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Darksiders II Review

2012-09-11T21:17:00.003-05:00

First off, sorry it has taken this long to get this review up, but it's actually a good thing. Darksiders II (heretofore to be labeled "DII" [as opposed to D2:The Mighty Ducks]) is a delightfully long game in a time where it seems 6-8 hour campaigns are the norm. My game time after finishing the story was just south of 21 hours and I still have 4-5 sidequests to complete before starting a New Game+ to go get my platinum (I stupidly didn't do this playthrough on the hardest difficulty so now I have to beat the entire game again!).
Enough of my long-winded intro though, DII is a game that every action-adventure RPG fan should play. DII casts you as Death, one of the four horseman of the Apocalypse, and the tale takes place during the 100 years your brother (and "hero" of the first game) War was imprisoned by the Charred Council for bringing about the Apocalypse. Death's task is to clear his brother's name.
If you haven't played the first game, it's not necessary to understand for DII , but you should play it. I labeled the first game as "The best Zelda game I've played in a while," and DII sticks close to that formula while expanding on other components.
One of those components is the addition of sweet, sweet loot. What "serious" gamer doesn't love loot? There's a reason (besides being good games) that Borderlands, Fallout and Diablo are such loved games: loot. The joy of killing an enemy only to see a pair of scythes (main character Death's primary weapon) come bursting out is unexplainable. In the first game, you simply leveled up War's sword by using it, but in DII you get all new weapons. Developer Vigil Games also does the nice thing of displaying the stats before you even pick up the weapon! Thanks Vigil!
Another addition is some skill-tree building. Death levels up (to level 30) by killing enemies and completing main and sidequests (also a new component). Vigil did another thing to keep gamers playing by having your EXP bar on display at all times. It's tough to put down a controller when that bar is nearing the end on the right.
The Darksiders franchise has been described as a mash-up of Zelda, God of War and Devil May Cry. Now add Prince of Persia to that list. Death has many ways of traversing the environment. He can vertically and horizontally on walls and hang from ledges and wooden planks. It's fun watching someone who is good at platforming (i.e. not really me) play DII. The Zelda comparisons are fine as DII has an "open-world" overworld and features dungeon crawling and puzzle solving. The God of War and DMC comparisons are due to the free-flow hack-and-slash style gameplay, and you know what? All of those disparate parts fit well together. DII is absolutely a fun game to play. The combo-driven gameplay works. The Zelda-elements and platforming are fun. If you play any of those games, give DII a chance.
The voice acting and writing is also top-notch and at times downright funny. Death has some really funny one-liners (try summoning your horse, Despair, where he isn't welcome.) The writing fuels a good story that is well worth the 15-20 hours of gameplay.
(Here comes the "Having said that.")
Having said that, there are some weak points to DII, mainly, this game feels like it should have been the first in the series. Remember when I said you don't need to play the first game to understand the second? I'm not in favor of that move especially because of how the first game ended ("No, not alone.") The first game set itself up perfectly for a direct sequel but instead we were given an (admittedly very good) side-quel or what Japanese developers would label as "Gaiden."
Vigil would have been better served giving fans of the first game the sequel we were led to believe was coming after that ending. It was frustrating finishing this game because it ends with the same scene as the first (that's not a spoiler)! By doing that, Vigil (if it gets to make a DIII and I hope it does) has no reason not to give us a direct sequel now. Now, it could go the other route and give us games featuring the other two horsemen, Strife and Fury (one is a female!), showing what they did during War's imprisonment, but we want to see what happens when they all get together! Come on Vigil!
The fact that my biggest criticism of the game is "Why should I care about the story?" shouldn't scare you away. It's still a good, albeit hard to follow, story. I'm just not sure it was needing to be told. We learned who the main villain of the Apocalypse is in the first game and there's a sidequest in DII that features a character that says something like "I need to find out who is behind all of this!" We know who's behind all of it! If this game was the first to come out, it would make sense, but as it is, it's frustrating. We know that character failed to do anything.
Another omission left out is probably a very personal thing. I love hunting down heart pieces in Zelda. In the first game, War hunted down life and wrath (mana) stones. Those have been removed. Granted there are more collectibles in this game, but I enjoy searching for those.
Darksiders II takes many cues from many different games and fuses them together to make a very good game that deserves to be played.The game falters behind the original only in story. The first game told a great and compelling story, the second one, while still good, falters. DII also doesn't look quite as good as the first one for some reason, but it still looks good.
Hopefully THQ's financial situation will strengthen and we can get one or two more of these games because there is a lot of mythology to tell. If THQ falters, I hope another publisher picks up Vigil and lets them continue.
Rating: 9/10

NCAA 13 review

2012-07-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

So if you know anything about us you know full well that The Outlander is a member of the (insert funny name here) media group of websites, blogs and podcasts.
We're still thinking up a name for the conglomerate. Right now it includes myself (Nick Livingston), Kyle Vrska, Josh Hastings, Mike Erwin, Haley Dennis and everyone else involved with the Lawton Sports Blog, The Argument and The Visitors Section.
So in the spirit of cross pollination, here is the video game review of NCAA 13 from the guys over at The Visitors Section.

Resistance: Burning Skies Review

2012-06-22T17:43:00.000-05:00

Resistance: Burning Skies has gotten a bad rap. Somehow it holds a 58 on Metacritic and has received scores as low as a 2/10 (Destructoid). Upon completion of the game and getting the platinum trophy (easiest platinum ever), my question is why?

Granted, it is not as good as the Resistance games on Playstation 3, but then again how could it be? Two of those three games are amazing (Resistance 2 isn't). Burning Skies has a good story that is better than most first-person shooters. The franchise has made a living on its story and universe and Burning Skies, while slightly lesser, is a very good addition to it.

The game is the first handheld-FPS that has had two analog sticks and it plays like a dream. It's easy to aim and shoot. I haven't seen a review that says the controls aren't good, so I'm not going to go into detail about them. Just know it works very well.

The story takes place at the beginning of the Chimeran invasion of America ('Merica!), between Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2. It follows the trials of NYFD fireman Tom Riley and his quest to find/save his family. Along the way he meets up with freedom-fighter Ellie who helps in his quest. Ellie is a strong woman and a likeable character. Sometimes her voice is a bit over the top, but that's no big deal. You don't know much about Riley, but I don't feel like that is needed in order to tell this story.

The complaint about the story being told is we already know what happens in the end (for people that have never played Resistance [shame on you] this is mild-spoilers): the Chimera take New York City and almost the entire country. Who cares? This type of thing happens all the time in games. Halo: Reach? The upcoming God of War: Ascension? I definitely never heard anyone beat up Reach for its story. Just because we know the ending it doesn't make the story bad. Burning Skies tells a good, solid story.

Now the best part of the game? The weapons. Burning Skies features the best shotgun of any game I have ever played. It is awesome. It also features series staples like the human carbine (love it) and the Chimeran Bullseye (not a fan, but still good). The Chimeran assault rifle, the Hunter, is an awesome weapon. Every weapon in the game is cool and fun to use. The best weapon in the game is undoubtedly Riley's axe. It's your melee weapon and it's a lot of fun to sink into a Chimera's neck. I loved using it. All of the weapons secondary functions (carbine's grenade launcher, Hunter's drone) are controlled via the touchscreen which is very responsive.

