Tainted Publications

So here is an update to my last post about Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii.

First thing that I would like to say is, that this MH experience has been far better and more emersive that any of the previous versions. There are some nice village cutscenes (off-line) and a few in the online mode. The gameplay is still solid. The monsters are still hardcore. It’s still a unique monster hunter experience.

If you are a fan of the series you are already playing this, and are on the forums. But what is you’re not one of the “few, we happy few..” who play this game? Are you asking yourself what are these people talking about? Do you see commercials on TV with some guy in a Scottish accent, and a monster head in the back of a pick up and say, “what the hell is that?”

In short its a guy named Ironbeard hauling around a lagiacrus’ head in a pick-up promoting MH3. Yup. Not only do I know the dudes name, but I know the monster. Am I some sort of turbo-nerd? Yes, but I’m also a monster hunter. We really are a different breed of gamer. Dare I say a different class of gamer? I do. More often than not, I find myself explaining what the MH series is like to people. Most think that it’s just a run of the mill action game. Others think it’s some sort of mmo. It’s not either. To answer the question once and for all, “What is a Monster Hunter game?” A MH game is a skill based action-rpg with an online component that bridges online and offline play. That a good enough answer? It better be. The key words to the game are “skill-based”. As in, you could have the best armor and weapons in the game, but if you stand in the path of a fire ball you’re going to get hit and you will probably die. And hardcore rpg players are screaming, “OMG no WAI!!!” and hardcore FPS players are not even paying attention because it doesn’t involve grenades, plasma rounds, or the master chief. Sports game fans are too busy worrying about their stats in online madden to care about weather their house is about to be repossessed, or their wife is about to leave them, or their bank account has been overdrawn due to the amount of vintage jersies you bought to wear during you madden play; where the only person who might see you is the mother of your child as she takes them to her parent’s house. (I’m talking about the hardest of the hardcore “genre” players and you know that these people are around.) What separates the hardcore HM player from them? We are looking for the closest place to get honey just so we can make mega potions in real life. Or we are walking through a park and figuring out what we will do if a Ratholos just decides to land out of the blue.

Why is that? Why do we think about these things? Because we play this game online. All the time. MH3 is enhanced so much with the online play I have been thinking about cancelling my WoW account. Thats huge coming from a player that has been playing for 5 years. Really though, they are the same kind of time sink. I’m just bored with WoW I guess. More-so with the drama associated with guilds and what not. With MH you don’t have to worry about drops. What you carve off is what you get, what you get in the window after a kill, is what you get. And if you don’t get what you need, ask the group if you can try for it again. No one whines when they don’t get a drop because you have to make the gear that you use. For anyone who has played an online game, where drama can arise from the moaning of players, MH3 should sound really appealing.

My online experiences in MH3 have been pleasant and fun. Nothing crazy. A few monster kills here, a few there. The player base is kind, skilled and generally lots of fun. The online play gives you the option to do event quests. These are quests that are a bit different than the standard ones you find on the board. They sometime ask you to kill 2 monsters that don’t always live in the same areas. This gets tricky because it can effect the load out you decide to bring on the mission. It might not seem like it on the surface, but the game is one of the most evolved and involved out there.

I’m just going to wrap this up for now. If you are a hardcore gamer looking for something truly fun and challenging with lasting playability, MH3 is where it’s at.

Hunt Big!!!

I’m not going to mince words. I love Monster Hunter. I love the series. I always have. I began playing Monster Hunter on the ps2 way back when. It really feels like an eternity after its incarnations on the psp. To which I had also immersed myself. The vistas are captivating. The flora and fauna amazing. The animals are even more so. With this, MH3, the bar has been raised to a place that Wii owners are going to be chortling with delight. This is a Wii exclusive. Yep. Wii ONRY!

For sometime now the Wii has had some great exclusive titles. However I have not felt that the majority of them have been for the hardcore or mature gamer. Partly because the Wii itself wasn’t designed to be a powerhouse of graphic fury. It was meant to be an affordable platform for families to enjoy good games with solid playability. And Nintendo, had done just that. They also expanded their peripheral market to utilize their wii-mote technology. Some praise this, others like myself, aren’t too happy about it. I remember when the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive in other parts of the world) where some games had specific peripherals to be played with. Like the light gun that Sega had to compete with Nintendo’s. There was one game that had 5 mini games on it. Then there was the Terminator 2 arcade game and the Aerosmith arcade game that utilized it. Both of those games were also available on the SNES. Nintendo had a few more light gun games if I recall, which in my mind justifies the existence of the gun itself. In this generation of consoles we see a decided lack of peripherals from anyone else that Nintendo. The PS3 and 360 have cameras, keyboards and mice.
The Wii has, the nunchuk, the wheel, the fishing rod, keyboard, the wii-speak, the “blaster”, “link’s cross-bow”, the wii motion plus, and more than a few more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. Oh wait… one more. The retro controller and the retro controller pro.

What does this have to do with MH3 you ask? Well, there is a bundle with MH3 and the retro controller pro. Is it worth it? Hell yes! The retro controller is a great addition to your wii-mote collection. It makes playing SNES titles on your Wii a joy. It feels like you never left that gem of a console. With the pro, there is an addition of “wings” that your decidedly larger man-hands (or woman-hands) have an easier time gripping. It’s also a tad lighter they say. And how does this fit into the grand scheme of MH3? If you played it religously on the ps2 or the psp, your thumbs must have gotten used to the controls. Capcom and Nitendo probably noticed this considering monster hunter and Pokemon have been battling for the #1 franchise in Japan for years. Now, Nintendo has a win, win situation on their hands. Both mega-franchises! Huzzah!

It’s ok though. If you don’t care to get the bundle, you don’t have to. The wii-mote and nunchuk have a whole new set of moves, different for every weapon, complete with swings and chops of the wii-mote itself. Now onto the game.

MH3, looks better than any other version to date. In my opinion, it is one of the best looking games on the wii as a whole. The water shimmers in the distance as you run across a mountain path on your way to the next zone. As the wind blows on the top of the mountain snow is pushed along as you dash away from certain death. And when you dive into water it ripples like a pebble being skipped on a pond. YES! That’s right. When YOU DIVE into WATER! You get to swim! For most people reading this I’m sure it’s not going to mean much. But, for the seasoned hunter… it is arguably the last place hunters have yet to hunt. I didn’t think much of it until I actually tried it out. It brings a whole new feeling to a seemingly old concept. But, everything is solid. As a hunter, I love it.
However, it is not a game for everyone. The controls are hard to understand in some cases. The move sets are sometimes complicated. The gathering at times can be tedious.

With all that said, If you give it time and learn these things and stick with it, you will be given a game that is a true joy to play. Now add 3 friends, and you have an honest to god, fulfilling bonding experience. Add wings and pizza, and you got a full on PARTY!
Finally, enjoy the world you’re in, but don’t hesitate to let your imagination go to other places once in a while.

(This is dedicated to all my MH firends; Matt, Adam, Mike, Sean, and to those hunter who I have not crossed paths with yet.)

Monster Hunters UNITE!

I really think so…

Let’s talk about Halo: Legends. It’s available on dvd and blu-ray. AND OnDemand. AND Itunes. AND Digital download. So pretty much anywhere.

I have read some other reviews on this film. I love how some “journalists” think it’s part of journalism to be snarky and jaded. I don’t get that. So, I do my best to tell it like it is.

Halo: Legends is a compilation of short films that revolve around the Spartan v. Covenant war from the Halo series. Each of the shorts was directed by fairly well known anime directors. The don’t really have anything to do with eachother other than the war, or the fact that they have a spartan or 2 in them. Personally, I like that. I love being told a good story. Kudos if you can get the story of an epic 3 hour movie out in 30 mins.

As a fan of the series, there is something for everyone. Weather it’s something that’s visually stunning, a different way of story telling, or something funny. Halo: Legends, in my mind delivers.

What I dislike is the price point. For me, it’s a bit too high. Also it does not include a digital copy version. If it did, I would say that the price point was just right. However, there are a TON of extras. There is a “making of” each of the episodes. Yeah… lots of extra time.

All in all, it was fun and interesting view through the eyes of different story tellers into a universe I have grown to love. Refreshing and poignant, this is a must see for Halo fans. For average Joe; he might dig it too.

Verdict: Fans= buy Non-fans= rent

Yup, you guessed it. I’m going to talk about one of the biggest movies of the year “Avatar”.

What do you get when you combine “The Smurfs”, “Dances with Wolves”, and “Robotech”. You get James Camron’s “Avatar”.
So lets get down to it, shall we? We live in a time where action films are getting bigger. I mean, huge. Not only in terms of scope, but in budget. But, does just throwing money at an intellectual property make it better? or even worth an audience seeing it? No. Just because you throw money at something does not mean that it WILL be good. In this case, the added budget made for a good film.

Yup, Avatar was good. Very good.
Now, I’ll tell you why. My suspension of disbelief (”The temporary acceptance as believable of events or characters that would ordinarily be seen as incredible. This is usually to allow an audience to appreciate works of literature or drama that are exploring unusual ideas.” -http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/suspension-of-disbelief.html) didn’t falter. Which is rather hard for me, being a trained actor.

I generally try to keep these review spoiler free. Now will be no different. However, there are themes in this film that are similar to our own American history, and our own imperialism. Now mix in a helping of inredible CGI, giant smurfs, “Ferngully”, and robots; you get a pretty interesting film. As it sounds original, it really isn’t. But, then again, most things that are done in this day and age aren’t new. However we have to realize that sometimes, different people tell the story better. When you put a different angle on something, and the perspective is slightly scewed, it can open a whole new range of feeling and emotion not found in the original work.
In this case, it takes a concept from history and puts it in a truly amazing world where anything is possible. This is why I love sci-fi.

Verdict: Avatar is awesome, see it on a big screen. The bigger the better.

P.S. If i did include spoilers this review would last at least 10 pages.

So today I’m talking about a game that hit the shelves not too long ago, Dragon Age: Origins.

The holiday season is quickly approaching so fast in fact, that the retail overlords are forcing it upon us so early that we are nearly going to miss the only true traditional American holiday. No, not the superbowl; Thanksgiving. That Wonderful holiday marked with feasting, parading, and booze.
Why is this important? Wouldn’t I like to see the shelves full of games for people to play? No. Sweet god no. I would rather see one quality game on the shelf than three hundred copies of various “That’s So Raven vs. Hannah Montana featuring the Jonas Brothers pretending to be characters from Twilight”. The video game industry has always made games that suck to pander to younger demographics and to parents that want to satiate their kids with something that resembles television but isn’t, so they can tell other parents at PTA meetings, “My children never watch television.”

As gamers are getting older, we are looking for content that engages us. Sometimes it’s a solid combat system. Sometimes it’s big bouncing boobs, i.e. the DOA series. Other times it’s really good story. DAo, has all that and more. I mean come on, it’s bioware. At this point if bioware comes out with a game that truly sucks, the world will in fact end. I’m not going to lie. I will suckle on the teat of the grand bioware cash cow, till the milk gets sour. I really dig everything that I have ever played from them. I will also say, I was rather apprehensive about playing DAo. I thought that all it was, was a mass effect clone set in dragonlance type realms. I was wrong.

DAo is a new vision on things that are familiar. I don’t want to give too much away, because this game really does scream to be played. It’s also important to know that the “:Origins” is a pretty important part of the title. Each race/class combination has its own story, to a certain point. Then all roads lead to the main plot arch. But remember, this is mighty bioware we are talking about here. Each play through is different, or can be. I’m pretty sure they want to get a point across. That point being, not every decision we make is good or bad, black and white. Life is a “grey” area. (Get it, grey warden? grey area?) This really does make DAo stand out. The relationships that you have with your fellowship also add to the story. Again, I don’t want to give too much away.

This game is a gem for fantasy fans, rpg fans, and smart people. All I can do is recommend it. I know that in the string of holiday madness a game like this can get overlooked. Please don’t. If anything a game with a huge amount of replay value should be looked for. Would you rather play $60 on a game that takes you two hours with a lame story that you could have written on the wall of a bathroom stall in one sitting? Or, would you like to be able to grab a drink or your choice, and watch a story unfold around you like a unique tulip, as you hack and slash your way to peace? Kill the Hannah Montana games. Set the Jonas Brothers games on fire. Make your kids play Tetris until they are smart enough for games like DAo.

Verdict— Full of so much win, it will give you wood!

“Ain’t talking bout love”, no, I’m talking bout a new iteration of the “Guitar Hero” franchise.

This is a review of both “Guitar Hero 5″-ish and “Guitar Hero: Van Halen”

So, over a month ago I picked up “Guitar Hero 5″ after I saw a commercial for it advertising that for each copy bought before or during the month of September, would get a free copy of “Guitar Hero: Van Halen”. It seems to me that this promotion would have worked much better should they have packaged this with “Rock Band: Beatles”. Seeing as RB:B outsold GH5, by a lot. Don’t get me wrong. I love the fab four. I just didn’t want to spend that kind of coin on the full band kit, because the last guitar hero game I bought was for my mighty PS2. That’s right, I have not owned a rhythm game since the advent of the PS3 or the 360. Oh my god- Oh my god, I know, I must be some sort of gaming Luddite, these days. Truth be told, I just didn’t feel that what was being released early on for next-gen stuff was much different than what already was out. So I waited. And waited. And waited.

I ended up playing RB and RB2 the same day at a friend’s house. It was pretty fantabulous considering it was during a party and there were people playing and watching, and rocking out with us. I had fun. I really did. But, (wait for it) I couldn’t justify spending that kind of cash for a truly great multi-player game I would only end up playing by myself. So I waited some more. I ended up seeing a write up of GH5 in some publication I won’t name. It mentioned the promotion for GH:VH. I read some of the songs on it. I read that it was compatable with GH: Wolrd Tour downloads. It supported the full band experience. I stopped waiting. I got in my car. I drove to my local Gamestop-oly (get it.. play on words). I brought GH5. I followed the directions on how to get my GH:VH copy. And here I am.

From the moment I placed GH5 in my xbox360, I was hooked all over again. It really felt that this was really what I was waiting for. A truly next-gen functionality, where you can “hot swap” band members in and out during songs. The ability to change the difficulty of songs mid-stream. The use of your avatar as a band member, and everything that I mentioned before.

I played it for 4 hours straight. I went into a time warp. It was awesome. I had been having a great time with GH5. I totally forgot about why I got it in the first place and just enjoyed the game for what it was and the progress that the genre as a whole was making. Until the mail came.

I get a small envelope, a bit bigger than a CD. I opened it up right away, thinking it was junk mail. As I peered into the opening I saw the faint markings of what looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. “On a CD?”, you ask? No! It was not Pollock. It was Frankenstein. It finally came. The video game industry didn’t lie to me again! There was a sliver of hope!

I brought it to my xbox. I began to play. I began to time warp again. This time it was for 6 hours. Yay.

It is a bit more stripped down than GH5. Not much though. Pretty much everything you would expect from a GH game is there. Just about everything can be customized. You can make your own tattoos. Yippie. The meuns are not very fancy. They don’t have to be. You’re here to play a music game.

You jump in to career mode and the first thing you are treated to is Van Halen. Not VH from the 80’s, but as they are now. I have to say. It’s rather creepy how much they really do look similar. Such is the ever changing world of games I suppose. I’m not by an means great at GH games. I start at medium and slowing move to hard. The difference in difficulty in this game is pretty huge. But, it is definitely easy and worth working to get better. I only completed 3 songs on hard, but the feeling of accomplishment is really rewarding.

As for the music. This game was not just made for fans. I feel like this is GH5 1/2- featuring Van Halen. Because it isn’t just all VH songs. There are songs from Queen, Killswitch Engage, The Clash, and The Foo Fighters just to name a few. They are considered “guest acts”, and it even feels like an opening act at times. For the VH songs, if you are a fan of David Lee Roth, you are in luck. Sammy Hagar and Gary Sharone, are no where to be found in this game. You’re looking at the songs that made VH famous. There is a really cool bit when you clear a certain amount of the song list. Van Halen: The Early Years.

Yep… There is a lot to this game I’m not talking about. For good reason. You need to play it if you are a fan, of either music based games or Van Halen. There are wonderful things to be found in this game, a new level of skill to be had, and damn fine rock and roll music. Worth your time, even if you lose it in a time warp.

Verdict— Full of WIN!!!!!!!