Though I am rather late to say so, considering they are now defunct, Cing is one of my favourite game development studios. I didn't even know they existed until 2008, and unfortunately they were bankrupt by 2010. Since they can no longer make them, I have made it a personal mission to play and review all of their story games in a set of posts on this blog.
So, why Cing? It all started with Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I first noticed it for sale at a local department store in the summer of 2008. The artwork on the front cover was enough to make me curious. I didn't quite know what to expect from the game, but what I received, I was thrilled with. I love mystery novels, and this was essentially a playable one. I found myself enamoured with the main character, Kyle Hyde, and all the supporting characters as well. The world felt alive, and the story was intriguing, with many intertwining plot threads. Despite Hotel Dusk being a story game (and therefore not having much intrinsic "replay value"), I've played it to completion three separate times.
Fast-forward to 2011, before Paul and I were married. I came to visit him for the month of May to make sure that we'd be compatible living together. We visited a game store, and as I perused the DS games, I noticed the cover of one adorned with a character not unlike the protagonist from Hotel Dusk. Lo and behold, it was Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, and the character depicted was indeed Kyle Hyde! (And lucky for me that I happened to see it there--the English localization of this game was only released in Europe. Being an American, I hadn't even known there was a sequel!) I immediately purchased it, and finished within the week. The new cast was as richly designed as the first, and the plot revealed more to us about Kyle's life before the games. I was fascinated, wondering if a third game could be in the works... which is when I discovered, sadly, Cing would never make games again.
I'll start in the next post with a review of the next Cing game I managed to find, Glass Rose. It seems to be a fitting start to this series, as it was their first game. I will then replay and post reviews of Hotel Dusk and Last Window. To finish my quest, I will need to obtain Another Code: Two Memories (a.k.a. Trace Memory in the USA), Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories, and Again.
Friday, 11 April 2014
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Mixed Bag
Well, it's been quite some time since I bothered to write something. Here's a mammoth update!
Firstly, I started to play Nier. Gameplay-wise, it's fairly standard mash-buttons-until-things-die fare so far. Where the game is really standing out is its setting; it is relentlessly gloomy and I'm forever getting the feeling that everything is going to explode at some point, or more likely just slowly die out with nobody left to care. I'm looking forward to playing more of the plot; the game is full of these bring a thing to a place sidequests which are starting to wear me down, and don't even start with the fishing.
Next in my handy-dandy Backloggery memory card is Glass Rose. Emily wanted to pick this up because it was developed by Cing, the now-defunct company that made Hotel Dusk and some other story-based games. Since then, we've played through it unlocking all four endings! It's trivial to unlock three from one save file if you know what you're doing, but getting the fourth basically requires an extra playthrough. I'm not quite sure what to say about this one... it has a bizarre premise and some nice twists and turns, but the writing and voice acting is so badly done that it's difficult to really get into. Also, the controls are pretty bad and much more suited towards a mouse (or a touchscreen). Might ask Emily to write some further comments on here, because I think she could have a few things to say.
Finally I beat Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I say 'finally' because I've only been playing this while at my parents' house, because my mother enjoys watching me play through these games. I've yelled at the game a few times for its risible sailing sections, but it's still pretty fun and I particularly enjoyed the ending, which just adds to the series's mysticism and overall nonsense. This led me to begin the DLC, Freedom Cry. I haven't done much yet, but I have rescued a bunch of slaves, and again this is more fun than Black Flag because you don't sail as much! Adéwalé plays almost identically to Edward (although he does have a machete like Aveline) so it was easy to jump right in, but he is much more sympathetic. I really hope that the next AC game has no sailing. Or anything related to vehicles at all.
Caved in and bought Crusader Kings II and a bunch of discounted DLC a little while ago. I've always had a healthy dollop of respect for Paradox for bringing such incredibly detailed and dry strategy games to a somewhat large market, but until now I've only owned Europa Universalis III. I played as an Italian Duke named, uh, Ezio Auditore. Spent a long time trying to increase my territory a little without angering anyone major, but I made a few mis-steps and didn't really gain much, then Gavelkind ruined everything. So I started again as a Welsh Count named Cadwgan ap Meurig. He hasn't done much, but he has fought off the Irish and managed to make some important alliances, as well as installing a courtier as the Duke of Deheubarth, which he hopes to have his successor inherit. I changed the succession law to Tanistry because it seems fun.
Finally there's a few games to add to my collection, because OF COURSE THERE IS.
