Knight Games

Please Visit the NEW Blog Site

2006-09-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

I have moved the blog to a new domain. I'm also switching handles at this time to match my Xbox 360 GamerTag. Please visit the new blog: Virtuadept's Game Blog, which is the only content I have so far up on CasualGamer.Net (but that will become a lot more later on, with gaming news, reviews, and forums for gamers with lives, who don't have enough time to game. Thank you so much for continuing to visit and putting up with the switch. If you are reading this via RSS you are going to need to visit the new site to pick up the new feed links. The good news is the comments now have a feed of their own, and all the posts are now tagged with categories information.

I'm keeping this blog up long enough for people to get the news about the new blog site but I won't be updating it. Since all of the posts transfered over, eventually I'll delete this site.

Moving again.

2006-09-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

I just registered my own domain and successfully transfered Knight Games to it, but I need to edit some stuff on it first before it is ready for prime time. I just wanted to post here to let my readers know that Knight Games is moving soon, and I will be holding off on posts until I get the move complete, which if I bust my ass might be this weekend or early next week.

Dead Rising - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2006-09-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

Recently got Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. This game is not based on Dawn of the Dead or any other George Romero zombie movies (wink wink, nudge nudge). The fact that you're in a shopping mall surrounded by zombies? Pure coincidence, honest.

First, the Good. The game has a decent interface that only takes 30 minutes or so to get used to. You can aim and shoot or attack in first person, or you can leave it in third person mode and just "shoot from the hip," which works very well for melee weapons but not so much firearms. Since ammo is scarce, you'll end up killing a lot of zombies with melee weapons. The story seems interesting, but honestly it's the same old cliche so nothing really new there. The graphics are decent but nothing stellar. This could probably have been an Xbox game as far as the graphics are concerned. Graphics kind of reminded me somewhat of State of Emergency but are better than that. The camera is a nice touch, being able to take cool pics to gain experience is a really good idea. Being able to pick up anything and everything in the mall and use it in some way is probably the biggest selling point for this game. Almost anything can be a weapon, and nearly everything else is usable in some way.

Now, the Bad. You get one save. One. Save. Save points can easily be a good 30-40 minutes in between each other. The missions are timed. You can run out of time overall and not be able to complete the game. For many people, this will be a deal killer.

And The Ugly - well, actually this is the "not so bad". Even though you only get one save, you can save on each memory device one time. So if you have a memory card and the HDD, you get two saves. Another not so bad is that when you die, you can chose to restart the game rather than restarting from the save point. I know, that sounds crazy. Well, you get to keep your stats. So lets say you make it to level 4 and die, you can restart the game at level 4 from the beginning, meaning you'll be able to do a lot more early on quicker and shaving a lot more minutes off that ever present time limit. Also, if the time runs out, you can still play the game, you just can't complete the story (at least, not in a positive way). You can still keep playing in order to rack up experience and levels which can be useful to you on your next play though. In fact, some of the achievements are clearly designed to be completed only by ignoring the main story and just playing free-form mode.

Bottom line, if you like zombies, get this game. It does not disappoint on the zombie-killing front in any way. Great at that, in fact. The restrictive save system seems like a burden at first, but since you keep your stats when you restart the game, it's not a game killer (for me anyway). There is a demo on Xbox Live that is kind of short but gives you a good idea of the freeform gameplay. Rating: A- (could have been A+ with full featured save system, ah well).

Playstation Portable Initial Impressions

2006-09-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

I had been hesitant to get one of these newfangled PSP's every since the initial launch because I thought that $250 was too much to spend on a portable gaming device. Now, things are different. Now there are plenty of exclusive games I can only play on the PSP, to make it worth my while to justify a purchase. Plus, I didn't have to splash out any cash, I was able to procure a PSP via trade for an extra Xbox 360 I had received from doing one of those "free offers" sites. In fact, I got a nice, excellent condition used PSP and ten (10) games for it. Schweeeet.

Here are the games I snagged, and my tentative grade on F to A scale, based on pretty limited gameplay time so far.

Daxter - A+
Burnout Legends - A+
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror - A
Mega Man Powered Up - A
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X - B
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX - B-
Wipeout Pure - B-
Ridge Racer - C
Field Commander (haven't tried it yet, it was sealed, didn't want to devalue it)
Frantix (just haven't had time yet)

I also picked up PoPoLoCrois, an RPG, but haven't had time to play much yet so no rating.

I have rented:
Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light - B+ (an RPG)
Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion (no rating yet)

What do I think about this device? Well, it's far too precious to actually use as a portable gaming device. :-P

Actually I have used it a few times on the bus ride to and from work and it does very well. The screen is amazing, absolutely mesmerizing. Sound is fantastic as well with my earphones, heck even without earphones the built in speakers aren't too shabby compared to say the Nintendo DS. But the buttons on the right side are a bit too far apart from each other, and it is awkward to try and use the D-pad AND the analog nubby in any games that make you use both (thinking of Syphon Filter here). I haven't gotten used to the shoulder buttons yet either but in time I'm sure I will.

How does it compare to the Nintendo DS? Well, the DS is still more fun overall I think. I have a ton of DS games and the touch screen just adds a lot to the gaming experience, plus stuff like the microphone and being able to hold in in different ways is innovative. But there is no doubt that the PSP is a much beefier system, and capable of doing a lot more graphically, and not to mention the UMD format allows PSP developers to put more frills in like voice acting and FMV movies.

Load times, on the other hand, are non-existant on the DS but plague just about every single game I have on the PSP. While 5-10 seconds of load time doesn't seem like much to bitch about, when you have that over and over and over in games, it can get pretty irritating once you realize you're spending a considerable percentage of your precious play time staring at a progress bar.

