Paeter is no longer posting to this blog. His new reviews and thoughts on geek entertainment (including all those previously posted here!) can now be found conveniently organized and archived at The Spirit Blade Underground!
Okay, calling the Yahoo homepage an outlet for news may be pretty generous. But I still thought it was interesting that someone wrote an article about something as trivial as a costume change on a superhero. You can read the article here:
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93808?fp=1
It's as though this guy was looking for something to write about and decided to look at a comic book for the very first time in order to find a story. I could be wrong, but he didn't seem to consult with any comic book fans before writing. He loses some serious points on his research credibility.
My hope is that with a new writing team taking over what has been a very well-written book, gimmicks like this are not an indication of what they hope will sell future issues. Dress these folks in whatever you want. Just give me interesting characters and good stories.
Regarding the Yahoo article, Wonder Woman changing her costume is not even worthy of a light entertainment news story. It just ain't news in the comics world. And below I've pasted the comments I left on that article to explain why:
An "obsessive comic fan" probably should have told Mr. Krumboltz that he doesn't really have a story here. These kinds of changes happen all the time and are eventually reversed. (Superman, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern. It's VERY common.) The only costume changes that stick are the ones where the updates/modifications are very subtle. This one will be fun for a while and get reversed just like all the others. It's only a matter of time. Oh, and her civilian name is "Prince", not Price. That one you can even find on Wikipedia.
Oh yeah. And Wonder Woman has already had her costume changed a few times as well. Switches back to the classic look every time.
I'm about 5-6 hours into Mass Effect 2 and I'm loving it. But MAN, it's harder than the first one! Shots are harder to line up and the AI is smarter and more aggressive. Cover is a little harder to use now and then and I've come closer to dying more often so far than I did my entire time playing Mass Effect 1. (Well, except for in some of those land-rover sequences. Thresher Maws are lame.)
It hasn't gotten to the point of being frustrating yet. But the intensity is seriously cranked up, which means I'm not always in the mood to play. For me, ME2 means sitting down prepared for an emotionally draining experience!
That's right, you're getting TWO posts from me today! Who knew such a thing was possible??
My bro-in-law sent me some links to a game type I never even knew existed. And in keeping with the "Summer Of Free", these games are all free and legal to download online! Woohoo!
My first impression is that the unique gameplay (and not the graphics) is the chief draw here. I'm just checking them out myself now, so I can't really comment, but here is what he sent me. Next time you're bored and need a free way to pass some time, well here ya go!
Thanks, Sean! You rock, bro!
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2010, 9:32 AM
Hey bro,
I've been poking around on the internet for the last couple days, looking into a genre of game called "roguelike"... These games seem to be sort of the precursor to modern RPGs and are largely inspired by D&D, so I immediately thought of you. They have a few defining characteristics: Randomly created dungeons, permanent death (i.e., you can save your game as often as you want but once your character is dead, that's it), and turn-based play. Anyway, I'm not really qualified to do a review for your "Summer of Free" because I'm just messing around (and I'm not very experienced in terms of RPGs), but I thought I'd shoot you some links if you wanted to try any of them out. We're talking super old-school here... the simpler ones (graphically) require some imagination but seem like they could be pretty cool once you're used to them. Most of them are keyboard-controlled so if there's a tutorial or instructions I recommend reading them to learn the shortcuts.
And now the games... I checked to make sure there are Windows versions of all of these, and they all seem to be still pretty widely played and/or updated: http://rephial.org/ ("Angband")
So far I've played "NetHack" and "Crawl Stone Soup"... There are tons more (such as the original "Rogue") but these should get you started... :) Besides, the older ones would be more of a hassle because they'd probably require a DOS emulator like DOSBox (http://dosbox.com).
Today's challenge is "figuring out forums". I'm attempting to launch a forum website for the Spirit Blade Productions community. The biggest and most vital ingredients are in place. A listener put together a fantastic looking site for the forums and has volunteered to be technical administrator, and I've got at least one person who has expressed willingness to moderate.
