• 5Sep 08

  Perfect World International

  I downloaded Perfect World International that has been "advertised" on this site for a while. It is a free MMORPG, and really I'm not a fan of the genre, but its free. I figured, "what the heck".

  I actually got to play a little. Last night I was watching my 3 week old. Since the game has very simple controlls it can be played with only the mouse. I appriciated that because I only had one hand free anyway. The player review on this site talked about the great graphics, and that was one of the reasons I downloaded it. Well, if there are some good graphics, I'm not seeing them, and I'm running everything on max settings. Another problem is limited race/class selection. There are 3 races which each have two race specific jobs, one male only and one female only. So, in reality there are just six jobs to choose from and your gender is decided by which job you want to play. Also, I tried for a few minutes to make an individual looking character and when I started playing I realized I still looked just like everyone else. I was kind of sad about that.

  The game actually plays well though. I was afraid I would have a lot of trouble figuring out what to do, but I didn't. The quest are pretty easy to find, since the game give you a quest finder. The first few easy quest reward you with equipment, which is nice. I hope the quest rewards continue to be good. If there is any problem with the gameplay it might be that it is too simple. I have yet to find an enemy that even poses a mild challenge. For some reason, I'm not really bothered by that. I'm pretty sure there are harder enemies out there. There are also a lot of crafting skills, but I haven't quite figured those out yet.

  Another thing I noticed is that there is the lack of community. The only other MMO game I played was Final Fantasy XI, and you need help to do almost anything on there. It could be that I'm too early in the game, but honestly I hated that in XI you NEED a party to do anything. It would actually be a welcomed change for me. It isn't that I don't like people, but sometimes I do get sick of them.

  So far the game semes adequate. I wouldn't say the game is super entertaining, but its decent. With all the games I have to play, I would say I don't plan to spend much time on this, but I'm not sure. The game is an exremly easy way to waste a few minutes, and since there is no fee, I don't see any reason to uninstall it. I like it, but I'm not going to reccomend it.

  • Posted Sep 5, 2008 7:38 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 28Aug 08

  I downloaded Castle Crashers.

  I'm a sucker for digital distribution, but I'm more of a sucker for great games. Based on the Demo, I was willing to fork over the, once again, higher than normal price for an Arcade game. I'm, once again, pretty happy I did.

  Castle Crashers isn't the innovate masterpiece the Braid is, but it has more value for other reasons. The component that I enjoy the most is the multiplayer co-op. Since I first got my 360 I've always spent more time playing with other people that I have playing on my own (thats including all my time in Mass Effect btw). For someone like me, Castle Crashers is everything you could hope it to be.

  The game is a modern 2-D adventure game with some RPG elements thrown in. Like its predecessor, Alien Hominid, has an intriguing look. It also doesn't take itself too seriously and has some very funny moments. The game could get boring on your own as it would just be the running through the stages beating up the baddies over and over. With more people, the game really shines. For instance, after rescuing a princess, a player is forced to fight with his team mates to see who wins a kiss. Players also have their own gold so there is always a little bit of competition in the cooperation. On the RPG side your characters level up, learn new moves, and get new weapons. You also get an animal helpers who do all sorts of weird stuff.

  If you liked old arcade brawlers, Castle Crashers will bring that joy to the modern era. If you have a lot of friends who come over you'll like it even more. I have yet to try online, and have only played through some of the game. There is still more left to do and I'm going to be playing this game a lot over the holiday weekend coming up.

  • Posted Aug 28, 2008 6:24 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 25Aug 08

  Major Annoyance

  Today three children, around 8, were loitering on my property and I insisted they leave. After several attempts to persuade them they were intent on not only staying but totally destroying the place the first moment I leave. I called the police and waiting for something to happen but it didn't.

  So, while I was waiting inside my house on of their firends, a perticulay huligan who lives on my block, decided to take matters into his own hands and broke one of my windows. I went out to see what was going on only to find these three children outside my house throwing rocks. I could only assume it was them who broke it so I demanded once again they leave. They refused... again.

  After a while one of them go ballsy enough to try to run into my house. In my haste to see what was going on I had mistakenly left the door open. I got in his way but he shoved me so I kicked him, pretty hard. He walked out into the street and cried about it for a while. Finally him and his friends left because too many people were walking around in the street (concerned because of all the trouble).

  Well, that young kid's mom came and talked to me about the problem and she was actually quite reasonable. However, she suggested that should I have a problem with her child in the future I should just call the police. Meanwhile he implicated the older boy who lives on my street in breaking my window. This was my initial suspicion as I knew he was the only one strong enough to do it. The young boys mom told him he should not be hanging out with this bad kid and took him home.

  Right now, I'm still siting waiting for the police to show up. I called them twice, the first time at 7:30p, and the second time around 8:00p. Now, it is 11:30p, and there hasn't even been a patrol car through our neighborhood. I hate to say that law enforcement has failed me. I'm sure they have other important things to deal with, but I know that these kids only do what they do because they know they can get away with it. If I want a new window I'm going to have to pay for it myself. I will have to pay for it with money I earned myself working a job. That is somethin that these children know nothing about.

  I want to do something about the whole thing, but I don't know what the best option is. I'm not worried about this young kid and his two friends, but I've always had resevations about this other, older, kid living on my street. Obviously I can't rely on the police to help me, and I've got a wife and two kids to be concerned about (not to mention all my cool stuff). Any advice or condolences would be appriciated.

  • Posted Aug 25, 2008 9:53 pm PT
  • Category: General
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