Yes, I said I was done with news reports, which is the truth. It just so happens that Alex Williams needed to step back from all of his tasks, so I offered to do this a few times.
To be honest, I’m selfish. I just liked having a forum to complain about stuff. I’ll be restarting my blog again soon, so that’ll work for me, but with any luck, someone can take over this spot permanently.
Since I like to talk about myself, I’ll give all my loyal (or dis-loyal) fans a rundown on what I’ve been up to lately.
First off, I caved and got an Xbox. And I love it. No, seriously, never before when I opened up a new console have I felt the whole “ooh, ahh” thing. I personally think, hardware wise, it’s the greatest console on the market. And I LOVE the hard drive! Saving games takes no time at all, and ripping my CDs is too cool. I have yet to play a game that uses the custom soundtracks, but I figure I’ll get at least one such game sometime.
Speaking of games, the first game I got was the Suffering. Based on Lucard’s excellent review, I picked it up sight unseen. And I was impressed with it. I didn’t find it that scary, but it did have some very vivid imagery. And despite what most reviews about it say, I thought the story was well conceived and well played out. Sadly, I won it 3 times over the course of a weekend, getting all the endings. I’m not saying that it’s short, but I am saying that once you play through it once, it’s much easier, because nothing really changes other than the amount of damage you do to enemies. Still, it’s a great game.
The other game I got recently was another suggestion from Lucard, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2. While it’s a fun game, I was rather disappointed considering how good others have said it is. After a while, I found it to be repetitive, considering that the only goals I had were to a) get better weapons/armor (which didn’t happen often) and b) get levels. It is nice being able to unlock Drizzt and Artemis, but it really doesn’t change the game in an appreciable way. Personally, I enjoyed Record of Lodoss War much more. Don’t know why.
The main reason I got the Xbox though is the future. In a scant few months we’ve got Fable and Sudeki, just to name two. Oh, and it won’t be too long before Men of Valor comes out, and I can’t wait to play that one. Hopefully I’ll get good at it by then so I can own on Xbox Live.
Ok, let’s do some news and stuff before I spend the entire article blabbing about stuff you could care less about.
News
Metroid Prime 2 Details
Games are Fun has posted some stuffs on Metroid Prime 2, including a few screens. The graphics don’t look too different from the first Metroid Prime, but then again, they were excellent to begin with. The most interesting part about the story is that the sequel will have multiplayer. This is a good thing. What’s stupid is that at this point, there will be no ONLINE multiplayer aspects. This is a bad thing. I mean, splitscreen is fine, but I like to see everything when I play, and 1/4 of the screen just don’t cut it for me. Online play would kick a lot of ass though. It’s Nintendo we’re talking about here, so don’t expect it to happen.
Nintendo Loses Another Second Party Dev
Earlier this week, my replacement on Wednesdays, Matt Yeager, reported on the blow to Nintendo dealt by Silicon Knights. Yesterday, it was reported on IGN that Factor 5 will also head away from the Gamecube. For those not in the know, Factor 5 is the company behind the Rogue Squadron series. These are two exclusive companies that are ending their exclusivity deals, and one of which will no longer even develop for the Gamecube. Personally, I can’t understand WHY this is? The Gamecube is a great system and can’t be any harder to develop for than the PS2. Still, the Gamecube will live on, though it is a stunning blow.
New Battlefield Game Announced
Gamespot has a report from EA and Digital Illusions where they announce the next Battlefield game. But it’s not what you’re thinking. Titled Battlefield: Modern Combat, the game will, obviously, take place in modern times. The odd aspect of the story is that it’s a PS2 game. While that’s no so shocking, I still think it was a foolish decision to make it PS2 exclusive, but I can’t help but feel that EA knows that the Gamecube has NO online support base, and just wants to give Microsoft and Xbox Live the finger. Personally, I think the game would be much more successful on Xbox Live, but what do I know?
Infinium Loves Lawsuits, But Not This Kind
Another one from Gamespot. In an odd bit of news, the former Executive Vice President of Infinium Labs, Terry Nagy, sued the founders of Infinium, as well as the company itself, claiming that he was screwed. Basically, he was promised a number of shares in the company, but last year, the company severed ties with him without telling him what the hell was going on, and he never got his shares or anything. The oddest part of the story is that not long after the lawsuit was announced, it was dropped, claiming that they were working things out. That translates to, “Infinium has agreed to pay me assloads of money to shut the f*ck up.”
Links
God
Eric S.
This report is posted on Friday, so I wonder if he’ll pimp me back?
News Reports
Cory
Misha (or should I say Marvin?)
Matt
Bryan
Reviews
Lowrider
Firefighter FD18
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Wot’s that? That’s the greatest review ever! Since I am in Alex #2’s spot, I can award kliq points! So I award the writer of that review with 100 billion kliq points, making him the first ever recipient of the Kliq Poo Award TM. Way to Barksley (whoever the f*ck that is).
More Rambling
Ok, now that I got some actual work done, it’s time to complain.
You know, one thing I’ve realized as of late is that some games just aren’t any fun anymore. Maybe I’m getting old or just to cynical, but it seems that when I sit down and play a game, I don’t enjoy it enough and I just quit playing or rush through to the end. Granted, I have played a lot of games in my time, and I have seen just about everything there is to see in games, so maybe it’s the whole originality aspect.
I also think it has something to do with expectations. Take for example the two games I have for the Xbox. The Suffering was a game that I knew little to nothing about, only that Lucard said it was good, and it was in the survival horror/shooting vein. So I bought it, with little expectations, and really enjoyed it. Maybe even more so than normal because all other survival type games I’ve played haven’t been all that fun to me. So comparing it to other games that are similar, I found this one to be more enjoyable.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2. This is a game that a lot of people have said was good. Lucard gushes over it all the time. And I’m a decent D&D fan. Because of these factors, I had high expectations for it. In addition, I’ve played and enjoyed a lot of action-RPG games, such as .hack, Diablo, and Record of Lodoss War. So because of this, I just didn’t find BGDA2 all that entertaining. I just liked the other games I mentioned a little more, which dragged BGDA2 down.
How does one solve my dilemma? I could stop playing games, but that’s not going to happen. I could mentally remove other games from my mind, but that too is unlikely. In fact, when I play a game, I think only about THAT game, yet subconsciously, I’m thinking about other games that are similar.
Really, the only solution I can think of is to just lower my expectations for everything. It’s like the old adage I’ve heard before. If you’re the ultimate pessimist, you’ll never be disappointed. Maybe the same can be said of high/low expectations. The only problem with having low expectations of a game is that maybe I won’t want to even try it out?
I don’t even know if there is anything I can do except continue on as is and hope that things work themselves out.
Well, that wraps up the report for this week. Hope you liked it and stuff. Have a good weekend, and I may see you next week. Or maybe not. Who knows?