Point and Click Adventure

Since I have started my Tumblr account I have gained a few followers, and have so far had such great reactions and interactions with truly intelligent and like minded individuals. I find that writing about video games and sharing my opinions with the gaming community to help with my “real life” stressors and this has become a wonderful outlet for me! Thank you to all my followers and friends, I look forward to many more exciting arguments and sharing of opinions!

So, it looks as though I am reinstating my Tumblr / All things Mass Effect 3 related black out. Today I happened on the spoiler pic of Tali’s face. My outrage spawns from the fact that the picture spoiled that part of the rewrite for me, not that it was a fucking stock photo. Seriously, some gamers are the most self entitled fucking babies. If I wrote Kurt Vonnegut told him that the I was confused by the abrupt ending of Cat’s Cradle, guess who would have gave a single shit about that? No one. People are entitled to their opinions, and I understand being disappointed by a not so favorable ending to a story they put a lot of time into uncovering, but come the fuck on guys. It’s not our place to decide how someone else’s story should be told. Sure I dumped hundreds of hours into the ME trilogy, but call me crazy, I was actually pleased with the way it ended. I don’t really see how else they could have done it. And I would NEVER try to tell someone how a character should look, or how they should write their story. I think it’s fucking rude, and embarrassing, and makes gamers look bad. I’m personally fearful for the future of story integrity in gaming. Grow up guys, let it go.

When Sony announced the PS Vita way back when as the “NGP”, or “Next Generation Portable”, I was a little excited. I paid little attention to its progress until I saw that it would be launching with a new Katamari title. I was beside myself with joy. I’ve waited so long to play a new Katamari game! I remembered how much fun I had with “Me and my Katamari”, the under appreciated PSP title that was my only PSP game that I ever owned. Unfortunately These things pack a heavy $249.00 price tag, and me being a 25 year old adult with a serious girlfriend and bills to pay, simply could not figure out a feasible way to fit this little Katamari machine into my budget…..so I spent my tax return on one. I’ve since then had a few regrets about that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great little handheld, the graphics are amazing, the sound is crystal, the interface is pleasing and last but not least, it has a Katamari game out for it. But I haven’t really seen much else happening for it. I enjoyed the Uncharted game, and as a diehard Xbox can, have never gotten the pleasure of playing one of those games. Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a blast! But still nothing has knocked my socks off yet. I’m starting to fear that the ship has sailed, and is sinking. Here are a few simple things I feel Sony should take a careful look at, in order to make the Vita become a system that will deliver their “ten year” promise.

1.) Fan Service - c’mon, this should be a no brainer. I seem to remember a little incident where Sony got really screwed over by some people who hacked their console in order to get it to do things they wanted it to. You would think this would be something to take note of. In my case, paying 5 or 10 dollars for Crash Bandicoot is far worth not having to go through the hassle of hacking and possibly destroying my Vita! I want to see games like Street Fighter 2, Cool Boarders, Sonic the Hedgehog and Spyro The Dragon. Really how hard can it be to just make these classic titles available to download from the PSN store? Try to Google “Sonic The Hedgehog for PS Vita”. I promise you’ll find articles with videos showing hacked Vitas running Genesis emulators, fans griping and pleading for this to happen, and (worth mentioning) a really deceiving fan video of “Sonic Adventure HD collection, but no talk of offering it on the Vita. And (also worth mentioning) Fuck you, whoever made that video. Fuck you in your fucking face, I really got my hopes up / ejaculated in my capris after that video, and immediately cried myself into a coma after I realized it was a fake. You don’t just do that to someone.

2.) Crossplay / Crosschat - Okay, I realize this one may be a little easier said than done. Hopefully it’s something we will see more of in the future. One reason I was really excited to own a Vita was that some of my good friends are PS3 owners, and I would have loved to play UMVC3 with them while talking trash from the comfort of my porcelain throne. But when I found out I couldn’t voice chat with PS3 owners, I was pretty peeved. I honestly think I would have went the 3DS route had I known that was going to happen. In better news though, I have read that the Vita version of Street Fighter X Tekken will be supporting Crossplay at least, let’s hope it works smoothly. (forgive me if this feature has been addressed, it’s been a while since I’ve turned my Vita on)

3.) Moolah - This one is kinda hard to avoid, I know. But seriously, the Vita is a cash sucking machine! My first memory of my PS Vita was walking away from GameStop feeling like I had just been mugged. The system, the measly 4 GB memory card, the carrying case for both my system and game cartridges and two games ran me close to 500 bucks! It’s hard to wanna pay 40 dollars for a handheld game. Especially when I know I can buy a bastardized version of it on my iPhone for anywhere between .99 cents to 4 bucks. Not that an iOS game would come anywhere near a PSVita game, but still. I almost didn’t list this complaint, as I realize it’s not completely necessary, but I would like to see them jump a little further onto the “app” train. I feel that they could really take advantage of selling cheaper, possibly independently produced games and features. It seems the main focus with the Vita is to deliver a handheld experience with touch controls, that also caters to die hard gamers. Just sayin…

