Powerleveling

While playing Pokemon, I had some trouble with a Gym. The solution? Powerleveling. Powerleveling is when you go fight monsters only to level up, not to beat quests or something like that. Ussually, it is just clicking on monsters and it is not very fun. But, it is nessecary in most rpgs. And most gamers are okay with that. I am. But just leveling up for the sake of leveling up will alienate most casual gamers who can't afford to spend hours grinding will be put-off. There is no easy solution, but most casual gamers will not touch Oblivion or Zelda or any rpg, just because they do not have enough time to play.

Normally, this would not be a problem. Many genres thrive without the support of casual gamer. But the rpg genre is HUGE. It will be fine without the support of the casual market, just not as fine. But this whole problem could be bypassed, had rpg makers simply put adjustable difficulty setttings in their games. Any casual gamer who is serious about playing an rpg will probaly have to run a shared account, where a more experienced gamer helps them out. But, this will lead to arguments and is probaly not the best choice.

If said casual gamer is playing an mmo, he can hire a powerleveling service to level him. They work like this: You give then your credit card number. Then you give them your name and password. Then they hack your account and start playing. Well not playing, grinding. Grinding is when you go to an area where the enemys are low enough level not to be a threat, but are high enough level to give some good exp. You will level there very quickly. It is also very boring while grinding. So while the company is leveling your character, you sit back and relax.

After a couple of days, you will get an email of notification of your leveling is completed. Then you can log on play on your newly high level character. The downside to this is that you will not know as much about your character as you should, your quests won't be done and other players will avoid you as you will not know any abbreiveations. You gear will be crap. And you will have lost hundred to two hundred dollars.

Only time will tell whether people will get smart to powerlevleling services, or whether rpg maker's will include difficulty settings.

Bioshock

I am here to inform you about a game that may have slipped under your radar. It's called Bioshock and it pwns. So anyway, you know how in WoW there are cougars and some prey animal, and it is implied that the cougars eat the prey, but you never see it happen? Well imagine what would happen if the cougars had to eat to stay alive. What if they eat to many and it takes forever for them to come back. What if the prey overeat on their food and have to move to find new food? Then the cougars have to move to. What if one cougar takes to much meat, and the other members of the pack attack and kill him for it? There are many other things that could with that kind of ecosytem.

That ecosytem is what makes Bioshock complete. Well that and a massive anmount of enviromental interactivity. Bioshock is being hailed as fps 2.0. And from what I have seen, it deserves that title. To be honest with you, I rould rather have Bioshock then Halo 3. But what have I told you about the gameplay itself? Nata.

Bioshock play's like an fps. Ammo conservation is critical. To save ammo you will have to use things called plasmids. These are basically superpowers, and are interchangeable. They range from Telekineses, the ability to make thing get set on fire, and my personal favorite, splicer irritant. Splicers are this games zombie. Use splicer irritant on a non-splicer enemy, and that enemy turns into a homing beacon for splicers.

So, if any of this stuff sounds interesting, go google Bioshock and do a little of of snooping your own.

Pokemon Pearl/ Blacksite area 51

This is not a Pokemon Pearl reveiw. I just wanted to report that the difficulty has turned out t be fine, it is a lot harder then the preveious entries in the series though. The gameplay remains pretty much unchanged, and even the desighn of the cities is the same so far. What seems really odd is that some Pokemon will suck ( they don't even know a damage move) until level 8 or 9 ( about two hours worth of playing). Besides these gripes with the game, I am really enjoying my copy of Pokemon Pearl. It is definetly a cut above the rest of the Pokemon games. I will probaly have a reveiw of it up within the next couple of days.

So anyway, a new demo just got released over Live for Blacksite Area 51. I have played through it several times, and I am glad to report that it is coming along nicely. One of the innovations of this game, morale, I found do'snt matter very much. They only get a couple of kills, so who cares if there scared out of there wits? ( the sqaud, but you wil probaly get spooked to!).

Pokemon Pearl first impressions

I just got got Pokemon Pearl, and I am feeling two things: frustration and a sense of accomplishment. The frustration comes from Nintendo screwing up the difficulty, at least on the starting zone. In the previous entries, newly caught Pokemon were good for one or two battles before they had little or no health. Now they last for one battle, if that. If you and a wild pokemon fight, the wild pokeman does more damage, gets more critical hits, and pwns better then your pokemon. But when you kill one , you get a greater sense of accomplishment. So it is an even trade off. But in the next game, there should be adjustable difficulty settings.

