This
Weekend I decided to take a short break from the blog writin’, which is why
this post is going up during McGee’s usual time slot. Seeing as how school is
out and the mess of projects that I had to get done is now out of the way, I
wanted to shut myself out of the world for the weekend, take a quick breather,
and spend some quality time with my stock pile of games I need to play. Your
uncle Shlocky works hard, children; he needs a break every now and again. However,
I do not write empty handed. You won’t have to read about my adventures with
the Logo Quiz or any other bottom barrel bullsh*t that you so lovingly put up
with for the last few weeks. Nope, this week is shlock full of gamey goodness;
and I don’t mean gamey like “damn, son! This venison is gamey!” I mean gamey
like “damn, son! These games are gamey!” Let me know when your finished adding
that to the list of made up words we use on this blog and I get to telling y’all
about the games I played this week.
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| This is what polo is like...IN HELL! picture from: www.totalwallpapers.com |
Ok so
Darksiders is pretty cool. I bought this game a while back during the Steam
summer sale, and I am just now getting a chance to play it. If you’re unaware
of what this game is then imagine if The Legend of Zelda had sex with God of
War and their offspring has some kind of horrible, baby skin transplant with
Diablo 3. What I’m saying is Darksiders plays a lot like a Zelda game with God
of War themes and an art style like Diablo 3. Usually when I’m forced to
describe a game as when something has sex with something else it means that the
game is contrived and not very good; however, this isn’t the case with
Darksiders. Somehow Vigil managed to make a game that has become more than the
sum of its parts in a way that makes it feel like its own unique experience.
When I play Darksiders, I don’t feel like I’m playing Zelda or Diablo, I feel
like I’m playing Darksiders and you can’t say that about many other games.
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| This looks like a pretty fair match up picture from: uk.playstation.com |
What I
really appreciate about Darsiders though, is how mindlessly fun it is. The
thing about modern games is that they all seem to be trying too hard to be more
than what they are. Assassin’s Creed 3 is supposed to have two and a half hours
of cinematics which is longer than most f*cking films. Mass Effect has evolved
into some sort of living universe filled with more lore and history than my
f*cking history book in high school. Darksiders is just a f*cking game. It’s
not trying to fully immerse the player in a dynamic event driven world, or cram
so much backstory down our throats that we can’t breathe; it’s just trying to
have a fun time. Why am I horseman without my horse yet? Because it makes for
good progression. Why is the interior of this seemly normal building very
maze-like? Because it serves the level design. Why do I need to complete an
arena challenge before being let through a giant door? Because it’s more fun
that way. Darksiders really represents that sweet, sweet middle ground of
console gaming that has been lost over the last couple of years. I’m talking
about the games that may not have been super, triple A titles, but they were
still quality products that were good for a fun time. They weren’t super
involved or needlessly in depth or even technically innovative, but they had
their mechanics, and they knew how to make them enjoyable. Christ, I can’t even
play Skyrim anymore because it’s just too exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m
as excited for Watchdogs and Starwars: 1313 as much as the next shmuck, but
damn! It’s as if you spent the last six years watching nothing but action
blockbusters. After a while, you just want a nice rom-com. Darsiders is my
rom-com.
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| It's like that poster for step-brothers, only way less depressing picture from: www.silenthillmemories.com |
Upon a
visit to my local used disk repository and I found me a copy of Silent Hill:
Homecoming and I thought to myself, “why not?” Since I finished SH4 last week I
need something to fill the survival horror hole in my schedule, and what better
than another Silent Hill game. I was a bit nervous at first because I had
always been told that this particular series has only gotten worse with age, and
since this game was released only a couple years ago I thought I may have
reason for concern. I’m happy to say that after playing the game for myself I’m
having a pretty fun time with Homecoming. The main difference between this game
and let’s say SH2 is that this game is a true to life third person shooter.
When you hold L2 a little reticle pops up and you must manually aim your gun
instead of just letting the auto lock on take care of it. I think this system
works fairly well. The horizontal turn speed is a little slow and there’s no
way to change it, but the shooting has a good punch to it and its pretty fun to
do. Now that I think about it, Homecoming play a bit more like Resident Evil 4
now than it does a traditional Silent Hill game, which is fine by me because I
though Resident Evil 4 played pretty well. The crazy Silent Hill atmosphere is
in full force here, complete with a thick fog and its own demented hospital.
The story is just as whacky and the graphics are real sharp. The main thing I
have to say about Homecoming is that it feels like natural evolution of the
franchise to current gen hardware. A buddy of mine insists that Downpour is
much better than this game in that regard so I’ll have to pick up a copy of
that at some point in the future and see for myself.
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| Wait...But I though you only existed in Silent Hill 2. What is going on here! picture from: silenthill.wikia.com |
I
played some other stuff this week but I don’t really feel like getting into any
of that right now. Maybe I’ll lie write about them next week even though I didn’t
play them that week, but we’ll just keep that as our little secret. Until next
time Shlockheads, this has been your Weekly Shlockness.
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