WoW Vs Half-Life 2: An Opinion On VGA's Game Of The Decade - Clash Of The Titans

As you are probably aware, this year's VGA (Video Game Awards) crowned Half-Life 2 as the Game of the Decade. I disagree, and I will give my opinion about why.

Personally, I believe something as big as "Game Of the Decade" has some meaning behind it. It kind of makes you think "most influential" in some way, doesn't it ? To me, if you start talking about the whole decade, I will have thoughts going towards what had the biggest impact in gaming. In that sense, I do not believe anything else comes close to World of Warcraft.

Do you remember the first time you played ? Starting in Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Teldrassil, Durotar or Tirisfal Glades. That first feeling of, this... this is just amazing. Then your first instance. Deadmines for many of us. Your time spent with guildies or friends, leveling all up to 60. The mount quests for Paladins and Warlock. The AQ event. Molten Core, Blackwing Lair. How can you compare HL2 to those ?

I am not saying HL2 did not have an impact on the gaming industry, quite the opposite. Half-Life in itself is one of the most influential games of all-time. I would say though that HL1 had more of an impact than HL2. Still, I will give HL2 credit for making Steam the powerhouse it is today, and the Source engine bringing us games like TF2, Portal, L4D, CS:GO and many others. It also brought physics to an unprecedented level, and to this day, probably the most anticipated game of all-time is Half-Life 3. Just the thought of Valve announcing HL3 boggles my mind.

But World of Warcraft ? I mean, seriously ? How can this NOT be the biggest game of the decade ? Your mom probably knows what WoW is at this point ! It has had millions of players for over 8 years, and doesn't show any signs of slowing down. HL2 for all we know, is dead. Episode 3 hasn't been in the news lately...

The raids, the community, the music, the zones, the quests, the times you spent with your guilds, the PvP. All of those, for me, make WoW the undeniable Game of the Decade. Remember, deep in your thoughts you know it. Remember.

WRUP: What Are You Playing This Weekend ?

Lanarchy: This weekend I will be playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) and Persona 3 FES (PS2). I am absolutely in love with Persona 3, I didn't even know that series was so amazing. If I can, I'll also find some time for Borderlands 2 (PC).

Andre: This week I finally got myself a working Wii to replace my broken one. So I'll be adding Lego LOTR as my Wii game for the weekend. I'm having an evening at a friends house and we should be playing NSMB and maybe some Wii Sports Resort. PS3 will be powered on for a bit of Infamous 2 as well, almost done getting my 100% trophies. On the Vita, I'm done with Gravity Rush so I'll be giving a run to Uncharted: Golden Abyss and a bit of Jet Set Radio. I might not watch any TV Shows this weekend but I'll try to convince my girlfriend to start the Star Wars saga... 

And You, WRUP this weekend ?

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Hans Zimmer - Crysis 2 Epilogue Main Theme

Something a little more modern this week. I am a huge fan of Hans Zimmer. If you don't know him, well... he's probably done the soundtrack for one of your favorite movies ever. The Dark Knight, Inception, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Lion King, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Pearl Harbor, The Rock, Pirates of the Carribean, The Da Vinci Code, and so many others. I chose his theme for Crysis 2 for this week's VG OST. Mr. Zimmer, you are a god amongst men.

The End Of An Era: A Part Of My Childhood Disappeared This Month

December is usually a happy month, with all the Christmas parties and New Year events, but this year, a little part of me is sad. This month marks the end of an area in videogame magazines; Nintendo Power is no more. NP was the first magazine I had a subscription to, I remember when my mom decided to get us a subscription, we found this ad in a game we just bought and saw that if we subscribed for a certain time, we would get a free game. So, we did and we got Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) for the NES. We were so happy! Started to play and it was unlike any game we'd ever seen! If it wasn’t for NP, I wouldn’t have started to play RPGs and I may have passed a great game genre.

I remember, every month around the time we usually received the magazine, I checked the mail box to see if it was in. The mail box was under a lock and my dad had the only key. We poked in the little hole to see if there was a magazine and oh god, when we felt it was there, my brothers and I were impatient for my father to come back home. The first thing we did when he crossed the door was to jump on him for the mail! Good times...

This is what I miss the most, the anticipation. These days, we have all the information at the tip of our fingers. With the internet, we know months in advance what will come out, how it will be like, how it will play. Everyone knows. But, when the only source for our Nintendo information was Nintendo Power and you were the only one in school who had a subscription, YOU were the source, you could tell your friends what new game was coming out! And they didn’t know. You never knew what to expect when you bought a game and played it, because its content wasn't all over the internet. You could feel the magic, the excitement. Also, with Nintendo Power you had exclusive bonuses coming with the magazine or subscription. 

I may be nostalgic right now, but I will miss the magazine dearly. A part of my childhood disappeared this month. Long lived Nintendo Power...

