NOW ONLY NINETY NINE NINETY NINE NINETY NINE NINETY NINE!

So's I got myself a new PC. It works wonderfully. Although getting everything installed was a bit of a 4 hour excursion. And installing all the old games will likely take a solid week, given that most of them need to be downloaded, and that's gonna take some time. 
But the machine cuts through games like a vibroblade through a wookie. Just in time for Dawn of War II on Thursday. It will be glorious. In a mass blood, and robots throwing corpses across a battlefield kind of glory way. 
Well that will have to do. I've got more stuff to do. And more Vista smashing to work on. Getting rid of UAC, seems to only have been half the battle.

Too Human Thoughts

Well, I picked this up for cheap at boxing day, and... wow. What to say about this game.

It does some things right, and can feel quite good at times. And then there is the time when you just dont have a fucking clue what the devs were thinking. 

Death has no penalty other than a durability hit. Oh also the death animation is like 1 minute long and bores the shit out of you. So the biggest penalty is that death wastes your time. Pretty much. I mean and the sad thing is alot of the times I died I wasnt sure what I did wrong. I simply went up against enemies that were vastly stronger than me, but the thing is enemies autoscale in level to match your level, so you cant exactly level up to ease through the game. So Grinding is useless except to get more loot.

And dear god is there alot of loot. If there is one thing they got TOO right in the game it is the loot system, you get a lot of loot and you can customize it quite effectively. Tragically the game is only about 10 hours long which means that most of it is utterly pointless. 

The combat itself is all over the place, its typically mindlessly easy with little challenge thrown at you. Unless you suddenly face the tough enemies which means you'll just have to slowly chip away at the hp of some uber guy who is beyond you

The story, well its basically Norse mythology given a super high tech bend. Which worked for me, but kinda meant I knew what was coming. Further it seems like they went to alot of effort for a lot of the things in game but maybe they should have spent that time getting the combat to actually flow. 

The RPG stuff is basically non-existent, you apparently have stats, but you dont control them, but are told they increase with each level. Also you can apparently boost your dexterity and strength with items but are never given a clue as how that actually benefits you. You do get skill points to put into various passives and a few actives skills, but basically they dont matter. My ability to root enemies to the ground was never apparent to me, nor was richochetting bullets. So basically I had skills that did stuff that I was unclear if they actually worked.

Overall I did enjoy the game. The combat is fairly fun, if simple and annoying at the same time, and the presentation of the story worked for me. But then I did not pay $60 for it. So that certainly helps my opinion of it. If I had paid $60 I would not be happy. 
The real shame is the game ends basically setting up the sequel, which I'm quite certain is not happening. Certainly not anytime soon. 

So there you have it. Too Human is a game that is all over the place and may or may not be worth your time. Yea, thats all I got.
Wait, wait. Do you like Diablo? Yes. Did you like Dungeon Siege? No. Titan Quest? No.
Basically if you adore hack 'n slash rpgs then there is a good chance that you'll enjoy Too Human, if you like Diablo because of its polish and didnt enjoy Dungeon Siege or Titan Quest because they werent quite Diablo-calibre, then i'd stay away from Too Human.

Yay. Ciao.

Canadia strikes me as unpatriotic

Okay so here we go, its a little late I know, but here are some of the games in '09 that I'm looking forward to playing.

Dawn of War II. 

You say that the base building is gone so that I might worry entirely about tactics of the battlefield ala Total War? I will make love with your orcish hordes. Also shit bleeds and dies horrifically to sweeten the deal. 

Empire: Total War

Uh, I'm a history major who loves war. So this is kind of a no brainer. The ability to conquer the globe, and finally have control over naval battles in a Total War game is awe inspiring.

Starcraft II

Starcraft got me into PC gaming, I'm not about to leave it now. Plus, all the custom maps will be awesome. tower defense has come along way since starcraft.

Resident Evil 5

RE4 remains on my top 5 games of all time (which I feel could be one of my future posts), and since this is basically that game with a new story and an actual Co-Op gameplay how can it not (Answer? It better not!)

