This past week I ran the gamut on what I have been playing. I think that I successfully paid attention to my Xbox and my PS3 equally while the later may have eked out a little more of my attention - what with its newness and all.
I started the week off right with Borderlands. Gearbox made the game that I have been asking for - a Role-playing Shooter. It is like a first person, open world, Diablo but I have to be honest, the story is severely lacking. I am searching for something mythical called the Vault and all I can decipher from that is that it is corny. Everything else about the game is fantastic. From the art style to all of the stats, the upgrades and let us not forget the infinite guns, this game is packed to the brim with new things to explore and great times with friends. I have not had much of a chance to experience a lot of co-op experiences but the ones that I have were fun and challenging.
I managed to jump into a game last night, with a few people from my friends list, and while we were all around the same level, the enemies were all equal or greater to our levels and we spent the whole time reviving each other and acquiring some decent loot.
On the Xbox side of things I also managed to check out Halo Waypoint and the only useful thing it told me is that I am a level 35 (out of 40) Halo player based on Gamerscore. It would be nice if Waypoint actually pulled some of your stats from ODST and H3 but the avatar awards that I have will suffice right now.
I spent a lot of time with the PS3 in the latter half of the week particularly paying a lot of attention to LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. LBP is becoming quite the challenge as I progress through the levels but I still find myself branching off and playing user created levels and the bonus Metal Gear Solid levels that came with the GOTY edition of the game. The Paintinator is a fun little addition to the game and I also managed to pick up the free Pumpkinhead costume that was out for Halloween. I cannot wait to see where this game takes me in the future.
When I started with Uncharted I was not sure how to feel. The game was beautiful but the controls took me longer than usual to get used to (but it probably had something to do with having to invert the Y-axis for both looking and shooting) so I was torn for a moment. That moment quickly past as I spent the next two and half hours tearing through the game's first four and a half chapters. The game is in one word: RIVETING. You do not believe that you should be able to do half the things that you do but in the end you still pull every single thing off. The game makes you feel like Nathan Drake and further than that it makes you feel empowered while still having a lot of control over the game. The best way I can describe it (better) is that it makes you feel as powerful and cool as you did in Assassins Creed but you feel like your button presses are actually controlling Nate Drake not vice versa.
This past week a demo (something that ALL PSN games need) was released for a little game called Fat Princess and I played the shit out of it. It took me a short while to get used to the game but after I had I had a ball. It is just so cute and bloody. I cannot wait to play more.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Adventures in Babeland - Weekly Gaming Girl Diary: November 2, 2009
First and foremost, let it be known, there will be NO discussion of WoW in this blog update as I have not played WoW for the last week. Those who are tired of reading about WoW each and every week, REJOICE!
What did consume my gaming life this past week was Borderlands. I purchased the game on release day and have been slowly making my way through the game. I've done a bit of co-op play, but have decided my slow and steady pace doesn't necessarily keep me at the same pace as all my friends, so I've fallen a bit behind. But that's okay! I'm actually really enjoying the SP elements of the game. I'm the type of gamer that goes in and out of phases of gaming where I'm totally obsess to no care ever, so SP is nice because it allows me to move at my own pace without worry. I'm up to level 17 with my hunter and still thoroughly loving the game. You've probably heard a lot about Borderlands since it's release, so I'll move onto something else a bit more interesting.
I have found a new addiction and that addiction goes by the name of Torchlight. I first heard about the game on The Instance (A WoW podcast I listen to). I had seen some information on it a while ago in my gaming blogs, but wasn't that intrigued at that point. Once I heard Scott Johnson of The Instance rant and rave about it and inform me that it was created by two of the designers of Diablo and Diablo II and played very much like the games, I knew I had to check it out. On Sunday I downloaded the demo off Steam and got to playing...before I knew it I was done with the demo, but instantly felt the urge for more. I immediately purchased it. After that I played for at least 2 to 3 hours straight. I was in love.
The game itself plays very much like the Diablo franchise. It's your basic hack n slash dungeon based game with loads and loads of loot. I particularly enjoy the art style of the game. It goes for a more "cartoony" art style compared to Diablo's bit more realistic style. I like it and it just adds to the overall delightful feel of the game. One of my favorite features of the game is your pet. Every hero class gets a pet. My initial thoughts were "hmm, pets are cool, I guess" until I learned of the most essential role of the pet...it's ability to sell your loot. One of the biggest frustrations for any Diablo fan was that there was so much loot and only so much space in your bag. If you're like me and have issues leaving loot behind simply because free loot = money in your pocket you felt compelled to pick up every single item you ever came across and this lead to many, many trips back to town to sell the loot. In Torchlight, all you do is transfer your unwanted loot from your inventory to your pet's inventory and with the press of one simple button, the pet runs back to town, sells the loot and returns to you. You go a few moments without your helpful companion, but all in all it does not take that long for the pet to turn and just makes the game that much more enjoyable. If a feature like this is not available in Diablo III, well, I really don't know what I'm going to do.
