A Second Chance for Final Fantasy 12

Recently, after coming across a "The Clash on the Big Bridge" remake in the FF12 soundtrack I decided to give it another chance, after all, that song kicks ass, who knows, maybe I was just being too hard on it.

Well, after playing it for a while now, about 30 hours in, I can honestly say that it is a much better game than I gave it credit for. Sure, the story for the first twenty hours consists of: go into dungeon, fight boss, walk outside and see ships flying above you. The "main protagonist" isn't even integral to the plot, but you can do what I did and just cut him out of the party by using three other characters.

However, I do still have some issues with the game. For one, it's a grindfest... even more so than it's predecessors. You fight through an enormous area, get to a boss, die, go grind, fight the boss again, die, grind just a little more, change a gambit or two, then win. Rinse and repeat. Also, the concept of Licenses is such metagame bullshit that I can scarcely fucking believe it. Why do I need to spend magical points that are NOT tied to experience in order to gain some intangible "license" allowing me to equip a piece of armor? Experience points fall under my suspension of disbelief, I'm willing to accept that your progress through martial prowess is measurable by a set amount of points that each victory is "worth". But license points do not fall under this suspension, what the fuck is a license grid? Is it an physical piece of paper that I have to mark off? What's to stop me from marking off every part of the grid immediately? Also, the concept of buying technicks and magicks makes no sense to me either. What does an "Aero" look like? Is it a scroll? Is it a magic orb? The prospect used in some PnP RPGs of spending XP on upgrades is understandable as well, your XP is teaching you new moves through itself, that makes sense. Spending license points does not. What the fuck are license points other than a metagame concept that was just thrown in to make up some bullshit progression system?

Whatever, Final Fantasy 12 is definitely better than I remember, but it's still not very good.

GameInformer: 2

I just got my new copy of GameInformer, while the vast majority of it is industry servicing dribble I actually found an article that I highly agree with, I know the world's about to end huh?

The article in question is: The 30 Characters who defined a decade. While I am wary to completely state the list here in case some bullshit copyright laws extend to this sort of thing I will point out a few characters that I do disagree with... since I think me being angry is funnier, correct?

#2 John Marston: While I thoroughly enjoyed Red Dead Redemption I have to say it's only been out for less than a year now, how could you honestly say with any certainty that he's been a defining part of the decade? Don't get me wrong he is an amazing character and Red Dead Redemption is a deep and emotional story, but give it some more time, he's a brand new character when compared to some of the others.

#4 Master Chief: Just... no. Just, fucking, no.

#6 Alyx Vance: I LOVE HALF-LIFE! I fucking love it. It is one of if not my favorite FPS game ever made, especially Half-Life 2. But the reasoning that she is some sort of badass that eschews the stereotype of female protagonists being little more than romantic interests isn't enough to warrant a spot here. Honestly I think this was just a gimme that the GI writers used to fill in one of like three spots they couldn't think of someone for. Honestly, I don't even find her that attractive.

#9 Loghain Mac Tir: King is dead, new ruler is placed on the throne, and in a startling twist that is completely new to RPGs and storytelling everywhere it turns out that LOGHAIN IS EVIL! -dun dun duun- Oh wait isn't that the plot to Ultima 4? And like... every dime-a-dozen fantasy novel from the 80s? Loghain isn't new or inventive, he's a copy-paste of Lord Blackthorn from Ultima 4. Except that Lord Blackthorn was a much more sinister villain. I never felt that threatened by Loghain... the article says that's what they were going for, but that doesn't really make much sense. Instead of my sympathizing with the man I just didn't care. Every time he was mentioned I kind of tuned out and waited for some more dark spawn to show up so I could slaughter them. It was the only game I ever wanted to stop pushing its villain on me.

#14 Captain John Price: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Well that's about it. I had planned on disagreeing with Kaim Argonar, but after reading their reasoning I sort of agree. So, that's all for now. Seeya.

Call of Duty: Black Ops!

Twenty bucks says it's the same fucking game as Modern Warfare 2, World at War, and Modern Warfare 1

RPGs

Remember when I said that I had some stuff planned like a Fragadacterlops: Dawn of War 2 ? Yeah well, fuck that, I don't feel like doing it anymore. Instead I will rant about RPGs.

Am I the only person who actually liked the traditional turn-based JRPG combat? It seems nowadays every fucking RPG has to be either a full-on Action game with a level/experience system or have a bastardized pseudo-turn based system. Don't get me wrong, a good Action RPG can beat out full on JRPGs on my list, the entire Kingdom Hearts series is high on my list of favorite games... except 358/2 Days, that one blew chunks, but when it's almost impossible to find a normal turn-based RPG to play I can't help but feel that  the JRPG genre is dying. Of course in the future we'll be getting magnificent releases like Persona 5, but until then I'm stuck with games like Blue Dragon for the 360, a decent RPG if only because of Akira Toriyama and Nobuo Uematsu, and the god-awful timing combat of Lost Odyssey, I loved Lost Odyssey but the combat made me cry tears of blood. Final Fantasy 13 was a great game on its own merits as well, and the combat worked fantastically, it was quick and visual while still keeping the core of the ATB in tact. People around the world need to realize that a game doesn't need to be adrenaline pumped to have a fun battle system.

To end this mini-rant I'd like to thank my new follower for deciding to join me here on "Let's Listen to a bitter Man complain that that things aren't like he wants them to be". If either of you have comments about this subject feel free to leave them, I'd love to hear what you guys think.

GameInformer Addendum

And then they have the fucking audacity to dock Amnesia .75 for "low replayability" ON A $20 INDIE GAME ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! How the fuck does a game as amazing as Amnesia lose to trash like Halo?!

GameInformer

GameInformer is the scum of the earth.

Halo: Reach gets a 9.5, meanwhile Knights of the Old Republic is getting crucified as one of the worst games made because "the characters are re-hashes of canonical Star Wars Movie characters". I'd also like to point out that they never provided any specific examples of any characters that are just rehashes. This is especially hilarious when Halo is just every PC FPS ever made prior to it on a console, yet this doesn't warrant a mention.

They also proceed to bash World of Warcraft, not that I want to defend that Lore Raping piece of shit, but they bash it for the wrong reason. They complain that the gameplay is the same as Everquest when that was released. IT'S A FUCKING MMORPG DICKWAD HOW ELSE IS THE COMBAT SUPPOSED TO BE?! Are we going to go with this bullshit that Action RPGs should be MMOs now? This shit doesn't work, lag, regardless of how good computers are nowadays, IS INEVITABLE AND IN THE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE WORLD OF MMORPGS WHEN YOU CAUSE SOMEONE TO LOSE BECAUSE OF LAG THEY WILL RAGEQUIT! Your MMO is destined to die if it uses some fancy new combat system. If you don't like the combat DON'T PLAY THE FUCKING GAME! Just because you think the combat is "old" doesn't mean it's not perfect for the genre.

Finally, the entire Pokemon series is called "the same game". Anyone with half a brain knows why this is fucking bullshit because everyone played pokemon as a kid. The new games have new little monsters to collect, new magical moves to use in their death battles, and a new cutesy continent full of happy people willing to let a 10 year old kid wander the planet training deadly monsters. THAT'S WHAT POKEMON IS! IT'S A GREAT CONCEPT WITH NEARLY FLAWLESS EXECUTION IN TERMS OF ITS COMBAT! Why does all combat have to fall under the categories of either "what you deem to be fun" or "ground breakingly amazingly new" to be acceptable?

I've been done with this magazine ever since they rated Halo ODST a 9.25
In fact they kind of lost me with the decimal rating anyway. Not to get off on another rant but what separates a 9.25 and a 9.5? Fucking seriously.

Whatever, when Halo ODST got a 9.25 they sealed their fate as the worst "gaming" magazine ever. Now they've committed atrocities so grave that the only choice is to fucking destroy them on my blog to my one follower.

By the way, welcome. Yes I noticed you. Oooh, it feels weird to know that I have an audience now.. even if it is just one person.

What I've been doing instead of making blogs

So I came across someone throwing a hissy fit in TF2 because apparently someone was kicking the shit out of them as a Soldier or something

An Update of things to come

I've been pretty dry on topics to rant about and games to complain about lately. For the most part I've been just playing Audiosurf, Dawn of War 2, and Fallout 2.

So coming up soon for Fragadacterlops you can expect a Dawn of War 2 review filled with much fanboy squeeing. I'm also going to be purchasing fraps in the next few months, hopefully I'll be able to capture some gameplay snippets for updates maybe even a full-on video review. You can also expect another RETROspective on Fallout 2 and an Angry Rant on the Fall of Final Fantasy.

So until then guys.

HappyPariah

Pariah's Angry Rant: Halo

Possibly one of my shorter rants as destroying Halo is like tearing a hole in the proverbial wet paper sack. Anyway, here we go.

Halo, it's a true phenomenon of the day. As with all phenomena, you either love it or you hate it. Guess which one I am.

Got your answer yet?.. Oh sorry I'll give you a bit more time..

I FUCKING HATE IT! I gave Halo a chance, I really did. I love Science Fiction, especially when it follows the age old formula of: Humans go into space and find bi-pedal, aerobic alien species. This species is hostile and we retaliate with a war. However it seems that the only way to win is to use genetically enhanced super-soldiers, so we do. It's fucking great and is the basis of my favorite Science Fiction series: Warhammer 40,000. However, what Warhammer did that Halo didn't is that it expanded on that base, it gave more depth to the basic story, where as Halo was content just sitting at the cliche. The Space Marines is Warhammer weren't explicitly created to defeat the aliens, in fact they were originally created to conquer Earth, or Terra as it's called in Warhammer. This gives a brand new level of possible depth for the characters just in the very framework of the story. These people were made to kill, not a foreign species, but their own species. It's even seen in the books surrounding the Horus Heresy where, during the effort to re-establish contact with and dominance over the vestiges of humanity that had been lost in the stars during a storm in the parallel reality used for long distance space travel, the Space Marines are used to slaughter several planets-worth of military forces. Without even talking about individual characters I can illustrate just how much deeper Warhammer is than Halo.

But Halo's fanbase doesn't care about stories. If they did they wouldn't be playing Halo and defending it so voraciously. Halo's gameplay is fundamentally different from almost every Warhammer game made, so I will have to abandon that comparison... in favor of one that actually fits better. Halo's gameplay is nothing more than a cut and paste Unreal Tournament or Quake engine, for consoles. Hell, I'd even venture to say that Quake 3 for the PS2 is a better game than Halo. Halo has yet to offer anything to the genre except the first decent FPS port to consoles. All it does is take worn out aspects, throw some high res textures on them and stuff them into the game.

Do you know why Halo has the level of success it does now? It's because when Halo was released the FPS genre was one that generally shied away from consoles since at the time their RAM was vastly lower than what was possible with a modern computer, and with the twitch reflexes and quick pay-off of an FPS game quick load times were essential as well as minimizing possible screen tear. Bungie simply took a, at the time, ballsy leap into the genre and was able to crank out a console FPS that did the same thing computer FPS had been doing for years. Most people, at the time, were either console or computer gamers, sure, most owned both, but few actively played video games on them both, so the console gamers were astounded by what they had been missing out on, THAT is why Bungie has such a large fanbase. So Bungie has no need to innovate, they hooked people in, and since moderate gamers, the ones who like FPS the most, have smaller amounts of gaming dollars they like to stick with a series they know, like Halo, so they just lap up every single game Bungie churns out. Bungie doesn't need to bring in more buyers, so they don't try.

THAT is why I hate Halo. It's unoriginal, uninteresting, and all around mediocre. It's not worth my money, and is not worth yours. If you want an FPS that is shallow, focused solely on multiplayer, requires minimal strategy, and offers the same mechanics Halo does, buy Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I don't play it, but at least it's gameplay isn't entirely worn out.

Free? To Play Freakout

Lord of the Rings Online has recently stated that they have released a "Free to Play" option for their Massively Multiplayer RPG. Enticed by this proposal I took a look at it. Here's what I found.

Despite this being placed in the Free to Play Freakout tag it will work more like a "Pariah's Angry Rant" for reasons you shall see.

Turbine thinks what they are doing is releasing free to play content for their "Award Winning" game in order to give people a taste of the MMO so that hopefully they'd decide to pay for it down the line. What they've done, however, is spit in the face of anyone who doesn't want to pay for their game.

Here's how a great, successful, Free to Play MMO works: They offer full content access to ALL players. Make an account and you can access every single bit of content in the world. Then, add a cash shop, similar to what you can find on most Korean MMOs. Stock the cash shop with different buffs that give the payers certain advantages, such as increased EXP gain, or a faster mount. (Of course not something like a new class or equipment or stat boosts, that breaks the game). There, you've got a great base for an MMO that, if it's fun of course, will make you money and make you lots of fans who will WANT to pay you money.

What you DO NOT DO is this: Grant free players access to most zones, however, only give them quests in the first three that will take them to about level 25. Give them limited chat, crafting, storage, inventory, money cap, support, no permanent mount, etc. Instead have three levels of players: Free, Premium, and VIP. To get Premium, force them to purchase something from the store, whether it be points or actual content. Then to get VIP force them to pay A SUBSCRIPTION FOR YOUR FREE TO PLAY GAME.

If you don't see whats wrong with this then you are part of the problem. This game is not "Free to Play" it's "Free to Test" it's little more than an extended trial version. Turbine would be making so much more money if they'd follow the guidelines I set in the first paragraph, not only that, they'd have a much larger and more loyal fanbase. At the moment, they are offering Free to Play quality content for a Premium price. While there may be some Turbine sycophants out there, as there always is, that doesn't change the fact that this game is an insult to anyone who came there looking for a Free to Play game.

I am frankly infuriated that this is how it turned out. I had been eagerly awaiting the Free to Play release of LotRO as I don't currently have the means to support an MMO subscription, and this really felt like a slap to the face. Like they were some soup kitchen chef who looked out at all the hungry faces awaiting food, then as each person came by for their share they kicked them in the shins and gave them a few drops of soup. It's unacceptable that they think they can get away with this.

I wouldn't really be so upset about this if the game was better, if it was a game with the production quality and polish of something like World of Warcraft then I wouldn't be able to bash it so hard. But it's not, the combat is crude and clunky, everything feels swampy and delayed like you are walking waist deep in mud, and the crafting is restrictive, forcing you to take a set of three instead of giving you a choice of what you want. So if you were hoping to get Tailoring, Foresting, and Armorsmithing, for whatever reason, too bad, you're fucked. Then there's Turbine, which has become my new symbol for everything that is wrong with MMOs nowadays.

That's all for this hybridization of Free to Play Freakout and Pariah's Angry Rants, hope you enjoyed it

HappyPariah

The First Ever, Pariah's Musing

It's time for the first ever actual Pariah's Musing. I mentioned in my mission statement that I'd do some personal topics for my own sake, and I plan to do this solely for my own sake. I will not archive these musings, so if you want to keep certain ones, be sure to bookmark the page or take note of which day I posted it.

The subject of the first ever Pariah's Musing will be life, and the most difficult stage of it. Many people contest that the most difficult part of someone's life is the middle years, around 30-40, where you are settling your life down, building a family, and beginning your own homestead, I however, throw my lot in with the group that says the most difficult time in a person's life is their late teens, from about 17-24. Why is this? For a few simple reasons. While you are in school, sure it sucks and sure it's restrictive, but you get your time to live. You can truly enjoy everything. Meanwhile, at around the time you graduate from high school you are suddenly bum rushed by all sorts of things. While previously you had just talked about what colleges you are getting into, you are now faced with the realization that this means you will be separated. You are forced away from the people who mean the most to you and thrust into a new environment. Or you are left behind and feel useless, while all of your friends are attending college, you, for one reason or another, are not, and aren't necessarily pressured by your parents, but you feel pressured by your own mind, to find a job, simply so you aren't the only person sitting at home every day. Or you scramble desperately to find what you are truly meant to do in life. Or, you are like me, someone who is stuck in the middle of it all, only somewhat sure what you will aspire to be, yet confronted with the brunt of the whole thing as you observe the lives of the people you treasure most being subjected to these crises. The responsible people in this age zone are scrambling to find their place in the world, trying to carve out their own niche while not losing their sanity to the machinations of the world. When you throw in a disdain for the very society you are being forcibly integrated with, as is the case with me, you get inner turmoil unseen in the heart of any other age group. My views are so radical and unaccepted that my natural instinct is to rebel, however, I NEED to conform and work my way out of the norm, if I'll ever maintain my sanity.

My friend is moving away in a few days. Of course it's not as though I will never see him again, that is the magic of the internet, and he's really only moving all of 45 minutes away. But it's just the simple fact that in the normal workings of the day, every time me and my other friends spend time together, he won't be there. Our quartet has been shaved to a trio. The worst part is that it's only the beginning. In approximately four to six years I plan to have my degree and the job I want the most. In approximately four to six years a friend will be in school learning to become a nurse. In approximately four to six years a friend will be moving to Japan to begin his career as a teacher. In approximately four to six years a friend will be in the Army. I, having the job I've wanted, will be moved to Sweden. We will be scattered across the globe. We won't be able to spend time together at all. All of our light-hearted banter and well meaning quips will be distant memories. Of course we will always have the internet, I cannot begin to thank modern technology enough, but it's simply not the same. Even in a video chat room, we won't be able to sit around the local mall and complain about how boring the area is, we won't be able to sit in a house and realize we forgot the dice for a game of Dungeons and Dragons, only to find some contrived game buried deep within our hard drives to give a test run, we won't be able to see each other face to face. My friend moving marks the beginning of something every tight knit group of friends swears up and down will never happen, we are falling apart. While it's going to happen slowly at first, it will eventually cycle forward almost in the blink of an eye and we'll be separated. While it may seem a lazy thing to say, it is actually difficult to stay in contact over such large distances, especially considering one of us will be in the military. The three civilians will be stuck in radically different time zones. With the smallest difference being something like 8 hours.

However, I will end on a positive note, if a possibly foolishly optimistic one. While all of these things are true, I have actual confidence in my friendship with my friends. I'm not a confident person, I'm a sheepish, timid, submissive person. I rarely take confidence in anything, especially my own personal life. But I am confident that my and my friends have what it takes to keep in contact, because... we have nothing else. Our bonds have been tempered by the closeness we have for each other now.

That's it for the first ever Pariah's Musings.

Top Ten List: The Most Epic Battle Themes

Welcome to another Top Ten list. As always, this is my opinion, so if you think that your favorites are way better than mine, kindly shut your trap and enjoy my list. I will grading these themes upon just basic epicness. What is "epicness" well it's how incredible I think a song is. That's pretty much it... just a list of my ten favorite battle themes.







#10- The Seal is Broken for "Blue Dragon"
The first in a large chunk of Nobuo Uematsu songs. Honestly, Nobuo is my favorite composer no one can match how epic he makes his songs. Sure, other composers can have him beat on other aspects of a good song, but none have ever stuck with me better than some of Nobuo's greatest. The Seal is Broken is the final boss music for the XBox360 game "Blue Dragon" and it's definitely one of his best.


#9- I'll Face Myself for "Persona 4"
The first in another large chunk, but this is by composer Shoji Meguro. Shoji is a composer of equal skill to Nobuo, however their specialties differ. While Nobuo is able to make intense and memorable fight songs, Shoji's are usually lack-luster, however, Shoji's skill to make normal music that conveys an overlying tone such as "Edge of Madness" for Persona 4 is absolutely awe-inspiring. However, I'll Face Myself is a two in a million shot, you'll see why "two" later, for Shoji, showing that he can in fact make great battle music. I'll Face Myself is the normal boss music for Persona 4.


#8- Dante Battle for "Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne"
Another song from Shoji Meguro, however, not all of the credit can go to him, as he had two other composers working on the music with him. It really shows in this song, you can definitely feel Shoji's hand in this piece, but it also gives off the same air of epic that comes from Nobuo, if at a much smaller degree.


#7- Dancing Mad for "Final Fantasy 6 / Dissidia: Final Fantasy"
Another Nobuo song, I think I'm developing a pattern here. Anyway, Dancing Mad is a spectacular example of how great music from the SNES can be, and how it can trump songs from modern games entirely. Dancing Mad is essentially two songs, one is about 8 minutes in length the other is about 6, and they play during the final gauntlet of bosses in Final Fantasy 6. The song I will provide is the Dissidia remake of the music that plays when you actually fight Kefka, the final boss.


 #6- The Decisive Battle for "Final Fantasy 5 / Dissidia"
Yet another Nobuo song, this time it's Exdeath's final boss theme. There's really not much left to say here, I've already said it all before.

Welcome to another Top Ten list. As always, this is my opinion, so if you think that your favorites are way better than mine, kindly shut your trap and enjoy my list. I will grading these themes upon just basic epicness. What is "epicness" well it's how incredible I think a song is. That's pretty much it... just a list of my ten favorite battle themes.


#5- Clash on the Big Bridge for "Final Fantasy 5"
Again, Nobuo, again amazing.


#4- Otherworld for "Final Fantasy 10"
I absolutely hate Final Fantasy 10. Everything about Tidus pisses me off. Yuna is a stupid floozy. Lulu finds something to love in Wakka. Wakka is, to quote Peppy, "hawribble!". Rikku is... kinda hot, but still annoying. Kimahri is one dimensional and entirely useless in the game. Auron is the one character I don't want to strangle, he's actually kind of cool... if only Square had decided that his much more interesting story was worthy of the spotlight and not that Meg Ryan dead ringer. However, if one good thing did come out of Final Fantasy 10, it's this song, Nobuo's death rattle before slipping into obscurity to work on games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.


#3- The Darkness of Eternity for "Final Fantasy 9"
Again, I don't have much to say.


#2- The Battle for Everyone's Souls for "Persona 3"
This is the shining example of how to make a calm, yet epic boss theme. Shoji really outdid himself with this song.


And now, for the Number One most epic boss theme in any game ever.

#1- Howl of the Departed for "Lost Odyssey"
This song. I can't even begin to describe it. I get chills every time I hear it. I'm ashamed to say that I abandoned Lost Odyssey long before I got to this song and was devastated when I came across it later. It's absolutely breath taking. Nobuo's greatest work, and the greatest work for any battle theme ever.

Free To Play Freakout: Allods Online

Sorry about the lack of updates, I really haven't had much to write about, even now this is a bit forced. I am really looking for a bit of content to put out for now, so I had to force this one out of the planning stages before I had completely developed my opinion. Hopefully it'll still be entertaining, however.

Blatant World of Warcraft clone is blatant

When playing Allods Online, the first thing you'll notice is: This looks a lot like World of Warcraft. Of course it's to be expected that with the success of World of Warcraft that there would be clones popping up among some of the more shameless big name companies and the smaller ones just trying to make a name for themselves. The game plays almost exactly like World of Warcraft, so if you've played even the trial of WoW you'll feel right at home... with one distinct exception.

Graphics: What an odd place to start this review. Well, right after you notice how similar everything is to WoW you will then notice: Gawdam! This is beautiful. This game is among the best free to play has to offer in terms of graphics. Taking a look at the screen shots shows just how much time was put into just creating the scenery. While up close it might seem a bit bland in a largely unchanging area such as a forest, when you take a look off the sides of the floating islands the game is set on you can't help but feel awestruck by the beauty of it all. I sat for about ten minutes just staring out into the void of nothingness in the first quest zone you arrive at. In addition the animation was surprisingly fluid, if a bit repetitive, and is even said to be fully motion captured. That being said, all of this really does play into the whole World of Warcraft rip-off feel of the entire thing. Honestly, I would expect more originality from the developers of Heroes of Might and Magic 5, especially with the $12 million budget, the largest video game budget ever in Russia, it's developing country. Especially considering it has Gala-Net behind it, one of the largest free to play MMO publishers out there. Allods gets a 6/10 for Graphics. The scape is simply breathtaking, however the minute details are dated and boring.

Fantastic

Sound: Again, a very strange placement in the review for this particular piece. Allods prides itself on it's development quality. Stating in it's information page several times how reputed it's developers are, particularly the inclusion of Mark Morgan, a musician who has worked on Dexter, Fallouts 1 and 2, and Planescape: Torment. Honestly though, none of the music really stuck with me. I played this game only a few minutes prior to beginning this review and cannot remember a single tune. That's very disappointing given how fantastic the music for the Fallout games were. At the very least the town music should stick in your head. I remember playing Fallout for the first time, the very first time I heard "Trader's Life" I knew it would stick with me and it has. To this day "Trader's Life" is still one of my favorite examples of ambiance in a game. Unfortunately, the same holds true for the combat sounds in Allods. Sometimes after charging a spell and then holding it for the next encounter I'd get no sound after firing it. In addition, the melee fighting sound is very minimalistic presenting very little to pull you into the mood. Allods gets a 3/10 for Sound. A horribly disappointing turn.

What the fuck is this thing?

Gameplay: Here we get to the meat of the game. Of course, the game can have all of the stupendous graphics it wants, but if it's not fun to play then who gives a fuck, right? Let me just say this. If you've played World of Warcraft, you've played Allods. There are the basic archetypes: Fighter, Ranger, Mage, and Cleric/Healer, and each seems to be different from the others with a decent amount of interesting skills for each of them. The crafting system in the game works more like a mini-game than in games like World of Warcraft, a refreshing change of pace. The game is said to be a spiritual successor to Rage of Mages, a game the developers had previously worked on. Having never even heard of Rage of Mages I can't confirm or deny this claim, but I don't think that even really matters. The game functions exactly like World of Warcraft with one tiny.. or major rather, difference. You cannot change the key bindings. I'm sorry but this really makes me angry. Especially when the developers decided that "A" and "D" in the normal "WASD" set up shouldn't be to rotate, but to strafe. Having played World of Warcraft since launch, only recently ending my account for good, this took a very very long time to get used to. I still mess up most of the time when trying to move. I don't understand what is so difficult about letting me change my bindings to set strafe to a different key.
Now, as per Free To Play law this game must have one huge hook factor that sets it apart and ahead of others. That hook comes in the form of The Astral, a supposedly enormous sea of nothingness in which numerous "Allods", basically islands that give a huge 'fuck you' to physics, float. I've not been able to reach the necessary level to explore this area as it also requires a very hefty sum of cash, and I really don't have the time to test out every aspect of every game I feature on this segment. According to the site a group of six players can man a flying ship and search The Astral to find Allods containing treasures and monsters, giant demons they must fight, and even enemy ships they can fight against, board, and subsequently pirate. This seems like a very interesting proposal, if a bit irritating that someone much more powerful than you can simply steal everything you won and, I'm guessing, destroy your ship in the process.
Allods gets a 7/10 for Gameplay. While it may just be World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft was magnificently executed and this game chose well in it's quest to rip-off a much more popular one. However, I am still angry about Key bindings.

The obligatory Elf race of Allods

Community: Allods is a unique game, at least to my knowledge, in that it's a Free To Play MMO that has a community with the mentality of a Pay To Play. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference between chat in WoW and chat in Allods, it was spectacular. You get your classic MMO spread: The normal players who are looking for a good time, the hardcore elitists progressing through end game while being determined to make a name for themselves, the general assholes who like to be assholes for no reason, and everything else you could imagine. But.. everyone is so nice. I was really amazed at how well interactions went. Almost every question was answered, given of course there was someone around to answer it, in a timely and respectful manner. A nice change of pace from games like Gunz or some of the more infamous WoW servers, I'm looking at you Destromath. The guilds are friendly and seem to be real COMMUNITIES, something a lot of MMOs and players forget in the pursuit of being "hardcore". The service team even has interviews with popular and up-and-coming guilds and guild masters, showing how much they really care about the community. Allods gets a 9/10 for Community, while it does have some minor nagging issues that are of so little consequence that I didn't even mention them, this will become my example of how great an MMO community can be.

Support: Gala-Net did well, partnering with GPotato for the release of Allods. GPotato is a very large company that hosts several MMOs. Due to this the game gets great support all around. The team working on content and maintenance is also very clean and professional. As I've said before it really feels like the developers are proud of this game and promote the community in any way they can. However, the updates are slow, as can be expected from a Free To Play, but with the amount of people working on it, being free to play is little excuse. Allods gets a 5/10 for Support, amazing in it's developers fervor, but not excessive enough to warrant a higher score.

Overall: Allods gets a 6/10 overall. It is definitely one of the better Free To Play MMOs. The graphics, gameplay, and community really make this game what it is, while the sound and support are it's weaker links. If those two aspects can be brought up to par with the rest of the game then it could rival even it's inspiration, WoW.

That's all for this entry in Free To Play Freakout

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Birth By Sleep: A word for Developers

Bullshit attacks that easily chain into combos of spamming the same attack or that catch you and hit you multiple times but are also insanely difficult to dodge ARE NOT VALID SUBSTITUTES FOR DIFFICULTY. I love Kingdom Hearts and will most likely end up loving Birth By Sleep when I am done with it, but let it be known, this game has some of the most frustrating bosses I've ever had to fight in an Action RPG or video game for that matter.

Themes for your day: A shitty one at that

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been preoccupied with some certain things... not that anyone actually reads these, but I still feel that there is a necessity for a formal apologetic tone here.

It's time for another "Themes for your day", once again these will be based off of events in my day

Waking Up:


Forced to babysit:


Waiting to go out:


Finally out:


A bit of DnD:

Pariah's Angry Rants: The Focus on the Community and a new crash?

This will be a divergence from my normal style of ranting... of spewing for a bunch of reasons why I hate things. Today will be more of an opinion piece about where video gaming is going and what I see in the future.

Take a walk down the street nowadays, chances are most people you see will own some sort of video game console. If you ask them their opinion on the status of the industry I can assure you again, most of them will say that it's a fairly healthy industry. However, there's the off-chance you might get one who has actively thought about it, one who has taken a good hard look at the path video gaming is going down. Now, the first person you've found, the one who mentions that it's healthy, they are the sheep. The ones who have been blindfolded and led down a path of ever increasing mediocrity. The second person you've found, they are a true gamer. They understand that quality cannot be eschewed forever. That games cannot simply throw together a 4 hour campaign with six levels that have some minor differences and enemy variation with a story that sounds as though a brain-dead howler monkey thought it up. But where did it all start?

If we look back in the past video games had stayed a fairly underground medium until around the Sixth Generation where it became almost a social abnormality to not play video games. It was in this sixth generation that microsoft took it's first steps into the video game industry with the release of their Xbox a revolutionary console that placed focus on the community through the use of it's integrated XboxLive support. Now, this in and of itself is not anything bad, in fact, being able to connect to others on a community from a console is actually a very good thing. However, with it came games that had easy access to online play for their titles thanks to XboxLive. This is where the problem starts. Games such as Halo pioneered the notion that a single player campaign can be an oversight in lieu of a, supposedly, badass multiplayer experience. This is the problem. This degeneration led to an overarching feeling of a reduced need for single player focus or even effort put into creating it.  In reality most of the blame falls to the consumer when it comes to the trend away from single player. But they aren't the only culprit. In an issue this great they couldn't be.

Our next culprit is: Marketing. Market research has shown that regardless of how good your game is, if it's not marketed constantly then it doesn't sell as much as other more marketed games do. This has led many gaming companies to spend their ever increasing budget of tens of millions of dollars on marketing their games over actually play testing and making the games fun and worth their pricetags. It goes back to the greed of the companies attempting to exploit the gaming industry to line their pockets.

Now we come to the final point. What I believe is going to happen to gaming, and, honestly, what I hope. Gaming will continue as is for another two to three years, until it gets to the point that even the common gamers, the sheep, realize what is going on and rebel thus resulting in a second crash. Companies will go bankrupt, massive ones such as Microsoft and Sony will attempt to cut their running bills and end long term services or hike the prices up massively. Then an even darker age of gaming will descend where almost nothing is made and only the hardcore fans of certain games continue. I, myself, will be unaffected by this as the majority of my enjoyment doesn't come from new games anymore, as is the case for some others. However, many young people or "cutting edge" adrenaline junkies who focus on the yearly release of Call of Duty will be driven away by the high prices. Then, after another year or two of this Dark Age a shining knight will appear, the proverbial NES to our crash, and drag us out with a brave new leap into the video gaming industry and it will be reborn with a renewed emphasis on the gamer and quality.