[Edit by Lanarchy: Damn that was beautiful. That could have been written by me, word for word. I remember too, poking in the mailbox just to see if maybe, maybe my Nintendo Power had arrived ! I guess we all did it. It's one of these things that whoever you are, if you're a gamer, you've lived the same moments and we will forever remember and cherish them.]

PS Plus Offer: Dec 11th

Here it goes again, Free stuff for PS Plus members. It's been a while since I updated on this subject because of my other overwhelming tasks, but here it is today!

What do PS Plus members receive this week after last week's Bioshock 2?

Well first, what PS Plus members do NOT receive according to the official PlayStation Blog announcement is Big Sky: Infinity. The trailer of the game states that it will be free for a limited time, advertising Instant Game Collection. Here's the trailer announcing the freebie.

The game is coming out tomorrow if we look at The Drop post on the PlayStation Blog; they even have the trailer claiming the free game for PS Plus. If we look at today's PSN Plus offer announcement post on the forum, there's no mention of the game. Blog admins gave the reason that it will only be for EU members, the video was then removed from the US blog. That was one bad advertising scheme.

Now, here's what you get for free :

Following the release of a great fighting game a few weeks back (KOF XIII), now it's time for another great franchise. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition is finally here for free. Adding it to the thin PS Plus fighting games that were ever given for free.

Another game that is a PSN exclusive (excluding PC) puzzler is getting the free treatment as well, but only for 1 week. After that, it will be gone so grab it now even if you don't plan on playing it right now so you will be able to redownload it for free later. The game is Rochard. This looks like a nice Side-Scrolling Platformer based on moving things around with a gravity gun.

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand

This week, I chose Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand for a specific reason. Tonight, (Saturday December 8th) I will be attending Distant Worlds - Music From Final Fantasy with Nobuo Uematsu. Since To Zanarkand is his personal favorite, I thought it fitting to use it for this week's OST pick. If chance permits, we'll be asking Nobuo Uematsu some questions we believe have never been asked. Stay tuned !

WRUP: What Are You Playing This Weekend ?

Lanarchy: I am finishing Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii) tonight, and before I list the other games, I want to say the characters of FE:RD will stay with me for a long, long time. Such memorable characters. Micaiah, Sothe, Ike, Titania, Queen Elincia, Empress Sanaki, The Black Knight, Ilyana, Volug, Zyhark, Ranulf, Skrimir, Naesala, Tibarn, Yune, Zelgius, and so many others. I'll never forget them. OK, so I'll also play some Borderlands 2 (PC), and probably Demon's Souls (PS3) and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii).

Andre: For me it will be LBP Karting (PS3), Infamous 2 (full trophy run, PS3), Wii U if I can get some games first, Gravity Rush (full trophy run, PSVita) and I'll also watch Unite 9 on TV.

And you ?

Review: The Walking Dead

Platform : PS3 / Xbox360 / iOS / Steam 
Developer : TellTale Games
Price :20$ to 30$ (Depending of Season Pass, Single Episode or Retail Disc)
Type : Point and Click
Time played : Playing Episode 5

The Walking Dead game receives praises from everywhere. It is nominated as Game Of The Year 2012 (Editor's note: Actually won the VGA GOTY) from many magazines and online sites.  But here, I will tell you where it fails! But first, I must admit it is a pretty good game. It really got me in the story and I had to made some rough decisions that I actually found hard. Keep in mind, in a world where everyone is doomed, you can only hope to make things less bad than it could be.

The game plays itself like a standard point and click puzzle. You are in a scene and you must complete the puzzle to access the next scene. Puzzles consist in completing some tasks to continue over to the next scene. Example of tasks would be to find a key to open a door, or a way to distract zombies to go over to a certain object.

**SPOILER HERE, READ OVER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE SPOILER**
Where it excels, is in the moral difficulties of some of the tasks. The game itself is not hard, but the decision you will take are.  In Episode 1, you will have to choose between two characters. Who to save and who to let die... In episode 2, you will have to decide if you cut the leg of a trapped survivor or if you let a bitten women end her days or not, help a survivor having a heart attack or bash his head so he won't turn.  Most of those choices are made while characters scream at you, cry, beg for help and the timer will go fast... faster than needed to think about what is the best choice. Choices go up to a point where you even have to decide who has to shoot that kid in the head between his mother, father or yourself.

Keep in mind, you might think choices will be easy, but I found myself having some hard thoughts after playing. Pretty much like Heavy Rain.

