Metroid Prime 3: Corruption ~ First Impressions

WARNING! Contains minor spoilers of the introductory chapters of the game! I got MP3 on its first day out and only got through the first two sections before it really opens up. I got a busy two weeks here so I don't think I'll get much play time with it. Instead then I want to give my first impressions of it since this is the first really BIG game for the Wii.

You begin in your ship with the controls in front and side. Learning how to control your ship is one of MP3's new features, but the game tells you what you must do to do whatever needs to be done. I don't see my Mii bobble-head though, which I saw in a video review. As a lefty who had to play with a right-handed Link (who is traditionally a lefty), I was concerned about the controls. Kid ya not, some of Samus movements with a right-handed remote is done with her left hand, so that isn't much of an issue.

The introduction is in two parts: a Federation ship which your ship enters after waking up and the planet below. After exiting your ship, typical tutorial stuff begins as you make your way to see Admiral Dane. I had some typical control problems. Pressed A instead of B. That is to be expected. The screen was smooth at its default. Z-targeting by default is turned on for the hud display but off for auto-aiming. A trooper does point you to a save point before seeing the admiral which was nice. You start out with morph ball, bombs, Varia suit, Space Jump boots, charge beam, and no missiles. I notice though sometimes charging isn't as effecting as just firing off a number of standard shots. You do have the scan visor, and when activated, you see Samus face and can see her move her eyes as you move the cursor around the screen.

As for the story, there is two. The space pirates has put in a virus into several computers that needs fixing. The other is Dark Samus, aka Metroid Prime, the main villain in the Primes sub series. Its like Mother Brain being the villain for the universe, while Ridley is for Samus. There is three other hunters. One has ice like powers (Rundas), one can change her looks to look like someone else (Gandrayda), and the other is in a big mech (Ghor).

After this, the pirates attack and you see one ship go boom-boom. The admiral orders you to your ship and go planet side, as a major defensive weapon was knocked out. Taking a longer route, you get back to your ship. Nothing too difficult. Save before getting to your ship and face your first boss battle. I got an energy tank and missiles en route and barely made it. In the original Prime, I often loose the first battle just because I need to scan and find out how to beat the boss, getting clobbered at the same time.

Part two is on the surface. You need to get the cannon online, and to do that, you need to get three generators back online also. You get the grapple lasso early here, allowing you to rip off things. No grapple beam yet. Your first target is Conduit A. You get another energy tank and later face off with several waves of pirates. Rundas helps out and tells introduce a new feature, calling your ship. Saving and restocking here, you continue to the conduit and get a third of the power back on. Rundas heads to B to fix that while you go to C. Exit and... you see Ridley, your old pal and friend, fly to C section.

Before entering Conduit C section, Ghor is shown in a battle, which opens the area up. On the way there, you morph to a ball and, ugh, Ridley traps you. Now I thought this was a minor battle like the one in Super Metroid where he gets bored and fly off. Nope! After loosing two-thirds of my available energy, I realized you can escape when his claw moves up.

Save at a station then on to the conduit. Gandrayda takes out a few pirates while disguised as one of them. Solve a morph ball puzzle and you're done. Wait! Boss fight! With... RIDLEY?!? Come on! He is supposed to be the next to last boss fight! You are both falling down and before you hit bottom (yes, its timed) you need to shoot his mouth. Sometimes you get close and need to shoot a hand held bomb thing. Just rapid fire, not charge shot, and you will get him. It ends with Samus sticking her gun arm deep in his throat, firing (I cracked up), and Rundas comes to save your decent.

During all of this, a large rock of phazon came out of a worm hole threatening everything. From here a time limit starts in pure Metroid fashion, minus the timer. Instead you hear "3 minutes remaining" from the computer. I backed tracked because I forgot to save and made it in time. You and the other hunters was about to put it online when Dark Samus shows up, blows everyone up, and Samus barely got the system online.

You wake up a month later. The three hunters left already to do other missions, but nothing was heard from them. The Federation also gave you a phazon module for your suit. How it works is the phazon takes on of your energy tanks when you enter hypermode. Every time you shoot, it eats energy from that tank. When you go out of hypermode, the unspent energy is returned, unless you ate up your entire tank.

From here, you do Rundas mission. I did went to planet side since a third of the station I haven't explored, but its still off limits. I have 2 energy tanks and 5 missles.

We're not on Google Earth anymore, Toto!

When I was typing an e-mail for one of my e-pals, who just got Google Earth, I discovered they had a MAJOR update. Presenting Google Earth Sky!



I have a couple other planetarium programs for star viewing. Celestia is a full 3D space explorer and Stellarium a more general, full featured one. Both free. Compared to Sky, Sky is by far more beautiful, but still clunky since its so new. For example, I tried to view the moon's position across the sky and, as far as i can tell, you can't actually track it, just view it. My other complaint is when you switch from earth to sky, it loads up the other. So you can't view them both together, making it hard to find the sky's location in relation to earth. You can click on your placemarks to find, for example, the current sky above you or another location. I think then I'll keep my other planetarium programs for the major stuff, like the lunar eclipse that will occur when the Heroes DVD comes out.

