Read Journal # 2 HERE and Journal #1 HERE first.

After a very substantial 20+ hours of gameplay, I’ve finally completed Darksiders.  Sure, I probably could have blazed through the game in two or three fewer hours, but even then I’d have experienced more than my money’s worth of actual playing time.  All in all, Darksiders wasn’t revolutionary or anything special - in fact, as I’ve explained before, the game is almost wholly derivative save for the character design - but it did enough things right that I’m glad I spent the time playing it.

Continue Reading »

If you haven’t yet experienced Chat Roulette, you’re either missing out or incredibly lucky.  Allow me to explain.  Chat Roulette is, as you’d probably expect, well, chat roulette.  Simply by going to the website (you can access it by clicking HERE), you’re paired up in a video chat room with a total stranger.  If the person has a webcam (and really, it’s not much fun to chat with someone who doesn’t), you’ll see the results of your roulette “spin.”  It could be a cute girl from Brazil, it could be a man dressed as a cat, or it could be much, much worse.  I decided to spend some time on Chat Roulette and for the most part, it was pretty interesting.

Continue Reading »

Well, my time with Mass Effect 2 has drawn to a close (at least until substantive DLC comes out) as I’ve now beaten the game twice over and sunk over forty hours into the thing in less than two weeks. What have I found? Bioware listened to nearly everything I said, and only through my mistrust of their ability to right their own wrongs were certain aspects of gameplay screwed up for me.

This article is going to contain some obvious spoilers, but I feel it’s pretty important to discuss the ending of the game. If you have not been able to crank out a completion or two of the game in the past two weeks, I suggest you turn back now and revisit this post later.

In a way, Mass Effect 2’s success relied entirely on the end for me. I was deathly afraid of another “hard” ending, and the promise of a “second playthrough” seemed to only reinforce my suspicions that this would be the case. Therefore, before I headed into the Omega relay, I took some time and explored every single system and did every single side-mission in preparation for the fact that I wouldn’t be able to do it later.

Continue Reading »

(Read journal #1 here first)

Alright folks, it’s time for another Mass Effect 2 journal update, as I believe I’ve crammed in enough playing time to put together another installment.

Last time, I was about seven hours in, getting used to the new combat system and recruiting my team to go fight some bitch ass Collectors and Reapers. Now? I’m just about thirty hours in (I never skip through ANY dialogue), and I’ve just now finished recruiting my team, which seems pretty unbelievable. I’m now about to head into the dreaded Omega relay, and honestly I can’t quite figure out if I’m at the end of the game or not.

I kind of find it hard to believe that the entirety of the game consists of assembling nine, count ‘em NINE team members, doing their various loyalty missions, and then heading off to fight the big boss. There have only been two or three real “story” mission pertaining to the main plotline, which doesn’t seem like very many, although I AM about thirty hours into the game, so I would expect the end to be nigh.

Continue Reading »

Read journal #1 HERE first.

Although this is day 18 of my Darksiders journal, it’s really more like day 2 or 3.  But it’s been 18 days since my first journal entry, so here’s to consistency.  I haven’t finished the game yet - not even close - but that’s because I just recently put down Bayonetta to really dive into Darksiders.  I like Darksiders more and more each time I play it, and I feel like I’m really into the meat of the game currently.  The game has seemed to really expand, the world becoming gigantic and, dare I say, epic.

Continue Reading »

Words can’t really describe just how excited I was for this day. Outside of the infinite replay value of Super Smash Bros. and Halo, the original Mass Effect is one of my favorite games of all time, and I didn’t even really like playing it.

What I mean is, I love Mass Effect in SPITE of the fact it’s a video game, as I mostly felt like I was playing an exceptionally well-written twenty hour long movie. To me, the game controls were clunky, the leveling and equipment systems were a mess, but it was all taking place within such a rich, beautiful and fascinating universe, that I didn’t care one bit.

