November 20th, 2008 Tengaport
Like the rest of the world, as soon as I fired up my 360 last night I downloaded the new dashboard. I was figuring the interwebs were going to be tangled by the time I tried, but the install was fast and smooth.
After a brief intro I dove straight in and started creating my Avatar. Not a very true-to-life resemblance, but I’ll tweak it when I get more time. After fooling around with avatar creating, I started to check out the new dash itself.
The thing is light years faster than the old blades, and snappier than a feisty turtle (not sure what that means). It’s going to take a little settling in to figure out where things are, and what new stuff the dash has to offer - but thankfully the guide button still brings up a bit of familiarity. I was surprised they didn’t change the look of the notifications however to match the NXE style.
I fumbled around with the party system for a few minutes, but I am truly going to have to RTFM on both it and the new dash. Once we were all in a party I wasn’t sure what the advantage was aside from having open chat. It was a comedy show to listen to however as a some of us in the party were playing Gears, others were customizing their avatars, and others still were exploring what the NXE had in store.
One side benefit to the party chat was being able to play ranked Gears of War without having to hear the other team (YOU NEED TO ADD A QUICK MUTE FUNCTION TO THAT GAME EPIC!!!!!!).
First impressions of the new dashboard are all good. Nothing seemed broken or worse off as I flipped my way through the tiles last night, and still having the mini guide makes settling in much easier.
I would like to take a moment to say goodbye to the Blades - they have served us well over the years, and while I can’t say they will be missed - I did appreciate their efforts.
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November 18th, 2008 Tengaport
As I write this I’m fighting a war with my eyelids to stay open. Last night’s Advance War battle raged on way past my bedtime. I had bested one of the three opposing forces on the map, but the two remaining CO’s refused to give up any ground. After the 10th time I said, “one last turn” my wife finally forced me to retire from the battle for the evening and call it a night. Judging by my exhausted state, I probably should’ve listened to her the first time she told me to put the game down.
That’s the thing with Advance Wars, once you’re in the thick of it - it’s nearly impossible to put down. That’s just where I’m finding myself again after a bit of a hiatus from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.
I was initially let down by the departure Days of Ruin had taken from previous Advance Wars games. The change in art style and characters didn’t bother me nearly as much as the striped down, ‘back to basics’ gameplay. What I’ve realized with the loss of overpowering CO attacks and additional skills is that Days of Ruin is raw Advance Wars at it’s core.
Days of Ruin leans much more towards a methodical game of chess now as opposed to a simple bout of rock, paper, scissors. The rock, paper, scissor mechanics are still there, but you’ll need to pack more strategy than firepower now if you hope to walk off the battlefield victorious.
I still stand by my original review of this game (short version: horrible story, drab characters, lack of features when compared to Dual Strike…) but it is still one of the best games I have played on my DS. Once you get into the rhythm, Advance Wars is pure, gaming crack. Just look at me, I’m strung out right now, and all I can think about is ‘one more turn’.
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November 14th, 2008 Tengaport
With all the big releases I’ve been following now finally on store shelves the Hype Wagon seems to be packing up it’s effects and is rolling on. My question however is “where is it going?”
What are the next big, Triple-A titles for the Hype Wagon to hitch onto and work it’s magic? Will it be shilling new IPs, or is the wagon reserved in 2009 for games with 3s, 4s and even 5s following the name?
I must confess, that even after the release of both Little Big Planet and Gears of War 2 have liberated me from the wagon, I do feel a bit of a void not having that gigantic, eminent game to follow. I had been looking forward to both of those games for what feels like eons, and while I’m ecstatic to finally have them I’m already looking around for the next ‘big thing’.
There are plenty of games I am looking forward to in the coming year (Skate 2, Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando…), but none of them have reached that ‘all consuming’ state of mind for me yet. Perhaps Bioshock 2 can take on the roll when more details of that game are released, or perhaps it will be something completely new and out of left field.
I suppose in the meantime I should enjoy my vacation from the Hype Wagon and focus solely on the slew of great games I’ve got in front of me. I suppose I had gotten used to the workings of the Hype Wagon, and now that it’s gone I kind miss it.
Anyone else?
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November 11th, 2008 Tengaport
Thanks to a struggling economy, my entire office (those that weren’t let go) was put on a four day work week. While it no doubt sucks, it did allow me to have an extended Gears of War 2 launch weekend. It all started Thursday evening, 11:00pm standing in line outside of Best Buy.
