Guild Wars 2: The First 10 Levels

A week has passed since I started playing Guild Wars 2 for the Personal Computer and I have finally reached level 10. While my friends are hitting the 30+ levels, I am straggling behind. The reason behind that? Well, I have been jumping back and forth between the five characters across the game's 5 races. It is also a fact that I don't play the game that often because well, the game may be good but it isn't that addicting.

 

Mercilessly sexy and has plenty of clones to satisfy both the ladies and gents.

 

I am not going to go that super-detailed spoiler route of sharing with you my experience with the game thus far. Instead, I am just going to mention what I have enjoyed and what I found annoying in GW2:

 

FUN:

1) The events where all players within an area can participate in are always, and I mean, always happening. This translates into non-stop action which then translates into non-stop experience gains.

2) The Vistas - these are cut-scene trigger points where the game camera pulls back to show the majesty of the surrounding environment.

3) The weapon-based skills are starting to make sense and being able to toggle between two weapon sets means access to a total of 10 weapon skills - a lot more I initially thought the players are limited to.

4) The backpack is so easy to manage. With a couple of clicks, you can send all crafting items into the bank without visiting a branch!

 

The game doesn't shy away from showing you this. Can you find Androstenol?

 

EH, OKAY:

1) The Waypoints - you use this to immediately transport yourself between areas. Being able to travel quickly across the map is something that was in the original game that shouldn't have transferred over to this game. It really shatters the illusion that you are playing in a large interconnected world.

2) Having instanced personal storyline takes away the impact of the said narrative. It just feels like your story is not even a part of the actual living world.

3) The character cut-scenes that happen during pivotal points where two large character models talk to each other while kind of sort of looking at each other are just... awkward.

 

All of a sudden, all the people running around the map simply disappear...

 

EWWW:

1) The player versus player is a mess. I jumped on a PvP match once and that may have been the only time that I will be playing PvP in this game. The PvP was so unresponsive and unsatisfying, I jumped onto League of Legends immediately after to wash off the filth from my entire being. It was hectic, especially with the stupid gameplay mechanics called...

2) ...Dodging! Why is this even in the game? Sure, a perfectly placed dodge will get you out of an area of effect spell but it doesn't bring that much to a game where you pretty much resort to crazy clickings of the spell bars to conquer your opponents. The finishing move when the opponent is down is also pretty stupid and unnecessary. It takes forever to execute when you can do something better during that time like clicking your spell bars to exhaustion.

 

There you have it, my first 10 levels in GW2 was indeed filled with moments of glory and the occasional moments of shame. I do still like the game a lot and I do feel the urge to continue playing so at least I know that I won't be abandoning this game the same way I did on first one. Let's go Androstenol!

Steam Greenlight: Vote Now

Today, Steam Greenlight has finally been made available by Valve in the Steam client and it is quite an innovation in the gaming world. The "Greenlight" page is accessible under the Community tab and thus far, it houses 400+ games and counting that the gamers can vote on with a thumbs up and a thumbs down. There is even a comment section where you can share your thoughts on these games. These vote will become a parameter to whether or not these games will get released on Steam but more than anything else, it's just a way for independent developers to reach out to potential customers to see if they would be able to get support, thus profit, with a Steam release. So jump on your Steam client tonight and start voting. Some of these games are so good, it makes me wonder why they needed to be in Steam Greenlight to begin with while the rest are so bloody awful, I'm glad that that they will never be released on Steam.

 

It's a cool idea that benefits both the gamers and the developers.

Review: Retro/Grade

Retro/Grade (2012)

Developer: 24 Caret Games

Platform: Personal Computer, PlayStation 3

Induction Date: 11/28/2014, 08/25/2012

It seems like the music-shooter genre hybrid is a great place to find inspiration and success for game developers as yet another fascinating creation has arrived on the scene. Retro/Grade is mainly a rhythm action music game but its near-genius implementation of shoot-'em-up elements has certainly made it the most intriguing combination of those two genres thus far.

Slurp that long strand of laser back into the ship.

