Games I'm Currently Playing and What I Like/Dislike About Them

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

Im on my second playthrough of MGS3 now that I have subsistence and I'm enjoying it even more than the first time. I attribute this mainly to what I consider a pretty steep learning curve especially having played through the first two before this one. The first two gave you radar and you could run up behind a guy and hold them up. In MGS3, you have no radar comparable to the first two, and you can't just run up and hold a sentry hostage, you have to sneak. While this adds realism, it took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to do it during my first playthrough. Turns out the d-pad is sneaking mode in which Snake moves slower than he does crawling on his belly. This was a bit of a turn off for me because multiple times when I was in sneaking mode, I'd be too slow and someone else would spot me, leading me to my next nag, the Caution time.

In MGS3, the amount of caution time is a ridiculously boring 99 seconds. When spotted, one has to wait at least 99 seconds before moving unhindered by the backup. This really seemed to slow the game down since I would just lie in thick grass and wait impatiently. I found that you can erase caution by killing or stunning all enemies, but that takes the fun out of sneaking up on them later.

While the camouflage is a cool idea, you have to go through the pause menu to do it, and this also slows the game down. Each time you enter slightly different terrain or even lighting, you are more visible, need to pause the game, and go through a few menus to bring that stealth percentage back up. That... sucks. The diff outfits are cool, but I found going through the menu repetitive and too frequent. A good idea, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Those are my only main gripes about this game. The weapons and new CQC stuff is awesome along with much better story-telling this time around. It is a game that truly engulfs you in the experience with the tense situations and excellent music. I recommend this game to anyone that enjoys these types of games.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

I know I should have played and beat this a long time ago, but I'm just now getting to it since I got it used for $7 and couldn't pass that up. This game gives a really spooky feeling with it's music and insanity effects that pretty much hooked me from the start. I love the survival horror type genre and this game really excels in its atmosphere and is unique with the insanity effects. I really want to just blurt out all the crazy things that happen with the insanity meter, but I won't spoil it for anyone that just happens to not have played it yet. This game is pretty much a must play for anyone with a Cube.

The only drag about this game is the combat. It's just boring. The guns pretty much suck and the swords are all that really matter. The aiming system is slightly amusing at first, but then just becomes the same thing over and over and over and... over. Near the end I found myself just running through some rooms ignoring monsters not because they were too tough, but because it was too boring to fight another demon type thing. Outside of the combat, I have no huge complaints.

Lost Magic

This RTS/RPG for the DS is awesome. You basically have a small squad of monsters that you will have captured in a previous battle to guide into combat as you play the mage firing spells from behind the ranks. There are 400 spells to cast and it's all done with the touchscreen. The better the spell is drawn, the more powerful it is. The maps have an objective of eliminating all monsters, purifying some crystals, or defeating some boss, all against the clock. This makes sure you find the right pace through each battle to maintain your creatures health while still fulfilling the objective in the given time. It's definitely worth it for the gameplay outside of a few minor issues.

The difficulty seems really random at times, one fight will be easy, the next will take 5-10 continues. And when you continue, you have to watch the same movie prefacing the battle you lost without skipping. Most of these cutscenes are short, but they're annoying nonetheless.

The graphics are only GBA quality at best. This game is not pretty. Very basic sprite animations.

The AI isn't great. The avatar and his army always follow a straight line path regardless of trees in the way or other obstacles. This makes the user have to guide the group more closely and tap more often then necessary.

The touchscreen casting ability is what makes this game great, however, and it is done pretty flawlessly. It is a definitely a game to check out if you are a DS owner.

So that's what I've been playing as of late. I'm starting Indigo Prophecy and the New Super Mario Bros. soon, so maybe I'll post impressions on those for my next article.

BJ

Note: views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily those of Wolverine Soft.