Ok, going full-on nerd on you today. So, recently, I've been seeing rumors of Skyrim's dlc coming relatively soon, as in a week or two. Evidently, with the new patch that's been released, some files in it are throwing up red flags to the people paying attention, alluding to interactions with at least one snow elf. Which if you're not sure what snow elves are, they are usually referred to on the loading screen whenever you enter a building/city or fast travel or anything that makes this screen comes up:
That little screenshot there tells a very quick summary of who the Snow Elves are and how they relate to the Falmer. Well, in fact, they ARE Falmer, having been drove underground by the Nords and became evil and sightless creatures. Evidently, the Snow Elves aren't entirely extinct, as we are piecing together from these patch files. One of them is even titled "Snow Elf Prince Dialogue". Yeah. The Prince of the Snow Elves. Verrry interesting...
One other little tidbit of information in the patch files hints at a new weapon explorers can use: the crossbow. It should be interesting to see how it functions, and how powerful it may or may not be. For the rangers (like myself) it may prove to be quite an asset.
No specific details yet as to when this patch will be released, but word is expected as soon as this coming week. So, it should be relatively soon. Here's hoping.
Now for the SOTD, because it just wouldn't be a day without it.
Hmmm... I just don't know what to choose... Ahh, time for something a little heavy, ppl. This, my friends, is one of my favorite bands, and they definitely know how to rock your face off. This, is All That Remains with probably one of my favorite songs by them: Six. I first heard this song on GH2, but have since obtained all their albums and truly enjoy listening to all the cds. Six is not just mindless screaming and smashing drums and flailing guitars. It's loud, yes, it's very intense, but its also very technical. The lyrics are also very deep. Here's the video for you guys, it even has lyrics so you can understand it all. Enjoy!
*~*Note*~* There is evidently much confusion on what the lyrics actually say in this song, but according to the pamphlet that came with the cd, its "the anger writhes in my soul," not "burns". Just wanted to throw that out there.
Alllrighty then... Lemme get comfortable here, turn on some tunes... feed the starving beasts...grab a Dew, and let's get this thing started. So. The Review. Well, I must say, it'll be interesting, and I'll try to treat it as an independent game as much as possible, but the fact is, it's a remake of one of the most popular old school games of all time. No one can deny that Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 is a classic and was a fantastic game for its time and frankly, I'd sometimes rather go back and play old 007 than some of our next gen games. One thing that Goldeneye 64 has that many games do not have is extreme replay value. Once you finish the easy difficulty, then there's Agent with added difficulty and added objectives and then 00 Agent with even more difficulty and objectives. The remake has this too, though I don't know about the replay value. The storyline for 64 was pretty engaging, even though there were no voice actors for that game. The music was also a large component for 64. Everyone remembers the iconical James Bond theme from 64. So the Wii remake has its work cut out for it. So, down to brass tacks.
First, I will do some comparisons, visually that is. And now the image dump I spend some time getting together and splicing together using my "mad" mspaint skillz. If you can't see it, "mad" is dripping with sarcasm. All these images following should be pretty obvious which is from the 64 and which is from the Wii. And if it's not obvious to you, get out now.
First up, is the box art. (Note: All images can be expanded with a click)
Well, the 64 art work features what us boys loved at that time and what many boys and men love nowadays. Guns, explosions, action, and sexy women. This art promises action, adventure, and screams "SPY STUFF!" The Wii version's box art is much more simplistic; the shiny gold contrasting with the grey and black background makes for a sleek image and being inside the barrel of the pistol makes us feel like we're gonna shoot up some bad guys. A lot. Make your judgments here. Next Slide.
Next, let's compare the Bonds.
Now here's where we start talking graphics. Obviously, the Wii has superior graphics capabilities to the 64. Things don't look so blocky and shading on everything looks much nicer in today's day and age. But that's too be expected. Also take note, The Wii's Bond is played (and voice acted) by Daniel Craig, and the 64 is modeled after Pierce Brosnan. Imo, both Brosnan and Craig do Bond pretty well, but if you read my earlier post about Goldeneye, you'll know I favor Sean Connery. Alas, he's no longer Bond and I've accepted that. Next.
Well, let's continue with character comparison with Natalya Simonova:
As you can see, they tried to sexy up Natalya a bit. And I think they did fairly well. She's clearly not wearing a bra in the Wii's version. There's only so much sexy you can have with the pixels of the 64's day. And this comparison does more to show the difference in graphics, not only in character models, but scenery as well.
More graphics comparison...
