As I’ve said before I love the Animal Crossing games. There’s just something so relaxing about them that makes me want to just keep playing and playing. Even if it is kind of a dick move to shoot innocent explorers out of the sky.
Ran into a bit of computer troubles this week. Hopefully it won’t disrupt the comics too much in the next few weeks but there may be a few surprises in the works.
See you next week!
This morning I sat at my grandma’s waiting for breakfast. I looked over and saw Northeast Florida’s very own Florida Times Union. Newspaper huh? They still make these things apparently. I went to the sports page as I drank my hot chocolate knowing just what I’d find. Stories about how terrible the Jaguars are and how there will be no hope for them ever. Typical. I then flipped through looking for the NHL section. Disappointingly I saw only a tiny section devoted to simply scores and quick recaps. While I expected the lack of coverage, it still made me a little upset. The Florida Times Union was already off to a bad start.
Things were looking up. My breakfast was ready. There sitting on my plate were two eggs over medium, a fluffy biscuit, and a nice pile of corned beef hash. It was the strangely delicious corned beef hash from a can too. You know, the stuff where the potatoes are tiny perfect cubes? Man, that’s good stuff. As I was about to try and fit it all into a biscuit I glanced at the newspaper again. Life huh? That’s where the comics are! So I quickly read Garfield, then pictured the strip without the cat, which made for an even better laugh. I turned back to the front and saw the words “Video Game Releases.” Since when did the newspaper care about video games?
I flipped to D-4 to see a small section with a list of games that were coming out this week. I slowly read as I chewed my food, like any good citizen would. Then my mouth opened up without warning and I stared at the newsprint my mouth agape. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. At first I wanted to pound at my HTC Incredible 2 to search online for an explanation. Did something happen overnight at Capcom? I kept reading and my hopes we crushed even more. Below is a picture of what I saw.
That’s right, according to the Florida Times Union, a newspaper written by college educated journalists, Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3 will be released this coming Saturday! Isn’t that incredible? Somehow Capcom was able to cancel these two games, then without ANYONE knowing, continue to work on them and release them in an almost dream like situation to surprise the gaming world… OR how about this? The Florida Times Union is simply geared towards old people, and has no grasp of reality when it comes to the younger crowd. I mean, perhaps they live in a world where video games are still “just for kids,” but COME ON! It’s no wonder the newspaper is a dying form of information. Is it really that difficult to fact check a little? It’s not like they were cancelled a week ago. It happened back in JULY!
I am not one to spout about video games being an art form, but this generation has some ties to video games, even casual gamers. Is it so much trouble for these journalists to do their homework? Where did they get this release list anyways? Last Year’s GamePro(RIP)? I am very disappointed with the Florida Times Union and can see now that this sort of disrespect to our generation is half the reason we will be rid of this pollution-causing, dog poop grasping scum in a few years. In the words of Axel Rose, “TIME TO DIE!”
WayForward is at it again with a new title in the downloadable Mighty series. The game follows robot police officer Patricia Wagon and her attempts to recapture the five Hooligan Sisters. Is this another “Mighty” hit or should Officer Wagon be locked up?
"But the fire is so delightful"
‘Tis the season! Have a joyous and wonderful holiday, no matter what it is you choose to celebrate.
See you next week.
?
If you have been playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, or follow Nintendo news at all you have probably heard about the game-breaking bug in Skyward Sword. If a certain series of events is executed in a particular order, and then the game is saved, players will no longer be able to progress their adventure.
Nintendo has announced they will be releasing a special Wii Channel that will allow players to repair their save file if they have fallen victim to this glitch. As of now, it is only available in Japan but it’s pretty safe to assume it will hit North America and Europe as quickly as possible.
[Source]
I still remember the day a while back that my friend showed me images of Star Wars: The Old Republic in its youth. It was just concept art, really and I said to him “Man, I hope they don’t screw this up!” For a while I was very skeptical of this title. I just knew something would go wrong with it. More information kept coming out. I knew if I gave SWTOR my heart, it would inevitably become broken. Often times we hype ourselves up so much only to be disappointed. I tried so hard not to get wrapped up in it but on that fateful day in 2008 it happened. This of course was due in part to the fact that I decided to sign up for the SWTOR beta, but against my better judgement, I began to get excited. Each month passed and I gradually became more and more excited and curious about this new MMO. Bioware generally makes decent to excellent games right? They did KOTOR which was fantastic, right? How could they possibly ruin SWTOR? I was drinking the Kool-aid, and man did I drink a lot of it. I soon became almost cultist-like with the amount of pro-SWTOR propaganda that would come spilling out of my mouth. My expectations were so high. Too high one might say. Many of my friends tried to pull me back to earth, tried so hard to make sure I wouldn’t be hurt. I commend them for trying, but it didn’t work. I was higher than a donkey in space (What the hell does that even mean?!) There has been a lot of hype for SWTOR from a lot of different sources too, so it’d be easy for someone to be pulled in like I was. The big question is, did SWTOR meet my expectations?
Awww Yeah! Work that pole!
I must first point out that with any MMORPG, it is difficult to truly give it a definite score for the game’s entirety. MMORPG’s are never actually complete because in the weeks, months, and years after launch these games evolve so much. I would like the reader to understand that this review is based on everything I have experienced. Now that we have that cleared up, let us begin shall we?
Let’s start at the beginning, character creation. Your first task is to choose your allegiance and class. The Republic has access to the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, and the Trooper. The Sith Empire has access to the Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, the Imperial Agent, and the Bounty Hunter. Each class branches off into two advanced classes you can choose from. From there you get skill trees that further specialize your character’s play style. Then you get to pick your race from various famous Star Wars races. At that point it is time to decide how you will look. This is probably one of the weakest parts of the game. The customization options are good enough to get a decent result and are more detailed than some games, but ultimately it feels a little lacking. I personally would have liked to see more playable race combinations.
I love this quest!
Once you have a carefully and well thought out name selected, like “Darthfacemelter,” you can hit the play button.Your story begins! WHOA WHOA WHOA HOLD THE PHONE?! Did you just say story?! Why in the world would an MMORPG have a story?! Aren’t MMOs just a big race to the end so we can all get our E-peens huge by raiding 9 days a week?! Well sir, I am glad you asked. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, each class has a detailed story filled with all sorts of great moments. SWTOR is different from many other MMOs, especially in this way. The game is very story driven. This is accomplished beautifully with tons and tons and tons of cut scenes filled with voice acting. They aren’t just cut scenes though, because you are given choices for how your character can respond. These responses ultimately affect your character physically.
I will attempt to explain how the Player Versus Environment content works in a simplified manner. You approach an NPC that is offering up a quest. You are then given a cut scene where the NPC gives you details of what is going on. You then react accordingly. Let’s pretend this is a mission to go to a droid factory and destroy the power generators. Obviously you want to get some experience points and some loot. Upon accepting the quest you are then to head on your way. Along the way, you will run into enemies. Upon killing one, you will notice next to your quest tracker that a bonus quest has appeared. It seems you now must kill 15 more of these things. Well, you are going that way anyway, and these things WILL attack you, so hey awesome! Free bonus EXP right? While in the droid factory you may find some other quests, but for this example you don’t. Once you get to the power generators you click on the flashy thing like you’d expect. Then another cut scene begins. A frightened man runs up and explains if you destroy the generators it will release toxins into the river that will kill the fish which is a local village’s food source. You are then given a choice: Either destroy the generators and poison a people’s food source and receive dark side points, or find some alternative way to deal with the situation so that you do not harm these people and receive light side points. The choice is YOURS! These points aren’t just there on your stat sheet either. The more you get, the higher rank in that side you get. For example, my Bounty Hunter is considered Rank II Dark Side. In fact a neat feature is that the dark side has actually corrupted him to where his skin has gone pale, dark circles under his eyes, and he has scorch marks around the corner of his lips. I assume something else happens for light side, but it’s probably silly. There is an option to turn these effects off, but why would you do that? The questing doesn’t feel like typical questing where you click the person, a box of text pops up, look at the rewards, and then just hit accept. No, it actually wraps you into the world of the game and you feel involved. There are some that complain that you can’t skip the cut scenes and just power through, but maybe just maybe this isn’t the game for you. Some of these quests are more difficult and require a group. These are called heroic quests, and can be quite fun. This also shows off how Bioware encourages grouping. In a group during these cut scenes, everyone gets to pick something to say. Once all the choices are picked a die is rolled and the highest actually gets to speak. During these grouped cut scenes you earn social points which you can redeem for all sorts of great items later. Also, don’t freak out because some goody two shoes decides to save the day and be all light side. Even though his roll won, you will still get dark side points if you chose a dark side choice. The other form of grouping are Flashpoints, which are pretty much dungeons. Many of them are filled with story rich cut scenes, while several others just turn you loose to get to working together.
Sure, killing off AI can be fun and rewarding, but sometimes you just gotta beat another player’s ass. Well, SWTOR is no slouch when it comes to PVP. It begins with the Warzones. Currently there are three, each with a different play style. First you have Battle for Alderaan which is your typical capture point type. In this mode, you are to capture three turrets to have them fire at the enemy ships in orbit. The second is Void Star, which is an attacker/defender type. One team has a door in three areas to destroy to get to a computer console. They can plant bombs on the doors, but the defenders can disarm them. Once the attacker team completes the objective, the defenders get a shot at attacking, but they only get the amount of time it took the attackers. Then comes my favorite. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HUTTBALL?! Huttball is the newest intergalactic sport that takes two teams. These two teams must compete to gain control of a ball. Once they gain control they must cross the other team’s goal with it. At first you’re thinking “So it’s like capture the flag?” Well partially right, except you can pass the ball! Which also means you can intercept the ball! All the while an announcer is calling the plays! The ball carrier is slowed down, so it takes a lot of team work and good passing to score. If that wasn’t enough, the Huttball field is filled with hazards like flame thrower panels and acid pools. That’s not all. Huttball is the only Warzone that can have the same faction playing against each other! That’s right, Sith vs Sith, Republic vs Republic, and of course the standard Sith vs Republic. This greatly increases the player pool. By doing Warzones you get credits, experience, valor (which is your pvp level) and accommodations which are used to purchase pvp gear. Also a neat thing is that at the end of each match you can vote for someone as MVP. Each vote they get gives them more accommodations. The actual fighting in pvp seems very balanced so far. It’s obvious that Bioware cares about pvp because they have done a neat thing, and everyone gets this little bar under their health. You will notice it filling every time they are affected by crowd control. Once it’s full, they become immune to all CC affects for a short period of time. It gives you something to pay attention to so you don’t pop your stuns when you know it won’t work.
As you level up in your class story, you eventually get your first of many companions. Companions follow you around and support you. Depending on their “class” they can heal you or just help you kill stuff. They also like to sit in on your conversations and react to things you say. If they enjoy the way you make your choices, you may be able to score some virtual nookie from them. These companions can be outfitted just like you would your own character. They can also fill a spot if your group is in a bind. While they are not as good as player, they can often still prove useful. You will also notice that they aren’t complete morons just running around doing whatever. Their AI is actually pretty decent, as they know when to heal you and when not to shoot. I would say though that the companions’ most important tasks are the crew skills.
Crew Skills are SWTOR’s wacky way of naming their crafting system. You get three crafting skills. Typically you get one that makes stuff, like Armstech which makes weapons. Then you get two gathering skills. The best part is that ultimately you don’t have to do any of it! Sick of gathering materials all day? Well, just send your companion to do it! That’s right, you can put your companions to work by sending them on gathering missions and even telling them what stuff to make with it. Upon making an item you can reverse engineer it to get parts back. While doing this there is a chance to discover a better version of the thing you just made. This gives the crafting system a little more depth.
Speaking of items, one of the coolest things I have seen in an MMO is the modding system. Let’s say you get this really awesome piece of armor. In a typical game you’d have to replace it with some crappy purple robe because it has better stats. In SWTOR, they have certain pieces of equipment that you can mod. If you have one of these pieces and like the way you look, you can just mod it! What am I talking about by saying mod it? Well, modable armor has a few mod slots in it. These slots can be filled with armor plating, mod kits, and other enhancements. As long as you keep the mods upgraded, you can keep looking badass! The coolest thing that makes so much sense is that you can take the mods out (for a moderate price) and keep them. Essentially this means you can have multiple modable armor sets and just swap out the mods whenever you wanna change your look. There are some versions of this type of system in other games, but not nearly as great as this! It’s so user friendly and makes sense in lor as well as in game play.
Not only do you get access to your own companions, you get your own ship. These ships are used for you to travel to different planets, as well as to give your unused companions a place to hang out. These ships aren’t just for show either. You can also go on space missions and fight in epic space battles. There has been talk about the on-rails nature of the space battles. Well, you know what game is an on-rails space shooter? Star Fox! Panzer Dragoon! These games are great fun! The space battles in SWTOR are just as good if you ask me. You are also able to upgrade your ship’s weapons, armor, and shields.
The game play appears at first to be what some would call “tab targeting.” Well, most MMOs are. That’d be like calling Mario games an “A to jump” platformer. There is no auto-attack which is nice, keeps you in the action as you use your epic feeling abilities. Bioware had a vision to make everyone feel epic, and I think it was fulfilled. Right from the start you get some decent abilities that make you feel like what you are playing. From there the abilities get better and more specialized depending on which route you go. There are the typical skill trees that you use to put points in.
This is all accompanied by a great soundtrack filled with new and classic Star Wars tunes. The music goes great with the graphical look of the game. Environments look amazing as do the character models and creatures.
[review title=”Star Wars: The Old Republic” pros=”Very Polished! Great Game Play, Great art style, great voice acting, great PvE, Great PvP, Great story. The Game FEELS like Star Wars. The planets get bigger and bigger and feel very alive. You feel EPIC as you play.” cons=”The character customization can be limiting.” verdict=”I have played a lot of MMORPGs. I have been playing them for over ten years now. I can honestly say that SWTOR is the best one I have ever played. The thing that excites me even more is the future of it. Bioware has already hinted at some great things they have planned. (Capital ships for guilds?! YES PLEASE) There is so much potential for great updates and expansions. New Races! New Planets! New Story! Star Wars is a rich universe and this game can really bank off of that. It really has that great Star Wars feel which is very important.” score=100]
Welcome to Fortune Street, the only place where buying and selling stocks, and investing in businesses for profit doesn’t make you part of the “1%”. You can forget about your fancy suit, shiny Italian loafers, and expensive leather briefcase, because this isn’t an actual street, but rather a board game for Wii that tasks players with becoming the richest mogul. The series has had a very long run in Japan, but this is the first time Nintendo has brought it to North America. In a quarter of what seems to be mostly low key releases from the Big N, it should be interesting to see if this game generates cash flow or ends up needing a bailout.
Gameplay
At the beginning of each game you are given a target amount of money to make and a small starting fund. Once your net worth hits the target amount, you have to safely make it back around the board to the bank with the minimum still in your pocket or you will have to continue playing until you’ve made back the difference. Money is made by purchasing the shops on the board, so that when other players land on them they will have to pay you a fee. When you land on one of your own shops, you have the option of investing money in one of your own spaces to improve it. Improving it makes prices higher, and therefore earns you more gold when opponents are unfortunate enough to hit one of your properties. The general idea is like a Mario/Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest themed Monopoly game, but with a few little twists.
WHO GETS TO GO FIRST?! THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!!
There is also a sort of stock market in the main mode of Fortune Street, though rather than investing in businesses you will be buying stock in one of the game’s “districts”, which are indicated by what color the squares in a section of the game board are. Stock prices go up when buildings in a district are improved, or someone buys a quantity of stock over 10 shares. Stock prices go down if a number of shares greater than 10 is sold. It would be easy to skip over this detail of gameplay, but it would be foolish to considering the fact that stockholders earn money when ANY shop in a district that own stock in his visited and a fee is payed out to another player.
On your way around the game board, you will have a few chances to draw a card from a board which can either have an effect on the game such as driving the value of all shops down 15%, or they will trigger a mini-game. There is a wide range of mini-games, with options such as betting on a Slime race or simply spinning a roulette-style wheel to determine who gets a bonus. Drawing a straight row of cards nets a cash bonus which continuously increases as you draw more cards from your row.
The real estate, stock market, and mini-game elements of Fortune Street all come together to form a gameplay experience that is fun overall, albeit a little slow-paced. During the time I spent playing with the CPU controlled characters, I found myself wishing I could just play a game with one opponent instead of three. This slow pace is further enhanced by the CPU characters’ ENDLESS PRATTLING. Thankfully, after exploring the options menu I found that this senseless banter can be shut off. If this “jug of molasses on a cold winter’s day” pace is too grueling for you, there are quicker game modes with slightly varied rules to explore.
An overview of the game board.
Presentation
Any fun that is to be had in Fortune Street is hindered by lack of effort put into the graphics. The colors are kind of “blah” and some characters seem to have an extreme case of the “jaggies”. The environments the boards hover over seem to be nothing more than animated screen captures from various Square Enix and Nintendo games. This is a stark contrast to Mario Sports Mix, another Nintendo/Square Enix co-venture, which was like a constant barrage of colorful, shiny smoothness on the eyes. Perhaps the development team felt that the type of person who would enjoy a game like this would be so stodgy that vivid visuals would be insulting to them, but even if that were true that decision is one that has left this game looking very dull and flat.
The slow-paced “buy low, sell high” gameplay of Fortune Street may seem like tedium to some, but it is obvious there is at least a small niche for this game. The core mechanics work great, and are even kind of interesting, but overall it lacks the shine and polish typically seen on a game published by Nintendo. However, with very few noteworthy games left in the Wii’s foreseeable future, it may be a great idea for Wii owners to occupy Fortune Street — at least until Mario Party 9 hits shelves early next year.
[review title=”Fortune Street” pros=”The buying and selling of property and stocks is handled well, and some of the mini-games are fun.” cons=”This is an incredibly slow-paced game, and doesn’t even seem to try to push the Wii to the edge of its graphical limits.” verdict=”Would-be entrepreneurs and stock market dabblers will be right at home on Fortune Street.” score=60]
If you are a 3DS Ambassador the ten GBA games for free download are now ready. By simply going into the 3DS eShop, checking settings, and finding your downloads you can now redownload all ten GBA classics. Enjoy your complementary copies of Wario Land 4, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, WarioWare Inc., Metroid Fusion, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
"I'd BETTER get a star for this!"
What can I say? I’m in a Mario mood. Truth be told, every year around the holidays I usually play older classic games and wait for all the hype surrounding the “big names” to die down before getting into them. I try to stay topical as much as can be but sometimes I just want to make a joke. Besides, everybody loves Super Mario 64. Right? …Right?
See you next week.
Today, the Humble Bundle returned with a new iteration with more amazing games you can nab for a great price.
For any price that you name, you can pick up DRM-free copies of Shank, Super Meat Boy, NightSky, Jamestown, and Bit.Trip Runner. Beat the average price, and you can score Cave Story+ and Gratuitous Space Battles too!
All of the games are available on Steam as well. Did I mention they’re cross-platform? Mac, PC, Linux… everybody wins! You can even choose how your money is divided between the developers, the Child’s Play charity, or the Red Cross. I highly suggest grabbing a copy of these before the sale’s over!
