What I've been Playing 9/23 - 9/29

Skyrim - PC

Playing Skyrim almost a year after it's release is the very heart and soul of VG30.  I purchased it during the Winter Steam Sale, tried it out a little bit, and left it to be.  I've recently gotten into the game and am enjoying it very much.  There's still a lot of "Hey, I'm going to go check out that cave that happens to be on the way to my next destin.. OHGODTHERE'SAGIANTMONSTERINTHEAGHGHGPBLBEL ... dead but it's been mitigated by hitting me enough times to teach me to stay on the main story path.  You'd think after playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas that I would have learned this lesson by now.  Nope.

Double Dragon Neon - PS3

I tried out Double Dragon Neon on the PS3 expecting an HD remake.  It was pretty close right up until I walked into a pagoda, had it rocket into outer space, and I began fighting a skeleton samurai with just TERRIBLE puns like "Time to make a MARROW escape!".  It's not a bad game, and I'll probably be sinking some time into it as I grow tired of...

Scott Pilgrim vs The World - PS3 

Another side scrolling beat em up, this one follows the movie in a 16-bit retro style game that's fun to play, but very shallow so far. 

Zombicide - Table Top

We played our first game of Zombicide last weekend, and lost pretty badly.  An abomination popped out with about 10 other zombies, which was really hard to recover from in Scenario #1.  Permadeath didn't help matters much, but from what I'm being told the scenario we played is extremely challenging.  We need to try it again with scenario #10 from what I'm hearing on the Board Game Geek forums.

Castle Panic - Table Top

I enjoyed playing Castle Panic, but there always felt like there was a correct move to make above all others.  Maybe it's just the way the pieces fell in our game, but I'd definitely like to give it another play.

Other Thoughts

Roxio has a HD recorder that's just been released that we would love to have to be able to start putting up video reviews and our own screenshots.  Hopefully it's something the blog can swing in the future, right now it's not in the cards.

Borderlands 2 looks like a lot of fun, but I've decided to take a pass on it for the time being.  The reason for this is in the original Borderlands, I only played with friends, and with my current baby schedule this isn't something that's really possible.

Return to Ravnica will be pre-releasing this weekend, and it's the second set in a row that I won't be buying a box of because of not having the time / money to play in standard any more.  I have been getting more into EDH/Commander, but am still playing in the pre-releases this weekend. 

Space Marine - Review

SPACE MARINE

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine is the best description that I could offer somebody SPACE MARINE on how not to introduce a popular franchise to a new generation of potential players.  This sounds harsh , I know, but Relic / THQ does little to introduce this extremely vast and richly detailed universe inside of the game. 

I have a background in table top gaming.  I was a a national champion in Mage Knight, and a Press Ganger for Privateer Press.  I actually have a set of Warhammer 40k sitting in my closet right this moment, but I've never played it, and I think this is the problem.  They expect the people who are playing this game SPACE MARINE to already know this universe, and for somebody like me, I didn't know why I was doing anything.  The game tells me to live my life for the Emperor.  Who's the Emperor?  The game tells me for an achievement I have to duke it out with 10 'Ard Boyz.  What the hell is an "'Ard Boy?"  The game doesn't make any effort to teach you anything about its universe, and was a big miss for me.

I looked him up on a Wiki and apparently this is the Emperor, but I still don't care

So if the game isn't teaching us anything about it's universe, we have to devolve SPACE MARINE the game into a 3rd person hack and slash / run and gun game.  As that, it still fails.  Well, let me elaborate on that, after an hour of that, it fails.  

This is pretty much the entire game.

SPACE MARINE starts off very promising, it teaches you how to regenerate health by using brutal finisher moves, gives you some neat weapon upgrades, and even a jet pack for a little while.  Once you're finished with the jet pack, you have played everything that this game has to offer.  To call every combat a minor variation of the last combat encounter you experienced 2 minutes before would be an insult to the words "minor variation".  It's the same Orks coming at you over and over.  Sometimes there's a sniper, sometimes there's a couple guys with rockets, but it's the same fight and there's very little you have to be worried about while playing.

