... you monster.

Before I write this, let me clearly identify that I'm going into it with a pretty strong bias.  I'm a huge fan of Valve - their games are top notch, I love the way they approach story, and I envy the evolving, always changing, nature of how their company was created.  That's not to say I've personally liked everything they've ever made, but at the end of the day, its hard for me to deny that anything they made was shoddy.

Portal 2 had some pretty big shoes to fill overall, and for the most part, I think they filled them, just not in the way that some gamers might expect. Those of you that haven't played the first Portal... leave.  I can't talk to you. This breakdown also won't make much sense - its next to impossible to talk about Portal 2 without comparing it to the first.

Side note:

For those of you that don't know Portal 1, like many of Valve's titles, originated as a mod of another Valve title.  This is kinda Valve's MO... make a game, allow other gamers to use it do do something else, and if it gets good, flush it out a little bit further.  Its almost like saying, "we think this is good, but we might be a little bit off... What do you think?"  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Portal, definitely worked.  Long story short, a couple of geeks used HL2 to make a computer science project and portal came out of it.  Valve, who was working on Episode 2 around the same time, loved it and adapted it into a full game and structured it loosely into the Half Life universe.  They even referenced it in Episode 2, so I would expect to see more of Aperture Science in HL3/Episode 3 (Whenever that comes out...)

- Story - 

Being a full release that didn't immediately originate as a mod, Portal 2 has a complete story.  It introduces characters in a dramatic format, and those characters grow and develop as the game continues.  It's really well done... I just don't know if I prefer it that way.  Portal 1 threw you into a crazy isolated place with no other guidance than an "encouraging", ominous, computer woman.  Glados was barely a character in the first one... she had a one track mind, a simple approach, and nothing but creepy things to say.  Portal 2 lets her off the rails a little bit, and it definitely takes some time to get used to.  Overall, I like Glados in 2... she may feel more approachable, but amidst Portal 2's overall storyline, I would consider her a success.

A bigger "issue" I had was having the presence of other characters.  Valve is pretty much the pioneer for the silent protagonist, and Portal 1 followed suit, but it made sense - I was alone, why would my character talk? Portal 2 has a couple of different characters, some that ask direct questions.  Albeit, those moments can be pretty funny ("say apple..."), but those moments really remind they player that they're playing a game.  The characters they introduced were well done, but it was hard to feel like I wanted them there.  The first game was so immersive and isolated that any inclusion of new characters felt forced.

I thought the ending was pretty epic too.  For the sake of spoilers, I won't address it here specifically, but I thought it was a very clever choice, but well planned choice.

- Puzzles - 

My favorite thing about Portal's puzzles is the overall simplicity of the premise.  I can't count how many times I've been stuck, or slowed down, and looked around... "How am I going to - oh yeah, I have a portal gun."

Portal 2 introduces some new elements in the mix as it structures it's puzzles.  Different gels that can be spread over surfaces change the way the player interacts with their environment.  Funnels allow the player to suspend and move things mid air.  Springboards launch the player across the map at high velocities without needing to create momentum.  All of these things freshen up the puzzles because they require the player to think differently than they did before.

It does make them feel easier though.  Often times, I instantly knew the solution to a puzzle, and the only thing I had to do was figure out how I need to put those tools into place.  There definitely is a real steady learning curve to them all, easing you into the next one and introducing the new elements with deliberation.  New elements aside, I'm gonna have to give the credit to Portal 1 in this category.   "Breaking out" of Aperture was a much better way to introduce more gameplay without forcing it down the player's throat. It allowed the player do more unique things with the portal gun, but made the player learn how to do it.  A much greater "challenge" overall.

Something I really liked about Portal 2's design was the simplicity of placing portals.  This probably contributed to the "ease" as well, but it's so much smoother.  I forget where I read/watched it, but someone from Valve talked about what made Portal a challenge in the first place.  Most folks didn't struggle with finding the solution, but actually getting the mechanics too cooperate.  You can see it in the portal placement...  the game sort of "predicts" what you'll want to be doing after you place your portals, and automatically determines which way is "up" if you were to jump through.  They tightened up the "flip" that happens if you happen to come out of a portal upside down.  They wanted Portals difficulty in finding the solutions, not struggling to reach them.

 - Extras - 

Coop is the bomb.  I haven't quite finished it yet, but the puzzles are pretty great.  The coop puzzles are definitely more challenging than the single player, but that's mostly because you need someone else to succeed.  I definitely don't like the story in the coop though... it's very heavy handed, and Glados treats the robots differently than she does the humans. Maybe it'll make more sense in the end, but right now it just feels kinda forced.

I love the song at the end of the game.  Not quite as good as "still alive", but a great follow-up, and a pretty good conclusion to the experience.

- Verdict - 

I definitely got my money out of Portal 2.  I will definitely be playing through it again (here's hoping for challenge rooms like in the first, or maybe other dlc updates).  I think one of the reasons I love Portal so much is much of why I like Myst.  I'm so jealous of the world that exists... I want to be a part of it.  How awesome would it be to have a portal gun?  It's all very childish, but I'm so attracted to the concepts that they've created, I like playing it because it allows me to be a part of it.  I think that's something I really like about gaming, and Portal scratches my itch.

It would be silly for me to recommend this game to everyone though.  Portal 1 players should give it a play through at least, but even then, consider the buy.  It's shorter than most other single player experiences, and there are little to no gameplay based reasons to play through again - achievements and enjoyment are all that's there.  The story can be hit or miss too... it caters to those who love the half life universe, and those who just enjoyed the first for it's "creepy" vibe, but the characters do come off as very forced.  Just approach with caution.

Understood by it's own merit and gameplay, Portal 2 is a huge success, but it's impossible to play and analyze without the context of the first game.  Compared to that, Portal 2 is a little bit disappointing.  It's hardly a bad experience, but it just can't compare to the joy and hilarity that the first one created.

PSN Security Breach

I'm sure you've all read it by now, but the reason the PSN has been down is because someone hacked it and had the ability to steal tons of info.

Basically Name, Email, Address, Screen Name and Password.

I already changed all my passwords and took the liberty of reissuing the card that was on file.....just in case.

I'm upset that it took Sony so long to let us know what the real problem was. Also, I wish I knew more about the infrastructure of internet security stuff like this, but this is a big deal to have this happen to them.

Did they have good security stuff in place that just got beaten? Did they make a crap security system? I don't have the answer to this, but I'd like to think it was a good system that just got beaten by a bunch of hackers.

It seems that no matter the latest and greatest.....the mouth breathers will always find a way.

Or PSN is full of holes.

Claptrap's Proposal

This was pretty darn funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fii-KPEmcMw&feature=player_embedded

Open Discussion

I was reading on a few sites about the current outage of the PSN.  Normally I would just laugh a little to my self, mutter a little "you get what you pay for", and move onto my 360, but I wanted to play Uncharted 2 multi! I'm also not quite sure about to address the paying issue as... Most people don't pay, but what about PSN Plus members?  In any case, the whole thing stinks.

It was interesting to read though, that some people out there are theorizing that the "external intrusion" story might just be a cover up.  I think it's cute how people online play detective, but one of the points had some merit.  Recognizing that the internet is made up of quite a few lies anyway, what would a hacker gain from lying?  Most of the time, the hacker, or at the very least the identity of the hacker, wants to be known. The whole idea behind maliciously stopping someone else's service or business is merely for the sake of doing it.  These geeks hacked the PSN, not a banking website...  Sony has a lot more to lose by not saving face.  On the one hand, I would like to hope that a publicly recognizable company would feel the obligation to be honest with their consumers, but really, a random three-day outage is not something Sony needs.  I haven't read the latest numbers, but I don't think PSN members are close to approaching Live. (I tried the research on this one, but the numbers are way to skewed... PSN's free accounts make it so hard to track, and of course, all the companies are going with their largest numbers, regardless of how they are inflated.)

Is it make or break for most consumers? Probably not.  My TV service goes down occasionally, but I don't mind in the long run.  Maybe it's because I'm not in a service war between AT&T and Comcast...  Maybe I'm just tempting fate, but I can't think of a time that Live went down for multiple days.  The last outage I remember was actually when the NXE kicked off.  Is my memory too short?

What are your thoughts? I don't necessarily mean with the quality of the PSN vs Live, but from any angle.  Should 360 users consider this a notch in their belt? Should PSN users even be allowed to be upset that their free service is down?  What about the games that require network connectivity to be played - should developers be restricted to do that? Is anyone going to be on sometime soon to play Uncharted 2 with me?

Activision Scared of Losing CoD

Here.

Maybe the fact that their scared shows that they know what they're doing wrong?

At least update the damn engine so it shows you put some effort into it as opposed to MW expansion packs.

Oh well. I do have a good feeling that the next CoD won't sell like Black Ops did. I think informed gamers are burnt out, but that the masses will still buy it.

Go Brink and Battlefield!

Mortal Kombat

So yesterday I received the newest Mortal Kombat for PS3 and after a solid 3 hours of plays....these are my thoughts:

Like:

Brutality - This game made a name for itself with over-the-top violence and it's back and it's still cringe worthy. Not even just the fatalities, but some of the standard move sets are brutal!

