A week later and I'm still annoyed about NCSoft ditching City of Heroes to "focus on the asian market". Why not just sell it if you aren't going to compete in this hemisphere? Baffling decisions...
On another note, I recently beat X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the PS3. I'm going to clean up a few of the trophies for it, except for beating the game on hard and, hence, the platinum. Given my backlog, time to play and other factors, I usually don't beat games on the hard setting unless I really like them or are good at them. It's my least favorite trophy/achievement behind "play/win lots of multiplayer" and "speed run" ones. Anyway, the game was ok. I bought it really cheap, and got my money's worth out of it. Some of the enemies are annoying, but the game has fun moments. The only part I strongly dislike are the bosses. They take to long and don't take enough damage. I didn't know Logan's claws were made of paper. They clearly aren't deadly, as I had to hit Gambit about 200+ times to beat him. I'd hate to see some of the bosses on hard, especially the final boss. So terrible!
All in all, the game was enjoyable, even if they waffled on portraying Wolverine as a bad ass and weakling. A few of the weaker platforming aspects seem directly copied from God of War (beam balancing, really?!). If you like Wolverine and/or hack and slash games, and somehow don't own this game, you might as well check it out. Otherwise, you could easily skip it and play a better hack and slash, like any of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Death of the 'Classic Game'
After getting back from PAX, I check the City of Heroes site to see if they are having a Labor Day sale like most places. The last thing I expected to see was this. Paragon Studios is now gone. Like Onlive and 38 Studios, they were just sent home. No warning (that we know of), just a heaping helping of cold s**t.
I was stunned. As far as people knew, the game was making money. The failure of Aion dug deep, so they axed...City?! Well, I guess they didn't attend business school, or should at least ask for their money back if they did. Supposedly the servers will remain on until the end of November, but who knows if that will last? So the most unique MMO, and the game with the best character creator ever made will be gone. Forever.
This brings me to the true topic of this blog post. It's an idea I've had for a few days, but this development brings it to the forefront. It also illustrates my point perfectly. Constantly connected and always/only online games help usher in the death of the classic game.
What do I mean by this? Well, take a great game that you would consider a classic. I'm picking Legend of Zelda for the NES. You can find this game for a few bucks, and even pick up a cheap NES or similar device to play it. You can download it on your Wii or 3DS. The point is you can play it, even now. So it can remain a classic, since you can enjoy it to this day and beyond. You can introduce new people to it. Let your children experience it. Can you do that with World of Warcraft? EverQuest? Now, yes. What about in 5 years? Not likely. 10 years? I doubt it. These games that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy will just be...gone. Lost. Since they require a server, you can't even enjoy them offline. They can't be preserved. Therefore, they can't really be classics, as they cannot be passed on. They can only exist as screenshots and stories.
Your grandchildren will not know what WoW is. They will likely be able to play Legend of Zelda.
Think about that for a minute. Strange, isn't it? A game that at one point had 10 million subscribers will vanish. Sure, there will exist private servers, but they cannot sustain forever. You won't be able to snag it on eBay in 15 years when you remember how cool the game was. The more games that required you to be online, or have no offline component, the less games that survive to be 'classics'. These games cannot and will not be ported to other systems. There is no "Virtual Console" for old MMOs.
They just cease to be.
And that, to me, is one of the worst fates. Thank you Cryptic for making a great game. Thank you Paragon Studios for making that game even better. As many people on the forums said, you allowed me to fly.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
TF Prime Toys: Vehicon Impressions
I finally opened my Transformers Prime Vehicon toy, since it was my birthday recently. Yeah, I'm old and yeah, I'm a kid. Hahaha. I haven't really come up with a structure for toy reviews, so I'm kinda making up categories for right now. Anyway, here are a few impressions of the figure.
Look
I don't know what's NOT to like about the look. In car mode, it looks angular, menacing and sleek. It might be a bit small, but it works with a scout/troop type robot. The robot form is sleek as well, and doesn't have a lot of kibble. It looks like the show, and I think it looks a bit better than that. His proportions are also really good. No ape arms, tiny head of scrawny legs.
Articulation
Vehicon has great inward arm articulation, and the shoulders are very posable. The hips are pretty good, as they are the standard ball joint. The knees bend some, but not fully back. The feet are stable, but not really able to be put in different positions. The wrists only go up and down, but they get the job done when combining with the arm articulation. The outward arm movements are bad, and there is no waist articulation. The head moves a bit, but not too much. All in all, it's ok, I would like a bit better.
Transformation
Wow. I really like transforming the Vehicon. The whole top of the car folds up and becomes the bottom of the legs, storing them away. It's not the prettiest, but it looks fine from the front, and more importantly, NO KIBBLE! The front of the sides of the car are just sitting there, so there is a bit of kibble on the legs. Compared to most car-formers, it is amazingly small. The back panel of the car pulls out and brings the head with it, then folds to the back. You don't even see it from the front, and on the back it looks fine. To me, it is amazing how little kibble the Vehicon has in bot mode. Whoever designed this should get a raise. I'm serious, it's that good.
Weapons
The gun that it comes with isn't that great, but it gets points for being able to attach to several places on the figure. It can hold the handle of the gun or be mounded to its arm, as if the hand transformed into it. You can plug the handle into the shoulder, or attach is to the kibble near the leg as if it were holstered. In car (alt) form, it can be plugged into the back of the side, or attached onto the side of the hood. It might not look pretty, but great versatility with the Vehicon, and that matters more to me in this instance.
So was it worth the money I paid for it? In short, yes. I had to pay a bit more than retail ($20 from a fellow fan), but that is to be expected. Hopefully the "revision" case that a future wave has with 2 Vehicons is real so more people can get this. It is rare and unfortunately scalpable, but it is a great figure.
Look
I don't know what's NOT to like about the look. In car mode, it looks angular, menacing and sleek. It might be a bit small, but it works with a scout/troop type robot. The robot form is sleek as well, and doesn't have a lot of kibble. It looks like the show, and I think it looks a bit better than that. His proportions are also really good. No ape arms, tiny head of scrawny legs.
Articulation
Vehicon has great inward arm articulation, and the shoulders are very posable. The hips are pretty good, as they are the standard ball joint. The knees bend some, but not fully back. The feet are stable, but not really able to be put in different positions. The wrists only go up and down, but they get the job done when combining with the arm articulation. The outward arm movements are bad, and there is no waist articulation. The head moves a bit, but not too much. All in all, it's ok, I would like a bit better.
Transformation
Wow. I really like transforming the Vehicon. The whole top of the car folds up and becomes the bottom of the legs, storing them away. It's not the prettiest, but it looks fine from the front, and more importantly, NO KIBBLE! The front of the sides of the car are just sitting there, so there is a bit of kibble on the legs. Compared to most car-formers, it is amazingly small. The back panel of the car pulls out and brings the head with it, then folds to the back. You don't even see it from the front, and on the back it looks fine. To me, it is amazing how little kibble the Vehicon has in bot mode. Whoever designed this should get a raise. I'm serious, it's that good.
Weapons
The gun that it comes with isn't that great, but it gets points for being able to attach to several places on the figure. It can hold the handle of the gun or be mounded to its arm, as if the hand transformed into it. You can plug the handle into the shoulder, or attach is to the kibble near the leg as if it were holstered. In car (alt) form, it can be plugged into the back of the side, or attached onto the side of the hood. It might not look pretty, but great versatility with the Vehicon, and that matters more to me in this instance.
So was it worth the money I paid for it? In short, yes. I had to pay a bit more than retail ($20 from a fellow fan), but that is to be expected. Hopefully the "revision" case that a future wave has with 2 Vehicons is real so more people can get this. It is rare and unfortunately scalpable, but it is a great figure.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Quick PSP Impressions #1
I've recently being playing some PSP with a few of my old games and a few borrowed from friends. I figured I would just throw up a few of my impressions.