Now, everyone should recognize this series of pictures. This is obviously the very first level players will experience in both games. Note the similarities and differences. Textures are much richer in the Wii version and they also darkened the mood a bit compared to the 64's bright daylight scenario. The first few levels are modeled very closely to the 64's level layouts, but then they start bringing us out of that mold, and really change up not only scenery but even storyline to a certain extent. Basic plot is the same, but players will note many changes and similarities.
And the last one:
This image is here to simply showcase another change. The health system was revamped completely. No longer do players have a certain amount of hits they can take before they are killed. Its been changed now to resemble many next gen fps's in that as the player takes damage, their screen turns a progressively darker red until they either die, or take cover to recover from their wounds. I find no issue with either health bar system, its just a different way to make players think about their next move. This also shows yet another graphics display.
Ok, now that the pics are mostly out there, time for the rest of it. I found Goldeneye to be a relatively good game. They took the same great game and storyline and updated not only the graphics and gameplay, but other features as well. No more can you equip Bond with as many weapons as there are on the map, cycling through dozens of weapons. Now you can carry three. It also updates technology in game to match some of todays gadgets. Bond is now equipped with a smartphone he can use to hack into turrets and computers and door locks, etc. See pic. (mwahaa, I has another one!)
They've also implemented a new melee system. No longer do you have to switch to your hand as a weapon. Simply approach the enemy, give the nunchuck a little waggle or whatever and you can either silently or very obviously take out your enemy in one fell swoop. The trick is getting in close to do it. More often than not, players will have Bond sneaking through levels, avoiding cameras and sneaking up and stealth killing guards. But, for the players that don't like this route, there aren't any levels that I remember that forced you to not get caught sneaking around. You always have the option for a full-on frontal assault, one man versus the entire army. And thank God, there was only one level where you had to protect someone, namely Natalya. And yes, its where she's trying to deactivate the Goldeneye satellite, to make matters worse, if you don't kill everyone in the allotted time in that stage, the satellite fries you all anyway. That was frustrating, even on the easy difficulty.
With the next gen upgrade, players are no longer forced to read the dialogue between characters. (How dare they make us read?!? The nerve!) Now, everyone is completely voiced by real live voice actors and Bond is played by Daniel Craig and not some impersonator. Speaking of more additions, they also included a grenade locator I guess is the appropriate word. When an enemy throws a grenade at you, a little icon comes up to let you know where it is. Useful, if unrealistic. But who needs/wants realism? Also, cover can be destroyed. If you are behind a wooden crate, bullets will reduce it to splinters. If you're behind a metal panel, bullets dent in then break through eventually, making it difficult for players to camp in a single spot with an entire army gunning for them. I didn't come across any glitches that I remember, like being partly in a wall, or character's weapons sticking through cover or doors, or if I shot a characters weapon, they would react, but not take much if any damage. Music was also changed. It's now some sleek spy-esque music that is pretty low and stays in the background. I don't actively recall a single bit of music from that soundtrack and that disturbs me. I'm a music person, and in games, the soundtrack can be just as engaging as the gameplay itself. So there's a negative point. I didn't delve into the multiplayer aspect too much, so I can't give an accurate rating in that respect. But on a lighter note, not everything was just blasting away at everything. Yes, you could go guns blazing if you wanted, but if you paid attention, there were alternative ways to get around. Air ducts that you could crawl through to take out a baddy, or fire extinguishers or other explosive canisters you could shoot to take out multiple enemies. In addition, boss fights we're strictly "blast 'em till they're dead". Most "bosses" had some shooting, then a hand-to-hand combat scenario that sort of reminded me of God of War or Prince of Persia where you had to press certain buttons to defeat your enemy. And it wasn't just one or two presses. Some of them were half a dozen hits or more. Pretty engaging.
But overall, to wrap this up, this was a decent game for me. Anyone who was a diehard fan of the 64 version will notice differences and may or may not be happy with them. When I put my rating out there, this is just my opinion. I'll break it down and then give an overall rating. Ok? K, here we go:
Graphics: 8/10 - Not bad, but not great. I'm anxious for the 360 and ps3's HD remake to come out and put these graphics to shame, but they're good coming from the Wii.
Music: 4/10 - Did not care for it at all. Nothing memorable, its all just background noise, but at least it sounded like something from a spy movie/game.
Gameplay: 9/10 - Controls were easy to adapt to, nothing overly weird using the nunchuck or wii-mote. No glitches that I found, but I'm sure they're around. Weapon switching was easy to use also, and you didn't have to cycle through dozens to find the gun you want.
Storyline: 8/10 - Pretty engaging at times, and when fighting some bosses I couldn't help but let fly certain words when I blocked an attack and countered with one of my own in a hand-to-hand moment. And nothing too unrealistic in the spy gadgets department. No lasers coming out of a watch, etc.