Firstly, I started to play Nier. Gameplay-wise, it's fairly standard mash-buttons-until-things-die fare so far. Where the game is really standing out is its setting; it is relentlessly gloomy and I'm forever getting the feeling that everything is going to explode at some point, or more likely just slowly die out with nobody left to care. I'm looking forward to playing more of the plot; the game is full of these bring a thing to a place sidequests which are starting to wear me down, and don't even start with the fishing.
Next in my handy-dandy Backloggery memory card is Glass Rose. Emily wanted to pick this up because it was developed by Cing, the now-defunct company that made Hotel Dusk and some other story-based games. Since then, we've played through it unlocking all four endings! It's trivial to unlock three from one save file if you know what you're doing, but getting the fourth basically requires an extra playthrough. I'm not quite sure what to say about this one... it has a bizarre premise and some nice twists and turns, but the writing and voice acting is so badly done that it's difficult to really get into. Also, the controls are pretty bad and much more suited towards a mouse (or a touchscreen). Might ask Emily to write some further comments on here, because I think she could have a few things to say.
Finally I beat Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I say 'finally' because I've only been playing this while at my parents' house, because my mother enjoys watching me play through these games. I've yelled at the game a few times for its risible sailing sections, but it's still pretty fun and I particularly enjoyed the ending, which just adds to the series's mysticism and overall nonsense. This led me to begin the DLC, Freedom Cry. I haven't done much yet, but I have rescued a bunch of slaves, and again this is more fun than Black Flag because you don't sail as much! Adéwalé plays almost identically to Edward (although he does have a machete like Aveline) so it was easy to jump right in, but he is much more sympathetic. I really hope that the next AC game has no sailing. Or anything related to vehicles at all.
Caved in and bought Crusader Kings II and a bunch of discounted DLC a little while ago. I've always had a healthy dollop of respect for Paradox for bringing such incredibly detailed and dry strategy games to a somewhat large market, but until now I've only owned Europa Universalis III. I played as an Italian Duke named, uh, Ezio Auditore. Spent a long time trying to increase my territory a little without angering anyone major, but I made a few mis-steps and didn't really gain much, then Gavelkind ruined everything. So I started again as a Welsh Count named Cadwgan ap Meurig. He hasn't done much, but he has fought off the Irish and managed to make some important alliances, as well as installing a courtier as the Duke of Deheubarth, which he hopes to have his successor inherit. I changed the succession law to Tanistry because it seems fun.
Finally there's a few games to add to my collection, because OF COURSE THERE IS.
- Hitman: Absolution was free with Xbox Live Gold (mine is actually expiring soon, not sure if I'll renew it until the next free game is released) and apparently is a bit more user-friendly than the previous instalments, so I'll try it out.
- Warriors Orochi 2 and Samurai Warriors 2: Empires are both on the way from CeX, because Emily has gone nuts after playing Samurai Warriors: Chronicles and Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires and wants more of the same.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Breaking
Emily persuaded me to buy some games because they were cheap. What is going on?
- Nier, because everybody says it's quite good and really sad, and what I need are more sad 360 games in my life.
- The Darkness II, because the previous game in the series was excellent.
Other than this, gameplaying has been a secondary concern to Emily trying to get a permanent Visa for UK residence. This means she'll never have to renew her existing one, which is nice, and it's also a step to becoming a full citizen once that's possible.
However, I have started Nier and I'm not sure what to think of it just yet. The prologue took forever because I unwisely chose the Hard difficulty and everything takes forever to die. I might change it to Easy on this save if possible, and if not just start again, because I'm not too far in. It's standard action RPG fare so far, although there are the hints of massive tragedy in the air.
Monday, 10 March 2014
Liberation and Conworlding
It took me three days to beat Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD, and I had a lot of fun. It plays quite similarly to Assassin's Creed III, but has the higher pace and more immediate connection to the plot that Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines have - in short, I wish the main entries in the series were more like this! There were some frustrations; Aveline seems very happy to randomly jump off things rather than making safe movements, and some of the 100% Sync criteria are very arbitrary and random to achieve. I like the story; again, I knew nothing about this period and location, so it was quite instructive for me. Aveline really comes off as torn between two worlds, and while Abstergo's manipulation of the truth might be quite simple, I like how little needed to be edited out in order to achieve their goal of whitewashing. Recommended, for sure. Enjoyed it a lot more than I'm enjoying Black Flag!
