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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Indie game day!

Since many Indie games can't be put under common genres I decided to act as if it were its genre of its own. And before you think I'm about to talk about MineCraft I'll tell you now, no. MineCraft has made millions in sales and although being a great game I can't really consider it an Indie title.
With that out of the way, I would like to look over the Indie series, Penumbra. Best known for the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Frictional Games created this masterpiece back in 2007 and boy was I looking forward to it. Going through this game made games, such as, F.E.A.R., Condemned, and even the companies later release Amnesia feel like a cake walk. I had trouble getting through this game as I could only play it in 5 minute bouts, early in the morning. After completing the first game, you'll find yourself forced to play the sequel, and you will not beat it. No matter how hard I try I can't get myself to finish the sequel as I pretty much piss myself. Don't call me a pussy until you beat all three games, because this stuff is absurd!

You start the game (not going to be to descriptive to avoid spoilers) equiped with nothing but a flashlight, and don't expect to gain one throughout the game. You must trek through puzzles, fear-filled corridors, and avoid monstrous creatures, all while trying to achieve a simple goal; GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE! Believe me you'll be scared while playing this game and the other two installments in the series.


Sorry if this is not as well written as the others, I just wanted to get something out and I'm in a bit of a rush.
Until next time, I will recommend anyone looking for a nice game to purchase these games at 

http://store.frictionalgames.com/

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Since I love 'em more RPGs!

Diablo I: Exploring the catacombs
Today, I will be looking at my favorite hack-n-slash RPG; the Diablo series. This game has stolen years of life time from me, and I absolutely love it. First looking at the original game Diablo has had an unending list of awards and an unending list of hours I've spent on it. Although only three characters to trek with (note: before you tell me "OH WHATZ ABOUTS TEH HELLFIER CHARACTARS?!?!?!?" Hellfire is a expansion that was not created as a part of the series but rather an expansion made by another company and not consider apart of the series), the randomly generated maps, armor, and weapons in this 1998 release make for countless hours of entertainment.
Diablo II on the other hand has five characters to adventure with in the vanilla version, with an added two in the expansion. Still keeping its random generations of gear and maps the major change is in skills. The original game having a skill book system where every character had the same skills, Diablo II now has a skill tree system (similar to WoW as I'm told) where each character has their own individual techniques. 
One of the many teaser pictures for the next installment; Diablo 3
With Diablo III on the way (on the way in Blizzard time equates to another two years...) my nostalgagasms have been endless when I play these action RPG classics. Before you don't consider this game because "RPGs are for nerds" I plead you try it as it has more action hack-n-slash aspects than a usual RPG and this is still one amazing RPG none the less.

On another topic:
 I was wondering if anyone would be interested in Magic: The Gathering blogs/Dungeons & Dragons story blogs as those are both non-video game things I absolutely adore.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Sports games, that's a genre?

Apparently (Need) it is (F), at least (5s NOW) most people will say. For this genre I'm gonna get the big game of my slate; Madden NFL. To be honest, I don't play many sports games but I have played enough to understand the idea and what people are looking for. Madden is one of the few sports games I found myself enjoying quite a bit and played for a good time, but it's far from the best. The greatest flaw it has is repetition, with over twenty games the only major change happened eight years ago with a change to full 3D. I will never buy a game that barely changes for $60 every year, definitely not blowing my money on that. I understand the large fan base but without real change per game, other then "OH A NEW FRANCHISE MODE", the game won't be making any more money.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Friday, April 22, 2011

Do you like comic books?

My brother is starting a blog here and I want to help him out while I have my whoping 40 followers. He is going to be doing comic book reviews; I highly recommend you check him out. The first comic he has reviewed is a comic called CHEW. http://forevergeek.blogspot.com/

Time to look at a Real Time Stragety!

The most recent game in the series, StarCraft 2
For our fourth video-game series overview we are going to look at RTSes, and what better than the mother of them all; StarCraft. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this series, and may have even been playing it before going on your daily blog run, but I still want to go over the basic idea. StarCraft is a futuristic "space marine" style gameplay all jam-packed into a real time strategy. StarCraft exploded in the Koreas (becoming an actual, full-fledged sport!) and slowly found its way other to the Western continents. StarCrafts Chess style strategies became a great hook for the game and made it one of the greatest, and top selling, in its genre. Although only two installments came from this series, many people still play the original (release 1998, with an expansion releasing in 2000) and the later in the series StarcCraft 2 is a top-selling 2010 game being praised with various awards. With all this said it is sad to say the frequency of these game releases, the original being twelve years before the sequel is not enough for our need of great RTSes. Blizzard being the great company it is only releases games once they are sparkling and bug-free, but for what?

Feel free to discuss the playability, replay value, frequency of releases, gameplay, and overall greatness of the series in the comments below.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

As requested, I will change up the genre everyday

To open up the RPG genre is the best selling RPG series in the whole world; Final Fantasy. Being a great fan of this seemingly endless gaming series, I can't find any other word to describe it other than artistic. Although many believe there are many better series, they all have to admit it is an amazing series. From I to XIII, Crystal Chronicles to Dissidia, from Singe-player to MMO, this series has made a great impact for any RPG player with the series influence. The most recent entry for the main series was an awful disappointment for any MMO, but I personally believe their MMO's aren't what people look too and that Final Fantasy XIII 2 will bring back the fanbase's loved game. Calling this game a colossal series is an understatement and even series such as Halo and Call of Duty don't stand up to the great sales, fans, and effort into a game as Square Enix has put into their series.

Todays video game series...

To look at the other spectrum of First-Person Shooter gaming there is, of course, Battlefield. Originally being a completely different series ignoring Call of Duty recently decided to jump onto the "Anti-CoD" bandwagon with the new game in the series BattleField 3. Although by its name, it's not the 3rd installment to the game but rather the twelfth, releasing on the same day as this years Call of Duty. To look at the series from a broad standpoint it deserves its publicity as a great series, but to what extent? I personally believe it is more of a war game rather than a CoD style run-and-gun shooter. I think fighting against CoD is simply a publicity shot and will fail redundant of sales. Although I believe this is a bad move for the companies of both games, they both stand as todays top selling game series

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

To start out the blog off...

Let's go to an obviously loved game, the Call of Duty series. Mainly focusing on my own opinion I have to say I am becoming more and more disappointed.
To give the basic information to those who don't know much of the series there are two developers of the game under one publisher. The developers being TreyArch and Infinity Ward, although the later has recently been sued and the viability of the company is questionable.
I personally believe TreyArch makes less than mediocre games and that the most recent installment to the series (Black Ops) was awful. Yes, I admit I clocked in 24 hours of play time, but for a $60 release price, not worth my money. I found myself crawling back to earlier installments in the series, mainly created from Infinity Ward or just ignoring the series.
Unless I see A nice jump in the installment this year I give up on the series.