Litte Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I don't have much to say today as I need to get back to spending time with my family. However, as my gift to you I give you a video review of a game that I feel is appropriate for the holidays, Little Inferno.

Enjoy, and have a very Happy Holiday!
----Strife Out----

Little Burning Notes

As most of you may know by now, especially after past posts, I'm an enthusiast for OSTs or Original Soundtracks. Well I have once again found a game with fantastic music that I love listening to, and the part is you can get the music for free.

I've been playing quite a bit of the game Little Inferno over the past few days. It's a good title, and while I have plenty to say about I'm just going to talk about it's soundtrack today.
It's slow and deep in a beautiful sombre sort of way. What I love so much about the music composed for Little Inferno is how it's very powerful yet subtle. Most of the music is very evocative on it's own, but after finishing the game it's even more powerful.

Suffice it to say Little Inferno is a game that was a very pleasing surprise in many different ways, and it's music played no small part in it's overall charm. If you're interested you can get the sound track over on the official website. There's no good reason not to, because it's free.

I'll have more to say about Little Inferno later, but for now.
----Strife Out---

When No One Cared it Came

Holy hell!
The game RAGE will be getting it's frist DLC package in a week! Does anyone else remember this game? I do, mainly because I reviewed it.

This is just weird that RAGE, which is more than a year old now, is getting it's first DLC 14.5 months after it's initial release! I mean there's a window of opportunity for these things to work out, and it's been long gone for this game. Make no mistake I'll be buying the DLC, entitled The Scorchers, but I'm amazed by it's existence at all. At five dollars, no matter the quality or volume of content, I don't stand to lose much.

You may ask why I'd buy DLC for a game over a year old, to which I answer. RAGE was a good game and a great shooter. Simple as that.

----Strife Out----

Meet the Prepper

I'm Not going to spam the blog with every episode I put up, cause there will be quite a few, but I'm now playing through ZombiU for the Wii U.
I picked mu my Wii U about two weeks ago now, and I've been so busy I haven't had time to really play it much. Then I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by just doing an LP for you guys, and forming my opinion as you watch me go through the game.

Don't really know how things will turn out with this series, but let's hope for the best eh?

----Strife Out----

Double Vs Since Vice

As a long standing fan of the Grand Theft Auto series It's a bit odd to see the game Vice City reach it's tenth anniversary mark. It was one of the few games I took the time to find everything in, and achieve the golden status of 100% completion. Which is why I love this trailer for it's hand-held re-release.

Looking back at the original now though I realise just how rough the game was, especially the audio which was very compressed. It sounds much cleaner in the trailer, so I'm left wondering if the audio was redone with less compression or somethng. Ahh nostalgia ----Strife Out----

#1 Reason Why

It's no secret that the video game industry is mostly a huge sausage-fest, which is why I'm slightly surprised by the explosion of the twitter tag #1reasonwhy.

1 reason why is all about why there are so few women working on video games today. The industry is extremely sexist, and the slew of tweets holding the tag proves it. The statements and stories on the feed exemplify just how unappreciated girls are in the market. It seems more than anything else that females are treated at tokens in the industry, and their views opinions and input considered as valuable as the whistling wind.

It's troubling to say the least, and the #1reasonwhy feed helps to explain why so few valuable female characters exist in games today. After all it's pretty damn hard to make a believable female character when there are so few women to help create them. Not to mention the lack respect there is for their input.

Y'know what I want to see? A development team made of 80% women. I'd really like to see what kind of games they would make.
----Strife Out----

Sui Generis

I usually don't get excited about something that I post about, mainly because most of the stuff that comes through the news feed for games is predictable. However, every once in a while something comes up that really takes me entirely off guard, and amazes so much that I get very excited.

Well this is one of those things.

Sure the character animations are a bit shoddy, but as described by the video below, the team doesn't have an animation artist. Furthermore the game requires you to actually time your attack and defense.

It's very refreshing to see an engine built around real physical collisions with force calculations in combat. I think it's a great idea to discard the old system of spells or weapon needing defined features that can knockback, knockdown, or disarm.

This is one project I'm going to keep my eyes on.
----Strife Out----

Dolla Dolla Bills Y'all

Gotta say I'm very interested in where this is going. The GTA series always surprises me for how it manages to stay largely fresh, even though it has to stick to the basic free roam mechanics which it help to pioneer. If anything is proof that Rockstar North is doing what it can to change the game and not fall behind it's the new GTA 5 trailer.

My only problem now is how I have to wait for the game, and how I can't attend a midnight release for it. Why? Well I've given up on gamestop, since they treat decade old patrons like shit.
But I digress.

----Strife Out----

Retro City Rampage 02

If it weren't for Assassin's Creed 3 I would have done this video a looong time ago.

I'm almost made part three in the same sitting, but decided I should get some feedback on my voice work first.

----Strife Out----

TESO Dev Diary

The latest video for The Elder Scrolls Online has been posted to youtube, and it's a dev diary. Here they cover what the game is supposed to be and how it works.

I have to say that I'm pretty interested in weather TESO will do what no other game has since WoW, redefine basic MMO mechanics. Something that caught my ear in this vid is how TESO apparently isn't bound to the god awful hotbar system that all other MMOs are built around. Just the possibility of not having to see a huge puke of skill buttons boxing in the screen is enticing, and then there's the idea of not using auto attack.

One thing I never liked about MMOs is their over reliance on auto attack, which really puts a wall between you and the most basic activity, hitting things. The system is exactly why most MMOs end up being a redundant cycle of keying up attack chains. It results in combat that's very detached, which resembles creating spreadsheets more than having it out with a monster.

Putting basic attack and defense controls back in the hands of the player for real time use, will no doubt help to vastly set this MMO apart from the others. Of course there's no telling until I get a hands on with the game, but I'm hopeful.

----Strife Out----

Dragonborn

I knew this was coming, and just about everything I herd about has been confirmed by this trailer.

The only question now is, when will it land for PC? Hopefully the December release for the 360 isn't exclusive, since that contract ran out with hearthfire.

----Strife Out----

Rampaging Parody

After finishing this game I just felt like doing some LP reference series over it. I don't know if I'll follow through with it, but let's enjoy what I do do eh?

I just want to make something clear before i go too. If I get an amazingly low view count for the videos, as in less than 3k within 10-11 days, it's a sign people don't care about the series. If that happens I drop the project, and that's exactly what happened with the Borderlands 2 LP.

----Strife Out----

The All Stars Battle

Back around this time last year Sony put out the pro-gaming ad known as Michel. It was different, well done, and had a lot of emotion in it.
Considering all that I was more than interested when Sony teased at another similar commercial. After watching it though I just feel underwhelmed.

