From Major Nelson’s Blog:

I wanted to let you know that as of November 1, 2010 we are increasing the price of an Xbox LIVE for some members. This price increase only affects Xbox LIVE Members in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom or the United States.

Unless listed above, there is no change in any other subscription packages.

Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.

However, we do want to thank our loyal members and give you the opportunity to lock in your current price with an additional discount, so now would be a good time to renew your subscription.

From official forums:

Operating Procedure

Schedule:Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 19:00 (PDT)
*The Open Beta Test will be online continuously for 24 hours a day.*Maintenance and any other announcements will be posted accordingly.
*Information on testing dates and times will also be posted on the official FINAL FANTASY XIV Twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_JP
http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN
http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_DE

http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_FR

Log-in Capacity
During the initial stages of the beta test, the number of players allowed to be logged in at any given time will be limited, with capacity to gradually increase as adjustments are performed on server load. Should the maximum capacity already be reached when you attempt to log in, a message will appear indicating that the world is currently congested, and you will be asked to try again in a short while. At this time you will be placed on a waiting list in the order of attempted log-in time. To maintain your position on the waiting list, you must initiate the log-in procedure again within ten minutes of your first attempt.

Feedback Submission
While playing, testers who have been asked to submit opinions on anything at all regarding topics such as game balance issues, settings that you may have found difficult to understand, and features that you felt were inconvenient, unintuitive, or required further explanation are asked to use the feedback hread, and for those testers who have been assigned the task of reporting bugs are asked to use the bug report form.

Show Notes
0:00:00 – Throats
0:01:01 – Intro
0:04:03 – News That We Give a Damn About
0:12:24 – Leo’s Gooing
0:21:10 – Adam’s Gooing
0:32:45 – Scott’s Gooing
0:48:58 – Top 5 Cheapest Boss Battles
1:09:48 – Feature: Shelf Life of Perishable Systems
1:29:02 – Rebuttal, What’s on Deck & Outro

Thanks for listening.

LotR:O Character Creation

From the press release:

Wednesday, 18th August 2010…  

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today that Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online^TM (LOTRO) will introduce its innovative new pricing model, allowing players to download the game and play for free and purchase expansions, quest packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new LOTRO Store starting September 10, 2010.  

Extending its award-winning story, LOTRO delivers the ultimate adventure featuring the massive world of Middle-earth brought to life through state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found in premium subscription-based online games.  

“Our LOTRO beta program has been a huge success and we want to thank all of our players who worked with us to get the game ready for launch,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of LOTRO, Turbine. “Our unique pricing model has revolutionized the industry and starting in September, players will be able to choose how they pay for and play one of the world’s best online games and we can’t wait to welcome millions of new players to Middle-earth!”  

LOTRO will offer players unlimited choice!  

 Free means Free! – Players will download LOTRO by visiting www.lotro.com and join with millions of other adventurers as they explore the most complete and authentic recreation of Middle-earth ever created and participate in LOTRO’s award-winning epic story up to level 50 for free.  

 Visit the new LOTRO Store! - The LOTRO Store is loaded with thousands of convenience items as well as expansion packs, premium content, additional character slots, potions, character customization and more! The LOTRO Store is seamlessly integrated into the game and lets the player identify new and exciting ways to enhance and customize their experience using points which can be purchased in the store or earned through gameplay.  

 Be a LOTRO VIP! – Players who elect to become a LOTRO VIP will have unlimited access to all premium content, receive priority server access, 5 character slots, a shared bank slot, and a monthly allotment of points to spend in the new LOTRO Store.  

The Lord of the Rings Online is the ultimate adventure. This award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game delivers an interactive experience brimming with life and filled with the familiar people, places and monsters from the most famous fantasy of all time. From the picturesque surroundings of the Shire to Moria, the most fearsome underground realm ever imagined, players will soon experience the world of Middle-earth for free! For more information, visit www.lotro.com.

Mech Battle Goodness

From the press release:

London (16 August 2010)
– Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX^® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces the forthcoming release of FRONT MISSION 3^TM, the classic strategy adventure game originally released for PlayStation^® will soon be available to download for PlayStation^®3 and PSP^® (PlayStation^®Portable) system from the PlayStation^®Network.

FRONT MISSION 3 is a sprawling strategy sci-fi adventure which gives you giant mechanical battle machines known as “Wanzers” to command in explosive, high-tech, turn-based warfare.

Featuring the Double Feature Scenario System, you can choose from one of two independent stories, each with its own unique characters, situations and environments. Up to 150 hours of engrossing gameplay – complete with a myriad of twists and turns – awaits you. Are you ready to uncover the truth?

Show Notes
If I filled this in, then the show contents wouldn’t be a surprise.    We’ll have our notes back next episode.

Thanks for listening.

Show Notes
0:00:00 – Over
0:01:25 – Intro
0:03:35 – News That We Give a Damn About
0:14:22 – Leo’s Gooing
0:41:13 – Adam’s Gooing
0:59:18 – Scott’s Gooing
1:23:18 – Top 5 Gateway Games to a Genre You May Not Play
2:16:08 – Rebuttal, What’s on Deck & Outro

Thanks for listening.

It was these two episodes that inspired me in March to contact my local children’s hospital and ask them if they’d be up for a videogame marathon here in Edinburgh, Scotland.  They were delighted.

And here we are, four months later, on the brink of Sick Kids Save Point, Scotland’s first videogame marathon.  Over $1500  has been raised with two weeks to go, and we’ve received the support of our local game developer – Rockstar North – who have donated substantially to the charity and also prizes to top fundraisers.  There are some awesome GTA and Red Dead related swag being offered to participants who can raise over a certain amount, so that should spur people on to the next level.  Perhaps most significantly, the Rockstar developers themselves are going to take part!

But all the time consuming organisational shenanigans have left me woefully short of personal targets for my marathon.  Have I learned nothing from Scott and Adam??  I need a top 5, and I need it sharpish!

I did have some vague notion of playing Red Dead Redemption, but I got my 100% last night. I’m still plugging away at Demon’s Souls, but if Scott’s rage-quit during Extra Life is anything to go by, it isn’t a game for the sleep deprived…  The recent patch for Fat Princess has made the game a lot more user friendly in setting up online games, so that’s going to be involved at some point.  In the later hours I expect I’ll go for some low impact trophies in Final Fight double impact.  And there’s always the list of shame… top of it is Uncharted 2.  Yes, I know, that’s why it’s called a list of shame.

There’s no shame though in raising money for a great cause, and I’m really looking forward to it all.  If anyone wants to know if my spirits are high or low during Sick Kids Save Point I’ll either put a live stream up, or I’ll post some update videos on YouTube.  You can also follow us on Twitter.  The central hub to find out about our effort is our blog, where you can also sign up, see our prizes, or even play space invaders!

If anyone wants to take part, setting up a fundraising page is easy; VGEvo has a team fundraising page here,  so you could always point your sponsors there as well.  If you’re waiting for ExtraLife, at least think about donating a couple of dollars to our cause byfollowing the VGEvo team link above, in the spirit of the international solidarity I felt ten months ago…

Next time you download a podcast, be aware it could change everything!  Play Games.  Save Kids.  Win stuff.

While the game is not for everyone, after 25 hours of playtime I’ve come up with a quick recipe that may tell you if you’re a candidate for its enjoyment. You take the dungeon crawling and adventure aspect of Shining in the Darkness (or the dungeon crawling bits of Etrian Odyssey, if you don’t remember Shining) and you add a tiny dash of Pokemon catch-em-all madness and teenagers shooting themselves in the head while sprinkling in large dose of Japanese eccentricity. When you’re done stuffing that into the disc you tie it all up with a mysterious plot involving the end of the world you’ve got the beginnings of Persona 3.  For the sake of brevity I’m only going to concern myself with the combat and exploration elements of the game, but be advised that there’s a whole lot more to this package. Sound good? Let’s continue.

Exploring in a maid's outfit? Yes please.

Persona 3 is, at its heart, a dungeon crawl. All of the combat takes place in Tartarus, a mysterious tower that appears in the world during the Dark Hour – a space of time that happens between midnight and 12:01. The main character, along with a handful of others, are among the few that can experience this time, with the rest of the population transforming into a coffin until the dark hour has passed (don’t worry about the details, it will hurt your brain). All of the floors, except for those that contain bosses, are randomly generated every time you step into the tower every single time. If you enter at any floor to explore and then leave before climbing to the next you will be treated to a new layout the next time you return. Lest that sound too intimidating, each floor is generally bite sized and takes only a couple of minutes to explore. This aspect of the game’s design lends itself unnervingly well to the “just one more” phenomenon that can consume your entire night, so if you frequently fall into that trap you should know what you’re getting into.

To make things more manageable you get a mini-map on screen at all times, with the layout being drawn as you walk through the halls. Monsters, or shadows as the game terms them, show up as bright spots so you can avoid them if you’re in a tough spot or deliberately seek them out if you’re looking for combat. If a shadow sees you they will immediately attempt to close the distance, which gives you a limited amount of time to strike it with your weapon before battle begins. Should you fail to strike it before the distance is closed the enemies will get a free turn. However, it’s just as possible to sneak up behind the shadow and strike before it notices you, granting your party the extra turn instead.

All skills are performed by your persona.

Combat is turn based, though unlike a lot of other RPGs it stresses a rock paper scissors strategy to a higher degree. Unlike a lot of games where you can happily ignore elemental strengths and weaknesses, P3 revels in making you constantly search for the sweet spots. If you strike an enemy with an attack it is weak to, or critically hit, you can follow up with another attack immediately. This is important, because if you don’t take advantage of these weaknesses the enemy certainly will. If you’re not on top of your game the enemies will happily strike your weakness, and then do it again with their extra turn (oh yes, they get one too). While occasionally unnerving when battle takes a sudden turn for the worse, it does help keep you on your toes so the combat doesn’t feel ho-hum as the hours progress.

While this may sound excessively brutal, in practice, the system works in your favor more often than not. This port, unlike the console iterations, does provide the option to play through with easier difficulty settings where combat is easier and, should you die, you get a number of continues in case you were silly enough not to save. You have to make the decision early on, however, and cannot change your mind should you find it too easy. I would, of course, recommend normal.

Leveling up is a two sided process. Your character gains HP and SP to spend on skills, with physical skills costing hp and magical ones costing sp. Your stats and elemental weaknesses are provided to you by your personas. Each persona belongs to an arcana, modeled after the arcana of a tarot deck (Fool, Devil, Magician, etc), and each arcana has general strengths and weaknesses on top of the persona’s quirks. The arcana essentially function as classes, where some are geared towards combat – with high strength and physical damage attacks – and others are more magically inclined, with high magic stats and powerful elemental spells. The beautiful thing is that you don’t really have to stick to one or the other as your main character can switch personas once per turn, without losing an action, to exploit different skills as the need arises. The number of personas you can have at once grows with you, but even at the beginning of the game you can have six, making it easy to be prepared.

Fusion, no messy breeding here.

Personas can be gained from battle, but the majority of them will be obtained through fusion. As you gain personas and use them in combat they level up alongside you and learn new skills. In time, you can use fuse personas together to create a more powerful one. The fused persona will start at its own base level and has its own base skills but will also gain some of the skills of its ‘parents’. In addition, should you have a social link that corresponds with that persona’s arcana it will gain bonus experience. These links are what you spend the majority of your time obtaining and nurturing when you’re not exploring Tartarus. Initially it may seem tedious to have to level each persona as you get it (as they can be of a different level than you) but in actual practice the best approach is to fuse several lower level arcana into a persona that is of a higher level to match your character. This prevents the dungeon crawl from bogging down to the point where you can’t progress because you have to grind up.

This all only scratches the surface. As the game progresses you gain the ability to fuse personas into weapons, take on time-sensitive kill quests to carry out in Tartarus, fetch quests over the daytime hours, fusion quests where you must create a persona in such a way that it inherits a specific skill,  or you can mount rescue missions for regular people who find themselves stranded in Tartarus, all while minding your calendar to hang out with the people and groups that you like in the daytime hours.

If you’ve been looking for an RPG to spend some time with, and don’t mind – or crave – something just a little different than usual, then I heartily recommend you make some time for a little Persona in your life.

Show Notes
0:00:51 – Intro
0:05:06 – Adam’s Gooing
0:15:51 – Scott’s Gooing
0:36:00 – Top 5 Sidequests
1:07:44 – Rebuttal, What’s on Deck & Outro

Thanks for listening.

"Bah! Such Weakness"

When not writing surprise endings, or when he should be writing endings for his movies, M. Night Shyamalan prefers to play Bison.

Interviewer: “So why Bison?”

M.N.S: “I think you have to appreciate a guy who keeps coming back and starting up new tournaments even though he keeps getting beat up or torn to pieces.”

