My Game Protagonists

Games I've been seeing recently all have serious tones, since they are made for mature audiences, after all. I find these kinda games are actually enjoyable if they have awesome gameplay and interesting, colorful characters. Wolfenstien the New Order's plot is all about war, Nazis, rebel and some dark, serious stuff, to bring this situation to life, they make the characters all serious, some lighthearted moments here and there which makes the game interesting, but the protagonist BJ Blazkowicz (had to Google how to spell his name) is just so meh... I get the serious tone where war, rebellion and these aren't something you should take lightly. The gameplay is fun, challenging, as a first-person shooter (the genre I find somewhat enjoyable but puts awkward camera placement) so it's fine... ish... When you play it yourself or at least watch, you'll see that BJ (sex jokes anyone?) is a pretty blank dude surrounded by somewhat colorful characters, even his voice sounds like he eats pebbles for breakfast, WITHOUT MILK.

Sonic & Elise

I do like me a main character who's hyped about his adventures, smart-mouthed and has a colorful personality like Sonic the Hedgehog, he's always keeping his cool, enjoying the moment, when he encounters Eggman he insults that big mustache or something about that weight or both or say something about no copyright law in the universe can stop him from saving enslaved aliens. Not in Sonic 06 though, he has those traits in the intro cutscene and then shifts into a boring serious cardboard-cutout of a protagonist who gives advice about smiling to a human female love interest possibly still underaged... Some might say Sonic's personality is made how he truly is because the games have to be family friendly, kids don't like blank serious characters, so Sonic 06 is for mature audiences then?? Shadow the Hedgehog was hated for firearms, minor alien blood, swearing and dark atmosphere, pretty sure that's intentional to pull in shooter fans since Call of Duty was the hot shit at the time, but Sonic is still a cool lively character in that game.

Dante (DMC1, DMC2, DMC3, DMC4) >>

Devil May Cry the first game released in 2001 features Dante, a devil hunter who has to seal a demon god his father sealed millenniums ago. Sounds serious, right? Well Dante has that cocky, smart-mouthy personality coupled with a truly amazing gameplay that really brightens the mood without ruining the depth of the plot. Since Capcom saw how much of a hit the game was, Devil May Cry 2 was pushed so hard that they didn't bother with characterization, Dante is a blank slab of porkchop in a cool red trenchcoat, packing a gigantic sword (maybe 2 *wink) and a couple handguns oh... and a coin, and he rocks footstep sounds like he runs around in high heels and since the first game has Trish as the somewhat love interest or more like the mother look-alike figure or whatever, they make Lucia, a meh artificial demon who thinks she's a gifted human among her people since she can transform into a humanoid bird-like demon creature or something. Ok, at the time, games didn't have such advanced techs to implement facial expressions as well as today, but Dante is too serious and quiet and the gameplay isn't fun either. I remember his quote before fighting this one boss, the boss tries to like strike fear into Dante saying he has to pay for his sins or something but Dante just pulls out his guns saying "Don't talk, just die!" in a really bland tone. It's a good thing DMC 3&4 characterize Dante well, in DMC3 he's still young, juvenile, throws around insults and taunts to bosses as fast as his handguns' firing rate, I like him in gameplay and as a character. DMC4 Dante is somewhat more mature, still with the teasing and taunting guys, and even more fun in gameplay.

Dante (DmC 2013)

New DmC 2013 Dante, though.... he is juvenile like DMC3 and characterized better than the trenchcoat mannequin in DMC2, he's just more on the annoying side, he throws and smashes FUCKYOUs all over the place like a pinball racking millions.

Something else I've seen in the world of video games is the lack of female protagonists, Tomb Raider certainly stands out for having Lara Croft, Saints Row games let you create your own character, their race, sex, build, facial structure, hairstyle and plenty of stuff which makes it great.  Some other games like Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, Remember Me, Resident Evil, and Bioshock have done this, so, points for them.

Bayonetta is a game which I personally call it the Anti Devil May Cry, in DMC you play as Dante, a demon slayer, but in Bayonetta you play as Bayonetta, a witch who slays angels (not trying to be satanic or whatever) it's still fun playing as a strong female character although she's kinda over-sexualized a bit (understatement). That's just the pre-programming thing we all have in our brains that female characters are pictured as the weaker kinds, they fit best as the damsel in distress, we've seen a lot of this in movies, when we see a skillful female soldier who wears an armor that covers her entire body, the first time she takes off her helmet, everybody shits their pants.

I'm also tired of always hearing a male voice in games, a female voice can actually give a game an entirely different experience. As a guy myself, I imagine (not in a dirty way... sometimes...) how I'd view some things if I were a girl.

