Eureka!

I think I have figured it out. If you're trying to convey an opinion about a game that you believe is getting unjustly criticized then you are whining. If said game is one that has a popular opinion of being bad then you are an idiot with bad taste in games. But, if you are trying to convince someone that game X is better or what game Y was suppose to be, well then you are a fanboi. Also it seems that opinions are not to be respected if they are blatantly wrong, and believing that game Y is not bad means your opinion is wrong.

Getting Past The Funk.

After spending the month of April and the beginning of May playing Dragon Age 2 I wasn't sure what I was going to play next. To be honest there was a time during my third play-through where boredom started to set in. But I was able to push through that and completed the came for a total of eight times. Probably not healthy.

 So I took a week off from gaming to reinstall Windows and to give myself a breather before I decided what to move on to next. Thing was I had been in a bit of a funk even before finishing DA2 a ninth time. I knew my time was at an end and I was going to be playing something different, but I couldn't figure out what that was going to be.

The funk for me is this overwhelming feeling I get when I look at the number of games I own both digitally and physically and realize that I haven't played them yet. I have plenty of time to play games that's not the problem, having too many games is the problem. So I get this desire to play these various games but not deciding which one to start with so the end result is me sitting at my desk staring at my monitor. It's quite frustrating really.

So I decided to reinstall Windows and clean up the machine a bit, and that seemed to help a lot. After some tweaking and reinstalling I decided what I was going to play. Two weeks ago I started with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, Homefront, Singularity which was on sale finally, The Force Unleashed on the PS3, the new Medal of Honor, and finally Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

To be clear I played from start to finish each and everyone of those games, a feat that I am quite proud of really. In between all that there was the occasional NHL 11 because of the playoffs and a pinch of MMO's that are either f2p or just have free time available. None of the games I listed are all that lengthy which is why I chose them, but the feeling of accomplishment is nice.

Of the military shooters that I played, Medal of Honor was my favorite. The story is not overbearing, the gameplay is solid and I have always enjoyed the multiplayer. I was honestly surprised at how good I thought it was. Singularity if probably the best of the bunch, but it really fails to take advantage of the time manipulation aspect of the game. I don't consider Rainbow Six a military shooter, but that's just me. As for Force Unleashed, as soon as I finished that pile I traded the game away to Gamestop to hopefully rot away on the shelf. Man that game sucks.

As for what's on the plate next, that would be a bit of R6V2, The First Templar and most likely a whole lot of NHL 11!

DLC BAD!

DLC is here to stay it seems, why do people still cling to this feeling of entitlement and believe that they deserve additional content for free?

Lately I have been participating in a so called conversation on the Steam forums about the new DLC for Dawn of War II: Retribution. DoWII has a online coop mode called Last Stand which puts three players in an arena where they must fight off up to twenty waves of enemies. Players can choose one of six different hero units that represent each of the factions in the game. It's almost like an action-rpg really since you are controlling a single hero unit. Heroes gain XP up to level twenty and will unlock new wargear and abilities on the way.

Relic just released six new items of DLC with two pieces of wargear for all six factions at a $2.99 price tag for each. Initially I thought you had to purchase each one separately which would come to around $18 bucks! There is however a complete wargear pack that is available which includes all six DLC for only $10 bucks, much more satisfactory in my mind.

I can understand all the angst against DLC, I had a huge problem with the thought of paying for content piecemeal when it was just starting out. My main argument was that I would end up paying more for these small pieces of content than I did for the full game itself. I now support the idea of DLC, I just don't always support the price.

What I can't understand is the thought process of someone who is going to jump on a message board and start complaining about pricing or company greed or how they want free content. I really think it's a case of the haves vs the have-nots. If you don't like the DLC then don't buy it, no one is forcing you to. But because someone else is willing to pay for it then it's suddenly not fair and the DLC should have been part of a free update of what have you.

Message boards are really a wretched hive of scum and villainy!

Welcome To The Master Race!

Wanna know what makes me rage? PC gaming elitists! They've been around for quite some time and anyone who's been a PC gamer has probably even been guilty of being one at some point. Let me give an example: a few years ago there was this small game called Modern Warfare 2 that was about to be released, and I complained and complained about how I felt the game was a dirty console port because of its new peer-to-peer matchmaking for multiplayer. So yes, even I have exhibited some elitism in the past.

I listen to a few gaming podcasts, and there have been more than a few hosts that have levied a derogatory comment towards the PC gaming crowd on occasion. I tend to ignore statements like this and chalk it up to just plain ignorance by a console gamer. But it seems this year those elitist accusations have been more than confirmed by none other than idiotic PC gamers!

What makes a PC gamer an elitist? Well it seems the requirements to become an elitist are to complain that a PC game is a console port with the expectation that a game for the PC is suppose to have certain options and give the PC gamer a completely different experience gameplay wise on the PC.

Dragon Age 2 was apparently changed to accommodate the console gaming kids who like easy games. Crisis 2 with its check point saves, lack of graphic options and not being in DX11 obviously means that it was ported over from the Xbox. Even Portal 2 had someone claim console port because of some text that appeared on screen when saving the game or something. Even the current darling of the PC, the Witcher 2, has had the console port tag put on because the game supports a controller, so it's obvious the game was ported to the PC.

I know I named just a few games, but the outcry of consolization on the PC has grown to almost epic proportions. Frankly I am just sick and tired of PC gamers bemoaning the fact that such and such game is a console port for this or that reason. Problem is, it's not going to end anytime soon.

