- Looking back at 2012, I find that gaming has not been a priority. I've spent more time reading, listening, or watching games than I have played. Between work and parenthood, finding the time and will to start a game has been difficult. But those games that have essentially forced me to play have be extra satisfying. It's time to look back at my prediction from the beginning of the year and see which came true.
- SSX - Prediction: SSX will announce another delay, but it will be a day one purchase no matter when it is released. I will enjoy the game quite a bit and make one trip through the campaign until I reach some event that my aging hands just can't get me past. It will a serious contender for my Top Five list anyway.
Result: There were no additional delays announced, but I did purchase it on day one. Unfortunately, SSX didn't click with me. The tracks were unforgiving and not a lot of fun. The campaign was annoying and the customization was a laugh. I probably could have spent more time learning the game, but life it too short.
- Diablo III & Torchlight II - Prediction: Ready for the crazy? D3 will be released before TL2! Even so, I will finish Torchlight 2 first and it will end up on my Top Five next year.
Result: Even crazier, I was right! D3 did launch before TL2. But I have never finished either game. And, spoilers, neither made the Top Five.
- Mass Effect 3 - Prediction: First day purchase of the standard edition. I will play and enjoy ME3 but I won't play any of the side games, like the multiplayer, even if some one were to ask me to. And at the back of my mind, I'll wonder if I got screwed out of enjoying the end of the trilogy because I didn't buy into their expanded vision of the game.
Result: I wasn't going to, but the pull was too strong. Day one purchase, standard edition. I did play and enjoy the single player game without partaking of the multiplayer or the apps. And it turns out that my enjoyment of the ending was not effected by the expanded gaming options at all. Amazing that.
- Guild Wars 2 - Prediction: GW2 will be a special edition preorder and first day purchase for me. I will play as much as I can, but will have difficulty finding the time to do so, straight through the end of the year. But even then, it will be a Top Five game for me.
Result: After facing a mountain of hype, I almost didn't even buy the game. I did end up with the digital deluxe edition on day one, played for a couple weeks, and then slacked off. Tune in tomorrow for the Top Five.
- Bioshock Infinite - Prediction: Bioshock Infinite will be a later purchase, either on sale or used. I will play for a few levels, but eventually get frustrated with some bit of shooting that I can't get past.
Result: Um, failure to launch this year. Will return for 2013 predictions.
- Grand Theft Auto V - Prediction: I'll end up buying GTA V at a discount due to a gift card or rewards certificate. And I will play as far as the main campaign will let me, so long as I don't run into that one mission that I can't beat. But I won't play nearly as much of the side content as I did in SR3.
Result: Again, failed to launch this year. I'm a lot more interested in this game than I was twelve months ago.
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Prediction: When Reckoning comes out, I suspect that I'll have other games on my mind. But I will eventually pick it up once word of mouth spreads about how good the game is, despite its poor sales. And I will enjoy the parts of it I play before moving on to the next big thing.
Result: Well, I did wait before buying it. But since it was so recent, I can't tell if I'm already done with it or not.
- XCOM - Prediction: I won't buy this game, and it will be a poor performer, sales wise. Expect to read a lot of "I told you so" posts this year.
Result: This one is amusing. The prediction was about the FPS version which failed to come out and may no longer exist. But then there was the new turn-based strategy game and it seems amazing. I just got it for Christmas and I'm looking forward to playing it as soon as I get near an Xbox.
- Of my predictions, the ones about my purchasing decisions were most likely to be right. At least for games that actually released. How was your 2012?
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I was never in a rush to learn how to drive. All through high school, I could get anywhere that I wanted on my bike. Everything in the midsized Central Valley town was easily within reach with no need for a car. The closest I ever came was driving the customized pesticide sprayer through my grandfather's plum orchard. So when the time finally came for me to learn how to drive, I had a lot of questions. And of course, I didn't even know which questions were important or not. I remember asking him how the accelerator worked. Did the amount depressed set you to a certain speed or did it work some other way? Eventually I figured it out. Driving is second nature to me now. But it took time and patience to learn the skill.
- Every so often, I pop SSX back in the 360 to give it another try. Unfortunately, SSX is not a drop in, drop out experience. The developers' goal was to make the game much more skill based. They certainly did that. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember SSX 3 as a game I could drop in and enjoy, though I'm questioning that now. Was it drop in fun because I was over the learning curve? I don't think I've even approached the curve on SSX. I start the game, flail around wildly, finish last, then give up.
- I had a similar problem with Skullgirls. I had trouble pulling off the moves in the tutorial. There was no way I could take on the single player mode. Not that I didn't try. The very first opponent, the one you can usually button mash past in other games, cleaned the floor with me. On a difficulty that they labeled "Sleepwalk." Maybe an EVO competitor could sleepwalk through it, but I had little idea what to do against the AI.