Bounty Hounds
This is Bamco (Namco Bandai)'s version of Phantasy Star Online. At least, that's what it plays like. It is more action-oriented, which is hurt by the camera. Like PSO, you use the L Button to center the camera, and that is the only way to control it. I frequently have trouble turning it the right angle, and fights get more complicated than they should be. I like that you get 4 weapons, and fighting is pretty fun (except for the camera), but the inventory UI is cumbersome and I'd like to be able to hold more. Also the active skills aren't that great. The "shield" function is great for attacking (what?), but not that great for guarding. I think I paid $5-8 bucks for this a few years ago, and it's probably only worth that.
Gods Eater Burst
A more fast-paced Monster Hunter. Your weapon has a blade mode, gun mode and can guard. It's really fun so far. I don't have anyone to play it with, which I think would make it even better. Also you have a move that bites the monster and powers you up briefly. Eating a monster is how you carve it to get items. Fun, weird, and cool. I'm definitely getting a download copy of this (so I can transfer it to Vita when I get one) when it drops in price. It seems to be worth the $20 they want, but I'm going to hold out for $10. If you want a UMD, I believe it's already that price.
Grand Knight's History
It took me a bit to "get" this game and understand what to do. I like that you make your party and can customize them to a decent degree. Battles are fun. It reminds me of Cross Edge, how you place your party and attack, but without all the crappyness of Cross Edge. The game seems really basic, you just run around and do quests for money and experience, to beef up your party for the online component. Unfortunately, the online component only works in Japan, so I couldn't try it out, even if I wanted to. A real shame that Vanillaware didn't want to sell this in America, seeing as how they paid for and got a translation of it. So, Vanillaware, you lost a good chunk of respect (and profit). Tell Bioware hello down there.
Gungnir
I've only played about 30 mins of Gungnir so far, and I'm not too hot on it. There seems to be a lot of things that affect battle, but none of them seem too important. I haven't done poorly or anything, but it just seems like they threw in lots of unnecessary things to complicate an SRPG. I mean, you only more 1 unit a turn? Weird...
I'll have a few more quick impressions up shortly, so stay tuned! Do people even say that anymore?
Bounty Hounds
This is Bamco (Namco Bandai)'s version of Phantasy Star Online. At least, that's what it plays like. It is more action-oriented, which is hurt by the camera. Like PSO, you use the L Button to center the camera, and that is the only way to control it. I frequently have trouble turning it the right angle, and fights get more complicated than they should be. I like that you get 4 weapons, and fighting is pretty fun (except for the camera), but the inventory UI is cumbersome and I'd like to be able to hold more. Also the active skills aren't that great. The "shield" function is great for attacking (what?), but not that great for guarding. I think I paid $5-8 bucks for this a few years ago, and it's probably only worth that.
Gods Eater Burst
A more fast-paced Monster Hunter. Your weapon has a blade mode, gun mode and can guard. It's really fun so far. I don't have anyone to play it with, which I think would make it even better. Also you have a move that bites the monster and powers you up briefly. Eating a monster is how you carve it to get items. Fun, weird, and cool. I'm definitely getting a download copy of this (so I can transfer it to Vita when I get one) when it drops in price. It seems to be worth the $20 they want, but I'm going to hold out for $10. If you want a UMD, I believe it's already that price.
Grand Knight's History
It took me a bit to "get" this game and understand what to do. I like that you make your party and can customize them to a decent degree. Battles are fun. It reminds me of Cross Edge, how you place your party and attack, but without all the crappyness of Cross Edge. The game seems really basic, you just run around and do quests for money and experience, to beef up your party for the online component. Unfortunately, the online component only works in Japan, so I couldn't try it out, even if I wanted to. A real shame that Vanillaware didn't want to sell this in America, seeing as how they paid for and got a translation of it. So, Vanillaware, you lost a good chunk of respect (and profit). Tell Bioware hello down there.
Gungnir
I've only played about 30 mins of Gungnir so far, and I'm not too hot on it. There seems to be a lot of things that affect battle, but none of them seem too important. I haven't done poorly or anything, but it just seems like they threw in lots of unnecessary things to complicate an SRPG. I mean, you only more 1 unit a turn? Weird...
I'll have a few more quick impressions up shortly, so stay tuned! Do people even say that anymore?
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