Nana-nana-nana-nana- LEADER. Top games?

I mean.... BATMAN.

omgthereissomuchtodoandi'llneverfinsh.

Dear Rocksteady.... proud of you. As I watch the "Perfect Score" reviews coming in, I couldn't be happier with this damn game. I'm at the 10 hour mark, I literally started playing at 12:01, and I've enjoyed every bit of it.

Batman: Arkham City. I've always been a Batman fan. Batman sheets, Batman underwear, Batman toothbrush, and this was all after I hit my 20's. Hey-o!

Seriously though, the work and time they've put into it shows, there are about 15 side mission quests (but they're long, like storyline long) and then the main storyline. NOT TO MENTION the Riddler challenges, the challenge maps, the expansions, it's just... a lot of game for one price.

A review wouldn't exactly do it justice, just read the reviews. It's up there with GTA4, Red Dead, Oblivion, and Gears 1. Where it belongs.

Buy the damn game. One of the best games to come out this year, the best Batman game so far, and an extremely enjoyable experience.

However. Here's my problem. A little education for the masses that I'll coat-tail onto Exploder Blades blog. You see.... gaming companies usually release big games (or AAA titles as the industry calls it) in the fall, right around October/November. Why? Well, their big sales will be right before the tax season, people are back to work and school from the summer vacations and they entertainment and they have more money rolling in, and of course.... Holidays. Mostly Holidays.

Come out with your big game in November, when people are holiday shopping, and you know it'll sell. If you really peel an eye towards the games coming out this fall, you'll see that they're all (with a few exceptions) targeted to different audiences. Shooters, RPGs, wrasslin games, comic book games, and sandboxes. A few overlap (AC:R & Saints Row 3, BF3 & COD3), but they're all guaranteed sellers. Gaming companies know that summer sales suck. Always have. Had Gears or Rage come out in June or July would it have gone over as well? Nope. It's the way the business is designed. Fear, Shadows of the Damned, Hunted... those were the early summer games, and their sales showed it. Only desperate gaming weirdos bought those games..... wait.

Sports games are different, since they have to match the sports season, so that's cool. But time and time again, games come out in the fall, big ones. Fall then early march/april. How it's been for years, probably has something to do with the farming or something.

Point is. Batman is a great game. Skyrim will be a great game. Assassin's Creed and BF3 will be great games. COD:MW3 will sell lots. If Batman is any indication of how this fall will go, I'm in no rush to finish any of these games, since they'll all be very well made, and deserving of great awards.

Now back to Batman, I'm almost done with the Titan container missions, at least my half and...

This October's Rant bought to you by....

Blah Blah blah, school, wedding anniversary, new job (career?), I have been busy so I missed updating September. Well, on to games!
I got a lot to say so it’s another one of those smorgasbords of thoughts month’s.

1. So I picked up a relatively rare game for the DS called Infinite Space. I have a love-hate relationship with this game so far. It’s about space travel and combat, and you do get to build your own starships in it, almost from scratch. Little things like placing officers in specific roles to give the ship bonuses to measuring the fatigue of your crew to watching your fleet of sips traverse through space make this title intriguing indeed. You know what doesn’t make it intriguing? The bare bones, phoned in plot. Seriously, for a supposedly 40 hour RPG (I am only 6 hours in and so bored with it) this story better bring it’s A game in the second half. Boy goes on adventure through space, recruits friends along the way, blah blah cookie cutter RPG story.

Also, the combat is a real let down. When you create and build a fleet from the ground up, you expect to have a plethora of combat options to make the game more interesting. Nope. The combat boils down to a timed game of rock-paper-scissors, or as Infinite Space calls it, Barrage attack, Normal attack, and Dodge. Barrage’s do heavy damage, but if Dodged, they are easily avoided. Normal attacks do…well…normal damage, but if the enemy Barrage’s you, you’re screwed. And Dodge works well against Barrage, but does nothing against normal. Oh, and you can move in on a linear battlefield to get into or out of weapons range. There, I just explained Infinite Space’s entire combat system in five sentences. That was seriously all there is to it. When a game lets you build your own starship fleet, exclusively for use in space, then it stands to reason why a simplistic combat system might not be what I signed up for. One day I will complete it, but lately I have had to work up the fortitude to sit down and play it.

2. I have been on an old-school game kick. I beat Metroid, then Metroid II, now Legend of Zelda is on the docket along with Zelda II: Links Adventure. Ahhh the benefits of buying a 3DS on launch day. So Metroid…
On this month last year Nintendo and Team Ninja decided to collectively insult every Metroid fan in the world by releasing Metroid: Other M. It is still the worst one in the series…wait shut up, YES, it is worse than Metroid II. I liked Metroid II: Return of Samus and I think its mechanic of killing every Metroid on SR388 is not only the most important plot element for the entire series. That, and the game is damn fun. Other M did do what no other Metroid game did before it; it gave Samus a voice, and a terrible one at that. It also gave her a personality, and a terrible one at that. You know, let’s skip talking about Other M, I really didn’t like that game…
But the first Metroid game, there is a classic right there. It’s you, as Samus, alone on a fortress planet and you must kill Mother Brain. This game is challenging, but fair. Graphically inferior, yet still way ahead of its time. Small tip for everyone that hasn’t beaten the gae yet: Ice Beam. Once you find it, keep it. Fu** the Wave Beam. The Ice Beam actually makes Ridley the easiest boss in the game.
Metroid II: Return of Samus, as I mention, is a small masterpiece. It doesn’t make you want to jump for joy at any particular element, and the music is the worst thing ever, but the game is still solid. Samus has a large character model, gains some mainstay weapons and items in this game such as the Spazer and Plasma beams, Space jump, shoulder-padded Varia suit, Spring Ball and the rarely visited Spider Ball all make their first appearance in this game.

OTHER M SPOLIER

If you were ever wondering why Samus jumps into the Queen Metroid’s mouth near the end of Other M play this game and use that tactic to kill the Queen Metroid in this one. Works wonders

Spoiler Over

3. Star Fox 64 3D! Yay!!!! Wait…it only supports LOCAL wi-fi play with multiple 3DS’? Back to Gamestop you go, Yayyy!!! Come on now, Nintendo, you can’t keep pulling that crap. It’s 2011. Everyone has an Xbox Live account because online play has proven to be “cool” and “convenient” and “smart”. Hope on the bandwagon already. While we are on the topic…

4. Monster Hunter 4 for the 3DS…looks pretty good. The slide on analog pad for the 3Ds…is kinda gimmicky, but if it does retail for $20 I suppose I could live with it. Now, hows about a US release date, eh?

5. Battlefield 3? Skyward Sword? Arkam City? Skyrim?! And AC:Revelations?!!! ALL IN THE SPAM OF TWO MONTHS!!! Where the fu** was all these games during the summer! Now I feel like I have to take out a bank loan just to…OMG SW: Old Republic gets a release date and it’s in December!

-Dear Game Companies: It is not a good idea to oversaturate the market like that, because believe it or not, I am only going to buy two games on this list. Yes, I wants them all, but the demographic this games are being marketed to have primary responsibilities and time constraints, what with our jobs and such. Like the whole thing with two companies releasing Battlefield 3 and Modern Warefare 3 in the same two week period. As gamers that like multiplayer games, we will chose. One of you will lose. Battlefield 3 could have come out in March like Medal of Honor did or vice versa, but noooo. You guys wanna fight it out with your most important asset, your sales figures and customer base. Activision, IMHO, I think you may be surprised…



That’s all I got for this month. Tune in next month when I wax philosophical on how much fun I am having playing Skyward Sword and Battlefield (yes, those were the two).

Despite all my... gaming? I'm still just a Wastelander in a desert.

Rage. I like you. You like me. We have a pretty decent relationship. I occasionally stop by, hang out for a while, enjoy my time with you, and I go do other things. It's nice, it's safe. It's just.... you're starting to ask a lot out of me. When we first started to spend time together we'd explore the world, trade some stuff, and maybe run a few errands. But now... I dunno, things are different. I get back from a long day of work, I have to drive from one side of the city to the other, put hours into a place I don't even really enjoy being, drive all the way back home (and traffic is just a nightmare) and you greet me with even more errands to do tomorrow. It's not that I don't appreciate feeling needed, it's just sometimes too much to handle.

Seriously though, this is my thought as I'm playing Rage. It's a great game and all, just asking a ton out of me. Had it come out this last spring, I'd be a Rage expert, but I mean, there's Batman coming up, Battlefield, Skyrim, it's just a lot to take in.

The game, however, it simply delicious. Gorgeous graphics, some of the best I've seen on the 360, and what continues to be top-notch on the PS3 as well. It chugs along nicely on either system, and has everything I ever wanted. Would I call it a perfect game? Not by a long shot. But what it's missing are just elements from other games that have just spoiled me. Now if I'm playing a wasteland FPS and there isn't a radio, I simply hate the in-game music, soo.... thanks for that Fallout. Considering that the Ink Spots sales increased nearly half a century after their existence was due in no small part to Fallout 3, it makes me wonder why Rage decided to skimp on the music. Also, did you ever notice that Cage the Elephants song was featured in Borderlands, but only in the opening? What's with that?

Fallout, Borderlands, Rage? They all so similar? Well............yeah. Take Borderlands mechanics, mix it with the atmosphere of Fallout, but the looks of Borderlands.... and the controls of Borderlands, and... ok. I was once told that a bad reviewer mentions other games in their reviews, but the comparisons to Borderlands will be so very obvious. Rocket launching cars, upgradeable weapons, sharp-edged wielding maniacs. Fine, it's Borderlands 2.0.

Of course they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, and if that's the case, they've nailed it. Rage is what I wanted Borderlands to be. I just never felt like I was getting anywhere in Borderlands, and I never wanted to play with other people, so take those parts out, and give it a somewhat believable storyline, and you get Rage.

I'll keep this one short, there are a ton of quests, it's gorgeous, the vehicle combat/racing isn't terrible it's actually occasionally fun, and it's made by people who know how to make shooters. Should you play it? Of course, you just might not keep it forever, but the time you spend with it just might re-ignite your love for solid single player FPS games. It did for me.

Saving system to save souls. Sandwiches too.

Dark Souls, you confuse me. You pride yourself on being an extremely difficult game. Requiring the player to "learn from their mistakes". I get that, I trodded my way through Demon Soul all those years ago, and was frustrated each time. The game itself is gorgeous, think of a third person Oblivion with darker, more artistic graphics and vastly different and complex character/inventory system. It's like playing a live action AD&D with just a few small constraints.

But for crying out loud... that saving system? Perfect example: The game starts you off with a basic tutorial, then a small boss battle where you have to sort of backtrack to find the way to defeat the boss. Standard Dark Soul fare. Only problem is, I have no idea where the save spots are! So I die, and I quit playing (which is obviously something they don't want you to do) I come back, and I'm directly at the starting, but at a save.... weird.

Another time, I wanted to see what would happen if I jumped off of a cliff, the game saved right before I jumped... so... wait, are you actively saving, well that can't be the case, since I put in about 45 minutes into a character just to find out it didn't save once. (RIP BAALLLLLZZAAAK).

After asking around to the other people I know who play the game, they've all told me that it saves when you go to the bonfires. Ok, makes sense, until I load up a game and I'm no where near a bonfire.


At any rate, it got me thinking about the importance of save points in a game.

In some games like Fear Effect, you were required to find a save point, then select your phone from your inventory, select save then you select the memory card, then you saved your file. Ok, that's fine.... except this was all happening during the game, and you didn't exactly have the ability to pause, so if an enemy or NPC were to stroll across you while you conducted your little save ballet... you were screwed.

My only complaint with Oblivion, and the entire Elder Scrolls series isn't so much a complaint as it is a frustration that has saved my bacon a few times. You have unlimited saves. Save as often as you'd like (except in mid-air). I ended my 100% completion Oblivion playthrough on the Xbox with about 250+ game saves. On the PC it was even worse. My complaint is that if you wanted to go back a few files, you could, but saving and playing multiple characters was practically impossible if you used auto-save. I guess that's more of a design choice than anything else, but it was fun making each character and leveling them completely different, not having to wait until you're completely done auto-saving a single playthrough.

Dark Souls allows for multiple characters to be saved, which is great, I just wish I could pause and select save. Well, for that matter, I wish I could select pause.

Which brings me to my second gripe. The lack of a pause menu. I know this is a design choice, and it's very edgy and cool, but come on... I can't pause my game? Not even for a moment? To get lunch? Personally, I think this is a dumb choice. Reason you can't pause things like WoW and other MMOs are because other people are involved and well... that'd be impossible. But not being able to pause a single player game just forces the player to find a hiding spot and hope no one finds him. OR stop playing. Well... the second option just isn't possible since... you know.... weird auto-saves.

Remember how bad Metal Gear Solid made you feel when you saved too much? LOOK PSYCHO MANTIS, I SOMETIMES HAVE OTHER THINGS TO DO WITH MY LIFE I CAN'T JUST SIT DOWN AND PLAY STRAIGHT THROUGH.

Opposite end of the spectrum though, when I first got my PS1, I didn't have a memory card, so I had to leave it running and turn the TV off if I wanted to do something else, and I still managed to finish Resident Evil 2. So what's the difference? Xbox 360s and PS3s can overheat after a few hours of playing, even if they don't overheat it isn't good for them. Let me take breaks from the game Dark Souls, even if I don't get a pause menu. Or maybe just explain the saving system.

Batman in 2 weeks!!!