I still think some games look good with a male protagonist and would look awkward with a female one, but I just think having more games with female protagonists will add a bit more diversity. Imagine how different a GTA game with a female protagonist, a girl friend asked me if the new GTA V which features 3 different protagonists you can switch between mid-gameplay has a female protagonist (sadly no), and that made me think what would happen if happen it had, so hard (not in a dirty way... a bit...)

Me and FPS Games

If you somehow had the endurance to read my Bioshock Infinite review, pretty sure you saw me writing first person view makes you feel more immersed, well, it's true. That game really pushed me to try other FPS games. I've tried other FPS games.

 I tried Call of Duty: Ghosts, bored in the first 10 minutes because I just don't like the generic war plot they've been repeating since... actually I don't know, it's my first ever CoD and I've reviews about CoD always having this generic plot, so, it really left a bad impression, my somewhat trusted review on Youtube, Zero Punctuation says the game is all about muscled up white dudes with a burly white german shepherd dog in a war zone doing... well... what do you do if you're a soldier in a war zone? I was expecting a bit of stealth gameplay since the title Ghosts is about a guerrilla group but gameplay-wise it's just... gorilla group, the first thing you do is raiding the enemies with guns blazing, real stealthy! Besides, the environment is just so bleak, ruined cities, broken factories... at least Bioshock has pretty colors in their ruined cities and broken factories. I like my games rather colorful.

A friend of mine recommended Far Cry 3 to me, I tried it expecting it'd look like Tomb Raider in first person, but it's pretty much an entirely different experience, I can say the game is great, graphics look beautiful, I play it on my PC with mostly max settings, gameplay is great, I love how it's got a bit strategy in it, you can snipe them from afar, pick them off one by one with stealth takedown, making use of the environment or even the old-fashioned blazing guns is a choice, I prefer the stealthy approach though. Well, this is the game that shows me that platforming in first person is awkward, I don't feel my sense of distance as well as third person view, when I wanna jump around, I wanna be able to see my character's feet, this game feels like it has plenty of leaps of faith because when you look down you can't even look at your feet, I feel like I'm a floating upper body. The environment is beautiful, hills, valleys, and stuff like those are good for my eyes but I keep slipping off a hill because I feel like I can still stand on the edge a bit farther away, hell I don't even like Mirror's Edge, the only first person game I know that actually shows your character's feet when you look down and the game is all about parkouring on buildings, even there I still don't feel comfy with the traversal. I'm currently still thinking if I should continue Far Cry 3 or not because I sure as hell wanna pick up Far Cry 4 when it's released later this year just to get comfy with the playstyle.

The latest FPS game I tried is Wolfenstein The New Order, in fact, I wanna try to at least finish this one's story and be done with it if it's actually boring but since my somewhat trusted reviewer says it's good, might as well give a shot, I'll say I died a lot in just the first part, lost a bit of the hype because of the obnoxiously long loading screen every time I die... I suck... but I still wanna actually finish this one for once, environment seems pretty bleak as well, but the thing that got me interested is the Nazi mechs. And I'm also looking forward if I get to execute Hitler or something, I'm just curious. But the problem is pretty much like CoD, playing a white American protein junkie dude who somehow manages to squeeze a shrapnel stuck in his head from his previous raid or maybe it's still in there but somehow doesn't affect the brain permanently, even the doctor says the inside looks like scrambled eggs, whatever... I haven't gone so far but I expect his nurse who comes along because of all those ass-wiping moments he had when his brain was still... recovering from brain-dead...?? I don't really care about how this guy regains his brain functions from the shrapnel and in pretty much mere seconds suddenly starts walking and shooting after over 10 years tied into a wheelchair. Shit, I'm pretty much criticizing this game... that's why I never like games with such serious tones, they might just end up making the plot laughably dumb or if they manage to keep the serious tone going, I'll just drop it out of boredom.

One other thing in Bioshock these games don't have is the vigor mechanic. When you're out of ammo in let's say CoD, you're pretty much stuck with your melee weapon, yes, in Far Cry you can run away, hide and re-approach them stealthily, but I just never like stuff like that, when games are so realistic I just find them dull, I just don't like playing as a dude whose power is shrugging off plenty of bullet wounds and must rely on weapons for the entire game, I need more power!

My Gaming History: PS2

Another follow-up to my earlier post My Gaming History: PS1.

After like 2 or 3 years spending time with PS1, my parents finally decided to sell my PS1 and buy me a PS2. Since PS3 was the "hot shit" at the time, the price for PS2 plummeted down so hard, that's why they're okay with it and I was tired of PS1 anyway. And again, I was a bit pissed because I still can't catch up to the console generation.

