Pagoda of Gaming

It hasn’t been a totally interesting couple of weeks since we last caught up. It’s mostly been a haze of work and then holing up for an evening of Movies and Deck Testing. Thankfully things have picked up a little – and the Parents have gone away this weekend, so I’ll get a couple of quiet chillax nights –and there’s nothing more relaxing to me than a parentless house.

Alan Wake

I’m Happy to say that Alan Wake is as awesome as I hoped. I think we all know how you feel when a game has gone so long in development and it comes out to fail in regards to it’s hype train. I had fears that Alan Wake would be just that.

I’m only as far as finishing Episode 2, and I’m happy with taking my time with it, an Episode at a time. The game’s structure near demands it. And I hope to continue that way up until the end.

The Max Payne references so far are abundant, though not to the point that you get a slap in the face every time one appears. And some I think wouldn’t be noticed by the un-core Payne Fan. The ‘This door is locked’ sound in Wake is the same as in both Max Payne’s, which brings a smile to my face every time I encounter it  - where I’m sure some trolls might look down at remedy for reusing an old sound. Fuck those guys, the sound design is AH MAZING.

It was a sound decision getting the collectors edition. There’s a bonus disk that’s loaded with content that chronicles the game’s – for example, there’s a screenshot gallery for every year the game gas been in development. There’s some Dashboard Theme’s and shit on there too, but I’m sure the golden egg is going to be the additional in-game developer commentary. It comes with a soundtrack CD, though unfortunately it doesn’t contain the non-operatic music of the game. And there’s a hard cover book, which seems like it contains extra info on some of the games characters, though written from an in-game perspective. I think I’ll get my worth of all that stuff once I finish the game.

I’ll hopefully have more to talk about next time, but so far it’s been a thumbs up all the way. I really hope they put out a PC version at some point, because sadly there’s some people out there that don’t have a 360. But I’d say that this is another reason on the long list of reasons to own a 360. If you want to see a little of what you’re missing, GiantBomb has an excellent Video Review of the game right HERE.

Halo: Reach Beta

I got the chance to play some of the Halo: Reach Beta over the past couple of weeks. I was almost playing it daily, ensuring I played at least my three required matches to get ranked in the Slayer Arena.

They’ve even got some of the Bungie.net connectivity working too. So you can view stuff like your player profile (mine here), and directly upload  screenshots (that’s 1920×1080 resolution btw), and game replays. And that’s all stuff I w ish other games had, especially MW2 and Bad Company 2.

You know, there’s even a company that’ll take those screenshots and directly print them out all high quality style and frame them and shit. It’s True.

Besides that, the game’s good fun. Still Halo, but with enough new changes to enlighten the experience whilst keeping the solid framework of the old games intact. And now that there’s some proper player progression in the multiplayer experience I’ll definitely stick around this time – especially if the ranking system works as it is intended and lets me play with all the other plebs. Not that’s I’m too plebby - that’s one of my finer moments above – I’m the red guy with the gravity hammer. The guy in blue, well, he’s very dead.

Duels of the Planeswalkers Expansion 2

Wizards continues to fail at videogames, though as a community we’re not really sure if it’s solely the developers fault, or the relationship imposed upon them by wizards. The content of the new expansion was broken for the better part of two days after it’s launch – a period that the paid for expansion was not removed from the live marketplace. Neither was it’s inability to function very well advertised.

The Developers have done a decent job of updating the game – once it got working that is -  with some streamlining of the gameplay and the new content, but I can’t shake the surrounding shell of brokenness, that I could surely, as both a long time Magic The gathering player, and as a gamer in general, devote entire blog posts to.

To sum it up, the game is noticably sluggish in parts, and some of the card abilities don’t work either at all or correctly. What really pissed me off is that in desperate situations, the game chooses what lands you tap to cast a spell, and there are a couple of times where it just straight up taps the wrong basic lands, and you’re left with either an ability I can’t activate or spell I can’t cast.

And some of the decks have a lot of crap in them, considering the huge spectrum they’ve got to choose from – and whilst I understand the need the game has for restricting almost all kinds of deck construction, it would be really great if I could remove some of the base crap from the core deck. Boring crap like Hill Giant and cunt-fucking Goblin Piker.

