So Many Games...

Beyond Good and Evil

2011-03-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

Oooh! It has finally happened. I've been waiting for this ever since it was announced:

Beyond Good and Evil (HD) has landed in the Xbox Live Arcade.

I played this game back in the PS2 era, and it was excellent. Beautiful graphics, a wide variety of game play style, and a combat mechanic that was well forward of its time.

Combat in BGE is very fluid, particularly in the multiple-opponent case. Push the stick in the direction of who you'd like to give the smackdown to, press the attack button, and Jade flows her combat moves over to that opponent. A brilliant set of animations and an easy and direct flow to combat. In modern games, this is best demonstrated by Batman: Arkham Asylum, and how Batman fluidly moves from one opponent to the next.

The game just appeared on XBLA, and is still downloading. I didn't need a trailer or a demo or anything. Bang! MSP 800 away, and the game is mine. Of course, I really should play the damned thing before recommending it, but I will say this is a game you should take a look at.

Driving Skill

2011-02-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while, then you'll know that driving games are one of my favorite genres. And that I tend to like "arcade-style" racing games rather than "simulation" driving. In short, give me Burnout any day, over Project Gotham Racing or Forza Motorsport.

A few months ago, I received a 6-month Gamefly subscription as a gift. This was very cool, but also has some drawbacks (and as I write that, I think a future blogpost is coming up). But with this subscription, I've had a chance to rent two driving games so far: Blur and Split/Second.

I saw Blur a long while ago, and it sounded very cool. The trailers looks great. I got the game in the mail and popped it in the Xbox. Sigh. It was back in the mail two days later. Why? Simply put: your driving skill doesn't matter whatsoever. You are totally subject to random events. You fly past your rivals, taking every turn with precision, and then what? ... a freakin' bomb drops on your ass, and you fall back to 3rd place. Did you have any way to avoid it? Nope. It Just Happens. The game is just a frustrating exercise of avoiding random encounters with your opponents, hoping they don't take you out. Sure, you can work your wonders and get the Right defense powerups, but in the end? It doesn't help. You run out of defense much, much faster than the cars behind you run out of shit to throw at you.

Futility.

Today, I received Split/Second in the mail. I'd played the demo, and it was great fun. Stuff blowing up all around you, making you dodge at the last second. But you can dodge. Your driving skills actually matter in this game. It isn't about a roll of the dice, but about you. Crap blows up around you (awesome!!) and you need to scoot around it. I'm just starting on the game, but it is already apparent that it has got some great fun, and that I need to learn more. If I bring down a bus on a rival to take him out, then I need to be very careful to dodge that same bus! The game lets you know when you've beat yourself down!

Split/Second is going to stay here for a while. After playing for a while, I'll decide whether to return the game (after sufficient play), or to send the game back quickly (to get the next one) and order myself a copy to keep. Regardless of that outcome, this is a fun game, without the defeatist gameplay of Blur.

Try it out! Download the demo, and see what you think.

Plants vs Zombies

2011-01-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

This week, there is a sale going on for Plants vs Zombies. I highly recommend this game. There is a lot of replay value in its mini-games, survival modes, and even the gentle Zen Garden. It is quick to pick up, fun to play, and will keep you going to unlock all of the play modes.

Another alternative to downloading the game from Xbox Live Arcade is to purchase a disc with the game. The disc has Plants vs Zombies and comes with Peggle and Zuma. It is just $20 from Amazon, and can be sold off on the secondary market when you're done with it (unlike the download).

A World of Keflings

2010-12-27T02:55:00.000-08:00

NinjaBee shipped A Kingdom for Keflings back in 2008. I tried the demo and was hooked, so bought the real game (it is an XBL Arcade game). Other things came up at the time, and I never finished it. Then I got back to the game in September or so and played it through.

Fabulous.

Then I saw news that a new Keflings game was coming out. And even better: Major Nelson said that it was going to be part of a holiday series of sales promotions! Just 800 MSP (aka US$10).

I bought A World of Keflings the very day it came out. My wife and I played local coop through the entire game over the next couple days. It is simply one of the best games for this. Most local coop games have one person in charge of the play, and the second person participates in some limited fashion. Not in World of Keflings. Both players are in charge. It does an amazing split screen when the players are distant and then seamlessly merges the two panels into one, when the players are in the same world space. It is completely fluid and does not disrupt gameplay.

There is a fun story and a great sense of humor throughout the game.

This game is a must-buy, whether you are playing by yourself or with a partner.

(and if you're an XBL friend of mine, then don't hesitate to share collectibles with me! I have enough of them to get you one of the achievements)

radiangames

2010-11-13T04:18:00.000-08:00

Tonite, I just saw a new radiangames game ("Fireball") appear in the Indie section. This is their fourth or fifth title so far. As soon as I saw the developer name, I downloaded the trial.

These guys really know how to put together great games and offer them at crazy affordable prices (all their games are 80 points, aka US$1). They have beautiful flowing graphics, great soundtracks, and play mechanics that are easy to learn.

End result? For a buck, you can grab a game that is wonderfully fun to play.

These guys seem to just keep cranking the games out. Maybe one every month or two. I've bought several of them already (including Fireball, tonite!). I'm going to keep watching the Indie games section for them, and if they ever move up to an XBLA or full title? Hell yah.

My eye is on these guys. Highly recommended.

BlindGiRl

2010-08-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished the indie game BlindGiRl. Very cool puzzle game, with an excellent set of visuals and sound. And for just 80 points (aka US$1). The past hour has been well worth it!

Recommended!

Darksiders

2010-08-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've been playing Darksiders the past few days. Picked it up on sale at GameStop for just $19.99 (see http://bit.ly/aHlprJ). This is a fabulous price given how new this game is. And it is well worth it!

The combat is sweeping and visceral. You fight against multiple foes, moving among the opponents with massive weapons, and some awesomely bloody "fatality" moves. One of my favorites is jumping up to grab onto a huge bat's neck, then plunging my huge sword up through its body, and ripping it into pieces in a spray of gore.

Yup, similar to God of War, and along the same lines as Dante's Inferno that I commented on earlier.

The game feels pretty linear, as you move through the story, growing your fighting capability. Some basic environmental puzzles in the areas (get this, unlock that, jump here, etc) provides for some light thinking between the episodes of combat. The graphics are detailed, with vast, open spaces to play in.

Metacritic gave Darksiders an 83. I agree, and for just $20, this game is a no-brainer to pick up.

Pick Up and Play

2010-03-05T01:51:00.000-08:00

There are a number of games which you can start up, play for a half-hour, and then set aside. Depending upon your mood, these can be some awesome games.

If you're playing World of Warcraft... you don't merely play for a bit, and go hang with the children. You're in. All in. You sit down at 8pm, and rip yourself away from the keyboard at 4am, hopefully with some nice treasure drops, and a level under your belt.

But what if you only have an hour? Or, heh, what if your attention span doesn't last that long? Here is where your pick-up games come in.

Lately, Mercenaries 2 has been my pickup game. Driving games also excel (heh) at being great pickup games. Shoot some bad guys, or run a race. Done, recorded. Go see your buddy for a nightcap whiskey.

I've been playing a lot of Sacred 2 over the past months. It does not require a "mindset" to get into, and it has a hojillion quests. It works very well for that casual-gaming / pickup atmosphere. On the other hand, my latest Dragon Age: Origins save game is right before some scary-ass demon bitch with a dozen conversation menus of choices about whether I decide to kill her or not. Oh, and if I fail to kill her? Then I gotta redo the menu sequence all over again. It is a "hump" that I am not looking forward to crossing over and over, so I haven't put that game back in the machine. Dragon Age is great, but it requires a mindset, and a time commitment.

Game style. What do you like? Do you have time? Can you find long stretches of game play? A game could be awesome, but it may require more head-time than you have available.

And with all that said, Mercenaries 2 is available, used, for less than US$20 at GameStop. Pick that up, and go blow up shit. It will take you 15 minutes to use a tank and reduce your enemies to rubble. And Merc2 is wicked about destruction. No holds barred. Adrenaline. ... Oh, then go kiss your wife goodnight. She doesn't need to know you're an avatar of wonton destruction. You can always start up Mario and whistle a tune, if you need cover...

"God of War" in Xbox clothing

2010-01-06T14:43:00.000-08:00

No, God of War isn't coming to the Xbox any time soon. But we are getting Dante's Inferno.

If you haven't downloaded the demo from Xbox Live, then do it now. Serious awesome rush.

For those not familiar with God of War (which is a Playstation exclusive, and I'm assuming this blog's readers are mostly Xbox players), think about an adventure game like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and mix in some very light platforming like the Prince of Persia series, and throw in a ton of gore and fatalities like Mortal Kombat or Vikings: Battle for Asgard. There are basic combos, and skill progression, but nowhere near the complexity of a fighting game like Tekken or the depth of an RPG like Oblivion.

Does that all make sense? Basically, you're playing through the nine levels of hell being the biggest, baddest, motherfucker in the universe and beyond. Shoot... in the second scene of so of the demo, you fight Death himself! And kick his bony ass, as he blubbers like a schoolgirl to spare him!

The controls in the demo take a bit to get used to (right stick is dash/evade rather than camera, which is mostly fixed). But the fights are fast, gory, and really gets the adrenaline going. You're fighting all these monsters using the scythe you swiped off Death. At the end of the demo, you jam the sucker into this huge monster's head and ride him around like the sandworms in Dune, crushing all the teeny minions sent against you.

A high energy adventure/platformer like this has been a while in coming, and I'm very much looking forward to the game when it comes out next month.

Post #100

2009-12-24T22:41:00.000-08:00

Heh. Just noticed... this is my hundredth post to this blog. Milestone?

It is Christmas, and I noted my game wishlist in a previous post. Santa was good to me! I received all four games: Brütal Legend, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, and Fable II. These games have unique features but all share an RPG/adventuring/story to them. I'm looking forward to playing and blogging about them.

Now the hard question to answer is: what do I try first?

Indie Games, Repeat

2009-11-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Every time I think about it, I bring up the Game Marketplace and hit the Indie Games, and its New Arrivals. It seems like there is a new game every day there.

Just tonite, I downloaded free trials of Platypus, A Killer's Dream, and Neo Terra. They looked interesting, and a trial is a no-brainer. The games are inexpensive, if I end up buying the full version.

And yes, as I mentioned the other day, my download of Armor Valley turn out interesting enough, that I dropped the few dollars to purchase the full game.

(and I'm still playing through Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, but that's a post for another day)

Indie Games

2009-11-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a buttload of Sacred 2: Fallen Angels lately. This RPG came out a while back, but I was effectively console-less, so did not get a proper chance to play it. After getting my console back online, and seeing my friends go all starry-eyed about it... I bought it. Buh... awesome time-sink.

That said. I want to talk about the "Indie Games" section in the Xbox Live Game Marketplace. There is some serious crap in there. (a "flashlight" app for your living room? really?)

But there are some really cool, very creative games happening there. And many more arriving constantly.

Solar is very interesting. Some gravitational mechanics, some strategy on planet pickup, a good number of challenges to try, etc.

Groov is an excellent little shooter, in the same vein as Crystal Quest or Geometry Wars. You have a defined area to move around within, blasting "baddies". The really neat trick is that your shots are timed to the background music. Tone, beat, and rhythm set the pace to the game. Beautiful.

And last night, I just discovered Armor Valley. The graphic quality on this is astounding, for a US$5 dollar game. The valley you fly through reminded me of settings from Mech Assault back in the Xbox days. I haven't decided to buy the full game yet, but am quite tempted. I'll certainly play the trial a couple more times.

The Indie Games are a refreshing source of creativity and simple, pick-up games. They seem to list for about US$1 or maybe US$2 each. I spend more on a beer -- great for a night, but these games can provide ongoing fun.

Go check it out. Maybe Head Shot (they're at version 2 now!) will intrigue you, but I bet there is something fun for you in this little corner of the Marketplace.