Don't get me wrong it's good and well done, but it just can't compete with the original long live play ad they made just over a year ago. I'm not crying over it though, I'm just mildly disappointed. I have more important things to lose sleep over, and none of them are advertisements.

----Strife Out----

TESO Screens

A handful of new screen shots of the Elder Scrolls MMO have appeared. I like the art style being used, and so far it's looking rather good. Of course I'm still concerned about how this game will potentially affect my favourite franchise, but going at this with a positive attitude is about all I can do.

Obviously there's still no release date for the game, but it's clear the development is moving right along. In all honesty though, my biggest fear right now is TES online possibly replacing WoW for the king of MMOs. Blizzard and Warcraft used to be my favouries, then they found extreme success and stopped being the franchise and developer I came to love.
I guess I'm just nervous. I'm just worried about the worst possible outcomes.

----Strife Out----

--update--
In response to Mundo's comment I want to clarify something. When I say Warcraft, I mean the entire series, and Blizzard's history in reference to it. I'm not just talking about WoW in this post. The Warcraft game series started back in 1994, and I have gaming roots going farther back than that.

Wii U Guts

This is an interesting bit to share. Recently Nintendo posted an interview between Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, and the Wii U hardware development team. The interview is four pages long, and it details how they went about cramming roughly all the power of a current gen system onto one chip, and put it in a box not much bigger than the original Wii.

Even if you aren't a fan f Nintendo and what they do, you have to respect what they've done with the technology. I'm frankly amazed at how small they've made the CPU and GPU and then fit it all on just one module. This interview really shows how Nintendo believes in the saying Gunpei Yokoi came up with, "Lateral thinking with withered technology". ----Strife Out----

Borderlands 2 - Gun Guide

This turned out to be a real surprise for me. Just last week on Monday or Tuesday I was thinking about the guns in Borderlands 2 and why I always seemed to be using the same brand at every level. Well, I decided to look deeper at how the game generates it's random stock of artillery, and ended up learning a lot. As I was learning everything though I was jotting down notes, and before I knew it I wrote a 1200+ word guide in just two days.
There was only one thing left to do at that point, go all the way with it.

I wanted to get this out yesterday, but no matter how hard I tried extra things kept poping up during production that made it take a lot longer than I wanted. I'm not a fan of Tuesday uploads, but I think we'll all manage.

----Strife Out----

Skyrim - Solstheim - Bloodmoon

I won't go into detail, mainly because I'm not completely sure if this information is reliable, but it would appear that the next Skyrim expansion is going to take place on the island of Solstheim.

Now for just a little background info, for those of you who didn't play Morrowind and it's BloodMoon expansion.
Solstheim is an island to the northwest of Morrowind's northern region Vvardenfel, and northeast of Skyrim's northern coast. This snowy island was added to the game Morrowind in the second expansion pack Bloodmoon. The dark elves and Nords were constantly in conflict as to who owned this island. Eventually though the Nords successfully claimed it as their own, but gave it to the dark elves as a gift after the volcano red mountain erupted and rendered Vvardenfel uninhabitable.

Just the possibility of returning to Solstheim in the next Skyrim expansion is exciting. I'm certain many of you are interested to know more, as am I. When I do my next podcast I'll do my best to cover this subject in depth. I'll give you the facts followed by my predictions for the forthcoming expansion then.

Also look out, a new video is due to drop very soon, and it's subject may be a bit of a surprise.

----Strife Out----

HearhFire

Today the thirty day xbox exclusive period expired for the Skyrim DLC hearthfire. You can nab it on steam for a measly five dollars, which seems appropriate considering how small the package is.

Also my condolences to those of you on PS3 still waiting for DLC at all. Hope things work out for you guys in the long run.

----Strife Out----

Software Scramble

I was rather surprised today when I logged onto steam and found a new section dedicated to software. This is something I never really saw coming. Even though the move to include non-game software was announced some time ago, it's debut has still caught me off guard. All the programs currently available are somehow related to game creation, ranging from art, to 3D modeling, to actual game creation; but none of it is tied to a pre-existing game or engine.

Judging by things Valve has said recently about their hiring process, It seems to me like their intention is to encourage armature and indie game creation. Once there's a crowd of creative individuals making their own stuff out of passion, Valve may end up trying to pick up some of the best talent to help improve the ranks of the company.
I'm probably wrong, as I just don't see Valve being so deliberately manipulative, but it's still possible. Especially since they have no boss grunt structure.

----Strife Out----

RE6

It's no secret that Resident Evil six is dropping, and to accompany the game are a host of poor reviews warning people away from it. There was a time when I loved the RE series, and I played through all the games because of that love (excluding half of Veronica X and 4). However, I only played RE 5 for three reasons, one it was cheap to buy, two my friend pushed me to get it, and three a buy two get one free sale at gamestop. I wasn’t impressed with RE5 and I'm in no way interested in RE6. In all honesty, the game series has fallen from grace.

Despite the fact that it's supposed to be a horror series, it hasn't sacred me in a long time. If fact I'm finding myself more horrified by how I'll probably end up buying RE6 because of that same friend. He wants to play through it with me, and seeing how I already own all the RE games, it stands to reason for me to pick up the new one right?

Friends with bad taste in videogames can be scary!

----Strife Out----

N-visioning the Future

(I meant to post this nearly a week ago, but I forgot to put it up)

Well it's finally landed, the official release date and pricing for Nintendo's new console, the Wii U. It's slate for release on November 18, and there are two planned models you can buy. The standard model will be white with all the basic trimmings, like an HDMI cable, power adaptor, and sensor bar, but it's limited to 8gb of data storage. The premium bundle though is black and also comes with the game Nintendo land, a system stand, a charging cradle for the tablet controller, and has 32gb of internal storage.
The price difference is nominal too, as the basic package has an MSRP of $300 and the premium is $350. I think that the extras are worth the cash, but then again I was planning to reserve the console no matter what.

Some people may disagree with me, but I like Nintendo and their games. Sure I may not have gotten as much use out of the Wii as I would have liked; And Nintendo’s North American localization support of Japanese games has been less than impressive, but I still think I've gotten my moneys worth. Especially since it only cost $250 on release day.

----Strife Out----

Losing the Bio but Keeping the Ware

A sad announcement came across today, Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka two co-founders of BioWare, are retiring from BioWare. These two men have left an enormous mark on the videogame industry. With games like Baulders Gate, Neverwinder Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age; the pair have been involved with some of the most recognized and influential RPGs the industry has seen.

After twenty years, the doctors are leaving the videogame industry and moving on to different fields. While this is a sad bit of news, what really worries me is how the Company is more or less in the hands of EA now. In addition it was just recently announced that the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series additional installments.
Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I just look at this series of events and say "well Looks like EA is already moving in to cash in and ruin the last two games Greg and Ray helped to build".

What do you guys think, does BioWare have a future under EA and without it's co-founders?

----Strife Out----

Torchlight 2 Soundtrack

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a fanatic for collecting game soundtracks. I have a pile of music from various titles I've played over the years, and I have so many I haven't even listened to all of it. Well I'm adding another soundtrack to my library, and it's before the I'll even play the accompanying game too.
Torchlight II is set to drop in about a day or so, and just because they're awesome, Runic Games has decided to publish the game's soundtrack for free.
you can download it here.

One of the things I love about the Torchlight music is that it's composed by Matt Uelmen, the man behind the awesome music from the first two Diablo games and the WoW burning Crusade expansion. His music is distinct, and it's also very eerie at the same time, which is what I love about it.

As far as the second Torchlight goes I'll be playing it at some point, but I don’t' know when. The Holiday slew of games is beginning to drop, so I'll be very busy playing through title after title for months to come. Bu anyway.

There's nothing quite like a free soundtrack to make my day.
----Strife Out----

Thirty Second Saviour

Several years ago in 2009 there was an interesting little title published for the PSP called Half-Minute Hero. It was a parody game that basically made fun of JRPGs, summing up what they were about, and making you save the world in only half a minute.
It was a game that caught my eye, and I wanted to play it. Unfortunately though I had no working PSP to play the game. Thus I was left to simply wonder how novel the title could have been for me.

Now much to my surprise, three years after it's initial release, Half-Minute Hero is getting a port to the PC and Steam. It'll be landing later this month, September 27, in all it's glory.
As a long time RPG fan I look forward to giving this game a shot. It may not be new, but interest hasn't faded, and if anything I'm more excited because now it also has a budget price tag of $9.99 to boot.

----Strife Out----

Grounds of the Fringe

I'm looking forward to some extended play time in a few weeks in the Borderlands. I played the first game and was sufficiently satisfied with the experience, even though it was a bit redundant.

I've been following the development of Borderlands 2 on and off for months now, so I haven't really missed any big about the game. However, the video below refreshed my memory of all the news I've picked up bit by bit. Sir Hammerlock, the host of the video, will bring anyone up to speed on just what borderlands 2 is, how it plays, and what makes it special in very short order.

Honestly this has to be my favourite BL2 video they've put out yet.

Are you going to visit the new and improved borderlands just like me?

----Strife Out----

Ground Zero

I'm a fairly big Metal Gear fan. I've been playing the games since the original PS1 Solid release back in 1998. As a result the large convoluted story web doesn't phase me in the least, and I actually enjoy the complex story. Thus I'm super hyped by this new installment Metal Gear Ground Zero.

The trailer above actually doesn't do a whole lot story wise, but graphically it really amazes me. It's not pre-rendered, but real-time, running on the current gen PS3 hardware. I was very skeptical of this as I watched the trailer, but between 9:15-9:23, where the cinematic turns into gameplay I about shat myself. It really is real-time, and those rain effects are jaw dropping, especially to be running on Current (but honestly outdated) Generation hardware. Moreover this game is supposed to be open world, and decidedly much less linear compared to preceding Metal Gear games.
I'm just astonished by how much Kojima and his group can get out of the PS3, which is FAR more than I've seen out of any other developer (naughty dog included).

----Strife Out----

The Core Square

Y'know I used to love square. There was a time when they made lots of games I actually cared about, and they knew what they were doing. In recent years though Square-Enix seems to have lost contact with what it means to make good games with quality narrative. At the same time they've honed in on what it means to be a money-grubbing publisher hell-bent on making cash wherever they can.
Their latest method involves making you watch ads so you can play classic games for free.

Now I'm not actually against this development, I actually think it's very interesting. You can buy the game, or watch one ad and earn twenty minutes of playtime. It a different way of thinking, and I'm interested to see how it will pan out.
However, I do see it as a way that Square is trying to save it's thinning bottom line. I'm just troubled by how they're trying to save themselves by re-marketing old games, instead of innovating and creating new interesting titles. I know I'm being a little harsh, but I can't help but feel this effort will ultimately be wasted energy.

----Strife Out----

Skyrim - Hearthfire

This is a real surprise, Bethesda is beefing up the simulation aspect of Skyrim with their new DLC, Hearthfire. The content is slated for an Xbox360 release September 4th, and it allows you to buy a plot of land then build a house on it by hand,then furnish it by hand. You can have a green house, wizards tower, beehives, and even fish hatcheries attached to your humble abode.

This new DLC has really come out of left field for me. I;m actually not sure of how I feel about it. What do all of you think, especially if you play on console with no access to mods like this?

----Strife Out----

B10g - Analogue A Hate Story

I've been wanting to make this video for months, and I finally had the time. It really sucks having a script sitting around, but not being able to use it!

Let me know what you think in the comments, on here or over on YouTube.

----Strife Out----

Waste and Capitol

Wasteland 2 is a title I've been keeping in the corner of my eye since it's development was announced earlier this year. The original Wasteland was the precursor to the Fallout series, which was created when Black Isles couldn't get the rights to the franchise. I'm not expecting anything from the new Wasteland, mainly because I know very little about it. However, I am hopeful that it will have success similar to Fallout 3 though, seeing the large similarities between the IPs.

There's good news too, according to Brian Fargo, the project lead, the game is coming right along. Wasteland 2 was kickstarted by crowd funding, so there are no corporate overlords to demand the game have safe and easy-to-market design. The budget is a bit small compared to traditional publisher backed games, but seeing as how there's no corporate cut to be taken that's a small price to pay. The game is far from done though, and until It's release draws dangerously close I probably won't be playing much attention to it.

But I am still hoping it becomes a breakout hit that makes me love the wasteland even more.

----Strife Out----

Black is Back

It seems that the studio Black Isles has been reestablished.

This is a surprising turn of events, especially after it's parent company Interplay shut it down years ago. Black Isles was an influential studio from the 90s that helped to cement the computer RPG genre. If you want more info check out the video below, as it covers some history of the studio.

Anyway interplay seems to be re-launching the old black isles studio, but there's a major catch. None of the old employees are returning. This turn of events will certainly turn heads, but also draw criticism. After all there's nothing that says re-launching the old studio with completely new faces will be successful. And to top everything off they no longer own some of their original IP, like Fallout, which was lost to Bethesda during legal battles.

What do you think? Drop down to the comments and give your two cents.

----Strife Out----

The Stones of Barenziah 2/2

Kinda forgot to post this the other day. Give it a watch if you haven't already and tell me what you think!

I have some more stuff I'm working on, this won't be the last of the Skyrim Guides, I promise.

----Strife Out----

In the Mist

Even though I don't play World of Warcraft anymore I still appreciate the work Blizzard puts into their products. I've always loved and enjoyed the cinematic sequences they've created for their games, even if they only have a fleeting purpose, like the video below for the WoW expansion Mists of Pandaria.

Even though I don't care for Blizzard productions anymore because of how they fumble both content and DRM, I still had a good time watching the trailer. I especially like how they didn't take the whole fighting panda thing really seriously, and put some humor in.

----Strife Out----

The Stones of Barenziah 1/2

It's taken forever but on the anniversary of the ninth month since the game's release I've finally put out my first Skyrim guide. Tell me what you think, and look forward to the second half soon.

Also if you have any game related questions feel free to ask, I'm going to start doing podcasts again.

----Strife Out----

New Beginnings

Well if you've been following me on YouTube you know that I've been working on generating new content. I'm starting to touch on things I haven't done in months (nearly a year actually), and it's feeling awkward. I didn't realize just how out of touch I've become with my roots of video work since I started doing the show Elements of Play.

I'm steadily finding my bearings again, but I also came away from EoP for the better. The show, combined with the last game I did guides over, has taught me the importance of not losing the Forrest through the trees. Specifically I've learned about not embellishing on graphics and effects when it hampers the clarity of the video.
I won't drag on any further, and I hope you like the screen shot.

----Strife Out----

Celebrity Shot

The child's play charity had a special celebrity raffle not too long ago. By purchasing a ticket you had a chance to play a special muliplayer match of Team Fortress 2 with several game developers and youtube stars.
Some of my favourie contenders include Simon and Lewis from the Yogscast, Notch the creator of Minecraft, and Freddie Wong the awesome videogame parody artist. There are also several people from Valve, Bethesda, and PC Gamer involved too.

I don't usually watch theses types of video, but knowing a lot of the people involved made the vid something I couldn't pass up. Give it a watch, enjoy cartoonish carnage, and tell me what you think!

----Strife Out----

EoP - Breaking the Genre Barrier

Well, here it is the last episode of Elements of Play You'll see for a while. This is also the final episode that Machinima told me to throw out because it wasn't what they wanted, even though they didn't look at it.

As a small extra bit of Information when I was making the thumbnail for this episode, I thought thought about using Zero Suit Samus. Then I got liberal with the graphic, and laughed at the result. Alas neither look was right for what I wanted, so I used the thumb you see in the video above.

----Strife Out----

Vapour Locked

Hey everyone, sorry for being kinda silent the last few weeks. I don't really have an excuse, except for this past week. I've kinda been locked into the perpetual overload which is the Steam Summer Sale. I've been glued to my computer gaming hard for hours on end, and with a lot more choice than I'm used to.

I'll try to poke my head out of the grotto some though. If nothing else, just to talk about current events and such.

Are any of you stuck in the same situation as me, has steam suddenly stolen your life?

----Strife Out----

Elements of Play - Adapive Story

I just know people are going to keep saying "what about game X, Y or Z?!" It's really going to get under my skin too, because I even say in this video "there are to many games to mention".

Ok, I'm done complaining, enjoy the video now.

Only one more episode left. I may go back and make more of the show eventually, but that's yet to be seen.

----Strife Out----

Leaking the Lost

Around a month or so ago the game developer 38 Studios went out of business. Even though I didn't play it, I had some interest in the only game they published while still around, Kingdoms of Amalur. Well it's no secret that the studio had another game in the works, an MMO also named Kingdoms of Amalur. The title will never see the light of day, and even though I could care less (MMOs just aren't my thing), I do find the trailer they made for it fun to watch.

The video below is a low quality trailer for the ill fated MMO. It clearly wasn't finished, as the narration is less than epic, and the scoring doesn't seem to rise and fall like it should. The art however was obviously complete or close to it, and the aesthetic design of morphing between 3D and 2D graphics is something I enjoy seeing. It's works like this that get my creative gears moving, and drive to to come up with new types of motion graphics.

I feel like I've gained something from watching this video. Hopefully I'll be able to put it to good use.

----Strife Out----

EoP - Cinematics

Well this weeks video is about the cinemas and cutscenes in videogames. It doesn't so much ask questions, or explore alternatives as it does just look over what's already there. For some reason I have a feeling this episode will resonate with people because it doesn't require you to think outside of the box.

I welcome questions and opinions as always.

----Strife Out----

Legal Landmark

Ever since the beginning of digital content and DLC the EULA (end user license agreement) that comes with the software has forbidden the resale of of it. This has largely been due to how companies have wanted to prevent piracy, but also because they don't want to lose sales. Thus most EULAs have stuck to the idea that you aren't buying software, you're just buying a license to infinity use the software. Meaning you have no right to resell it.

Well that idea has been struck down by the EU court, and at least in the European Union it's now legal to resell digitally downloaded software. This may not affect anything in my neck of the woods, but seeing as how this is a step forward for gamers, I'm interested to see if it will change anything over here. After all world events unavoidably influence things stateside.

Read the article here

----Strife Out----

EoP - Difficult Games

Well I've decided to move the release schedule. From now on I'll be uploading new videos on Saturday instead of Monday. Granted I may go back on this later if I see a significant drop in views, but I doubt that will happen.

Anyway this episode of Elements of Play is about games that are not easy. I felt the script here was stretched a bit thin, and I sure I'll hear loads about what games I SHOULD have brought up. Regardless I hope that most of you enjoy what I'm trying to get across in this video.

----CP Out----

Arkham City

I'm still trying to catch up on last year's game releases, thus I've only just finished Arkham City. It’s a great game, and I can't stress how fun it is to play, but It feels watered down compared to Arkham asylum.

The overarching issue that I have with Arkham city is how it has too many brief appearances. Multiple enemies get only a tiny bit of screen time, and several are barely mentioned. One or two faces are around long enough to feel fleshed out, but that isn’t the case across the board. For me this made the villain experience less potent.

I don't really want to rant on, but suffice it to say there were too many villains fighting for screen time. In the end I didn’t' feel any one of them was a serious threat, and was left wishing for the more focused experience and quality of the original Arkham asylum.

I suppose it come with the territory though, the perils of trying to follow up a fantastic game.
----Strife Out----

P.S. If you guys want me to go into more detail I could make a video about the game. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Basically, kind-of a big deal

Valve (creators of half-life, team fortress, and left 4 dead) have been turning out interesting shorts for not only promotional purposes, but also for fun, for a long time now. Their most recognised work though are the "meet the team" videos for their free multiplayer game Team Fortress 2. Up until this week TF2 only had videos introducing eight of it's nine classes. Now though the final class "The Pyro" has his own video, which describes, in a hilariously violent way, why he loves fire so much.

I laughed my ass off while watching this.

More importantly though the Pyro video débuts how Valve as been making it's animated video, with the source film maker. The Source Film Maker is a literal realtime 3D movie maker built around Valve's Source engine. They've apparently been working on this piece of software for some eight years, and I must say it looks good.

People have been making movies with valve resources for some time now, but they've largely lacked proper animations because of how much work it is to animate bipeds. I'm very interested to see how this will potentially change the machinima landscape.

What are your opinions on the Source Film Maker?
----Strife Out----

P.S. Hopefully people will figure out how to move characters and worlds like Skyrim into this move maker and make some truly epic videos!

Dusk Maiden

This post may serve as a reminder, or maybe news to some of you, but I enjoy watching anime. This past week I finished watching the show Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, and I figured why not say a few words about it.

The show is about the ghost of a girl who haunts the local school, and no one can see her. This ghost is unable to remember her past and how she died, so she can't find peace but for the same reason she isn't vengeful either. One day a freshman wanders into the old school building and surprisingly can see her. Not long after meeting they decide to try and find out the girls past, and they start a club which also attracts two other members.

That's the brief synopsis, and while the show had potential I found it to be lacking. I watched the entire thing mainly because it was the only series I was following this past season, so I was patient with it's initial lack of story development. Something did have going for it though was beautiful artwork. The gaudy background images of the old school building where the characters held club meetings was impressive in my onion, which really helped to improve the show's quality. The overall story was ok, but as I said, it took some time to get going. A few episodes were unexpected and there were some decent twists; However, the ending was disappointing. The writers for some reason chose to shy away from a decisive conclusion, and ended up creating a last minute happy ending. I don’t' have a problem with "Happily Ever After", but when it's suddenly conjured out of thin air I always have complaints.

Start to finish Dusk Maiden of Amnesia was an ok show, and certainly not the worst anime I've ever watched. However, I won't be fondly looking back at it, assuming I even remember it.

----Strife Out----

EoP - Retro Appeal

Well here's the next episode of Elements of Play. This time around I cover the subject of retro style games made in the modern day. I think it a fairly interesting subject, but tell me what you think.

Also I'll try to post more stuff on the blog this week.

----Strife Out----

Steam Cut Ex

For those of you who play on the PC, and can run this game, Deus Ex Human Revolution is only $7.50 for the whole weekend on Steam!
If you haven't played this game yet now is a great opportunity to pick up one of the best titles released last year on the cheap!

I loved playing through the game, and I hope you do too!

----Strife Out----

EoP - The Next Gen

The subject can be explained in much better detail, but what I cover in the video is sufficient enough to get the point across. Also I'm troubled by how extreme the compression is from youtube for the video. There's a lot of detail missing which really helps to dive home how much difference tessellation can make.

I hope most of you have learned something from this vid.

----Strife Out----

The Survival Games

If any of you watch the exploits of the YogsCast you may know about this already. However, if you don't let me just say they're a group of people from across the pond (mostly two guys named simon and lewis), and they do lots of videos over MineCraft. This particular video puts eighteen YogsCasters against each other in a Hunger Games like competition.

I was laughing all the way through!

----Strife Out----

E.o.P. Cancelled

There's been a delay in the second season on Elements of Play for a good reason.
I'll expound uppon the subject latter this week in a video. However, I thought I should say something now. Especially since the nail is actually in the coffin on this.

====Update 6-12-12====

----Strife Out----

FF Tech

I've been up on the next generation of video game graphics for a while now. Being a PC gamer I've been able to play games with visual fidelity that console owners simply don't have access to. As a result I see less of a night and day difference when seeing techdemos, because most games I play have been edging forward and I've been there to see the inching improvment. This real-time demo from Square-Enix though proves just how much I can still be blown away.

Of everything that came out of E3 this year (keeping in mid I still haven't seen everything), this has to be the most impressive.

----Strife Out----

BFG

On the eve of E3 I'll just say that this older game that's being reworked for modern systems is one I'll probably buy. Sure I played Doom 3 back in the day, but i've never owned it, and I think it's a title worth having! How about you guys, are any of you thinking of picking up this classic?

----Strife Out----

All Is Revealed

If you missed it just yesterday (may 31) Bethesda published the trailer for the first Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard. I'm excited, disappointed, and not surprised at all. Obviously I'm ready for new DLC which is why I'm excited. However, since I don't play on the xbox, and the DLC is exclusive for a month, I'll have to wait, so I'm disappointed. Finally I'm not surprised because, if you've been listening to my podcasts on youtube, I predicted the major idea and direction behind the DLC as well as cross bows coming into play.
Despite all of this I'm still looking forward to Dawnguard, even if my predictions turn out to be TOO good.

----Strife Out----

38 Over

For those of you who haven't herd yet the newly founded 38 Studios has been officially shut down, and every employee laid off effective yesterday May 24. Many of you probably don't know who they are, but 38 studios was responsible for developing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which was released just this February. It took a lot cash to develop the game, as it's truly huge, and on staff were some very seasoned and well recognised talent doing things from writing to design. Unfortunately though Kingdoms of Amalur was released at a poor time. Appearing on the coat tails of the mighty Skyrim and competing with the heavy weight Mass Effect 3, the game was more or less lost, unseen, or just overlooked by most. In the end it didn't sell well enough to keep the studio afloat, and now 38 has closed it's doors.

I'm very discouraged by this, because Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a game I've had my eyes on for months, but just haven't had the time to play. Now that the developer, 38 Studios, is gone I'm worried about being able to get my hands on a digital copy. Especially if EA as the publisher takes the rights and forces the IP onto origin. If that happens I'm more or less never going to get the game on my PC.

I don't think this is a good sign when a studio produces a game that gets a meta critic score of 80, but has to close because that game doesn't sell well enough.

----Strife Out----

Thirty-seven

If any of you are trying to fruitlessly play Diablo 3 like me, I feel your pain.

It's pretty damn ridiculous how the demon sawn Activision has managed to thoroughly corrupt Blizzard Entertainment. I men honestly their version of piracy control is doing one thing and one thing alone, pissing me off. I'm a customer who spent his hard earned cash on their game. Then they choose to fail at preventing piracy by keeping me from even playing a single player campaign.

I guess expecting Blizzard to include off-line and LAN support, and not to take after big brother Activision is just to much to ask.

----Strife cannot sign out, because he can't sign in----

Dishonored Hour

Well on the coat tails of Bioshock's delay a bit of good news comes in. Turns out the game Dishonored is going to be released on October 9, which in my book is similar to getting a consolation prize. I still don't know if it's a title that I'll really take interest in, but I'm watching it. With any luck it's end up being one of my favourite unexpected games this year.

----Strife Out----

The Infinite Delay

For those of you who haven't herd the highly anticipated Bioshock Infinite has been delayed until next year 2013. Ken Levine, the master mind behind the game and the original Bioshock, says the reason is how the game simply isn't the bioshock that it's supposed to be yet. In addition infinite won't be making an appearance at E3 this year, so the team can focus on finishing the game instead of preparing for a media event.

Personally I'm both relieved and troubled by this event. While I was looking forward to playing Bioshock Infinite this October, I was wondering where I would find the time with other releases like Borderlands 2 landing in the same time frame. Now that it'll be dropping during the early year lull (February 2013) or gaming dry spell, I'll be able to devout much more time to it when the game comes out.

I love the game Levine makes, and this delay is acceptable in my book, if not discomforting. I actually almost never have a problem with delays, just so long as they don't escalate into Duke Nukem Forever territory. If that happens, no one wins.

patiently waiting.
----Strife Out----

AC3 Real Time

As a long standing fan of the Assassin's Creed series I'm looking forward to the third instalment coming this holiday. It's also nice to finally see the game's real time visuals. I must say that I love the new version of the hidden blade that turns into a dagger, and the snow effects look pretty damn good. Here's to hoping things turn out well for this next, and hopefully last, game in the series.

----Strife Out----

The Weekend Stuff

Yeah I'm kinda slow on this. It's not like I mean to be, it's just that I'm crunching on the next season on EoP!

On a side note I didn't expect to piss off so many people with this episode.

----Strife Out----

TES Online

This was announced yesterday, but none the less it's worth talking about. Bethesda has finally made an official announcement about The Elder Scrolls Online. Details are scarce, but it's slated for a 2013 release window, and it will apparently run on both Windows and Mac. Judging by the time frame for when it happens, which is the second era long before any of the single player games take place, things will apparently be in turmoil and a the daedric prince molag bal will be involved along with three player factions.

I'm remarkably sceptical about this game, primarily because it's clearly aiming to dethrone the MMO giant World of Warcraft. Back before you could venture across the world of Azeroth the warcraft series was my favourite, but then it found super popularity. Once that happened the things that made me love the series started to dry up, which is what I fear will happen with TES if it finds the same success online.
With an entire studio (Zenimax Online) devoted to this game I'm afraid I'll have to watch another of my favourite franchises go down the same path, and lose everything or change in ways I just don't care for.

Fear the future of this game my friends, for more reason than one.

----Strife Out----

Sixth Times the Charm

I hope you guys have at least heard about this. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was announced and I'm asking when this train is going to stoooooooooooooooooooooooop!
I have plenty of grievances for the CoD series, but some of you might be surprised to hear that I don't hate it. I've actually played through most of the games, and I do enjoy the single player campaign in each title. Actual effort goes into the story and presentation, even if things are predictable. All of my convictions for the games though come from how the series is being milked like a money cow.
The games are showing an extremely radical voluminous intensely acute over exploitation, and I'm starting to cringe as I watch the series dies on it's feet... Even though I still play the games once they're cheap as hell.

----Strife Out----

TES V: DawnGuard

For those of you not in the know yet, Bethesda has just announced their first DLC for Skyrim entitled "Dawnguard". Nothing else is known about it, and we'll all have to wait till e3 this year to find out more.

I'm both excited and disappointed, because I know that I won't be playing it until it's been out for a month on the 360. It's only now that the Microsoft exclusive DLC arrangement is coming back to haunt the loyal PC gamers like me.

----Strife Out----

Uncharted the Movies

Well this came to light some time last week. The youtube user morphinapg went through the trouble of playing through all the Uncharted games for the PS3 and edited them together as theatrical movies.

These aren't perfect, but since the Uncharted games have always felt like you were playing movies these are pretty damn good. If you haven't played the games, for one reason or another then give these a watch. Also if you want a non gamer to experience the story of the Uncharted series they're good for just that too!

Uncharted: Drakes Fortune 1hr 53min long
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves 2hr 57min long
Uncharted: Drake's Deception 3hr 16min long

----Strife Out----

Late Content

Hey everyone, was really busy over the weekend so I didn't get a chance to post these. Check them out if you haven't, and please enjoy!

----Strife Out----

First and last rules

I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but the game company Valve has a hand book for new employees. This is the pocket guide for any new blood that goes into the well recognised company, and somehow it's surfaced on the internet.

If you give it a read you'll probably be both informed and entertained at the same time. I know I was.
My favourite part was the definition of Gabe Newell, who is apparently the most "not you boss" out of everyone else at the company.

----Strife Out----

Minecraft Music Video

Hey everyone, Hope your having a good Tuesday (or whatever day you read this).
Today I bring your attention to one of the better Minecraft machinimas I've seen. It's called cubeland and tells the story of the default character Steve battling it out with his evil twin Herobrine.
It's pretty entertaining, you should give it a watch, and check out the other creations by Slamacow.

----Strife Out----

Heads Up Podcast 04

Here's this weeks podcast, please enjoy, and drop some comments!

----Strife Out----

EoP - Voice Acting

Another Saturday, another episode of "Elements of Play". I'll be honest, I'm really curious just how many people will get pissed off by my statements this time around. It's not my intention to anger anyone, but obviously when you present a subject and take a side on it, someone will always take an issue with your decision.
Also in this episode I'm more negative than I have been before.

Either way I hope you at least like watching it.

----Strife Out----

The Flip and the Flop

Well the game Prey 2 has been delayed, and won't be released this year. At the same time Dishonored looks to be shaping up to be a kick ass title. This is weird to me because up until this week I didn't give a damn about dishonored, and was only watching the progress of Prey 2. The reason was because I had seen nothing of Dishonored, and Prey 2 had a trailer (seen below) that caught my attention.
Now things are the exact opposite. I'm watching Dishonored, and more or less hoping the reviews I read of Prey 2 (when it finally comes out) say that it's NOT just a bomb

Strange oh strange are the events of this week.

Here's the trailer that got me interested in Prey 2.

----Strife Out----

The Sprightly Zelda Musical!

I'm a BIG fan of the Legend of Zelda, and have wasted tons of my life playing every title in the series. Which is why I am very entertained by the following video.

Seriously give it a watch, it's fricking AWESOME!

Ok, now to watch it a few more times after I download it!
----Strife Out----

HD Devil Blues

HD ports have become quite the popular fad nowadays, and I've had complaints in the past about them. However, this time around the Devil May Cry HD collection is what I'm going to talk about. It's not that this HD Collection is bad, it's just rough around the edges. All of the most crucial things are updated and maintained. Things like cinemas and menus though, which are unavoidably part of the game's experience, were left at the original 4:3 aspect ratio. Also the pre-rendered movies are still in SD. The Devil May Cry HD collection is another OK port, there's just nothing to write home about. If anything it's easier to nitpick it to death, even though it is worth playing.

I just hope another HD port as good as the Metal Gear Solid HD collection will come along.

----Strife Out----

Heads Up Podcast 03

I've got a new podcast up. Give it a listen, and drop a few comments will ya? I'd greatly appreciate it!

----Strife Out----

EoP - Stealth

This weeks episode of Elements of Play is about stealth in games. Even though this was a good subject to write about, for some reason I just fell I wasn't on top of my game with this one. Non teh less though I think that it's worth watching.

----Strife Out----

Fus Ro Xbox

As many of you know shouting in the game Skyrim is one of the features that makes your character special. When I was reading about the feature back during the games development I thought to myself more than once, "If i could trigger those shouts with MY speech it would be awesome!" Well now you can do just that, as long as your playing on xbox with a Kinect that is.
Bethesda is working on a patch right now that will allow certain types of game control through verbal commands. I think it's a cool idea, now if only I was playing on an xbox to take advantage of the feature!

----Strife Out----

Cos it's GLaDOS

As a fan of both videogames and Japanese anime I find this cosplay to be pretty entertaining. I never thought it possible for anyone to really cosplay the homicidal AI Glados from portal, but here the proof is in the pictures.

Aside from the girl Brittany looking absolutely gorgeous, I'm impressed by her make-up job. It really does look like she has plastic seams on her skin.
What do you guys think of this cosplay?

----Strife Out----

Podcast - 03

New podcast is up. Would have been up yesterday, but like an idiot I rendered the file out with no audio. I had to go back and spend an extra 3 hours rewriting the video.

----Strife Out----

EoP - Video vs. Game

New episode of Elements of Play is up. This time it's all about how a game plays vs. how a game looks.

----Strife Out----

Old Anime

For April Fools today cartoon network ran a very old block of anime that helped to establish the genre's popularity in the USA. I remember watching these shows as a kid, and they led me to love anime and games the way I do today.
does anyone else remember when these sows were new? Back before anime was streamed or downloaded off the net?

I'm feeling melancholic and nostalgic now.

----William Strife Out----

HD Botched

Y'know while I love the games of yestergen (ps2, xbox, game cube), but I just don't know how I feel about HD ports. Sure, I love the games, but are they really worth making and playing? Well no matter how I feel about their creation I still buy them and enjoy them. However, when you can't port a game correctly there's definitely a problem.

The Silent Hill HD collection was something I was looking forward to, but oh god the problems is has. I won't mince words on this, it's bad. Not only did they change the voice talent for the games, they also messed up the transparency levels of fog and draw distance. The result is basically how the games don't shine as much as the originals, and that's a serious shame.

I think the point here is how HD ports are supposed to be just that, PORTS. They shouldn't be re worked or messed with any more than they HAVE to be, otherwise you end up with something like Silent Hill HD.

---Strife Out---

On-Line Trash Talk

I'm absolutely astonished by this.
In a recent news report from a local ABC channel covered the language that you hear when playing games on Xbox live. Now I know that kids as young as five know how to use four letter words and then some; and you know how racists, sexist, and discriminating an online gamers’ vocabulary can be. By all means this is not news to me in any way. However, it is news to me that some parents are actually 100% oblivious and unaware to these truths.



I am sorely disappointed that any parent thinks that being online with a console means that you aren't exposed to and influenced by the sorry putrid sludge which is part of any online experience. In fact since there's voice chat by default on the Xbox, it's even more likely that you'll be exposed the nasty side of online users.

The ignorance in irresponsibility of some people never ceases to amaze me. I am thankful that this report wasn't anti-gamer though.

---Strife Out---

Sim City

I spent a lot of time as a kid playing the Sim City games, to bad this bit of news places the new one in my DO NOT PLAY category.

As I've stated before I have my convictions with EA and their digital distribution program Origin. However, my mind is just blown by the DRM involved with the new Sim City that EA subsidiary Maxis is making. Always on DRM, or in other words, If you're not connected you can't play. I thought this lesson was learned with the horrible debacle of the Spore DRM, and furthermore the Assassins Creed 2 DRM. Just goes to show that some companies will always cling to bad ideas, no matter how harmful they are.



---Stife Out---

Deus Ex Human Revolution

I know that I'm a bit late to say anything on this game, but I finally got around to playing and completing Deus Ex Human Revolution. With a total of forty hours logged on the game, it turned out to be much longer and more immersive than I expected it to be. While the boss fights were a drag like everyone said they were, the rest of the game was great. I especially liked the game's aesthetic and how it was dripping in the cyberpunk atmosphere.



Deus Ex Human Revolution was defiantly worth both the time and money I spent on it. However, all I want to do now is sit on my couch and play games instead of sit in front of my computer and play games. I'm getting kinda sick of the chair I've been glued to for last two weeks.

----Strive Out----

EoP Extra Content?

New Episode up! With this season one ends, and now it's just a matter of waiting for season two!



---Strife Out---

Block-Lapse

I've spent more time playing minecraft than I think is healthy, but that's not about to stop me from playing it even more.

As a fellow mincrafter I can assuredly say that the video below is absolutely stunning!



Now I only I had made something this impressive on my own!

---Strife Out---

Horribly High Def

The horror game genre is one that I'm well acquainted with. I've spent countless hours solving puzzles, and dodging all manner of evil creatures at the same time. Of all the horror games I’ve played though by far my favourite is Silent Hill. There's one specific reason too, the games rely on creating an unsettling atmosphere to scare you rather than simply going "BOO".
Silent Hill hasn't been the same ever since it left the hands of the original Japanese developers though, thus I've lost my love for the series as it continues today. However, I'm quite happy the original games are getting an HD collection that will be released tomorrow. I guess I'm going to end up scaring myself all over again.



----Strife Out----

EoP - HUDs

Brand new episode of Elements Of Play!
This week's subject is the Head Up Display or HUD. Watch and enjoy!



----Strife Out----

Slayers Style Thrice

Assassin's Creed has been a game series that I've enjoyed from it's first instalment. I've wasted countless hours on each instalment and don't regret a single minute I spent doing it.
One of the greatest things I enjoyed about the series though was it's amazingly high quality cinematic trailers used to announce each new game. Unfortunately though that's not quite the case with the AC3 trailer. I'll be frank, it looks ugly to me. You can see the seams more than ever, and it's clearly a CG render. It just lacks the fidelity that made me go "wow!" when I saw the trailers for the previous games.



As for Assassin's Creed 3 as a game, I'm choosing to remain very sceptical about it after how well AC2 worked out and they milked it for all it was worth. I'm just finding it hard to believe AC3 being capable of topping AC2.

----Strife Out----

The Kill Cam

this looks pretty nice!
If you've been missing the oh so awesome kill cam that Bethesda introduced in Fallout 3, then miss it no more they're bring it to Skyrim in patch 1.5!
Not only can you watch epic kills as a bowmen or spell caster, but they've also added finishing moves for mages, and bar brawlers.
Finally those of us who prefer ranged combat can feel bad ass too!



----Strife Out----

KARA

Just this past week at GDC the video below titled "Kara" was shown. Even though it's far from an impressive demo from a technical stand point; It's story, direction, and animations are quite another story. I'm not surprised it's by it's high level of emotional appeal though, after all it was directed by David Cage the same man behind the game Heavy Rain.



When I first saw this, I couldn't help but leave the following comment.
"This is what we fear the most, when our own creations begin to feel and question our authority."

----Strife Out----

EoP - Menus

Kinda a double post of content, but this is the last recycled video. Everything from here on out is brand new!



---Strife Out---

This Game is AMAZING!

I won't say anything other than follow the link and be amazed.

The Amazing Grid!

---Strife out---

Quad Console Comp

FROM THE RUMOUR MILL

Not to long ago some intriguing information surfaced that suggests STEAM (the highly successful digital distribution platform for PC games) may be getting into the console race. This is a surprising thing to hear, and makes me wonder how the game market will change if this happens. For a significant part of console gaming history, there's been a balance of three. The last time that balance was lost was when Sega dropped out. Microsoft eventually came to plug the gap, but it became clear that the equilibrium is three consoles in competition.

IF The STEAM box does happen (though it probably wont) I'll probably get behind it. However, I’m worried that the introduction of a new console will throw off the market balance. Possibly throwing one of the already established console developers out of the race.
What do you guys think?

----Strife Out----

Kepler Tech

Within the next month or two the new line of Nvidia graphics cards will be released. I'm quite interested in the new technology that's slated to be released, and have full intentions of adopting fairly early. Of course how early will depend on just how big the improvements the new Kepler generation will have over the current Fermi hardware. Here's to hoping Nvidia's Kepler tech will smooth out the frame rates of some of the higher end games I run.

---CP Out---

Zelda Time Line

The Legend of Zelda, is a game series that I became a fanatic of when I was young. I played all the games, and even tried to make sense of all the instalments chronologically at one point.
Until just recently though, the series has had no official order of events, or chronological organization. With the release of a special 25th anniversary art book though, an official Zelda time line has come to light.
There's a lot of controversy surrounding what Nintendo has published, but this is What I want to say.

I'm surprised, discouraged, and not surprised at the same time. I'm discouraged that Eiji Aonuma seemed to pull this nonsensical time line out of thin air. I'm surprised they would do this with one of their two biggest franchises. Yet I'm not surprised because this is Nintendo, who seems to like going against what fans think and logic in general. Unfortunately no amount of complaining is going to change what's been done.
Personally, I still prefer the split time line theory covered by Game Trailers in their Zelda Retrospective.

Zelda Conviction

Y'know of all the game's I've played in my life The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has to be the one that has annoyed me the most. I don't get what it is with Nintendo and turning a very tinny nuisance into an enormous game killing frustration. I'm talking about how every time you pick up an object in the game you have to get an explanation that you can't skip. This is a great example of "yeah, I get it", and for some reason I just feel like Nintendo will never get that I get it.

Does anyone here think they can offer up a plausible explanation?

---CP Out---

Origin Effect

Several months ago EA released their own digital distribution platform for the PC called Origin. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this if it weren't for the fact that they chose to do so only after having a fight with steam. Knowing EA they no doubt wanted more money for their game sales. Officially though it was because Steam wouldn't allow EA to force users to get DLC from EA websites instead of just selling it on steam. The bottom line is I don't like EA, and I don't want to use Origin for that reason. However, with Mass Effect 3 right around the corner I feel that I'm going to have to give just this once and feed the beast. Espically after seeing the trailer below.
It doesn't feel good, but as the French say "such is life".



---CP Out---

katawa Shoujo

This time I'll let the video do the talking.



---CP Out---

Occupational Hazard

During the process of making B10g episodes I naturally have to capture footage for each video. The set of scripts I'm working on now just so happens to require me to have video of World of Warcraft. I knew this was a dangerous game to bring up for my own sake, mainly because I was a first generation WoW addict years ago. After putting the game down in around 07 though I haven't touched it since.



Unfortunately picking the game back up on a free account seems to have been a very bad idea. I've already captured all the footage I need and yet I'm still going back to play the game. World of Warcraft is a dangerous game, and I'm starting to wonder if I've inadvertently begun to dig my own WoW grave again.

----CP Out----

Unofficially Official

Even though I don't really play Fallout New Vegas any more because I lack the time, I found a good reason crack it open again. J.E. Sawyer the project director for New Vegas released a personal mod. This mod augments New Vegas in a series of ways, most importantly it makes the game harder. Not in a sense of bumping up the difficulty in the menu either. Instead it makes scavenging harder, items heal less, and XP is halved so you level up slower. This is great for me because my biggest problem with New Vegas (and Bethesda games for that matter) has always been how the game get's so easy once you get the proverbial ball rolling. Things start challenging, but very quickly you end up rolling in caps, ammo, and anything else you could possibly need. Just like that the challenge disappears, which is a real buzzkill for a game that can easily last some 80 hours.



It's not like other mods haven't already made the game harder. It's just that one released by Sawyer is as official as you can get without it being in a game patch.

--CP Out--

B10g - Menus

I won't say a word, and just let you watch instead.



----CP Out----

Holy WOW!!!

Hey guys just wanted to throw this up real fast. CES is happening this week in Las Vegas Nevada, and like each year tons of cool gadgets surface during the show This year though I've been floored by LGs prototype 31" OLED TV that's only 2.9mm thick!

Click the image to head on over to engadget for a video of this mind blowing piece of technology!



----CP Out----

Holiday Pull

Over the holiday season, I made out like a bandit. Below is a picture of all the games I purchased or received during December (one or two in November). A lot of these games I bought because GameStop kept having buy 2 get 1 free sales. If that's not enough I ended up getting a handful of games from STEAM as well because of their annual month long Christmas discounts. I have so much game line up and I still can't stop playing Skyrim. I'm a little bit overcome with potential fun.



Here’s to hoping I can find ways to fit these games into the Blog show!

----CP Out----