I need a "KILL KILL KILL" icon
Jan. 6th, 2010 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI popped into a GameStop over Christmas break to browse, saw a copy of The Darkness XBOX 360 game for $8 and I couldn't pass it up. It's funny: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
feiran downloaded the demo back when it first came out, we were both unimpressed, but still I was always tempted when I'd see it in the store. When it was $18, I still couldn't bring myself to buy it. But at $8? Hell, I bought The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Revenge for that much!
Was it a great game? No. Decidedly not. Was it a good enough game? Absolutely. Part of the fun, obviously, is getting to be The Darkness. Like getting to be a Jedi (more on that in a minute), it's far too much fun to pass up.feiran actually introduced me to the comic, and I confess I loved it better than the Witchblade stuff I'd been enjoying at the time. It's just more fun in general (and more funny). The Darkness is so powerful, Jackie Estacado is a bastard but good, and did I mention the Darkness is AWESOME? The ability to make anything you wish out of nothing? How can you pass that up?
The game did have that going for it. I got to use my Darklings to rip, shoot, explode, and electrocute bad guys, and my Darkness aura had like snake monsters (okay, maybe they were tentacles) that could shoot out and kill people and also eat their hearts to make me more powerful. Gameplay was a mother, though. I had better control over creatures that scaled walls and such when I played the PC Aliens vs Predator back in, like, 1997. The ending was almost the worst non-ending, non-boss fight I'd ever played. (The winner of that category is still Mysteries of the Sith.) Still, it was fun while it lasted. (I GOT TO BE THE DARKNESS. NO SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS.)
One thing about the story: It wasn't the one of the original comic. It was something else, one either based on a reboot of the franchise (there have been a few) or as a new reboot itself. For whatever reason, I ended up in some place not quite but entirely unlike Hell, with decor of World War I trenches by way of Hellraiser. I fought Germans. Germans with metallic protrusions sticking out of their heads that the Borg would find uncomfortable. I also committed suicide. Twice. Yeah, I don't quite get that either. The guy doing the voice work of The Darkness was appropriately creepy, if maddeningly inconsistent about what it wanted. If only Jackie had been similarly well done. Character graphic design was on a level with something like Max Payne, which is an old game, and whatever technical improvements there were, they were still Uncanny Valley moments everywhere. And his voice? Ugh, I think there were fewer abuses of goombah accents in that horrible Doctor Who episode, "Daleks in Manhattan."
And now I'm finally onto Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which I've only had since FOREVER. It appeals to me immensely. For one thing, it's not too terribly hard at the level I'm at, which is good because I suck at video games. For another, I enjoy the throwback to the original idea for Luke by calling the main character Starkiller. (Very nice touch, LucasArts.) There's also the part where I GET TO BE A JEDI. Well, sorta. I mean, I am evil. But before Lucas made up the Sith out of nowhere, back in the good old Dark Forces/Jedi Knight days, evil Jedi were...Dark Jedi, end of story. (They were also bad mother-fuckers. Look at their fucking leader!)
So yeah, I've gone from being a murderous, vengeance-driven force of Hell to being a murderous, Sith-driven force of Darth Vader. Me likey. As I toldmoonlightalice, there's nothing about this I don't like. I killed Wookies. MERCILESSLY. I threw things into Stormtroopers and Rebels alike. I may or may not have just choked random dudes who were the last survivors in a given area just to watch them struggle and die. I even like the sexed-out lady pilot who drives my ship, although I all but fell out when she opened her mouth and was not voiced by Tricia Helfer. (I mean, look at her. Tell me there's not a strong resemblance!) But hoo-hoo aaaalllright. Sexy lady pilot!
feiran downloaded the demo back when it first came out, we were both unimpressed, but still I was always tempted when I'd see it in the store. When it was $18, I still couldn't bring myself to buy it. But at $8? Hell, I bought The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Revenge for that much!Was it a great game? No. Decidedly not. Was it a good enough game? Absolutely. Part of the fun, obviously, is getting to be The Darkness. Like getting to be a Jedi (more on that in a minute), it's far too much fun to pass up.
feiran actually introduced me to the comic, and I confess I loved it better than the Witchblade stuff I'd been enjoying at the time. It's just more fun in general (and more funny). The Darkness is so powerful, Jackie Estacado is a bastard but good, and did I mention the Darkness is AWESOME? The ability to make anything you wish out of nothing? How can you pass that up?The game did have that going for it. I got to use my Darklings to rip, shoot, explode, and electrocute bad guys, and my Darkness aura had like snake monsters (okay, maybe they were tentacles) that could shoot out and kill people and also eat their hearts to make me more powerful. Gameplay was a mother, though. I had better control over creatures that scaled walls and such when I played the PC Aliens vs Predator back in, like, 1997. The ending was almost the worst non-ending, non-boss fight I'd ever played. (The winner of that category is still Mysteries of the Sith.) Still, it was fun while it lasted. (I GOT TO BE THE DARKNESS. NO SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS.)
One thing about the story: It wasn't the one of the original comic. It was something else, one either based on a reboot of the franchise (there have been a few) or as a new reboot itself. For whatever reason, I ended up in some place not quite but entirely unlike Hell, with decor of World War I trenches by way of Hellraiser. I fought Germans. Germans with metallic protrusions sticking out of their heads that the Borg would find uncomfortable. I also committed suicide. Twice. Yeah, I don't quite get that either. The guy doing the voice work of The Darkness was appropriately creepy, if maddeningly inconsistent about what it wanted. If only Jackie had been similarly well done. Character graphic design was on a level with something like Max Payne, which is an old game, and whatever technical improvements there were, they were still Uncanny Valley moments everywhere. And his voice? Ugh, I think there were fewer abuses of goombah accents in that horrible Doctor Who episode, "Daleks in Manhattan."
And now I'm finally onto Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which I've only had since FOREVER. It appeals to me immensely. For one thing, it's not too terribly hard at the level I'm at, which is good because I suck at video games. For another, I enjoy the throwback to the original idea for Luke by calling the main character Starkiller. (Very nice touch, LucasArts.) There's also the part where I GET TO BE A JEDI. Well, sorta. I mean, I am evil. But before Lucas made up the Sith out of nowhere, back in the good old Dark Forces/Jedi Knight days, evil Jedi were...Dark Jedi, end of story. (They were also bad mother-fuckers. Look at their fucking leader!)
So yeah, I've gone from being a murderous, vengeance-driven force of Hell to being a murderous, Sith-driven force of Darth Vader. Me likey. As I told
moonlightalice, there's nothing about this I don't like. I killed Wookies. MERCILESSLY. I threw things into Stormtroopers and Rebels alike. I may or may not have just choked random dudes who were the last survivors in a given area just to watch them struggle and die. I even like the sexed-out lady pilot who drives my ship, although I all but fell out when she opened her mouth and was not voiced by Tricia Helfer. (I mean, look at her. Tell me there's not a strong resemblance!) But hoo-hoo aaaalllright. Sexy lady pilot!
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 07:45 am (UTC)You'll thank yourself for avoiding spoilers on this one, and then you'll probably join the rest of the internets going "WTF?" over the sequel teaser. But I'm so excited. 2010 is going to be a great year for gaming.
(If it weren't for someone on my f-list developing a brief crush on Mr. Witwer, I'd still have no idea who he is. BTW, did you notice that he actually voices the Emperor in the game, too?)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 05:25 pm (UTC)2010 is going to be an awesome year for gaming. I've already got carpal tunnel from just trying to finish a couple of games before the new game onslaught.
(Sam Witwer isn't my type, though I admit to going, "Thanks for that" to the episode of Smallville where he was in the shower. Yeah, okay, not a great actor, not even all that pretty--to me--but I'd watch him take his shirt off, sure. There's also the fact that he, like Mark Sheppard, is totally invading every show I watch. If either of the two of them doesn't make it into the last season of LOST, I'll be very much surprised. And no, I didn't know he did the Emperor's voice. Haven't met the Emperor yet! Now I will forever have to wonder if I would have noticed on my own!)