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Monday Gaming Diary: Life is Too Short to Play Games You Don’t Like

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Oh Mickey and Oswald, how I want to have fun with you…

This is where I grin broadly at the realization that I’m no longer really in the games writing industry–it means I no longer have to review games. The emphasis is on the “have to”, because while I would get to review plenty of games I really enjoyed and learned of games I wouldn’t have otherwise, there was more than one occasion where I would “have to” review a very unpleasant game. Sometimes it was unpleasant because I was terrible at it, or the game was just flat terrible. It’s part of the business, right? You don’t always get to review nothing but teh Haloz; sometimes you have to take the Amys as well.

However, when you don’t get paid for doing so, it makes taking the bad even more cumbersome and difficult to do. My time is limited as it is, so being “forced” to play a game I really don’t like makes the experience roughly ten times worse. I had to review Arc Rise Fantasia for Kombo way back in the day, and I called the Reviews Director after playing for 20 hours, begging him to let me review the game before I finished. I think it went somewhere along the lines of, “PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME PLAY THIS ANYMORE, I’M BEGGING YOU!” Luckily for me, he agreed that playing 20 hours of a JRPG was more than sufficient to review the game, and I was able to free myself from that demon to play something I really enjoyed.

Since I am no longer writing for Gaming Angels, I took a look at the first quarter to see what games I would now be interested in, since I already knew I would be reviewing roughly 6-8 games in the first three months alone. I cannot accurately convey the delight I experienced when I saw I would only be purchasing three games early next year.

So, where am I going with this?

I have started three games this last month, and at this point, I’m not sure if I’ll finish them just because I’m not having any fun. Right now the biggest culprit is Epic Mickey 2, which I want to like very badly, but I can’t. The camera is somehow still not great, even with the dual analog sticks, the aiming is awful, and the story is lackluster at best. I played for over 15 hours, and I still can’t tell you really what the problem is. Maybe I would feel differently if I had finished the first game, but as it is now, I dread going back to my gaming room and turning on my PS3.

I feel almost the same way about Assassin’s Creed 3, but I know that’s mostly because I was so burned by all the bugs. I have downloaded the patch that supposedly fixes them, but I haven’t checked out how well the glitches have been fixed. It’s mostly because I’ve had to play other things to get other guide reviews out, but it’s also because I’m feeling extremely apprehensive about turning the game on. I honestly hope I get over this odd fear, as I really do want to finish this game before the end of the year. I’d like to start 2013 with somewhat of a clean slate from 2012.

But you know, if don’t finish all these games because I don’t have fun playing them, then I’m okay with that too. This is a hobby, after all, and why should I do something in my hobby that isn’t fun? The point of a hobby is that even though it is work of some sort, you enjoy doing it. That’s the only reason I can come up with for all of the scrapbookers in the world.

You know what else I think this means? I think it means I need to play Mass Effect again, the whole series.

Strategy Guide Wit – Dragon Quest VI Strategy Guide

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Dragon Quest VI strategy guideI wasn’t a huge fan of Dragon Quest VI the game, but wow the Dragon Quest VI strategy guide was hilarious to read. Most of the hilarity was in the headers, but there were plenty of gems in the content.

  • “Your companions start to get nervous, and suddenly Murdaw appears. It is his place, so that’s not too surprising. Sadly, he’s been eating his properly balanced breakfasts, and you won’t have a chance to beat him here.” – pg. 71
  • “The crown maker is hanging over the northern edge of the hole. His name is Cliff, so he REALLY should have seen this problem coming.” – pg. 80
  • “He [the well-wisher] wishes us ill!” – pg. 102
  • “This one of the first encounters that is a tad more complex than just ‘I have damage, and I want to give it to YOU!'” – pg. 115
  • “Fully heal your party, equip your weapons with the highest attack values, and talk to Murdaw. It’s no surprise when he attacks.” – pg. 127
  • “We’re sorry, Hero, but the King is in another castle.” – pg. 128
  • “In Murdaw’s Isle, chest tries to open you!” – pg. 131
  • “These poor folks have so little…to steal.” – pg. 155
  • “Brown Now, How…Castle” – pg. 163
  • “Turnscote has a bit of a rough reputation. That’s not surprising considering the amount of murder, thievery, and gambling that goes on around town.” – pg. 208
  • “It’s always Monday morning in Despairia.” – pg. 235

Thank you, Michael Lummis and Michael Owen, for showing that strategy guide content doesn’t have to be so cut and dry. It can have dry humor too!

