- Misfit1119
- Level: 32 (8%)
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- Member since: Dec 16, 2004
- Last online: 12/28/09 5:17 pm PT
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The Rantings of Misfit
Hello, my name is Misfit. I hate video games and I apparently have for some time now. Thanks to all of those who posted in my blog and brought this to my attention. The healing can now begin.
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11Jun 09
So this year was my first time going to E3 and I have to say there hasn't been an experience like this in my life. Ever. Normally I follow it on GameSpot but going there makes watching news coverage of it seem like a waste of time. This was an opportunity to meet some people, see some booth babes and maybe get some hands on time with some upcoming releases. Amusingly enough this was the first time I'd allowed pics to be taken of myself in awhile and I had a blast with it. You can see those on my Facebook page if you happen to know where that is, muwahaha!
I was actually at E3 as part of the staff of GamingExcellence. It was great meeting the team that I've been working with for over a year for the first time... silly Canadian publications. This meant that E3 was as much work as it was play. I had appointments and such, some behind closed door stuff that needed to be done between me doing sightseeing and taking pictures.
Anyways, on to E3!Pre-E3: After getting our media passes I figured it might be a good idea to do some shopping before the show started. Picked up a bunch of shirts and stuff. Nothing too interesting here. However I did get to go to the Ubisoft press conference. While most of the stuff they showed there wasn't that interesting Splinter Cell Conviction looks absolutely fantastic and I WILL be purchasing this title ASAP. After that I got to head on over to the Microsoft Canada Media Reception for drinks, free food and meet some of the other Canadian media outlet people. That was a lot of fun. Apparently I was an honorary Canadian since the site I write for is all Maple Leafy.
Day One: Since I had some appointments right from the get go I headed right on over to the Atlus booth. While there me and Nicholas, one of the other GE guys, got to see and try out Demon's Souls and Trine with one of the Atlus PR guys. Trine took my interest there; something like Lost Vikings with crazy physics sums it up pretty well. Look it up if you haven't heard about it. After this I chatted up the Atlus editor on the floor and got some hands on with Devil Survivor and the redone SMT: Persona title for the PSP both looking really promising although Devil Survivor is a bit odd. I've got a preview of it up on GE for those who are interested.
After this I went on over to the upstairs meeting room for Dreamcatcher / JoWood. While here I got shown around, getting to see the new Hardy Boys game for the Wii (not as bad as it sounds), a DS Agatha Christie game that looks pretty good and the new Gothic title, Arcania. The only one that really stood out strongly to me was Arcania so I took some time to start working on a preview for it in the press room while relaxing. I did hear a great story about how one of the guys from JoWood got... questioned about bringing a DS capture unit into the states since it looks like a bomb. The games were pretty good and the people were really friendly. Good times.
With a break of about an hour here I took the time to trawl the floor and get some camera shots, booth babe shots and pick up swag. Then it was on over to the Paradox Interactive on-floor room where we got to see East India Company, Hearts of Iron 3 and Majesty 2. The people here were really awesome as well but I lost the notebook page with my Hearts of Iron 3 info on it so I couldn't write a preview. That game is immense though... deep enough to scare me thoroughly.
Finishing up there I got to have a whole lot of fun by going on over to the Vogster booth. Meeting a friend of my boss there I was shown the tower defense game Robocalypse - Beaver Defense. If you haven't heard about it look it up; it's a pretty simple game but it definitely looks like a lot of fun. I wrote a preview for it but it hasn't made its way up onto the GE site just yet. After this I had about thirty minutes or so to kill so I made my way on over to the THQ booth and got into a screening of the new Warhammer 40,000 game, Space Marine. Got a preview of that bad boy up and I'm dying for more info.
With this done it was time to retreat back to the hotel rooms to rest and recuperate for the next day.
Day Two: I was supposed to have a whole lot of free time today but I agreed to take some time from Isabel so that she would have more time on the show floor to look around. With that decision I got to go in to see Sega's games first thing in the morning. First things first were Obsidian games showing off Alpha Protocol. Not only was the game so good that I just had to write a preview for it immediately (I want that title, like yesterday) but I also got to meet Matthew Rorie.
If that name doesn't mean anything to you... you're a philistine. He was the old game guides' writer for GameSpot and he wrote some of the best guides I've seen. It was actually his work that got me writing FAQs and guides which are what, in the end, got me started in trying to get a job in the games industry. When I heard he was moving on from GS I was alternately upset and hopeful to try for that job position, heh. But meeting him was really awesome and put me in a good mood for the day.
As a favor to the other guy I was with, Nick, I took a hit for the team and did a write up for Mario vs. Sonic at the Olympic Winter games. Not bad but not the best either. More swag hunting and picture taking followed before I got to go into the Bethesda booth to see Brink. It's not my sort of game so I didn't do a write-up for it, a friend from the site is doing that I believe. I did meet an interesting girl from Mygamer which is funny because I applied to work on that site before GamingExcellence.
