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.