Assassin’s Creed III Strategy Guide Review

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Assassin's Creed III strategy guide reviewAssassin’s Creed III has been one of this year’s most highly anticipated games, and it’s also been one of my most highly anticipated strategy guides. After how well Piggyback bounced from the Assassin’s Creed II strategy guide to the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood strategy guide, my expectations were high. The Assassin’s Creed III strategy guide better be on par with Brotherhood, or words would roll in anger. When I learned that the side questing world of AC3 was the largest it’s ever been in AC games, the bar rose even higher. I shouldn’t have worried; the Assassin’s Creed III strategy guide provided everything it needed to, and then went above and beyond what was called for. What’s more, I never could have gotten nearly as far as I did with the game thanks to all of its glorious bugs without the guide holding my hand and constantly letting me know it was going to be okay. Otherwise, the game would have suffered a terminal case of defenestration.

I rarely look in the beginning of strategy guides, where all of the information about how to play is held, as I fully expect the game to teach me as I go. Usually this is the case, but as I recently lamented, sometimes it is not. With AC3, the game did teach, but sometimes the tutorial prompts flashed too quickly, so I wasn’t able to see what buttons or combinations of buttons I needed to press. For example, early on, I missed what I needed to press to prompt Haytham to reload his rifle. Since I could only kill these enemies with a gun, I couldn’t drop my useless weapon and go stabbity-stabbity. I literally pressed every button before I paused the game and checked to see what the strategy guide said. I’ve never been so thankful before for the existence of this how-to-play section, as I quite literally couldn’t have completed this sequence without some reference. It was easy to find, which was perhaps the most important aspect next to having accurate information (which it did).

Assassin's Creed III strategy guide

It’s hard to get lost with this level of detail.

For someone who hates stealth as much as me, the walkthroughs greatly helped me maneuver all areas the first time and with little difficulty. As shown in the scan on the right, the screenshots are large and depict the recommended path for 100% synchronization clearly. Obtaining 100% synchronization (including the optional objectives) takes more skill than a strategy guide can provide, but each time I actually attempted to complete all of the optional objectives, I was able to with ease.

More often than not, the strategy guide’s walkthroughs showed me escape routes I never considered. For instance, using the page on the right, when Haytham has to escape the British fort without being seen and return to Kaniehti:io, the guide suggests that Haytham take a swim. I wouldn’t have thought of that initially for two reasons: 1) the last time I made Haytham take a dip, he died upon impact and 2) it seemed like it would cause an instant desynchronization. Also, it was so foggy, it was hard to see that there was water below instead of a rocky death.

Assassin's Creed III strategy guide

Only excuse to not find every collectible now is laziness.

Unlike previous Assassin’s Creed games, AC3’s main storyline is rather short. The quantity of side quests grossly makes up for the story’s brevity, however. In fact, I’d say that less than one quarter of the strategy guide is the main walkthrough. The side questing takes up at least one full quarter of the book. Most of the side quests are collectibles, whether it’s an actual collectible (Ben Franklin’s Almanac pages) or a collectible quest (Frontiersman Challenges). As a result, the side questing section is practically filled with maps marking locations for every possible extra quest Connor can complete while in an area.

The large maps with actual collectible markers include screenshots of where the wayward collectible is hiding. For all of the missions, such as the Liberation missions and Naval missions, each set is treated similarly to the main walkthrough. Each mission has its set of screenshots with marked pathways and strategies for completion. It even includes tips for where Connor should be equipment-wise and story-wise for easier navigation and higher success rate.

