The Realm of Chadness - A Gamer's Blog

Moving Time!

2009-06-22T08:09:00.003-05:00

This will be my last post here on "The Realm of Chadness - A Gaming Blog". I've made a new home on the Interwebs that gives me a more gaming-oriented domain - Gamerocity. That's where I'll be posting from now on. The new site offers improvements over this one and gives me a chance to start fresh and really focus more on the quality of the articles I write, whatever the subject.

So, I hope you'll visit me over there, and update your bookmarks. See ya around!

Some Changes Incoming

2009-06-17T23:12:00.000-05:00

Some major changes, in fact. I'm finally going to drop the title of this blog, which I've had for many, many years. It never was a gaming-specific blog name, but I couldn't come up with anything better, so it stayed this way.

But, today I purchased a new domain and some hosting, and will be going that route. I'll be using WordPress instead of Blogger (sorry Blogger). I'm not sure when it will go live, I still have quite a bit of work to do. In the mean time, posting will be light here, unless I can figure out how to clone myself so there's plenty of me to do multiple tasks.

The new site will definitely be gaming-specific in its title and focus. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a web designer, so I have to search for a suitable template to begin the process. I'll have more info when it happens.

Post of the Day: 6.16.2009

2009-06-16T19:19:00.000-05:00

Will FFXIV be awesome? Let's hope so...and let's hope they improve upon what they did with FFXI. Perhaps then I'll switch to this MMO full time when it hits next year.

Post of the Day: 6.15.2009

2009-06-15T19:59:00.000-05:00

Borderlands looks pretty nifty. I love the art style, too!

Post of the Day: 6.14.2009

2009-06-14T23:00:00.003-05:00

Forza 3 pre-order details are out of the bag. I think I might have to go pre-order my copy. I need a new racing game to get into!

Making the Grinding a Little Easier

2009-06-14T22:41:00.005-05:00

We all remember the days where RPGs required you to grind levels to have an easier time progressing the story. Some were even to the point of having some portions of the main game brutally unforgiving if you didn't spend hours building up your characters' levels and skills.

Those days flashed back into the front of my mind when I sat down to play Crimson Gem Saga this weekend. But, you know what? I didn't mind it so much. I've been looking up a bit of information on the game for a few weeks now, so none of the more "hardcore" mechanics came as any great surprise to me. In fact, I've been looking for something just like this.

Still, any help is appreciated, and I gained quite a bit of help in the early game from Gamertell, where some suggestions were given on how to skill up your party early on. I took those suggestions to heart and things seemed to go pretty well for me up to this point. Needless to say, I see a lot of grinding in my future. But, that's okay. CGS allows you to save anywhere, so I can fight a few battles on my break at work or work through an area mindlessly killing mobs during my lunch hour. Its all good.

Its cool that there's a lot of information out there on various games, especially the more difficult ones. (Although, to be honest, there's less info on CGS than I would have liked.) Perhaps, as I work my way through the game, I'll have some little tidbits of my own to throw out.

As a little aside to conclude this post, I love Atlus. The localization and dialog in this game is outstanding.

Post of the Day: 6.13.2009

2009-06-13T22:29:00.000-05:00

Is Sony ripping off consumers with the PSP Go? Yes. No need to read the article. ;)

Post of the Day: 6.12.2009

2009-06-12T10:05:00.000-05:00

Nice, big Assassin's Creed 2 screens!

Easier Travel in WoW

2009-06-11T16:21:00.007-05:00

The last year or so has seen a lot of changes in World of Warcraft that cater toward the more casual player - speeding up leveling, making raiding more accessible, daily quests and the like. The latest in this string of changes is once again focusing on transportation - most notably mounts. Here's the changes announced so far.

Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
- 60% land mount speed
- Requires level 20
- Cost: 4 gold
- Mount cost: 1 gold
- Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
- 100% land mount speed
- Requires level 40
- Cost: 50 gold
- Mount cost: 10 gold
- Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

Expert Riding (Skill 225)
- 150% flying mount speed; 60% land mount speed
- Requires level 60
- Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply: Honor Hold [Alliance]; Thrallmar [Horde])
- Mount Cost: 50 gold
- Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)

Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
- 280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
- Requires level 70
- Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply: Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition [Alliance]; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive [Horde])
- Mount Cost: 100 gold
Movement Speed Training By Class
- Druid
  - Travel Form: Requires level 16
  - Flight Form: Requires level 60 (150% flight speed)
  - Swift Flight Form: Requires level 70
- Hunter
  - Aspect of the Cheetah: Requires level 16
- Shaman
  - Ghost Wolf: Requires level 16
- Paladin
  - Warhorse: Requires level 20
  - Charger: Requires level 40
- Warlock
  - Felsteed: Requires level 20
  - Dreadsteed: Requires level 40

How do I feel about all this, being of the group of players who has been playing WoW from the beginning? Whatever has happened in the past and whatever play style I've had in the past, I'm a casual player now. So, I welcome this change and all similar changes to make leveling through old Azeroth quicker and make things easier for the newer players. That being said, some achievements and/or refunds to recognize players who had their mounts, flight forms or various other transportation-related quests before these changes go into effect would be nice. After all, some of those things we worked hard on. You have no idea how much I went through (and how much I put my guild through) to get my druid epic flight form back in the day. Granted, there is a feat of strength achievement for completing that quest chain. They should really carry that on and give feats of strength achievements for those players who purchased their riding skill at the (soon to be) old levels.

In addition to the above, they're finally making it easier to get from Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar, by adding a new zepplin between the two horde cities. Also, they're throwing in portals in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar that go directly to The Dark Portal in Blasted Lands, for easy access to and from Outland.

I give a big thumbs up to all these changes, and balk at all those people crying foul. Sure, back in our day we might have had to walk to school, in knee-deep snow, uphill both ways, but that doesn't mean we're any better than the people now who get keys to their own car handed to them for easy transportation.

Post of the Day: 6.10.2009

2009-06-10T16:36:00.000-05:00

Nintendo DS software allows for classroom test taking. Only in Japan, of course.

E3 2009: A Few of My Favorite Things

2009-06-10T10:51:00.001-05:00

Instead of talking about who won and lost E3, I'm just going to point out a few of my favorite things - from everything I saw out of the expo last week.

First - the games. I thought Sony had the best lineup of games, but that doesn't mean Microsoft and Nintendo are slacking, either. I'm going back and playing through Assassin's Creed again, just because I think it’s a brilliant game and I'm preparing myself for the sequel, all the while trying not to have unreasonable expectations for the title. There's very few things I can find fault with in the original game, and it seems that Ubisoft can only improve on what came before. The look and feel of AC was invigorating, and knowing that the AC2 is set in Italy during the renaissance means that component will likely be carried on. My only question is - will they have pre-order bonuses of some sort? I'm thinking about it… (Note: Also available on the 360, which is the system on which I will likely purchase this title. However, Sony actually had the trailer and game play shown on the PS3 during their press event.)

Next up - Final Fantasy XIII. I've been waiting for this game for a long time, and I have little doubt that it will be outstanding. I'm on the fence on which system to purchase this game - the PS3 for old time's sake, or the 360 to add to my gamerscore? I guess it depends if both versions will be available on day one. Needless to say, I'm drooling on myself just thinking about it.

Mass Effect 2 - I'm excited that ME2 will be able to carry over the moral decisions you made in the first game and that certain characters will return. The only thing I'm worried about is if they focus more on the shooter aspect of the second game and less on the RPG aspect. What I liked about ME was that it combined both elements to make a unique and memorable title, leaning too far toward the shooter aspect will be a downer for me.

Other titles I'm looking forward to in the coming year: Super Metroid - Other M, Gran Turismo PSP, Forza 3, ModNation Racers, Final Fantasy XIV, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Borderlands.

Another aspect of these console wars that I think is of note is what I feel Microsoft offers the most - the "whole console experience". While its true, the games make or break a console, it doesn't hurt that Microsoft is going above and beyond to make the Xbox 360 the centerpiece of home entertainment. Things like improved Netflix functionality and integration with Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter all are exciting me.

I think this year's E3 was heads above the previous two years, and all three big companies gave me something to be excited about. I try (although I don't always succeed) to think of the three big consoles as equals - they all have good games and are good for various different types of gamers. That's a good thing - appealing to the widest amount of gamers possible. Maybe one console can't cater to everyone, but all three of them together can. E3 is more than just who has the biggest, baddest titles and exclusives, its more about gaming as a whole and what all three consoles do together to improve the state of the industry.

Post of the Day: 6.9.2009

2009-06-09T12:27:00.000-05:00

97% of teens play video games. Remaining three are in comas.

Post of the Day: 6.8.2009

2009-06-08T18:35:00.000-05:00

Tetris just celebrated its 25th birthday.

Post of the Day: 6.7.2009

2009-06-07T20:25:00.002-05:00

Good news! The moral choices you made in Mass Effect will transfer over to the sequel. Pretty nifty.

Post of the Day: 6.6.2009

2009-06-06T20:22:00.000-05:00

Booth babes return to E3. And there was much rejoicing!

E3 2009: Sony - My Thoughts

2009-06-06T14:28:00.002-05:00

I feel a bit sorry for Sony, one of their major announcements - the PSP Go - was leaked a week ahead of E3. But, Jack Tretton actually laughed up that fact on several occasions throughout the presentation, and the leak didn't really detract from the power of this press conference overall. Sony has some solid games and exclusives coming out in the next year or so, and that's something to definitely look forward to for PS3/PSP owners.

They started off with a couple heavy hitters - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and MAG. MAG actually looks really cool, if you're into that sort of thing, which I am not. I'd get lost so fast on a map like they showed, its not even funny.

They talked quite a bit about their PSP system, and announced some titles and packages for that, including the thought-to-be-dead Gran Turismo PSP, with 800 cars (?!), 35 tracks and 60 different track variations. They even dropped the release date of 10/1/2009, to coincide with the release of their new PSP Go.

Also announced was Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Resident Evil, Little Big Planet and Monster Hunter for the PSP.

