I've been away for a bit due to the Dreamsucker and the Christmas duties, but I read the article Kris posted a few days ago, and all I can say is $50 for a PS Vita game is BS. I was a PSP consumer...I even bought a PSP GO when Amazon offered it to me for $100 and they threw in 3 games. I've paid $40 for a portable game -- I didn't necessarily like it, but it was bearable. But $50 bucks for a portable game? I don't care how good Uncharted: Golden Abyss is going to be, $50 for a portable game may just be too much to swallow.
I was excited to hear that the next Morotstorm game was going to give you the Vita version free with the PS3 purchase, but this is killing my excitement...
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
ProjectBleven is against SOPA
Rather than belabor the issue with lots more talking points I would just like to let the Daily Blink to the talking for me.
Stand up against SOPA.
Stand up against SOPA.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
PS Vita: 2012 Software Roadmap
Well - it looks like D' will be one of the few fanboi's signing up for the PS Vita - the Playstation Blog has released details on the software releases to be expected with the platform on the 2/25/12 release date and it looks like Pack-in software is NOT going to be the method utilized to distribute software for the platformGet all the dirt @ the source link below...
Source
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Expendables 2
Amazingly, the moderately successful movie The Expendables is getting a sequel. Here is the poster:
And this is the fan-made trailer for the first movie that should've been the official trailer.
This is your second chance to make this movie the HUGE hit it should've been.
As a side note, The Expendables 2 will feature 100% more Van Damme and Norris! Look for it to release in Summer 2012.
And this is the fan-made trailer for the first movie that should've been the official trailer.
This is your second chance to make this movie the HUGE hit it should've been.
As a side note, The Expendables 2 will feature 100% more Van Damme and Norris! Look for it to release in Summer 2012.
SWTOR: Why haven't I been blogging lately?!
We got our golden ticket into the early invite program on the 14th - some folks who pre-ordered and registered right-on-time got in a day earlier than us and it was agonizing! However we did finally get in and boy was it worth the wait!
My wife and I did not play the beta despite 5 total invites between us; I told Telkiney when I heard about SW:TOR and who was behind it (Bioware and EA-Mythic) that if it was not awesome that I was not going to play another MMO ever again. See Telkiney and I have a problem - we have only ever managed to really play 1 MMO together and that was Shadowbane. The rest of them have been plagued by bad games (Vanguard, Age of Conan), or Telkiney Discontent (WoW). Rift was the exception and we went back and played it a few different times but it just never had any real traction... I don't know if I can articulate why...
Anyways - SW:TOR is NOT bad - it is amazing - it is fun, engaging and epic in scale. The key deliverable in this game is engagement: every quest you want to do requires you to interact in a cinematic with an NPC who wants to tell you why they need your help. In every interaction you get to decide how you want to reply - Light or Dark or Neutral. You can turn quests down if you don't like the premise. Something we should have done this one time but that is for another post...
This has tremendous benefits and at least one measurable "drawback". The benefits are that you are engaged in what you are doing - and you have the opportunity to understand the impact of your actions.
The "drawback" is that in a common 6 hour play session you will find yourself engaged in dialogue for at least 45 minutes (Mabe more if you are grouping). Many players are going to reject this - and this will be their primary complaint.
More time talking: less time killing.
There is a game out there already that allows you to ignore what is happening around you and mindlessly do menial tasks that people ask you to do. Its called WoW - and Instant Quest Text is there waiting for you.
Spearking of WoW - I want to address the fears that this is a WoW clone. It is not. It is a game that acknowledges that the mechanics of WoW are familiar to 10 MILLION people; and as such some systems are going to feel derivative. Some players are going to think it is TOO familiar - but I personally think it is just right...
At some point I will slow down enough to blog about the initial experience of a Consular - for now though know this:
It is worth your money.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Joe Simon: Rest In Peace
Sad day in comics today...Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America (and others) has died at 98. Moment of silence, people. 
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer
Yes, the last G.I. Joe movie stank on ice. Is anyone out there willing to give the sequel a chance?
The Rock and Bruce Willis, eh? Ok, maybe I'll give it a chance -- after I see what Rotten Tomatoes has to say.
The Rock and Bruce Willis, eh? Ok, maybe I'll give it a chance -- after I see what Rotten Tomatoes has to say.
MIB 3. J is back baby!
The original Men in Black movie was released in 1997 when I was all of 13 years old. I can to this day quote you every line of that film. The sequel was released in 2002. While nothing beats an original it was "ok". 10 years later!! Once again the alien regulating black suited men will be back! Due out in May of 2012. Watch the trailer or stop over at http://www.meninblack.com/and try not to get excited... I dare you
SWTOR: Key Threads for launch
Today is the magic day after years of waiting SWTOR is launching with the very beginning of its early launch starting today.
I have not gotten my email yet - and while this causes me much personal consternation - I have decided to focus instead on gathering up useful information and sharing it with you our intrepid readers.
Here is a list I have compiled myself of threads that have great information:
Tanking: A primer - This is the first real thread I have come across with mathematical theorycrafting of any kind. It takes a Tank slant - but everyone should take the time to read their understaning of ToHit rolls, and Armor, Defense, Shield, and Avoidance calcs.
The Jedi Shadow's Handbook - As a future consular this thread is awesome; the author did lots of research on every spec of the Jedi Shadow and there is a ton of really useful information for people considering the class (or its Sith Mirror) and the people who think they want to kill one - LULZ -
The Jedi Sage's Handbook - Actually the same author as the Jedi Shadow handbook and again - incredibly detailed and hopefully accurate information.
Beginners Guide to Juggernaut Tanking - A decent Juggernaut thread with detailed tank focused info.
All things AdvProto: PvE Guide and Discussion - This guide is a short rundown on the Powertech Spec for Bounty Hunter - Probably useful for the Trooper Mirror too
Smuggler Gunslinger Guide - This is a very comprehensive guide to the Smuggler Gunslinger subclass
That is about it - There may be others that I would love to hear about but this is what I have so far - Good luck out there!
*Update*
General Guide - Telk says pay attention to the gear section!
We Are Nexus - This is a guild website but they have some very comprehensive PVE guides posted up. The Sage is a must read and the Balance post adds a ton of information to the Jedi Shadow's Handbook posted above.
I have not gotten my email yet - and while this causes me much personal consternation - I have decided to focus instead on gathering up useful information and sharing it with you our intrepid readers.
Here is a list I have compiled myself of threads that have great information:
Tanking: A primer - This is the first real thread I have come across with mathematical theorycrafting of any kind. It takes a Tank slant - but everyone should take the time to read their understaning of ToHit rolls, and Armor, Defense, Shield, and Avoidance calcs.
The Jedi Shadow's Handbook - As a future consular this thread is awesome; the author did lots of research on every spec of the Jedi Shadow and there is a ton of really useful information for people considering the class (or its Sith Mirror) and the people who think they want to kill one - LULZ -
The Jedi Sage's Handbook - Actually the same author as the Jedi Shadow handbook and again - incredibly detailed and hopefully accurate information.
Beginners Guide to Juggernaut Tanking - A decent Juggernaut thread with detailed tank focused info.
All things AdvProto: PvE Guide and Discussion - This guide is a short rundown on the Powertech Spec for Bounty Hunter - Probably useful for the Trooper Mirror too
Smuggler Gunslinger Guide - This is a very comprehensive guide to the Smuggler Gunslinger subclass
That is about it - There may be others that I would love to hear about but this is what I have so far - Good luck out there!
*Update*
General Guide - Telk says pay attention to the gear section!
We Are Nexus - This is a guild website but they have some very comprehensive PVE guides posted up. The Sage is a must read and the Balance post adds a ton of information to the Jedi Shadow's Handbook posted above.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, December 09, 2011
Skyrim Hands-On: Counter Point ...err.. mirror point?... oh I know... "Through the looking glass".. point...
Hi I'm Telkiney.... and I'm a Min-maxer
Much like my buddy Kris's kleptomania. I have a problem as well. I am a Min-maxer and yes this is a disorder, and addiction really.
Wikipedia describes min-maxing as: the practice of playing a role-playing game, with the intent of creating the "best" character by means of minimizing undesired or unimportant traits and maximizing desired ones. This is usually accomplished by improving one specific trait or ability by sacrificing ability in all other fields.
What this means in my case is that you can give me the most beautiful, open, and immersive world ever digitized (And that is what Skyrim most certainly is bar none) and with in an hour I have started the downward spiral of figuring out how to best conquer the world with an iron fist down the world's throat as it screams for help.
Enter the Sword and Shield Warrior.
From the very beginning of most RPGs I tend to gravitate to melee combat unless it becomes clear ranged combat has an overwhelming advantage. In Skyrim it became clear the destruction line which is the pure damage magic line did not have any advantage over melee combat. In fact once out of magic (which quickly happens at lower levels of the game) your choice is to either run away or attack with a weapon. Since one could just cut out the middle man and become stronger in melee combat which I was already inclined to do. That is where I decided to develop my skills. Now I had to take a look at what type of melee combat I was going to do. Skyrim does not have just one choice for melee combat but 4 basic paths one could go.
Two handed weapons at first seemed like the path I should take. With the highest weapon damage rating being on the two handed weapons and still having the ability to block somewhat if needed it was definitely the better damage choice to me over the dual wielding style.
The dual wielding style irritated me to no end as swinging either hand was not independent of each other, in fact you had to wait for the swing animation to complete with one hand to start the other. You could do an animation that would swing both weapons at once but it seems to stop all forward movement your character was making which isn't a problem on a stationary target but becomes a problem if your target is moving at all away from you or around you resulting in many misses. Swinging with a two hander you could continue to move forward and even have very long reaching side swings that no amount of strafing from my enemies could avoid
The third style of melee combat is sneak attack assassinations and back stabs. This requires patients.... I have none, I'm more of a charge the front lines kinda guy so that was out.
It was at this time I started fighting dragons, and it became apparent that they either breathed fire or frost and that these would be some of the main monsters that I would be running into and quite frequently. I noticed a shield perk that reduced fire/frost/shock damage by 50% when blocking, and as the dragons just loved to fly around me not to come down to the ground for a while, all the while breathing fire on me like the cowards they were. So I decided to take up blocking and never looked back.
After a few perks in to block I discovered a perk that slowed down time when I was blocking a power attack. The results of this once I invested this perk were astounding as they were humorous. I could literally strafe around an enemy like a giant as they were stopped in time while I could release a hail of strikes to their back. While I was not doing as much damage per hit as a two hander, my attacks were not that much less damaging and was relatively save from even the hardest hitting attacks behind my shield and just had to wait until the right moment to let out my fury.
I then went about finding "creative" ways at increasing the proficiency in my chosen skills of Block, One-handed weapons, and Heavy Armor. After a time I figured out how to increase my levels even more by increasing skills I didn't use giving me access to more perks, health, and stamina.
So with the combat type dilemma solved, I discovered I had more perk points then I needed so I looked into smithing as it said I could improve my armor and weapons which such a skill. I discovered I could double my damage and armor rating and was very amused. Amused is a great word for it... and then.. I ran into a quest that gave me a glove that increased my smithing even more... now my smithing was already maxed, so I wondered if it would even matter that I had this time. But I gave it a try and sure enough I increased the damage on my seemingly maxed damage weapon by a few points... That was the turning point of the game.
At this point I am going to have to explain two things.
First is that my character was already deadly, Anything that I could swing at was not a challenge, the only challenge was getting in range to swing at something thus dragons and mages/archers were still an annoyance yet nothing to really fear.
Second was that I had at this point also already discovered the enchanting skill although I had not put it to much use as I had not increased its skill at all. With the new found smithing gloves I decided to change that. After discovering I could sell iron daggers (that normally sold for about 18 gold) for 1300 gold if I put a banishment enchant on them which cost me 100 gold to produce I quickly became a wealthy man and this enabled my ability to get to 100 skill in enchanting in a mere hour of buying, selling, and enchanting. With perks invested in the enchant tree I discovered I could take my 15% smiting gloves and turn that enchant into a 25% enchant which I could put on 4 different armor pieces... My weapon damage and armor doubled.... but that was not the end of the ridiculousness. I found different elemental resists, and one handed damage increase enchants that I could put on my armor.
The end result of my enchant train was that I had 100% resist to fire/frost/shock damage and had 160% damage increase to one handed damage on just my enchantments alone. ..... This ment with my armor I was all but impervious to physical and magic attacks. My only vulnerability was poison which I only had a 50% racial bonus to. My weapon damage had gone from before smithing of a 42 damage Daedric Sword, to a 518 damage Daedric Sword. I had transformed into a Demi-God.
With my quest for Godhood complete I was finally able to sit back, smell the roses, and the burning ash of the discarded remains of the victims of my carnage.... for how does one test ones Godhood but with the destruction of an entire city wielding nothing but a blood soaked sword.
As far as Skyrim goes, its the best, most complete RPG I've ever played. Skill based games are really the way to go and I'm glad Bethesda walked away from the class based model. There are 3 things however that would have made Skyrim the best game ever made, or at least the best RPG ever made.
1. Drop in - Drop out Co-op.
Do not tell me it is not possible. You have followers in the game, a friend could merely take the place of them. Would it have added a bit more work for the developer? Yes. but is it in the realm of possibility. YES!!
2. Dead Island-esk Melee delimb/decap physics.
Does Skyrim have decap physics.... not really.. its just an animation, not real physics and half the time ends up looking pretty awkward for the one hand version where the head stays suspended in the air for a couple seconds. And then there is delimbing. Its a mature title and they could have done it. Dead Island did and was pretty fun.
3. Stronger dragons.
Now don't get me wrong, you have to fight A LOT of dragons to get your souls for your shouts. But they could have ramped up the number of souls for the harder dragons like the Elder or Ancient and then made them an actual fight. Once I was the level where these were spawning I was walking through them and that was even with the impairment of them mainly doing ranged damage until they were down to 1/3 or so health and me being a melee centric character.
Much like my buddy Kris's kleptomania. I have a problem as well. I am a Min-maxer and yes this is a disorder, and addiction really.
Wikipedia describes min-maxing as: the practice of playing a role-playing game, with the intent of creating the "best" character by means of minimizing undesired or unimportant traits and maximizing desired ones. This is usually accomplished by improving one specific trait or ability by sacrificing ability in all other fields.
What this means in my case is that you can give me the most beautiful, open, and immersive world ever digitized (And that is what Skyrim most certainly is bar none) and with in an hour I have started the downward spiral of figuring out how to best conquer the world with an iron fist down the world's throat as it screams for help.
Enter the Sword and Shield Warrior.
From the very beginning of most RPGs I tend to gravitate to melee combat unless it becomes clear ranged combat has an overwhelming advantage. In Skyrim it became clear the destruction line which is the pure damage magic line did not have any advantage over melee combat. In fact once out of magic (which quickly happens at lower levels of the game) your choice is to either run away or attack with a weapon. Since one could just cut out the middle man and become stronger in melee combat which I was already inclined to do. That is where I decided to develop my skills. Now I had to take a look at what type of melee combat I was going to do. Skyrim does not have just one choice for melee combat but 4 basic paths one could go.
Two handed weapons at first seemed like the path I should take. With the highest weapon damage rating being on the two handed weapons and still having the ability to block somewhat if needed it was definitely the better damage choice to me over the dual wielding style.
The dual wielding style irritated me to no end as swinging either hand was not independent of each other, in fact you had to wait for the swing animation to complete with one hand to start the other. You could do an animation that would swing both weapons at once but it seems to stop all forward movement your character was making which isn't a problem on a stationary target but becomes a problem if your target is moving at all away from you or around you resulting in many misses. Swinging with a two hander you could continue to move forward and even have very long reaching side swings that no amount of strafing from my enemies could avoid
The third style of melee combat is sneak attack assassinations and back stabs. This requires patients.... I have none, I'm more of a charge the front lines kinda guy so that was out.
It was at this time I started fighting dragons, and it became apparent that they either breathed fire or frost and that these would be some of the main monsters that I would be running into and quite frequently. I noticed a shield perk that reduced fire/frost/shock damage by 50% when blocking, and as the dragons just loved to fly around me not to come down to the ground for a while, all the while breathing fire on me like the cowards they were. So I decided to take up blocking and never looked back.
After a few perks in to block I discovered a perk that slowed down time when I was blocking a power attack. The results of this once I invested this perk were astounding as they were humorous. I could literally strafe around an enemy like a giant as they were stopped in time while I could release a hail of strikes to their back. While I was not doing as much damage per hit as a two hander, my attacks were not that much less damaging and was relatively save from even the hardest hitting attacks behind my shield and just had to wait until the right moment to let out my fury.
I then went about finding "creative" ways at increasing the proficiency in my chosen skills of Block, One-handed weapons, and Heavy Armor. After a time I figured out how to increase my levels even more by increasing skills I didn't use giving me access to more perks, health, and stamina.
So with the combat type dilemma solved, I discovered I had more perk points then I needed so I looked into smithing as it said I could improve my armor and weapons which such a skill. I discovered I could double my damage and armor rating and was very amused. Amused is a great word for it... and then.. I ran into a quest that gave me a glove that increased my smithing even more... now my smithing was already maxed, so I wondered if it would even matter that I had this time. But I gave it a try and sure enough I increased the damage on my seemingly maxed damage weapon by a few points... That was the turning point of the game.
At this point I am going to have to explain two things.
First is that my character was already deadly, Anything that I could swing at was not a challenge, the only challenge was getting in range to swing at something thus dragons and mages/archers were still an annoyance yet nothing to really fear.
Second was that I had at this point also already discovered the enchanting skill although I had not put it to much use as I had not increased its skill at all. With the new found smithing gloves I decided to change that. After discovering I could sell iron daggers (that normally sold for about 18 gold) for 1300 gold if I put a banishment enchant on them which cost me 100 gold to produce I quickly became a wealthy man and this enabled my ability to get to 100 skill in enchanting in a mere hour of buying, selling, and enchanting. With perks invested in the enchant tree I discovered I could take my 15% smiting gloves and turn that enchant into a 25% enchant which I could put on 4 different armor pieces... My weapon damage and armor doubled.... but that was not the end of the ridiculousness. I found different elemental resists, and one handed damage increase enchants that I could put on my armor.
The end result of my enchant train was that I had 100% resist to fire/frost/shock damage and had 160% damage increase to one handed damage on just my enchantments alone. ..... This ment with my armor I was all but impervious to physical and magic attacks. My only vulnerability was poison which I only had a 50% racial bonus to. My weapon damage had gone from before smithing of a 42 damage Daedric Sword, to a 518 damage Daedric Sword. I had transformed into a Demi-God.
With my quest for Godhood complete I was finally able to sit back, smell the roses, and the burning ash of the discarded remains of the victims of my carnage.... for how does one test ones Godhood but with the destruction of an entire city wielding nothing but a blood soaked sword.
As far as Skyrim goes, its the best, most complete RPG I've ever played. Skill based games are really the way to go and I'm glad Bethesda walked away from the class based model. There are 3 things however that would have made Skyrim the best game ever made, or at least the best RPG ever made.
1. Drop in - Drop out Co-op.
Do not tell me it is not possible. You have followers in the game, a friend could merely take the place of them. Would it have added a bit more work for the developer? Yes. but is it in the realm of possibility. YES!!
2. Dead Island-esk Melee delimb/decap physics.
Does Skyrim have decap physics.... not really.. its just an animation, not real physics and half the time ends up looking pretty awkward for the one hand version where the head stays suspended in the air for a couple seconds. And then there is delimbing. Its a mature title and they could have done it. Dead Island did and was pretty fun.
3. Stronger dragons.
Now don't get me wrong, you have to fight A LOT of dragons to get your souls for your shouts. But they could have ramped up the number of souls for the harder dragons like the Elder or Ancient and then made them an actual fight. Once I was the level where these were spawning I was walking through them and that was even with the impairment of them mainly doing ranged damage until they were down to 1/3 or so health and me being a melee centric character.
Starhawk Straight Talk, Part 3
Remember when I said that you cannot manually control the turrets? Yeah, I was wrong--there is a little door at the base that grants you access to aim and shoot at will. That said, it still pays to build them in pairs so you can burn down enemy structures while the other turret covers you in automatic mode from Hawk attacks.
So, Starhawk is still awesome. Awesome enough to keep me from playing other games that I really want to play. Man, I really need to clear out my game pile before Starhawk drops next year...
