Armored Core: The Most Bogus Series on the Planet; and other Updates

I've made it a habit of conquering some of the hardest games there have ever been. Among them have been Megaman games, Castlevania games, The Red Star, and several others that have been known to be near impossible. However, there is a type of game and crowd that I despise. It's something I call the Fraternity genre. This is a genre of games that are absolutely unbeatable without finding a needle-in-the-haystack glitch, or item that allows the game to be played. In games like these, those who stumble upon it, are so proud of themselves that they keep it as a hush secret amongst themselves, and enjoy watching newcomers give up one by one. Armored Core is such a series.

 I had the privilege of first experiencing this game around the age of 13 at a good friend's house, as we used to play games almost every day after school. In fact, he was an undercover tech head. He was into extremely sophisticated and complex games, usually revolving around military combat and espionage. I was drawn in slowly to the games, and I recall a few vividly as I watched him control and play a completely convoluted HUD, navigating through ambiguous missions effortlessly in these games. I was awe struck. I didn't really get into them myself until years later, when he was long gone. He sort of planted the seed. Armored Core was one of those games. The others were games like Space Griffon VF9, and some other game possibly Urban Strike related. When I got my Sega Saturn, I was a freshman in High School. It was 1998. That was some of the last times that me and my friend hung out. I believe we lost contact during the 10th grade. He was in high school in the Bronx, where I lived, but I was commuting to another school, so we hung out after school, which is still shocking because he lived pretty far from me. I remember having very fun memories of playing some games that were right up his alley, being that he groomed me into the genre. The same way he showed me and played Armored Core, I introduced him to Soviet Strike and Crusader: No Remorse, both of which really impressed him. I also brought a funny game over that I really loved starring the hated Kirk Cameron- The Horde. We both memorized the lines from that. I loved those days.

 When I got my own PS2 several years later, Armored Core  was one of the games I purchased immediately just off of nostalgia. I didn't really play it that time around. I didn't have the PS2 for long. In fact, looking back, I don't know why. I had a pretty good library. I had Final Fantasy 10, Hajime No Ippo, Armored Core, NBA Street, and King of Fighters. I think I traded for my Dreamcast, which I still have if I'm not mistaken. When I got my PSP at launch in 2005, not long after, I saw articles showing previews of an Armored Core game coming out. This was when Sony reared the beginnings of their atrocious advertising. The game was depicted like a mech simulator that was based off of Armored Core, with really good looking graphics, where you don't directly control your mech, but set it up to fight in an automated battle. Because of that misinformation, I declined to purchase it at first. It wasn't until later that I purchased a copy of Armored Core Last Raven for my PSP Go.

 I had it on tab to play later, as I was finishing games like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Prinny, and Killzone. All of those games were ridiculously hard, as you would know if you are a gaming enthusiast. I didn't get into Armored Core until a few years ago actually. I started the campaign, and then took a break. The controls are very unique for the PSP, as I heard, but I got used to them pretty quick. Building the mech is where the learning curve is. The thing is that you can't keep your mech exactly the same, yet you must maintain your overall ability to take on the harder stages towards the end. It's like a rubik's cube, which I was good at, then bad at in the past. First off, when I found out that Armored Core was a full on port, I was amazed that such a huge game was on the PSP. I've had to get used to the jargon of parts names, ammunition, and weapon types, and statistical  modifications of the Armored Core universe. Online, whenever I looked for help with the game, I would meed a message board of players who sound like a room of Brain Surgeons discussing breakthrough procedures. It's like staring at a floating island. There's no way on. I've done coding somewhat- also known as computer programming, and studied some of Stanford's courses, as well as online tutorials. I know frustration. There is nothing like pining sheets of code looking for the command error causing a program to crash or freeze. Yet, this game is somehow worse.

 Just when I thought I had the gist of the game, the complexity seemed to lose me again. The game has a AI system that adjusts to not only how you play, but the construction of you mech, making already difficult battles, just about impossible. When I looked online, I noticed that all Armored Core games have mechs that zip around the screen, and fire insanely powerful weapons non-stop at the enemy, all while staying airborne. You have no idea how difficult that is to do schematically. It's not the controls that are an issue. It's the limitations of the parts. Most of the advanced parts have to be found in the corners of stages in the game. Many are useless, or won't be found without being told where to look. The standard parts just don't get good enough to compete with the middle to late levels. It just leaves me wondering where the players who beat this game are getting the parts they have that allow them to fly constantly, have a huge sight scope, and move like flies around the level. Often, CPU enemies will do that, and I feel like my character is in the wrong game. Then, I remember that it's a fraternity game. Armored Core let's you carry over mech data throughout the series. If you just got on board, you're way behind in that regard.

 I hate, and covet fraternity games to a degree. Part of me likes the fact that games exist that only few can hang with. I enjoy it once I'm in. However, I loath having to learn something that I would never know on my own, in order to get by.


  Anyway on another note, my job is breaking me down mentally and physically. I actually almost fell asleep on the road today. It was a surreal moment waking up at the gas station. I went in and out of consciousness so many times on the road, I forgot I made it to the station, and was shocked when I woke up. I've been forgetting a lot lately due to overworking myself on these jobs. We'll see what happens. I've been working on some musical and art projects. I have a lot of ideas, and new techniques I want to employ musically and artistically. Much inspiration has come from my buddy Dave Chisholm's album Calligraphy. I've also been working on trying to complete some of these games that have. I'm the kind of person that refuses not to enjoy life. I don't care what work or trials come my way- I will make the most of what's in front of me. I just always hated to be that person that collects things that I never use. It bothers me to let books sit and collect on my shelves, ideas and notes remain in my logs or draft sheets, music to be left unfinished in my folders, and games to be piled up that I always wanted to play, but didn't. I'm continuing the Coming of Age project, which I've sort of decided will be accompanied by an album, which is really sounding good right now. However, with all that's going on, it is holding it up. I'll be updating soon.