Dragon Age: Origins (A Game Review)

....Or why saving the day, getting the girl, and making it look good...ain't so bad.

So for the past month and a half, nearly all my regular gaming has been put on hold. That's right, mininal Dragon Quest 8 or Lord of the Rings, and no Final Fantasy Tactics. And it's all due to one game - Dragon Age: Origins. As you may recall from previous posts, I am a complete BioWare fan. At worst, they make a mediocore game that is better than a majority of the games out there. At their best, it becomes an epic game that demands to be played multiple times and leaves you with fond memories for years to come.

While I'd been hearing rumblings about the game, I hadn't really been seeking it out or wanting to learn anything more about it. Until I saw it was a BioWare game. Then I started watching trailers and getting more and more excited. My best friend purchased it when it came out so I saw him go through the character creation process and first area.

That's all I needed to see.

I bought it and have since dumped about 100 hours into the game (using multiple characters). Each time I play through I find new things or different ways of handling situations or new side quests. Yet, after 100 hours, I've still only unlocked about 73% of the trophies/achievements in the game.

Now, onto the review:

Gameplay - This game is definitely designed for the computer, where a point-and-click interface would make things faster and much easier. On the consoles however, they've opted for a Mass-effect style Circular menu (a little awkward to get used to at first, but fairly intuitive). The difficulty of the game is customizable at will. Having trouble with a particular battle, turn down the difficulty for it and then turn it back up when you have finished that section. Once again, we have a game that borrows heavily from D&D for its skills and attributes. While not quite as obvious as with KOTOR, it is none-the-less present.

Graphics - The character creation is extremely indepth allowing you to take basic models and tweak them according to your personal taste. The environments are all very well fleshed out and distinct. You travel across a country with your party and spend time in each area helping out the people and trying to recruit them to your side. While some gamers have complained that you don't actually get to run to each zone (instead a map shows up, with a red trail indicating your relative position), I feel that it would only make an already long game more drawn out. The cut scene graphics are pretty good...most of the time. There are still moments when the faces of the characters seem to be a bit plastic, but overall they're continuing to improve in this area. Plus, the story is so engrossing, you cease to pay attention to the graphics and just accept them. Which leads me to...

Story - This is pretty much your standard "you are the chosen one and you have to help all these people" type of tale. However they throw in some nice twists (6 different starting stories, each very unique), a few romance options (coupled with the option of trying to juggle a couple of relationships, until they find out about each other), and such. They even have it set up so that your choices and actions will have an effect later in the game. Party members express approval or disapproval at your choices, and you can further influence them with "gifts," often leading to further story or side quests. While there is no "good vs. evil" continuum in this game, they have instead chosen a "selfish vs selfless" style. You can play for the greater good, or just look out for yourself.

Now it should be noted that this game is definitely not for kids. It is a truly dark fantasy story.

Overall, this was a great game and well worth the purchase. I haven't felt this engrossed in a game since Knights of the Old Republic (another BioWare game...surprise, surprise).

The Downloadable Content:

The Blood Dragon Armor - Very cool looking and great stats, well worth it.

The Edge - Free, so might as well take it. Not necessarily the best dagger but fun.

The Stone Prisoner - A great little area and fun character to have in your party. Opens up two quests as a result, giving you just that much more experience and gameplay. I got it for free from buying the game.

The Wardens Keep - Another area that while fun and fleshed out, definitely made me feel like there was no "This is obviously the best way to go" choice. Great armor from the area though and well worth the purchase.

--------------------------------------------------

Now for my impression of each of the specializations. I haven't unlocked all of them, but I'll update it later when I do. One last bit of advice for PS3 owners - when I played through, the specializations would "re-lock" when I created a new character. I might suggest creating all the characters/classes you anticipate playing before starting the game.

Templer - So far it has been my favorite specialization. You encounter so many mages in this game, that it helps to be able to handle them efficiently. I've tried combining this one with the Champion and the Reaver class. Initially I wasn't impressed until he got his final ability (which hits multiple enemies). That's when it became my favorite.

Reaver - Tied for my second favorite. Unfortunately it's only for the first ability, which allows the character to self heal. The rest of the abilities I haven't yet been able to use as effectively as I would like.

Berserker - My first character was a berserker/reaver. Classic, eh? The berserker class has a lot of benefit to it and fits well with any other class you pair it with.

