Monster Hunting
April 27, 2010 by Robert
Filed under Gaming Blog, Videogames
The latest videogame I’m playing is Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii.
I’ve only ever played one Monster Hunter game before, and it was on the PSP. I’m really not a big fan of playing games on the PSP. The machine just feels bad in your hands. But the game was great, and was an impressive technical feat.
The Wii game is even better. I’ve only been inching into the game so far, stressing myself out about killing the lovely big herbivores at the start. Big peaceful creatures, then along comes you to fuck up their day, by clonking on their head with your oversized anime sword.
Who is the Monster? That’s what I ask you. WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER?!
Look at this scenery, though. Oh it’s nice to just relax and have a spit roast sometimes. Not in the footballer sense.
Jump, you monster!
As soon as you’re a little ways into singleplayer (I reccomend going until you’ve killed a few Great Jaggis and made a set of gear from them, and if you have a weapon that can block, the autoblock trinket the story gives you), you owe it to yourself to go online. That’s where the game really shines – it’s designed for co-op play from the ground up, and there’s a whole bunch of monsters that never appear in singleplayer at all.
Nice that you have the same character both on and offline, too. Taking your spoils from an evening of hunting with yer mates and using them to poke some eyes out around your home stomping ground of Moga Villiage is bloody satisfying.
Tis’ a fine, fine game. Can’t reccomend it highly enough. It’s also probably the single most hardcore game on the Wii. Difficulty comparison-wise, I’d say it’s up there with Demon’s Souls on the PS3. Brutal, unforgiving stuff. And that’s why it’s great, because it’s all down to your skill. Stats and numbers don’t matter nearly as much as your instinct and timing.
Lovely game.
I’m really just inching through it. I only have time to do a couple of hours every other night. Hopefully online will still be reasonably busy by the time I jump in.
The original PS2 Monster Hunter had a goodly-sized community right up until they shut the servers down. That’s pretty impressive, given how universally shite the PS2 online infrastructure was.
I don’t see MH3 drying up online anytime in the next few years.