The one problem of the game for me was the enemy A.I. It's not great, in fact it's sub-par, but it's not enough to wreck the game for me. The developer (Nihilistic) made the a game a little too easy, but who cares? The difficulty of the game (it's very hard on Superhuman which is unlocked after completing the game once), I feel, should not be reflected in the game's score. Would I have liked it to be harder? Probably, but the final boss is quite difficult.

All in all, Burning Skies is a very good game and I think should be owned by every Vita owner. It's a very fun game that works very VERY well. Multiplayer works well and is fun if you're into that kind of thing (I'm generally not). The story is good enough, though it could have been better and a little longer (5-6 hours or so will get you through it). I enjoyed my time with the game and think people were a little harsh. Is it the best Vita game? No (Uncharted is). Is it worth owning? Absolutely. I think the biggest mistake was Sony letting Nihilistic (not owned by Sony) develop the game instead of a first-party studio (one of the European studios perhaps?) which might spell the end of the franchise. Still, the game plays well and I think that, if given the chance, Nihilistic might be able to make a sequel that would be truly great. I hope Sony gives them (or someone else) another chance.

Score: 7/10

Retro Review: Final Fantasy IV redux

2012-06-14T21:04:00.000-05:00

Nick here, so I got a Vita and the first thing I buy for it is Final Fantasy IV.
As a preface, there is a way to show when you grew up. You simply ask the question, "What is your favorite Final Fantasy game?"
For me, the answer is, and always has been, Final Fantasy IV. However, I loved it when it was Final Fantasy II on the SNES.
What FF4 is for me is a game that really pulled me into gaming. Before FF4 I played Mario, Zelda, a lot of the old NES games at friends' houses. However, FF4 was the first time I put a RPG into a game system and just played and played until my eyes bled.
Not literally, mind you, I was a young child, but this was the first game I ever worried I would play so much I wouldn't go to sleep and it would have messed with my chores in the morning (it never really did).
Back then I loved the stories of Cecil's fall and redemption, his love affair with Rosa and the friendship-enemy back and fourth with Kain.
Then there's Rydia, sweet Rydia.
Rydia is my favorite FF character of all time. It's not because I had a youthful crush on her back in 1991, though I did as much as a real boy can have with an 8-bit pixelation of a girl with green hair.
No, the reason I love Rydia is because she can summon monsters, and more than that, she can summon dragons.
To understand that love you have to understand my childhood. We didn't have cable television, and we didn't really watch much TV at all. Instead, I being the youngest of five kids with the next youngest being 10 years older than me I got to watch the other four play role playing games around the kitchen table.
I would sit there with my jaw wide open and my eyes locked on miniatures while they played Dungeons and Dragons and BattleTech.
As soon as I could read, I was grabbing those manuals and reading them myself. However, by that time many of the older siblings had started to move away, and all were too old to play those games anymore.
So I spent a lot of my youth in my room rolling up characters and imagining wild adventures through the realms of D&D and BattleTech.
It was the D&D Monster Manual that I loved to leaf through the most, looking at Beholders and Dragons for hours. I don't think I ever really memorized any of the crunchy numbers, but it was the ideas I soaked up like what color dragon spit what and what they were vulnerable to.
So when I saw a video game a few short years later that had the same kind of D&D adventure I had been playing forever, I was in love.
When Rydia was able to summon that Mist Dragon I was even more in love. When she got Bahamut? I was sold forever.
So when I bought it on PSP I was a little worried that all of those wonderful memories would let me down. That I had put the game on a pedestal that it could never reach up to.
To my joy, those worries were dead wrong.
Instead, FF4 delivered me back to those days in front of the old TV in my family room, sitting cross-legged on the floor and cursing the name of Golbez. It was just an amazing time to go back and feel lost, but at the same time feel like you never left Baron, Fabul and Mysidia.
The story even holds up over time, and certainly doesn't seem as campy as many of the games from that era are. The graphics are not great, for sure, but they are decent and have really stood up well.
In all, I couldn't recommend a game more, if not just for a stroll down memory lane if you ever played it before.
It's worth every penny.

E3 Impressions

2012-06-12T15:59:00.001-05:00

So I'm a few days late. I apologize but I was really busy at the end of last week. Here are my thoughts of E3 2012.

1. Beyond: Two Souls - I loved Quantic Dream's 2010 title Heavy Rain. I'm a big fan of engaging, deep storytelling in video games. Heavy Rain was a playable movie basically. Contrary to popular belief, it's not just a series of quicktime events. At any rate, Heavy Rain was a wonderful murder mystery tale. Beyond looks like it's going to blow the doors off of Heavy Rain. It will feature the same type of gameplay, but with some tweaks. Ellen Page (Juno) stars as Jody Holmes who possesses a unique "partnership" with a supernatural being named Aiden. Quantic Dream didn't show any gameplay at the Sony Conference, but the cutscene (which is presumably from the game) they did show was amazing.
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NEup8y0g-Q

2. The Last of Us - I love Naughty Dog and this game looks simply amazing. There's really nothing I can add to what Nick thinks. Just know that I'm unbelievably excited for this game.

3. Playstation All-Stars - Well they didn't change the name. Oh well. I love Smash Bros and I love Playstation. Perfect mix for me. I wish they would have just copied Smash Bros 100%, but they are trying to make it a little different. It's going to be extremely fun and the addition of Big Daddy was awesome to see.

4. Playstation Vita - SONY WHY YOU HAS NO VITA GAMES AT PRESS CONFERENCE!? Really Sony? The Vita is fledgling (though I LOVE mine and don't get why it is) and everyone was wondering how you going to "save" it. And all you mention is Call of Duty: BlackOps Declassified (no trailer, gameplay, nothing), Assassin's Creed: Liberation (with pearly white Vita!) and that All-Stars will be on Vita (which was a given). Where are the new Vita games? Guacamelee? Why didn't you try to blow Vita out to help it? Instead you spent what seemed like an hour on Wonderbook. Amazing technology to be sure, but wouldn't that time have been better spent trying to hype Vita. I'm deeply concerned. Why not do what Nintendo did and announce a price drop and incentives for early adopters? I don't get it. Sony may come to rue E3 2012 by not helping Vita if it continues down this path. Sad.

5. Dishonored - This game looks fantastic and the wealth of gameplay options that are possible is astounding. Dishonored could be the best game released this year, but I'm still wary of it. Everything in this game seems to point to a deep story. But what if it isn't? We don't really know anything about the story. It looks unbelievably fun to play, but what if the story is bad? I'm cautiously optimistic.

What I'm playing: Resistance: Burning Skies (enjoying it, review soon-ish) and Plants vs. Zombies on Vita (three trophies to platinum!)

E3 Day 1 impressions: Sony

2012-06-04T21:57:00.001-05:00

So the monolith that is Sony is now off the stage and we have been hammered by what we came here to see... GAMES.
Sony certainly has the leg up on the competition so far this year, but I still feel like something is yet to come.
Here are a few of Nick's notes from the Sony conference.