In Retro/Grade, you play as Rick Rocket who has encountered a temporal anomaly caused by a massive destruction he left in his wake when he finally saved the universe. This caused him to move backwards in time as weapons are being unfired from both sides of the battle. You can only move vertically in the game, occupying one color coded lane at a time. Your shots move back towards you from these lanes and you have to make sure that you are on the right lane, ready to unfire your weapon when they actually reach your ship: you have to do all of this while avoiding enemy bullets that are travelling back into the enemy ships. It's an extraordinary concept, so much so that the game ready does feel like a shooter, a passive one that is, because of all those bullets that you have to constantly unfire and avoid. With such a radical, clever idea, it is disappointing however that the narrative part of the game did not receive that much care. With great masterpieces in shmup history carrying fantastical stories, like Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun, it would have been great to concoct more involving situations surrounding Rick's dilemma. One of the game's stages is actually called Rick Rollin' and in another, Rick's battle was fueled by the need for coffee, so you get my drift. I do get the tongue-in-cheek humor but I just strongly feel that there is a missed opportunity here.

See the big bad boss get reassembled piece by piece in front of your eyes.

Thankfully, the game's delicious retro-inspired soundtrack takes a darker and more epic tone than the game's cheesy tale. Some of tracks sounded a bit too similar to each other but they are very catchy so it's easy to get yourself  deeply lost in the rhythm tapping. Similarly impressive is the game's astute understanding of the type of death-defying bravado we come to expect in a shmup: the maneuvers that you will be making throughout the course of the game's 10 levels are quite tricky because you basically have to weave in-between enemy bullets while un-shooting and survive near misses from the enemies' relentless retuning attacks. To help with the demanding display of shmup prowess, the game provides you with a limited ability to reverse your mistake - that is, return time back to its chronological state - and though this action should only be used sparsely and in a perfect run, it is not even needed, it is fun to watch how the action looks when it's not reversed. It's cool that at the end of the level, your entire performance is then reversed so that you can watch the entirety of that session as a forward moving shooter. Retro/Grade is visually beautifuly with its fluid 1080p, 60 frames per second presentation. I love how fast the backgrounds move and that there are always a variety of things to see within them. It's funny that independent PlayStation 3 releases can achieve 1080p when almost the entirety of the bigger releases can't.

Pay attention to the colors...

In addition to the game's campaign, Retro/Grade also comes with a lengthy challenge mode. There are 130 challenges in all scattered across a galaxy map and it is here that you can unlock additional contents for the game like artwork, cheats, alternate ship models (Octodad for the win), and tracks for a functioning turntable. The problem with challenge mode is its lack of variety and shorter challenges would have fit better here instead of having players go through the entirety of a level to progress through the mode. There is always an unlockable just several challenges away however and it is keeping me motivated to continue on. I personally enjoy just playing the campaign because, just like in a typical shmup, I just love to strive for better performance and score - and of course in Retro/Grade, the score goes down the better you perform. It helps tremendously that every mode of play has its own leaderboards: the challenges included.

The difficulty progression in campaign is not reversed but it's well explained.

2012 has been an uneventful PS3 year for me but Retro/Grade has changed that. It is by far the most exciting game released on the platform this year. The game can also be played with a guitar controller - as a matter of fact, the "X-Treme" difficulty level is near impossible with the controller unless you have really, really, really fast fingers. Retro/Grade is available for purchase on the PlayStation Network Store for $9.99. It is also bundled with the soundtrack for $14.99. If you choose to get the soundtrack at a later time, it is available separately for $7.99. Shmup fans are the ones who would benefit the most out of this game because of the potential appreciation for its overwhelming genre aesthetics but the game can easily be enjoyed by others as well.

RATING: 4 out of 5

Game key provided by developer.

Games Played 08/20/2012 - 08/26/2012

- 08/20/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Puzzle Quest 2 - PC

Renegade Ops - PC

 

- 08/21/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Galaxy on Fire 2: Full HD - PC

Saints Row: The Third - PC

 

- 08/22/2012 -

Guild Wars - PC

League of Legends - PC

Saints Row: The Third - PC

 

- 08/23/2012 -

Guild Wars - PC

League of Legends - PC

Sleeping Dogs Demo - PC

 

- 08/24/2012 -

Guild Wars 2 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Titan Quest - PC

 

- 08/25/2012 -

Diablo III - PC

Guild Wars 2 - PC

Retro/Grade - PlayStation 3

 

- 08/26/2012 -

DOTA 2 Beta - PC

Guild Wars 2 - PC

Retro/Grade - PlayStation 3

 

 

Screenshot of the Week:

 

Leveling up - one of the most addictive forces in gaming.

Guild Wars 2 (Personal Computer)

Best Reversible Cover Ever?

