Originally, when Mike and I first
started this blog, we had intended to write full on reviews for the games we
were playing alongside of our Let’s Plays and other video non-sense. Now, if
you’re an avid Shlockhead and like to keep up with all of our Shlocky doings
then you’ll know that reviews on this blog are few and far between. I’d be
lying if I said it wasn’t our fault, but game reviews take a lot of love to
compose. Every sentence must flow into the next, a picture must be painted in
the readers mind, and our points/criticisms must be dispersed with ever so much
care and compassion that the reader is ladled into a hypnotic state and feels
as if they are playing the game themselves. It’s an emotional hurricane writing
video game reviews which is partly why we haven’t gotten around to writing as
many as we’d like. The other reason is that we’re both busy as sh*t. In order
to mitigate this, both Mike and I will each be writing a shorter column each
week on the games we’ve been playing for that particular week. We’ll relay our
thoughts/opinions about the game and (if you’re lucky) maybe a funny quip or
two so you, our lovely and talented reader, can get a better grasp on what
these two Youtube sensations think about games both new and old. So, without
further introduction, here is your weekly Shlockness.
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| picture from: www.thegamerspulse.com |
So, I’m
a big Arkham city fan. I think that this whole Batman Arkham franchise is one
of the smartest and most entertaining new franchises to hit this generation.
With that said it should come as no surprise to you that I went ahead and got
the new DLC pack Harley Quinn's Revenge. Basically
Harley has gone a bit manic depressive since the end of the main game and is
building some sort of super attack force to break out of Arkham City. At least,
I think that’s what happens. They don’t really go into too much. All you need
to know is Harley is nuts and has a bunch of guns, so she needs to be stopped.
It’s
then up to the player to stop her. You’ll go around the new building that this
DLC pack makes available and take part in some rhythmic batman brawling with a
few silent predator sequences thrown in to spice things up. You get to play as
both Batman and Robin in this DLC which is pretty cool. Robin controls basically
the same as Batman yet still manages to seem not as badass. You’ll do this for
about an hour and a half maybe and then it’s over. Yea…it’s pretty short, but
it’s fun regardless. If you liked Arkham City then you’ll have a fun time with
this. The only problem is that this DLC pack costs ten bucks. When all was said
and done I found ten dollars to be a little pricy for what you get out of this
pack, especially since there isn’t really any big plot twist or story point
revealed in the whole thing, which was kind of a letdown. I got this because I
thought maybe it would act as a transition to the next Batman game, but that is
not the case.
When I
was through with that (that very same night even) I started playing something I
never thought I’d play; Silent Hill (the first one for PSX). Now, the reason I
say I thought I’d never play this survival horror classic is because I’m kind
of a pussy who gets scared really easily; however, I have a friend who raves
about this franchise fairly often; and the way he described it sounded pretty
cool to me. So, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.
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| picture from: www.gamezone.com |
Turns
out I had a really fun time with this game. It wasn’t really as scary as I
thought it would be; instead, it was very atmospheric. There’s a lot of ominous
music that plays and the art style is creepy but what really worked well was
the feeling of isolation I got while playing. It’s an open world environment,
so you’re left to just wander around Silent Hill, and the town is completely
deserted (a few monsters and creepy townsfolk excluded). That, accompanied with
the ever present fog of Silent Hill leaves you with a horrible, isolated
feeling of dread that got me pretty tense basically the whole way through. The
game could have easily been much scarier, but I appreciated that it wasn’t. There
are so many spot where, had they placed some zombie monsters, I would have sh*t
my pants. But they didn’t, and I am thankful for that. Also, there is a lovely
radio on your character at all times, and the radio emits static if enemies are
near; so if your radio is silent you can feel free to relax for a moment.
I beat the game on easy mode after
a few days. At first I started playing on normal but I kept running out of
health drinks and ammo and I thought to myself “if this game is scary AND
frustrating I’m never going to get through it” so I nudged down the difficulty.
Turns out easy mode is pretty damn easy. I always had plenty of ammo and the
basic monsters do, like, no damage. Playing on easy was actually a pretty good
decision because the combat system isn’t very good (the game employs tank controls,
so it was pretty hard to position yourself for a good melee attack) however,
with the easy mode edge, enemies went down much quicker/easier and the combat
system didn’t feel like too much of a deterrent. As I said, I had a really good
time with Silent Hill. If you haven’t played it, it’s worth picking up.
That’s it for my portion of weekly
Shlockness. Check out this blog Monday (maybe) for all the crazy sh*t Mike’s
been playing this past week.
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