Category Archives: Game Logs

I leave my life to ride the mindway!

Lately I’ve been playing more PC games than I had been thanks in part to finally getting my first Xbox 360 “red ring of death”. Luckily I (barely) made the warranty so I got a replacement free of charge. While that was being taken care of though I’d been focusing most of my precious gaming time on games that I could pick up and play quickly and in relatively short bursts such as Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer. I’ve also been playing a little bit of Defcon which I’ll probably talk more about in the next one of these. The game that has most captured my attention lately though is Audiosurf.

Can you forgive me? I never knew...
“Can you forgive me? I never knew…”

Audiosurf has actually been out for a while now (2 years now?) and I had heard only great things about it, mostly on gaming forums and the like. In fact based on those recommendations I’ve almost purchased it on several different occasions. I finally bought it as somewhat of an afterthought during the last big Steam sale and now I’m wondering what exactly my reservations could have possibly been. It’s a total mystery.

I absolutely love music. It has been a nearly constant companion of mine since I was a kid. It has helped me through so many of the bad times in my life and was usually involved in or at least present for the best ones as well. These days are no different and I’ve been digging out a lot of my personal classics for some much needed escape recently. Enter Audiosurf…

And I will advertise it.
“And I will advertise it.”

Audiosurf is like the display of a graphic equalizer or some other, equally effective form of music “visualization” that, while nimbly dancing through the rhythms of your favorite songs, tripped and fell into the nightmarish dark void of a sci-fi space epic effected by an unhealthy dose of psychedelics. That’s what Audiosurf is. Wait… what the fuck did I just write? Let me start over.

Audiosurf analyzes music and dynamically maps it fairly precisely to a represent a race track, using the tempo to dictate the turns, curves, and elevations of the track. The tempo will also control how fast you move during your trip. It uses other sonic blips, typically those caused by instruments of course, to add other elements to the track – rings you fly through, colors and shapes bursting through the space all around you. Most importantly though Audiosurf uses some of those audio queues to fill the track with little blocks which make up the core of the actual gameplay itself. You steer your small craft along this funky space highway (which as an aside brings back fond memories of SkyRoads) avoiding and gathering these tiny colored blocks to the rhythm of the music in an attempt to combine them into a unit which will then grant you point bonuses, not unlike block stacking in some puzzle games.

Stop crying for what you've done... it's only the past... it's only life.
“Stop crying for what you’ve done… it’s only the past… it’s only life.”

So yeah, it sounds like a neat toy right? Actually it is surprisingly compelling. I find myself wanting to play just a song or two and end up playing a 7 or 8. Why?

First of all, as I implied, the visualization is actually quite good, depending on the song of course. You really feel like you’re riding the rhythm, moving your ship to the beat to hit the blocks representing it – it is often extremely effective. I find myself playing it in full screen and getting lost in it quite easily. Crucially, not only can you use Audiosurf’s built in “radio” soundtrack but you can pick any song from your hard drive in a variety of formats. It even has direct iTunes and Last.fm support. Screw buying songs you already own as in Rock Band or Guitar Hero and while we’re at it screw being constrained by the music tastes of others! Play whatever you want! Finally, when you complete a track your score is uploaded to a central server where you can see what other people achieved on the same song. This adds a whole social element to the game which I find quite intriguing especially when it comes to the aspect of representing your musical tastes. I’m personally the “champion” of some pretty obscure stuff though I of course owe that in large part to a lack of competition. 😉

Dodge the bullet or carry the gun... the choice is yours!
“Dodge the bullet or carry the gun… the choice is yours!”

There are a few different game modes all based on that same theme. I prefer the “mono” variety as the easiest to really zone out in and focus on the music itself – you still have some potentially challenging twitch gameplay but you don’t need to focus quite as heavily on what is going on nor deploy any advanced tactics to score well. In fact I enjoy zoning out and getting into the music so much this way that I intend to play through all new albums I buy from now on.

Songs with drastic tempo changes tend to make for wilder rides, and as I said some songs are interpreted a bit better than others, but most people who give Audiosurf a try tend to come away impressed. You can usually find it for sale on Steam and its regular price is only 10 bucks. Check it out!

Once More Unto the Breach

I was digging through my screenshots folder the other day when I came across a bevy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 screens. It then occurred to me that I’d somehow neglected to ever even mention BC2 on here. What can I say? I suck at this. 😉

Despite trying the Xbox 360 demo and not feeling immediately compelled to run out and buy it I ended up grabbing Battlefield Bad Company 2 for PC strictly so that I could play its well reviewed multiplayer with several old PC gaming friends. There were also a few guys at work playing it on console so I figured it’d be fun to be able to talk about it with them from time to time. I was not disappointed. I’ve been a fan of the Battlefield series since Battlefield 1942 and, despite some major design changes over the years, I still consider myself one. In fact I mentioned playing through Bad Company’s single player campaign on here not too long ago.

While I haven’t invested the countless hours that many of you have I’ve certainly enjoyed my time with the multiplayer despite how much more difficult it seemed for me to get good at it. It seems so much more chaotic… or maybe I’m just getting too old? I did eventually find a niche that I could fill nicely and have since improved quite a bit. I’m not sure if I’ve decided how much of a good thing it is yet but I’m definitely intrigued by how much environmental destruction changes the gameplay.

