Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for FREE!

Yes it’s true, Bethesda is offering The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for free as a download off their website. Yes, it’s the full game, and yes, it’s completely legit and legal.

To get your own copy, click the link below.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/daggerfall/

See my YouTube video about it here:

Xenoblade Chronicles Review Part 1 (Wii JRPG)

See the full video review here:

INTRO

Xenoblade Chronicles is the UK localized version of the Japanese game, Xenoblade. With no current plans to bring this JRPG to the US, I have only one thing to say: why!??!? Xenoblade Chronicles is quite possibly the most innovative and fun Japanese RPG to be released on the current gen consoles. Yes, I said that, and yes, I really mean it. I have played a variety of different JRPGs on current systems like the Xbox 360, Wii, and PC, and I can tell you that I cannot think of a single one of them that has come close to the level of satisfaction I’m getting from Xenoblade Chronicles, available from Monolith Soft for the Nintendo Wii.

I won’t pretend to be completely unbiased: I love this game, and although there are a few minor issues, I have almost all good things to say about it, so let’s get started.

Xenoblade Chronicles is set in one of the most unique and surprising game world’s I’ve ever heard. Two great Titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis, are engaged in an epic battle over a faceless world of nothing but sea and sky. The two end up evening out the score by killing each other at the same time, leaving their lifeless corpses behind. This is where the game takes place, on the lifeless bodies of the two giant Titans. Over time land, water, vegetation, and eventually life have all stretched out over the various body parts of the two gigantic entities. This is just beginning of the unique approach this game will take, and that’s a very good thing.

COMBAT

As the game begins, you’re immediately thrown into combat. I love when games do this. No wandering around in a boring, quiet town wondering what to do. You start off with weapons drawn and surrounded by a raging war. The people of the Bionis, known as the Homs, are in conflict with the invading Mechons, what appear to be mechanical life from the Mechonis. After a brief combat tutorial, you are transported to one year later, and you get control of our main character, Shulk.

Again, I’m very relieved to see that right away Shulk is engaged in combat, and this is where Xenoblade Chronicles really shines. The battle system is unlike anything I’ve seen before, a fun and engaging cross between the combat in Okami and an online game like World of Warcraft. There are no random encounters, and battles take place in the same game world that you travel through. Once you decide to engage an enemy or an enemy engages you, all the characters in your party begin auto attacking. You are able to control any one character of your choosing, and you’re free to move about while fighting. This is critical, as you will be issuing commands called Arts that are sometimes dependent on your position. You select an Art, and your character than initiates it, similar to the aforementioned World of Warcraft. Shulk’s Backslash ability does massive damage if Shulk is standing behind the enemy, and there are several other moves that cause status effects if you attack from the side.

For example, Shulk’s Elit Edge Art lowers the enemy’s defense only if he strikes the enemy on its side.
And that’s just the tip of this iceberg. Combat becomes even more involving and strategic when you have multiple party members and engage what are known as Chain Attacks. Once you fill up your party’s meter, the Chain ability becomes available, and it allows you to issue one Art per character. This is critical in certain fights where you will have to issue a Break Art followed by a Topple Art in order to render larger, stronger monsters vulnerable to your attacks. Very soon in the game Shulk will acquire the ability to use the Monado, a mysterious and powerful weapon that seems to play a key role in the story. The Monado has its own unique set of Arts that can be issued as well, and certain enemies are only weak to the Monado and its abilities.

Your other party members are not just mindless drones. They command their abilities fairly well, and you may hear one of the characters even help you out with verbal hints, such as is one of them tells you that it’s time for a Chain Attack. The banter between the characters is fairly interesting, too. At times you’ll hear Shulk and his friend Reyn joke around, and their friend Fiora will laugh at the two of them. They also respond to how the battle is going. If things aren’t going well, they’ll say so. If you finish an enemy off quickly and easily, Reyn has a line that is very English and makes it clear that this game is no American localization.

