Spicy Ocelot Placentas Collected
Features
Random Thoughts: Fable 3 Isn't Very Good
I finished Fable 3 over the weekend and I sorta never want to play it ever again. Why? Read on!
Spoiler Warning: Heavy Spoilers for Fable 3
I finished Fable 3 over the weekend and I sorta never want to play it ever again. Why? Read on!
Random Thoughts: White Knight Chronicles
I can see how its tempting to stretch a game out a bit too much to try and get your "30 hours of gameplay!" bullet point up a bit. Of course you wouldn't do this at the beginning of a game as that has to be good enough to get people in. No, of course you'd do it right at the end when everyone is already committed to it. White Knight Chronicles is perhaps the worst offender of this I've found in a long time.
The game is sort of unremarkable as a whole. The story is plain, the characters are plain, the combat system is unchallenging and slow. It has this all encompassing aura of blandness that never borders on badness. That said it all sort of goes down pretty easy and I understand it to be very short for a JRPG. I've been leaving it running while I've been in for the last couple of weeks and just sort of playing 15 minutes here and there. It has become increasingly a chore as it's progressed and last few hours have been quite maddening.
The area called the Van Haven Waste is a three hour slog through the worst looking area in the game alternating between identical underground caves and overground wastelands about 15 times. You fight the same four monsters, and see the same caves for the duration. There is no story, and exploring the side tunnels only ever rewards you with loot that was available to buy from the store in the previous town. Seriously, 15 minutes of detour for a thing that I didn't want to buy 2 hours ago? Eff you, game.
Oh well, I'm almost through it now just in time for the sequel! I understand they've sped up the combat for that, thank christ.
I can see how its tempting to stretch a game out a bit too much to try and get your "30 hours of gameplay!" bullet point up a bit. Of course you wouldn't do this at the beginning of a game as that has to be good enough to get people in. No, of course you'd do it right at the end when everyone is already committed to it. White Knight Chronicles is perhaps the worst offender of this I've found in a long time.
The game is sort of unremarkable as a whole. The story is plain, the characters are plain, the combat system is unchallenging and slow. It has this all encompassing aura of blandness that never borders on badness. That said it all sort of goes down pretty easy and I understand it to be very short for a JRPG. I've been leaving it running while I've been in for the last couple of weeks and just sort of playing 15 minutes here and there. It has become increasingly a chore as it's progressed and last few hours have been quite maddening.
The area called the Van Haven Waste is a three hour slog through the worst looking area in the game alternating between identical underground caves and overground wastelands about 15 times. You fight the same four monsters, and see the same caves for the duration. There is no story, and exploring the side tunnels only ever rewards you with loot that was available to buy from the store in the previous town. Seriously, 15 minutes of detour for a thing that I didn't want to buy 2 hours ago? Eff you, game.
Oh well, I'm almost through it now just in time for the sequel! I understand they've sped up the combat for that, thank christ.
Pokemon Black and White - Change, I Chose You
Mere minutes after Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are released the Pokemon people are itching to announce their new game. Remakes? Whatever! Here's the goddamn fifth generation already!
Read on for a round-up of Pokemon Black and White info, and me and James rambling on about super effectivity.
Mere minutes after Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are released the Pokemon people are itching to announce their new game. Remakes? Whatever! Here's the goddamn fifth generation already!
Read on for a round-up of Pokemon Black and White info, and me and James rambling on about super effectivity.
Bought The Farm: Episode 1
I recently read that over 1% of the world’s population play FarmVille. That’s kind of insane when you think about it. World Of Warcraft is often hailed as the most significant and successful video game of all time, but Blizzard’s 10 million or so subscribers pale in comparison to Zynga’s 82 million, paying or not. There’s no accounting for taste of course; a lot of stupid people have done a lot of stupid things in the history of the human race.
You might be detecting a derisive tone. Like many core gamers, I’m guilty of the assumption that all casual browser games are the gaming equivalent of fast food, nutritionless lunch hour snacks that fulfill a base desire to click buttons and make things happen. Whilst there’s a feeling that these brainless timesinks sap valuable hours away from playing ‘real’ games, the greater fear is discovering that we might actually like them and join the undiscerning masses.
