Sorry about disappearing like that

I disappeared for a while because my laptop's power cable jack broke, so I can't just pull out my laptop and make a blog post in a few minutes. Well either way, I've decided it's about time to make a new blog post, on what exactly I don't know, but let me just tell what I've been doing since I left.

Now I just got God of War Collection off of eBay, and after long amounts of chatting about the original God of War and the idea of the gods themselves on Kongregate, I guess I should tell you what I think of the game. As for our main character, Kratos, he's been made a lot of different things as told throughout the original God of War. He was the general of the Spartan army, servant to Ares, the Ghost of Sparta out for revenge against Ares, and then after getting his revenge on Ares, the God of War. Now as for the fighting system, this is something that would be copied many times by many other developers and publishers trying to recreate the awesomeness that was produced by Santa Monica Studios and Sony Computer Entertainment.

Now the combo system isn't very new now is it? I mean, what hack n' slash game doesn't use a combo system? Devil May Cry used it, and if you know what a hack n' slash is, you know what Devil May Cry is. However, this combo system measures up to a lot of hits as long as you keep it going, think of the combo system as a "perfect streak" system, don't get hit, and keep hitting them. You also have differentiating attacks, with light attacks, heavy attacks, and grabs, which helps out in keeping the combos going. also, once you go through a move combination, your combo doesn't end, you can either keep attacking, or start dodging and counter attacking, which will make you combo system go into the hundreds. However, this is what makes me sad.

Now those are the pros, so here are my cons, whenever I kill off a bunch of enemies and I didn't put in all of the moves I wanted, which saddens me because I couldn't kill them the way I wanted. However this isn't anything truly bad with the game, it's just one of those "practice makes perfect" aspects of the game. Also, this next one is pretty nitpicky, I have to get A LOT of red orbs to upgrade something, and when I do upgrade something, it takes forever to do, considering the meter around the weapon has to fill up with, what I'm guessing is blood.
for one thing, I wish it was faster, because when you have people who collected all of the orbs and are trying to upgrade it, they don't want to hold the X button for a few minutes just to get some new moves and stronger attacks. There are some people that upgrade there weapons by filling up the meter periodically, but I think that's something we shouldn't have to do, with it not affecting our abilities at all. If' you won't let it just fill up instantly, then it's just something us gamers really don't look forward to.

Other than that, that's what I have to say about the original God of War. However now I have to beat God of War II, and then get ready for God of War III. It might be a waste of money considering I know about everything that happens in the game, but hey, I bought Grand Theft Auto IV after renting it and beating it, almost beat Red Faction Guerilla when I rented it, but after playing through almost all of the game, why buy it? Well lets just say that if I enjoy a game, I will buy it to play it over again for more enjoyment. See ya...I don't know when, sorry.

Is Call of Duty as good as everyone says?

Well yes it is, with Modern Warfare practically inventing the way people play online deathmatches. However there are some average to poor Call of Duty games out there, whether or not they're by Treyarch or any developer not by the name of Infinity Ward, they are out there, and they are mediocre.

Now why am I talking about this instead of an upcoming game or something like that? Well it is related to an upcoming game we all know about, that game being Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now I, along with everyone else that knows about Call of Duty, know that this game is going to go beyond the million units point before the month ends, however I'm not sure that we should be anticipating it as much as we are. You see, Infinity Ward is having legal troubles with Activision, so they're not making this game, and with that, we now know that this game isn't going to be a lot like Modern Warfare or any recent installment. Now even though Treyarch is experienced in creating a Call of Duty title, they're not experienced in making one that wins a GOTY award, remember World At War? That was their best title in the series, and I heard a lot of people saying the only reason they got it was for Nazi Zombies. Well all of that changes with Black Ops, where everyone says that you'll be performing ninja moves, and they also say it takes place during The Cold War and The War in Vietnam. One, I haven't seen any "ninja" moves, but some pretty cool weapons, and two, just The Cold War, but it takes place in the Ural Mountains and Vietnam. That's why Black Ops most certainly is not going to be Game of the Year material.

Now as for Call of Duty's titles that didn't acheive universal acclaim, Call of Duty 3 was the first title in the series not to have everyone saying "an unbeatable classic", developed by Treyarch mind you. Oh but a big heavy hitter for this is Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, which was average for an FPS. The most recent title Treyarch developed that's in this category is our favorite Call of Duty: World At War, with Nazi Zombies, a game about defending yourself from, you guessed it, Nazi Zombies, being the best aspect of a WWII FPS. Straying away from Treyarch, we have Call of Duty: Finest Hour, the console port of the original game, which made history with it's gameplay, unlike the console port. Now other than that dreaded World At War PS2 port, the worst Call of Duty game was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare-Reflex Edition, a.k.a. the Modern Warfare port to the Wii. It seems that no matter how hard any of the developers try, they fail miserably at making a good Call of Duty for the Wii.

Now I think I'm just going to end it here, in case I've already said enough to get flamed into oblivion, but I regret nothing. Oh yeah, and I just got God of War Collection for $25, that's going to be cool when it comes in the mail. Now I'm going to go and figure out a game to talk about for tommorow.

minipost: scratched up CDs don't mean trash

Yes yes, Dano from Flickr here took the words out of my mouth, everyone has memories of putting one of their video games in the system and then get shocked, then angry, and then saddened by finding the dreaded message of "DISC COULD NOT BE READ, PLEASE CHECK THE SYSTEM MANUAL FOR HELP".

However, these memories usually aren't very precious, with all of the blood pressure spikes and shedded tears, and even money spent on disc cleaners that don't do anything, which all end in the trashing of the disc. Congratulations, you are a victim of the disc scratch major, which is when a scratch goes so deep into the disc, it's rendered unplayable. Do not worry though, for there have been treatments for this disease popping up as time goes by, some good, some bad, but there's always one master treatment. Now everyone has probably heard of using toothpaste, oh but trust me, that's not even half of what you need to repair a scratch.

Now before I begin, I'd like to give James Rolfe, a.k.a. The Angry Video Game Nerd, some credit for giving me the inspiration to make this blog post. His newest episode was about all of the game glitches he found in games, ranging from Super Mario Bros. to Mega Man 5, some good, some REALLY BAD. Now even though he could figure out how to fix an NES cartridge's glitches, he couldn't figure out how to fix the glitches in a disc that we use nowadays, all he could think of was wiping the disc (in a circular motion may I add) to clean the disc. Well the thing is, even the thinnest of scratches can cause some glitches, but it can eventually come down to not reading at all if the scratches are thick enough. Well I think of it like this, he knows how to fix an NES cartridge, but I guess it takes someone more connected today's format of video games to know how to fix them.

Now as for how you just clean a dusty disc, you don't use a cloth and wipe the disc in a circular motion, you take the cloth, start from the circular hole in the middle of the disc, and wipe down to the edge of the disc, no need to wet the cloth or disc, just do this, and it should help. However, that's just for a dusty or dirty disc, and I'm here to help you out with the scratches that kill our hopes and dreams. Now even though there are many ways to fix the scratches on a disc, there are three popular ways that are used to help get rid of the glitch gremlin inside your favorite game. Now I'm just going to save my favorite for last, considering this guy is actually pretty experienced at taking stuff around the house and using it to help your every day needs.

Now the first person uses a thickly cut banana slice, a banana peel, and cotton cloth to clean and repair a disc with smudges and minor scratches. I haven't used this method myself, but if you have scratches like the Xbox 360 "perfect circle" scratch, use one of these next methods.

The second most popular method is pretty complicated, and even though I find it a little too complicated myself, you can go ahead and try it. Now this person uses an air compresser, a corse piece of sand paper, a circular rotating sanding bit, an angle air sander, a spray bottle with water, some wax (or plastic polish), a scouring pad, a no-scratch scouring pad, and a very soft cloth. This is a lot of items, so if you don't already have them, take a visit to the Home Depot and then a stop at the Dollar General to get the things you need.

Now guys, I am going to post links to the videos about these methods, but I still have one more method to talk about, this one being the most popular. Now if you haven't figured it out by now, the best method everyone knows about was created by our favorite HouseholdHacker, creator of the one dollar HD speaker and the AAA battery television. Now what does his method include for repairing your favorite game, movie, album, or just about anything under the compatible disc format? All you need are toothpaste, peanut butter, diet coke or seltzer water, an air tight container, and a roll of paper towels, no water included.

Ladies and Gentleman, the thing you've all been waiting for, THE LINKS!!! First, the banana repair link, where fruit can help you survive a crisis. Next, we have the more complicated handyman repair link, so that as long as you have the stuff, you have no problem repairing your disc like buffing out a car. Finally, my favorite method, the HouseholdHacker repair link, where all you have to do is just go looking through the pantry, fridge, and bathroom for the things you need. I hope this post really helped you out with fixing your game, now you don't have to spend another 60 dollars getting Mass Effect 2, or whatever other game you used one of these methods on. See ya next time, I'll try to talk about an actual game next time.

Top 5 most anticipated games of 2010

E3 has passed, and we've seen many great games coming out this year and the next. What should I do in response to this? Make an opinionated list about my Top 5 games that I'm anticipating the most this year.

Honorable Mention Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

Well I haven't seen a lot from this racing game from Burnout creators Criterion Games, but it looks like it promises one thing, we'll be seeing a lot of influence from Need For Speed: Most Wanted. When was the last time you saw cops in a free roam racer? Well Undercover did do that, but not as good as Most Wanted.

#5 Dead Rising 2

This game looks plain awesome, and what makes it better is that it's no longer Xbox 360-exclusive. Now the big change of pace from the original really won't affect me, considering I haven't played the original, but everything still looks good. The create-a-weapon system also looks really cool, if I could, I would just use the paddlesaw and mow down the zombies, but that gets rid of the fun now does it?

#4 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

I'm not a really big Star Wars fan, in order to actually be a big fan of Star Wars, you have to have seen all of the movies, except The Clone Wars, but that doesn't stop me from liking the video games. Now the closest I've ever gotten to playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was through the demo, yet that still gave me all the awesomeness I needed to see that The Force Unleased did deserve the cult following it got. Hopefully, The Force Unleashed II will give it the cult following and the good reviews it deserves.

#3 Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor seems to look like the more underrated war game of this year, unlike last year, where Battlefield Bad Company 2 stole the spotlight from Call of Duty just for a while. However I do feel that the Medal of Honor reboot by Battlefield developers EA DICE will rule the war games market this year. Why do I believe this? Because Treyarch seems to be making games close but no cigar to those of Infinity Ward, which is falling apart at the scene after Activision refused to pay West and Zampella their royalties for making the Call of Duty franchise.

#2 Fallout: New Vegas

This sly dog of a game almost stole the #1 spot, but I can't say that I'm too anticipated for this game considering we have Obsidian as our lead developer. Like I said in my blog post before this, Obsidian still needs to prove to me that they still got it after making Alpha Protocol. However, Fallout New Vegas is using the popularity it garnered with Fallout 3 to it's advantage here, considering Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games, and it's probably going to stay that way for a long time...until we got

#1 Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Okay I'm sorry, Assassin's Creed is just awesome to me, sure I think the gameplay has bored me a bit by now, but that will all change come Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. From what it looks like, we'll see a more RPG feel when we'll be able to recruit other people to join us in a war against the Borgias. The best part of this game? MULTIPLAYER!!! I've always dreamed of Assassin's Creed multiplayer (no joke, I've imagined how the multiplayer works and practically spectated a multiplayer match), after looking at the way the multiplayer is on the previews, it doesn't look as fast paced as I had it, with sword fights, giant hidden blade leaps, your just not as powerful as you are in the single player mode.

I look at this list and think...I'm going to make a lot of people angry for not putting Call of Duty on this list. I also feel that Twisted Metal should be on here somewhere, but I like the list I made, and I hope you do too.

From Fallout 3 to New Vegas

Two Games, same franchise, two developers, same publisher. Can Obsidian fix the mistakes and improve the elements that made Fallout 3 good? Or will it all turn out to be Alpha Protocol all over again, high anticipation and expectations, little to no execution?

I first got Fallout 3 for my birthday, of this year, which is May 1st. Well even though I've only had the game for two months, with almost a month of that spent far away from the game (a state away to be exact), I've studied every aspect of Fallout 3, the enemies, the NPCs, the weapons, I've seen just about everything Fallout 3 has to offer, no DLC though. So this October, I'm going to have to make the transition from Capital Wasteland to New Vegas, from karma to reputation, from Bethesda Game Studios to Obsidian Entertainment.

Now I'm still somewhat paranoid after seeing Obsidian make Alpha Protocol, which got mixed reviews at best, and that's all it deserves. However I think I now why Alpha Protocol failed so badly, Sega was the publisher. Now I'm not going on and dissing Sega here, well I kind of am, but Sega has been putting all their money into Dimps and Sonic Team to make a good Sonic game, which as of Sonic Unleashed, they provided 25% of a good game, and now that they've come to their senses and made Sonic 4, the first 2D Sonic in ages, and keeping the new 3D Sonic, Sonic Colors, speed and nothing but, they might make a really good Sonic game. However this couldn't help them make a good game out of Alpha Protocol, why? I don't know but it was probably money issues considering they canceled two games that Obsidian was working on for them. There must be a serious problem here, probably with Obsidian, because Platinum Games, their first three games having Sega as the publisher, have received really good reception from game critics, with their final game with Sega, Vanquish, releasing later this year to high anticipation. So was it just Sega not supervising them well enough or giving them enough time, or Obsidian not putting enough effort into the game? I think Bethesda will turn them around and make them acclaimed RPG developers again.

