A friend of mine lent me a copy of Heavenly Sword for the PS3 and I started playing it over the weekend. It’s a really good game and I really wish it would have done better and/or come out later in the PS3’s life… but that’s besides the point. This game was released before trophies were added to the PS3 and they were never patched in.
Usually when I play a game, one of the first (or early) things I do is look at the achievement list. During my play through I will go out of my way when necessary to pick up achievements. Sometimes, I will replay parts of the game during this first play through if I missed an achievement. This is something that really bothers me about my game playing. I feel that sometimes achievements for me become a burden and detract from my initial game play experience.
NOW! back to Heavenly Sword. Without trophies, I was able to just play through the game and enjoy it. I think that while playing Heavenly Sword if I had to hunt around for collectibles or make sure I made it through section X without any mistakes etc… I would have liked the game a lot less. I would have redone those imperfect sections or spent an obscene amount of time searching for things.
Now I think this is a problem with me. If I could just force myself to play through a game and not worry about achievements that would be awesome. But the addictive nature of human progression that exists prevents me from doing this. I still love achievements. Giving me goals and pointing me in the direction of small things that I may not have noticed is great. Maybe the reality that I don’t have the time to play through most games a second time drives me to get everything out of my first (and likely only) play through. But, I really think that this detracts from my overall enjoyment and the fun I get out of playing a game.
Anyone else?
I played a lot of Oblivion. When it was released, it was one of the best looking games available and offered hours and hours of gameplay of all different kinds. Having never played any of the previous games in the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion offered a very unique open world RPG game and I loved it. Despite this, when Skyrim was announced I wasn’t really that interested. Sure, it looked pretty and Bethesda was promising deeper more rewarding gameplay and an upgraded skill system. Then why wasn’t I interested? I would probably blame it on the fact that it had been so long since Oblivion came out I had forgot how amazing it was. Maybe my gaming tastes had changed? Regardless, the week before release, I was sucked into the hype wagon created by the media and Bethesda’s amazing marketing department. I pre-ordered the game the day before release and pre-loaded it on steam. (more…)
I wrapped up the Witcher last night. It turns out that there was chapter 5 left followed by an epilogue that was actually a short chapter… about an hour long that was non-stop killing. In fact, most of chapter 5 was non-stop killing. You also got to see how all of your decisions played out and the effects of them. Some of my old friends became my enemies and my alliances because stronger as the threat of the Salamandra continued to grow.
Wow. Chapter 4 went by really fast… and it was really good. The entire thing took place across 3 areas which included a small town. From here on out, I want to avoid as many spoilers as possible so I don’t want to talk about many things. There are a few things that I want to say regardless.
I’ve reached the end of chapter 3 and everything went better than expected. I had originally expected that I was going to be spending the rest of the game in Vizima where each new chapter focused on a different part of the city. I now know that this was not to be.
