Alright, I haven't done one of these in quite some time, and felt like writing a lot, so here you go!!
Reviews on (deep breath): Star Trek: Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, Bridesmaids, Airplane!, Spaceballs, Bullhead, Nuit Noire, Burn After Reading, Salt, 127 Hours, Chronicle, Boy A, Piranha part II: The Spawning, Paradox, Dexter season 7, The Walking Dead season 3, True Blood season 4, The Borgias season 1 & 2, The Tudors season 1&2.
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Lego Star Wars 9492 TIE Fighter
My second Star Wars Lego set, and the obvious buy after the X-Wing.
It's a quicker, but also a less fun build in my opinion. Most of your time will be spent on the two wings, so that part's pretty repetitive. While putting them together, the wings are very flimsy, it's only when they're finished that they have some sturdiness.
The end result is great though, it's pretty big and looks good. The minifigs are great as well, I love how they all have this evil grin on their face haha. The pilot is my favourite.
I got this one for about €30 - if I had paid more than €40 for it, I would have considered it a bit of a rip-off. Like I said, the end result looks great, but the build is pretty simple and not that interesting. It does make a good pair with the X-Wing... but if you only have money for one set, skip this and get the X-Wing.
Some pics:
It's a quicker, but also a less fun build in my opinion. Most of your time will be spent on the two wings, so that part's pretty repetitive. While putting them together, the wings are very flimsy, it's only when they're finished that they have some sturdiness.
The end result is great though, it's pretty big and looks good. The minifigs are great as well, I love how they all have this evil grin on their face haha. The pilot is my favourite.
I got this one for about €30 - if I had paid more than €40 for it, I would have considered it a bit of a rip-off. Like I said, the end result looks great, but the build is pretty simple and not that interesting. It does make a good pair with the X-Wing... but if you only have money for one set, skip this and get the X-Wing.
Some pics:
(don't throw black balls at crying baldies)
Saturday, 4 May 2013
Lego 9493 X-Wing review
A May the 4th special!
A few months ago, I bought my first Lego set since... well since I was 12 or something. Several years ago, I saw some cool Lego Star Wars sets, and thought "hey, wouldn't it be fun to have these? I like Lego, I like Star Wars, so why not?" Well it took me until recently to act on it; partly because my cousin is starting his Lego phase, and partly because I found out it really isn't all that uncommon for adults to buy Lego sets, especially the thematic/movie ones, like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
Anyway, on to the actual build of the X-Wing.
There were a lot of parts in this set that I definitely used for the first time ever (or maybe my memory isn't that good anymore, old man, etc.). There were some parts I definitely didn't expect in this build as well, I mean, green and blue bricks? For an X-Wing? How dare they!!!
Otherwise, it's actually a very fun build, very clever and surprising at times. The nature of the X-Wing means at times you are building things upside down, or in reverse, especially at the back (and the wings of course). This can be a little confusing (on my first build I honestly thought I did something wrong) but it all works out in the end. The best part for me is still the front/middle though, from the outside it doesn't seem like much, but it's actually a clever and "full" build, it's quite dense and uses a lot more bricks than you might think.
The mechanism for opening/closing the wings is fairly clever, however it's quite "digital", the wings are either open or closed, and when you close them down it's with quite a snap. The wings are sturdy enough, but it would be fun to have more control over the opening and closing.
And while I'm saying negative things: as a Star Wars purist it's a bit weird to see R2-D2 sit sideways in the X-Wing. I know this gets solved in the (far, far more expensive!) Red 5 set, but still, surely it wasn't that impossible to make the build a brick wider. Also, the X-Wings in the movies have rear landing gear, this one doesn't have that, when you put it down it basically rests on the engines. But this is nitpicking of course.
My first build took me about 2 hours, with a very short break in between, which seems to be the normal build time. A week ago, I took it apart and built it up again, that time it took me less than an hour and a half (I was interrupted many times, but I'd say definitely between 70-90 minutes). Again, I was surprised at how good the build really is.
The minifigs included are alright - R2-D2, R5-D8, Luke Skywalker (with lightsaber) and Jek Porkins (with blaster rifle). I'd say the other Rebel starfighters (Y-Wing and A-Wing) have better minifigs though.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in Lego or Star Wars. The X-Wing is an iconic ship, and the Lego build does it credit.
