It’s the Mordern Welfare System of Today

Yes, welfare, not warfare.

What’s been going on? Well for starters, I finished Borderlands about a week after my friends did without me. Which meant I had to solo the Destroyer by myself. Granted it wasn’t too hard… I just needed ammo to shoot it. Somewhat in my second play through, but I don’t think I will play anymore until the new DLC comes out.

Tekken 6.
Yes! I got it. Yes! I still suck at the Tekken series. I haven’t updated my Live subscription yet so I’m still on Silver and to be honest, I don’t think I will in the near future because I’ll be moving towards PC online gaming for a while. I recently versed my friend at Tekken who hasn’t played Tekken since Tekken 5 for the PS2 and that was some three years ago. He kicked my arse pretty much every round. I call hacks, because I was practicing for hours the previous day. Azazel is somewhat cheap ass, but it’s expected. It’s a shame they capped the character ranks at 1st Dan for offline. I have no intention of playing T6 online anyhow.

Dragon Age: Origins
Yes, this game is awesome. Although long and a bit tiring to play at times. I started off with a Nobel Female Warrior. I also have the extra content and DLC. Even though I’ve only started Warden’s Keep, I’m actually about half way through the game. I downloaded the Storage Chest from BioWare’s website which is a complete savior because now I can store my shit and pick up other loot and sell them. Apparently if I beat Warden’s Keep, there’s some sort of storage unit there too, but you have to travel to location oppose to heading out to camp. Anyway, I’m about max level, decent equips and main part consists of Alistiar, Leiliana and Morrigan. The game is graphically intensive so it’s running at like 20-40fps on max. I like taking screenshots, so I maxed out everything. Putting everything on low hardly improves anyway.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Naturally I said I would have gotten this. I actually got it for the Xbox 360 and the PC. As stupid as it may sound, I didn’t actually realize what I’ve done, so when I finished campaign on the Xbox 360 I returned it and kept the PC version. The campaign is awesome albeit whacked at the ending. Infinity Ward obviously has set us up for another sequel no doubt. Now the PC version multiplayer wise is largely a disappointment. Why? It’s quite obvious; lack of dedicated servers etc. First day, it took me 30 minutes to connect to a game and it was a laggy one to boot. I felt very sad when I noticed it was a complete port of the Xbox 360 version, even worse when I was looking online, apparently there was some code left which pretty much confirms that it is a port. But lack of that aside, multiplayer feels… different from COD4. I’ve played COD4 on Xbox 360 and PC and both are on different levels of playing fields. This however, closes this game and it’s quite a shame. Perks and new guns are pretty awesome thought. I have three main loadouts for different playlist:

FFA: SCAR-H plus Red Dot, .45 USP plus Tactical Knife, Sleight of Hand Pro, Stopping Power Pro, Commando Pro + Martyrdom
TDM: SCAR-H plus ACOG, .45 USP plus Tactical Knife, Sleight of Hand Pro, Stopping Power Pro, Scrambler Pro + Martyrdom
Mixed: P90 plus Red Dot, .45 USP plus Tactical Knife, Marathon Pro, Lightweight Pro, Commando Pro + Martyrdom

FFA and TDM class sets are only similar to the fact that I take longer range shots as my allies will be on the forward line in TDM and scrambler to “scramble” any incoming enemies. Otherwise Commando is to benefit me in FFA and the red dot over the acog will mean I will make short-to-mid range shots. I’ve gotten some pretty insane long ranged shots with the red dot though.
The Mixed set is actually a classed I copied from a guy I was playing against last night. He was getting these insane knife kills and I was impressed. So I copied his loadout and tried it out. What can I say? I freaking ROCK with it. Doesn’t work well on larger maps but mid-sized to smaller maps, I can get a hefty amount of kills. The only downside of this is that I focus mainly on knifing so I hardly shoot at all. It works extremely well for FFA but for TDM it requires a little more patience.

So what’s next ?

Left 4 Dead 2 which I’ll have to think about getting very soon. I’m itching to play it, but all I see is moths in my wallet.

Assassin’s Creed 2. Not so much excited, but I still still get it.

That’s all for now.

The Lands Are Over That Border

So I picked up Borderlands for PC. I’m way too addicted to this game. I haven’t played a game that’s this addicting in long time. Although, I may not be very far in the game (around level 20 just finished with the Badlands moving onto the New Haven). I’ve picked the Siren class. I’ve heard on the consoles versions hardly anyone plays Siren because her class is broken. A recent patch has fixed her, so there should be more Siren players out there. I know quite a numerous amount of people playing Borderlands on the x360 and only two are using Siren. I think the Hunter class is the best, even though I haven’t used him extensively. But aside from that, I haven’t tested public games but private games as my friends also picked up a copy of Borderlands. We’re lacking a Roland character, so I’m trying to persuade one of my Left 4 Dead buddies to join up and play before he heads off to America.

I’ll just leave it there for now. I’ll go back to more “important things” as I really do need a break from gaming before I jump back in.

Halloween Zombies in 72 hours

I don’t celebrate this occasion of Halloween, unless it involves booze at a party… and there’s better be lots of booze. However in any case to celebrate the soon-to-be-released Dead Rising 2 (sometime next year), I decided to pick up a copy of the highly acclaimed game Dead Rising first released back in 2006. Which I never played because I got my Xbox in 2008. It took me two weeks visiting over 18 stores to locate a copy, without having to resort to Ebay, etc. And I am just whoa, this game rocks. So I’m just running around in the Mall whacking zombies with my 2′x4′ and slicing them with my Hunting Knife. Preferred weapon is any type of long sword like the Katakana or the sword which you pick off from Sean the cultist leader.

I’m in the last 28 hours of the 72 hour mode and I swear every time I encounter Carlito, it’s so bullshit. Now he’s in a truck and I’m walking on foot trying to defuse five bombs. I’m too hot and bothered to play at the moment, so I’m giving it a rest for now.

Escort missions don’t go well with me. They usually… well die on the way to the security room. I’ve managed to save five or six from memory. Currently level 18.

As for MagnaCarta 2, I might just give up on it. The game is just too much fail for me. I might give it another few hours on it, see if it gets me anywhere, but its not fun and its annoying as all hell.

People have also been whining to me about Borderlands so I finally gave in. I’ll be grabbing a copy of the PC version whenever its out; I don’t think it is yet.

Looking pimp there Juto

So I played a little more of MC2. A little more as in 30 minutes. For some reason I can’t play it for long hours. Reason one may be that whenever I look at Juto, he makes want to pray to god to smite a kitten. Every time I hear him whine I want to pray to god to smite and extra one. Of course, I’m no believer so that’s totally outta the question. But its really shitting me the dubbing. I think I’ve gotten picky after Vesperia. I mentioned before the game being a bit bland in terms of its vibrancy. Well, that’s really annoying me too. Everything seems dull… Did I also mention Juto is a pussy? I’m pretty sure I did.

What’s a princess doing out, commanding special forces or whatnot? Especially in that outfit. Which is not even a tad appealing. Her CG character model also has extremely big eyes, it’s like a third of her face dammit. But enough of my rant. THe game is cliched enough for me to get sick of the “It’s my burden”, “I must take revenge” and etc. Juto’s monologue is the worst seriously. It’s like they want him to turn emo or some shit. Soundtrack is pretty decent, but not buy-worthy… yet.

Where am I up to? Ok, so I killed off the Werewolves Thief Boss guy, Juto got new clothing (thank god, he was looking like a drugo kid from the slums), I completed like 4 more quests. I got an achievement for completing 10. Chaining is kinda confusing and now the Princess is off to talk to the douche bag Alex. That’s my next destination.

I don’t even know why I’m still playing this. Obviously I don’t like that game.

You can’t kill the metal.

I finished Brutal Legend yesterday. That’s pretty much all I got to say. The fight with Ophelia… well just say the reason why I actually lost was because the Rock Crusher was destroyed soon after because I got off it. It was destroyed and my army got massed. Turns out, the Rock Crusher is so overpowered. It makes things so much easier, but when I got up to Doviculous I fell into the same trap after killing off one of the heads and much too soon. So before killing off one of the heads, I made sure I had a Rock Crusher and enough Fans to spawn any new units.

Watching the credits, I noticed when I saw the mini-clips of the staff working on the game, a lot of things were generally blurred out (not uncommon, licensing issues, copyright, etc) but one thing I laughed at the most is all the Xbox 360 stuff have been blurred out and I didn’t notice anything PS3 related. Anyway, who cares. Final completion score 49% first run. I only completed one secondary mission in the entire game.

I’ve gotten back into MagnaCarta 2 now that I finished BL. I’ll post a new one for it later.

Half-minute? Story of the Hero’s Sex Life.

If you recongize the title in some way, it’s because I took the idea from the Sunday comic section from Kotaku. It was a funny comic for sure.

I got Half-Minute Hero! For the PSP of course. Moving backwards to the more retro style environment, the game focuses on a Hero (which I named him Hero) defeating evil lords from different lands from casting a spell which will cause the world to be destroyed in 30 seconds. Wow, I was actually pretty intrigued by this so I decided why the hell not. Of course, unrealistically, you can’t, so there’s this Time Goddess (cheeky little woman) and you pay her to turn back time to exactly 30 seconds (before destruction). That money grabbing whore. I’m pretty addicted to the game. I’ve almost finished the Hero’s storyline/mode. I’m on stage 29, which is pretty… confusing so to say, but I was playing this while my friend’s are studying for my exams… so I was kind of playing attention to my objectives. First time I’ve actually extensively played my PSP.

Thinking about getting Gran Turismo for the PSP. Not sure, as much as I like Gran Turismo, I’m not very good at car racing games.

Edit: At the time of posting, I actually got around to finish the Hero’s story.

Juto sucks.

So picking up from MagnaCarta II this game is lacking a luster of colour. I noticed on the island, it’s very green and the it’s the dull kind of green. I don’t think it’s my colour settings on my TV either. The character in-game models aren’t very good… Personal opinion of course, but it’s more Star Ocean 4-ish, except everyone is a little lankier and taller. Quite disappointing. Truth be told, I never played MC1 (for the PS2), but I heard the battle system was terrible. The battle system here kind of reminded me like something from Final Fantasy XII or at least some sort of restricted MMORPG style of gameplay. Lack of a BLOCK button sucks hardcore and the overdrive status makes battling more passive and sluggish until you’re able to increase your stamina. I think you’re suppose to build a strategy for fighting effectively; it’s not a hack ‘n slash… duh.

I recognize most of the VAs from other games or related media, although I can’t really pinpoint from which unless I view the credits or use google, but I am disappointed with the level of “dub”. I can almost go to say it’s as bad as SO4. I wonder why this game reflects so much like SO4 I tend to wonder. Tales of Vesperia is one of the best I’ve heard in a long time. By only watching the Final Fantasy XIII trailers, it’s mediocre by my standards, which I could probably get used to at some point. I’ll most likely grab it for the PS3 when it eventually comes out.

The story kind of sucks. Juto is a pussy, the princess may seem tough, but she’s a pussy as well. That fire kid guy, I hate him already. Argo is the only cool dude in the game. MC2 has enough enjoyability to keep me occupied… but for how long. Anyway I got off the island, Highwind or Windsong or whatever. I’ve never been good at keeping track.

Further into Brutal Legend, main story line wise, I’m almost finished. I’m at the final battle against Ophelia. After calling out the Rocksmasher and destroying ‘The Two Towers’ (come on, you were thinking this too), the next wave of forces overpower me too quickly. I’ve failed twice… I’ll attempt it again tonight but I think I’ll need another approach. I don’t know why this part is giving me difficulty…

But in other news and I know for a long time I’ve been jabbering about Modern Warfare 2, specifically on the PC. But hell, IW dropping dedicated servers for a playlist matchmaking system? Please, we’re already paying more for the game and without the option of purchasing a “limited” or “special” edition like their console brethren. So basically the PC version is a carbon copy (port) of the console version. “Great” (sarcasm intended). How about trying to integrate the two features together? I already hate the way Steam operates… don’t make me live through this. HOWEVER due to my dedication to the ‘Modern Warfare’ brand, I’ll still continue keep my pre-order… those damn bastards… Don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for this. I suffer enough with the playlist matchmaking system on Xbox with Call of Duty 4.

/rant

Try it with some Metal.

Pfft waiting on Monday. I decided to “Rock out” with Brutal Legend yesterday to kill some afternoon time. I like it… well most of it. The only thing thats holding me back is this hybrid action-RTS kind of gameplay. Now I skimmed-read an article on Kotaku to not play like an RTS but I can’t shake off the fact that it’s kind of like Overlord, and I didn’t like that sort of system. I’m sure that Jack Black is enough for me to keep at it. That being said, the controls are iffy ‘cos I keep trying to ‘jump’ even though you can’t. I guess to some respect the game being as it is, not being fully action, jumping isn’t really necessary.

Anyway, I finished doing something after a road trip with that big ass van. Took out whats-his-name with the flying hair and met up with the “Roadies” which leads me to the next part of the mission… whatever the hell that is.

MagnaCarta II came out a few days ago (yesterday in the UK to be precise). I should be getting a copy later next week… Wednesday-ish perhaps. I think I might be regretting getting MC2, but oh well.

In other news, Uncharted 2 is looking awesome. I haven’t played it yet, nor do I have the console to do so, but it’ll definitely be on my hit list when I do finally bother to buy a PS3.

Characters, Eh?

I got Brutal Legend for the Xbox 360, Yay! But haven’t played it, not Yay. There’s this one major essay I have to do and it’s been tying me down. I should be able to play it on Monday if my study group doesn’t call me up.

In other news, Dragon Age: Origins character creation kit thing was released by Bioware yesterday. I grabbed it, installed it and made the time to make one new character.

Other than that, I can’t think of anything game related. Although I have the biggest urge to finish the Phoenix Wright games…

Should’ve been a $30 game

Surprisingly, or not, I got Halo 3: ODST. I’m not a huge fan of Halo, in fact I kind of hated Halo 3 a lot, never played 2 except multiplayer and I did finish 1… eventually. Now to be honest, I liked this much more than I did Halo 3, probably because its none of that “Master Chief saves the universe/galaxy” crap and more of “these are what normal soldiers are doing to win the war”. But the game is incredibly short. I played my first run through on Legendary Mode 2 player Co-op. It took about 4-6 hours due to the relative difficulty. I played through it again on Easy (solo) and the game isn’t any longer than 2 maybe 3 hours. So I wouldn’t justify paying full price for this game, but I did enjoy it. I certainly like Firefight mode, although it gets a bit boring if you play for long hours.

Modern Warfare 2 was delayed for the PC (apparently). I’m quite sad about this because I was looking forward to playing this with my friends due to their lack of the latest generation console or the dislike of a FPS on a console in general (and I don’t blame them). I’ll eventually get it for the Xbox 360, but sure before or after. Maybe before, because I really do want to play it.

I also got that new Crash Course DLC for Left 4 Dead on Xbox 360. It’s ok, but not that great, well campaign mode anyway. Apparently it’s suppose to be made for versus mode for maximum enjoyability, but I don’t like the lag I get when I play it on Live.

I also got Persona for the PSP. I have yet to play it. I basically have just entered my name and saved outside the hospital. I’m a bit too busy at the moment to get into any RPGs. I just play… well I haven’t really been playing my PSP. Speaking of RPGs, I’m eyeing that MagnaCarta II and that “WRPG” Dragon Age. I plan to get Tekken 6, Brutal Legend this month… maybe. I’m already tapped out as it is.

This Christmas holidays, I plan to finish Persona4 as how much I desperately want to play it. It’s not funny, I can’t find my memory card. It makes me sad inside. :/

Super Street Fighter IV? Please. It would be silly to release it as a separate package from SF4. DLC would be a much more cost-effective solution. If they also charged at full price… imagine the rage.