Star Trek Online Still Sucks

Was playing some Borderlands last night but the folkl I was playing with dropped out after about an hour and a half so I thought I might see if Star Trek Online has improved over the past few months. I have the scamlifetime subscription that they insisted you could only get before launch but now blimp it all over the place so I can pop on whenever I want, which is not very often. I tried out one of the new diplomatic missions which, while a nice change from the arguably non trek style balls to the wall combat missions of yor, was seriously disappointing. The game interface and interaction engine was simply not designed for non-combat content. It wasn't designed for the sort of explorative non-combat content the Star Trek universe deserves. They also took the complaints about scanning for anomalies to heart. Prior to some patch you looked for a flashy thing, hit F, it scanned. Now you look for a flashy thing, hit F, and do a super tedious minigame of match the waveform!!! Great! They took a tedious aspect of the game, and made it even more tedious. Needless to say I pew pewed some klingons for a bit, got bored and went to play Global Agenda. Which is pretty fun, it's sort of like future Team Fortress.

Tales of a Witchering Nature

I played a good amount of The Witcher demo this weekend. I have to say this is one of the best RPG's I've played in a long long time. The graphics were pretty swanky and ran smoothly on the MBP Geforce 8600GT. They fit well with the medieval magical setting. I'm typically more of a console RPG player normally especially when it comes to action RPG's but the semi-action nature of the control scheme worked well. It involves selecting your target and keying up a series of timed clicks to hammer out lucrative combos. While I love your standard J-RPG just because they are so ridiculous, be it Tales of Vesperia to Eternal Sonata, I love them all. Sometimes you just want a meatier, richer, more adult story-line. Something like Mass Effect. The Witcher pulls no punches in hitting you with mature content everywhere, all your values will be challenged and you'll be all the more cultured for it. Geralt isn't some goodie hero, he slums n sluts around with the best of them. Overall I say give the demo a try, you may find one of the best RPG's to come along in years. Amazon has the Enhanced version for 35 bucks, 5 bucks less than retail and digital download services. I really don't understand how publishers can still cling to the idea that they can charge the same amount for a DL or a richly packaged physical copy (witcher comes with a music cd, storybook, map, etc...). Why pay 5 bucks more for a DL? I'd have probably forgone the physical version if the DL was say 30 bucks not the 40 MSRP of retail.

Hawkiz?

I just played through the demo of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. It's decent enough I suppose, more arcady than simulation so it fits well on the 360. The voice activated controls work well but they are pretty awkward to use in play rather than hitting a button. The "assist off" mode is fun but puts the camera at a damn odd angle. It works well enough for the game but it was pretty disconcerting of a viewpoint. It's hard to describe but the camera pulls back and focuses on the target while you control the plane. At 60 bucks I won't be playing this but I can see myself picking it up at 20-25 bucks, maybe on the used market.

Wintereenmas 2009

This is my tentative Wintereenmas Schedule. Of course in the spirt of gaming it is always open to change if anyone wishes to partake in Wintereenmas Festivities.

January 25th - Command and Conquer 3
January 26th - Tales of Vesperia
January 27th - Burnout Revenge
January 28th - Sins of a Solar Empire
January 29th - Team Fortress 2
January 30th - Starcraft
January 31st - World of Warcraft


http://www.churchofgaming.com/

Bleed el Eye

Well I'm finally done with classes, I don't think I'm going to do that again for a while. Hammered them down A style. Here's a list of games I've got on the plate along with liberal applications of World of Warcraft. I may get around to adding this to the main site like the book list page which also hasn't been updated in a while either. Anyway here's a list of the games on the plate, been pilin up for a while time to get a few knocked out before the baby hits. Cats are not happy about a baby on the way.

Tales of Vesperia - Currently Playing
Fallout 3
Penny Arcade Adventures 1 and 2
Sam and Max Season 2
Avernum 2-4
Geneforge 1-5
Ultima III
Final Fantasy 1, III, IV, VII, VIII, IX
Chrono Trigger DS
Orange Box - Currently Playing
Icewind Dale
Neverwinter Nights
CnC Red Alert 3 - Currently Playing
Super Mario Galaxy
Tales of Symphonia 2

Probably others. Hit me up if you wanna hit something, I have the week off so I can play all day all night all the time.

The Horror, Oh the Horror!

