WAIM: September 24, 2009 - Too Much Gaming, Too Little Blogging (Road to Recon pt2)

It has been a week of one-hundred percent Halo gaming one-hundred percent of the time. Other than attending a wedding over the weekend (congratulations to Matt and Jamie) I have been strictly playing Halo 3 multiplayer (for the Road to Recon "feature") and for the past couple of days ODST has been occupying my 360 drive.

I have been trying, and failing, to get to the rank of Lieutenant in the "new" EXP system. I have been failing mainly because I did not know that you need fifty experience points in any playlist to attain this goal. I currently stand at forty-one EXP in the social rumble pit playlist so I can say with some conviction that this achievement will be mine in the coming hours/days.

I managed to nab the Vidmaster: Brainpan achievement last night after finishing up the campaign of ODST. The ones on Citadel and Longshore were annoying finds but the one on Heretic is a cinch.

I always manage to forget how much I love the Halo series when I am not playing it but I am glad that I have such a deep appreciation for the games. I know that it is the Xbox's most popular game and the truth is - this is not without reason - these games are fantastic. Bungie puts all of their care and love into these games and you can truly feel this oozing out of every well crafted detail of the Halo universe. Halo, as an entity, makes me proud to be a gamer.

Adventures in Babeland - Weekly Gaming Girl Diary: September 23, 2009

Yea, yea, yea...I suck at this whole updating on a consistent basis, I'm well aware of that. I apologize for my delay of an update. As per usual, life is hectic and I just haven't had the time. With that, comes the fact that I've had very little time to do any actual gaming as well. I do have any update in regards to my casual gaming experiences since installing a bunch of games on my laptop!

One of the best decisions I could have made when setting my laptop up for casual gaming was purchasing Plants vs. Zombies. Now, I never understood the hype when the game first came out and even after playing a bit of the demo I wasn't 100% sold, but the game was $10 on Steam...so I figured, why not? I must say, holy crap! That game is ADDICTING! Once I got past the first few levels, I was 100% sold. I've mostly been playing the game when I've been away from home at State College or in those moments right before I go to bed. I'm not really sure how far into the game I am, but I assure you, it gets more and more fun as time goes on. I would seriously urge anyone who owns a computer (PC or Mac) to purchase this game. It's definitely worth it. The game is also slated to come out for the iPhone, as well as XBLA, so there's absolutely ZERO excuse for not purchasing this game.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've also put in a little bit of time playing Diablo II. I'd like to do a full play through of the game prior to Diablo III coming out and with Blizzard busy with finishing Starcraft II as well as WoW: Cataclysm, I would expect that I have a good amount of time to complete this task.

Other then those two, I really haven't played much over the past couple of weeks. I did, however, purchase Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for $5 each from Direct 2 Drive. I was never 100% sold on digital only game distribution, but these distribution companies are easily winning me over with these sales. I think that's the key, however. There's really no sense in charging $50 for a digital copy of a game when I can purchase it at a retailer for the same price AND get the box art and all that fun stuff. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I still love box art and physical copies. If digital distributors could start lowering their prices below what they sell for at retail, then I would most definitely be drawn to that much more. Not only have the digital sales been pulling me towards purchasing online, but they have also pulled me towards playing my PC more in general. I'm pretty sure I haven't touched my Xbox for a couple of weeks now. I realize that PC gaming isn't quite as popular as console gaming these days, but these digital distributors definitely have some good ideas going on to maybe shift those numbers somehow.

Monday MUpdate: Game Over!

And by that title, I really mean congratulations to two of my best friends, Matthew and Jamie Bevins! The two of them just got married this weekend and I took the honors of best man, and it was a real blast and a half. Remember the first time you ever beat Mario and you found the castle that the princess actually was in? I kinda imagine that's what they feel like right now. So congrats to them and many happy returns!

However, because they got married, I didn't get in a whole lot of gaming, so this column being fairly short is completely their fault. If anyone needs their e-mail addresses or Facebook account URLs for complaints, I'd be happy to provide them.

HOWEVER, before all the fun and games and dinners and unrolling of walkways, I did type up a very extensive review of a game that came out last week called Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2! I basically skipped all responsibilities I had and spent the day it came out playing it, and then, through out the next couple nights, I had my review all done. I know what some of you are thinking: "Matt, your review is clearly going to be biased due to your extreme love of Marvel and the first game!" Well, no! You're wrong! In fact, I am just as harsh, if not more so, on this game as I was to Batman: Arkham Asylum, and if you read my review of that I essentially bent it over and tore it a new one. So, with that in mind, if you'd like to read my extensive review of Marvel: Ultiamte Alliance 2, head on over to Multiversity Comics to get the whole skinny on all the hate I (Hulk) smash down.

And on that note,

Road To Recon: The First Night (Halo 3)

Recon armor has become the pinnacle of achievement in a game that has been around for almost two years. Most hardcore Halo fanatics have all the achievements that are currently attainable and are waiting with bated at the prospect of being able to freely acquire this in-game gold (though its "value" is sure to depreciate when most folks have it). I have decided to chronicle my journey to have no life for your entertainment purposes.