What really makes the Assassin’s Creed III strategy guide shine are the Reference & Analysis and the Extras sections, of which the AC guides in general have been stellar. The Reference & Analysis section contains detailed appendices (and an index!) of everything you can think of to find, collect, kill, etc. in the game, which is a must for those who want to skin every animal and earn every Achievement/Trophy. The strategy guide even includes tips for how to earn every Achievement/Trophy instead of simply listing them, which earns double brownie points.

The Extras section includes a detailed analysis of the story, speculation of what happened and what is to come from Piggyback, and a detailed comparison of history vs. game story. I love this last part the most, as I love breaking down fact from fiction in historical movies as it is.

The world of Assassin’s Creed III is massive, to say the least, and I can’t imagine tackling something this big without some guidance. As someone who gets easily overwhelmed with large worlds (hence why I have yet to really play Skyrim), the Assassin’s Creed III strategy guide was the perfect compass and anchor for me. Not to mention, it also kept me sane during the buggy gameplay I encountered. If you absolutely, positively want to do everything AC3 has to offer, the Assassin’s Creed III strategy guide is the best friend you’re going to have.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Author: James Price
Publisher: Piggyback
Editions available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Publisher

Monday Gaming Diary: The VGAs

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Samuel L. Jackson VGAsI admit that I watched the VGAs this year, and no, I wasn’t watching them “ironically.” I’ve always found the VGAs to be fun, and I’ve never really understood all the geek hatred for the award show. To be honest, gamers should be happy there’s a televised award show at all, but that’s a tirade for a different day.

Many people say that the VGAs are silly and don’t fully honor how deep video games can be. What I witnessed on Friday could not be further from the truth. While I am still sorely disappointed thatSpec Ops: The Line didn’t receive any game nominations (Nolan North’s nomination for the voice of Captain Walker, while extremely honorable, does not count), the awards were not tossed at games who deserved anything less.

In fact, the two games who received the most honors wereJourney andThe Walking Dead, two games which are extremely deep.The Walking Deadis actually my personal Game of the Year, despite how much it made me cry and gave me horrific nightmares. I could not have been happier to see that episodic game win Game of the Year and TellTale, the developer, win studio of the year.Journey also cleaned house a bit with PS3 game of the year, best original score, and best independent game.

Did anyone notice thatCall of Duty: Black Ops IIdid not win best shooter? That award went toBorderlands 2, a game I have sadly not played yet, but I was thrilled to see it topple CoD. (For the record, ifMedal of Honor won, I probably would not be writing this at all.)

Maybe the VGAs was overly silly and didn’t honor games it probably should have in the past, but I didn’t see that at all this past Friday. I laughed at Samuel L. Jackson’s introductions and his twists on video games (especially how he was incorporated intoStar Wars: Angry Birds), clapped for the award winners, and felt chills from hearing a live orchestra play the selections of video game music. The only thing that would have made it better was if there were more awards given at the show–I didn’t really like having to look up who won certain awards, such as RPG of the year, which went toMass Effect 3, by the way.

Seeing next year’s video game trailers is always fun too, especially for games I had no idea were even in development, such asDark Souls II. I’m sure many fans were disappointed to see nothing ofHalf-Life 3, especially afterHalf-Life 2 received the honor of Game of the Decade, but given Valve’s track record, that really shouldn’t surprise anyone.

