Init_Games

Played: Baking Life (Facebook)

2012-01-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

Reporting on the games I've played

Note: As of January 31, 2012, Baking Life has gone off-line and is no longer in development.

Casual social gaming has seen a meteoric rise in popularity over the past few years, especially with the rise of social networks like Facebook and the development of "new" mobile phones in the era of iOS and Android. One of the most popular forms of social gaming is the simulation game, like FarmVille, which is extremely popular on Facebook and I've had many friends try to coax me into playing. However, I've been pretty wary of the time commitments involved in playing these games, no matter how simple they seem, so I avoided them for a while.

Then PopCap Games, the maker of several puzzle and strategy games I enjoy (Plants Vs. Zombies, Zuma, Bejeweled, Peggle) purchased the company that made the simulation game, Baking Life. With PopCap pushing this game, I decided to see what drove so many friends to play these games and give Baking Life a shot. For the most part, after achieving a very high level, I wasn't particularly impressed, but I can definitely see the appeal.

The conceit of the game is that you own a little bakery and you need to bake stuff to sell to customers to make money to improve your bakery to bake more stuff to sell to more customers at greater cost so you can... you get the idea. There's not too much more to the game than there as there is really no end to the game. As you bake you will gain experience to gain levels which will let you bake a larger variety of baked goods which vary in selling price, cooking time and amount of servings. With the money you earn, you can buy different items to improve the variety of goods you can sell at once, sell coffee, and handle more guests.

The social aspect comes in that you can invite your friends to work for you for free (as your store grows you will need to hire more employees who take a cut of your profits) and friends can send you gifts from free servings of food to decorations for your store to components that you need to build or upgrade some of the equipment in your store. The more friends you have playing the more free stuff you can get. All that stuff and money comes in handy because the nicer looking your store, the more money you can earn per sale.

The gameplay is pretty dry and mechanical otherwise. You can be kept on your toes because you have to take your products out of ovens before they burn and the quicker baking recipes, but it's generally the compulsion to buy newer and fancier stuff for your store that's going to drive you and the game resembles Animal Crossing as a result. Oh, it's also a freemium game, and so you can actually spend real money in the game (well, Facebook credits) to buy premium items or upgrade your store without needing a certain number of friends to join. There is a method of getting the "Zip cash" used to buy premium items for free, but you don't get much and it takes a long time, so the game puts the pressure on you to pay up if you want a really nice store.

Presentation wise, the game has bright, bold and colorful flash graphics with a lot of variety when it comes to how you can dress up your store and different seasonal and holiday items available at appropriate times of year. While the game can chug a little on slower machines, overall, it's still not a hugely taxing game. The game has music, but after listening to it for a good long while, I got tired of it and turned it off. I also wanted to turn off the sound effects too, as they are kind of loud and without internal controls to adjust volume, but I sometimes needed the heads up when a baked good was done, so I usually kept it on, to some amount of frustration.

Overall, after the initial expansion and spiffing up my store, the lack of any real development in the game left me quite tired of the game, although I did keep playing to reach the self-driven goal of baking every recipe in the game once. I also didn't appreciate how earnest the game was about trying to get you to spam your friends into playing it and spam your Facebook wall with posts about it. So, while the game might have been a little interesting at first, it's very limited in dimension and hardly interactive in a meaningful way. However, the game's colorful graphics and ability to build your store as you see fit would probably be a draw for more expressive players who love to customize things and don't mind dry repetitive tasks to do so. But that's certainly not going to be enough to impress me and the frustrating social and freemium aspects of the game took a lot away from its limited enjoyment.

This might mean I'm simply the wrong type of gamer for these social simulation games and my problem isn't with Baking Life in particular, but the entire model of business. So, PopCap Games or no, I can't endorse Baking Life (or any of its similarly oriented social simulation competitors, especially those that encourage spamming). There is a segment of the population that will enjoy this, but I'm not it. 4/10.

Links:

Game Facebook

Progress Report: World of Warcraft - The Hinterlands

2012-01-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

Reporting on games as I play them

The Hinterlands lies just north of the Arathi Highlands and is the next area that Eastern Kingdoms questers will encounter. The Hinterlands was particularly less visited before the Shattering as those questing in the Eastern Kingdoms would get breadcrumb quests down to Stranglethorn Vale after completing Arathi Highlands, so it's a zone that I had little experience with, except during holidays when I would run up there to take care of whatever meaningless tasks I needed for the achievements. Although the revamp of the zone does improve its accessibility and flow, like the Highlands before it, it doesn't really have an interesting story or memorable moments and proves to be a rather dry experience.

The basic story in the Hinterlands is about trolls, especially if you're Horde as you align yourself with the Revantusk trolls as well as a group of Forsaken who are both battling the Vilebranch trolls. Along the way you do a lot of random killing and fetching for the locals and that's about it. There is a bit of story sprinkled into the region as the trolls in their huge temples are trying to call down the spider goddess, Shadra, and that's about the most interesting the region gets.

The problem with this is, that like the Horde presence in the Highlands, there's just nothing really compelling about what's going on in the Hinterlands, nor any connection between what questers experienced in the Highlands and what they experience in the Hinterlands, making it all seem even more like a bunch of randomly assembled quests. At least the conflict between the Horde and Alliance in the region (via their Wildhammer dwarf and Revantusk troll proxies) is actually seen a little, but for a contested zone, the Alliance and Horde are surprisingly at peace.

At least the zone doesn't feature any group quests as those made the rather dead zones of Hillsbrad Foothills and Arathi Highlands difficult to complete. However the Hinterlands does contain a rare world-drop quest that completionists might tear their hair out while trying to acquire, killing everything in the zone perhaps five times over to find. Although the final fight of the zone is mildly interesting, overall, the Hinterlands is much like the Arathi Highlands in terms of lacking flavor and story and is not a compelling experience. On the plus side, when you're done, you get sent right into a much more dynamic experience in the Western Plaguelands.

Links:

Game website

Zone Index:

Inbox: Munchkin 3 - Clerical Errors

2012-01-28T12:36:00.000-08:00

New for me

So far, expansions to the Munchkin game haven't been particularly innovative, adding to the bulk of the cards without adding new mechanics. However, the expansions do work well to keep things fresh and some of the additions do add further strategic considerations. Clerical Errors largely continues that so Munchkin lovers who are just looking for a standard expansion will find it a good second expansion to add to their game.

The advertised "new" items to Clerical Errors is both a new race, Gnomes, and a new class, Bards. Overall, both are fairly powerful additions to the game and should give players more options in terms of the race and class they'd like to be. Because of the amount of addition the game makes, a number of new versions of old cards are also added to keep the ratios in the game appropriate. I don't know how successful it is as in our plays through the game we've encountered some uneven distribution of cards here and there, but that might simply be on account of the luck of the draw.

The sense of comedy in Clerical Errors is still pretty amusing, frequently making puns "Tequila Mockingbird" or fun of fantasy conventions "Chainmail Bikini" and the illustrations are modestly amusing too. Sometimes we did find that our hands were bloated with items we couldn't use because of the specificity of class and race, but again, that might just be a matter of the luck of the draw.

Overall, Clerical Errors is a decent addition to the game. It doesn't really add anything new, but some of the cards added (especially many of the new curses) do add some spark to the way that the game is played and it's all done with good fun in mind. Even though it won't add dimension, Clerical Errors is still good for those wanting to add some more options to their Munchkin game. 7/10.

Links:

Game website
Available at Amazon

Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Arathi Highlands

2011-10-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

Reporting on games as I play them

Arathi Highlands is the first contested zone that an Eastern Kingdoms Horde quest-taker will encounter, meaning that Horde and Alliance players of the 25-30 level range could really start encountering each other here. That "could" is a critical word, as during my brief time in the zone, I scarcely saw a single player of equivalent level running around it doing quests, seeing more higher level players digging around the troll campsite for archaeology finds. After playing through the zone, I could see why.

Arathi Highlands was originally a pretty boring affair. As a member of the Horde, you fought some remnants of the Syndicate, some ogres and their troll friends, some Alliance holdouts in castle Stromgarde and eventually captured a legendary sword, eventually dropping back in much later to awaken a resting titanic princess to kill. Oh and there were some pirates in the bay that needed your help.

None of that has changed. Sure there's another Horde outpost so you don't have to travel quite as far to turn in your quests, but while there has been some minor story development, Arathi Highlands would be the first of the Eastern Kingdoms zones that you could handily say was boring. First of all, the fact that there are Syndicate quests remaining is just silly, especially without the context of the Alterac Mountains and their Syndicate problem no longer explained. They're now just some random dudes without any real story. The ogres and trolls also just come across as random dudes to kill. The whole Stromgarde situation is just as ridiculous now as it was then with three opposing factions in very close quarters not fighting each other. And while I do appreciate that the ancient evil no longer requires a lot of backtracking and hunting down rare elites with wide paths and coming back from the Badlands, I also think that it's just not that interesting.

The only thing mildly amusing about the highlands is the brief section with the pirates and that's just a mild amusement. It's not a bad area to do some trade skill grinding with a good amount of ore in the hills and lots of beasties for leather and cooking, but there's nothing really resembling an interesting story to drive a quest-taker forward. A mild revamp to the zone doesn't make it any more interesting or better. When a Horde player is done, at least they get an easy free ride to Hinterlands, which was previously a very obnoxiously difficult zone to get to the starting quest village of.

Links:

Game website

Zone Index:

Inbox:Replay: Final Fantasy

2011-10-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Revisiting past games I've recently acquired

Final Fantasy was my second great RPG love, showing up on the Nintendo Entertainment System some short time after I had spent countless hours playing Dragon Warrior, also for that system. And while I've played through Dragon Warrior only once, I've played through Final Fantasy a few times, including my most recent spin via the 20th Anniversary Playstation Portable edition.

Although I have to say, as far as RPGs go, the original Final Fantasy has not aged gracefully, the PSP edition (the iPhone also has a similar edition with touch controls) does polish up the graphics to the prettiest that I've ever seen and contains all the improvements added in the Final Fantasy Origins collection for the Playstation and Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls for Game Boy Advance. In addition to the pretty new 2D graphics and effects, the PSP and iPhone editions also get a bonus dungeon, on top of the four bonus dungeons added to Dawn of Souls. But the maps, the monsters, and the script is all left intact, minus the changes for the new dungeons.

Overall, many of the changes since its NES incarnation are quite good. First of all, the game is far less buggy than the original and all the spells and classes actually do something. In the original, the Thief was a useless paperweight of a character until he got upgraded into a Ninja, now he actually does solid physical damage, even if he still gets hit pretty hard. A number of spells that used to do nothing (Lock) now have an actual ingame effect too. Furthermore, there were some gameplay enhancements drawn from later Final Fantasy games that smooth this new edition, including automatic retargeting of attacks if the creature has died and the switch to MP instead of the limited number of casts per spell level, which highly discouraged casting.

And although the script has improved since the original translation, resulting in a more natural and less confusing read, the story is still the same. Fortunately, Final Fantasy is gifted with a more interesting story than "save the princess, save the world", although it includes both, having a bit of callback to the first boss fight in the final dungeon and boss, it's still a rather straightforward and undramatic affair. Fortunately, the absolute need to grind has been somewhat reduced, although you will still need to beat up creatures for their lunch money if you want to buy good gear and magic, but despite the high encounter rate, in keeping with the original, it still moves much faster than I remember. The bonus dungeons themselves are rather tedious and don't really add much to the story, just rooms filled with loot and nasty nasty creatures and while going through them makes the final dungeon notably easier, there's really nothing else compelling about them, even with some of the trickery in them.

Final Fantasy is a bit of a relic. You still can see the traces of its influence all over the design of Japanese style RPGs and could be said to be more influential than its predecessor in Dragon Warrior. However, it lacks the kind of dramatic story that later RPGs were able to create and so it feels a lot like a dungeon crawler as a result. This results in what can be quite a tedious play through for gamers who did not grow up with these old designs, made even more tedious for 100% completists due to the lengthy grindfests that compose the bonus dungeons. However, for fans of the original, this is perhaps the smoothest ride through the game yet and if you've never completed the game and want to give it another shot, the PSP and iPhone editions are the prettiest, shiniest, newest versions out there, full of enhancements and fixes. For old-school RPG fans only. 7/10.

Links:

Game website
Available at Amazon and iTunes

Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Hillsbrad Foothills

2011-07-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

Hillbrad Foothills begins on a comedic note, giving players a nice reprieve from the high dramatics that closed out Silverpine Forest. And yet, no matter how silly the initial quest is, which places you in the position of being a quest-giver to three exaggerated "player" archetypes, what might have been a disposable quest recurs in future quests, including a surprising quest chain that ends up poignant. That's right, WoW somehow takes a comedic beat from what could be a throwaway quest and develops it into a rather poignant story.

Otherwise, questing in Hillsbrad Foothills is rather straightforward, with you typical kill/fetch quests leading up to mini-events. There are about three of these moments overall and the middle one is the aforementioned poignant one--I really love how Blizzard created an actual character to connect with, no matter how briefly. In terms of the overall look of the zone, the Forsaken have clearly made their inroads, blowing up Southshore, which has become a slimy cesspool and Hillsbrad. In Hillsbrad, you are actually given an interesting moral choice, which doesn't really affect the game and I found that interesting as well.

Unfortunately, the zone doesn't end with an epic sweeping story like Silverpine Forest, instead it ends a touch on a goofy side, which still includes a dose of personality, but doesn't really draw you into any greater story. Furthermore, the Alterac Mountains get incorporated into Hillsbrad Foothills, but there is no quest chain that goes up there, despite having NPCs placed up there--it seems like those plans were abandoned. This leaves a giant mini-zone completely without purpose and seems like a bit of a loss for the character of the zone, because it is one of the few Horde friendly snow-covered areas in the game.

Also in line with the goofy nature of the zone is the inclusion of a Plants vs. Zombies game, affectionately nicknamed "Lawn of the Dead" included in the zone, which rewards an item appropriate for players questing in the area, but scaling monetary and experience rewards for all players. Unfortunately, there is no breadcrumb quest to send anyone out there, so it feels a little disconnected from the zone, despite the fact that, based on its item rewards and characters, it should have been led to fairly early in the zone.

I suppose a nice change of pace like Hillsbrad Foothills goofiness is a plus after the epic Silverpine Forest and it does contain at least some strong flavor thanks to the continuing story that opens up the zone, but after Silverpine, it can feel like a touch of a letdown, especially when you consider the now meaningless Alterac Mountains. The other difficult factor is that there is a bunch of group quests in the area, most of which cannot be beaten solo, even when they are deemed beneath a character and since the area, like most lower level areas, is barren, getting a group together to beat the bosses can be quite difficult. More so than actually beating the bosses should you find a group. Still, in the end, I enjoyed the zone's variety and the goofiness did enliven the area enough to keep it fun. When all is said and done, a very basic breadcrumb quest leading players to the Arathi Highlands, which was a rather boring zone before the Shattering of the original World of Warcraft.

Links:

Game website

Zone Index:

Inbox:Hardware: Munchkin - Boxes of Holding

2011-05-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

While I do love me some Munchkin for its chaotic multiplayer fun, I admit that it's rather chaotic when it comes to storage. It's a lot of cards and they can get quite shuffled about and messed up in the original box that it came in, especially with the Door and Treasure cards getting mixed up. The easy solution, of course, is to get a pair of simple cardboard card boxes or, alternatively, fancier deck boxes that exist for trading card games.

Steve Jackson games actually deals with this problem too, by releasing its very own pair of deck boxes to hold all your Munchkin cards, separated into Door and Treasure boxes. These aren't actually significantly different from regular old cardboard card boxes, actually, being made of cardboard themselves, but they are printed all over with Munchkin graphics and come with a pair of exclusive bonus cards as well. For the high asking price of $9.99 that's really not that great of a deal. However, the glossy printing is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than a plain white or brown cardbox box with "Munchkin" scrawled in permanent ink on it and the bonus cards are nice too.

Still, for what you get, it's not that great of a deal. But a must for fans. 6/10.

Links:

Game website
Available at Amazon

Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Silverpine Forest

2011-04-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

When you reach the end of the quests in Tirisfal Glades, a breadcrumb quest leads you onto Silverpine Forest where the undead Forsaken are engaged in combat with Worgan (werewolves) that you encountered in a brief quest in Tirisfal Glades. So far, I have to say that Silverpine Forest is one of the most interesting zones that I've encountered in World of Warcraft, epic in feel with some real storytelling and in-depth exploration of lore and area (re)design.

One of the ways that the area draws you in immediately is as you enter the zone, you are greeted by Forsaken troops marching along the main road, ettins hauling troops to the battlefront with the Worgen and other ettins hauling the (permanently) dead back. And then you encounter none other than Sylvanus Windrunner, the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken and she ends up speaking with none other than the Horde Warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. Story is revealed in a number of short cutscenes and the story of the zone is principally about the Forsaken's dominance in the area being threatened by an invigorated Worgen threat and as you progress in the zone, you also learn about the Forsaken's new desire to prosper, their new means of building their population and the conflict with the Worgen, even taking to the warfront with the Worgen and witnessing, via phasing, the warfront move forward and back into and from the Worgen lands of Gilneas.

All this is suitably epic and I love how drawing Sylvanus and the Worgen conflict really ties this zone together so well. The redesign of the zone again shows immense improvement to playability and smoothness of the leveling experience, providing flightpoints through the whole zone, from one stop to the next, meaning that you spend much less time running those long distances on foot. Silverpine Forest is a clear example of how to do a WoW zone right and, even though I've progressed several zones ahead, it still remains my favorite zone. I imagine that playing through the Worgen starting zone before playing Silverpine Forest will provide even greater story insight into what's going on as these two experiences seem linked, from cast of characters to locations and settings. Silverpine Forest was perhaps the most fun I've had in WoW so far.

Links:

Game website

Zone Index:

Inbox: Munchkin 2 - Unnatural Axe

2011-04-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Munchkin is a lot of fun as a multiplayer game, but when you start playing with a larger group (5+), you might find that you burn through all the cards in the original set and have to start recycling cards back into the draw decks, which is all fine and good, but the potential for surprise diminishes when that happens. Fortunately, there is a solution to that: expansion decks.

The first expansion for Munchkin was Unnatural Axe, which provides a heap of unique new cards to add to the experience. More monsters, more traps, and more overpowered treasure for sure, giving you more options to fight monsters and more monsters to die to. And while there are no significant gameplay mechanics added, Munchkin does add a new race, Orcs, who are a little more trap-resistant, which creates more choices for players. Most importantly, however, is that all these additions seem to be pretty well balanced and provided in a good ratio so that players never feel unchallenged and have options, especially when ganging up either on monsters or on each others.

The art is amusing, especially for those accustomed to fantasy-fiction trappings and there's a good number of cards. If that's not enough, Munchkin has a number of additional expansions. A good, supplemental, release. 7/10.

Links:

Official website
Available at Amazon

Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Tirisfal Glades

2011-03-31T10:07:00.001-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

When I first played World of Warcraft back in 2005 for merely the thirty day trial period, the game was still in its infancy, piggybacking on the success of similar MMORPGs like Everquest and the influence of those games was strong on the basic structure of WoW. However, even then, the game showed the kind of polish and streamlining that Blizzard is known for. Their games are hardly innovative, but they take the best of what their rivals have and shine them up to an impeccable polish.

Still, there was a lot that was part of the original design of WoW that was pretty rough. The original design wanted to keep the leveling process controlled as the endgame wasn't as expansive as it is today and it also wanted to push exploration and running around the huge world that they've built, so the original quest storylines often had you running all over a zone or across multiple zones and continents, leading to many quests taking a lot of time and/or being unfavorable in terms of time spent versus reward. Consequently, a large number of quests were ignored, several zones avoided altogether and the overall leveling experience feeling like a grind. This was the WoW that I remembered.

After The Shattering, an event in WoW that acts as a prelude to Cataclysm, the 2010 expansion to one of the most successful computer games of all time, the entirety of the original game continents was irrevocably changed. Having spent most of my previous WoW experience before the great account compromise as one of the amoral Forsaken, the reanimated undead warrior Clie, I decided that for my return to Azeroth, it would make sense to see the changes that have been made and revisit the undead starting experience. Building a variety of characters, I noticed that even the way that the classes worked had changed in the intervening years, so it took a little time to get adjusted.

The starting experience for the Forsaken has changed greatly, taking into account the defeat of the Lich King, the whole purpose of the Forsaken has been fulfilled. Nevertheless, you wake up in the cemetery of Deathknell, a small town in Tirisfal Glades, raised by a val'kyr, a ghostly apparition and are immediately tasked to serve the Banshee Queen, Sylvanus Windrunner, by killing X number of zombies and skeletons, etc. Some things never change.

Still, hints at a larger zone-wide storyline are planted in Deathknell with one of the first two quests that you encounter, rather than the more general "fight the Scarlet Crusade" story of the original incarnation of Tirisfal Glades. There are several quests that remain partially intact, even if the questgiver and/or process has changed a little, but the rewards are somewhat more consistent and useful, the experience and gold better suited to preparing you for the next set of quests. After creating a zone-wide storyline that has actual characters involved, the next best effect of the revamp has been the streamlining of quests. Each new area presents a nicely grouped clump of quests that results in minimal backtracking, so you see the sights and move on and don't have to go back (unless you're into leveling a profession--that experience is still a grind).

Visually, not much has changed, the Tirisfal Glades are a gloomy, sparsely populated place, but the storyline keeps it somewhat interesting, even if it could have been even better integrated into the greater leveling experience--I wanted more of that and less of the random hunting/killing/gathering quests which didn't really seem to have any sort of real cathartic reward. Still, the Tirisfal Glades really shows an improvement on the leveling experience and so it was a welcome (and quick) run from level one through level ten. Another nice change is the addition of a couple minor flightpoints to different parts of the zone, meaning less "just running from place to place", which was always a boring part of the experience once you'd seen an area once or twice. At the end of the experience, a quest opens up directing you to head for Silverpine Forest, but I opted to take my undead guy to Undercity and have him rest in a coffin in the inn. Silverpine Forest will come another day.

Links:

Game website

Zone Index:

Inbox: Munchkin 7 - More Good Cards

2010-11-28T16:03:00.000-08:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

When I got the first Munchkin game as a gift, I also received with it Munchkin 7 - More Good Cards. More Good Cards is a slim expansion set for Munchkin that doesn't add anything particularly new: no new mechanics, no new races, classes or treasure types. What it does provide is a small stack of highly powered cards that generally work to enhance the use of other cards.

This includes even more over the top versions of cards like Super Munchkin and Half-Breed, which let you stack three classes or races together, rather than just two. However, since the expansion includes a lot of cards that modify other cards, but no actual treasures, monsters, races or anything of the sort, it might actually be too much for those who are just playing with the basic box, because it throws off the ratio of enhancer cards to basic cards, which results in drawing a lot of cards that can't or won't be used.

That said, as you get more expansions and your decks become enormous, the more useful More Good Cards becomes, letting you take advantage of the three or four cards in your hand that you might not have otherwise been able to use. Bottom line: this is a good expansion for those who already have a lot of Munchkin and want More Good Cards. For those who only have the basic box, I'd look at buying additional expansions in numerical sequence to keep the card ratios even. 6/10.

Links:

Official website
Available at Amazon

Progress Report: A Return to Azeroth

2010-11-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I had given up on World of Warcraft last year after a hacking incident took my characters. Well, with a new expansion on the horizon, I started feeling some cravings to go back into the game and explore all the new stuff. As I still have one medium level character left, I think that I can pick up close to where I left off and, hopefully, finally reach the endgame for the original Warcraft, and hopefully move into the endgames for the previously released expansions, at least enough so that I can finally have a say about the complete game.

So, yes, I am returning to Azeroth, for what I hope will be my chance to get through all the rest of the content before signing off again. I'll report on my progress now and again.

Hardware: The 3DS and Wii's Virtual Console

2010-11-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

News of the fact that Nintendo's 3DS will feature a Virtual Console (Handheld?) that will feature Game Boy and Game Boy Color games hit the headlines at the end of September, but I wasn't plugged in well enough at the time to notice it. However, finding out about it now, I'm glad to see that Nintendo might finally be doing something that I was hoping for.

As a largely retro-oriented gamer, I was quite pleased with the Wii's Virtual Console at first, although there are many problems that makes Nintendo's online implementation absolutely abysmal when compared to Sony and Microsoft. Still, despite Nintendo's generally poor implementation of its online service, I was still more than pleased to be able to play old classics on my Wii without having to dust off my ancient NES and somehow get it plugged into my new-tech setup. And yes, I was plenty willing to pay the premium (and essentially buy a number of games again) to enjoy some of these games.

However, as the life of the Wii's Virtual Console continued forth, and even though the number of supported systems expanded, the support for the Virtual Console started dropping away until now, where we get one game every month, if we're lucky. And a number of much hoped for games still have not shown up (Yoshi's Island and Earthbound, I'm looking at you!).

And then, when the DSi was announced and that it supported downloadable software as well, I got excited again, only briefly, because I thought that it meant that I might be able to get my hands on some old Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games on it and finally get to retire my old Game Boy Advance SP. Of course, when it turned out that there would be no Virtual Handheld (and that the DSi was also stuck with Nintendo's awful online implementation) I realized I had no reason whatsoever to purchase the DSi. My DS Lite handles the DS games and my GBA takes care of my older library. DSi dedicated games were few and far between and hardly interesting enough for me to cough up any more cash.

The announcement of the 3DS again brought up my hope and finally, with the news of the Virtual Handheld, sustained it. Should all my hoped for classic games make their way to the 3DS, then I will be able to retire my GBA and live with my DS Lite and 3DS, and, should GBA games also be supported, perhaps move on from the DS Lite as well. I still am wary of Nintendo's overall lack of sense when it comes to the online component, such as locking games to systems and not to accounts and the obtuse number system needed to play with people you know, but for a chance to play the late stage Game Boy Color games, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Season/Ages, I might be able to overlook Nintendo's many flaws.

I'm cautiously looking forward to the 3DS. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Inbox: Munchkin

2010-08-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

One of America's best game designers is Steve Jackson, responsible for the design of the pen-and-paper roleplaying system, GURPS, as well as the fantastic card game, Illuminati, released during they heyday of the collectible card game craze. Munchkin, released in the early 2000's, is another game by Steve Jackson and quite possibly their most popular one yet, thanks to its comical tone, but engrossing multiplayer mechanics.

Initially designed as a send-up of pen-and-paper roleplaying games, gamers, and its associated culture, the main game features each playing taking the role of a dungeon adventurer (starting as a Level 1 Human with no class). Together, 3-6 players enter the dungeon, kick down doors, fight monsters, loot treasure and work with and against each other to this end. The object of the game is to be the first player to reach level 10. Levels are gained by defeating monsters, earning the levels in treasure and in selling equipment, but the last level may only be earned by defeating a monster. As the players encounter baddies, they can ask for assistance, bribing other players with treasure or appealing to their goody-goody nature (if they're elves) and likewise, players also frequently draw a number of "door" cards which enable them to cause trouble for each other in order to keep them from winning.

Like any card game, mulligans do happen and if the shuffled deck doesn't distribute card types well, then play can really slow down a lot. But, its inherent nature as a card game is its main weakness. Otherwise, the game is tactically simple enough that most gamers and even many non-gamers can get into it quickly after a couple demonstration rounds, but giving so many opportunities for players to help and foil each other makes every game unpredictable, while still giving the rules enough space to permit enough planning as so the game isn't entirely chaotic. I really appreciate how the game creates both a desire to cooperate with other players, as almost no player could survive without the occasional intervention of another player, but gives plenty of opportunities to backstab another player or tear them down just when they think that they might win.

The cards are published on quality cardstock that requires a little breaking in, but are durable with a strong matte finish. The latest (19th) printing takes the cards another level, including some revisions to cards to make their effects clearer and giving all the cards a color makeover. The included decks aren't enormous, so a six player game could possibly see all the cards run out. The included rules are printed in nice large print on a foldout. Sometimes the rules aren't exactly clear and it's not entirely easy to find out where certain rules lie on the page, so the instruction page could be better organized. In the case of who plays first and what order the players take turns, the game takes a comical approach, suggesting that the players roll the dice and argue about what it means. Fortunately, there is some good amount of online support, including an FAQ that resolves some questions that might come up while gaming as well as forums where a befuddled gamer can seek advice from more experienced players.

At this point, Munchkin is Steve Jackson Games' most popular product and so those that don't get their fill from just the first box have seven expansion sets to purchase. The game also has a number of spin-offs, featuring different themes from the standard set's medieval fantasy, like Space Munchkin, Munchkin Fu and numerous other themes. These spin-offs can largely also be mixed into standard Munchkin, with a few rules adjustments.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun, perhaps reaching its best point at 4-5 players. Again, a bad shuffle can really kill the momentum of the game and so the game does have that weakness, but its quality of player interaction, comical theme and solid game mechanics provide plenty of moments to enjoy with your friends (and enemies). I would imagine that standard Munchkin would be most enjoyable to those who have some background in medieval fantasy role-playing games (computer and console gamers included), due to the tropes involved, but the comedy is frequently broad enough that non-roleplayers. Some of the other Munchkin spin-offs might prove to be more accessible as well, depending on the background of the players. Highly recommended. 8/10.

Links:

Official website
Available at Amazon

Reviewing Multiplayer Games

2010-08-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

So, I have a few board games and card games that I've played and/or received recently and want to write about them, but I realized that I never really set up a framework for evaluating the quality of interaction, not just between the player and the system, but how the system engenders play between players. Multiplayer, insofar as games are concerned is a broad field and encompasses a number of different modes of play.

Competition, Cooperation, & Everything In-Between

One distinction that needs to be made is between cooperative and competitive play. Many games have one or the other, but many games also possess a combination of both. An example of purely cooperative play would be where a group of players work together to win against the game. One example would be a typical pen and paper roleplaying game like Dungeons and Dragons, where a group of players are largely working together to surmount obstacles in a story, weaved by the dungeonmaster. The dungeonmaster's role isn't competitive because she or he doesn't "win" if all the character's die. It's more of a very hands-on facilitator, like the role of the narrator in a game of Mafia. Likewise, a totally competitive game would be like a game of singles tennis, where two players test each other's physical skill against each other.

Team-based competitive play is the obvious example of cooperative and competitive interaction, like in the children's outdoor game, Capture the Flag. There are also more interesting cooperative/competitive hybrids, such as the dynamic found in The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords, where players have to work together to complete dungeons, but each are ranked individually by score and so there's a tension between helping each other in order to win together and trying to outdo each other in order for individual glory. On the flipside of the coin, many board and card games, like Monopoly, encourage trading and cooperation but with the idea that eventually only one person will win, leaving alliances fragile and temporary and trade being a measure of who is really getting the better deal when working together.

There Is Art in Interaction

Any actor is aware that the creation of the artifice between two actors is art in itself, an expression between two role-players colliding in a single work. While I'm not necessarily focused on gaming-as-art (although it certainly can be, has been and will continue to be), that quality that emerges between two players of a game, an exchange between the players, when done well, can be moving, pleasing, and possibly enthralling. As such, when evaluating multiplayer games, I think it's somewhat important to focus on the quality of the interaction. If it's merely trying to top a high score on a leaderboard, like on Bejeweled Blitz for Facebook or topping distances in a hammer throw on the track and field sport, I don't really want to consider that any sort of actual multiplayer, but rather, social single-player gaming as there are no mechanics in the game that demand some interface between players.

I suppose, then, when a game's primary mode is multiplayer, I will have to consider the depth of the interaction. Different games have different degrees of multiplayer. For example, in the card game "War" (one of my most reviled games), the two players interact and are competing, but the decks are ultimately stacked and the players are merely turning over cards, iterating a routine and I would consider it poor multiplayer. I feel like good multiplayer keeps you engaged with the other player(s), whether indirectly or directly and the mechanics of the game force you to need to interact with them. So, for that reason, while I find multiplayer battle Tetris to be a lot of fun, its multiplayer aspect is a little limited since merely excelling at playing regular Tetris is what sends lines to your opponent. Super Puzzle Fighter II improves on this regard by providing mechanics to reduce an "attack" by the other player and the game isn't built on playing solo, but rather wiping out an opponent. Both games force you to play better solo because the other player adds a ticking time bomb to your solo game, but Puzzle Fighter requires that you be aware of what your opponent is doing more. Both might be fun, but Puzzle Fighter II has deeper multiplayer.

And, I guess that's how I'm going to be looking at multiplayer aspects of games, whether the game is both single and multiplayer or exclusively multiplayer. I'm not going to say that a game is better or worse by having shallow multiplayer or deep multiplayer--per se. I don't think a value attribution need apply, except insofar as how well the multiplayer succeeds in engaging the participants and how balanced it is. After all, multiplayer gaming is about sharing an entertaining experience--if the game has multiplayer hooks that force players to interact at deep levels, but is otherwise boring, it would be a failure as a game.

Inbox:Hardware: Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite 2010 Spring Bundle

2010-06-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

In the spring of 2010, Microsoft released one of their best bundles for their Xbox 360 yet: one with the improved Jasper motherboard, which reduced the failure rate of their hardware to regular consumer electronics levels. Furthermore, copies of Forza 3 and Halo: ODST were bundled with it, two Xbox 360 exclusives that were fairly well received. Perhaps the best Xbox 360 bundle yet.

And then I found it on sale for $250, so, I couldn't resist and purchased it. The Xbox 360 Elite is a fairly slick device and bears a black matte finish. It medium sized, but has a huge power brick, which fortunately has enough slack to hide it under the entertainment cabinet instead of within it. It comes with a controller and a standard AV cable. It does not have wireless internet unlike its console peers, the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation 3 and it bears a 10/100 Ethernet port. A wireless adapter can be purchased separately for $100 (!). The included hard drive is 120GB and proprietary, so you have to purchase a Microsoft branded hard drive in order to replace or upgrade and the Microsoft ones are pricey per gigabyte. Oh, it also doesn't come with an HDMI cable (?!), but that puts it on par with its equally stingy PS3 peer.

I previously wrote about the Xbox 360 controller and my comments stand for the wireless version, whose only notable different is the battery pack on its underside, which accepts AA batteries or a charging pack. The system also comes with a headset, which is a rather cheap plastic over the head thing and plugs into the controller via a mini-jack. A wireless headset is available for $70 (with a much lower street price), but reviews don't treat it kindly. I'm hoping that you can replace the headset with any other non-proprietary wired headset made for mobile phones.

The system software itself is pretty slick, although I hear that's it's undergone many changes since its inception to make it more user friendly. It has a task oriented interface and while some parts of it are littered with ads, it's pretty intuitive in terms of finding what you want to do. They've also added an avatar system for your profile and the cartoony avatar is nice and as useful as Nintendo's Mii's, while more customizable (although it looks like many of the customizations require some form of micropayments). One thing I particularly like is that the Xbox 360, despite its networking hardware weaknesses, is very attuned to being an online device on the software side, complimented by a bevy of online tools and programs and robust interactive tools to help you chat with your friends, compete with them and play with them. While the Live Gold service does cost $50 a year (you can buy yearly membership cards for cheaper if you buy them at retail), the service is a head above the PS3's free service and light years beyond what Nintendo has to offer. Besides the price, the other gripe would be that the Microsoft points system isn't a 1:1 (PSN), 10:1, 100:1 (Nintendo) or even 1:1000 ratio, but rather uses a strange 80:1 ratio for points to the dollar, possibly to obfuscate how much money any person is spending on the service.

However, in a bit of a silly story, just a couple weeks after I purchased this Elite and set it up, Microsoft announced and released a new Xbox 360 Elite, with a smaller form factor, lower power requirements (including a smaller power brick), included wireless networking (!!) and a 250GB (but still proprietary) hard drive. In the meantime, they've reduced the price on the older Elite models to $250, which means that I didn't save any money at all. Boo.

While the 2010 Spring bundle comes with Forza 3 and Halo:ODST (approximately a $60 value, based on current prices for these games), I think that the additional $50 spent for the new Elite easily outstrips the value of the added games, so if you're still in the market for the system, I'd ignore the old and pick up the new.

As for me, I'm not too sore about it, as I still paid the "normal" price for the 2010 Spring bundle and after adding a switch and a very long Ethernet cable to my setup, I don't need wireless anymore. Furthermore, I can now play all the Xbox exclusive games I've been missing out on. Granted, I could've played most of them (or at least the ones I cared about) on the PC, but the DRM restrictions for PCs are often brutal and turned me away from non-exclusive PC games, with the exception of a few genres that are better played on the PC.

All in all, the 360 Elite (fat) is a fine system with (what I hope to find are) some very fine games. In terms of hardware the old model lags behind the PS3 (both fat and slim, with the exception of the old 20GB PS3), but the new Xbox 360 Elite looks like an able competitor to the PS3 slim even though I think I prefer certain design decisions of the PS3 console a little more. But the 360 has the superior controller. The Xbox 360 has the superior system software, especially because of its excellent online strength, which makes me like it more than the PS3 or Wii, despite the fact that it's a pay to play service.

However, when it comes to consoles, I don't really think that the strength and design of the hardware is the real driving force behind having the system. It's important, but the real driving force is games and the 360 seems to have enough exclusive games to warrant owning, just as the other two systems do as well. So, my recommendation is, look at the games for the system--if there are any you see that are "must-play" then get a 360, and if you want a 360, ignore the 2010 spring bundle that I purchased and go straight for the superior new 360 Elite (slim). 7/10.

Links:

Available at Amazon

Progress Report: Resident Evil

2010-06-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

So, I've had this game for a little while now and I've tried to play through it a couple times before, but I got distracted by something or another and would forget about it. I have played the old Playstation version and am now trying to work my way through the Gamecube remake.

