“Sorry” from the Bombcast!

I just had to, it’s really good! SORRY, if you don’t like it!

On the Backlog: Orcs Must Die Review!(PC version)

   ***Hey all your probably wondering what, “On the Backlog” is; it’s a new feature where I review a kind of old game that for whatever reason, escaped my purview.  These reviews will not have scores.  Some will be older than others…***

 If you like the above picture you can find more from the artist here.     

    Orcs Must Die! is a Tower Defense game with a bit of a twist.  The game allows the player to place different traps and defensive characters around a limited map-like dungeon to protect their nexus.  The premise is pretty basic, but add to that the ability to use a weapon and magic to kill enemies on your own.  This adds a whole new dimension to the equation. 

    The game rates your performance based on how many enemies hit your base(it’s kind of a nexus/crystal type thing) and how many enemies you took out.  Once the player gets past a particular point in the beginning portion of the game you get access to witches that will grant you special powers that can either buff your character or buff the traps.

   With the downloadable content they have all ready put out the game really has legs.  For the modest price on either Steam or XBOX Live; Orcs Must Die! is a great deal.  I dropped about 15 hours into the game, trying to both level up my traps and also trying to five skull(five star), all the levels. While this game is one of those that you will probably play every day or set aside time for; it’s certainly a cool game to play on your laptop while your out or while doing something else.

  There is a certain amount of speed needed in some of the harder levels, and there is a certain amount of on the fly maintenance needed; once you get used to it; you’ll probably play this game more to relax than for it’s challenge.  Of course, there are three difficulties you can play with and getting five skulls can get pretty difficult in the later levels.  Once you’ve battled all the fast enemies, flying enemies, and exploding enemies you’ll know one thing; ORCS MUST DIE!

Here’s some gameplay courtesy of Giant Bomb!

Preview: Asura’s Wrath

     Every time I’ve seen this game; it’s been as a hands-off demo.  So I was thrilled to actually get more than a two minute look at the game.  I loved it.  But it’s not going to be for any means.  Asura’s Wrath is the greatest interactive movie I’ve EVER seen.  At least the fifteen minutes of the demo I was able to play.  Asura’s Wrath revolves around a Japanese version of old Asian mythology.  It is interesting to try and pick out Archetypes and concepts that the developers might have drawn on when creating the game.  So I guess that adds a small interesting aspect to the choice of subject material rather than just creating things completely from scratch.  

    All the aspects of something like Heavy Rain are present.  But none of the things that Heavy Rain did poorly.  Movement control is perfect as you only given it in a very limited scope every once in a while.  The controls are simple, yet playing with them in different ways creates different effects.  My main problem with Heavy Rain was that it kept changing the quick time controls for things without any notice and expected you to be able to pull off the move quickly.  Asura doesn’t do this, it uses mostly the same button and movements for the same things.  It will even give you a couple seconds to pull them off.  Overall, the system is very forgiving.  While you can’t really effect the outcome of the fight as you would in a standard game.  The ending is the same.  What I mean by this is that in every game there is a story that you cannot deviate from.  Unless that is the aim of the game.  Asura’s Wrath just goes a little more linear path than anything out there.

    Although many people will REALLY hate Asura’s Wrath and many people will probably criticize the game for having no replay value.  But as a one off experience I can’t imagine anything cooler.  While I haven’t played the full game, so far this looks like a definite rental.  At the very least give the demo a shot on XBOX Live.  Asura’s Wrath isn’t the standard faire that we are all used to and that’s what makes it so cool.

Preview: EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis 2

A few years ago I was massively into Tennis.  Yes, I know I’m American and massively into Tennis; doesn’t happen.  I was playing Top Spin back then.  An incredible game and I probably spent 30+ hours playing it.  I wanted to be world champion in the worst way.  Another words, having beaten all the Grand Slams.  But other games came out, and I eventually veered away from Top Spin.  But every year since, I’ve at least tried the latest installment of Top Spin hoping that the game would match my memories of the original game.  Well, after Top Spin 2, I got pretty disillusioned.  I either didn’t have enough time or patience; perhaps the games were just too hard.  I don’t know…  Whatever the case, I went into EA Grand Slam Tennis 2(have no idea what happened with #1, perhaps it was Wii only and I missed it), thinking that I’d give it a shot for just a few minutes.

