The Gaming Chronicles

Wading through the pile pt. 2

2009-03-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Alright so a little later than I originally foretold, but better late than never the old adage goes. I took some time to delve into Fable 2 this week and, while I haven't really been able to get super deep into it (I'll tell you why shortly), I have come away with a decent impression about the game. First and foremost the issues with the game being jumpy during disk reads (the same with the original fable) are still present in the second installment. I was really hoping that they would have made a way for the "hero" to be able to only rely on one tree skill, strength, or will to get through the game. I tried my hand at a magic user and I have to say that the new spell system is unwieldy at best and unusable in a lot of the combat situations I have encountered. On top of this the player has to delve into the strength tree in order to get their health up otherwise you run around with the constant threat that a wayward leaf may slam your pitiful health pool down to zero. However the game play is as fun as the first one was and the interesting story and side quests/mini games make up for the failings that I previously mentioned. I hope to finish this title soon, but lately some other things have kept me busy.

I recently traded in my original launch 360 for the new, and very much improved, resident evil limited edition console. As the box says it comes with a copy of RE5 and this is the reason why I can't get anything else done lately. The game is simply stunning and the game play is compelling. I will post more on how the story works out later, but from a technical standpoint, the game is executed very well. I hope also to try out the co-op mode with a friend later this week so I will let you all know how that goes.

In the PC arena I picked up Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment. This "micro expansion" basically adds two new defensive features to the game: star bases and space mines. The star bases are tactical gems unto themselves and finally gives players an ability to counter the devastating effects of the TEC Novalith Cannon. The expansion only costs $10, but is it worth the money in this ramshackle economy we have to deal with? In my case I looked at it as, I have spent $10 on worse so I say that it was a good purchase for the money.

Wading Through the Pile

2009-03-16T01:32:00.000-07:00

Ok so with the past Christmas boon and the going out of sale gaming goldmine that was the former Circuit City Store, I have had a lot of gaming goodness to wade through. It started off with Fall Out 3. This game is amazing if not daunting in it's scope. Think Morrowind, but a post-apocalyptic setting which instantly makes it a hundred times better for me. Like Morrowind the game provides an insane amount of distractions from the main story line which often lead to many mini story arcs and lots of loot boons to help you get through the game. The only problem with these types of games (for me) is that I will try to do each and every distraction and never finish the game so I had to put it aside and move on to some of the other games I got.

The second game was Star Wars: Force Unleashed. I actually, despite my earlier qualms about the demo, enjoyed the game quite a bit. The story was an interesting take on what could have happened between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy and I actually like the story more that the story in episodes 1-3 combined. I definetly didn't feel like the force was "unleashed" in any way, and at times I felt like for this supreme force wielder he was pretty weak. However, I understand the need to balance the game as to make the game still challenging. They were definitely too liberal with their use of the "cinemaction" moments specifically to take out the harder NPCs. There is one encounter in particular that takes the cake for the most frustrating of these encounters...it has to do with star destroyers, but that is all I am giving away.

Next I jumped to Too Human. The game is fun. That's really all that I can say that was positive about it. The negatives are that the controls can be extremely clumsy, the voice acting and the story in general can get pretty hammy (but not enough to make it enjoyable) and the camera occasionally freaks out and gets stuck at a weird angle. If you can get the game for cheap by all means pick it up, because it has moderate replay value and is enjoyable. However, I don't think it is worth the $59.99 price tag the game still garners.

I will post again tomorrow with the rest of the titles I picked up.

Days of Horror

2008-10-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

As the Halloween season, which it apparently is now, reaches the culmination point (Halloween) I have spent some time getting "into the spirit".

I recently picked up Dead Space, because what is the halloween season if not a time for games that can scare the crap out of you. It's difficult to classify the game in any one particular genre, but that doesn't make it any less fun. The game plays out from a third person over the shoulder perspective and has a lot of the survival horror elements, except for the fact that the amount of ammo you get (in medium mode) makes it feel a lot less like you need to be making accurate shots. I did play this in hard mode for a bit and it definitely feels more like a survival horror due to a reduced ammo supply, harder to kill monsters, and the addition of extra monsters to specific scenarios. Despite this ambiguity of the classification the game really is a lot of fun and the environmental elements are stunning. There hasn't been a game recently that has immersed me into the environment the way that Dead Space has. The length may deter people from paying the $60, and I can understand that point of view, but I recommend picking it up through rental or purchase. This game is definitely worth playing through at least once.

If you have been playing World of Warcraft, and since their subscription base has now reached 11 million it's pretty likely that you are, then you will have participated in the zombie invasion that let players infect other players and npcs with the zombie disease which turns the infected person in a zombie who then in turn spreads the disease. Despite a lot of backlash from some of the player base Blizzard has said that the event was a success and that we should expect to see more events to come as their expansion pack: Wrath of the Lich King gets closer and closer to the release date. If you missed out on the zombie invasion there is still the scourge invasion happening all over the digital world as well as a new boss in Karazhan.

If you happen to have a source game on the computer I want to let people know to try out a mod being distributed for free by steam. It's called Zombie Panic! and it is a fun game that captures the feel of the zombie horror movies, and will help gear up players for the Left 4 Dead release from Valve.

Possible new...maybe

2008-07-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I have been entirely too busy with real life obligations to actually sit down and play some games to write about here. However I have been keeping my ear to the rumor/news mill, and I must say some of the things announced and quasi announced are fairly compelling.

The long awaited sequel to the Diablo franchise was announced a while back with Diablo 3. This is something the series fans have been clamoring about for quite some time. Of course they were, they wouldn't be fans if they didn't. The game takes place sometime after Diablo 2 ended with the worldstone having been destroyed, and I must say the game looks fantastic. Check out the blizzard website for more info (and there is a ton of it to go through).

Cryptic studios, original creators of the City of Heroes/Villains franchise, are developing a new super hero based MMO called Champions Online. This time around they say they have suped up (no pun intended) their combat speeds and changed the art direction they are going in. The game looks good, but only time will tell. They have a countdown going on their web page but I haven't been able to get any confirmed information on what it is for as of yet. Rumor has it that it is a countdown to the beta release.

Speaking of Betas, Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) the next World of Warcraft installment has gone into beta and the NDA was lifted. There's a ton of officially released info on their website, and visiting any gaming website would be likely to yield some very interesting info about the changes being made.

This next bit of info is pretty sketchy as to whether it is true or not. According to portfolio.com and their Bioware/EA exec's quote Bioware is indeed developing a KOTOR universe based MMO. Now if this is true it will likely spell doom for Star Wars Galaxies (the previous lone Star Wars MMO project). Some of the die hards say they won't be leaving, and truthfully they likely won't. Doesn't matter much if you choose to leave or not if the servers get shut off on you. Really I was a SWG fan once upon a time, in the "golden age" as it was called, but SOE did a lot to destory the fun of the game that they have never been able to completely undo. Whenever two games come out based on the same IP they are always compared, but with a persistent game world, that relies on subscriptions to stay running, this likely means Death Knells for the game that comes out looking inferior.