My buddy and I were probably 7th & 8th in a line which stretched around the corner of the building by the time they started letting groups into the store at midnight. Immediately after entering the store we were greeted with a ‘Gears of War’ table which had copies of the games, strategy guides, as well as some midnight launch goodies including a GOW2 shirt, trucker hat, golden hammerburst redemption codes, 1-month Xbox Live card, and pre-order bonus - the remote controlled tank (all destined for sale).
After filling up on the freebies, those of us with pre-orders were set to customer service, while those who hadn’t pre-ordered to game were allowed to pick up a copy off the table, hit the register and walk out the door. Basically, if you pre-ordered you had to wait in two lines, but if you didn’t you could get your ass out of the store ASAP and get home to play. I just found that a bit interesting.
Another interesting thing I saw was someone on the pre-order line holding up the works but also purchasing other items aside from his pre-order. This dude sat there trying up one of the two open registers buying stuff that he could have easily purchased during the day. Needless to say, those of us waiting on-line, anxious to get home and play, were not amused. From there it went from bad to worse as I ran into problems at the other register thereby tying up EVERYONE who pre-ordered the game.
After 25 failed minutes at register #2, register #1 was free and I was finally rung up and on my way.
That night, I ended up playing multiplayer until 4am. The bulk of my time was spent getting a feel for the game in Horde with some friends. The changes were subtle from the first Gears, but evident enough that it took a few rounds to ’sink in’. Once adjusted though, it was nothing but glorious
I’ll try not to come off as a fanboy here, but it is going to be difficult as I have nothing but praise for GOW2. It’s as if the game was custom built for me, as it takes queues from all my favorite gaming genres. It’s got the action of a shooter, the tension from a survival horror, and the ‘world on the brink’ intensity that brings a huge, stupid grin to my face.
In multiplayer, the changes have made the game much more enjoyable in my opinion. The original Gears of War multiplayer matches devolved into little more than shotgun brawls. So much so, that during a ranked matched my (random) teammate yelled at me to ‘PUT THE LANCER AWAY!!!’. While the original Gears was all roadie-run shotgun, my GOW2 multiplayer experience has been all about digging in for some epic firefights.
Bullets are flying everywhere, smoke grenades are detonating sending you flying on your ass, and rounds are lasting longer thanks to everyone keeping their heads down. You can say what you want about GOW2, but this is exactly the type of gameplay experience I am looking for.
Over the weekend I managed to make it through level 50 on Horde (on normal) and finish the campaign (on hardcore). Both experiences were simply awesome, and I’m looking forward to going through them again multiple times. Horde is an absolute blast to play with friends. While it may start out simple enough, things ramp up pretty quickly which is only exacerbated by you and teammates dwindling ammunition supply.
Working together trying to hold off an ever growing onslaught is as much fun as it is intense. Screaming intel back and forth such as “LEFT SIDE CLEAR!”, “BLOODMOUNT BEHIND YOU!!!!!” and the ever important “I’M DOWN!!!!” accentuates just how frantic the rounds can be. Horde is a great multiplayer addition for those times when you just prefer to ‘work together’.
In the original Gears, my friends list rarely ventured outside of Execution. While Execution made be the dominant game type in GOW2, it is certainly not going to be the only. Guardian. Submission, Wingman and even King of the Hill (sorry annex) were all on the playlist over the past four days - and the simple ability to change these on the fly without having to create new rooms each time is a joy. Not to mention the ability to add bots here and there to fill in the gaps when we have lopsided teams. Pretty much everything about the new multiplayer lobby is light years beyond what the original game offered.
Campaign mode is just as ‘bigger, better and more bad ass’ as multiplayer (Cliff B. is never going to live that down, is he?). I had two concurrent co-op campaigns running with friends and one of them via split screen with Ev. While I did end up playing one of them to completion on my own, I have to say this game is best when played with a buddy. The firefights are tremendous, and the game barely gives you time to breathe in between them. It doesn’t mix the variety up all that much, but as long as I have my finger on the R trigger, I’m happy.
The vehicle portions of the game did mix things up somewhat, but they were the low points of the campaign mode in my opinion - especially after multiple, ridiculous, trial-and-error deaths. The ‘final ride’ however sure was a helluva a trip.
There was plenty more to chew on story-wise this time around in Gears, but it still only amounts to an appetizer portion as opposed to a full meal. There is much more emotion involved this time around, and it was done extremely well without delving into campy. Then again. it may have only worked for me because I’ve bought into the characters. Those not willing to do so might not get the same from those particular story moments.