     The demo turned out to be stellar.  The graphics are fantastic for a game that moves this fast.  I loved the right stick control for serving and swinging.  As much as I liked, in general how the game looked.  I was blown away by the how responsive the game was; I was even able to dive for the occasional shot.  I never felt like I was just guessing or getting by.  I loved how wonderful the serving is, once you get it down; you can do some serious damage.

    The only serious flaws in the demo were the crazy animations that would occur here and there, making your avatar look like it was magnetically attracted to the ball.  Also, while the commentary is excellent.  It is too good, I was distracted more than one time to the point of missing the return because I was paying too much attention to what John Mcenroe was going to say next.  I’m sure it’s repeated a great deal in the full game and I’ll get used to it.  But that is seriously the first time a sports commentator in a game has actually distracted me from the game.  Good job John… 

   As much as I wasn’t even interested in Grand Slam Tennis 2; I’m now anxious for the game to be released.  Because it looks to be pretty freaking sweet for a Tennis game.  While the demo is extremely limited, it is good.  If you get the chance and you’re a Tennis fan check it out on XBOX Live.

Ten Tips for Star Wars the Old Republic… Or Maybe we DO need a manual?

       I’ve been playing MMORPGs for quite a few years now.  I’m kind of a junkie, quite frankly; I’m in love with the persistence of the MMO space and love creating my very own character.  The latest in this series of publisher/developer attempts to capture folks loose cash is Star Wars the Old Republic.  I was in the beta and I absolutely hated this game.  The only thing I liked about the game was the voice acting.  But once the game came, I was presented with other friends experiences and soon decided I needed to try the game again.  What a difference a few months made.  The game was amazing, one of the best MMOs I’ve ever played.  A all most perfect blending of the old and the new.  I’ve played every class on the Imperial side(you know the Empire!) and I’m around 17 levels into a Jedi Knight. But I’ve seen a lot players having trouble with various aspects of the game.  I just want to let folks know what I’ve found out through research or just being in right place at the right time.  So here you go:

1) Your game is performing badly? Head over to this link.  With some clarification, if you are running a Windows Vista 64-bit machine you want to change the mode to Windows XP Service Pack 2.   As there is NO Service Pack 3 according to Microsoft.  This worked for me and has had no effect on my PC otherwise, so try it.

2) Do you only know folks that are your class?  Yeah, I’ve had that problem too.  So rather than not grouping up; go into system preferences in game, go to the social tab, and allow people of the same class into your story events.  You WILL have to do your storylines multiple times to progress your individual story but at least if your friends are of a higher level than you; they can help you out.

3) Not enough credits?  Wow, you MUST be doing something wrong.  Make sure to grab a crafting crew skill along with your two gathering skills.  You can do multiple things with this.  To level your crafting skill you can reverse engineer your creations to regain some of your lost materials from unwanted items.  You can also put these items on the Galactic Market(read Auction House), this mostly works but let me tell you selling dark side materials or equipment on the Republic side or selling light side materials or equipment on the Imperial side really doesn’t work.  Finally, make sure to take any weapons or gear that isn’t bind on pick up to the Galactic Market.  The game is relatively expensive, so you may have to do both of these things depending on your class/level.  As a Jedi Knight for example, I have consistently had around 10,000 credits just from doing the above and before level 13, I had a running total of 8.000 from doing nothing but selling vendor trash.

4) Why can I only have 3 crew skills?  I don’t really know.  But the best way to fix this is to have alts that you ARE playing on the same side on the same server that can share final equipment.  Like having an Artifice, Armortech, Cybertech, Synthweaving, and Armstech characters.  Or pick your top three, if your not going to have that many alts.  This will also help with the upcoming Legacy advantages and perks.

5) Wait, why doesn’t any of my gear work anymore?  Well, perhaps you made an alignment choice that turned your Dark Side I or Light Side I gear unusable.  It’s very possible that you did this without even realizing you were close to the threshold.  Or you made a decision that added a very large number of dark side or light side points to your total and changed your alignment drastically.  This happened to me with my main character about a week ago.  You have two options; slog through getting those points back through regular story mission choices or flashpoints.  Or you can take the Diplomacy gathering crew skill and gain some points on one side or the other very slowly.  But you will have to spend time and credits on the leveling the Diplomacy Skill.  I’ve been working on doing both and I’m homing in on getting back to Dark Side I.  Yay!

