Third Platinum

Today I got my platinum in Borderlands. This platinum is for the main game, not DLC, but it gave me the plat anyway, which is nice. Working on the DLC now. On the 360 version I played the Hunter and did everything on him, but on the ps3 version I tried out the Siren. I don't like her at all so when I beat the game, I started again as the Hunter and things went a lot better. Siren is fucking easy mode incarnate :( Not in a good way. I always have preferred the Hunter/Ranger/Sniper anyway. I'm happy about this plat... took some effort and time. Third platinum trophy for the ps3. Nice times.

This Week in Gaming 20 July 2012 - 26 July 2012

No little blurb today. Not having a good day... will post something in a few days.

This Week in Gaming

Top Three:
The Secret World (PC)

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)

Fallout: New Vegas (PC)

PC:

F.3.A.R.

Left 4 Dead 2

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This Week in Musica:

Shpongle

NieR Gestalt &RepliCant

Akira Yamaoka

The Smiths

Morrissey

Daniel Licht

Devin Townsend Project

Austin Wintory

This Week in Gaming 03 July 2012 - 09 July 2012

I've said most of what I've been doing yesterday so no need for a mini update.

This Week in Gaming!

Top Three:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PSP)

Diablo III (PC)

PC:

Portal 2

F.3.A.R.

Left 4 Dead 2

This Week in Musica!

Bruce Dickinson

Devin Townsend Project

Media Nox

The Dead Weather

Fauns

Rush

Sepultura

The Ting Tings

This Week in Gaming 9 April 2012 - 16 April, 2012

Top Three Games:

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (PC)

MGS HD Collection: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS3)

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

DS:

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

PS3:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

MGS HD Collection: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

PC:

Star Trek Online

Final Fantasy XIII-2

So, I wanted to wait a little while to do my Final Fantasy XIII-2 review so that I could go through a little bit of the DLC that was promised to us. Now that that has occurred, I'll proceed. First of all, because I wanted to get XIII-2 on the PS3, I got XIII on the PS3 & traded in my 360 copy. This pained me a little as I only had two more achievements to get in the 360 version to get 1000/1000, but I knew I wouldn't be going back to that game. The PS3 version of the game is much nicer, more beautiful, and seems to run better, but it just might be that I hadn't played it in over a year when I got the PS3 version. As an added bonus, a save file from XIII got me some extra things in XIII-2.

Kupo!

The graphics have not failed to impress me and even though they aren't too incredibly different from XIII, they seem crisper and more fluid. Blu-ray also makes it even more lovely and I can appreciate the difference. The scenery, however, is where it really shines. Although the characters look mostly the same, the graphics of weather, flora, and fauna are so much nicer. I was very impressed at the weather in particular. There is one place that you can control four different types of weather and it's just amazing. It seems like a small thing, but I really enjoyed it when it rained, or when the thunder cracked. Oh man, it was great. Along with the crackling thunder were the other sounds of the game, obviously. Done well, as usual; I can't really see them screwing that up, but I am really torn with the music in XIII-2. Some of it is exceptional and some of it is just the worst ever. Whereas the majority of the voice acting was splendiferous, I really, really hated Chocolina's god damn voice. Every time I had to talk to her I just wanted to brick her. Serah's voice was all right... annoying, but well delivered. Noel, Hope, and Caius were my favourite voice work in 

What is Serah looking at?

this one. Just so precise and wonderful to listen to. And footsteps? Nope! I'm going to diverge from my normal procession for a minute and mention the interface of the game. XIII had an OK interface, but it was hard to see at times. XIII-2 has corrected this and made it a lot easier to read and what's even better is they included an option to magnify whatever your selecting. Making the text bigger is so nice since I have a lot of issues see shit at a distance. It really helps. Well now, XIII was much criticised for its very linear game play. The linear story is still there, but it does a good job at masking that, which is fine. All games are eventually linear, but the story needs to hide that. It's done with a lot of time travelling to get to where you need to go, find the pieces that you need to open the next time gate, and new time lines to explore in order to see alternate realities. All these eventually come together in getting to the end, so whereas you might decide to do one area before the other or make some choices different, you get the same ending either way. It's not a bad thing; I did enjoy going through the worlds and seeing all the different realities the game had to offer.

