A Second Chance Summer

I'm going to start off by apologizing for not posting since I've started. However I did state at the beginning my probability of actually posting. But lets put that behind us and get on with this.

This summer I have given second chances to a few list of games. Games of which I own but don't particularly play much anymore. Games by which I have bought and didn't really care for them when I bought them. Now I don't like to waste money as much as the next guy. So I kept the games. Quite frankly I'm glad I did. Here's why. Despite not playing the games for however long. I have recently started playing them again. By playing them again I have found a new place for them in my favorites. I'll start with the first game.

Team Fortress 2

Don't get me wrong I have always enjoyed TF2. I mostly enjoyed it on the Orange Box for Xbox 360. But as I went to college and had less time to spend on online console games. I eventually dropped Xbox Live Gold. That is a different story. Because the version of the game I'm talking about is the PC version. I first got TF2 for the PC because of the different updates that were not included in the Xbox version. I was rather upset to hear that Microsoft wasn't allowing Valve to release the updates to the Xbox for free. So I defected. TF2 was the first Steam game bought on my current steam account. I was so excited when I bought it. After the ungodly long download/update time that has become a reoccurring thing with steam games. I was finally ready to play TF2. I booted up the game and got ready for some exciting 2Fort, my favorite map, action. But to my uneducated console gaming mind. The setup for a PC game is quite different than that of a consoles. Instead of just joining a random game or a friends game. I had to scroll through hundreds of different servers. Most of which were full or on an unfamiliar map. I was confused by this great difference between PC and Console. I quit playing TF2. I occasionally would try and play it on and off throughout the year. But was greeted by the same confused feelings toward the game. It wasn't until after the Uber Update and the "Meet the Medic" video. Which announced that TF2 was "Free to Play Forever" I decided to give it another shot. This time I was hooked. I have racked up over 38 hours in the past 2 weeks. I really enjoyed this game. I am also glad I decided to give a chance again. Now that Team Fortress 2 is free to play I recommend this game to everyone over 17.

Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale

Considering I bought this game at the begging of the summer. I'm not quite sure it was given a second chance. When I first played the game, which boasted "Select your class and build your ultimate hero." I was disappointed. There are four classes to chose from. Fighter, Wizard, Rouge, and Cleric. On top of only having four classes. You can't really choose your race. Each class is represented by a race. There's the Human Fighter, the Elven Rouge, the Halfling Wizard, and Dwarf Cleric. I was turned away from the game by this. But I didn't stop playing until after I discovered that "Rolling up your character" meant that the characters stats where already predetermined for you. I turned off the game and hadn't started it again until a few days ago. This time I decided to pick a class that would be easy to play, the human fighter. I picked my feats and was ready to go. I immediately noticed how fun it was to just break every barrel you see. Most barrels contained Gold which in return bought cool weapons. After I had accumulated enough precious gifts from barrels, I bought better armor. But when I did the rendering on my character went away. He basically looked like a blue blob with weapons. This game isn't perfect and it does take getting used to. Even though I gave a second chance and was able to enjoy the gameplay. I would not recommend this game to anyone else. This game is bad.

These are just the most recent examples of games I have been playing lately. I also got a hold of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Which is just as good if not better than the original. I would like to thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed my posts. I probably wont post anymore this summer unless really compelled to.

Just in case anyone was curious. This is what I have been listening to lately:
I suggest checking them out

I'm Batman!!! Part 2

Yesterday I started playing Batman: Arkham Asylum and I've got to point out that it is a very, very addicting game. So if you want to play this game you better have a strong will and/or lots of free time.

   I was going to review Halo: Reach today but decided against it having already beat Batman: Arkham Asylum. What can I say the game wouldn't let me put it down. I for one can't wait until Arkham City which comes out hopefully October 18th this year.