The Last of Us- Wow, what a brutal environment, and I totally mean that in a good way. You really get the sense of the lethality of the world from the interactions of the characters and the enemies. Stealth will be key as you try to get the drop on guards, and gameplay looks very solid and Uncharted like as expected from Naughty Dog. I came into the gameplay footage of The Last of Us worried about what the girl character will be to the main character and if she will be a huge hindrance and eventually just an annoyance. Well, Naughty Dog, you have put my worries to bed as we see the little girl distract a guard so you can get the drop on them then stab another one in the back as he tries to strangle the character to death. Should be an amazing experience.
Beyond- Quantic Dream opened the conference swinging by showing off their new IP Beyond. You play the role of Jody Holmes, who will be voiced by Ellen Page, who is a young girl haunted by "something from beyond this world." The people who brought us Heavy Rain are at it again with a game that looks more like a movie then it does a game. You have to hand it to them, they know how to make video game pixels emote. They promise the development of 15 years of character from Holmes, which should be interesting. I'm not all in on this IP, but it will be fun to see what people who play the game think.
Playstation All Stars Battle Royale- Smash Bros. Brawl for the PS3 is everything it should be, and it looks great, but I'm just not excited. Parappa the Rappa? Really? Meh. Announced were Nathan Drake and Big Daddy, so that's cool, and the super system that leads to some fun animations, but I am just not hyped for this game. What was cool was seeing four players play the game with two on PS3 and two on Vitas. That's what I have been waiting for with this cross platform gaming. Bravo.
Vita cross platform- Speaking of Vita cross platform stuff, we didn't get to see a lot of it at the conference, but what we did see made me VERY interested. What Sony did was talk about was a little cross platform DLC for Little Big Planet 2 that turns the Vita into a controller for the PS3. Very cool in theory. Very cool.
More AC3- Remember in my Ubisoft notes where I said I wasn't excited going into E3 about AC3? Well, the Sony conference just made me again want this game. This time it wasn't the smoothness that took my breath away, it was the ship-on-ship combat with big ships that made me sit up and watch. Very nice.
All the crap you don't care about- Leave it to Sony to throw in a bunch of stuff in the middle that nobody cares about to bring the show to a screeching halt. This year's brick wall was again the releases for the Playstation Move, mainly the Wonderbook. The Wonderbook is this book that you use the Move with to tell stories and the like. Great idea for children, but terrible to showcase at a conference where you just showed off an interesting title like Beyond, a huge fan wank like PASBR and all the while everyone dying to see God of War and The Last of Us. Sure, you got J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter series on board, congrats, just show that off later. Same for Playstation Suite (now Playstation Mobile). Unless you were going to come out swinging with a bunch of mobile games for the Android that are Playstation certified, just keep that on the back burner and talk about it later when we don't have our hands under our seats waiting for The Last of Us. But you did better than Ubisoft, so you win that one.

E3 Day 1 impressions: Ubisoft

2012-06-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

So E3 is in full swing, and with it the many keynote pressers that make up the blunt force trauma of information to your brain.
While we didn't get up and get around to watching the Microsoft presser at 9 a.m. (yeah, that's too damn early), we will get around to it and will talk about what is going to come out for XBox in the future. Expect that to come in the coming days, as well as reaction to the EA presser.
What we did get around to looking at on Monday was the Ubisoft presser and what we saw was pretty interesting.
Here are a few quick impressions from Nick:

Zombii U- As a Wii owner, this game looks very interesting. We saw a lot from Ubi about trying to get Wii U ready for launch of the new console, and the things they showed off at the conference used the tablet well and looked crisp. What grabbed my attention was the end of the Wii U portion with Zombii U, and while it didn't have any gameplay footage, the concept was nice and the trailer did its job of getting my attention. What makes me very interested is that a zombie-centered first person shooter for the Wii U goes ahead and opens a door wide I was wondering about. It seems that the Wii U will not just be for the casual gamer, and Nintendo has finally realized that getting a nice stable of Rated M games for the core audience will be key to staying a big dog in the fight and not just a kid's toy. I would certainly trust the property if it were in the hands of someone else like Capcom, but Ubi is a good company who will work hard not to let anyone down.
Assassin's Creed III- To say I was not excited for AC3 is an understatement. I never finished Brotherhood and didn't really want to get into Revelations because of that. When AC2 was announced and was bandied about at E3 a few years ago, I salivated massively about the property and wanted to see more. This time, I went in with a much more negative mindset. Boy, when you are wrong you are wrong. The trailers looked amazing, which was expected. However, I didn't expect the gameplay demo to look so smooth on a Playstation 3. What I saw was a lot of what I love about the series, racing up the side of something then jumping from post to post while snagging handholds and looking for the next step. If the actual play for a normal gamer like myself comes out half as smooth as it did for Ubi's pro, this game is going to be amazing. The new whip and human shield elements showed off are also interesting, especially the human shield. Being set in the American Revolution, the mass production of guns was one of my biggest skepticism about the AC franchise going here. What I saw didn't entirely put my mind at rest, but it did shut it up long enough to get a good idea of how things will be. Ubi also really tried to sell the tomahawk, which almost looks like it is replacing the hidden blade as a favored mode of dispatch. Will be interesting to see what they do with that. Ubi closed by saying the scope of the game will be 30 years spanning from before to after the revolutionary conflict. That's nice, because it would be a disservice to just hold the entire game in a tight window. The first AC game was a pretty over-focused game, while the second may have went too far in the other direction. I think they may have found the wheelhouse and are ready to deliver.
Shootmania- Ubi then showed off their free-to-play PC game model and all the games they plan to put into play through their online service. Not being a big PC gamer besides Minecraft and not being a big multiplayer lover I didn't get a lot of out these games, but if they can find a nice way to get a free-to-play model to work, that should set the stage for other companies to move in that same direction.
"Watch Dogs" CTOS- Ubi closed the show with a new IP, called CTOS, and it is very intriguing. Based on the idea that everyone has a digital footprint that can be hacked into and used against them, you take the role of a hacker who uses the internet to get information and use it to take out targets. We didn't get a lot of the actual plot story before Ubi went into gameplay demo, which was odd, but I think after we had the 45 minutes of James Cameron setting up Avatar Ubi has learned their lesson and realizes that they should just show us the product then try to tell us more about it later after we are already hooked. Open world and third person, CTOS has the look and feel of GTA 4, and has that same gritty feel. It also has the same kind of player movement that you come to expect from games like this lately. Shooting and taking cover also very GTA 4 and since that's almost the standard of the day, I can't fault them for that. I will say that the hacking elements make for an very interesting way to get your way, like jamming cell signals to distract bouncers or making street lights change to cause a traffic accident to pin in your target. Just a cool concept all around, can't wait to see more.
UbiFAIL once again- Finally, Ubisoft was at it again with yet another year of tooth-pulling awkwardness in the dude who represented "the fans questions" at this year's conference. I came into the whole show a little late, so I didn't get to see all the wonder that this guy and his overly excited "to the extreme!" attitude gave to the conference, but boy I am really glad I missed a lot of that. When is Ubi going to learn that they don't need to entertain with their conference hosts, that's what the product is supposed to do for them. I keep thinking of Joel McHale having to fumble through things with French Canadians before Cameron came on to bore us to death. Then there was that 30 minutes of dancing to dead Michael Jackson's songs. Ubi is going to hit one out of the park one day, and it's going to be a robot who rolls out, says "Assassins Creed 7!" then rolls away to the screaming cheers of the audience. If we can only hope.

That's all from Ubisoft, be back later with some Sony notes.

Our 5 things to get excited about at E3!

2012-06-02T19:59:00.002-05:00

Nick's
Ahhhh, E3, like a second Christmas for us who love video games. This week is all about what the next big thing is, and also sometimes trying to clean up the mess made at last year's conference.
One of these days, Outlander will get to cover E3, but until then we get to sit and watch from our living rooms and desk chairs, wishing to be there to see it in person.
Anyway, enough of the banter, here are the five things I'm excited about this year.