Overall I do not regret my "purchase" of the PSP, I think I will definitely enjoy it especially for all the great RPGs that are out now and more on the way. Some of the games are really amazing, such as Daxter which could easily be mistaken for a PS2 platformer, or Syphon Filter, which has all the complexity and flash of the series, or Burnout Legends which I could easily mistake for Burnout 3 Takedown on the PS2 if I weren't paying close attention. Here's hoping that more games of that nature come to the platform.

I'm thinking of trying some homebrew if I can do it without downgrading my firmware. I heard there's some new hax out. I'd like to run an SNES emu on here, that would own.

Xbox 360 Update

2006-09-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

I have, as previously blogged, recently (June) gotten an Xbox 360. My library of games is slowly growing. Here are the titles I have so far, in the order that I aquired them. I also give each game a letter grade, A+ is best, F is worst.

Perfect Dark Zero - B+
Kameo: Elements of Power - A+
Tomb Raider Legend - A
Burnout Revenge - A+
Project Gotham Racing 3 - B+
Condemned: Criminal Origins - A-
Far Cry Instincts Predator - B+
Dead Rising - A-
Saint's Row - A+

Xbox Live Arcade:
Geometry Wars - A

I'll be posting mini-reviews of each game over time.

I have also rented the following games, but decided not to purchase:
Full Auto - C-
Battle for Middle Earth 2 - B- (decided to buy PC version)

Sony PS3 Delayed in Europe and Smaller Launch in Japan/USA

2006-09-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

Sony set up us the bomb!

They are delaying their launch in Europe to March 2007! But wait! That's not all! Sony is also saying they will have fewer than 500k PS3 units for sale at launch in the USA and about the same in Japan, with as few as 2 million units produced before the end of 2006!

I imagine the fellas at Nintendo and Microsoft are laughing their asses off. Another Christmas with no PS3's in sight can only be good news for Sony's competition.

Long Time No Post

2006-09-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a long while. I'm going to try to make an effort to post more often. I will just post shorter blurbs that are more snackable and easily digested.

Weekend Gaming Binge

2006-06-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time gaming, and had a blast.

Perfect Dark Zero

I played Perfect Dark Zero, which is a first person shooter where you’re some kind of spy/troubleshooter character. I haven’t actually figured out what you are – it’s like you’re a spy, but you work for a private organization it seems, that works for money, not a government.

Graphics are pretty good but not better than anything I’d seen before on the PC in most recent FPS games. It really takes a lot to wow me on FPS graphics, and PDZ doesn’t really wow me.

However, the gameplay is good, albeit it’s kind of easy. I’m playing on easy, so I may bump up the difficulty and restart. I’m only on mission 4 or 5 so far. I like the fact that you can use cover, by hugging a corner of a wall, or getting behind a crate, whatever. Since I’m on easy, however, that isn’t mandatory, in fact it can just make things harder, when the easiest thing actually is to dodge and move to melee against your opponents then take them out with punches/kicks, or a quick blast from an SMG or shotgun at point blank. I think if I bump up the difficulty to the next level maybe cover will become more necessary and make the gameplay better. So far the puzzle solving has been pretty simple and not a big part of the game.

So far I'd give Perfect Dark Zero an 8/10.

Kameo: Elements of Power

I also played some of Kameo: Elements of Power. This game is a classic Rare platformer, it’s fantastic. I’m surprised it didn’t get better reviews, this game is truly special. You are Kameo, a fairy. Yes, you are a fairy. And you have magical powers to switch your form into different creatures, like you can turn into this plant guy called "Pummelweed" who can beat up on trolls and orcs, and also dig under ground to get under really low places. At the start of the game you can switch between 3 creature forms for a lot of puzzle solving opportunities. But after the first large ‘level’ (I’d guess about 2 hours of play, maybe 1 if you’re really good unlike me), you get your powers taken away in a cut scene and you have to start all over re-learning all your creature powers.

The graphics in this game are truly "Next Gen", they are amazing. It has a cartoonish feel to it but it is incredibly detailed and has all kinds of cool special effects. The gameplay also seems Next-Gen to me because it is so unique to be able to switch powers by changing forms and that makes for a lot of cool puzzle solving opportunities. Different creature-forms are definitely better at different tasks or against certain enemies. For example, the Pummelweed guy is great against orcs, while the roller-ball troll guys you can only kill by pushing them into a hazard, like lava, so the roller-ball form you can do works well for them. Figuring out how to get by all the different enemies and obstacles is what makes this game a blast.

I'd give Kameo: Elements of Power a 9/10 so far.

TEEN TITANS

I also played a PS2 game that was a renter from GameFly, called Teen Titans. This is based on the Cartoon Network cartoon. I love the Teen Titans. This game, however, is not that great, it’s just one big massively long fight, interspersed with Teen Titan cut scenes, which is the main reason I keep playing, and that’s it. So far about 4 hours into it there have been no puzzle solving whatsoever.

You learn tons and tons of combos you never need to use, and no matter which character you use, it seems like it makes no difference really, as none of the titans seem like they are better at the enemies than any of the other titans, so you could just stick with Robin the entire game and it makes no difference. Even the flyers Raven and Starfire don’t make any difference, because they hover, not fly, so it’s still essentially a 2D game even for them. Even if you’re almost out of health, switching to another Titan doesn’t help, because the titans all have a linked health meter, so whatever you’re active character’s health meter is like, that’s what they all are.

