Castlevania: Mirror of Fate

(lazy me double posting here and on FB :P )

Here's a game no one is talking about and it comes out in 4 days...

http://www.gamespot.com/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-mirror-of-fate/

I adore Castlevania, though Order of Ecclesia was kinda..meh . I can't get into  Lords of Shadow for numerous reasons, one of which is my hatred of spoilers...and man was it spoiled majorly like RIGHT AFTER I bought it.

Console Castlevania games have all been pretty blah to me, except for the cheesiness of Castlevania64 and of course the awesome SOTN. But handheld ones, man I eat that shit up! I've lost count how many times I played Aria of Sorrow & Dawn of Sorrow (Soma FTW!) I also have a slightly unhealthy crush on Juste Belmont...sure his game was an utter c/p uninspired rip of SOTN but he was so much prettier than Alucard.
But, I digress...

So, I haven't finished and don't forsee finishing LoS anytime soon, but I am kinda interested in this one. I need more Castlevania handheld goodness in my life (that sounds...kinda wrong)..also, sappy me teared up watching the trailer for this.

I just can't rap myself around the whole stupid premise of this reboot though. I won't spoil it for anyone else but, i can't reconcile all the Castlevania games I've played with the turn in the story that LoS took. So I guess I'm just trying to decide if the Castlevania game play on another handheld after waiting so long can override my aversion for the rebooted story....

Working on it I swear!

I'm working on my dragon age 2 review, but in the meantime I've been gaming my butt off.
I've been trying new games, well not NEW games but, new to me as in, I've had them sitting around but never touched them.
So, til I get that  big Dragon Age 2 rant out to you, I'll give a quick rundown of the games I've played.

Dungeon Defenders both on STEAM and XBLA:
Played it on Steam with a friend and really liked it a lot. So this week since its on sale on XBL andits 4 player co-op i decided to let everyone in the house demo it and tell me what they thought. Everyone had a lot of fun with it and so I bought it and the DLC and we got our game on, it was Sapito, Waterfalls, me and the hubby... We suck balls at it together lol. We kept dying at the final wave of the first dungeon but we all had a really good time with it. Looking forward to another session of co-op. However it wasnt all great, 4 player split screen has one REALLY big disadvantage. While none of us had a problem running around or fighting, I actually found it easier to focus on my little box at the top than keeping track of my character in split screen co-op, the downside was that it was almost impossible to read the text whenever we picked up gear or had to level up, everyone had to take turns going up to the screen to read it. But, small price to pay for sharing a family game night.

Pac-Man Championship Edition, XBLA:
I have always sucked at pac-man. Even though, I had a good time playing the trippiest pac-man i've ever seen, even got  a few achievements. YAY!

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, XBLA:
I only played this briefly with Sapito, Its a fun little side scrolling brawler though I did find the controls a bit iffy. Its a cute game though and I'll probably go back to it.

West, XBIG:
I bought this ages ago when Kotaku recommended it. I played it fora very short amount of time because frankly I found it preachy and pedantic. I can safely say I will NEVER play this game again and feel robbed of the buck I paid for it. It was dull, boring, and as I said, preachy on the evils of the world. *sigh* If I want a sermon I'll go to church.

Cthulu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII, XBIG:
Now these are fun little throw back RPGs. Both of them made me chuckle at the dialogue and the old school turn based fighting is well done and fun. difficulty however goes up and down randomly it seems and I found myself overpowering 4 higher level enemies easily and then getting destroyed by one single Ninja (this was in Cthulu, which I played much longer than Breath of death).

Resident Evil 5, XBOX360:
What I like: Wesker, Sheva. What I hate: everything else. I confess that I have no desire to go finish this, though I probably will sometime in the coming days.
Co-Op games are hard to find these days so My husband and I jump on any opportunity to play something together. He's a RE fan, I'm not. To him its a good game with better controls than previous RE games. To me its a study in crap mechanics.
I can KINDA getover the whole inability to run and gun...but I cant move while wielding a knife? Really? WTF is that about?
I find the fact that in every cutscene Sheva looks at Chris like he's an utter cretin hilarious though.
Now, i'm not some hardcore kick ass gamer so I admit, I kinda suck at this game, but hubby sucks more and put together we are one big bag of suck that dies CONSTANTLY. That kinda dampens my enjoyment of any game.