6) Seems like everywhere I go, there is no one there!  I haven’t had this experience personally, as my server is full to busting and even with the zoning/instancing that Bioware has been doing we still DO experience lag from the server from time to time.  But I have heard this complaint from people around the web.  My best advice is to either change servers while your character is low level and you haven’t invested in them too much yet.  Or just wait for a while.  Most of the low population servers will probably either be absorbed by larger ones or fill up; it’s an MMO staple.  Also, most of the game was designed for a full to overflowing server population and only minimal instancing so, places look like they can hold far more people than are currently there.  The VERY BEST thing to do is to play with your friends and don’t worry; this kind of thing takes care of itself.

7) Since launch Bioware/EA has been applying lots of patches and there certainly have been quite a few maintenance nights a week that many folks think is probably a little crazy.  But as this is a new game, this sort of thing will happen.  Make sure you head over to link, to check server status and keep an eye on your launcher for the game in order to know about upcoming patches.

8) I’m getting bored with this game!  Yeah, OK….  Well, I have a few questions for you: 1. How often do you play? More than 5 hours a day, how many days a week.  Play less, fewer hours, fewer days, etc…  2. Do you play with others? If not, you REALLY SHOULD!  Join a guild or just pick up a group from flashpoints or heroics.  Either way, find some cool folks and do a bunch of quests with them.  Doing this changes the game drastically.  3. Have you played any PVP or Operations?  If you are max level, you will want to at least try one or both of these.  4.  Did you play one class all the way to the end and are now bored with that class?  Role an alt, make sure they have a different class style.  If you are playing a Jedi Knight, play a Smuggler or vice versa.  Or play an Imperial Agent if you haven’t all ready.  Star Wars the Old Republic represents a minimum of 40 hours of gameplay.  If you’ve rushed through it, I’m not surprised your tired of it.  If nothing else, take a couple of weeks off.

9) I’m feeling under-leveled every time I face a story climax or I keep dying and I don’t know why!  There are any number of reasons for this but I will try and give you the most common ones.  Are you doing ALL the quests, not just your story quest?  If not, then that’s probably why, unlike World of Warcraft most of the areas are designed with the idea in mind that you are going to do all most all of the quests.  And for the most part, they are easy and good, so don’t miss out, do them.  If your not doing Heroic quests, that’s ok, but it will definitely help you as you level.  Almost all Heroic quests are pretty easy with the recommended number of people(Heroic 4=4 people recommended, Heroic 2= 2 people recommended).  Also as you level, probably around 24+ you will want to invest in some gear off the Galactic Market(Auction House), because some of the gear from completing quests can be on the weak side.  Even to complete later quests.  This used to happen a few years ago in World of Warcraft before they fixed it.  I believe Wrath of Lich King was the first time this was addressed.  I’m sure as time goes on Bioware will address this issue as well, but for right now, it’s up to you.  Finally, there could be one more reason…  How well equipped is your companion?  If they don’t have gear that is at least around their level, they could be too weak to support you.  You can buy them gear, but the easiest fix is to simply find them gear from the random stuff that drops off enemies.  This works best for light or medium armor wearers but I’ve found it’s functional with everyone.

10) If you have not all ready done so; be careful when choosing your advanced class.  Also, with the idea that Star Wars Old Republic is someone’s first MMO they handle advanced classes poorly.  The player must speak with one of the two quest givers on their respective fleets.  As this is the first time you are going to this area the idea that these quest givers might be missed is natural.  If you are a new player be sure to explore the fleet thoroughly as I missed about half the areas in it to begin with; thinking it was much smaller than it actually was.

  That’s my ten, I’m sure there will be more tips in coming as I play deeper into the game.  But for now, see you online; And may the Force be with you.(the Jedi say that entirely too much, don’t you think?)

Star Wars Old Republic First Major update trailer!

Your Star Wars Old Republic Primer: From Giant bomb!

A Quick Look Giant Bomb did for the MMO, courtesy of Jeff and Ryan!

 

Or perhaps you’d like to hear from the head writer for the game!

         This is only the beginning folks… The Hades Times is going to be your source for all things Star Wars the Old Republic!