To see why Josh has decided to embrace his inner agriculturalist, Read on!
I recently read that over 1% of the world’s population play FarmVille. That’s kind of insane when you think about it. World Of Warcraft is often hailed as the most significant and successful video game of all time, but Blizzard’s 10 million or so subscribers pale in comparison to Zynga’s 82 million, paying or not. There’s no accounting for taste of course; a lot of stupid people have done a lot of stupid things in the history of the human race.
You might be detecting a derisive tone. Like many core gamers, I’m guilty of the assumption that all casual browser games are the gaming equivalent of fast food, nutritionless lunch hour snacks that fulfill a base desire to click buttons and make things happen. Whilst there’s a feeling that these brainless timesinks sap valuable hours away from playing ‘real’ games, the greater fear is discovering that we might actually like them and join the undiscerning masses.
To see why Josh has decided to embrace his inner agriculturalist, Read on!
Does Anyone Finish Games? 2009 Edition
Do people really beat games? For years there was no way of telling. Probably?
Luckily, its the future now and services like Xbox Live are watching our every move. It has occasionally been used for good, for example Valve used the tracking they put into Half Life 2 Episode 1 to identify and fix a sequence which was killing players far more remorselessly than they had intended. The achievement system is the first time that anyone has really promoted a system like this as a feature and encourage people to compare how they play games with others. If you know someone's Xbox Live user name then you can easily find out exactly what games they've played and how well they did in them.
Where am I going with this? How bout an enormous list? Everyone loves lists. Read on, please.
Do people really beat games? For years there was no way of telling. Probably?
Luckily, its the future now and services like Xbox Live are watching our every move. It has occasionally been used for good, for example Valve used the tracking they put into Half Life 2 Episode 1 to identify and fix a sequence which was killing players far more remorselessly than they had intended. The achievement system is the first time that anyone has really promoted a system like this as a feature and encourage people to compare how they play games with others. If you know someone's Xbox Live user name then you can easily find out exactly what games they've played and how well they did in them.
Where am I going with this? How bout an enormous list? Everyone loves lists. Read on, please.
WoW: Cataclysm Priest Preview - A Review
All attempts to nail down the release date of of World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm have so far ended in failure, with Blizzard content to dribble out information at a rate designed to keep twelve million players hooked like the cash filled carp we are. Lately though, the trickle of news has become a veritable stream, with the class previews arriving over the next week suggesting that the latest expansion pack might not be as far away as some of the more pessimistic community members have suggested.
Given the comprehensiveness of the previews, it is probably a good time to declare it open season on Cataclysm and begin stoking anticipation levels by reviewing the intentions for each of the classes, starting with a deconstruction of the priest proposals.
To find out what Sam thinks about the individual components of the Priest Preview, click Read On!
All attempts to nail down the release date of of World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm have so far ended in failure, with Blizzard content to dribble out information at a rate designed to keep twelve million players hooked like the cash filled carp we are. Lately though, the trickle of news has become a veritable stream, with the class previews arriving over the next week suggesting that the latest expansion pack might not be as far away as some of the more pessimistic community members have suggested.
Given the comprehensiveness of the previews, it is probably a good time to declare it open season on Cataclysm and begin stoking anticipation levels by reviewing the intentions for each of the classes, starting with a deconstruction of the priest proposals.
To find out what Sam thinks about the individual components of the Priest Preview, click Read On!
The World's Worst Open World Racing Mission
In accordance with my gaming OCD regarding completing all previous games in a series, I have recently been playing through Just Cause in preparation for it's sequel. Josh has often described the original Just Cause as the "best worst game" he's ever played, and so far it's certainly living up to this peculiar description. One thing it does early on is very clearly lay out what you would need to do to 100% the game in the form of a million map symbols encompassing exactly 3 different activities: Racing, package collection and taking over a place. I've been struggling with the idea of trying to 100% it ever since, as most of these activates are boring the first time you do them, let alone the 100th. One thing I did noticed though was that there were only 9 racing missions, and an achievement associated with beating each one. This seemed fully doable.
