a video game blog

Now I've picked up this game about mid summer. Progressed rather easily then put the game down for quite a long time. Okay, so it was like... a four to five month hiatus of not playing and saying, "I will never play this wretched game again!" If I practically vowed not to play it again, why am I playing it now?

Those who know the game will give two responses: 1) No... F*** No! Not that game! or 2) Oh My God! I love this game! Meanwhile, for those who don't know the game, I can say that the only reason why people would say something remotely close to the first response is because of the difficulty and frustration. Since there's no set difficulty, you're forced to suck it up and go through it, and if you don't know what you're doing, you're going to need to be a dozen new controllers. Why? Cause they'll be smashed over your wall, table, TV... you get the picture.

The reason why I stopped playing was because, to avoid spoilers, a certain boss early game aggravated me to the point of wanting to break the game disc; No, I didn't. But after getting some help from some friends who do play, got to level Godly, and beat the game, I realized that the game isn't all that difficult. Am I telling you to play it? Yea, I'd recommend it if you know how to play it.

Tips:

1) Be Patient.  Don't hack and slash unless you know the fight is that easy.

2) Learn how to time Everything. This game tries to teach the player to be a perfectionist at this point, because one false move can get you from human to hollow in seconds.

3) Don't underestimate. If you do underestimate your opponent, you'll understand why I told you not to after you die.

4) Know that everything is Legal! If something happens, whether to your favor or not, it happened. Screaming all the profanity in the world will not give you back your souls. Also know this for boss fights.

5) Be careful when you're human. Invaders can come at any time, and people are just overpowered if you aren't.

Fans of the "Tales" series will be excited to hear that Namco Bandai's teaser site for the next tales game has been updated with more information, including a timer that shows 3 days remaining (at time of post). 

Vaguely translated from Japanese to English, the text on the book reads: 

 "“Legend of the guru(s). In the distant age of myths, when the world was covered in darkness, from somewhere the light would return. When the times change, and the world falls into disarray, people tell folktales and hope for salvation. Then the guru(s) will appear and sweep away the darkness. However, when peace arrives, the gurus disappeared… Where did they go…? There is no one who knew that answer.”

The game definitely promises to be interesting, and Tales games are always extraordinary in their own ways. 

We only have to hope that this game makes it over to America.

Everybody knows about the "flip a table thing." Its a meme, its a saying, and in Japan, its a GAME. Woah. 

The rules of game play are pretty simple: you interact with the table as much as possible, accumulate points and, eventually, FLIP THE DAMN THING. 

How do you accumulate points? (I'm so happy you asked.) Players are given  scenarios to choose from (ranging from party host to dinner with the family). In these scenarios, your companions are being extremely rude, and as the head honcho, you're allowed to show off your displeasure by trying to get their attention.

You do this by slapping or pounding your fists on the table, shaking the table and, when all else fails, by flipping it. Shaking and pounding the table will lead to combos, and flipping it is the "FINISH HIM" of the game. It's your K.O. Obviously after the table has turned, the game is over ovaahhh.

Like I said, simple. 

I decided to write about this one because, lets be honest, it's pretty ridiculous. But it's funny too. My friend told me about it Friday night and I didn't believe him. Being the game guru that he is, though, he was right and I was wrong. (As usual). 

It seems like fun at first, but every new video I watch, I just find myself thinking, "he's gonna slap the table a few times and then flip it." It's a funny joke, but the game overall just seems like it would get boring if you played it more than once. 

There's a less detailed, online version that confirms my statement: playing more than once is boring. Never mind the fact that I couldn't get the game to load more than once. 

One thing I noticed (and by "I," I mean my boyfriend) was that in this scenario the family looks oddly American. Which, after he said so, I couldn't stop looking at. The scenario is the dad is upset because the kids are just playing on their phones at the table! (Very American, don't you think?)

(Not that I'm offended or anything.) (Not that you asked.)

In the video attached to the website link above, the scenario is a wedding party, and in that one, you get everybody's attention. You're making a scene because your date sucks for some reason. That sounds kind of fun. But like I said,  repetitive...boring.

