I have been playing a fair amount of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair recently. This one is a downloadable game for the Xbox 360 that allows up to 6 players simultaneously. You can play as 5 Different characters who are Alucard, Charlotte Aulin, Jonathan Morris, Shanoa, and Soma Cruz. Alucard is of course from Castlevania 3 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Charlotte and Jonathan are from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin which is on the DS. Shanoa is apparently from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia which is on the DS (I have not played this game). Soma is from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for the GBA and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the DS. Now that I've covered what everyone is from I can start talking about the game.
In Castlevania HD there are 6 different levels (7 with the DLC). In each of these levels there is a boss to kill (my favorite is the one on the 3rd level) and you have 30 minutes to kill them either by yourself or with 5 other people. A really cool thing about this game is that the whole level is being rendered at once. Instead of a map you can actually zoom the camera back so you can see the whole level. This is cool because you can see literally everything that's going on and what everyone is doing. There are a bunch of enemies from a assortment of Castlevania games and when you start Castlevania HD it is going to seem really difficult. Your characters don't actually gain exp like the other Metroidvania style Castlevania games. More after the break!
You get loot from chests while going through the map instead of gaining exp and when playing with other people you get loot even if someone else opens the chest. So you actually get weapons and armor to power up your character which I thought was really lame initially. Even if you fail the level by dying you get to keep anything you find which is really cool since you are actually getting more powerful. All the items are saved in a item bank and all characters that are able to use them can. So if you find something on Alucard and you want to play as Soma for a while as long as Soma can equip it you can use it. Every once in a while a enemy will drop a item but this doesn't happen very often. Once you beat a boss they will drop a chest with a really good item. This kind of game progression mechanic kinda makes me think of a Diablo style game (which is not a bad thing in my opinion).
Each of the characters basically plays the same way but they have different mechanics for getting stronger. All of the characters can do the same basic things like double jump and slide. But they start getting different when dealing with stuff they can equip and especially spells. I have been playing a lot as Jonathan (I have put about 8 hours of game play into that character) so I will start talking about him first. When you start out you will notice that he is the only one with a whip. He doesn't have any other weapon that he can equip (I thought this was lame at first). He actually gains attack power by leveling his secondary weapons. He starts with a throwing dagger and whenever it hits a target the weapon gains experience. Once the weapon levels the whip gets stronger. This applies to secondary weapons that you don't have equipped meaning that if you level the knife to level 2 and decide to unequip it your whip stays the same strength.
Jonathan can also find Martial Arts moves in treasure chests. I have found a few of these and they are done by button combinations. For example if you get the uppercut move the combination is down, up, and the Y button. I have yet to find them all but I think they are kinda cool and add a bit to the game when playing as that character. I have yet to play as Shanoa but apparently she has a similar style progression as Jonathan in regards to her special attacks gaining exp. She can also use the magnet points in the levels (I just found this out and actually didn't know this before tonight). I'm actually kinda excited to try her out now since I haven't ever played as her. She uses glyphs as her special ability and you can get them by apparently pressing up on the d-pad when enemies are doing certain spells (I'm going off of what I have read here).
I'm gonna skim over the other characters because I just know the mechanics and haven't played them a ton yet. Alucard plays very much the same as he was in Symphony of the Night. He is the only character that can find and equip shields. He can also find spells in the levels and the more of them you get the stronger the spell gets (which I had to look up online to find out). All the spells that are in the game are pretty much the same as the spells that you use in Symphony of the Night. Soma has weapons that you can equip like Alucard but he also can get souls from enemies whenever they are defeated. When you get their souls you can use them like a special attack. Charlotte is a mage that uses a book as her main weapon. The book gets more powerful the more spells that you learn and you have to learn spells from enemy attacks.
It is really fun to play online with Castlevania HD but there are a few problems. Once you find 6 people the host can form a team but at this point they can't go back and find more people if someone quits out. So if 1 person doesn't want to play the level that you are on and they quit out you can't find another person to join in which I think is a big problem with the game. Also if you quit out mid-level you don't keep any of the items or experience that you might have gotten in the level. If you do get into a good game though it's really fun since the whole level takes about 5 minutes with a good group. It's crazy to see everyone just run around like mad and completely own a level. I might talk more about this game in the future since I have been playing it so much, maybe I will try it with some other characters. As of right now I would recommend this game to anyone who like Castlevania. It is 1200 Microsoft points ($15.00 in earth money), the price is a little steep but I do think it's worth it.
I have also been playing Halo Reach yet again. I am about 60,000 credits from getting the Birthday Party armor effect. It will make it so when I die there is confetti and the cheers of small children. It will make me very happy once I get it, some of my friends have gotten it already and I'm envious! So looks like I'm gonna be playing a fair amount of Reach to get enough credits for that. I'm also thinking about playing some more Minecraft which is always fun. I was playing it a while back and I hollowed out the bottom of a lake and replaced the bed of the lake with glass. So basically a cave with a glass roof and a lake above that, it was pretty sweet. I got a chance to play NBA Jam for the Wii this weekend and that game is a freaking blast! I loved NBA Jam back in the Super Nintendo / Genesis era. I remember renting it and playing it all weekend at a friend's house. This version of the game has that same feel to it and I really love playing it with other people. Apparently you unlock Big Head mode once you complete the tutorial and after you get it unlock I see no reason to ever turn it off. Gonna get more info on that later once I play it more.
I think I have figured out a game that I want to make so now I gotta just get cracking on starting the programming for it. I have been watching a fair amount of Family Guy on Netflix instant watch and it's pretty darn funny. I think the first season is kinda weak compared to the later ones but isn't that the same with most everything? They also just added Married with Children recently to watch instantly and I have watched a few episodes of that. I think that show is funnier to me now that I'm older. Lonesome Dove is also up on the instant queue, I've seen it before when I was in high school but I'm gonna watch it again since I remember it being fantastic! More ramblings to come in the future, possibly tomorrow.
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