All in all, I’m pleased with the awards. I was not happy that something as buggy as Skyrim won last year, but at least this year, the awards went to the games that truly deserved them.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star Strategy Guide Review

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Paper Mario Sticker Star strategy guide reviewI haven’t really played a Mario game since Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. I played Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for maybe thirty minutes once, but that hardly counts. I liked what little I played of that GameCube game, and that’s the only reason why I bothered giving Paper Mario: Sticker Star a chance. Since it had been so long since I’ve touched a Mario game, I knew I would need the Paper Mario: Sticker Star strategy guide to hold my hand, as I was sure not playing a Mario game for about twenty years (I’m going to go cry in a corner now) would be more of a hindrance than a help. Nintendo is well known for building upon each game over the franchise’s lifetime (If you don’t believe me, go look at the Legend of Zelda series), so surely there were several elements they wouldn’t teach the player because it is assumed the player is already in the know. I was absolutely right about this assumption, and if it wasn’t for the strategy guide, I would have most likely rage quit the game before finishing the first world. As for the rest of the strategy guide, it nailed everything players will have to do to prepare for each level, complete all collectible side quests, and to beat each boss the first try.  I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect strategy guide for my foray back into the world of Mario.

As I previously mentioned, the game really does not provide a tutorial in how to play. There is kind of a tutorial with the turn-based combat, how to initiate battle, how to activate the battle spinner, how to peel stickers, sort your sticker album, etc. However, the game does not teach players how to successfully perform attacks in battle. Those who are familiar with traditional JRPG turn-based battle know that all you have to do is select your attack and watch what happens. In PMSS, players have to interact with the attacks to make them more successful. For example, if you use a Jump sticker, you must continually press the jump button just before Mario lands on the enemy’s head to continue the jump attack through completion. Otherwise, Mario will only jump once and move on. With hammer attacks, players have to press the A button at just the right moment to trigger a powerful hammer swing, or the hammer will slide off the handle and Mario will only smack the Goomba with the stick. The game goes over none of this, as I believe it assumes players already know this from playing other Paper Mario games. After watching my hammer become effectively useless over and over and over, I finally resorted to reading the “How to Play” section in the strategy guide. Lo and behold, I was doing it wrong, and oh hey, look at all these other things I should be doing to help out Mario live longer in battle. To quote another Nintendo game, grumble grumble.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star strategy guide

Can’t ask for better preparation than this.

In addition to interactive turn-based play, PMSS really calls on some creative thinking to fully complete some levels, meaning finding all of the Things or opening all potential pathways. For example, to find the Bowling Trophy Thing, you first have to find a Bowling Ball Thing in one level, remember that there is a bowling alley-looking area in one world several levels back, make a Bowling Ball Sticker, release it in this area, and then go rummage back through another secret area in the level to collect the Trophy Thing. Who thinks of this? What’s more, who thinks of retraversing previously visited levels this much? I’m used to side quests triggering such additional exploration, but this requires simply just going back over the level for the heck of it.

The same creativity is pretty much required when battling bosses. Certain Thing Stickers will make Mario’s life ten times easier when fighting bosses, and sometimes it’s obvious what is needed and sometimes it’s not. For example, when Mario found the Fish Hook Thing, it was obvious that I would need this against some giant fish, which was true when battling the Giant Cheep Cheep. However, I never would have thought to bring the Baseball Bat Sticker to the boss fight against the Tower Power Pokey in Drybake Stadium. Thanks to the preparation page in the beginning of each level in the guide, I came to all levels with my Sticker Album fully stocked with everything I would possibly need.

This preparation page also gives players a heads up on all side quest items available in each level, and lets players know if these items can be found in the first visit or subsequent visits, which includes Things, Wiggler Diary Entries, Luigi Locations, bullied Toads, and HP-Up Hearts. All walkthroughs for subsequent visits for the levels are at the end of the level’s main walkthrough. There is no excuse for missing anything with this strategy guide at your side, and that includes completing the monstrous Sticker Museum side quest.

The Paper Mario: Sticker Star strategy guide was a saving grace for this Mario novice. The fact that it’s one of the most organized and efficient strategy guides I have ever come across definitely made life in the Mushroom Kingdom even easier to bear. I was hoping to come through the game as unscarred as possible, and I came out of it a completionist. I can’t give higher praise than that.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Author: Nick von Esmarch
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

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