Over the weekend, I had the chance to sit down and evaluate my current gaming and to decide if it was time to get another game. Despite still having fun with Soul Calibur 4, I think I’ve achieved all I’m realistically going to (after all, I don’t have nobody‘s skill or dedication, so there’s no way in hell I’m going to reach 450,000 points in Arcade mode).
All the recent intellectual discussion on games as art, and gender politics in game design has got me hankering to play something new but kind of turned me off current offerings. I also blame Yahtzee. Nonetheless, let’s have a look out there and see if I can be convinced to part with my money on something.
Braid looks like a good contender. It deliberately references both old-school platformers and good puzzle games. It even has a story. I’ve played through the XBLA demo to get a sense of it, and the story feels tacked on, and maybe a little trite. While narrative is important to me in almost anything (especially games) is it necessary in this case? Is it actually part of the artistict expression of the thing, or something that gets in the way? I guess I’ll have to spend some money to find out, but can’t help but wonder if I’ll just get bored of it.
Castle Crashers also looks like a moderately worthwhile XBLA purchase. It’s Golden Axe on drugs as far as I can tell, and seems to have the right amount of character customisation to keep things entertaining for a while. Apparently the multiplayer (which is where all the real fun is) is somewhat buggy though. Anybody tried it and got any thoughts?
I’ve also been hanging for Rock Band for over a year now. I’m going to resist the urge (at least for now) to blow a fuse over the delay (honestly, the US gets the sequel before Australia sees the “Coming Now” boxes for the first one on retailers’ shelves), and remind myself that I’m bored of the limitations of the Guitar Hero franchise. I trawled through the downloadable tracks available to GH2 and 3 in the hopes of finding something that I would be interested in rocking out to, but found nothing enticing. Apparently, it’s now due at the end of October, and I really want to see how easy it is to sing and play at the same time. Plus, I want to play Still Alive:
Anyway, if you can weigh in and let me know if you think either Castle Crashers or Braid is worthwhile, I might get it and give one or both of them a decent try.
I just passed the 450k barrier today, finally! One less excuse to keep playing, dammit. If I run out of excuses I’m going to have to bring on the emergent game play discussions!
As for advice on what to get next? Hmm, a little birdy tells me that some irrelevant nobody is seeking assistance in a small matter that may be related.
There’s also the matter of multiplayer. Having somebodies to play against, even irrelevant nobodies like me can invigorate a game for a time. I’ll even succumb to your superiority in GH if you’ll let me try to kick your arse in SC. Deal?
Congrats! I admire you for your skill and dedication. That 450k honor is colossal, and I’m glad you got it.
As for the assistance you require, perhaps we’d better take that discussion offline.
Multiplayer definitely helps with the longevity of some of these games. I had a go at Online SC4 and am doing better than I thought I would. The level mechanic really helps me build a sense of who my opponents should be.
We definitely need to have a games day soon. Again, probably a discussion we should have offsite.