I missed you too.

Hello and Welcome.

Well you know I have been working on the site, yeah but what ELSE have I been doing?

I played a few games, and my thoughts on those:

Dead Space:
Really loved this game.  Great setting.  It really kept the mood throughout the game.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed:
I actually liked the Force Unleashed.  I hear some people saying they had a lot of trouble with the Star Destroyer pull, but I finished it in about 5 minutes, AND I didn't fight any of the Tie Fighters.

Prince Of Persia:
Basically a glorified cutscene.  I got through most of the game just by tapping the A button.  I did like the narrative, and how they told the story (through little conversations between the Prince and Elika).  But it was basically like watching a movie.  And I had to stop playing it because I got to a game breaking bug that would not let me proceed.
 
Mirror's Edge:
Oh god, I still don't know how I feel about this one.  The Mirror opposite of Prince of Persia (Get it, mirror, ha ha).  This game kicked my butt.  When I was moving, and jumping and climbing, it was one of the best experiences In games I have had in a long time.  When I stopped, well, lets just say all the happy feelings stopped too.
 
Chrono Trigger:
One of my Favorite RPGS EVER.  I will write more about this later.
 
Phantasy Star Universe:
The Spiritual followup to Phantasy Star Online.  There are a lot of things I like about this game over PSO.  But there seem to be a lot more things that are frustrating about it.  I think most of that comes from the Single player mode.  More on this later.
 
Phantasy Star Portable Demo:
This demo gets a special mention, because I spent a large number of hours playing it.  Same premise as PSU (Same engine as well) but on the PSP.  Its actually a sequel to PSU, but you get to make your own character.  You play through the very first part of the single player story, and can play "Multiplayer" (by yourself, like I did.) up to level 20.  The nice thing about this demo: any progress you make transfers into the retail product when it is released next month.  More demo's should do this.
 
Gears of War 2:
As of yet I have only played the multiplayer options, but I am really liking it so far.
 
Call of Duty World at War:
Meh, I prefer COD4
Rockband 2:
More of the same, but that isn't a bad thing.
 
Monster Hunter Portable 2:
At first I didn't really like this game, but I am really getting into it now that I am making my own armor and weapons.
 
Burnout Revenge:
A Bit of Classic style burnout as well.
 
Civilization Revolutions:
A WAY dumbed down version of CIV, but still really fun.

Read Some Books:
Making Sense of Japanese:
This is a must read for anyone studying Japanese grammar.  This book is brilliant, and funny.
 
Fables:
Still Enjoying this series.  I now know who the Adversary is!

Watchmen:
Love it.

Watching some shows:
Dr. Who:
This show is AWESOME.  I highly recommend it, if you have netflix, the first 3 seasons are on instant watch.
 
Lost:
Still haven't watched any of the current season, but I am caught up till there.
 
BattleStar Galactica:
Again, not the current season (4.5).  I still love this show.

And one sad thing:  I lost my DS. :(





So, let me apologize, I know that wasn't the most intriguing thing to read.  Word Vomit rarely is.  I just needed to get it off my chest, OK?  Now I can actually write about some good stuff!

~K

DLC Monday - Soul Calibur IV: Vader Vs. Yoda

ello and Welcome.

Alright, Finally some Soul Calibur 4 DLC that is not school girl uniforms...  That's right, Yoda for PS3 and Darth Vader for 360.

So for all you PS3 owners out there, congratulations.  The cheapest character in fighting game history is now at your disposal (next to Gon from tekken, Maybe.).

Each character will be available on Thursday for $5.  As much as I would enjoy playing Vadar, 5 bucks seems like a bit much for an aditional character.  Especially when the game itself costs $60.

Of course this seems to be a trend with DLC packs of late.  Charge 5 bucks for something that doesn't really change the game at all.  Instead it just changes how the game looks.  Mega Man 9 did it the with the Proto Man DLC, and more games are doing this type of thing.  Sure it isn't $3 horse armor, but it also doesn't add as much as something like the FREE bikes update to Burnout Paradise.

Ok, sure, Darth Vader has a different move set from the other characters, but at this point, hasn't everyone already chosen their character, or characters?  Sorry, I just have something against a company charging me an arm and a leg for a game, then the other arm for content that was ALREADY DEVELOPED when the game shipped.  But thats probably just my PC side talking, ignore him he gets a bit angry sometimes.

So, if you have SC4 and want these other characters, Check it out.

::rage quits::

~K

New Release Tuesday: Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

I was pretty excited when my brother-in-law said he'd let me borrow The Force Unleashed when he was done with it. This excitement lasted all the way through the first level, when I got to walk through Kashyyyk as Darth Vader and throw Wookiees from bridges to their death. The second level brings you into control of Vader's apprentice (who you find as a child in the first level), and from there things seem to go sour.

First of all, the combat is bad. When my character is facing a bad guy and I press X to attack him, the Apprentice should not turn around and attack at an explosive pod that causes him to lose half of his life bar. It would be funny if it happened only once, but its a continual problem. I was faced up against a rancor and pounding away at him, only to have the Apprentice decide that a flower was more dangerous and turned his back, allowing the rancor to pummel him from behind. Also the typical enemies can negate about 90% of your force powers, which takes away everything that makes being the Apprentice cool. Let me run down a typical combat encounter for you: press x 4 times... watch the Apprentice's lightsaber connect one of the four times... try Force Lightning... watch the enemy reflect/ignore the blast... get knocked over by the enemy.... get attacked on the ground and during the animation while you get up... die... scream expletives and throw controller into couch.... repeat.

Moving away from the combat, the camera has got its own set of issues. Take for example the time that I Force Pushed a door open and proceeded into the little room to get the hidden holocron, only to find myself stuck behind the same doors I had blown open, because the camera decided to move to a position that made them invisible. I had to Force Push another 10 times before the Apprentice magically jumped from the room back into the hallway. I also spend way too much time babying the camera, contiunually moving it into a position so that I can see what's going on around me (and yet it's still not enough to keep from being hit by unknown baddies that always lurk beyond view.

Before I get into the story, I have to admit that I am not finished with the game, I still have 3 missions left to accomplish. With that said, the story is pretty good so far. There hasn't been anything life-changing to come from it yet, but I understand that the ending is supposed to be pretty dang awesome. It's a pretty neat idea, giving Vader an apprentice to go around and hunt down the last few Jedi (I can believe that some escaped Order 66 - they are Jedi after all). I just hope that the obligatory choice between the Light Side and Dark Side that I sense coming never actually arrives. It would be nice to just continue on being a bad guy and not have to worry about making a choice that will affect the ending of the game (although I already know there will be).

To put this simply, if you are a Star Wars fan - rent or borrow this game first. You might find that everything I've said doesn't apply to you, then you can go ahead and buy it. Just be warned - it's not the greatest Jedi game out there, for that I suggest playing the Jedi Knight series (particularly Jedi Academy).