Well that was behind the scenes for the game, but what about the game itself? Well remember what I said in the beginning, about Obsidian fixing Fallout 3's problems and improving it's good elements, well that means they follow the same framework as Fallout 3 did, just improve it. Despite what I said, I don't think they get rid of the karma system, but they do put in the reputation system, which is the way people treat you, good or bad, not usually on karma, but on what faction (team) you're on. Also, your weapons will be more in-depth, with new weapons, a modification system, and using the iron sight to help aim better, I wonder if this will affect armor as well. You can also command any companions you have with better control using the new companion wheel, so you can tell your companion what to do more specifically. What I think is the biggest change of them all is the addition of the new Hardcore mode, which is much more different from what it sounds like. Hardcore mode gives the game a more realistic feel, like delayed healing with medication or food, medical items and high medicine skill to heal crippled limbs, constant water to avoid death by dehydration, weighted ammunition, and food and sleep to avoid death by hunger and sleep deprevation, which all adds up to a somewhat hectic experience from someone that's played Fallout 3 and thinks "no more stimpaks, I'll die before the day ends.".

Well I still look at Fallout 3, and think that Obsidian has to put a LOT of effort into Fallout New Vegas if they want to be better than this masterpiece, like having a better story than trying to find daddy. I'm not the game developer, so I'll just leave all of the heavy details to them, but I really hope that they make this a good sequel to the revival of the Fallout franchise, but Bethesda is probably going to take my money either way with RAGE come next year.

The Move controller: revolutionary or horrific?

Well the Move controller does seem to take the same shape as a wiimote, just with a little colored bulb on top and not as rectangular, even the Move navigation controller is near identical to the Wii nunchuck, however that doesn't nessecarily mean that they work like each other.

You see, the Move controller doesn't use a sensor bar like the Wiimote, they take the sensor bar, break it up, and put the little pieces inside the controller itself. It can also use the Playstation Eye camera to show you on screen or sense your movements better. The Move uses Bluetooth wireless connectivity to not only connect with the PS3, but with the navigation controller as well. By the way, the navigation controller used to be called the sub-controller, so I'm just gonna call it the nav-controller. Other than that, we also have a big difference between the Wiimote and nunchuck, the Wiimote uses AA batteries, requiring you to buy a charging station and a
lithium-ion battery to go with it. Meanwhile, our fabulous Move controller comes with a
lithium-ion battery right off the bat, and how do you charge it? With a USB wire, nothing else. So you see, the technology between the Wiimote and Move controller is what seperates the two.

Now the other big aspect of the Move controller is, of course, the design of the controller. The main controller, also called the motion controller, has the Move button, which I have no clue what it does yet, the 4 face buttons on any DualSHOCK controller surrounding the Move button, a select and start button on the left and right side of the controller, a trigger button on the back, a regular sized PS button, and on the bottom, a wrist strap and USB port. Plus, on the motion controller, you have the LED lightbulb on the top of the controller to display certain things, like HP in a game or what attack you're using. now for the nav-controller, like I said, it's near identical to the nunchuck, with an analog stick with an L3 button, L1 and L2 analog triggers, a PS button, and an X and O button. Now there are accesories, like the handgun attachable accesory and the Motion controller charging station, which charges two Move controllers at once, but they're just like the plastic accesories for the Wiimote, they're there for the feel, not the use.

Finally, we have our favorite part of getting new hardware on the market, the games that release with it. Now for the game that I'm already pretty excited about is Sorcery, which looks like a really cool, yet simple, game. The game is just as it sounds, you play as a magician, doing what exactly? I have no idea, so I'll find out when you do. We also have The Fight: Lights Out, which looks like they took Def Jam: Icon and made a more fluent fighter. However there is a downside to this game, it uses two motion controllers simutaneously, which sounds pretty expensive. The game will also have compatibility with Michael Jackson: The Game, LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, R.U.S.E., Tron Evolution, The Sly Collection, and The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest. Games that will get Move integration are LittleBigPlanet, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, Flower, Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition, Toy Story 3: The Video Game, and, at the cost of it's chronicles DLC, Heavy Rain.

So the big question is will the Move appeal to enough people to stick around for a few years, or will it fall when placed on the shelves on release? I really can't tell you what will happen, but I'll tell you what I think will happen. Sony has learned from Nintendo's mistakes, they're appealing more to the hardcore audience than the casual audience, which is a good way to go with most of their audience being hardcore gamers. They are also making games for the casual audience, but good job Sony, now games that would have to be Wii-exclusive because of motion purposes no longer have to thanks to your new controller, but I'm still getting Kirby Epic Yarn on release.

A Research of the F.E.A.R. franchise

F.E.A.R. stands for First Encounter Assault Recon, which is supposed to mean that the people a part of this group fight paranormal entities. I look at the title, and then the cover, and get the pun, but not the abbreviation.

Well I haven't played any of the F.E.A.R. games, and I think that was because I had no idea what the F.E.A.R. series was. Well I opened up my May issue of Gameinformer (I finished reading it, I make them last a long time) and find F.E.A.R. 3, with a really pale guy with a bullet hole in his head on the first page introducing the game. I flip the page, and find a really scary looking soon-to-be mother, with the name of Alma Wade. Yes I knew who Alma was, she was the creepy little girl from the original F.E.A.R. as I can tell, but in this picture, she's a grown woman 9 months pregnant. I turn the page one more time, and find a paragraph titles "the contractions of horror"...This is the point where I start looking up the games.

The first F.E.A.R. brings us to our protagonist for the game, Point Man, who is the mysterious person that leads the F.E.A.R. special forces team and also has superhuman reflexes. It actually sounds kind of like the beginning of a S.W.A.T. 4 mission (here's to you Spoony), with the squad being called in to stop a supernatural phenomenom, which is a little red dressed ghostly girl named Alma. Alma is thought to be the controller of Paxton Fettel, the superhuman leader of a pack of replica super soldiers, who goes on a killing spree for no aparrent reason. Now it turns out that Alma is the mother of Point Man and Paxton Fettel as a part of Armacham's Project Origin, which was used to make more psychic beings using Alma as the source, with her father being the leader of the project. In the end, Paxton is dead and the Origin facitlity is destroyed, but Alma is still alive, and her quest for revenge still needs completion.

Next, we come to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, which replaces the Point Man who you're all so use to with Michael Beckett, a Delta Forces operator who also uses psychic powers. They discover a new Armacham project, Project Harbinger, which is supposed to involve Beckett and his team and Alma. After fighting with Alma and her minions through a hospital, Beckett and the remaining members of his squad must fight to Still Island and eliminate Alma. Well after a lot of fighting, killing and hallucinations, the team finds out that Project Harbinger is a project made to create another psychic being like Paxton Fettel, involving either Beckett or Sergant Keegan of the squad as big candidates. Well Keegan does end up getting killed by Alma, and Genevieve Aristide of Armacham says she's going to lock Alma up with Beckett and use them as leverage. Well Alma has also told Beckett telepathically that she "has grown feelings for him", and when they're locked in the chamber together, he goes into a hallucination, and she rapes him, conceiving a child with him, leading us to F.E.A.R. 3.

Now I'm pretty sure you've gotten pretty confused when I said "Paxton Fettel and Point Man are both Alma's sons", but that's true, Alma being a little girl isn't. You see, Alma was a little girl with every psychic ability in the book, so they thought that they could use her to make more psychic people like her. She was impregnated with DNA of some of the Armacham's project operators, including her father, and she gave birth to Point Man at 15 years old, with the next person was Paxton Fettel just one year later at 16 years old. Alma died at 26 when Armacham cut off life support to Alma, two weeks earlier. When you first see her in F.E.A.R. 2, she looks like someone that hasn't eaten in weeks, which she really hasn't, considering she was only half dead, with the psychic part of her still alive. My guess is, she got something to eat, because in the end of F.E.A.R. 2, she's now a healthy young woman.

With F.E.A.R. 3, we come 9 months after the rape of Beckett, wondering what happened to him when we come back to Point Man and Paxton Fettel, now revived with the visual effects I said before, fighting there way to Alma either to kill her or celebrate the birth of a new member of the Wade family. Well all of this sounds like it adds up to (possibly) the final game in a great trilogy of horror games, but I don't think I'll get it just because I haven't played any of the games and because it still feels kind of unknown to me. Still, if you guys at least have seen how the game plays, unlike me, then go ahead and check out this scary FPS.