Category Archives: Gaming

Review: Trouble Witches NEO

Posted on by Arleigh

Over this weekend I came across a little game over on Xbox LIVE Arcade listings that I knew I had to buy and play. Of late, I’ve been playing quite a bit of the so-called “shmup” (shoot ’em up) arcade shooters. While I’ve played such games in the past the niche shmup titles of the gothic lolita variety which have become quite popular in Japan was still new to me. My first introduction to this subgenre of the shmup was when I bought a copy of the gothic lolita arcade shooter Deathsmiles for the Xbox 360. Less than a year later I’ve bought a second game which improves on the previous one I bought. Trouble Witches NEO from SNK was seen, downloaded and soon played for countless hours over the weekend.

Trouble Witches NEO (developed by the doujin team from Studio Siesta in conjunction with Bouken and SNK) is quite similar to the many shmup arcade shooters now coming out of Japan and being discovered by Western gamers. Like Cave’s Deathsmiles series (there’s two games released for the series and plans for more), this title is bullet hell taken to the next level. It also uses the popular trend of using “moe” (overly cute) character designs that usually range means all characters will look like gothic lolita in design. While Trouble Witches NEO does have it’s gothrori look it does share lots of similarities with the cult shmup series Touhou Project. That series is pretty much a “mahou shoujo” (magical girl) smorgasbord and Studio Siesta’s own title bear’s similarities.

Sure, one would say the game is very cute to the point of sickening (for some but not to me), but is the game any good they would ask. I would happily declare that the game is quite good. It boasts three different difficulty levels that should allow for all sorts of gamers to try from the pathetically newbie to the shmup genre to the hardest of the hardcore who have mastered all the shmup titles Japan has to offer. The game also offers several game modes from the title’s Original version which pretty much ports the Japanese arcade version straight to the console as seen by the 4:3 aspect ratio gaming screen. There’s also the “Arrange 360 Mode” which updates the game’s graphics for the Xbox 360 and gives it widescreen gaming window. It’s in this newer mode that one can play single-player, multiplayer (offline with another controlled and player), Story Mode and an online co-op through Xbox LIVE. There’s also the usual Score and Boss Attack modes which should challenge even the most hardcore shmup gamer.

It’s in the Story Mode where one can unlock two other maid-witches (the term generally used for the playable characters in this game and others of its kind) by playing through the mode with each of the 6 available playables. For 160 MS Points a player can download a 9th playable character. It’s not necessary to buy this playable, but for 160 points it’s not bad and she’s actually much more powerful then the other 8 which should help in trying to rack up a major high score in the Score and Boss Attack Modes. The former just needs a player to score as many points in the time allowed (3 or 5 minutes). The latter mode just has a player fighting the 6 bosses in the game over and over until all their lives are spent. So, as you can see this game doesn’t lack for replayability value. Just trying to go up in the online leaderboard ranks should occupy a gamer days if not weeks to try and accomplish.

The gameplay itself is not to difficult to do. The left analog stick or the D-Pad ( I recommend using the analog stick option) controls the player’s maid-witch while the A-button fires her basic attack. The B-button activates one of three Magic Cards a player can buy in a floating magic shop. Each card gives a player different attack options. Some are as basic as a 7-way fire which fills the screen to a decoy that attracts enemy fire to the ultra-powerful Fire Bomb which literally takes out everything it touches on the screen. The shop itself also sells extra health (lives in this game) and a magic potion which will increase the time a player can use the all-important Magic Barrier.

The Magic Barrier (activated by pressing the X-button) creates a circular barrier around the player which slows down incoming fire by turning them a purplish-pink. To make it even more interesting, if a player destroys the enemy whose fire has been caught in the Magic Barrier those very enemy fire turns into Gold Coins (Star Coins if a Magic Card ability is used to destroy the enemies) which can now be used to buy replacement Cards or buy new health/increase magic level. The Magic Barrier lasts only as long as the player’s total amount of magic which begins at a default 120. One can remove the barrier at any time by pressing the X-button again which will allow it replenish on its own. Gamers will soon learn to use this Magic Barrier strategically. It’s best used when there are a lot of enemies on the screen who give off tons of fire.