Fascinating windmills...

Another part of the game play, which is also part of the combat, is the monster taming aspect. Some relate it to Pokémon in that you capture monsters, then level them up to use in battle. OK, this is true, but I didn't really find it much like Pokémon. At the end of a fight, you have a chance to get the crystal of the monster you fought and then you can level them up with monster food items you find/buy in the world. There are monsters for all classes in the game and they fill the slot of the third person in the party. It's not a bad system. I didn't revel in the glory of it, but it was actually nicer than having to manage another stupid character I didn't care about (the other being Serah as Noel was great). You can make up your own Paradigm packs to whatever combination you want if you have the monster crystals, but really I used Rav/Rav/Rav and Rav/Rav/Com the most with Med/Sen/Med on the side. You can only have three monsters equipped so unless you want to put a load of stupid time into levelling up one of each monsters and switching constantly with your packs, just stick to the three monsters you'll use. While I'm here, the combat system has been so very much improved upon and I was elated to see that. Switching Paradigms is instant and as soon as you click on your new set up, everything is instantly usable. And the best thing? When the main character you are controlling dies, it switching to your other. You don't die! I'm so very happy they changed this issue as it was the worst thing possible in XIII and made no sense at all. You can change your party leader between Noel and Serah to utilize their specific 

Finally the Paradigm system works!

abilities or to just have a change up in battle. The classes were tweaked a little, though more so through the changes to the Crystarium. Instead of learning the classes and specific ability tiers, you just have one Crystarium per character which diverges onto the other class paths. At certain points in it you can choose one bonus out of a few (though you choose them all eventually). It's a more linear way to do it and I thought it was way better than the previous, bulky process. I had a really good time in the different time lines. The story was engaging and the characters were pretty awesome, except for a few retards, one of which was my female party member. Ugh. It was still better than having to listen to Vanille cackle all the time or Lightning whine like a five year old. I was sad that Hope couldn't be a team member, but thrilled at his part in the game. He was my favourite character in XIII and I was very happy to see him back. Noel's story was incredible and really made me feel for him and his plight. It was so well done, bravo. There is so much to do in the game, including mini games and all the awesome trophies/achievements you can get. The end times in the game is fantastic. The ending fights, the ending cinematic, and even the song was pretty cool. It was worth it for the time I put in.  

Noel Auditore da Firenze?

The post game was good too. When you beat the game you are given an item which allows you to view paradox endings and those are really sweet. You can also unlock a few new battle additions like the choco stopper (I think that's the name, it's 2am and I don't have the game turned on) which speeds or slows your battle. I sped up my battles and they go by so quick its awesome. Grinding is a lot better, but the thing is that it also speeds up the cut scenes, which is annoying. I wish there was just a battle speed up and a leave the cut scenes the fuck alone setting. Ah, well, I know what went on in the cut scenes anyway, but still. I got a lot of the trophies done, though I can't remember how many at my first beating of it, but it was a great amount. And now the topic which I hardly ever write about: DLC. Usually I will write a review before any DLC comes out, but the DLC was so hyped for XIII-2 that I wanted to wait a bit. Promises of DLC had been around since XIII-2 was announced and boy have they laid it out. Colosseum battles, costumes, weapons... they have a lot to offer and even more on the way. I bought a few of the weapons, some of the outfits, and some of the Colosseum battles expecting joy and for the most part, that's what I got. I like the outfits I downloaded and the battles in the Colosseum are great. I still haven't been able to beat Ultros/Typhoon, but I am slowly getting them down every time. The Assassin's Creed costume for Noel is the absolute best and the N7 costume for Serah is my favourite for her. I don't see myself getting any other costumes, but the Colosseum battles are awesome and, except for Sazh and Jill, I 

Commander Serah Shepard?

have got them all. Sazh and Jill I didn't get because I hated their characters in XIII and have no desire to acquire them. Because of the eventual linearity of the game, there is no replay value, but I guess they got around this with the post game and DLC. There is really a lot to do and I'm not even done with it all yet. I was sad to not see any Espers (Eidolons), but I guess they aren't needed due to all the other things in the game. Weapons and armour were a lot like XIII in that you upgraded what you got to make a more powerful weapon, though you did have to find materials to make most of the items. That was a pain sometimes, but in the end it wasn't too much of a trial. I was also happy to see that the weapons you made in game were more powerful than the DLC weapons, overall. Of course, it all depends on what you want to do with your character as to the weapons you used; different attributes and abilities.