There is a slightly darker side, though. Emily pointed out one of this game's central mechanics is changing outfits; Aveline can swap between 'Lady', an aristocratic puffy dress thing that removes most of your killing potential, 'Assassin', where you're... an assassin, and 'Slave', where you are punished more severely for publicly offensive acts. Note that this is also the only Assassin's Creed game where you play a female character. Is this sexist? It's an interesting mechanic and one Emily and I would like to see in a more prominent game; Liberation was originally only for the Vita, and it might not be a coincidence that the main character is a black woman. Now, the Vita version did not sell particularly badly, so I hope this is actually just a sign that Ubisoft is considering more widely varied main characters. It would be interesting to see some sales data, as there has historically been this concept that male gamers do not like to play female protagonists, unless they are super sexy all the time. Aveline is certainly attractive, but is almost always completely covered up and certainly doesn't act like a femme fatale.
In some non-gaming news (sort of), I've began working a little more seriously on Craze, the fantasy world I've had in mind for many years now. Originally it was the setting to a game, also called Craze, but I spend so much time thinking about it that I really want to flesh it out and make it consistent. To this end I've acquired several books by Mark Rosenfelder, who has a real talent for explaining things that should be obvious. I already had it in mind that creating a world, complete with at least 5 different cultures, was going to be a massive pile of work, but his books more clearly lay out all the different things that have to be thought about, it's very useful. Maybe I'll also eventually write that game - I have a JRPG-style thing in mind but with a lot of branching paths and the ability to play as your own character as well as 'the hero'.
There is a slightly darker side, though. Emily pointed out one of this game's central mechanics is changing outfits; Aveline can swap between 'Lady', an aristocratic puffy dress thing that removes most of your killing potential, 'Assassin', where you're... an assassin, and 'Slave', where you are punished more severely for publicly offensive acts. Note that this is also the only Assassin's Creed game where you play a female character. Is this sexist? It's an interesting mechanic and one Emily and I would like to see in a more prominent game; Liberation was originally only for the Vita, and it might not be a coincidence that the main character is a black woman. Now, the Vita version did not sell particularly badly, so I hope this is actually just a sign that Ubisoft is considering more widely varied main characters. It would be interesting to see some sales data, as there has historically been this concept that male gamers do not like to play female protagonists, unless they are super sexy all the time. Aveline is certainly attractive, but is almost always completely covered up and certainly doesn't act like a femme fatale.
In some non-gaming news (sort of), I've began working a little more seriously on Craze, the fantasy world I've had in mind for many years now. Originally it was the setting to a game, also called Craze, but I spend so much time thinking about it that I really want to flesh it out and make it consistent. To this end I've acquired several books by Mark Rosenfelder, who has a real talent for explaining things that should be obvious. I already had it in mind that creating a world, complete with at least 5 different cultures, was going to be a massive pile of work, but his books more clearly lay out all the different things that have to be thought about, it's very useful. Maybe I'll also eventually write that game - I have a JRPG-style thing in mind but with a lot of branching paths and the ability to play as your own character as well as 'the hero'.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Washington Revisited
Before I get into the games I've actually been playing, here's a short list of acquisitions:
- Got Sid Meier's Civlization Revolution via Games with Gold
- Got Toy Soldiers: Cold War via Games with Gold
- Emily bought me Avadon: The Black Fortress for Valentine's Day
My patience with Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition's final bonus dungeon has started to wear thin, so I decided to get started on Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition. Emptyeye had prepared me a little for how the game works, so I was all ready to beat the snot out of my own characters, but I haven't really needed to do that too much yet. However, I have got into a few fights specifically to level my character's Magic and MP stats. Right now I'm in Mysidia, trying to figure out how on earth to get out of Mysidia without dying to random encounters.
I also randomly started playing Battle Isle on a whim. I remember when I was 12 or something I bought this Battle Isle Platinum collection which had much of the entire series in it, including the expansion to Incubation which I never had. Now I'm finally getting round to playing them, and the first BI is okay so far. Annoyingly enough I had to look up a password to even get to start playing the single player vs. AI levels, and I've played a couple without any trouble. My first attempt at the mission 'EVOTY' resulted in abject failure, so I might need to rethink it a bit.
The major success story of the last couple of days is beating the entire Assassin's Creed III DLC called The Tyranny of King Washington. I knew it wasn't very long, but because of my problems beating the first instalment (bug preventing one of the later missions being beatable) I was eager to rush through and just do the story missions, in case something similar happened. Not so, and I was able to destroy most of the expansion pack with no problem. To that end, I decided to get 100% Sync on every mission, which meant I needed to reload checkpoint quite a few times, but it wasn't too bad. The plot itself is interesting, though Washington is such a terrible and unrepentant figure he's kind of one-dimensional. Worth the season pass.