Immediately, the game has a great way of instilling dread, even though I hadn't even seen a single zombie as the music just keeps the tension up. Graphically, the game is leaps and bounds beyond the Playstation original and also seems to clean up the dialog and replace the campy opening movie with a more serious CG opening movie. There seem to be some additional features added, such as an instant 180 turnaround (great for running away from the many zombies that want to nosh on your face). The game still controls like the original, which means it's that still tank-like control from before. Fortunately the zombies aren't super mobile either, so it's not a terrible handicap.

Having played the original before, this run-through the game is a little easier as I kind of have an idea of what I have to do, at least through getting the three keys. And I know not to waste ammo killing zombies I can simply avoid. That still doesn't make my nerves any less tense while playing. The game has excellent atmosphere and does a great job of creating suspense. I have to admit that the pre-rendered backgrounds and, therefore, pre-selected camera angles, while they are quite compelling to look at and do a great job of creating atmosphere, they sort of make the gameplay more awkward and difficult.

So far, I've only killed a few zombies and made sure to scorch them because I found out that if you don't blow up their heads or scorch them, they come back as fast moving super strong zombies. I've gotten myself one of the keys and the shotgun and will soon be shooting up some zombie-dogs in order to get the next key. I hate those dogs. I've only died three times so far, on easy mode, so that means... well, I have to work on improving my gaming chops. There's nothing sexy about watching a zombie nosh on Jill Valentine's neck. I hope by next update I'll have all the keys and have beat the big snake again. I hate that snake.

Hardware: The Desire for an HD PS2

2010-05-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

If there's one thing that's true about me when it comes to gaming, it's that I love retro games. I have more virtual console games for my Wii than all the Wiiware and Wii-software titles combined and will probably get more virtual console games before I buy more regular Wii games. Likewise, I'm looking at PS1 releases and arcade ports more than new PS3 games and should I ever get an Xbox360, you know that Xbox Live Arcade is where I'm going to be spending most of my money. So, it should be no surprise that I want to play PS2 games.

In fact, I intentionally bought a PS3 when I learned that future iterations would lose backwards compatibility so that I wouldn't have to get a PS2 in order to play those PS2 games that I had previously purchased to play on my previous roommate's system. But, I'd learn to my dismay that the PS3 version I purchased (80GB software emulation) isn't fully compatible with the range of PS2 games, including several that I want to play. Which means that I'm going to have to get my hands on a PS2 to play them--legacy connectors, resolution and accessories as well.

That would not be cool.

But I also looked into getting a beat up used PS2 and pulling the BIOS off to use for an emulator like PCSX2 so I could play those games on my PC instead. The benefit of that would be that, on the PC, I would be able to take advantage of its superior processing power and graphics capabilities, which can then be leveraged into playing PS2 games at higher resolutions with new shaders and filters to make the experience even prettier than a TV-upscaled version played from the old box. The process of pulling the BIOS, however, is a little complicated and would probably not be all that fun to make work, although I could. Furthermore, I was glancing at the compatibility list on the PCSX2 site and it turns out that many of the same games that my PS3 has trouble with, PCSX2 also has problems emulating, nullifying the main advantage of emulating.

So, it looks like I will have to eventually pick up a PS2 if I want to play those old PS2 games, unless Sony changes their minds (as they are wont to do) and greater backwards compatibility shows up on the PS3. But, that got me thinking. See, a lot of households have now entered the HDTV era and own nicer, fancier sets capable of 720p, 1080i and 1080p, using component and HDMI hookups. The old PS2 is still stuck in the stone age, putting out SDTV visuals which then have to be stretched either by the TV or some other processor in between and end up looking like blurry fuzz on the TV.

But, what if a new PS2 was released? A new enhanced PS2 that has more firepower than the old and can connect audio and video via HDMI? A new enhanced PS2 that takes emulation tech to the next level, by not only perfectly emulating the entire library of PS2 games, but on top of that, adding all the features of PC PS2 emulators, like improved 1080p resolution, and newer graphics technology to add effects to the visuals, like filters and shaders. On top of that, make all the PS3 accessories compatible with the new HD PS2 and we're set! One set of controllers, two boxes, say hello to breathing new life into your old PS2 games!

See how a custom "storybook" shader works on ePSXe (PSX emulator) for FFVII

In that ideal world, I'd finally be able to play all my old games (and many more that I don't have) for the PS2, but also get to play them with the advantages of modern technology. That said, I think retro gamers like me aren't as common as those who will only play the newest and shiniest games, but, Sony, if you're listening at all to me--here's a way to further extend the life of your old platform.

Preferably, you'd just improve backwards compatibility for my PS3 and just add all these features in, but barring that, I'd buy an enhanced HD PS2.

Inbox: Fallout Trilogy

2010-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Black Isle Studios, back while they were still around, were responsible for more than a small number of my favorite RPGs back when they were still around, mostly revolving around their Dungeons & Dragons license. However, the development studio was responsible for another groundbreaking series that I had never actually played. In fact, being so far removed from when the games were released, I had almost entirely forgotten that Fallout had existed, until Fallout 3, the license having changed hands from Interplay to Bethesda and went from its isometric roots into a first person adventure RPG.

However, one thing didn't change about Fallout when the third numerical iteration was released: widespread acclaim. Granted, upon looking at the game, it seems like Bethesda just wrapped up their Elder Scrolls: Oblivion game in Fallout's post-apocalyptic setting. But it seems to have gone over well with game critics and general populace alike. That might be exciting had I any experience with Bethesda's other works, but Bethesda is not why I'm interested in Fallout, Black Isle is.

The setting is interesting and the game seems mature, in that actions have consequences and weight attached to them. And, with the return of Interplay, they wonderfully bundled up their two Fallout Games, plus the separately developed Fallout: Tactics into a compilation and then sold it for cheap. Of course, Gamestop had it on sale for even cheaper, thanks to a limited time sale, so I couldn't resist. I'm looking forward (?) to stepping into this critically acclaimed wasteland.

OOPs: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

2010-04-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

OOPs features games that I wish I had purchased or played before they went out of print.

While I've played many of the games in the Mario series there are a few that I've missed along the way. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is one of them. Granted, it can be argued that it is not necessarily a core Mario game because its mechanics and hero are very different from the core Mario series. Rather than controlling the plumber, in this game, he is merely a baby and you control a yoshi instead. While still a platformer like its namesake, so much of the game works differently that you really could call it a different animal.

I remember watching this game at my friend's house when I was but a young lad and being surprised by its unique visual style and also by the different gameplay mechanics. Yoshi can, like in the original Super Mario World, swallow his enemies and turn them into eggs, but this time, he holds onto those eggs and can aim them at his enemies with many degrees of freedom. I did want to play it at the time, but when you're that young, there are only so many games you can buy and I was much more interested in RPGs, so that's where my money went.

Time has passed and after replaying a number of classic platformers, including others in the Mario series, I realized that I actually wanted to play this game too. Unfortunately, it's for the SNES and a Wii Virtual Console version has not been made available and, so, to play it, I would have to hook up my old SNES and purchase a working used copy of the game, which, goes for over $20 these days. So, instead, I'll wait until the game does eventually show up on the Virtual Console and download/play it then. I hope it does make a showing on the Virtual Console.

Inbox:Hardware: The Beatles: Rock Band - Wireless Rickenbacker 325 Guitar Controller

2010-04-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

Yes, I had The Beatles: Rock Band that came with wireless drum and guitar controllers, but that still left me short one guitar controller for the full band. Or even if we wanted to play with a pair of guitars (Harrison and Lennon) or a guitar and a bass (Harrison or Lennon with McCartney). So, wanted to maximize multiplayer options, I decided to buy a guitar controller for Rock Band. I figured, since I already had Beatles themed instruments, I might as well make sure that the next one matches. Of course, when I started looking, the limited edition controllers were out of stock everywhere, skyrocketing the prices up to more than 200%.

Eventually, they released more Rickenbacker 325's, but not Grestch Duo Jets, so I grabbed one of those. Comparing to pictures of actual Rickenbacker 325, it definitely does a good job of matching many of the details, even though it still looks more like a toy. Still, for a guitar controller, it's fairly classy, even if it's not as much of a premium product as the higher end guitar controllers and seems to be built fairly sturdily. We've played around on it a lot since we got it and we've never had a problem with it. A good piece of gear. 8/10.

Links:

Available at Amazon

Progress Report: The Beatles: Rock Band

2010-04-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I previously wrote about my initial experiences with The Beatles: Rock Band's story modes and found the experience enjoyable, especially when playing through with friends. It was at our own pace (and we set it pretty fast) and it takes you along the journey of the Beatles, complete with fun little movies that signify the different periods of the Beatles' career.

Over the next couple months, I got to complete the challenge mode, which, like the Story Mode, divides sets of songs by the period of the Beatles' career. However, the challenge mode is less about telling the Beatles' story and more about... challenge. Essentially, it creates non-stop song sets of each period where you get one composite score for the whole set, as opposed to getting to start over with each song. This also means that if you are failing or flailing on one song and are on the precipice, you remain in trouble when you start the next song. It makes things challenging, certainly and also because you're playing 5-7 full length Beatles songs, which means at least 15 minutes of consecutive playing/singing.

Another part of the game I checked out was the online store, where I purchased the full albums of Abbey Road (woohoo! medleys!) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This is how they get me to buy each album twice. Anyway, the store on the PS3 is a little clumsily set up, having to buy inside the game, but then leave the game to install it. As of right now, three full albums, the previously mentioned, plus Rubber Soul, are available, plus the standalone song "All You Need Is Love". There hasn't been a new album release in a little bit, so I'm not sure if there will be any more, but I hope so. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to downloading Rubber Soul when my budget is ready for it.

The most recent thing I've been messing with in the game is the Tutorial section, which includes a vocal harmony trainer and a drum trainer. I haven't had any opportunity to do the harmony trainer, but, having fared poorly on drums, except on easy mode so far, I decided that I'd give the drum trainer a shot. First of all, I think that it's a lift from the Rock Band 2 drum trainer, so all the basics are the same, but there's an extra mode called "Beatles Beats" which focus on Ringo's own signature rhythms.

After looking at Beatles Beats, I realized that there's no way I'm going to be able to start there and decided to go to the regular drum trainer. Honestly, it really does try to teach you the basics of rhythms, and most importantly, carrying independent rhythms on different limbs. It's not a substitute for actual drum lessons and the Rock Band kit is no real drum set, but it still teaches you the basics of rock rhythms. That said, I also discovered that although I can finally get all the beats working on different limbs, I'm just not a very fast drummer and I can't seem to hit the 8th notes consistently at the fastest tempos (180+). There go my dreams of playing drums on expert. But, considering how much I did grow in keeping rhythm, I'd say it's a pretty neat feature.

Next up: more drum training, some vocal training and then kicking the tires on the online multiplayer features.

Inbox:Hardware: Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller

2010-04-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

In my many years of video and computer gaming, I have placed my hands on a number of gamepads, from the NES's classic rectangular block, to the two handed Wii remote/nunchuck combination. When it came to gaming on the PC, my favorite gamepad, which I'd used since 1998, was Microsoft's own Sidewinder, which fit great on the hands and provided all the buttons that I could need. It only lacked analog sticks, but I could hardly fault it for that, because at the time, analog sticks weren't on every gamepad.

So, when I finally upgraded my computer, I was sad to note that the COM ports that my Sidewinder relied upon had gone extinct. I was faced with a decision: seek out an expansion card that would return my COM port to me, find a COM to USB adapter, or get a new controller. The former would have been less expensive (I think), but I realized that, by now, analog sticks had become standard on gamepads and so new gamepad oriented games would support, or in some cases, require, analog sticks so I figured I would upgrade.

I had some PS3 Dualshock 3 gamepads, but there was no PC driver support for them and the workarounds to get them to work were a little too tedious for my taste. The other popular option was to use a controller for Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was fully supported by Microsoft's Windows. Now, Microsoft's Xbox controllers have come a long way. The first controller for the original Xbox was nicely shaped, but humongous and heavy and consequently not much fun for my hands to use. They later came up with a S-type controller which reduced the size and that was much better. Finally, when the 360 came out, a design based on the type S controller was the standard for the system.

Honestly, as far as standard gamepads go, it's my favorite of the bunch. Unlike the Dualshock and Gamecube controllers, the left and right thumbs are positioned well to use both the analog sticks, the digital pad and the buttons. With the Dualshock and the Gamecube pad, my left and right thumbs have to strain to reach the lower nubs. I have only two minor quibbles with the 360 controller. First, the trigger buttons at the top of the controller don't seem to fit the position of my fingers, because they sit so high on the controller, so that my fingers naturally rest on the secondary triggers instead of the primary ones. The Dualshock's triggers better fit my fingers. The second is that I don't really like how the controller uses non-standard ports so that I have to buy a 360 headset to use it. But, since as a PC gamepad, I don't really use a headset through the controller, it doesn't really matter.