Combat in Xenoblade Chronicles is just plain fun. Rarely do I run around in a JRPG just to find more enemies to kill. Leveling up is like a bonus on top of the pure enjoyment of the fast-paced, sometimes frenetic combat. Speaking of leveling-up, this game again reminds me of World of Warcraft. You have a few progression types known as Trees, and you choose which one you want to focus on. As an example, Shulk can pick to focus on improving his ether abilities (which helps him heal), or to add to his physical combat. You are able to freely choose which path you’d like to take and can do so at any time. As you level up you learn new Arts, and eventually you’ll have to start to pick and choose which ones you want to use during combat. You’re able to spend points to level-up your arts, and this will likely lock you into which Arts you’ll use the most, since it just makes more sense to use the higher level abilities.

Combat is not strictly attacking and defending. Characters fulfill different roles. Reyn is more of a hard-hitting tank, while Shulk can also dish out damage and issue a variety of buffs and debuffs. Yes, just like most popular MMORPGs, buffs and debuffs become critical. Lowering an enemy’s defense and attack power is important and can be the difference between winning and losing. Shulk is able to heal comrades, but any character can freely help raise a fallen comrade by running close to them and pressing the B button. The fallen party member will rise with minimal HP, without the need for any special abilities or consumable items. If a party member dies and things look grim, you’re usually free to run away, after which all fallen party members rise back up. If you can’t run away, it’s because a wall like in Okami appears around your party during critical encounters, such as bosses. You regenerate health quickly while out of combat, making it unnecessary to carry tons of health potions of any kind. Pay attention to these little bonuses, because there are a ton of ways that this game saves you time and frustration by making the experience much more enjoyable.

Equipping your characters resembles World of Warcraft in that you have to choose the best weapons, gear, and slot crystals for your character based on the role that character will play. Will you choose the weapon that does more damage, or the one that increases defense? Will you equip the boots that have the slot for a crystal, or pick the ones that have better stats? I’ll mention more later, but what you equip also affects how your characters look, which is always a nice touch. Sometimes Xenoblade Chronicles feels like they took the best from JRPGs and combined it with the best from the massively multiplayer online role playing genre.

VOICE ACTING

The voice acting in this game is incredible. Even coming from a game like Final Fantasy XIII, where the voice acting was one of the only things about it that they did well in my opinion, Xenoblade Chronicles still shines. The voice actors really fit their parts well, and you can tell they actually care about reflecting the various sentiments of the characters. I can hardly think of a single moment yet that made me roll my eyes or shake my head, something that happens a lot in JRPGs with voice acting. Part of this is due to the amazingly well-done storyline. I can barely wait to find out what happens next, and I’m genuinely interested in what happens within the game world and to the characters. I really, honestly want to see where this is going and care what happens. Without spoiling anything that happens after the first couple hours of gameplay, I can say that relatively soon in the game something will happen that you absolutely would never expect. I still can’t believe they did it, and it shows they have some guts when it comes to the storyline. To tell you the truth, I had to pull myself away from the game in order to sit down and write this review, it’s just that good.

Now with all this praise, I should be fair and mention what is lacking in the game. There are key moments in the game where you can optionally watch interactions between your characters, called Heart-to-Hearts. These moments open up depending on who is in your party. I was very disappointed to find out that despite these moments being very emotional and reflective, they occur in text bubbles only – no voice acting. I feel that Monolith Soft really dropped the ball here, because these are some of the most endearing moments in the game that show the characters’ backstories, and not being able to hear them speak the parts is a let-down.

GRAPHICS

I know what you’re all thinking… This game must have bad graphics because it’s on the Wii. Not at all. These are some of the best graphics I’ve seen the Wii push out, and the sheer scope of some of the scenes is incredible. You can tell that this game pulls as much out of the Wii as is likely possible. The appearance of individual blades of grass swaying in the wind, the towering cliffs showered with vegetation in the distance, the looming blue sky filled with clouds hovering over the landscape – it all makes for some amazing scenery. Day and night cycles add to the visual flair, and the music even changes as well. One of the more breathtaking views was when I came out on the Bionis’ knee and got to glimpse the enormous, towering body of the Mechonis in the great distance as occasional strikes of lightning illuminated a dark, rainy sky. I actually just sat and watched it for a while. This is not the type of detail you normally see in a Japanese RPG, not even on the more powerful Xbox 360 and PS3. I just can’t get over how they’ve managed to render the graphics with such a long draw distance… it’s something I generally only see on my PC when I jack the settings up all the way.