Champion - I've tried this class and while I like the knockdown ability that he gets as his last ability, it's so hit or miss (mostly missing) with the enemies at the end that I just don't see it being too effective. On the other hand, the benefits to party members make this a great secondary specialization for another party member (Alistair, Sten, Oghren).

Bard - Great support class. I'd personally leave this to Leliana, however two bards in a party could control just about any battle effectively (at least at the low levels).

Assassin - So far I'm not as impressed with this class as I hoped I'd be. This class is very useful with taking down big enemies, but kind of gets lost with large scale battles. At least, that has been my experience.

Duelist - A fun class for any character looking to create a fighter-style rogue.

Ranger - I must admit I'm loving this class if only for the extra animal companion. More members in your party, the better your chances of survival.

Shapeshifter - Not very impressed with this class. Other than the swarm form, I've never seen much point in using it, other than if the battle is easily winnable and I just want to try it out.

Arcane Warrior - Trying this class now, and it's surprisingly fun. Great for people who want to melee and cast spells (something the shapeshifter can't do at the same time).

Spirit Healer - Pretty standard healer character. You've already got one character in the game who specializes in this, however, this would make a useful secondary class.

Blood Mage - Very powerful character and very difficult to unlock. Great either as a main class or support class. However, this specialization draws heavily from the health of your companions, so use it wisely.

Disney Dreamers trip - 2009

The Disney Dreamers outside of Universal Studios

..or how we survived a trip of 5 theme parks in 5 days and came out with our sanity.

I just got back from California yesterday. It was a fun but whirlwind week. To give a bit of a background, the Disney Dreamers is the brainchild of my boss and another owner of C&R Inc. You see, once a year Silverwood opens up the park to adults and children with disabilities called, "Night of Stars." Well, this got my boss to thinking. Why couldn't we take a bunch of the people we work with to some place better than Silverwood? Why not Disneyland?

By the end of May, my boss approached the rest of us and told us that she thought we could pull it off. June, July, August, and September are all spent fund-raising with yard sales, benefit concerts, raffles, and so on. October hits, and many of us realize that it is actually happening. We are going to Disneyland...only to find out that my boss got a package deal that included Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm, and Sea World. To cut down on the length of this entry, I'll just give highlights from here on.


Sunday: Woke up at 2:30, picked up PJ (friend of me and Misti, also a worker at C&R) and Toby. Arrived in John Wayne Airport and drove to the Fairfield Inn Marriott. Many of us took off to see Disneyland that night and ended up staying for the awesome Fireworks display/Disney Villain show.


Monday: Woke up around 7 a.m. and took Toby to breakfast at Millie's. Spent the day running around Disneyland park.


Tuesday: Woke up around 7 a.m. again and started our day off at Disneyland before heading over to California Adventures. Went back to Disneyland in the afternoon and then had dinner at Medieval Times. Lucky for us, our knight (the Red Knight) was the eventual champion.


Wednesday: Woke up at 6 a.m. to drive to Sea World in San Diego. Unfortunately, most of our drivers got lost on the way so we didn't get into the park until late. We hit rush hour traffic on the way back so it took a bit longer to get to the hotel. Went to Downtown Disney with Toby and PJ where we ate Mexican food at Torilla Jo's.



Thursday: Had another early morning as we had to drive to Universal Studios. Had a great time at the park (Highly recommend the Simpsons Ride as well as the Jurassic Park Ride). We tried to leave early so that we could get back in time for a basketball pre-season game (Lakers versus Nuggets), but we hit the bulk of rush hour traffic. 2 hours to go a distance of 45 miles (approximately). Got to the show about half time and watched the Lakers destroy the Nuggets in the second half.

Fast And Furious on the Hollywood Tram Ride

Me with Curious George: Pirate Monkey

Friday: Today we got to sleep in until about 7 a.m. since we were going to Knott's Berry Farm (just down the road from Medieval Times). By this time, we were pretty much theme parked out. Many of our participants were very tired/exhausted and just ready to get home.



Saturday: Woke up at 5 a.m. to get ready to head to the airport and fly back home. Home sweet home.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful week. I had a great time hanging with Toby who was just awesome everywhere we went.

Recommended Reading: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

....Or how Misti may have stumbled upon the best graphic novel I've seen in a while.