I: “So you admire his tenacity?”

M.N.S: “Yeah absolutely! It’s like, I lost…but i’m back now! I bet you didn’t see it coming!”

I: “I see. So while I have you, what was the deal with the Last Airbender?”

M.N.S: “Dude, that’s totally my fault. I was trying to figure out how to land the Ultra 2 on jump happy opponents and the producers were all like, ‘There’s a movie to finish!’ whatever.”

"Ya-Hoo!"

When not battling global warming Al Gore prefers to lay down the beatings with Dan Hibiki.

I: “I wouldn’t have pegged you for a Dan guy.”

A.G: “Well you have to understand, Dan knows what he’s about and his loyalty to his family is outstanding.”

I: “You don’t think he’s the butt of a joke?”

A.G: “My heavens no! He’s just trying to follow in the footsteps of his father. Why my father was a U.S. Representative and a Senator too, you know? I look up to him and only hope to…”

I: “Yes, uh, thank you I have another interview I have to do…”

A.G: “Don’t cut me off son. You know I invented the internet, I can have your job.”

"RAOOOR!"

Steve Buscemi, when not creeping us out or being funny on film, prefers to play as Blanka.

I: “I have to say, I loved you in Con Air!”

S.B: “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

I: “Your character was so creepy! Is that why you like Blanka?”

S.B: “Lets just say I find Blanka’s story touching. Plus, when he goes for the throw and then starts biting at his opponent, with all that ‘blood’ and the exquisite rending of the flesh, it just makes me all goose-pimply. I don’t think you could ask for a better experience, you know?”

I: “Uhm. No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

S.B: “That’s ok, but listen, I’m really hungry all of a sudden, do you want to maybe grab a bite?”

"Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken!"

When not enjoying his off-time after his presidency former President Bush prefers to lay down the law with Ken.

I: “I think I might be surprised that you play SSF4 at all!”

G.B: “I can certainly see why you might be, a lot of people misunderestimate me when it comes right down to technology and video games.”

I: “Right. So…Ken?”

G.B: “Ken is certainly one of the good ol’ boys. To be honest, one of my advisors found me this excellent guide. I’m afraid it’s classified and top secret but believe me, I can’t be beat.”

I: “Does it involve a shoryuken?”

G.B: “I’m not at liberty to say, but as I like to say, if I shoryuken you once shame on you and if, uh, if I shoryuken you twice, well..shame on me.”

"That felt good didn't it?"

Bai Ling, international super star and nerd favorite, enjoys playing as Juri for fun and profit.

I: “I never really thought about it before, but you kind of remind of Juri in some ways.”

B.L: “Actually, it’s a little known fact that i’m the inspiration for this character. I love her outfit!”

I: “It’s a little improbable, actually, I’ve always thought Juri looks kind of slutty in a way, and who actually bends that way anyway? I mean, come on…hey, why is your eye glowing like tha…”

Editor’s Note: We did not receive the rest of this monitor cyborg’s Interviewer’s transcript.

"I love my daughters, they are so pretty."

Angelina Jolie, when not in the studio, prefers a nice relaxing game of SSF4 as Hakan.

I: “Wow. I never thought you would have picked Hakan. I mean, he’s ugly, and well, you’re not.”

A.J: “I think you’re not giving him enough credit. In his country of origin he is a very striking man.”

I: “I guess I never thought of it that way.”

A.J: “Hakan loves his family, I think I envy him. I need a few more children before I catch up to him, he is truly blessed.”

I: “Is that the only reason you play as Hakan then?”

A.J: -laughing- “Hardly, I think his fighting style is very interesting. I definitely enjoy covering myself in oil from time to time. Just the other day I was sunbathing and decided it would be a good time to bring out the baby oil…why are you looking at me like that?”

Think of the children.

*This is clearly a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual SSF4 preferences by said celebrities is purely coincidental and not my problem.

True Story

My real people job™ is to assist others with their computer woes. At any given time I’m expected to support one of over 300 different applications. I do this job successfully not because I know everything there is to know about these applications but because I’ve been a computer user and troubleshooter for almost two decades. I’m familiar with the lexicon of computer interactions as they apply to Windows programs. For instance, if a toolbar is missing – no matter the program – I’m pretty certain I can go into the Edit or View menu to re-enable it. If some feature is missing that the user misses, I know I can probably dig through an Edit -> Options menu until I see what it is. To most users this seems like magic, to us it’s just a different means of navigating, a familiar language of interaction and protocol.

Recently a favorite blogger of mine bemoaned the lack of progress in computer speech recognition and he opined that perhaps we should just give up on it. To back up his claims he speculated, and then laid out some examples, as to how much quicker mouse\keyboard interactions are when compared to spoken commands. As brilliant an individual as he is, he too is missing the point.

Intuitive UI is not primarily about making things easier, faster, or even more productive. It’s about creating a control scheme built on a universal vocabulary that does not require a lot of time to adjust to. Yes, it might be easier or faster to select a column in Excel and click on the formula tab and then click on Sum, but it would be more intuitive to say “Computer Sum Column B4 on B11.” We wouldn’t need pesky computer training if computers could only understand us instead of us having to understand them.

Gaming is currently afflicted by this same lack of understanding. What seems like a simple control scheme to us, the ‘hardcore gamers,’ is a confusing mess to the average non-gamer. While Kinect might appear goofy, and waggle might seem dumb, they introduce a control scheme that is less intimidating to understand. After all, who hasn’t flailed around at some point in their life?

In the end, we as gamers need to get over the idea that everything is for us. Microsoft and Sony don’t want your money, they want Mom & Dad’s money and they want grandma’s money. If you’re about to become a Mom or a Dad they’re banking that they’ll have your money in a few years when your toddler is walking around and you want something to play with them. After all, isn’t it just easier to get in front of the screen and jump around than to have to sit down and explain what each button does? The important thing to understand is that both of these things can co-exist, and should. Microsoft and Sony are undoubtedly making major mistakes in the way they are marketing their technologies but remember, nobody is trying to gouge you, it would only be gouging if you actually cared to play.

Show Notes
0:00:54 – Intro
0:02:03 – E3 pt 1
0:16:55 – Adam’s Gooing
0:21:33 – Soldner X 2: Final Prototype
0:29:32 – Scott’s Gooing
0:38:18 – E3 pt 2
0:57:16 – Top 5 Games That You Should Rent and Not Buy
1:23:55 – Rebuttal, What’s on Deck & Outro

Thanks for listening.

The keytar is a fully functioning 25 key MIDI keyboard.  Perhaps not enough keys to cover your favorite Beethoven symphony or learn to rock out Yes’ Siberian Khatru, but the prospect that it’s a functional MIDI peripheral is an interesting and exciting selling point.  Not so long in the past, the infamous Ion Drum kit with sequencer had already started bridging this gap between toy and instrument.

Another selling point is RB3’s new Pro mode, that replaces the colored fretboard with actual musical notes and symbols.  Could this be enough get people into the real instrument?  It’s hard to say, but the new guitar peripherals that use actual strings, encourage chord formations and real notes definitely beg the same question.

If I had to make a guess I’d say that most people inspired to pick up a real instrument after playing Rock Band have done so, and the people that are content playing on medium will continue to be.  However, it’s still exciting that Harmonix is keeping that in mind moving forward.

Kotaku also recently reported on a partial setlist:

2000s
Combat Baby — Metric
Dead End Friends — Them Crooked Vultures
Get Free — The Vines
Lasso — Phoenix
Me Enamora — Juanes
Oh My God — Ida Maria
Portions of Foxes — Rilo Kiley
The Hardest Button to Button — The White Stripes

1990s
Been Caught Stealing — Jane’s Addiction
In the Meantime — Spacehog
Plush — Stone Temple Pilots
Walkin’ on the Sun — Smash Mouth

1980s
Crazy Train — Ozzy Osbourne
Here I Go Again — Whitesnake
I Love Rock and Roll — Joan Jett
Just Like Heaven — The Cure
Rainbow in the Dark — Dio
The Power of Love — Huey Lewis and the News
Sister Christian — Night Ranger

1960s-1970s
Bohemian Rhapsody — Queen
Break On Through — The Doors
Crosstown Traffic — Jimi Hendrix

Show Notes
0:00:00 – Beatings & Trains
0:03:24 – Intro
0:06:57 – News that we give a damn about
0:08:21 – Sean’s Gooing
0:18:20 – Rob’s Gooing
0:36:03 – Adam’s Gooing
1:00:47 – Scott’s Gooing
1:16:25 – Top 5 E3 Predictions
2:01:16 – What’s on Deck & Outro

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
Facebook Group
Steam
Twitter
Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Jun 03, 2010 -THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced the evolution of its critically acclaimed real-time strategy game, Company of Heroes^®, into a unique free-to-play micro-transaction online multiplayer experience scheduled for release in the North American market this fall.

Developed by THQ’s Relic Entertainment studio, creators of the award-winning Company of Heroes and Dawn of War franchises, Company of Heroes Online is an online multiplayer real-time-strategy game that is free to download and play. Building on the frenetic Real-Time-Strategy action of the original Company of Heroes, Company of Heroes Online offers army specialization, commander customization, and persistent progression, allowing players to strategize on and off the battlefield. Players will also have the opportunity to earn or purchase special units and upgrades and improve their army with each and every multiplayer victory.

Travis Plane, Vice President of Global Brand Management commented, “We are delighted to bring this award-winning franchise to gamers in a whole new way with the online version of the Company of Heroes experience. Players will benefit from the persistent upgrades and the ability to tailor their armies to really suit their play style making this a unique experience for everyone.”

I get it. 3D is expensive. It means new hardware, goofy glasses and the ridicule of your peers. Perhaps, like me, you have only just bought a giant HD TV and aren’t very eager to buy yet another. Yet, it’s important to temper concerns with a little thought. Before complaining about 3D, it’s important to be certain that such complaints are for the right reasons. Hype trains travel in both directions and most people who refuse to hop onto one don’t realize that they’re just taking a different route and that the Hate train is far, far uglier than the Hype train. The best place to be is in the middle station, watching the others circle back and forth in the whirlpool of opinion while some guy plays the saxophone for quarters and dollar bills. I only want to offer a little food for thought.

I suspect that, like most people, red and green glasses are the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “Now in 3D!” Back in the day the red and green glasses were not only required, they were wicked cool. Making a movie with 3D in mind meant that at some point the actors would be jabbing things in the direction of the camera for a quick ‘oooh’ and maybe even an ‘ahhhh’.  When I was nine these things were fantastic but I find that my tastes have changed just a bit and, until very recently, I had not realized that 3D actually had changed with them.

When used for good, 3D can add an incredible amount of immersion. Avatar (the little known James Cameron movie) was made from the ground up with 3D in mind and is a perfect example. The most memorable effect from the movie, for me, came during one particular scene where there countless little bits of ash falling across the landscape. It wasn’t a spear, or an arrow, or a sword, it was smoldering ash. It was so subtle and well implemented that more than once I found I had to consciously refrain from lifting my hand to brush away some of the glowing clumps.  It didn’t take a whole lot of time to find an example in the gaming space that I would have loved to experience in the same way.

Uncharted 2, being as immersive as it already is, would have greatly benefitted from the 3D treatment. There are fantastic vistas and genuinely thrilling moments, such as the collapsing building, or the alley-way moment with the car, where the extra dimension could have drawn me in more than they did without, which is saying something since they are some of my favorite moments in gaming – ever. Perhaps most importantly, I want to have a 3D head-tracking cockpit view inside of a giant stompy robot from the Mech Warrior universe.

People fear, perhaps rightly, that 3D is just a gimmick and I would be remiss not to point out that we all thought two screens were a gimmick, and waggle was…well, let’s not go there. A gimmick is a crutch that carries an experience through scrutiny. While 3D can certainly be used that way, it is more rightly just a top layer means to display things in a different way; an optional element that will elevate the medium even further.

For all the cheap “flying sword! ” moments that are bound to come there is a great chance that we’ll have studios that will dare to do it right.  More importantly, as new control methods are experimented with we could see some more truly unique experiences. Take, for instance,  the obvious and overused example of Minority Report. Combining Natal’s camera input with a 3D TV should easily let developers cook up interfaces to capture that feel.

I certainly do not want to play an entire game by waving my hands in front of my face, but there is a very good chance that the future will be more about hybrid control schemes. The best games are already those that vary up the play style and varying up the controls and the display mechanism is the natural extension of that. If the future will find us with 3D TVs by default and gadgets (like Natal) hanging out – watching us walk around naked in our living rooms – there can’t be that much harm in being cautiously optimistic about this pesky third dimension invading our lives.