Some pictures:
A few months ago, I bought my first Lego set since... well since I was 12 or something. Several years ago, I saw some cool Lego Star Wars sets, and thought "hey, wouldn't it be fun to have these? I like Lego, I like Star Wars, so why not?" Well it took me until recently to act on it; partly because my cousin is starting his Lego phase, and partly because I found out it really isn't all that uncommon for adults to buy Lego sets, especially the thematic/movie ones, like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
Anyway, on to the actual build of the X-Wing.
There were a lot of parts in this set that I definitely used for the first time ever (or maybe my memory isn't that good anymore, old man, etc.). There were some parts I definitely didn't expect in this build as well, I mean, green and blue bricks? For an X-Wing? How dare they!!!
Otherwise, it's actually a very fun build, very clever and surprising at times. The nature of the X-Wing means at times you are building things upside down, or in reverse, especially at the back (and the wings of course). This can be a little confusing (on my first build I honestly thought I did something wrong) but it all works out in the end. The best part for me is still the front/middle though, from the outside it doesn't seem like much, but it's actually a clever and "full" build, it's quite dense and uses a lot more bricks than you might think.
The mechanism for opening/closing the wings is fairly clever, however it's quite "digital", the wings are either open or closed, and when you close them down it's with quite a snap. The wings are sturdy enough, but it would be fun to have more control over the opening and closing.
And while I'm saying negative things: as a Star Wars purist it's a bit weird to see R2-D2 sit sideways in the X-Wing. I know this gets solved in the (far, far more expensive!) Red 5 set, but still, surely it wasn't that impossible to make the build a brick wider. Also, the X-Wings in the movies have rear landing gear, this one doesn't have that, when you put it down it basically rests on the engines. But this is nitpicking of course.
My first build took me about 2 hours, with a very short break in between, which seems to be the normal build time. A week ago, I took it apart and built it up again, that time it took me less than an hour and a half (I was interrupted many times, but I'd say definitely between 70-90 minutes). Again, I was surprised at how good the build really is.
The minifigs included are alright - R2-D2, R5-D8, Luke Skywalker (with lightsaber) and Jek Porkins (with blaster rifle). I'd say the other Rebel starfighters (Y-Wing and A-Wing) have better minifigs though.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in Lego or Star Wars. The X-Wing is an iconic ship, and the Lego build does it credit.
Some pictures:
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Super Nintendo
I got my SNES when I was 12. It was my first "home console", having owned only a Game Boy before that. I bought it with Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Starwing (that's Starfox for my US friends). Videogames were super expensive back then, new SNES releases were about €75 (converted to modern currency!) so I never got a lot of games in that period, mostly games that were on sale. I think I ended up with about 15 games in total, of course renting some games as well.
At some point I stupidly sold my SNES and all my games (which included a special edition Super Metroid - that I later found out was worth quite a bit!) in order to get a Nintendo 64. Which was a bit of a mistake. And then 4 years later I sold that Nintendo 64 to buy a Gamecube. Also a bit of a mistake (not buying the Gamecube, but selling my N64). Seriously kids, never sell your consoles! You'll regret it later.
Anyway, a few years back I was very much in a retro mood and started buying SNES games again, and obviously a console as well. AND a switch thingy that let me play US games on a European SNES, mostly because I wanted to own Chrono Trigger, which was only available in the US. I managed to buy that - a few weeks before a Nintendo DS version of that game was announced. Yes.
Well at least I had a second chance to play some more SNES games, and I also got a few on the Virtual Console, so I was happy.
I am probably a bit biased, but the SNES really is one of my favourite consoles ever, maybe THE best ever, because it has such a high quantity/quality ratio in a lot of genres I like. Take fighting games for example; it had great versions of the Street Fighter 2 games, and Mortal Kombat 2 was easily the best 16-bit version. The RPGs on the system were also outstanding: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV to VI, Secret of Mana... yeah this was back when Square could do nothing wrong. I could give more examples in more genres, but I suppose I should get on with my top 10...
1) Super Metroid
This game is probably the reason why I love games with a strong, unique atmosphere. I mean, the intro alone...wow. The music is great, graphics are great, gameplay is great, boss battles are great... there really isn't a single thing this game does wrong. Well, there are some less fun sections later in this game, but no game can be perfect right? Overall, it really is one of the best games ever made.
