A Merry Christmas from Compsoles

Hey everyone. I can't believe it's been almost a year since I started this blog and quite a bit has happened since then especially with the podcast that's been added to it.

And on this Christmas day, I want to thank Tyler for helping me set up the podcast and his work with it, and I also want to thank everyone who has read and supported this blog since it started. I love getting feedback and comments from my readers and I love talking to you guys about game-related issues.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas or if you don't celebrate Christmas, a very happy holiday and a great new year. I hope you enjoy the time you spend with your families and I hope you will continue to support the blog in 2012. Happy gaming.

So tell me, what was your favorite game this year? Just post it in the comments below.

Dark Souls Review

When it was announced earlier this year, after I even started this blog, Dark Souls became one of my most anticipated games of this year. Demon's Souls was a magnificent title for the PS3 that came out of nowhere for me. Seriously, I hadn't even heard of it until the day it came out, the very same day I picked it up. Probably not the best move in hindsight but it worked out alright. It was a difficult but incredibly enjoyable and satisfying dungeon crawler with a great deal of customization.

With Dark Souls, From Software switched publishers from Atlus to Namco Bandai, made it multiplatform and promised both higher difficulty and a more open-world. From what I said in my first impressions of the game, it appears that they delivered but did those impressions hold up until the end? Well, let's find out in the review.

STORY

Like Demon's Souls, the story in Dark Souls is extremely minimal. It's used as a bit of setup and nothing more and while certain story elements are brought up, they're never looked at in much detail. There is a good amount of lore if you know where to look, such as your inventory, but even then much of it is kind of glossed over. In lore it still definitely lacks compared to games like Mass Effect or The Elder Scrolls.

You start as an undead who escapes from an undead asylum and is told to go ring a couple of bells in order to reveal your destiny. This is connected to old legends about dragons and four lords who brought about an end to the dragons.

There aren't many memorable characters and the story is so lacking that when something that is supposed to be important comes along, you probably won't remember why it's important in the first place.

This would be damning if Dark Souls tried to be a story-focused game or was a game that people went into with a good story in mind. Thankfully, this is not the case as anyone who played Demon's Souls probably didn't expect much with this. Dark Souls story isn't much of a story but it was never meant to be and it doesn't hurt the game all that much because of it.
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GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

The gameplay and design is what makes Dark Souls one of the finest games of the year. The gameplay is very similar to Demon's Souls. The forumla is also basically the same: you go through incredibly difficult and grueling areas that test you until you figure out the patterns and weaknesses of enemies, farming for souls, equipment, and forging material, until you eventually come across a boss or miniboss to fight who may sometimes drop a special soul that you can use to forge a special piece of equipment.

That's all there. The big difference is that the world in Dark Souls is far more open than the world in Demon's Souls. There's kind of a hub like the Nexus called Firelink Shrine but it just connects to all of the worlds without any loading or transitions beyond, at most, a simple elevator ride. To even further replace the hub are bonfires throughout the world which act as checkpoints and give you healing materials everytime you use them. However, these do NOT make the game easier than Demon's Souls in any regard whatsoever. The world is bigger and those bonfires are very spread out. And everytime you use one, it respawns all enemies outside of bosses or very specific non-bosses.

Bonfires replace the Nexus as checkpoints that give your healing items and magic back. They also respawn enemies.

The bosses themselves are fun and each of them have specific weaknesses that can be exploited. What are they? Why the hell would I say and ruin the experience. Some bosses also have tails that you can cut off to get new weapons or shields.

Some have said that the bosses in Dark Souls are easier than in Demon's Souls while the stages themselves are more difficult and I will agree with this. Only a few of the bosses came quite to the same level for me as the Flamelurker or the Maneater. That said, I wouldn't necessarily classify any of them as easy. They just have more weakness than those did and most of them still remain extremely difficult.

Even if some are not necessarily difficult, the bosses will still challenge you and also quite intimidating. But the stages definitely got boosted in difficulty.

This game is absolutely UNFORGIVING and it will make you pay for every mistake you make. Enemies will attempt to overwhelm and god help you if they bring negative status affects like poison and break through your defenses. The basilisks' attack is easy to dodge but if they take you by surprise, you die and can say goodbye to half of your health until you get the poison cured (and that stacks).

Don't EVER let one of these poisonous bastards sneak up on you. You will regret it.

The game calls you to be careful and kicks your ass constantly until you figure out a better course of action. This is why the game succeeds, it's frustrating but gives you a sense of success everytime you level up, purchase a new item, upgrade a weapon, defeat a boss, etc.

The magic has also changed. There are classes of magic in Dark Souls: sorceries, miracles and pyromancies. Sorceries are dark magic with spells that either cause damage or inflict harmful status effects, or both. Miracles or light magic that are focused on healing and defenses, boosting your own status effects, sometimes in ways that also damage enemies. And pyromancies are...well fire spells.

Magic's gotten an overhaul.

You can still only have access to few spells at time, depending on how high your attunement attribute is. The way magic is different this time is that the mana bar is gone. This time it's replaced with "charges" (for lack of a better word) that you have a certain amount of uses of. Use up the charges and you can no longer use that spell. The only way to replenish the charges are to go to a bonfire. This was apparently done to bring more balance and make people hesitate to just spam spells. I'm personally mixed on it, as I also feel that some times it actually can make the game unfair in a few select spots but it's a minor nitpick.

Customization is the name of the game in Dark Souls and this where the game's true depth can be seen. As I said in my first impressions, the class that you choose at the beginning is nothing more than a beginning template. From there you can upgrade any of your attributes however you want. Personally, I still recommend the Pyromancer for two reasons:

1. Because they start at the lowest level which allows for the greatest opening opportunity for customization and their stats are well balanced.
2. Because they start out with a pyromancy spell and those take a while to get. You can get access to miracles and sorceries quite early but the pyromancy spells take much longer.

But it's all up to you. However, going extreme in just one area is a ticket to suicide. A flexible character with lots of possible attacks/defenses is going to have a much easier time.

Lots of ways to level up, and it's all up to you. Also not my character :)

Weapon and armor upgrading is also part of the great amount of depth that Dark Souls provides. There are tons of ways to upgrade each kind of weapon. You start by doing basic upgrades but from there you can branch off to give your weapon a very specific damage type. For example, after doing basic upgrades you may want to give your lighting-damage or fire-damage. From there you branch off and start giving the weapon that damage type with different kinds of upgrade material.

