Hit Crit or Miss

The New Commodore 64

2011-07-14T01:05:00.010-05:00

Remember the good old days?

Pitfall, paperboy, 1943... The classics that have been forgotten by time and antiquated formatting? Of course, you can emulate it, but it just isn't the same as those keys with the obnoxious clicking and the exceeding mass of the keyboard. It all makes the experience of modern gaming seem so-- futuristic!

The commodore 64 was the kingpin in it's time. It assaulted technicolor television with a relentless pixelization and cruddy music that sounded like bags of sand being dropped on a whoopy cushion. Who wouldn't want it back, though. In the end it was the machine that, in a lot of ways, gave birth the gaming in the living room instead of watching TV.

My brother told me to take a look at this, and as I read it I thought it was a joke, but then realized it wasn't once I got the the system specs...

This isn't your Daddy's old commodore 64 that you got when he went to the nursing home. We're talking about a Bluray option to the standard DVD drive, 4gb of DDR3 ram, 4 USB ports, and a 1.8ghz Dual Core CPU.

I don't know why anyone who understands what an honest day of work means would pay for this machine, I do understand why some his standing 60 year old dude who works for Microsoft would pay so much money for one of these neat little things ($595-$895 depending on the model).
Even while this machine can function as a typical PC, for the price, the hardware is nothing to write home about.

What you're paying for with this machine is a gimmick, but a pretty cool one!

The Master of Crit,
Z. W. Van Kleeck
Discuss this post on the HCM forums.

The Institute For The Future

2011-07-13T23:01:00.006-05:00

The Institute for the future uses games to solve real world problems. Their scope and understanding of how gaming can be implemented into problematic situations may actually inspire you to consider gaming to be one of the variable solutions to many of the worlds growing concerns.
I am not the easiest sell when it comes to things like going green, global warming, and going vegetarian, but after doing some research, watching and reading about who they are and what there goal is, I've been moved pretty strongly, and find myself rooting for their success now. I'd challenge anyone to look at what IFTF is doing and help continue the discussion either in the forums or in the comments section of this post.

Check it out.

The video is long, but is full of some very interesting information.

The Master of Crit,
Z. W. Van Kleeck

Silent Hill 8: Downpour

2011-07-12T03:59:00.011-05:00

Release day: October 25th, 2011
Rating: TBA (probably mature 17+)
Platform: PS3, Xbox360
Website: http://www.konami.com/games/sh/

Features:

All new and updated Silent Hill experience that visually stands on its own with the current competition. Utilizing Unreal 3 technology, the game brings the town of Silent Hill, its characters, the creatures and the alternate hell world into vivid and spectacular display.
Free-roaming and deep exploration that will take players into all-new 'Side Quests' unlocking areas within the game, special items and bonus content.
An ever-changing game world including day and night 'Normal' world and 'Otherworld' world, all manifested and sourced from character actions throughout the game.
First-time ever 3D technology will bring Silent Hill a step closer to the player with three-dimensional immersion.
Renowned story and music talent attached to the game including:

Silent Hill comic writer, Tom Waltz
Original music directed and composed by renowned composer, Dan Licht, of the Showtime series, Dexter.
Theme song performed by hard-rock multiplatinum group, Korn.

I’m pumped about this game. Not just because it’s a game that takes place in Silent Hill universe, but because it would seem like Kanomi is looking towards what the next step is in not just the survival horror genre, but in the gaming industry in general. To me it seems like you can expect your favorite games to never step to far away from their formula so they don't spin their flagship titles to far away from where the player base wants them to be.

It’s always risky to change things up with a franchise like Silent Hill. It has been done with marginal success in a lot of franchises, like World of Warcraft or the Final Fantasy Franchise, and in those cases, while there was a some customer retention problems, in the end the changes made the player base even larger than it was before, making the lost customers casualties of good business. But in other games, like MW: Black ops, a lot of fanatical Modern Warfare pretty upset with some of the strange changes. We’ve learned (the hard way in the cases of MMOs) that the more things change, the less a pocket of fans will like the game, even though it pulls a new player base into the fold. This installment of the Silent Hill franchise will most likely tear out the hears of some die hard Silent Hill fan boys, but in that scenario, this game also has the chance to be someone's first enjoyable experience in Silent Hill.

Adding into silent hill the “free-roaming” environment is a large diversion from the previous titles, believe it or not, there are people who love linear story telling. The free-roaming element will make them second guess this title, even if they loved the first seven games. Free-roam environments coupled with the promise of a 3D environment that will make the game more immersive (since 3D is still widely considered a ‘gimmick’) is a risky combo. People really toe the line with 3D; willing to say that a 3D movie is good, and fun, but still unsure about 3D gaming.

When Toy Story 3 came out, 60% of it’s 110 million dollar profit was from 3D ticket sales. My response to this was, at first, of course it was, Toy Story is a kids movie, and kids love 3D, but when you get older you don’t care too much for it. The numbers said I was wrong though, only 56% of ticket sales were people <25 years old. While that is a majority, it is not so large of a majority that the other 44% of 26+ year olds should be ignored (taken from Box Office Mojo.com ). I think that 3D, at the rate of developing technology, and upon consumer demand, will be exactly where gaming goes, and I applaud Kanomi for taking this step in putting 3D into a non-experimental franchise.

I can’t tell you anything about Downpour that you didn’t see in the videos, but I can tell you that based on what I know about the previous silent hill titles, this one looks unique on a few fronts; Primarily the graphical leap, that’s something you can see from a trailer. From Silent hill 7 (homecoming) to 8(Downpour) It looks like Kanomi put a greater focus on character realism than they have in the past. I can already identify with the characters in the story just from the trailers I’ve watched, I cannot say the same about previous Silent Hill games, even after completing the game.

As with most cross-platform games, it's become a trend to build the game for the lower performing machine. In the case of this game, I don't really care, the game looks beatiful on both systems, and if there were not pictures in the corners of these two examples, I very easily could have gotten them confused.

We already know that the story is going to be great, and we know that the game is going to be creepy, what we are waiting to see is if Kanomi can pull of the Silent Hill experience with these new elements intermingled. If they can, we may have something uinique and ground breaking coming our way in the near future.

Your Master of Crit,
Z. W. Van Kleeck

HCM And The World of Tomorrow

2011-07-12T01:50:00.004-05:00

Right now I can empathize with Palpatine, here.

I may say that this battle station is fully operational, but that doesn't mean that its ready to romp around in, but at some point you just gotta blow a planet up. D'you reckon'?

I've, a couple times, killed and resurrected this site like a necromancer born of a digital pedigree, but hope and trust that things will be different with this proverbial tuft of phoenix down being shook over these dusty words.

