Recent gaming thoughts/reviews
Sep. 26th, 2009 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amethyst73• New Nintendo Channel on the Wii system: Mixed.
Bad: Videos are now listed in two columns of eight per page, with whichever title the cursor happens to be hanging over magnified in size. Makes it feel more difficult to navigate from one page of videos to the next (done via arrow buttons at the left and right edges of the screen) - old user interface was better.
Good: Vids load quickly and cleanly; not really a change.
Um, I think it's good: Under the "Records" section, you can see how many hours total your system has spent playing the various games that it keeps track of. (Between the two of us, Huz and I put in something crazy like 170 hours on Zelda TP, for example.) I'm not sure I really wanted that much information, but it's kind of neat that it's there. Titles played can also be used to link to 'you might also enjoy this' recommendations.
• Tales of Monkey Island, episode 1: Generally positive.
Bad: A few low-level things. Load times can be slow; every so often the soundtrack is ahead of the visual. Fixed camera angle sometimes annoying. Guybrush occasionally a pain to navigate. Volume low. One bad puzzle so far (the nature of which requires you to happen to pass your cursor over an object that I'm not convinced is even visible - or if it is, it's so just from one particular angle/spot).
Good: It's a new Monkey Island game! Guybrush's original voice actor is back. Fun/funny dialogue. Mostly pretty reasonable puzzles so far - the monkey in the mad scientist's den is particularly well done. Will feel familiar and enjoyable to fans of the series.
• Wii Sports Resort: Positive, but very limited experience
Our local GameStop had this running, so we gave the sword-fighting, frisbee, and archery a try. (These are considered the three best modules by IGN.)
Sword: Whoa. Apart from failing to understand how to block (I think it might be a button press), it's really quite impressive how 1:1 it is. Like a lot of waggle, it works better if you do it a little on the slow side - while we didn't experience it decalibrating, I can imagine that it could happen pretty easily.
Frisbee (with the dog): Whoa. Feels like throwing a frisbee (I tried to be gentle; might behave differently if I really flung it hard).
Archery: Okay, kind of cool. It doesn't feel as 1:1 as the others, but perhaps because of the interface, it doesn't need to feel so much so. What does feel curious is that you have a pointer-like experience in aiming the shot - the camera zooms in closer to the target the farther back you pull the bow, and there's a highlighted circle indicating exactly where you're currently aiming (picture with the vague idea here) - but you're not pointing with the IR, you're holding the Wiimote vertical and angling it to change your aim.
Overall: May become more seriously interested when the Sports Resort Double Pack (includes 2 Motion Plus units) comes out.
Bad: Videos are now listed in two columns of eight per page, with whichever title the cursor happens to be hanging over magnified in size. Makes it feel more difficult to navigate from one page of videos to the next (done via arrow buttons at the left and right edges of the screen) - old user interface was better.
Good: Vids load quickly and cleanly; not really a change.
Um, I think it's good: Under the "Records" section, you can see how many hours total your system has spent playing the various games that it keeps track of. (Between the two of us, Huz and I put in something crazy like 170 hours on Zelda TP, for example.) I'm not sure I really wanted that much information, but it's kind of neat that it's there. Titles played can also be used to link to 'you might also enjoy this' recommendations.
• Tales of Monkey Island, episode 1: Generally positive.
Bad: A few low-level things. Load times can be slow; every so often the soundtrack is ahead of the visual. Fixed camera angle sometimes annoying. Guybrush occasionally a pain to navigate. Volume low. One bad puzzle so far (the nature of which requires you to happen to pass your cursor over an object that I'm not convinced is even visible - or if it is, it's so just from one particular angle/spot).
Good: It's a new Monkey Island game! Guybrush's original voice actor is back. Fun/funny dialogue. Mostly pretty reasonable puzzles so far - the monkey in the mad scientist's den is particularly well done. Will feel familiar and enjoyable to fans of the series.
• Wii Sports Resort: Positive, but very limited experience
Our local GameStop had this running, so we gave the sword-fighting, frisbee, and archery a try. (These are considered the three best modules by IGN.)
Sword: Whoa. Apart from failing to understand how to block (I think it might be a button press), it's really quite impressive how 1:1 it is. Like a lot of waggle, it works better if you do it a little on the slow side - while we didn't experience it decalibrating, I can imagine that it could happen pretty easily.
Frisbee (with the dog): Whoa. Feels like throwing a frisbee (I tried to be gentle; might behave differently if I really flung it hard).
Archery: Okay, kind of cool. It doesn't feel as 1:1 as the others, but perhaps because of the interface, it doesn't need to feel so much so. What does feel curious is that you have a pointer-like experience in aiming the shot - the camera zooms in closer to the target the farther back you pull the bow, and there's a highlighted circle indicating exactly where you're currently aiming (picture with the vague idea here) - but you're not pointing with the IR, you're holding the Wiimote vertical and angling it to change your aim.
Overall: May become more seriously interested when the Sports Resort Double Pack (includes 2 Motion Plus units) comes out.
