1-Up and Street Fighter 4

So the 1 Up Show had a special episode dedicated entirely to Street Fighter 4. Featuring the first ever seen videos of game play footage. The game looks crazy (in a good way)
Here's the episode below. Or you can download the 1-Up Show through iTunes or just download it from their website. It comes out every Friday. It is a fine show... even when its not all about Street Fighter... it features the guys/gals from 1-Up.com, Electronic Gaming Monthly (the best video game magazine there ever was/is), and Games for Windows Magazine. A great bunch of folks (though some of them can be a bit annoying) hanging out and talking about video games. They also have a really great gaming podcast called 1-Up Yours.. and another video podcast called Broken Pixels.. which is HILARIOUS! (watch it... you will enjoy) and speaking of 1-Up and Street Fighter.. they have a huge feature on the history and future of the franchise here.

MASS EFFECT-IVENESS

So.. I have been waiting for this game for a long time... and I can honestly say it was worth the wait. Bioware makes a great RPG, the best RPGs out there is videogame land, and this one is sure to be crowned their magnum opus. The story is vast and rich (there is a novel to read as a prequel) and the sheer amount of detail they put into the world was staggering...

I am about 9 hours into the game... and already... I deem it "Karl's Game of the Year" (with Bioshock and Halo 3 coming in at second and third respectively. Honorable mention for Puzzle Quest) The first 8 hours were spent exploring the Citadel, the vast space station that serves as the political center of the galaxy. Exploring the many levels, talking to the cool aliens (they had a great conceptual artist and art director for this game, the aliens are all really cool), running quests for folks, and engaging in complex conversations... even this far in I know I am going to play through this game a second time... there are just so many ways to accomplish your tasks. (next time I will play a chick, and I won't be as nice as I am to people now, hehe)

The combat is very interesting... it is a great mix of First-Person Shooter and RPG Menu combats... with a smattering of Tactical Team play for good measure. You really have to think about what you're doing before you fight.. plan your power usage, choose weapons wisely, find cover, control your team... or you die. Trust me.. I know. Often at the hands of these guys...the Geth. (the bad guys)

And the graphics are wonderful... one of the prettiest games I have seen yet on the 360. The worlds and environments are vast and detailed... and the characters are amazing... they really feel like people.. instead of generic sci-fi characters... and the voice acting is superb. If anime had voice acting like this, everyone would watch anime...

Its about time!!!

but still along ways away....

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163721

Random Life Update!

Well.. life continues onward.. not stopping to ever let someone catch up and make some blog posts.. but here I am valiantly trying to keep up and catalog the happening of my life in digital text form.. probably unlikely to succeed, but I will have fun trying... I think...

So.. to get you all caught up.. over the summer I went home for about a month... I was living here in eastern PA with my sister, who then suddenly decided to move back home.. leaving me
kinda stuck. So I went home, got my learner's permit, learned to drive, bought a car, got my License, and (the same day I passed my drivers test) drove across the state of PA (well, kinda from the midway point) (did all that in about 4 weeks) - and now returned here to Eastern PA.. where I like it very much. I share a house with two other gents.. one and Accountant, the other a Park Ranger. They are nice guys, and one is very into video games like me (the accountant).. and we have a Two-360 household for it.

Work goes along fine.. we have been very busy... which is good for us... and we have the big store remodeling project in the next two weeks.. and it will be sooo nice to have the added room and work-flow problems fixed. And the additional computer for getting design work done... I am nearing my 2 year anniversary... which is crazy... seems like it wasn't that long ago I ws in Ohio playing DnD and working at a shitty Kinkos job... things have had their rocky spots out here (still trying to get my finances straightened out) but overall... it was the right move to make.

Have been playing alot more 360 and alot less WoW of late... I still enjoy WoW, but as of late the 360 has had the superior experiences.. Bioshock was amazing... and Halo 3 is a blast. (not to mention "the game" which comes out next month, hoorah!) Also looking forward to some awesome fighting action in Virtua Fighter 5, later this month...

We have a gaming weekend coming up, so I will have to buckle down and finish up my adventure for our IK group.. we play so little, and the gaps between our sessions makes it hard to keep a good focus on the characters.. but we still have a blast when we play. (which is whats really important...)

