Pokemon: Pearl

Date Acquired: 4/22/2007

Date Completed: 3/29/2010

Thoughts: I completely missed the Pokemon craze when it was raging through the late nineties. I had a gameboy, but was way beyond playing games in black and white by that point. Plus I was in college, so I couldn't just buy any game that got a good write up. I didn't really even know what Pokemon was beyond the card game and cartoon. I didn't know a thing about the gameplay or why it was so popular. When the sequal came out, it was the same story for me. I was in school, and not particularily interested. Same for Ruby/Saphire, same for the remakes Fire Red/Leaf Green.

So why did I finally buck the trend and buy this game? Mainly it was the sense that I was missing out on something. I felt I needed to at least try the game that had generated so much buzz and word of mouth. In the months leading up to the release of this game, I debated the merrits of buying Fire Red/Leaf Green, but ultimately passed on it and just waited for the new game. I didn't know if I should get Pearl or Diamond, but my buddy Dan got Diamond, so it made sense for me to get Pearl in case we ever decided to trade critters. Several months later, we did just that, and even had a battle. Unfortunately for him, while I began with the water Pokemon, he began with the fire monster, and my characters were all 10-15 levels higher than his. It was a slaughter.

I saw the appeal to the game immediately, and loved capturing the new animals, testing out their moves and attempting to evolve them. I chose the Penguin as my character, a no brainer for me, because I love Penguins. And I'd probably call it the best of the 3 primary monsters. I was so fixated on the game that I bought a 2nd used copy of the game and traded myself the other starting Pokemon creatures and then traded it back in. So I got to play the game with all 3 starting creatures.

Like most games, I began with great gusto and fizzeled out in the middle somewhere. Who can say the reason why exactly? I picked the game up again 2 years later and pushed through it some more, collected the 7th (of 8) badges necessary in completing the game, but I stopped playing when I got to the legendary pokemon. I got frustrated trying to capture them and gave up.

Now here it is March of 2010 and a new Pokemon game has been released. New games always tend to spur me into playing the original, and this was no exception, but perhaps the motivation was slightly different. It's my understanding the pokemon from this game can be traded to the new game, but doing so removes them from the old game completely. So if I decide to get Soul Silver or Heart Gold (and I likely will) I will need to be finished with Pearl before I can transfer the pokemon to that game.

So it was with that motivation that I returned a third time to Pearl. I quickly took care of the legendary Pokemon, tracked down the 8th and final gym badge, and then made my way to Victory Road where I ran into some really dull grinding that was necessary to get past that part (and I usually like grinding), but then paved the way for me to push past the Elite 4 and master trainer.

To Do: Not a whole lot. I have a full pokedex at 150 (that just means I've seen all 150 creatures, I've only caught 92). There's an area in Victory Road that was blocked before and is now open. I played through it a little after finishing the game, but ran into a Pokemon trainer who had a monster for me to fight who used no offensive abilities at all, he could do 2 things: Increase his evasiveness and heal. It was incredibly frustrating. I would attack him 10 straight times, miss him every time, on the 11th I would hit him, but not enough to kill him, and then I would watch him heal himself while I missed another 10 attacks in a row. Eventually he ran out of heal moves and I was able to kill him, but most of my pokemon were out of moves also, so I had to end my journey through the cave prematurely. I may go back to that just to see what's in there, but for the most part I'm done with the game. The next time I plan to revisit the game will be when the time comes to transfer the pokemon from Pearl to Soul Silver.

Resident Evil 5

When Acquired: December, 2009

Date Completed: 3/2/2010

Thoughts: Releasing after the phenomenally well-received Resident Evil 4, 5 never seemed to have the hype or expectations of it's predecessor. As if the fans knew that because it wasn't in development for as long as RE4, their expectations should be limited. Don't get me wrong, it still had hype, and reviewed well, it just didn't seem to be as much as you'd expect for the RE4 successor. This game represented a lot of firsts for the series. First game on a next gen console, first game that integrated co-op into the RE formula, and the first RE game to launch simultaneously on multiple consoles. These factors propelled the game to phenomenal sales.