What I've been playing

2009-10-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

I didn't have access to my Xbox for about nine months (boo hoo!), but got everything set up a few weeks ago. As a result, there is a huge backlog of games that I want to play. Here are the games I've been playing these past few weeks:

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Two Worlds
Magic: the Gathering (XBLA)

Last night, I just found a game named Solar in the "Indie Games" section on XBLA. The trial game was quite neat. Very cool concept, and for just US$3, I picked it up the full, unlocked version.

On my Christmas list, I'll be putting games like Brütal Legend, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, and Fable II.

Here we go again

2009-10-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

Hey kids... I've gone through several giant life changes since I last posted to this blog. That kept me away from a lot of gaming, tracking the games, and much appreciation for what is going on in the (Xbox) gaming world.

But I'm back.

Look for future posts about the different games that I'm playing. As before, my intent with this blog is to help you decide what games might be right for you. If you have a limited budget and want to find That Perfect Game, then I hope that my posts will lead you there. Or if you're on the fence, to help you decide. Or to point you towards new games you may find interesting.

You won't find me talking about "me" or my breakfast on this blog. It's about games.

The power switch... it's back on.

NFS: Carbon... Risk with Cars

2007-01-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Alright... here is the bonus post that I promised a while back. Sorry for the delay. I'd been spending so much time with TDU.

Over the holiday break, I pulled out Need for Speed: Carbon and caught up on my playing.

Damn. Carbon is an arcade-y racer, and it does it near flawlessly. This game and Burnout really defines what I mean by "arcade-y". High speed. Drift all corners. Slamming into walls is not a big deal. Other cars even less.

What sets Carbon apart is that it only occurs at night. This allows for the use of lights to dramatically alter the experience. Lots of neon, color washes, and blurs as you smash the nitrous button. The techniques in Carbon come down from the Need for Speed: Underground series, where they brought in some high talent for the game. Lots of things were changed to enhance the notion of speed: sound, physics, and most importantly: light. The light poles on the street are spaced out much further than in real life, so that you have patches of light and dark to flip through. The technique really works well.

The gameplay in Carbon is quite neat. The city is divided into regions, with larger groups of regions held by several different gangs of drivers. This is where the Risk style of gameplay comes in. In each region, there are several races that you need to win the majority of to take over that region. When you win all the regions in a group, then you drive in a race against the gang boss. Win that, and you then have to do a "canyon race" against the boss.

Canyon races are quite hot. The boss takes off down the curvey road, down the canyon. You have to stay as close as possible, gaining points proportional to how close you can stay near him. (and shoot: if you can pass him and hold it, then you automatically win) Once that race is over, then you take the lead and the boss tries to keep up with you, but deducting points on the way down. You have to cross the finish line with positive points to win. Great concept, and meanwhile you're trying to avoid falling over the edge of the road -- no guardrails here!!

Other gangs will try to take back their areas, so occasionally you need to defend your territory by driving in a race. Meanwhile, you're doing more racing, tuning up your car, tweaking out the paint and decals and other parts, and more. The tuning is much better in this game. It is less about what vendor's parts you install (and which vendors paid to be in the game), and more about the visuals. All the performance parts allow you to select between a couple choices: handling vs performance, or torque versus top speed, or whatever. But the visuals and the new "autosculpt" feature really allows for personalized cars.

Lastly, see my previous Need for Speed: Most Wanted post to learn more about the cop play. The cops are way smarter this round. It makes for a very exhilirating game trying to lose those boys.

Need for Speed: Carbon is one of my top picks. The racing is awesome, and the basic gameplay is attractive. I'm nowhere near completing it (not one achievement yet!), so I'm not sure how long or replayable it will be near the end. Graphics, sound, and feel are top-notch.

Enjoy.

Movies and TV!

2006-11-22T23:42:00.000-08:00

Well, movies and television shows have come to the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live. It just launched today, and it looks like there is quite a bit of material in there. TV shows in plain definition run US$2 and high def at US$3. Old movies are $3 or $4.5 (SD or HD), and new movies at $4 or $6. It seems the servers are quite swamped because when I first tried it, I got a lot of errors. Now, things are working better, but are a bit slooooooow.

The prices seem kind of reasonable. $4 to rent a movie in 480p (same as a DVD), and that matches what I pay at Hollywood Video. However, I don't get the extras that most DVDs come with. I do get to rent these things without even leaving the house, which is nice, but it isn't exactly "on demand". The SD version of Unforgiven (starring Clint Eastwood... great movie!) weighs in at a 1.4 GB. And the high def version? 5.7 GB!! ... sheesh. Microsoft better come out with a storage attachment for the 360. I don't have that much space, and 5.7 GB is gonna take a while to download, too...

I love the idea, and this is a bold move by Microsoft to get into our living rooms. The whole Xbox program was designed for exactly this. They are in our workplace, and our home office. They want the living room, though. That is where untold millions of consumers are located, and are people they can sell to. You might call it Big Corporate, but I call it an awesome game playing device, and Xbox Live as a wonderful source of continuing enjoyment.

They may be onto something truly spectacular here. Let's see how it shakes out...

Hawaii Racing: Test Drive Unlimited

2006-11-20T14:50:00.000-08:00

This one is great! It is very different from every other racer that I've played. They have mapped out Oahu in all its digital glory. Okay... well, the graphics could be tuned up to take advantage of the 360, but the game does look really good. And they have the whole island in here. It will take you at least an hour to circumnavigate the whole thing.

Test Drive: Unlimited is an attempt at an massively multiplayer online racing game ("MMORG"). There are lots of cars to unlock, houses to buy, clothes to purchase, and several hundred races and missions to perform. This is all done very well, with a good progression of gamepoints to score as you're playing the game.

What completely and totally sucks, though, is the difficulty of playing with your friends. Yeah, you read that right. This is an MMORG yet it is practically impossible to play with a friend... and I'm not talking some random Joe, but a person marked on your Xbox Live Friends List. What makes it so hard? At any given point in time, the servers select up to 8 people near you on the island and links you together in your own little pocket universe on the island. 8 random people. No preference whatsoever to the folks on your list. None. Your only hope is to go to some remote location and wait for the server to link you up. You can then do a little trick to lock in your friend so they won't suddenly disappear in a regrouping by the server. But this is hit or miss and can take a while.

But it gets worse. Now that you're all linked up, you pop open the map to see where to go. Say some remote location, or a multiplayer race so you and your buddy can race some opponents. Whoops!! Opening the map disconnects you from other players. Yeah. You spend 15 minutes trying to get sync'd up with your pal, and you cannot touch the map. Fuckin' ludicrous.

Okay... now past the suck part... this game is fun. The driving physics are working towards "realism" rather than "arcade". However, I do find that the cars can do donuts way too easily... like the programmers included angular momentum, but forgot that a tire skidding sideways is a huge source of friction and should slow the spin. In this game, if you try to drift around a corner, then you better have a really good car and be able to hold it in the proper line. The cars are beautiful looking and will they have a little bit of damage modeling. I've put some truly kickass dual-color pearlescent paint on some of my cars. There is a little bit of tunability, but nothing to the extent of the Need for Speed series.

The other night, I linked up with a couple people from the UK, and we simply hit the gas. Just started driving down the highways, with each of us taking a turn defining the lead as we zoomed about the island at high speed. Invariably, one of us would go careening around a corner, lose it, and crash in some horrendous way. The others would slow until the other caught up, and off we went again. Lots of fun with all the open space on the island.

I am hoping they will issue a game patch to fix the friends thing at some point. I just can't see how they could call this an MMORG with the current nastiness. But despite that, I do recommend this game. The openness, the unlocks, the cars, and the modeling of Hawaii... all excellent. And at just $40 for the game, this game is a bargain... it has given me lots of hours of fun.

Playing with Cops... Need for Speed: Most Wanted

2006-11-06T02:11:00.000-08:00

NFS: Most Wanted is an "arcade" racer... physics exist, but not if they get in the way of enjoyability. Similar to Burnout, this game is about speed, sliding around corners, slamming into things, and sweet cars.

And cops. As you slam into civilian cars, or (gasp!) into cop cars, or inflict property damage... your "heat" goes up. The higher your heat, the more you will attract Mr Law Enforcement. If they spot you, then the chase is on. The cop chases are simply awesome. It ends up being a crazy, wild spin around the town, trying to shake them. Certain environment features can be collapsed onto the cops to knock them out of the chase. Or you can slam into them, send them into walls, whatever... eventually, they'll get crushed and fall out. Others will eventually come to replace them, but if you can shake them or disable them, then you move into a "cooldown" period where a timer counts down until the chase is called off. But! If you just keep flying around town without ending it, your heat will continue to get upgraded. From simple cops, to SUVs, to FBI, and eventually to helicopters. If you've seen the coppers' escalation in Grand Theft Auto, then you're familiar with this. Shaking helicopters is tough... underground parking lots work, but you also have the ground cops after you.

Seriously exhilirating.

The controls are awesome... very responsive, easy to manage, and the cars respond as you would expect. The graphics are very good, althought I think it suffers a bit of "least common denominator" since NFS: MW was ported to all platforms... In other words, it doesn't fully represent the power of the 360, but it is beyond what you'd find on the previous generation. The sound is unbelievable... tire noise, rain noise, engine noise, other cars, ... everything. The NFS series has done excellent work on the audio for a couple game generations now (starting back with Need for Speed: Underground).

The story lines and missions and progression in this game is excellent. The overall feel and attitude is spot-on for a street racer.

Now... I would highly recommend this game, but for just one thing... Need for Speed: Carbon came out just last week. If you're going to buy just one racing game, then you may want to see my review of that one first.

Wait. What? ... yup. Bonus review: I've been playing Carbon and will throw in a review of that game as part of this series.

Seriously, though... with NFS: Carbon out now, I expect NFS: MW to hit the bargain bin. I'm seeing it for $29.99 at EBgames.com and Amazon. This could make an excellent bargain gift for the holiday season. Great game, very much recommended!

Driving Simulation: Project Gotham Racing 3

2006-11-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

Project Gotham Racing 3 is what I would call a "technical" racer, or a "driving simulation". The handling of the car, the stickiness to the course, weight distribution, braking and tire behavior, and more... all modeled as closely as possible to the real world. You don't hit 90 degree corners at 100 miles an hour like in an "arcade" racer. Try it, and you're gonna hose yourself.

I'm personally not a big fan of this kind of game. I want fast-paced action rather than knowing that the driving faithfully matches reality. I don't need reality. I want adrenaline. I want to smash through traffic, slide around a corner, hit my nitrous, and leave competitors inhaling my exhaust.

But! This game is a teriffic challenge. You have to be on your game. If you miss that line through the corner, then you're out. Hit a wall? Cut too sharp? Bash into another car? Don't do it. You have to draft, take the lines tight, glide thru your opponents... all necessary parts to winning the race.

Meanwhile, there is a "kudos" system scoring you for good driving. Do all the driving right, and you get big kudos bonuses. The kudos then bring on some excellent unlocks and other goods.

And the game is *beautiful* ... it really showed off the graphics of the 360 at launch time. As you fly by the buildings and crowds... all detailed. The cars are kick-ass modeled. Sound is awesome.

This game is very much recommended if you like simulations and "true" driving. It is the best out there for that sub-genre of racing.

F.E.A.R.

2006-10-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

F.E.A.R. is releasing tomorrow (October 31st)... great news, given they were planning to release mid-November.

Time to get creeped out for Halloween...

Driving the 360: Burnout Revenge

2006-10-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

If you've been following my blog the past couple years, then you'll already know how much of a Burnout fan I am. The series is fantastically cool.

Now... I played Burnout Revenge all the way through on the original Xbox. I didn't spend time getting every single gold medal, but I did play through to Elite status and acquiring almost every single car. Burnout: Takedown was my crazy get-all-medals playthrough. A couple months ago, I played the Xbox 360 version of Revenge, and the gameplay was just the same as the original Xbox game. The graphics are tuned up, and the sound is better, but the game is the same.

I would characterize the Burnout series as a sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat game. There is no way you can just sit back and roll through the tracks. The game is FAST. Way, way fast. One little pixel shows up on the screen, and you have know "car coming up!" and start to steer. You relax for just one second? You're toast. Of course, the car crashes in Burnout are stupendous. Nothing like it anywhere else, so this isn't a Bad Thing... but it does mean that you're going to lose that tight race.

The controls are a bit forgiving, so I wouldn't call this a "technical racer" or a "simulation"... it is all about having fun. Fun on adrenaline, mind you, but lots of fun. The various play modes and crashes are crazy. This game is about getting in your car and moving. Sliding around corners, bashing into your opponents, finding shortcuts, dodging oncoming traffic, and more. Getting out on the streets and zooming as fast as possible, for as long as possible, until you twitch just a bit too late and go up in a flaming ball of car parts.

I think that I like Burnout: Takedown a bit better. In Revenge, you can plow into the backs of cars which are moving in the same direction. It will slow you down, so you don't want to do this all the time, but the problem is that it makes it a bit too forgiving. The crash mode is also not quite as cool: you can't get a replay and move the camera around to see what is going on, and how you can improve for another try. Blowing crap up is always awesome, but they lost a bit in the crash mode, I think. But these little issues are like complaining about that small scratch on the front bumper of your car... in the bigger picture, it is totally moot.

Unquestionably recommended.

Driving Games, part 1 of 6

2006-10-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

One of my original motivations for starting this blog was to provide information about games. I'm lucky enough to be able to buy a whole passel of games, but many people are not. So I figured that I might be able to talk about games, so people could use that to help their buying decisions.

This year, I've been on the weak side of passing along information. "Dear God, Greg, can't you post about something other than Oblivion?!?!" Obviously, not very well... hehe.

Well... I've played a bunch of the driving games on the Xbox 360, so this is the first post in a series about each of the games I've played:

Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Project Gotham Racing 2
Burnout: Revenge
Test Drive Unlimited

I'll wrap it all up with a sixth, summary post.

And you, in the back row... stop heckling. Yes, I'll shoot for posting once every day or two. Nyeah.

Xbox 360 Calendar

2006-09-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all... sorry for the lack of posts over the past few months. I've been doing a lot of travel, and my gameplay has suffered for it :-(

I've created a Google Calendar that contains the release dates for a bunch of games that I'm interested in. If you want to track some upcoming releases, then this calendar might be helpful for you. As release dates change and announcements are made, I'll work on keeping it updated.

If you see any incorrect dates or have suggestions/additions for it, then feel free to comment here or drop me an email.

Smack this button to subscribe to the calendar:

Pause... Break!

2006-08-24T02:16:00.000-07:00

Obviously, I've been on pause for a couple months. Some work stuff, a bunch of travel, and not a lot new to talk about. I'm still playing Oblivion, though getting close to "done" at this point (if there is such a thing). I've been simultaneously playing all four guild questlines (mage, fighter, thief, dark brotherhood) plus the main questline plus every sidequest I could find. It stacks up to a ton of fun, a huge world to explore, and yes: a good chunk of time. It's still seriously fun.

But! New things are afoot.

Ninety-Nine Nights (N3) was released. Not great reviews, but screw that. The playstyle may be repetitive to some, and the story may be shallow, but whothefuckcares? How many other games let you grind through a thousand enemies singlehandly?!! And oh jeez... download the demo. The graphics are sweet. Watching a hundred goblins come down the valley at you? All rendered with no popup? Booyah! Watch out Koei! There's a new sheriff in town.

My buddy has been playing it and having a blast, which is surprising since he never really got into Dynasty Warriors. Given the graphics in the demo tho... understandable. I have a feeling the strategic aspect of DW won't be there, but I'll report on that next week once I get my own copy of the game (props to my Microsoft buddy for sharing his discounted price!).

And last tidbit for this evening... a new trailer for Heavenly Sword (a PS3 game that might just make me buy one). If that game plays as well as it looks? Yeeeawww...

Out.

Kudos, Microsoft!

2006-06-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

Now, I'm not some raving fanboy who wontonly raves about Microsoft, but for this post? Yeah. I will. This is about sending a big "Kudos!" over to Microsoft.

"Why?" you ask? Well, the sad news is that my Xbox 360 horked up on me a few weeks ago. I came back from a trip over Memorial Day weekend, and it wouldn't turn back on. Yeah. Bad news. The previous week, I had a lockup and a scary moment trying to get it restarted (and when it did finally come back on, I copied all the "critical" save games off to a memory card!).

So. As I said: full-on wedge. Not good. Some perusing on the web showed how to get an error code out of the thing, and some things to do to try and get it working. No luck. Hunk o' unusable circuitry. Sent an email to Xbox Support describing the problem. Got one back saying "do this", which I had already done. Called them, and here is where it gets good.

The guy on the phone was quite apologetic for the problem. I wasn't being a pain, yet he was being very nice and solicitous. He got my details and had an empty box sent to me. It arrived the next week, and I packed up the Xbox and sent it off to repair.

"Oh, woe is me!" thinking it wouldn't come back for several weeks. But no... I got back from a trip today, and sitting there is a replacement Xbox. Just like that. No muss, no fuss, and even while out of warranty. How frickin' cool is that?

Very

Thanks, Microsoft.

(yeah, it shouldn't have broke in the first place, but I work with computers all the time, and the Xbox is even more finely-tuned than those... it doesn't really surprise me to see a failure. what makes it all nice is their response to the problem)

Patch Luvin' Continues

2006-06-08T01:24:00.000-07:00

Woot! The Oblivion patch was just released.

I had one quest that jammed up my game. Thankfully, with games like Oblivion, I've learned to keep a rotation of about 10 save games. I skipped back about five saves before I found the critical juncture that bugged up the game. I replayed about 30 minute of game to catch up (minus that one action). I'm not sure if this patch fixes the problem, but I'm always happy for patches!

Oblivion Fun

2006-06-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

If you haven't guessed, I've been playing a ton of Oblivion rather than keeping this blog up to date :-) (well, also some travel, but that's not as interesting)

Just had a hilarious moment, felt like reporting...

I'm in a tomb, and along comes a Skeleton Champion. Wants to get all in my face. Fine fine. Well, he also has his summoned Guardian with him (woo! monsters that can conjure!). In this case, the idea is to ignore the guardian and just kill off the spellcaster. Once you do that, then the conjured monster disappears.

No problem. I'm beating him down. Wham wham, and all. Almost got him... he's down to just a little bit of health. Then he gets a lucky hit and knocks me clean off my feet. As I'm flying backwards, I see the Guardian come in for a swing. His blade cuts right into his master. Down goes master. Guardian disappears.

Heh.

Xbox Live Update

2006-06-07T03:36:00.000-07:00

The new Xbox Live update just arrived on my Xbox 360.

The new background downloads are spiffy. Perfect for downloading those multi-hundred meg demos. Not so sure yet on the additional subdivisions of the marketplace menus. Kind of implies "more places to hunt for stuff", but it does appear there are more "New" sections which may make it easier.

Personally, I really want previews of the gamerpics and themes. I'm never gonna buy one of those things. Without a preview, it's a total crap shoot.

Oblivion Patch and New Content

2006-04-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

The Bethesda guys have posted about some upcoming patches and downloadable content.

Cool. I am so buying the Wizard's Tower. Holy crap.

[ thanks to Nelson for the find... I should monitor those bboards... ]

Houses in Oblivion

2006-04-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

On one of the mailing lists I subscribe to, a fellow Oblivion player noted that he had built up just enough gold to buy a house. He wondered if it was worthwhile to go broke in the process. My reply was:

I've bought two houses in my game :-)

The main reason that I own a house is for storage. The manual says that you shouldn't put stuff into a container you don't own, or it might not be there when you come back. As an experiment, I threw some stuff into a chest one of the Fighter's Guilds. It was there when I came back a short time later. BUT. After a lengthy excursion, when I returned... gone.

I've also left stuff sitting on the floor in rooms in the guilds. That seems to work well; I don't think it has ever been cleaned up on me. I haven't run a lengthy experiment, however.

Note that bodies count as containers, too. And they'll get cleaned up pretty aggressively within dungeons, so you want to loot the body and drop it on the floor if you're encumbered. You can come back and grab the stuff from the floor, and the body will typically be gone.

Anyhow... back to the house. Once you buy a house, you also have to buy furnishings for the house. The furnishings come in about eight sets (stuff for the bedroom, stuff for a storage area, wall hangings for the bedroom, etc), and the total of the eight sets is approximately equal to the house purchase price. These furnishings are bought at one of the vendors in the city where the house is (they don't show up until you buy the house). I've bought two houses, and then one storage area furnishings (my house in Bruma has two storage areas, but I've only bought one so far; house in Bravil has just one).

I use the houses to store excess loot between excursions: really expensive stuff that I can't sell to the local vendor (since there is a cap to what they'll offer you, I'd lose out on a bunch of $$), and also all the potion components that I have gathered (after gathering huge amounts, then I'll sit down and brew a gazillion potions, selling most of the results). I've found their utility as a depository most excellent. It's hard to sell a daedric warhammer worth 5000 gold to just any vendor :-P (one day, I'll find one... until then, it's in storage)

Hope that helps.

Goldtoe Goes 360

2006-04-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

A buddy of mine wrote an Xbox 360 review. I'd concur with his points, though I'm curious why he is setting up Windows Media Connect, as I thought the Media PC itself was enough.

I'd also like to stress the coolness of the Achievements. Yes, you get to see how your friends are doing, but you also get to lord it over them when you're kicking their ass in gamerpoints. (yeah, I'm looking at you, Chip... hehe...) It introduces a nice amount of friendly competition beyond the gameplay experience.

Hitman for the 360

2006-04-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

It was recently announced that Hitman is coming to the 360. As I've written before, the Hitman series is an excellent stealth game. I'm very much looking forward to it on the 360, though wary of its simul-release on the "current-gen" platforms and the possibility that it won't take advantage of the 360's more powerful features.

Let's wait and see...

Solo Goodness

2006-03-29T11:07:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons that Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is so great is that Bethesda has concentrated entirely on one niche: the solo role playing game. They haven't fallen into the MMORPG camp, and have steadfastly refused to go there. The result is a game that reigns supreme in its niche. And it isn't because they're the only one satisfying the niche... Oblivion is truly an awesome game.

Via Nelson's linkblog, I found a great story on why the solo RPG can be so great, relative to an MMORPG. It's all about concentrating on the player and their role in the unfolding story of the world. Basically, the player matters. The Elder Scrolls series has been entertaining me a dozen years. They have some really epic stories for the character to participate within.

If you don't have Oblivion yet (for the 360 or the PC), then I highly advise you check out some of the reviews. Very highly recommended.

Darn you, EBStop

2006-03-27T18:15:00.000-08:00

So EBgames finally switched some of their web property over to use the GameStop web stuff (you may recall, these two companies merged last year). No real noticable difference until recently.

I went to log into EBgames.com to check out my wish list. Euh... Where'd it go?

Bit heaven. They tossed my list. I've been using EBgames to track stuff for a long time now, and it has just vanished. I'm a bit peeved.

At one point, I used Amazon, but switched when Amazon didn't know a game, yet EBgames did. These are games that I know I want to buy, or maybe that I'm thinking of, but am waiting for reviews. Some are games that I'll track until their price goes down. All very handy.

Sad thing is... this is EBgames' loss. I visited the site frequently because I liked that service. Probably won't visit so much any more. As a result, I've started setting up a wish list over at IGN, but they have kind of a clunky UI. They do have good information on game release dates, and they track everything. Any other suggestions, gamers?

Xbox Hacking

2006-03-27T04:38:00.000-08:00

Hacking my xbox is a question that has come up a number of times. There is the obvious reason, enable playing of pirated games, but I'm just not into that. But when I look at how my buddy has converted his xbox into a suh-weet media center, then I start to really think about it.

But not for long. I always decide that it isn't for me. "Why?" you ask.

Consider this: Microsoft has explicitly stated that they'll disable Xbox Live if they discover the box is hacked. My impression is that this isn't just for that box, but for your gamertag, and quite likely for any account trying to use that credit card. Heck, they could even go and disable it for anything associated with your MSN Passport login. They have a number of bits of information about "you" which can interrupt your use of Xbox Live quite permanently without some effort on your part.

