Alright, haven't made a post in a long time so lets get this started. Been crazy busy recently. Why is that? Well I currently play in three bands and go to school full time, so life is hectic. I'll post some links anyone who happens to still swing by my blog can take a looksie. Other than that nothing new or exciting on my end of things, but I do have some opinions on some recent happenings int he game industry I felt I had to talk about.
First on the agenda
Borderlands
I have been cheering this game on since I first heard about it. I said this over and over again but it finally looked like the game that would truly deliver on blending the action and feel of an FPS with the elements and skill building of n RPG, something that hasn't been done successfully dues Ex and System Shock 2. Although both of those games are fantastic in their own right and innovative for their time they still have aged good deal and aren't perfect (on a side note if you havne't played these games they should run on any hunk of junk for a computer you have so go give em a try, classics). So what do i think of this game? Well lets break this down in an old timey fashion int he spirit of the blog title.
The Good- Borderlands did it! Gearbox achieved what developers have tried and failed to do. Fallout 3 didn't quit nail it. Hellgate london fumbled the ball (still really fun in my opinion despite the hate) and Huxley got really really really damn close but still fell just short of a touchdown. Borderlands IS and FPS. No doubt about it. You crouch you jump you run you aim you shoot, just like any other FPS. Howevever, you find diablo style loot. You level your character. You equip and manage skills and items. they nailed that fine line that blends the two together so beautifully. I feel like I am playing a Diablo style mod for some crazy sci fi shooter. However, it is a mod created by one of the best development teams in the land. We are talking the guys behind Half Life opposing force, the awesome Brothers in Arms series, and more.I absolutely love this game. However, all is not perfect in borderland... town.. er... moving on
The Bad- It has a few issues. The most obvious being the fact that this game is very much a console port, which is kind of a surprise and a disapointment seeing as gearbox has sort of always been a PC developer. at least that is how i thought of them. Youcan't scroll menus with mouse wheels or arrow keys. The equiping of guns felt wierd as it wasn't a drag and drop or clikc and drop so much as a sort of click and select a slot. Which works fine but usually it pans out different graphically. I even have to use my pgup and pgdwn keys to scroll through quest text! (whos stupid idea was that?) Most of these things aren't too major but the wierd sensativity issues with the mouse (super high in game despite being normal in menus) and all the little UI issues do hamper the experience and the Co-op can't be beat. However, the game is still fun.... except for one little detail.
The Ugly- Multiplayer doesn't work. End of story. It didn't work. There ha been no patch. No real official answer. Jsut a list of fixes recognized by the developers. These are the same guys that rediculed Valve for ignoring the PS3 (which i kind of agree with their statement but thats another issue and story all together) and they seem to be doing the same to the PC version of Borderlands. 360 and PS3 are getting a patch to fix the bugs and multiplayer issues... WHERE THE HELL IS OURS! Basically the issue is you can't host games. You have to go in and forward a bunch of ports which is a huge hassle and not a lot of people have any idea how to do that and even though i tried and did a tutorial it kept knocking out my internet connection and I gave up. Using Gamespy for your matchmaking is a big mistake. Gamespy kind of sucks, just sayin'. On top of that we have desktop crashes and oh so many other little glaring issues. Luckily LAN works like a dreama nd most my friends game on laptops but that doesn't mean they have an excuse for basically handing out a broken game when their was such a heavy emphasis on it. It is kind of old news and isn't too hard to fix (as more fixes were found it became easier and easier) but the fact that we feel neglected still stands and they should have made sure their system worked before handing it over to the public. Regardless it still gets a reccomendation from me.
Second
Call Of duty Modern Warfare 2- The dedicated server that couldn't
I don't know if you heard or even care but MW2 is basically getting completely boned on the PC. Dedicated servers and server browsers letting you pick and chose your where you play, the ability to host your own server ruinning your chosen set of admin tools for policing hackers and griefers that can ruin other peoples fun, the ability to mods that can raise player counts and change the nature of the game, custom map hosting, everything that makes PC gaming my chosen platform and in my humlbe opinion a superior gaming paltform, GONE!
Instead IW has chosen to give us IW.net. A shoting service aking to exactly what you have on the consoles. You limit max player counts, you force us to have player hosted matches (which is a f'ing TERRIBLE system) You force us to play within your system and you take away the experience that makes PC gamers choose their platform. I didn't plan on buying MW2, it looks like a great game but I rather get Bad Company 2 (cacuse one was great and 2 looks amazingly more awesome!) Now, with this whole mess not only will i refuse to buy the game on my PS3. I definitely wont go for what should have been the cheaper PC alternative (ya, they hiked the price on that too from what i understand) and i encourage those who were thinking of buying the PC version not too. The only good thing that really comes out of this is less work on infinity wards end (they just basically port the console system to the pc rather than making a whole new system for dedicated servers) and they can control custom content. WE wont get custom maps we will only be force fed DC. Not that I'm against DC and maps i can't stand for someone basically pissing all over how PC gamers do things without any care for how we would feel about the situation, it will still sell millions.....
Also, what about LAN play. Will we have to login to your little network if we want to play over a lan? What if there is no internet, which is a common thing at LAN parties, especially ones of considerable size. Infinity WArd and activision, you have officially pissed off a majority of the PC gaming community and honestly I hope it comes back to bite you. If this is a success we could see much mroe of it and the way I and other PC gamers choose to play our games could begint o slowly change, and i wouldn't say it is for the better.
Finally the third item ont he list.
Demons' Souls
This game is hard. No no no, really. It is really really hard. However, fun! Crazy amounts of fun, but still really frustrating. With that said. Go rent it because its amazing...ly difficult... and fun! But still really really hard....
On a final note here are two of the bands I am currently a part of. Check em out if you got some spare time. Hoepfulyl it wont be months between posts
Gates of Eternity- Power Metal
AHTCK! (All Hail The Crimson King)- Modern.. um.. rock and metalish stuff.. just give ti a listen