Madworld

Brutally Violent Wii Controls. Meh, hopefully it'll be good. The all black and white and red asthetic might get annoying but it certainly is catching.

Fire Emblem DS

I want this game right now. I'd import if it wouldn't cost me over $100. But all the places with decent prices are sold out. Bummer. Oh well hopefully North America gets it in a month or two.

And that's pretty much it. There are some more titles that I am curious about, like Star Ocean 4, Killzone 2, Street Fighter 4, and that game with jack black by the guy who made Full Throttle, yeah that one too. 

Oh and I would have put Diablo 3 on the list if I felt it was going to come out in '09. But come on people, this is Blizzard we are talking about here. We'll be lucky to see it in 2010. And if I'm wrong then I'll be the first to eat those words.

Stay Frosty

So, we all know that games are supposedly one of those great forms of art that allow people to bring their own experiences along for the ride and as such enable each person to have their own favorites. 
But gaming is not like movies or a book or a painting, because games need an exhaustive amount of effort invested simply to ensure that the game is able let you play it. Then the game designers have to apply what is possible with some form of story and experience to make gameplay exist. Simply if a game fails on a mechanical level it would be the equivalent of what would happen if Leonardo had decided that the public wanted to see Mona Lisa so bad that he would simply have it put on display with only half of her face drawn in. 
As such games that fail to do this are usually derided by gamers and critics alike because they are not fun, even if the story is great or at the very least intriguing. 
But when certain local print publications begin posting their best of 2008 and put games with such glaring flaws in them, I begin to question that publications quality. To be fair a local newspaper is not the best source for hardcore gamers to go. Newspapers are literally the source of gaming info for the casual creature. 
There was a few grievous titles that were left on this list that make me question the quality of the list in general. 
First up, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Good game. Not best of the year by a long shot however. Especially in light of the fact that one mission is utterly broken (Dtar Sestroyer). This moment completely ruins the game. Also the fact that the game is basically God of War in Star Wars without blood or dismemberment, or the superb calibre of God of War's combat fluidity. Or considering that Ninja Gaiden II came out in July maybe you would think they'd at least try to compete with that.

Sure the maybe if you were a hardcore Star Wars fan you might call it one of the best of year, but then you have to explain that you are a hardcore Star Wars fan. This was not present. The story was good, but not superb.

Next up, Fable 2. Does advertising that you can jump fences, even though you really wont be able really qualify a game for best of the year? Or does shipping the exact same game with a slightly better combat engine? Maybe if you did this in 1 year. But if you did it over 5 years and said that the game will make you feel love and blah blah blah. I cannot reiterate Peter Molyneux's words here for fear that I may summon him, and listen to him hype me into oblivion.

Now maybe it isnt fair for me to bash the game because, well I never played it *wink*, but I will give this game credit for at least not being completely broken, well minus that thing that can break the game that needs a patch that still needs to come out, oh and there is the issue of the DLC that was planned to ship before Christmas that smacks of coulda made it into the gold code but Microsoft decided it would look better as 800 Microsoft points. 

really I'm just sore because games like Valkyria Chronicles, No More Heroes, The World Ends With You, Boom Blox, Burnout Paradise, Ninja Gaiden II, Rock Band 2. Hell they did not even include Metal Gear Solid 4 for fucks sake. I mean I'm sorry but the role of the gaming press should not be to hype the fuck out of what is already gotten 2 months worth of press coverage. At a year end best of the year you should remember the games that you played and you know other people did not play. I mean could drone on and on about GTA IV or Gears 2 or Mario Kart Wii, but i know they all sold in excess of 7 million copies and everyone who played them knows what I would say about them. But if I talk about games that less people played maybe they'll go out and grab those games, maybe they wont because I'm bashing the fuck out of the game but at least I'm giving the game something. But if people buy good games, more good games get made. If we praise adulations upon games that are technically broken, that exhibit signs that they dont know how to playtest (looking at you Star Destroyer pull down sequence) then they treat their paying customers like idiots.