I haven't blogged about the 360 much here (yet), but its integration with Xbox Live is brilliant. Live is always there. Last night, I spent three hours playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. The entire time, I was on voice chat with my buddy while he played. The game is single player only, but the two of us could talk about what we were doing, what we found that was cool, or simply be quiet while engaging in heavy combat.

Do I want to risk that? Not a chance. Without Live support, the 360 would be a ghost of its real self.

Xbox modding can be nice, but the potential cost is just too much for me. Be careful out there.

Goodbye, Nova

2006-03-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

After the latest slip, it now looks like they're finally giving up on Starcraft: Ghost. The game has been put on indefinite hold.

"Like many in the industry, we've been impressed with the potential of the new consoles, and we're looking forward to exploring that potential further,"

Bah. Marketing speak for, "we gotta figure out how to get this running on next-gen hardware".

The game has had its share of problems in the past. Looks like the road has ended, though. Sigh.

Nice knowing you, Nova...

US date for N3?

2006-03-16T07:10:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that IGN lists a US release date of June 1 for Nighty-Nine Nights. There hasn't been any other press that I can find, so I don't have any real confidence in this date. But a guy can hold out hope, right?

The Golden Dynasty

2006-03-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires has gone gold, for a March 28 release date.

"Woo!" I say, given how much I like this game (prior writing).

Problem is... some hands-on previews have said it is just so... current-gen. Sigh. Damn it. Ah well, I'm going to be playing Oblivion for who knows how long. I'll see what the official reviews (rather than previews) say about the game. Given that I'm on DW4, this upgrade will be nice, along with the addition of the "Empires" gameplay (there is still the smackdown, but add some Risk style strategy elements).

First Culling

2006-03-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

So last week, my Xbox games went through their first culling. I picked out 18 games to take over to GameStop, where I averaged about $3 each for the games. Not a whole lot, so maybe I'll look for other options. But awfully convenient.

The moolah went into Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Way cool! Also on a deposit for Oblivion (awesome).

So what kind of games got culled? Games where I have 360 replacements already (driving, Ghost Recon, etc). Games that I've completed once, but won't do a second pass through (e.g. Fable). And a few where I know that I'm not interested in completing them.

I still have a stack of Xbox games, and I'm holding out some small hope to play them. But I have the feeling that I'll do another round of culling without having played most of them...

Life as I Know It

2006-03-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

Life as I know it will end on March 20th. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion ships that day (it has gone gold finally).

"But isn't Oblivion shipping a good thing?" you may ask?

It is. And I'm gonna be glued to that damned 360 for the following eight weeks. Seriously. With Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, I played it somewhere between 30 and 40 hours for week for about seven weeks.

Sleep? Friends? Family? All gone, in the face of Oblivion. Life is going to be quite different starting March 20th...

Gaming Music

2006-03-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure whether it was in Need for Speed: Underground or one of the Burnout games, but there was a track called "Stay in Shadow" by a band named Finger Eleven. It always stuck with me, and when it came on the satellite music channel I listen, I was all "hey! I know that one!" The satellite channel played another of their tracks, and also the track "Good Times" (very good, btw) appears on the latest SSX game, SSX On Tour.

What's the point? I bought the CD recently. Music in games can be an excellent sales tool for bands. I've heard quite a few great tracks.

Of course, on the Xbox 360, you can toss out whatever background music comes with the game and use your own playlists. A nice thing, but don't forget to listen to the bundled music... you might find something new and interesting!

Speaking of N3N

2006-02-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

Oooh.... I saw that N3N finally got a Japanese release date of April 20. More information is available at IGN.

Still no US release date tho.

Crystal Quest Returns

2006-02-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

Woah! Blast from my gaming past!

I used to play Crystal Quest on my Macintosh II back in 1988. Hours and hours. The computer was right next to my bed in college, so I could roll out of bed to play Crystal Quest. The little "boing" sounds, and the "aaah!" as you left the wave.

Well, it is now available on Xbox Live Arcade. I plunked down my 400 points (aka US$5) and bought the sucker. It has a revamped gameplay, along with the classic mode.

So retro... but way fun. Very recommended!

N3N

2006-01-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

I've been looking over my blog a bit. There are quite a few things that I need to back and write about. But for now, after reading about the Dynasty Warriors posts, I wanted to take a moment to point out an upcoming game...

It's called Ninety-Nine Nights (or "N3N"), and looks to be in the same "massive hand-to-hand carnage" genre as DW. Go check out those videos.

I'm a bit saddened in that we don't have any US release information at this point. Like, whether we'll even get one(!) Everyone: cross your fingers. Even if you don't want it, then help me out here!

Give it up, already

2006-01-23T04:11:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable.

So I was on the phone with my buddy, talking about various upcoming games for the Xbox 360. So I go and log into ebgames.com, where I keep my wish list (I put my list there when I couldn't find a to-be-released game on Amazon, yet it was on ebgames). Nice thing about their wish list is that it shows the expected release date.

There were a few games for the 360 that were due in February. Only one now (Full Auto), but as I don't recall the prior list, I dunno what got moved out.

But there was one game for the original Xbox which I knew had been moved. I've written about it slipping before. A couple times. Hit those links yet?

Yup. We're talking about Starcraft: Ghost. Holy crap, man. That game was due in June 2004!! The current date is listed as November 2006. Oh, sure, they changed developers once already. Doesn't excuse its delay.

It was a cutting edge game at one time, but today? Stealthy? Aliens? Psi abilities? Whatever... It's all been done by now. I looked forward to it with great anticipation (woo! Nova!), but now? Bah.

Pass the controller. I'll dig in with a little Joanna Dark instead...

Kameo: Elements of Power

2005-12-28T00:24:00.000-08:00

So I finished Kameo last night.

Yah. Kameo. For the 360. As I posted earlier, no way was I going through the holiday break without a 360. I've been spending my break playing a lot of 360 games. Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo: Elements of Power, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I also have Perfect Dark Zero, but I'm waiting for a friend to get his 360 for a little co-op action before I break into that game. So look for this blog to start moving into 360 games. I hope to finish some of my original Xbox games, but we'll just have to see what happens.

Back to Kameo. It is billed as an RPG, but I think it is actually a bit more of a platformer. One of the basic elements of an RPG is character progression, and it isn't really present in Kameo. While you gain access to new "Elemental Warriors", your character doesn't really grow. The Warriors are essentially new keys to get through areas to unlock more Warriors until your final battle with Thorn, the big bad evil troll king.

There is combat, which is a hallmark of RPG, but lots of platformers have combat, too (e.g. Jak and Daxter). The combat in Kameo is excellent. Fluid and fast moving. It is definitely important to find your opponents' weakness and select the appropriate Warrior to kick their ass. I found the combat to be a lot of fun up until I found a crystal eye thingy which gave me a regeneration ability. At that point, as long as I wasn't a total moron in combat, there just wasn't any way for most monsters to kill me. There was a particular nasty robot boss with a big ol' hammer. Not a problem. Walk up in front of him, wait to get flattened (literally! very Bugs Bunny-ish), and then pop back into shape and launch an attack at him during his post-attack vulnerability. The hammer would barely dip into my hit points.

The background story of Kameo is interesting, but not really very engaging. Mostly, it was just a lot of fun to see the huge variety of environments, the lush graphics, and awesome animation. There are water environments, snow landscapes, underwater exploration, vast troll-filled territory, dank swamps, and more. All are rendered wonderfully with lots of interaction. The Enchanted Kingdom is where the castle is located (Kameo, the lead character, is a princess). The bright colors and atmosphere of the Kingdom remind me a lot of Sudeki, and the NPCs' offhand comments and antics remind me of Fable.

Overall, Kameo is a very fun title with rich graphics, animation, and some great platforming. Not the RPG that I was expecting, but very enjoyable nonetheless. I finished the main storyline in about 17 hours, and will be trying some of the auxilliary coop stuff and other bonus mission types of things. If you like platformers, then this is a good one. If you're looking for an RPG, then maybe try renting this for a long weekend, or wait for Oblivion.

Microsoft Games

2005-11-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, I'm looking for the games that Microsoft publishes. The "first party" games, if you will. Takes me a while to hunt down the list of games. But when I need it again, I can just come back to my blog now :-)

Don't be misled

2005-11-26T23:41:00.000-08:00

Your Xbox (original) console and games are just as fun as they were one week ago. The Xbox 360 launch brings a lot of cool new opportunity for games. Abso-frickin-lutely. BUT! That has no bearing on what you're playing today.

Is that crawl through the jungles of Ghost Recon any less cool? Is that explosive vehicular destruction of Burnout Revenge any less exhilarating? Is that satisfaction of completing another mission in Splinter Cell suddenly boring?

Hell no.

If you don't have an Xbox 360 in hand... don't sweat it. You've got a ton of excellent games to play. Go to it.

Personally, I'm going to let the hype cool a bit. I'm effectively out of town until December 14th, so I don't "need" a system before then. Do I want one before my days off around xmas? Yup. Does it bother me that I don't have one now? Not in the least. I still have a stack of twenty-plus games that I would thoroughly enjoy playing to completion. I'm actually a bit sad that with the arrival of the 360, that I'll end up favoring 360 games over wrapping up my Xbox [original] games.

A comfortable old friend

2005-11-19T16:25:00.000-08:00

Over the past week, I've been playing a bit of Dynasty Warriors 4 (DW4). Woah! Four, you say? Yeah. Most reviews marked DW5 as just another iteration. I'm sure it has improved, as I saw going from DW2 to DW3 to DW4 (had DW2 on the PS2, and DW3/DW4 on the Xbox), but the core game mechanic is the truly enjoyable part. And they really haven't drastically improved that in years.

I've written about DW4 over a year ago, touched on its strategic elements a bit later, and then commented on its replayability earlier this year.

In short, it is just one of those games that is easy to pick up and play for a while. I've got a ton of choices, but the mood just struck me for some big destruction. Mow down some hapless little (ahem) "warriors". (against my Mad Skillz, they are just so much fodder! fear me!)

Oh, I'll return to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soon enough, but it doesn't quite bring that same feeling of non-stop action and excitement the way DW4 does.

Grab a martini and join me in Dynasty Warriors. Go litter the terrain with enemy corpses. They deserve it. Really.

Go for Jade

2005-11-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

As in Jade Empire. Of course, the Jade in Beyond Good and Evil truly and completely rocks, but we're talking about the Empire today.

My buddy Nelson finished Jade Empire a while back and wrote his thoughts about it. He said it was "very good, but not great." Fair enough, but I found it very awesome.

The story line was the hook. It was great to follow the story through the characters, their experiences, and the world on your screen. It was very well done. Small side stories really drew you in (e.g. concern for the girl about to be sold into servitude unless she can help her father). All of the narrative and background portrayed a very rich world, filled with history, invention, and peoples. And not only, but there are two entirely distinct stories that roughly (but not quite) map onto good or evil.

Follow that up with some very amazing graphics, fluid animations, and a responsive combat system, and the experience was great. It was well worth the 30 hours to get through the game; you could probably get through faster if you don't go for every side quest like I did.

Combat in Jade Empire is one of the best I've seen in a while, although it still doesn't beat that of Beyond Good and Evil. In Empire, you have a selected target to attack. If something gets in your way... fine. They get hit, too. It is easy to switch targets (a quick press of the left or right trigger), but it isn't as fluid as BG&E where you just push the left stick in a direction. In both games, your character does a smooth transition from wherever they are towards their new target, flowing their combat moves appropriately. The lock-on in Empire does serve a good purpose in that you can jump over your foe and immediately slice them in the back. And this is where it falls down. Combat becomes a matter of "jump over them to evade their attacks, smack 'em a few times, jump over, ..." And I never really found a need to use anything beyond a sword attack and a fist attack which I got at the beginning of the game. Other weapons and attacks come along, but it is hard to switch to them after you've invested so much in upgrading those first attacks. And those initial attacks can carry you through the game.

Jade Empire is an excellent game, and I highly recommend it. It has one of the best story lines that I've seen in a long time. While the quest variety does not match games from the Elder Scrolls series, it can provide many additional hours of fun. For RPG lovers, Jade Empire is a must-have for your collection.

