Rhysode's Blog - 2old2play

ForceBoy: Unleashed

Who throws TIEs around like frisbess but has a tough time with stun baton guy who appears to be ex-Air traffic control with palsy (this could also explain the real story behind bringing down the stardestroyer).

They could have used the tech to make another Jedi Knight game with actual lightsaber system that inspired dueling like the films and a story that feels less forced (no pun). That also would have been mutliplayer friendly as were past Jedi Knight games.

Yeah, a Jedi/Sith lightsaber confrontation on a Bespin bridge style map, ending in an armless Jedi (your buddy) corpse, being force flung across the miles deep shaft, slamming into the other Jedi (buddy #2) knocking him down the shaft, leaving the Holocron (CTF flag) on the bridge, only the Sith (you) get sniped by the bounty hunter class (fuck, make this a bot, doesn't matter) with a disrupter before you can return the "flag"...yeah, no one wanted that...

We needed another game that tells us to "HIT B-B-B-B-B-B-B!!!".

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How much for a good review score?

Gamespot made it fairly clear, that if you buy enough banner ads, you deserve a good review score.

Firing one of their reviewers for bombing Kane and Lynch is a little suspicious. I didn't agree with all of the reviews the fired employee did in the past, but you could tell he wrote as he felt, without bias. I didn't think Gears of War was that mind blowing. Many didn't think Twlight Princess deserved anything less than a perfect score even though he rated it very good. Thats not the point. The point is the guy reviewed what he thought about the game and backed it up with intricate detail. He wouldn't have held the job for so long if he didn't.

It is your opinion if a site is good for reviews or not. Personally I go right to gamerankings as its a user-updated list of all reviews on any given game, pick a few site reviews(at random sometimes) then read what they say. Not focusing on score really but trying to gather a feel for the game. 1 review doesn't help enough. Metacritic leaves some reviews out it seems. Again, its not about trusting one site...its about a gamer getting fired because he bombed a game by a major advertisement space buyer.

I could see if they just brought the guy on a few weeks ago too contribute and they let him go because he didn't have the stuff. Not the case. Guy was there for years.

Nothing suprising and it happens in all forms of media. Authors were selling out much sooner than developers. Now you can expect a good review with enough money spent. Its just sad to see this kind of thing now sinking its claws into gaming. As it seemed to be lacking before when the business was smaller. Its just the way it goes with any form of media I guess.

I've spoken to a few gamers in person, they played K&L and had nothing good to say.

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80 Pixel Halo 3 Issue

Im a little tired of this subject too, just want to put my final thoughts and overall view in my blog. To be honest, I haven't blogged as consistantly as I used to, I've also been able to vent on such issues while working so repeating them is not that desirable. This is more of a rant about miss-directed criticism.

Main point - The original post about this was from the B3D forums. Beyond 3D is a place were people go to discuss 3D gaming in extreme technical detail. The actual thread also included other games. So some gaming news sites (who probably have a vague understanding of talk at B3D at best) chose to "blow the whistle" and people at B3D get dissed. Now how is it that this discussion is met with such hostility? Childish remarks about tin foil hats and toenail clippings...those people at B3D have a hobby and as far as I saw they kept it to themselves. Other people go to them for info.

To the people are going to whine about people who they perceive as whining because Halo is teh greatest game evar, Its just as easy to turn around and say the damage control crowd just doesn't like it when someone faults their favorite game about something they dont want to take the time to understand.

In my view, this has much less to do about Halo 3 than it does the X360 and advertising vs the product you actually get. B3D debunks a lot of bullshit marketing hype. In this case when games are upscaling and when its in native res, how it does it, etc, etc. Basically showing some people what is what so you can cut through the marketing bullshit by the big companys and understand it what you are actually getting. B3D has an ongoing thread on console upscaling for the simple reason - the companys don't give out tech details, they hide them, so it leaves it up to the public to speculate and dissect.

Many people complained about an excess of jagged edges on objects and a mediocre framerate from day 1. Its not like every Halo graphical complaint came from the upscaling issue. Average people were not able to say, the reason for this is A,B, and C which took much more industrious people at B3D a while to prove...Halo 3 has technical flaws in the graphics area that are not in-line with MS's claims they use when marketing their products to people.

MS promised 720p widescreen and 4xAA on every game at launch. They did not do as they said. Later, MSGS hinted Halo 3 will be in true 1080p. It was not. Is it still a great game? Yes. It it flawless? No. Things get done when people protest. If there was no drive to some level of perfection there would be no advancement in anything. Games would continue to use the same standard - mediocrity in certain areas. People think these are minor are also some of the people that claim the framerate is rock solid. Well, when COD4 is out at 60fps you'll probably see a reason (maybe small) that people will prefer its multiplayer.

http://www.beyond3d.com/

[2 Comments]

Burning Crusade Free Trial

A boring account of my recent WoW experiances. Probably boring to most but veteran WoW players might get a laugh out of a guy fooling himself into thinking he can play again just to try the expansion without becomming addicted. I did learn one thing about deleted characters that I never knew.

Got a 14 day trial in the mail. Was nearly 1 year WoW-free. They don't leave you alone do they? As far as gaming releases go this summer should be a little better than most. The Darkness should provide a solid experiance among others and Bioshock late August. So I put the trial disk deep into my PC collection. (Why didn't I throw it out? hmm) I am questioning how good Overlord and 2 Worlds will be. Overlord will be fun but it doesn't look all that refined. 2 Worlds I lost faith in when I saw they were delibrately copying Oblivion visually. Until Bioshock at the end of August, I don't see myself being totally occupied. To be honest, I dont see that happening until Mass Effect comes out. So I have a few months were dabbling in CSS and RE4 for PC isn't going to be enough gaming.

So, I did the obvious. I loaded the Burning Crusade trial. It loaded the old game as you need that but there is no trial code. So I thought I'd get wise and use a trial account for the old game hoping to overlap BC onto it...but that doesn't allow you to play the BC. You need a full account on the old game to do the BC free trial. The old game was ok for the time being.

Problem here is, when I quit WoW I did so kinda bitterly. Left my main pvp guild, left the 2o2p horde guild and unloaded everything I had, items, gold, everything. Not really bitter leaving the guilds but, bitterly deleted all characters so I would not be tempted again. So almost a year later, I'm kinda sorry I took such an extreme approach to quiting by erasing characters I logged almost 2000 hours on. I did need the break though and am glad I took it. I thought I'd have zero options though.

Just playing the old game is not even an option really. The expansion changed the entire face of the game in terms of instancing and gear. So grinding through was refreshing as I really like the dwarf/gnome starting area. I did start to dread some of the later grinds - especially with not many people grinding through the older instances. I could imagine LFG for Maraudon or Scarlet Monestary in a vain attempt to level back to 60 while being ignored for days on end. Truth be told, I dont want to regrind some of those places. I truthfully don't want to regrind some questing areas like Silithus. Maybe Dranei would be fun. So now I need 2 things, a full normal WoW account, and my 60's back (maybe the 3 30-40 characters I had) to make the grind easier or avoid it altogether.

In little time on the help website I found there is a way to get all those deleted characters back. You need to be on that old account and it needs to be a full paid account. They keep these guys on file in case accounts are comprimised. They would not do this for me as I was on a trial account but the possibility is there. One problem is these characters are now spread out on 3 servers. Thats $25 a transfer per character if I wanted. So I wont get them all where I want eventually, too much money.

The next step to think about is - how do I get 2 naked level 60's back in fighting shape for PvP and eventually through the portal? Thats going to be...I don't know. If I kept my honor and rep I can grind through some lower instances with a trash knife and auction off the stuff. Then buy some superior PvP gear to start out so I can grind some higher levels before I go through the portal. Won't be toooo hard.

When I created a new character friday I decided to try an RP-PVP server. One thing I was not ready for was the garbage chat in WoW especially when going in guildless and friendless. Not really looking to RP but to avoid the constant chatter. I figured the RP'ers wouldn't tolerate that crap. That turned out to be somewhat true. People keep themselves in check although not many people RP in public. This is on Lightninghoof anyway. There are guilds that RP among themselves I gather. So basically its a normal server with less annoying public chat. People dont seem to cross the line to often in fear of being reported for not role-playing. People chat in normal talk but are much more reserved which suites me just fine.

My target right now is probably 2 months. If I continue beyond that I would probably apply to one of the guilds here if they are still recruiting. Who knows, I still have not paid for a normal account yet or updated to BC. Still, after a long break, I could see why I spent so much time on this game.

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Heavy Weapons Guy

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?type=wmv&id=19523

This guy has more character in his right cheek than the entire Gears of War squad of juicemonkeys.

Take heed...and keep your hands off Sasha.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Where do I begin? This game has been getting reviews ranging from 58/100 to 93/100. As usual, the gaming community is split between "sucks" and "awesome". No middle ground for the gamers but major sites like IGN, Gamespot, and EuroGamer scored it in the 80% range. Out of 52 reviews only 6 scored it below 80/100.

I was hoping this game was just "good". Fearing a complete mess I was suprised with a great experiance. I was thinking, how the hell could a gamer not like this one?

Here are some issues I think some people had with it...

1) Realistic aiming, No aim assist

This is also scaled by weapon quality. Right-clicking to aim and use ironsights or a mounted scope is the only way to get hits at a distance. So Call of Duty really pushed this on people but there was a little aim-assist. There is none here. If your target is 25m out and you crouch low, line the ironsights on his chest and you will likely score a few hits...with a shitty weapon. Later in the game with better weapons its zoom, squeeze off a burst at the head or zoom and aim at the chest and single-shot rounds up the body and they drop. Later in the game, alot of enemies are heavily armored.

I looked back on the few times I fired a real gun. A milk jug not very far away can be missed easily using ironsights. Once you get a feel for the shooting in stalker its alot of fun. I enjoyed it. Too many games are about lining up pixels (as CliffyB said, hes right about that). How quickly can I twitch and know I'm going to take someone down. Is that the case in RL? What if the player is not a super soldier? Stalker throws you in a very harsh world with nothing but a PDA in hand (which ties into point #2). So as I remember the few times I shot a rifle with iron-sights, this game feels more like that than any other.

2) It is Difficult

Novice, Stalker, Difficult, and Expert...or something like that. Even on stalker (normal?) you can be dusted rather quickly. Especially if you stick your nose where it doesn't belong. Guerilla tactics are important when attacking larger groups. Add to that no quicksave and forgetting to save often will result in annoyance. Just going to the menu and saving alot takes some people out of the experiance. It didn't hamper my experiance much.If it ever gets ported console gamers are already used to auto-checkpoint saves and going to the menu to save. Otherwise, play smart and its less difficult though more rewarding.

3) Story/Quest Direction

Too much open-ended play can result in confusion and alot of screw ups. I like that style of play but traveling on foot is a task at times. Getting jerked around trying to get all the quests can hurt your first play through the game. Until you know how things work. Basically, you are given a main quest, which you should then populate your PDA with sidequests from that same area. You don't know this though, I just figured that was the best way to play after my 1st game. Questgivers don't tell you (most of the time) where a quest is. If you take it (all sidejobs are on a 1-day timer) and its on the other end of the map, the timer can run out while you are caught up in other things and you fail it. Then you can't do it again. If you don't do certain quests it affects the quality of your game ending (this is only the case with 2). It is (in those 2 times)left entirely up to the player to discover the various aspects of the main plot...which can be viewed as good or bad.

Sidequests and their timers is another issue. That system is a major flaw and does nothing to improve the experiance. But, its the best story I've played in a while. If you manage this correclty it only makes the experiance better. The game is not a 1-time singleplayer throw away then go all MP either. So you may find yourself wanting to start a second game...how often does that happen nowadays. Not much with myself.

4) Bugs

Although its way better since the 1st patch there are a few bugs. The 1st patch killed gamesaves. Whoever bought this day 1 with no patch was treated with the chance of corrupted saves.

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Its one of the best games I've played in a while. I know this blog reads too much like, "well, heres why stalker sucks" and maybe I convinced someone not to buy. I just was thinking of the possible reasons why people do not like this game or just stopped playing it, which seems like a waste. I thought I'd write about it here. For every issue I found there where 5 things that were really cool. Although its not a perfect game, if you're a serious gamer with a PC and like RPG elements in games you should play this one.

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Played on AMD 3700+, 1GB PC3200, 7600GT. 1440x900, HDR on objects, view distance 30%, textures 10%, everything else 0% or off. Was getting 25-40fps pn low settings and it didn't bother me at all.

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PC Gaming Mythos from Non-PC Gamers

I see alot of false statements about PC gaming that people seem to state so confidently as fact. To think some people miss out on a possible great new experiance because of someones misinformation, half-truths, un-truths, or just plain nonsense, is unacceptable. I've corrected peoples statements on here before with no rebuttal. And sometimes only to see them show up later and say the same thing they said before.

Yes, some people take your advice as light on facts as it is. Even your friends who you wouldn't see on XBL as much if they had a gaming PC...maybe. We both have our motives for our opinions on this but lets atleast keep it truthful. There are reasons some people should not PC game, so I won't be biased or untruthful.

"You need to upgrade every 6 months." Or any statement that makes in seem that uopgrading every 6 months is mandatory.

That is only true if you must have the best and latest gear. If you must play every new game at highest possible settings and you will accept nothing less. So some gave up totally on PC gaming because they tried to do this. They would rather walk if they can't drive the Ferrari.

"Its way too much of a hassle."

This statement is true for the person who doesn't know much about computers and/or has no time or want to get involved. Works hard, only wants to buy the box and forget. Throw a disk in and play. Can't argue with that. The arguement of convenience and ease of use for being a console-only gamer, its a fair one. Its completely understandable and a very good reason to buy a console and stick with it.

"I don't have the 2 grand for a gaming PC." (Or the money arguement in general.)

If you have a PC already and it has a PCI-X or AGP expansion slot, you are possibly just 150$ away from playing 90% of the PC games out there on pretty high settings. Keeping in mind the many other things you can do on a PC which is why you have one in the first place. The amount of money you save and performance you get on a budget is directly linked to how much you know. The most expensive solution would be buying anything from a big PC company, say Dell.

If people see the PC game videos, they see the games and read about them and get curious and pretty excitied. They should ask someone who does it currently. This is where the AntiI-PC Brigade comes in and tells Dear Dr. Phil, MY PC ABUSED ME stories. Or just elbow their way in and say "But, but....to play it in ultra settings on vista with a hooker on your lap...it will cost this much!" *shows with hands like the 'big' fish he caught as a toddler*

If you need legal help, are you going to listen to a guy who gave up on the BAR exam and talks about law at the local social club? No, you're going to listen to the practicing lawyer who is up on the latest. If you're curious about PC gaming, listen to the people that are active PC gamers.

If you want to state the money arguement, say, "PC gaming is too expensive if you have to have all the best stuff and all the latest on Ultra settings." If you want to begin PC gaming tomorrow and buy a system off the internet and is gaming ready, its going to be $625 on the low-end. Alot of people don't want to drop that kind of money. But you have to consider what else it can do. Lets say you dropped dough on a HDTV for your 360. if you want to play it your way I can say the 360 was $900 - $2000 with the TV. But we all know there is alot more you can do with that TV which makes it worth it.

- The Mac Arguement

This is not about OSX vs Vista. Its about gaming. As a gaming machine, you really can't recommend a Mac UNLESS you already need/have it for other means. Then we are probably talking about a videocard upgrade (maybe) and the ability to boot into windows to play all games. Not a whole lot. (Virtual machine will not do. Unless you only run older games that have smaller requirements.)

In other words if someone wants to get into PC gaming and PC gaming only. You get...a PC. Hell, I really don't care about Vista, I will get it for the DX10 later this year. Some people will come and say you've bowed down to the corporate machine...."you couldn't hold out!". Well, you go get stoned somewhere....I'll play Crysis.

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If you are going to make a comment, please read the entire blog. If you don't want to read it all I would rather have you ignore it completely.

Thanks

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Vista Gaming - looking weak right now

Windows Vista - Jumping right into it is something I considered in the past for its "LIVE Anywhere" functionality (which we know little about) and "more powerful operating system", "runs your games better", etc. Was considering hardware, building a new machine, the works.

Buying it for gaming looks a poor choice at the moment.

3DMark benches and game benches are currently worse in Vista than WinXP SP2. Some games lose 20% framerate. Valves steam based games are the few that only lose a few frames per second.
DirectX 10 games will not be abundant at first. Supreme Commander, from what I am told, will run fine on XP. It looks very much like a CPU and RAM intensive game (not a huge need to run it in ULTRA graphics settings, thats not the point of it). UT2K7 and Crysis will be coming out later than expected. Hellgate London as well. Alan Wake may be 2008 but also Xbox 360 confirmed anyway. Some games will recieve DX10 patches, not many.
Halo 2 in hi resolution is not a good reason to buy Vista unless you are a huge fan.
The 360's spring lineup is looking very good. Enough to take up most of someones gaming time.

Add to those things, its expensive. Home premium will be over $170 (no clue on OEM pricing). At the very least, not buying right away will mean more time to consider hardware.

Maybe that summer gaming drought would be a perfect time to build a new machine and pick up Vista. I don't think I'll buy sooner than that. Hopefully, the first 6 months of Vistas life will see a few updates.

[6 Comments]

My Top 10 Games of 2006

I wasn't happy with my last blog so I deleted it. It was a bit confusing and forced. I wasn't really up for writing at the time. I like to drop something in here around every 2 weeks about gaming but doing it just because its time is dumb. I probably take this blog too seriously but, thats what blogs are for. Everyone can blog about what they want - in general I guess. For the last one of the year I'm going to keep it simple.

Top Games of 2006

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)
Gears of War (360)
Company of Heroes (PC)
Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC)
Rainbow Six: Vegas (360)
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (360)
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (PC)
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (PC)
Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords (PC)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (PC)

The top 3 I think belong there but otherwise, the list is somewhat loose. For example, 8 & 9 have way more replay value than #7 but, #7 is way more exciting on the first play through. #10 has gameplay issues and questionable replay, but has a storyline above all. #6 I don't play anymore but it set that bar for how next-gen games could play earlier this year. #4 & 5 have their faults but are just awesome in most aspects, etc.

In short - I played 27 games on the PC and 360 combined this past year. If I could only pick 10 to play, thats the list.

Have a safe New Year's celebration.

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WoW to Decline in 2008

With the expansion coming and still gaining subs, WoW is going strong. Nothing but mediocre or unspectacular MMO's coming out next year or since. With what is coming in 2008, I see Blizzard could feel its first real competition. Guild Wars has a nice following but is not quite the same type of game. It doesn't pull in monthly payments like the Blizzard game which is a reason why other game makers envy it so much. You don't see developement houses screaming, "Damn, we NEED a piece of that FREE peer-to-peer PvP/RPG scene!". So again, while I don't see WoW having any real subscription-based MMO competition in 2007. It is only a matter of time until someone gets the formula down, but improves and expands as well.

MMO's are coming in 2008 that bring more to the table than 2007 MMO's. An old license (Conan) or an improvement on an MMO that got crushed by WoW anyway (Everquest designers Vanguard) will be coming forth but drawing few people away from WoW. Its really not worth debating cash-in or gimmick MMO's that people have little interest in like Archlord or older MMO's that are niches now. Besides, anything coming out in 2007 has to compete directly with Burning Crusade in 2007. The first, long-awaited expansion to WoW.

With what is coming in 2008, Blizzard will likely get hurt. Seems unbelieveable if you are a current WoW addict but its more of a possibility than ever. I don't think something will come out and outright crush WoW but I can see some slowly chipping away at it. Thats likely the way it will go being such an enormous game. Hell it has as many subs as people who own Xbox 360's!

Warhammer online

It is 2/3 of the way finished and will likely show up in 2008. This one promises to have everything WoW has but improvement on everything, including much better PvP. If it does atleast PvP well and brings some very new features 2 kinds of people could leave WoW for it. 1) The ones that are thirsty for something new 2) The more serious PvP player. 3) If it proves to have everything WoW has on the non PvP side, and as far as previews suggest, it could hurt WoW. Word of mouth and seeing your server a little less crowded every weekend may urge most people to see why and begin the end of WoW.

A.P.B.

A concept that has been in the back of everyones mind and is ripe for MMO is the GTA-style. APB is rumored late 2008. There is not alot of info on it but it will obviously be somekind of modern or future crime saga. While the GTA creator is onboard, the biggest negative is its in developement by Webzen. Webzen hasn't proven itself as a company that can bring a huge game like Blizzard. A good indication of seeing how Webzen will fair is to judge the quality of the upcoming MMOFPS, Huxley. Though its obvious Huxley doesn't scare WoW (or Halo3 on the 360) it will be a good judge of what kind of quality the Korean developer can bring to the table in late 2007, well before APB is out. If this APB is good, could bring more new players to the MMO world being of a concept more people can grasp as they did with GTA. Based on modern realism Vs Fantasy. I would see more of the Sports or GTA "casual", gamer joing the MMO fray because of A.P.B. Only if its truly a great game can it draw gamers away from WoW or a fantasy MMO.

Bioware MMO

Bioware, enough said really. That name alone gives it a reason to respect it over the cookie-cutter fantasy MMO's coming in 2007. A company that has more than proven itself in the RPG world. Is long overdue for an MMO. Who knows if it will make it by 2008? The only one certain to is Warhammer. If Warhammer is good it comes down to that or WoW, thats one thing. Once the Bioware game joins the fray, and if its good, it comes down to a 4 year old game, or one of the 2 great new ones for your fantasy fix. Makes it harder to go back and regrind another WoW character at that point.

Conclusion: I played WoW for nearly a year. I quit for its eventual boredom and its endgame not-play-but-work feeling. Its a juggernaut and I realize it will not go down without a fight but I have to believe most people feel its getting a little old. Everyone likes new things. Some guild got banned a while back for exploiting because they didn't want to spend hours getting to C'Thun...I don't blame them. Is that really that wrong since they already cleared the dungeon numerous times? Blizzard is not perfect and the decision to ban them should not have gone without realizing they have interest problems among their hooked gamers. Alot of WoW doesn't feel like your having fun alot of the time. So I think its going to take games that will bring atleast the comparable level of quality, greater concepts, and avoid the few but huge negatives in WoW. By then, I'm sure Blizzards next MMO won't be far away.

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Demos Giving Bad Impressions

I wonder if there are any figures or polls floating around that show how many people actually buy a game after they play an XBLM demo?

The only game I bought based on an XBLM demo was LOTR:BFME2. Mainly because I went in thinking EA butchers another LOTR game and it would be shit. I was suprised after setting my expectation so very low and there was nothing much out at the time at mid-summer. Every other demo I played turned me off of the games. I really wanted Raibow Six Vegas until Gears hit. Then a bad multiplayer demo game type with a mode and a map I didn't like had me forgetting about RSV. The single player demo was a poor choice of areas but it was still pretty great, it did guarentee a rental just for the single-player. If all I played was that MP demo I would have never even rented this one.

Not thinking it was much more than a Black Arrow (or worse) I was suprised to see many positives I didn't see from the demos. The gameplay has been fun so far in most modes. I haven't even touched co-op yet. Long drawn-out gunfights with some long-range shooting, greater levels and better visually, and alot more customization and gun realism. Playing on the updated 'streets' map was a treat and reminded me how much fun a good Rainbow Six is, and how its been improved for the 360. Rental is up in a few days but I am thinking more about picking it up for the MP, which I initially thought blew from the demo. I can't wait to finish the campaign (at Dante's now), try some co-op terrorist hunts, and try the rest of the MP maps.

Now and I still believe the plot is absurd. There are so many holes in how this all goes down. Didn't the incident in Mexico before LV put the US terror alert on red, therefore some woman can't waltz into casinos with huge bombs? Spec ops? Hundreds of ex-military or contract mercenaries just flood LV and no one picks up on it? The lady blowing the room in Mexico and coming out unscathed while your whole team is down. They elected not to put a bullet in your head either. These Clancy games have gone Hollywood. Atleast try to make it seem like Clancy actually writes for these and you're not just using his name for brand recognition. But its a good excuse to show people Las Vegas in a video game and now there is a game made on the UE3 that has some color. I was kinda skeptical of this idea from the beginning and really think they built the story around Vegas, flashing lights, and slot machines rather than crafting a story first. All the Clancy games have gone Hollywood lately. I really would like to see another Ghost Recon like the first. Felt like you were in a military briefing room. The old Rainbow Six games were way more tactical.

Often these demos are unfinished or edited products. In some cases they are taken right out of the games. Either that or the demos themselves are just poorly prepared. The experiance of a demo may sate the thirst for a new play but the feature hasn't been doing what the creators hoped, atleast for me.

[3 Comments]

Fall Games

I'm done purchasing games for this year. The later titles don't interest me in light of what I already have and I have more than I know what to do with. Also, not finished with holiday shopping which will cost me. I've already received a gift - a $45 bottle of scotch and feel guilty. I have alot of shopping work to do. I'm sure you do too. Enough of that...to the main point here.

Neverwinter Nights 2 I love. A solid story-based RPG. I like turn-based gameplay, some find it boring. This game is being criticized as "not different enough" from the previous game and for having a complicated toolset. (Have not tried the toolset yet).