4.) “Bells and whistles” - At the risk of sounding geriatric, I’m gonna say it. There too damn many of em. The touch screen, rear touch panels, the dual cameras, and the on / off functionality of all these features is enough to make me puke. Literally. Those of you who have tried shaking their systems to aim in Uncharted : Golden Abyss will know precisely what I mean. It’s just awful. I think that innovation is a great and mandatory thing in gaming, and progression is key, however poorly received it may be. But I also think that of Sony put half as much effort into bringing much NEEDED features, they would be much more applauded. (see #1) I would really love to see a firmware update that allowed me to wirelessly connect a PS3 controller to my Vita so I could have a better experience playing fighting games. I would love to be able to hook up my system to my TV via HDMI. But as far as I can tell, these luxuries are not, and will not ever be available. And that makes me kind of sad. I know I’m not the only one who feels that way? I realize that sony is a business, I’m not that naive. The decisions they make are part of a professional business model, and were not made without extensive testing and careful planning. But again, I implore you, Google “Can I connect a PS3 controller to a PS Vita”. You will find message boards full of angry mobs complaining about these features being MIA. (and also some Sony fanboys vehemently defending Sony’s right to “do whatever the fuck they want”)

5.) Titles - Last but not least, this obvious observation. The Vita has jack shit going for it game wise. I have seen the upcoming roster, and I will admit, I found a few I can get excited for. (Oddworld HD’s, Shin Megami Tensei, dragons crown etc.) But as far as launch’s go, the Vita takes the cake. I was extremely disenchanted when I finished Touch My Katamari and found nothing of interest to play afterwards :( Sure I was able to download King Of Fighters 98 PSP, and I found a few others that looked alright, but why would I waste my hardly earned dollar on a half assed portable game when I could fork 10 bucks more for a brand new 360 game?! Even the games I am excited for are slated out for Q3 of 2012, or 2013 even. I feel that the Vitas launch was a bit rushed, even after pushing the release date to February. I would have been stoked for the Vita if it had just a few of the awesome titles that are planned for later would have been on the shelf with it. As it stands, I can’t help wanting to trade it in for credit at GameStop or something. I almost wonder if a PS3 would have been a wiser investment, although I was specifically searching for a handheld. I just hope the future of the Vita is a little less dismal than it is now.

All things aside, I do like having the PS Vita. I realize that it is still really early in the Vitas life, and things could change drastically for the system in the months to come. I also hope that Sony gets cracking on delivering fans what we want out of our Vitas! I feel like my requests were fairly common and probably really simple. It would change my whole view on things if I could simple play castle crashers or Scott Pilgrim on the go. I’ve seen how powerful this little machine is, and that’s saying a lot this early on. I look back at the Xbox launch titles compared to the blockbusters we see these days, and I’m amazed at how much progress the system has truly made. Hopefully I will look back at the primitive days of the Vita and laugh.

So, I’m almost done with Rockstar’s western sandbox game, Red Dead Redemption. I’ve tried so many times to like this game, but for some reason always got distracted, or overwhelmed or what have you. That’s a crying shame. Now that I’ve put some time into it, I have to say that I’m absolutely blown the fuck away with how amazing the story is. For those of you that haven’t played this for some reason, please for the love of god, make something happen. The player controls an ex outlaw gunslinger named John Marston. He’s somewhat of an anti hero, a bit rough around the edges…he’s obviously seen some shit. The game opens with a long cinematic of John riding a train into what looks like an old wild wild west setting while a naive young women discuss’ her concerns about the treatment of Native Americans and Christianity. John steps off the train and we soon find out that he has been sent by the federal government to arrest a former fellow gang member, Bill Williamson. The encounter doesn’t go well for John, and he wakes up with a bullet wound in a strange bed, where we meet the strong female type Bonnie Macfarlane. She eventually coerces John to tell his story and his intentions, which I will not spoil for those of you who have not yet played through the game. If you’ve ever played a grand theft auto game, you feel right at home. The main big difference here, is that there are no cars, we’re to rely on horses for transportation. The game starts you out with a few simple get to know ya type missions, like a horse race, catching a cattle russler, and helping a sheriff catch criminals. As we progress, we find many people on the sides of roads who need help, or even try to rob you. All of this is set to an ambient wild west type soundtrack that cannot really be described in words, it’s just perfect. The game is huge, and can easily last you 20 + hours if you take your time and find side missions, or just want to explore the gigantic beautiful map. Every now and then, I ran into a few bumps or glitches, some of which I had to flat out restart my Xbox for, but it wasn’t really that huge of a deal, and rarely occurred. My Main complaint, at first, was that they made it kind of tough to really be a bad guy. I like to be an asshole when I play open world games, and it was just not a great option in the campaign mode. But this brings me to my next point. Multiplayer! As soon as I dropped into the free roam session (dressed as a Mexican guy on a donkey) I pulled out my pistol and started blowing away townsfolk and other players without remorse. I can’t report to much on the multiplayer experience, as I haven’t put a lot of effort in, but from what I can tell, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I can easily call Red Dead Redemption my favorite game right now, and the story is way too fucking good to miss out on. Sadly it’s not available on PC, and it looks as though it never will be, but if you own a console, I highly suggest you mozy on down to GameStop and buy it. Sorry I couldn’t resist that….. :(

