Arivall’s and Departures

I know I’ve been gone for a while and believe me when I say that it’s not you, it’s me. This holiday season has been insane with the game releases. I can hear the sounds of wallets (and purses) getting ass-raped from endless onslaught of AAA must-have titles being released. Namely (for me), Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Assassin’s Creed, Contra 4 and when the UPS truck decides to show up,

Mass Effect. [EDITOR'S NOTE: These aren't full reviews, just critical commentaries]

Call of Duty 4: Since it’s announcement, I wasn’t really expecting much from this bad boy. The first time I saw it in action was at E3 2007, apart from a few novelties here and there. I felt as though it wasn’t shaping up to be much more than a re-skin of than Call of Duty 2. And to take a quote from the great N’Gai Croal, maybe that played into how “blown away I was - figuratively and literally.” I say literally because this game has one of the single most memorable intros to any game, ever. Minor spoilers. You’re put into the body of the president of an unnamed war torn Middle-Eastern country and are then dragged along to your eventual place of death, where a .45 is held to your face and then the trigger pulled. It was a good indication of what was to come in terms of the, for lack of a better term, ‘cinematic’ experience.

Infinity Ward stepped their game up in almost every front. Things worth mentioning is their new proprietary engine looked and ran at a solid 60FPS (on my 8800GTS), the pacing was absolute perfection with a heavy dose of mission variety. Although it’s a little short, I can’t stress how incredibly supportive I am of them taking Portal approach and not feeling the need to make single-player any longer than it needs to be and not to mention the single-player experience is a long string of ‘wow’ moment after ‘wow’ moment.

I’m indifferent towards how scripted CoD4 is, ever been on a roller-coaster? That’s pretty much what it is, you pay money, you get settled, it exhilarates the living fuck out of you, you’re done with it and are ready to come back in a couple of years when you’ve had kids.

Now with the gripes, firefights are nothing more than a series of monster-closets that move you from point to point that continues on until you push up far enough that it closes and lets you move onto to the next point where you’ll either come upon another closet or the end of the level. But as you’re playing most of the monster-closets are somewhat easily overlooked considering how intense everything is, especially if you have a good sound setup around you. Along with a monster-closet, comes monster-closet AI which just so happens to be virtually nonexistent. They live off a pretty standard checklist that consists of:

1. Run out to specific spot
2. Get behind cover
3. Pop out occasionally
4. Die

Although it’s not without it’s problems, said problems are almost completely eclipsed by all of it’s accomplishments that molds this game to be one that is at the top of my current GOTY contenders alongside Orange Box.

Assassin’s Creed: Let me preface this passage by sending a big ‘Fuck you’ to the people who were behind the storytelling of this game, because it was designed with intentions of preparing gamers for the next game. This game felt like half the experience it could’ve been and it’s all because they’re looking to bank on the money following the hype of this game and it’s inevitable successor. It’s a design choice that I absolutely deplore and praise Jesus, it doesn’t happen often.

For the sake of my sanity, I’m just going to focus on the ‘core’ game while avoiding most spoilers. The Ubisoft Montreal team did a pretty amazing job on this game for the first 4-6 hours, after that it goes downhill. Fast. It’s main blemish is the mission variety, well the lack thereof. For the remaining 16 hours you do the same thing over and over again, but I found myself begrudgingly coming back to it and it was all because of the free-running dynamic of it. The controls are as smooth and responsive as the animations.

The most entertaining aspect of this game, the aspect that trudged me all the way to the bitter (and incomplete) end was the free-running. It’s a new take and innovative take on platforming and one that I’d love to see inserted in other games. The main gameplay obviously revolves around the assassinations themselves, let’s just say it’s not as amazing as the free-running. In correlation with the rest of the game the A.I. has a tendency to be repetitive.

Verdict: I’m giving it a tentative thumbs up, if you have a long-weekend it’s worth a rent and although this goes on my ‘most disappointing’ list. It’s still a slightly above-average game, that can definitely be had fun with — at least, for the first few hours.