Other Worldy? - This may sound dumb, but I was shocked at how happy I was to see a ton of supernatural elements in the game. The majority of the characters are some kind of magic, evil, demony or machine so the move sets match them. Noob Saibot in particular throws a phantom image of himself around and seeing these other characters do really cool moves is a breath of fresh air from the more standard Japanese fighter where you just punch fast or faster and air combo.

Graphics - While not mind-blowing or having it's own style like SFIV it gets the job done. The MK games have always had a more "real" look to them and it works well here.

Fatalities - I'd argue that the original MK was the start of the "Pooping On Chest" era that we love now. What better way to further humiliate your opponent then after winning you literally rip him in half? Now there's T-Bagging and the oh so over done "CHAINSAW REV BY YOUR HEAD FOR FIVE MINUTES" or the "curb stomp", but I think MK did it first and did it best.

Move Sets - They're not overly complex. Coming from Tekken 6 where each character had around 100 moves and when you couple that with "juggling" it was just too damn much. Maybe I'm a noob, but SFIV and Tekken felt more like button mashers. In MK you have to know combos to some degree to win.

Pacing and Weight - I just like how the game feels over SFIV and Tekken 6. You move with more weight and purpose and when you strike it just seems to have more "OOMFF!"

D-Pad - After playing fighting games on the 360 the D-Pad is a savior on the PS3. I use it over the joystick.

Tag - I only played one round of Tag and it just adds another element of energy and excitement to the match. You pick 2 characters and then go into battle and with the push of a button (and depending on if you're mid combo) you can call in a buddy for support to finish a combo, add defense measure or just swap out for a fresh guy. It adds a very large layer of strategy to the game and will be much harder to master, but works really well from what I played.

Energy Bar - There's an energy bar that fills as you either take damage or perform combos. It's broken into 3 segments and depending on how you use it will drastically alter your outcome in the game. Do you use 1 bar to enhance a combo? 2 bars to perform a combo breaker if you're about the destroyed? Or do you use the whole bar and try a devastating X-Ray move that takes away 1/3 of health? Bad new is if you go X-Ray and it gets blocked you'll have spent your whole bar for nothing. It has saved me and been the cause of my destruction numerous times and it's awesome.

King of the Hill - I think that when I'm playing alone this will be what I'm playing. It supports up to 8 people and while the 2 people are fighting you're in a theater mode and watching the match. You have an avatar that represents your character and at the end of the match you literally get to rate the winner 0-10! It sounds dumb, but what a blast! If you win you stay. If you lose it's back to the end of the line. I got into one match late last night and I was nervous because these guys literally have nothing to do, but watch you and I didn't want to look like I sucked.....and I just watched the guy I was about to fight use Sonja and he humiliated Sub Zero. I beat him (it was a good fight) with Stryker and after the match it was awesome to see the guys give me scores! I got all 9's and 10's! I won the 2nd match with Noob Saibot and got all 9's and 10's again! The 3rd match had connection issues and the lobby was closed, but King of the Hill had my heart pounding much harder than any other game I've played that I can ever remember. Take the combat and fighting one on one and then throw in the fact you're being watched and judged and want to stay "King" and you've got a really exciting game mode.

Lobby System - If you've played Tekken 6 online you know how bad it is. Basically hit a button saying you want to play and then wait to get matched up. You'll probably be fighting a guy that has over 1000 battles won and has only lost 100 of them. In MK you can join a lobby with over 100 guys in it and scroll through them and see their stats. If you see someone you want to fight you send them a challenge and if they accept you battle it out. After the fight you can choose to play again or go back to lobby.

Dislike:

Computer AI - I feel that last night I got pretty damn good with Noob Saibot and Stryker and the computer will cheat the hell out of you to win in the tournament ladder. A handful of Stryker's moves actually become meaningless against them! It's cheap and it's a dated style of gameplay and it should be gone.

Balance - Jury is still out on this because it could just be that I'm still new and have been out of fighters for a long time, but it already seems like Smoke is the favorite of douche bag players. He has 3 moves that when performed back to back get you in a whirlwind of hurt. At first I thought it was unblockable, but after fighting 4 different players IN A ROW that used Smoke and that same game style I figured out a decent defense, but I just hate guys like that.

LAG! - It wasn't always bad, but sometimes it was pretty terrible. Surprisingly though even when the game was chugging I was still able to perform combos and win matches. I would think that this would be fixed in the near future with a patch.

Graphics - While they do look good overall the effects on the Fatalities can be a little hokey looking.

Overall:

This is an excellent fighting game and one I'm really looking forward to playing with Lead Salad online and working cooperatively against other human players. It's a great return to form for the series and finally shows Japan that the US knows how to make a great fighter as well.

NSFW

So, the other night, I was sitting along by myself.  The wife wasn't home, and I was feeling a bit... frisky.  I made myself a quiet dinner, and just sat around waiting to see what the evening brought about.  Man, was I surprised... I retreated to the bedroom and slipped into something a little more comfortable to the occasion.  I lit a couple of candles and put on some Kenny G.  The part next though, was definitely the most surprising.

I turned on my PS3... the symphonic melody of the OS loading just sent goosebumps down my spine.  Tingling with anticipation, I slipped in Uncharted 2.  I got lost in the excitement when I had to update my software.  I hopped into the multiplayer lobby and was totally blindsided! Another update! What are the odds?

After finally getting into a match, I was getting the hang of everything, and hanging on everything!  It's seamless continuation of the campaign "feel" is something that other game designers should take note of.  It takes advantage of the PS3's raw power and puts it to good use.  Textures are usually something I breeze over without noticing, but in this case, that was a good thing.  "Interactive" wall objects blended in seamlessly, encouraging me to run, jump, and grab at whatever I could.  As I fell in love with the world and weapons, I couldn't help but ask myself, "why is this so good?"  This isn't on the 360... who am I?

Needless to say, my evening went differently than I planned, but I feel better for it.  A little dirty, but better for it.  My favorite part really, was how I felt comfortable going it alone.  Groups are always fun, but sometimes... it's good to have a little alone time.

Gears of War 3 Beta

I got to play 2 games this morning. Even after just 2 games, I've got quite a bit to say, but I'll keep most comments to myself at this time, as I don't have nearly enough time in to make any fair judgments on the game, but I will say 2 things at this time:

1. It looks great. Lots of LIGHT and COLOR.

2. Host advantage is 100% completely gone.

I'm gone this week, so I won't be able to play any more until Friday night, but I just thought I'd put this up in case anyone else manages to get their grubby, Major-Nelson-Twitter-following hands on it (cough cough BRJAHU cough).

Brink

I know that Juniper has already said some glowing things about it and I said I wasn't getting it, but that it does look good.

Well, I just preordered it and will be playing on PS3 with with Silent.

Any and all are encouraged to join us in our new team based rapid jumping and sliding shooter!

Hopefully see you online!

New HD Nintendo Console

BOOM!

Wasn't I just talking about this? Still too late in my book.

They're going to fragment their audience even more and people like us with a PS3 or 360 or both have no reason to buy it.....unless you'd like another Zelda or Mario every 2-3 years.

Welcome to the end of Nintendo consoles. Mark my words.

They'll launch this at the end of next year and it may be as powerful as current consoles, but what will they do when the next big consoles launch in 2-3 years from now?

From all I've ever read and heard Nintendo doesn't throw bags of money around on development like Bethesda, Epic, Valve or those other giants do so how they'll even make something current and competitive is beyond me.

They're gonna be left in the dust....wondering where the hell it all went wrong.

My brain doesn't work like this...

Multitask 2 - I'm not sure who got their score into the thousands, but I'm fairly sure they cheated and did it with multiple people.

Test Your Might

Mortal Kombat on Tuesday!

Salad and I are getting it and I wanted to send an open invite to whoever wants to get their chest pooped on to get it on PS3 as well.

The original MK on Sega was the first fighter I ever played and loved. Blood code: A B A C A B B

"GET OVER HERE!"

Music in Games

Growing up during some of the most crucial years of gaming like the original NES and the PSOne music has come a long way.

From the simple themes of Zelda and Mario to the complex and almost abstract stylings of Mass Effect's synthetic sound music has the power to change the level of storytelling and immersion in a game.

I came upon this interview with the dude that scores Battlestar and scored SOCOM 4. It's a great read about how music impacts games and how to smartly use music to adapt to how you're playing.

My most memorable game soundtrack is hands down Hitman 2. Jesper Kyd was all I listened to for some time after that.

Emotions

I'm currently playing through the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 and I'm actually enjoying it more this time around than on the 360. That's not a fanboy claim, but one of how I chose to play.

Instead of using my long standing "Vanguard" class that relies on Heavy Pistols and Shotguns I went "Soldier." I had to adapt to how Bioware changed the game from ME1 to ME2.

They made it more of a 3rd person shooter so I choose to play like that and it's made the game a lot more fun. Partly because I have access to a lot more guns to use and I don't have to rely on recharging powers of Vanguard that are underpowered, in my opinion, when compared to the lack of ammo and relatively crappy guns you get.

Anyways, on to the point of this post.

Emotions. In games. When did this happen and when did it start being done well?

Not so much character emotions, but getting you, the player, to feel for a situation either good or bad in one way or another.