These are all of the different ways you can upgrade your weapons.

It's a great and rewarding system and having multiple weapons that each give different damage types is a good way to always be prepared for the unexpected. In addition, some of the bosses drop special souls which can be used to perform special upgrades on weapons that have all of the basic upgrades. With that, you craft a weapon that you can't get anywhere else in the game.

Another new system are the covenants. There are nine different factions in the game and you can take oaths and join different covenants (though joining one breaks any that you had before). Covenants also have different ranks and going up in ranks usually give nice rewards, such as exclusive spells, weapons or armor. Betraying covenants bears a penalty that can be removed by visiting a priest.

The covenant system suffers from the game's lack of hand-holding. Don't get me wrong, I love that about the game and it really sets it apart from most games out there today, it really took a while for me to fully get an understanding of the system. Someone tells me to join a covenant for miracles the first time, and I do it not realizing how it really works. There's a balance between guiding the player and letting the player figure things out. In this regard, I don't feel they achieved the balance.

Another addition is the "humanity" system. In this game you can be hollow (the state you go into after death) or human. You use humanity points to bring back your humanity and also to further kindle bonfires. Also, the more humanity points you have the better your drop rate will be. It sort of suffers the way the covenant does, but not to the same degree.

Co-op is also still available and allows you to either help or call for help from fellow players. There is no way of open communication unfortunately which is something I had hoped they would fix. You can also invade other players' games as a Phantom (or vice versa). Invading will get you placed into the Book of the Guilty, making you a target for other players. If you're hollow, you can't be invaded.

As for replay value, New Game+ brings your character with all of his/her stats and equipment in for another round or three, etc. The difficulty scales on how high-leveled your character is at the beginning of the playthrough, meaning until you max out all your attributes, the game is escalating difficulty with each new game. It will take multiple playthroughs to obtain every special weapon through the various special souls from bosses, which can often be used to make different weapons.

What you get with Dark Souls is an incredibly challenging experience but also an incredibly rewarding experience that pushes you to play through the gauntlet and then do it over and over until you have the ultimate character. It's easily one of the most gratifying games this year.
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GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Environmentally, Dark Souls can look great, though at times the environments can feel a little repetitive but it's definitely not bad in that regard at all. Character models are weak and it's practically impossible to make a good-looking character for yourself.

On the plus side, the art design for many of the original enemies, particularly the bosses, are just awesome and can be incredibly creepy. Like I said above, even if a boss isn't necessarily difficult (and most of them are), they still probably look intimidating. Yeah, you can chalk that up to their great designs and huge sizes.

The Gaping Dragon may not be the hardest boss, but he's intimidating as hell.

On the music front, I personally didn't like Demon's Souls music too much. I don't know why, it just didn't register with me. This game, for some reason, did register with me. Just like the first, music only plays during boss fights, with a few exceptions. It was moody and fit the atmosphere which I never quite got from the first.
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CONCLUSION

When you play Dark Souls you get exactly what you payed for: a challenging yet mostly fair RPG hack-n-slash with a heavy emphasis on in-depth character customization and building. The game doesn't hold your hand on your journey and this makes it a very unique experience for this console generation.

Unfortunately, the lack of hand-holding sometimes goes to the point where it becomes annoying where you can't understand how a system works such as with the covenants, but once you get past that little problem, it's still a breath of fresh air.

If you haven't picked it up yet and love difficult dungeon crawlers and deep customization, Dark Souls is a definite purchase.

Oh and you get to fight a giant wolf with a giant sword. How frakking awesome is that?

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Power and Mastery Trailer

I know I'm posting a lot of trailers for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, but I'm really trying to get people to notice this game, it looks spectacular. Each gameplay trailer that I see only increases my excitement and I still have no idea what the story is. Here's the next trailer.

For those who were watching the trailer might see what I like about this. It looks like a bit like Dragon Age but with more versatility, which would make it more like Dark Souls or Skyrim but it's got faster-looking combat than Dark Souls (that's not a bash on Dark Souls) and more in-depth combat than Skyrim.

I've been predicting this game's potential greatness since I first saw it at E3 this year. I REALLY hope that I'm proven right and that this is an awesome game for Q1 2012.

2011 VGAs

Hey guys, the blog is back to being updated again. Sorry, midterms really f'ed up with everything.

Anyways, I know I'm a week late but it's time to go over some stuff from the VGAs. Now I did not watch because they're just a giant commercial. Mark Hamill and Tara Strong (the voices of the Joker and Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City) were rightfully pissed about their shitty treatment at the VGAs. But like the whore that I am, I'm still going to show off some results from that giant commercial.

So on that note, let's get into trailers.

First up is the new IP from Naughty Dog, The Last of Us. Their stuff is always top-notch so I've got high expectations for this.

Okay first of all, does anyone else think that the girl looks EXACTLY like Ellen Page?

The trailer itself seems to carry a 28 Days Later / I Am Legend vibe to it. 28 Days Later being one of my favorite horror films can always attract me if something has that vibe. It appears that it takes place long after the outbreak of a plague given the girl doesn't seem to know anything before the outbreak. With this game, I think we can expect beautiful graphics and a solid, character-driven storyline. I look forward to this.
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Now for the trailer for Mass Effect 3. In the GameInformer article from March/April, they talked about a scene where a Reaper fights a Thresher Maw. Well, we get the opening moments of that fight in this trailer.

Some have complained about it showing no gameplay beyond running but I don't think it was meant to do that. It's a setpiece trailer.

Also, if you watch when Shepard hits the button to call the Thresher Maw, you can see XP points pop up, indicating that BioWare is bringing back XP for individual tasks rather than for just completing missions. Still my most anticipated game, can't wait.
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Speaking of BioWare, there's a new studio opening up that's under the BioWare name and they've finally revealed what the new game is that they're making. It's a Command and Conquer game. The series had a rough year last year with a very disappointing release that turned some people off. But here's the trailer for Command and Conquer: Generals 2.

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Diablo III is set to be one of the biggest releases of 2012 and with good reason. It's been a long-time in the making, it's made by Blizzard, and it's coming a well-respected franchise. The trailer shown at the VGA shows the opening cinematic for the game.

