And let their be E3
Posted on June 1, 2009 - Filed Under Gaming, general
Today starts the event known as e3. The first of the ‘major’ gaming conventions, though if it still qualifies is up to debate amongst those that care to debate about it. At the end of it, most anyone of note in gaming world will give a speach, show a trailer, or release a new playable demo that those of us at home wont get to play anytime soon.
Activision Blizzard went first with a web conference sunday night, of which there was a lot of mumbo jumbo. Like WoW is still a cash cow, diablo III is still a ways away, Guitar hero will still be milked, and essentially blizzard will hold its lips tight until blizcon in August. On the plus they did imply Starcraft II by the end of the year, which I’ll believe it when i see it. This still is blizzard after all, a company well known for two things. One making some of the best video games out there and two, delaying their releases so they turn out to be the best video games out there.
The Microsoft Conference will start in a couple of hours, hopefully I’ll get to listen to it if not i’ll watch it later. There should be some Mass Effect 2 details i’m hoping, and I’m sure they will try to put something up their sleave but i wouldn’t expect anything to get the message boards ranting like Final Fantasy XIII going multiplat last year.
**Update Microsoft Conference**
As expected, Microsoft didn’t have much to say. Demos and trailers of games we already knew but no major new reveals for the first hour or two. Than an announcement that perhaps will match FFXIII the 360 will be getting a MGS:Raiden spin off game. The quick and very uninformative trailer makes it look like it might end up playing more like a DMC game than a MGS game, but hey MGS is MGS. I’ll buy it and eat up what Kojima throws at me. They also debuted their new ‘controller’, which is a camera that detects 3d and offers a lot of promises that i don’t see our current technology being able to do. IF, and that’s a big if, they can pull it off, it will be loved. However, it’s likely to be a bigger mess than sonys eye toy or the wiimote and trying to play a sim(ish) racing game with it. They are being very ambitious with it, and with famed over hyper from the Fable Series seeming to lead the way of early promises that wont be met.
Well i guess there are a few publisher conferences later today, but i’ll just get the recaps at the end of the day. Nintendo and Sony will be going tomorrow, lets hope sony keeps the new psp info to a min and focuses on the ps3 and its games. While big N is rumored to be announcing a new mario game.
*Update 2 EA & Ubisoft*
After microsoft EA and Ubi held their conferences later in the day. I did catch EA’s since Microsoft didn’t show any ME2 details it was pretty likely they would be now. Which they did, and did not disappoint. A new trailer for ME2, showing shepard alive and kicking recruiting people for a mission where the chance of survivial is ‘low’. They also noted that people did believe shepard was dead. Not much more about story or how the two games are going to connect, but bioware is still promising that the key choices you made in ME1 are going to carry over to ME2. If you start a new shepard in ME2 you’ll get the ‘canon’ version of the storyline to work with. Bioware also showed a great trailer for the Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming MMO they are also working on. Promising a fully voiced MMO should really drive home the story driven atmopshere bioware wants to bring to the MMO. I’m still skeptical on how this will work as an MMO, but i’m certain it will be fun either way. Beyond that they confirmed Crysis 2 for PC, 360, and PS3. Showed another bioware RPG. Showed the slew of sports titles, and brought out a women who lost her baby fat by just playing EA’s version of wii fit.
Ubisoft on the other hand I didnt watch, however i was interested in Assassins Creed 2, and they also have a very nice trailer out. The game looks like quite nice, to have a little more plot, and they are promising less reptition. Which i’ll believe it when I play it. Today we’ll have Nintendo and Sony showing off their latest, as well as the actual start of the conference so the press will get their hands on some of the new demos at the show floor.
**Update 3 Nintendos Conference**
Though i was only half paying attention at best, between half the conference looking to excite the wii fit players out there and the other half being a little more interesting. All in all nintendo did all right. 2 new mario games, one looks like a co-op side scroller due out this year. The other being Galaxy 2. Though it does seem a little early for a full fledged sequel and i’d be more tempted to pick up a wii again if it didnt look so familar. Galaxy certainally was the best single player Wii game I played, so Galaxy 2 should still be a great game in its own right. The other big deal was a new Metroid being annouced. All though this is going to be made by Team Ninja, so it might be a little different from the previous Metroids, they are a competent developer and I’d see them doing quite well with it. The other bit that pipped my ears is some form of a Kingdom Hearts game, though I wasnt paying enough attention to really pick up on it. Now a short wait until the Sony Conference and hopefully some nice GoW 3 trailer, some Heavy Rain Details, and a Gran Turismo 5 release date…hopefully this year, but i’d be shocked if it is.
**update 4**
Late on the update, but in my humble opinion, the Sony conference was the best of the three conferences. If for no other reason it’s the only one that I watched that had this thought process go through my head. “What, did he really just say that? That can’t be *trailer runs*, holy crap he didn’t slip up.” This being in reference to when Sony announced FFXIV, that’s right fourteen, as a ps3 console exclusive. Than at the end of the trailer the words Online appear and the excitement dips a bit. I will probably give it a chance none the less. Everything i’ve head about FFXI is that its pretty good, but the grind is insane. Hopefully the casual it up, keep the supposed great story of XI and throw in some new goodies to hold my attention.
However that was just a small part of the conference. The psp go was announced, which sony showed its sense of humor announcing it has the worst kept secret of e3. than showed it doesn’t have a sense of humor by slapping on a $250 price tag for a handheld without a umd drive(though it would prob cost $300 if it did). It looks slick and fits in your hand when closed, but it’s just too pricey. With that inducement though they also officially announced MGS: Peace walker. Another not to well kept secret of e3. However kojima did let us know some things we didn’t know before and well a MGS game on psp that will play like an MGS game, i’m stoked. Top it off its snake in outer heaven, i’m super stoked. Gran Turismo on the psp was also announced and dated. Set for release to start October and to feature 800 cars and 35 tracks it’s pretty impressive.
The ps3 news was though the biggest meat of the show. Uncharted 2 and MAG demos started off the show, both looking quite impressive. I cant say i see myself ever owning MAG, but it looks like zipper is going to pull of 256 multiplayer matches. Howeve until a beta happens i’ll reserve judgement as to how well it will handle, especially with multiple squads in one area. They also debuted the next Team Ico game, which continues to have the great artistic flair in their games. If you didnt know Team Ico did the Ico and Shadow of the Collosus for the ps2, both visually stunning games for their art style, not to mention pretty fun to. As mentioned FFXIV(supposedly a 2010 release) was annouced and a new FFXIII trailer was shown with the English voice actors. The conference ended on the much expected and much anticipated GoW III live demo. Which i must say, the game looks amazing and I can’t wait for it’s release.
Bears…MAKE A TRADE!
Posted on April 2, 2009 - Filed Under NFL, Sports
In a relatively un-Bears move today the Chicago Bears spent the big bucks(Potential?) to nab Jay Cutler. I can’t remember the Bears really ever doing this, we’re a team known for building from within and rarely trade or sign the big names. So i’m glad to see management make the effort to nab a prove young QB, rather than bounce around Orton for another year or more. The price was high, an 09 and 2010 first round pick. However, i say it’s worth it. Chicago threw in Orton and the broncos threw back a 3rd rounder for this year. So hopefully the bears will use their 2nd round pick to get Cutler a WR. As much as we might like Hester, he isn’t a #1 WR, he’s an okay #2 but would really shine in a slot role if he’d toughen up a bit and be willing to do the short slants that’s make welker a house hold name.
So do the bears for the first time in their history have a real QB, let’s hope so. Hopefully in 15 years we can see a lis of packers QBs since cutler arrived, rather than the list of bears QBs since favre arrived. Now bears fans, DO NOT TURN AGAINST CUTLER. He is not peyton, he is not brady, he will make mistakes, but he’s going to do more good than bad. Let’s not run him out of town because we want a game manager and dull QB. Oh and Cubs season is about to start!
go cubbies! i’m thinking a nice 90 win season and we’re going to win a post season game this year!
Review: Persona 4
Posted on March 11, 2009 - Filed Under Gaming, Review
Persona 4: I is can has e-friends?