Last night I was playing through the "Overlord" DLC of ME2 (DLC I haven't played up to this point) and was moved almost to tears at the end of it. It wasn't hamfisted and it wasn't overplayed. It was both visually and audibly disturbing (felt like a haunted house at some points) and it really pulled on my "pity/anger emotions" I guess.

I don't want to ruin the story or plot of the DLC at all so I'll just say that it's about a Virtual Intelligence that goes rogue.

What games have you played that made you mad at some great injustice?

I remember helping some ghouls in Fallout 3 be accepted into Tenpenny Tower as equal citizens to people that weren't "ghoulified" (around 2 hours of hard questing) and being happy that I'd helped a minority show the majority that different people aren't all bad.......I came back to the hotel later and was actually horrified and mad to see that the ghouls killed off all the normal people! HOLY HELL THE NORMAL PEOPLE WERE RIGHT!!!!!

I guess I want to know what games and parts of those games got you more interested in it, for a moment, as an emotional experience over a game?

Sony - Subliminal Advertisement

I know this isnt really "blog" material but felt his was the most appropriate place to share it. This was a random beer i'd picked up in shopping market and there's something quite familiar about those symbols on the label, pretty nifty bit of Sony subliminal advertisement....or not.

Brink Abilities Trailer

This is the Brink trailer I've been waiting for just because I want to see some of the abilities and unlockables for the classes. Like I've told 3N3MY, I'm a sucker for team-based shooters so I'm pretty excited about May 17th. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcAbkoPndC4

Game Changers

I posted on facebook something about Portal 2, and some pretty funny comments came out of it, some from folks on this blog.  I don't mind - Valve does have it's days, and I think most Valve fans are willing to turn a blind eye to some of the issues in their games, because of the positive things they receive when they play them.  That leads me to my question - what's your game changing game?

For me, I'm gonna point to Half- Life 2.  I'm not about to praise HL2 any more than people already could figure out, but HL2 changed the way that I approached everything else I play.  The main element that blew me away in HL2 was the narrative structure and how it fit into their game and level design - The way this effected me when I played it... well, I've been changed.

The game doesn't even have to be a good one, or maybe one that you even finished.  Maybe something was so horrifically off that you realized what makes the stuff you like fun.  Maybe one game caused you to look at life differently.  I know I made most of the the friends I have through Halo... it's hard not to walk away from that feeling ungrateful.

What came before the NES for you?

I understand and appreciate the fact that the NES basically saved games from total annihilation and that it single handedly created about a billion gaming fans, but what did you play (if anything) before the NES?

I don't mean what you played at a friends house or played once or twice, but what was a system you played a lot and loved? What did you go back to again and again well before the NES was a blip on Nintendo's radar?

As a kid we had an Atari 2600 that I played, but it was a stellar gift from my uncle that gave me and my brother the Coleco.

I played the hell out of that thing and still own it to this day. My favorite game on it by far was Space Fury which played like a Geometry Wars, but with no walls so you could fly thru one side and pop up on the other side of the screen. There were all kinds of power ups for your space ship and the best part was the alien dude that would great you before battle and would rate you as a "worthy opponent" or told you that you basically suck. The ship moved with inertia which was a neat gameplay element.

All in all this was the very first game I ever loved and the theme song when the alien talks with you never ever ever ever gets old to me and still perks up my ears when I hear it. I true classic to this blogger and a game I owe pretty much everything to.

Here's a video that's actually a review some guy did of the game. He's entirely unfunny, but please watch the game for a couple minutes....at least the music and alien greeting part.

Space Fury

Gotta catch 'em all...

... almost out of obligation.  A more appropriate title for this post should read "why a grown man can still play pokemon with minimal shame".  This review is going to go through the simplistic review of Pokemon Black and White, as well as explaining a little bit of my justification.  For the sake of time, I'm going to try and avoid talking about pokemon gameplay, but if anyone's confused, I'll break it down later for you.

Pokemon Black/White (BW) is the fifth generation of pokemon, and it's a good one.  It's well rounded, well paced, and delves into the issues of what makes pokemon what it is, and it does so in gameplay as well as the narrative.

Liked:

Solid Start - This game kicks off at a decent pace that the other pokemon games kinda lack... usually it's a bunch of crap.  Run an errand for this guy, randomly get a pokemon for your own, learn how to fight in the tall grass... This one has those elements, but it doesn't beat around the bush - the game knows it's about those things and kicks straight into it.  No waiting, no pretense - here's your pokemon, now go kick ass.

Smart Trainers - Pokemon's gameplay is basically a big complicated game of rock, paper, scissors.  Certain pokemon are good against others ("It's super effective!") and some are not (It's not very effective..."), and this simple concept is where the strategy is built.  I'm about 2/3 through the main story and have run across some fairly intelligent cpu trainers.  I've always wondered in past games, "why doesn't this guy use a potion, he's just about dead...", and this game addresses concepts like that.  In game trainers will uses items and abilities like you do, adding to the gameplay as well as the challenge.

Super What? - My first pokemon game, I didn't have the internet, strategy guide, or even a friend to help me through.  I found a gameboy color and a copy of Yellow in the middle of a big park with no one around.  Not once during the gameplay did the game explain anything about type compatibility.  I thought when things were "super effective" that it was just luck.  This game takes a great step in that direction by educating the player about what works well against what.  It's unavoidable, and written into the storyline - this makes BW a great choice for any first time pokemon players.

Visuals/Sound - This is a minor one, considering the DS's graphical limitations, but they've really kicked it up as best they can.  More 3D (not 3DS) interactive areas, cooler animation for pokemon attacks, and a world that changes appearance with the seasons. (Although I am curious why it says it's Autumn in my game when my DS's date is correct... Maybe its Fall in Japan?)  The soundtrack is also good.  Same basic pokemon melodies redone with new flair.

Pokethical Questioning - For all practical purposes, pokemon are basically animals. They help us, serve us, love us, fight us, scare us, etc.  But the ethics of capturing wild pokemon and battling them against others who have done the same thing has never really been addressed.  One way to train captured pokemon is to go to a gym (one in every city!) and fight them all day long! There's even a sanction league and government to support this.  In BW, the main antagonists are basically the PETA of the pokemon world. Later in the game the payer finds out that their motives aren't as pure as they seem, but it's still pretty ballsy to bring up the ethical dilemmas that basically create the gameplay.

Dislikes

The Pokemon - They really need to hire some more creative artists at Game Freak.  The pokemon of this generation are far and away my least favorite, with a few exceptions.  I feel like they just sat around one day looking at things around them and turned them all into pokemon.  I love Ghost type, and usually make it a focus on my team, but they're all stupid.  One is a pokemon named Chandelure... which looks like a freakin' chandelier - zero points for creativity.

No older Pokemon - This generation of pokemon are all new creatures.  In the previous games, at least a few of the older gen games pokemon would show up, but these are all new.  I have a special attachment to the older guys, and not having them in the game is a little frustrating.  After beating the main game, I can transfer my old ones in, but the main fun of the game is over by then.

Defense

I enjoy pokemon a great deal.  Part/most of it is nostalgia from my younger days of gaming, but part of it is how it breaks up my gaming life.  It's something I can play in short stints on breaks, or something to wind down a day with.  RPGs have always been a bit of an uphill climb but the casual nature of pokemon - save anywhere and keep going at will - makes it possible to put down at any moment.   I also enjoy the large level of customization.  There are literally hundreds of pokemon to choose from when making a team, and each of those pokemon can learn a variety of moves to give your team a sense of balance.  The large level of customization gives the player a sense of pride and uniqueness that can only be said of their select team.  I've been proud of my character before, but bragging about my individual Commander Shepard really wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.  My pokemon are uniquely my own, and even have registration to prove it.

I also think pokemon is a healthy game to be playing. Each generation is released as two sister games, encouraging players to interact and trade with one another to complete their games.  The portable systems are usually out and about anyways, so working with other people who play to complete your game is a cool feeling.  It's almost a sense of fellowship, or mutual dorkiness that happens.  It's great!

My only real regret is how much the game is marketed to kids.  The gameplay and strategy is fairly complicated (some moves can only be taught by breeding pokemon together!), and this story in particular is fairly nuanced (I don't think many kids are being effected by the discussions of pokemon ethics in game).  It almost feels like a waste to add it in since the marketing really only draws in kids under 12.  The player plays as a child in the game as well, so it makes it even tougher to justify.

I actually want to play a pokemon game where I get to play as the antagonist, harassing other trainers and trying to take over the world with my pokemon.  It would all revolve around the same gameplay, but would be a new unique twist on the story. It would be dark, and awesome.

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Credit to Penny Arcade. I couldn't get the link to work, so I uploaded the downloaded image.

Sorry for the length here, I hope you read it all.  Sorry I've been so absent from the blog lately.  I've been out of town on vacation and busy the weeks prior.  I did comment on most of the older threads so if your curious as to my thoughts feel free to check up.  Cheers!

Wii - What happens next?

We all know I'm not the biggest Nintendo fan and while I think they do some things great they bomb on others.

Amateria and I were just texting back and forth about the 3DS and it hit me. What will Nintendo do for Wii 2?

The 3DS is a neat machine for sure, but isn't on my radar. I love my PSP and, so far, Nintendo isn't showing any system movers for me yet. To me it's just another DS.

I guess with the 3DS I feel that Nintendo is playing it safe and sticking to their strengths, but I'm wondering how long they can do that.

