Who would have thought...

Now that the 'Big 3' have each shows their wares, here are a few more impressions after digesting Nintendo, Sony, the rest of EA, and everything in between.

I need to correct my excitement over ESPN on 360 to zero if what I have heard since then is true. Basically if you don't already have the channel through Cable/Dish you cannot watch it. If this is correct, please tell me what the fuck devoting that much of your show to it was for, since 'free' price is in fact NOT free if that is the case. I really hope I am wrong, but it wouldn't surprise me.

As for Nintendo, how the fuck did they pull off the best show, even with some really awkward parts? Is it that the others were just incredibly BAD (and they really made Microsoft look flat out AWFUL in retrospect) or did they just make me excited about the Wii AND somehow look forward to the 3DS despite swearing off handhelds?

I cannot convey how happy I am that Zelda looks like it requires the Motion+, since more serious games that use motion controls benefit immensely from it. I really really worry about the shield controls though, as from my experience the motion sensor in the nunchuck is piss poor. I hated any moves in Twilight Princess that used it in that manner, as it was spotty at best. I hope it was more a software issue and not hardware, as the accuracy of the controls will make or break this game unlike any other in the series so far.

Now I just feel like jumping to the 3DS, which if the effect is really as amazing as I keep reading, and if the analog stick works well, seems both awesome and incredibly awkward at the same time. Think back to all the games that you felt really used the DS - chances are the "main" game screen was the lower one. With the focus almost having to be on the top screen due both to the larger size and the 3D effect, doesn't that take away 90% of the point of having the touch screen?

I understand it from a backwards compatibility standpoint, but otherwise it also really impacts adventure games (which seemed to be making a minor comeback on the system) and all of the games that use the DS as a book. It also seems to get rid of the popular effect of spanning both screens due to the different sizes, though I am sure developers will do it anyway. It really is almost two distinct systems in one right now, which makes me feel like they should have gone all-out to one big 3D screen and set it up like the PSP Go (they couldn't go the other way with touch, as it would just be an iPhone). Think about a game like Nintendogs, one of the all-time bestsellers on the system - it would never be made for the 3DS. I am really interested to see how many developers skip the touch aspect altogether with the analog now available to control and a larger 3D screen above.

Sony didn't really wow me, though I am really excited for Infamous 2. What struck me more about their presentation was the odd EA partnerships, which exclusive special editions of EA games. Then I thought back to how Microsoft was pimping Activision DLC, and how they chose to show the Ubisoft Kinect workout game as a feature instead of EA Sports Active 2, which is also for Kinect. Could this be the two heavyweights choosing sides for the next couple years?

The other scary part is that there has been no price announced for the 3DS (somewhat understandable) OR Kinect (baffling). I will say my magic price for 3DS that would make it a day 1 purchase is $149, and I will consider around the $179 range (with strong launch games), but my guess is $250. I can see $200 if they don't want it to be more than the Wii though. Kinect just doesn't have anything I care THAT much about, so I think $79 is my magic price there, or $100 if they announce some more uses that appeal to me. The rumored $150 is just way too high, and I think may cause it to be a massive flop.

Blaine's 6/14 impressions

First off, props to me. I went through nearly 11 hours of E3 coverage today AND worked a full day AND took care of a sick wife AND played with my son AND handled the letdown of the Microsoft presser like a man.

Tony, in the prior post, correctly conveyed the MS presser was essentially a turd, though he is excited about the ESPN thing because he is Costanza-like in his thriftiness. The Kinect Star Wars footage looks neat, but also reaks of vaporware.

I thought Gears 3 looked fantastic, as expected. Fable 3, like its two predescesors, never shows well, but will be a solid game.

I kept waiting for that annual Xbox surprise, and it ... never ... came. They poured all their effort into Kinect, which seems like a neato device with no actual games. Bad choice. This is now the year the 360 cedes this console generation to Sony.

EA, on the other hand, had their shit together. They swooped in, showed 5-6 solid titles with some random crap thrown in, showed signs of some kind of irritation with Microsoft & much love for Sony, then closed with a bang. Need For Speed, Dead Space 2, Medal of Honor, Madden, & Star Wars: the Old Republic all looked very promising. Nicely done.

Oh, and before I forget, it was GREAT to see the Witcher 2 show a quick demo on G4TV. It looks VERY dated visually, but the party interaction, dialogue, and combat all look fantastic.

The Ubi show was one I could've skipped, but still see every year. I don't know why. The laser tag was kinda neat.

In closing, my biggest shock was how little Microsoft seemed to care. They have a very comfortable approach at E3 now, and with Peter Moore gone as long as he's been, they seem to go through the motions with the actual games, and then let Kudo lose all the street cred for them. Good thing all the press members received free 360 slims this year, or someone other than Morgan Webb might actually call them out.

I am very, very curious to see how Nintendo and Sony respond to Microsoft's newfound indifference to gaming tomorrow.

-Blaine

First day of E3 festivities, and...

I am not quite sure what to think after I saw the end of the Microsoft conference. On one hand the Kinect came off looking like a crappy PS2 Eye Toy all over again, but on the other hand some of the voice command was OK. There was not a single 'new' game that I could get excited about, and even Gears of War 3 looks like more of the same (but still a day one purchase for me). Fable 3 is also a purchase, but I knew that going into it.

No, it was not the games that surprised me, it was the ESPN announcement, for no extra charge! I do not even pay for cable right now, so if this is really what it sounded like (and I am leaving room to be let down by blackouts of local sports, please I hope this doesn't happen) then I will be in heaven. In an age where live sports was the only reason I wished I had cable/dish, Microsoft may have my solution. I would have never guessed this going into it, especially with how much they rape you for sports on the iPhone/PC/etc, that is why I seriously doubt that most of the content will be free, and fear many games will be 80 Microsoft points, etc.

The one game announcement that does have me pumped for the holiday is Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, especially considering it is being made by Criterion. I did not care at all for last year's Shift, but this fall I should be done with Blur, and unless Sony actually gets off their ass and finishes Gran Turismo 5 this new NFS may turn out to be my racing game of choice for the holidays.

PRE3 Drives Us to DRINK!

This is so not my fault. Tony started drinking at 9AM and then just kinda showed up at my house, ready to record. Lucky for you all, I filled him full of caffeine and pain-killers, and we rolled this motherfucker out. We combed through our sources and the internet to find every potential game worth talking about, and assembled a 3-hour EPIC PRE3 show for you that hearkens back to the old days of Untitled Podcast madness. Gone are our recent attempts at concision and we lay out for you a plentiful harvest of information and correct opinions.

From Dragon Age 2 to Rock Band 3 to The Last Guardian to the final Nintendo 3DS specs, we have it all for you, and we tell you exactly what we're watching for, what's got us excited, and what the Cardinals were doing while we recorded this.

Explode your mind here!

Keep an eye on this blog, as each day, both of us will be carpet-bombing you with updates and opinions, be sure to keep an eye on both of our Twitter feeds for moment-to-moment reactions:

Blaine

Tony

PLEASE let us know what you wanna hear about from us, and also let us know what you think is going to be the hottest shit during the show!

I'll give you one teaser here. I'm gonna keep a sharp eye on Brink. It's being developed by Splash Damage, who I think are the absolute best when it comes to class-based shooters, and the mix of single-player and multi-player sounds amazing. Check it out.



That looks hot. I like how the cinematic trailer really gives you a feel for the type of gameplay they're shooting for. I trust the guys at Splash Damage, and can't wait for this one. Keep an eye out for it @ E3.

-Blaine

Untitled Gaming & E3

First, we must absolutely indulge in an old tradition:








I never, ever get tired of that. God, I used to love G4TV.

Anyway, so we'll be doing some E3 podcasting and some E3 blogging. We're recording on Saturday, and will have it out a bit earlier than usual, due to some crazy scheduling, and then throughout the week I'm going to blog a bit each day, and I'll try to bug Tony into doing the same. Additionally, you can follow Tony and myself (Blaine) on Twitter, for our fairly-live reactions to each of the pressers and announcements. Somehow, some way, we're going to do a post-E3 podcast. I don't know how, but maybe we can do something cool and different with the wrap-up podcast.

It seems, more and more, like this is the year that a) console makers are justifying the lack of new & more powerful hardware by introducing various waggling methods, b) waggling methods might really catch fire and replace what we know and love as 'fun games,' and c) that my cynicism might take a real punch to the nuts because Bioware & Squenidos team up into a Voltron of gaming awesome and introducing a waggling method for menu-navigation and win my love forever.

So, yeah, it's going to be an interesting year for me, because I have my expectations way lowered. While I'd love to see something about Dragon Age 2 & Mass Effect 3, I'm expecting Bioware to throw all their weight behind establishing Star Wars: the Old Republic as the WoW-killer that EA needs. Now, this isn't a bad thing, but it's something I already know exists ... in the distant future. A release date and pricing scheme would be nice.