It’s been a while since I actually beat persona 4 and I’ve been meaning to get this written up, but my level of motivation for writing anything has been relatively low. However, this was a great game and any RPG fans still on the fence deserve one more voice to try and push them over the edge.
Persona 4, as the 4 indicated, is a sequel to the persona series. Though there is little direct connection between each game in the series, there is some over arching plot points if you choose to seek them out. However if you’ve never played Persona 3,2 or 1, you’ll be just fine starting off with Persona 4, and to be frank I’d recommended it. For as good as Persona 3 was, Persona 4 is improved in nearly every way.
Persona 4 is a game that is half jRPG and half sim dating game. Though you might initially scoff at the idea of a game where half of it revolved around trying to get school mates to be your friends and/or girlfriends, it’s both fun and rewarding. You start the game as a nameless boy who is presumably a mute incapable of any communication other than grunts and nods. Your parents were sent away for work and you were asked to live the city and go live in the country with your uncle and his daughter for a year until they can return. Naturally upon your arrival, the small quiet town loses its small town appeal. There is an affair going on between a reporter and some other guy, and of course she heads to the renowned inn located in the town you just found yourself in. Shortly thereafter she is murdered and the fun begins.
While the murder mystery is getting started you’re getting started for a new year of school. Being Joe Cool, naturally you make friends on day one. With the only people who seem to be allowed to wear clothes that is blue, white and/or gray. One is daughter of the Inaba Inn owner and is being groomed to become the next manager of the inn. Her best friend, a kung-fu loving and relatively upbeat girl. The third being the son of the family that recently opened a superstore (think walmart+) that is ending many of the local businesses. As a result, he gets grief from many of the classmates. Given you can’t talk your incapable of giving grief and make friends with him. As your start your friend ship with them, like all good high school students they let you know about the local rumor. A channel that only appears on rainy nights that shows you the image of who is your soul mate at exactly midnight. So your new friends pressure you into watching the channel and you oblige. A girl appears on the TV and shortly thereafter the murder mystery becomes that much more complex.
You’ll quickly find out your able to enter into the “TV World” where people seem to be mysteriously disappearing to and only you and your friends are capable of stopping them. This is where the trademark Shin Megami Tensei elements show up, as this is where you’ll do combat. You’ll attack with your ‘personas’, grind through dungeons to get new personas and then fuse those personas together to get even stronger personas. Think of a more adult version of pokemon where it’s less about being cute and cuddly and more about being dark and demented. Of course sometimes that still means being cute and cuddly. I pose you the question what’s cuter than a demon giving deep thought on the john? Exactly, take that pickachu.
The entire combat system and the new way the ‘other world’ works is the reason why Persona 4 is a better rounded game than Persona 3. For starters you are finally able to control all 4 party members. You can set them up to work according to the AI, but the AI is dumb at best. It’s wasteful with its spell usage and far too often isn’t looking to exploit weaknesses. By allowing you full control his will help you be as effective as possible and really is a godsend for the numerous boss fights you’ll encounter. Some other changes were made as well. You can still knockdown an enemy by hitting them with their weakness or connecting with a critical hit, but unlike persona 3 this will not automatically make them lose their turn. You’re given a little more options here. When you crit or hit with a weakness you’ll be given a second turn. Sometimes if your party members are good enough friends, they will trigger a follow up attack. These are special attacks, some are 1 hit kills, some will be high damage hits that will crit another target, and some will crit multiple targets. If prompted you can take that route and that will replace your second turn. Alternatively you can choose to attack again, if your crit or hit a weakness against an enemy already knocked down, they will now miss their next turn. If your crit or hit another enemy you’ll get yet another turn. If you manage to knock down all of the opponents than you’ll be able to do a gang up attack, in which you’re entire party attacks the enemy for a large amount of damage. For just about any non boss, this typically results in an end of combat screen. The pacing of combat is very fast, though it’s still an old fashion turn based rpg, there is no wait time between your action and the next persons and most of the attack and spell animations are fairly quick, which helps in keeping the pacing quick. This is very welcome for a game you’ll spend 40+ hours on.