Warhammer has some information released on it. They apparently took out a bunch of classes that weren't working due to time constraints (thanks EA), but reports from the beta show the game in a highly unfavorable light so I am not going to go into anymore detail other than to say they just started Beta session 3.

DC Online is another Superhero based IP but based on already established characters. Apparently it has been in development for a while and the footage they have released was mediocre at best.

AoC came out, I had fun with it for a while. With out serious attention to some serious issues with the game I got tired of putting up with it and canceled my accounts. There are rumors that the game is in trouble, but those are unsubstantiated by the company (of course) so there's no point into going into details about it.

Well that's about all I have for now, I will attempt to keep adding more entries as I can fit them into my daily schedule.

Age of Conan comes to my PC

2008-06-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

As the title states I have recently picked up a copy of Age of Conan (AoC) and installed it on the previously mentioned new rig that I put together. I decided with something as important as a semi-review for a new MMO I would divide it up into audio, visuals, game play, and my personal impressions of the game.

So, to kick things off I am going to start off with the audio that is present in this particular online world. When I first got the game, which I downloaded before my retail copy even got into my hands, I was unable to play it for a week. However, I was able to fire up the login screen and the first thing I noticed about the game was even the music for the login screen felt epic in its quality. Moving forward into the game I have to say that my love for the score of AoC only became more profound. The combat music really makes you feel like you are thrown into a visceral and unforgiving environment where danger is around every corner. The ambient sound is top notch providing the player with sounds of the wild like occasionally having random wild beasts belting out their various howls, snarls, growls, etc. The different background music definitely sets the mood for the zone you are in for instance when in the desert region of stygia you get what you would really imagine hearing if you went to a desert region in our world and listened to their cultural music, the same follows for the other zones like the highland like Cimmerian tribal region. Overall the sound is top notch and to me that is 50% of the battle to release a good game.

On to the visuals in the game. Now I want to add a disclaimer here, the visuals are obviously heavily dependent on the load that your computer is capable of handling, so the phrase "your miles may vary" is appropriate here. For me, on the new rig, the game looks amazing and I have the settings primarily maxed out. There are some big issues with the overall optimization of their engine and some technical issues with some of their settings in the game. For example when running the game turning off the shadow component yields about 20 fps which is insane. Shadows are taxing on the best of computers but to have a difference of about 20 fps (frames per second) is beyond anything I have ever seen to date, to the point that I don't know a lot of people that would sacrifice 20 fps for the slight visual bump. A lot of people are also saying that turning up some of the settings to a higher quality actually seems to improve performance instead of detracting from it, which makes no sense at all. Aside from the glaring technical issues the game truly shines as one of the best looking MMOs I have played to date. All I can say is you will see what I am talking about when you get into the first real group dungeon called The Sanctum of the Burning Souls. The scale of this place is jaw dropping and the atmosphere and detail are flawless. It is hands down the best looking dungeon design I have seen, and it's fairly early on in the game so you get that epic feel of the dungeons without having to raid at end game.

Game play, one of the most important areas of an MMO in my opinion. A game can look and sound great, but for me if the game play is horrible it's a deal breaker. Luckily at its core AoC has some phenomenal game play. There is no auto attack in this game and you have to attack your opponents in their weak spots using directional attacks and a "combo" system, which is basically special attacks using the directional combat system. The system is engaging and I have never found myself nodding off during combat like I did in the World of Warcraft. Truthfully in this game if you aren't paying attention you simply aren't going to win the fight period. The direction combat system primarily affects the melee classes and the ranger class, the casters play typically how you would imagine from other MMOs. I won't go into too much more about combat because there still has to be some wow factor when you first try out that game so I will leave it at that. There is PvP in the form of PvP servers, battle group type mini games, and eventually when the game matures more it will open up siege battles to the end gamers. Siege battles revolve around one of 9 player held keeps in the world of hyboria. The keeps are held by guilds and bestow special and very important buffs to anyone in the guild that controls the keep. Of course with all such valuable things other people will covet them and desire to take them from you. Herein lies the essence of what a siege battle is. One guild wants your keep, and has amassed their army to try and persuade you to die and hand it over. Of course due to imbalances in guild sizes, availability, etc... these fights could become very unfair. It is for that reason that Funcom implemented the mercenary system, which does exactly what you would imagine, both sides of the siege can send out a call to other players that are for hire to come help either storm or protect the keep and will pay them for their services.

My personal opinion of the game is that, for me at least, it has replaced WoW as my current MMO. It's not that WoW is a worse game, but AoC offers me something new from the tired repetition that I got from wow after 4 years. The game in it's current incarnation has some big bugs that still need to be ironed out, but with any MMO that is starting off it's always been the same story even WoW. For a launch Funcom did a very good job, one of the best MMO launches to date. Also the speed at which Funcom is attacking and fixing their problems is something that I find unusually fast and I am pleasantly surprised. I will post up some screen shots when I get some I think are worthy of a captive audience.

The MMO future

2008-05-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

So I got the new rig up and running and it is a beast. I haven't bench marked it yet mainly because there are so many gaming delights to be had that I just refuse to take time to do it. I will get to that later, but I wanted to take an entry to cover some of the things going down in the MMO space.

Age of Conan is set to come out in 8 days and has, like every other promising MMO, been hailed as the WoW killer. Now I am not a fan boy for WoW, but nothing will kill this behemoth...it's quite literally an unstopable force at this point. That isn't to say that there can't be competitors against it, and Conan is looking to put up a decent fight. If you pre-order the game you get to start the game 3 days early which for many people is something they are clamoring for. So if you are really looking forward to the game I suggest you get a head start by pre-ordering (you also get the usual fare of in-game items).

Star Wars Galaxies, hailed as one of the most promising MMO's to flop is about to get the latest upgrade sometime soon, and what would a star wars game be without the battle of Hoth. The info is here if you are interested. I actually used to like and play this game, but being burnt so many times by bugs and having to deal with outdated server software I gave up on the game entirely.

World of Warcraft developers, blizzard announced some info about Wrath of the Lich King. Actually that's an understatement because if you are looking forward to the expansion it's the equivalent to the atom bomb of information. The article is here if you are interested. The changes are shaping up to be something truly unique particularly the "epic" class the Death Knight.

In other gaming news, I previously wrote an article about Savage 2 and as it turns out Steam has decided to feature the game on their website as a digital download and has a reduced price tag to boot. Like I said the game is innovative from a game play stand point but for the price and lack of US players it fell short of my expectations. Having Steam feature it might just be what the game needed to stay relevant.

New Gaming Rig...