Recon armor was previously awarded to only those who were seen fit to wear it in Bungie's eyes and for all intents and purposes, I am of the belief that it should have stayed that way. With the release of ODST though we are going to be able to unlock it on our own by way of unlocking all of the Vidmaster Challenge achievements.

On the seventh of this past March I unlocked the 7 on 7 achievement which you are awarded when you reach 7 EXP in any playlist on the seventh of the month. That was technically the beginning of my journey but since we are ramping up to the release of the game in just one short week I thought that I might as well make a fun week out of it. Lucky for you I like to write it all down.

So last night I was working on the Vidmaster: Lightswitch achievement - attaining the rank of Lieutenant in the new playlist based EXP system (yeah I play Halo that much and it is funny because I really do love it more than most games) - and I was enjoying myself thoroughly as I always do. There was even a group of girls playing and they were not half bad. This achievement should be earned by the end of today and then I get to really have a lot of fun trying to earn the Vidmaster: Annual achievement (but more on that later).

Monday MUpdate: It's pronounced "fl-ow-er"

I think, as a note, that people should generally understand that my articles from here on out will be mostly about the PS3. While it was not discussed publicly here, our fearless leader Nate recently had a minor spat with another internet entity, and throughout the general "dialogue" (in quotes because in reality it was more of an attack) it was pointed out that we focus mainly on the XBOX even though we are a general video gaming website. Now, those who have been following for a prolonged period of time will remember that the top of the website used to point out that we focus mainly on the XBOX (because the XBOX is awesome) but when Kara was brought on board, she introduced the element of girls playing video games, which is just plain silly the PC gamer into the fold. Therefore, in order to help diversify, I'm taking my new ownership of the PS3 as a subtle sign to myself that I should give it the love it deserves and focus mainly on the PS3. So from here on out, if you don't actually have any interest in the PS3, I won't be offended if you don't read this column anymore.

I had been promising several mini reviews now from some time, haven't I? Originally when I came on board, reviews were all I did. They were wordy, they were precise, but I feel like they were OK. Then, as I stopped being a bum and got a job, I had to start playing games less and less, and now that I have a job and go to night classes, I play games even less than that. This past week I rented some games for my Playstation 3, and I only ever managed to play one of them and I was less than half way through when I returned it. It's kind of sad, really. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 comes out in less than 24 hours and I'm kind of scared to think I won't be able to dedicate myself to it at all hours of the day (which means I'll be up until 2 in the morning playing it, probably). Regardless of this fact, I feel like I got in a good deal of standard PS3 gaming before my night classes happened to allow me the ability to look fondly back at my memory and bring to you, the faithful reader, some high quality mini reviews. Last week, I tackled Fat Princess, a humorous interpretation of capture the flag that caused quite a stir in my home city (mainly because people are idiots). This week, I bring to you a review of the highly serene Flower (which, despite what Nate may tell you, is not pronounced flow-er).



Let me start by saying that Flower is the single most serene and enchanting game I have ever played in my entire life. I feel like bothering to meditate is absolutely pointless now because I have this game. For those who don't know, the Playstation 3 menu system is different from the XBOX 360 dashboard in that (among other things) when you put the XBOX 360 disc in, a tiny little image will now appear on the dashboard under your section to show you what game you have to play, and if you open up that extra special menu, you'll have a themed background. With the PS3, when you highlight a game or a game disc for gaming purposes, the entire screen changes into a huge advertisement for the game. The Flower music shows a gentle breeze and plays some calm piano music for you, and honest to God, I could just leave this image on and sit and relax. In fact, I do this sometimes, and I'm known to leave this menu on if I leave the apartment for short periods of time for my cats. It's just that wonderful.

In Flower, you essentially play the smoke monster from LOST except you're made of flower petals and instead of tormenting people you collect other flower petals to make you even more epic. That's it. That's the entire game. There is no final boss, there is no real point to it. You start out as a single flower petal, you float around collecting other flower petals, and once you've collected enough you win the level. It sounds so simple, yet for some reason when I hand people the controller to play the game they just don't get it. It's easily one of the best purchases I have ever made though. The absolute sheer and quiet brilliance of the game is just so forthcoming that, in the words of James Franco, it smells like God's vagina is just so good. Within the game are, of course, hidden elements of commentary toward the modern day appreciation of nature, and this becomes painfully obvious later in the game as the sky becomes darker and the world grows scarier with the introduction of massive amounts of power lines, but don't worry. You and your petals will fill the world with such beauty that you easily eradicate any and all man made disasters (you know, except for those buildings...).

Along with the 100% stunning soundtrack (which you in part help create as every flower you collect hits a musical note), the game's graphics are beyond amazing. This is the game that really shows the PS3's engine capabilities as you soar straight into the grass and it looks like you're actually outside running your hand through a lush field. You'll see all sorts of environments as you fly through the game, but none of it ever clips or looks half assed. On top of that, for a game that should have an excessive amount of bloom (for those who don't get the term, pop in Fable II and look at the sun), you'd be surprised to find that it never comes in to play as a blinding factor. There is so much going on here and it runs so smoothly it absolutely blows my mind. It's pretty obvious why this game is only available on the PS3, to say the least - the PS3 is the only system (besides a PC) that can handle this game's insane rendering. Add to that the excellent sound effects placed in the game for the wind and movement and, when you play this in high definition on a nice TV, it really looks like a window outside that you have control over. The irony of the game in itself is that it heavily promotes being outside in nature's natural beauty, and some of the Trophy's include putting the controller down and taking a five minute break or not playing for a week, and yet the game looks better than the grass outside my window does!