I got my copy of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One for the PlayStation 3 today and when I opened up the case, I discovered that it has a reversible cover art and it is an adorable one at that. The alternate cover is the tactfully done by none other than Captain Qwark himself and you know that anything that guy touches will turn into pure cheese. I love it so much that I decided to use it as the cover art for the game case. Why can't we have something like this for every single PS3 games out there to celebrate the last remaining years (months?) of physical video game distribution?

 

Do I have to be naked to enable the "Crotchetizer"?

Guild Wars 2: A Headstart

Guild Wars 2 for the Personal Computer by ArenaNet started its Headstart Access last night for those who pre-ordered the game and since that event started sooner than midnight - a friend of mine told me that he was already able to get into the game - I was able to log in and play the game around 10:30pm PDT. I didn't play for long though since both of us discovered a bug with the Asura race where the final part of the prologue where you have to fight a monstrous golem cannot be completed as it kept resetting over and over again. After that disappointing start, things worked a lot better when I played as the Norn and the Sylvari races this morning.

 

The story intro - yes, it's as cheesy as it looks.

 

Since I played a bit as the Mesmer with the Asura, which is still the most interesting class in the Guild Wars universe, I made my Norn a Hunter and my Sylvari a Necromancer. An interesting feature that I noticed right away was the placement of players in a temporary server while queueing to get into the destination server. This is quite a brilliant move to combat wait time during a massively multiplayer online role playing game launch - we all know how lengthy that could be. The first section that you have to complete for your characters does feel rushed even though the game tries to give that personalized feel to the whole occasion. These prologues could have taken their sweet time to build up your character's background so I know that at this point that the promise of a "Personal Story" is probably going to end up being unfulfilled, especially after seeing many of my own clones running about the game world.

 

Not sure why ArenaNet is so obsessed about transforming people into animals.

 

Thankfully, the haphazardly told storyline is the only glaring problem that I have found so far with the game. The graphics, oh my galaxy, those graphics are truly, ridiculously incredible for an MMO. The game is no longer instanced-based the way the first one was because now, you gain access to large open adventuring areas with other players and to achieve this level of graphical fidelity is quite remarkable. From the character models, to the clothing, and all the way to the environments, everything is meticulously detailed but be warned that the game will require a decent rig to run at the higher settings. On my PC, the game fluctuates between 40-60 frames per second with everything maxed out. Some of the character designs are questionable though, like the ugly Asura race that if not customized properly could end up looking like a mangled bunny. Just avoid playing the Asura and you will find yourself staring at your characters in admiration for a long time to come.

 

Let's kill some crystallized wurms before we drink, shall we?

 

Now those who said that the battle system in GW2 is revolutionary has probably never played an MMO before. Besides the fact that any kind of obstruction, environments or other enemies, will stop your attacks from hitting the target, everything here is rather standard. You click or tab over to an enemy, click you spell buttons and repeat until the target is dead. And oh, dodging can make you immune to attacks. The questing system isn't all that new nor is it perfect either. From what I have experienced so far, a majority of the quests in the starting area are presented in the form of events and when they start, you can just join in on the fun and complete whatever task it was that you have to accomplish at the risk of knowing nothing about the events' significance. Sure, the battles and the quests are fast and fun but basically, you are doing the same thing that you are doing in other MMOs, only that the grind is less apparent.

 

I do have some reservations about the skill system but since I have barely started the game, I am going to see how things develop before I can make a solid judgment on it. I am disappointed that the first five skills that you can use are weapon-dependent. I thought that after the whole 8 skill limitation of the first game, they are going to do away with such restrictions but it seems like things are a bit more rigid in this sequel. I do like that all classes can heal so that everyone can focus on actual combat. I have had enough with healing my party/raid because I had done it for 9999+ hours while playing World of Warcraft.

 

Yes, you may be killing together but are you really playing together?

 

GW2 doesn't feel like a full-fledged MMO because of its strange skill system but I can certainly see some potentials here. Thus far, it doesn't feel like the MMO revolution that it likes to brag itself to be but it is indeed fun and there is no subscription fee without having to revert to nasty "supposedly free to play" tactics. I am glad that I got the game - thanks hun - as much as I tried to avoid it and if you are on the fence about GW2, there are worse options out there.