- Games like these are absolutely intimidating to me. After trying them out, I can see the long climb I have to achieve any proficiency with them. And until I feel proficient, I won't actually be having any fun with the game. I'm sure that mastering them will be quite an achievement. But when faced with that deep of a time sink, I'm not sure that the return on my investment will be any greater than any of the games that I could jump into and enjoy now.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- After the Mass Effect 3 fiasco, I've had a terrible time getting back into video games. All I can bring myself to play is Solitaire Blitz and Zuma Blitz. Not to knock Popcap because they make addicting games. And their Energy system for means that I don't binge on them for too long. But that's not real gaming.
- I did try SSX again the other night. The World Tour mode is just about the worst experience. I fail and fail at each run several times, get constantly reminded that I can chicken out and skip the event if its too hard, before finally just getting to the end, only to move on to the next peak before I have a chance to master the current one. If it weren't for the unlockables, I would probably skip this mode entirely. As it is, I'm wondering if how long it would take to purposefully skip my way to the end of the mode.
- I also downloaded Skullgirls based on all of the talk going on around that game. I watched videos of fights. I even spent time reading move lists at Shoryuken. Upon starting up the tutorial, I immediately knew I was in over my head. The game certainly tells you what you should be doing and even explains why. But I can't get my fingers to reliable reproduce the moves it asks for. On a lark, I tried out the story mode on what they refer to as Sleepwalk difficulty. That's Very Easy to you and me. This was not very easy. And it definitely was not a sleepwalk. I could not even beat the first fight.
- While I flounder around, trying to figure out what to play, any number of games pile up in my backlog. Why haven't I gone back to Psychonauts? Panzer Corps has gone unplayed for too long. And I never gave Unity of Command a fair try. Everyone has been talking up Legend of Grimrock for a few days now, but I can't justify the purchase with all of these other games that I could be playing. And that doesn't even take into account any MMOs, free-to-play or subscription, that I want to revisit.
- There will be a time when I fall back into the arms a game that I will obsess over. Unfortunately, that is not today.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I have spent far too long being far too negative for the last couple of weeks. No more. Let's take a look at my favorite games on the various consoles that I've owned. I'm not including any version of the Playstation because I never invested much in those consoles.
- Intellivision: Pitfall - Once upon a time, the name Activision on a game meant that you were in for an amazing experience. And my favorite game was Pitfall. I never got that great at it. I didn't break out the graph paper and map the perfect path. But somewhere in a box at my parents' house with our Intellivision and a tally of all my high scores. The moment I learned that running left was much easier was a revelation.
- NES: Mega Man 2 - I've owned and played the first three games, but Mega Man 2 was the perfect match of platforming and puzzle solving. Sure, the puzzles were always which gun to use on which guy, but the weapons were all unique and it made you feel smart to figure the right combinations. The opening theme is still one of my favorite bits of game music to this day.
- N64: Super Mario 64 - I just noticed that my first three games are all evolutions of the platformer. Super Mario 64 is the game that took the genre into three dimensions (not stereoscopic) and set the standard for every 3D platformer after. Also, I would occasionally load up the underwater level and listen to the music loop over and over again. Sublime.
- Dreamcast: Phantasy Star Online - I was a huge fan of the original Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System (which I didn't own, so it's not on this list). So when this new game was announced, I knew that I had to buy a Dreamcast. Yes, PSO sold me this console. I'm almost embarassed to admit that I never took PSO online, even though that was the whole point of the game. But that never stopped me from playing the single player game over and over again. If only the follow up games hadn't stumbled so badly.
- Xbox: SSX 3 - There are those who believe that SSX Tricky was the pinnacle of the series, but I disagree. SSX 3's combination of race, trick, big air, and half pipe events made the mountain feel like a virtual world with a grand competition and the option to freeride and take to the back country as I saw fit. And to cap if off with a run from the top of the mountain to the bottom that took a half hour was a capstone expereince that I haven't felt in a sports game again.
- Xbox 360: Red Dead Redemption - No other game fulfills the promise of the GTA games like Red Dead Redemption. Melding an open world game with the western genre was masterful. Yes, the Mexico section dragged a bit. But there was so much to experience in the game that I did not want to leave it. And how can not mention the ending. I don't think that there has been a more masterful ending to a video game. Just writing about it make me want to start a new game tonight.
- Now it's your turn. Comment and tell me exactly how wrong I am and which games I missed.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- First off, many apologies for the title of this post. I've been reading too much Yo, Is This Racist? and it rubs off after a while.
- Second, I'm not saying that the game is wack. SSX is actually better than I expected. What I'm talking about is the title, or at least what they did to the title.
- If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now. But it might be worth your while to keep reading anyway.
- According to the new game, the name stands for surfing, snowboarding, and motocross. That's right, it is completely stupid. They even brought DJ Atomica back long enough to spit this idiocy at you.