The detail in the characters is no less amazing. As you change armor and weapons, your characters appearance changes, both for the regular game world and in the cutscenes. Again, it’s something you rarely see in JRPGs. I can only think of Resonance of Fate as another current gen game doing this, although I’m sure I’m missing a few. The enemies in the game are sufficiently detailed to be believable, and at times resemble some of the monsters you might see in a game like the ever-popular Japanese Monster Hunter series.

AUDIO

The music in Xenoblade Chronicles is simply really, really good. Right from the title screen you’ll encounter tunes that’ll make you want to buy the soundtrack. I actually sat and listened to the compelling title screen music for several minutes just to see where it would go. As a little added bonus, the background changes to reward those who sat to watch it.

Many of the tracks featured in the game have a little rifts that remind me of songs from one of my favorite games, Xenogears for the PlayStation. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering that a significant portion of the staff that worked on that game left SquareEnix to form Monolith Soft, and Yasunori Mitsuda is back as one of the primary composers.

The music also changes based on the situation. The music you hear running around in fields with the bright blue sky above is different from what you hear at night, and both of those are different from what you hear during combat. The transition to and from the combat music is fairly smooth, and it seems that the overworld track will pick up where it left off. A huge relief, where some games restart the track, making it impossible to hear the later portions of the song. Xenoblade Chronicles solves this problem by continuing the song where it left off. I love it.

PRESENTATION

The game’s presentation is just spot-on all around. Remember those frustration-eliminating features I alluded to earlier? Let’s talk about them. Xenoblade Chronicles isn’t about wasting your time, and you’ll notice right away. First off, no save points. That’s right, you can save the game anyway. When’s the last time a JRPG let you save at virtually any point in the game, anywhere? Also, have you ever been enjoying a great JRPG for hours only to end up dying and realizing that you haven’t saved it the whole time? How discouraging is it when you see the title screen pop up to the realization that you’ll have to do it all over again? Not a problem here. When you die, you’re simply teleported back to the last landmark you passed, complete with all of the experience and items you gained before dying. I can’t tell you how many countless hours this will save most of us gamers.

And that’s not all. Speaking of teleporting, Xenoblade Chronicles features a Fast Travel-like option, known in the UK version as Fast Skip. It’s similar to that in Bethesda’s Fallout 3. You’re able to quickly travel to any landmark you’ve previously visited. In some rare circumstances, such as during critical plot points in the story, they’ll lock you out of this feature, but it makes sense and rarely happens. They only do it because the story requires you to move in a certain direction, and is completely understandable. What this means is that you can fast travel back to town, sell your goods and buy anything else you might need, then fast travel back to where you were. Very, very useful; saves me a ton of time. However, this also means that unlike most JRPGs, you actually have a limit to how many items you can carry. I haven’t hit that limit yet, but I’ve been close. Just sell your goods every chance you get and you’ll likely never have a problem with it. The limit is based on slots, not weight, which separates it from most western RPGs like Bethesda’s Oblivion.

There are also quests in this game, and the convenience extends to them too. For most quests, you will reap the rewards automatically as soon as you complete them – no need to go running back to the quest giver just to say, “Hey, I killed those monsters for you!” While most of them seem like the run-of-the-mill kill and fetch quests, I still enjoy them. As long as you’re familiar with an online game like World of Warcraft, you’ll be very familiar with the quest system. There are also missions to go kill particularly strong enemies, the World of Warcraft equivalent of elite monsters. They’ll drop good loot and the quest rewards are nice, too. Be careful, though, as if you run headlong into one of these monsters without being prepared for a serious fight, you’ll likely find yourself dead. They are definitely a challenge, even when your party is several levels above their listed level. And yes, monsters in the game are noted by level, just like in many popular online role playing games. You can instantly tell that if an enemy is level 75 and you are level 14, you’re gonna get the brakes beat off ya if you even try it. And yes, I have encountered situations like that.

If you’re ever stuck or forget where to go, such as if you have to put the game down for a while (something I haven’t been able to do), you can access what are called Story Memos. These help you remember what you are currently doing and where you’re going; very useful if you come back to the game after a substantial break.
There are a lot of nice features that add bonuses to the game for those willing to earn them. There are little blue shiny drops in the game called collectibles, and you earn rewards by collecting all of them. You also get bonuses for things like unlocking all of the landmarks (or areas) on a map. This usually comes in the way of experience or unique items. It’s nice when a game rewards you for going off the beaten path, something that usually just wastes your time. Oh, and yes, you can get achievements. They include simple things like unlocking all of the areas in a map or creating different types of crystals to slot to your weapons, to crazy things like falling long distances and surviving. It’s actually possible to jump from a high cliff, just make sure to land in water or expect to fall to your doom.

It’s also a huge relief that the character and wardrobe design in this game is pretty reasonable. I haven’t seen any over-the-top ridiculous outfits yet. The worst thing I’ve seen actually isn’t so bad, and it happens to be Fiora’s base outfit. She has high-heel boots with stockings that are strapped to a mini-skirt, complete with a sports-bra like top. At least the colors aren’t too crazy. They’ve kept the ridiculous anime stereotypes to a minimum here. Even the characters’ hair styles are pretty reasonable. To get an idea of how ridiculous character design can get, check out Final Fantasy X. What a relief that Monolith Soft stayed away from such extremes. The design here is quite good.

CONCLUSION

There’s just no denying that Xenoblade Chronicles is an awesome, awesome game. Even gamers who haven’t been big fans of JRPGs may enjoy this one. From top to bottom, there’s virtually nothing negative that can be said about this game. The presentation is solid, combat is fun and engaging, the graphics are as good as you could possibly expect from the Wii, the music is incredible and iPod-worthy, and the vast number of time-saving features included show how much effort and thought went into producing what is in my opinion the best JRPG of this console generation.

In fact, if I may be so bold, it is this reviewer’s opinion that Xenoblade Chronicles is the winning contender for the best Japanese role playing game ever released. While giants like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III for the SNES make good competition, the additional value included in Xenoblade Chronicles just adds so much more to the experience. While I will need to complete the game to decide for sure, I think it may quite possibly make #1 on my personal list. If you have any way to do it, purchase yourself a copy of this game and a UK Wii if necessary, and play it!

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions. I hope you look forward to and support bringing Xenoblade Chronicles to the US!

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Order & Chaos Mobile Game Review

See the video review here:

Wow… that’s what I think about when I play this game, and it has more than one meaning. Yes, it’s an amazing game and very well done, but there’s another meaning to the word WoW: the acronym for World of Warcraft. Yes I know, everyone compares other MMORPGs way too much to the ultra-hit title from Blizzard, but it’s impossible to avoid it with this game.

Order and Chaos is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG for short. You play the role of a character that continues to grow and evolve over time within a persistent game world where other players are doing the same. You level up your character by killing monsters and other creatures, or by questing: accepting tasks from non-player characters in the game and then completing those quests for both experience and other rewards, such as new weapons and armor or gold.

You start the game by choosing one of two factions, just like in World of Warcraft. The Humans and Elves belong to the Order faction, and the Orcs and Undeads belong to Chaos (and yes, all four of these classes look very similar in Blizzard’s game). All races are able to be any of the limited but sufficient four classes available. All classes have two “talent trees,” which make them play significantly differently depending on which one you choose to invest in. The Monk seems to be able to focus on a combination of physical and magic-based combat, or go with a healing role. The Warrior can choose to either be a tank character, or the typical close-up damage dealer. The Ranger can specialize in ranged damage, or with more close-up rogue-like combat, including a sneak ability. Finally, the mage can focus on fire-based spell damage from a distance, or frost-based spells that concentrate more on crowd control of multiple monsters.

As with all MMORPGs, you share the experience of the game with others, in both good and bad ways. You can party up with friends to make questing easier, and parties are the only way to complete dungeons with special bosses at the end. You are, of course, welcome to quest and kill baddies alone, but that defeats the purpose of playing an online game. Playing with friends is easy, since you can add them to your friends list and receive notification when they are online.

The gameplay in this game is solid, and if you’ve ever played another finely crafted MMORPG, you know what to expect. There are of course the usual bugs you’d expect with a fairly new entry in the online scene, such as bad guys that bug out and become impossible to kill, as well as some quests suddenly becoming impossible to complete. Overall I did not experience enough glitches to make it more than a minor annoyance, and it certainly doesn’t detract significantly from my enjoyment of the game.

Everything in this game that I tried out just seemed to work well together. I’ve played as a Monk, Warrior, and Mage, and my wife played the game as a Ranger, and I can say that all four classes seem balanced and fun to play. I think it’s safe to say that you can expect more classes to come in the near future.

I had few problems with the polished controls in this game. Occasionally I end up not clicking on something I mean to, or clicking on something else, but that’s unavoidable with a game played on such a small screen. You can touch anywhere on the left side of the screen and drag to use the virtual joystick, and the right side of the screen turns the camera. The buttons are generally easy to hit, though you may from time to time hit something you didn’t mean to.

The graphics are incredibly reminiscent of World of Warcraft, and especially apparent with the Undead race that looks nearly identical in both games. Character designs, weapons and armor, monsters, and more are all very much similar to what you would see if World of Warcraft were scaled down to fit on your smartphone. This is not a bad thing, not at all; the cartoony graphics are bright and make it easy to identify everything inside the game world, and I rarely experienced any significant slow-down.
The social elements of the game are no more less polished than the graphics and controls.

You can chat either locally, globally, in your party (called a team), and more. You can use a limited selection of emotes, and typing text uses whatever input system your device is configured for. There is no in-game voice chat, but perhaps they’ll add this later. I personally feel fine without it.

While both my wife and I have enjoyed playing this game solo and in a party, there are a few catches. First, you have to pay for this game up-front; there is no free download and no free gametime whatsoever. I think this is a huge mistake, because there’s no doubt in my mind that Gameloft would get even more subscribers with a free trial that allows you to purchase the game and continue to play where you left off. After you pay $6.99 for the game, you get three months of playtime before you must subscribe at a rate of $0.99 a month. There is a modest discount for subscribing for multiple month packages.

Additionally, a recent update has made it possible to purchase powerful high-level gear by doing nothing more than paying real life currency. This is disappointing for those who put value on the game itself and the effort put into improving your character. Sure, it’s Gameloft’s choice to let consumers choose how they want to play, but this could easily cheapen the experience for everyone, and put pressure on gamers who value time-invested to just forego the hard work and fork out cash for top-notch gear.

Furthermore, the game refused to play on anything but Wifi for me. I couldn’t use my 4-bars of 3G to do anything, since the game seemed to do a check for Wifi and if it wasn’t present, it refused to connect. Some people claim to have connected via 3g or 4G, but I had no luck doing so. Don’t plan on playing this anywhere that you don’t have wifi access.

If you enjoy MMORPGs, are think you’d like to give one a chance, there’s no doubt that Order & Chaos is the among the cheapest pay-to-play games on the market. After all, with so much done right and the basic gameplay so fun, how you can go wrong paying $7 for 90 days?

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Deadly Dungeons Mobile Game Review

See the video review here:

Deadly Dungeons is not your typical mobile game. In fact, it’s not a typical game by any standard today. If you’ve ever played the now ancient Ultima Underworld series, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect, only in a slim-downed, mobile-sized version of course.
Deadly Dungeons is about wandering around dark, dreary dungeons in a first-person perspective. You have to manage your inventory and stats to help you fight your way through the evil creatures that lurk below. Rats, spore creatures, evil dogs, and more await you in the caves, and it’s pretty fun just wandering around killing stuff and collecting loot.

Unfortunately, Deadly Dungeons is marred by a seriously glaring problem: everything looks the same. I don’t know if the game gets better about this because I couldn’t get very far. I wasn’t sure where to go, and it’s way too easy to get turned around. Any time I hit a dead-end, I dread trying to go back, because it’s kind of like being blind-folded and then spun around on a computer chair. Just once you feel like you’re making progress feeling your way around the room, someone puts you on a chair and spins you and then you’re completely disoriented again.

Combat is fun, inventory management is a little better than you’d expect for a mobile game, and the graphics are fairly decent… until you realize that all of the wall, floor, and ceiling tiles in the game look so similar that you can’t tell where you’re going or even where you’ve been. This game really needs some landmarks to get your bearings, because you’ll be relying heavily on the very basic in-game map.

The music in the intro is nice, but it fades away and the game leaves you with nothing but an atmospheric track. I see where the developer was going with this, but I’d rather have more actual music.

Deadly Dungeons is one of the only games of its kind on the market, so with that being said it’s worth a shot if you like the first-person dungeon-crawling genre. Overall, I give Deadly Dungeons a Fox Fun Factor of 3 out of 5. Given a lack of competition, I’d recommend it for anyone who is willing to bear with the hardcore experience.

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UniWar Mobile Game Review

UniWar is a simple turn-based, hex-based strategy game for iOS and Android devices. Fans of these types of games will likely enjoy this title, as long as they don’t mind settling for the simplicity that comes with the territory of mobile gaming. Oh, and the game can be played in either landscape or portrait orientation.

Watch the full video review below:

You can start out by playing through a tutorial mission, where you learn how to operate your units and bases point-by-point. It does a great job of easing you into the gameplay, and the first mission is fun and easy enough that newcomers won’t be turned off. I typically don’t like turn-based strategy games, but I found this title quite fun.

Additionally, there is an instant, one-player based mission, and a “play online” feature, which I haven’t taken advantage of yet. You need to create an account to do so, and I couldn’t be bothered to do that for this short review. You can also play in versus mode, you versus a friend. You use the same phone, handing it back and forth to each other as you take your turn in the game.

The game takes place on relatively small landscapes made up of hexes that resemble a honeycomb structure… in fact, just playing it made me want to eat some cereal, and you know what I’m talking about. The music is atmospheric and simple, and fits the mood. The graphics are mediocre at best.

Controlling your units is easy, and I never had any problem with the controls. I did however get frustrated as for some unexplained reason I found some of my units doing 0 damage to enemies while they did massive damage to me. I felt that the tutorial should have explained this, as it seems that some units are particularly weak against other units, perhaps unable to penetrate their armor. I will confess I haven’t spent an extensive amount of time with the game to know what’s going on there.

Overall, I enjoyed playing UniWar despite a few minor issues, and I give it a Fox Fun Factor of 4 out of 5.

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Mobile Game Review: Pocket Legends

Mobile gaming has generally been a solitary affair, just you and your gaming device. With the advent of SmartPhones, all of this has changed.

Pocket Legends takes the mobile gaming genre one-step further by introducing us to what is likely the first true MMORPG on a mobile platform. An MMORPG is a massively multiplayer role-playing game, where you take the role of a character that grows over time. You play in a persistent game world alongside other gamers, often times making friends and joining together to overcome obstacles such as dungeons and big monsters.

Pocket Legends is a free-to-play MMORPG available for the iOS and Android phones, which means that its most basic features are free, but additional elements of the game cost money. But would you want to pay for it? My answer is a resounding YES.

Pocket Legends is extremely well-done, and has all of the basic features you would expect in a free-to-play MMORPG on the PC, except it’s on your phone. You create a character from one of three different classes: warrior, archer, and enchantress. Each has strengths and weaknesses. You venture forth and after a short tutorial stage, you’re placed into a persistent game world surrounded by other gamers like yourself, who are all hanging out, chatting, and fighting together against the monsters in the game.

Like World of Warcraft, you pick up quests, complete them, and turn them in for rewards. There are also merchants and other non-player characters in the game that you can interact with. Many quests require you to jump into a portal that teleports you to a dungeon, where you fight with whoever automatically joins your party. You’ll be battling alongside others against monsters both big and small. There’s typically a boss at the end of each dungeon, and you’ll complete the quest by the end too. You can jump back to town to turn in quests and sell goods, and then you’re ready to start new quests in new dungeons.

While the game doesn’t have a huge world that you travel across like in World of Warcraft, that makes complete sense; on a mobile gaming platform, you wouldn’t want to be running for 10 minutes just to cross the landscape to get to a dungeon. Like most other mobile platform games, Pocket Legends is designed for sporadic gaming sessions, tailored to a “10 minutes here” and “20 minutes there” gaming style. Don’t be mistaken, though, as there is a lot of fun in playing an hour or more marathon session like I did. Just be aware that it will drain your phones battery and you’ll find it much harder to comfortably play with the power adapter connected.

The graphics are surprisingly good considering the platform and the small screen, and you’ll even see the new weapons and armor you put on your character. You can buy vanity clothing items, too. The music is stylish and does a great job of enhancing the atmosphere of the game. Unless you play with headphones on, you probably won’t really notice the music all that much. Each part of this game just really works well as a whole.

While I do enjoy this game, there are a few limitations. There are only three classes, a small number for anyone used to MMORPGs on the PC, and the game doesn’t do a good job explaining the new skills you get as you level, so you may find yourself wondering what they do. Additionally, you only get four gestures that your character can do within the game without paying for more.

Overall, I cannot recommend this game enough. It’s a free download from the App Store or the Market, and it’s a great introduction for new gamers to the MMORPG genre, as well as a great way to get your MMORPG kicks on while away from your PC. I give Pocket Legends a Fox Fun Factor, of 5/5. Hopefully, it’ll only get better from here.

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Why YouTube HD is so wonderful…

A lot of people have been talking about YouTube. No, not just generically, but specifically. YouTube was having a lot of trouble keeping up with the user demand, as you probably noticed if you attempted to watch an HQ (high-quality) version of any video in the evening, YouTube’s prime time. Instead of scaling back, YouTube increased their available quality to a full, unbelievable 1080p. That’s 1920×1080. A huge segment of the YouTube viewing population doesn’t even have a screen that goes up to that resolution (laptop users abound).

Regardless, it’s still an absolute godsend. Why? Let’s take a look. Before the days of HD video on the net, screencasts were not common, and often made extensive use of zooming. A screencast is a video showing someone’s computer screen while they work with some program or show you how to do something in the OS or an application. Since resolutions even as small as 1024×768 were not reasonable internet streaming sizes, screencasters had to zoom in on parts of the screen more often than not. This led to some confusion has it meant that you weren’t seeing the whole thing at once. However, without the zoom, the text and icons were virtually indiscernible.

Take a look. Here are four pictures. On the left is a portion of the original program at full resolution. I use a portion so even small screens can see this well. On the right is the spectrum of YouTube qualities, from 360p to 1080p. You’ll quickly see why 720p and 1080p are a godsend for screencasts.

Click the pictures below to see the comparisons.

You’ll see that the jump from 360p to even 720, much more so 1080, makes a huge difference. It goes from unenjoyable and illegible, to enjoyable and relatively easy to read. Thank you YouTube HD!

JRPG versus “Real” RPG. Huh?

Recently, a member of the BioWare team (well-known for games like the Baldur’s Gate series, Dragon Age Origins, and Mass Effect 2) made a comment that Final Fantasy XIII is not an RPG. Even putting the “J” in front of it to make it JRPG still doesn’t count, according to Daniel Erickson.

It got me thinking. What really is an RPG? Sure there’s a ton of debate about what is and is not an RPG, and people question games like Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3 being called an RPG, but we need to define our terms. I personally consider both games like Final Fantasy XIII and Fallout 3 to be RPGs, but different types. Hear me out.

Let’s compare Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Final Fantasy XIII, appreciated as Oblivion and FFXIII from now on. Sit down and play them side by side, and the difference is immediately obvious. In FFXIII, you start the game by watching cutscenes, and these cutscenes introduce you to many of the characters in the game. They have names, personal histories, battle preferences, and the like all laid out already. Sure, you can make some adjustments to the characters through advancement, but essentially they are what and who they are from the start until the end. Sazh, the dude with the afro, is Sazh. You cannot make him female, change his name, or decide that he’ll be only a caster.

Look at Oblivion. You start the game by creating a character from scratch, deciding gender, race, and appearance. You begin in a cell, watching as events unfold in front you. These events serve both as a story-starter and as a means for you to create your character’s class. Having access to simple weapons and magic (as well as other abilities like sneaking), you work your way through a short cave. At the end of it all, it gauges how you played the game, and suggests a class to match your style. You can then choose a predefined class for your character, or create your own custom class, picking and choosing which areas you want to specialize in.

The difference is apparent from the first minute of gameplay. FFXIII seeks to present to you a well-crafted and finely-tuned story. You experience this story by pushing it forward. You push it forward by progressing through the areas of the game, battling enemies, and initiating dialogues. You do not create your own destiny, but control the characters as they follow their pre-determined paths. Even if you do stray a bit, it is only temporarily, and does not have any significant affect on the central plot.