Compatibility

2005-11-12T07:07:00.000-08:00

For the Xbox 360, an initial list of compatible Xbox (1) games has been posted. This is a good start, but I notice that Burnout, Far Cry, and Otogi aren't listed. I've been playing those recently... Ah well. I do have my original Xbox, so it isn't like my life is ruined.

The main point here is: keep both systems. In about a year, the library for the 360 will be large enough that you will have more than enough games to occupy yourself full-time. At that point, you can toss your Xbox and its games.

360 Launch

2005-11-07T22:16:00.000-08:00

I've been tracking a lot of stuff around the Xbox 360 launch: the supply, what games will be available (and what is delayed! woe is me...), good/bad games, and whatnot. Lots of details to pull together.

That said, I found a good article that summarizes all these bits into a coherent, short piece on the launch of the Xbox 360. The article fits right in with everything else that I've seen, so I consider it a good read for seeing what's going on.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

2005-11-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

In the immortal words of the alien from Robot Chicken, "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Bethesda just slipped Oblivion for the 360 out to early 2006. Not a launch title now.

Sigh. That was my most-anticipated title...

Slow Roll

2005-10-31T03:28:00.000-08:00

Word on the street is that the 360 is going to roll out slowly, rather than with a big bang of deliveries. Sounds like they are probably just starting production, so the pace of delivery will be gated by how fast they can build the boxes. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get my 360 reasonably soon. Not getting it on the first day is fine since I'll be away for the Thanksgiving break, but you can be damned sure that I want my box once I return...

One of the recent stories made it sound like most of the preorder places have sold out through most of the year. Kinda silly to say that, as who the heck knows what the production rate will be. But it does say one thing: if you're hot on getting a 360, then don't take any chances.

That said, I still have a billion other xbox games to play. There is still much much fun to be had. Play on!

Completion!

2005-10-30T18:28:00.000-08:00

Been a while since I've actually finished a game. Been playing a bunch of stuff, but in the past few days, I've finished both Far Cry: Instincts and Jade Empire. Reviews of each shortly.

I also pretty much completed Burnout Revenge, but there are still a good chunk of unlocks to do, and some races where I need to improve my rating (and medal).

Briefly: all three of these games are excellent. They're different genres, so pick a genre that you enjoy and then go pick up one of these games. You can't go wrong.

Far Cry: Instincts

2005-10-26T04:24:00.000-07:00

Woah.

So Far Cry has been on my hit list for a long time. It hit the PC last year, but I held out waiting for the Xbox version. My buddy picked it up for the PC and said it was great. Still I held...

A friend was in town, so I bought the game for us to play with. Woo. Far Cry is amazing. The graphics are awesome. Sure, it looks a bit wacky as you crawl through some of the bushes, but I have never seen some of the "extra touches" that these guys thought of. When you're swimming and come up out of the water, your vision is blurred for a bit until your eyes clear of water. Who the heck thought of that?!! Kudos!

This game has FPS bits, vehicles (ATV, Humvee, jet ski, boat, and hanglider so far!), stealth, awesome animations and sound, and more. It looks like the game is maybe 15 to 20 hours long (good), and has been very engaging. The plot opens up very well, though it can be disconcerting when you think that you got totally blasted while on your ATV, but it is just a cutscene taking over. A very excellent transition which also moves the story along.

I'd say this game is very close to something like Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix in terms of overall gameplay. It is mostly killing instead of stealth. I'd be surprised if you could get by most of the areas without some serious killing. But it is not your basic first-person shooter either.

Great looking game. Great audio. Very fun and engaging gameplay. Recommended!

(and no, I'm not going to drop hints about the "feral abilities"... hehe...)

The Xbox 360

2005-10-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

So if you're curious about the two versions of the Xbox 360, they're detailed on the xbox.com site. Check out the product page.

I'm going for the "premium" version. All the way, baby.

Hmm. Seems they dropped the premium label, in favor of plain and "core"

Preordered

2005-10-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine was concerned about preordering his Xbox 360, saying that GameStop was told by Microsoft to stop taking preorders. That Microsoft had already presold every thing they could build. I called my local GameStop, and sure enough... no love.

But wait! Not so fast there, smokey. I called EBgames, and the guy said "Sure, we're taking preorders. Filled up the first batch, but you should be in the next batch. And heck, with the amount of preorders we have, Microsoft could even increase our first delivery, so you might be lucky." Woo!

So I dropped by the store today, forked over my $50 deposit, and got my preorder for the premium system. If you want a system this year, then I'd highly recommend that you get yourself to a store and preorder. Call ahead to your local game store to double-check. Generally, you also want to avoid the web-based preorders — they're bundling a bunch of games and other stuff which you may not want. Brick & mortar stores will do barebones systems.

The countdown begins...

Update: yes, I know GameStop and EBgames are the same company. Why they have different policies... well, they'll probably be managed quite separately for a while.

Burnout: Revenge

2005-10-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the latest in the Burnout series is just as excellent. By now, I would assume most people have read the reviews. IMO, most people should have copies, too. Simply an awesome game.

The graphics, sound, and handling have all been improved. The crashes are even better, and the new crashbreaker is awesome. During races, when your crash, you can pop off a crashbreaker to take down your opponents. Man was I psyched the time that I took out all five enemy cars at once. Had done 4-way kills before, but I finally got a 5-way.

The crashbreaker lends a whole new style and consideration to the race types in Burnout. For example, there is the "Crashbreaker Road Rage" mode. If somebody takes you out, you can quickly smack your crashbreaker to take them out, too. But if they're too far away... you just lost all your boost to catch up. I found that you generally didn't want to use crashbreakers in road rage — the enemy cars are almost always ahead of you (and usually, you use the crashbreak to kill off cars behind you by waiting for them to drive up near your wrecked car).

The crash mode lost its replay, though. And that sucks. When you're going for that perfect crash, you kinda want to see how you goofed up. The new "Traffic Attack" mode is also pretty difficult until you learn that you have to bounce cars into buses and trucks to get that maximum time extension. Even then, it can be hard, so this was one of my least favorite new modes.

One thing that I definitely noticed is that the highest end cars are not as fragile. In Burnout 3: Takedown, zooming around in a formula racer was always a dance on the edge of death. But in Burnout Revenge, you can smack them around quite a bit more which makes the races much less frustrating.

And a kudos to the new medal and rating system. It means you're going for both technique and crazy driving to max your score. Nice.

At this point, you have to ask yourself: buy it now for the Xbox, or wait a couple months and buy it for the 360? I couldn't wait...

Stealthy Games

2005-10-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

I got a request on one of the blog comments for a stealthy game other than Thief: Deadly Shadows or the Splinter Cell series. But are there really games other than those?! Yes! Not to fear!

Last year, I posted about Hitman: Contracts. If you're looking for stealthy, then Hitman is definitely a must have. You can play a game in pure stealth mode. I'm not quite that refined... (ahem) but it might be perfect for you.

There are stealth elements in a lot of games. One of my favorite games was Beyond Good and Evil. Beautiful game. Fun. Lots to do. Story. It has stealthy elements, but I wouldn't really call it a stealth game. Games like Psi Ops: Mindgate Conspiracy also have some stealth.

But for hardcore stealth: Thief, Splinter Cell, Hitman.

Go get 'em...

Got Trophy?

2005-09-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things about the new Burnout Revenge game is the set of trophies. They're all variants on your car (in shiny gold) versus the other cars (in silver). Each trophy is presented as a movie. Excellent dynamics, and choreographed to the particular trophy. My two favorites:

Vertical Takedown: the sucker is hanging out thinking life is good. The camera pans up to the left and you see a small spot of gold. It takes form as your car hurtles down from a billion miles up, landing for the full-on smack down on little baby silver.

Blowing up N cars: this one is given after the big crash mode if you manage to f' up a gazillion cars. It totally rules as your car comes flying down, bounces off one car, flips and dances off the next, one more somersault, and then plows into the flatbed of a big rig. The camera does three replays around the big rig, and then everything goes kablooie.

The trophy movies are awesome. You just want to play to unlock the damned things. Beautifully rendered, and the gold versus silver is an excellent way to show how much your car rules.

Been a while...

2005-09-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of travel this past summer, and it is finally winding down. In between trips, I've been occupying myself with a lot of different games. Off the top of my head, here are my newer games that I've been trying out:

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Need For Speed Underground 2
Phantom Dust
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Forza Motorsport
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Burnout Revenge

Yeah... half of them are driving games. What can I say? I like them.

I just got Burnout Revenge and its sweet. I'll talk more about it in a separate post.

In between trying all of these, I've been working through Jade Empire. Gotta finish something!

$299.99

2005-08-18T01:51:00.000-07:00

This CNet article says the "Xbox 360 core system" will be $299.99. It goes on to say the "premium" version, which most people will probably buy, will be $399.99.

EA Focus Test, Take 2

2005-08-17T00:38:00.000-07:00

Woot. Went to another focus test at EA tonite. This one was for the upcoming Bond game: From Russia With Love. As before, I can't say anything about the game though...

The process for these is pretty neat. They've got a bunch of debug consoles and sit you down to work through very specific parts of the game. After you get a chance to mess around with it, then there is a set of questions that are asked which you fill out on paper. Rating of the gameplay, visuals, etc. There's usually a couple sections that you work through. Both times, some of the developers and designers come in and ask specific questions around some of the stuff they've worked on.

As before, it's neat to see a game in the works. As a thanks, they let you take home a game. Last time, I picked up Nead for Speed Underground 2 (the original was very good... this one is excellent; writeup later). Tonite, I grabbed Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. metacritic gave the game an 88, and I've heard quite a few good things about it, so it should be fun.

Heavenly Sword

2005-08-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Damn. Here I go thinking that platform exclusives are going to be minimized in the next-gen consoles. While that may true, the launch games are a different story. The console manufacturers want to make a big splash, so they'll pay for exclusivity.

Well, a friend just pointed me at Heavenly Sword for the PS3. EBgames is putting the release at next May (a likely release date for the PS3). There is a bit of info about the game, but the real killer is the trailer from E3

Holy crap. Take some Jade Empire, some Dynasty Warriors, and a healthy dose of God of War. Mix it all with next-gen, and damn. When this game comes out, if it gets rated as good as it is looking now... it could be a reason to buy a PS3.

Definitely one to watch for.

Godfather: The Game

2005-07-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

My friend from EA got me into a focus group to do a bit of playtesting of Godfather: The Game (the EBgames product page says it is due for release in October). While I can't say anything about what I saw (say "NDA" with me!), I can say that the experience of seeing a game before its release is quite cool. To be able to provide feedback to the developers, and to hopefully see some of that incorporated into the game.

They set us up (there were about eight of us), let us run through some of the game, and then asked us a lot of questions. I'm hoping that with all the games that I've played, that I was able to provide some detailed and coherent feedback.

Especially if it means they ask me back for more playtesting :-)

Platform Exclusives

2005-07-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

I think that "platform exclusives" are a dying breed. One of the few reasons that I powered on my old PS2 was to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Or maybe a round of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy with a few friends. Of course, as an Xbox Man, I enjoyed all of its exclusives such as Halo, Morrowind, and most recently Jade Empire.

But in the future? There will be much fewer. Most of the "exclusive" Xbox titles have been ported to the PC (no wonder given the similar architecture between an Xbox and a PC). But I'm also talking about crossovers between the Playstation series of consoles and the Xbox series of consoles. (go sit in the corner if you thought, "what about the Gamecube?")

Consider the economics of the situation. Game development costs are rising. Let's say you spend $5 million to produce a game. You get $4 million for selling it into each of the Xbox and PS markets. Net profit of $3 million. Sweet! But if you go exclusive, then you lose a million bucks. Of course, exclusive deals occur because the platform vendor pays the developer to make it that way. Let's say Microsoft pays the developer $2 million to be exclusive. Fine, they turn a profit of a million bucks. But they are still short of the multi-platform profit!

As game development costs continue to rise, game developers will have to go cross-platform to recoup those costs. As a corollary, it will cost the platform manufacturers more and more money to "buy off" the exclusivity, so they will be less inclined to do this over time (particularly for "first time out" titles that are unproven). That said, it is also possible to argue that the platform vendors will have more money overall, so they have more money to buy off developers. Possibly. But the idea is to turn a profit. If they sink their new-found profits into payoffs, then they really aren't ahead, now are they?

Take a look around. More games recently are multi-platform. With these new generation consoles and their huge capacity for visuals and artwork and animation capabilities, they are going to move dev costs through the roof. Just watch: next-gen games will tend to be cross-platform.

Goodbye, garage game developer.

Buy a PS3?

2005-07-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm definitely going to get an Xbox 360 when it comes out, but a friend asked me an interesting question a couple days ago:

Are you going to get a PS3 when it's released?

Tough one. I used to own a PS2, along with my Xbox. After I realized that 99% of my gaming was occurring on the Xbox (except for GTA or DBZ), then I went ahead and sold off the PS2.

However, a recent AnandTech article (an an interesting ArsTechnica followup) said that the two systems might be roughly equal in terms of power for this go-round. If they are about the same, then I could easily see owning and using both consoles.

It is really going to depend on "is there a game available only for the PS3 that I just have to play?" For the Xbox, that was Morrowind. As the PS3 release approaches, I'll just have to see what's up...

Jade Empire

2005-06-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

Yup... Jade Empire really is that good. The story line is opening up well, there are minor branches and the old "good vs evil" main branches. The graphics are amazing. I would compare the animations in Jade Empire to those of Bloodrayne 2 in terms of details, swishing clothes, and character movements.

The fighting in Jade is a bit harder to talk about. I'm not a long ways in, so it is kind of hard to tell just how much it is going to open up. So far, I've been gaining skills and powering up some attacks, though it is hard to see a change. I would hope/guess that as the game progresses, that the attack styles really get rowdy. A friend said that he ended up concentrating on just a couple kinds of attacks -- that it is rare to really need to swap around through a bunch of styles. At this point in the game, I'm finding the same: a couple styles, and some light button mashing. It is definitely not a pure masher. Blocking, healing, jumping/rolling, strong attacks, selecting attack style, and changing targets are all needed. I just find that I don't block much, but I tend to play the tank anyways.

Speaking of jumping: you should really see it during combat. When you're facing your opponent, if you push the direction stick towards them and jump, you execute this amazing flip and spin over their head. Then you can whack 'em from behind. So, so sweet, and it looks so gorgeous.

Back to the two main paths: there is the Way of the Open Palm (aka "good") and the Way of the Closed Fist (aka "bad"). I'm going with Open Palm this time around just because I find it a bit strange to constantly deride and sneer at friends/teachers/others throughout the game.

If you like RPGs, and don't need them to be cooperative, then this is your boy. RPGs are a bit thin on the Xbox, but this isn't merely a "fill the gap" ... Jade Empire is a definite reference game.

Enjoy.

Advent Rising

2005-05-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

The game, Advent Rising, is looking pretty interesting. Ships just next week.

While I'm not a fan of Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game", I can certainly acknowledge him as a good writer. It should be interesting how his skills will map onto a game.

The gameplay looks interesting, with plenty of combat. It almost looked like there is a little bit of psychic game play, a la Psi-Ops. It is touted as an action/adventure which is normally associated with things like Diablo, or D & D Heroes (which I enjoyed very much).

Watch for reviews next week (my favorite place is www.metacritic.com).

MMORPG

2005-05-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

Can it happen on the Xbox?

I've spent several months, umm... "researching" this very problem with Everquest II on the PC. Most aspects of an MMORPG can be done quite easily on a console. The environments, the skill system, adventuring, and even a continued evolution of places to explore (e.g. downloads from Xbox Live).

Halo 2 has shown how clans/guilds can work. Games like Morrowind and Ghost Recon (2) have shown us rich environments. Heroes, Morrowind, KOTOR have all shown varying complexity of skill systems.

But: all of that is simply gameplay action. What makes an MMORPG unique is having others there with you. Living in the same environment, (sometimes) competing for scarce resources, and interacting. With further elimination, you realize that the "living in the same environment" is also just gameplay. The existing MMORPGs have shown that it is technically possible. Cool.

Interaction is the key problem that consoles are going to face. On a PC, the MMORPGs all use an IRC-like system for communication. You have public channels, guild channels, auction channels, and many more. You type in whatever you want to say, over whatever channel. If a dozen people write in at the same time, you get nice little lines in your chat window for whatever each person types.

Consoles? Oops. No keyboard. You've got voice input, and you might have key phrases/emotions trigged from your controller. But no real text input. If game makers try to build an MMORPG, they will need to figure out how ten people can all talk at the same time on a (voice) channel. It won't be pretty.

But don't despair. Games like Rainbox Six have shown that voice recognition works for simple phrases. But this next generation has got some serious hardware. Why not dedicate one of those processors to voice recog? Translate your statements into text and drop it onto the target channel. When you're out adventuring with a few of your friends, fine: keep that a voice channel. But the guild? The world-wide auction channel? Voice recog, baby.

It can happen. It can work. Not on the current generation of consoles, but the next? You bet.

Now I just need to figure out how to get that two solid month sabbatical that I'm going to need. Need.

Backwards Compatibility

2005-05-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

With the recent announcement of the Xbox 360, there are numerous stories with regards to backwards compatibility. "Will the 360 be compatibile with Xbox [original] games?"

The hardware should certainly be able to do it, given Microsoft's ownership of Virtual PC. The original Xbox has a 733 Mhz processor in it. The 360 has *three* processors all cranking at 3.2 Ghz. Emulation of the basic code shouldn't be a problem. The harder part will be the emulation of the old hardware.

Game developers are always going "around the system" to crank the last few cycles. I'm not familiar with Xbox development, but if game devs are doing this today, then it will certainly make it more difficult for MSFT to emulate the old box at acceptable speeds. But: MSFT has some bright peeps. And there is enough hardware in the 360. If they want to, I think the 360 can emulate the old xbox, whether or not people go around the system.

But does Microsoft care? Consider: if they don't make games compatible, then the original Xbox will have a longer lifetime [as people continue to buy the Xbox for their fav games]. With compatibility, the Xbox *might* die off in favor of the 360 [but price is a big issue]. But the PS2 versus PS1 showed us that even with compatibility, people still bought the PS1. Freaks, yes, but the market doesn't really lie. The PS1 continues to sell very well. It has a huge library, the games and the console are cheap, so families are snapping it up.

Blah blah blah. All so much speculation. If compat exists, then people will buy the 360 and be done with it. If there isn't compat, then a choice will come up: buy the more expensive 360 and its smaller game library, or buy the original? Of course, there is a small subset that will have both, but not everybody has that kind of expendable income.

Well. Crap. So what am I saying? Not a lot. Mostly "wait and see". There are a lot of considerations for backwards compatibility, and MSFT could come out on either side. Don't get your panties in a bunch... just hang in there to see what happens.

We have specs!

2005-05-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

See the story on news.com

Xbox 2 news on May 12

2005-04-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well, there isn't any real information in this article on news.com, but we'll finally know something about the Xbox 2 soon!

Game Depth

2005-02-01T01:53:00.000-08:00

I've been playing Everquest II on my PC for the past week or so. It's a great game that can really draw you in. But wait! What about poor Mr Xbox?! Have I left it to gather dust?

Nah. EQ2 is great because of its depth. There is always more "just around the corner", and you get drawn in to find out just what that is. But it isn't an adrenaline-raising game like Ninja Gaiden or Burnout 3. So for certain moods, the Xbox is going to be the winner.

But what about the times you have that "deep game" mood. Has the Xbox lost to MMORPGs on the PC? It very much depends on your play style. I'm generally a solo player. I want to go explore and to kick some ass. The MMORPG is a continually evolving system, so there is always more. I'm not there to interact with other players, to group up, and even less for PK (tho EQ2 does not support PK which is great). And we have seen a deep RPG game on the Xbox before: Morrowind. I played that sucker till my eyes bled. EQ2 is just another deep RPG for me (tho, to be honest, it is also great to play a separate character with my buddy; co-op RPGs rock).

Social players might think, "but the Xbox doesn't have a social/co-op Morrowind, so I'm gonna have to go to the PC." Yes, that is generally true for now. I think it is going to change in the next year or two, however. I'll also point out that a game like Halo 2 has changed the entire notion of social play. The support for clans, bungie.net, big deathmatching, different game types, etc etc. It's a whole new game world. Not an RPG and it lacks that kind of depth, granted, but it provides a great vehicle for social gaming.

I'm looking forward to the next Elder Scrolls (the official name of the series that Morrowind is part of). It is being called Elder Scrolls: Oblivion right now and is being targeted at the next-gen Xbox console. Will it support Live? I'm guessing it will be -enabled, but there won't be any real co-op or multiplayer support. Bethesda is pretty hard core into the single player experience. And I love 'em for that. It does mean that a co-op RPG is going to have to come from somewhere else. Not sure where right now...

Burnout 3

2005-01-25T03:09:00.000-08:00

Last week, Steve Jenson told me, "Burnout 3. Best. Recommendation. Ever."

If you haven't played this title yet, then do it. Now. You won't regret it.

Replayability

2005-01-25T02:46:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I took over a dozen games to GameStop and sold them. Got some reasonable credit for them towards buying stuff there. The question then comes up: what games to sell off? What games to keep?

It's all based on replayability. I sold off the games that I knew that I wouldn't play any more. Generally, the games that I have finished, tho there were a couple where I never finished it but a sequal is out already (e.g. sold Tony Hawk Pro Skate 4 cuz I also have THPS: Underground).

What makes a game replayable? A number of factors: are there other modes you can try? If you play it again, do you have choices that will change the gameplay or the story? Are there multiple paths and strategies towards finishing the game? Is it something that you might play with friends?

One game that I love, but sold off was D&D: Heroes. I played through it as a fighter (surprise, surprise), so I could play it again as (say) a mage. But the story line and the exploration and the puzzles will be unchanged. I'll get to see and use some spells and some minor strategy variants for using a mage. But the bulk of the game (about 25 hours of play) will be just the same. D&D: Heroes is also a fantastic game for a group of (up to) four people. But it isn't something you just sit down and play with a friend one evening. Even at four hours a night, you'll play it for a week. That's pretty hard to get into. If it was online, then that might be a bit different. But, sadly, the game is not Xbox Live-capable.

Now, on the other hand, I've basically finished Burnout 3: Takedown. But I'm not going to sell that unless/until Burnout 4 comes out. Why? It's a game where you can just sit down and have fun with it. No investment. No length brain-engagement. And it is fantastic for a quick play with friends. Same kind of thing with Timesplitters 3.

When buying a game, consider its potential for replayability. Something like Dynasty Warriors has been a fantastic buy for me. I can just keep going back to play through campaigns with new characters. It is a little repetitive, but as I've said here before: it can be a fantastic game when you're up for some hack and slash.

RPGs will generally not be replayable, though the developers are trying to make them so. Two recent games, Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) and Fable, have a good or evil decision that you can make. But you have to ask: will the game be that different if I play the other alignment? I believe the answer is "no", so I'm not going to be replaying Fable as an evil guy. Might be fun, sure, but worth another 25 or 30 hours? Probably not.

This is a big topic, so I'll stop now and hopefully revisit on another day...

KOTOR II

2005-01-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

Finally got that PC to work properly. Had to replace the motherboard. Sheesh.

When I'm not playing Everquest 2 with my buddy, I've been spending a ton of time with KOTOR II.

Keep in mind: I never played the first one. A lot of reviews on the web comment on how it is very similar to the first, and it hasn't advanced the tech or gameplay all that much. So if you played the first KOTOR, then this will be more of the same goodness, but not as revolutionary. For me, though, it kicks ass.

The graphics are great, and the sound is simply awesome. The combat and movement animations are great. The surrounding environments and textures are very well-done. When you're standing in your apartment on Capital Station, shuttles and stuff will fly by your big window. Very nice -- it makes the environment much more dynamic.

The controls are pretty good, though I don't know why the right stick (camera) doesn't look up/down. Just left/right. You have to move to first-person point of view to get the look up/down. Some of the menu controls are a bit wacky, too. I want to hit "A" to make things happen, not "X". So some parts feel a bit clumsy, but once you learn them, it isn't bad at all.