If I had to give Flower a grade, it would be an A++. Any owner or potential owner of the PS3 should own this game as it is essentially the Playstation 3 game. In my short time as a PS3 owner, no other game has shown me the true and wondrous capabilities of the system in a way that makes me want to denounce my previous religion and swear only to Sony's. I'm still waiting on my digital audio cable in the mail from Amazon (which is a whole other disastrous story which I'll get to another time), I can't wait to fully maximize my experience with surround sound. This game is absolutely beyond amazing and is hands down the best game I've played all year.

WAIM: September 14, 2009 - Everything Old Is New Again Edition

I have been away from the blog without announcement for a while now and I just wanted to clue everyone in on the reason. I have been working toward a promotion at the "in real life" job and I am happy to say that I have attained that promotion. The rest is all bells and whistles and I can once again dedicate myself to regular updates. Though I am sure no one has been dying without everything that I have to say, here is what I have been tinkering with over the past two weeks:

Since I have finished Batman I have not been back to the game. This is not to the game's discredit, I just wanted to return to the games that I felt that I did not have enough time with this past summer.

I started off by attaining 100% of items in Shadow Complex which to those who do not know where everything is (even when they tell you that an item is in a room (Level 20)) it is no small feat. It is quite fun and you can truly feel a sense of achievement when you have done it yourself.

I also picked up Gears of War 2 multiplayer again on Labor Day weekend. I miss playing this game and I managed to nab a few achievements because of the double EXP weekend that was taking place. I also managed to notice a few things about the game that I had not noticed before. One was that when you use the Cyclops Locust you can see the light shining from the eye as though the light were reflecting off the the dust in the air. It was a nice little nuance that made me smile. The second thing is something that I cannot remember for the life of me.

The last game that I have been playing a lot lately, once again, is Battlefield 1943. I cannot get enough and I also managed to nab a few more achievements in the game. It should be easy enough to collect the rest of them with regular playing of the game.

That is about it for now but you can be assured that you can count on more posts from me during the week. Thanks for hanging in there.

Monday MUpdate: RIP 360 (Not really)

As I sit this, I'm sitting in my brand new apartment watching TV on my new television, streaming a show that I was unable to watch when it aired. Normally, I'd be doing that off of my trusty XBOX 360. Today, however, I'm doing it off my PlayStation 3. Innocent enough, right? I mean, the cat turned on the PS3 in the middle of the night. Might as well just use it, right? But it's not just that. Not at all. After unpacking all my things and hooking up my 360, I turned it on only to find myself switching back to the PlayStation. Could it be? Have I turned? I love my 360 and have all my games for it and all my pre-order games as well, and next week Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 comes out so you'll be sure to catch Jewnado online for... oh, I dunno, a million hours? But right now, even though I have 4 games for the PlayStation 3, I find myself using that more preferentially than the 360. It's possible that the reason for this is that I just haven't put Fallout 3 in the 360 yet (Left 4 Dead almost permanently resides in the 360), but it's more than that. Dare I say it, but I prefer the set up I have for the PS3 more. HDMI, digital audio, surround sound, amazing picture quality. I'm not saying that the 360 does not have that, but my model has no HDMI or digital audio support, so the PS3 wins. Therefore, I miss out on all the action that my friends are boasting about with Shadow Complex and 'Splosion Man. It's just me and my Fat Princess.

On the plus side, Fat Princess happens to be an insanely fun game, so let's consider this space for some reviews this week. In Fat Princess, you essentially play a game of Capture The Flag, except there is an obese lady of royalty involved. You are given several different classes of which to pick from in order to fill out certain duties, including a healer, a mage, a fighter, a worker, and a marksman. All of this is in a base to which you can upgrade and build support in. Outside the base you'll find pieces of cake to which to feed the princess, and as you feed her more and more she becomes fatter and fatter, the point being that now the enemy team can't carry her across the map easily. As any Capture the Flag game goes, the gameplay goes back and forth until one team captures the other princess while retaining the enemies. Add that into a hilarious form of 2D animation in a practically cell shaded world with some hilarious added in dialogue from your characters and the narrator of the game (who likes to say "The n00bs have been pwnd!"), and needless to say you have an insane amount of hilarious fun.

Now, CTF/FP isn't the only kind of gameplay in the game. There is Team Deathmatch as well as Map Domination, and all of it is equally as fun as Fat Princes, but that still holds the winning spot for me. There's just something about running around and feeding a princess who consistently cries out for more cakey, please. The only downfall I've found of the game is that the majority of people playing online either rush the enemy base and make the game five seconds long, or they all want to play Team Deathmatch, making it so that to play Fat Princess I have to play the single player game, which doesn't have as interesting AI as a real person. The game's AI seems more interested in prolonging the game to force you to take action instead of trying to really steal your princess at all, whereas the online gameplay provides a real challenge: the human brain.

Regardless, Fat Princess makes for a winning combination of humor and gameplay to make it a very worthwhile purchase. Highly recommended. Stay tuned in future weeks when I throw in reviews for Flower, LittleBigPlanet, and then, of course, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. Also, if anyone is curious as to my thoughts on Batman: Arkham Asylum, you can find them right here. Although, be warned: I am very harsh on the game where most people are not. Chances are, I will disagree with you on your thoughts of the game, so keep that in mind if you click the link.

Shadow Complex Review (XBLA)

There are not a lot of games that come out in the Metroidvania genre as of late; this is the first in 12 years, the last one of any note was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Twelve years does a lot for expectations of a game that comes out in their beloved genre. What is that genre exactly? It is a side scrolling action adventure platformer.

Shadow Complex is set in the Empire universe (owned by Chair Entertainment, penned by Orson Scott Card) and it takes place simultaneously with the book. Shadow Complex tells the story (game story written by Peter David of comic book fame) of Jason Flemming and his new girlfriend Claire. They are hiking in the Pacific Northwest when a group called the Progressive Reformation kidnaps Claire. From there we are strung along by a barely existent thread of a plot into what is the first and best game in this genre in 12 years.

The first and foremost object that needs addressing is that one just needs to get their hands on this game to know what quality lies in store for them.

The game is beautifully rendered in 3D, but is played in a 2D plane, by Unreal Engine 3 and from the second that you boot it up you will be greeted by crisp visuals that one may only expect from a retail title. The cut scenes are the one area that one can notice that this is an arcade title but if they are bothering you that much you are either missing the point of this game, which is not the story, or you just are not skipping them, which is an option I took during my second playthrough.

The story is just about the only downside of the game because there is no story. You can give the story and extra point if you have read the book but it is still non-essential to the gameplay experience. The dialogue is trite, predictable and just plain boring and the most interested pieces of dialogue happen when Jason is in the vent above or below a room; a particular Chicago Cubs reference comes to mind.

The only other downer in this game is that Chair’s added feature to this genre, the touted aiming at enemies in a 3D space (the Z-axis), is sometimes broken and though I never died because of this it became very annoying over two times through the game. I specifically remember one room where I was attempting to make a foam mountain so that I could reach the ceiling and for some strange reason the Z-axis kept moving to some place in the foreground and I had to find a different way up (this was before I found a certain piece of the game’s armor that is specifically crafted for this purpose).


Shadow Complex really shines in its wealth of collectables and unlockables. The game can easily be replayed several times over without any sense of boredom. It is extremely easy to lose oneself in this game and on more than one occasion you will find that you are telling yourself, “Just one more collectable,” only to find that you will play well past that point.

The Proving Grounds section of the game is just one more area of the game that screams replayability. The three challenge packs are laden with difficulty and are not for the easily discouraged. These are the parts of the game that would have made the story mode too challenging for most people to master or even complete. These packs need have not been included but that is the kind of value that Chair packed into this title.

This game will have you reevaluating what you spend $15 dollars on in the future and I mean that in the best way possible. This is best arcade game to come out this year (this could have easily been a $40 boxed retail title) and one can only hope that that it means more of the same from Chair. Perhaps other developers will also see the success of Shadow Complex and will jump on this age-old bandwagon once again.

Adventures in Babeland - Weekly Gaming Girl Diary: September 3, 2009

I honestly don't have very much to report on in the gaming front for the past week or so. Life has kept me a bit too busy to get the chance to sit down in front of my 360 or PC. For the life of me, I can't even think if I've played anything for the past week. I know for fact I haven't played WoW for about 2 weeks, which is a travesty, but time has just not allowed me to do so.

Although I don't have anything to report on the gaming front for the past week, I would like to take a little time to talk about my future plans for my laptop. I purchased a laptop about 2 years ago because my previous one had been dead for quite some time and this was prior to netbooks, so I wanted something portable to go along with my desktop. Typically I only use my laptop when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV (my desktop is in a different room), when I'm up in my bedroom or when I'm traveling. It's not the best laptop and can barely run WoW, so I don't typically do a lot of gaming on it. However, with the sudden resurgence of casual games, I've decided that my laptop will become my casual/old gaming device. Most of the casual games and older games do not require any sort of massive computing power, which my laptop does not have. Today, to start my casual gaming device, I purchase Ben There Dan That, Time Gentlemen, Please! and Plants vs. Zombies. I've played a bit of the Plants vs. Zombies demo and enjoyed it and it was only $10. I bought the other two because they came in a pack for only $5 and I've heard some people say some good things. I also intend on installing Starcraft, Warcraft III, Diablo II and possibly Age of Empires. Who knows how often I'll get around to playing these games on my laptop, but at least it'll be something to play while I'm laying in bed or visiting my girlfriend in college.

I'm excited to possibly play Diablo II. It's been quite some time since I had my hands on that game, plus I never beat it, PLUS Diablo III should be coming out in the next year or two. I've never played Starcraft before (surprise, surprise) so I'm looking forward to that. I've needed some good RTS lovin' in my life lately.

WAIM: September 2, 2009 - A Week Off

So it has been a week since we have last spoken and what a glorious week it has been. Today is my last day of seven days in a row of work so you can expect more out of this blog in the days to come.

This week I have been playing nothing but Batman: Arkham Asylum and you should expect the review for that tomorrow. You should also expect the review for Shadow Complex on Friday and one last thing that you can expect is a BGE original article.

You should be excited.

I think that I am going to go back through various games this week ranging from Shadow Complex, Batman, Gears of War 2, etc.

Mass Effect Pinnacle Station DLC Released!

I had not made a post about this but Mass Effect has been expecting a piece of DLC since the Bring Down the Sky mission. Today along with the new avatar clothes and a new theme, the oft rumored Pinnacle Station DLC has finally been realeased!

At this point I honestly do not know what to say about it other than I am severely torn as to what to do right now. I just brought home Batman: Arkham Asylum last night but this is a fresh piece of ME DLC.

Advice, NOW, in the comments!

Bioware reveals new character for Mass Effect 2 - Grunt, "An irrationaly violent krogan"

So hot off of last week we also have this awesome awesome preview of another new character from Mass Effect 2.



Every time I think that this game slips into the back of my mind Bioware brings the game surging to my senses with a vengeance. Obviously, from the videos, everything about this game looks perfect but the trailers from the first game captured that aspect as well and we all know how that turned out.

What these new trailers have that ME1 trailers did not seem to have is a sense of urgency. This game feels like it is going to always be epic and grandiose and I have no doubt that it is going to feel like an unforgettable roller coaster ride.

Grunt looks cool enough though he may be a bit too similar to Wrex even though Grunt's head looks smaller and roundish. Grunt's voice is scratchy like Wrex's (looks like a species of smokers) but Grunt seems shorter in comparison to Wrex. If you have not already asked yourself the question, yes, I really am comparing the two.

I am curious to see if the selection of teammates that one can have in their party is much larger than the original's five party members.

But I suppose if none of that interests you, you could always go check out the Mass Effect clothing for your avatar.

Monday MUpdate : I Have Looked Into The Face Of The Abyss...

...and it was good.

Last week, I got many e-mails in regards to my absence/lack of substantial update (read: none). Those following my column on a regular basis will also know that the majority of my things, including my XBOX 360, are all packed away, leaving me to a lack of gaming and weeks of sadness and depression.

Or... that's what I would be writing if something hadn't happened. You see, dear reader, at the time I wrote last week's column, I was waiting for a package in the mail. Originally that package was going to come sooner, but due to some silliness with the bank, I was forced to order it at a later date. And what was that package, you ask? Why, a brand new and very shiny Playstation 3. That's right: I finally got one! I ordered it from Best Buy through a limited deal they had where you get WALL-E and LittleBigPlanet along with your system, and honestly, I couldn't be happier with the system. Well... ok, that's a lie. I could ALWAYS be happier. I'm the critical one here. Allow me to lead you along a journey through the ups and downs of the system regardless, however.

So first off, one thing that I LOVE about PSN over XBOX Live! is that not only is the service 100% free, but it's wireless and comes with an internet browser. You heard that right. PSN already has it's own version of Twitter set up (which I haven't tested out) and YouTube XL which is made to format HDTVs. It's not perfect, obviously, and it's a little blurry due to the upping of resolution, but it works like a charm, that's for sure. I can sit and stream whatever YouTube I want for hours, and it doesn't cost me anything extra. On top of that, I don't have to pay to access all the demos, free add-ons, and multiplayer gaming. It's all readily available to me off the bat. Chalk one up for the PS3.

The dashboard is the standard Playstation dashboard we've all been used to on all of Sony's products for a while now. It's clean and sleek, and I can't really complain against it. You can choose to have a theme if you want, and that one theme is similar to how the XBOX 360 is now where you'll have a singular background image and rotate through it. There are some premium themes, but the great thing about it is that you don't have to pay for the cool ones. For example, I have a Fallout 3 theme that makes my dashboard look like a PIP-Boy. It's awesome! I also have a Bioshock 2 multiplayer theme which features multiple rotating backgrounds and changes all the "Pictures" "Video" "Music" options into that quirky little character image a la the XBOX 360 Achievements, except these pictures are all meant to be the characters you play in the multiplayer mode of Bioshock 2. And it didn't cost me a dime to get! Chalk another one up for the PS3.

Speaking of Achievements, you know that we don't have those on the PS3, right? We have Trophys. They're similar yet ultimately different. You see, the main difference is that instead of having various points assigned to a Trophy, we have Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Platinum you can only get if you beat every other trophy, and the Bronze, Silver, and Gold are given out for decidedly hard goals. I'll be honest, I don't even bother to try for most trophys because a lot of them are so damn hard. For example, Fat Princess' Trophys are almost all multiplayer oriented, and considering everyone in multiplayer doesn't want to play Fat Princess (they all want to play team deathmatch), I'm not on the multiplayer. Make sense? In talking to Nate, he said that he didn't feel the procurement of Trophys are as satisfying as getting an Achievement, and I suppose that is possibly true for some people, but they're pretty much the same thing through and through. They have quirky names, they're fun to get, and they essentially make no difference in the world of gaming. I mean, it's not like you get more based on your Achievements or Trophys. Besides, some of them are absolutely hilarious. In the aforementioned Fat Princess, I got a Trophy called "The Cake Is Not A Lie!" for beating the singleplayer. That's a win right there. This one is a draw because ultimately both the Achievments and the Trophys are pointless (sorry, Nate).

As far as exclusive games go (i.e. PSN vs XBOX Live! Arcade games), the XBOX wins this one. There just really aren't a lot of games on their network I found myself interested in. I of course got Fat Princess (if only for the controversy it caused in my state, the home of the ATHF Bombings), and I got an AMAZING game called Flower. Outside of that, though, I didn't see a lot I wanted to try. On top of that, unlike with the XBOX Live! Arcade games, you can't try them out before you buy them. You either go the whole nine yards or you get nothing. There are a few games that do in fact offer demos, such as the Watchmen games, but I didn't have any real interest in those, and those are available on the XBOX anyway. The PSN does offer old PS1 games on it, but the 360 offers some of it's old library, too. I want to call it a draw because I was able to download Final Fantasy VII, which is one of the greatest games of all time, but this one is a win for the XBOX 360.

About playing old games: the backwards compatibility is an instant 360 win. No question. Unfortunately, the big wigs at Sony just don't think we want to play PS2 games, which is a lie almost as bad as the cake. The PS3 is being killed by the fact that you can't play old games on it. Sony does claim that "Some games will run," but this is an overall falsehood. For example, on Sony's online site it says that I can play Shadow of the Colossus on my PS3. Can I? No. No I can't. And that is a mega loss. Like I said, SOME old PS1 games are available for download at a reasonable cost ($9.99 +tax), such as classics like Tomb Raider, Spyro, and FF7 (which is a big big win), but ultimately the PS3 loses this round once again for the lack of availability on it's system.

So right off the bat, we have the PS3 with 2, the XBOX with 2, and one draw in the middle over Achievements vs Trophys. This is just based on what's available right away, and this doesn't take into account things as graphical powers, accessories, etc. There is no doubt that the PS3 has a better graphic capabilities, and the fact it comes with an 80 gig harddrive all on it's own is pretty great (as opposed to going out and paying out the rear end for all yours). The blu-ray player and the upscaling DVD, is pretty nice as well, and all controllers being wireless and only requiring a USB charge for a short time period is great as well. With all of these things in consideration, I'd say the PS3 gets another point, putting it ahead of the XBOX, even though I like the XBOX more.

That's important thing to note: I do like my XBOX more than I like my PS3. You know why? The over all library of games is better on the XBOX. You see, the two systems share a LOT of games. Most of the big titles, in fact. However, I've already played most of the big games on my XBOX, and all my pre-orders for upcoming titles are all on the XBOX if only for the fact that I want to be able to play with my friends. Also, all of the exclusive PS3 titles I want come out next year (DCU Online, God of War III, The Last Guardian). I played demos for all the hot PS3 titles (Killzone, Infamous, Resistance) and I wasn't impressed at all. In fact, I found all three to be rather boring and run of the mill. I ADORE LittleBigPlanet and I can't see that game EVER not being fun, but as far as exclusive, PS3 pretty much loses hands down, leaving us with a tie in the end.

Don't get me wrong: my PS3 was a great purchase. A fast blu-ray player, four amazing games, and wireless internet make me happy as a clam. I'll probably work on reviews for my games in the upcoming weeks (but if you're curious, LBP, Fat Princess and Flower are all must own games), and that's only if I can take the time I took out for this article again (it's kind of hard to not play the PS3 at all hours right now, to be honest... especially since I'm on vacation). I'll even do my best to get more games on the PS3 in order to create some more articles not centered around the XBOX. In the end, I can't honestly tell you to get one system over the other. This is something any smart reviewer will tell you, and that it's all about personal preference. Chances are, all your friends own the XBOX, so get that and a blu-ray player and you're set. Or defy them and get a PS3 and rock out on your own. It doesn't matter. They're both excellent systems, and I'm happy to own both.

Just don't buy a Wii, because that's just fucking stupid.

WAIM: August 23, 2009 - Shadow Complex Edition

I started off the week by playing a little Fable 2 (prior to the Fable 3 announcement). I started a new hero and I played a little bit of co-op (got myself some cheevos) with a friend from work. I proceeded to use the gold that I was getting from him (I was in his version of Albion) in my game to buy up the entire gypsy camp before I even left to go on my first adventure.

I dabbled in a bit of Beyond Good & Evil but I did not really make it anywhere seeing as I may have played it for a total of fifteen minutes. I think the next time I will play this game will be when I finish Batman: Arkham Asylum, which drops tomorrow.

What I have been playing most should really come as no surprise to anyone: Shadow Complex. I have played through it once and loved it but I am going to play through it at least once more before I grace the game with what will probably be a glowing review. As always I do not want to say too much that I could just say in the review but you must play this game. At the very least, give the trial a shot. The game has made me want to check out some Metroid and Castlevania games out so I'll let you know how that goes. Perhaps the Metroid games are on the DS and I know that Symphony of the Night is on XLM.

Thoughts: Fable 3 Announcement

I know that the Fable III announcement came last week after that countdown that I made such a big deal about. I then failed to make the post after the news actually dropped or on any subsequent days after that.

I was convinced that the countdown could not have been for Fable 3 because the theme did not seem right but after seeing all of the new ideas (talk about those in a second) I see that I was mistaken. I also did not think that it could be Fable 3 because games are not announced like this any longer, they are usually announced the year that they are coming out, but seeing as this game is slated for holiday of 2010 I see that I was once again mistaken.

But now actually on the the real meat of the announcement:

First we have this awesome teaser trailer:
 

And second we have the few details that Peter Molyneux carefully let drop:

• You are going to be the ruler of Albion and your decisions, now matter how grandiose or minute, will affect your entire kingdom. The story is set five decades after Fable 2 and you are your hero's (from Fable 2) child. You can be a just ruler or have your kingdom on the brink of collapse.
• There are two touted new mechanics, called Judgement and Touch, that will further the Fable 3 gameplay experience. Judgement will allow you to judge individual situations and crimes that take place in your kingdom; the system will ultimately decide what kind of kingdom you have, just or unjust. The new Touch mechanic will replace the expressions system and will finally allow your hero to interact with NPC's.

Everything sounds promising and I am happy to see that the Lionhead is going to continue to innovate their already amazing Fable series. I am looking forward to more details and you can be sure that you will find them here once I hear of them.

Adventures in Babeland - Weekly Gaming Girl Diary: August 24, 2009

Not sure how many have noticed, but I’ve been a bit absent in doing the whole weekly gaming thing for the past few weeks. My apologies, but life has taken hold of me a bit with my girlfriend moving away for college and I just haven’t had the time to get a lot of gaming in nor have the time to sit down and really write about it. This weekly gaming update will be a bit more then the past week or so and will cumulate a few weeks of gaming.

I’ve been putting in some time on quite a few games lately. I purchased Battlefield 1943 a while ago and have been sitting down and actually playing a bit over the past few weeks. There are two things I have learned during this time spent with the game; the first being that overall the game delivers and is a ton of a fun and the second being I am not very good at it. I probably average maybe 3 kills a game and when compared to the 10-15 or so that the top leaders average I’m doing a pretty piss poor job. Regardless, I’m enjoying the time I’ve spent with the game and it is definitely a load of fun. More often then not, I find myself left at the base initially without any sort of transport so I eventually get to the firefight a lot later then everyone else. Maybe my strategies suck? Maybe I’m just not that great at FPS games, but I’m still enjoying the time I’ve spent with it.

I also recently purchased three XLBA games; Castle Crashers, ‘Splosion Man and Shadow Complex. I’ve played a bit of the Castle Crasher’s demo and enjoyed it, but haven’t gotten around to playing the full version. I have spent a bit of time with ‘Splosion Man and I’m definitely enjoying it. First thing is first, that game is difficult. Haha, I typically start out any game I play on the “normal” difficulty as easy tends to be too easy and anything higher then normal tends to be too difficult for me. ‘Splosion Man may seem like a very simplistic game as there is really one only thing and one thing only you can do; explode. These explosions allow you to kill enemies and climb walls, but that is all you do. Run and explode, run and explode. Based on that simplistic premise I didn’t really know where they could go with the game, but damn they went places and they went places that are difficult. The game gets progressively more and more fast paced as you move on and had me sitting on the edge of my seat many times and induced the desire for me to throw my controller at the TV screen. I’m pretty sure the face paced action of the game also set my blood pressure into overdrive at some points. I’m not really sure how far into the game I am, I believe I’m at level 1-10 and I don’t know how far the game goes on, but I’m loving it. Definitely a game worth purchasing and definitely a game that has a lot more then it appears.

I’ve also spent a tiny bit of time playing Shadow Complex. I initially downloaded the trial because I heard so many people talking about it and I wanted to know what it was all about. I enjoyed the trial enough that I purchased the full game later that day. I haven’t had enough time to get very far into it, but so far I’m enjoying it. It’s interesting to see and play what is essentially an updated side scroller. Maybe I haven’t been playing console games long enough, but I haven’t seen a lot of updated side scrollers like this one, at least not in the sense of the art style. This game could easily be an FPS and has the generally same graphics as most FPS games, but you only have 4 options for movement; up, down, forward and backward and that’s it. I’ve gotten to, I suppose, what could be the first “boss” in the very beginning of the game. I haven’t gotten around to beating him yet, but I might take another shot at it tonight after work. Definitely enjoying my time spent with the game and would highly recommend.

One of my most recent “boxed” game purchases is Wolfenstein. I never played the original Wolfenstein games…well, I suppose that is incorrect…I played one of the very, very first versions of Wolfenstein on my parent’s old Apple IIe. I’m talking about a game with stick figures played on a black and green screen. I never played Wolfenstein 3D, but towards the end of high school I did start playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein and it quickly became my favorite FPS and most of my evenings after school and soccer practice were spent on an empty hill on a beach, with a sniper rifle clutched in my grasp, picking of Nazi’s. I continued to play the game through college and eventually stopped at some point to start devoting my free time to World of Warcraft. To this day, RtCW is my favorite FPS MP game ever. Forget Halo, forget Counter Strike…for me it’s RtCW. So needless to say, I was elated to hear iD and Raven was releasing a new title to the franchise. I picked it up on release day and have put about 30 minutes to an hour into it. Now, that’s not enough time to write a decent review of the game (which I intend on doing by the end of this week *crosses fingers*), but it was enough time to explore the world a little bit and get used to the game. So far so good, but I haven’t played enough to make a solid opinion of it. As soon as I installed it (I bought it for my PC since it was $10 cheaper, I knew none of my 360 friends would be purchasing it, it came with a $10 gift card…which I lost …and I’m much better at PC based FPS then console) I fired up the MP since the reviews for it have been relatively “meh” and that was the one thing I was most looking forward to. Unfortunately, there was barely anyone online and I didn’t get the chance to jump into a game. Hopefully since the game has been out for about a week, I’ll have better luck in the near future.

