Posts By Travis Hawks
Sometimes player choice is a bad thing.
WARNING: Many spoilers for Far Cry 3 are present throughout this article and are not preceded by any further warnings. The author believes you will still get plenty out of the story and the rest of the game even by reading these spoilers, but that decision is left to you.
My, that’s a polished turd!
Beautiful aesthetics, wonderful music, and just about perfect controls are all you could hope for in a platformer save one very important factor and this eluded me for a while. I couldn’t figure out with so many great things going on in Pid why I hated it so very deeply. Eventually I realized that its well-crafted elements were completely overwhelmed by the boring, mediocre, and at times maddening level design. It’s a shame that the designers primarily focused on the window dressing bits instead of considering all the things you would actually be doing when you play. Pid struggles with knowing what sort of levels it wants to present, switching from puzzles to difficult platforming to stealth to long periods of just waiting around or running in a straight line. Each of these disparate level types (and more) are middling at best on their own and when combined are a complete drag. Pid’s wonderful presentation can’t save it from the tedium packed into every single minute of its tortuous length.
The douche bag sim you never knew you wanted.
I never expected to become so enamored with a game where you inhabit the body of the hugest douche bag to ever visit the South Pacific, but it happened. After suffering through a fairly irritating opening sequence, you eventually find that you are free to explore the Rook Islands at whatever pace you desire. In some of my early self-paced explorations, I decided to stealthily capture an enemy outpost. Hiding in the bushes and taking stock of what foes lay within the compound, I heard the loud roar of a tiger that charged into the outpost and slaughtered everyone inside while my knife and gun remained completely unused. I conquered that outpost by letting the game’s systems collide and work in my favor. These types of situations happen continuously in Far Cry 3 and whether they were to my benefit or demise, it’s always a blast to witness. It’s these interacting systems that make Far Cry 3 a special experience that is worth playing, despite the grating narrative.
Despite what the title of this review says, this game is definitely not Warlords.
Man, I really love Warlords. It’s hard to believe how great of a game it is, with its simple rules, spot-on controls, and its capability to create some of the most memorable multiplayer experiences around. Now, don’t get confused. I’m speaking about Warlords, which can be played on your Atari 2600 (or possibly in your local arcade), and definitely not some other game that is now available on PSN and XBLA. That game, Definitely Not Warlords (DNW), is an affront to the basic beauty of game design and does not deserve to carry the Warlords name.
PixlBit brings a Halo newbie and a veteran together to cover every aspect of Halo 4.
Confession time: I’m a Halo noob, having only completed Halo 3 and played the first two games for a few hours each prior to this review. But that’s okay, because it’s a brand new day in the Halo universe, right? We have the first chapter in an all-new trilogy featuring everyone’s favorite Master Chief, and it’s also the first mainline game by 343 Industries (taking the reins from Halo creators Bungie). This should be the perfect jumping-on point for new players, while giving stalwart fans more of the game they love. That’s the dream, anyway. The reality is a bit different.
No matter your political stance, you would think that a president that flew around and shot missiles would be awesome. Turns out it’s boring.
I thought we had moved past the era of silly touch-screen controls early in the lifespan of the DS, but apparently it still has its proponents. Grasshopper Manufacture and Level 5 have teamed up to make sure that the dying art of crappy stylus futzing stays around a little longer with their joint downloadable venture, Liberation Maiden. Maybe the controls themselves wouldn’t be so objectionable if there was some other entertainment value in the package, but as it is, Liberation Maiden is just a boring series of stylus rubbings in an anime wrapper.
A unique user interface that stood the test of time and provided some fresh ideas about content on a game console.
Now that we’re just waiting around for our Wii U pre-orders to be fulfilled, we’ve started thinking back on our Wii experience. There were great games and there were stupid, gimmicky games. There was the much maligned 480p output and the long wait for external storage. There were also the channels.
Did a franchise started as a Mario rip-off surpass its “inspiration”? No. No, it did not.
Somewhere during the creation of a game, there seems to be a point where the design team must ask itself, “Should we make our game longer?” Sometimes this might result in the addition of compelling new content, but so often it results in revisiting the same places you’ve already been to collect more thingamabobs. This very decision is what ruins Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. Your forward progress in what could be a wonderful game is stymied until you can perfect your collection of MacGuffins without dying in levels you’ve already completed. It’s a real shame too, because without this unnecessary padding I wouldn’t have noticed the game’s glitches or gotten as frustrated with its inconsistent responses. Most importantly, I wouldn’t have gotten so sick of playing it.
The PixlBit staff shares their Wii launch day memories.
Even though there’s still plenty of excitement revolving around the launch of a new console, be it handheld or otherwise, it seems as though the days of week-long lines and potential riots have been all but killed off by the widespread use of pre-orders. Those launch line ups were quite the experience, but those early days were made even more memorable when the new hardware was unsealed and powered up for the first time. When the Wii Launched on November 19, 2006, nobody predicted it would be snapped up just as soon as it could be stocked on store shelves. We also weren’t sure what direction the innovative motion controls and classic Nintendo franchises would take us. To relive the elation and anticipation of the Wii Launch experience, some of the PixlBit crew thought it would be fun to share their own launch day memories. If you have some of your own, be sure to share them in the comments.
Cynicism is silently assassinated and fed to an overwhelming swarm of rats.
Something is telling me that I need to unleash my inner cynic and find ways to trash and nitpick Dishonored after it received so much hype. I tried my best to find things that were poorly done or off-putting. All that effort was a waste because everything I found wrong with the game was so minor and unimportant that it made realize that I don’t think I’d change a single thing. Dishonored is one of the rare instances where all of the pre-release excitement and anticipation is completely justified and I’m happy to get to pour on additional praise.