Anyway, since it has been quite a while since I’ve actively played it (though I do intend on going back to it) I won’t ramble on with my usual observations. I will, however, post some of those aforementioned screenshots:

We both shoot but I close the deal.
“We both shoot but I close the deal.”

Sure, lean back, take a load off.
“Sure, lean back, take a load off.”

Beautiful capture of an explosion.
“Beautiful capture of an explosion.”

Medic!
“Medic!”

Feel good moment in 3... 2...
“Feel good moment in 3… 2…”

In my sights.
“In my sights.”

I cannot wait for the proper Battlefield 3.

Oh, to kill again!

Normally when I post my impressions of a game I do it at least a couple of times throughout the time that I’m playing it but for some reason, possibly because I was plodding through it at such a slow pace, I never even mentioned that I’d even been playing Assassin’s Creed 2 (Xbox 360) on here. Well, I have been, and I FINALLY fucking beat it! I got 1000/1000 achievements and, more or less, “one hundred percented” the game too, just a I did with its predecessor. The verdict? I loved it.

The entire city is yours... to murder.
“The entire city is yours… to murder.”

Foremost on my mind as I started playing the game, other than how nice their engine is holding up, was that despite the differences between it and the first Assassin’s Creed, they were still very, very similar. I was a little surprised at just how similar they were since so many reviewers and the like said that even if you disliked Assassin’s Creed you should give Assassin’s Creed 2 a shot – I can only agree with this opinion to a point. Let me go into some details before I break this conclusion of mine down though.

First, and this is a big one for players who hated the first game, free running/parkour, despite minor improvements, is almost identical to what we had in the first game, which, in my mind is sublimely smooth most of the time. Like in the first game, however, you can occasional hit moments where your character will seemingly inexplicably (I say seemingly because it is probably my own fault most of the time) jump the wrong direction, grab the wrong thing, or otherwise not behave how you expect him to. This can really break up this otherwise enjoyable part of the game and kill the immersion a bit – one minute you’re a badass assassin effortlessly bounding the rooftops in search of your next mark, and the next instead of gracefully running across a line tied between buildings, you just decide to hop off the side and plummet 75 feet to your death. Wow. This felt the most silly the couple of times it happened when doing “leaps of faith” and instead of jumping cleanly into a bale of hay I instead dove head first for the cobblestone road below. Well, so much for faith… 😉

I've slaughtered so many of these poor roof top guards that I actually kind of feel sorry for them now.
“I’ve slaughtered so many of these poor roof top guards that I actually kind of feel sorry for them now.”

One thing definitely worth mentioning relating to the free running, given that it is such a big part of the game, is that it is used in more creative ways this time around. As you progress in the environments you run into structures that require more creative climbing. This is expanded on much, much more in the various “Assassin Tombs” and “Templar Lairs” in the game which transform your character’s city traversing parkour into a Prince of Persia series like puzzle/platforming experience. Most of the time, except for when you run into some of the above mentioned rough points, this works quite well and is a great change of pace for the series, even if it did make me use my brain a bit more than I was expecting to going into this game.

AC2’s combat system feels like a good analogy for the whole game, really. It is almost exactly the same as the first game’s, only with some subtle improvements and the addition of some new options at the player’s disposal. A lot of the time these improvements and additions don’t feel truly needed but they at least succeed in giving players a tiny bit more choice and variety and apparently a lot of people needed those things. As someone who liked the first game already, more is usually better, and they didn’t overdo it or otherwise ruin a good thing here. It does indeed feel like improvement and refinement.

Who is my friend? Oh, it's only Leonardo FUCKING Da Vinci!
“Who is my friend? Oh, it’s only Leonardo FUCKING Da Vinci!”

Alright men, gather 'round him and watch as he kills us all one by one!
“Alright men, gather ’round him and watch as he kills us all one by one!”

I could ramble on a lot more about the game and in a lot more detail but I’ll cut myself off. Back to the conclusion I referred to before. Like I said, I loved it, but I also loved the first one despite its flaws. Still, it is hard for me to recommend Assassin’s Creed 2 to someone who absolutely hated the first Assassin’s Creed – again, it is largely the same game with some improvements, some needed more than others, and a new setting with all kinds of awesome Italian accents. If you were simply turned off by minor issues in the first game then certainly check it out, otherwise you might as well wait until we see what Assassin’s Creed 3 brings to the table. Of course by then it is possible that you won’t have ANY FUCKING CLUE what is going on in this batshit crazy conspiracy story. 😉

I have no idea what Assassin’s Creed 3 will be. It could literally take place anywhere, at any time, and they could change the gameplay in any number of ways. So far I like where they’re headed though. I’m a little puzzled (and maybe put off) by the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood but I can’t imagine not playing it at this point unless it just gets awful reviews. I would like to request that if they keep adding in requirements to complete things in stealthy means they add some more traditional stealth mechanics to our assassin’s repertoire of abilities though.

One more note: I played the game with the 2 “additional” DLC chapters intact and feel like I would have definitely missed not having them there, at least story wise, so I’d recommend picking them up if you care about that sort of thing and/or consider yourself a fan of the series. They were a tiny bit buggy, with sound dropping out on me a few different times during cut scenes, which I had heard others mention as well. Still, worth it.

As usual with Xbox 360 games I stole all of my screenshots from other people. It was really hard to find decent, non-PR released bullshots for this game. Most, if not all of these are from the PC version.