• 25Dec 09

  Inside Dracula's castle

  Hello to everyone,

  I realize that it's Christmas time, and most people are in a special holidays mood, and perhaps busy with things other than gaming, but as for me, I'm in a totally different dimension, in fact I'm totally lost inside a huge castle...count Dracula's castle. I'm talking about "Castlevania. Symphony of the Night" for the Playstation, a game that I wanted to play for long time, but didn't have the chance to. This game made me think about gaming in general, and most important, it made me sit down and play it.

  

  I will take things from the beginning (hey, don't yawn, I see you back there!) This month I bought a used copy of Castlevania from e-Bay, for a particularly high price, since it is considered rare and a collector's piece. Some people think of it as the best Playstation game ever, and among the top video-games of all times. It has even been suggested by the critics, that this is the Playstation parallel of Super Metroid, in the sense of the non-linear play, and the amazing depth of the game's world. I took the decision to get it, let's say, as a Christmas gift for myself! And why not after all.. I spend so much money every month buying games that don't tell me much, and I eventually get bored and quit them, or finish a couple of them, just to say to myself that I finished them. Imagine only that I have even bought "Leisure Suit Larry. Box Office", a nominee for this year's worst game, and "Resistance 2", although I hate its concept (shooting aliens), and didn't even open it. The list is endless really. So why not buy Castlevania?

  I did a lot of thinking, why I act like this. Could it be that gaming has died for me, and I don't want to admit it? Is collecting the new form of "game" for me, and not the actual playing of the games itself? (Now I'm like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, that she always has a scene in every episode, where she sits on her bed and types a question on her computer.)

  Well, after exclusively and passionately playing Castlevania for a whole week, I think that I'm in a position to give a few answers. First, gaming surely hasn't ended for me, it's just that the games that I truly love playing have disappeared from the stores' selves. I remember that in a previous blog of mine, I had written that I couldn't be so well adjusted to the "next-gen" games. And what are the "next-gen" games consisted of anyway? This could be the subject of a very long discussion, so I will try to be as brief as possible.

  In most cases, "next-gen" games simulate with a very believable manner real life conditions and environments, (or try to recreate imaginary environments using real life materials). The purpose now is to play a game, for instance a football game, and feel like as if you are in a real football stadium and you are yourself a real life player, like Bekham. Or play an adventure game and feel that you are a real life soldier with real life equipment and weapons that sound like real weapons. The idea is to play a game and feel that you are in the shoes of the characters that you see on TV, either in a football match, a Grand Prix race, a song contest reality show, an adventure, or horror movie, or a war-zone environment, as seen on the CNN. There is one exception though: RPGs. They don't simulate any TV shows alright, they only simulate Final Fantasy VII.

  Simulators are not necessarily a bad thing for me. On the contrary, it can be very interesting, none can deny it- even the toys for the children are replicas of real life things, it's just that I feel that this new trend in games is like a big wave that sweeps everything in its way. Anyway, I don't think that I need to elaborate, I'm sure that we all are conscious of what we are playing, and we all understand what next-gaming means. (online multiplayer mode, downloadable content, trophies/achievements etc.)

  Back in 1997, at the time when Castlevania was released, surely the video games landscape was entirely different. As a matter of fact, at a time where 3D gaming was considered as the marvelous new feature of that era's block-busters, Castlevania, faithful to the traditional 2D play, seemed already dated - technologically a step backwards, one could think. Let alone, that you couldn't yet of course rotate the movement of the camera, and such things... But this is my point, "Symphony of the Night", being free of all the trends and conventions of the games of the new era, focuses on the real values of the game design. The outcome is an inspired game, meant to be meaningful and satisfying experience. From the very first moment of my play it offered me a unique feeling of clarity. Clarity in the visuals- delicate slim artistic figures, in the music themes- dark romatic tunes, in your set of moves and the character's capabilities, and clarity concerning the plot of the game. No fancy FMV scenes, just the essential dialogues, where needed. It's a game that doesn't show off in any instance, exactly because its design is so wise and balanced, that is impressive by its own.

  * tiny spoiler* There are some scenes, presented with simple graphical means, yet they bear a strong message, like when Alucard-the main character of the game- is hallucinating, and he sees his mother crucified, telling him as her last words to punish humans. Perhaps now I realize where Silent Hill Homecoming was inspired from, when we witnessed a similar scene showing the mother of the protagonist dying on the cross. * tiny spoiler end*

  Another thing that impressed me about this game is the symbolism that can be identified in many little details. In the game you take control of the son of Dracula, Alucard, whose name if read backwards, means Dracula also. In fact the very world of the game, the Dracula's castle can be experienced with two ways, both normal and inverted. The game itself seems also to be a reverse version of the prequel "Rondo of Blood". In the latter the playable character was a human vampire hunter, Richer Belmont, but in SotN a vampire, Alucard, is the hero, and Richter the character that seems to be behind all this evil.

  

  Perhaps I'm not the most suitable person here to talk and analyze a game of this value, but for me there is one more reason why I appreciate the most Symphony of the Night. Maybe it's a game that demands your full concentration and very much of your time to finish it, but still it is not punishing for the player. On the contrary, with a friendly save system, and the RPG elements of the growth of character in terms of level and statistics, and the opportunity to collect gold by breaking objects, and then buy new equipment, it gives to the weak players, like me, the choice of continuously leveling up the character and progress more easily into the game's dangerous world. It wasn't the case with the previous installments of Castlevania. I have played (or tried to play) the remake of "Rondo of Blood" on the PSP, and I found it absolutely impossible to progress in the game. Not only it was ridiculously difficult, but also you didn't have the choice to level up your character, or choose another path if you encountered a difficult boss battle. Actually by loosing all of your lives, you had to start over the level. And Symphony of the Night doesn't have "lives", and doesn't have any levels. The entire game takes place inside one huge labyrinth.

  As one last note from me, not really much of a spoiler, but when you finish the game, or you just think that you did so, only then the real game begins.

  

  • Posted Dec 25, 2009 4:12 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 18Dec 09

  2009 awards

  So finally time has come for this year's GameSpot video-games awards. As I saw the nominations, I didn't notice any big surprise. Neither I think there will be any real surprise in the results. I imagine that Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Forza Motorsport 3, Modern Warfare 2, Demon's Souls, Resident Evil 5, Batman Arkham Asylum, and GTA Chinatown Wars will naturally be the winners in the major categories. I was thinking to vote too, but it wouldn't be fair, since I have played very few 2009 games, and hardly a couple of them are nominated. Maybe I will vote for inFamous after all, since this was the game that I liked the most from those few that I have played. There is also a slim possibility, that I will have the chance to play before the end of the year, either Uncharted 2, or Dragon Age Origins (both are the two favourites for the GOTY awrad), so maybe then, I can have an opinion of my own.

  So what are your preferences, or your predictions for the results? and also how much are you interested for these awards? Myself, I'm quite interested to know from all these hundends of games, what people liked most, and if I'm any close to that atmosphere. Well I already know the answer, 9 out of 10 times my preferences are different from what most people like. The same thing happens with the Oscars and the Eurovision

  • Posted Dec 18, 2009 7:35 am PT
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• 19Nov 09

  Metal Gear Solid on PSN!!

  Now this is the news of the year! I can't believe it! I checked a few minutes ago for the latest downloadable content of the Playstation Store (of Europe) and guess what did I see.....

  

  Metal Gear Solid... It's a miracle! At last after so many years, gamers of all ages from around the world will have the chance to download this fantastic game straight into their PS3 hard drive, or in the memory card of their PSP! I don't know why I'm so excited, because I already own the original retail version of the game. Not to mention how many times I have played it over and over. Maybe 10 times without exaggeration. Just seconds ago I bought it again (for all about my consumerism psychosis, consult my previous blog) so I can have it in my PS3 and in my PSP as well, and who knows maybe I will play it again for the 11th time, for the sake of the good old times!

  I want to thank my producer, my director, my co-protagonists, my parents, my friends, my old schoolmates, and above all my cat for making this possible. Thank you all.

  God bless Konami!

  • Posted Nov 19, 2009 11:43 am PT
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