Hopefully this is the future, hopefully in 5 years the gaming industry can have quality as it did back in the early 90s.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

PS. As far as MMOs are concerned I feel they are truly the perfect specimen to view when it comes to how to deal with games that want to focus on multiplayer, as I've no inherent problem with games that focus on the community. Build a game that is fun to play first and foremost, one that can stand on it's single player game, THEN incorporate the multiplayer aspects.

Capture Card Woes

Hello folks HappyPariah here to give you guys a short update. I'm currently in the process of acquiring a capture card for recording video from my game systems for use on this blog and on YouTube. But I'm having a bit of trouble obtaining one that works for what I need. The internet isn't a source I am able to use in this endeavor, yet no store near me has been stocked with one that still takes A/V cables, it's all firewire and HDMI. Hopefully I will find one soon so that I can get to work on my first Let's Play project: Let's Play Persona 4.

While I am having trouble obtaining this capture card I figured I'd let you know about my plans for Let's Play Persona 4. Basically I am going to record myself doing my fourth run of Persona 4, I'd like to make it semi-interactive and have viewers choose which social links I max out or something, but realistically... I have no viewers and if the maybe one or two that stumble across the video haven't played it they won't know what person I can increase links with. So it's going to be an RPG Let's Play in a vein similar to HCBailly where I will attempt to entertain you with witty jokes and references during the game.

Not really much else to say, I guess I'll talk to you guys later.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

The Nice Guy's Guide to Failing at Love

Hello hello viewers and welcome to a HappyPariah's sure-fire guide! Today's subject: How to be a Nice Guy and Fail at Love!

Well the first thing you have to realize is that: it's not hard. 98% of Girls and young women have an ingrained view what they want from a lover. They feel that "Nice Guys" are stagnant, that "Nice Guys" will "lie" to them and subdue their own true opinions in order to avoid conflict. A girl or young woman has a subconscious grading scale in their mind that automatically scans a man as he approaches her. If the man doesn't match preconceived notions of "Badass" or "Mysterious" then she instantly writes them off as being "Boring". So, here's what you must do my fine, fish faced friend.

First: Be completely yourself. As a nice guy this should be easy as holding up a world-changing lie for the purpose of prolonging a relationship is already a sentiment you deem much too volatile and not worth the work. So whatever you do, do not act like someone else or someone you think the person might take interest in. Be entirely you. Next, compliment the woman or girl, but do it in a natural way, don't just walk up and say "Hey babe, you're hot." Work it into a conversation and make it flow through your dialogue. Girls don't like to think in relationships. Therefor the blunter you are with your compliments the more they'll understand and immediately flock to you. So be complicated.

Y'know what I can't do this shit anymore, it's way to complicated. Writing a parody article about how to fail at love as a nice guy by having every example of how to act being an actual example of a way to succeed is way too confusing so I'll just degenerate into a rant here.

What the fuck is up with young women and girls these days? Honestly, they are so concerned with "mysterious" men or people they think will make the relationship "fun and exciting" through "spontaneity" that they blind themselves to the people truly worth their time: The Nice Guys. Y'know that saying "Nice Guys Finish Last"? It's fuckin' true in todays society. It appalls me. I've no clue where they get this shit, THIS IS A WORD FOR WORD QUOTE I'VE RECEIVED ON THE TOPIC OF NICE GUYS: "nice guys r... well nice... lol... but their just boring and let the girls they like walk all over them without standing up for themselfs" That quote required several face-desks to erase from my working memory. Basically the point made was that nice guys are nice (no duh fuckwit), but they are boring (...uhm why?), and suck up to their love (no... fucking... duh). I'm frankly astounded by this tomfoolery. I don't understand how nice guys are boring! Is it because they'd prefer a date to follow something like this: a pleasant dinner from a chain restaurant, nothing horribly fancy, but still a quality establishment, followed by a stroll along some attraction of amusement such as: A pier, mall, carnival, etc. Or even a peaceful place where the two could be alone to spend simple time with each other like a beach, or plain, or knoll, or anywhere involving natural beauty and peace, then ending in a heartfelt discussion or in earlier dating stages personal discussion? Is that it? Is that "boring? Would you prefer your date to be: dinner from a fast food restaurant, sitting around their house kissing each other for god knows how long until one of his friends drops by to invite him to some shitty concert which he then invites you to? (That's not to say that physical displays of affection are undesirable, on the contrary, a nice guy's perfect date often includes an extended period of physical contact, just not sucking each others' face for forty minutes, or to say that concerts are not viable date destinations, a band that both parties enjoy could always be a great date). HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND WHY NICE GUYS ARE BORING?

The message of this rant is: Nice Guys, keep doing what you're doing, at about 27 women understand how shallow relationships with "spontaneous" guys are and desperately seek you and your stability out, by then you've got the pick of the litter and have probably already found the girl of your dreams. Girls and Young Women, stop being so idiotic, spontaneity might seem "fun and exciting" but it's really all just the same thing, you need to see Nice Guys for what they really are, the perfect specimens for true, lasting, stable, relationships.

Cheers, HappyPariah

PS. No pictures today because I am lazy and pissed off

Themes for your Day

This segment was inspired by a friend of mine over at Otakufyurlife.blogspot.com. He deals with anime in along the same format that I deal with video games.

I recently purchased Persona 3 Portable and have thus been swept back into my Persona craze. So today's themes of the day will all be by composer Shoji Meguro.

Waking Up:



Off to school:



Sitting in Philosophy:



Back to home:



Sitting at home:



Failure to do anything meaningful today:



Back to bed:



Hope you guys enjoy this awesome music. I basically just set the songs to what I'm going to be doing today, since I am tired at the moment and don't really care to think up a more general series of events.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Pariah's Angry Rants: Counter-Cultures and their place in Society

Remember what I said back in my mission statement all the way back in the first post? Not everything I am going to be posting will be for entertainment purposes. Some of my posts are going to just be personal rants involving issues I am faced with in the world... or things that particularly piss me off. Today it's a sort of mixture of both involving Counter-Cultures and what they have come to symbolize in society.

A great example of some more elaborate steampunk attire

First we must define what a Counter-Culture is. Ask anyone who knows me, I hate hippies. I am absolutely appalled by them, everything they stand for, and their unbelievably lazy disposition all around. However, I have to give hippies credit, at the time, they were the first, and only, Counter-Culture. They rebelled against the societal norms. They did drugs, some of which were legal at the time, such as LSD, but that's beside the point, they had free and open sex outside of the confines of marriage, they sat around and did nothing with their lives, they fought back against Society and, probably their only good legacy, inspired almost every Counter-Culture to come afterwards. Therefore, we can define a Counter-Culture to be any Culture that knowingly and purposely rebels against the preconceived normalities in Society. Their purpose is to make people uncomfortable, they are there to make people think, to get their attention, and to question a fundamental problem they perceive in the world. Even some of the so called "Shallow" Counter-Cultures such as Steam/Cyberpunk are actually a call to the world to look at them in their odd clothing, to force Society to confront someone who is truly who they are inside, and to question themselves: "Who am I to tell them that is wrong?"

Possibly the most insipid, pretentious show on air

 
The Counter-Culture I will be dealing with most today will be Goth as it is what spurred this blog. Today I was released from class early and returned home while my mother was still on lunch break. She was watching a show on some channel I didn't bother to check named "What Not to Wear". On this show someone's friends send in pictures and videos of the person in what they perceive as "horrific" or "unacceptable" clothing then the show's two hosts go and "help" the person become more "fashionable". The episode that was airing concerned a girl who wore semi-goth clothing. Generally her outfit consisted of a black dress and colored tights, long songs, or fishnet stockings. While I would agree with the statement that it is sometimes better to have a slightly diverse wardrobe, I find absolutely nothing wrong with the outfits she is shown in prior to her "transformation". As the show progresses the girl mentions that she isn't goth despite how many times the hosts continue to call her goth. However, all of that is beside the point. What is the point is how these two perceived "fashion gurus" bash on the goth culture. I remember a quote from the female host where she says and I quote "Goth went out of style fifteen years ago." As if it were a mere passing fad that had no cultural relevance or meaning. Goth, while it may have been hijacked over the years by emos and scene and turned into something little more than a music genre, actually stood for something upon it's inception. Goth was the beginning of the "dress up" branch of Counter-Cultures. They are the progenitors of the notion: Force people to deal with it, force them to question why they believe it is wrong to dress like this. While Goth as a counter-culture may have lost it's push or point over the years it did the same thing that hippies did, it inspired further Counter-Cultures. Goth gave way to two of the most well-known Counter-Cultures: Steampunk and Cyberpunk. While steampunk is more easily recognized because of it's emphasis on the Victorian Era, both Steam and Cyberpunk have worked the same angle early Goth did.

Where do gamers fit into this? Well TRUE gaming can itself be seen as a Counter-Culture. When I talk about TRUE gaming I am talking of the pen and paper RPGs. As the sixth-generation video game systems, PS2, Gamecube, and X-Box, all brought video games to the forefront and eventually under the umbrella of accepted society. The outcasts who continue to this day with true Dungeons and Dragons and Rogue Trader and Call of Cthulhu and Iron Kingdoms they are their own Counter-Culture, but more of an underground one, conducted mostly on the internet. They rebel, as so may have before them, and after them, against the oppressive normality that we are all forced to live under every single day of our lives. That we are forced to bow  down to or be removed from the workings of Society. Those Happy Pariahs, they rebel against the bullshit and the preconceived notions with manuals and d20s in hand. They are warriors, fighting against oppression that most of the world doesn't even acknowledge, they just twiddle their thumbs, suppress their objections, and bow down. We do not, we will not.

That's all for today, HappyPariah

Pariah's Angry Rants: Gamers with a Vagina

Let me begin by saying that there are three distinct archetypes of female gamers. There is: The 1/2 Gamer (generally an anime fan who likes to pass some time with a JRPG or two, their lineage can be traced to the genesis of the PlayStationX), the Holy Grail (a true gamer, she enjoys everything from strategy heavy video games to table top games into Dungeons and Dragons and other pen and paper RPGs), and the Gamer Girl (basically every 13 year old adrenaline junky who thinks Call of Duty is the best series ever, comments on the deep story of Gears of War, and takes the "holier than thou" stance when dealing with "nerds"... but without a penis). This rant will focus on the last one, the scum pit of the entire planet, the Gamer Girls.

If there is anything I hate in the world it's people who think they are better than someone else for some arbitrary reason. Gamer Girls exhibit this in quantities that rival that of hipsters, something I never though possible, until I became better acquainted with the nightmare of Gamer Girls. You see, Gamer Girls operate on the same frequency as normal bitchy girls, but instead of turning their bitchiness towards a boyfriend, they feel the need to exert it on everyone they come across in a video game. The Gamer Girl will continually gripe and moan about how she's hit on in a video game or treated differently in a video game just because she is a girl. However, when she kills a boy she will whip up a one man shitstorm and start bashing on the guy that just got killed by a girl. What a motherfucking double standard. Then they go on to gloat and rant about how they are a girl who plays "video games" (as I hardly consider Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc. video games) only to bitch even more when they are called out on being a girl.

This atrocity began around 2001 with the release of the x-box. My theory behind the reason that the X-Box began this relies on two factors: 1) The X-Box was the first American video game console thus it was marketed specifically to Americans... the adrenaline junky, overly competitive, xenophobic ones that refused to buy a Japanese system. and 2) It was the first system with integrated online support, thus the genesis of games made solely for the online modes *coughcoughhalocallofdutygearsofwarcoughcough*. With this came the archetype that everyone outside of it hates: The adrenaline junky who thinks he's a legitimate gamer. It only made sense that such a widely encompassing archetype would eventually include both sexes.

An example of this monstrosity in it's environment... it fucking sickens me

 

I'm not a proponent of sexual discrimination when it comes to video games, the thought that girls should only play "girl games" and leave the FPS to the "men". I think that EVERYONE who plays these games regularly have some problem and need to go out and purchase a brain. They are really just sheep mindlessly being herded to the next game in the series without thinking, following the trend because "video games are cool now".

That's enough angry ranting for now. Now it's time for me to make myself happy again, and talk about the true Female Gamers, the Holy Grails. The Holy Grails can trace their lineage back to the days of the genesis of male gamers, back to the beginning. The True Female Gamers, they enjoy the thinking mans' games. They enjoy RPGs, RTSs, certain fighting games, retro games (true retro games, not fucking PSX), pen and paper RPGs, they enjoy TRUE ROLE PLAYING, none of this Oblivion bullshit. They are called the Holy Grail because, for one reason or another, there aren't many of them at all. The older games and the prospect of Role Playing doesn't really appeal to women as much as it does to men. So if any of you true gamers, you thinking men, you masters of the BlazBlue, you Final Fantasyholics, you Dungeon Masters or Dungeon Delvers, you LARPers ever happen upon one of these rare specimens realize this: You have hit the jackpot with this, you'll most likely never find one again. Treat them right, treat them like they wanted to be treated, like a gamer, just like you.

That's all for today guys. Cheers,

HappyPariah

DnD Update: On the Road to Brittania

Hey hey, folks HappyPariah here with another DnD Update.

Today we pick up where we left off last time. Archer is infiltrating the depths of the former Elven Stronghold of Traymosil. As he makes his way along the winding path that scales the entirety of the inside of the tree he finds no sign of any of the orcs that were supposed to be there. He returns to the group and they enter. However, their presence, and loud armor, alerts a patrol from far above. The group defeats the patrol and move up into an armory where Elijah finds a locked door that he opens using his Sound Burst spell to shatter the lock. Inside the group finds a book written in Elven and a small model ship. The group packs the items away and then continue. At the very top of the tree the party comes upon a pile of orc corpses and a single enormous orc in robes holding a staff. Elijah rushes forward only to be stopped by two orc zombies which are reduced to dust in no time. After a long fight with the orc necromancer, the group continues into a dining hall where they see the Elven Traitor and an Orc Boss. Elijah goes after the traitor while the others fight the Boss. The group defeats the Boss after an epic battle. Meanwhile, Elijah corners the Traitor, who reveals himself to be Elijah's father.  He explains that he didn't want Elijah growing up among the Elves, that they were overly indulgent and the only way he knew to stop them was to aid the orcs in their means. His father had helped the orc necromancer gain the strength he needed to fully resurrect Elijah's mother who had perished during child birth. Elijah would hear none of it and captured his father to turn over to the Elf survivors to punish as they saw fit. He told no one that the traitor was his father.

After leaving the forest of Elijah's past the group happened upon a boy laying on the road wrapped in a robe. Half of the boy's body was horribly burned. They took him into the shade of the trees and Elijah attempted to heal him, the boy's scars retreated into his eye and then they tied him to a tree. Fearing for his life the boy used his powers as an illusionist to send part of the group on a wild goose chase, ending in them accidentally tying two illusions to the same tree he was on, allowing him to slip out after they had disappeared. He was captured by Lohenngrin, the team's pet Pseudodragon and it's poisonous sting. Afterwards he was tied upside down and explained that his name was Artyom. The group attempted to beat information out of him but ultimately ended up cutting him loose. Artyom fell, but his hands and legs were still bound so he landed on his head and broke his neck. However, after he broke his neck the bindings on his hands and legs fell off, as if they were cut a while before that. As the group slept, Elijah, needing no sleep, kept watch on Artyom's body. Eventually the corpse stood up and asked Elijah to heal him. After some banter between a groggy Roland and Elijah, Elijah did heal his neck. But then the group threw him into a sack, leaving his head out to breathe, and tied him to their donkey named, Sir Gawain, who wears magical donkey boots that make it impossible for him to ever fall over. The next day the group let Artyom go, and he runs off into the forest.

The party then finds themselves at a small town. They are warned by the guard to leave immediately, but they refuse and get a room at the inn. After eating some extremely spicy food Archer opens the window and suddenly everyone but him and Elijah fall asleep. Elijah and Archer are then stuffed into bags and everyone is abducted. They find themselves shackled to each other and trees in front of a large altar. They are surrounded by people in robes. Samanosuke is the first to be taken up to the altar. Just as he is about to be sacrificed four figures in robes carrying large ceremonial weapons approach and the villagers run in fear. A fifth appears and tears Samanosuke off of the altar, dragging him off as the other four do the same with the rest of the party. After they had gotten sufficiently far away the four figures disappear, but the one with Samanosuke reveals itself to be Artyom who says to Samanosuke that they are even. As he walks off Roland asks Artyom to join them, as his skills would be of great use to them. Artyom agrees and, after a long and embarrassing stint through the town, involving criminal charges, brain aneurysms, and stakeouts, the group eventually decides to leave, as they are unable to root out the cultists. As they come upon a crossroad a caravan is passing by and the leader asks where they came from. Elijah mumbles something about the town with the cultists. The man looks around and says that there's no town near here. Artyom starts to laugh triumphantly, they had fallen for his trick again.