 

FIRST IMPRESSION: 4 out of 5

  

Related Article:
Guild Wars 2: The First 10 Levels

Guild Wars 2: Not That Easy Anymore

My spouse has been away out of state since Monday of this week to take care of some family business in New York and will not be coming home until late this Sunday. Apparently, the spouse has been keeping up on my daily postings because I got a text message this evening asking me to go check my email. Low and behold, this is what I found:

 

What... The... Meteor?

 

And this was after I had reinstalled the original Guild Wars plus all of its expansions this afternoon - an action that was motivated by the fact that I was encountering long loading screens when entering a new area initially because I only had the basic game client installed. Of course this is going to cause much complications in my plan and I bet you are laughing over there honey. You know that you still have to come back to me and you know as a punishment you will have to sit in the Game Room and watch me play this. Yes, I am sure you're regretting it now. I am very surprised that the 3-day "Headstart Access" was attached to this thing. Will I be playing it at launch this midnight? I wasn't prepared for this actually or I would have taken a nap earlier. We shall see. With the new Paragon system in Diablo III, my ever continuing obsession with League of Legends, my desire to explore the original Guild Wars, and now this? Is it even plausible to play both the original and this sequel concurrently?

Getting Comfortable with the G110

Since I spend so much of my free time gaming on the Personal Computer these days, I have decided to get myself one of those "gaming keyboards". I really do hate that term actually - what does a "gaming keyboard" really mean since you can perfectly game using any old keyboard. I am more forgiving about a "gaming mouse" like my G700 because it does add a lot to gaming but with these specialized "gaming" keyboard, it's all about the extra comfort as well as convenience and those were the things that brought me to the Logitech Gaming Keyboard G110. It'a an older model but that doesn't make it bad.

The software support is slick and intuitive.

What attracted me the most about this keyboard is the headset connectivity. Since I do my PC gaming on the big screen - no, I am not a time traveller who brought the future technology of the year 3000 into the current world - I don't have wireless peripherals for everything and that includes the headset. I do have many quality headsets but for convenience, I often just plug in that cheap official X-Box 360 headset into the 360 controller for voice chats. Now, I can just simply hook up my best headset to the G110 - the keyboard even has off/mute buttons built in. The second feature that I am thrilled about is of course the 12 customizable extra keys on the left hand side of the keyboard. Sure, those of us who use the keyboard all the time know where the specific key for a specific input is at all times but I like the idea of having them grouped up together. Even nicer is the fact that these 12 keys are separated into 3 clusters of 4 keys. I am going to use them primarily for stuff like the in-game menu screens like character stats/inventory because the action-oriented commands will be assigned to my G700 mouse. The G110 itself is not wireless but it certainly makes up for hogging up one of your 2.0 USB port by having one on it. It's nice to just have things hooked up directly to the keyboard itself instead of having to walk that 7-8 feet to my PC which is perfect for my gaming setup.

Go red or go dead.

Other features of the G110 include the backlit keys that comes in three different colors - a non-essential to me because I don't game in the dark, not very comfortable - and the MR key that allows you to create macros on the fly. Overall, if you are looking for a fancy keyboard for gaming or otherwise that doesn't break the bank, the G110 is a great option. It doesn't have the LCD screen that is attached to the more expensive models but in all seriousness it is more exciting to see things on your beautiful gaming monitor, big or small, than on that thing. I sure wish the keyboard has more customizable keys however but 12 is more than you normally get from most of these "gaming" keyboards.

RATING: 4 out of 5

Guild Wars 2: An Easy Decision

Many of my friends have pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 for the Personal Computer and have participated in its beta. They all have nothing but positive things to say about the game. Guild Wars 2 is being released on Monday of next week but those who pre-ordered it can start playing the game this Friday. I can't say that I am not tempted to get my hand on the game - as a matter of fact, the spouse offered to get it for me recently - but I just can't justify getting the game right now. The reason behind it is simple: I still have the first Guild Wars.

 

The time to play this game is now.

 

I have written many times about my struggles in committing to Guild Wars in the past and basically, I have not explored the entirety of the massive amount of contents that could be found in this game and all of its expansions that I actually do own. The one thing that troubled me the most about Guild Wars was the limited amount of skills you can take with you into battle but I am quite used to that by now because I have been playing too much League of Legends. Now that the sequel is almost here, I am reminded that I really should do my best to experience everything that this game has to offer because you never know when they are going to take down the game server. I really sure hope that when that happens, they will patch this game to be playable offline. Hopefully, I will be able to satiate all of my Guild Wars curiosities before that time arrives.

Games Played 08/13/2012 - 08/19/2012

- 08/13/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Team Fortress 2 - PC

- 08/14/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

- 08/15/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Team Fortress 2 - PC

- 08/16/2012 -

Symphony - PC

Team Fortress 2 - PC

Two Worlds II - PC

- 08/17/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Unstoppable Gorg - PC

- 08/18/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Puzzle Quest 2 - PC

Renegade Ops - PC

Sniper Elite V2 - PC

- 08/19/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Puzzle Quest 2 - PC

SingStar - PlayStation 3

SingStar Rocks! - PlayStation 2

Screenshot of the Week:

Why does it have to be Arielle? Why?!

Unstoppable Gorg (Personal Computer)

It's Busy in X-Box Land

"Bardnoon Lord see what's happening on Xbox" the subject of the email from Microsoft reads. Wow, I thought to myself, Let's see what kind of exciting gaming development we have over on the X-Box 360 shall we? With bated breath and wearing nothing but my boxers, I proceeded to open the email:

The battle begins? No, it has ended a long time ago.

It's interesting that all these X-Box 360 promotional emails mostly focused on selling movies and music and NOT video games - notice the two measly items underneath that humongous section for The Hunger Games in which Microsoft received so much money for in pushing the movie out to the 360 users. Not included in the screenshot above is a whole section about "Katniss Trains with a Pro" as the footer of the email. While Valve further strengthens itself recently with the new Steam Community Update that really focuses on gaming content, Microsoft's plan is still to prioritize non-gaming access to what was supposed to be primarily a gaming console. I know people who just use the 360 primarily as an expensive Skype and Netflix streaming device. It's sad but these people are stupid. I am at the point in my life where if I will be happy with gaming as long as I have my Steam. My current consoles as well as future ones don't matter so much. I am still a fan of games versus platforms of course so when there are a games I am interested that are made for specific platforms, I would still pursue those games. Still, it seems like developers are beginning to wisen up these days and start to see Steam as a good place for them to make money. You know what they say, once you embrace Steam, everything else just stinks.

Gaming Break: Morning Sky II

Another view out of my window from early this morning. Watching the formation of the clouds in the sky with spreading beams of light alongside them reminded me yet again to appreciate the little things in life that are within my grasps. I know that I have been transformed over these years when it comes to my perspective on gaming and I would like to invite you to experience that progressive journey of gaming enlightenment by visiting the past entries of this blog since its inception in January 2008. It's hard for me to believe that it has been that long since I started my foray into personal video gaming journalism. From awkward beginnings, this website has become an integral part of my gaming existence. I wonder how it would feel like to be able to see 10 years worth of writing. I hope that you and I will be able to make it to 2018.

Life is most often about opportunities and how one capitalizes on them.

Steam Community Update Beta Loving

Who knew that I was one of the first 50,000 Steam users who obtained the "Pillar of the Community" badge that was introduced with the last Steam Summer Sale and who knew that Valve was going to use that criteria to provide initial beta keys for their Steam Community Update beta? I feel like such a lucky bastard and I am definitely enjoying all these community improvements which you can read about by clicking here. In a  nutshell, the update focuses on accomplishing two things - to infuse community contents as well as to improve community involvement in all facets of the Steam client functionalities. It's like the people at Valve want us to celebrate our love for gaming to the fullest by making it very easy to become a contributing part of the entire Steam community with something as simple as taking in-game screenshots, only to be able to see the results being magnified to an epic level of proportion both on an individual level when you access your screenshot library - now in a beautiful new layout - or all of the community screenshots that are now accessible from the game hubs of every single game titles in Steam. The idea behind such integration is such a simple one but it's a highly enjoyable endeavor that empowers every visit you made to the Steam client. Overall, I am very satisfied with this update and it is certainly going to improve the Steam user experience. I do want to note however that even though it's nice to be able create group discussions for your Steam group, it's strange that the ability to schedule recurring events is still not there. Oh well, at least now you can actually nickname your friends, especially when they have annoying profile names...

Go screenshot crazy for yourself and the community!

The group screen no longer looks like an afterthought during a hangover.

Be bold and create discussions for your favorite and hated games!

TF2: Guess I'm Just Not Mann Enough

I am not a big fan of Team Fortress 2, the team-based shooter turned free to play Steam game for the Personal Computer. It's just not I am not big on first person shooter deathmatches because they are generally cheap and don't require much strategy. And I so hate one shot kills. The closest in which I played a shooter deathmatch game would be when Gears of War 2 came out - and that was third person and there were cheap deaths galore there as well. I remember being invited to a match by a friend who warned me that one of his buddies in the match was "unkillable" and was a "pro" at the game. Sure, he dominated the first two or three rounds but it only took me that long to learn his pattern and I was able to repeatedly sneak up and melee chainsawed him to death. Soon after that, I was not invited into the matches anymore. Back to TF2 though, the new Mann vs. Machine mode that was just released today really intrigues me the way that the "Horde mode" did in Gears of War 2 - the latter ended up being vastly superior than the player versus player because of the strategic defend your base gameplay setup.

Alright TF2, I am finally sold... Let's play!

Wait, what? I have to wait that long. Exits TF2, opens League of Legends client.

Now Valve hardly ever make a misstep when it comes to their gaming and business strategies but there exists a problem with the way that Mann vs. Machine is handled. Being a truly free to play game means that Valve needs to attract some way for players to spend money and in the case of TF2, that involves cosmetic-only alterations to your in-game characters. The way that this is handled in TF2 divides the community in a negative way. You see, when you play on what is called "Mann Up Mode", you get special items and also get to participate in Tour of Duty, which is just basically a collection of missions. The trick here is that to Mann Up, you have to purchase Tour of Duty Tickets that will cost you 99 cents a pop. Whenever you get a loot drop, that ticket is then exhausted. Yes, this will make Valve tons of cash. Of course, not manning up - or in other words, being a pu$$y, I mean, being a free to play participant - will still get you eventual loot drops but not the special ones that you can only get from the Mann Up Mode unless you are willing to trade or pay for them from the Mann Up Mode players. Many people apparently wanted to Mann Up because of the 30+ minute wait to play on the free servers. Valve needs to rethink this strategy because when the community is split up like this, it's never a good thing. Maybe all of those lousy supposedly FTP massively-multiplayer online role playing games they offered via Steam are starting to infect Valve...

Steam Grid View Custom Images Galore

I saw that there was a beta opt-in available for the Steam client and I immediately jumped on it but unfortunately, it wasn't for the upcoming community content enhancements update that's in the works. I noticed several ugly, empty grids however in my Steam Library Grid View so I replaced them with nicer looking custom images - thank you Valve for giving us the superhuman-level ability to do this - so that I wouldn't go crazy when I scroll up and down the list looking for games to play. I have decided that whenever I created a custom image for my Steam games, I would then post it on this article just in case people are looking for them. I made 3 new ones today but I have also included the ones I created in the past sans the ones for Diablo III, which I already posted before - you can download it by clicking here. [Last Update: 10/20/2013]

DEFCON Beta Demo

Dirt 2

Divinity: Dragon Commander Beta

Galaxy on Fire 2: Full HD

Since pre-ordering games doesn't come with a nice grid image.

Guild Wars

Heroes of Newerth

Irem Arcade Hits

League of Legends

Got to love that Leona!

EA Origin

PCSX2

Sanctum Beta

Don't you just love developers forcing beta accesses without adding in a grid image?

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator

Sid Meier's Civilization V: SDK

Serious Sam 3: BFE Dedicated Server

Serious Sam 3: BFE Editor

TERA

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

Because Apocalypse's eyes are so very evil!

Oh Valve, You're Such a Tease!

With how ho-hum my console gaming life has been for quite a while now, there seems to always be something cool happening with Steam on the Personal Computer. It looks like Valve is gearing up for some major update to the community aspect of the Steam client to make it even more game-focused functionalities and pizazz. I am very excited about this and I hope the beta access is just around the corner. Check out the details as they are slowly revealed in the upcoming days by clicking here.

I have to wait 3 more days to find out more? Come on!