I think I’ll end my ‘wall of text’ here (has anyone even read all of this?), but that doesn’t mean I’m done yet. Expect plenty more GOW2 ramblings in future posts.
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November 4th, 2008 Tengaport
Been a while since I’ve run a ‘Currently Playing’ post so I thought I’d do a quick update.
On the Xbox 360 side of things I’m still spinning The Orange Box. I finally finished Half-Life 2, HL2 Episode 1 & HL2 Episode 2. Now I’m just doing a bit of ‘achievement whoring’ with the remaining achievements in the game.
Half-Life 2 was an awesome ride. For a 4 year old game it holds up solid and is more than worth your time & money if you haven’t already checked it out. In the end, the experience was much more satisfying to me than a typical FPS though I’m not entirely sure what about HL2 set it apart. Perhaps the strong supporting characters and the lack of traditional cut scenes that gave the story a bit more oomph. Or, perhaps it was the story itself. Whatever the case, it was a helluva ride… Count me in on day 1 for Half-Life 3.
On the PS3 side of things, Ev and I have been putting in several hours nightly with Little Big Planet. Our co-op sessions have me wondering if I would enjoy the game as much playing it solo. The level design in the game is exceptional at times, which has me wondering if the user created levels will be good enough to keep us interested when we run out of levels on the disc. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Who knew that a game so cute could be so frustrating though - there have been a couple of levels where I was just about read to throw my controller through our TV. Ev has much more patience than I do when it comes to platforming 
Lastly, is the newest game to my ‘currently playing’ roster. It is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on the PSP. This was a recommendation from a buddy of mine, and since I’m always eager for more PSP games I figured I’d give it a shot. Now I have a confession to make, I have never played a Final Fantasy game before. I had some pretty bad pre-conceived notions about what Final Fantasy games were. I expected them to lean heavily into the ‘fantasy’ side with mythical creatures and settings, so I was surprised to see helicopters and a train during the opening cinematics of Crisis Core.
It certainly did the trick to rope me in, and while I’ve only gotten about 15 minutes into the game, I’m eager to see how it plays out.
So there you have it, my currently playing update for 11/4/08. Aside from Gears trumping The Orange Box at the end of the week I don’t expect this list to change all that much for the rest of the year.
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October 28th, 2008 Tengaport
Picked up our copy of Little Big Planet last night courtesy of Gamestop.com’s “buy-on-line pickup-in-store” feature. Also netted the free Kratos costumes & levels pre-order bonus, so snoogans to Gamestop there.
My initial impressions of the game are FUN with a capitol F. Little Big Planet is drenched with charm & personality and absolutely oozes smiles. There is no way not to laugh while playing this game - which is exactly what Ev and I were doing as we explored the early stages.
Right from the get-go Ev and I searched out every nook and cranny we could find along the ‘beaten path’. Some led to hidden items, while others led to us getting lodged in some sackboy (and girl) destroying situations. The controls aren’t as tight as I would prefer, which made some of the tricky platforming a bit more maddening. Momentum plays a keep role in keeping your sackboy alive, so be sure to keep that in mind as you’re swinging your way around.
One of the biggest laughs we got last evening was when we came to the first skateboard. Neither of us managed to actually get on the skateboard as it raced down the ramp, but I did manage to grab onto it’s tail and it yanked me along for the journey. Sure, you may of had to be there - but if you’ve got the game, then I’m sure you’re already experiencing moments like these.
We’ve yet to check out downloadable levels, level-creation, or on-line play, but how much Little Big can you squeeze into one evening?
While playing, one thought did pop up in my mind, and that was in regard to the casual crowd. I’m just not sure how ‘big’ a hit Little Big Planet will be with the non-hardcore. While the game may be pick up and play, and does contains a nauseating amount of tutorials, the hand-holding ends fairly quickly which leaves you with some pretty unique and challenging platforming. It seems about as casual a game as say Super Mario Bros.
So I guess that makes today’s question “Do you think Little Big Planet is more casual or hardcore”?
I just wonder how Little Big Planet will fare in those casual circles.
For me, I can’t wait to get home and play some more - just looking at the boxcover in the picture puts a huge smile on my face
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October 27th, 2008 Tengaport
Oct 22 Ev and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. We didn’t have much planned aside from a simple, quiet evening together. Things were going exactly as planned, until The Little Big Planet quest began.
During dinner I made the mistake of mentioning how some friends of ours had managed to pick up copies of the ‘recalled’ version of Little Big Planet. I knew I was in trouble when my Ev’s eyes instantly lit up, and she responded with a fury of questions. She wanted to know the when, the how and the where people were getting copies of the game. That evening set of a spiral of events that spanned three days, over a dozen stores, and countless disappointments.
