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 !