F.3.A.R., XBOX360:
weak story aside, I LOVED this game. I got to play as Paxton Fettel, and damn was that fun. Seriously, I love the possessing mechanic, and the ability to grab an enemy and lift him in the air then clenching my fist and making him explode. MY husband played Point Man and he enjoyed it a sight less, still we did reach the end with relative ease, aside from one  very evil Mech bastard.

Prey, XBOX360:
My husband bought me thison PC ages ago, but my old PC couldnt run it, so then he bought it for me on  xbox. I added it to the collection and never touched it again. No idea why I decided to finally try it but, try it I did. For abuut an hour. Right off the bat I hated Tommy, the main character. I tried to give it a chance but overall, I just cba to put any time into it.

Rage, XBOX360:
If you guys have read more of my blog, you've probably read about my back and forth debate on this game pre-release. I eventually decided on not pre-ordering  and waiting for a price drop. I'm so glad I did. I finally picked it up for $19.11 on Amazon and I think I paid Nineteen dollars too many.
MY GOD, this game....it looks like Borderlands and Fallout had a child, an uninteresting, painfully obnoxious child. Yesterday I gave it a third try....Raptr says I played for an hour.. I swear it felt like 10. There is no discernible story besides, i woke up in the future and instantly everyone makes me their delivery bitch.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow, XBOX360:
This game I like. I dont consider it Castlevania at all but taken on its own, its a fun game. I mightily suck at it and Lycans keep making me their bitch but, I definitely plan on coming back to this. Sure its completely derivative, in the bit I played I did a little Prince of Persia, a bit of God of War, Some Shadow of the Colossus and Some Devil May Cry. But, while derivative, its still fun and makes you want to keep going.

Cave Story +, STEAM:
I confess to playing this a very very short amount of time. In the bit I did see, it looks cute and fun if a bit hard (platforming....i have no sense of timing or distance gauging) The music did annoy the ever living hell out of me after just a few minutes though.

Iron Brigade aka Trenched, XBLA:
Just plain awesome. I really like this game.  I suck at tower defense/ Strategy games but this one is just a blast. Not to say it doesnt have a few little problems. For one, no local co-op, which makes me sad because i'd like to play this with Sapito without needing to buy another copy of it and a gold subscription for Sapito. Second, it can be REALLY hard protecting 2 locations on either side of the map. Finally, unskippable cutscenes...while I don't skip cutscenes first time through, Why oh why cant I skip something I've watched 6 times already?

Guwange, XBLA:
Not much I can say about it beyond, its a Cave Shmup and its fun. I utterly suck but, you know, thats what unlimited continues are for :p

F.E.A.R., XBOX360:
I played this for a little bit when I first bought it ages ago and I dont remember why I stopped playing. I think it was before I had played too many shooters and I was getting my ass handed to me.
After playing F.3.A.R I decided I wanted to go back and play the previous games.
This time around I was doing pretty good, and having a good time til the freaky stuff flashing on the screen got to me and I stopped playing. This is definitely a lights on, someone sit with me and hold my hand thing...like Dead Space...what? I scare easy.

Deathsmiles, XBOX360:
Another side scrolling bullet hell shooter. Cute anime witches, lots of bullets flying, hours of fun. Also the game which helped me break 20K gamerscore.

Kinect Adventures, Fruit Ninja, Dance Central, XBOX360:
This years family gift was a Kinect and this week I finally got around to trying it out. I enjoyed it a lot, its fun to watch everyone acting like an utter goofball. I'm thinking of checking out Child of Eden and Rise of Nightmares.

Shadows of the Damned, XBOX360:
This one is a bit...I don't know.
I don't mind crass low-brow humor, hell I THRIVE on it. For example I adored the ridiculously over the top  cursing and insults in Bulletstorm. But this game....Its missing something and I cant put my finger on it. Every so often it gave me a chuckle but over all I just groaned at the over the top dick jokes and the random Spanish cursing. The story is bland and uninspired, the visuals are so so and I find myself liking the damn skull, Johnson, better than Garcia "Fucking" Hotspur. Thank God it was only $12.99.

Rez HD, XBLA:
Still as trippy weird as I remember....and no matter what I do I always die at the damn final battle of Act 3...*sigh*

Lost Odyssey, XBOX360:
JANSEN, JANSEN, JANSEN, JANSEN, JANSEN.
Now that I got that out of my system...I dont know what made me throw this in the disk tray but, I'm glad I did. I really do like this game. The Dreams tend to drag out a little too long at times and it would be nice if Kaim removed the stick from his ass but its got a good story, great characters and its absolutely beautiful to look at...Great Soundtrack too.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, XBOX360:
I can't even begin to describe this games, its just...so...WOW. The amazing art which is out of this world and richly varied, the combination of  hack and slash fighting, 3D platforming and 2D platforming are just so well done that none of it feels out of place. The story is one big headache but who cares? Its like playing a work of art. And like Lost Odyssey, its another game with an AMAZING Soundtrack.

There are many more games I've played on and off but I dont want to make this longer than it already is.
So, I'll be working on that Dragon age thing between gaming binges :)

I am an Island

So I think I had a reason behind the title of this post when I typed it last night, but it was like 1am and i was half asleep and too lazy to write anything else and now I dont remember what I meant by that phrase.

.....

Wait...I think the Aliens are signalling my brain....
Oh happy day! I remember now!
Co-op
That's what it was in reference to, Co-op.

So as you are aware, I LOVE games. While my main Genre is probably RPGs, I don't limit myself to one category. If its good, I'll play it regardless of genre.
Now, RPGs are for the most part single player and that's just fine with me. I don't think I want someone roaming the Mojave Wasteland with me besides Boone.
But, I'm not the only player in my house that games. I am perhaps the one that games most, but everyone plays games pretty regularly.

One thing we like to do on occasion is game together. Whether its just 2 of us or 4 of us (yeah one of us always gets left in the cold...its a clear indication of who we like least...kidding). The problem is that Local or "Couch" co-op games are hard to come by.

I understand the big thing is online Multiplayer, but you know what? I don''t want online multiplayer. I've had a gold subscription for 2 years now and I've used it less than a handful of times. I mean, its a great thing, connecting with others around the world and all but, what about connecting with the people in your own household? I feel that Multiplayer isn't just dominating the single player experience, its killing local co-op.

Currently I see a trend of CHECK OUT THE MULTIPLAYER AWESOMENESS!!! oh and for you lonely losers, here's some single player we threw in so you'd stop whining.
now i'm not saying all games operate this way but the trend is growing.

Not only is it hard to find a good co-op game, most co-op games have "strings" attached.
Example: Dungeon Siege 3. You can play Co-op but, the second player cant save, can't accept or change missions and you dont get to keep any of the loot or levels you acquired throughout the game if you are the second player. Its frustrating to be the second class citizen. To me, drop in/out co-op isnt true co-op, its limited and frustrating.

Another prime example is Resistance Fall of Man. My husband and I were thrilled to know there was co-op. We shall kill ugly thingies with big guns together! What wasn't so fun was discovering that player 2 was just...there. No name, no story, nothing. We played once,we've never played again.

I want my "real" co-op back. Like, Champions of Norrath. I can't count how many times we've played that. We both have names, and collect loot and our characters are saved and i can take my character and start a new game with her and there's all my sweet sweet loot. Marvel Ultimate Alliance, much like Norrath, 4 of us can play it together and each of us is an individual with personality and dialogue specific to each one.

Then we come to one of the biggest games in our house, Borderlands. LOVE the hell out of Borderlands, everyone plays it, we own 3 copies of the damn thing. My beef? its probably minor to most people and its something that Borderlands 2 will be implementing and that just guaranteed the purchasing of 2 copies on day one....Split Screen Co-op....but not on System Link.
Why oh Why can't my husband and I play splitscreen in our bedroom and team up with a split screen duo in the living room? No. only 2 people can play system link, This was really disappointing to me.

My newest annoyance is Saints Row 2. I've been wanting to play for a while and when my son found out it was co-op he wanted to play with me. So we get the game out yesterday and....oh no, he can't co-op with me in the same damn machine because he doesnt have XBL Gold. WTF? Why? Why do I need to pay another $60 on top of my $60 and what I paid for the game to play with someone sitting right the hell next to me. Same thing with Dead Rising Case West.

Is this some perpetuation of the lonely gamer stereotype? I game therefore I must be all alone and can only play with others if I connect online with them?

About the only games we can all play together in the same room are music games...or Castle Crashers...and as much as I like both, I'd like to have more choices.

And yes, I am aware there are a few co-op games, Re5, L4D, Splosion man, Gears and a few others but, it seems couch co-op is dying slowly and I don't like it.

One game that has me in quite a pissed off Tizzy is Castlevania HD. I blame myself for it partly for blinding purchasing it. After all, if its Castlevania, it has to be awesome. Man was I wrong. I played it once and only once and hated every minute of it. But of course everyone tells me, "Its only fun in Multiplayer". First off, I should not be getting a gimped single player experience, that's a crock of shit. Second, What if I want to play with someone in the same house as me, not online...then I'm SOL.