Additionally, Nintendo is going to show the 3DS with a handful of awful kids' games, and I'll do what I do with their handhelds every time and wait until they start releasing either original interactive stories or Final Fantasy ports in the system's second or third year.

The PSP2 has the chance to be great IF IF IF there's a second analog control. If there's not, it's going to be a hard sell and Sony should fire every fucking moron that was involved in that decision.

Natal & PlayStation Move also have a chance to be very cool IF IF IF the software is there. They need to demonstrate this technology as something so immersive and accurate that it is truly a better gaming experience than the controller or mouse/keyboard combo. The lack of force feedback is a real problem, though, just like on Wii.

Which leads me to what E3 should always be about, which is the GAMES. I don't think there's anything coming out the rest of this year that I'm really, really excited about, which is a very strange feeling for me. Dragon Age 2, Gears of War 3, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Wars: the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, and maybe Mass Effect 3 are all next year. I am curious to see if Obsidian can take the Fallout 3 formula and make it NOT painful to talk or fight in the game, with their Fallout: New Vegas.

So, we'll see. I'm pumped for E3, but it's a very tempered, curious 'pumped.'

What about you? How are you feeling going into E3? What's got you pumped? What are totally negative about? Are there going to be any surprises this year? If so, WHAT?

As always, thanks for reading, and expect to see a LOT here over the next week!

-Blaine

Justified: Gaming Edition

It used to be that if you wanted to know someone's opinion on a game, you either picked up EGM or heard about it from a friend (or, if you wanted to see a bunch of excited as fuck dudes next to a 5.0, picked up Gamepro). Nowadays every video game site in existence puts out a review for almost every release, making it easy for everyone and their mom to find at least one person out there who agrees with your minority view. This has a strange effect as well, making it easy to see who is in the minority and majority on most game releases. Given that game prices are now a small investment, the urge for people to make themselves feel better about their purchase has grown, leading to an odd phenomenon where you need to justify not only purchasing a game with below a certain score on metacritic, but NOT purchasing a game with above a certain score.

This used to exist just with more expensive items, such as in the car world (see Mustang v Camaro, Muscle v Import, etc) and in the mid 90s video game consoles (at it's height in the Genesis/SNES and Game Boy/Game Gear days). Metacritic seems to have changed all that though, and in the process made game discussion forums at least 70% bitching about reviews or saying why a certain review that agrees with you is the be-all-end-all review. I remember feeling like I had to justify my purchase of Lost Odyssey to a bunch of people on my friends list, as merely playing the game caused a slew of 'I heard that game sucked bad, how is it?' It has gotten so specific that you can pretty much use the scale below:

Under 80 - It obviously sucks, and should not be even touched
80 to 90, it obviously sucks/rocks more than X game that got that score
90+ - Why the fuck are you not playing this game, if you don't like it you obviously hate gaming and are wrong

I personally have always been a huge fan of the old EGM Good/Bad/Ugly part of the review, which has been replicated to some extent on various sites. I look at the good, see if it intrests me, then at the bad and see if it is something that would piss me off. Lost Odyssey was too traditional, something that was a GOOD for me after playing many newer RPGs. Sacred 2 had glitches I was willing to look past as they didn't impact the core appeal of the game to me. Too Human... err, I don't know why I put 60 hours into it, I still believe it had subliminal messages and Blizzard was just taking too fucking long getting out Diablo 3, so they are to blame.

The strange part is that I have suddenly had to justify why I was NOT playing Red Dead Redemption. In this case, the western setting was a turn off for me, the GTA controls were something I didn't want to fight, and the HUGE single player game was not something I wanted to tie myself to as the weather gets nice. Despite this, I cannot think of a game that I have seen so many 'If you are not playing this there is something wrong with you' posts, though some of the Nintendo games were a little like that (and Mario Galaxy is the same way). Oddly enough I decided that for me Blur was a better purchase and something I would enjoy more, even though it is obviously the wrong choice with a score in the 80s.

I'm not sure what to make of the new culture, this is more of a plea to everyone to please take a step back and look at games as more than a score. You don't need to pretend to like Mario Galaxy 2, and you don't need to automatically hate Alpha Protocol - there is normally a reason there is a majority opinion, but there is also a reason that everyone will make different top 10 lists and fight over them nonstop. Buying blindly on review scores has caused me to waste money on games I only played for 2 hours (Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros Brawl, Scribblenauts) or did not enjoy but finished just because I spent the cash on them (GTAIV, Resistance, Killzone 2, Halo 3, Need for Speed Shift, Half-Life 2). On the flip side, looking past them have allowed me to discover some excellent titles (Killing Floor, Lost Odyssey, Sacred 2). A high score will not make you like a game that doesn't sound interesting, and a low score on something that sounds awesome to you may not prevent you from enjoying it.

I will say that I love video reviews for seeing what people find frustrating/annoying about a game. Hearing the controls in Alpha Protocol are bad is nothing compared to seeing someone miss shot after shot when it is lined up (a la Fallout 3, which I learned to just use VATS). I have found these a lot more useful to get a feel for if the reason it scored low was personal preference or fundamental issues with the game I will not be able to overlook. Past that, go ahead and say your opinion, just remember that Metacritic doesn't tell you the right one all the time when it comes to your own gaming enjoyment.

Untitled Podcast FTW

Once again, we return to bombard you with correct opinions.

We start out with our usual jibba-jabba, then delve into actual games we've been playing like Alan Wake, Dragon Age: Darkspawn Chronicles, and a random assemblage of random shit.

From there, we talk a little about Steam on Mac, Guild Wars 2, and then launch into an exhaustive preview of Summer 2010 for gamers. From games to books about games to E3, we cover it all.

We're also soliciting requests for what you wanna hear about in our upcoming PRE3 podcast. What do you wanna see @ E3? What do you think will be there? What's got you pumped about this year's show?

So, enjoy the podcast, and comment away!

-Blaine

Time to Catch Up

That is often the mantra of the barren wasteland of gaming that takes hold in May-July. Of course, Starcraft 2 is now going to announce the end to that period with gusto, but until then we are left with almost nothing new that I am looking forward to. There is a chance that Alan Wake or even Alpha Protocol may turn out to be worth my cash (much in the same way Red Faction did last year) but until then I am catching up on some random gaming.

What is odd is that I fear that Starcraft 2 will be a 95% single player experience for me, and Super Street Fighter IV is shaping up to be the same way (as a side note, to even get SSFIV to work online I had to open ports not needed for any PS3 game to date, including SFIV). There is just something about recent games that seem to cause people to get a bit fanatical about them, and if you don't pick one or two games to spend 90% or more of your gaming time on, it often feels like it is not worth ever trying.

This came up first when trying to play Dawn of War 2 (before the recent patch that apparently caused it to run like ass on my computer, strangely at the same time they switched from Nvidia to ATI, hmm) online, as I quickly realized I was getting shut out every match. Now I have gotten past the phase where I need to win every game, but not being able to get a single point sucks the fun out FAST. The exact same thing happened in my attempt at playing the Starcraft 2 beta, and watching the replay was just hilarious to see how terribly I got beat.

The thing is, these games are just a couple examples of a growing issue - matchmaking has just not caught up to where it needs to be. I thought the entire idea of the 'Trueskill' systems was that I would play people of equal skill, but from Modern Warfare to Forza that never seems to hold true (though Forza is one of the few games I can always hold my own, maybe the last game besides Dirt that I win on a regular basis online). What is the point of keeping track of all these stats if we are not using them to make truly even matches? Win or lose, I think most will agree those are the most exciting parts of competitive gaming.

If I can beat everyone I know in person in Starcraft and Street Fighter, why do I never get matched with anyone close to them online? I know those of my skill level exist, the games just haven't figured out a good way to match me up with them (even searching forums now, it seems SSFIV is currently dominated by those who never stopped playing the last incarnation, with many 'I am 5-90 right now, should I give up' topics). Then again, maybe the other people like me are doing exactly what I am - playing 5-10 matches, losing horribly, and then just saying 'Fuck it.'

That being said, I am still enjoying the hell out of Killing Floor mainly because I can scratch the online itch and everyone helps one another. Maybe I am part of a dying breed that plays a lot of games but doesn't master any of them, and that is part of the problem. Maybe all those 2 liters I drank when I was younger served to be the steroids of a gamer, and without them I am nothing. Maybe 28 is past my prime by 14 years. Either way, I refuse to believe there are no more middle-skill level players out there, even for the hardcore games. I just need to find a game that can tell the difference.