One thing that I found kind of funny (if I'm reading the article correctly) is that the game pokes a bit of fun Shigeru Miyamoto, a major game designer and game producer at Nintendo. The article states that, while "flipping the table" is mostly a saying (culture shock yo), they wouldn't put it past Miyamoto to actually flip a table.

Apparently he is known for being quick to getting irritated scrapping a project.

So, Miyamoto... Cho Chabudai Gaeshi, or as Table Flip (for those of us whose Japanese is a bit rusty), this one's dedicated to you.

Hero of the Obelisk, to most known as Hoto, is an MMO that recently went into open Beta, and by recently I mean three weeks ago. The game is a dungeon crawler that features a chibi art style made by Eyasoft. The overall art style reflects Eyasofts Luna Online, the predecessor of Hoto.

http://hoto.gbegames.com/screenshots.aspx

So you start up the game, log in, and hit the "Create" button. You're instantly greeted by the default character, a male character of the Swordsman class, hair 1 style in orange, and face 1 setting. On the left side of the screen you see the class stat base, description, and skill clips. On the right side, there's little window that reads, "Create Character" with three tabs inside.

The first tab is your class choice. Swordsman is currently selected of the three that are available. Swordsman is you basic fighter class, choosing either sword and shield or a two-handed sword as their weapon. Adventurer is your more dexterous class, being a dual-pistol gunslinger or a rifle wielding sniper. Scholar is your mage class that uses a wand and spell book or a staff. Under class you choose your gender, and under that your face style out of seven selections and skin color out of six selections. Face selections choose facial expression and eye color. After your face and skin you choose your hair style from the ten options they give you and your hair color out of the eighteen hair colors.

Now you've made your character and you're ready for the tutorial, which is optional. The tutorial teaches you the basic movements in the game, and gives you a necklace and some potions after completion, but isn't all that necessary since no experience is given. 

You can move by point and click or with the w.a.s.d. keys. Q is your basic attack and auto target, since you need to target a monster in order to attack. The game starts you off with the "1" hotkey as the basic attack, but can be replaced with an actual skill, which are bought when visiting your corresponding class tutor. Portals in towns lead you to either the fields, a small map with ever-spawning monsters, or dungeon select. Each dungeon is listed by level for easier navigation, since the dungeons are mixed about on the to follow their terrain type.

The game is still working out features and updating often. Every week, they're increasing the level cap by five levels, making the cap currently 35, since they had started doing this last week. Other than dungeons and leveling, there's crafting and fishing. Guilds are always recruiting, and people can join parties during dungeons, if the party is set to allow it.

I'm sure I've said as much as I could about this game as is. It's possible I may have missed some details, but I've given the general idea of the game. If you want to know more about Hero of the Obelisk or want to download the game. Go to the link below, make and account and have fun. 

Those familiar with Terraria would surely love the space exploration game Starbound. Although the game is in beta, it shows remarkable promise as a genre classic. 

You start the game on a small ship (upgrades not available yet) above a low level planet. When you bean down, you find that the planet is (or isn't) inhabited by one of the game's races, who trade and interact with you. You must gather resources to satisfy a growing number of quests, which lead you exploring other planets in the universe, of which there are more than 3 QUADRILLION. That's 3,000,000,000,000,000+ Planets that you could potentially explore searching for loot. 

Being in beta, the amount of available content is rather low, but there are weekly updates (at least), during which new content is added, and old content is made more playable. I have logged over 15 hours of gameplay myself, and my friends and I have beaten all 3 available bosses. 

Yes, I know having 15 pictures for every post ins't necessary bUT IT IS A RIGHT I AM GOING TO EXERCISE BECAUSE REASONS. 

On a serious note though, I'm going to write a (probably biased) review on the Xbox one and the PS4, and kind of my history with the two overall. (Just so everyone knows, I'm Play Station 4 lyfe.)