Final Fantasy is a huge series and full of many games with their own spin off, but that being said, it's not for everyone. A lot of people are also sick of the series and that's their right, but I would still recommend playing this game, at least once through. It surprised me, I admit it. I wasn't going to play the game, but in the end, how could I not. It's Final Fantasy. Give it a go if you're interested in JRPG's. It's worth some time :)

At least someone got an awesome haircut

Silent Hill: Downpour

At the time of this writing I've almost completed my second play through of Silent Hill: Downpour on the PS3. I'd heard that it got bad reviews & negative feedback, but that doesn't add up to feedback I've personally got from it. People I know who've played it really enjoyed it & I'm no different. Silent Hill: Downpour has now replaced Silent Hill: Homecoming as my favourite game in the series. A big claim, I'm sure, & it comes from having played all the Silent Hill games there are, excluding Arcade, which I can't find for the life in me. So what makes this game so incredible? Let's move on to the review with a warning that I'll be including some spoilers here & there, but I don't think anything massive. The game play of Silent Hill has always been one which manages to suck me into it & Downpour is no different. It took me a little while to realise that as you got hit, the amount of blood on your outfit showed how damaged you were. You can check on the Statistics screen about your health %, but I found that just paying attention to the state of my clothes was easier. I didn't realise it at first because I automatically assumed that my clothes would always be drenched in blood or tattered.. this is a Silent Hill game after all. Moving around Silent Hill is a chilling experience which is only heightened 

Creepy fog & unnerving drizzle

by the dismal weather; rain & fog. If it's not foggy & wet, it's drizzling or even a full on thunder storm with bizarre lilac lightning, reminiscent of a screaming ladies scream, but we'll get to that in a few. One thing that usually annoys me in games is being able to hear your own footsteps, but I didn't mind it too much in Downpour. It sort of fit & the footsteps made sense. Like on grating, it would sound like walking/running on grating, & puddles splashed. It became natural & part of the background noise, which is nice. Doing tasks & moving through inventory was also done well as I never felt aggravated at a move I had to do or something I needed to get from my pockets. It was handled really well.

I'll move right into the combat now & say that it was miles better than Homecoming. Whereas Homecoming has good combat ideas, they came off a bit awkward at times; especially with jumping back up or dodging. Downpour doesn't let you dodge or jump back up, but it does let you block & something I found awesome about that is your block is dependant about what item you have as a weapon. Like if you block with just your hands/arms, you take damage, as you're blocking with your body, but it's less. If you block with a frying pan or something, then you can block a little damage, but it will probably break. Blocking with things like chairs or harpoons or fire extinguishers will prevent damage for several blocks. The monsters have patterns you can follow if you pay attention & that is a key factor in beating them. You need to keep your eyes open & sometimes it's better to just run. Seriously. You need to run from some battles or you will die. This is a great thing they pulled over from Shattered Memories. All the monsters have names you can find at the awesome Silent Hill Wiki, but since I don't check anything the first time I go through a 

Beware the screams of the damned

game, I had to come up with names for them all & they sort of stuck lol. It will be easy to determine what I'm talking about though; the names are rather descriptive. You can use loads of things to attack with from guns as melee to rocks on the ground to rakes & shovels. One part which also belongs in the combat section is the Otherworld. In Downpour your trek through the watery Otherworld will, primarily, involve you fleeing from the Void, which I nicknamed Wtfisthatthingomgrunrunrunrun. It involves quick thinking, paying attention to your surrounding, & using every second in the best possible way as you run down halls & through obstacles without getting sucked into its disintegrating grasp. It's a little harrowing, actually.