- In an otherwise great game, this seems like the regrettable tendency for people to update something that is perfectly fine to begin with. Bah!
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I returned to SSX the last two evenings to resume my conquest of the nine deadly descents. My first session left me dissatisfied, so I actually waited a couple of days before going back. Although I still find myself frustrated, my problems are starting to fall away.
- On top of my frustration with the controls, I've found that there are some terrible difficulty spikes. The deadly descent runs are particularly grueling, each requiring multiple attempts to finish. Then there is the ever-so-helpful option to skip a race if you screw up over and over again. They will even give you the XP and credits as if you won, like a backhanded consolation prize. Thanks for reminding me how much I suck, EA.
- Stepping outside of the World Tour mode taught me something important: I started to notice when various drops fed into the same run. So by the time I was on my fourth race down the mountain, I could anticipate the lower half of each run and I was much more confident in pulling off tricks. Since you jump from peak to peak in the World Tour, you don't get the same opportunity to learn the tracks. I suspect that repetition will be a big help as I progress through the game.
- Explore mode ended up being a lot more interesting than I expected. All you have to do is choose a peak and run it, either as a race, trick, or survival event. While that seems simple, the mode really allows you to learn a mountain top to bottom. I was able to set three silver medals and one bronze and I look forward to improving on those times.
- I feel like the game is slowing unfolding in front of me. As long as I stick with it and get past all of the frustrating parts, there is quite a lot to like about SSX.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- As mentioned in my last post, I dove in with both feet for the new SSX. My first night with the game was odd. I didn't have a chance to try it until after midnight (I had many chores that evening) so I could not play very long. But no matter how late it was, I was not going to miss my chance to try it out.
- The tutorial starts you in freefall which is an amazing way to learn the new controls. I tried out the new the right thumbstick option for grabs and it is unbelievably intuitive to make grabs. Pushing left on the stick starts a left hand grab, right for right hand, and up for both hands. That's fine for basic tricks, but you can then add a quarter circle or flick across to grab a different part of the board. Add in some flips, spins, and tweaks and there is a hug collection of tricks you can doing very easily.
- At least, they were easy in the air. Once I got onto the ground and had to deal with steering, prewinding, and jumping, I completely lost my cool. My thumb completely fell back on its SSX 3 memory and started jamming buttons. It was a very frustrating experience.
- On the positive side, I really like the new music in the game. I looked over the track list and did not recognize any of the songs. And the only musician I knew was Skrillex, but only because that name comes up a lot. I've never heard any of his music. So like in SSX 3, I'm hoping to discover some music that it completely new to me.
- The game really is beautiful and it sounds great. The courses are a mad blur as you speed through them. I understand why all of the reviewers say the old games feel sluggish in comparison. I just hope my old hands and mind can keep up.
- At the end of the night, I was left feeling disappointed. I know that some of that was because I was tired. And I know some is that learning the controls will take some time. But I will be back to try again.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- As I threatened back in this post, I broke out my original Xbox and started playing SSX 3 again.
- To be fair, this wasn't hard to do. When we moved into the new house, I specifically set up a retro-gaming setup in my loft. I have an NES, PS2, and Xbox all hooked up to an old CRT television that's still hanging on. And amazingly enough, everything still works. Sure, the NES is a little finicky about loading cartridges, but the Xbox runs like a dream. And the games don't look half bad.
- Whenever I come back to SSX 3, I start a new profile so that I can ease into the game. And then I always pick Elise and start racing. Always Elise. I guess I'm not a fan of the other characters.
- I'm not sure if I'm getting to old, or if I'm too long out of practice, but it was a real challenge to play initially. I barely remember any of the race shortcuts or the best stunt points. And I couldn't react fast enough to pull off more than simple tricks. After a couple of hours, my hands started to remember some of the old ways and I didn't feel like a complete embarrassment.
- It won't be long now before the new SSX comes out. I'm hoping to see several of you on my RiderNet feed as well. But until then, SSX 3 is going to keep me company just fine.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- If you haven't yet, you really should watch the Quick Look that Giant Bomb posted for the new SSX coming out at the end of February. Actually, let me help you with that.
- I haven't been this excited about a game in years. It was actually thrilling to watching the producer fly down those mountains. From the tricks to the speed to the style, I could feel my anticipation building as the video went on.
- When I've looked at screenshots or preview videos in the past, I was decidedly "meh" about the game. I wanted to like it, but nothing was coming together for me. That has all changed looking at the near-final product.
- EA Canada seem to have really nailed a style with the game. It hits a tricky intersection of realism and exaggeration that is important for SSX. The interface looks clean and attractive, pulling up all kinds of data to propel you to the next event. I just hope that I can get enough friends playing that I have some challenges to go after.
- In the meantime, I'm getting out my Xbox and playing a little SSX 3 to tide me over. See you on the snow.