This will be a quick entry since I've got work tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd share a quick glimpse into one of the cutest, most creative interpretations of The Wizard of Oz I've ever seen.

While the story itself is simply a retelling of the already timeless tale, young author/artist Eric Shanower manages to stay very true to the original story. The pacing can be a bit slow at times as each character gives their unique backstory (something the classic movie doesn't have the time, nor inclination to get into). However, this bit of information helps the reader to identify more with each character and to contrast their desires (brain, heart, courage) to the absurdity of their actions, e.g. the lion claims to be a coward, yet willingly risks his life for his friends, or the tin man crying over the death of insects that get crushed accidently, despite lacking a heart.

And though the author has managed to condense the novels, the artwork is where this book really shines. Skottie Young has cultivated a loyal following in the comics industry for quite some time now, and managed to develop an artistic style that fits Oz perfectly. To quote Misti, "this book's artwork is a combination of Anime/Manga with a bit of Precious Moments thrown in."



All I can say is...Fantastic. While I've dabbled in Art and drawing off and on for years, this artwork is almost exactly the style that I was working towards. Detailed where it needs to be, yet simple enough to possess a child-like innocence. While I enjoyed the story, it was the artwork that keep me turning page after page. Every panel was done beautifully, framed perfectly, and not a line wasted.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who loves comics, classics, cuteness, or any combination of the above. Misti and I snagged a copy this last weekend and I'm already looking forward to the next book. Enjoy!

Gaming in September - a study in diversification

.....or how life has been a bit busier of late.

I couldn't let the month go by without putting in at least one blog entry. Unfortunately, the game (or games) that I'm currently playing are not quickies.

As you may have seen in passing, I have a section of my blog sidebar called "Chip's List of Required Games for Greater Edification." This list includes games that my best friend feels that I should play for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps the game is ground-breaking in design or conception. Perhaps it is one of the greatest games of its time. Whatever the case may be, it is considered my "homework" and so I usually try to do a review on it after completion (Symphony of the Night being an exception...didn't have a blog at the time).


So my latest Chip-required game is Dragon Quest 8. Initial impressions are very favorable as it seems to be a perfect blend of old-school hardness and new school graphics. Plus, in the tradition of older RPGs it takes a long time to complete. I've put in about 10 plus hours (at this time) and I'm still chewing my way through the opening areas.

Now were I just to focus my efforts on Dragon Quest 8, I might be able to finish it and review it soon. However I've also started up a game of Final Fantasy Tactics. Thankfully, the latter is a game I've played a few times already (and one that Chip has ultimate mastery of), so I don't feel as much pressure to play through in a hurried fashion.


And as if playing through two lengthy, time-involved games wasn't enough, Chip has convinced me that we should try the Lord of the Rings: Online - Mines of Moria.


As you may have gleaned from my World of Warcraft post, online gaming is an experience that I'm always coming back to and feel very nostalgic about it. As it turns out, Chip was beginning to wax nostalgic himself about the "good ol' days". While he was very happy playing through his current game (Final Fantasy XI), he missed "rolling with his homey."

So we put our heads together to look for a game that would be new to both of us and preferably one that was decently priced. Star Wars - the Old Republic won't be released for some time, and all the "free" games (Aeria, Perfect World, Ragnarok - free servers) had the same problem - they all boiled down to a basic "rinse and repeat" formula as Chip puts it. Novelty lasts only so long in those games as a result, which makes sense because you get what you pay for (or don't, in this case).

Lord of the Rings Online has a free trial period (10 days), allowing you to explore the land and do some quests before deciding if you want to continue with it. While I plan to give it a more indepth review later, I have to say that initial impressions are very favorable.

Gaming aside, my personal/work life has also been quite busy of late. My company is helping a group of adults with disabilities (that we provide services to) save and raise money for a trip to Disneyland. So my weekends and occasionally weeknights have been spent volunteering to help raise money. We've put on a basketball tournament, had several yard sales through out the summer, set up a benefit concert with local country stars, and next week we'll be doing a spaghetti feed/dance to raise more funds. It's been a busy few months, but it'll be worth it to spend a week in California taking this group to the various theme parks (I think we're even renting a van and driving to Sea World). For many of the adults we help, this will be their first and maybe only chance to do something like this. If it's successful though, we may try this again next year or the year after that.