Aside from all these new games, there is my good old standby, World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten too much time to play recently due to the girlfriend moving and life being hectic. I’ve gotten my blood elf pally up to level 67 and with the release of patch 3.2, was able to purchase a new flying mount. Holy cow, having a flying mount is damn near the best thing ever. No more having to find the appropriate path to avoid mobs or having to find the appropriate path through a valley…I can just jump on my flying mount and get the f*** out of there. It’s glorious, truly glorious. If you pay any attention to the WoW universe, you’ll know that Blizzcon happened this past weekend. There are a lot of exciting things happening in the next WoW expansion and I think I might write a feature on it later this week or next. I realize this isn’t a WoW blog and there are a lot of other places out there to get a lot more information on these things, but I’ll probably put together a quick write up of what I’m most excited for. I consider myself to not be an a-typical WoW player (maybe I am?) in the sense that I don’t raid and haven’t really reached any end game content so I think I get more excited about things that people are less excited about. The main thing that makes me squee with joy is the fact that they are REDOING ALL THE OLD WORLD CONTENT, OMG! But I’ll get more into that in my feature.

I think that’s about it for my gaming activities as of late. I really need to sit down and finish Battlefield: Bad Company considering how close I am to beating it. I think I have this disease that prevents me from ever completing games. I always buy them, start them and at some point abandon them. I’m pretty sure Portal, Half Life and Bioshock are the few games that I’ve actually beaten and completed. I didn’t even beat Diablo II or the SP campaign of RtCW. That’s definitely something that needs to change.

Lionhead Studios Countdown

UPDATE: The countdown is at zero at 12.42am on Wednesday; August, 19, 2009 and on the left banner where there was previously just bullet holes, there is some blood spatter added to mix if you wait for a bit. Somehow I am disinclined to believe that this will be a Fable 3 announcement. I am beginning to believe that this is for a new IP.

A few days ago quotes from famous revolutionaries (Joan of Arc, Che Guevara) have been posted as the main splash page on Lionhead's website in the form of a countdown. As you can see to the right, there is one day left until the big announcement.

Speculation on this Joystiq's part include a Game of the Year edition of Fable 2... which would be a silly thing to have a countdown for or perhaps an early Fable 3 announcement (this is naturally what I am hoping for). Perhaps it could be the official announcement for the Milo Project which as you know from E3 involved the Project Natal camera (though this is probably not the case).

If you navigate to their site by way of the thumbs up or thumbs down buttons the left banner on the site is ridden with, what look like, bullet holes (does smoke curl from any other type of holes?). If anyone has any idea what this could be, you know where to post it. Fable 2 had guns, right? What other Lionhead projects had guns? Is this something entirely new?

WAIM: August 17, 2009 - Beyond Good & Evil Edition

Since my last WAIM (What Am I Playing) I have done nothing but play Beyond Good & Evil.

I broke out my original Xbox last Wednesday and popped in BG&E.

I suppose I do not want to talk about the game too much because I am planning another Retro Review around it. The game is great fun and I need to complete it before Shadow Complex comes out this Wednesday.

The experience of hooking up my original Xbox again was a trip to the past. It was so interesting to see the old "dashboard," if you could call it that, and I remember a time when I liked the sound of the old Xbox booting up more than the 360's boot up screen. Other than that I had to get used to the enormous Controller S which just feels awkward all around in one's hand. It is bulbous in all the wrong places and at this point I really cannot find the need for the memory card slots to be in the controller.

Monday MUpdate: BBS

ATTN: To Whom It May Concern

The weekly column known as "Monday MUpdate" has been temporarily put on hold. The reason for this is undisclosed at this time, to be revealed on a later date. We apologize for the inconvenience and lack of snarky commentary.

In the mean time, enjoy two concept art pieces from an upcoming videogame.





Sincerely,

The Management

Shadow Complex Coming This Wednesday, August 19th

Get excited! Shadow Complex is gracing XBLA with its presence this Wednesday, August 19, 2009.

I am now one hundred percent excited for the game and I am reading the novel, in preparation, that the game is based upon: Empire by Orson Scott Card.

The hype train definitely caught me because everyone is talking about this game and how they cannot wait. I had been mildly interested when it was originally announced but I had let it slip into the back of my mind until recently when review outlets started getting the review code for the game.

I have never been into the Metroid style of gameplay, which is Shadow Complex's style of gameplay, but I have noticed myself falling into new games because the story just seems too compelling to just let it slip past.

Here is the E3 trailer so that you may peruse it once again. Can-not-wait.