Cheap videogamer is cheap

Recently, New Jersey got some snow. Enough to close schools and offices and make driving around a bit like controlling Mass Effect‘s Mako. Now, my motto to people is that when they hear snow is coming to not buy bread and water, but rather a new videogame. You’ll have more fun that way.

And since I already knew to expect a heaping of snow, I visited the local GameStop the day before to see if there was anything worth buying. Sure, I am still planning to make my “purchase of the month” before February ends (most likely Dragon Age: Origins), but I wasn’t in the mood to spend a big chunk of change so I perused the bargain bin and found the following:

Grand Theft Auto IV – $11.99
SEGA Superstars Tennis – $3.99

Sure, why not. These games definitely don’t go hand-in-hand, but the prices were just right for me. I’ve never had much luck with the GTA games before, always growing tired of the missions looooong before I probably should, but for twelve bucks I figured it couldn’t hurt to see if Rockstar made it more fun this time around. And don’t ask me about the tennis game. I really can’t give you an honest answer on why I picked it up. Just remember: curiosity killed the cat.

Haven’t gotten too far in either of them yet. In one game, I sped down a highway and jumped out of the car to let it smash into oncoming traffic; in the other game, I served tennis balls with unseen tenacity. Feel free to play detective with those clues.

Lara Croft VS. T-Rex, Round 1

There’s a short, but sweet article over at The First Hour about some great cinematic moments in videogaming history. And wow, I’ve actually played a few of the games mentioned. That’s just crazy talk.

Speaking of talk and crazy, I’d like to write a little bit about one cinematic gaming moment from my history. The time? 1996. The game? Tomb Raider. It was an epoch when the Internet did not spoil the big and small and all moments of a game, and so I knew very little about Lara Croft and her plight, just that the Indiana Jones in me had to have it.

I was exploring some caves when I noticed a cluster of rocks that looked most definitely…climbable. Took a bit to get Lara into position, but we made it over the rocks to discover a skeleton, as well as a lush area that was the polar opposite to the snowy caves I’d just been running and hopping through. Odd, I thought. Then some Velociraptors attacked me. Even odder. What’s going on here? It’s like an interactive episode of The Twilight Zone (obviously at this point I had no idea how much odder Tomb Raider would get; hello, winged and mutated Natla).

But yeah…Lara starts snooping around, her footsteps loud as all gets in the eerie silence surrounding her. And then it happens: the violin-laden music, the roar, the charge of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the tiny section in your brain passing out. The large-and-in-charge dino comes at you like a train, and may your side-jumping skills be honed because it takes a lot of bullets and swift manuevering to bring down the “tyrant lizard,” and then when you do you’re left standing over it, completely unsure of your surroundings, completely unnerved for whatever is next.

It’s totally unexpected, a gaming experience soon going the way of the dinosaurs, alas.

New details about Fallout: New Vegas hit the jackpot

You can bet your noodle that I’ve already seen some of the leaked magazine scans containing pertinent details about Fallout: New Vegas. I’m not interested in linking to places hosting these scans, but I’m sure your Google-fu is good enough to get you going if you are that curious. I suspect over the next few weeks we’ll get official screenshots and stuff to publicly drool over. Just gotta be patient.

Anyways, here’s some tidbits that raised my eyebrows:

• There’s an optional hardcore diffuclty mode, wherein the character will need to drink water to survive the Mojave desert, ammo has weight, and healing with stimpacks isn’t instant.
• There are now special moves for melee weapons in VATS. For example, the golf club has a move called “Fore!” which is more or less a groin shot.
• Mutant geckos!
• Skills will have a bigger effect on conversation choices. Someone with a high Explosives skill may be able to have a coversation about explosives where using them would be 100% appropriate. This makes sense, and I’m amazed it wasn’t implemented before.
• There is a Reputation system in addition to Karma.
• All dialogue options will beshown to players regardless of whether you have the stats to succeed or not, and there’s no punishment for failure.
• Followers can be managed through a context-sensitive menu, with orders like “follow,” “stay,” or “attack.”

Yeah, it’s gonna be good, and from what I’ve gathered…funny. Now, Fallout 3 had it’s moment or two of dark, dark humor, but this time around it seems like there might even be a glimmer of silly or, dare I say, slapstick. Evidently there’s a female Super Mutant rocking some wicked shades and a stripper wig. Can’t beat that for guffaws.

