Oh shit son!

Looking like I have to go in for surgery tomorrow because of some congenital heart thing (wtf?), anyway now I feel even more silly for writing reviews then never ending up posting them :P

So... heres my last comic and review for awhile. If I live through this I'll never procrastinate again, lol.

Dragon Age 2

This is going to be a short review (feels right not giving it a full review, because of the state it was released in).

How did Bioware make the graphics for this game worse then ME2, a game that came out almost a year before DA2? Separate production teams. This one needs to be purged like a plague.

Every feature, map, texture, and aspect of DA:2 just screams at the top of its lungs, NOONE TOOK ANY TIME WITH THIS, HAVE FUN WITH A 18 MONTH RUSHJOB!

Heres a good example of what I'm talking about:

DA:O version of a trip to the dark roads: 6 hours of content with HUGE maps/areas and a half a dozen sidequests (all of them pretty interesting, some pretty fun) with a great storyline underneath it.

DA2 version of a trip to the dark roads: Under 1 hour of content with a map that is used twice more in the later game, 1 sidequest that you complete no matter what you say or do, and a average storyline.

Every single feature of the game has LESS to it, never more. 

Skill system? GONE.

Attributes? Only the main attribute for your class + constitution matter, skip the rest because they are useless.

They tried to fool grafics cat with a high res texture pack, but a few shiny armor retexturings won't hide the horrible face textures or randomly horrible wall and floor textures.

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon age 2.

Maybe he had a seizure? Every face they tried to import from Origins looks worse, no exceptions.

I could literally talk for hours about the corners that were cut on this game. The only redeeming quality I saw was the pretty good storyline, and the combat. Unfortunately the combat was riddled with so many flaws that it hurts my head to think about it.

Enemies come in waves out of thin air and always scale to your level (along with all ingame equipment) making certain that whenever the player levels up he becomes weaker compared to all enemies, along with his armor and weapons becoming weaker as well. This leads to the character actually being penalized for exploring and achieving higher levels! 

Maybe it was somewhat unrealistic to hope for a game at the quality and level of Dragon Age: Origins, being that  this title was made in a little under a third of the time, but in that case they shouldn't have charged 60$ and hyped it like it was the next coming of Jebus.  

FINAL VERDICT: SKIP IT.

Only bother picking up this title if you loved the first one and enjoy the RPG genre, even then I don't recommend buying till all the DLC is in and the price drops.

Oh, and heres a comic for no reason. Enjoy!

FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS

Review:

This iteration is partially an attempt to be a return to the ‘roots’ of the fallout gameworld, which is sort of hard to do considering they used the same engine/models/physics etc. etc. etc.

…but with that said the folks at Obsidian did do a pretty decent job of it, so on to the review.

The opening sequence is brilliant, and ends with you being patched up by one of the local docs, who leads you in setting your SPECIAL stats and perks.  Starting perks are, this time, much less generic to the larger pool and all have significant drawbacks as well as benefits. They even included a Bizzaro World perk for replays, which I very much enjoyed. The extras aren’t as common as you may expect, but still are enough to make re-exploring quite enjoyable.

Remember this little fella from the trailer? He makes an appearance again in the game, and you can even bring him along for the ride... provided you have the skills to do so. 

The first few things you will notice are that the narrative is excellent, and so is the voice acting. Story elements placed in your path don’t seem forced, so finding things feels more like a discovery and less like being led around by the nose.

The voice actors (some you may recognize) are all very good, and after playing through 3 times I can’t remember even one performance that took me out of the story with an ‘ugh’ moment. From the cliché cowboy sounding robots to the detached intellectual Mr. House, I was fairly impressed.

Cowboy robots? Check.

If you played the first game much will be familiar, but the sticklers will be pleasantly surprised this time around. The minor glitches of the first game, like missing in VATS even if it was 100% if the enemy closed to point blank range while in the mode, seem to be mostly resolved. Also you’ll notice slight improvements throughout. One such improvement is greater VATS control of melee and unarmed fighting. Executing an upper cut and making an opponent’s heads snap back, chin pointing at the ceiling, and then watching him fall backwards in that position was quite satisfying no matter how many times I did it :D

One of the many LoL moments of violence. If you're going to hit someone in the face with a golf club, at least keep proper form.

Returned are the old ‘implants’ administered by the ancient and shady autodocs, as long as you have the endurance to handle it. This makes endurance a must on all character builds, along with an increased role of luck in the game world… this is Vegas after all ;)

There are many games of chance to play in New Vegas, all of which rely on luck to determine the odds. For this reason, starting at around 7 luck is best and even upping it to 8 as the first perk achieved. With the right strategies one can come out of a trip to the strip with around 50,000-100,000 caps in the pockets, or be completely broke… as the difference in chances are quite drastic if points are taken away from luck in character creation. Most of the caps you earn on the strip will go towards your autodoc procedures to make yourself th3 uberz.

Mmm heavy ranger armor... Looks so good it makes you wanna slap yo momma. Unfortunately if you put on a faction's armor you get all their reputation baggage along with it. 

The storyline, while good, is quite short (only around 10-20 hours depending on what path you take). Most of the game’s content can be completely skipped in favor of following the breadcrumb trail. Even though most RPG gamers, who have the habit of thinking “OMG A SHACK I WONDER WHATS IN IT!?! :D :D :D” will love every minute of it, it was still odd to talk about the game with people and have them stare blankly if I mentioned the supermutant town, or one of the numerous vaults, or nooks and crannies of the game.

Still, the replay value is extremely high, and if all the separate storylines were to be added up (even with the major overlaps) it is still more than enough to fill the stomachs of any would-be gamer.

These suckers pack a punch, even though it looks like you should just be able to push them over and laugh. 

Graphics were much to be expected considering it uses the same engine as the previous game. Yet, some improvements were made, the most recognizable being that new animations were added, both for human NPCs and the critters of the wasteland. The atmosphere of this iteration is also a bit different, more of a desert and less of a radioactive wasteland.

All in all this in an excellent game, well-worth a purchase, whose only major flaw that I saw was that it leaves you wanting more. Would that all games I played had that flaw :D

Gameplay: 8/10 (crashes every once and awhile on some systems)

Graphics: 8/10

Story: 8.5/10 (short)

Sound: 9/10

Fun: 9.5/10

Final Score: 9.1 Go buy it!

If you have any questions about the game, quests, and strategies don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments  section.

I'm back! :D

After a long hiatus I'm back with plenty of new content! :D

Anxious to get back in the game and see what everyones been up to since I've been gone. Later today I'll post the Fallout: New Vegas review, and I'm also hanging on to about a dozen previews/reviews that I've written in the meantime so expect new goodies every other day or so.

Until then, enjoy a stoner comic.

Moving today!

Damn, moving again. Looks like the house I rented had one problem, it was in foreclosure... yeah. Would have been nice to point out that little fact up front, oh well.

I'll be back after I get internet up again, with a Fallout: New Vegas review :D (although in a smaller apartment...)

Haha! Fail!

Oh gezz.... I had read that Fable 3 was coming out Oct. 29th, imagine my surprise when my copy came in the mail today O.o At least I decided to not post the rest my 'preview' till today (I thought a day before release) or I really would have felt silly :P

Oh well, enjoy this comic in the meantime.

Fable 3: Preview

 

Part 1: The Fable series.

Sorry for the extended absence, just needed a few zero days to balance things out. Back to business! :D

First off, I decided to go ahead and skip the Fallout: New Vegas preview since I’m already balls deep in playing it, and just focus on the Fable 3 preview.

(I’ll write a full review of Fallout: New Vegas after my first playthrough, hopefully sometime next week).

                            Lets do this shit.

The Fable series:

Anyone heard of Peter Molyneux? Lionhead? They have developed quite the reputation over the last 5 years for some great standout leaps forward in game design. For example, the game Black&White put the player in the position of God, letting the player decide what kind of deity he or she would like to be. Sandbox at its finest you might say.

For Fable they decided to go in an interactivity direction. In standard RPG format you take control of a child (in both 1 and 2) who, through tragic events, is thrust into a world of swords and sorcery. What is not standard fair is the way the player can control what path the character takes through these stories.

Want to kill a bunch of villagers? Do it. Want to randomly give gold to the poor? Go ahead! The games (more so with the second iteration) had a marvelous way of altering the world around you to suit your playstyle.

The more standout ways would be: the physical appearance of your character (more and more evil and dastardly looking or more and more angelic), the way others reacted to you (was that the guy who killed everyone in Oakvale? Run away!), and (in the second game) the look of the game world itself.

Here we can see some aging effects, from 10 to 65. Amusingly enough you are the only one in the games that ages, a small oversight :P

There were some drawbacks unfortunately, mostly having to do with difficulty. With one spell you could dominate everything from the beginning to the end of the game, most skilled players probably won’t die once in either one. They were also quite short (both main stories could be completed in only around 10 hours).

**Spoilers if you haven’t played through 1&2**

Fable 1:

A good start to the series, but with some major flaws.

The game starts with some standard storytelling. See jack run, see jack play, see jack’s whole family killed and his world ripped to pieces. Take that jack! Although, there were some good points to the outset. Chiefly, it introduces the player to a few staples of the Fable universe, like aging and good/evil choices.

For instance, I came upon a poor adorable little boy being beaten up by a bully, and naturally I instantly had a dislike of the little tyke (that’s normal right?) So instead of defending the little guy, he got a knuckle sandwich from yours truly. The fact that the game gave an option to do this at all was a pleasant surprise.

I know I know, should have stopped about 100 villagers ago, but its just so fun! Tee hee!

But there comes another pitfall. The beginning gives a false impression that you will be able to make these choices throughout, and although every once and a while you will get a choice between naughty and nice, the game divides these up into ‘good mission, bad mission’ instead of presenting you with a situation and letting you resolve it your own way. You can still run around being generally evil or a saint, but it doesn’t seem like it pans out enough in the mission to mission grind of the game; like having to protect a couple of traders to continue the story forward, even if you would rather kill them.

The storyline itself was rather good, and it had a very satisfying ending (more so if you have the Lost Chapters addon). A lot of family ties, friendships, and people to love or destroy. The player could even get married!   

Silly guards, they just keep comin.

With all that said, in many ways it was actually a trendsetter. Mini games and physical scarring/change over time were done very well in Fable, and with its wide audience you are hard pressed to not find these features in RPGs these days. I’m not saying it was the first, but it did set a standard.

Fable 2:

A lot of improvements, some that really took it up a notch, but unfortunately some of the same flaws. (too short, and combat too easy)

The beginning will feel actually very similar to the first game, aside the graphical tweaks and new combat/interface. This extends all the way to the story, which is the greatest disappointment of this game in my opinion. Basically, the storyline is the same. By the same I mean your family is killed and the whole game is about revenge…. Sigh.

Great characters! Too bad they were paired with a cookie cutter storyline. 

Don’t get me wrong, much of the new parts of the game are great. I enjoyed the combat system (until I got an uberspell, then it was supereasy). It takes place 500 years after the events of the first game, and they give you many little hints and tidbits about the old game within the new Albion. This I always find enjoyable in an RPG, it really adds to immersion.  Finally, the storyline (although very easy to see coming) was done well, with good voice acting and interesting characters.

For features expansion you also get a new little doggy to play with! (awww) The guy follows you everywhere and helps with gameplay elements like finding treasure.

I named mine jerkface, it seemed to like it. 

To their credit Lionhead did really try to make this gameworld better and more interactive. Every decision you make in the game now has consequences on the economy and people. No longer can you walk into a village and kill everyone in sight only to return a few days later consequence free. Now most every action has an impact, including missions.

One early mission in the introduction has you decide between helping the authority figures in the starter town, or the underworld. If you help the underworld the town will later be basically a slum with obvious crime troubles and dirty streets, but if you help the authority in apprehending the criminals the town will be bustling with clean streets, buildings, and more markets.

Expanded are the generic NPC interactions, allowing you to dance in the streets to be liked by the nearby citizens (and to get discounts in their shops) or to be married and have children.

All in all it was (in some ways) a better version of the first game, but the obvious flaws that were not fixed and the papercutter story kept it from being a standout.

So…. the first iterations had much promise, and most of it they delivered. Fable has really made a name for itself.

Continued in Part 2: Fable 3, what we know so far. 

What info would you like to see for Fallout 3: New Vegas?

In the title, put your suggestions in the comment section.

One thing I realized when researching all the info out on Fallout 3: New Vegas is that it has been previewed to DEATH. They have enormous amounts of info out right down to the companions you will be able to take along.

So lemme know any bits you haven't heard about, or what you would like to see.

Until then, a comic: