I finally was able to play DAO out of my system. I finally got to the point where I not only felt competent at the game, but felt I could very easily best any challenge it presented. I'm not recanting any of the things I held against that title, but if you want something for just a whole lot of playtime hours then you might as well stop putting it off and go get it. Either that or WOW.

Anyway, this leaves me in an odd place for this time of year. I'm left without any game I really want to play. Normally there are four or five titles that have just been released that I'm asking people to buy me for Christmas, if not running out and buying myself. This time... nothing. I'm waiting for Mass Effect 2 and Lost Planet 2. Seriously publishers dropped the ball this year, at least for me.

This might seem hypocritical of me, but I'm finally coming around to DAO after investing WAY too much time into the game, especially if you include both the 360 version and the PC. In my previous blog @Monco59 suggested that it wasn't the game, that it was me, and this is partially true. You have to play the game the way the developers wanted you to, which means slowly. An occasional retreat from a dungeon for some rest and recovery (and to sell your of you inventory full of crap) does wonders for easing some of the games tensions. A lot of the rest of the trouble can be taken by NOT trying to beat the game. I know that sounds stupid, and it is, but that is how I used to play RPGs and that is how this one is meant to be played.

Some other things that help are the games controls work very well on the PC. You'll spend much less time trying to wrangle the game's targeting because it is simple point and click. It makes directing individual party members much easier in those situations where enemies set up ambushes (though I think the game would be much better as a whole without these set-ups).

I still don't know what to say about the game on PC though. As a whole it is a lot better but it still infuriates me from time to time. The autosave could still be far more generous and I still feel it is poorly designed. Also, and I know this is not just me, sometimes the AI just bugs out and your team members just wont "see" enemies. This is a problem both on the 360 and PC and no amount of working with the tactics fixes it. It is easier to remedy on PC though because you can zoom out to view everyone and when their behavior gets a little wonky, either by following tactic or not, you can correct it.

To me the game feels like a MMO only without the massively multi-player, or online. What I mean is that it feels like the game is edging you on, but you never really achieve anything. There is always one more quest to finish or another level to be gained. Like all old school RPGs, despite the fact that the world is on the verge of imminent destruction (of which only you can prevent), you still have time to scower the world to collect love letters or work on your crafting. I hate, loath, abhor, despise, detest, and otherwise dislike any form of forced exploration, and this game has it. You have to look everywhere because otherwise you might miss that one item that you need. I can't tell you for sure what that item is, but you know for sure while you're walking around that you'd better not miss it.

Finally, even after hours of dedicated study, the game is still hard. Anyone who says the game is just bragging on how much effort they put into learning every secret of the game. Sure, if I had known I would be fighting a fire dragon, I would have kept all the fire resistant stuff, but since I only have room for 90 different items types, I sold them. I figure general purpose items will be useful more often. Maybe I could do some other quests and level some and get the money to buy all that back, but this is really the point where I stop caring.

To role-play for a bit, I became a Grey Warden to stop a blight, not run around the world searching every cranny and solving everyone's problems for them. Seriously, if it really were up to me, I'd let Ferelden fall to the blight and just join up with the Wardens in Orlais. Maybe they're not to busy fighting each other to focus on the objective, though in the Dragon Age world, I somehow doubt that would be the case.

In layman's terms, I just don't think this game is for me. Sadly, I still feel somewhat addicted to it. That lack of feeling of completion keeps irking at me, and it only does so more and I unlock more awards on my player profile. Like I said, I've spent way too much time on this game. Some of it I have enjoyed, but for every minute of exhilaration, I spend hours in frustration. I just don't find the game very fun, and I think it would be fair to say I hate every single character in it... except Sten. Sten is a good guy... and I guess the Dog is OK too.

I bought Dragon Age Origins for PC because I had a gift card and thought maybe the game could redeem itself. Well, it hasn't. The PC version is just as full of the same BS. I'm playing on normal and am not only dieing all the time, I'm having to leave dungeons and buy items halfway through and its reqired to have multiple save on many occassions. This is all on normal mode, which is stupid. Most other games aren't this much of a pain in the ass on hard.

