My Top 10 Games of the Year

Everyone's doing it! I figured I might as well make my own Top 10 list for the year, as it only seemed fitting for my new blog. This is my first Top 10 list and I had to think long and hard about it before I came to this conclusion. Enjoy!


10. Dark Souls
No other game this year beat my ass so hard. This is a game that doesn't give you any idea on what to do or how to do it and lets you figure it out instead. While some think this is just poor game design masquerading as a hard game, I couldn't disagree more.


9. Gears of War 3
This is the penultimate Gears of War game. Everyone was surprised when Gears 3 was pushed back, wondering if the game was in trouble. Epic didn't need the time to finish the game; they instead used the delay to make the game EVEN BETTER. The campaign is fast and fun, wrapping up (almost) every plot thread in the universe. Co-op campaign supports 4 players online and is a blast. Horde mode with five people is chaotic and a blast. Even the multiplayer is much improved with dedicated servers to aid in getting rid of cheaters. The perfect Gears package.


8. Bastion
Bastion caught my eye immediately. Or rather my ear. Hearing the narration as you play and seeing the world form up around you as you prod further and further from the safety of the Bastion was unlike anything I had ever seen. The story isn't just dumped into your lap but revealed through the narrator's observations at certain items or locations and somehow builds into one of the most interesting gaming worlds I have ever seen. And that music! One of the best soundtracks of the year.


7. Dead Space 2
Who would have thought that a game coming out so early in the year would be one of the best? Well, everyone after last year's Mass Effect 2, I suppose. EA manages to do it again with a very smart sequel to Dead Space. The action is ratcheted up into high gear and the controls evolve to do the same. Everything feels quicker from the movement to the reloading (while running!) and the game never takes a break. Add in more of the unbelievably cool in-world UI and a world dripping with eerie atmosphere and you have the best survival-horror game in years.


6. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
I wasn't the biggest fan of The Witcher. While the story and characters were mature in a way I had rarely seen in anything let alone video games, the combat was simply boring. The Witcher 2 changed that by adding a fairly by-the-books hack-and-slash combat system but it has enough unique things like the Witcher's signs and potions to make it fun.

Every inch of the world is vibrant and lifelike making it one of the most well-realized game worlds I have ever seen. The mature themes come back in droves and it manages to be much less childish about the sex. The biggest thing was the choices you made and the very real impact you had on the game's story. You would skip whole areas if you chose one way or the other. That's dedication.


5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I love this style of game. I spent way too many hours in Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Fallout: New Vegas but enjoyed every minute of them. Skyrim gave me another world to explore while also fixing many of the issues that Bethesda's old engine had. There is so much to do in this game that it is mind-boggling. Sure, some repetition starts to set in from cave to cave but the variety of locations is astounding. The highs weren't quite as high as past games in the series but it instead manages to stay in the middle most of the time, a trick that very few games can pull off.


4. Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Asylum might just be one of my favorite games of all time. I have beaten around ten times now and go back every six months or so to play it all over again. I didn't hope that Arkham City would be better but I hoped it would at least be worth my time. It certainly was.

While the open world doesn't work quite as well as I had hoped, the improvements made to the combat are what do it for me. This is the perfect brawling combat system and I dare you to challenge me on that. Rewarding timing and keen observation over button mashing, I can't ever get enough of the combat. Arkham City adds numerous options giving me even more ways to smash skulls. The ending of the game also impressed me, having some finality (for a comic book story) and surprise I wasn't expecting.


3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I hadn't played the first Deus Ex until this game was about to come out. I had no PC to play the game when it was new. When I went back to play it, the game showed its age to me. I could see the brilliance but I felt left out in the worship because I didn't have the nostalgia. I felt really bummed until Human Revolution came out and gave me the next best thing: my own Deus Ex experience.

This game was at the top of my list when I started writing it, if that tells you anything. The steampunk world, the do-what-you-want style of gameplay, and the sprinkling of story in the e-mails and e-book of the world was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The game is so much about choice that I've seen some people who miss entire pieces of the story's universe because they didn't hack more computers to get the story.

Of course, the flip side of that is the awful boss fights, which pushed this down on my list (probably should have been farther, but what the hell). I hated the boss fights so much the first time with my stealthy character. For a game about choice, you are given only one option with the bosses - fight. If your character is specced in a bad way, you might not be able to get through them, which is horrible design. It is the one flaw in an otherwise perfect game.


2. Saints Row the Third
I frequent Giant Bomb as I love the staff there. For weeks on their podcasts, they told everyone in the room that hadn't played the game one thing - "You should really play Saints Row the Third." I squirmed every time I heard this or heard about a crazy thing the game did, aching to play it. I had to wait until Christmas to finally get my hands on it and the wait was absolutely worth it.

This is the game on my list that I played nearest to the end of the year so I really had to think about it. Was this really that good? The answer is definitely yes. Tight third-person shooting coupled with the craziest story and characters I have ever seen in a video game made this an unmatched experience. There are so many thing I could say about the game that I don't want to, for fear of spoiling something.

That is the one thing about this game that kept it from the top spot. Since I keep on top of games so much, I heard a lot about Saints Row the Third before I played it and had quite a few things spoiled. It's unfortunate because I know that those twists would have blown my fucking mind if I had gotten their unspoiled. That's why I'm going to tell you to play this game without telling you why. Just trust me - it'll be better that way.


1. Portal 2
I was in the boat of skeptics for this game. I doubted it would be horrible but I knew it just couldn't measure up to the first game. Valve showed me the error of my ways and gave me a package that was better both in puzzles and story.

The single player campaign is super sharp and introduces enough new puzzle mechanics to excite players of the first game. During the campaign, you are treated to two of the best new characters of the year - Wheatley and Cave Johnson. Their lines (and delivery of those lines) is some of the finest voice acting I have ever heard. Plenty of twists and surprises are along the way and the ending is just...damn.

Valve also added a co-op mode, something I was also very skeptical about. Play Portal with someone else? Blah. I convinced a friend to try it with me anyways. Six hours later, we had finished it and were salivating for more. The puzzles are even better with two players and while the necessity for communication is a bit annoying, the gameplay is more than worth it.

Valve really nailed the perfect package. I had finished the game entirely within a week and desperately wanted more. It is rare for me to finish a game and want that next hit so quickly but Portal 2 managed to do it in a way that felt familiar and shiny new at the same time.

The Old Republic: First Impressions

I picked up Star Wars: The Old Republic with some Christmas money a week ago and just started playing it three days ago. Since there doesn't seem to be much in the way of news today (at least as of this writing), I figured I would give some impressions of the game.

First things first, let's just get this out of the way. Yes, the game is a lot like World of Warcraft with Bioware conversations, but that is as much about necessity as it is about pride. WoW has done a lot of good things for the MMO gametype and it isn't silly to see Bioware harp on a lot of things from it, especially with the amount of money it has made. On the flip side of that, a lot of the newer things like LFG and Transmogrification didn't make it in, since WoW added those later in development (heard people complaining about this and it irked me).

I think the fully voiced nature really adds a lot to the game. It is pretty cool to talk to each quest giver with your own voice and shape your character in a way that hasn't really existed in any MMO before it. The voice acting is all top-notch and doesn't make me cringe. Some of the voice actors (heck, probably all of them) tend to repeat but it's perfectly understandable that that would happen at SOME point.

On the flip side, I can see why the voice would get in the way. Compared to WoW, it takes about three times as long to pick up quests and go on your way, since you have to sit through a two-four minute conversation first for each quest giver. If speed is your game, you might have to turn off the conversations. Of course, that would ruin the main point of the game.

Another thing I really like is each class has their own main story thread, one they follow through (I assume anyways) all the way to the level cap. This has been done before in Aion but it feels smarter here. While Aion opened story quests to you as you leveled, TOR never has you without your next step in the story. You have a bunch of smaller, supplemental quests to go with it but the main quest line is the core. I feel much more invested in my character with this chain of quests than I would do all the same ones that everyone else is doing (I know everyone does the same quest chain per class but it still feels more special than the same one for everyone).

