Friday 30 November 2012

"Employee of the Month"

This one is about the recently released Hitman: Absolution.

The one thing I really like about the Hitman franchise (especially since Hitman: Blood Money) is that it's a stealth game, but not just about hiding away from people, but also hiding in plain sight...hiding  in crowds, with disguises etc... but sometimes, it really does take a long fucking time to finish a mission.

I've been playing a lot of Hitman: Absolution lately for PS3, it's been distracting me from Pokemon: Black and White 2 (Black version) which I got a few weeks ago, just like my brother. I've seen the reviews for Hitman: Absolution and it seems to be one of those games where reviewers either like it or they don't. Me? I like it.

I'm really impressed by the game's presentation. The music is great and the graphics are awesome. Game play wise it plays like an expanded Hitman: Blood Money, which makes me happy. Such expansions include a cover system, the new, fun and very abusable "Instinct" ability and a few other things like point shooting, think Splinter Cell: Conviction and 'tagging' people before you shoot them in the face. The storyline is okay but, I don't really like how it's more narrative structure. In previous games, the story was kinda told mission by mission, but now it's an actual "story" with cut scenes and stuff. It's different and it's okay, but I prefer how the previous games handled it.

There are a few things which bother me about the game. Sometimes it's way too easy to sneak past certain guards, but sometimes quite difficult. I also find it weird that you can throw a knife straight into someone's face, but throwing a brick at their head won't do anything except make the enemy realise where you are. Throwing objects as a distraction is hilariously bad, as rather than investigate where the object came from, enemies investigate where it landed... makes no sense to me, especially when the object that gets thrown moves past their field of vision. Still, I can't complain too much, I've abused this function often 'cuz it's fun.

I picked up a Nintendo Wii U deluxe pack today. Here in Australia, the Wii U only came out today (Friday 30th of November, 2012). Of course, when I turned the thing on, I was greeted by a lovely five fucking gigabyte download... but hey, I went out for dinner with a friend and by the time I got home, it was done. Sweet. I was really surprised by the gamepad... it feels very comfortable in my hands, the tablet screen is very responsive and it's just nice to look at.

I grabbed ZombiU as my first Wii U game (not including the "Nintendo Land" which comes with the deluxe package). ZombiU is another title that I've heard reviewers are either loving or hating. As I type this, the update for ZombiU has just downloaded and installed, so I'm off to go hit a zombie in the face with a cricket bat.

Hopefully I won't die straight away, but judging from what I've read online, it's inevitable. I have a feeling I am going to be doing a lot of raging tonight...

I'll post more about the Wii U as I play it over this weekend.

-Cr33g (Craig)