2008-05-02T09:49:00.001-07:00

Ok so I took the plunge and spent quite a bit on getting the parts to my new gaming PC ordered, it's a good thing I just got my tax refund back I can tell you that. The parts finally arrived and I put the thing together with the assistance of a buddy of mine. Go to fire the thing up and as it turns out the motherboard is DoA. So yesterday I had to RMA (get a manufacturer to replace it) so once again I have to wait for them to process the request and send me a new one. I guess it is worth the wait as this will be a beast.

-EVGA 790i ultra sli mobo
-EVGA 8800gts graphics card
-Intel Core 2 Duo Wolfdale 3.0 ghz processor
-4 x GSKILL DDR3 1GB sticks

So hopefully with that rig I will be able to get more of a PC perspective on the newer games coming out. Also if you are a vendor of anything to do with gaming (ie: PC hardware, Consoles, or the games themselves) and you would like to help an aspiring technology reviewer be able to review some of your products it would be deeply appreciated.

I will let you all know how the rig runs once it's up and running with some benchmarking.

Ikariam

2008-04-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

So as a fellow gamer I know we all love free games, provided they are fun of course. Well I have come across a free browser game called Ikariam.

The game plays out as a civilization builder where you populate a town on an island. You work you way up by gathering wood and one other resource that the island provides. Eventually you get the opportunity to start a colony on an island of your choice. Take care when choosing, because the primary reason for your decision is which alternate resource do you want. The decision is important since you wont be making another colony for some time.

Another great idea is to build up a city army for defense and upgrade your wall to keep the rabble from trying to take over. Over all the game is great and definitely worth trying if have 5 minutes of down time. It takes a while to build/upgrade things later so you can set it t build and log off (ie: the perfect game for work).

Let me know what you guys think, I believe you will be impressed.

Savage 2 Revealed...

2008-04-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

So having spent some time with the demo of the game, which I felt was enough time to give this game a fair shake I have composed this little review of the game.

Obviously since the game is a little older now the graphics are a little dated compared to some of the newer games on the market, but having grown up in the Mario bros. era anything better is beautiful to me. From the limited time I had, getting into a local server was much harder than I had originally thought. It seems like there not as many people playing in the US as there are in say the UK. This lead to the actual full servers that I played on to be more sluggish than usual and did detract from the experience. The actual game play was interesting with the fusion of the RTS elements from the Commander and the FPS of the soldier view it was nothing short of an interesting experience to be sure.

The classes in the game were fun to play, interesting in their own way, and lead to some interesting little skirmishes in the midst of the big battle. Mid way throughout the game there were some demon classes unlocked by gathering souls and those were definitely the embodiment of destruction as they cleared armies of guys in their wake.

Overall I would say the game is definitely fun to play, but if you are big into the latest graphics you could do much better for the $29.99 price tag that comes with it. I would recommend people head to their website here and download the free demo which turns out to be about 5 hours of play time (meaning only when you are in a game) so you don't have to worry about wasting time in the lobbies.

My obligatory number score for this one is a 8/10 for their unique fusion of two pretty straight forward genres.

Savage 2 Introduction

2008-04-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

So I came across this game while skulking around the Internet and the concept of it intrigued me. This RTS/FPS hybrid could, if done right, be something truly amazing. While this game is not new it is to me and I am sure to many readers as well so I think I am going to download the trial version and give the game a shot.

Here's an overview of the game...

Set in a fantasy setting the game centers around combat between two races: Man and Beast. Now this is not to say there are little wolves running around. No, these beasts mean business. They have shape shifters, shamans and so much more. I refuse to go into detail on the story because it is actually really good and my synopsis of it will not do it justice. So for those of you interested in it go here and enjoy a well written tale that sets up the game perfectly.

Now each side has a commander that plays the game like an RTS via a star/warcraft-esce interface. From the screens I have seen there is the typical building of the base and researching aspects of the typical RTS games. However unlike those games the commander does not have direct control over the units. These units are actually other players playing out from a First Person Shooter perspective or FPS. The commander can set way points and targets for his/her units and give buffs to the units or debuff the enemies. The object is to destroy the enemies base as a standard RTS objective.

I will provide more as I give the trial a shot.

R6V2 update...

2008-04-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

It appears that Ubi soft has done something to remedy their network issues with their latest rendition of the Vegas title. They seem to have performed some update to their databases (woo no download required) and fixed the issue of people dropping and failing to join games. The trade off is that people are reporting more lag than usual but nothing game breaking for most. I personally think it's a fair trade and a step in the right direction.

Wii!

2008-04-04T13:06:00.001-07:00

Ok so I got a Wii finally and loaded up Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The game itself is the same as all the other iterations of the series, but like trend has shown adds a lot of stuff that makes it a more than worth while purchase. Like a ton of new characters ranging from Solid Snake to Sonic.

One of the most important additions to this game is the use of online playability. The game allows you to match make with others or join games with your friends. These are the modes that were to be expected. One of the unforeseen modes called "spectator" mode allows the player to watch a game and bet coins on the outcome of the match. Now this may not sound like much but it can be quite entertaining to watch four iconic characters beat the ever-loving crap out of each other and have a stake in the outcome. By all means the online gaming experience that Nintendo has brought is not the utopia I would like it to be. There is no voice chat feature which can definitely detract from the experience, as well as you can't invite friends to your games...you just have to start one and hope they notice and join.

Over all even though it is more of the same but better my obligatory number score is a 9/10. Go out and pick the game up if you want to smash digital faces and enjoy yourself for hours on end.

RB6V2...

2008-03-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

which apparently is now the acronym for the latest installment from this branch of the Tom Clancy tree. I picked the game up, and have to say I like it more than the first Vegas, but the game has...once again...network issues galore. I played some online co-op terrorist hunt with a couple of buddies of mine and kept having issues of people dropping or failing to join games we knew were up and running. To be fair I followed their "what ports need to be open guide" and it only really helped when I hosted a game, but should the user really be responsible for getting the game to work online. At which point did it no longer become the developers burden to release a solid gaming experience. Granted I would not have given them too much flak for this failing...if it was the first time this happened, but this is the same thing that happened to Vegas 1. In typical Ubisoft fashion they have said they are planning to patch the problem out "soon", but once again this is the same song and dance we saw for the first Vegas, and that patch never came.

The game itself isn't bad at all. In fact it's extremely enjoyable unfortunately it is counter balanced by how frustrating trying to play online can be. My obligatory numerical score is a 7/10 until they patch their network issues.

Lots to do...

2008-03-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Recently it has been harder than usual to be able to port here and get things updated, but at least the reason is that there are just too many games to play and too little time.