Combat flows well enough, uses pretty standard conventions for an MMO. Things like a resource you spend, a resource you build up with abilities and spend with others, and a resource that builds up and prevents you from attacking are found elsewhere. Two of the classes, the Smuggler and Imperial Spy, have an interesting cover mechanic that I need to look into more. You almost always fight groups of enemies, probably Bioware's way of making combat more exciting. It works and also has the benefit of getting you to the end of those "kill 15 guys" quests more quickly.

I sound like a WoW fanboy by saying it but the game doesn't feel quite as snappy as WoW (to be fair, nothing does). Only WoW seems to have the perfect feeling of pushing a button for an ability and having that ability launch immediately. TOR comes the closest out of everything I've played and keeps me engaged more than things like City of Heroes or Rift.

Another interesting choice was the choice of giving everyone companions. Bioware games are known for these and adding them to an MMO seems an odd choice at first. They are used in interesting ways though. First off, you have a "pet" from Level 8, one that helps you fight by doing damage, tanking, or even healing you. Soloers are given a much easier time when they have a companion to give them a hand.

Companions are also the crafting portion of the game. When you want to gather materials, you can find them in the world or send your companions on gathering missions. They disappear for a few minutes and come back with stuff to craft with. When you craft, you can either craft yourself at a bench or send the companion on a crafting mission to craft the item. It is a smart way to make one of the more annoying parts of an MMO something you can do in the background while you do something more exciting.

A small point that I see a lot of people complaining about are the graphics. Some of them hate the artstyle and some think the game looks awful for a 2011 game. I think the artstyle is great, although maybe a little too close to WoW's. I would prefer a more vibrant, arty game than one that looks like Star Wars Galaxies did. As for the quality of the graphics, Bioware was assuredly hampered by the fact that an MMO has to appeal to the widest range of computer hardware to ensure enough users. Even so, the game looks very appealing to my eye.

That's really all I can think of to say at this point. My Bounty Hunter is only at Level 15 so far and I need to get further to see more of the game. Expect to see a few posts here and there when I find something worth mentioning.

Check in tomorrow for my first ever Top 10 Games of the Year list!

Nintendo, EA, and Sony Pull Support From SOPA

Things aren't looking too hot for SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). While the bill garnered a lot of support from big name gaming companies at first, a lot of them are starting to change their tunes. Nintendo, EA, and Sony are some of the newest to revoke their names from a list of supporters of the controversial bill.

I love getting to see what the power of the Internet can really do when people put their minds to it. First with the whole Ocean Marketing exchange and the @$$-tearing that their company received because of it and now with these companies switching sides. While I would like to believe that someone just saw reason within these companies, I know that it had to be from the harsh backlash.

This is another strike for SOPA and I know I'm not alone in hoping that the trend continues.

Don't Spend Real Money On Virtual Items

The outside-of-the-game market for items in MMO games has existed for a long time. As soon as people figured out that they could sell their items in game to other (stupider) users for real-world money, they started to do it. Nowadays, gold/item sales and character powerleveling starts within a month of any MMO's release (usually quicker than that).

Snail Games, a Chinese developer and creators of the upcoming MMO Age of Wulin, decided to take it to the next level. They held an online auction for in-game items and gametime for their own game - even though it hasn't been released yet. The prices of these items started rather high and the bidding pushed them even higher.

The craziest of these items? A sword that sold to one man for $16,000...

I can't believe how crazy this man is. Not only did he buy a virtual item for 16 grand, he bought it for a game that he hasn't actually played. In fact, the game hasn't even entered beta yet. Such a waste of money for something he doesn't even know was worth it yet...

Customer Support, Without the Support

This story just irks me in a way that few things do. I raged pretty hard when I first read about this and had to step away from the computer to avoid posting a virulent comment that would amount to nothing anyways.

What am I talking about? Well, there's a little e-mail back-and-forth going around the Internet right now (started on Penny Arcade, made its way around) that was between a customer named Dave and an employee of Ocean Marketing, a third-party peripheral vendor. It is quite long and irksome but worth a read.

It all started with Dave asking the person, Paul, when his controllers that he had ordered well before Christmas would be shipped out. Paul was quick to answer and informative at first but it quickly falls off the rails from there. Dave started to get a little irritated at the lack of definite shipping details and the delay with his product but stated so in a calm manner.

How did Paul respond? He starts to chastise Dave for bugging him about the product and "bitching" about its delays. He even tells him, the customer, to "put on his big boy hat" and deal with it.

Dave understandably started to get annoyed. He threatened to make the exchange public to burn Ocean Marketing's publicity but this just infuriated Paul even further. The comments become more vitriolic as they go, including things like saying he might just buy the customer's controllers himself if he cancels and resell them for a profit and threatening to run a smear campaign against Dave.

I find it extremely hard to believe that a customer support person for a website could stoop to such a childish level. The amount of immaturity on display in these e-mails is astounding to see in someone working at a company with any semblance of credibility. Ocean Marketing can probably expect a HUGE amount of backlash from anyone who sees these e-mails.

LINK: If you'd like to read the entirety of the e-mails (they are a shocking but interesting read), just follow the link below.

Penny Arcade

My Christmas Excuses

The last few days didn't have posts and I regret that. I do have excuses though!

On Christmas, I of course have the usual excuse of spending time with family. Also, I didn't sleep at all the night before because of a random attack of insomnia and needed my sleep when I normally would post this. Wouldn't have had much to post anyways.

Yesterday, I actually managed to completely forget until I was in bed. I contemplated getting up and posting something but I was too sleepy. Again, not much to post about anyways.

Got plenty of new stuff for Christmas (including a gross of older games from GoG's holiday sale to play with - and write about later!) including Saints Row the Third and Shadows of the Damned, which I might write about later. Another post coming soon about a piece of today's news!

No More Guns for Your Avatars!

If you haven't heard already, Microsoft will soon be pulling any weapon items for its (stupid) Avatars off the Marketplace. If you already have one of the items, you can keep it but they won't be up for sale for much longer. The company hasn't come out and said why yet but Epic Games, the ones who reported that their Lancer and Hammerburst Avatar items would be pulled soon, stated that it was because of an upcoming anti-gun policy soon to be enacted.

I laughed pretty hard when I read this. Why does Microsoft need to pull these from the marketplace at all? Are they worried that with all their new family Xbox users out there who bought Kinects are going to be disgusted by a virtual gun on their Avatar? Considering Microsoft's penchant for Mature-rated first-party games, this seems just a little odd. Not to mention, it isn't like thousands of pre-teens don't already swear and shoot up others on Xbox Live every day.

I think Destructoid had a good point in their post on this when they compared the Avatars to Disney characters. If you didn't know, Disney is very strict with their core characters. When Kingdom Hearts came out, Donald and Goofy had to be given a shield and a staff since Disney wouldn't let them carry real weapons. A bit extreme, in my opinion, but an okay reaction. The same argument for Microsoft? Doesn't really play. Avatars don't really harbor any favor with most gamers and they certainly aren't above a virtual gun or sword.

Actual Vita Stick Prices

So, it seems that we were wrong. When the Vita Memory Stick prices were announced a few weeks back, it seems that they weren't the actual prices. Gamestop were the ones that "guessed" about the prices, based on the prices in Japan. Of course, things usually cost more in Japan then the do here and it seems that Gamestop was a bit off. The real prices are:

•4GB - $19.99
•8GB - $29.99
•16GB - $59.99
•32GB - $99.99

These prices are still a bit high but much more reasonable than before. I take back some of what I said about Sony, mostly the part about them overcharging by a lot, but they are still a bit at fault. It would have been easy to simply use SD cards instead of a proprietary storage method. The argument of piracy, a very high concern with the PSP, is a valid one. I don't blame Sony for releasing these sticks and the prices are at a level that I am happy with.

EA Scamming Users or Blown Way Out of Proportion?

People are amusingly getting up in arms about The Old Republic. It isn't anything to do with the content of the game but instead lies in the billing side of things. Apparently, some people don't know that to activate the free month you get with an MMO, you have to put in a credit card for validation purposes. The amount of hate I have seen for something that has been dating back to at least Everquest 1 days is quite hilarious.