Okay, I know this game is old news by now, but I wanted to wait before all the griping about this and that died down. The on disc DLC controversy got me all riled up at first, but looking back on the synchronizing problems Mortal Kombat had with their downloadable fighters, I think I get why Capcom chose to include the DLC on disc. I only wish it would come out sooner! I wouldn’t know how to even approach a fighting game review, so I won’t try. I’m still not really good at this game, but after some rigorous studying, I have begun to rack up some wins. This game boasts a whopping 38 fighters, split up between the street fighter universe and the characters from Tekken. I brought this game home after the midnight launch, and almost broke the damn thing in half after running into all the bugs and glitches online. But once I got deeper into all the content this game has to offer, I can’t put it down. It has unique customization for each character, you can edit their appearance and equip gems that add a little boost to your fighter if certain conditions are met. Online multiplayer has since been updated, and has 2 vs 2 “scramble” battles and team battles. The scramble mode is a little over the top and confusing for my taste, it pits two teams of two against each other, making for some intense battles. So far my favorite characters are Poison and Bob. I enjoy the Tekken esque juggle / launch mechanic introduced in this game. It also caters to noobs like me with easy input and quick combos for this who are fresh to the series. (I’m not fresh I just suck) like I said, I can’t begin to approach a review for a fighting game, I’m just not that hardcore. I can however, recommend this game to anyone looking for an awesome fighter with great visuals, obnoxious soundtrack, and a somewhat angry community of players (my way of bragging about getting hate mail from wins)

I’ve always been a fair weather Fable fan. I enjoy the simplistic hack n slash game play, the slight RPG elements, and the whimsical soft hearted lore and story. Fable Heroes is a side scrolling beat em up similar to Castle Crashers. It’s a DLC title and it will run you 10.00. This game is no masterpiece and is hardly a Fable title, but I honestly enjoyed the hell out of it! Players control a doll, in groups of 4, slashing away through Fable themed set pieces as if it were a child playing out their favorite Fable moments. Each level has familiar enemies and surroundings, and fans will feel right at home. Much like the Fable Pub Games (crap!) you can import your gold to the upcoming Fable installment, The Journey. Between levels players will instantly be reminded of Mario Party, with a little board game with dice that acts as a unique leveling system. All in all I really enjoyed this game. I beat it a few times by myself, but I have a feeling it will be much more fun with friends!

Nuff said.

Lately I’ve been sitting back and waiting for Skyrim clones to flood the gaming market like the apocalypse. I’ve seen a few so far, but this one takes the cake. I loved Skyrim, and I plan on visiting Amalur over and over again, fantasy RPGs are fun in the right doses! But it takes something really special in the over saturated fantasy genre to make a great game, and I can honestly say, I did not expect this kind of game from Capcom. I’ve been slightly peeved with them as of late, what with the scandalous Street Fighter X Tekken on disc DLC stuff and…sigh…the whole Mega Man Legends 3 thing. But if Dragons Dogma is as good as the way too short demo makes me believe it is, I will take my fucking hat off. The art style is sort of cliche’, and the textures seem a bit blurry, which is actually really cool and give the game a surreal, stylized look. The first part of the demo ha the main character, Arisen, treading through a dark cave with one of his bearded homies. The two of you search through the darkness with lamps, occasionally fighting some ghastly looking goblins until you reach a stone that summons some other homies from seemingly nowhere. They do your bidding. Anyway, it all leads up to a fight with a ridiculous lion creature with a goat on its back, where you have to grab onto his legs and stab the fuck out of it. Then you can create a “pawn”, a homie that will fight for you constantly. The second part of the demo takes us to a beautiful country side, in which we fight a griffin (with our homies). Basically run and repeat the last fight, super epic up until the last second. I can’t really explain how excited I am for tho game, I think it may be the best JRPG that this generation of consoles will see. Let’s hope I’m right, dragons dogma is released in the U.S on May 22, look out for my pawn… I’m gonna name her BongWizard. :)