Of course, the final benefit is that should I ever get a 360, I'll have an extra controller to use with it (although it's not wireless). The Xbox 360 controller has taken many design lessons from the gamepads of the past and is really the best standard gamepad that I've put my hands on today. There might be specialty controllers out there that I would have no quibbles with for the PC (or the 360), but as far as standards go, I think the 360's will be the controller to beat. 9/10.

Links:

Available at Amazon

OOPs: American McGee's Alice

2010-04-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

OOPs features games that I wish I had purchased or played before they went out of print.

As Tim Burton's vision of Lewis Carroll's classic has been gathering money at the box office, my memory was instantly jogged to a time, almost a decade ago, when another grown-up take on Alice was released, from one of the twisted minds behind the original Doom, American McGee.

Like its feature film counterpart, it focuses on the story of Alice, after her return from her trip to Wonderland and beyond the looking-glass, but American McGee's tale is decidedly darker, as can be seen by the image. Things haven't gone well for both Alice and the denizens of Wonderland, as can be seen upon her return.

While the game falls into the standard trappings of the post-Mario 64 3D adventure game, the game was noted for its rich atmosphere and visual treatment. Of course, I ignored it at the time, because it showed up when my interest in games was very low (my college years). However, later, as I reread Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass as an adult, I found myself enchanted by these and Carroll's other works and then developed a greater appreciation for their various adaptations. At the time, I performed a cursory search for American McGee's Alice, but it turned out that, by then, it was well out of print and I suppose it didn't do well enough in retail to get larger reprintings.

Having recently been inspired by Burton's recent release (although I haven't seen it and haven't heard anything good of it), I decided to see if Alice was still available. Well, it turns out that new copies regularly go for more than $200 and used for no less than $70. Suffice to say that I'm going to have to pass for now and hope that the game gets another reprinting. Electronic Arts, you're sitting on a gold mine here, seeing that Burton's adaptation is out! Get to it!

Progress Report: Final Fantasy II - Dawn of Souls

2010-04-04T19:04:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

One of the games that occupied a large chunk of my time back in the '80's was a game called Final Fantasy. A game that would eventually lead to an immense franchise, but early on, Japan got a number of sequels to the original Final Fantasy, whereas I never got a second chance to play such a game until Final Fantasy II for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which was, in Japan, actually Final Fantasy IV.

Eventually, Square (now Square-Enix) realized it was sitting on a goldmine of cheap remake for profit potential and started releasing their older, and sometimes unreleased in the United States, titles and eventually, the previously unavailable except by import Final Fantasy II arrived in the US. Well, for the Playstation in a Final Fantasy IV-styled remake. I didn't have a PSX at the time, but they did eventually release a Game Boy Advance port of it, with a few new dungeons and quests thrown in, so I was pleased to pick that up and see what I missed in between Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IV.

The first thing I noticed right off was that the game was immediately more cinematic than its predecessor. You didn't get to compose your own party, but instead you are given characters with their own stories and motivations (albeit, we're really thin on the character background and development angle still, but it's a lot more than you ever got in the original Final Fantasy). Also, there are scripted storytelling sequences and a dynamically changing world, where some Empire is trying to take over the world and you are part of a rebel force trying to resist their domination (okay, this story has been played out several times in the Final Fantasy franchise--but this was the first that had that story!).

Another thing that stood out to me is that this Final Fantasy doesn't work on a levels system for character advancement, but rather a skills system. As a character uses a skill more often (or gets hit or dodges, at it were), the connected stat increases. This is very different from a large number of console RPGs out there, many of which are inspired, in part, from Dungeons and Dragon's leveling system. On the other hand, like many early RPGs, Final Fantasy II, despite the changed advancement system still requires a lot of grinding, which basically means wandering around a town until you meet a random enemy and fighting until your character is strong enough to take on the next set of challenges. That's one this I don't miss about these early RPGs.

The game doesn't always have a great amount of direction, so if I don't play it for too long, sometimes I lose track of what I'm doing or where I'm supposed to go and sometimes it's hard to even find where it is I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do, but I've eventually muddled my way through. It can get quite challenging at times, especially if you haven't toughened up your characters and if you notice that you haven't (and you will notice, because they will die), you have to go back and grind some more until they're stronger. Not exactly the kind of challenge I prefer.

Still, the old charms of the game are still around and the story is already more interesting (and more personal, thanks to the pre-made characters) than the first Final Fantasy. So, I'm going to stick with it and see it through to the end. I just wish there was a way to grind faster and less tediously. Advertised hours of estimated gameplay should not include time necessary for grinding or at least have that grinding time broken out so you know just how much random monster killing you have to do.

Inbox: God of War Collection

2010-03-31T18:55:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

God of War's most recent sequel came out recently and there's a lot of positive response out there, but not having played any of the God of War games at all, I wanted to start at the beginning. Fortunately, God of War and God of War II for the Playstation 2 got a release, in high definition, on a single disc for the Playstation 3. I had the fortune of having a leftover Target gift card from the holidays and seeing that they had the collection on sale one week a little while ago, I went into Target and picked up the game.

Now, I don't know much more about God of War than what I've seen in trailers, but the game is set in a mythical Greece, which I was absolutely fascinated with for several months when I was in elementary school. So the setting was very appealing to me. The game looks pretty badass and appears to have boss fights with enormous bosses. I'm not entirely certain how that works, but if they can pull of what looks like buttery smooth gameplay with that, I'm looking forward to it. The friends I have that've played the games leave me with positive praise, so I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into the original pair.

Progress Report: Half-Life

2010-03-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I'll admit from that start that I don't have the fastest gaming reflexes and that, when it comes to shooter-style games, the only advantage I have is planning. Which means, during my playthrough of Half-Life, I died. A lot.

Last year, I got to a little past the halfway point (I'm guessing) of the game and then a cutscene broke the game on me and I got pretty frustrated as previous saves, when played through would still lead to a broken cutscene. However, on my new computer with Windows 7, I got past the cutscene and found myself in a situation that reminded me of Star Wars.

So far, I like Half-Life, despite the fact that I suck at the game. While it's now a bit dated, and not just graphically, as everyone else has taken from its formula of shooter/adventure. It starts out cinematically, with an in-game rendered credits sequence where you ride on a tram as a loudspeaker tells you a little bit about where you are. I like that you run into fellow Black Mesa employees (scientists and security guards) who help you, but also interact with your enemies. And I like how there are more than two sides to the conflict and that there's a mystery, both to the presence of the aliens as well as what the troops are doing. And then there's the man in the blue suit, who's an even further mystery.

However, some of the sections are really hard, including the environmental puzzles and I've definitely spent a lot of deaths figuring out simple things like how to rush into a lift before it drops too fast and then dying as I try to reach it. There are many such sections like this where you can you press a button and rush to beat the effect of the button. Also really hard are the government (?) troops, because they really work well together and you can't hide because they flush you out with grenades and they take cover and run from grenades as well.

But my ineptitude has not deterred me from getting as far in the game as I have, although reducing the difficulty level has helped. The best thing so far that this shooter's got going for me is story. It's not exploding with a lot of character development or anything like that, but just the desire to uncover the mysteries of why what's going on at Black Mesa is enough for me to keep on playing.

Inbox: Metroid Prime Trilogy

2010-03-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

I really enjoyed Metroid Prime during my playthrough many years ago. It was a smooth combination of classic adventure game mechanics (the Metroid formula established back in the original Metroid). And to date, the sub-series has had two sequels, Echoes and Corruption. Wanting to eventually play these two games and possibly play through the original again as well, I was aiming to buy them. And then, I got a Gamestop gift card in the mail and noticed that the Metroid Prime Trilogy was available.

According to the (nice collectible tin) case, the trilogy features all three Metroid Prime games, adapted to the Nintendo Wii's controller and shows up in 16:9 presentation. Getting two for one and having a gift card paying for most of that was enough cause for me to buy this. Turning in my old copy of Metroid Prime (worth a dollar or so to Gamestop), I got this trilogy and returned home with it. And now, Samus waits while I tie up some other gaming loose ends before I boot her up for her next console adventure. Although, to be honest, I think I'll probably play the Gameboy Advance game, Metroid Fusion, first.

Progress Report: Castlevania

2010-03-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I'm absolutely ecstatic right now, because after twenty-two years of playing Castlevania on and off, I have finally beaten it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been having a ton of trouble over the last twenty-two years of playing this game beating The Grim Reaper and Frankenstein's Monster. Well, I finally made it past Frankenstein's Monster thanks to saving and using a double firing Holy Water. After several tries and associated failures. Grim Reaper was something else--in fact, I think I spent more time dying trying to reach the Grim Reaper in the final hallway full of flying Medusa heads and deadly axe-throwing suits of armor. By the time I'd reach Grim Reaper, I'd be able to only take a single (inevitable) hit before getting murdered. However, after realizing against Frankenstein that Holy Water freezes the boss while doing damage, I decided to try smacking the reaper around with holy water and after maybe thirty or so tries, I finally made it to the reaper with a bottle of holy water and proceeded to burn it to death before it could draw its sickles (I had tried this before while trying to dodge sickles, but I always ended up impaled).

Finally making my way past Death itself (!), I proceeded onto the final level, which was difficult (lots of dying and learning by failing). Eventually, I learned that I'd rather just run and gun instead of trying to kill everything and it worked. Making my way to Dracula, I fought the vampire king about a dozen times before I killed him. And even then, it wasn't over. But, thanks to some lessons learned (and many lives and continues expended), I did it. I killed Dracula and got a cheesy little ending for my efforts.

So, how is Castlevania? Well, it's a classic, but an interesting one. Essentially, the plot is that you're Simon Belmond, and your job is to make through Dracula's castle to kill Dracula (again, I presume). Your main weapon, an upgradeable whip. You also have several other optional weapons you can pick up, each with different features, powered by hearts. You get items by whipping candles or occasionally, from the carcass of one of the legions of undead that you lay to rest. After making your way through a level, you fight a boss and repeat until you reach Dracula (or, more likely, give up out of frustration).

Unlike some of his platforming peers, Simon moves a bit like a tank. He walks slowly (at only one speed) and when he jumps, he commits to the jump. As such, there's not a lot of leeway in his movement, meaning that you have to be absolutely precise when it comes to when you want to jump, when you want to move and when you want to whip things. On the plus side, quality control is tight, with no quirky bugs when it comes to hit detection or controller response. The baddies themselves can take varying amounts of hits and, as you progress, they hit harder, giving you less room for error, ratcheting up the difficulty level once you get to the halfway point in the game. Ultimately, because of how tight the control is and how clean the gameplay is, it's not frustrating, except for the ridiculous difficulty of the game, which, at times might even require memorization or luck to bypass, but this is nothing new for this era of gaming.

Graphically, this game doesn't push the NES, but it looks good enough for its age, draped in dark and ghoulish colors, and, at this point, its graphics are iconic, fueling the look of dozens of sequels and spin-offs to come. The sound effects and music, are likewise iconic at this point, but I have to credit the music in particular, which is still pretty enjoyable, as far as classic gaming music goes, even out of context.

Castlevania is a hard game. A very hard game. It also boasts a rather smart platforming formula, obviously related to other Konami games of its era, but a slower paced game than its peers. While Simon isn't as mobile as his peers, which could be a source of frustration, the clean and consistent gameplay keeps the experience enjoyable. Combined with now iconic graphics, sound, and music, there's no wonder why it has spawned an enormous franchise. Being an old school game, it's not for everyone, but, despite the fact that it's ridiculously hard, it's still enjoyable and memorable and I'd recommend everyone give it a twenty-two minute to twenty-two year shot at beating it. 8/10.

Links:

Available at Amazon

Inbox:Hardware: Playstation Portable 3000

2010-03-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

Generous family members decided to gift me with a Playstation Portable 3000 a little while back, but I didn't really have the time to set it up or check it out until recently. That and I had no games nor a Memory Stick Pro Duo for it, so I didn't really have any incentive to take it out of the box, but seeing that flash memory prices are on the rise, I thought I'd bite on a Memory Stick and after I received it, thought I'd turn the thing on to see what it was like.

First of all, as far as handhelds go, it's pretty slick. Definitely slicker than my DS Lite. It has a giant bright screen, clean sounding speakers and a nice looking form factor, although despite its moniker, it's not exactly fit-in-your-pocket in terms of its large size. The screen size is really nice for watching TV shows and movies on as I've discovered via dragging a few (converted to PSP's native MP4 format) from my computer onto the PSP via a USB cable (not supplied; I used the one that came with my PS3 and I think some phone/smartphone/camera USBs will also work).

It's built-in wireless is much peppier (and compatible with WPA!) than the DS Lite as well and the handheld's memory can be further expanded with those annoyingly proprietary Memory Stick Duo Pros. It has a built in microphone and Skype, but I haven't had any opportunity to use it. It also has a built in browser, which is nice, but the screen's size doesn't really allow for awesome browsing and the built-in browser doesn't do well with more complicated websites. On the plus side, it has access to the Playstation Network Store where you can download games and more. Another thing I like is that you can register your PSP with your PS3 and then share mini's (teeny games) and Playstation One classics between the two. Very cool.

That said, without any games to play on the PSP, it's still to be seen how much play it will get, although I'm guessing watching movies, TV shows and trailers on the fly will make it a great travel companion even without games and I imagine as I get more into PSOne classics, I'll probably be able to get some good use out of the PSP as well. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like releases for PSOne classics on the PSN are all that frequent. 7/10.

Links:

Handheld website
Available at Amazon

Progress Report: WoW, Goodbye

2010-02-21T18:52:00.000-08:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

It's been almost two months since my World of Warcraft account was compromised and I lost my main characters. Since then, I've only had one character partially returned. There has been no progress on the other character. That's approximately $30 wasted. I could have started a new alternate character, but I just didn't feel like wasting the time and I had better things to do than to start all over again.

Blizzard has provided no resolution nor updates on character restorations for my characters. They have provided no timeline or alternatives for the restoration of my characters. As such, I don't feel like wasting any more money on non-progress in the game.

What I played was fun, slick and very polished and I largely enjoyed the experience, but I don't like seeing all my effort go to waste. Since it's gone to waste, I just don't feel any need to continue playing the game, therefore, I have decided to exercise the option not to continue playing the game and leave it unfinished indefinitely. The major reason being Blizzard's lack of suitable response to my problem.

Goodbye, World of Warcraft, it was nice knowing you.

Hardware: The New PC Build, Part 3

2010-02-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

So, the new computer has been built and has been running fine for a couple weeks now. Obviously, I've made the final decisions regarding processor and system drive.

When it comes to processor, I made my way down to the Microcenter in the OC as Microcenter is well known to use lower processor prices as a way of getting people into their store. It worked on me. There, I noticed that the i7-920 was actually on a great sale for about $200, which was a great price, but by then I'd already invested in a P55 motherboard and a pair of RAM sticks and so I was looking at the i5-750 and the i7-860. It was $180 for the i5 and $220 for the i7 and so I spent some time considering whether or not the extra $40 was worth the i7.

My system would be used for the following purposes:

Word processing/internet/etc: This purpose didn't justify an upgrade at all. If I was just doing that, I could've stayed with my previous system and been fine, so that only demanded an i5.
Gaming: Granted, most of the games I play are at least a generation old, so processing power really doesn't make much of a difference here and gaming isn't my primary pursuit. Furthermore, few games make use of all four cores in an i5, let alone all eight logical cores in an i7 so the gaming issue would only require an i5.
Video/photo editing: This is other primary use of my computer outside of word processing. I use my computer edit video, process effects, edit audio and so forth. All of these applications benefit greatly from the hyperthreading of the i7 and definitely could use the boost from the i7 to complete rendering and processing faster.

Ultimately, the decision came down to whether or not greater multimedia performance was worth my $40, because all the other functions would have been served fine by an i5. I decided that it was indeed worth it, because I hate waiting for rendering and processing, and put down the extra cash to walk out with an i7-860.

Then came the matter of system drive. Currently, I had a Western Digital 640GB 7200rpm hard drive, a "blue" that was considered very fast last spring, but isn't ultra speedy, like a WD Raptor or other 10k rpm drive. I think I could have easily just installed Windows 7 onto my previous hard disk and lived with slower application loading times, but the loading times for the Adobe applications that I was using (as well as the bigger RPG games) was pretty brutal, so I decided that as long as I was upgrading, I'd look into a faster system drive. So I decided to look at the Raptors (with RAID 0), SCSI options as well as SSDs. Ultimately, in terms of performance, the SSDs won easily, but they were the priciest of the bunch. However, since my budget had room for an SSD, I decided to go that route in stead of a pair of Raptors in RAID 0, as RAID 0 had greater propensity for error and a pair of Raptors would be almost as expensive as an SSD.

Almost any SSD would be pretty awesome in terms of performance, as far as the tech sites were reporting, so I ultimately chose my SSD based on a minimum of 80GB capacity (for Windows 7 and the most-used programs) and the lowest cost per gigabyte from there. The first winner was the Crucial Indilinix based 128GB SSD, however, stock was out all over the web so I looked at my number 2, the Intel X25-M, which was the other popular option, and B&H Photo had a few in stock at acceptable prices (much lower than the inflated prices on Newegg, Tigerdirect and the like), so that's what I picked up.

I then built the system and have to report that it's ridiculously fast with everything that I do seeming almost instant and I'm finally able to multi-task multiple programs like I had desired.

A few problems have showed up with this new PC, however. Well, actually, just one large problem. My ancient Adobe suite of programs (outside of Photoshop, which loads instantly) is not compatible with Vista/7 and consequently, I'm left without substantial video/audio editing and effects programs. I'll have to save up and get myself a copy of the CS4 now in order to edit at the level I desire, however, in the meantime, I've resorted to using Windows Movie Maker and Photo Gallery for low level editing.

As for gaming, the computer destroys all my old school games and is surprisingly more compatible than my old XP computer with my games. I almost want to get Crysis just to see how far I could push this computer, but I'll stick with what I have for now.

Inbox:Progress Report: The Beatles: Rock Band

2010-02-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

Seeing a great deal on The Beatles: Rock Band and always having enjoyed rhythm games, singing and The Beatles, I found it an opportune time to purchase the game. Now, I probably don't need to explain how Rock Band works, but there is a kind of genius in the design, taking the Guitar Hero design, the Karaoke Revolution design and throwing in drums and bass (the classic elements of a Rock Band) and turning it all into one heck of a fun party-game experience.

I actually held out on buying previous iterations of Rock Band because the track lists always seemed a touch hit-and-miss, but since I pretty much enjoy all of The Beatles' music, the Beatles' version seemed like a perfect fit. And it was. What I really like about how the game is laid out is that it really takes the time to incorporate the Beatles into the game rather than just having them be a veneer for the regular Rock Band experience. Adding multi-part harmonies was part of the fun, but also having the story mode of the game follow the career of the Beatles really just added another level of immersion into The Beatles experience.

And that's where I spent my first couple hours in The Beatles: Rock Band. Taking players through the iconic venues in the Beatles' career, from their start in The Cavern all the way through to their finale on the rooftop of Apple Corps., complete with costume changes, psychedelic imagery and screaming fangirls it really is like spending a couple hours with the Beatles and (fake) playing their music.

The track selection covers the different epochs of their career, while not necessarily spanning every album equally, it covers the large part of their career in batches and proves to not only be an enjoyable gaming experience, but also a really solid compilation of The Beatles' music. And even though, while playing, gamers might not be able to focus on the visuals much, they are all done tastefully, with especially interesting "trips" during the experimental studio phases of The Beatles' career.

In addition to story mode, there appear to be challenge, quickplay and other modes, so I'll be checking those out later.

Hardware: The New PC Build, Part 2

2010-01-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

One of the most difficult decisions I had to make while compiling this build is the choice between the two main Intel processor/motherboard systems that sit in the mid-high end. AMD, who I used from 2001-2004, doesn't really hold up in the mid-high end to high end space anymore and, while I'm paying a little more now, I think the planned longevity of my new build can afford a little more spending. This left two warring formats. The Intel i7-920 mated with a LGA 1366 X58 motherboard or an Intel i5-750/i7-860 mated with an LGA 1156 P55 motherboard.

I thought the decision was going to be pretty simple at first as the P55 platform was made to be a more mainstream and affordable solution versus the high end X58 and I had no interest in sitting in the highest end. But after looking at some prices, it turns out that the i7-920's price had fallen close to the i5-750 price in some stores and generally goes for the price of the i7-860. A comparable X58 motherboard is about $100 over the average of a P55 motherboard. And the X58/i7 combination is triple-channel memory, which means that I would need three DDR3 sticks of RAM for the system.

The great temptation then came upon me, knowing that I could get a high-end X58 system for only about $200 more than a P55 system. But, I read a ton of reviews and recommendations over the internet and came to the conclusion that to take advantage of that highest end system, I would want to go multi-GPU (3x video cards??) and that with a single GPU (and even a 2-card Crossfire scenario), performance between the two are about even or the difference between the X58 and the P55 systems was marginal. So I picked the P55 platform and bought (or will be buying):

Motherboard: EVGA P55 - While EVGA (much like XFX, their competitor from whom I purchased a PSU and a GPU) is known for making Nvidia products, the quality boards that they make also support ATI products as well. I ultimately chose this mainstream enthusiast board, which provides some overclocking ability, while not reaching the extremes of the higher end boards. Reviews seem to rate the EVGA, Gigabyte and ASUS boards in this middle price range best, but EVGA won because it was currently selling for about $20 less than the others and had a $30 rebate on top, making its price the same as a budget board. What I lose is legacy support (no IDE) so my older hard disk drives and optical drives stay with my old machine. This does mean that I might have to buy a second DVD drive at some point to enable a second DVD region on the same computer (for all my region-3 movies) if I can't find a software solution that will ignore region codes.
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Okay, I admit, it looks like fancy memory with its shiny red metallic heat spreaders, but I didn't buy it for its fancy heat spreaders or even its 1600Mhz bandwidth. I bought it because it was the least expensive well-considered memory out there at the 4GB capacity. Yes, it's cheaper than the more plain but just as well regarded Crucial 4GB 1333Mhz. Both are CL9. The G.Skills fortunately also run at full ability at 1.5 volts, not needing me to juice it anymore. I might see if I can tighten the timings at 1.5 volts as well, but since the CPU's good to go up to 1.65 volts, I could give it more juice if necessary. That said, I think it will look pretty nice in my black EVGA motherboard in my black/red LED case.

What I haven't yet decided on is the battle between the i5-750 and the i7-860 processor. Everyone loves the i5 for its remarkable power/price-point. It's truly the value-gem of the mid-high end. The i7-860 however, gains the hyper-threading of its fellow i7's in the X58 family, which isn't useful for gaming (so forgive me for entertaining the chip altogether on my gaming blog), but it is very useful for other things that I need to do, like processing/rending video and audio, which I hope to be doing a lot more with my shiny new system. It also just has more power, even being able to out-muscle the venerable 920 when pushed (although the 920 is far more overclockable).

That said, Microcenter's the place to buy processors, having all three of them at a decent price (a ridiculously good price on the 920, actually). Right now, the effective price difference between the two chips is actually $40 at Microcenter, so I have to decide if that's worth the difference in performance.

Finally, one last pair of purchases I made for the new machine:

Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 - I really find the high-quality ergonomic split keyboards the most comfortable for my hands and I've been enjoying the use of my Microsoft Natural Elite for almost ten years now. While it mostly still works fine, I've decided to retire it as the keys have taken a beating. And it doesn't match my swank new black/silver/red theme on my new case. The most compelling reason for me to buy this keyboard however was that it comes with a built-in riser in the front, allowing me to tilt the keyboard in backwards, which will help keep my wrists even straighter as I type.
Mouse: Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000 - Okay, I got this because it came in an OEM set with the keyboard for less than the retail price of the keyboard. Good deal, huh? Personally, I did want a baseball-style mouse, but this was basically free. It's your basic mouse with two side buttons and four way scrolling.

Progress Report: World of Warcraft Account Recovery

2010-01-28T21:44:00.000-08:00

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I suppose this entry is less about progress and more about a lack of progress. It has been over one month since my characters were deleted and my account hacked. I have made all the right reports. On December 29, I requested that Blizzard restore my account. As of today, January 28, absolutely nothing has happened on my account. They found my warrior and returned her to my server and she was covered in ill-gotten gain from the hacker. Blizzard then proceeded to return the ill-gotten gains to the swindled, which applaud them for.

Unfortunately, outside of that report from Blizzard, I've heard nothing more about the restoration of my characters (or that such restoration will not be possible). I imagine that it might take some number of weeks to restore an account, so I guess I'll just have to wait, but it is kind of annoying to have a month of playtime go idle ($15). Maybe I will just cancel my account and let it all go for a while. The longer I'm away from Azeroth, the less I feel a desire to return to it.

Hardware: The New PC Build, Part 1

2010-01-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

Okay, this isn't entirely "game" related, but since it'll have an impact on my computer gaming scenario, I think it's fair game. Hehe. Like what I did there?

Anyway, as my computer is really getting close to its last legs, I've decided that it's finally come time to upgrade the beast. Built in the winter/spring of 2004, it's served me well for the past six years, but fell a little short of what I've needed in the last couple years.

So, I did a lot of research, getting myself up to speed on the latest state of the PC world and made some calculations of my own needs and applications. Then I drew up a list of likely candidates for parts and finally started purchasing them.

So far, I've picked up:

Optical Drive: Lite-On IHES208-08 8x Blu Ray Combo drive - As I've gone Blu-Ray, I'll want to be able to watch (and grab screens from) Blu-Ray films on my computer. The Lite-On IHES208-08 gotten solid reviews and recommendations for performance, comes with "lightscribe", some fancy disc imprinting technology and is among the fastest of the optical drives out there. I picked the retail box to get the player software that it comes with so I can save a couple dollars on the cost of software.
Case: CM Storm Scout - Yes, I could've went with a cheaper and functional case, but unlike my last build, I'm planning on bumping performance as I need it by overclocking this computer over time. Because of this, I wanted to make sure that I had a case with good airflow (and potential for greater airflow) and plenty of room for all the heat producing critters I'm going to put in there. It also helps that the Scout is pretty nice to look at and was a touch cheaper than other cases in its price/functionality spectrum.
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition - Okay, this is the big gaming concession I made. Granted, I wasn't intending on buying the factory overclocked Black Edition, but it just turned out, due to a Newegg combo deal with an XFX power supply, that it was the cheapest of the Radeon HD 58xx cards out there that was still in stock. The ATI Radeon HD 5850 is possibly the second or third fastest single-GPU video card presently on the market and sure, that might be overkill (note my monitor choice down below before slaying me over it), but the hope is that this will take care of all of my gaming needs for the next 5+ years that I have this machine. Why XFX? My last card is XFX and, while it's died on me four times over the last 6 years, XFX has replaced it every single time thanks to a lifetime warranty. They also have solid customer service. Why a single-GPU card instead of getting a pair of cheaper cards in SLI/Crossfire? Lower power consumption, less noise, less heat, and, should I ever find one day years down the line that I need more beastly graphics power, I can buy a second card at a fraction of the price of today and turn my single-GPU machine into a Crossfire machine and boost the graphics. To that end...
Power Supply: XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular PSU - After doing a little reading, it turns out that XFX power supplies either are re-badged Corsair HX supplies or at least manufactured the same as the specs are nearly the same. But the XFX one is a touch cheaper, had a rebate (as well) and came in a combo deal with the XFX graphics card listed above, making the cost of the graphics card less than other comparable cards. So, why 650W? I know, it seems like more power than I'm going to need for a single graphics card and that's true. But buying this now means that should the day come that I need a graphics upgrade, I'll have the power to feed two graphics cards. In the meantime, I'll also not have to worry about needing power for overclocking. That said, there are cheaper 650W PSUs out there, but this, like its well rated Corsair HX brother, comes with four 6-pin graphics card connectors, which I would need should I ever decide to get a second card for Crossfire.
Monitor: Asus VK266H - It seems like a rather large monitor, but for someone that works in entertainment (TV/movies), it only makes sense to spend on a monitor. My Blu Ray movies need to look good. In addition, this monitor comes with a built-in webcam, which I've never really had the joy of using on my main rig. The main reason that I needed to replace my monitor, however, was because my 6+ year old monitor from before isn't HDCP compliant, which means even with a Blu Ray player, no HD video would ever reach my monitor. But, now I'm going to have two monitors, a 1600x1200 and a 1920x1200 side by side. That means when I'm editing videos, I can have a really long timeline, or a monitor dedicated solely to playback display. It means that I can edit one document on one screen and look up reference docs on another without having to flip between windows. It also means that I can play a game on one screen and look up hints when I need them on the other or chatting, should the desire arise. It would also mean I can run one OS (Windows 7... Linux?) on one screen and VM a second on the other.

Of course, while putting this thing together and deciding to purchase the components, I chickened out multiple times when my shopping carts online were filled up. It's a hefty investment, so it makes sense and it's a little harder with prices so volatile on certain components (I'm looking at you Radeon HD 58xx!). But the above purchases have been made.

This leaves a boot drive (the HDD vs. SSD conflict to be determined!), as well as the motherboard/CPU/RAM situation. The first is quite simply a determination of cost vs. performance and whether the very noticeable performance boost is worth the expensive cost of an SSD. The second is trying to choose between the two Intel platforms (P55 and X58) and, if I choose the P55 platform, whether I want to spend another $90 for a hyper-threading i7 860 or try to be happy with the otherwise beefy performance of the i5 750. I'll update as I make the decisions and buy the parts.

Inbox:Progress Report: Castlevania

2010-01-22T20:35:00.001-08:00

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

Way back in the 1980's, we had a Nintendo Entertainment System. One of the games that I got for this venerable system was a little title called Castlevania. Truly an old school platformer, it spawned a legacy of games that lives even to this day. One of the things about this game that really marks its epoch is how hard it was.

I have never, in all my years (yes, years) trying to beat this game, been able to beat the game. I think every two or three years, I get the urge to plug the game in and try to beat it. I've memorized every level and pretty much know where every single monster will spawn and where every single item is by now. I still haven't beat it and there are two chokepoints for me.

Recently, I downloaded the game on the Wii's Virtual Console, having a desire to finally conquer the thing and I did surprisingly well, not losing a single life all the way until... Frankenstein & Igor. It's one of those bosses that has a true weak point (holy water), but Igor jumps all over the place launching fireballs in difficult angles. And he kills you in four hits. Oh, and Igor is invincible.

I lost all six of my lives to this pair, having fared poorly the first time and died, losing my advantage. Hopefully, the next time through, I'll be able to take out Frankenstein and get back to the punk that was the one boss that always took me down. No, I have never beaten the Grim Reaper, even though I knew the boomerang strategy. I've gotten close a couple time, but no wins. I intend to change that this time around.

WoW, really?

2009-12-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

I got a conclusive response from Blizzard, two weeks after I submitted my report of missing characters:

We have reviewed our logs of your account, and we were able to determine the following:
No gold was removed
No items have been deleted, sold, traded
No unauthorized character transfers
No profession changes
Guild banks associated with your characters are intact
Fortunately, it appears as though your account has been unharmed.

Suffice to say, I'm not pleased. At all. I wrote a detailed response back to Blizzard showing proof that an unauthorized character transfer was attempted and detailing the dates when my two primary characters went missing. I'm going to give them one more chance--if they get it right and at least acknowledge that my account was violated and my characters were transferred/deleted without my consent, then all will be forgiven. Even better if they can restore my missing characters.

WoW, I've been hacked

2009-12-17T18:55:00.000-08:00

Somewhere between last week and Tuesday morning, December 17, 2009, my Battle.net account was accessed without my permission. Two trial accounts were set up in my Battle.net account and my guess is that those trial accounts were used to advertise for a gold-selling company. On Tuesday morning, I was informed by Blizzard that my accounts WOW1 and WOW2 were suspended due to suspicion of unauthorized access. I didn't have any accounts named WOW1 and WOW2.

I went onto my Battle.net account and discovered that two trial accounts were indeed opened on my Battle.net account. This means that someone accessed my Battle.net account, which means someone had my password. This was very bad news, because I use a very simple algorithm from a key password to determine my passwords for every account--it's easy to reverse. My first instinct: to check the associated email account. I got into my email and at first it looked fine. Then I looked at the deeper settings...

Why was my security question written in Chinese? Why did my alternate email address point towards a qq.com account? It was obvious now that it was a Chinese gold farmer that had broken into my account to advertise gold for sale. Then it very quickly became clear to me that they'd discovered my email password as well, broken in and were changing things to lock me out of my own email. Two passwords found--it was either that they broke one and intuitively reversed my password algorithm to determine my other password. But I thought about it more and realized that they really just didn't have any point of reference to determine my passwords via algorithm--it's possible, but it'd require more work than I think a gold farmer would be willing to put it.

Then I realized what it probably was and I raced to open up Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

The three most likely ways that an account gets compromised are:

Phishing - Someone sends you an email, IM or other communication that falsely tricks you into providing your username and password into a fake website designed to look like the real one. This is used for identity thieves to get into bank accounts, gold farmers to take over WoW accounts and all sorts of other malevolent activity. This I would never fall for. I'm far too vigilant about my passwords and usernames.
Giving account information away - You give your account information to someone you trust and that person gets tricked into sharing with someone who abuses it. I would never fall for this either. My account information gets shared with no one and if it does in an emergency, I change my passwords immediately thereafter.
Keylogger - A trojan horse or other malware is installed in your computer clandestinely and then steals your passwords as you type them in from your computer. I highly doubted that I'd have gotten a keylogger, since I'm very careful with where I go online and dutifully scan my computer regularly, but...

Anti-Malware found a trojan horse on my computer! How? HOW?? But I didn't wait too long while asking the question. I immediately removed it. Of course, these things tend to be pretty tricky, so I opened up Super Anti-Spyware to double check Anti-Malware's work and another different trojan showed up! Removed with two clicks. This was disturbing, but I had to act fast. With the feeling that the keyloggers were removed, I came up with a new key password, mixed up my encryption algorithm, changed every single password I had on the internet and restored my settings on my email account.

Then I did rescans of my computer with MBAM and SAS as well as AVG (my resident live anti-virus program) and found my computer clean. I'd purged the account hijacker from my accounts and my computer. But the story didn't end there.

Wednesday morning, I received another communication from Blizzard informing me that my request to move my character from one account to another account was suspended due to the suspicion that it was unauthorized by me. I definitely wouldn't have done that and I certainly didn't! Going online, I noticed that my two World of Warcraft characters that I played were gone! At first I thought that my account got hacked into again, so I spend a couple hours changing all of my passwords again. Then I did a little reading into Blizzards character transfer process and realized that it might take more than a day to transfer characters, so my guess is that the account hacker probably created his two gold selling accounts and started advertising and then put in requests for all my wealthiest (granted, my characters aren't too wealthy) characters to be transferred to some other account to strip of them of their gold and sell that too.

Well, it's incredibly annoying to have all your hard work and progress in the game eradicated by some faceless Chinese criminal especially as I was getting close to my goals for finishing my time in WoW. I reported the account violation to Blizzard and requested that the character transfers be reversed.

At one point during this madness, I thought to myself whether I even wanted to continue playing. After all, the desire to make money by stealing accounts and gold is so high that every day that I log in, someone's trying to access my count for a little digital theft. But, that feeling subsided. I want to finish what I set out to do. So I went ahead and ordered a Battle.net authenticator, which will make my account much more secure, even if a little more annoying to log into.

Online gaming, especially in MMOs do have some risks, but so does going online in general. And even if you're not online, there's someone out there who wants to steal your identity for every penny that it's worth. It's a little disheartening to know that there are so many people with so much evil intent out there, but that's just the way that this world is. If we decide that the risk isn't worth it and refuse to enjoy and make something out of life, out of fear, we already lose what we were afraid to lose in the first place. So I'll finish my in depth look into WoW and continue to report gold-seller spam with great diligence as the one way I can stick it to the evil bastards who would prey on the gaming populace.

Consoles Vs. PCs

2009-10-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

For the longest time, I've been an avid PC gamer. Granted, I was a console gamer first, with the Atari 2600 and a number of gaming consoles since, but PC gaming held my heart since I first met Police Quest. Some of my most treasured games were PC games: the Baldur's Gate series, the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, the Wing Commander series, a number of adventure games by LucasArts (Sam & Max, Grim Fandango, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis) as well as my first FPS love, Doom.

However, something interesting started happening lately: games have been showing up both on console and on PC. Okay, perhaps it's not a particularly new phenomena, but the ports have been showing up closer to each other as of late, especially between the Xbox 360 and the PC, due to the similarities in architecture.

Initially, I stood fast to my PC love, even buying console classics (Final Fantasy VII) for the PC. After all, I already had a PC and it eliminated the need to purchase a console. However, I'm starting to be turned towards the benefits of gaming on the console and choosing console versions of multi-platform releases.

