tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86626874829499395762024-03-18T21:49:09.267-07:00Teetotal GamingA Sober Glance At Gaming and Other Geekish pursuits.RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-10900316687252138472010-09-10T20:21:00.001-07:002010-09-10T21:13:52.518-07:00Musical MemoriesFunny how listening to a new album when you're reading/playing/experiencing something new will bond the two memories together. I've got a couple to share here.<br /><br /><p>Fire Emblem + Green Day's "Dookie"</p><p>Pretty simple, although I had first heard Dookie literally a decade early on a cassette walkman while visiting Cape Breton so maybe Dookie just bonds with my memories better than it should. Anyways I digress, bought Fire Emblem and Dookie on CD from FutureShop, put the CD in my portable CD player, and put Fire Emblem into my GBA SP, and I just remember playing thru the tutorial to Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case, & Longview. The fact that Fire Emblem remains one of my top 5 favorite series likely helps the memory survive.</p><p><br /></p><p>Franz Ferdinand's "This Fire" + Horrible Horrible Love Pains + Burnout 3</p><p>Okay this one's ugly, And I've deleted every copy of This Fire that I have because of the memory, although I'd probably be okay nowadays it was rough for a bit; talking 'bout eyes swelling bad. Anyways the weird thing is I got the song stuck because Franz Ferdinand was a British band (Maybe just UK?) and this girl had gone off to Europe, and the song was in Burnout 3 which literally had you driving around Europe and somehow my brain connected them all into this. I also can't play Burnout 3, but since Burnout 2 and Paradise are so much better anyways thats no loss. <br /></p><br />Scott Pilgrim Comics + Hawksley Workman's "Milk"<br /><p>This one is very recently actually, but started reading the Books when I was on a plane to PAX and turned the new Workman album on my MP3 player. They bonded up quite nicely what at least I like to envision that they will continue to stand up in my memory.</p><p><br /></p><p>Metric's "Live It Out' + Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently"<br /></p><p>Pretty much the same as above, replace plane with city transit and rain and you've got memories for life baby cakes. Good tunes with an... interesting... book. </p><p><br /></p><p>MachineHead's "From This Day" + DBZ<br />I've seen alot of DBZ music videos, but for some reason this one I saw stuck... Okay maybe the Limp Bizkit "Break Stuff" will also occupy the same place but they're both pretty awesome. Also I find it kinda funny that alot of my first exposure to music was via DBZ music videos.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>My Chemical Romance + Dad has a Heart Attack<br />Most people dislike them because they're super pop-rock, and I won't deny that, but to me they'll always be the music I was listening to when I found out my Dad was in the hospital, and left me feeling like a bomb had just gone off in my head and all I could hear was some emo-bullshit about pain and other crap that couldn't even match the real deal.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tea Party + 9/11<br />Defining moment of my life. Probably. If there's one thing that constantly reminds me off the fact that the western world's prosperity is built upon the backs of the southern hemisphere these would be it. Sitting around a table in high school, learning that the impossible had just happened. That something I had just casually ignored as a prank that morning on my way to school was in fact, well fact. It was scary, and there was this damn song from my friend's portable CD player and I didn't really get it, I would but not for a few years. <br /></p><p>T.Rex (Pretty any of his songs) + Awesomeness time with Dad</p><p>Okay so you're 4 years old, your Dad plays his favorite record's and you proceed to develop a new definition for rock'n horsey. I just assumed that the rocking horse was to be used when listening to rock'n roll music. To better get into the 'rock'. Yea my Dad is all sorts of awesome. Sometimes. </p><p><br /></p><p>Slipknot + Teenage Angst </p><p>To be fair I never actually had teenage angst when I was a teenager. I didn't really start with that until my university years when I began to realize just how truly scary life can actually be. Needless to say certain Slipknot songs can really bring out some memories for me and are pretty handy at bringing the tears on, which is handy when you need an outlet.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>So now the only question is what music will forever bond me with my new car? Hard to say.</p><p>But I'm just gonna toss out Tegan & Sara's new album because I don't have it yet and I really want to get it. It shall be.<br />Oh yea. I'm back. So yea... Howdy.<br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-90930291765489995312010-02-06T21:04:00.000-08:002010-02-06T21:33:11.773-08:00Please Look Into The Camera More. Please.<p><br /></p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUlFaiBgCu5zL5UL5nhoSNceazfl3LOEFVzOvrpZsuztDmeDhp7ocufC1rO9CTwCCiW7b3YhA2dgZRCo3ZOajXNYA7wAKqSLEZgpV52NjOgYlx4EL1eFLUnbBJdL4rETsra26KD5H3CfLl/s1600-h/inglourious-basterds-poster.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 137px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUlFaiBgCu5zL5UL5nhoSNceazfl3LOEFVzOvrpZsuztDmeDhp7ocufC1rO9CTwCCiW7b3YhA2dgZRCo3ZOajXNYA7wAKqSLEZgpV52NjOgYlx4EL1eFLUnbBJdL4rETsra26KD5H3CfLl/s200/inglourious-basterds-poster.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435366246101344450" /></a><br /></p><p>See that? See it? It is a nice piece of DVD box art. Which apparently is so rare these days that it isn't even funny. Seriously. I noticed something at work recently. DVD box art is really, really pathetically bad. Of nearly a thousand DVDs, I found, maybe, possibly a dozen that were decent. Almost every single one of involved the exact same formula. What is this formula you ask?</p><p>1. Put all your lead actors on the box. </p><p>2. Have all your lead actors looking directly out at the shopper as though they are trying to seduce them with their eyes.</p><p>3. Alternatively, if it is a Rom-Com you may have the two lovers staring longingly at each other. Also sad movies may have the actors staring up or down with mopey expressions. </p><p>Here's an example: Ironically enough taken the basic version 1 Disc of the Inglorious Basterds, the top image was the special edition. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQYVDCeijUs5TJYQwWKGMuHvVlQ0KvDG1XwPd1v64id0kIc3RnXMzAtDIxdg2RSbMyn2DolFPY8T-va0ZQepd4ZjFUFdhWy6fPnIUM8nqGHhb6OYOAzdZkGNfBCrbhSVAbi9XmKHs97OZ/s1600-h/inglourious-basterds-italia.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQYVDCeijUs5TJYQwWKGMuHvVlQ0KvDG1XwPd1v64id0kIc3RnXMzAtDIxdg2RSbMyn2DolFPY8T-va0ZQepd4ZjFUFdhWy6fPnIUM8nqGHhb6OYOAzdZkGNfBCrbhSVAbi9XmKHs97OZ/s200/inglourious-basterds-italia.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435365935640841570" /></a><br /></p><p>So yea, come out DVD picture picker people! You get this job practically done for you. Take a movie's poster. They frequently are already perfectly acceptable, granted many are used, and still follow the rules listed above. Point is I don't care if cheap-o lame brain Rom-Coms have shitty box arts, but I'd like to see something moderately compelling, you know like how Lord of the Rings had a giant ass ring symbol and elvish on it. Of course all the individual releases had shit covers on them, so basically this trend doesnt seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLquCvobudrTeIZQOQrAC3aeLGfxWNvxF2sETvQ3N5HCTAch4R0oqSgjkp4hHUzo2r4dbw4fPByi-pKvPFIZhUb5UPPld1d8r3zOTHq1iZFHwFLNb1h3EF3buNidm89dSkhLt-3VANz6cy/s1600-h/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-motion-picture-trilogy-20090417035840804-000.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLquCvobudrTeIZQOQrAC3aeLGfxWNvxF2sETvQ3N5HCTAch4R0oqSgjkp4hHUzo2r4dbw4fPByi-pKvPFIZhUb5UPPld1d8r3zOTHq1iZFHwFLNb1h3EF3buNidm89dSkhLt-3VANz6cy/s200/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-motion-picture-trilogy-20090417035840804-000.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435369272878483762" /></a><br /></p><p>Bummers.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-64153271952469156502010-02-06T20:45:00.001-08:002010-02-06T21:04:45.540-08:00Console Games of '09Okay you never really asked for it. But you're gonna get it regardless! <br />My favorite console games from last year:<br /><br /><p>Rock Band 2:<br /></p><p>Yes, it came out in '08. It still had me turning on my 360 more often throughout the year than any other release in '09.</p><p>Resident Evil 5:</p><p>It is the Fifth in the series. With a plot that makes no sense, but combat that while being strangely restrictive somehow also has a fairly decent sense of accomplishment and good feel behind it. Arguably weaker in almost every area compared to RE4, it nevertheless is a damn good game. </p><p>Uncharted 2:<br />Drake is undoubtly a character built specifically to appeal to people, and he does. He is incredibly charming and the graphics are good enough to make you believe that he and his comrades in arms are all living people. The gunplay feels light years ahead of the first game, melee combat is still awesome, sure they removed the puzzles but it is a very fun very rewarding game. <br /></p><p>Demon Souls:<br />Because if you really shouldnt enjoy playing games. You should have to work your way through them. You should have to learn every precise nuance to every enemies attack style and maybe just maybe you'll have a chance at victory. Doubtful. But hey it could happen. I mean the game doesnt even tell you how to beat the game. It isn't linear, it never tells you where to go. It starts you off and then you don't get so much as "HEY! LISTEN!" It shouldn't exist, I'll never beat it, and a part of me doesnt even like the game, but I can't deny some part of me adores it. <br /></p><p>Shadow Complex:</p><p>Its Metroid, in the real world. With a decent enough story to boot. Combat is strangely satisfying for a game that is pretty much auto aimed. Rag dolls be blessed. </p><p><br />Anddddd... I might just have to do another post just to cover all the handheld games I played. Because there was alot and I will need to glance them over once more to decide which are the worthy ones. <br />Stay tuned.<br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-20376237194063955022009-12-30T18:42:00.000-08:002009-12-30T19:34:16.129-08:00My Games of '09 PC GamesFirst lets clear some, there will be no games of the decade, the decade hasnt finished until 10 ends. Bloody people and their inability to read years properly, thereby perpetuating errors to ad infinitum.<br /><br />So my favorite games? In no particular order whatsoever.<br /><br />Torchlight:<br />Makes the wait for Diablo 3 just a touch bit better and substantial worse at the same time.<br /><br /><p>CoD: MW2:</p><p>Because sometimes you need to play a game that is just point and shoot kill the other team and who cares if the game has no value for any form of skill whatsoever, it is fun, carnal fun that has you swearing at 1811 using pieces of shit. Oh, but the single player is utter shit; stupid story that has more plot holes than the local hooker's nylons. <br /><br />Champions Online:<br />Because beating up people hasn't been this awesome in quite some time. Sure it doesnt change the MMO at all, but I don't think change is a constant requirement for games, sometimes you just want to jump into a horde of robo-dinosaurs, beat them all up then fly off to beat up frog aliens who are threatening your city. <br /><br />Batman AA:<br />Because Batman is awesome, and this game gets that right. Even if most of the riddles were too easy, the combat was a touch simple, and the boss fights were so console games 3 generations ago; this game exemplifies how a good, nay superb presentation can go a long way to making you overlook otherwise deafening defects. Also the solid story helped a great deal, errr, minus that Joker boss battle bit.</p><p><br /></p><p>Empire Total War:<br />Because writing your own history of the world from your chosen nation is just as awesome with musket warfare. Also conquering Canada and making it part of America was somewhat strange for me. Winning a battle with my last dozen Swedish troops to wipe out a faction, only to have his 6 allies declare war on me the next turn. Just what I didn't want, but also precisely what makes me enjoy the game. </p><p><br /></p><p>League of Legends:<br />Okay so you like Defense of the Ancients. But you are getting sick of the Warcraft III interface, and could go for some better graphics. Also you're wondering where else the DotA gameplay can go. Well LoL has some answers. They aren't all the best, but it is there. The game has lots of balancing to work out, needs more modes, maps better stat tracking, but it is a wonderful start. Oh yea and it is free. So like try it.Dragon Age: OriginsUh because it is a Bioware RPG. Go play it now. Just go. You get to kill huge dragons.<br /><br />Borderlands:<br />Okay it is like Diablo with guns, with more attitude. I throw a bird out that acts like chain lightning. That explodes people. <br /><br />Harvest Massive Encounter:<br />Free-form tower defense that utterly rapes me. But it is utterly simple, brutally tough, and a perfect game to burn through podcasts with. You can make death stars with it.<br /><br />Defense Grid:<br /></p><p>Because Harvest Massive Encounter doesnt have levels or a story or lots of interesting tactics with lots of towers, there is a more traditional tower defense game that was made with lots of care and effort and made me go through the game grabbing every single Steam Achievement, well accept 'Nail Biter' Because I'm just that good.</p><p><br />King's Bounty The Legend:<br />It came out it 2008? Screw that! I played it this year and it is awesome it gets in my 2009 list. Great art style, great gameplay, challenging and charming. I saved a zombie woman, made her human and married her. Now my kids give me stat bonuses. Also the sheer diversity in how you can form your army is pretty broad. Undead? Archers? Knights? Gryphons? Dragons? Insects? Any mixture of the above, go for it, you can pretty much make it work. <br /></p><p>Plants vs Zombies:<br />Presentation over everything else. The gameplay isn't better than anything in Defense Grid or Harvest Massive Encounter, but it does prove that being unique and different does count. Oh and the actual strategy is quite solid, if the game is a little too click laden for my taste.</p><p><br /></p><p>Warhammer Dawn of War 2:<br />Anything that puts more thinking into strategy games is good with me. Sure the multiplayer just turned into a micro-fest, but Singleplayer let you think over your moves far more than most supposed RTS games let you.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Personal Spite of the Year Award: Demigod<br />The game that somehow I should have enjoyed, but ended up loathing with a hatred beyond reason, Demigod just did not mesh with me. I can't tell if it was the maps that felt like Quake 3 maps (a previous game of spite for me), the lack of choices in the heroes available, the interface, or the difficultly in getting anything close to a decently matched game going. All I can say now is that it didn't work out, and it might be my fault. I'm sorry Demigod, can we still be friends?<br /><br />So there you have it. If I get around to I'd like to do a post about console games. We shall see. <br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-91139547660294851612009-11-20T12:41:00.000-08:002009-11-20T13:55:43.310-08:00Big Business Impacts On GamingThe recent news that Dante's Inferno the upcoming beat-em up hack 'n slasher has again pulled a PR stunt is shocking to me. PR Stunts are not new to the gaming industry but they usually are limited to one choice stunt at an event and then the game is usually out. But with Dante's Inferno over the past year I can count up several PR stunts that have brought this game to my attention over and over again. Maybe thats precisely what they want, I mean I honestly would not care at all about the game otherwise. But now I'm thinking about the game too much. Such that I'm thinking, if this game needs this much coverage just to attract people to it, what is the real story about this game's development? <br /><br /><p>The question I'd like to address is the notion that EA is attempting to beat their competition through pure publicity? At the end of the day Dante's Inferno could be good, or mediocre but will it come close to matching the craze that is God of War III, its key competition. And do not forget there is only a month between the two titles, with Dante this February and Kratos in March, you can bet your dog/cat that EA knows they are taking on the champ in the ring in 2010. But is this how you do it?</p><p>There was a point in the gaming industry when you became a best seller by making the best possible game, but is that point long gone now. When Ubisoft brags about how great the Imagine series of DS games sells in spite of the dreadful quality capitalizing upon a market that can't tell a Mad Dog McCree from a Half-Life? It feels like EA have capitulated to the line that their marketing department fed them: "You can't make a better game than Santa Monica, but we can sell a game better than they can." I mean I cannot understand any other reason why they would waste so much time and effort on cheap (that snag a photo of your act of lust was nothing else) ploys that accomplish nothing beyond proving that there is no such thing as bad advertisement. <br /><br />This is a troubling concept to me. Does this mean that in the future more publishers will adopt the attitude of marketing the game harder than the other guy? We know it works in other mediums, otherwise how would trash like Transformers, Robert Langdon novels, Twilight, and the current Disney music act of the week; rise above content that is genuinely moving their mediums forward (or at very least asking questions or their readers/listeners/viewers and making them think about the content before them). Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe the crap I just listed is popular because I am out of sync with quality entertainment today. But then again, I'm pretty sure anyone who has to used marketing ploys to push their game/movie/book is not concerned about pushing a medium forward (hell probably dont even care about keeping it lateral) and just want to make some money. Actually not even make some money, they want to make assloads of money, more than anyone else, they want good reviews also, but not because they want their game to be enjoyable for those who play it, but rather because good reviews are a means to an end. Good reviews = easier to sell the product with a shiny sticker that says "Indigenous Gaming Newts calls it spittle inducing good times!".<br /><br />Course I could be wrong, and Dante's Inferno was alloted a shit load of cash the developers didn't need, so they authorized crap loads of tacky and blatant PR stunts to burn through that wad of cash. It could happen. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And in comic book stuff: Rage of the Red Lanterns is pretty awesome, can't wait for Blackest Night when the collections start to come out next year. <br />That will be all. See you in a few months.<br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-68343960033510144412009-09-25T13:56:00.001-07:002009-09-25T14:18:00.929-07:00Play Batman: The Animated Series Theme Music Here<p>Well, I played Batman: Arkham Asylum. Not to be confused with Batman's AA class, which consists of him punching you in the face until the drinking stops. I jest. Anyways as you've probably heard it is the greatest comic book based game ever made, and I have no desire to disagree. It is an excellent title and fans of good games should try it out. I just wanted to talk about it because it deserves to get more said about it. </p><p>Fans of Batman should also check it out, as it bears little resemblance, beyond Joker taking over Arkham, to the Graphic Novel written by the ever so esoteric Grant Morrison. And fans of good games and Batman have no reason what so ever to not pick it up. Those who might also be interested: Fans of beat-em ups; Fans of stealth games; And fans of games that are just plain old pretty to look at. <br /></p><p>The game is interesting because it exists in a sort of limbo, being moderately placed within the world of the Animated series, but clearly not (the art style and time period of the game are at odds with the show); And yet not existing in the world of the comics either. Perhaps we can expect this to indicate that there will be a separate canon established for Batman's new gaming franchise (which clearly there will be given the amount of praise lavished on it).</p><p>And that's all I have to say about it. If you want a full review go check the big boys (or small boys) they've got very nice ones. Hell Yahtzee at The Escapist even enjoyed the bloody game, and he doesnt like anything. The combat is fun and works, the stealth is fun and diverse enough to keep you entertained, the gadgets are gadget-esque and you punch giant muscled giants in the face then ride them around like cattle. What else do you want.<br /></p><p>Oh I'll add that the final fight was so out of character and so "gamey" that it almost ruined the entire game for me. The whole event seemed out of character for Joker (GASP HE'S THE END BOSS? what did you think it would be?) but then I suppose you can just argue that the Joker exists as a character who lives to be different. So I'll let it slide. Still "gamey" end boss fights are so friggin' kitschy that I can't bring myself to play the game again. I'll just remember it. <br /><br /></p><p>Oh yea Harley = Pure Hotness.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-25718419027903598702009-09-25T12:27:00.000-07:002009-09-25T13:55:50.325-07:00If I Was Only This Much More Super!Alright well I've had Champions Online for quite some time now, pushed a character pretty far into the game, level 30, and while I do not feel that I have seen everything the game has to offer, I feel I've seen enough to get a nice impressions/review piece out. Which is interesting because I've put easily 70 hours into the game over the past month and that does not feel like a significant portion of time to offer anything truly concrete about the game beyond impressions.<br /><br />So lets just dive into it, I enjoy Champions Online. As far as MMOs go it is not trying to change anything, I wouldn't even say that it is trying to perfect what has come before. It is simply trying to exist as an awesome experience for those of us who adore Superheroes and wish we could do that. So put bluntly, if you do not enjoy comic books then you most likely will not enjoy this game. Plain and simple, there is too much service paid to comic book cliches to make it anything else beyond a comic book nerd's fantasy made real. You will venture through cities beating up gangs, you will stop super villains in fantastical bases, you will feign defeat to surprise a villain in their lair. You will find an amazing travel power and most probably beat/slash/incinerate/freeze/mentally assault thousands upon thousands of thugs into what I can only assume is death.<br /><br /><p>You will have fun. For a time. There is a problem in that the game tends to keep you in an area just 1-2 hours longer than you would prefer to be. Upon entering a new section there is a euphoric realization of the new sights and sounds before you and how refreshing they are; for me the biggest was the Robot Cowboy section with an amusement park, that just took my breathe away. But then 4-6 hours later the feeling of this grand unique setting was worn off almost entirely as I struggled to make my way through the canyon. Had the game only put me there for 2-3 hours I believe looking back I would only have my Euphoric memories, but now in hindsight I have the two conflicting opinions. One of sheer amazement and the other tedious boredom at wanting to be blown away again. And I was when I did move on, but the cycle continued. </p><p>It isn't a horrid scenario but it meshes terribly with the feeling that the amount of content just barely scrapes you along. You need to grab every quest available to push follow the leveling path. Miss one (difficult because you can access a list with all quest givers shown on it which will then highlight them on your map) or worse come across a broken mission and you'll find yourself struggling to keep up with the missions. If they would increase the exp reward (or alternatively lower the leveling requirements) then it would let you leave missions alone giving you different stuff to play through later with alternate characters. <br /></p>Luckily the core gameplay is an absolute blast. Combat is a joy, with plenty of options available for you to approach your foes. Do you focus on one at a time and drop them like dominoes one after another. Or do you max your AOE and kill them off in one huge explosion. I honestly cannot tell you which is better, but it keeps things different, sometimes i use my cone attack, other times my single target high damage attack, or my close range flurry of melee attacks, or my sphere aoe to annihilate everything (which also pulls everything in sight to attack me which is dangerous but simultaneously awesome). Combat keeps you paying attention, you have to watch for indicators to block, (which have saved me numerous times from fights I could have lost) and in general stay on your toes. <br />It is true the game requires someone to go over the power set descriptions and delineate everything about them, because often times they have simply left code up that really fails to explain what they do. Thankfully the Powerhouse exists for you go and sample your prospective powers before you are locked in with them (although respecs are possible). So really if you grab a power that doesn't work as you would like it to or expect it to you can only blame yourself for not trying it fully out. <br /><br /><p>But how does the game function as an MMO? Well that's interesting because it is true that you will constantly see people, hear their chat logs, and on occasion fight for mission goals. But for the most part, you will be soloing unless you and a friend are constantly grouping (this will also make the game easy as pie for you, as there are very few missions that require more than one person let alone two). The game does not care at all about who last hits or deals the most damage to a target; you hit it once you'll get credit, although actually resources and experience are allotted based on damage dealt. You get credit for your mission just by tagging the target once.<br />Another unique facet of Champions is how the servers are split into shards, or up to 100 people, this means there is never a need for server transfers, nor will you and your friends ever have to recreate a character because you did not know what servers you were each on.<br /><br />Of course I really should not end this before discussing the largest perceived problem with the title, the end game drought. I honestly cannot comment on this issue at the present time. I have been busy with plenty of content so far and promises of more content several time a year seems sufficient in my opinion. I will be sure to address this in the future should an issue present itself towards the pro or the con. I will say that playing through with my alts is very tedious. You just do missions you have already done (albeit you do them better the second time around) and aside from playing a radically different powerset (the various powers really do differentiate themselves from each other) there truly is little reason to replay the content beyond utilizing unique powers each go around the proverbial merry-go-round.</p><p><br />Crafting is another issue present within the game. It exists and you can do it, but the main reason is to build very useful healing items and damage shields that can prove their worth in battles that are not going your way. The gear you can craft usually is on par with loot found or earned from missions. The requirement for learning special recipes needs to be explained however, as there appears to be random drops earned from breaking down components. It all adds up to craft system that has some perks but seems more like a bullet point rather than a fully developed feature. <br /></p><p>And I'll end on the positive note. The character creator. It is without a doubt in my mind brilliant. If you can envisage a character concept you can make it pretty damn close to what you want. You will want to make alternate Champs simply because it is a joy flexing the creative potential of the creator and making a robot dragon who uses rocket boots because your nemesis tore your wings off.</p><p>I should also comment on the nemesis system. It is very cool. But shows up 10 levels too late. It is very fun building your rival and explaining your feud that led to the nemesis status between them, but the fact that it arrives at level 25 instead of 15 or sooner seems strange. The concept is perhaps the lone unique idea that Champions has and they decide to make you work towards it. I suppose in a game you'll be playing for months to come it will not be a huge impact but I would like to be able to at least form the Nemesis at the same time I make the hero so I can build them around a single, perhaps contrasting, concept. Once you get it though, awesome, nothing like seeing your traitorous brother trying to kill you over and over again.<br /><br />So in closing. Champion Online. Bring almost nothing new to MMOs. Yet surprisingly still a compelling and unique experience thanks to its central theme of being about superheroes. If you like combat and comics, and are not turned off by the prospect of spending the next year or so playing the same game, then I think you'll find a charming game in Champions. It is clearly not built for everyone, but for those who can find something to relate to. Well they will really enjoy it. <br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-50192392789193636362009-09-13T18:31:00.001-07:002009-09-25T12:27:31.623-07:00Words Go Here? Seriously!? Go Figure.So its been quite some time. Lets talk about games. Good games of course. I'd love to be able to dissect horrid games, but I'm just not going to pay money for games that are bad.<br /><br /><p>So lets talk about games I have played. Street Fighter IV & League of Legends (finally NDA was lifted!).<br /></p><p>First lets get Street Fighter IV out of the way. I'm playing it on the PC with a keyboard. Which is interesting, because it falls somewhere between the gamepad, and the arcade stick, certain moves are very easy to pull off once you get the finger motions down, while some are very hard, (I'm looking at you 720-ish degree spins). However my limited time (according to Steam roughly 10 hours) with game has revealed several things to me.</p><p>1. Damn I suck at Street Fighter IV. </p><p>2. Damn this game is very beautiful. So much love and care went into making the visual fidelity of this game stunning. The filters are a nice touch also.</p><p>3. Damn this game is basically a simpler version of DotA or rather AoS (Aeon of Strife) styled games are basically team oriented real-time strategy versions of the fighting game genre. Much of your success in both genres is based upon the amount of knowledge you have going into the match, and from there quickly analyzing your opponents' play style to figure out an effective counter style. In Street Fighter it consists of learning every character in the game's moves and combos and how to effectively avoid/block or otherwise negate such moves. In DotA exact same thing; you need to understand what skills each hero has, what items complement and counter those skills and further you need to understand map layout, how the fog of war breaks lock-ons during chases and so on. It seems to me the AoS is a logical extension fighting game principles applied to a RTS game where the only function is a competitive multiplayer environment. The core difference being the team environment contrasted against a fighting game's simply One versus One. The sheer strategy and fine skill that is involved in both is surprising. But then any competitive really ultimately falls into requiring effective strategies and sufficient skills to obtain victories so I suppose this is more of a general statement of human competitions in general rather than merely an observation between fighting games and DotA clones.<br /></p><p>So, if you enjoy Fighting games, you will probably find Street Fighter IV a worthwhile purchase. Too bad the sale on Steam already ended. Oh and Sagat needs a nerf. What do you mean fighting games don't get patched?<br /><br />Next up, since I've gone on and on about DotA clones it seems appropriate to move onto League of Legends. So the game functions like DotA, two sides smash grunts at each other forever. Each side gets 5 champions and they vie for their side's victory. They level up gaining more skills and gain gold for grunts, champions and buildings destroyed. The player functions as the summoner. A benevolent god-entity who exists to order his Champion around. You as the summoner are granted two skills that usually have cooldown timers of 2-6 minutes. You also possess runes and masteries. For masteries think WoW talent trees. Slightly buffing your champions stats and abilities. Runes are basically swappable meta-game items that further buff the stats and abilities. You can have 3 pages of rune setups. For quick swaps of various builds based on what character you use for that match.<br /><br />The game feels like a logical extension DotA. Which makes sense because the brains behind League created most of DotA as we know it, Mr. Guinsoo, if you will. The game plays out largely similiar to to DotA, with a very similar map to DotA's. Albeit with some subtle changes, shrubs can be used to hide in, which are great for ambushes. Perhaps the most notable change is the shift away from hero kills = team win which very much dominates DotA. Very rare is it possible for the carry to rise up and lead your team to victory as is the case in DotA. Rather effective use of pushes and team defends of your own base are essential to your victory. It is possible to dominate a team through kills, but often unless there is a follow through with a strong base push, champion killing serves little purpose beyond fattening the wallet, although not especially well. <br />Further the art of last hitting has been greatly reduced. Denying is out. Although last hitting enemies grunts is still viable to slow passively slow your attack. Towers are absolutely devastating in the League, making assaults very risking without extensive grunt support or having exceptional items are the purpose of tanking.<br />And the item system. It is probably the best method to use DotA's item recipe system and have it make sense to newcomers to the game. It gives you nice flow charts of what items to buy, lets you skip buying smaller parts if you already have the raw cash, and most items allow you to build your champion in a diverse way. They have stats that boost everything about your Champion: cooldowns, spell power, attack, attack speed, dodge, movespeed, hp, armor, magic armor, dodge, if you want to boost it, odds are there is an item that will grant it.<br /><br />The style of the game falls directly into comedic hilarity. Which is an interesting choice. Because the game has no desire to make you feel connected to some realistic scenario that might play out in some mythical realm. Simply put the game is aware it is a game and doesnt try to convince you otherwise. Sure they do right up Champion descriptions detailing who these figures are, but really, they don't matter. <br /></p><p>At the end of the day I like it. There are some changes I would like to see with match making; mainly just that the only mode of play available for legitimate matches is the Blind Pick option, whereby you can not see what champion the opposition has chosen until the match has already begun. I want to see all random, drafts, and no duplicates modes made available. This is a very minor gripe that I have though, and largely just works to keep things interesting long after the game has been out.The gameplay is very solid, the controls are tight, lag is non-existent in my experience for well over 90% of games played. All this adds up to game that when it actually launches will keep me coming back for more. Now I just wish I had some friends to play it with.<br /> <br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-42165894291513947472009-08-23T12:26:00.000-07:002009-08-23T13:00:02.300-07:00QuickiesSome quick impressions of some of the games I've played recently:<br /><br />Shadow Complex:<br />Very fun, although very easy. It is clear that a lot of effort went into the game, and it shows. Very pretty. The 3D aiming is really trippy, and confusing at times, but it largely works. Taking cover from enemy fire on the other hand... not so much. It is not a huge deal, you simply have to shoot the enemies first. A solid title to pick up if you enjoyed the old 2D metroid games. Best of all is that game gives you a plethora of tools at your disposal and lets you decide how to get past the various obstacles. I somehow skipped the hookshot and got it second last, but my skill with the foam gun meant it didnt really matter. And yes, everything you've heard about the foam gun is pretty well true; it is a fairly unique weapon that helps the game stand out just a tinsy bit more... Not that there is much competition in the Metroid-esque game genre. <br /><br />Zenoclash:<br /><p>Initially I had my doubts, by the second level I was concerned. It was moderately fun, but failed to pull me in. The art style seems like it is trying too hard. But the game's story is fairly interesting, certainly different. The best thing about it is its diversity. It mixes things up quite regularily, such that you do not get stuck in the motions. And this game lets you fight your way through fights however you decide. Maybe you want to use the guns (if you can call them that) or maybe you want to beat people up using a regular combo. Maybe you want to just through people around. It lets you decide how to win, well except against the big guys, you just gotta smack them around with large blunt implements. And first person melee combat. Sure it works, I already saw it work back in 2006 with Dark Messiah of Might Magick, a game that holds a special place in my heart, despite its numerous flaws.<br /></p><p>The Path:<br />This game clearly is not for me. It is more art than game. The gameplay seems to be get lost, get scared shitless that a wolf is gonna eat you, then quit the game because you just wandered around for 4 hours and nothings happened, and you like games that at least tell you what the point is; and I swear if someone tells me that there is no point IS THE POINT, it will not be pretty. I'll admit the presentation is there, indie quality, but it definitely has it style. I just cannot fathom what the purpose is. The game seems like a blend of art and games, with emphasis placed on the art rather than the gamplay. Meh, I'll just step back and say that the game totally was not for me.<br /><br />Droplitz:<br />Interesting puzzle game. Has quite the learning curve, although only on the larger boards. You really need to practice to get good at it. Once you do though, it plays as well as any puzzler I've played. <br /><br />Trine:<br />Alright now this game is simply awesome. I talked about games giving you options earlier in the post, and this game really gives you freedom to get from point A to point B, and you can usually get there through at least 4 routes. Build towers, throw rocks, Swing off platforms, build bridges. Basically get through it however you want. Very fun. Although that last level. Well lets just forget its there. After all things are about the journey, not the destination.<br /></p><p>Champions Online:<br />It's City of Heroes, with a new coat of paint, and loot drops. Simply put, my dream game. I really liked it. Such that I purchased the lifetime subscription, which I tend to do. Hopefully I dont get burned like with Hellgate; oh god the memories, I should never think back to that. Anyways, I'm pretty pumped about the launch on the first of September.<br /></p><p>Cogs:<br />Puzzle Box game. Literally. You get boxes with puzzles on them and you solve them. They are pretty tough later on. But the game is more about speed runs, which is something I really couldnt care less about. Its not bad, its just there is not a whole lot to it. The puzzles dont have multiple solutions, and after I've revealed how much I adore multiple solutions this game does not mesh well. </p><p><br />On a side note I'm pretty sure thats why I hate adventure games. The requirement to collect arbitrary items to move on always has burned me, I want to adventure, not solve problems that question patience above logical analysis. <br /></p><p></p><p>Democracy 2:<br />Okay I have not put much time in the game yet, but my short time managing a country that values liberalism above all else was brilliant. I failed miserably but adored every moment of it; apparently going 300 trillion in debt is a bad thing. I had this brilliant planto cut the military completely, but forgot that all my political capital comes from ministers agreeing with my policies (which they didnt, the stinking alcoholic, war mongering, capitalists) and so the budget spiralled out of control. But when it was working, hoo boy... what a rush. The game is probably very niche in appeal, but I like.<br /><br />And thats it. I'm torn over my next purchase. Should it be Batman, Borderlands, or Alpha Protocol. I'm getting Uncharted 2 already, and Dragon's Age in November, with the slate left empty for December. I fully intend to get Alpha Protocol at some point in the future, but I dont mind waiting for it to drop in price or have a sale on Steam or some place. I think I'll wait on Borderlands, maybe try a demo. And I think I'll probably just wait for a sale on Batman as well. I pretty sure I figured out the ending anyways. *wink wink*<br /><br />Ciao for now.<br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-17002245006914939512009-08-22T17:55:00.000-07:002009-08-22T18:34:17.708-07:00The Storm That Supposedly Rages.<p>Apparently there is a "huge" hub bub going on about Shadow Complex. It is being covered on every gaming blog everywhere so what the hell why not throw in my 3 cents. </p><p>Not the game itself of course, because that would quite frankly make sense and render the entire argument much simpler. Rather the cause for concern is that the game exists within a universe that was created by one Orson Scott Card, a well known writer, which means that his own beliefs are well publicized. He is apparently quite against the notion of non-traditional marriage (or men marrying men/women marrying women if you need it put bluntly) such that he advocates for and funds groups to actively prevent the notion gay marriages in America. </p><p>The issue is that should we, as gamers, boycott this game (shadow complex) because of the involvement of Mr. Card in its creation. Put simply and in my own personal opinion. No. For a couple reasons, some related to game, some less so.</p><p>It feels like the entire boycott is fruitless. Mr. Card's payment likely does not relate to the game's success, I suspect he is already paid for his services/use of his IP. I could understand a boycott if the game was about getting into some power armor then proceeding to hunt down a secret "terrorist group" that is promoting gay rights. But the content within the game shares no connection to Mr. Card's own personal beliefs. I do not think it is fair to the dozens of others involved in the game to right-off their game simply because they actually hired a real writer to give their game something substantial.</p><p>Let me finish this by saying that boycotts get thrown around so much nowadays that they have completely lost any relevance to anything gaming related. Why? Because you can say one thing on the internet then turn around and do the opposite. Starcraft 2 boycotts, Diablo 3 boycotts, Arma 2 boycotts, L4D2 boycott, boycott boycott boycott. Seriously its like the only way gamers think they can affect anything is by linking arms and trying to stop the bulldozer. </p><p>What should gamers do? Simply voice your opinion, talk to developers, send them emails, twitter them, stop by their office if they happen to live near you. Just be cordial, polite, and able to effectively compose your argument such that it does not come out like some pedantic forum troll's bile speech. <br /></p><p>People say money talks. And I suppose it does. But talk talks much louder, and usually more concisely. If you do feel that this is an issue to you, then not only should you withhold your money (that includes NOT playing the demo, why should you get enjoyment at all?) but you should actively tell Mr. Card and the developers at Chair why you did not purchase their game.</p><p>Thats my 3 cents on the non-issue as I see it. </p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-12136871400029646072009-07-28T23:14:00.000-07:002009-08-06T12:42:05.166-07:00Thought Experiment!<p>Okay so here's a thought. When you think of a franchise which specific title comes to mind? I mean when someone says "Call of Duty", what game jumps to your mind? Do you immediately think of Modern Warfare, or rather do you think to those quaint idyllic times shooting Nazis in the face? Here is a quick run down of how it works out in my mind.</p><p>Quake:</p><p>I think of Quake II. Specifically of a corridor, in the first level with those lil grunts running at me with their pea-shooters and the awesome death animations they had.<br /></p><p>Call of Duty:</p><p>I do in fact think of Nazis killing time. Specifically the Expansion Pack, where you hold a house during Battle of the Bulge, with tanks coming at you as you frantically run around grabbing bazooka rounds which are located in a horrid spot, and then you have to run to another spot to fire safely from some cover. Oh and the Nazis keep on storming your tiny house. Then the flyboys come and carpet bomb you to safety. With sweeping music that brings a tear to your eye. </p><p>Duke Nukem:</p><p>"Shake 'em Baby". Simple.</p><p>Final Fantasy:</p><p>The Fourth Title, which actually is not my favorite, but rather the first one I played. Specifically I remember how you play ass a bad-ass who becomes a pussy. And thats pretty much Final Fantasy games, seriously unless its a bad guy, then eventually any FF hero will start to cry, or save a box of kittens/puppies, and tragically punch something in frustration. At least 12 made it clear that the main character was this from the get go.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Okay, so thats all well and good, that I identify certain parts of games specific games with entire franchises. But if I dwell on this, it appears to me that a game, or rather franchise memories, are built upon the first memorable experience you have within said franchise. Which leads me to believe that it basically amounts to the first part of the franchise you played. So I started with CoD 1, and I buy the others because I trust in that franchise (well when it is being made by Infinity Ward at any rate) because I have that memory of my first experiences in the game. That brings up the question of why I bother getting excited for any Final Fantasy games when I know half the characters are going to be unlikable cry-babies; I'll just give that one to the hype-machine.<br />Thats pretty much all I got. For now. <br /></p><p>Ciao.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-12514193566191688262009-07-09T11:24:00.000-07:002009-07-28T23:12:39.509-07:00Games That Defined MeShamelessly ripping off RockPaperShotgun.com, you know what they say about imitation. Anyhoo figured I should probably reveal games that helped to mold me into the gamer you now know and well, you know me. Gonna keep it to the PC games that defined my formative gaming years. Console games would greatly lengthen an already lengthy topic.<br /><br /><p>Lemmings/Danger Dave/Shareware Stuff<br /></p><p>Okay so the deal is I didnt get a computer until I was around 7-10... I'm fuzzy on the details, and my mother refuses to acknowledge that she ever started the whole thing so I know it occurred at some point around then. Anyways those old shareware games you could find at the Shopper's Drug Mart bargain bins were what I cut my teeth on for home PC gaming. It was alot of Apogee side scrollers, although Commander Keen never wound up there shockingly. The main thing my mom bought was a typing program game because she wanted me to at least gain something from the computer. Although problem was that the computer was MS-DOS, which meant that if I wanted to play a game she had to be there to type in the cd/ and dir and all those other commands. Eventually I picked them up and figured out how to boot games up from the floppy disks. </p><p>During this time my mother had a friend whose house I was ferried off to, and they had another PC there. But it had Windows 3.0! What an amazing surprise to see you could click to play! Anyways it was really just playing more Apogee type sidescrollers, something about a guy and a jetpack named Dave, a Tetris rip-off (that was still very addicting), and a game that was beyond all my comprehension created solely to make people smash monitors. Lemmings. Oh how I tried to stop them. I made them build bridges, I made them have parachutes. I made some block. But invariably, I always lost. But the options! There was diggers, and exploders (although I couldnt fathom why you would want that.) </p><p>Anyways, eventually time moved on and so did I. Finally the mystical age of 10 hit me. Ten is big year for me. I mean I was born in '85, which meant that my tenth birthday was when Windows 95 hit. I cant remember if we got it in '95 but I remember that I got a Pentium 166 with MMX, and an S3 Virge graphics card. (I later discovered that apparently the card was one of the few ever made that actually made it harder on PCs to run games.) Now not exactly being from a wealthy family, I didnt exactly get to play a lot of games on the computer at first. I grabbed all of those old MS-DOS games and tried to get them to work. They sorta did. But for the most part the new PC just sat there. Well thats not all true. I started using my small allowance to purchase PC Gamer magazines, mainly for the demo disk, but I think I started with a Strategy Gaming Magazine and I kid you not it came with literally 40+ demos on it many were turn-based wargames only a grognard could love and I avoided them, But I foudn some fun in a title called Age of Empires, something about Hittites and spears and harvesting meat. Those kept me busy when my school work was done. </p><p>This is where friendship enters. By grade 6 I had made friends with a grand 'ole chap whose Name doesnt really matter. But eventually he showed me a little game called Doom.</p><p><strong>DOOM/Duke 3D/Mechwarrior 2</strong></p><p>You see this friend had an older brother and that meant he could buy things. My friend played the shit outta Doom, I had never played a FPS at the time so I just sat there and watched, as he showed me how to get every single secret in all the levels. He showed me Duke Nukem 3D as well. Ahhhh my first digital breasts. And my first hint that my friend had wayyyyy too much time on his hands. He'd use cheats to build elaborate mazes of tripwires that he'd train my FPS skills on. I never did get through them. He'd show me it was possible, but I just really wanted to see enemies get stepped on, frozen, or blown to gibs. <br />Then one day he showed me Mechwarrior 2, I suppose this was probably the first simulation game I played and jesus christ, death from above, full fire, PPCs, using the fragile speedster Mech to run circles around the giant one and pick him off from afar with missiles. I never was good at Mech, but my friend was so good that I still adore the game. Most of all my friend showed me that gaming was better with a friend. Even if it meant going to his house, and having your allergies act up for a week, and possibly being mauled by his giant dog. We would later discover another game together, but that's after I played some games by myself as well.<br /></p><p>Tie Fighter<br /></p><p>Perhaps the first "real" PC game that I ever cut my teeth on was Tie Fighter. You see one christmas I got this gift called the Star Wars PC Gaming Collection. It game with Rebel Assault I+II, and some other ones as well. But the real crown of the collection was Tie Fighter. Full Disclosure, I sucked at the game. Really, really badly. But I was like 11, so who cares. Luckily the game had two options that rocked. "Invincibility", and "No Collisions". So technically I cheated my way through the game. But then I never actually beat the game either. Alot of the challenge in the game is simply getting the objectives done, and protecting Vader is not easy. There was also the sheer grandeur of shooting down a star destroyer with a Tie Fighter. Something I dwelled upon alot. I'm pretty sure I was a fan of Star Wars before the game. But after Tie Fighter it was alot more. </p><p><strong>Starcraft</strong></p><p>Okay so after Tie Fighter had run its course with a mere 1000 hours or so (hey you get one good game you play the shit outta it), my Dad began to ask his friends at work if he could borrow any PC games, my Dad being a super nice guy always managed to get me some nice games. I managed to get to play Dark Forces 2, and woah, this was set in Star Wars, but you got to use a Light Sabre! It was a fun game. I even tried to play it online, but was horribly confused, stumbling into a gaming server browser called Gamespy. Anyways I, regretably, was forced to return the game to its rightful owner. But my Dad said he had a new game for me. Starcraft. This game I did not give back. I remember getting the box, looking over the manual, reading the in depth history that Blizzard had given these races. When we went on Vacation to the lake, a place with no video games at all, I would bring the Starcraft manual with me, I loved the setting THAT much. Anyways Starcraft hit me hard. I never was good at it, in hindsight, but I didnt care, I'd play with cheats on, or stomp computers with a friend, A guy at school allegedly could rush 5 computers at once with the Zerg. I asked him if he had beat Starship Troopers. he had not. You see my love of mods is first born here. The custom map scene for Starcraft was insane, there was RPG maps, RISK maps, World War scenarios, crazy battle royals. You name it and Starcraft probably had a custom map about it. Art of Survival was perhaps my favorite. Just a single unit, against huge swarms of enemies that are mind numbingly vast and strong. Oh and there was lots of Dragon Ball Z custom maps, it was pretty big at the time. The other game brought my love of the mod scene was of course Half-Life.</p><p><strong>Half-Life</strong></p><p>I cant imagine my life without Half-Life. In game server browser! Amazing single-player. Amazing multi-player, and these strange things called mods. It was my friend who actually showed me the mod scene, well he actually just followed PlanetHalflife.com and he played through all the mods they presented. Typically going with the mod of week (or was it month?) but always willing to try out a new one. Anyways getting ahead of myself. <br />You see my computer had become drastically slow. Oh sure Half-life ran on it. Technically. But it was pretty bad, settings as low as possible, constant jitters and stutters, it was a wonder I beat the game. </p><p>Then god, or wizards, or some great pasta bowl in the sky sent me a sign. My mother by shopping at Safeway had won a new computer! I COULD PLAY THE GAMES! granted it didnt come with a fancy 3DFX graphics card or anything, but still. Half-life became half playable. My 33.6 modem got almost doubled to a 56k modem. Starcraft ran like lightning, and I could sometimes get a ping of about 200 in half-life multiplayer. Okay so the computer was a AMD K6-2 (i think) with Windows 98. Bad sign, Tie Fighter frequently refused to boot. But sometimes would. Unreal Tournament somehow ran on it. And shockingly the PC lasted to play Dungeon Siege beyond all comprehension of mine. Yes that PC was great, I knew it wasnt the greatest, but it was free and it was all I had so I couldnt complain. Anyways, I had played Half-Life originally by renting the game from a movie store, (they actually did that!) and beating the single player. Then returned it. Then my friend showed me Uplink, Half-Life's demo. I then remember I still had the full game installed! Tried to play it. But no dice. Figured I should try the multi-player, and somehow it worked! The game did not require the CD to play multi-player. So a modding I went. As I said my friend scouted them out, and then we'd find a server, he'd ICQ me the IP address; or just host it himself (his family used cable internet way back in 1999 for a home business) </p><p><strong>Counter-Strike</strong></p><p>Then one day I decided to find a mod on my own. Found this strange game called Counter-Strike, was quite good I'd heard. But the download was huge. I'd need to leave the computer online a long time to get it. So I told my friend that I was coming over and we'd play it at his house first. If it was good, I'd download it later. We got it. And found ourselves in a map called De_dust. very sandy map, with a dark tunnel, and the guns rarely aimed where you shot them. My friend repeatedly would round a corner and die. Then I'd play and fair no better. The weapons system was crazy. You buy guns to use, but if you die you lose them, and most people usually died. We eventually purchased a Mac10, my friend ran at some guy near the ramp on terrorist side and somehow killed a guy. Our first kill. We were livid. Never had a kill proved so hard, or rewarding. We were addicted. We formed a clan with some other guys. My friend could join any clan he wanted with his amazing internet connection. He could host games! The only reason I got accepted was because he vouched for me. Nobody wants the guy with 200+ ping on their team. Thing was though, I was good. Beyond my friend, for awhile. Trouble was I was whenever I played my friend he was silky smooth. My computer choked on CS, and it showed. My friend was remarked at my house. HOW DO YOU PLAY? I cant remember. I just learned to play with the lag, and compensated for my poor PC by running the game as low as possible. Oddly enough whenever I played with the Clan from my friend's PC they were shocked. Counter-Strike was my birth into the multi-player FPS. It also told me that, if I wanted to game, I needed to put the money down. It would be 2004 until I actually did that. </p><p><br />Anyways that was fun. Oh the memories. How far I've come, and the industry too. My love for Strategy, & Shooters revealed. Oh and my guilty pleasure game over all that time? Carmaggeddon II. I played that demo alot, it was weird, and had these crazy challenges, but it had this timer on the demo. <br /></p><p>Sorry for massive text blobs.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-66204124387833640982009-07-04T13:06:00.000-07:002009-07-04T14:45:37.197-07:00Games Of Summer<p>'09 Edition!</p><p>So Summer is always an interesting time of year. It is when all the young ones return home fresh from having their brains perforated with vast quantities of information. It is when the not so young, but still pretty young ones in college get to work day jobs so that they might have their brains riddled with ludicrous amounts of information that will plague them until drunken one night stands replace them. And it is the time when the old folks scream and yell at their summers consistently remain ruined by the blight that is the collective youth ruining their nice days.<br />Oh and summer is when the gamers shun the sun and embrace the warmth of Liquid Crystal Displays (or plasma if you swing that way!) to spend all their precious free time on games, having squirreled away their gaming time like delicious nuts.</p><p>So enough with the rambling! The games that define this summer are interesting and seems to be forming a pattern which I shall now explain.<br /></p><p>- To start with we have lots of kids friendly movies out in theatres, this means the arrival of the great blight. The licensed game! (booo hiss!) Yes, the annual summer blockbusters bring out the crap that is games made with no desire to further gaming as a medium of entertainment, but rather purely as a cash-in. This should not be expected from the source material however, I mean that basically all summer blockbusters are for anyways. Games of this ilk include, UP!, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2, Harry Potter 6, Ice Age 3, Terminator Salvation, etc... there is pretty much 2-3 released every week, and almost all can be safely skipped. One possible exception might be the Wolverine game, this is however a mere exception that proves the following rule. Licensed game = Shit.</p><p>- Up next we have the time sink games. These typically are the type of games that have large open worlds to explore. GTA IV emerged this time last year. And this year we have at least 3 more similar titles in Infamous, Red Faction Guerrilla, & Prototype. Brownie points for those who will also know of Monster Hunters Freedom: Unite!, although it is rather hardcore it seems. Of course this year also sees the release of Arma II, perhaps one of the most realistic war games ever to simulate your monitor. These are the games that require a lot of time to chew through and fully digest, so an arrival in summertime seems apt to me. In addition their arrival against opponents that are chiefly movie tie-ins means they stand head and shoulders above the competition, and should do fairly well, monetarily speaking. Their quality can be all over the place, some can be superb, others are meh, or even bad. But the standard thus far seems to indicate a tendency to being better on average, with scores appearing to be over 80ish for most titles mentioned. </p><p>- The next cage on our tour is the Beta... a vicious and savage juvenile animal, that only reaches maturity through sacrificing thousands upon thousands of not so innocent souls. The the ritual of the beta test is the only known way for it to become the final cute gold masters disc that will ship to your door. Beta's thrive in the summer months, when the developers too release that they can harvest the extra bodies that the summer holidays produce. I have seen at least half a dozen betas open in June (Section 8, Crimecraft, Aion, and Huxley to name a few) July seems to be keeping the pace with the rumours of the behemoth at the gates, Starcraft II. Who knows what others will appear to have their gaming gaming-ness refined through the tribulation of the beta beat. </p><p>So, that's the summer of games for this summer. There is quite the eclectic mix of games out. Most crap, true, but then that happens regardless. Keep your wits about you and you'll do all right. Now I hear the Americans are celebrating something about independence from British dominance, whilst still utilizing the English language. Seems like somebody did not fully commit. <br />Ciao.<br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-50085085991546829042009-07-01T16:01:00.000-07:002009-07-01T16:22:26.657-07:00What Ever Could I Have Been Up ToAhh yes. The posting of things that are important about the commentary of video gaming and so on. Well I'll have you know that I have no good reason for the delay. Surely I could try to argue that the search for employment has driven me straight into a despondent state of depression. But that would be a lie. I could argue that I have successfully found a new career and the pursuit of it in earnest has delayed my gaming greatly. That too would be a lie. <br />Simply put, I forgot. But here is a quick summary of what games I've been playing.<br /><br />DotA: Playing the shit outta this, new patch is awesome.<br /><br />TF2: Also playing it a lot. Working on my scout. Found a rather interesting server where they loathe people who use any of the weapon unlocks. Being called a 'cunt scout' is annoying but then that is why there is mute. <br /><br />Crimson Gem Saga: Oi, the game is fun, but annoying. It is really old school. Which is great and not so great. <br /><br />Super Robot Taisen OG Endless Frontier: Combat is awesome to watch, everything else is sorta like some strange mash-up involving stuff, with nice pictures of very attractive anime gals.<br /><br />Knights in the Nightmare: Okay now this game is like out there. I cannot possible describe it but here goes anyways. You are the stylus, and you have troops, but they do not move and they cannot attack unless you possess (you're like a ghost thing). You do not have a life bar, but a time bar. When time runs up your turn ends. Any enemies you killed get respawned (although you can partially control which enemy spawns) and you can reposition your troops. Your troops have a finite amount of attacks, and they can be given weapons that let them use skills which do the bulk of your damage, although weapons can only be used so often. Luckily you find lots of weapons so you can upgrade and combine to ensure they do not break or run out. Your troops however can only get more attacks by sacrificing them to another troop. Which means you have to play favorites. However the more used a troops is when sacrifice the greater the benefit. <br /><p>Needless to say this game is deep. Like really deep. But the actual mechanics once you figure them out are pretty simple. </p><p>Oh I should add the game is also a pseudo-bullet hell game. Yea. It is out there.<br /><br />Lord of the Rings Online: Still working away at it. <br /><br />Sid Meier's Railroads!: Great little game for unwinding while listening to a podcast or something.<br /><br />Rumor is there is something going down next week. My guess is Lemmings is back. </p><p>And Starcraft II appears to have let the press into a Beta of some kind. And the beta is suppose to go on for at least 4 months. Which is nuts. But hey, it might be balanced. Probably not, but whatever.<br />Well there you have an update. Oh I'm also replaying Uncharted on the hardest difficulty, because I figure I should get at least one Platinum trophy.<br /></p><p>Okay that will do. I'll try to think up some grand gaming conundrum for my next post. I swear it wont be about Demigod. I'm swearing it off from this blog forever. </p><p>Ciao.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-30944815327723840272009-06-13T17:56:00.000-07:002009-06-13T18:12:03.218-07:00At Worst Frustrating. At Best BoringSums up my current feelings of demigod. There is not enough skill in playing a hero to make a difference, and there is not enough strategy to make it interesting. Everything moves like slug, unless you purely want movespeed. Level design remains shitty-rubbish. Reinforcements are bafflingly pointless unless you save up like 15,000. And all the heroes get played the exact same way nowadays. The game has been meta'd with little point to skills that are not at peak efficiency. And there are standard item sets that you just get. no question. The good stuff is far too expensive, and the cheap stuff is beyond worthless. Most citadel upgrades follow the same pattern. Must-have or dont even bother. It would be nice if you bought all the little upgrades they were as effective as later upgrades. But they are not. The problem is hurt even further because money is a huge problem. Simply put kills pay the bills. No kills, no money, no items, no nothing. Matches turn into a test of patience rather than skill, with the first person who decides to tower dive ultimately deciding the fate of the battle. <br />In essence after 5-10 minutes of play you largely know who is going to win.<br />In my opinion it stems from the lack of control you have over your hero. Sure he can walk around and such. But all units have noclip on. They cant interact with each other. They walk through each other. You cant block units, you just go through them.<br /><p>Meanwhile DotA lays down a massive patch that greatly switches up the game, adding multiple ways to further diversify your hero and build your own little strategies. Bugs and exploits were smashed to pieces; mainly the backdooring issue which if the patch works should end it in its entirety. Further the emergence of stat-tracking auto-hosting services gives you stats. Something Demigod still can't get done properly in a retail product. <br /></p><p>To summarize</p><p>Demigod continues to disappoint. DotA continues to delight. <br />I'll give demigod credit that they've really tried to fix it. But they are only working on the networking/servers debacle while the core issues that plague the game remained unaddressed. But then those are my concerns with the game. And thats that. The publisher steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the core game is broken so I doubt GPG will bother to address it. I'll try another match of demigod in a coupla weeks. But as DotA gets better and better demigod appears worse and worse in contrast. Pity. Oh well. <br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-82608457337425801222009-06-11T19:21:00.000-07:002009-06-11T19:39:49.618-07:00Shhhhh. Be Verrrrrrry Quiet.