Ramblings on Fears, Future, and Life

I’ve been wanting to write something to explain who I am, what I do and, most importantly, why I do it for some time now. I haven’t because the answers aren’t pretty, easy to ready, let alone write. Do I really want to create something intimate and personal, then put it on the internet?

I told myself no, that this was too much and no one would care. That, more than anything, held my hand as it would be painful to find out no one really gives a shit. The more I write, though, the more I realize I do this for me. Sure, the post views are nice, but I create for me.

For the first time in my life, I am proud of something that I’ve accomplished. That’s why I never want to stop blogging, or podcasting. That’s why I am going back to school for a journalism degree.

Surface, the new Microsoft Tablet

Once again I’ve scoured the news releases to bring you all of the information I can find, this time about the new Microsoft Tablet, Surface. Announced in Los Angeles this Monday, it’s made a splash in the hardware market, but there’s more speculation than real facts out there.

So what do we know? There will be be two versions of the Surface, consumer and enterprise. The later is for consumers and the former for the workplace and is called the Surface Pro. The consumer version will release first and the Pro version about 3 months later. There were no prices given for either version, but we’re told they will be priced “comparably” to other devices on the market. The Surface could therefore be priced anywhere from $499 to $829 as Apple’s most basic version of the iPad retails for that much, depending on the model. The Surface Pro will run around $1,000 as that’s what ultrabooks typically run for. Unfortunately for Microsoft, most annalists are saying the same thing, “Microsoft will need to significantly undercut the iPad to be competitive.” (Peter Misek, Jason North, and Billy Kim of Jefferies & Company, Inc)

Sidenorna on How to Teach Magic: The Gathering

About a month ago on the podcast I co-host (5wowthings), we had @OriginalOestrus as a guest and discussed Magic: The Gathering (linked here if you want to listen). @thebiggameover wanted to know how magic worked, and we explained to him it is a very difficult game to learn.

If you don’t know, Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game created by Wizard’s of the Coast, the same guys who make the Dungeons and Dragons table top game. A game of Magic represents a battle between planeswalkers, who employ the magical spells, items, and creatures (depicted on individual Magic cards) to defeat their opponents. It has a very organized tournament system from which a community of professional Magic players has developed.

While a lot of people have heard of Magic, not many know how to get into the game. Some who have tried have found the rule set daunting because, let’s face it, there are hundreds of rules to learn and only hard core players know them all. After listening to that episode, Sidenorna, one of our newer listeners, wrote me on a good way to teach someone. So if you know someone who would like to learn, or would like to learn and know someone who plays, direct them here as she has written up a great teacher’s guide.

First Impressions – Tera Online

A few months ago I lost my World of Warcraft, 2v2 Arena partner to Tera Online. The game was amazing! he said. It’s so pretty and the game play is so much fun! he said. It’s another WoW clone I don’t care about! I thought. Well, guess who ate their words last weekend? I’ll give you a hint: It wasn’t him.

Friday night I purchased and downloaded Tera Online, a new MMORPG by En Masse Entertainment that strives to give “true action combat” to players as well as give an active and interactive community. Currently a level 22 Sorcerer, I think they’ve succeeded, though I am tempering my enthusiasm for this game after the last half-successes of Rift and SW:ToR. I cannot give my full backing to Tera Online until I’ve seen the end game content, because an MMORPG is all about the end game content.

Story

The world of Tera Online is torn by war and strife. The Argons attack for no known reason and the armies of all the races have come together to keep them from destroying their world. Unfortunately, this has left the home front vulnerable to old enemies and new threats. Recently, an island has suddenly appeared off the coasts of the two continents, never before seen and holding its own powerful secrets.

Nintendo E3 News – All about the Wii U

The second part of my E3 news coverage is solely about Nintendo. They came out quirky, as always, with a lot of news about their new console. Their second press conference (on the 6th) was completely about the 3DS. To read the news from Sony, EA, Ubisoft, and Microsoft’s press events, check out my other blog And Ubisoft Takes the Prize – E3 News.

Opening with a demo for the new Pikmen 3 for the Wii U, they did their best to push how innovative the new Wii U Gamepad would be. If the system was set up to just use the Gamepad, I wouldn’t be complaining, but after repeated references to not only the Nunchuk but the Pro Controller and the Balance Board, I’m wondering just how many peripherals Nintendo wants their customers to purchase. Is this everything you’ll have to buy to play all of the games on the Wii U?

And how many will you need? Since the system is being catered towards families, owners may need more than one of each and the only controller announced to be packaged with the Wii U is the Gamepad. The lower priced tag system could be concealing a lot of hidden costs.

And Ubisoft Takes the Prize – E3 News

E3 over the last two days has been a flurry of news and information. While it’s not over yet, all of the big press conferences are over. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, EA, and Ubisoft held major press conferences and wowed, or bored, crowds with their presentations. Here’s what I thought stood out during each.

Microsoft came out with a presentation for the next Halo. My opinion is the game will be mediocre now that the old team is no longer developing it, but time will tell how good it really is. They also announced the release date, November 6, so we won’t even have to wait that long.

Next was the announcement of the new Splinter Cell which attempted to demo voice commands via Kinect. It didn’t come off so well. The developer playing the game knew the commands, but it’s going to take some heavy tutorials to get players using them as smoothly as a button press. The guys from Madden came in afterwards, though, and they showed how Kinect voice can really be utilized.

First Impressions: Game of Thrones RPG

Game of Thrones is an action RPG for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 published by Atlus and co-written by George R.R. Martin, the brains behind the books that have spawned all this craziness. My first criticism of this game is: Not as many boobs as advertised. Moving on from my tits fetish (Don’t judge me, you have one too), this game is phenomenal story wise, okay game play wise, but crashes and burns with animation.

See this?

Apparently people hate staring at that guy. The biggest criticism of this game is the animations during the multitude of cut scenes. This head (and the others belonging to people you talk to) doesn’t move much, has one expression (or has an intense expression that doesn’t match the dialogue), and his lips don’t match his words. In other words, it’s Elder Scrolls: Oblivion all over again. But people loved that game! So why do they hate this game?

My opinion is the criticism from this game come from people expecting more action from their action RPG. I can’t blame them for that, nor can I say that the animation isn’t shitty, because the animation is shitty. What I can do is call them immensely silly for expecting anything that has even the loosest ties to the Game of Thrones franchise to not have expansive dialogue, story, and cut scenes. Atlus would have been better off comparing this game to L.A. Noire or Heavy Rain as it’s closer to that style of game play than the Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age.

So far, this game is mostly what I expected: lots of people talking, less so me killing things. I actually cleaned my living room, set up my file cabinet and organized my files all while listening to the fully voice acted dialogue during cut scenes for the first three chapters. All this chatter is broken up by your own conversation selections and combat, but there’s still so much that it’s like listening to T.V. (I don’t watch T.V., I listen to it – stop judging me).

In Before It’s Out – Persona 4: Golden

Inaba — a quiet town in rural Japan. A normal teenager arrives at the station to begin his year-long stay in the countryside, only to be welcomed by the news of a dead TV announcer. Shortly after, another body appears, mysteriously hung from the top of a telephone pole. The cause of death is unknown, with no leads on the suspect… As the peaceful community is thrown into turmoil, the urban youth and his classmates wander into a strange, surreal place covered by a thick fog…

AHH IT’S PERSONA 4 ON THE VITA!!!!!!!111!one!

Alright, now that that’s out of my system, let me tell you about the original game. Overall Metacritic score of 90, several “Editor’s Choice” and “Best Of” awards, Persona 4 was my favorite of the Persona series to date. I spent over 100 hours immersed in the story and combat, destroying demons in the various levels, and collecting/customizing my demons. As with all Atlus games I’ve played, the story is brilliant, engaging and twists about at the end. Updated from Persona 3, creating bonds with the memorable characters had bonuses outside of unlocking the highest tier of demon fusion.

Whimsyshire, or the Not So Cow Level

Diablo fans all know the Cow Level. In I and II, this was a gory, super hard level that was difficult to access, but dropped amazing loot. Diablo III’s secret level, Whimsyshire, is no easier to get into and it’s just as hard to survive, especially with four players. Unfortunately, it isn’t as profitable as the D1 and D2 secret Cow Levels, but it’s far more entertaining to run through. After discussing this place on the 5wowthings podcast, I was very lucky to be pulled into this level by my friend @lazervis and saw the whole craziness for myself.

The Not So Cow Level is full of cute monsters, gold and item drops giant pink cupcake heal orbs, random and elite bosses, and rainbows, sunshine and lollipops. Okay, not exactly, but there are rainbows and unicorns, carebears and presents, even little flowers. Everything is bright and cheerful, with green grass, flowers and lovely trees dotting the landscape.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though, everything still wants to kill you and it’s not so easy to kill them first. I went in on normal difficulty and (with four people) couldn’t kill anything on my own at level 36. Two of my companions were near level 60 and they had a lovely time massacring all the cute fluffies that were around. With just two players, it wasn’t so bad, but the non-champions will give players under level 40 a run for their money. My advice is to be careful and bring friends.

Accessed during Act One, getting into the Not So Cow Level requires five special ingredients and a plan to teach the Blacksmith how to craft them into the Staff of Herding. As was the case with the D2 Cow Level, you must have defeated the difficulty level you’re in before you can enter. So if you want to go in on Normal mode, you must have killed Diablo on Normal, etc.

First Impressions – Devil Survivor Overclock

Shin Megami Tensi: Devil Survivor Overclock is a tactical RPG for the Nintendo 3DS. Published by Atlus, it is an enhanced port of the DS game, Shin Megami Tensi: Devil Survivor. For those who aren’t familiar with Atlus, the company commonly re-release their games, but always gives players who enjoyed the original content a reason to spend their money again. To do this, they enhance the original game with slightly improved graphics,  new story lines, and new music. New features for Overclock are: an added 8th day, as opposed to 7 in the original release; improved, higher-resolution visuals; full voice acting; the ability to choose different difficulty settings; and an increased 20 demons to fight with.

Set in Tokyo, players take control of the Hero (left) as he meets his friends Yuzu and Atsuro. You’re supposed to meet up with your cousin Naoya, but he never shows. Instead, he’s given Yuzu “COMPs” (which look exactly like your DS system) for the three of you to have. Atsuro (being the lovable, too-smart for his own good sidekick) decides to hack the devices which triggers an email telling the future being sent to the three of you.

Yes, email that predicts the future. This is an Atlus game and it is set in the Shin Megami Tensi universe, so immerse yourself and don’t ask too many question or your head will explode.