Seriously, whats with all these developers plastering "Ex-Bioware employees" on everything as if it actually means anything. More and more developers have gone indie and you hear this for every single time. Disgruntled employees or employees who wish to create their own vision now need a kickstarter to help fund their games! They're founded by 3 Ex-Bioware employees! Oh wow I just shit my pants from reading that! Fuck off. No one gives a shit where you came from.
Its not just indie games either, we have big name companies who go "This entirely new IP we're making has Ex-Bioware employees working on it!" Is Bioware even relevant now? I think after the shitty trio that is Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, SWTOR they put out recently most people would read that with some skepticism. First of all, who are these millions of employees from Bioware, and secondly which employees are they? Of course its not just Bioware but the most common ones you see are Bestheda, Bioware, and Blizzard. No one gives a flying fuck about the rest. You never hear anyone go "We used to work at this so and so company!" They want a big names like Bioware to show that they were good enough to play with the big boys.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Mana Khemia 1 & 2 - Endless murdering of monster girls
(Well I decided to finally finish this and post it after sitting in draft mode since forever.)
Mana Khemia : Alchemists of Al-Revis
Mana Knemia 2: The fall of Alchemy
This will be a joint double review. Lets start it off as always. How I came to find this game. I was looking around when I saw Mana Khemia 2 coming out, so I checked out the first of the series. Alchemist? Sounds interesting. Then I saw NIS America made it, the same people who made Disgaea and other similar games. I thought, this must be pretty good right!? Well they also made Ar Tonelico with its infamous scene seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoODv8LVib8
Apparently from what I have heard the sexual innuendos continue for the whole game in Ar Tonelico. Then when I first started the game the graphics looks like shit while the game play felt like Persona where you are at school but at the same time hanging out with friends and killing monsters. I was horrified. In my mind, I was ready for the huge disappointment to come. I cannot express how wrong I was. This game was good. Very good in fact. There are flaws, but its a very lighthearted RPG aimed towards a younger audience but still fun to play nonetheless.
At the start of the game it lets you pick between Japanese voices and English voices. Its like the game is warning you ahead of time of the terrible voice acting. Like all games that I can switch off voice acting from Japanese games, I do it. The voices are pretty annoying at first, but eventually you'll get used to it. Didn't bother me much in the end as the characters eventually grow on you. You start off the game as Vayne, this really soft spoken passive kid living with his mana being recruited by a teacher from the academy of Al-Revis. Since he knew your father, who happens to be the most famous alchemist that has ever lived and he recently died he asked you to join the school in which you accepted. On your first day of school you immediately start meeting the four main characters and the main villains.
You meet Jessica, a fellow alchemist who is not only terrible at alchemy but a huge airhead klutz. Then as you leave the classroom you meet two seniors, Tony and Renee who tries to recruit you for their workshop. Just as this happens a man (supposed to be a student but he looks like he's 30 from a jrpg point of view) falls from the sky and recruits you first. He and Tony are rivals and he recruits you before them. Tony and Renee will be your villains. The man introduces himself as Flay and he needs people to join his workshop or he'll be closed down. Then you meet a beastman (cat people) chick named Nicole. These are your main characters.
One thing you will notice are Manas. They are magical creatures that come from another world and makes pacts with the alchemist for mutual gain. In other words a familiar for the alchemist. Without one you are weak as shit. An alchemist may choose to restrain the mana by force or to just simply make a pact. You already have a Mana, a cat named Sulpher. Sulpher is special as only you can hear and understand him, everyone else sees him as a very smart cat but with magical powers. It is part of the storyline so there is a reason. Mana are gained by storyline or by interacting with different characters during "free time" mode. To access free time, you must complete all the required credits in a term. Once you have acquired them all you automatically enter free time and can do jobs or spend time with party members to learn their stories.
So its kinda like persona? Yes it is but its much more fun. To start things off you don't have stupid bullshit like quizzes and tests, your class are like for example, Combat class IV where you enter a dungeon clear to a boss and for that boss you are given restrictions. Cannot heal and you must beat the boss while using chains and finish off with a finishing strike. You're grade will depend on your combos and time etc etc. Other times you will be sent to create items for Synthesis class or hunt for rare items in Gathering class. There is no studying as the earlier classes are mandatory to progress the storyline and to teach the players new abilities and also show them how its done. During free time, instead of fucking finding your friends and wasting days talking to them like in persona. Its like Mass Effect where they all stand around in your workshop and you can talk to them anytime. If during a free time, they will give you an option "Do you wish to spend the day with [name]?" If you do you enter character story mode. Free time depends on how early you complete your courses. It is very lenient on how many credits you need. You have around 6-7 weeks (days) to complete all the credits for your term. You only need about 2-3 A's to complete all credits but if you're struggling with C's or F's you'll probably need the full week.
The first few characters are fun but near the end they keep adding new characters. What I dislike most is adding characters near the end of the game. You don't care about them they don't do anything to the storyline and its a waste of a character. This game the girls are scary. When I thought persona 4 girls were aggressive these will literally pull you away and force you to do stuff. Half the game is you being dragged around force to do this and that. Vayne doesn't say anything to go against them. And your mana goes "sighs" and he follows you complaining all the way. Spending time with your friends will improve skills and progress the story. The ending will change depending on who you maxed your relationship with. Only one person can become the highest maxed relationship.
Here's a breakdown of the characters.
Vayne - That's you! You have super powers you learned from Sulpher and is probably the strongest character in the game because you have both physical and magical attack.
Jessica - Airhead clutz. She is a healer and caster. She has a bag with endless stuff inside it and throws random stuff inside it for skills/attacks. Shes your classmate and first person you meet. She is very important to the storyline.
Nicole - Catgirl. She is super horny and goes around flirting with guys and trying to find a husband to have tons of children with. She has a giant hammer with super strength. Highest physical attack in the game. I had her ending and you ended up going back to her village to have dozens of cat eared children with her.
Flay - Crazy hyperactive guy. He is the comic relief. He has super powers like flying through walls and jumping across the sky and lifting houses with his bare hands. But in combat he doesn't have shit. His weapon of choice is a mechsword that shoots ninja stars. These stars are extremely strong. He beats up a mana and forcefully binds it to himself. He wishes to be a super hero/villain.
Roxis - Stuck up asshole guy. This guy is a loser and sucks ass. He doesn't have a mana and can't learn skills and he happens to be a caster. He can't do shit until much later where he gets this mana who wouldn't stop picking on him and making fun of him. He's the "rival" character. Cool-headed pretty boy who hates your guts.
Pamela - Ghost girl. Shes a ghost that lives in the school and scares all the freshmen. Shes extremely overpowered as her guard skill makes her completely immune to damage. So with her as a support she can avoid a instant death move or large damage attack by taking the damage of one of the vanguard. Other than that she's annoying as hell. She doesn't seem to have a mana.
Anna - Sword wielding girl. Shes a swordsman who has no common sense like Touka from Utawarerumono. If you don't know what that is, its a chick who has no common sense and does all sort of stupid stuff. Exactly what this chick does. Except she goes into insane kill mode and starts chasing after everyone trying to cut their necks off their head. Then cries because she messed up. She doesn't seem to have a mana either.
Muppy - Some alien guy. I don't even know I don't give a shit about him as he came like one chapter before the game ends.
Now lets get to the best part of the game, Alchemy. You will spend hours upon hours in your lab making new recipes and mixing items and other stuff. Its loads of fun. When you make an item you can potentially think of new items or your party members will pitch in and say "Hey I wanna make an armor like a crab" and you go "what?" then he write down a formula and you can go mix it if you want. For example, if you add king crabs with steel and other shit you make a crab armor which is armor literally made out of crab shells. Its hilarious and fun. Also in this game there is no exp and no leveling up. The only way of leveling up is unlocking new recipes and items from alchemy and using the AP gained from combat/gathering/etc to learn it, kinda like FFX's grid.
When you combine different items you can make them with different alchemical levels, resulting in different benefits and drawbacks which also transfers into different status and effects on your equipment and items. For example, you can make a crab armor that adds bonus to attack and allows you to cast the spell Tempest. Or you can make a weapon that adds the effect to knock back the enemy's turn on attack or even sleep on strike. Each of the materials used to make an item have different stats and end up being different when you mix them all. Choosing who to upgrade items also adds different stats and effects. There are also alchemy levels from 0-100 which is based on the items you use. By say using a lv 20 water and lv 60 crab with a lv 5 steel will make you steel crab soup lv 85. It will give different effects from say a lv 25 steel crab soup. Recrafting older items can get you higher or lower amounts as well as picking different characters and the roulette system. Higher does not always mean a better item. Sometimes its a very specific amount that gives better stats. Very customizable. Unfortunately there is a downside. When you don't have the materials to make items it can really piss you off. Luckily as you advance the game you can send your friends on gathering hunts or synthesize. You can randomly get the items you want without having to make them or hunt them every week or few weeks. This can help for rare equipment and materials.
Another great thing about this game is the combat. Its turn based and reminds me of Grandia a lot. When you start the game, there is just you, Jessica and Nicole. at the top of the screen is a row of cards with different pictures on it. Its pretty much the order of actions. As you play more you start to realize, if you continuously pound on a target, they will keep moving behind on the row. If you stun them they get knocked out and gets skipped over while everyone moves ahead. When you cast a time card spell, like for example Echo Heal Alpha. You heal someone and then you see a few cards on the list. Every time its that card's turn it automatically heals. Its like a damage or heal over time skill. These skills will randomly target enemies if its offensive and allies if its supportive. The more hits you do a bar at the bottom fills up. When it fills to full a character can use his/her super move. If you hit a target's weakness they get pushed back and stunned easier while your bar gains even quicker.
That's pretty much the basics. But when you start getting more people you'll notice that you can get more than three people in combat. You can take up to six characters into combat. Three vanguards and three supports. These are interchangeable during combat. You can hit L and R to switch your active support. When you are attacking you can hit a button anytime and your support will jump out and attack the enemy switching places with you. You can switch as many times you want. However after switching that character will have a cooldown before being able to switch. Players that are in support will slowly gain hp and sp. Skill use up a lot of sp so changing around is required. Boss fights are very long. When you are being attacked, you can hit a button and the support will jump out and take the hit to save your guy from being killed or taking less damage because they auto guard when you save your teammate. This means you can drop time cards and switch your allies to the back and keep stacking and damage starts flying around everywhere and you keep combo-ing and blocking. Different characters have different effects of supportive blocking and attacking. For example when Jessica comes out to block someone she does a party heal. And Pamela completely nullifies all damage. Anna counterattacks when she blocks, etc etc. A good strategy is to load up on time cards and switch so it keeps doing damage while your character is recovering.
Seems fun right? Yeah it is. Its very fun. I recommend this game a lot. It might not appeal to everyone though, as combat is a little easy and there isn't much to do. The story isn't bad but kinda childish. Although it does get pretty dark later on. This game is targeted at high school kids. But for some reason, almost all the enemies you meet are naked monster girls. Like you have harpy girls, dragon girls, mermaid girls, squirrel girls, dryads, plant girls, sword girls, shield girls, angel girls, devil girls, cat girls, girl girls. Even some of the items are a little messed up. You have to kill angel girls to get angel panties and use it to make angel wings and use them to make an angel costume. You use devil panties to make bondage gear for your characters. Cat ears to make cat girl maid costumes. Yeah, some alchemical formulas are a little messed up.
What about Mana Khemia 2? It must be great since the first is great right? Nope. Like Persona 4, they also got lazy and used the same monsters from Mana Khemia 1. Instead of being alchemists, you get to pick between two characters. Some sword guy and some air headed chick. Naturally I picked the sword guy but he turns out to be some dense retard. You start the game as a slave to some chick and she has a mana who looks like a person with robot ears and wears a maid uniform. This chick, Lily is your first party member and then you meet this super active girl, who is a childhood friend of Lily and you. Her name is Et, and shes the rival of Lily who is vying for your attention. None of the characters are likable and the story is stupid. Every five minutes you are slamming your head into the wall from second hand embarrassment. Ok I admit Lily was a little cute the first time when shes trying so hard to get your attention but your character is completely oblivious. Then when they do it over and over it got old fast. Honestly, its like the game decided to make Mana Khemia 2 into a big giant fan service filled with cliches and shit from anime.
In combat you don't even have six people. You can get five people and one guest on special events. Every character is annoying and you don't even wanna pick any of them. The first game had a decent story, but the second one you're this guy going around killing shit and being a stupid slave and some guy comes and give you a ring and somehow you go insane and start stabbing manas and making them die permanently by sending them back to their own world. Then you somehow find out that guy is a bad guy and you fight and he kicks your ass but somehow you get super powers and beat them and all these characters appear for no reason and you don't know who is who and what is what and the game ends. You are supposed to play the game twice to find out what you're missing from the other point of view and then the secret hidden play through where you play as both. Who is going to play it three times? Fuck that shit.
Alchemy got dumbed down. Instead of mixing properly you get this weird shit that you must + and - the numbers to get whatever. Trust me it sucks. The item variety isn't as wide and when leveling up instead of unlocking a grid you get a list you scroll though on what to level up. Items are much easier to get but for some odd reason, the gear you keep making seems to keep getting shittier and you end up using old weapons for a long time. The skills you learn are garbage as well. Some characters are just useless. And sucks to be you because you can't change characters. You only have 5 characters per main character. Special events where you get together you can pick one from the other party to make it six. These are rare and the ones you get are much weaker because you don't get to upgrade their spells or items.
The characters in the first game were generally good. Even the bad ones were good. In the second game they try way too hard. Instead of having a plot they just reuse Flay from the first game and have him do his random stuff. It was funny in the first game when he breaks through a wall like the kool-aid man randomly but after seeing it used so many times in the second game it was boring. The second game you have one dimensional characters. They have stock clichéd personalities.
The only good person in the game was Yun. He is a mana without a master that will do stuff for money. He's aloof and serious. The mature member of the group basically. Later on you find out he's doing lots of jobs to get millions and millions of Cole and you find out that when his old master died, she left a daughter which he takes care as his own. He sends all the money he earned back home to her and she grows up to be a spoiled brat. One part of the game she shows up and starts insulting everyone while looking for Yun. She's not a brat she just wants her father's attention and he's completely clueless on how to raise her. As you progress through his story he slowly learns. Unfortunately, everyone else in the game is shit.
Raze is you the unfortunate hero of the game who must listen to Lily all day long. He's pretty apathetic to everything and who can blame him when he's the slave to Lily.
Lily I already talked about, then her mana is dressed like a maid who she likes to punish all the time. I don't know why but probably to get all the dumb fuckers with maid fetishes worked up.
Et is the super hyperactive big boobed girl who has a brother complex and childhood friend secretly in love with Raze blah blah blah. Pass.
Yun the mana who is the only likable person. Has a bitchy daughter.
Puniyo the little human girl that was raised by Punis and can only say puni for all her words. She is accompanied by her three puni brothers who she rides on like a mount who can speak the human language. You'd think they'd teach her but no. These three are the most annoying characters. Pretty much three retards constantly fighting with each other and you're supposed to laugh at how stupid they are blah blah blah. Fucking cringe whenever shes on screen.
Then the other characters in the game who you have to constantly meet over and over again and fight over and over and over again. They are from the other route in their own party.
Ulrika is the country bumpkin who accidentally crashes into you at the start of the school semester and the two of you start off yelling at each other. Shes in Lily's class and Lily scolds her for you only for her to get angry at the both of you. Blah blah blah angry tsundere bullshit fuckface. Pass.
Chloe is the bookworm no emotion girl who doesn't speak and when she does its always horrible words coming out her mouth. She makes evil curse charms and shit. Boring.
Peperocino is the most fucking annoying character. Not because he sucks but because his voice is horrifying. It grates on your ears and he's this giant muscleman fairy. All other fairies are kids except for him and he speaks in this squeaky voice saying the most fucking shitty things. Pass.
Ena is Et's younger brother who has a crush on Puniyo. He's ok he's not that bad but 90% of the time he's getting chased around by Et and getting fucked over by everyone. So he's shitty because whenever you see him you know Et is going to show up and fuck over everything by being in there.
Goto just magically appears and is never mentioned in Raze's route and I have no idea who he is.
So out of all the main characters only a few are likable and by likable I mean not terrible.
The worst part is the combat is just so much worse than the first. Like you know the first game has great combat, what should we do with the second one? Fuck it up thats what. They ruined the whole specialized characters and vanguards/support thing. Its there its just not as fun as it used to be because you don't have enough characters to bounce around and strategize. In the first game you can pick and choose which characters to use to fit your strategy and everyone is highly specialized in their role. The second one you HAVE to use the five you have. It gets especially shitty in boss fights where you have to fight for 30 minutes straight. You do get a bonus party member from the other party (Ulrika's if you are Raze.) You get to choose which to pick but without any idea what they are good for what their skills are or anything. These people are generally much weaker than your party members because they don't scale them. Basically you are given dead weight. However it still has the time cards and combat turn cards where you can push back enemy action cards to miss their turn. However they're now balls and its much harder to see.
