I have a great commentary voice, usually nice gameplay, amazing HD quality. I need more subscribers so I can get noticed and get some feedback to know how to improve!
Thanks so much!
D3M0L1SH3R
http://youtube.com/user/mindfreaks13
Monday, June 21, 2010
YOUTUBE
Hey guys, it's me D3M0L1SH3R. As you may or may not know, I am now mostly doing gameplay commentaries for CoD4, World at War, MW2, Halo 3, Halo Reach, etc, on YouTube. I am trying to one day have a Machinima contract, but I am having trouble getting a good start on YouTube. it'd be a great help if you could subscribe to my channel and get as many people as you can to also subscribe.
I have a great commentary voice, usually nice gameplay, amazing HD quality. I need more subscribers so I can get noticed and get some feedback to know how to improve!
Thanks so much!
D3M0L1SH3R
http://youtube.com/user/mindfreaks13
I have a great commentary voice, usually nice gameplay, amazing HD quality. I need more subscribers so I can get noticed and get some feedback to know how to improve!
Thanks so much!
D3M0L1SH3R
http://youtube.com/user/mindfreaks13
Thursday, April 22, 2010
[RageQuit] Grand Theft Auto IV: Vice City (XBOX 360)
I thought I should mention this RageQuit just for the sake of it being a RageQuit - GTA IV. Honestly, it's been at least a year since this particular attempt at playing the game, so the details are a little fuzzy, but I'll do what I can to accurately reconstruct the incident.
I really had no interest in any of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series games from Rockstar North, but an acquaintance offered to lend me his copy of GTA IV for the XBOX 360, I had a little time to spare, and a love for trying new games, so I borrowed it. My total play time could not have been longer than 10 minutes.
I popped the disc into my XBOX 360, and started a new single player game. While watching the opening cinematic, I could tell right off the bat that this wasn't my kind of game, but I continued on, anyway, trying to not judge a book by its cover, (or in this case, a game by it's opening). I gained control of my character and the next thing I knew I was in a big city walking around with no idea of what to do. I was just going to walk in to the store across the street from my location. Being a good pedestrian, I looked both ways to see if cars were coming (honestly I did, just changing the looking settings) and started to cross the street in front of me, or so I thought. BLAM! As soon as I made it halfway through the first lane, a car smashes my character in the side, draining my health and turning various icons on the HUD (heads-up display) red in color. While trying to stand up with my character's body sprawled across the car that collided with it, I managed to press the button that was the command for hijacking the car from its driver.
Clunk! Clunk! While hijacking the car, I apparently lost control of it (something to do with switching drivers while a car is moving at ~25 miles per hour, maybe?) and ran into two other pedestrians that were probably just trying to get to the store, like me. By then I had unintentionally stolen a nice car, ran it into two people and a street sign, lost half of my health, and now the police are chasing my vehicle in multiple cop cars. Unable to adapt to the game's driving system, having not played a Rockstar game on the XBOX 360 before, I crashed my car and was ejected from it through the front window, and lost more health.
My character was killed in a hail of gunfire from the trigger-happy police in pursuit, then its dead body was struck by another cop car. "Restart from checkpoint or quit game?" the menu asked me. I stared at the screen for a moment, then sat my controller down, took the GTA IV disc out of the tray, turned off my XBOX 360 console, and returned the game to its owner.
I really had no interest in any of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series games from Rockstar North, but an acquaintance offered to lend me his copy of GTA IV for the XBOX 360, I had a little time to spare, and a love for trying new games, so I borrowed it. My total play time could not have been longer than 10 minutes.
I popped the disc into my XBOX 360, and started a new single player game. While watching the opening cinematic, I could tell right off the bat that this wasn't my kind of game, but I continued on, anyway, trying to not judge a book by its cover, (or in this case, a game by it's opening). I gained control of my character and the next thing I knew I was in a big city walking around with no idea of what to do. I was just going to walk in to the store across the street from my location. Being a good pedestrian, I looked both ways to see if cars were coming (honestly I did, just changing the looking settings) and started to cross the street in front of me, or so I thought. BLAM! As soon as I made it halfway through the first lane, a car smashes my character in the side, draining my health and turning various icons on the HUD (heads-up display) red in color. While trying to stand up with my character's body sprawled across the car that collided with it, I managed to press the button that was the command for hijacking the car from its driver.