Crysis: I haven’t played enough to pass final judgement on it. But I can’t really say much more than besides the pretty factor, it’s disappointed me on almost every front, word is that quality diminishes as it goes on. I’ll be back with more concrete and thorough impressions. Maybe.

Contra 4: Jesus Christ with games that start with ‘C’, November! I’m starting to get lazy and it’s late on Thanksgiving night, so this is all you’re gonna get out of me. And you’re gonna like it: Have you played Contra 3 on the SNES? That’s pretty much it. Except it’s handheld now with some verticality and a gap in between the screens that can cause death, sometimes. It’s also worth noting that I’m not sure that my 2D platforming skills have diminished or if this game is excruciatingly tough. Even for a game bearing the name of Contra.

 To celebrate my entry into the World of Warcraft - yeah you heard right! I present Mr. T who pities the fool that tells him that there isn’t a Mohawk class and William Shatner that takes time out of his busy schedule to teach you how to get in touch with the your shamanistic side and hurl lighting bolts out of your fingertips.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/bqJE5TH5jhc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/p5AF1lPRWG8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

It’s been much discussed, argued and there are valid points for both sides of the fence. First it was, should the Orange Box have been reviewed and be voted on as GOTY as one game or five completely and totally separate games? Some claim that it’s almost ‘cheating’, I see it more as you’re only paying the price of one game and you get one disc. Sure, that disc has the 2004 GOTY alongside it’s episodes, a multi-player component that is Team Fortress 2 and the surprise-hit that was Portal.

It’s at the top of my GOTY list, not because of the value, but because of the amazing experience that is behind the value. And sometimes quantity doesn’t need to be sacrificed for quality.

So shut up, stop arguing and enjoy the cake.

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins are at it again.

Um, Gabe and Tycho?

Are you kidding me?

You know. The dudes behind the Penny Arcade Comic Strip, PAX, Funny Jack Thompson T-Shirts and arguably most imporant Child’s Play Charity.

Founded in 2003, the Child’s Play Charity’s aim is to rally gamers across the globe to help get books, toys and of course, games to children that are pushing through immeasurable odds in hopes to see another day.

In the past year gamers have gone above and beyond the call of duty by amassing an impressive $1,024,400.

Now, take off your tin-foil hat, turn off the games (only for a little!) and take some time to think about how you can take away a child’s pains, fears and stresses. Even if it’s just for the while that he’s allowed to lay in bed with his parents and play some Mario.

Get invloved, make a difference.

I know I will be.

I’ve been playing so much of this stupid game over the past three days. It’s ridiculous.

Much of my low-level time was spent doing quests and it’s the age old joke, all the quests are a monotonous and somewhat underwhelming variation on the “Run to place X.”, “Kill Y of these.” and “Go collect Z of these.” templates. But World of Warcraft is definitely more than the sum of it’s parts. Despite poor quest design (I hear it gets better as it goes on) I’ve had leaps and bounds more fun with it than I have had with any other RPG of late.

If you have yet to experience the actual living, almost breathing World that is Warcraft then there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t at least give the trial a shot.

Now, back to me. Remember this?

Following the creation of my Warlock I was shown a semi-corny cinematic narrated by a deep-voiced gentleman that was setting up some of the lore about the race of your choice, that I wasn’t listening to. All the while, simultaneously panning around the first few areas that you’ll inevitably be visiting while simultaneously setting up some of the lore, that I didn’t care about. I hit the ESC button a couple seconds in.

I was dropped into a place called the Northshire Abbey, which is can be considered the Human ‘newbie zone’. Which after a couple of levels and a series of quests I get to leave behind for the higher-but-still-single-digit-level newbie zone, Goldshire. Which contains quite a bit more kill, collect and messenger quests. After which I came across couple more areas called Westfall, Lakeshire and Darkshire and continued to do more or less the same things.

So, why do I and 9 million other subscribers think it’s so fun and despite all of the (early level) shortcomings? The honest to god answer is, I don’t know. The same goes for PSO, the game itself was pretty terrible. But get it online and it magically turned into the most fun that I’d ever have with my Gamecube.

The best way that I can rationalize my unnatural love for both these games is the power of community and one other thing. The loot. Staying on for that small possibility that teeny-tiny chance in hell that the next monster I kill is gonna drop that one uber-rare chestplate that has a drop percentage of %0.01.

After a mere 29 hours of full-on fool ganking and questing, this is what Arivall is shaping up to look like.

I’d probably still be in-game procrastinating, instead of writing if it weren’t for Blizzard’s trial limitations.

• A level cap of 20.
• A maximum of 10 gold.
• Trade skills are capped at 100 ranks.
• Inability to trade via the auction house, mailbox, or player-to-player.
• In-Game public chat channels will be unavailable. (Players will still be able to communicate using say, party, or whispers).
• Characters will be unable to create or join existing guilds.
• Accounts will no longer be able to whisper other players unless they have been added to those players’ friends lists or have received a whisper from them first.
• Characters will not be able to invite or join parties with other players above level 20.
• Voice Chat is disabled on trial accounts.
• Realms with login queues will give priority to customers with retail accounts.
• Will not be eligible for any Character Transfer service.

Most of them are fair and are in place to keep spammers out, but you may have noticed one bolded limitation that particularly pissed me off.

I was questing in a party with someone and one of the baddies that I killed dropped a 6-slot bag — an item that adds inventory slots — at this point I already had four other 6-slot bags and didn’t really have any use for the one I had just picked up. The person that I was grouped with on the other hand, actually needed it and I had NO way of getting it to them. I can understand disabling Player-To-Player trading to yet again, prevent spam. But I was in a group with the guy for Christ’s sake!

Yet again, regardless of design shortcomings and little annoyances, overall my experience was great and guess what came out of the Level 20 cap on the trial?

I know, I know, I know. I said my second character would be a Rogue. Shut up.

I must confess that I completely fell in love with the pet mechanic of the game throughout my Warlock leveling and didn’t really wanna be without one. I had the choice between a fat and stubby Dwarf or the Night Elf starting area that I heard is absolute shit. I decided to go with the shit newbie zone, that I didn’t really find it much worse than the Humans, except there was a little more

grinding involved and it involved a half-hour trip back so I could get back to Westfall. Although, on the way I got myself a Snow Leopard. It kills shit. Fast.

With the holiday season rolling around, I can see my parental units being thoroughly annoyed until I become a subscriber.

As of today there have been reports of the Mass Effect street date being broken by about 10 days by K-Mart (picture at the bottom. I personally checked out multiple retailers online and can confirm that on Wal-Mart, Newegg and Toy-R-Us all have the game in stock and ready to be sold.

Which makes me wonder how many games street dates will be broken until publishers and developers really start to come down on retailers. Off the top of my head I can remember BioShock, Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy and Rock Band have all had their street dates broken without much more than a cease and desist from publishers.

Oh well, early games? Count me in.

As I was taking a break from the immensely fun World of Warcraft (but that’s a story for another post) I stumbled across the news that Garry’s Mod has a new beta that is available to anyone that owns it. The newest version of the (in)famous Garry’s Mod makes it compatible with Team Fortress 2 and gamers over at NeoGAF are definitely doing Garry justice and are creating their very own Source powered masterpieces. Go check out what people that actually play the game are doing, hilarity ensues.

Credit: Lyon from NeoGAF message boards.

After purchasing a new computer (that is actually capable of playing games) I decided to give World of Warcraft, arguably the biggest PC game, a shot. On Thursday night I hopped right over to the website and in preperation for Friday I created a trial account and got to downloading the 3.2Gig client. I minimized Blizzard’s proprietary torrent-like downloader and let it run overnight and throughout the school day. I came home and the final 1 percent had to finish, so I went potty and ate a cookie, began installation and finished installation, logged in to begin my descent into the mammoth that is the World of Warcraft.

Now, let me preface this with saying that I used to play a game called Phantasy Star Online which was basically a not very massive MMO before MMO’s actually existed. And when hearing people talk about playing WoW for hours with no end in sight. It reminded me of PSO and made me a little fearful, I don’t wanna fall down that addictive rabbit hole ever again. Although, I am older (now 16 as opposed to 11) and I think I can manage my life and set priorities.

Now that the prologue is out of the way and despite heavily researching all the classes and races for about two days, I sat at the character creation screen for about half-an-hour, I couldn’t pick. It was ridiculous. After what seemed like an eternity I decided to go with female Human as all of the Horde looked pretty ugly, (sans the Blood Elves which aren’t available in the trial) Dwarves were too fat and stubby, gnomes too tiny and I’ve heard nightmares about the Night Elf starting zone, so I steered clear of them. This is also the first time in my 10-year-gaming career that, by choice, I’ve played a female character. All of the male Humans reminded me of a cartoony variations of Fabio.

As for my class I went with a Warlock because I liked the idea of being a spellcaster with access to a pet. If in the foreseeable future I do get bored with my Warlock, I’d probably be inclined to choose a melee class that deals tons of damage. I think the Rogue fits the bill well. I can’t really say for sure, but I think It’s safe to say that I’ll be sticking with my Warlock

Remember to read dramatically and play both roles, I remember giggling like a little school girl at this. And remember kids, check Penny Arcade regularly.

As my first post, I thought it’d only be right to dedicate it to a special group of people that inspired me to do this and chase my dreams. I’ll do other posts outlining other people within the industry that I admire and respect. But, first and formemost is the formerly known as Computer Gaming World, Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. One thing that consistently makes me happy every month is opening my mailbox and that GFW logo.

Jeff Green: Editor-in-Chief and about as old as my dad (my dad was born in 1969). This guy is an incredible writer, gamer and human being. I find it hard not to literally laugh out loud (in public, no less) at his articles and columns. I knew this guy was the real deal when he started bashing Games for Windows Live with justification and without remorse. He can do this because in no way does Microsoft censor or edit his magazine. He says what’s on his mind without bias. No wonder he’s the cappytan of his ship.

Shawn Elliott: Start Editor, slightly schizophrenic, king of bizarre internet pictures, griefing mastermind. If you need to know about shooters, listen to this guy, he is so insanely good it should be illegal. Shawn is an incredibly level-headed person when he takes stances in arguments, he clearly thinks out what he’s gonna say before he says it. And more often than not, I agree with him. He constantly challenges the games journalism industry to become better and is always on the front lines pushing it forward. It might sound like I’m banana riding and maybe I am, but he deserves his praises.

Sean Molloy: Managing Editor. WoW-aholic. Don’t have much bad to say about him. His BioShock review was incredible, it’s stuck with me for a while now and it’s the kind of quality that I shoot for when I review games. Not sure what it is, but GFW Radio or magazine wouldn’t be what it is now without him.

Ryan Scott: Reviews Editor, MMORPG-aholic, comic book-aholic, unusually quiet and when he talks, it’s usually a rant or the now infamous “What the hell?” Although he has been getting quite a bit more talkative lately.

Darren Gladstone: Features/Tech Editor. I consider myself to be pretty in tune with a lot of the new technology, yet I still find myself looking forward reading his section every month. That tells you just about all you need to know.

Robert Ashley: I know, I know. He’s not an Official editor for the Official Games for Windows magazine. But he’s a regular contributor and a regular guest that I enjoy both reading and hearing from. I especially liked the November ‘07 Gearbox cover story that he and Shawn collaborated on. Words can’t begin to describe the bang-up job the he and Shawn did on it.