It was quite the easy decision to purchase Torchlight because the game only costs $20 and is EASILY worth that low, low price. If you're a fan of the Diablo franchise, you will easily enjoy this game and for $20, it's almost criminal to pass it up.
What did consume my gaming life this past week was Borderlands. I purchased the game on release day and have been slowly making my way through the game. I've done a bit of co-op play, but have decided my slow and steady pace doesn't necessarily keep me at the same pace as all my friends, so I've fallen a bit behind. But that's okay! I'm actually really enjoying the SP elements of the game. I'm the type of gamer that goes in and out of phases of gaming where I'm totally obsess to no care ever, so SP is nice because it allows me to move at my own pace without worry. I'm up to level 17 with my hunter and still thoroughly loving the game. You've probably heard a lot about Borderlands since it's release, so I'll move onto something else a bit more interesting.
I have found a new addiction and that addiction goes by the name of Torchlight. I first heard about the game on The Instance (A WoW podcast I listen to). I had seen some information on it a while ago in my gaming blogs, but wasn't that intrigued at that point. Once I heard Scott Johnson of The Instance rant and rave about it and inform me that it was created by two of the designers of Diablo and Diablo II and played very much like the games, I knew I had to check it out. On Sunday I downloaded the demo off Steam and got to playing...before I knew it I was done with the demo, but instantly felt the urge for more. I immediately purchased it. After that I played for at least 2 to 3 hours straight. I was in love.
The game itself plays very much like the Diablo franchise. It's your basic hack n slash dungeon based game with loads and loads of loot. I particularly enjoy the art style of the game. It goes for a more "cartoony" art style compared to Diablo's bit more realistic style. I like it and it just adds to the overall delightful feel of the game. One of my favorite features of the game is your pet. Every hero class gets a pet. My initial thoughts were "hmm, pets are cool, I guess" until I learned of the most essential role of the pet...it's ability to sell your loot. One of the biggest frustrations for any Diablo fan was that there was so much loot and only so much space in your bag. If you're like me and have issues leaving loot behind simply because free loot = money in your pocket you felt compelled to pick up every single item you ever came across and this lead to many, many trips back to town to sell the loot. In Torchlight, all you do is transfer your unwanted loot from your inventory to your pet's inventory and with the press of one simple button, the pet runs back to town, sells the loot and returns to you. You go a few moments without your helpful companion, but all in all it does not take that long for the pet to turn and just makes the game that much more enjoyable. If a feature like this is not available in Diablo III, well, I really don't know what I'm going to do.
It was quite the easy decision to purchase Torchlight because the game only costs $20 and is EASILY worth that low, low price. If you're a fan of the Diablo franchise, you will easily enjoy this game and for $20, it's almost criminal to pass it up.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Netflix Coming to PS3 by Temporary Disc Based Solution
Roughly a year later than the Xbox version Sony and Netflix are bringing Instant Watch to the Playstation 3. This does not mean a whole lot to me seeing as I already have this function on my 360 but it is still a nice addition for those PS3 owners whom do not have that luxury. It will be nice for convenience purposes (ex. not having to switch between consoles to watch a movie).
But there is a caveat, until late 2010 the Netflix experience shall remain a disc based experience. This does not make much sense if any at all. Sony and Netflix both knew that this was an experience that was coming to the PS3 and they had to know how ridiculous this whole prospect sounded. I can see the side where they wanted to get the experience into the consumer hand quicker (for business reasons I'm sure) but they could have:
But there is a caveat, until late 2010 the Netflix experience shall remain a disc based experience. This does not make much sense if any at all. Sony and Netflix both knew that this was an experience that was coming to the PS3 and they had to know how ridiculous this whole prospect sounded. I can see the side where they wanted to get the experience into the consumer hand quicker (for business reasons I'm sure) but they could have:
- Worked on it a little harder and faster since they probably knew that Microsoft only had a year of exclusivity, or:
- Not released it until it was actually finished (again greedy pockets are most definitely the culprit here)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Adventures in Babeland - Weekly Gaming Girl Diary: October 26, 2009
There were two games that dominated my playing time this past week. The first is Borderlands. As I stated in a previous post, I picked this game up last Tuesday on release day. I had the opportunity to get in some SP time as well as some co-op time over the rest of the week. Thus far I am truly loving this game. I've played more SP than co-op, but I find the SP to be just as fun as the co-op. I finally unlocked a 3rd weapons slot and feel as though I have the appropriate weapons I need for the time being. I discovered that my purple sniper rifle (don't remember the gun's specific name) has the ability to completely blow the heads of skaggs in the lower level areas. This made me squee with joy.