This is the series first puting to the Ds, but it is not very different then the normal ones for gba. It's use of the touch screen is not very inituitive, but it is a fun gimmick to screw around with. the graphics are somewhat better, but they look sort of corney. No one complained about the origanals grahpics, but these have lost any and all style in them, just making them a step back from Ruby's.

This is not a review, jsut a glimpse of what the game is like. I usually make reveiws when I am a good way thrugh the game but I just started this one.

Viva Pinata reveiw

This is a breash of fresh air for me, as most xbox 360 games feature big guys with big guns. This game has big pinata with big candy. While this game is definitely rooted for the younger audience, it is also a great animal sim 9 or pinata, I guess).
It's gameplay is not very complicated, at least on a basic level. I'd guess a 5-year old could figure it out. Basically, you have a patch of land you must turn into paradise. By makeing, for example, a lot of soil, you will attract Whirlms which will then attract Sparrowmints. The Spparowmints will then eat the whirlms, and the whirlms will reproduce. Thus begins the circle of life. Eventually bigger pinatas will come, like this Syrupent (above) and 60 or so more.

This is Viva Pinata at a basic level. Thing's will quickly get more complicated as pinatas can get into fights, and there are also sour pinatas which will do bad things to your garden. Alas, Viva pinata is not perfect. It has one major flaw: repitition. Whenever your Pinatas mate, you have to play through this minigame. It's like a maze, but it's top down ,making it very easy. You have to play it every time a pinata is born.

All in all, Viva Pinata is an amazing game, but older gamers won't like it as much. For this , I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Unreal Tournament 2004 reveiw

While thinking about the upcoming Unreal 3, I remembered this old gem. Its's out for the pc, and you should be able to run it.

Ut2004 is basicly like the arena in Oblivion, but you ue guns instead of swords. And while the guns are not extremely new, they each pack a satisfying punch. While you will quickly develop a favorite ( flak cannon ftw!), you will quickly realize that Unreal is ultimatly about tactics, like picking which weapon to go for or whether not to engage in another firefight. Then you will come to your senses and realize that it's all about the reflexes.

But whether or not you think its about strategy or reflexes, there's still alot more to this game. There's a currency system which you ue to make bets, join matches, and pay for doctors. You will also get to pick your team, and asighn positions atthe start of the match. If none of this stuff sounds appealing to you, then there's always instant action. But by adding this sytem, Ut get's a whole new layer of ownage.

Now about the actual gameplay. Basicly, you spawn in with a weaksauce gun that barely has enough power to kill someone. Then you head of to find a better weapon and pray that you encounter no one along the way. One you have some real firepower, start looking for your favorite gun. Once you have that, it's time to start shooting stuff.

Even though it sounds pretty basic, the aforementioned strategic depth help flesh out the experiance. You can also customize the matches, albeit only in instant action.

With all this stuff, Ut becomes on of the better shooters on the market, but slowdown questinoble spawnig make this game fall just sort of classic.

Overall 9 out of 10

Annex

If you have a 360, odds are you have heard of Gears of War. This third person shooter is one of the first must-have title n the 360, and it just got another reason for you to put it in your drive.

This reason is a new game mode called Annex, a domination like mode. You get it via a free update that your 360 downloads when you play Gears. You can only get this update if you have Live, and Im going to make a small guide on how to play the game, as it's very confusing at first.

So anyways here are the rules for Annex:
As soon as the game starts, you will notice ome weird symbols on the upper-left side of your screen. It should have a picture of a weapon on it. Now go the weapon it has pictured. If you do not know where the eapon is, there will be a small arrow on it. Follow it, and it will lead youto the weapon spawn you need to go to. Stay at the weapon spawn for a few seconds and wait for the little ion to fill up with your teams colors. Now find a good spot and hold the weapon spawn. Points will begin to fill up on your teams symbol. You can only get 60 point from each spawn, and after that 60 points, a new spawn will be chosen. Gameplay go's on like this until one team has the required amount of points. Another thing about Annex is that you respawn if you die. It will take up to 15 seconds, but you will get back in the game.

That pretty much concludes how to play Annex, so go pop Gears in you disk drive and Play!