Like many big franchises churning out sequels, Mass Effect 2 had a big long checklist of improvements to be made over the first game, and seven hours in, I can already see how many lingering issues have been fixed, though the “game” aspect of things still does need work in areas.

But first, we have to set up where we are. After saving the galaxy from the apocalyptic Reaper threat, Commander Shepard finds the Normandy blown out of the sky by an unknown vessel. Before things completely break apart, he’s able to rush his crew to the lifeboats, but he doesn’t get out in time.

He wakes up and is told that he has been dead, for two years, and a mysterious corporation has exhausted all of their resources to literally bring him back to life via the “Lazarus Project.” The reason? The Reapers are still out there, and the Alliance doesn’t care, so Shepard is the only man that can stop them. However, the corporation he now works for is likely to have some ulterior motives along the way.

Continue Reading »

After getting through normal mode and getting a little taste of hard mode in Bayonetta, I finally found some to time to give Darksiders a whirl.  Unlike Bayonetta - which is straight up, intense action throughout - Darksiders features exploration and a non-linear style of play. The game drew a lot of early comparisons to God of War, and although there are certainly some similarities, the game that Darksiders reminds me of most is actually Ocarina of Time, one of my favorite games of all time.  So, as you would suspect, I’ve really been enjoying Darksiders so far.

Continue Reading »

Read journal #1 here first.

Sometimes I wonder just why I write some articles under my real name that I know are going to get me absolutely crucified on the internet, for all the world to see.

And though many will call me “idiotic” rather than “brave” for my stand against the universally beloved Dragon Age Origins, I’m going to write this anyways, and tell you why this is the first game in eons I’ve literally returned to the store without beating.

Let me start by saying that through this experience, it’s become clear to me that this style of game, the live-action/turn-based mixed RPG, is simply not for me. I like live-action games with RPG elements, such as Oblivion, Fallout, Diablo and Bioware’s own Mass Effect, which happens to beone of my favorite games of all time. I also can appreciate some completely turn based RPGs like Final Fantasy and Pokemon (yes, Pokemon is fundamentally awesome, *** you). This style however, I cannot stomach, and it makes for some of the most uncomfortable game play I’ve ever experienced.

Continue Reading »

I was worried about buying Dragon Age, worried because it was Bioware, the company behind one of my all time favorite games, Mass Effect, and worried because of the slew of positive reviews it was getting from every gamer mag and website on the planet.

Why would that make me scared?

Because somehow, I knew I wouldn’t like it. And I don’t, I really don’t. At least, not yet.

Between Mass Effect 2, and the epic Old Republic MMO Bioware is making, I had to think, “How they hell are they possibly squeezing this game in?” So far, the result is pretty clear to me, they rushed it. And it shows. Most of this first journal will relate to the story and dialogue system, the main tenants of any Bioware game. Gameplay is really just a secondary component, and I’ll talk about that later, but know that more or less the game plays exactly like KOTOR, except they don’t call the dice rolls “dice rolls” anymore.

I’m about twelve hours into the game after a weekend of playing, and my party currently consists of myself (a human warrior named Ethan, a carryover from Mass Effect), my dog (a war hound named Chips, a carryover from Fable 2), my hot naturist mage who isn’t really a fan of wearing shirts, and my gay elf rogue, yes, my gay elf rogue.

Continue Reading »

Read journals #1 and #2 here and here.

At long last (and I do mean long) my time with Borderlands has finally come to an end. Over the past two weeks, it’s become something of an obsession with my friends and I, with them coming over to put in a few solid hours worth of playing time every day, and me sneaking away from writing to play by myself with no one around.

I’ve sunk I’d say about 60 to 80 hours into the game over the past two weeks, and in my opinion, any game that holds my attention for over 30 is a success. So by that definition, yes Borderlands succeeds in being a good game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t without a heaping helping of problems., some of which I’ve discussed in past journals, and some which are still to come.

Continue Reading »