With the Wii Nintendo has made a fortune and they've really spread gaming around to a much larger audience than MS and Sony ever could and I commend that.

But what will they do next? People are already upset that the Wii doesn't even do HD. It's a large graphical difference between the PS3 and the 360 and when the next systems ship (in 3-5 years from now) what will their game plan be?

I can only imagine that the graphical differences between a Wii 2 and a PS4 or XBOX 720 will only be magnified compared to what it is today.

Will Nintendo still be able to push motion controls onto the same people that bought a Wii again? The same people that only ever got a Wii for bowling and a health trainer aren't going to buy a Wii 2. They don't see a benefit like a more "core" gamer might in a new Sony or MS product.

I wonder if Nintendo feels the same way? Maybe they'll rush out a Wii 2 in another year or two to try and grab up as much market as they can before MS and Sony ever get out of the gate, but it will only buy them time.

I imagine if they did that they'd be making their own path and wouldn't necessarily play by the rules of console releases anymore, but still.....I just don't see it going well with them.

With the advent of smart phones and cell phone gaming really taking off it makes Nintendo and Sony's handhelds that much harder to sell. My cousin's dad just retired and he put over 30 hours into Angry Birds.....30 hours in a week!

I applaud the fact that Sony is trying to make a real powerhouse with the NGP and it does seem stellar, but holy crap that thing is pricey and I can't see it doing well either.

I realize that this is all speculation, but given Nintendo's track record of doing their own thing do you really think they'll even attempt to make something like a PS4 or a XBOX 720? No way. They're too Japanese for that and that's what's going to kill them. It's why the Wii was such a departure from normal gaming. They had to come up with a new idea after they lost so much market share with the Cube.

What say you? Does Nintendo have a good chance for the Wii 2? Will Mario and Zelda ALWAYS be able to move systems? Will the Japanese ever stop buying every new iteration of anything Nintendo?

L.A. Noire - Tribeca Film Festival

Found this interesting. Games as art getting official recognition? Does this matter? Will the success of the game affect anything? L.A. Noire An Official Selection At Tribeca Film Festival http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/29/l-a-noire-an-official-selection-at-tribeca-film-festival.aspx

360 Discs Get 1GB Bigger

Here's the link.

I first read this story yesterday, but kept reading that it was going to be primarily for piracy issues, but it turns out the 360 is finally doing something about disc size limitations.

This is not a fanboy rant so please understand I just want a discussion, but this is a subject that brjahu and I especially have talked about again and again and again.

When the 360 first launched the DVD discs were big enough, but as of late they're running into more and more problems.

Castlevania, Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 13 and potentially the upcoming Rage were on or will be on multiple discs. Normally I don't have a problem with multi disc games especially if it's a linear game like Lost Odyssey or FF, but when a disc limits the potential for a more open ended game I do have a problem with that.

I guess over the past couple years (I think for Gears of War 2 on) I've been worried about space problems and whether or not DLC is less about making money on the back end than it is they literally didn't have space on the disc for all the originally planned release material.

After installing some of Microsoft's blockbuster games onto my hard drive I see just how truly full these games are (6.8gb is the max I think because around another 1gb has to be used for MS mandated things like achievements) compared to the disc and wonder if the developer wanted to include more, but couldn't.

It's not such a huge deal, but it does hurt other games that are obviously going to be ported on PS3 or PC. Since the 360 has the largest customer base it's obviously catered to the most, but I guess it just doesn't feel fair.

Rage is an excellent example. I remember a couple years ago when the Godfather of games and graphics, John Carmack, was speaking very candidly about space limitations on the 360. They want Rage to be an open world concept, but said that they'd have to use 2-3 discs to fit it all in on 360. He further went on to explain the extra cost associated to themselves and Bethesda in manufacturing a game with that many discs, but he was confident that they could "make the game fit." Which of course started all kinds of accusations of id having to chop it's own game to bits to work on 360. (Links to supported material here and here and here.)

I remember reading the tons of flame bait, but I think that the concern is genuine. Why should PC and PS3 players get less of a game because of Microsofts (growing more and more) dated tech?

I guess it's just a little more annoying because those who bought the original 360 at launch missed out on a little something called an "HDMI" port because MS said that it wasn't an industry standard at the time. My TV had an input for one.....good thing my 360 broke so I could purchase my 3rd one that did have a proper HD port.

Also, will 1gb of extra space help that much? ME2 was 12gb and I'm sure most of the others I listed still wouldn't fit on this new tech.

Again this isn't meant as flame bait, but to generate a discussion. With the share of gamers MS controls it's fair to say they control the market and the fact that they are even doing this just proves that they're aware of their limitations and that just maybe.....Kinect won't make the 360 a 10 year system like they think it will.

Crysis 2 Review

How do you like your shooters?

Do you like to think about strategy in battle? Do you like to have a lot of options? Do you want your characters to move with weight? Do you like having the ability to hide and play with your enemies?

Or would you rather just kill everything and move on?

Crysis 2 is a game with options. Play how you want. It's one of the few non-rpg games I can think of that gives back how much you put in.

Some of the greatest games I've ever played are shooters (see my never ending love affair with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay or Singularity) and while Crysis 2 is an excellent game I did have some problems with it.

Like:

Graphics: Just get this one out of the way early. It looks amazing. Not the best looking console game ever, but it's definitely up there. It's a very impressive engine that runs amazing lighting and large environments with almost no drop in framerate. I can't ever recall slow down.

Maps: The levels are still pretty much Point A to Point B, but Crytek did a great job with making you feel like you were in a larger world than you are. There are many many areas where you just look out and see all the enemies and realize how many options you have. It's a breath of fresh air for this gamer that's grown tired of corridor shooters (Doom 3, Prey and Quake 4 get passes because I love them). CoD and Dead Space 2 are some examples of how to make a straight forward game.

Weapons: There are lots of them and they all can be customized to fit a style. Since you can only carry two weapons I primarily only used a handful of guns that I felt really comfortable with that were good in varying situations. Customization is pretty awesome at how "on-the-fly" it is. Hold down the "Select" button and your character will hold the gun in such a way that you can see the whole thing. Hitting certain buttons will add a silencer or a different scope or a different part such as a shotgun or grenade launcher. It takes a little time to learn to do it quick, but once you do it really opens up that many more options for "play time" with the enemy.

Suit Design: You don't really get to see the suit much (besides your arms), but holy hell that thing looks awesome. It looks organic and mean and futuristic yet "this could be the future" all at once.

Suit: I wish I could do this thing justice in this review. It's an absolute blast and because of this suit Crysis 2 is the ONLY game I've ever played, that featured a super suit, that actually made me feel...well...super! In Halo you feel like you're just another grunt, but with better armor. In Crysis the suit makes you into a temporary Superman.

In one section of the game you get a diagnostics done to yourself and the suit and you see just how badly damaged and near dead you are in the game (broken back and ribs, ruptured organs...you know....kid stuff), but the suit is keeping you alive. It's literally growing into your wounds to keep you alive. It creates an almost silent attachment to the suit because without it you can't beat these enemies and still without it with no enemies you'd probably just die.

They never really point that out in the game, but it's something I noticed and appreciated.

Suit Voice: It's awesome. It has the sound you hope it would. It's definitely robotic and "man" and it alerts you of all the right things at the right times.

Powers: They aren't tacked on and must be used to survive and win. There are 3 powers: Cloak, Armor and Power. Cloak and armor are turned on or off with the L2 and R2 buttons while power is activated anytime you run, use power jump, grab ledges or rip turrets off of their bases.

Preparation: This is where the game shines. When you enter a new area the suit will tell you that you have some tactical options. This is where I would activate cloak and turn on my scan visor. In the visor mode you can see all enemies (up to a certain distance) and I highlight them all. Next I look for enemy vehicles. Then I look for ammo drops and crates. I look for flanking areas and spots where I can climb for a height advantage.

After I've viewed all I can see and look at my options for amount of enemies and their locations and the size of the map. Then I weigh all my options and I decide to attack either head on, avoid them completely or take them out one by one in stealth.

I personally am a huge OLD SCHOOL Splinter Cell fan and Riddick worked well with stealth so I almost always went stealth. Cloak and use a silenced weapon. With a silenced gun you can get away with one or two shots and stay cloaked.

Ironically some of the most fun I had was when I screwed up my own plan. If I was seen by someone and my cover was blown and had to improvise.

It's a frigging blast to drop from a very high point and activate armor at the last second to absorb the impact so you don't get hurt and head shot a guy on a turret in a vehicle. Jump into the back of the vehicle and rip out the turret and rain hell on the enemy.

On Normal difficulty the game had some challenging areas, but I'm really looking forward to playing it again on Supersoldier where I'll be forced to use the suit well....or fail epically.

Energy: The way the game keeps you from totally crushing the enemy is by allowing your powers to work only as long as your energy bar will allow.

Half Life 2 has a similar setup. Your suit allows you to power your flashlight and sprint, but only as long as the power holds out. In Crysis 2 your suit recharges quickly, but it will run out on you in some of the worst times.

It's implemented well too because it drains faster in accordance with how you're using it. In cloak it drains very slowly if you're holding still or crouched and walking, but if you sprint that thing is going to drain fast. With armor on there is a constant drain as well, but as long as you aren't being shot it'll last a lot longer.