But it was not! Read on to find out why and wherefore.
In accordance with my gaming OCD regarding completing all previous games in a series, I have recently been playing through Just Cause in preparation for it's sequel. Josh has often described the original Just Cause as the "best worst game" he's ever played, and so far it's certainly living up to this peculiar description. One thing it does early on is very clearly lay out what you would need to do to 100% the game in the form of a million map symbols encompassing exactly 3 different activities: Racing, package collection and taking over a place. I've been struggling with the idea of trying to 100% it ever since, as most of these activates are boring the first time you do them, let alone the 100th. One thing I did noticed though was that there were only 9 racing missions, and an achievement associated with beating each one. This seemed fully doable.
But it was not! Read on to find out why and wherefore.
Twenty Questions: Final Fantasy XIII - Chapter 10
Having broken the Guinness World Record for the longest amount of time holding up on the analogue stick, I arrived at the end of Chapter 10 of Final Fantasy XIII in a state of improved enlightenment. Being both a gentleman and a philanthropist, attempting to convey some of my new found knowledge to the unwashed proletariat is a service I am only too happy to offer. Today's Twenty Questions touches subjects ranging from the difficulty of the game to the cheeriness of the cast because let's face it, after the length of wait for this Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix have a lot to answer for.
To find out why tea and biscuits needs to be preceded by the extinction of the human race, hit Read On!
Having broken the Guinness World Record for the longest amount of time holding up on the analogue stick, I arrived at the end of Chapter 10 of Final Fantasy XIII in a state of improved enlightenment. Being both a gentleman and a philanthropist, attempting to convey some of my new found knowledge to the unwashed proletariat is a service I am only too happy to offer. Today's Twenty Questions touches subjects ranging from the difficulty of the game to the cheeriness of the cast because let's face it, after the length of wait for this Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix have a lot to answer for.
To find out why tea and biscuits needs to be preceded by the extinction of the human race, hit Read On!
How Easy is Easy Mode in Mega Man 10?
It's quite a quandary, liking Mega Man but at the same time sucking at horribly at it. I first played a Mega Man game on a friends NES, and then didn't touch the series till many years later when emulation started existing at which point I save-stated my way through them all. Many years after that, Mega Man 9 came out and I grossly overestimated how good I was at NES style Mega Man games. I beat about one stage, and then gave up in frustration and haven't touched it since.
With all that in mind, I was very excited to hear about the planned easy mode in Mega Man 10, as it means I will probably be able to see the whole game without resorting to watching someone's tool-assisted speed run on youtube. I did however start pondering the following question:
At what point does easy mode in Mega Man 10 inevitably stop being easy?
So how easy is it? Easy? Read on to find out!
It's quite a quandary, liking Mega Man but at the same time sucking at horribly at it. I first played a Mega Man game on a friends NES, and then didn't touch the series till many years later when emulation started existing at which point I save-stated my way through them all. Many years after that, Mega Man 9 came out and I grossly overestimated how good I was at NES style Mega Man games. I beat about one stage, and then gave up in frustration and haven't touched it since.
With all that in mind, I was very excited to hear about the planned easy mode in Mega Man 10, as it means I will probably be able to see the whole game without resorting to watching someone's tool-assisted speed run on youtube. I did however start pondering the following question:
At what point does easy mode in Mega Man 10 inevitably stop being easy?
So how easy is it? Easy? Read on to find out!
A Package From China
A mysterious package from China shows up in the post, but what could it be? Video games? DVDs? A weaponized birthday card? Ian and Josh risk their lives to bring you the answer via some dark and shaky camera footage!
Page 1 of 4.
Next
Recent Features
Recent News
Recent Reviews
Recent Answers
Recent Daily Grinds
Yes, it's super effective. I get it. Thanks. No need to keep telling me.