Play Log - Mabinogi - 12/28

It's been such a long time since I last played this one. I remember hyping the crap out of this back when it was only available in South Korea during its vanilla stages. I had so many good remembers playing Mabinogi. The only reason I didn't play as much as I wanted was due to my old crappy PC.

But now, I have myself a new PC capable of running this, so I figured I'd give it another go. I played English Mabingo during G1 and a little bit of G2, but now its on G12... Man, I missed so much.

I feel pretty damn lost regarding the storyline. right now. It has something to do with alchemy... and a shadow realm? Yeah... I don't know. I haven't gotten the hang of a lot of the new systems such as alchemy and whatnot, so I'm probably gonna be bugging a lot of strangers to help me out.

Despite my love of action MMOs, I still enjoy Mabinogi's active battle system. Trying to get perfect training EXP on skills is still a pain in the ass, though.

 Oh... And I also ran into this thing:

Wat?

Obviously a glitch, but damn it scared the crap out of me when I first saw it.

Play Log - GetAmped 2 - 12/18 & 12/21

12/18 - Well I spent three hours playing GA2 on the 18th. I SHOULD have spent those three hours prepping for my Statistics Finals, but I freaking hate Statistics. In fact: I basically hate any subject that involves numbers. (I got to studying eventually, though.)

I decided to check out the Amped Lucky Draw to see what overpowered goodies were available. There was a crapton of accessories that I wanted, like the Flame Tonfas and the upgraded Axel Blade, but I mostly had my eyes set on the Jyuzu-maru Shadow samurai sword.

With that, I went and plunked down twenty bucks for some crescents even though I shouldn't have... (probably gonna make a trip to my bank soon to put some money in my checking.)

Taking a shot at the Red Lucky Draw: I got some dumb ruby, the 50 Red Energy Swords, an Exorcist Talisman, a Golden Drill and a Dimension Flyer... but no samurai sword! I became disappoint.

I didn't really care for the Dimension Flyer and the Exorcist Talisman flat out sucked, but the Golden Drill....that Golden Drill, man, is like my favorite thing ever now.

I feel powerful as a mofo with it and it's excellent for abusing chip damage (not as rape powerful as the sonic arms, though.) I can't wait to overuse the crap out of this accessory.

*Pic related; it's my reaction

I also managed to hit 200k score today, earn the Street Tiger rank and hit Single Champion 1 rank today. Overall, I made some good progress.

(Click read more for the other log. )

Play Log - GetAmped 2 - 12/12

I just looked at my Raptr profile: I spent five freaking hours playing GA2 today. Holy shit, dude. Plus my left hand hurts so badly.

My main focus during my GA2 session today was just to get my score up. I went from 66K to 100K, and that was before Fever mode went on.

I was kinda bummed out by some of the matches I played, though. It seems everyone wants to play that god damn TRAIN stage all that long, where skill amounts to abusing range and spamming any attacks that will send enemies flying off the map.

Plus a good chunk of the community is still as bitter as ever. It's annoying me so much that I'm turning bitter and I'm usually a calm guy. It's like I'm really playing RF again!

I also redecorated my room a llitle, although the 8 item limit is pissing me off so much right now. I hope CyberStep will allow us to increase it, soon.

At the end of the day I ran into Clazziquai and Koo and decided to add them to my buddy list. Then Koo asked me to join the Trash guild. Now I'm usually not into guilds and stuff, but I figured now I'll have some buddies to play with and not have to deal with all these public players all the time.

Oh, and I saw another player running around in my favorite Nargacuga skin. I thought I was the only one that would ever wear that thing. Oh well...

I don't have much pictures of my time playing GA2 today. I'll make sure to leave my FRAPS on next time...

Play Log - GetAmped 2 - 12/9

Well I attempted to do a stream on GetAmped 2 this evening, but it didn't go as smoothly as I'd hope. My microphone wasn't working at all and I had to cut the stream off one too many times. Besides from all that, I was moving way too slow with my playthrough and everyone that joined lost interest quickly. Note to self: Be prepared next time! Besides from that, everyone on GA2 was settling in and most players just wanted to chat and stuff. Next time, I'll try and get a group together.

Not much of GA2 has changed since the last betas: Translations are still iffy, all game modes are still there and whatnot, but they took out the Lucky Draw/gachapon machines for now! Kinda happy about that since I won't have to deal with annoying Sonic Gloves or Artemis Bow users for awhile.

2010-2011 - Rebooting season?

So Square Enix just announced recently that Tomb Raider is getting a reboot. She has a new look, new personality and gameplay that sounds like it's nothing like Tomb Rider.

 “You can literally go any direction that you see and carve your own way to the finish line instead of being guided.”

"Lara will become a “hardened survivor,” says director Noah Hughes. She’ll pick up various talents, tools, and supplies as the player progresses through the game, opening new paths previously inaccessible due to Lara’s lack of skill or equipment.

And Lara sounds like she’s getting some skill system, too. The game will feature base camps where the player can combine and create items or upgrade Lara’s skill-set. These camps can also be used for fast travel, saving the player precious time and effort.

Survival isn’t all easy, though. Lara will have to stock up on food and water in order to survive. She’ll have to defend her life in other ways, too. I’m talking about firearms. Crystal Dynamics wouldn’t say much on what types of weapons we’ll see, but a piece of concept art in the magazine clearly reveals a pistol, shotgun, and bow. Lara will utilize weapons like these in the game’s new free-aim system, whereas the old games had a lock-on system. Crystal Dynamics says it can now compete with its competitors." -

 So why is it still called Tomb Raider when it has nothing to do with raiding tombs?

Old Lara

New Lara

Same deal is happening with Devil My Cry (or DmC as they're calling it) and Max Payne 3, plus the same has already happened to CastleVania, Resident Evil and a couple others. Now rebooting is fine for some games that really need them, but only if they stay true to the original titles, otherwise why bother calling them after these established names? With all the games I've just mention, there's barely any hints that these new forays into each respective series came from the games that preceded them.

Current details on "DmC" show that it has almost nothing to do with Devil May Cry; almost nothing recognizable to the brand, including the main character. 

When I see these kinds of games, I see that developers generally had a good idea for a new game, but see it as a risk to create it as a IP because people only buy Call of Duty or sports games like Madden every year, so they tack on a known series name and call it a reboot, which ends up be worse in perspective to series because they have to be somewhat similar to the old games. 

 "Well, let's just take this game, give it a little twist, update the graphics and call it a reboot.", like some piece of fanficton.

Are we reaching the point where game developers just don't have enough faith to work with new IPs? Or maybe gamers are becoming more and more jaded, unwilling to try new IPs so game publishers and devs are taking a safer route by retooling recognizable brands?

Either way, it seems to me that 2010 and 2011 is the season of  "We're too sacred to take risks with our ideas so lets just pull everything we've made from 1996-onwards and start over."

Info on the new Tomb Raider: http://scrawlfx.com/2010/12/tomb-raider-reboot-first-details

FreeJack - Review

Another one of my recent reviews got uploaded to OnRPG this week. I did this review around a month ago, so some of the things mentioned in this review are inaccurate, like the tutorial mode being tough as nails. (Now the tutorial is easy as piss.)

Oh, but the game is filled with cash shop shenanigans and all that crap, so at least that much is true! The game seems pretty dead at the moment because the paying to non-paying ratio is waaaay off. I'm kinda hoping GamerKraft will retool this balance before it's too late, but we all know that's not gonna happen. Another game with enjoyable core gameplay = ruined by cash shop bullshit...

