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Looking back these years playing Second life, an online virtual reality game. Friends come and go, though I’ve gained a few more friends who initially were my customers. The only thing that is missing in my second life is I need to socialize more, I have to admit it plays a huge part in the game. That is also one reason why I don’t have too many friends in there. All I did and still am doing is login, build and logoff. By build, I mean building houses, stores, malls and bunkers you name them. I really love building in SL, because it allows me to release my imaginations through the use of software tools.

When I first started with no money, I didn’t have my own land and thus I didn’t have my own store. I had to rent from someone. The place was called Mobius Village, it drew my attention because my avatar name is Mobius Hashimoto, so it meant something to me. Not sure if it still exist though. Also the rent there was resonable so I had my little store there for about half a year or so. Then I found another place called Armory Island which, as you can guess, sells military related products and is the biggest place for your military needs. There is no rent but AI charges a 25% commission, which is somewhat steep. But with the traffic there, I thought it was worth it and its also good for exposing my products to more people. About a year had passed, my business was stable enough that it would cover the monthly land ownership fee as well as the premium membership fee. I decided, with the help of some friends, to buy my very own piece of land, its a 4096 sq feet of space, which was and still is more than enough to build a relatively spacious store. You have no idea what the feeling was like to own your first piece of virtual land!

So here I am, still building things and running my little business. Although I don’t build as much as I used to, my passion for building and this game overall is still as strong. Lately I’m just occupied with other things that I haven’t built for months until now.

If you are into virtual reality type of games. You should definitely give Second life a try. It is free so you have nothing to lose other than some of our first life. There are just many fun things to do there like clubbing/partying, building like me, or just socialize with others and play many different types of interesting mini games that are built by others in Second Life.

Time flies, its already been 2 years since I’ve joined Second Life. So I have decided to design and build a 2 year anniversary prefab. As usual, I tried different ideas and came up with this. Hope you guys like it!

Mobius

I just read an article on DailyTech and thought I should write my thoughts here. Its been known for a long time that some professional sports athletes use performance enhancing drugs. One recent accusation comes to mind is Roger Clemens, a famous Major League Baseball or MLB player who used to play for the Toronto Blue Jays (I’m from Toronto so that’s how I know him, not that I watch a lot of baseball though), using these drugs.

Back to pro gaming.

Whether its illegal drugs like marijuana, amphetamines or any other ones that I don’t know of, or legal ones such as caffeine pills or sodas. Even if it doesn’t “boost” your gaming skills while in effect, it is still harmful to one’s body. And if these drugs do prove to enhance gamers’ ability to play better then there is an unfair advantage to those that can afford these drugs. As mentioned in the DailyTech article, one immediate and obvious solution that comes to mind is drug testing. But this solution is very expensive to implement in the pro gaming industry.

If money is the problem for implementing this solution, should the Government get involved? This is public health related after all. Since gaming has become a profession, I believe it should be taken look into more seriously like any other business or profession.

I was going to wait til Friday (day off) to get a copy of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice from EB Games, I couldn’t wait and got it yesterday I have been waiting for an RPG game for my PlayStation 3 since I got it last November. Until Final Fantasy 13 comes out, which is hopefully end of this year, I would need some RPG to satisfy my RPG hunger til then. And what can suit me better than a Japanese anime style, level grinding RPG game? None except this game. Obviously I have not finished the game, and most likely I won’t in the foreseeable future. Here are my thoughts so far.

As mentioned, this is a RPG game and turn-based with 2D sprites with 3 camera modes (bird’s-eye view, zoomed in view and really zoomed in view). First thing I noticed about this game is the graphics, which is pretty outdated in my opinion. They remind me of an online RPG gamed called Ragnarok Online, which has been out since 2001 and still remains popular even after it started charging monthly fees instead of being free like in the beta period. This shows that a game can still be a considered a good game even without fancy graphics, a game with fancy graphics but with no game play value is still a bad game, well most of the time. Disgaea 3 is exactly the case, even though its graphics are outdated. Its game play more than made up for the short coming.

The game starts you off with your main character, a netherworld student from Maritsu Evil Academy called Mao, a son of the overlord in the Netherworld. You actually play on the evil side for once as oppose to other games where most of the time you are on the “good” side fighting off evil. Here’s the fun part, in the netherworld school, an honor student is a person who skips class and not doing homework as much as possible, whereas a delinquent is a person who acts the exact opposite. And as you can guess, Mao is an honor student. The story is ok, its more suited for teens since most of the conversations are pretty childish, which is ok because the characters are after all, kids. There are also humor here and there as well and some are pretty funny. There is also an option to skip any story telling and conversation between characters by pressing triangle button which is a huge plus since I don’t find the majority of the story interesting, at least not yet. You can also change the voice over from English back to Japanese, which is yet another big plus since it just feels different having English voice over.

  

Game play of this game is what made me want to buy this game right away as oppose to wait for a couple of months and let the price drop. The play value as well as replay value is amazing. For those of you that are into leveling up your characters, you can level them to level 1000 and each stage can be played repeatedly or you can just play through the game by clearing each level once. Since it is a turn-based game, you get to move and attack/use item and end the turn, then your enemies will do the same. A very noticable difference, or I should say improvement over any other turn-based games is that the enemies move all at once as oppose to one at a time which can be annoying. The game pace is fast even under normal speed setting. Your characters can counter attacks and enemies can do the same randomly, so you can see counter-counter-counter attacks for example. Characters, again enemies as well, can combine attacks and form combos and which also happen randomly. There are also monsters in the game and they can “magichange” which pretty much means morph into weapons and allow human/demon characters to wield them, another fun feature. I’m pretty sure there are other fun features as I play more, but as you can see, this game is packed with so many features. Oh and by the way, I look forward to my first million point damage!

Control is pretty standard and straight forward like any other similar games. You can rotate the map 360 degrees so you don’t miss anything and 3 different views mentioned above.

While I like this game a lot, there is one thing that really bothers me, the music. While the music is very upbeat, it gets boring and down to annoying if you remain in the same area or in the same battle for too long.

That’s all I got to tell you guys for now, I’m sure I have missed something but there are just too much to talk about and I need more time to digest. So if you are an anime fan and are into level grinding, you should really check this game out.

You might save some money by buying on ebay link. I saw some good deals there, even the limited addition version. I would buy games off ebay if there were more Canadian sellers, sending from the US is not worth it and is often more expensive than buying in local stores.

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August didn’t have alot of games that interest me, except Siren: Blood Curse. But end of this month, we can expect two good games being released and at least three more next month (based on my preference of course, you might find these games boring). With all these great games coming out, for sure I will be broke in the next few months.

I will now briefly write about each one.

 

 

 

 

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
I have never heard of the Disgaea series before, apparently its a Japanese anime style with 2d sprite characters turn base SRPG game. I’m a big fan of this type of RPG, aside from the sprites, the environments are in 3D, the special effects are amazing as well. And I’m always attracted to number games and this game definitely caught my attention with its million point damage! From the trailers, it has many different combo attacks, 100+ hours of play time (not sure if that is actually a good thing though, unless it is really that fun) and over 270 customizable characters!
Expect a review once I get my hands on this.

 

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Ever since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I haven’t really paid attention to other first person/third person shooter game, well of course except Metal Gear Solid 4. Mercenaries 2 lets you play the main campaign with your friends. It offers a wide range of vehicles to take control and you can earn money to purchase gears as well. I’ve also checked out some trailers but I found the computer constantly calling for backup and saying the same thing over and over again which was annoying. But overall this game should be fun for those that enjoy blowing up stuff!

 

And coming in September:

 

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
One of most anticipated games this year is finally here in September. A lot of trailers have shown what the impressive Havok Physics™ system can do when Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, your character, uses the “force” on enemies or on non-living objects like boxes or even a large ship. Graphics are impressive as well and makes the gameplay even more enjoyable in combination with the physics engine and other new technologies that are introduced for the first time. Demo will be available on August 21st. I can’t wait til get my hands on this one.

 

LEGO Batman
Ahh need I say more? LEGO Batman. You can never get enough of LEGO, anything with LEGO is almost a instant win. LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones were/are pretty popular. There is a lot of replay value in all the LEGO games because you can unlock characters each with his/her own unique ability which will allow you to go to places you previously couldn’t. And don’t ever think the audio and graphics are childish either, they are amazing as I’ve seen from the LEGO Indiana Jones demo. I’m actually curious why the demo was released after the full version.

 

Silent Hill Homecoming
I’m a big fan of survival horror games like Resident Evil, Fatal Frame and Siren. I feel that every new series gets nastier and each with a more twisted storyline. If you are a fan of past Silent Hill, you should not miss this one. And this game isn’t for everyone, if you can’t handle the “sickness” and the “twistedness” from the movie, (I think I just introduced a new word there) then this game isn’t suitable for you. For those that are a fan of the deadly but sexy nurses, they are back!

I would like to hear your must-buy list!

As soon as I saw 1942: Joint Strike demo on PSN, I downloaded it immediately. 1942 was and still is one of the most addicting war plane shooter games of all time. Its simply classic. The remake is in 3D and the graphics are just so crisp and sharp. Back then when the plans blow up, it was just a simple blow up image, now the planes actually break into pieces and disappear.

In terms of game play, like I said, its just as addictive as the classic version, it also has stunning graphics. You have more ways of blowing up your enemies now. You have this new shooting mode where you hold the shoot button, it will fire a stronger shot like from the yet another classic plane shooter called R-Type in addition to the classic shooting mode but I didn’t find that new mode effective. Aside from normal shooting, you will have the bombs that will basically wipe out anything on the screen. Missiles is also another new weapon where, if I remember correctly, you get to use them by shooting down enemies. And finally, instead of getting killed in one shot, this version of 1942 features a life bar instead, life bars are nothing new to plane shooters but its a nice addition.

