Metal Gear Solid 4

Metal Gear Solid 4is supposed to be one of the smokin guns of PS3 exclusives, in a time where almost zero games are (or remain) platform exclusive. So many games are cross-platform or "timed" exclusives (how I hate the corporate BS that goes on behind the scenes here) now that you aren't really missing out on a whole lot by only owning one console (and I'm talking either PS3 or 360 here, of course). Myself being a PS3 fan, though I own and like both consoles, I was really hoping to be like 'well, but we have THIS', referring to MGS4 of course. And, MGS4 did sell a whole hell of a lot of PS3's here and in Japan.

However, I think MGS4 is an embarrassment to games.

Red Faction: Guerilla

Yes, I know I have been slacking on this here collection of words. Work has been pretty damn busy recently as I help usher in a new batch of blue people, and well, I'm too lazy to actually update at home. But anyway, here's some thoughts on/review of Red Faction: Guerilla.

Happy Video Games Day

Apparently, July 8th is Video Games Day. Didn't know that did you? Neither did I. No idea how this was started, or who even started it, but that certainly won't keep me from celebrating...
Check it out here!

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

The latest entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series of RPGs has arrived, and it is in a nicely portable form for the DS. This is the third game in the SMT series that I have played, and from what I have seen so far, this game looks like it is going to be great.

Hello there Cliché

Just got to the Pirate Ship level in Tales of Vesperia. Nothing cliché about that at all....

Class of Heroes Early Impressions

Class is in session at Particus Academy and I have created my party and have begun wandering around the first two dungeons in Class of Heroes. Here are some of my early impressions of the game as I take my first steps in this new dungeon crawling RPG from Atlus.

Not so Hellish after all

So, I finally beat Persona 3 Wednesday night (full review to come soon!). So, check one off the list.
So, last night I was ready for my next PS2 RPG romp, Ar Tonelico II. This game intrigued me when I first read about it on RPGGamer. It is a bit hard to explain the premise without having played it for myself yet, but it focuses a lot on character interaction, and the main character (you) getting to know your faerie/angel/songstress part members better by "diving" into their minds. Also, the battle system seems to involve you actively blocking during a "Defense" mode. So, I was intrigued, and wanted to try it out, even though I expected not to "stick it out" for the long haul like I did with Persona 3. I was quite unhappy with the next turn of events.

I put it in my PS3, and wait for the game's intro to start up and lead me through some gratuitous anime introduction with some quirky J-Pop playing over it (I've been spoiled by Tales of Vesperia and Persona 3, what can I say). But, as I busy myself with the laptop on... my lap, I notice the screen is still black. Odd. Maybe I wasn't paying attention and didn't start the game like I had thought. Restart, reload. Still nothing comes up except the "Playstation 2" splash screen. Take the game out. Some minor scratches, nothing big. Clean it anyway, try it again. Still nothing. Argh, wtf? Is the game just broken? Obviously it has been played before, so what is up. Did it suddenly go defective?

None of the above. After some searching on the interwebs, come to find out, Ar Tonelico II is incompatible with my 80gb PS3. Sigh. What the hell?
Apparently, since my 80gb model uses software emulation for PS2 games, not all games work. Earlier 60gb PS3 models used hardware emulation, so all PS2 games worked on them. But since Sony switched to software emulation, only like 80% actually works. So upset. The original Ar Tonelico works on the PS3, but not II. Ugg. I am sick of Sony's policies on backwards compatibility. At first the PS3 was, then it kind of was, and now the current models aren't at all. I understand that I do own a PS2 (it is currently residing up at Meghan's, serving as a DVD player :-p), and new ones are only $100 now, but all of Sony's SKU hopping is about the only thing I hate about the PS3. It annoyed me when the PS3 was first released, and how Sony kept introducing new models and discontinuing old ones. It is like if you were an early adopter, you get screwed in the long run for having an "inferior" model (smaller HD). And now, they drop BC. BC should be able to convenience. I love playing my games on the PS3. The bluetooth controllers, the slick interface, virtual memory cards, I love all of it. I want my PS2 games too!
I realize that was a bit of a rant, but yea, needless to say, I was a bit annoyed. So, back went Ar Tonelico II. I realize I can still play it, but this just kind of relieves some of the RPG backlog. Maybe I will try to snag the first game instead. For now I will just keep playing Tales of Vesperia, Class of Heroes, and maybe give DDS another shot.

Hell just got a little cooler.

Class of Heroes Incoming! I'm in RPG Hell

So, if you have been a faithful follower of my blog... and I know there are literally like two of you (<3), you might know that I have been anticipating the release of Class of Heroes for a while now. Class of Heroes is the newest dungeon crawling RPG from Atlus, in the spirit of Etrian Odyssey and Wizardry.

I saw the game was sent from Gamefly today, so I have been buzzing all day about it. I read the review from RPGGamer, then reread the reviewer's blog about it, where he detailed his adventures as he went through the game. I am really excited for the class system in this game. There are 15 different classes in the game, and you can only have 6 party members at a time. But, at anytime you can have a character switch "majors", as they are called in this game, which lets them keep all of their stats, but halves their maximum HP. They also carry over spells and abilities previously learned, as long as the new class can use them. The possibilities for customization seem endless, and you could presumably have one character explore every class available. That is what these games are all about, the customization and exploration. They aren't meant to tell a grand tale of adventure... they leave that part up to you.

Also.. I'm in RPG hell right now. I am about to finally beat Persona 3, but still have to push through. I have Ar Tonelico II sitting in its Gamefly sleeve on my floor, patiently waiting for me to beat Persona 3 so I can play it. I also am currently playing through Tales of Vesperia, at about the 18 or so hour mark, if I remember correctly. So that's three RPGs I'm currently playing, with Class of Heroes on the way from Gamefly. It took me an entire year to beat P3, and I rarely finish even one RPG at a time. How am I going to juggle all of this? Yes, I know, the woes of existence. Did I also mention that I have Persona 4 purchased and still in its plastic wrap, waiting to be played? And that now that I have P3 (almost) beat, I want to go back and give SMT:Digital Devil Saga (which I bought waaaay back when it was first released) a more fair chance, now that I have been introduced to the Shin Megami Tensei world? So make that six RPGs in my life. Not counting I am currently playing DAoC. Delicious hell.

The Future of DAoC

So, the Camelot team has announced their fix to DAoC's segmented population. Background info for those who aren't aware, DAoC currently has 3 clusters and 2 "other" server. Recently, people have flocked to the Devon cluster from the two other clusters, resulting in one mega cluster and two almost dead clusters. People have been clamoring for character transfers. Also, their "other" servers, one PvE only and one PvP only, barely have 100 players combined (and the PvP one usually doesn't break into the TEENS for population). So, obviously, the fragmented playerbase is a big problem. I love their fix (you prob need to read the above link to understand what the fix is...), and below is my post in the VN boards discussion

Bravo to Lori and the remaining DAoC team.

This is exactly what EA Mythic as a company failed to do with Warhammer. Warhammer catered to every single feedback point (whine) that the players from DAoC had, and they didn't make a game with their own vision. It was a watered down version of everything that made DAoC great, and it blew.
Here, Lori and Co. took a DAoC community issue and did something totally unexpected that will work out better for everyone in the long run, they didn't just do exactly as the players said they wanted (transfers to Devon). They took feedback and made a decision on their own, that they knew as developers would be the best for the game. This took balls. Lori and Co. should be running EA Mythic, they have the balls to do what is necessary, and not tiptoe around the whiny minority. Again, Bravo for these changes.