As some of you may remember my last endeavor into the MMO world was the ever popular World of Warcraft. I have recently made the conversion to LOTRO or Lord of the Rings Online for those of you unaware of the acronym. The game is quite honestly amazing and has inspired me to start a blog for the game alone. If you were ever a fan of the Books, which let's face it you should be, you will absolutely love the game. Turbine, while not unknown in the MMO world IE: Asheron's Call, have had some serious problems developing any real solid titles and I am happy to say that they hit the nail on the head with this title. Having pulled a PC game of the year award for 07 I would say that the official critic community would agree. The landscape is amazing the difficulty is everything you could want out of a challenge while still being accessible to the newer crowds. If you have any interest in knowing more about the game my blog for it is at http://beyondbagend.blogspot.com/ and is just a begging there so don't judge it just yet.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 comes out today and I can't say that I don't want this title because really I do, but I don't know if I am hungry enough for it that I am going to pick it up today or this week for that matter. I am going to treat this as I will get it when I get it type of a deal. I will only purchase for the PS3 and I still haven't forgiven Ubisoft for not releasing the patch they promised for the first installment in this series.

I got my girlfriend hooked on Pixeljunk Monsters, more specifically the co-op mode, and it has been quite a lot of fun completing most levels with a rainbow (or perfect clear as they call it in normal tower games). I still recommend getting this as I think it is one of the best mini games out there you can purchase.

I finally had a chance to play Harmonix's Rock Band for the first time the other day. I loved it, but (and it's a big but) I will not buy this game for three reasons. First, The price is $157.00 dollars on sale at target right now. This would not be so bad except for the following two reasons. Second reason, I will not play this game by myself because the multi player is, as the saying goes, where it's at. I don't want to throw down that kind of money on a game that I will not play but maybe once in a blue moon. Third reason, there is a certain line you cross (into nerdome perhaps) when you have an entire band worth of plastic instruments lying around your living room. This is a line that I am without a doubt unwilling to cross at this point in time. I have however heard that they are selling the instruments by themselves at which point you can play but the game at a reduced price to play online when you can get people to do so. If this option becomes worthwhile I may be making the purchase, but until then I will not swear fealty or my musical genius to any band yet.

Oh Noes ze pixels zhey hurt my retinas...

2008-01-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

Despite that odd title I am writing this in all seriousness. I still maintain that "PixelJunk Monsters" is an awesome game. There is even more strategy to each level that I would not have expected, to the point of almost madness. I just wanted to throw out the warning that extended playtime with this game in one sitting will indeed cause your eyes to bleed, probably from the mind rape you brain is undergoing trying to figure out the best strategy to beat different waves on monster attacks. No joke, at one point it appeared as if I was crying because my eyes burned so bad.

I make no apologies to my eyes however because we both know it was worth it. That is all.

Life's little fine points

2008-01-25T17:04:00.000-08:00

One thing that I find great about artistic mediums, such as video games, is that quite often you find something amazing that you didn't really expect to find. One such example of this is a new game released to the PSN (PlayStation Network) online store called "Pixeljunk Monster". Underneath this crisp cartoon style facade beats the heart of a surprisingly fun game. Playing on the "Tower Defence" genre this game was an almost immediate smash hit in my journal of PS3 gaming.

Having been an avid player of the tower defense player made custom maps from Warcraft 3 I knew this game was perfect for me as I no longer have WC3 installed on my system anymore and despite the constant urges to load it up just for Tower maps I just haven't had the time. In short this game gets a 9 in my obligatory number score book, but the plain and simple fact is this game is pure fun.

Mass Effect, Initial Reactions

2008-01-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

As it is likely you have already heard quite a bit about this game if you are any kind of gamer, you likely already know the basics of what the game is. Developed by Bioware, the same company that brought the Knights of the Old Republic games and Jade Empire to us, Mass Effect has a similar feel to it but has a level of polish the other games did not.

Similar to the the previous RPG games this is a Role Playing Game at heart. The twist to this is that it plays like a FPS when the combat begins which gives the game a new depth to the action that it's predecessors lacked. Putting it as simply as I can the combat is just pure fun, plain and simple. Like all games however where there's good there's always something bad.

Mass Effect, as you will no doubt find out within 5 minutes of loading the game, has a lot going on with it. The problem here is that a lot of the controls are not intuitive and the game gives you little to no explanation on how to do some fairly critical things. My suggestion is that when you get a chance read the game manual. This one step will act as your only tutorial through out the process of playing this game. Even once you read this manual the inventory system can still seem unwieldy and will often give you a headache when you can't seem to do what you want with it.

Aside from these two things the game is marvelous at first glance. The conversations you have with people are actually interesting and can make putting skill points into charm or intimidation actually worthwhile. I will have more as I progress through the game and will be updating with a new post in about a day maybe two. Happy Hunting.

New Games, New Year

2008-01-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

It took me a while longer to get to posting here than I would have liked, but I take comfort in the fact that the reason it took so long was that I had/have many games to play as I enter the New Year. As any gamer knows there can be no better reason to be late with something.

I will not be giving my opinion on all the games I have been playing right away but I will break them up into separate posts for better flow.

Let's start with a game (if this word can encompass all that this truly is) that is known as the Orange Box. This game is digital gold for your money there is no game that can rival the value of this disc. The game comes with Half Life 2, Half life two episodes 1 and 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

Half Life 2 was one of the most innovative video games of it's time. This game is a titan among it's peers and still stands as a beacon of what a good shooter can and should be. With the clever use of physics and various other detail oriented effects the game has many nuances that make the game even more impressive. Whether its being able to use the gravity gun to pick up a giant circular saw blade and hurl it at a horde of incoming zombies (not in the traditional sense of the word zombies) or a magnifying glass that allows you to look through it at a particular section of a map the game is oozing with sexiness. The two expansions episode 1 and 2 follow suit.

Ah Portal, I love this mini game and I am not lying to you that I would spend almost the full $59.99 on this mini game alone...almost all only because the game is fairly short. This game is one of the best mini games I have played to date. The premise is you are in a testing facility for a new weapon which allows the user to create portals that bend the laws of space and allow for some inventive uses of the physics engine. The game will surprise many with the twist in the game and that is all I will say for fear of spoilers ruining it for you.

Now we come to the obligatory multi player that all games seem to have now a days. Fortunately instead of cooking up some half baked game the people at valve have given the player a stand mp game as a "substitute". TF2 as this game is referred to is highly entertaining and easy to learn. The original TF is almost single handedly responsible for popularizing the class system used in many multi player shooters on the market today. I am happy to say that it's successor continues the tradition with style. The only problem with this portion of the title is the lack of maps leading to repetitive game play in terms of location. Other than that minor fault TF2 is everything that fans could have hoped for. And as for the map situation as stated here under the maps section valve has plans to release more maps in early 2008.

With that said my tentative obligatory numerical score is a 9.5 on the standard 10pt scale. If valve follows through on the more maps...thus making TF2 even better I will be changing my score up accordingly. Have a great new year and stay "tuned".

Holly Days

2007-12-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

First and foremost it saddens me that I haven't had any new content to post as of late, but due to the fact that the holiday season is coming up and that all of the games I review come out of pocket I am hesitant to purchase any games that I may be getting as a gift or by way of some gift card.

As far as I know come sometime after Christmas I will have an impression for either the Orange Box for the 360 or Mass Effect...both I have heard are very good, but I will have specifics on at least one around that time.