The FUTURE! (of Bioware DLC)

First, and most importantly, we did podcast recently, if you'd like to partake of our dark ... something or whatever.

That being said, I keep checking my damn RSS feeds because there is, for the first time in months and months, no forthcoming Bioware DLC announced. That's just damn peculiar. OR IS IT?

Words can't describe the disbelieving chuckle that fell out of mouth when their super-secret announcement a few weeks ago turned out to be the Bioware Bazaar. What the fuck were they thinking, hyping that up like that?

Anyway, I enjoyed both Stolen Memory and Awakening, as both showed promise, and teased some amazing characters, but I felt both fell short in fleshing those characters out as well as they could have. I'd like it if future Bioware DLC/expansions actually focused more on building characters (and less on sullying our HDDs with horrid platforming vehicles.)

Of course, I would argue that DLC is problematic for RPGs, unless it takes place after the core adventure. This isn't to say that it will never work properly, but I would've much rather had my first experience with Return to Ostagar be in the context of the initial playthrough, whereas much of it fell a little flat dramatically when played after the core game, when I knew that my warden was dead, and Alistair had ascended to the throne, and I was playing in some weird pseudo-context that existed outside of the actual game that I'd played.

Within the game, it works pretty nicely, After the game, kinda like Stolen Memory, it doesn't quite work. It's hard to get nearly as worked up when a) the world in which you're playing is in some weird 'frozen' state, and b) the overarching stakes are no longer raised.

Expansions, though, work quite well, even if Awakening totally dropped the ball on the dead warden import. Instead of being able to import your world, and start a new warden, they instead imported your dead warden as being alive, thus disregarding the great sacrifice he/she made.

Anyway, as I was saying, it's my belief that I'd rather play a 30-40 hour expansion with full characters rather than a mission at a time.

I do like the ME2 guns n' armor downloads, though.

Also, I should mention the Lost Odyssey DLC, Seeker of the Deep. THAT was an interesting way to do RPG DLC. While it could only be played in an active save, it was pretty much a balls-out hardass dungeon, and totally awesome in terms of challenge. It's the kinda shit that RPG vets live for. It got so insanely hard, I never finished it.

Honestly, when it comes Bioware games, I think I'd be okay with nothing but massive expansions a la Awakening, but I'd like them to be more fully integrated with the original world. By that, I mean, import the dead warden as dead, have the maps stitched together and allow movement between the worlds, import all the DLC stuff, etc.

What about you? How do you like your RPG post-release content?

-Blaine

New Untitled Podcast!

We talk about everything from God of War III to Final Fantasy XIII to Again to Mass Effect 2: Stolen Memory to just about everything that's come out in the last month that matters. We also make fun of Apple apologists.

Grab it now!

As always, thanks for listening, and please let us know what you think. Unless you're retarded.

-Blaine

TOPIC TIME!

Untitled Podcast: Collector's Edition returns tomorrow night, and due to the lack of meaningful releases and slow gaming news cycle, we're going topical again.

Personally, these used to be my favorite podcasts, back when we were weekly. Ah, such fond memories.

That being said, since we used to be weekly, we've exhausted nearly every obvious topic, so we're throwing up our hands, saying 'fuck it,' and asking you.

What do you want as the topic?
What news stories do you wanna hear about?
What new-ish games do you want us to discuss?

Let us know, and maybe your idea isn't so awful that it makes it!

-Blaine

Final Fantasy XIII - After Completion Thoughts

First off, this will have spoilers here and there, but I will try to be generic on character names, etc until I get to my ending thoughts. If you have not finished the game, you may want to only read until then.

I want to start off saying I enjoy the game and have 65 hours or so into it, with plans on at least finishing all the hunts (though trophies is probably a big HELL NO). What I want to touch on are a few points I made in the podcast and a few additional points now that the ending has come and gone.

The gameplay is something that I have gone back and forth on, and now that I have unlocked all the abilities I find that the biggest issue lies with how STUPID the AI is. We are not quite at RE5 Shiva level, but it isn't as far off as you might think, and even taints your auto battle option to the point of ineffectiveness. It gets to the point where you are actually surprised when your teammates use area of effect spells properly. Oh, and those shiny new 5-level skills you just unlocked? If you ever want to see those, better make the character the leader and use the ability list, otherwise they will happen 0% of the time.

If I am trying to juggle an enemy in the air who is weak against magic, why does auto battle decide to alternate spells/strikes? Is it to show me how one does 1/10 the damage and lets the enemy fall? This was probably the first giveaway that the auto battle system is broken, but there are many more. Are you a medic and everyone is missing ~1500 HP? Here is a singular cure spell to a random character! 2 Cura, why would you do that??? It would make too much sense.

What I DO really like is the overall feel of the battle. When your teammates are using the right spells and attacking the right character (Hope seems to get absent minded from time to time) the flow of battle is quick and fun. The only problem I have is that there really aren't that many strategies to use - I found that Relentless Assault is still the best to start out with if you are fighting easier foes, Strategic Warfare (COM-SEN-SYN) if you expect a tough match, and Aggression (COM-COM-RAV) once staggered to do enormous (potentially huge) damage. Part of this issue lies with only being able to control a single character, where I think the most apt game to look at is the previous entry, FFXII. Give me the option to pause, queue up options, or at least set some AI rules of the road PLEASE. Sure, keep the current auto battle features, but give me the option of being anal with my battle choices. Hell, after 65 hours I would appreciate the computer just taking a cue on the previously mentioned single vs area of effect skills.

With the gameplay taken care of, I have to say the overall structure of this game is about as strange as it gets. Completely linear for the first 30 hours, then opens up a bit, then completely linear for the last 5 hours, then open world. What? Also, they aren't kidding when they say the end of the story is only about half of the gameplay hours you can get out of FFXIII. I'm not sure if it comes from a deep desire to limit your strength on the last boss battle or what, but having the last Crystarium level only unlock after beating it is questionable. There is also the ability to teleport and the Chocobo riding that I would imagine many players would miss completely.

Just as haphazard are some of the design choices, both on characters and locations. Until I hit Gran Pulse I really thought the game was kinda bland and ugly, and from there the locations get a LOT better, especially a certain town you go to. The entire end story area would have been cool as well if it didn't drag on for as long as it did. Then again this will be true of most games - there will be strong locations and weak ones. The quality of the summons being all over the place is a little more confusing though.

OK, someone REALLY liked the Transformers remake, I get it. At least stick with some sort of theme though. Shiva makes a motorcycle and Brynhildr turns into a hot rod, OK. Then Odin is more classical and turns into a horse. Then there is the giant turret thing Hecatoncheir and the somewhat goofy version of Bahamut. How can it be that the behemoth (all 10 or so pixel swap versions of it) normal enemy looks cooler than the summon I have grown to love??? Then we have the overly simplified bomb enemy design versus the goofy organic goblins that have a hole in the middle of their body. This game is more hit and miss than any FF game I can think of, almost like completely different people designed each enemy. This would also be forgivable if it was themed by area, but enemies are all over the place, and you will encounter 3-5 versions at least of almost every foe, differing only in name and color. In the end there are some really cool designs - the giant creature eating thing on Gran Pulse, the huge elephant-like enemies, behemoths, and Odin all stand out. There were too many misses though to make this trump even the design of the last entry, FFXII.

Now onto the story, which is just... well, one of the weakest in the series. FFVI, FFIV, FFXII, FFIX, FFVII, all these had gripping tales that pulled you along. This one has its moments, but overall takes a large step back from the last entry. After beating the game, just stop and think about the whole thing beginning to end.

***ENDING SPOILER********************************************

So during the last battle, when your characters die, then one becomes Ragnarok, then the boss wants you to kill it after it kills you, but then your characters are alive again for reasons they don't understand, and then you kill the boss that wants to die (so fighting back makes no sense). WHAT?!?! And the BIGGEST problem is that a game built on the endgame as much as this one forces you to beat it, watching 2 characters die, but has it continue BEFORE THE LAST BATTLE. So we rewind time to do the endgame, except I have the rewards from when I did beat the game. Was there an open bar just feet away from the writer's desks???

***ENDING SPOILER END***************************************

All that being said, the game has done something right when I have put 65 hours into it. I think this may now be the most polarizing game of the series though, even if the truth places it somewhere in the middle of the series as far as overall quality. There is no HUGE weakness, which helps it overall, and the hunts are much more enjoyable than a card game/chocobo race/blitzball/dodge lightning strikes crap that normally fills out a Final Fantasy game. Upgrading weapons is also a nice touch, and I like how the characters have the ability to do everything but are clearly better at a few roles in battle, if not just one or two. At the least I have gotten my $$$ worth and then some, even if it wasn't the evolution of FFXII I was hoping for (in many ways it was a step back - it is quite silly as seeing your two other characters brush against enemies undetected, btw). This is always the risk in a series that has each release have a Cid, a chocobo, and that's about it as far as common ground.