After another break I was supposed to go to the Square-Enix booth to see some stuff but apparently they're too good for that. Seems that they blew off several Canadian media outlets again this year, likely for not being big enough sites. Whatever, I'm no fan of their games anymore so not writing previews for them causes me no grief. Also, to the Squeenix guy who wouldn't leave me alone so I could do a write-up for Final Fantasy IV: The After Years thanks for saving me the writing.
I didn't get to go to my Sony appointment since I was trying to deal with Square but it worked out fine since they didn't show anything anyways. Probably the high point of this day was the Konami booth where I got to play Saw a tiny and Silent Hill Shattered Memories. Saw is more of a puzzle game but there's some combat to it, nothing to write home about but the puzzles look awesome. Silent Hill is bizarre since it's more like a Clock Tower title than a Silent Hill game with its absolute aversion to combat. I also got to play the Silent Hill game for the iPod Touch, The Escape. It's weird to control but it was fun nonetheless.
After hours I got to go to a Riot Games party in the Lucky Strike Lanes bowling alley. League of Legends was on display here and it was a pretty solid game. I think I liked it a fair bit more than Demigod which I reviewed not too long ago. Even better than the games was the free liquor and I drank a fair bit there but had to stop myself since I didn't want to take the train too blitzed. Good times!
Unfortunately we had to stay up pretty late trying to figure out our "Best of E3" award nominations from the show. This meant that, in the end, we only got about four to five hours of sleep this night which really began to drag us downfor the last day. Especially when we finally realized we had the show, after hours dinner, packing and previews to dothe next day.Day Three: For this day I was with Isabel doing behind closed doors stuff with EA. Not only did I get to see the Dragon Ages Origins trailer twice (different each time) but I got some hands on time with the 360 version of the game. When it shows up on GE you will be able to hear me extolling the virtues of the title. Then getting to see Mass Effect 2 which they revealed some spoilers for that made me squeal like a little girl. Lastly was Dante's Inferno which, oddly enough, I'm more interested in than God of War 3. Don't ask how that happened when DI is so clearly cribbing off of GoW.
Since I had a lot of free time today, but I knew there was stuff to do after this last day, I went to the media room to do a lot of typing. Figured to get a bunch of work out of the way early which ended up working out pretty well. Then me and Alan got to go to Lucasarts to see the new Clone Wars game (pretty good looking actually), the Secret of Monkey Island remake, the new Lego Indiana Jones game and a new Star Wars Battlefront.
All of these were pretty good but Secret of Monkey Island and Battlefront: Elite Squadrons stole the room for me. Both of these were stellar looking titles from series that I have an affinity for and both of them are incredibly promising. I can't wait to get my hands on them when they finally release. They kept the Loom guy for chrissakes! With all that excitement, and photos with Jedi and Stormtroopers, I unwinded with some Left 4 Dead 2 gameplay which was pretty awesome. I was mauled by that walking Witch repeatedly thank you!
When E3 was over we got to go to a group dinner with the entire GamingExcellence crew, some friends of my boss and two of the guys from the Vogster booth. One of them, Ted, does some work for CDV and agreed to my offer of writing a guide for Sacred 2 (main quests mostly with some side-quests thrown in). Doing a guide for a game company? Yes please! That's gonna give me something to do for the next week or so.
It sucks that I missed the E3 emblems from GS but I'd say the tradeoff was worth it. As rough as the whole thing was on my sleep and poor feet I have to sayI'm eager to see you next year E3! Although let's just hope that the plane rides are a bit easier on me this time, eh? Last thing I need is another weird old guy so on top of me you'd swear he was trying to spoon with me. Apparently I'm the little spoon.
- Posted Jun 11, 2009 1:07 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 5 Comments
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2Jun 09
So far things have been really awesome here at E3 and the show hasn't even started. Got to go to the Ubisoft Press Conference as well as a Microsoft Canada Media Reception (the site I write for is Canadian). Free liquor? Yes please. Had this drink that was really awesome - had whiskey, canadian maple syrup, lemon lime and a lemon peel. So damn good, I had like three in an hour and a half or so. I could have drank those all night. The view from the penthouse pool was great as well.
If you're interested in what our E3 coverage has been like so far you can find it HERE.
Also if you're interested in the pictures that I've taken then you can find that HERE on my Facebook photos.
Man I'm already tired from walking around and the show hasn't even begun. Oh well, onward and upwards!... or something to that effect.
- Posted Jun 2, 2009 10:36 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 4 Comments
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18May 09
Hey guys! Any of you poor schmoes who actually read this blog, and play CS:S, will be happy to know that that is the next game on our minds. So if you're interested in it please visit the FAQ, get the information from thereand join us on May 19th.