Let me explain why:

I work 3rd shift now, which frees up at least seven, and at nine hours that are filled with the rare and widely sought after element: nuttin'tado.
I am going back to school now, which may sound like a deterrent, but here comes the sweeper. I'm going to be getting my degree in game design from Full Sail University, and I hope to open a dialog concerning the things I learn.
I miss doing HCM.

Look forward to me hammering out quality information, and reviewing interesting topics so that you can feel informed on some of the more fringe topics that don't get as much attention.

Until next time, I leave you with this: Prepare to be blown away.

You Master of Crit,
Z. W. Van Kleeck

Used Games v.s. Pirated Games: Which Is Worse For The Developers?

2010-05-13T12:52:00.010-05:00

Which Is Worse For The Developers?

Used Games VS. Piracy

There has been this battle going on for a while where developers say "Don't pirate our games, we need your money to continue to make quality games." The pirate says "If your games were quality I would buy them." And there is another group that says "I torrent games to see if I will like them, if I do I buy them." The last group is very small, and almost insignificant, but it is there.

Now, we hear this going on, we have our friends, our family, maybe our church, or other social networks telling us "Downloading music, games, movies, book, etc... is stealing.". While we all know in the back of our heads it is true that it is theft, and that it takes income to put food on the table, it seems like more times than not we, the consumer, really don't care about someone else's table.

It would seem that we, the consumer, have over looked something. The used game marker hurts gaming (More console gaming than PC) just as much if not more than piracy. I saw this and cocked my head sideways before finally realizing how much sense it made.

Here are some of the reasons I am writing this. You can pretty well educate yourself on the discussion if you check out these articles and explore their links.

Gamepolitics: Developer Labels Used Games Worse Piracy

Tech Spot: Preowned-Games-Are-Worse-Than-Piracy

1up: Market Study Shows Used Game Sales Hurt New Game Sales

Toms Guide: Used Game Sales Hurting Publishers?

I like what Andrew Oliver says, co-founder of Blitz studios.

Essentially Andrew Oliver suggests that console gaming loses 25% of its sales profits to used gaming, which, as said in a number of articles, is not a scientific statistic, but even if he is off by 20%, a 5% loss of revenue to used games is a lot of money when you consider all game sales across the board. But is pirating still worse?

I did some quick searching of the top 100 torrents on The Pirate bay ( a popular bit torrent site). I found that the most active video game torrent is Splinter Cell Conviction, a $60.00 game

There are 2,915 Seeders. This means that there are 2915 computers left on distributing this stolen material.

There are 10,431 Leechers. This means that 10,431 people are currently downloading this game from the seeders. Many of these leechers will become seeders when the download is done, and the process exponentially grows both seeders and leechers until the game loses popularity.

This means that 13346 people are interested in stealing Splinter Cell Conviction (FYI, the average PS3 game costs 15million dollars) adding up how many people times the retail cost, Ubisoft and retailers lose $800,760.00 to pirates based on what this torrent says.

Moving on

I am just going to use GameStop, since we all know and have grown to love their services.
(The below is taken straight off of the gamestopcorp.com website.)

GameStop operates more than 6,200 stores across the United States and in 13 countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Lets use our noggins for a minute now.
If GameStop has 6,200 stores around the world that look like my GameStop, with walls covered from floor to ceiling with used games, and only one wall with new games how many used game sales does GameStop make annually compared to new game sales?

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178585

This tells us that there is a growing trend in buying used games over new games, going from 22.4% total sales of Gamestop to 26.4% in only 3 years. A 4% jump may seem insignificant, but growth shows trends, and saving money is a trend that people have never really been against. I think we can conclude that this trend will continue unless there are regulations put into place about how used game sales produce a profit for the developer (I don't think this will ever happen.) Moreover, 26.4% of all sales being used games is 26.4% of sales that don't have any effect on the developers that made the game. (This very well may be the statistic that Andrew Oliver was referencing when he said 1/4 of game sales are lost to used games.)

Here we see gross profit.
You know the drill, you go into Gamestop, and they give you 5 dollars for a once 60 dollar game, and you use that money towards another game and the cycle goes on and on forever. Well, they just saved money buying that game from you, and not buying it from the developer, which means when they re-sell the game for $20.00 they are making a $15.00 profit for GameStop and nothing for the developer. This is why their lowest statistic of used game software the gross profit percentage is 46.8% next to new game software, when at best, was 21.3% gross profit in the last 3 years.

What can we glean from this?

First off, I want you to know that I don't think that GameStop is the only used game retailer in the world. These numbers do not comprise all used game sales in the past 3 years. In the same regard, GameStop is not the only new game retailer.

So what I would like to leave you, the reader, is this. The argument that the game was purchased once, which means that it is no longer the property of the developer is true, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt them. I haven't heard anyone say anything about regulating this, it is merely statements made, and I believe that they are made to provoke those who have not made up their mind on supporting developers to, in fact, support them by purchasing their games from them, and not from a 3rd part retailer.

You can expect companies to try to make fail-safes, like EA and Microsoft, they want all the money they can get, it is a business, and it takes money to make money. It takes money to provide a product for the consumer, and it takes more money to make a quality product for the consumer. If the consumer gets a used product, the developer doesn't bank anything. They just get fans, and fans don't make a thriving developer, it takes money and time. When your fans haven't dropped a dime on your product (piracy) or are not willing to pay retail costs which means they are buying it used (Gamestop) the game scene will start to change. (It has. Have you seen the indie game scene? the games aren't beautiful, and don't cost much to make.) We will end up losing our favorite franchises to our selfish-frugality.

If you are broke. I understand, I am too- I rent games instead of buying them which is essentially the same as buying them used, but if you really love a developer, send them some bank in the mail or something, they would take a donation for sure. Pirates, I see all 13,346 of you, if they game is awesome, let them know with some money.

To sum it all up
Don't only be a "leech", sometimes you gotta "seed" too...
(Don't just take, sometimes you need to give back.)

Z. W. Van Kleeck

RPGs are not just games where you equip items and use magic.

2010-05-07T08:18:00.019-05:00

Why call it an RPG when it is not?

What does it mean to "role-play"?

"You walk out of the building and are standing on the busied street of [insert town name]. The citizens of [insert town name] move at a chaotic pace, bumping into each other with no apology, though it seems the way of things because no one is getting angry. Buildings line the north and south of the street with buyers, sellers, and various shops. To your west there is a hurt boy laying on the ground nearly trampled by the stampede of people. To your east there is a cathedral though it is blocked off by an invisible wall that eliminates this direction as an option for you even though the description of the scene suggests that people are traveling to and from this direction."

Suppose you want to travel east regardless of the situation.