This is how MMO's that aren't wildly popular make some of their money back. They have you sign up for a monthly plan to get your free month and hope that you either like the game enough to keep playing or completely forget to cancel it for a few months. It's sleazy but not illegal or shady by any means. TOR is not the first, or the last, MMO to require this.

Of course, some people have other circumstances related to this that are a bit crappy. Some European customers argue that they don't have credit cards (it isn't as common in some countries) and have to instead by a pre-paid card, an additional $30 right off the bat. Also, the site has been hit hard in the last few days with the game's launch early this week and some have been unable to even update their info on the site, locking them out. These situations are a little easier to feel sorry about.

This is all information that is easily accessed if you just look. I can't feel sorry for anyone (except those with situations mentioned above) who feel cheated out of their "free" month because they don't understand how this all works.

Fix Your Game Saves With...A Wii Channel?

Nintendo's stance on Internet play for its gaming devices is fairly well-known. The Japanese company just doesn't seem to get that this is a part of gaming now and only begrudgingly includes it. Heck, the 3DS was the first Nintendo device that supports WPA for wireless Net access!

Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem. Today's console games (for the most part) have a tendency to work fine out of the box. Of course, every so often one of them has a game-breaking bug or glitch that can hinder gamers from finishing it or cause them to lose their saves. The normal method of fixing such a problem is to simply patch the game over the Internet, seeing as how most people have it nowadays. The Wii doesn't support patching (except in very rare cases like CoD4) and games with problems don't have an easy issue.

One could argue that Nintendo doesn't care that much if some people have problems with a game on their systems. Instead, they just relegate angry consumers to the developer of the game, stating it is their problem. What happens when the problem actually happens to a Nintendo product? Without the systems in place to patch a game, how would they fix things?

You may see the point I'm getting at by this time. Skyward Sword came out recently and some users have been complaining about a game-breaking glitch a decent chunk into the game. If a player does a quest in the wrong order, it won't finish, effectively stopping the game in its tracks. The only fix for this problem was to start the game over, wasting hours of progress.

If this problem wasn't on a Zelda game, they most likely wouldn't have bothered for the small number of people it might affect. Being a high-profile title like Skyward Sword put them in an awkward position. They knew they had to fix the problem in some way and it had to be possible for everyone to do.

They announced that the fix would be an unlikely source - a Wii Channel devoted to fixing game saves. By logging onto the Wii's Internet and downloading the channel, the program will run a diagnostic on saves located on the system and fix them. Afterwards, players can finish their games unabated.

This apparently only works on saves located on the system however. For people who save their data to an SD card, the only fix is to send it in to Nintendo who will fix the saves manually (sounds like a fun job, right?), a method they have used in rare occasions in the past to fix Nintendo games that broke. Either way, everyone will have a way to fix their game saves, albeit most in a faster way than others.

I'm glad to see Nintendo coming up with a solution that is more practical than just sending in the save on an SD card. It doesn't solve the problem across the board but ensures that enough people have an out if they get stuck. Let's hope for our sakes (and theirs) that they learn from this and work on a more vivid, connected network for future consoles.

No Class-Action Lawsuit Clause Being Challenged

A lot of people were fairly angry when Sony included a clause in their updated Terms of Service that prevented them from pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the company. Even more people were angry when that led to companies like EA and Microsoft doing the same in their Terms of Service. One of these people has decided to stand up and not take it.

A man from California is suing Sony on the behalf of all users who signed up before the TOS change. His argument is that the company changing the terms after so many people had bought the console with the old terms and denying PSN service to those who refuse to agree is unfair. He also believes that the company's decision to bury the clause and not allow any other means of opt-out except snail mail is at fault.

Well, we had to see this coming. I had a feeling from the start of all this that someone out there with enough time and money on their hands would decide not to accept the TOS and sue Sony for the sakes of everyone. I applaud the guy for taking the plunge but I can't help but wonder how worthwhile it may be. I don't see Sony, Microsoft, and many other companies including such a clause without being sure it was legal to do so. Sony may take a hit for the other parts of the suit (not too clear on legal matters so I don't know) but I wouldn't be surprised to see the clause stay in.

Terms of Service agreements aren't really taken seriously enough and both sides are at fault. On one hand, the companies make these agreements extremely hard to read, using legal jargon and unending paragraphs to deter potential readers. As for the people agreeing to these terms, most of them don't even bother to ever read one of these agreements, a tact that rarely works out well in life. Both sides need to adapt to ensure Terms of Service don't get even more out of hand.

December is Boring...

Nothing new to post today. I keep wanting to do a more in-depth, thought-provoking post but I haven't gotten a good idea yet. Still searching. As for gaming news to talk about, there really hasn't been much. Not really a shocker in late December but still kind of a bummer.

In the meantime, I have been playing a lot of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (early Christmas present) and World of Warcraft. I started with MGS2, easily my most-played game of the series and found it holds up really well. Some of the mechanics are certainly dated and the cutscenes are both ridiculous in length and some of the most confusing and pretentious in the series' history but I still really like it. I did a Normal run and it kicked my ass more than I'd like to admit. Seems I'm not quite as good at those games anymore.

Holding off on MGS3 and Peace Walker until after Christmas, in case I get something I'd rather play first, instead of something I've already finished in another form. I might just go after a full 1000/1000 in Metal Gear too. Some of the achievements are pretty tricky (all dog tags! all food types!) but it sounds like a fun challenge. Will have to see how that turns out.

As for WoW, I was inspired to get back into it after I remembered I had foolishly locked myself in with the Annual contract thing. I got too caught up in the excitement around Blizzcon and signed myself up, even though I didn't necessarily play anymore or have the money to play. Now, I feel like I have to play so I'm not throwing money away.

It isn't so bad. Rolled another hunter (probably my sixth one by this point...) and chose to do two things I had never done: level a Horde from 1-85 and level on a PvP server. Of course, the random server I picked is pretty much dead but that's how it goes sometimes. Been enjoying it surprisingly well over the last week or so (and already 32!). My play might taper off a bit when I get new stuff for Christmas but I'll keep playing.

Guess that's it. Will try really hard to avoid another one of these for awhile and get back to the point of this blog. Happy holidays!

The Forums Are Aflame!

Sometimes, I'm feeling particularly stupid and peruse a few message boards on the Internet. I know, I know, what am I thinking? Every so often, I manage to actually help someone on a board so I like to pop in here and there.

Anyways, I've gotten slightly back into World of Warcraft lately, so I figured I'd check a few message boards for the game out. It has been six months or so since I played heavily and I really didn't keep up with the game in the meantime. I wasn't really expecting to find anything useful or accurate but was curious about some things I knew people would be bitching about.

I was (not really) surprised to find that a majority of the posts on the WoW forums were about The Old Republic, seeing as how it just released officially today. These posts ranged from "Why TOR is better than WoW" to "I give up on this game; I'm going to TOR" to my personal favorite "I bet this game will crash and burn now."

These posts always pop up when a new MMO hits the scene and I can't help but be amused each and every time. Aside from the fact that two MMO's could be vying for entirely different groups of people, most of the MMO's that were released in the last five years after WoW came out have either collapsed or gone free-to-play to keep their business going. WoW is one of the few remaining MMO's to not have any microtransaction-supported free-to-play element in their game.

I don't see how TOR would be any different. I spent a bit of time with the beta and you know what conclusion I came to? WoW with Star Wars and Bioware conversation wheels. Sure, the fully-voiced dialogue and Jedis are fun, but it isn't really the next evolution of the genre; it just settles for a pretty exact copy of the hit MMO. WoW still wins out overall for me for the one reason it always has - it just feels smoother than other MMO's (a minor thing but key in my book).

EA isn't really expecting to make their money back on this thing anyways. The MMO craze seems to be dying down, since even Blizzard's subscriptions are starting to drop off. Another MMO to split the market isn't really going to make anything better. I wish Bioware all the luck with this game but I won't be surprised if it fails. In fact, I would be more surprised if it took off.

I just wish people would stop demanding their game is the better one, just to feel superior to others. Every AAA game that comes out has to be compared to others and you are only supported if you make the "right" choice. I personally like to enjoy a wide variety of games and don't feel the need to compare them all to one another. If a game is a fun time, it's a winner in my book.

Gotham City Impostors Impressions

Yesterday, I noticed that Gamespot was doing free beta invites for Gotham City Impostors, a new class-based shooter from Monolith coming out in January. I've been hankering for a good online FPS for the last week or so (don't own any on PS3 and my Gold account for Xbox just ran out) so I figured I'd give it a try.

The game most resembles, big shocker, Call of Duty. It has the usual level progression where you unlock more guns, addons, perks, and looks for your characters. Crazy enough, the full game will apparently have 1000 levels, at least according to some of the game's challenges. Someone at Monolith must have a sense of humor.

There is a decent spread of things to unlock and you unlock them in a way similar to Black Ops. Every so often, you earn unlock tokens and get to choose what you unlock (instead of getting preset things at certain levels). This lets you pick things you are interested in. The one thing that bugged me is the lack of a note of when you get new unlock tokens, something I hope is present in the full game.

As for the actual gameplay, it controls like Call of Duty but it much more mobile. Some of the gadgets you can equip are things like a cape, spring shoes, and a grapple hook so mobility plays a huge role in the game. You constantly see people flying through the air and the maps have a nice vertical element to them to support this.

Gunplay is nice and tight, with damage numbers popping up over people you hit (one of my favorite things!). Guns have a decent punch but I have noticed a bit of overuse of the rocket launchers. You are allowed to pair any two weapons together in your loadout so it allows some more interesting, albeit annoying, combinations.

There are currently two gametypes in the beta. One of them is your basic "hold three points" game but the points are gas canisters. Once your team holds them long enough, the other team gets gassed at the end. The other gametype has teams vying for a single battery, returning it to their loudspeaker and plugging it in. Once it has been undisturbed in the machine for long enough, they score a point and the other team must spend roughly thirty seconds without much control, dizzied under the words coming from the loudspeaker.

The main thing you will notice about this game is its sense of humor. The characters aren't afraid to curse and the artstyle is very colorful and wacky. In the gametype with the loudspeaker, it says hilarious things such as "You are a loser" and "Give up" when your team is capped on. In the menus is a little black and white Batman that gives you tips on the whole thing. It manages to capture the feel of Batman without all the seriousness that usual comes with it.

So far, I'm liking the game a lot. It needs a bit of polish before January but I could easily see this being a bit better off than other downloadable shooters like Blacklight: Tango Down. Monolith is a great developer and deserves a bit of praise for its work (and more money to work on Condemned 3!). The game comes out near the end of January for $15 on XBLA, PSN, and PC. Check it out!

Bye Bye Manuals

Note: This marks my first month of posts! Coming from someone who had a hell of a hard time starting a regular blog, this is a big deal for me. Back to the regularly scheduled blog post.



Well, it's finally happened. Sony is the first company to release a gaming system that will not have manuals for any of its games. Sure, many companies have started shipping games with manuals resembling a pamphlet on seizures but they still include something. The Vita will have no manuals in any of its games, probably only including a few small sheets of paper containing the usual necessary seizure warnings and ads for other products.

I'm somewhat torn on this. I grew up with games and can remember several game manuals that I loved to look at, whether because of the writing style or the pictures included within. Hell, I even remember keeping a few manuals when I rented games, pretending that I never received one with my rental. A good manual was a fun little extra to have.

Of course, on the other hand, manuals aren't really necessary anymore. When was the last time you needed to know something that wasn't readily apparent in the game's opening tutorials (aside from a few more hardcore games like Dark Souls)? Developers have gotten good at teaching you how to play their games as you progress. Do we really need manuals anymore?

I don't think I'll be too heartbroken when we learn this trend will continue on to other new game systems but I can't deny I won't feel a slight twinge on my heartstrings. Fare thee well manuals.

Sony This, Sony That

Just once, I'd like a company to think before they say something. Check your facts and ask the other people in your company before you come out and confirm or deny something. It will be better for you as a company and better for us as consumers if you just follow this one simple rule.

In case you are confused, I am referring to Sony's ever-changing stance on the Vita and PSN accounts. When the first news hit about them only being able to have one PSN account at a time, it was disappointing but acceptable (really only in the no Japanese account regard, for early demos and such). Then they turned around and stated that you could have multiple accounts but each would require its own memory card. Today, they again stated that you cannot have more than one account without flashing the whole system's memory first.

It really isn't the one account thing that bothers me about all this; it's the part where they didn't seem to know what was the correct answer. Why did different Sony reps each say different things about this? Don't they tell their reps the truth and what to say when asked various question? Not much more than a minor annoyance but it doesn't really give me much faith in Sony when they can't get something so simple right.

A New Direction for Final Fantasy Music?

The Final Fantasy games are known for their music. Some of the most influential and memorable gaming soundtracks of all time come from these games. Sephiroth's theme One Winged Angel has been remixed and remastered several times over. The battle music that appeared in nearly every game is some of the best. To Zanarkand...is just a fucking great song, my absolute favorite.

It's pretty much a sure bet that a Final Fantasy game will have amazing music. Sure, some may be better than others, but overall they are all quite strong. You could imagine the gleeful joy of the Internet when some tracks from Final Fantasy XIII-2 started to be posted on the Net. Smiling adults hitting play on a new track, eager to hear the next fantastic piece of music from the minds at Square. And those smiles being wiped away when they hear what it actually is.

Let me back up. In case you hadn't heard the track yet, they are a bit...questionable. One of them is a metal song about Chocobos. Yes, I am not joking. Some have argued that the song is hilariously self-referential but the song is still pretty bad. Another track is a rap song, something I would expect from the Persona series, not Final Fantasy. I'm not saying that Square can't think outside the box and expand musically but I'm not sure these songs vibe very well with the Final Fantasy universe. Here's hoping they don't play too major a part in the game.

There are some traditional tracks out there as well. You can easily find them all on Youtube.

Japanese Game Development

Anyone who pays any amount of attention to trends in gaming has probably noticed the decline of Japanese developed games in the last generation. From Square Enix to Capcom, many Japanese developers are falling behind in the furthering of modern game design. Horrible control schemes, poor online implementation, year after year of the same thing, and outright refusal to change are the main problems but certainly aren't the least. The West has become the main innovator in gaming, a huge change from the old way of things.

Lucky for us, some of the major game developers from Japan are learning that, even if the rest of the country isn't quite yet. Keiji Inafune (Capcom), Tomonobu Itagaki (Tecmo/Team Ninja), and Shinji Mikami (Capcom, particularly the creator of Resident Evil) have all left their respective Japanese companies in search of more creativity in their fields. More recently, Fumito Ueda of Team Ico has announced he will be doing the same. Many of them have stated publicly that they left because Japan is simply too far behind.

Japanese game development needs to evolve and evolve soon or some of the world's most well-known franchises could flounder. Everyone always praises the new Mario or Zelda game but they know it is usually just more of the same. Nintendo has done okay with Super Mario Galaxy and Skyward Sword, pushing their franchises forward a small bit, but is it enough? What about Monster Hunter with its inexorable sequels that are clones of the last game? Capcom wonders why these games aren't popular over here even though we have told them why several times - poor controls, too much tutorials, etc. Japanese developers need to learn to listen to the West's concerns and evolve or we might lose interest entirely.

Can't You Take a Joke?

As you all know by now, I avoided the VGA's like the plague. I really didn't miss out on anything except the trailers and watched those on the Internet less than an hour after the show itself. Even still, I heard there were a few...interesting parts of the show. One such part seems to have been the award given to Character of the Year (Batman played by Mark Hamill in Batman: Arkham City).

Mark Hamill's confusion about the award aside (he didn't seem to understand why he wasn't actually presented the award on stage), there was apparently a pre-recorded Joker video with him accepting the award. In the video, he is holding a script and printed on it in big letters are the words "Batman: Arkham World Script" as clear as day.

Funny enough, several sites have taken this as outright confirmation of a new game from Rocksteady entitled, what else, Batman: Arkham World. One site, who shall remain nameless, even joked(?) that maybe it would be an MMO! I can't help but wonder again why "journalists" are even bothering to report on something so flimsy.

Given the jokey nature of the Joker and the sense of humor the show had, I can't help but feel this is a big joke from Rocksteady. Sure, they may have plans for another game, but teasing it this early? They hid a secret regarding Arkham City in Arkham Asylum that no one found for months and finally had to say something to point people in the right direction. Not to mention that any development on it would be in the very early stages at this point, since they just went gold on Arkham City a few months ago. Even further, Arkham World is a horrible name and one that doesn't fit the story ideas present at the end of Arkham City. Good job, Rocksteady; you cast out the bait and everyone took it willingly, not quite seeing the barb hidden inside.

At Least the VGA's Are Good For One Thing?

I don't want to act like I'm superior because I knew the VGA's were going to bad. Everyone knew that. I won't say I told you so or list the various ways in which it was yet another travesty to video games. I will only say one thing, the one thing that made me cringe worse than any other tidbit from the show - they fucking had a running teabagging gag. Way to earn my disgust, Spike.

Anyways, the main point of the night was the exclusive game reveals (it should have been the game awards but of course it wasn't). I figured I'd talk a bit about each one and give my thoughts on the idea, no matter how unknown or flimsy the concept is.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
There have been rumors of this for months and they finally announced it. Early reports seem to suggest it is a somewhat new game incorporating levels from THPS1 and 2 into it. No reports on how much from the original games will actually make it in (hoping that the soundtracks do!). Also a bit of a bummer is the lack of any THPS3 content, easily the high point of the series. While I would have been a bit more supportive of a HD-compilation of 1, 2, and 3, this seems like it could be a high point in a series that has been severely needing one for years.

Alan Wake: American Nightmare
I really enjoyed the original Alan Wake, with its mix of Twin Peaks-inspired setting and love for the horror genre tropes. I obtained every last point in the game, including its two DLC addons and loved every last second of it. This trailer makes me intrigued by the project (although, did anyone else think the voice actor for Alan Wake sounded a bit different?), especially since it will be released on XBLA. There has been some talk about this game for a few months, before its actual reveal, and it was already known that it would appear on XBLA. I had thought it would be some other kind of game but it looks to be identical in gameplay to the original (hopefully, with a few minor adjustments to some annoyances). Can't wait to see more on this as it develops.

Fortnite
Epic's new franchise reveal and it looks like nothing they've ever done, nothing you would expect from this developer. The trailer really doesn't tell you much about the game (like so many trailers nowadays...) but it hints at a few things. First, the artstyle reminds me (and others) heavily of Team Fortress 2, very cartoony and animated. Next is some kind of building element, blowing down old structures to make new ones. Everyone has been saying "looks like Minecraft elements" but I just don't see that. To me, it looks more like RTS/tower defense style of collecting scrap to build new structures. Guess we can see who is right in the future. The last portion of the trailer is...zombies. Sigh. While I'm a bit more forgiving of the rash of zombie games from this generation, even I can get a bit tired of the overuse of this enemy. Zombies have become the Nazis of video gaming. Can't we come up with something else?

Command and Conquer: Generals 2
There had been hinting of a new Bioware project lately and now we know what it is. Another C&C game. Great. This reveal trailer was about thirty seconds long and showed practically nothing. All I got from it was it's an RTS with destructible environments. Since I care not at all about C&C, I really couldn't help but be disappointed. The bigger buzz around this is coming from the fact that it's Bioware developing it but it really isn't. The studio that had been working on it, Victory Studios, just got renamed to Bioware Victory. Rebranding studios with popular names has happened many times before and will surely happen in the future. Sorry, but the Bioware name isn't enough to get me to play a C&C game.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Another "reveal" that had been hinted at for months and finally confirmed last night. Platinum Games, makers of the amazing Bayonetta, is now the ones behind development of this game. It looks a bit different than the original gameplay shown from this, most notably the level of action. It looks a lot more like a character action game now, like a Devil May Cry or a Ninja Gaiden (except with oddly stilted animation). The trailer positively screamed anime at me, with over the top dialogue and characters and a hilarious design. The thing that seemed most jarring to me was the artstyle. It doesn't quite look like Metal Gear Solid, which is understandable but still a little odd. Most ridiculous is the fucking subtitle. Revengeance? Really? Do we really need more bad subtitles? I reserve judgement on this game until I see more.

The Last of Us
Here was the biggest reveal of the show, a new PS3 exclusive from Naughty Dog. Seconds into the trailer, the words "The following trailer is captured directly from a Playstation 3." which immediately made me think "So it isn't really, right?" The gameplay that followed certainly supported my theory, looking a little too crisp to be actual gameplay (of course, it could be rendered video; technically, still recorded on a PS3). Naughty Dog has blown us away time and time again with the Uncharted series and it could certainly be possible. The game itself looks like yet another post-apocalyptic thing and includes zombies. Fuck me. They at least look a bit different, fungal based or something like that. Potentially interesting but still a bit cliche. My hopes for the game come with the characters, something that Naughty Dog has nailed extremely well in the past. I'll make sure to keep an eye on it.

Well, those were the reveals from the VGA's. Nothing too amazing like last year but some interesting stuff nonetheless. Of course, there were a few other trailers for existing games, including another phenomenal Blizzard CG video, the opening cinematic from Diablo 3. All these trailers can be found on Gametrailers.com and probably other places if you want to see them yourself. All without having to watch the stupid VGA's!

Another Year, Another Travesty

Tonight is yet another annual episode of the Spike Video Game Awards. This is the most well-known and only televised gaming awards show. I, like most, cringe every time I see even a little bit of this annoyance. Spike is a television network known for bad jokes and a focus on "manly" things, meaning we get a show that focuses much too heavily on gaming stereotypes and hot women giving out awards. Each year, I avoid it as heavily as I can and sigh in disgust that it will air yet again.

Of course, there is one good thing that has started to come out of the show. For the last few years, there have been a rather high amount of major game reveals and trailers that come out of the show. Last year's show had Arkham City and Skyrim reveals, two of the bigger games from this year. This year promises to be even bigger, with over ten new trailers and announcements (apparently, Metal Gear Solid Rising being now helmed by Platinum Games is one of them) during the show.

I beg any of you that are thinking about watching the show, hoping to see the trailers as soon as possible, to get that thought out of your head. While there have been some potential promises for a new format this year, I can't help but think that it won't be any better than usual. I urge that you skip the show and just watch the trailers on Gametrailers within 15 minutes of the show's conclusion. You'll thank me later.

I Heard A Rumor...

Human nature is responsible for many things - why we keep starting wars, why people feel the need to be dicks on the Internet, etc. One particularly vicious bit of this is rumors. As a people, we feel the need to know things we shouldn't, either because it isn't supposed to be known yet or not at all. How many times have you heard someone say "I know this guy and he heard from a friend that..." in your life?

Why am I bringing this up? Well, the gaming world is no stranger to rumors. Every day, there seems to be a new rumor about an unreleased game or a company getting shut down (my favorite example is the arcade days of Mortal Kombat and all the crazy rumors about hidden characters, fatalities, etc.). And of course, every day, gaming websites post stories about these rumors. Should they be doing this? Is a rumor something a respected (and I use the term lightly) gaming news website should be posting about?

Today, for example, there has been a lot of buzz about GSC, makers of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, closing down. Some of these stories are marked as a rumor while others state it is confirmed. Well, which is it? Some sites seem to have a tendency to immediately believe anything they read as fact and post it immediately. Others have the forethought to wait it out and make sure before stating something is fact.

Almost a month ago, Official Playstation Magazine UK had some information leak about the cover of their next issue. On the cover was Hideo Kojima and one of the bullet points about the article claiming "The latest...Metal Gear Solid 5 details." Every single site I usually read posted a story on this and nearly all of them were 100% confirming it as fact. A few, Giant Bomb in particular, seemed a bit more dubious about the fact. Patrick Klepek, the news writer at Giant Bomb, stated he at least tried to get in contact with the company for confirmation.

Of course, a few days later, we learned that it was just mild allusions to another game in the saga someday, not an outright confirmation. Who is mostly to blame here? Official Playstation Magazine UK for not bothering to clear things up, instead enjoying their vast increase of links, or the sites that immediately stated the idea as fact, by only going off of the magazine's cover. All I ask for is a bit of confirmation and research before posting a news article. Is that too much to ask?

You Should Really Read Those...

This year marked one of the biggest service shutdowns we've seen in gaming - Sony's Playstation Network. As most of you probably know, they were hacked in April and a large amount of data was accessed, including customer info like addresses and credit card numbers. They had to shut down the service for nearly a month to get things back up and running again. I can't even begin to imagine the headache it caused for everyone working at Sony.

A few months down the line, Sony updated its Playstation 3 firmware and it came with a Terms of Service change. In it, you were agreeing to never engage in a class-action lawsuit against Sony in the future. Of course, this is in response to the outage and shows Sony's legal team finding a devious way to prevent damages against their company in the event of another hack. People all over the Internet were outraged (what a concept, huh?) and various groups were established to help lazy gamers opt-out of the terms and sidestep the problem.

Flash forward to two days ago and the update of Microsoft's Xbox 360 dashboard. Lo and behold, their Terms of Service has changed too, now including a very similar clause within regarding class-action lawsuits. Seeing Sony (and EA after it) get away with it must have convinced lawyers to do the same for their Terms. We can probably expect to see a lot of these popping up in the near future.

Is this illegal? Apparently not, since three major gaming companies have now done this (I remember reading around the time of Sony's that they had checked on the legality of it). Is it morally grey? Probably a little bit although I can't see a corporation of that size caring. I understand that Sony, EA, and Microsoft are just trying to cover the bases in the possibility of a legal matter but it doesn't make it entirely forgivable. Most individuals can't possibly take on a corporation by themselves if necessary and now they can't even try in a group. It's a bit dirty and I encourage you to opt-out if you care enough.

UPDATE(happened after I wrote this):
Apparently, reports are coming in that you can't write in a letter to opt-out from this class-action clause. There is an option for a letter to opt-out but only from future updates. The legality of this is apparently still clean but has me even more worried.

Fun Ways to Discourage Pirates

Pirates are one of the most cited reasons why game companies don't develop for or release games on PC anymore. Ubisoft is the chief complainer but even companies as PC-centric as Crytek have changed their tune in today's world of piracy. It has become extremely easy for even the most modest of PC users to figure it out and the files are everywhere. It falls to companies to find new and exciting ways (or in Ubisoft's case, horrible ones) to combat piracy.

That is just what Croteam, developers of the Serious Sam series and the just-released Serious Sam 3: BFE, did. People who pirated the game early will find an unkillable, amazingly fast pink scorpion that chases them throughout the game. This beast can kill you rather quickly in the brutal world of Serious Sam and is unrelenting in its quest to shoot pirates in the face.

I love when developers do things like this. Pirated copies of Batman: Arkham City had a Batman that couldn't glide. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 would destroy all your units at 30 seconds into a match. Perhaps the funniest was the pirated copies of Micheal Jackson: The Experience for the DS, where the game would play extremely loud vuvuzelas over any of the music in the game. A clever, anti-DRM system is always more enjoyable than an install limit or an activation server.

I know that these anti-DRM methods are usually patched around rather quickly but I have to give it to those developers that put it in anyways. It is creativity and imagination like that that will lead to the real way to combat piracy on the PC.

The "New" New Xbox Experience

The new Xbox 360 Dashboard Update was released today after a bit of a delay. I, like everyone else, has downloaded it and seen what the differences are. I figured a little "what I liked, what I didn't" was in order so that's what you are going to get today. I'll break things out into pros and cons and describe them a bit too.

Also, I don't have a Kinect and won't mention anything about related features.

Pros:

- The console now boots with the cursor on the Play Disc option.
This was something that always really annoyed me about the previous update. When you booted your Xbox before today, it would start on the Spotlight channel which was filled with ads for things I couldn't care less about (most of the time, anyways). Having to press up on the stick to get to "Play Game" was kind of silly. That has been solved now and I am very happy with the change.

- Less advertisements overall and better ones.
Advertisements have existed on the Xbox 360 dash for awhile but became very prominent after the NXE (New Xbox Experience). The number of ads certainly seems to have diminished with the update. I also noticed them were only to be found in their particular areas, game ads in the game tab and so on. The new Windows Phone-esque style also means that they are much smaller, making the whole experience much more unobtrusive.

- New achievements layout.
I like achievements quite a bit. I don't quite go crazy with them (renting games like Avatar or buying a Japanese 360 for more points) but I enjoy 1000/1000 a few games here and there. The layout for displaying your achievements has been updated and has a good amount more detail now. Upon entering the screen, you are clearly shown your total points out of how many you could have earned for every game you have played, total number of achievements out of how many you could have earned (both of these were present before but easier to find now), and a number telling you how many games you have completed all the achievements for, including a way to view a list of just these games. It is a much slicker interface and runs a lot better than the old version did.

- Slicker presentation overall.
I wasn't entirely sure about the Windows Phone looking layout for this update. It seemed like something that would be more suited for a phone, not a gaming console. After messing around with it for a bit, I think it has potential. It may just be the shiny newness of it but I am coming around on it quickly. In particular, I like the much bigger box-art/movie cover/album cover display that is now shown when looking for a game/movie/album.


Cons:

- Your games are a little harder to get to.
The games tab is not the first one after the home screen. Neither is it the next one. It is three tabs over, after social and movies. This is mostly a minor annoyance but it is a bit more distance to travel to access your game library (except for a list of your last 10 played games/apps on the home screen).

- Marketplace a bit cluttered.
The marketplaces on Xbox Live have never been the greatest and now would have been a great time to fix that. Unfortunately, they made a few things a bit worse. Game marketplaces are sorted by release date first, just like they always have been, but now games that are updated in any way count towards this release date. For example, I went to the Xbox Live Arcade marketplace and saw that one of the first games was Sonic CD. I opened the game's page and saw that it was only an announcement trailer that had pushed it forward on the list. The games marketplace is also oddly sectioned off and has some ads between it and your owned games. Still needs some work.

- Demos are buried deep.
Another minor issue but demos are quite hard to find now. They aren't present on the games tab until you access the marketplace and go to the last tab to find them. I'm sure newer demoes might be promoted on the front page but the older ones can be a chore to get to.

- Keyboard for searching.
When using Bing to search Xbox Live for content, you are forced to use a keyboard displayed at the top of the screen. It is an alphabetical keyboard along the top and it is the only option for typing. I really don't like this keyboard, and would have preferred a pop-up keyboard like the Xbox 360 uses elsewhere. Not a big deal but still annoying.

- Apps can only be deleted from Storage screen.
Apps are a big new part of the update and let you use things like Hulu Plus and (later) Youtube on your Xbox. These are small shells that you must download and run from you Xbox to access. Unfortunately, when you want to get rid of these apps, you can only do so from your storage options. They are relatively small files but it isn't hard to imagine someone might want to delete one here and there. Also, they are paired with your games in the storage database, so you must scroll through a potentially large list to find them.

- No warning messages before downloading an app.
What do I mean with this? Well, Netflix and Hulu Plus (among others, I believe) require you to both be an Xbox Gold member and have subscriptions with the individual services. Upon downloading either of these apps, there isn't a single warning about needing either of these things to access it. Instead, you must download and run the app before finding this out. Some kind of description or pop-up would be nice.

- Search isn't quite right.
Upon searching for something on Bing, you are given a thrown together mess of search results. The exact text you search for is usually first but not always. DLC for games and individual television episodes show up as separate items here, cluttering the results. I think it would be much better if the search put games, movies, and albums first on the results and then put the extra content after. Small thing but I think it would be beneficial.


Well, there are some of my thoughts on the new Xbox 360 update. I haven't quite decided if I truly like it yet (since most of my cons are for things I plan to never use) so I need to give it some time. Either way, I and all of you are stuck with it. At least until the New "New" New Xbox Experience.

Here We Are, At the End

Well, I had originally planned to do an even ten Steam Roundup posts. Today would have been the day for the tenth. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a suitable game to play for the tenth. I had Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising in mind but couldn't get the desire to play it worked up.

I have decided to instead just stop the roundup with Sequence, an extremely high point. All in all, it was a fun little project that got me thinking about game reviews for smaller, independent games and got me to play games I might not have for a long time. Look for a return to plain game posts tomorrow.

The Horrors of Proprietary Storage

Storage space is becoming a big issue for modern consoles. As games and movies start to take up more disc space and DLC becomes more prevalent, we need more room to store it all. Installing a single Xbox 360 game to the hard drive can take up 6-7 GB of room and Xbox Live Arcade Games are usually over a GB nowadays. We are forced to seek out bigger storage solutions as time goes on. Unfortunately for us, companies such as Microsoft and Sony like to take advantage of this.

Recently, Sony announced pricing for Memory Sticks for their new portable gaming device, the Vita. Like their PSP Memory Sticks before this, they are charging rather high prices for basic flash memory (the 32GB stick is $130 MSRP, for example). There has been a wave of outrage on the net ever since, since the Vita will not support any other kind of storage, not even the now standard SD cards.

Sony has come forward and said that the move was for security reasons. While I can understand their concern with security, knowing that the PSP was probably one of the most hacked gaming devices ever, it still doesn't matter. Sure, it might slow the tide of broken systems but it won't stop it. Nothing will. In my mind, they are doing this for one reason - to make more money.

They aren't the only one to do such a thing. Microsoft's Xbox 360 came with a 20GB hard drive when it released, small even for the time but it seemed like enough. Of course, the size we need has changed in the last six years. They offered bigger storage rather quickly but charged ridiculous prices for it. When their 120 GB hard drive first released, it retailed for nearly $200 even though standard drives could be easily found for half that price at the time. Since the hard drives Microsoft sold were the only option (legally, at least), we were forced to buy them.

Proprietary storage isn't a new idea but it certainly is a hated one. The idea that a company can get away with charging ridiculous prices for extremely basic storage is unbelievable. Boycotting sales of the storage isn't really possible since the devices are much too popular (not to mention, gamers don't historically have the strongest wills). We are forced to wait for bigger drives to be sold at the same ridiculous price point, achieving a happy medium between price and size. I myself kept my 20 GB hard drive for three years before finally just getting one of the new Xboxes that came with a 250 GB. Paying those prices wasn't in my best interests.

Early adopters of the Vita (and the 360 before it) will be forced to pay these outrageous prices if they need more storage. Those who wait will get them for much cheaper down the line but the number of early sales will still prove to Sony that they can keep doing this. While I don't see an easy solution to this problem, I can't help but wonder why we keep letting them get away with highway robbery such as this in this day and age.

Steam Roundup: Rock of Ages

It's extremely rare to see anything original in gaming nowadays. In the current economy, it makes much more sense to make sequels and iterize concepts instead of trying something new that could potentially fail. In fact, it's proven to work, at least for a time (looking at you Call of Duty). When something new does come along, it can be something extremely surprising and a breath of fresh air.

Rock of Ages by Ace Team (makers of Zeno Clash, another odd game) is rather unique. The goal of the game is to roll your boulder/rock down a hill and crash it into your enemy's gate. Three or four hits and you open the gate and can kill your enemy inside. The levels change, adding things like water to slow down your rock and levels made entirely of islands. Your opponent rolls the exact same track you do.

When you aren't rolling your boulder, you can spend money you accrue to build obstacles to get in your opponents way. These consist of things like catapults, exploding barrels, towers to block the way, and wind blowers to push the ball off the track. The enemy does the same and you try to both build better defenses and outrace your opponent to win. It has concepts found in other games but the overall idea is entirely unlike anything I've ever seen before.

There is a story but it is quite silly. Each "cutscene" is told in Monty-Python esque cutouts that only make mumbling noises to convey what they are doing. It is not unlike a Lego game, telling its story only through small actions instead of words. It can be quite humorous but didn't really do much for me.

Over the course of the story mode, you play a bunch of levels with the standard gameplay and fight four bosses at certain points. These are the weakest parts of the game, having you delicately move your ball in a specific pattern to hit the boss' weak point three times to kill him. They become more and more annoying as they go and are easily the most frustrating part of the game. I understand Ace Team wanting to mix things up but this feels like the wrong thing to do.

I can't really think about how to describe the game eloquently enough so I'm just going to link to a Quick Look of it on Giant Bomb. Seeing it in action makes it much more clear. Give it a try if it sounds like your thing.

Quick Look - Rock of Ages

Steam Roundup: Sequence

Sequence takes a concept that Puzzle Quest made possible and makes something even better (at least, if you like DDR-style games). Instead of mashing RPG elements with Bejeweled, Sequence mashes RPG elements with Dance Dance Revolution, albeit a version played on your keyboard or controller. I can understand skeptibility at putting these two elements together but I was excited the moment I learned about this game. When it went on sale during the Autumn Steam Sale, I knew I had to pick it up and talk about it (it's also available as an Xbox Live Indie Game)

The gameplay consists of three separate "fields" with their own set of four arrows. Using a controller, you use the triggers to switch fields and the d-pad and face buttons to hit the arrows as they fall.

One field is the defensive field where the enemy you face in combat attacks you with arrows. It isn't a constant attack - there are brief periods of respite throughout the song. Colored arrows do more damage and each arrow you miss harms you. Switching to other fields doesn't pause the action so you constantly have to take a hit or two to get a spell off or regain your mana.

The spell field is used to cast one of your spells. The spells are arranged on a wheel that can be cycled through with the right stick. When you have a spell you want to cast (and have enough mana), you hit one of the bumpers to cast it. The spells are set patterns but the arrows themselves are randomized. If you succeed in hitting each arrow in the spell, it is cast. There are direct damage spells, damage over time spells, heals, and even more.

The third field is the mana field and it is here that you get your mana back (duh). Notes constantly fall in this field but missed ones don't penalize you at all. Each arrow you hit gives you a point of mana back to cast your spells. Having to cycle each of these fields give the game an interesting mechanic of having to take a hit every so often to cast a spell or get mana back and switching back and forth quickly becomes quickly necessary.

There is a story holding this all together and it is fairly good for what it is. Each of the game's seven floors has a boss encounter and it is before and after these fights that most of the story unfolds. Still images of various characters are shown with speech bubbles and are fully voiced. The voice acting can be a bit shaky at times but is good overall. The style of humor is odd, very unlike most other video games. It feels more realistic and not just dick jokes or fourth wall breaks.

In between boss fights, you can pick to fight one of three random enemies. You have to do this to receive materials to synthesize various weapons, armors, and the key to the next floor, allowing you to progress further into the story. Unfortunately, this is where the game gets a bit too repetitive. Each enemy has its own song at first and the drop rates for the various items is high enough. Later on, the songs start to repeat and the drop rates become extremely trying on your patience.

The music is of course a very important part of the equation and it is fantastic. It is a mix of rockish songs, poppier stuff, and a piano song or two. One of the songs got stuck in my head and has been there the last three days. I can't...get...it...out. A little more variety would have done a lot for the game but I can understand having a budget for only so many.

Sequence is an interesting concept and one I feel deserves as much credit as Puzzle Quest. In fact, it deserves more credit for taking an idea I actually enjoy (DDR) and putting it together with RPG elements. I would easily guess that most people have never heard of this and I urge you to give it a shot. The game is only $5 and can be found on Steam and Xbox Live Indie Arcade.

Steam Roundup: Jamestown

Jamestown, with its optional subtitle Legend of the Lost Colony, is a fairly odd name for a game. At first hearing of the title, I assumed it was one of those old CD dictionary/historic/educational "games" that told you about Jamestown. It is in fact, a vertical shmup that takes place on Mars in the 1600s. Have I lost you yet?

The story posits an alternate reality where Jamestown, Roanoke, and other similar colonies from Britain's first forays into North America instead took place on Mars. This includes Martians, flying ships with laser weapons, and colonials. It is one of the odder video game stories I have ever seen but it is an undeniably cool idea. You control Walter Raleigh, a real famous person from the era, as you try to find out what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke. The story unfolds in usual shmup style, with small pieces being doled out in between levels.

Unlike your usual shmup, the game is broken up into five individual levels that don't have to be played back to back (although the option exists if you want it). Instead, you simply pick a level, difficulty, and ship and start the level. Each level gives you three lives per credit with two additional credits and no way to change these numbers. I found this change to be for the better, making it less of a slog trying to make it through several stages on such a small credit count.

The game makes up for it by locking the last two levels off at first. The fourth level requires you to play every prior level at the difficulty just after Normal and the fifth requires you beat every level prior to it at the difficulty just above that. Those levels also don't have the easier difficulties and force you to play at the higher ones. It's an interesting variation on the usual shmup design, giving you a chance to get better at certain levels without having to play through all the ones before it first.

Make no mistake - the game is still challenging enough (at least it was for me, although I don't play many of these games) and can reach bullet hell levels on the higher difficulties. The only level to give me much trouble was the last one but it was a doozy. Thanks to the progression design, I could feel myself getting better as I had to go back and play previous levels on harder difficulties. By the time I finished the game, I felt like the lower difficulties had nothing to offer me anymore. It felt much more rewarding then the usual structure of playing the beginning parts enough times to get good enough just to see the later parts with enough lives to progress.

The game is gorgeous, with a 16-bit artstyle that would have fit perfectly on the SNES. Each level looks like an entirely different place, with extremely layered backgrounds and creative enemy design. The "cutscenes" that take place between missions have their own artstyle, beautiful in its own way.

Now, we come to my favorite part of the entire game - the music. Oh my god, is the music fantastic. Each piece is more epic than the last (a word I hate to use but one that is absolutely deserved here) and I immediately sought out the game's soundtrack and bought it the second I could. It did a better job at making me feel the intensity of the action than any other soundtrack has ever done, an impressive feat for an indie game.

I had a blast with this game. Shmups have always interested me but the lack of content usually puts me off, never seeming to balance with the cost. Jamestown is absolutely worth the $10 Final Form Games asks for it. It is an expertly crafted shmup from people who really seem to care about the genre and can give you several hours of heart-pounding, bullet-dodging action.

Two Personas for the Price of One

The quality of a game or story's characters can make or break the whole thing. A good character is a wonderful thing, perfectly encapsulating the marvelous thing that is a human being and making you feel like this fictional person really exists. They have strengths and flaws and are complex individuals (at least, when they need to be). A bad character is stereotypical or at best, boring.

As gamers, we sometimes get to do what writers do every day - create our own character. The option is still very limited and mostly confined to the RPG genre but opportunities do exist. Some people make a basic stereotype or just pick the first option because they don't really care what their character looks like. On the other end of the spectrum exist people like Brendan Keogh.

Brendan Keogh recently wrote a post on Games On Net about his alter-ego Qwae. Qwae is the persona he inhabits any time he plays a game where he has some amount of character choice (and even in some where he doesn't). She isn't just a set look or age; he has basically created a complete personality for Qwae and sticks to it whenever he plays a game as her. She is a "set of ideas" that he adheres to as he plays his role.

The idea seems so simple but brilliant. While (I assume) most of us create a character for a particular playstyle or to match the tone of the particular game, Qwae is always the same person no matter the situation. She may be a Grey Warden in one game and savior of the galaxy in the next but her ideals, quirks, and beliefs never change.

As a writer, I envy this ability to perfectly slip into another character, making decisions they would make and knowing their innermost thoughts. As a gamer, I envy it even more. The idea of a complete alternate persona that lives in my favorite game worlds but also exists entirely in my head fills me with a desire to go forth and create such a persona. Who wouldn't want to become more immersed in their favorite games (well, maybe not the post-apocalyptic ones...). Maybe I can't create as three-dimensional and realistic alter-ego as Qwae but I intend to try.

PS: The article by Brendan Keogh can be found here. Enjoy!

Steam Roundup: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a Lucasarts adventure game from released in 1992. It used the SCUMM language, the same language that powered most of Lucasarts adventure games such as the Monkey Island series and Maniac Mansion. It is essentially a Indiana Jones game in a Monkey Island shell and it works well for this game.

I've never been the biggest fan of adventure games. For one thing, they were really popular around the time when I was in preschool. The main reason I've never liked them much is the frustration I feel when I can't figure out how two objects are supposed to interact. Adventure games are infamous for crazy puzzle solutions that make little to no sense and it's always infuriated me when one of them pop up. I can bear most adventure games today but my anger is on a hair trigger when it comes to being stuck on a puzzle. Lame trait I have.

So, in all honesty, I used a FAQ to get through this game in a timely manner. In fact, I use FAQ's for most of my adventure games. To me, the story of the game is the enjoyable part, so I don't feel bad trying to get past the annoying parts of these games any way I can. Some of you may argue that I'm ruining the game or I'm making the length of it that much shorter but it's what I feel comfortable doing.

As far as this game's story goes, it's pretty darn good, as most Lucasarts games are. The titular fate of Atlantis is discovered over the course of the game and the beats are pretty good. Interesting characters, decent voice acting, and a nice variety of locations round it out. I could easily see the plot of this game being another Indiana Jones movie (probably a better one than the Crystal Skull...).

On the downside, there are a lot of puzzles that require backtracking and thorough searching to complete. True to the era, yes, but it doesn't hold up so well nowadays. Having a FAQ certainly helped but there were a few areas where I still had to poke around a bit longer than I liked.

I've heard people talk about this game for years as one of the better Lucasarts games and I have to agree. It holds up as well as I expected and was a nice change of pace from the (mostly) FPS games I've been playing for this roundup.

Steam Roundup: Duke Nukem Forever

As all but the most casual gamers know, Duke Nukem Forever is the highly-anticipated (or at least it was until more than five years had passed) sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, a very highly regarded FPS for the old days of PC gaming. It was in development by 3D Realms for 14 years, the longest known development cycle ever heard of for a video game. Of course, the longer it was in development, the higher expectations went and the hype built to crazy levels at some points. If you take the time span into account, the time when the game should have released, it probably would have been a damn fine shooter for its day. Unfortunately, since it was released this year, things have changed and it feels extremely antiquated.

Any major change you can think of in first person shooters (or practically gaming in general) is probably absent here, barring the inclusion of regenerating health and two weapons at a time. It's an odd game to play in the present day, almost as if the developers of the game didn't have the time to play any games from the last decade and to incorporate the changes in design. It truly feels like what it is - a shooter from another time.

Duke himself is just as antiquated at this point. His misogynistic nature and tendency to quote random movies with his own spin on them was funny in the Duke 3D days but it just seems stupid now. I don't think I laughed at any one comment he ever made, except maybe to laugh at just how ridiculous it was. I also can't ever forget the horrible sense of humor from The Hive level, as I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Most of all, the game is just boring. I've played a lot of shooters and this one just doesn't ever seem fun. The enemies don't do anything interesting, the developer's idea of mixing things up is shrunk levels full of jump puzzles, and boss fights in an FPS were never a good idea. I took several breaks from the game because I just couldn't stand to play it anymore at the time. I'm not saying it needed to be the 'roller-coaster ride' of today's games; it just doesn't have any personality of its own and is highly derivitave.

As I stated in my post yesterday, I knew I had to play Duke Nukem Forever. The history behind this game is the most storied and confusing that gaming has ever seen and the final product is something that anyone who has heard it has to get their hands on. I never expected the game to live up to the hype. I only wish it could have been a halfway-decent FPS.