Cast of Final Fantasy IX

FF9 was a return to an older formula of Final Fantasy; a small oasis of retro goodness, for some, and reminder of why change is good for others. The art style was much more reminiscent of older Final Fantasy titles while the mechanics themselves were a bit of a hybrid between the old (16bit titles) and the (then) new. Story-wise, FF9 really broke free of the ‘quiet, silent type’ mold it had cast its heroes from in prior titles and focused more on the outgoing and actually tolerable Zidane. Of course, Square hasn’t managed to get it’s heroes to stay quiet since. Tidus, I’m looking at you.

If you passed on this one the first time through, and still consider yourself a Final Fantasy fan, you may want to pick it up. I confess that I didn’t finish it until many years after my initial play-through but, assuming it will sell for the same price as FF7 and 8, it should be worth every cent.

Via PlayStation Blog

Contact Us:
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

Vassi: EA has been mentioned everywhere the last couple of days after its revelation of the “Online Pass.”  In short, when you buy an EA Sports game- brand new – you will get a code that will give you free access to the Online mode (think Mass Effect 2 and the Cerberus network).  Don’t fret, you can still play the multiplayer if you buy the game used, assuming you pay a small fee of roughly $10.00 to unlock the online component.  It’s difficult to get a feel for what this means with the amount of mixed reactions floating around.

In an effort to clarify people’s feelings, let’s do what any good internet discussion does: exaggerate.  Imagine if Halo games came with online mode as DLC.  Anyone waiting to purchase ODST, used (because who needs it now that people have gotten their hands on the Reach beta), would have to shell out an extra $10.00 before getting into the multiplayer.  Now, multiplayer ostensibly being the point of a Halo game, this could tick people off if they thought that waiting would get them a better deal.  The question is whether this is acceptable or not.  Is it evil, like eating kittens while throwing rocks at the elderly, or is it simply a different way to do business?  When you think about it, Halo games remain expensive for a very long time.  In the used space, a game that maintains its value is a game that not a lot of people are trading in, which can imply that a lot of people acquired it as a day one purchase.

thecabbage: [The Online Pass] is an obvious attempt to stamp out the pre-owned games market, because they have indicated that owners of second hand or rented copies will have to pay a ten dollar fee for the pass.  This is unashamed greed.  It is despicable behavior by companies who already see massive profits and just want more.  It’s as simple as that.  You don’t get publishers complaining about second hand book shops, or BMW complaining about the second hand car market damaging their sales.  Imagine if David Bowie tried to sue everyone who walked into a second hand record store in 1974 and bought Aladdin Sane?  What they don’t seem to realize is that this will effect the culture of gaming in a profound and in my opinion damaging way.

Vassi: Those of you who have purchased [a new copy of] Mass Effect 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and the Saboteur have already experienced this ‘DLC bonus’. Did you notice? Chances are, no, you just put in your code and went on about seducing some alien hottie. So when does this hurt you? When you are truly trying to pinch a penny in half. Chances are that Mass Effect 2 was available used a week or less after it was out, thanks to those who powered through it and traded it in for something else. Your friendly neighborhood GameStop or -insert used game trader here- would gladly sell it to you for $5 dollars less than full retail.  Those $5 in savings and 10% discount (after paying them an annual fee) get you the privilege of paying an extra $10 to $15 dollars to unlock certain DLC content.

thecabbage: By creating hidden charges for those who buy pre-owned games they will be ruining the longevity of their game, thus decreasing its value.  First, the lifespan of online play in games will be shortened severely.  This is arguably a good thing for publishers, because then customers will always looking to upgrade to the newest title in the franchise, but if the lifespan of games is noticeably shorter then people will not be willing to pay as much for them.  Secondly, games will be a lot less busy online, therefore they won’t be as attractive and will result in a sales drop.  For example, I’m still playing FIFA 09 online, and there are plenty of opponents.  This is largely due to the fact that you can pick up this excellent sports sim for about $10 pre-owned.  Lastly, people who buy pre-owned will continue to buy pre-owned.  Why?  Because like me, they are poor.  Poorer people are unlikely to pay for extra content, and indeed stop buying games by that company.  They will switch to competitors products where they will get a good busy game online and not have to pay extra for the privilege.

Vassi: It really seems like a non-issue, though. If you’re not going to buy a game new because it’s too expensive, why would you wait only a couple of weeks before purchasing it used?  For $5 dollars more you could get the game new and support the developer of the game in the process.  Chances are, if you perpetually buy used you wait until the price drops to half, and then pick it up for cheap.  At that point, what’s an extra couple of dollars?

At the same time, it could bite you in the wallet in a different way.  If more publishers adopt this system you could eventually see it affect the trade-in value of certain titles.  For those of you who buy a game, finish it in a few days and trade it in for something new, this could give you a little less credit for that trade and force you to pay a little more for your new purchase.  If anything, things will more than likely balance out a bit more in the end, which seems to be the intentional goal.  Used games are a huge market, and pushing just a bit more of that percentage towards the developers or publishers can’t be a bad thing.  If I were a more positive individual I might even note that by separately quantifying the value of the online component publishers are making you more conscious about what you’re getting for your money.  This can have positive consequences once people start demanding more by voting with their wallets.

It remains to be said that one little noted feature of EA’s Online Pass is that they will offer a free 7 day trial per game, per user ID.  If you’re the rent-to-own type that should be a more than big enough window to see if a game is a fit for you.  For some games, Splinter Cell Conviction fits the bill for me, the online modes are unimportant when placed next to the single player. Though I might be tempted to try it for those seven days, to see why I might want to pay for it.  The point is that by giving the online mode extra value, it draws more attention to it.  If I already purchased a game and had every intention of only playing the single player I might be more tempted to play the online if not using the code meant I was just going to waste it.

It seems hard to wave this whole issue away as a fluke.  EA tested the waters early with Mass Effect 2 and others and is now making a much bigger commitment to their plan with the upcoming Tiger Woods game.  Like DLC in general, this is one feature that seems ready to stay.  Love it?  Hate it?  In the end, it probably won’t matter much.

thecabbage: In a time when digital downloads sales are increasing and people stop seeing games as actual collectable objects and more as consumable throwaway code, games will inevitably decrease in value, pushing prices and developer budgets down, ultimately pushing massive publishing houses like EA and Activision out of business.  The huge budgets that are spent on game development will be increasingly unsustainable if this culture of digital downloads and dlc-locked gameplay continues.  It’s short term greed, and it could ruin gaming.

Scott: Let us know what you think!  Leave us a comment.

Show Notes
It’s all e-mails…. seriously.  Make sure you make the live show on Saturday May 22nd.

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What do we have to look forward to with the latest game in the series? A plethora of new features will bring an unprecedented level of interaction for players of DQ 9. The ability to team up with three friends via the DS wireless connection; the ability to customize the look and feel of the main character through a new character creation tool and a “job” system that allows you to change classes at any time; the ability to share treasure maps and character stats with others; and my personal favorite: the additional quests that will be available for download after the game launches. Those quests will both act as standalone side quests and further the main storyline, all for the low, low price of… nothing!

Dragon Quest IX is the biggest selling DS game to date in Japan, and I, for one, have high hopes that it will make a tremendous impact on the Western markets. The Dragon Quest franchise historically has not done as well in America and Europe as it has in Japan, but hopefully this entry in the series will change that.

The current release date has been set for July 11 in America and July 23 in Europe. Go buy it on day-one and show your support for this great franchise!

Fallout: New Vegas CE

It’s no surprise to our listener base that we’re fans of Bethesda and Fallout.  It should also be no surprise that we’re extremely excited for Fallout: New Vegas.  After the fantastic lunch box CE of Fallout 3, Bethesda chose to turn it up a notch even further with the announcement today of a Collectors Edition of Fallout: New Vegas.  From a Bethesda press release, you can expect this in addition to this highly anticipated post apocalyptic role-playing game:

• “Lucky 7” poker chips. Each of the seven poker chips was designed to represent chips from the major casinos found on the New Vegas strip and throughout the Mojave Wasteland.
• A fully customised Fallout: New Vegas deck of cards. Each card in the pack has been uniquely illustrated to depict characters and factions found within the game. Use the cards to play poker, blackjack or Caravan, an original card game that was created by Obsidian especially for Fallout: New Vegas!
• A recreation of the game’s highly coveted “Lucky 38” platinum chip.
• A hardcover graphic novel “All Roads”, that tells the story of some of the characters and events that lead up to Fallout: New Vegas. “All Roads” was written by Chris Avellone, the game’s creative director, and created in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics.
• ‘The Making of Fallout: New Vegas’ DVD. This documentary DVD will contain exclusive video content, including interviews with the developers in which they take you from concept to creation and discuss topics such as story, setting, legacy of the Fallout franchise and more.

As if you didn’t blow enough money on our previous CE excitement, here’s some more opportunity to go broke.

Show Notes
0:00:00 – Natural
0:01:15 – Intro
0:05:30 – News that we give a damn about
0:11:35 – Dave (Zvarri) ’s Gooing
0:15:11 – Super Street Fighter 4
0:27:10 – Adam’s Gooing
0:34:51 – 3D Dot Game Heroes
0:44:12 – Scott’s Gooing
0:49:27 – Top 5 Games to Play on the Crapper
1:33:20 – What’s on Deck & Outro

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3D Dot Game Heroes is an overhead action RPG in the same light as the Super Nintendo classic, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In fact, the similarities between the two games are striking: you begin the game as the descendant of the legendary Hero, summoned by the King of Dotnia to rid the world of an evil wizard bent on resurrecting the fiend that fell at the hands of your ancestor ages ago. In order to do this, you must traverse the kingdom seeking out the sages who helped the Hero seal him in his dark prison before. Your journey takes you through dungeons filled with monsters to be killed, puzzles to be solved, and new weapons to be found.

Sound familiar yet? It should to anyone who is familiar with the old Nintendo-born hero tale. And while the comparisons can most certainly be made between the two franchises, 3D Dot Game Heroes takes the genre to places that Zelda fans could only dream of. My personally favorite way in which they upgraded the system is with the sword mechanic. As you collect coins throughout the course of the game you can upgrade your swords, for a price. You can pay to make it longer or wider; or you can give it attributes that are only available through upgrades like a piercing mechanic that allows you to swing through walls. That is incredibly helpful because of the normally sudden “clang” you hear when your sword stops just short of killing the baddies you’re aiming at. But there’s a catch to all of your upgrades: they only work with full health. That’s right: if you’re missing a mere half of an apple (apples are the measurement of HP) none of your sword’s mighty enhancements work and you are left with a feeble stump of a weapon. I’ve actually found that during the dungeon boss battles if you are hit once and your sword is rendered ineffective that you might as well sit back and wait for the words “Game Over” to drop down onto the screen.

Puzzles have always been one of my favorite parts of video games, and 3D Dot Game Heroes does not disappoint in this department. They ramp themselves up through the course of the game; the first dungeon or two will be a breeze for veterans of the genre, but by the halfway point in the game even the most experienced action-RPG fans will find themselves stymied from time to time.

Don’t get frustrated, though! I realize that I might be making 3D Dot Game Heroes sound difficult, and it definitely is to an extent. But considering it was developed by From Software, it could have been much worse. Remember Demon’s Souls, anyone? Actually, they did too. One of my favorite bits of humor in 3D Dot Game Heroes comes from the multiple characters who reference it in-game. Humor is abound in this title, sometimes in knee-slapping ways. There is a character who appears to be dying of thirst in the middle of the desert and sends you on a quest for water. I won’t spoil the outcome for you, but I’ll tell you that you’ll probably say “Awww…” and roll your eyes a little when you finally bring him some. Funny moments like that really give 3D Dot Game Heroes character and a sense of charm that is often lacking in the seriousness of the current video game market.

The Character Creator has limitless possibilities!

Speaking of character, something that I haven’t touched on yet is the wonderful character creation tool included with this game. As with everything else in 3D Dot Game Heroes, the creator is based on blocks. You are initially given a blank cube that can then be filled in however you see fit; the only limits to the character you create are your own imagination! And my favorite part about the whole thing is that you are never stuck with a character in your game. Every time you load your saved data you are given the option to change your character. This means that if you want to hop into the game right away and go back and explore the creator later you can; you are never tied to a single look or style.

Novices and experienced adventurers alike will find something in this game that they are sure to fall in love with. But everyone needs a break occasionally, and there are three mini-games included that will let you take a break from adventuring when you need it. Dash Race is a game where you utilize the dash boots to run around a set track in the fastest time possible. Blockout is an Arkanoid-style game where you can either use your sword or shield to deflect a bouncing ball into a series of blocks that must be destroyed. And my personal favorite is Block Defense, which is a tower defense game in the same light as Pixeljunk Monsters; enemies move along a set track and you have to build and upgrade towers to kill them before they reach your stronghold.