**END OF SPOILER**


Where it fails is on one of the biggest advertised features. "The Game is tailored  by the choices you made", so I  decided to run 2 games in parallel, and a 3rd one on the side.  While your choices make the story differ a bit, everything that has to happen, happens. At some point, you decide to leave characters behind or not, well you will lose that character from either decision. If someone gets shot, no matter what you do, this person will get shot. The only thing changing is some of the dialog, the way the characters talk to you and that's about it.  You won't play two different games if you took two different decisions. For example, one of the first decisions you will take in Episode 1 is if either you leave the house right now or wait for the night. Either choice, you'll meet Hershel's son and end up at his farm. If you want to take an opposite decision from where the story wants you to go, they will find a way to make the group choose otherwise, and they'll just trust you a little less. Many of the actions you take are even useless in changing the story, it might just help you bond with character (in real life, taking care of them like in The Sims), but does not seem to have any effect in game.

Only in the last episode might we see the impact of our choices, I have yet to discover.

Conclusion:
It is still one of the best games this year if you like deep, story driven adventures. See it as an interactive story where you can make some changes in the way it is played, but the result would still remain pretty much the same. It's moving like any really good TV show and the spirit of the game remains true to the world of The Walking Dead.

Killer Instinct Trademark Renewal Denied - Why We Don't Have KI3 (Yet)

I wish we had Killer Instinct 3. So, so much. We kind of have lost hope over the years, until recently when one ex-Rare employee said he doubted Microsoft would let Rare make a new one, they were more interested in Kinect games. But there might be hope after all !

A trademark renewal for Killer Instinct has been rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) because they believe people could confuse it with a FOX show from 1995 also titled Killer Instinct. Do you remember that show ? Yeah, exactly. No one does.

Microsoft has 6 months to respond to the rejection. Basically, what this all means is MS would like to do another Killer Instinct (OMG YAY !!) but the USPTO said "Sorry, there's something else trademarked with that name" and that's where we stand now. If Microsoft explains that well, they had KI first, and that they would do something with the franchise (the show will never come back), they might get it back. Let's hope it happens ! KI3 would kick SO MUCH ASS (if done right) !

WRUP: What Are You Playing This Weekend ?

What are you guys playing this weekend ? This is a new column we'll have every Friday, asking you what games you'll be playing over the weekend, and telling you ours.

Lanarchy: I'll be playing Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn (God damn this game is hard), Borderlands 2 (PC), Darksiders (PS3) and Dragon Quest Swords (Wii).

Andre: This weekend I'll be playing Gravity Rush (PSVita), Walking Dead (PS3), Modern Warfare 3 (PS3), LBP Karting (PS3) all while listening to Fisherspooner.

And you ?

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Super Mario 64 - Main Theme

The classic of classics. The Master Game. The one and only Super Mario 64. Do you remember the first time you played it ? The wooow effect the 3D camera had on you ? The N64 just blew us all away when we first inserted this cartridge. I remember it perfectly. It is also among the games you would play today and instantly have fun, never feeling it's outdated. Another timeless classic.

Nintendo's Deception : Is There A Wii U Shortage?

The numbers are out. The Wii U sold a little more than 400,000 consoles in its first week in America.  In comparison, the Wii sold about 600,000 units for the same region and time of year when it launched.

The Wii was a success, it was hard to find, it was sold out everywhere, even pre-orders were on a limit and got sold out in a matter of hours.  As soon as Wiis were put on shelves, they were taken by customers waiting days for a restock. It really did great.  I've helped many friends get one by telling them when and where shipments were received for different retailers. Future Shop couldn't even put the console on the shelves that they were sold out. They received about 2 or 3 units per week for every retail store.

But what about the Wii U?  Regis Fils-Aime told CNET that 400,000 unit is a great number because the console is SOLD OUT all around the country. He also added that "As soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately." Nintendo is apparently doing its best to restock the retailers.  Seems like the story of the Wii success is upon us again!  So if you want one for Christmas, you might have to get one of those cardboard consoles instead.

Should you get one of these until Wii U gets restocked?

Well I find it a bit awkward that after the Wii's long term shortage that lasted about 6 months, Nintendo did not plan on making their new console a little bit more available at launch due to the increase in Nintendo buyer potential. So I went and looked around the web for that shortage. Where is it? I can't tell!

I check store availability for Walmart in many states:

Florida : Out of 17 stores, 4 are Out of Stock.

California : Out of the 8 Stores, 1 is Out of Stock.

New york : Out of 20 Stores, 6 are Out of Stock.

Stocks everywhere in New York, same thing all around the country.

In Quebec, I checked Future Shop, it's a little more true for them, but still less than 50% of the stores are out of Wii U.

On about 30 stores, 12 are out of Stock.

Canada the same thing, It's everywhere!

Just take that in context, those stats were taken just after Black Friday!  So if it was such a big success, shouldn't it be sold out everywhere?  I called a Future Shop store just to make sure. Well it seems they have about a dozen consoles for sale. WHAT!!!

I'm calling it a big deception by Nintendo that is trying to make a false shortage to raise sales by having everyone jump on the "New Trend" that is supposedly out of stock making sure people grab one when they see it in case it disappears from the shelves for months like the Wii did! I'm really sorry for Nintendo today. 

Feel free to tell us if you had a hard time getting a Wii U or if you see them in stores where you go.

Review : Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

Platform : PS Vita / Steam
Developer : DrinkBox Studios
Price :8,00$ (Currently free for PS+ Members as of November 26)
Type : 2D Platform
Time played : Finished in about 6 hours.

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack starts from a great concept. You are a small blob that escapes a laboratory.  When talking about blob, we think about growing to disproportional size by eating everything around.

Unfortunately, Tales From Space : Mutant Blobs Attack falls short of this concept. Yes you do grow by eating stuff around, but it is only used to block your path. Most of the game consist on going around and gathering blue points. Once you reach a certain part of the level, you must grow to swallow what is blocking your path. The fact that you also shrink between levels makes the feeling of growing just like an excuse for puzzle. Only in the last 2 levels do you really go around swallowing everything you can. The game would have been great if it was really based on growing and swallowing up everything in a level.

Swallowing stuff and people is the best part.

Level using Tilt functions of the PS Vita

All in all, it isn't a bad platformer. It uses some of the PS Vita touch and tilt features well. The puzzles are nice and skills are required to get all the trophies. It's not worth the 8$ for the best of it. I got it during Halloween sale on PS Vita for 3,50$, but if you can grab it free, it could get you hooked for a few hours. 

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Bubble Bobble - Main Theme

I often say that this track will bring a smile to any old-school gamer the moment it starts. Sure works for me. Bubble Bobble was so simple as a game, but it is as fun today as it was back then. I remember playing for hours, it got really tough at some point, I'm not even sure if I've ever beaten it. A timeless game, true classic.

Rebooting During 5GB Wii U Update Bricking Consoles

Be careful when doing your Wii U 5GB Update. There's been reports all over the Internet of people finding their console was bricked after rebooting. Since the update takes hours, many thought maybe the download had stopped, so rebooting is normally the common first thing to do. Not in this case.

Nintendo posted about it on their Facebook page as well:

Xbox 720 Leaked Infos

It seems that  Xbox World, an UK based magazine, got its hands on a few infos about the next Xbox.

Actually, it seems its name should only be "Xbox". In the line of this new fashion on generic names like the "New iPad", there are a few interesting details.

First thing that strikes me is the A/V input to record TV broadcast, and maybe some custom overlays while watching TV. No info on what type of input will be found.

It will have 8GB of Ram. 4 times as much as the Wii U and 8 times more than the current Xbox.

Blu-ray drive is the new official format. The Wii boasts a custom Blu-Ray drive as well, nailing things much for the Blu-ray technology.

Kinect 2.0 is also introduced with better (and most likely faster) movement recognition. A controller with an HD touch screen has also been reported. Finally, AR might come at the end of the console life cycle.

Pretty interesting and the real details should start spreading as soon as the magazine actually hits the stands.

Here is the cover of the magazine. Note that the console design is just a concept made by the magazine.

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Tales of Symphonia - Full Force

Ahhh, Tales of Symphonia. My 2nd best RPG of all time, only second to XenoGears. I enjoyed playing this so much. I actually played it again recently. I chose the combat theme for this week's OST, and can totally hear "Demon Fang ! Demon Fang ! Sonic Thrust ! Photon ! Angel Feathers !" and so on in my head while listening. I'm sure fans of Tales of Symphonia will agree.

Star Wars The Old Republic Will Ask F2P Players To Pay To Hide Headgear

This week, there's been an announcement of pricing options for the various cash shop items (Cartel) and microtransactions that are going to be offered with the Free-2-Play re-release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I was reading and then came upon this gem:

"Packs of the premium "Cartel Coins" start at $5 for 450, according to a phone meeting with Senior Producer Blaine Christine earlier this week, and increase in price up to $40 for the best deal. Want an extra quickslot bar? That'll be 250 coins for one character or 540 for the whole account. Want to access the guild bank, or your own ship's cargo hold? That'll be 600 and 425 coins, respectively. Further restrictions for free-to-play characters extend to chat and the ability to hide your headgear, and you can't even wear artifact gear unless you plunk out 1,200 cartel coins.

Emphasis mine. Ok... what. the. fuck. PAYING to hide headgear ? It's an option on the interface ! It's already there ! I can understand when they ask for money to pay for devs time building content or making appearance gear, these things take time and they need to pay their employees, but this ? Seriously ? You will not have the option to hide your headgear unless you pay ? Like, it'll be grayed out ?

I can totally see how they came up with this. I mean, it's EA. Some senior exec or something, someone who never played games in their lives, went to the database dude and said "Yo, what's the most selected option on the interface ?" and the DB manager probably answered the truth while saying "Uhh.. you don't wanna do this" and the exec said "Shut up, we run things around here".

Well... this probably single-handedly killed my interest in trying it out again. I had some thoughts about coming back with the F2P option, to check things out and maybe resub because the game was good in my opinion. I quit because like most people, I had finished my character's story and didn't feel like paying a sub to do it all over again on alts, since the zones are all the same.

I know, previous subscribers have some kind of "Preferred" status or something, and we probably won't have to pay to hide our headgear. I HOPE SO. But, this kind of dirty monetization still stops me from wanting to support them. And we all know how "free" these F2P games are. If I don't pay anything, I won't be enjoying my time much.

We'll see what happens but so far, I don't have high hopes for the F2P future of SWTOR.

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Final Fantasy VII - Prelude

The origin of anything and everything. The purest song in all of gaming. Whoever you are, if you're a gamer, you know this one. For me, it symbolizes my youth and all the memories. I grew up with Final Fantasy.

In December, I will attend Nobuo Uematsu's Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, so I thought this would be a great pick for this week's OST.

Enjoy the memories this brings you (always).

GTA V, What About The Other Platforms ?

A lot of news have been released by Game Informer about Rockstar's GTA V game. A lot of rants have been going on as well, but uncovered into forums more than into gaming medias.

No love for PC gamers. Well yeah of course, PC will get GTA V in the future, from 6 months to a full year after console release. They'll get better graphics, they'll get mods, but they will also have a lot more knowledge of the game. I must admit for myself that one of the biggest strengths of the GTA franchise is the way they always deliver more than expected on every release. Having the game a year late will just lose that "WOW" effect. People will get over the huge map, the new features no one expected... it will just be the new GTA game, not the game that changed it all again.

In a year from now

No love for Nintendo as well. We thought Rockstar might include Nintendo after China Town Wars, a game designed for the DS, later ported to the PSP. Unfortunately, it seems that the Wii U, the first next gen console, is all out of GTA love. Could they make a special Wii U version they'll announce later, using the Wii U game pad? I don't think so. Sorry Nintendo, even though you've got everything the old gen console has, seems you'll have to wait for another 4-5 years before (maybe) getting GTA... but then this will be against the PS4 (or Orbiz) and Xbox 720. Can the Wii U handle those new consoles?

Not happening!

Portable love? Well the PSP had some GTA love, the DS had some as well. Can we expect new portable versions of the game? Cross Platform Integration? We still wonder what the future of GTA will be, but there are lots of disappointment not covered by the many gaming websites out there. And what about you? My best bet so far is that Sony enables remote play for it...

You might get GTA V on console, but it might not have that one feature you expected, co-op, multiplayer modes, FPS view... what could you rant about?  Well, we will only know this spring I guess.

Get Bioshock For Free With GameFly

GameFly is offering Bioshock for free. Yes, free. One of the greatest games of this generation, if you haven't played it yet, there's no reason now not to.

You'll need a GameFly account and a credit card but I have both and there was no charge at all. It just does the Checkout thing and you can then download the game.

They also released their new GameFly Client which I'm currently in the process of testing. So far it's good, plenty of games and you can rent too. It won't replace Steam but it is still a good step forward for GameFly.

Here's the link to get Bioshock: http://www.gamefly.com/Download-BioShock/150930

Xbox Surface: Microsoft Working On a 7-Inch Xbox Tablet ?

Microsoft is reportedly working on a 7-inch gaming tablet, currently rumored to be named Xbox Surface. That's interesting, and it raises many questions. Is it a pure gaming device ? Is it going to be used with SmartGlass altough we can already do that with our current devices ? Or is it going to be the Xbox's answer to the Wii U Gamepad ?

The rumored specs are 7" LED screen of 720p resolution, 288MB of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a regular-sized SD card slot. There’s a rechargeable battery that is good for up to 7 hours of usage.

The stationary device packs two IBM POWER7 SCMs with six cores clocked at 3.1GHz each, there’s 5GB of system memory, an AMD-sourced GPU with 1.2GB of on-board memory and full DirectX 11 support and a 250GB 2.5" 10K RPM hard disk.

The stationary device also offers four ports for controllers, 4x USB 3.0 ports for other peripherals (like extra storage), component and HDMI TV-outs, optical S/PDIFF and an Ethernet port.

Note: The image above is not an actual representation of the device, it is only a mock up.

As soon as there's a confirmation or denial of the rumor by Microsoft, you can count on GBV to let you know :)

PSN Plus : Oct 6 Offer

Here we go again this week with a new free game. Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition will be free in today's Store Update.

In addition to this free game, PSN Plus members get nice discounts. Portal 2 is at 13,99$ (6$ off) and its expansion In motion releases today, adding PS Move support as well as new levels for 6,99$ (3$ off).