Here is another video showing off some of the more pretty pictures.



LINKS

Google Earth Website
Celestia Website
Stellarium Website

So I started using Google Calendar...

... because I want to get more organized. From August 19th to September 19th I have 18 events. That seems a lot for someone with a boring life! I wonder how it compares with others. Of course more could be added.

Dove Evolution Video

Heroes Season 1 on YouTube

Now that Season 1 ended a few months ago, I want to place some of my favorite YouTube vids for that season. SPOILERS!

My favorite summary for the entire season:



Runner up:



Sylar, the brain consuming serial killer, is my favorite character, so I have to include something with him. There are other good ones, but these two have the entire season in mind and most of the others have music that is too hard for my tastes. YouTube isn't prefect. And note Zachary Quinto is going to play Spock in the new Trek film! So if J.J. Abrams, who is involved in that movie and friends with Greg Grunberg, doesn't do a Heroes Origin episode, I WILL be shocked:





Had to dig for one person's top moments in the whole series without it becoming a music video. Though personally I REVERSE the order. The problem with the finale is 1) making your actors work till 3 AM is not a good idea 2) Over hyped 3) It was THE ENDING! The last chapter of Volume One! Okay, that is a good thing considering Lost lost its ending.



And what about this scene?



And I just want to include this mid-season one. But "If Everyone Cared" is WAY overused for this show!



Awards so far includes: People's Choice for best new drama, TV Land's Future Classic, TCA's Outstanding Program of the Year, and listed in Time Magazine's "People Who Mattered".

My Next Zelda Idea

Now that I played through most of the last Zelda game (Twilight Princess) and Gamecube's Wind Waker, I started thinking about what the next Zelda game should be. Two things got my attention. 1) How does all the games connect? 2) Zelda fanboys up in arms over what Gamespot said about TP not sending the series into any new territory. Like changing into a wolf isn't enough! In fact, while looking for a good source for #1 (which I found here) I first came by this April Fools video which addresses Gamespot concerns.

Before you continue, watch them both. I am going to now propose what I would like to see in the next Zelda game. A game which will wrap everything up that happened before, while still leaving room for a sequel in the next age of Hyrule. It is, in effect, a funnel for the stories, returning it to a single timeline. It also need to address, I think, why Ocarina of Time made it so the Triforce was with Link, Zelda, and Gannondorf from the beginning instead of being found like in the earlier made games. I recall how that pissed off a number of players. Also please note I am bound to forget SOMETHING and I haven't played all the way through Wind Waker, though I have seen how it ends. I also want to mention to the side this upcoming Wii title which could be the most Zelda like game available till the real thing comes out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPNTZu9XU4

If you are a Zelda fan, keep a close eye on it. It seems to subtract the use of multiple items for pure sword play action while still having puzzling dungeons. Okay, 'nuff intros!

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The Legend of Zelda: Lines begins in Timeline B idea from GameTrailers, a long time after Wind Waker. As for Twilight Princess, its alternate world so closely resembles The Dark (formerly Golden) World of A Link to The Past that I place TP sometime after LttP. I'll explain why as I go through this.

The Legend of Zelda, lets say 500 or 1000 years into the future, is forgotten. Enter Ben, a young squire for a high ranking knight in this future Hyrule which I will call Nerule (Neo-Hyrule, or second Hyrule). Nerule is in its pre-industrial revolution and steam power is Nerule's cutting edge technology. The fact I like Steampunk has nothing to do with it! Ben's Knight is on assignment. An archeologist trying to find pre-flood relics - that is relics at and before the events of Wind Waker - discovered some ruins. The archaeologist, the knight, and the player as Ben then begins the game in a small town near these ancient ruins.

General tutorial stuff. Its morning, the knight barks orders to meet him at the ruins, the player does some crappy jobs at the village, the knight checks out Ben's swordplay, etc. etc. The trio enter the ruins, something attacks, and the place around them crashes. The three gets separated and apparently the knight lost his revolver. Yes, revolver, cowboy style. No crummy slingshot, thank you! Ben's find it, blah blah, and face a minor boss. This is an introductory, outdoor dungeon, nothing more. The good knight dies during this, but the archaeologist survives to till the king. Ben is knighted and hints of the king's old bloodline. Line! This includes the tradition of naming all princesses Zelda, which has not been done since Wind Waker and why during this time there was no Link vs. Ganon. It just so happens the queen is pregnant and the king thinks Zelda is a good name. Uh-oh. Zelda is born, and an old legend begins a reawaken. Thus ends the introduction.

Fast forward to act 1 when Zelda is a child. Ben hears again from the archaeologist who is getting too old to continue out into these crazy and dangerous journeys. He stays at the castle while Ben searches for more info about Nerule's past. Ben goes on the first three major dungeons of the game. The first is back at the intro place earlier where more has been uncovered. A 'true' dungeon like temple. After beating the boss and collecting the heart, he enters an award room (done like the 2D games) where he finds bits of the legend. This first one being the location of two other dungeons, one holding information about something called The Triforce, the other on The Three Blessed by the Gods. It also gave the name of the country as Hyrule, not Nerule. It says that to prevent the tragedy of the past, this information must remain secret. Who cares!

The second states the usual Triforce stuff, that it grants all wishes, but it can only manifest when The Three comes together. The third mentions who holds the three parts of the Triforce. The Princess holds Wisdom, the Combat Mage Power, and the Adventurer Courage. Ben learns who the Princess is, the Combat Mage is from a bloodline of Gerudo thieves, and the Adventurer from Hyrule's forest dwellers.

Enter act 2 with Zelda being a young teen. Two events occur at this time. First, Zelda becomes a playable character as she goes through three standard dungeons. Instead of a boss though, she finds a 'familiar spirit' who quizzes her wisdom as a leader. This is played out. Each time she passes, she gains a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom. Her health is the same as Ben's. Since so much time has passed, the Triforce of Wisdom has to be rediscovered. When she gains them, she becomes one of The Three.

Back with Ben, he tries to find Gerudo's bloodline. He does and find them a forgotten people. Their current male is old and is having nightmares. Ben goes through a dungeon and finds the stone statue of Wind Waker's Ganondorf. He brings it to Nerule's castle where they are able to revive him. The current Gerudo male dies and, for the sake of this story, this last adventure Ben gets a disease which prevents him from going further in his quest though well enough to live. Ganondorf is still technically in procession of the Triforce of Power, but VERY weak. During this weak state he can't do much, but this is to his benefit as he finds out everyone is ignorant about what they are doing. After his health begins to recover, like the Ganondorf of Ocarina, he begins to manipulate the king. Since Link has yet to enter the picture and need the third Triforce for its power to grant wishes to be complete, he suggests he can help. The kings allow it but Zelda has a bad feeling about this... much like OoT.

Act 3, Ganondorf is a playable character. WHAT!?! You will see. Because the two relms doesn't play in Wind Waker, I am going to assume Ganon doesn't know about it. He goes out to find Link, where he hears of a courageous boy the same age as Zelda. He went off to save his sister in a forest dungeon. Yeah, he is that courageous! Since Ganondorf still needs him to find the Triforce of Courage, he does the weird thing and helps him. But in the award room, he finds something that shocks him to the core. The Ganon of this timeline discovers the fabled Golden Land of the Three Goddesses that gave birth to Hyrule. It mentions the only place where The Three can bring the Triforce into physical existence is there. He goes into another dungeon and finds a way how to enter the Golden Land. But there discover the other timeline. So the subtitle lines not just mean bloodlines but also timelines.

Act 4, Ganondorf invites Zelda and Ben over to his discovery, but none of them return. The king has nothing to do but to put his faith in this Link. The storyline accelerates. First he collects pieces of his Triforce. Then he goes to where Ganondorf, Zelda, and Ben disappeared.

Act 5. In The Golden Land, aka The Dark World, Ganon bridged the gap between the two timelines by using the world that connects The Golden Land with both Hyrule timelines... The Twilight. He gives the other timeline's Ganon a second chance, hence why I place TP after LttP. A sicker Ben tells this to Link. Link then does the old classic face off, maybe after some additional side missions. After succeeding, Ganon looses his Triforce of Power. Link and Zelda wishes the two timelines into one.

What does that do to the Zelda universe? Guess we have to wait for the sequel! Of course there is problems with this. Namely, how many dungeons. Personally, I rather have more dungeons and less pieces of heart. Also fanboys undoubtedly can find exceptions here and there. Oh, and specifics like what the dungeons are like and new items, especially in the age of steam. Its just an idea, a way to bring all the earlier games together and open the door to new opportunities.

I reserve the right to edit this post in the future! Ideas (including flaws!) welcomed.

MEOWARCHY: Demon Cats

This Blog Is... Alive! ALIVE!

Yeah, it has returned from the dead. This past year I got too involved with so many other things and only this month has things started to cool down. It started September 11th with a new job, one which is far better than the crappy ones I had in the past. Then I moved, since mom was out of the house and in a nursing home March of last year. (In fact, this is perhaps one of the reasons I did got my current job) Alas, she finally passed away July. Sure, there was some sadness, but also a lot of relief. I'm now willing to date for, really, the first time ever. I occasionally flirted with the idea but my life kept saying, "Not yet...."

So now I want to revive this poor blog of mine. I know its been missing me. I think I just might finish Gödel, Escher, Bach (aka GEB) finally after who know how many years. The first half is great, but the second half (EGB) is a lot harder. Only because its less fun. I may comment on that. Also want to see if I can find a good filepit that doesn't cost me any moola. Like to find MIDI or MP3s of Bach's music mentioned in GEB.

GEB on Wiki

The only thing I am into right now is this Cloverfield/Slusho movie that is coming out 1-18-08 and Heroes on NBC. But really, there is already plenty of stuff online for that. I might do some vids I found online here. I got DSL now instead of 56K and already getting a list of favorites on YouTube. I don't have cable so I can't comment on the news anymore. So, really, I am open to any suggestions!

Just logged in to Blogger and, lo, there is a glob of new features. *sigh* If anyone finds me negleting this poor blog again, WHACK ME. 'kay?