As I mentioned in my post dedicated to the subject, I do think the price of the PSP Go is a bit high, but if that's the direction the individual gamer feels he wants to take his handheld gaming, I'm sure he wouldn't mind laying down the cash for it. Myself, I don't feel its worth it, especially considering all the content available for the PSP Go is going to be the same that is available for the PSP-3000.

All that being said, the lineup for the PSP looks amazing for the next year. Why didn't they do this at the start, it would have given them a lot more leverage in the handheld market than they have now. Imagine a Gran Turismo or MGS game being announced earlier in the PSP's life, that would have been awesome. But, no doubt these games will still spur sales, even more so now with the PSP Go just a few months away.

And yet, as exciting as all the PSP announcements were, nothing could prepare me for what was to come.

Assassin's Creed 2 looks outstanding. In fact, now I want to play the first game again in preparation for the second game to come out later this year.

Of course, the one game on every Final Fantasy fan's mind was FFXIII, which was showcased with an amazing trailer at this event. That trailer graced us with some new shots and also quite a few more English voices than the Microsoft announcement of the same game did. I am so looking forward to this game I can hardly contain my excitement. I'm such a Final Fantasy fanboy.

That fact made the next announcement even more exciting - who was expecting Square-Enix to bring out the big guns and announce Final Fantasy XIV? No one, that's who. I was an avid player of FFXI, their first MMO, for a couple years after it came out here in North America. When I moved over to WoW, I missed the heavy story focus of the game and its nice to see that its coming back in full force in the form of this new MMO.

I realize I was all about Microsoft's "Project Natal" the other day, but after seeing all three company's motion control technology, I have to say that Sony's got me the most excited. I could just imagine playing a Final Fantasy game with a sword and board like they showed off in one of their tech demos. I also thought it was quite interesting that they made the point to bring out that they would use it for more than casual-type games, which Nintendo seems content with. I'm all for that. Nintendo hasn't quite realized my RPG fantasy I just mentioned above.

ModNation Racers is also another title I'm quite interested in, as I pointed out in my post a few days ago, so I won't discuss it much here.

Also, thumbs way up for The Last Guardian and Gran Turismo 5!

After seeing all three press events, I think Microsoft and Sony are neck-and-neck, but I have to say, I think Sony is bringing it more than Microsoft with the games coming to their powerful system in the next year. I guess its a good thing I held onto my PS3. ;)

Post of the Day: 6.5.2009

2009-06-05T12:46:00.002-05:00

Why didn't the original Wii Remote have Wii Motion Plus? I've been wondering this myself. I always assumed it was because Nintendo is a bunch of money grubbing monkeys who create a new peripheral to sell for every new game that comes along.

Post of the Day: 6.4.2009

2009-06-04T23:44:00.000-05:00

I haven't purchased a Wii yet...perhaps I never will. But, if I do, I surely am waiting until this black Wii model comes out in the U.S. If it never does, I will boycott Nintendo. Its darn sexy.

Game Journal: Giving Fallout 3 Another Chance

2009-06-04T09:39:00.000-05:00

I've made no secret of the fact that I didn't much care for Fallout 3. I played several hours of it and all it did was depress me. This was, however, back shortly after the game came out, with none of the DLC and on the PS3. I've decided to give the game a second chance because I want to try to play it a different way.

There are many ways you can approach a game when you go into it: From a technical standpoint, from a graphical standpoint, focusing on the story or focusing on the game play, just to name a few. I think I got bogged down in focusing too much on the setting and comparing it too much to Oblivion. This time, I think I'm going to go into it focusing on the moral decisions that can be made. I always tend to make the upright moral decisions in just about any game I play - Fable 2, Mass Effect, inFAMOUS, etc. This game will be no different.

I feel that, perhaps, by focusing on the good in the game - not how good the graphics are, how good the game play is or how good the story is, but the good moral decisions you can make - it will draw me into the game more and I'll be able to place myself in the shoes of the protagonist. Focusing on good moral decisions might also take my mind off the bleak, depressing setting in which this story takes place. Its kind of like making the best of a bad situation.

When Katrina hit the gulf coast and there were days (or weeks?) of mass chaos in New Orleans and similarly distressed areas, each individual in that situation had one basic choice to make - do I want to wallow in my misery and make those around me feel it too by looting, complaining or just generally making an ass of myself or, on the other hand, do I want to do my best to be patient and help others who may have the same problems, thus making the best of a bad situation?

Now, apply that same basic scenario to Fallout 3 - in this post-apocalyptic world, would I help people because I can, or hurt them because I want them to feel the same pain I do? (Reality check: Did I just compare Fallout 3 to Hurricane Katrina? I think I did.) I'm hoping, if I approach the game from that standpoint, I will be able to see what quite a few other gamers out there have seen in this game - push beyond everything else and make it personal, make the best of a bad situation.

E3 2009: The Next Big Cart Racer?

2009-06-04T08:44:00.009-05:00

At Sony's press event a couple days ago, they introduced us to ModNation Racers - a cart racing game aimed at their "play, create, share" philosophy, much like Little Big Planet. You can dress up your little racers, customize their cars, play and share with friends or strangers all over the PlayStation Network.

Let's take a step back, I was really hyped about Little Big Planet. I played the beta for a couple weeks. I pre-ordered the game for the bonuses. I picked it up on release day and had, oh, about two to three weeks worth of fun with it. Then it just tanked for me. Designing levels was so complex and time consuming that it became more like work than fun. Granted, to some people that is fun, but not for me. I wanted to play a game, not spend countless hours perfecting the mechanics of a level I was working on, which was likely to be disliked by the masses anyway.

I did enjoy playing through other players' levels, but after a while even that got to be redundant. There was a huge learning curve for being able to create and that was what interested me most about the game. Although, to this day, I still think being able to customize your Sackboy or girl is one of the coolest things.

Now, with ModNation Racers, it seems that, while still focusing on the core "play, create, share" philosophy, Sony is making it less tedious to do the creating. The customization rocks, and I don't think you can ever have too many customization options for your racer, your cart, your Sackboy, whatever. I do think you can go a bit overboard on the tools given for creation of your own levels though, and I think this was LBP's biggest downfall.

MNR, as it shall be referred to eventually, seems to allow for some pretty hefty creation options, while still allowing the game itself to do much of the work automatically. You don't have to laboriously test every last piece of your track like you would in a LBP level. As we saw in the press event, they built a pretty good looking track in under five minutes. I think a nice balance needs to be struck, somewhere between not being able to do anything to create your own content and having 100% of the control of that content in the player's hands. Sure, some people may like having total control, but LBP seemed to falter with it, in my opinion.

This new approach is appealing to me, I think it'll allow less "hardcore" players the ability to create without all the time-consuming, meticulous effort that was require in LBP. Even my wife, who isn't really a gamer, said MNR looked better than LBP, and that's saying a lot. The new racer seemed to get little attention, being dwarfed by the Final Fantasy and God of War coverage, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what Sony has up their sleeve this time around.

E3 2009: Nintendo - My Thoughts

2009-06-03T16:38:00.007-05:00

*Enter lame plastic steering wheel*

After the intro, Nintendo began its presentation with the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Get it? We had New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, now we have one for the Wii. This game will have 4-player co-op multi-player and propeller suits. Odd combination? Maybe, but we've come to expect that from Mario over the years.

The game play they showed seemed a lot like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with the in/out of the camera as characters move toward/away from each other. No mention of online modes were announced, but Nintendo has always geared their games more toward the sofa experience than the online experience, so that's not really a biggie for me.

*Lame plastic steering wheel is shown off again in another segue clip*

Wii Fit Plus isn't a surprise, neither is a sequel to Wii Sports, called, not surprisingly, Wii Sports Resort. This title will take advantage of the new Wii Motion Plus, yet another peripheral Nintendo tacks on to make their system "better". At this point I was thinking, by time you add everything up - an extra controller, nun chuck, a couple Wii Motion Plus units - the thing seems to cost as much as a PS3. Oops, just mentioned a Sony console in a Nintendo post. My bad.

Now comes the part of the presentation that drew me in the most - they focused an entire ten minutes on RPGs for the Wii and DS - Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story and Golden Sun DS. They all look amazing. My DS will be a busy little devil in the coming months.

After discussing a couple other titles for the DS, including the new IP COP: The Recruit, they focused on the DSi. New titles for that system (and that system only) are Flip Note Studio, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Wario Ware: DIY (Do It Yourself) and, surprisingly, a match-up with Facebook (along with Microsoft...darn, there I go again).

*More steering wheels...they will haunt my dreams*

Ok, now for the "WTF" moment. Wii Vitality Sensor? Seriously?

Enter Super Mario Galaxy 2 before we cut to the "hardcore" games, which are The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space: Extraction. Ok, none of these really make my taco pop, so I didn't pay much attention...although they did bring out some of the best graphics I've ever seen on the Wii.

What I did pay attention to, however, was the new Metroid game, on which Nintendo is collaborating with...wait for it...Team Ninja! I paid rapt attention to this part of the conference, probably because Samus is hot. Wait, what? I would probably buy a Wii just for this game. 'Nuff said.

Besides a few standout moments, the Nintendo conference kind of bored me and I swear they hate the environment with as many plastic zappers and steering wheels they were throwing around in those little "commercials" between segments of the event. No where near as jaw dropping as Microsoft (and, in hindsight, not even close to as cool as Sony's event). This year once again, for me, Nintendo stands in last place for their E3 showing.

Post of the Day: 6.3.2009

2009-06-03T09:41:00.000-05:00

Wipeout HD expansion details released. I might have to start playing again, it looks nifty!

E3 2009: PSP Go vs. PSP-3000

2009-06-03T08:07:00.008-05:00

I swear I am a zombie in the morning. I don't think of anything except my regular routine to wake up, get ready for work and get out the door. My routine doesn't seem to have picked up on adding my notebook to my work bag yet, so all my E3 notes sit at home on the sofa. I'll get to writing about Nintendo and Sony's conferences later today (and tomorrow, I'm sure).