The trip will be October 18th through the 24th. Wish me luck!

Secret of Mana: A retro-game review

....or how cute monsters nearly killed me, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

So I just beat Secret of Mana a little bit ago. I mean literally minutes ago (Misti by my side). I had forgotten just how much fun this game was. Everything about it is just great. The colors are vibrant, the areas very well fleshed out, the storyline is straightforward and interesting, the characters are well defined, unique and wonderful music, etc.

When I first purchased this game as a young teen, I bought it because it was a Squaresoft game that looked fun. Little did I know just how wonderful it was going to be. From the very beginning you are just thrown into a world as a young boy trying to grow into a destiny thrust upon him by taking a sword found in the middle of nowhere. And after taking this sword you learn just how dangerous this world becomes as cutesy little rabbits (named rabites in this game) attack you without provocation.

From a technical standpoint, this game was unique all around. First of all, it had a new menu style, which I believe was never before seen in a role playing game. While most games had a series of menu where selecting one would bring up a new one in a list fashion, Secret of Mana boasted a series of rings where pushing up and down brought up a new "ring" of choices and left and right made selections. A very time effective way of doing things, which leads to the next point. Prior to this, most RPG's were turned based. This was a real time RPG where you had to run from enemies to power up your attacks. While the game did "pause" while you selected spells or items or exchanged weapons, all fighting occured without interruption. Finally, this game allowed Cooperative play, making it even more unique. That's right, a buddy could walk in, push start on his controller and control one of your characters. Furthermore, if you had the multi-tap, you could have up to three people playing at the same time.

Versus

For all the good in this game, it did have a few flaws. First, the computer controlled players may have difficulty with "tracking"or "pathfinding", that is, following a path close to what you as the main player decide. As a result, the computer may become stuck running against a wall or running along a different path to try to catch up with you, preventing any forward progress. That being said, this has always been a probelm in games when the computer controls a player character and one that plagues games even now, almost 13 years later.

Another aspect that may turn players off is how unforgiving the hit-detection may be. When you fight with enemies, your attack is compared with their defense (straight-forward, eh?). However the animation of your attack may not connect fully thus causing you to miss, or worse, the enemy may appear to miss, but send your character flying anyway. This can get even more frustrating when attacks are stacked upon you, causing you to continually fly back without being able to defend yourself or run away.

Overall a great game and one that players should pick up, even if it's the re-release on the Nintendo Wii. I guarantee at least 30 hours of pure fun if you just try to do the minimum to beat the game.

Now for the Nostalgia: One of my favorite early gaming memories involves this game. It was actually the first night that I, as a teen, stayed up all night playing a videogame. I had invited some friends over to hang out (it may have been close to my birthday, I'm not exactly sure). My high school best friend Cody and I decided to start a game around 6 or so at night. And we kept on playing. Around 4-ish in the a.m. I started to get a bit nervous about thinking it may be time to sleep, but the game just kept on holding our attention and pushing us forward. Finally I looked over and realized that the sun was coming up and I had just played videogames literally all night long. We decided to stop sometime around 8:00 a.m. to get some food, and to talk about how far we had gotten in the game (all the way to the Sunken Continent before the Mana Fortress is raised). The fun of co-op play was a novelty for most SNES games, so it was doubly fun just hanging with my best friend and playing one of the best RPG's of it's time (and I might argue one of the greatest of all time.

So if your looking for a game with fun graphics, a great story, and most importantly a chance to game with a buddy, look no further than Secret of Mana.

Cataclysm? Werewolves and Goblins? Awesome!

.....Or why I may just be popping back into World of Warcraft. (The Joy of MMO's)

So awhile ago I wrote a blog entry about a new Star Wars MMO coming out that had me all excited. And while I'm still looking forward to it, Blizzard just released word about a new expansion to the World of Warcraft series. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Their last expansion gave gamers an incredibly powerful class in the Deathknight and a couple of new zones were added, but overall, I didn't see enough to bring me back to a game that is a huge time sink. I'll get more into the new expansion after a brief explanation followed by some nostalgia bragging.

