I’ve mastered the original, so of course, starting out in this one may be a little simple (Warrior mode). But, I seem to have a lot of health all the time. …And the fights are boring. NGII is just too easy. Now, I’ve come across a few pain-in-the-ass bosses, but all in all, this is easy. Unfortunately it’s so easy that I don’t play it often. It bores me. But, that doesn’t stop it from being a badass action game. I think I would enjoy it more If I hadn’t played the original. And you can’t really fault Team Ninja. They got shit for making their last game difficult. It’s too bad that nowadays the gaming community is made up of a bunch of pansies (didn’t I make a post about this?). And you’ve probably heard by now, but Itagaki left Tecmo over some legal issues and has apparently brought over some of his people from Team Ninja to start a new development team (MS, snag ‘em up). Maybe Tecmo pressured Team Ninja into making NGII into a different game than they wanted - easily accessible by anyone? Who really knows for sure, but hopefully we’ll be hearing from Itagaki soon.

Anyway, I don’t dislike NGII. I just don’t see myself putting much time into it because it is slightly boring. I’m not stopping you from playing it though - you really should.

I beat Conan right before the release of NGII. That was a very fun game, and the last boss was just downright insane. Any gamer should probably go through that game just to play against the last boss. There was no mercy. It took time to figure out what to do…and some of it was just patience and timing. The other portions though…It had to be luck.

In a day or two (or maybe a week), I’ll be writing about the new gaming laptop I got. The Gateway P-6860FX.

Now I’m working on Conan and it is a great 3rd person combat game. What I really like about it is the way the combo system works. As your attacks land you then press the next button in the combo. Instead of dial-a-combo it works as combos should. I’m about to finish it, and need to for Ninja Gaiden 2 on Tuesday…

I like how the reviews for NG2 have been so far. People brutalize it for the camera, which confuses me because I think it’s one of the greatest 3rd person action game cameras. Especially with help from the Right Trigger. But most of it falls into my reviewer rant: This time, the game is just so frustrating that it is easy for the reviewer to bash its camera.

Controls. It controls like a GTA game. This wasn’t bad five years ago, but things have changed. There are many sand-box style games that have come out since GTA, namely Crackdown and the True Crime series, and they have both introduced some amazing controls. I’m assuming Rockstar just rests on the name, spending their time creating a huge world, but no time refining how you spend your time in it.

True Crime allowed me to tackle people I was chasing. It also offered a robust hand-to-hand combat system. You could pick up melee weapons, use holds, and unlock special moves to be used later on for the tougher enemies. GTA’s h2h combat system is just laughable. I know some of this can be opinion…but I would hope people would grasp the controls of the True Crime series and understand that future GTA’s need to evolve with that refinement in mind. Now, the controls could still be bad in GTA, but my main gripe is options of manipulating my character in the sand-box world.

The thing is, GTA is out now. It’s the biggest and deepest sand-box style game we have right now for the next-gen consoles. Anyone will jump on it. But that doesn’t mean it should be getting almost perfect scores from all the big-name reviewers. GTA IV is far from perfect. But, I am having a lot of fun with it. It truly is fun. It just feels way too primitive. And this is where it all comes together.

The gaming world is different. Reviewers review based on what’s generally accepted in the gaming world. And this acceptance is largely made up of that casual gaming population that buys games, but doesn’t necessarily get into them. GTA became popular because it revolutionized. These other sand-box games step in to refine the genre, yet without the GTA name, this largely casual gaming market doesn’t care. They don’t know how much better they can have it. So over time, this market is what most developers and publishers have been developing for. The big name publications review games with this market in mind. This might be how the “machine” has to work, but it sucks.

But back to the reviews. GTA IV in no way deserves perfect scores. Yes, it is a fun game with a fantastic and deep world, but the actual game play experience is missing behind it. Now I could be getting into opinion territory here, but basically, GTA is simple and easily accessible. That’s fine, but I enjoy deeper game play, and maybe now it’s all about simplicity. That’s why it has perfect scores. Name and simplicity. But as a hardcore gamer, that sucks.

At this point, there’s nothing I can do. I feel like I’m regurgitating what I said in my Turok reviews piece, but gaming is changing. Deep and engaging game play is now most certainly being put aside by the looks of GTA IV’s review scores.

Also, my plan is to have a Bluecast done Wednesday morning. I’ve had people ask when the next one will be, so I know I need to pump one out ASAP. I’ll be off, and have had a whole night of GTA before hand, so we’ll have a lot to talk about. And we’ll have Jose talk some Mario Kart, seeing as neither Sean or I plan on getting it.

This game is going to be awesome.

http://www.tu.tv/videos/gta-4-in-gameeee

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/gta%2BIV%2B/video/x56qcr_gta-4-gameplay-xbox-360_videogames

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/206848.html

Company of Heroes

I turn everything on high, and Ultra where applicable. The AA allowed for 16xQ and 8xQ, but 16xQ turned up with no video. I just scrapped that and stuck with 2x. The performance test turned out with an average of ~40fps, a maximum of ~60fps, and a minimum of 1fps. That ‘1′ actually came from when the test first loaded, it stuttered. It was interesting to see, but I wonder what numbers I would have got if I tried it again. Was that hiccup just a load required by the card? I was too excited tot ry again because I wanted to try Crysis.

And about a Bluecast…all I can say is sorry. It’s so hard to find the time to do it. The problem is, I need everyone there. Jose, Sean, and Me. My hours are just whack and Sean is in school. Jose travels a lot, but he also has the time…it’s just about syncing it. But I tell you…the next show will be awesome.

Anyway, check out my score in Vista:

That’s pretty nice. Comparing to others online, I’m doing good.

ACK! It broke the page! Well, I don’t care.

Here’s my new card:

And my beautiful RAM:

And my specs via XFire:

Nintendo sent back my Wii. Finally. But now you know what? My component ports no longer work on my receiver. I haven’t used them in a year, so maybe they just died over time. But seriously? All this?

And, if you heard the recent podcast, you know that my Wii is with Nintendo right now…I hope my 360 isn’t next…again.