Weekly Reflection

So before I go on to reviewing another game, I just I'll just post some heads up first. I haven't really been playing much new games recently, so maybe I'll go back to posting reviews of old games. It's fun to revisit those great games I've played from the past like Theme Hospital and stuff like that.

I sometimes find myself jaded just thinking of reviewing certain games. Sometimes I think it's not worth the effort. "Oh it's basically another JRPG, with a little something extra that people may or may not like". I post these reviews so that I can try to understand the development more and what's going through the dev's head, but when they make a 'better clone', there's not much to review is there other than "it's like xxx but more polished!".

All the more I think I should really get a closer look at indie games. But even then, indie games are just what they are...indie games. They are short, sweet and creative, but not big. When games are big, it's much more interesting to see how the developers allow their players to enjoy through the entire game process. That's why I think people like Kojima is a genius and to a lesser extent, ZUN.

Also, there isn't really a game I would like to try out recently. Transformers is cool but it requires multiplayer to be enjoyable. The only other thing to look forward to is Blazblue Continuum Shift. I went to Beergut's house to peek at the JPN LE version. Some of the challenge mode combos can be really hard for some characters to the point where I think it's not a really nice thing to throw at newcomers, but I think it's pretty fun to do.

It's been a routine thus far this couple of weeks. Basically me working for my mum for some cash, thinking about Blazblue stuff, going down to arcade and working on the popcap project. I can actually start posting about BBCS stuff every two days but the posts are going to be incredibly boring to read since posts about fighting games aren't that interesting unless I post a video or the few people who read are very very interested in BBCS (unlikely).

It's much more fun creating random videos with Touhou Labyrinth since I can feed Touhou fans random stuff, the game is very very obtainable, and the game design for the boss fights themselves can be quite interesting. If you liked games like Etrian Odyssey, or JRPG dungeon crawling, you should play this.

Even then, things have been quite slow as far as trying out new games go. I still do have games I don't mind reviewing like Homeworld 2, just that these few days have been pretty hot on Blazblue since the recent console release. Also I'm trying to put some effort into the popcap project. I want to make sure that it progresses at the very least.

And also there's a issue of Digipen. I really can't wait for it to start, and I'm glad it's starting on a good month like September. Gives me time to clear some stuff away, hobo and enjoy before it begins. Despite my desire to slack, I find it really really hard to pick up an MMO. I found the reason why and it kinda shocked me: I feel that I'm wasting my time playing one. I keep thinking that there are tons of other more productive things to do to improve myself, to the extent that I'd rather read a book about vector maths or C++ than play an MMO.

Zzz, am I getting old? Am I going to forsake MMOs if I really do become a game developer/designer/programmer. I feel that I'm probably no longer playing games for the same kind of fun other people play it for. I feel that I'm playing to learn about how I would react and other people would react to a situation in the game, which I in turn find it really fun and interesting.

That's why I find fighting games and the arcade so 'fun' I guess. All the people gathered at one place to use their characters in their own special way to defeat their opponent. A lot of information is being exchanged very quickly in fighting games, that's why I love it. To a lesser extent, RTS are like that too, just that there's less reaction-to-action and more planning. I'm not saying that to discredit RTS, just to state that it's the same, yet very different kind of fun.

Well, for the next few posts it's gonna be the same old stuff again: reviews, rants and more Touhou Labyrinth videos. I'm actually at 5F looking for the exit for 6F already, just finding a suitable background music for the next video. It's quite fun to figure out all the video stuff when I was trying to make the video HD =p