Overall, Trouble Witches NEO is another shmup arcade shooter which has made its way into the Xbox 360 and one that is worth the 800 MS points needed to buy it (960 points if one buys the 9th playable). It’s a fun game that’s readily accesible to all levels of gamer, but still very challenging to the veteran shmup gamer (I’d dare say even those would have a hard time mastering this title). While only a couple of these shmup titles have been available to North American Xbox 360 users there’s many more available to Japanese Xbox 360 owners and hopefully those other titles will make the jump to the West just like Trouble Witches NEO.

PS: As a treat to fans of this type of game Trouble Witch NEO comes not just with the localized English-language voice acting (which is hilarious in it’s awfulness when heard during the Story Mode cutscenes), but with the original Japanese-language voice. Just my preference I always switch the setting to Japanese language. The game retains it’s “moe” factor in that setting and definitely loses it when the English-language was picked.

Modern Warefare 3: Teasers (America, England, France, Germany)

Posted on by Arleigh

It looks like Activision has released a tad early the teaser trailers for the third game in their wildly popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series of first-person action shooter. Leaks began to appear about Modern Warfare 3 days prior to the release of these simple teaser trailers. With EA and DICE already months ahead of showing the public and game journalists peeks into their much-anticipated Battlefield 3 the ball was now in Activision’s court to respond.

The Modern Warfare fan-base continue to remain loyal to the series, but already there’s been chinks in the series’ armor as the previous entry in the game saw the head of it’s development studio, Infinity Ward, fired from Activision then followed by nearly half of the lead programmers and designers of the Modern Warfare franchise. This showed a weakness in Activision’s biggest franchise outside of World of Warcraft (which I still think more a Blizzard game than Activision). EA and DICE had an ok attempt to knock off Activision from the modern combat FPS genre with Battlefield 2, but it wasn’t enough. It looks like Battlefield 3 may be the one title that could do the job.

Modern Warfare 3 will be set right after the cliffhanger of the previous game and take players through battlefields in 15 cities around the world (the US, France, England and Germany being some of them). Just like Battlefield 3, this game will have fully destructible environments and a much more expansive gameplay map. Players will return to controlling vehicles (though Activision doesn’t specify if they’ll be on-the-rails vehicle controls or fully-controllable vehicles like those for Battlefield 3) like the AC-130 gunship and an M-1A2 main battle tank.

It would be foolish of anyone to say this game will tank. This game could be just a massive rehash of the previous two game with updated graphics like it’s new Black Ops sibling, but with the tens of millions of fans worldwide it will still sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of units. The question now is whether the strong push from EA and DICE with their retooled Battlefield 3 will be the needed kick in Activision’s collective pants to improve on their signature franchise instead of just sitting pat and hoping brand-name recognition makes them tons of money again.

Modern Warfare 3 is set to have it’s worldwide release on November 8, 2011.

April Power Poll

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

The rack has seen some serious action since I last addressed this topic back in March (not the smallest change has been the introduction of an entirely new physical rack. It’s more of a drawer now, but that has less torture-device correlations). As you may know, one of the most important ways in which I get access to video games over time is through my long-running subscription to Gamefly. I use the two-game package, because inevitably at least one of the two games sits around for ages while I play the other and any new releases… still, it does give me a way to play a bunch of games that I would never consider spending $60 on. In theory, GameFly will send you the games you really want at the top of your list. Of course, the reality is that when you build a queue of 40 games it’s sometimes a surprise to see what shows up in the post. Am I getting some A+ rated game I forgot I wanted to play two months ago, or something terrible that had some flashy reviews and bamboozled me? Well, if it’s the latter, at least I didn’t pay full retail.

Anyway, non-seq introductions aside, here once again is my Video Game Power Poll… in April. These are games that command significant time. If you think I have good taste in games, you may want to check some of these titles out. As always, I’ll try and give long-winded blurbs about each game as we go. And they’re still in reverse order. And no, I wouldn’t turn down sex for any of them. (Well, maybe for #1). Also, I’ve only got seven entries this month. I’m more dedicated than usual.

7. Call of Duty: Black Ops. Still standing strong months, and months, and months later. I’d actually taken a significant break from this title, but then my friend B and I played some the other night, and I was right back in. There’s something about the visceral pleasure of shooting people who think they’re doing a great job camping that never tires. Of course, when I first came back, the rust pretty much locked me up… and some of the game’s flaws have me longing for the next Modern Warfare release. When does that launch again?

6. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. This one is really up and down depending on mood. I had whipped myself into a serious fighting game craze for a couple of weeks there… and it made me think harder about Mortal Kombat. I’ve had some predictable issues with the online multiplayer. I still hold strong to the belief that fighting games were meant to be played against people in the same room. You know, to avoid that whole lag issue.

5. League of Legends – It’s been suffering from some server instabilities in the last little while… but they thoughtfully gave out a pittance (and I do mean pittance) of in-game Riot Points to buy things with as compensation. I did buy some stuff from them to support disaster relief in Japan, and I saved a copy of the picture of their CEO holding up a huge cardboard check to my hard drive. This game is never going away, though, because they just keep improving it!

4. Bayonetta – This one is a GameFly rental. It’s actually kind of an old game by now, apparently. I had never even heard of it until it popped up while I was perusing GameFly’s database. It sounded worth a look, so I went for it. It’s visually stunning, but took some real getting used to after years of playing FPS, sports, and RPG games. Maybe I need to branch out more often.

3. Dragon Age II. It still won’t die. There’s a lot of permutations to this one… and I love the fact that the automatic dialogue from Hawke changes based on the responses I frequently pick in-game… I love the characters. Wait, I did a whole review on this.

2. Red Dead Redemption. Another GameFly-er… finally. I actually had wanted to play this title since its launch, and I’m just now getting to it. Definitely going to be the subject of the next ‘what I played today’ style column. This one is definitely worth checking out for anybody who hasn’t gotten around to playing it yet. It’s very much in the style of Grand Theft Auto 4, but with a lot of improvements (in my mind) to the game-play. Of course, if you don’t like westerns, it’s probably a stay-away.

1. MLB 2K11 – I’ve been trying to author a review to this game for months. Seriously. I started writing the day of its launch after I bought it and powered through a few games straight. I love it. It has some weird glitches that are kind of frustrating, but if you want to play baseball, there’s a lot to like in this release… I guess pretty much like every year. Anyway, with all of the excitement over the baseball season itself, I’ve been glued to this title a lot. I suppose it will cool off in time (just as my Madden obsession inevitably does) but then again, the baseball season is a lot longer. I particularly like the ‘My Player’ create-a-player mode in this year’s offering, which is pretty meaty. Baseball is a good sport for it.

Song of the Day: Still Alive from Portal (by Jonathan Coulton and Ellen McClain)

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest “song of the day” comes in just in time to show that my major bout with the cold/flu last week and this weekend hasn’t taken me out. It’s also a proper choice with the release of Portal 2, Valve’s sequel to their very popular puzzle-shooter Portal. What better way to send me off to Anime Boston this weekend but with the very geeky and otaku anthem of “Still Alive”.

“Still Alive” is the end credits song which plays once the player has completed Portal. The voice who sings the song (written by songwriter Jonathan Coulton) is one Ellen McClain and she is suppose to be the AI-computer GLaDOS lamenting the player’s success and escape. The song became as big of a hit with gamers as the game it was part of. Pretty much a whole cottage industry of all things geek-culture sprung up around this song. Shirts were made, youtube videos of varying quality using the song were uploaded and comic book, gaming and anime convention goers worldwide adopted the song as their unofficial anthem.

The song is pretty cute and catchy. The way the lyrics were sung with such sweetness by singer Ellen McClain makes it such a happy ditty. But when stepping back from singing along one really has to look at the lyrics and see how dark and twisted “Still Alive” truly was and still is. And on that note, catch you allafter Anime Boston.

Still Alive

This was a triumph
I’m making a note here
HUGE SUCCESS
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction
Aperture Science

we do what we must because we can
for the good of all of us except for the ones who are dead
but there’s no sense crying over every mistake
you just keep on trying until you run out of cake
and the science gets done and you make a neat gun
for the people who are still alive

I’m not even angry
I’m being so sincere right now
even though you broke my heart and killed me
and torn into pieces
and threw every piece into a fire
as they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!
Now these points of data make a wonderful line
and we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
so I’m glad I got burned
Think of all the things we learned for the people that are still alive

go ahead and leave me
I think I prefer to stay inside
maybe you’ll find someone else to help you
maybe black mesa
that was a joke, haha, fat chance
anyway this cake is great, it’s so delicious and moist
look at me still talking, when there’s science to do
when I look out there it makes me glad I’m not you
I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done
on the people who are still alive

and believe me I am still alive
I’m doing science and I’m still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I’m still alive
While you are dying I’ll be still alive
and when you’re dead I’ll be still alive
STILL ALIVE, still alive…