But now it's up to me to fill in all the little holes. Namely policy. I have to figure out what ground rules to establish for forum discussion and how moderators should respond to rule violations. I have some great examples to follow and model the forum after, but I still need to put it all down in my own words for the site. That is my challenge for today.
Although I’m a big fan of DC comics, I’ve never followed the Jonah Hex comic book, so I can’t speak of this movie’s fidelity to the source material. And normally I wouldn’t review a western, but the previews for this movie indicated some clearly supernatural elements that made it a good fit for the kind of movies I review.
Jonah Hex is about a man in the 1800’s whose family was killed in front of him and who is now a bounty hunter, trying to punish criminals to make himself feel a little better. But when it is revealed that his family’s killer, once thought dead, is still alive, Jonah drops everything to hunt him down. Oh yeah, and a hooker with a heart of… well, she’s got a heart and she’s tagging along because she likes Jonah, or something.
This is going to be a short review because I found this movie extremely forgettable. I don’t remember a single interesting character. Hex was most interesting in the flashbacks dealing with the death of his family. Otherwise, he showed no depth of character. In fact, every character in this movie was pretty flat. John Malcovich plays the villain, Quentin Turnbull, but because of his “unique” style of acting, it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s phoning this one in. Either way, Turnbull was flat and boring in nearly every scene he was in.
The explosions were fine, the effects were fine. Everything was fine. But nothing was great, or even very good. Predictable plot, flat characterization, conventional shooting style and set/costume design. This movie might have been something special if it had used more supernatural story elements and been more creative in its visual design.
As with any story that deals with communication with the dead, this movie could potentially lead to conversation about the afterlife. But the movie is so bland that you’ll probably be ready to talk about something else before you even get out of the theater.
At least it’s short. From opening to closing credits, I clocked the movie at under 80 minutes. I can’t help but wonder if some good material was left on the cutting room floor.
MPAA- Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and sexual content.
Just got back from a GREAT weekend up in the mountains! I'm not really a "naturey" kinda guy. Hate bugs and they all seem to hate me. Actually, "hate" sounds a little too macho. I honestly don't know how bugs feel about me. But depending on their size and/or flight capability, I have a crippling fear of them.
But we had relatively few bugs at the cabin we stayed at. (Thanks, Kelly!) And I was able to spend the weekend relaxing with my wife and son. We took a walk, ate a big pancake breakfast, roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows, ate s'mores and I even finished playing "Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age"! (C'mon. You can't go camping without an xbox and tv!)
The weekend was JUST what I needed and I'm excited to be back to work with the built-up stress of last week far behind me.
My parents will be buying a massive camper next week and are looking forward to going camping with me, my sister and our families. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to it!
Every year at the electronic gaming expo known as “E3”, video game makers gather before legions of journalists to unveil the latest and greatest of what they are or will be bringing to the gaming world. In the last few years, E3 has become more accessible to the common gamer through TV and internet broadcast of the event, and so I’ve taken to watching the expo and this will be the second year I’ve collected some thoughts and reactions to share about the big three (Xbox, Sony and Nintendo).
First off, it’s always interesting to see the big suits come out and try to talk about their products. There words sound so rehearsed and their presentations so formal that I have to wonder if they have any genuine passion for video games themselves, or if they would gladly be the CEO of a successful knitting company just as easily. In fact, I’m nearly convinced that some of these suits don’t even play video games.
It’s a constant reminder that this isn’t a convention designed for the consumer. It’s for business owner considering what products they want to carry and journalists trying to figure out what the new trends will be. A convention “by the suits, for the suits”. But the artificial, awkward nature of the thing has a certain charm that adds entertainment value in my opinion.
XBOX
The big suit for Microsoft started the presentation by saying that this year Xbox was all about transformation. Transforming this and transforming that. They’re all a bunch of transformers at Microsoft. But unless you are interested in controller-free gameplay, they aren’t transforming much this year.
After showcasing some great looking games like Gears Of War 3 and Fable 3 (neither of which currently interest me) they spent the rest of the time talking about new functionality for the Xbox that has nothing to do with the core gaming market. ESPN on Xbox? Yay. Just what this sports-obsessed jock was waiting for. Okay, yes. I understand that many gamers are into sports. But I’ve never been one of them.
