What I’m playing 3/22
First off, I think everyone should read these two interviews on Hardcore Gaming 101 on two Metal Gear Solid translators: Jeremy Blaustein and Agness Kaku. Both shed some light on the translation roles in the gaming industry and how sometimes they are unappreciated. I was really surprised to read that Kaku was paid less than $5,000 for the translation of Metal Gear Solid 2 and never had any access to the staff or development team considering how much a huge blockbuster game MGS2 was after the success of the original. Personally, I am a huge fan of the translation done by Blaustein and his translation is far superior to that of the Twin Snakes in my opinion.
I have been plowing through some video games lately. I beat Super Mario 64 DS the other day. Although I enjoyed the addition of new characters, it was frustrating to have Mario stripped of all his powers and the controls of the game were quite frustrating. Many of the levels that I died in would have been easily avoided if I had a Nintendo 64 controller during the sequence and it really makes you realize how Super Mario 64 was perfectly tied to the Nintendo 64 controller and just is not the same on any other system. Nintendo really took lots of thought on how to make the game fully utilize the N64 and it just does not work the same when ported to the DS.
Now I have started playing Sonic Colors lately on the DS. The game certainly gives you the feeling of speed you want from a Sonic game, although sometimes I find myself completely losing track of where Sonic is on the screen because he is moving so fast. I think it is certainly one of the better Sonic games that I have played in recent years. I want to pickup Sonic Generations and Sonic 4: Episode 1 in the near future to compare how those games add up. They looked promising to me.
Another Sonic game I have been messing around with lately is Sonic Adventure 2. I realized the other day that I never beat it on the Dreamcast. I decided to go back and boot up the old Dreamcast and give the rest of the game another run. I came back to the point where I left off and realized why I quit. There is this part in level 15 where Sonic has to kill some enemies over a pool of poison and then light speed dash to collect some rings. For some reason it always malfunctioned and I miserably fell to my death hundreds of times before finally making it past the pool.
Any old Sonic player can attest to the series unforgiving difficulty in past games, which was missing in Sonic Adventure (many people apparently complained about this). Sega came back around and made the sequel unbelievably unforgiving. Especially in the space levels (pictured above) where one wrong landing can send you falling to your doom – and eventually lead to you restarting the level completely. My palms were pouring sweat during these space and various other grinding stages. The camera angles are also quite awful and often turns at the wrong time and leaves you dead. I have heard this is worse in the new Sonic the Hedgehog games…but have yet to touch them.
One thing I would have really liked in Sonic Adventure 2 was the areas like Station Square and the Mystic Ruins. I thought those locations added more to the story of the predecessor and the sequels story doesn’t captivate the way I wish it would.
Other than Sonic games I have started off my adventure in Dragon Quest VI. It is the last Dragon Quest games I have left to play until I can say I have played every game in the main series! =]
Lots to discuss in gaming. What are you playing these days?
I don’t agree with review score numbers
I write restaurant reviews for some local publications in my town and one of the things I hate to do is to assign a numerical score to a review. I feel the same way when reading about video games. Why? First of all, when you give something a number such as a 9/10 – the reader knows nothing except that you think this is a good game. Most people will glance at a score and then ignore everything else you had to say. That is only the roof of the surface though…
The real issue I have with review scores is that it forces two things that are not the same to be compared. A 7.0 Resident Evil game is not the same as a 9.0 Final Fantasy game. They come from different genres, different companies, different budgets, etc. However, the numerical scores will cause people to compare the two at face value…when they actually have nothing in common.
I was reading this great review on Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City by Jim Sterling on Destructoid earlier tonight. The review is insightful and Sterling explains what he felt the issues with the game were and that he found himself still enjoying the game, despite its flaws. He scores the game a 7.5 and then people in the comments lash out against him for not scoring “better games” higher. Yet they are comparing games that do not fall into the same genre, console, etc. People need to realize that reviews are subjective. There is no truly wrong or right review score and as long as the reviewer shares his opinion, he has done nothing wrong.
Some people even claimed that he was bought off by Capcom to give a high score. These are probably the same people who claimed that Mass Effect 3 review numbers were purchased by Electronic Arts. First they are unhappy that the numbers are the same, then when someone is different they claim the same logic. Honestly, gamers need to grow up and form their own opinions. Read the review and make the decision for yourselves. Stop blaming someone for sharing their opinion and doing their job.
There might be some crooked journalists out there, but trust me – many journalists value integrity. They know they have a duty to their publication and to their website to be honest. There is nothing worse than spending time on a project and then having people trash all over it in the comments.
That’s my 2-cents on this issue.
Introduction – a new story begins
Welcome to Carlos Plays – a video game website where you can follow my gaming adventures and thoughts through the games of yesteryear and the game legends of the future.
My name is Carlos Hernandez and I will be your host. This site will be covering games from several different generations of video games as I play them, as well as reactions to gaming news, rumors, and the gaming community at large. The online gamer community has evolved from previous times with the addition of more social media and trending websites, such as Reddit, that allow opinions to be projected in ways never before possible when thoughts were restricted to message boards and comment boxes.
This generation has not been my strongest in gaming – college strained my video game reserve funds. Also birthdays and Christmas presents shrink every year as I get older, however I plan to re-enter the game-sphere this upcoming era of new consoles (Wii U is almost guaranteed to be on my shopping list this holiday season if Nintendo gives the right price). I have a new part-time job and increased funds, therefore I also plan to purchase either an X-Box 360 or a PlayStation 3 in the next few months. I am unsure which to purchase as X-Box seems to have gained many of the exclusives that previously made me seriously want a PlayStation 3 (hello Metal Gear and Final Fantasy). The Yakuza games by SEGA seem to be the only games leaning me towards a PS3. I would love to hear your opinion on which system is a better purchase now.
The benefit of having a strained budget is more time to focus on the games of yesteryear. I have picked up games, such as Earthbound and Final Fantasy IX, and enjoyed games that I would have normally ignored if I was caught in the latest game trends and hype. Follow my twitter @carlosplays for live updates as I play – feel free to send me feedback or tell me why you love what I am playing.
No blog can be successful without frequent user interaction and updates so I plan to make this my daily home. I hope you’ll stick around and subscribe for this new journey I am embarking on. See you on the next level.
-Carlos