Now for the unfamiliar, MMO's are a unique genre of game where instead of the goal being to complete the game, you instead have to set up goals within the game: to reach the next level, to kill a particular bad guy, to get a powerful weapon, etc. "So what is the fun in this?" you might ask. Well, for starters, there is a social aspect to the game that you just don't get when you play on a console (PS3, Xbox360, etc.). Sure there are a few co-op games where you can play side by side with a buddy and run through a game, but take that experience, multiply it by a hundred and then you have an idea of what the online community is like. It is a whole different feeling when you realize that the group of friends you have met all come from different parts of the world and that you are all uniting to take down some big bad monster.

Some of my favorite gaming memories involve my best friend and me running through Azeroth in World of Warcraft. We'd both been playing for a few months on a PvP server and so we were getting pretty good a defending ourselves against other players. We decided to set up a couple of Horde characters on a new server that we could just run without having to worry about other people joining us - and thus House Savanhi was born. We were a fearsome duo - Kaylos (me), a bloodelf paladin, and Bastille (Chip), a bloodelf hunter. We were fearless running through Alliance territory while hunting for new pets for Chip. But our true crowning moment didn't occur until we hit level 24. Up until this point, we had attacked and destroyed players who were up to 9 levels higher than us (read this as: significantly stronger). However when we hit level 24 and were hanging around an area called Southshore, we were attacked by a human warrior whose level appeared not as a number but as a skull. This meant that attacking him was instant death. House Savanhi bows to no man though, so we fought back and brought his health down considerably.

We lost.

Afterwards, Chip and I discussed the fight in the little chat box -
Chip: "Dude, we almost had him."
Me: "I know...we did get him down pretty low."
Chip: "I think we can take him!"
Me: "...."
Me: "Let's go for it."
We both realized that we had held back some of our more powerful abilities.Sure enough when we got back to Southshore, the warrior spotted us and charged in. This time though, we had a plan. We spread out and I alternated between attacking the warrior and healing Chip and myself while Chip blasted away. It was a fierce battle but we were victorious. After the fight I looked up the warrior on the Armory, and found out that he was a level 44 human warrior. He had 20 levels on us, and we - just the 2 of us - beat him! Within 10 minutes of this fight, we slaughtered a 36 dranei paladin, 31 night elf warrior and a 32 human warrior. We were actually being solicited for help by other players to protect them against Alliance players.

Moments like this just don't happen on console games. The sheer adrenalin of matching wits and skill against a human opponent (outside of a First-Person-Shooter game), knowing where and when to use skills and abilities, working in tandem with your best friend to take down a stronger human player. Exhilarating!

And it is moments like that might just cause me to head back when the new expansion comes out. As I mentioned in the title, thar be Werewolves! Granted, they're called Worgen, but the principle is the same. And I do love me werewolves (see my first Twitter tweet if you doubt it). The sheer novelty of playing that race might be enough to draw me back where deathknights and flying mounts failed.

Now before this blog entry gets too much longer, I'm just going to stop here. I'll get more into some of the cooler details of the expansion in the future and I'll also point out the debate between monthly fees and paying for new console games.

Next time: A retro-game review: Secret of Mana followed by Dragon Quest VIII.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Game Review)

…Or how to use Force Lightning to fry Jawas*. *note - no Jawas were hurt during the making of this blog

I finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed yesterday and was overall pretty happy with the game. The plot is very straightforward but adds more depth to the already impressive Star Wars canon. The timeline for this game takes place between Star Wars III and Stars Wars IV. Vader has decided to train a secret apprentice and is using him to hunt down enemies of the empire, all the while promising him that they will destroy the emperor and together rule the galaxy (sound familiar? Like the end of Star Wars VI, maybe?).

The graphics for this game were very impressive, with very well fleshed out environments that just help to add to the feeling of being on an alien world or running along the decks of a star ship. The cut-scene cinematics were fairly impressive with a wonderful attention to detail, e.g. stubble on the main characters face removing a level of plasticity usually seen on computer animated humans. Once again though, the main problem with the cinematic cut-scene comes from trying to have the lips move to match the words being spoken. Computer generated graphics and motion captures have come a long way, but we’re still not quite able to capture the nuances of the human face.