So, Starhawk is still awesome. Awesome enough to keep me from playing other games that I really want to play. Man, I really need to clear out my game pile before Starhawk drops next year...
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Starhawk Straight Talk, Part 2
I'm totally in love with Starhawk, people. No huge update for today, as last night brought more of the same action and excitement of my first night. I got a lot better at building around the base, and sneaking behind enemy lines and dropping down spawn points.
Just like Warhawk before it, I see Starhawk becoming my shooter of choice.
Just like Warhawk before it, I see Starhawk becoming my shooter of choice.
Star Wars: The Old Republic code named SWTOR
A long long time ago in a Xbox or PC not so far away an epic role-playing game was played. This game was titled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). Winning multiple awards and being dubbed Game of the Year for 2003 by numerous critics. KOTOR was set in the Star Wars universe 4,000 years before Han shot first. Given the difference in time between KOTOR and the main stream Star Wars films developer BioWare was given free reign to create a wonderful adventure story and set up Star Wars lore for years to follow.
Now I'm not going to go too deep into the story of KOTOR. For that you should really go play it and its sequel, but in order to establish some basics I'll need to talk about the time frame that this takes place in . As most know from watching all 6 Star Wars movies the Sith are the Chaotic or Evil Jedi. As opposed to in the movies where there are only two(Vader and Palpatine), in the KOTOR time frame there are a ton. This is a time when Jedi and Sith have been and are fighting each other in open war for control of the galaxy. Basically in the KOTOR games they fight and the Jedi end up chasing the Sith out of their part of the galaxy and then just kinda forget about them while the Sith go back to Korriban the home of the original Sith(For those star wars buffs out there you can appreciate the irony because that is how the original Sith empire started, a group of dark Jedi are exiled from the Jedi order and forgotten about. They settle on Korriban and enslave it and start building their empire in secret for thousands of years only to come back and fight the Jedi).
Now comes in the main topic of this Blog, I know it was a long trail to get here, but here you are and I thank you for indulging me in the past so we can talk about the future.
Star Wars: The Old Republic fast forwards us 300 years forward from the events in KOTOR and KOTOR2. Who would have guessed, after 300 years the Sith come back for revenge which is "so out of character for them right?" ... Not!. The Sith come back and start galactic conflict all over again. And so we finally come into the game. We are given the choose between creating a character on the Jedi/Republic side or on the Sith/Empire side of this conflict. Once a side is chosen you choose what Class and then what Race you wish your character to be. If this seems familiar that's because it is. There aren't any real strives of innovation on this front I can assure you, in fact with only 4 classes per side and as far as I could tell at least the Jedi and Sith classes are just mirrors of each other. The differences between the agent to smuggler and trooper to bounty hunter does not seem to far apart either as far as game play mechanics go. So at best the game has 6 core classes if not just 4. Each side seems to have approximately 6 or 7 races to it. Unlike games like Rift, WoW, or Dark Age of Camelot where each side or faction had unique races, SWTOR's sides share many races. For an example each side has humans and twi'leks just to name a few.
Gotta have style, gotta have Class:
Now each of the classes have 2 subclasses that you choose between at level 10 like in Dark Age of Camelot. Each of these subclasses has its own 3 talent trees. The talent trees seem to have some pretty obvious and vanilla choices. To get to the top of one you have to spent points in almost everything of that tree to get there, thanks to their point requirements. So as far as customizing your talents there isn't going to be much. You pretty much go up one tree to get the top skill and then have 10 points or so to play with in either the rest of that tree or spread them on the lowest tiers of other two trees. This is where most of the nerf and buff changes after release will happen. And I am 100% certain at least at this stage there will be one solid choice for the min/maxers and you will see plenty of cookie cutters because as it stands there is just not enough room for uniqueness. Now I understand more room to make different specs and such is a balancing nightmare that Rift is still fighting to this day 10 months after launch. But being able to have that choose is not something to frown upon.
Combat is nothing new either, each of the 4 core classes has a different resource management style but they are pretty much stuff you have seen in any other game. The combat is fast and fluid, and they definitely start you off making you feel powerful, you walk through the normal solo mobs, Elite mobs will give you a problem but usually if you don't mess up in the fight you can take even level Elites, if not maybe a level above you. When you group up and do flash points that's where the real action and fun is fighting boss npcs.
Companions: your imaginary friend come to life.
The "companions","crew member", or "followers".. what ever you want to call them, are really where SWTOR starts to innovate. If you have played Skyrim lately this system is going to sound pretty familiar because the basics are the same. Through out the game you will run across multiple people that will join your "Crew". Of your crew much like in KOTOR you can not take all of them with you in your travels, you will have to pick one and leave the rest to their own devices. You can outfit your crew with gear you find to make them stronger and they level as you do exactly like KOTOR. Much like in KOTOR your actions in dialog events effect your influence on the crew members and its implied that should you loss to much they will go away. Now don't fret because in normal game play, positive influence choices give on average 15 point, where negative choices when they disagree with what you have said only take away 1 point. So as you can see its pretty hard to not keep a steady gain on the influence. The follower you have with you can be set to an AI base much like a pet in most mmorpgs or you can toggle a mode where you activate all the attacks as you would for your own character as if you are dual boxing. For the most part the AI is smart and uses their abilities wisely so its pretty easy to just keep the AI mode on.
Now you can't talk about the Crew system with out talking about the Crafting system as they go hand in hand. You see your character does not have crafting skills like a traditional mmorpg. Instead your crew members have these skills. You can choose what skills each crew member has but they are more proficient at certain skills. The interface is very straight forward and easy to use, you simply click on the item you want your crew member to craft and they do so, each item has its own crafting time which at the low level was between one to two minutes. You can also queue up to five items so that you aren't there having to pick an item every minute. Along with the crafting skills the crew also has the gathering skills for the crafting components. How this works is there is a list of missions and what that mission will reward. The mission costs you money(not much) and about 3 minutes for the crew member to complete. This also means the follower will leave your side while on a mission. But when you are grouped up and doing flashpoints the followers aren't out anyway so its a perfect time to have them out getting crafting resources. This is a very different way to go about crafting and I like it. I typically never do crafting in an mmorpg because I always want to be out adventuring but in this system you never have to stop adventuring. Love it love it love it.
"The Fourth Pillar"
One of STWOR's biggest hype engines and marketing is their "fourth pillar" to mmorpg's. And that pillar is Story. Much like KOTOR, SWTOR is rich with story and dialog. Every quest is 100% voice acted and cut scened along with dialog choices which effects the outcome of that quest and your light to dark side alignment. Now if you have ever played a recent BioWare game this is not going to come as to be much of a change from the formula for them. But for the mmorpg market this is quite unique. I've never played an mmorpg and "read" every line of text of every quest. I've never ran up to a quest giver thinking"Ohh I wonder what kinda interaction I'll have with this character". No, I've only ever gone up to a quest giver and gone, I wonder what reward I'm going to get or how long it will take to get the experience from it. But in SWTOR the entire reason I quested was for the cut scenes. In my case I was a bad ass Sith Warrior and I always wanted to make those interactions where my character either threatened the well being of the quest giver or was given the go head to slaughter the weak. Your play through for those same quests might be quite different from mine, You may attempt to look for another option to help or try to steer the quest giver away from an action. Instead of slaughtering those villages because they are camping out on the quest givers sacred ancient ruins. "How about I go get them to move peacefully" may be the choice you choose. That is the true beauty of it, that its up to you. given its usually between choice A or choice B , but at least there is a choice.
While grouping the dialog becomes even more fun as everyone chooses what they want to say then there is a random roll of the dice to see who gets to say their choice. Its a pretty fun and interactive way to go about events. I found myself yelling at the screen in glee when my character was chosen.
All in all STWOR has taken some great steps to be a unique experience in the mmorpg market. I'll forever want more class and skill customization choose out of any mmo I play but STWOR has a lot going for it in other areas that set it apart from the crowd. I hope to have the time to do some editorials on end game once I get there.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Quick Hits: The American Akira Movie
It's all over the internets. There is going to be an American made live action adaptation of Akira coming out. And it takes place in Manhattan instead of Tokyo. And nearly everyone in is is white. And no one is in a motorcycle gang.
If the internet nerd-rage was high regarding the so-called "white washing" of the Last Airbender cast, just wait until the cameras start rolling on American Akira.
If the internet nerd-rage was high regarding the so-called "white washing" of the Last Airbender cast, just wait until the cameras start rolling on American Akira.
Uncharted 3 Counter-point
SmittyD made some bold claims in his Uncharted 3 review - and to be honest some of them are fitting. However as an Uncharted Lifer, and a fullblown PS3 fanboi - I expect that from him.
Uncharted 3 needs some real talk though; Nate may in fact be the best protagonist of this generation, and he is also surrounded by some of the most memorable characters as well. This is the true strength of Uncharted 3 and perhaps the Uncharted series. You care about these characters and their stories are always interesting.
Uncharted 3 needed a few things though; first - it was too short. Way too short in my opinion - the game really could have ended in the boat as that was the most epic part of the game and truly displayed the ultimate creativity of the Uncharted 3 team. Keeping it going was required because cutting it off @ the boat would have made Uncharted 3 2011's Heavenly Sword. So they recycled a bunch of crap and made up some stuff to try to slap an ending on the game. This made it so that noone could call it 2011's Heavenly Sword - however no other game in 2011 had this much potential and delivered such a short experience. The reality is that Uncharted 3 IS 2011's Heavenly Sword. Tacking on PvP does not resolve this problem anymore. MW3 tacks on Single Player - Uncharted tacks on PvP - noone actually cares about either.
Also I beat this drum with my friends and fellow bloggers here constantly but Uncharted 3 is the #1 missed co-op opportunity of all time. Drop-In Drop-out and split screen coop should be bundled into the MAIN story in this game. Yeah - we get it - Nate Drake is THE GUY - but that does not mean that this amazing supporting cast should not be put into the rotation to make the game more interesting to the people in your house who have to watch you play it.
I enjoyed my (limited) time with Uncharted 3 and I expect that the recycling and shortened timelines are avoided for Uncharted 4.