Last year’s “Project Natal”, the controller free sensor-based control system for Xbox, came back this year with a new name: Kinect. (A “cool” combination of the words kinetic and connect.) In many ways the hardware is impressive. It aims to be user friendly and intuitive and I think they nailed it on the head. With simple and obvious voice commands and hand motions, one can navigate menus and play games. (At least games designed to be played this way.) The novelty is pretty interesting, but in my estimation that’s all it is. Why?
As the technology was demonstrated, the coverage would often switch between showing the game screen and showing the player, but they didn’t show both together as often. This is probably because every time they did I noticed an obvious 1 second lag between what the player did and what happened onscreen. The “players” chosen to demo the hardware were Microsoft employees who had clearly had time to adjust to the lag. They smiled and “laughed” and had a grand ole time. But if it would have been me, I would have found the delay very frustrating. I’m assuming that games for the Kinect are designed forgivingly with this delay in mind, but that doesn’t change the fact that a 1 second delay creates significant distance between the player and the world he is interacting with. Look at your watch and think of almost any video game you’ve played requiring hand-eye coordination. One second is a long time.
When something like Kinect can read my body motions and process the information fast enough to reproduce simultaneously onscreen, then we will have made a significant jump in game play. Not to mention that several of the games demonstrated for Kinect could largely be played with a peripheral as simple as the original nintendo’s “Track and Field” mat. (They had a track and field hurdles game that I’m nearly positive could have been played using the NES play mat controller.)
So this is one Xbox owner who will be exclusively placing his gaming hopes in 3rd party developers this year.
PLAYSTATION
Playstation wasted no time in taking an aggressive attitude toward their competition, delivering not so subtle jabs at Nintendo several times throughout the show. But I can see why their confidence would lead them to be critical of Nintendo. The demonstration of the Playstation “move” controller looked remarkable after watching Microsoft’s “Kinect” demo. The “move” boasts nearly perfect 1 to 1 responsiveness and makes gameplay more interactive than anything I’ve ever seen.
PSP games seem to keep looking better, and Sony is clearly going to be putting more effort into their handheld device. But otherwise nothing really grabbed my interest in their exclusive games and content.
NINTENDO
With Xbox and Playstation both unveiling new technology, Nintendo naturally started their press conference by de-emphasizing technological advancements, claiming that ultimately the experience is what is important. Slick, Nintendo. Of course next year when you introduce the Wii motion “plus plus”, or the wii motion “multiplication” you’ll be saying that technology is the most important thing.
Nintendo got off to a rough start demoing the new Zelda game. After the sleek one to one controlling power of the playstation “move”, the interface between the wii remote and the game looked sluggish and even more delayed than the “Kinect”. Add to that some glitches in the operation of the controller that they blamed on “wireless devices” in the audience and things were looking pretty awkward. Really guys? A wireless phone way down in the audience messes up the wii remote? How about the one I have turned on in my pocket? If that’s the case, then Wii could only be enjoyed by people living in the stone ages!
Nintendo’s chief focus was games. Although they did reveal a new handheld device called the Nintendo 3DS, which they claim provides a 3D game experience without any glasses. Of course, there was no way for me to see the 3D for myself, but I’m very curious. I have to assume the 3D tech they are using is in some way similar to those 3D stickers that appear to move as you rotate them from side to side. Could be cool, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Personally, I don’t need to become more physically involved with video games or see them in 3D. I’d rather play games with better graphics.
STAR WARS MMO
One game definitely had my attention. In recent years, my RPG loyalty has shifted from Square Enix to a company that it would appear can do no wrong. Bioware. As the geniuses behind Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, I felt confident that they were the best ones to create an MMORPG based in the same well-known universe. But I have to admit that my first impressions were pretty tame.
The graphics for Star Wars: The Old Republic honestly looked unimpressive to me. I’ve never played an MMO, but if weaker graphics naturally come with the package, consider that yet one more reason why I’m uninterested in the genre. I also wish I could have gained a better understanding of the combat mechanics. Is it real-time, or something like the systems used for KOTOR and Dragon Age? The fact that the game can be played and enjoyed as a single player experience certainly caught my interest, but I suppose if I want a single player experience, I should just stay off of the internet, right?
As a whole, I really didn’t have any “wow” moments watching the coverage this year. Maybe it’s because I’ve had an insanely busy week and watching E3 coverage was just “one more thing”. But I think much of it comes down to the games. And this year, I saw almost no RPGs to look forward to. Not a good sign. Then again, I’ve already got some great ones worth playing again (and again and again! Thanks, Bioware!) and I could always stand to save some money!
Last night I just finished reading a fantasy series by Robert Newcomb. I didn't actually finish the series, but I did finish reading it.
I had read on Wikipedia that he was having trouble finding a publisher for the remaining books he has planned for this series. But I could have sworn I read later that he finally had. And so I foolishly kept reading what has been a mediocre series, only to find that it will, in fact, remain unpublished for the foreseeable future.
I can't think of many more reading scenarios more frustrating than reading a mediocre series that you only realize you'll never be able to finish after starting the sixth book in the series. I thought it would have been worth it if I could get to the end of the story. And I thought the 6th book WAS the end of the story. But just to put my fears to rest, accepting the risk of spoiling the story for myself, I skipped ahead and read the last three pages. I'm glad I did. I was able to move on to my next book much more quickly.
So what was mediocre about the experience? Well, Newcomb does some things that I really like as a reader. His writing takes you inside the minds of his characters, helping you to feel what they are feeling. This is a must for any fiction I read. His stories also dealt with mature subject matter and dark happenings. Evil was VERY evil and the lines were drawn clearly. And in the first two books, the bad guys were easy to hate and made my blood boil.
But after that, the motivations of villains vanished in favor of cookie cutter villains who were bad just because they liked being bad. I stopped hating them because they didn't feel real.
Additionally, Newcomb VERY often keeps things from his readers. Whenever a siginifcant plan is cooked up by the heroes to "save the day" or get themselves out of trouble, Newcomb handles it by saying something like, "They talked about the plan and all agreed that it would probably work." The reader isn't let in on what the plan was until it is executed, at which time it also comes off without a hitch.
I'd rather know what the plan is in advance and then see it not work perfectly so I can freak out along with the characters as they try to improvise a solution. But Newcomb keeps me at a distance, as though he'd rather I try to guess what the plan is before they pull it off. Not interested. Especially since I know it will always work.
Of course, there is the exception to this rule from time to time. It almost always happens at the climax of each book. The plan to beat the bad guy is revealed, and then it doesn't work. And then something strange and random happens that takes out the bad guy anyway. The characters don't know what happened. They just thank their lucky stars. Then a little epilogue reveals to the reader a new villain that caused the weird randomness. A villain which will be the focus of the next book and will be defeated in the same way. Rinse and repeat.
This repeated use of the Deus Ex Machina plot device in his writing at the end of nearly every book leaves them feeling very anti-climactic.
So despite having several of the traits I really like in a writer's general style, Newcomb veered drastically away from my tastes in several consistent ways.
I can only hope that the book I just picked up from Sara Douglass will treat me better. (At least I know this series has an ending that is available in paperback. I double-checked.)
Throughout the summer I'm going to take a look at the six films in the Star Wars franchise.
Along with being entertainment, movies are also an outlet for the expression of one’s worldview. Most movies have a protagonist and an antagonist. Someone the film-maker wants us to root for, and someone else he wants us to root against. Protagonists may be flawed, but the storytellers give them enough of what they view as positive qualities that we will sympathize with them. Antagonists may not be completely evil, but storytellers give them enough “bad” characteristics that we can tell we shouldn’t root for them.
By picking up on these kinds of basic story elements that we take for granted, we can determine quite a bit about the moral and philosophical worldview of the creators of a film. Some creators want their worldview to be expressed and appreciated by their audience. While other creators simply let their worldviews “leak out” in their creations by accident.
I’m not assuming George Lucas had any desire to mold the thinking of his viewers. But his movies have presented a number of philosophical concepts that many have adapted and made their own. So my aim here is to evaluate the philosophical ideas that have been presented in the movies and try to determine which ones are ultimately consistent with reality and which ones are logically “broken”.
My journey will take me through all six Star Wars films, starting with Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. (And yes, I even forced myself to watch the Jar Jar scenes.)
In The Phantom Menace, as we get our first few glimpses of what Jedi are about, we can pick up on a few details. First, they value preparing for the future but being mindful of the moment. They are the guardians of peace and justice. And in their work they are comfortable with manipulating others against their will to get what they want.
Did that last one catch you by surprise? It caught me too, when I noticed for the first time that Qui-Gon had no problems manipulating the mind of the chief Gungan to make him lend them transportation when their interaction was not going as he would have liked. Given that the Gungan gave the Jedi a ship against his will, it would also seem that there are times when a Jedi can steal. This Gungan had not wronged Qui-Gon in any way that I could tell. But Qui-Gon seemed comfortable manipulating and stealing from him.
Now it’s true that the Jedi believe they have a responsibility to protect the entire galaxy, and that may require doing things that do not benefit others in the short term. But it makes me wonder what moral code the Jedi are accountable to, and who gives them the right to violate the laws of others, however well intentioned their motives may be?
Qui-gon says at one point during underwater travel, “don’t worry, the Force will guide us.” If he was speaking metaphorically, he could have meant that the Force would guide them much like a map “guides” someone, even though the map has no will of its own. Otherwise, his statement implies that the Force has a will, and therefore is a being with desires of some sort. This is confirmed later in the movie several times when the Force is directly referred to as having a will.
Qui-Gon also makes reference to “the living Force” at one point. This phrase has what is probably an unintentional similarity to the common title of “the Living God” which we see repeatedly in the Bible. But it at least implies that the Force is alive and not simply a force in the sense that gravity is a force.
As the films progress, the nature of the force will be a key element to keep our eyes on.
When concerned about the Federations motives, Qui-gon tells the queen of Naboo, “My feelings tell me they will destroy you.” This came just after suggesting the federation’s moves were illogical. So it would seem that a Jedi values both logic and individual feelings as sources of guidance. Though feelings are mentioned much more often as a source of guidance than thought is.
Qui-Gon’s advice to Anakin before the podrace was, “Concentrate on the moment. Feel, don’t think. Use your instincts.” During athletic effort, this can be important. But instincts will only serve you well if they have been trained during practice to bring about the right instinctive responses. For example, I suck at all sports. My instincts on a basketball court would quickly make my teammates very angry with me.
So while this idea is very appealing in fiction (after all, who wouldn’t love to just trust their instincts, knowing they would always serve them well?), it doesn’t operate well in the real world.
I’d really be dropping the ball if I didn’t notice that Anakin was born without the involvement of a man. (The actress who played his mother also played Mary in a TV movie released before “Episode 1”.) This would suggest that Anakin is a savior of sorts. Near the end of the film, Qui-Gon refers to him as the Chosen One who will “restore balance”. We’ll want to keep an eye on this idea as we explore the later films in the series. We’ll also want to carefully consider what a Jedi means when he says “balance”. (A very vague but often used term in some forms of pop-spirituality.)
Fear can often be thought of as the condition of a victim, not someone who is doing wrong. But fear is a potentially dangerous thing. Yoda rightly observes that “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” When fear dominates our will and dictates our decisions, we’re not living the life God intended us to. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spiritoftimidity, but a spiritof power, of love and of self-discipline.”
Qui-gon tells Anikan, “Always remember: Your focus determines your reality.” This is another vague phrase, since we can’t be sure of what he means by “focus” or “reality”. This statement can be true in the sense that what we put our minds to will often either come about or become the priority of our lives. But it’s certainly false that reality will bow to our wills if we focus hard enough. Pop culture proverbs like this are useful if defined. But left undefined they can lead to some strange ideas about the nature of reality.
After my disappointing "Final Fantasy 13" experience, I launched myself on a quest to find a new RPG to play. I had $22 in Gamestop trade credit and $8 of credit at another used entertainment store. So "The Summer Of Free" was still in effect throughout my search.
I tried "Eternal Sonata" and "Fable 2". The first was too cute. The second was much more fun. But something was missing that it took me a few days to put my finger on. Turn-based combat.
I know, I know. I'm a relic from the past by invoking such a concept. But the RPG video game industry was built on turn-based game mechanics. And contrary to popular belief, turn-based mechanics do not equal slow and boring game-play. Dragon Quest 8 and Lost Odyssey both use turn-based combat, but the menu navigation and combat animation are fast and propel the action forward. (Too bad Lost Odyssey has so many other elements dragging it down.) The Shadow Hearts games are turn-based but incorporate a minor hand-eye coordination element into the execution of commands that keeps game-play involving without being frustrating.
I love having the opportunity to carefully consider my next move, juggle resources and character abilities and weigh the risks and all of my options. But most rpg games these days have turned to an action-rpg format, or have simplified their mechanics to make way for a forced "real-time" combat system. (FF13. Aarrgh!)
After Final Fantasy 13 yanked me so hard in the wrong direction on this front, I found that what I was really itching for was a turn-based RPG experience. So for 8 bucks of trade credit, I brought home "The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age". Made for the xbox (and PS2) but playable on my 360(with just a few graphical glitches).
I used to own this game for my PS2 but quit halfway through for lack of interest. At the time, there were other turn-based rpgs I could play (like the AMAZING "Shadow Hearts" series on PS2!) and I knew the movies too well to enjoy the cut scenes in this game(which are just re-cut film footage from the trilogy with Ian McKellan narrating).
This time through I'm finding the game-play extremely addictive and satisfying and I'm just skipping all of the cut-scenes. (There are still "in engine" cut-scenes that advance the story of your characters, and that's all you really need to follow.) Leveling up my stats is a bit tedious without an "auto-level up" option, but otherwise this game is great fun!
I've also stumbled across another website with even MORE nostalgic turn-based RPGs for free and what I've played so far looks really good! But more on that this Wednesday.
As part of The Spirit Blade Underground’s “Summer Of Free”, I decided to try out four different games from rpggames4free.com and give at least 15 minutes to each one. I made some notes of my first impressions and am presenting them here for anyone who is interested in some free rpgs with nostalgic graphics and sensibilities.
In this game you live in a village that has been under siege for a long time until a spell wipes out everyone but you. A mysterious stranger gives you the power to travel back in time and manipulate events so that the destruction of your town can be avoided.
The graphics in the game consist of very nice 16-bit hand drawn backgrounds. The dialogue is well-written and the story is intriguing. There’s a mystery to this plot that I’d be interested in searching out. However, I have played the game for close to 30 minutes and not seen a single battle. So it may be that this game has no combat elements at all.
This isn’t to say that I found the game boring, but if the game has no fighting in it, this would have been good to know going in.
In my search for free rpgs, this game has popped up in several locations and is spoken of very highly. I can’t imagine why.
Rpgs4free presents the game synopsis as follows: This is one of the most popular freeware rpg available on the net. Laxius Power is already a legend, it has great graphics, a solid storyline and plenty of well developed characters. More than 50 hours of gameplay and 500 different monsters to fight!
The monsters and sprites do look great and the interface for combat is very intuitive to anyone who’s played turn based rpgs. Laxius Power seems specifically modeled after Japanese RPGs and even includes an extremely bad translation to complete the package. That, or it was written in English by someone whose primary strength is not writing. Dialogue is sloppy, full of out of character slang, bad grammar and even made up words. (A food store item is said to be very “nutricitive”. Thank you, George W. Bush.)
My hat goes off to anyone who successfully persists in giving this game 50 hours of their life.
The description for this game reads: The Daughters of Light send you on a dangerous quest to discover the secrets of the prophecy and hopefully stop it in time. Play as a young, but soon to be powerfull magic wielder, in a complete adventure that beats many commercial role playing games.
So far, my initial impression has been very good. The writing is solid and the game does a good job of helping you know where to go and what to do without holding your hand the whole way. There is plenty to explore in the starting town alone. This game fits into the action rpg realm, similar in some ways to “The Secret Of Mana”, with a stronger rpg feel than the Zelda games.
When you come near to enemies, your attack button is enabled and you strike at them in real time. You can also open a menu during combat for potions and to ready spells or special abilities. Enemies are very simplistic at the start. Giant bees and snakes. Go ahead and take on the bees, but definitely run from those snakes! One hit and you’re dead!
Once you realize that you start out pretty weak and should not engage every enemy you see, the game gets off to a great start. You can also save at virtually any time, so as long as you take advantage of that before taking on a new enemy, you’ve got nothing to fear.
This game easily has the weakest graphics of those I’ve mentioned so far. But it has a charming premise. A spoof of the “Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest” series, this game looks almost identical to the original 8-bit classic “Dragon Warrior” for the NES.
Basic menu navigation and battles are more similar than different and the game features the same kind of challenging level grind that fans of that series have come to expect. The twist is that you play a Dragon, chosen to fight a group of heroes who are about to wipe out all dragons to make the world safe for human domination.
I didn’t get very far in the story, though. Be prepared for a level grind right from the start. Use your limited starting cash wisely, stay close to the town while working on that first level and plan to stay at the inn a lot. And naturally, SAVE! Save often!
I was surprised at how addictive I found the level grind. It was a genuine strategic challenge to figure out when I should go back to town and when I should keep fighting a little longer. Most foes only surrendered 1 or 2 gold upon defeat, after having wiped out close to half of my health. And the inn restores me to full HP, but costs 6 gold! So at level one I found myself testing how low I could let my HP go before staying at the inn. And when I hit level 2, I suddenly felt extremely cool as I was now able to take down enemies much faster and while taking much less damage.
This would be an ideal game to figure out how to put on a phone. But even if you’re at home and need to take a break for a few minutes, this game may scratch your strategic itch and provide your level-grinding quota for the day.
I also stumbled upon another site that has a ton of free indie RPGs.- http://rpgdx.net/
I haven’t had a chance to look through many of the titles there yet, but there are quite a few they are all submitted by their creators, so legally it’s legit as well!
If you’re an RPG lover, why not jump over and try a few out, then send me your thoughts on them to contribute to “The Summer Of Free”?
I can't believe it actually came to this, but I made the decision to sell Final Fantasy 13. I have NEVER given up on a Final Fantasy game without playing it all the way through. I'm amazed at my own decision. Despite being on the third disc (out of three), I was still uninterested in the plot, didn't like the voice acting and felt extremely boxed in with nearly every aspect of game-play. I just hit one boss too many that required me to use one very specific strategy to beat. I just couldn't stand the thought of either trying six or seven ways to win one fight or looking up a solution online one more time.
I still maintain that the game has some excellent qualities. And well more than half of the time the combat is a ton of fun. But way too many times the momentum fell out from under me as I encountered some strange bad guy that I had to pretty much guess randomly how to beat.
In talking to my wife about it, I compared it to dancing with a beautiful woman (which I said would be her, of course) but repeatedly stubbing your toe through the entire song. But unlike the woman in this metaphor, Final Fantasy 13's beauty was not enough for me to want to finish the dance. (My toe just couldn't take any more!)
Thankfully, Gamestop was having a trade-in bonus and I got six bucks more in trade credit than I normally would have.
So now I'm on the hunt for a new game to play. I've tried Overlord (very cool, but some challenging strategy aspects I'm not currently in the mood for), Eternal Sonata (way too pretty and light-hearted) and today I plan to try out Fable 2 again (the first time I gave up on it because I didn't like the glowing trail always telling me where to go. After FF13, it seems like a pretty minor complaint).
Mass Effect 2 is undoubtedly on my list. But first I wanted to see what games I could get using just the trade credit I got from FF13. It IS "The Summer Of Free" after all.
Okay, calling the Yahoo homepage an outlet for news may be pretty generous. But I still thought it was interesting that someone wrote an article about something as trivial as a costume change on a superhero. You can read the article here:
