Gamer_152 checking in again. Just quickly, on the non-gaming front the highlight of my week was probably yesterdays international talk like a pirate day, you should've seen my college, it was full of pirates and piratical speak alike. Moving back into the world of (relative) sanity this week I've mainly been playing Spore (bet ya didn't see that one comin'). Now the following blog is a long one so I've divided it into sections so just read what's relevant.
Spore
Spore has been once again interesting, I've taken some time out of the main game for the creators as well as working my way up to the second last title of the game and reading thread after thread of other peoples opinions on the game. Overall I'm still enjoying it quite a bit and pretty much everything I said last week stands but having had more time with the game there are a few new points to discuss.
Firstly I've been playing the Space phase for quite a bit and it's getting a little tiresome, but I do now have pretty much full access to everywhere in the universe and perhaps part of my problem is that I can't see my full exploits. It's really satisfying to sit in the region around my home planet and look at the giant green blob which represents my allied territory but I've travelled all over the galaxy and not only can I not remember who half the races are but I can't remember where they are or who I'm allied with and I understand the whole premise behind the limited field of vision but I feel very isolated and I'm left feeling like my attempts to make peace with all those species was a little pointless. Secondly I'm not going to spoil the story for anyone but let's just say I've reached a point later in the Space phase in which I've been deliberately pulled into a fierce conflict with a very strong empire and I'm not enjoying it. It's not just that I've had almost my entire empire wiped out and that I'm almost powerless to fight back but considering the supposed open-endedness of the game I'm surprised such a clearly preset plot point was put into the game and that it was geared towards more militarised races, maybe it's possible to make peace with them but when I'm being fired on heavily by a race who promises to make me extinct it's not so easy. Winding down from the rant it's annoying that there's no feature that allows you to stop you downloading everything your buddies have made, in some areas of the creators I wish there were more parts to work with and I'm also feeling a little sad for those affected by the DRM, ironically Spore has become one of the fastest illegally downloaded games ever, I guess there's just no winning against piracy.
On the plus side with the ability to travel virtually anywhere in the space phase has once again brought to the foreground the overwhelming size of the game and one day being the little creature on the tiny planet and the next being the leader of a great empire who is looking down on a planet of primitive planet really puts things in perspective, the game makes you think a lot about the real universe we live in. I was also very impressed this week to see the new patch for the game. Maxis have obviously listened very intently to the critics and the fans and have rolled this patch out of the door amazingly fast, it doesn't fix all the games technical weaknesses but it's still an excellent piece of patching.
Burnout Paradise
I also have the new Burnout Paradise Bike Update and it's great. The bikes look as good as anything else, the awards are a sweet idea, all the new challenges seem well thought-out, I'm very happy that online games are actually divided by bikes and cars, the transition from day to night is very smooth and most importantly the update is free. I found the night time lightning was particularly good, if I hadn't of known I wouldn't of noticed that it wasn't something from the original game and it very much gives that night-time driving feel. It adds a whole second look to Paradise City, making it eerie in some places (places meaning tunnels in the mountains) and a joy to look at in others (other places being the areas with cool lights). Perhaps a larger number of awards would have been nice and maybe something to keep newbies away from, the challenging burning/midnight rides but I'm not complaining, Criterion are doing a top notch job.
Gamer_152's Section of Linkage
Lastly I'm interested in yet another gaming-movie venture, the Mass Effect movie. It looks like they have a good director but half of the point of Mass Effects storyline was choice and this movie is likely to suck away a lot of Mass Effects soul in that way. I'll be watching expectantly to see if the new Bungie-Rare European event rumour is true and congrats to Giant Bomb on their awesome new update. Now I'd like to leave you with (as Jeff Gerstmann put it) the worlds greatest game review. Fine sailin' to ye.
-Gamer_152