My first game on the console was Shadow the Hedgehog, the game where Sonic Team decided to make Sonic games darker to appeal to mature audiences who like shooter games since Call of Duty was the front-page material. I was like 9 at the time, I gotta say I rolled with it, I actually liked the gunplay, it's simple and you have a variety of weapons to choose from, I always went for the rapid-fire types and I barely used RPG and explosives since they don't have much ammo, but I don't like how swords have ammo, you can say that they break after some usage but it's pretty much measured in numbers of slashes the sword can perform before breaking and taking swords with the same type you're holding adds your slash counts like ammo, that's why I barely used melee combat. Something that looks "darker" in this game is the dialog, in this game, the characters say minor swear words here and there, nothing massively vulgar, just the "go to hell" sometimes and you can't say that you haven't heard the word "damn" in the first 5 minutes of the game. Unless you're deaf or your TV doesn't have a speaker or something like that. Being the 9-year-old kid that I was, I actually found the dialog quite funny at times. This new multiple endings system was also pretty new for me, every mission, you can do hero, dark or neutral mission, each mission sends you to a different stage after completion. The first stage Westopolis, I wanted to take the hero path by killing a certain amount of aliens(they just appear because the time of reckoning is close ...blablabla... destroy Earth), and since the neutral mission is only to reach the goal ring, I didn't know there was a dash pad behind the goal ring that leads you to some more aliens to kill, I just took the goal ring and moved on with the neutral path. It took me months to figure that out and somehow back then I was afraid of boss fights, I never finished the game... years later, I found out the bosses are piss easy and since I wanted to get all the hero, dark and neutral endings, they just get tedious after a while.

Sometimes I just love messing around in games with no real plot whatsoever, that game was Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, I played it tons of time with my bro just for the sake of roaming around town ignoring the story missions, I remember eating tons of chicken until CJ's fat meter maxed out and then going to the gym for a workout and repeating it, using cheats to get advanced weapons and blow up the city, we were rocket launcher maniacs. My bro did most of the driving in the game since he was and still is a racing game fan. We use cheats all the time, just roam around in a monster truck or a tank destroying shit. It was awesome. Needless to say though, we never finished the game. Later we got GTA Liberty City Stories(I know it came out before San Andreas), I remember it being the first game I've ever finished, well, we... because I never really enjoyed that game alone, we finished it with cheats though, but after that we did a no-cheat run, we got it, although I messed it up in the middle and he was pretty pissed at me for a while. I can say these games are fun when playing alone, but having someone to share with makes it tons of fun, that's why they're some of our most-played.

SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom, this game was one of my favorite back then, the world was just so big, they're all based on the show, Bikini Bottom Downtown, Jellyfish Field, Rock Bottom, my favorite Flying Dutchman's Ship and many more. This game also has tons of collectibles and side quests I found interesting, but somehow I find them tedious now. Nothing much to say about this game, just one of my most-played back then but now I find this game downright tedious and uninteresting.

Sonic Unleashed is also one of my favorite PS2 games, that's the first time I was ever introduced to that fast playstyle, although it didn't run on the Hedgehog Engine like the HD version because the PS2 is just not powerful enough, I enjoyed it. I never finished the game though due to my memory card being corrupted twice when I was so close to the end. Back then I was so amazed by the HD footage in the game trailers and I found out that's the HD version and the standard version is so different, I wanted a PS3 badly, I'm not saying there's no fun to be had with this version, I was just still a kid who always wanted the hot stuff (I can pretty much say I still am)

There's this one moment that pissed me off. Once I was in a game rental place where I can play games for some time and the place had 3 PS3 and a Wii, I picked a game I can't really remember what, and a couple of kids with their dad came in, they wanted to play Wii but the console was in use or under maintenance I can't remember, the kids decided to play the PS3 instead, and then their dad said "what if the PS3 is the same as PS2?" I just felt like I wanna show the comparison in quality at his face so much. The only games that I really wanted from the PS3 at the time were Sonic Unleashed, GTA IV and the infamous Sonic 06, you'll see my pain later with this one.

I had tons more games than this but these are pretty much some of the memorable ones in my PS2 days, the first time my memory card got corrupted, I was devastated I swore I didn't wanna play again, but I came back after a few weeks, the second time it happened, I stopped playing for real.

Yes, I feel like I missed out on a lot, I'm a Devil May Cry fan now but back then, I was just a kid and not interested in those games, besides, those games are so tough I think if I had played it, it would scar me hard and actually be afraid of sucking in the games which result in never wanting to get the game ever again and I wouldn't be the fan I am today, I played the first 3 games that were released on PS2 from the HD collection instead, later released for PS3 and XBOX360. I also missed out on Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3, again, I was just a kid... and something else I love is Persona, I missed them out, probably for the best, I wouldn't have understood the arcana relationship system and stuff, I was all about gameplay back then and Persona games have so many talks where you can only press X to continue, I would've skipped all the conversations with all the vital story elements and not understand a thing.