Symphony of the Night

I purchased Castlevania: SotN when it became available in the Marketplace. Up until I picked up Guitar Hero that was the only game I was playing on my 360. This is by far, the best Live Arcade game available. The depth of this game, and sheer value, is light years ahead of what is currently available in the Arcade. And the 800 MS points it costs is a slap in the face to any other game available for more, because none come close to matching SotN.

I still own my original copy of SotN for the Playstation. And it is the original release, not the Greatest Hits follow-up. I remember playing through that game back in '98 and having a great time. I completed about 198% I believe. Since then though, I haven't touched it. For a short time I contemplated playing through it again on the PS2, during a time when no good games were coming out, but I never got around to it. Now that it has been released on Live Arcade, with Achievements and slightly enhanced visuals, I decided to give it another go.

And wow, I think I am enjoying the game more this time around than the first time I played it. I am completely hooked. It truly deserves its title as one of the greatest game of all time.

The game controls perfectly and the progression and advancement of your character is fantastic. There is nothing better than coming accross a new weapon, item, or special ability. Or backtracking to an area previously visited with new abilities in hand and reaching previous inaccesible areas. It is fantastic!

300

Forgot to mention it, but I caught a matinee show of 300 about two Fridays ago. It was fantastic. Great looking film, extremely graphic, and very entertaining. Genard Butler also tore it up as King Leonidas. Great character.

I recommend everyone catch it in theaters (or better yet, an IMAX if you are lucky enough), because visually the movie is amazing.

GRAW II minor issues

I have a two minor issues with GRAW 2 that I want to get off my chest. I had them with the first one too and I was hoping they would have been addressed for the sequel. These are minor gripes that don't affect gameplay, but I am anal and they bother me enough to single them out with a post.

First up, I can't believe that Ubisoft still has not fixed the fact that your character does not really reload his gun. Sure, he goes through the animation of removing a clip and placing a new one, except no clip exchange is ever made. I know, who cares right? Well, I f'ing care! This is supposed to be the "next generation". GRAW 2 is a gorgeous game. Your character model is huge and very, very detailed. When you go up against cover you have a great, close-up view of him, and he looks great. It is because of all those facts that this "small" problem is actually pretty big. Talk about killing the mood and making you remember you are just playing a game. It is actually comical to watch your character reload while in cover and seeing him just pretend to remove and place a clip. C'mon Ubisoft, it cannot be that difficult to do. Does it affect gameplay? No? Does it hinder my enjoyment of the game? Believe it or not, yes. Not enough for me to knock an entire point of its score mind you, but any aspect of a game that jars me from the game world so abruptly is definitely a negative.

Also, I still get the feeling that my character is sliding all over the ground when walking. The only time I actually "feel" like he is taking actual steps is when he is at a full sprint and the camera pulls back a bit and it begins to shake some. Other than that, I get the impression that my character is just sliding across the floor on skates. Don't like it.

Note, both these gripes are with the single-player game.

That's it. See how anal I am?

Guitar Hero II

Thanks to Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality I was able to snag me a copy of Guitar Hero II for the 360 this past Saturday, a full four days before the game's release. First time I've ever been one of those lucky bastards that gets a game early and begins to post pictures on message boards and bragging about it. Of course, I was too busy playing the game to do such a thing myself.

For fans of this series, the 360 is a MUCH better looking version of the game you know and love. Seriously, I did not think the jump to 360 would make that big of a difference visually, since Guitar Hero does not really rely on graphics much, but wow. I urge anyone to play the 360 version for a few days and then go back to the PS2 version. I tried this and could not believe how utterly AWFUL the PS2 version looked in comparison.

The second big difference is the guitar controller. The new X-plorer 360 controller felt a bit odd to me at first, after playing with the SG on the PS2 for so long. My first day resulted in a lot of errors from me misjudging the fret button distances, etc. Now, after three days with it, the controller feels fantastic. Much better and "sturdier" than the SG one on the PS2.

The other new additions you'll immediately notice on the 360 are achievements and the online leader boards. The achievement list appears to be pretty well implemented. Some are going to be insanely tough, like getting 5 stars on all songs on Expert. Just thinking about Free Bird on Expert makes me think that achievement is going to be downright impossible for me.

The leader board is probably my favorite feature for the 360 version (aside from future downloadable songs that is). It is great to be able to check how you rank with other players. As of this writing, my best ranking was in Sweet Child of Mine, in which I was ranked 15th out of over 1000 gamers. I'm sure by the time I check again, I would have dropped down significantly. I only wish you would be able to view a replay of the top 10 or so players. PGR 3 lets you watch full lap replays of the best times. Even the Gran Turismo PS3 demo lets you view replays of the top lap times. I gotta think that allowing players to see a bunch of colored notes on a screen is easier to do than full race replays. I hope Red Octane adds this in the future.

I still have a lot more playing to go, since I just started a new Career on Hard. Expert is where the game really shines though, so I can't wait to tackle that and see how I rank. Here's to hoping we see Downloadable Guitar Hero 1 songs soon!!!

Now, if you have not yet done so, go out and buy this game now!

Blog Under Construction

Tanis and I have been tossing around the idea of making changes to our blog, even possibly creating a new title. (Here is a new template I am trying)