I am anxiously awaiting the TV return of BSG.. and November is the month (partly) There is a two-hour "movie" airing then called Razor (which will be frakkin awesome).. and then after that the looong wait until 2008 begins again for the final season (Season 4).. best damn show on TV...
I don't watch much else.. other than some Enterprise re-runs on sci-fi, Pain Killer Jane wasn't bad either... and Ninja Warrior on G4 is hilarious! I also watch Attack of the Show from time to time.. but only because I think Olivia Mun is great eye candy...(especially when wearing a Star Wars costume)

I do want to start blogging in my Star Wars blog again.. but thinking up a good post..is difficult... but I do miss that community.... some really smart and very cool people dwell there... and unlike here, people will actually read the blog, lol.

WIDGETS

Widgets make life easy in the blogging world... especially for those of us with limited html-experience. *raises hand*

I added some more to my blog.. as you can no doubt HEAR.. as this crazy music/dance/time thing is going on over there... I'll probably move it, or delete it eventually, but for now.. its cool. It has some very pretty Asian women dancing... why? Who knows...but if you even need to know what time it is.. I have you covered.

Also added a cool iTunes widget.. which updates with my current iTunes info.. music, TV, podcasts, whatever...

WoW

Yes, I still play WoW. Added a link/widget to my toon's info at the bottom of the blog, scroll all the way down (use the slider on the right), the widget wouldn't fit on the side, unfortunately.. so it had to go to the bottom. (at least until I find a better place, or a better widget...)

GenCon 2007!

EDIT: BONUS! MORE PICS ADDED! :)

EDIT 2: Added Link to the True Dungeon Reveal! Check out the story of the cool dungeon we went through! :)

Actual shot from the streets of Indianapolis! What a cool town :)

So another GenCon has come and gone. Much fun was had by all. It was a great Con, as it always is.. lots of new stuff to buy, lots of babes to gawk at, lots of games to play, and lots of time with my good friends... a perfect weekend.

So what went down at GenCon? well lets start with Role-Playing...

The bigs RPG news was of course 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons from Wizards of the Coast. Releasing in May 2008. I didn't actually attend the "unveiling event" I was busy playing other things (see below).. but you can watch the entire event on You Tube.. so its all good. Speaking of which, heres some of those vidoes now.. (don'tcha love the internet?)

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

So my opinion on this whole thing keeps changing... my first impression is What the Hell?? D20 has been going strong for years now, there is TONS of OGL content out there, and WotC itself has a bazillion books out there.. why re-do it all? After watching the vids.. I can see some of their reasoning.. and I am intrugued. I would like to go on.. but this is a overall GenCon post, not a 4th Edition DnD post.. catch me in the comments or in e-mail and we can talk specifically about it. One thing I will say that I am looking forward to with the 4E release are the online tools.. all I have to say is... Its about Fucking Time Wizards got their Heads out of the Archaic Asses! Online character builders? Online encounter builders? Online DnD playing (for those that live far apart)?.. Yes Please!

Other RPG type stuff.. we continued our yearly transformer game, ran by my friend/cousin Dave.. this time it had a twist where we were playing the bad guys. (I played a particularly evil Insecticon named, Mindswipe) It was great game, and much fun, as it always is. Dave runs a great game, and his love for Transformers shows through in his role-playing.

We also tried a new game I had been wanting to try for a while now. Its a large group RPG with alot of humor called Kobolds Ate My Baby...it was a blast.. you play little kobolds who are trying to ..well.. eat babies. You are not smart, and you die alot, usually in horrible ways. :) It is fun. Worth checking out.

How about Miniatures? well.. it was all about Hordes:Evolution.

Which is an amazing expansion to the already awesome miniatures game from Privateer Press. Their products get exponentially better year by year.. and this is no exception. The new models are awesome, and thier artists/sculptors never disappoint... the new Warpwolf Extreme Model is gorgeous... here are few pics I grabbed with my phone...

We also played a mini-campaign that we wrote that involved around the discovery and capture of an Arcane Mechanic and his rampaging warjacks. We didn't actually make it to the end of it.. (we did need to sleep ya know) .. but we had some awesome battles. A notable one was the battle betwixt myself playing Morvahna the Autumnblade (Circle Orboros) vs. my pal Rob playing Vlad (Khador).. it was a brutal battle that came down to warcaster vs. warlock.. the way all battles should end...

We also sampled a new board game.. the new StarCraft Board game from Fantasy Flight Games. Its was really awesome.. this is a game kinda of in the vein of Arkham Horror.. big, complex, and way fun to play.