- Posted May 18, 2009 10:31 am PT
- Category: Games
- 2 Comments
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12May 09
So I was supposed to participate in the Killzone 2 Community Game Night yesterday. I rented the game and everything so that I could do so. Imagine my surprise when my PS3 refused to connect to the internet! I dunno what was going on but I spent a good hour trying to get my stupid thing working. I had planned to join in around 7:30 - 8or so but that was derailed. First my girlfriend finds a stray kitten that she wants to bring to a shelter, but they're closed so she was trying to find something to do with it (can't really afford to keep it). Then my router doesn't want to work with my PS3. Wonderful.
Anyways I wrote a preview for the upcoming PS3 exclusive inFamous that can be found here!Long story short of it; it seems like a whole lot of fun but the quests and dying seem like they might get a bit repititious. I still plan on buying it.
Lastly Devil Summoner 2 comes out tomorrow. Those SoBs at GameStop had best have my Raiho plushie dammit.
- Posted May 12, 2009 10:06 pm PT
- Category: TV
- 3 Comments
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11May 09
This Tuesday, that is tomorrow since I'm so slow in posting this, is GameSpot Community Game Night: Killzone 2 edition. I've never played this before - heck I've only played the game a good hour or so - but I have high hopes for the game night. It looks like there might be at least 20 or so players but if any of you guys want to get in on the fun just check out the thread.
- Posted May 11, 2009 3:09 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 2 Comments
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5May 09
So it's that time again. E3 is just around the corner and with a return to the format of old we can probably expect some pretty crazy things to come out of it. Well at least more interesting than the power point presentationthat is Nintendo. I'm holding out hope for some really big things to happen this year... especially since, for the first time in my life, I'm actually going to be able to attend E3.
Thanks to all of the time and work I have put into the gaming review site GamingExcellencethe staff have invited me along to E3 with them. This will also be the first time in around, oh I don't know, 10 years since I've been anywhere out of the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut). Those don't really count since I only ever went to New Jersey for Six Flags and Connecticut to visit the significant other who was living there. So it's really exciting to begoing on an actual trip like this. Not so exciting is the idea of flying. But I'm not looking forward to spending several days on a train either so plane it is!
All that said though I'm really excited to see what sort of stuff I can get into or who I can meet. I'm not the sort of person who gets starstruck or anything so I don't imagine it'll be that big of a deal in that respect. To be honest I'm probably more excited at the idea of meeting others in the game reviewing part of the industry than the developers - mostly because everyone I know who has met any of them who aren't Gabe Newell never have really nice things to say about them. Regardless of that I'm stoked to see where this can lead. I'm really interested in writing for one of the bigger gaming sites so here's hoping this is a foot in the door for at least freelance work. Fingers crossed!
- Posted May 5, 2009 2:05 am PT
- Category: Writing
- 5 Comments
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9Apr 09
That was a whole lot of fun. It didn't go exactly as planned but I definitely managed to make the best out of it anyways.
I was hoping to get into some Versus mode games with my friend on split-screen but what instead happened was a whole lot better. The first game I got into was a co-op game with Chris Wattersand Soulreavercross. It wasa little hectic at times since we weren't always the most coordinated but it was a whole lot of fun. Let me just say one thing for Chris, he might be a grizzled old war veteran but he is ridiculously accurate. Even while leading most of the charges with an auto-shotty he still managed to get more kills than me.
But the finale to this campaign was freaking epic, even for Normal difficulty. First Louis gets dragged off the top of the safe room leading me to rush into the zombies to kill the smoker holding him. Once he was free I retreated a bit only to hear him get pounced so I quickly made my way over, killed the Hunter and then beat off the zombies before reviving him. Almost immediately after getting him up ANOTHER Hunter took him right off a ladder and incapacitated him while Bill was boomer biled. Shortly after defeating this horde we were attacked by a Tank and ANOTHER FREAKING Hunter. Of course the Hunter made a beeline for Louis but the Tank pimp smacked the Hunter off and started to kill Louis. We all pitched in to save him and retreated to fight off the final wave of the fight. Heck we even got the Tank stuck in a window for an easy kill. However the real trick was the very final part as we waited for the choppa.
While we were standing there pipe bombs were thrown to distract the horde and Louis threw down a molotov to keep the rest at bay. However a Boomer snuck up behind us and, when he died, knocked me off the helipad. It took a quick dash past zombies, both on fire and not, through some flames and back onto the pad all while covered in Boomer bile to escape the level alive. Desperately ignoring the Tank I could hear just behind me might I add. Really good times.
The second game with Chris and CodingGenius this time went a lot better. Death Toll is a much easier level than No Mercy I'm beginning to notice once you get past the wide open areas. That and the sewer level can be a bit rough. But we handled it well. Except for the fact that every single Hunter we came across, especially later on, wanted to eat my face. I was an early warning system for them since they all pounced on me as soon as they saw us.
