• 2Oct 07

  I'm still alive .. and still gaming! :)

  Wow, I haven't written in this blog space for almost a year ... people might think that I'm not playing games anymore! Thank god that's not the case....

  Life has been interesting over the past 9 months and I really just haven't had it in me to pick up the electronic pen and start writing again. But here we are, October 2nd 2007 and I think it's frankly time. And it's a game that brought me back ... Hot Shots: Open Tee for the PSP. Since I've purchased this title it's become a PSP Greatest hit title and after picking the title up again after almost a year of not touching it, I know exactly why ...

  It's fun!

  It does everything I ask for in a game these days ... it entertains me for both short and long stretches of time. It remains pretty consistant throughout and it's just an enjoyable title. I love games with some kind of character customization which Hot Shots includes and the graphics are enjoyable, yet percise. It's an all around good game for it's platform.

  This is in stark contrast to my recent purchase of D&D Tactics. Ugh, what a mess this game turned out to be. A clunky, difficult to use interface makes this game no fun to play at all. Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS One is a better title (and they are remaking that for PSP .. can you say "Must Have"? I knew you could! But seriously .. I don't know how a developer can play thisgame after making it and think it's a grade A title. But then, I suppose it's easy to forget to look past your own product to the players sometimes. It's hard to detatch yourself from your product and look at it from someone else's perspective. I wish I was asked to consult ...

  So my search for a D&D 3.5 edition turn-based game continues. I love what Tactics was trying to do ... I think that a turned based D&D game was long .. LONG over due. So I'm really happy someone tried. But you need this game to be on PC, to begin with. Because menu navigation belongs on the PC ... the PSP controls are god awful. But you also need solid turn based play with multiple creatable characters. Neverwinter 2 was/is a great title, but I think it would perfect if the combat was turned based. D&D is a turned based game that people keep trying to make in real time. You know, there are still gamers out there that like to take their time and think out decisions and when to use what skills. We're not gone from the gaming market ... it doesn't have to be all "go go go"!

  So I guess I'll keep waiting for that ... along with the next great X-Com remake. Now THAT's how you make a turn-based game. I miss you X-Com .. if I could get you to run on my rig, I'd be playing you right now. You were truly ahead of your time.

  Until Next Time ....

  Jack

  • Posted Oct 2, 2007 7:04 am PT
  • 2 Comments
  • Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 26Dec 06

  Why I Never Stopped Loving Nintendo

  So I'm old school, right?  Hella Old School according to Gamespot... so you know I've been playing video games since I was a little kid.  I started with Atari 2600, never had an Intellivision or a Collecovision (though I played them both) and then it was a Nintendo 8 bit system.

  I've been a Nintendo fan ever since.  I hated the Sega line of consoles and I never really took to the Turbographics system.  Hell, it took me a while to give in to trying a Sony Playstation.  But I've always been faithful to my Nintendo.  I've owned every console they have ever released and the Wii is no different.

  If there was a system out there that could revitalize console gaming at home, it's Nintendo's Wii system.  It's so family, friend, and single player friendly.  It makes console gamine accessible to everyone in my household.  My parents play the Wii!!  It's really amazing!

  I love that Nintendo gives my wife something to enjoy about console gaming.  Watching her get excited when she bowls a strike in Wii Sports just makes me so happy.  She's having fun with something that I've loved all my life.  It's really great that she enjoys it.

  Nintendo has done something here that Xbox and Playstation have yet to truly acheive, they've made their console accessible to all audiences without taking out the elements that make gaming fun in the first place.  And it gets better when you think about how the Virtual Console offers old greats from the full Nintendo library!

  The Wii also has access to the previously mentioned Sega and Turbographics consoles' games.  I hated Genesis but I did love the first Sonic, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Ecco the Dolphin...  I get to relive all these great games with the virtual console.

  With the money I've invested in my Wii I've gotten far more then I could with spending the same cash on a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360.  Let's check the breakdown:

  Wii System : 250

  WiFi DS Adapter : 40

  Entra Remote : 40

  Zelda : 60 (might have been 50)

  6000 points : 60  (Which has gotten me: The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Super Mario 64, Street Fighter II, points left over)

  That's 490 bucks!  Look at all the games I have to play!  And with the Virtual Console dropping new games every Monday... explain to me how the Wii isn't the best gaming investment out there!

  Nintendo has always had the masses in mind when they designed their systems.  They wanted to open the door to men, women, and children and they have succeeded with the Wii.  I'm very excited for the next 5 years to see how this is going to turn out.

  • Posted Dec 26, 2006 8:18 am PT
  • 0 Comments
  • Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 7Nov 06

  The 4 Main Flaws of Neverwinter 2

  It’s a great game and I enjoy it very much.  But, unfortunately, there are things that take away from the flawless experience you’d expect.  And here they are: 

  Changing Zones Removes all Buffs

  This one really infuriates me.  Whenever you change zones (main locations to other main locations) all of your buffs will drop off your character.  Now, I understand when traveling out in the world that it’s reasonable that you have to rebuff when entering new areas, but the biggest culprit of this “bug” is when you’re inside Neverwinter. 

  While in the city you pass between the different quarters (like in NWN 1) but this time you actually go to the world map to do it.  When you select what should obviously be neighboring districts you appear with all of your buffs gone.  This gets really frustrating when you’re about to enter the warehouse portion of the City Watch quest line.

  Thinking I was in for a big battle, I wisely buffed my party outside the warehouse door.  I play a wizard so having my spells ready is critical.  When we were all set I clicked the door into the warehouse.  Much to my surprise, when I entered the warehouse all of my buffs were gone.  It was like a day had passed from the outside of the door to the inside.  This is really annoying and someone should fix this.

  Improved Mage Armor has Incorrect Duration

  Both Mage Armor and Improved Mage Armor have the same duration listing in the spell text.  It’s 1 hour/caster level.  That’s a pretty long time.  Why then does my Improved armor always drop WELL before the regular mage armor.  Again, as a Wizard the improved spell is much more beneficial and I’d like to not have to rest every 5 minutes to rebuff myself with it.

  Conversations Teleport Party Leader

  This is the worst of the lot and I probably should have listed it first on my complaint list.

  So I mentioned I’m playing a wizard right?  We’re squishy, with very few hit points to speak of.  So it would be no surprise that I want my wizard to be at the back of any altercation to give my fighter time to intercept incoming attackers.  That’s just smart playing.

  It’s a shame the game feels the need for the main PC to be involved in every conversation that takes place.  The following has actually happened to me in several different ways through the course of the game so far:

  I see a group of enemies ahead.  They have the talk icon which tells me that I’m going to have to chat with them before I can slaughter them.  I’d prefer to keep my mage well back and let my fighter do the talking but, nope, that’s not possible.  As soon as I initiate dialog my main PC (again, A WIZARD) appears right up close to the enemies for the conversation.   So when things turn south and we get into battle my poor wizard is within easy striking distance of the enemy.

  This is poor design, in my opinion.   If I was playing a fighter I wouldn’t care, but a wizard cannot afford to be that close to the action.  The game mechanics disrupt proper planning on my part (the player).  It’s bad enough the camera is always a pain in the ass, now I have to deal with this stupid flaw too. 

  Vague Item Spell Descriptions

  A minor, but important flaw for me, is the lack of truly descriptive text for some of the in game items.  Neverwinter 1 had this problem and it persists here in NWN 2.  Some items in the game cast an effect, let’s use a Wand of Frost as an example here.  The Wand allows you to cast Frost Bolt at a target.  Now, it would be nice if we knew what frost bolt did (1d4+1) in the wand description.  But it doesn’t say that, it just tells you it does Frost Bolt.

  So now I have to go find Frost Bolt and find out what it does.  This is annoying, especially if I didn’t have a wizard in my party.  It’s very possible that you could have a party for the early part of the game without a caster.  That means you have no resource to look up the spell in question and its effects (save the manual).  It just seems to me like it’s more convenient for the player to be verbose in descriptive text to give the player every advantage they need to play the game.  This is a minor thing, but it bugs me enough to make my list.

  • Posted Nov 7, 2006 10:34 am PT
  • 0 Comments
  • Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts