Dirty Secrets

“I’ll keep you my dirty little secret,” well up until now!  I’m not gonna lie, I’m completely ripping this concept from IGN[1] , but as I’ve learned all too quickly that no idea is an original one anymore.  But anyway, I’m here to tell you my darkest gaming secrets…

• I REFUSE to play survival horror games.

Its not that I don’t think these games are any good, it’s just the fact that I’m scared shitless.  I blame it on Resident Evil (and they day I went to a haunted house with my older cousin and she basically choked me the entire way thru) back in day because that scared the bejeezus of me from the get-go.  I’m not one of those people who get a rush out of being scared; it stresses me out (probably from my near death experience at the haunted house) and I don’t want my gaming experience to be mired with stress.  So even though I really want to play the Dead Space series; I will continue to play the responsible dad card and claim “I don’t want to bring that kind of game home.” 

• I don’t get into FPS

Yes, I know…how blasphemous!  But let me clarify, I enjoy getting out there and blasting away at whatever comes in front of my crosshairs, but I feel like a lot of FPS are just like most summer blockbusters…mindless entertainment (or a poorly attempted cash grab).  In a lot of FPS’s, there is no depth.  Run, shoot, repeat!  Done right, a FPS can keep me coming back for hours, but few actually execute.

• I LOVE playing games on easy difficulty[2]

I may be being a little too transparent now, but let’s be real.  Some games are just more fun played on easy!  Some may think I’m cheapening my experience, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Just think about it, most games just add cheap deaths and more enemies to increase the difficulty.  It’s not like you’re facing tougher A.I., in most cases, so instead of 2 hits to kill a soldier it now takes 8!  That doesn’t make things more challenging, just more frustrating.  Now, I don’t play all my games easy, but for those random games (X-Men Destiny, Prototype) that are only worth one playthrough…easy it is!

• I have never completed any of the Grand Theft Auto games

Yea, yea, yea…I know, I know, I know!  How can I call myself a gamer if I haven’t completed any of the amazing titles?  But it’s true; I always get about half way through the game and either I get bored or overwhelmed and eventually stop playing.  The one exception was GTA IV, my kid somehow erased everything off the hard drive and I was too frustrated to even pick the game back up, still am!  I realize that when it comes to open world games, I always come up short on finishing the game.  L.A. Noire and Red Dead Redemption have both seen the same fate as the GTA series…maybe it’s Rockstar Games’ fault for my ineptitude.

Well, I’ve finally broken down and exposed myself…hope you enjoyed it because it won’t happen again (Judge’s orders)!

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[1] games.ign.com/articles/122/1222111p1.html

[2] Sports games are not included!

Greed Corner

“For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays is a classic and has been used in popular culture from TV shows to movies, but as of recently it should be the theme song for the video game industry.  Now I know, all I’ve talked about is how much I love video games and that much hasn’t changed (and never will), but I will ALWAYS be transparent with my thoughts. 

So Mass Effect 3 just came out on March 6, 2012, and so far it’s been an amazing experience, but upon picking up the game I was asked if I wanted to buy the new DLC, “From Ashes” for $10.  The guy at Gamestop broke down everything that would come with the DLC (new Prothean character w/ mission, alternate attires, and Particle rifle) and knowing that once my wife reads this she will kill me, I bought it without a second thought. 



Worth $10 extra???

Now that I’ve played through this mission and used Javic on numerous missions, I came to two conclusions; Javic is effin awesome and how in the blue bloody hell can BioWare justify charging an additional $10 for something that should be on the disc from the start.  This isn’t like Zaiid or Kasumi from Mass Effect 2, Javic (albeit a new character) being of the Prothean race has been featured heavily throughout the entire series, so why wouldn’t BioWare just add this amazingly crafted story into the main disc, I’ll tell you why “For the Love of Money!”  Yes, ME3 is a very complete game without the addition of Javic, but that’s only if you didn’t know any better.  After playing through the game, I can not imagine the game being complete without the addition of the Prothean.  I’m sure that can be construed into a compliment, but it’s as far removed from being complimentary as possible.  I’m not completely against the Day 1 DLC when it’s done properly (or as a pre-order bonus); but “From Ashes,” amazing experience aside, was BioWare forcing gamers to pay $70 bucks for the proper ME3 experience.



JUDO CHOP!



Are you crying?

*This article may contain minor spoilers such as credits roll at the end.

“Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball…” is one of my favorite movie quotes ever because it can be used in almost every situation. And I can’t think of a better situation right now than the one BioWare is currently facing; there has been a huge uproar about the ending(s) to Mass Effect 3.  And when I say huge uproar I do mean a Reaper sized heaping of bitching and moaning, demanding a “brighter” ending.  Check out Bioware’s official siteor the fan created pages created on Facebook.  Now I’m all for voicing ones opinion, as it is our Constitutional Right, but I think this is a ridiculous!  I wasn’t enamored with the ending myself, but demanding the developers to redo the ending is, well…that isht cray! 

That's my ending!

This ain’t Burger King and you can’t have it your way.  Would I have liked to have the ending more fleshed out showing how my decisions through the 3 games have shaped the galaxy? Well of course!  But that doesn’t mean I’ll cry about it not going my way.  But I guess my rant is moot anyway because BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka just announced that they would be “revisiting” the ending in the near future.  I really respect the path that BioWare is taking appeasing its fans this way, but I just hope this doesn’t set an unfortunate precedent.

All I know is WE BET NOT have to pay for this new/alternate ending because that’s when the isht will hit the fan!

 

Assassin's Creed 3 Reveal trailer!!!!

Meet Conner, one bad ass killing machine.  October 30th can't come fast enough!

Achievement Whore

Hi, my name is Aaron and I’m a recovering Achievement Whore

-Hi Aaron!

How did you get started down this addictive path?

It all started with Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter…a buddy of mine, IceColdKilla06, had bought his 360 on launch day and I spent most of the day over his house, skipping classes for the entire week, playing NBA 2K6 and GRAW.  It wasn’t until I created my Gamertag, Apollo, that I started earning my achievements and from that moment, I was hooked!

Do you remember the first Achievement you unlocked?

Of course I do, as Apollo, my 1^st gamertag, it was in GRAW.  And once I bought my own 360, and switched to my current gamertag Apollo1906, it was in NBA 2K6.

When did you realize you had a problem?

I didn’t realize I had a problem until I played all the way through the terrible TMNT game and after completion; I was pissed because I was not given my full 1000 GS!  And after trying multiple times I was still dicked out of my points.  I had never been so enraged in my life.  I still remember what that effin achievement is “Get your first coin” for 15 GS.  After that, I realized that I was no longer enjoying games for their entertainment, but only for how easy or hard their Achievement list was.

Wow!  Sounds like you became obsessed.

I did…I found myself playing the games irregularly for the Achievements and even restarting missions until I was able to get the “Achievement Unlocked.”  Since we’re being honest right now, not having achievements is the reason why I don’t play the Wii.  I was going through my achievement history and realized that I’ve played roughly 280 games, with about 270 being all retail games.

Wait...What?!?  You’ve played how many games?  You’re gamerscore must be through the roof.

Honestly, it could be higher if I stayed on the path I was on.  When I switched gamertags I lost over 4000 GS and I no longer had those easy launch titles anymore, being a new father and college student meant certain sacrifices.  So instead of buying games at $60 a pop, I started renting games from Blockbuster to keep up, but the downside was a set return date.  That meant I had to decide if I wanted to play and enjoy the game or mine for all of the achievements before enjoying the game.

So would you say that was the turning point for you?

Yeah, most definitely…well that and hearing my son yelling at his V-Tech, “You cheatin!”  That was a tough pill to swallow knowing he had got that from behavior from me.

So what challenges do you face? Have you experience many setbacks?  Any tips to anyone out there suffering from Achievement whoring.

Every time I put in a new game, I find myself going to check out the achievement list before even before selecting the difficulty.  Even though I do this, I make sure that I finish the game and enjoy my play through before I start to play through for achievements.  And if the game sucks then I stop playing it…no point in wasting my time on crap just because it’s achievement are easy (Avatar: The Last Airbender I’m looking at you)

But I want to make sure everyone reading this understands the beauty of Achievements: they were put in push the gamer into replaying the game.  As a gamer, I see the simplistic genius in giving us a reason to go back and play their games and if done right can add tons of replayability to games that probably wouldn’t have gotten anymore time after the credits rolled.

Well thank you for sharing your story with us and we wish you the best.

The Year of Top Games featuring the Best of 2011!

2011 was a hell of a year for us gamers.  And since everyone else is bringing you the “Best of…” something, “Top…” whatever, and “The Year in…” whatcamacallits, I figured why not join the fray with “The Year of Top Games featuring the Best of 2011!”*

*These are all games that have been in my disc tray for the calendar year.  There are two notable exceptions, Portal 2 and Dead Space 2.  Now I’m not opposed to either of these games, but I just never got around to playing them.  So if you’ve decided to forgive me for these transgressions and continue to read along, thanks!  If not, let me hold on to your copy of Portal 2 or Dead Space 2 and we can call it even.

Cole Phelps in action

10. L.A. Noire                                                                                  

I have to admit this game was not even on my radar in the months leading up to its release.  Fortunately, I was smart enough to pick this one up.  Although I was not a fan the crime scene investigation, I couldn’t wait to use my newly uncovered clues in the investigations.  This is where the game truly shines as each interviewee shows all the little nuances to detect whether they’re being deceitful (which they usually are) or not.  Rockstar captured the noir style with a deeply flawed protagonist and painstakingly detailed L.A. helped shape this into one of my favorite games of the year.

GET OVER HERE!

9. Mortal Kombat

I couldn’t have been more excited for the “re-imagining” of Mortal Kombat as this was one of the games that took all my quarters/tokens back in the days of arcades.  MK has gone through many iterations, with the most recent being the disappointing MK/DC Universe, but this would be the first time that we get a fresh taste on the game.  MK brought back all the viciousness that we loved from the original and to top it off offered a pretty interesting story to boot.  And if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, I’ve got two words for you…Freddy. Krueger!  Yes the maniacal mass murderer is available as DLC.



Saintz RULEZ

8. Saints Row: The Third

I don’t think I’ve had as much fun playing a game as I did playing as “The Boss.”  Where else can you skydive off a building butt naked, land in front of a group of women and start to “Teach ‘em how to Dougie?”  Well, Steelport would be the answer.  If you’ve played the previous games you know what to expect…sophomoric humor, open world gameplay, and ridiculous quest round out an excellent title.

7. Crysis 2

I had a blind excitement going into this one…I kept hearing how amazing the original PC game was so when I found out Crysis 2 was coming to console I was stoked.  After a quick tutorial, I was hooked.  The amount of freedom given to the player to tackle each mission was refreshing.  I love knowing that I could try to outflank with stealth and if all else failed, I could just activate my nano shield go guns a blazing.  What I enjoyed best about this game was I always felt like a bad ass no matter what I was doing and that’s thanks to the upgradeable Nano suit.  With the suit, you’re given the freedom to upgrade the Nano suit based on your own style.

Six Million $ Man has nothing on me!

6. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I had my eye on this one from the time it was announced until it was delayed (and delayed and delayed) and finally released.  I had not played any of the previous Deus Ex games, but since this was a prequel I figured why not jump in now.  When this game dropped in August, I was blown away with the amount of customization between weapons, augments, and mission completion…feeling merciful, the game will let you complete each mission without killing a single person (bosses excluded).  I couldn’t stop raving about this game even calling it my “Game of the Year,”  keep in mind it was August so we we’re just coming out of the summer dead period.  Adam Jensen felt like what you would get if you combined Sam Fisher, Jack Baur, James Bond, Ethan Hunt, Jason Borne, and Steve Austin (the Six Million Dollar Man, not Stone Cold) together.  Now that’s one hell of bad ass

"We're playing basketball!'

5. NBA 2K12

Now being that I’m an avid sports gamer (sports nut in general) I wanted to leave this off the list, but it’s my list and I can do whatever I want.  Plus, how can you deny a game that trumped it predecessor in every way possible.  And those who play the sports games regularly know that each yearly installment has only moderate changes made due to the short dev cycle.  But with 2K Sports that didn’t seem to stop them, not only did they keep their partnership with MJ going another year, they brought in some of the greatest players in NBA history with him.  The Legends mode in itself could be flushed out and made into its own game (a la 2K’s All Pro Football), but that’s before mentioning the improvements made to My Player, the inclusion of Be a Legend mode, and the highly anticipated debut of Online Associations.  Gameplay wise, things are tightened up and streamlined to make it easier to pull off the post and iso-moves.  Sports nut or not this game is stupidly good and had to make the list.

Nothing is true, Everything is permitted

4. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is easily one of my favorite characters of last decade.  I don’t know if its because we get to see his growth from a 17 boy seeking revenge to a Master Assassin or if its that Ezio is just that dude!  Unlike some of the other games on the list, I’ve played every game of the series (I, II, and Brotherhood) so I knew what to expect gameplay wise; however, there were some welcome upgrades to this installment.  I loved the fluidity the hook blade brought to the system, whether it be zipping through the city sky of Constantinople or flipping guards around while sprinting towards your next target.  I could’ve done without the terrible tower defense mode, but it’s by no means a game killer.  Also, knowing this would be the last we get to see of Ezio (with the exception of Soul Calibur V) gave me huge incentive to play this one out to see how it all ends.  I’m not one for spoilers in any way, shape, or form (I’m willing to fight you if you spoil a game, movie, book, meal) but lets just say Ubisoft doesn’t dissappoint with the conclusion of Ezio’s story.

Fenix Rising!

3. Gears of War 3

Marcus Fenix and the rest of the COG’s are reason enough to own an Xbox 360. Since its initial release to this conclusion, Gears has brought a visceral combat that few other games can compete with.  Gears is one of the few shooters that I crave for and that’s due to its online/offline co-op campaign.  Now I do like to get down in Horde with some buddies (I avoid deathmatches because I generally suck and cause my team to lose) as well, but knowing that Gears was designed for co-op play is a delight.  With each release, he story has improved and with Gears 3, Epic has issued its most epic (pun intended) release yet.

Batman! Dun, nun, nun, nun

2. Batman: Arkham City

I. Am. BATMAN!  Sorry, but who doesn’t say that after dropping a thug with a remote controlled batarang? Ok, maybe it’s just me, but playing as Batman is downright effin awesome!  Batman: Arkham City passes all the possible non-gamer tests you could give: recognizable characters, astonishing graphics, and a simple enough combat system that my 6 year old can pick up.  Even my wife got caught up and couldn’t help but stop and marvel (no pun intended) at the World’s Greatest Detective!  Rocksteady caught everyone off guard with Batman: Arkham Asyum, but Arkham City was expected to be huge and did Rocksteady ever deliever.  The Riddler returns to taunt Batman with over 400 Riddler challenges and the side quest are just as engrossing as the main quest.  If you haven’t played this game yet…#smackyoself!



Fus-Ro-Dah

1. Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to Skyrim and that is indeed a very good problem to have.  I’ll admit this…I didn’t LOVE Oblivion, but more so just liked it *Kanye Shrugs *. I felt like it was a grind fest and therefore couldn’t hold my attention.  Skyrim on the other hand is an attention whore and I’m loving every second of it.  Skill grinding has been streamlined and makes it so much easier for specialization…and if you know the iron dagger smithing trick leveling up can be done in a snap.  For those who have never played a game from Bethesda, just know it may start off a little slow but after you’ve finished the “tutorial” section the world of Skyrim is yours!  When I started off, I thought I wanted to be an assassin like thief, but before I knew it was dual wielding axes and decapitating heads left and right.  As I said 2011 was one hell of a year for gamers with a myriad of games, but without a doubt Elder Scrolls: Skyrim dominated the field and therefore gets the Gamedom seal as the Best Game of 2011.

Welcome to the Gamedom

As I’ve slowly descended into the workforce, I’ve noticed my creative juices reaching an all time low.  Matter of fact, let’s keep it real…I’m getting flat out dumb.  Rewind back to five years ago and I could be your human thesaurus ask me now and you get a confused stare.  Growing up I always had a “jack-of-all-trades” mojo going for me; basketball, baseball, football, golf, tennis, hell even badminton, but once the sun went down I always went back to my 1^st love…video games!  Let’s see: Atari check, Nintendo check, SNES check, Sega Genesis check, Nintendo 64 check…and so on and so forth.  So here I am trying to make my 1^st love (writing) and my mistress (video games) coincide.

Here in the Gamedom will read weekly rants, reviews, and random randomness that spark what little juices I have left…enjoy the journey because I know I will.