The Kingdom of Dotnia needs a new Hero. Will it be you?

Yes, 3D Dot Game Heroes is similar to Zelda, but in the end it is so much more. It builds on everything that was good in A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap. But I certainly don’t blame the good people at From Software for doing what they did. 3D Dot Game Heroes isn’t a Zelda clone, in my opinion; it is homage to those great Zelda games of yesteryear, and it is done with respect and admiration. It is obvious to me that the developers and producers of 3D Dot Game Heroes loved those games; that love comes across in a variety of ways in this game. It has so much to keep you occupied that the price tag of $39.99 is almost ridiculous for a game this good. I promise that you will fall in love with 3D Dot Game Heroes as soon as the disk enters your PS3, and it will keep you coming back for more.

“Building upon the successes of its predecessors, ‘Halo: Reach’ breaks new ground with a host of new content and features, delivering the most thrilling and feature-packed multiplayer experience yet. With new game types, weapons, armor abilities, players rewards, customization options, social settings and more, the ‘Halo: Reach’ multiplayer beta introduces a wave of innovations that will take the award-winning ‘Halo’ multiplayer experience on Xbox LIVE to the next level.”

I guess the question that really remains is whether this is actually a meaningful beta or just a tremendously large not-so-exclusive demo.  Personally, in this industry, I don’t think the line is as thick as it used to be.

Show Notes
0:00:31 – Intro
0:02:26 – News that we give a damn about
0:12:42 – Adam’s Gooing
0:23:02 – Scott’s Gooing
0:41:34 – Top 5 Most Difficult Games of the Current Generation
1:15:01 – Contest Entries
1:40:26 – Outro

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Thanks for listening.

Yesterday Nintendo of America released the Classic Controller Pro to the United States. It features two rows of shoulder buttons and a new, wider and more ergonomically satisfying grip. And for the same $19.99 price tag as the first gen Classic Controllers, to boot. For the first time I’m looking forward to a Wii accessory.

Don’t get me wrong; Nintendo has released some cool optional equipment for the Wii, (most of which I’ve purchased, I might add) but nothing that I’ve seen and immediately have said to myself “I am going to buy this product.”

I am incredibly excited for this product. I’ve been holding off on purchasing the original Classic Controller because up until now my old Gamecube Wavebird controllers have suited me perfectly well; I haven’t felt the need to upgrade them. But with this new addition I think that I’m going to have to break down and get a new Wii accessory. I have previously used the older Classics at other peoples’ houses, and I have been frustrated with them. I’ve felt that both the linear placement of the shoulder buttons and the lack of a good resting place for my wrists detracted from the experiences. But with both of those issues seemingly changed for the better, I’m sold. There is also a limited time bundle being offered which includes a Pro and the new Wii game “Monster Hunter Tri” for a suggested price of $59.99, which is a savings of $10. Decisions, decisions…

Box Art - Ps3

I started Resonance of Fate last night, a PS3/360, steam-punk, gun-based JRPG published by Sega, and got 45 minutes in.  That is to say, I saw the opening [extremely confusing and vague] cut scene, walked around a town some, and played through the SIXTEEN battle tutorials one of which I had to look up online how to do because it didn’t explain it well enough.

First impressions?  Well, if you like complexity, you’re going to love this game.  Just based on all the stuff you can do in a battle, you’re likely to love the mechanics.  For as complex and “real time” as the battles are, one great shining point is that the controls are not complex at all.  I’m going to outline the battle stuff here, partially because nothing I’ve seen online has but mostly because I think that writing it all out may help me wrap my head around all of it:

Simple mechanics
3 characters in battle, you get them from the get go (no idea if they change or swap or whatever). There’s HP, no MP, and a “reverse” ATB gauge that works similar to Valkyria Chronicles in that regard.  Once you start a character’s turn, you run, do actions, etc. and that winds down their stamina gauge.  When all characters have gone, then everyone’s stamina gauge refills.  You may swap between which character you want to use before you starting someone’s turn.  You have 3 major silos for skill level and abilities:  Handguns, Machineguns, and Grenades.  Each one has it’s own level, and the total of the three comprise your character level.  You get 2 slots to equip stuff, one for each hand.  That could be one of each type of gun, could be dual wield, or could be item boxes (more on that later).

Damage Types
There’s 2 types of damage: Scratch and Direct.  It seems like you can think of them as temporary and permanent damage respectively.  If you do some amount of scratch damage, and then deal some direct damage, all of the scratch damage becomes permanent in addition to the direct damage dealt.  Machineguns deal scratch damage, handguns and explosives deal direct damage.  It seems like a single turn of machineguns will do more scratch damage than handguns would do direct, so it appears like the “build scratch damage and then unleash direct damage” strategy seems to be the most effective.

Bezels
At the bottom of the screen, there’s some orange notches that apply for the whole party.  Hero Actions, which are used for most of the specialized attacks, consume 1 bezel.  While you have bezels, you only ever take scratch damage.  If you take enough scratch damage, your health recharges, and you lose a bezel.  Once you’re out of bezels, you take direct damage and can die/game over.  It kind of reminds me of an Energy Tank in Metroid in that regard.  You can regain them through different actions: rest at an inn refills all, killing an enemy refills one, and a handful of other ways I’m not entirely clear on.  I think that based on some of the special actions listed below, you can have a random chance at regaining one.  In the long run, what it really means is that a bezel is used for both offense and defense, so I’m guessing a large part of any battle is going to be dedicated to balancing effectively between the two.

Items and Ammo
From what I can tell, there’s two types of boxes, and each one takes up a hand slot for equipping.  One is an ammo box, where you can equip and use different types of ammo.  This could be elemental or status related.  The other, an item box, is used to throw grenades or tap into healing items.  Having only 6 slots (2 for each of your 3 characters), the balance load out you choose is more than likely going to be extremely important.

Charge
When you want to attack, you press the attack button and a circular gauge starts to raise.  Once it’s filled you can perform an attack by hitting the button again.  Also, if you let it fill multiple times before pressing the attack button again, you can do multiple attacks.  I believe you’re limited by your overall diminishing stamina gauge, so I’m guessing a larger stamina gauge or an ability that speeds up your charge will help you with getting additional blows in.

Body Parts
You can destroy body parts of enemies.  I believe the purpose of this is to acquire items and refill a bezel, though I’m not 100% on that.  Different body parts comprise different arcs around an enemy.  If you’re in that arc, you’ll hit that body part.  Each one has it’s own HP meter.  For example, if an enemy is facing 12 o’clock, you might be able to focus on a particular body part by being in the enemy’s 2 o’clock to 4 o’clock perspective (on the side).  The HP arc/bar at their feet that spans 2-4 o’clock will deplete as you attack it.  If that arc disappears, you’ve destroyed the body part.  I don’t think it disables the enemy in any way, I think it’s just for loot and bezel refilling.

Hero Actions
Consuming a bezel, you can choose to perform a hero action.  When you do this, the action pauses and you have the ability to pick a destination for where your character is going to run to.  Once you’ve decided on this, you can hit the hero action button again, and send your character running in that direction in real time.  While the character is running in that direction, you can execute a series of attacks and/or jumps for flashy results.  It allows you to fit a lot more attacks in a single turn, but obviously comes with the expense of a bezel.  It’s definitely the main battle mechanic to focus on because it is also used as the starting point for a lot of the specialty actions to follow.

Resonance Points
When you choose to use a hero action with a particular character, you’re able to clearly see where your 2 teammates are in the arena.  If you draw an imaginary line in between those 2 teammates, and have the currently selected character cross that line, you gain a resonance point.  For every character’s turn where you perform this, you add a resonance point.  For every turn where you do not do this, you lose resonance down to 0.  From the tutorial, I’m not positive at this point if you lose all of the points, or just 1 at a time.

Tri Attack
When you have a resonance point, you may perform a Tri Attack that involves all three characters.  When selecting this, the game is paused and it shows a triangle between the three characters.  You may choose direction of travel, and which character to control first.  When you confirm the Tri Attack, the characters move in hero action style around this triangle, each taking turns at performing attacks.  It would appear that this is RoF’s form of a limit break.  By using the right kind of positioning and order (i.e. leading direct attacks with scratch attacks) it seems like you could really make this attack count for a lot.

Launch
When performing a hero action, while you are on the ground, your attacks have the potential of launching an enemy in the air.

Bonus Shot
When performing a hero action on an enemy in the air, while you are on the ground, each shot of damage you inflict raises a bonus gauge that represents the chance that a bonus shot will occur.  When it occurs, you are faced with a “press the button when the marker is in the acceptable hit area” kind of quick time event.  If you hit this, you can perform charged attacks at a greatly increased rate.  It would seem that it’s a goal to raise this meter during normal hero actions to help get extra attacks for “free.”  I believe loot and additional bezel(s) may also be a reward for doing this.

Smackdown
When performing a hero action on an enemy in the air, if you can jump so that you are higher than the enemy, your attack has the potential of slamming the opponent into the ground.  I believe loot and additional bezel(s) may be a reward for doing this as well.

The Juggle Effect (my own term)
The complication of the special actions pretty much means that you’ll have to be making some major decisions about positioning, and how to effectively use hero actions.  I’m not going to pretend to know what the best formula is 45 minutes into the game, but there’s definitely some techniques that seem to be common ground which I’ll call the juggle effect.  The enemies fall from the air fairly quickly, so you’re likely going to have to have made the decision of what type of hero action you want to do before you start.  If you want to build resonance and your bonus gauge, you probably want to pick a path that will set up proper position and plan the order of Start Hero Action -> ground attacks until Launch -> repeated ground attacks to build Bonus meter.  If you want to take advantage of a Smackdown or to get into position, you’ll probably plan the order of Start Hero Action -> ground attacks until Launch -> jump -> Smackdown if positioned properly.

Perhaps needless to say, thinking a few steps ahead while balancing all of these gauges/abilities seems to be a key ingredient in doing well at this game.  On top of all of that, there’s some other things that I really don’t get yet: Guard Breaking, there’s some enemy meter thing, among a couple other things.  Like I said before, if you like complex, difficult [and probably extremely rewarding] battle systems, then this is probably for you.

Gears of War

I don’t know about you, but I have Gears of War 2 unwrapped.  I’ve even gone so far as to have it installed on my XBox 360 hard drive.  I enjoyed the first one.  As a third person, cover-mechanic shooter, it played rather entertainingly.  Unfortunately perhaps, much like Mass Effect, it wasn’t until the eve of the release of the second that forced me to go back and play the first.  Inevitably, the third Gears of War was announced, and I’ve still yet to play the sequel.  Thankfully, according to the press release given, I have until April 8th, 2011 to correct that indecision:

“When we released ‘Gears of War’ more than three years ago, we set out to tell the world an unforgettable story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of insurmountable odds, and a year from now, players will get the chance to experience the final chapter in the story of Marcus Fenix and his companions in Delta Squad,” said Cliff Bleszinski, Design Director at Epic Games. “This is definitely the biggest and most dramatic chapter yet in the ‘Gears of War’ saga, and we can’t wait to deliver it.”

So if Gears is now supposed to be a trilogy, I’m guessing for some silly inexplicable reason, it’ll take me a Gears: ODST to force me to finish the third.  Or a lack of shooters.  I’ll let you decide which is more likely.

Show Notes
0:00:47 – Intro
0:02:00 – News that we give a damn about
0:07:05 – Final Fantasy XIII
0:19:03 – Adam’s Gooing
0:27:40 – Scott’s Gooing
0:44:25 – Top 5 Most Personally Influential Games
1:15:38 – Contest and Outro

Contact Us:
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

Wings of Liberty CE

News Flash: Activision is good at upsetting consumers.  When they were the first to bump up the perceived standard for price of PC games to the $60 mark, we cringed.  Fans of keyboard & mouse control for First Person Shooters would be hit with this increase when they hopped on the Modern Warfare 2 bandwagon.  Later on, those same consumers were hit with an above average $15 price tag on a map pack.  People looking forward to the new hotness of Starcraft II were told that in order to get the entire experience, they’d have to buy it 3 times over: once for each race.  3 times over on their new favorite price tag of $60.  Well just in case you wanted them to get more of your money, today they released the announcement of a limited edition of Wings of Liberty, the first Starcraft II installment to hit.  Here’s a feature list straight from Blizzard:

• The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game
• An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor’s dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War(R) expansion set
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director’s commentary, and more
• The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks
• StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
• A World of Warcraft(R) mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account
• Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game, and a visually unique version of the terran Thor unit

Activision seems to be operating under the “well you’re going to buy it anyway,” idea when it comes to the pricing structure.  Sad part is, they’re right.

In a week…
We’ll be 2 years old.  May or may not have something special. 