The best scenes so far have been with fights against the H.I.V.E. Five villains, Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth. But even against these potent super-villains, it’s still just a button masher, and the super-villains don’t require using different Titans or anything like that. Admittedly it can look pretty cool when you have all five Titans beating the crap out of everything all at once with superpowers flashing all over the screen, but gameplay is still kind of trite.

Graphically, this game is woefully ugly especially after having just played Kameo, but even compared to other PS2 games, the graphics of this game blows chunks. The Titans are not cell-shaded, comic-book style like you would expect (and like found in other PS2 games such as Ultimate Spiderman). Instead they’re goofy deformo looking versions done in 3D. I guess, though, I still enjoy this game because I like the Teen Titans so much, and it does have good voice acting that seems to have been done by the same actors from the show (or competent sound-a-likes). So I will probably end up finishing it.

Since the game’s price plummeted I was able to "buy-it" from GameFly for $15, so probably worth what I paid I guess. I did that so I could get the next games in my queue sent to me, some Xbox 360 games. Speaking of GameFly, if you are thinking about signing up for it, let me know, I can send you a referal email and I get some bonus credit if you sign up that way.

I'd probably only give Teen Titans a 5.5/10, unless, like me, you love the Teen Titans, and then maybe a 7.5/10. Loving the show gives a bit of a blind spot to overlook the game's obvious flaws. Still, it's budget priced now, at $19.99 at Amazon for PS2/Gamecube/Xbox, so if you don't expect much, and if you like the Titans, I'd say it's worth a rent for sure and maybe a buy.

Tomb Raider Legends Demo

The only other thing I played is the demo for the Xbox 360 version of Tomb Raider Legends. This is a great demo, and pretty long, it took me about an hour and a half to beat it. Someone more dexterous could probably beat it quicker, or who could figure out some of the puzzles faster. I had fun with it though. I died a lot. And I fell down a lot and had to re-climb to wherever I was. Sadly the gun fighting parts were a bit too easy, even handling 10 or 15 bad-guys at a time was no problem for Lara. They need to make it so if she gets hit it hurts a lot more. Other than that one minor flaw, I felt this game really captured the feel of the original Tomb Raider game, which was a classic. I’m definitely renting this one as soon as it becomes available on GameFly. I heard it was like a 10 hour game so I’m not paying $60 for it.

Retro Gaming

Oh, I also did play a little bit of Baldur’s Gate II for the PC. It’s a great RPG, but it’s oldish, so unless you like retro gaming you probably won’t like it. Still, it has an awesome story line, with tons and tons of quests, and great characters. You could do a lot worse! The graphics aren't that dated, yet.

I also figured out how to get Infocom games on my new phone (Treo 650). So now I can play Zork, Enchanter, and all the other Infocom Masterpieces text adventures on the bus ride every day. Plus, I can also play more current z-code adventures written by fans, available on the Interactive-Fiction Archive. Right now I'm using a z-code interpreter called FrobNitz to play them, which is nice, but there is a more feature-rich interpreter called CliFrotz that requires and supports the memory card slot that I'll be using when I get my 2gb memory card. Totally sweet! Retro gaming with a high-tech twist!

The Treo 650 phone is really cool, BTW, and I’m thinking about writing some software for it, if I can find some Palm developer tools on the cheap somewhere.

Color Change

2006-06-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

Decided to get rid of the University of Texas colors and go with a blue theme. Let me know if something looks goofy.

Treo 650 First Impressions

2006-06-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

Work was giving me some hassles about using my work phone for personal calls, so I felt I needed to just get my own phone. I did a lot of research. I already knew about the Palm Treo 650 from checking out Lyndal's phone, but I still looked at all the competing smart phones from all the major providers, comparing total cost of ownership (price of phone plus monthly plan charges), features, etc.

I looked first at T-Mobile, because Kim's phone was already on T-Mobile. T-Mobile, if you're reading this, the primary reason you lost our account is because your sales people are idiots. Kim was already getting 1600 minutes for $40 a month. They would not let us keep her minutes, we would have had to pay more money to get a family plan with less than half the minutes. That's just stupid. So that turned me off to them right away. Then after comparing their smart phones to the Treo and others, I determined that they didn't fully offer what I wanted. The only phone they had that I would consider a valid competitor to the Treo was the T-Mobile MDA. The MDA had a better camera than the Treo 650, and a very nice touch-screen and hide-away qwerty keypad. So ergonomically the MDA was I think probably at least as good if not better than the Treo 650. It also has Wi-fi support which would have made for faster browsing in wi-fi enabled areas. It used a Microsoft OS, so I assume there would be plenty of software for it, however from what I could tell you had to buy through T-Mobile. I was already partial to the Treo's software suite. The MDA was quite a bit pricier, though, at $400 with 2 year agreement versus $300 which is what I paid for the Treo via sprint. I guess the real deal killer was they treated us like 2nd class citizens when we had been loyal customers since 1998 or so, and their new deal they were going to offer us was less attractive than Sprint, our minimum would have been $90/mo, for 700 shared minutes. So we'd have paid a lot more, for a lot less, and that just ticked me off. Plus they were going to charge us $70 per phone for setup fees. Way to reward loyalty, T-Mobile!

There was also a phone called the Nokia 9300. Ergonomically, this phone is a very cool, with a bar-phone look including a color screen on the outside, but you can open it sideways and it has a really cool, extra-wide screen and full qwerty keyboard. But reading about it, the phone used Symbian which I didn't know much about, and the deal killer for me was that the reviewers I read said it wasn't very responsive compared to their palm-based Treo's. I also wasn't sure what kind of software I could get with it. Plus I could only get this from Cingular. So I passed on it.