Co-op is a required part of the game, no matter if you choose to play with a friend, or solo. The AI does respectively, but unlike Left 4 Dead, when the AI characters have incredible aim, and are actually more efficient and reliable than human players, the AI partner in Resident Evil is fallable. You'll rarely lose because of it, but neither will you be able to count on your partner to carry you through the game. The game is at it's most enjoyable when you're playing with a friend, either through split screen, or online. When working with a friend you can work out strategies to deal with the enemies together, unlike the partner AI that will just follow you around like a puppy.

The biggest downside for this title is the complete lack of suspense and horror that has always been a stalwart of the series. Likely a large portion of that is due to the decision to make the game multiplayer, and Capcom seems to understand this would be the case and instead of trying to cheesily force it to be a scary game, it accepts it and steers the story in a different direction.

The story isn't really a stand out factor for the game. It's a pretty simple motivation and climax. The game attempts to drop little tidbits in for those who have completed the previous games, including little blurbs while the game loads, but for people like myself who haven't finished all the games, I was a bit in the dark at times, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the game.

The most compelling part of the game for me was the upgrade system. I was compelled to upgrade my guns and buy new ones as quickly as possible. And the game rewards your first play through by allowing you to purchase infinite ammo for each individual gun. You don't get unlimited ammo for all the guns, you have to use the points you get for finishing each level to unlock the ammo. Most likely when you finish the game the first time you'll have enough to get unlimited ammo for one of the lower tier guns. That was not for me, I kept replaying individual levels until I had enough points to get unlimited ammo for the most powerful gun in the game. (of course you can't unlock the unlimited ammo unless you also purchase every upgrade for the gun, and to unlock THIS gun, I had to fully upgrade a different gun and then purchase it. This was made much easier by exploiting the rotten egg trick) Now as I'm playing through again with my buddy on the hardest setting, enemies fall by the wayside. Of course when I get to the parts where I don't use your guns, those parts aren't made any easier with my unlimited super gun.

Resident Evil 5 represents a huge departure from the RE formula. I wondered durin my playthrough if this should have been given a number in the series instead of perhaps an offshoot, but regardless of the differences, it's a great game. Visually stunning, addictive and a blast to play in co-op. I definately recommend it.

To do on this game: Play through on the hardest difficulty settings, nab some more achievements.

Little Big Planet

Date Purchased: 10.27.08

Date Completed: 2.26.10

Thoughts: I owned this game nearly a year before I had a PS3. I had just moved into a new apartment with a roomate who had a PS3, and I figured that it was safe to buy it, given the year lease and all. Things didn't go to plan and due to health reasons, he had to move out. I played it a bit initially, but didn't finish it before he moved out, and so it sat on my shelf for months. When I finally did get a PS3 it was not my first priority. That would be Uncharted. And then Uncharted 2. And then Infamous. But I knew I'd get back to it eventually.

This is a tough game to grade. It's beautiful. It's creative. It's artistic, and above all, it's charming. Everything from the music, to the art style, to the characters, and most definately to the expressions on the adorable sackboy's face brings a smile to me as I play. It's quite the artistic tour de force. With all that said, you might notice I haven't mentioned the gameplay. Little Big Planet is beautiful, Creative, Funny and original. But I'm not sure it's a good game. If the definition of a good game is solid game play, I don't know that this game succeeds. The controls are floaty and imprecise. The hit detection is spotty. It always feels like a bunch of objects cobbeled together rather than a well designed game. The later levels are frustrating, the limited amounts of things you can do in this game bring it down by the end of the game. It's a side scrolling platformer, just being able to jump on people's heads isn't enough, and especially not when the controls are this wonky.

As much as the idea of making my own levels intrigued me, I knew I wouldn't put the time into it that I could/should. Playing the user created levels of others is interesting, but it's a sad realization that a game that provides users with so many opportunities to be creative, finds an audience who primarily wants to re-create licensed materials.

Media Molecule hasn't revealed their next game, and the general impression seems to be that Little Big Planet will never recieve a true sequal. It's sequal will come in the form of a consistent stream of downloadable content. That seems unrealistic given how DLC has not been embraced by the public at all. Even Grand Theft Auto flopped, I don't expect success from smaller games. There will be a LBP sequal. Who knows, maybe it will be announced this year at E3. And when it comes, I will look forward to seeing if improvements to the gameplay have been implimented.