I've also finally started practising Ultima Underworld for Crystals for Life. Done a few runs through, my current best is 22:10, far away from the current record of 17:25 which uses the same route. I still have a lot of work to do, and even more to learn the sequel, which I've never speedrun before. So many people are starting to drop out of the marathon, I'm wondering if there are going to be 9 hours spare for me to do Dark Cloud...
I also randomly started playing Battle Isle on a whim. I remember when I was 12 or something I bought this Battle Isle Platinum collection which had much of the entire series in it, including the expansion to Incubation which I never had. Now I'm finally getting round to playing them, and the first BI is okay so far. Annoyingly enough I had to look up a password to even get to start playing the single player vs. AI levels, and I've played a couple without any trouble. My first attempt at the mission 'EVOTY' resulted in abject failure, so I might need to rethink it a bit.
The major success story of the last couple of days is beating the entire Assassin's Creed III DLC called The Tyranny of King Washington. I knew it wasn't very long, but because of my problems beating the first instalment (bug preventing one of the later missions being beatable) I was eager to rush through and just do the story missions, in case something similar happened. Not so, and I was able to destroy most of the expansion pack with no problem. To that end, I decided to get 100% Sync on every mission, which meant I needed to reload checkpoint quite a few times, but it wasn't too bad. The plot itself is interesting, though Washington is such a terrible and unrepentant figure he's kind of one-dimensional. Worth the season pass.
I've also finally started practising Ultima Underworld for Crystals for Life. Done a few runs through, my current best is 22:10, far away from the current record of 17:25 which uses the same route. I still have a lot of work to do, and even more to learn the sequel, which I've never speedrun before. So many people are starting to drop out of the marathon, I'm wondering if there are going to be 9 hours spare for me to do Dark Cloud...
Monday, 10 February 2014
Dark Darkness
Not as much gaming went on this past few days, because I had to do work and stuff. However, I did still find time to beat a game and a DLC.
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012: Ascend into Darkness is the ridiculously long title of the DLC, which I mentioned last post. This adds a campaign and three new decks to play - Liliana Vess's awful Black discard deck, Ral Zarek's awful Red/Blue control deck and Ajani Goldmane's awful Green/White enchantress deck. I played each of them for the requisite one victory each, because as you can see I don't consider them very highly. The campaign has two duels each with the new planeswalkers, and then a series of Archenemy matches where you're the Archenemy! This makes the game extremely easy, because it's simple to win when you're putting gobs of creature tokens on the field and deploying your deck as fast as you can draw it. Took another 8 hours or so. I did enjoy the puzzles in this campaign; figuring out the board position in Archenemy is a lot more complicated.
The other game I beat is one of the first Xbox 360 games I bought: The Darkness! I'm not sure why I've been putting it off for so long - the brief part I'd played earlier really interested me, but for some reason it's taken years to get back onto it again. I love this game, I think it's one of the best stories I've ever seen in a game, let alone an FPS. Mike Patton's performance as The Darkness is incredible, and he does his very best to unnerve the player. The gunplay is frantic, though if you take your time and shoot all the lights out, it becomes a game of ducking quickly in and out of dark areas to refresh your shield. Not too difficult (on Normal difficulty), I didn't do many sidequests, I did find a bunch of collectables, would like to speedrun some day.
I have Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light in my 2DS to play next, but I haven't started yet. I also really need to get practicing (and streaming) some Ultima Underworld 1 & 2.
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012: Ascend into Darkness is the ridiculously long title of the DLC, which I mentioned last post. This adds a campaign and three new decks to play - Liliana Vess's awful Black discard deck, Ral Zarek's awful Red/Blue control deck and Ajani Goldmane's awful Green/White enchantress deck. I played each of them for the requisite one victory each, because as you can see I don't consider them very highly. The campaign has two duels each with the new planeswalkers, and then a series of Archenemy matches where you're the Archenemy! This makes the game extremely easy, because it's simple to win when you're putting gobs of creature tokens on the field and deploying your deck as fast as you can draw it. Took another 8 hours or so. I did enjoy the puzzles in this campaign; figuring out the board position in Archenemy is a lot more complicated.
The other game I beat is one of the first Xbox 360 games I bought: The Darkness! I'm not sure why I've been putting it off for so long - the brief part I'd played earlier really interested me, but for some reason it's taken years to get back onto it again. I love this game, I think it's one of the best stories I've ever seen in a game, let alone an FPS. Mike Patton's performance as The Darkness is incredible, and he does his very best to unnerve the player. The gunplay is frantic, though if you take your time and shoot all the lights out, it becomes a game of ducking quickly in and out of dark areas to refresh your shield. Not too difficult (on Normal difficulty), I didn't do many sidequests, I did find a bunch of collectables, would like to speedrun some day.
I have Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light in my 2DS to play next, but I haven't started yet. I also really need to get practicing (and streaming) some Ultima Underworld 1 & 2.
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
Pokémon in space playing cards
More games to report on!
First is Pokémon X. I really enjoyed this but throughout I had the nagging feeling that it was far too easy. It's hard to pin down exactly why I felt this, but the re-introduction of 'EXP.ALL' probably goes a long way toward it, as well as Mega Evolution. Here's my hall of fame:
Other than that, I thought I'd have a crack at Magic the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. As I may have mentioned before, this is Wizards of the Coast's introductory a level Magic series and it plays quite pleasantly. The decks are all reasonably balanced, except Karn's, which has Mox Sapphire and Tinker in it. Along with the list of opponents to beat, it also has optional 'challenges', which are insane play setups you have to solve. The first few are insultingly easy, with solutions like 'block, then attack', but some of them are interesting, with many interlocking effects on the board at once. Anyway, I played through all three campaigns (one of which showcases Archenemy, an insane 3v1 game mode) using various decks, mostly the Treefolk one. I do have the expansion campaign Ascend into Darkness yet to beat.
First is Pokémon X. I really enjoyed this but throughout I had the nagging feeling that it was far too easy. It's hard to pin down exactly why I felt this, but the re-introduction of 'EXP.ALL' probably goes a long way toward it, as well as Mega Evolution. Here's my hall of fame:
| Nocturne | SIGILYPH | ♂ | Lv. 73 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Shyvana | TYRANTRUM | ♂ | Lv. 71 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Maokai | VENUSAUR | ♂ | Lv. 72 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Ahri | DELPHOX | ♂ | Lv. 72 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Tryndamere | DOUBLADE | ♂ | Lv. 73 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Tibbers | PANGORO | ♀ | Lv. 72 | OT/Lag.Com |
Yes I know the genders don't match up with the character names, shut up. I had an extremely wide type coverage; the only type I really missed was something Electric to deal with Gyarados, but it went fine and almost every battle was simple. Also, Maokai would have been a much better name for a Trevenant. Maybe Zyra for the Venusaur?
Next is a DLC, Gratuitous Space Battles: The Outcasts. I've no idea when I acquired this, as I got most of the content for GSB at the same time, but whatever. Each DLC gives you an additional 2 battles to think your way through, but my existing ship designs were enough to get through these new ones. However, I didn't do it with a large amount of Honour, the in-game currency you get for being frugal with your loadouts. I have bought every single upgrade though, so I don't mind too much. If I really wanted to make sure GSB and all its content is Completed, I'd have to beat every mission on Hard, which sounds... difficult. I had another brief attempt at the Galactic Conquest campaign but it just wasn't happening.
Next is a DLC, Gratuitous Space Battles: The Outcasts. I've no idea when I acquired this, as I got most of the content for GSB at the same time, but whatever. Each DLC gives you an additional 2 battles to think your way through, but my existing ship designs were enough to get through these new ones. However, I didn't do it with a large amount of Honour, the in-game currency you get for being frugal with your loadouts. I have bought every single upgrade though, so I don't mind too much. If I really wanted to make sure GSB and all its content is Completed, I'd have to beat every mission on Hard, which sounds... difficult. I had another brief attempt at the Galactic Conquest campaign but it just wasn't happening.
Other than that, I thought I'd have a crack at Magic the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. As I may have mentioned before, this is Wizards of the Coast's introductory a level Magic series and it plays quite pleasantly. The decks are all reasonably balanced, except Karn's, which has Mox Sapphire and Tinker in it. Along with the list of opponents to beat, it also has optional 'challenges', which are insane play setups you have to solve. The first few are insultingly easy, with solutions like 'block, then attack', but some of them are interesting, with many interlocking effects on the board at once. Anyway, I played through all three campaigns (one of which showcases Archenemy, an insane 3v1 game mode) using various decks, mostly the Treefolk one. I do have the expansion campaign Ascend into Darkness yet to beat.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)