When Vikings Attack is another new game where you throw stuff at other players. It is Cross Buy (PS3 / PS Vita) and Cross Play. Plus members get 3$ off and can get it for 6.99$.

Finally, the last rebate is on Absolute Supercars. You can get it at 7.99$ instead of the regular 9.99$
There sure are interesting deals in there.

I'm probably getting Portal 2, but I think I can find it used at a cheaper price. Chances are that I'll get When Vikings Attack as soon as it's out, as a cross buy game, so I can get it on my Vita and PS3s.

Revisiting Northern Tamriel

My friend and blogger CozmikR5 just posted a return to Skyrim post on his blog and he agreed to let me share it here, thanks Coz !

Revisiting Northern Tamriel

The sudden break from all-out drumline rehearsal rush means I've been getting back into my gaming hobby something fierce. While I do try to keep on top of my drumming form, at least I don't have to go places every other day to meet up with the rest of the drumline and fine-tune every bar, every break, every stick opening, etc. I can do my own practice casually. This gives me plenty of time to be active at my 'puter doing the things I love, which is a good mix of flying the New Eden space lanes and exploring and adventuring throughout the province of Skyrim, carefully avoiding low-flying arrows. When summer was just starting and the drumline rehearsals started getting serious I was already unsubscribed from EVE but my computer was starting to die while playing games. It turned out it was my video card that was roasting alive and a quick swap later the computer was running like new. There is only so much drumming I can do before I need to frag something!

Over the summer I played a lot of Fallout 3 because I found it was easy to get in and out of my game, but I was avoiding getting back into Skyrim because I knew what all Elder Scrolls games do to my own personal space-time continuum. So I waited until after the show to dive back in, and I rejoiced when I did because the game was running so much better than even before the old video card started dying. And of course because I play Skyrim on a computer and not a console (cue Nelson Muntz "HAHA!") I dove right back into mods, updating some that needed it, removing some superfluous ones, and browsing Skyrim Nexus for anything of interest that may have come out during my summer hiatus. I haven't bought the Dawnguard and Hearthfire DLCs yet but playing the game with mods I already have so much more; though there are more and more mods appearing that require one or the other DLC so I just may get 'em soon-ish.

While I do have some weapon and armor mods, and also some HUD mods and even a few for the environment (Morning Fogs is awesome), my main interest has always been player abodes, from quaint little cabins and camps all the way to fortified castles as big as cities. I try to look for mods that meld seemlessly into the vanilla game; a lot of people give modding a shot and sometimes the results are either buggy or atrocious, or both. When a castle sticks out of the landscape like an eyesore I will avoid it like the plague. Or sometimes the setting is really nice and all but the insides turn out to be a gawdy over-stuffed laggy mess where the modder tried to cram every single object the Creation Kit will allow. And once in a while a jem pops up. For the longest time I've been using the Dovahkiin Hideout which is like a small Bat-Cave giving access to all the game's original player houses, and a couple other areas like the Ragged Flagon and the Archmage's Quarters. It's very well made but now being used to playing with a god-like character (don't laugh; the Deadly Dragons mod can chew up a level 81 character with max skills and all perks with ease if set properly) and having completed the entire game a few times I felt it was time I moved in somewhere more approriate to a Dragonborn who is Thane in all the holds, Archmage, Listener and all-around bad-ass.

A few mods looked promising but unfortunately fell into either of my previously mentioned categories. Two mods got my attention for a while, Deus Mons and Dragonius Tower, but both were causing my computer to glitch out, and the latter mod to crash to desktop repeatedly so I had to keep looking. And then I found it, Rendspire Palace. Located in a canyon set inside the mountain situated between Bleak Falls Barrow and Whiterun, the first hint of the place is the wooden stair path leading up to a small horse stable and a cave entrance next to a single Greybeard statue. The canyon reminds me a bit of the location of Hircine's quest, with a deep mountain clearing complete with waterfalls, pools, vegetation, and one big building with Solitude architecture. The fun part is that the castle itself is a mini-quest as you have to do some serious exploring to not only visit the place but to discover all the teleporters located within. These are pretty much essential unless you want to take all your time walking around; the secret smithing area is very deep below the castle, and the secret (and epically massive) armory is inaccessible until you've found and unlocked its teleporter, and defeated a vampire which... well I gotta stop talking now :)

The EVE front is a bit quiet these days; I want to give my buddy's corp a chance but us Montreal players are having multiple schedule issues, so sorry if I don't have many New Eden stories these days, but at least my #2 game is still very interesting to me and modders are expanding far beyond what the original game offered at launch. To me, if you're not playing Skyrim on a computer, you're not playing Skyrim. Or at least a very tiny part of what the game can actually be. I'll leave you with some screenshots of my Tamriel-based home; I have a Sovngarde-based home on the way soon but I need Dawnguard before I install it. And maybe a new machine. Yes... soon™ :)

Fly like a dragonbone arrow (yes, you read this correctly!)

o7

Meet Cozmik Debrizzt, the level 81 mod tester !