Saw some cool WoW footage in the exhibit hall, they were running some of Wrath of the Lich King, which looks perty cool.. and Star Craft 2 was up and running.. and it looked amazing!

And it would not be GenCon without the ever evolving and always cool True Dungeon. This one had some cool puzzles.. and some very difficult puzzles... and we slayed a Shambling Mound, a Medusa (good thing we had all those scrolls of Stone to Flesh) and for the first time in our GenCon careers.. WE SURVIVED! Here is the story of the Dungeon we went through! The puzzles were paticularly devious this year! =D

and of course.. the babes make GenCon what it is... heres some pics!

So the chick above is carving SPAM.. yes SPAM... but more importantly that is DuctTape Girl.. she goes to GenCon every year and always wears home-made and revealing costumes each year. We alwats speculate as to what she will wear each given year.. and seeing her fine costumed form each year is a grand thing. More pics below... the Master Chief himself.. and me and my buds hanging out in the WotC area...

Life Size DnD Troll




The miniature that wouldn't fall over! Must be an act of Menoth!



And one last pic of Mike (Moron) standing on the streets of Indy, taking in the Public Art.. 5 Guys Waiting...

Musings the from Halo 3 Beta

So...I spent some time in the Halo 3 Beta...

First off, I am realizing just how bad I am at this game, lol. And that my skill level is completely dependent on the skill level of my opponents... there were a few games where I finished in the top 3, and others where I finished dead last. But I expected that... and it wasn't long before I turned off the voice chat...

My initial thoughts - It's still Halo. And that is a good thing. It still feels very much like all the other Halo multi-player matches I have played. very fast paced, very chaotic at times. The graphics are nice, but didn't blow me away. Then again, these are just multi player levels, so they had the usual rocks/grass/water etc.. looked good, but not Gears of War good... The new controls are superb, they take a game or two to get used to, but after that they worked perfect. The difference being the R/L triggers and bumper buttons correspond to your left/right hands in game... which makes it very easy to pick up or drop dual-wielding weapons, and you can independently reload the guns as needed.

The equipment button is very cool (X) and lets you use any "gadget" you might find, included the very cool Bubble Shield. This stops all incoming gun fire and explosions, but doesn't stop people from entering (think of the giant shields the Gungans used in Episode 1) and man does it look and sound awesome! Though once people are used to it.. they just pop in and stick you with a grenade and pop out... so don't stand in there admiring the look/sound of it when being attacked like I did :D

Other equipment are Potable Grav Lifts which you drop and then leap really high when you hit it, or you can toss it in front of an oncoming vehicle to send it sky high. Then there is the Power Drainer which, as it sounds, drains the energy from everyone's shields within its AOE.. haven't really gotten to try that one much...

I only used two vehicles, a Ghost (which felt exactly the same, though it looked way more detailed) and the new Mongoose, which is cool, very quick, no weapons, controls very similar to a Warthog. The new weapons: the Spiker, which is pretty cool, and can be dual wielded, has a blade beneath it (its a Brute weapon)... the Spike Grenades are very fun, they stick to anything, people, ceilings, vehicles, etc.. and fire a burst of spikes in a conical type shape, which can ricochet all over exploded in an enclosed area. And the Spartan Laser, which I have only been able to fire a few times... because you instantly become a target once they know you have it.. but its worth it. It fires a "tracer" beam that has lasts a few seconds before the laser fires in an impressive blast that destroys anything in its path.. All the weapons seem really balanced, and it seems as if you can do pretty good no matter what you pick up, instead of the usual race for the good stuff. And the returning Assault Rifle is a fantastic starting weapon...

There is an awesome new game feature (that is somewhat limited in the Beta, but will be fully integrated in the full game) where you can save films of all your matches to watch later. And Bungie is allowing space for everyone to store their films on their servers, so you can see just how terrible you did! Apparently in the full game you can send just snippets of games to people if you want them to see a cool explosion of kill, etc.. and its way easy to do. (after a game is over, in the lobby, there is a button that says hit this to save, and thats all there is to it...) Full details on that are here.

Anyway.. its much fun, even when I die all the time. Thats pretty much what I did in the last 2 versions of the game... right now I have 97 kills, and 145 deaths, lol. You can see my horrible game stats here.

Verdict? Halo is great. halo 3 will be awesome... gonna go play some more...