I was finally able to finish Thief a few weeks ago and got around to picking a new game to play. Yesterday I found myself with a bit of downtime in the office and so I went to our video game library and picked out Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption to play on the PlayStation 3. I had heard a lot of good things about the game and thought I would give it a try.
I put the disk in my PS3 on my sailboat and made a chicken salad while the game installed on my hard drive. The game was ready before my dinner and so I patiently watched all of the opening credits while I finished things in the galley. When I sat down to start playing, I had a lot of fun.
The game starts with you entering a town on a train. You figure out the mechanics of the controller by walking to a saloon, meeting a guide, and riding a horse. The whole time you have constant helps directing you what buttons to push and where to go. Everything was new to me and it took a bit to figure out how to make the horse do what I wanted. After a while the controls started to feel more natural and I enjoyed the game. One thing that is different about this game is that it is much more of a free world than games I have played in the past. While Battlefield 3 claimed to be free world, it had you running through a maze and still felt very controlling. With Red Dead Redemption you really can go anywhere and are not prompted to do specific missions. If you want to go into town, you can. If you want to go back to the ranch and take a nap, you can. There are a number of places you can go to get new tasks but if you don't feel like doing them, you don't have to. It took me a while to get used to that but I have to admit that I enjoyed not being forced to do anything.
I played the game for 4 hours and had to call it a night. I could have kept playing but after having woken up at 3:40am to catch my flight to the Bay Area, I was pretty tired. The only downside to the game is that I find myself wanting to leave work early today to go play the game.
Red Dead Redemption is an older game available for the previous generation of consoles and so you can find it for $20 new or $6 used at all of the usual outlets. For that price, it is well worth picking up. Now if you will excuse me I think I feel a cough coming on and probably need to head back to the boat so I don't get my coworkers sick.
Showing posts with label Battlefield 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battlefield 3. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Blazing Angels 2
My two favorite types of video games are first person shooters and driving games. I have never really gotten the chance to play any flight simulators until I was given Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII a couple of weeks ago. Battlefield 3 has a great air combat group of missions and I enjoyed them a lot. In fact, they are my favorite part of the game so I was looking forward to Blazing Angels 2.
The problem I have had with flight simulator games is that they can be difficult to learn. Blazing Angels 2 is not. It has a very simple set of controls and is easy to pick up. You start the game by doing a number of tricks. They vary from flying through hoops suspended by balloons to skimming over the roofs of buildings. The trick that I liked best and saved for last was skimming over the water and under a bridge.
Once you get the hang of flying a World War II era plane, you go back in time and fight battles from that conflict. I have only been through a couple of the missions but they are a lot of fun. I have the game set on the easiest level of difficulty and it is still non-trivial to shoot down other planes. That adds to the appeal of the game. I look forward to getting better as it might help me with some of the other video games I am playing.
One of the nice things about the new generation of consoles is that there are a large number of games available for the old ones. This means there are some great deals to be had on older games and now is the time to stock up on games that used to run $60. If you are lucky, you can find them for $10. Blazing Angels 2 is one such game if you can find someone that has it. It is well worth it and highly recommended.
The problem I have had with flight simulator games is that they can be difficult to learn. Blazing Angels 2 is not. It has a very simple set of controls and is easy to pick up. You start the game by doing a number of tricks. They vary from flying through hoops suspended by balloons to skimming over the roofs of buildings. The trick that I liked best and saved for last was skimming over the water and under a bridge.
Once you get the hang of flying a World War II era plane, you go back in time and fight battles from that conflict. I have only been through a couple of the missions but they are a lot of fun. I have the game set on the easiest level of difficulty and it is still non-trivial to shoot down other planes. That adds to the appeal of the game. I look forward to getting better as it might help me with some of the other video games I am playing.
One of the nice things about the new generation of consoles is that there are a large number of games available for the old ones. This means there are some great deals to be had on older games and now is the time to stock up on games that used to run $60. If you are lucky, you can find them for $10. Blazing Angels 2 is one such game if you can find someone that has it. It is well worth it and highly recommended.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Flight Simulators
Last week I found myself monitoring numbers on a screen. It was one of those tasks that didn't require 100% of my attention but kept me from getting any other work done. It was the perfect scenario for improving my video game skills. I went to our in-house library and picked up a copy of Battlefield 3. I started playing this game around Christmas and did a quick write-up of it. Since then, I have not been able to get back to the game and so it was fun to start playing again.
As I was on one of my work video game consoles, I had to start from the very beginning and that acted as a good refresher for me. Then I got to the mission where I stopped playing at home: a flight mission. When flight simulators first came out, I thought they would be fun. Then I played a few and they were incredibly boring and/or incredibly hard to figure out. Part of the problem with a simulator is that you are in a chair with gravity always keeping your seat planted firmly in said chair. There is no sensation of movement other than what you see and that makes it tough to play the game. When Battlefield 3 got to the flight simulator during my Christmas break, I just lost interest and went on to play another game.
This time I decided to give it a shot and I am glad I did. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the mission. In fact, I came home and had my son play it because it was so entertaining. One thing they did right is have a pilot fly the plane while you concentrated on using missiles and flares. You get to dogfight other planes and then take out ground targets. Both my son and I enjoyed it a lot. The only disappointment was that we now know they lied to us in the movie "Top Gun." In the movie they make it seem like Goose is just along for the ride and Maverick does all the fun stuff. In reality, the guy in back gets to shoot stuff too.
As I was on one of my work video game consoles, I had to start from the very beginning and that acted as a good refresher for me. Then I got to the mission where I stopped playing at home: a flight mission. When flight simulators first came out, I thought they would be fun. Then I played a few and they were incredibly boring and/or incredibly hard to figure out. Part of the problem with a simulator is that you are in a chair with gravity always keeping your seat planted firmly in said chair. There is no sensation of movement other than what you see and that makes it tough to play the game. When Battlefield 3 got to the flight simulator during my Christmas break, I just lost interest and went on to play another game.
This time I decided to give it a shot and I am glad I did. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the mission. In fact, I came home and had my son play it because it was so entertaining. One thing they did right is have a pilot fly the plane while you concentrated on using missiles and flares. You get to dogfight other planes and then take out ground targets. Both my son and I enjoyed it a lot. The only disappointment was that we now know they lied to us in the movie "Top Gun." In the movie they make it seem like Goose is just along for the ride and Maverick does all the fun stuff. In reality, the guy in back gets to shoot stuff too.
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