Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Part 3

I need to keep better track of this!

So let's see. . . .I've played through the Goron Mines, and now am collecting the last set of Tears of Light.

Between then and now, there was the first on-horseback battle (which was a pain until I figured it out) and a part of the map that is traversed by flying, which is definitely new to me.

Link on Epona is just awesome. If Link is attacked, he can be thrown off. It's much more realistic than in Ocarina of Time. The shot of Link and Epona after the jousting match was really neat.

Those big black dudes that look like they're the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts are a pain. Not really difficult to defeat, but the music and the fact you can't just run away irritate me a lot. Plus sometimes they don't cooperate the way I want them to. ;)

I'm getting really confused about where to go in order to collect all the Tears of Light; mostly because they're scattered over several large maps and it's not entirely clear to me how to get from point A to point B sometimes.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Part 2

OK, turns out what I thought was the entry point to the Forest Temple was not. Or that it was, but there was a whole bunch of stuff to cover before I could even go into the Forest Temple.

Now I've played through the Forest Temple.

Between last time and now, you've seen Link transform into a wolf, met Midna, get turned back into human (Hylian?) form, and worked through the Forest Temple.

Link's wolf form looks pretty impressive on the screen, and the animations are good. The "wolf sense" functions as another way to hide stuff on the map, and toggling between the two isn't hard. I'm a bit annoyed with the spin-attack counterpart, mainly in that it feels like it takes forever to execute. Embarrassingly, I died two or three times in the Faron Woods section where you're stuck with three Twilight goblin things before I figured it out.

This section of the game sets up most of the story and the long cut-scenes are really good.

The game feels to me like it's prepared the player very well for the first temple, which I like a lot. In previous Zelda games I feel woefully inadequate for the first few dungeons/temples. At this point you should have a lantern, sword, shield, and two bottles. I haven't found any fairy fountains yet, but there's a fairy in one of the pots at the Forest Temple entrance.

The difficulty level in the Forest Temple seemed a bit easy to me, but I also spent a lot of time just trying to figure stuff out (I got kind of stuck because I *really* wanted to get what turned out to be the Boss Key before I had the item I needed to get it with). You follow monkeys around the first half of the temple, and their beckoning caused me to miss getting the temple map, which is in plain sight in the first main room.

The miniboss and boss of the temple were pretty easy to defeat, although I thought the miniboss (a butt-slapping monkey) was harder than the real boss.

There are a couple heart pieces hidden around in treasure chests. This is new to me because I'm used to finding them "in the open" but in creative places. So don't leave any treasure chest unopened, even though some of them have minor rupee treasures to be found. I left the Forest Temple with almost 200 extra rupees that I didn't have when I started it.

This game really has sucked me in. I wanted to only play for an hour or two but I ended up staying up way past my bedtime.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Part 1

I know I've talked about it before, but I really enjoy playing the Zelda games. There's something about the adventure combined with puzzle solving and its own created mythology that really attracts me. At any rate, it's a good formula for a game.

The Water Temple in Ocarina of Time never fails to baffle me. I still need to dig out a strategy guide for it. And Majora's Mask was so confusing to me that I never finished it. Something about the three-day repeat that I could never wrap my head around. For those who haven't played Majora's Mask, you repeat the same three-days, Groundhog Day-style, throughout the game.

I was excited when Twilight Princess was released, as it featured Teenage/Adult Link and a darker storyline than previous Zelda games. But it was only recently that I was able to secure a copy for myself - the Gamecube version, since I'm a purist and think Link *should* be left-handed! (They completely flipped the game's visuals for the Wii version) I'm sure the Zelda game they are developing exclusively for the Wii will feature a right-handed Link, but while I have the opportunity to play a left-handed Link, I'm going to!

So this series of posts will be my impressions on playing the game through - hopefully without having to rely on a walkthrough. I'll try to make my comments so they don't overly spoil the game if you haven't played through it yet.