<p>So, got into this beta. The game's beta had an NDA. I didnt read it, but I have heard that means I cant talk about the game. So I wont, technically. Because if I dont tell you the name of said game then I am at liberty to tell that it sorta works. But the pvp is a watered down version a genre that works better. And the other genre it is set in is better represented. So basically if you like watered down shooters, and water down MMOs, well this game is for you. Of course it was just the beta. So who knows, maybe they'll make the weapons, setting, enemies, map design, and story all compelling before the full game comes out. It looked moderately decent. So there is always that. </p><p>The thing that really irks me however is that when you join they tell you go and read 3 excellent topics in their forums that explain the game. Too bad that you cannot view those threads in their forums until blah blah techno babble authorizes your account. No. You dont make the user wait to get a damn account authorized, you get them to see the stuff so they can understand the game you made. If that means making a pdf file attached to the file they just downloaded so be it. If it means putting the information on a website great. But do not say that it is all there in a forum that you'll just have a wait 24 hours to get access to. In 24 hours I could be playing another game completely and guess what? I am. So there you have it. <br />Of course a twitch based MMO-shooter never did sit right. Planetside failed. And it seems that, oh boy, now I cant even remember the name, but whatever the name is, it does not seem compelling. <br />Oh yea. Huxley. <br />Whoops my bad.<br />Beta though. I'm sure they can fix everything. Well except the art style and enemies that's pretty hard to change this far along. <br /></p><p>Ciao tho.</p><p>P.S. Crimson Gem Saga is awesomely old school. and the World Ends With You finished greatly.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-17242429288428570812009-06-07T22:51:00.000-07:002009-06-07T23:34:02.925-07:00Winner Is You!So I've thought about it. The E3 that has come and gone and decided that ultimately, the winners are us. Not immediately of course, but the sheer quality of titles that are coming out that seem so bright with promise and hope makes the gamers the winners of E3. The individuals companies may have done what they set out to do. But they almost all ended up looking like a tool in the pursuit of 'x' objective and will be scourned by some segment of the gaming populace for such a response. No the only way to survive E3 is to simply not attend, glance at the coverage and beam with optimism over it all. <br />I've seen a lot of coverage online and most of it good. (the content, not the coverage itself who gives a fuck if IGN has bias or Gamespot cares more about looking at titties) <br />The established franchises (Mass Effect 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, etc...) are bringing predictable extensions of their franchises, while upcoming developers like Platinum Games bring the creativity and originality that will form the new bedrock for future franchises to be milked. <br />The casual crap will come, and then will get some more, and then more. Because they sell, but once you're actually into gaming such games have no purpose, they lack depth to continue playing them and they only earn rage from the dedicated crowd who will push greater games upon the masses with every attempt.<br /><p>Speaking of rage I'd like to address an issue that touched me very personally as E3 went on. The Left 4 Dead 2 announcement. Initially I felt it was too soon, I wasnt enraged, rather I simply felt it was too soon, I mean I still put a good 3-5 hours into the game a week because the content released is that compelling to me. I simply saw no reason for a full fledged sequel so fast. Games that have rapid cyclical release schedules are frequently games that I completely avoid, Jak, Ratchet & Clank, Splinter Cell, and so on. But then I read about L4D2 and saw that basically the game is introducing many new things that I find incredibly compelling. Melee weapons are not them. Daylight levels are. More story is. The removal of the corner strategy is tantamount to my side switching. Simply put, cornering (when all 4 survivors jump into each other in a corner and spam bash/shoot) is effective but stupid as shit. New characters are meh. New campaigns are neat, assuming they are good. So, Left 4 Dead 2 should be good and I bear it no ill will. But damn it better deliver or my wrath shall be, well non-existent.</p><p>And now a quick list of things that have me Hopeful:<br />L4D2; Scribblenauts; AvP; Bayonetta; Alpha Protocol; Assassin's Creed 2; Mass Effect 2; Old Republic; Dragon's Age: Origins; Metroid: Other M; Alan Wake; CoD:MW2; God of War III; Uncharted 2; Golden Sun DS; League of Legends; Batman: Arkham Asylum; Dissidia Final Fantasy; White Knight Chronicles; Sin & Punishment 2; Final Fantasy XIII<br /><br />That'll do. God knows how the hell one is suppose to play all those games. At least they arent all out at the same time. I'mma go and try to finish some of the portable games I've been getting of late.<br />Some Robot Tensei OG, with Crimson Gem Saga, and Knights in the Nightmare due to hit my house very soon.<br />Ciao. <br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-5764500278629018622009-06-03T13:48:00.001-07:002009-06-03T14:25:51.388-07:00Figured I Should Digest These Ones A Bit<p>Ubisoft:</p><p>Stuff looks good. Funny Host. Presenters were gawdawful boring. Do not show talk about your game/movie and then leave without having shown anything. Because Now I'm likely to actively avoid your game just to spite your existence. Red Steel 2 has a gret art style, and Splinter Cell is... well its splinter cell, never liked them, so I dont care what they do. Sam Fisher is a character who hold no heft in my world. Is he suppose to be an American James Bond who feasts upon the shadows. I suppose my main problem is I loathe games with night. I always question why is this at night? So I specifically cannot see the shitty graphics/textures/character models you were too lazy make look nice in Sunlight? Yea, thats what I thought. Assassin's Creed 2 looks great, but no news if they've actually made some interesting stuff to do in their vibrant city-scapes. The Thing about Imagine games however killed the conference. Please. Do you honestly think we give a flying fuck that you can sell shitty games to tweens. I mean honestly, Oh look all the Mario games are sold out and all thats left on the shelf is this Imagine Dresses game, whatever will I get. When such an event occurs I tell the customer this. "You are better off going to another store that has games worth your Child's time, just do not buy that trash." <br />Do not brag that you swindle small children out of their allowance. Sounds like a fucking cigarette company. I'm sure Ubisoft is listening to this so they really should heed my advice and simply focus on games, and try not to brag. Seriously, gamers hate bragging. We love to do it ourselves but hate it when someone lords it over us. Although snagging No More Heroes 2, thats a lil better.<br /></p><p>Nintendo Conference:<br /></p>Apparently Nintendo felt that rollercoaster is the best ride to model your system after. And what a ride it was, from random jerking the Casual audience into a climax, to crushing our hope to dreams, to some really great anouncements. After its over you feel like you just had sex, and then find out she took your wallet, and your computer, but hey it was a good time. So new Mario games. Galaxy 2 should be interesting. New Metroid game seems like some kind of fan-dream team project pulled from the minds of crazy die-hard Nintendo fans. The Vitality doo-hickey is well. It is not for me. A balance board I can sorta understand, but a scanner? Yea, suckle that casual tit until its dry Nintendo. Nintendo, I just dont know what to make of you. You sort of try to convince that you care about the hardcore. Meh, at least your games are cheaper than the other ones. <br /><br />Sony Conference:<br /><p>Um. Games, lots of games. A new PSP, without a UMD slot. Should be good, too bad I already got a PSP and am not really interesting in another at this point. Good to have options I suppose. Games, like God of War III, now with more killing! some Agent game that we know nothing about but it'll be BIG. Speaking of big, how about MAG, the game with 256 multiplayer sessions. Yea, I know, spray and pray becomes a legitimate strategy again, I mean you're bound to hit somebody. There was other stuff too, Like FFXIII which seems nice. </p><p></p><p>But by this point there is so much information about so many games that it is easy to get lost, I could talk about any of them for paragraphs and on. I simply do not know what to do with all of it. It is too much and I just wanna play some games. Man, I really feel sorry for those people who are down at the actual E3, that must be bad. Yet good.<br /><br />Oh Uncharted 2 beta = great fun. Kinda burned out on it now though. Deathmatch to 25 points is super short. The Capture the treasure (Plunder as its called) is wicked though. Wish people would how to throw the treasure though. Seriously 4 people gather around and watch as one guy fails to throw it. The entire enemy team rolls in and drops us all. Co-Op though... little buggy, fun though, not when you fall through the ground though. But thats why it is a beta right? I may have said too much. Egads! Its all good stuff though! The game is very good. And is on my must buy list now! <br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-73841035498460773012009-06-01T15:23:00.000-07:002009-06-01T15:28:18.847-07:00EA's ConferenceOkay, So I think I get why I didn't like Microsoft's conference so much. Watching the EA conference was all about the GAMES. Microsoft pushed their games to be sure. But then they ramble on about stuff that is on the periphery. Stuff that is not playing games, and thats what I want to play games. <br />EA being a mere publisher is only concerned with their games and so thats all they showed. Bringing in the devs, and pushing their partner plan.<br />The games they showed look nice. <br /><p>The Old Republic's cinematic was amazing, and definitely raised the hype for the game itself.<br /></p><p>Brutal Legend looks good.<br />Just glad to get a look at the games. Trying to sell your system is completely outside of my concerns. The games are why I game, not because it plays music/movies/TV/lets me blog on my TV... <br /></p><p>Apparently Ubisoft has a conference later today. What could they show?