The cheapest plan by far, which is the bulk of my expense, was Sprint PCS. To get a shared minutes family plan with free mobile-to-mobile calls and free evenings and weekends starting at 7 pm, and unlimited data for the Treo, it was only $75 a month. The next cheapest plan was Cingular, who had a plan with a few more anytime minutes with Rollover, but their data cost was higher and as a result the total monthly from them with unlimited data for the Treo would have been $110 a month, and their nighttime didn't start until 9 pm. Verizon's web site wouldn't even let me pair a Treo 650 into a family plan at all, and their cheapest single-line, unlimited data monthly fee was starting at $105 a month, plus we'd have to get Kim a plan on top of that!

The Treo does a lot of cool stuff. I've been using it to read my Bloglines feeds, it can do email, sync with Outlook, and of course, run Palm software, which I haven't got any yet but will soon. The phone comes with a USB cable you can use to sync to a PC or you can use BlueTooth for that also if your PC supports it. I haven't tried syncing yet, am about to do that today. Looks like I will definitely need a memory card, however, to store applications and mp3's.

The screen on it is just awesome. Very visible, even during the day, and in the dark it's nice because the qwerty keyboard is backlit. I like the heft of the stylus, it's fairly large and heavy, which is nice for my big ass fingers. Using the stylus is nice for navigation, but when you need to type something it is a bit awkward to have to hold the stylus while "thumbing" out what you want to type. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

The one downside to this whole affair is that they sent me the 650 sans camera, and I wanted the camera model. After about two hours on the phone last night with their support, I should be getting a new one with the camera sent to me sometime next week. Then I can ship them back the old one in a return box they are sending to me. I'll post again when I have tried more software for it, including... games!

Xbox 360 First Impressions

2006-06-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

I got my free Xbox 360 from GoGamer.Com last night. Xbox Live is awesome now. I didn’t have any games for it yet, but that didn’t matter because there was a ton of stuff to download and try via Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. They had free demos of games, and they also had some cool arcade style games you could try for free or if you want to buy them you can just download the full game. Almost all the arcade games support multiplayer over Live. Live Arcade has classics like Joust, or Gauntlet, and newer puzzle-style games, and also a really cool shooter similar to Robotron 2089 called Geometry Wars.

I also had a buddy with a 360 that I hooked up with. The chat is awesome, you can sit there voice chatting with your buddy while playing games or just browsing the menus. You can also be downloading stuff while playing games (as long as they aren’t multiplayer online games otherwise it’s too laggy). It’s got a really slick interface and was a joy to use. You can even power on and power off the 360 using the wireless controller. The headset plugs right into your wireless controller, so you can talk and hear your buddy via the headset while playing. The only downside to the chat is that out-of-game chatting only works with one person at a time, you can’t set up like a group meeting room with all your friends chatting at once while doing different things. If you’re all in the same game then you can hear each other, but the system-wide chat is limited to one at a time. Hopefully they will improve this.

I should be getting some games this weekend, I made a deal with a guy to buy his Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo for $60. The post office tried to deliver yesterday but I guess they wanted a signature and we weren’t home. I might not get them until I can go up there Saturday. I played some of the demo for Tomb Raider Legends and it looked great, but my friend Ryan said it was really short, he spent like 10 hours to play everything and get all the points. I might end up renting that one.

Oh yeah, that reminds me… Gamer Points! You get a gamer profile on Xbox Live now that tracks your reputation and your gamer points. Each game you play you can win different “Achievements” that go on your profile record, and you can earn up to 1000 points per game. Some games make it hard to earn all the points, and some make it easier, it’s completely up to the game publishers, they can award up to 1000 points for their game, and they get to decide how to award the points to the players. But for example, I got 25 points by unlocking 3 achievements last night in the free game that comes with the 360 (a puzzle game, similar to Columns). You can view your friend’s achievements and see what games they’ve played. It’s pretty cool. The points aren’t really good for anything other than bragging rights, but it’s still kind of neat. Ryan had like 13,000 points or so. He plays a lot.

The reputation thing I think is some kind of tracker to help you weed out the idiots. I think if someone rates you as an idiot it lowers your rating and if they rate you as cool it raises it.

I’d say the 360 is a vast improvement over the original Xbox. Now if they can just come out with some great games that aren’t on the PC I’d be really happy. A lot of the games for it have PC versions, and generally I’ll take PC over console because my gaming PC is usually nicer than playing on console (although I was pretty impressed with how good the 360 looked at 720p HD). Two of the 360’s best games I already have on the PC (Call of Duty 2 and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion). Looking forward to Gears of War later this year, that one looked great on the E3 coverage.

I’ll post more info later, when I have played some actual full retail games on it.

BTW, GoGamer.com is giving away 4 more Xbox 360's in the month of June, so be sure and read the official rules about how to play!

If you have a 360 then look for "virtuadept" on Xbox Live!

Real Arcade Redux

2006-05-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

I once blogged about Real Arcade. This is Real Network's online gaming thingy. You can access it for free, and download all the demos you want. Most of the games are priced between $10 and $20 normally, if you aren't a subscriber. However, for a subscription fee of $8/month to Real Arcade GamePass, you get 1 free game per month, and a $5 discount on all the other games you buy that month. Once you buy a game it is the full version and yours to keep and play forever*. Pretty much all the games I've played on there are worth a pidly $8 which is what you pay to get a free one each month. You do need to remember to log in each month to use your free credit, because they do not cary over at the end of the month. Use it or lose it.

So anyway the reason I am posting about this again now is that I had quit the service a long time ago, but just now resubscribed. If you subscribe now, they are giving away a free game called SuperCollapse II which is a puzzle game somewhat similar to Columns except stuff comes up from the bottom, and it has several variations. Also if you subscribe now, you get another free game of your choice. Your first month is free, and even if you keep the two free games and then quit you pay nothing and have no obligations. You can quit the service at any time. I couldn't pass that deal up.

If you like casual games, especially puzzle games, I recommend checking Real Arcade GamePass out, it's a pretty sweet deal now if you ask me. It got me to resubscribe. You can also just view the list of the games they offer. Also a really cool pirate trading game called Tradewinds Legends is now marked down to $10, or only $5 if you are a subscriber. If you're looking for another game to use your free game credit on, I recommend either Geneforge or Geneforge 2 if you like RPG games. Don't let the retro graphics of those games fool you, they have very cool gameplay depth.

Lastly, if you do decide to sign up for this, and you don't mind me benefiting from it, I can get a 15% off coupon if I email you an invitation that you can use to sign up with. But if you don't, that's okay too. Other than that I do not get any benefit from Real for writing this, I just thought it was a sweet deal (two free games with no strings attached), so I decided to post about it.

* Forever - but don't lose the email account you used to sign up to real, because to access Real Arcade to re-download the game in case you reformatted or something, you need that email address (and preferably the password but it will email that to you if you forgot). However, I think you can back the games up to a CD or something but I haven't tried that to make sure it works when you copy it back to your hard drive.

Best of E3

2006-05-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

First of all Nintendo is the "winner" of E3 this year with an absolutely amazing show this year, having 27 playable games on the floor for their new Wii console, tons of DS game announcements, and an awesome press conference for it all. They showed up Sony so bad I could feel Ken's pain. Microsoft even did better than Sony, showing actual games and having tons of great announcements for new 360 games, PC games, and Live Anywhere.

Best Console of E3 goes to Nintendo Wii. This will be a game system that changes the way we play games. I can't wait, actually, this will be the first console I'm excited enough to buy at launch in a long, long time.

This is my list of the best games shown at E3 based on watching video footage and reading previews. Since I didn't go to E3 this year, obviously I didn't get any actual play time in.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo Wii - This game looks to be absolutely fantastic, probably the best Zelda since Ocarina of Time. Really looking forward to this one. The added functionality of using the wii-mote is just icing on the cake. I can see this game as a definite Wii system-seller. While there will be a GameCube version of this game, I will most definitely be buying it for Wii.

Super Mario Galaxy (working title) - Nintendo Wii - An amazing remake of the quintessential platformer, using the wii-mote for all kinds of new controls on Mario. Looks to be another system-seller for Nintendo Wii. If this and Zelda are available at launch, we're probably looking at the best console launch in the history of gaming.

Nintendo had tons of other great looking games for Wii lined up, and I could devote this whole blog entry to it, but I'll just go ahead and give some of the other platforms some time instead.

Gears of War - Microsoft Xbox 360 - Not just a standard run-and-gun, Gears of War requires strategy and careful use of cover to keep from getting blown away. Duck behind a wall, then lean out and shoot, etc. The gameplay video shown during MS's press conf. was absolutely amazing to watch. And gore is back, baby! Rated M for Mature, this game should satisfy your darker cravings.

Shadowrun (working title) - Microsoft Xbox 360 and PC - An FPS action game set in FASA's amazing pen and paper RPG setting, Shadowrun, this game had some great looking visuals, online multiplayer, and more. Just on concept alone I'm willing to give this game a nod.

Assassin's Creed - Sony Playstation 3 - Looking to be a cross between Thief: The Dark Project and platformer Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, this game combines stealth with acrobatics, in an amazingly cool concept. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any gameplay footage for this yet, but knowing how well this team did on PoPSoT, I'm expecting great things. The trailer for this game is totally awesome, worth a look, go download it now.

Final Fantasy XIII - Sony Playstation 3 - Looking to be a great addition to the premier RPG franchise. This time there will be several spin off games too.

Crysis - PC - This amazing game will be the shooter to look for on the PC. I already blogged about it below.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic - PC - From the creators of Arx Fatalis comes an amazing action/RPG set in the Might & Magic universe. This game has amazing visuals, great environmental effects and interaction (physics, etc), and awesome AI. Looks to be as good as Oblivion, possibly, maybe even better.

There were so many other great looking games shown or announced this year at E3 it is unreal. Late 2006 and 2007 looks to be one of the best times to be a gamer in the history of games!

Crysis

2006-05-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Crytek, the developers of Far Cry have shown their new game Crysis at E3, which uses the greatly enhanced CryEngine. I think I want to cry, this game looks to be "da bomb". Graphics are absolutely stunning, especially the jungle stuff. If this has Far Cry's excellent AI, and the rumors that they are implementing a proper QuickSave function this time out, Crysis could be the first person shooter to watch for on the PC. You can watch the videos on Gamespot's Crysis page.

World of Warcraft Movie

2006-05-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

World of Warcraft is heading to the big screen [thanks Ars Technica]. Blizzard has shown that they have a cinematic flair with all of their excellent cut-scenes in their games, so hopefully this will be a first - an actually good video game movie.

Just as long as Uwe Boll goes nowhere near it.

Vanguard to be SOE StationAccess Game

2006-05-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is the hard-core MMORPG that is being developed by Brad McQuaid at Sigil Games Online. Brad was the lead designer of the orignal EverQuest. Apparently although Sigil previously had arrangements with Microsoft for them to be the publisher, they've bought those rights back and instead have made a deal with Sony Online Entertainment to add Vanguard to their stable of games under the Sony StationAccess Pass program. Good or bad? I dunno, but it's a bit more likely I might give Vanguard a try some day maybe. New brought to you via Aggro-Me, where there is a lot more analysis of this merger.

Lunar Knights DS

2006-05-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

Joystiq posted up a blurb about an upcomming RPG for the Nintendo DS, Lunar Knights. This is apparently set in the same world as the awesome Lunar: Silver Star Story and Lunar: Eternal Blue originally for the Sega CD, then Saturn, Then Playstation. This one has vampires!

Nintendo DS Upcomming Releases

2006-05-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

Joystiq has posted a list of over 100 upcomming Nintendo DS titles! Wow, 2006 and 2007 will be great years to own a NDS or NDS Lite!

Best. Game. Review. Evar.

2006-05-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Alex at These Damn Machines Are Killing Me has an interesting take on the FPS game for Playstation 2 and Xbox, Black. Ka-BOOM!

Microsoft's Press Conference

2006-05-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's conference was not as exciting as Nintendo's, but still better than Sony's.

They opened up with an amazing demo including a play-through of the first level for Gears of War. This game could be a system-seller, it looks flat out amazing. It's a third-person shooter, with lots of cool gore and amazing damage and weapon effects. You use cover a lot, popping out to shoot, then back to cover, etc. This will be a pure adrenaline-junkie game, fast and furious action.

They announced a bunch of titles but many of them we'd heard of already. They did show a Halo 3 trailer, but it had no gameplay footage. They announced Grand Theft Auto 4 which will debut on the Xbox 360 (but possibly other systems as well). They showed a trailer for Alan Wake, which looks to be a great action/adventure title, but should also get a PC release. They showed some Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway footage. Some Blue Dragon footage that I'd already seen before, but they said this game would hit Japan first, so all the Japanese players can buy it before the US players. Yes, both of them. They showed a trailer for a new Shadowrun game which will also get a PC release, and this was the most exciting news for me, an RPG fan and a big fan of the Shadowrun setting.

They talked a lot about Xbox Live Arcade and announced some games for that. This really is a cool part about the 360, and I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with it, when I finally get my free Xbox 360. Probably the most exciting title mentioned was Lumines Live, a multiplayer version of the PSP hit puzzler.

The biggest news, however, was the changes to the Xbox Live system. They are calling it Live Anywhere, because you will be able to hook up with Live subscribers via your Xbox 360, your Windows Vista PC, or even your mobile phone. Download a puzzle game from Xbox Live Arcade, and you'll be able to play it on your 360, on your mobile phone, or on your Vista PC. Hook up for a game of Shadowrun and play it on your PC while others are playing on their 360's. It should be an amazing thing if Microsoft does it right. The only downside I see is they didn't say they'd support Windows XP, yet they were bragging about an installed base of hundreds of millions of PC users. Well, yeah, Bill, but we aren't all on Vista yet, and many of us won't even have Vista-ready hardware for a while. Hint hint.

Bill Gates was a terribly boring speaker, mostly because he talked more about the business side of things. It was fun to listen to Peter Moore talk, however, because he pronounced things so funny, like RENAY-saunce, and FRON-chises. Overall though, Microsoft put on a good show, and it was well worth watching if you have any interest in PC gaming or Xbox gaming.

Nintendo Press Conference

2006-05-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Nintendo's press conference at E3 was amazing. They brought the Revolution/Wii out right away, and yes, Wii is apparently the official name, it wasn't a joke. But the Wii looks incredible and is going to have an amazing line-up of games. The "wii-mote" remote/wand controller truly does appear to work very well and will change the way we play games. Here's some of the games they announced for Wii:

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - yes, it's a full Wii game, with enhanced graphics and of course fully using the wii-mote interface, you use the nunchuk addon to control Link's movement and shield, and the wii-mote to aim and attack and for most functions. The interface looked slick. And the wii-mote apparently has a speaker and rumble capability, which is used to great effect in the new Zelda. When you pull your bow string back, you'll hear it right on your wii-mote, and feel it get taunt. When you shove your nun-chuk forward, you'll bash with Link's shield and feel it. Yes, that's right, the nun-chuk also has the motion/position detection in it, and force feedback on it too. And for those unlucky enough not to score a Wii, there will be a version of Twilight Princess released for the GameCube as well with standard GC controls. Best of all, this game will be a launch title for the Wii.

Red Steel - The Ubisoft shooter/brawler. Apparently you're some kind of vigilante or cop, I'm not sure but you shoot bad guys with the wii-mote and move with the nun-chuk, and you can also do all kinds of cool moves, plus you can sword fight with the wii-mote, using it like an actual sword (oh yeah, forgot to mention that you also do this for Link in the Zelda game). While Zelda will concentrate on the adventure and puzzle solving aspects, Red Steel focuses on the action.

Super Mario Galaxy - this will be a system launch Mario game for the Wii and it looked great. You use the wii-mote to direct mario, but it's not clear to me how that worked, although it seems like the wii-mote has very precise motion detection and can detect mere flicks of the wrist to do stuff in Mario.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - we only got to see glimpses of this but it looked amazing and will use a control scheme similar to what I described for Red Steel. This I think will be a 2007 release.

Wii Sports - up to four players can whip our their wii-sticks to play tennis, golf, or baseball, and the motion of the controller is used exactly like you'd expect to control your player, so you'll swing it like a golf club in the golf game, or like a tennis racket in the tennis game, or like a baseball bat in the baseball game. Should be fun, the tennis demo looked really neat.

Several others were mentioned or shown, including a Rayman game, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, ExciteTruck (sort of a 3D "exitebike" but with an off-road 4x4 truck instead), Metroid Prime 3, Project H.A.M.M.E.R. (some kind of beat-em-up I think), Animal Crossing, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Super Smash Bros. Wii, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Batallion Wars Wii, Pilot Wings, Pokemon, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Donkey Kong Wii, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Fire Emblem Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Madden 07, NCAA Football 07, NBA Live, NASCAR 07. Also they said that 27 games would be playable on the E3 floor so we should be hearing a lot more about those games this week.

But that wasn't the only thing exciting at the conference. Nintendo also revealed a bunch of new DS titles, such as a new Yoshi's Island 2, a new Kirby game, a Star Fox game, DiddyKong Racing, Magical Vacation, and more, plus games we already knew about such as the Final Fantasy III remake got some great footage shown. The DS will be the handheld to own this year.

In short, Nintendo pwned Sony, their show was far more exciting and far more cool stuff was shown, with actual gameplay footage, not just cinematics. The only downside is that they did not announce a price or a firm launch date yet.

SONY - Others Innovate, We Immitate!

2006-05-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sony's big E3 Press Conference was today, watched it live via GameSpot. Several big pieces of news were announced today:

1. Sony's new online service will feature micropayments ala Microsoft's Live Marketplace.

2. Sony is launching the PS3 on November 17 with two versions: a 20gb HD version for $499, and a 60gb HD version for $599.

Edit: 20GB model MAY not have HDMI, wifi, or a memory card slot. Read the spec sheet carefully, it looks like the HD may not be the only difference.

3. Sony's new controller looks exactly like their existing Dual Shock controllers for PS2, except these have some kind of gyro-sensor in them so that you can turn, rotate, tilt, lift, etc and the controller can sense these movements. Basically they are ripping off Nintendo's Revolution/Wii controller here.

4. Final Fantasy XIII will be a Playstation 3 title and looks AMAZING!

Most of the game footage they showed was obviously pre-rendered cinematics, or at the very least, in-game cinematics but not actual gameplay footage. One demo, however, showed some very impressive actual-gameplay footage, called Resistance: Fall of Man. Basically it looks like a very well done first person shooter. Excellent graphics and the gameplay looked solid, but nothing terribly innovative from what I could tell.

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2006-04-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

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Oblivion - Impressions After 16 Hours

2006-03-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

So far I've spent about 16 or 17 hours with Oblivion, and now feel like I'm familiar enough with the game to make some non-spoily comments.

Overall Oblivion is the most immersive game I've ever played, period. You really feel like you're there, in a richly detailed fantasy world, and there's very little to the game to pull you back to reality and make you feel like "oh yeah, I'm playing a game". Every time I've sat down to play I've been under for hours without even realizing the time flew by. The game lets you chart your own path and do your own things. There's a bazillion quests, a bazillion dungeons to explore, and more. YOu can play the game however you want, be it stealthy, gung-ho actiony, or however. It's extremely flexible.

Graphics are probably the best I've seen in any game, especially the outdoors landscapes. The forests literally look like real forests. The terrain looks realistic. There's plants and grass, and it's all so extremely realistic. In towns the detail is astounding, and the architecture has a very realisic style to it, you really feel like this could be a medieval town. The skies are excellent, and quite beautiful no matter what time of day it is, and constantly changing. Indoors, in the dungeons, feels like a dungeon. There are traps to avoid, it's gloomy, the rocks and walls all feel very realistic. The game's excellent physics system is another factor in adding to the immersion of this game.

The faces on NPCs are somewhat ugly in many cases, but look realistic. I think Bethesda was going for a specific realism factor over beauty and style. Facial expressions and the lip synching during the all-voice-acted conversations is also realistic. Almost all the voice work I've heard so far is very good if not great. Patrick Steward did an amazing job as the Emperor. In addition to the voice work the other sound effects are well done, and so is the game's music. The music has an epic feel to it during the highlights and battles, and a more subdued, quiet feel during exploring.

This is a game a person can spend hours and hours just exploring the world. In many ways it sticks to the same formula as Morrowind did. I never got into Morrowind, though, because I felt that the NPCs were too stale and the quests were too boring. So far that hasn't been the case with Oblivion, but this is still an Elder Scrolls game. Don't come to this game expecting a different style of game than it is. If you didn't like the style of MW, you won't like Oblivion either. Non-linear, explore the world at your own pace, that's what this game is about. There is a main quest, and I've heard that some have finished that in around 16 hours or so. I haven't really tried rushing through that, although I did do the first bit of it with the gate to Oblivion. Oblivion is another plane, where the demons come from, and you do get to explore the demon realm of Oblivion, which is kind of cool.

The game system seems pretty much the same as Morrowind's. Basically you have a "class" but that only determines what skills you start with, and the actual gameplay itself determines which skills go up. I had to restart after closing the first Oblivion portal, I couldn't handle the stuff in Kvatch and I was noticing real problems when leveling up my custom class "Asskicker" on my Dark Elf character. I had too many unrelated skills and the character just wasn't focused well enough I think.

So I decided to make a blue-haired mage name Kudos, a high-elf. I made it through the starter dungeon and started exploring some nearby ruins. I think I'm going to like this character better. I said "mage" but really this is another custom class, I call a "Spellsling". Magic specialization, favored stats of Intelligence and Willpower. Skills are Destruction, Conjuring, Restoration, Stealth, Security, Marksmanship, Light Armor. Tactics so far involve sneaking up on people, shooting them with a poisoned arrow, then shoot again until they close to melee, then fry their ass with spells. Seems to be working so far, but I haven't even gotten a level up yet. Anyone want to comment on my choices?

Yet, Oblivion is not perfect. There have been a number of complaints from people who have experienced crashes. I myself have experienced one crash to desktop in 16 hours of play. I've also had the game lock up or crash when exiting a couple of times. Performance, on the other hand, is excellent, the game runs extremely smooth for me. My rig is far from top of the line, but also not bottom feeding either. P4 3.2ghz, 1gb RAM, GF 6800GS 256mb.

The other not quite as bad flaw is the game's interface. It definitely has some consolitus going on. There's not enough customization allowed on the keyboard, and the menu system is a bit slow and cumbersome to work with. Not hard to figure out, but not efficient. The game does allow you to hotkey weapons to number slots (or spells, or potions). But you can only use keys 1 - 8, for some unknown reason. On the plus side, the game pauses if you hit the menu key (i've remapped it, it defaults to TAB), and then you can select spells or equip weapons on that screen, even during a combat.

The Journal automatically keeps track of quests which is nice. It will even put a marker on your compass to let you know where you need to go. You can also bring up a map, and if you don't want to go overland the long way, there is a quick-travel icon that you can click the places on the map you've visited (and some you haven't) and instantly travel to that location. That's pretty handy for getting around this very large game world.

In conclusion, Oblivion has sucked me in like no game since World of Warcraft. I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. Right now if I had to rate this game I'd give it 9 / 10. I consider this a must-own game for anyone who prefers a non-linear, free to do what you want style of RPG. If you played and enjoyed Morrowind, this is a must-own game, it's got everything good about Morrowind and a lot more and does it all all a lot better. If you didn't enjoy Morrowind, you might not like Oblivion depending on what you didn't like about Morrowind.

I'll post more on this game probably in a few weeks when I have played even further and hopefully know more about game balance, have experienced more of the quests, and can give more insight into the setting/story.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - First Impressions

2006-03-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

I never really liked Morrowind that much, so I surprised myself when I decided to pre-order Bethesda's latest RPG in the franchise, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. So far Oblivion has grabbed me like no PC game in a long while, and I just hope it lasts.

The first thing I noticed about Oblivion is the graphics. Oblivion has pretty much the best graphics of any PC game I've ever seen. The forests/outdoors are so realistic it's mind blowing. The only game I've seen that has water in the same league as this is Half Life 2's Lost Coast demo. Oblivion uses an HDR (High-Dynamic Range) technique for lighting that gives it a very realistic feel. Character models and animations are very realistic, especially facial expressions on the NPCs when they are talking to you, it's like they can convey emotion.

So, the eye candy is very nice, but Oblivion also has gameplay coming out of it's ass. But it's a lot like MW's gameplay, so if you didn't like the "explore everywhere, do your own thing, living world" aspect of MW you won't like Oblivion's. But Oblivion does it better, much better in fact than any game I've ever played. It's truly an open-ended RPG, but it also has a pretty interesting main quest so far.

The physics system is perhaps the best I've ever seen in any game. It's absolutely amazing. At the very beginning of the game you find a bow and arrows, and there's a well with a bucket hanging above the well. If you shoot the bucket, the arrow sticks in it, and the weight of the arrow alters the center of gravity on the bucket making it tilt slightly. Retrive yoru arrow and the bucket readjusts back to center. This is just one example, but everything so far in the world just feels right, it's quite amazing. Bodies of slain enemies when falling down seem to fall realistically. There was another scene that was pretty cool where a bunch of goblins were standing around down an incline and there was a stack of logs, I snuck up and pushed the logs over and they rolled down the hill, crushing the goblins.

I've been reading some reports from people that have had crashes and stability issues. So far, I've not had a single crash or lock-up. About 6 hours of play time so far, in two long sessions. It's really too early to say how widespread the crashing is.

The menu interface could be better. Not all functions can be assigned to hotkeys and not all keys are reconfigurable, but most are. I haven't bothered doing it tho, the default interface is pretty good. Much better than Gothic games, I'll say that. And I was willing to put up with a lame UI for Gothic. Oblivion's interface takes a little getting used to but it isn't non-intuitive like Gothic was. The menus aren't terribly efficient, but they're easy to figure out.

You can hotkey spells and equipment to the number keys. So I have 1 set to my sword, 2 set to my bow, and 3 set to my fireball spell. I set 5 up for the healing spell. Stuff like that. Makes it very quick to select what you want to do and do it. And as a bonus, unlike MW, you can have a spell active and a weapon active at the same time so you can bash away and heal yourself without swapping out. I haven't gotten good at blocking, I am going to have to learn that soon. But so far I'm more of a ranged guy, using stealth and then shooting my bow gives a massive damage bonus, so I can take out a lot of enemies with one hit.

Game system is a lot like Morrowind's. I'm just hoping it's more balanced than MW's was. I can't really say for sure if it is or not, still early in the game. I can say that I'm enjoying this game immensely more than MW, and the game system this time around for some reason isn't a detraction. I usually hate systems where you get better at skills by using them versus spending points on what you want, but Oblivion so far is so immersive it just feels right. That may be the "new" of the game tho, so I'll report more back after I've gotten past the initial excitement to see if it still has appeal later.

I just got a new keyboard, a Zboard MERC, which lets me customize the keys even if the game doesn't, and has a very nice "fps" layout with tons of keys very handy together on the left side. I haven't had to customize keys yet but I can see where I might want to a bit. The MERC keyboard so far is pretty nice, I can see this being a real boon for FPS games especially. So far all the keys in Oblivion mapped to appropriate and intuitive keys on the MERC without me having to do anything except for the inventory (tab) key, which is a bit smallish and I might want to reassign that one. There's even a quick-save, quick-load pair of buttons on the merc real handy like and those mapped automatically too.

Going to play more Oblivion tonight and over the weekend, and will post more about it later. I'll also post more about my impressions of the MERC keyboard when I have a chance.