Storyline is non existent. The first one focuses on you and the school and your party members. You get attached to them, even the villains aren't really villains. They're just rivals and you guys get along afterwards. The teachers are all interesting and the events are generally funny without being overbearing. Theres actually a story where you look for your father and it gets really dark really fast. Sulpher is the coolest character in the first game and he doesn't even talk that much. In fact, the twist in the first game was that you are the mana and the cat is actually the person who you made a contract with. Thats why no one can understand him but you and how he is dying of old age and everyone goes "I never seen a mana get sick before." In the second game you're just begging for shit to end and slamming your head in shame from the sheer stupidity of things. Like the country bumpkin showing up and sees your party there first so she decides to stomp all the alchemy flowers only to realize you guys already picked it up and are on your way to leave and then she goes "I need the flower for my homework!" Ha ha thats funny right? No its not. What about Lily trying to confess to Raze and he keeps getting distracted and never hears her. Groan. Piece of shit. The whole game is just slapstick comedy with no story. I wouldn't be this pissed off if the first one wasn't so fun. It would be bad still but its just an insult when compared to the first game. I played this a long time ago and I still remember how shitty the second one is whenever I see NIS America's logo or name.
I hate to say it but I enjoyed the story of Persona 3 better. Actually no, Persona 3 is pathetic because they tried too hard to sound serious and dark while Mana Khemia 2 is pathetic because they try so hard to be funny. I say they're both equally pathetic and bad.
Mana Khemia : Alchemists of Al-Revis
Mana Knemia 2: The fall of Alchemy
This will be a joint double review. Lets start it off as always. How I came to find this game. I was looking around when I saw Mana Khemia 2 coming out, so I checked out the first of the series. Alchemist? Sounds interesting. Then I saw NIS America made it, the same people who made Disgaea and other similar games. I thought, this must be pretty good right!? Well they also made Ar Tonelico with its infamous scene seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoODv8LVib8
Apparently from what I have heard the sexual innuendos continue for the whole game in Ar Tonelico. Then when I first started the game the graphics looks like shit while the game play felt like Persona where you are at school but at the same time hanging out with friends and killing monsters. I was horrified. In my mind, I was ready for the huge disappointment to come. I cannot express how wrong I was. This game was good. Very good in fact. There are flaws, but its a very lighthearted RPG aimed towards a younger audience but still fun to play nonetheless.
At the start of the game it lets you pick between Japanese voices and English voices. Its like the game is warning you ahead of time of the terrible voice acting. Like all games that I can switch off voice acting from Japanese games, I do it. The voices are pretty annoying at first, but eventually you'll get used to it. Didn't bother me much in the end as the characters eventually grow on you. You start off the game as Vayne, this really soft spoken passive kid living with his mana being recruited by a teacher from the academy of Al-Revis. Since he knew your father, who happens to be the most famous alchemist that has ever lived and he recently died he asked you to join the school in which you accepted. On your first day of school you immediately start meeting the four main characters and the main villains.
You meet Jessica, a fellow alchemist who is not only terrible at alchemy but a huge airhead klutz. Then as you leave the classroom you meet two seniors, Tony and Renee who tries to recruit you for their workshop. Just as this happens a man (supposed to be a student but he looks like he's 30 from a jrpg point of view) falls from the sky and recruits you first. He and Tony are rivals and he recruits you before them. Tony and Renee will be your villains. The man introduces himself as Flay and he needs people to join his workshop or he'll be closed down. Then you meet a beastman (cat people) chick named Nicole. These are your main characters.
One thing you will notice are Manas. They are magical creatures that come from another world and makes pacts with the alchemist for mutual gain. In other words a familiar for the alchemist. Without one you are weak as shit. An alchemist may choose to restrain the mana by force or to just simply make a pact. You already have a Mana, a cat named Sulpher. Sulpher is special as only you can hear and understand him, everyone else sees him as a very smart cat but with magical powers. It is part of the storyline so there is a reason. Mana are gained by storyline or by interacting with different characters during "free time" mode. To access free time, you must complete all the required credits in a term. Once you have acquired them all you automatically enter free time and can do jobs or spend time with party members to learn their stories.
So its kinda like persona? Yes it is but its much more fun. To start things off you don't have stupid bullshit like quizzes and tests, your class are like for example, Combat class IV where you enter a dungeon clear to a boss and for that boss you are given restrictions. Cannot heal and you must beat the boss while using chains and finish off with a finishing strike. You're grade will depend on your combos and time etc etc. Other times you will be sent to create items for Synthesis class or hunt for rare items in Gathering class. There is no studying as the earlier classes are mandatory to progress the storyline and to teach the players new abilities and also show them how its done. During free time, instead of fucking finding your friends and wasting days talking to them like in persona. Its like Mass Effect where they all stand around in your workshop and you can talk to them anytime. If during a free time, they will give you an option "Do you wish to spend the day with [name]?" If you do you enter character story mode. Free time depends on how early you complete your courses. It is very lenient on how many credits you need. You have around 6-7 weeks (days) to complete all the credits for your term. You only need about 2-3 A's to complete all credits but if you're struggling with C's or F's you'll probably need the full week.
The first few characters are fun but near the end they keep adding new characters. What I dislike most is adding characters near the end of the game. You don't care about them they don't do anything to the storyline and its a waste of a character. This game the girls are scary. When I thought persona 4 girls were aggressive these will literally pull you away and force you to do stuff. Half the game is you being dragged around force to do this and that. Vayne doesn't say anything to go against them. And your mana goes "sighs" and he follows you complaining all the way. Spending time with your friends will improve skills and progress the story. The ending will change depending on who you maxed your relationship with. Only one person can become the highest maxed relationship.
Here's a breakdown of the characters.
Vayne - That's you! You have super powers you learned from Sulpher and is probably the strongest character in the game because you have both physical and magical attack.
Jessica - Airhead clutz. She is a healer and caster. She has a bag with endless stuff inside it and throws random stuff inside it for skills/attacks. Shes your classmate and first person you meet. She is very important to the storyline.
Nicole - Catgirl. She is super horny and goes around flirting with guys and trying to find a husband to have tons of children with. She has a giant hammer with super strength. Highest physical attack in the game. I had her ending and you ended up going back to her village to have dozens of cat eared children with her.
Flay - Crazy hyperactive guy. He is the comic relief. He has super powers like flying through walls and jumping across the sky and lifting houses with his bare hands. But in combat he doesn't have shit. His weapon of choice is a mechsword that shoots ninja stars. These stars are extremely strong. He beats up a mana and forcefully binds it to himself. He wishes to be a super hero/villain.
Roxis - Stuck up asshole guy. This guy is a loser and sucks ass. He doesn't have a mana and can't learn skills and he happens to be a caster. He can't do shit until much later where he gets this mana who wouldn't stop picking on him and making fun of him. He's the "rival" character. Cool-headed pretty boy who hates your guts.
Pamela - Ghost girl. Shes a ghost that lives in the school and scares all the freshmen. Shes extremely overpowered as her guard skill makes her completely immune to damage. So with her as a support she can avoid a instant death move or large damage attack by taking the damage of one of the vanguard. Other than that she's annoying as hell. She doesn't seem to have a mana.
Anna - Sword wielding girl. Shes a swordsman who has no common sense like Touka from Utawarerumono. If you don't know what that is, its a chick who has no common sense and does all sort of stupid stuff. Exactly what this chick does. Except she goes into insane kill mode and starts chasing after everyone trying to cut their necks off their head. Then cries because she messed up. She doesn't seem to have a mana either.
Muppy - Some alien guy. I don't even know I don't give a shit about him as he came like one chapter before the game ends.
Now lets get to the best part of the game, Alchemy. You will spend hours upon hours in your lab making new recipes and mixing items and other stuff. Its loads of fun. When you make an item you can potentially think of new items or your party members will pitch in and say "Hey I wanna make an armor like a crab" and you go "what?" then he write down a formula and you can go mix it if you want. For example, if you add king crabs with steel and other shit you make a crab armor which is armor literally made out of crab shells. Its hilarious and fun. Also in this game there is no exp and no leveling up. The only way of leveling up is unlocking new recipes and items from alchemy and using the AP gained from combat/gathering/etc to learn it, kinda like FFX's grid.
When you combine different items you can make them with different alchemical levels, resulting in different benefits and drawbacks which also transfers into different status and effects on your equipment and items. For example, you can make a crab armor that adds bonus to attack and allows you to cast the spell Tempest. Or you can make a weapon that adds the effect to knock back the enemy's turn on attack or even sleep on strike. Each of the materials used to make an item have different stats and end up being different when you mix them all. Choosing who to upgrade items also adds different stats and effects. There are also alchemy levels from 0-100 which is based on the items you use. By say using a lv 20 water and lv 60 crab with a lv 5 steel will make you steel crab soup lv 85. It will give different effects from say a lv 25 steel crab soup. Recrafting older items can get you higher or lower amounts as well as picking different characters and the roulette system. Higher does not always mean a better item. Sometimes its a very specific amount that gives better stats. Very customizable. Unfortunately there is a downside. When you don't have the materials to make items it can really piss you off. Luckily as you advance the game you can send your friends on gathering hunts or synthesize. You can randomly get the items you want without having to make them or hunt them every week or few weeks. This can help for rare equipment and materials.
Another great thing about this game is the combat. Its turn based and reminds me of Grandia a lot. When you start the game, there is just you, Jessica and Nicole. at the top of the screen is a row of cards with different pictures on it. Its pretty much the order of actions. As you play more you start to realize, if you continuously pound on a target, they will keep moving behind on the row. If you stun them they get knocked out and gets skipped over while everyone moves ahead. When you cast a time card spell, like for example Echo Heal Alpha. You heal someone and then you see a few cards on the list. Every time its that card's turn it automatically heals. Its like a damage or heal over time skill. These skills will randomly target enemies if its offensive and allies if its supportive. The more hits you do a bar at the bottom fills up. When it fills to full a character can use his/her super move. If you hit a target's weakness they get pushed back and stunned easier while your bar gains even quicker.
That's pretty much the basics. But when you start getting more people you'll notice that you can get more than three people in combat. You can take up to six characters into combat. Three vanguards and three supports. These are interchangeable during combat. You can hit L and R to switch your active support. When you are attacking you can hit a button anytime and your support will jump out and attack the enemy switching places with you. You can switch as many times you want. However after switching that character will have a cooldown before being able to switch. Players that are in support will slowly gain hp and sp. Skill use up a lot of sp so changing around is required. Boss fights are very long. When you are being attacked, you can hit a button and the support will jump out and take the hit to save your guy from being killed or taking less damage because they auto guard when you save your teammate. This means you can drop time cards and switch your allies to the back and keep stacking and damage starts flying around everywhere and you keep combo-ing and blocking. Different characters have different effects of supportive blocking and attacking. For example when Jessica comes out to block someone she does a party heal. And Pamela completely nullifies all damage. Anna counterattacks when she blocks, etc etc. A good strategy is to load up on time cards and switch so it keeps doing damage while your character is recovering.
Seems fun right? Yeah it is. Its very fun. I recommend this game a lot. It might not appeal to everyone though, as combat is a little easy and there isn't much to do. The story isn't bad but kinda childish. Although it does get pretty dark later on. This game is targeted at high school kids. But for some reason, almost all the enemies you meet are naked monster girls. Like you have harpy girls, dragon girls, mermaid girls, squirrel girls, dryads, plant girls, sword girls, shield girls, angel girls, devil girls, cat girls, girl girls. Even some of the items are a little messed up. You have to kill angel girls to get angel panties and use it to make angel wings and use them to make an angel costume. You use devil panties to make bondage gear for your characters. Cat ears to make cat girl maid costumes. Yeah, some alchemical formulas are a little messed up.
What about Mana Khemia 2? It must be great since the first is great right? Nope. Like Persona 4, they also got lazy and used the same monsters from Mana Khemia 1. Instead of being alchemists, you get to pick between two characters. Some sword guy and some air headed chick. Naturally I picked the sword guy but he turns out to be some dense retard. You start the game as a slave to some chick and she has a mana who looks like a person with robot ears and wears a maid uniform. This chick, Lily is your first party member and then you meet this super active girl, who is a childhood friend of Lily and you. Her name is Et, and shes the rival of Lily who is vying for your attention. None of the characters are likable and the story is stupid. Every five minutes you are slamming your head into the wall from second hand embarrassment. Ok I admit Lily was a little cute the first time when shes trying so hard to get your attention but your character is completely oblivious. Then when they do it over and over it got old fast. Honestly, its like the game decided to make Mana Khemia 2 into a big giant fan service filled with cliches and shit from anime.
In combat you don't even have six people. You can get five people and one guest on special events. Every character is annoying and you don't even wanna pick any of them. The first game had a decent story, but the second one you're this guy going around killing shit and being a stupid slave and some guy comes and give you a ring and somehow you go insane and start stabbing manas and making them die permanently by sending them back to their own world. Then you somehow find out that guy is a bad guy and you fight and he kicks your ass but somehow you get super powers and beat them and all these characters appear for no reason and you don't know who is who and what is what and the game ends. You are supposed to play the game twice to find out what you're missing from the other point of view and then the secret hidden play through where you play as both. Who is going to play it three times? Fuck that shit.
Alchemy got dumbed down. Instead of mixing properly you get this weird shit that you must + and - the numbers to get whatever. Trust me it sucks. The item variety isn't as wide and when leveling up instead of unlocking a grid you get a list you scroll though on what to level up. Items are much easier to get but for some odd reason, the gear you keep making seems to keep getting shittier and you end up using old weapons for a long time. The skills you learn are garbage as well. Some characters are just useless. And sucks to be you because you can't change characters. You only have 5 characters per main character. Special events where you get together you can pick one from the other party to make it six. These are rare and the ones you get are much weaker because you don't get to upgrade their spells or items.
The characters in the first game were generally good. Even the bad ones were good. In the second game they try way too hard. Instead of having a plot they just reuse Flay from the first game and have him do his random stuff. It was funny in the first game when he breaks through a wall like the kool-aid man randomly but after seeing it used so many times in the second game it was boring. The second game you have one dimensional characters. They have stock clichéd personalities.
The only good person in the game was Yun. He is a mana without a master that will do stuff for money. He's aloof and serious. The mature member of the group basically. Later on you find out he's doing lots of jobs to get millions and millions of Cole and you find out that when his old master died, she left a daughter which he takes care as his own. He sends all the money he earned back home to her and she grows up to be a spoiled brat. One part of the game she shows up and starts insulting everyone while looking for Yun. She's not a brat she just wants her father's attention and he's completely clueless on how to raise her. As you progress through his story he slowly learns. Unfortunately, everyone else in the game is shit.
Raze is you the unfortunate hero of the game who must listen to Lily all day long. He's pretty apathetic to everything and who can blame him when he's the slave to Lily.
Lily I already talked about, then her mana is dressed like a maid who she likes to punish all the time. I don't know why but probably to get all the dumb fuckers with maid fetishes worked up.
Et is the super hyperactive big boobed girl who has a brother complex and childhood friend secretly in love with Raze blah blah blah. Pass.
Yun the mana who is the only likable person. Has a bitchy daughter.
Puniyo the little human girl that was raised by Punis and can only say puni for all her words. She is accompanied by her three puni brothers who she rides on like a mount who can speak the human language. You'd think they'd teach her but no. These three are the most annoying characters. Pretty much three retards constantly fighting with each other and you're supposed to laugh at how stupid they are blah blah blah. Fucking cringe whenever shes on screen.
Then the other characters in the game who you have to constantly meet over and over again and fight over and over and over again. They are from the other route in their own party.
Ulrika is the country bumpkin who accidentally crashes into you at the start of the school semester and the two of you start off yelling at each other. Shes in Lily's class and Lily scolds her for you only for her to get angry at the both of you. Blah blah blah angry tsundere bullshit fuckface. Pass.
Chloe is the bookworm no emotion girl who doesn't speak and when she does its always horrible words coming out her mouth. She makes evil curse charms and shit. Boring.
Peperocino is the most fucking annoying character. Not because he sucks but because his voice is horrifying. It grates on your ears and he's this giant muscleman fairy. All other fairies are kids except for him and he speaks in this squeaky voice saying the most fucking shitty things. Pass.
Ena is Et's younger brother who has a crush on Puniyo. He's ok he's not that bad but 90% of the time he's getting chased around by Et and getting fucked over by everyone. So he's shitty because whenever you see him you know Et is going to show up and fuck over everything by being in there.
Goto just magically appears and is never mentioned in Raze's route and I have no idea who he is.
So out of all the main characters only a few are likable and by likable I mean not terrible.
The worst part is the combat is just so much worse than the first. Like you know the first game has great combat, what should we do with the second one? Fuck it up thats what. They ruined the whole specialized characters and vanguards/support thing. Its there its just not as fun as it used to be because you don't have enough characters to bounce around and strategize. In the first game you can pick and choose which characters to use to fit your strategy and everyone is highly specialized in their role. The second one you HAVE to use the five you have. It gets especially shitty in boss fights where you have to fight for 30 minutes straight. You do get a bonus party member from the other party (Ulrika's if you are Raze.) You get to choose which to pick but without any idea what they are good for what their skills are or anything. These people are generally much weaker than your party members because they don't scale them. Basically you are given dead weight. However it still has the time cards and combat turn cards where you can push back enemy action cards to miss their turn. However they're now balls and its much harder to see.
Storyline is non existent. The first one focuses on you and the school and your party members. You get attached to them, even the villains aren't really villains. They're just rivals and you guys get along afterwards. The teachers are all interesting and the events are generally funny without being overbearing. Theres actually a story where you look for your father and it gets really dark really fast. Sulpher is the coolest character in the first game and he doesn't even talk that much. In fact, the twist in the first game was that you are the mana and the cat is actually the person who you made a contract with. Thats why no one can understand him but you and how he is dying of old age and everyone goes "I never seen a mana get sick before." In the second game you're just begging for shit to end and slamming your head in shame from the sheer stupidity of things. Like the country bumpkin showing up and sees your party there first so she decides to stomp all the alchemy flowers only to realize you guys already picked it up and are on your way to leave and then she goes "I need the flower for my homework!" Ha ha thats funny right? No its not. What about Lily trying to confess to Raze and he keeps getting distracted and never hears her. Groan. Piece of shit. The whole game is just slapstick comedy with no story. I wouldn't be this pissed off if the first one wasn't so fun. It would be bad still but its just an insult when compared to the first game. I played this a long time ago and I still remember how shitty the second one is whenever I see NIS America's logo or name.