</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-19763063418206894032009-06-01T12:16:00.000-07:002009-06-01T12:44:46.955-07:00Microsoft Press Conference ImpressionsSome nice looking games. And then a buttload of frivalous stuff that doesnt interest me whatsoever. I use my PC more than my 360 because it is easier to type stuff in and use a mouse than to use a gamepad. <br />Lots of stuff to pull non-gamers, but still tech-centric individuals in. Facebook/Twitter/last.fm<br />The new Project Natal stuff seems interesting. But showing it at a press conference is one thing. Getting it to actually work is another. There is potential, but then The moon has potential to smash into the Earth at some point so Potential doesnt exactly mean much. Hell DNF had potential.<p>The Lionhead demo of Milo is incredibly interesting, but Then Lionhead tends to exaggerate their projects.<br />Also, it may inadvertently destroy mankind. Good job Molyneux. I do think that some of the facial recognition stuff would have great applications for gaming.<br /><br />Side Note; Business Type People with patting themselves on the bat makes me squirm. Maybe it is expected but regardless I dont like it. </p><p><br />Overall I think Microsoft is all right. They've got a bunch of interesting stuff that is not gonna a damn thing for gaming, and is unlikely to pull any new consumers in. The Natal stuff will at best raise eyebrows, of skepticism. It did in me.<br /></p><p>One other thing. Apparently Microsoft has completely abandoned the Windows platform for gaming, because I did not see anything about it. So Microsoft can piss off, PC Gamers are sick of this bullshit from them. Either try or don't but dont half-ass it. You can't say you're committed to the PC platform and then not even bother to put in a Sizzle reel, let alone an actual segment on PC gaming, for your E3 Press Conference.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-87488100076722016862009-05-29T21:44:00.000-07:002009-05-29T22:25:30.423-07:00Where's My Dictionary?This has been a long time coming, but it is an issue that is dear to me, even if in the end my core arugment might be summarized as mere semantics, but I do not really care. The use of the term strategy, in Real Time Strategies has long irked me to great end. Because having focused rather extensively upon military history my professor took a class to carefully make sure we each understood what Strategy meant in war. He established it by stating that it took place involving certain numbers of troops, and if you went smaller then you descended into the realms of tactics. And there is a difference between tactics and strategy. <br />Tactics wins battles, strategies win wars. <br />Since almost all RTS games are more about battles than an overall war, it should stand to reason that tactics is what matters in the game. Being able to have better memorized a specific build order, or micromanage your troops to effectively maximize their damage outputted while minimizing whats taken has next to nothing to do with strategy. <br />Basically I'm saying that the 'Craft' series by Blizzard, the C&C games, and the billions of their clones, have all failed to bring strategy into the RTS genre. This extends beyond mere multiplayer matches, most singleplayer games leave out the strategy as a part of the storyline. Which I can understand is necessary in many cases, but it means you are not playing a strategy game. You're playing a game in which you given tactical control of a series of battles to linearly progress onwards to the next battle. There are some actual "strategy" games, but the only dominating my thoughts at the moment would be Total War, and it is a partial Turn Based.<br />I should be clear, this is not a condemnation of the style of play that dominates RTS games, but rather a critique that most of them fit more into FPS style play than strategy gamers will care to admit. Precise skill and control is far more valuable in RTS games than it should be. I mean strategies are carefully formulated, but in an RTS time is of the essence so it is better to get a shit load of something. Put simply, it is my thought that RTS games contain as much strategy or less than a shooter. The only true strategy games are turn based games. Where you can form plans, respond to changes effectively and generally see a strategy fall apart and try to salvage it.<br />One of the most horrific moments of late is watching the Starcraft 2 Battle Reports, which feature two pros battling. The fact that blizzard is actively encouraging the use of workers as meat shields, the micromanagement of units for peak performance is complete garbage. It only promotes the multiplayer game as something that advocates a ludicrous style of play that has no real world significance and completely ignores the advances done in recent years of RTS. Sure Dawn of War I & II and Company of Heroes are just as guilty as being more tactical than Strategical, but the Relic openly admit to it; Supreme Commander attempted to bring the Strategy into RTS and made significant inroads. <br />I'll still get and adore Starcraft 2, but the multiplayer is not a part of RTS games that has any appeal to me. Micromanagement fests between economy and battles is not my idea of compelling strategy gameplay. Being hit by an early game rush accomplishes nothing other than tell me that the game embraces quick reflexes over sound thinking. And if I want to play a game about reflexes I can play DotA, TF2, L4D, or any other number of shooters. If i want a strategy game I play turn based ones. I'm pretty sure that story interests me more than the actual gameplay of 'Craft' games ever has. Well that and the custom game modes that inevitably show up.<br /><p>Thats all I've got to say and matters of 'strategy'.<br /></p><p>Ciao.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-30461561733363367632009-05-29T00:59:00.001-07:002009-05-29T01:07:16.474-07:00Well Since Everyone Else Everywhere Has Done One!Here goes my E3 Predictions:<br /><p>Microsoft will make a big deal about something that no one will care about and will be largely ignored, but will still have enough wowswers stuff that they arent pushing yet that it wont really matter too much. There will be no mention of their Games for Windows beyond the plastering of the logo on games that are being pushed on 360. <br /></p><p>Sony will show lots of great new stuff, lots of their old franchises that we're all waiting for, and some system changes that are not really all that compelling to anyone. They'll do something with the PSP but it wont amount to anything.<br /><br />Nintendo will try to seem hip and cool to the hardcore and casuals and they will fail miserably. It will not matter though because critical acclaim is now irrelevant to Nintendo. They'll show a brief sizzle reel that will wow the dwindling hardcore gamers they do have. <br /><br />The Third parties will show us all the real good stuff and will rise to conquer the earth as we know it. Which it turns out is in fact just a lot of basements in very small sections of urban centers. Weird. <br /><br /></p><p>There you have it. I spent all of like 5 minutes thinking those up so if they turn out to be right I demand worship.</p><p>Night. Ciao.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-4983252058672359212009-05-27T16:04:00.000-07:002009-05-27T16:13:43.160-07:00We Are Intrigued<p>I've never really thought of myself as an uber-min/maxer when I play RPGs. But my sister recently started playing Mass Effect because she wanted to play a game and that was the only one that really has any appeal to her; Her appeal being JRPGs, or games with obscenely pretty male protagonists. Anyways I watched her playing a bit and was shocked that she did not fully explore conversation options, and tried really hard to bite my tongue when she went to the level up screen. I mean I quickly realized that playing an RPG is all about your own experiences when you play it. And just because I played the game a specific way in no way means that she should follow mine. If hers works great, if it doesnt she can figure out how to get past it herself or can ask me for help.</p><p>I think this is a problem with hardened hardcore gamers we see a game and immediately think of the cost/gain effect in gameplay terms. But Casuals just look at the game and experience it, they dont care about trying to find which skill/item set maxes their damage, nor do they care if they miss an extra quest that gives them a wicked +5 Fire damage Mace. </p><p>Maybe thats something we hardcore could learn again. But then again, you cant regain innocence once you've lost it. I even though I might try to simply experience a game, I think a part of me is always going to continue to try and game the game to the fullest for those min/max benefits. Meh I guess as long as I enjoy the game at the end of the day what does it really matter? <br />Okay. Thats all.<br />Ciao.<br /><br /></p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-5713736497948808652009-05-25T20:49:00.000-07:002009-05-25T20:54:30.548-07:00YOU SHALL LIVE!<p>Seriously. Since the new TF2 update, the servers are alive again. It is nice. And the new item system, while confusing the crap outta everyone, seems to be great for new player to try out new weapons. </p><p>Oh and Star Ocean 4. Pretty fun. Great boss fight I had today. But the cinematics. Dear god. Its like they asked how to make them as bad as possible and then one upped that. </p><p>Thats all I got right. I'm told it is an American holiday so that would explain the lack of news.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8662687482949939576.post-3925510238080566772009-05-23T22:29:00.000-07:002009-05-23T22:38:46.611-07:00Ohhhh My Favorite Little Game I Love To HateOh Demigod. So faithful. I just don't know what I'm gonna do with you. On the one hand you have many appeasing factors. On the other hand I have no clue if it is balance issues or a lack of general knowledge about what to do.<br />See in DotA if you've got skills you can pick up the knowledge along the way. But if there is no skill involved and just memorizing what items to buy and how to level your character up then the so called depth of said game is gonna be short lived. Hence unless I feel like reading dozens upon dozens of blog posts how each character should be built to deal 'x' foe, assuming he is using 'y' build, then i will have 'z' chance of victory assuming that my partner is somewhat decent as well, and assuming the other opponent is also moderately skilled. <br />But then I realize the core problem with Demigod.<br />I have never played a Multi-player match with more than 4 players total. That means 2v2. <br />Perhaps if I could try a 4v4 or 5v5 I would be greatly illuminated as to things, as matchups are far more interesting when you have a diverse field of demigods to combat with. <br />Yes I believe I have made a realization here. <br />2v2 Demigod is boring and devolves into who luckily got matched up with Demigods that they have inherent advantages over. <br />4v4 or 5v5 however. THAT would be a match I would be interested in seeing.<br />Too bad the system apparently can barely manage 3v3's and it is highly unlikely that I'll ever get to play a good 5v5 match. <br />For the record 5v5 is DotA's standard size. Accept no substitutes, if you arent in a 5v5 match then you are not playing DotA proper. You are playing some side gimmick that has no real worth. <br /><p>It would seem Demigod may be similiar. Hopefully they release a massive patch that will enable the removal of P2P hosting and switch to servers for gameplay. Because that would be far, far, far better.<br /></p><p>Oh Demigod. I only bitch because I care.</p>RyePunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04589296135540988024noreply@blogger.com0