Blizzard always has great cinematics and this is exactly the kind of stuff that I expect from them and Diablo. Also is that Jennifer Hale as Leah? That alone is good thing
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It's been a long time since we've seen anything from Metal Gear Solid Rising and now we know why. The original product got cancelled and wasn't progressing properly. So the development got moved to Platinum Games with Kojima still writing the story.

The new title of the game is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and still stars Raiden as the cyborg ninja. This has caught a lot of flak but I don't really know why. Platinum Games has been consistently excellent from Day 1 and made arguably the greatest 3D hack-n-slash in history: Bayonetta.

Yeah I doubt the gameplay is going to be like other Metal Gear games but we've turn-based dice-roll Metal Gear games. Not canon and not all that good but still. If it's a hack-n-slash game, being made by freaking Platinum Games, I'm all for it. A wait and see game but I'm excited.

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Epic Games showed off their new IP and I like the look of it. It's a zombie game but with other kinds of creatures as well.

I also like the animated look to it. It really fits the mood that it appears they're trying to go for. Looks cool, hope to see more of it soon.
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Finally, another big release for 2012 is Bioshock Infinite. The game has been looking great and why not with the awesomeness of Ken Levine working on it.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for these kinds of trailers, whether it's a movie or a video game. Peaceful music set against a violent backdrop. It works great and especially fits the world of Bioshock. Some gameplay shown but not much but even with that, Bioshock has always had great trailers to hook people in.


Well that's it. There are a few other trailers but these I feel are, for the most, the ones that carried the games the most. I'm excited for quite a few of them and curious about a few others. I'll be putting up some trailers for Kingdoms of Amalur later tonight as well, so stay tuned.

Mass Effect 3 Updates

Hey guys, I promised some news updates but there are also some updates for my most anticipated game: Mass Effect 3. With the video below, BioWare delved into the combat for ME3 which looks largely similar to ME2 as it should with some great looking additions to both our options and enemy types.

As someone who loves playing a Vanguard (it fits my aggressive fighting style in both games and real life), the Charge still looks awesome and the Nova looks REALLY cool as well as having its own drawbacks to give it some balance. I'm also curious to see what new abilities they've added for the Infiltrator, my other favorite class (yeah I know, two opposite extremes). Also, chaining powers looks great, as well as the upgrade to the turret for Engineers.

I do like seeing the extra melee abilities, though I already kind of knew about the two mentioned and I already saw the Engineer's melee attack before. Still waiting to see the Vanguard and Infiltrators' melee attacks as those are the only two we haven't seen.

As for the enemy types, good to see they're mixing them up a bit with shielded (physical shields at least) enemies and enemies that can place turrets themselves. Hopefully this game will be a beast on Insanity. Looking good BioWare, can't wait for March.

Blog Update

Hey guys. I know we've been slow posting lately. Both Tyler and I have been extremely busy for the past few weeks and while I was hoping Thanksgiving would give me more time to post, that really wasn't the case. Finals are coming up and I'm about to move out of my house.

That's the reason for the low post amount lately and the reason why, if you listen to our podcast live at Webster, there won't be an episode this week.

With that said, my plan is to give a few news items tomorrow in a few different posts and on Friday I'll FINALLY upload my Dark Souls review. If time allows, I'll have my review of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim up next week as well. I've also begun playing Skyward Sword so if you want updates before my review, follow my Twitter account and you'll get them.

Hopefully will pick up more steam soon and we hope you enjoy what we give in the meantime and understand our time constraints. Thanks for reading.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Combat Trailer

Every trailer that I've seen for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning makes me more and more excited for this game.

Today I watched a trailer for the combat system. Claudia Black returns to erotically narrate how the system works and I'm salivating looking at it. The combat system looks in-depth and varied with a lot of different combinations of attacks to attempt. I can't wait to see the different possibilities of mixing magic, and physical (melee or ranged) combat, or the different amount traps to try.

At the end of the day each trailer that I've seen shows off a deep and enjoyable role-playing experience. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes out on February 7 in North America and February 10th in Europe. It's going to be a great start to the year for me.

Compsoles Podcast #9 - Popularity = Suck?

Here is the 2nd one. I hope you guys have time to listen to all of these. This one was really fun. Some of the stuff we talked about included...

Mass Effect leaks
XCom Delayed
VGA announcements (BioWare, Alan Wake)
Call of Duty shenanigans
Call of Duty Elite Issues
MW building in MW3
$1,725 for Call of Duty
New AC and Call of Duty in 2012
New Dead Island Game
New Saints Row already announced
Possible God of War IV in September 2012
Revamped Xbox.com coming soon
WOW subscriptions falling
The Simpsons arcade game rated in Australia
Skyrim to get day one patch
Skyrim offers infinite quests
Skyrim street date broken in Austrailla
Steam forums hacked
Experience Loophole in BF3
Battlefield 4 announced
Borderlands Fan put into game
The Madden Curse
Xbox rumored “loop” runs on windows 9?
Minecraft sales exceed 4 million
MinecraftEDU
Impressions
Disney Universe
Sonic Generations
Lego Harry Potter Years 5 - 7
LA Noire Director
Mars Sim Members Play Counter-Strike to Stay Sane

Compsoles Podcast #8 - Review Scores

I finally got time to post these podcasts. Here is the first one and the other 2 are underway. Some stuff we talked about includes...

Battlefield 3 sells 5 million in week (fastest selling EA game ever)
However, a lot of German returns
Mass Effect 3 enemies and co-op species
R18 rating may be two years away for Australia
Assassin’s Creed Revelations Tower Defense
Silicon Studios does major lay-offs
Mechwarrior Online Announced for F2P and PC
GTA V Teaser Analysis
GTA V Multiplayer
Devil May Cry in alternate reality
Skyrim leaked on 360
Ubisoft obtains developer of Trials HD
LOTR: War in the North
Resident Evil: Revelations EXPENSIVE
Limbo developer says retail model is broken
GEARS 3 maps free on thanksgiving
DC Universe Online Free
Rainbow 6 Patriots
Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition
500 million downloads for Angry Birds
Joe Danger on XBLA
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West on Xbox On Demand

Grand Theft Auto V Debut Trailer

I really should have put this up earlier but it just kept on slipping my mind. Again, if this was my job, this wouldn't happen.

