A year's hiatus

My last post here was well over a year ago and I'm only getting back into the flow of things as fatherhood, in the first year, is a rather unwieldy situation to get a proper hold of. My gaming has been sporadic at best, the games I've played mainly consisting of quick pickup-n-play ordeals rather than the long-commitment type. Pro Evolution Soccer and NHL being my bread and butter for most of the year peppered with some Street Fighter Alpha Anthology. I've been struggling to actually get back and play the remainder of my somewhat extensive game collection, especially my PS2 collection as it is rather daunting - some 60 games still to be completed -. In those efforts I have started Odin Sphere, Pikmin 2, Radiata Stories, Musashi Samurai Legend, Jak 2 and many others... of these, the first has been left abandoned for the time being, only one story finished; the second has been left at 70% completion (approximately); the third and fourth barely started; and the fifth mentioned left never to be played again.

It's on this last game, Jak 2, that I am dwelling on today. It's been a few years since its release, but the game has always gotten very good reviews. The one consistent thing you would hear gripes on was the games difficulty, often times called unfair and excessive. Well, I thought to myself, boo hoo, it can't be that bad if it got all those good reviews, it must be hard but balanced, right? Wrong!

Jak 2 is a game that, for all it's great spanse and personally unconfirmed awesomeness, fails greatly at the issue of gameplay balance. I distinctly recall reading from several official sources that the game, though acknowledgedly hard, would balance itself upon registering a certain amount of failures on the player's part. After failing and failing at several junctures in the game, all of them dealing with vehicular chases within the city, I've come to the conclusion that the game either scales down difficulty at such a fractionary level as to be irrelevant over regular play sessions - those clocking in under 2 hours - or that an absurd amount of instances of failure are required for the game to cut the player some slack. Also, I believe, from my experience with the game, that the hover vehicle portions of the game - mainly the getting to and from mission points and triggers - is one of the worst implementations of the mechanic in any game I have ever played. In trying to be GTA: Jak Naughty Dog made a turd. The control is unwieldy; I got the feeling that no matter what I did or how familiar I got with the controls it was inevitable that someone would crash againts me or that I would but into object that appeared to be not quite there yet (bump mapping gone awry?). I believe in the risk/reward system, I also like games that are challenging, but challenge does not mean frustrating the player with obtuse controls and design for the sake of making things artificially hard; after failing 30 times at a mission I hardly felt the desire to continue playing a game that gave me little to no reward for managing to struggle through the mediocre-ly designed city just for the privilige of playing a new mission. The platforming is solid enough, though not nearly as compelling as in the first game, making me wonder: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!? What a sad turn for the franchise.

Suffice it to say that I will never play this game again and I cannot fathom the degree of masochist idiocy needed to play through it and actually enjoy it without actually being paid to do so, and I've actually beaten most of the Ghouls n' Ghost games the right way, mind you! That last statement should give you some perspective. Jak 2 falls back on archaic artificial difficulty that only hampers the player's enjoyment of what might otherwise have been an enjoyable platforming romp with an interesting story. As it is, I will get my Jak 2 story from Youtube and perhaps one day deign myself to try Jak 3 (I've read it's not as draconian as 2).

I'm hoping can come back and get the missing Endings for games like Nocturne, Disgaea and Odin Sphere and perhaps continue with Wild Arms 4 which has been fun. I'm also replaying Breath of Fire IV on the old PSOne, easily the best BoF prior to Dragon Quarter.

Final Fantasy IV's remake was an enjoyable experience on my DS, though it certainly lacks the oomph of post-VI's stories. Speaking of which, V's possible DS remake might be interesting enough, but VI is what everyone really wants, so what's the hold up S-E? Also, Chrono Trigger DS was a bit of a letdown, personally, the extra exnding especially, as it really feels tacked on and not the awesome tie in into Chrono Cross I was led to blieve it would be. Oh well, what else could I expect from an obvious cash-in? Lesson learned.

What's captivating me on DS now is an oldie for the system: Mario & Luigi Partners in Time. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the first installment in what is now the italian psychoactive-ingesting plumbing duo's portable RPG series and this game has brought that all back. The game is simple in its mechanics but has so much Nintenjokes and trivia that the fat little boy in me can't help but chortle with joy. The attention to detail is simply amazing. Sure, some of the themes are recycled, but the delivery makes up for it all. I wonder when we'll see a new installment in this series.

Though I am still clearly reticent to enter the current generation of gaming consoles it has become rather clear that the Wii is nowhere near being a boon for the hardcore/true gamer as Nintendo is dead set on churning out family-ware and non-player-ware titles rather than anything substantial. That and releasing the original Pikmin rather than making a third installment for the series makes me wonder if they can even be considered a proper gaming company.

The Xbox 360 is clearly becoming the best gaming console in terms of game selection to me, the PS3 still not affordable enough and not getting the amount of support it had in the previous generation, MGS 4 notwithstanding. It is clear now that my first console of the current generation, when I do plunk down the dough for one, will be Microsofts grey-green thingy.

Things that make me happy lately are the release of Persona 2's Japan-only first chapter: Innocent Sin. While I wait for that to download, Namco x Capcom has been given a similar treatment and is now in beta testing. Hit up the links for the skinny and enjoy!

This mole is heading back to his burrow to work and, should time allow it, play a little with the machines.