I hate to say it but I enjoyed the story of Persona 3 better. Actually no, Persona 3 is pathetic because they tried too hard to sound serious and dark while Mana Khemia 2 is pathetic because they try so hard to be funny. I say they're both equally pathetic and bad.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Mechwarrior Online - Yet another update
So MWO is out in open beta now. I've commented about it several times, and have raised many concerns as to its future. Unfortunately, I was right. Very right.
It's a F2P game that is very shallow in nature, repetitive in its grind, and completely unsuitable for release in its current stage. Netcode sucks, performance sucks, the awful motion blur, film grain, HDR, and bloom are obnoxious, content is lacking, game mode is boring, mech prices are WAY too expensive, matchmaking is nonexistent, the grind is painful even for the cheapest mech, and they still pushed it out the door into open beta anyway. The developers knew too, but they had deadlines to meet, which is a shame. They settled on releasing a minimum viable product (their words), and thus, I do not understand how they expect to receive anything more than a minimum viable score. What a terrible business plan.
They cited a bunch of other similar F2P games (namely World of Tanks) to justify their pricing and launch quality, but like I said before... F2P isn't a cureall, and a game released years ago shouldn't be used as the measuring stick for today.
Sadly, I really wanted to be wrong on this one, and for MWO to succeed. But I don't think it will. The biggest chance for MWO to get noticed was at launch, and they blew their chance. Even if they do fix up the game, it'll be too late, as Mechwarrior has always been a small community without the same level of magnetism. Even though it has only been the first 2 weeks of launch, the numbers are disheartening. The devs, PGI, have smartly pulled out the online players counter that was present in every iteration of beta. Worse, they're using a terrible engine (CryEngine 3) which suffers from persistent netcode problems and poor handling of fast moving vehicles (CryEngine 1+2 also had this problem, so MWLL was affected). Its engine also has shockingly poor performance despite being tailored to adhere to console specifications.
Well, I tried my best back in beta to warn the devs of this problem. I even spoke to them personally. They did stall beta few times to increase it's standard of quality, but this isn't enough. At least I enjoyed my time in the beta with it. You know, back when these flaws were 'acceptable'.
"It's just a beta, it'll be fixed on release." Yea, right.
It's a F2P game that is very shallow in nature, repetitive in its grind, and completely unsuitable for release in its current stage. Netcode sucks, performance sucks, the awful motion blur, film grain, HDR, and bloom are obnoxious, content is lacking, game mode is boring, mech prices are WAY too expensive, matchmaking is nonexistent, the grind is painful even for the cheapest mech, and they still pushed it out the door into open beta anyway. The developers knew too, but they had deadlines to meet, which is a shame. They settled on releasing a minimum viable product (their words), and thus, I do not understand how they expect to receive anything more than a minimum viable score. What a terrible business plan.
They cited a bunch of other similar F2P games (namely World of Tanks) to justify their pricing and launch quality, but like I said before... F2P isn't a cureall, and a game released years ago shouldn't be used as the measuring stick for today.
Sadly, I really wanted to be wrong on this one, and for MWO to succeed. But I don't think it will. The biggest chance for MWO to get noticed was at launch, and they blew their chance. Even if they do fix up the game, it'll be too late, as Mechwarrior has always been a small community without the same level of magnetism. Even though it has only been the first 2 weeks of launch, the numbers are disheartening. The devs, PGI, have smartly pulled out the online players counter that was present in every iteration of beta. Worse, they're using a terrible engine (CryEngine 3) which suffers from persistent netcode problems and poor handling of fast moving vehicles (CryEngine 1+2 also had this problem, so MWLL was affected). Its engine also has shockingly poor performance despite being tailored to adhere to console specifications.
Well, I tried my best back in beta to warn the devs of this problem. I even spoke to them personally. They did stall beta few times to increase it's standard of quality, but this isn't enough. At least I enjoyed my time in the beta with it. You know, back when these flaws were 'acceptable'.
"It's just a beta, it'll be fixed on release." Yea, right.
Leaked SWTOR developer's meeting
SWTOR Dev Lackey: GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GAIZ GAIZ! I has idea! What if we take our game, which nobody thinks is worth paying for... And then strip content out of it, and sell it back to them as individual components at a collectively higher price?
SWTOR Dev Lead: GENIUS. Let's take 6 months to covertly plan and develop our new F2P features, while subscribers continue to pay a monthly fee and receive no content updates. Then when F2P arrives, they will have to pay TWICE just to get back the items and perks they've earned and already paid for.
And thus, an already shitty game became a cosmic joke. In retrospect, I guess they achieved something original with the franchise after all, instead of just cloning another MMO.
If you haven't heard, SWTOR announced F2P some time ago, after the TORtanic prophesies proved true. Waves of players and developers abandoned the sinking ship, and EA hastily branded it a failure, and the sole unpredictable blemish on their otherwise flawless business strategy, deferring all blame onto Bioware. When your own parent disavows and abandons you, you know you've fucked up. Around that time, BW/EA tried to excuse themselves with data claiming that subscription based MMOs were dead, and an unsuitable payment model for the times. They also tried to reference F2P MMOs like LOTRO, DCUO, etc for their relative success. But the truth is, F2P isn't a cureall. I will probably make a dedicated post about that later, but F2P doesn't automatically make your game better, nor will it alleviate the existing flaws. However, no need to worry, because SWTOR never got the memo on how to make a F2P game; they focused all their time on fixing their public relations problems instead, so it would be a farce to even call this F2P.
Back to the headlines then: SWTOR officially launched their F2P today, and now all servers are open for you to play for free. Not that I would recommend it.
SWTOR's F2P restrictions are so tight, that many players are labeling it an 'extended trial', as it allows a player to level from 1-50, but little else. For the first time in any F2P MMO I've heard of, SWTOR restricts your UI, and makes you pay money to use it. It doesn't end there. Let's list some moronic restrictions:
SWTOR Devs: Herp derp, you don't want to pay $15 a month for my game? How about $20 for only 1/5th of my game? ULTRA DEAL!
It is clear that this F2P change won't draw in any more players than their free trial did. Because that's all this is: another free trial. And a chance for Bioware to double-dip into their subscribers and make them pay again for something they've already paid for months ago. And which ex-subscriber would be stupid enough to pay? If they didn't think the entire game was worth the money then, why would it be worth the value now? Nothing's changed, except for getting even less content. Sickeningly, it also means Bioware gets an excuse to put in a CASH SHOP into a P2P game. People would have been outraged if they did it while it was still technically P2P, but now they can call it F2P, however unfaithful it may be to that label. It shocks me that Bioware promises more content every 6 weeks from now on, when they've broken that promise repeatedly since release, when people were already supposedly paying monthly for content. Now that people don't have to pay monthly... They're promising monthly content again? How gullible do you think your subscribers are?
These guys have no fucking clue how to run a MMO, or a F2P game. Since release, more than half their employees and major project leads were fired, and I'm not sorry to see them go. They were trash and should never work in the industry again. My only regret is that their replacements are just as deluded and out of touch with gaming and the community.
What a fucking waste. And I'm not even surprised. I came to my senses in March, but that was already too much time wasted on this crap. So I'll redeem myself with a prediction, nay, a prophecy: SWTOR F2P is going to flop hard, and will not get any more players than a wave of trial offers. Not even close to the 50 million predicted (this guy should be fired too btw). Bioware won't shut down SWTOR so soon, so I foresee massive revamping of the F2P system, an admission of guilt and a shallow apology, then a reduction in its restrictions, and more incentive for ex-subscribers to return. New periodic content of substance will still be scarce. Cash shop profits will keep SWTOR afloat, and they'll attempt to use it to bolster their reputation and initial claims, despite subscriber numbers not actually increasing (but they'll conveniently avoid that data).
Update: Just read this at wired.
While the rest of the article points at a conclusion I'm not quite ready to accept, this segment of it is spot on. The game is bad, that's why it's not worth $15 a month. If they focused on trying to make the game better to match the $15, it would be harder, but ultimately a better product. Instead, they weakened the product to market it at a deceptively cheaper price. I also don't think the problem is with the p2p MMO archetype, it is with the games being lackluster and ultimately, lacking the frequent updates you'd expect with a monthly bill. Imagine subscribing to a magazine, and paying a monthly fee only to get the same issue over and over again. Not enough content? Re-read it! Read it backwards! Fold it into origami! Keep yourself warm at the fireplace! The sad thing is, f2p moba games update every 2 days, yet $15 a month, despite server maintenance costs, give you an update every 6 months if you're lucky? I'm afraid the problem lies with the developers and publishers, not with the model.
SWTOR Dev Lead: GENIUS. Let's take 6 months to covertly plan and develop our new F2P features, while subscribers continue to pay a monthly fee and receive no content updates. Then when F2P arrives, they will have to pay TWICE just to get back the items and perks they've earned and already paid for.
And thus, an already shitty game became a cosmic joke. In retrospect, I guess they achieved something original with the franchise after all, instead of just cloning another MMO.
If you haven't heard, SWTOR announced F2P some time ago, after the TORtanic prophesies proved true. Waves of players and developers abandoned the sinking ship, and EA hastily branded it a failure, and the sole unpredictable blemish on their otherwise flawless business strategy, deferring all blame onto Bioware. When your own parent disavows and abandons you, you know you've fucked up. Around that time, BW/EA tried to excuse themselves with data claiming that subscription based MMOs were dead, and an unsuitable payment model for the times. They also tried to reference F2P MMOs like LOTRO, DCUO, etc for their relative success. But the truth is, F2P isn't a cureall. I will probably make a dedicated post about that later, but F2P doesn't automatically make your game better, nor will it alleviate the existing flaws. However, no need to worry, because SWTOR never got the memo on how to make a F2P game; they focused all their time on fixing their public relations problems instead, so it would be a farce to even call this F2P.
Back to the headlines then: SWTOR officially launched their F2P today, and now all servers are open for you to play for free. Not that I would recommend it.
SWTOR's F2P restrictions are so tight, that many players are labeling it an 'extended trial', as it allows a player to level from 1-50, but little else. For the first time in any F2P MMO I've heard of, SWTOR restricts your UI, and makes you pay money to use it. It doesn't end there. Let's list some moronic restrictions:
- Only get 2 of the available 6 hotbars for skills (and believe me, you need at least 4)
- Pay more at vendors and every time you exchange tokens for gear (the primary way to get good gear)
- Can't use guild bank or regular banks (any items inside are locked)
- Can't mail or trade
- Cant accept common quest rewards
- Can only post 2 auction house listings
- Cant have more than 200k credits on you (the rest is locked into an account that is never released until you subscribe)
- Can only talk in 2 channels at 1 message a minute
- Cant wear epic gear (even if earned from being a subscriber)
- Cant wear event gear (even if earned from being a subscriber)
- Can't hide headslots or display titles or legacy name (even your 'founders title' awarded from being a long term subscriber)
- Can only roll 3 times for loot in dungeons PER week (failed rolls count)
- Can only do 5 battlegrounds a week (losses and incomplete games count, and the weekly quest requires 9 battlegrounds won)
- No access to the LFG tool
- No access to raids.
- Only 1 of 3 professions allowed
- Emotes are locked
- Half your inventory size. Anything in the other half is locked until you pay.
- Quick Travel (town teleport ability) cooldown is quadrupled, now at 2 hours. Emergency fleet pass (teleports you back to main fleet hub) completely disabled
- Only 2 characters per server. Returning players must select 2 and lock out the rest.
- No rest xp.
- No using /who.
- No using out of combat move speed passive ability until level 14.
SWTOR Devs: Herp derp, you don't want to pay $15 a month for my game? How about $20 for only 1/5th of my game? ULTRA DEAL!
It is clear that this F2P change won't draw in any more players than their free trial did. Because that's all this is: another free trial. And a chance for Bioware to double-dip into their subscribers and make them pay again for something they've already paid for months ago. And which ex-subscriber would be stupid enough to pay? If they didn't think the entire game was worth the money then, why would it be worth the value now? Nothing's changed, except for getting even less content. Sickeningly, it also means Bioware gets an excuse to put in a CASH SHOP into a P2P game. People would have been outraged if they did it while it was still technically P2P, but now they can call it F2P, however unfaithful it may be to that label. It shocks me that Bioware promises more content every 6 weeks from now on, when they've broken that promise repeatedly since release, when people were already supposedly paying monthly for content. Now that people don't have to pay monthly... They're promising monthly content again? How gullible do you think your subscribers are?
These guys have no fucking clue how to run a MMO, or a F2P game. Since release, more than half their employees and major project leads were fired, and I'm not sorry to see them go. They were trash and should never work in the industry again. My only regret is that their replacements are just as deluded and out of touch with gaming and the community.
What a fucking waste. And I'm not even surprised. I came to my senses in March, but that was already too much time wasted on this crap. So I'll redeem myself with a prediction, nay, a prophecy: SWTOR F2P is going to flop hard, and will not get any more players than a wave of trial offers. Not even close to the 50 million predicted (this guy should be fired too btw). Bioware won't shut down SWTOR so soon, so I foresee massive revamping of the F2P system, an admission of guilt and a shallow apology, then a reduction in its restrictions, and more incentive for ex-subscribers to return. New periodic content of substance will still be scarce. Cash shop profits will keep SWTOR afloat, and they'll attempt to use it to bolster their reputation and initial claims, despite subscriber numbers not actually increasing (but they'll conveniently avoid that data).
Update: Just read this at wired.
The $15-a-month subscription game is dying. But it’s not because players are cheap, it’s because they’re bored.
As the game development website Gamasutra put it, the most expensive game in history is now free: With a reported $200 million budget, the massively multiplayer RPG Star Wars: The Old Republic wasn’t attracting nearly the number of subscribers that publisher Electronic Arts needed if it was going to see returns. So EA added a business model that has been lucrative for other online games: Allow gamers to play for free, then charge them small amounts for upgrades once they’re hooked.
But that may not be enough. Experts in the space say the reason Star Wars struggles while other online games are killing it isn’t because of the money, it’s because of how the games themselves are designed. It’s not the business model that’s obsolete, but the product.
While the rest of the article points at a conclusion I'm not quite ready to accept, this segment of it is spot on. The game is bad, that's why it's not worth $15 a month. If they focused on trying to make the game better to match the $15, it would be harder, but ultimately a better product. Instead, they weakened the product to market it at a deceptively cheaper price. I also don't think the problem is with the p2p MMO archetype, it is with the games being lackluster and ultimately, lacking the frequent updates you'd expect with a monthly bill. Imagine subscribing to a magazine, and paying a monthly fee only to get the same issue over and over again. Not enough content? Re-read it! Read it backwards! Fold it into origami! Keep yourself warm at the fireplace! The sad thing is, f2p moba games update every 2 days, yet $15 a month, despite server maintenance costs, give you an update every 6 months if you're lucky? I'm afraid the problem lies with the developers and publishers, not with the model.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Long Live The Queen - Probably easier to be a real queen
I don't even know how to describe this game. The closest thing I can compare it to is Academagia, a fantasy life simulator where you play as a student in a magic school. Its not as complex and you don't need to read an essay of text every 20 seconds. However I learned its based off some Japanese game called Princess Maker where you raise a princess and force her into prostitution or something fucked up. Knowing Japan you'd probably end up fucking her too. So that raised some giant red flags. I first heard about this game from people posting shit all over the forums about it. I was looking for something to entertain me and so I decided to see what this was about. I checked their site, Hanako Games, where all you see are a bunch of Anime games. This sent more red flags but then I read on and I basically learned that its made by girls for girls.
For too many people, "games for girls" means nothing but bright pink and dolls and dress-up and shopping. Well, those can be fun, but there are plenty of girls whose lives don't begin and end at the mall. Fiction for girls (and young adults in general) often focuses on other common girl-interests, like horses, magic, and fantasy. So why aren't there more girl games with unicorns instead of prom dresses?
We are not just "girls games", although we are definitely girl-friendly. Anyone who likes fantasy and adventure, anime games, or just cute stuff is more than welcome here. We hope you will enjoy what you find and come back in the future to see what other games we have made. We may surprise you!
Want to make your own adventure? Join us...
Alright, you caught my attention. How are they going to pull this off. I remember talking about how the gaming industry is male dominated and there are not many games aimed at girls without it being shit. Well since there seems to be decent positive reviews it shouldn't be too bad right? Well, to tell you the truth it isn't.
You start off as Elodie, a 14 year old princess being pulled out of school and dragged to the castle to find out your mother has died and you will become the queen. You dad, King Dowager, the Duke of Caloris, is a stupid loser who doesn't know how to lead and forces you to do it. From what I assume its a matriarchal society in the kingdom of Nova but its never really explained why. Perhaps its explained in one of the history texts or if you play the game further but I never got there yet without being killed. Yes you can die and you will die A LOT. One thing I can't seem to remember though is the names and the titles. How the shit are you supposed to remember all this without some kind of journal or something so you can look up when you're trying to appoint some random asshole to lead some country where the king was assassinated.
Anyways so your dad is useless and you now rule over the entire country at the young age of 14 and everyone and their pet dog wants you dead. It throws you into a short tutorial where it explains the statistic screen. You have four mood meters: Angry and Afraid, Cheerful and Depressed, Willful and Yielding, Pressured and Lonely. Raising one will lower one of the opposite mood and vice versa. The one which is the highest or lowest of the four determines your current mood. You will get bonus to learning skills depending on your mood. Skills are broken down into 4 categories, each with multiple subcategories and 3 subcategories for each subcategory. For example, Social skill is broken down into the following subcategories: Royal Demeanor, Conversation, Expression. In Royal Demeanor you have: Composure, Elegance, and Presence. While in Conversation you have: Public Speaking, Court Manners, and Flattery. Then you have shit like Intellectual skills with the following subcategories: History, Intrigue, Medicine, Economics, Military. Overall in total you have 42 different possible skills to learn.
Again not as complex as Academagia but it will make anyone's head spin the first time you play. You can plan classes for any of the 42 different skills. One morning class and one evening class. These classes will last the week so you will gain 2 points for every weekday in the week. A total of 10/100 points per class if the bonus is at 0. When you see bonuses or penalties you should probably pick or avoid that. For example, if you're depressed you suffer a -2 penalty to Conversation skills. You will learn a total of 2 + -2 each day gaining a total of 0 for the week. However if she has +1 to Conversation you will gain 2 + 1 each day making a grand total of 15 points for the week. On weekends you can do stuff that will change your mood like playing with your toys, playing tennis, sneak out of the castle, and the list goes on. It will also have an event which can be anything simple from a person coming to the castle asking for funding for medicine for soldiers. If you don't have the proper skills you will fail the skill check and automatically reject the project.
Basically all the skills you learn are for skill checks. Certain events require you to have a certain amount in a certain stat to pass it. However you don't always need specific ones. For example when a maid crashes into you. If you have courtly manners high enough you can pass the check to accept her apology, to apologize or throw her in jail. If you fail that check thats fine if your Reflex skill is high enough you are able to dodge the whole thing. However shit will branch out and some options are hidden unless you have the right skills. Some will outright kill you without the right skills. For example one part I was riding on a cart to a party and we were attacked by bandits. Because I have enough Reflexes I was able to dodge the arrow. On my second play through I failed to level that skill and chose to go to the same party only to get shot and killed.
On my first playthrough I leveled my Intrigue skill up and with high enough Foreign Intelligence I was able to discover my crazy aunt's plot to steal my throne so I had her assassinated. Yes I'm a fucking 14 year old girl sending an assassin to kill my scheming evil aunt. Then when her son came to the castle you have inner dialogue going "He doesn't know I'm the one who killed her mother." Wow I just became this giant evil bitch. It didn't really matter though I was so focused on skilling up my Social skills and History and Intrigue that I neglected my Military skills. When the enemy attacked us I lost all my troops and he gave me a choice. If I dueled him to the death with magic he will leave everyone and everything alive if he wins. If he loses his army will leave. Or you can choose to fight to the end. Well I never picked up my magical girl super transformation crystal because I decided to wait until I was crowned the queen like a good girl so I wasn't able to duel him. He said he doesn't give a shit its either your head or the country. And I'm like I am the fucking country. So I ran from the duel and our armies fought and I got defeated then executed. The end.
Then another play though I decided to up my Military skill from the beginning only to fail to discover my crazy aunt's plot and she led a rebellion. It was that I either marry one of her sons and give up all power or die. Well I said fuck off and I was executed. Its much more fun than I expected it to be. Theres so much stuff to do, each and every play though will be slightly different. Maybe you get a little further, maybe you fuck up somewhere. But the things that happens always remain the same. The skill checks always remain the same. Sure you may be thinking. The title is all pink and fluttery it must be super girly. Not really. Other than the girly aesthetics like pinkness and your pink haired princess theres nothing that will stop a guy from going "Ewwww gay! Not touching!" Plus who the fuck cares about it being girly. You don't really go around shopping for clothes or gawking at guys. Sure there are some marriage candidates but they're all purely political. You can force people into marriage or break it off as well. Some are just outright creepy like a dude older than your dad that wants to marry you. Like fuck off. I dragged him to the executioner and had his head chopped off. Take that for girly.
For too many people, "games for girls" means nothing but bright pink and dolls and dress-up and shopping. Well, those can be fun, but there are plenty of girls whose lives don't begin and end at the mall. Fiction for girls (and young adults in general) often focuses on other common girl-interests, like horses, magic, and fantasy. So why aren't there more girl games with unicorns instead of prom dresses?
We are not just "girls games", although we are definitely girl-friendly. Anyone who likes fantasy and adventure, anime games, or just cute stuff is more than welcome here. We hope you will enjoy what you find and come back in the future to see what other games we have made. We may surprise you!
Want to make your own adventure? Join us...
Alright, you caught my attention. How are they going to pull this off. I remember talking about how the gaming industry is male dominated and there are not many games aimed at girls without it being shit. Well since there seems to be decent positive reviews it shouldn't be too bad right? Well, to tell you the truth it isn't.
You start off as Elodie, a 14 year old princess being pulled out of school and dragged to the castle to find out your mother has died and you will become the queen. You dad, King Dowager, the Duke of Caloris, is a stupid loser who doesn't know how to lead and forces you to do it. From what I assume its a matriarchal society in the kingdom of Nova but its never really explained why. Perhaps its explained in one of the history texts or if you play the game further but I never got there yet without being killed. Yes you can die and you will die A LOT. One thing I can't seem to remember though is the names and the titles. How the shit are you supposed to remember all this without some kind of journal or something so you can look up when you're trying to appoint some random asshole to lead some country where the king was assassinated.
Anyways so your dad is useless and you now rule over the entire country at the young age of 14 and everyone and their pet dog wants you dead. It throws you into a short tutorial where it explains the statistic screen. You have four mood meters: Angry and Afraid, Cheerful and Depressed, Willful and Yielding, Pressured and Lonely. Raising one will lower one of the opposite mood and vice versa. The one which is the highest or lowest of the four determines your current mood. You will get bonus to learning skills depending on your mood. Skills are broken down into 4 categories, each with multiple subcategories and 3 subcategories for each subcategory. For example, Social skill is broken down into the following subcategories: Royal Demeanor, Conversation, Expression. In Royal Demeanor you have: Composure, Elegance, and Presence. While in Conversation you have: Public Speaking, Court Manners, and Flattery. Then you have shit like Intellectual skills with the following subcategories: History, Intrigue, Medicine, Economics, Military. Overall in total you have 42 different possible skills to learn.
Again not as complex as Academagia but it will make anyone's head spin the first time you play. You can plan classes for any of the 42 different skills. One morning class and one evening class. These classes will last the week so you will gain 2 points for every weekday in the week. A total of 10/100 points per class if the bonus is at 0. When you see bonuses or penalties you should probably pick or avoid that. For example, if you're depressed you suffer a -2 penalty to Conversation skills. You will learn a total of 2 + -2 each day gaining a total of 0 for the week. However if she has +1 to Conversation you will gain 2 + 1 each day making a grand total of 15 points for the week. On weekends you can do stuff that will change your mood like playing with your toys, playing tennis, sneak out of the castle, and the list goes on. It will also have an event which can be anything simple from a person coming to the castle asking for funding for medicine for soldiers. If you don't have the proper skills you will fail the skill check and automatically reject the project.
Basically all the skills you learn are for skill checks. Certain events require you to have a certain amount in a certain stat to pass it. However you don't always need specific ones. For example when a maid crashes into you. If you have courtly manners high enough you can pass the check to accept her apology, to apologize or throw her in jail. If you fail that check thats fine if your Reflex skill is high enough you are able to dodge the whole thing. However shit will branch out and some options are hidden unless you have the right skills. Some will outright kill you without the right skills. For example one part I was riding on a cart to a party and we were attacked by bandits. Because I have enough Reflexes I was able to dodge the arrow. On my second play through I failed to level that skill and chose to go to the same party only to get shot and killed.
On my first playthrough I leveled my Intrigue skill up and with high enough Foreign Intelligence I was able to discover my crazy aunt's plot to steal my throne so I had her assassinated. Yes I'm a fucking 14 year old girl sending an assassin to kill my scheming evil aunt. Then when her son came to the castle you have inner dialogue going "He doesn't know I'm the one who killed her mother." Wow I just became this giant evil bitch. It didn't really matter though I was so focused on skilling up my Social skills and History and Intrigue that I neglected my Military skills. When the enemy attacked us I lost all my troops and he gave me a choice. If I dueled him to the death with magic he will leave everyone and everything alive if he wins. If he loses his army will leave. Or you can choose to fight to the end. Well I never picked up my magical girl super transformation crystal because I decided to wait until I was crowned the queen like a good girl so I wasn't able to duel him. He said he doesn't give a shit its either your head or the country. And I'm like I am the fucking country. So I ran from the duel and our armies fought and I got defeated then executed. The end.
Then another play though I decided to up my Military skill from the beginning only to fail to discover my crazy aunt's plot and she led a rebellion. It was that I either marry one of her sons and give up all power or die. Well I said fuck off and I was executed. Its much more fun than I expected it to be. Theres so much stuff to do, each and every play though will be slightly different. Maybe you get a little further, maybe you fuck up somewhere. But the things that happens always remain the same. The skill checks always remain the same. Sure you may be thinking. The title is all pink and fluttery it must be super girly. Not really. Other than the girly aesthetics like pinkness and your pink haired princess theres nothing that will stop a guy from going "Ewwww gay! Not touching!" Plus who the fuck cares about it being girly. You don't really go around shopping for clothes or gawking at guys. Sure there are some marriage candidates but they're all purely political. You can force people into marriage or break it off as well. Some are just outright creepy like a dude older than your dad that wants to marry you. Like fuck off. I dragged him to the executioner and had his head chopped off. Take that for girly.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Lucius - Just another cliched name for a cliched game
First thing I want to ask is why is Satan always portrayed as an evil businessman in a suit? This game starts off with you as some dumb kid called Lucius. Yeah one of those cliched "evil" names. So apparently you're the son of Satan and he wants you to go around killing people for human souls. So you lock your maid in the freezer and then turn down the temperature. Then the detective starts narrating foreshadowing a huge series of murders. Some of them are brutal, and all of them are boring.
You'd think its impossible to screw up something like this. It'll be like Hitman but as a kid what can possibly go wrong! Everything. You have a huge ass fucking house but you probably use about 5% of it every mission. The second mission starts off with you walking around with no instructions. You're just blindly bumbling around until you open your map and theres a big arrow pointing where to go. You start walking then suddenly everything freezes and blood starts dripping from the walls and you zoom in on your dad's BFF. He is your target. So he's sitting there smoking a cigarette and you have to find a creative way to cause an accident.
Doesn't sound too bad yet right? No. You walk over steal his matches and now you have to find a way to cause an accident elsewhere. You steal some tools and fuck over the stove. When the guy tries to light matches it explodes on his face and burns him to death. Then like that the mission is suddenly over and you are thrown back in your room and a month has passed. Now you have to run around trying to figure out who your target is and what the fuck is going on. You walk into the bathroom and blood on wall shit happens again and this time its the drunk as fuck janitor. You kill him then get thrown back into room. Walk around see the butcher. Repeat.
HOW FUCKING BORING IS THIS. Its brutal as shit when you saw a guy's face in half or smash their brains with a piano and shit but come on this is boring. A mission can last between 1 minute to 5 minutes. I didn't get far but this is just the same thing over and over again. Can't we have bigger missions? Can't we use the whole house? Can't we have more of a intro story or something for every mission other than walk around randomly until you find a target. This is a giant piece of shit. It had potential for something awesome but they fucked it up.
You'd think its impossible to screw up something like this. It'll be like Hitman but as a kid what can possibly go wrong! Everything. You have a huge ass fucking house but you probably use about 5% of it every mission. The second mission starts off with you walking around with no instructions. You're just blindly bumbling around until you open your map and theres a big arrow pointing where to go. You start walking then suddenly everything freezes and blood starts dripping from the walls and you zoom in on your dad's BFF. He is your target. So he's sitting there smoking a cigarette and you have to find a creative way to cause an accident.
Doesn't sound too bad yet right? No. You walk over steal his matches and now you have to find a way to cause an accident elsewhere. You steal some tools and fuck over the stove. When the guy tries to light matches it explodes on his face and burns him to death. Then like that the mission is suddenly over and you are thrown back in your room and a month has passed. Now you have to run around trying to figure out who your target is and what the fuck is going on. You walk into the bathroom and blood on wall shit happens again and this time its the drunk as fuck janitor. You kill him then get thrown back into room. Walk around see the butcher. Repeat.
HOW FUCKING BORING IS THIS. Its brutal as shit when you saw a guy's face in half or smash their brains with a piano and shit but come on this is boring. A mission can last between 1 minute to 5 minutes. I didn't get far but this is just the same thing over and over again. Can't we have bigger missions? Can't we use the whole house? Can't we have more of a intro story or something for every mission other than walk around randomly until you find a target. This is a giant piece of shit. It had potential for something awesome but they fucked it up.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
DRM, now available on hardware!
Seeing that consumers have been so receptive of increasingly draconian DRM policies, Razer peripherals have adopted an ingenious implementation: now you can have always-online DRM handling the features of your own mouse!
In some corporate meeting room somewhere, someone must have thought this was a successful idea. And in that room, the other heads nodded in unanimous agreement. Perhaps a few hands were shaken, a compliment passed around, and undoubtedly a comment was made as to how their mouth-breathing consumers would never notice.
All that, I can believe easily enough. My bewilderment stems from the mental process necessary to pass this idea through logic checklists. In what circumstance does this benefit the company, even if the consumers were indifferent towards the restrictions? Are they being hurt by counterfeit distributions of their own hardware? The cheap knockoff peripheral market doesn't offer ergonomic, high-DPI, multi-button, programmable mice that utilizes Razer software.
As far as I can tell, Razer has decided that maintaining and updating DRM software and its respective authentication servers with no beneficial outcomes and purely upkeep costs and customer inconvenience is in their best interest. Who thought this was a good idea? Or perhaps there was no logic checklist at all, and the responsible individuals at Razer had coincidentally aligned their inebriation.
Update: Oh. They're spying on you. How nice.
In some corporate meeting room somewhere, someone must have thought this was a successful idea. And in that room, the other heads nodded in unanimous agreement. Perhaps a few hands were shaken, a compliment passed around, and undoubtedly a comment was made as to how their mouth-breathing consumers would never notice.
All that, I can believe easily enough. My bewilderment stems from the mental process necessary to pass this idea through logic checklists. In what circumstance does this benefit the company, even if the consumers were indifferent towards the restrictions? Are they being hurt by counterfeit distributions of their own hardware? The cheap knockoff peripheral market doesn't offer ergonomic, high-DPI, multi-button, programmable mice that utilizes Razer software.
As far as I can tell, Razer has decided that maintaining and updating DRM software and its respective authentication servers with no beneficial outcomes and purely upkeep costs and customer inconvenience is in their best interest. Who thought this was a good idea? Or perhaps there was no logic checklist at all, and the responsible individuals at Razer had coincidentally aligned their inebriation.
Update: Oh. They're spying on you. How nice.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Dishonored - You are penalized for assassinating people as an assassin
When I first heard about this game I was excited. I didn't read into any of the hype so I wouldn't disappoint myself when it came out. After playing the game I was impressed, the game was great and shit couldn't be better, then I got to the end and what the fuck is this shit? Sure I enjoyed most of the game but I can't help but think that its lacking a lot. If the game was perhaps a little longer and they expanded on the game it would help. But what we get is a sudden end with no closure. The game starts off with you, Corvo, the Empress' bodyguard coming home to see her get assassinated in front of your eyes and the Empress' daughter kidnapped. You are then accused of murder and thrown in the dungeon. Isn't that nice? 5 minutes into the game and the Empress is killed just to set the story for the main character.
Well lets start off with the combat. The game is really easy. Even while playing on the hardest difficulty the skills and talents you get are strong, and the AI is stupid beyond belief. You can shoot someone in the head, kill them, then their buddy walks over and go "who's there!" A minute later you hear "probably just rats, they're everywhere." THEN HE WALKS AWAY?! So you shoot him in the head too to end his stupid life. You get a bunch of skills like, blink, possession, bend time, etc etc. Possession lets you take control of someone or a rat and get past areas that way. Bend time when upgraded stops time and lets you "silent kill" everything you accidentally aggroed or move past an area without giving your location away. Now Blink is the best skill. It lets you escape combat immediately by Blinking onto a ledge, bypass areas by Blinking from rooftop to rooftop. In fact you can rush through the game by just spamming the shit out of Blink.
I like how big the stages are and how much you can explore and read and find information. However, how you complete the mission always come down to, a few ways to kill your target and one non lethal way. Killing people is fun, there are a ton of ways to get rid of your target from poisoning, throwing them off cliffs, or just the normal stab in the face with a sword. However the non lethal routes are boring. You don't even need to get close to a target you can just talk to a few people and then your quest is complete. Sometimes the non lethal approach is worse than just outright killing a target. One mission you can either kill the woman or there is a man who is in love with her that would kidnap her if you knock her out and bring her to him. He would then lock her up like some kind of sex slave until she dies. Seriously if you hear someone say "she'll learn to love me... she has the rest of her life," I think its appropriate to stab him in the face with a sword. Like what kind of rapist is this shit? So I stabbed them both in the face and moved on.
Outside of that the missions are fun. There are many secrets and books that gives you an idea of the world. There are multiple paths to reach your target. You can see wheel marks on the ground so you know that the bookcase is a secret door. You can read books that tell you more about the empress and the world you live in. While the stuff you find are interesting you can't help but think how nice the game would have been if you had some missions with the Empress before she died or even have her speak more than 10 lines. Are we supposed to feel sympathetic for her? A character we meet and see for all of 30 seconds before she dies? One good part is the mechanical heart you receive at the start of the first mission from the mysterious man, The Outsider, who is like a coyote figure. He gives people magical powers for who knows what reason. It was never explained and he's like some kind of evil god. This mechanical heart, you find out from hints in the game, is filled with the soul of the Empress and every time you use it in an area or on a person will give you more information about people. Hell most of the information in the game is obscure and easily missed. I don't feel that is a bad thing as its not really important to the story just makes things more interesting. Most people don't even find out that the Empress was never married and never had a man near her life other than her bodyguard and somehow a daughter popped up from nowhere. Yeah I wonder how.
So the game you go around assassinating people and rescuing your daughter. Your daughter who doesn't even know you are her father she keeps going "When are you going to marry my mother Corvo, if you don't marry her maybe you can marry me instead." Anyways you go around murdering people and suddenly on the second mission a pop up appears going "killing people will change the way people react to you and will create more rats, weepers, guards blah blah blah and change your ending." FUCK YOU. Why tell us after the first mission. I rather it doesn't tell us so we find out later then a pop up going "haha you fucked up we're going to mock you and tell you after you fucked up the first mission." Really? Fucking which dipshit designed that. So you are penalized for assassinating people as an assassin. I had the bad ending and my daughter ended up being a ruthless psychopath. I rather that happened than if she was some kind of naive dumbass. She'd build two boats and crash them together so she can watch men drown. And murder anyone in her way just like how you taught her! Her exact words were "I'm tired of being afraid. When I'm Empress, I'm going to make other people afraid. Just like you, Corvo."
What was strange is everything up to the last mission plays the same no matter what your chaos is. Chaos is affected by killing people. Once you killed enough it locks you and even if you kill no one in the later stages you still killed like 50 people on the first one and people won't forget that. The boatman Samuel who saved your life goes "I'm glad you're fine Corvo, I knew I could always depend on you, come on lets stop the Lord Reagent." Then the game fades to black and the next mission starts. I read the title which added a (high chaos) at the end and when the stage started Samuel goes "The things you done, you're the worst of them all. Now get the hell out of my boat. I would wish you luck but I'd be lying. That is why I'm going to warn them." WHAT THE FUCK? What kind of bipolar fuck is this. So I shot him in the face. I kill the Lord Reagent and then the game suddenly fades to a few cut scenes and kicks you to the title after the credits. What? Thats it?
Honestly the game isn't bad. Its entertaining enough but there are a few problems that are dumb. Its easy even on the hardest difficulty and the story is lacking its still satisfying to stab people and the characters in the game are likable.
Well lets start off with the combat. The game is really easy. Even while playing on the hardest difficulty the skills and talents you get are strong, and the AI is stupid beyond belief. You can shoot someone in the head, kill them, then their buddy walks over and go "who's there!" A minute later you hear "probably just rats, they're everywhere." THEN HE WALKS AWAY?! So you shoot him in the head too to end his stupid life. You get a bunch of skills like, blink, possession, bend time, etc etc. Possession lets you take control of someone or a rat and get past areas that way. Bend time when upgraded stops time and lets you "silent kill" everything you accidentally aggroed or move past an area without giving your location away. Now Blink is the best skill. It lets you escape combat immediately by Blinking onto a ledge, bypass areas by Blinking from rooftop to rooftop. In fact you can rush through the game by just spamming the shit out of Blink.
I like how big the stages are and how much you can explore and read and find information. However, how you complete the mission always come down to, a few ways to kill your target and one non lethal way. Killing people is fun, there are a ton of ways to get rid of your target from poisoning, throwing them off cliffs, or just the normal stab in the face with a sword. However the non lethal routes are boring. You don't even need to get close to a target you can just talk to a few people and then your quest is complete. Sometimes the non lethal approach is worse than just outright killing a target. One mission you can either kill the woman or there is a man who is in love with her that would kidnap her if you knock her out and bring her to him. He would then lock her up like some kind of sex slave until she dies. Seriously if you hear someone say "she'll learn to love me... she has the rest of her life," I think its appropriate to stab him in the face with a sword. Like what kind of rapist is this shit? So I stabbed them both in the face and moved on.
Outside of that the missions are fun. There are many secrets and books that gives you an idea of the world. There are multiple paths to reach your target. You can see wheel marks on the ground so you know that the bookcase is a secret door. You can read books that tell you more about the empress and the world you live in. While the stuff you find are interesting you can't help but think how nice the game would have been if you had some missions with the Empress before she died or even have her speak more than 10 lines. Are we supposed to feel sympathetic for her? A character we meet and see for all of 30 seconds before she dies? One good part is the mechanical heart you receive at the start of the first mission from the mysterious man, The Outsider, who is like a coyote figure. He gives people magical powers for who knows what reason. It was never explained and he's like some kind of evil god. This mechanical heart, you find out from hints in the game, is filled with the soul of the Empress and every time you use it in an area or on a person will give you more information about people. Hell most of the information in the game is obscure and easily missed. I don't feel that is a bad thing as its not really important to the story just makes things more interesting. Most people don't even find out that the Empress was never married and never had a man near her life other than her bodyguard and somehow a daughter popped up from nowhere. Yeah I wonder how.
So the game you go around assassinating people and rescuing your daughter. Your daughter who doesn't even know you are her father she keeps going "When are you going to marry my mother Corvo, if you don't marry her maybe you can marry me instead." Anyways you go around murdering people and suddenly on the second mission a pop up appears going "killing people will change the way people react to you and will create more rats, weepers, guards blah blah blah and change your ending." FUCK YOU. Why tell us after the first mission. I rather it doesn't tell us so we find out later then a pop up going "haha you fucked up we're going to mock you and tell you after you fucked up the first mission." Really? Fucking which dipshit designed that. So you are penalized for assassinating people as an assassin. I had the bad ending and my daughter ended up being a ruthless psychopath. I rather that happened than if she was some kind of naive dumbass. She'd build two boats and crash them together so she can watch men drown. And murder anyone in her way just like how you taught her! Her exact words were "I'm tired of being afraid. When I'm Empress, I'm going to make other people afraid. Just like you, Corvo."
What was strange is everything up to the last mission plays the same no matter what your chaos is. Chaos is affected by killing people. Once you killed enough it locks you and even if you kill no one in the later stages you still killed like 50 people on the first one and people won't forget that. The boatman Samuel who saved your life goes "I'm glad you're fine Corvo, I knew I could always depend on you, come on lets stop the Lord Reagent." Then the game fades to black and the next mission starts. I read the title which added a (high chaos) at the end and when the stage started Samuel goes "The things you done, you're the worst of them all. Now get the hell out of my boat. I would wish you luck but I'd be lying. That is why I'm going to warn them." WHAT THE FUCK? What kind of bipolar fuck is this. So I shot him in the face. I kill the Lord Reagent and then the game suddenly fades to a few cut scenes and kicks you to the title after the credits. What? Thats it?
Honestly the game isn't bad. Its entertaining enough but there are a few problems that are dumb. Its easy even on the hardest difficulty and the story is lacking its still satisfying to stab people and the characters in the game are likable.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
New IPs - Where are they?
I've been reading about the games coming out recently and can't help noticing that a majority of the games were just remakes or sequels of old games. What happened to the new IPs? Are people so scared of making something new and just resort to using the same old copy paste games? Like sports games, the franchise are now older than their target player base. Do we really need a Zone of the Enders remake in HD? Do we really want Mario Bros. in HD? How the fuck is re-releasing an old game, touch up the graphics, and sell it again as some kind of brand new game working? Sure you may argue that some people may have never played the old games and bringing it over in HD lets people play it blah blah blah. Yeah I know that but that doesn't mean you need to update your whole library of games every 3 years or making sequels reaching the 20's. What happened to new ideas?
Nowadays people are just so scared of trying new things. They look at whats doing well then copy them, repaint them with different graphics, change one tiny thing, and then release it as new. Look at how many Diablo clones are there, or worse look at the WoW clones. People are afraid to try something new, games are now more about profit than the fun or the love of making them. Which is why indie companies are thriving now. They can take risks because they don't have giant publishers to please. They don't need to change their game to fit the market because the publishers think they are taking too big of a risk with their money and pull the plug. A lot of developers are going indie because of this very reason. Kickstarter has exploded recently because developers don't want publishers breathing down their neck.
There are companies who slap the name of another game onto them just to make their player base think that its part of the franchise so it'll sell better. Square-Enix for example, slaps every game with Final Fantasy. Even shit not related to Final Fantasy gets slapped something to tie it in together. Remeber Vagrant Story? It was slapped with Invalice and shit to link it together with FF13 and FFT. Remember Secret of Evermore? The only game developed in North America by Squaresoft? Yeah it wasn't even supposed to be called that they just slapped that name on so everyone thought it was a sequel to Secret of Mana. Which it wasn't and had nothing to do with.
What about Bioware and slapping Dragon Age 2 onto a game that has nothing to do with Dragon Age? Part of the reason why everyone was so mad about the game was that it had nothing to do with Dragon Age except bring in characters from the first game, which they completely retconned, butchered, and remade. If you were planning on writing new characters, why not make new ones instead of using characters from the previous game. So it would give the illusion that the two games are connected? Even when the characters went from white to dark skinned, strong mercenary to super slut, voice of reason to gigglesquee retarded fucking naive dipshit elf, joker to emo whinebaby? Its a complete 180 flip on their characters and they did it just so they can be lazy and won't need to write completely new back stories for their characters. The game doesn't even take place in the same area as the first game its just briefly mentioned. You don't fight darkspawn or do anything like the first game you just wander around doing chores for people and the game ends.
Its not just games doing this shit though, movies, TV series, every fucking thing is remaking their old stuff. They know it worked before so they can milk more money before they eventually are forced to make a new IP. Will it work? Will it fail? If it does work though, you can guarantee hundreds of sequels and spin offs and then new remakes once the sequels and spin offs lose momentum. Until it starts all over again in an endless loop of pussy footing around avoiding risks.
Nowadays people are just so scared of trying new things. They look at whats doing well then copy them, repaint them with different graphics, change one tiny thing, and then release it as new. Look at how many Diablo clones are there, or worse look at the WoW clones. People are afraid to try something new, games are now more about profit than the fun or the love of making them. Which is why indie companies are thriving now. They can take risks because they don't have giant publishers to please. They don't need to change their game to fit the market because the publishers think they are taking too big of a risk with their money and pull the plug. A lot of developers are going indie because of this very reason. Kickstarter has exploded recently because developers don't want publishers breathing down their neck.
There are companies who slap the name of another game onto them just to make their player base think that its part of the franchise so it'll sell better. Square-Enix for example, slaps every game with Final Fantasy. Even shit not related to Final Fantasy gets slapped something to tie it in together. Remeber Vagrant Story? It was slapped with Invalice and shit to link it together with FF13 and FFT. Remember Secret of Evermore? The only game developed in North America by Squaresoft? Yeah it wasn't even supposed to be called that they just slapped that name on so everyone thought it was a sequel to Secret of Mana. Which it wasn't and had nothing to do with.
What about Bioware and slapping Dragon Age 2 onto a game that has nothing to do with Dragon Age? Part of the reason why everyone was so mad about the game was that it had nothing to do with Dragon Age except bring in characters from the first game, which they completely retconned, butchered, and remade. If you were planning on writing new characters, why not make new ones instead of using characters from the previous game. So it would give the illusion that the two games are connected? Even when the characters went from white to dark skinned, strong mercenary to super slut, voice of reason to gigglesquee retarded fucking naive dipshit elf, joker to emo whinebaby? Its a complete 180 flip on their characters and they did it just so they can be lazy and won't need to write completely new back stories for their characters. The game doesn't even take place in the same area as the first game its just briefly mentioned. You don't fight darkspawn or do anything like the first game you just wander around doing chores for people and the game ends.
Its not just games doing this shit though, movies, TV series, every fucking thing is remaking their old stuff. They know it worked before so they can milk more money before they eventually are forced to make a new IP. Will it work? Will it fail? If it does work though, you can guarantee hundreds of sequels and spin offs and then new remakes once the sequels and spin offs lose momentum. Until it starts all over again in an endless loop of pussy footing around avoiding risks.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Manners - What constitutes good or bad manners?
There has been a lot of debate over good and bad manners and no one can really figure out which is acceptable and which is not. The obvious ones like "gg noob" after scoring one kill is bad manners. So after much research I have the results.
The first is the most obvious. Saying GG before a game is over. What exactly is it. GG pretty much means good game. Most games start off with a GLHF as in good luck have fun then end with a GG. There are some variations like GGWP and BG which are good game well played and bad game with the latter being bad manners.
Saying GG after you score a kill or suffer a death is considered bad manners. Its the same as going "just give up you lose or my team is full of retards just push and end it we're gonna lose."
The winner cannot say GG before the loser at any time of the game or it is considered bad manners. It doesn't matter if you are pushing into his base and you scouted that he has no expansions. You just don't do that.
Alternatively the loser cannot leave the game without saying GG or it is considered rage quitting and bad manners. The winner will then be allowed to follow up with a GG.
If you are losing, concede honorably. This means if your shit is getting destroyed don't run an SCV away and build supply depots like a dipshit.
As you can see, saying GG is pretty complex! Its the most debated one because some people go apeshit when someone calls out GG while others go whats the big deal. However there are more little things such as talking shit to the enemy team.
If you're having a team fight keep it amongst the team. Once your team chat starts flowing into all chat then it is considered bad manners towards the other team. No one wants to hear your shit.
Calling people out on their mistake if you're not going to help or teach them is bad manners as well.
A person can call themselves a noob, but someone cannot call another person a noob.
Talking using caplocks is never appropriate. It makes you sound like a raging baby so don't do that.
Camping in FPS although sometimes acceptable can be considered bad manners. However spawn camping is always considered bad manners.
Having to pause the game because you forgot to take a shit before starting the round or you have to take your dog out to shit is bad manners. No one wants to wait for the one person on the team or in the game because they didn't take a shit. This also includes quitting because you didn't have enough time to finish the game.
This is all I can think of at this time. Pretty much one basic rule to remember, don't be an asshole. Follow that and you'll be fine
The first is the most obvious. Saying GG before a game is over. What exactly is it. GG pretty much means good game. Most games start off with a GLHF as in good luck have fun then end with a GG. There are some variations like GGWP and BG which are good game well played and bad game with the latter being bad manners.
Saying GG after you score a kill or suffer a death is considered bad manners. Its the same as going "just give up you lose or my team is full of retards just push and end it we're gonna lose."
The winner cannot say GG before the loser at any time of the game or it is considered bad manners. It doesn't matter if you are pushing into his base and you scouted that he has no expansions. You just don't do that.
Alternatively the loser cannot leave the game without saying GG or it is considered rage quitting and bad manners. The winner will then be allowed to follow up with a GG.
If you are losing, concede honorably. This means if your shit is getting destroyed don't run an SCV away and build supply depots like a dipshit.
As you can see, saying GG is pretty complex! Its the most debated one because some people go apeshit when someone calls out GG while others go whats the big deal. However there are more little things such as talking shit to the enemy team.
If you're having a team fight keep it amongst the team. Once your team chat starts flowing into all chat then it is considered bad manners towards the other team. No one wants to hear your shit.
Calling people out on their mistake if you're not going to help or teach them is bad manners as well.
A person can call themselves a noob, but someone cannot call another person a noob.
Talking using caplocks is never appropriate. It makes you sound like a raging baby so don't do that.
Camping in FPS although sometimes acceptable can be considered bad manners. However spawn camping is always considered bad manners.
Having to pause the game because you forgot to take a shit before starting the round or you have to take your dog out to shit is bad manners. No one wants to wait for the one person on the team or in the game because they didn't take a shit. This also includes quitting because you didn't have enough time to finish the game.
This is all I can think of at this time. Pretty much one basic rule to remember, don't be an asshole. Follow that and you'll be fine
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Mechwarrior - It's getting worse by the second
It is SOLARIS time! It's also time to pony up and get reamed.
Remember my previous post about Mechwarrior Online?
Serious case of 'I told you so' incoming.
Prices are out of control and an assault mech can cost up to 18 USD. People on the forums have brought it up, but most f2p veterans seem to think its okay, because they migrated from World of Tanks, where an equivalent purchase over there costs them $40-50.
Are they fucking crazy??? I may not be well versed in F2P, but that is such a ripoff. Hearing that, I would NEVER touch WoT. Not even consider trying it. If that's the same policy they want to take with MWO, they're going to ruin it for me. It already has some issues with balance and design decisions (not hardcore enough), but slapping such an offensive price tag on items, optional or not, just reinforces the notion that they're not dedicated to creating a successor title for the veteran MW players, but instead creating a WoT2 with a different franchise setting.
The sad thing is, everyone I talk to, claims WoT's model basically prints money, and doesn't see how it'll be any different for MWO. They may be right, but since I've seen the cash shop, I've lost interest in playing. Funnily enough, I spent a day trying 50 different ways to reinstall Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries (1996 title), and have been playing it exclusively for the past week.
Sadly, I just don't have a lot of love for a Mechwarrior battle-arena game. It's not Mechwarrior, it doesn't feel like a meaningful part of the universe, it's mindless as hell, there are too many design simplifications for newer players, requires a massive grind to unlock components (that you'd normally be able to buy within ingame cash in every other game), and now there's a horrible cash shop scheme.
Sigh. I wanted to like it, and I still do, but it needs a massive rework that I doubt we're gonna see.
I also saw gameplay footage of Mechwarrior Tactics, but it's like an online version of the tabletop game, but with card-collecting. Cards representing the tabletop units and equipment and so on. And guess what, they're also purchased with cash shop money, but you buy 'booster packs' and get random stuff. Great. -_- I don't like card games, and I didn't buy into the scams that they were when I was a kid. I'm not going to start now.
There's also another game I recently heard of, called Solaris Assault Tech, which is a deathmatch arena Mechwarrior game. Dear God, it sounds like it's gonna suck even more. What's with all the MW titles lately, and why are they all awful? Can someone just make a new SINGLEPLAYER campaign? Nobody seems to know how to do multiplayer.
I look back, and I think my optimism cost me. Never again. Pessimist Cent is prophetic Cent.
Update:
Spoke with the lead designer for MWO. Unfortunately, he claims that despite the success of the founder's package program (paying 30/60/120 dollars for initial premium packs) there still would not have been enough revenue to produce Mechwarrior 3015, the original proposed title that was not F2P. Apparently, MW3015 would have costed about $20 million, as it was intended as a XBOX/PC game, and console rights aren't cheap.
I'm not too sad though, because even if they did make it, it was going to suck. A mechwarrior game on console will inevitably lead to a dumbed down simulator. That explains why the controls are so simplified in MWO too. It would have been a glorified Mechassault, and yet another travesty in the series that would stagnate the franchise for another decade.
Remember my previous post about Mechwarrior Online?
Serious case of 'I told you so' incoming.
Prices are out of control and an assault mech can cost up to 18 USD. People on the forums have brought it up, but most f2p veterans seem to think its okay, because they migrated from World of Tanks, where an equivalent purchase over there costs them $40-50.
Are they fucking crazy??? I may not be well versed in F2P, but that is such a ripoff. Hearing that, I would NEVER touch WoT. Not even consider trying it. If that's the same policy they want to take with MWO, they're going to ruin it for me. It already has some issues with balance and design decisions (not hardcore enough), but slapping such an offensive price tag on items, optional or not, just reinforces the notion that they're not dedicated to creating a successor title for the veteran MW players, but instead creating a WoT2 with a different franchise setting.
The sad thing is, everyone I talk to, claims WoT's model basically prints money, and doesn't see how it'll be any different for MWO. They may be right, but since I've seen the cash shop, I've lost interest in playing. Funnily enough, I spent a day trying 50 different ways to reinstall Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries (1996 title), and have been playing it exclusively for the past week.
Sadly, I just don't have a lot of love for a Mechwarrior battle-arena game. It's not Mechwarrior, it doesn't feel like a meaningful part of the universe, it's mindless as hell, there are too many design simplifications for newer players, requires a massive grind to unlock components (that you'd normally be able to buy within ingame cash in every other game), and now there's a horrible cash shop scheme.
Sigh. I wanted to like it, and I still do, but it needs a massive rework that I doubt we're gonna see.
I also saw gameplay footage of Mechwarrior Tactics, but it's like an online version of the tabletop game, but with card-collecting. Cards representing the tabletop units and equipment and so on. And guess what, they're also purchased with cash shop money, but you buy 'booster packs' and get random stuff. Great. -_- I don't like card games, and I didn't buy into the scams that they were when I was a kid. I'm not going to start now.
There's also another game I recently heard of, called Solaris Assault Tech, which is a deathmatch arena Mechwarrior game. Dear God, it sounds like it's gonna suck even more. What's with all the MW titles lately, and why are they all awful? Can someone just make a new SINGLEPLAYER campaign? Nobody seems to know how to do multiplayer.
I look back, and I think my optimism cost me. Never again. Pessimist Cent is prophetic Cent.
Update:
Spoke with the lead designer for MWO. Unfortunately, he claims that despite the success of the founder's package program (paying 30/60/120 dollars for initial premium packs) there still would not have been enough revenue to produce Mechwarrior 3015, the original proposed title that was not F2P. Apparently, MW3015 would have costed about $20 million, as it was intended as a XBOX/PC game, and console rights aren't cheap.
I'm not too sad though, because even if they did make it, it was going to suck. A mechwarrior game on console will inevitably lead to a dumbed down simulator. That explains why the controls are so simplified in MWO too. It would have been a glorified Mechassault, and yet another travesty in the series that would stagnate the franchise for another decade.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Warlock: Master of the Arcane - Everyone is a giant asshole
So when I first saw this all I can think of is how much it looks like Civilizations 5. I didn't play much of that game so I couldn't really compare them. What the major differences are is that Warlock focuses more on combat and its set in a fantasy world rather than historical world. When you first start the game you just pick a world size, a world type, and a wizard hero. You can customize your hero but theres not too much to it. The spells you can pick can all be learned so its better off picking a passive upgrade but even those are minor compared to any building you can make. As soon as you enter the game you notice that the world is fucking tiny. Yes the world is that small and yes you meet your enemy about five seconds into the game and you start fighting.
You might be thinking, well I like faster combat and I rather not build for hours. No, its just an illusion that you can get straight into the battle. The shitty units you start off with keep dying off like flies. I know thats supposed to happen but trying to capture a castle is like catapulting bodies against a stone wall. You lose out on so much resources its pointless. Also you can't start wars with everyone at once because you'll get fucked from all sides because of how small the world is. By the time you have a decent army and start laying siege to their castle the enemy has time to expand. You're laying siege gathering all your troops and pumping out more by the turn while waiting for your loser catapults to lumber over faster and you notice something wrong. YOU CAN'T FUCKING END THE TURN.
They simplified the game so that you press one button for everything. There will be a list of things you must do before the turn is over. You click that button it automatically picks the first objective on your list. Build a building. Ok thats fine. Click again, your troops have been created. Ok great. Click again. You unit is missing an action. Ok I'm laying siege I'll have them stand here. Click. Your unit is missing an action. No I don't want to move. Click. Your unit is missing an action. FUCK YOU. Move 1 cell to the left move 1 cell back. Click. Turn ended. It doesn't seem that bad but when you have 15 units waiting for catapults to arrive it gets tedious. I like to point out that there is absolutely no tutorial in this game. What does this do? What does that make? What is this for? You'll never know the answers to those questions until you play and get killed finding out. You'll never know what you're building for and what that building is for anyways.
Back to the battle you send all your guys in start attacking while catapults are blasting away. All of a sudden the enemy summons a bunch of spirit wolves and skeletons in one turn. What the fuck is that bullshit? Summon spirit wolves have a two turn cast time and this asshole just summoned five in a single turn thats against the rules. Well screw the rules because the computer cheats like a fucking asshole. You kill off his army but lose out on most of your units because the asshole won't stop summoning and you take over the town. His tiny expansion on the edge of his empire. Then the next turn he summons more wolves and destroy your army taking it back. You send more troops and take back the town only to find him summoning more wolves. So you play like an asshole too and click destroy city so he can't take it back.
Now the game becomes a war of attrition. I've been playing this game for five hours and I still haven't beaten a single guy. I captured most of the continent he's in his corner summoning endless wolves that I can't kill fast enough before more pops up and I don't know what the fuck to build or do to counter that. I don't even know what to build in order to unlock the higher tier stuff. There are special locations where you can build special buildings but those too don't explain anything. If you find a labyrinth you can build a building to hire minotaurs or give your infantry labyrinth training. What do either of those do? I don't fucking know. It never explains it.
The magic is ok in this game. You have three resources. Gold to hire stuff, build stuff, and basic upkeep of everything. Food is for army upkeep and mana is for your wizard spells. You can research spells and learning certain spells unlock new spells but you'll never know what unlocks what because it never tells you. Of course it is everything is hidden in this game and theres no tutorial at all. Some spells like summon spirit wolves cost a lot of mana and has mana upkeep for every turn. Some spells take more than one turn to cast like summon spirit wolves but for the fucking cheating enemy they can keep casting forever.
Then to put salt on the wound, I suddenly get a message pop up saying yellow player has won the game. Why did he win? How did he win? It never says anything just "so and so has won the game" and kicks you to the main menu. Theres no warning, theres no stat screen to compare yourself theres nothing. You just die and it kicks you to the main menu. What the fuck?
Maybe this game isn't for me. I don't want to spend hours reading up on what to do on a wiki site and spending 80 hours to win a war of attrition to a cheating asshole enemy.
You might be thinking, well I like faster combat and I rather not build for hours. No, its just an illusion that you can get straight into the battle. The shitty units you start off with keep dying off like flies. I know thats supposed to happen but trying to capture a castle is like catapulting bodies against a stone wall. You lose out on so much resources its pointless. Also you can't start wars with everyone at once because you'll get fucked from all sides because of how small the world is. By the time you have a decent army and start laying siege to their castle the enemy has time to expand. You're laying siege gathering all your troops and pumping out more by the turn while waiting for your loser catapults to lumber over faster and you notice something wrong. YOU CAN'T FUCKING END THE TURN.
They simplified the game so that you press one button for everything. There will be a list of things you must do before the turn is over. You click that button it automatically picks the first objective on your list. Build a building. Ok thats fine. Click again, your troops have been created. Ok great. Click again. You unit is missing an action. Ok I'm laying siege I'll have them stand here. Click. Your unit is missing an action. No I don't want to move. Click. Your unit is missing an action. FUCK YOU. Move 1 cell to the left move 1 cell back. Click. Turn ended. It doesn't seem that bad but when you have 15 units waiting for catapults to arrive it gets tedious. I like to point out that there is absolutely no tutorial in this game. What does this do? What does that make? What is this for? You'll never know the answers to those questions until you play and get killed finding out. You'll never know what you're building for and what that building is for anyways.
Back to the battle you send all your guys in start attacking while catapults are blasting away. All of a sudden the enemy summons a bunch of spirit wolves and skeletons in one turn. What the fuck is that bullshit? Summon spirit wolves have a two turn cast time and this asshole just summoned five in a single turn thats against the rules. Well screw the rules because the computer cheats like a fucking asshole. You kill off his army but lose out on most of your units because the asshole won't stop summoning and you take over the town. His tiny expansion on the edge of his empire. Then the next turn he summons more wolves and destroy your army taking it back. You send more troops and take back the town only to find him summoning more wolves. So you play like an asshole too and click destroy city so he can't take it back.
Now the game becomes a war of attrition. I've been playing this game for five hours and I still haven't beaten a single guy. I captured most of the continent he's in his corner summoning endless wolves that I can't kill fast enough before more pops up and I don't know what the fuck to build or do to counter that. I don't even know what to build in order to unlock the higher tier stuff. There are special locations where you can build special buildings but those too don't explain anything. If you find a labyrinth you can build a building to hire minotaurs or give your infantry labyrinth training. What do either of those do? I don't fucking know. It never explains it.
The magic is ok in this game. You have three resources. Gold to hire stuff, build stuff, and basic upkeep of everything. Food is for army upkeep and mana is for your wizard spells. You can research spells and learning certain spells unlock new spells but you'll never know what unlocks what because it never tells you. Of course it is everything is hidden in this game and theres no tutorial at all. Some spells like summon spirit wolves cost a lot of mana and has mana upkeep for every turn. Some spells take more than one turn to cast like summon spirit wolves but for the fucking cheating enemy they can keep casting forever.
Then to put salt on the wound, I suddenly get a message pop up saying yellow player has won the game. Why did he win? How did he win? It never says anything just "so and so has won the game" and kicks you to the main menu. Theres no warning, theres no stat screen to compare yourself theres nothing. You just die and it kicks you to the main menu. What the fuck?
Maybe this game isn't for me. I don't want to spend hours reading up on what to do on a wiki site and spending 80 hours to win a war of attrition to a cheating asshole enemy.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Puzzle Quest - Bejeweled meets RPG
A glance at the name would make you start thinking what could possibly make someone play a game like this. Well, to be completely honest with you, its a decently fun game. Its complex and its stupidly imbalanced. Most of the game is about luck. Like playing dice poker in The Witcher and getting your ass beat kind of luck. When first starting the game you can directly jump into the combat or create a story character. Jump into combat is like playing vs against other players or just fighting monsters. If you start a story there is actually a vast and interesting world to explore and play around in. The world map reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics where you move around your cursor and click and your character moves to designated stepping points. You can enter cities go to old fields you been to and fight enemies to train. There is also a complicated city building thing that I didn't understand and gave up.
The game play requires you to run around doing errands with side quests and a main story quest marked in a red ! instead of a yellow !. Combat is played like bejeweled. There are different blocks, red, blue, green, yellow are mana blocks. Matching them will add into the mana pool of the specific color. Different classes take advantage of different pools. For example a Wizard focuses on red and yellow while a Druid focuses on green and blue. Then there are skulls, purple stars, and gold. Skulls means you attack it is based on your weapon damage, while purple stars are exp and gold is well, gold. You take turns to match. If you know you can get something but leaves yourself vulnerable to a skull or letting the guy charge up his red mana that he needs to do a super skill, you might leave that one alone and let him grab it instead.
When you first play the game you can pick between a few different classes each with their own unique skills, strengths and weaknesses. You then pick a premade avatar which will show up in all the talking scenes as well as your character screen and combat. Not knowing what to do I asked my sister to pick one and she picked the green hair wizard girl so thats what I went with. The classes are as follows:
Druid - Focuses on messing up the field and disrupting the enemy. Completely useless class except for one stupid exploitable spell that lets you one shot everything to death instantly.
Knight - They focus on getting a lot of exp and they get it fast! But other than that you are just a really defensive loser that can't kill.
Warrior - You build damage and you destroy people. The strongest and easiest class in the game.
Wizard - Your spells do decent damage early on but when you get higher the spells do shit and you have to abuse a skill to do any kind of damage.
As you can see here the classes are badly balanced. Wizard being probably the most balanced of them all but requires you to build specifically for a Hand of Power build. How this works is every time you match skulls. you deal damage but when you use skills to blow up skulls it will always do 1 damage. 1 damage does not get boosted by weapon and gear boosts. So what you do is, cast Hand of Power which will always add +2 damage to any damage done. So blowing up a skull instead of doing 1 damage will be doing say 8-9 damage a hit making your damage go up very fast. Its not stupidly overpowered like a druid but it puts you on equal footing with other classes.
There is a lot to do in the game, you can buy gear, craft, learn new skills, get mounts with special effects, bring companions, have captives, build kingdoms, follow rumors, and a shit load of stuff. What I'm getting at is this game is very complex. Its also brutal when luck isn't on your side and you see the enemy matching 5 in a row multiple times and you go from full health to zero after one lucky streak by the enemy when you spent the last 5-10 minutes whittling down his health. Often I need to fight the same fights multiple times because of terrible luck. You can however pick your difficulty. I picked normal but for masochists and noobies there are hard and easy modes for you. You can even pick limited time option so you have to make yourself match faster or it'll skip your turn and hurt you. If you accidentally mess up a move it will say "invalid move" and deal damage to you then skip your turn so the enemy can damage you more and kill you. Its merciless.
While the puzzle combat is the only "puzzle" part of the game the rest of the game plays like any other RPG. Theres a main story that you follow. You're a wizard of some Queen and she sends you on a mission to find out why undead are popping up you meet people along the way beat up a few necromancers here and there and gives you decisions that branch the story out a little bit come back and realize necromancers are the least of your concern. I haven't finished the game but from what I can see I'm not very far in. One thing I should mention is the text in this game is fucking tiny. I play on the PS2 version and holy fuck is it small. I have to strain my eyes to read this and I could read King's Bounty fine on the PC when everyone says the text is small there. Its smaller in Puzzle Quest and maybe its because its on the TV but its like a grain of sand.
If you're a RPG fan or a puzzle fan or just someone looking for something to waste your time on, try this game out. The game is frustrating and it cheats but its just the right amount that you don't want to give up and try again, and again, and again. You might hear the voice "you have suffered defeat" over and over in your head at night when you're trying to sleep but give it a chance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgxxrHCJ6xM
The game play requires you to run around doing errands with side quests and a main story quest marked in a red ! instead of a yellow !. Combat is played like bejeweled. There are different blocks, red, blue, green, yellow are mana blocks. Matching them will add into the mana pool of the specific color. Different classes take advantage of different pools. For example a Wizard focuses on red and yellow while a Druid focuses on green and blue. Then there are skulls, purple stars, and gold. Skulls means you attack it is based on your weapon damage, while purple stars are exp and gold is well, gold. You take turns to match. If you know you can get something but leaves yourself vulnerable to a skull or letting the guy charge up his red mana that he needs to do a super skill, you might leave that one alone and let him grab it instead.
When you first play the game you can pick between a few different classes each with their own unique skills, strengths and weaknesses. You then pick a premade avatar which will show up in all the talking scenes as well as your character screen and combat. Not knowing what to do I asked my sister to pick one and she picked the green hair wizard girl so thats what I went with. The classes are as follows:
Druid - Focuses on messing up the field and disrupting the enemy. Completely useless class except for one stupid exploitable spell that lets you one shot everything to death instantly.
Knight - They focus on getting a lot of exp and they get it fast! But other than that you are just a really defensive loser that can't kill.
Warrior - You build damage and you destroy people. The strongest and easiest class in the game.
Wizard - Your spells do decent damage early on but when you get higher the spells do shit and you have to abuse a skill to do any kind of damage.
As you can see here the classes are badly balanced. Wizard being probably the most balanced of them all but requires you to build specifically for a Hand of Power build. How this works is every time you match skulls. you deal damage but when you use skills to blow up skulls it will always do 1 damage. 1 damage does not get boosted by weapon and gear boosts. So what you do is, cast Hand of Power which will always add +2 damage to any damage done. So blowing up a skull instead of doing 1 damage will be doing say 8-9 damage a hit making your damage go up very fast. Its not stupidly overpowered like a druid but it puts you on equal footing with other classes.
There is a lot to do in the game, you can buy gear, craft, learn new skills, get mounts with special effects, bring companions, have captives, build kingdoms, follow rumors, and a shit load of stuff. What I'm getting at is this game is very complex. Its also brutal when luck isn't on your side and you see the enemy matching 5 in a row multiple times and you go from full health to zero after one lucky streak by the enemy when you spent the last 5-10 minutes whittling down his health. Often I need to fight the same fights multiple times because of terrible luck. You can however pick your difficulty. I picked normal but for masochists and noobies there are hard and easy modes for you. You can even pick limited time option so you have to make yourself match faster or it'll skip your turn and hurt you. If you accidentally mess up a move it will say "invalid move" and deal damage to you then skip your turn so the enemy can damage you more and kill you. Its merciless.
While the puzzle combat is the only "puzzle" part of the game the rest of the game plays like any other RPG. Theres a main story that you follow. You're a wizard of some Queen and she sends you on a mission to find out why undead are popping up you meet people along the way beat up a few necromancers here and there and gives you decisions that branch the story out a little bit come back and realize necromancers are the least of your concern. I haven't finished the game but from what I can see I'm not very far in. One thing I should mention is the text in this game is fucking tiny. I play on the PS2 version and holy fuck is it small. I have to strain my eyes to read this and I could read King's Bounty fine on the PC when everyone says the text is small there. Its smaller in Puzzle Quest and maybe its because its on the TV but its like a grain of sand.
If you're a RPG fan or a puzzle fan or just someone looking for something to waste your time on, try this game out. The game is frustrating and it cheats but its just the right amount that you don't want to give up and try again, and again, and again. You might hear the voice "you have suffered defeat" over and over in your head at night when you're trying to sleep but give it a chance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgxxrHCJ6xM
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Gender Inequality - Female Gamers
Half of the world is populated by women, yet the majority of gamers are men. Everyone has been asking that question and no one knows why. Perhaps its the way they are treated that turns them away from gaming. Maybe its the way that women are portrayed in games. Since I've already talked about it in my previous gender inequality post, I'm going to focus on the female gamer instead.
Most people when playing games are civil to the opposite gender. However there are people who are so insecure that when a women plays a video game they feel like their boy's club of video games is being threatened and needs to attack that person. Whats wrong with a female gamer? Nothing. If no one said anything would you have known? I play with women all the time and I don't notice a different between men or women. They can both suck, they can both be good, they can both be funny or stupid as all hell. Why hate on them? The most common excuse is that they are attention whoring whiny people who won't shut up. Newsflash, just because they are popular does not mean they are attention whoring. Do not be envious of someone who is more popular than you. If a man gets a lot of attention of everyone around him does anyone bat an eyelash? No. He's the cool dude. If a women gets attention its because she has breasts.
Another I get is that women are bad at playing games. As if being a certain gender means you automatically suck at a game. If someone is Asian does that mean they are good at RTS? If they are Brazilian does that mean they are terrible at everything? Fuck no. People often whine that everyone has to help the girl and teach her everything because she sucks. Ever had that friend or guildie who just don't know what to do? Yeah you teach him. Does that mean he's a girl? Fuck no. Everyone is new once and just because you aren't new now doesn't mean weren't before. I know girls who can kick people's ass consistently in games.
Then there are people who attack them just because they are a girl. They rather all the games they play be a huge sausage fest. I've played many games with girls and theres always one or two angry people. I've once played a game of HoN and our team was doing well. But when one random teammate talked into her microphone and revealed that she was a girl, a guy on our team flipped out. Apparently the thought of having to play with the opposite sex infuriated him so much he had to purposely lose the game. For the entirety of the match he did nothing but call her out by calling her a fat pig or stupid cunt because the only girls playing video games are ugly and fat. Why? I know girls who play games that are normal. No one else spoke up about it. Only me and another person did and the guy responded with "you must be dating the fat cunt because you won't stop bitching about it. Hey is it worth it? Was it worth it? Dating this ugly fat bitch so you can get your dick sucked."
Unfortunately thats not uncommon. Revealing you are a girl will get people messaging you telling you "tits or gtfo" and many other comments. The worst part is no one is doing anything about it. ANYTHING. In fact most people believe its innocent and that its part of the community. Reread that last sentence. Remember that shitty thing that happened awhile ago on some shitty Capcom show that no ones ever heard about but the sexual harassment shit that came out of it was bigger than the show itself? According to them, sexual harassment is part of the fighting game community.
In almost every game I've played with I've played with girls at some point. Sometimes they sit on my friend list for months before they reveal to me they were a girl. Sure. Do I assume they are male or female before they reveal anything? No not really. To me everyone online is just a empty husk. Once they share information that gets filled in more and more. I've met with both men and women from online games offline in real life and they are as normal as the next person. If we can get along in real life, why the hate when we meet online? I have been told by many people that they always thought I was a girl when they first meet me online. Somehow its the way I talk and my general niceness that gives off a vibe that I'm a girl. When people ask, I tell them I'm a guy. What would happen if I had answered differently? I actually gave that a test. What I gotten was people hating me for no reason than the fact that they thought I was a girl. One high school kid hated me so much he refused to talk to me or group with me or have anything to do with me.
There are people who go "I'm just trolling man." Why? You don't really hate women you just pretend you hate women? So you think its funny to pretend to hate women? I think at that point deep down you hate women and you are just lying to yourself. Trolling is something I don't get anyways. Why the fuck do you want to purposely go out of your way to mess with someone? Oh look you're a chick I'm going to go out of my way to make your life miserable because it makes me laugh. At this point you're a misogynist. Don't even bother trying to defend yourself.
Now recently, a woman tried make a series of Youtube videos talking about the common tropes of video game women. I'm actually interested because I've been talking about that for the longest time. However instead of being welcomed by the rest of the gaming community she is attacked verbally with hateful comments of sexual violence. Her youtube and wikipedia page was vandalized as well. More information can be found on the link below.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/13/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games-vs-the-internet/
Why did the hate start anyways? From what I gathered. There was a group of people on 4chan who thought what she was planning to do was so stupid they had to rally up a bunch of people and attack her. Their reasoning? Men are also portrayed in certain roles. The difference is its a power fantasy. Men are portrayed as powerful while women are portrayed in less than ideal roles. Though thats not always the case thats often the case though. These people were so enraged at the thought of a woman challenging this they attacked her BEFORE she even made a video. What? Why don't you wait for her side of the argument before you attack her. Their argument is "lol this bitch should shut up men are sexualized too." Then they decided to make a kickstarter to gather up money to make a tropes vs men on video games and then donate all the money to charity (or use it for beer money) and make a video about it because they want to "show women they don't need to get money to make videos."
However, during the whole attack the person who was making the videos handled everything extremely well. She didn't run away and let the mob silence her. She didn't attack them back. She talked to the admins to get stuff back to normal. Left the comments on to prove her point of sexism in video games. And because of all that she got a huge amount of media attention and completely broke her goal of $6000. The funniest part is if they didn't attack her openly like that she probably would never had gotten that much raised. Some people are just stupid.
Most people when playing games are civil to the opposite gender. However there are people who are so insecure that when a women plays a video game they feel like their boy's club of video games is being threatened and needs to attack that person. Whats wrong with a female gamer? Nothing. If no one said anything would you have known? I play with women all the time and I don't notice a different between men or women. They can both suck, they can both be good, they can both be funny or stupid as all hell. Why hate on them? The most common excuse is that they are attention whoring whiny people who won't shut up. Newsflash, just because they are popular does not mean they are attention whoring. Do not be envious of someone who is more popular than you. If a man gets a lot of attention of everyone around him does anyone bat an eyelash? No. He's the cool dude. If a women gets attention its because she has breasts.
Another I get is that women are bad at playing games. As if being a certain gender means you automatically suck at a game. If someone is Asian does that mean they are good at RTS? If they are Brazilian does that mean they are terrible at everything? Fuck no. People often whine that everyone has to help the girl and teach her everything because she sucks. Ever had that friend or guildie who just don't know what to do? Yeah you teach him. Does that mean he's a girl? Fuck no. Everyone is new once and just because you aren't new now doesn't mean weren't before. I know girls who can kick people's ass consistently in games.
Then there are people who attack them just because they are a girl. They rather all the games they play be a huge sausage fest. I've played many games with girls and theres always one or two angry people. I've once played a game of HoN and our team was doing well. But when one random teammate talked into her microphone and revealed that she was a girl, a guy on our team flipped out. Apparently the thought of having to play with the opposite sex infuriated him so much he had to purposely lose the game. For the entirety of the match he did nothing but call her out by calling her a fat pig or stupid cunt because the only girls playing video games are ugly and fat. Why? I know girls who play games that are normal. No one else spoke up about it. Only me and another person did and the guy responded with "you must be dating the fat cunt because you won't stop bitching about it. Hey is it worth it? Was it worth it? Dating this ugly fat bitch so you can get your dick sucked."
Unfortunately thats not uncommon. Revealing you are a girl will get people messaging you telling you "tits or gtfo" and many other comments. The worst part is no one is doing anything about it. ANYTHING. In fact most people believe its innocent and that its part of the community. Reread that last sentence. Remember that shitty thing that happened awhile ago on some shitty Capcom show that no ones ever heard about but the sexual harassment shit that came out of it was bigger than the show itself? According to them, sexual harassment is part of the fighting game community.
In almost every game I've played with I've played with girls at some point. Sometimes they sit on my friend list for months before they reveal to me they were a girl. Sure. Do I assume they are male or female before they reveal anything? No not really. To me everyone online is just a empty husk. Once they share information that gets filled in more and more. I've met with both men and women from online games offline in real life and they are as normal as the next person. If we can get along in real life, why the hate when we meet online? I have been told by many people that they always thought I was a girl when they first meet me online. Somehow its the way I talk and my general niceness that gives off a vibe that I'm a girl. When people ask, I tell them I'm a guy. What would happen if I had answered differently? I actually gave that a test. What I gotten was people hating me for no reason than the fact that they thought I was a girl. One high school kid hated me so much he refused to talk to me or group with me or have anything to do with me.
There are people who go "I'm just trolling man." Why? You don't really hate women you just pretend you hate women? So you think its funny to pretend to hate women? I think at that point deep down you hate women and you are just lying to yourself. Trolling is something I don't get anyways. Why the fuck do you want to purposely go out of your way to mess with someone? Oh look you're a chick I'm going to go out of my way to make your life miserable because it makes me laugh. At this point you're a misogynist. Don't even bother trying to defend yourself.
Now recently, a woman tried make a series of Youtube videos talking about the common tropes of video game women. I'm actually interested because I've been talking about that for the longest time. However instead of being welcomed by the rest of the gaming community she is attacked verbally with hateful comments of sexual violence. Her youtube and wikipedia page was vandalized as well. More information can be found on the link below.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/13/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games-vs-the-internet/
Why did the hate start anyways? From what I gathered. There was a group of people on 4chan who thought what she was planning to do was so stupid they had to rally up a bunch of people and attack her. Their reasoning? Men are also portrayed in certain roles. The difference is its a power fantasy. Men are portrayed as powerful while women are portrayed in less than ideal roles. Though thats not always the case thats often the case though. These people were so enraged at the thought of a woman challenging this they attacked her BEFORE she even made a video. What? Why don't you wait for her side of the argument before you attack her. Their argument is "lol this bitch should shut up men are sexualized too." Then they decided to make a kickstarter to gather up money to make a tropes vs men on video games and then donate all the money to charity (or use it for beer money) and make a video about it because they want to "show women they don't need to get money to make videos."
However, during the whole attack the person who was making the videos handled everything extremely well. She didn't run away and let the mob silence her. She didn't attack them back. She talked to the admins to get stuff back to normal. Left the comments on to prove her point of sexism in video games. And because of all that she got a huge amount of media attention and completely broke her goal of $6000. The funniest part is if they didn't attack her openly like that she probably would never had gotten that much raised. Some people are just stupid.
MechWarrior Online (formerly MechWarrior 5, or MechWarrior 3015, or MechWarrior, PayToWin)
Remember this post I made 3 years ago on the upcoming MechWarrior game?
It has been announced officially as MechWarrior Online, a free to play game, launching sometime this year, and with no singleplayer campaign at all. They're aiming at an action oriented online arena feel, ala MechAssault.
I should have added another criteria to that wishlist: that it wouldn't be a whored out f2p game with tons of cash shopping to win. In my inbox today, I received an email offer from MWO for their upcoming cash shop packages. There are $30, $60, and $120 packages, giving you 1, 2 or 3 months of exp boost respectively. You also get some exclusive founders-only mech variants with a reskin. It's not clear from the wording whether or not the variants will be exclusive too, or if it's just a reskin/remodel of an existing variant available to all players. You also get a bit of in-game cash shop currency and some prestige crap.
Holy damn, that is a massive amount of money to pay, especially before a game launch. $120 is beyond what I'd even expect for a collector's edition, so why would anyone pay that except to get massive advantages? I'm not against all F2P games, but the setup here gives me the wrong vibe. I was expecting players would pay maybe $10 and be able to buy/unlock 3-4 items which could be obtained over a period of 1-2 weeks. But 60 USD for a 2 month buff, 1 reskin and $80 of cash shop? Just how pricey are the items going to be??
Next, it really seems these guys are copying the Tribes: Ascend formula. Fast-paced, jump-into-action game with unlockable items per class in an online arena. It worked pretty well for Tribes, but I'm not so sure it will for MWO. It's going to be just like MechAssault if it does that, and that's not how Mechwarrior is supposed to play at all. MechWarrior isn't about arena-deathmatches (although Solaris Arena is), instead, you play a battlefield with objectives and smart tactics and coordinated strategy with a full arsenal of Air, Infantry, Vehicles and Mechs.
Worse, MW has an incredibly rich history of lore that's just going to be abandoned for F2Ping. No doubt they'll add more and more items as the game goes on to milk it, but the rich backstory that MW is built upon is going to be unimportant. Who cares what's happening in Tribes? Who even knows the lore for that? You just go in and FRAG. That's not a mold MW fits into, no matter how hard MWO is jammed into that role.
Last thing, it seems rather likely now that mechs cannot be customized, and players will be limited to variants. This is probably the best way the devs can continue to milk players harder and harder. It also means things will be a little more bland, and less freeform as MW is supposed to be.
Well... At least there's MechWarrior Tactics coming out soon.
Wait, that's F2P too. Shit.
It has been announced officially as MechWarrior Online, a free to play game, launching sometime this year, and with no singleplayer campaign at all. They're aiming at an action oriented online arena feel, ala MechAssault.
I should have added another criteria to that wishlist: that it wouldn't be a whored out f2p game with tons of cash shopping to win. In my inbox today, I received an email offer from MWO for their upcoming cash shop packages. There are $30, $60, and $120 packages, giving you 1, 2 or 3 months of exp boost respectively. You also get some exclusive founders-only mech variants with a reskin. It's not clear from the wording whether or not the variants will be exclusive too, or if it's just a reskin/remodel of an existing variant available to all players. You also get a bit of in-game cash shop currency and some prestige crap.
Holy damn, that is a massive amount of money to pay, especially before a game launch. $120 is beyond what I'd even expect for a collector's edition, so why would anyone pay that except to get massive advantages? I'm not against all F2P games, but the setup here gives me the wrong vibe. I was expecting players would pay maybe $10 and be able to buy/unlock 3-4 items which could be obtained over a period of 1-2 weeks. But 60 USD for a 2 month buff, 1 reskin and $80 of cash shop? Just how pricey are the items going to be??
Next, it really seems these guys are copying the Tribes: Ascend formula. Fast-paced, jump-into-action game with unlockable items per class in an online arena. It worked pretty well for Tribes, but I'm not so sure it will for MWO. It's going to be just like MechAssault if it does that, and that's not how Mechwarrior is supposed to play at all. MechWarrior isn't about arena-deathmatches (although Solaris Arena is), instead, you play a battlefield with objectives and smart tactics and coordinated strategy with a full arsenal of Air, Infantry, Vehicles and Mechs.
Worse, MW has an incredibly rich history of lore that's just going to be abandoned for F2Ping. No doubt they'll add more and more items as the game goes on to milk it, but the rich backstory that MW is built upon is going to be unimportant. Who cares what's happening in Tribes? Who even knows the lore for that? You just go in and FRAG. That's not a mold MW fits into, no matter how hard MWO is jammed into that role.
Last thing, it seems rather likely now that mechs cannot be customized, and players will be limited to variants. This is probably the best way the devs can continue to milk players harder and harder. It also means things will be a little more bland, and less freeform as MW is supposed to be.
Well... At least there's MechWarrior Tactics coming out soon.
Wait, that's F2P too. Shit.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
38 Studios - How to fuck up and run off with 75 million
Remember Kingdoms of Amalur? How I said if the game flops the city of Rhode Island would have to pay for it? Well its exactly what happened. Somehow they convinced Rhode Island to lend them 75 million but thats not all, they will also cover the loan if they somehow defaulted it. How did they even fuck this up so badly. Well for starters they invested all of the money into a new IP not knowing whether it will even be good. Somehow they figured people would like it enough to support novels, comics, a MMO, and an action rpg all at once. ALL AT ONCE. They decided to do them all at the same time. There was even a sequel for KoA2 in the making, while the MMO is coming out soon in 2013. Soon eh? Its pretty hard to finish a MMO when you fired over 300 employees and aren't paying them.
The problem is the game did alright, it wasn't great and it wasn't as popular as they have expected. In fact they needed more than double break even. Then they sunk everything into a mmo and a sequel and ran out of money before they were even done. They were making games to make money. While everyone does it to make money, they have no idea how to make money and think that if you throw enough big names into it then they'll make enough money to fund the rest of the games they are working on simultaneously. Not just that the company is going to die, the taxpayers have to bail them out, R.A. Salvatore gets to run off with 5 million fucking dollars.
http://www.golocalprov.com/politics/donna-perry-taxpayers-are-owed-transparent-answers-by-the-edc/
Now I know why they couldn't break even. Fucking dick runs off with all the money. They needed to sell over 3 million copies to have enough money to fund their MMO. How the fuck do they expect a new IP to sell over 3 million? Are they completely fucking retarded? But they are not the biggest bunch of idiots, the people at Rhode Island who gave them the loan is. 75 million with no downside if they collapse and fail? Win win situation for them to fuck around. They did and they failed. Way to go.
And just recently they completely died firing all their employees and closing down their studios.
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/24/3041662/38-studios-lays-off-entire-staff
Now all their employees are fucked, out of a job and Curt Schilling, the multi-millionaire baseball guy who founded the company used the money from the company to pay off a personal loan and then walked without having to pay a single cent.
According to the report, when 38 Studios moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island in 2010, it offered employees a relocation program that would see the company sell their old homes for them. However, "some" employees received notice from banks this week that they had missed mortgage payments on their old homes, at least one of which 38 Studios told the owner employee it had sold last year. An unspecified 38 Studios official told the site that it was trying to resolve the situation.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/collapse-of-38-studios-sticks-some-devs-with-second-mortgage-6378649
Talk about fucking over their employees even more. This is the most infuriating thing about this whole ordeal. The people in charge walk away with money in their pockets while everyone else pays for it. They claimed they did extensive research and that MMOs rake in money. So they wanted to make a MMO without any idea on how well KoA would do. That just isn't true.
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1.png
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-2.png
MMOs die off fast and when they do they usually take half the company if not all with them. They are risking all 100% of the MMO by funding it with money they will earn from KoA which they need to sell over 3 million copies at full price. And no one thought this was a bad idea?
The problem is the game did alright, it wasn't great and it wasn't as popular as they have expected. In fact they needed more than double break even. Then they sunk everything into a mmo and a sequel and ran out of money before they were even done. They were making games to make money. While everyone does it to make money, they have no idea how to make money and think that if you throw enough big names into it then they'll make enough money to fund the rest of the games they are working on simultaneously. Not just that the company is going to die, the taxpayers have to bail them out, R.A. Salvatore gets to run off with 5 million fucking dollars.
http://www.golocalprov.com/politics/donna-perry-taxpayers-are-owed-transparent-answers-by-the-edc/
Now I know why they couldn't break even. Fucking dick runs off with all the money. They needed to sell over 3 million copies to have enough money to fund their MMO. How the fuck do they expect a new IP to sell over 3 million? Are they completely fucking retarded? But they are not the biggest bunch of idiots, the people at Rhode Island who gave them the loan is. 75 million with no downside if they collapse and fail? Win win situation for them to fuck around. They did and they failed. Way to go.
And just recently they completely died firing all their employees and closing down their studios.
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/24/3041662/38-studios-lays-off-entire-staff
Now all their employees are fucked, out of a job and Curt Schilling, the multi-millionaire baseball guy who founded the company used the money from the company to pay off a personal loan and then walked without having to pay a single cent.
According to the report, when 38 Studios moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island in 2010, it offered employees a relocation program that would see the company sell their old homes for them. However, "some" employees received notice from banks this week that they had missed mortgage payments on their old homes, at least one of which 38 Studios told the owner employee it had sold last year. An unspecified 38 Studios official told the site that it was trying to resolve the situation.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/collapse-of-38-studios-sticks-some-devs-with-second-mortgage-6378649
Talk about fucking over their employees even more. This is the most infuriating thing about this whole ordeal. The people in charge walk away with money in their pockets while everyone else pays for it. They claimed they did extensive research and that MMOs rake in money. So they wanted to make a MMO without any idea on how well KoA would do. That just isn't true.
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1.png
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-2.png
MMOs die off fast and when they do they usually take half the company if not all with them. They are risking all 100% of the MMO by funding it with money they will earn from KoA which they need to sell over 3 million copies at full price. And no one thought this was a bad idea?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
To the Moon - Even RPG maker games can make money
I find it funny that unknown indie games are thriving and Ubisoft is still complaining about a 90% drop in sales because of the evil pirates. After continuing my Adventure game marathon I found this game. Someone had suggested it on the forums. I looked at it saw a RPG maker game (a program that premakes RPGs for you easily for people who can't make them) and went fuck that. But after hearing a lot about it again and having just finished up Gray Matter I decided to give it a try. At first I'm going "what is this some lame comedy bullshit?" Then I played longer and finally understood what everyone was talking about. The game may look unappealing but the story is great. After playing for the few hours it took to finish the game, the graphics doesn't look so bad anymore. However is this really worth 12 bucks?
The game is almost as short as Dear Esther and theres absolutely no replay value. Why is it worth 12 bucks? For a game you make in RPG maker? Seems like anyone can throw together a game and sell it these days. However I remember saying games with shitty gameplay but good stories should stick to writing books this one is a bit different. It may be an RPG maker game but its an Adventure game at heart. It wouldn't be fun if it was a real game with lots of dumb stuff to distract you and it wouldn't make sense in a book. Its mixing these two together that you get the perfect game, an Adventure game. Without being able to interact with the world and find objects to trigger memories it just wouldn't be the same. Its a shame Adventure games are dying out. I may not have played many of them, but I still find them extremely fun.
Adventure games may be dying but its certainly not entirely dead. It has a very niche audience that are eagerly waiting for more. Double Fine recently started a Kickstarter for a new adventure game and they raised over 3 million dollars to make the game. That is a lot of fucking money from people desperately wanting a new adventure game. A lot of adventure games joined up Kickstarter too and are getting close to reaching the goal. I'm going off topic. When you first start the game you meet up with your two protagonists, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts. The two of you have unique jobs where the two of you give the person another chance to live by granting them one wish just before they die but everything is just a memory. You meet the caretakers of an elderly man named Johnny who is on his deathbed. You are told his wish is to go to the moon and the two of you enter his memories and find out exactly why and by changing certain events in his memory the two of you can make that wish come true. However its never really that simple is it?
Its painful and heartbreaking. The characters are all very likable, and you're always begging for more information but its never given to you. As you go back further in time you learn more and more about them and why they are doing what they did. There is really nothing I can say without spoiling the game. The story is very good and the music isn't bad. It fits the theme pretty well. However as the game ended we were told this is part 1 of many. If this really is part 1 of many then its already 12 bucks for 1 part?. Thats pretty steep of a price for something with barely any replay value with RPG maker graphics.
Do not let the first few minutes of the game fool you. Walking around like an RPG and fighting turn based combat is all for comedic effect. People start off hating the protagonists because they add nothing to the story until later on they realize they're there for the comedic effect to alleviate the bleakness of the game. Its a very depressing game yet touching at the same time. I don't hate this game, in fact I like it a lot. Would this be called an adventure game? It most likely can. People assume its an RPG because its made in RPG maker. It is not. Adventure games are unique in the sense that they rely more on the story to sell the game. However the gameplay is not entirely forgotten. Without proper gameplay, an adventure game is nothing but a story. Its the merging of these two things that we get something amazing. This game did it right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqkJuSV-23U
Give it a try.
The game is almost as short as Dear Esther and theres absolutely no replay value. Why is it worth 12 bucks? For a game you make in RPG maker? Seems like anyone can throw together a game and sell it these days. However I remember saying games with shitty gameplay but good stories should stick to writing books this one is a bit different. It may be an RPG maker game but its an Adventure game at heart. It wouldn't be fun if it was a real game with lots of dumb stuff to distract you and it wouldn't make sense in a book. Its mixing these two together that you get the perfect game, an Adventure game. Without being able to interact with the world and find objects to trigger memories it just wouldn't be the same. Its a shame Adventure games are dying out. I may not have played many of them, but I still find them extremely fun.
Adventure games may be dying but its certainly not entirely dead. It has a very niche audience that are eagerly waiting for more. Double Fine recently started a Kickstarter for a new adventure game and they raised over 3 million dollars to make the game. That is a lot of fucking money from people desperately wanting a new adventure game. A lot of adventure games joined up Kickstarter too and are getting close to reaching the goal. I'm going off topic. When you first start the game you meet up with your two protagonists, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts. The two of you have unique jobs where the two of you give the person another chance to live by granting them one wish just before they die but everything is just a memory. You meet the caretakers of an elderly man named Johnny who is on his deathbed. You are told his wish is to go to the moon and the two of you enter his memories and find out exactly why and by changing certain events in his memory the two of you can make that wish come true. However its never really that simple is it?
Its painful and heartbreaking. The characters are all very likable, and you're always begging for more information but its never given to you. As you go back further in time you learn more and more about them and why they are doing what they did. There is really nothing I can say without spoiling the game. The story is very good and the music isn't bad. It fits the theme pretty well. However as the game ended we were told this is part 1 of many. If this really is part 1 of many then its already 12 bucks for 1 part?. Thats pretty steep of a price for something with barely any replay value with RPG maker graphics.
Do not let the first few minutes of the game fool you. Walking around like an RPG and fighting turn based combat is all for comedic effect. People start off hating the protagonists because they add nothing to the story until later on they realize they're there for the comedic effect to alleviate the bleakness of the game. Its a very depressing game yet touching at the same time. I don't hate this game, in fact I like it a lot. Would this be called an adventure game? It most likely can. People assume its an RPG because its made in RPG maker. It is not. Adventure games are unique in the sense that they rely more on the story to sell the game. However the gameplay is not entirely forgotten. Without proper gameplay, an adventure game is nothing but a story. Its the merging of these two things that we get something amazing. This game did it right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqkJuSV-23U
Give it a try.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle - You need a man to get anything done
Well what is this game? Its a pirate adventure game set in the Caribbean. Wait, isn't there another game like that? Yeah one of the most famous adventure games of all time, Monkey Island. Except this game you are searching for turtle island. The game isn't bad its reminds me a lot of Monkey Island but instead of a lumbering oaf that is Guybrush you get this giant asshole Morgane. Morgane isn't as witty or resourceful as Guybrush but she has a crew that can do stuff for her. I forgot where I heard about this game but it caught my attention by being so similar to Monkey Island. Its a spinoff series of another adventure game by the same company called So Blond and share many of the same characters.
The graphics are pretty good, but character sprites are a little lacking but easily overlooked. Most characters are likable and entertaining minus a few. Voice acting is decently well done. There is a problem though, and that is Morgane thinks of you as an idiot. She needs to point out everything to you. EVERY LITTLE THING. Oh I got a cloth I should go to the pump. Oh the pump is missing a rivet it must be on the ground. Oh I fixed the pump now I can add water to my cloth. The cloth is wet now I can clean the windows with it. I cleaned the windows, Mama is going to be so proud. Arghhhh. Let us think for ourselves you dumb brat. The game starts as an 8 year old Morgane doing chores for her mother and its mostly a tutorial so she gives you a ton of information. As you progress you are given less and less information. Even with so, the amount of information given is still too much. You're supposed to be Morgane, not some loser that follows Morgane around while she explains everything to you a second time because you're too stupid to understand. Yes literally she repeats what just happened on the screen to you. The character says something and something happens oh no heres Morgane breaking the 4th wall, yet again, to explain to you in simpler terms. The inventory is kinda annoying as its extremely sensitive. Moving it too far to the left or right flies across all the pages.
Later on you become the acting captain for your father's ship when you are grown up. At first your crew is slow to trust you but eventually they start growing on you. You as in Morgane. What I liked is that she is both a woman and Spanish. Thats two minorities in video games in one character. Although Morgane is likable and portrayed in a positive light as a capable independent woman, she can never get anything done without ordering a man to do it. For example you need to climb up a wall, you have to call someone to give you a lift. Opening a window? Need a man to open it. Sure the captain's first mate has comically huge strength and is twice as big as the other guy but most of the time the men used are random scrawny guys. He is used when you need to cut through a jungle with a battle axe or threaten away pirates and to act as a bodyguard because its an unsafe area in the French Quarter. Its a shame. Guybrush isn't super strong but as an adventure game we can understand being able to hold random huge objects or lift things that are impossible (until you suddenly aren't!) Because its an adventure game how else are you supposed to fit 50 items in your pants?
I can understand if its a super realistic game but this is a comedy adventure game. Its not as witty as Monkey Island but its not bad if you don't compare it to that. You're able to hold giant fucking totem poles in your pants to save your crew yet you can't open a window because you're a girl and you don't have the strength? Why do you have to go back to call a crewmate to do it? Other than that theres really not much to hate about the game. The game has many references like on a rock formation at the top of a cliff if you investigate with the look button you make a comment about how it looks like a monkey holding up a lion cub. An obvious reference to Lion King. Inside the kitchen you see lots of fish and various seafood hanging on the walls. One of them looks like a metroid. If you keep an eye open for these things you can find them easy. Theres even a my little pony reference. However the puzzles for the game is very easy. Any adventure game veteran would find it too easy but for a novice it should be fine.
Overall, its an ok game but its not great. If only you can get things done without a man. Even so, Morgane is a memorable character with her Spanish accent and sharp tongue. It makes me smile every time someone goes "Hello Morgane (pronounced mor-gain) how are you" because of the way it sounds. Its pleasing to hear an ethnic name and that of a woman in a game. Morgane isn't sexualized either. She is a strong female character (despite needing men to do all the heavy lifting yet being able to hold giant objects like totem poles to save your crew when they get shackled is exempt from this.) A rare breed and more games need to learn to make.
The graphics are pretty good, but character sprites are a little lacking but easily overlooked. Most characters are likable and entertaining minus a few. Voice acting is decently well done. There is a problem though, and that is Morgane thinks of you as an idiot. She needs to point out everything to you. EVERY LITTLE THING. Oh I got a cloth I should go to the pump. Oh the pump is missing a rivet it must be on the ground. Oh I fixed the pump now I can add water to my cloth. The cloth is wet now I can clean the windows with it. I cleaned the windows, Mama is going to be so proud. Arghhhh. Let us think for ourselves you dumb brat. The game starts as an 8 year old Morgane doing chores for her mother and its mostly a tutorial so she gives you a ton of information. As you progress you are given less and less information. Even with so, the amount of information given is still too much. You're supposed to be Morgane, not some loser that follows Morgane around while she explains everything to you a second time because you're too stupid to understand. Yes literally she repeats what just happened on the screen to you. The character says something and something happens oh no heres Morgane breaking the 4th wall, yet again, to explain to you in simpler terms. The inventory is kinda annoying as its extremely sensitive. Moving it too far to the left or right flies across all the pages.
Later on you become the acting captain for your father's ship when you are grown up. At first your crew is slow to trust you but eventually they start growing on you. You as in Morgane. What I liked is that she is both a woman and Spanish. Thats two minorities in video games in one character. Although Morgane is likable and portrayed in a positive light as a capable independent woman, she can never get anything done without ordering a man to do it. For example you need to climb up a wall, you have to call someone to give you a lift. Opening a window? Need a man to open it. Sure the captain's first mate has comically huge strength and is twice as big as the other guy but most of the time the men used are random scrawny guys. He is used when you need to cut through a jungle with a battle axe or threaten away pirates and to act as a bodyguard because its an unsafe area in the French Quarter. Its a shame. Guybrush isn't super strong but as an adventure game we can understand being able to hold random huge objects or lift things that are impossible (until you suddenly aren't!) Because its an adventure game how else are you supposed to fit 50 items in your pants?
I can understand if its a super realistic game but this is a comedy adventure game. Its not as witty as Monkey Island but its not bad if you don't compare it to that. You're able to hold giant fucking totem poles in your pants to save your crew yet you can't open a window because you're a girl and you don't have the strength? Why do you have to go back to call a crewmate to do it? Other than that theres really not much to hate about the game. The game has many references like on a rock formation at the top of a cliff if you investigate with the look button you make a comment about how it looks like a monkey holding up a lion cub. An obvious reference to Lion King. Inside the kitchen you see lots of fish and various seafood hanging on the walls. One of them looks like a metroid. If you keep an eye open for these things you can find them easy. Theres even a my little pony reference. However the puzzles for the game is very easy. Any adventure game veteran would find it too easy but for a novice it should be fine.
Overall, its an ok game but its not great. If only you can get things done without a man. Even so, Morgane is a memorable character with her Spanish accent and sharp tongue. It makes me smile every time someone goes "Hello Morgane (pronounced mor-gain) how are you" because of the way it sounds. Its pleasing to hear an ethnic name and that of a woman in a game. Morgane isn't sexualized either. She is a strong female character (despite needing men to do all the heavy lifting yet being able to hold giant objects like totem poles to save your crew when they get shackled is exempt from this.) A rare breed and more games need to learn to make.
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