The Walking Dead - Episode 1 impressions

Being a huge fan of the zombie genre, I was shocked to have The Walking Dead, by Telltale Games , slip past my notice and drop the other day on PC/Mac, PS3, and XBOX. Much to my delight though it came in at a very reasonable 400 MS points ($5) for the first episode of a planned 5 episode game. I, of course, wasted no time in picking it up and diving right into the action.

Yet more Diablo 3: Beta Impressions

I was lucky enough to get into the Diablo 3 Beta a few days before the massive failure of the Open Beta weekend. Thus, my experience wasn't marred by a lack of ability to play. It was marred more by a the lack of excitement the game provided to me.

Now, don't get me wrong. Diablo 3 is a beautiful game. The world is well crafted, and a nice extension from the previous incarnations. The classes are each well thought out and there are some very neat abilities spread between them. The enemies are numerous, and at times can be a challenge. But, the game feels no different than it's predecessors. There is not (at least that I've seen) anything innovative to Diablo 3 over 1 & 2.

Tearing it up in TERA

The lure of a new, fresh MMO is just something I can never seem to resist. Other than the fact that it’ll easily keep me engaged for hours at a time, I get to play with old friends that somehow always reunite for the next big release. I’ve played most MMOs worth playing, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve played a Korean-style one.

TERA has already been in ‘retail’ in Korea since January of last year and has had plenty of time for updates and polish; and so far that stands out in the first 25 or so levels of the North American version. This isn’t exactly your typical MMO though and it boasts an entirely different combat system. You don’t simply just tab to a new target and start hitting buttons and see numbers, but instead you have to aim your swings, arrows, or magic. There are a few lock-on type skills, but you still have to aim and hover over the target for a split second to get the lock-on and I did find myself trying to move away too quickly without fully locking on sometimes. Once you get the system down it feels really nice. The learning curve isn’t too steep, yet it will feel awkward for a while when you’re trying to adjust to it.

Diablo 3: Open Beta Impressions

BMini is a smart guy who plays lots of games, and writes up sometimes insightful and almost always entertaining reviews in our ongoing email chain during the day. He also refuses to write any of it up in this blog for us. He will have a permanent byline soon, but in the meantime I will just copy and paste his stuff from email to here. Enjoy!

My impression was very simple:  It took them 10 years to make this?

The Diablo format really isn't the freshest thing out there for gaming.  So many games have followed the random loot craze method that going back to Diablo just feels like a ho hum fantasy game.  The actual loot system is all white noise now because we all know how rare it is to get different types of gear under Blizzard's format. So that old excitement is shot...it needs to be supplanted with something new.  What Diablo needed to do was make the actual game aspect more compelling.  This could have been done in two routes, 1) more character customization/skill choice, or 2) better stories or a compelling quest line.  Given that most gamers have taken #2 and dropkicked it out the window with the grind society that we've become, #1 was the more viable option. 

Diablo 3: Open Beta Impressions

I'm going to have to disagree with my friend Alex on a couple of points, but I think that we will agree in the end on our overall impression of Diablo 3 after the open beta. I should also be noted that my opinions come after a clearly MORE than adequate TWO hours with the game. That's right. TWO.

So, the first interesting point of the weekend should be that anyone who expected a launch of a game, regardless of the name promoting it, that was specifically billed as a beta stress test to be stable is a fool. There was NEVER any chance of this happening without errors. This is a good thing. They will learn, and on May 15th the game will likely run much better for it. I am notoriously fickle when it comes to game testing. I don't have as much time as I used to that will allow me to wrestle with a game for hours in order to play it. I was strangely satisfied that I got even two hours in before stability led me to uninstall the beta. I got to spend enough time with the Barbarian and Wizard classes to come to some general conclusions, but I obviously can't sit here even as a hack writer and claim the game will be bad on so limited a play through.

After the jump are my thoughts.