After dinner, we drove from store to store, from Blockbuster to Blockbuster, FYE to FYE, and every single LBP chance-seller in-between. While many places we visited were more than happy to show us their copies of the game, not a single store was willing to sell us one. They gave a multitude of excuses, such as: “The game has a song about Jihad”, “it is offensive to Koreans”, “it has been discontinued”, and lastly “its not been gotten has shipped to us…it’s not out” (that one was mumbled by a Circuit City employee).
On Saturday when we learned that Gamestop was getting copies of LBP in we visited every location within a 15 mile radius. GameStops are spreading like a virus around here, because we didn’t have to travel more than five minutes to get from one store to another. It was futile attempt however, as each store barraged us for not pre-ordering the game and had us walking out the door feeling like second class citizens.
At this point, I could handle the rejection no more, and pleaded with Ev to just call the quest off. The game would be out in a matter of days for non-pre-order-ers like ourselves, couldn’t we please just let it go for now? She reluctantly agreed, but by then the disappointment had taken it’s toll on our souls.
Now we sit patiently waiting for the game to ship through normal channels so we can get our LBP on. I knew before we even began our search that quests like these often end in disappointment, but Ev was naively full of optimism and eager to try.
My question to everyone today is, how many ‘gaming quests’ like this have you gone on? What was it for, and how did they end up?
Hopefully you guys had better luck with your quests than we did.
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October 15th, 2008 Tengaport
Here’s my plan for picking up a PS3, if I can raise the necessary funds by selling off some old stuff then I’ll buy one regardless of if I have the time to actually play it. With that goal now set I started going through my game drawer to separate things into ‘what goes’ and ‘what stays’ piles. First up on the chopping block, is the GameCube pile.
My GameCube is in the closet in our guest room, and has been there since we moved into our house (about two years ago). I think it’s safe at this point to declare the console legally dead. I had some good moments with the ‘cube, but I honestly don’t see myself going back to it anytime soon. So with that, everything in the GameCube pile (including the console) is good to go.
There probably isn’t much value at all to these games, aside from perhaps the The Legend of Zelda: Collectors Edition and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Those are going to head to eBay (along with the system itself), while the rest will end up as Goozex fodder. Perhaps I can parlay these low point games into something to eventually sell on eBay.
Perhaps I’ll be able to rake in around $50 or so. Not much, but it’s $50 closer to a PS3. I’ll post actual amounts raised once my auctions end.
So there you have it, the first step in my journey to eBay my way to a PS3
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October 12th, 2008 Tengaport
Thanks to a buddy of mine I was able to score some hands on time with the Little Big Planet beta. Man oh man, what a ride. The game is so full of charm and character that it’s appeal is difficult to resist. I spent just as much time ‘exploring’ the game as I did actually playing it.
During some co-op play, once we realized we could apply stickers to each other we ceased to make progress on the level and instead engaged in an all out sticker war. It was moments like this that had me thinking “I must get this game”. So now, I’m back to the age old debate, to buy a PS3 or not.
It’s no longer an issue of money, as some freelance work turned up the necessary cash. It’s now just an issue of time. With all the games coming out that I’m looking forward to I’m just not sure if I have the time to support two gaming consoles - especially with Gears of War 2 a mere 26 days away.
So, what to do? Is it possible to split a limited amount of game time between two separate consoles?
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October 10th, 2008 Tengaport
With the strings on my wallet getting a bit tighter these days I’ve been making a conscious effort to get through the pile of games sitting next to my TV. Currently I have The Orange Box spinning in my 360. I picked up The Orange Box to check primarily for Portal and Team Fortress 2, but I had every intention of playing through all the Half-Life 2 offerings contained on the disc.
Unfortunately, the game got pushed aside before I could make much headway in Half-Life 2. What makes matter worse, is that this is not the first time I failed Half-Life. Way back last-gen, I picked up Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox - and while I did make minuscule progress, it was traded away primarily unplayed.
This time however I am determined to see things through and I’m happy to report I’ve been making good progress. Half-Life 2 has quite a bit going for it, which helps me to understand the Halo vs. Half-Life wars that used to rage way back when.
I like how the action keeps flowing in Half-Life, and how you never relinquish control to sit back and watch a cutscene unfold. There is also a nice arsenal of weapons, and I had missed the days where your character was able to carry more than 2 weapons at a time.
Quite a fun FPS romp, that is for sure.
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