New Stuff Coming Up in 2012! And the End of the World?

        My friends, it’s nice to see you’ve all made it into the new year unscathed. Dubstep aside of course(see last post).  2012 is going to bring us games like Bioshock Infinite and Diablo 3.  The crazy part is that one game, that I’ve bagged on practically since I first played the beta turned out to be an incredible game; that being Star Wars the Old Republic.  While an in-depth review is incoming(it’s an MMO, give me some time), I can say the game is incredible.

       While this month has been very slow with game releases.  In an effort to create some more content.  I will be beginning to post previews!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen the most evil of all video game content.  Why evil?  Previews are usually a PR driven snooze-fest where nothing is really known and because of that, the conclusions are usually overwhelming positive.  While I can’t say that I won’t be positive, I don’t really have enough PR contacts to get bogged down in making nice with anyone for sake of advertising or access.  Perhaps this is the future, no access equals no bias.  Unfortunately, it also can change the flow of information drastically.  So bare with me while I explore this new area of content for the site.

       As with any year, we are all waiting with anticipation of what comes next.  What will be the big three’s next move.  There is no shortage of rumors and false information.  In fact, over the past two weeks I counted three stories that were put up only to promptly denied by the folks those stories were about.  You know what I’m talking about Valve, Blizzard, and Sony.

      The best part of this year is that there may be announcements of two new consoles and possibly a nice hefty amount of information before the release of the Wii U.  I’m thinking E3 this year will be killer.   There is, of course the another possible scenario, that being the Wii U comes out this year without any news of anything else.  For the first time, there will be three consoles with about the same amount of power competing for around the same number of customers.

      The hardware sales of the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are selling like hotcakes.  The idea that either Sony or Microsoft is going to be overly interested in splintering their own market any time soon seems wrong headed.  However, share holders are funny little devils; without growth, company no matter how successful stagnates. 

      Considering the Vita probably isn’t going to set the world on fire and the Windows Phones haven’t exactly been beating the iphone my guess is that new consoles would probably reinvigorate both companies portfolios.  Developers have all ready started complaining about the lack of power each console affords.  They are all most 6 years old, after all.  I buy a new computer every 5 years and that usually is too long.  So a new console, would make all the sense in world for a November/December 2013 release.

     All of the major developers are on reset or will soon be.  This is the perfect time for new consoles.  So, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo; get your devkits out there.  Because with no launch software, your console is DOA.

     Speculation aside, this year is looking like an amazing year to be a gamer.  What’s more interesting than this year however, is the lack of information we have about 2013.  Which just adds in to the rumors of something changing soon.  I suppose we will just have to wait and see.  June can’t come fast enough… Well, March can’t come fast enough(Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3(?), Street Fighter X Tekken, etc…)  Then June…

 

Happy New Year with Some Giant Bomb Dubstep!

If you don’t get it, don’t worry; just head over to http://www.giantbomb.com and hang out for around a month or so.  Then watch this again.  You’ll pick it right up… Probably…

12th Day of the Twelve Best Games of 2011: Shadows of the Damned!

     This year had some really amazing AAA titles that blew away millions of fans.  The amount of some of the marketing budgets alone for some of these games could probably be enough cash to actually develop the sequels to which the marketing is made for.  But then there are games like Shadows of Damned; developed by Grasshopper Manufacture.  This was made by Suda51 the genius behind games like KIller7 and  Shinji Mikami the genius behind the Resident Evil games.  Their talents combined to form a 70s style exploitation grindhouse horror game.  Many critics felt the amount of stupid dick jokes and the amount of off color humor was too much.  However, there was a method to their madness.  This game has incredible bosses, a tight story, and controls that I hope they put in the NEXT Resident Evil.  But this title had no triple AAA marketing campaign and while they did have some half hearted commercials on the Comedy Central.  The game was really trotted out to die.  I think with the proper marketing this title could have easily found an audience.

   There is certainly a great deal of craziness in Shadows of the Damned.  But all of this is sold perfectly through eyes of the main character, Garcia Hotspur and his transforming gun buddy Johnson.  You know, his name is Johnson because… wink wink…  Anyway, because the story is told through the eyes of these guys.  Everything from a storybook fairytale to the facts about the crazy worlds they visit; don’t confuse the player but really immerse the player in this world.  For the people looking for it, the title was a commentary on Mexican Machismo and Mexican culture.  Which isn’t a surprise considering Suda51 interest and love for Luchadore Wrestling.

   I loved the complete commitment to making this game’s controls tight and the ability to upgrade simple weapons like shotguns, machine guns, and assault rifles into crazy demonic versions of those simple weapons is awesome.  The addition of RPG elements like upgrading your character and his weapons were the final nails that sold me completely on the Shadows of the Damned.  While the framing might be an acquired taste, the mechanics and essence of the game is unsurpassed.

   The ending not only makes a definite impact on the player but it is totally unexpected and wonderful.  I was very impressed…  While Shadows of Damned might not be every player’s cup of tea.  It is a very important game because it blends action, horror, and RPG game designs into a grindhouse style that many other developers have tried to do; but failed miserably to achieve.  I can’t wait to see what Grasshopper Manufacture does next, because after Shadows of the Damned the sky is the limit.

11th Day of the Twelve Best Games of 2011: Infamous 2 Festival of Blood

      There is nothing better than a good vampire movie right before Halloween.  This title came out right before Halloween on October 25th.  The incredible thing about Infamous 2 Festival of Blood is that this standalone downloadable piece does everything Infamous 2 the $60 installment does; but it does it better.  Infamous 2 Festival of Blood is short(3-5 hours), semi open world, throws out all the good and evil powers, and the story is MUCH tighter than Infamous 2.

     All of the problems with the Infamous Franchise have been addressed in Festival of Blood.  One of the main problems with the Infamous titles is that they are a little too long.  Festival of Blood starts quickly, has a nice middle, and then ends quickly.  Which even with a little bit of fluff does a better job conveying the experience than the 20+ hours of Infamous 2.  Festival of Blood drops the multi-island of New Marais.  Which works really well to condense the experience into the allotted timeframe.  What also works wonderfully are the somewhat gimmicky good and evil choices which the series at one time was all most based on.  While some people might feel that this is a flaw.  The choices all ways seemed artificial to begin with.  The lack of them, allows the designers and writers to focus on the more important elements.  Like tight game design and story.

     Infamous 2 Festival of Blood is strangely a kind of honing of the Infamous Franchise into a sharpened stake.  While the piece was definitely not meant to be a serious installment in the series the way that Infamous 2 was.  After all, at the beginning of the game its just Zeke trying to pick up girls.  The story, style, and mechanics of this piece are amazing.  Sucker Punch shows what CAN be done more than what was or should be done.  This is one of the reasons why this game is so important in the end.  The biggest thing about this game is that for a small amount of money compared to Infamous 2 the player can not only experience some of the best parts of the $60 game but also get an incredible story in the universe of Infamous.

    Festival of Blood has no SERIOUS additions here, but the writing was creative and cool.  Without the need to convey something long and complicated; Sucker Punch knocks it out the park.  The fact that this is a holiday piece, something that the game industry is pretty fresh on; just makes this game that much more amazing.  Also, for the price of a Playstation Network Game no one is expecting a huge title with a lot of additions.  Sucker Punch completely picked up the idea that less is more.

   Festival of Blood shows that Sucker Punch should concentrate on the shorter tighter form rather than trying to make it with User Generated Content.  Infamous 2 was a little too loose with it’s story and it’s open world while a little better than Infamous; still was a little too spread out and unfocused.  The future of Sucker Punch looks very bright considering how well they have managed to evolve the Infamous Franchise.  Hopefully, they will make a new engine for a new console and really bust the next one out of the park.  The chances that Sucker Punch took alone, make this game definitely one of the best games of 2011.

10th Day of Twelve Best Games of 2011: Batman Arkham City

Picture from Batman Arkham Asylum

       Batman Arkham City is noteworthy, if for no other reason that it is a sequel like no other.  The semi-open world Batman Arkham Asylum was the first offering by the wonderful developers at Rocksteady.  Asylum was not only a breath of fresh air for super hero games, but also one of the best Metroid-style games I’ve ever played.  Within that same framework mechanically, Rocksteady offers Batman Arkham City.  But rather than making it yet another Metroid-style design this mechanic is, by and large thrown out.  In favor of the ambitious, open world style that Arkham City brings to the world of Batman.

     Without spoiling anything, Arkham City has one of the best beginnings that I’ve ever experienced in a video game.  Everyone should play the first 20 minutes of Arkham Asylum to show just how cinematic a video game can become.  But it goes farther than cinema, this kind of thing is more impactful than cinema.  Not because, necessarily, of what the player is doing but everything around what the player is doing.  But once this is over most of the innovation fades away.  But not necessarily to the detriment of the whole.

     The story of Arkham City is a comic book story; which is not surprising considering a comic book writer, penned it(Paul Dini).  Even with lots of side-quests. the player has no trouble following the main quest all the way through.  Much like Skyrim, however, the game is constantly arguing with the player about what is truly important.  Which is fine, in an open world design these are perfectly legitimate mechanics.  But unlike Skyrim and unlike Saints Row the Third; not everything in Batman Arkham City is fun or well written.  Many of the villain based side-quests are very vignetted or feel too much like cameo appearances.

   The pace pushes the player along the main path a little; but the sheer distance between quests can make the player wander off track.  Some of the Riddler stuff is a little annoying and sometimes can border on overwrought as far as repetition is concerned.  But these activities are by no means required and while many fans of the Dark Knight will want to finish every one of them.  The average player may only be able to stomach a few.

   The best open world games like Saints Row the Third and Infamous 2 Festival of Blood; players are lead through the main quest from point to point.  The player can wander off if they want.  But the story remains solid enough that the arc is there if the player wants to follow that arc.  Arkham City definitely tries to do this; but the longer the game goes on, the more unraveled things get.  This less focused technique, while it can work and does in this instance.  The relaxed pace can just as easily work against the storyteller or designer as much as working for them.  A small blemish on an otherwise excellent game.  

    Some of the logistics of the world of Batman Arkham City are a little funky.  The fact that this all happens in one night can really feel like a stretch.  Unlike in Arkham Asylum where this was at least plausible.  Especially due to the arbitrary timed main quest that runs through the whole game.  While this might have been good to build tension at first.  It just breaks down into being annoying by the time you realize how it all resolves.

9th Day of the Twelve Best Games of 2011: Dirt 3

         In a year that featured the incredible impact of a game like Forza 4 Motorsports.  It’s often hard to remember that there was another incredible racing title out this year.  That would be Codemasters Dirt 3.  This title has just about everything that Forza has and a little more.  What I mean by this, is that this game has a nice selection of cars, excellent terrain deformation, excellent cockpit view, excellent weather effects, and even night racing. Yes, folks this game has a ton of in race features that you just can’t find anywhere else.

      While Dirt 3 can’t boast having hundreds of cars or customization of those cars with an in game editor.  Dirt 3 puts gameplay over the customization/variety route and it does this in signature style.  Since the original Dirt there has never been a franchise quite so recognizable.  There is nothing to compare the incredible menu interface or terrain deformation that the Dirt Franchise has all ways adhered to.  If only the other major racing franchises on both consoles could take more of a que from Dirt 3.  No matter how many cars your game has, if there isn’t the same kind of versatility that the Dirt Franchise provides; its hard to imagine your franchise evolving much.  Which really has been the problem with the other major franchises.  They may be great games but they are basically the same game we were playing back in 2007.

      Dirt 3 added Gymkhana this which did mix it up a little.  But it’s good to see that the much loved mode is getting it’s own game with Dirt Showdown.  That way, when Dirt 4 comes out they can go back to stressing the core of Rally racing rather than worrying about mixing up. While I liked Gymkhana for a few events as a distraction it was a little too jarring of a change from the core game. There is a certain theory about playing Gymkhana makes you a better driver but considering the surface effects don’t usually play a role in Gymkhana this can only go so far.

     While Forza and Gran Turismo get all the publicity it is Dirt and Codemasters who are truly worth the crown of racing innovators for 2011.  Hopefully the racing genre will be judged by developers on what CAN be done, not just what is EASY to do.

8th Day of the Twelve Best Games of 2011: Gears of War 3

      Gears of War 3 has been maligned as more of the same, bro-fest shooter.  But I think this is more of a case of ignorance than a fault of the game.  Gears of War 3 is somewhat a victim of it’s own success.  The franchise has spawned novels, comics, and 3 games.  This in the space of 5 years.  Which doesn’t sound that outrageous but Halo is the only other video game series to spawn that quantity of material in that period of time.  The problem or the insanely cool part of the franchise is that the makers of the game have used this material to make this third game.  The inclusion of some of this material took away from the story for some of the people playing the game, specifically critics.  This is definitely valid concern for people playing this title as their first Gears of War game.  This kind of depth speaks to the grandeur of this world.  Few video game worlds are deep enough to have such service to have characters from the novels and trust that people will know who those people are.  I would have liked a little more dialogue with those characters so that people who aren’t diehard fans know who they are.

       Putting campaign concerns aside for a moment.  The best part of Gears of War 3 is the multiplayer.  The game has taken some serious time working out it’s kinks and refining it’s edge to a shiny sharp edge that could cut through concrete.  The game does some many wonderful things.  There is an experience point system similar to that of Halo.  Which gives the player access to new weapon skins, character skins, etc… The game has fixed all most all of the problems that Gears of War 2 had in it’s multiplayer.  Gears of War 3 truly has a skill based multiplayer that will commitment gets more fun as you go.  Just based on the number of weapons and modes most players will not get bored or feel as if their experiences are repetitive.

     Epic’s commitment to their fans is so deep that they have had three major community events in since the game came out (September 20th).  Which is far and above more commitment than any other game this year.  Also, they have released 2 map packs and a campaign story pack in the past two months.  Which is also a lot of content for a brand new game which all ready a descent amount all ready.

     Gears of War 3 is an amazing game and should be on the top of anyone’s list that owns an XBOX 360.  I truly believe that Gears of War 3 is the perfect melding of campaign, multiplayer, and co-op.  There is NO OTHER game this year that embodies such a perfection of design and blending.  I would even say that there is no game on either XBOX 360 or PS3 that makes such good use of all the features and innovations that our modern consoles afford us as Gears of War 3 does.  Many games have tried, but Gears of War 3 succeeds and it does it in style.

7th Day of the Twelve Best Games of 2011: Dark Souls

           Dark Souls like Demon’s Souls before it has a singular aspect that everyone who has heard anything about the game is aware; that being, “Your going to Die A LOT!”  Which is not exactly the main aspect of the game, but it certainly has become the most talked about one.  The great part of Dark Souls is how exacting the title is.  Playing Dark Souls can resemble climbing a mountain.  Meaning that you might slip a few times and have to climb familiar territory over and over again.  But in the end you will have a sense of accomplishment that few games can come close to.

           Dark Souls is a difficult game, even for the most seasoned video game players.  There is grinding involved and even with the help of outside sources like internet wikis and strategy guides the game still requires a fair degree of skill.  The player will likely at some point lose all their souls, the currency in the game.  The player could lose a fair degree of progress.  Finally the player may also be in a situation that they are not sure how to get out of.  And all of the previous examples may happen all at once.  This is not the type of game for the casual player or the easily frustrated.  What is this game hiding in this mire of difficulty and deception?  Not as much as you would think but more than you can imagine.

          There are very few cutscenes in Dark Souls.  Those that are there don’t really do too much to tell the story.  Half what little story is there, is told through text boxes the other half through NPCs that ARE voiced.  The bosses are difficult but usually pretty unique in their design.  Some interactions between the player and the NPCs will have unexpected results and to the player’s incredible dismay they can kill vendors.  These vendors don’t respawn and neither do the goods the player needs.

           Once you’ve learned the combat, every battle is important.  Many of the bosses are completely unique and some monsters that were once bosses show up as mini-bosses later on.  The game can take the average player anywhere between 60-100 for one play through.  I don’t think anyone has discovered what a complete play through with all secrets discovered entails time wise.  There are short cuts, but none of these will help you find ALL secrets of the game, just make some areas easier to get to.

         I really loved the kind of solitude and intensity that occurs in various places in the game.  Dark Souls is a Dark Fantasy game, but some people would go so far as to say that this is a true survival horror game.  Just like Demon’s Souls before it, this game is incredibly important to show developers that there are still people out there that love a quality game that has a very challenging difficulty.  By not having a difficulty, it makes anyone who wants to see the entire world of Dark Souls an investor for the long haul.  Oh and by the way, Your Going DIE!