to a lovely gesture by optikal, it’s really a win. The game could get really choppy and buggy later on but I won’t find that out for a bit. Having spent my hour in game in 15 minutes chunks, the only issue I encountered was a hard lock on my second last quit. Even the Wii Ghostbusters (still worth checking out for a different Ghostbusters experience! And, hey, female rookie ftw) had some gamebreakers but they didn’t corrupt my save so I’m not entirely crushed by them. Now it’s still on sale for $6.80USD and, honestly, if you’ve never played it and wanted to, it’s still worth it at that price.

Ghost Trick, Nintendo DS

Colour me intrigued. I’ve always felt intrigued should be a bluish-green. I had not been aware of Ghost Trick before E3, you can read wiki for some more English info but it’s definitely on my radar now. I seriously dig the art.

Red Dead Redemption, Xbox 360

Yes, I am finally playing it! I didn’t know what to think at first. I never played any of the 3D Grand Theft Auto games. Shame, shame, whatever. They didn’t interest me and I saved my money. I’m not against violence in games, but the loss of the cartoonish style was a turn off and the new characters did not appeal to me. Anyway, that’s a whole different post of no interest to anyone. The biggest adjustment that I had to make was the level of freedom granted to the player. Frustrating-at-first freedom. Wanna shoot someone? Go ahead. Now live with the consequences. For a while I stayed far far away from random fights in the world when I’d accidentally pick the side contrary to my goals or not see the teeny tiny badge until it was too late. I felt terribly unheroic watching these people run by with bullets flying while I just watched or ignored it completely. I was pretty upset when one of these random fly-byes shot my horse! Jerk. Thanks for ruining my achievement. I was so close, too.

Despite all the hours I’ve put in the game so far, I’m really not far along. There’s a bounty available? Sweet. I will chase that bugger down all corners of the map, picking every flower and shooting every animal along the way. Hey, horsebreaking. It’s boring and lame but might as well. Nightwatch? Meh. Occasionally. It’s a good thing I barely know the rules to poker or I’d play that, too. No Liar’s Dice for me and, man, I stink at Horseshoes. Yay! A Stranger! More sidequests! It’s been pretty much like that. There’s no leveling system yet I’m really interested in all of these sidequests since the world feels really complete. The lead’s voice acting is superb, Bonnie is a wonderful female character that gaming needs more of (so far. I have no idea if this changes later on. Please don’t change!), the Marshal and his men are alright, and everyone else needs to shut the hell up. Stop talking, stop talking, stop talking, stop talking. Don’t get me wrong, I’m into the story. I’m not into the stereotypes. There should be more RDR going on later tonight, if I dare. This is one of those games that I start and then, lookie, it’s quarter to three. Oops. What’s one more hour?

Misc.

The new OA is kicking my ass with formatting issues. I’m still aiming for this week. Probably not Canada Day ;)

Pokemon. I talked about working on an exploit and its consequences and its perks. I haven’t touched the game since. I keep thinking whether to post about it or not. Would it be seen as encouraging this sort of thing? Would it make things worse? Would it level the playing field? It’s a single player game for most gamers, who does it hurt? So far I think I will publish it. It’s not something ‘omg super awesome wow!!!!’ and is rather obvious, so don’t expect the earth to shatter when I post it :)

I have not started making new ringtones yet, despite all your lovely responses. This needs to change so I stop cringing every time it rings. I’m also going to have to hack it again so I can change the awful text message sound.

Tagged as: 360, ds, E3, gaming, ghostbusters, pc