One of the other nice things about Persona 4 is there is a lot more variety in levels. In persona 3 the first level of the dungeon wasn’t much different than the final level. In persona 4 you’ll go through multiple dungeons, each designed around the person who has been put inside the TV. This makes the grinding feel less like grinding. You look forward to the next area, rather than dread it knowing you just need to be there to get the levels to beat the boss. Which is another area that Persona 4 improves on, no longer are bosses predetermined to happen on this day, no matter what. You still have a time limit you must defeat the boss of the certain dungeon or its game over, but you can rush right to it and get it done than just focus on your social ranks. Nearly every dungeon will also get an optional boss after that deadline date passes, which will allow you to pick up some relatively good gear for the point of the game you’re at. This again helps make grinding a lot more bearable.
All in all Persona 4 takes a working concept, improves its biggest flaws and churns out another enjoyable jRPG. So if you’re feeling the shortage of jRPG on the ‘next-gen’ offering, the PS2 and Atlus want to remind you that they are still there. Onto the numbers!
Graphics: 6.5/10 – If you have upgraded to the ps3/360 it’s going to be noticeable. For a ps2 game, it does look good, not great, but I’m sure many of us have adjusted to the new standards over the last 2-3 years. Come on atlus, get with the program, we want SMT games on the ps3/360.
Sound: 7/10 there is a good assortment of music and it plays well, some levels are absolutely amazing. I’d prob give it an 8, but since combat is fairly frequent the nice dungeon music gets interrupted with battle music and makes me sad face. Although, quite a handful of bosses have some very nice battle music to listen to. The game even comes with a soundtrack so you can listen to persona on the go.
Gameplay 9/10 – If you like jRpgs, which you do, you’ll love what persona 4 has to offer. It’s quick and efficient. Skills are quick so you still want to use them, but flashy enough and powerful enough to warrant use. The new follow up attack feature adds a small amount of additional strategy in some cases. While fusing persona to get the correct type is always a ton of fun.
Mike Factor 9/10 – The social aspect of the game is both fun and rewarding. Getting to learn more about each character is as much a motivation as getting stronger persona from their related social links. The game does a great job of making them not just something you have to do, but something you want to do. Between the social links and the improved combat, I logged 50+ hours in the game in just a few weeks, something my schedule and attention span usually won’t allow. If you’re a fan of Persona 3 or of turn based RPGs you can’t go wrong with Persona 4.
Fueling Rumors: Diablo 3 for chirstmas?
Posted on March 10, 2009 - Filed Under Gaming
A site i’ve never head of before today is reporting that Open beta is to start on 9/11/2009 and that the full version is slated for release on christmas eve of this year.
Now that first date, seems odd, 9/11 being a fairly important date for americans, and being the overly PC world we’ve become, it seems unlikely. However, time has passes and hopefully something that trivial wouldn’t be why the’d change the date. The second date however is a very blizzard thing to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did release it on christmas…just i think christmas 2010 is more likely than 2009.
Though this will support the theories that both SC2 and D3 are going to hit around the same time, or at least this year, which i’m a firm skeptic of. The optimist inside me however wants to believe if i add fuel, it just might come true. I mean this is blizzard afterall, hitting a first release date and getting the date right 9 months in advance? that’s not a very blizzard thing to do. Like any rumor though, until Blizzard says something, take it as a grain of salt.
Happy Anniversary
Posted on February 5, 2009 - Filed Under general
To think, just one year ago this blog started and it’s still going today(on life support, but details smeetails right?)
Anyway, between being busy at work and just not having anything I feel is worth writing about, the post have been coming to an apparent crawl. It just has ended up when I get free time I want to work on some other projects, and the free time is becomming increasingly further apart as the day seems to go, wake up, go to work, work all day, go home, eat, fall asleep, rinse and repeat. I’m hoping to be able to better manage my weekends and with baseball season about to start up hopefully some news of the cubbies with start. Gaming news is relatively slow this time of year, in a couple months as the trade shows start I should get more about than.
So thanks for reading, even in spite of the lack of post i still get a handful of hits each day.
