Monster Hunter Tri

I’ve recently been playing a lot of Monster Hunter, it’s a series I’ve been an avid fan of for a while so the recent Wii release has had me really excited as it has brought a whole swarm of new monsters into the mix and introduced aquatic combat.

The solo play has been improved and players must now venture through a few missions to introduce them to the hunting essentials before they venture out into the vast depths of the internet. The change to the single player campaign makes it more inviting and expands your options in the village to allow you to easily gather materials and trade for exotic treasures from far off lands.

Aquatic combat is fun, fighting in three dimensions helps with aiming at monster locations and the seamless transitions in the mix land/water environments are delightful. Just running to the edge of the sea and diving in is so much fun and being able to hunt giant catfish, jellyfish and sharks with harpoons is one of the highlights for me. The aquatic monsters have some interesting design with the Gobul being by far my favourite as a strange chimera of catfish, angler fish and puffer fish.

The new monsters seem to be quite interesting with each one doing something more than just ladling on damage and soaking up attacks, one mimics the calls of other monsters to bring in aid in battle, one hides in the river bed and lures you in before attacking and another covers itself in mud that protects it from elemental attacks.

One thing that has changed for the worse is that the prolific selection of weapons and armour has been cut down to its bare bones, now it appears one weapon exists for each element and status effect leaving you little choice for picking correct armaments for each mission. This is such a shame as one of the most exciting parts of having managed to defeat a new monster was running to the blacksmith and finding what weapons you could create.

Another factor that could let Monster Hunter Tri down is that it is still not really new starter friendly, as a seasoned veteran I knew how to make potions and other items to help me in my missions but someone without prior knowledge would struggle. The new single player experience certainly is better than the PSP versions but doesn’t manage to communicate the little tricks that make a hunter excellent

All in all, MH3 has been a successful move in my eyes. It has provided new and interesting monsters, updated the core gameplay which has managed to sort out some of the awkward issues that marred the PSP versions (a certain fishy beast had magical hips that could damage you from well beyond its physical reach), squeezed a huge amount of power from the Wii and provided more of that team based adventure which my friends and I have been consuming with gusto for years.

Endless Ocean 2

This morning Endless Ocean 2 arrived for me in the post and I have been excited all day. The first game promised exploration and interaction with all sorts of aquatic beasties with whales and octopodes being the highlights for me.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get past a particular section so never got to track down the elusive whale I was after but I did manage to dive deep into the abyss. This is probably where I should mention that though I love the ocean and am fascinated with its creatures I have an irrational fear of being underwater in games, so descending into a pitch black chasm with nothing to keep your bearings but the occasional flash of an unnatural looking fin gave me a huge case of the heeby-jeebies and made Endless Ocean one of the only two games that has managed to scare me enough to turn the console off (the other being Thief).

So what was I expecting from Endless Ocean 2

1. Vast blue seas full of creatures to poke, prod and examine.
2. Great Big Whales!
3. Relaxing environment exploration.
4. Collecting treasure, equipment and information.

What are my thoughts so far:

Firstly, Arika seem to have sussed something about their audience, in the first 5 minutes you are in the water surrounded by whales and it is awesome! Whales give an impressive sense of scale and after being established as impressive gives you an idea of what the rewards will be for playing the game.

A nice surprise was that Endless Ocean 2 gives you an actual storyline to play through which is a welcome change from the first game which did have progression but it sometimes felt a little vague as to how to unlock the next event and area.

Combat has been added  by way of the Pulsar device. It effectively is a fishy tazer for zapping any nasties until they calm down. I've not let myself be bitten by a shark but they have closed on me with grim intent. It's kind of fun but my underwater nerves don't hold up particularly well when the danger sign comes up on screen, with no indication as to what direction the danger is coming from I flounder and swim away as fast as possible.

One little sticking point for me at the moment is the diving timer, it the original you could swim uninterrupted for a long while but now a leveling system has been introduced that allows you to dive for progressively longer and longer periods. I find that even after a short dive my wet-suited adventurer is rasping for breath which breaks the flow for me when I have to pop back to the boat just to go swimming again. I would have preferred to have a longer dive time to begin with rather than slowly gaining experience at breathing but its a minor gripe at best.

All in all, I can't wait to plunge back into Endless Ocean 2

Gaming off the rails.

I've played a lot of games in my life and I don't doubt I'll play many more. Some of them will excite me for what they achieve and some will amaze me by being not quite what I expected.

I like to explore off the beaten track, poke my nose into odd corners and find out exactly how a world holds together. I enjoy play a game made with care and love by people who really want to make something amazing.

I'm keen on nifty mechanics, systems that make games fun to play, ways to entice you further in and tricks to keep you coming back for more. I like understand why swimming through a vast blue ocean can be so much more exciting than slaying demons.

I like gaming off the rails, taking a game and making it yours by how you play. The choices you make and the story you experience, which may not be what was intended, but which make the world yours.