GameLight - Ys Origins

Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/207350/
Source: Youtube Channel RPGamerdotcom

I heard rumors about Ys Origins being localized, but I didn't think it'd release so quickly out of nowhere.  I've been wanting to play this game for over 5 years now as it was only a Japanese release exclusive and so I couldn't get it.  Ys Origin is a classic-style Action-RPG with Pseudo-3D graphics in a very fast-paced game environment (adventure and platforming).  The Ys series has existed since 1987 and has since had 9 installments but has always been under the radar and satisfied niche players or fans of the series.  The series can almost be seen as a hack-n-slash the way the combat works.  Combat is fast-paced and movement can be a bit too fast for first time players, but it's a welcome mechanic to have the flow of the game push forward at high speed rather than crawl along.  I'm not exactly sure if there has been any additional content added to the international release of Ys Origin, but there seems to be quite a bit the player could do.  There are 3 playable characters with additional ones in other modes, 5 difficulty levels (the game can be quite challenging), Time Attack mode, Boss Rush mode, and an Arena mode for the most replay value it can offer.  The game has been adjusted to support true wide-screen and high-resolution (remember that the game released back in 2006 and may not have supported those things) and it supports various gamepads.  It's only a shame that I have so many games backlogged now compared to 5 years ago when I barely had any as I'll be now waiting a bit longer before playing this game.  Ys Origins is now available on Steam for $19.99.

GameLight - ShootMania Storm

Official Site: http://www.shootmania.com/
Source: Youtube Channel maniaplanet

Anyone who has played the versatile racing course creator "TrackMania" will be happy to hear that Nadeo is creating another incredible game for the First-Person Shooter genre.  ShootMania Storm is a competitive, fast-paced, arena-style, first-person shooter with beautiful graphics and a comprehensive arena creator so that players can make their own levels to fight in.  As much as I like tactical-military first-person shooters, the industry needs to make other types of first-person shooters once again.  I had high hopes for "Nexuiz" but it has sadly been met with unfavorable reviews or was neglected altogether.  I'm not a huge fan of Quake and Unreal Tournament, but I have played them in the past and really enjoy the open feeling of the games where movement and falling knows no boundary.  With ShootMania, there are endless possibilities for game types, level design, and interesting machinima as long as there's a community for it.  I'm hoping this game will get big and provide long replay value as a casual game to mess around with as well as a competitive one.  ShootMania Storm is set to launch on PC exclusively through digital distributions by the end of 2012.

On a side note, TrackMania 2: Canyon is out right now for $24.99 and Nadeo seems to be working on a game called "QuestMania" an RPG which has me very excited.

Source:
-Kotaku: Bring on Shootmania, A Shooter Without Guns

NewNews - EYE don't fancy Divine Cybermancy

Official Site: http://eye.streumon-studio.com/
Source: Youtube Channel StreumOnStudio

Two days after I posted my review, E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy released a huge list of changes and fixes to the game.  I jumped on once more to see if there's any evident changes to the game.  The one major change is that the new font is significantly more legible, but it's still a bore to read through conversations.  A lot of new achievements have been added, and they're not that significant.  I earned about 9 achievements in one mission by killing various enemies.  There are some other changes such as improvement in AI and one new track; however, it doesn't convince me to play through the game again.  I think one time through was enough for me.  Check out the full list of changes here if you're an E.Y.E. player: http://eye.streumon-studio.com/index.php?page=news&news=29

VGCulture - Phoenix Wright Musical

Not just any musical, an all female musical!
Source: Youtube Channel Rh0823a

Back in 2009, Brian Ashcraft from Kotaku mentioned this.  I'm not sure how I missed it back then, but Richard Eisenbeis from Kotaku makes mention of the musical today.  It sounds like an interesting idea and it'd be nice if I could understand it; however, it seems like the English translation versions were pulled down in possible violations of copyright materials on Youtube without the publisher's consent.  Still, there are quite a few clips of the raw footages that can be viewed.  There's also that Phoenix Wright movie that came out, but I'm not sure where to go about finding it to watch.  I wonder when we'll ever get to see another Phoenix Wright game again (what with the 2nd Miles Edgeworth game not making to the states and the Professor Layton crossover nowhere to be found).

GameLight Review - E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy

Official Site: http://eye.streumon-studio.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/91700/
Source: Youtube Channel maceman1984

Developer: Streum On Studio
Publisher: Streum On Studio
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Release Date: July 29, 2011
Genre: First-Person Shooter/RPG

Pros:
-Tons of ways to build your character to fit your playing style
-Highly immersive environments with atmospheric settings
-Open-world exploration allows players to fulfill missions in any order
-Maps are huge and levels can be quite memorable

Cons:
-The game mechanics are as convoluted as the storyline
-User-interface and menu system is atrocious
-Game crashes very often and full of bugs
-Combat can be irritating and annoying to downright stupid
-Objectives can be vague and confusing
-A lot of long load times with the chance of the game crashing when loaded

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is bleeding with potential.  It encompasses the many elements of what an open-world, cyber-futuristic, Action FPS/RPG could and should be but is delivered so poorly that it was more painful than pleasure to play.  The game features gigantic maps with truly mesmerizing environments with the ability to customize in all sorts of ways to play aggressively, stealthy, technical, or something in between; however, there's so much going on with attribute points, upgrades, and abilities that it makes for a confusing puzzle to figure out what works and what doesn't.  The story is told through character dialogues which are not voice acted and are printed in a custom print that's a bit exhausting to read.  It doesn't really matter as the story itself was a long, ambiguous question of "who am I" as the main character has lost their memory in the very beginning.  It was fun running around an open-world environment and occasionally having some good fights, but the game left me agitated with how broken combat can be, irritated by the constant crashes when moving to the next map, annoyed by the gratuitous amounts of loading and its duration it took, and befuddled by the game mechanics and some of the mission objectives that I couldn't enjoy the game.  Those willing to sit down and go through every bit of the game's core game mechanics and experiment with them might be able to find entertainment value out of the game.  But for most gamers, this would be more punishment than play for one who just wants to enjoy the game.

Aesthetics
One of the more notable aspects of E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is the atmospheric setting it places the player in.  The futuristic cyber-punk world is dark but lighted with neon signs everywhere with eerie and subtle background music.  There's a bit of Asian influence throughout the game with Chinese characters going through some of the screens and character designs influenced by Japanese samurai armor.  For an indie game worked on by 10 people, the overall look of the game is very impressive and praise worthy.  Unfortunately, some aspects were overlooked and affected the gameplay immensely.  When getting shot at, the screen flashes red quite violently.  When blocking bullets with a sword, yellow and blue light flashes.  When combined together with a lot of enemies firing at the player, it is near impossible to see where one was going or where they are facing.  This made fighting groups of enemies incredible annoying, especially at the end of the game when 7-10 elites are firing at you with an aerial combat vehicle firing down at you at the same time.  Then there's the sniper scope.  Nearly 75% of the screen is covered by a tint of yellow when the player zooms in with the sniper rifle which needlessly obscures the player's vision from targeting the enemy.  And as enchanting as the environment can be, there are quite a few instances where everything is just so dark that it's difficult to find your way around a level.  Finally, there's the user-interface for the menu system.  Everything is just listed and separated into different tabs.  The menu is so disorganized and cluttered and it's a hassle to use every it was necessary.  Actions didn't even have labels until you hovered over a button to figure out what it did.  Getting an upgrade was expensive and rare and so the player would have to go through all the upgrades each time to figure out which worked best for them.  It just wasn't really worth utilizing every part of the game's mechanics because of how convoluted it looked and worked.  The level designs truly deserves some merits and maybe even the audio, but sadly everything else lacked organization, refinement, and afterthought when being implemented into the game.  Aesthetics: 3/10