Many people have compared the visuals to an upgraded version of the visuals in the N64 games, and that I will have to agree. While textures and characters are more smooth and detailed, and seem more realistic in their anime way, it's quite obvious that Ocarina of Time served as a parent to Twilight Princess, in more ways than one. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

I really like that there are generally no load times while you are inside buildings. This feature really helps with game immersion. There are some load times between maps and if you enter/exit a building, but it's not that bad.

The controls are also similar to Ocarina of Time, adapted for the Gamecube controls. I'm not sure I like the generic controller that I bought (through a deception of the retailer) so I might get a genuine Nintendo controller and see if I like that better.

The first part of the game immediately puts you into the storyline with a view of pre-hero Link, which I think seems more natural than previous games. Story-wise it seems kind of lame that Link was just sitting around waiting to get the call to become a hero, who then has to do all these little primer quests. The mini-quests that are supposed to serve as the primer for game controls are integrated in the storyline, as opposed to "do this strange side-game whose point is only to show you how to use your new item".

Maybe I've played enough Zelda games to realize what you're supposed to be doing to complete the mini-quests, but I thought some people might get a little confused in the mini-quests that happen in the village (so what if your cat ran off?!? what do I care?). If you get lost when you get there, just talk to everyone, and know that the three tasks that the villagers are talking about can be done without moving to a different map.

So far it seems the characters are less annoying than they were in Ocarina of Time. So let's hope that holds. Maybe that just comes with the general tone of the game.

It took me about an hour and twenty minutes from start to the entrance of the forest temple, which seems about right to me, considering I talked to everyone on the map several times and backtracked a map or two to make sure I was on the right path. Someone who isn't as meticulous or has played the game through before could probably get to this point in an hour. Already I've been introduced to Link, the village he comes from, had a primer on swordplay, slingshot-aiming, horseback riding, and killed some easy baddies and worked through some small puzzles.

I'm already very excited about the game and I look forward to playing through the rest!

Nintendo Wii - First Impression

I received my Nintendo Wii last night and have proven to myself yet again how little impulse control I have. At least I waited until I was done studying to dig it out. It was pretty easy to setup - the only thing that wasn't intuitive and required the manual was when I was trying to sync my Wii Remote to it. Turning the Wii on is like that first time when you logged onto the internet and realized your whole world had changed. I felt like the 'less-advanced' people who come into contact with Picard and the Enterprise, and their world has suddenly become a lot larger. For someone in a technologically-advanced field, I feel really behind!

The Wii I bought came with Wii Play, and even though I really wanted to play some Gamecube Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I also didn't have a lot of time and I really wanted to try out the Wii Remote.

Back when the Wii launched there were stations set up in amusement parks and other "touristy" places. You could go there and test out the Wii interface on one of the Wiis set up with big screen TVs. But like the tester model of game consoles at Best Buy and Wal-Mart they were usually broken. So Link could only turn left and you couldn't swing your sword. Not really a great way to be introduced to something so revolutionary.

If you want to unlock all the games on Wii Play and save your progress you'll need to make a Mii. A Mii is a cartoony player avatar that saves/tracks progress in some games and also participates in internet-related capability that I haven't figured out yet. The Mii creation process is similar to creating a new Sim in The Sims 2 except it's not nearly as customizable. You can control some aspects of the appearance but not all.

So now I have a cartoon version of me. Yay. Now let's play some Wii Play.

Wii Play is a handful of minigames that makes a good primer on using the Wii Remote. When you first start the game you only have access to the Shooting Range game; to unlock the other games you simply have to play through the game that precedes it. There is no score you have to beat in order to unlock the next game, although if you score high enough you win a medal. Then when you go back to the Wii home page you see that the game has left you a note congratulating you on the medal and a "helpful" hint on the game.

