見たmorphosis

Is non-existent. Played nothing new for July, seriously. I downloaded a whole bunch of demos off PSN though, so I might play through those. But mostly just the same old shit from before – some more Ratchet and Clank, Wipeout Pure, Lumines, Oblivion and the such.

That being said, you know, there was E3 and there was San Diego Comic Con, so all sorts of interesting shit out of there. So I guess I’ll write about those.

I’m kind of looking forward to playing Soul Calibur 4 at some point, for some reason I’m not entirely sure of. Maybe it’s the idea of laying the smackdown with Darth Vader, I don’t know. Still need to get my hands on Civilization: Revolution, and tentatively looking forward to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. That and I need more money. Maybe I’ll buy up on games in September. I apparently have a Rock Band mic waiting for me in September too, which should be interesting. My Singstar skills are pretty poor as it is…

Tags: boring, gaming

So I kind of want an Xbox. One of the old ugly big ones.

Kind of weird, but then it’s mostly because I got a massive urge to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again. And while I’m at it, Knights of the Old Republic 2. And Jade Empire, also by Bioware and apparently very similar.

Mostly I just want to beat the shit out of stuff as a Sith lord (actually, probably lady – I’d rather be hitting on Carth than Bastila is all), which I suppose can wait till the release of Force Unleashed, but it’s just not the same.

I like the excessive amount of customisation – the lightsaber crystals, the armour options, the various force skills and all that. The characters aren’t ugly like in Oblivion and the combat is fun as hell. Plus you know, actual characterisation. Good stuff *thumbs up*

But yeah, I also want to know what happens next, hence the desire to play the sequel. I know it all goes to shit in the middle when they needed to complete the game to a deadline and so on, but I like the first game enough to warrant playing the second, I think. And Jade Empire is apparently similar, but outside the Star Wars universe. Which is cool – I’m not a huge Star Wars geek by any means.

And then I was thinking I might play around with XBMC too – I was thinking of just getting a Macbook and playing the PC versions of all those games, and then installing XBMC for Mac on it, but would my hypothetical laptop even be able to handle doing all of that?

But yeah, none of that happening as of yet. Just idle ideas still floating around, waiting to be realised. Meanwhile, I just sit here and feel like killing things with lightsabers, and am sad because I don’t have a proper media center.

Tags: apple, boring, gaming, Microsoft, ramblings, sucks to be me, Xbox

Got a bit of gaming done in June. Didn’t pick up the PSP at all, but got some nice gameplay into the PS3.

So yeah, that’s it from me this month. Not so much quantity, but I did finish one whole complete game and enjoyed the fuck out of it. Yay me!

Tags: gaming, Playstation 3

Not much new to report on the gaming front, seeing as I’ve been busy doing lots of real life stuff. Study is being a bitch.

It also makes sense when you know that I’ve started playing Oblivion, which is a huge time sink. It’s been a lot of fun in the sense that I’ve been missing playing a generally well thought out open ended RPG for a fair while. I’ve been puttering along with my usual talky tank RPG character (Strength, Speech, Stamina and some kind of healing spell, with heavy armour and a large pointy weapon is the way to go for me. None of this magic bullshit) and doing a number of quests and for the most part it’s been fun. Raising some of the skills has been a pain while for others it’s too easy.

Most of the quests have been pretty good difficulty-wise, though I’m currently trapped in a quest which is kind of hard, which sucks.

Most of the NPC interaction is ok except there have been a few weird points – for example I broke into one guy’s house in the middle of the night thinking it was empty. He was home, told me to “Take your time” and to “Take care”, instead of shouting for the guards like most of the NPCs do. I broke into his basement only to find a room dedicated to demon worship complete with bones and skulls and blood, went back upstairs fully expecting to be attacked and instead he was still polite to me. So I left.

Graphics are pretty in parts and horribly ugly in other parts – mostly the landscapes and stuff look nice from a distance (I particularly like the sky). On the other hand, the people are generally pretty weird looking. I made a female character like I usually do, and it walks and sits and stands like a man (mind you, I was attacked by a bear that moved like a man, so comparatively I suppose it’s not too bad). Luckily you don’t see any of this because it’s in first person, but that in itself makes me rather uneasy as I generally don’t play games in first person. Like Bioshock coming out for PS3 soon. On one hand I like the concept and so on, but the idea of actually playing it doesn’t really appeal to me.

I’m strangely excited about the upcoming Civilization Revolution. The brightly coloured screencaps are a bit reminiscent of Ikariam (well, I guess it’s the other way round really), and I’m really digging that style. Plus I’m really beginning to feel the limits of Ikariam as a game, so I’m just in the mood for something a bit meatier. And the idea of going back to the older Civilization games seems like too much effort. So I’m looking forward to it.

Aaand I’ve run out of things to say. That’s it for now.

Tags: gaming, Playstation 3

Here’s a review of the game Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles I wrote for a local gaming site. I kinda gave up on the whole game reviewing gig when I realised that I don’t play nearly enough games to be trustworthy when writing about them. I know that doesn’t stop most people (free games, woot!), but most people suck. I care about these things dammit. And I doubt I’ll ever write another proper review like this again.

Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles

5.0 / 10

The game is worth a play for the diehard Naruto fan who wants further adventures of the characters,but proves an unrewarding experience for everyone else.

Ups: The game has an easy to use combat system and the ninja powers are fun to play with. The appearance of many familiar characters from the TV show gives a real sense of immersion in the Naruto series. The stats system gives a unique way of levelling up that rewards experimentation.

Downs: The random battles and the non-essential missions get repetitive and boring, and that isn’t helped by the bad enemy AI. The lack of explorable areas means the game gets quite old quickly, and there is very little replay value in the game.

Read more »

Tags: boring, gaming, Playstation 2, Sony, sucks to be me

Am currently playing:

• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core – bought it while in Japan in January, and have been horribly distracted by the missions, enough so that I haven’t progressed in the main plot for a month or so. Yeah, I’m lazy. Really enjoying what I have been playing though; the cut scenes are pretty and the gameplay is comfortable. It’s that and Lumines II which are really making my PSP worth it, currently.
• Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for PS3. It’s the first Ratchet and Clank game I’ve played actually, but I was a big fan of the Insomniac Spyro games so I wanted to see how it would go. It’s great fun so far. I’m really enjoying level design that plays nicely between “too big and confusing, where the fuck am I going next” and “stop making me go that way, I want to go the other way”. The graphics and design aesthetic are great too, and I can’t wait to go back to playing it.
• Ikariam – an online browser-based MMO I found via Kotaku. Basically just Civilization with an online element, but it’s fairly easy to pick up and doesn’t take too much of your time, so I’ve been playing around with it in recent days. It helps that I got my RTS playing friend addicted to it so I have friends to make alliances with, and stuff.
• PMOG, also seen on Kotaku. To be honest, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to voluntarily let anyone track your browsing history, particularly when their Privacy Policy includes this:

GameLayers may disclose player data in limited circumstances if we believe in good faith that doing so would: comply with legal process, prevent fraud or imminent harm, and/or help ensure the integrity of PMOG.

But so far it’s been reasonably fun, in a sort of RPG del.icio.us kind of way. I’ve found some interesting sites through it already, and it certainly adds a bit of spice to visiting places like 4chan, Kotaku or xkcd. Plus I get to do stuff like this:



All in good fun. I understand it’s still in beta, so if you want an invite just hit the “Contact” button up the top and I can sort you out.

I still have a whole bunch of games waiting for me, like Oblivion, Assassin’s Creed, God of War: Chains of Olympus and so on, so I’m going to be a bit busy with all that in upcoming weeks I guess. Busy in the best way possible though. Good thing I don’t care about GTA IV.

Tags: MMO, Playstation 3, PSP, Sony