Monday, April 20, 2015
Review Links, Bloodborne, Airmech Arena, and all the TV I've been watching!
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Thanks for once again tuning
into Coffeecola! Let's get the show rolling…
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Games: First, here’s a
collection of links to all the new reviews that @Gamecritics has posted in the last week.
>Dark Souls 2: Scholar OfThe First Sin by @InsrtCoins
>Dragon Ball Xenoverse also by
@InsrtCoins
>Over 9000 Zombies! by @Hawk_SE
>Summon The Apgrod by @ODellHarmonJr
>Aaru’s Awakening by @RetroRedemption
>Diablo 3: Reaper Of Souls
by @KayinAmoh
Now, looking at the games I’ve been playing… Well, it’s not a whole hell of a lot. Most of my free time has been taken up with Bloodborne, and a reliable source tells me I'm getting pretty close to the end. I'm probably not going to replay the game, so I want to see all of the stuff that I can do in one run, and my playtime is being a bit inflated by I making sure I’m hitting all of the optional areas and doing as much as I can.
What do I
think? Although I'm not totally finished yet and a fair amount will depend on
how the game wraps up, so far I’d have to say that it's been a pretty mixed
experience. I like a lot of the concepts -- the trick weapons, the Lovecraft
influence, the semi-Victorian flavor -- and the faster action hasn't been
entirely unwelcome.
On the other hand, it feels like the game isn’t totally dialed-in for me. While I'm enjoying it, it’s definitely not the best From experience I've had.
I was thinking about it over the last day or two, and one big thing that really sticks out for me is that I don't have any real motivation as to why my character is in this world, or what they're doing. I'm going from area to area because it's fun to play through them and that’s what you do in a game, but there's nothing that really explains to me what the point of it all is, narratively. Maybe that will change after the ending (after all, quite a bit of information was detailed at the end of Dark Souls 2) but in the recent From games, I at least had a vague notion of what was going on.
In Bloodborne I know I'm a hunter, and that's pretty much it. It's not entirely clear who I'm hunting apart from the fact that they're obviously monsters, and I'm not clear on why I came to this land in the first place. This lack of narrative impetus on even a base level combined with the visual sameness in architecture (so… many… statues…) and heavily muted color palette (so… damned… grey…) make me feel like a lot of the game is just washing right over me.
I don't want to sound too negative -- I'm very happy that From has found such great success, and I do think they’re an extremely talented studio. This might not be their best work, but their not-best work is a lot better than what many other studios can turn out on their finest day, and it says something that I actually care enough to Bloodborne all the way through, compared to the other games that I have no problems tossing aside unfinished.
Long story short? I guess the jury is still out.
In terms of other games, I haven't started in on anything else with any seriousness, although I have been playing a bit of AirMech Arena with my son. I downloaded this free-to-play game on 360 a while ago, but never got around to it. It originally grabbed attention because the developers are local to Seattle, and I had seen their game a few times at local shows… Plus, pretty much everybody knows what a sucker for mechs I am. I’m glad I finally fired it up, though. It’s been a ton of fun.
I haven't spent any money on it yet (it’s F2P, remember!) but the initial offering is more than enough to play around with for a while, and it seems like there’s a good chunk of the core content available in one $20 package. There are other things to buy past that and I was just about to drop a couple dollars when I heard that it's coming to PS4 and Xbox one, so I held off on any spending to wait for those versions.
From what I can tell there's been no official release date announced other than ‘spring’ of this year, but when it comes to PS4, I'll be all over it.
TV: Although I wouldn't say that I watch very much television overall, I've been catching a few episodes of this and that here and there, and ironically, I just finished three series within a couple days of each other.
First, Season Eight of Face Off just wrapped up, and that's always a fun watch for the entire family.
In case you haven't seen it,
it's a competition where the contestants are special effects makeup artists
creating costumes for various challenges every week. This particular season’s
lineup of contestants were probably the weakest that have ever been on the
show, and although there were a few standout pieces here and there, I can't say
that I was very impressed. Even so, it's still an incredibly entertaining show
to watch, and I loved seeing the creature features each week. 100% looking
forward to Season Nine in July…
I've also been watching Kroll Show for the past couple of months, and we just watched the final episode of the series tonight.
I've also been watching Kroll Show for the past couple of months, and we just watched the final episode of the series tonight.
It’d a bit tough to describe it, but
it’s sort of like a sketch comedy show where the characters were all in their
own TV shows. Sadly, it only ran for three seasons, but Nick Kroll, the man
behind the show, came up with so many interesting characters (so quotable!) and
his particular brand of meta-commentary on television and American culture
seems like someone could probably create a college course out of it.
The final show we finished tonight was Daredevil on Netflix. I was pretty hesitant about it before we started watching, but now that it's all said and done, I think the creators did a fantastic job.
The final show we finished tonight was Daredevil on Netflix. I was pretty hesitant about it before we started watching, but now that it's all said and done, I think the creators did a fantastic job.
While the program is very
clearly set in the same Marvel universe where the Avengers and Guardians of the
Galaxy take place, the focus of the show was much smaller and more focused
than those epics. It sounds bizarre, but Daredevil
was mostly about a lawyer taking on a crime boss engaging in payola and really
crappy tenant policy, with some ass-kicking sprinkled liberally throughout.
This worm’s-eye-view of a world populated with superheroes was something we
haven’t seen much of in Marvel lately, and I ate it up.
A special shout-out has to go
to Vincent D’Onofrio for his portrayal of the Kingpin. I wasn't sure what to
make of him at first, but he brought a real sense of broken humanity and
complexity to the character, and rather than being a stereotypical super
villain, he was relatable -- even sympathetic at times. He's easily the best
villain in any of the Marvel properties so far, and it was fascinating to watch
him -- maybe even more fascinating than Daredevil himself. That said, I think
everyone in the cast did a great job, and DD has always been one of my favorite
characters ever since I started reading comics way back when, so I'm thrilled
that this interpretation turned out so superbly.
Speaking of superheroes, we haven't finished the season yet, but we've also been watching a lot of The Flash lately.
Speaking of superheroes, we haven't finished the season yet, but we've also been watching a lot of The Flash lately.
Thematically, it's probably the complete
opposite of Daredevil with the hero being the classic do-gooder type and most
of the enemies being cartoon characters, but the show has a great energy, the
special effects are excellent, the cast is wonderful, and I love having a show that’s
safe and interesting enough for the whole family to watch. I thought it was
going to be pure cheese when we started watching, but it turned out to be the
best kind of cheese, and I’m becoming a real fan.
Also, kudos to the show for
making one of the main police characters gay, and absolutely not making a big
deal out of it whatsoever. It's not a plot point, it's nothing that causes
drama… The guy is just gay, and nobody blinks twice as they get on with the
rest of the show. It's a little detail, but one that I appreciated.
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That’s it
for this week. Thanks very much for reading!!
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Posts
Although it's not outright stated, the reason your character goes to Yharnam is fairly clear: Yharnam is the home of the healing church, an organization known for its almost miraculous "blood healing". The only people who travel to Yharnam these days are ill foreigners seeking such a miracle. The very first NPC you can talk to (the coughing man near the first lamp) is one such foreigner, and going by his conversation and the description of the starting attire, you are such a foreigner as well. Why your character is a hunter goes pretty deep into spoiler territory, though.