The demo features one quick level, as you can guess, there will be a boss at the end of the level. The memories of playing the classic version just came back to me when I had to dodge all over the place just to not get hit by the many bullets just fly towards you. It was amazingly fun!

I highly recommend this game for those that find plane shooters addictive. With better graphics and game play, 1942: Joint Strike is worth every $9.99USD/CAD that you are going to pay for! I might even get the full version later.

  
 

If you want to look for a copy of the original 1942 on NES, I’ve found some on eBay.

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I should have mentioned this from the beginning about this game. The characters in it are full of facial and physical expressions. For example, if you idle your character and/or your companion will start to moan (not in the sexual way!), cough or cry, in the case of Bella Monroe. A lot of times, assuming the companion is in range of the shibito, they will react, but sometimes he/she just stands there and get hit which is a minor annoyance. And after you have killed the shibito, Miyako, for example, will ask “Is it over now?”. Things like these make the game much more interactive and enjoyable in my opinion.

Chapter 8 lets you play yet another player, his name is Sol, the camera man. You can actually use him and his trusty video camera! I found it funny killing shibitos with it. But in the end, I picked up a gun instead along the way. This chapter is rather straight forward.

Chapter 9 is short but is also one of the most intense chapters, yet another spoiler! You get to actually fight the giant baby crying shibito I mentioned in previous review using Melissa Gale (Sam’s ex wife for those who forgot). The second part you are using Seigo, the guy with the rifle again, and the mission is to protect Bella Monroe to escape. It was annoying when I played it because I wasn’t quick enough protecting her from places to places. Basically if you are not fast enough, she will die, period.

And you get a very special surprise while you are doing one of the last set of sub goals for this chapter.

And finally, chapter 10 is just running around for the whole chapter, just with different characters and purposes. Nothing too special except the scenery for the second half is actually quite a sight.

Stay tune for the final review for chapter 11 and 12! I can’t wait to see the end!

I downloaded the demo tonight to try it out, I had doubts before as I’ve seen many negative ratings on most, if not all of Facebreaker’s trailers. But I belive you really have to play it yourself before you can criticize.

The demo offers you 3 of 12 playable boxers as well as your own. You can fight either by using those 3 boxers or 2 custom made ones plus one that you can make. The custom boxer is actually a good idea. You are given the 3 options:

create boxer – where you can download a photo off from EA,

use a USB camera that you have to connect to your PS3 (not sure how well the photo will populate the boxer’s face as I don’t have a USB camera.

Or you can start from an existing boxer. I have created a purple looking one based on the existing playable boxer Steve.

The fun part is the last option, you will literally take 30 minutes to even an hour going through each customization such as the pattern and color of the boxer gloves, hair color, eye color, body color, body size etc. Customization to me has always been a huge bonus when I just how flexible and user friendly the game is.

Onto the game play and graphics. As mentioned before, a lot of people are not too positive about this game. After playing a few rounds of the rather short demo, I think its not that bad after all. In terms of game play, its fast pace, really fast I should say. You are basically smashing all the buttons and hope you will land some punches to your opponent. I do have to agree with people posted on gametrailers.com on the fact that, even on easy difficulty it is still quite hard to beat your opponent. And the fact that your opponent punches so fast its hard to use dodge or parry.

Graphics wise, running on 1080p, its bright and clear. Even though its not top notch graphics, I wouldn’t say its bad either, just not the best!

My final verdict for this game is if you like fast pace games or fighting games in general (by the way this game is no match with Soul Calibur 4 and let’s not go there) and if you like to put your friends’ faces as the boxes, which I would find it fun if I had a USB camera. This game might be for you, or at least a rental game. Definitely not as bad as some of the people commented.

Finally got a chance to play chapter 6, it isn’t a long chapter so I combined with chapter 7 as well. From the previous chapter review, I mentioned the level of difficulty raises as you progress through each chapter. But, I didn’t feel that way this time, though I still died a few times throughout these two chapters, maybe it’s either I got better at this game (lol) or some levels are just more difficult than others. I think all the playable characters are introduced, and most places are revealed (?).

There is really nothing much to say except the graphics haven’t stopped to amaze me. Chapter 7 consists of many old rusty shacks, and each one is just as detailed. I still find it too dark though and always forget to adjust the brightness to get rid of this problem. I know its part of the “atmosphere” but sometimes I have trouble finding the way.

A bit of a spoiler.

This chapter introduced some sort of boss shibito, a lot bigger and is really messed up. It cries / screams like a baby but is taller than the shibitos roaming throughout the game. I apologize i should have taken a picture of it but I was too “involved” in the game I forgot about it. Or I should say I was too intimidated by the size of the shibito and I tried to kill it by shooting him non stop and wasn’t able to. I assume its scripted to not die, at least in this chapter.

Overall, I think the story is kicking into high gear, I say that because things are getting more complicated.

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