So why am I saying SPACE MARINE over and over in my review?  Besides being the title of the game, it's by far the most common phrase I heard the entire game.  You see, every time you run into a pack of enemies, one of them inevitably shouts "SPACE MARINE" in a British accent, and comes charging at you.  The first few times you don't notice, but it gets annoying not only fighting the same enemies, but hearing the same things.

From a non Warhammer 40k fan, the story is awful and the ending is worse.  To be fair, I checked with a 40k fan who also played the game, and he loved the ending to it.  This really goes to show you how much they needed to bring players into their universe.  This is a fun hour long romp squeezed into a 10 hour package, and there's little to keep you going if you're not a fan.  You should probably keep clear of this one, there's better ways to spend your free time.

Space Marine.

What We've Been Playing - 9/1 - 9/9

With Gencon over, we've been trying hard to get at least initial playthroughs of our newest toys to get a feel for them before trying to write reviews.  The past two weeks we've had games of Seasons, Lords of Waterdeep, Cosmic Encounter, Mage Wars, Smash Up, Seven Sisters, Elder Sign, and I can't think of what else and there's still a half dozen games we have yet to even open.  Otherwise..

FTL - Faster than Light

FTL - Faster than Light is a space Rouge-alike that VG30 supported during its Kickstarter campaign.  This is a fantastic game that at least bears checking out a "Let's Play" video on Youtube, but it comes out next week on Steam and GOG.  Highly recommended.

Dungeon Fighter Online

I've recently begun playing Dungeon Fighter Online again after taking a small break, and still enjoy the game immensely.  There's a version of this on Xbox Live, but I really couldn't get into it with such limited options.  Give this one a spin, it's free to play and is a lot like a MMO meets the old 90's arcade side scrolling beat 'em ups.

Dead Space

Slowly making progress in Dead Space, starting to find the controls scarier than the game, but still moving forward slowly.  With the recent announcement for Dead Space 3... well, we have a lot of catching up to do.

Bloodrayne

Just Cause 2

I tried getting into Just Cause 2, but it's too over the top in one way, and not fantastic enough in another.  I know plenty of people that would enjoy this one, but it's just not for me.

Space Marine

Finished up Space Marine, hope to get a review up soon.  Short review:  1 hour game squeezed into a 10 hour box.

The Ones to Watch - September 2012

Con season is over, September is finally here, and that means it's the best time of year - when all of the kids go back to school.  Also, it's game season, which comes in a close second.  Let's take a look at September's Ones to Watch

Borderlands 2 - Multi Platform - 9/18

The most unfair, yet factually acurate, thing I could say right here is "Borderlands 2 is brought to us from the same studio who brought Duke Nukem Forever into existence."  Borderlands was a fun game when it was released a couple years ago as a FPS meets Diablo style game.  It wasn't a bad game by any means, by the majority of people I played it with say the same thing: "It's not a single player game."  I had the most fun playing with other VG30 contributors, and quickly lost it's spark as they out leveled me.  While I will personally not be partaking in this one (at least not until the Game of the Year edition eventually hits), plenty of other people will be, and the game looks good. 


Mists of Pandaria - PC - 9/25

Saying World of Warcraft's popularity has waned over the last couple years is no surprise, but is still the number one MMO by a large margin.  In this edition of the game, the new race, Pandarians, are joining the adventure with new combat styles and of course, all new adventures to go on.  This really feels like WoW is reaching for lore before unveiling their new MMO, especially when they're going to lore that they made up as an April Fool's joke.  This isn't quite like making a game based on the Secret Cow Level, but it's not that far off, either.

Aaaand that's it for the ones that everybody needs to pay attention to.  As honorable mentions, It's Kirby's 20th anniversary, so Nintendo is re-releasing Kirby's Dream Land, and it's also Street Fighter's 25th Anniversary, so Capcom has a large pack that can be purchased compiling all of the different street fighters released over the years.  Fifa 13 is coming out, so expect Xbox Accounts to be hacked like crazy again. 