At first, that seemed silly. For one, lack of cutting-edge graphics is not reason to pass up a game. Right? Well, after I decided to hold off on Rainbow Six Vegas because (basically) it is not different enough I suppose I understand those feelings now. Vegas is not very different from previous games and has arguably, poor multiplayer graphics. Its hard to recommend a game while not recommending another for the same reasons. It comes down to - do you want another RPG for the PC or another shooter for the 360? Recommeding games should probably be tagged with a prerequisite. Gaming is just too broad nowadays to say, "must play". Say "must play" and someone will bitch about it. Looking for a new turn-based RPG with a strong focus on story, definitely look into NWN2.

FEAR: Extraction Point was great. I really hope the original does well enough on the 360 so those gamers get this as DLC. I enjoyed it so much I'm tempted to rent the 360 version just to play through the original game with a gamepad and use those new machine pistols. Extraction Point featured new weapons and enemies. It took off right where the last game ended and sets up FEAR 2. I'm really happy with this franchise and look forward to it. I'd recommend it to any fan of action games. They should try FEAR in any way they can, mid-range gaming PC, 360, or PS3 later.

Dark Messiah was also fun and is patched now. So I tried it again going for the "good" ending post patch and it froze again. LOL! Ok, maybe 3rd patch is a charm.

Gears of War really suprised me multiplayer wise. I was expecting this to be a single-player co-op only game and probably picking up another game for online multiplayer. What a suprise. 5 minutes into my first MP game I was totally hooked. The first 3 days I probably spent 15 hours playing multiplayer. While some of my friends are going to split their time or move totally to Vegas. I'll be sticking with Gears. Like I said above, Vegas is not different enough from what I played 3 years ago to pull my attention away from Gears. Yeah, yeah, its has its faults in the options department but don't find that a problem in light of how good the gameplay is.

Passing on War Hammer: Mark of Chaos RTS for the PC. Will probably rent Rainbow Six Vegas for the single player aspect if I get around to it. Maybe rent one other game. People seem to like Marvel: UA and CoD3.

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First is Worst

Maybe when it comes to games. First two big games of the fall have their share of issues and seem rushed. I am glad to be playing them but they are a little less than I expected in certain ways. Perhaps the fact that these games are out before the other big ones is testament to how buggy and flawed they are. In the case of Splinter Cell I'd say it has more to do with being a multi-platform game and most of it being developed in China. Dark Messiah is the buggiest PC game I've played all year.

As a huge Splinter Cell fan, Double Agent is so average. I really can't rag on it too much, it was never too buggy to play. The single player was entertaining and the multiplayer is one of the best online 360 games. The few bugs of the online have been nearly wiped out. The sudden very low framerate and frozen lobby loads are nearly gone. I'm almost glad the multiplayer is overly simplified, because once NWN2 and GoW arrive I won't be playing too much Splinter Cell anyway. That simple play allowed everyone to jump right into it. The past ones were very complex. Damn...I guess the game is that good online because the last-gen graphics are not a problem. No one has been complaining about Double Agents Xbox graphics online. Atleast the Shanghi studio made a better try for an ending (single-player) than they did when they made Pandora Tomorrow. There are 2 endings in fact.

I just gave up on Dark Messiah tonight, having to turn off my PC 5 times tonight due to crashing loads. Going into Chapter 9 I tried 5 times from 2 different saves (loading saves doesn't fail) to get into and it crashed to the error report or just froze on load. This happens to loading throughout the game. Thats really sad, because this is a really great game. As I read reviews, official website forums, I think the bugs are affecting peoples view of a fine game. I've had to restart my PC or task manager/quit program over 20 times since it came out on the 25th.

Dark Messiah - made by Arcane Studios and published by Ubisoft. Arkane made a game called Arx Fatalis. A 1st person RPG. Much like Oblivion before there was an Oblivion and someone wanted to make a shorter, more approachable Morrowind. A good game...if, kind of weird. The blacksmithing in DM is taken from AF. Though you can't make too many different weapons in either game.

It sounds like Arx Fatalis too. The ambience and decent sound effects. The score is better than Arx but doesn't stand out at all. Alot of the graphic artwork also looks like Arx (which has been heavily criticized already for looking to dated, even on the Source engine). A highpoint in the sound is Xana, the sexy succubus type demon who rapes the player character in the beginning of the game. The player doesn't remember all of this but Xana becomes part of him, sort of living in his mind, guiding him along the way. She talks dirty alot. Other than her the voice acting is barely par.