The entrance leading to the Canyon of Tears

"This is no cave!"

Rendspire Palace

The Great Hall

This is the public armory. The secret one is secret :)

Minions having a snack in the main dining room

The office...Like a boss!

PS: This is "only" eight screenshots; I'd need about 30 to 40 to show all this place has to offer!

From http://cozmikr5.blogspot.ca/2012/11/revisiting-northern-tamriel.html

VG OST Pick Of The Week: Super Castlevania IV - Cave

Castlevania IV. One of the greatest games ever made. I recently played it again, and it is every bit as awesome as it was back then.

The whole soundtrack is great, for this week I chose Cave, it's one of the best in my opinion.

PlayStation 4 Dev Kits Sent To Developers

The next generation of gaming is getting closer and closer. Sony just recently started to send PS4 dev kits to developers. What are the rumored specs and functionalities ?

• AMD's A10 APU (essentially a CPU and GPU combined)
• Between 8 and 16 GB of RAM
• 256 GB Hard Drive
• 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second in 3D with no hiccups or stutters.
• Pause in-game and go anywhere in the PS4 system, then come back to game.

I personally believe this current generation can still deliver amazing new games and experiences, but I would lie if I said I'm not excited for the next gen. New systems, new IPs and franchises. Can't wait to see what the PS4/Xbox720/WiiU generation will bring !

Assassin's Creed + Hockey = WTF?

The launch of Assassin's Creed 3 just happened in Montreal. Montreal is also the home of one of the initial NHL teams, The Canadian. What is the link between those two? None, but that has not stopped Ubisoft to make one of their own.

Ubisoft has partnered with Canadian lead Goaltender, Carey Price, to show off 3 models of goalie masks that mix both the Canadian and Assassins Creed 3 themes. Yeah it is truly one of those "What the Hell" moments. The public will be able to vote for their favorite of the 3 masks that will then be made in 31 copies to be sold in auctions. But I feel I can't complain since the goal of this partnership is that the profit will be given to a charity of Mr. Price's choice.

But then there's this voice in me that tells it all. What the hell? Is that some poor marketing joke? Not only the NHL is in lock out this year, Assassin's Creed III's focus is on the American Independence war, but it is put on Quebec's hockey team, named Canadian.  Not to mention Quebec struggle for independence in the past 30 years have been really put to the test. It is also in Quebec that the 1812 war got the American back to their borders (and resulted in a status quo after British troops were sent back to Quebec as well). So this deal seems a total contradiction to me... but I still believe it should be made. I'm not there to stop anyone doing any crazy things. God knows I've done my share of weird mixes in the past.

Here are the 3 masks in question. You can vote here.

Xbox SmartGlass Is Out

Want to add some features to your Xbox and Android phone?

Xbox SmartGlass is exactly what Microsoft is offering. I must admit that the rumors I heard was that the SmartGlass would be a Windows Phone exclusive and while I believed it might be true, I thought it was a really bad move. Well I was wrong! They did release it on the Android Platform this morning.

The main features of the App let you use your Android 4.0 device as a remote to navigate your console, the full keyboard for messages and other input. It lets you check the stores, change your avatar and plenty of other features.

If anyone wants to test it and write a review, we will be pleased to publish it as I don't have an Xbox 360 anymore. [Editor's note: I have one and tested it, it's cool but I will wait for games integration before writing a review of it - Lanarchy]

Get Xbox SmartGlass

VG OST Pick Of The Week: F-Zero - Big Blue

Ahhh, F-Zero. How many hours I spent playing you with my brother. It's one of the timeless games, one you could play today and have as much fun as back in the day.

I chose Big Blue for this week's OST, one of my favorite tracks from F-Zero. Enjoy !

Dark Souls DLC Requires You To Kill Bosses To Unlock It

This... this is how DLC should be. I am not surprised at all that From Software is the company doing this. To be able to play the DLC, you will need to:

- Defeat Hydra at Darkroot Basin
- Defeat Crystal Golem at Darkroot Basin and save Dusk of Oolacile
- Defeat Crystal Golem at Duke's Archive and get Broken Pendant
- Touch Black Fog at lake in Darkroot Basin where you defeat Hydra

Isn't that FUN ? All gaming companies should strive to offer this kind of additional gameplay. I know some will complain ("I bought the damn thing, I should have access to it !"), you know the kind, those entitled casual "gamers". I am happy that there's at least one developer requiring us to earn our content.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-25-be-warned-you-may-have-to-play-through-dark-souls-again-to-access-the-artorias-of-the-abyss-dlc

This Is What Horrible PR Is Like

Europe Playstation owners are mighty pissed right now, and for good reason. The new PS3 patch did something no one thought Sony would ever do. Place an advertisement in the XMB. There is now an icon for the game Singstar sitting on top of the Game category, bigger than any other icons and you can't delete it or move it. It's there and there's nothing you can do about it. Naturally, people started to Google for a way to get rid of it and they end up on Playstation Europe Official's blog page, where they are essentially told by the PR Rep, Nina Scherer, to suck it up.