Warning: hot, sexy podcasting

So, we're back. And we recorded. And it's actually available NOW right here.

We talked about the Nintendo 3DS, God of War 3, Dragon Age Awakening, Metro 2033, Infinite Space, Mass Effect 2: Firewalker, Final Fantasy XIII, the Witcher 2, and much, much more. It's some seriously hot shit, and you NEED it NOW.

As always, let us know what you think, and we'll be back soon with more correct opinions.

-Blaine

Forthcoming Righteous Podcastness

Tonight, Tony & I will manning the mics in hopes to once again stimulate your mind's g-spot and make you think about games and life in ways that perhaps you haven't, and maybe, shouldn't.

We'll be talking about Dragon Age Awakening, God of War 3, Infinite Space, Metro 2033, Mass Effect 2: Firewalker, Final Fantasy XIII, the Nintendo 3DS, and anything else you demand. GET THOSE DEMANDS IN NOW!

Sorry about the lack of linkage, but I'm at work, so...long story.

We may try to sneak in some last minute PAX East stuff.

What else? What are we missing? Put it in the comments!

-Blaine

FINALLY! A podcast!

First, and most importantly, Tony & I will be recording again this weekend, talking about Dragon Age - Awakening, Mass Effect 2 - Firewalker, Resident Evil 5 - Lost in Nightmares & Desperate Escape, God of War 3, Perfect Dark, Final Fantasy XIII, and what the hell the Bioware countdown is all about.

Next, I finally got sick of trying to recompress the last podcast into something that would fit into Talkshoe's size limit, and just diced the fucker in two. It's not that their size limit is unreasonable, either, it's that we fucked up in not setting everything right on a fresh install of Audacity. Sorry. That won't happen this Friday.

Oh, and in case you forgot, our last podcast was all about Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, GDC, and some other random shit.

Anyway, you can grab part 1 here and part 2 here.

Let us know what ya think, and let us know what ya wanna hear about this Friday!

-Blaine

Star Wars: the Old Republic

Just wanted to share some stuff that has me grinning like an idiot in anticipation of the privilege to hand EA a monthly fee.

First, read the GamePro preview here.

Next, watch this awesome interview with Lead Writer Daniel Erickson.




Bad-ass interview, huh?

Also, don't forget 1UP's preview.

All this has me thinking about two things.

One, the more I read/watch about Star Wars: the Old Republic, the more it seems like an MMO that I would forget is an MMO. Thus, it would be an RPG in which I have the option to play with friends, and it would be an RPG that is ever-expanding. Yes, I think I like that idea.

The other think that I keep coming back to is when I'm going to fire up my Star Trek Online membership. Soon. I think I'm going to wait until both Dragon Age - Awakening & Final Fantasy XIII are wrapped up.

What about you? Are you excited for Star Wars: the Old Republic? Do you play MMOs? Why or why not?

Also, I am a HUGE Star Trek fan, and kind of dug the STO beta, but have delayed starting my monthly fees for STO. Should I start it at all?

-Blaine

Flavors of RPG

So, the podcast is still sitting here on my HDD. It's still too big to upload, because Monday & Tuesday merge into one hellish day each week because I have so much I have to get done those two days. Well, I am free on Tuesday nights, but I'm so wiped out and angry by that point that I'm sure as hell not 'working' on something.

No, instead, I went all kindsa foaming-mouth mad for the new Dragon Age expansion, Awakening. More on that in a minute.

I do love it, though. What I've noticed is that the more someone in a forum post hates it, the worse they spell, so I think the problem may be that there is in-game reading required, and the retards/teabaggers get all sortsa mad about this, and spam-post in forums. I wish forums had a spelling test before someone was allowed to post at that moment. NO. A spelling/grammar test, so that their bile became readable. YES.

Anyway, I was instructed to write about Final Fantasy XIII, and I shall now do so.

Had you broken into my house and listened to the podcast, you'd know that the first point that I made was actually about the soundtrack, which I acquired some time ago. It's composed, rather well, really, by Masashi Hamauzu, and ONLY by Hamauzu-san. This is a first for the numerical Final Fantasy games, since even Final Fantasy XII, which was composed Hitoshi Sakimoto, still featured a handful of tunes from Nobuo Uematsu, who, until Final Fantasy X, scored every bit of music to ever appear in a numerical Final Fantasy game.

The fact that Final Fantasy XIII featured NONE of the classic Final Fantasy tunes told me everything I needed to know about this game. This was a new beginning for the franchise. They were really and truly, finally, severing ties with the past and moving on. I wasn't thrilled about that, but given how much I've enjoyed the game so far, I've let it go.

This game is perfect for people who do normal things in the Meatspace, like raise children, go to work, enjoy other hobbies, go to work AND school, go to work AND school AND raise children, go to work AND school AND raise children AND bribe the wife for sex, watch Lost, etc.

The sections in between save points are short without being microscopic, and let someone like me just sit down and place through as many of these sections as I'd like. If I were retarded, I'd refer to them as 'bite-size.'

What I've done is actually use these points as an excuse to dive head-first into the menus and get my 'nerd' on.

When I first started playing game, I like, everyone else, immediately noticed how streamlined a lot of things were. The battles can run with minimal input from the player, the areas and story are on a rail, so I was worried that my favorite part of any RPG would be gone, but (phew) one can still spend hours in the menus just dicking around with the Crystarium, customizing Paradigms, tweaking weapons and accessories, and on and on.

I'll be straight with you, though. I have found the linearity a bit stifling when I play for more than 2-3 hours at a time, I despise half the characters, and I don't like it as much I like the most recent Bioware RPGs.

Lemme talk about the characters right quick, though. Okay, Sazh and Vanille, you're cool, so you can go. Oh, wait. Wait. Vanille, I'd like you to stop having orgasms every time you make a sound. It's REALLY annoying, okay? Thanks. Bye, now. Hope and Lightning, please cover yourselves in this gasoline and go stand on the edge of that cliff. Closer. A liiittle closer. Little closer. Okay. Now, please set yourselves on fire and then jump. Thanks!

That pretty much sums up my feelings on the characters.

By the way, I really want to strat a petition that bans English-dubbed female Japanese-originated characters from having orgasms every time they make a sound. You know what I'm talking about right? These gals make a waterfall of non-word sounds OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER, but only in bad dubs, like this one. Know how I know it's a bad dub? The girls, with the notable exception of Lightning, who is too annoying to have a proper vagina, all act like they have vibrators in their panties every time they make a sound.

Whoah. Went on too long on that one.

Oh, and some people have had a real problem with the fact that one must read the Datalogs to have any clue as to what's going on in the game. I understand their position, and might feel the same way if I hadn't just gone and read the fucking Datalogs without having to be told to do so. Aside from the game telling me. And not spamming Twitter with all kinds of inane questions. Nope, I was that one smart American.

Anyway, it is an odd choice on the part of the developers to not provide an overt context for the events of the game, but it is all there. Also, if you hate reading, I have some Dragon Age 'fans' that you should meet...

As for the story itself, I'm intrigued. First of all, there's not a giant underwater thing that gently rocks boats instead of smashing them to pieces named Sin who is secretly the greatest Blitzball player ever and oh by the way Blitzball sucks ass and now that you mention it Final Fantasy X was pretty bad well except the battle system but the story and characters and dungeon design were so bad as to nearly be illegal in some countries.

Second, I'm not as into the story as I was in IV, VI, VII, IX, & XII, but it seems to be getting there. It just really hurts that (so far) two of the characters are so utterly detestable.

Oh, and for those who want to know, I'm currently towards the end of the animal sanctuary / bio-weapons development.

Also, some time, I want to elaborate on here about the discussion Laurance and I were having about the parallels between Final Fantasy XIII and Mass Effect 2, specifically pertaining to their mutual streamlining.

Now, I'm going to refuse to let myself play more Dragon Age - Awakening, and go play more Final Fantasy XIII and then maybe some Perfect Dark...

What about you? What do you think of Final Fantasy XIII? Or, why are you pigheadedly refusing to play it?

-Blaine

Next time, don't be so fucking eager.

Star stickers to anyone who can 'name that flick' in regards to my title.

It is an appropriate title, though, I assure you.

Here are all the games I've purchased in 2010.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar, Star Trek Online, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, BioShock 2, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, Aliens versus Predator, Heavy Rain, and MLB 10: the Show.

WOW.

I booted Silent Hill, only to never touch it again because of how shockingly ugly the game is. Really, though, that series has gone from the greatest interactive horror franchise ever to unintentionally funny in how fucking bad it is. I'll let you know if that changes.

I played through and enjoyed Mass Effect 2, even if it wasn't quite what I was looking for in the title.

The Dragon Age DLC was okay.

I haven't even activated Star Trek Online. I love Star Trek more than anyone I know, but the beta didn't leave me with a taste of Star Trek in my mouth. Lame.

I installed STALKER and played my usual 'make it run at all' meta-game that I play each time I install a STALKER game. I booted it, tweaked settings, looked around a little, then shut it down, since I haven't even finished Clear Sky yet.

I installed BioShock 2, and have played a fair amount of it, but it just hasn't grabbed me yet. I've played a fair amount of it, and it's...okay. The mutliplayer was a HUGE waste of money on the part of the publisher, BTW.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is awesome. I'm taking my time playing it, savoring each scene. To be required to think instead of twitch in a game is absolutely sensational. You are an idiotic jackass if you're not playing this series.

Aliens vs. Predator was a mistake purchase on my part. It is gorgeous on PC, but just not very good, and way too hard.

I think I really, really like Heavy Rain. I'll let you know in the next few days.

MLB 10 feels good so far, but I still don't understand why they make the game SO FUCKING HARD. Madden is easy to play. MLB should be, also.

Oh, and Sony, please stop shipping broken DLC as a preorder bonus, as you have now in back-to-back weeks with Heavy Rain & MLB 10. NOT COOL. Also, by refusing to fix them, you look dishonest. Please get these working.

Also, next week, I'm starting on Final Fantasy XIII, and a week later, I'll be jumping back into Dragon Age w/ the Awakening expansion while also starting to get a taste of Metro 2033, and then I'm done buying games until June, when Alpha Protocol is finally releasing (believe it when I see it). I wish that 50-75% of my game purchases for 2010 hadn't come out in the first three months, but that's the way the industry let it fall.

Going forward, I'm considering unloading my entire Call of Duty set. I think I'm just done with the series. I dunno. MW2 was a letdown on a few fronts, and I just think that maybe I've gotten everything out of the series that I care to.

Also, I'll be wrapping up Heavy Rain before the weekend, while getting warmed up with MLB 10 while playing BioShock 2 here and there while still continuing the game I have fallen madly in love with, which is The Witcher! This is one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and if things continue as they have in the game, it's easily in my top 5 RPGs of all time.

So, yeah, as usual, my life is all about excess. GAH!

What about you? Has "Christmas 2" been crazy for you, as well?

-Blaine

Calm after the storm...

Now that Heavy Rain has been completed, it looks like I have a week before I start getting hit with the Final Fantasy, God of War, Dawn of War platter. To be honest I still don't know what to think of my experience playing through the game, made even harder to convey without spoiling anything. I will say this - I turned the difficulty to Easy around the doctor sequence. I wanted my choices to dictate the story, not a missed press of the X button.

If I am to look at Heavy Rain as a movie, I think it would not be believable at all, mainly due to how elaborate things are set up throughout the game. I did enjoy 'playing' through it, but the desire to play through again to see different paths just isn't there for me. I also think that the story, while having a few points that you can heavily influence, still is focused enough that I can easily imagine what would happen if I made X decision instead of Y.

Even though I am really not a fan of quicktime events, I would say that overall the game was a success. While it was cumbersome at points (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not) it was rarely a mystery as to what was needing to be done. It also refrained from the 'you missed one press and now you lose' for the most part, at least giving you 2-3 fails in a scene before you are screwed. I did get my slip for the free download of the first add-on story, so hopefully they keep building onto the foundation with some good additional content.

Latest & Greatest Untitled Podcast

I'm always loathe to do these posts the day after the recording, as it's sometimes hard to recapture a sense of 'what the fuck were we thinking?'

That being said, this was a truly great episode. We had a ton of games to get through, and just really kicked back, had a great time, laughed our asses off, all in the name of bringing you the most correct opinions in gaming.

Also, be sure to listen closely for your chance to win a free copy of Saint's Row 2!


GRAB IT HERE!

We talk about:

Star Trek: Online
Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar (review)
STALKER: Call of Pripyat
BioShock 2 (review)
Aliens vs. Predator
Heavy Rain (demo)
Resident Evil 5 - Lost in Nightmares
Killing Floor
Forza MotorSport 3 - Nurburgring
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Mass Effect 2 (final review)

All that, plus our usual bullshit, and you have one of our greatest podcasts ever. Seriously.

Don't forget to try and win your free Saint's Row 2! Also, we'll be giving away another game soon, as well!

-Blaine

On the horizon! Look! It's a podcast!

OKAY. Real quick. I'm getting up in five and a half hours, and I promised I'd post this tonight, though it's now AM, so whatever. It was my first down time after 38 consecutive need-to-do-something hours, so...there.

Anyway, I snagged both Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Aliens vs. Predator today, which is awesome. AvP took over 8 hours to download, and that sucked, but it forced me to remember why I'm so in love with the Ace Attorney series. Having to really push my brain in a game is awesome, and getting to be with these characters again is like reuniting with old friends. I really dig the more investigative angle, and can't wait to play more.

I did spend about ten minutes with AvP, which I sat up and waited for, and gotta say...it's the best looking game I own. Crank that sucker up to 1920x1080 w/ DirectX11 and BLAMMO, it was surprising how great it looked.

Since it is a PC game, I still need to do some tweaking. It hung horribly on the cut scenes, but the in-game was perfect. I also had a ton of shit (iTunes, Firefox, Visual Studio 2010) running in the background, and I hadn't rebooted in over a day, so that may have hindered the cut scenes.

Anyway, aside from the gorgeous visuals, I was really struck by how good the sound design was. I paid particular attention to the control, since so many reviewers had been crying over their 360 controllers about how bad the control is in the console ports, and in very limited play time, the PC version seemed great. No, I didn't try the titular Alien yet, but I heard that was the worst offender in terms of control. Will grab more stick-time tomorrow.

Okay. Not so brief.

Tony and I are back behind the mic again this weekend, and we'll be talking about:

Ace Attorney & AvP
BioShock 2 review
new Resident Evil 5 DLC
new Forza 3 DLC
Heavy Rain demo
(insert random old shit that Tony's been playing)
final thoughts on Mass Effect 2
and pretty much whatever else you're willing to sit through

So, drop us a comment on anything above or whatever else you want us to read on 'the air.' Thanks!

-Blaine

I am a professional AND a gamer, not a professional gamer

It has come to my attention that a number of you have finished Mass Effect 2.

Now, let me bring to your attention that the game has been out for NINE FUCKING DAYS.

Last night, I had just enough time to do maybe an hour's worth of side missions (one of which I had me out-glitching a game-breaking glitch; big ups to the forums @ social.bioware.com), which I'm wrapping up before I plunge through the Mu Relay.

That's how I have to do a lot of my gaming now. An hour here, an hour there, and some days, none at all. Last weekend, for example, the Lady and I took a weekend 'off,' dropped the boy with my parents, and rented a hotel room downtown. I didn't play a single game, and I was glad not to, since I was so wrapped up in just being with my lovely wife.

That being said, I was more than ready to jump back into both Mass Effect 2 and Return to Ostagar once I got back.

I was actually recounting for my wife those months before we decided to get married, when I was living here, in St. Louis, by myself, and doing nothing but working 50 hours a week while living five minutes from my job. I would work 10 hours a day, hang out and drink w/ friends, and play the fuck out of my games. I remember my XBox seizing up just as I was almost done with the original KotOR, and having to a) break the disc out of the machine, and b) start my game over on a new XBox that I procured about an hour later.

Getting married and having a child changed all of that.

First off, I did not want to be that loser guy who ignored his child's development in favor of leveling a character, and I also didn't want to be that guy who sat in front of a television with a retarded grin while some other far more manly man fucked his wife.

So, over the years, my game-playing reduced and reduced, and I feel like it's now leveled off. I can play 1-2 hours a day, and I'm cool with that.

What sucks about that, though, is you motherfuckers who do nothing BUT play games kinda set the pace for the world-wide discussion about 'new game X.' What happens then is two things, equally retarded. One, you artificially shorten the 'shelf-life' of a game and encourage the ADD mentality among the gaming press in terms of how long a game should be discussed, and b) the only people talking about a playthrough of a game are those that rushed through it as fast as possible, instead of taking their time and looking for everything. Thus, the discussion of the final product is being led by a bunch of schizophrenic, sugar-buzzed 'tard monkeys who have been 'doing the Dew' for too long to be recognized as human anymore, and they're screeching about helmets not being removable while masturbating to EDI's voice.

Even if I could play more than I do now, I'd still be taking my sweet time with the game, since I like to leave no stone unturned, and I want to really max out the experience.