Now for some random stats from google analyatics!
in the past year the site has 6,292 page hits, viewed by 2,722 ‘unique’ visitors(however they define unique is beyond me, my guess is IP), of which 58% use firefox(:D). I’ve had at least one visitor from every country in Europe except Belarus and luxenberg. The top 5 countries visited from are USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and Mexico. A city called Drummondville located in Quebec has the most visitors for any city not in the Salt Lake City Area(Sandy, midvale, provo, and SLC are 1-4). The highest vistiors for any one single day was August 6th, where 148 people found their way to mikelikes.net, most of the visitors coming from gamefaqs in response to my Heavy Rain post The most viewed entry remains my review of MLB 08 the show with 621 views alone (which FYI mlb 09 the show releases in just under a month). However the most Page views was on April 2nd with 241, all though that may be because the site was having some issues running in IE at the time and I had put my April Fools recap article on digg.
31% of people have found the site through google, with the #1 keyword being MGS 4 Act 2(i’m on the second page for) and mike likes(first result, take that michael moore!). Neude.net remains the #1 referell to the site. Last by not least, 640 comments have been caught by my spam filter(likely more than there are comments in general).
Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers vs Cardinals
Posted on January 18, 2009 - Filed Under NFL, Sports
Well, to probally everyones surprise the Arizona Cardinals are going to be representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. I still am unsure of how to react to this beyond, WTF LARRY FITZGERALD IS HALF MAN HALF BEAST. oh and Kurt Warner could teach brady a thing or two about playoff TD drives. Watching Warner come back after Cardinals seemed to disappear in the 3rd quarter was quite a thing of beauty. Not quite as great as watching Fitz just completly dominate that first half, but you can only ask for so much.
Now the Steelers are the exact oposite case. Really who didn’t expect them to make it, especially after the brady injury(yours truely picked the steelers). Despite having one of the harder schedules in the NFL, they convincingly won their division, entered as the 2nd seed in the playoffs and took care of both the hot chargers and tough ravens to be in position for their 6th ring. Which, if they obtain will be the first NFL team to have 6 super bowl rings. With how they’ve played they are bound to be the favorites in the Super Bowl.
Which leads to, whose going to win it? The Offensive Cardinals or the Defensive Steelers. If histoy has taught as anything, it’s, that defense wins championships. However, that’s never stopped the offense from being the hot pick and i’m expecting Cardinal support to go up. Seeing how they handled two physical defenses in the Eagles and Panthers, a lot of people are going to say if those teams couldn’t stop them, why are the Steelers? Which is going to be a good question. This post season no one has been able to cover larry fitzergald and with two weeks to recover you’ll expect Boldin to be back to full health to make you pay for doubling or triple teaming Fitz. So what the Steelers are going to need to do is have great corner play or great line play, if not both. If that D-line doesn’t step up, the cards have a chance.
However what’s most likely going to be the difference in the game, as so often seems, isn’t which strength is better, but what weakness is stronger. How will the Cards defense hold up against the Steelers Offense. Which, the cards defense has turned into a turnover creating machine, getting 8 int 6 fumbles 4 recovered. If they can cause those turnovers and set up the short field for that offense. They are going to walk away winners…making the cubs straek of 100 look that much worse, as they haven’t won a championship since 1947.
All though with all that said, it’s going to be a lot of if’s that lead to arizona win, so it should come as no surprise just like i did to start the season, I’m picking the steelers. Assuming my vegas trip goes as planned(waiting on an okay for time off for roommate) i’ll be keeping an eye on the spread as I don’t see the steelers winning big, i don’t think their offense is going to have much success driving on the cardinals, but I think the defense will keep the cardinals settling for field goals.
So best of luck to both teams and one way or the other we’ll see history. Either the cards getting their first super bowl or the steelers being the first to 6. So cheer up Detroit, Cleveland, New Orlean, Jacksonville, and Houstan. If Arizona can do it, you can to! Here’s to another great year of NFL, let’s and hope for 1 more great game to cap off the season before it officially becomes baseball season(go cubs!)