But what I’m most pleased to see is that Fallout: New Vegas is using the same engine as Fallout 3. Some folks might take this as a disappointment, that the series isn’t going forward but rather standing still, but the Capital Wasteland was huge and open and completely explorable without having to drop into numerous (and/or obvious) loading zones. If the same can be done for the Mojave Desert then we’re in for a treat: another ginormous game with tons of locations and quests to suck away more hours of our lives. Ultimately, we should consider ourselves lucky.

Fable III will “upset people,” duh

In a recent interview at Game Jam in Copenhagen, Peter Molyneux talked a bit about Project Natal, indie games, and the forthcoming Fable III. And here’s an interesting snippet:

“We’re making some announcements [at X10] about Fable III and there’s some… wow. There’s some very, very big things happening in Fable,” said Molyneux. “Bigger than you think and it’s going to upset people. I’m really scared when I go out and tell people what it is; they’re going to get super pissed off. They really are.”

…

This? Not surprising. And Molyneux should be a bit nervous. I mean, currently, fans are already upset with the direction Fable XXVII: Revenge of the Demon Doors is heading and that game’s not even coming out for a few more years. But yes, no matter what, no matter how pretty/fun Fable III will look, I gotta stay on my toes. Because I suspect I’m part of that “it’s going to upset people” group. I enjoyed Fable II a very good amount, but it did seem to flounder out in some areas. Either way…let the hype and nigh disappointment for Fable III begin, I guess!

Percy Jackson DS game from the abode of Hades

I’m just finishing up the fifth and final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series–The Last Olympian–and am eagerly (though somewhat cautiously) anticipating the theatrical release of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. They are fun books, with a lot of humor and Greek geek, and while many might instantly compare them to (or call them a ripoff of) Rowling’s Harry Potter, they should do some research and learn that Rick Riordan’s first manuscript was written in 1994.

Regardless of that fact, as the gaming industry is wont to do, there’s going to be a videogame release to coincide with the movie release. Tie-ins, they never end well. And evidently, Percy Jackson’s adventures are perfect for…an RPG on the Nintendo DS? Really?

Yeah, I don’t get it either. It comes out on 02/09/10, and check below the cut for some atrocious-looking screenshots. I’m in pain just posting them. Quick, feed me ambrosia!

Fallout: New Vegas teaser trailer is all about the teasing

Today’s the day we finally get some info about Fallout: New Vegas. Alas, it’s only cinematic information in the form of a teaser trailer, but it’s still good nonetheless. Click here to see the Fallout: New Vegas teaser trailer! CLICK IT.

Set to the song “Blue Moon” by Frank Sinatra, the trailer opens on the Mojave Desert and a WALL-E wannabe bot piling sand over dead bodies. The camera climbs high into the sky and we’re given a shot of Las Vegas, a city that seems to be standing just fine and completely functional if lighting is any indication. I’m not an expert on Fallout lore so I don’t actually know if it’s been said already that the city was hit by the bombs or just affected by them a la Point Lookout. Then we get a glimpse of an armored man, his flag, and his glowing Killzone helmet. Not sure if that’s to be us, a.k.a. the Lone Wanderer, or a possible antagonist. Either way, mmm. Now we just need some screenshots or solid gameplay information and I can consider my appetite sated.

Fallout: New Vegas is coming out Fall 2010. The same time I’m getting married. It’s gonna be cah-razzzy, people.

Big Daddies Mean Business

I do not love BioShock.

In fact, I do not even have that great of a time while playing it, but I’m trying to work through it. There’s a lot to admire though–the worldbuilding, the atmosphere, narrative tricks, the depth (yup, pun intended) of the game–but for the time being I’d just like to talk a bit about Big Daddies.

These are Adam Sandlers fictional folk of BioShock‘s Rapture that have had their organs and skin grafted to hi-tech diving suits. They are also armed with a drill-hand or rivet gun. They are never armed with featherdown pillows. Due to some mental reconditioning, they roam the underwater city for one purpose, and one purpose only: to protect Little Sisters. Now, Little Sisters are creepy children that harvest ADAM from corpses, and ADAM is all the rage with the Splicers these days, so they definitely need some a-protectin’ from those with butterfingers.

My favorite aspect of Big Daddies: they are incapable of speech.

A good chunk of BioShock gameplay is listening. You sneak into a room and listen to Splicers in the distance talking about whatever it is crazy people like to talk about. Marshmallows? 4 8 15 16 23 42? You move across some wooden planks and hear them creak out in anguish beneath your feet. You find an audio recording of a New Year’s Eve party gone wrong and then see the aftermath for yourself. You creep around a corner and hear…a long, guttural groan. Like a whale in pain. Only it’s getting louder, and something is stomping your way.

Enter the Rosie or Bouncer. Sometimes there’s a Little Sister with them, sometimes you have to wait for it to pound on the wall a few times. Either way, I constantly found myself anxiously watching them from afar. Interestingly enough, they move like they look like they should: slow, methodical, careful not to step on their friend. It’s only when they become angry or on the defense do they turn into these fast-moving death-enablers.

You can totally walk by them without incident. Conversely, you can totally walk by them and be an inch too close to their Little Sister and they will freak out on you. Not completely attacking, but making sure you get the point to stay away. This? Loved it.

For those curious, I just got past the part with the bees and smoke stations. So no spoilers please. At this point, I’ve probably fought five or six Big Daddies, and then saved every Little Sister from being harvested. Your reward is a better conscience; your punishment is less ADAM. And you don’t have to even fight the Big Daddies, but you’ll be missing out on ADAM, which helps to upgrade your weapons and such. Each Big Daddy fight is draining; that statement is twofold because these Big Daddies literally drain me of every first aid kit, EVE hypo, and ammo clip, but the fights are extremely nerve-wrecking and frantic. Which is funny when you consider you can’t actually die in BioShock. If you do die (?), you are re-born at the nearest life chamber, with Rapture exactly like you left it. Meaning you could run right back to where that Big Daddy handed you your wrench-wielding ass and take another whack at it.

But the point of all this rambling is that the Big Daddies are amazing. Not just from a gameplay standpoint, but they hold their own narrative and tell it through their one-way actions. That’s extremely impressive for this day and age when a lot of story is spoonfed. Every time I hear a stomp, stomp or a Little Sister whispering about angels, I get excited. And scared.

New LEGO Harry Potter trailer and impressions

Two things.

Thing #1 is there’s a great write-up of some early impressions for LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 over at Wired’s GameLife. Though it brings to the horizon the same ol’ notion that the LEGO videogames are really just for kids, and that the gameplay mechanics are not adhered to adults at all. Naturally, I disagree. Sure, a kid could play through some levels in LEGO Batman, but several puzzles might prove too challenging. I like to think of the LEGO games as the best of both worlds: fun (though not always funny) cutscenes, colorful characters and locations, easy-yet-addictive gameplay, and a perfect reason for offline co-op.

Thing #2 is a new trailer, which runs for one minute and thirty-nine seconds, of which seven seconds shows actual gameplay in the Potterverse. You can check it out below:

10,000 Gamerscore exactly – mission accomplished!

Well, the subject line kinda says it all, but here’s the glorious visual proof:

It’s such a nice, round number. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it feckless, but, yes, it’s a silly thing to care about and get excited over, but see this is where I and Achievement whores differ. For them, it’s all about getting as many as you can, as fast as you can. Me, well…I like to set these mini-goals and have fun going after particularly challenging ones or Achievements that really change how I play a game (for example, I’ve not yet sacrificed 10 people in the Temple of Shadows in Fable 2 because I find it hard to be really evil in that game), and so in that sense, I really like keeping track of what I unlock.

Not sure how long my new shiny Gamerscore will last though as I am working my way through an evil run in Fallout 3 and will eventually–when I’m not so terrified of every single creak and snicker–return to Rapture in BioShock. But for now, let’s all enjoy ten thousand Gs.

Going for 10,000 Gamerscore tonight

Call me crazy, call me full of OCD, but ever since I saw my Gamerscore hit 9,975 I’ve been wanting nothing more than to hit a straight 10,000 and to do it with my next Achievement. So I quickly perused my list for the first locked 25G Achievement, and there’s two sitting idle in my copy of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts: Speedy of the Colossus and Whoa Nelly! One involves going over a set speed and the other…involves going over a set speed. Hmm. Not sure how that worked that way.

But yeah, that’s my goal for tonight. Got a bunch of other stuff to do though (like watch House, read short stories, clean up some LOST fanart for tomorrow, and pay bills), but I think I can make time to unlock one of them.

Wish me luck!