Live by the Creed

Yeah. It's been for months since I've posted. You know what? I'm not gonna apologize. I have a life. How many of you can say that?

Aaaaaanyways... I've been really into Live by the Creed lately. If you haven't checked it out yet, do it now, it's worth your time:

Anyone that played 1191ad or Prince of Persia Swordsmen will get the idea... it's practically tradition at Ubisoft these days. And quite a good tradition at that -- the amount of crap I've purchased with my valuable time from Ubisoft over the last few years, the shameless advertising I did for the sake of a three inch figurine... it's simply outstanding!

Basically, Ubisoft posts stuff you can do, like draw characters or write stories, and they give you points (florins in this case) for your hard work. You spend those delicious, delicious florins on random (but still very awesome!) swag available on the website. It's a great way to obsess over the latest game while also earning some sweet souvenirs along the way!

Turns out I have ulterior motives for posting this, though... gotta complete one of those selfsame missions, and I get more florins if I post my completed work on a website of my choosing. What better place than my own video game blog? Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me!

You can see my final project up there... the Doges "invitation". Pretty cool, right? No? Screw off. I have florins and you don't.

E3 2009

Yup, E3 is over. Yup, it was huge (thank God). Compared to the travesty that was the last E3, this was like freakin' Christmas. But I'm not gonna talk about the whole thing, 'cause I ain't a reporter, and nobody cares what I have to say anyway. I'll tell you what I'm excited about, though: Assassin's Creed 2, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell: Conviction, The Old Replublic, Modern Warfare 2, and left for Dead 2. I'll tell you what I'm NOT excited about: Project Natal (because Milo technology doesn't even exist in MIT, much less some English game developer's offices. Pluss it creeps me out.), New Super Mario Bros. (should have been called, "New New Super mario Bros. How many times can they reuse the same old base game?), and Halo 3: ODST (I honestly thought they were going to go in a more serious direction with this one, but it really just looks exactly like Halo 3 with a different character and story). I'm also not excited that they didn't talk about a new Zelda game, but we did get one -- yes, a SINGLE -- concept art for the new game. Helpful.

Going back to what I'm excited about, I was honestly suprised by the way Splinter-Cell: Conviction appeared. When they first showed it a couple years ago, it seemed like they were going in a sort of Bourne Identity direction with it, involving an open world and crowd-stealth. It looked good, but not great. This new game they're showing now, using a James Bond-24-Mission Impossible sort of system is far more interesting to me (especially since I saw the demo almost directly after seeing Taken). The way combat was carried out and how quickly and with deadly efficiency Sam moved made it quickly climb to the top of my "must-have" charts... and that's not even commenting on the Mark and Execute system.

Assassin's Creed 2 looked good, too, with a few vast improvements over the original (although it definitely still needs some polish... stupid cape looks like it's made of wood), and I was blown away by the Modern Warfare 2 demo.
Basically, I could spend an hour telling you about all the things I liked at E3, or I could tell you to go to IGN.com (or the game reporting website of your choice) and look it up your-damn-self. Now excuse me while I go set some trailers on infinite loop and let my brain melt.

Beatles Rock Band Guitar

Usually I don't gush over video games unless they're really, really awesome, much less peripherals. As a rule, I hate peripherals and everything they stand for. But, as a fan of both Rock Band and The Beatles, I have to gush over this for a moment:

http://media.gear.ign.com/articles/979/979706/img_6720172.html

My God... It's just so beautiful... *sniff*
You can bet your sweet bippie I'll be getting this game.

My Fallout with this blog (hah!)

It's obvious that I haven't posted in several weeks, and right after starting the stupid blog, no less. Well, that's because I picked up Fallout 3 on a whim and couldn't put it back down. Luckily, I beat it and have thus regained a little of my life.

I hadn't picked it up because I could never get into the first Fallout game -- I don't know why, it just never appealed to me -- and while everyone else was ranting about Fallout 2, I watched a gameplay video and played Diablo II instead. I didn't know what had happened in Fallout and I hadn't liked it anyway, right? No reason to pick up Fallout 2.
But after playing Fallout 3, I sort of regret this choice. I'm a huge Elder Scrolls buff (I even love Oblivion, as long as I've properly modded the crap out of it), and while I was playing Fallout 3, all I could think was, "This is the game Oblivion SHOULD have been." Everything about it is improved -- the combat system is unique and refreshing (when I'm playing TF2 I occasionally try to go into V.A.T.S. mode now), the barter system is wonderful, the story is beautiful and a little heartbreaking at times. I can't believe the two games were made by the same company, much less the same engine. I almost wish they would remake Oblivion from the ground up to be more like Fallout 3.

Anyways. I might get Fallout 2 now. Fallout 3 is obviously a huge branching from the idea of the original, but the story has sucked me in. I may as well try again, right?

Flight of Ezio

Assassin's Creed 2. Excited? I know I am. Check this out:

http://goonlinegames.net/2009/04/12/assassins-creed-2-the-entire-10-page-game-informer-feature-new-info/

Believe it or not -- and I know I'm fighting the crowd here -- I thought Assassin's Creed was one of the best games of all time. Sure it has its flaws, every game does. It was certainly no Ocarina of Time in terms of groundbreaking technology, but it was damn fun to play. I picked it up the day it came out and I still play it from time to time. (I think I still have to collect all the flags in the Kingdom, too.) The repetition didn't bother me, I thought the combat system was awesome, and the story is amazing. I don't know what it was about it, but it just sucked me in.

Before Assassin's Creed came out, I was a little worried. The rumors of the "The Matrix" related sci-fi story was disappointing, and the early gameplay videos seemed to be showing a different game than they'd been advertising in media releases and dev blogs. That's about how I feel about Assassin's Creed 2 now. They're advertising some concepts in this magazine article that just don't work, have never worked. Things like being able to pick up enemies' weapons. It's an okay concept, but it just can't be done well. Look at the Prince of Persia series. Always picking up a new weapon off of an enemy (only to have it break five strikes later) was tedious and boring. It made combat a micromanagement instead of the roller-coaster ride it was supposed to be. It could get you killed for no good reason. And it's the same company developing Assassin's Creed 2. If they don't make serious improvements to this system, the game will disappoint.

I'm also worried about the flight system using Da Vinci's wings. Going back to the Prince of Persia example again, flight in the newest Prince of Persia was a boring, tedious trial and error. It wasn't even that it was difficult, it was just slow and boring. If they use this same system in Assassin's Creed 2, I'll be very disappointed; Assassin's Creed deserves better than that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to see the new Assassin's Creed game, and not trying to come off doom-and-gloomy. I loved the first game immensely, and I'm sure I'll love this one, too. Some of the systems I saw in that article I'm very excited about. Being able to assassinate people from the water? Awesome! Guards will check hiding places for you by stabbing them? Wicked-cool! TWO wristblades? That's like attaching a train to a gun! There is simply nothing more badass.

Like I said, I had bad feelings about the first Assassin's Creed, and it turned out to be one of my favorite games of all time. Assassin's Creed 2 is going to melt faces off, I guarantee.

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Yes, the title of this blog is a blatant homage to Jeph Jaques' Questionable Content. Obviously I have to give him all the credit. Thank you for the blog title, Jeph, and if you happen to stumble upon this blog, please don't sue me!