But, PS3 is getting Castlevania HD and it has....couch co-op. So why wasnt this implemented in the first damn place? I have to fork over another $15 if I want to actually be able to play with my husband or my kids.

I'm not knocking Multiplayer. If you like it, go for it. But I dont think its much to ask that you A.) Don't make the single player campaign utter shite because you couldn't be arsed to put effort into it because you were too busy perfecting multiplayer. And B.) Please acknowledge that some of us have significant others, friends and children we would like to share our gaming experiences with, while they're in the same damn room as us.

We can only play so much Splosion man, Castle Crashers and Dynasty Warriors before they become studies in tedium.

And while I'm at it..Why the hell does Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce NOT have friggin split screen co-op? Dynasty warriors 4-6 do..oh and 7 kinda does, but 7 also kinda blows so I like to pretend it doesnt exist.

*CRICKETS*

So yeah, I've been quieter than usual haven't I?

  I didn't forget this place, I've just been super busy believe it or not. Shocking I know...Me...Busy, but its true. 

Back to School time is always crazy at my house. Supplies and clothing to buy, nervous kids to reassure, sleep schedule to adjust to...I've had plenty of thoughts but no time to actually sit down and write. 

I'll be honest, School started yesterday and man, I'm beat. Gotta wake up an hour earlier than last year in the morning and make 2 separate pick up trips after school. Its gonna take me a while to adjust to it all. 

While I've been on radio silence I finally got myself a car with air conditioning which is a really big deal to me considering the temperature is 97 right now. Also got a bona fide gaming PC  YAY!!!! So I've been installing stacks of games on this thing, you know, so I can NOT play them like I do my console games.

I haven't bought many games lately...lets see...

Bought Castlevania HD the day it came out because well....I love Castlevania. Still kicking myself, what a waste of money. I hadn't intended to write much today but since I'm here...lets just do a mini review of Castlevania HD

CASTLEVANIA HARMONY OF DESPAIR

  What can I say? At least they gave it an appropriate title. Though if they REALLY wanted to get it right they should have named it "Discord and Frustration".

   First I will admit to not playing Multiplayer yet, though I feel that any game that has single player should be able to stand on its merits in single player and not use the "oh but its better in multiplayer" excuse. 

   Second, I will admit that I played the first stage only and will probably never play the thing again. Yes, I'm biased. I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not angry and bitter about the fact that this is the second Castlevania game to be released in the past few years that I don't care for. (the first being Order of Ecclesia though I managed to actually play it 8 times in a row...Like I said, I love me some Castlevania)

   And Finally, I like a challenge, a slight challenge. If I have to replay the same section more than 10 times then I'm not playing it. Call me a wuss or a whiny gamer but I'm not one for going it on "Super crazy hard insane mode" on any game, I tend to start on normal and if all else fails I am NOT too proud to kick it on over to easy. Yes, I did indeed play DMC3 on Easy, but I redeemed myself by playing Bayonetta on Normal and starting it on Hard.

   To add to that I will admit that I really didn't care much for the Castlevania games that preceeded SOTN except for maybe Castlevania64....Reinhardt was cool. I like the whole pretty boy exploring the spooky castle thing. Not so thrilled with the sides-scrolling death wish of the older games.

   If after that you still feel my very biased opinion might have merit...then read on...

   As I said, I bought it the day it was released and actually sat there watching the little download bar...pathetic, I know...but the thought of playing a  Castlevania game made me giddy. I fired it up and was given a choice: who will I be? well, what are my choices? 

Alucard- Of course he's in this game, That names got almost as much mileage on it as his daddy's. Guaranteed sale if you mention his name.

Soma- Slowly he is climbing the Castlevania fame ranks. Who doesn't love yet another white haired protagonist? He's also got 2 games of his very own. Plus...he's kind of an extension of Alucard and Dracula considering that (THERE WILL BE A SPOILER IN THE NEXT SENTENCE!!!)he is Dracula's reincarnation (OK, SPOILER OVER YOU CAN READ AGAIN)

Jonathan and Charlotte- Yes, I realize those are 2 different people so maybe they deserve their own little section but if you've played Portrait of Ruin you can't think of one without thinking of the other: CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN!  Of all the recent Castlevania games I think that their Game is the most reviled, even more so than the two 3D horrors that were released on PS2.  The arguments range from hatred of the anime art style to the rehashing of levels during the second half (wth? it worked for SOTN. besides, pretty much all the side scrolling castlevania games since SOTN is a recycled mish-mash....and I love it!)


and finally...