We finally got in our first game of Arkham Horror that Nate purchased some time back. This game is set in the Call of Cthulhu universe with crazy Lovcraftian monsters. The game is a purely co-op affair which is rare in the tabletop gaming arena. The wife enjoys the co-op games so I'm always on the look out for more like Pandemic and Battlestar Galactica (this is only sudo co-op, someone is a cylon) I enjoyed the flapping 20's setting, not unlike the time period in Penny Arcade Adventures. The game is quite complex and we didn't get down all the game's rules and nuances this first time though we are confident we will be better prepared next time. This is one of those meaty games that will take the brunt of your gaming day/night vs. the half hour to hour games of Munchkin, Aquaduct, Last Night on Earth, etc.... Overall I really liked Arkham Horror and I look forward to visiting Arkham again soon. It's also way over produced and full of hundreds of bits in typical Fantasy Flight fashion. They always seem to have amazing production values.

Chad and I are also investigating the Call of Cthulhu LCG for some more standard, quick, card based play. I'm digging the LCG format that Fantasy Flight is pioneering. Instead of buying pack after pack after pack of cards hoping you might get a rare these will be released in fixed sets. You buy the set you have all the cards. Done. Now it's not about who spent more money to get that rare card but who is better at deck building and strategy. Go Fantasy Flight.

The latest and Greatest in RETRO AWESOMENESS

Spiderweb Software has today released, the latest, and last game in the Geneforge Series Geneforge 5. This new game sports a new OpenGL GFX system that scales to your monitor. I can play it on 1680x1050 awesomeness, it's pretty swanky and sweet. Mac version is out now, Windows in 2009 as usual. You won't find more game for your buck than Spiderweb RPGs.

Welcome back, Comrade'

Well I managed to snag myself a copy of Red Alert 3. I would have held out for a Mac version but

A. There is no word of one.
B. Bing Gordon is a lying piece of dog shit that needs to put up or shut up (Where's Kane's Wrath jerk).

I wouldn't normally get a Special Edition but Red Alert 3 came with some neat stuff in addition to the usual special edition tin. The Premier edition comes with some additional maps. Meh. A music CD and a bonus video disk with interviews and a Women of Red Alert video. You're peaking my interest. And a Women of Red Alert poster. Sold.



Worth the price of admission right there kids worth it right there.

Stargatezzzzz

I've mentioned before, I have the full EV Nova card game though few to play it with, and I used to play Yu-gi-oh though matt whomped me and noone to play it with anymore either. I recently picked up a starter pack on the Stargate Online TCG. The interface is solid, and there are available people to play against. The game is unique in the TCG world, whereas there are several methods of winning, and the focus is on exploration and winning missions not combat. You can perform a variety of actions on your villain turns, and a variety of events on your hero turns. I've been going by Rakden on it, if you get bored drop a 10 spot and stop on. Cheaper than online poker, and twice as fun. Seems there are tournaments and what not as well but I fear I'm too terrible to compete in one anytime soon, they do look like fun for those who like that competitive thang. They cost "event" tokens which are a buck a pop, Tournys range in cost from 1-25 token/tickets as far as I can tell the rewards falling in line with that. Even the smaller ones have decent rewards, get from one to several packs of cards plus special foil cards. Another neat thing is if you collect a full set you can redeem them for a free set of physical cards to play "offline".

Also check out the Nerd Handbook, It's a good read to understanding the geek/nerd mentality.

Mario Galaxy is TITS

Got my reserve of Super Mario Galaxy today. It's tittttts. Words don't do it justice. A true sequel to Mario 64, none of that Sunshine BS.
Go buy this now, go buy a wii so you can buy this now. Go sell your cousin off into slavery so you can buy this and a wii now.



Also feel free to enjoy some random shots of all my spiderweb games. Patches also seems to enjoy. I realized that after my Avernum 5 order today I own every single Spiderweb Software game going back to Exile sans the original Nethergate. All the hint books too.

Saddness

Just a note before I leave for teh south "shudder". Spiderweb software is running it's annual sadness sale. When the fall comes it's not a pretty sight in Washington so they run a sale to cheer themselves up. 10% off everything in the Spiderweb store, that includes, discounted bundles, CD's, and hint books. If you've been on the fence about some of the RPG's Jeff Vogel makes, now is your chance to nab a few up at a nifty discount. These games are hella lightweight too, If your computer has been made in the past 10 years you can play these gems. Hell most of them you can probably play on machines made in the past 15 years.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Nethergate, it's got some of the best story around RPG wise. Play as the Romans or the Celts, and get a unique view of the story from each side. Runs on a modified BoA engine which I am a fan of, it's easy to navigate and control via keyboard commands.