Afterwards they find themselves at the portal to the island of Brittania, Arturia's homeland, where her father was killed for advocating her Knighthood. Roland works with Arturia to make her look like a man then the group continues passed the outpost and into Brittania. On the other side they find a customs building that takes census of the group entering then sends them on carriage to the nearest city, a large one famous for it's markets. Elijah purchases 5 healing potions while Roland and Samanosuke attempt to swindle people out of their money buy tricking them into fighting Samanosuke. After the first challenger is defeated everyone shies away. The group returns to an inn, purchases a room, and goes to sleep, thus ending the exploits for the day.

And here is where we have left it. I hope you enjoyed this DnD Update. Next time we'll be avenging Arturia's father, and maybe even beginning our search for a crew to man our new boat.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Upon The Echelons: Persona 4

Welcome to, yet another, new segment entitled: Upon The Echelons. Upon The Echelons will be my only entirely positive segment, and is more to spread the word about games that are absolutely breath-taking, yet have an embarrassingly small following.

Today's subject, hands down, my favorite RPG, possibly even my favorite video game of all time: Persona 4.

The Cover Art of the greatest RPG ever made

Well that's a tall claim you say, "greatest RPG ever made" that can surely only be a matter of opinion right? Absolutely not. To entirely understand what puts Persona, as a series, higher than most other RPGs right off the bat is the system. You are playing a role. You have control over what your character says and how he spends his time, within reasonable constraints of course. That's not to say it's horrifically open, like Oblivion. There is structure, the Persona series, 3&4 actually, perfectly balances the freedom and structure to make you actually able to play the role of a high school student. You are able to join clubs, make friends from said clubs, get a part time job, hang out with your friends, get a girlfriend, and many other things that I will explain later.

The main cast, oh come on this isn't a spoiler they're on the cover!

Where Persona 4 really shines is in the combat system. It works off a traditional turn-based battle system wherein every character gets one turn then every enemy gets one turn. However, as per every RPG ever made ever, enemies have a certain weakness, whether it be fire or ice or physical attacks etc, and whenever an enemy, or even one of your own characters is hit with an element they are weak to, it grants the opponent one half of a turn, meaning that they get one more action, but that action cannot grant another half-turn for weaknesses. Each character does battle using a manifestation of their true-self, or a Persona. Each character is stuck with their Persona as it is technically them, however, the main character, which you are able to name, but is canonically named Seta, has the gift of the Wild Card, allowing him to capture "Shadows" and turn them into Personas by defeating them in combat.

The story, while a bit basic on the surface is actually a very deep and involving one. The cast investigates a rash of bizarre murders which always end in the corpse of the victim being hung, upside down, from an almost inaccessible tall object, such as a television antenna or power lines.

The cast of characters is varied and interesting. No two characters are the same, yet they all work with such synergy that it's truly astounding. They are able to balance serious lines of dialogue, dramatic scenes, and humorous quips. The voice actors do a good job as well, conveying the personality of these characters with great talent.

Now we come to the best, absolutely BEST part of Persona 4, the music. Composer Shoji Meguro is an absolute GOD on par with such legends as Nobuo Uematsu. Every song fits perfectly with the scene, the battle music is fast paced, upbeat, and intense, boss battles feel that much more epic with "I'll Face Myself" blasting in the background, humorous scenes are relaxing and tranquil. Everything about this game's soundtrack is simply FANTASTIC. Oh and the best part, the game comes with a copy of the full soundtrack. Yep, 24 songs straight from the game, for free.

Persona 4 earns it's perfect 10/10 from me. There is absolutely nothing about this game I did not love. I've already played through it twice, and will be starting my third play through as soon as my friend is done with it. If you are an RPG fan and you haven't played this, shame on you! Get out there! Find it! Buy it! You won't regret it! If you aren't an RPG fan... why are you reading this blog? Oh yes... I forgot I don't do exclusively RPG entries... okay, if you aren't an RPG fan I can forgive it, but at least listen to the music, it's absolutely fantastic.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Free To Play Freakout: Gunz the Duel

Welcome to the first segment of "Free To Play Freakout", where I will break down downloadable free to play games and give you my personal view on them.

Today's subject is: Gunz the Duel, a third person action game similar to games like Counterstrike, wherein you connect to a server and play solely online competitive games, with the exception of one cooperative game mode.

Now, in order to facilitate a fair air between games that will be featured on Free To Play Freakout, I will use a universal grading method factoring in universally accepted points of a good game, namely: Graphics, Sound(including music), Gameplay, Community, and Support.

Graphics: Gunz is a fairly old game, which explains their distinct lack of high resolution textures or... rather any identifiable effort put into the graphics. They aren't horrible, there is definitely far worse, but they are far from anything spectacular, or even noteworthy. There's really not too much I can say in this part, the graphics are just so mediocre. Gunz gets a 4/10 for Graphics.

Sound: The music is definitely one point where Gunz shows a bit of a strength. The music, while somewhat bland if you play it for a very long time, is definitely something that deserves mention. It is varied between the different maps and does it's job, it fills in the silence with something that isn't horrible to listen to, but also goes a step beyond, making some of the tracks even enjoyable. Gunz gets a 6/10 for Sound.

Gameplay: Gunz is a unique online game in that it grants you powers similar to gun-fu style action movies. Your character can vault off walls, run along walls, climb using their melee weapon, and do all sorts of other ridiculous stunts. These moves, while somewhat difficult to pull off in the heat of combat are definitely fun and can make combat look spectacular. However, the problem comes when you factor in the weapons you actually get to use. The progression is... linear... very very linear. Sure, you can blow a ton of cash and buy a heavy weapon like a rocket launcher or light machine gun, but they are completely superfluous and generally end in you never using them after their gimmicks are played out. The only real interesting gear is purchased for real money, something that really pisses me off. Gunz gets a 5/10 for Gameplay, the moves are cool, but the weapons are seriously lacking.

Community: The Gunz community is fairly active, yet not that friendly. Most clans are simply zerg inviters, inviting everyone who is not already in a clan. The community is a huge problem for this game and is worth a simple 3/10. There's nothing else to say.

Support: The Support category refers specifically to the developers support of the game. Gunz sits right in the middle of the road for this one, just as it does with most everything else. Since it's part of a large company, ijji, it gets significant technical support and new cash shop releases, as well as Moderator run events and those sort of things. I'll have to give Gunz a 5/10 for Support.

Overall: 4/10 Gunz is a decent game, it's somewhat fun to play and can be a good way to kill an hour or two with some friends, but the community as well as the linear weapon progression without spending real money really pulls this game down.

That's all for the first Free To Play Freakout

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Fragadacterlops: Team Fortess 2

Another day, another new segment, Fragadacterlops. This will be a segment where I talk about competitive online games such as today's subject, Team Fortress 2. This will probably end up being a more news oriented segment as I don't really play online games like this very much so all I'll really have to talk about is Team Fortress 2.

Odds are if you are an even moderate online gamer you've heard of Team Fortress 2. A game that has not only earned several awards but is also one of the rare instances of a "Love it or Hate it" game that does actually win awards. You see, there is no moderate Team Fortress fan. You're hardcore, or you're not a fan, as simple as that.

An illustration of one of the most famous snippets of voice acting from the game

But what is it? What is it that makes Team Fortress such an addicting game? Is it the cartoonish graphics? The online playability? The dark and often parodying humor? Or it is something else? Join me as we delve into Team Fortress 2 on the first ever Fragadacterlops!

The logo and cast of Team Fortress 2, from left to right: Pyro, Engineer, Spy, Heavy, Sniper, Scout, Soldier, Demoman, Medic

First of all, what is Team Fortress 2? It's a competitive first person shooter where two teams compete against each other to complete objectives. Generally one team will be on offense while the other is on defense, but some times the game mode requires both teams to both attack and defend or be a simple no-respawn death match. The players have the choice between nine unique player classes divided into three categories: Defense, Offense, and Support. This brings me to my first possibility for why Team Fortress 2 is so popular: The characters. You see, every class in the game isn't just a separate load out, Valve has taken the time to make every class it's own character with a personality, back story, and set of running jokes. For example the Spy's catch phrase is, while widely debated, generally considered to be "YES! And now he's here to FUCK US!" As per the "Meet the Spy" video made by Valve. On top of the sense of individuality that each class has as characters each plays significantly different from another. No one in their right mind would play a Demoman the same way you'd play another defense class like a Heavy. The amount of diversity is certainly a great point in favor of Team Fortress 2.

Next we'll touch on the online play. After all, a game can have brilliant characters, but if you can't play it, or it's boring, what's the point right? Team Fortress 2 is a game like Counterstrike in which you connect to the Team Fortress 2 servers which in turn give you a list of games currently in play, you choose one, then connect to it. So long as your computer can handle the graphics and your internet connection isn't terrible, this game will run perfectly. I've never once had trouble with connection or lag, unless of course my internet went down during a game, but that's my ISP's fault. The community is large and extremely active, churning out new maps at a very quick pace. However, that does bring up one problem with the game's community. It had a lot of elitist ass-holes, as most games do, but easily 25% of the game's community is this way. They are either the super elitists who believe that everyone else is the reason you lost the last match, or they are the people that think that Achievements gauge your skill and thus use illegal Achievement Farming servers to earn all that they can. This doesn't detract from the game too much, provided you don't mind muting a few people during gameplay.

Overall, Team Fortress 2 is a simply astounding game. I have never played an FPS more continually fun than it. I play this game easily ten hours a week, and coming from me, the RPG fanatic, that's saying a lot. Team Fortress 2 gets a 9/10 on my Real Scale. Remember, on the Real Scale a 5/10 is average, making TF2s 9/10 an excellent game. I'd suggest that anyone who is looking for a unique online FPS experience pick it up for PC... because the console version sucks.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

By the way, if anyone would like to add me on STEAM, my account name is Apolan

RETROspective: Final Fantasy 9

Final Fantasy, what more is there to say? Square Soft has a veritable track record of making amazing installments to this series... except for Final Fantasy 12... and Final Fantasy 10... and Final Fantasy 8... and Final Fantasy 10-2... and Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance... and Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core... and Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus...

No one is really sure why Final Fantasy 10 deserved a sequel over, say, Final Fantasy 6

What was I saying again? Oh yeah, Final Fantasy is a series that has constantly plagued it's devoted fanboys, such as myself, by hooking them in with superb games from the past, such as Final Fantasies 4 and 6, then dropping the ball after Seven with the god-awful and idiotically confusing Eight. However, it was apparent, for a time at least, that Square really did care about their fans as was made apparent by the release of Final Fantasy Nine. Nine dropped the whole cyberpunk and pseudo-futuristic settings in lieu of the more traditional Medieval Fantasy mixed with a little steampunk. Nine follows the monkey-tailed thief named Zidane and his traveling opera group / thievery ring, Tantalus. As the game starts up Zidane is treated to a briefing about kidnapping the Princess of Alexandria, Princess Garnet, during one of the groups' plays. However the plan goes awry and the group's airship crash lands in a forest safely outside of Alexandrian territory. From here the player controls the group as it makes it's way around the continent, visiting several colorful and interesting villages, towns, and cities along the way.

While the story of Final Fantasy Nine is pretty basic in it's essence, bad guy wants to destroy the world you want to stop him, it's the characters and the delivery and the subtle details that really makes this game shine, just as it did in Final Fantasy 6. Every character is humorous and likable, without being completely pointless, the depth and complexity of even the least developed of characters, such as Steiner, surpasses that of the main protagonist of some stories, I'm looking at you Squall.

Zidane Tribal, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy 9

But, a great story can only carry you so far right? After all, what good is a story if the game is frustratingly unplayable? Well good news! Final Fantasy Nine eschews all of the drawing magic crap in favor of a simple, yet very effective way of earning your abilities and spells. In FF9 a character has five slots of equipment: A weapon (for attack damage), a hat (for magic defense), an arm item (bracelet or shield for physical evade), a chest item (for physical defense), and an accessory (for spcial effects). As I have illustrated, not only is every slot unique from another, but what I didn't mention is that every piece of equipment you put on grants you abilities to use. For example a Mage Masher for Zidane might teach him Flee-Gil. So long as he has that Mage Masher equipped he will always be able to use that ability. However, while you have items equipped you earn Ability Points and every Ability has a Mastery Level, once you earn enough Ability Points to reach that Mastery Level, you will permanently learn that ability.

However, no game is perfect, and Final Fantasy 9 is FAR from being an exception. The most common complaint is the battle system itself. I am a hardcore turn-based fan so slow gameplay never really makes me irritated or discourage about a game. However, Final Fantasy 9's ATB is so horrendously slow, that a pure turn-based style where-in everyone takes one turn each to the enemies' one turn each would actually SPEED UP the gameplay. There are large patches of combat where no one is doing anything, the boss just sits there, and all of your characters just sit there. This makes the ability "Auto-Haste", an ability which automatically casts haste on the character that equips it, haste causes the ATB to fill twice as fast, almost essential for the later bosses who have equivalents in their list of eternal status effects.

However, the few flaws that can be found in Final Fantasy 9, and the large flaw of the battle system, do not detract enough from it for it to be disqualified as a great game. I give Final Fantasy 9 an 8/10 on my Real Scale, making it a Great Game. If you enjoy RPGs and you own an original PlayStation or the PlayStation2 you must go out and get this game, you will not regret it.

DnD Update: Pariah's DMing Failures

Welcome to another segment concerning my exploits in Dungeons and Dragons, aptly named DnD Update until I can think of a more snazzy name, pretty original huh?

I think since this is the first DnD Update I should start by describing our cast of characters before explaining what is happening.
First up is my character, Thorax the Dwarf Barbarian. He was excommunicated from his clan for breaking a sworn oath, he lived on his own for a long while, developing skills as a woodsman and hunter.
Next is Roland Durendall a human Marshal. Roland was born to a village of dragon worshipers and has always been a charismatic and likable person, which is likely the reason he is our leader.
Then we have Arturia Dragonbane. She is a human Fighter from the island of Brittania that left her homeland once Knighthood was denied to her based upon her gender. She is also the lover of Roland.
Next we come to Elijah Lightbane the elven Cleric. When Elijah was young his village was attacked by a warband of Orcs and most of his village was killed. Somehow he escaped and was raised by humans, thus his mannerisms and general attitude reflects humans much more than elves.
Our fifth member is Samanosuke Rylechi the human Monk. Samanosuke is from the eastern continent of the world but came to the west in search of his own path, as he has rejected the path of the solitary monk. His relationship with his master has been strenuous since his defection.
Lastly, is Archer the half-drow Soul Knife. Archer was a merchant who had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in an oasis village in the middle of a desert. When the group first met him they purchased some lightning lizards from him to aid a Shield Mage whose guardians had been ravaged by the desert winds.

Okay now we can get into what is currently going on.

After aiding Thorax to regain his place within his clan through diplomacy with the nearby Frost Giant kingdom, the group finds themselves heading south to the forest of Elijah's past. They were initially side-tracked when psycho-reactive spores from odd mushrooms caused them to hallucinate, but eventually they found their way to a refuge for the survivors of the attack. Even after all of this time the survivors were still as ragged as if they had been attacked yesterday. One elf called simply "Elder" told them the story of how the village fell due to a traitor allowing the Orcs access to the elf's greatest achievement, an impenetrable fortress magically built into a living tree. Elijah swore to bring the traitor to justice and to retake his people's land. The group was given a magical seed that was said to allow them entrance into the Traymosil, the Impenetrable Tree Fortress. Upon arrival to the base of the tree, Roland suggested that Archer, being the most dexterous and stealthy of the team, should scout inside of the tree. This is where the group now sits, awaiting the arrival of Archer's reports.

I hope you all enjoyed this little update, I know it had a lot of build-up to such a small update, but I really feel it was necessary to understand the different characters before I just started spewing out events to you.

Cheers,

HappyPariah