Yes, I'm doing this, shut up.
So, unless you've been living under a rock for the past week or so, you've probably heard of the new Dragon Age 2 demo that was released. Seeing as everyone in the video game industry has some sort of Bioware fetish ever since Baldur's Gate, not that I can particularly blame them, it is safe to say that this demo has really been the talk of the town since its release. So you know what I did? I went on Steam and I downloaded it. I was really interested, of course I planned on hating it since I hated Origins' combat system, characters, and story, but that's a rant for another day.
Upon booting up the demo I was feeling pretty cheeky about the game. I was making fun of the opening cut scene, laughing at this apparently metrosexual dwarf, and bracing myself for the disappointment. I of course chose a Warrior first, since the Rogue class bored me half to death in DA:O, and I've never found playing a Mage to be fun. The first time you actually see your character doing anything is during this combat with some Darkspawn scouts where you and your sister (if you are a melee class) or brother (if you are a mage) are basically making the Blight look like a fucking joke. Then the game starts up. Initially I am a bit surprised by the hack and slash feel of the game. In the PC version at least, you are still auto-attacking, but the attack speed is somewhere in the realm of .6 or .7 seconds between attacks, so even with this enormous sword I was just lopping off limbs left and right. The new abilities were pretty badass too, even though the only one that seemed to ever do anything was Scythe. However, I soon felt a void, a crushing feeling known as: Boredom. With a heavy sigh, my doubts confirmed I restarted as a Rogue, hopeful that their abilities would make the game fun. Luckily for me, they were twice as amazingly cool as the Warrior's things. The Rogue would jump around, do weird break-dancey spin kicks, and teleport using smoke bombs and other assorted gadgets. I was having a lot of fun with this character... until the boss came around. Just like in DA:O, the first boss was an Ogre, so I set off to work, leaving my sister, a mage, to AoE the fuck out of all of the Darkspawn that wanted to join the fight. Things seemed to be going fine until I realized something... my damage was fucking awful. Now, there weren't any hard numbers to compare between the Warrior and the Rogue, but the more I smacked the Ogre the more I realized that my tiny daggers weren't doing anything. Factoring in the Ogre's own attacks that sometimes knock you down and throw you across the battlefield, the fight took so long by the time I killed the Ogre off, watched the exact same kill animation from the first game, and was swept off to the next part of the demo, I was bored with the Rogue too. So, left with no other options I decided to try the Mage. Initially I was bored out of my skull just auto-attacking to throw fireballs out of my staff. Then I was given access to my first spell, an ice thing that I didn't bother to remember. This was fairly standard fare for WRPG Mage arsenals so I didn't give it much heed. However, as time progressed and I was given more spells to play with I suddenly realized something, something that shocked me and shook me to my core.. I was... having fun. I was actually having fun playing as a Mage in a WRPG. Even once I lost all of my spells and only had the agro reducing ability that knocked people down I was still having fun using that to throw people around, push them away or into a coming fireball, all of it was just so much fun. I ended up finishing the demo once, as the Mage. I was simply astounded by this fact, playing a Mage was actually fun for me in a WRPG.
But now we get to the actual review part, I'm lazy and have class in an hour so I'm just going to do a quick gloss over my thoughts on the mechanics.
The combat is significantly dumbed down, this is a fact that cannot be ignored. I hated the slow, tedious, often bipolar difficulty of the first game, and this is coming from a guy whose Top 3 favorite games are all JRPGs. However, even with the almost Mass Effect 2 style which they've assumed with this game, the combat is flashy and entertaining, at least as the Rogue or Mage. I think fans of the first game will be very disappointed with this shift, but it will definitely draw in a much wider market.
The story, judging from what I've seen from it, won't be good. If you thought the first game had a unique and involving story let me say this. A young person with a tragic past joins a dieing order of protectors with special powers in order to destroy an evil plaguing the world. Sound familiar? I thought so. I absolutely hated the DA:O story, and I will hate the DA2 story, I can guarantee that.
The characters are what really killed DA:O for me. I didn't give a fuck about anyone. Alistair was a cliched "pauper king" character with no depth beyond that, Morrigan was the typical brooding sociopath that really wanted to be accepted, the Dog wasn't even a character (though they'd like you to believe it was), Lelianna was every repentant with a dark past, Wynne the moralfag, Zevran the anti-moralfag, Oghren was the gruff veteran, Sten was the cultured barbarian, and Duncan was just every single mentor character from the story archetype I mentioned earlier. I hated each and every one of the possible party characters. There wasn't a single redeeming trait in any of them in my eyes. So how do you think I felt about the characters in DA2? Go on guess. I didn't like them. I really only got to see about four party members and only one of them was fleshed out in any sense, and needless to say I didn't like where it was going. Call me a hipster, but I really do hate when a game can't give you anything unique in its characters, instead it simply rehashes the mainstream stereotypes that people are comfortable with.
The setting was the last nail in the coffin of DA:O for me. Not only was I given a bland, brown, and just plain boring world to explore, I wasn't even able to explore it! No, instead I was just jumping around from sets of corridors to sets of other corridors, all covered in that crappy brown grain that the game seemed to love so much. If an RPG can't deliver me the great battle mechanics of a JRPG it had better deliver me the great exploration of a WRPG and DA:O didn't give me either, neither did the DA2 demo. Of course I shouldn't expect a full chunk of the world to explore, but the way the story was set was as a frame story, a story within a story. Exploration couldn't logically fit into that, and knowing Bioware's tendencies I don't have to worry about being wrong about that statement.
Overall: The demo was mediocre, key features were locked like certain progression trees, character designing, and even INVENTORY, but that is really just beside the point. The gameplay is radically changed to make it more accessible to the mindless, moronic gaming public who want super actiony combat and little to no real strategy beyond where to place your next AoE marker, but it was at least entertaining for half an hour. My recommendation? Download the demo, play as the mage, enjoy the spells for 30 minutes, then stop, that is all.
Cheers,
HappyPariah
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Disregard this Nerdy Rant
I feel sorry for everyone who hasn't played, at least, the main Metal Gear Solid series. It is the greatest story of our generation, powerful, emotional, and relevant. No other story has yet to make the kind of impact this game has upon me. It is a fresh, beautiful story with a psuedo-military quirkiness that only makes everything so much more believable. I've never found myself so heavily invested in a story. Then when you combine the stunning musical scores of every game: "The Best is Yet to Come", "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday", "Snake Eater", "Way to Fall", "Calling to the Night", and "Here's to You" get me every single time.
It doesn't even matter if you don't like the gameplay. I know Splinter Cell did stealth much better, but the story is unequivocal. You cannot and will not find such an emotional piece in another story, let alone video game. Games entirely driven by their story, such as Heavy Rain, while good, are still nothing compared to the Metal Gear Solid series as a whole. While the original is extremely dated... dated to the point where you can't even roll... it is still a mindblowing game with capabilities and insight far ahead of its time. Never has a story made you actually weep for a character that was in it for under one sixth of the total time. You can feel the emotion of every scene. The aftermath of the battle with Sniper Wolf, the end of Metal Gear Solid, the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the betrayal of Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3, the end of Metal Gear Solid 3, nearly every plot revelation in Metal Gear Solid 4, not to mention the epic final confrontation of Metal Gear Solid 4 in which an iconic theme from every game plays as the two combatants beat the ever living shit out of each other. Every single one of these moments brought me to tears and is forever burned upon my memory.
Bravo, Mr. Kojima. Your stories may be convoluted at times, your humor may be quirky and somewhat intrusive, but your vision has spawned the greatest game series of all time.
It doesn't even matter if you don't like the gameplay. I know Splinter Cell did stealth much better, but the story is unequivocal. You cannot and will not find such an emotional piece in another story, let alone video game. Games entirely driven by their story, such as Heavy Rain, while good, are still nothing compared to the Metal Gear Solid series as a whole. While the original is extremely dated... dated to the point where you can't even roll... it is still a mindblowing game with capabilities and insight far ahead of its time. Never has a story made you actually weep for a character that was in it for under one sixth of the total time. You can feel the emotion of every scene. The aftermath of the battle with Sniper Wolf, the end of Metal Gear Solid, the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the betrayal of Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3, the end of Metal Gear Solid 3, nearly every plot revelation in Metal Gear Solid 4, not to mention the epic final confrontation of Metal Gear Solid 4 in which an iconic theme from every game plays as the two combatants beat the ever living shit out of each other. Every single one of these moments brought me to tears and is forever burned upon my memory.
Bravo, Mr. Kojima. Your stories may be convoluted at times, your humor may be quirky and somewhat intrusive, but your vision has spawned the greatest game series of all time.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Upon the Echelons: A new favorite?!
What’s it been, two months? Sorry, I am lazy… very lazy. That’s it, no insane stories, no excuses, I was just lazy, sue me.
However, in my absence I have come across what may just be my new favorite video game, a little known JRPG by the name of Eternal Sonata.
What could possibly make this game to great as to not only challenge the Persona series for its exclusive spots in my top 3 favorite games, but to change my entire perception of how JRPG combat should work? Let me tell you.
First, the greatest thing about this game is the combat system. It works as a hybrid turn-based/real-time system similar to Valkyria Chronicles. In the beginning your characters have 5 seconds of Paused Active Time and Unlimited Tactical time, meaning so long as you do nothing your 5 seconds of Active Time will not deplete, but every action you take causes the bar to start counting down and once it reaches 0 your turn is over. As the game progresses you unlock Party Levels which begin to add restrictions in order to make battles more challenging and strategic. For example, at Party Level 2 your Active Time becomes Real-Time, once you take your first action the bar will count down regardless of if you stop, these restrictions continue to increase in intensity all the way to the end. However, to counteract this they also have bonuses from the Party Levels, such as 1.5x movement speed for party members, retaining “echoes” between battles, and the ability to chain multiple characters’ special abilities. Encounters take the visible enemy approach where you are able to see the encounters on the map as monsters and only touching them results in a battle, allowing you to skip groups of difficult enemies in favor of weaker ones, as well as lowering the ultimate attrition rate on your party’s healing items. Realistically, this game does everything about combat right, in fact, this game has spawned my new favorite combat system ever implemented into a game, the only thing I could possibly complain about is guarding, seeing as it’s the only way to significantly reduce damage taken Defense an almost worthless stat. Oh… and it’s 3 player co-operative, me and my two friends played through the entire game co-operatively, how awesome is that?
Now we get to the story of the game. I won’t go into detail explaining the story beyond it centering on 19th century Pianist and Composer Frederic Francois Chopin and his dreams as he is dying of Tuberculosis. Don’t worry, you don’t need to know anything about Chopin or music at all, there’s really only one dungeon that even mentions music in its puzzles and that is just a simple memorization puzzle. Throughout the story you will get bits of Chopin’s biography set to some of his music, giving the player insight into the portion of his life that influenced the world’s events in that chapter. It’s actually an extremely interesting portion of the game, not just to learn history or discover how the world is being shaped, but because of the music playing, doubtless you know something Chopin has written whether you know it or not, and simply discovering that he wrote it and what inspired him to write it is a truly unique experience. Also, do not be fooled by the seemingly saccharine cover, the game is mature in its story development, delving into morality, economics, politics, human society, philosophy, xenophobia, and existentialism. It is NOT an overly cheery JRPG with a “destroy the big baddy” plot.
But what about the characters? Surely a JRPG is just a crippled mass without a good cast. You’ve no worry in Eternal Sonata. Every character, except Beat the worthless runt, is colorful and deep with an at least average voice actor, plenty of character and the correct level of intensity. The cast is also varied, clocking in at 12 total playable characters (in the PS3 version) or 10 playable characters (in the 360 version).
If you are even a moderate fan of JRPGs I urge you to purchase this game immediately, it is superb, absolutely superb. I can personally guarantee that if you enjoy JRPGs this game will not disappoint you, especially if you can rope 2 others to play alongside you.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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.
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
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, October 22, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
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
Saturday, October 2, 2010
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
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
Thursday, September 23, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
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
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
Thursday, September 16, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, September 13, 2010
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.
#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.
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.
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.
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.
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
 |
| Blatant World of Warcraft clone is blatant |
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
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
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.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
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:
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:
Monday, August 30, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, August 27, 2010
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
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
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