Buttons
The game plays mostly like an FPS with the RPG elements as the background basis for the game's progressive growth mechanic and so those who are familiar with FPS games on keyboard and mouse will be familiar with the controls to this game.  For the most part, the core controls (movement and shooting) work pretty well, but peeking out left and right felt like it did very little to provide extra cover for the player.  There are a lot of keys that can be used in the game and the tutorial does little to help explain that to the player.  Trying to get through the menu was a pain and a chore when needing to hack or look through abilities and it really hindered upon the flow of the game.  There have been a LOT of instances where the attack key would just lock up, usually when wielding a sword and it allowed enemies to freely fire at me when I try to attack them or block enemy fire.  Combat was alright when it was a few enemies, but later in the game it was always a whole swarm at every side which made combat annoying no matter what build you went for.  Guns weren't entirely reliable and so I turned to using my sword a lot, but all that flashing made it hard to see and guns can push a player back when they're blocking so it made for an annoying fight every time near the end of the game.  The controls are better than a lot of other FPS games I've played in the past, but everything that should have made the game great (the combat, the abilities, the customization) caused the key layout and user-interface to be quite a mess in the end.  Buttons: 4/10

Concept & Content
So the core concept of the game is: walk, talk, kill.  It's the way that the player approaches it and does them that's supposed to make it interesting.  Walking around can be facilitated with a leg upgrade among others, talking can't be changed but you do have choices to make, and killing all depends on how you want to do it.  On paper, everything about this game sounds incredibly fun.  When I got into the meat of the game (which was very difficult to do considering how many times the game crashed in the first hour) it was bothersome to try to figure out all the abilities and upgrades, especially when I couldn't get any of them (very expensive).  Combat was annoying due to all the different colors flashing when getting hit, blocking, bleeding, stress (yes, your character loses control with stress), being hacked, etc. as well as controls acting up in the middle of a fight.  Walking around and talking to characters felt like a waste of time as maps were large (it was cool to look at, but annoying to traverse) and dialogue was boring.  The game is riddled with bugs, glitches, and typos which affected game play unexpectedly once in a while, but it happened enough to make note of them.  The three things I really like was the levels, hacking into an enemy to cause them to kill their allies, and using melee weapons when it wasn't incredibly annoying to fight.  There's actually quite a bit the player can do in terms of upgrading, abilities, and builds, but it did little to console the atrocious menu organization and faulty combat.  If the game had simplified and organized the menu system, made the different upgrades easier to understand, improved on certain graphic aspects such as the sniper scope and effects when getting hit, made combat more dynamic rather than just sending waves upon waves of enemies as the challenge, fixed all the bugs and crashes and refined the entire game, it could easily be considered a classic akin to the Deus Ex series which seems to be the major influence for the game.  To make a simple analogy out of this, it's as if they took a lot of fresh ingredients for a cake and instead of placing everything meaningfully in an organized fashion, they dumped everything into a blender and presented it to the customer to figure out the taste.  I still think the game could be great, but at the moment it's not even a decent game.  Concept & Content: 2/10

Duration
Time flies by when you're having fun.  But when you are not, time seems to drag on for an eternity.  I felt like I had the game forever, and I took so long in finishing it because of how much I dreaded going back to it.  I kept coming back to give it a chance each time in hopes that it got better only to have it get worse (the levels got better and better in terms of aesthetics, but was incredibly annoying gameplay wise).  The game length itself is actually decent (perhaps short for those expecting Deus Ex), but the flow of the game can be very slow and the irritable aspects of the game only make it feel longer when it isn't.  The way the game is set up makes for a very high replay value game, but all its faults and hindrances stops me from ever wanting to play the game ever again (even though it asks you to).  When you finish the game, the player is told that this might not even be real and that the player is dreaming.  You are then sent back to the beginning of the game.  When you finally get to the "true ending", you talk to someone that tells the player about who they are, but nothing that the player hasn't already figured out just from the dialogues of the other NPCs throughout the game.  You are then sent back to the beginning of the game again.  So in actuality, there is no "real" ending to the game.  There's also multiplayer mode, so you can suffer with a friend playing the game and see who's game crashes first.  Duration: 2/10

Fun
I can't say that I didn't have fun at all, but I questioned it heavily at the end of the game.  When I first started, I didn't like how I could barely see anything at all.  The flashlight did very little to help too.  In the first hour, I spent the entire time watching tutorial videos within the game that was long and made little sense.  In the beginning, you're very weak and you die very easily.  So when going down the first area and having to purposely take damage from the fall, it was difficult to get through the first few enemies without them killing me.  When I finally made it to HQ (after crashing about 3-5 times), I spent a VERY long time walking around talking to NPCs as it was required and stamina took a long time to recover so I wasn't able to run the entire time.  Throughout the game, I struggled through the game's crashes, game menus, combat, and figuring out where to go when coordinates weren't given.  After getting to the end and dying about 30 times on the last mission (got one-shotted a lot), I was presented with a really dumb ending.  The game left me bitter, irritated, and overall disappointed. The game looked really nice, but everything else about it was half baked when it could've been so much better.  The problems with the game were so evident that I'm not even sure if it was worth playing as a study game either, but I guess I should be glad I got to take this experience with me.  Fun: 2/10

Overall
I've never given a game this low of a score before, not even to the infamous Golden Axe: Beast Rider which was excruciating to get through.  E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy could've been the indie game declared a classic hit or a great iteration to open-world FPS/RPG games, but it's difficult for any player to declare that when they can hardly play it correctly.  If this team ever decides to create another game, I hope they can see all their mistakes and create a game that isn't as broken.  I really believe that they're capable of doing so if they had more help and/or more time as this game really did have a lot of great ideas.  It's nothing they can really do now, so it's just for all of us to move along and place this game along with history.  Overall: 2.6/10

Retroview - Everquest 2

Official Site: http://www.everquest2.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/201230/
Source: Youtube Channel MMOHut

Everquest 2 is an MMORPG and is sequel to one of the most influential games in 3D online RPGs.  Everquest 2 released around the same time as World of Warcraft and was eventually overshadowed by it (though Everquest 2 still had its community and has kept up till even now).  A few months ago, I finally decided to give Everquest 2 a spin as it has gone free-to-play (sort of) and is also downloadable on the Steam platform.  The free-to-play version is rather limited as many functions and content is locked until the player pays for them.  There are quite a few classes to choose from, but the free-to-play version only gave me (was it 2?) a few choices.  Getting through the beginning parts of the game, I saw history of MMORPG unfolds itself as many familiar traits revealed itself: picking up quests, gathering, looting, the user-interface, the combat style, etc.  Between as early as 1999 from the original Everquest till now, there has been very little change to the 3D MMORPG genre.  Sure, there have been changes in graphics, story, and quality, but the core concepts and mechanics haven't changed very much.  It felt odd playing EQ2 since it felt like I've played it forever, even though it was my first time seeing it and playing it.  What I did notice is a lot of the problems or lack of quality the game had.  The animation for characters running was rigid and awkward, the looting system was clunky and annoying, combat was laggy and didn't register along side the graphics, the environment clashed with the objects which made it difficult to distinguish enemies sometimes, etc.  It made me understand why World of Warcraft has been highly praised ever since the early days of its release despite having nearly identical game mechanics with other MMORPGs prior to 2004.  I'm actually really surprised they didn't change much of the game to refine some of their game mechanics after all these years.  I didn't enjoy playing Everquest 2 too much, even if it was just the first few hours; however, I'm glad I did as it revealed a lot about MMORPGs and its history and evolution.  If I didn't have such a crazy backlog of games, I would be more willing to play more of it.  Still, that shouldn't stop anyone from trying it out of it they are curious about it.  Everquest 2 can be free to play on their official website or downloaded through the Steam platform.

VGCulture - Jumping the gun in game reviews

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

Dragon's Dogma released today and reviews of it were already up prior to its release.  Back a while ago, the game industry and its community fear for the ravenous players who want the attention from others to say their piece on a game.  The problem with a lot of reviews by players (even now) is that a lot of them has very little to do with the actual game and is usually based off of first-impressions, biased outlooks on a company, fanboy/girl-ism, a need to rate everything down, or simply for attention (yes, it happens).  Player reviews are often seen as bias and so many other players turn to the critics for a real review.  Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore (and it's been so for a while now).  Critics, much like players, jump the gun on posting a review online as soon as possible (sometimes even before a game is out).  Critics sometimes get games ahead of everyone else so that they have more time to go through the game and review them.  The problem is that a lot of critics either play a small portion of the beginning or is given a game that doesn't favor that reviewer's preference in genre and immediately makes a hasty report of how they felt about the game before they are able to truly grasp the core concepts of it.  Critics try to be the first one to post for the maximum exposure or give a totally opposite score from the other critics so that they stand out.  This has lowered the credibility of a lot of critics, even some of the most experienced ones, from being trusted.

Dragon's Dogma has been barely out for 24 hours and it has already gotten really good reviews or really bad ones.  Sometimes expectation can ruin a game for a player who's reviewing.  If the expectations are really high, sometimes they'll give it a good score before they even decide anything or go the opposite way and realize the game isn't what they wanted and give it a bad score for not satisfying those expectations.  If expectations are really low, reviewers might just give it a bad score before they really start (which a lot of player reviews are like) or they might give it an obscenely high score thinking it's so much better than what they expect, even if the game truly lacks polish.  Other times, a critic might have had turmoil between certain publishers and already have biased views towards any game they release.

I was glad to see that reviews for Diablo 3 were mostly withheld until about 4-5 days later where critics got a chance to truly experience the game for what it is before laying down their reports of their playthrough.  On the other hand, a huge number of player reviews are panning it really hard for: the first few hours of launch when the game had connection problems, the new systems, the graphics, etc.  Players will complain about anything on a videogame: because it's so popular it's taking attention away from the game they want to play, because it has a way to prevent pirating the game (yes, having constant internet connection just to play Diablo 3 sucks, but it shouldn't be the basis for a game's score), because they're judging from the first few minutes of playing (I bet most people giving review on Diablo 3 being too easy or short only played the beta), graphics isn't up to expectation, or if they just don't like a company.

More and more, I have come to ignore both critic and player reviews as a true worth of a game and try my best to see the game for what it is myself (have gotten several games that's around an average score of 4-6 out of 10 and have given it a 7-9 in the past).  And then there's the most legitimate of all reasons for a score on a game: sometimes it's really difficult to determine whether a game was good or not.  I play all genres of games, I try to be as unbiased as possible, and I have a decent background in all sorts of history of consoles, games, genres and such; however, there are times where I fail to find the enjoyment of a game where others might find obsessively entertaining and vice-versa.  That being the case, it's still not a reason for any reviews to be based off the first 1-2 hours of gameplay.  There are too many reviews where critics (both editorial and player based) just jump the gun and give it a score based on gut reaction to the first part of the game.

So it seems like a lot of the bad reviews for Dragon's Dogma are on the X-box 360 which is fine since I'll eventually be getting the PS3 version!  And then I'll see for myself what the game is actually like.

GameLight - Ghost Recon Future Soldier

Official Site: http://ghost-recon.ubi.com/gr-portal/en-us/home/index.aspx
Source: Youtube Channel ubisoft

I'm looking out for Dragon's Dogma which releases tomorrow and it surprised me when I found out that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was releasing tomorrow as well.  Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will take all the high-tech gadgets and tactical equipment from the GRAW series into the Third-Person Shooter genre for a strategic-action adventure experience.  One of the aspects I really enjoyed about GRAW 1 and 2 was how important team-work was and playing cooperative with friends made the game feel very involving.  In Future Soldier, even more equipment as available to use to extend the tactics of a team.  The game will feature 50 weapons with customizable parts for a near endless combination (or so they say).  There are some things I'm worried about the game such as the controls.  It's difficult calibrating the movements and buttons for a third-person shooter and makes it feel alright compared to a first-person shooter.  The other thing is what kind of DRM will be on it?  DRM on PC is understandable yet very troublesome for those who actually buy the game.  Either the game doesn't recognize the code and prevents players from being able to play or the servers are down and the player can't access the game.  There are also limitations such as being allowed to install the game only 3 times (but as long as you don't switch between computers that often, I guess that's fine).  There also have been games in the past where even consoles need constant access to the internet to play a game (this usually upsets those that just want to play the single-player campaign).  This was especially evident when Sony's PSN services was out for about a month and those who bought games such as Capcom's Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 were not able to play the game because of the DRM, even though it was a locally played offline game.  I wish I had a better computer to play games on so I could get this for the PC.  I generally like playing FPS and TPS games on PC as the controls feel better, but I don't mind console controllers if need be.  Ghost Recon: Future Soldier releases tomorrow May 22, 2012 for Playstation 3 & Xbox 360, and June 6th, 2012 on PC.

VGCulture - The Secret Pony Level (Diablo 3)

Official Site: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/?-
Source: Youtube Channel AlexInSixty

In Diablo 2, there was the "secret cow-level" that Blizzard added in due to a rumor that circulated around Diablo 1 where players could fight "cows".  But that wasn't true for Diablo and so players were overjoyed to find that D2 had the "secret cow level" with all its absurdity and humor.  It deviated away from all the serious tone the game had and was quite the fan-service by Blizzard.  Well the new "secret level" for Diablo 3 happens to be unicorns, rainbows and stuffed teddy bears.  It's a joke aimed at itself when players were complaining how early works of Diablo 3 was too brightly colored and cartoony compared to the original two installments of the series.  This, to me, was quite the treat to see and is LOL worthy.  I can't wait to find this place and shoot unicorns and teddy bears.

GameLight - E.X. Troopers

Source: Youtube Channel CapcomChannel

There have been speculations around the internet that Capcom's newest game E.X. Troopers will be a spin-off of Lost Planet.  Capcom has released a promotional video showing the characters, art style and gameplay.  The first and most notable aspect of the game is the animé feel and cel-shaded graphics with comic/manga like scenes.  I suppose this bothers some fans of the series as Lost Planet have had a more realistic approach in the first two installments.  There was an announcement a while ago that Lost Planet 3 was being developed by a Western company, and so I guess Capcom is taking the time to developing this little spin-off.  So far, I'm intrigued by what I see.  The characters and story seems like it will be a bit more light hearted and involving.  The bright colors, space-like environments, and enemies almost remind me of Phantasy Star which isn't an entirely bad thing.  What's odd about the game at the moment is that it will release on the Playstation 3 and Nintendo 3DS.  I'm wondering what the differences will be.  The 3DS will have the neat 3D effects and portability and since the graphics don't look to intense it'll be just as good on the device.  On the other hand, the PS3 might truly have a better presentation in aesthetics with better lighting systems and particle effects.  The PS3 would also have the advantage of a larger screen and better controls (still no true dual analog sticks for 3DS, that bulky attachment doesn't count).  Looking at the trailer, I would have thought the game was developed by Sega if it wasn't based on Lost Planet just judging from the art-style, music, and character design.  This might turn out to be a really fun game.  As much as Capcom upsets me with their fighting game expansion shenanigans and expensive DLCs, I praise them highly for delivering fun and high quality games to their fans.  E.X. Troopers will be released on Playstation 3 and Nintendo 3DS with no release date announced at the moment.

VGCulture - Gaming Addiction

I just read an interesting article on Joystiq written by David Hinkle about how he can never allow himself to play Diablo 3 because of the addiction he faced with Diablo 2.  This reminded me of a lot of stories I've heard of people being addicted to games like Everquest, World of Warcraft, Halo, Call of Duty, and of course Daiblo 2.  What is it exactly that gets players addicted to a game?

My guess is that certain games provide a certain stimulus to our brains and if it triggers and happens to never be satisfied, we end up feeding it endlessly.  I just find it to be an odd concept as I never had a true addiction to any game I've ever played.  When I was 7 years old, I was limited to playing videogames only on weekends after all my homework were done and by 8 years old I wasn't allowed to play throughout the entire year unless it was a special holiday or was a weekend of vacation.  Whenever it was a holiday or a weekend during vacation, I did nothing but play videogames the moment I woke till I slept as it was the only chance I got throughout the entire year.  When I finally got into college, I started playing games because I could.  I played a lot and went through a good amount of PC and hand-held games (didn't have my consoles with me) but I had never got addicted to any one game or to playing too much.  The closest thing to an addiction was the Christmas of my last year in college when my friend bought me Team Fortress 2.  I ended up playing that game every Friday and Saturday night till the sun rose every week in my last half year of college.  I never thought of it as an addiction and decided to call what I go through an "obsession".  I chose to get really into a particular game and play for longer durations than I normally do, but I would also be able to choose when to stop whenever I wanted to.  When I decided that Team Fortress 2 was messing up my sleep schedule, I no longer played it that much anymore and played it sporadicly at night for a few hours.

In the past, I have come across several games where I would play excessively but never had them take over my life.  Starcraft, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Phantasy Star Online Ep 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2, Demon's Souls, and Terraria are among the games I played for long durations, but none of them ever took over my life.  I still got work done, attended all my classes (when I was still in college), got exercise, ate and maintained hygiene, and the only thing I might have lacked was sleep.  I play a large library of games, but I rarely play games day in and day out.  I do have a few friends who would play as if they were addicted until they finished a game or until they got bored of it, but they generally stick with only a few games.  I think what happens is that those who generally play videogames once in a while are more conditioned to play for short durations while those that don't play videogames as much are more susceptible to being addicted as it stimulates a part of a brain untapped before.  It's like a new food someone has never tasted before and suddenly has the urge to eat more of it because it's so new to them.

So it seems that there are some people who are still afraid to get into Diablo 3 because of past experiences they've had with addiction to Diablo 2 or 1.  I was very excited for the release of Diablo 3 when I pre-ordered it on May 1st (I didn't care too much before then), and my anticipation for the game last week was excruciating (more so when waiting for it yesterday: I didn't get the package from UPS till 9PM); however, here I am writing when I could be playing.  So far, I like the game and its progression.  I can see myself playing this game for the next few years, but I also don't see it ever becoming a problem.  I know addiction to a game is real and it's alright if one just wants to have some fun playing a game, but it should never take over one's life.  Everyone should practice time and environment awareness when gaming so that they don't lose all sight of reality.  And if the game is still on one's mind, find a friend who you could talk to about the game and have some release there.  Be sure to check out David Hinkle's article on the link below as it's worth reading.  And if you know someone that's addicted to games, it doesn't help to simply tell them to get off of it.  You have to actively help them take breaks and mix in other activities with their life so that the game won't be the only thing in their life.  Videogames are great entertainment, stress relief, stimulator, influences and motivators in our lives and should never become a problem.

Source:
-Joystiq: I can never play Diablo 3 by David Hinkle

GameLight - Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2

Official Page: http://www.sonicthehedgehog4.com/us/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/203650/
Source: Youtube Channel SegaAmerica

I'm just patiently waiting for my copy of Diablo 3 to come in the mail right now as I read the many rage reviews of players not being able to log in last night at launch as millions of accounts impact the servers at Blizzard.  This just made the requirement of constant internet connection for even single-player that much worse for those who just want to play the game.  I just hope I can log on by the time I get my game and have it installed.  So far, no critic reviews have been made which makes me glad that they're actually taking the time to go through it before spouting their opinions about it before having a grasp on the whole package like many users are doing at the moment (568 user ratings on MetaCritic and rising with an average of 3.9/10 score).

In any case, look what else released on May 15th, 2012!  Although gamers aren't foaming at the mouth with anticipation for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2, fans of the series are happy to see this release and change to the mechanics from Episode 1's clunky flow of game play and controls.  In Episode 2, Miles Prower aka Tails makes a spectacular return with new moves to help Sonic get through all the crazy new obstacles in this new installment in the series.  With the new tag-team abilities implemented in the game, a player can't take the role of Sonic or Tails solo and must be played together with either an AI-controlled Tails or with a 2nd player local/online.  I'm wondering how well online co-op will work as I'd really love to have a online co-op game to play.  The levels within Episode 2 make references to Sonic the Hedgehog 1-3 with the oil slick level, a carnival level, and the air fortress level.  As a bonus, if a player owns both Sonic 4 Episode 1 & 2, they'll unlock a secret Episode in the role of Metal Sonic.  The player will get to play as Sonic's nemesis through 4 levels that reveals his revival from Sonic CD.  Although I'm reluctant to buy any games right now, I suspect that by Summer or Winter of this year I'll be buying every Sonic game there is on Steam.  Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 is now available on PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iOS, and Android but not the Nintendo Wii.

Retroview - Diablo 1

Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)
Source: Youtube Channel xZalex90

During my wait for Diablo 3 last week, I decided to play through Diablo 1 as I've never done so and have heard the argument that the original had the best atmosphere.  After a few hours of playing, I agree that the game had a better sense of immersion, horror, and setting; however, I also found out why Diablo 2 was the one everyone talked about and played more.  Diablo 1 was somewhat entertaining, but it had a lot of issues from a design standpoint that really bugged me.  Let's get through some elements of the game and their differences:

[Diablo 1 Problems]
-Pacing of the game was very slow: Maps are big and character walks slow
-Buying and selling menu was atrocious and archaic: everything is listed in words
-User-interface took up nearly a third of the screen, and quick skill is a bit cumbersome
-Finding and picking up loot was a nightmare as they blended into the ground's color
-Major differences between classes is just starting items, look and beginning stats: no unique class abilities
-Warrior class is annoying to play as everything near the end is ranged and runs away very quickly
-Having gold take up so much inventory space made it less of an incentive to accumulate them
-Getting stun-locked was dumb as any registered hit from enemies pulled you back into a mob
-No end-game content: Once you beat the game, you're done (which I suppose is alright)
-Only one item per belt slot
-Bothersome to continually run out of inventory space and having to return to town to sell them
-Any skill required mana, and mana potions took up more space in the inventory
-In multiplayer, it was easy to exploit item duplication
-No storage space to hold onto extra items

[Changes from Diablo 1 to Diablo 2]
-Characters can run and although randomly generated, levels have a nice flow to them
-Buying and selling items menu made a lot more sense
-User-interface is smaller but still comprehensible and skills can be hot-keyed
-Loot can be highlighted so picking them up is easy yet still keeps the screen clean from clutter
-Each class has their own playstyle and unique abilities as well as different skill paths
-The ability to run and special skills for classes balanced the classes, even for melee fighters
-Gold has its own category and no longer takes up inventory space
-It's still possible to get stun-locked, but hits will only stagger the player rather than pull them into the mob
-Additional difficulty levels and end-game gear extended the replay value by a lot
-Depending on the belt equipped, a player can store quite of bit of potions on their belt for quick access
-Camera is pulled back further so the player can see more around them than before
-Items can be socketed, crafted, and runes can be combined for special effects
-Charms give characters additional enhancements at the expense of inventory space
-A character sharing storage space is available for the player to hold onto items to free inventory space
-Each player has a bodyguard to help them fight

[Problems with Diablo 2]
-Although skills can be hot-keyed, it's still annoying stretching out to F5-F8 keys if F1-F4 is filled
-Equipment are even more rare and stronger than D1 and so people fight over loot in multiplayer online
-It was still cumbersome to allocate potions into the belt
-The Horadric Cube took up a lot of space in the inventory and there weren't that much to craft
-It's annoying having to depend on mana potions to use any skills as they take up more space
-Item duplication and trading hacks ruined online multiplayer for Diablo 2

[Potential/Evident Changes from Diablo 2 to Diablo 3]
-Players build their characters off of skill sets and play-style rather than talent tree paths and attributes
-In online multiplayer, everyone gets their own loot
-A dedicated potion key has been added and took out the belt mechanics
-Potions have a cool down now
-Crafting is done through a NPC (I believe) rather than using an item that takes up inventory space
-New "energy" type mechanic takes out the "old" mana pool mechanic (huzzah for new age RPGs!)
-Followers (D3's version of Bodyguards) have their own skill sets and upgrades now
-Weapons and Armor take up two block spaces now (or so I heard) instead of 3-6 blocks
-Dedicated arenas for players to PvP in

[Possible Problems with Diablo 3]
-Still people duplicating items which is a big problem in this upcoming installment because:
-Auction houses will break balance in end-game PvP (imagine that with duped items)
-The need for constant internet connection will cause problems such as:
  -Kicking players off during pivotal moments like a boss battle
  -Server problems prevents players from being able to log on or play
  -Not being able to play when an ISP has network issues
  -May cause lag during even a single-player game

Overall, Diablo 1 occupied my time pretty well and gave me insight to the evolution of the series, but I think I'm done with the game and don't plan on replaying it anytime soon.  I didn't list all the problems and changes from the series above, but I tried my best to address the most prominent ones.  I think I'll be able to appreciate Diablo 3 that much more now that I have completed both Diablo 1 and 2.  Other than playing Diablo 3, the only thing I need to do in the near future is getting and reading "The Book of Cain".

VGCulture - Diablo 3 features

Official Site: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/d3/
Source: Youtube Channel diablo

I'm going to do my best and list all the awesome features of Diablo 3 possible:
-Choose between 5 unique classes: Barbarian, Wizard, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Demon Hunter
-Randomly generated levels (like its predecessors)
-Attributes are set, but ability sets can be changed and customized (Player skill over character stats)
-Skill runes changes the effects of an ability or enhances them
-Followers (much like bodyguards from D2) have their own equipment and upgradeable skills
-Crafting and Artisans allow a player to improve equipment, augment attributes, and create new items
-You can re-spec skills (as mentioned above) so limitless builds for different play-styles are possible
-Universal stash to share items between characters
-No need to collect scrolls and tomes to return back to town or identify items
-Unwanted items can be sold from the inventory menu (unless they took this feature out? I'm not sure)
-Everyone in co-op mode gets their own loot, no need to fight for dibs
-Auction house in-game (rather than shady 3rd-party sites).  I feel like people are still gonna use alternatives
-PvP Areans created specifically for head-to-head competitive play
-Inferno difficulty, a level beyond "hell" difficulty
-Achievements, everyone's doing it, might as well add it

I'm probably missing a whole lot of other things, but being able to re-spec my character is enough to get me pumped up for Diablo 3 among the other dozens of new features.

GameLight - PS Vita

Official Site: http://us.playstation.com/psvita/
Source: Youtube Channel PlayStation

I'm doing my best not to talk about Diablo 3 again today (though I might tomorrow).  Yesterday, when I was out and about, I saw the PS Vita on display at a local Target.  I haven't really kept up with the Vita other than what I've seen from trailers and such.  The device is larger than the PSP in surface size but slimmer.  The d-pad and face keys are smaller and are "clicky" instead of "pushy".  I'm not really sure how I feel about those changes as it makes the button presses feel more fragile and stiff.  The shoulder keys also feel a bit more "clicky" but still retains a feeling of depression when pressing down on it.  The dual joysticks felt really nice, but I didn't really have a chance to really test them out to their full potential (such as for an FPS).  The game I tried out was Gravity Rush, and the graphics display really is quite a spectacle.  I'm not exactly happy with the PS Vita's design as it doesn't seem to be very comfortable on the hands after a while of playing.  I do like how the screen is larger and how there's two joysticks now.  The only other problem is that there aren't that many games I'd really want for it other than the portable versions of games I already have (BlazBlue, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3).  It'll be a while before I pick a PS Vita up as even with the Nintendo 3DS I'm still waiting for some special games to be available for it.  On the other hand, the NDS and PSP still has quite a library of games I still haven't played yet.  Sony's PS Vita system is now available for $250 for Wi-Fi only and $300 for 3G network.

VGCulture - Digital Copy Tease (Diablo 3)

Official Site: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/?-

Source: http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/05/09

My friend informed me that he has Diablo 3 installed on his computer.  I thought he meant the Beta, but he says it's the actual game.  So I looked it up and realized that those who pre-order the digital copy of Diablo 3 were able to download and install the game much like the way some games are released on Steam for download and installment but cannot play it quite just yet.  As the comic suggests, it's to make it fair for those buying it retail who want the physical box and disc in their hands.  Publishers, especially Blizzard, know to look out for all their customers and fans and not just those that are easier to reach.  I can hardly imagine how it's like for my friend and the many other millions who bought the digital copy and has the full game right there in front of them but are not allowed to play it just yet.  Fortunately for them, they get to start playing the second it hits midnight next Monday while those who pre-ordered at a store or online will have to pick it up or wait till it gets delivered.  The week is dragging on longer and longer as the anticipation for Diablo 3's release draws closer.  Stay strong Diablo 3 fans, just...5 more days...

VGCulture - Feeding me some Diablo 3

Official Site: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/d3/?int=d3

There's 7 days left before the release of Diablo 3 and the wait is excruciating!  I don't remember the last time I was this excited and obsessed with the launch of a game.  Even with games I love and know I'll buy on the first day I'll be calm and indifferent on the matter of time.  But ever since I pre-ordered my own copy of Diablo 3 on May 1st, all I can think about it Diablo 3.  Images of being able to mow down hundreds of demons, customizing my skill sets, finding all sorts of awesome loot, fighting crazy bosses with my friends, and getting into intense player versus player action keeps swimming through my head.  With this mental state in mind, my thirst for top-down Action-RPGs reached out and found some interesting games:

[Torchlight 2]
Source: Youtube Channel Torchlight2

It was sad news for many to hear that Torchlight 2 will be releasing after Diablo 3 rather than before as many had hoped to play it in the meantime.  Other players have gone the opposite and said that they'd rather wait for Torchlight 2 instead of getting Diablo 3 as Torchlight 2 provides LAN play, single-player without the need for internet connection, the ability to mod, and online play which wasn't available in the original Torchlight.  I enjoyed Torchlight but didn't really feel like playing past the main story.  With multiplayer co-op online, new classes, and different game mechanics readily available in this next installment, I'm probably going to get it eventually sometime this year.  I just wish it had come out earlier so that it could feed my hunger for Top-down, Point-n-Click, Action-RPGs.

[Grim Dawn]
Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

When Iron Lore Entertainment (developed Titan Quest which I'm playing now to quench my thirst for Diablo 3) closed down, the members of the studio went on to form Crate Entertainment.  The company made up of mainly 2 full-time employees have revealed that they are working on a game called Grim Dawn using the Titan Quest engine which they got the rights to now.  The game looks a lot darker, but interesting from what they have shown so far in their pre-alpha build.  One mechanic they have shown that some gamers have noted and like is the ability to change the camera angle.  I'm really enjoying Titan Quest right now (though a bit slow on pacing) so I'm eager to see how the end product for Grim Dawn will be like.

[Realm of Ancient War (RAW)]
Source: Youtube Channel GameNewsOfficial

I found out about this game through a random video advertisement that played on Youtube (which I generally hate).  While the ad was going, the gameplay immediately pulled me in and I'm just going "whoa whoa WHOA, what game is this?  It's look amazing!  It doesn't look like Diablo 3, so it can't be it."  When it revealed the name, I looked it up and checked it out.  The game looks like it will play similar to the classic arcade game "Gauntlet" which I have fond (and nightmarish) memories of.  The skills look explosive and dynamic, the graphics are rendered beautifully but isn't convoluted, and the gameplay seems to be really fast-paced.  I'm definitely keeping an eye out for this one.

[Lineage Eternal]
Source: Youtube Channel ArogatsGaming

I'm guessing that it's within the world of Lineage, the age old MMORPG.  In terms of Top-down, Point-n-Click, Action-RPG that isn't Diablo 3, this seemed to have impressed me the most with the ways a player can utilize their skills and abilities.  Those mouse gestures totally make sense and have seen it used in other games and genres (like League of Legends for example).  The graphics also look very impressive.  There might be a chance that this will be released as a free-to-play MMORPG when it comes out, so I'm very willing to check it out.


The problem right now is that all four of these games aren't even out yet, so it does little to occupy my time and desires for Diablo 3 (if anything, it fuels it).  There is one game I found that might help:

[NOX]
Source: Youtube Channel humanPleiadian

NOX was developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts as a top-down, point-n-click, Action-RPG and faced cries of "rip of Diablo!" back in 2000 that many Action-RPGs face today.  I've never heard of the game and don't recall ever having come across it in the past.  The rights to the game and development were taken entirely by EA and they decided to not support the game anymore which led to the end of online ladder and pvp.  Still, this looks like an interesting game and I might check it out.  I hear it's on GOG.com for $6.

The wait for Diablo 3 feels really long, even though it's only 7 days away.  I hope the game is worth all this time and anticipation.

GameLight - Dragon's Dogma

Official Site: http://www.dragonsdogma.com/
Source: Youtube Channel MachinimaTrailer

Ever since Dragon's Dogma's announcement at last year's E3, I have kept an eye out on the game.  It's unfortunate that the game is releasing a week after Diablo 3's launch.  It just means I won't be getting Dragon's Dogma on launch day, but I eventually will.  There's a lot that Dragon's Dogma has to offer that still has me highly interested.  Dragon's Dogma is a open-world, Action-RPG set in a fantasy medieval themed world developed by the best of Capcom's studio.  It aims to deliver a single-player experience like no other with the influence of players from all over the world with its pawn system.  Aside from customizing and choosing the different classes of one's own playable character, allies can be created and customized to fight alongside the player throughout their journey and can be uploaded to the servers for other players to hire and vice-versa.  What has me captivated by this game is how slick and action-orientated the combat works.  Rather than just slashing and shooting an enemy, a player can use all sorts of fantastics abilities to attack a whole horde of enemies, set off explosions, imbue their weapons with fire, climb atop an enemy, and perform all sorts of acrobatic feats to defeat their enemies.  Capcom's experience with Action games such as Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, and Lost Planet has allowed them to integrate experiences and mechanics they've done so well in the past all into an RPG environment for one crazy adventure that no gamer has been able to experience yet.  As much as I despise some of the shenanigans Capcom has pulled with their fighting games (Street Fighter IV->Super Street Fighter IV->Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Marvel vs. Capcom 3->Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Street Fighter x Tekken->'10 Unreleased characters') that has sucked enough money to buy a new console, I do commend them for constantly pushing the medium and bringing us gamers high quality games that we can enjoy for long durations.  I'm going to have to finish some more games before I decide to pick this game up, but it's high up there on my "want" list.  Dragon's Dogma releases on May 22, 2012 on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

VGCulture - Infinite Power in League of Legends!

Apparently there's been a bug that players of League of Legends have found that has allowed them to place mastery points on a skill that reduces their cool down on summoner skills past the max capacity all the way to 105%.  By doing so, that player is able to spam their summoner skills indefinitely and pretty much steam roll over the other team:
Source: Youtube Channel sephshomarulol

The above video was featured on one of Kotaku's articles discussing on Riot's action towards this exploit.  What's happening is that the player is exploiting the bug mentioned above with a skill called flash that allows a player to teleport a short distance instantaneously and the skill smite which allows a player to deal large amounts of damage to non-player controlled enemies.  Combine those with the exploit and he can be everywhere and kill anything.   Source: Youtube Channel kindahappy123

Here's another video revealing the same exploit on the Chinese servers of League of Legends.  In this video, the Evelyn on the enemy team is constantly using the "heal" summoner spell which restores not only her own health but all her allies around her as well.  I imagine that they just pushed mid all the way and won the game as an invincible team.  I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that sort of shenanigans the past few days I've played.

In any case, the exploit causing players to be able to spam their summoner skills indefinitely has been fixed by Riot and they made the effort to find and ban every player that was abusing the bug.

Source:
-Kotaku: Riot Closes “Bull****” League of Legends Exploit, Bans Hundreds of Players

GameLight Review - Bayonetta

Official Site: http://www.sega.com/platinumgames/bayonetta/index2.php
Source: Youtube Channel Gamehelper

Developer: Platinum Games (Team Little Angels) (X360), Nex Entertainment (PS3)
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: January 5, 2010
Genre: Action-Adventure

Pros:
-Some of the most creative, out-of-this-world aesthetics in an Action game
-Difficult in nature, challenging for the most hardcore, yet fair and modest for any gamer
-Great controls that are responsive, mapped really well, and works fluidly with the game
-Epic boss battles that layer itself upon each other for multi-tier challenges
-Incredible satisfaction when winning against the most ridiculous odds

Cons:
-Can get quite frustrating for some players as it's really easy to die
-It might cause motion sickness for those susceptible to it
-Some players might be offended by some of the vulgar gestures or speeches

I remember the first time I heard about Bayonetta from a friend when she asked me "when you become a game designer, can you portray women a bit more tasteful?"  I asked her which game she had in mind that portrays women distasteful and she told me about Bayonetta and how the more powerful the attack Bayonetta performs the more skin she reveals.  I laughed at how crazy the idea was but she told me it was going to be a good game nonetheless and I couldn't help but check it out since it was directed by Hideki Kamiya (who directed games such as Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry).  I kind of knew I was going to like the game since it played similarly to Devil May Cry, but I was surprised to find how incredibly enjoyable it was to play through it.  The combat is fast-paced, fluid, flashy and stylish yet still very challenging and thought-provoking preventing it from being a simple button masher.  The visuals were insane and a total mind-trip as laws of gravity, space, time, and physics are bent and manipulated as Bayonetta fights in mid-air, on top of enemies, and on a freaking missile.  The music was a nice touch with laid back jazz, uplifting orchestrals, and upbeat electronica fusion that made it felt classy and light-hearted rather than the usual hardcore metal or dark orchestrations found in most Action games.  Boss fights is something I really enjoy in Action games and Bayonetta had some of the most gratifying boss fights I've experienced.  What surprised me most about the game was how "fair" it was despite the level of difficulty presented to the player.  I can see why some people might be offended by some of the vulgarity, but I found it pretty easy to look past as it became the personality of the game to be "in your face."  Bayonetta is possibly the best Action game there is for this generation of consoles and I would highly recommend any Action game fan to play through it.

Aesthetics
Right off the bat, the first thing you do in Bayonetta is fight enemies on a clock tower falling down from an incredibly tall cliff.  The scenarios that the player is placed in are so wicked and insane that it totally blew my mind away.  Sometimes I'm fighting a whole horde of enemies in the sky while other times I'm running around the walls and ceiling.  Instead of pools of blood and gore (though they were there too), there were sparkles of hearts, light and glitter flying all around the screen.  The animations were seamless and looked beautiful when performing long chains of attacks.  The idea of Bayonetta's attacks and clothing all made of her own hair still cracks me up and I think they used it in a creative way (hair as a weapon isn't new, but the way it's used in Bayonetta is quite amazing).  The environment and scenery is definitely one of the biggest highlights of the game's visuals.  Fighting in another dimension was trippy, dueling against a boss on airships, missiles and the sides of buildings was exciting, and combating on pieces of rubble falling to the ground from several hundred miles high was just so ridiculous.  The music was composed and produced by nearly a dozen people and created a unique, classy bar feel to the combat and environments.

Source: Youtube Channel lucasciclope

The whole premise of the game's theme, enemies, and special effects have a lot of references to religious settings from Dante's Divine Comedy.  Many of the bosses have human-like faces with arms and rings around them that have a divine being about them.  A lot of Bayonetta's own summons are beings from inferno (hell) and have a demonic characteristic that makes it that much more brutal when subduing a boss.  I'm actually not sure if there's anything I can complain about the Aesthetics, even at a game design point of view.  The camera angle was always at a good position, the colors never clashed or distracted the player from where they needed to go or what to look out for, and everything was appealing and easy on the eyes.  Aesthetics: 10/10

Buttons
If I ever create an action game in the future, I want it to be as smooth as Bayonetta.  The keys are mapped in a way where it's easy to understand and utilize.  As complex and long as some combos can get, it's fairly easy to perform them if the player can remember it.  Rather than blocking, the game utilizes dodge and timing to keep the combat moving as players who dodge at the right moment have a few second of slowing the space around them to perform devastating attacks.  The juggling between weapons, kicks and ranged weapons work hand and hand together providing an array of approaches to a fight.  It's every action game fan's dream having such a smooth combat system with flashy attacks and stylish acrobatics.  Buttons: 10/10

Concept & Content
So the core concept of Bayonetta is like most Action games: "You're the main character and you kill stuff."  The story begins with a short glimpse of the past where Bayonetta and her friend/rival Jeanne are fighting against a horde of enemies on a clock tower that's falling from very high up.  The game then finally begins with Bayonetta losing her memories and the rest of the game is finding out who she is and what she needs to do.  The story itself may not have been the most intriguing plot, but the dialogs and cinematics made it spectacular.  Bayonetta's speech is frank, a bit twisted, and somewhat flirty which makes for some hilarious conversations with the other characters in the game.  As mentioned many times before, the game has many moments where all sense of logic and reality is broken and takes the player into all sorts of crazy scenarios and environments.  Level designers were pretty straight-forward yet aesthetically pleasing, although there were some areas in the late part of the game where the goal and direction was a bit unclear and confusing.  Puzzles were light but still had their own challenges.  They never ask too much from the player to avoid any unnecessary frustrations.  Gameplay was fun, the flow of the game was consistent and filled with action, and it took the combat combo system above and beyond what it should be for an Action game.  For the mini-challenges throughout the game, they're rather difficult and made me sad that I couldn't get through some of them.  The game is difficult, and as ridiculous as having one enemy take out more than half my maximum hit points in one combo, it still feels pretty fair with the way the dodging works in the game.  My favorite aspects out of the game are probably the aesthetics (art style, music, and voice acting), the combat system, and the multi-tiered boss battles.  I wasn't too thrilled with quick-action events being in the game, but it was implemented as elegantly as possible and made it a lot less painful to do them.  Concept & Content: 9/10

Duration
One of the most difficult things to balance on an Action game is the flow of progression and pacing of the story.  It's too often that I play an Action-Adventure where there's a lot of action and then an abrupt cut breaks the flow and repeats throughout the game.  This makes the game feel like it's all chopped up and placed together and than having the whole game molded together into one seamless adventure.  Other times, action games will have slow parts for a while and then fight, and then return back to the slow parts.  This generally happens when there's a lot of exploring for the player to do or bad level design causes them to be continually lost or if there's a lot of slow puzzles.  Bayonetta were none of those as it started out insane and ended insane with fast-paced combat, light-puzzles that had the player race against time, and getting lost only took a few seconds (if not a few minutes) out of the player's time.  The game had a natural flow that brought the character from one crazy event to another and as fast as the gameplay was, the pacing of the story and progression of the character's growth was never rushed.  The game took around 13-14 hours to complete on normal mode (the highest difficulty by default until the others are unlocked).  It didn't feel too short or too long though I would have probably complained if it had a bad ending (it almost looked like it was going to have a bad ending, but...well check the game out).  I'd probably play the game again if it weren't for my humongous backlog sitting there sad and neglected.  I know for a lot of Action-game fans, it was enjoyable to play through the game multiple times as 2 more difficult settings was available (as far as I remember) when the previous one was completed.  If anything, playing through again would be for the experience and challenge as the game doesn't really provide anything new other than all those items in the shop that the player might have not gotten yet.  Duration: 9/10

Fun
Bayonetta immediately captivated me right at the beginning with the fight on the falling clock tower and the first time it played "Fly Me to the Moon".  I liked how large scale the battles were and how flashy the combat could get.  I have to admit that there were times where the game just didn't feel fair as enemies do some of the most unexpected actions and kill me rather quickly.  There were some levels where I just died continually where I felt I shouldn't have, but sometimes ended up getting through it like a breeze.  As much as it frustrated me, I liked the challenge and felt great when overcoming a huge battle against a boss.  Some of the fights and events are so absurd that it just cracked me up and got me that much more into the game.  My favorite surprise throughout the game was mission 14 when Bayonetta says "Welcome to my Fantasy World" making a reference to Space Harrier.  I chuckled at the reference to the old Sega classic and then was blown away when the game suddenly started playing like Space Harrier AND had the arranged version of the original main theme playing in the back.  That was so memorable and a lot of fun.  The game ended really well too, but I don't want to spoil anything.  Let's just say I like huge boss battles.  Fun: 9/10

Overall
Bayonetta is incredibly polished, well though out, and a whole lot of fun.  The graphics are beautiful, the music is tantalizing, the dialogs are witty and humorous, the combat is intuitive and challenging, and the whole game was so insane that it's mind-blowing.  The game might not be for everyone, but those willing to invest the time and patience to get through the game will definitely be rewarded with a gratifying experience.  It's a game that any action-game fan should check out.  Overall: 9.4/10

VGCulture - The Problem with Fun Games

I might have mentioned this in the past, but one of the fears I had in going into the game industry is ending up hating videogames or losing the passion for it.  I have met many individuals within the trade who have lost interest in videogames or don't play them and treat their position in the industry solely as their job.  I know this isn't a common habit within the industry as people want to work with videogames because they love them, but knowing that it could happen is rather frightening.  Throughout the past few years, I've been heavily involved with the medium and have studied the history of videogames, game designs by various studios, and playing as many different games as possible.  I have to admit that there are times where it really does feel like a job going through some of the games and figuring out all the bad designs and flaws a game might have.  Also working as a publisher last year made me lose faith in the direction the industry is going.  So some nights when I decide to play a game for fun, I feel hesitant and scared when I look through my library of games and can't choose a game I'd feel happy playing.  It scares me whenever I get to a point where I can't seem to enjoy a game.

Then once in a while, a really good game comes along unexpectedly and captivates me entirely.  In these past few years, games like Terraria, Demon's Souls, and Dynasty Warriors 7 has done this for me.  It sparks an interest and sucks me in.  I can play blissfully without thinking about what bad designs there were or what could be improved.  While I'm playing, I think more about "what do I want to do next?  What can I build?  What can I experiment with?"  If I can play a game where I lose track of the time, not become incredibly frustrated, and feeling good while playing, I know I have found a fun game.  Then the other problem arises.

When I find a game I really enjoy, I can't stop thinking about it.  When I play, I want to keep playing.  When this happens, all other games I own suddenly are neglected while another handful becomes a lot less appealing.  For most gamers, this is alright and mostly preferred so that they don't have to look for another game to play.  But with me, I like playing all sorts of games and want to extend my knowledge of games as far as possible.  Just last week, I was invited to the Japanese Closed Beta Testing for Phantasy Star Online 2.  I loved it, and I couldn't stop playing.  One day, I played for 7.5 hours which by my standards is a lot (I generally play 1-2 hours of videogames a day).  I was so engrossed by the game's environment, the gameplay, the excitement I felt from fighting a boss, the intrigue of finding out what else was available in the game, and the adventure I got to share with my friends.  I ignored playing Playstation 3, League of Legends (which I play almost everyday now), and Steam games that weekend because of how heavily involved I was in PSO2.  It's a great feeling to know I still love games and am reminded of that by these types of games, but it also saddens me that I have several dozen games still waiting for me to play.

I know this is going to happen again very soon.  How soon?  May 15th soon.  I pre-ordered Diablo 3 yesterday and should be getting it the day it launches (unless something happens to it on its way to my hands).  I know I'll be a happy clicker killing demons, collecting loot, leveling my characters, and fighting alongside my friends for who knows how long.  With the games mentioned above, I spent 102 hours on Terraria, 90+ hours on Demon's Souls, and around 70+ hours on Dynasty Warriors 7.  I can only imagine how heavily involved I'll be with Diablo 3 when I have it installed on my laptop.
Source: Youtube Channel cvg

This year is bad for my backlog.  Not only with Diablo 3 coming out, but with Guild Wars 2 and games like Dragon's Dogma, Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Last Story it's going to be difficult to get around getting through my other games.  It's okay though.  I love being reminded why I love games so much.

NewNews - Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Announced

Official Site: http://callofduty.com/
Source: Youtube Channel FPSRussia

Rumors about the next Call of Duty being a continuation of Black Ops has been going around for months, but nothing solid really had come out to confirm if it was true or not.  A week ago, the video above surfaced and tipped on the next Call of Duty having a weapon shown in the video be part of the arsenal the player can control.  Earlier in the day, the UK site for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was revealed before the actual announcement.  The game has yet to be formally announced by Activision through their site linked on the top, but it's pretty evident that the next Call of Duty is Black Ops 2.  From other sources, it seems that it will take place in the near future rather than the not so distant past that the original Black Ops was set in.

I'm not sure what to think of another Call of Duty anymore.  Black Ops had an incredible story, but a messy and boring gameplay experience for single-player.  Multiplayer was riddled with bugs that were never fixed and suffered from lag between the server's reception of data and the game's graphics animation.  Still, multiplayer did have some good points such as 2-player co-op online play.  I did enjoy Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer but I haven't even touched the single-player as there isn't any real drive to do so.  My interest in Call of Duty is starting to waver and I'm not sure if I'm willing to continue following the franchise.  I guess only time will tell.  Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is set to release on November 13th, 2012 on PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and maybe Wii/Wii U.

Sources:
-Gamasutra: Activision confirms Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 for November
-Joystiq: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: What we know thus far
-Kotaku: Call of Duty: Black Ops II Is Official