*Sigh*

Anyway: Here's the review:

S4 League - Review

Back in 2008, Alaplaya graced Europe territories with a futuristic third person shooter that featured stylish team based gameplay and an even more stylish cyber world atmosphere, and it was called S4 League. Created by Pentavision, this third person shooter title was teeming with moderately fast action, style, twists on classic gameplay modes, style, ridiculous fashion and even more style. S4 has seen a lot of changes since its debut and now in 2010, Alaplaya opened its doors for US players to jump in.

But with more shooters titles appearing on the MMO market, is S4 League still in style, or out?

Spiral Knights - Preview Event Giveaway! (Closed)

(Please note: My invite giveaway is OVER now... For reals this time! Even though I was a bit slow with sending invites out, everyone that posted beforehand should have gotten one by now!)

Imagine this: What would happen if you mixed The Legend of Zelda, Bomberman and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles all into one? Well you'd probably end up with this amazing game: Spiral Knights! Created by the same dev studio behind Puzzle Pirates, Spiral Knights creates a fun MMO experience you can enjoy in your own web browser.

As of now, the game is currently in a closed beta preview and only those that received an invite for participating in the previous test can play. However, those that are currently in the preview event can invite others to join them as long as they keep playing. Since I already gave invites to all my friends and since I don't want my remaining invites to go to waste, I'm giving them away to anyone that wants one!

To receive an invitation from me, all you have to do is:

*Leave a reply in the comment box below with your email address and a small, but well thought out message stating why you would like to participate in the Spiral Knights preview.

...and that's it!

Invitations will be limited, so it's first come, first serve.

To learn more about Spiral Knights, check out this video below:

Dynasty Warriors Online - Interview

Dynasty Warriors fans new and old are going to be in heaven as Aeria Games have announced that Dynasty Warriors Online will be making its way to both US and EU regions. Dynasty Warriors Online (DWO) is the MMO installment to the long running hack n' slash game series that started way back in the early days of the PS2. Players of DWO will be able to create their own characters and enter the world serving under the allegiance of the three kingdoms: Shu, Wu and Wei. Players can participate in a ton of different game modes and hack n' slash their way through hordes of enemies in true Dynasty Warriors fashion.

Mission Against Terror - Interview

Just recently, Suba Games began beta testing for their latest free to play title: Mission Against Terror (M.A.T Online) While it may look like just another everyday FPS, M.A.T throws in some unique features and gameplay elements that you won't find in any other FPS game like it. Here's a little interview a cooked up for guys behind M.A.T Online to tell us a little bit more.

Hero: 108 Online Tour

Cartoon heroes come alive in a brand new action MMO for gamers of all ages. Hero: 108 Online is based on a cartoon series with the same name shown on Cartoon Network. Hero: 108 Online lets users play as the main characters straight from the cartoon series as well as some side characters, too. Hero: 108 Online uses simple arcade style controls for all types of gamers to pick up and play, as well as supporting all the features you'd come to expect from MMOs such as quests, guild support, PvP and more.

I joined up with Kevin Crawford, Product Director for Gamania to give me the ins and outs on Hero: 108 Online and a little bit of insight on the cartoon series it's based on.

Lack of immersion in MMOs

When was the last time you felt like you were living in the world of the MMO you played? Or the last time you felt like you were one with your virtual character? Chances are, you probably haven't felt that feeling in a long time. For me, I haven't felt immersed in an MMO since I was a kid. Maybe it was because my sense of childhood wonder helped fill the gap of being connected to the game world, but whatever the case, many MMOs just don't seem to have that spark.

Cosmic Break - Preview

Everybody loves mechs. Whether big or small, they hold a special place in most of our hearts as rad tools of destruction. Now with Cyberstep's latest title reaching the English speaking market, gamers can enjoy all the awesome-ness that mechs have to offer for free. Cosmic Break (CB) is a massive multiplayer online third person shooter featuring (you guessed it): Mechs! Players can participate in small-scale battles or massive wars for up to 60 players. You can also customize your mechs with up to 300 parts and team up with other players in three different unions. CB also features PvE options with mission and quest modes.