Diablo 3 OPEN BETA Weekend thoughts

When a really big gaming company like Blizzard does an open Beta weekend, most people expect it to go off without a hitch. That wasn't the case. The game was largely unplayable for large periods of time and most of my gaming group played for limited time and weren't too thrilled with the series when playing alone.

Diablo has never been a "GREAT" single-player game. Torchlight, the highly regarded Diablo clone did single-player better and in a more fun way. The Diablo series has always thrived by being a fun loot-fest engaged in with friends. The action needs to be furious, constant, and scaled to a proper level of difficulty.

It says something about the ease of the newest entry in the series that I've never died while playing in the Beta. (NOTE: I've had access to the Beta for over 3 months now and have played through to the Skeleton King multiple times with each of the classes).  I'm sure its possible to die, but as someone who considers himself only a moderately okay game player, I wasn't surprised that my more hardcore gaming friends, people who rightly consider themselves good at games, were bored.

I'm hoping the release kicks up the action level and the difficulty. There were still moments of looting goodness and the systems (like crafting) seem well thought out and deep, but there was also the feeling that something was missing. I had loved the little scrolls that conjured a bug/rabbit/snake to undertake the tedious task of running over gold. Those were gone. I had liked the skill progression and unlocks and choices that were presented as you leveled. Those too seemed to be gone. My fear is the constant tinkering by Blizzard on a massive scale during the Beta has somehow made the game less...fun. Listening to the squeaky wheels during development must be a horrible dilemma for a game company. Do we listen to the whiny jerks who will shout loudly about how great our game is or pillory us with all its flaws or do we make our game for ourselves and see how the chips fall?

Here is hoping the Guild Wars 2 beta next weekend is better and more satisfying.

What a 69 on Metacritic means...Shoot Many Robots! Mini-Review

How can a 69 be bad? Usually a 69 means two people are having lots fun playing a co-op game with built-in feedback and joysticks. But in this case, a little 69 spells doom for the small studio that produced Shoot Many Robots!

I love Shoot Many Robots! There, the initial fit of gushing is out of the way and I can move on to the more substantive part of the review.

Since Metacritic reviews are so important to the success of small studios, I'm perplexed why this particular game has seen so many detractors. Maybe its the playful redneck world that is looked down upon by serious gamers and critics who like to think they are above highfalutin humor. In one case (IGN reviewer Mitch Dyer), it was about the controls. He couldn't get over that you had to stop to aim. For shame! You can run and gun while playing, but to aim in specific directions you need to hold down left trigger and aim. That apparently killed the game for Mitch. His other complaints seem more like the rantings of a bad gamer who gave this only the most cursory of looks rather than a full blown review based on extended gameplay.

I have a problem with this. Friends of mine, even fellow bloggers here, aren't going to consider a game that earns a 69 on Metacritic. It means the game is flawed and with countless good/expensive/AAA games in all of our queues, a flawed game just won't be played. This is a shame because Demiurge (the studio behind this effort) deserved better and the game should appeal to many types of gamers for what it is -- explosive, mindless, side-scrolling fun.

Shoot Many Robots! is a semi-old school side-scrolling that reminded me of a mix between Contra and Borderlands. There a very limited number of enemies and a seemingly endless variety of guns. You shoot the enemies, move through a small number of recycled maps, collect nuts (the games currency), and then buy new guns and equipment to take on new challenges.

The equipment has noticeable gameplay impact. Gear that gives -speed actually make you slower. Gear that has +jump allows you get to parts of the game you couldn't otherwise. Gear with +hangtime allows you to hover above enemies spraying them with bullets. Gear comes in three rarities (gold - best (most modifiers)), silver and plain. Loot drops are random and frequent. They often appear after a particularly hard section or in some out of the way area.

The pacing feels right, although you can enter random multiplayer games with people significantly higher level than you where you will do next to zero damage to the multitudes of robots on screen.

So whats fun about it? The loot mechanic is fun and putting together a bunch of gear that gives +explosive and then wielding a small, slow firing explosive pistol that demolishes everything on the screen...that is priceless.