Anyway, here it is now. The debut trailer for Grand Theft Auto V.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Fate and Destiny Trailer

NOTE: This trailer is about a week old and I'm finally finding a little time to put it up.

Every single piece of information I see about this game makes me more and more excited. It looks like so much fun. It comes out on month before Mass Effect 3 which puts in perfect purchase territory for me. Every trailer and image that I've seen has impressed me and really want this to succeed.

A new trailer came out about a week ago where we hear the orgasm-inducing voice of Claudia Black narrate the trailer as we get a look at some of the RPG mechanics of the game. I have also heard that she will be the narrator of the main game and voice a character in it. The mechanics look in-depth and enjoyable and it gives me even more reason to be excited for this.

Quick Pick of the Month - November

Hey guys, you might have noticed that I didn't give my pick of the month for November. There are a few reasons for this. The big one is that I'm still looking for a site that can accurately give out all of the releases in a month. Second I'm trying to think of ways that I can change it around and that also goes into the third reason I didn't make one. I've been busy as hell. I haven't really had time to think about things and just completely forgot about doing it.

If I don't think of a way to redo my pick of the month by December or find a reliable site for releases, I will continue doing it just the way I did for October.

I'll say that my pick for this month was between Skyrim and Skyward Sword. At the moment I'd have to say Skyrim, though it's close. Can't wait for Friday and you can expect my first impressions a few days later.

Batman: Arkham City Review

In 2009, the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum shocked everybody. I thought it would be mediocre at best and even those who thought it would be at least good were still stunned by it's incredibly quality. It had a good focused story, excellent design, spectacular gameplay that perfectly encompassed nearly all of Batman's abilities, great gadgets, tons of fanservice, and outstanding voice acting from Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill among others.

If I haven't gotten the point across, Batman: Arkham Asylum was a far better game than any licensed comic book game has a right to be. It had some flaws such as the movement and navigation sometimes feeling a little sluggish, an over dependence on the detective mode and of course, the Killer Croc stage. But at the end of the day it wasn't just good, it was a shockingly excellent game all around.

For this reason, the hype for Batman: Arkham City has been enormous. I even named it my 3rd most anticipated game of 2011 in my first blog post back in January (and that was before Mass Effect 3, which was 1st, got delayed). I've been posting a lot about it and now it's time for the real moment of truth.

Does Batman: Arkham City truly live up to the hype and its predecessor? Let's dig into the review and find out.

STORY

The story for Batman: Arkham City is, without a single doubt, the single most ambitious story I've ever seen for a superhero game. The gist is that after the events of Arkham Asylum, the former warden Quincy Sharp (who is himself a sociopath which only Batman knows), has become mayor and uses those events as well as others to propose and greenlight the construction of a superprison called Arkham City, where the prisoners will have free reign as long as they don't try to escape. The prisoners are not just psychotics but regular criminals and even those who have a criminal past that they've already served time for. Think Escape from New York with Batman.

Meanwhile, Professor Hugo Strange has been placed in charge of Arkham City and has sinister plans, not helped by the fact that he knows Batman's identity. As Batman attempts to figure out what Strange is up to, the Joker appears to be dying from the Titan formula at the end of last game and is also at war with the Penguin. Catwoman is also in Arkham City with a beef against Two-Face, and finally the Riddler becomes more sadistic than ever in his attempt to best Batman.

What is Professor Hugo Strange trying to accomplish with Arkham City? This mystery will keep you hooked throughout the game.

That's just the set-up and what we already know going into the game, and it only gets juicier from there.

As for which game's story is better, Arkham Asylum's or Arkham City's, I'm divided. They both have separate strengths and weaknesses. Arkham Asylum's story was well-focused but lacked a lot major twists and turns and overall ambition. Arkham City on the other hand is much more ambitious and has a greater feeling of urgency, but it als has trouble with its focus especially with all of the sidequests and villains packed into it. This can also lead to some villains getting shafted with much less attention than they deserve.

However at the end of the day, while it's debatable which story is actually better, I enjoyed this storyline more than Arkham Asylum. Partly because of the ambition of the story and how many twists and turns there are and there is a lot of foreshadowing for these twists which makes their impact that much more awesome.

And while some of the villains get the short end of the stick others get a great spotlight. The most shocking one was the Penguin who was probably the most vicious version of the Penguin I have ever seen.

You have probably never seen a more vicious Penguin than this one.

Meanwhile, while the sidequests can get in the way of the narrative they also have some great references to the Batman universe with more obscure villains and characters that is pure and beautiful fanservice to fans of Batman.

So while the story isn't without its flaws, it still manages to be a very enjoyable and pretty well-written storyline that will keep you hooked from beginning to end.

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Of course the big change from Arkham Asylum is in the title: Arkham CITY. As I said, Arkham City was created by cordoning off a section of Gotham and you literally have free reign over the entire map. For this reason, gliding has been refined and is much less restrictive and you can glide HUGE distances especially with the improved grapnel boost, which you can use in mid-glide unlike in Asylum. After completing some sidequests you get an upgrade to the grapnel boost which allows you to continue gliding right after using it.

Gliding through Arkham City is a rush and incredibly fun.

The environment may not be as big as New York City was in Spider-Man 2 but I feel like there's more to do and what you do is given more meaning behind it. The sidequests are expansive and interesting and there is a lot to see including a few nice easter eggs.

If there's one flaw with the sidequests, it's that they lack major gameplay variety I feel. There are some new things thrown in like tracing a phone call, and they are still interesting, but I wish they would have put more out-of-the-box thinking to a few of them. This also leads to detective mode which I still feel is overly important and relied upon which can take away from the atmosphere.

The Riddler is back in town and this time has left 400 trophies to find, riddles to solve, objects to break, and physical challenges to complete (plus another 40 with the Catwoman DLC). Unlike the first game, you can't just find a trophy and pick it up (usually). You have to solve a small puzzle first. I really liked this as it gave it a real Metroid/Zelda feel, even moreso than the first game had.

The riddles themselves are great as every time you solve one (minus the positioning ones) you get a little bit of backstory on the creation of Arkham City and the different characters' relations to it. This was really cool to see and made me want to solve the riddles even more to get more backstory.