I guess I can throw down some news in lieu of gaming goodness. Duke Nukem Forever has been announced. Personally I had thought that I had seen the last of the Duke Nukem franchise with the release and subsequent failure of the N64 counterpart. We shall see how Duke performs in the next gen market, but I don't have too high of hopes for this one.

Not specifically game related but Peter Jackson has been slated as the Producer of the Hobbit movie(s). While not specifically mentioned as the director as he was on the original Lord of the Rings Trilogy, he will definitely have his hand in this movie. As of right now the idea is that the Hobbit book will be split into two movies so as to alleviate back pains from sitting for 6 or so hours. I'm looking forward to this one, but not as much as I was for the Original trilogy.

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl has once again been pushed back from the obviously past due December 3 release date. The current tentative release target is February 10, 2008. This game promises to be one of the best selling titles on the elusive system known as the Wii.

As you may or may not have heard Rock Band while being a smash hit is having a lot of problems with the quality of the pseudo instrument controllers. As of right now reports have shown that the guitar controller is extremely unreliable and the drum set controller is proving to have a very short life span. On the bright side all you have to do is contact Harmonix and you can get a replacement for both in a timely fashion.

Well that's all guys, hopefully these ads start actually generating revenue so that i can use the extra income to get a hold of newer games faster. Happy holidays everyone.

Continued Wii Shortages

2007-12-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well once again it's that time of year where holiday cheer is pouring out of people like money from the Social Security fund. Yeah right! I have seen so many disgruntled people this holiday season, and they are mostly people behind the wheel of vehicles.

As with the coming of the holiday season we are once again seeing, or rather not seeing, Nintendo's attempts at getting their "next-gen" system into the hands of the consumers. With the release of Super Smash Brothers: Brawl I have increased my Wii buying alertness to defcon 4. Alas there is not a Wii to be found high or low with multiple attempts to get a grasp on this ethereal beast. If it had not been for my friend being about to get one at launch I would even debate that these systems even exist.

Leave a comment if you have any tips or tricks to finding one or just want to discuss how inane the shortage is at this late of a point after release.

Guitar Hero 3 final impressions

2007-12-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

So having played a great deal of the game so far I have decided to give my final impression on the game.

I have come to terms with the fact that I will likely never completely finish the game, as I value my fingers and expert mode gives me arthritis and makes my eyes bleed ever so slightly. Of course I am exaggerating but only a little. I have tried the online battles and co-op and I have come away with a much more sour taste in my mouth than I would have initially thought. Online Co-op is a lot of fun, but for some strange reason it doesn't let you do a co-op career mode which is available to players on the same box. So, you don't get a great a feeling playing online as you do if you had someone right next to you. Also I seemed to notice that on any form of online function once you complete the game it automatically kicks all users out of the lobby instead of leaving them in a transitional lobby that the host could change the settings from or start a new game. Which in my opinion was a poor design decision.

At the same time the actual game play was not without its bugs either. At one point during co-op mode, only on my screen, my team mate seemed to remain in star power mode the entire game, but on his screen he saw no such thing. In addition to this during online battle the game seemed to have frozen on his end but on my end the game seemed to assign him a computer AI and continued to play through until he turned off his xbox 360.

Last but not least I have a bone to pick with online battle mode...when against a computer it is a very fun experience. Against a human this game mode is shamed horribly. Since you are playing people online you know that these people are good and will likely hit most of the notes and consequently the battle power ups. As a result every single game I played wound up in sudden death, which has only one power up which drains the players "life" the downside to this death drain is that it seems inconsistent and will often leave players scratching their heads in wonderment as to how the other person won.

In conclusion, I do love the game, it has its flaws but if you want an awesome single player guitar game with a great same box co-op mode pick this title up soon as it will make a perfect Christmas present for yourself or others.

Obligatory Numerical Score: 8.5/10

Guitar Hero 3

2007-11-29T11:22:00.000-08:00

Played through easy to warm up on my rusty Guitar Hero abilities and quickly bumped it up to medium.

I don't quite understand the flak the game is getting from gamers on some sites I have seen. While I will never get that feeling of innovation I got from the first installment to the GH franchise I simply can't find too much to fault in the current incarnations game play. It is after all the same game with some minor additions and new songs.

The game has the standard career, co-op, and online modes as well as an area to purchase new song packs from Xbox Live. By the way anyone who has this game should download the two free packs provided. One is the songs for the boss battles which is one of the minor additions I was describing earlier, more on that to come, and the other is a Halo theme song remix which is pretty cool for a free download.

So Career mode is where I have spent most of my time so far and I have to say the minor additions do make the game more fun. Occasionally (3 times) through out the career of your band you come across a "boss battle" which plays out a little differently than the normal regiment of hit as many notes as possible. Instead of star power you get battle powers for hitting specific note combinations successfully. These powers are there for you to try and get the other player to fail the song and it can be a nice touch of strategy to a game that typically lacked any. Other than that its a pretty straight forward Guitar Hero game.

I have not yet tried multi player but later this week I will be trying out co-op with a buddy of mine and I may find some time to jump on Live to battle some people and see how I fair against them...I'm no Hendrix yet but I'm no slouch either.

One thing I have noticed on the 360 is that, at least on medium so far, when the camera is trying to focus on the guitarist and there's a lot of notes on screen the game seems to stutter a little bit, nothing that has affected my game play yet, but noticeable none the less. I have also heard rumors of guitar lag for the PS3, but as I don't have the game for this console these are just rumors as of yet.

More to come as info materializes from the ether.

Final Impression: Assassins Creed

2007-11-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

So after two previous posts on the subject I now have my final impression of Assassins Creed. I stand by my previous assertions that this game is amazing in both concept and application. The only addition I have is that the ending was very fitting for the game and gives a sense of continuance that I was hoping for. Yes it does end on a cliff hangar and I can't wait for the sequel.

For those interested in achievements on the 360 make sure you go through the credits because you get a "Visions of the Future" Achievement unlock, and it gives you sometime to play around and find out a little bit about the story in the next installment. I really don't like to give out numerical scores on games because personally I don't think I am here to grade them, but more like give my opinion on what I thought about the game, but I do realize that people love to have numbers because they get all warm a fuzzy over them so if I had to give it a score I would give it a 9 out of 10. The reason it loses a point in my mind is due to the AI having some minor flaws and in the heat of the moment sometimes the controls don't do exactly what you would have liked. Well there you go guys either go buy, rent it, or miss out on a great game. More gaming once I get some new titles in.

The Onslaught Continues

2007-11-21T09:21:00.000-08:00

Pouring more time into Assassins Creed, more that I realized as a matter of fact, has cemented this title as one of my favorites. It definitely has its flaws, which I will get into shortly, but the overall destructive force that is Altair is simply too much fun to pass up. The game plays out as a stealth game where the player, as the disgraced assassin Altair, must redeem himself for his failings by assassinating 9 prominent figures in the different cities of the holy land. Although as a twist there is a sci-fi element to the game which blends surprisingly well, and is something that I won't give away as it may be an enticement for a purchase or rental for you (you will thank me later). The idea behind this game's stealth is not one of hide in the shadows and stalk your prey, it follows the hide in plain sight school of thought, and the mechanics work for this type of game.