One of the issues that I've had is selecting skills (feats) and Jedi powers, whenever I level up. It is very difficult to really understand how these different things balance against each other. What should I pick? Will it be useful? It almost seems that you have to simply guess, or have played the game before. If I want a character with some particular style, then which ones should I select? How should I invest in this training?

So tweakies aside, the game is great. The story line is absolutely fantastic and draws you into the game. You want to participate, to see the next unfolding of the plot, or to interact with the NPCs to see how they react. Moving through the environments, collecting new weapons, fighting various groups, and choosing sides. All great stuff.

Very highly recommended if you like RPGs with rich stories. The "classic RPG elements" are not very strong because of the uncertainty around them, but you do watch your character grow, change, and increase in abilities. While I haven't finished the game, it appears the richness of the world is on par with that of Morrowind.

Great stuff.

The Xbox Advantage

2005-01-06T01:03:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine has nearly sworn off the Xbox stating that the PC is a much better gaming platform. I mean, who can argue with its potential for a faster processor, better graphics card, various input devices, etc.

Wait. Back up. Look at that word: potential.

My friend was all, "Let's play Everquest II". Okay. Great. I pick up a copy. Install. Install. Install. 45 minutes later, I get this leetle teeny dialog that says something about pixel shaders and texture units and that I can't play EQ2. Yo, Google. Talk to me. Well... apparently, the video card that I bought just last year isn't good enough. Oh, great fun.

Greg runs off to Fry's. Buys new video card for $100.

And lay on the pain. Nearly 24 hours later, I'm still struggling with a crashing system. Apparently, my Windows XP installation (upgraded from Windows 98) just doesn't like my new card/driver. I get fleeting glimpses of the classic blue screen before the machine reboots. It comes back and says, "there was a crash. send a report to Microsoft?" Generally, I always say no here... I don't want Microsoft knowing what's up on my box. But what the heck... I give it a shot. It reports my graphic card driver is the culprit. Heh. Thanks for the info.

Where am I now? Reinstalling the operating system from scratch, hoping that will cure the situation. Thankfully, this is just a gaming system where I don't have to worry about installed apps or docs or whatever.

What's the point of all this?

With the Xbox, I buy a game. Put it in. Play. Fun fun fun.

With the PC, I buy a game. Oh. My hardware isn't good enough. Pay more. Waste time. Play on teeny screen rather than big tv. "But the graphics are so much more detailed!" Bite me.

Xbox programmers build their games for the Xbox. It is a known quantity and they make the game run as best they can on that machine. They concentrate on squeaking out the last bit of performance. The best load time possible. Clean interaction with the controller.

On the PC? Fuck load time. Let's move it to market. Let the user buy faster hardware. Graphics? They can buy a new video card. We don't have to optimize it. I work in the software business. I know what it does to programmers. You concentrate on getting the software in your users' hands. If there is a reasonable excuse to avoid extra work in favor of time, then you take it. PC game developers could care less. They'll make you upgrade rather than optimize that loading time. They'll consume more texture memory rather than fit it to your 32MB video card. No skin off their back.

The Xbox (and other consoles) are the best platform because you can concentrate on the game. It isn't about the latest hardware. Buy it. Play it. Have fun.

Don't be fooled by the potential for faster CPUs or graphic cards. It's a sucker's bet. Stick to your console...

Silence?

2004-11-29T18:17:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not dead.

Crashed my car? Sure, I can get another.
Wearing stilettos and a dress with slits up to here? Oh so fun.
Shot in the back? I've got great friends.
Squished by a troll? They are big, you know.
Thrown through a glass wall? Sure, why not?

So yah... I haven't posted cuz I've been gaming. And a little jaunt to Vegas and Europe, but that's beside the point. We're talking about games, pal.

If you can't figure it out, above I was referring to a bunch of new games that I've been playing: Burnout 3, Bloodrayne 2, Halo 2, Lord of the Rings: Third Age, and Dead or Alive Ultimate.

So a bit slow on the posting front, but I'll try to post a bit about each over time. Lately, I've been playing Third Age. Very good looking and fun, but so far it has seemed a bit easy. After I get further through, then I'll write some more.

And good news: Christmas is coming. And you know what that means: tons of new games released. In particular, Ghost Recon 2. Now, where is that friend of mine... I've got a machine gun to show him...

Animations

2004-10-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

One of the key aspects of most video game are the "animations". Typically, this is with respect to various people, animals, monsters, or what-have-you on the video screen. The best animations are life-like, fluid, respect the surroundings, and even use the environment when possible.

A game like Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball has excellent characters models (probably the most life-like models out there today), but it does not have a rich set of animations. On the volleyball court, the women don't have a bunch of moves, though what they do have are very fluid and realistic. In some of the more voyeuristic modes, they move fluidly, but they still have a limited set of animations.

Compare that to a game like Ninja Gaiden. In that game, Ryu looks and moves with near perfection. His running, his flowing movement from one attack into a defense into a jump off a wall, how he wields nunchuks and swords... all of them done with a rich, flowing, and varied set of animations. He sometimes gets clipped by the terrain, but it rarely draws you away from the utter amazement of watching him move.

One the latest games that I just bought, BloodRayne 2, has got some truly amazing moves. The character model is also fantastic. In word, hot. In the initial levels, she has a long dress on which is slit on each side all the way up to here. Yah, perv: upskirts are there. What is amazing is watching her in combat with the dress and her hair flowing around her as she glides and spins and jumps from one stance or attack or defense to another. Very, very nice. I haven't played through enough to comment on game play (seems fine so far), but the graphics are quite amazing.

Other games with excellent animations: Otogi and Otogi 2, the Splinter Cell series, and even Psi Ops: the Mindgate Conspiracy. These are all amazing games and are excellent demonstrations of some of the best animations out there.

Fable

2004-10-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished Fable a couple nights ago. It was a definitely quite cool.

The graphics and visual style are exellent. The animations are beautiful (people walking around, as you "emote", while in combat, with spells, etc). Heck, even the grass waves in the wind. Rad.

Combat in Fable is very smooth and straight-forward. I never really used my bow -- generally, I just play tanks that wade into combat. I did find the "Force Push" skill to be highly useful. Excellent for crowd clearing. At max'd level, it did some good damage, too. I'd bash a group with it, then run after one the guys. By the time the others picked themselves up and regrouped around me, then I'd push them all back again. It didn't work so well agains the big trolls tho :-)

The story line is rather light, but it works well. The various quests and progressive opening of areas leads you through the story very well.

One negative: the game would "stutter" every now and then when I ran places. It never did that in combat. I think it was mostly about loading new areas/textures.

I did just about every side quest and optional quest possible. All told, it took me about 22 hours to finish the game. I've heard that you can do it in 15; I just like to explore and see what else is doable. For example, I had four wives, about eight houses, and had travelled all over the place several times.

I'm not sure whether to reply it as evil now, though. Your alignment doesn't really change the gameplay that much, and I'm not sure that I want to put in the time just to see my character grow big old horns on his head.

I very much recommend Fable. It is a fantastic RPG. You have many, many ways to grow your character along different paths. The story is not deep, but the graphics are amazing, the potential character directions are simply incredible, and the quest/explore/combat is very good.

Urf

2004-10-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yet again, Starcraft: Ghost has been delayed. We're now looking at June of next year. Damn thing better be worth the wait...

Until then, here are the top games on my watch list:

Otogi 2
Need for Speed Underground 2
Ghost Recon 2
dang, that's a lot of "2" games...
KOTOR 2 (yah yah, another one)
Halo 2 (see a pattern yet?)
Dead or Alive: Ultimate (not a 2!!! actually, it is like a billion or so) -- this baby comes out in about two weeks!

I'm keeping my eye on BloodRayne 2 (rented/played the first; it wasn't bad; this one looks way better; out next week!). Also: Mercenaries, Far Cry, Jade Empire (yay! ... but next March), Red Ninja, Kameo, and Bard's Tale. There are a few others that I'm tracking but want to see more previews and info about them.

Hoo boy... this holiday season is looking up! Last was nuts. I was buried when so many top-notch games came out. But... I'd call that a Happy Problem.

Lookee there...

2004-09-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

Ya know, I'm not normally one to say, "I told you so", but hey. I told you so.

Burnout 3 is tearing up the charts. Reviews are giving it raves left and right. metacritic is listing Burnout 3 as the number three game overall (behind Halo and the GTA double pack).

I'm still waiting on my friend at EA to score a copy of this bad boy, but in the interim, you can read a review from those Penny Arcade boys. Again, they give it blistering marks.

...

Are you still sitting there? Get to the store. What's wrong with you?

Strategic Gaming

2004-09-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

Some of the best games are those with strategic elements to them. Where you need to stop and think about how you're going to solve the particulare issue at hand. The best games give you multiple options for a solution. There are definitely times when you really don't want or care to think about your game, but simply to play. Racing games are a good example for those.

But strategy games... I'm talking about things like Hitman, where you need to plan your strategy for infiltrating some location, wiping out your target, and exiting cleanly. There are lots of options and approaches -- snipe the target from a distance? put on a disguise and garrotte him? walk into his location mowing everything down in your path? Options!

Dynasty Warriors is also very good. I've written about it before as a mindless killfest. But between the bouts of mayhem, there is a lot of strategy necessary. Which units do you mow down first? What officers do you go after? Can you wipe out the guard retinue before they escort that officer off the map? When the map first starts up, it takes some sitting back and some thought to plan an approach to the mission.

One of my favorite games when I'm in a strategy mood is Ghost Recon. It takes some serious thought to figure out how to navigate the map and take out baddies without having them kick your team's ass. With Ghost Recon, I really want to be able to complete the level without damage to my team. Thus, planning an approach to the level is quite important. Patience is also helpful with this game. Tracking down the baddies, waiting for them to hit that sweet target spot, or creeping along to ambush them.

Ghost Recon is simply a great game for whackin' bad guys, and doing it in style.

Got Monkeys?

2004-08-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

If you're into FPS's, one of the best shooters that I've played is Timesplitters. I'm not a huge fan of th FPS genre, but Timesplitters is quite excellent.

I first ran into it on the PS2. When I first got the PS2, I picked up a game from each genre, and TS was the shooter. It is fast. I mean really fast. The game never slowed, even when we did four player deathmatches on the console (thank you, Mr Multitap).

Then TS2 came out for the Xbox, I was all over it. Way, way better. Improved graphics, that kickass framerate, and even more player models, weapons, and locations. The story line on these games is pretty lame, but who cares.

If you're looking for a great game for parties, then this is it. Fun environments, fun weapons, and the only game where you can play as a monkey carrying a rocket launcher. Fear the monkey.

(yah, yah... Halo is great for party deathmatches, too, but it doesn't have monkeys)

Where are you?

2004-08-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

... playing Sudeki.

And to answer your next question: awesome.

Splut!

2004-08-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've been playing some Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy lately. It rocks. Your various powers unfold as you start to play the game. First comes telekinesis. Then remote viewing. And then "mind drain". The latter is awesome. You can recover psychic go-go juice from corpses. No more need for powerups to replenish your psi power. But even better? Sneak up behind a live person and mind drain them. A kickass lightning bolt goes between you and your (ahem) subject and they lift into the air as you start sucking their brain. Voom voom voom! And then BLAM! Their head goes up in a merry fountain of giblets.

Psi-Ops is proving to be some serious fun. Yes, you've got guns and can shoot the crap outta the bad guys. But it takes a lot of hits, and they're usually wailing on you, too. But use a telekinesis on them? Whap! Whap! As you toss them around like rag dolls. It's very satisfying...

I've heard the game is a bit on the short side, but no matter. I've got the sucker on hard, and I'm just too methodical with this stuff. It should prove to be many, many hours of enjoyment, making this game well worth the purchase.

And the games keep rolling in...

2004-08-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

I just ordered Sudeki and Rallisport Challenge 2.