I had a heck of a time and am definitely looking to participate in more of these. Go GameSpot go!
Edit: I added a video of Chris Watters' Greatest Hits! Posted it to the blog.
- Posted Apr 9, 2009 12:44 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 5 Comments
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5Apr 09
Well it's been awhile in the coming but Community Game Night is finally making a come back thanks to the diligent efforts of JodyR. It's going to be on April 7th, 4-6 PM PST and it will feature Left 4 Dead on both the PC and Xbox 360. So if you've got either of these games keep your eyes open for it. Link to the Union post is here:
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/unions/read_article.php?topic_id=26831857&union_id=12032
Come on and join us!
- Posted Apr 5, 2009 11:44 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 2 Comments
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17Mar 09
So I've done a bunch of stuff lately and I'm not sure what I've posted so I figured I'd share a whole bunch of stuff. If you're interested in any of it take a look and tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
FEAR 2: Project Origin GuideThere's more to it including reviews for Legendary, Kingdom for Keflings, LotR: Conquest and a Far Cry 2 review all waiting to be posted but that's then not now. This is just a quickie blog, more later on with me complaining about something else interesting. Yay!
- Posted Mar 17, 2009 12:15 am PT
- Category: Writing
- 0 Comments
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11Mar 09
So I'm usually a fan of what From Software releases. While they don't usually have quality on their side their games were usually fairly solid. However it seems likely their biggest obsession lately is milking the Armored Core and Tenchu series for all that they're worth. I was actually surprised to hear that they were working on an original IP sometime late last year and even more shocked when I found out it was going to be a serious action game. Honestly if I had paid some more attention I would have known better than to really get my hopes up for this one.
As you've likely guessed by now I've recently played the US demo of Ninja Blade. While I wanted to shut the horrible thing down within five minutes of turning it on I resolved to sit it through and see how bad things got. Even my wildest nightmares couldn't have prepared me for this horrible game. I have to wonder if anyone working at From Software has played a video game in at least ten years as there are some problems so basic I can't understand how they're still in a game these days. Let's run down the laundry list of problems so that I can simply itemize them and be a bit lazy, shall we?
- Quick Time Events: These damnable things have become the bane of my existence when it comes to video games. Why does practically every damn action game on the market, barring Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry, feel the need to insert these into their freaking game?! They're horrible! Almost singlehandedly these things have worked to ruin games; they managed to turn an okay shooter (Jericho) into pure frustration in several parts and Spider-Man 3 was ridiculous enough as it is without those really horrible, spot on timing required QTEs. So it's not bad enough that a game uses them but to basically make 50% of the premise of a game these things is mind boggling. Oh sure the cutscenes look awesome but having to watch them rewind constantly does little to mitigate how obnoxious these things are.
- The basic enemies in this game, I think they were called Carriers, have way, way too much health. The first corridor I ended up in consisted of me hammering on these things for a fairly long time before they finally sploded into healing orbs. Generally speaking this isn't an issue for mini-bosses orstronger foes but no matter what tricky technique I tried nothing made killing them any faster. There were tricks to make it easier but this only made the process of killing them even more boring.
-The boss fight... oh god the boss fight. Now the boss was pretty interesting to see and I liked the whole "dash into his face in slo-mo" aspect to the fight. But seriously this is a boss like we've seen in games since the 1980's. He only has one vulnerable spot so wait for him to expose it, which he obligingly does for no reason, before whaling on it. After you destroy the weak spot you get a few seconds to damage him before the weak spots are back and you have to repeat this. The fight drags on for far longer than it really has a right to with nothing really interesting happening to spice it up.
Except for the part with the crane at the end... WHICH WAS A QTE!
- The auto-lock system for attacking leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe there's some trick to it that I didn't understand in the demo but for the most part the attacking system leaves a whole lot to be desired. I would be happily swinging away to my left, chopping up an enemy who wouldn't die, only for the game to decide I really meant to be attacking to the left. I'm not quite sure how this could be happening to be honest, it's just too bizarre to really understand. However it's a real problem when fighting the boss since, during his second phase, my guy would routinely become obsessed with attacking out of reach body parts and whiffing thin air.
That said the game is incredibly stylish and fun to watch. Running down the side of an office building, killing enemies as you go, is a really intense moment. However the basis of this game is so horribly flawed that I'll not pick it up until it has found its way into the bargain bin. Shame too, after the crap that was Ninja Gaiden II I was hoping for a decent over the top action game.
- Posted Mar 11, 2009 12:15 am PT
- Category: Editorial
- 4 Comments
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13Jan 09For anyone who is worried about spoilers you don't have to be. This is going to be as non-spoiler as I can make it.
Let's get the positive stuff out of the way before doing anything else. These are the things that I like based off of how the game compares to P3 basically.
I don't care what anybody says, i like Teddie. He's got some interesting character elements to him, he grows over the story and I figured that his overly cutesey personality had a purpose and lookit that, it did. It also made perfect sense having his S. Link be based on game progress, something I wish the game had done with the other party members in retrospect. More on that below.
The ability to actually directly control your party members is a freaking godsend. It eliminates all of the hoping and praying that Persona 3 was full of at tense times and really puts the ability to control the party in your hands. For a micromanaging player like myself this made the game so much more fun.
The story to this game tops the Persona 3 one simply for being more down to earth for the most part. Persona 3 was full of stuff that your average person really couldn't relate to such as: Mitsurus millionaire family, the elite school dorm setting, the android party member and a hyper intelligent dog. That's all without getting into the Midnight Hour and such. Stuff like this kind of creates a disconnect at times with the player but in P4 all of the characters are pretty much down to earth with the only really well off party members being realistically so (Yukiko and Yosuke).
Let's move on to the annoyances now.
Who the heck thought that putting the dungeon crawling at the same time that you do 90% of the Social Links was a good idea? There's only like... 2 Social Links you can do at night now (Tutor and Hospital Janitor part time jobs) while all of the rest are daytime S. Links, requiring you to choose between dungeon crawling or doing much of anything else. While I get that they were trying to force you to make that exact choice it flips the dynamic of this game a bit too much for my taste. Hear me out.
In Persona 3 you could go to Tartarus every night if you wanted to, making small and measured excursions every day. This allowed you to level up slowly, gather up Persona for Fusions, complete requests and actually dungeon crawl at your leisure. Playing P3 was kind of like that for me; every other day I was in Tartarus for a few hours in the least. I actually like level grinding in my RPGs so it worked out rather exceptionally for me, allowing me to perfectly balance my dungeon crawling to my tastes. The access points, teleporters and HP/SP being restored when you go back to the bottom floor to save reduced frustrations from dying and losing an hour of work like you can in most other RPGs. I don't mind hard games but losing all that work due to a single random encounter is staggeringly frustrating.
This is so far from the case in P4 it's not even funny.
Being forced to choose between dungeon crawling to save victims/fight optional bosses/level grind and doing S. Links or increasing stats meant that I only went to the TV dungeons about once every other week. But when I did so I had to stay in there for at least three or four hours, measuring out my SP ridiculously, so that I didn't fall too far behind the deadlines the game sets. It wasn't too bad at first but as the game went on... ugh. Towards the end I found myself coming down to the wire and almost got the bad ending because I just couldn't level up enough to fight the boss of Magatsu. For me to be underleveled is completely agitating knowing my power-leveling ways.
Making it even more annoying is the fact that I could have easily maxed out three more Social Links if not for everything happening during the day. Not that I needed to max them out, that's what a second playthrough is for, but it's kind of annoying knowing how close I was to doing it and not being able to due so simply due to how finnicky the game is. Raining? No Social Links are around. Victim kidnapped? Numerous S. Links are unavailable. Not the right day? Well wait for another one.
Admittedly, in retrospect, it's obvious that the devs wanted you to explore the TV when it was raining since there are rare monsters to find, most S. Links are nowhere to be found and there's honestly not much else to do at those times. But it's still very annoying seeing how constrained you are by the games limitations. It kills a fair bit of the freeform nature that Persona 3 had going on for it.
Secondly what the heck is up with the encounter system in this one? Why did they change away from the perfectly serviceable encounter system in P3?
I liked that in P3 if you snuck up behind an enemy and stabbed him in the back you got the advantage with no problem. If you weren't careful enough then they got to you first most of the time and you had only yourself to blame. In P4 I can't even count the number of times I waited for two or three whole minutes to get the jump on a hard, flashing, enemy and snuck up on him only to have him whip around 180 degrees and whack me before I can even swing my sword. I've noticed that the higher level the monster, the bigger their sprite is and the larger their detection radius.
At first this doesn't seem like too big of a problem until you realize that it's a veritable fight in and of itself to sneak up on the stronger enemies. So basically any enemy that gives you any real amount of experience will be a pain in the butt to sneak up on. This isn't a problem early on (seeing a pattern there?) but when you get to the point where you're fighting voltron looking dorks who one shot kill your party members it's realy annoying. Remember what I said about losing an hour of progress to a single random encounter? Well I guess since they seem to have fewer enemies who use Hama and Mudo spells they decided they needed enemies so strong they can one shot kill you with physical attacks or spells. Yay!
What makes this whole fact more annoying is that most of the bosses in this game aren't that hard. They just very rarely have weaknesses and when they do they tend to dodge their weakness incredibly often. Then again most monsters seem to dodge their weaknesses an inordinate amount of time. Pair that up with the fact that most encounters are against three different monsters, all with different weaknesses (if any) and more often than not one will drain an element, one will null an element and one will be weak to that same element. So if the enemies get the jump on you good luck taking them out before they beat the crap out of your party.