Think about Oblivion. You create your character from scratch, and you have the ability to decide how you want to proceed through the game. A sneaky rogue that steals from everyone, a powerful mage, or a brutal warrior with a sword and a shield — what’ll it be? It’s up to you. Do you want to accomplish the goal of retrieving an item by killing the bearer, convincing him to give it to you, or stealing it from him? Do you want to pursue any of the numerous and lengthy sub-plots that build your character’s reputation in various guilds, or will you stick to the main plot?

Oblivion is about doing things your way and at your pace with the character of your choosing. The game rewards choices and exploration, and the story pushes forward through these avenues. FFXIII is about discovering a story that has been carefully crafted and laid out, with pre-determined characters. Both have limitations and advantages. FFXIII has the advantage of presenting a very emotional, dramatic, and finely-tuned story experience that thoughtfully involves the characters in ways that have been carefully planned out. Oblivion is about creating your own story, and thus it lacks the expansive narrative, emotional exploits, and well-crafted drama of FFXIII. Conversely, FFXIII lacks the rewarding exploration, character creation and development, and the sense of existing in a living and breathing world that you can interact with.

Which game is better? That’s not even the right question. If you watch my GamerCard on this website, you’ll see that I’m constantly switching between the two games, enjoying both for what they are and what they have to offer.

The Xbox 360 and “nickel-and-diming:” a lesson in how not to treat customers.

Xbox 360 System

I have been the owner of many game systems through the years, but I haven’t been on top of following along with the new consoles as they come out. The only thing I purchased since the Nintendo 64 that counts as a system while it’s “new” is the DSi, but that was just a revision of an existing console. I bought a PS2 just two years ago. I also own a DS Lite, Wii, and now, recently, and Xbox 360.

What I have to say is something most gamers will fully understand. When I purchased the DSi and DS Lite, I got a “whole package,” so to speak. I didn’t need anything else except maybe a carrying case. When I purchased the Wii, I got a pretty full package, too. The controllers weren’t rechargeable, but that was a single and forgivable offense. For the most part I just bought the system, and then it was time to get some games and play.

Not so with the Xbox 360, especially if you get the “Arcade” version. What’s wrong with it, you say? Simple. Three words strung together by hyphens:  nickel-and-diming. I bought a used Elite system, so it came with the HDD, but the Arcade version doesn’t, and who would want to go without an HDD? The Wii has some built-in memory to accommodate simple saves and whatnot, but the Xbox 360? Nope. Next came my horrifying surprise:  no built-in wi-fi. Is this for real? Is it a joke? Nope, it’s reality. They want you to spend initially $100 on an adapter to go wireless, and it’s still expensive at $70+.

But it doesn’t stop there. Next up is Xbox Live for $50 a year. Don’t want it? You can skip it, but you can’t go online with virtually any game for any reason. No multiplayer. No demo downloads. No game downloads, no accessing virtually any and every online feature worth mentioning. And there’s even more. You need to buy separate rechargeable battery packs for the controllers if you want that, and who doesn’t? Replacing the batteries constantly is expensive and annoying.

There couldn’t be more, could there? Oh yes. If you want more HDD space than the 20GB, 60GB, or 120GB that many of the models came with, you need to pay a ridiculous price that more than triple exceeds the price of a laptop HDD… and they are the same thing, just a special enclosure for the Xbox 360!

That’s got to be it… right? Nope, the original models, if you were unlucky enough to buy one, were not only very expensive but lacked an HDMI port. The systems aren’t even clear about which one has what, not clearly labeling the product. Amazon.com listed the 20GB Pro model as being “full HD compatible.” No it’s not, it doesn’t have an HDMI port! It can’t be full 1080p compatible without an HDMI port (unless it had VGA/DVI, but it doesn’t either).

I love my Xbox 360 more than I thought I would. I love the experience of the interface, going online, and the games. I love downloading demos and playing from my couch. I don’t like the nickel-and-diming game Microsoft plays with its customers. Not cool, not respectful.

Snow Leopard Hackintosh still going strong…

We’re now up several dot releases on Snow Leopard, and the Hackintosh you saw me display on YouTube is still going strong, updated with all the latest from Software Update. This is definitely the most solid build I’ve ever used. For more information about it, see the video: