Mario Marathon 2 charity event.

Hello and welcome!

I just wanted to let you guys know about a charity event that the guys over at Mariomarathon.com are putting on.  They are playing through all of the Mario games and based on the amount of money they recieve for the charity , http://www.childsplaycharity.com/ , They will continue playing based on the amount of money they accrue.   So far they have been playing for 48 hours, and have raised $12,000 + so far.


You can catch the live web-stream of the guys playing below, or on their website:  http://www.mariomarathon.com/



They have a paypal link on the site that you can use to donate.

For more about childs play, check Child's Play Charity.




Check it out and donate!

~K

Review: Too Human.

Hello and Welcome!

I know, amazing isn't it? another blog post!

I got Too Human when it was on sale a while back, with the hopes that I could play with Nate and his brother.  And that is where the drama begins...

 

Ah yes, the Drama.  You see, I thought that Too Human was a multi-player game.  You know, multiple players. As in, More than 2.  Yeah, that was not the case (though the initial information about the game said it would be 4 players) , leaving me to play it on my own, while the two brothers played together.

The game itself (maybe not this iteration, but the title in general) has been in development for 10 years or so, with the last 3 years being the title we have today.  Part of this delay was reported by Silicon Knights (the Developer) as difficulties with the Unreal 3 Engine.  Opting to use their own engine (and sparking a lawsuit, and counter lawsuit From Epic Games) Silicon Knights finally released the game in late 2008, as the first part of a Trilogy, maybe...

This game wants very badly to be a great game.  Unfortunately there are many technical difficulties and annoyances which prevent that greatness from shining through.  It also seems to lack the polish that one might expect from a Microsoft Game Studios title. Anyway, I am going to break it down for you in the style of old reviews:

GAMEPLAY

The concept behind Too Human's game play was interesting in theory.  Rather than mash the a,b,x,y buttons to pull of attacks you use the Analog sticks.  It sounds awesome, I know.  Unfortunately it was not implemented very well and you, more often than not, are just holding the stick in the direction of the enemy.  Not very exciting.

However, it may have been more interesting if you attacks did damage more than 25 % of the time... Easily 3 out of 4 times, my attacks do NO damage, as if I am not even hitting the enemies.  Which leads to me dying, a lot.

Ah yes, dying.  You know something is wrong with your game balance, when you have to put an achievement for DYING 100 TIMES.  Seriously, WTF were they thinking.  The fact that I had barely scratched the surface of the 4th and last area, and already acquired this 'achievement' is a clear sign that the balance of this game was broken.

Other than that, the skill upgrade system is laughable, and barely worth mention.

The Enemy variety is anything but.  The only Variety  enemies have are their polarity (Ice, Poison, Fire, etc).  But aside from bosses I would not put the number of different enemy models at more than 10.

Really for me the only redeeming factor was the loot drop aspect of the game.  Being the loot whore that I am, I enjoy getting a new weapon, or a new peice of armor.  Unfortunately, again, they did not balance that part, so my only good point is barely good.  Getting a new piece of armor every 5 seconds and only 2 percent of that actually being good just isnt fun.

STORY

Man, I think there could have been a really good story here, but it is told through disjointed cutscenes and difficult to hear environmental dialog so it ends up janky and hard to follow.

SOUND

THE SOUND IN THIS GAME IS CRAP.  Ok, that is not fair.  The sound effects and Music in this game are quite good.  The mixing how ever is atrocious.   My tone-deaf Luddite of a sister could mix better than that.  Why is it bad you ask?

• The in game dialog cannot be heard over any noise other than the music.  Even when you adjust the levels.
• Everytime you get a rare item an musical audio sample plays to let you know. THIS SAMPLE PLAYS AT 11.  It is so deafeningly loud compared to the rest of the audio, you have to turn the sound down to compensate (which further compounds the first problem)
• It is clear they tried to create dynamic dialog from your co-horts and peons in the game, but by the time you clear a world you have heard the same corny drivel 20 times each. 
  

GRAPHICS

The graphics in this game are actually ok, aside from the awkward cutscenes.  The armors you get are distinct and you can tell the difference easily between the styles and the colors.
The environments are pretty repetitive, but don't look too bad.  It is mostly just bad level design.

I kept trying to convince myself that I was having fun just collecting Items in this game.  But I think I only convinced myself enough to finish the game.

Do I recommend buying this Game?  Even at $10 it is hard to recommend.  Do I recommend playing it?  Again, very hard to recommend unless you just REALLY like getting loot, and maybe are a masochist.

This game is supposed to be part of a trilogy.  I really hope that they DO make an second and third game.  Hopefully they will take the story and fix all the gameplay elements to make a good game.

~K