Gaming Addict

Spike TV’s Video Game Awards show just got a little more watchable.  According to a Twitter post from GTTV host Geoff Keighley, this year’s awards show will include the announcement of a brand new Star Wars title.  I’m not going to lie, as a kid and even now I’m still a pretty big Star Wars fan.  So this does excite me somewhat, but I have to be honest in saying, I’m still a little gun shy concerning Lucasarts. 

Their decisions have been perplexing to me, at best, over the types of games that are produced.  You have an excellent proven franchise in Star Wars: Battlefront, yet 360 and PS3 go without, in favor of PSP for the game’s sequels.  In a time where multiplayer gaming is only on the rise, and a necessary main component of any game, why wouldn’t you resurrect your best multiplayer game?

At any rate, this announcement joins the news that the VGAs will feature a brand new full Halo: Reach trailer.  Both announcements combined could make the VGAs almost watchable, as iterations past have really left something to be desired.  But then what awards show is really interesting to watch in the first place?

At least they’re giving us something by using the forum to showcase some new content to the public.

Because of a leaked trailer that hit the net a few days ago, EA has been forced to announce new Pandemic Studios title Mercs Inc.  This is a sequel to Mercenaries: World in Flames and keeps the horrible Mercenaries franchise alive.  Although this entry certainly looks promising, as instead of a destructible world to conquer by your lonesome, Mercs Inc seems to feature multiplayer modes at the forefront. 

In fact the entire trailer appears to be nothing but multiplayer matches.  Something I’m not at all opposed to, as long as a huge play area is still available.  I’m sort of hoping for Grand Theft Auto IV’s multiplayer modes, just with bigger more badass weapons.  After all, that’s the whole premise of Mercenaries anyway.

I’m almost imagining something like the Red Faction: Guerilla multiplayer modes, where everything is destructible, and the entire environment is in a constant state of chaos.  Bring that to bigger maps, with more players, and I’ll completely give Mercs Inc a shot.  

Although I’m still iffy on the gun play, graphics, collision detection, etc.  Because World in Flames really left something to be desired in all of those areas.  I want a Mercenaries that feels as next-gen as the game is supposed to feel.  Not something that feels like a rushed PS2 port that I can play on my PS3.  

Okay, so I like the concept of BioWare switching over the entire Mass Effect 2 development team into creating DLC for the game, once it ships in January.  But what I don’t like, is what BioWare’s idea of big DLC packs seems to be.  The first Mass Effect was really only touched upon by BioWare.  According to them because of technical limitations Mass Effect DLC had to be huge, or nothing.  Which means BioWare considers the two ME packs released to be huge DLC?

The two DLC packs that were released, Bring Down The Sky and Pinnacle Station were easy additions that could be completed in a few hours.  Those are considered huge?  Is that all we can expect in the future?  Huge two hour distractions? 

A huge DLC pack is what Bethesda delivers.  Shivering Isles has set the bar for DLC in my opinion, and nothing has come close yet.  That’s a huge DLC pack, an extra 30 hours and a whole new island to explore in an already vast and rich RPG experience.  That’s what I want from my RPG DLC packs. 

So far Dragon Age looks like it’s going in the 2-3 hour distraction zone, and that bothers me.  I want a whole new campaign, or something great that’s worth my time and money.  Not a few small quests that feel as though they could have been included in the original game.  Get it right BioWare!  People will pay more for a download if the product they’re receiving is worth the money!

Quit making the quick $5 packs, and give us a big exciting addition that could practically stand on it’s own. 

So there’s going to be another Silent Hill movie.  I loved the first one, because I’m a huge fan of the Silent Hill series.  Silent Hill remained remarkably true to the spirit of the game, as well as the look and feel, and even story.  In fact you’d have to credit Silent Hill with being one of the best, if not the best videogame adaptation so far.  But it looks as though I won’t be seeing Silent Hill 2, because the early plans are to make the sequel “more accessible” to the movie going public.

The first Silent Hill was great because of the controversy.  They didn’t pull any punches, and you were delivered the same gory, shocking experience you’d expect from the game.  The movie maintained the same scary atmosphere, enigmatic characters, etc.  

Taking away those things, and making the movie more accessible means gutting the idea that is Silent Hill.  Now we’re going to be stuck with some Resident Evil crap.  A horrid script, and even worse acting/directing, to feature a simple plot with one dimensional characters that have a lot of “exciting” action sequences.  In the end Silent Hill will be lost, and in it’s place will be another piece of Hollywood drivel.  

Too bad, just when some hope could be put forth for the videogame to movie biz.  But I stand by my opinion that Silent Hill is the best adaptation, and everything that’s yet to come in the future will fall far short.

Videogames are videogames for a reason.  When you take away the player’s involvement in the remarkably thin plot lines, you lose the magic.  Then you’re faced with the reason videogames aren’t books or movies to begin with. 

I love BioWare for a variety of reasons.  One of those is their renewed efforts to better support their games via DLC upgrades.  Case in point, the newly announced upcoming DLC pack for Dragon Age: Origins, “Return To Ostagar”.  This pack puts you right into a great revenge fantasy that I’ve been waiting to carry out, taking place after the events of the first battle you encounter in Dragon Age. 

Possible Spoiler Alert!

Priced at only $5, or 400 Microsoft Points, this is pretty much a bargain.  I’m hoping for a good amount of Darkspawn to slay, and some badass armor.  BioWare has teased that you’ll be able to find and use Cailen’s armor.  But how about Duncan?  Duncan had some pretty badass armor, and I’d love to be able to borrow that from his corpse.  Not like it’s getting much use there anyway.  