PS3-Vita crossplatformation- Yeah, made up words are fun too. Since I got the Vita, I want to use it as much as possible. I would love to see Sony come out swinging with a lineup of games that will use the cross platforming promised with the Vita to full effect. Would also love to see Sony attack this concept with a shared price point for a game bundle in the future. Say a game is a PS3-Vita cross game, wouldn't it be nice to spend say $60-70 for both games at once instead of $60 for the PS3 and $40-50 for the Vita title of the same name. Either a package containing both games or a digital download of the Vita title would be great.
The Last of Us- Yeah, if I'm not just a sucker for an end of the world game. You saw how much I gushed about this game when they released the newest trailer. Very excited to see what Naughty Dog brings to the table in my favorite genre.
XBox whatthehellever- Again, made up words are fun. I'm not excited to see a new platform, on the contrary I am against it completely, especially if the announcement is a new console in the next two years. But I will be watching the Microsoft conference to see if they either roll out that new shiny or what. (Ed's note: contradiction much?)
Wii U- Yes, I am going to keep calling it Wii U, because that's what Nintendo is calling it. What I'm more interested in is the price point of said device. If the device is nicely priced I will likely be getting one, but if they say it's over $300 I will certainly say no. Nintendo has been all about keeping the cost down (except the 3DS) and they should attack it the same way here.
Anything Bethesda- I am wondering what one of my favorite gaming companies has in store this year as they parade around their new IP Dishonored. If they just stick to Dishonored and show off a good title, that's fine, but an announcement about the next edition in the Fallout franchise would be nice, even if it's just a poster shot with a "Holiday 2013" over the top of it.

As an extra, I am going to say I am also excited for any news coming out about GTA 5. Rockstar has been nice and mum about their big cash cow but this week will be perfect to hit us with a new trailer that will get us all hot and bothered. A release date would be nice to see too.
As you can see, this E3 won't be as much about the games as previous conferences, this one will be more about the companies themselves and what their plans are for the future.

Kyle's
I have nothing to add to Nick's intro set let's get onto my picks!

Sony's press conference - Full disclosure: I'm a Sony fanboy. I've been hooked since Playstation 2 and my PS3 is on at about a 100-1 rate over my 360. The fact that Sony has already announced so many exclusives pre-E3 (new God of War, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, LittleBigPlanet karting) has me excited to think what else Sony has up its sleeve!
Vita, Vita, Vita - Along with Nick, I am very excited about what Sony has in store for it's fledgling handheld. Look, the Vita is fantastic. I have several games for it and I legitimately enjoy all of them; even the new Resistance! But the fact is, it needs more AAA games. And all the rumblings are that this E3 will be a showcase for Vita. Lord I hope so.
Playstation All-Stars - I love Super Smash Bros. LOVE SSB. It is one of my favorite games ever and now I get to play it with Sony characters!? Sign me up. I want to see who the other characters are (my money is on Nathan Drake. Spoilers.) I just hope they decided to make it a ring-out system like SSB instead of the build up to unleash a finisher. But can we please change the name to Title Fight or just leave Battle Royale out of it?
Wii U - I want a name change. Please make that happen Nintendo. Other than that fact, I just want to see how it performs and some of the games coming for it. I want to like the Wii U, but right now, I just don't care.
The Last of Us - This is my pick for game of the show. I LOVE Naughty Dog. Everything Sony has shown about this game has made me drool and we've barely even seen the infected of the game yet. This game is going to be a blockbuster. E3 will be it's coming out party and it will dominate everything else.

I know my list is Sony heavy (Ed's note: stupid fanboy!), but I care about Sony. I'm also interested in seeing what 343 Industries is doing with Halo 4. Halo is the only reason I have a 360, so if it's as good as Halo games (usually) are, I'll buy it. More Resident 6 is also an interest.

We'll be back after the show with the things that blew us away!

What happened at 38 Studios is sad

2012-05-25T17:33:00.000-05:00

Just watching what is happening with 38 Studios, the team behind "Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning" is a shame to the business of video games.
After being coaxed to Rhode Island with a sweetheart loan deal, the studio had to close its doors yesterday and lay off all the employees.
What's the saddest part is the future of a very interesting franchise is pretty much dead.

I will admit that I didn't buy the game or play it, but with names like R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane involved in the world creation you have to think that there is a lot of depth in that world.
Then on Friday Salvatore comes out and talks about what happened on a political website that was hounding on the situation. The whole situation is getting light because 38 Studios is owned by former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling.
Here are Salvatore's comments.

"I shouldn't even be commenting here. Reckoning sold over 1.2 million units, which is pretty amazing for a new IP on an entirely new engine. I'm not going into the details of the publishing contract with EA (don't really know them), but let me just say that the economics of the video game business are a lot more convoluted than multiplying the MSRP * Units and coming up with a cash/cash-flow number. Caveat: I am not an employee, an officer, a stockholder or on the BoD for 38 Studios. I've worked with them since 2006 on a consulting basis and believed in the project (and still do) - so much so that all of my compensation is on the back end. Maybe I'll never see a dime for those hundreds of hours, but I got the chance to work in the most incredible creative environment you can imagine. So be it. And...38 didn't go begging for a handout from Rhode Island...Rhode Island offered to secure a bond for them when the credit crunch reigned, trying to lure them out of Massachusetts. Say what you want about the rest of it - I'm not going to comment - but I have to tell you that this was an amazing team of designers, engineers, artists, animators, writers, audio team and all the rest, all chasing a common dream - all pushing the envelope in their respective fields. And this game is much further along than is being reported - I wish I could show you some if it! - and the environments, the animations and the game-play would blow you away. The MMO market is very different now than it was 6 years ago. Star Wars is aching, by all reports, and it's a solid game with groundbreaking voice-over work. EA bought Mythic, and Warhammer crashed. Bioware's MMO is hurting (they just laid off a bunch of people in their Austin Studio). Curt and I never agreed on politics, but that didn't define our time together. We'd argue, laugh, shake our heads behind each others' back, and carry on. And if this means anything to any of you, let me assure you that the vast majority of the employees of 38 make ME look like a rabid right-winger, the bunch of anarchists! And lord, I love 'em all and miss them already."

I don't know who to believe or what really happened in this mess, I just know that a studio that was putting together something really nice is dead now and a lot of talented people are out of a job. You just hope when the dust clears we get to see what really happened at the core of the issue and the world of Amalur isn't extinct forever.

Retro Review: Final Fantasy IV

2012-05-21T19:23:00.003-05:00

I had never played Final Fantasy IV in my life. I started the PS1 version which comes bundled with Chrono Trigger (I got it for Chrono Trigger) and started it. After an hour, I stopped because the graphics were just horrific looking. A lot of SNES games still hold up graphically to this day (many more than the PS1/N64 era), but FFIV isn't one of those. I was expecting it to look like FFVI which still looks great (and is one of my favorite games). When I made the decision that at some point I was going to get a Playstation Vita, I knew I had to buy Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. It just happened that at around the same time I made the decision to buy a Vita, all of the Final Fantasy games on Playstation Network went on sale. I had been debating on whether or not to join Playstation Plus, but once I saw those members got an even steeper price drop, I was in. I bought The Complete Collection and FFVI. About a month later, I got my Vita. Let's just say it was a great decision.

