Best Game Ever – Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

by

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is my favorite game of all time. With the many hours of enjoyment I have gained from this title, I owe it to you all to spread the good word.
Let me tell you why:

First of all, this intriguing subtitle brings to mind many important questions for the common gamer. Among these questions are:

1. What throne?
2. Why is it frozen?

But frozen seats of royalty aside, the storyline in an RTS is superfluous. What makes WCII: TFT great is the well-implemented and innovative hero system, the tight control over units that makes über micro possible, and the well-balanced, well-designed variety of races.

Warcraft is a popular game, with fan-created artwork, a lively multiplayer community, board games, hugely successful MMO adaptation, and mangas. →  Speak softly and carry a big post.

Guitar Hero 2 Demo

by

Damn you Harmonix, damn you to hell. The Guitar Hero 2 demo is only four songs large, and I haven’t been able to play anything else all day. Curse you and your innate ability to create unbridled gaming fun!

Yes folks, if you haven’t heard already the new issue of OPM has nice little demo of GH2. Jay and I have it. Now let’s talk about it:

Songs: I’m hearing some recent dissent about the Guitar Hero 2 soundtrack. Whereas the original had a wide variety of rock, the sequel seems to have a heavy focus on classic metal and hair bands, as well as prog. rock. I understand that everyone has different musical tastes, but for a game called “Guitar Hero”, the tracks seem to be appropriate. →  Theme Postital

Review – Golden Sun

by

For the most part, the library of video games consists largely of clones of previously successful games. Games such as Grand Theft Auto III have spawned so many sorry attempts at duplication that a whole new sub-genre was born. There was a time when there was only Grand Theft Auto, and the imitators were yet to join the party. So revolutionary titles do happen. They do not happen frequently, and there are plenty of examples of games that tried to establish something new and failed. I think ChoroQ is an example of this. In trying to create an RPG complete with plot, towns, and dungeon exploration within the context of a racing game (or vice versa) the series (which apparently has several iterations on various systems around the world) tried something unique but ended up making a below average game. →  Fire Post Wrestling Returns

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 10.6.06

by

Uwe Boll in talks for a second BloodRayne movie
If you missed the first BloodRayne movie, you owe it to Ed Wood to go see it. It’s not as terribly good as House of the Dead, but its crappiness is better than the mostly just bad Alone in the Dark. I will also be going to see Dungeon Siege on opening knight (hahahahaha, get it?) if anyone wants to join me.

For some odd reason a lot of people hate Boll and want him to have a massive heart attack and die, or at least stop directing movies. I come from the Leprechaun school of horror films (Leprechaun in the Hood is overrated, I recommend Leprechaun in Space) so Boll’s schlock is something I really look forward to. →  May God smite me if I stop reading here!

The Tekken arcade stick praised; the Tekken games condemned

by

A few weeks ago, while browsing my favorite gaming forum, one of the posters reported an unconfirmed clearance sale at Gamestop/EB. The item? The Tekken 5 anniversary box. The price? $30, down from its previous $60 price, which was down from the original $100 MSRP. The package of course includes Tekken 5, as well as a very nice DVD box for storing all 6 Tekken games. The crown jewel of the set however is a limited edition arcade stick.

Normally this isn’t a big deal; you can buy arcades sticks everywhere some for as low as ten dollars. Not to mention that other game-branded sticks have shown to be of rather horrid quality (such as the Street Fighter Anniversary stick from Nubytech). →  Read or die.

Concern that FFXII may suck

by

Put in the FFXII demo and try something. Get into a battle and then put the controller down. You’ll win. The gambit system sets up the AI in your party so you don’t actually have to play. I did this experiment months ago and was slightly concerned but figured that it was just a demo; Square would no doubt make some changes that encouraged the player to participate.

The new EGM has a review of the game, though, and one of the reviewers describes playing exactly how I did. He put the controller down during random encounters and had no trouble at all. Boss fights still may require human intervention.

The reviewer gave FFXII game an 8.5. I’m not sure what’s stranger, Square making an automated battle system or reviewers not caring that Square made an automated battle system. →  Read it your way.

Review – Mount&Blade

by

Sometimes games that are incredibly good have no advertising whatsoever. These games are usually made popular by word-of-mouth, if anything (Katamari Damacy for example). Developed by a husband-and-wife team, Mount & Blade is one such game.

I am often distracted while defending my castle by the natural beauty of the setting sun.

I first heard about Mount & Blade half a year ago on a forum. I didn’t try it out at the time, mostly because the authors of the posts were comparing it to Morrowind (which I found incredibly boring). A few months ago, though, I saw it again at a gaming site, this time with a formal, in-depth review that made it sound more interesting. I decided to give it a try and downloaded it. →  Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatarticle

Why the PSP is a success

by

Many online sources have declared the PSP a failure. Others, including print magazines, haven’t gone that far but have acknowledged the PSP may currently be failing. The difference being the tense of the verb to fail. Here are some declarations that the PSP is dead or dying:

Should we consider the PSP dead?

RIP PSP

PSP: Just Die Already

Developers: The PSP has “failed”

But common wisdom is wrong: the PSP is not a failure; it has actually been quite successful. Sony took on a company that had around 95% of the handheld market. As of July, Sony has shipped 20 million units compared to Nintendo’s 21 million DS’s sold. There is a difference between units shipped and units sold, though how much is up for debate. →  Guitar Hero III: Legends of Read

They hate my baby… and Tom Chick is an asshat

by

Read this. Also read Tom Chick’s original response post, and if you really care, his review (Chick’s response is at the bottom of the above article, and his 1up article is linked in his response).

I want to give hats off to Tom Chick, for masterfully pulling off this bit of PR. Because that’s all this is kids, it’s a “look at Tom Chick, he’s so abused!” play. And, it makes him more of a name brand, because I even read the Galactic Civilization 2 manual and have no idea who he is. So I guess he needed it. Or maybe I’m outside of his target demographic.

Ok, let me make my rambling into something cohesive. Tom Chick wrote the Gal Civ 2 manual. →  Phoenix Write: Just Posts for All

A shocking revelation

by

Today I spent hours playing Ghosts and Goblins on the Capcom Classics Collection. The game is an absolute classic and it is also nearly impossible. It took me about a thousand lives, but I finished the game…only to be told that it was all a dream and I’d have to do it again. So I did.

Sometime during the second playthrough it struck me — this game sucks. I know it sounds like blasphemy to a lot of people, and it sort of disturbs me to say it, but it’s true. This game may have a cult following but it’s a piece of crap.

The game is not hard because it is well designed. It is hard because its controls are horrendous. →  The Adventures of Cookie and Read