Uncharted 3 needs some real talk though; Nate may in fact be the best protagonist of this generation, and he is also surrounded by some of the most memorable characters as well. This is the true strength of Uncharted 3 and perhaps the Uncharted series. You care about these characters and their stories are always interesting.
Uncharted 3 needed a few things though; first - it was too short. Way too short in my opinion - the game really could have ended in the boat as that was the most epic part of the game and truly displayed the ultimate creativity of the Uncharted 3 team. Keeping it going was required because cutting it off @ the boat would have made Uncharted 3 2011's Heavenly Sword. So they recycled a bunch of crap and made up some stuff to try to slap an ending on the game. This made it so that noone could call it 2011's Heavenly Sword - however no other game in 2011 had this much potential and delivered such a short experience. The reality is that Uncharted 3 IS 2011's Heavenly Sword. Tacking on PvP does not resolve this problem anymore. MW3 tacks on Single Player - Uncharted tacks on PvP - noone actually cares about either.
Also I beat this drum with my friends and fellow bloggers here constantly but Uncharted 3 is the #1 missed co-op opportunity of all time. Drop-In Drop-out and split screen coop should be bundled into the MAIN story in this game. Yeah - we get it - Nate Drake is THE GUY - but that does not mean that this amazing supporting cast should not be put into the rotation to make the game more interesting to the people in your house who have to watch you play it.
I enjoyed my (limited) time with Uncharted 3 and I expect that the recycling and shortened timelines are avoided for Uncharted 4.
Starhawk Straight Talk
I said last night that I'd have some Starhawk impressions for you, but I forgot that since it is still a private beta that there may be some NDA concerns. Luckily, a quick web search revealed that there is no NDA for this one. Probably because this is nearly the same game I played at PAX this year. Anyway...
Starhawk has got to be one of the most frantic games I've played. That might have something to do with the fact that my team was getting stomped, and enemies were spawning everywhere, but I digress.
The good:
The Build-and-Battle system works flawlessly. Collect some rift energy, hold triangle to open the building selection menu to see what you can afford, and hit X to build (assuming you're in a place where it can be built). The building comes slamming to the ground, killing anyone it lands on. Build jetpack spawners, hawk spawners, sniper towers, etc. these structures can also be destroyed by the enemy. I can see that players willing to be pure builders are going to be the key in any successful strategy.
In the game where I was getting stomped, an enemy snuck next to our flag and built a spawn point right there. Chaos ensued-- it was a mad rush for my team to try to destroy the point with enemies dropping in all around us. Yeah...frantic. And even though I was on the receiving end of that beating, it was still completely awesome.
Planting mines in the enemy's base is still a laugh riot. So is sniping a dude from a sniper tower that you just built (which, by the way, comes complete with a couple sniper rifles). It's also awesome to get pinned down by enemy fire, and erect a wall between you to cover your retreat.
Aside from the BaB stuff, the controls were familiar to any Warhawk vet. The graphics were outstanding, and the gameplay kept me up way past my bedtime. I can see myself spending months in the Starhawk universe, just like I did with Warhawk.
The not-so-good:
Nothing here is really "bad" in my opinion, but there are several interesting things that should be noted...and it's likely that I only picked up on them because of all the time I put in with Warhawk. The hawks don't have a hover mode -- or if they do, I couldn't figure out how to use it. You're either flying or you're in walking tank mode. No biggie for me since I was never a great flier, but it's still an interesting design choice.
Also, you no longer have any control over any turrets. You build them, and they work on auto-pilot. Granted, there is probably more that I haven't seen yet, but I'm going to miss firing flak at the flyboys with my own two hands. Still, there is more that enough to keep you busy with the build and battle. Camping in a turret all match would not be good for the team.
I'll likely be in again tonight, so look for another post tomorrow.
Starhawk has got to be one of the most frantic games I've played. That might have something to do with the fact that my team was getting stomped, and enemies were spawning everywhere, but I digress.
The good:
The Build-and-Battle system works flawlessly. Collect some rift energy, hold triangle to open the building selection menu to see what you can afford, and hit X to build (assuming you're in a place where it can be built). The building comes slamming to the ground, killing anyone it lands on. Build jetpack spawners, hawk spawners, sniper towers, etc. these structures can also be destroyed by the enemy. I can see that players willing to be pure builders are going to be the key in any successful strategy.
In the game where I was getting stomped, an enemy snuck next to our flag and built a spawn point right there. Chaos ensued-- it was a mad rush for my team to try to destroy the point with enemies dropping in all around us. Yeah...frantic. And even though I was on the receiving end of that beating, it was still completely awesome.
Planting mines in the enemy's base is still a laugh riot. So is sniping a dude from a sniper tower that you just built (which, by the way, comes complete with a couple sniper rifles). It's also awesome to get pinned down by enemy fire, and erect a wall between you to cover your retreat.
Aside from the BaB stuff, the controls were familiar to any Warhawk vet. The graphics were outstanding, and the gameplay kept me up way past my bedtime. I can see myself spending months in the Starhawk universe, just like I did with Warhawk.
The not-so-good:
Nothing here is really "bad" in my opinion, but there are several interesting things that should be noted...and it's likely that I only picked up on them because of all the time I put in with Warhawk. The hawks don't have a hover mode -- or if they do, I couldn't figure out how to use it. You're either flying or you're in walking tank mode. No biggie for me since I was never a great flier, but it's still an interesting design choice.
Also, you no longer have any control over any turrets. You build them, and they work on auto-pilot. Granted, there is probably more that I haven't seen yet, but I'm going to miss firing flak at the flyboys with my own two hands. Still, there is more that enough to keep you busy with the build and battle. Camping in a turret all match would not be good for the team.
I'll likely be in again tonight, so look for another post tomorrow.
Skyrim:The Dragonborn Comes by Malukah
Recently a video of a cover of the song "The Dragonborn Comes" from Bethesda's new hit game Skyrim when very very viral. Sung by a very beautiful and talented musician known on the internet as Malukah. This video definitely touched my soul with its beauty.
Now IGN has gone a step further and used the cover as the background music to a series of beautiful vistas and scenes in Skyrim. As I don't believe I could put together a better video nor do I have the time. I'll link you theirs as the visuals combined with Malukah voice and guitar are awe inspiring. I highly encourage you to go full screen and HD option in the video.
Now IGN has gone a step further and used the cover as the background music to a series of beautiful vistas and scenes in Skyrim. As I don't believe I could put together a better video nor do I have the time. I'll link you theirs as the visuals combined with Malukah voice and guitar are awe inspiring. I highly encourage you to go full screen and HD option in the video.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Starhawk Private Beta
I got an invitation to the Starhawk private beta today, and I'll download it tonight. As the Mighty Hater (aka, Kris D.) pointed out, I may not actually be able to play it tonight, but I'll be sure to report back here after I do play it to share my impressions.
Update:
I went home before going to pick up the kids from school, and I installed it. I'll definitely be playing tonight, and updating you tomorrow.
Update:
I went home before going to pick up the kids from school, and I installed it. I'll definitely be playing tonight, and updating you tomorrow.
My Uncharted 3 Post
I'm just going to put this out there: Nathan Drake is the greatest video game protagonist of this generation, bar none. Not Link, not Mario, not the Master Chief, not Marcus Fenix.
I've heard some reviewers out there complain that Uncharted 3 wasn't as good as Uncharted 2, but those guys are just too damned jaded for their own good. Even if part 3 is just "more of the same", that's still leaps and bounds better than just about anything out there.
The story was excellent, the gameplay was perfect, and the set pieces were completely amazing. If there was one flaw, it was that the trailers showed too much.
Any other opinions out there?
I've heard some reviewers out there complain that Uncharted 3 wasn't as good as Uncharted 2, but those guys are just too damned jaded for their own good. Even if part 3 is just "more of the same", that's still leaps and bounds better than just about anything out there.
The story was excellent, the gameplay was perfect, and the set pieces were completely amazing. If there was one flaw, it was that the trailers showed too much.
Any other opinions out there?
Skyrim Hands-On: The Open world game that fixed my clepto problem...
When presented with a truly open world RPG type game throughout the years I have had an interesting affliction. I wouldnt say it is a problem - but that is what people who have my particular situation do - they never admit there is a problem...
I am a thief.
There I said it - I am a thief. I want all of the things in the world to be mine. The idea that characters in the game have possessions which they "own" is abhorrent to me and the only solution is to steal all of these things and deal with the in-game systems setup to attempt to thwart my efforts. I possessed EVERY bottlecap I ever came into contact with @ the end of Fallout3. In the first city that Oblivion dumps you into I had literally taken every key and emptied every home of everything that was not bolted to the floor. I had the hut that they gave to me to sleep in because I was a beggar when I crawled out of the sewer and scattered all over the floor was the finest in silver and wooden goblets, cutlery, vases, weapons, and armor. I had no idea that they created a methodology for selling stolen goods in the early days of Oblivion - and hence I just took things back to my place.
So what about Skyrim then? Well I will start off by saying that my wife was not interested in my posession and fencing of peoples flatware. So that was a change - lol - however I thoroughly enjoyed the pickpocket system and the utilization of the lockpicking system from Fallout3 was awesome because I had already mastered it.
That is not the end of the story though - Skyrim is an amazing game - a world where you can truly do whatever it is you want to do. Before I ever really had more than two points in any combat skill I was already 30 points into Sneak, Pickpocketing, and Lockpicking - but when I decided it was time to leave town the missions were readily available. Moving into the questing arena was seamless - none of the work that Oblivion required to prepare yourself. Simply head out in whatever you managed to steal and test your mettle.
When I got there I found that leveling magic skills and Archery skills was NOT counter intuitive. I found that healing myself was exceedingly rewarding not only because of the time saved loading my last save - but also because simply doing it made me better at it and gave me experience to get more levels which in turn got me more perks for the things I WANTED to improve.
Healing powered my way through at least three or four perks in Stealth which greatly enhanced my ability to play the game I wanted to play around enemy combatants.
The highest praise I can levy on Skyrim is this: No other RPG I have ever played enabled me to play the way I wanted to play by simply doing what I wanted to do. I got better and better at playing in a way that made me happy and every.single.thing I did brought me closer to that ideal. Whether it was crafting armor, potions, healing myself, or wearing armor and getting hit. I could use the points to enhance the skill most interesting to me.