Funny thing is, I only completed it a year or two ago, until then I never got to the end, despite really loving the game. It just confirmed my opinion that it's one of the greatest game ever.
2) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
My first Zelda game, and still my favourite non-Ocarina Zelda. I still think it's a very pretty game with a lot of charm and personality. Just like with pretty much every game on this list, the music in this game was the soundtrack of my (misspent?) youth and some pieces have been permanently burnt into my brain. I should really do a replay of this some time soon...
3) Chrono Trigger
This quickly became one of my favourite RPGs, and get this - it's a game I haven't even finished yet!! Actually I can count the jRPGs I finished on one hand, but that's a discussion for another time. There isn't a single negative thing I can say about this game; not that it's perfect, but I feel this one should definitely be in the top 5 RPGs ever.
4) F-Zero
5) Street Fighter II Turbo
This was the game I bought together with my SNES. It really wouldn't surprise me if I spent about a hundred hours or more on this. Trying to discover new moves with every character, trying to beat the game on a higher difficulty level, trying to beat the game with as many 'perfect's as possible... I could always find a new challenge. I still play this from time to time on Virtual Console.
6) Starwing
The second game I bought! Obviously the 3D graphics were impressive at that time, but it was a really good game as well, a lot more than a "tech demo" as you would expect a game like this to be. It had great music as well.
7) Sim City
Even though I already had a version of the original Sim City on my dad's PC (a 386!!), I still wanted to experience this on the SNES. It adds a lot of charm to the game I think, with the music and changing of seasons and a few other additions. It's quite playable on a SNES controller really, even though I did sometimes misplaced certain things...
8) Donkey Kong Country
Those graphics, man!! Talk of the town when this game was released. If I get my facts right, the graphics were 3D but were turned to 2D, thanks to...magic or something. In any case, it looked spectacular at the time. Oh and the gameplay wasn't too bad either really. And, as seems to be the norm for a high quality SNES release, the music was great as well.
9) Pilotwings
Another one of those games I pick up every now and then. My skills have definitely decreased over time :( Tried it again last week, gave up on the third level after 3 tries or so. Well, I was going for a perfect score in everything heh. But really, it's a good game to pick up and play for half an hour or so.
10) Mortal Kombat 2
Excellent port of the arcade game. Again a game I spent probably over a 100 hours on. I still remember most of the special moves and fatalities!! As far as gameplay is concerned it's obviously inferior to SFII, but I had - and still have - lots of fun with this.
Also some honorable mentions:
xx) Samurai Shodown
I'm a HUGE fan of this series, and the love started here. Comparing it to the actual Neo Geo release, the characters are way smaller on the SNES, and some effects were toned down as well, but the music is far superior. The atmosphere, of which the music is an important part, is the reason why I love this game (and the entire series) so much, so looking back at it, it really wasn't a bad port at all.
xx) Batman Returns
This is one of those games that are probably unplayable in modern times, but I remember having quite some fun with this. I liked that the game was quite close to the film when it came to atmosphere.
xx) Dirt Trax FX
Another Super FX game, this was actually a really fun racer. Even my sister liked it! I liked how the cars handled quite differently from each other, and the track design was really good.
xx) International Superstar Soccer Deluxe
I don't even like football games in general, but I played it at a friend's and I really liked it. One of the games I bought when I started collecting again.
xx) Killer Instinct
I was quite surprised when they announced a SNES port of this game - I was (very!) familiar with the original arcade version, and that game just blew away everything else when it came to graphics. It was supposed to be a launch game for the next Nintendo console - the arcade cabinet said "coming soon to Nintendo Ultra 64!!" LIES!!!! But that was Nintendo's fault really. Anyway, they obviously had to downscale the graphics and sound quite a bit, but the gameplay was mostly intact. It also came with a "Killer Cuts" music CD, which was a pretty good bonus.
Lastly, let me show of my very small collection:
Most of those are in great condition - F-Zero and Killer Instinct (both US carts) were even brand new!! Also, while the Zelda box was a little damaged, it was actually brand new and came with all the extras, as you'll see on the picture below:
Yes, complete with the map and that little, still sealed "top secrets" booklet. And a promo poster. I didn't pay much for it, and it's one of the items in my videogame collection I'm very proud of owning.
Righto, that's it! Feel free to comment with your own SNES-relates stories, or tell me I have bad taste in games, or whatever :)
At some point I stupidly sold my SNES and all my games (which included a special edition Super Metroid - that I later found out was worth quite a bit!) in order to get a Nintendo 64. Which was a bit of a mistake. And then 4 years later I sold that Nintendo 64 to buy a Gamecube. Also a bit of a mistake (not buying the Gamecube, but selling my N64). Seriously kids, never sell your consoles! You'll regret it later.
Anyway, a few years back I was very much in a retro mood and started buying SNES games again, and obviously a console as well. AND a switch thingy that let me play US games on a European SNES, mostly because I wanted to own Chrono Trigger, which was only available in the US. I managed to buy that - a few weeks before a Nintendo DS version of that game was announced. Yes.
Well at least I had a second chance to play some more SNES games, and I also got a few on the Virtual Console, so I was happy.
I am probably a bit biased, but the SNES really is one of my favourite consoles ever, maybe THE best ever, because it has such a high quantity/quality ratio in a lot of genres I like. Take fighting games for example; it had great versions of the Street Fighter 2 games, and Mortal Kombat 2 was easily the best 16-bit version. The RPGs on the system were also outstanding: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV to VI, Secret of Mana... yeah this was back when Square could do nothing wrong. I could give more examples in more genres, but I suppose I should get on with my top 10...
1) Super Metroid
Funny thing is, I only completed it a year or two ago, until then I never got to the end, despite really loving the game. It just confirmed my opinion that it's one of the greatest game ever.
2) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
3) Chrono Trigger
4) F-Zero
A SNES launch game, this showed off the console's "mode 7" way of achieving a 3D effect. I played this again last week, and while it's obviously very basic compared to its sequels and modern racing games, it's still very playable. It has some memorable sound effects and music as well. I'm a big fan of the F-Zero games, and between this, F-Zero X (N64) and F-Zero GX (Gamecube), it's hard to pick a favourite. So I won't :)
5) Street Fighter II Turbo
6) Starwing
The second game I bought! Obviously the 3D graphics were impressive at that time, but it was a really good game as well, a lot more than a "tech demo" as you would expect a game like this to be. It had great music as well.
7) Sim City
Even though I already had a version of the original Sim City on my dad's PC (a 386!!), I still wanted to experience this on the SNES. It adds a lot of charm to the game I think, with the music and changing of seasons and a few other additions. It's quite playable on a SNES controller really, even though I did sometimes misplaced certain things...
8) Donkey Kong Country
Those graphics, man!! Talk of the town when this game was released. If I get my facts right, the graphics were 3D but were turned to 2D, thanks to...magic or something. In any case, it looked spectacular at the time. Oh and the gameplay wasn't too bad either really. And, as seems to be the norm for a high quality SNES release, the music was great as well.
9) Pilotwings
Another one of those games I pick up every now and then. My skills have definitely decreased over time :( Tried it again last week, gave up on the third level after 3 tries or so. Well, I was going for a perfect score in everything heh. But really, it's a good game to pick up and play for half an hour or so.
10) Mortal Kombat 2
Excellent port of the arcade game. Again a game I spent probably over a 100 hours on. I still remember most of the special moves and fatalities!! As far as gameplay is concerned it's obviously inferior to SFII, but I had - and still have - lots of fun with this.
Also some honorable mentions:
xx) Samurai Shodown
I'm a HUGE fan of this series, and the love started here. Comparing it to the actual Neo Geo release, the characters are way smaller on the SNES, and some effects were toned down as well, but the music is far superior. The atmosphere, of which the music is an important part, is the reason why I love this game (and the entire series) so much, so looking back at it, it really wasn't a bad port at all.
xx) Batman Returns
This is one of those games that are probably unplayable in modern times, but I remember having quite some fun with this. I liked that the game was quite close to the film when it came to atmosphere.
xx) Dirt Trax FX
Another Super FX game, this was actually a really fun racer. Even my sister liked it! I liked how the cars handled quite differently from each other, and the track design was really good.
xx) International Superstar Soccer Deluxe
I don't even like football games in general, but I played it at a friend's and I really liked it. One of the games I bought when I started collecting again.
xx) Killer Instinct
I was quite surprised when they announced a SNES port of this game - I was (very!) familiar with the original arcade version, and that game just blew away everything else when it came to graphics. It was supposed to be a launch game for the next Nintendo console - the arcade cabinet said "coming soon to Nintendo Ultra 64!!" LIES!!!! But that was Nintendo's fault really. Anyway, they obviously had to downscale the graphics and sound quite a bit, but the gameplay was mostly intact. It also came with a "Killer Cuts" music CD, which was a pretty good bonus.
Lastly, let me show of my very small collection:
Righto, that's it! Feel free to comment with your own SNES-relates stories, or tell me I have bad taste in games, or whatever :)
Monday, 4 February 2013
Binary Domain review
Just like with Virtua Tennis 4, I bought this from greenmangaming.com when it was on sale a few weeks ago. I knew it got somewhat mixed reviews, but for €6 or something I figured it was worth trying out myself.
Well, I finished the game yesterday, with a total of 10 hours of play time. Most of it was fun, some of it was stupid, some of it was frustrating, but in the end I would say it was worth my money - and time.
The game is very much the Japanese take on games like Gears of War and Mass Effect, in the sense that it's a squad-based third person shooter in a sci-fi setting. The gimmick here (because every game needs a gimmick right?) is the consequence system (basically a team mate trust system), and also the voice commands. Both, unfortunately, are flawed.
The trust system is a good idea in theory, but its implementation is rather crappy. One reoccurring problem I had was accidentally shooting a teammate in the back and thus losing trust as you might expect. Why did I shoot them in the back? Because the AI was so incredibly stupid to run into my line of fire - while I was shooting.
It's not just that though, sometimes, mostly after an action scene, a teammate will start talking to you and you have to respond to what they say. While you have some options, most of the time just saying "yes" or "okay" will increase trust. So you start wondering what the point of these scenes is exactly.
Which brings me to the voice commands - I can honestly say I turned off that option after half an hour or so. It works, kind of, but since I was using my laptop mic it worked too much, and picked up sounds that weren't made by me, and made it's own interpretation of it. Which annoyed my teammates. So yeah, I chose the simpler option where you just choose commands and dialogue options with the press of a button.
Might as well complain a bit more - it has the typical Japanese stereotyping, so one of your squadmates is a big, smack-talking black guy. And the tendency to give stupid, "unique" names to things is also there. "Hollow children", really? They're just androids, you know.
The main character - what was his name again? - is just as replaceable as any other main character in most action games. The game's difficulty is also a bit off, it has some frustrating boss fights, especially in the middle of the game, but towards the end it becomes a cakewalk. Personally, I hated chapter 4, the structure was awful and I had the most frustrating moments in it (but then I absolutely loved chapter 5, so that balances it out I guess).
Lastly, sometimes the cutscenes are longer than the gameplay sections - I can get very annoyed at this as I want to play a game and not watch it.
As for the good things: shooting up robots feels great, taking them apart piece by piece is visually very satisfying. Where you shoot them has an impact as well: shoot their legs off and they'll come crawling to you, while still firing. Shoot their gun arm off, and they'll pick up the gun and start shooting with the other arm. Shoot their head off, and they'll malfunction and shoot the other robots. It's a fun system really.
The boss battles are a bit of a mixed bag, and most of them basically come down to "shoot the glowing bits!", but some of them are quite satisfying.
The story then, only really starts getting interesting in the last two chapters. For the most part it's not exactly subtle, and sci-fi fans have surely come across this kind of story before (see: Star Trek The Next Generation: is Data a person or a thing?) They don't handle it too badly though, and I thought the ending was fairly satisfying. There are multiple endings based on the consequence system, and mine was a happy ending for most characters, but one guy died. How are they going to explain that death in the sequel, hmm? :)
Well, there probably won't be any sequel since the game didn't sell enough and got only average reviews, but I would be interested in one. As long as it has more robot shooting, less cutscenes, and better team AI.
Anyway, while I listed plenty of reasons why it's not a great game in my opinion, I had fun with it. I won't recommend the game to everyone, but if the concept of shooting hundreds of robots to little pieces appeals to you, and you can overlook some of the flaws I mentioned, you'll enjoy this. If I used a score system to review games, this would be a 7.5/10. But I don't, so ignore that.
