X-Men Arcade

Whether you're new to the arcade scene or are a veteran of the cabinet gaming world you've likely heard of the X-Men Arcade game.  It's one of those few that everyone has heard about, but not everyone has played due to the limited quantities of the cabinet and it's age.  X-Men ranks up there with the best beat 'em up arcades out there including The Simpsons and Turtles in Time.  So when it was ported to the Xbox Live Arcade, I jumped at the chance to own this title.



What a beast.

 I remember back in the day playing this game and just marveling at the fact that it had such a large screen and six players could be on it at the same time.  Nowadays that's not so impressive, which means I'm no longer awe-struck simply by the game's look and feel, but since the core mechanics are still here in full force the game still has that arcade edge to it that you just can't get out of console titles.  The objective is to rescue the professor by moving right and beating the living shit out of everything that's in your way.  Your main enemy is Sentinels, but along the way you meet lizard men, man-eating plants, and other strange-looking robots.  Of course there's also a cast of bosses plucked right from Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants.

The bosses can be a bit of a problem; they're either too easy or too powerful based upon your difficulty choice, there seems to be no middle ground.  Also, the fact that your mutant powers take away your life after you use up your items is another annoyance, especially when you're down to the wire fighting the Blob, but it's a trademark of the beat 'em up so I don't have much of a problem with the special attacks. 

The levels are really diverse and nicely detailed with Sentinels bursting through the walls at random intervals.  On the Xbox Live version, the game is really sharp and everything looks great on a graphical level, but I'm disappointed that the only extras included were the Japanese version of the game and difficulties.  Why were there no extra costumes or new characters?

Regardless of X-Men's lack of special features and the issues that I've experienced with the difficulty, I still love to play this with a group of friends.  In my opinion, this is a must-buy on the Xbox Live Arcade, especially at the low price.  800 Microsoft Points is nothing to hear Magneto tell you to, "Welcome to die!"

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Besides my PS Vita, the latest and greatest game that I've been playing is Kingdoms of Amalur.  When I first read about this title I imagined that it would be just another Skryim knock-off and not worth my time.  I was wrong.

Boggart

I later learned that the character design was done by the great Todd Macfarlane, creator of Spawn.  That alone was enough to draw me to the game, but the story was also written by my favorite author, RA Salvatore.  After I knew both of those facts, I was freaking sold.  Before I knew it I was immersed in a brand new fantasy world with fantastic creatures and new exciting visuals.

No longer was I limited to realistic scenery like in Skyrim, the design leans more towards WoW and has a semi-cartoon feel to it.  Many point that out as a flaw, but I call it blessing.  We have too many games that are looking towards real-life as inspiration.  I say screw it and go for the wackiest shit you can come up with; we play video games to escape, how can we escape if we create our world within the game?

Comparing the game to the current RPG king, Elder Scrolls V, is difficult but can be done...and overall Skyrim is definitely a more well-designed game as far as the mechanics are concerned.  KoA has less customization for your character and the combat trees are pretty limited.  Sure there are three different ones to work with and you can combine any of the skills you want, but all of them are pretty lackluster after you beat the game a few times.  The crafting is sub-par, but can be fun and makes for some easy achievements.

My number one complaint with the game is that it all comes down to button mashing.  Now I love button mashing as much as the next person, but that's all the fights amount to if you're not on the hardest difficulty; and there it's all button mashing save for the occasional potion drink.  I found myself beating the living crap out of every single monster every time I saw one.  I couldn't walk 30 feet before I had to fight the next stupid wolf or sprite, and the battles were never particularly rewarding.  The good loot was very scarce.



Niskaru

 Even though I'm harping on the game quite a bit, I still enjoy playing it.  I'm on my third run now and the environments still feel fresh.  Along with a story that I can really get into, the character and environment design gives a really good game experience.  No longer are you fighting Draugr or skeletons or goblins for the 700th time.  Instead, you're given a chance to look at some really crazy creatures like the Niskaru or simplistic, yet fanciful creatures like the Boggarts.  This is what this game all comes down to for me: a good, fantastic world.  I'll take that over a snowy mountain any day.