First off, Play Station has been good to be. The PS2 was my first gaming console EVER, and so I kind of feel married to the company. I mean, the PS2 was released in 2000-- that's almost 14 years ago, kids. That's a long time.  And I know I like Play Station better because I have dabbled with the Xbox 360 (my dad's console of choice. traitor.)  

Xbox 360 came out in 2005. I had been gaming with my PS2 for a solid 5 years at this point, so I was way beyond the possibility of being swayed by "the next big thing." I was well versed in the ways of the Station, and wasn't about to switch over for some over-priced thing that could do the same thing my PS2 could.

(That was my thought process at the time, of course. I realize now that 5 years is a LONG time in the electronic world, and that the 360 had the Play Station beat in a few areas.)

And I hated the name of it. Xbox 360? Like is iT A SQUARE AND A CIRCLE? I'm sure there's a law of physics or geometry or commerce that says a shape can't be both. But whatever, I was young and stupid. I were basing my biases off of stupid reasons. Now at least my reasons are legitimate.

But I also had a hard time with all those buttons man. The Xbox controller is definitely more complex than the Play Station's controller, and that alone was intimidating to me. So I stuck with my bae, happy as could be.

I really only got into the Xbox when Black Ops came out (judge me for selling out). And, having played Black Ops on both the Xbox and the PS3, I have to say, character control does feel more natural with the Xbox controller.

However, one game is not enough to convince me to betray my only love. (And, just want to throw this out there, xbox sold a million units in 14 countries and play station sold a million units in north america alone bye.)

So lets get into now. PS4 and Xbox One. First off, THAT TACO BELL THO. Good choice of sponsors, Play Station. If Xbox had gotten to TB first, I would (regrettably) have to give them props. I love some Bell, and I'm thrilled that Play Station managed to team up with the 73% of my food source.

As for the specs, they seem to share a few things like the Blu-ray player, CPU and hard drive space. Despite the RAMs both being 8GB, the PS4 will run faster because it utilizes the GDDR5 (5 standing for 5x the data rate) whereas the Xbox One is using the DDR3 (which is the highest it goes)

Also, the PS4 will be faster becasue it will have more memory available. The PS4's OS will only use about 1BG, whereas the Xbox One's will use about 3GB. 

That was all pretty techy for me, and I'm not sure I said it all correctly, actually all I did was quote a forum and link to it. So what I got out of it was: the PS4 will process things 5 times faster than the X1, and has an extra processing component (the G, for graphics, although this forum says it doesn't really change anything) that the X1 doesn't.

(And yes I know I linked to the same forum 3 times.)

Motion control is not included in the PS4, but honestly, I don't really see motion control being that much of a perk anyway. The Xbox Kinect doesn't really seem to get any attention at all. I didn't even know it was Xbox's, to be honest. I remembered hearing about "you being the controller," but I thought it was originally for Wii. Xbox Kinect just seems to slip my mind, so it's okay with me if PS doesn't have a motion control camera. 

Another feature that seems ridiculously annoying is the web check-in. I can go days without touching my console. When I do turn it on, I don't want to be locked out completely because it hasn't been coddled in a few hours. Rumors are, this idea is being trashed because people are so against it.

I put two different links there about the same thing. As the second link states, Play Station jumped right in and decided that the online check-ins weren't even an issue. Also, game sharing is something Play Station is really pushing, as Xbox was planning on making game sharing and reselling impossible. 

Guys, seriously, watch that game sharing link. Its the shortest video ever and you'll love it. I promise.

I could keep going, but this is almost 1000 words and I don't think anybody is going to get this far anyway (like/reblog if you did) (kidding) (not kidding).

I'm going to try my hand at discussing the newest installment of the Legend of Zelda series, "A Link Between Worlds." I've only ever played "Ocarina of Time," and I played a very little section, so I'll be doing a lot of referencing and citing. 

First off, I'd like to point out that "A Link Between Worlds" is the SEVENTEENTH Zelda game. I had no idea there were that many already. (Granted, they started the franchise in 1986, but still.)

This new game is set in the same time and world as "A Link to the Past," as "A Link Between Worlds" is its sequel. The main feature in this game is Link's ability to become part of the walls when there is no flooring and (of course) his ability to jump from one world to the next (otherwise that would be a very misleading title). Link can now enter Lorule through cracks in the wall. 

Thy also put a lot of stress on the 2D vs 3D thing. They're pushing for the "Link to the Past" feel with the ability to go flat and the setting (2D), while updating the graphics (3D) and making the whole experience more detailed and such. An overhead camera view adds more depth to the game, which makes Link easier to control on platforms and near cliffs and other precarious locations. 

And you can rent weapons from a shop to make dungeon travel easier? (That change is a bit beyond my knowledge of the game, but I'm sure its hella exciting for regular players.) Apparently, according to my Zelda-aficionado friend (Nick), it opens the game up so you don't have to go in one specific order of events. My dumbed down version: "It gives you more of a free roam feel."

You can also enable a feature called "StreetPass" that allows other players to appear as "Shadow Links" and then you can fight 'em wherever they show up. (Very "You wanna go punk????? You wanna take this outside????!!!") 

Finally, the systems its available for-- actually I should just say system. It's available only for Nintendo 3DS. Physical game or online downloads are both available. 

One of the websites I cited earlier has listed it within the top 10 Legend of Zelda games; and from what I've seen so far, it's getting a lot of good reviews. The game is said to have appeal because it employees all the classic features of past games, but puts a new spin on the graphics, story line and game play, so that it feels like a brand new experience. (instead of the same thing a seventeenth time.)

I'm looking forward to hearing some personal reviews, as I have a bunch of friends who are really into the series. Online reviews will only get you so far. (It's the internet. Nobody knows if you're a dog telling the truth.)

My good friend Nick (I cited him twice I swear he's real) confirms that it is, indeed, awesome (actual word "amazing") and says that it's different from past games, but is familiar enough to make him feel nostalgic for "Link to the Past." So, to my one friend (Adrian) who said that the series was getting a bit "stale" (STALE!) lets see what you have to say to that! (Kidding. I make the joke.) 

Happy gaming xx

When I first saw the announcement for Pokemon X and Y, I was naturally excited that the series that got me into gaming was expanding once again. Seeing that it intended to use the full capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS (including the gyroscope - but I won't tell you for what) was exciting to me. While I don't use the 3D feature all that often, the graphics abilities of the 3DS were one of the main reasons that I purchased it.

Pokemon X & Y redefined the series in numerous ways, including but not limited to: 

Making it easier for new players to learn the series, without ruining the fun for veterans

Using the capabilities of the 3DS to FINALLY have "full action" battle scenes

8-Directional movement with the 3DS control stick

Easier Wi-Fi and Internet trading

Many ways to catch and train Pokemon not seen before

For new players, embarking on a journey in the Pokemon world could seem a daunting task. Training each Pokemon to its full potential can be time consuming, so Game Freak, the makers of Pokemon games, decided that an Experience Share would be given to the player after obtaining the first Gym badge. This EXP Share gives experience to all of your party Pokemon, whether they fought or not. While older players consider this a crutch, they have to appreciate the ease with which new players can learn the ropes, without having to worry about grinding.

As far as battle scenes go, I have a simple comparison.

OR

The correct answer is: the bottom picture is beautiful.

Pokemon was, and is still, a triumph of video gaming; an endlessly replayable adventure about overcoming challenges thanks to your specially crafted team of well-trained Pokemon, and your journey to unseat the Champion of the Elite Four and become a Pokemon Master. But what is it about this that sets the game apart from say, Dragon Warrior, or another game where you can tame monsters and have them fight for you?

The answer is quite simple actually. People of all ages can relate to Pokemon.

For those not familiar with the basics of Pokemon (although I can’t imagine there are many of you), young children in the world of Pokemon get their license to be a Pokemon trainer when they become 10 years old. They receive a Pokemon to start them off on their journey, and they are let out into the world to adventure and discover the many different types of Pokemon in the world.

