PS Vita: 2012 Software Roadmap: Smitty's Thoughts

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...

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.

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 platform

Get all the dirt @ the source link below...

Source

The Hobbit .. YES!!!!!

No intro or description is required.. just watch the awesome.

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.

SWTOR: Why haven't I been blogging lately?!

OH - THATS WHY...

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.

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.

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.

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.

Naughty Dog: The Last Of Us Trailer

Yeah, this looks friggin awesome; via PlayStation Blog

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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!

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.