I also think that having a full life outside of gaming is critical when maintaining your perspective while roleplaying. When I play an RPG, I roleplay the shit out of it, and the fact that I have a life full of experiences definitely informs my character.

So, yeah, if you've already finished Mass Effect 2, it's time to re-examine your life, or it's time to actually play a full game.

If your playthrough is less than 50 hours, you missed a lot of shit. Just sayin'.

Quick Hits
 - I finished 'Return to Ostagar.' Had I played this in the thick of my initial Dragon Age: Origins playthrough, it would've been a lot more impactful. For $5, I'd say it's well worth it. I got a few hours out of it, it led to some interesting discussions in my party, it tied up some loose ends nicely, and it delivered quite a shock to my system in one scene. Looking forward to integrating it into future playthroughs.
 - I played through a little of BioShock 2. It's gonna take me a while to get used to this franchise again, but the little I played seemed alright. This game is shelved until Mass Effect 2 is done, though. Like your mom said, 'one at a time, boys, one at a time.'
 - I'm really looking forward to both AvP and the new Ace Attorney next week. Each will satisfy opposite sides of the brain. This is where the new backlog really starts to build, though.

So, what do you have to say for yourself?

-Blaine

WHACK! WHACK! Quick hits!

HOLY SHIT. I have been busier than ever. In changing jobs, I effectively eliminated any free time I had during the day during the week. I really need to do these posts at night from now on.

Since I don't let myself go out during the week anymore (I have to get up @ 6AM every day, and if I go out, I stay out 'til about that time), I have secured an hour or two with Mass Effect 2 each day, and I'm wrapping up all the side quests before I go through the Mu Relay. I've finished all the main quests and loyalty missions and am now doing some scanning and questing while trying to get all my tech unlocks.

I gotta say I'm pleased with the game, but I'm not as into it as I was the first Mass Effect. I don't know why yet. I just don't feel as immersed. This may change.

I think that part of this is brought on by my Return to Ostagar (har har.) Bad pun, I know.

Anyway, the finally-out Dragon Age: Origins DLC has given me an excuse to jump back into Dragon Age, and it's been interesting putting the two Bioware games side-by-side. Mass Effect 2 is sexier and smoother, no doubt, but Dragon Age: Origins is a much deeper and more immersive experience.

I love both of the games, and will reserve any real judgment until I finish Mass Effect 2.

I am still puzzled by how terrified of bare breasts Bioware is. Both games are extremely mature, at least until it comes to female nipples, and then it's 'ABANDON SHIP! NOOO!' Very weird.

THE FUTURE

I am very excited for the end of March. At the end of March, thus concludes 'Christmas 2' for me.

Today is BioShock 2, next week is Aliens vs. Predator and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, then in the following week (2/23), I'm getting Heavy Rain, and the week after that, MLB 2010 on 3/2, then on 3/9, I'm getting Final Fantasy XIII, and a week later, I'm getting Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening and Metro 2033. That will end this insane clusterfuck of a release calendar.

That, plus Mass Effect 2, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and whatever the hell else I've picked up this winter. Argh, Too much too close together.

What about you? Has it been or will it be a crazy calendar or releases for you?

Also, if you picked up BioShock 2, even if you've saddled yourself with the 360 port, I should be available for online play via GFW Live tonight.

Peace out.

-Blaine

Mass Effect 2, Return to Ostagar, etc

Well Mass Effect 2 was quite the whirlwind adventure. Quite fun from start to finish, and I have to say they really delivered on the major issues of the first game - the inventory, the bland and repetitive locations, the bad framerate that hurt the shooting controls, and the lack of variety in the mission objectives themselves. In doing so I think they took away a bit too much (very few armor options, very few weapons and no stats for them, much less character customization) but in the end I look back on the experience favorably and think I will play through it again soon.

In the meantime, I have been playing my usual Forza 3 and Killing Floor. Just 2 days ago I happened to remember that I had purchased Dragon Age: Return to Ostagar. This is the type of thing that happens when DLC is released the same time as a major game - it just falls through the cracks. After playing through the linear and battle-centric DLC in about 30-40 minutes though I can understand why they want it to fly under the radar. They could have done so much with this, and it ends up being a series of battles that net you the armor of the former king. There is one moment that I found powerful, but there is no new story to be told and no interesting quest, just go there, kill enemies, and get new loot. At least Warden's Keep had new characters and backstory, with Shale being good DLC as well. I think this was really just a throwaway, since all the attention seems to be focused on the upcoming Awakening release.

I am still on the fence about Bioshock 2 though I do have it paid off. It does look generic, and I worry it will lack the soul that made the first game so compelling to me. The combat was OK in the first game, but certainly not good enough to carry the second without a strong story. I guess I will check out reviews and work from there.

Untitled Podcast: Mass Effect 2 Edition

Here is your new podcast!

We talk about our early impressions of Mass Effect 2 and comb through every little detail of it. From Cerberus to Zaeed to the Citadel to Omega, we cover every minor detail from the early parts of the game. We compare and contrast Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, and talk about what we love and what we hate in the new game. If you are as much as freak for these games as we are, you will love this podcast!

Download it, listen in, and let us know what your opinions of the game thus far are!

-Blaine

Mass Effect 2 and Love

Okay, gonna keep this brief so that I can jump back into Mass Effect 2.

***SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT***

So, I'd been doggedly pursuing what I've been calling my 'perfect' Mass Effect save until I finally wrapped it up last night. Because of this, I'd loaded my first PC Mass Effect save into Mass Effect 2 and poked around a bit. I blew up, died, rapped w/ Jacob, rapped w/ Miranda (I'm allergic to anything but the assault rifle), shot at mechs with some shitty pistol, talked to the Illusive Man, marveled at all my DLC armor sets, then called it a day.

That being said, I implore to play through Mass Effect again and then, within 10 minutes, porting that save right into Mass Effect 2. It's exhilarating to have literally everything about Mass Effect still fresh in your mind when you get rolling in Mass Effect 2, and really gives extra weight to what's going on when the Normandy is destroyed and Shepard is 'killed.'

What this helps a lot, too, is putting you in Shepard's frame of mind. For both the player and for Shepard, it seems like no time has passed, so it's very easy to get into Shepard's frame of mind when he sees how much has changed over the two years that seemingly passed in minutes.

Very cool experience. Give it a shot.

Also, I'll talk more about why I went back and replayed the game one last time this weekend on the next podcast, and it has nothing to do with experience levels. Be sure to let us know what you wanna hear about on our special Mass Effect 2 podcast!

Anyway, the reason I'm here typing at you is because I have a bit of a crisis on my hands. I bedded Liara in my 'perfect' save (I always gun for Ashley first, but I yelled at her too many times for being Rush Limbaugh with female hawtness), and I'm unsure of what she thinks our situation is now. I mean, ya know, it was nice for a night, when we all thought we might die, but I've got the hottest fucking secretary in all of Cerberus, her name is Kelly, and it's pretty clear she'd be willing to fuck me. The way these things work, I'm sure I'll run into Liara again, and then it'll be all awkward, and I don't want her to be mad, but it's not like she's around to let me motorboat those beautiful blue boobies, and Kelly seems more than receptive, and don't even get me started about Miranda!

So what about you all? You gonna cheat on your Mass Effect girlfriends with the new models? How do you feel about it? Let us know!

-Blaine

Mass Effect 2 Discussion

Based on a flurry of activity both on Twitter and on the Bioware social site, I thought it'd be fun to get a Mass Effect 2 discussion going over here, both for actual discussion, as well as for our podcast this weekend, so we can take some of the best lines/comments and quote you guys when doing our Mass Effect 2 podcast.

Off the cuff, I've not played a lot yet. I'm still finishing my 'perfect' ME1 playthrough (I'm on Virmire now, so I'm close), but I did load my first PC saved character, ported him in, and poked around a bit (all the way to right after I first meet with the Illusive Man.)

So, what do you guys think so far? There's been some criticism of the game being too much of a shooter and not enough of an RPG. What say you?

What do you love? What do you hate? What are unsure of?

As I said, I'm not that far in, but I'll comment here later when I've had a little more stick time with it. Off the cuff, though, I am a little put off by how shooter-y is at times. I don't think I like needing ammo, but again, I don't know yet. As far as the narrative goes, I'm hooked, and it's EARLY. Can't wait to actually finish my 'real' character in ME1.

So, share your thoughts, get some discussion going, and we'll keep this going all week!

-Blaine

Steam is great, until something goes wrong...

Holy hell Steam is not on my good list right now. I picked up the Company of Heroes complete pack for $12.50 or so, which is an excellent deal if you can actually get it to work. I got it to hold me over until Mass Effect 2 and instead I still can't even get the install to start.