The gameplay was very fluid, with the action flowing quite nicely during fights. The combos were easy to execute and easier to remember, allowing the user to use his lightsaber effectively to mow down enemies in front of him. I’d personally classify this game as a platform/action adventure game (with some role-playing elements) and as such I do have some problem with the platform aspect of this game. At times, the appropriate platform on a wall or bit of rubble won’t be as apparent as it should be, especially if it is necessary to advance further in the level. While the double-jump and dash is helpful for trying to fix mistakes made while reaching the next platform, it takes some practice to get used to, and ultimately use it effectively. Compounded with this problem is the issue of missing a jump and hitting an invisible barrier that prevents you from performing a double-jump and/or dash to salvage the situation.

Another technical issue that bugged me was the camera for this game. The user has some measure of control over the camera using the right analog stick, but at times this makes little difference as items in the foreground block your view or worse, become only partially transparent leaving thick lines that still impede vision while somehow becoming more distracting.

Finally, throughout the game are various achievements, like collecting “holocrons”, objects that either give you items that change your lightsaber or contain costumes. While playing this game I decided to make it my mission to finish all the objectives including getting all the hidden holocrons. I was looking forward to the last level, because it contained the famous “Black Lightsaber Crystal”. Needless to say as soon as I picked it up, I equipped it…and was very underwhelmed. Maybe I had built it up in my mind too much, but honestly, it just wasn’t as cool as it should have been. The costumes were nice but quickly lost their novelty.

In the end, I don’t think that this game has a high replay value, but idea of being able to run around and use Force powers at will is definitely appealing. If nothing else, I’d get the game for the ability to play the first level as Darth Vader. It is just the coolest thing on earth. Fun Fact: He only has two speeds while you play as him – walk, and walk with more anger! He never runs. Ever. And I’ve got to say that there is nothing better than Force grabbing a wookie who’s leaping toward you and throwing him back at his fellow wookies. One of life’s greatest pleasures.

Next time: A retro game review – Secret of Mana.

KOTOR - And it is finished (A retro-game review)

...Or how I destroyed Lord Malak, saved the girl, and looked darned good doing it!

Alright so I finished Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) last Sunday. That particular file took me about 26 hours to finish (I probably could shave off a bit of that time, but I’m guessing no more than a couple of hours at best). All I’ve got to say is this: Wow! BioWare once again lived up to all my expectations.

*Spoilers Ahead! Do not read this if you intend to play the game and don’t want the final battle ruined*

My main character was the ultimate light-side Jedi, one who maxed out persuasion every chance he got allowing me quite a few of the special cinematic scenes or encounters – like saving Bastila (who admitted her love for me….awwwww) or resolving the Romeo/Juliet storyline on Dantooine by not only uniting the families but also encouraging them to buy the kids a home for the purpose of establishing “neutral ground.”

When it came to the last fight of the game, I figured out quickly that I was going to have to out-duel the end boss and avoid a straight battle of Force Powers (much like Count Dooku and Yoda). I must have tried that final battle about 5 or 6 times Saturday night, each time getting quickly frustrated. To summarize, the first time I just tried to overwhelm Lord Malak and unfortunately was just worn down via attrition (namely, Lord Malak uses the power of the Star Forge to refill his life by using captured Jedi – all being held in tubes placed around the room). The second through fifth tries I ran around the room and tried to free the Jedi and thus prevent Malak from refilling his life.

It didn’t work.

By running around, I was leaving myself wide open and Malak would just pick me apart. I became very frustrated and decided that I’d better just come back to this later.

Sunday evening, I sat down in front of my gaming system while Misti called her grandparents to tell them the good news. Having had a chance to think about this final battle, I decided to take a more patient approach. I loaded up my character with every enhancement possible, saved the game, and walked in. After a bit of dialogue, I saved the game again (just in case I died, I wanted to avoid all the dialogue again). Once again, I out-dueled him with my lightsabers (yes, I was dual-wielding), but this time, I didn’t follow him or try to free the Jedi. Instead, I got a bit of distance between us and used the time to refill my health and reset my enhancements. Each time he came back with refilled health, I was also at full health. Rinse and repeat X number of times. Finally he had no one else to tap for health and I used a couple of flurries and down he went. Some more dialogue about the quirks of fate and then a final scene similar to the end of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV).

*End Spoiler*

All in all, it felt like I was playing through a Star Wars movie. The characters were great, with wonderful interaction, not only with the main character, but also chatting with each other. For a bit of humor, try placing Bastila and Mission in your party for a bit and watch their interaction.