To conclude, a few pics I took:
Commander Shepard?
It's the Cole Train, baby!!!
Very slick shop front.
Big robot.
Even bigger robot.
Saturday, 2 February 2013
Spec Ops: The Line (mini-review)
I saw this game on a lot of "best game of 2012" lists, so I bought it last month from amazon.com for PC/Steam (it was $10 together with 2 other games I think).
I'm not a big fan of military shooters to be honest, but from what I've read about the game, it's not quite your average Call of Duty game, and the story is also about the morality of war and violence. I certainly liked the sound of that!
But even then, it might be "different" but that doesn't automatically makes it good. So, I started playing it a week ago, and finished the game after a little over 6 hours of play time (on normal difficulty).
I absolutely loved the setting. Dubai more or less destroyed by a huge sandstorm gives the game a bit of an apocalyptic atmosphere, which I always enjoy in videogames and other media.
It plays out like a typical military squad shooter for the most part, so expect to hear things like clicks, MO, and things like that.
The actual gameplay (in which I mean the actual running and gunning) is alright, but in no way exceptional on its own. If it weren't for the setpieces, story and very dark last hour or two of the game, it would've been an average game. The best thing you can do is go on spoiler free, but even when you know what's going to happen, the journey you make in the game, and the end result, is very satisfying. I don't know how others felt about it, but I was sort of...emotionally tired at the end of the game. Calling it shell-shocked would be an exaggeration, but certainly the feeling was similar. In those 6 hours you see some awful things, you do some awful things, and in the end you've killed hundreds of people, for what, exactly?
I'd recommend this game even to people who aren't into military shooters. The first two hours or so might be typical military shooter stuff and mostly very cliché, but later on it gets a lot darker, and once you get what the developers tried to do with this game, you'll enjoy the ride. Like I said, the setting and atmosphere are great, and outweigh the somewhat average gunplay.
I took some pictures while playing, I guess some are sort of spoiler-ish as they're taken in the last 2 hours or so of the game, but it doesn't reveal anything story-related.
I'm not a big fan of military shooters to be honest, but from what I've read about the game, it's not quite your average Call of Duty game, and the story is also about the morality of war and violence. I certainly liked the sound of that!
But even then, it might be "different" but that doesn't automatically makes it good. So, I started playing it a week ago, and finished the game after a little over 6 hours of play time (on normal difficulty).
I absolutely loved the setting. Dubai more or less destroyed by a huge sandstorm gives the game a bit of an apocalyptic atmosphere, which I always enjoy in videogames and other media.
It plays out like a typical military squad shooter for the most part, so expect to hear things like clicks, MO, and things like that.
The actual gameplay (in which I mean the actual running and gunning) is alright, but in no way exceptional on its own. If it weren't for the setpieces, story and very dark last hour or two of the game, it would've been an average game. The best thing you can do is go on spoiler free, but even when you know what's going to happen, the journey you make in the game, and the end result, is very satisfying. I don't know how others felt about it, but I was sort of...emotionally tired at the end of the game. Calling it shell-shocked would be an exaggeration, but certainly the feeling was similar. In those 6 hours you see some awful things, you do some awful things, and in the end you've killed hundreds of people, for what, exactly?
I'd recommend this game even to people who aren't into military shooters. The first two hours or so might be typical military shooter stuff and mostly very cliché, but later on it gets a lot darker, and once you get what the developers tried to do with this game, you'll enjoy the ride. Like I said, the setting and atmosphere are great, and outweigh the somewhat average gunplay.
I took some pictures while playing, I guess some are sort of spoiler-ish as they're taken in the last 2 hours or so of the game, but it doesn't reveal anything story-related.
The title screen changes depending on how far you are in the game. This was close to the end...
It's that sky tennis thingy! With strung up bodies...
It's that artificial palm tree island!
"Do you feel like a hero yet?"
"To kill for entertainment is harmless"
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Virtua Tennis 4: how to take the tennis out of tennis
I bought Virtua Tennis 4 (PC) dirt cheap from Greenmangaming.com earlier. I got quite addicted to it actually, playing it 7 hours in the last 24 hours (yes, I know, I have no life). However, the more I played it, the more problems popped up. In short, it's not a good tennis game.