Current Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Progress: Story Complete
Background Soundtrack: My Pandora Quickmix
Current Song: The Mob Song by Alan Menken from Beauty and the Beast

Gameplay trailer for Arkham City by IGN via Youtube

   Let me start reviewing this games story. Now I'm going to try and keep out as much spoilers as I possibly can. However it being me there are no promises. Yesterday I stated that what I had seen of the story by that point was good. Well that is an understatement. The pieces of story that I was introduced too is barely of any significance. In the long run the story is fantastic I haven't played a comic game with a story as good as this. It is a free roam game (sort of) but it still does a fantastic job of keeping you on track of the story and not distracted by something else that is of no real importance. The transitions between certain aspects of the story were seamless and did there job well. There was very short loading times, if any, which made the game run smoothly. As far as story goes I'm going to say well done. Now let me talk about gameplay.

   

   The gameplay of this game was simple enough. Perhaps to simple. In Arkham Asylum you have when fighting you have 2 main basic attacks beat the crap out of people relentlessly by pressing X* repeatedly and stun them real fast so the can't hurt you by pressing B*. Sure there is the counter which is Y* and dodge, double A*, but they are really more for defense which occasionally comes in handy in combat. Yes you can through your batarang around which is only really helpful in combat if you are fighting the Titan Project Subjects or Killer Croc. However when it does come to boss combat it does take a bit of strategy to take down your foe which does the game good because just pointlessly beating the crap out of things is only fun for awhile. This puzzles not just the extras but the ones within the story are great and challenging but not too challenging (But not Portal 2 challenging). Overall I'd say the gameplay experience is really great.

*Default Controls**

Overall Batman: Arkham Asylum is good game. I have only had it for less than a day I don't know the replay value of it yet. Most single player exclusive games have very low replay values in my opinion but for now I'm going to collect all of The Riddler's extras and try to beat it on a different difficulty. I'd rate the game 4 out 5. I'd recommend playing it. That is of course if you can play games rated Teen. You gotta follow those ESRB's kids. Well until tomorrow. Feel free to recommended a game for me to review.

**I don't know why anyone would not use the default controls and just get used to that like a man.

Jumping on the Bandwagon or I'm Batman!!!

   Allow me to introduce myself. I am a 19 year old college student, Vocal Music Major, living in Parkville, MO with a long summer ahead of me. I usually don't have the patience for this sort of thing but I have a few friends that have one so I'm sort of jumping in it too. Let's just see how it goes. Half of my summer I will have some summer classes. Other bits will be looking for and hopefully getting a job. But other parts will be fun filled with my favorite, non-singing, hobby of playing video games. Even though I don't usually do well with blogs or other forms of social updating sites, other than facebook which I rarely update, I'm going to do my best to keep this rolling, at least all summer.
   I figured I could blog about my favorite hobby video games. I have wanted to set up some way of me to review some of the video games I play and post it online. I have considered doing voice over reviews. However I don't have the funds nor means to bring footage of me playing a game, other than recording with my camcorder (which is unprofessional and silly. DON'T DO THIS KIDS). So I'll just stick with a blog and with the theme of my blog being one of my interest should be easy to update.

Current Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum for Xbox 360
Progress: Just Started
Background Soudtrack: My Grooveshark Library
Current Song: The Cinema Show by Genesis

   Even though I've just started this game I will state that the inspiration for me to buy it came to me while hanging out with a friend of mine. We were watching his roommate play it and it just made me want to go out and buy it. So I did. In exchange of my Mortal Kombat, which I really didn't care for but I'll get to that later. What I have noticed far about this game is it's great story. Granted I have just started so I have not fully felt the impact of it. However from what I've seen and played so far it is very good. Also the graphics are good looking. Keep in mind I think the Wii has some good graphics so coming from me it might not be to reliable of a source. For now I'm going to keep playing the game and post a full review later when I've finished. In the meantime I'll try to post some reviews of games I've completed in the past. Which spreads across a wide range of systems and eras. Thank you for taking the time to read my first post and I hope you will look forward to future posts.