Third I find the SP restriction system wasn't very well thought out. Okay so you don't get it refilled by going back to the main area, you can't buy it and the thing that refills it later on is uber expensive. But it wouldn't be such a problem if you weren't usually forced to go on extended sojurns into the dungeons. This goes right into the complaint about the tv dungeons being open at the same time as all of the S. Links, thus forcing some annoying micromanagement on that level.
Lastly are the S. Links themselves. Whereas in P3 even the annoying people were somewhat fairly easy to empathize with some of these S. Links are just annoying. Ai Ebihara and Yumi (Drama Club) come straight to mind as glaring examples. More details in the spoiler block.
Let's just say I hated some of these S. Links and leave those two my examples as to why that is. I'm not even going to go into the fact that all of the growing up/therapy that you give to your party members is done in the main storyline, leaving the S. Link scenes to feel like... well not like much of anything. The only one who really felt like they grew in those is Kanji, but the rest happen as you play so it felt kinda redundant almost. Ah well.
There you have it. It's still a great game, better than anything Final Fantasy has done in over a decade but still horribly flawed. My score for it will change when I actually write my review.- Posted Jan 13, 2009 2:16 pm PT
- Category: Editorial
- 6 Comments
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11Jan 09Finally got down to New York to visit family for the holidays due to being sick (still am) and I'm posting again for the time being. I've typed this as I drive back from my mothers house (passenger not driver silly) and this was a pretty decent Christmas, not as good as the last one but still pretty damn productive.
The Haul
iPod Touch w/ carrying case - Nice surprise gift right here, didn't see this coming.
Advance wars: Days of Ruin - for my shiney new DS
Silent Hill Homecoming
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Tetris Evolution - Don't knock it, Tetris is my favorite game of all time.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2Not as good as last year but the $150 I've gotten in addition to this will help. I'm thinking of buying a Dreamcast cuz there's a few games I want. That and a Saturn eventually. I'll have to see.
Coming up next: Persona 4 rant on the way! - Why as much as I love the story, the game drives me nuts. News at eleven!
- Posted Jan 11, 2009 11:44 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 3 Comments
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14Dec 08
So I just got this game the other day to review it for GamingExcellence. Beat it in 5 hours of gameplay, give or take. Thoughts on the game:
Never play it!
That is all.
@Mog: I deleted the bizarre triple post that GameSpot did which took your response so I'll include my response to you here. The camera in TRU is horrible. Horrible! There are an ungodly number of blind jumps, the camera is seated in Lara's crotch 90% of the time and it's just a generally unpleasant experience. I'm starting to wonder if it's possible for a developer to make more than two Tomb Raider games before going insane and releasing drivel.
- Posted Dec 14, 2008 6:45 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 10 Comments
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9Dec 08
So I've recently gotten my hands on a copy of Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360 and have been enjoying the heck out of it with my roomie. However I have to review this game, a fact that seems to be an issue currently. Every time I go online I seem to experience the very worst of Xbox Live every time I go on. It's worse than Resistance, Halo or Gears of War at this point.
The frist game I got into was a co-op game with three other people... that was a total nightmare. We were trying to play through the first campaign on normal difficulty which should have been simple enough. While playing splitscreen co-op we managed to clear this very campaign with bots. Oh sure we died due to some spiteful enemy placement (stupid AI Director) but I figured if two people can do it with some trouble then four could do it with ease if they were even halfway competent.
Well they weren't.
In the first level there was one schmuck controlling Lois, the token black guy, who thought it was a race. As soon as we hit the streets he started running ahead of us, bee-lining for the other exit. I think he forgot about the subway being infested with zombies or something because he died. Horribly. We voted him out, rescued a Lois AI bot from a "rescue closet" and went on our merry way.
So shortly before completing the hospital stage we hear a Witch crying. For those who don't know about the Witch... think of her as a rabid wolverine of sorts. When you initially encounter her you will hear her crying. When you see her she's curled up on the floor, sobbing into her arms and rocking back and forth. Now she's not hostile to you unless you do a few things.
There are a few ways to rile her up, each a bit worse. If you get too close to her you start to draw her attention. If you stare at her too long you start to draw her attention. Shine your flashlight on her? Draws her attention. So basically when you hear her crying you will want to move past her as quickly as possible with your flashlight off.
Alas there is a complication; freaking achievements. I love Achievements most of the time, a look at my gamercard can tell you that I'm fond of gathering up all the non-ridiculous ones. But what I don't do is go after online achievements and this is why... Someone shot the Witch because he wanted the achievement for killing her with a single headshot. *sigh* Well he was lagging a bit behind so we didn't get to him in time and he died. This left just me and one other player to get to the safe house and complete the level.Well it didn't happen. We were attacked by a Tank just before reaching the safe house since I guess me and the other guy were doing too good of a job. It punted the other guy out of the building entirely before I killed it. When I went to help him up I was pounced on by a Hunter zombie and that was the end of that. We died thanks to those two jerks.