You won't like this game if you are looking for "story" or "depth" - those are noticeably and thankfully absent. The game is more fun and more rewarding with others, although playing with strangers on XBOX live you run into the typical "silent gamer who runs through everything as fast possible" as much as you do friendly fellow co-opers.

On a scale of 5-10 (I like most games, so the lower scores seem unnecessary), I'd give it a 8. It has succeeded in providing short bursts of fun and excitement over a period of several weeks now -- better than most games.

You can find me online -- GAMERTAG: AkidderZ

So many games...so little time.

Apparently the gaming world decided it was "AWESOME GAME OPEN BETA SEASON" but they didn't give us too much early warning.

This weekend we have Tera and Diablo 3 in Open (anyone can play) Beta.

Next weekend is Guild Wars 2 Open (for pre-purchasers) Beta.

KIDDER's take on PAX EAST

As a late 30's first-time attendee of one gaming's largest gatherings, I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into. I knew there would cosplay, table-top gaming, MTG, and, of course, lots and lots of video/PC games, but I had very few other preconceptions. I wanted a "these are my PEOPLE!" type of moment, a feeling of deep kinship and camaraderie that only comes from long-held beliefs and shared interests. I was not disappointed, but the moment didn't happen at PAX proper, it happened during a meal out a Mexican restaurant. Sitting around a table full of people who all knew, in intimate the details, the story line of GRRM's "Song of Ice and Fire" and could talk knowledgeably about the differences between the novels and the excellent HBO show. These were my people and I felt like I had stumbled into a little piece of nerd heaven.

What I encountered at PAX proper was a wonderland of bright lights, interesting outfits, and long lines. It felt part suburban travelling carnival, part Disneyland over-the-top polish. In my excitement to be part of my first gaming event, I bought a three-day pass and booked a hotel for the duration. I didn't end up going back for the third day and I was probably PAX'ed out after half the first day. This isn't to say that I was bored or regretted a moment of the experience, more that I'd had my fill and knew it was time to move on.

Paradoxically, my most salient memory of my PAX weekend had nothing to do PAX at all. On our last night in Boston, our gaming group went out for dinner and drinks. That night culminated in memory gaps, near brawls, and plenty of poor attempts to hit on moderately attractive women. It was epic in every sense of the word and a reminder that events like PAX might be more properly thought of as excuses to let loose with friends in a safe environment. Also, fun happens.

I didn't actually play any of the really big games at PAX - things like Borderlands 2, Max Payne 3, League of Legends...the lines for those booths exhibitions were too long. I hate lines and waiting. I'm an impatient person (years of gaming did this to me!). For the most part I know that I will eventually own each of those games. They will sit on my gaming shelf collecting dust, part of  my growing queue of games to play. Games that will patiently wait for me to find the time and energy to enjoyably plow through them.

The three games I did play, War of the Roses (I have a fancy red tabard!), Shoot Many Robots!, and World of Tanks, were all great fun and left me wanting more. I bought Shoot Many Robots! as soon as I was home and have enjoyed many nights of side-scrolling shooter goodness since.

One the biggest surprises of the weekend came to me while waiting for our group to gather, standing around near the entrance to PAX. I witnessed countless fake weapons, backpacks, food, etc..going in and out of PAX without so much a question to their legitimacy, never-mind a proper search. Something about this felt unusual, but also exhilarating. Here was a community of people that is often demonized in the mainstream press (see here, here, or here) operating in very large numbers with minimal security and no incidents. You could bring your own food and water, you can't bring your own water to Fenway because then concession couldn't sell you a $5 bottle water. With no one searching backpacks, people with giant knives, swords, guns, and hammers -- all just walked around as if this were completely normal. You know what? It should be, but it isn't, and this is what struck me. Most events we attend have become exercises in paranoia and exploitation.  The contrast at PAX was amazing. Here, people who are often considered semi-sane loners (so wrong BTW, everyone in PAX traveled in packs), could attend an event where first-person shooters are a 'thing' and no security was necessary.

I'm just going to do a test since the posts keep reverting to draft.