Steam has decided to freeze whenever it is preparing the cache for the game, before even STARTING to download it. I can start other downloads just fine, and appear to be the only one having the issue. Normally this would be a simple matter of calling the company and working through tech support - not with Steam. Their only methods of tech support are to either:

1) Create a separate login for the forums, post, and hope someone can solve your problem so Steam doesn't have to. This failed miserably, and just had people going 'well, just hope Steam gets back to you soon, never heard of that issue before.'

2) Create a separate login for the 'submit a question' (yes, this is even different from the support forum login), submit your problem, and wait for a reply. I have been waiting over 4 days now, with no such reply, and no way to contact them at all.

So basically, they have my money, and I have no game. I have no way of contacting them. How on earth has the primary method of getting PC games gone this long without any real tech support system? I was so desperate that I switched my language to Spanish and my region to Europe, still no download start. From what I have read as well, when I do get a response it will be a canned piece of crap. Great. At least I have another game to play, but this has seriously made me consider never buying from them again - this time it was a $12.50 purchase, next time it could be a $60 preorder down the tubes.

PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE

A part of my brain is beginning to loathe Mass Effect.

Don't get me wrong, the game is one of my all-time favorites, as evidenced by it making our 'best of the decade,' but I've been really pushing myself to play through it a fifth time in order to a) have a save that includes all the DLC & b) have a 'perfect' save to port into Mass Effect 2.

Part of this is brought on by the fact that I switched to mostly PC gaming a year ago, in an effort to collect all my favorite games on one system, and one that I could lug around with me. I dropped a couple grand on a mega-laptop that I've since dubbed 'the Deathbook,' both for its shear amount of power, but also for how fucking huge and heavy and unwieldy it is, and I've proceeded to slowly migrate as many of my favorite games as I could to its hard drive. Steam's awesome random sales helped that tremendously, and Mass Effect was one of those games I snagged for a few bucks. I then played through a new game on PC and it was glorious. Getting to see how AMAZING this game looked in full 1080p was beyond words. This, plus the upgrades to how much more you could command your squad mates and how much better the inventory system is made the switch a no-brainer. So, yeah, my fourth playthrough was driven by the 'new' experience. Now that I'm on my fifth playthrough, I'm having moments that are starting to feel a bit like a forced march.

One of the great ongoing jokes between Tony and me on the podcast is how many games I buy and either a) never play or b) never spend more than a day on or c) never finish. What is interesting, though, is that the time I should spend beating other games, I spend replaying games I love. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I swear.

Here's the thing, though. I'm a dad, a husband, an employee, and a student, so I think I've moved into a gaming space where it's more enjoyable for me to be able to play something familiar in quick spurts, as I sometimes have to just STOP to either tend to a kid emergency, or take a call, or follow the wife into the bedroom rather suddenly. If it's something I already know and love, I'm not too worried about disrupting the flow of the game.

Also, since Bioware has essentially cornered the market on my gaming time, I have brilliant RPGs that are insanely replayable. RPGs are just about the only genre I play anymore (though I am batting my eyelashes at Rebellion's upcoming Aliens vs. Predator), since I'm a story junkie, and they're somewhat analogous to that Nook I keep on the nightstand and from which I read a chapter each night.

Anyway, I've gotten WAY off track here.

I'm really considering just porting my original level-50 PC save over, but I'm concerned, since I know that the higher the level of your save, the more you're rewarded in the next game, and Pinnacle Station isn't in there. Yes, Pinnacle Station sucks balls, but I'm a fucking completist, so shut up.

I dunno. The more I write about it, the more I'm actually wanting to go back and play more Mass Effect.

Part of what brought this on is that I had my first-ever lock-up in the PC game, and I hadn't saved after 45 minutes of conversation on Noveria. Life really sucked at that moment.

I've had a few beers, though, and I think I'm ready to jump back in.

Quick question, though.

There are a few games I've really put myself under pressure to finish, and I think I may want to turn this into a podcast topic, so let me put this out there. What's the most pressure you've ever put yourself under to finish a game, and how was the experience?

Please share this post far and wide, and please comment, as we'd love to have some experiences to read on the podcast. I think this is an interesting topic, and one that could damn near fill a grad student's thesis, so let us know!

-Blaine

If crap is cheap enough, is it worth buying?

So I noticed that all the Mass Effect DLC was 40% off this week, translating to $3. For all the crap I have heard about how terrible Pinnacle Station is, this price point has me thinking about picking it up. I mean, people spend $3+ on crap for their avatar, so why not buy it to support a game I love? I suppose that's crappy logic, but I want an excuse to play it again before Mass Effect 2 hits next week.

Also, for some reason I cannot get my iTunes to update with the new podcast. Anyone else having this issue?

Untitled Podcast returns!

Here it is!

We kick things off with some general chatter about what we've been up to, then talk about (gasp) games. We talk everything from Star Trek Online to Final Fantasy VIII to Killing Floor to God of War III to Magic: Duel of the Planeswalkers (huh? Yeah, I'm there with ya.) We then move into a brief overview of the gaming implications of what was shown at CES 2010 and then talk some gaming news, and then wrap it up with quick preview of Mass Effect 2's inventory and armor system.

Oh, and we came in @ 2 hours, so you can relax.

Download it, listen to it, then yell @ us in the comments about what ya think.

We'll be posting new blogs again on Monday, and maintain that, then we'll be back with our Mass Effect 2 blowout podcast on 1/30.

Thanks for listening, and let us know what ya think!

-Blaine

Man I am cheap... plus my top 10 of the Decade

I remember on one of the podcasts way back when, and on just about any gaming podcast, there have been discussions about how single player only games are fine, even if they are only 6 hours, as long as they are fun to play through. I find it becoming harder and harder for myself to part with my $$$ for single player games that are not RPGs though. The first 'lost' gaming experience that I can really attribute to this was Batman: AA last year - I just decided right off the bat (hah) that I did not feel like paying $60 for a game I would play through and then just sell back.

Of course this changed later that same year with both Uncharted 2 and then Assassin's Creed 2, both of which have one thing in common - I have already sold them. I can't help but wonder why in the hell I dropped all that $$$ on games that within 2 weeks I was completely done with. I didn't even need the money at the time, just figured I would never desire to play the games again and sold them while I could get most of my cash back.

Why bother though? In an age where there is at least one decent game each month, why should I spend money on a new single player game that I can finish in under 2 weeks? Why can't I convince myself to pay $60 for Darksiders, a game that looks like something I would love, instead convincing myself to just wait until it is $40 or lower? I have no idea what insane criteria I am even using nowadays, but I wonder how many other people are going through the same thing. In an age where I can get Killing Floor for only $5 and get however many hours I want out of it and then turn around and get Magic on XBLA for $5 and do the same, it becomes harder and harder to justify spending the cash on anything that I cannot extend as much as I want, especially when the odds of me playing through it more than once are getting slimmer each year.

Also, since I said on the podcast I would post it but forgot until now, here was my top 10 of the decade before Blaine and I started making our combined list:

10. Orange Box
-ironically for me more for Portal and TF2 than anything else, but TF2 I still play on PC
9. Grand Theft Auto III
-the original, still the most pure fun, can't even count the number of hours spent playing this
8. MVP Baseball 2005
-my favorite baseball game ever, so many seasons played, and ton of fun even today
7. Dragon Age
-loved this game much more than I thought I was going to, great characters
6. Bioshock
-this game really struck a nerve with me, also very tied to the topic above, though I kept this one
5. Final Fantasy XII
-didn't even think I would like it, put it off for 5 months, and it ends up being one of my favorite FF tales
4. Diablo 2
-probably my top 'hours played' game of the decade easily, can't wait for 3 (Diablo 3, not my #3 game, but speaking of which...)
3. Mass Effect
-played through it twice in a row, ended up loving the action-oriented combat, can't wait for 2 (Mass Effect 2, not my #2 game, but speaking of which...)
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
-this REALLY got me hooked for months and showed how much a progression system in a shooter can keep people playing
1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
-this is probably my only game this past decade that would make my top 5 of all time, played through it I believe 5 or 6 times, excellent game

Star Trek Online beta, part 1

So, last night, I got home, fired up the Star Trek Online torrent to FINALLY get the client, and that sucker came flying down @ 1.5-2MB/sec. Every digital download game should distribute via torrents.

But, like I said before, I won't run torrents on Windows boxes for safety reasons, so I then had to transfer it over the network to my gaming box, at which point I installed it, then fired it up, and BAM, their servers were down.

Long story short, I finally got things up & running somewhere between 0200 & 0300 last night.

I wish I hadn't been so exhausted by the time things really got rolling, because I might've been a little more patient. The game walks you through some character-building stuff, and there are some interesting customization options, but they say right upfront that not everything is in place yet. I built myself a basic human Federation dude, since I didn't see any Klingon options yet, but I know that will be happening (I may also have had a bit too much wine & missed my chance).

After that, you're dropped into a starbase, where you begin to be put through the paces in terms of movement, combat, talking, inventory, etc. It's the worst part of every MMO, but STO does a good job of keeping it interesting. Everything you're doing in the game makes some kind of sense, since everything in Star Trek is so hyper-detailed. Sure, the Borg are acting all fucked up and not assimilating folks, but I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that this is going to be explained at some point.

I gotta say that I LOVE the space combat, even if everything I did last night was baby stuff. Everything I saw showed me that Cryptic understands how Star Trek space combat is supposed to work, with phasers, photons, movement, shields, and most importantly, power reallocation, so I'm really pumped to do more of that.

The ground combat works nicely, too, but it's strange not having a cover mechanic (CliffyB is smiling somewhere). I dunno, it just seems ridiculous now to have shooting in a game and no cover mechanic.

Anyway, that very minor gripe aside, the ranged combat works nicely, via number keys assigned to recharging skills, and I had only minimal experience with the melee stuff, but I expect that it's smarter to just keep your dude out of melee.

Movement (ground) is done via the standard WASD, but I'm hoping that some tweaking can be done on the A & D keys, since they swing the side-to-side movement WAY too much. That was honestly the biggest issue I had, which is a good sign.

I've yet to actually communicate with any other players, though I could see them infesting the chat last night. I'm thinking I may just avoid 'human' contact 'til the game actually starts since half of what I saw was people not grasping intuitive game design and asking retarded questions ('how do I get to (next objective)?' 'I dunno, keep moving forward through the level?') and the other half was people bitching about the game running like shit, which I thought was running beautifully. I really got the sense that many of these people were strictly console gamers that sometimes dabbled with PCs and Star Trek and other things that require too much thought for most people. This is, by no means, to slight people who only play console games, since I know many, many very smart people who don't play PC games, since many PC games require at least a couple years of training just to install them and troubleshoot them yourself when they inevitably don't work the first time.

Anyway, I was very disappointed with the quality of player of most of the other players, but this is an open beta, so it's bound to attract the unwashed masses.

That being said, I do look forward to really, truly roleplaying with other Trekkies. This brings me to the big question.

How much does this game feel like Star Trek?

Thus far, a bit. It's hard to say, since all I've done is play through the info-dump training, but the sights and sounds are there (even if the visuals are your standard MMO blah-style, so as to make it as playable as possible for as many people as possible), and much of the lore is dead-on, but I have the sense that the 'war' that has broken out in 2409 between the Federation and Klingons is going to narrow the focus of the game and keep it from being a means of 'relaxing in Star Trek,' which is kinda what I want. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about kicking some ass in Star Trek, but I'd like to have the option of just chilling and relaxing in that amazing universe, as well.

We'll see. I just haven't had enough time with the game yet to really get a feel for it yet.

So, yeah, to recap, here's the basic breakdown of what I did in the game last night:

Locations I visited:
 - starbase in the Vega system
 - my ship, the U.S.S. Shepherd (exterior)
 - interior of another ship
 - a planet (forgot which one)
 - starbase orbiting Earth

Things I did:
 - created a Tactical-focused C.O. who is now ranked Lieutenant, j.g. after starting out as an Ensign

 - recruited a Bajoran engineer chick
- blasted the Borg with a phaser, a pulse rifle, and my FISTS; also blasted their asses in space
 - have been assigned as C.O. to the ship I created, the U.S.S. Shepherd
 - finished the info-dump training part of the game

Things I plan to do tonight & tomorrow:
 - customize my ship
- recruit more bridge officers, since this is how you add stats to your ship & crew
 - visit any locales that I can from the shows & films (DS9 is at the top of the list!)
 - start questing; maybe hook up with a friend to quest together
 - EXPLORE, EXPLORE, EXPLORE

What I Loved:
 - space combat feels RIGHT
 - uniform customization is neat, but when I do get my TOS movie-era uniforms for buying Star Trek on Blu-Ray?
 - authentic sights & sounds
 - lore is dead on
 - control is intuitive in every circumstance
 - lots of character customization

What I Didn't Love:
 - visuals are not very sharp; look outdated for a PC game, but I'm told many MMOs are like this now
 - very little NPC voice work; most of them communicate through text boxes; really pulls one out of the experience
 - A & D keys really swing character too much from side-to-side; this may be addressable through control options
 - other players; people on the internet just kinda suck

So, yeah, I'm gonna get showered up here in a minute, then jump back in, and I'll be back tonight and/or tomorrow with more reports on Star Trek Online. Sorry this is so late, but I'd hoped to get more play time before I put this up, but the fucking servers were down!

-Blaine

On the Road, part 2

If you haven't read yesterday's late post, then you are a terrible person, but can redeem yourself here.

Still here in the country. Yup.

Tried to download the Star Trek Online beta on my in-laws' decent connection, but I couldn't get it to exceed 80k/s, which is shocking, since it normally comes in at around 300-600k/s. There's more to it, though.

The only way I could download it was via that godawful horrible portal of filth known as (News Corp-owned) IGN's FilePlanet, which informed me that I could pay a bunch of money and get the beta NOW with good speed, or I could get queued up in a nearly infinite line and download with rage-inducing slowness.

What's funny about all this is that I preordered the game through GameStop, and one of the benefits was that I would get access to the beta, and get additional early access to the game. Nowhere did it mention that GameStop was the one digital download preorder joint that would saddle you with fucking FilePlanet. I like trying out different digital distribution sites, and wanted to see what GameStop had to offer, but I should've stuck with trusty ol' Steam.

The benefit to this is that I will never, ever buy something from GameStop via digital distribution ever again, and neither should you. (News Corp-owned) Direct2Drive wasn't great w/ Dragon Age (pre-loading was a clusterfuck and my money that News Corp got via IGN contributed to the corporate-funded Teabagger club), but they were light-years better than GameStop.

There was an option to torrent it posted on the STO site, but I'm not stupid enough to use Vuze or any other Windows-based torrent, so I'll run the torrent on one of my Linux boxes when I get home, and hope that I'm able to get it faster that way.

It's still shocking that a huge corporate entity like GameStop would guarantee a product feature, but then have no infrastructure to ensure a timely delivery of that product. I'm sure some of you who don't take a moment to stop idiocy from flying from your fingers will want to respond with, 'wot ar eyou takking abot dude its gameslop n they our always evil becos they opnly kare about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

But, see, what you're missing there is that part of the reason that they're this 'big, evil corporation' is because they've been really smart in leveraging not only gamers, but the generic people, too. In short, they wouldn't be this big company that everyone kicks if people weren't racing to hand them money. I buy all my console games from them because the guys at my store know me, are totally cool, and provide me with a great service, and thus I vote for their service with my dollar. For years, every 3-4 months, I've walked into that store, dropped a few hundred bucks to preorder everything I want for that quarter, and pay it off, so that I can just walk in on the day of release, grab my game, and get the fuck out. Do they rape people on their used prices? Yes. You know what's awesome? Not buying used games from them! Vote with your dollar and buy that shit on eBay. Better yet (GASP!), sell YOUR shit on eBay! Find out what GameStop would give you, then set your reserve price on eBay to a dollar more than that. Wow, I just fixed the universe.

Ahem. I got sidetracked there. What was I saying? Oh, right.

Anyway, I know GameStop's been working at gobbling up a major digital distributor, rather than building their own, but I'm wondering how I'd be getting the game if I wasn't downloading the beta from FilePlanet (since I have a key, my beta IS the real game). Would I have to get it through the Pirate Bay? I mean, jesus fuck, GameStop, it's 2010! I know you're terrified of digital distribution, but shouldn't have had some R&D going on this for a while now? Steam has cut into HALF of what I used to give you, since the PC has become a MUCH better place for me to game, and Steam's service is better than yours (though I wish I could preorder & pay off games much farther in advance than I can right now.)

To close, I'm fucking pissed that I'm that one idiot who preordered a digital product through GameStop, and now I have to TORRENT the fucking product to get it, which means I'm waiting until my netbook isn't my lone Linux machine before I can do it.

Sigh...tomorrow night can't come soon enough.

Okay! So! We're back this weekend to finally bring you a non-epic podcast. This time, we're back to normal, and we're just going to rap a little about CES and just talk games. Some old, some new. I WILL be able to talk about Star Trek Online, since it is officially an open beta, which is good news.

If there's anything from CES you wanna hear from us about, drop it in the comments section below, as well as anything else that's been on your mind!

So, what do you think about GameStop, digital distribution, or anything else! ENGAGE!

-Blaine