My experience with co-op was fun, although I felt I was totally lacking and holding everyone I was playing with back. The ability to power level with friends is actually pretty awesome as you jump levels much quicker then you ever would in SP. It's a nice feature to have, especially since I didn't get the opportunity to play this weekend at all and feel like I've fallen behind others as far as leveling goes. The co-op plays much like if you were to group with someone in WoW. If you have the same quests, they show up and you get the same objectives. I don't have too much to report on the co-op front as the only time I played I was a bit confused and hadn't fully fallen into the ebb and flow of the game, so my personal experience wasn't all that great just due to my lack of knowledge. Definitely looking forward to getting in more hours on this game throughout the week.
Even though I was up visiting the girlfriend at college this week, I still had the opportunity to play some WoW. I finally got to level 70 (HOORAY!) which is quite the accomplishment for me. I've been enjoying the Northrend content, although I'm looking forward to getting out of the Borean Tundra zone and moving onto something new. Being a mere 10 levels away from "the end" is a nice feeling though. I think I might start leveling my old warrior main after I'm done with my current. Maybe I'll try out some different zones I didn't get to on my current to mix it up a bit.
My experience with co-op was fun, although I felt I was totally lacking and holding everyone I was playing with back. The ability to power level with friends is actually pretty awesome as you jump levels much quicker then you ever would in SP. It's a nice feature to have, especially since I didn't get the opportunity to play this weekend at all and feel like I've fallen behind others as far as leveling goes. The co-op plays much like if you were to group with someone in WoW. If you have the same quests, they show up and you get the same objectives. I don't have too much to report on the co-op front as the only time I played I was a bit confused and hadn't fully fallen into the ebb and flow of the game, so my personal experience wasn't all that great just due to my lack of knowledge. Definitely looking forward to getting in more hours on this game throughout the week.
Even though I was up visiting the girlfriend at college this week, I still had the opportunity to play some WoW. I finally got to level 70 (HOORAY!) which is quite the accomplishment for me. I've been enjoying the Northrend content, although I'm looking forward to getting out of the Borean Tundra zone and moving onto something new. Being a mere 10 levels away from "the end" is a nice feeling though. I think I might start leveling my old warrior main after I'm done with my current. Maybe I'll try out some different zones I didn't get to on my current to mix it up a bit.
WAIP: October 26, 2009: Playstation 3 Acquired Edition (The First Experiences)
So I went through all the set-up procedures (pretty standard issue here) but it took me a few minutes to really learn the way the on screen keyboard works. The standard issue QWERTY keyboard works just fine and it is actually a bit quicker than the 360 on screen keyboard (good thing too considering their version of the 360 chat pad is said to be not that great). What I cannot figure out is why some of the time they have this cell phone like keyboard that forces you to type in some T9-like formula that really does not make sense in the realm of the console but in the grand scheme of everything this is a low priority issue.
The real annoying issues came out of having to update the console. Before I could sign into the Playstation Network I had to update the console to 3.02 and folks, people are not kidding when they say that the console takes forever to update. I would measure the time in time it takes to make a sandwich (slowly) and then eat that sandwich (slowly). It was painstaking considering all that I wanted to do was play my new console.
After that I signed into PSN and began to browse their very pretty and well organized store front. The first thing that I noticed, other than the aesthetics, was the lack of content compared to the Xbox Live Marketplace (not really disconcerting but an easy observation to make). So I queued up the demos of inFamous and MLB: The Show 09 and went on my merry way (meaning I left the Playstation Store).
I then popped in LittleBigPlanet (which needed an update that was long enough but not nearly as long as the system update) and proceeded to be melted by that games charm and attention to detail. I managed to accidentally get myself online in one of the levels I was playing and while it was more funny than anything that one experience was a smidgen laggy and I immediately noticed that lack of people talking (which I think that this game benefits from when it is there).
I later installed the demos for inFamous and The Show. Yes you heard correctly, you have to install your demos and I think this might go the same for PSN titles but do not hold me to that seeing as I have not purchased one yet. It does not make sense to me and it is just one thing getting in your way of playing your games sooner.
That is all for my initial thoughts on the Playstation 3 and though it may sound like I do not like the thing, that is not the case. I quite enjoy the Playstation experience I had so far and I am looking forward to playing Uncharted 1 this coming week. I thought I would not like the controller at all but I really do not mind it. I still prefer the 360 controller but I can (and still need too) get used to the Playstation controller (I need to stop pressing the 'SQUARE' button instead of the 'X' button when it says to press the 'X' button. I need to train myself on the PS controller).
But for now I PS3'ed out and I just want to play some Borderlands on my 360 (mental hug).
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Quick Borderlands Preview
Yesterday I picked up the game I've been more excited for then any this year, Borderlands. I first got wind of the game when PC Gamer had it featured on the cover of one of their issues. I hadn't heard anything about this game up until the point, but what I read got me excited. An FPS/RPG hyrbid? That sounds like a match made in heaven, especially for me. Two of my favorite gaming genres in one? I was sold.
As soon as I got home I got an hour or so to play the game and got a little bit more time after a haircut I had later that night. Thus far, I'm in the middle of level 6. I'm not too far into the game, but I'm loving it already. I opening credits alone made me fall in love.
It plays like a movie. I'm typically one to press start, B, X, whatever as many times as possibly to get through any sort of cut scene or cinematic because I just want to play, but this...I just sat and watched, enjoyed and got even more excited to play. Once I got into playing, the art style and music alone makes me love the game. Some of the music and the general atmosphere and setting of the game reminds me a bit of Firefly and I loved the music from Firefly.
The game play thus far is great. I'm still adjusting to playing an FPS on a gamepad and part of me wishes I would have purchased this for PC, but that would have meant I wouldn't be able to play co-op with friends. I decided when I started to play through the SP a bit just to get a hang of it. Six levels in and I've already found a few green and blue items (hello, WoW!). I haven't even tried co-op at this point, so I don't really have anything to report on in that end. I hope to get a decent play through on SP as well as get some co-op experience and then write out a full review.
I'm barely into the game and I can already tell that this just might be my game of the year.
As soon as I got home I got an hour or so to play the game and got a little bit more time after a haircut I had later that night. Thus far, I'm in the middle of level 6. I'm not too far into the game, but I'm loving it already. I opening credits alone made me fall in love.
It plays like a movie. I'm typically one to press start, B, X, whatever as many times as possibly to get through any sort of cut scene or cinematic because I just want to play, but this...I just sat and watched, enjoyed and got even more excited to play. Once I got into playing, the art style and music alone makes me love the game. Some of the music and the general atmosphere and setting of the game reminds me a bit of Firefly and I loved the music from Firefly.
The game play thus far is great. I'm still adjusting to playing an FPS on a gamepad and part of me wishes I would have purchased this for PC, but that would have meant I wouldn't be able to play co-op with friends. I decided when I started to play through the SP a bit just to get a hang of it. Six levels in and I've already found a few green and blue items (hello, WoW!). I haven't even tried co-op at this point, so I don't really have anything to report on in that end. I hope to get a decent play through on SP as well as get some co-op experience and then write out a full review.
I'm barely into the game and I can already tell that this just might be my game of the year.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Adventures in Babeland - Weekly Gaming Girl Diary: October 20, 2009
The past week or so has been relatively boring in relation to gaming. I was busy taking care of my sick girlfriend and didn't get the chance to play many games. The games I did play, however, were World of Warcraft, Company of Heroes and League of Legends. First and foremost, lets start with some WoW chat.
As I stated last week, I finally got into Wrath of the Lich King content. I'm finally in Northrend and working my way through Borean Tundra. So far the zone has been a bit difficult to navigate, mostly due to the fact that it's brand new, but as of yesterday I got the hang of it a little bit. The thing I enjoy the most about all this new content are exploring the new worlds and fighting new mobs. Most of the old world and even BC content I've done before with my first main. It's fun and enjoyable, but it's the same old, same old. Being in Northrend is fresh and new and definitely enjoyable. Getting into new zones definitely sparks up my desire to play WoW more so then when I was working up to 60 on my current main. I always like seeing what Blizzard comes up with. Quite honestly, the level of creative and intelligence that is put into WoW by Blizzard never ceases to amaze me. World of Warcraft will probably go down in history as my favorite game of all time and Blizzard will easily go down as my favorite gaming company of all time. I'm currently at level 69, about half way through inching closer and closer to 70...a place I've never been before (hell, everything up to this point is somewhere I haven't been yet). I'm excited for 70 and I'm excited to finally have a mere 10 levels to go before I reach the end...hopefully I'll get there before Cataclysm is released.
This weekend I also worked through the tutorial of Company of Heroes. I picked this game up a few weeks ago from Direct2Drive when they had it on sale for $5. It's been a while since I've gotten into an RTS, so getting back into this has been a bit difficult. The tutorial was nice, quite honestly one of the best I've experienced (I typically skip them, but it was a bit necessary for CoH). Once I worked through the tutorial I started up a campaign, but didn't get too far into it as it wasn't quite drawing me in at that moment in time. I hope to get into this a bit more in the future, but for now it might have to wait on the back burner.
I was also lucky enough to receive a League of Legends beta key recently. I honestly have little to no knowledge of League of Legends or what it's about other then what I've heard Ryan Scott on The Geekbox. He seemed to love the game, so I thought I might as well give it a try. I mean, it's in beta and it's free, why not? I played a teeny tiny bit of the game this weekend, but not enough to give any sort of honest review or opinion of it. Once again, hopefully getting more into this in the future.
The last thing I want to touch on in this post is my current urge to play a certain video game...Fallout 3. I started FO3, LOVED it and never finished it. This is my typical routine with most video games. Lately, I've really felt like I wanted to get back into it, but haven't actually started yet. I think the couple things that turned me off from FO3 was all the freakin' walking and some of the attacking mechanics. I always felt like even though my aim was on point at enemies, I always missed and this annoyed me. I suppose this is just something I need to overcome and hopefully in the new couple weeks I'll get back into this game and possibly finally beat it.
As I stated last week, I finally got into Wrath of the Lich King content. I'm finally in Northrend and working my way through Borean Tundra. So far the zone has been a bit difficult to navigate, mostly due to the fact that it's brand new, but as of yesterday I got the hang of it a little bit. The thing I enjoy the most about all this new content are exploring the new worlds and fighting new mobs. Most of the old world and even BC content I've done before with my first main. It's fun and enjoyable, but it's the same old, same old. Being in Northrend is fresh and new and definitely enjoyable. Getting into new zones definitely sparks up my desire to play WoW more so then when I was working up to 60 on my current main. I always like seeing what Blizzard comes up with. Quite honestly, the level of creative and intelligence that is put into WoW by Blizzard never ceases to amaze me. World of Warcraft will probably go down in history as my favorite game of all time and Blizzard will easily go down as my favorite gaming company of all time. I'm currently at level 69, about half way through inching closer and closer to 70...a place I've never been before (hell, everything up to this point is somewhere I haven't been yet). I'm excited for 70 and I'm excited to finally have a mere 10 levels to go before I reach the end...hopefully I'll get there before Cataclysm is released.
This weekend I also worked through the tutorial of Company of Heroes. I picked this game up a few weeks ago from Direct2Drive when they had it on sale for $5. It's been a while since I've gotten into an RTS, so getting back into this has been a bit difficult. The tutorial was nice, quite honestly one of the best I've experienced (I typically skip them, but it was a bit necessary for CoH). Once I worked through the tutorial I started up a campaign, but didn't get too far into it as it wasn't quite drawing me in at that moment in time. I hope to get into this a bit more in the future, but for now it might have to wait on the back burner.
I was also lucky enough to receive a League of Legends beta key recently. I honestly have little to no knowledge of League of Legends or what it's about other then what I've heard Ryan Scott on The Geekbox. He seemed to love the game, so I thought I might as well give it a try. I mean, it's in beta and it's free, why not? I played a teeny tiny bit of the game this weekend, but not enough to give any sort of honest review or opinion of it. Once again, hopefully getting more into this in the future.
The last thing I want to touch on in this post is my current urge to play a certain video game...Fallout 3. I started FO3, LOVED it and never finished it. This is my typical routine with most video games. Lately, I've really felt like I wanted to get back into it, but haven't actually started yet. I think the couple things that turned me off from FO3 was all the freakin' walking and some of the attacking mechanics. I always felt like even though my aim was on point at enemies, I always missed and this annoyed me. I suppose this is just something I need to overcome and hopefully in the new couple weeks I'll get back into this game and possibly finally beat it.
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