I played a demo of the latter, and it was quite cool. Some awesome graphics, though I'm not sure about the overall feel of the game. But for 25 bucks, why the heck not? I know I can get that much enjoyment out of it. I'll post some info after I get a chance to really dig into the thing. The interesting point for RS2 is the rally aspect. Street racing has got Need for Speed: Underground or Midnight Club II. Track racing is probably best served by TOCA (though I haven't played it, it has been getting some awesome reviews). I'm not much of a track racer, so I don't have much personal experience to relate there (just what I've read, seen or heard).

And Sudeki. Well, yah. I've talked about it before. Definitely looking forward to it...

Twitch?

2004-07-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

Much of the gaming "scene" is defined and driven by "twitch" games. Also known as the First Person Shooter. Doom started it all. Since that time, hardware, performance, and frames per second are the measure of the day. Wanna be cool? Well, you can't just have a computer. It has to be a "gaming rig".

Doom led into Quake, into Half-Life, into Counterstrike, into Unreal. Okay. Maybe not that order, but those are the games that define twitch. Those games where your reflexes have to be at 110%. When that single pixel appears on your screen as an enemy starts to round a corner, and you slam your thumb down, "BLAM!". Twitch, twitch, twitch.

Our next twitcher for the Xbox comes out momentarily: the long-awaited release of Doom 3. Half-life is on deck for (maybe!) next spring, and Timesplitters 3 for later next year.

When playing with friends, it can be great. I'm usually up for a Halo deathmatch, but while I'm pretty good, I know that there are zillions of players who could totally school me. For shooter games, I tend towards the more strategic and tactical games. Things like Splinter Cell, or Rogue Ops, or Soldier of Fortune. These are games where you can slow down and use your brain to dominate the game, rather than reflexes.

I just want to conclude with a shout out to Angela in Illinois. She reminded me of where gaming really started. Doom has certainly started the latest era of high-power gaming, but the true roots of video gaming originate back in the 80's. I want to stick to the Xbox in this blog, but for those with a bit of nostaliga, please raise a toast to Drol, Marauder, Bilestoad, and all those other games you grew up with.

Sudeki is out...

2004-07-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

I've got an "inside" in Microsoft (the publisher of Sudeki), so I'm going to order the game via my friend. However, it hasn't shown up in their internal, online store yet. I would probably just pay for the whole thing and start playing it right away, but I'm out of town all next week. May as well do the slow order and have it when I get home...

Very exciting. New RPG. Woot!

Tho I did read a review that said it is about 20 hours. That's a little on the short side for an RPG, but that also means a great chance of finishing the thing. (tho I finished Morrowind after untold hours, so maybe "short-ish" isn't really necessary...)

And Fable comes out in September. Life is looking good...

Crash! Boom! Kablooie!

2004-07-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

Earlier, I mentioned how Need for Speed: Underground is so completely immersive. You fly along the city streets at a breakneck pace. Lights go zooming by, taillights reflect in the light sheen of water on the pavement, you barely keep the car on the road as you careen around that final corner... NFSU simply moves. Everything about the game puts you there.

There is another driving game which deserves at least as much praise. It's a series called Burnout. This game started out as a basic racing game with a bit of bonuses for driving dangerously (catching air, drifting, driving against traffic, and near misses). All quite competent, but what captured everybody's eyes (and commentary!) were the crashes. Burnout didn't simply send you spinning out, maybe with a little explosion or somesuch. In this one, your car is literally demolished. Parts flying, glass shattering, a shorn off bumper sliding across the pavement, and the twisted remains of your car body hurtling into that little compact car tooling up the cross street. The crashes were simply impressive. Nothing had been done like it before.

Along comes Burnout 2. They knew where the bread was buttered. This game had a crash mode. The entire goal was simply to crash your car and cause as much damage as possible. Well, "as much as possible" generally means playing pinball with cross traffic. The strategy is to hit the cars just so to create a pile-up like that and then bounce over there to cause a secondary pile-up. Bing! Bing! Bing! The dollars of damage ring up as you watch your car get shredded across the highway leaving twisted hunks of family cars, semis, and busses in its path. The experience is exhilarating.

I seriously lost it when my brother-in-law plowed into a big-rig tanker just so and caused that sucker to fly into the air end-over-end. Sure, just a bit unrealistic, but the adrenaline of watching that much metal spin into the sky... unnatural, but so, so satisfying as it crunches back to the hard concrete and skids into the barrier.

Burnout is fun. Pure, visceral fun. It doesn't have quite the driving immersion as NFSU, but when you're flying down a beach highway on the wrong side of the road, twitching into the other lane to avoid some oncoming traffic, and just hoping that, as you crest that low rise, you won't suddenly find yourself nose-to-nose with a car... it's a serious rush. The game is largely about the magnificent crashes, but the driving portions and the unlockables are also fantastic.

Rent this game. Now. And when Burnout 3 comes out this September -- buy it. Okay. Maybe wait for the review if you're timid. But after you play the game, you'll understand. This game is a keeper.

Discounts!

2004-07-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Oooh. EBgames is currently running a 10% off special. Any in-stock game gets the discount. Great discount, but oof... if I wanted the game, then I would have ordered it by now. I want a discount on all pre-orders, dammit.

Of course, this is a good time to review those old games which I passed up. They may have dropped in price since they first came out, and with the extra discount, they might be kinda nice. For example, Rallisport Challenge 2, or MtG: Battleground. Undecided...

Mosh Pit. Chinese Style.

2004-07-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ever feel like committing wonton destruction? Walking through wave after wave of opponents, cutting them down? Watching the enemy run at you, knowing he's going to call you "Daddy" in a few moments?

Okay. Maybe you don't. But I do. There is a definite satisfaction to simply cause a bit of mayhem every now and then. My favorite game for this is Dynasty Warriors. I first picked up DW 3 for the PS2 a few years ago, and then got DW4 for the Xbox last September. I would consider Dynasty Warriors to be a modern day Robotron. It just makes me think of that old Star Trek episode where they run into Jack the Ripper's spirit, and he's yelling out, "Die! Die! Die! ... you'll all die!"

Well, Robotron is like that. But Dynasty Warriors has got even more going for it. Your warrior gains in experience, opening new slots for weapons and other items. Your character's attack and defense strength grows. Your primary weapon also gains experience, powering up to become a true badness bringer of death. Throw in items to collect, which have various power levels, increasing mission difficulty, and huge numbers of unlockables. You can play this game over and over and over.

So the characters have stories of their progression towards hero status, back in feudal China. I've played entirely through the story for about five or six characters. Unlocking more powerful items. Powering up each of the characters. Opening new maps.

And battling hordes of enemies. But it still isn't just that simple. You start on a map, with various officers and groups of enemies under those officers' control. Your job is to cut down a specific general (or one of a few other goals). Yet you have to plan your way to get through the masses of enemies and get to that general. And maintain morale. And keep your own general alive (generally by killing their hordes before they kill your horders).

The game can be a bit repetitive, but it is deep. For that late night, when your brain is pretty well mushy... this game rocks. The graphics aren't exactly something you'd write home about, but it certainly has a gameplay that you would.

Samurai Warriors is going to be released in about two weeks. It is also from Koei and has pretty much the same game play. Some early reviews (of the PS2 version) note a more limited set of unlockables. This one is set in Japan rather than the Nth Chinese setting. I'm on the fence about it, and will wait for the Xbox reviews to come in.

Until then... I've got DW4...

Driver 3

2004-06-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

So I've spent a couple nights playing Driver 3, aka DRIV3R. It has taken a bit of time to get used to the car physics -- in particular, how tightly a car grips when going around a corner.

The game looks great (if you can forgive some pop-up), and the cars (and damage to them) looks fantastic. But the character movement is a bit touchy. Car handling seems quite fine. The missions are kind of a bitch, though. You'll find yourself trying a particular mission over and over. One wrong move and it's off to retry-land. Missions in GTA are much more forgiving. I never had to retry them so much.

The guns are very good, along with gun combat. I wish you could peek/lean around a corner, though. Way too often, I end up moving out from a corner simply to get somebody into my gunsights... BLAM! Down I go. And back to retrying the mission. Sigh.

Vehicles are neat. I've already been in multiple cars and boats. From a demo scene, it looks like motorcycles, too. Oh, and a cop car. With sirens.

The game is very linear so far. From one mission right to the next. I'm not sure where the variety is here. You can certainly "free drive" around the city, but I haven't tried that yet, so I'm not sure what it gives you. Within the missions, there is very little variability. "Follow this guy" or "Go over there and wax some guys." Not a lot of strategy there.

So far, it is nice. The gameplay doesn't beat GTA though. While I still have some more game to go, and might get blown away, I'd highly recommend going for the GTA double pack instead of this one. If you've already done GTA and want some driving/mission gaming, then this game certainly seems fine.

I want my Nova!

2004-06-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

You know. Nova. The hot babe in Starcraft: Ghost. Sigh. One of the developers (Nihilistic) was working with Blizzard on the game. They just left the project. So the game release has been pushed out to at least next February.

Crap. And it was supposed to have come out this month.

Riddick

2004-06-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

Starts slow and easy, then it starts stepping up.

During the first part of the game, it's a hand-to-hand brawler. Much like some of the pics that I've seen of Breakdown. So you're moving through the game beating the crap outta various people. The combat is pretty good -- various blocks and different types of kicks and punches are possible. It can get a bit crazy, but not a big issue.

Then you get a gun. And "slow and easy" just doesn't apply any more. You have to be fast and hella accurate with your assault rifle. If not... BOOM! You're down. Of course, it may simply be that I've cranked up the difficulty :-)

The reviews say the game is relatively short. I'm not sure how replayable it is, so that's why I cranked the difficulty. It would kind of suck to just blow right through the game. Have to work for it...

The way that your goals are defined is also really cool. It is always totally clear what you need to do. There is sort of a running list of your goals. As you complete each part, it changes to the next thing. Very slick.

The game has been awesome so far, and it is way cool to see more of the Riddick universe filled in through the game story. I worry about the length, but let's see whether that will be a problem by the time that I finish.

Sudeki

2004-06-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the game Sudeki earlier. Big, beautiful RPG coming out next month. All the screenshots look great, and some of the previews about the story line sound excellent. And how can an RPG be bad?!

Ah, but sadness. It just got pushed back to July 20th (from the 13th). Not a very good sign given how close that is. Hopefully, it is about production and distribution issues instead of last minute game problems.

I typically buy my games from EB Games. There is a very good wish list system there, which I use to track all the games that seem "interesting", but are not out yet. Last year, I used to use Amazon for this, but they didn't have Rogue Ops on their site. So... off to ebgames. Where was I going with this? Well, ebgames has got about 100 screenshots of the game. GameSpy has fewer, but they are a bit larger.

Whatever the case... go check out the screenshots. Some amazing detail and vivid color. There is an excellent variety of areas, characters, and oh-so-pretty effects.

Now if it would just ship...

Almost there

2004-06-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I was just about done with the new Splinter Cell. Capture Sadono, and I'm good to go! Did that. Oop. There's more.

Can't really complain though. Both Splinter Cells are so cool, that having more levels to play is a Happy Problem(tm).

So I think just one more night, and that should clear up that game. Then I think I'll turn to the Chronicles of Riddick. I just saw the movie last weekend (awesome!), so I think completing the game is the right move...

Otogi

2004-06-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

I believe THE most beautiful game on the xbox is Otogi: Myth of Demons. Of course, Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball runs a close second, but for entirely different reasons. Otogi has got excellent models, scenery, and a wondrous use of color and light. It simply amazes at every point. The battles are flashy, stylistic, and very engaging. This game does not sacrifice gameplay for beauty.

It can also be a great hack and slash. On some levels, there is significant respawning going on. (I forget the level, but the one with the wizard yelling out, "None Shall Pass!" is the best) You can seriously sit there for 30 minutes just cutting down the monsters to level yourself up. When you're done, turn around and give the smackdown to the boss.

The main character has got some excellent jumping, and the gliding... Wow, the glide! His clothes flutter in the breeze as he descends across the level. This thing oozes style. And then you have the levels with big crystals, and the one with monster blobs, and the nifty chrome skulls, and ... Fine. I'll stop.

I played Otogi straight through. Then I played it again, all powered up with my kickass weapons from the frist play through. Rock.

And the best thing of all? Otogi 2 is coming out in October. Hot frickin' damn.