Contact Us:
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Deathsmiles 360 Box Art

A fantastic way to wrap up ISM (Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month) came on April 1st with the announcement of the Limited Edition variation of Cave’s US-bound bullet-hell shmup, Deathsmiles.  A press release from the publisher Aksys games, divulged the contents of the LE:

• Deathsmiles Faceplate featuring four cute angels trapped in a creepy gothic cage! This faceplate was never released in Japan, go us!
• Deathsmiles Premium Arrange Album! 15 spooky high energy tracks selected by Manabu Namki, Director of Deathsmiles!
• Deathsmiles horizontal artbox and game to compliment the shmup orientation!

The title also boasts online co-op.  So… um… yeah… day 1.  No release date has been given yet, but you should be able to expect it this year.  Check back here for more information as it becomes available.

• Classic Rogue-like, just you against a dungeon. With terrifying perma-death…
• Single-player with shops and quests – maybe a pet, too.
• Parties with NPCs. These tend to be more traditional rpgs, albeit with trimmed down combat systems.
• Multiplayer, local (console), and online (PC) with parties

It has to be said that the best dungeon crawlers have probably been on PC over the years, but as a committed console and arcade gamer my top 5 tends to lean toward the latter style, more specifically local co-op, and will probably be different from most peoples’ choices. I’m sure most of you will be horrified at the omission of Diablo (I only played the inferior playstation version, with its use of 10 memory card blocks!!). And I haven’t played Torchlight yet. But hey, here are my TOP 5 DUNGEON CRAWLERS:

5. Gauntlet - I’m embarrassed by how much coinage I threw in this arcade machine in the mid 80s, which I later bought for the Sega Master System. I never beat the game because there were more levels than hours in a human life. Sure, it’s repetitive and ridiculously simple, but “Green Valkyrie needs closure badly.”

4. Borderlands – The purists will be sickened by this choice, but Gearbox’s latest fps/rpg IP is a dungeon crawler in disguise. The killing, looting, selling and buying mechanic is highly addictive and best enjoyed with friends. Obtaining a platinum trophy hasn’t drawn a line under this addiction – I started my fifth character last night. Awesome dlc too.

3. Demon’s Souls – Two weeks ago I would have put King’s Field (PS1) on this list, but its place has been usurped by its spiritual successor from FROM software. I’m loving this game. Less of a dungeon crawler and more of a dungeon extreme punishment, this masterpiece is deceptively old-school in its ‘just one more go’ gameplay. It is the closest to a single player game on my list. (You can co-op as a mute ‘phantom’ – cool!)

2. Neverwinter Nights Online – The only PC game to have ever glued me to a keyboard and mouse for more than ten hours was this classic Dungeons and Dragons rpg from Bioware. The original single player experience was an NPC party affair, but several user generated worlds online, including Nordock and Middle Earth 2, were highly addictive RP-heavy co-op romps.

1. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance – The Baldur’s Gate rpg series on PC was given a linear action game makeover for the PS2, and the result was one of my favourite games of all time. Also set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, the impressive detail, dynamic lighting and character progression gave the gameplay unexpected depth. The barmaid at the Elfsong Tavern had possibly the first wobbly boobs in videogames, I swear. The first major boss, the Orb of the Undead, was an unforgiving grind but satisfying to beat. I’ve beaten this game 3 times with my partner, twice with my best buddy, once with my uncle and another couple of times on my own, so it has plenty of repaly value! Dark Alliance was an underrated pioneer on consoles – the engine was used for many subsequent games, both good (Champions Of Norrath, X-men legends) and not so good (Bard’s Tale, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel). The game spawned its own sequel in Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2, which, although ambitious and lengthy, was just too darn easy to retain the same level of immersion.

The more I read about Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, the more my dream of a less linear Baldur’s Gate: DA with greater character customization seems less and less likely. The developers, InXile have confirmed there will be no local co-op, no choice of characters. A fantasy co-op Gears of War does sound fun though… In the meantime, what are your top 5 dungeon crawlers?

4.)  The World Ends With You (DS) – This SquareEnix game is tough. So tough, and at times frustrating, that I still haven’t beaten it after playing it for months. The boss battles are particularly hard, in large part because controlling a character on both screens simultaneously takes either serious concentration or serious good luck. TWEWY does have an easy mode that can be changed at any time, but doing so nets you less experience and far fewer good items. But I truly hope that the difficulty won’t dissuade any of you from trying this game, because it really is one of the best DS games that I’ve ever played.

3.)  Final Fantasy III (DS) – I realize that so far this list has been a tad SquareEnix leaning, but this is the last one to make my list. I promise! Final Fantasy III on the DS is, without a doubt, the hardest Final Fantasy game that you will ever play. There are a total of 23 different jobs, with the best one of all, the Onion Knight, only becoming available after exchanging a certain number of messages to your friends via the in-game mail system, MogNet. With that many jobs it is very hard to determine what the best setup for any given time is. The enemies are really tough and seem to always outmatch your party throughout the entire game. Leveling up is a tedious process that doesn’t yield the same end-results as in other FF games. Oh, and to beat the game requires a nearly three hour long romp through the final dungeon that doesn’t have any save points and is filled with a variety of reincarnated bosses from earlier in the game.

2.)  Iridion 3D (GBA) – This is one of a very few shmups that I played on the GBA, and it is the hardest of them all. It is a first-person shmup that has your ship flying through a series of tunnel-like environments. The enemies come at you head-on in a way similar to Starfox. What really makes this game difficult is that your ship doesn’t get any crosshair to help you target oncoming baddies or navigate through spinning fans. Add on the limited number of extra lives and complete lack of continuing and you get one damn difficult game. It has two modes: Normal and Hard. They should have been called “Hard” and “Suicidal.”

1.)  Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (DS) – This Star Wars game is probably the most broken game that I’ve played on the DS. The camera is awkward to use and buggy. There is supposed to be a lock-on mechanic that doesn’t really work at all. Enemies come from seemingly out of nowhere in droves, all firing at you simultaneously. Just about everything works against you in this game at the same time, which makes for a brutal experience all around. It’s a shame, because if it wasn’t for the gameplay itself, this could have been a fun game. But as it stands, it is just frustrating, hard, and ultimately unenjoyable.

I will tell you up front the graphics are nothing special.  There are some cool looking cut scenes, but nothing that will take your breath away.  I won’t spoil the story, but it isn’t the best story ever told either, however, it is not as bad as some have let on.  Having finished the story portion of the game, I am satisfied with how it ended.  It is the introduction to a much larger story arc that will be told in sequels (WKC 2 has already been announced in Japan).  There are mechanics of the game could be improved, but it is the online mode (OM) that makes this game a must play for me.  The problem is that the OM isn’t inaccessible without the playing the single player (SP) mode.  From the start of the game you don’t gain access to OM for about two hours.  Even then you are limited to two quests, and more must be unlocked in SP.  This is what I think has really caused WKC to get a bad rap, but I still think it is worth it.

I grew up playing 8-bit and 16-bit RPGS that only had single player mode.  So to play games with friends and still get the experience of RPGs, we would do this crazy thing called table top gaming. Here is where WKC pulled me in.  It has recreated a table top RPG environment in its OM that I can play with my friends.  When we played those table top RPGs we would socialize, laugh, tell jokes, and stories.  WKC has given this back to me.  I can get three of my friends together, put on our headsets, play a quest and socialize at the same time.  I spent many jr. and sr. high school nights running the numbers with my friends or in my head on how to make my character the best at the next level up.  Now I am spending my free time and breaks at work on the boards running numbers on how to make my character the best at the next level up with my friends.  Not only do I run the level stats in my head, but WKC have given me the Georama system where I have a town to level up.  So now I also run the numbers in my head on how to get the most unlockables in my town.

As an adult, I sometimes don’t have the time to sit down and play games for hours at a time due to family and work obligations.  Almost every quest in WKC is limited to one hour or less.  In fact, so far I have only found one quest that allows for a one and a half hour time limit.  Sometimes it is nice to be able to play an RPG for an hour and stop.

One problem with MMORPGs is the level spread between players who play a lot and their friends who can’t get all the experience grinding in.  While WKC has some flaws in this department as well, it has a reincarnation system that makes this much more bearable. WKC’s OM has most of its quests in the 33+ level neighborhood with a level cap of 50.  So once you hit level 33 you can pretty much play with anyone online who has gotten to that level or higher, though you might get an experience penalty if the spread is too much.  If you’re a person who needs to max your character, don’t worry about the level cap.

At level 50 you can reincarnate.  All of your skill points are reset and you go to level 35 with some bonus skill points.  In essence you a get a bonus of more tools in your toolbox than the player who doesn’t reincarnate.  You can then completely respec your character to a new class, or optimize your current class without going back to level 1.  You can do this every time you get to level 50, with progressively more skill points (there is a max at the fourth reincarnation that you get every reincarnation after).  I will be able to continue enjoy playing this game and socializing with my friends no matter how much or how little time they have put into grinding.

Just to make the value of this game better, PlayStation.blog has announced it will start releasing at least two quests, for free, every week from March 11 till the end of June.  At least one of the quests will be permanent, and one of them will be limited to two weeks.  Level 5 has always had high marks in my opinion.  Rogue Galaxy and Dragon Quest VIII were two of my favorite games on the PS2.  Now they are going above and beyond with their willingness to support the best aspects of their game at such a good price.  Just know that if you want game play that has the benefits of a table top RPG on a video game system, with great support from its developer at a great value, than White Knight Chronicles is for you. So run, don’t walk, to your local game store and get this game so you can take advantage of the great support it is getting.

Show Notes
Not this time, Sorry.

In two weeks…
We’re at MGC

Contact Us:
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

As reviews pour in for Final Fantasy XIII, one word seems to be cropping up again and again:  Linear.  Most reviewers seem to suggest linearity as the key component that will divide fans of the series.  I’m not sure I buy that though, as no one seemed to criticize Final Fantasy X, although that was remarkably linear.  XII was too. The grind-fests of the early NES Final Fantasies were fairly linear too as well.  So why is this game being criticized for it now?  I don’t remember a time in the past where critics were so obsessed with linearity, and I suppose it shows us 2 things:

• How much more sophisticated and open-ended video games have become, as well as our expectations of them.
• How much of an effect the success of GTA has had on the industry.  Open-world games started to transcend genre toward the end of the PS2s lifetime. Tony Hawk titles, then Burnout became open-world, and we witnessed a boom of sandbox games.

GTA: Vice City

Now, when people start criticizing Bayonnetta or Darksiders for their linearity,  surely we have reached a new level of expectation.  Is non-linear gameplay overrated?  Perhaps, I am not the best person to comment.  My favorite games of all time include The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Shadowrun for the SNES.  I like to explore.  Highlights of my gaming life have included driving onto the beach in Vice City to listen to the radio, harvesting mushrooms for potions in Tamriel, and blowing all my Gil at the chocobo races in the Golden Saucer.

But even I can see that open-world systems isn’t the be all and end all.  To introduce openness to a shmup, would be to ruin it, and those looking for a quick action fix don’t want to have to get Kratos out of bed, get him dressed and explore ancient Greece just to find his whippy chain things.  God of Sim 3 anyone?

Side Quests

This brings me back to Final Fantasy.  What has happened to the franchise?  It seems as though western RPGs and just about everyone else has moved away from a jump-through-hoops mechanic at the same time as the FF series has moved towards it.  Back in episode 35 of the Goo, I exclaimed agreement when Scott and Adam mourned the loss of the World Map (not seen since FFIX).  In FFVI & VII I used to wait excitedly for the appearance of the world map.  I want to explore.

Perhaps XIII has less free roaming, a slimmed down combat mechanic and 30 hours play before a side quest shows itself, but to me the really worrying signs are claims that there are no towns, and no dialogue with NPCs.  Forget linearity for a second, with no exploration or character interaction, can it really be described as an RPG?  Like every other punter, I’ll have to wait a few days till release to find out.

Whatever the truth is about Final Fantasy XIII, the nonlinear game has moved from the days of Elite and Cholo (I see you hiding, ‘Tron’) firmly into the popular mainstream, and if this obsession continues, what will games be like in the future?  A truly nonlinear story would be written entirely by the actions of the player, and thus remains a difficult (if not impossible) design challenge.

(Vandal Hearts) YAAAAAAARGH!

DO: Make sure battles are meaningful.

At their core, SRPGs are a series of increasingly difficult battles. This is a basic tenant of the genre, but each battle should matter to the overall story and move the plot forward. Nothing is worse then to have finished a major story-related battle only to be dropped into a stage where you are fighting a bunch of bandits that ambushed you for no apparent reason. The structure of SRPGs allows each stage to serve as a crescendo of action in the story. Don’t diminish the pacing by watering it down with random encounters against nameless antagonists simply to pad out the game’s playtime. I know I’m going to have to beat up bad guys, but make sure I have a compelling reason.