Skyrim is the game of the year from this bloggers perspective. Uncharted 3 was exactly what you want from Uncharted 3 but no more and no less. It was also too short - I have not played Arkham City - but it is going to have to work pretty hard to eclipse the amazing experience I had with Skyrim.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Comics: Floppies and Stiffies
Well, hello there double entendre blog post title. For the record, floppies are single comic book issues, and stiffies are trades (or trade paperbacks, also called graphic novels). Now that we have that out of the way...
I've been a comic book reader and collector for about 28 years. I started out slow with just a few titles, went into high gear later (reading 25 or more monthly titles), and then got more refined (down to about 10 monthly titles or so). Now, those 10 books are still things that I want to read, but I'm facing several problems:
Time
I'm married with two first-graders and a video game habit. I barely have enough time to write the occasional blog post, let alone read a stack of books.
Price
$3.99 for a single comic book? Are you serious?
Storage
Over the years, I've collected thousands of comics. Unless I open a comic store within the next few years (not likely), I'm going to have a real issue with comic storage space. and at this time, I refuse to start getting digital comics. I mean, this is one of the only hobbies I have that don't rely on anything electronic; I don't want that to change.
Crappy Comic Retailers
There was a store in Utah called The Paper Dragon. I found it when I was stationed at Hill AFB in 1994-1998; it was run by a guy named Jerome, and it was the best store on the planet. Never a missed book in my box, always excellent recommendations. Then Jerome sold the store, and it went into the crapper. That was the last great comic store I've run across.
So, I've decided to cut back to only 2-3 monthly floppies, and get the other titles I want to read as stiffies. It won't give me any more time, but it will definitely save on money and space. One of the downsides is that trades are less "collectible" than single issues, but I think I'll be able to look past that; I've always been a reader first, and a collector second.
Has anyone else out there faced the same turning point in their comic collecting lives? What was your solution?
I've been a comic book reader and collector for about 28 years. I started out slow with just a few titles, went into high gear later (reading 25 or more monthly titles), and then got more refined (down to about 10 monthly titles or so). Now, those 10 books are still things that I want to read, but I'm facing several problems:
Time
I'm married with two first-graders and a video game habit. I barely have enough time to write the occasional blog post, let alone read a stack of books.
Price
$3.99 for a single comic book? Are you serious?
Storage
Over the years, I've collected thousands of comics. Unless I open a comic store within the next few years (not likely), I'm going to have a real issue with comic storage space. and at this time, I refuse to start getting digital comics. I mean, this is one of the only hobbies I have that don't rely on anything electronic; I don't want that to change.
Crappy Comic Retailers
There was a store in Utah called The Paper Dragon. I found it when I was stationed at Hill AFB in 1994-1998; it was run by a guy named Jerome, and it was the best store on the planet. Never a missed book in my box, always excellent recommendations. Then Jerome sold the store, and it went into the crapper. That was the last great comic store I've run across.
So, I've decided to cut back to only 2-3 monthly floppies, and get the other titles I want to read as stiffies. It won't give me any more time, but it will definitely save on money and space. One of the downsides is that trades are less "collectible" than single issues, but I think I'll be able to look past that; I've always been a reader first, and a collector second.
Has anyone else out there faced the same turning point in their comic collecting lives? What was your solution?
Skylanders Tech: Whats next?
I got a copy of Skylanders for my kids on Black Friday. The reviews have been good, and I was personally impressed when I played around with the game at PAX Prime 2011, but I've recently started to wonder where that technology will turn up next.
And there's no doubt that we'll be seeing this tech turn up somewhere else--we're talking about Activision here. The company that milked Guitar Hero until the teat fell off.
What's effectively been done here with Skylanders is convert DLC into a retail store purchase. Will we soon find ourselves going to Toys R Us to buy a new avatar for COD? Maybe even buying prime gear at the same time? Or maybe the next stinker of a Spider-Man game will encorporate the tech somehow.
Is this even something that we as gamers want to see happen? For single player and couch co-op games like Skylanders, it's not a huge problem. But, would that change if you're online getting smoked by someone who was just lucky enough to find the most powerful action figure in stock at the toy store?
These are the questions that we need to explore, because like I said earlier, this is Activision: they can't NOT milk this idea dry. All we can do is hope that the next implementation makes sense.
And there's no doubt that we'll be seeing this tech turn up somewhere else--we're talking about Activision here. The company that milked Guitar Hero until the teat fell off.
What's effectively been done here with Skylanders is convert DLC into a retail store purchase. Will we soon find ourselves going to Toys R Us to buy a new avatar for COD? Maybe even buying prime gear at the same time? Or maybe the next stinker of a Spider-Man game will encorporate the tech somehow.
Is this even something that we as gamers want to see happen? For single player and couch co-op games like Skylanders, it's not a huge problem. But, would that change if you're online getting smoked by someone who was just lucky enough to find the most powerful action figure in stock at the toy store?
These are the questions that we need to explore, because like I said earlier, this is Activision: they can't NOT milk this idea dry. All we can do is hope that the next implementation makes sense.
Walking Dead Spoilers...
It has been a LONG time since I have seen an episode of Television that really blew my mind. Lots of shows are great - and I enjoy them. However only one episode of one show is THE show; that show is Season 1 Episode 5. If you have seen it you hopefully know what I am talking about - if you have not then do yourself a favor watch Dexter Season 1.
How does this relate to The Walking Dead?
Because I had that moment again on my couch this week - She was in the barn - Season 2 Episode 7:
Mind = Blowed.
The show has been dancing around the central problem of the main character which is that he is an optimist beyond all reason. Weaving an intricate portrait of a reality where human resources are so scarce that the waste of them is the only true remaining capital crime. Rick (our fearless leader) is simply not connected to the reality of this as he attempts to search for a little girl in the woods. All the while the camp they are staying in -which seems so safe - is teaming with walkers.
Painting Rick as trapped in a safe bubble of reasonable days and insulated from madness while taking the time to paint Hershel with the only true remaining insanity - That Walkers are "Sick People" - was genius. In one scene of the complete full circle of madness Hershel attempts to garner Rick's understanding by supporting a Walker capture. Hershel tells rick to "Lead it"; literally telling Rick to use HIMSELF as bait...
It all serves to set you up for the climax: a pressure drop that has only been replicated one other time for me - but I will tell you this - it was riveting.
The Walking Dead is HOT this season - make sure you are up to date!
Thursday, December 01, 2011
DCUO Revisited
So, I've recently jumped back into the world of DC Universe Online on my PS3 after leaving a while ago after I determined that I just wasn't playing enough to keep paying a monthly fee. Of course, the game is free now, so that's no longer a concern.
I'm not totally sure why I came back after all this time. Sure, the whole "free" aspect probably had something to do with it, but the bigger factor was probably the fact that I had just beat Arkham City, and I wanted to extend my stay in the DC Universe.
Whatever the reason, I'm back and I'm having fun with the game. The Krizzle (or Kris D., grizzled MMO veteran that he is) will probably still say that DCUO is junk, but nobody really likes him enough to pay him much attention. After all, it's a free game--what's not to like?
I still haven't done any of the raids, but this time around I'm going to put in some work toward getting the right gear so I can check them out. I'll report back later on my progress toward that end.
I'm not totally sure why I came back after all this time. Sure, the whole "free" aspect probably had something to do with it, but the bigger factor was probably the fact that I had just beat Arkham City, and I wanted to extend my stay in the DC Universe.
Whatever the reason, I'm back and I'm having fun with the game. The Krizzle (or Kris D., grizzled MMO veteran that he is) will probably still say that DCUO is junk, but nobody really likes him enough to pay him much attention. After all, it's a free game--what's not to like?
I still haven't done any of the raids, but this time around I'm going to put in some work toward getting the right gear so I can check them out. I'll report back later on my progress toward that end.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Walking Dead Season 2 Has begun!
Watch The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 on AMC's Streaming portal
I am not sure how long each episode will stay up on the site - so I will be streaming mine tonight to make sure I see it. If this Movieweb Article is any indication it looks like the show drummed up enough interest - lets hope that it delivers on the expectation!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Marvel, you really do love me too!
If you love comics just for their stories and characters and are not necessarily caring about having a physical collection of comics, you just want to read them. Have I news for you. Venture on over to Marvel.com and go to the Digital Comics section. Now this is a section I had seen on their site on past visits and just assumed it was for buying comics for ones kindle or nook or something where you would by the individual comic much like you would at a comic book store.
My assumption was completely wrong. What this is, is either a monthly or annual fee to view thousands of marvel comics uploaded from their paper pages to digital format. And you get to view all of the comics you want. Allow me to break it down for you numerically. For the year subscription to this service it costs you $59.88 which is on a reoccurring charge so remember to cancel before the year is over should you pick it up but decide not to continue with it. For this $59.88 which equates to $4.99 a month. You get the roughly 9,000 comics already uploaded at your finger tips, as well as the ones that are being uploaded on a daily basis. They roughly upload 25 comics a week (5 per business day), thus 100 comics or more a month. Just the 100 comics in a month for the price of $4.99 is awesome to me where the norm for comics these days for a single, what 28 page comic? is $3.99.
In the interest of writing an informed unbiased(lol, If you know me, you know I'm never unbiased when it comes to Marvel) opinion of the service I must admit there are 2 distinct drawbacks or should I say let downs to this service.1. Of the 9,000 comics there is not many complete series. Let me give you an example of I mean by this. Lets take say The X-Men, specifically the series now known as The Uncanny X-men there are 534 issues I believe at the time of writing this, maybe 535 or 536 stop nitpicking nerds. Point is there are a lot. What you get in the digital comics is Uncanny X-Men #1(1963) - #66(1970) then it jumps to#94(1975) - #153(1982)(this includes the Phoenix Saga!) skips a few more to #167(1983) and this is where it started to get really spotty.
See its not like they upload huge sections at a time. What they seem to do is almost randomly pick a 5 comics a day from the past 50 years and upload them. Now they are starting to keep the randomizing down and doing chunks. They also are making certain days for certain series, I.E. Monday is Spider-man day, Tuesday is Iron Man day, Wed is X-men day and so on. Although this still does not completely take out the randomness because sometimes they still throw in a comic that has nothing to do with that series.