Q:  Why does VG30 rarely have Table Top games in the Ones to Watch?

A:  Board game companies are plagued with manufacturing and shipping delays, so it's next to impossible to properly gauge when a board game is coming out.  Typically we have it narrowed down to a certain quarter, but even then it can be delayed (we've been waiting for Galaxy Trucker's next expansion since January, and Cutthroat Caverns for well over a year).  Also, there's just too many manufacturers out there to keep track of for a small site like ours.  Sorry, we'll have to stick to the Gencon updates.

Gencon 2012 Wrap Up

Gencon 2012 has been over for a couple weeks now, the attendance tally's have been counted, the money counted, and without a doubt it was a hugely successful convention this year.  With over 41,000 attendees this year, game companies were able to get their messages out, and their newest games flew off of the shelves at an unprecedented pace.  Every game that we flagged as a One to Watch that was present at the show ran out of their supply within an hour of being made available.

Let's go over a few experiences we had at the convention this year.

The Will Call Line

This picture is from 2011, where the Will Call was not ready to handle the sheer number of people coming in to pick up their badges and tickets.  2012's Will Call was massively improved, despite losing 2/3rds of my tickets for about two hours on Wednesday.  They were able to find them with minimal hassle to myself.  Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the Sunday Family Fun Package, in which a line stretching from Will Call to the 500 Ballroom appeared, causing people to stand waiting for reportedly two hours before being able to get their (severely discounted) badges.  Hey, speaking of two hour waits...


Scotty's and RAM have Two Hour Waits for Seating

I know my friends are tired of me beating this dead horse, but why are we gamers still putting up with a two hour wait for cold food and warm beer?  There are DOZENS of great places to go eat in Indianapolis, but because these two restaurants somehow say they're catering to gamers by printing our some paper menus with gamer terms on them and playing Captain America on the TVs normally reserved for sports, people flock to them.  It doesn't make sense.  Gamers, you need to go out and explore and find better places to eat.  On Wednesday night we walked by the RAM, and I stopped to ask a group how long they'd been waiting, sitting on the sidewalk.  They said just over an hour.  I tried not to laugh, thanked them, walked ten feet to a Japanese restaurant and was ordering food within 15 minutes.  Not only are the waits long, but one of the waitresses at the RAM was quoted on Twitter "I don't think a lot of people are ordering salads this week" after a gamer had placed his salad order. We deserve better than this. 


Pay to Play Demos

This is the first year that I actually had to pay to play an hour demo for games.  Usually I just head to the hall and grab a seat at a booth and learn how to play a game. I try to keep out of the hall on Saturday due to the high traffic, so I booked some time with a few different companies to try out their games in a more intimate environment.  I don't know if this is how things have worked in the past, but it was new to me, and I'm not sure I'm thrilled with it.  Arcane Wonders were able to run non stop demos for free, but other games had to charge, I don't really get it, and don't really like it.  We'll see what happens in the future, but I sadly think this is the way it might go in the future (if it hasn't already).


The Future of Gencon

Gencon 2013 has some mighty big shoes to fill next year, but I don't think they're going to have any problems doing it.  The rising attendance and the popularity of Geek and Sundry and their amazing ability to bring designer board games to retail stores are great for the hobby, but 2013 is going to be the year of Kickstarter.  Gencon 2012 had a LOT of booths with that I was able to immediately recognize from Kickstarter:  Zombicide, Seven Sisters, Farmageddeon, Relic Kights, Agents of Smersh, Sedition Wars, D*Day Dice, these are just SOME of the ones that were either funded or are currently being funded on Kickstarter that were in attendance this year.  Next year is going to be crazy, and it's going to draw the fans like never before.

So hey, um, Gencon... can I book my hotel room now?  I've got a feeling it's going to be tough to get one in February.