Running and Jumping and Ledge Grabbing, OH MY!: What the hell?! A super jump that feels like you have weight?! Bungie must marvel at the design! There are two jumps. A simple non-suit powered jump and the uber jump that you accomplish by holding down the jump button for a little longer (it uses energy). It is awesome! You move with gravity and never feel floaty.

Add sprinting and jumping and you'll be flying across the map! The game even sports a very novel idea in a shooter where you can actually grab and heave yourself up onto a ledge. This allows for much more freedom of movement around the environment.

Dislike:

Silent Hero: When the hell is this going to stop? I'm so tired of a voiceless main character! I'm looking at you Gordon Freeman and the Doom guy! What's wrong with a little voice or character with my character? Tommy from Prey was made much enjoyable to play when I realized he had struggles and problems and a *gasp* personality! Sev from Killzone 2 has a voice and while that's not a character driven game it lets me care about him some as opposed to not at all.

Voice Acting: I think that the guys that made the game are from Sweden, but the voice actors they got for the English version suck. With a game with as big a budget as this had and with as big a market as the US is you'd think they'd hire some decent talent. Hargreave is the only character that doesn't suck.

A.I.: I still think that the original FEAR had some of the best AI I've ever seen with an enemy. They'd use everything they could to kill you and they did it non-scripted and believably. These guys are retards and more than once I saw them continually running into a wall.....just waiting to die.

Seemingly Random Energy Depletion: I swear sometimes my guy would take a freaking beating in armor mode and I would be good for a while and a bunch of other times I'd be at 100% and activate armor and then it would be at 0% and flashing red! I still can't tell you if that's because of a special enemy gun or something that kills shields instantly or what, but frequently I'd be puzzled as to why my energy was gone.

When your energy is gone you can't run because running requires power so you're forced to "walk" to cover. It's a good and bad thing in the game and will def make you bite your nails more than once.

No Inherent Powers in the Suit: This became more of an annoyance than anything, but I'm sorry. I have a super badass 1 Billion Dollar Super Suit and apparently it can't do jack unless it's eating up my energy. It can't even power my thermal visor (which you depend on heavily in some areas) without eating energy. It's not a huge deal, but to always have to deactivate and activate powers so that you can recharge just gets annoying.

I also thought that the weapon swap between weapons and reloads were way too slow. They were at normal dumb soldier speed. Why shouldn't I have some advantages inherent to the suit? Like a faster reload or a faster weapon swap?

The suit is stellar, but flawed that it offers no advantages without eating power.

Story: What story? I guess there's something there, but it's so poorly explained that you don't really know what's going on.

There's a virus killing people in New York City and you're fighting humans and aliens and somehow your suit is building an antidote to it all. It's dumb.

Aliens: I thought that fighting the aliens would be fun, but in the mid-section of the game you stop fighting humans and fight almost only aliens. They aren't as fun to fight as humans because they just run around like crazy people, but they do create a lot more of the "holy crap I'm getting owned moments" of the game.

Bottom Line:

This game owns. I loved it. I did have some frustrating moments fighting The Pingers at times with randomly depleting energy, but seeing as to how they are the biggest and baddest guys in the game I assume they have special weapons. I just wish the game would've let me know.

Running around the maps and using running, jumping and grabbing opens up the maps in ways no other shooter has.

It's a game that lets you play how you want and rewards careful planning and optimizing the proper use of the suit. It's one of the few shooters I've played that lets you be creative in your play style and I commend it for doing such a great job.

I'm restarting the game on the hardest difficulty to see if I've mastered the suit.

Do what you know in your heart to be right.....buy this game.

Help Wanted

I've already shared this story with 3N3MY and Lead Salad, but figured I would toss it on here to see if anyone else has had this issue or knows the cause/fix. I have already hit up the inter-webs and found quite a few people with this or similar issues but nothing has been helpful.

Situation: Uncharted 2 has issues of freezing, audio dropouts, and system resets. It started last night when it required an update to 1.o9. It froze on the 'please wait' screen and eventually my system beeped and reset. My quick fix was to delete the game data file (not saved game), and fully power off my system. It reloaded and took the update. Received one additional error when trying to load 'live sync' for MP but just tried again and it updated. Enter this afternoon. I decided I wanted to play through the game again. After a little while all the sudden the dialogue dropped and the music was skipping leaving me with just sound effects. Come to find out, it didn't fully load the maps and I was able to walk through doors and outside the map. From that point, I tried to exit the game and it froze, beeped, and reset the system. I then proceeded to repeat the above steps. After 25min of re-updating my game, it froze on me again while re-updating MP. This final time, I powered off my system, made sure my disc was clean, and pressed and held down my power button, which I believe does some sort of reset. Loaded the game, loaded MP and played a round with no issues. I loaded a couple of cut-scenes and they played fine. Called it a day.

I have tried out a couple of other games since and haven't had an issue. Any ideas? Everything I've done is what the people on forums said to do. The other is that it could be a laser diode issue, but I have NO problems reading BDs and that is a constant read, unlike games. I think it's just a faulty, sub-par, over-priced system ;)

My system:

- PS3 Fat 20gb

- upgraded to 160gb HDD

- system fan does run a lot due to upgraded HDD (my old laptop drive that ran HOT)

- system is a remanufactured purchase from eBay 2 years ago.

Crysis 2 Video

I know that we aren't supposed to just link to videos and I can't wait to finish the game and post my review, but this is a neat video that actually shows things that happen in game and it sports Hans Zimmer's stellar theme!

This is the opening cinematic to the game and it shows the uses of the suit and practical ways to approach situations. I just like the video so much because it is a good representation of the powers at your disposal and the size of the areas you do battle in.

I'm hoping to have a review up next week.

Crysis 2 - Graphics Only and Discussion

Finally started and played Crysis 2 for over and hour and a half last night and all I'll say about the game before my official review is that it's awesome!

I'm posting to talk about the graphics of this game. I have no problem believing that on a powerful PC this is probably the best looking game of all time, but on consoles I don't understand where people get off saying it's the greatest looking console game ever. I've read that statement at many different sites and even on the box for the game it says, "Best looking console game ever."

Sidenote about me is that the first game that blew my brains against the wall (graphically speaking) was Riddick for the old box. That game needs to be mandatory playing (like mandatory reading at school) for any gamer. It's just that awesome.

In a very unbiased non-PS3 Fanboy statement I can easily come up with 3 games that all look better on a console than Crysis 2: Killzone 2 (haven't played 3 yet), God of War 3 and Uncharted 2. Don't get me wrong the game is gorgeous and definitely looks best in outdoor environments and it looks better than any 360 game I've seen.

Maybe reviewers forgot about those PS3 exclusives?

Also, the game sports a lot of light and a ton of color in much larger environments than any modern shooter I can even think of. No doubt the engine has to work a lot harder than in Killzone, CoD or Gear of War 2.

Talking with Salad yesterday before I had even played the game I was shocked to see that IGN had called the game the best looking console game they'd ever seen and still only rated the graphics a 9.5.

Let me put this in perspective and run down some other blockbuster game graphics ratings from IGN:

Gears of War 2: 9.5

Halo Reach: 9.5

God of War 3: 9.5

Modern Warfare 2: 10

Uncharted 2: 10

It just seems contradictory to say that a game is the best looking game on any console and not give it a 10.

Salad and I agree that it shows a flaw in the number ranking system and think that the "Like" "Dislike" is the superior method.

The only problem with that is that a quick glance at a number rating does give the reader a good impression of what the reviewer thought of the game without having to read the whole review.

What say you? Numbers good? Numbers bad? Maybe we should implement a sticker program with golden stars or smiley faces? Maybe we should take the games code and mark the hell out of it with a red felt tip marker like our teachers did to us in school?

I guess I just got annoyed that the game promised to blow my mind visually (and the reviewers were calling it the best looking game ever and perpetuating the problem!) and while many times I find myself saying "wow" and slowly gaze around at the destruction of New York I can't help but be a little let down.

This Generation Only - Worst Games

Keeping this list thing alive what's the worst game you've played and completed? We've all played some bad ones, but who stuck it out till the end? Who really saw the game suck to the final credits?

Brjahu's post was excellent where it was a "disappointed" list where the game could still be good, but you were let down in some way.

This list just sucks. Let's see if you can even do two.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard - Hey it's Will Arnett and Neil Patrick Harris in a game! There's no way this won't be awesome!

Boy was I wrong. It had some very clever moments in it, but holy crap this game was a battle for me after the 1st hour and I swear it was like 50 hours long. Terrible AI and crazy repitition almost put me in a coma.

I finished it because I wanted the easy achievements.....I bear my shame like a scarlet "Achievement Unlocked" notification.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 - Thankfully this game was mercifully short, but it really only sucked so bad because I enjoyed the 1st one so much.

It took everything great about the first game and said "bugger off" and ruined it! Top of a short game with very few varying locations, terrible enemies, a way overpowered main character and one of the worst final boss battles of all time and you've officially made my "worst" list.

This Generation Only - Most Disappointing

3N3MY - I'm not trying to steal your thunder with this post, but I felt a perfect follow-up to the Top 3 Games of This Generation would be to list the Top 3 Most Disappointing Games of This Generation. I have a feeling that several of you will list the same game or two but I'm interested to hear what your thoughts are.