Shanoa- Ahh...Shanoa, what can I say about her? While I totally dug her outfit and the fact that she was a "she", she also has the misfortune to be in the game I liked the least. I know a lot of people thought he Glyph system was fresh and new but...to me it was like a hokey version of Soma's soul system...only less interesting. While the first time  through I switched glyphs constantly  because everything seemed to suck, by my third playthrough I was basically using one set for everything. Then there is the biggest change...how they "mixed it up" with an overworld map. I didn't care for the world map crap. basically it just took longer to get where you were going. Most of the paths were completely linear and palette swaps of earlier areas, you had to go into each area twice and the castle was pretty weak. Then there is Shanoa herself. A non-likeable character given amnesia about 5 minutes into the game. Oh yeah, that really made her not be completely bland. Her Glyph-Absorbtion however was steeped in sex-appeal...so beautiful and bland...sounds about right I guess... I preferred that manic poor-man's Balthier Albus to Shanoa, at least he had personality.




So those are my choices? hmm...How about Maria? Juste? Julius? Richter? No? Yeah, they'll be DLC so they can milk the name.


 With the decided lack of fashion flair and white hair named Juste, I went with that other white haired pretty boy Soma (I really love that coat of his). Right off the bat I notice...There's a time limit! Well that sucks. When I open the menu the clock continues to run! That sucks even more. The controls are...how can I put this in G or at least PG rated terms? I zig when I try to zag and my character must be a heavy worlder (obscure Andromeda reference there) because jumping seems to be a major strain. double jumping gets me slightly higher than standing on a step stool. This is not looking good.


  Moving on I notice that i'm doing a lot of back-and-forth -ing. Not only is the game divided into timed levels but  you have to backtrack incessantly. Bad controls, backtracking, can it get worse? Oh yes it can!  You can only change your equipment, items and weapons at certain spots, and of course the clock continues to tick while you do so. 
  I died. I died a lot. I died a lot in the very first few rooms. After dying 5 times I switched to Alucard. He fared no better than Soma. about 5 rooms in I died the death of the uncoordinated...Falling on spikes while trying to jump on a swinging pendulum... Gritting my teeth in frustration I went with Jonathan for my next go-round. While he fared better than Alucard and Soma, only dying the spiked death 3 out of 6 times, He still wasn't working out for me.   Who's left? The chicks...! One I can't stand and the other was just a means to an end.
   I couldn't decide so I asked my daughter to pick. Not being a Castlevania fan she went with who was prettier, Shanoa. She wasn't pretty for long, I'll tell you that...She jumped better than the guys, her attacks were stronger than the guys, unfortunately she seems to be made of tissues and crackers. A breeze could knock out half her life. Of course, since I dislike the character I didn't spend too much time reviving her. I moved on to my final choice, Charlotte. 
   Poor little Charlotte, stuck as a sidekick in an underappreciated title... Used by Jonathan as his own personal ladder to get to higher ledges...On paper her weapon seems ridiculous....a book that opens up and stabs things with many weapons (paper-book....I'm a rip! ok..that pun went too far, sorry), in practice however, its pretty damn cool. Surprisingly I did the best with Charlotte, her controls were pretty accurate, her jump was kind of floaty  which was nice, the book cause adequate damage to enemies and her magic fireball attack was REALLY helpful; distance killing is always good.


   Did I make it to the end of the first level at least? Truthfully, no, not even close, but I came close to actually enjoying the game while playing as Charlotte!Jonathan! (I can't help it, they just belong together).


   Overall, I was disappointed. I was hoping for a new adventure, for a fun little jaunt with the characters I love. Instead it was a poor rehash of the worst elements of the last few titles. Its disjointed, uneven, limiting and frustrating. Perhaps it IS better in multiplayer, I don't know, but that still isn't an excuse for sloppy single player. This game feels..rushed and incomplete and obviously quality control was on vacation. For 400 points, I'd consider it a learning experience...for 800 points I'd consider it a waste....for 1200 points? its highway robbery, especially considering the DLC. What DLC? Do I know something you don't? No, but really, can there be any doubt that it will inevitably have DLC and that you will have to pay for it? I think I'll take my trusty DS out and play Dawn of Sorrow again, or hell, keep the Xbox on and just switch on over to SOTN.  Save your pennies and your points.






   

Video Games | Castlevania: Harmony of Despair | Gameplay Montage

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