Let's start discussing the world tour first. Unlike in other games, the world tour is limited to 4 seasons, and the goal isn't to reach number 1 but to collect stars by doing various activities, like winning matches of course, but also meeting the fans, doing charity stuff, etc. The world tour is basically a big board game, with your player as the pawn, and you move on the board using cards. There are cards that can move the player up to four places but also special cards you can buy from shops, such as a recovery card (for when your stamina is low) or an agent card that gets you more stars per event. The squares (well, circles) you land on can be minigames, fan events, special training matches and of course tournaments, but also negative events (you can "lose your wallet" for instance, or get a minor injury). For every movement card you use, another one gets added, so you never run out of cards. There are branching paths, but there is also a time limit to reach the end of the season. You are forced to play the final tournament, but if you're too late you lose stars.
Now, the annoying thing about this system is that it makes the world tour very random. I wanted my created player (David Goffin!) to have strong groundstrokes. Unfortunately, I never could direct my player to the minigames needed to build on that, so in the end he was basically a defensive player. It's a really strange decision by AM3 to build the world tour like this; it takes away a great deal of control from the player, and quite frankly, it doesn't make much sense. Surely, when trying to build your dream player, you should be allowed to shape his path the way you want it to be, and specialise him/her in the playstyle you want? It's an extremely questionable decision. The board game like play does make it less predictable (and okay, somewhat addicting), but far less involving than the world tours in other tennis games.
As for how my play went: I reached the finals of every slam, won one, but still got a "you didn't do very well" message at the end. I was forced to play the qualifiers for most slams, which meant in the final I had a minor injury, usually my "ankle playing up" - which meant my player moved at a snails pace at random times. Good fun, I can tell you. Then in the last season, I didn't reach the US Open in time (can't figure out why - wasn't I supposed to play the sattelite tournaments to increase rank so I shouldn't have to play the qualies?), which ended with me being penalised 19 points. I reached the final again and got 22 points in total, which means this ended with +3 stars for me. Hmm.
So much for the world tour, now some more about the general on-court gameplay. Well, maybe I'm (very!) spoilt by the Top Spin games, but there are a lot of things wrong with the Virtua Tennis gameplay. I know it's supposed to be an arcade game and not a sim, but surely they could have improved the now 14 year old gameplay just a bit.
As with the previous games, it's almost impossible to hit a ball out, which means that against a reasonable opponent (be it human or AI) you are basically stuck doing endless baseline rallies until one player screws up (Caroline Wozniacki would love this game, right tennis fans?). The "hold down button to return" also shows its limitations. Doing a shot on the run is basically impossible because of it, and when you're not on the baseline it's quite possible your guy/gal won't hit back even when you're holding the button. It also gives a problem with movement and footwork: holding down the button automatically moves you closer to the ball, the game basically chooses the "ideal" position for you. Again, something that takes away control from you. In Top Spin 4 I can run around balls to hit them with my forehand, here the game decides whether I play a forehand or backhand. The safest thing you can do is position yourself in the middle of the baseline, and hold down a button. You'll hit everything back except balls with a sharp left or right angle. Frankly, this is not how I want to play virtual tennis. I keep saying this as a joke, but there's truth to it: Top Spin is a tennis simulator, Virtua Tennis is Pong 3D.
Those are the main gameplay problems, but that's not all!! Animations are pretty bad, and most players animate exactly the same (in Top Spin 4, the famous guys all had unique animations). The players still slide over the court at times. The funniest animation is when my player wins the last point of the match at the net; he has a walking forward animation, but since he can't run into the net, he just slides sur place. Things like this makes the game look horribly amateurish, especially compared to... well I already mentioned that game enough times in this entry.
One new feature that isn't completely horrible is the power shot: you basically build up a meter by doing...something (it depends on your character's speciality), when it's full you unleash a powerful shot. Which...is barely more powerful than a charged-up shot, and is definitely not a guaranteed clear winner. It does look great, but ultimately there's not much point to it - other than the fact that it looks great.
I don't think it's a horrible game, but the mechanics are so outdated; AM3 really should've put more effort into this as it really feels like a lazy entry in the series, and probably should've taken a look at the competition. The Top Spin series probably only sold a fraction of what the Virtua Tennis games did, but Top Spin 4 is, by far, the best tennis game out there, and they could have taken a few hints from it. The Virtua Tennis series really needs an overhaul, the last two entries weren't very good, and with the Top Spin franchise being dead, I hope there will be at least one good tennis videogame in the future.
