Game: Fallout 3 (PS3)

Recently, I have been playing a very addictive game — Fallout 3 on PS3.  Many times I have walked past this game at Blockbuster for other titles.  I often opted for the straight up first person shooter (FPS).  I had no idea what this game was about.  I had never heard of it.

This game is very much like any other “Character Building” game.  You have your primary character attributes and skills.  The combination of the two give your character his or her effectiveness throughout the game.  Simple, right?  It is up until you research the game on the internet.  There is a ton of information on it.  There is information on character building, quests, skill books, Non-playable characters, and more.  There is no need to buy the game guide for this title.  However, you will never truly enjoy the full scope of the game without some sort of guide.

After you play through the first time, you’ll get upset.  At the end, that’s it.  There is no more.  You don’t get to run around in the wasteland and “see” what you have missed.  The game actually ends.  Bummer.  You spent hours playing and now you have to start all over in order to enjoy the rest of the game.  I call that poor design especially in sandbox games. 

Your second time through you will have done some research and discovered the following ways to have an awesome – overkill character.
01. You’ll head directly to Rivet City and collect the Intelligence bobble-head.
02. You’ll make your way to the Museum of History and obtain Charon’s contract.
03. You’ll allow Charon to fight for you while you abuse well know bugs that allow you to collect two specific skill books an infinite amount of times (Actually, I believe the developers left this in as an easter egg.)
04. You’ll never start the main quest until you’ve discovered every location, found every bobble-head (minus one in Raven Rock), and retrieved every skill book you need to max out your skills.
05. You are bound to select the following perks for one simple reason.  These are the only ones that make any sense to have: Intense Training (more than once), Educated, Comprehension, Gunslinger, Commando, Strong Back, Animal Friend, Finesse, Sniper, Silent Running, Light Step, Action Boy, Better Criticals, and Grim Reaper’s Sprint.  These are thoroughly explained other places on the net.
06. You’ll obtain the schematics for the dart-gun and Deathclaw gauntlet early in the game.
07. You’ll realize that Rielly’s Ranger armor is the best armor in the game and max out your medicine skill early.
08. You’ll acquire the various special weapons like Vengence and The Terrible Shotgun.
09. Finally, you might get upset with how repetitive the game becomes.

That’s right.  After you have spent hours developing your uber-character, it will finally dawn on you.  This game is highly repetitive and could have been so much more.  The game also suffers from many calculation bugs involving VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System).  Many times I have had an enemy targeted with VATS that was in the open, un-obstructed and standing-still, that never got hit.  I also enjoy watching the enemies move at lightening speed when aimed at.  I’ve seen robots go nuts trying to avoid gunfire.  I also have problems with lighting and the drab colors used.  I understand it’s the wasteland — but, c’mon.  They could have done better.  This game seems rushed and unpolished.

Still, it’s hard not to like that first time through.  Be warned, this game is very adult oriented and should not be played by young children.

PS3: Terminator Salvation

I just rented this Terminator Salvation for the PS3 from Blockbuster thinking it would be cool.  It’s not.  There’s hardly any game play to it at all.  It seems to be a collection of small game activities surrounded by lots of animation and dialog.  If you have or had any thoughts about purchasing, don’t.  This is definitely a game you should rent and keep out of your collection.

 

JB

Games: The Sims 2

Today, I have uninstalled the Sims 2 base game and every expansion pack for it — minus Apartment life.  There are several reasons for this action. 

01.)  The game leaves a lot to be desired in the sense of longevity.  Once you see an interaction / reaction for a particular event — that’s it.  It will never change.  It will always be the same.

02.)  Expansion packs do not honestly add much to the base game — not enough to warrant the original cost or desired $20 USD today.  By definition, an expansion pack merely expounds on the base game and usually adds enough content to renew interest.  With Sims 2, the expansion packs feel like portions of the base game that were merely left out.  It never truly takes you in a new direction.

03.)  If you actually sim the game, your sims are pretty stupid and have poor artificial intelligence.  Let’s not forget the awful pathfinding.   A door can lead to the garage only three tiles away and the sim will still go outside and around to enter garage.  It’s mind boggling.

There are so many problems and failures in The Sims 2 that I can’t imagine Sims 3 being any better.

Games: Sims 3

The Sims 3 will be out sometime in 2009. For those die hard fans, they can feel the anticipation in the air. It is thick with high hopes for improved graphics, interactions, building tools, objects, and more. Are you one? I’m not.

Unfortunately, I have spent many hours of my adult life behind a keyboard playing one game or another. The Sims, SimCity 4, and The Sims 2 (including the expansion packs Nightlife, Open for Business, and Pets) are among them. It is my conclusion these games are a complete waste of time and money. Each suffers from one unescapable flaw — a rapid onset of boredom.

For example, the base Sims 2 game allows you to create a sim, educate the sim, acquire skills, make friends, find love, find a job, get married, have kids, and die. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. Once you have gone through the cycle once, it doesn’t change. It stays the same and becomes boring very fast. Search the internet and you’ll find people asking how to get more satisfaction out of the game. The most common answers are to purchase the expansion packs and stuff packs or download other people’s creations and try them out. Somewhere along the way they will discover the cheat system purposely left in by the developers.

Why do I say that? This is just an educated guess. They knew people would get tired of the never ending process of having their sims learn skills and constantly keeping them happy. They also knew many of the “special” interactions (i.e. getting abducted by aliens or joining a secret society) seldom occur and wanted players to have a way to trigger these events. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Otherwise, why include it?

So, why should anyone bother spending hard earned money on Sims 3? Most game sequals, in my experience, have very few changes. They generally go through a facelift and add only minor improvements. Sometimes the changes are for the worse. Madden Football is such a game. Every few years they make major changes — sometimes good / sometimes bad. It depends on what you like. For the most part, it’s just a roster update.

I leave with my main question. Why purchase Sims 3 if you know all it is, most likely, is a face lift with few game play changes?

Update: Maybe you should check out the website. It looks like they made a major overhaul of the game. Hardcore simmers are gonna love it. Hope it lives up to the hype.

Easy Adds for MySpace Mobsters

Content removed by owner.  Post left in case someone stumbles upon the two comments.

-JB

Web Game: Mobsters on MySpace

This post will be short and to the point.  There are some things I have noticed about the Mobsters application hosted on MySpace you will find useful.

How to make money? 
There is no doubt about it.  The best way is to collect bounties.  It’s hard at first.  You don’t have enough mob members or weapons to accomplish the task.  But, you should still try.  The first bounties you should go for are the $8,000 contracts.  This will give you money to build your mob strength.  Eventually, you will need to get gutsy and attempt the bigger bounties — $100K and above.  The goal isn’t to win the fight, but kill the other player.  Here is an example:

Your mob fought with: 65 Minigun, 65 Bulletproof Escalade, 65 Bullet Proof Vest
ANASS’s mob fought with: 80 Armored Truck, 80 Minigun, 80 Bullet Proof Vest
You lost the fight, taking 15 damage and dealing 14 damage to your enemy.
You iced ANASS.
You received a bounty of $79,149,600 for killing ANASS.

I lost the fight and still collected the bounty.  So, work the bounties instead of buying properties.

How do you find the bounties? 
You look on the hit list.  Most of the time you will see nothing.  Don’t worry about it.  Start left clicking the refresh button or Hit List button until you see one — then attack.  Sounds lame, but it works.  All you have to do is get lucky with your timing once or twice and you’re on your way.

How do I transfer funds? 
Transferring funds only works in two directions — down (a higher level player to lower) or lateral.  You can accomplish a transfer by hit listing a weak opponent.  Just remember everyone else will also try to claim the bounty.   The best way to accomplish this is by weakening your opponent with punches from a higher level player and you must have increased you stamina and health when awarded skill points (stamina: 10/10 health: 200/200).  Those numbers seem to work well.

Why are some hits harder than others? 
Some are traps.  There is no way you will beat that person listed.  They have already built up their mob and have the best gear.  These folks are merely padding their stats.  You’ll know when you encounter them.  You get clobbered in every fight.  Plus, they might be sitting there healing themselves as fas as you attack.

How do I find other mobsters when one of my mob is being attacked? 
You use that player’s ID.  A great explanation may be found here.

-JB

Games: PS3 NCAA 09 Football

Let’s get one thing straight, I rent and you should too.  Gamestop makes way too much money off trade-ins.

NCAA 09 Football doesn’t do it for me.  It seems every year the developer adds new features while screwing something else up.  Dynasty mode comes to mind.  I own NCAA 05 for the PS2 and Madden 05.  The reason is simple.  I can graduate awesome players and bring them into the NFL.  A football game, at it’s core, is still a football game.  But, for me, Dynasty mode in NCAA 09 sucks.  The recruiting period takes place over the entire season — not at the end (which is simpler).  They also added more ways to entice a player to commit to your school making Dynasty mode richer and deeper for hardcore fans and complicated as hell for the casual player.  It’s like they are out to entice fantasy football players instead of satisfying simple needs.

NCAA 09 has a feature that is new for me: Campus Legend.  This mode could have been awesome.  I’ll save you the grief.  It sucks the big one.  While it is fun to play the highschool playoffs and get college offers, the play calling leaves a lot to be desired.  My QB went to Texas Tech.  I figured the QB would get a lot of play.  He spent a few weeks during his freshman year winning his spot then hit the field.  I thought — cool feature.  Then you get into the games and realize you can’t call any plays.  The A.I. calls the plays and they generally make no sense.  When you should run the ball, the computer wants to pass.  When you should run to the strong side, it goes weak.  And inevitably, it will want you to run a QB sneak against a  blitzing defense to the weak side.  It sucks.  The only saving grace is the ability to call audibles and run your butt off when there is open field.  EA really needs to patch this portion of the game and give the gamer the ability to call plays.

On graphics:  The graphics are appealing.  However, some animations leave a lot to be desired.  Compared to NBA 09, NCAA 09 running animations suck.  Guess I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this game.  The reason may have a lot to do with its price.

My personal opinion — Don’t buy this game.  Go rent it first and see if you like it.  There is no reason to buy every single NCAA Football or Madden Football game that comes out.

PS3 Game: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty sucks as a next generation console game.  The game plays like a repackaged Medal of Honor or Call of Duty title designed for the Playstation / Playstation 2.   For the price, skip this game and rent it if you absolutely have to play it.  You will feel a lot better when you realize how awful it is.

Problems I had with the game:
01.  Teammate AI getting in your line of fire.
02.  Poorly designed “aiming” views
03.  Many weapons left behind by AI enemies may not be retrieved.
04.  Tendency to find more German MP50s versus other cool weapons.
05.  Poor shooting from cover.
06.  Poor collision detection (guns sticking through walls and floors).
07.  Brevity of the game.  At $59.95 USD, the game is short and unmemorable.

Play Battlefield: Bad Company or Call of Duty 4 before playing this game.  The difference just boggles the mind.

Note:  I always rent my games at BlockBuster.  Paying $59.95 USD for new titles that I can finish within a rental period makes no sense to me.

GAME: Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer

Don’t expect a long drawn out review of this game and it’s expansion.  There are plenty of gaming sites that do just that.  I only wish to express a few dislikes I encountered while playing.

I always thought Dungeons and Dragons ( D&D ) was cool since highschool.  It was a world of fantasy that allowed you to escape and live a more heroic life.  You could be who you wanted to be — nothing wrong with that.  Right?!?  Isn’t that what every game offers — escape?  Come to think of it — Lord of the Rings probably inspired the game.  Who knows?

Anyway, The gaming community refers to Neverwinter Nigts 2 with NWN2 and its expansion as NWN2: MOTB.  It makes it easier to find related material on the web.  Perform a search and you’ll soon recognize the popularity of D&D.  It is the world that has spawned many fantasy movies and novels alike.  The game was nice.  I had a good time playing it.  But in the end, it’s just nice.

In the beginning, the movement controls were a bit cumbersome.  Gaming convention dictates that W, S, A, and D will move you forwards, backwards, turn left, and turn right.  Instead, W, S, Q, and E are used with A and D used for strafing (Player Character mode or FPS).  My opinion is most folks play in the afore mentioned mode.  The other mode, strategy mode, provides a top-down look and reminds me of an arcade game.  It sucks!!!  You do have the option of remapping keys.  I just never did it.  A game, in my opinion, should work out of the box with as few bugs as possible.  I know — keep dreaming.  So, that is my first gripe.

My second gripe is my major gripe.  This problem exists within the original campaign and the expansion pack.  Sadly enough, it is a problem that has never been addressed in any patch for a game a few years old.  Every conversation takes the focus away from your player character (usually the party leader) and places it on a character behind you — thus turning your back towards an enemy.  Once the banter is complete, you start out a fight with your back turned unless the bad guy got the last word.  The whole time your player character turns in the direction of the speaker while the scene plays out.  It sucks.  The last thing to occur in each of the interactions never takes place.  Your player character should re-face the enemy and bring the “focus” back to your character.  A small thing, but a huge oversight.  It ruins the game.  This one fix could have made the game much more enjoyable.

Other gripes, some “world transitions” – entering a house, entering a cave, traveling from one location to another – place the player character behind the AI controlled characters.  The occlusion system sucks.  Walls don’t disappear when they should and other objects get in the way.  In MOTB, the FPS camera is constantly reset after world transitions and the user has to reset it.  There is more.  But, I’ll let you figure them out on your own.

Game tip for MOTB:  Don’t kill all of the Greater Shadows of the Void in the Death God’s Vault.  There are enough offering urns to loot to last the whole game.  In other words, you can control the hunger.

Word Whomp! — Pogo.com

Looking for something to do during your down time?  Try out this nifty little game, Word Whomp!, over at Pogo.com.  Word Whomp! requires you to make as many 3, 4, 5, 6 -letter words as possible from the given letters within two minutes.  You may enter the words via the keyboard or by using your mouse.  The keyboard method is the fastest.  You type in the word and press enter.

This game may be played as a guest or with a free account. 

Things to be aware of:

• The game recognizes personal pronouns as a word (ex: hes for he’s and shes for she’s).
• The game often looks for the singular and plural form of words (ex: hat, hats, cat, cats).
• The game accepts @ss and many uncommon words
• You can change the skill level.