Expectations.

Those who have read this blog lately know that I love Dragon Age 2. I think the game is great but in no way is it perfect. I like the changes to the combat, the updated graphics, the new party members, the streamlined crafting, and a fully voiced hero just to name a few things that I believe makes for a better experience than in Origins.

So what's wrong with DA2? Well actually quite a few things. Regardless of the development time or the technical issues that hampered the game at launch, the biggest problem DA2 has is expectations. Say what you will about the game being a cash grab or that it's too easy or whatever, it seems that those most outraged are those who were expecting Origins 2. The issues facing DA2 are not all that serious that they can't be overlooked.

Which leads me to the Witcher 2. I have yet to play the game so I am not going to pass judgement on it, but to me the best thing to happen to Witcher 2 was for those who had rather high expectations for DA2 all but crucify the game and Bioware too. After browsing the message boards a bit it's plainly obvious that Witcher 2 is everything Dragon Age 2 was suppose to be and if you believe differently than you are (insert random word meant to be an insult here).

I have read a few reviews for Witcher 2 and it does seem to be quite good and I am looking forward to buying and playing the game at some point, but the game is not without its faults as well. I am not going to compare faults between the two games nor do I believe the faults of one game are worse than the other. But, I do believe those pushing the gospel of Witcher 2 on the message boards are more than willing to overlook the game's issues.

So what does that have to do with anything? I have a problem with people crying out vehemently against a game, it's developer and those who enjoyed said game but are willing to forgive another game that has issues all its own just because the first game did not give them the experience they were expecting to have. Basically I am saying that I believe people are building Witcher 2 to be better than what it really is because it gives them that taste of expectation that was suppose to be in Dragon Age 2.

I want to make it clear that I haven't played Witcher 2, so it very well could be as great as it's being made out to be, but I get the feeling that somewhere in the middle is the truth.

Not The Indie Type.

I like games. In fact, i like lots of games. But the type of games I don't care much for are indie games. I'm not saying that I hate indie developers or their games and I'm not opposed to buying indie games either.

I just don't care much for anything indie, be it movies, music or games. Indie supporters kind of remind me of Apple supporters(disciples), they feel they are better than everyone because they are not supporting something mainstream.

With all that said, it does seem that the the only original IP's releasing these days are coming from indie developers. So I guess indie games are not all that bad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pre-Order This!

I decided to browse the Steam forums to see what trouble I can cause before bed when I stumbled upon a thread where someone was wondering if there was going to be a pre-order bonus for the new Red Faction Armageddon game. It would seem that this fella would like get something extra for his pre-order because the PS3 and Xbox both will and he would much rather play the game on the PC.

Is this were gaming has gone now, to a place where people can't be bothered to pre-order a game unless they get something extra in return? How about you get a fancy new game to play, how's that! Sure, pre-order bonus' are nice, I have received a few in my time but it doesn't drive me to pre-purchase a game.

You know what drives me to pre-order a game? Something like this:

Oh yeah!



Dragon Age 2: The Common Complaints Edition

It should be no secret that I enjoy Dragon Age 2. I have enjoyed it enough to spend 300+ hours playing through the game seven times. I do want to make it known that all seven times were on Casual difficulty. I did start a game on Hard because I really wanted to take advantage of the tactics system, but after spending almost an hour getting wiped on the first real boss which is only about fifteen minutes into the game, I decided to give up. At some point I will revisit Hard mode, but not right now.

So what is the Common Complaints Edition then? Well I figured I would list the most common complaints that one will read if they are to browse any sort of message boards or comments about anything Dragon Age 2.

• Feels rushed, obvious cash-in
• Combat is too fast
• Combat is not tactical like Origins
• Combat is too easy
• No epic storyline
• A collection of side quests rather than a cohesive story
• Kirkwall
• Lack of variety in locations
• Interface is streamlined
• Whole game is streamlined
• The game fails
• It's a console port

I am sure there are more complaints than this, but these were the ones I could remember off the top of my head. Now I am not blind, I know that Dragon Age 2 is not perfect, it has its share of issues and some of the complaints are valid. But I grow tired of reading the same ignorant rants from people over and over again about how poorly made Dragon Age 2 is and that Bioware won't stay afloat if they don't get their act together. It's amazing just how many armchair developers there are out there that seem to know what it takes to make a good game. You would think they would be doing something more constructive instead of filling my eye sockets with their useless words.

I think everyone can agree that game reviews are subjective, they are the opinion of the person writing the review. Weather a game is good or bad can also be subjective as well. I believe Dragon Age 2 to be a great game, yet there are plenty of others who would disagree with me because they believe the game to be bad.

With all of Dragon Age 2's real issues aside, I believe its two biggest problems are first - the number 2 after its name, and second - the PC gamers who believe their experience needs to be different from that on the console, hence the console port argument. But these are topics for another post.

I, Myself.

To all those very few who have my dinky blog on their RSS, I want to apologize for my lack of posts. One might have noticed that I have been neglecting my blog for the past several months, and they would be right!

Two things: writing is a painful process for me at times. I love to right, I enjoy putting words together and making somewhat intelligent sentences, but at times it can take just to darn long from start to finish. I have also had a real lack of focus with what I want the blog to be and where it might lead to.

So to summarize - I have been lazy, I am over thinking things, and my addiction to Dragon Age 2 has consumed any and all free time I may have had over the past couple of months. Oh, and there is of course the Stanley Cup playoffs that I have to watch.

So again, sorry everyone for wasting space on your reader.