Cubs to select new owner soon
Posted on January 15, 2009 - Filed Under Sports, baseball
The tribune has gone out and said they will intend to pick the winning bid in about a week or so. Sadly this seems to mean no chance for Cuban, who is by far and large a fan favorite(my personal hopeful). Though Cuban might not have been able to get the playoff success he wants out of the Maverics he’s shown he’s running his team the way a fan wants their owner to. With the goal to improve.
The three likely candidate are Thomas Ricketts, Hersh Galf, and Marc Utay. The first two are at least chicago business man, but that’s just the thing, their objective first and foremost is going to be to make money and to win second. Given cubs fans sell out if the team is good or bad, it doesn’t give much faith that the Cubs are going to continue to be among the higher end of payroll and a team that’s often looking to pick up a player at the trade deadline.
Hopefully my pessimism is just that, pessimism and whoever picks the team will value winning as highly as he does profit margin. With a 100 years and counting since the last world series win and multiple post seasons leaving bitter taste in cubs fans mouths, it’s about time something changed, and let’s hope it’s a postive change.
As football is down to just 3 meaningful games left, that means two things. One it’s almost time for Daytona and two, it’s almost time for spring training. The cubs players will first start to report on Febuary 14th with the first spring game on the 25th. The cubs have made some small moves this season and should still be poised to win the division. However, it’s hard to believe the team is going to be able to make a playoff push while losing a quality closer in Wood(best of luck to ya over in Cleveland you’ll always be a cubbie to us). However if the offense doesn’t dissapear again, we should be okay.
so with the early preseason prediction, cubs finish first in the division with a record of 91-71 record and fall in the NLCS.
New Car :D
Posted on December 30, 2008 - Filed Under general
As some of you might know by now, I’ve bought a new car over the weekend. an 07 Hyundai Tiburon. Maybe not the smartest car to have in Utah, but it’s got a fairly good weight for it’s size. It’s not excessively powerful and plus it doesn’t snow down in the valley that much. It’s been a blast to drive so far and it’s been quite nice to get more than 11 MPG as well.
Fable II Review
Posted on December 21, 2008 - Filed Under Gaming, Review
I’ll start with saying I never tried the online co-op of this game. Fable just isn’t the type of game that seems to lend itself to a co-op. So with that out of the way, let’s get to the relevant.
Fable 2 at its core, is still fable. Combat hasn’t really evolved at all, for better or worse. The story is still fueled by family tragedy, and a blind fortune teller is your guide. So if you liked fable, fable 2 is everything you could hope for. If you didn’t like Fable, odds are this one won’t do any better to grab your attention.
Fable is the franchise that really popularized the concept of good choices and bad choices. Fable 2 sticks right in line with that. It also follows in line with fables reputation of big promises that fall short. Prior to release the choices were touted as being highly moral and not always being something that simplifies to kill them or let them live. Sadly, that doesn’t end up the case. There is very seldom a morally gray choice involved in the quest line to try and get you to think, what would I do? Than the grand overlapping story doesn’t do much to make up for it either. Early on you have a family tragedy, you’re told to extract your revenge/save the world you need to go find some people. So off you go down the path of good or evil to reach that ultimate goal. Accompanied by your trusty canine companion of course. Who also has his appearance change depending upon your decisions.
Beyond the good and evil changes to your appearance fable offers a good deal of customization. There are numerous outfits you can buy from tailors across the land. You can also purchase tattoos, new hair styles, bears, or makeup. Than each can be dyed with a wide number of dyes you’ll find throughout the land. Unfortunately for the stat cruncher inside me, all of your clothing has no impact of combat abilities, but will alter how people perceive you (attractive, evil, aggressive, etc). Weapons also offer a fair variety. With numerous types of melee weapons (axes, swords, maces, hammers) and ranged weapons include crossbows, handguns and rifles. With many styles within them making for some quite eye catching decorations to have slung across your back while walking around.
