My stated intentions last week were, to be sure, a bit vague; with Tiger 12 out of the house and out of my life I had nothing solid to commit to besides finally sinking my teeth into Sword & Sworcery for the iPhone. Steam had nothing I wanted for sale. I had a bizarre urge to play GTA4 on the PC, but somewhere between last summer and now they installed some SecuROM bullshit and I couldn’t get my perfectly valid and paid-for copy to open correctly.
I did spend some time – not a lot, but enough – with Mortal Kombat, which arrived via Gamefly on Saturday. I’m no fighting game enthusiast – it’s the genre I suck at the most, besides real-time strategy – but even I must concede that this is the most complete package ever put on disc. And it genuinely seems to want me to get better at it. I dove right in to the Story mode, which is completely insane but very well done, I must admit. After a few chapters, though, I realized that the enemies were getting tougher and I wasn’t getting any better, and I probably needed to try some tutorials and dive into the Challenge Tower. I can’t say that my game has improved at all, but I think I understand it a bit easier. It’s certainly very accessible, in a way that Street Fighter 4 wasn’t. I’ve been debating whether or not to keep it; I don’t know if I’ll ever be any good at it, but I can’t deny that it’s pretty goddamned fun.
But ultimately the weekend belonged to Sword & Sworcery, which is, on the one hand, a very slow action/adventure game, but on the other hand is an incredibly immersive and atmospheric experience with one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard. (Seriously – I even bought the soundtrack.) The game doesn’t really have a lot of depth, but I’m not sure that’s really the point; it’s just a remarkable experience.
Shouts From The Couch 