But the number 1 thing that really really pisses me off about this game is the stream of content. It took them over six months since the last released DLC to get this expansion out, and it took them that time to create 3 new decks, 5 new puzzle challenges, and the AI opponents to use them. Instead of getting that every month or two (which would be really fucking great btw) they’ve started charging micro-payments for stuff like new in game backgrounds and in-game avatars. Now they’re even offering players a fee to unlock additional cards for decks – cards that you get from playing the game anyway.

All of this is reminiscent of the old crap EA used to put out – charging for in game cheats or currency in single player games. I get the feeling that Wizards wants to turn Duels of the Planeswalkers into the closest thing to MTGO they can get – and what Duels’ should be is the furthest fucking thing from MTGO.

Counter Strike: Source Beta

Surprisingly, Valve announced that it’s running a Beta for some new features they’re looking to add to CS:S. It must be about three years since the game had a proper update, probably because all of the attention that Team Fortress 2 has got. Infact it’s all TF2 style improvements they’re making – stuff like lifetime stats, Achievements, the domination and revenge system, and some other good Steam profile integration stuff.

As a lapsed CS:S player, I’m really happy to see the game getting a bit of a modern update – even if it isn’t an announcement of a brand new game. There’ll probably be some pissed off players out there, due to the hardcore nature of the game, but it’s stuff like this that’ll draw me back in.

The Achievement list – which someone posted HERE – look really epic, in a way that it’ll take a long long time to get some of those. But anyway, I hope that this update, and more, make it through the beta. I’d be checking it out myself, but I missed my chance to get in. T_T SADFACE.

Transformers: War for Cybertron

I honestly don’t remember much of Transformers from when I was younger. I think I just understood it as a concept, but never really bought into the story. It’s a long shot that any game could be a Transformers revolution akin to Arkham Asylum levels of success – but War for Cybertron has me intrigued at least. The multiplayer alone appears as if it has depth the likes of Modern Warfare 2, take a look at this video…

OnLive in the UK

Remember OnLive right? That thing that streams games to your PC or telly without the need for decent hardware, only a decent internet connection. Well Kotaku reports that BT have signed a deal to bring OnLive to the UK at some point in the future. That’s kind of cool – if it works that is. Though in general I’m happy to see that this is happening, simply because this is the kind of thing I didn’t think we’d get in the UK due to it’s server restrictions and our generally crappy broadband provisions. I guess we’ll have to see it to believe it, at least now we know we’ll get the chance.

Biting Zingers. Wat.

My favourite ‘wat’ moment of the past weeks has to be Joystiq’s report of a House game (that is - one based on the fucking brilliant TV show starring Hugh Laurie) coming to the DS and PC this August. All you need to know is in the trailer, and it is clearly on the far opposite spectrum as Arkham Asylum when it comes to games based on non game IP’s. You better check it out…

The Great PC Hunt

I talked a little last time about my need for a new PC. I’m well on my way to saving up enough the cash, but I’m still confused when it comes to buying the thing. I’ve come to the understanding that I’m probably going to have to get it online – the ‘Shire doesn’t appear to be equipped, but I’ll take a look in Aberdull next weekend when I’m through. And don’t get me started on our local establishment – who’s only open whenever I’m at work.

THIS is the kind of configuration that I’m aiming for, though I’d go a little higher that that if I got the chance. So now it’s just a case of ‘where’ now that I’ve somewhat figured out the ‘what’. As always I’m taking any suggestions and recommendations, I’ve got about 4-5 weeks to get the thing ordered anyway.

TV And Stuff

The non-leaked version of the new JJ.Abrams thing hut the web a couple of days ago. And going by the name and the trailer, I can’t put my thumb on the genre. It’s either Cloverfieldy meets aliens, or something Superheroey. “Super 8” is a really weird name. I’m sure it’ll be great when it comes out in like a year’s time. You can check that trailer HERE.

The latest season of Supernatural came to a close on Friday, and it was surprisingly satisfying and held well together – not often the case when you bring God, Satan and the armies of heaven and hell together wrapped around a story 5-seasons in the making. But yeah, it was really good, just like the rest of the show. It’s been picked up for a 6th season, but with the lead creative director leaving with this season, I think we can say for sure that this 5th season is the end of this story. Or at least that’s what we can say when th studio milks the show right into pwnblivion.

I leave you today with a final luls. A hilarious video remix of a WoW Freak Out – a rising genre – the original of which I’m sure I posted about a year ago. Prepare to have your happiness stat modified by +5…

Yes, at one point he is trying to sodomise himself with a TV remote through sheer rage. Here’s the original in case you want to make sure.

Next Time on My Life…

Next weekend I’ve got another attempt at passing my Driving Theory, so next weeks deck building post might be a little late unless I finish it before hand – which is a possibility since the Deck list itself is finished, it’s just the explanations I’ve got to put down on blog-paper.

Red Dead Redemption is also out next week, which has unexpectedly been hitting my radar recently. GTA in a dirty western form should be good fun right? Hopefully we’ll get some reviews next week before the game hits on Friday.

Now I’m off to enjoy the rest of my parentless weekend. I know, I should just move out already. I’ll start saving once I get this fucking Driving Test thing out of the way. Anyway, remember to leave a comment! and I’ll catch you on the flipside.

Now a week in the country is just what I need

It hasn’t been a most interesting couple of weeks for gaming. There’s just not much coming out. And whilst I have plenty of Magic decks to build, I’m not feeling the love for WoW and Bad Company 2 at the moment – and there’s not much else coming out or anything I really want to play that’s been stocked up.

I suppose the most interesting news to come out the past couple of days was the APB Release date and Pricing. Surprisingly the game is coming out on the 2nd of July, which is exactly 2 months away. Even though I’m in the beta, Realtime Worlds hasn’t really been great at informing the community as to what’s going on. Most MMO’s these days send out a constant barrage of media running up to a release. Let’s hope that they put their foot down these next two months.

I do like the pricing model they’ve provided – providing a nice middle ground. So you’re either playing for free, relegated to the non-combat Social District. Paying per Hour of game time, which is great if you don’t want to commit or don’t have a lot of time to play. And at the top there’s the usual subscription model. There is also what they’re calling “RTW Points” which are supposedly interchangeable for everything between game time, in-game currency, and special DLC. I have no problem with any of that. The full info, including a video of some of the Pre-order bonuses is all HERE.

It’s a shame that I still can’t talk about the game due to the NDA (not that anyone would really notice in this little dark corner of the internet) but I do have a problem with the game, in that my PC can barely run it. I thought it was the Beta’s fault for a long time, bugs and performance issues and such, or rather hoped. I know now that I need a new PC – and I’m going to try and get one before APB launches.

Whilst the upgrades I did last Christmas did help optimise the system – it’s still stuck with an old-assed 32bit Pentium 4, and that just doesn’t cut it these days. It’s not that it doesn’t just not play APB very well, there’s a whole list of games that deserve to be ran on a better system.

This is the part where I ask for help. I figure I can squeeze out about £800 for a new PC, but I haven’t put much thought into where I should get it. The last time I ordered online, and a year later that company Ninja’d away with my 4-year guarantee, So I wouldn’t really like to do that again. And I utterly refuse to buy from your franchised PC Worlds or John Lewis as the ‘rents have suggested that I should, because they provide about as much useful customer service as their online counterparts when it comes to repairs. So my preferred choice is to go independent.

The LithBro has pointed me towards SA Computers in Fundee. He painted a picture for me that compares that place directly to some kind of PC gaming Mecca, and I’m rather inclined to believe such claims. There’s also 3000RPM in Fundee, who’ve I’ve had dealings with in the past where at the end of the transaction I seriously wanted to Bro-Five the clerk. But the problem is that they are both in Fundee, so I can’t exactly walk in whenever I like whenever I have a problem I can’t fix. I suppose I could check out the local PC shop, but I’ve had off-dealings with them in the past.

So does anyone have any pointers or recommendations for me? I would easily buy online if anyone could point me in a safe direction.

Anyway, I am actually having some fun with my PC despite it’s odd crashes and inability to run the most modern of games. I started playing Torchlight for a couple of hours yesterday, and I’ve played some already today – it’s pretty freaking good. I’ve never played a Diablo-esque type of dungeoneering game before, so it’s pretty fresh for me. My dude’s about level 10, and he’s an Alchemist (Basically a Mage/Warlock – See the dude on the left here). If I have two complaints so far is that I haven’t quite figured out what kind of gear I want to optimise my guy, and there’s a lack of a “world map” so I’m not sure how deep the mines of Torchlight go, or if I need to, how to find my way out. But other than that it’s a wonderful game, and it runs beautifully as it demands next to nothing from my PC.

The other thing I did yesterday was sit down some with Left 4 Dead 2, which I’m never really in the mood for, but I’m starting to finally feel the attraction. I played through the new “The Passing” campaign, featuring the survivors from the first game. It’s good stuff, and it’s pretty hard too, especially when you’re left to collect 16 barrels of gas across an open level and the game starts sending multiple tanks your way, good thing the original survivors are pew-pewing from the rooftops and periodically dropping peels.

Another thing that should keep me busy for the next couple of weeks is the Halo Reach Beta. It’s supposed to be launching today, though when today is an unanswered question. Let’s hope soon so I can enjoy the last of my 3-day weekend poppin’ fools and armour locking like a motherfucker.

Oh yeah! Did you hear the fucked up news about Bungie? I can’t believe they got stuck in a 10 month contract with Activision. I’ve got no hate for Bungie for their decision – If they want to make something that’s not Halo, going with a big publisher is probably the best way to go. But I am worried for their well being. I can’t help but think of all the Infinity Ward butt rape that Activision has been handing out recently, and you know, how Bobby Kotick demands the soul of a game designer every morning for breakfast, and their children and pets for lunch. Giantbomb has got all the deets HERE.

Haha! remember when EA used to be the Evil publisher? Good times, good times.

In non-gaming news, I saw Iron Man 2 yesterday. It wasn’t really what I was expecting, and it wasn’t really as good as the first one – but it was enjoyable. I suggest that if you want to go see it, leave it for a couple of weeks. It was the first time I’ve seen a cinema packed like that in a long while.

TV is looking like it’s winding down again for the summer. My favourite show of the season continues to be Stargate Universe. It’s such a different show than previous Stargate shows, very much darker in tone. And they haven’t introduced an alien race yet that through farfetched or unexplained reasons, look exactly human and speak English. Basically they’ve done an epic Cheese Dissection of the shows established universe, whilst still leaving that stuff story-wise intact. I’m watching through Criminal Minds too, and I’m at the part where Gideon just left the show. I was worried that it was going to suffer because of that, but it continues to go strong.

For blog news, I’m still working, and on schedule for fortnightly Magical Ninja Deck Chef articles – I’ve honestly got about three I’m writing at the moment, and next weekend I’ll be bringing my sweet vampire deck tech into the world. But to mitigate the overall domination of MTG related posts, and it’s personal impact on myself, I think I’ll throw up a proper gaming post every other fortnight, just to catch up.

So that’s all for now. I’m off to go camp X-Box Live, and play some Torchlight at the same time. Happy May Day Holiday everyone! Remember to drop some comments (preferably like they’re hot)!

As she walks me through the nicest parts of hell.

Ultramarines The Movie

The greatest surprise I found this week is actually a little old news from a couple of months ago. Games Workshop is making a Warhammer 40K Movie called “Ultramarines” clearly based on probably the most famous Marine army of them all. I was very confused when I heard the news to begin with, but once you learn that it’s a total CGI movie made by folks who used to make animated features for Lego Products, and that it’ll probably be a straight to Blu-Ray affair, the project suddenly becomes a bit more grounded.

Not to shit on the idea of it, I think it’ll be great. It’s probably better that a small, somewhat independent studio handles it. I doubt the mitts of Hollywood would do any good for the 40K universe, and furthermore, I doubt that that any of Hollywood’s leading men would make very good live action Marneus Calgar.

You can learn a little bit more about the movie HERE, on the official site. But there is currently very little else known about the film other than it is due to come out next year. I hope that it all turns out well, for both fans and creator.

Final Fantasy 13

Officially the creepiest trailer of the week is a new “announcement” trailer for FF13, presented to us by douchebag model actor guy.

Clearly this trailer was not meant for us, the average gamer. Or is it? I wouldn’t be surprised if this is how Square-Enix views the west and decides that this is clearly the best venture. I’m also completely baffled by the whole Leona Lewis thing, Having no idea who this person was and against my better judgement, I typed the name into YouTube… and I did not like what turned up.

I’ve always associated the Final Fantasy franchise as being something that is wholly Japanese, and I’m not sure I like where this obvious western approach is taking the game. Maybe this is a response to the declining interest in the Japanese gaming scene by the rest of the world, though I don’t think infusing western ideals into their games, pop songs or otherwise, is a great idea. They need to innovate and just tighten their shit up. Remember the last game you played out of Japan that had control issues that didn’t drive you up the wall? I don’t. Plus, that guy really creeps me out.

Atleast we can sleep in the knowledge that the european release of the game is happening this coming March 9th. The same day as the american release, so they won’t get the chance to lord it over us this time.

Alan Wake Trailers

I’ll give this a small mention, there is some new gameplay footage of Alan Wake out. But I’d suggest avoidance. I believe the game’s acceptance will hinge on it’s storytelling and overall experience and not what a brief 5 minute gameplay trailer will show you. From what I saw was more of the same as what was seen at last E3.

Yes, I’m Going To Talk About Bloody Magic The Gathering Again

 My lamentations about the lack of expanding the Duels of the Planeswalkers game to other platforms appears to be in vein. Announced a week after the announcement of Magic The Gathering: Tactics, Wizards announced that Duels is going to hit sometime next summer for the PS3 and the PC.

Whilst that’s all very good news, the conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but see some interesting things surrounding this announcement. I can’t help but feel that this is in response to possible negative backlash received from the community to Magic Tactics, also due out next year and also due out on the same platforms as the Duel’s Port.

Summer 2010 is an awful long time to port a game to another platform, assuming that the port has already been in development, if you catch my drift.

But anyway, my in-x-boxxed brethren, I assure you will enjoy Duels of the Planeswalkers, and I may have the chance to enjoy it with you. Assuming you can get over, and hopefully understand, the few shortcomings of the game.

Modern Warfare 2

I can’t not talk about this game. It’s all I’ve been playing since Tuesday. Though I suppose all has been said by pretty much everyone on the internet already. I am in the vast majority that believes this to be a highly potent game of the year contender. Though there are a couple of things that I haven’t seen being said.

I was surprised to learn who was the voice of Captain ‘Soap’ MacTavish, and you would think less of me to learn where I know the actor from. But he did a fantastic job of bringing to life the silent protagonist of the first game (“Modern Warfare”, none of this Call of Duty Number Colon bullshit) . By the end of the game he, and his mid-game spoilerific cohort… well, they reminded me of Solid Snake, the both of them. And I hope that they live long enough to see themselves into the next game whenever that may be. I think they did such a great job of characterisation of those two, I’d be disappointed if they didn’t stick around.

The Multiplayer is as fantastic as the last, even moreso. But I can’t help but miss some of the old Maps from Modern Warfare. Maybe I’m just not so used to them yet, but I haven’t played a map as good as my old personal favourites: Bloc or Overgrown. The new maps seem rather small in comparison, and some of them rather simplified, Wasteland being a clear example.

Maybe… No, with all certainty we’ll see Map Packs in the future. I just hope that they care to throw in some re-envisioned  versions of the old classics.

And Everything Else

Not that you’ll worry, but if the blog happens to not appear one day, that doesn’t mean that I’ve decided to quit. Some arse hacked my PayPal account a while back and since then I’ve had trouble getting it back into working order and working things out with the PayPal people. It wouldn’t be a problem if people on the internet just accepted Debit cards as openly as Credit Cards, but that’s a rant for another day.

Therefore I’m going to be very late to the Left 4 Dead 2 party, unless some kind soul wants to gift it to me lol.

As for Deck Building Articles and the such, I’m in a state of shuffler’s block. I know what I must build, and it wouldn’t take long to figure it out I’m just never in the mood. Hopefully I’ll get over it soon and get back on a bit a of a schedule.

Next week I’ll get Assassin’s Creed 2, and we’ll see how that goes, currently I’m a bit apprehensive about the game, but I suppose we’ll see soon enough. Otherwise my life will continue the course until we reach the beachhead of the Christmas holidays. The local Tesco already has decorations up – I suppose we’d better brace ourselves and our wallets.

Sleep, and I don’t ever dream

I’ve got a whole bunch of news, opinions, and events to go through, so let’s hit it up like an SMG: Bullet point style pewpewpew!

Edinburgh

My holiday in Edinburgh felt to me like less of a holiday – more like living in the city for a week like an unemployed person. I didn’t do anything totally touristy: I did basically what I used to do at Uni. Wake up, eat, play games, buy crap, go to the movies, sleep. It was great fun. Though only a slight depressing reminder at the same time. In retrospect it was nice to get a way for a week.

It would’ve been better if the flat we were staying in had an internet connection, but the iPhone managed to keep me updated on the goings on and keep me constantly tweeted. For the gaming side of things, I spent a lot of time at The Ministry of Gaming, which is just an amazing place for any passing through gamer in Edinburgh. I spent two wholeish days at the place playing mostly WoW, but a bit of CoD4 and Left 4 Dead too.

Movies

I saw three movies down in Edinburgh. Zombieland was the overall best movie of the week. I felt it was more of a nerdy road trip movie than an outright Zombie movie, and in a scary way I totally identify with with the main character.

Dorian Gray was really… Dirty, like sexy dirty, like the kind of dirty your mother shouldn’t see. I felt throughout that it never totally touched on the curse that Dorian had enacted. Very good acting from Colin Firth and Ben Barnes, that really played up the overall darkness of the film throughout.

The bottom of the pile is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – It was just really lame throughout, and it felt really stitched together, especially at the end – quite possibly due to Heath Leger’s departure in the middle of filming. I would recommend avoidance.

A Dash of MTG

When I was away I got it into my routine to buy at least two boosters of Zendikar a day. This amounted to many many booster packs. And I got a bunch of great rares from it. A Foil Luminarch Ascension, three rare fetchlands, a Day of goddamn Judgement. Now I’m really jonesing for a booster box, and more importantly a Fat Pack, because none could be found of either on my trip. One of the days I tripped to Fundee for the day and played some magic for the first time since… the Zendikar pre-release. I got to test out a bunch of decks, and discovered some things I ought to clear up with some Deck Chef Desserts.

The Foods

Oh the food. It was delicious. One of the things I miss most about my time in Edinburgh was how wonderfully full and satisfied my belly felt, near 24/7. The steaks, the sandwiches, the near-daily morning fry up. The highlight meal of the week was certainly my trip to Tang’s sushi restaurant. I took a lot of pictures when I was there, via twitter and the iPhone, and you can see a bunch of the deliciousness via my yfrog feed. Like this one:

The Dedicated Server Debacle

So there isn’t going to be any dedicated servers and the like for Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward have taken it upon themselves to blow the old, dated systems of PC gaming out of the water and everyone (and by everyone I mean the vocal minority) is up in arms about it.

Down in Edinburgh, at The Ministry of Gaming, I tried CoD4 for the first time on the PC – a little multiplayer action. I felt reviled. Each server was populated with maxed prestige players and half of the servers were running crazy map mods that prevented any number of Perks and Weapons (I even found one blocking Deep Impact for fuck sake). There and then I revoked my acceptance that I would be buying two versions of the game this holiday season. But since this new info has come out, I’ve since changed my mind.

To get to the damn point. I’m happy that Infinity Ward has gone out of their way to make these changes, and what it accounts to is that they’ve basically took the multiplayer system from Halo 3 and ripped it right off, like so so SO many developers should have done already. It’s freaking great, you pick what kind of game you want to play and go – no worries about scrolling through an infinite list of servers looking for pings and dodging mods and custom maps3, no worries about your favourite weapon being denied, and especially no worries about vengeful Admins going into no-clip mode and ghosting you down like Bruce Willis.

Infinity Ward controls the game now – and I trust them. They’ve already been kind enough to offer Steamworks integration, and maybe with a closed system like this, they’ll be more forthcoming to release map packs and mini-expansions, without the fear of piracy. And for all the whining mapmakers and machinemists out there, I’m sure they won’t leave you hanging for long. But what do I care? I’ll be playing on my X-Box anyway.

Metro2033

It’s not really the time of the year to be announcing games, especially with the following calendar pretty full already. But THQ saw it fit to release a teaser trailer for Metro 2033. The short of it: It looks like =Fallout 3 – RPG elements + Russia. Looks interesting, I’ll certainly keep it on the radar. Check out the trailer below…

Cryptic & Star Trek Online

So Star Trek Online is supposed to launch in Q1 next year. After all the shit that went down, and is still going down with champions online, particularly my negative experience, I’m officially worried. Champions online sucks balls, to be completely blunt. It’s buggy, it’s very very laggy (especially considering there are only servers in America), and I don’t think it had enough time to simmer before it was served. Could the same happen to STO? You know, I actually think they might. And that makes me sadface.

Warcraft & Icecrown Citadel

A gigantic grats to me for finally Dinging a character to 80 in WoW. It only took… a year? Rin the Shadow Priest is now ready for the Cataclysm, whenever that might be. I was convinced that I wouldn’t need to login until then, but now I learn that the Dungeon in which we will face the Lich King will be a 5-man run.

I’m hoping that I don’t need to be epically geared to do the deed of sticking it to the Lich King – but I realise that Blizzard would probably like it to be that way. So it’ll probably be out of my reach in some kind of way. I’d totally play again if it were the case that I could do a bunch of quests in succession to gain access, or a couple of runs of the first two dungeons in the Citadel to get to what this expansion’s been about all along.

I love the shit out of WoW, always will, but it needs to cater the casual demographic a little more when it comes to the Endgame – It feels like too much of an investment to keep on playing for such sparse rewards past the cap.

Rock Band 2

A year later, I finally pick this up, along with a Mic and the Portable Drum Kit – a cheap option to the real drums, though no equal I’m sure. I haven’t really sat down to go through the motions of the career mode. It’s been a while since I’ve done any music game type thing and my bouts on the guitar a couple of weeks ago with Electric Six, assures me that my Hard level technique isn’t quite there anymore. Eye of the Tiger type montages of pain and sweat is required of me to be my own metal champ once again…. I just can’t find the time.

Uncharted 2

Everyone’s got a good opinion of Uncharted 2. I believe that is is also good, but frustrates me to the point that I don’t endeavour to play it much. For some reason I just cant take dying and replaying the same 10 minute section, so I turn it off. It’s probably the combat. The Gears of War series is probably the pinnacle of the 3rd person cover shooter genre, but it doesn’t have to deal with the tomb raider elements Uncharted presents, and I feel the pains of the two colliding too frequently.  I haven’t touched the multiplayer yet, that’s usually the final part of the process for me. I do not believe that this is the Saviour of the PS3. And that Batman is probably the Third Person game of the year.

Brutal Legend

I’m finding Brutal Legend to be utterly mediocre, which was not my expectation. There’s so much I have to say about that game, that could probably amount to a review of sorts. But for now you should know that the Demo isn’t indicative of the final experience. Fighting dudes and driving is all well and good, but getting other dudes to fight the dudes you should be fighting whilst trying to maintain captured points on a map is one hell of an other story. Be wary future purchasers.

Borderlands

I’m a couple of hours into Borderlands and I’m having a good time with it. The one negative thing I could say about it is the story and the characterisation. The game leaves them at the door, and to get much more out of it you have to turn to the quest dialogue. I’m also hoping that there’s much more enemy variety round the corner, as the dog-lizard hellions are starting to bore me a little. Borderlands is a tough game to describe, to say that it is simply a FPS would be a disservice – so I point you HERE to GiantBomb’s video review.

South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defence Play!

I bought it the instant I got home from holiday and I was not dissapointed. It’s a delightfully hard game – unlike uncharted which I cannot bear, this game expects try after try, and I gladly give it. There is a ton of content in this game, from the depth of the gameplay to the library of video content and unlocks you’re given at a very steady pace. I urge 360 owners to try the demo, especially south park fans. It wins extra points for the Japanese accent announcer (who is totally Trey Parker) “REVER COMPREETO!”

Now onto Christmas

It’s officially Q4 now, and that means that I’ll be blogging a little less about deckbulding and the like. I’m more than amazed at myself that I managed to do 7 entries of Deck Cheffery in a row. But it really bogged down the blog. Not that I’m going to stop, they’ll just be done fortnightly from now on. On other weeks I might get round to writing those reviews I’ve been thinking about. I’ve got some rather controversial opinions on alot of the high tier games that have come out the past while, and it’s been a while since I’ve done an out and out rage post.

Also, don’t expect a post the weekend MW2 comes out. But I don’t expect anyone to be reading that weekend either.

Helmet Frigid Wormhole

I feel bad not posting about any video game related activites that have been going on. But there honestly haven’t been any - Apart from O.D.S.T. but there’s pleanty of Reviews and Video Reviews out there that say just about asmuch as I could. I played through it on normal and I liked it quite a bit, not as much as I will like it as I tackle it again on Legendary, but It’ll be a while before I try that. I haven’t played Champions becaue of the suicidal lag and incompleteness of the game (I’m going to enjoy typing that into the “why are you cancelling your subscription” box) and I haven’t been in the mood for any EVE/Comic time. So really there’s been little gaming going on at all.

Gaming news has been rather slow these past weeks and understandably so - games are coming out or are being delayed. TGS brought me no game-boners of any kind - but finally someone agrees with me, and that guy created Mega Man. And we’ve got over two weeks until Brutal Legend hits us mid-Rocktober, and hopefully that’ll be more than 6 hours long. So until then I suppose I can hit up some BF1943 until I exhaust the gamerscore from it.

Realtime Worlds continues to drip feed gameplay clips of APB like a cockteasing whore. The Fundee grapevine says they’re working hard on getting the Beta out before the end of the year - but I dunno, I’ll believe it when I login to it. Here’s said clip - Watch in HD to pretend that you’re actually playing the game!

I had a worthwhile time in Fundee at the weekend. It was all very usual - and that’s what I was hoping for. For all the stalkers out there my Twitter feed should fill in the blanks. I saw Surrogates on the friday night (walked all the way from the Travelodge to the Odeon dontcha know…) and it was a good show. I felt on edge throughout the film, and Bruce put on a great show. I’m a little annoyed that most of the movie is so far removed from the Graphic Novel - everything from the story to the character’s backgrounds to the way it ends was dimensions apart from the original story, and I’d have to say that the Comic was better, it provided more of a mystery and the characters were a bit more realistic. Props to the special effects people for making such an amazing “barbie doll” sheen for the character’s Surrogates, it had just the right amount of creepy.
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The Magic: The Gathering Section Of The Post
I got on rather terribly at the prerelease. I ended up with a hellish 3 losses to 2 wins. I should go commit harakiri for my failures. But it was good to play magic for the day and I got to see the new set in action. I could post my decklist from the tourney, but it changed so often. I had not a single colour that could stand up for itself and might’ve fared better at a three colour deck - but I didn’t want to take the chance. Most of my rares were trashy or fit for constructed play. Pyromancer Acension for example.

Zendikar is an interesting set, very experimental, full of powerful cards - but somewhat incomplete in my opinion. Maybe I’m just so used to Blocks that followed such a cohesive structure from recent years (Lorwyn’s Tribes, Shadowmoor’s Hybrid Pairs, Alara’s tri-coloured shards) but I get the feeling that the set lies incomplete, and yes, I realise we’ve yet to see the final two sets of the block.

The Ally’s seem overcosted and there are few that seem totally playable. The Merfolk appear alot weaker compared to their lorwyn counterparts. Red is all over the place, so much that I can’t even describe. What I notice the most is the Kor’s lack of Equipment. Their lord relies on Equipment and to an extent so do they, yet there are only afew good peices of equipment - only two rare (one focused towards the Vampires and another that’s rather high-costed), the best in my opinion being the Uncommon Trusty Machete.

The Vampires seem to be the best put-together of the set, taking up almost all of Black’s setspace. But I’ll get to them in a later post outlining what I’m going to do with them. I will say that over the weekend I pitted my Deck of Double Vampire Precons (hastily thrown together) overcame alot of rather powerful decks with an elegant ease.

On the plus side of the set, the incohesiveness and the splashes of theme should allow for some interesting rogue decks and aim to destroy the comfort of Lorwyn-Alara standard, and that sounds good to me. The last time there was a set like this was Timespiral, and that turned out alot of surprise decklists and combos.

I think next week I’ll either sit down and get the Vampire 2.0 post over and done with or wait until the set has had time to settle and go back to one of my other and older ideas - unless ofcourse, anyone has a suggestion?

HERE is Zendikar’s Visual spoiler. I suggest you load it up and take a look at this amazing new set and get proxying right away, before the prices get extravagant.
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I’m going down to Edinburgh in about two weeks time (oct 10th - 17th) and I’m not sure what I’ll be up to. It’ll be nice to get away for a while, especially when everyone else is working. I’ll maybe trip to Fundee for the day, for magic and the peeps, and alot of long lies are in order, as is delicious foods and many many cinema trips. This holiday will actually mark the one-year anniversary of my Employedness, and I don’t know what to think of that. It certainly doesn’t feel like a year, my internal clock still thinks it’s March. A year ago I failed epically, and a while after that I failed some more. And the downward spiral continues…

a lifetime of fucking things up