After finding enough riddles, then the real fun begins. The Riddler has taken hostages and put them in incredibly elaborate deathtraps like he were Jigsaw. You have to find out where the hostages are and free them. These are among the best highlights of the game and will really make you want to solve as many riddles as possible.

The Riddler returns and rescuing his hostages is one of the highlights of the game.

If you played Arkham Asylum at all, you know how the combat system works. It's a very simple system: one button attacks, another counters, one stuns, and one jumps away. It still works and forces you to really rely on reflexes. Easy to pick up and play but still requires practice. However, Rocksteady has added a few more pieces to the system.

In the first game you could use a quick batarang and batclaw. In this one you can incorporate the batclaw even more into the combat as well as use a few of the new gadgets like the freeze blast and remote electrical charge (we'll get into those in a minute). You can also use explosive gel but I found it to be one of the flaws of the combat, as it's very unwieldy and difficult to use and you can also be caught in it and ruin your combo.

Of course the predator sequences also return and Batman is still just as vulnerable to bullets as the last game. Like the last game, it is so much fun to slowly pick them off one-by-one and see the guys left start pissing themselves. The addition of the new gadgets gives a lot more ways to frak with their minds.

As for gadgets there are quite a few new ones. You start the game with your batarang, batclaw, explosive gel, remote batarang, and cryptographic sequencer. From there you expand your arsenal with things like smoke bombs and a freeze blast. The smoke bombs are particularly badass during predator sequences. Dropping one and coming down, taking out two guys real quick, and swinging back up out of sight absolutely kicks ass.

The smoke bombs are badass.

As for the boss fights, they're definitely improved from last game and given less emphasis so the lackluster ones don't take away as much enjoyment. One boss fight in particular is quite cool and requires you to constantly change your tactics as he always learns and makes sure you can't do the same attack twice. But there are still some weak boss encounters in here.

Challenges return with both predator and brawler levels but there are a hell of a lot more this time around, and there are also separate challenge runs for Catwoman and Nightwing (who's DLC I haven't downloaded yet).

On top of that there's a New Game+ which starts you off with all of your upgrades but makes more difficult enemy configurations with no warning that they're about to attack you. It's a great addition and makes a second playthrough worth it.

As for the Catwoman DLC, it's fun but it also feels like it interrupts the flow of the main story (I know different section) and while Catwoman is very fun to control in a fight, she's nowhere near as fun to navigate with. This isn't really Rocksteady's fault as it just comes with the character.

There's a lot of content in Arkham City and a lot of stuff to do, especially if you're one of those people who wants to see and do everything. Arkham City is going to take a lot of time and the game is so addicting. Mixed with the incredibly fun and satisfying combat, it makes for a combination that will make you feel like you definitely got your money's worth.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics in Arkham City are not the finest technically. The textures are not the best and just like the first game, some of the character models just don't look all that good.

However, artistically the game looks great. Arkham City is truly a wonder to explore and seeing the skyline of Gotham in the background almost makes you wish you could swing into Gotham as well. The architecture looks fantastic with obvious inspiration from the Burton films and the animated series.

The voice acting is stellar. Mark Hamill delivers his swan song performance, stealing the show with his terrifying portrayal of the Joker in arguably one of the best performances of his career. Kevin Conroy is also excellent as Batman and shows how good he's gotten with the character. Grey DeLisle is great as Catwoman though I feel she lays her dialogue a little too heavy at points. Coming from someone who normally loves her work, I feel that she's done better before. Stana Katic also delivers a great performance as Talia Al Ghul in her video game debut. It's an excellent cast and it drives the story well.

Mark Hamill's swan song performance as the Joker steals the show and is one of the finest of his career.

Finally, the soundtrack is outstanding. While the environment design seemed to be taken from the Burton films and animated series, the music is definitely inspired by the Nolan films and it kicks ass.

CONCLUSION

I believe that every year, for each person, a game comes out that defines that year and is good to that person, that they can overlook almost any flaw. Last year for me, it was Mass Effect 2. So far this year, it's Batman: Arkham City. I expected a great game, I did not expect one of the finest action/adventure games in recent memory. Any other game that comes out this year is going to have its work cut out for it.

If you have any kind of love for the action/adventure genre you owe it to yourself to pick up this game NOW! It's fun, addictive, fulfilling, and all-around just an amazing experience and at the end of the day, it's just so much fun to be the Bat. It's a definite buy.

Podcast #7 - Top 10 Scariest Games

Time for our Halloween special that we have been talking about. See how different our top 10 list of scariest games are plus some more Battlefield 3 coverage. Don't forget to pay attention to the blog this week as my impressions of Battlefield 3 will be up this week hopefully.



Just some other things we talked about:

10th Anniversary of GTA III last Saturday
GTA V announced (and on Jack Thompson’s disbarment anniversary)
GTA V rumors
Resistance 3 not doing so well
Devil May Cry HD Collection confirmed
Halo Kinect features revealed
New XIII game coming in November
Bioshock Vita troubles
Soul Calibur V EZIO
Assassin Creed movie deal is close
NFL Blitz getting revived
New Xbox in 2013
Battlefield 3 standard def 360 problems
Commit to a year of WOW get Diablo 3 for free
Mists of Pandaria
Mass Effect 3 Demo
Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer preview
Mojang/Bethesda Suit
49% of console gamers don’t buy DLC
Portal 2 DLC
Arkham City releases on PC on November 18 (and sells 2 million in a week)
No southpaw mode for Skyward Sword
No single-player DLC for Uncharted 3
Minecon
Mario Kart 3DS Wheel

Podcast #6 - Horror in Video Games

Number 6 coming a little late as is number 7 however they are well worth it. Listen to us talk about horror in video games and also a little news.



Along with horror in games we talked about these other things:

Mass Effect 3 co-op confirmed
Potential Superman game
Bethesda doesn’t enjoy being forced into Mojang lawsuit
Team Bondi owes ex-employees around $1.4 million
Dragons in Minecraft
EA is behind Wii U
STALKER 2 might get always-on DRM
DICE believes there’s a market for Mirror’s Edge 2
Netflix scraps Qwikster
Silent Hill Downpour delayed to 2012
Diablo 3 beta keys on Facebook
Skyrim manual leaked
Sony hack attempt thwarted
Red Dead Redemption not having a PC release date
Modders add Waluigi to Brawl
Vita games in Japan show cheaper digital price
Project Z Zynga
New Wii Model with Mario Galaxy Soundtrack and new super mario bros
Xbox 360 beta dashboard signups
Uncharted 3 includes starhawk beta
Burnout crash headed to IOS
Scribblenauts coming to IOS
GTA III getting IOS Port
Daytona USA coming to XBLA and PSN
320 GB harddrive coming to xbox
New Tribes game beta announced
Rage gets patch
Infinity Blade Arcade

Nightwing DLC Trailer

Arkham City has been incredible and you can expect my review in a few days time. On Tuesday, a piece of DLC starring Nightwing will be released and Rocksteady has been kind enough to give us a trailer for the pack.

While this won't be a day one download, I do plan on picking it up at some point for some more Arkham City. Peoples' opinions on Robin may be divided but whatever you think of Dick Grayson as Robin, he is almost universally accepted as awesome as Nightwing. Also, good to see that they added the costume from the animated series as well.

Retro Review: Fallout

Well, I teased this a long time ago and have been teasing it in almost every podcast Tyler and I have done. But here it is, the first of my five cRPG Retro Reviews. This week is the original Fallout which was published by Interplay and developed by its child studio, Black Isle Studios, back in 1997.

In the mid-to-late 90s, computer RPGs (or cRPGs) were really struggling. There weren't many big name titles for them anymore and they just weren't very commercially viable. Fallout was the game that started the comeback with Baldur's Gate later sealing it, but we'll get to Baldur's Gate later on. Fallout received critical acclaim for its freedom, in-depth gameplay, and unique world, which today has been milked to death as the post-apocolyptic setting.

For those who are expecting it to be Fallout 3, well it's quite different in design and gameplay, obviously with the top-down view. It's actually closer to New Vegas in top-down view actually. So let's get down to it and look at the game that helped save the ass of the cRPG.

STORY

For those unfamiliar with the universe of Fallout, in the year 2052 a war began. In 2077, nuclear bombs went off and essentially erased human civilization. Oh sure, humans still exist but they're scattered and the surface of the planet is irradiated to hell. There are underground bunkers called Vaults where groups of people live without fear of radiation or the irradiated monsters above.

Unfortunately, in the main character's vault or Vault 13, the water chip has given out. What the hell's the water chip? Oh nothing important, just a computer chip that gets water into the vault and makes sure it's radiation-free. So yeah, the vault's in a bit of a pickle.

Anyway, the Vault Overseer sends you out with a PIPBoy 2000, some equipment, and bottle caps as money, to get a replacement water chip. You have 150 days to do this, and an extra 100 if you complete a certain objective.

But that's just the beginning. After you complete that, there's a lot more to do. Really, the water chip is just a way to get things moving, though how quickly you do things does affect the ending. Later on the game's story starts to get more complex with murkier morality. It's a good one though it's not what will keep you coming back.

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

As said before, this game is a top-down RPG. Now it does have a lot in common with Fallout 3 but there are also a lot of differences. The commonality lies in the different skill sets that you upgrade throughout the game, as well as perks, attributes, etc.

Unlike Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the combat in this game is completely turn-based. For those of you used to the real-time action of those two games, this can take some getting used to. It did for me.

The action points are still there, but unlike those two games where they were kind of optional, in this game they are absolutely necessary. You need to use them for just about everything you do during combat. For that reason, the agility stat is incredibly important as it determines your action points amount.

Also important is the intelligence stat which has the ability to change both gameplay and story. Your intelligence stat determines how many skill points you are given to use each time you level up but it also affects your speech. Having a character with low intelligence really changes up the game and can make it near impossible to complete most sidequests. This was not used much at all in Fallout 3 but saw a good amount of use in New Vegas, though not quite as much as in this game.

Stats screen (Note: not my character).

To move from one place to another, you have a world map in your PIPBoy. The map starts out black and then lightens up as you travel to new locations, sort of like an RTS game. The amount of time it takes to get to certain locations depends on a number of factors such as the terrain. Some will slow down your character more than others. There is also a perk to increase your overall speed on the world map and to have a better chance of finding special locations and people in random encounters.

Oh yes, random encounters. There's no telling what you might run into as you go through the Wasteland. Around every 24 hours in game while traveling, an invisible dice is rolled which will determine whether there is a random encounter. These are things that you should keep yourself well-prepared for.

One of the things that made the original Fallout so groundbreaking was the immense amount of freedom that it gave. You can literally go anywhere and do anything from the get-go, but of course there are consequences to everything that you do. The freedom is also limited by the time limits put in place though it's a very generous time limit.

Finally, there are companions in the game. Some are temporary and some can stick around with you for the duration. First there's Dogmeat, a dog (duh), who you can "recruit". Dogmeat would make a return in Fallout 2 and 3 though whether it's the same Dogmeat, we'll never know *dramatic music* (though it's unlikely since Fallout 3 takes place over a century after this game). Unfortunately you can't control Dogmeat and he's a complete idiot meaning he'll probably die permanently soon.

Next there's Ian who is also a complete idiot though in a different way. While you can control him, he'll often shoot you in the back if your in the way of an enemy. The last two are Tycho and Katja who, while they also may shoot you in the back (yeah the friendly AI in this game is not all that good), have redeeming qualities that make them kind of worthwhile depending on the skills you have and what they have obviously.

At the end of the day, the freedom in Fallout is part of what made it such a big success, both critically and commercially. And it still makes it fun today. The gameplay has not aged as well as other cRPGs and can really take getting used to, but it's still great to go and explore the Wasteland.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

As stated above, while Fallout may not have created the post-apocalyptic setting, it was definitely a big player in popularizing it. The desolate wasteland, the small villages, the feel of a lawless land, all with a mixture of both primitive technology and weapons and futuristic technology and weapons. It's all there and sets the stage for the future of the genre and the stage for the freedom the game allots you.

So yes, graphics are what you expect from a top-down perspective. But the way they built the world serves to color the setting through more than just technical graphics and polygons.

As for the conversation screens with important people, they still look pretty damn good today. Personally I had some colorization issues during this and during the cutscenes but I feel that's more a result of the game being so old.

