Dragon Age 2 Impressions

 I finished Dragon Age 2 and let's just say I am feeling conflicted. I absolutely loved Origins and Awakening. The story was well thought out and throw in the factor of every choice you made had a consequence of being good, evil, or in a gray area, it really made you pay attention and think about what you wanted to do throughout the story line. There was also more to explore on the map, and there was some depth to the design, such as the forests of Ferelden, the Dalish elves camp, and Orzammar.
 I was extremely excited about Dragon Age 2 and even got the signature edition. You get a lot of great items and cool downloadable content like The Black Emporium shop and The Exiled Prince quest. However, playing Dragon Age 2 I couldn't help but notice a lot of glaring flaws throughout it with the battle system and with some of the map designs. There are also for me, some issues with parts of the story and this does include some of Hawke's story.
 First, let me start with why I had a problem with Hawke's story. There are parts of it that seem rather pointless, as if Hawke is going through the motions and not really driven the way the hero was in Origins and Awakening. There's a lack of intensity.  There is also a glaring lack of tough choices. I love a great story and with Origins and Awakening, there were choices that could be made that would affect the story, take it down a different path, and everything you decided had consequences. With Dragon Age 2, it seems the story was only written one way and no matter what the player does or decides, they become the Champion the same way and go through the same events. It falls flat when you think about the intricacies and plot twists of the previous two games.
 I did like the interactions with the members of your party and there were even characters I genuinely liked. I found that my top three were Varric, Fenris, and Isabela. Hawke has a voice, so some of these interactions had a little more emotion to them, but frankly it seemed like the companions were far more interesting and witty. Even their quests and stories were more interesting to me. There was one part of Hawke's story that really had me going and to the person who wrote that, I say great job. As for the rest, it just felt dull. Sure, the ending has a fantastic pivotal point to the story line, but it felt like a chore to get to it at certain points in the game.
 Overall, I had no problem with the battle system. It was much easier to navigate, the action is fast and fluid, and the AI is pretty spot on when it comes to the other party members, making for a pretty exciting furious battle. Yet, there was a problem. Let me be clear with all my friends who told me I could change the difficulty setting to casual if a battle was too hard, I DID. I then tried various tactics and party set ups and got annihilated eight times or more. I'll give everyone a moment to let that sink in. Now, maybe it's a crazy concept, but the casual setting on a video game means you don't have lots of dead party members and game over screens. Yes, it's still a battle, but not quite so difficult. When a battle is hard on the EASY setting, that's a huge problem for me. Factor in the 30 second cool down timer for healing potions, and healing spells, it borders on ridiculous.
 While I understand that the gist of this idea was it makes you plan out and think carefully about strategies for quests, boss battles, and random fights a 30 second heal timer does not work. I could understand having a timer, but 30 seconds can make or break a quest or story oriented battle in Dragon Age 2. I played as a rogue for the first play through, and I found myself kiting things a hell of a lot waiting for the timer to be up and hoping I wouldn't die before I could heal. Needless to say, it got incredibly frustrating quite a few times!
 Finally, we have the sheer laziness of the map and dungeon designs. It was as if there was just one prototype for everything when it came to the buildings in Kirkwall. The "poor house" design, and the "rich mansion" design came across as bland and was a telling sign of how rushed this game was. There's also one map for the sewers, the Deep Roads, one mine, one mountain, and one cave. You basically go back and forth with five different locations on the world map.  Compared to the other maps in the Dragon Age games, this is shameful. The map is ridiculously tiny, but it's as if they were lazy and couldn't be bothered with making the locations stand out and be unique from each other.
 I liked Dragon Age 2, but I didn't love it the way I did Origins and Awakening. I can honestly say, it's a good game, but not a great one. There's too many predictable points in some of the story telling and it's quite obvious to see where certain things were rushed especially with certain cut scenes where the characters were blinking in and out of frame. I can not in good conscience give Dragon Age 2 a stellar review as an amazing game, because it isn't. Believe me, that kills me because I absolutely love the Dragon Age series, but with that many flaws, it's not worth full price.

Little Big Planet 2 Bigger, Better, More Fun

 I love Little Big Planet, so of course I was extremely excited about Little Big Planet 2. It definitely delivered on its promise of being bigger, better, and more fun than the first. You can add your first save data to the sequel, so you have all your previous costumes and stickers. There's even more costumes to find in the sequel that are cute and fun. One of my favorites was the disco costume that changed colors as your sack person moved.
 The game play is great, and the controls are definitely easy to handle. There are even new inventions to use like the Robobun, a giant rabbit you can ride that can do an attack called Slam Attack that will smash your enemies to bits. This is especially fun in a stage called Full Metal Rabbit, (Yes I laughed when I saw that title) where you wreak havoc on the baddies with Robobun.
 The creativity of the various stages in story mode is amazing. I was delighted to see an homage to old school video games in one, then pleasantly surprised to see a tribute to old school pin ball machine games in another. The story is simple like the first, but it's fun and it had the added appeal of having an entire Sackbot army (my love of robots continues!) at my beck and call. There are some stages towards the end that are a tad tricky and I admit, I did become a little frustrated at how often my little Sack Person met a nasty demise. The worst ones seemed to be the deaths by fire or bombing. However, I did get the hang of it and managed to finish the stage and finish story mode with my Sack Person relatively undamaged.
  There's even more to do, after story mode. There are various versus levels with games like Space Pool, Races, and puzzle games  that you can play with others online or you can play your own. You can also explore the different stages that other players have created, try them out, review them, and rate them. There was one that I really liked that was an animal safari, and another that I loved that was a water park theme. My favorite was the Tron themed one with light cycles that you could race. It was a great stage to play and I was impressed that someone created that. There's so much to explore there, you will never run out of things to do on Little Big Planet 2.
 If you're feeling creative, you can even make your own stages to share with others. There's lots to choose from, and you can decide the difficulty level of your creations, and name your planet. You can offer up prizes for people who try out your stages like stickers or costumes. The possibilities are endless and more importantly, FUN.
 This game has all the bells and whistles, and I'm having such a great time playing it. Give it a try if you haven't already. It's definitely a game that should be in any game lover's collection. 

Ubisoft and Nintendo Wii Teamed Up For This?!

 Note: It seems Ubisoft is unhappy with all the attention the game We Dare is getting, but wasn't that the whole point of this game? They wanted to get everyone's attention and they got it. Now they have blocked all the Youtube ads here and have restricted it regionally to Europe. You can see the full ad here on this IGN article here: http://wii.ign.com/articles/115/1152147p1.html
So apparently in order to appear more "Grown Up" and "Adult Friendly" Ubisoft and Nintendo have come up with this new and improved way to completely traumatize and embarrass your children. Well let's face it, it's a new way to embarrass yourselves and other adults too.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having a good time with your friends, but did you see where the Wii controller goes during this little video? I don't see how shoving a controller down near your backside is a good idea considering the whole concept of germs and fellas, would you really want your Wii controller back after one of your buddies has shoved it down his pants? Or would you be totally happy with them putting the controller in their mouth which is also filled with lots of nasty germs?  Yeah, I didn't think so.
 Look Nintendo, I get it. You want to branch out, be an adult, and run with the big dogs, but there is so much wrong with the concept of this game. You can have an adult game that is fun and casual without resorting to sexual innuendo and open invitation to lines like, "Hey, we should play with my Wii! Literally." Never mind that the people in this video don't seem all that comfortable with this idea and the laughter sounds forced and awkward, and just think for one minute how many couples there are out there with a Nintendo Wii and then think about how many of them are married with children. Now think about the female significant others and really think about how many of them are going to go for this game. There it is, the realization that there are probably many women who would clock the crap out of their boyfriend/husband for even suggesting getting together for a healthy round of We Dare so you can shove a Wii controller down your pants and spank each other's bottoms. Hey in some circles, that's how people roll, but in others not so much.
 Ubisoft, there isn't even a need to help you. You should hang your head in shame, you know better. It's just one disappointment after another with you and whichever one of your brilliant guys thought this up, you really need to have a long talk with them. Granted the game is a measly twenty bucks, but come on for twenty bucks most people could go see a movie, something that doesn't require supremely bad hygiene habits with a video game controller and without all that awkward tension.
 Now after all that is said and done, I'm sure there are people who will buy this game. For those with children who do buy it, just make sure your kids aren't in the house and I mean the gone for the weekend to visit Grandma kind of not in the house. It's for the best, because as we all know there are just some things you can't unsee. 

Your Game Sucks Or Crowdstar Is Awful

 So yes, I admit I do play some of the games on Facebook. I have some favorites, (Bejeweled Blitz is at the top because of my love of puzzle games) and then there's some I just play once in a while just to help out my friends who play as in they need building material for a quest or they want to adopt a virtual pet. I sometimes get invites from friends to play a game and I will try it out to see how I like it. Some make it and others just aren't my thing, so they go to the deleted pile. This may also be why a lot of my friends ask me if I played this or that game. I guess basically it seems as if I play through the crap games so they don't have to.
 The games that seem to click with me are puzzle, tactics, animal/pets, or cooking oriented. I guess the appeal is (at least with puzzle games) is I can play a bit for five minutes in between commercials when I'm watching a show, because honestly, it gives me something to do before my show comes back on. The other side to it, is some of the games are genuinely fun and enjoyable to play.
 Then there's Crowdstar. What can be said about Crowdstar that isn't completely filled with every swear word possible? I tried out Happy Pets, I admit. Overall, I did like the game and the idea of adopting lots of cute virtual dogs and cats, but then you could adopt pets like jackalopes (rabbit with dear antlers), horses, and dragons. So it was interesting. However, after a while I found myself becoming bored with the tediousness of having to constantly feed my fake pets and not getting anything for it. Then of course there's the whole you have to buy Facebook Credits ordeal for any of the exclusive things such as pet dinosaurs. I found myself doing the bare minimum for the Happy Pets game and considering moving it to the deleted pile.
 A few days ago a friend of mine sent me an invitation to another Crowdstar game called It Girl. I tried it out and it was fun for about five minutes. Basically, your female avatar goes on shopping sprees and you have to find the best and hottest clothes. You also have to attend parties and have (I wish I was making this up) hotness showdowns with other girls in order to win money to spend on even more overpriced virtual couture clothing. Then, there was the quest to get a boyfriend. Once you get said boyfriend, there's a rigid rule of you have to kiss him every eight hours or he'll lose interest in you and dump you. Another way of keeping your boyfriend is you can buy him gifts, but here's the catch, all of them cost Facebook Credits. You can also get exclusive couture, but that too costs Facebook Credits, and then there's the exclusive stores you can shop at, but that also costs Facebook credits. Anyone else noticing the dirty money trail of greed going on here?
 After trying this game out, my overall impression of it was it's not good. Superficial nonsense aside, the game itself did not play well. There was constant lag, the game would freeze and the only way to solve the problem was to reload the page, and then there was the uneven battle system of the hotness showdowns. You could be completely ahead of a rival in hotness, clique size (yes, I'm sad to say your friends are referred to as a clique in this crapfest of a game), and (I wish I was making this up) closet size, and still lose. It's an understatement to say there were glitches and game issues.
 Apparently other people who played this game felt the same way and on Crowdstar's It Girl page under the Reviews tab, they voiced pretty much everything I had issue with in their reviews. There were one or two positive reviews here and there, but the overall consensus was that It Girl pretty much bit the big one. The next day, the reviews tab on the It Girl page is magically gone and Crowd Star is claiming that their game has five stars out of 120,604 reviews, all positive. Really? So rather than fix all the issues that the negative reviews brought to light, Crowdstar decides to prove that they're not only greedy money grubbing dirt bags, they decide to show that they're rotten liars too. Of course, there were lots of angry comments on their page for the It Girl game about how dishonest it was of them to do this. It also speaks volumes to me that there is no contact information whatsoever on any of the Crowdstar pages for their personal business page or for their games. There's a blatant absence of a phone number or valid street address. There isn't even a customer service feedback page anywhere. So it seems for all their so called stellar reviews the intent to perform fraud is blatantly there.
 I for one have already removed any Crowdstar games that were on my game list on my Facebook page and yes, this included the pile of dung that is the It Girl game. I am also posting this review because this is MY blog and this negative review they can not remove, and can not try to hide or lie about. Sure, it's just a Facebook game, but overall games are supposed to be fun and if you really gave a damn about making a good game Crowdstar, then you wouldn't take to these shady practices, now would you?
 I'm sure that they will continue down their greed laden path and keep ripping off everyone left and right in order to be the biggest and the best, but the people who are in the same frame of mind that I am, are not buying it. No matter how much you try to lie, cheat, and steal, you can not hide the truth about the kind of people and company you really are Crowdstar. 

The Green Hornet Film; The Original Is Better

 I don't even have the words for how infuriated I am right now with The Green Hornet film. There's a small part of me that wishes I could just throw a brick at Seth Rogen's crotch right now, because he absolutely deserves it along with director Michael Gondry. That's right, the director of the film Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind which to me was a good movie is responsible for this equally terrible movie.
 I do feel much of the blame lies with the fact that Seth Rogen co-wrote this screenplay and he claimed that he was so glad he didn't screw up one of his favorite childhood heroes. Seth, Seth, Seth....tsk tsk, someone's a dirty rotten liar Seth. Why must you constantly lie to us Seth? The truth is you messed up completely! In the original radio show, comics, and T.V. Show Britt Reid wasn't a moron. He was a smart successful newspaper publisher, he was confident, and he could fight well alongside his equally confident sidekick Kato. I loved the T.V. show and I loved the comic. I loved watching The Green Hornet on Kung Fu Saturday when I was a kid. That was the highlight of my Saturday. I would watch a couple of episodes of The Green Hornet and then watch the featured kung fu film. That's a sacred childhood memory and you, Seth Rogen along with your director have pissed all over it.
Not only did you make Britt Reid a total jerk, you made him stupid too! He loosely based Britt Reid on Paris Hilton? Are you kidding me with this nonsense?
 Seth Rogen's Britt Reid is a spoiled rich brat who shows no interest in running the newspaper, but he instead becomes buddies with Kato his mechanic and coffee maker. I felt bad for Jay Chou because he's no Bruce Lee, but he did alright in spite of Seth Rogen constantly hyperventilating and shouting in every scene. He tried, he really did. Cameron Diaz's role as Reid's secretary Lenore Case is completely useless. She's basically camera filler with a great smile.
 Of course, The Green Hornet has to have a villain and that is Christoph Waltz (Oscar winner from Inglorious Basterds) as Chudnofsky, but there is no depth to the character which proves bad writing is bad writing. Now I like action scenes as much as the next person, but it's as if Seth Rogen got bored and just added as much action as possible as filler rather than having an actual plot that tells the story. There's also so much pointless dialogue, watching this train wreck of a film is like being stuck in a dentist's chair having a root canal with no anesthesia. Yes, it's that damn bad. Not even the overpriced 3-D could save this film. That is just a gimmick to get more money out of people and this film proved that point real quick.
 There is so much that could have been done to make this film version of the T.V. show great, but none of it was done. Instead, we get a film that is so terrible with no plot at all, a fake Britt Reid (I don't care what you say Rogen, that character you played was NOT Britt Reid! You are a liar sir!), a subdued Kato that got overshadowed by the crazy rich brat, a useless vapid secretary, and a villain that's about as threatening as a labradoodle. Seth Rogen and Michale Gondry you should be ashamed and embarrassed that your names are on this piece of trash.
 Don't waste your money on this folks and certainly don't waste it on 3-D. The original is better and I'm sure that Mr. Rogen's going to have several bricks thrown at his crotch for even writing this awful screenplay. Just please, do us a favor and go sit in the corner with M. Night Shyamalan and quit making movies, because you really screwed the pooch on this one pal.

Of Sackboys, Dragon Ages, And A Bulletstorm

Well, I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Ours was quite nice. Now, it's time to get back into the swing of things, so we'll start off with a few of the games that I'm excited about playing in the new year. First up, is Little Big Planet 2. I loved the first game, and love it still. With a great musical soundtrack and levels that are actually fun to play through a second time or more, Little Big Planet has a lot going for it. I also loved the designs and artwork for each world. There's never a dull moment in the game, and there's so many things you can do such as designing your own challenging stage, trying on different costumes on your sackboy or sackgirl,  or even trying out stages that other players have designed online. The possibilities are endless.
 While I was a little disappointed that the developers for Little Big Planet 2 pushed back the release date to January 18th, I do understand that they want the sequel game to be even more fun than the first and they want to do it right. However, I am glad that the wait for this game will be over soon.
 Bulletstorm is intriguing to me. After reading up on it, I have to admit I was a bit dismayed to see it evolved into a first person shooter. The reason for that reaction is I tend to get incredibly bad vertigo playing in a first person point of view. Borderlands camera angles that bobbed like a yo-yo were so bad that I actually thought I was going to be physically ill. Unfortunately, I had gotten the game for the 360 so there was no way to turn that bobbing motion off, but I found you could turn off for the PC version. I still do not understand why they didn't have that feature for the 360 version. It would have been nice! So, I was a little hesitant when I was reading up on how the developers for Bulletstorm had decided it worked better as a first person shooter. I mean, the concept art for the game was amazing and  I have to say I was a sucker for the artwork for the giant monster plants. It had potential to me from all the articles I read, so I found myself being excited about it.

 Then I hear about the first person shooter deal and I'm torn. I've been waiting for this game for months and genuinely excited ever since I first heard about it. I decided to try and keep an open mind and check out their website. I'm glad I did. The sample trailer they had blew me away. Yes, it's a first person shooter, but it made me hopeful. It looked great and I think I could actually play this without getting raging bouts of vertigo. The camera was spot on and didn't do odd angles, and just the few minutes they showed looked great. I got excited about Bulletstorm all over again. I was pleasantly surprised and now I can't wait for this game to be released. 

 Next of course is Dragon Age 2. I loved Dragon Age and played through all the story lines, did all the side quests, and played through all the downloadable content, (I'm a nerd people, this is what I do) loving every minute of it. I even played all the angles of every possible romance. Yes, all of them. The story was brilliant and wonderfully written, making you care about each and every character. It even made me really hate the super villains and the ambiguous ones. I did love the aspect of good and evil was not black and white here, there were shades of gray and your decisions affected each part of the story in some way.
 As soon as I heard about Dragon Age 2, I began reading all the articles voraciously, writing down dates, notes, and reminders to myself that I absolutely wanted this game. My good friend Gary informed me of the preorder deal they had for fans of the game, which I checked out. It was a limited edition preorder where you could get downloadable content titled The Exiled Prince as well as a downloadable soundtrack and exclusive in-game weapons. The cutoff date was January 11th. I made it in time thanks to my wonderful husband Ron, who ordered it for me.  For those who missed the limited edition boat, you can get The Exiled Prince on XBOX Live after the March launch, but it will cost you 560 MS Points. A bit steep, but at least it will be available to others who wish to play it.
 Release dates for the games listed are: Little Big Planet 2 Januray 18, 2011
                                                           Bulletstorm February 22, 2011
                                                           Dragon Age 2 March 8, 2011
                                                          
 There are so many more games coming out this year that I am looking forward to, but these are the games that will be out in the first three months of 2011, and I'm ecstatic that they're finally going to be here. It looks like 2011 is going to be a promising gaming year.

Happy Holidays!

 I'm on a bit of a hiatus due to the holiday season. I'll be back after Christmas or the new year. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a happy holiday season!