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!!!

Call of Jars.

Working at a video game store allows me to be around all of the hot new titles. Which is great. However, there's a severe lapse in ability for the store employees to actually play the newest titles without buying them. Hell, even at the video rental stores they're allowed to play the newest games without buying them. Now, I'm all for playing the newest games if they're good, but what about if they ain't? In walks Call of Juarez.

First of all, most of the people who come into my store have a bit of an accent, so pronouncing Juarez is difficult. It ends up being jars. La noire ends up being la Nore, and deus ex is duce x. So why subtitle your game something people will instantly be confused with? Anyway, thank god for red box, I was able to try out this disaster and bring it back as soon as I could, which is exactly what I did.

For starters, this was yet another game that randomly gave me some ferocious motion sickness. Lemme preface this all with, I ride roller coasters, I've flown planes, been on tons of boats, and been playing video games for years, and it hasn't been until recently that it's gotten to the point where I've had to stop. I've also found it to be with crappy games. Connection? Maybe. At any rate this game, as well as duke nukem, both forced me to have to literally take a break after about an hour or so.

The game clearly wants you to play online, as each time you start a new level, it suggests that you search for matches online. As fun as that sounds... I still don't do much online playing. COD and Battlefield are different, since you can jump in and jump out as you'd like, but mission based games like COJ and Marvel Alliance need a more dedicated crowd, not some random search online. If I want to leave, I don't want to completely screw over the other player. Maybe it's just a personal preference, but I enjoy seeing the multiplay separate from the single play.

The game itself doesn't really know if it's coming or going. You have your option of choosing from one of three characters, each one with a different storyline, but not different mission areas, so basically..... I mean really.... you're playing the game 3 times over. Cheap move, but I guess it would matter in multiplay. The controls are clunky as always, the guns are hilariously underpowered. A gangster in a tanktop and and shorts, I shoot him three times right in the head (how do I know? the game tracks headshots and accuracy), 3 times in the head, and he keeps right on shooting. So you're willing to track headshots, but you won't give it the power it deserves? I've played games before where headshots count, and frankly... I don't mind the intensity. If my guy gets his brains splattered because of a wrong move, and it happens from a single shot... well, I won't do that again. If I take the time to line-up a perfect headshot, I should be awarded for my patience, I'm just saying.

Buy rent or avoid? I'd say rent, it's a decent easy chunk of achievements, and it's a non-mainstream shooter that's got some potential (mostly in the graphics and the view distance, you'll only understand it if you see it).

I mean, it beats Duke Nukem.

GameFly: My Thoughts on it

Almost didn’t make it for this month. Well, I’m here now so…

I want to talk a little bit about GameFly for a bit because I have been using it for 5-6 months and feel I can give a somewhat accurate account of it. So, the service operates similarly from Netflix’s delivery service. Make a queue with games instead of movies, wait for them to come in the mail, play as long as you like, pay a monthly fee that varies dependant on how many games you want, and that’s it. I am sure plenty of people out there have used/still use the service, so this will be a retread to many people. For those that haven’t made the leap, the question is, is GameFly worth it?

To me, kinda. Yes overall, but I wouldn’t blame anyone that cancelled it after two months or more.

You see, much like NetFlix, GameFly promises speedy delivery of your games. Difference is, NetFlix deliveries on those promises. GameFly, well, it depends on your definition of speedy. NetFlix movies are all spent via USPS First Class and they have distribution centers in almost every state. GameFly, uses what’s essentially second class, or postage stamp speed, and they only have four distribution centers. So, what NetFlix does in 1 business day (2 days in normal time, 3 on weekends), GameFly does in 5 business days (or pretty much a week).

Something else GameFly is guilty of is actually sending a game on your queue to you in the order that it was placed there. Much like Netflix, they send what ever is in your Queue as fast as it becomes available. GameFly, is short, doesn’t care. Sure, they will follow your queue as best that is possible and dependent on what’s available at their distribution centers, but they will also give “what’s available at the time” or “nothing at all”.

Story time: One time I had a queue full of some high-profile (according to MetaCritic and their sales history) games, and I waited about three weeks to get Batman: Arkam Asylum. GameFly’s excuse when I emailed then about it?

“You list has many games in it that are in high demand and we have just experienced a large influx of new customer whose demands we are also trying to meet. We can only ship out games as soon as they become available in your area.”

So since I live in Florida, my distribution center is in Tampa. They decided that the closest game in my Queue was Batman: AA, and they mailed it from Pittsburgh because I complained. They actually could have done this from the beginning, and I wouldn’t have cared since it came two days later.

That just GameFly not really caring and trying to give me “nothing at all”. An example of them “not caring” would be me putting Prince Of Persia for the Gamecube in my queue at spot #12, and then that being THE VERY NEXT GAME they ship me, ahead of Borderlands, Portal 2, Child of Eden, LA Noire, etc. That is not even good service. Just because it’s in my queue, doesn’t mean I wanted to play it then and there. It wasn’t even like the other games weren’t available or in low levels, they just wanted to limp to me the only game that wasn’t considered high profile.


Ok, that’s enough complaining. Nothing in this life is perfect, especially rental services. GameFly, overall, it’s a good service. Though it does take a bout a whole week to receive my games, none of them are scratched and it’s usually a very consistent week with email updates. I myself, subscribe to the 2 games out a month plan, that way I have a steady flow of games to plow through. Don’t worry, if I want a game bad enough I will buy it, but most are worth playing through just to investigate their design and what they contribute to the industry or my own curiosity…that and they are fun. Also, with the two games a month scenario, I save WAY more money than if I just bought them and traded them in.

It’s kinda my thing nowadays to save money, but still maintain my vices. Since gaming is a very big vice for me, this works well. I say try it, cause if you hate it, you can just cancel and walk away.

King Kong and the 1k EARNED

At work, you know, the gaming store, my co-worker and I were discussing Xbox achievements and how some of them seem just impossible to gain. "Play 1000 matches and win more than half", "Complete over 20 passes in a single game", "Play through the main story 3 times". Most of the achievements seem like they're forcing gamers to play through multiple times to get everything. I've complained about this before. We then got onto the topic of games that are an easy 1k in achievements. Games you simply play once and get them all. Avatar: The Last Airbender, Terminator: Salvation, and of course.... King Kong.

No sooner had we mentioned that fabled game, in which you receive 1k achievements for simply playing the game, than we opened up a shipment to find multiple copies of the game. So we both decided to check out the game, and see if in 4 days we could complete it, and in turn get the 1k.

Needless to say, we both finished the game, both around 4 days, but nothing without our strife.

The game is mediocre at best, it's a fairly simple FPS with the occasional Kong scene which turns into 3rd person. Now this isn't a review of the game, but rather a review of what has to happen to EARN those achievement points.

The full game is about 8 hours, but you'll feel every moment of it dragging along, and the lack of a solid gaming structure it holds. For my co-worker it meant playing for about 3 hours only to find out theres no such thing as an auto-save, but rather an episodic system, in which you still have to save. So sure you got the achievements for those episodes, but to get the achievement for completing the game, you had to play through those 3 hours again.

Win. For myself it was the random clipping. I'd be playing as Kong, climbing up a cliff when suddenly Kong would fall through the mountain and suddenly die. Start-over a good 30 minutes in the past. This happened just about every hour, right on cue. Had the game been built on a solid engine it would have been a breeze, instead it was a multiple hour hassle.

But I shouldn't complain, I got my 1k achievements out of it. The funny part is, once I finished the game, and got all of the points, it suggested that I play through again to unlock additional art samples and renderings of the game. No sir.

I'll keep this short, but basically, if you're looking to boost up that gamer score (and honestly, who isn't? i saw a guy the other day with 80k), King Kong is worth it. You'll be tearing your hair out for a few days, but once it's done, it's still a feeling of accomplishment to say "I've done everything possible in that game", even if it meant just playing through once. Oh yeah, there are no difficulty settings.