For now though, let's talk PlayStation Portable. We've known for a week or so about the PSP Go. Rumors, at first, sure. They were confirmed yesterday at Sony's press event, and some information regarding how the PSP Go and the PSP-3000 will co-exist. I was at first worried that Sony would pull a Nintendo and provide content exclusive to the PSP Go, leaving all the other PSP owners in the dust. My fears seem to be unfounded.

As announced, all future PSP games will be available for download on the PSN, but they will also all be released on physical media, in this case the UMD. So, no longer do I have to worry about titles like Gran Tursimo for PSP or Dissidia: Final Fantasy only being available digitally. This is good news, as the more I think about it, the more I will likely stick to a normal PSP and forgo the $250 PSP Go.

Speaking of which, $250? Really? I'd rather spend $250 on a Wii, to be quite honest. I was expecting under $200, and a price-cut for the PSP-3000, much like Nintendo did with their DS Lite and DSi prices.

As it stands right now, I'm just likely to upgrade to a PSP-3000 (I currently still have a release day 1000 model) and a larger memory card. As an aside, I'll have to get a larger memory card anyway because I'm so buying Final Fantasy VII off the PSN, and its 1.37GB in size.

Like was mentioned at the press conference yesterday, the PSP Go will appeal to a certain demographic, but I see the PSP-3000 still being the mainstay of Sony's handheld gaming. I really think its too early to go to a download-only format for a console or handheld, although this is certainly what both Nintendo and Sony are pushing. Granted, it works better now on a handheld device than on a console, but I still like having physical media, regardless of the extra costs involved.

Still, the PSP Go does have some attractive features, such as 16GB of on board memory, which would, at least at the start, cut out the need for purchasing a memory stick. (Of course, previous PSP owners will likely have one anyway with some media they may want to transfer over.) I'm not going to lie, the PSP Go is a sexy device. For me, its not sexy enough to drop $250 on, though.

Post of the Day: 6.2.2009

2009-06-02T18:49:00.000-05:00

The psychology behind item collecting and achievement hoarding. Interesting read.

E3 2009: "Project Natal" What If

2009-06-02T11:52:00.002-05:00

As cool as the new "Project Natal" technology is to see demonstrated, a lot of things have to go right for it to be a success. Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

IF...the technology is sound and precise.
IF...the applications and games are done well, which will obviously require a lot of developer support and many extra resources. After all, designing comprehensive AI like Milo for multiple NPCs in a game will likely be a daunting task.
IF...its cheap enough for the average Joe to afford - the price of a typical 360 game, $60 or less - without being cheaply designed or built.
IF...it is more than a gimmick with a few quirky "games" like the Wii was (and still is?).
IF...both hardcore and casual gamers can embrace the technology and not feel alienated (again, we don't want to get into another Wii situation).

All these factors and more have to align just right for this "Project Natal" technology to take off, perhaps with the addition of a small miracle. But, if anyone can do it, Microsoft can. These are the things people said about Xbox Live several years ago, and look where that service is now. Sony is still playing catch up.

E3 2009: Microsoft, Part 2 - My Thoughts

2009-06-02T06:06:00.005-05:00

Since I stupidly left my notebook at home, I'll have to go from memory here. Luckily, this is the part of the event that I paid the most attention to. Odd that it wasn't the games, right?

What I really like about Microsoft this year is that they didn't focus 100% on games. While its true, a platform is only as good as the games available on it (as Sony is discovering), in this day and age, that's not all a piece of hardware is good for - playing games is only part of the whole media experience. They also didn't focus on who sold what and how many, like they did last year, which is a point in their favor, as well.

Beyond the games, Microsoft seems to be changing the way we think about entertainment in the living room. To start with, integrating Netflix's streaming services into Xbox Live last year was a huge step forward. Now its going to get even better, being able to browse DVDs and adjust your queue right from the console interface. Just last weekend I was showing a friend of mine how the Netflix streaming service worked, and I had to get on my PC to show him some things because I couldn't do it right on my 360. We ended up watching five episodes of 30 Rock, which I will now watch religiously all summer while there's nothing else on TV.

The point being, improving the Netflix functionality is awesome. It will be nice to be able to take some or all of that functionality that was once only available through the PC interface and make it available through the Xbox dashboard.

Last.fm is also coming to Xbox Live, so now instead of just streaming movies and TV shows, we have streaming music coming in, and it will be free to gold members of the service (its not that expensive, get over it).

In a move that was praised by my wife, the social butterfly that she is, Microsoft is also bringing Facebook and Twitter to Xbox Live. You'll be able to do just about anything you can do with these services online through the dashboard interface this fall. What I like best is the new ability to take screen shots from inside a game and immediately caption them and post them to your Facebook. (In the first draft of this, I wrote "screen snots". I laughed out loud.) That might be really fun. The only issue is, it sounded like the functionality would have to be on a game-by-game basis instead of built into the Xbox itself. I don't know how I feel about that - I think you should be able to do it inside every game you own, even if you have to access the Xbox menu and tell it you want to enter a "screen shot mode" or something. Still, the service sounds pretty cool if it can become widely supported by developers.

Quickly, I'll mention that the movie and TV download service through Xbox live will now allow instant play (streaming) of the movies you purchase and offer them in full 1080p. They're also expanding the regions of the world where the service is available, which is always a good thing.

The part of the presentation where my eyes remained glued to the TV was where they introduced "Project Natal". This is a motion- and voice-detection device that, I think, could drastically change the way we experience interactive entertainment on our televisions. It allows you to use your body as the controller.

What impressed me the most was the demo Peter Molyneux and his team at Lionhead put together of a real woman interacting with a digital boy named Milo on the screen. These interactions were simply amazing. She was able to converse with him and he would, through this technology, be able to pick up on her emotions, the inflections in her voice, determine how she's feeling and respond in kind. He would "toss" her an item and she would go through the motions of picking it up. She would draw on a piece of paper, hold it up to the device and that piece of paper would be digitally rendered on-screen to give the appearance she was giving it to Milo.

At this point, the possibilities of what gaming could be entered my head. I was imagining games where you were able to interact with the environment in the game by opening doors, hiding behind corners, climbing ladders, leaping gaps - all with only your body and no physical controller. Imagine interacting with an in-game companion such as Elika (from Prince of Persia) or Sheva (from Resident Evil 5), where they could pick up on your expressions and voice inflections and respond to them in ways that we never thought were possible. Imagine playing Madden or Fifa and giving yourself a full body workout instead of just hiding behind a controller working your finger muscles. The possibilities are endless.

If Microsoft is able to come forth with this technology at a reasonable price and actually make it work, without turning it into another useless gimmick of a peripheral, things will be simply amazing.

Microsoft seriously brought it this year and didn't disappoint. Their presentations were entertaining and enlightening and it really seems like they're pushing the boundaries of what is possible with interactive entertainment.

I'll echo my thoughts from the beginning of my last post - I'm turning into a Microsoft fanboy. They're doing so much, and its so good, that its hard not to be. Sony sure better bring it now, because its going to be incredibly difficult to top the whole Xbox experience.

Post of the Day: 6.1.2009

2009-06-01T22:40:00.002-05:00

Why the PSP Go will not have the same impact as the DSi. I tend to agree. Still, the PSP Go is one sexy beast.

E3 2009: Microsoft, Part 1 - My Thoughts

2009-06-01T20:07:00.010-05:00

To be quite honest, I was dragged kicking and screaming into Microsoft's world - the world of the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. I didn't want to leave Sony. A good part of my childhood was spent playing RPGs on Sony's PS1 and PS2. This generation, however, I was almost forced to purchase an Xbox 360. Well, I guess "forced" wouldn't be the right word, but I went kicking and screaming nonetheless.

Now, I'm almost willing to say I'm a Microsoft fanboy. I sat on the edge of my sofa with my jaw hitting the floor through most of Microsoft's E3 event, especially the second half. I got chills down my spine. I felt my imagination take off as I was contemplating exactly what this new "Project Natal" technology could mean for gaming, far beyond what was demonstrated on a small scale today.

But, let's start with the beginning and work toward the end. There were quite a few games announced, many of them exclusive to the 360.

Beatles Rock Band, Tony Hawk: Ride and Modern Warfare 2 - All of these I'm not so crazy about. Sure, I would be into the Rock Band game, perhaps, if I didn't have to buy a whole new set of peripherals along with it. Well, ok...I don't have to buy new ones, but I'd have to buy more to take full advantage of the game. Oh, and I have Rock Band on the PS3 and don't feel its worth it to buy everything (even the DLC songs) over again for the Xbox 360.

Next up was the one and only Final Fantasy XIII. It looked amazing, of course, and running on the 360's hardware, no less! What struck me as interesting is that we heard English voices on the 360 version. Will we hear the same tomorrow at Sony's event? These things make me go "Hmmmm..."

The next couple games were a bit "meh" for me - Shadow Complex and Joypark - both appear to be XBLA titles. Nothing wowed me about those two reveals.

I've been really wanting another racing game to come along and completely capture my attention 110%. Back in the day of Gran Turismo 3 and Midnight Club (the original), I could sit and play those games for hours, and get intimately involved in knowing everything about all the cars in those games. Since then, while I have enjoyed a few racing titles here or there, none have enraptured me as much. That's why I'm a bit exited to play Forza Motorsport 3.

First off, I've never played a Forza game. Yes, yes...here's my hand, slap it now. Secondly, the game looks amazingly fun (even moreso than Need For Speed: Shift that EA discussed this afternoon).

Again, I've never been a fan of the Halo series. I enjoy playing some multi-player with some friends, and even the co-op campaign is rather fun. However, Halo 3: ODST actually interested me. The fact that they explained you're a rookie on his own in a hostile city and are forced to piece together pieces of a larger puzzle of what exactly happened to many different soldiers just sounded really cool to me. Perhaps it seemed like it was "starting over" with a new story and I connected with the fact that one of the main characters is a rookie, much as I am to the FPS experience. Whether that's the case or not, only time will tell.

To conclude this first part of my thoughts on Microsoft's E3 event today, let's talk about Alan Wake. At first I was a bit put off, thinking this was another "in your face" survival/horror title (no thanks, Left 4 Dead 2). But, I was actually pleasantly surprised. It seemed more like a low combat "solve the mystery" game, and the flashlight mesmerized me throughout the entire demo. I'm looking forward to this title which, unfortunately, won't hit until spring of next year.

Overall, the games were quite interesting. Granted, not all are my cup of tea - and I really wonder how many people will fall and crack their skull trying to perform a stunt on that new skateboard peripheral. But, I think Microsoft has a very, very strong lineup, speaking strictly of the games.

In part two I'll discuss more of the total Xbox Live experience, as well as their new "Project Natal" technology and how I think it could revolutionize the way we become immersed in the worlds we game in.

E3 2009: Most Wanted

2009-06-01T10:33:00.004-05:00

Here are the games I'm most interested in seeing at E3 this year. This is not an exhaustive list, just some titles that have had big pre-E3 coverage that I'm looking forward to playing in the next six to twelve months.

Assassin's Creed 2
Mass Effect 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Final Fantasy XIII
Borderlands
The Saboteur
Wipeout HD expansion
Peter Molyneux reveal (whatever that might be)

That's it for now. Surprisingly, most aren't RPGs. Lots more to come, I'm sure.

Post of the Day: 5.31.2009

2009-05-31T18:47:00.002-05:00

Finally some news on this long-awaited PS3 RPG - White Knight Chronicles E3 trailer.

Post of the Day: 5.30.2009

2009-05-30T22:11:00.000-05:00

Nobuo Uematsu's first solo single in 15 years is now available on iTunes...and it sounds kind of funky (I previewed it).

Game Journal: Handhelds Are RPG Machines!

2009-05-30T13:41:00.001-05:00

Just as a quick refresher, I've been playing a lot of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel and The Last Remnant lately. But, there are a couple handheld RPGs I'd like to check out. In fact one of them - Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - is on its way to my mailbox right now.

I often get tired of playing a game on my DS or PSP, I must admit. Sometimes its a strain on my eyes or my neck. I get to the point of just wanting to sit on my couch and play my Xbox or PS3. And that tends to be what I do. The only portable game in recent memory that I actually completed was Chrono Trigger for the DS a couple months ago. I have the bad habit of playing through a game until I get bored of it being on a handheld, then I go play something else. Note, I don't necessarily get bored of the game itself, its just something about handhelds that is an obstruction for me to finish games.

Anyway, I can't say these two incoming games will change that, but I definitely want to try them anyway. I should get used to the fact that many of the best JRPGs recently have been of the portable gaming variety - and that's not a bad thing!

I'll have to write my review of Sacred 2, but after that I'm going to be working through a couple portable games, the one I mentioned above and Crimson Gem Saga, the latest JRPG to hit the PSP.

Post of the Day: 5.29.2009

2009-05-29T23:41:00.000-05:00

New World of Warcraft druid bear forms are sexy.

The Switch to BluRay - How Many Are Actually Doing It?

2009-05-29T15:20:00.004-05:00

Its been quite a while since BluRay officially won the high definition format war, but how many people are actually converting their DVD library to BluRay or, at least, buying BluRay from here on out? Of course, I have no solid numbers, the question is just rhetorical for the purposes of this discussion.

Although, there are some figures I can throw out. The Dark Knight's BluRay sales have been outstanding, making headlines at the end of last year. Also, stand-alone BluRay players have become more mainstream and more affordable. Many models have finally dropped under the price of the PlayStation 3, in fact. This is good news for consumers.

What about me? I would like to start buying movies on BluRay exclusively, however I only have two movies in that format and one of those came with my PS3. The things that are stopping me from taking the full plunge are 1) I still feel the price of the BluRay movies are too high and 2) I don't have a television that can take full advantage of the high-def technology.

First off, for me to start buying BluRay movies religiously, the typical price would have to be closer to $20 per movie instead of $30 or more. Yes, sometimes you can find movies you want at a more reasonable price - I know Amazon has BluRay sales fairly frequently, and there's always at least a few on sale at Best Buy. In these cases, I may actually pick a movie or two up. More times than not, however, none of the titles are ones that I want.

Secondly, as mentioned above, I don't have an HDMI-compatible HDTV. I bought mine just before HDMI became standard, so I use analog HD cables instead of digital. The picture for TV programs and gaming, for the most part, is still very good for an HD experience. Still, I can't get the full benefit from BluRay movies until I upgrade my TV at some point in the future.

Although, I will tell you, there are a few movies I'd likely spend the $30 for. I'll be jumping all over the Star Trek when it comes out on BluRay and I'd die for the Battlestar Galactica complete series on BluRay when it comes out later this summer (although I could probably buy a new TV for close to the price that they want for that box set!).

So, all this is kind of making me wonder - am I just behind the adaptation curve or are there more people out there who aren't making the switch to BluRay very quickly? I have nothing against the technology, for sure. It just isn't cost-effective for me yet. And, don't even get me started on converting all the DVDs I already own to BluRay. That would cost a fortune.

And, yes, I would like to add myself to the millions of people who purchased The Dark Knight on Bluray...but I'll wait a little while longer. ;)

Post of the Day: 5.28.2009

2009-05-28T21:10:00.001-05:00

I'd very much like to decorate my fridge with these retro gaming magnets. It would add some class to our kitchen.

Alright, I admit...

2009-05-28T19:32:00.004-05:00

I lied. I am rather excited about E3, especially if all the news we've got already is any indication. But I'm warning you, if Nintendo bores me to tears with their presentation again, its over between us!

Post of the Day: 5.27.2009

2009-05-27T20:22:00.000-05:00

Square-Enix got the party started (E3) last week by draping huge advertisements for Final Fantasy XIII down a few buildings in L.A. Also note the 2010 North American release time frame for the game. In a year we could be playing it. *crosses fingers*

Pre-E3 News Isn't Wowing Me

2009-05-27T10:34:00.002-05:00

A lot of interesting tidbits have been released (or leaked?), and E3 hasn't even started yet. Yes, lots of FFXIII info should be at E3, there's already been a released date for Bioshock 2 announced, along with a possible new Metal Gear Solid announcement and, of course, Microsoft's new Zune HD with Xbox Live integration. Yet, most of the presumed news from E3 really interests me (yes, the FFXIII stuff does, but that's about it).

What I'm more interested in is the possible new iPhone announcement coming out of Apple in the coming weeks. Zune HD? What's that? It would be nice to have my portable media device compatible with my Xbox (and, in fact, most of the music I've purchased lately from iTunes should be, because its DRM-free, yet oddly it doesn't play on my console), but I'm too familiar with the iPod devices and iTunes service now that I don't intend to change anytime soon. Its good hardware and I haven't had any problems with anything related to Apple or iTunes. Why fix what isn't broken by changing the way I purchase and listen to music? Sorry Microsoft, better luck next time.

I've been wanting to upgrade to an iPhone for a while now, and my two year contract ends this summer, probably just in time for a new iPhone release. You can bet that will be my next phone (and, it doesn't hurt that there are tons of games for it). ;)

Post of the Day: 5.26.2009

2009-05-26T11:12:00.001-05:00

A mobile Secret of Mana? Ahhh, the possibilities!

Post of the Day: 5.25.2009

2009-05-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

What exactly does the word "exclusive mean? Probably not what you think.

Post of the Day: 5.24.2009

2009-05-24T11:20:00.001-05:00

Japanese school gives students free iPhones. Never seen anything like that here. American schools pay their administrators too much.

Game Journal: A Better WRPG

2009-05-23T14:28:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. To be honest, this is my first experience with a 3rd person, top-down RPG. Overall, I'm enjoying it. Its very addicting, just beating up countless enemies with my powerful High Elf spells. For good reason, quite a few people on various forums that I read are comparing it to Oblivion. Granted, Oblivion is a first-person RPG and Sacred 2 is more of a Diablo-esque RPG. Still, many similarities exist - large, open world, hundreds of side quests, excellent character attribute customization, great visuals, etc.

Still...there's something missing. A lot of things, actually. Not to focus on Sacred 2 too much, as I will be writing a review of it soon, but I'd like to point out some things, as far as the Western RPG philosophy goes, that I think could use improvement.

Set the game in a fully 3D, 3rd person world, with animated character models for all camera angles and viewpoints. This is one thing I disliked about Oblivion - you had a 3rd person view, but the character models were horribly animated and the controls were clunky. [Yes, I do indeed realize Oblivion is a first-person game, but in my theoretical RPG, you'd have options that would appeal to everyone.]
Massive character aesthetic customization. Sacred 2 locks you in to specific class/race/gender combos - if you want to play a High Elf, you have to be a mage and you have to be female, if you want to play a Shadow Warrior you have to be male, etc.
Allow "respecs" for skills and abilities, much like a typical MMO. Mistakes are made, you should have more choices besides 1) live with them for the rest of the character's life or 2) reroll.
Massive, open world where you can walk anywhere - through forests, rough terrain, desert, jungle, swamp, mountains, etc. Perhaps including different possibly harmful or debilitating status conditions for more extreme terrain. I dislike being able to walk up to a wooded area but not being able to run through it in some games.

These four things alone are hugely important, in my opinion, anyway. For the most part, what I dislike about Sacred 2 is the camera. I guess I'm just not a top-down RPG person, even though I really try! But, the other parts of the game are addicting and keep me playing.

What I would love is, one day, for there to be an RPG that encompasses all these different aspects to near perfection, but I have serious doubts that will ever come to pass.

Post of the Day: 5.23.2009

2009-05-23T12:14:00.001-05:00

What haven't they made soap out of? Here's some Tetris soap.

Post of the Day: 5.22.2009

2009-05-22T16:34:00.000-05:00

Boston police promise to report zombie attacks. Well, I should hope so.

Post of the Day: 5.21.2009

2009-05-21T13:13:00.002-05:00

Mass Effect 2 to be dark and broody. What's wrong with that? I spent five years watching Battlestar Galactica, I can handle dark and broody.

Tweet This!

2009-05-21T07:43:00.002-05:00

I've recently joined the ranks of the millions already tweeting. Actually, I've had a Twitter account or two for a while now, I just never really got the idea behind it, especially when I can just update my Facebook status and achieve the same effect. But, I think I'm starting to "get" it now. I can get small, concise news items straight on my phone from gaming web sites. If I want to read more, of course, I just go to Google Reader or the site itself and look up the full article. But, for the most part, it’s a good way to keep up on stuff throughout the day, especially now with E3 just around the corner.

Feel free to follow me over there. I do have things set up so I have to approve my followers, but I don't think I'll be as protective about this as I am my Facebook account - less personal information. ;)

Post of the Day: 5.20.2009

2009-05-20T22:11:00.002-05:00

Stereotype Killer: 114 Million Adult Gamers in the U.S. We're taking over the world!!!

Post of the Day: 5.19.2009

2009-05-19T19:34:00.002-05:00

This will be hot if, indeed, this is Turbine's mystery console MMO project - tips for making LotRO a successful console MMO (part 1).

Post of the Day: 5.18.2009

2009-05-18T18:13:00.003-05:00

Mario Kart Wii is teaching kids about road safety. Am I the only one who is now terrified to drive?

Post of the Day: 5.17.2009

2009-05-17T23:49:00.001-05:00

Movie tie-in games don't have to suck. /agree

Post of the Day: 5.16.2009

2009-05-16T22:13:00.000-05:00

Its a slow day. I.E. I can't find much else - Sacred 2 bug fixes needed. I'm playing this right now, so it caught my attention. ;)

Post of the Day: 5.15.2009

2009-05-15T23:11:00.000-05:00

One world record, 500 pounds of quarters.

Review: Fable 2 - "See the Future"

2009-05-14T12:12:00.005-05:00

The latest DLC for Fable 2 has a few things going for it, and a lot that isn't. First, I really have to point out that I love Fable 2 and its nice that there's been two DLC packs for it in the last six months. Its cool having a reason to revisit Albion and all the weird and wonderful characters it holds. Its also nice seeing a nearly two million gold bump to my character's bank account after not having played since I finished the "Knothole Island" DLC back in January. Of course, that just makes every single treasure my dog sniffs out for me meaningless, but I suppose that's not a big deal.

The gentleman who sold my character the magic music box way back in the day is back with new and interesting items that require my attention. These items lead to quests that are completed very quickly. I would say a straight run through them all would clock in at an hour, if not less. If you're a completionist, you can probably squeeze more life out of the DLC. Even my adventures on Knothole Island lasted longer than that.

What's nice about the DLC is that, when you view the game as a whole, it expands what is available to do in Albion. When I get the urge to play through the entire game once more, perhaps with a different character on the evil side of things, it will hopefully feel bigger than it already is. There will be more stuff to do and more goodies to acquire and outfit my character with earlier on, instead of bringing my angelic queen out of retirement every few months for another romp.

As expected, the visual presentation and sound are amazing, just like the rest of the game. The quests are more varied and feel fresh, although, as mentioned, they are over way too quickly, especially if you have a more advanced character.

The problem is…there's really not a whole lot here. The group at Lionhead rushed to get "Knothole Island" out, and it was more expansive than this new DLC, which they had months to work on. These quests would fit in quite well as part of the overall game - they would be a nifty change of pace - but as a piece of DLC that we're spending our hard earned cash on, it doesn't quite cut it. Although, the potions to change your dog's breed are fun, and probably the biggest selling point of the content. You also get a possible glimpse at the future of the Fable franchise to make of what you will. Its rather vague.

I will give them this - "See the Future" is cheaper than "Knothole Island", but its not enough to justify the lack of content. Perhaps 250 spacebucks would have been a better price? But, developers need to eat too, I suppose. ;)

Score: 4.0 (out of 10)

Post of the Day: 3.13.2009

2009-05-13T19:15:00.000-05:00

30 Rock Passes Along Wise Sims Parenting Advice. I might have to check out these clips and should probably start watching the show at some point. Maybe the summer will allow me enough time to catch up on some DVD watching...

Post of the Day: 5.12.2009

2009-05-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

Top 7 Gaming Snacks. I must try this Pocky. It fascinates me.

Review: The Last Remnant

2009-05-12T21:28:00.001-05:00

Game: The Last Remnant
Developer: Square-Enix
Publisher: Square-Enix
MSRP: $39.99
NA Release Date: 11/20/2008
Platform Reviewed: Xbox 360
Also Available On: PC

The Last Remnant is, for all intents and purposes, an experiment by Square-Enix to appeal to both the Eastern and Western markets. I don't think that experiment in itself was successful, because the game plays just like a typical JRPG, albeit with some modifications to the standard formula.

The game follows Rush Sykes in a quest to find his sister, Irina. She has unintentionally become mixed up with some bad, power-hungry men because of a hidden power she holds within her. Rush sets off to find her and meets a group of high-ranking people from the country of Athlam - Marquis David Nassau and his four generals. David promises to help Rush find his sister, because there seems to be more at stake here than the life of one person. And, from that point, your adventure begins.

The story, broken down into its basic parts, is fairly cliché, yet manages to feel somewhat fresh and different at the same time. The characters are vastly different from each other - both in design and in personality. Also, they don't follow the typical JRPG archetypes. For example, in the early part of the game, the only female controllable - and I use that term loosely - by the player is Emma, a 41-year-old general. She's fully clothed, has battle scars and is rather stern. Yet through it all, she's endearing in a way that isn't forced on the player by the script or a character cliché. The other generals and David himself are equally as likable, yet all with their little personality quirks. Lastly, Rush himself doesn't act like a typical JRPG hero - he's no Cloud or Edge. He's not emo, he doesn't feel like he's going to fly off the hook at any given moment and his voice acting is downright excellent. In fact, all the voice acting is top notch, which kind of makes you wonder what happened to games like Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean: The Last Hope (granted, not developed by Squeenix like this title, but they still should have a lot of pull when it comes to that stuff).

I started with the characters because that initially is what drew me to the game and the story. But the visual presentation is outstanding, as well. The game just looks darn good. The art direction reminds me a bit of both Final Fantasy X and XII, but that's not a bad thing. The environments are varied, although a bit more confined than other recent JRPGs. The presentation during battle is energizing and the ability to control the camera lets you explore every inch of the detailed environments.

What makes or breaks most RPGs is the battle system, and TLR is solid in that department. Once you wrap your head around what the game is trying to do, it isn't really that different from your typical turn-based RPG. In a stretch, you could say it’s a combination of a strategy RPG and a turn-based RPG. It carries some features of a strategy RPG in that you are allowed to build your own groups, put together your own mix of NPCs (and, therefore, abilities), level them up and form a strong fighting force pretty much the way you want it. Yet, during actual battle it handles much like any other turn-based game in the genre.

In fact, I don't think its as innovative as Square-Enix has claimed in the battle system department. However, I've always been a believer that lack of innovation doesn't mean a bad game by any means. You form Unions, which are made up of individual party members. Each Union has a leader and you give each Union its own command instead of issuing commands to each individual member of that Union. What each individual character (including Rush) does with that command is ultimately up to the AI. However, based on your command they do go in a certain direction with their attacks or support. As an example, you can tell one Union to use Combat Arts, and it'll be at the AI's prerogative which particular ones to use based on the weapon each individual in that union has equipped and the skills they have at their disposal. Like I mentioned, this is even true of your main character. You really don't control any individuals, you just give Unions basic attack commands to carry out in whichever way the AI feels will benefit you most.

Its not as complicated as it seems. If you think of each Union as an individual party member, the entire battle system suddenly becomes easier to understand for fans of turn-based RPGs. In that respect, it really isn't that different from those other RPGs, the structure of your attack party is really the only difference. Enemy units are the same way. Each enemy you see on the field screen represents one or more enemy Unions.

What the game fails to do is explain all this in an easy to digest manner, so the learning curve is fairly high. Combine this with the fact that, in the first couple dungeons, you don't get more than a handful of enemy units to attack, and it does take a while to get everything down pat.

There are a myriad of other things that pique my interest about this game, the more I play. As just a couple examples, I love the fact that your party members - even other Union leaders - ask your advice for directing their combat techniques. Should I lean more toward combat or mystic artes? That's your decision, on top of building Unions to suit the situation and your personal tastes. Along these lines, characters also ask for item drops and items from your inventory that you may not be using, and they use these items behind the scenes to improve their gear and performance in battle. A very nice, unique touch to the game.

Now, onto the not so good. Yes, I have to mention that this game is littered with technical troubles - the frame rate drops frequently, texture popping is worse than other games on the 360 and the bit hitter - loading screens. OMG the loading screens that will not end! That is my biggest issue with the game - not the texture or frame rate issues. The loading screens are literally everywhere. You will see a loading screen under all of the following conditions - and more: switching zones within a city, going to/from the city or world map screens, going from exterior to interior locations and vice versa, before each battle, before each boss fight, after each battle, after each boss fight, between cut scenes. They literally never end - you are seeing a lengthy loading screen every time you turn around.

Something else, beyond all this - the achievements aren't that hot. As far as I can tell, there are no progression-based achievements. All the game's achievements rely on repeating actions ("Win XX Battles", "Activate Timeshift XX Times", etc.) or optional content (side quests, optional bosses, etc.). I prefer more progression-based achievements so you know you'll at least get a certain amount of points if you just complete the game, without going through any extra hassle to track down where and when you can trigger them. That being said, its likely many of these achievements will still come naturally during the course of the game.

However, in spite of all the technical issues (most of which I understand are fixed with the PC version - which leads me to wonder why the 360 version hasn't been patched yet), the game is incredibly deep and very satisfying. It would be a shame to pass it up because of its problems, because the battle system and story definitely are a sight to behold.

Score: 8.0 (out of 10)

Post of the Day: 5.11.2009

2009-05-11T16:59:00.000-05:00

Chuck Versus the (Gaming Related) Top 10 List!

Post of the Day: 5.10.2009

2009-05-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

Again, in honor of the Star Trek movie releasing this past weekend, we have Star Trek references in World of Warcraft. Yes, there are a lot of them.

Post of the Day: 5.9.2009

2009-05-09T21:51:00.000-05:00

The best and worst mothers in video games.

Review: Star Trek (yes, the movie)

2009-05-09T11:02:00.001-05:00

I'm not going to do a major in-depth review or anything, but these are my thoughts on the new Star Trek movie. But first, some background - I've been a Trekker all my life, starting back in the days when I was younger and they used to run marathons of the original Star Trek on New Year's Eve. My dad would let us stay up late that one night while we were in elementary school, and we'd watch the original Trek for hours on end. Once The Next Generation hit, I was a full blown fan of the entire franchise, and that only continued into Deep Space Nine and Voyager. It only started waning when Enterprise came around, and the disappointment that came with that series. So yeah, I'm pretty knowledgeable about the whole franchise and a lore junkie.

By "lore junkie", I mean that I respect the lore, but don't mind minor lore disruptions for the sake of making good television or movies. I'm not unreasonable. Keep that in mind when you read my cons below.

WARNING: THERE ARE MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS BELOW - IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE, DON'T READ ON UNTIL YOU HAVE!!!

We'll start with the good things:

It was incredibly entertaining.
The visual effects were outstanding.
The general plot was intriguing.
The acting was awesome, as were the actors/actresses involved.
I like J.J. Abrams.
I loved all the in-jokes: Star Trek homages and in-jokes form the cast and crew's past projects abound.
The Romulans look awesome - in fact, they should have looked more sinister, like in this movie, all along. Who says the Klingons alone can have that honor?
Leonard Nimoy. 'Nuff said.

Now, onto the bad (brace yourselves):

Who the hell puts product placement in a Star Trek movie? Nokia and Budweiser - seriously?
Yes, we know Spock was half human and that he has wrestled with those emotions in various episodes and movies throughout the last 40 years - but this thing with Uhura that he has going on in this movie is, from my viewpoint, an unacceptable, out of character use of those stray emotions form his human side.
They blew up Vulcan - one of the most well known, iconic, beloved planets in the Star Trek universe. What. The. Hell.
The time travel gimmick has been used to a nauseating amount in the last 40 years of Star Trek, not to mention the rest of sci-fi. This isn't a problem, if its done well. But, you don't use it to change the last 40 years of Star Trek. What was Paramount thinking by allowing that to happen?

I'm quite aware this is supposed to be a "reboot" of the franchise, and I will even agree that it was needed, but there are some lines you just do not cross. Changing small bits of lore here and there is fine, if the end result is a better movie. Changing huge chunks of the lore just for a "reboot" screams to me that the writers, producers and whoever at Paramount was involved in this just don't care about or respect the last 40 years of Star Trek. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't move Starfleet HQ to New York City and power the Enterprise's warp engine with butter instead of dilithium crystals.

In fact, I think what they did to Star Trek lore would be what The Lord of the Rings would be if someone did a movie and changed it so that Frodo died half way to Mount Doom, the ring was secured by Sauron and the entirety of Middle Earth was turned into a Mordor-like furnace.

Now that I got all of that out of my system, if you take the movie on its own merits and, god forbid, completely wipe everything you know about Star Trek out of your mind and pretend like you're starting fresh, this is a great, entertaining, funny, action-packed movie that I think you should go see just once, especially if you're not a Star Trek fan. If you are...I'm sorry.

Post of the Day: 5.8.2009

2009-05-08T11:49:00.002-05:00

Your flesh-and-blood girl not doing exactly what you want? Try your hand at a virtual girlfriend in Konami's Love Plus. Its too bad we'll never see this Japanese gem on this side of the Pacific. ;)

*hides*

Post of the Day: 5.7.2009

2009-05-07T19:14:00.001-05:00

Seeing as this weekend is bit for Star Trek fans, here's a list of the best and worst Star Trek games ever.

Post of the Day: 5.6.2009

2009-05-06T22:39:00.001-05:00

Gamer Rant: Thou Shall Not Patronize.

Post of the Day: 5.5.2009

2009-05-05T23:13:00.000-05:00

20 PS1 RPGs the PlayStation Store should offer. I agree wholeheartedly.

Post of the Day: 5.4.2009

2009-05-04T22:18:00.004-05:00

PS3 owners want FFXIII more than Xbox 360 owners. Here's why - the last five numbered Final Fantasy titles have been exclusive to Sony systems. I think in that time they've built up a follower or two. ;)

WoW Review - Children's Week

2009-05-04T15:58:00.001-05:00

The eggs of Noblegarden are gone, replaced by the sound of screaming rugrats. It’s the one week each year where busy adventurers have to take time out of their schedules to show these little ankle-biters around Azeroth and Outland. Do we mind? Not at all, because we're rewarded with reputation, achievements and two vanity pets.

Unlike other in-game events in the last year, Children's Week did not receive a revamp. The only new things added to it are the achievements, one of which is probably one of the most painful things you'll go through on your quest for the Violet Proto-Drake. In fact, let's start with that. We might have gotten soft since the achievements for Noblegarden were fairly simple, solo affairs that we could run around and do without a care in the world. However, I do think one of the achievements for Children's Week is a bit too much - School of Hard Knocks.

Not only do you have to PVP (if you want to call it that), you have to perform a task that your class, spec or both may not be in tune with. Good luck being a holy priest or resto druid and capturing a flag in Eye of the Storm or taking a resource node in Arathi Basin. You'll die quicker than you can say "achievement". This isn't to mention those of us who just don't PVP. Ever. We have zero resilience and little experience, so completing that achievement is a lot harder than certain PVP-ers make it out to be.

The better route to go for this would have been allowing the player to be in the vicinity of the flag cap, or the flag return, or whatever, when it occurs. This still requires some effort in the form of joining BGs, but allows the players to focus more on working together instead of working against one another just to get this achievement. That one achievement kills this event for me, especially considering the fact that its required to get the Violet Proto-Drake. What a let down.

Other than that, this event is the same as it has been the last two years. There's a quest chain in old Azeroth and a quest chain in Outland in which you drag an orphan child around to several landmarks - which are mostly different for alliance and horde players. At the end of it all, each quest gives you the opportunity to choose a vanity pet out of three choices. If you've done these quests in past years, you may have most, if not all, of the pets available.

There was some talk about a Northrend quest much like the other two, but there are none implemented in-game right now. Perhaps the possibility remains that Blizzard will activate something tomorrow during maintenance and give us what we want - a continuation of Children's Week in Northrend and another vanity pet. This might - might - make up for the lame achievement I mentioned earlier.

Post of the Day: 5.3.2009

2009-05-03T13:47:00.000-05:00

Gamer Rant: Thou Shall Not be a Hypocrite.

Post of the Day: 5.2.2009

2009-05-02T15:34:00.000-05:00

The Place of Games in Culture.

Post of the Day: 5.1.2009

2009-05-01T10:55:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? Ottumwa, Iowa - of all places - announces plans for a video game hall of fame. The town is about 130 miles southwest of my location, out in the middle of frakking nowhere. Yes, I'm as confused as you are.

JRPG Character Clichés - Really That Bad?

2009-05-01T08:35:00.012-05:00

One of the biggest complaints about any JRPG made in the last decade (or more?) is that much of the time the characters are cliché. The male protagonist is a fatherless boy who falls in love with royalty, or he's a member of royalty himself and denounces his heritage or goes off on an adventure against the will of his family. The female protagonist is usually an important person - a member of royalty, a summoner, a well-regarded person in her community. No matter what it is, she always has some important aspect of her being that makes her hard to get for the male protagonist.

You also have other characters with highly cliché back stories. A thief, a funny boy/girl, that moe-themed ditzy female character, a well endowed female with a severe lack of clothing who is typically mysterious when you first meet her, the tortured soul who barely speaks and thinks that everyone is out to get him. The list goes on. Its possible that characters do not initially make up these archetypes, but certain personality traits and story elements relating to the characters usually fit into these broad categories.

All that aside, I'd like to focus on the typical "commoner complex" that more than a few main protagonists exhibit. This is a character back story cliché where they live in a simple village, usually with a single parent (the mother seems prominent here) or no parent at all, live a very simple life, have some wild dream of doing something important some day and, in most cases, have some sort of friend in the village that shares that dream or the early adventuring exploits of the protagonist.

Why is this such a common theme in JRPGs? The answer to that is simple - we, as gamers, can relate to that setting or one similar to it. Think about it. Many fantasy RPGs are based in a pseudo-medieval world and, in these especially, you see the above main protagonist cliché. The majority of people living in cities and villages in this time period on Earth were common folk. They weren't royalty, they weren't important in some way, they were common, everyday people, simple people, poor, not a lot going for them. If you were in that position, wouldn't you have big dreams that, in your mind, wouldn't be very attainable?

Carry that down to our time period here in the real world. The majority of people are middle- or lower-class citizens, we work blue-collar or lower white-collar "normal" jobs. We aren't CEOs, we aren't royalty, we aren't famous. We sometimes have dreams that are bigger than ourselves and are in many cases unattainable.

The bottom line is - these clichés are there because we relate to those types of situations on either a conscious or subconscious level. Are they over-done? Yes. Do gamers get tired of them after a while? Sure. Do they still have a place in the modern-day JRPG? Absolutely, perhaps even more so with the present state of the world's economy. No matter how much time goes by, the majority of people playing these games will still be able to relate to that simple "commoner complex" cliché more than just about any other back story created for the protagonists we follow for hours on end. And, because of that, these clichés will never cease to be found in our JRPGs. Sure, the circumstances surrounding the characters may be different, but at the heart we see these things because the developers know that we can relate to those types of characters. Are they wrong?

[Disclaimer: Nowhere did I say that all JRPG characters exhibit the above clichés, nor did I say that people can't relate to other types of characters. Just thought I'd clear the air.]

Post of the Day: 4.30.2009

2009-04-30T18:52:00.000-05:00

Here are eight great games you might have never heard of (but should have).

Game Diary: I See Western RPGs in My Future

2009-04-30T11:30:00.002-05:00

I've been playing a lot of JRPGs lately, but that's most likely about to change. The new Fable II DLC - "See the Future" - hits on May 12, and I'm most definitely going to check that out. What's nice about it is its cheaper than "Knothole Island" (560 Microsoft Spacebucks, $7) and rumor has it its going to tease a bit of the story for Fable III. Also, there are new dog models so you're no longer stuck with the default lab look-alike. In addition to that, there should be new items and quests a-plenty!

Also on May 12, Sacred 2 hits. Despite its developer going bankrupt, the game looks promising. Its already been released on the PC, but I'm interested in checking it out on the 360. The PC version was rather buggy, although go favorable reviews of the content of the game itself. I'm not big on Diablo-esque RPGs with their isometric, top-down view, but the screens from this title seem more like Fable than Diablo. I'll definitely give it a shot. That's what GameFly is for, right?

Farther down the line BioWare has Dragon Age: Origins and, of course, Mass Effect 2. I'm not sure yet when these games will be gracing us with their presence, but I'm looking forward to them nonetheless.

In a bit of unfortunate news, another WRPG I've been keeping my eye on - The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf - has had its development halted due to financial issues between the various parties involved. This game was looking mighty fine, it’s a shame we may never see it due to this rough economy.

Even without The Witcher, there's still a lot of WRPG goodness coming down the line this year. Can the JRPGs keep up?

WoW Review: Noblegarden

2009-04-29T14:05:00.006-05:00

As with many in-game events over the last year or so, Blizzard has revamped Noblegarden to improve its quality and add achievements. I've got a good handle on the events that are available in-game, having completed nearly all the achievements already. I'll polish off my last two (Chocoholic and Shake Your Bunny Maker) later today, most likely, assuming all the female dwarves aren't in hiding.

The first thing that stands out about this event is the expansion of the egg hunt. In past years, egg hunting has been a painful process because there were too few egg spawns and too many egg hunters. That has all changed this time around. Egg spawns in the starting towns - Razor Hill, Goldshire, Kharanos, Bloodhoof Village, Brill, etc. - are astronomical. Its very hard not to be able to get eggs in a reasonable amount of time. Sure, it might start off slow, but once you start figuring out where the eggs spawn, its easy as pie. There's a daily quest to collect egg shells, which rewards you with gold based on your level and another event item. There's also a one-time quest to collect 10 Noblegarden chocolates. Those chocolates drop out of 90% of the eggs you pick up.

The event vendors deal in chocolates, so that acts as a currency, as well. There's all sorts of fancy things you can buy such as a vanity pet and, for mages, a new polymorph. Many of the items on the vendor, including the pet and clothing, are needed to finish the holiday achievements. However, if you're lucky enough, it is possible to get all these items except for the placeable egg from opening the eggs you find around town. In my case, I got anxious to get the Spring Rabbit, so after about 200 eggs with no pet, I decided to just purchase it for the 100 chocolates. Not surprisingly when I went out to find more eggs the next day I got three pets to drop, all of which I can't use, can't give away and can't sell. If I had it to do over again, I'd farm all the chocolates I need, then take stock of the achievement items I still need and buy them from the vendor - likely that would have saved me a bit of work. But, like I mentioned, the eggs are easy to find, so it takes no time at all - especially during non-peak hours - to farm up the chocolates needed.

Once you get all the event items needed for the achievements, its simply a matter of doing a lot of travel around old Azeroth, preferably with a friend, and sitting around Dalaran trying to toss bunny ears on unsuspecting females of at least 18th level (no jailbait!) from each race.

I praise Blizzard for taking the luck factor out of getting clearing all these achievements to receive the title "the Noble" and adding to the meta achievement to obtain the Violet Proto-Drake. If you don't get the items you need in the eggs, you can buy all the same things from the vendor with chocolates.

The only real down side is the fact that egg hunting can be tedious sometimes, and I'd avoid the more heavily populated starting towns, like Goldshire and Razor Hill, at peak hours. You also might want to bring a partner along for some of the achievements, because they're needed for one and preferable to have around for another.

All in all this is a great event. I think Blizzard is finally starting to understand how to handle these events and create the achievements for them. Children's Week doesn't promise to be quite as easy next week, with both a PVP-based and a dungeon-based achievement required to get the title and work toward the ultimate event meta achievement.

Post of the Day: 4.29.2009

2009-04-29T08:11:00.000-05:00

The best kind of yard sale!

Post of the Day: 4.28.2009

2009-04-28T15:06:00.000-05:00

GameFly pays first class postage for second class treatment. Uh oh.

WoW Review: The Argent Tournament

2009-04-28T12:52:00.007-05:00

Since I'm back into playing WoW a bit, although much more casually than before, I figured I'd talk a little about one of the major new events they added in the last content patch. A few days down the line and I'll be talking about the revamped Noblegarden and Children's Week events, as well.

The Argent Tournament is a new permanent in-game event in Icecrown, right on Arthas' doorstep. The idea behind it, as far as the lore goes, is to train warriors for combat against the forces of Arthas by having prospective combatants practice on each other. There's also another, one-time-only quest line that deals with "the dark knight", apparently someone who's been tasked by Arthas to infiltrate the tournament and kill off the most powerful fighters of both the horde and alliance.

Beyond that, its basically another daily quest hub that focuses a lot on a new mounted combat idea, which is based off the vehicle mechanics we've seen used all throughout Lich King content. The rewards are excellent - there are quite a few vanity items, some epic weapons (again, geared toward the casual player, not the raider), titles and a lot of reputation gains all around.

Let's talk about the positives first. Its nice that Blizzard is catering toward the role player some more - most, if not all, of the vanity items available through the tournament shout that out loud and clear. (Now if only they would actually enforce their RP server rules, right?) The new daily quests bring in cash and prizes that focus on what most casual players want. For the most part, things are soloable, as they should be for the casual player. Some quests are very short and sweet. For the non-mounted kill quest, all you have to do is fly the distance of a stone's throw away from the tournament and beat up some Scourge minions. There are a few quests which are random each day that have you going and nabbing a long-lost weapon of some sort, somewhere in Northrend. The hardest part about those is the time it takes to fly from Icecrown to either Howling Fjord, northeast Dragonblight or Grizzly Hills and back.

Unfortunately, there are some huge drawbacks to the tournament, as well, and I'm beginning to think even the awesome rewards aren't worth it. For starters, the mounted combat needs some major work. The NPCs can react as soon as an action is technically possible - humans have lag in their reaction time and their connection to the servers. The combat is clunky and the mounts don't function like regular mounts do, which makes the combat annoying and a hassle. If you don't use your abilities just right at just the right time, its likely you will lose versus the NPC opponents. This mounted combat accounts for roughly 75% of the daily quests you're tasked with to obtain the Champion's Marks needed to purchase all the cool stuff.

Sure, you could group up with someone and it would be easier, but that negates the point of casual content - relying on someone else to help you get the job done. Casual players don't always have the right circumstances or enough time to deal with group quests. And that brings me to point number two - one of the daily quests to receive two of your five daily Champion's Marks is an actual group quest. Why? Again, that is contrary to what casual content is supposed to be. Dealing with finding a group every day for this quest is not my idea of fun.

Lastly, the rewards should cost about half as much in terms of Champion's Marks. Sure, if these more "hardcore" players have the time (and they likely do if they're "hardcore"), they will be able to get the maximum amount of marks per day, even on multiple characters, thus allowing them to purchase the vanity items fairly quickly. (A jaunt on over to warcraftpets.com's comment section will show you just how fast some people are getting the vanity items.) Myself, I can swing about one or maybe two of the daily quests per day, and neither of them is the group quest, which means two marks per day. That's twenty days for a pet, fifty days for a mount…you get the idea. This is not even factoring in if I happen to miss a day (I miss at least one day every week). Seems a bit awkward to put casual content in the game that even casual players will never see for weeks or months down the line.

Overall, it’s a nice idea with excellent rewards. I'm just not sure it was executed properly, given the part of the player base its supposed to represent.

Post of the Day: 4.27.2009

2009-04-27T12:31:00.003-05:00

FFVII's Cloud apparently has universal appeal - a poster that bears a striking resemblance to our pointy-haired hero made its way into the Caprica pilot/movie that was just released this week.

Post of the Day: 4.26.2009

2009-04-26T21:36:00.000-05:00

Gaming and drinking together - as things should be!

Post of the Day: 4.25.2009

2009-04-25T19:56:00.000-05:00

Build your own glow-in-the-dark Space Invaders lamp! Sounds like fun...

Post of the Day: 4.24.2009

2009-04-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

Fable II DLC achievements have been revealed in all their glory!

Game Journal: Getting Past Technical Issues

2009-04-24T11:02:00.003-05:00

I've been taking a bit of a break from console gaming (aside from a bit of Halo 3 with my brother) - I've been focusing mostly on playing Chrono Trigger (DS). However, I have a new game incoming from GameFly - The Last Remnant. The reviews weren't encouraging, but almost all of them focused on one aspect of the title - the technical issues. To me, that's a little dense and I'll tell you why. For starters, there are quite a few games in the past that received high praises where certain technical issues continually emerged. One that I can think of off the top of my head is Mass Effect. I loved the game, critics loved the game. What's the problem? The texture popping is out of this world, and it didn't get much better when I installed the game to the hard drive. Let's not even get me started on Fable II.

Now, I haven't played The Last Remnant yet, so it may be that the technical issues are too much to get past, but from what I hear, the extra polish that was applied to the PC version of the game actually makes it a very good game. My question is, why can't reviewers push past the technical issues and actually review the game play itself. Several reviews I read spent half of the review or more discussing the technical issues and not much time on the game play itself, the story or the innovations.

