Given the strong recommendation of readers of this diary, I decided yesterday I will try to get past the second level of "Kid Icarus" but Monday was not the night to do it.
No, Monday was the night for playing more "Siren: Blood Curse" on the PlayStation 3. It scared me in good ways and in one very bad way.
I have long been curious about the "Siren" games. I'm not a big horror fan, but I was intrigued by reports that the games in the series let you play multiple characters in a village, hijacking the eyesight of friends and foes for special split-screen dual views of the levels, all while you resolve a number of diverse plotlines. It's all sounded to me like a mix between "Majora's Mask," "Silent Hill," "Battlefield: Modern Combat" and "Indigo Prophecy." Who wouldn't want to play that?
The new "Siren," downloadable for the PS3 in 12 episodes, presents the creepy combination I sought. In the first chapter, a group of Americans come upon a Japanese village full of murdering zombies and have to run and fight for their lives. The player has to sort out why a professor and his TV producer ex-wife and their daughter are all there, why an American teenager shows up, why the guy with the rifle is hiding in the trees, whether the cameraman has a secret agenda, and so on. It's good, creepy stuff as zombies amble toward whoever you're playing, undeterred by the stop sign you just shoved through their body.
That's what I like about "Siren: Blood Curse." What's not so good is that each 500-800 megabyte chapter of "Siren" has to be downloaded separately and then installed, separately, on the PS3. I've played two chapters, the first lasting 10 minutes, the second about 20 and in each case the installation for the chapters took five minutes. With 12 chapters, that means I will have to spend about an hour installing the full game, chapter by chapter. Installation can't be done in the background while playing another PS3 game, so you have to surrender use of your PS3 during each chapter installation.
And you thought "Metal Gear Solid IV" had a problematic installation?
"Siren," as good as it is, unintentionally makes me fearful for the future of large downloadable games. The game is very good, but having to manually oversee an hour of installation is... not so good. Surely there's a better way?
Next: I predict no new games will be played today unless the PR guy I'm having dinner with decides to show me something cool during dinner. We'll see!
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