The entire game was very heavily D&D based, starting with the choice of attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc), skills, feats, and so on. Everything was determined by a d20 roll (a twenty-sided dice, the staple of all pen-and-paper games) and your success was based on the random number rolled plus your attribute modifier plus any ranks you may have in the skill check compared against a Difficulty Check (an established number). For example, trying to convince an enemy to trust you would have a higher DC compared to a neutral party or a friend (DC’s might be 25, 20, and 15 respectively). Let’s say your persuasion was at a skill rank of 10 (9 ranks of the skill plus an additional +1 charisma modifier). To convince your friend you would need a 5 or higher, whereas the enemy would require a roll of 15 or higher to guarantee success that he would trust you. Not too hard to follow.

The graphics on the game weren’t too dated all things considered, but honestly, anyone playing the game at this point would be playing purely for entertainment and nostalgia purposes anyway. The storyline itself was immense and had wonderful side-quests/branches that allowed you to not only make your main character more powerful, but also learn more about your companions and their personal quirks. Like all RPG’s (role-playing games, for you none gamers out there), it was important to talk to everyone, however (like most BioWare games), you quickly learned to look for named character’s only. Citizen didn’t have much to say to you, whereas Todd McEnpeesee could let you know about the increasing number of monster attacks in the area.

So the final verdict? This was a great game and well worth playing and replaying.

My next review will likely be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Not quite a retro-game for the purposes of reviewing, but a fun one none-the-less.

May the Force be with you...

...Or why I'm excited about Star Wars again!

For those of you who may not know me (but are getting to know me via this blog), I am a longtime gamer. Board games, Consoles, Pen & Paper, and Computer games - I have played them all and will continue to play them all for as long as I am able. Now computer games for me have always been a bit hit or miss, not because the games themselves are inferior (far from it), but rather because of the resources necessary to often play the new games. Anytime a ground-breaking game comes around, it usually requires a new processor, graphics cards, and memory upgrade, none of which are very cheap. On top of that, a new graphics card will be middle-of-the-road quality after a year or two and obsolete in less than 5 - not a very solid investment and one area that consoles are superior in, since a console is all but complete from the moment you open it. Plus if you find the right console (Super Nintendo, PS2) you have a wonderful library of games for a very long time (the PS2 is still selling strong, almost a decade later).

That being said, every so often a game comes along that makes me look at upgrading my computer to prepare for it. And now, that game is Star Wars: The Old Republic. What is it about this game that has me so excited? First of all: It's freakin' Star Wars!!!!! I mean, it is one of the best, most complete universes out there with a rich sense of history, tradition, strong iconic characters, and so on. Secondly: It will be a collaborative effort by the company BioWare and Lucas Arts.

Check out the E3 trailer here: (awwww....yeaahhhh!)

I'm a huge BioWare fan. My love for the company starts with a computer game series that I picked up at Costco (the first Baldur's Gate) and then played through the sequels and expansions for the next year. I've never had a game hold my attention for that long, but the series itself had so much depth, so many story lines, that I just kept playing through, trying to find every nook and secret possible. Whenever I see a BioWare logo, I know that I'm getting a strong story-based game with wonderful characters (just ask any fan about Minsc).

Later BioWare teamed up with Lucas Arts to create one of the most iconic games for the Xbox (and, in my friend Chip's opinion, one of the main reasons to own an Xbox): Knights of the Old Republic.


Once again, you had a great character centered, story driven game set in the Star Wars Universe. Glorious, doesn't even do the game justice. *I'm currently playing through the game as I write this*

And now, that wonderful team has once again joined to create a new Massively Multi-player Online game (MMO): The Old Republic. My faith in BioWare is so strong, I know that this game will be great. Looks like it may be time to get back into MMO's, a particularly addicitive genre. But I'll talk about that later, as this blog is getting long enough.

One Game Ends, Another Begins... (An OgreBattle Retro-Game Review Conclusion)

…or Hooray! I finished Ogre Battle. Next up is Knights of the Old Republic.

So as Misti can attest to, I finally finished the SNES game Ogre Battle. Like a true military campaign, I plotted my every move, marshaled my troops, paid close attention to detail and in the end, was rewarded with the best ending for the game.

*Begin huge Video Game geek Rant – Skip it if you have no interest in Ogre Battle*

So here was my reward –

Best (Male) Ending - 100 pts - *Highlights* Lans wishes that the Hero would rule, but understands that Tristan is the heir. Warren and Lans disappear in a war a few years later. Tristan and Rauny get married and rule as the White King and the beloved Queen. The hero (Kaylos, as I named him) heads off to fight an invading army from the North – various characters accompany him. – interesting sidenote: before the end of the game, I got an extra Crown and used it to change Rauny from a Muse to a Princess.

How did I accomplish this? Well I spent time and effort managing my alignment and charisma for the main Hero and my overall reputation. To help make sure I was victorious, I created some uber-powerful units: my Death Units.

Here are my two strongest death dealing units: 1) a Princess in the back leading a group with a Lich and Monk, and a Tigerman and Vampyre in the front. 2) Warren as a Lich accompanied by a second Lich and a Monk in the back row with two Tigermen up front. These two were able to hold off the last boss’s waves of units while my good guys liberated all the towns.

However, these powerful units tended to be very chaotic (since they destroyed anything in their path), so I had to create another special unit. In fact, the final series of bosses were taken down by my specialized boss-killing/final-town-liberating unit: In the back, we had Norn as a princess standing next to Yushis (Seraphim) and Aisha (Monk), with Tristan and Debonair (both Generals) up front. With Norn leading the group, everyone got one extra attack. That’s right 8 slashes from the generals, 2 jihads from Yushis, 3 healing+s (a.k.a.“everyone gets healed”) by Aisha, and 2 starlite attacks from Norn. All those attacks equal one very dead boss.

As a side note: I just did a review for the Nintendo Wii version of Ogre Battle. Feel free to read about it here:

review for the Wii version

* End huge Geek Rant regarding Ogre Battle*

I have to admit I’m a bit sad to end such a great game (comforted by the fact that I can always go back and play it again), but I have a new game to play, dictated to me by my best friend.

You know how you have a mental list of books for people to read that you constantly recommend to family and friends, books that you feel they’ll enjoy or give them a new appreciation of life? Or perhaps you have a list of movies that you recommend? Well, my best friend has a list like that for me; a list of games that he loves and feels I must play for my own edification. Previously, I was required to play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Awesome Game!). Next up is Knights of the Old Republic.

Time to head back to the Star Wars Universe.

ECCC: Part 2 - Costumes and Celebs

Dawn of Oz print by Josheph Michael Lisner for the comic con

...or the many hues of man!

So as promised, here is the second part of my ComiCon experience. First off, here are a couple of celebrities who were in attendance at the convention.

You may recognize Jewel Staite as "Kaylee" from the series Firefly or perhaps as "Dr. Keller" from Stargate: Atlantis.

Next up, the Ambassador of Geekdom:

That's right - it's Wil Wheaton. Well known blogger, geek, and fellow Farker. Interestingly enough, even though Jewel Staite was in the next booth, and Ray Park ("Toad", "Darth Maul", "Snake Eyes") was one booth over, Wil's crowd managed to dwarf both lines combined. The man is a geek icon. I'm kicking myself for not waiting in line to meet the man, but $25 an autograph is a bit steep for this young hero, at least at this time.

And now, time for the costumes!
First, we have Tony Stark, with the Scarlet Witch, (not sure who the female on the left is...maybe some other comic geek can help a brother out?).

"Nurse" Joker from the latest Batman film.

Here we have the Samuel Jackson inspired "Ultimate" Nick Fury...who has done a bit of shopping at this convention, it would appear.

Ahh....Poison Ivy. An Eco-terrorist peacefully attending a comic convention.

Here we have a bit of NightCrawler action. Nice dramatic crouch there.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Check out the heroic pose!

Here are some animated heroes - The Wonder Twins, and Comic heroine, Bat-Girl!


Next up, we have Akuma, Velma, Cthulu, and a Ghostbuster !



And here we have some awesome Dragonball Z characters - Goku and Chi-Chi, in a dramatic martial arts pose.
And here's the final series of costumes, for what convention of all things geeky would be complete without the Holy Grail of Geekdom: Star Wars!


Hmm...without the Sith around, the Jedi apparently really let themselves go...

And Leia? I'm guessing the tattoo is a hold-over from her rebellious youth on Alderaan.

Anyways, that about that does it for now. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse in the realm of geekdom.

Fear the geek. Love the geek.