Thursday, April 26, 2012

Flat Tire

Well, good thing I passed on the SW Kinect bundle.  After an unsuccessful trip to the local TRU and Target to find some new Transformers, I got a flat tire.  At least I finally got to use the extra stuff my car insurance provides.  Now to wait a month and see if "no out of pocket cost" equates to "no bill later for too much".  Hopefully it is better than a doctor's visit...

Well, work on one of my reviews is nearing completion.  I'm excited to try something new.  Also, I guess I better write my Witcher 2 review soon, seeing as now there's a contest for the best one!  I'm not likely to win that, but I might as well try!  I've got the time, so long as the kids leave me alone for a bit.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Wishing for More of That Money

I have a chance to get one of the Star Wars Kinect Xbox 360 bundles for about $75 less than MSRP.  It's a great deal, and I'd love to jump on it.  Unfortunately, that's a chunk of money that could be better spent.  Probably for a new lawn mower, heh.  Anyway, just being grumpy about that.  I can just hope another deal comes along that I will be able to take advantage of.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Witcher 2 EE: Initial Impressions

I'm still looking to have a more in-depth review in a bit (and hopefully something else), but here are a few quick impressions of The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition for 360.

Graphics are very good.  They are nice and detailed, and things just look good.  It still suffers from the Western RPG color palette (gray to brown), but at least uses more colors for monsters, armor, and hair color to add some different hues.

The Controls take some getting used to.  They work well enough, and nothing was counter-intuitive, but they still felt a bit wonky.  I've accidentally pulled out my sword in town when trying to do something else entirely.

Difficulty....woo boy.  This game is difficult.  Not really in a good way either.  You basically die in 3 hits, so every combat is a chore.  Expect to see the Game Over screen a lot.  It is annoying to save after every combat.  By the way, this is playing on the Normal setting.  Yeah, pretty ridiculous to me.

Other than the difficulty, I'm liking it so far.  Again, baring children, hopefully I can get a bigger review up soon.  Also, maybe I'll have some pictures for once...

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

That's Legal Tender

I'm very excited as today I got my review copy of The Witcher 2!  I've just started it up (had to get the kids to bed first), and I'll write up a review hopefully soon.  I'm hoping to do a new thing or two when reviewing this, but I'll probably write up a first impressions blog in the next few days to get started.  This makes me feel so legit!

On a related note, it was very awesome and progressive for CD Projekt to do this for reviews.  They basically had a page on the site where you could apply for 1 of 1000 copies to be sent to people to review.  I was one of the lucky people that was selected (they must have had low standards), and I will do my best with this opportunity.  I figure they did this to create buzz for the game and hope that some independent reviewers could make some waves and get some people interested in buying the game.  In the future, I hope more companies do this sort of thing.  I like that it gives "the little guy" a chance to swim in the big pond.  Thanks again!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Books?! Are you kidding me?

So, strangely enough, I have been reading recently.  Weird, I know.  I'm not one for books, preferring reading in games, websites and magazines.  After my wife (big reader) went to the library and finally got her hands on the first 2 Dresden Files books, I decided I would at least start to read them.

I enjoyed the show, so I thought I might as well try to read the books.  Lo and behold, it was actually very entertaining.  Jim Butcher is a fantastic author.  I was a little sad telling my wife this, as she is also a fantastic author (I'm a little biased there).  They were captivating and well written.  I was surprised to even finish the first book, more surprised that it was in a week, and even more so that I read the entire second book.  That is very unlike me.

Another side effect of reading these is that I have a greater understanding of my wife's books.  Several things she did kinda bothered me, but it seems that is fairly normal in the kinds of books she reads.  So I've accepted why they are there, and gained more insight into the author personality.  Back on topic, I even started the third book.  Scary!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Warriors Orochi 3: Initial Impressions

A "quick" few notes about my initial impressions of Warriors Orochi 3.

Good:  The story is good.  It builds off the second one (kinda) and even though it uses time travel, it does it in the good way (think Chrono Trigger).  There is also a very extensive selection of characters.  The Dynasty Warriors people in 7 use their musous from that game (I assume, I haven't played it yet and they are very different from what I remember), so they are flashy and powerful.  The guest characters are pretty cool nods to other Tecmo Koei games.  The new triple team attacks are fun and flashy, just what I would expect.

Bad:  I'm not really a stickler for frames per second, but the game isn't too smooth.  Also the draw distance (even in single player) is pretty bad.  I'll kill a load of guys and more pop into existence right around me.  They were technically there, but the system couldn't render them all.  Maybe the PS3 version is better about this, but I kinda doubt it.  Very few of the battlefields stand out from each other, although the beach one is funny, and I like the trojan horse in one of them.  Also, for the achievements you have to use every character to get their proficiency up.  Given that there are 90+ chars, there are bound to be a few stinkers, but if you are a completionist, you will use them anyway (darn me).

I'll try to get a more in-depth review in a bit.  For the DW Gundam 3 review, I could have written more, but I felt it was probably too long and boring, so if anyone that happens by would like to comment if you the length of that one was too short, too long or just right (like Goldilocks), that would be great.  Thanks and enjoy your gaming!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Dat Orochi 3

A good buddy of mine is lending me Warriors Orochi 3, so I might actually get to post a review of a recent game!  Also Xenoblade comes out tomorrow, and hopefully I'll have some time to play that while the missus watches some Netflix or plays some more Tales of Graces f.  Good times.