Final Fantasy IV marks the first time in Final Fantasy (and consoles for that matter) told a deep and engrossing story. The story still holds up very well. I constantly wanted to keep playing to see the next scene or the next twist. I was hooked. The game does a great job of making you care about each of the playable characters (and there are a bunch of them). It's quite rare for a game to make each character memorable (only other games to have done this for me: FFVI and Metal Gear Solid), but FFIV easily achieved it.

Cecil's struggle with being thrown out of his kingdom and trying to redeem himself is definitely a story that has been told countless times, by Square Enix was able to make it engrossing. Cecil's best friend Kain is a wonderfully mysterious character that adds a lot to Cecil's journey. Rosa, the love interest, isn't your usual damsel in distress (though she is for a little bit), she wants and knows she can help Cecil. Rydia is the obligatory coming-of-age character. Edge and Cid provide the laughs while Yang provides the stoicism. All of the characters play well off of each other while going through the 30-hour long story.

There's no reason to talk about gameplay, if you've ever played a pre-Final Fantasy XII installment, you knew how it works. It can get frustrating at times, but it's also part of the game's charm. The graphics on the Complete Collection look amazing. They have been touched up a lot so it would look good on a PSP. It made it much easier to get through than the PS1 release.

Throughout the entire game, Square Enix plays with your emotions by keeping you guessing on who you will have in your party at any one time (you can't change party members like in other FF's which shocked me!). The story of redemption, friendship and love is certainly worth the price of admission. It's easy to see why this game continues to show up "All-Time Greatest Games" lists. It is worthy of such praise. I'm embarrassed I waited so long to play it, but I'm glad I did.

Score: 9.6/10 (Highly recommended for Vita owners)

The Last of Us? Yeah, looks good

2012-05-16T19:57:00.000-05:00

So if you don't know me, I am a HUGE post-apocalypse game kinda guy. Love the Fallout series, love Resident Evil, like the Metro series. Anything where you can get the feeling that everything around you used to be vibrant and alive, but where now nothing but menace remains in the dark corners that many dare not to go gets my blood boiling and ready to pick up a controller.
That's why when the tags about Naughty Dog's new Playstation exclusive The Last of Us started to creep to the surface my mouth started to salivate and I have been wanting to see clips of this game ever since.
Well, they certainly didn't disappoint with the last trailer they put out.

What stands out for me is the why they are going to tell the story with the old, haggard Joel and the young, innocent Ellie. The fact they are not father-daughter or any blood relation as of yet also sells the desolation, and this clip shows the differences in the way Joel and Ellie see the world, and the things you have to do just to stay alive.
Can't wait to get my hands on this. Not being an Uncharted fan (just never picked them up), this is going to be my first go-round with Naughty Dog, but their track record more than speaks for itself. Hopefully we will get more from E3 in the coming months and go from there.
Right now, I just want more.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss Review

2012-04-28T20:14:00.003-05:00

First, a word about the Playstation Vita. I waited a couple of months to get one even though I wanted one very badly. The reason: I felt like a price drop was coming because of the lack of enthusiasm upon release. Eventually, my inner impulse demon struck and I bought one. I LOVE MY VITA. It is awesome to play. It is very comfortable and lightweight and is everything Sony promised. The only problem is the storage. It is a low-blow for Sony to make us have to buy a proprietary memory card. I understand needing one if you download games from the PSN, but the actual game cartridges should come with enough space to save two or more files for the game. That's low Sony.

Uncharted is either my favorite or second favorite first-party franchise on Playstation. It and God of War are the two games I enjoy playing the most. Out of the nine games Sony has released from those franchises, not a single one of them is a bad game. In fact all of them, including Golden Abyss, are some of the finest showcases for console and portable gaming.

Sony Bend (Syphon Filter, Resistance on PSP) developed Golden Abyss (heretofore referred to as GA) instead of normal Uncharted (and most-loved Sony first-party studio) Naughty Dog. Bend took everything we have come to know and love about Uncharted and put it on the Vita. It looks, sounds, acts and plays like a console Uncharted and just the fact alone is amazing.

Graphically, GA looks almost as good as Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It doesn't quite have the same visuals, but GA looks better than any PS2 game ever made. The closest comparison graphically is Resistance: Fall of Man. They have about the same fidelity and character models are pretty similar. Just the fact that Vita games already look as good as early PS3 games has me excited for future Vita games.

Uncharted is always about the story and its three PS3 iterations have all come with compelling and fun stories. The sense of adventure the games present are by far and away the best for a "linear" game. Only open-world games like Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect and Skyrim have a better sense of adventure. GA not only continues that trend but also builds on it.

The Uncharted games have always had treasures to find, but GA adds tons more stuff. There are four different sets of treasures to find based on what chapters your in. On top of that, there are pictures to take, using the Vita like a camera, charcoal rubbings to seek out (on which you literally rub the screen) and various other items that deliver more back story on characters (daggers, bracelets, etc.). All of that is a welcome addition for a trophy hunter like myself.

Gameplay is the same as the console Uncharted's. It's a cover-based third-person shooter. It handles very well on the Vita. The only minor complaint (and this could just be me) is it is very hard to aim. It feels like the sensitivity is out of control, but that could just be because of the smaller screen and I'm used to being able to move the gun as quickly as I wanted to. On GA, you have to take your time a little bit in order to make each shot count. It's tough at first, but I was very comfortable about 40% of the way through the game.

The touch controls work very well, though I didn't use them very much. If I tried to grab a gun that was on a piece of cover, sometimes Drake would vault over the cover right into gunfire, which is problematic. I also ran into some problems when I tried to take cover. Sometimes Drake would roll instead of going into cover, which led to some deaths.

Bend used Naughty Dog's technique and studio to do full acting for it's cutscenes (for which Bend says there are two hours worth in the game) and they come across flawlessly. The dialogue between characters is just as top-notch as the console games and that is huge part of the success of the franchise.
The story in GA is very good, though it is slightly lacking compared to the PS3 games. I feel that way only because much of the story is found within the items you find in the game. Yes, you can follow the story just fine without finding any of the items, but if you want the full story (and trophies!) then you must seek out the items.

Overall, GA is a fantastic game and it is a great launch title for the Vita. It doesn't have much to offer after beating the game the first time unless you want to go find all of the treasures and get all (or most, Crushing is too hard for me) of the trophies. I enjoyed myself playing it the entire time and was awed by the visuals the Vita was able to produce. For Vita owners, GA is a MUST OWN. Do it.

Score 9.2/10

Mass Effect 3 Review

2012-04-11T14:20:00.002-05:00

Before we get into the review, this should have been up two weeks ago, but about 60% of the way through the game, it froze while it was saving corrupting somewhere between 11-13 hours of play time. So, I had to start all the way from the beginning! So much fun! That incident has no affect on the review, so let's get to it.

ME3 represents the final chapter of the Mass Effect Trilogy (though there will probably be more games set in the universe, they will not feature Commander Shepard). What Bioware has done in this trilogy is simply remarkable. The fact that each games decisions carry over to the next and shape your personal experience with that title is unbelievable. Just the fact Bioware was able to do it, and do it well, automatically means Mass Effect is one of the best gaming series of all-time and should be played by every person.
Full disclosure: I played ME3 on Playstation 3 and used my character from ME2. I have never played the first game and do not intend to, though the story seems like it may be the best of the three games. Also, I went full paragon in both games.

Mass Effect 3 starts off on Earth with Shepard awaiting trial for the events of the last piece of DLC from ME2: Arrival. That piece of DLC was absolutely worth playing, but I'm sure not every one played it which caused confusion at the opening. Anyway, the Reapers (sentient deep-space machine/space ships) attack Earth in overwhelming force. The courtroom is blown apart and Shepard is knocked out. The commander and long time friend Captain Anderson escape and eventually find a way to get safety. Anderson orders Shepard to go recruit the other races in the universe for help. Shepard does not want to leave Earth, but follows orders. The scene here is absolutely horrifying and sets the stage for what will be an all-out dog fight for the humans and the galaxy.

I'm not going to get into much of the story since that's the best reason to play Mass Effect, but it is truly a heart-wrenching tale. Most of the decisions in this game are simply tough to make. The hardest one happens around the time my game crashed. Not to spoil anything, but unless you made about five correct decisions in ME2, you're going to lose someone close to Shepard. It was a stomach punch when it happened to me.

Much of the gameplay is the same as ME2, only much, MUCH, better and more refined. It's a cover-based shooter and while the mechanics will never be as good as Gears of War or Uncharted, they still work very well. There is a frustrating problem though. As you run to cover and hit the X button to enter it, sometimes Shepard will roll and not go into cover. Instead, he'll stand up and let the enemies get 3-4 extra shots into him. If you're playing on the Insanity difficulty level, this minor bug is very hazardous. Depending on the enemy, if this happens, you could die.

Speaking of the enemies, Bioware outdid themselves here. There are some hellacious enemies. The Reaper enemies are especially tough. The brute (a hulking half turian/half krogan) is tough to bring down and continually charges you. If he lands a blow, your shields are gone. The toughest non-boss enemy in the game, however is the banshee. She is an asari reaper. She comes packing a barrier and armor. Plus she uses a biotic teleport move that makes her tough to hit. On top of her defense mechanisms lies some hellacious offensive maneuvers. If she grabs you, it's insta-death. She also shoots a ball of energy that wrecks your shields and eats away at your health at the same time. When you hear her scream letting you know she's around, be careful.

The are many more weapons in ME3 than ME2 along with weapon mods which allow you to customize your weapons as you see fit. The RPG elements are much deeper this time around than last time (though not as deep as the first game from what I have read). It takes more experience points to give your character a full power than it did in ME2. It was also great to have all my powers carry over from ME2 and not have to start back at level zero. Very nice touch.

Mass Effect is a beautiful game with gorgeous vistas. There aren't as many visual hiccups as in ME2. Screen tearing was noticed very much. There was some minor texture pop-in during some playing but nothing terrible. There is a visual oddity with some characters eyes, especially Miranda's. She routinely looks like she has her eyes half closed as if in some perpetual state of being high. It's very odd, but nothing that really takes away from the game.

Bioware did a great job of getting all of the characters in the game (provided they didn't die in any of the previous games). I was happy to see them all since I cared about them a lot during my two ME2 play throughs. However there is a new character, James Vega (voiced by the immortal Freddy Prinze Jr. [yes that guy]), who I could not have cared less for. After getting my third party member, I never used him again. I'm not sure if it's because he wasn't in the previous games or if he's actually a bad character, but he never made the team. Outsider.

The ending to the game has been discussed a lot. Many players out there thought it was bad because there wasn't enough resolution. I had no problem with the ending. Could it have been longer? Absolutely, but it's not like you make the final decision and it cuts to black (a la The Sopranos). There was enough of an ending to satisfy me, but I was expecting more since the whole series is built on being a well-told cinematic experience. Bioware is putting out a free piece of DLC in a couple of months that fleshes out the ending for all of you that whined about it.

If you're going to/already playing Mass Effect 3, you probably know what you're getting into. It is a long story-driven game. I can't imagine a person that only plays ME3 will have near as good of a time as someone who played at least ME2. I also concede that players who played through the whole trilogy on Xbox 360 or PC had the best experience as they go to play all three games. Even though I never played the first game, I fell in love with the second and third installments. These games are a true joy to experience. Bioware really showed the rest of the gaming industry how to do things right with a series where all games are tied together. There are literally thousands of differences combined in the three games depending on all your choices. It would be quite difficult for two people to have the same experience independently.

The only minor quibble I have is that the antagonist from ME2, Harbinger, barely shows up in the game. After making him seem like the leader of the Reapers, he makes a tiny appearance right at the end, that if you're not paying attention, you might miss. I was expecting to have to fight him in some way, but it didn't happen.

All in all, Mass Effect is a series that absolutely must be played by every one, not just people that play RPGs. The story is the best story in gaming history and it truly feels like the galaxy is in peril. The gameplay is solid, the graphics, voice acting and music are all top notch. This trilogy deserves its place in gaming history and I can't wait to see what Bioware does with the franchise.

Rating: 9.9/10

I'm so happy

2010-06-12T20:05:00.002-05:00

So I boot up the old computron today and what do I see? The new E3 trailer for Fallout: New Vegas.
Here it is for anyone who wants to enjoy life.

Video Games | Fallout: New Vegas | E3 2010: Exclusive Gameplay Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

It looks magnificent and what excited me the most was the .50 caliber sniper rifle shown early on in the clip.
You see, I'm a sniper. I try to play every FPS I have that way. Early on in Fallout 3, I was a tank, just plowing through everything and everyone in my way. However, my instincts to sneak around and pick off unsuspecting prey with a rifle finally caught up with me and now I prowl around the wastes invisible and use my Reservists Rifle to lay waste to my victims without them even knowing. It feels like the hand of god, smoting them from a distance without them even having a care in the world. It's almost humane, they never know what's happening as their heads explode like melons.
Wow, that was a rant that could put me away if read into too deeply. Read that I am not a psycho (at least I don't think I am) and wouldn't do anything in a video game to a regular person.
What I'm trying to relate is that the experience of the Fallout universe is one that I love immensely, and having a game like New Vegas coming out within the year is something I am extremely excited about. It's like I'm a tween in line for a Justin Bieber concert, I'm that excited.
Now where's the nearest clock tower.

Finally playing real games!

2010-06-11T20:56:00.002-05:00

So in between shifts of putting down a new floor in my home and my shifts at the paper, I was finally able to get in a good few hours of gaming this week.
And what did I play? Why, Fallout 3 of course.
I could have gone out and hocked a lot of money for Red Dead Redemption, but then I remember that I'm not a big fan of westerns. But post-apocalyptic scenarios? Yes, please!
After finally finishing the buggy mess that was Operation: Anchorage, I started my delving into Point Lookout.
And boy is it nice. But if you're a fan, you already know that and have known that for a long time.
But really, playing this week has really put me in the mood for E3, which I will be staring at all week.
Expect posts all next week about the goings-on at the Mecca of gaming.
Back to sleep, it's much-needed.

The evils of casual games

2010-06-05T18:01:00.002-05:00

We've all been there, we've all seen the messages.
Someones farm needs fertilizer, someones fish needs feeding, someones mafia needs joining.
Blah, blah, blah.
These are the evils of casual games.
You see, there are two types of casual games. The first is the more well-known version which are Wii titles that people from ages 8-800 can play effectively and have fun when you get the entire family together for an evening of fun on Christmas Eve or the like.
The second is what I truly consider the casual game, and they are the bane of my existence.
Farmville, Fishville, Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, School of Magic, etc...
It's easy to blame Facebook and just get it over with, as all of the games I just described got their go on the social networking site. However, I blame the games more than the site as it is the games that have sucked in people like a drug dealer peddling free candy-flavored crack.
And the sad thing is I have been suckered in myself.
Last night I downloaded a game for my Android phone called World War. I thought it was going to be a cool game where I led soldiers like an RTS or maybe sent a guy though the trenches like an FPS.
However, after five minutes looking over the game I realized that I had, in fact, downloaded a mobile version of a Facebook game.
And instead of putting it down and going straight to the hospital for some antabuse or methadone, I instead continued to play the damn thing and started leveling up.
I am addicted, and I hate myself for it.
Before anyone tries to get me to again be their neighbor or join their family, hear this... I will never be a part of another of these games.
It's a fluke that I joined this game, and I don't want to be a part of any other game like this.
As it stands, I have no desire to attack anyone or do anything more than press about five buttons and level up. I don't care about joining coalitions or anything like that. I am a rogue nation, and I want to be left alone.
Anyway, enough about my secret shame, you can all go back to your farms and fish tanks, just leave me out of it.

Getting excited

2010-06-03T18:27:00.002-05:00

Just finished reading an article that Valve will not showcase Portal 2 at E3 this year, instead opting for a "surprise."
If it's Left 4 Dead 3 I will be pissed.
Hey, I love Left 4 Dead, it's one of those games that my wife and I can lose hours in together slaughtering the hordes while preparing our minds and coordinations for the upcoming zombie apocalypse (oh it's happening).
It's just that I've had enough of that ride.
It's like that kid you take to Six Flags that wants to keep riding the same ride again and again, not caring that it takes over an hour from the moment you get in line until you get off the ride. They love watching the cartoons in between while you are stuck there holding the water, personal items and everything else on sore feet that scream for a bench and a bucket of ice water all the while wanting to ride the raging rapids just to cool down.
That's how I feel about the Left 4 Dead franchise. It was amazing, and I bought both games and all the DLC since, but after a while you want to get on another ride.
And with Valve, there are two great franchises that are worth riding again, those being Portal and Half-Life.
Sure, you could add Team Fortress to that mix, but my hatred for actual people can only be trumped by my hatred for screaming children over microphones who have nothing better to do than not do homework and instead play Halo (yeah I went there, god I hate Halo).
Portal and Half-Life both have soft spots in my heart. Portal was that great game that my wife and I spent a week just agonizing over, laughing at not only GLaDOS, but also our own failures.
Meanwhile, Half-Life is the first shooter that I really went into wanting to play, and in the end coming out loving shooters.
I'm being completely serious here. I hated shooters, and since Doom 2 I vowed to never play them. Not because Doom 2 sucked, I actually loved that game. I just didn't want to play them anymore.
I was a fan of RPGs, computer RTSs and 3rd-person shooters like GTA, and I was happy about that.
Then Gordon Freeman came along and changed my life.
Valve has this ability to create suspense in a constrained environment. It was like a rail shooter where I had the choice to go into that room on the right or not. Half-Life opened the door to me that a game can have the illusion of a sandbox while not being sandbox, can have the illusion of freedom while instead being quite rigid on where you have to go.
It was brilliant.
I was excited to hear that Valve was going to show off Portal 2 at E3, and it was a title that I was excited to see and purchase.
However, if this surprise is instead Half-Life 2: Episode 3, I think I will pee my pants with excitement.
Oh I went there, I will dawn a plaid skit and giggle like a girl if I see Gordon Freeman on a big screen at E3.
Valve has been treating him like the Beastie Boys treat albums, it takes forever to get anything new, but the end product is more than worth the wait.
But I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, I have done this before and just got another spoonfull of zombies for my troubles.

The summer is here

2010-05-31T18:47:00.002-05:00

It's been months since this blog has seen an update, and while many would think that's a good thing I personally think my laziness is going to get me into a lot of trouble.
So here goes.
With the summer here and my 9-5 (or 4-midnight) job slowing down for the time being, it's time to start blowing the dust off my rigs and breaking out the games for a few months of joy.
Inject E3 in there and you have yourself a deal.
So over the next few days and weeks this blog will get a little life and maybe come off life support completely, which is a joy to me as a gamer and as a writer.
To tell the truth, there aren't many games that are lighting my lamp, but I'm sure something will come eventually. That's the beauty about this time of year, it's that time where game companies are starting to wind down their catalog and instead start their hype machines for that glorious week in Los Angeles.
So check back every once in a while, there might be something cool coming soon.

It's been awhile again

2009-09-16T21:22:00.002-05:00

So, it's been some time since I have been on this blog ranting and raving.
However, something awesome happened tonight when my wife fired up Fallout 3 for another round of the Wastes with her evil character around 9 p.m. central time.
THERE WAS AN UPDATE! A 21mb update!
Excited, we sat and salivated with the thoughts that finally we will be playing the downloadable content for one of the best games I have ever played.
We got a look at all the new trophies, further whetting our palettes toward the eminent joys we will be having soon enough.
Oh yes, finally some DLC for Fallout 3.
Also, Scribblenaughts came out yesterday, so expect a full review by the end of the day tomorrow.
Until then!

It's been a while, I know

2009-08-06T18:39:00.003-05:00

It's been quite some days since I came on here to express myself. Likely because I know that not having the cash to do this job right can at times be frustrating.
On that, I am endeavoring.
However, there is some news that I saw today that brought me back here to peck at the keys and get my own muffled voice out there.
Apparently, Six Days in Fallujah developer Atomic Games has had to lay off employees because it can't get anyone to take on the publishing costs of what was expected to be a great game.
It's a sad state of affairs indeed.
Look, the game was expected to be amazing, a bold retelling of the battle of Fallujah that didn't carry with it the baggage of being either for the war in Iraq or against it. This is what a war game should be, unless you are killing Nazis.
It's a shame that there are people out there that are crying foul at all, especially seeing that both sides of the damn issue are griping. I guess you can't tell the stories of our men and women in uniform without having a message, be it "war is hell" or "war is necessary."
It's just stupid, that's what those messages are. War is war, and nothing else. What this game was set to do was tell a story. Tell the story of the soldiers who were sent to fight in Fallujah and the six days it took to capture the town. Nothing more, nothing less. The story doesn't have to be about anything deeper than that. If it did, it would be useless.
I don't need anything else to tell me that the war in Iraq was either bad or good. Newspapers, television, cinema, all things that have spent the last few years drilling into our heads that war is bad, and the war in Iraq is even worse.
I don't need video games to tell me that too.
This game had a chance to be one of the best games of this generation, had a chance to be a kind of game that moves the public's eye from "those are just kid's games" to "maybe this is an art form."
This is a game that had legs, and could have raced into every home and just told a story.
Instead, we have possibly one of the best games of our time sitting in a cupboard, collecting dust until someone has the guts to take a chance, until someone has the guts to not listen to the people who just want to hear themselves talk.
I'm sorry, but this is a larger argument. No longer is this just about a game that would have been great, this is about a society that can't stand to look directly at itself.
It's about a nation that is so split that if there is anything neutral neither can like it because none will even try it.
I'm sorry, but this is unacceptable for our great nation.
This may be just a game, but deep down this is more about two groups of people who can't see past their own noses to look at something for what it is.
Let's just hope that someone looks down long enough to get a bit of sanity and perhaps allow what could be a great piece of art to finally see the light of day.