DON’T: Force me to grind between each battle.

Each encounter should provide enough enemies that most of your characters have the opportunity to level up. Having to spend an hour replaying old levels in order to beef up your characters kills your momentum. As long as I make sound choices in battle, let me level up so I can advance through the story. The original Vandal Hearts provided an excellent level up system that allowed players to progress through the story, without getting bogged down with grinding.

Disgaea PS2 Box Art

DO: Provide optional side missions for those who love to level.

While grinding can be tedious, for some people leveling up to create god-like characters that can defeat bosses with a single hit is the primary draw of SRPGs. For those players who enjoy the grind, have sub-levels that don’t impact the main story, but provide experience and tangible benefits. Disgaea had an almost infinitely deep system where each item, whether weapon, armor or accessory, could be entered and played as a series of levels. This simultaneously helps build up your characters and increases the attributes of your weapons. This option allowed dedicated fans to max out their characters equipment and levels.

DON’T: Tell the same story every other SRPG already has.

Starting off as the inexperienced or disgraced soldier who rebels against the army he once pledged his life to is the same recycled plot that underpins nearly all of the early games of this genre, even the great ones. Give the audience something new. The reason that Nippon Ichi revitalized, and monopolized, the SRPG genre in the PS2 era was that its Disgaea series told a new story. Gone were the super serious fights between rebels and empires and instead we had devils fighting spacemen while homicidal penguins waited to explode. Keep the audience guessing and you’ll always have them coming back for more.

DO: Have a way for my healer to level up.

Too many SRPGs treat their healers (or clerics, white mages, etc.) like unwanted children in a department store, left to fend for themselves without any helping hands. A healer is there to cast protective and restorative magic, not wail on baddies. Having to stop everything and grind your healer to their next level brings plot progression to a crawl. Stella Deus, while cliché in many respects, had a fantastic experience system. In it any action you took, whether attacking, casting magic or using an item gained your characters experience. So throughout the game my healer was one of my highest-level characters. This system should be the rule rather than the exception.

FF: Tactics Class Selection

DON’T: Make cookie cutter characters.

One of the biggest pitfalls that some SRPGs stumble into is having characters that are little more than palette swaps of each other. No one likes to strategize using an army of clones, no matter how leveled up with cool abilities and weapons. Each of the main characters in the story needs to have their own strengths and weaknesses. Both Disgaea and Stella Deus have a wide array of characters that each play differently and feel unique, e.g., in Disgaea the long range attacks of Captain Gordon contrast nicely with the high HP and close quarters tactics of Thursday. Additional characters you can recruit shouldn’t be “dumbed down” versions of the main characters; they should have their own function within the game. If I add a subsidiary character to my party they should bring something new to the table and broaden the spectrum of actions my party can take.

DO: Keep the landscape interesting.

If I want to move armies around on a flat board I’ll go play Risk. Give players some variety in how each level is laid out. Two options are to add three-dimensions to the terrain or introduce spaces that have special effects. Thankfully most modern SRPGs have adopted one of these two alternatives. Adding height to the typical two-dimensional boards, as seen in Final Fantasy Tactics and Stella Deus, adds depth. It allows archers and mages to gain the high ground and rain down death on their opponents or for melee fighters to crowd against cliffs to stay out of the eyeline of cagey snipers. Disgaea instead uses specialized GeoPanels that add both positive and negative effects to certain places on the map. A seemingly innocuous board can be a deathtrap with some squares not allowing you to attack or doubling the damage you receive. Although this same system can help you effortlessly glide through encounters by healing your characters or preventing you from taking damage. Along with these specialized panels Disgaea includes crystals that can be destroyed to nullify GeoPanel effects and a scout class that can manipulate the spaces, providing additional strategy.

Gladius on the GC

DON’T: Limit character selection for any battle.

SRPGs are about building an army in any way the player desires. Do not force a player to only be able to use the main characters in certain levels. An example is in Gladius, where a specific story-related battle forces you to use only the main protagonist and his crew, without any secondary characters. So, if you fell into the habit of using your secondary characters to handle most of the threats in the stages preceding this encounter, as I did, you were screwed. Your underleveled primary characters ended up getting handled by this surprise assault. Offering up an endless variety of character combinations and strategy options, only to stymie your creativity during select moments is a cruel trick that can ruin an otherwise enjoyable experience.

Overall, SRPGs are about a player having an endless parade of options at their disposal. Should I attack the final boss with an army of healers? Sure go for it. Should I powerlevel my characters so that enemies can’t deal a single point of damage? Why not? Can I take my highest-level character and pit them against an entire levels-worth of enemies? Sure.

Choice is the key to the SRPG.  This genre should provide a sandbox for armchair generals to create devastating armies, while enjoying an engaging tale. While SRPGs may be the sharks of RPGs, even sharks evolve once and a while.

Did I miss any key points? Add some of your own DOs and DON’Ts in the Comments section below.

But I digress.  There can be no event more disruptive to a gamer then, than the arrival of a real extra life.  Like Scott will be soon enough, I became a father last August.  Naturally I was thrilled and excited at the prospect, and those nine months really dragged on.  But at the same time in the back of my mind I knew my obsessive gaming days would never be the same again.  I was right, but not in the way you might think.

I aired my anxiety on an internet forum.  “Everyone tells me that I might as well sell my ps3, because there’ll be no time to myself after the wee one comes along,” I posted.  The response was varied, but sympathetic.  I was advised to play when they sleep, and put the controller down when the baby cries.  Simple but effective battle plan.

My partner is also a gamer.  She is addicted to Warhawk actually.  During her long and rather painful labor she was given morphine which produced our baby’s first gaming experience. She had just finished a contraction and she looked over at me and solemnly said
“I’ve just shot down a warhawk.”  The midwife was polite enough to pretend she didn’t hear.  There was a moment of silence, then she added, “with a rocket launcher… hand held.”  The midwife raised an eyebrow at me, but I don’t think she heard my partner muttering, “base 8, Island Outpost…”

Our baby was born finally, healthy and just fantastic in every way.  We named her Artemis (Temi), after the Greek goddess, not the character in the PSN title Dark Mist.

Now the first couple of weeks of a baby’s life are crazy.  A friend likened it to Vietnam, in that you feel like you’re on drugs in a war zone.  Trust me, Modern Warfare 2 will be the last thing on your mind, and you’ll be too tired to put your eyes through Burnout, Bayonetta or any other game that doesn’t allow blinking.  I got quite a few rainbows at PixelJunk Monsters during that time though.  Nice diversionary simplicity.

After that first crazy period died down and we all realized that routine was key, suddenly I started to game a lot more.  I mean a lot more.  Babies don’t sleep through the night usually, and we worked out a shift system where I would do the night feeds, and my partner would do the early mornings.  This meant that after they would both go to bed at about 9, I’d put the ps3 on.  Heck I was too tired to read or anything like that so I ended up getting more concentrated gaming time for longer stretches than I had for years!  I’ve always been the sort of gamer who has a lot of games on the go at once, and only a few would get finished.  Suddenly I was beating games, and quickly.  Uncharted, Half Life 2 and Dead Space were rattled through, and Burnout Paradise was platinumed.  I actually smiled when Scott brought up Dead Space on the podcast, because when you’re playing it with headphones in the dark so as not to wake the baby that shit is unbelievably scary!  Half Minute Hero is also especially good for new parents, but since that still isn’t released in Europe, I’m only going by the addictive demo.

What is harder to play with a small child sleeping is any online game which requires teamwork and concentration.  These games you can’t usually pause, and there was a couple of times when I’ve had to abandon my Borderlands brethren to a mauling because I’ve had to drop the controller and see to the baby.  Luckily I have some great online buddies who understand why I might just stop shooting and stand still when a Badass Bruiser is shoving a rocket up my arse.   I wouldn’t attempt game like MAG or Halo though, where players are likely to get outraged that you let the side down.  My partner still logs onto Warhawk every time Temi goes for a nap.  She obviously has more balls than me when it comes to online gaming (not literally, of course).  I think she takes pleasure in knowing that a breastfeeding mother is pwning uptight teenage boys.

Now that Artemis is over 6 months old, the challenges start to change.  As she gets older I’ll probably try to refrain from playing violent games around her just for a good parental perspective.  I mean I’m not prude but games have grown up with me, they’ve always been marketed to my generation it seems.  I feel that my little girl should not be witness to some of the things I’ve seen in games.  Do we give kids enough credit for their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality?  All that is still to come however, an undiscovered country I’ve yet to set foot on.

In the meantime my advice to Scott, Chris (Interactive Distractions), and any other prospective gaming parents out there:

• Take the night shift.  Your all-night gaming sessions are now an act of kindness, because if you do night feeds your partner will be getting rare and well deserved rest.
• Stick to single player games you can easily pause when the baby wakes.
• Make sure you’ve got some good headphones.
• Keep a ready travel bag full of babysitting essentials by the door.  If the grandparents want to show up and take the baby for a few hours, be ready!
• Enjoy the time with your baby when they’re awake.  You’ll never have felt anything like it!!

Congratulations!

/endrant

Show Notes
0:00:49 – Part 1 – Welcome to the Goo & Introductions, What we’re goo-in.
0:42:47 – Part 2 – Top 5 Hardest Games, over 16 bits, less than current gen
1:27:52 – Part 3 – Feature: Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month (http://shmupmonth.com)

In two weeks…
Dan Loosen come on to help us get ready for MGC.

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

“Chaos Rising is the perfect follow up to Dawn of War II, 2009’s RTS Game of the Year, offering an incredible amount of new content for an amazing value.”
– Travis Plane, Vice President of Global Brand Management, THQ.

Now the real question is with a release date of March 11th, two days after Final Fantasy XIII, will anyone really care?  I loved the first, and I’m hoping I do, but I honestly don’t know the answer to that one.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Top 5 Most Difficult Game Boy / GBC Games

5.) Metroid II: The Return of Samus (GB) – I’ve played every game in the entire Metroid series, and as far as difficulty is concerned this lone entry on the Game Boy is a hands-down winner. There are several reasons for this, in my opinion. Perhaps chief among them is the world Samus finds herself in. The planet SR388 is immense, and with no map you have to rely completely on your memory of where the weapons are. Supposedly in order to get the “good” ending of the game you have to beat it in less than 2 hours, but I’ve never come close to that.

4.) Bionic Commando: Elite Forces (GBC) – When I first played this game I was hoping for another excellent addition to the series, but what I got was not that. I was terribly disappointed because of how much I loved the NES and original Game Boy versions. It would have been a fun game, but because of how slowly it moved I found it incredibly hard. It had the same basic grapple and swing mechanic that I was used to, but the frame rate issues were so bad that I would oftentimes find myself swinging straight into oblivion. It was a shame that this game ended up such a black mark on an otherwise great series.

3.) Star Wars (GB) – Of the dozens of Star Wars games that I have played, this one might be the hardest of them all. You start out as Luke on Tatooine, and from the very beginning this side-scrolling game throws the difficulty level to very high. Luke has to traverse a series of caves while searching for Obi-Wan; in the process he has to jump very precisely because one wrong move lands him in a pit of spikes. If you manage to make it off of Tatooine (no easy feat) then an incredibly hard space battle with TIE fighters awaits. You start the game with three lives and ten continues, and if you can even make it to the Death Star with those 30 tries, I congratulate you. This is one of the very few Game Boy games that I owned and have never beaten; it is very deserving of a spot on this list.

2.) Solar Striker (GB) – This is a top-down shooter that was released in 1989. It really didn’t do much as far as innovation for either the genre or the system was concerned, but it was an incredibly tough game. There were six stages in total, and I think I only ever made it to stage three or four. That may be because you only had three measly lives at the start of the game and there were no continues! The power-ups were very lackluster, the boss battles were insane, and there weren’t any shields to help protect you. For these reasons, it made my list.

1.) Final Fantasy Legend (GB) – The first iteration of my all-time favorite series on a portable system was an experiment unlike any other Final Fantasy game. What made the game so unique was also what made it so ungodly difficult, unfortunately. Every weapon that could be equipped had a limited amount of uses. Once a sword or bow was used up, it was gone for good. There was also no distinct way of leveling up – there weren’t experience points at all, and unlike Final Fantasy II there wasn’t a defining way of increasing stats. Instead, it all seemed very random. FF Legend II had the same characteristics, but everything seemed to work in a more streamlined fashion (not to mention that there were ways of “cheating” in the sequel). But this is, in my opinion, the most difficult Final Fantasy that has been released to date – and certainly one of the hardest Game Boy games that I have in my collection.

Props to BluSteele86 for original link.