My example will be "X-MEN WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21" they uploaded 4 Deadpools which is very much a X-men character but then for the 5th comic uploaded Avengers #5(2010). Which obviously has nothing to do with the X-men in general except Wolverine is an Avenger again, but come on, Ironman, Thor or Spider-man day could have worked just fine, give me more X-men comics! .. Oh sorry, got a little ranty there.and2. They don't upload the Very most recent issues. I.E. its 2011 and they are starting to upload 2010 comics now. If this horrible? No there are obvious sales reasons for this, and there are so many past comics they still have to upload it will take years to catch up if it at all can be.
Conclusion: If you are just getting into comics, this is a must have service to get, or If you are an old fan but have stopped buying comics, pick it up and catch up and read back, adventures await. Its also worth noting they have a free preview to see how it works and what it looks like. So if you are on the fence check that out.
My assumption was completely wrong. What this is, is either a monthly or annual fee to view thousands of marvel comics uploaded from their paper pages to digital format. And you get to view all of the comics you want. Allow me to break it down for you numerically. For the year subscription to this service it costs you $59.88 which is on a reoccurring charge so remember to cancel before the year is over should you pick it up but decide not to continue with it. For this $59.88 which equates to $4.99 a month. You get the roughly 9,000 comics already uploaded at your finger tips, as well as the ones that are being uploaded on a daily basis. They roughly upload 25 comics a week (5 per business day), thus 100 comics or more a month. Just the 100 comics in a month for the price of $4.99 is awesome to me where the norm for comics these days for a single, what 28 page comic? is $3.99.
In the interest of writing an informed unbiased(lol, If you know me, you know I'm never unbiased when it comes to Marvel) opinion of the service I must admit there are 2 distinct drawbacks or should I say let downs to this service.1. Of the 9,000 comics there is not many complete series. Let me give you an example of I mean by this. Lets take say The X-Men, specifically the series now known as The Uncanny X-men there are 534 issues I believe at the time of writing this, maybe 535 or 536 stop nitpicking nerds. Point is there are a lot. What you get in the digital comics is Uncanny X-Men #1(1963) - #66(1970) then it jumps to#94(1975) - #153(1982)(this includes the Phoenix Saga!) skips a few more to #167(1983) and this is where it started to get really spotty.
See its not like they upload huge sections at a time. What they seem to do is almost randomly pick a 5 comics a day from the past 50 years and upload them. Now they are starting to keep the randomizing down and doing chunks. They also are making certain days for certain series, I.E. Monday is Spider-man day, Tuesday is Iron Man day, Wed is X-men day and so on. Although this still does not completely take out the randomness because sometimes they still throw in a comic that has nothing to do with that series.
My example will be "X-MEN WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21" they uploaded 4 Deadpools which is very much a X-men character but then for the 5th comic uploaded Avengers #5(2010). Which obviously has nothing to do with the X-men in general except Wolverine is an Avenger again, but come on, Ironman, Thor or Spider-man day could have worked just fine, give me more X-men comics! .. Oh sorry, got a little ranty there.and2. They don't upload the Very most recent issues. I.E. its 2011 and they are starting to upload 2010 comics now. If this horrible? No there are obvious sales reasons for this, and there are so many past comics they still have to upload it will take years to catch up if it at all can be.
Conclusion: If you are just getting into comics, this is a must have service to get, or If you are an old fan but have stopped buying comics, pick it up and catch up and read back, adventures await. Its also worth noting they have a free preview to see how it works and what it looks like. So if you are on the fence check that out.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Official Avengers Movie Trailer!
I can't friggin wait!
Source: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34844
Monday, October 10, 2011
You never forget your first... (MMO)
One of the universal truths of the MMO gamer is that there will never be a time or a game as great and epic and amazing as your first.
For those people who started in UO - there can never been another game with the depth of freedom and the ability to dictate your own gaming style.
The EQ players out there will tell you that no other game built camaraderie and told such an epic story. The people who started out in Shadowbane will regale you with stories of building and destroying empires... (When the servers were up for longer than 15 minutes(or when there were less than 10 players in a zone)).
Then there is me: Dark Age of Camelot was my first MMO experience. Quite by choice I might add - I had shunned the MMO as a "hardcore" PC FPS player and part-time RTS player I was against the idea of a subscription and to be blunt - I knew that it was a time-sink. I knew a little about UO and I had heard lots of interesting things about Asheron's Call and Everquest and from what little I knew; I was certain that playing them meant succumbing to an abyss of endless RPG goal achievement.
In retrospect I can tell you I was right I never should have started ;) - but I digress... It was April of 2002 - and it was SLOW - as it always is in the game cycle. Nothing was out, and nothing was coming out that was going to be interesting to play and so as always we were looking for something to do. I had just moved up to Portland Oregon in 2000 and started a new Job in Jan of '01 where I met Spencer. Spencer was a PC enthusiast as well and we spent copious time playing Baldurs Gate at the lan parties I hosted. That year we were into Tribes, Baldurs Gate, and one of the iterations of Doom/Quake but we were always looking for something to do. One evening in April he came by for a bit of the ole LAN Partay and we were playing... I think Tribes - to be honest and he was telling me about how he had just subscribed to DAoC, how it had just come out in October the year before and that it was in a word - AWESOME. For some reason I decided that there was something out there to be had and I joined Spencer on Lancelot.
Spencer was a Champion which meant he was a Hibbie so since I couldn't imagine a world where I would be a male toon and be small - I rolled up a Firbolg Blademaster.
We. Had. A. Blast. It was awesome; progression was gruelingly slow in PvE and coordination was an absolute must. Most mobs were aggressive, and BAF (which meant if you pulled it or aggro'd it there was always more than 1 mob in its posse) and that almost certainly spelled doom for you and possibly your group if you were a fool. Quests were something that didn't make a lot of sense - there were monsters in the world and they needed killing, but the idea that someone would send you out there to do it for them was not really the deal. That is not to say that there weren't quests; there were - but they were not something that guided you on your path to progression. The more prevalent guiding factor was the dungeon and the "camp" a concept provided by Everquest.
Basically for every level range there was a place where monsters of the right level spawned faster than you could kill them and so you would try to find a tank and a healer and some DPS and head out there to handle their bidness.
Mudmen, Siabra, Pookha, the pit and countless other camps until the holy grail of PvE leveling. The cursed forest and Finlaiths...
The cursed forest was the big-bad-mamma-jamma PvE spot - real level 50 epic mobs roamed there and not many people knew about groups that could successfully kill them. We speculated that you needed more than one group but noone was sure.
Finlaiths were the best XP camp in the forrest a densly packed group of level 50+ mobs that spawned fast and were weak to energy magic. Meaning that the group composition was Tank, Warden, Druid, PBAOE Chanterx2 or 3, Mana Ment, and Bard. There was a list on Lancelot that was maintained by the person who had been in the Fin group the longest.
You would literally send a tell to the list guy and he would add you to the list of people waiting for someone to leave this perpetually running group. It was hands down the absolute fastest way from 47.5 to 50 so there were always at least 2-3 people on the list. If you were a blademaster like me you were waiting for a non-support slot to open up. If there was an amazing Druid there then sometimes you could get in and be extra DPS which was super helpful since Blademasters had 1 AOE attack.
Then - voila! 50! Ready to head out to emain an defend the fronteir from the evil Albion swarm and the insta-stunning Midgardians.
I am feeling like I may have to recap PvP in a separate post - but suffice it to say that no other game has put together the real feeling of reliance that DAoC created. Suboptimal groups were punishing and as a result players played needed support classes because they knew they would have a spot. Its a far cry from the WoW/Rift world where every class can fill a role.
It was 9 years ago for me but thanks to Mythic and DAoC for the glory days!
Source: Link
For those people who started in UO - there can never been another game with the depth of freedom and the ability to dictate your own gaming style.
The EQ players out there will tell you that no other game built camaraderie and told such an epic story. The people who started out in Shadowbane will regale you with stories of building and destroying empires... (When the servers were up for longer than 15 minutes(or when there were less than 10 players in a zone)).
Then there is me: Dark Age of Camelot was my first MMO experience. Quite by choice I might add - I had shunned the MMO as a "hardcore" PC FPS player and part-time RTS player I was against the idea of a subscription and to be blunt - I knew that it was a time-sink. I knew a little about UO and I had heard lots of interesting things about Asheron's Call and Everquest and from what little I knew; I was certain that playing them meant succumbing to an abyss of endless RPG goal achievement.
In retrospect I can tell you I was right I never should have started ;) - but I digress... It was April of 2002 - and it was SLOW - as it always is in the game cycle. Nothing was out, and nothing was coming out that was going to be interesting to play and so as always we were looking for something to do. I had just moved up to Portland Oregon in 2000 and started a new Job in Jan of '01 where I met Spencer. Spencer was a PC enthusiast as well and we spent copious time playing Baldurs Gate at the lan parties I hosted. That year we were into Tribes, Baldurs Gate, and one of the iterations of Doom/Quake but we were always looking for something to do. One evening in April he came by for a bit of the ole LAN Partay and we were playing... I think Tribes - to be honest and he was telling me about how he had just subscribed to DAoC, how it had just come out in October the year before and that it was in a word - AWESOME. For some reason I decided that there was something out there to be had and I joined Spencer on Lancelot.
Spencer was a Champion which meant he was a Hibbie so since I couldn't imagine a world where I would be a male toon and be small - I rolled up a Firbolg Blademaster.
We. Had. A. Blast. It was awesome; progression was gruelingly slow in PvE and coordination was an absolute must. Most mobs were aggressive, and BAF (which meant if you pulled it or aggro'd it there was always more than 1 mob in its posse) and that almost certainly spelled doom for you and possibly your group if you were a fool. Quests were something that didn't make a lot of sense - there were monsters in the world and they needed killing, but the idea that someone would send you out there to do it for them was not really the deal. That is not to say that there weren't quests; there were - but they were not something that guided you on your path to progression. The more prevalent guiding factor was the dungeon and the "camp" a concept provided by Everquest.
Basically for every level range there was a place where monsters of the right level spawned faster than you could kill them and so you would try to find a tank and a healer and some DPS and head out there to handle their bidness.
Mudmen, Siabra, Pookha, the pit and countless other camps until the holy grail of PvE leveling. The cursed forest and Finlaiths...
The cursed forest was the big-bad-mamma-jamma PvE spot - real level 50 epic mobs roamed there and not many people knew about groups that could successfully kill them. We speculated that you needed more than one group but noone was sure.
Finlaiths were the best XP camp in the forrest a densly packed group of level 50+ mobs that spawned fast and were weak to energy magic. Meaning that the group composition was Tank, Warden, Druid, PBAOE Chanterx2 or 3, Mana Ment, and Bard. There was a list on Lancelot that was maintained by the person who had been in the Fin group the longest.
You would literally send a tell to the list guy and he would add you to the list of people waiting for someone to leave this perpetually running group. It was hands down the absolute fastest way from 47.5 to 50 so there were always at least 2-3 people on the list. If you were a blademaster like me you were waiting for a non-support slot to open up. If there was an amazing Druid there then sometimes you could get in and be extra DPS which was super helpful since Blademasters had 1 AOE attack.
Then - voila! 50! Ready to head out to emain an defend the fronteir from the evil Albion swarm and the insta-stunning Midgardians.
I am feeling like I may have to recap PvP in a separate post - but suffice it to say that no other game has put together the real feeling of reliance that DAoC created. Suboptimal groups were punishing and as a result players played needed support classes because they knew they would have a spot. Its a far cry from the WoW/Rift world where every class can fill a role.
It was 9 years ago for me but thanks to Mythic and DAoC for the glory days!
Source: Link
Sunday, October 02, 2011
10 Win Streak! For Childs Play
I read this in the news over on Penny Arcade this weekend and I thought that it would be cool to share. Someone started up a live-streaming website to play LoL endlessly for Child's Play. Head over to 10winstreak.com to have a look at the live feed to see some awesome LoL action and chip-in to their cause!
Friday, September 30, 2011
PlayStation Home Overhaul / Relaunch
So, by now you've probably heard that Sony is relaunching their PlayStation Home service this fall<http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/23/the-next-evolution-for-playstation-home-coming-fall-2011/>, and from what I've read, it looks like it'll be at least worth checking out. They're going to be adding quests and more activities that may even make Home a decent way to waste some time. Even though I'm not a frequent visitor, I've jumped in a few times this year to browse around. I think the best application of the space so far was the streamed E3 keynote that was broadcast in Home earlier this year, and the replica of Sony's E3 space that you could explore. For those of us who couldn't go to E3, this was a pretty cool thing. I don't know why Sony doesn't do something similar for TGS and Gamescom, as I firmly believe this would draw more people into Home.
At any rate, I'll definitely check out the new PlayStation Home when it launches later this year. I just hope it'll hold my attention for longer than it has in the past.
At any rate, I'll definitely check out the new PlayStation Home when it launches later this year. I just hope it'll hold my attention for longer than it has in the past.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
I am the Internet: Quora
I love the internet. In fact - according to Smitty D. I AM the internet.
So today I am going to start a weekly installment series where I share something amazing that happened to me on the internet. With any luck I will point our intrepid readers at something new and exciting or perhaps so incredibly low brow that you simply say "Ew".
Today the hotness is Quora - I had never ever heard of Quora before today. I found it reading an article on TechCrunch about how they just got done releasing their brand new IOS app to bring all the Quora goodness right to the palm of your hand. So what does this have to do with you?!
Well if you are a blog reader like me you cannot get enough of interesting commentary about subjects that are interesting to you. Quora makes it possible for you to track Topics - and inside of those topics people like us are posting questions and anyone in the community is able to answer those questions. That all sounds a little bit too much like the silly yahoo tool that you get anytime you type a question into google - but bear with me a second. What you get are some of the most thoughtful/thought provoking responses to questions that matter to you (since you subscribed to the topics). I spent time today reading responses to why Gymnasts are shorter than non-gymnasts. How to blend God with Science (amazing answer tbh) and trying to understand the problem with geometry rules as they exist today with time measurements smaller than Planck units (or something like that). The startup topic was so active I had to remove it :P
The only downfall to it is that it looks like credibility can cause your answers to go up in popularity even if you dont have the best answer. This happened a bit more frequently in the business topics where someone with a CEO title would put some opinion in there and the answer might get voted up. Largely though I saw much more interesting information that I would have if I didn't visit Quora today.
Check it out - I do not think you will be disappointed and you can follow me over there. Although I am still searching for the right question to answer!
Source: TechCrunch
So today I am going to start a weekly installment series where I share something amazing that happened to me on the internet. With any luck I will point our intrepid readers at something new and exciting or perhaps so incredibly low brow that you simply say "Ew".
Today the hotness is Quora - I had never ever heard of Quora before today. I found it reading an article on TechCrunch about how they just got done releasing their brand new IOS app to bring all the Quora goodness right to the palm of your hand. So what does this have to do with you?!
Well if you are a blog reader like me you cannot get enough of interesting commentary about subjects that are interesting to you. Quora makes it possible for you to track Topics - and inside of those topics people like us are posting questions and anyone in the community is able to answer those questions. That all sounds a little bit too much like the silly yahoo tool that you get anytime you type a question into google - but bear with me a second. What you get are some of the most thoughtful/thought provoking responses to questions that matter to you (since you subscribed to the topics). I spent time today reading responses to why Gymnasts are shorter than non-gymnasts. How to blend God with Science (amazing answer tbh) and trying to understand the problem with geometry rules as they exist today with time measurements smaller than Planck units (or something like that). The startup topic was so active I had to remove it :P
The only downfall to it is that it looks like credibility can cause your answers to go up in popularity even if you dont have the best answer. This happened a bit more frequently in the business topics where someone with a CEO title would put some opinion in there and the answer might get voted up. Largely though I saw much more interesting information that I would have if I didn't visit Quora today.
Check it out - I do not think you will be disappointed and you can follow me over there. Although I am still searching for the right question to answer!
Source: TechCrunch
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
A Special Project Bleven Introduction: Smitty D
 |
| I've been abducted by happy white people. Send help. |
A Special Project Bleven Introduction: Kris D (Staypuft)
Also - that is all the images of me you are gonna get internet ;)
Up Next - Similar intro's for DDSMITTY and Telkiney - the Project Bleven Team!
DO EEET
X-Men: Destiny.. shoulda, woulda, coulda
The Universe has decided to gift us with a new X-Men game. I had been hoping and praying for this day since I finished up X-Men Legends II in 05 and uttered the words "Whats next". And no, mediocre movie tie in games like X-Men: The Official Game or Wolverine's revenge do not count, while the latter was not a bad game. It was not a game encompassing the X-Men as a group of diverse mutants.
X-Men Destiny is published by Activation who have published most of the awesome marvel comics video games to have came out since 2000 like Spider-man 2. They have also been responsible for some of the worst.... i.e. X-Men: The Official Game. Now obviously it is more up to the development studio then the publisher to make the game good. In this case unfortunately Raven Software nor Treyarch had a hand in developing this X-men Destiny. Instead the studio responsible for X-Men: Destiny is Silicon Knights whom brought us such titles as Too Human(which had a Metacritic of 65/100)...eh.
X-Men Destiny is based in a Semi-alternate time line with the current X-Men comic continuity. I say Semi because in the comics Bastion was defeated by the "Mutant Messiah" Hope Summers not Magneto and Professor X was not a part of that battle, is still alive just kinda ostracized by his own X-Men, particularly Cyclops. Hope Summers is not in this alternate time line, and there is no talk about M day.
Story: The story starts out with the X-Men having just moved to San Fransisco . Cyclops is on stage at a Pro-Mutant/Human relations rally with the Mayor and the Director of the MRD(Mutant.Response.Division which is a task force of the U.S. Government whom in the past has always been lead by a very clique mutant hating, wanting to commit genocide madmen). The MRD Director gives a speech welcoming the X-Men to San Fransisco and how they hope to show the world that Mutants and Humans can live together in harmony. Then Cyclops gives a speech, and then The MRD Director returns to the stand, in the middle of the director's speech a giant metal statue that has just been unveiled in the spirit of the rally. Different cheers and boos are heard from the crowd during the rally. Some as mutants them selves, others supporting mutants, and others obviously against mutants either due to fear or because they are different. A vocal group in the crowd is a Purifiers which is basically a new cult that has cropped up with a religious zealot like view on mutation and that it should be "purified"(i.e. kill all mutants) to keep humanity pure. When suddenly the statue comes crashing down with some purple special effects as if a certain master of magnetism is controlling it. Its at this put the proverbial all hell breaks loose as fire erupts which some identify as Pyro's power. At this point we have not seen any of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The X-men jump into action with crowd control and you are not faced with the choice of picking your character.
Now in this game its the first X-men game where you are not playing an X-men, instead you are given the choice between 3 characters that has been created for the game. These are brand new characters to the X-men franchise and you will be the one to decided their choices and way in the world... in a limited way. The game gives you a little back story to read of each character as you scroll through them.
Its from this point forward that I will let you know I've so far only played the game through as Aimi joining the X-men.
Your choices are:
Aimi Yoshida (who is voice by Jamie Chung Soooo hotttt): Aimi is basically a japanese illegal whose mutant father sent her to America on a shadie cargo ship in order for her to escape from mutant imprisonment that is occurring in japan. Shes pretty young, wears pretty dark clothes and a scarf over her lower face like the main character in Soul Reaver. She is literally just getting off the boat when she sees this rally and checks it out. Her fathers is never named, but you see a cut scene of him as hes paying the boat guy to let her on and tricks her into leaving with out him. As her father is walking away he bursts into flames like the human torch. Its at this time that I'd like to remind or inform everyone that Yoshida is the last name of the X-men character Sunfire whos mutant power to make flames and can even surround himself with an aura of heat intense enough to melt steel. So its a good bet this very short cut scene is of Sunfire. The in game description of Aimi is: Born in Fuji City, Japan, Aimi was smuggled out of Japan by her mutant parents before their family could be incarcerated in the new mutant camps. She arrived in San Francisco hidden on a tanker ship. She is too young and frightened to appreciate her parents’ motivations for sending her away, instead feeling only the bitterness and anger of abandonment
Grant Alexander: Grant seems to be a football jock. The small quotes he says while in the selection screen play to the most stereotypical football jock, showing low intelligence, culture and class only caring for two things, chicks and football. Grants in game description is: Born in Sandersville, Georgia, Grant is a college freshman who dreams of becoming a professional football player. He hopes to land a spot this year on the University of California, Berkeley, varsity squad. Grant has no interest in politics and knows little about the ongoing mutant/human conflict.
Adrian Luca: Adrian is presented as an average looking young man with a bright red and black purifier tattoo on his arm. In the character select screen Adrian is heard spouting the purifier company line about keeping the line pure. The game has this to say about Adrian: Born in Los Angeles, California, Adrian is the son of an anti-mutant extremist who was killed in battle. His father’s associates called themselves “Purifiers,” and under their care Adrian was educated to hate all mutants and conditioned to seek revenge for his father’s murder. The Purifiers have trained Adrian to be a soldier in their army of “pure-blooded” Homo-sapiens
Now if you were wondering above why I picked the little asian girl over the two male characters let me break down those long winded descriptions for you. Your choice is between, a football jock of who I can't understand why the devs choose to make a character for a game that mostly is only going to be bought by comic book nerds most of whom will have no connection to this moronic pigskin playing playboy, a member of a group of bigots that the closest real world comparison I can come up with would be the ku klux klan or the nazis, or a japanese girl that dresses like a ninja(there by making her a Kunoichi). They made the choice really easy for me. Moron, Nazi, or Ninja, its ok to pick the girl in these situations. You don't have to turn in the man card you just got back because your wife "made" you watch all of the seasons of Grey's Anatomy
After you have chosen the characters and another cut scene occurs you choose your power set, you have 3 to choose from.
Density Control: This power manipulates a mutant’s body mass, often manifesting as a rocky outer coating. It can be focused on a fist for a devastating punch, or evenly distributed to render the mutant indestructible. The super human durability granted by Density Control is perfect for enduring attacks from large groups of enemies at once.
Energy Projection: This mutation allows grants a variety of energy-based attacks. Rapid-fire bursts take out crowds of weak opponents, while focused beams cut through the toughest armored foes. Energy can be contained and detonated far from the body, enemies can be stunned with disabling blasts to the nervous system, and the wielder can protect themselves with an envelope of raw, crackling power.
Shadow Matter: Masters of Shadow Matter can craft indestructible blades out of thin air or use matter displacement to move faster than the eye can see. The Shadow Matter mutation also heightens one’s reflexes, making it easy to take on multiple opponents or deal severe damage to a single target.
I took Shadow Matter which turns out to be mostly melee. So for the basis of when I speak of the powers I got and such this is what I am referring to, the two other sets might be completely different for the powers you get, although the base stuff remains the same.
The game play is the real let down here. It feels as though they only put about 65% of the elements they could for combat. The combo system is unimaginative, There is literally only 2 combos for your normal attacks, that's to just mash the "light" attack button over and over till the chain ends, or to mash "light" attack a number of times then end with "heavy" attack. The "heavy" attack ends your combo, there is no heavy heavy combo basically. There is a lot of jumping in the game with platforms and obstacles yet there is only one "jump attack", that being just a slam where it stops you mid air what ever your momentum was and you slam straight down into the ground. This slam attack is used in a few stages to break the floor to proceed in the linear level. The "powers" you get are also such a let down(sorry let down is the word of the day for this review.. I don't pick the word... the devs did this for me). You are given 4 powers in the progression of the game besides the starting normal attacks. Here is one huge slab of beef I have. is that the characters could actually have 7, but instead of giving you these powers, at certain boss fights in the story you are given the choice between 2 powers, either of these powers would be taken up but the same button combo which is trigger button(which is used for each power) + face button on controller. So with the way they decided to have the control scheme they really only allowed for 4 powers with the one trigger. Now the d-pad is completely unused, the manual says it changes the view but I can't tell the difference really. There is about 10 ideas I can think of off the top of my head they could have done with it, including adding different power modes, or adding buffs or auras and using the d-pad to trigger them, but really that would not have changed the dull and repetitiveness of the combo system. I don't now how a game 7 years older then Spider-man 2 can't come up with anything close to what was accomplished in that game for a combo system.
As you progress through the game you collect X-genes and Suits. X-genes are a way to upgrade your character in different ways. There are 3 types of X-genes which are Offensive, Defensive, and Utility.Offensive X-genes enhance your attacks obviously, they also change the color of your attacks to represent the color of the mutant that gene came from. For example if you have Icemans Offensive X-gene it turns your powers blue/white... like their ice. The graphics for these changes are just color based, it would have been awesome had this been a textural change as well seeing as this is on a "next" gen console. Certain X-genes increase damage of certain attacks or add an effect like stun to them, but again do not add new attacks to your roster of powers.
Defensive are some of the better X-genes in terms of thought or variety compared to the Offensive. Some change the way your "dodge" move works and looks either by animations or particle effects for instance Surge's X-gene turns your dodge move into this sweet electrical particle effect and stuns the enemies you dodge through. Where as Colossus's X-gene not only changes your dodge into a shoulder slamming knock back, but also has an upgrade to to health and then a third upgrade that every time you get hit your skin literally turns to the organic steel we love for our favorite Russian and you take a ton less damage. You see different X-gene's have different levels awesome. Colossus's defensive upgrade has 3 levels where his utility only has 1. Emma Frost had maybe the best defensive X-gene where level 1 was diamond skin, which in her case once your M(that's what the call it, its like your mana bar) -bar reaches about half your character's entire model is turned to diamond and reduces damage (this did not seem to be as much damage as Colossus's but I could be wrong), level 2 cases flames and the like not to hurt you as much, and level 3 out right deflects projectile attacks back at the target.
Utility X-genes seem to do mainly 2 things, give you a sprint ability, and/or effect your M-bar in some way either by increasing the gain, or increasing the storage of the M-bar. Some were pretty redundant, for instance Northstar's utility had 3 levels, but level 1 and 3 were both a sprint ability which you press the same keys just apparently the level 3 was faster(I really could not tell the difference in speed) and gave the animation(but not the actual ability) of flying 3 feet from the ground. Where as Toad and Pryo's utilities both gave a small dot, Toad's in the form of a plague type green cloud when you past through enemies sprinting, and Pryo left a trail of fire in the wake of his sprint that damaged enemies that crossed it.
In X-gene system it seems every character has an offensive, defensive, and utility you have a chance to collect, along with a suit that changes your outfits color but does nothing in the way of game play. When you combine the 3 x-genes and the suit you enable X-mode which when triggered drains your M-bar rather quickly and does not allow for M-bar regen through combat while its active. Different X-modes do different things depending on the character. Through my game play(and let me tell you I looked good and hard) I was only able to complete 4 complete sets that being Wolverine, Colossus, Northstar, and Iceman. The X-genes are completely random, I had picked up an Iceman X-gene one time, died fighting a boss, the checkpoint put me before the X-gene I had picked up and then I received a Psylocke X-gene from the same location.
There way of balance in the X-gene system is that for each character, they only have one x-gene that has 3 levels to it, another will have 2 levels and the last one will have 1. For example in the case of Colossus his offensive had 2, defensive had 3, and utility had 1. Each character is different as an example Wolverine's level 3 was his offensive, 2 in defensive, and 1 for utility. The dev's did play to the character's strengths when picking which character had the larger bonus in which X-gene type. So in this you can load up each slot with a lvl 3 of different characters or use one character and have X-mode. I in particular didn't find x-mode that handy since I could not regen the M-bar while in it, even hitting a Blue container which are scattered around levels and give you a chunk of M-bar back. I rather chose to have lvl 3's in each slot and used the M-bar for my own activated mutant abilities.
Now in terms of game play I want to discuss flight or the lack there of. As mentioned earlier in the example with Northstar's utility I gained the movement speed that simulated flight. Why could I not get normal flight I ask. I know it could have been possible in the system they built as the final Shadow Matter ability gives you wings where you hover about 20 feet in the air and then every time you attack you swoop down like a hawk and knock enemies back for lots of damage and then go back into the air and can move around 20 feet up in this mode. Would it have been game breaking? Could I have explored area's I was not intended to? They seemed to be fine using invisible walls so that you could not go back and review past check points after a fight to see if you missed any collectibles or X-genes so why not use invisiable walls to cover the areas you don't want fliers to go and add a whole new level of game play to a game sorely lacking it. I'll be honest, the X-men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance combat system had more combo's and abilities in it then this game. and when consitering there were about 10x the amount of playable characters in those games, I don't think it would have been that hard.
Graphics:
I don't think this game is being given a fair shake by a lot of people. I'm looking at screens of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 which released 2 years ago on the same hardware as X-Men Destiny and the character models don't look to be that must less or more detailed. Does it have the best, prettiest, or most polygon count of any game? No, but I don't believe calling it play station 2 graphics is very accurate either. Take a look at a High Res image of Kratos from God of War 2 one of the PS2's best developed games for that system. Where the models huge for the enemies? ya but really look at the details, the shadows were hard and blocky, Krato's skirt was 1 dimensional, there was no textures just images on polygons. Then take a look at a high res of X-men: Destiny
Sound/Music:
There is not a lot of Music in X-men Destiny, in fact there is plenty of time in the game where there is no music at all. So no epic tunes to get stuck in your head like the Halo theme or Zelda's. The sound is passable, however there were points that actually made the speakers on my television get literally a static or humming sound.... I waited for a check point, popped out the game and put in the blu ray of Independence Day.. no static, turned up the volume 10 points.. still no static.. can only say its the game. The Voice acting was a B, not bad at all, but not the best. Probably the best voice acting the the game was at the beginning cut scene and character select. And of course Steven Blum can do no wrong as the voice of Wolverine.
All in all I'd give the game a 7 out of 10. I'm giving a free point for the fan service. X-Men fans may be a little disappointed that Juggernaut shouldn't have an X-gene, or that in one cut scene Emma Frost is using telepathy while in her diamond skin. But all in all the characters looked how they should look and talked as they should talk. I liked that they did a game with Bastion in it. I will be rewriting an editorial on the direction I believe the game should have gone for the story. The Graphics were ok but not great, but the game play was the real let down here. And that's a problem. The game didn't have any bugs besides one ledge grab problem I faced in the first wolverine level but other then that it was a short but sweet game for X-men fans. If you are not a fan, you didn't know about this game anyway, so go ahead and take a pass on it and get God of War 3 or Infamous 2 if you hadn't already.
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