Following the combat system is going to have to be the graphics. They are not the best graphics to have ever been & the monsters are the best graphics in the game. That isn't saying that the graphics are shit; they are quite good, but not the best of games out there. Silent Hill has never had the best graphics available to the gaming community, but it hasn't needed to. The only real issue I have in the game is the FPS issues that are hindering it as you progress through the game; I actually attribute it to all the save files you can have as the game auto saves & doesn't delete the auto saves, but makes new ones, creating huge caches of auto saves that it searches through constantly. 

Puzzles have varying difficulty

We've seen this in other games & they will probably patch it, but for now, the graphics suffer a bit. That's more performance, than graphics, however. As I said, things look nice, not holy shit real, but nice. The water looks so real & the monsters are truly ghastly to look at sometimes. Especially the second to last boss you fight... wow, impressive in a very real way. The ambiance & dreary world permeates every move you make & it draws you in. This is also brought in by the sound & music. Together with the ambient tracks, & also the actual OST by Daniel Licht, Silent Hill eats your sanity away. The giggling, the echoing, the screams, the strange little noises here & there... together with imagery & sometimes lack of anything, unnerves you in a big way. Some of the buildings you head into are further creepified by the music that plays & it's not all original music... there are old songs, like Born Free by Andy Williams & Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen by Louis Armstrong, & some more modern sounding ones too that start playing & give the world a surreal aspect. I'll make a list at the end of all the licensed music, which I recognised, used in the game as I don't think there is a list out there that I can find. The music is amazing & I got the OST before I was even done with the first play of the game.

The story & side quests. I'll start off by saying that the side quests are a truly amazing addition to the world of Silent Hill. No more are we guided from start to finish, wondering about the town or wishing we could see more. These quests give you the chance to stray from the path & explore the town of Silent Hill. It takes you into the lives of people who lived there & lets you find out more about the inhabitants. It's often been said that the world of Silent Hill

Monsters?

that we see, is not the world that anyone else sees. Not only is it the world of our characters only, but it might be completely different than the inhabitants even. There is a part in Silent Hill 3 where Heather is speaking to Vincent Smith & she mentions the monsters she's facing & Vincent says 'Monsters? They look like... monsters to you? ' Even though he says he's just joking when Heather gets worried, he really isn't. The monsters being fought in the game are not monsters, they are people. Silent Hill bends reality, as Bobby says in Downpour, it does 'strange things' to reality. This is actually reinforced a little by the unseen scoring system in Downpour that determines your ending... if you kill monsters, your score gets worse, but if you just incapacitate them & go, then your score actually goes up; it gets better. I could talk forever about the theories around Silent Hill, but I'll stick to this game of course. This all comes into the side quest situation in that you can see how people are slowly going mad from Silent Hills invisible punishment system. As the people, who live in Silent Hill, become more obsessed with guilt or passion, or whatever, the town begins distorting their world & how they see life & it's amazing to go through the quests & take that journey into oblivion with them. The quests are done really well & give you a genuine creepy feeling. There are also quite a number of awesome Easter eggs pertaining to the other Silent Hill games; pictures of previous characters & locations, & also a room that looks exactly like Henry's from The Room. One quest in particular, The Gramophone, was so unnerving that even though I was in a well lit room with my nephew sitting next to me playing Halo multi-player loudly (this was my second run so I didn't mind the non Silent Hill noise), it was still so freaky that even he stopped his game, dying several times, his eyes glued to my screen as I controlled the slow, inevitable death that was occurring. It was all encompassing.

Henry's room from Silent Hill 4: The Room

The main storyline is not obvious at first. You're thrown into the game with blood on your hands almost immediately & you don't know why. You're told to do something that is much like skewering a pig, but to a person & the game wants you do to it for no known reason, brutally & without remorse. This sets a rather dark stage that ends up following you through the entire game. As you move through the story, you meet a few other characters, a few of them are not explained in the game, & their fate is unknown in every ending, with resolution only coming to two characters, & even then, it's left a little weird. I didn't figure out the entire canon story until close to the end & that's a good job on the game for keeping me guessing that long. It's a creepy story that opens you up to guilt & self delusion, & how that can become reality & the world you live in. You create your world by your actions & what you do effects how you see things. Living inside yourself is a big theme & the need to come to terms with that & accept truth instead of delusion is a driving point.