Clunk! Clunk! While hijacking the car, I apparently lost control of it (something to do with switching drivers while a car is moving at ~25 miles per hour, maybe?) and ran into two other pedestrians that were probably just trying to get to the store, like me. By then I had unintentionally stolen a nice car, ran it into two people and a street sign, lost half of my health, and now the police are chasing my vehicle in multiple cop cars. Unable to adapt to the game's driving system, having not played a Rockstar game on the XBOX 360 before, I crashed my car and was ejected from it through the front window, and lost more health.
My character was killed in a hail of gunfire from the trigger-happy police in pursuit, then its dead body was struck by another cop car. "Restart from checkpoint or quit game?" the menu asked me. I stared at the screen for a moment, then sat my controller down, took the GTA IV disc out of the tray, turned off my XBOX 360 console, and returned the game to its owner.
RAAAAAGEEE QUIIIIITTTTTT!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
[Review] Team Fortress 2 (PC / XBOX 360)
*NOTE: This is a guest post, a review written by a new contributor to Mind Freaks, Rokar333, and still edited by Peter Savkovich. Enjoy!*
Team Fortress 2 is the product of nearly ten years labor at Valve after the success of Team Fortress Classic in 1999. Over its long development period, the game has gone through many technical and graphical modifications. Starting as a realistic military based First Person Shooter (FPS), the game has evolved into a bloody, over-exaggerated, cell-shaded gore fest.
TF2 really doesn’t have much in the way of story, with no significant mentions of it anywhere on the box or manual. This is what is revealed to the player from the get-go: there are two giant corporations that are fighting for control the world, Reliable Excavation and Demolition; and Builders League United. Players fight for one of the two corporations. That’s it. Gamers looking for a product with deep narrative underpinnings should avoid this thing like the plague. However, the game easily makes up for its lack of story with excellent gameplay.
The game gives players the option of playing as one of nine classes, divided into three categories: Offense, Defense, and Support.
In the Offense category are the Scout, Soldier, and Pyro; the Defense characters are the Demoman, the Heavy, and the Engineer; and last, but certainly not least are the Support classes: Medics, Snipers, and Spies. Each class has their own unique weapons (such as the Spy’s butterfly knife or the Heavy’s minigun) and abilities (like the Scout’s ability to double jump) that make playing each class a different experience, but players need to work with their teammates to make the most out of all the classes’ abilities. A good example is the Heavy/Medic combo, in which a Medic travels with a Heavy, keeping his health topped off while the Heavy mows down the other team with the minigun. However, such combinations always have weaknesses, and the Heavy/Medic can be countered by a good Spy, or a team of Soldiers and Demomen working together.
This focus on strategy and teamwork is something I find to be quite lacking in most online FPS’s, where there is all too commonly one weapon or loadout which overwhelms everything else. In Team Fortress 2 there is always a way to counter something the opposing team does, assuming that the players actually work with their teams. While a well-placed sentry gun by an Engineer may stop an onslaught of Scouts and Pyros (who have good close range attack power but poor defense), it can easily be destroyed by Demomen, Soldiers, or a Heavy/Medic combo. These classes are all vulnerable to the Spy, who in turn is vulnerable to Pyros and Scouts, who are vulnerable to Engineers (beginning to see a pattern?).
With servers that allow up to 36 players and only 9 classes, it is important to keep a balanced team. If a team has too many rushing classes, an opposing defensive team will halt all progress, but if a team is too defensive, it won’t progress at all, either.
This balance ultimately makes TF2 one of the most fulfilling online multiplayer experiences on the PC. While there is an XBOX 360 version, it does not receive any of the content updates or patches that the PC version does. This, along with third party options such as custom skins and sprays, makes the PC version the best choice.
TL;DR: I strongly recommend this game for anyone looking for an online team-based shooter for the PC.
Team Fortress 2 is the product of nearly ten years labor at Valve after the success of Team Fortress Classic in 1999. Over its long development period, the game has gone through many technical and graphical modifications. Starting as a realistic military based First Person Shooter (FPS), the game has evolved into a bloody, over-exaggerated, cell-shaded gore fest.
~Heavy class with a Bear skin from FPSBanana
TF2 really doesn’t have much in the way of story, with no significant mentions of it anywhere on the box or manual. This is what is revealed to the player from the get-go: there are two giant corporations that are fighting for control the world, Reliable Excavation and Demolition; and Builders League United. Players fight for one of the two corporations. That’s it. Gamers looking for a product with deep narrative underpinnings should avoid this thing like the plague. However, the game easily makes up for its lack of story with excellent gameplay.
The game gives players the option of playing as one of nine classes, divided into three categories: Offense, Defense, and Support.