Other than that I really dig all the Avernum games, though for whatever reason I tend to like 1-3 a little more. 4 used a new, slightly less retro engine and I tended to like the old Avernum engine. I found it quick for me to navigate with the keyboard commands. Don't get me wrong 4 is still fantastic, but 1-3 for sheer retro content goodness.

Dragons O Plenty

I've had some time to sink my teeth into Blue Dragon and I have a few observations about it. First off let me say its great, if you are in the market for that classic style J-RPG this is your game. While the first Xbox had 0 turn based RPG's it looks like this round the 360 has hit critical mass in being the market for RPGs, pretty much all the devs are saying PS3 suck our balls.

The game feels like Chrono Trigger. The play style, the music, the overall atmosphere. Considering Hironobu Sakaguchi was co-founder of Square, and had his hand in Chrono Trigger it's easy to see why. While the story isn't as powerful as the ol CT it's solid. The Dragon/combat system is solid, the customizability of your characters via skill sets is impressive. Since Hironobu has left Square and is now developing for the 360, it's likely that future Final Fantasy games simply won't have the same flair they used too (not that the past few have either, though he had less and less to do with them as well). The game feels like classic square because at it's soul it is. Character Design is by the guy that did Chrono and Dragon ball, it almost feels like playing some 3d anime. Combat is nice, you can see your enemies before you attack ala Chrono. If you sneak up behind them you can perform a back dash attack and get the jump on them. The game touts 50 hours of gameplay, and likley more than that if you want to nab all the achievements. Thats ROI on your gaming buck for sheer entertainment value.

The music, while new, again has that midiretropop feel like classic square. Again the music was done by the original music composer of the classic Final Fantasy games. For all intents and purposes this game is Squaresoft reborn.

There is some sort of obsession with poop. First frackin monster you fight is a frackin Poo Monster, and they come in droves after that. Literally a swirling pile of purple poop. There are even achievements dedicated to defeating these pooply mobs. While not the oddest creatures I've seen in a RPG it's still perplexing to say the least. Some sort of subliminal poop is bad message I don't know?

The boss battles feature some un-named 80s big hair style rock. Absolutely does not fit with the game. I don't know if Hironobu Sakaguchi was smoking crack and watching Fast Times or what but defiantly is some of the strangest music I've seen in an RPG.

And that's the rest of the story.

Nova Nova City

EV Nova, the board card sci-fi game came. Now I need people to play it with, one guy at work actually knows what Escape Velocity is so maybe I can sucker him in. Apparently in a fit of sickened internet rage I ordered the booster packs with it. Hoping tommorow after saturday cleaning to hammer a few hours of Blue Dragon.

Is anyone else as excited about Battlestar Galactica Razor as I am, the little clips of previews that have been on Sci-fi send a chill up my spine. I think next week they are starting some 2 minute clip things of the first Cylon War.

Cats have been xtra cute lately, check out the latest shots of them over at our Flickr Page. Nemo is looking handsome as ever.

Escape Velocity Nova

Picked up the EV Nova Card game. See how it is. If I like it mebby I'll grab some of the xpacs. I've been watching it for a couple years now. I'm sure it was a niche seller, since the game was pretty much a niche game. Figured better grab it before this piece of gaming is gone for good. Check out the Computer Games by Ambrosia Software too. They are top notch.

LameStop City

Well Gamestop is running a Tiered promo right now, just of it is trade in 5 or more games and get 30% bonus credit. Stacks with EDGE for another 10%. I normally throw most my games up on Goozex but I had quite a few games that had dozens of copies available on Goozex without many requests so I figured was a good time to unload. Anyway, went to the local un-lame Gamestop (still freaks me out every time I go in). The nice, knowledgeable manager lady/girl/woman was there we talked Wii for a bit. Oh man I unloaded the Spongebob game for Wii, that game was shit, looked like a PS1 game. Odd since the cube games were decent. Developers have been thinking oh the Wii is a free pass to make shit, well guess what suckers, it isn't. Make a good game it will sell, Metroid, Resident Evil, Elebits, etc...