Some enjoyable characters do not make up for the blatant game padding that will fill most of your time with DA:O

Difficulty: Hard

Time Spent: 40-100 hours

The Bottom Line: "Overrated"

Dragon Age: Origins is a short game that has over 50 hours of play-time padding and will frustrate and infuriate anyone who plays it. While the game starts off very well, everything deteriorates quickly. Unfortunately you'll be hooked into continuing playing by the promise of character progress. However, the people who made this game are happy to remind you at many intervals how weak your character is, regardless of how long you've been building them.

Cheap deaths are far too common and there isn't much you can do to prevent them. The targeting in combat is terrible and will cause more than a few problems late in the game when every fight seems like it has to be against fifty people. Also the game's autosave is unreliable, not activating after key battles, so most players will probably end up repeating a good section of the game before they relearn to stop and save every five minutes.

What progress you do make in the game is slow. Even after over fifty hours of investment my characters were still only at level 18. In the beginning it especially feels like you're just waiting to level. Its made worse because as a new player you're not sure what skills you would like, and if you put your early points in the wrong place, it might take another five levels to "fix" your mistake. Really, I thought the RPGs you needed a guide to play were a thing of the past. DA:O works hard to make sure they're not completely dead yet.

As for the story, the entirety of the plot is laid out in the first few hours of the game. You are a Grey Warden and you have to stop the Arch Demon to end the blight which threatens the entire world. You end up trying to get the allegiance of different groups and have to jump through hoops to do so. There are four groups you have to work with and each one will drag you through many hours of BS before finally giving you the "real quest". Of course, once you have that quest the game will still throw three unnecessary and very large dungeons in the way, just because.

In the game, every decision you make gets evaluated by your current team members and they will decide if they like you more or less based on your choices. While in theory this would be great, in practice its terrible. Because of the games difficulty, you're almost required to take specific characters (read: your healer) with you at all times. Because you are so dependent on that character, you don't want to risk upsetting them and losing their support (or maybe even having to kill them). So, instead of your player character influencing your squad members, your squad members almost make you major plot decisions for you.

In the end, you'll probably be left unhappy with how many events in the story turned out. Many times your only choices in that game are bad option #1 or bad option #2. The "dislike" you get from one of your team members is just the icing on the pain cake. At the very end, you'll get to read the results of your choices. There is no ending cinematic, its just text that you read. Thats it. There is also no new game plus option.

To Bioware's credit, they did manage to create some believable characters. Every one of your team members has a personality that you can explore if you get them to like you and the voice acting is spectacular in almost every instance. The downside to this is that by comparison your main character feels bland. In fact, the player's character seems a little ham fisted into the game. The story would work better without him/her.

Another thing to note is that the graphics are rather poor for a modern game. Its obvious the Bioware cut the texture resolutions to the absolute minimum to make room for all the voice acting on one DVD. The draw distance is short when in open areas and in later battles with many enemies the game does slow down some. There are also a few buggy quests, but nothing that prevents you from completing the game. These are small problems though and don't ruin any enjoyment the game might offer.

Overall, DA:O is a game best left alone. Its a modern RPG that the majority of the game is stuck in the past. Dungeons are repetitive and boring and all the unnecessary game padding is annoying. The no-win situations and dissenting team-mates might be more realistic, but they are far less fun. Leveling is slow even with the game often spamming you with enemies. The game can easily eat up a lot of time, but much of that will likely be spent being frustrated. This game is best avoided.

I sold my PS3 on Ebay and it went for $350. That is with the games and headset, but I'm still very happy. Thats $100 more than I would have sold it for in person.

I also sold my Super Nintendo on Ebay. It went for $94, with 6 games. I was sad to see it go, but it went for considerably more than I was expecting.

I changed my Xbox Live gamertag. I really don't care to tell all my friend's list because many of them are getting deleted anyway, but for the people on here who are wondering who ZapCom is, its me, "zdg123" was just too plain.

I'm strongly considering selling my PS3. It is the type that cam with MGS4 and can play PS2 games. I also have MGS4 (obvious), Socom: Confrontation (which sucks), and Disgaea 3 games. On the HDD I have Warhawk and Fat Princess Downloads, but I'm not sure if I can delete my profile without deleting those games. Finally, I have the PS3 headset. If anyone in the continental US is interested, I could sell it to you. Anyone wanting to make an offer?

For any PS3 fans wondering why, its because I don't play it at all and its taking up space. I barely have time to play 360 recently, which is my favorite system, and have mostly just been letting family and friends borrow it.

I have another Dead 360. The one I was using for a spare died upon return to my sister. Its being shipped back to Microsoft today. For some time I was able to happily proclaim that I own 4 Xbox 360s and haven't really had a problem. Now its not true. This is the 3rd RROD for me total.

I'm seriously considering canceling my Gamefly membership. I get perks because I've been a member so long. Its 10% off every store purchase and a $5 gift card every month. I don't want to lose my benefits, but I seriously do not have enough time right now to keep up with my 3 game at a time plan. I'm pretty sure if I leave and come back they'll restart my time. Anyway, I have nothing against their service, but I think I'll be fine without them for a while.

I'm working on a business plan for a class I'm taking right now. I have to come up with a name for this theoretical computer store I'm making. I would like it to be a business that is more of a retail store that does repair work than a repair store that sells stuff so I'd like a name that fights that. I would like it to be appealing to gamers but also women, sorry girls gamers, and anyone else. I've already spent some time with a thesaurus, here are my ideas:

Computer Fix

PC Remedy

PC Tune-up

Computer Improver

Absolute Computer

Complete Computer

Convenient Computer

Correct Computer

Computer Zone

Neighborhood Computer

Quality Computer

Choice Computer

Best Computer

PC Zone

Computer Power

Please, tell me which of my suggestions you like best and why. Also make any suggestions you want. They don't have to be two words or contain computer, and it doesn't have to say computer. Thanks for your help.

I was able to return my sister the 360 she uses to her. It not her 360, despite her insisting that it is. Its my spare 360, hence why I've been using it while mine was getting fixed. Its also the Rock Band 360 where all my DLC for that is stored. Anyway, its mine (I paid for it), but I'm letting her have it back... to use, not to own.

Since i sent it back on the 9th, it took only 10 days to gett back. Given that 4 of those days were weekend, thats not too bad. Microsoft gave me a 1 month gold card, which I'm giving to my sister so she can Rock Band online some. Hopefully she thinks that makes up for some of her "suffering". Her life is so hard, I know.

Its not all that often I go for a 100% on games anymore. Obviously, I only put this effort into game I enjoy, but there has to be a combination of other factors too for it to actually happen. One, the game has to have a high replay value. Almost all games require more than one time through to get everything. Two... NO COLLECTION QUESTS! God I hate those! Three, I have to have the time to do it.

The stars were aligned for Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires. With the help of my brothers, trading off as 2nd player, we beat the game on Chaos mode and unlocked every single custom item and bonus. It took over 30 hours, but that isn't nearly as long as Mass Effect, or other titles that I'll never 100%. The sad thing is that I still want to play it, but now don't have any unlockables pushing me forward. I guess its time to start waiting on DW7:Empires.

I am not an avid Dynasty Warrior fan, but it seems like the games appeal to me. I played DW:Gundam and unlocked all achievements, took about 80 hours, and I LOVED DW:Gundam 2, but I can't find it for less the $55 used. My brother bought Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires, $40 new, and decided he hated it. I gave it a little more effort and I love it too. I played for over 20 hours this weekend. Eventually, my brother played co-op. He must have decided I was having too much fun with his rejected game.

Here's my review!

I gave it a 7.5. It would have been an 8, but there are a few too many little issues. The core of the game is solid.

The greatest hero battle reaches its conclusion with Mario vs Freeman. I haven't really blogged on this because in all honesty I don't like anyone in it (except MegaMan, but that didn't work out). I know that people are upset because Nintendo dominated, but seriously... Gordon Freeman?!?! Don't give me the BS about him being awesome. The only reason he is in the finals and not Link is because he is not made by Nintendo. People, go out and vote for Mario. Put your BS, "I'm too good for Nintendo baby games," attitude to the side. Mario should win and you all know it. Stop crying about Master Chief and Ryu and Ryu and whoever else you thought should have won. If Gordon Freeman wins, I've lost confidence in everyone who frequents this site.

This is old news for me, but I never posted it on here. On my week of vacation I was looking forward to using my 360 extensively, but when I sat down in front of it and turned it on I was greated by the 3 flashing red lights. It isn't such a huge deal for me since I have three other 360s to use, but I swear the thing new I was on vacation and it would be the worst possible time for a melt-down. I'm sending it in for repair today and we will see how long it takes to get back.

I stopped by Game Crazy last night and they were clearing the place out. It seems that they're closing some 300 stores nationwide, which leaves a few but obviously things are bad for them. The had all their game drawers pulled out and used titles were priced to move. I picked up Dead Rising and a Mass Effect Faceplate/skin for the 360 for $16. I'm slightly sadded by the closure though. Game Crazy always gave better money for trades and their used games were far more reasonably priced. They were also opened 365 days a year, which meant if your Christmas gifts sucked you could still get a worthwhile game to spend the day playing. I loved that.

My Review!

Score 7.5

There is so much to like about ODST's campaign and Firefight is a blast too. The problem is that it isn't enough on its own to justify the full $60 price. While I know they through in the Halo 3 multiplayer, I already have multiple copies of Halo 3 and could just switch to one of them should I want to play it. Its still good, but it doesn't compete against other current and upcoming full retail releases very well.

I'll say straight off that I don't like the Call of Duty series. It takes itself far too seriously and is far too scripted. Right now, I'm playing through Call of Duty: World at War, and I hate it. It isn't that the game is bad, but let me give you a common senario for me:

1. Invisible walls funnel me to specific story sequence.

2. Scripted dialouge from AI team member that I don't want to hear but can't skip.

3. OMG! ITS AN AMBUSH!

4. Dead.

5. Respawn and start again at step 1.

The game is so stupid. I know the people who made the game love their story,but the story is pointless. I just want to play a game, not face the harsh realities of war! Now if the game were somewhat realistic, I might be able to accept the feeling their going for, but I have regenerating health for christ's sake! Call of Duty, stop being so pretentious. Please.

I've been sick the pas two days and in between vomiting and long naps I managed to play through all of Bionic Commando. I thought it was a lot of fun. It might not be the greatest game ever made, but I think it got a bad rap by critics and I'm slightly saddened by how poorly it sold. I HATED Bionic Commando Rearmed but it sold well. This game is MUCH better than rearmed, but you can still see the similarities. I guess you can never please some people.

Anyway here's a link to my review. For all those numbers people, I gave it a 7.0.

I'm not on vacation anymore. I played a lot of video games while I was off and managed to beat Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Wolfenstein, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Here are some of my thoughts on them:

Wolfenstein:

I mostly enjoyed my time with this game. You get some magic which slows the enemies down and you have a boyonette which kills most enemies in one quick hit. I don't know if they designed it like that on purpose or if I was exploiting some sort of game imbalance.

Review - score 6.0

Ultimate Alliance 2:

I actually didn't play through the whole game because it was my brothers save file and he didn't wait for me to continue the game. I think I missed out on two levels in the middle, but I saw more than enough to get a full feel for the game. I like it, but not as much as the original. My review is mostly just saying that redudantly.

Review - score 7.0

Batman: Arkham Asylum:

I enjoyed this game, but probably not as much as other people do. Still, I didn't write a review because it is near impossible to fault it at any point (if I had, I would have gave it a 9.0). The gameplay works well and all aspects work together to make it feel very unique. The graphics are spectacular and there is still plenty to do after beating the main story. Its hard to think of someone who wouldn't like the game, but I actually enjoyed both the other games I played more.

I think the moment I knew this wasn't my type of game was when I stealth killed a sniper and wanted to pick up his rifle to take out the gaurd in the adjacent tower, you can't. So, I'm not Batman, but it probably means something that I still liked the story enough to see it all the way through.

I'm on vacation this week, so don't expect to see much of me. I beat the main story on Red Faction and the 100 gamerscore achievement pushed me over the top. My brother is in town on leave and he has Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Batman:AA. I plan to play both before going back to work next week. Finally, I watched Xmen Origins and I didn't like it. I think I've seen Soap Operas with more believable stories.