What is real?

In the end of all things, this game is not worth the disservice it was given. You can choose your difficulty for both gameplay & puzzles, each has its own setting. Silent Hill is a series that holds the award for being the only series that can seriously freak me the fuck out. It is entrancing, beautiful, creepy, & haunting, & if you're a fan of the genre of horror/survival horror, then you should pick it up. If it's not your style, then nothing I'm saying will really make you want to play it, & that's fine. I'll rank this game mighty high in my favourite games ever. 


Edit: 05 April, 2012: Silent Hill: Downpour is now my first platinum trophy. I love this game & the amazing ambience, voice acting, & story therein. I hope that the voice actors will return in other games, especially Murphy's voice actor. Amazing work on this fantastic game.


Now I will place the licensed music that I heard so you can check it out. Also, be sure to listen to the OST from Daniel Licht (he also did the music for Dexter).

Andy Williams – Born Free

Louis Armstrong – Nobody Knows The Trouble

James Vincent McMorrow – If I Had A Boat

Doves – Willow’s Song (Bury Version)
Anna Ternheim – Words of Love

Ed Harcourt – Here Be Monsters

Jonathan Singleton & The Grove – I’m Afraid of Storms
Highwaymen – Silver Stallion
The Coals – I Wanted A Lover, I Needed A Friend
Kris Kristofferson – Why Me Lord
Ed Harcourt – From Every Sphere

Anna Ternheim – Off the Road

Welcome to Silent Hill

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I can't tell you how long I was glued to my television, playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, because there's no timer or clock which records time and Raptr doesn't track PS3 playing time, automatically, for some retarded reason. If I had to estimate I'd say I've played it around 50ish hours at this point. Well then... graphics! Wow. Seeing some initial screens, I was a little disappointed, but coming into the game (which I got on the PS3 by the way) I was amazed. From the opening FMV to the actual game play, the graphics were beautiful. A lot of people complained about that bronze overtone, but I really loved it. It set a very desolate feel to the game and it got me into the setting a lot easier. Adam (lol at slew of Frankenstein references through out the game by the way) was very nicely done and all his actions and movements were fantastic. Some  commented how cardboard or messy the graphics were, especially for people, but I found them to be great. Sure some of the people were a bit rigid, but we can't do magic; there's only so much we can do with graphics right now and I think this game did them damn well. Those city scape scenes and flying over different lands... oh man. When you first come to Singapore.. my mouth was hanging open. Gorgeous. The music was great as well. I sort of felt like it reminded me of the more ambient music to a Bioshock or Fallout in that it really sort of sat behind everything, worming its way into your thoughts. Sometimes it lulled me deep, taking me into the 

Beautiful Cityscapes

story is a surreal way. In short; fantastic. I'll be getting the OST as soon as I can. I'd like to buy it, but if I can't find it, I'll download it from somewhere. It's so good and so well composed. Game mechanics and control. This is a two sided issue for me. First of all, why, oh, why do companies change the layout of well know controller configurations? It's annoying and aggravating and I hate it. Moving things like iron sights, sprint, and reload (to name a few) to buttons different than a slew of our established games is not innovative or challenging; IT'S ANNOYING. That being said, after the initial aggravation of a new controller lay out, I got into it pretty well. The interface is great, the weapons switching is smooth, hacking is awesome. I didn't run into any troubles dishing out my Praxis points how I desired and still having to deal with boss fights and hacking. In fact I ended up just putting points wherever because I had already got what I wanted. I didn't even put points in Typhoon until near the end because it just wasn't useful to my play style. I played it on normal difficulty by the way, but I want to play it on Tell Me A Story (Easy) because I have a feel I missed a lot of stuff because I was too involved in staying alive. I got 52% of the trophies on my first run, did a nice bunch of side quests (though I don't think I got them all and/or found their secret trophies). That being said, I still got a load of 