The use of the Source engine in the 1st-person fantasy combat is the real draw. Its alot of fun. Take Oblivions combat and make it 4x as dynamic and fun. This in-game action is bug free, which saves the game from being a complete disaster. The leveling system is very simple as is the inventory, which streamlines things to drive the frequent combat. This combat is the best part of the game. The story isn't bad at all, but there isn't a huge emphasis on it. The level design is good. The spell, bow, and sword combat is the heart of the game and very good at that. Good enough for me to endure the 20x freezing, rebooting bullshit I've been dealing with. The few reviews on this game are averaging to 83% out of 100. I expect later ones post-patch to push 9/10.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is one of those PC games that being played after patches will be adored. Pre-patch, the problems really affect the experiance and is an example why the console-only gamer will not venture into the PC world. Its very good, I don't want to go back to Splinter Cell online I want to finish it but at this point, Splinter Cell is a great alternative to looking at a frozen loading screen.

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Smooth Sailing

The fall lineup of games is finally here. Alot of PC/360 gamers will have serious bills to pay. A new big game or 2 coming out every week until the end of November. If you're not into PC/360 and haven't been gaming much...the new consoles are probably pretty exciting. I can't wait to play the Wii and PS3 kiosks myself. If you're a WoW addict, you got the Burning Crusade. Most WoW'ers probably didn't have any lag in their gaming schedule anyway.

The last 5 months have been typically lame. Worse than usual? I think. I resorted to many gaming-related activities to fill the void in the game release schedule that is typical of the warmer months. Some of these acts consist of - way, way too much news searching and forum posting. Sometimes to the point where you are doing that more than actually gaming in the evening and on weekends. Digging through a ton of old PC titles that date back 8 years and reloading them. Spending hours trying to get some to work on XP and looking for their nearly abandoned popular mods. Even the usually replayable multiplayer games fail to draw you in because you've played the hell out of them.

All that crap, is finally over, starting with Splinter Cell tomorrow. Now there is nothing wrong with those activities. They were very entertaining some of the time. I did them to excess because there were just 2 worthy games over the past 5 months. Thats sad. Pat me on the back and tell me its not my fault....stay away from the ass though.

For a while there is nothing, now you just have too much. Such is life. <insert violin smiley>

Q4 2006 list -

10/18 Splinter Cell: Double Agent (360, Action) $60

10/24 Dark Messiah: Might and Magic (PC, 1st person Action w/RPG elements) $50

10/24 FEAR: Extraction Point (PC, FPS) $30

10/31 Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC, RPG) $50

11/07 Gears of War (360, 3rd-person shooter) $60

11/13 Gothic 3 (PC, RPG) $50

11/14 Rainbow Six (360, Tactical FPS) $60

3 PC RTS/S games pending release date - Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, SpellForce 2: Dragonstorm (shakey though...not planned until EA bought developer), and Galactic Civilizations 2: Dark Avatar. 20-30$ a peice for these.

FEAR, Gothic 3, and all the strategy/RTS games I won't buy at release. Not a bad idea for various reasons - A) some are only expansions B) system requirements on Gothic 3 are as bad, worse in some ways than Oblivion C) most of the smaller budget PC games need frequent patching anyway.

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Game story creators can write great books?

Some of them. Its good to see the gaming world's talent get recognised in other, more popular and established media oulets. Especially book publishing. The few people who refuse to acknowledge gaming as a major media outlet and write it off as a kids toy - they are the ones who are out of touch with reality. Muahhaha....

The above is not an example of a novelist that was hired to write an adaptation of a game to coincide a game release, but of a game story writer being asked to write a novel for an enormous long-standing media franchise. This doesn't happen...usually.

If good enough, you are recognised as not just videogame makers, but just great writers. Drew Karpyshyn wrote a couple of paper backs while working for Bioware, the kings of game story telling. One paperback was an adaptation of the Baldurs Gate 2 expansion, nothing like writing a hardcover for the Starwars franchise though. Writing paper back adaptations of games is far different from taking the torch from other great writers in a huge adult novel franchise (Starwars Expanded Universe, a.k.a. "EU").

I ordered the book without recognising the author. I was thinking - Ahh, they got a new guy to write a book about the Old Republic era. I didn't realize until I read his acknowledgments that he was the lead writer for one of my favorite games (if not my favorite). There I was thinking the people at Lucas books and Lucas himself failed to acknowledge KotOR as a great piece of fiction by any standard.

The book is now #11 on the NY times bestseller list under hardcover fiction. An awesome book and one I could not put down until it was finished.

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