So, I'm actually looking forward to trying the game out, especially after hearing several people express their thoughts on the PC version and how well done the game is overall. If I can learn to tune out the texture issues in Mass Effect and the myriad bugs in Fable II and still really enjoy the games, I'm sure I can with The Last Remnant, as well.

Post of the Day: 4.23.2009

2009-04-23T08:37:00.000-05:00

As you may or may not know, there was a lot of talk last week of the Final Fantasy XIII demo that was included in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. But, what you may not know is the demo is a very early version of that segment of the game, so there will be some major changes between the demo and the final release version. Here's a list.

Post of the Day: 4.22.2009

2009-04-22T09:10:00.000-05:00

The life and times of Nintendo's Game Boy!

Post of the Day: 4.21.2009

2009-04-21T10:43:00.000-05:00

GameStop Reviewing Their Sales Policy in Light of Kotaku Story - good for them!

Post of the Day: 4.20.2009

2009-04-20T18:42:00.000-05:00

Is role-playing losing its roots?

Post of the Day: 4.19.2009

2009-04-19T11:29:00.000-05:00

Waypoints and Questlogs - Moving the JRPG Forward.

Post of the Day: 4.18.2009

2009-04-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

Final Fantasy VIII: Advent Children Complete box art is hot.

Post of the Day: 4.17.2009

2009-04-17T11:31:00.000-05:00

Ever wondered what some World of Warcraft zones look like in real life? Its not like the zones actually exist, but the terrain features that fill them can be matched to some real locations. Someone went through all the trouble of finding these locales, and its pretty cool.

More Than Just Raiding

2009-04-17T07:02:00.001-05:00

I'm increasingly enthralled by WarcraftPets.com. Lately I've been updating my comment more, and reading others' comments on their latest pet acquisitions and other "casual" dealings in WoW. Its actually quite amazing how many people enjoy this - its quite heartening, actually.
Blizzard spends so much time and effort on these huge, hardcore raids that only a fragment of the WoW population will ever see (although it is a larger percentage now since they made the early WotLK raids more accessible). Its nice to see lately that they seem to be spending just as much time on the more "casual" aspects of WoW - role playing, fishing, solo questing, pet/mount collecting and the like.

In this latest patch alone there were over a dozen new vanity pets and mounts added, as well as cool racial shirts, tabards, banners, weapons and other goodies, most of which are thanks to the Argent Tournament. There were also new goodies added for fishing fiends - new dailies and a new mount to be fished up in Northrend schools. All this stuff will keep me busy into the foreseeable future, yet still at a casual pace. Yesterday I completed the cooking daily, the new fishing daily and all five available Argent Tournament dailies in roughly an hour (although it probably could have been less if I didn't get horrible lag doing one of those dailies in Crystalsong Forest for some reason).

I like this new trend that's been a long time in coming. They've dabbled in heavy casual content since early Burning Crusade, but, in my opinion, are just starting to get the hang of it and get enough stuff added to keep casual players who want to stay away from the "raid or die" attitude busy at level 80.

Post of the Day: 4.16.2009

2009-04-16T06:29:00.000-05:00

Can games handle history?

Post of the Day: 4.15.2009

2009-04-15T10:59:00.000-05:00

The Problem of Choice (in video games, duh).

Post of the Day: 4.14.2009

2009-04-14T10:46:00.002-05:00

Much like a movie, "emotionally engaging" moments are really what draw me into the story in a game, as well. I have to emotionally connect with the characters on some level to be drawn into the entire game experience. That being said, its good to know that Mass Effect 2 won't shy away from the types of moments they put in the first game, regardless how much the misinformed press complains.

Post of the Day: 4.13.2009

2009-04-13T12:28:00.001-05:00

Ten Classic Mistakes Made by the Modern RPG. I don't agree with all of them 100%, but there's some truth in all of them.

Vanity Pets in WoW - My Obsession

2009-04-11T08:57:00.000-05:00

Some people raid, others PVP, some people level a multitude of alts. Myself? I'm obsessed with collecting vanity pets. For those of you not in the know, vanity pets are little critters you can collect just for the sake of collecting them, because they have no affect on your character's power or his/her performance in the game. They're just that - vanity pets.

Since Wrath was released, its become even easier to collect these, since the entire way vanity pets work was overhauled. The items that used to summon the pets are now "spells" that you learn, so you don't have to clutter up your inventory with dozens of items - one for each pet you want. Along with that change in mechanics came the achievement system and, naturally, several vanity pet achievements. There are achievements for collecting these pets (two of which reward pets themselves and some focus on collecting specific hard-to-come-by pets) and some achievements aren't pet-related but do reward with pets.

One of these achievements is called Higher Learning. This achievement has been my obsession the last week or so. Here's the deal - to complete the achievement you must find and read eight different books scattered around Dalaran (interesting tidbit: each book is an homage to one of the schools of magic in the original Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG). This sounds easy, right? Not so much.

Its simple in the fact that each book does have a specific spawn location, so, with a bit of research, you can find exactly where they all spawn (they are not always there). The catch is that, when a book spawns, it only remains visible for three minutes after the first person clicks on it. Its not like you have to race other players to click on the book first - you have three minutes after the books is first clicked to get it read yourself, and an unlimited number of players can do so. However, once a book disappears it won't respawn for at least three hours, but no more than four hours.

There's one last monkey wrench thrown in this that makes things even more frustrating. There are "fake" books that can spawn in the place of the real book you need for the achievement. These "fake" books are actual books you can read, and they are often quite hilarious if you do spend the time to read them, but they aren't the book you need. So, you could spend several hours waiting for a book to spawn, only to have a "fake" spawn instead, then have to wait several more hours for a chance at the achievement book spawning (and, again, it could spawn a "fake" instead).

I'm down to needing one book to finish the achievement. You would think the less books you need the better off you are, right? In the sense that you're much closer overall to finishing the achievement, yes. But, I'm under the impression that the less books you have to get, the more difficult and frustrating it is. The more books you have to get, the likelihood that one of the actual achievement books you need will spawn is greatly increased. Being down to one book, there's more of a chance of "fake" books to spawn, since there's only one spawn location I'm watching (instead of all eight, for example).

My best bet at this point is to just camp the location until a book spawns. If it’s the achievement book, the great! I'm done! If its not, make a note of the time and go do something else (in or out of the game) until the three hour mark from the book spawning, then log on and camp it until another books spawns (should be within an hour from the three hour mark). Repeat this cycle until I get the last achievement book I need.

Why do I go through all this trouble? Its simple - I'm obsessed with vanity pets, and this achievement rewards one of the coolest vanity pets in the game, a Kirin Tor Familiar. In other words, a mini arcane elemental. For everything else Blizzard is, they do know how to reward you for the time you put into things. Now, if only they would come up with some use for all these achievement points we've been racking up since last November...

Post of the Day: 4.10.2009

2009-04-10T16:18:00.002-05:00

Gamer War Vet Fears Game Will Dishonor Those Who Served in Iraq.

(Note: I'll be out of town tomorrow and Sunday - no posts of the day. I know, you're all about to cry now, aren't you? ;)

GameStop Selling "Rented" Games as New

2009-04-10T09:13:00.004-05:00

You know, this really irks me. As much as I enjoy the convenience of shopping at and pre-ordering games from GameStop, some of their practices really annoy me. I've always disapproved of their practice of selling display copies of games (the ones where they open the game, remove the disc and put the case on the shelf for people to look at without risking theft) and I never buy these copies. When they try to sell me one, I just tell them "no thanks, I'll go buy it somewhere else". Luckily this doesn't happen with pre-ordered games, which is the route I take most of the time anyway.

As if that wasn't enough, now comes news that they're trying to pass off "rented" copies of their games as new. See, apparently GameStop allows employees to "rent" out games for a few days. These "rented" discs often get mixed in with the "story display" copies and all of them are sold as new. In fact, it seems to be against company policy to sell these in any other way besides new. The good news is, this may be against federal law.

I really hope something comes of this, because either of the above practices really should not be happening. A new game should be defined as one that is still inside the factory seal, not some cheap shrink wrap or GameStop logo seal the store puts on these opened games to pass them off as new. When you buy a sealed game, system or just about any other product imaginable, you can return it as new only if the factory seal is not broken. I can sure guarantee you if you bought a sealed game from GameStop, cracked the seal and tried returning it for a full refund, they would force you to sell it to them for the (incredibly low) price they would pay for trade-in. They seem to think they're special and have the right to make the customer pay full price for a copy of a game with a broken factory seal. This is wrong in my book.

Post of the Day: 4.9.2009

2009-04-09T23:58:00.000-05:00

The many faces of Fable II's hero. You know, some of these look pretty cool. This and the upcoming new DLC makes me want to play through the game again (or at least see how much cash I've racked up since I last played).

Post of the Day: 4.8.2009

2009-04-08T18:38:00.000-05:00

Tales of Vesperia rage - only in Japan (or not?). Its a good thing I didn't buy this game (although I probably would buy it if I could, say, find it new for $20 somewhere). Now to decide if I should play the 360 version or wait for the enhanced PS3 version. Decisions, decisions...

Tri-Ace Has a New RPG in the Works

2009-04-08T12:32:00.002-05:00

Ahhh, Tri-Ace, how I love thee. Along with Atlus and Level 5 you're one of my favorite Japanese RPG developers. I love the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile franchises and have much praise for the misunderstood Infinite Undiscovery. What do you have in store for us next? End of Eternity. It’s a generic name, for sure, but that never stopped you before.

The Japanese title was just announced, but its pretty likely it will appear in North America next year, and I'll be waiting for it. The art style could possibly elevate it above the helium-filled voices and cheesy dialog of most of your RPGs (but I still love 'em!). It appears this game might break out of that mold and, possibly, maybe, perhaps rise above and beyond what has come before. Oh, and its multi-platform - yay PS3! I'm looking forward to it!

Post of the Day: 4.7.2009

2009-04-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

A game will apparently have the greatest story ever told, according to Peter Molyneux.