"Despite the narrative you choose to walk east. You walk aimlessly towards the cathedral with no success. After time spent running towards the cathedral, [insert your character's name] is taken over by a foreign though, 'I should see if that boy is alright.'"

Okay, that may seem like a waste of words to some of you, but let me explain. You would never come across a scene like this in a true RPG, because your options would never be so severely limited.

I have been watching this "next generation" of "RPGs" and have been drawn to near hopelessness for the genre. These are not Role Playing Games. They are more like games where you equip items to an already developed character to accomplish a task that you really have no control of. The player is merely the cursor of an interactive movie.

When a publisher gets it mostly right, as with the Forgotten Realms games, Morrowind/Oblivion, Dragon Age: Origins, or the Mass Effect franchise the story's beginning often suffers from the need to build a back story that the player did not invent. The beginnings of these games are stacked with dialog's that ask questions that sum up to "Is my character nice or mean?" and more times than not, you either have amnesia (The Witcher) or you are in jail (Many other popular RPG titles). Successful RPG titles have shown us the difficulty of creating an RPG that is both believable and holds to the "I control this character" aspect of role play.

Any games I reference are not because I think they are terrible games, but because their definition as RPG should most likely be revisited as something else. If you are merely moving a pre-developed character towards check points that build a plot into a well built story, you are not playing an RPG, you are watching an interactive story or playing and adventure game. To say these games are RPGs is very similar to saying that reading a book is like actually becoming the protagonist in the story. You are not actually the protagonist, you just have a good understanding of who he is and what he wants out of life.

With these non-RPGs, it is true, many of them have great stories, some of them are more overrated than others, but none of them achieve RPG in the literal sense of role play. Though you do travel the world and explore, the characters are not really your own. They are characters that you get to follow along with on their predefined path towards a goal that you will have no decisions to truly alter. The illusion of control implemented by dialog options gives the player a sense of real character development, but a second run through the game will reveal the truth; no matter what you choose the outcomes will remain the same.
My favorite example of illusory control is Final Fantasy VII so I am going to use it as my prime example throughout this post. when you meet Yufi in Final Fantasy VII, the illusion is that you get to make a choice to get her on your team or not, the game pretends your dialog choices mean something when you come across her, and she steals all your materia. But it doesn't matter, its scripted, and you can't kill her or capture her. She inevitably becomes an ally, which means that you are never given the choice to not forgive her, which means you really aren't role playing but observing a story that unfolds exactly the same for everyone who plays it. There are many situations similar to this throughout the entire Final Fantasy franchise, making them, not an RPGs, but adventure games with RPG elements.

I would like to point out some fallacies that I believe people have bought into concerning what an RPG is.

1
Statement: I get experience points, its an RPG!

Response: You get EXP for accomplishing things, Modern Warfare 2's multi-player option had EXP that leveled you up and you could buy features that would customize your person... It was not an RPG.

2
Statement: But there is such a large cache of items to find and equip.

Response: Just because I change my armor and weapon does not mean that it is an RPG. For Example, in Counter-strike, you choose your items every time a round starts.... It is not an RPG.

Statement: I do quests, and the story is so big.

Response: Doing quests is no different than fulfilling objectives in any game. "do this then do that then do that." When you finish it there is some sort of reward EXP, items, maybe a cut scene... None of this make a game an RPG.

4
Statement: But there is an Active Time Battle System or Turn Based Battle System.

Response: The only bearing that an RPG should have within combat is that the player gets to make choices, and that the environment at least feels interactive (i.e. Mass Effect). The combat should not eliminate the idea that the environment is persistent. If it does it makes combat feel like a mini-game, and eliminates your character persistence in that world, which makes it very difficult to role-play a person who stands and waits his turn instead of relentlessly assaulting his foe. There is a way to show a persistent environment that does not involve random battles and time gauge bars, its called real-time combat, and it works much better with immersing a player into an RPG.

5
Statement: But there is magic; it must be an RPG.
Response: Just because you are in a fantasy world where magic is used doesn't mean that it is an RPG. I feel like the modern gamer would look at the LOTR movies and get some weird impression that they are RPG-movies, just because there is both magic and adventure in it. Magic does not = RPG, and Fantasy does not = RPG.

Most importantly I think I should tell you how to know you are playing an RPG.

How to know:The game starts with character creation of at least one person that includes name, class, and race (Race if there are multiple races in the word. if it is that kind of game). Also, there should be a player's manual that comes with the game that aptly defines all races and classes so that the player knows how the world will interact with their character.
Reason: If you do not get to choose these things, then chances are that the game requires you to be "so-and-so, son of so-and-so." or the story needs you to be an elf archer, because it is going to play into the key plot. These sorts of decisions should not be pre-decided, you should discover the plot without following a linear path, all points should converge naturally at a climatic time which points the direction that you are lead to go, though not required to go.

2
How to know: You wondered how your friend got his awesome item. He told you he killed [person]. you respond "Oh, I saved them and they joined my party." and you both look at each other wondering if one choice was better than the other.
Reason: It is very important in role playing, as I have said many times, to put choice in the players hands, and to actually have those choices effect the progression of the game. Otherwise, there is no reason at all for spending time carefully choosing dialog options if the person will always join your party. Imagine Final Fantasy VII where you get to choose not to help Aeris get away from the Turks. Think about what kind of game you would be left with... I imagine Cloud would have spent a lot more time in the Sector 5 slums in that game.

3
How to know: Your character has a reputation based on the decisions you have made, and some people like/dislike you because of it.
Reason: You can't really role-play if you don't have realistic NPCs to role-play with. So, NPCs need to get mad at you, they need to be able to learn to like, and even love you. If they can't then your character looks very out of place in his world.

4
How to know: Before you start doing what you do in the game, you know just about every important part of your character, after all, he is you.
Reason: Who goes into a fight not knowing why they are swinging? Another reason why Final Fantasy VII is not an RPG, what if I didn't want to bomb the reactor... why cant I just live in Midgar, and try to deal with my weird clone-memories, make friends, and be a mercenary? Oh yeah, because it's not an RPG, and I don't get to choose.

Nick Drake is doing what he does, and you assist him... This is no way to start an RPG. You really have no clue whats going on at this point, you're just trying to live.

5
How to know: When you talk to your fellow-gamer friends, you refer to your character in the first person: "I was in the temple of the deep, searching for the lost sword of Bukaka when Isben, the dragon of wealth and flame attacked me."
Reason: YOU ARE THE CHARACTER! the feeling of absolute control should whelm the player as they play. You should be able to second guess your choices, and want to try it the other way immediately after making a choice.

Don't get me wrong, I love Warcraft III, Final Fantasy is a great franchise, and I think that Super Mario Brothers 3 is the best of all the Mario games, but to call these games RPGs because I have a character that levels up, I go on a grand adventure, and I collect items that assist me in conquering enemies just doesn't make sense.

Z. W. Van Kleeck

Another interesting article on this topic: Why is everything trying to be an RPG?

Preview 3D Dot Game Heroes

2010-05-06T10:10:00.010-05:00

Presumed Score: Hit

"Do you miss the classic Zelda games?"

If your answer is yes, then I suggest you play 3DGH. Though I have not played it, it strikes me as an instant classic merely on part of its blatant Zelda clone game play that is complimented by a unique graphic style that is assuredly going to capture the gamer that grew up on 8 or 16 bit consoles games.
The negatives I am reading about this game right now go like this "Its a clone. They didn't make anything new. They are rehashing old successful game-play for a newer audience and hoping no one notices." To these statements I have a couple things to say.

1: Final fantasy VI and VII were rehashes of the same premise, yet no one flamed SquareSoft for that, because they were both great games.

2:Dante's Inferno was a copy paste of God of War, but people really enjoyed it.

3: Who cares, all the classic Zelda games were awesome...

4: For all this talk about how making video games is not art, why are you demanding so much?

5: $35.00 = a cheap and fun game. Win/Win?

6: ... JUST LOOK AT IT!

7: Really. Look at it, it looks awesome.

I have an idea that people are so defensive of their fanboy title, Zelda, that they are getting bothered by this game. Games are supposed to be fun. If this game accomplishes that, then this game is successful.

I am very excited about this game and have been for months. I was worried that Silicon Studios might not deliver this title to America. The good news is that it is and very soon (May 11, 2010). I encourage you PS3 owners to snag this up if you get the chance to. It's going to be a mere $35.00 from what I understand, which makes it VERY affordable in today's gaming market.

Hit, Crit, or Miss uses item: Pheonix Down.

2010-05-06T09:46:00.003-05:00

My baby was born on March 14th, which left me with discovering the new responsibilities that were to behold within the variable of fatherhood.
I could blame these new responsabilities for why I havent finished Final Fantasy XIII, but to be honest, I think the game was every bit as overrated as Final Fantasy X (Come on, the bad guy was named "Sin"... I think at that point you go back to the drawing board and say "Lets try something a little less cliche, and a little more awesome.").
I do, however, excuse my lack of development on Hit, Crit, or Miss, and my slacking when it comes to awaring myself with the latest gaming news, is that my family will always come first... Yes even on a raid night when I am next in line for the Thunder Fury bindings, family comes first.

We would like to see Hit, Crit, or Miss become a community of gamers, instead of an empty pocket of ideas that gather digital dust. Let us know what you think of our reviews, combat us when you disagree, and by any means make your presence known to us.

Playstation Move

2010-03-12T13:25:00.004-06:00

Earlier we put out this post about Microsoft's and Playstation's new interactive gaming tools. What we first thought was called the Playstation "Arc", has now been formally introduced as the "Move". It looks the same as we orginally showed, but now there is an estimated price tag. We heard that the three piece starter kit of hand controller, video eye camera, and interactive game (possibly Sports Champions or Move Party, two originals) will be under $100. The Move is still expected to come out by Christmas 2010.

It has so far seen mixed reviews, many saying that the technology is good, but really nothing "new".

404 Error Editor Not Found.

2010-02-27T14:02:00.008-06:00

I feel an apology is in order.

I recently purchased a 500gb hard drive. I'd been wanting a larger hard drive for some time since I had been using two 80gb hard drives for way too long. As excited as I was to upgrade, it turns out that the hard drive was bum when I got it; bad sectors that wont format the drive. My computer is basically an internet browser until I can get a replacement hard drive from the respective hard drive manufacturer.

If you are one of the few readers of my esteemed reviews, I feel I should assure you that I have had my attention pulled in other directions which have stolen me from this project. I am going to be behind on a Heavy Rain review, but that means that my review will be quite inclusive. I want to give this game the time it needs to conform my mind to its new kind of game style, since the publisher is saying that they don't want to call it a game, but an interactive movie.

Gaming is going through a time nearly as profound as when we realized gaming could be rendered into completely 3D environments on the late PS1, and on the N64. We are about to walk through the doorway that says gaming IS art, its not just a leisure activity. I am one of the people who says that rendering virtual environments and designing character realism is a fine art. Like when people realized that pong was the beginning of something great, I believe that games like Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, and The last Guardian take gaming to a new climate of worth.

Bear with us as we are getting this back up to its expected, frequent, and reliable gaming insights.

Some food for thought:

BioShock 2 Review

2010-02-15T21:44:00.001-06:00

Platform: PS3/ Xbox360/ PC
Publisher: 2k
Release Date: February 9, 2010

Story: hit
Character Development: Miss
Graphics: hit
Sound: Crit
Re-playability: Miss (Unless you count online play, I am not.)
Overall Score: Hit

BioShock 2 takes place ten years prior to the first game, and puts you behind the helmet of the original Big Daddy, as a care taker for the original Little Sister. Conceptually the idea is exciting. The first game had me wondering what life in Rapture would have been like prior to the chaos and made me want to explore the attempted utopian life forged under the sea. The game, however, starts off similarly to the first game. The game starts with a question “What am I supposed to do?”, the same question I asked after the plane crashed in the first game. The next question was “Who are the people talking to me, and should I trust them?”, also another question I asked early into the first game. Then there was the ultimate question, to save or not to save the Little Sisters. The Big Sisters were a good add-in at first. My first encounter with a Big Sister made me hopeful, but as the game continued, the encounters never really changed. Essentially, I felt like there were no significant offerings in this game. Being able to use biotics and a weapon simultaneously was a smart move, but it only gives the player a slightly wider tight-rope to walk on in this severely linear game. There is no divergence from the key plotline which makes the game feel very short. I spent an afternoon starting at 11:15 am, and finished the game at around 5:30 pm. Is it just me, or does it seem like every FPS lately has had willy-nilly singleplayer content that is somehow “redeemed” by its multiplayer option?

Rupture 2.0 did not amaze me as I walked its sub-aquatic halls. I was looking for the signature, the “WOAH!” moment, but graphically the game never delivered. It felt like a rehash of the BioShock 1. The most appealing part of the game took place at hour five for me, about 3/4ths of the way through the game, when you learn a great deal about the Little Sisters. If I could begin my review starting at that point in the game, I would probably give the game a perfect score. The pace at the end of the game is maintained with amazing precision and the story really picks up, but you have to get through the monotony of the earlier stages to be awarded with that bit of carrot.