A few tidbits:
- The Gaheris/Mordred merge is very interesting to me, and I think in the end, with enough population mind you, this will be amazing. The Gaheris crowd will get a few more people to dance around the flowers with.... and the Molvik Open PvP could end up being bats--- insanity with enough 8 mans running around, which is exactly what Open PvP should be imo: balls out insanity and fun. It will be a nice distraction for people to hop and enjoy a break from normal RvR (and while they are waiting out realms timers...)

- I hope the realm timers are at the very least an hour. It will force people to think about what side they want to play for their next extended play session. No realm hopping garbage.

- Did I mention great job Lori and Co.?

That was my post. I also forgot to mention that I hope Origins doesn't get released, but methinks that it is coming, due to Lori's "stay tuned" comment. I would rather have this one server utopia that is coming, and not further segment the players, which will result in a faster collapse down the road, IMO. What any game in its later years needs is a very tight-knit community. If Origins is released, then said community will be split in two, and will constantly be at odds about the future direction of DAoC. With one server, the community will be unified (as unified as people in an MMO ever are...).

So, here's to hoping we don't get Origins after this.

Tomb Raider: Underworld Epilogue

So, I tried to play more of Tomb Raider:Underworld last night. I began running around the next level, which was happily devoid of water. Then, the massive octopus creature made its return, smashing walls down around me. Oh hell yes, I thought, let's do this!

I was quickly disappointed. The cutscene ends with Lara pointing out this incredibly obvious spiked rock chandelier thing hanging from a chain right above the creature's head. The eight legged monstrosity then proceeds to FUCKING SIT THERE while you clumsily navigate your way around the top ledge of the chamber the thing is idly sitting in, waiting for you to crush his skull with the outrageously convenient spiked dangling thing. This is especially annoying when you just witnessed an awesome cutscene where it was demonstrated that A.) The octopus knows you are there, because you just had a stare down with it, B.) it can easily reach you, and C.) it could easily crush the life out of you on a whim, if it so desired. This menacing beast could have been an awesome boss fight, with you jumping around avoiding tentacles and possibly diving into the water (shudder) to shoot it with your harpoon. Nope, it will just sit there while you crush its head. Sigh. Needless to say, this game is already in the mail back to Gamefly.

I hate when games do this. This is exactly what i hated about Devil May Cry 4. You would watch a cutscene where the new Dante (whatever his name was) approaches a bunch of baddies, and you get pumped for a big fight. But the cutscene doesn't stop there... you then get to watch as he slaughters the group of enemies all badass-like. Then you come out of the cutscene and are allowed to solve some inane fucking puzzle. I don't want to be cock teased by my games... I want to actually PLAY them. These games could learn a lot from God of War, which started its series much later than either Tomb Raider and Devil May Cry. It gives you the cutscene of the big baddie approaching, shows you the obvious "way to kill it" (sometimes), but then the boss processes to try and kill you while you do the same. But the thing is it actually lets you rip the head off of the boss rather than just having you watch.

More manual head ripping in games please. Thanks. I now patiently await while Gamefly hopefully sends me Prototype on Monday. While waiting I will hopefully beat Persona 3 finally (86.5 hours and counting).

A whole bunch of crap and Children of Bodom in GH5

The full list of bands that will be in Guitar Hero 5 has been released.

The list contains a whole lot of what we have come to expect from music games now. Crap. A whole lot of awful bands, mixed with a smattering of not awful bands, most of which we have seen before, like Iron Maiden and Megadeth. Children of Bodom is the only new band in GH that I am excited before. CoB was released as DLC for Rock Band 2, but RB blows, so I am counting Bodom as new since I haven't played them in GH yet. But, I most likely won't be getting this anyway. the guitar game genre has quickly been milked into the ground by both Activision and Harmonix, and the whole genre isn't exciting anymore. Hell, I haven't even gotten around to grabbing GH:Metallica yet since Meghan and I are just so bored with these games. We will just has to cherish the memories of GH1-3 until something new and fresh comes along.

Tomb Raider: Underworld

Oh Tomb Raider, how long it has been. I haven't dove (/cringe... more later) into a TR game since TR3 on the PS1. I used to love the old Tomb Raider games and experiences. They were a perfect mix of puzzle solving/platforming and action. However, lately the Tomb Raider franchise has descended into irrelevancy, as attempts to "reinvent" itself have failed. So, how does the latest game in the series fare?

Not so well. Eidos continues to struggle to relive the series' glory days, and developer Crystal Dynamics doesn't seem to really know what made Tomb Raider so magical all those years ago.
On the surface, Tomb Raider is about exploration. The premise is that you are some rich, um.., tomb raider who goes off on various adventures searching for lost artifacts for whatever the current reason in, and usually ends up pissing off some ancient deity or bastard evil doers in the process. So, we have exploration, and we have combat. What really made Tomb Raider great back in the day was the pacing of the game. In the first game,while on your plundering excursion you would emerge or a cave or water passage or whathaveyou and some wolf or bear would be there, waiting to unceremoniously attack you. This is what I loved about the games. There was no warning or Resident Evil-esque cutscene or scare music. It wasn't like some switch was flipped to let you know that is was ok to panic now. Nope, one second you are trying to find your way through some cave network, the next you have a wolf chomping on your leg. The second game nailed the action/exploration balance. In TR2 you fought a lot more human enemies, and you had much more combat tools at your disposal. The game was great for getting your heart pumping with a fire fight with 5 bad guys or a high speed boat chase through Venice, and then letting you catch your breath afterward as you worked your way through the level.

However, from my couple hours with Underworld, it seems the action/exploration balance has be ousted for more full on exploration. It reminds me a lot of Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed now. So much potential in the game engine, but wasted on boring, uninspired "puzzle" worlds.

The game starts as we'd expect, with Lara's mansion. But, just as you hit 'Start Game' you see Lara's mansion explode. I see what you are trying to do here Crystal Dynamics. Start the game off with a "bang". Try to get people excited they are Tomb Raider again. Ok, let's see what you got. You then lead Lara through her burning house, reacquainting yourself with the classic Tomb Raider controls, along with learning some new tricks. All of the typical actions seem to be here. We have the standards like run, jump, wall grab and shimmy. What I notice is that Lara's iconic hopping backstep is gone, in favor of a more typical slow backstep. Sad. This may have been tossed a long time ago, but since I haven't played TR since Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation demo on the Dreamcast, I'm going to say it is new. Lara definitely controls a lot smoother than in her older games. It is nice to see, but something inside of me still misses the old, clunky controls, much like many people still prefer the old school Resident Evil controls, as unintuitive as they were.
Anyway, Lara now also has a grappling hook to use. Originally I thought this was going to be simply for swinging, but in the first level she used to it hook onto the head of a snake statue and bring it crashing down onto a puzzle platform. Nice touch.

Ok, so I finish the flaming mansion introduction. I am ready for some classic Tomb Raider action. However, I am disappointed to learn the first level of the game is a MOTHERFUCKING UNDERWATER SWIMMING LEVEL. As you kidding me Crystal Dynamics? Someone needs to take a bat to the head of your game designer. Underwater swimming levels are always terrible and frustrating, but they are forgivable later in the game for a change of pace as long as they remain short. Not right off the bat before people have had a chance to settle in to the controls. Sigh, I almost want to quit even before I finish the level. It isn't even a linear level. You have the open space of ocean floor awaiting you, and you have to find these different caves that have the keys you need to open the door in this main temple. All underwater. Sigh. As to be expected, there are shark enemies, but there are only 2, and they don't put up any fight at all. You see them coming from a mile away and you simple lock on to them and shoot them with your harpoon. Underwater enemies are supposed to be a pain in the ass to kill, which adds to the frustration of the underwater level, but in a tolerable way. The frustrating thing here isn't the sharks after my flesh, but the fact that I can barely see in this underwater hell and I need to explore these hard to find caves. Sigh.