Take-downs are a thing of beauty

story from the game. I mean geez it's involved. Little things there and there which give you insight into the characters or just the life of people around you or in buildings. I read all the e-mails I could, all the e-books, all the newspapers. Talked to everyone I saw. I even found two quests by randomly talking to people. That's when it feels awesome... my manic OCD's granting me quests and game play. It is sweet caramel in my mind. Even now I've this desire to play it again. I did start my next cycle and am going to try to not kill anyone this round. It's already been very tough, to be honest. Mission one is down though; everyone lives. Saved the hostages, saved dudes wife, knocked out Sanders for the police. I'm an hero. During my first cycle I was forced to make some choices which were gnawing at me through the rest of the play. This time we'll see how the other choices colour my play. 

SPOILERS: 

Here are some of the choices I made during my first cycle. I didn't get the new chip because I remembered Elizabeth from the first Deus Ex (a game I didn't like, to be honest, but recall the information from anyway) and anything she is promoting as a 'good thing' is obviously evil. Not only that, but it's so obvious that it's going to fuck up your Christmas if you do get it. I saved Malik, but this was more that I thought it was actually what you're supposed to do. I didn't 

Exceptional FPS combat

realise, until after I had beat the game and was checking forums, that you can actually hurry into the building and Malik dies. Whereas I'm curious how this colours other parts of the game, I'm not too happy about leaving her to die, so I'll save her again. I do like her. Talked Taggart's aid out of killing himself for whatever bizarre reason I was thinking of at the time (was surprised by surprise trophy of surprise for saving him) though I did reload and see what happened if he died. Nothing interesting, so I re-reloaded back to saving him save and continued on. I didn't talk to Taggart in the base at the end as I decided I wanted him to die; unfortunately this meant I couldn't see his ending so I guess I will see it this time. I did reload my before ending save to see all the others, though I went with Sarif's ending first as I do believe in his cause (in RL too actually). 

SPOILERS END.

Hmm, can't think of other critical plot points that I did, but I've been awake a while and my mind is a smoking ruin. I recommend this game wholly. It is an FPS RPG in the truest sense of the term. It flawlessly combines the FPG mode of play with the RPG interaction and story. I wasn't going to get the game at first, because I didn't like 1 or 2, but after I read some other friends' comments on G+, I decided to give it a try. I'm so god-damn happy I did because it's incredible. Totally get this game.

Join our family now

Dragon Age 2

Well, Raptr says 82 hours and Steam says 22 hours... I think Steam needs to get it's internal clock sorted out! What am I talking about? Dragon Age II of course (the PC version). With 80+ hours in, I think it's time for me to give a review about the sequel to a game I love very much. I never did a Dragon Age: Origins review and I think it was because I loved the game so much (200+ hours) that I felt reviewing it would be doing some kind of injustice. I have felt the same about the Assassin's Creed games, as well as Star Ocean. However, the time has come to lay aside those silly thoughts and try to share my love of games a bit more. And so, here is a review of Dragon Age II. As I said, I have sunk over 80 hours into the game and I can honestly say that I'm still enjoying it. So much in fact, that I have done two other play-throughs in Dragon Age: Origins so I can import those saves into Dragon Age II and see the changes which take place because of them. I'll get into that aspect of the game near the end though. Where to start now? There's so much to say. After the amusing commentary by the dwarf and Orlesian at the beginning you are thrown into the game escaping from Lothering... a place you also visited in Dragon Age: Origins. It was nice to be playing someone who escaped the Blight, to be honest. It gave me a little more of a connection to what was going on. Plus, the mini tutorial was good to experience for the changes they made. I have to say, the best change was the Target and Attack nearest Target button (I bound mine to Q). This made combat A LOT better.. it also helps for looting as well! Something I hate in any game.

There have been loads of negative reviews about this game, some of which I agree, most of which I don't... even more where I think humanity has finally gone batshit crazy. I imported my save from my Dragon Age: Origins mage first off, even though I spent the least time on her, but because I knew the character I would play was related to the mage origin from the first game (Amell being the surname). It gave a little nod to it at a few areas, but nothing too
interesting. I'm going to talk about some more basic things first, namely your equipment and inventory. I absolutely LOVE what they did! I can't tell you how annoying it was in Dragon Age: Origins to rifle through all my shit trying to find other shit to sell. And now we have an area where things automatically go into as a junk tab? Holy thank you Bioware! In Dragon Age: Origins it was painful trying to sift through it all, so I'm well grateful that they streamlined it like they did. The weapons, armour, and jewellery sections are just mint. Another thing they did was for all your companions, you don't give them new armour, excluding jewellery and a weapon. This is because you find things from quests or vendors which are used to upgrade their current armours. There are a total of four upgrade slots for each character which provides better stats and rune-slots. This is so much better than having to find new shit for them to wear. Determining which weapon and accessories would be best for them was pretty easy, depending on how you've put their talent points. Yes, my friends, this is an improvement which I was ecstatic about. I mentioned talents just there and I'm a lot happier with how they've made them. Each companion has their own tree which is specific to them. Depending on if you're their Friend or Rival, they'll give you an extra bonus, but that isn't really very significant overall. Some of the companion talents are really quite awesome. Your characters specializations, as well, are pretty straight forward and easy to understand. I found myself liking the mage a lot more in Dragon Age II than in Dragon Age: Origins because of how much better it was using the talents in combat. And of course, now combat. Not always the happiest of topics for me. It was much, much better than Dragon Age: Origins, this I have to say. I've a lot more love for how they tweaked it in Dragon Age II. The tactics were easier to get through as well and setting up strategy just felt more natural. In Dragon Age: Origins the combat was clunky, but for the time it was good and they let you pull the camera overhead for a more RTS feel to it, which did help a lot. Whereas they removed that feature in Dragon Age II, I'm glad they made the decision to make it more immersible and easier to use (RE the Q targeting I mentioned earlier). Now, encounters don't really differ from each other in a huge way (I can think of only three or four where I had to do something different than normal to beat it), but to be honest, this is how I feel in most games. Combat isn't the number one thing for me in games though; it's just a necessity to get to more storyline and RPG.

Next I want to touch upon the story and companions. Dragon Age: Origins has my life for 200+ hours and I'll be the first to admit how incredible the story and character development was in that. Did Dragon Age II let me down? Hell no! Now, I can't say for the DLC because I haven't got that yet (though plan to in a few weeks), but the other characters I felt were quite fleshed out and I felt like I understood them quite a bit. I've done both sides of their stories (you can be Friend/Rival, but also there are different paths to take which can cause you to loose companions for good depending on those actions) and I feel that some of them were even better than Dragon Age: Origins's companion stories. Especially Wynne, Leliana (without her DLC), and Sten... they didn't really make me feel like I had a part in their lives, but in Dragon Age II I felt like I personally had a part in all my companions lives... especially Fenris and Merill. This is also partially because the entire thing is fully voiced, so my voice is being heard talking to my friends/rivals in certain tonalities (based upon how I talk previously the most IE sarcastic or kind or angry), while they respond to me in different tones depending on my relationship with them. Also, the dialogue in this game... oh man. I can't even begin to say how awesome it is. There were times I just couldn't stop laughing at some of the amusing comments and also gasping at some of the really atrocious things people get up to. Another topic people are up in huffs about is the bisexual characters thing.. yea I agree that it was a bit lame how they did that. Anyone can get with anyone which was a bit what...? Even in the Dragon Age: Origins there were characters (Morrigan/Alistair) who were gender locked, but in Dragon Age II that's not the case. It would have been awesome to have a straight, gay, or lesbian only case as well as one or two bisexual characters. That was a mistake on their part, but maybe they were constrained by money and time. Isabela as a lesbian only would have rocked! For the story, it was so great. I loved being 'limited' to Kirkwall and the surrounding area. It made me feel like I lived there; like it was my home. I didn't have to go to a million different places to do all these quests for 100 different people and races and places. I was a person who lived in the city and did things for my city. It felt more tight knit and secure. That the 'final' story wasn't clear during the acts was really brilliant! Each Act had it's own story and seeing how they eventually came together was genius. First off, trying to raise the money to go to the Deep Roads was great and as the Act continued and lead into others, I found myself questioning the decisions I'd made and seeing another story which I thought was bigger. Then another Act passed and the same happened again. I loved how they kept it close at hand. Whether it was money or whatever on their part, I think it was done in a fantastic way.