Shooting Range - This is Duck Hunt 2.0, with targets, clay pigeons, and soda cans.
Find Mii - I was doing all right on this game until I got to the level where I had to find two identical Miis in a moving crowd.
Table Tennis - Virtual Ping Pong. Try to get to 100 volleys.
Pose Mii - This was the most annoying of the games. Using a couple buttons, you can cycle through several different poses. Bubbles drop from the top of the screen, with a silhouette outlined inside the bubble. The goal is to align your Mii on the bubble with the same pose and rotation. I just couldn't figure out how to match up the pose and rotate the Mii fast enough for the game.
Laser Hockey - This is just like Pong with an Air Hockey theme and Neon.
Fishing - It took me a little bit to get the hang of this game, but it's pretty relaxing. Just drop the hook in and wait for a fish to bite. You can guide your hook over to fish you want to catch, and they usually bite.
Billiards - 3-D Pool. Pretty fun, and a lot easier than Pool in real life. You can use the A button to get a top-down view, and the grey line really helps you line up your shot.
Charge! - I had a lot of fun with this game. Your Mii rides a cow, and the goal is to mow down scarecrows and get to the finish line in under two minutes. It took a few tries to figure out the right movement for "jump".
Tanks! - Blow up the other tanks on the screen. It's fun. :)

I don't think I'll play too much more of this, unless I want to kill 5 minutes by mowing down some scarecrows or something. But it was a good primer on using the Wii Remote and I look forward to seeing how other games utilize (or not) the interface.

I Caved

I caved and bought a Wii. My mind is already spinning at how much money I'm eventually going to spend on it.

Ugh. Hopefully I will at least have fun. I found a copy of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for GC for $30. So I just need to get a gamecube controller and a memory card and I'm set.

On New Computer Interfaces

I stumbled across this while reading a thread on Slashdot regarding the "soap" mouse (basically, an optical mouse contained within a "sleeve" of jersey-weight fabric, so it would slip like a bar of soap and you can use it to manipulate the pointer on a screen).

Anyway, I do believe that there are some great innovations in human-computer interaction these days. I find that one of the more fascinating "higher level" things that are going on in computer science. Are some of these new innovations impractical? Of course. Not every new invention or way of doing something is going to adopted in the next generation of applications/hardware. Not every piece of hardware is refined enough at first draft to have a "cool, sleek" look.

Do you remember when DVD players first came out? I certainly do. I remember saving a crapload of money to buy this $300 machine that was larger than my parents' VHS player. Now you have these tiny, refined, DVD players that include a small screen. You can fit probably 8 of these in the space that original clunky DVD player took up.

I think the Wii has one of the most innovative, original HCI controls, despite its flaws. Whatever device the Wii controller spawns (or 3rd or 4th generation device) may or may not be an improvement over the current controller. There are many roads to Rome.

I see a lot of potential for the soap mouse, and not just for gaming. Imagine an extension of the little clicky thing some professors use on their powerpoint presentations. Now imagine they can access the entire desktop in their lecture.

Resident Evil. . . 4!

I don't play a lot of video games, mainly because they cost more money than I'm willing to dish out, but also because I think I can find more productive, mentally stimulating things to do. However, this doesn't stop me from finding the occasional gem.

My new favorite game is Resident Evil 4. It's been out for a while, and I've only started playing it, but it's awesome.

I think the main reason why I want to get through the game is that I'm completely engrossed in the cinematics. Wow. And I haven't found a demo of the game that includes the cinematics, so I'm forced to play the game through. Oh well. This is why I dig RPGs most of the time; because so much is poured into the story, you want to know what happens along the way (since you usually know or can guess the ending).

Resident Evil 4 is a lot of fun, if challenging. It's been a long time since I've devoted myself to completing a game. I think the last time was about two years ago when I wanted to complete Kingdom Hearts, and I never actually finished it. I got up to the final boss, but he had at least one too many forms and I didn't have enough drive or motivation to do the things I needed to do to go back and finish the game.

One quest-type game I did finish was Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. (I also finished LOTR: Two Towers, but I don't really count that because it's a short game)

Anyway, I'm quite fond of the main character in Resident Evil 4: Leon Kennedy. I think I love characters more than the game itself. Tall, pasty-complected, secret agent man. That, and he protects women. What's not to love? (Other than he can be a bit stupid at times, but I'm thinking that's mostly pilot error)

I've recently developed an affinity for male characters that protect women, regardless of how "helpless" the women may or may not be. Take the three main male characters of Sin City, for example. They all protect women. Sure, they might not be the most ethical people around, but at least they've developed a healthy respect for women along the way.