Much like awaiting a letter from Hogwarts as in Harry Potter, I don’t think that I only speak for myself when I say that I privately wished, hoped, begged that Pokemon were real, and that my local Pokemon Professor was going to call me up on my 10th birthday and offer to give me a Pokemon of my very own. Even now, at 22, I still wish that Pokemon was a thing, that the world was as interesting and full of wonder as in the games, and that I too could journey the world with my handpicked team of Pokemon friends and truly be free.

The way that the game appeals to the wonder of people is one of the main reasons that it has maintained its popularity over the 17 years that it has been in America, and even longer in Japan. I have always been at the store as close as I could get to launch day to purchase the newest Pokemon, because I knew that there would be a new region full of interesting people, places and Pokemon to discover and learn about.

Pokemon, however, is not the only video game I play. Sure, I started out with just that one game, but the wonder and interest in my mind blossomed exponentially, and I have been exposed to many games throughout my life. There have been games about dragons, castles, car chases, theft, magic, and even the military, but they all have one thing is common: they tell a story.

I think that is the main thing that appealed to me as a young boy, that everything in the world had a story. Recently, I have played Call of Duty games primarily for the single-player campaign, and I am a huge fan of Role Playing Games (RPGs). I am a story driven gamer, and Pokemon is largely to thank for that. It is also one of the reasons that I became a writer, so that I could share my story with others.

(Not a picture of my face :D)

Naturally my initial reaction to the Sims 4 rumor was, "What could they possibly do that they haven't already?" Granted this was my reaction when I herd Sims 3 was coming out, but that's besides the point. Not only is the Sims 4 release true, but there are a lot of changes coming our way. (Gamers, prepare yourselves.) 

The first, and most promoted change has got to be the installment of emotions. Instead of fulfilling your Sim's wants, you cater to their emotional desires (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/25/the-sims-4-goes-for-emotional-depth).

Moodlets have been transitioned into moods; so instead of your Sim feeling "Angry" for a few hours, and then the moodlet disappearing, your Sim can be "Furious," then "Angry" then "Cranky." Also, the mood of your Sim affects what kind of interactions they can perform. Which sounds awesome to me, because I have noticed that Sims all have one or two reactions preset for every situation in the game. Its become a bit repetitive. 

Also, I remember reading about Romance and Relationship bars being separated, which makes casual dating a LOT easier. You can now exercise Romantic interactions with more than one Sim at a time and NOT get a cheater reputation (http://www.hypable.com/2013/09/20/the-sims-4-screenshots-skills/).

My favorite projected change, though, is the ELIMINATION OF PATH FINDING. UGH I'm too excited. Sims will finally stop standing in one place for a day because they can't find a way around an obstacle, like a plant or another Sim. (http://www.hypable.com/2013/09/20/the-sims-4-screenshots-skills/). Sims are going to be able to move more freely and ugh I'm so happy. 

Finally, I'm going to mention quickly the creating process, for both Sims and houses, has been dramatically changed. We'll still be clicking and dragging to change parts of our Sims, but now we're clicking the body part itself, instead of a little lever. You can even edit the way they move. You can actually choose how they walk. (Wow. Hella control.) Also, building houses is easier, because you just (again) click and drag whatever you're working. Awesome new building feature: you can pick up and move an entire room. And the furniture goes with it. Very nice. 

I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPPjU8OARg and it is better than any teaser trailer I've ever seen, despite the narration. 

Ugh, Very change. Such anticipate. I apologize for being this excited, but woah man I'm ready.

Release date has been pushed back from spring 2014 to autumn 2014 (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-10-22-the-sims-4-delayed-until-autumn-2014).  (Boo, EA.) But if you pre-order, you get a free Limited Edition upgrade, which is kind of nice, I guess. If you accept that kind of bribery. (Which I do.)

Hey, I'm Adrian and I'm gonna be writing about video games. Personal Game Reviews and comments, Games I'm currently playing, and Games I've looked into is what I'll be targeting.

Hi my name is Christine and I’m here to talk to you about video games.