Shit right, back to the story. I unloaded a few games with 40% bonus credit and netted about 100 bucks in credit. Pre-ordered Mario Galaxy (i know I normally don't pre order at lame stop but I had the credit) and still had 45 bones or so in credit left. Mebby will come in handy when Mass Effect or Ace Combat comes out. Phuck, too many really awesome games in such a short period of tyme.

On my list of games to play, well the first ones that come to mind anyway. There's a stack of 30 or 40 on the shelf yet.......

Blue Dragon (have)
Eternal Sonata (have)
Metroid Prime 3 (getting)
Mass Effect (getting) - Also need to read the book which I have.
Lost Odyssey (getting)
Ace Combat 6 (getting)
Galactic Civilizations II (have)
Command and Conquer 3 Mac (have)
Avernum 2-4 and Geneforge 2-4 (have)

Intense Flavor

Beat BioShock tonight, Phuck Fontaine is kinda hard. I had to go back a bit and nab some more money for First Aid's, actually once I was stocked on those he was easy pickins. Couple security bot plasmids and a few propane tank things to the face made short work of him. Apparently since I was harvesting Lil Sisters for ADAM I got the "bad" ending, I won't spoil the surprise for those who haven't beaten it yet but I'll say this, it's one hell of a twist. Gunna trade it in for Mario Galaxy I suppose.

The end is finally near.

I'm on the final level of Bioshock. Just need to hamphuck Fontaine and I'll be done. lotta crazy twists and turns in the plot. I stand by my opinion that this game is for sure best game this year, possibly best game this decade. I'm in love with the art deco style, and I'll be sad when it's done but cripes it's one hell of a ride for 15-20 hours of your life. Must play game, pretty much your life is meaningless having not played this game.

Pink is the new um...Pink

The wife says she wants one of the upcoming pink Xbox 360 controllers, I could use a couple more so I'll pick one up when amazon has them for 15 bucks off.



In other news, our pink pan set from Amazon came smashed all to phuck, lids shattered, solid steel pans twisted like they were rubber. Amazon is sending new ones but did UPS drive a truck over this shit?

Command & Conquer 3

We went to Jordan Creek Mall and Target tonight to get a few halloween decorations. Got some LED orange and purple lights, as well as some indoor things. We lost most of our halloween decs to mold via a broken snowglobe in the fall decorations tote. Swung by the apple store to grab C&C3. Bought a couple copies of it and some ipod in ear headphones. It's crazy now, no checkouts. You just find a guy and he scans your shit n pulls a bag out of his butt. Literally. Emailed me the receipt. Crazy. C&C is copying right now, 6 friggin gigs, must be all thems videos. Nemo just dropped a bomb mega style. Oh lord, the whole apartment Nemo has stunk up. Enjoy a shot of my new C&C3.

DragonCon

I'm about halfway through BioShock, it's just such an engrossing, visceral experience. Simply an amazing game. Hard to understand how the minority of folks think its not a good game. Clearly they haven't actually played it. When I'm done with it I might play it through again to rescue the lil sisters and get the "good" ending.

Picked up

Blue Dragon

,

Harry Potter

, and

Galactic Civilizations

today at the local Lamestop. In this one's defense the guy and gal in there never harass me about anything, and are usually pretty up to day on their gaming news. The one in Marshalltown is typical LameStop push push push. Blue Dragon is a classic J-RPG from the masters of the Genre. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy has crafted this tale. Should be good.

Harry Potter is for Rakdette, no interest in it myself.

Galactic Civilizations, well I've swooned over it for some time but I tend not to buy Windows games so I never picked it up. In light of the recent BioShock RootKit/DRM fiasco I took it apon myself to reward a company (Stardock) that not only made a great game but threw conformity to the wind and released it like it used to be, just a simple serial code and you don't even have to have the disk in. I also dropped them a letter praising them for their pro-consumer stance and also requested Mac support in future endeavors. They wrote back quickly thanking me for my letter and hoped I would enjoy the game. Of note, the 360 version of the game is the superior version, no DRM, and controls smooth as butta. And I can trade off the game when I'm done vs. the DRM fatality of the Windows version. Which I will be trading it off on

Goozex

fer

Metroid Prime 3

.