(the gameplay modes)
Let's start discussing the world tour first. Unlike in other games, the world tour is limited to 4 seasons, and the goal isn't to reach number 1 but to collect stars by doing various activities, like winning matches of course, but also meeting the fans, doing charity stuff, etc. The world tour is basically a big board game, with your player as the pawn, and you move on the board using cards. There are cards that can move the player up to four places but also special cards you can buy from shops, such as a recovery card (for when your stamina is low) or an agent card that gets you more stars per event. The squares (well, circles) you land on can be minigames, fan events, special training matches and of course tournaments, but also negative events (you can "lose your wallet" for instance, or get a minor injury). For every movement card you use, another one gets added, so you never run out of cards. There are branching paths, but there is also a time limit to reach the end of the season. You are forced to play the final tournament, but if you're too late you lose stars.
(the world tour main screen)
Now, the annoying thing about this system is that it makes the world tour very random. I wanted my created player (David Goffin!) to have strong groundstrokes. Unfortunately, I never could direct my player to the minigames needed to build on that, so in the end he was basically a defensive player. It's a really strange decision by AM3 to build the world tour like this; it takes away a great deal of control from the player, and quite frankly, it doesn't make much sense. Surely, when trying to build your dream player, you should be allowed to shape his path the way you want it to be, and specialise him/her in the playstyle you want? It's an extremely questionable decision. The board game like play does make it less predictable (and okay, somewhat addicting), but far less involving than the world tours in other tennis games.
(yes, my Goffin doesn't look at all like the real one, but at least he's blonde)
So much for the world tour, now some more about the general on-court gameplay. Well, maybe I'm (very!) spoilt by the Top Spin games, but there are a lot of things wrong with the Virtua Tennis gameplay. I know it's supposed to be an arcade game and not a sim, but surely they could have improved the now 14 year old gameplay just a bit.
As with the previous games, it's almost impossible to hit a ball out, which means that against a reasonable opponent (be it human or AI) you are basically stuck doing endless baseline rallies until one player screws up (Caroline Wozniacki would love this game, right tennis fans?). The "hold down button to return" also shows its limitations. Doing a shot on the run is basically impossible because of it, and when you're not on the baseline it's quite possible your guy/gal won't hit back even when you're holding the button. It also gives a problem with movement and footwork: holding down the button automatically moves you closer to the ball, the game basically chooses the "ideal" position for you. Again, something that takes away control from you. In Top Spin 4 I can run around balls to hit them with my forehand, here the game decides whether I play a forehand or backhand. The safest thing you can do is position yourself in the middle of the baseline, and hold down a button. You'll hit everything back except balls with a sharp left or right angle. Frankly, this is not how I want to play virtual tennis. I keep saying this as a joke, but there's truth to it: Top Spin is a tennis simulator, Virtua Tennis is Pong 3D.
(the roster - one or two unexpected names)
Those are the main gameplay problems, but that's not all!! Animations are pretty bad, and most players animate exactly the same (in Top Spin 4, the famous guys all had unique animations). The players still slide over the court at times. The funniest animation is when my player wins the last point of the match at the net; he has a walking forward animation, but since he can't run into the net, he just slides sur place. Things like this makes the game look horribly amateurish, especially compared to... well I already mentioned that game enough times in this entry.
One new feature that isn't completely horrible is the power shot: you basically build up a meter by doing...something (it depends on your character's speciality), when it's full you unleash a powerful shot. Which...is barely more powerful than a charged-up shot, and is definitely not a guaranteed clear winner. It does look great, but ultimately there's not much point to it - other than the fact that it looks great.
(the players still look like zombies)
I don't think it's a horrible game, but the mechanics are so outdated; AM3 really should've put more effort into this as it really feels like a lazy entry in the series, and probably should've taken a look at the competition. The Top Spin series probably only sold a fraction of what the Virtua Tennis games did, but Top Spin 4 is, by far, the best tennis game out there, and they could have taken a few hints from it. The Virtua Tennis series really needs an overhaul, the last two entries weren't very good, and with the Top Spin franchise being dead, I hope there will be at least one good tennis videogame in the future.
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