Voice acting was up-to-par and didn’t stand out against the character lips forming the words. This is becoming something that should be expected and not rewarded, but is worth noting. The soundtrack of BioShock 2 is the greatest offering the game brings to the table. I am a great fan of classical music, and thoroughly enjoy a good scene with appropriate music to illicit the proper emotion for the observer/player. This game had a meticulously intentional soundtrack placed over each individual scene.

The argument that I conjure up for this game is this “Would this be a good game if it was made as a stand alone story?”. Being a prequel, this question can be asked and answered easily. From my comfortable desk chair the answer is no. We played this game on the merit of the first game, and the concept was not developed much deeper than the first game had already taken it. We do learn some things about Rapture, and we see new faces and explore new environments, so if you are looking for just anything to play, and have $60.00 to toss to the wind give BioShock 2 a try. I imagine that there are already a bunch of used BioShock 2 copies at your local used game store, so if you want to give it a try at a slightly reduced but still overpriced rate, I would suggest either get it there or rent it… you will have it done in a few hours of game play.

Nice Hardware

2010-02-13T11:41:00.006-06:00

Sony originally stated that their motion controller would be out this spring. They have now said that it will be released this fall, and possibly under the name "Arc". I hope Sony spends this extra time perfecting the "Arc", because now it will be released in closer proximity to Microsoft's own motion sensor, Project Natal. According to Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, the company is focusing all of it's attention on Project Natal (as opposed to looking forward into 3D gaming), and I can see why. People look ridiculous playing the Wii. Take away the controllers, and you've got what Project Natal in your living room will look like. They need all the time they can get in hope of making decent commercials.

I hope with all of this time and focus both companies can put out a useful product for their game base. No offense to the Wii, but PS3 and Xbox360 gamers alike want games that put them in the thick of the action (or story), and if the motion controller gets in the way, it won't be used.

Xbox's Project Natal:

PlayStation's "Arc":

These both will most likely be the Christmas gift to get for 2010, opening up more parents to buy a PS3 or an Xbox360 because, "Hey, at least my kids are getting off the couch", which is the #1 selling point of the Wii.

Heavy Rain Demo

2010-02-11T21:21:00.004-06:00

Finally we have downloaded, installed, and played the two demo chapters of Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. We received little help from the PSN, which didn't get the demo to us until 7PM.

The chapters are short, making the entire demo around a 15 minute play. What we can say so far is that this game is very, very different. The playing style is different, the story is different, and the role play design is different. Quantic Dream had a vision and the vision was achived 100%.

It is a little tricky at first to get the hang of the controls. The last controller I used regularly was for the N64, so I had some catching up to do. During one action scene where I was fighting a punk in some dumpy hooker's apartment, I got beat up pretty badly. Of course, if I was more comfortable with the controls of the PlaytStation that would have been avoided. I believe this game will make me a better PS3 gamer in general.

The second time through (watching this time, not playing) I saw a different story unfold for the first chapter. This has been one of the major selling points for the game, but until you are playing it and watching it, you don't seem to get how cool it is. I also got to watch the fight scene go much more smoothly, considering the experience of the player.

The demo has done it's job. We are ready for this game.

Oh, and the graphics are phenomenal.

PSPgo

2010-02-09T13:01:00.012-06:00

Being an avid reader of Game Informer, I stumbled upon the seemingly unwanted PSPgo through a few articles heavily bashing the hand held. It wasn't just a bunch of jargon, the reasons given were logical.

Why would you buy something almost as much as a PS3 that can only take selected download-able titles?
Why didn't we here in America get the 'free 3 online game vouchers for games already owned' like those in the UK did?
Why in the world would you come out with a digital only hand held game console when your own data showed that less than 40% of people were looking for a digital only hand held?

Do they know something we don't? Is the price of plastic going up so high that soon blue-ray disks will be $300 a piece? Are we just too lazy to keep track of all of our games anymore? Is there a miniature White House on display somewhere made entirely out of forlorn jewel cases currently listed on Ebay for millions? Maybe it's all in global warming.

Obviously PlayStation is going to sell it's own product, so I wasn't surprised that the March issue of PlayStation Magazine had on it's cover "PSPgo -49 reasons you need one right now!". Okay, I know I do not need one, but I was very curious to read these 49 reasons.

Here are a few that I was given in the 6 page article:

It comes with 16GB of internal memory (you have to buy sticks for the PSP slim)
You can pause the game at ANY TIME!
It has rubberized grips on the back of it (in case you aren't really holding onto your $250 product)
You can watch Dexter and Star Trek on it.
You can link it to your PS3, if you have one of those as well.

Okay... does anyone out there even own a PSPgo? We have the original PSP here and let me tell you, it doesn't get played very often. When you start collecting tech, enough has got to be enough. Do we really need to hook our PSP to our PS3 so we can finish the level while we sit on the toilet? Why do we need a smart phone, a laptop, some sort of hand held (DS, PSP), some sort of console (Xbox, Wii, PS3) and a Kindle (or Nook)?

Don't even get me started on the Ipad.

Please, someone out there give me a good reason to have this little machine. One that is specific to the 'go. Money is being spent manufacturing this.

Looking Ahead: The Last Guardian

2010-02-09T10:39:00.003-06:00

This game is made by the same creative minds that conjured the worlds of ICO (PS2) and Shadows of the Colossus (PS2) and could be the sleeping giant that we have all be waiting for. This time around we get a little boy who rides a “giant man-eating eagle” named Trico. I think giant man-eating eagle is a disservice to this awesome creature, but I suppose the creators of the beast would know better than I would.

The game looks like it will be in the vein of Prince of Persia, or Uncharted with puzzles that will require the player to stealth around, avoiding enemies to achieve specific goals. There is a spot in the trailer where we see that boy throw an urn at a guard, so perhaps it won’t be all stealth.

The speculated release date for The Last Guardian is early November of this year. After watching this trailer, it has me all hyped up. What a beautiful looking game.