This does beg the question however, is Return To Ostagar a quest that was to be included in the original game, before BioWare decided they could cut the quest to fans to pay extra?  Seems like content that could have been in the original release.  Obviously it was done in time, considering the pack is to release this holiday season, only weeks after the game’s release.

But hey, it’s cheap, and if I get 5 bucks worth of fun out of it, who cares.  

Joining the bandwagon of excessive collector’s edition games is Bioshock 2.  The just announced set will come with more than a few great extras.  Nothing really that does anything for the gameplay, but if you’re a fan they may be a good addition to your game memorabilia collection.  I’m a bigger fan of special editions that offer free DLC, but I can’t complain about cool extras.  

The Bioshock 2 Special Edition will include:

• 3 posters of vintage ads from around Rapture.
• A vinyl LP featuring the score from the original Bioshock.
• CD featuring Bioshock 2’s score.
• and a 164 page art book, featuring conceptual art and developer commentary.

I guess that’s all pretty cool.  Although I don’t see myself putting up posters from Rapture around my game room.  If you’re a fan I see all of this as pretty cool extras to enhance your game experience.  I just think extras that augment gameplay are more worthwhile.

Like Dragon Age: Origins’ Blood Dragon Armor, and Stone Prisoner DLC that came with every new retail copy.  You can’t beat a whole new character to include in your party, especially when they’re as genius as Shale.  Or armor that’s almost as good as anything else you can find in the later stages of the game. 

I actually have a reason to watch Spike TV’s Video Game Awards this year.  Normally I don’t really care for the show, or really any awards show, as most of them are absolute jokes.  Just an excuse for already ridiculously successful people to pat each other on the back, in front of less successful people.  But this year will offer at least one interesting exclusive, and that is a brand new trailer for Halo: Reach.  

This is promised to be a real full fledged trailer, not like the previously released teaser.  Apparently the world of Reach, and some of the details regarding what we can expect from the gameplay, will be shown to some degree.  

All the speculation is that you’ll be a part of a unit of untrained Spartan soldiers fighting the hopeless battle during the Fall of Reach.  All events occurring from before the events of the first Halo game of course, as the Fall of Reach was a major catalyst in the Covenant dominating the war against humanity.

I just hope when Halo: Reach comes out, that this will be a full Halo experience.  I can’t shake the disappointment of ODST, and it’s pathetically short campaign.  I know the Halo games are all about multiplayer, and I still have Halo 3 for that.  But I want more great single player action.  Something I don’t feel the game has had in full since the first Halo was released.  

Catch the show December 12th, on Spike!

Yesterday I couldn’t have cared less about Bayonetta, today I’m inclined to be ever so slightly interested.  There’s a new video showcasing a few of Bayonetta’s upcoming special finishing moves.  They’re everything I enjoy from a violent game.  Gory, full of flying blood, with more than one decapitation in the mix.  What more could you ask for?

Just watch the video:

Bayonetta has a freaking guillotine that she magically summons to slice the head off whatever foe she’s battling.  I’m still not that big of a fan of the Japanese beat em up style.  I don’t really like the stylized Ninja Gaiden meets Devil May Cry combat.  I’m more in the RPG mold for my melee combat.  But these finishers will definitely inspire me to at least reconsider the game.  

Even if Bayonetta does not look like a real woman because of how horribly disproportioned her body appears. Seriously, Bayonetta’s head is obnoxiously small, it totally creeps me out.  This is the figure that resulted from months of research into designing the sexiest female heroine?  I guess I don’t understand, or I have different personal preferences?

On a side note, Bioshock 2’s final cover art has been released.  Basically just the original Bioshock cover with a different Big Daddy:

The iTunes App store saw the release of Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies today.  The app includes the entire Nacht der Untoten map from CoD: World at War, featuring all the great Nazi zombie blasting action from the full release.  I don’t know yet how the gameplay translates from the PC and console versions, as the app is a little out of my price range at $9.99.  

I think ten bucks is a little steep for one mobile iPhone zombie game.  Despite promises that more maps will be released in the future.  I’m still unconvinced that the iPhone has any possible set up for decent FPS controls, despite the few good games that have been released.  But I’m never opposed to more zombie games being made available.

On a side note

Rumor has it that Pandemic will be closing it’s development doors pretty soon.  That’s been hinted at before, but this time the rumors are pretty strong.  If that’s the case, I’m sorry to see them depart.  Sure they’ve had some terrible games, like the Mercenaries series.  But with them goes the great console Star Wars: Battlefront formula.  Probably decreasing the chances we’ll ever see another console Battlefront, and that’s something to be disappointed about. 

BioWare has released new information on another upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic character class.  Joining Trooper, Jedi Knight, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Sith Warrior is the Imperial Agent class.  The Imperial Agent will be a spy of sorts, or more traditionally an RPG Rogue class, having a variety of disguises and ways to conceal themselves.  Also a long range fighter class, favoring sniper rifles and big area of effect weapons like the orbital strike.  Have to say the ability to call in an orbital strike on the battlefield is very intriguing.

Essentially through the Imperial Agent you will be an assassin and stealth infiltration sort of player.  The Imperial Agent uses any means necessary to get the job done for the Empire.  Through the Imperial Agent you’ll gain access to all manner of the Empire’s battlefield goodies. You’ll have to focus on surprising enemies as your best tactic, because this is a ranged fighter, so you’ll find yourself dead pretty quick trying to pick a straight up fight.

I like where this is going.  Each character class seems to have their own unique back story, and quest line, in addition to individual perks.  I’m reminded of what BioWare attempted with Dragon Age: Origins, and I see a reflection of that here.  Every class seems to have their own unique starting point, and will impact the world in a unique way throughout the game.  Considering the success of this experiment in Dragon Age, I can’t wait to see the tactic on a larger MMORPG scale.

Gotta love the innovation of BioWare.