Overall: 7.5/10 - Not a bad game. Graphics looked very nice coming from the Wii. Gameplay was nice and not too repetitive. Enemies were quick to pick up when something was fishy or if they heard you walking around if you weren't crouched. Levels all featured multiple ways to get through while still keeping you on course through the level; it was pretty hard to get lost in most levels. Overall, I'm glad I played it. Though I haven't had the urge to replay it once yet, so that's a little disappointing.
Well, now that that's finished, let's move on to the segment you all know and love:
The SotD!!
In keeping with the Goldeneye theme, I gotta play this one. This is the theme I always think of when I remember Goldeneye 64. I always smile when I hear it. So, enjoy and revel in the good ole days.
*~* Also, don't forget to let me know how the review was. This was my first one and if you liked the way I presented it, I can do more in the future! Thanks! *~*
So I recently started playing Goldeneye 007, the Wii edition. Now, going into this, I must say, I'm a little apprehensive. The original Goldeneye for the N64, was awesome wrapped into a neat little package. Sure, it had its glitches and flaws, but really, what game doesn't? What it did was it made up for whatever flaws it had, ten-fold.
The story was great. Sure, it was based off a movie, but how many games nowadays do you actually like to play that are based off of movies? Oh, I'm sure there are a few out there that ppl geek out over, PotC or Harry Potter, but seriously, how good are those games in relation to the movie? In my opinion, not so much. I think this is probably the #1 movie based game that I know of. Feel free to insert your own opinions.
The soundtrack was awesome. How many people know the stereotypical Bond theme? A lot. But think of all the other pieces of music you can remember from this game. I don't know about you, but this game had some of the most memorable music for me. Next to Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, or Final Fantasy. Granted, those three have the most memorable soundtracks known to man in my opinion, but I really think Goldeneye ranks at least in the top 10.
Gameplay was phenomenal. If you didn't love the campaign (which you should), you must've loved the multiplayer. 4-player split screen, with a great character base to pick from, and a huge variety of weapons made this a must have for parties back in the day. Well... parties for us nerds. Haha. Show of hands, who loved playing Proxy Mines in The Caves level? Never knowing where to step next, and when you misstepped, it triggered an explosion that made everyone's screen shake from just how many mines you blew up. Classic.
So how does the remake match up?!? Mind you, I've only played the first level so far, and I will submit a final review after I finish it (which could take a while). BUT, so far, it's not bad. It's not up to legendary status for sure, but it's not bad. They changed the soundtrack on me, and I was gettin hyped for the music that I remembered. Obviously updated the graphics, as well as the story. Bruce Feirstein originally wrote Goldeneye, so it would be natural that he wrote this remastered version, so story-wise, it's not too far off the original. Also, a big notable difference, they changed Bond. In the original, he was played by Pierce Brosnan (pictured below) at the time.
Now, they've updated it to match with the current 007, Daniel Craig (pictured below).
Personally, I don't really care. I've accepted that Sean Connery can't be Bond forever, though I like him the best. I will say, Daniel isn't a bad Bond. Yell at me all you want, I don't care. Yes, I've heard he's gay, but he can also act, so I don't really care what he does off-screen.
I'm getting distracted now... But, the game does look nice. I'm anxiously awaiting the re-revamp that's coming to the PS3 and Xbox360, so I better have my 360 back by then. It will feature an HD graphic bump (obviously, because it's going onto consoles with better graphics capabilities), an achievement/trophy list, and also motion sensing capabilities for those who like the PS Move or whatever that is. I haven't really gotten into the motion catching craze beyond playing the Wii, so followers should let me know how they like it.
Wow... this has dragged on... let's get right to it then.
Time For the SotD! Hope you all don't mind if I force a song on you today instead of being random. You don't really have a choice, so here goes. Today's is Buried Alive by Avenged Sevenfold off the album, Nightmare. Say all you want about this band, this album, or whatever, I'll defend this band to the grave. Now, this particular album is very split, almost perfectly even, between heavy songs and soft songs. This one is a balance. It starts out slow and with a guitar riff that I find addictive, and slowly builds to the chorus which is a moderate kick in the teeth. Nothing too rough. Then it slows back down. Builds up to the chorus again, and hits you once more. Then they shift gears, take a bridge, then a guitar solo, then they really starting bustin your chops. Love the lyrics to this song, love the sound, the beat... everything. This is in my top 10 favorite songs I think. I have probably 50 songs in my top 10, but that's besides the point. Enjoy this piece that would go on my mix tape of hits for this band. Crank up the volume, sit back, relax, and let me know how that goes down.
Note: This isn't the official music video (should be obvious), its just some video someone put together and even added lyrics for you. How nice.
