| WELL THERE'S YER PROBLEM! |
[27 Dec 2006|08:58pm] |
Zelda
The day Ocarina of Time came out I flunked off school, dragged my mother up to Romford and prepared for a long day hunting around all variety of shops for a copy. I've no idea how the situation was in America or anywhere else but over here a copy was scarce and anyone without a pre-order would be lucky to see one the panicky side of Christmas. I, however, strolled into a fucking Dixons of all places and walked out with a copy without having to try anywhere else.
In the time between OoT and Majora's Mask coming out, a new local gaming shop had opened in my local area that I had managed to build up a decent rapport with. If I was lucky, I was able to score new games coming out anything up to a week before they did. In MM's case though, that time was going to be a single day. No biggy, a day's extra gaming of Zelda is worth any sacrifice. Well at least I thought it was until I stood in there for seven hours straight waiting for his dealer to arrive with stock. At the seven hour mark, with no sign of the mysterious bringer of joy to be found, I decided to head home. Upon fumbling with my key at the door, my brother opened it to inform me it had just arrived and to go back and get it.
With some degree of maturity and a job under my belt, I planned well in advance for whatever the GameCube incarnation would be by buying a JP/US switched machine. The Japanese version of Wind Waker came out a little over four years ago (wow) now which put it in the perfect position to be a Christmas present. I borrowed the mother's credit card under such a pretense, ordered it then hid it upon it's arrival, playing and completing it over the course of a few days while she slept and worked. Surprisingly, when she found out, she didn't even really care. She has a strange understanding of my fondness for Zelda games that either stems from her watching me play through OoT or being solely responsible for my addiction having acquired my first ever console and game - a hooky NES with the original Zelda.
Soooo with Twilight Princess being the greatest launch game ever on the savior of gaming consoles, it was only fitting that I pre-order them. A pre-order which meant a painful session of hammering F5 on Amazon from 8:52 to 9:37 when I'm usually in bed by 6:00. When it actually did arrive, it made me two hours late for work but was it all worth it? Complete with spoilers, find out!
For the most part, TP was amazing. It's still not the best, nor is it on my list, even second, third or forth best. The biggest problem I had with it was how badly it seemed to fall down at the end after building itself up so spectacularly as if to climatise into the greatest Zelda game ever. Only, as mentioned, it didn't, it just fell down at the City in the Sky and didn't pick up again until Ganon. I realize it's just my opinion but I hated that dungeon passionately. I acknowledge it's originality in terms of being out of the ordinary for a Zelda game but even the comforting noises Ooccoo's make wasn't enough to save me from infuriatingly stale puzzles. Where was the mechanic different from the dungeons that preceded it and made those so fresh? Wind was done in the Forest Temple, "hookshotting" was done in the Lakebed Temple. Like combining a second clawshot with the first, two reused ideas together was weak. I could be being slightly over-critical of the sky temple due to it being the start of the feeling that the game was rushed to make it out for the Wii's release or something but when I play Zelda games I expect to be held to the traditional temple>run around doing other stuff>temple format. Sadly, unless I wanted to collect bugs for an unneeded bigger wallet or Poes for an unneeded infinite supply of Rupees, that wasn't really possible after CitS due to the final three dungeons being crammed together. Surely someone, somewhere has to share my belief that time restraints combined with criticism over Wind Waker's dungeon count dealt this game a nasty blow.
With City in the Sky covered, the temple immediately following that was The Twilight Palace. As gorgeous as it looked, it really felt like it had been lifted out of a Mario game with all the platforming elements they felt the need to tack onto it. Being knocked back by the giant Zant head lasers and starting again was about as great as being chased by a giant hand and having to do likewise if you drop your attention for a moment. That in itself was an uncomfortable experience I don't want from a Zelda game. What's up with a glowing sword too? Second dungeon in a row with a poor idea for a gadget only this one took that extra step by having a boss at the end of it using a badly implemented good idea as his gimmick.
Lastly, the final "dungeon" was am embarrassment. When you think of going into Hyrule Castle, especially after all that's gone on and the great scene with Midna busting it free, you think it's going to be some huge, epic sprawling run up to the top with the final encounter awaiting to test you. Instead, you get though is a homage to Gauntlet, a decent amount of which you can skip.
I think that's all the issues I had with TP and, as it pains me to type them anyway, I'll move onto the good things.
When I was awaiting for the Wii and Zelda to come I asked Luminaire if, at any time during his play, he felt the need to turn to a GameFAQ to which he said he did. As strange as that may sound, to me that is one of the more esoteric benchmarks I like to set for gauging the difficulty of a Zelda game. The three puzzles throughout the game that made me want to put my head through a wall were;
- The second attempt at moving the Ice Block in Snowpeak ruins where you had to position it into the center. It took me a decent amount of logic to figure this out instead of randomly pushing blocks and it felt good when I managed it.