Plus, lists are always a good time! So, here we go...

Resident Evil 5 - The follow-up to possibly the best game of the previous generation unfortunately had huge shoes to fill. This game was announced very early in the 360's life, and if I remember right, might have even been one of the reasons I got one in the first place (well, besides playing COD2 in HD for the first time). I might need some correcting here, but I specifically remember this game took a couple of years and several delays before it finally launched. I'm not saying the game was bad, it just wasn't RE4 . I wasn't a fan of the control scheme, and the story just wasn't up to par.

On a side note: The co-op was very welcome, but since 3N3MY, Lead, and Skatch were already paired up I had the unfortunate experience of playing with Capt. Unreliable aka Amateria. No offence to him, but having to wait days in between plays killed the experience.

Halo 3 - I might receive some flack for this but come on... it just wasn't that good of a game. The campaign was lacking (and kind of dumb), and being the first Halo on this generation, it had HUGE expectations. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but I lost interest in the MP very quickly. I honestly blame the Beta. I got into it on day one via a download code (as opposed to Crackdown), and loved it immediately. Then, when the game finally launched the multi experience was completely different. I wish I could be more specific on this, and maybe Skatch can help me out, but all I can say is that they experienced a bit of the Gears of War Syndrome where they changed the game so much that it wasn't the same game anymore. To their credit, they only changed it once, and not every 2 weeks.

Call of Duty 3 / Gears of War 2 - I know this is cheating but it's hard for me to separate these two because they are both follow up games to, what I feel, are two of the most important games of this generation.

COD3 - Trey Arch, you really botched this one up. The campaign sucked, and it just felt like a terrible copy of COD2 which many might consider to not even qualify as a game of this generation. It's only saving grace was that the MP could be fun at times if you had a group of friends to play with. And to think, I purchased this game instead of Gears of War 1... yeah, a terrible mistake.

GOW2 - Boy... how can anyone completely eff up a MP experience more than Epic did with this game. If you played the game the day it came out, put it away for 3 years, and tried playing again, you wouldn't even recognize it. Everything from the way the shotgun fires, to the smoke grenades with an identity crisis, to the simple concept of the chainsaw... everything is different. Despite all of this, I played the hell out of this game. I think it's because I knew what it was, and felt that they were just one update away from making this game perfect. Man, was I wrong. Luckily, they campaign and horde make this still a game to pick back up.

This Generation Only - Best Games

This is not a best of all time list, but a list of the best games you've played this console generation and PC during the same timeline. Half Life 2 is not an option so don't try it because it was originally on PC and then ported to XBOX so it's too old.

I have a ton, but limit it to 3 and explain why you picked them.

1. Dead Space - Very few games give me the thrills like Dead Space. The atmosphere and back story are excellent, but the game also sports excellent controls and action. As good as Dead Space 2 was it's still not as good as the original.

2. Mirror's Edge - Probably the most excited I'd been for a new IP in I can't remember how long. The game was not perfect by any means, but making a first person running and platforming game work on that level is amazing to me. Couple it with a great soundtrack and an awesome aesthetic and you've got a stunner in my book.

3. Condemned - Monolith is one of my favorite developers and it was the first true "next gen" game I had ever played that really blew me away. Still the most visceral combat I've ever seen in a game and "Bart's Superstore" is the most memorable level I think I've ever played in any game....ever.

I'm looking forward to reading your lists!

Homefront

First of all, let me just scream when will people stop comparing EVERY SINGLE FPS to CoD!? Now that that thought is out of my system, I can proceed with my review... full of comparisons to Call of Duty.

Likes
• A new IP - it's not a repeat of the same game released last year on March 15th and this automatically made me like it a bit more. You may disagree but this earns points for me. Maybe I've played certain IPs too much and am burned out them.
• Setting - from Red Dawn to Freedom Fighters, I love the idea of America being invaded by a foreign country, in a "real" way, not some pop-arcade arnold movie. Even though this game out later than MW2, I feel that CoD ripped this game off. If that makes sense...
• Shock - this game will really shock you. Without spoiling anything, there was one part that really got to me, tugged at the heartstrings in only a way that a movie or book has before. Certains instances feel more "real", more a part of war than some effort to make you go "woh" and remember a scene from the latest pop-action flik. One scene in particular reminded me of Behind Enemy Lines.
• Graphics - people are complaining that they are outdated while they sink hundreds of hours into the same IP that has produced the same graphics since 2007 (right year)? The way the graphics were done and pictures placed over objects (I have no idea what technique or drawing method this is) reminded me of HL2 and Max Payne 2. A little dated but worked great for me since I enjoy that style.
• Vibe - I really got a HL2 vibe while playing the game (maybe it was the graphics) but this drew me in too. On the run from an evil empire...
• MP - the multiplayer is surprisingly good and very smooth! No lag, low pings, hits register. The MP is fast and furious and you die QUICK, which some people may not like. I enjoy it because it doesn't take an entire magazine to kill an enemy. And compared to other large IPs, this game has an amazingly smooth release. While you play, you level up and earn different unlocks, including the ability to add perks to vehicles. You can customize your kits with some pretty familiar perks. There is a point system for the kits so some may have 2 perks, others may have 3 (not sure if you can have more than 3). You earn Battle Points as you play which can use in game to unlock two abilities that you have or vehicles upon respawning. There is a personal UAV scan for 400 BPs that is pretty effective. RPGs are 250BPs so if a tank rolls up, bust that out and take out the tank. The vehicles can be annoying but there seems to be easy counters for all of them, except the chopper. The one time I bought the chopper I was taken out quick so I think I just need to figure out which launcher to use. :P It's a great blend between the two big IP franchise FPSs.
• History - the fictional future history of the world is done AMAZINGLY well. To the point where you honestly begin to believe that NK could invade the US someday. As unlikely as that sounds, the events put together in the story (and easter egg newspapers you find) really fleshes out the world. I've heard people bash the mere thought of NK invading the US. I assume these people read biographies and nonfiction books about Obama's childhood. I enjoy science-FICTION and fantasy and other FICTION so I'm in full support of a FICTIONAL story.

Now, the dislikes...
• Length - It's true, the campaign is super short. I think I completed it on Normal in 3 1/2 to 4 hours and it just... ends. Almost like they planned more missions but stopped. I really enjoyed the missions and the progression leading up to a big finale but then... it's done. Even 6 hours would have been acceptable but 4, or less than 4, is pushing it. Maybe it was a budget issue or whatever but they need to work on this for the second game. For an excellent length of an FPS, see HL2.
• Disconnected - as much as I loved the story and the atmosphere and fighting NK soldiers in neighborhoods and department stores, I still felt disconnected. I didn't connect with the characters or anybody I met along the way. Honestly, with some longer "down" time and drawn out scenes, maybe they could've built up some character development. You could have added an hour to the game easily by padding it with character back story.
• Too late - this game falls short because it's released AFTER another large IP that set the (very low and poor) standards for FPS shooters these days.
• Filling the wrong shoes - Though it isn't quite as bad as Medal of Honor, it still attempts at times to fit the shoes of other IPs. Game developers should consider coming up with their own ideas instead of attempting to copy (crappy) ideas from other developers. Homefront isn't too bad in this area but there is one part where you jump in a chopper and some oldy sounding music starts playing and it just irritates me cuz it's been done so many times. Freaking pick another song and I'll be okay with it. Play some melodic Enya or something, just for a break from "Hey, I'm in a chopper going to war so we must, Must, MUST listen to CCR." (I don't think that was the song but it was pretty much the same).
• Bugs - SP had some bugs and frame rate drops. However, I believe this was mostly due to me running Fraps as I recorded me playing through the SP campaign. I did the first two missions again (achievement hunting on Steam) and it ran smoother. Still some bugs though.

All in all, I'm not sorry I spent my money on this game. The SP fell a little short of what I expected but was still enjoyable and I'm still eager to finish a second, possibly third, playthrough. The MP is good, much better than expected, and this will fill in the tiny gap where the SP fell short. Good new IP and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with a second game. Not sure how long the MP will last me but it's a great break from the complete lack of MP shooters I've not been playing lately... since I'm burnt out on CoD.

Also, all the reviews are a little harsh on this game, and it's honestly because it doesn't have CoD in the title. Once people can get past that, it's a good game.

Rockstar Games

I know that we beat them up from time to time and Juniper loves them (not a poke at you, Juniper, or your gaming loves, but the truth), but why can't I finish 1 of their games?

Truly they revolutionized the game industry with GTA 3. An open world where you were free to do anything you wanted. I think we'd all agree that if we played it we probably spent more time running amok in the city than doing missions. It's a blast to have that freedom. See how long you can survive when the cops are out in full force. Use cheats codes and arm yourself to the teeth and cause mayhem! It was a blast!

I've played GTA, GTA3, GTA: Vice City, GTA4 and Red Dead and I haven't finished one of them. I acknowledge the level of detail in them all and the fully realized worlds and the emphasis on freedom, but my goodness.....they get so boring.

I'm writing because I never finished Red Dead on 360 and I picked it up again for PS3 over a month ago. I got to Mexico (my quitting point on 360) and did 1 mission and haven't played again.

I just find the missions boring and the fact that the game has an ENDLESS amount of tutorial help! For example there's a mission where a barn is burning and you have to save the horses inside. Understand that you're already anywhere from 5-15 hours into the game and you know how to play, but the game insists on telling you what ladder to climb to get in. To crouch walk to be careful not to fall. What window to go in. What ladder to climb down. How to smack the horse to make them run out. How to mount the horse. How to jump the fire while on the horse to escape.

I feel that almost every mission is like this. Why the hell won't they let me do some trial and error or exploration and find out for myself? GTA4 did the same thing.

I guess I'm ultimately frustrated at the crazy amounts of ass kissing game journalists do to Rockstar. With LA Noire around the corner it's already in full swing again at how amazing the world is. How lifelike the facial animations are. How story driven it is. How it's 25-30 hours long.

But is it exciting? Is it fun to play? Will I actually finish it?

Given the track record with me I'm gonna guess no and I'll gladly pass on it all while waiting for the Game of the Year awards to roll around and see it win again and again.

Again let me say that Rockstar is very talented, but I guess I just don't get it.

Feel free to pick the hell out of this and leave your own feedback.

Dead Nation

Lead Salad and I were looking for a new coop game. Something specifically coop that we would both love.

After accidentally running across gameplay footage of Dead Nation for PSN I knew that we had our game. After looking at it....Salad agreed.

Dead Nation has been out for several months and largely went ignored by me because I figured it was yet another quick cash in to the zombie genre, but boy was I wrong.

It's a top down dual joystick shooter....and it's absolutely punishing at times.

Take Left 4 Dead, but throw in a ton more zombies with a darker setting and much more difficult odds with a birds eye view and you have Dead Nation.

Like:

Difficulty: We are playing on "Normal" and it's running us through the paces. There are still 2 difficulties above this and I can only imagine how bad those are. It's pretty astounding just how fast things can go bad. We try to run in a pack and it takes literally about 2 seconds to be torn apart and fighting for ourselves.

Tons of Zombies: Seriously, this games throws easily over 50 zombies at you at a time and it keeps you on the edge of your seat....at all times.

Constant Action and Tension: There's very very little down time. In Left 4 Dead (which I love and am not bashing) there's many areas that are barely zombie filled at all, but in Dead Nation you're almost always fighting.

Environments and Zombies: As a top down shooter you wouldn't expect much from the graphics department, but they really did a good job making the game look really good for what it is.

Zombie Variation: There are a lot of different types of zombies and almost all different variations have their own set of animations and moves. Up against the way overused skins of Left 4 Dead it's pretty impressive.

Weapons: I like that the game pretty much forces you to buy the fancy guns to survive. You can use the standard rifle, smg and shotgun, but there's no way you're gonna survive the later levels. Salad and I have split responsibilities of weapons. I use the SMG and Bladezooka (you read that right) and Salad uses the Shotgun and Grenade Launcher. Also, all the weapons are upgradeable which gives the game an RPG feel that I dig. Again, you have to upgrade these weapons to succeed.

Length: There are 10 chapters and we have only finished 5 so far so and each mission takes around 30 minutes give or take a few minutes. There's a lot of meat on this game and the replayability on harder difficulties will be high.

Dislike:

Too Dark: Many times you'll get hit by zombies you couldn't even see because the environments can be too dark.

Controls: While they do work really well with R3 doing reload so you don't have to take your thumbs off of the stick they suck at the worst times. Mainly because you rely so heavily on your big guns when the shit hits the fan, but you get overwhelmed so fast (which is very often) you can't take your left thumb off the stick to switch to a better weapon with the D-Pad because you'll get destroyed.

Bottom Line:

I really enjoy this game and I know Salad does too. It absolutely boils down coop to it's most essential elements of dedication to each other and having to work together to survive.

It has a high level of polish and great design and something that any zombie fan should buy immediately.

Bad Company 2

I haven't had a strong MP FPS game to play for some time. I keep thinking I'll pick up Killzone 3 or Brink or Homefront, but I just kept thinking.....Bad Company 2 is more than likely still better and going to be better than all of those.

So I got it from Goozex on my PS3 and played it a lot this weekend. I feel very comfortable in saying that Bad Company 2 is THE MP FPS game to beat....period. It's sense of balance, map layout and destruction as well as class based warfare is unmatched. If you're team is getting crushed it's because you're not working together and not some fault of the game.

It was neat too because it seems that a lot of the people that played it like CoD, when it first launched, are gone. The people that are left are the ones that really love the game.

I was able to get right back into the swing of things and started rocking out big scores during my 2nd match.

I even got the Vietnam DLC and while so far I'm not a huge fan of the maps (probably more likely a direct reflection of the retards on my team than the maps) it's clear that a lot of love was put into the DLC.

When CoD releases maps it's 3-4 maps for 15 bucks. This has 5 maps, 2 new armies, 6 new vehicles and 15 new weapons.

All hail the king of FPS...DICE!

Sony can kiss my ass...

Two years ago I bought a PS3. I bought that PS3 because I had finally given up on my fanboy-rage over HDDVD's demise and I was able to snag one for the same cost as a BD player (at the time). Side note: I had put a ban on all movie purchases till then too... yeah, I'm a freak.

ANYWAY, the first BD movie I bought was Sunshine. For those who haven't seen it, you obviously hate America. It is, a phenomenal movie and has a demo-worthy audio track. Getting to my point... my wife is gone, and had some time to kill so I threw it in. As the movie starts the PIP featurette pops up and I cannot get the damned thing to go away. Finally, I hit the forums and discovered that Sony, those bastards, blocked some JAVA coding in the PS3 and other Sony BD players as a "security fix". Because of this, Sunshine, which uses JAVA for it's BD features, bugs out and it is impossible to watch it without the PIP. Sony has acknowledged the issue but since October when the issue first showed up, there is yet to be a fix. The only solution I have found is to contact Fox and see if they will issue a replacement disc.

I just got off the phone in an attempt to contact Fox, but of course, they are unavailable until Monday. Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed off. I'm already in a pissed-off mood and not being able to watch on of my favorite movies just pisses me off more.

So, from the deepest depths of my heart and with all sincerity... Sony, your products are shit and you can kiss my ass.

*this post was written with love from a Sony Vaio*

Gamers Are Like Cocaine Addicts

This is amazing knowledge... I am going home and smashing my PC and 360 and giving up my deviant addiction...

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/11/sleep-therapist-says-gamers-are-like-cocaine-addicts.aspx

Amateria is gonna have to help on this one.

I was equally surprised when I saw this yesterday, but this guy's article sums it up well.

With the Wii it makes sense because it's everywhere, but I only know 1 person with a Kinect.

Cloud Based Saved Games on PS3

Goes live tomorrow with an update! It's only for Playstation Plus members.

I had no idea that it was actually coming. Just figured it was corporate speak.

That is all.

Torchlight

Hey, guys, I saw that Torchlight is available March 9th on LIVE now. I've had this game for a while on Steam and it's pretty good. Well worth the money. I think I picked it up on sale for $10 (normally $20) and put about 30 hours into it before it became a little repititious. If you are a fan of action/RPGs in general, it's a good purchase. A little simplied and with only single-player but still a fun game. Lots of loot to pick, baddies to smash, etc.

Anyways, thought I'd post that up for anybody who was eyeing it. Peace.

BulletStorm - Game of the Year

Right... maybe if RockStar put their name on it.

It's hard to find a good starting point when talking about Bulletstorm.  I feel like for everything I enjoyed in it, there is something that needs improved.  It was a very enjoyable experience, albeit one that felt a little on the short side, but one I don't regret.  I guess the standard Bullet (Storm.. haha... ugh..) list should suffice.

Good: A Fresh Approach to the Basics (in three parts)

In the times we live in it seems like first person shooters are a dime a dozen, and the quality of most reflects that.  Even the best made and most successful releases at some point just feel like rehashings of older stuff (Halo, anyone?).  Bulletstorm has really done a nice job trying to steer away from this seemingly inevitable trend.  Adding in the pull and kick mechanic of the leash (which really allows you to get crazy with your actions) breaks up the monotony of running around and shooting things in the head... now you get to kick them first. 

In addition to the leash mechanics, Epic added in a scoring system.  This feels a little bit tacked on, but it works well enough.  Scoring adds to the replay value (if you're into that sort of thing) because it becomes a challenge to try and beat buddy's scores, or just see what new you can do.  It ranks the style of your kills based on what you did to achieve it.  There is also a master list of all the different ways you can earn points by manipulating the bodies of your enemies, so if you get lost or feel like you are doing the same thing over and over, you know how to mix it up.   At the end of the day, I don't find myself caring about the scoring system, but I think that's mainly because everyone ends up beating my scores on games in the end. The scoring, however, does get visually represented on the screen, which is nice.  A regular kill will only pop up one little point value, but if you throw a room of dudes up in the air, then use your grenade launcher to detonate a bomb in the middle of all of them, the points will roll in, and it's a very rewarding sight to have your screen fill up with the points for the variations you've done.

The weapons also add to this fresh approach.  The weapons are fairly unique as is, but the addition of a secondary fire function on all of them really makes it fun.  The secondary fire is also different for every weapon - the pistol turns into something like a flare gun, the shotgun (which already has 4 barrels by the way), shoots a flaming mess about the map, and the sniper rifle turns into an active, controllable, directionally capable grenade.  Using these secondary functions in conjunction with the leash is where it really gets interesting, and where the huge points really start rolling in, which is important - the points you accumulate are also what you use to buy ammo, charged shots for your secondary, upgrades to your leash, etc.  Earning bigger points doesn't just earn you bragging rights, but gives you the ability to unlock the uber fun guns, which is ultimately why you bought the game, right?

Bad: The Language
I'm no stranger to a potty mouth.  I've got one myself from time to time. I've watched the angry video game nerd.  I've played Halo with 3N3MY.  But nothing compares to the way these guys (and girl) just let it flow out of them.  I'll give any character the chance to become likable to me by the end of the game, but it was a real chore giving these guys the benefit of the doubt when they seem to be using the F-Bomb every other word.  There is a language filter, but it really doesn't help.  The general attitude and demeanor of the dialogue still comes through, and some of it isn't different dialogue, just censored with a good old fashioned "bleep".  The sad thing about it to me, is that some of the jokes and in game moments of the game are hilarious, and would be even funnier with a well placed F-Bomb, but the game is so indiscriminate on what warrants the foul language that it would be missed anyways.

Bad: A Narrow Experience
As much as Bulletstorm tries to break away from the norm by making a unique title, it ultimately feels like a very narrow experience.  There isn't a coop campaign mode, and the multiplayer online is only a coop mode similar to horde mode (big surprise...)  Every game has this issue to a degree - how do you make the multiplayer feel different from the campaign when it controls the exact same?  How will coop campaign feel any different from a single player experience? Will it stay balanced? 

I think the team behind Bulletstorm made the right choice to omit the stuff they did (like a true multiplayer) but they didn't really try to find anyway to add to the experience past the campaign.  Even the challenge room modes (called Echoes) are just portions of the campaign levels with a timer.  Give me something else, please... let me use different guns that I couldn't use in the campaign, or give me power ups, or the challenge of only using one type of gun.  Bulletstorm's gameplay mechanics have an incredible amount of depth and nuance, but the overall experience does not.

Ridiculous: The Story and Characters
I'm not entirely sure anyone at Epic games actually knows what an emotion is, and I wish they would stop trying to put them into their games.  Everything in this world (not unlike Gears of War, big surprise) is HUGE, and MASSIVE, and ANGRY, and VIOLENT... when everything is that over the top, regular human emotion becomes unbelievable because it doesn't fit.  The makers try to make us feel for the main character, Grayson Hunt, but he just comes off through the whole campaign as a stupid douchebag, so it becomes hard to empathize with his redemptive struggle... unless of course in real life you actually are a stupid douchebag.  Maybe I'm just not in the right demographic.

The Verdict:
I liked it.  It was fun.  I enjoy the coop mode a great deal.  At the time of writing I have the best scores for all the Echo maps so far (I'm pretty sure Carpartz is the only one who played any others), and I look forward to getting better as a teammate in the horde mode.  It's too easy and not rewarding enough to only get the little kills... working together to chalk up the big points as a team is where it's at.  Give it a shot if you want something fresh and over-the-top, or something to give you a break from Call of Duty.  Unless Call of Duty released that patch where you get a gun that's essentially a giant, flying drill, then by all means, continue.

Anyone heard of this game?

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Even the user reviews are phenomenal...which is hard to believe.

I've read a good many things about it while looking at other gaming news. Just found it on Steam accidentally for 50% off.

I remember an editor in GameInformer was raving about it and said it's the scariest game he's ever played. Then the following issue I found a "letter to the editor" by a reader and he thanked the guy for writing about it in the magazine.

Up to this point Doom 3 is the scariest game I've ever played and I don't say that lightly. I've played a ton of tense games and only a handful of truly scary ones.

Looks like I'll be pooping my pants this weekend as I can't pass up a deal this good on what is supposed to be an excellent game.

When will SEGA get with it and die?

Sonic The Hedgehog has been raped....a lot. The raping has been given to him by none other than his makers and I for one just want everything Sonic to die.

I can't stand seeing him in every game SEGA shoves out it's doors anymore. SEGA's games, while not all bad, have taken a huge hit in quality since the fall of the Dreamcast.

I bring this up now because I just read this and it severely annoys me. On top of that I read an interview, in GameInformer, a couple months back with one of the top guys from SEGA talking about their past failings and how they want to do better. I thought the interview was great and it excited me at the time, but I just don't think SEGA has the ability, desire or guts to stop sucking.

All their Marvel movie game tie ins are garbage. They don't have to be bad. An Iron-Man based video game could be really awesome, but good luck trying to get them to put in the effort.

What's even more annoying is that at the same time Sonic 4 released a fan made HD remake and updated visual style of Sonic 2 was released for free and it was made by 2 guys and it's far better visually than what SEGA pushed out.

SEGA publishes some good games, but they don't make them. Games like Bayonetta, Vanquish and the awesome Condemned series are fully realized gritty games with a lot of heart and effort put into them.

I guess I'm just tired of SEGA getting a free pass because they're SEGA as shown in the last line of the linked story:

"Despite years of setbacks, we're willing to give Sega the benefit of the doubt."

How many more years will we keep buying their crap? At least when Nintendo whores out Mario and Link they put in a great effort.

If any other game company put out this many poor games they'd have sunk years ago.

Quit cashing in on nostalgia and make something new and good or when you make a retro Sonic make it longer than a couple hours and don't charge 15 bucks for it.

Spring Gaming

Hey, I have pre-ordered Homefront and Brink, for PC on Steam, so I will be playing those on day one. Homefront is out the 15th, I think, and Brink comes out sometime in May. Just to let anyone know who is keeping an eye on those games, I'll try and post up some quick reviews when they come out... If they are awesome, you can buy them, or if they suck, only one of us has to waste out money. :D

I'm buying Homefront for the story and SP but I'll probably give the MP a try as well. And Brink I'm getting for the team-oriented MP and customization.

And I'll be getting Lego Star Wars III on the 22nd, of course, since I'm a Lego fan... the demo was fun times... :P

And I Thought PC Gaming Was Expensive

Thought this was an interesting article, since I spent so much on my Alienware... sometimes you don't realize all the hidden costs of the "extra" items. I read this and started calculating all the additional items for my gaming, on PC and 360. It adds up... :P

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/02/24/hidden-costs-of-gaming.aspx

Steam

I've been a gamer as long as I can remember. The earliest system I remember playing a lot was Coleco. I actually had an Atari 2600 before that and remember playing it, but it wasn't till Coleco that I remember consciously going back and playing again and again cause I loved it.

My parents never bought me a Nintendo anything until the 64 and Turbo Grafx 16 was a gamer's paradise until they all started epic failing and the company went broke.

After that it was Sega Genesis and then PC gaming.

I spent a good portion of my young life playing games on the PC. Star Wars: Rebel Assault was a good one, but it was MDK and MechWarrior 2 that showed me what gaming could be and The Neverhood that proved games can be funny, touching, silly and serious.

After my parents PC couldn't play new games anymore it was on to the 64 and then GameCube and then the XBOX and then 360 and then PS3 and now with the revelation (late to the party and a revelation to me at least) of Steam I'm back to PC gaming.

I've recently come into the possession of a brand new decently powerful 17 inch laptop that runs pretty new games well.

Left 4 Dead is a game that I would love to come over to the PS3, but since there seems to be no signs of that ever happening I realized that maybe my new laptop could do it. I looked up the minimum specs and everything was in place. Everything required my computer had in spades....except for the graphics card. It's some junk no brand name internal thing and I was worried that it might not run.

With some comfort from Juniper I took the plunge and downloaded L4D and it works awesome! I now have access to literally hundreds and hundreds of extra maps at no charge! The game was just given legs way past what Microsoft or Sony would ever allow!

Needless to say I've been having a blast playing on the PC again and I wish you guys would jump in too....at least for the shit ton of L4D user created boards.

Since I had some birthday money left over I purchased Mass Effect 1 and 2 off of Steam for 40 bucks total! A used copy for the PS3 would run 50 bucks and I'd still have to pay the 15 buck activation for the DLC because I got a used copy.

Bottom line is that I'm really looking forward to diving headfirst into some more serious games over the next several months and with the revelation of how great, easy to use and customer friendly Steam is I'm seriously considering plunking down the cash (if all goes well with my new work that is) to get a respectable gaming desktop.

Juniper has been right all along about Steam and thanks to his nonstop talking about how great PC gaming and Steam is I'm glad to say he had a large part in me at least giving it a shot again.

Steam is very awesome and honestly it works a lot like the 360 and PS3 Dashboards except a lot more versatile.

That is all.

or is it?!

P.S. I'm shocked at how much better L4D looks on a PC. I mean it's common sense that the PC games look better than the consoles, but seriously there are many games that look better on the 360 than the PC version of L4D. You can actually see your legs on PC.

P.P.S. Something that's always bugged me about console games is that there can be a startling amount of "jaggies." I wasn't looking for them, but it just stands out to me how much less of a problem it is on the PC.

P.P.P.S. This is not meant to start a flame war. I'm just excited to have a machine that has the ability to do these things.

That is finally all.

Zelda is 25!

In honor of The Legend of Zelda's 25th Anniversary, I feel that I am required to share this video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAsHknWPwts&feature=player_embedded

I'm back.

That is all.