Finished my first run-through of the game. Did it as the Commando.

Though Ben Croshaw (not safe for work) is spot-on in picking out issues with the playing the game, it was still really fun. I think it took me about 15 hours, and it got a lot easier towards the end as I discovered all of the power in the Commando class. I think next time I will play as a Berserker. Only read more if you care about this game:

As a ranged-weapon specialist I always had a lot of trouble dealing with hordes of enemies. While I could shoot and immobilize one of them, the other would keep getting closer, and the Commando really can't use melee weapons effectively. Finally I realized the power of my battle cry, which gave me extremely high ballistic knockback. I combined this with a rifle that had +100% ballistic air juggle. The result was that I could fire at a bunch of enemies, knock them all away from me, then shoot each one up in the air the finish it off. The battle cry also added knockback to my Commando's grenades, so that each one would send enemies flying off of ledges and into the air.

Tags: Too Human, xbox

I was going to write a review of the critically-maligned Too Human, but this review pretty much sums up my feelings.

One correction, they discuss what Loki's crime is, but if you're not paying attention you would miss it.

Tags: Too Human, xbox

Dearest Gabe & Tycho, I know you're never going to read this, and it is that knowledge which lets me write what I'm about to write. Having a little spare time today, I downloaded the trial version of this game via XBox Live Arcade. I had seen some of the gameplay videos, and was thoroughly looking forward to trying it out for myself.

Would that I could undo the following hour and the resultant disillusionment.

I'm a big fan of Penny Arcade and also a fan of video games. Given the involvement of Gabe & Tycho on the art and writing, I looked forward to both of these aspects, and was not disappointed. However, I personally found the gameplay insufferable. The mechanics of the world are enjoyable, with a fluid (albeit slightly hectic for me) combat system, and much of the polished jokes and effects that do a great job of setting the mood. I only played for about 45 minutes, but I'm assuming that encounters become either more random or more avoidable. What made gameplay unenjoyable for me was what I can only describe as a lack of polish. I had the exact same object interaction problems in this game as I do in Lost Odyssey. It's practically impossible for me to be in just the right spot on the map and facing just the right angle to get to talk to that person or inspect that trash can. Within the first 20 minutes of gameplay, I ended getting stuck behind a row of bushes, and only managed to get my character out after about 5 minutes of joystick wiggling - an extremely frustrating experience. If you don't want users to deal with this, either don't let us explore all 4 corners of your artwork, or just let us walk through the freakin' bushes, guys! I've played MMO's with fewer character sticking issues!

Well this might prove a valuable lesson to someone somewhere: No matter how good you think you've developed your game (or application), your users will figure out a way to break it or make it do something unintended. What's important is not just fixing these problems, but figuring out how to gracefully handle these situations as they arise out in the field. Preferably you're smart and add routines to predict when your game is in a bad state and take care of it dynamically, so that you don't have to keep releasing patch upon patch for games when you'd rather be working on the next one.

Well anyway, I'll try out the Mac version, and I'll post if I experience anything significantly different. I wonder what Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw would have to say about this particular title...

Tags: xbox