Along the way there is a fair bit to keep you entertained, or at least forget the mundane of traveling around the world of fable. You can get some odd jobs, some that are repetitive, but still a bit addictive, such as chopping would or forging sword or serving beer. You’ll find some others that are a little more involved such as assassinations or stopping bandits. These are good fun and ultimately the only way to get your initial cash flow. As you gain money you can buy property. Be it homes to rent or live in with your family (or families if you choose) or shops you can purchase. Each will earn you a set of income every 5 minutes, even while the game is turned off (much appreciated). You can adjust the prices of good or rent depending on if you are going for pure/corrupt route. Then of course if you picked up the Fable 2 Pub games on XBLA you know about the gambling you can do. There are several games that were created. Most of which are a good deal of fun (does anyone really enjoy slots?). These all add up to fun little diversions along the way, as constantly rescuing someone can get dull quickly.
Combat as mentioned remained the same. It’s simple, which is the advantage of it. X for melee attacks, Y for ranged attacks and B for magic attacks. My char focused on Melee, but was still strong in magic as well. For melee and range the controls work fine, however for a magic user it just falls apart. Since B is used for all magic spells and there are about 8 different spells to choose from unless you’re content with always using the same spell you’re constantly going into the menu screen to change spells for maximum effectiveness in battle. The other downside of a magic user is that as the game progresses your level 1 spells become weaker. So you have to charge up your spells to get spells that do effective damage. Which while doing so leaves you completely vulnerable to attacks and the spells don’t exactly charge quickly.
All in all Fable molds itself into a fun game. It’s never amazing but it’s never awful either. It offers enough verity to keep the entertainment value up, but never offers the depth to really suck you in for good. Like its predecessor it’s a good game that fell a tad short of its hype. However if you’re an RPG fan feeling the Next Gen shortage of RPGs, you can’t pass up on this.
Graphics: 7/10 Fable 2 never will drop your jaw with anything graphically. Few games with a large open world do, so it’s not a fault of the game. It’s got a couple of cut scenes that have a very nice art style to it.
Sound: 6/10 The music score is fairly well done and often fits the mood quite well. However, the people are just far too repetitive and it’s gets annoying quickly. If you go evil people will run and scream everywhere you go. While your off blacksmithing in the background you’ll keep hearing people scream “noo, nooo, don’t kill me, noooo!” It’s no better being good either, its constant compliments and always the same ones. The sound effects in battle aren’t much better by you or the guys being hit.
Game Play 7/10 The game is solid, but not great. Its combat is fairly simple, the story fairly straight forward, and very much is given to you quite easily. So it never does anything to really draw you into the world. It can take all of 3 minutes to go from someone hating your guts to being your wife with your first child. There is plenty of fun to be had, it’s just the fun quickly diminishes and it’s either find something new to do or turn the game off for the day.
Mike Factor: 6/10 Unless you are a RPG fan innately, I couldn’t in good faith recommend this game. It’s not action packed enough to help alleviate the mundane chores that RPGers are known to have a taste for.
BRB
Posted on December 10, 2008 - Filed Under Work, general
heading home for the holidays for the upcoming week. Unfortuntly it won’t be all fun as I’ll have to work on some Crystal Reports on the way, but it shouldn’t be to terrible, I’ll be back Tuesday night, hopefully refreshed and rejuvitized.
Oh and for those unaware, I’m back to C# and asp.net as I’m not working for the guy who orginally hired me(they left to start their own thing) and back to doing more or less what I was back in June, just trying to remember what I was doing in June is proving the difficult part 
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- chris: Cutler or no Cutler the bears offense is STILL below average and I am pretty sure the Bears only have a chance...
- dannycoolpp@yahoo.com: this game will come out when it is finished cause no one likes a half ass game……...
- Joe: Such a nub post…
- Curt: Highly doubtful as Blizzard has stated they are committed to *one* big release per year, and the next one up is...
- Jeff: Toast, after all your MLB 09 posts, I finally bit on the link and checked the site. Anyways, as for the Cutler...
- Dsp: You suck. Go get more buttah, then we’ll talk, Toasty. But happy anniversary, toasty. with love, dsp
- Jason: Has it really been a year already? Wow
- Jason: Very nice
- BK: So much for Patriotism… I am gonna get myself a Chevy. ^_^;
Recent Trackbacks:
- Mike Likes: Wait til Next year, tale of Cubs post-season.