- Getting access to the Master Sword in the Sacred Grotto meant having to work out how to get the two Giants back to their original positions. I thoroughly enjoyed the brain workout with this and rate it as probably the greatest puzzle in any Zelda game ever.
- Having to unlight the flames in the first interior side room of Hyrule Castle almost drove me insane. I knew 'something' had to be worked out in that room but to use the Gale Boomerang to undo the past 30 hours of learning was certainly not that 'something' in my mind for quite some time.
I really, really loved Snowpeak Ruins. To think back over all the past RPG's where the generic ice dungeon was just a carved out hole in a wall somewhere, it was a refreshing change to enter a grandiose mansion after an exhilarating run up and slide down the mountain behind a comical yeti. The way you were perfectly orchestrated by his sick wife from the front room and then being able to reap the rewards of her mistakes through free soup potions was also a sweet touch. Snowpeak Ruins also gave birth to one of the greatest items ever implemented in a Zelda game; a motherfucking Ball and Chain!
And if the Ball and Chain was one of the greatest items to bless a Zelda game than the Spinner is surely the best. When it popped out the chest in the Arbiter's Grounds I was just like "holy shit", a mild reaction compared to the feeling of actually using it. The only problem I had was that the rest of the game wasn't built around it! I'm kidding of course but how fun it is to use can be put into words by np man, it's something that can only be experienced from actually using it. If they released a Zelda game based primarily on using the Spinner, I would mark out and buy it in a heartbeat. Consequently, Stallord is now the best end-of-level boss to hit a Zelda game since hookshotting the eyes off Arrghus in the flawless Link to the Past.
So yeah, despite a fair few criticisms of the game I really enjoyed Twilight Princess. I do have to admit to being somewhat surprised upon completing it in 35 hours though. I didn't collect all 40 Bugs, nor 60 Poes, nor every heartpiece but even if I had, that's a huge amount of time missing from the projected 50-70 hours I had read in various reviews. The controls were sublime and I could never return to a standard control pad after this. Fishing owned so hard, playing as a wolf owned, whistling as the wolf owned, flying chickens over Lake Hylia owned, the hookshot game in castle town owned, picking up dogs and running around with them owned, Zelda being in the game for a maximum of ten minutes and then fighting 'her' owned, a truely adult ending fitting to the story and events that preceded it owned and the final two forms of Ganon owned. A lot owned, way more than sucked so go buy it on the Wii and save gaming!!1
WoW
Whenever I go check out the few forums that entertain me on the official site now, it's mostly the Warrior one that does just the opposite. Probably 75% of the posts there are complaining that the last patch brought the apocalypse to the class but, for me, it brought sunshine and happiness. I always acknowledged that Fury builds were far, far superior to MS builds but had no desire to play one due to many tired years of overpowered dual wielding in FFXI. There's just something satisfying smashing a big heavy weapon down for a few thousand damage that I enjoy experiencing over the joys of attacking fast. I'm sure upgrading from Neretzek to CUM played the biggest part but the respec to 41/5/5 has done nothing but wonders for my DPS. I'm still not touching Damaga's or Pwnydanza's numbers but I'm really happy with my output now. My enthusiasm and concentration remains high enough to rarely hit #1 on Naxx trash too (what a benchmark, eh?) which, as pointless as it is, always makes me feel good. After doing some hardcore PvP during Blue Garter's Christmas Break, I've finally managed to acquire some DPS shoulders in Warlord's, General's Plate boots to go with them for a chunk of survivability and a Deathguard's Cloak as reasonable upgrade from my final DPS blue. PVPing as a decked out Warrior with a resto Druid and Priest following me is a pretty unrivalled feeling, one which I hold back from sharing with the QQ Warrior board.
Speaking of Naxx, with the impending expansion pack about to put it's usefulness out of existence, I'm still crossing my fingers that we can make it to The Four Horseman again. Due to server trouble, paranoia of no add ons and some upsetting below-par raid performances and turn outs, we haven't been able to reach them again. At least when we do this time I'm now sporting four piece Dreadnaught to weed out as many raid wiping Taunt resists as possible. With regards to Dreadnaught, I've got my fingers crossed to see shoulders in the coming weeks along with Widow's Remorse and Cryptfiend Silk Cloak. Even if it's almost at a point of not mattering anymore it still gives me something to hold onto with my 100% attendance and minimum DKP lawl.
Not sure what to do about the expansion pack. Ideal solution is to have someone from guild buy it for me, email me the code and upload the game. That seems unrealistic so I need to look around for where to buy it from that'll get it to me in the quickest amount of time.
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