What I Played Today: Jade Empire

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Every so often – because I like old games better than I like new ones, or so I’m told – I like to revisit a classic game. I’m sure, if you read my columns often, you’ve noticed that by now. Continuing this month’s theme of BioWare inundation (spurred, of course, by the release of Dragon Age II and the Arrival DLC) today I decided once again to play a little Jade Empire. Longtime WRPG fans will remember the title from its 2005 debut. Newcomers to BioWare’s camp may have missed this jewel. In the interests of saving the integrity of the game for anyone who never played the original release, I’m going to avoid serious game spoilers here, even though the game has been out for six years now.

The first thing I’ll say is that this game holds up better than most other original XBox titles with graphics that are bearable, at least, and smooth play on the XBox 360. I never played the game when it was originally launched on XBox, and only got into it after a friend recommended that I fork over the cash to buy it on the XBox Originals in Marketplace. Smooth emulation aside, I immediately fell in love with the title. Jade Empire offers a highly interactive game-play experience (more on this later) that is settled on the solid foundation of classic BioWare RPG structure. We slowly accumulate a group of loyal followers, whose personal story develops through conversation options between major plot developments in the overall story. Although many of these characters follow what we might call the “BioWare Rules” in terms of their personality archetypes (although Dawn Star is unconventional, she still reeks of Carth Onasi, doesn’t she?) they’re predictably detailed, with a diverse set of backgrounds and motivations. In this respect, I hardly think that Jade Empire is the gold standard for WRPGs. Its relatively simple story progression doesn’t lend toward diverse side missions undertaken in far-off locales.

The game’s outstanding feature, however, is not the party members, the story, the voice acting, the graphics… or even the interesting-in-theory morality system of competing philosophies. Unfortunately, while the idea of two philosophies competing against one another (Open Palm and Closed Fist) sounds compelling, and a refreshing departure from someone merely being good or evil, light or dark side, it amounts to the same thing. The complex motivations that would drive a practitioner of the Closed Fist according to the game’s story ultimately don’t matter; points are accrued by being a jerk, just as always. Sliding scale morality systems are always going to be imperfect in general, of course, while we’re on the subject… but I almost feel as if Jade Empire could have benefitted from a dual system; having both a good vs. evil slider, as well as competing philosophies (in this scenario, we might wish for more than two that are so diametrically opposed). Oh, and why can’t we ever have a philosophy of neutrality in these games? Wouldn’t that be fun? Maybe not.

The reason I keep revisiting Jade Empire, attempting to jump off for the third time, is because of the interactive game-play system. Even Mass Effect with its shooter based game-play doesn’t explore the potential as deeply as Jade Empire, which plays successfully like some kind of action game, only with distinct RPG elements. It lacks the elaborate combos that we might see from Devil May Cry or similar games, but it interweaves level-ups and equipped items just like a more traditional RPG. Unlike latter-day BioWare offering Dragon Age, we are truly rewarded in Jade Empire for dodging, and knowing when (and from where) to use our different martial arts styles and their different unique powers. Now, of course, those who are traditionalists and would rather have the stats decide things (this also includes people who just aren’t that good at action games) I suppose this is probably frustrating. I personally think it’s mild enough that once you get the hang of it almost anyone could have fun with the system and be successful in the game. For me, this outstanding combat system makes the game incredibly easy to just drop in to and play. In fact, every time I load it up and play, I angst over how much fun it is… and how it’s the one game amongst all of BioWare’s RPGs that never got a sequel.

Oh, yeah, and as a side bonus, the game features a 2-D scroller style airplane game where you pilot your airship and fire your weapon straight up toward a variety of aerial enemies and hazards that cross the screen and generally try to ruin your day. All of these sequences but the first one are optional, but they provide a nostalgic element for me…  and completing them provides a bunch of XP within the game, too.

And hey, maybe if enough people realize what a great game Jade Empire was… we’ll get that sequel after all.

Battlefield 3: “My Life” Trailer and 12-minute Gameplay Footage

Posted on by Arleigh

One game which has been on my radar for months now and will be so for the rest of the year until it comes out in November 2, 2011. That’s a long time to wait for a game, but just looking at the footage and the trailer has sold me on this game. As much as I enjoy playing Activision’s Call of Duty series (both it’s Modern Warfare and Black Ops iterations) it will be nice to finally get something new to beat back that juggernaut.

One thing which the Battlefield games have always had above and beyond every other FPS shooters is the ability in multiplayer to not just be a boots-on-the-gorund grunt but also drive tanks and armored vehicles, pilot gunships and fighters. It looks like from this latest trailer (making great use of the song “My Life” from the Swedish band jj.) that driving tanks and piloting jets is still part of the gameplay.

For a game that’s showing gameplay footage at Pre-Alpha Stage of development this game looks beautiful. It’s only a wonder how it will finally end up looking when it’s gone gold and released to the general public. A general public with cash waiting to be spent with me one of said cash spenders.

On Special: 4 DLCs

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Micro-transactions… are the future. In the future, the principle game will be less important than it even now is. We’ve already learned to expect from pioneers in the DLC field like BioWare that a retail game may be half of what it ends up being… and not through the antiquated idea of a full expansion (although those are still nice and profitable too, I’m sure) but rather through add-ons. DLC. Updates. Extras. Once we’re paying for little tidbits to enhance the game we’ve already paid full retail for, we are just walking, talking wallets for the developer.

In a way? This is actually a good thing. We can expect more content to be established over time and to bridge the gap from release to release. Does this seem lazier, and a way to push retail titles out faster? Unquestionably. However, even with full eyes-wide-open knowledge that I’m being exploited somehow… I’d earnestly rather be able to download and play a few new scenarios over the course of a year that eventually complete the game I had purchased… rather than finishing a more-complete-at-retail-launch game… and having nothing to play for a year.

Unfortunately, I think the developers realized this even before I did… and it led them to release games that weren’t even ready to go, reasoning that they could be completed later. Still, the idea of rushed production isn’t new. Let’s take the example that I’m sure some of us are still angry about… Knights of the Old Republic II. Obsidian’s sequel offering to the critically acclaimed original threatened to be better than BioWare’s classic original in literally every way. We had more characters, more sophisticated interactions, a more diversified playing field in terms of character customization as well as available items. We threatened to go to more places, more diverse locales, and places not quite so stubbornly grounded in the Star Wars trilogy canon. In short, the game threatened to be an all-time great. Oh, except that a third of the content was cut before release. It was released with roughly ten trillion bugs. It was released, in short, because the producers wanted to make money for Christmas… rather than put out a game that would endure even through 2011.

But if Knights of the Old Republic II were released in 2011… we would have gotten the HK factory. It would have been a $5 (U.S.) add-on, but we would have gotten it. We would have gotten patches and updates to make the game stable and play-able so that we could have gotten the HK factory. So that we could have gotten the Sith Academy. Or whatever else cut content we found ourselves to be lacking.

Given that I was going to buy Knights of the Old Republic II either way… and given that I’m going to buy incomplete DLC-driven money-grubbing games today… I guess I’ve just accepted, at this point, the inevitability of DLC and micro-transactions in general. If I can spend $5 at a time for some cool add-on, I do it almost without thinking. At least, for my favourite games. If the retail release is garbage, I’ll never think about it again. So I suppose that’s the line that developers have to walk in this brave new world. Make it good enough that I’m willing to play it on-and-off for a year. This will keep the game always in my head, so I’m already thinking about the sequel… and it will keep me happy, so that I don’t write scathing reviews about your product.

Phew. Rant over. Alright, here’s something that might potentially become a regular feature for me. Four (or more, but this time, four) DLCs or add-ons I played recently. My impressions, whether they were worth the money I shelled out, and what they did to the overall game. These are, in this case, in no particular order, but I did include the launch DLC for Dragon Age II… just because.

Jill Valentine / Shuma Gorath – Additional Characters for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – It’s been two weeks (or more?) and I still earnestly can’t believe what I paid for these characters. As anyone could have guessed (and, really, since these two at least were in the game files anyway, it didn’t take a savant to anticipate) the first ‘major’ DLC for MvC3 is the addition of fan-favourites from MvC2. Unfortunately for my wallet, the idea of being able to use Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath again somehow justified the cost. Given that these add-ons were basically unlocks (costing me roughly 100 KB of space on my XBox 360’s hard drive) and not new content at all, I’m extremely unimpressed with their addition. Couldn’t I have gotten this as a bonus for pre-ordering? I already forgave developers for adding cut content on later as DLC packs, but I feel like this reaches a point where content is deliberately cut in order to make a few extra dollars. Are video games not enough of a growth industry? I’ve got an idea – make a better game. Sell me a half dozen characters as an add-on, not two individual ones each of which cost me a few bucks. As much as it pains me, I really can’t discourage this DLC enough. What a disappointment!

The Golems of Amgarrak – Add-on Scenario to Dragon Age: Origins – I reviewed this just today, so I won’t spend a ton of time on it. Considering its cost, and how much I enjoyed the original game, I can’t say that I regretted this purchase. After playing it, I’m sternly disapproving of the marketing of this DLC as some kind of super ultimate difficult challenge. I thought the Emerald and Ruby Weapons in Final Fantasy VII were harder… and they were literally just a matter of patience in game-play. And fine, say what you will, that in a game that allows tactical thinking you can’t make a challenge that is difficult for everyone yet also possible for everyone… but don’t try to tell people who really enjoyed the tactical combat of Origins and were hoping for more just how hard Golems would be. Because it wasn’t.

Arrival – Add-on Scenario to Mass Effect 2 – Very much following in the vein of the Overlord DLC, we are treated to what is ultimately an elongated single mission. For this scenario, we have Commander Shepard rolling solo, and the scenario is quite a bit more challenging than normal – mostly as a result of this solo-Shepard format. However, I can’t argue with the scenario design, which is fun to play through. The DLC is about the average BioWare-single-scenario-add-on length… but yet again, the marketing let me to expect something that I don’t feel like I got. Arrival didn’t do much to bridge ME2 and ME3 for me. Now, of course, I’ve envisioned scenarios in which it stands as a direct bridge, but the DLC still felt a little lazy to me… and not something that profoundly changes the way I felt about the setting. I was earnestly disappointed after the DLC that we’d received from the ME2 team in the past, with Shadow Broker, Kasumi’s Stolen Memory, and Project Overlord all head-and-shoulders above this offering. Still, it was fun, and if you’re hungry for a re-visit to ME2, Arrival isn’t a terrible choice.

The Black Emporium / The Exiled Prince – Launch DLC for Dragon Age II – As a pleased pre-order customer of this game, I received both of these DLC packs via the usual unwieldy 4957 digit prize code entry which gave me permission to spend twenty minutes downloading add-on content for my launch copy of Dragon Age II. My fundamental issues with the format aside, I’m reasonably happy with the fact that I got these add-ons for free. The Black Emporium is little more than a curiousity, despite its potential. Its existence provides a solid jump to your Hawke in the early stages of the game, but you earnestly may never visit the in-game Emporium more than once… maybe twice.

As for the Exiled Prince… it was actually a very strong DLC. I may not have liked Sebastian Vael as much as I liked the game’s stock companions, but he has a very complete role in the story. He’s interwoven with elements of the plot, with events from the previous game, and with the most important underlying themes of Dragon Age II. He feels like an integral part of the story if you take the time to do each of his plot scenarios and speak with him when the opportunity is given. Of course, as is common with this game, the overall sheen of Exiled Prince is marred by the bugs it launched with. Most notable amongst them? Not being able to earn achievements from the DLC. I don’t mean to sound overly critical… but this is just unacceptable, particularly for customers who would have purchased this add-on after market, not received it for free with a pre-ordered copy.

What I Played Today: Golems of Amgarrak

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

I was in quite a mood after playing so much Dragon Age II, and (as that led to) another full play-through of Dragon Age: Origins. I had originally planned to continue straight on to Awakening, and just complete the whole series. But then, as I was on my roll, I remembered that I had purchased a couple of DLC packs for Dragon Age: Origins a while back on the cheap. They had some kind of sale for half price DLC, or some such. I’d taken that opportunity to pick up both Witch Hunt and The Golems of Amgarrak… but while I’d completed the former some time ago, I’d never bothered to sit down and play through Golems. I took a look at the achievements, because I’m like that, and I realized that I needed to complete the DLC on a minimum difficulty of Hard in order to receive my e-recognition for my accomplishments.

Harkening back, I recall that Golems of Amgarrak was touted as an extra-difficult bit of DLC… it was, ostensibly, much harder than the regular game, even on the Casual difficulty. In short, this DLC was not intended for the faint of heart. This did nothing but excite me, but I did go into it expecting a higher degree of difficulty, and felt that I should use some caution.  Although I might be ‘that guy’ when it comes to gaining achievements in an expedient manner, I’m strangely honourable about some of them. It seemed to me that if I were going to defeat the DLC’s final boss on a Hard or Nightmare difficulty, I might as well play the whole DLC on that difficulty. So, I set my difficulty, and I chose to import a Warden from an Origins playthrough at level 20, a Dwarven sword-and-board warrior.

The DLC took a couple of hours to play through all the way. It introduces a semi-new area (yet another re-skin of the default Dwarven Thaig that we saw four times or more between the Origins game and the various DLCs) that paves the way into a completely new area. Amgarrak itself is a completely unique area replete with colour-switch puzzles, swarms of enemies (mostly of the more difficult types. I assumed there would be Golems, but I was treated to a plethora of Revenants, Arcane Horrors, and high-ranked skeletons as well), and a bunch of loot. Most of the loot proved to be useless, but it did provide upgrades to the Golem which I picked up on my way in. As one might expect, the Golem is the key to the whole deal. It has significant healing abilities, and while it can’t always fight its way out of trouble, the Golem is tough enough to escape from danger so long as your party features some tankier types.

Ultimately, I found the DLC a little on the disappointing side. It was about as substantial as I expected (given the average length of BioWare’s DLC add-ons) with a fairly large area to run through and a whole new party. However, in lieu of adding substantially to the story (as Leliana’s Song does, and Witch Hunt debatably does) the idea behind Golems of Amgarrak was to provide a very challenging play experience within the tactical game engine of Dragon Age: Origins. Earnestly, I didn’t feel the need to adjust my tactics much from playing the original game. Tank-type characters are still able to mostly take care of themselves, and the most effective approach for me seemed to be to focus on healing. The only encounter I had to repeat was a surprisingly difficult swarm of golems which jumps out at you in an optional chamber while in the process of acquiring golem upgrades. I was not particularly impressed by the Harvester, which seemed to be mostly a matter of managing a group of enemies and keeping on top of healing.

Anyway, I think this polishes off my experience with Origins. I’m very much anticipating a DLC – any DLC add-on, really – for Dragon Age II.

Catherine: Trailer (PS3/Xbox360)

Posted on by Arleigh

Atlus is one Japanese video game company who seem to have gained quite the rabid and dedicated fan following despite never having released a game that sold in the millions of units. They’re titles are considered by gamers as being very “Japanese”. This is probably why those in the US and Europe who love their games also happen to be major fans of anime, manga and many other Japanese pop culture.

One game being developed  and published by Atlus that was announced sometime in 2010 was the puzzle-platformer/action adventure game Catherine. Right from the get-go Atlus fans were clamoring for more info on the game and when it would be localized for a North American and European release. When the game was just weeks away from it’s Japanese release date news came down from Atlus themselves that there was no plans at the moment to release the game outside of Japan.

To say that Atlus fans were heartbroken would be an understatement. While they could still import the game that would mean higher price due to import shipping fees.

Fortunately, this stance suddenly changed and on March 1st of 2011 the company announced that they were officially releasing the game for North America and with a release date of July 26, 2011. This news was greeted with joy by Atlus fans and some grumblings from those who shelled out the extra cash to import the game.

Catherine is a game that one might call one with “adult” themes and subject matter. It because of this that some call it quite “Japanese” since they’re more willing to release games that are adult in nature without resorting to violence as the foundation. While the game is not one of those eroge titles (erotic game) it is one that should definitely be bought and played only by those who are old enough to buy M-Rated titles.

The game will follow the similar Japanese release pattern and come out with different covers for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The game is still set for a July 26, 2011 release.

Video Game Power Rankings

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Recently, as I settled myself into my cheap office chair, I realized that there was a stack of 360 games which was sitting on the table between my actual workspace (computers, etc.), and the TV with the 360 hooked up to it. My mouth twisting in annoyance, I inspected these games, determining which ones needed to go where on ‘the rack’. The rack is where games go to die after they’ve escaped immediate interest, especially in a climate like March of 2011… a climate in which new games are constantly being released.

A few games went on the rack. Others, I knew, had to stay out. Why? Because they’re go-to games. They’re games I need on-demand. This is 2011. If it takes me longer than 20 seconds to achieve video game bliss, I am doing it wrong. But it did get me thinking. What games are sitting on top of that stack? Which ones does Steam claim I’m addicted to? Which PC games are relevant enough to where I actually keep track of their DVDs?

So I thought, why not talk about video games the way I talk about sports? Why not have a power poll? After all, there are games which dominate my time, and those which do not. Not all of the games which occupy my attention are new. Not all of them are critically acclaimed. Not even all of them I would take the time to review (unless someone really wanted me to, I guess. I can probably write 2,000 words about any video game at this point). But these games do share a certain quality which sets them above and beyond the average title. These are games that I actually want to keep playing. Some games might make the list, from time to time, simply because I need to finish them in order to write a review (or, from a more fiscally responsible standpoint, mail them back to Gamefly) … but not all. Not even most. That stack which remains ever at my fingertips is video gaming bliss.

At least, today, it is. Tomorrow, who knows? So I thought I would share a few titles from ‘the stack’. You can think of that as a metaphor from now on. It represents the sum total of my gaming experience, from 360 titles through Steam downloads. These are the kind of games that I’d think about, for a flickering flame of an instant before slapping myself back to reality, turning down sex for. These are games which I can disappear into, and later boast about the accomplishments rather than hanging my head in shame over the time-sink. I think that’s enough adieu. Let’s agree to stop for now, shall we? Instead, let’s dive into the power poll, in reverse order…

8. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Not nearly the time-sink that it used to be. This reduction in attention has nothing to do with the game itself – which is still pretty fun – but rather due to the inundation of new games forcing their way in. If I had to pick just one multiplayer game to jump into with my friends, it would still be this one… but I’m not sure there’s any reason to play Black Ops solo right now.

7. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Steam tells me that I love this game, and that I’ve spent prohibitive amounts of time playing it. Unfortunately in this case, Steam is right. I actually had never picked up RA3 on its retail release, but I was unable to refuse Steam’s recent sale on latter-day C&C products. I was hooked pretty much on entry, through a combination of nostalgia and longing for a legitimate RTS release. Ever since I burned out on StarCraft II for no discernible reason, I’ve been looking for another strategy game to fill the void. I guess this one is it. At least, for now.

6. Civilization 5 – A perennial power-poll contender. The Civ series is a fall-back position for me. Anytime I hunger for immersion and a way to kill a two-hour-block, I fall back on this series. Ever since I embraced the latest incarnation over Civilization IV it’s been a no-brainer.

5. Bulletstorm – As I’ve stated before, this is a great game. I’m just not sure how replayable it really is. Given time, I’m sure I could play through the single player again and love every instant of the carnage… but in the meantime, the lack of variety in the multiplayer mode has this one shelved behind some of the newer titles, and some of my perennial all-stars.

4. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds – The DLC for Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath is hideously overpriced. That having been said, having Jill back in the fold has totally re-ignited my interest in the game. I now play it as a kind of bridge between other more ‘serious’ games. I remain terrible at multiplayer MvC3. If you want easy winds, challenge me.

3. League of Legends – Continuing their unending trend of new champions, game state patches, and new content, Riot Games continues to impress with their tactical multi-player smash. I’m sure the microtransactions in this game are making everyone involved rich, too… which bothers me only in that I’m not involved in the collection of cash.

2. MLB 2K11 – I play two sports games every season; MLB 2KXX and Madden NFL. I will sometimes also trot out NCAA Football… but not often. Anyway, the latest version of MLB 2K isn’t exactly a re-invention of the wheel. We’ve known the rules of major league baseball since 1898, and Bud Selig remains as committed to stagnation as ever. There’s not a ton of new features to be desired in this latest incarnation, but the graphics are even better than ever, and the pitching and hitting controls are as good as I could conceive of a way to make them. There isn’t much to hate in this latest title.

1. Dragon Age II – Immersive doesn’t begin to cover this one. I’ve heard a lot of the complaints about this game… and my succinct retort would probably be something like: “I love this game. I hate listening to reason. So let’s not discuss it.” Frankly, that, and the enormity of what I have to say about this title, are the core reasons that I haven’t tried to review it yet. Fear not… thoughts are forthcoming… but I suppose after a certain point a true review doesn’t do anyone any good.

Initially, I had intended to make this a ten-game feature.. .but then I figured, why push it? These are the games that currently snare me. I’m playing them a lot. If you don’t know them, they might be worth checking out, and I’m certainly open to discussion. Also, if anyone wants to suggest new games to me that you’d desperately like to see reviewed, or that you think I’d really like… well… don’t be a stranger.