Oh and the final guy I was working with dropped the game before we could try a restart so it was just me. Blah. Forty minutes wasted, what sense does that make?
Now what I need to do is find some people to play this game with who don't, ya know, suck horribly. What's worse about all of this is that I haven't even had the chance to try versus yet. If co-op is this annoying I can't wait to see what garbage I have to deal with when fighting against PC super zombies, ugh.
- Posted Dec 9, 2008 12:53 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 4 Comments
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4Dec 08
I've completed a PDF game guide for Mirror's Edge that's been posted over on GamesRadar. That was an interesting but draining experience. While it's a good game Mirror's Edge is definitely best played in small intervals; a level today, a level tomorrow, etc. It can get pretty damn frustrating otherwise. Overall it was a fun experience though.
This is a direct linkie so it will download the guide. Just a warning.
- Posted Dec 4, 2008 11:49 pm PT
- Category: Writing
- 9 Comments
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12Nov 08
So I finished my Gears of War 2 guide for GamesRadar. The only one posted so far is a text version of it but I did a PDF version as well. I also finished the Fable 2 guide that I worked on with two other guys, a FAQ writer named Jason Nimer and Jason Venter also known as Honestgamer. It was a fun experience. Most of the work on that one is mine although Honestgamer did a fair bit of research (Silver Keys, quests I missed) and Jason Nimer compiled it all into the document.
I'm spending tonight making a PDF version of the Fable 2 guide, I really like how they look. This one will look really nice if all goes well.
- Posted Nov 12, 2008 3:32 pm PT
- Category: Writing
- 7 Comments
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10Nov 08
So I've finished the work on the Fable II, just need to hammer out some details on it and it'll be posted on the site soon. I'm also making fair progress on my Fallout 3 main quest walkthrough, part four should be posted on GamesRadar either in a short while of this typing or some time tomorrow. I'm actually doing fairly good time on it all things considered, it's a pretty big game and writing the game guide makes it take a fair bit longer.
I've also been tapped to write a Gears of War 2 game guide and FAQ for GamesRadar. I'm done with playing through the story and need to finish up the actual game guide itself, hopefully that'll be done by Wednesday so I can get it posted to the site. It's not long enough to be posted in two parts so I'd like to get it all out of the way.
That said I've had a few questions asked of me about the games I've been playing so here's a few quickie thoughts on these games.
Fable 2: Not really a great game, it deserves to be a 7.5 at its best. They cut out a lot of the character customization; there's less tattoos and it feels like there's less hairstyles in general. The storyline is pretty interesting but it also has one of the most anti-climatic final sections of any game ever written. Co-op is horribly bland and not very interesting, it gets veyr repetitive very quickly and the camera is pretty atrocious whenever you go indoors.
Fallout 3: An incredibly awesome game. It feels like Oblivion with guns alright but it's also an incredible time. The gun combat feels a bit iffy since it's not really an FPS. When you shoot enemies there are still some die rolls behind the scenes to see if you do damage and how much you do so it's hard to approach it as just an FPS. You really need to get used to the V.A.T.S. combat system to make it work. I'm in love with this bad boy. 9.5 without a doubt.
Gears of War 2: THere are some problems with this game comapred to the first, namely there aren't any sequences that are as tense as parts of the first. In the first you had the Brumak chase and the sequence in the streets at night with the Kryll ready to eat you to pieces at any moment. There's one sequence in this one with a rolling wall of debris but it doesn't really match up. Overall though the game is really awesome with an interesting storyline and it lasts about 10-12 hours which is a great amount of time for an action game. 9.0 in the least.
- Posted Nov 10, 2008 5:24 pm PT
- Category: Writing
- 2 Comments
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6Nov 08
Recently I agreed to do a bit of work for IGN, writing an exclusive FAQ for Fable 2 along with another writer. We ended up with an extra writer and it was a bit of a debacle at first but everything seems to be coming together pretty good at this point. The fellow who I wrote most of it with is in the process of finishing off compiling the work and once that's done we get to comb over it, make sure we're happy with it and submit it.
Amusingly enough we were supposed to put in our first drafts of main quest only guides by the 7th. This was probably due to Peter Molyneux running off at the mouth, yet again, about how big the game was going to be. Well he didn't just over state it, he lied. It took me thirteen hours to complete the main story and about five more to finish off all the side stuff which was really disappointing. 100 hours, not even in the ballpark.I'll post a link to this once we're all done. I might do a PDF version so I'll link to that for those who are interested.
On the other end of the spectrum a non-disappointing game! Yay! Games Radar has once again tapped me for writing a guide on Fallout 3. I've already got two installments of it posted up on the website and I'm putting the finishing touches on yet more sections. It's probably going to be a main quest only walkthrough but I'm hoping to expand it beyond that.
Misfit outtie yo!
- Posted Nov 6, 2008 5:35 am PT
- Category: Writing
- 4 Comments
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11Oct 08
Read this before reading anything else:
http://www.starcraftwire.net/n/1231/150-to-play-full-starcraft-ii
One would think that having ten million subscribers for one game and people who still buy their older games (Diablo 2 and Starcraft) they would be happy with what they have. They have to know that StarCraft 2 is going to sell like hotcakes when it gets released and they're going to be literally rolling in money. So why do they feel the need to take advantage of their fanbase like this?
Now I can see both sides of this argument. Some will say that this means that we can get the base package out ASAP and then they can pick up the later ones, if they want, at a later point. The other side of it will be that this means that you're going to have to spend between 100 - 150 dollars to experience the entirety of the starcraft trilogy that they're calling it (which makes no sense, there WAS a first game people).
Thier response to the situation is that it's just like two expansions and they're sure that people will just play the first game as that's how it is with Warcraft 3. This has to be one of the dumbest things I've heard a company say and yes that includes all the crap that Sony was spouting for awhile there.
I know plenty of people who purchased the Warcraft 3 expansion and were annoyed that they did so since it added little to the game. It expanded upon the characters in WC3 but the storyline push it gave wasn't really anything all too impressive. I would definitely agree with this as it spends more time showing you more crap about Illidian than it does the alliance between the Orcs and Humans failing. The Frozen Throne always felt like a segueway into another game not an expansion to another game. Then lo and behold we learn that it was the case, they needed to split up the alliance so that they could have World of Warcraft.
Wonderful. We paid 30 bucks for an expansion that was actually a prequel to their new game. That's a bit backwards.
Looking at what StarCraft is this is NOT the same situation. This would be like them splitting Warcraft 3 itself into three different releases. Not only do you not get to play all three species from one box you don't even get the entire story. This is a problem for me.
Something like this might fly in South Korea where they've got more interest in the game itself than they do the story but it feels like a slap in the face to anyone who isn't part of the professional gaming league. Want the story? Do ya? Well then you have to buy all three of our games. Look how that works! You're not paying 30 bucks for an epilogue to a game or the final chapter (like Diablo 2 Throne of Destruction) you're literally paying for the next chapter.
Are you kidding me? This is like an author selling you not an actual trilogy but selling you parts of the same book in three parts.
Starcraft 1 and its expansion were not complete stories in each campaign and neither were the Warcraft games. To really experience the entire story and understand entirely what was going on you needed to play all three chapters. If you only played the Terran campaign in SC1 then all you'd think is that the entirety of the game was just a rebellion against the stagnant governing body with the Zerg and Protoss in the background. You would have no clue as to all the things that went on with the rest of the species and the story itself wouldn't be what we recognize as the Starcraft storyline.
The can call it a trilogy all they like, they can call it a matter of time and not money. Anyone who knows how their games work will likely know what exactly is going on here, it's calling nickeling your fans to death. Unless they're going to be selling these games at a reduced price then I can definitely say that I will not be buying this game (One game in three pieces) off of eBay or Amazon at a very reduced price a few years down the line. It's up to us as fans to let developers know how we feel about these things by hitting them where it hurts, their pockets.
This is a slippery slope, akin to the Horse Armor fiasco from Oblivion, and I'm not going to be suckered into this.
Edit: As an aside 30 missions per campaign? I seriously have to wonder about that. Most of the time I'm pretty bored with typical RTS crap (build base, complete objective, build base, completed objective, repeat ad nauseum) and want to move on to the next race after about 7 missions. Putting that aside I wonder how much the story is going ot move between each mission. I have a feeling this is going to be like playing 9 or 10 missions broken up into individual missions. So if you've just taken an enemy stronghold and now have to defend it these will be two seperate missions instead of just the one. Sounds like a lot of campaign stretching at play.
- Posted Oct 11, 2008 8:21 pm PT
- Category: Editorial
- 1 Comment
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9Oct 08
Got a review for Guitar Hero Aerosmith and a preview for SOCOM Confrontation up on Gaming Excellence now:
GH:A - http://www.gamingexcellence.com/ps3/games/1129/review.shtml
SOCOM - http://www.gamingexcellence.com/ps3/games/1322/p20081006.shtml
Really not impressed by the glorified expansion pack that was Guitar Hero Aerosmith even if it is a solid game itself. Bleh. SOCOM was fun but there were so many freaking issues with the Beta that I never actually completed a game to its end. I'd get disconnected, not be able to tell what was going on and quit or any other of a number of problems. I'm sure those won't be in the release (like not showing names on the scoreboard) but there were some peculiar problems cropping up like it directing me to the wrong base to set a bomb...
- Posted Oct 9, 2008 1:52 pm PT
- Category: Writing
- 2 Comments
