Tis The Season

And a happy New Year

Sleepless

Sooooooooooooooo tired. I blame you dragon age.

You Killed Jory!

I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins.

Things were going along fine. True my family was killed by traitors, that was sad, but expected. Bad guys act like bad guys, it's how the world works. Especially since the traitor was voiced by Tim Curry. You just know that anyone voiced by Tim Curry is going to be evil.

So in my despair and grief at the loss of my family I set out on a quest to become a Grey Warden. To do so I had to drink some darkspawn blood. Funny how life turns out. Well I watched the blood kill Daveth when he drank it. But I'm the main character, I'll be fine. I knew that Daveth had to die to prove the situation was serious (Rest in peace Red Shirt). But Jory didn't want to drink the blood. Jory had a wife and child. Duncan killed Jory. He killed him right in front of me. That moment unsettled me. Duncan was supposed to be a good guy.



Oh, yeah. Belated Spoiler Warning. Sorry about that.

My name is Link and these are the longest three days of my life

So a friend of mine recently downloaded Majora's Mask on his Wii. After playing through the first half hour or so I couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about this game. And it wasn't just the FF VII rip off. (Moon coming to crash into the world aka Meteor coming to crash into the planet) It was something else. The pressure of the time constant was really getting to me. Three days to save the world just didn't seem like enough time. Not to mention the fact that one day seemed to take about ten minutes. I felt like, like...
Jack Bauer.

I even kind of looked like him.You know, cuz they're both... blond.

As I ran around the town doing inane mini quests in order to save the world I kept yelling out "We're running out of time!"
What's that Jimmy you want to play hide and seek before you give me access to your secret tower in which an astronomer/pedophile hangs out. Don't you see that huge moon with the creepy smile on it's face about to crash into the town and kill us all.
Your lucky I am a Deku scrub and can only blow bubbles at you. If I had my sword I'd cut you up and play hide and go seek with the pieces. I'm the warrior of time you little twerp! And I'm your only hope, so stop wasting my time and let me into your tower.

A minnion and his dog- er, wolf

It just warms the heart doesn't it.

Brutal Legend: The Awesomeness and the Quotes

Which are one and the same.

"Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time? Like you should have been born earlier, when the music was... real?"
"Like the 70's?"
"Earlier, like... the early 70's."

"What have you done?"
"Created beauty by simply rocking that's all.

“Hundreds of our strongest young men. Toiling their lives away like their fathers and their grandfathers before them. Given no tools. Forced to break solid rock with nothing but their own thick skulls.”
“Well come on let’s bust them out of there. Where’s the gate?”
“There is no gate.”
“What?”
“They have no where to go. No idea how to function outside the pit. Society has no use for them. So they stay underground. I wish I could help them, but I mean, what do you do with a bunch of kids who don’t know how to do anything but bang their heads all day long?”
“You start a revolution Lars,” sniff, “Right now. It’s time to sound the battle cry.”
“...Have you been looking at my sword?”

“What is that sound?”
“It’s a devil screaming.”
“It’s an angel singing.”
“It is the pounding of creations hammer on the anvil of time.”
“It’s -ing awesome.”
“It’s called Heavy Metal. And it’s the real reason you should bang your heads.”

"A good roadie knows his whole job is to make someone else look good. Keep someone else safe. Help someone else do what they were put here to do. A good roadie stays out of the spot light. If he’s doing his job right you don’t even know he’s there. Once in awhile he might step on stage just to fix a problem, to set something right. But then before you even realize he was there, or what he did, he’s gone."

He is Eddie Rigs. The worlds best roadie, and metal's only hope.

Brutal Legend. Coming this Rocktober.

Final Fantasy X-2's Spiritual Ancestor

Those girls with the crazy eyes and dazzling dress spheres in the game

Final Fantasy X-2 is a spiritual decendant of....

Charlie's AngelsSo, yeah... that is all. With the exception of this last picture I found. It's a fun play on visuals and words.

Get it?

Super Mario Bro... Sisters!

I'd play that game.

A Video Game Recipe

So we're going to make a game today. Lets follow a recipe.

Step One: Start with a base of RTS.

(The RTS (Real Time Strategy) that I am talking about and the RTS that the graphic is talking about may be two different things. I am aware of this by it was the best example I could find after a five minuet google search.)

Step Two: Add one part Harry Potter.

Step Three: Add one part Groundhog Day.

Step Four: Mix well and cover the whole thing with an Anime coating.

(Anime: Beautiful artwork, terrible story lines)

And Walla: You end up with...

Grim Grimore. A PS2 game that I think you'll find diverting. Fun enough not to be stale yet eccentric enough that it won't become a habit. If you feel like playing something as cute as it is irritating this is the game for you. Try some it will help sate that quirky fetish of yours, I know you have one.

Oddworld's Spiritual Ancestor

This crazy guy is descended from...

I know, I know who'd a thunk it. But it's really just a small leap from this...

to this...

Oddworld incorporated a lot of the same feel that Prince of Persia had. Running and jumping. Acrobatic puzzle solving with your life on the line. And the Scrabs and Paramites scared the snot out of me.

(Scrab, fast and lethal.)

(Paramite, like a cross between a spider and a pit bull. I think they scare me the most. To this day I have nightmares.)

God of War's Spiritual Ancestor

It's true. God of war is a spiritual descendant of the good old NES's

Perhaps you may recall the box art better than the title screen.

This was a great game for the NES. It was ahead of it's time. It was also hard. No mater how hard or how long I tried I never beat this one. But it was good.

What's wrong with linear?

There's nothing wrong with linear. In fact there is more right with linear than non-linear. So why is it with games there is a growing demand for non-linear game play? In case you've forgotten but all those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books sucked. Remember how you used to keep your thumb in place in case you made a bad choice. Non-linear video games are the same thing. Sometimes the're worse, sometimes they choke you with options. Although it is fun I can't play Oblivion because I get to caught up in trying to do everything. Trying to be everything to everyone.

Linear game play is more conducive to telling a good story. A good story is almost always the key element to any good video game.

In case your wondering, this is how you do it.

I'm not saying that things should be ultra rigid. Flexibility is important, and options are fun. I play Harvest Moon, and one of the things I enjoy the most is getting all the upgrades and power berries. It makes me feel like I'm cheating the game somehow. But I often read a review in which the critic laments the game for it's linear quality. For me that's a mark in the pro column.

Like a flower growing from dirt

Despite my apathy towards Halo something good did spring from it. That something was...

Red vs Blue. Check it out on youtube, or stop being a mooch and buy it.

Kung Fu Panda's Spiritual Ancestor

It's true, Kung Fu Panda decended from...

Well, maybe not. Maybe not directly. But for some reason I get the same feel from them. I mean they both have animals that perform feats of martial arts, and... They both have a Oriental theme to them. Well that's close enough for me, and it should be close enough for you. At any rate I liked the movie, and I liked the game.

My Popluar Video Game Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm, Greek for "image-breaking." Or in other words games that everyone else seems to love but I don't. It's not that they are bad games even, it's just that I don't see what all the hype is about.

Case in point:

Halo.

Halo is a decent first person shooter. Average. Nothing spectacular about it. If you want to play a good FPS, play BioShock. That game has all the graphical glam of Halo but also has a great story to boot. Maybe someone can explain it to me but I just don't understand what the big deal about Halo is? (This goes for Halo 2 and 3 as well.)

One Stupidest Moments from MGS2

When the "La Li Lu Le Lo" are first mentioned. I was half expecting Maria von Trap to pop out of a corner and continue singing "Ti, a drink with jam and bread." Like rats fleeing a ship this was but one of many signs that MGS2 was heading towards disaster.

(This image brought to you by a google image search.)

Hidden Gems: Demon Stone

This is a game that you might have missed. It has a lot of things going for it, as well as few drawbacks. But all in all it was a game that I really enjoyed and made a lasting impression on me. I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for a good story. I am willing to forgive a lot of technical issues provided the story is good. Demon Stone illustrates this better than any game I can think of. The failings it has are not crippling but they are noticeable, but a moving plot and compelling characters are enough for me to overlook it's flaws.

The main strength this game has is it's story. It focuses on three unlikely hero's, all of them have a past that haunts them and makes them outcasts. This isolation pits them together in a battle to protect people who once shunned them. The bond of friendship the three develop is touching, and together they resolve to fight a evil that they themselves unwittingly unleashed upon their world.

(From left to right: Illius the sorcerer, Zhai a half-drow half-wood-elf assassin, and Rannek a human warrior.)

The game's story was written by R. A. Salvatore, (author of the books featuring Drizzt Do' Urden), whether you like his writing or not he is none the less an experienced storyteller and it shows in this game. Many video games I've played give little thought to story and what is produced is something like a pale shadow of various movies the creators have watched. It also features voice acting by Patrick Stewart, who does a good job as usual.

The game allows you to play as all three of the characters. But as you progress you really only need to play as two. Rannek the warrior for the standard combat situations and alternating him with Zhai for stealth attacks. Zhai has the ability to go invisible when she's in the shadows. This allows her to sneak up on enemies and then pounce on them to deliver a lethal one strike blow. This technique is great, as long as there are shadows. Sometimes there's not which is when you return to Rannek to do the fighting. Illius is somewhat sadly under used. Aside from the introduction combat scenario in the first level and a level later on where you'll need his unlimited ranged magic attacks, you'll never need him again in the game. Normally this would create a character that people would dislike as a useless tag along. But the story cut scenes give him, and all the charters something to do. Illius adds depth to the adventure despite not being much help in combat. Or at least I didn't play as him. You have the option to switch characters on the fly. This is a nice touch and the computer takes over whomever you haven't selected.

So, whats wrong with it? Well the most annoying thing for me was the lack of impact sensation. When ever I swung my weapon at a monster it was like the hit didn't even register. The creature I was fighting didn't reel from the blow, there was no sound effect, nothing. It was like slicing through thin air. This can be very frustrating. To illustrate further, in God of War Kratos will attack his enemies and when he strikes them the act like they've been hit. Their motion is disrupted, their attacks can even be interrupted. God of War is a good example of how this should work. In Demon Stone I had to guess as to whether my hits where landing and doing damage.

Then there are a few other minor points. The casting of Michael Clarke Duncan as Ygorl is off. His voice just doesn't seem to fit right. The same thing happened when he was cast as Atlas in God of War II. Visually Michael Clarke Duncan is a huge presence and he is very intimidating. Vocally not so much. There isn't anything inherent in his voice that makes you think "big scary tough guy." It seems like in both these games the powers that be were counting on your awareness of who Michael Clarke Duncan is to translate into the character. But that just isn't the case. (Although the delivery of his first line "Give me that sword!" sent goose bumps down my spine. After that though his voice just doesnt have the same effect.)

And finally my last complaint is that the game is relatively short. It's not to short, and saying that I am wanting more is perhaps more of a complement than a complaint. But I would have appreciated a bit longer of a game, or a sequel. But Demon Stone is worth a look, provided you like hack and slash beat 'em ups. I personally give it a very strong Seven out of Ten. For all gamers who like a good story well Demon Stone is right up there with the best of them.

Games that I thought were going to be better than they were

The Bouncer.

I remember getting all goose pimply about this game. It was one of the first that was going to be on the PS2. And it was made by Squaresoft. A company which at that time in my life I would have sworn to you that everyone that worked there also walked on water. (I am fortunately no no longer that naive.) But at that time I was of the opinion that Squaresoft could do no wrong. Plus the graphics looked more amazing than anything I had ever seen. And so help me I am a bit of a sucker for cool looking costumes no mater how unrealistic they may be. Not many real bouncers would wear a dog collar with a huge chain and cross on it. It'd be to easy for someone they were supposed to "bounce" to grab hold of it in a scuffle and choke them, or literally lead them around by the neck.

I look back at it now and think it more than just a little bit silly. Of course hind sight is twenty twenty. But I played the game and... well it was a mediocre beat 'em up game at best. Now this is just my opinion. As with all these games I'm going to mention in this post. Just because I was disappointed by them doesn't mean that you can't like them. Every one is different, with different tastes. I won't begrudge you yours if you don't begrudge me mine. Next up.

Metal Gear Solid 2.

This game was a landmark event for me. With it came the great split between myself and eastern culture. Up until this point I had regarded the ability of Japanese story tellers, through the medium of video games, to be superior to anything that the west had to offer. This game put an end to that. Now I don't know what exactly happened. For example I loved, and still do love Final Fantasy VII. The same goes for Metal Gear Solid. But something happened, either with me or with the Japanese culture, and the schism occurred.

Why didn't I like this game. Partly because MSG was such a great game and this sequel comes off as such a pale, poor, pathetic imitation of it's predecessors greatness. One point of contention is the supplantation the wonderful character Solid Snake, by a inferior whiner named Raiden. As I understand it Raiden did quite well in Japan, but not so much in the U.S. I think this is where the cultures begins to clash. Effeminate men seem to be very cool in Japan, where as in American we prefer tough guys as our hero's. I won't speak negatively of the preferences of others but when you market a game it's wise to consider your audience. This character switch (and it's Snake on the cover for crying out loud, and he's hardly in the game) was very unsettling. Every five minutes of game play I kept wondering when Raiden was going to disappear so that I could go back to playing as Snake.

But I think the major issue here was that the first game crafted a great story. The sequel was all puff. It was trying to imitate what it did in the first game. I used to ask how had Hideo Kojima messed up MSG2, but as more and more Metal Gear games came out I came to realize that Metal Gear Solid was the fluke. Kojima had some how managed to make one really good game, maybe it was luck or something, but I have been nothing but disappointed with the rest of the series.

Final Fantasy VIII.

In my ignorance and innocence of youth I thought that this was going to be a actual sequel to FFVII. I kept expect them to announce Cloud as a character. When it finally sunk in that this was not going to happen I still expected aspects of what made FFVII so good to be retuning. 'Surely,' I thought to myself, 'they will be bringing back the Materia system. It was so ingenious, inventive, and intuitive, that they wouldn't get rid of it after just one game... right?...' Well I was wrong. Then I played the demo. It was boring, the draw system was lame, everything seemed clunky. Where FFVII was smooth and slick, it was slow and rough. I can't say enough bad things about this game, and yes I played it all the way to the end. Eighty hours of my life I'm never going to get back. I'm going to have a whole post about how much I detested this game. I mention it here because I was looking forward to it and it disappointed me.

Rise of the Argonauts.

I was super stoked for this game. It looked like the graphics were good. The makers had promised that the story was going to be a main focus and that combat would be smooth. Plus they were going to give me a chance to worship Athena. Like an actually chance (in a small geeky way) to do her will, and to praise her over the other gods. (I have a geek crush on Athena so sue me.) Well the game came out got luke warm reviews so I didn't even bother. If a game doesn't get an eight or better from Gamespot.com it isn't worth my time. There are a few exceptions, but none of those scored less than a seven.

So those are the games that ached my heart on account of their suckyness, what disappointments have you had to endure?

So far, so good

Well, just a quick note. I've been playing inFamous. I just started but I'm liking what I'm seeing. Still it's to soon to tell if this is a great game or not. But I'm hopeful.

R.I.P. Necromancer

As excited as I am for Diablo III, I am nonetheless sad that the Necromancer will not be returning. Now I know that nothing is official yet except that the character classes of Barbarian, Sorceress, and the new Witch Doctor will be present in the game. But can you honestly tell me that the game will have both a Witch Doctor and a Necromancer. No, their respective powers are just to similar. The Necromancer with his summoning of the undead, poison spells, curses, and bone magic is not that different from what we can expect from the Witch Doctor.

Now I hear things as I wander around this Internet world. It's seems most people didn't like the Necromancer. Which is a shame, and puzzling. The Necromancer was one of my favorite characters in Diablo II. Well my friend the world may not have liked you, but you have at least one friend who will mourn your passing. Here's to you. And who knows, a master of Death like you may not stay dead forever.

(sniff)

Good games on the PS3

That is all.

I say this having just bought a PS3. And I'm kind of wondering why. Now first off I am not interested into getting into a fanboy debate of x-box vs. playstation. If you like one more than the other fine. I currently prefer the 360. In times past I have favored both the PS1 and PS2.

But right now this is how things stand for me. The 360 came out first so I bought it first. When games came out on both systems I would naturally buy the ones for the 360. Until recently there were not enough PS3 exclusive games to warrant my purchase of a PS3. Yet I could see the need for a PS3 was approaching. GOW III will be on the PS3, and that's a must have for me. Heavenly Sword was a great game. I was lucky enough to play it on my friend's system. So I've ordered it along with my new PS3. But there isn't much else going for it. I hear Infamous is good, so I'll give it a try. And when the Batman game comes out they say that you'll be able to play as the Joker, but only on the PS3 version. So that's a plus.

Outside of that what does PS3 have? For me nothing. Just those four games, two of which aren't even out yet.

Oh and by the by, I played MSG4 and was not impressed. Not at all.

Overlord II

For all you all that don't know Overlord II will be out this month on the 23rd. For all you all who don't know what Overlord is well your missing out. The first Overlord was a fun romp through a fantasy world in which you get to be the bad guy. Think "Lord of the Rings" where you get to play as Sauron.

(Overlord from the first game.)

Not only that but this delightful little video game pokes fun at a genre that, lets face it, kinda deserves it. (Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fantasy fan. But the fantasy genre, like all things, is not without it's foibles. (That's a weird word, foibles... anyway.)) But you get to control your own swarm of minions. Think Pikmin, if you haven't played Pikmin then I'm not sure how to explain it. And it's no meager swarm, you get up to fifty or so minions by the end of the game.

Overlord was one of those games where I find myself thinking, 'If they make a sequel I trust them not to screw it up.' That doesn't mean that they wont, but looking at previews I think it's a pretty safe bet that this game will be a good one. They don't even have to do much. If they just deliver more of the same I'll be happy. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.