White Knight Chronicles

2010-02-08T19:55:00.001-06:00

Platform: PS3 Exclusive
Publisher: Level 5
Release Date: February 2, 2010

Story: Miss
Character Development: Miss
Graphics: Miss
Sound: Miss
Re-playability: Hit
Overall Score: Miss

I want you to know that I went into this game excited. I was hopeful that this would be a game to put beside the next gen RPGs. No matter how hard I tried to resist it, the first hour of game play found me heckling the story like a robot from Mystery Science Theater. When the pace really picked up, I laughed as Leonard jumped into the cockpit of Megazord to fight off Lord Zedd. In case you were getting your hopes up, it's not REALLY Megazord, its Incoruptus (The White Knight). They are not actually power rangers, they are as colorfully created. So if you thought the story of Tommy switching from the green to the white ranger was absolutely riveting, this game was made for you. For the rest of you that have an IQ that is greater than 80 do not play this game for the story…

White Knight Chronicles is not a "next gen" RPG, regardless of what anyone says. After playing this game for some time, it was evident that this was nothing above mediocre in most facets.
I started a new game up and was encouraged by the many design options. Think the Sims without clothing options. I made my character with the false conception that he was actually going to be a character. I spent time thinking about how I wanted him to be. After playing Mass Effect 2, I was prepared for making a Renegade-like spell caster. I was terribly mistaken. My guy didn’t do anything but stand around staring at the main characters making creepy faces as they had childish dialogs about saving the princess from the dark prince (yea… I know…). Not only did he stand back there watching, but he made this awkward facial expression that I had designated him to make from time to time. It is a really uncomfortable experience. You would think that the lack of character development put into your avatar would be replaced with copious development in the other characters, but the characters are dry and seemingly hollow. Upon entering the game I watched a queer little cut scene that seemed to go forever, but realistically lasted around ten minutes. The voice acting was terrible, and the mouths move with classic Godzilla syndrome synchronization. After the game quality that we have seen recently this game falls far below PS3 exclusive expectations.

To give credit where credit is due, there are a couple things worth noting. The online play was decent. It felt a little like Guild Wars Jr. The gimmicky rewards that are supposed to encourage you to continue playing online probably won't satisfy most social gamers, but it will intrigue them for a time. I won’t lie though, it was fun, but nothing that I see many people giving this game more than a single run through even with the online option.

Another decent piece of work by Level 5 put in this game was the system in which you decide your character’s class. There are different parent skill trees that are accessible by every character (swords, great swords, elemental magic, divine magic, etc...) and you use points that you receive after leveling up to purchase skills (slash, fireball, heal, etc...) you set these skills up in an interface that resembles a Final Fantasy XII meets Kingdom Hearts user interface.
Sadly The UI is not the only thing borrowed from Square Enix, the entire story itself feels like the concept work stolen from Square Enix's trash can. From the shady performance troop giving a show at the princess' birthday with intentions to kidnap her (FFIX), to fleeing the scene of an assaulted castle through the sewers (FFXII). Even the way that you take charge of Incorruptus (the White Knight) is a pilfering of acquiring new Summons in FFX. If this game had an original story, with creative twists and attractive characters, it would be a top pick for me amongst RPGs that are currently available. It is upsetting that many people have waited such a long time for this game. With FFXIII just around the corner, I will not be surprised if this game slowly disappears into the depths of obscure bargain bins in towns with names like “Podunk”. This game really brings nothing new to the RPG table. I really mean that… Keep playing Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins if you like RPGs. If you have finished all the great games that are available right now, rent it, play it, then punish yourself for wasting $5.

FFXIII update

2010-02-07T09:24:00.003-06:00

I guess I haven't been keeping up on the Final Fantasy XIII media updates, but this one came out a little while ago- and it puts what they are going for into perspective a little bit better. I am still worried that this game is going to be a FFX/Rogue Galaxy mash up, this story looks a lot better than FFX or Rogue Galaxy. The Leona Lewis song seemed like a weird/wrong artist choice, but this trailer puts it into perspective for me a little bit.

Check out the voice acting and the mouth movement in sync with the vocal tracks. I am 20% more pumped after seeing this. (maybe it will calm my let down from White Knight Chronicles...)

Also, the FFXII website has been updated a little, so there is some more information if you just can't wait.

Looking Ahead - Heavy Rain

2010-02-06T20:10:00.005-06:00

If you have the 'Four Days Challenge' code, you can now play the demo on the Play Station Network while everyone else has to wait til the 11th to try out this newer style of gaming.

If you are unfamiliar with Heavy Rain, coming out exclusively for the PS3, check out the game play video below. I'm excited.

A little FYI- This clip does have some strong language in it. The game is rated M.

In stores February 23, 2010. Expect the review the first week of March.

Sonic 4 ANNOUNCED?!

2010-02-05T11:01:00.011-06:00

I was doing my usual rounds of entertainment updates, and found this.

While I was a Nintendo fanboy back in the 8bit and 16bit era, it is fun to see a 2d game being put back into the market. Something about 2D side scrolling chapter-style gaming reminds me of being ten years old again. I liked being ten.

Sonic Unleashed gave me a headache, it moved too fast, and required me to replay levels until I had them memorized. There was little time for reactionary gameplay, because it just moved SO RIDICULOUSLY FAST! A return to the 2d side scrolling method of platform jumping will be a good step backwards in my opinion. They may even pull in some 40 year old x-gamers with this title. Who knows?

This is the first Sonic game that is in it's numerical succession that will be released on all consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii). The tragedy for me is that there is no SEGA console to play this game on... That just doesn't seem right.

To look at the Official Sonic 4 site click here.

Vinyl Fantasy VII

2010-02-03T13:35:00.009-06:00

Final Fantasy VII had some great music. This mash up mixes 12 of those great tracks from Final Fantasy VII with an odd variant of rappers. As much as I dislike rap, this is very well done, and I think this mash up is one of the best I have heard in a while. If you have an affinity for MIDI, and the nostalgia of FFVII, you will definitely be able to find a place on your HD for this odd collaboration of music.

1.	Kool Keith + Tom Waits - Spacious Thoughts (The Prelude) 04:07	download
2.	Jay-Z - Lucifer (Mako Reactor) 03:17	download
3.	M.O.P. - Ante Up (Battle!) 03:42	download
4.	MF DOOM - Air (Barrett's Theme) 02:35	download
5.	Outkast + Raekwon - Royal Flush (Sailing from Junon) 03:34	download
6.	Skyzoo + Wale - Lyrically Inclined (Jenova) 03:18	download
7.	Gucci Mane - Stoopid (Costa Del Sol) 04:10	download
8.	Clipse - Fast Life (Sephiroth's Reunion) 03:52	download
9.	Dorrough - Ice Cream Paintjob (Gold Saucer) 04:07	download
10.	Murs - Me and this Jawn (Mideel) 03:02	download
11.	Slum Village - Get Dis Money (One-Winged Angel) 03:11	download
12.	Ghostface Killah - Save Me Dear (City of the Ancients) 02:34

You were able download the album as a whole, but the site has apparently gone down this morning. The above links still work but i can't say for how long. With the links that still work above you can download the songs individually from them. Before downloading any of the songs you are given the option to donate some money to Team: Teamwork, but you don't have to. $0.00 is a valid price. Just remember that your generosity would be appreciated for their work in creating this mash up for anyone with a mouse and keyboard. So get it free or support them if you feel so inclined. Tell your friends and spread the word, Vinyl Fantasy VII is available.

If it gets to the point where you cant download what you want, email me (hitcritmiss@gmail.com), and we will figure something out. I want this to be available to anyone who would want it.

-Z. W. Van Kleeck

New White Knight Chronicles Trailer

2010-02-02T17:11:00.003-06:00

Brand spankin new launch trailer for The White Knight Chronicles... Out TODAY

Enjoy!

Verses XIII

2010-02-02T11:01:00.009-06:00

If you want to get all excited about Final Fantasy XIII then go ahead, but I will not be joining the party. I am calling it out right now: we will be left at the end wanting more.. and not in a good “I can’t wait to sit another 60 hours” way.

Although it is harder to look forward to a game with a release date that is TBA for Japan as well as North America, I have hope. FF XIII is out in Japan, and with the release date rapidly approaching here in North America it is only a matter of time before the Square Enix team can put full force into making Final Fantasy Verses XIII what it is clearly destined to be.

(this picture was taken with obvious permission from IGN... they make more money than we do)

When first watching the teaser trailer, I had an odd feeling of deja vu . Was this some dark spawn of Kingdom Hearts? Turns out that upon further digging (but not too deep obviously, there is hardly any information on this game out there) the battle systems have been compared to that of Kingdom Hearts, even with some third person shooting action. So Square Enix is putting together a story based in this FF XIII world, focused on the crystals, with strong characters who you control in a RP environment that could periodically bust into some smooth third person shooting scenes. Are we sure this game isn’t directed for the American gamer?

In the end that is what we like. We want round characters with troubling back stories. We want telekinetic powers that wield our swords for us (which the main character, Noct, appears to have) and on top of that, we want to defend something important enough to use those powers. When talking RP, we shouldn’t expect anything less than any other FF game. Adding those expectations along with this faster story style and the phenomenal graphics that the PS3 brings, this game is not the FF XIII’s little brother. It is the overpowering late bloomer.

You might want to throw stones my way, and if in the end I am wrong I will gladly make my way to edge of town. But honestly, from the pieces we have been given, this game looks like the one to buy. Hopefully by the time it comes out we all still have a bit of our stimulus check left.

Until then, check out the trailer if you have not already.

Mass Effect 2 Review

2010-02-01T19:32:00.017-06:00

Platform: PC/XBox 360
Publisher: Bioware
Release Date: January 26, 2010

Story: Hit
Character Development: Crit
Graphics: Crit
Sound: Crit
Re-playability: Crit
Overall score: Crit

No one could rightly start a review of this game without first saying something like this. You wouldn’t enjoy The Empire Strikes Back as much if you haven’t watched A New Hope. So if you have not played the first game, then I would suggest that you play it before you even open the Mass Effect 2 (ME2) box. I would agree with Bioware that you can play, enjoy, and understand this game if you have not played the first installment, however you will miss out on the subtle jokes, and the use of good lore. It seems to me that you will need to know the significance of watching the Normandy blow up and watching your character die at the beginning of the game for the Lazarus project to make much sense “Why would they blow four-billion credits to bring this guy back to life?” Please insert ME1 install CD for the answer. ME1 is surely in some bargain bin by now, and you could most likely get it at a very reasonable price. It is a game that you don’t want to miss out on.
In the months following ME1, Sheppard is out investigating suspected geth attacks and abductions when an foreign ship attacks and destroys the Normandy. Shepard dies, and a scientific group dedicated to the posterity of humanity works to resurrect Shepard. Once resurrected, Shepard is tasked to discover the mystery behind the human colonies being abducted, which leads him to the ever illusive Reaper (giant mechanic beings) threat that has yet to be seen. Throughout the game you work alongside familiar aliens from the first game as well as new creatures such as the drell.
The story didn’t quite grapple me as tightly as ME1, call me spoiled, but that upset me. Like every trilogy (which I am guessing Mass Effect will be at minimum) there is always one title that is the necessary development for the greater story. I feel that ME2 will be the red headed step child of the Mass Effect franchise, but that is not to say that it is not a great game, its just less provocative than its predecessor. It’s like comparing one-hundred million dollars to ten million dollars, I wouldn’t refuse either. If I didn’t know better, I would rate this story a crit, but knowing what the Mass Effect team is capable of, this game seems to fall short of what they have produced in the first title.
While I do not feel like some others do, that this is the most cinematic game to date (Uncharted 2 is a one tough cookie.), this game is another reminder that video games are quite capable of becoming interactive movies. The audio was impeccable. In many titles where you choose the dialog options, I have found that the voice acting sounds forced and out of context. In The Witcher I felt like Geralt was saying the right things but not in the appropriate and realistic tone considering the surroundings. In ME2 I don’t see this common issue. The seamless dialogs revealed the greatly developed Mass Effect universe which provides a fun and proactive experience. Cosmetically this game shook the foundations of expectation. Though there was a separation between cinematic cut scenes and in game play, the differences were minimal, and nothing to complain about. The game-play was about as fluent as game-play can get. I speak primarily for the PC here, I wish I could say all of these things for the Xbox 360, but it just isn’t true. Graphically the 360 failed to deliver with lighting, and character realism. One thing that I noted was how the characters actually seemed to be looking at and acknowledging each other, not looking through someone as they talk to them. This is a remedy to what I call dead eyes. The Xbox 360 not only gave all of the characters dead eyes, but failed to deliver character realism as a whole. Angry, happy, and sad all look the same on the Xbox 360 while on the PC you get moving face muscles that accompany the dialog like a perfectly fitting glove.

ME2 is missing some things that many people call RPG staples. There is no inventory screen, and the equipment options are severely limited. No inventory screen may confuse some avid RPG players into thinking that this is not so much an RPG but an action game with RPG elements, but I assure you it is as much an RPG as Dragon Age: Origins. The inventory screen is replaced with an upgrade system, and a more realistic armor changing set up. You can only change your armor preferences from your ship. Forcing you to change at the ship saves you from having to lug around hundreds of pounds of equipment while running, diving, and shooting at enemies. While this does remove the aspects of selling goods altogether, it puts a greater focus on the story instead of acquisition and economy. Money is come by quite easily if you simply do missions, and hack every safe you come by, however you will realize that your purse does not empty too quickly since you do not HAVE to purchase a single item in the game if you wish not to. The upgrade system that I mentioned reminds me of an old game called Star Flight, its an old Sega game that my wife recently turned me on to, and despite its quaint old 8bit graphical style, it is quite fun.

In ME2, you scan planets for materials that are used to upgrade weapon damage, or health capacity. There are even ship upgrades that prove useful later on in the game (shields, weapons, medical bay etc…). It is more fun than it sounds.
ME2 follows ME1’s lead in only being a 20-30 hour game. The new game + option allows a character that has completed the game to reload into a new game, retaining equipment and level, but not upgrades. With all of the dialog and relationship choices, this game is one you could easily put over one-hundred hours into. I would not be surprised if I put that much time into this game over the next year or so.

I suggest that responsible adults with children bear in mind that this game is rated M 17+. In most "M" rated games, you get a little profanity and some sexuality, the kind of thing you can mute if it gets out of hand. In ME2 I feel like "M" was taken to unnecessary extremes. One character has an outfit that has her entire torso exposed except for a harness that cleverly hides her nipples (thankfully there is an alternate outfit you can earn that gives her a shirt). Also, I am not used to hearing the F-bomb in game, and this game is quite liberal with its profanity. I'm not here to trash on the ESRB. I think they do a good job for the most part. I would think that this is the kind of game to play after your little one's go to bed.

-Z. W. Van Kleeck

Zeno Clash Review

2010-01-22T12:17:00.002-06:00

Platform: Xbox 360/PC
Publisher: ACE Team
Release Date: April 21, 2009

Story: Hit
Character Development: Miss
Graphics: Hit
Sound: Hit
Re-playability: Miss
Overall score: Hit

Games have become a number of things, but when they can be explained as odd, grotesque, or unexpected we (the consumer) tend to get butterflies. If anyone disagrees I have two words: Silent Hill.

Zeno Clash (Released in April of 09) does this, but in a less frightening way.
In Zeno Clash, the protagonist’s name is Ghat and he lives in a world called Zenozoik (there are no typos here). His Father-Mother (a creature that apparently servers both purposes) has exiled him from his home after he discovered a “flaw” in Father-Mother. A linear plot line of first person hand-to-hand combat ensues leading the player through the events that had taken place prior to Ghat's exile.
While the story is something that left me wanting more in the end, it did capture me. It was an interesting mix of a persistent world balanced by a severe linear plotline.

The story, as much as it pains me to say, was lacking, and if not for a single character named Golem who you meet once you are 3/4ths of the way through the game, this story would have been completely awful. This character, however, really brought it together and made the game able to be finished with my sanity still intact.
This game plays like a 3D version of a classic Mario game. Ghat runs through a series of combat challenges and ends each level with a boss fight. After a small cut scene you will enter a load screen and arrive into an entirely new environment.
The most shocking moment that tore me away from the game’s continuity was when the game loaded out of a lush green forest and into a desert with only a single line to provide where you might be going next: “Maybe we will fare better in the desert.”
The voice acting was not a complete fail as you would expect from an independent publisher. That was a relief to me. I hate listening to a character talk when they sound like there are in a recording studio looking at the clock on the wall. The only thing that could have made the voice acting better would have been giving the characters something interesting to say.
Throughout the game there was only one character that actually felt developed, and as I said before, you meet him 3/4ths of the way through the game. There was a girl named Daedra that travels alongside Ghat, whose name I couldn’t remember until I looked it up just a second ago (she was that important).

If anything motivated me to continue pressing “W”, it was the interesting art style, and the hope of something greater than what it ended up being. Graphically the game was captivating. I couldn’t wait to see the next landscape or the next enemy. Even though I would lose the story from time to time (not that there was much to keep track of, it was just so small that I lost it) the environmental detail was some of the coolest I had seen, and the art style was unique to say the least. Throughout the game I found myself saying “I wish I could go over there and explore that.” At first I said this as a mark against the game. Then it struck me that I was so interested in the world that I wanted to explore it. I think that ACE Team succeeded here in providing a taste of what one of their higher budget games could be.

Zeno Clash was originally slated to be a game that is more akin to Bethesda’s Oblivion. Since Zeno Clash has come out, it has been rumored that ACE Team still intends on making this open ended RPG world of Zenozoik. I believe that Zeno Clash is the ground floor of a potentially great video game franchise.

With Zeno Clash, you have an aspiring new gaming company that made a very interesting world, with a unique art style and a good sound track. The Game’s story is decent, but could use a little work. When you are done with this game you will most likely loan it to a friend and not care if they ever give it back (but you will be glad that they enjoyed the game too). I wouldn’t drop more than $30.00 on it since you can blow through the game in a single afternoon. I would check a GameStop in their used section for the Xbox 360 version, or for PC- well there are ways to find games at a "low" price.

Video Gaming In a Nutshell

2010-01-21T19:18:00.000-06:00

Disc Operating System (DOS).

I think DOS is a good place for me to start.

I was raised on Apple and Nintendo. I had a strong bias towards those two machines. So much of a bias that when I was 7 years old, and was required to take a DOS class at my school, I scoffed at the teacher.
"CD/?" I would ask. "you mean double click?" and also "Where's the mouse? This isn't like my computer at home."
I told my teacher at one point that everyone will be using a mouse like apple in the next 5 years. He disagreed with me, and then over the next 5 years he had a hard time finding a job as a DOS specialist. (That's my guess at least.)
One thing of great worth that I did learn from Dos class was a GREAT multilayer game that you can download still. It was called Scorched Earth, but now they call it XSortch.

I learned, however slowly, that Apple was not something to be too excited about, and also that Nintendo was not the only worth while gaming company.

Being 23 years old now, and having existed during the infancy of what has become the video game revolution, I have watched the industry shape from the NES to the failed Jaguar, to the fatality of the Dreamcast and now the PS3/Xbox360 generation, and not just watched, but actively participated; saving up allowances and blowing them on Kung Fu, Street Fighter II (BEFORE TURBO!), Final Fantasy VII, Mario 64, and Uncharted 2.

What really defined my video game experience was Final Fantasy VI, or what we used to called Final Fantasy III.
My brothers and I would sit for hours on end, grinding in the dinosaur forest, capping all of our characters at level 99. Pining over the question of if you can REALLY bring General Leo back to life.
Some of you are probably reading this uncertain of what most of that means if you never played Final Fantasy III, but for me and my brothers, it meant options. It wasn't a side scrolling towards the next set of platform jumping obstacles or a boss that you would jump on a dozen times so that you could side scroll some more. We were being told a story, and a good one. It wasn't cliche, and it wasn't mediocre. We were playing a visual book; an interactive movie.

Games like Final Fantasy VI had the same effect on their time that Uncharted 2 has today. I don't know if video games are going to help define the minds of our future leaders. It might make me feel slightly uncomfortable to think that come March 9th. Barack Obama will be spending time on completing Final Fantasy XIII. I do, however,hope that there is some kid somewhere in the world saving up his allowance to buy it. At that kid, I smile, and I hope he enjoys spending time getting his characters to level 99.

I believe that video games should be challenging, and most importantly fun. If someone is playing a game for any other reason, and is not getting paid, then they should be mauled by a blood thirsty horde of vikings.

Z. W. Van Kleeck