Here are some of the most WTF replies I've ever seen from a Public Relations person (you can click on the first image to see it on its original size and then click through to see all of them one by one):

As someone says later in the thread:

She then comes back to apologize for some of her comments:

But then another questions if she really means "We will definitely take all of your feedback on board".

I seriously hope this is not the kind of image Sony wants to have for its Customer Service Relations.

EA Forces Wii U Owners To Use Origin To Play EA Games Online

You just knew this was coming, didn't you ? EA announced that to be able to play their games on Wii U, you will have to use Origin.

Ok, EA, here's what. GTFO with your service. For starters, PC gamers by and large hate it, and for good reason. It hogs resources like no other. One of my friends for example, had to close Origin to get normal performance back from his computer and he's a techie gamer. He knows what he's doing. Even when not playing BF3, he had to close Origin because it was making his other games lag. Didn't know it was Origin doing it until he closed it.

Secondo, I do not like how you're trying to shove Origin down our throats. How, in any way, will using Origin help with Wii U online gaming ? It is just an additional hurdle to just be able to power up the console and play.

I like some of your games, EA. I'm not a total hater. Mirror's Edge was amazing. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and SWTOR were some of the best gaming experiences I've had. Why though, must you always do stuff that enrages gamers ?

I will never understand you, EA.

Review : Retro City Rampage

Platform : PS3 / PS Vita (Cross Buy) and PC/Steam
             *Soon Available on : WiiWare and XBLA
Developer : VBlank Entertainment
Price :14,99$
Type : Top Down Shooter
Time played : 6 hours / Not finished yet

At first glance, this could look like another game made in 8-bit graphics for simplicity.  That couldn't be further from the truth. It's a jewel of reference and satire to the 80-90's era from the beginning to the end.  The game has not even started that you can enjoy those references. Retro City Rampage, or RCR is a reference to River City Ransom, a great NES game. The art on the cover makes reference to Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future Series. The game itself is a complex stew of so much reference that it requires a lot of skills to be able to make it into such a cohesive game, but this strength might also be a weakness.

If you have not a clue of what all those references means in there, you will definitely not enjoy this game as much as someone who does.  It's always enjoyable to stumble upon a quote such as "It's Letter Time"  taken from Video and Arcade Top 10 Canadian TV show and understand that reference. If not, you just wonder why it's there, at that place. While the game is surely enjoyable, the 15$ price tag is kind of high for this type of game... Here is some example of just a few of the references you might or might not know. Can you explain where they come from or what they mean? Note that I have taken more than 100 screenshots of those references so far.

Nicholas Picholas was the host of V&A Top 10

You got Story Missions that let progress in the crazy story where you want to become a super criminal. It also gives power ups and get you through many of the game mechanics.  The missions often use humour to get you through. For example there's a Chasing mission you get in every GTA like games. You need to follow someone in car without being spotted. When it starts, you tell yourself that it's so slow you might as well walk and walking you go. While pursuing the car, you must get coffee along the way so you won't fall asleep of boredom. You also get Arcade Challenges that consists in killing or breaking as much stuff as possible in a limited time.  This gives you the chance of uploading your score to the Leaderboard for bragging rights with your friend.

Now about the game mechanics.  It plays mostly like a top down shooter. You control the character with the left analog stick (or d-pad, for a retro feel) and shoot in any direction with the right analog stick.  I guess PC version will use AWSD and mouse to do so.  You can jump and pick up object and throw them as well. Finally you can get in cars, bike and other transports to move around town. There is a lot of stores where you can customise your character and buy weapons, tools, restore health,  and get power ups. Cheat codes (That's retro too) are written all over the places on wall for you to find. In addition to this, there's hidden items to find like Hidden Packages.

There's a Free Play mode as well where you get to move around town without any story missions, full of cash to buy everything you want. It's just a fun way of killing time and get those trophies as well.

Conclusion : 

It's definitely a fun game, but its true strength is its melting pot of references. It's easy to understand and to play­. It might not be worth the current 15$ price tag for everyone, but the more you have been into games, the more you'll get value from the references and the satire in the game. If you own it on PS3/PS Vita, know that it's a Cross Buy/ Cross Play game, so that adds  value to the game as well. You pay it once and can play on both system. There's a cloud save function that lets you continue your game from a system to the other without any pain.