Speaking of colorization, some of the creatures are creepy as hell when put against the right lighting. Those radscorpions scared the crap out of me when I saw them creeping towards my party.

On the voice acting front, you've of course got Ron Perlman giving the standard intro for the game, but there are also voice actors like Jim Cummings, Keith David, Clancy Brown, and others. They do their job well though they're really just there to give exposition and lead you to your next area, not provide emotion. As for the soundtrack, it fits the mood but personally it didn't stick out to me that much.

CONCLUSION

These days, Fallout can take a while to get used to. In my mind, the gameplay in Fallout has not aged as well as in other games like it from the time. However, if you can get past that, it's easy to see why Fallout was such a big success when it was released.

The freedom that it gives you was unparalleled and the world that it gave you to explore was unique and fun, full of interesting characters and smart black comedy. It's still a great romp and one that you should definitely check out given the chance, especially if you're a fan of cRPGs or want to see the roots of the Fallout series.

Arkham City Launch Trailer (and Catwoman Code)

First the bad. Yes, the Catwoman gameplay is only available via an Online Pass. Yes, it's a douchy move by WB Games to try to further hit the used game market. As Tyler and I have said MANY times on our show, the used game market is important for many people and this was just mean.

First off, I don't want to blame Rocksteady as I doubt they had much say in this given that WB Games packages the game and sends it out. Now, what could they have done differently? Besides not having an online pass at all, two things:

1. They could made the decision that this would have been an online pass bonus early and told us from the beginning that Catwoman would be "bonus content." She's been teased for months, since JUNE! And they just now drop this on us? Unacceptable!
2. They could have simply not announced her at all.

That said #2 could cause people to believe that they were deceived once other people got this content. So, #1 should have probably been the route that they took. However, if you go to GameStop, they've said that they will be including a code to access Catwoman with every used copy, so thank you GameStop.

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Now for the good. Batman: Arkham City is being released on Tuesday and if the reviews that have come in so far are any indication, it looks like it's going to usurp its predecessor as the best comic book game ever made.

To get you guys even more pumped and anxious for Tuesday, here's the launch trailer that Rocksteady released. I'll be picking it up on release day, so keep an eye open for my thoughts and my eventual full review.

Podcast #5 - Video Game Difficulty

Time for another great podcast. Here us give our thoughts on Battlefield 3 beta and Dark Souls along with covering the latest news.



Some of the topics talked about include:

Skyrim Achievements and Trophies
Voice Actors announced for Skyrim
Christopher Plummer (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Insider)
Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist, Minority Report)
Joan Allen (The Contender, The Bourne Ultimatum)
Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman)
Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica)
Vladimir Kulich (The 13th Warrior, Smoking Aces)
Claudia Christian (Babylon 5)
Diane Louise Salinger (Carnivale)
Renee Victor (Weeds)
George Coe (Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
Man welds 242 pound Metal Gear Rex statue for fun
Nightwing and the Mad Hatter in Arkham City
Rage problems on PC
From Software underestimates Dark Souls sales
Death of Steve Jobs
iPhone 4S
Infinity Blade 2
EA suing EA
Diablo 3 might be banned in South Korea
Halo Reach Beta Playlist
Team Fortress Demake
Portal 2 Tardy DLC
Game of Thrones RPG early 2012
Gears of War 3 first DLC Horde Command Pack
Resident Evil 3DS Dated
Unreal 3 Engine in your browser
Gran Turismo 5 Cockpit Update
Team Bondi shutting down
Real Steel Xbox 720 WTF
Mass Effect 3 Online Multi-player a reality (MAYBE, I’ll explain on the show)
Dead Island has Nudity
IGN Pro League
Meta Night Banned from Brawl competitive play
Impressed by skyward sword
Syphon Filter in development for Vita
Fall of Cybertron

note: If you have problems with the player make sure you are using Chrome, Safari, or IE9. We are starting to switch to HTML5 and so should you :)

Dark Souls First Impressions

Dark Souls has been one of my most anticipated games for months now. Its predecessor, Demon's Souls, was a brilliant RPG with a near unlimited amount of character customization. Mix in incredible difficulty that pushes you to complete the game every step of the way, and you had one of the best games of 2009 and of this generation in general.

So, I picked up Dark Souls on Wednesday and have been playing the crap out of it and in turn getting crap kicked out of me every step. But as Tyler and I said on this week's podcast (hopefully it will be on the blog soon), difficulty can be a double-edged sword. It can make or break the game. Does it make Dark Souls the way it did Demon's Souls or does it go too far?

STORY

Like Demon's Souls, so far Dark Souls really doesn't have much in the way of a narrative. In fact, the opening prologue even more cryptic and confusing than for Demon's Souls. It does have some lore mixed in there from what I've seen so far and I'm hoping to uncover more as the game goes on. While Demon's Souls never became a masterpiece of storytelling or had much depth to its story, there was definitely more than met the eye at first.

I'm not expecting much and if you're looking for story in the first place, you're probably playing the wrong game. This is a game primarily about the gameplay and overcoming extreme odds, so even if there's not much story depth, I'm not going to grill into it all that much in this case.

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

If you've played Demon's Souls, you probably have an idea of what to expect. Even the controls are almost identical. You have to go through several different and very difficult areas grinding your way through basic enemies and every now and then, killing a big demon (aka boss).

There are big rats and then are REALLY frakking big rats.

You gain souls for (almost) every enemy that you kill which act as an all-in one currency for everything. This includes leveling up, which gets more expensive each time you do so. They're also used for purchasing items, upgrading equipment (in conjunction with upgrading materials), repairing equipment and other things.

There are differences and the biggest one is that Dark Souls feels much more open. In the first game there was a hub called the Nexus which was used to get from one place to the next and a good safe zone. In this one, I guess there's one place you could call a hub but the safezones are bonfires.

The bonfires are essential to the game. Not only do they refill your esters, which replaces the grasses from Demon's Souls as healing items, they are also where you can level up your stats, repair your equipment and just plain take a breather. Though they also reset every enemy you've killed, not including bosses. Though this can be useful for farming for souls and other material.

Another difference is that you don't mana this time for spells and miracles. This time, each spell and miracle has a limited number of uses which can be recharged if you get to a bonfire. This was done in an attempt to balance the magic and I think it worked, though I'm still not quite sure where I stand on the change.

Also there's no soul form this time. There's hollow and human form. You get humanity points throughout the game which can restore your humanity each time you die as you become hollow each time. Humanity also gets the enemy to drop more items and if you have humanity points but are already human, you can kindle the bonfires to give you more healing items when you use them. Just be careful because when you die, you lose all your unused souls and humanity points. If you get to the spot where you died without dying again, you can get them back. Die again before that, and they're gone for good.

Even bigger is that there's no world tendency this time. In Demon's Souls, world tendency could be either light, dark, or neutral and all of them had effects on the world and gameplay. I'm kind of sad to see it go but I can definitely see why they did it as manipulating the world tendency in Demon's Souls was a pain in the ass at times.

You fight a giant wolf that uses a giant sword. That is AWESOME!

When I say Dark Souls is hard, I mean it is REALLY hard. Enemies are relentless and even most of the weaker enemies can kill you in a few hits from get-go. If you get outnumbered too much, you can your ass goodbye.

But like the first game, it's for the most part fair. If you die, you screwed up and you need a new strategy. Customization, variety, and adaptation are key here. So here's a tip. While you should definitely focus on your strength, whether it be magic, melee, archery, or whatever, don't ever ignore any of your skills. Try to keep your character somewhat balanced. The same goes for equipment, have a good variety that you can switch to-and-from quickly. And when you do overcome an obstacle, the satisfaction that you'll feel is absolutely incredible.

The online component is also back and is almost the same as last time. There is a new addition in the form of covenants that the player can join which have different practices and can give some nice goodies to members, whether they be spells, miracles, or equipment. I haven't really checked them out yet so I'll go over them more in the full review.

Much is the same, but much has changed and it's just as much fun as it was two years ago.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Artistically, Dark Souls has much more varied environments than Demon's Souls did and also a much richer color scheme. The first one had too much gray which was definitely a problem. It was further held back by at times being WAY too dark.

Some of the creature designs have been awesome, particularly the bosses. Even though the first boss is ridiculously easy to kill, he still looked intimidating as hell. The Taurus Demon also looked incredibly badass and those are just two bosses that I've really come across. Some of the others that I haven't come across yet have looked awesome from what I've seen in footage and images with the Gaping Dragon being pure nightmare fuel.

YIKES!!! I'd hate to be its family dentist.

As for the music, I like it much more than the music in Demon's Souls which I just didn't get into for some reason. This one has some much more peaceful sounding tunes than Demon's Souls did which is nice for a break when you've been getting the shit kicked out of you for the past few hours.

CONCLUSION

There's still a LONG way for me to go in this game and I wouldn't expect the full review for sometime as I want to try everything that I can. Arkham City will also delay the main review.

However, from what I've played so far, this has been an excellent follow-up to the game that came out of nowhere two years ago. It's mostly the same mechanics with a few changes. Some are great and some I'm mixed on but as a whole, at the moment, it's been a great package.

Aliens: Colonial Marines Demo, Nightwing in Arkham City, and AC Relevations Trailer

As a huge fan of Alien, I find it baffling that we have yet to see a great game for the franchise outside of the arcade and without a Predator. (Note: Predators also kick ass). Apparently Randy Pitchford of Gearbox thought the same way as Gearbox has been attempting to make Aliens: Colonial Marines, a follow-up to the excellent sequel Aliens.

This is great for those fans who thought that 3 and Resurrection were not worthy sequels. And don't get me wrong, Alien 3 is not THAT bad. It just was very flawed and nowhere near the quality of the first two.  Resurrection, on the other hand, can promptly be thrown in the garbage.

Anyway at E3 this year, Randy Pitchford showed an 11 minute demo to journalists that wasn't released to the public...until now. The demo finally got released and it is awesome. Listening to Randy, you can tell that he is really into this which is a great sign. From that we see it's nice and atmospheric. I actually wish they held the tension longer, but I'll probably talk about that on next week's podcast.

Here's the demo for your enjoyment.

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Batman: Arkham City will arrive in less than two weeks. I could have sworn there was a trailer for Nightwing but I guess I was incorrect. That doesn't mean that I can't go over it. For those unaware, Nightwing is Dick Grayson who was the first Robin. He became Nightwing after he left Batman's side and started kicking ass on his own. You can say all that you want about Robin, but Nightwing is awesome.

Also announced were the Mad Hatter, a villain who styles himself after the character of the same name in Alice in Wonderland and uses hats to control peoples' minds. Also, I believe the Calender Man was announced, a villain who's crimes always revolve dates and days of the week. It's going to be interesting and I can't wait to play.
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Finally, Assassin's Creed: Revelations is getting released next month. I am looking forward to it, but not quite as much as I was with Brotherhood. However, it's still going to be a big release.

Anyway a new trailer was given and it's probably the best trailer for the game so far and has gotten much more excited for it than I was before. I really do want to see Ezio's story end, not just for closure, but also so we can move on to something else. So, here it is.

Compsoles Podcast #4 - Top 10 Villians/Enemies

Sorry about this week guys...got kind of busy with school and such but don't worry it is worth the wait. This week was a good one and I hope you guys listen to another great show this and every Thursday from 2 - 4 CST on http://thegalaxyradio.com/ .



Some of the things we covered include:

Castlevania Tribute (25th anniversary)
Skyrim Racial Abilities and Skill Perks
Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware deemed to old for Braid Maker’s The Witness
LA Noire on PC, Free DLC
Foo Fighters to headline Blizzcon
Syndicate returns in February
The Kindle Fire
Shank 2 announced
Uncharted Dramatization to air in Tokyo
Scrolls lawsuit going places
Dead Island Movie?
iPhone Event
Dead Space 3 details released
Rage uses 3 discs on Xbox 360 and had 8GB install on PS3
Old Republic has a release date
Microsoft allowing mistakenly banned accounts back
Gears of War 3 on Conan
Gears of War 3 review by Jeremy
DOTA 2 coming sooner
Demon Souls online multiplayer will stay til 2012
Jade Empire 2 continues to be hinted
Witcher 2 DLC will be free on PC, not on 360
Enslaved is dead
Joker trailer for Arkham City
Mario Land 2 coming to 3DS
New I am Alive trailer

I hope you guys enjoyed. Feel free to leave us some feedback.