A Next Gen Handheld for Spring

So here I am once again, attempting to get back into a schedule of posting.  I don't think I'll set such ambitious goals as I did before, but instead I'll free form it;  pposting when I want to rather than when I think I should.  In any case, it's going to be good to get back to writing and forcing my opinions onto the interwebs.

For Christmas, I asked for a PSP.  Lo and behold, I got a PSP and a bunch of games, including my favorite game ever: Final Fantasy Tactics.  After putting about 100+ hours into FFT and over 50 some into the collection of other games that I gathered I realized that my PSP was kind of a terrible choice since the PSVita was just around the corner.  Come February I was staunchly against getting one as the articles piled up praising it's hardware and good-looking launch library.  I started reading the news feeds and buffing up on PSVita until my brain had re-wried itself into thinking that it was the most amazing device ever created...ever.

Of course at this point I was stuck with my PSP.  Flash forward to today, a few months later, and I'm sitting here with a PSVita while my PSP is in some god-forsaken pile in the back of Gamestop.  Today I just want to analyze the PSVita on an overview level, but as I post more I'll get into the games.

The system itself is designed to reflect the PSP, the thing looks pretty much exactly the same.  Sure the screen is better on the PSVita, but the layout is all the same.  Of course, that's not what draws people to the device and is mainly to create some consistency between the once users of the PSP and the now users of the PSVita.  One thing that is nice about the new design is the absence of the UMD drive.  That thing was far too sensitive.  Now I can gingerly set my PSVita down on a table without threatening it's vital innards.

Obviously the main gimmick with the Vita is the dual touch screens.  While this may seem like it's complete overkill, it's only because it really is.  Okay, that's a bit harsh, but it really doesn't come in handy all that often; many of the launch games could be played without the functionality, and it seems that you oftentimes hit the back touch pad when you're not meaning to.  It's annoying, but it does create some neat effects especially when combined with the motion control.  One that really caught my interest, for whatever reason, is picking up the tee in Hot Shots Golf.  What you have to do is pinch the system like you were picking up the tee and move the character to the right or left to move where you're shooting from.  It's not vital, but it's a neat way to utilize the resources that the Vita has to offer.  The responsiveness of both screens is excellent, and the front screen is used more often than the back.  Although it seems pretty gimmicky, the touch screen idea for the PSVita was done really well and adds a new level to your games.

Besides the touch screens, there are also two more new additions to the Vita from the PSP.  Two cameras allow for pictures and video to be taken, shared, and stored.  One of the cameras is on the back, while the other is on the front.  Neither camera should replace your actual digital camera, but they can be useful additions when you're playing a game like Little Deviants.  For one of the mini games there you point the Vita in whatever direction and shoot at enemies.  Wherever the device is facing is being captured by the camera so that your backdrop is whatever you want it to be rather than being game-defined.  The system really could have gone without these two cameras, but they can be a fun addition.

So with the absence of a UMD drive, we're left with tiny little carts to use as games.  First off, I'm in shock that Sony is actually using a cartridge as opposed to some disc technology.  Second, holy hell are these things small!  Sony sells some cases for them, but even then I can see little kids losing them left and right.  Ditto for the memory cards.  Also, don't lose anything for the system...Sony's using proprietary equipment for everything and it's mother.  No third party bullshit here; Mad Catz will just have to churn that garbage out for the 3DS.

I may have forgotten to put in some details here, like the HD resolution and the PS Store, but those aren't what make this a unique system...and that's just what it is: unique.  What other system can you name that has two touch screens, two cameras, and motion control?  Even though all of it could be chalked up to gimmicks, because who really needs anything other than a controller and a screen in the first place, but all of those elements make for the most unique and gaming experience that I've had on a handheld in many years.  Let's just hope that the system's uniqueness doesn't take it down the path of the Virtual Boy.

Top Ten Skyrim Dislikes

As I said they would be, here are my top ten dislikes from Skyrim:

10) Graphical glitches in this game are few and far between, but they still happen.  The one that amuses me the most is when you mine.  When you activate a vein of ore, you just kind of slide into position to mine it no matter what's in your way.  I slid through mushrooms and even the floor to mine some iron ore.  Now that's dedication.

9) Dual-wielding is a bit awkward, and I know I mentioned it as something that I love, but there are parts that I don't like.  The power attacks are cumbersome and make you flail all over the place while the normal attacks are slow at first.  Of course you can increase the speed with a perk, but that's a different story altogether.

8) Giants; those fuckers are huge!  I don't mind big enemies, but the giants are just so damn difficult no matter what setting you're on.  The attacks shake your screen and cause confusion as well as a hell of a lot of damage.  Add that in with a herd of mammoths and you are just fucked.

7) The transportation in the game is limited and walking everywhere is just a pain in the ass.  Even when you get the Dark Brotherhood horse or buy your own at a stables, the only thing it's really good for is fighting!  I swear that the horses run out of stamina faster than you and run only slightly faster than you.  So when you're going to a location that you haven't discovered yet, have fun walking your ass there.

6) Food is a huge waste of time.  Sure it makes the game more realistic, and it's kind of fun making grilled salmon, but it's fucking worthless.  It's just dead weight in your pack.  Potions weigh less and pack a greater punch.  Now if food crafting was a skill and the food gave you some properties like potions, then it would be worth it.

5) There are so many Draugr and it gets boring fighting them.  I mean really, I know that they're a big part of Skyrim culture and tradition, but why the hell do I fight forty of them in basically every dungeon?  Give me some more variety.  Also, stop allowing them to Shout weapons out of my hands!  I lost some pretty damn good weapons that way.

4) I find that the weapon skill trees are disappointing.  I know that there's not much you can do with the weapon perks, but both the two-handed and one-handed trees are the same and offer very little in the way of variety.  You can either choose to continue to increase damage or level up your power attacks.  Lame.

3) The shopkeepers have absolutely no money.  It's ridiculous!  I can't unload even one dungeon's worth of items at three different shops that all buy different things!  I can hardly sell the potions that I make while leveling up my alchemy skill that I don't want.  There are perks to increase the money that the shops have, but why can't their funds scale with your level?

2) I was really hoping that now that we're in Skyrim, we'd see more of a variety of armor and weapon types, but I'm disappointed here again. We really only see the same ones that we've seen before with the addition of Ancient Nord, Skyforge Steel, and a few others, but really they're just palette swapped with other types in the game.

1) My number one complaint with this game is the goddamn dragons.  That's right, I really don't like how they are unscripted.  I could be just running along, minding my own business while killing some bandits, and a fucking dragon pops up and makes me sit there shooting at it until it lands and then I have to kill it.  This happens way too frequently to be fun and until you beat the main questline, you don't have a way to get the damn things out of the sky, you just need to wait until they land, if they ever do.  It's too bad that my main problem with the game had to be the major enemies, but what can you do?

All in all, I love Skyrim and even if I get bombarded with dragons every 15 minutes, I'm still going to keep playing.

Skyrim

During my time away from this blog, I've been playing a metric shit ton of Skyrim.  I'd love to do some kind of comprehensive review of the thing, but it's just too huge for me to compile at this point in time.  This is my busy time at work and I tend to have less time/want to write when I get home from the office.  In any case, in lieu of a giant review, I'm going to do a top 10 of things that I love and things that I dislike about Skyrim.

Also, before I get started, if you don't want any spoilers, don't read ahead, just look away.

Things I love about Skyrim

10) Acrobatics is gone.  I hated that garbage skill from the last few games.  It's just a worthless waste of stamina.  Now when you jump, you don't waste any energy whatsoever.  Granted this was a skill that I used to pick just to be able to level up by hopping all about and I have now lost that ability, but I've gained a sense of dignity.  No more hopping for levels for me.

9) Enchanting is much easier; I mean MUCH easier.  Instead of having to clear an Oblivion Gate just to get a damn stone for enchanting, you can just disenchant the garbage equipment that you get and use those same enchantments on your new weapons.  The level of your enchanting skill, the perks you've chosen for that skill tree, and the level of the soul in your soul gem are all factors that determine the power of the enchantment.  So much more user-friendly.

8) The third-person view is much improved.  Okay, this one is pretty minor, but it made this position because it's just that damn important to me to be able to see my character move fluidly when in 3rd person.  I don't want to see Gastalf, my dual-spell wizard, running like a damn robot.  I want to see him move like a human being...or Argonian, whatever.

7) Dual-wielding, 'nuf said.  There's a love and dislike factor here for me, which is why it's so low.  The fighting is a little awkward if you use two weapons, but spell and sword is still pretty great.  What I'd like to see are combination attacks with what you have in your two hands further than just having more powerful spells when you do dual-casting.  I want to shoot some fire on my sword, stab a Skeever, and then loot Charred Skeever Hide after it's dead, not just a Skeever Tail and a gold.  (How the hell did it get a gold in the first place?)

6) Bethesda kept the story consistent.  We aren't seeing the same old garbage rehashed though, we're seeing a brand new game with ties to the older games.  Everywhere you see references back to Morrowind and Oblivion.  Each time I see one I have a nostalgic memory of game times gone by.

5) Spell Tomes are much easier to use than the clunky magic system from Oblivion.  Gone are the days where you have to find someone to train with to get spells.  Now you just find Spell Tomes, or buy them, everywhere.  There are a limited number of spells, but with access to all of them via these Tomes, the spell system is much better overall.

4) Blacksmithing is a great way to get new weapons for cheap and level up.  I love being able to go mining in a creature-infested mine to get ore of all types to make my own shit.  Armor, Jewelry, and Weapons are all craftable and improvable in Skyrim and combining the Blacksmithing skill with Enchanting is just one of the ways that your character is able to command their entire environment.

3) Followers are so much better than in Oblivion.  They react to what weapon you have and what weapon the enemy has as well as what distance you are at.  For instance, Aela the Huntress will shoot her bow until the close range game starts and then whip out a shield and sword.  What's most impressive is that I can command her to move to a different location or activate a lever while I fight or activate some other part of a dungeon by a simple command.  I just remember that my old followers in Oblivion would get demolished instantly, while here in Skyrim, they seem to be able to think and strategize.

2) The leveling system has been much improved upon since Oblivion.  Rather than choosing your major and minor skills and leveling up by increasing the former, you now level everything equally.  Sure you start with some skills that are higher than others based upon your race, but that's alright because each skill increase brings you closer to that level 50.  Each increase isn't equal though, as those skills that are lower and higher go up with varying speeds and add to the overall level differently, so to get to level 50 you need to grind hard and vary your skill base.

1) My number one love with Skyrim has to be the environment.  Everything just fits.  The trees you see, the plants, the mountains, the creatures, everything just feels like it belongs in Skyrim.  When I see an elk run by me in the game it feels like I just saw one while on some hike in the Rockies.  Not that I know if there are elk in the Rockies, but that it feels like you are in Skyrim.  It feels like you are the character you created and are going on an adventure to save the land from the dragons.  That's what I'm looking for in an RPG, I want to feel like I am the character, that I'm invested in Skyrim's people and care about saving them.  This is why Skyrim is fantastic.

Tune in tomorrow when I go through my top ten dislikes.  Yeah, not hates, there's nothing I hate about the game yet.  Also, these two posts are kind of a diversion while I finish up my first TV series review.  I'll give you a hint on what show it's on:  Adult Swim presents a solar-powered superhero turned lawyer.  That may have been too much of a hint...