In the Offense category are the Scout, Soldier, and Pyro; the Defense characters are the Demoman, the Heavy, and the Engineer; and last, but certainly not least are the Support classes: Medics, Snipers, and Spies. Each class has their own unique weapons (such as the Spy’s butterfly knife or the Heavy’s minigun) and abilities (like the Scout’s ability to double jump) that make playing each class a different experience, but players need to work with their teammates to make the most out of all the classes’ abilities. A good example is the Heavy/Medic combo, in which a Medic travels with a Heavy, keeping his health topped off while the Heavy mows down the other team with the minigun. However, such combinations always have weaknesses, and the Heavy/Medic can be countered by a good Spy, or a team of Soldiers and Demomen working together.
This focus on strategy and teamwork is something I find to be quite lacking in most online FPS’s, where there is all too commonly one weapon or loadout which overwhelms everything else. In Team Fortress 2 there is always a way to counter something the opposing team does, assuming that the players actually work with their teams. While a well-placed sentry gun by an Engineer may stop an onslaught of Scouts and Pyros (who have good close range attack power but poor defense), it can easily be destroyed by Demomen, Soldiers, or a Heavy/Medic combo. These classes are all vulnerable to the Spy, who in turn is vulnerable to Pyros and Scouts, who are vulnerable to Engineers (beginning to see a pattern?).
With servers that allow up to 36 players and only 9 classes, it is important to keep a balanced team. If a team has too many rushing classes, an opposing defensive team will halt all progress, but if a team is too defensive, it won’t progress at all, either.
This balance ultimately makes TF2 one of the most fulfilling online multiplayer experiences on the PC. While there is an XBOX 360 version, it does not receive any of the content updates or patches that the PC version does. This, along with third party options such as custom skins and sprays, makes the PC version the best choice.
TL;DR: I strongly recommend this game for anyone looking for an online team-based shooter for the PC.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Videos! Of Video Games!
apologizing for not having updated as frequently as I (or youall) would prefer, I've been busy with school and the like. But this week was spring break, so I got some work on my reviews done, and a ton of videos made!
Some of the videos I made are LP (Let's Play) videos, which are just kinda a walkthrough of the game, playing through it, I may or may not actually finish those 2 game LPs, and then I had just some random gameplay commentary.
Check them out below, or the full playlist at My YouTube Channel.
I plan to have more video game reviews pouring out soon, and maybe a book review or two! (Hint, hint)
Some of the videos I made are LP (Let's Play) videos, which are just kinda a walkthrough of the game, playing through it, I may or may not actually finish those 2 game LPs, and then I had just some random gameplay commentary.
Check them out below, or the full playlist at My YouTube Channel.
I plan to have more video game reviews pouring out soon, and maybe a book review or two! (Hint, hint)
[Review] Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC / XBOX 360 / PS3 / Wii)
Simply put, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the absolute best games to grace any platform to date. There's no better way to put it; Call of Duty 4 is one of the best FPS's (First Person Shooter) to come out ever. Even in the PC port, the game is elegant and very addicting with great online multiplayer gameplay that keeps gamers coming back for more.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is an FPS (First Person Shooter) for every current-generation game console and PC. In the campaign mode , players are rotated through the ranks of the British S.A.S. (Special Air Service) and the United States Marines. Unlike previous Call of Duty games, which all took place during World War II, Call of Duty 4 is set in current time in a hypothetical modern war against a Middle Eastern terrorist group, whose leader is named Al-Asad. Objectives for the game range from escaping a crashed airplane and rescuing a group of troops or downed captain to raiding a cargo ship or sniping an arms dealer of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WoMDs).
The graphics in Call of Duty 4 are the best so far compared with any other game to date; the sounds make the player feel as if he is right there chatting with other soldiers; the cinematic scenes are completely epic; and the amazing playability is just unbeatable. Call of Duty 4 is one game that gamers will need to take a quick break from just to be sure that they aren't actually in it. Many times players will be caught standing still just to listen and watch an explosion or the overview of the war taking place right in front of them. The first step onto the battlefield will be the most memorable of all battlefield experiences.
The graphics of Call of Duty 4 are like no other. The immense detail and textures will make any gamer's monitor appear to be a little window into the battlefield, and it runs at 60 frames per second throughout. Screenshots of the game can easily be uploaded to albums and when compared to photos of real battles, it’s hard to find many distinctions between the two.
Even after a player has taken their first step onto the battlefield and stared in awe at the amazing quality of the graphics in Call of Duty 4, seemingly real enemies jumping from around corners and through doors or explosions going off right in front of their faces are guaranteed to make any player jump, even the second or third time around
Overall, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best shooters to come out for any console or PC and will be heralded as such for years to come. If the stunning realism, seamless playability, and amazing graphics don't keep gamers occupied with the campaign, the addicting multiplayer will always give them something new and exciting to do. This is one game that won’t be remembered as a standout in an otherwise bland series, but as an amazing standalone title. “Let's do it, Marines!”
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is an FPS (First Person Shooter) for every current-generation game console and PC. In the campaign mode , players are rotated through the ranks of the British S.A.S. (Special Air Service) and the United States Marines. Unlike previous Call of Duty games, which all took place during World War II, Call of Duty 4 is set in current time in a hypothetical modern war against a Middle Eastern terrorist group, whose leader is named Al-Asad. Objectives for the game range from escaping a crashed airplane and rescuing a group of troops or downed captain to raiding a cargo ship or sniping an arms dealer of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WoMDs).
The graphics in Call of Duty 4 are the best so far compared with any other game to date; the sounds make the player feel as if he is right there chatting with other soldiers; the cinematic scenes are completely epic; and the amazing playability is just unbeatable. Call of Duty 4 is one game that gamers will need to take a quick break from just to be sure that they aren't actually in it. Many times players will be caught standing still just to listen and watch an explosion or the overview of the war taking place right in front of them. The first step onto the battlefield will be the most memorable of all battlefield experiences.
The graphics of Call of Duty 4 are like no other. The immense detail and textures will make any gamer's monitor appear to be a little window into the battlefield, and it runs at 60 frames per second throughout. Screenshots of the game can easily be uploaded to albums and when compared to photos of real battles, it’s hard to find many distinctions between the two.
Even after a player has taken their first step onto the battlefield and stared in awe at the amazing quality of the graphics in Call of Duty 4, seemingly real enemies jumping from around corners and through doors or explosions going off right in front of their faces are guaranteed to make any player jump, even the second or third time around
Overall, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best shooters to come out for any console or PC and will be heralded as such for years to come. If the stunning realism, seamless playability, and amazing graphics don't keep gamers occupied with the campaign, the addicting multiplayer will always give them something new and exciting to do. This is one game that won’t be remembered as a standout in an otherwise bland series, but as an amazing standalone title. “Let's do it, Marines!”
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Ad-Free as of Today!
Yes, that's right!
Due partly to my Adsense account being closed for no reason, and part because I'm tired of gaming sites selling out, I've removed all ads from this blog! Enjoy!
Due partly to my Adsense account being closed for no reason, and part because I'm tired of gaming sites selling out, I've removed all ads from this blog! Enjoy!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
[RageQuit] World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
World of Warcraft (WoW for short) is one of the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG's) available today. The game takes you in and beyond the story established in Blizzard's original Warcraft games - Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 (& Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne). A lot of WoW's many, many players have all but completely devoted their lives to playing the game. After years of listening to the hype surrounding WoW, I finally broke down and decided to give it a try - hopefully to enjoy the game but not lose my life to it like everyone else I know. And, as the categorization of the review shows, I ended up ragequitting. Here are my experiences and why I ragequit.
I got the game, started it up, registered my account, and made it to the character creation screen with relatively little trouble. I have to say, WoW has one of the better character creation setups of the ones I've seen. It allows players to pick their race, class, whether they are Alliance or Horde, and some appearance settings, so you at least get to spend a little time making your character your own. As with all MMORPG's, the name creation system leaves a lot to be desired (it's essentially futile trying to get a desirable name when numbers and duplicate names are disallowed) and ended up annoying me a fair bit, but eventually I made it past character creation and started playing.
I got the game, started it up, registered my account, and made it to the character creation screen with relatively little trouble. I have to say, WoW has one of the better character creation setups of the ones I've seen. It allows players to pick their race, class, whether they are Alliance or Horde, and some appearance settings, so you at least get to spend a little time making your character your own. As with all MMORPG's, the name creation system leaves a lot to be desired (it's essentially futile trying to get a desirable name when numbers and duplicate names are disallowed) and ended up annoying me a fair bit, but eventually I made it past character creation and started playing.
After I listen to the generic story intro for my character and make it into the actual game, I notice something that hadn't occurred to me in character creation. I do realize that in this day and age, a lot of gamers (including myself) are spoiled on good graphics, and that everyone, as a general rule, pushes for top-notch textures and models in games. I am usually pretty lenient on the subject: as long as I can tell an effort was made to provide up-to-date graphics for users without messing up gameplay, I'm fine - too high-quality graphics across an MMO can cause latency issues.
But I step out into the World of Warcraft, expecting nice scenery and cool characters, and the graphics really need a lot of work. After a little bit of research, I discovered that Blizzard essentially recycled the graphics engine they used for Warcraft 3, a game much older than WoW. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but considering the billions of dollars that Blizzard continues to pull in from WoW, I really think they could put a little more effort into updating the game's graphics!
However, remembering the old adage about judging books by their covers, I pressed onward. After a few hours of gameplay, I had completed a few quests, traveled to a new town, killed a fair share of monsters, and leveled up some. Like with most games, I wanted to gain more levels so the fighting and quests would be easier, but I quickly ran into a problem: none of the monsters that I could find whose level didn't show up as "Level: ??" would give me any experience for killing them! Zero! Zip! And when I tried fighting the monsters whose level showed up as "Level: ??" almost always killed me in 2 or less hits. (And after doing some more research, I found out that "Level: ??" meant that the monsters were 6 or more levels than I. >_< ) Eventually I figured out that the only way to level up was from doing quests, but then I kept running into the problem of finding quests that were harder than I could do, and needing to do more quests to be able to do those. While there is a substantial amount of exp to be gained from quests, they take much longer than just going out and killing a few monsters for exp like in most other games.
However, remembering the old adage about judging books by their covers, I pressed onward. After a few hours of gameplay, I had completed a few quests, traveled to a new town, killed a fair share of monsters, and leveled up some. Like with most games, I wanted to gain more levels so the fighting and quests would be easier, but I quickly ran into a problem: none of the monsters that I could find whose level didn't show up as "Level: ??" would give me any experience for killing them! Zero! Zip! And when I tried fighting the monsters whose level showed up as "Level: ??" almost always killed me in 2 or less hits. (And after doing some more research, I found out that "Level: ??" meant that the monsters were 6 or more levels than I. >_< ) Eventually I figured out that the only way to level up was from doing quests, but then I kept running into the problem of finding quests that were harder than I could do, and needing to do more quests to be able to do those. While there is a substantial amount of exp to be gained from quests, they take much longer than just going out and killing a few monsters for exp like in most other games.
After a substantial amount of wandering around, I finally discovered a new city (which takes forever without a mount, by the way) and began signing on for many new quests with NPCs (Non-Player Characters). As was to be expected, these quests weren't quite as easy as the first ones I had completed, but the ramp up in difficulty seemed pretty out of whack. Almost all of the new quests I found were extremely vague and gave me no idea of where to go or what to do. After dying a few times due to aimlessly wandering around in areas filled with players and NPC's whose levels greatly outranked my own, I reached the point of RageQuit #1 (Spoiler alert: there are more than one).
While trying to find my body in unknown territory, unsuccessfully at that, I logged out and did not get back on for a long while.
RAGEQUIT #1!!!!
But I'm not quite as easily discouraged as all that. I keep trying the game again in hopes that I'll get over the small annoyances and enjoy it like everyone else (but to no luck thus far). Once I'd cooled down a bit, I tried things again.
I made a couple different characters to see what a Tauren or a Paladin looked like, and how the beginning for the Alliance and Horde differed, etc., but I mostly stuck with my main undead because I had already put a fair amount of work into it (14 hours before RageQuit #2 came along). I finally reached level 20 and purchased a mount, which made gameplay a lot easier and faster. My mount wasn't near as impressive as the others I had seen by any means, but it would certainly do. I instantly enjoyed traveling long distances more, and discovered many new towns, cities, and areas. All was going quite well as Blizzard slowly began sucking my life away, when I ran into a familiar problem from my first experiences with the game.
OMFG MOUNTAIN RANGES!!!!!!!!!
With discovering new cities and accepting bigger quests, I have to travel further into even newer territories. How does World of Warcraft ensure I enter the paths the way they want me to? Big, Annoying, Impassible, Mountain Ranges. I'm sure this could be effective for a couple cities (I wouldn't say they're a complete nuisance; I did manage to enter a couple areas surrounded by mountains successfully), but things just got ridiculous when for every new area I had to scale some huge mountain range! Not only is there practically no way of predicting which way, left or right, leads to the entrance to the area, but there are invariably several teaser paths every now and then going up the side of the mountains but don't actually cross them, even after spending forever following them to their dead ends (they were always the first things I tried, never worked, and the one time one almost did, I fell to my death >_< ).
So they let you think you can climb up and over, but then block any further travel after a couple minutes of intense climbing. And in keeping with how the game seems to hate me, I always end up picking the wrong way to travel around the mountains and land on the coast of some random endless ocean. On one occasion, being as stubborn as I am, and considering the time I'd just spent walking to that side, I continued along the tiny edge of available coast until I arrived at what appeared to be the back of the area I was trying to get to. I continued walking until I found an opening, guarded by a Level: ?? monster and a few 26's. It seemed like a not-too-difficult sneak around, so I went for it, but of course (just my luck), they started attacking me from extremely far away, and proceeded to kill me. I spawned as my spirit, tried to look for my body in more unknown territory, and found myself no closer to resurrection 30 minutes later. I called it quits for the night.
While trying to find my body in unknown territory, unsuccessfully at that, I logged out and did not get back on for a long while.
RAGEQUIT #1!!!!
But I'm not quite as easily discouraged as all that. I keep trying the game again in hopes that I'll get over the small annoyances and enjoy it like everyone else (but to no luck thus far). Once I'd cooled down a bit, I tried things again.
I made a couple different characters to see what a Tauren or a Paladin looked like, and how the beginning for the Alliance and Horde differed, etc., but I mostly stuck with my main undead because I had already put a fair amount of work into it (14 hours before RageQuit #2 came along). I finally reached level 20 and purchased a mount, which made gameplay a lot easier and faster. My mount wasn't near as impressive as the others I had seen by any means, but it would certainly do. I instantly enjoyed traveling long distances more, and discovered many new towns, cities, and areas. All was going quite well as Blizzard slowly began sucking my life away, when I ran into a familiar problem from my first experiences with the game.
OMFG MOUNTAIN RANGES!!!!!!!!!
With discovering new cities and accepting bigger quests, I have to travel further into even newer territories. How does World of Warcraft ensure I enter the paths the way they want me to? Big, Annoying, Impassible, Mountain Ranges. I'm sure this could be effective for a couple cities (I wouldn't say they're a complete nuisance; I did manage to enter a couple areas surrounded by mountains successfully), but things just got ridiculous when for every new area I had to scale some huge mountain range! Not only is there practically no way of predicting which way, left or right, leads to the entrance to the area, but there are invariably several teaser paths every now and then going up the side of the mountains but don't actually cross them, even after spending forever following them to their dead ends (they were always the first things I tried, never worked, and the one time one almost did, I fell to my death >_< ).
So they let you think you can climb up and over, but then block any further travel after a couple minutes of intense climbing. And in keeping with how the game seems to hate me, I always end up picking the wrong way to travel around the mountains and land on the coast of some random endless ocean. On one occasion, being as stubborn as I am, and considering the time I'd just spent walking to that side, I continued along the tiny edge of available coast until I arrived at what appeared to be the back of the area I was trying to get to. I continued walking until I found an opening, guarded by a Level: ?? monster and a few 26's. It seemed like a not-too-difficult sneak around, so I went for it, but of course (just my luck), they started attacking me from extremely far away, and proceeded to kill me. I spawned as my spirit, tried to look for my body in more unknown territory, and found myself no closer to resurrection 30 minutes later. I called it quits for the night.
A couple days later I got back on, buckled down to find my body, and then proceeded with a few killing and collecting quests. One directed me to go somewhere I had never heard of before, and I wasn't able to find it. I asked a friend for some help, and that's when I found out about the QuestHelper add-on for WoW.
The QuestHelper... it wasn't bad, but had one big flaw that bugged me endlessly. On the one hand it allowed me to quickly complete some easier, straightforward quests back in the second city I'd visited and some other beginner areas. But for the quests that required more travelling, things started to act up. If you didn't already know, QuestHelper's main feature is an arrow on the minimap that points in the direction needed to travel for the current quest and how many yards left until the destination is reached. The problem is that although the arrow helps give a general idea of where the destination is, it only points as the crow flies - that is to say a straight to the desired spot. It doesn't use checkpoints to account for any changes in direction you might need to make to travel around impassible obstacles. Impassibly obstacles like, oh, say, huge-ass mountain ranges. Admittedly, I may have relied a bit heavily on the system, but if I had problems with it, others are bound to do the same, and what is a 'helper' add-on supposed to do besides help?
The QuestHelper... it wasn't bad, but had one big flaw that bugged me endlessly. On the one hand it allowed me to quickly complete some easier, straightforward quests back in the second city I'd visited and some other beginner areas. But for the quests that required more travelling, things started to act up. If you didn't already know, QuestHelper's main feature is an arrow on the minimap that points in the direction needed to travel for the current quest and how many yards left until the destination is reached. The problem is that although the arrow helps give a general idea of where the destination is, it only points as the crow flies - that is to say a straight to the desired spot. It doesn't use checkpoints to account for any changes in direction you might need to make to travel around impassible obstacles. Impassibly obstacles like, oh, say, huge-ass mountain ranges. Admittedly, I may have relied a bit heavily on the system, but if I had problems with it, others are bound to do the same, and what is a 'helper' add-on supposed to do besides help?
So... yeah. My highest character thus far is level 22, I haven't even made it to the endgame stuff like PvP or Raids or heroic instances (which I'm told is pretty much the whole point of the game), and I've already ragequit twice. All of this said, though, I should add that neither of these setbacks really merited a permanent quit. As such, I'll probably keep trying WoW again at various times, so my "official" review of it is nowhere near complete, but these are my thoughts thus far.
/RageQuit
/RageQuit
I Uninstalled WoW and WarCraft III Today...
In the neverending war for hard drive real estate on my computers, World of Warcraft and Warcraft III have lost the battle and been deleted. This freed up a nice amount of gigabytes off my HDD, and I still have the installation files for both on this.
They were the best picks, anyway, seeing as I never played Warcraft III anymore, and I was fed up with WoW for the moment. Hopefully not many more games have to suffer the same, horrible fate..
They were the best picks, anyway, seeing as I never played Warcraft III anymore, and I was fed up with WoW for the moment. Hopefully not many more games have to suffer the same, horrible fate..
Saturday, March 6, 2010
[Review] Halo 3: ODST (XBOX 360)
I would like to start this review out by saying that I am a huge fan of the Halo series and of Bungie (even if they aren’t fans of me) and I’ve been with Master Chief from the start. So don’t think I’m just another Halo hater here to bash the wonderful game series. Also, this may sound like it should belong in the [RageQuit] category, but I finished the game (multiple times) and never ragequit, so while it may be a negative review of the game, it is still a full review, not just my experience ragequitting it.
I have to say, all of the previews leading up to the release of Halo 3: ODST were very promising. "New Hero. New Campaign" was one of the more popular slogans and made it onto the box art. New hero? Sounds great. New campaign? Awes- oh, it's going to be an expansion instead of a full-blown game? Alright, cool, that's just as go- wait, you all couldn't keep it in your pants enough to make it an expansion, so now you're saying it's practically a full game and it will cost $60? And you're leaving the "3" in the title, even though it apparently takes place in Halo 2's time period and really has no connection with Halo 3? And instead of keeping it mysterious with "Halo 3: Recon," you're spoiling the surprise with a title change to "Halo 3: ODST?" Oh well, let's see it!
So despite all that, it sounds like it's going to be a great game: a new, full campaign and a new multiplayer feature called "Firefight" which is just like Horde mode from Gears of War. Surely a great game that will be enjoyed for years to come, like with Halo 3, right? Well, no, not really. The most enjoyment I got out of it was using the Halo 3: Mythic multiplayer disc that came with the rest of the Halo 3 maps on it, and not the game itself. Let's take a look.
Excited for the release, I go to my local GameStop, preorder my copy of Halo 3: ODST (I end up ordering the Limited Edition version because I needed a fourth controller), and then wait for a very long time. September 22nd finally rolls around, after my losing my first XBOX to a flood, and I pick up my game late that night after school, and pop it in to test it out. Nice controller, nice dramatic intro and title screens, and cool intro to the game, but two things immediately get on my nerves.
I have to say, all of the previews leading up to the release of Halo 3: ODST were very promising. "New Hero. New Campaign" was one of the more popular slogans and made it onto the box art. New hero? Sounds great. New campaign? Awes- oh, it's going to be an expansion instead of a full-blown game? Alright, cool, that's just as go- wait, you all couldn't keep it in your pants enough to make it an expansion, so now you're saying it's practically a full game and it will cost $60? And you're leaving the "3" in the title, even though it apparently takes place in Halo 2's time period and really has no connection with Halo 3? And instead of keeping it mysterious with "Halo 3: Recon," you're spoiling the surprise with a title change to "Halo 3: ODST?" Oh well, let's see it!
Excited for the release, I go to my local GameStop, preorder my copy of Halo 3: ODST (I end up ordering the Limited Edition version because I needed a fourth controller), and then wait for a very long time. September 22nd finally rolls around, after my losing my first XBOX to a flood, and I pick up my game late that night after school, and pop it in to test it out. Nice controller, nice dramatic intro and title screens, and cool intro to the game, but two things immediately get on my nerves.
I'm sitting in my chair, tired from school, watching the intro video when I hear a recognizable voice: Nathan Fillion from Castle and Firefly! Awesome! At least, until I see the faces. I'm not sure what happened to the graphics department for this game (and there really are many overall improvements to the graphics engine from Halo 3), but all of the faces honestly look like crap. They have hardly any texture or detail, and while it still looks like Nathan Fillion in an ODST suit, it looks like someone drew it in Microsoft Paint. And, yet again, the main character of the Halo game refuses to take off his helmet. Why does Bungie continue to insist on hiding their (already-dehumanized) main characters?
When I actually start playing, I check out the cool SMG, and am impressed with the return of the Pistol from Halo: CE. But when I keep hitting the Y button... Where the hell is my Battle Rifle?? After asking around the internet the next day, I find out the ODST head guy doesn't like BRs (or something to that effect). To this day I don't get that. In Halo 2 and 3 the ODSTs make almost exclusive use of BRs, but now when *we* play as them they just can't? How do I kill the Covenant then? Oh, that's right, a silenced pistol that doesn't even have a silencer on it.
Another weapon complaint: Ooh, that Brute dropped a Spiker! *Walks over and holds B to swap weapons.* Oh, look, another! *Holds A to dual wield.* Wait... Where's my second Spiker? Apparently not only do the ODSTs not like BRs, but they can't dual wield, either.
I do realize that these are relatively small game technicalities, but hey, it's the small things that make or break a game! Once I finally get the chance to carry a chaingun turrent (though I honestly was not expecting to be able to after everything else), all of a sudden I get a speed boost! Not only am I moving faster than Master Chief, a 7' tall, super soldier, but I'm actually moving faster than I did before I grabbed the turret! Is that even physically possible? (The answer is no.)
Moving on to the bigger picture, length is a big issue. We are at a point in FPS (First Person Shooter) gaming where the average FPS campaign for PC or Console almost never goes longer than 8 hours, and most last closer to 6. But on Normal difficulty, Halo 3: ODST's campaign only provides the player with 4 hours of campaign gameplay! Even if you were to up the difficulty to Legendary and explore more in the sandbox-type areas, the campaign still wouldn't make it to 5 hours. What happened to the "full game" this expansion had allegedly turned in to? Why did I have to pay a ridiculous $60 (plus $40 for controller) for this tiny game, when longer ones release at $50? Having been told that Bungie went above and beyond the original expansion expectations for Halo 3: ODST and made a full-blown game, I was expecting a campaign that was at least as long as Halo 3's, and for all the questions from Halo 3 and the hype for ODST to be answered. Instead, I got a short campaign and more questions raised than answered.
Moving on to the bigger picture, length is a big issue. We are at a point in FPS (First Person Shooter) gaming where the average FPS campaign for PC or Console almost never goes longer than 8 hours, and most last closer to 6. But on Normal difficulty, Halo 3: ODST's campaign only provides the player with 4 hours of campaign gameplay! Even if you were to up the difficulty to Legendary and explore more in the sandbox-type areas, the campaign still wouldn't make it to 5 hours. What happened to the "full game" this expansion had allegedly turned in to? Why did I have to pay a ridiculous $60 (plus $40 for controller) for this tiny game, when longer ones release at $50? Having been told that Bungie went above and beyond the original expansion expectations for Halo 3: ODST and made a full-blown game, I was expecting a campaign that was at least as long as Halo 3's, and for all the questions from Halo 3 and the hype for ODST to be answered. Instead, I got a short campaign and more questions raised than answered.
Overall, I was quite let down with Halo 3: ODST, and I think it could have been much better. I did not feel that FireFight was worth reviewing, but the rest of it I gave my harsh opinion on. For all the hype, the release had far too many gameplay issues, far too little playtime, and left far too many questions unanswered. If you're a die-hard Halo fan like me, I wouldn't tell you not to get the game, but don't pay full price for it, as it will soon just be gathering dust in your collection. For the rest of you, though, I'd honestly recommend that you just buy the rest of the Mythic Maps for Halo 3 and save your money for another game.
Bungie, I am disappoint. I am very disappoint. Let's hope reach won't "fall" this hard..
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