Being relatively new to the fighting game genre, you can bet that I’ll be spending a lot of time in the training room before I even come close to making that decision. Do any of you veterans already know? Well let us know what you think, by emailing us at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com

Show Notes
0:00:49 – Part 1 – Welcome to the Goo & Introductions, What we’re goo-in.
1:39:26 – Part 2 – Top 5 Hardest Games, 16 bits or less

In two weeks…
MC Wilson joins us for the second part of the Top 5 most difficult games, and a discussion on the upcoming Shmup Month.

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

But I digress.

I actually remember a time when having multiple discs for a lengthy JRPG was a bullet point in it’s favor.  Personally, I always enjoyed the landmark of reaching disc 3.  It’s a unique feeling in games, that you won’t get to experience for much longer.  If you have both consoles, obviously go with the PS3 for the best quality and lead platform.  If you only have a 360, don’t worry, you won’t notice the difference anyway.  To all of the haters out there, get over yourself, it’s really not a big deal.

/endrant

Don’t like the commentary? Rebut us at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com

Show Notes
0:00:00 – “Math”
0:01:18 – Part 1 – Welcome to the Goo & Introductions, What we’re goo-in.
0:52:56 – Part 2 – Top 5 Predictions/Expectations of 2010
1:20:26 – Part 3 – Feature: Runic Games Interview, Rebuttal

In two weeks…
Chris Riccio joins us for the Top 5 most difficult games, 16 bits or less.

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

After the ordering snafu with lizard lick, which my laziness has yet to do anything about, I encountered some real problems getting the dual mod to take.  After about 7 hours of assembly, soldering, testing, de-soldering, re-soldering, and more testing, I had decided to throw in the towel.  My TE stick was working perfectly fine on the 360, but coming up with a “USB device not recognized” error on the PS3.  Dual modding to get it working on only the system it originally worked on seemed like quite the waste of money to me, so I decided to hunt some online.

I found a page on SRK that seemed to be dedicated to the Cthulhu and Chimp boards (you can specifically see my conversation on pages 141-144).  Toodles, the manufacturer of the boards, was present in the thread and helping people.  As it stood, another person right around the same time in the thread was having the same issue.  The issue sounds like a bad or incorrectly programmed chip.  This explanation sounded completely believable to me, because of the pass-through nature of the USB->Chimp->360 PCB->Buttons wiring setup.  As of the time of writing this, Toodles has my contact information and is sending me a replacement chip for free.  I also acquired a second Chimp board last night (completely unrelated), so I can test/borrow with the chip from that even earlier than the arrival of Toodles’ replacement.

I came home last night to a nice package on my doorstep that included the custom laser etched plexi.  I was giddy with excitement, only to find my hopes completely crushed with a third annoyance in the modding process.  The laser etching was absolutely beautiful.  However, there was a single problem with the order: some of my design was missing from the etching.  I was so frustrated, it was ridiculous.

I wrote an email to the contact information available on Art’s Hobbies website, where I had ordered the plexi from, and found myself rewriting it shortly after.  My first take at it, I’ll just say, was less than reasonable.  Somehow I found a way to wrap up 3 issues worth of frustration into one huge rant.  I rewrote it to still sound stern, but much more professional.  The amazing part was that I heard back from Arthur in mere hours, with a perfectly reasonable explanation and the promise of a replacement to ship within a day or two.  I’ve already gotten the notice that it’s en route, less than 24 hours later.

It finally feels like the project is getting back on track.  Monday I should have the front artwork printed out, and in theory, I should be able to get the dual mod working soon after I get home today.  When things start becoming more successful, I’ll post again.  Check back, hopefully it won’t be very long.

In two weeks…
Interview w/ Runic Games, creator of Torchlight.

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
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Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

6 x 30mm Sanwa OBSF-30 Buttons Black Rimmed w/ Dark Blue Button ($2.95 each) These will be the 6 buttons that replace the stock white 6 buttons on the face of the stick.  I was planning on buying black rimmed, with gray buttons for the stock “All 3″ buttons.  Ironically, that’s what came stock on the stick.  I had always thought they were flat black.  Like most of these parts, they really aren’t a step up in quality, and were mostly purchased for the aesthetic.

2 x 24mm Sanwa OBSF-24 Buttons Dark Blue ($2.50 each) These two buttons will replace the stock white start and back buttons on the back of the stick.  I would’ve mimicked the black rim from the purchased face buttons, but the 24mm versions aren’t offered in anything other then solid colors. A little over the top to replace these for such a small aesthetic, but I’m already putting enough into the stick, might as well keep it up.

35mm Sanwa Ball Top LP-35 Dark Blue (on sale – $2.95) The TE stick comes stock with a Sanwa JLF joystick, so functionally this part was perfect in my book.  All that I needed was a new ball top to help match the design aesthetic. It also comes with a square gate as standard fare, and I’ve been playing with a square gate since I picked up SF4. It just feels the most natural to me.

Toodles Chimp Printed Circuit Board Assembled w/o USB ($44.95) Here’s the real meat of my parts order.  The Chimp board is a PS3/PC Printed Circuit Board (or PCB) that will successfully bridge the gap from 360 to dual-mod.  It’s a fairly new breed of Cthulhu PCB, that includes the Imp switch normally needed to swap between platforms.  In lay terms, that means that the board is smart enough to detect which system it’s plugged into without the need for a manual switch.  The assembled version will save me some soldering time, and the lack of USB is the preferred model for dual modding because of how the existing USB connections need to be made.  My next post will be on the actual wiring of the board, so I’ll go into more detail there. (and yes, I realize they sent it to me unassembled – they’re getting a request for a partial refund).

All parts were ordered via http://lizardlick.com/ – a fantastic website for ordering a wide variety of arcade parts. (even if they did mess up my order).

Bayonetta (360)
Thus far, I’ve played through the prologue and first chapter of Bayonetta.  I realize that is barely even scratching the surface of the game, but there are some things that are immediately recognizable from that much play.  The biggest and most exciting is that the combat is deep, and much moreso deep than the demo led me to believe.  It hinges on all of the same things that I love about the Ninja Gaiden series: accurate timing, deliberate button presses, a general flow, and the necessity to learn enemy models and patterns.  I truly believe this facet is going to be the thing that carries me through the experience.  The story, characters and movie sequences are way over the top and this is the thing that scares me.  Bayonetta seems to be very self-aware, very tongue in cheek, but even walking into it with that mentality the story-telling seems a little much for my tastes.  I doubt that will change the fact that I’ll play through it, the combat is just that engaging.

Darksiders (PS3)
The reason why I’ve barely scratched the surface of Bayonetta is mostly due to my absolute infatuation with Darksiders.  I’m roughly 10 hours in, through the third dungeon, and loving every minute of it.  You’ve probably heard the obvious comparisons to Zelda and God of War in relation to this title, and those comparisons are not far off.  The combat starts out a bit button-mashy, but also gets deeper when you start to get new items and equipment.  It’s certainly more complex than Zelda in this respect, which will appeal to the action side of your gaming, but it’s also no where near as complex as Ninja Gaiden, DMC or Bayonetta.  The Zelda side of the game is very well realized.  The puzzles seem very creative, but have a familiar format to them.  It has those mild rpg elements that will keep you wanting to collect more, and it’s paced rather well between the combat and non-combat gameplay.

Bayonetta v. Darksiders
These really don’t belong in the same comparison, so if you’re one of those that likes to piss and moan about which one is better, just stop.  Aside from the fact that they both came out on the same day and are classified as Action/Adventure, they are fundamentally different experiences.  There’s no reason why you wouldn’t find enjoyment from both, and certainly no reason why they can’t co-exist in the gaming world.  Truth is, if you love the puzzles of a good 3D Zelda, you’ll love Darksiders.  If you love a challenging, combo & counter combat heavy experience, you’ll love Bayonetta.  Buck up, buy both.

Don’t like the impressions? Rebut us at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com

Maybe when I put down Darksiders, Bayonetta, and Assassin’s Creed 2 I’ll bother to find out,  then again, White Knight Chronicles and Final Fantasy XIII are just around the corner.

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Yes, I absolutely love my PS3 Unastick™, and to this day, it is the best fight stick I have ever used.  Before you scratch your head too much, let me describe why I made this purchase and hopefully it’ll make more sense.  I received the Unastick™ as a birthday gift, and it is truly one-of-a-kind.  It is this uniqueness that makes me want to retire it, so that it can be displayed for years to come as part of my memorabilia collection.  Plus, the ability to get my hands in there and have it be my work is really appealing to me.  I also really wanted to double dip on the upcoming Super SF4, and required a stick to do so.

Due to the availability of the Cthulhu or ChImp boards, along with some other technical and licensing reasons I’m not going to delve into here (but might later), it’s easier to move from a 360 to dual-mod than it is from PS3 to dual-mod.  TE sticks are also notoriously easy to mod, in terms of their general design, so obviously the 360 TE stick was the way to start.  On a complete side note, I ended up picking up the 360 version of SF4, because I’m too impatient to wait for Super.

So, while I’m sure that a lot of people have seen the MadCatz TE stick before, I felt the need to post some pictures of the unboxing.  At least that way, as things start to shape up, you’ll have a frame of reference from where I started.  Hopefully with a decent amount of help from Jason (Unastrike, Interactive Distractions) and Mark (SavoryCade, PSNation), this will be a creative and successful undertaking.  I’m currently planning a brand new aesthetic that includes a new color scheme, some custom laser etched plexi, and some creative design work.  Tack the dual-modding on the inside in as well, and I’ll be all set for the next season of Scrub Sport.  (Yes, that is coming, and we have exciting changes to that as well).

Keep it tuned to the TE Mod Series category to see things as they happen.  It should be a fun ride.

When I made my way home I plugged it into my aging system, and sure enough, it worked like a champ. Actually, I think that it works even better than my other three controllers. That doesn’t come as a surprise to me; my brothers and I invested countless hours into our N64 and nearly wore out all of our controllers. They have had soda spilled on them, experienced sudden shocks from our ill-tempered bashings (against the floor, usually in fits of Mario Party-induced rages), and a plethora of other near-disasters. I’m slightly shocked that any of them continue to work at all, let alone maintain the performance that they have through the years.

Nintendo may have had flaws and flops through the years, but one thing that they always seem to get right is the controller. Sure, people may not like a specific example because it might not “feel right” in their hands. I totally get that; I personally felt that way about the original Xbox controllers (I always thought that they were too bulky for me). But you certainly can’t fault Nintendo for the durability of their controllers. My original NES controllers are still working like the champs that they have always been, and they were thrown around in endless frustration.

I’m curious to see what the future has in store for the controllers of all three of the major manufacturers. Twenty years from now, will I still be able to hook up the N64 gem that I found in Goodwill today? I certainly hope so, but only time will tell.

Show Notes
0:00:00 – “Come”
0:01:08 – Part 1 – Welcome to the Goo & Introductions, What we’re goo-in.
1:14:21 – Part 2 – Top 5 Phrases that we’ve used while gaming that include an expletive

In two weeks…
We’re LIVE

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
Facebook Group
Steam
Twitter
Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

Mad Moxxi’s Underdome is a new area that is available via fast travel as soon as you hit your first New-U station.  I would assume that the enemies have a minimum level, like they did in the Zombie Island DLC, but considering I only tried it with my level 42 Soldier, I can’t confirm that.  In this area, you’ll find a bank where you can store items, and a quest board.  The Underdome connects to 3 separate horde (firefight) style arenas, and through the quest line you embark on, you see short and long versions of each.  The short version is broken down into 5 rounds of 5 waves of enemies.  Each round follows the pattern of starter wave, gun wave, horde wave, badass wave and boss wave.  Doing a shorter challenge, I’m guessing, takes somewhere around 40 minutes to an hour solo.  I’m guessing at that, because I wasn’t successfully able to solo the opening challenge in my first sitting.  I made it to the 3rd round before perishing, and that took 25 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, if you wipe as a group and choose to restart, it looks like you go back to wave 1 of the previous round.  That’s a bit better than restarting entirely, but it’s still quite the penalty.  I don’t believe you lose money like you do in the normal game.  I read somewhere that the longer challenges are 20 rounds (of 5 waves).

In between each wave, there’s ammo and health drops.  Also each round gets more difficult.  The enemies in round 1 start out with penalties to their life/shield/etc, and as the rounds go up, those penalties diminish.  By the third round (which they labelled the “average” round), they were at full strength.  I assume that as the rounds go up, they start to get bonuses as well.  Also, starting with the second round, each wave had it’s own modifier.  Some examples include, you have greatly reduced accuracy but more damage, enemies were 100% more accurate, you have no shields, etc.  From the looks of the modifier description screen, my guess is that additional modifiers at a time get tacked on in later rounds, but I only saw 1 at a time.

