Niahak's Place

I have had brief encounters with a couple more recent games than those I have posted about, so I figured I’d post a little something about each.

World of Warcraft

Though I had until now completely resisted the temptation, I finally caved in and played a trial, doing several dozen quests with good friends. That’s where WoW really shines – is in doing things with people you know and trust.

Unfortunately, while it is polished it really boils down to the same thing as any of the half-dozen free MMOs I’ve played. Grind, fetch-quest, grind, grind-quest, et cetera. Though “instance” quests seem more interesting, the amount of grinding needed to reach any of the decent ones is considerable, and there’s apparently a high turnover in the hero business when in instances.

In the end, I didn’t continue playing when the trial expired. It’s not so much that I mind playing a game that takes up a lot of time, it’s more that I mind playing a game I need to continually invest time in with no real feeling of accomplishment. Ironically, I still rather like Diablo II, because the rewards are as fast and furious as the rest of the game.

No More Heroes

This game is apparently a love-or-hate game, and I’m afraid I’m closer to the latter camp. Stylistically it’s great, and combat is relatively fast-paced and entertaining. I really want to like it, but in a lot of ways it’s a parody of games I don’t like. In this regard, it has to emulate them to some degree… and therefore is a game I don’t really like.

The assassinations are fun, the plot is entertaining but there is just too much bland minigame between the good parts. Even the assassination missions were a little bit long for my taste.

I can understand the appeal of No More Heroes, and I like the fact that it was moderately popular, but it’s just not my kind of game.

Another reason I may not have liked it is the hype-machine. The weird part is, there wasn’t one. This game just became a bit of a meme on a couple of sites I visit – every month or so people would say “OMG look at how cool this is!” and post a picture of rather stylized cel shading. This tends to turn me off to a game almost as much as a rave preview on a major site. If the game’s not out yet, it’s not awesome yet. Sorry.

Unrelated blather related to music

I’ve recently found a talented composer/remixer by the name of Eric Haché. He was the composer for the unreleased-but-almost-complete RPG Infinity for the Game Boy Color, and posted up the soundtrack on his site. While the soundtrack is quite good, his remixes are just as great (I especially recommend the Legacy of the Wizard remastered tracks for anyone who played the game). If that weren’t enough, he has a large backlog of his original music on the site as well. I hope he continues composing through 2008.