I mean Force Unleashed and Fable 2 weren't bad games, they pretty fun. But they are mediocre games being included in list that is leaving out vastly superior games, that may only be lower profile. And that doesnt slide with me. Oh well at least the enthusiast press is a little better. I mean IGN gave Sins of a Solar Empire GotY, that gives some hope.

Oh and I've decided to simply put quotes from my favorite shows in the Title. Its fun that way.

Just In Case You Are Curious

My gaming-esque presents were:

Chrono Trigger on the DS. Awesome.

Thats it. I'll prolly get Resistance 2 for PS3 if I see it cheap ever. 

Oh, but I did get Seasons 4-6 of Scrubs; Futurama: Bender's Game; Sphere (Novel); Doctor Who: Series 4 (Since I have the first three already).

Also got socks, and pajama pants.

Oh, and $500. It was nice.

Played Rock Band with relatives, and got to feel good about being the second best player there, as well as the only one with the confidence to actually sing when no one else would. I believe I even boasted that if necessary I would simulataneously play the Drums, Guitar, and vocals. But quickly realized I lacked the number of limbs required to do that.

My next post I plan to talk about games I'm looking forward to in 2009. I doubt I will talk much about the Blizzard franchises though. They dont exactly need the coverage.

I'm Told the Holidays Occur at this Point in Time

Quick update. 

Finished Fire Emblem on Wii at long last. Game time registered 70 hours played. But taking into account resets and start overs a time of 100+ hours is more likely. Good game though. 

Now I am currently trying to track down copy of the new DS Fire Emblem that is not yet out in north america but is out in the UK. I've found a few copies. But I'm not tossing $100 out for it a month early. I'm willing to spend about $50 max. But I think I'll prolly just wait till it arrives here in february or whenever. No release date is regrettable.

In other news I am debating what game to play next. I continue to play nightly rounds of DotA and L4D, but my days (holidays = time to play games in the day!) were filled with Fire Emblem. My main games I'm debating are currently Valkyrie Chronicles, No More Heroes, or and number of other PS2 rpgs that i have yet to finish (list includes Star Ocean 3, Persona 3, Dragon Quest 8)

Also playing a decent amount of time with Rock Band 2, which is very fun. Suck at the drums ( my foot doesnt like being involved and gets very painful ) but vocals and guitar are always a blast. Slowing working through things on Hard, but playing on medium as well to unlock stuff.

In pseudo-gaming news, I'm getting a new PC pretty damn soon. I'm thinking of an Core i7, Nvidia 260. prolly get an Asus motherboard. Hopefully for the first time in my life I will get a computer that can actually get upgraded too. I almost always get a motherboard that doesnt support newer CPUs, or that forgets something rather important (this time it was PCI-Express, so no new graphics cards).

Should set me back around $1500, which is a savings of over half of what i paid last time. But then I wanted bragging rights on a Voodoo PC. 

So i better get to L4D right now. Ciao.

Ger-Wha?

So I put in a new Wii game, No More Heroes, and was shocked to find a game that uses the Wii to amazing effect. You dont waggle your remote excessively, although you do use the waggle for a reload/recharge, you dont have dumbed down controls, you dont have needlessly pathetic looking graphics. 

The game came out like a year ago or so, so i'm kinda late to the game, but the entire presentation of this game makes me glad i got it. I mean the main character wantonly chops limbs and heads off with a bastardly "FUCK YOU!". There are so few games that do what this game does on any system. 

My favorite moment however was when your characters cell phone rings, you dont know what button to press to answer it, but you quickly realize it want you to press '2' and then the call comes in entirely through the speaker in the remote. You put it up against your ear just like a cell phone. Why hasnt anyone else done this? It is awesome! I've never felt such immersion in a game as when the sound came entirely through this fake cell phone.

Also, I really need to get back into Fire Emblem on Wii, i was doing so well in it but then shit hit the fan.

Also i need to get back into Valkryie Chronicles. Oh and the Witcher... It's gonna be a busy holiday. 
Oh. Also Rock Band 2 is quite fun.