The level of the baddies are equal to the level of the host.  That means, that if you grab a group of people, you would want the lowest level character hosting the game.  It also means that if you want to achievement whore it, you can easily do so by using a low level character as a host in split screen.  I’m pretty sure that would make this DLC completely boring though, and it would loose what luster it has.  With all of that being said, here’s some quick summary impressions:

Pros: It’s fun, it’s a horde mode, and the map I tried it on was designed pretty well for it.  I can tell it would move way faster and be more enjoyable multiplayer, but I haven’t actually tried that yet.  It enjoys the same great aesthetic from the game, but there’s so little story to begin with that it’s hardly noticeable.

Cons: Solo, it’s exceedingly hard.  I died several times over the course of trying it, and it was starting to get fairly frustrating.  It also has effectively screwed me out of my original plan of using it to hit 50 as well, because you receive no experience or new weapons for any kill, at wave end or at round end.  I would assume you do for finishing the quests, but I was hoping this grindy sort of mode would help me out in those departments.  That’s a big let down.

All in all, it would probably be a lot of fun in a group of people, but if you didn’t have a regular Borderlands group that’s planning on picking it up, you may want to consider passing.

Don’t like the impressions? Rebut us at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com

I had little idea what to expect when I first plugged it into my Wii. I’d heard from several people that it was one of their favorite games for the Nintendo system because it had a more “grown-up” appearance, so I expected blood. But a didn’t really know much more than that. Imagine my surprise the first time I had to make the main character, Jack, pick up a street sign and run it through the neck of an enemy, the result of which is a rather glorious crimson fountain spraying from the wound. And that’s just the initial hit; from there, you can chain combos to rack up your point total by flinging them into spiked walls, moving trains or airplane engines.

The bloody mess that you create in MadWorld is amplified by the vivid contrast to the otherwise black-and-white world. I would call it beautiful, if it wasn’t so disturbing. The art style is magnificent because it is so well done. If you think that you can get past the intense adult themes, images and language, you could find that you really enjoy this game.

I’m not very far yet; I have just begun to explore MadWorld, but the world so far appears vast. My initial impressions are very good. Now that I know what it is exactly, I know what I’m expecting: a game that is light on story, heavy on violence and a thrill to play. I’m looking forward to seeing what the game has in store for me next.

Have you played further into MadWorld than I have? If so, let me know what you think about it at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com!

It’s bound to be a good time, so check out their uStream channel here.

Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
Skype: gamersonlyolder
Voice: 414.455.5446

or at our forum post on VGEvo: http://vgevo.com/site/showthread.php?p=363255#post363255

If you share my desire to avoid it, you can be distracted by other titles in the series.  Square Enix is looking for Beta testers for the next, supposedly greatly improved FF MMO experience, XIV, and you can find a sign up at here.  If you get selected and I don’t, let me know, because I will secretly and potentially curse your name to the high heavens of the chocobo gods.  On the other hand, if you’re looking for the older, much more grindy version – you can get the complete FF XI experience through Steam right now for $11.

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Show Notes
0:00:00 – “Start”
0:00:48 – Part 1 – Welcome to the Goo & Introductions, News We Give a Damn About, What we’re goo-in.
0:37:25 – Part 2 – Top 5 Games of 2009 on a Nintendo Platform (Wii/DS/Virtual Console), Top 5 Games of 2009 on a Microsoft Platform (360/XBLA/PC)
1:29:43 – Part 3 – Top 5 Games of 2009 on a Sony Platform (PS3/PSP/PSN)

In two weeks…
Top 5: Phrases you’ve used while gaming that include an expletive.

Contact Us:
Email: podcast@gamersonlyolder.com
Facebook Group
Steam
Twitter
Scrub Sport: SF4 League

Thanks for listening.

I’ve played over 40 hours of Torchlight, split between three different characters. I have a character with each of the game’s classes, but I have definitely devoted the most time to my Alchemist. He is in the 32^nd floor of the dungeon at the time of this writing, while the other two characters (Destroyer and Vanquisher) are hovering around the 10^th floor. If you’ve been keeping up to date with the GOO podcast, you probably already know just how much of a fan of Torchlight I am (and how addicted, as well). And really, it isn’t that hard to become hooked on a game as good as this one is for its genre.

Story:

(Pretext: Each of the character classes has a slight variation in the story at the onset of the game, but your choice does not affect the plot thereafter; each class has to fight the same baddies and bosses along the way.)

The mining town of Torchlight exists in a world where a magical substance called “Ember” is used to imbue items with magical powers. It turns out that the magic may come at a price, though. The mind of the great Alric has been corrupted by his use of the Ember; as he travels deeper through the innards of the mountain under Torchlight, it is your job to follow and find him. Snippets of information are given from journal entries between stages which help explain things from the villain’s perspective, but most of the plot development is seen in the interaction with Syl, who hangs out in town and gives the major quests to your character.

For what it is, the story isn’t bad. It’s not great, either. It’s something that will move you along between the major areas of the dungeon. But we all know that we don’t play dungeon-crawling, loot-grabbing, skill-tree-building games for the story, do we?

Gameplay:

The gameplay is amazing reminds me of Diablo 2, but vastly improved upon in almost every aspect. The team at Runic has done such an amazing job that I’m tempted to call Torchlight the very best dungeon crawler of all time. The gameplay is fluid in its design and varied, depending on how each individual person wants to play their own character. That is thanks in large part to three well designed aspects of the game: skill trees for each of the characters, the customization of the spell system, and the pet system.

The skill tree for each character is divided up into three main branches. There are abilities that are found on all three trees, and individual ones for specific characters. And there are a lot of points to delve out through the course of the game because they are awarded for both leveling up and reaching new levels of Fame (a level that goes up as you defeat larger creatures or complete quests). This leads to a tremendous amount of possible customization. A player can have a big, bulky Destroyer who is good with ranged weapons and charm spells or an Alchemist with melee weapons and heavy armor.

The spell system allows for just as much individualization as the skill trees, if not more. The player can equip four spells of his/her choice, plus give another two to the character’s pet. There are three classes of spell: Offensive, Defensive, and Charm. Each spell has a level and can only be equipped when the character reaches the level requirement, in a similar way to how weapons and armor traditionally work in loot-grabbing games. Each spell can also be given skill points (for the character, but not the pet) as soon as it has been equipped. And because the points are plentiful, you don’t have to feel bad about putting them in interchangeable spells from time to time.

The pet system is one of my favorite parts of Torchlight. Your pet can be either a cat or a dog, but by feeding it different kinds of fish it can be anything you want it to. It can be one of the giant spiders and cast a Web spell to slow your enemies or it can be a blob-like enemy and poison everything in the area. The fish effects are temporary, but luckily there are plenty of fishing holes through the game so going through them often isn’t a problem. Your pet can also equip three items (two rings and a necklace) and have two spells equipped. Depending on what kind of involvement you want your pet to have, you can change his equipment to suit. He also carries as many items as the character can. He has a “Merchant” button which sends him back to down with everything he’s carrying (not the equipped items/spells), and he returns with money and an empty inventory. I’ve become a big fan of sending my pets away so that I can keep on trucking through the dungeon.

Final Thoughts:

I am a huge fan of Torchlight. The people at Runic have created a vibrant and layered world with enough loot to keep me coming back for more. I would definitely recommend playing with each character type at the same time, because of the amazing “Shared Stash” feature they included. And the netbook option means that it will play on almost any computer. (I personally played it on my aging 2003 Compaq just to see if it would work; it lagged slightly at times when tons of baddies cluttered the screen, but otherwise worked fine.) The replay value of all that is included with this game is tremendous, and it is a complete steal for just $20. If you haven’t played it yet, you need to.

Email us at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com or leave us a voice mail at 414.455.5446 (or gamersonlyolder on Skype).

Context
It’s probably known by now that I don’t automatically flock towards First Person Shooters, but I tend to dabble in them on occasion.  In this case, I was able to play through the entire single player campaign of Modern Warfare 2 on the Regular difficulty (PS3 version), and it ended up being about a 7 hour endeavor.  Don’t confuse that time though, because being the completionist that I am, I went after every piece of Intel and ended up with 43 of the 45 said treasures.  Since then, I have also spent some time in the Spec Ops, running a small handful of the missions solo.

Story
Some games, such as the recent Borderlands, attempt to thinly add story where the enjoyment is primarily found from the gameplay experience.  Modern Warfare 2 however, takes the storytelling to the complete opposite extreme.  At many times throughout the campaign, it felt like scenes from a Tom Clancy movie, complete with the bad military philosophical cliches.  There definitely are some tense moments and a multitude of effort put in to get you involved with the situation and related characters.  However, the problem is that it’s trying too hard.

The story arc in this game is about as elusive as the unicorn.  The story itself lacks any sort of pacing that would allow you to breathe long enough to actually invest in it.  In an attempt to make your jaw hit the floor, time and time again throughout the game, the story feels extremely flat.  It was as if they took that gripping scene from the first Modern Warfare and said, “Well this worked so well in the first one, we’ll find a way to make it happen a dozen times.”  More has to mean better right?  Hardly.  Without the attachment to the characters, none of the scenes feel like they carry any real sort of weight and come across as if they were the end result of a large pyrotechnics budget rather than any sort of actual thought to meaning.

And just for good measure – “No Russian” was not worth the hype it received.

Gameplay
Regardless of my thoughts of the story, the area where MW2 really excels also happens to be where it’s most important, in the gameplay.  Infinity Ward has proven time and time again that they really understand the mechanics of shooting, and this is no exception.  For someone that typically prefers keyboard and mouse support in their shooters, this game does a good job of making the controller feel more natural.  There seems to be a good blend of aim assist, although at first glance, I had assumed it was going to mean certain “easy-mode setting.”  The feeling of snap-to when aiming down the sights is a welcome addition once you hit the more tense firefights of the story, and the game still seems to contain some moderate difficulty in spite of that feature.  What it really means is that it takes some of the twitch out and makes it more about tactics, both of which are welcome focal points.

There are a handful of minor areas in the game that seem a bit lackluster and unnecessary.  An example of one includes the snowmobile driving sequence.  While it felt like a good idea at the time, it seemed to lack the things that make scenes like that work in games: a good driving mechanic.  The snowmobile feels entirely too floaty, and the shooting mechanic while you’re driving is supremely simplified.  Thankfully, none of the lackluster scenes in this game last very long, and for the most part can be easily forgotten when thinking back to the experience as a whole.  Some of the other minor positive additions include a chapter select that allows for difficulty selection and additional chances to pick up Intel, a difficulty that seems to naturally ramp up, and some good level design.

Final Thoughts
I originally rented this title through Gamefly, and I do intend on utilizing their “Keep It” option.  That being said, if MW2 was only it’s single player experience, it would be a pass or rental at best.  I had a good time with the single player, it really was a fun and well done game mechanic for what I believe to be the right amount of time, but it’s not strong enough as a whole to stand on it’s own legs.  The missions were fun, and I wanted to play through to the end, but I have very little desire to play through it again.  As far as a complete package including Spec Ops and competitive multiplayer?  That I may have to revisit down the road when I’ve actually touched it, and we all know that online modes are the inevitable attraction to FPS’s nowadays anyway.

Personally I can’t wait, especially if it’s up to par with the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned – which I could not put down until 100% completion.  I was debating heading back into the apocalypse torn world of Borderlands last night to wrap up my last achievement (reach level 50) – but it looks like I’ll be waiting a few weeks to start bothering.  Keep it coming 2K & Gearbox, I’ll gladly dish the [space] bucks out for more quality content.

A full copy of the announcement is available here.

Don’t like the commentary?  Rebut us at podcast@gamersonlyolder.com

I love it!

When Megaman 9 hit the consoles there was a huge uproar about it, both from fans and detractors (I’d like to think that more positive things were said than negative, but perhaps my eyes are a bit clouded). The retro 8-bit action brought back memories and also created some new ones. Sure, it was a hard game. But so were the first three in the series, way back on the NES.

I’ve been a huge fan of the mighty blue bomber since I first played the original over 20 years ago, and I could not be more excited for another retro-looking, no-sliding, hard-as-hell addition to the series.

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Wait what?  Famitsu scored XII a perfect 40?  Subside that nerd rage people, they’re obviously confused by the roman numerals.

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When: Saturday January 16th, 2010 8PM CST (GMT -600)
Who: Well the standard Scott & Adam, plus confirmed special guests: Glenn (Torgo), Mark (SavoryCade), Jessie (Nermassa), and Justin (Randum)
Where: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/welcome-to-the-goo

Of course, we’ll be taking phone/skype calls at various points, so here’s that info too:
Skype: gamersonlyolder
Phone: 414.455.5446

Looking forward to it, so please join us!