Games Played 08/06/2012 - 08/12/2012

- 08/06/2012 -

Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - PC

League of Legends - PC

Symphony - PC

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown - PlayStation 3

- 08/07/2012 -

Diablo III - PC

League of Legends - PC

- 08/08/2012 -

Irem Arcade Hits - PC

League of Legends - PC

Nimbus - PC

Symphony - PC

Titan Quest - PC

- 08/09/2012 -

Kung Fu: The Warrior's Rise Demo - PC

League of Legends - PC

Titan Quest - PC

- 08/10/2012 -

Guild Wars - PC

League of Legends - PC

- 08/11/2012 -

League of Legends - PC

Mario Kart 7 - 3DS

Shoot Many Robots - PC

- 08/12/2012 -

Adam's Venture Episode 1: The Search for the Lost Garden - PC

League of Legends - PC

Mario Kart 7 - 3DS

Shoot Many Robots - PC

Screenshot of the Week:

It's mercilessly hot in real life right now, so I'll have to skip playing this until winter arrives.

Adam's Venture Episode 1: The Search for the Lost Garden (Personal Computer)

Go Go Steam Activate!

Apparently, there are a couple of the games I have for my Personal Computer that do not mandate Steam activation but can be registered to the Steam service as I discovered from this official list. I thought that only retail games that require Steam are listed here and when I installed these games previously, I never knew that I could have them linked to my Steam profile. It's a pretty cool find, especially the fact that I love everything about Steam. Getting free digital copies of my games is nice because I have the confidence that the Steam service is probably going to last longer than my physical discs. I also discovered that I even got the standalone expansion Forged Alliance for free when I registered my retail copy of Supreme Commander! What a nice surprise.

My old retail games, resurrected into digital download form thanks to Steam.

Going Commando, Going Crazy

Got two more fancy skins for League of Legends on the Personal Computer today. At first, I was thinking of snatching up the Iron Solari skin for Leona but since I already have her awesome Valkyrie skin, I thought it was only appropriate to get alternate skins for the champions that are still without one - it is my goal to have at least one alternate skin for each and every single one of them. The skins that I just unlocked are Commando Lux and Sewn Chaos Orianna. I have been obsessed with Karma lately, even after the recent Soraka beautification, so it may be a while before I actually use these skins.

I wouldn't know if they are wearing it or not.

It's Patched? So What?

If you like your fighting games, there is no doubt that you have been drooling over the new Arc System Works game, Persona 4 Arena, that was recently released for both the PlayStation 3 and the X-Box 360 - hopefully for the Personal Computer some time in the near future. Since the game is released at that super-expensive $59.99 price tag, I will not be touching it any time soon due to my price epiphany. You probably have heard that the online multiplayer for the 360 version was horrible but it looks like the developer and publisher Atlus were both very quick to address the situation and then promptly announcing it to the world.

Fixed? As in, it won't be able to get horny and make babies anymore?

So, should people buy this game now if they are willing to spend that much money whether on the PS3 or the 360? Perhaps not, there may be a good reason to wait for it: the one thing that I had been unsuccessful in finding out over the Internet is the confirmation that there will not be another version of the game coming out next year or even by the end of 2012. We are talking about Arc System Works here and their last fighting game BlazBlue ended up having a better version of the original game released with more characters. I have a really strong feeling that the same will happen here. By the time that this game is properly priced, the new version will probably show its face and I am looking forward to pick up that copy, which I am sure would be priced competitively to not discourage those who bought this early version of the game.

You Sure You Didn't Misspell "Farting"?

I got the invitation to beta test Sony's upcoming LittleBigPlanet Karting for the PlayStation 3 sometime last month and I didn't even bother to check it out. The LittleBigPlanet games of the past are those games that I really want to spend a lot of time playing but is just too busy being distracted by greater games - you know, like League of Legends on the Personal Computer - but I did manage to play some of the pre-made and custom levels and they were fun despite the twitchy platforming. Let me explain why I think this upcoming Karting sequel should be avoided like the plague and syphilis: Shouldn't this be just a mere downloadable content add-on? I mean, was it not the point of the TWO LittleBigPlanet titles to be able to make all sorts of different games? Surely, it wouldn't be a stretch to add the full 3D exploration engine on top of the 2D plane with just an add-on instead of a full blown $60 title? Also, let's not forget that there is already a "make-your-own-kart-game" title out there published by Sony by the name of ModNation Racers that ended up being notorious for featuring one of the longest and most disgusting load times in gaming history. Why can't Sony just continue to support that game and fix it instead of moving on and give us something more of the same? Yes, avoid this one folks. Let's not give Media Molecule and Sony the idea that we are mindless zombies ready to eat at any bits of the skin flakes that fall from their heads from scratching.

Expect big, fiery explosion of stink to come out of this edition of LBP.