The reasons why I'm starting to like consoles better:

Multiplayer friendly: Consoles were, almost from the start, two-player friendly and now four players is the standard for in-room multiplayer gaming. While the PC pushed the boundaries of online massively (or, at least, high volume) multiplayer gaming, also providing a screen to each player instead of dividing the solo screen, console online multiplayer has been catching up. Although it still hasn't fully caught up to the massively multiplayer gaming advantage of the PC, consoles have even been gaining in that regard. However, if you and three friends want to sit around the same game and play together, the PC is not your system of choice.
Sharing Games: Another thing that I like a lot about console games is that any game I have for my console, I can share with anyone else in my household. Heck, I can loan the game out to friends so that they can play them too. If I were to have my brother play my copy of Half-Life, I would need to sit him in front of my computer to play. But Super Smash Bros. sits in the living room and can be played by anyone.
DRM: Related to above, one of the things that is really starting to aggravate me about PC games is the digital rights management schemes that they have. Many PC games limit the number of times they can be installed, limit the number of installs per machine or otherwise inhibit your ability to play them on your PC or if you decide to change or upgrade your PCs. Some of these DRM schemes also cause havoc with your system. Lastly, DRM disables sharing. Want to let your friend borrow your game? You'll have to uninstall and give up your product key--if that's even possible. Often, the latter is not.
Used Games: Related to DRM, because of the sharable nature of console discs, it means that when a gamer is done with a game, they can give it up and sell it for cash. More importantly, it allows people like me who don't need their games to be new and shiny to buy them at a heavy discount by buying them used.
Compatibility: One thing that often snags with PC games is that, because the huge variations in PC builds out there, many computers end up with compatibility issues with PC games. Sometimes it's a power issue, other times it's a software or hardware glitch, but basically, there's a whole lot more room for things to go wrong between putting the disc on your computer and playing the game. With consoles, each console is (nearly) the same, so you're never left wondering if you can actually run that game.
Home Theater Systems: Yes, you can hook up your computer to your big screen TV and surround sound system to play a game. This is true. But if you have a console, you will hook up your console to your home theater to play games. For me, my computer doubles as a workstation and so I keep it from the busy, noisy, living room so that I can work in peace and quiet. Hooking it up to my home theater system requires a lot of painful effort. My consoles, of course, are already hooked up. There's nowhere else for them to go.
The Couch: Having the console in the living room lets you play games on your couch. I often like this.

So, clearly, I've thought of a lot of reasons why I like consoles better. PCs, however, do have some advantages:

Input: The mouse and keyboard are near essential for many types of games, including real-time strategy and massively multiplayer online RPGs. Consoles use controllers, which just aren't as versatile. Heck, I even prefer playing first person shooters on my PC because of my favored mouse+joystick setup. However, since GoldenEye so many years ago, the console controller has become a capable substitute for mouse+keyboard. But the PC still has that versatility advantage.
More Power!: While this won't be true of every PC, you can build a pretty beastly machine that can absolutely churn out far greater power than the latest generation consoles. Consequently, if you play the same game on the PC, you can turn on all sorts of whistles and bells and make everything look every better than they can on the console. As games age and technology improves, older 3D games can often be taken to even greater levels. Final Fantasy VII in 1048x768 is fantastic.
Exclusive Games: This is the whole reason why I continue to maintain my computer for gaming capabilities. Some games just won't ever who up on a console. Furthermore, since I love retro-gaming, many old PC games will never show up again on any platform. These games, I have to play on a PC. Thus, I have to keep my PC gaming fit.

But ultimately, the pros of the console appear to have swayed me over the advantages of the PC. Although the rich history of PC gaming might make me consider buying the PC version of Fallout, I've largely come to the conclusion that I will be buying console versions of games, when all things are equal between versions. Of course, if the PC version has extra treats (like level editing, bonus features or just more features in general), I will likely go PC instead for that game, the console has finally bested the PC for me because of its practicality.

Of course, because of the exclusivity of many games for the XBox360 and PC, I'll probably end up having to get the 360 to play those games. *Sigh* The things I do for the love of gaming.

Deal: Amazon Gives You $25 for Buying a Wii

2009-09-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's a decent deal considering that the Wii just underwent a $50 price drop. If you like Wii, this might not be a bad time to pick one up. Good until October 3.

Bejeweled Blitz

2009-09-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

So, I recently survived a short-lived, but intense, addiction to Bejeweled Blitz, a mini-version of Bejeweled that Pop Cap Games released for Facebook.

It's essentially the same match-three game of Bejeweled that I'd enjoyed all these years, this version taking from the more advanced Bejeweled version where a match-four leads to the creation of an explosive gem and a match five into an all-destroying brick. The limitation, at least in its current incarnation, is that you only have one minute to play and you try to maximize your scare in that one minute.

The one-minute time limit makes the game as intense as Tetris, forcing you into intense pattern matching quick clicking mode to maximize your score as you play. I also noticed that this incarnation of the game isn't entirely randomized. I noticed a little slowdown when I took care of all possible matches in the field as the program came up with a set of bricks that would allow me to make at least one new match.

It's addicting because you only need one minute to play one game and the results come out fast. Furthermore, it contains online leaderboards for Facebook friends who are also playing it. I originally stopped playing having won the 75K medal, but then I got zealous and tried for the 100K medal for a few hours and eventually, after a sleep break, ended up with a 125K medal (skipping the 100K medal).

While playing, I noticed a few things: One, you are somewhat at the mercy of the program's randomness for chain combos. Some boards will have a lot of matches and others won't necessarily have as many present on the field. Which means that sometimes you will run out of matches very quickly and be forced to hunt for the remaining matches, which will limit your score.

Another thing is that the game gives you bonus points for matching quickly and successively, which means that it's more rewarding to hit any many combos as you can quickly instead of searching for possible chains or even making special gems. If you see it, click it and move onto the next one without hesitation. It also helps to always keep an eye out for the next move after you click and the removal/filling animation is happening. In fact, you can usually start clicking that next match while the animation is happening to increase your speed bonus for the next match.

One key thing to getting a higher score are the multiplier gems. They are circles with x2, x3, etc. on them, colored to match a gem. I find it difficult sometimes to discern between orange and red and orange and yellow sometimes and their shape also throws me off. However, matching these gives you a score multiplier and so it's critical to hit these whenever possible. If there is an obvious match for them available, I will usually hit them, but not at the cost of matching anything else since the speed bonus can account for more than half your total score.

Also in the chaos resulting from new gems falling into to place, a lot of chain combos can take out the multiplier gems, so I wouldn't worry too much about them, except to see if there are any obvious combos if your focus of attention is near them. The unfortunate part is that these also seem to appear randomly and so there may be an upper limit to your score on any given board, depending on when they appear. I've seen up to an x5 (but have only gotten up to x4) and there are medals available for some rather high scores, so I imagine someone out there is really hitting a lot of these and has extremely fast pattern recognizition and hand-eye coordination skills.

As for me, my clicking is a little clumsy and I often will end up trying to swap two wrong gems on occasion, so I'm not awesome at this game. Another thing that I noticed is that if you end up making all available matches and get stuck at the top of the board, waiting for new gems, you're pretty much guaranteed not to get a high score because your speed is slowed down to looking for just the next match as opposed to two or three in advance and you're stuck hunting for it when it falls.

Yet, despite my quibbles, it was a lot of fun. And I hope to never play it again for fear of addiction.

My Review Scoring Guide

2009-09-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

Although I don't necessarily think that scoring entertainment media on a 1-10 scale is perfect, I do keep numerical score as a way of sorting through the titles that I care about and those that I don't. What follows is the breakdown of what the numbers at the end of my reviews mean:

Irredeemable - Any title awarded a one usually means that after experiencing the whole thing, I want to erase the memory of that experience, recoup the lost time, and blind myself so I never have to witness such an awful thing again, even by accident. These titles don't even qualify for "so bad it's good". They're so bad that bad doesn't even describe them.
Of Negative Value - There is nothing in this title to warrant trying it. In fact, you're better off doing something else. Even staring blankly at a wall for the same amount of time.
Of No Value - There might be something resembling a coherent work in a title rated a 3, but it would require exceptional dedication, perseverance and suffering to complete it. Titles that are so-bad-it's-good usually fall into this category. If you can mute it or otherwise use it not-as-intended and it suddenly becomes enjoyable because you're using it as fodder for your own creativity, then it deserves a 3.
Of Little Value - These titles have major flaws that prevent them from being acceptable. All titles rated lower than 4 are ones that I'd rarely rate because I wouldn't complete them. A title that gets a 4 has a chance for me to sit through the entire thing. Odds are that I'm frustrated, sighing, yawning or otherwise while taking it in and will likely write a zinger-filled review once I'm done with it. However, they do resemble better examples of the media and I do believe that some select people can get enjoyment and entertainment out of them, even if I don't.
Of Limited Value - These titles are much like 4's, but I can usually sit through the whole thing and perhaps not even really want quit. On the other hand, there is nothing in these titles that would make me feel bad for quitting early either. 5's represent the point where a titles fails to get me, but could have, were it just a little better. These titles have notable flaws that detract enough to be noticeable and hinder the enjoyment of them.
Of Some Value - These titles are okay. I don't hate them. I might be disappointed by them in some respect. This also represents titles that don't necessarily have any goal to be good or great, but are modestly seeking to entertain just a little. I usually have problems with some elements of such a title and like others. I can sit through the whole thing without wanting to leave, even though I might not be pleased with what I'm seeing the entire time.
Good Effort - I like these. Even if there are problems, I still like them. There's something in them that makes them stand out in some way or another. I'm engaged throughout the title enough.
Solid - These titles, even if they have some problems, represent those that are certainly enjoyable and ones that I can recommend to others. I fully enjoy them. This is the pinnacle that a purely entertainment-oriented title can reach.
Oustanding - A title that's awarded a 9 stands out in my opinion. They might represent some of the most impressive achievements in entertainment media that I've seen. They are either solid from start to finish or have some amazing qualities that overshadow any of the film's weaknesses.
Personal Favorites - The only difference between a title that gets a 10 and one that gets a 9 from me is personal favor. While I can acknowledge that all titles rated 9 or 10 from me are all wonderful and beyond proficient, a title that gets a 10 is a film that I have a personal love for.

I should note that any title that I particularly favor, for any reason, can be shifted up 1 point from my regular scale, therefore, any title rated by me might have a 1 point bias, outside my criticism.

WoW, I'm an Altoholic

2009-09-02T19:44:00.001-07:00

The game that I'm playing most right now is World of Warcraft. I started playing WoW again late last year. Prior to that, I played briefly for thirty days in the summer of 2005, a little after it had launched. Before WoW, I had played several MUDs, Meridian 59, Everquest and Asheron's Call, so I had some amount of experience in MMORPGs.

One thing that's true of any RPG I play is that I'm an altoholic. That is, any RPG that has character creation options will undoubtedly result in me spending my time playing through it over and over with different characters. Sometimes, I will play multiple characters concurrently. Actually, often.

In WoW, I was, at one point, playing ten different characters simultaneously, trying to get every single race and class covered. This led to a remarkably slow leveling process and so I eventually gave up and deleted all those characters.

Altoholism is a particular weakness of mine stemming from my desire to "try everything and see everything". A completest nature that does help me to enjoy all the content a game has to offer. Unfortunately, it also has the side affect of causing it to take forever to see everything and do everything. In a MMORPG, because of the vastness of the content, it might mean that I never finish. In Everquest, I would make a character, level them up to about level 10, get bored and start a new one until I had created almost 30 characters. I don't think I ever got a character past level 20.

So, I made a decision when I deleted all those characters. I would permit myself to have alts. But I would "finish the game" so to speak. To that effect, I've created five alts. I had a very specific methodology for this, of course.

First, I picked my race of choice: Undead. Why Undead? Because it was the race I'd experienced the least of while playing before, but it also tied into the server that I play on. I play on a server named Dragonblight. I chose this server initially because one of my friends plays on this server. But, anyway, Dragonblight, according to game lore, is where the Plague of Undeath started.

Then I made one of each class the race is capable of picking. I already knew that I wouldn't be satisfied unless I had multiple alts. I needed five classes because I wanted to try every profession. There are 11 professions. I've picked up 10 of them. I didn't want to repeat a class, so I made one of each.

Also, before, I had all my alts sprawled across multiple servers, but now I have them all in one spot. This helps speed things up a little because I can share resources between my different alts, whether money or craft items, which helps considerably.

So far, I'm probably double or triple my previous leveling pace and set a goal for myself.

I will consider myself having "finished" the game, when I complete all the World of Warcraft content available before the addition of the two expansion packs. That is, I will play up until level 60, having completed all the major points of the game before Outland, whichever happens last. Currently, my quintet of characters range from levels 34 to 38, although I try to play each evenly in terms of quest completion. The variation is in part due to class quests, some alts having completed some dungeons that others haven't and just the luck of the draw when running into wandering mobs.

Here's hoping, with my new plan, I can see all that Azeroth has to offer, before they blow it all up with the next expansion pack.

Init refresh daemon

2009-09-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

You probably have no idea who I am, but I'll state some obvious things. I'm a blogger. I maintained a blog on a different blogging network, but the format there became too cumbersome for me, so I've switched over to Blogger. I've also decided to split up my thoughts between different blogs.

One of the things that interest me is interactive narrative media, including gaming. This blog shall chronicle my various thoughts on games, including reviews of games I complete as well as thoughts on the games as I play them.

Cheers!