The hide in plain sight idea is that you, as an assassin, must make yourself so inconspicuous as to appear as just another face in a crowd. It also helps that your assassins outfit is very similar to a monks outfit and you will often find your self bowing your head in prayer in order to "blend" as the game puts it. With a number of tools and maneuvers at your disposal (ie: a hidden wrist blade, a sword, throwing knives, a short sword, and the ability to counter enemy attacks) you can pretty much kill anything with style in all situations; you aren't invincible mind you, but with the right amount of timing you can damn well appear to be so. The ability to use your stealthy removal of a guard in order to divert patrol attention away from something you are about to do is another great element to the game. Very quickly the player will find that the game is not always about staying hidden all the time, and with certain missions like save the citizen from the guards it is encouraged that you blow your cover and start piling up bodies. There is a system to lose the guards and it can lead to some fast paced high adrenaline chases until you can find a hiding spot and is another great aspect to the game.

As I stated before the pure fun that this game perpetuates vastly overshadows the flaws with the design, but there are flaws. For starters the stealth kill or at least one of them is an animation of you cupping the mouth of a guard and stabbing him in the neck with the hidden blade which is awesome and looks amazing. My problem with this is that it is fairly obvious that you are murdering this guy but despite this fact the guard less than two feet away will not react until after the body stumbles to the ground, at which point he comes and investigates his dead comrade and just can't for the life of him figure out what happened all the while I am able to get behind him and stealth assassinate him too.

Another problem is that for some reason all the guards in the country side are all suspicious of you from the start and if you don't walk around in either blend mode or stay out of their visual range they can definitely screw up exploration of the tiny villages you come across. The way I got around this was by eliminating every guard in the countryside that could blow my cover, and while it did take a little while to do this it made exploration a lot easier as I didn't have to slowly walk everywhere. The body count that I piled up also made the game more interesting as just running around looking for flags to collect and Templar to assassinate would have been very boring otherwise.

The final "flaw" with this game, while I understand where people are coming from, I don't necessarily agree with. A lot of critics are saying that the game is tedious and repetitive, and if you do all of the optional quests then I can see this as something that may be true to people of a certain mentality. I have been doing all of the investigative and free quests like scout the entire city from it's highest points or save the citizens and it may just be my ability to get into the storyline but I have to say that it adds to the character of the game. I mean you are in a huge city and are a highly skilled assassin so it stands to reason that you would want to get all intel possible on the target so the mission goes as fluid as possible. These side missions either net you that intel or do enough of the free missions and it adds to your life bar...it's like finding four heart pieces in Zelda.

As you can tell from my gamer tag I have gotten into the game, but not finished it yet. Even with that fact the game is only getting better for me, and I will post my final thoughts on the game once I get all the way through it.

Follow the Creed

2007-11-19T01:26:00.000-08:00

Just picked up Assassins Creed, and I haven't finished it yet so this wont be a terribly long post. The only thing that I am going to write about this game right now is that this game is very very good. Pay no attention to those reviews that gave it a low to mediocre score. The game is actually fairly long if you play through it to get eveything done, and there are benefits to doing everything within each city. Pick it up and enjoy!

CoD4

2007-11-16T13:36:00.001-08:00

Ok so I bought this a week ago and I have had some time to play through it. Let me start off by saying that for me this is not a single player title, I expressly bought it for the multiplayer component on the PS3. That having been said I did have a chance to spend sometime in the campaign and I am glad that I wasn't expecting too much from it because it didn't deliver. Don't get me wrong it was entertaining but there are so many fundamental flaws that it really took away from the actual game.

The problems are apparent as soon as you get into the first mission. The game trys to play like a squad based combat game, but fails to give you any control of your squad. What's worse is that for some reason the developers didn't give the player the ability to open doors and for that you have to rely on your team mates to go ahead of you and do the honors. Once you get the door open the team makes seem to stand there quite often and shoot any enemies that are around. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but because you can't run through your team mates you are stuck on the outside waiting for them to finish killing everything. Consequently this gave me the feeling that I was being escorted through the a lot of the missions. Top this off with the fact that enemy spawns are limitless until you pass point A can make for an aggravating experience. Some times it was impossible to hit that point because there were so many enemies and other times you can sprint through the enemy lines to point A and keep on going.

Where this game fails as a single player it more than makes up for them in Multiplayer. The system uses the same level/rank up style that Halo 3 uses except well these ranks actually mean something. Obtaining new ranks unlocks new gametypes, power ups, weapons, and new challenges. The custom class creation is simply innovative in a game like this and makes the game have more variety in battle situations. The xp system awards you for completing game type objectives, enemy kills, using the radar/air strike/chopper attack ability, and completing the challenges (ie: get 100 kills with this weapon or get 6 kills while squatting down).

If you looking for a great multiplayer game on the PS3 or the 360 this is definitely worth looking into.

CoX

2007-11-12T16:29:00.001-08:00

Ok so the news it a little late but it appears that cryptic studios has sold the rights fully to the once City of Heroes/Villains partner NCSoft. What does this mean for it's subscribers? We for starters were going to so a tripling of the production staff and obviously a much larger budget. Those subscribers that currently only had one side of the game (either CoH or CoV stand alone) prior to Nov. 9th with get full access to the other side of the wall. Currently you can buy a combo pack with both titles for $20 in most retail stores. Those at NCSoft have stated that they are going to be more in touch with the player base as production continues on this awesome franchise.

I was a part of SWG and the debacle that lead to its miserable downfall. As such I was quite concerned when I learned of this transaction, but many may be happy to learn that pretty much the entire dev team for cryptic are being brought under the wing of NCSoft as this product is where their passion lies.

There really hasn't been a better time for people to subscribe for the first time or resubscribe with issue 11 on the horizon. I feel like we are going to continue to see good things from this dev team. way to go guys!

Horrible Retail

2007-11-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Let me start this off by saying that I am an avid penny arcade reader and as such a huge fan of what these guys do. So to kick off retail store bashing I will point you to this post http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/11/07 of theirs since they have most of the personal experiences I have encountered already written down.

I have also worked retail at Circuit City and let me tell you they are indeed the worst type of evil in this universe. They under pay employees, don't offer commission, make employees cram warranties down customer's throats, will pay two people doing the same job significantly different pay if they can get away with it, treat their computer repair crew, "Firedogs", like the lowest form of garbage, and the list can go on forever. It's for these reasons that you should shop at Best Buy or one of its other competitors instead.

One thing that I didn't know was what the guys at Penny Arcade were saying about EB Games, which is also Gamestop by the way. Apparently these retail locations will tell customers that they are all out of non-preorder copies even when they aren't if the game is going to be a big seller. In essence they are "punishing" people for not pre-ordering. This is the biggest crock of shit to the highest magnitude...obviously my money is worth less if I am not a pre-ordering customer. I am one of those people who has what's called a budget that I have to pay attention to, I can't afford to just buy every game and I wait for people who do have this luxury to play the game and tell me if it's worth buying. Sometimes this doesn't mesh well with the pre-ordering process. If they were truly out of copies then that would be one thing, but to try and chastise people for not following their corrupt marketing practices is absurd.

Well that's my rant for now... the key point here is that most retail places have evil intentions so buy at your own risk.

Bioshock Completed

2007-11-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

Ok due to lagging on my part I took longer than I wanted to to finish Bioshock for the 360. The story twists were fantastic all up till the end, not giving out any spoilers but wow. The last boss was a cake walk though, maybe die to my vastly superior gaming prowess but I highly doubt it. Overall if you're looking to pick up a great single player title with a compelling and eerie story line then rush out now and get this one.

Now I just have to finish some of my other titles that I have been sorely neglecting recently...I'll keep em coming as I slowly lay waste to the titles.

Zombies!

2007-11-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so Halloween came and went with little celebration, much to my dismay. This is largely in part because of the fires that have recently plagued San Diego County, because after all you can't throw a party if you house is gone or a wreck...but this is water under the bridge.

Bungie, the minds behind the Halo franchise, did something really cool for the night of ghouls and goblins by making their game type "infection" a ranked match making option which allowed many people to finally play large games of one to the most popular game types. There was however one small problem with the whole setup, if you had people in your party while trying to match make then it wouldn't find any games of zombie...on top of that if you had a party and playing a regular game type then it seems like the ranking system didn't allow people to gain ranks. It was really a bummer as I had people over at my house and we couldn't play zombie and since it was a "one day" type deal the chance has passed me by. No matter I am sure they will make it an official game type due to popularity.

On another Halo 3 note, I played numerous custom games with the guys over at Gamerswithjobs.com , and let me tell you they are some of the most fun games you will play. We played a game called "puma ball" and it consists of two teams with players near invincible playing a soccer type game with a warthog as the ball and player bases as the net. Each player has a gravity hammer and the rocket launcher and try to hurdle the warthog across the map. There was a pirate game where you have to stay on your ship if you want to have full shield as you stave off attackers on skiffs or try to prevent the other teams ship from boarding yours, let me tell you its an obscene amount of fun good work guys.

As has been stated I have been playing CoX lately primarily city of villains and have started a stalker which is akin to a rogue in WoW in the sense that it has invisibility and can do insane amounts of damage from stealth but once you get that initial strike done its very hard to deal consistent damage and stay alive. Updates will come as this character levels more.

MMO's, Halo 3, Folklore and Fires.

2007-10-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

Ok so lately I had caught MMO fever, which subsequently made it so I haven't posted here in a good long time. WoW was always at the forefront and that in itself is a time consuming endeavor with nonsense raids taking 4+ hours with little payout. Under the misadvice of one of my longtime friends I re subbed to SWG and then began the grueling process of once again figuring out that the game has been ruined for me. Even with tantalizing new chapter on the horizon with heroic encounters I canceled my account to that and put that demon to rest for a while once again. Lastly I re subbed to city of heroes and villains, and all at once the reasons why I loved and quit the game became apparent: The game is easy to play and not very time consuming at all, and yet the missions seem generic and repetitive at times and can become dull for extended periods of play time. This is ok with me as I don't want something that is time consuming and I will remain a subscriber to this MMO and for the time being forsake all others. Yes that's right I am canceling my WoW sub and will not return for some time.

After Halo 2 came out I could have sworn that I swore off the series due to annoying 12 year old player base and the incomprehensible stream of obscenities coming through my speakers at random intervals, but as fate would have it I was gifted a copy of halo 3 and sat down to give it a once over. I am happy to say that I enjoy this game much more that the second one. The flexibility of the level design and game type editing are something I can really get behind. As well as being able to bring guests into fun game types in matchmaking, I am truly impressed.

I also picked up a game for the PS3 called Folklore. This game is definitely something that people will enjoy. It looks amazing and has some great audio behind it. That being said you will definitely feel like you are slightly on acid due to the surreal enemy types and boss battles. Utilizing a comic book fully reading based character dialog is something I could have done without. There are a few cut scenes where the characters actually speak but most of them are so short and pointless it boggles the mind why they didn't make every moment of dialog a cut scene. All in all the game is solid and should at least get a rental out of you should your interest be piqued.

Last but certainly not least I want to cover the tragic topic of the San Diego fires. As you may or may not have heard in the last week, San Diego citizens and fire fighters have been dealing with some of the worst fires California has ever seen. A few people have lost their lives or been injured, and many more have lost their homes. Being a poway resident I had to evacuate with the possibility that my home may be gone once I got back, luckily that was not the case. I just wanted to take a moment to say that my heart goes out to those families that are having to deal with the loss of a loved one or families that have lost their homes. It's very difficult to have to deal with these types of tragedies and it's not something that people think will happen to them. I want to thank the SDFD and all the other fire departments that helped out with protecting the homes and lives that they could, and a big thanks to the navy for getting their planes up in the air to help get those fires out.

Game overload, I love it.

2007-07-16T11:44:00.001-07:00

There are so many new games coming out that seem amazing that I know if my bank account were a person it would bleed to death. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, BioShock, Resident Evil 5 and Halo 3 are all but gauranteed to be phenonmenal and I can't wait till they start hitting the shelves.

I just hope they all don't come out at once because I would really hate to have to pick and choose between them, which would be a hard list to prioritize.

Turning 50

2007-07-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

Not referencing my age, but rather my dranei paladin just dinged 50 last night. I can now use a holy wrath to slay the filthy undead and evil demons. I looked at the bill for learning all my abilites and I have to say this is pretty rediculous, I paid 25 gold to get them all learned...I can't remember from my warrior but I'm pretty sure my level 50 abilities didn't cost anywhere close to this.

I am now charged with the task of grinding to 58 so I can enter outland and own face all over that zone. Then I will get my uber leet gear and own more face and the cycle will continue until theres no more face to own or gear to get. Either way I will be happy.

E3 2007

2007-07-11T14:08:00.001-07:00

Ok so as many of you may have already heard is that "E3", shadow of its former self, has recently been held and the usual big three did their thing. In my opinion this was one of the most lackluster E3's to date. The problem here is that there wasn't enough innovation from the console giants as there used to be in the past. Granted all of the big guys just recently got their next gens out the door, but come on this is E3 don't show up to the thing without something amazing to show your customers, it's what is expected. I would say that only one company did a decent job this year and that would have to be sony. They showed the most next gen first and third party titles that would be coming out and did it with more style than its competitors. Some of the titles look amazing while others look like they could use some work.

Good news for all you lacking a PSP out there, the new PSP is 36% smaller boasting faster UMD access speeds and more efficient battery life, on top of which they are building a connectivity to stream video and audio to your HDTV. This feature seems to have no reasonable utility other than to maybe share pictures or movies when you're at somebodys house. In other words, there's nothing about the newest incarnation of the PSP that would have all the current PSP owners clamoring for the newest model.

LOTRO seems to be gaining a solid fan base but in all reality they are still a ways off from totally taking the mass of WOW players away from their online manifestations. I will consider playing this game, I mean come on its Lord of the Rings online, but I don't know if I will make a serious decision on the topic and in all likelihood the idea will fizzle out before I actually do anything.

For the smash bros. fans out there you will be please to know that Dec. 3 is when you once again own face with nintendo's most famous icons in a always fun royal rumble. The game seems to once again add just enough to the already tried and true formula to get me very interested in its outcome.

Super Stardust HD

2007-07-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you have a PS3, and 8 dollars in your bank account...hopefully more than that...then go immediately purchase this game off of the playstation network. Honestly one of the best downloadable games since geometry wars, and in many ways it even surpasses its predecessor. The game has really good music, very fun play system and is very good for a quick game here and there if it doesnt hook you into hour long bouts because you want to go for that high score.

Wow

2007-07-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

The World of Warcraft has once again gripped me with its addiction filled tendrils. I had, for a time, been fine without playing it, but since people I know decided to start playing it I have picked it back up...and I realized why I enjoyed and loathed it at the same time all over again. It's a great game, very fun and lots to do. While it doesn't take nearly as long to do things as other MMOs would have you take the game can still absorb your soul into its cleaverly designed goodness. I still stand by the game as being one of the best MMORPG games to come out to date and the expansion keeps the train moving in that department, and yet with all the love I do have for this game I say this as my last words of the day...Please for the love of all that is holy some one topple this giant and create something to break this spell over the 9 million+ subscribers that it has cast.

Console debate

2007-07-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that I do love my 360 its a good system and fortunately I haven't had any problems from my launch system. That being said the PS3 is better. Here are the reasons:

-built in high definition player (no extra purchases necessary)
- free online play
- crazy deals like 5 free BR discs with purchase
- developers putting the maps, that xbox live users have to purchase, in the games for free
- Ability to play all of the old games without having to waste HDD space if the download is even released
- Upscaling of the old games for better quality.
- Ability to browse the web
- Built in wireless receiver whereas the 360's is an extra $100 purchase

Over all, with all of the upgrades to the 360 to get it to have even close to the same qualities, you're looking at paying much more for the 360.
Don't get me started on the Wii. I will only say that for somethings the control system does work well, and for others it was the worst thing to come out of a human mind since George Lucas came up with the dialog for the new starwars movies.

Circuit City = retarded

2007-05-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

The way I see it if a company fires its best employees it makes them the most retarded company on the planet. Not only do consumers lose respect for you trademark name but the employees left over will have no motivation to achieve anything within the company. Basically circuit city is send the message that if you do a good job here we will give you raises (laughably small raises), but if you do too well then you are fired with no warning. At this point it seems that Circuit City is a gangrenous limb and needs to be removed from society. Get this one of the rules set forth by management is that you're not supposed to discuss your pay, the reason for this is they dont want the employees to know that certain employees (the ones they "steal" from competitors namely) are making way more money than you are while doing the same job. I swear if this isn't illegal it should be. On top of that their extended protection plans are a joke most of the time the service center they send work out to doesnt do the job right the first time and have to send it out again leaving the customer with no computer for an extended period of time. On top of that the obvious lack of respect for their computer technicians leads many to wonder why anyone would take the job...on my last trip in I saw the manager pull the technician, knee deep in computer parts, onto the sales floor away from the work that had already been paid for to try and talk to a customer which probably just wanted to browse anyways. In addition to this the fact that they put there entire short staffed tech team out in the middle of the floor where everyone can interupt them with many questions unrelated to their job title lends to even more distraction from the jobs at hand, so much so its a wonder how anyone ever gets their computer back in the first in the first place. An intelligent business decision would be to put one person out on the floor to sell the services and have the people working on the computer in the back free from distraction.

System Shortages?!?!?!

2007-01-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

Ok so for about the last month now I have watched the world turn, and I have come to the realization that gaming companies will not learn from either their own or their competitors mistakes. I work retail, and I know first hand how many people everyday we have to turn away due to the unavailability of both the Wii and PS3.

Did we not just go through this with the Xbox 360? Did we not go through this with the PS2? In fact when was the last time any gaming company came out with a system where they didn't have mass shortages? These poignant questions are ones that I thought would come up when the 3 titans of the gaming world were planning the launch of their next gen systems. But alas, Johnny Negativity was asleep at the wheel and became optimistic about their ability to make very few systems...What, did they think that there wasn't going to be a demand for the PS3?! Come on the thing is fricken sweet...its hefty price tag aside, it supports blue ray media as well as some sick HD games. The person that decided to only put a limited amount into production should be punched in the eyes and then have a dwarf from WoW come dump on his chest...and of course I mean this in the most endearing way possible.

So it is with this anger inside my heart that I say, Sony, if you deliver a PS3 to my house free of charge all will be forgiven. I kid you not, I am willing to bury the hatchet with this small token of good will on your part.

Anyways regardless of this I press on with my life with high hopes for the rest of this New Year and hope all visions of the gaming horizon will be bright.

The Beginning

2007-01-03T12:41:00.000-08:00

So this is the initial post of what should be something very interesting. Call it an experiment if you will, but it should be something long lasting.

I recently purchased the new Zelda: Twilight Princess and I must say that I am very much impressed by this installment. When Windwaker came out, although being a very entertaining game, was no where near the difficulty level of its predecessors. Granted this incarnation of the Zelda Franchise is by no means a brain beating, controller throwing, mind bender but it is leagues about the level of Windwaker. That being said anyone who has ever liked the Zelda series should go out immediately and buy Twilight Princess, drop everything and go (after you finish reading this of course) to your local game store.

In 13 days the legion of Tauren, Night Elves, Forsaken and other races of Azeroth get a significant upgrade to their world with two new races, and a whole new zone to explore, all for the price of $40 the Burning Crusade. If you arent one of the 7 million+ subscribers to the World of Warcraft then you probably have no investment in this tid bit of news, but with the current size of the fan base for the game its unlikely that you dont play it. Now if only they could release a patch where Warriors aren't the virtual punching bag of the Blizzard nerf stick then the game will be complete in my opinion. I am in no way a complainer about nerfing certain classes I relize it is as essential to a game as the code behind it, but I find it amazing that will all the testing that blizzard does that one classe could be so overwhelmingly overpowered that it needs to be taken down so many pegs.

Well looks like this is all I have time for, its now time to head off to a paying job which can give me a paycheck so I can pay for the amenities that allow me to bring you this wonderful page. Keep stoping by the posts will be frequent.