I was glad not knowing the overarching story though. Each Act being it's own story, as I said, was great! It was normal! Like a person's life... you were going through the years, doing things that didn't seem to connected, but then suddenly, when it all explodes at the end, you see how your actions through the years affected everything. Superbly done and I
thought it made perfect sense. Graphics and music! Wow. There were times when I just stood on a cliff or overlooked a gorge in total awe. Everything was beautiful... even the hideous things like dwarfs and dark-spawn were a joy to look at. The animations were so clean and together with crisp music and sound effects, I was pulled into the game in a very entire way. I don't know that there is a load to say about either the graphics and the music which could elaborate more... it was impressive and I enjoyed them both a lot. Overall, I would recommend this game. It was worth the money and worth the time. I am still doing some plays of it and enjoying every minute inside the world. Seeing other characters I knew from Dragon Age: Origins come back for cameos was wonderful. Living in Kirkwall was trying at times, but rewarding. After I beat the game the first time, I delved into some great mods to alter my appearance (mostly just eyes and hair) and change the textures on some of the armours, but other than that I didn't feel the need to extensively mod the game as I had so much fun doing in Dragon Age: Origins. Maybe I will further down the line though.

I'll say one last thing. If you've played Dragon Age: Origins, you can import a save file into the Dragon Age II game which will change the way some things play out. For example... Did you put Alistair on the throne or Anora? Or did you exile Alistair? Did you save Conner or kill him? Harrowmont or Bhelen? And not just from the first, you can import your DLC saves as well. You never know what decisions will affect your Dragon Age II game or how they will affect it. It's really great to see all the little changes or hear something mentioned. I recommend trying many different combinations!

30,000!

Though it's not Friday, I don't care, this is what I've been playing... FINAL FANTASY 13 FOR FUCKS SAKE. What the hell. I know. Despite the scathing review I game this game a while back ( this nonsense ) I came back to it (almost a full year later) because my younger sister decided to play it over here for a bit. I watched the Optima shifting, the fights, the music, the graphics. The annoying as hell footsteps... and I became a little nostalgic for the grind. Yes the grind. The devious devil of disaster that is the Post Game of FF13. After a year though, it wasn't too terrible coming back.
A few battles here and there and I slid back into it. A little quick research on where I was going with my weapons and some good Optimas to set up and I was back in the game. Literally. I went from 62 hours to almost 100 in like a weekend. So what have I got to show for it? I have now finished every mission there is to finish and have five starred about 85% of them I think, but I don't know that I will five star them ALL... that achievement might be a bridge too far. Besides that one, the only other achievements I am missing are hold every item/weapon/accessory, kill a long gui whatever, and fully develop every character (which I'm close to).
After the pain of going through this game once already and now having to watch my sister go through it (though I don't really mind that), I can safely say that once I have finished these achievements, I will not play this game again. My nostalgia has begun to fester into a seething resentment for the lack of any kind of replayablity in this disaster of a game.
The big deal of this post however is that with FF13's rage inducing grindfest, I have toppled over the 30,000 gamerscore mark and at this time sit at 30,209 gamerscore. It was a nice time when it happened... I just sort of scooted from 29k to 30k and hardly noticed it until I checked how many achievements I had left to get. It's nice to have an even starting number again, though it will be over soon. Back to the grind.

This Week in Gaming: 23 Jan - 29 Jan 1011

The week hasn't been the best for gaming as I've been on the doorstep of death for most of it. Story of my life, hm? I have had a good chunk of time playing, but not a wholly diverse amount of games in general.

00. Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

01. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

02. Persona 3 FES

03. Shin Megami Tensei III: Lucifer's Call

04. World of Warcraft

05. Dissidia: Final Fantasy