So I finally find the keys I need, and eventually I am led to a cave where I can actually get out of the water. Nice. Maybe I'll find some odd underwater creature waiting to chomp on me. Nope. Just your typical platforming BS before I get to the door of the next level. The only exciting thing in the entire level was coming around a bend in the water cave and seeing an octopus leg slide out of the opening in front of you. This actually got my heart racing for a bit, hoping for a fight, but I didn't see my tentacled friend again for the rest of the level. Disappointing. I'm assuming maybe I'll see it in the next level, but for now I'm left with a bitter taste in my mouth. Probably from the salt water. I almost sent the game back to Gamefly right then, but I decided I wanted to get a little more playtime with it, to see if maybe the combat can help save the experience. I will update when/if I play the next level, but for now it looks like Lara has fully gone the way of the hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog that is... who has fallen into similar irrelevancy).

Demon's Souls

Amidst my actually busy/productive day I work, I found some really good news at Kotaku and wanted to share quickly.
Demon's Souls is coming to North America.

This is a game that has been talked about a lot by the import crowd over at Kotaku, and a lot of people have raved about its amazingness. So much so that it seems many people have taken to importing the Asian region version of the game, which includes an English language option. Hell, I even tried snooping around to see if I could find a copy, but that version has been hard to find for a while. Well, that won't be necessary anymore. North American PS3 owners will be able to walk/run/hop down to their local Gamestop this fall to grab this game.

So, why all the hype? Well, Demon's Souls, on paper, seems to be the action-RPG of everyone's dreams. The best way I can think of to describe it is the character customization and go-anywhere feel of Oblivion, mixed with the online-multiplayer (cooperative and PvP) aspects of Diablo, with the atmosphere of King's Field (i.e. medieval fantasy). (This game is, after all, the spiritual successor to King's Field). The atmosphere and the graphical style of the game have me the most excited. This game just looks dark and grim, and if they can pull off a mature story without it being too corny or bland, people could be playing this game for years to come.

So, needless to say, I am excited to see what this game brings to the table. If it is a polished/smooth experience, I'm on board. If it is as buggy/clunky as Oblivion, I think it will be a disaster when bugginess is combined with network lag. Reviews overseas have been great, but we'll see if the American version remains as polished.
I'm trying to remain cautious because games like this are usually a let down, or are just not engaging to me. I hope this game really delivers, as I have been waiting for a big PS3 exclusive game to really blow me away again ever since Heavenly Sword.

And now, moving pictures for your enjoyment:

Deadpoolicious

Deadpool is making a return in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I'm giddy. I still think I need to play the first game, especially since I'm currently catching up on 4 years of Marvel comics storylines, so I'm feeling Marvel-tastic right now.

Kotaku has posted an all Deadpool trailer for MUA2, and it is pretty delicious. It really looks like they have spent a lot of time making it so Deadpool can play like Deadpool instead of just another mindless beat 'em up character that most of the characters probably will be. Guess we will see in September...


Facebook fans can click here to see the video!

Are long games dead?

Good read on the fate of long games over at Sexy Videogameland.

My thoughts:

I find it sad that I live in a world where the term "JRPG" is now a dirty word. I let out a slow sigh when reviewers use the fact that an RPG is "old school" as a knock against it. I think it is a trait to be praised nowadays when everything has to have fancy "next-gen" battle systems that are just a giant mess.

I think RPG companies (especially Squeenix...) need to get back to basics and strip out all the fancy graphics and cut scenes and just focus on making the gameplay solid again. Persona 3 didn't have fancy graphics or overly long/abundant cutscenes. Just solid gameplay that keeps me coming back for more (hour 82 and counting...). Then once they have relearned how to make a solid "game", then they can add all the bells and whistles back in slowly, without sacrificing the game.

Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is sort of a "re-imagining" of the series for modern consoles. As far as I know, it doesn't have any/much relation to last generation's series of games, but I never got around to playing those. This new game in the franchise doesn't give me any motivation to change that fact.

You star as an acrobatic dude with a claw, who is followed around by some girl with magic powers whose father has just released Ahriman (the god of darkness and bad stuff) from his eternal prison under a tree. While that seems like a basic overview of the story... that is the only story that is revealed in the first 2 hours or so of the game. Oh, there is some random flashback/dream thing. I don't even know why the acrobatic hero guy is helping the random girl. She isn't even good looking. It was like she fell on him, then magically he had some unbreakable bond compelling him to do her dirty work. She is trying to banish the god Ahriman back to his tree prison before he destroys the world. Her father released Ahriman, for whatever reason that has yet to be explained other than we wouldn't have a game to play without trying to save the world.

The world you are trying to save is also... empty. So far the only inhabitants in the world are you, the girl, her dad, and like 4 random goons you beat up. That is it. It is basically a giant empty playground for your acrobatics stunts. Does Ubisoft really think gamers are that slave-minded where they will just do anything to save the world even if it would only result in like 2 deaths? (the dad doesn't count, he released it ffs).

The gameplay is every coma-inducing adventure game cliche you can think of rolled into one package. We have jumping, double/long jumping, ledge hanging, vine grappling, wall running, pole swinging, pole sliding, wall sliding, roof running... you get the idea. And these things aren't even broken up by fighting. Fights are so far and few between they end up feeling like mini games. The focus of this game is obviously on the "acrobatic" adventure moves, which have already gotten tedious after 2 hours. I can't imagine I would be sane after finishing this game...

This is a shame because the fightsjavascript:void(0) are actually fun, and incredibly cinematic. This is what fights in these types of games should be like, acrobatic and fancy with lots of flair. You really have to see these fights in action to fully appreciate how good they look. And after searching around for a bit, I didn't really find any nice videos... so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Either way, fights are not the main focus of this game. The exploration is. So, either you like to explore a nice looking world just for the sake of exploration (and "saving" it), or you don't. If you do, this game is for you. But I found it incredibly boring. Maybe if there was more motivation to do anything, it would be a bit more compelling. As is, however, I just don't care, and definitely don't want to put up with annoying cliche adventure elements to get through it.

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits tracklist isn't.... horrible?

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is yet another game in the Guitar Hero franchise, full of songs you have already played. However, these songs are being re-released with full band support, updated song charts, and now all songs are master tracks (oh the good ole days of horrible cover songs from GH1...).

The tracklist isn't nearly as awful as I was expecting, but certainly not as good as I hoped. See the full tracklist here.
No "Six", no "Light That Blinds"... but definitely some decent songs on there I wouldn't mind playing again with updated song charts. But, with that said, I probably won't ever get around to buying it. GHIV definitely reached maximum milking overdrive, and I think most people who have been around since the first game are a bit tired of the series, especially now as it incorporates more "family friendly" songs. Yet another beloved game/movie/comic fucked over by the mainstream machine. Sad.

One other thing... why can't either Activision or Harmonix get away from boring crap like The Donnas - "Take It Off" and Pat Benatar - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". Who the hell likes to play these songs? 40 year old moms who pick up the game once for a quick play to see what all the fuss is about? They are boring as hell, and to me they don;t add in anything to the experience besides annoyance that I am forced to play through them to advance. If those 3 or so songs were replaced by any other songs from GH1-3, this setlist would be so much better.

Persona 3 is awesome and you should play it

So, in case I haven't mentioned before, Persona 3 is awesome. I will be writing a full review of it soon, once I finally finish the beast (I'm sitting at about hour 73 at the moment). I suggest you don't wait for me to finish it, just go out there and buy it right now, if you a fan of RPGs at all. Don't let the fact that is on the PS2 scare you... it is far better than any attempt at an RPG on a current gen console, I assure you.


Some other game ramblings:
I'm excited for Sacred 2's console release coming up in a week (May 12th). Not only does it include an in-game performance from Blind Guardian, but it is apparently a pretty damn good hack 'n slash as well (yes, that means it is "like Diablo"). I'm hoping to give it a whirl online with some friends, and also subjecting Meghan to it until she rolls her eyes at me when I ask her if she wants to play it :-p.

I am also equally excited about Class of Heroes, which is set to finally release in early June. It was delayed from an early April release, which made me sad, but hopefully this extra time just means it going to be perfect (I can only hope right?). Class of Heroes is a dungeon crawling RPG, much akin to Atlus' other recent RPG Etrian Odyssey (and yes, Wizardry). I thought Etrian Odyssey II was great, but it lacked a bit of depth in the class system (or maybe I just missed it?). Basically, there wasn't much to look forward to after most of the classes hit a certain level, and with no storyline, so things got boring. Class of Heroes looks like it is oging to have more depth, and will also remove the sometimes neat/sometimes annoying map making system from EO. I'm hoping to get a bit more mileage out of my PSP with this one :).

Gaming in the Month of April

So yes, I know I have not made a meaningful update here in a while. Mostly it is because my gaming experiences for the past month or so have been mostly minor, not really necessitating their own update. But, the minor updates have been piling up, so I thought I'd pack them all into one, hopefully not entirely horrible to read, post.

So here goes:

Tales of Vesperia update


Tales has been coming along quite well. The story has remained quite interesting, even verging on compelling and intelligent. There was one major plot point I had expected to go its usual cliched way, but it seems the characters in Vesperia are a but more intelligent than normal RPG fare.
The thing that has surprised me the most about Vesperia is its continuing evolution of the battle system. Most games like to dump every convoluted aspect of the battle system on you right at the start, and it is up to you to figure it out and gradually learn its ins and outs. Most of the time, this is ok since battle systems in most RPGs aren't all that complicated. However, it is usually a bad idea when they are either incredibly complicated or confusing (see: Inifinite Undiscovery). In Tales, the game gives you the basic system to start out with in order to sink your teeth into a sizable chunk. Once you are comfortable with the basic system, it gives you the "Overdrive" meter, which is comparable to a Limit Break in the later Final Fantasy games, but instead of pulling off a predetermined super move that you just sit back andv watch, Overdrive mode lets you pull off all of your normal combos, but now they are super-powered and much faster. If used wisely, they can really help you rip through a tough boss, especially when used multiple times in a fight.
Ok, so now you have Overdrive to use. Not really game changing, but you can unleash hell on your enemies every so often. So you continue on with the game, and then are met with the One Shot Kill moves. One Shot Kill moves become available once you have used enough Artes (special atttacks/spells) of the same type on an enemy. now your Artes are classified into three types, which you didn't know before, and you are trying to continually beat on tough enemies with same color/type of Arte in order to do a cool One Shot Kill.
So there's that. Then you are faced with Burst Artes. Then they add Limit Duo. You get the picture. The battle system keeps become more and more complex, but they way they space out each addition is perfectly executed. You start to feel comfortable with the battle system, maybe even bored, then they give you something else to consider. I know this is seen in a lot of games, but it is pulled off so well in Vesperia that it is really worth mentioning since it is pulled off so well, and usually RPGs aren't as good at executing this progression as action or platform games. Kudos to the Tales Team.


Final Fantasy VI

More RPG love! So, I never really played Final Fantasy VI. Blasphemy to some, I know. I have started it a couple of time before, as I own the Final Fantasy Anthology collection of V and VI for PSX. But other games always kept getting in the way, and PSX had so many good RPGs I was always busy with new games. But now, I have put FFVI on my PSP, and I have given it a true go.
Immediately I see why this is such a fan favorite. I love the characters so far. I love how Kefka, the main villian, is seen right from the start. None of this 'the true foe only reveals himself at the final hour' BS seen in some games. Kefka is there being evil (and really fucking goofy) right from minute one. I also really like the ability to pick different character paths as you go along. I love having multiple storylines to jump in and out of (oh how I miss you SaGa Frontier....). I really wish they would do this in more FF games. (There are rumors that FFXIII might do this, but I am doubtful...). At the start you have all of these characters from completely different backgrounds coming together, and it really works well here. Sometimes its corny, but that is really some of the charm. And also, it has the "built-in" class system as seen in FFIV, FFIX and FFXII, where the classes are there, but you can't change any of the character's classes. I love the class system in any form, and even though it isn't a true class system, I'll settle for the built-in. I might have to play FFV after this one in order to get a class fix. Anyway, I hope to continue to rectify this gaping hole in my gaming resume over the new few months.


The end of WoW

Yep, it has happened (again). I have canceled my WoW account. I am done (again). The game is just getting old. Not necessarily in an "aged" sort of way, but old in a repetitive sense. The last two expansions have been the same deal. Get to the new max level, grind instances, grind heroic versions of the same instances, grind rep with various factions, get into a raiding guild to start raiding, etc. It is a lot of grinding. Yes, I know that is a large part of MMOs, but adding new bosses and locations doesn't keep things fresh for me. I need some compelling part of the game, and PvP is just a mess now. Wintergrasp is a giant buggy clusterfuck at all times, and the Arena has always been built around having the "perfect" group. That and the fact that the Enhancement Shaman that I have loved through the best and worst of times is completely worthless in PvP, and barely relevant in PvE. I always feel like the retarded step child, and having to always be pumping DPS as hard as possible just to compete wears on a player. Death Knights are so stupid... I support adding new classes, but this is the wrong way to do it. Ugg. I'm done before I get too bitchy about DKs.
Anyway, WoW has gotten too boring for me, and this time I realy don't think I'm going back. Now that I raided again and saw what it was like in the "new" WoW, I;ve gotten my fix, and I'm going to move on.

Dark Age of Camelot
And by "move on" I mean go back to playing Dark Age of Camelot. Oh Cammy, how I love thee. I don't think i will ever get over DAoC. Everytime I go back it is just like yea, this feels right. The game mechanics just work so well for me. This was before WoW came along and mandated MMOs have to run as smooth as an adventure game. In DAoC, it feels like I'm an actual person running around a large world. Casters feel vulnerable. I know if that mob or player hits me, I need to do everything in my power to get away from it. None of this 'oh if the mob hits me its fine, my cast bar goes down'. No, if someone is stabbing you in the face, you can't very well cast a spell. Tanks have a lot of defense, but not a whole lot of offense. Melee combat can feel like a chess game at times. You are waiting for that block or parry to really put a hurting on the mob. I think they really nailed the combat machanics in this game, and while they probably don't agree with the first-person shooter/action game crowd, I think it is for the better.
Not much has changed since my last brief foray into DAoC. Now they have just made things easier for players. Gear isn't as hard to get, leveling is a breeze, and you get a lot more money now. RvR is still as fun, though we haven't gotten into it much yet, still leveling up now that we have actually figured out where we are going to play. nothing is more satisfying than rolling over a group of Hibs :).


So there you have it, that's what I have been up to this month. I know it has been boring around here, but I am going to try and post more in the coming months. I am going to try to block out a part of the day to devote to blogging, so stay tuned!

Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is an upcoming PSP fighting game, where you fight as various past FF characters again one another. A fighting game tie-in to a major game franchise isn't anything new to gaming (and Square also did it before on the PS1 with the somewhat decent Ergheiz), but damn, this looks like it could be EPIC.



Yea, it is just a trailer, but ME DO WANT. Pretty sure I won't touch anyone else other than Sephiroth for a long time... then Cecil probably. Coming this summer!

Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 was just announced, and it will be out by the end of this year.

Sweet mother of god, YES. I have been waiting for this forever. The first two Max Payne games were so good. The original Max Payne originated the whole "bullet-time" concept in gaming, which has been copied to death sense, and the addition of rag doll physics in MP2 kept me replaying sequences over and over again just to keep coming up with cooler ways to kill people. (No, videogames are NOT desensitizing our society.....).


I like the original Max Payne a bit better for the story and the grittier feel to it. Also, the gun sounds have much more OOMPH to them. (Play the second one right after the first and you will see what I'm saying... it actually makes a big difference in atmosphere for me). But, MP2 was great as well, not only for the aforementioned rag doll fun, but also the environments were a bit more varied. Either way, both games were a good time.

A year or two before Max Payne came out, I had dreamed of having an action game that was actually like an action movie, where you could actually dive around while shooting. Like diving over tables and counters while still putting a bullet between the eyes of the baddie. Max Payne mad all my dreams come true, and it is still my favorite action game of all time. Do want MP3.

I think a replay of both games is in order sometime soon....

Bioshock 2

This just in:

You play as a Big Daddy.

In fact, you're the first of the lot, a so-called "renegade" Big Daddy who's on the hunt for a Little Sister of his own, according to a tipster who has the new Game Informer magazine in hand. You'll take out rival Daddies with your huge hand-drill and plasmid powers, claiming their wee sidekicks as your own. Similar to the first BioShock, you can choose to either harvest your Little Sister prize for ADAM or you can adopt her as your own.

....


....


OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

DO WANT NOW PLEASE


Source from Kotaku

Tales of Vesperia Early Impressions

Finally Gamefly has decided to bestow upon me Tales of Vesperia. This has created for quite the Xbox 360 renaissance in my life. My sugar daddy Fat Jay bought me a year's worth of Xbox Live randomly (heart), so I play Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 with him and Jim during the first part of my west coast evening, the play Vesperia after they head to bed. Who would of thought I would be playing 360 again anytime soon.

Anyway, Tales of Vesperia is the latest in the long line of Tales game, starting with Tales of Phantasia originally on the SNES. The next game was Tales of Destiny on the PSX, and I briefly played this with Jim. The PSX Tales game allowed for 2 players to control a character during battles, so I hopped in randomly and played the battles during his play through. Mostly I remember delicious 2D chaos from Destiny 1 and 2. The only other game I've played in the Tales series was Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube. I picked it up used about a year and a half ago, since I was looking for an RPG at the time and I read it was the best yet of the Tales series. Mostly I enjoyed the characters and the fast-paced battle system, but the story was too bland to keep me interested past 10 hours or so. And apparently the same can be said for most of the Tales series. Great battle system, hilarious characters and dialogue (complete with lots of voice acting), but bland, cliche story and setting.

And it was this sameness that hit me like a truck in Vesperia. The world map looks exactly the same, the battles look the same, menus, etc. Hell, one character in your party even has the SAME EXACT face as the main character from tales of Symphonia. Sure anime faces aren't hugely varied, but I mean, come on. So, my first reaction was one of disappointment. I was hoping for something new and fresh, in look and feel at least, from last generation's RPG. But then I was thinking to myself, isn't this exactly the same thing that Final Fantasy does? I mean Final Fantasy 3-6 had the same looking over world, menus, character design, etc. Even the newer games continue to use some of the same elements, even if they are more varied. But, I usually don't fault the FF series for that because I am a fan and I am expecting those things. I am looking for that familiar comfort zone, along with the new characters and story. So, taking this perspective on tales, it has begun to grow on me.

Let's start with the best part. The graphics. This is by far the best use of gaming's often maligned 'cel-shading' techniques. This game looks gorgeous, and screenshots of cutscenes look extremely close to a still of an actual hand drawn animation. It is really a treat to just watch this game, especially since I'm a fan of anime. There are also actual anime cutscenes in the game, which mix hand drawn animation and 3D graphics. There really isn't that much a difference between the hand drawn characters and the in-game characters. Kudos to the artists and developers.

Not only do the characters look good, but they are actually interesting (and hilarious). Sure, their back stories may be cliche... you have the anti-hero main character, his faithful "dog" companion, the sheltered princess, and the plucky, sometimes angry other female. But, their interaction with each other, along with the great voice acting, is what really makes them special. You actually get the feeling that this is how an actual group of teenagers would interact with one another, as they are also joking and poking fun at one another. Too many RPGs forget the humor entirely, or fail miserably at it. Luckily, Vesperia gets it right, and you actually start to grow attached to the characters. Which is important when the overarching story is a bit dull. Admittedly, this one is presented much better than Symphonia's, and I have gotten into the story a little bit. Hopefully it picks up nicely and doesn't get dull in the middle.

Now on to the other main draw of the Tales series, the battle system. Again, you can see enemies on the field, and avoid/engage them to your heart's content. The battles are real-time, with no turns to be had. And they can be hectic with your 4 characters battling 5 or more enemies at once, all pulling off skills and combos with abandon. The battles are fast and fun, and you are constantly awarded with new "Artes", which seem to unlock randomly during battle. A fun battle system that actually makes you want to grind in an RPG is always a good thing. I do have one gripe with the system though. Now, I haven't played any of the Tales games between Symphonia (Legendia and Abyss), but the system seems to have taken a step back in the fluidity department. In Symphonia, the transition between attacking, blocking, and jumping was all fluid, if I recall correctly. I remember jumping around like a mad man, especially with flying enemies. Now, there is a noticeable delay between attacking and blocking. Once you finish your combo, you have to wait for the character to do this annoying sword flip over his shoulder animation to finish before you can block. But of course, enemies can attack you as soon as you are done hitting them, so it is annoying to attack then block, as was standard in Symphonia. Most of the time, I get hit back before I can block. So if I want to block an attack, I am best served by holding block until the enemy gets around to attacking me. Not too fun. So mostly I just attack everything in sight as fast as I can and just let the healing character stand in the back and heal me. it works fine, but it would be nice to actually block something between attacks every once in a while. Boss fights can be annoying because of this, since you need to block some attacks. not sure why this step back was taken.
Also, in order to jump, you first need to block, and then press up on the analog stick. Also, I think I have managed to jump forward once, because it is such a pain to get the right motion. I could have just been imagining jumping forward too, since I've never been able to replicate it. So, you can just jump straight up. Pretty useless in what is basically a free-motion fighting game. Combine this with the aforementioned headaches with blocking, and it pretty much takes jumping out of the game for me. Sad when it would be so nice to jump into the middle of a group of enemies and go to town. Again, this was possible in Symphonia, so not sure why they made it such a headache here.

Other points of note:
The cooking menu is confusing. Basically, you collect ingredients throughout your travels, and find recipes in order to make food for your party after battles, with various effects like restoring health or raising attack power for the next battle. . That is all well and good, but the menu you use to set up cooking is confusing as hell, and not explained at all. I think you can set a specific character to cook certain recipes, since you have the option of making 4 right after the battle. So, in theory you can assign a different person to each recipe, or have the same person make them all. This is important because using certain chars to make certain recipes unlocks new recipes. This would all be well and good, but sometimes random characters who I don't want making a certain recipe make it, even though I have another character seemingly assigned in the cooking menu. It isn't clear, and kind of frustrating. I want Yuri making Rice Balls, not Karol DAMMIT.

The minimap is pretty damn hard to see when on the world map. I wish RPG developers would remember some people in this world don't have 50-inch HD TVs. Infinite Undiscovery had the same issues, only much worse.

This game makes me lol consistently. Post battles exchanges are pretty damn funny, even after 100 times. We'll see how they hold up after I've played for 30 hours.

Aside from Artes, which are spells and melee combos, their are Skills in the game, which are mostly passive buffs. The Skills system is ripped directly from Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where equipment has certain skills attached to it, and after a few battles, you learn the skill permanently and can then move on to a different piece of equipment with new skills. I don't mind the rip-off, since the system from FFIX is my favorite RPG skills system ever. Combine that with a weapon crafting system (again ripped from various other RPGs), and you have quite the enjoyable Skills system, even if we have seen it before.


So, Tales of Vesperia is growing on me. I'm not very far in yet, but I can see this being good. As long as the story keeps me mildly entertained, the battles and characters can fill in the rest. I'd like to actually finish an RPG once in a while...

Drugs Are Bad

In case you didn't know, drugs are bad. Specifically, weed is bad. If you don't believe me, you might want to check out how weed can affect your gaming....

Drunk Japanese man Explains Mario in English

Kotaku found this hilarious video of a Japanese man playing a GameBoy version of Super Mario Bros., while drunk and explaining what he is doing in English. Well, the suspect he is drunk anyway. He could also just be very Japanese. They do crazy things.




WEAPON! WEAPON! WAAAOOOOOOOOOOO

Slumdog Millionaire

Overrated.

/Discuss

League of Legends

So, this one is for Jim.

The creators/developers of DotA are making their own full-fledged game.

......

Are your pants back on Jim? Ok good.

So, the game is called League of Legends (wonderfully abbreviated by LoL... best part of the game imo) and is basically its own standalone DotA game. The developers said they wanted to make their own game so they did not have to be constrained by the Warcraft III framework, which at its core is still an RTS game. I suspect that this will either be every DotA fanboy's dream come true, or seen as a horrible travesty. My guess is there will be a split camp of people who switch to LoL and snobs who want to stay DotA purists.

I am pretty excited about this actually. I never played DotA, mostly because of my dislike for Warcraft 3 (and my want for a social life...), but I can see this game being a good entry point for people who avoided DotA for fear of being massively confused and then raped in their first bunch of games. We will see when it is released how it is received by DotA vets and new players.

Anyway, here is the incredibly lengthy Kotaku report, and the gameplay video is below.




Fiddlesticks ftw.

Guiness Book of World Records: Clueless Edition

So, the Guinness Book of World Records has a so-called Gamer's Edition. And while you might expect it contain various amusing and actually interesting records like "Most Hours Spent Playing World of Warcraft without Getting Up" or "Most Versus Games in a Row Won in Street Fighter II", it doesn't actually have anything to do with people at all. It is just boring stuff like "Best Selling PS2 Game" or "Longest Running Franchise". Really? You could just look this stuff up easily on the net... why would you buy a book about if it, if it doesn't even contain anything interesting?

Anyway, they have also put out a list for the top 50 Most Influential Video Games of All Time. First of all, the Guinness book is based upon actual, measurable records. How can you measure something as subjective as influence?

So right off the bat, you know it is going to be bullshit. And it is.

#1 is Super Mario Kart. No, not Bros., Kart. Huh? Really? I mean Mario Kart is a great game and all, but the Most Influential game EVER? Um, no. You couldn't even go with the obvious easy choice of Super Mario Bros.? Super Mario Bros. defined an entire generation of gaming, and is responsible for one of, if not the, most recognizable icons in videogames. Mario Kart is a spin off franchise, and while great, hasn't even had an ounce of impact that the original game did. The "kart racing" genre never was anything but Mario Kart and a few knock offs.

Frustrating.

Other notable points of retardation:
-Final Fantasy XII ranked #8, Final Fantasy VII ranked #20. You have got to be kidding me. FFVII made next-gen RPGs what they are today. Big budgets, rendered CG cutscenes, convoluted plotlines. While not the most perfect FF RPG released, it is definitely the most influential towards modern gaming. FFXII... why? In my opinion, XII had very little actual impact. People either liked or dismissed the new battle system, and that was the only point of anything interesting about the game. It hasn't influenced anything after it, so far. FF X was much more influential for the PS2 era RPG, and it isn't even on the list.

-Lego Star Wars #23, above Resident Evil, Chrono Trigger, Guitar Hero. LOL. What have the Lego games influenced besides more Lego games?

-GTA being on there 3 times. Do we need separate entries for GTA, San Andreas, and Vice City? How were the second 2 influential at all? They were just more of the same from GTA3. And another issue is that it is listed as GTA, and not GTA3. I know they mean GTA3, and not GTA1, but why pretend that the first 2 games in the GTA series didn't exist, especially from a book/institution that's supposed to be "official"?

The list does have the majority of the games that would be on an actual gamer's list. It would be better if they didn't actually rank them, because it shows just how stupid and clueless they really are.

It just goes to show that, even though games have now gone "mainstream", the media and population at large still have no clue what the hell they are talking about. Just leave the games to the gamers people, and stop with these stupid lists.

Gemcraft

Gemcraft is another addicting/amusing flash game I discovered today. It basically blends tower defense with a simple RPG system of upgrading your character. During tower defense, you power your tower (ha.. ha..) with gems of various power and abilities, which you can create and combine together for maximum destruction.

As with any flash game, it is fun, simple, and addictive. Have at it!

Gemcraft

Warning: I am not responsible for your addiction. You have been warned.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich king

Yes, I went there.

So, Meghan and I grabbed the new WoW expansion sometime during the Christmas break. Mostly, we weren't happy playing Warhammer, and just wanted that lovin' feelin' back in our lives. I wanted to have fun playing my character again, and I wanted to do 5 mans. I love doing 5 man dungeons in WoW, and it is something I missed in Warhammer. I was not a big fan of the public quest/raid dungeons in Warhammer.

So, first impression of the expansion zones was basically /meh. In The Burning Crusade, I was blown away when I first stepped through the Dark Portal. It really felt like you stepped into a war zone, and you were now in the shit. In WotLK, you take a zep/boat from the main city, and are unceremoniously dropped into a new quest hub. Not quite the start I was expecting, coming from BC.

Anyway, we started into the old questing routine on our Horde Shaman/Mage combo. Mostly things were the same, but now it seems Blizzard has finished its process of quest polishing it got mostly right in TBC. What I mean is, gone are the annoying quests from classic WoW. No grinding the same mobs over and over for one quest item drop. No stupid, pointless fetch quests that just waste time. the vast majority of quests are worth your time, and offer a painless experience. They have also thrown in questing with vehicles, which could be anything from siege engines to being held in the hand of a giant while you the player control the giant instead of your actual character. The vehicle concept/interface can be slightly buggy at times, but it was nothing that got in the way of completing the quests. Usually, the vehicle quests were a nice, fun diversion from the typical quest grind.

The zones themselves, aside from the first blah impression, are pretty big, and diverse. The Borean Tundra, our first zone, feels like 6 different zones in one, as there are many different areas with their own theme. This is a nice change of pace from Hellfire Peninsula, the first zone in BC, which is a large zone of bland. Also, this zone has a total of 4 flight paths in it, which makes getting around a breeze, and this is certainly a welcome change of philosophy from the 1 flight path per zone idea in classic. The next zone we entered, Dragonblight, is another HUGE zone, and its mostly snowy, but breaks up the whiteness with the various dragonshrines throughout the zone, which are all pretty cool.

Dragonblight also introduces one of the coolest new features in WotLK, which is instancing within a non-instanced zone. (Maybe a good name would be "micro-instancing" ?). I'll give an example to explain. One area in Dragonblight is a gate that at first appears to be loaded with elite mobs. Then, as you go through a quest line, you actually get this awesome in game cut scene of the Horde and Alliance storming the gate, to kill off the Lich king's minions. but then the Lich King himself shows up, and the shit hits the fan. After the cutscene, the area around the gate is in ruins, things are on fire, and it is just generally messed up. Now, there are two instances of this area. One pre-cut scene, and one post-cut scene. Which one you enter depends on if you have gone through the quest line and saw the cut scene or not. And these instances are not just held for your character alone. Other players who have gone through the cutscenes with you will be able to see and interact with you like normal. But, you will not be able to see or interact with other players who have not yet gone through the quests, even though they are in the same area on the map. In order to see these other players, you need to exit the instance area. This is all done without load times or anything. It is not like entering a dungeon. it is all done seemless. It is a really cool feature. This eventually hist center stage in the Icecrown zone, where you basically have to unlock the entire zone in order to use it. You need to go through various quest lines to unlock towns and flight paths. And here, the progression takes various stages, not just 2 like in the Dragonblight event.

Instances in Wotlk are generally much easier than we have seen in the past. BC dropped us into Hellfire Ramparts to start, which has multiple 5 and 6 mob pulls throughout the instance, requiring a lot of CC and general mob management. In WotLK, however, CC is basically thrown out the window. Pretty much every pull now is an aoe pull, with the tank taking all 3-4 mobs at once, and everyone just killing the mobs aoe style. No CC or careful consideration required. This certainly makes things easier, and cuts down on group wipes in instances. Also, most instances now require around 45 minutes to complete. We don't see endless amounts of trash mobs like in classic and even BC instances. Bosses come almost in rapid succession in some instances, like Azjol Nerub, which can be cleared in about 30 minutes. So, basically 5 mans are a very casual friendly environment now, which end quickly and require little strategy. Heroic dungeons take the same form as the did in BC, with all dungeons being ramped up to lvl 80, and having a couple more surprises. Though again these are much easier than in BC. In BC, you really had to be on your game for heroics it seemed, and have some decent gear in-order to complete them. Now, heroics are basically just the next step once you hit 80. Even if you are undergeared for a heroic, if there are a couple geared people, they can basically pull the scrubs through until the end. So again, a much more casual approach to gameplay in WotLK.

Now we arrive at endgame. You hit 80, have some heroics under your belt, and now want to jump into doing raids. Again, this is much more casual friendly than in BC. Naxx is pugged all the time now. I could never imagine a pug doing MC in classic. I don't have much BC raid experience, but I couldn't imagine even then pugging Kara. Naxx is pretty easy, and again pretty much all trash pulls are aoe. Once you figure out the boss tricks, 2 out of 4 wings are basically trivial. Two of the wings are a bit tougher, and a coordinated guild is nice to have, but not required if people know the fights.
So, the basic consensus from the WoW community, especially hardcore raiders, is the WotLK is very easy. I mean, back in the day, if you were in a raiding guild, you were basically an elite on the server. Now, I see unguilded people running around in 25 man gear all the time. They just jump in pugs and do their thing. I personally went from fresh 80 to having almost all the gear I could want for my char in just 4 weeks of raiding. Granted, I jumped into a really good situation with a good guild, but others are doing it too. It doesn't take too much time or effort to get the phat lootz. Blizzard's philosophy seems like it is going like this now: don't exclude everyone but the most hardcore from seeing content. They want the majority of of players to be able to see the things they are developing. I mean, how many people have cleared the Black Temple? Not the majority of players, I can assure you. The new Tier 8 dungeon, Ulduar, seems like it is going to keep with this philosophy be having a "hard mode" for most bosses. This means to me that the content with be easy enough to get through for most people. Then, the elitists can do "hard mode" for bragging rights and a bit of extra loot. This is fine with me. I don't care about accomplishing every single thing in the game, as long as I can SEE the new things. I like having the experience of it all, I personally don't need to have completed it all 100%. As long as I have BEEN there, I'm happy as could be. Hopefully this will be possible as WotLK, and WoW itself, moves forward.

I can't comment too much on PvP, as I haven't done much endgame yet, but I'll make a few points. The new battleground, Strand of the Ancients, is fun as all hell. It is basically a mile gate/keep siege affair seen in DAoC/Warhammer, only sped up. Strand is really fun, and while not perfect, I can't knock it for what it is. Mythic wants to be the RvR king, with its keep warfare, but it forgot to add in the fun. Blizzard is all about the fun factor, and at the end of the day, that is what keeps me coming back. Wintergrasp is basically one big keep siege, and while it has a lot of technical issues, it again is fun. Attaching it to the Vault raid instance is also a good idea, and Vault offers another quick and easy way to get raid and pvp gear. If only my class/spec wasn't worthless for arena. But, Enhance Shaman have alsways been the bastard children of WoW, so I am used to it.

So, I am really happy with WotLK. I really have nothing to complain about. Blizzard has really listened to feedback, and has also thought ahead for itself, and the result is a great game experience. Mythic and Warhammer is missing the parts about thinking ahead, and thinking for itself, but of course Blizzard has always been known to release great products. It is hard to compete with that level of polish in a game. I am currently taking a break from playing so much WoW, but it is not a break of dislike, just a realization that I need some separation time before I got too sucked in. But, is it just too good, and I know I'll keep coming back after these breaks.

WoW remains king of MMOs, for better or worse.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

So I finally got Guitar Hero: World Tour (thanks for taking 25 bucks off, Target). And it is everything you would expect from the Guitar Hero universe. Fun to play, ridiculous characters and venues, great solos, and some songs that will leave you wondering wtf just hit you in the face.

Meghan and I did our usual guitar trade off during the tour mode, and quickly remembered why GH is so much better than RB. The songs are just fun to play in GH, where in RB they are just boring. Even the annoying songs from RB that are also in GH (why the FUCK does Bon Jovi need to be in both games? sigh) are actually enjoyable to play in GH. Even if the song itself is annoying, playing the guitar is just a blast. Also, the tour/career mode doesn't force you to play the same songs over and over again. Thank christ. Was this too much to ask in RB? No. Makes the tour mode so much less of a chore. We were unlocking new venues left and right, and often the new venues we unlocked were 2 or 3 ahead of the current one we were on. So nice. The venues also retain the same GH sense of humor, like the ferris wheel at the state fair breaking off it hinges and rolling through the fair, cutting a swath of mayhem. Cliche, but appreciated nonetheless.

Another nice touch in GH is the appearance of real musicians throughout the game. GH3 saw a little bit of this (Slash and Tom Morello), but WT takes it to a new level. We first saw it with Billy Corgan on a Smashing Pumpkins song early along in the tour mode. Then it seemed like every venue had a special guest. We saw Zakk Wylde, Travis Barker (who I don't think was modeled with the burns...), Ozzy, and others. The best was when Ted Nugent rode out onstage on the back of a buffalo... amazing. Another amusing one was when this female came jumping onto the stage in a white t-shirt with the typical punk anarchy symbol on it. I'm like... who the hell is this? Then we see the name and it is the lead singer of Paramore. Meghan is furious at this point since it is her turn and she HATES Paramore. I laugh at her. Then, she passes me the guitar at the end of the song, and we see the next song is "Hotel California", which is one of her favorite songs. I laugh at her some more and then quickly pass back the guitar before being pummeled.

Also, the new GH:WT guitar is incredibly nice. The classic GH fret buttons, along with a nice solid design make for a nice (fake) guitar. The slide bar is also really fun to use, when you actually get the time to in a song. It is a nice addition, and it actually adds something to the game, while offering a different take on RB's "soloing frets" which are only used for random, inane mashing during certain sections.

So, Guitar Hero reigns supreme in the land of plastic toy instruments because it remembers it is a GAME, and not an outlet for musical expression. Oh wait, it has the song creator in it. Guess it wins on that front too, and I've heard some good things about the song creator.

The Wonders of Mainstream News

Thought I needed to share this one with everyone. This is a wonderful news story about the "secret society" of WoW players. Full story here.



Lmao. I love it when mainstream media tries to be relevant with the kiddies.

Anyway.... /4 DPS LFG 10m OS/10m VoA/H CoS. Enh 3.4K AP ....ftw

Rock Band v. Guitar Hero

Yes, yes, this is an actual game update. Expect more soon since work has slowed for a bit.

First, some impressions of Rock Band 2.
So, over the break, by a fluke of the Gamefly queue, I received Rock Band 2, which was way down on my list, kind of just there as a reminder that once I got Guitar Hero World Tour (which still hasn't happened), I would pick up RB2 just to see how it was. So, I went out and got a used RB1 guitar for 15 bucks so we could play it.

The first thing I noticed was that I hated the molasses-feeling strum bar. The RB strum bar doesn't "click" the GH one. So, the act of strumming is much more of a press than a strum/flick. OK, so what does that mean exactly? Well, since RB's philosophy is cords over single notes, you get a lot of long rhythm sections (i.e. boring repetition). This made my entire right forearm ache terribly, since the strum bar is so damn hard to keep pressing over and over. And, I go to the gym 3 or 4 days a week, so its not like I have no forearm muscle. It doesn't help the fact that the songs with the long rhythm were usually the ones that were unbearably awful, but I'll get to the song selection in a bit.

The fret buttons are ok, but I have a couple of gripes for them as well. The little brail dots on the buttons do not serve as a good position marker at all. Why did you have to go away from the middle ridge on the yellow button that you created for GH1 & 2 Harmonix. Just to be different I guess. Different is worse. I found I had the toughest time finding the yellow button, since it had no marker that actually worked. Also, since the fret buttons take up the whole width of the neck, I found myself inadvertently pressing buttons by gripping the neck. The GH guitar allows you to actually hold the neck with your left hand and press the buttons. For RB, you cant do that as much. I guess this is more along the lines of an actual guitar, when you don't want your palm hitting strings on the neck, but I found it slightly annoying.

Now on to the the awful tour mode and song selection. So, the tour mode (or whatever its called) started out innocently enough. You get one city and one venue to play at first. The city has 2 or 3 songs to play, along with a "Mystery Set List" and something like a "Choose 2 Set List". Ok, not sure what the set lists do right now, so you play through the three songs. You get rated at the end of the song (1-5 stars, though if you actually complete the song you are guaranteed 3 it seems). You quickly realize that you need the stars to unlock new venues/cities. I hate hate HATE hate HATE HATE this convention in games. I despise having to go back through a level again and again to try and get a higher rating to actually advance. If I get through, let me go on to the next. I'll try to get a higher score later if the level/song actually warrants another play through. To make matters worse, the "new" set lists in each city actually just recycle the same songs over and over again. At first they give you songs you haven't played yet, but as you unlock more, you get the same ones over and over. And you have to play the set lists in order to get enough stars in a city to advance. We didn't finish the tour, and probably played some songs 7 or 8 songs. Of course, these were the most annoy, awful songs in the game. Thanks Rock Band for making this such an excruciating process. Appreciate it, assholes.

Did I mention the songs were bad? RB2 boasts like 80 something songs, and I would say about 5 we unlocked (we didn't unlock them all) we actually enjoyable to play. Even playing Metallica's Battery felt lifeless. The song charting just makes the game boring. Some parts are challenging, to be certain, but the challenge in RB comes from chord switching, and not playing single notes (like during solos). They put a lot of time and effort into the cord transitions, and barely any for solos. Solos get their own little "part" in the song, where the background of the notes goes blue, and you can see how good you did on the solo at the end. The problem is, the solos are actually the easiest part in some songs, and none of them were very challenging. The solo needs to make me sweat and think "omg it's coming". But it doesn't and solos are just bleh in this game. Instead, you get to play the same chords over and over. How exciting...

So what have we learned so far? I'm not too much of a fan of the RB1 guitar (even though I'd use it if I had to) and I pretty much hated the tour mode, song selection, and the song charts. The biggest issue I take with Harmonix and its followers is that it boasts that RB is more like "playing a real guitar" than GH is. If you don't know, Harmonix created GH1 & 2, then went off to start Rock Band, while Neversoft (the developers behind the Tony Hawk games) took over the GH franchise, starting with 3. The RB fanboys also like to hang this over the heads of GH fans, like some badge of honor (kind of like Mac users (i.e. hipster jackasses)). Here's a newsflash for all of you: it is a fucking videogame. Your dreams of being a rockstar are over. You are now a games developer, so why don't you make games that are fun to play, rather then trying to cater to all the new "casual games" tards out there who want the game to be easy as possible and want to sing songs like Blondie's "One Way or Another" over and over again (kill me now). Harmonix, get over your huge ego. You aren't making games for musicians. You are making a videogame.

The ease of Rock Band (and likely GH: World Tour, though I haven't played it yet) is believed to be attributed to the response from GH3, which was difficult in a 'hopes and dreams crushing' way. Personally in GH3, there are some songs which I really liked to listen to, but Medium was too easy, and I failed out in Hard right at the beginning ("Take This Life", I'm looking at you). I didn't necessarily want the game to be easier, but just wanted the gap between Medium and Hard to be a bit narrower. Meghan, on the other hand, loved GH3 because of the challenge, and I think I would have liked it more if I was better at it (i.e. had her long pianist fingers...).

I just found the GH philosophy to be much more compelling. Challenging songs, intimidating solos, and the realization that you are playing a GAME and not trying to be in a real band. I want to have fun, not learn scales. I also want to have songs that are fun to play, and actually rock hard, not ones that are made for your mom to sing, like "Livin' on a Prayer" in RB2 (how I hate you Bon Jovi). Essentially, I want metal, and not stupid radio pop. Harmonix got this right with songs like "Six" and "The Light That Blinds" in GH2, but now they are catering to the iTunes crowd.

One last topic here: downloadable content. RB, admittedly, boasts a bigger collection of downloadable songs. They even had DLC for Children of Bodom. So they win as far as the songs themselves go, but when said songs are rooted in the philosophy mentioned above, I could give shit. I don't really ever see myself downloading songs to play that much, unless they are incredibly awesome, so this whole area doesn't matter much to me. However, I get pissed at the RB fanboys when they gloat about their DLC, and then accuse GH and Activision of milking the GH franchise with GH: Metallica. They say they should just release it as DLC and not a whole new game. Let's do the math here assholes. A single DLC song costs you 2 bucks. GH: Metallica has 49 songs, and is selling for 60 bucks. It would be 98 bucks worth of DLC. Hell, it would be even more than 60 bucks for the Metallica songs alone. Now they counter with, 'oh, but you can pick and choose your DLC'. Right, but if you are a fan who likes metal/hard rock, you will prob want a lot of these songs. I think you are the tards getting milked here.

So, maybe Guitar Hero: World Tour sucks, since it is obviously trying to cut into the Rock Band market of a full band game. Who knows, I just know that RB2 definitely sucked, and that as long as the basic philosophy of GH remains mostly intact, it will be a much more compelling experience. Just writing this post has made me itch to play GH again haha. If only it wasn't so expensive to buy these damn games...

And this just in. Guitar Hero:World Tour outsells Rock Band 2 to 1. Guess there are more people with sense out there after all.

A Life Changing Experience

This is C Diddy owning your face. Go watch Air Guitar Nation right now.