On the outside looking in

2009-07-24T17:58:00.002-05:00

Being stuck in Oklahoma sometimes sucks.
I'm here in Oklahoma while the whole world of geekdom is in San Diego right now at Comic-Con. Do I like comics? Not really, but what I do like is video game news, and Comic-Con is the place for news.
The biggest news coming out today is not pointed at myself, but it's huge news.
Halo: Reach will be Bungie's last XBox 360 game.
Speaking to Gamerzines at Comic-Con, senior game designer Lars Bakken said...
"In terms of a platform for Halo games made by Bungie...yes Reach is the last one. I can't answer that question about Microsoft - whether they have something in the works or not, I don't know if they're actually ready to talk about it yet. But in terms of Bungie-produced Halo games, ODST and Reach is all you're going to get on 360."
That's just sad for XBox fans, as Halo is arguably the best shooter for the console and built the rabid fan base that the franchise holds.
As for me, the most exciting thing was a gameplay trailer released for the Nintendo DS title, Scribblenauts.
This is THE game I have been waiting for, a big surprise for a portable title.
I just want to see if I can break the game, but it's been said that it is impossible.
But anyway, here's the trailer.

Video Game - E3 2009 - Video Game Trailers

See you tomorrow, maybe I will actually have something cool to say. Likely not, the house has been uber busy lately so the system has been mainly used to watch DVDs. Oh well, at least I can finally see Watchmen tonight.
I know, it's awful that I'm just getting around to watching it now.
Fudge ya.

Not a lot to say

2009-07-23T17:32:00.002-05:00

So since it's summer and I don't have much to say, I will just rail on how much I hate exclusive gaming.
Many people don't have the money to buy all three major systems, and I count myself in that group as well. Therefore, companies are doing themselves a disservice by keeping a game out of my hands.
Look, Valve is likely the most innovative and awesome creator of games like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead. However, they don't publish for the PS3.
Now, this is not because of any kind of agreement with Microsoft, it's because they don't have the manpower to code for the PS3.
This I somewhat understand. If you don't have the ability to do a port to the PS3 then that's cool.
Where I get riled up are the sweetheart deals that keep DLC and games out of the hands of fans.
Fallout 3 DLC, GTA 4 DLC, inFAMOUS, Littlebigplanet all four are the first games or content off the top of my head that could be making a lot more in the hands of other consoles.
Bethesda is finally putting out their content for PS3, but Rockstar has shown no desire to send the GTA stuff my way and Sony will never let go of their star properties that could be the make or break for their system. There's just either too much money spent or too much money to be gained exclusively for them to budge on the matter.
I think it was Todd Howard of Bethesda who was talking once and said that he wants to see an end-all, be-all system that can play everything.
I agree totally, but I think we all know that it will never happen.
Oh well, a guy can dream can't he?

Oklahoma is lame... Sometimes

2009-07-17T20:10:00.004-05:00

Here in the windy confines of Southwest Oklahoma, two things are certain in this time of year.
1) Horrible heat
2) Horrible storms
The last two weeks, No. 1 has been the boss with temperatures reaching 111 and over on many a day, it was hell on the AC but great in the fact that I felt obligated to stay indoors and play a lot of games.
Let's just say that the obligation was more of a excuse, I hate going outside even when it's nice.
Well, starting yesterday No. 2 reared its ugly head and brought down the hammer on our little area.
With some annoying results.
Have you ever felt that you needed to play a game, I mean like really needed to play a game?
You get all excited and race home to play and then when you get there you find out that the power has been out for 30 minutes?
That's what happened to me last night around midnight. I get home from a long day at work, wanting to get in 18 holes of the British Open at Turnberry on the Wii then I step into my house and see that the wife has lit candles.
Sadness crept into my heart as we sat in the dark.
However, it gave me more than enough chance to play the DSi, and Dr. Mario got his fill of me.
I can't wait until Sept. 15, when Scribblenauts hits shelves.
It will be a nice birthday present, an original game with thought and substance.
Well, the power came on around 2 a.m. and the wife and I decided to go to bed instead of booting up a system with the thought that another lightning strike would possibly ruin everything.
So today we woke up and again that anticipation was there. Boy, did I want to play some golf.
Then the power goes out... AGAIN!
However, this time the power is out for just a scant few minutes. Lucky them, I was about to get a case of the ass.
So finally, I was able to get on the course... But more on that in a second.
But in the end, it was just a couple of days in this part of the world. With more foreboding weather creeping in I don't think the systems of our household may get a start again until tomorrow.

Boy I suck at golf

Now to the funny stuff, I suck at golf.
I mean really suck at golf.
Through two rounds of the British Open, I am currently dead last with a 26-over par.
I need to finish 23 under tomorrow just to get out of the cellar.
My drives had a case of the shanks and my reading of the greens was like a blind man groping around in the dark. I just had a horrible day.
At least I can continue playing, unlike most of the field I can't get cut.
Let's hope that my final two rounds can be just a little more respectable.
Or just as bad, cause fail=funny.

An awesome contest

2009-07-16T20:57:00.005-05:00

Indie game developers out there! Here's what this blog is about... sometimes.
Here is a link to a site that will allow you to jump out there and get seen.
The Indie Games Challenge
Sure, it's sponsored by Gamestop, who are the Wal-Mart of video games, but it's nice to see that the big dealer supporting the little guy.
Get on there, get your game entered and give me a shout. I'd love to see your idea!
Indie games are such a key component of this industry so we don't have Madden Killzone Halo 245 for Holiday 2012.
But don't take my word for it, here's G4's Adam Sessler, who I look up to as a fellow journalist, making the point oh so eloquently.

Video Game - E3 2009 - Sessler's Soapbox

Keep me posted. Here in the Outlands the little guy is our favorite. Let us know what you are doing out there, and we will get your news and info out there for public consumption.

A little behind on golf

As promised, I was going to play the British Open with the pros on my Wii this week. After two practice rounds yesterday I set myself up to play my first round this afternoon, but found that it was time to head into the day job.
I will work to get in the round when I get home tonight, and will post my results for hopefully two rounds at Turnberry. Expect to see where I stand on the leaderboard, cause that's where I'm going to be looking to all afternoon.

What am I to do now?

2009-07-15T11:07:00.001-05:00

Well, being away from the computer on Monday was a good thing in the end.
On Monday, Bethesda announced that the Fallout 3 DLC would not hit the PS3 until September, much later than the late June original release date.
If I were around on Monday, my head would have likely exploded.
Instead, the news broke for me late Tuesday and now I have had a night to sleep on it before getting so upset that I will storm around and complain.
Complain I will, but not here, not as much anyway.
Everyone says that's what I get for running a PS3, but to them I say, "Fudge ya!"
Anyway, there is a silver lining. The PS3 rollout of the content will be different than the XBox version.
Instead of getting Operation: Anchorage first and players like myself having to use a new character to jump right into the mix, PS3 owners will get Broken Steel first.
Broken Steel raises the level cap and allows the game to be played after the original ended.
That is great, cause I want to play as my good character again!
But I will have to wait until September to get my hands on that, so now comes the question as to what to play in the meantime.
Prototype and inFAMOUS are two titles that are really calling to me right now, but being on the cheap for the time being may keep Fallout in the drive until I can get some payola.

Follow me at the British Open

If you don't know who I am, I am a sports journalist for a newspaper in Oklahoma.
With this week being the British Open, I have decided to hit Turnberry with the pros on my Nintendo Wii.
Therefore, the rest of the week I will be posting my scores at the end of my blog entry. Hopefully there will be a leaderboard that will show how well I did against the guys that get paid to stand in the sun.
This will either be very good or very bad. I know that everyone out there wants bad, cause everything is better with fail.
See you tomorrow. Feel free to give me game suggestions in the comments section.