6/27/08 – The day I finally obtained a Playstation 3.

WARNING: Wall of text to follow. And yes, you’re not seeing things. I’m actually making a post.

The console itself is a lot larger and heavier than I expected it to be. I knew it was like the monolith, but I didn’t expect that much of a similarity. The console seems to be sturdy, though. They have a relatively low failure rate (especially when compared to the Xbox 360).

So far, I only have one of the original SIXAXIS controllers but I plan on getting my hands on a DualShock 3 as soon as possible. The SIXAXIS is extremely light and charges quickly. Other than the gimmicky motion sensing, the controller is a lighter version of the PS1/PS2 controller – a complete lack of evolution. This is one area the 360 is ahead for me, simply because the controllers have at least slightly evolved over time.

Next up is the Xbox Dashboard and XMB (or whatever Sony is calling their interface). While the XMB and PS3 interface allow for a lot of options, I haven’t gotten used to them yet. I find the 360 to be more appealing because of how easy to learn it was and how quickly I can get to what I want with it. I also like being able to send message, look at my friends list, and have private chats during and out of game. With the newest update the PS3 now has in-game XMB which allows for sending and receiving messages, but still no private chats. While I may currently be giving the nod to the 360, I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up preferring the PS3 once I’m used to it.

The online services are both drastically different, too. Xbox Live (XBL) has a fee of around $50 per year, while the Playstation Network (PSN) is free to all PS3 owners. From what I’ve read, there tend to be more problems overall with PSN, but I haven’t had a chance to test any online games. That probably won’t happen until I go back to school unless I buy Soul Calibur 4 for both systems and play against my cousin.

Since I brought up the online service, now would probably be a good time to talk about the online stores. The Xbox Live Marketplace is easy to navigate, and has lots of content, demos, videos, and movies on it. I’m not always a big fan of navigating it, but it never leaves me hoping for more. I can almost always find a good Xbox Live Arcade game. This is one of the major things the Playstation Store is lacking, good games that the user can purchase. Xbox Live has Soul Calibur, Ikaruga, Rez HD, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 1980’s arcade game), ports of board games, and many more. The Playstation Store has a few of these titles, but not many. The only one that I’ve found to be notable so far is PixelJunk Monsters, which is an extremely fun tower defense game with the option to bring in a second player to help you. While it may be a good game, it isn’t enough to bring the PS3 on par with the 360.

This brings me to games on the PS3. So far, I’m not that blown away, but I only have one game – Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4). I was expecting big things from MGS4, but it ended up being Movie Gear Shooter 4. 1 hour of cut scenes, 10 minutes of a third person shooter, rinse, repeat. I’m having fun with it, but I really wanted more. At this point, I’ve only got demos for all of the other games and I’m trying to make sure I play exclusives first since I have most of the multiplatform games that interest me on my 360. I’m not quite sure why I have to download a demo and then install it, my 360 has them ready to go as soon as they’re done downloading. Is there some sort of install process the 360 just isn’t telling me about or is the PS3 just that…different?

While I realize I haven’t had the PS3 long, this is by no means my final opinion. I’m sure I’ll have plenty more PS3 opinions and PS3 versus 360 in the future if I keep posting.

On a side note, I’d like to import a few games. I’m a fan of importing games that are fun and relatively easy to learn without being able to understand them. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

I’m currently home for christmas break after a great semester at Virginia Tech. I’m going to use this time to try and get my blog back on track (now that I have my password again). Hopefully I’ll actually keep up with it this time unlike last time.

Sorry about the lack of updates and such. I’ve been really busy with school and other stuff. Hopefully I can have another review or update with SOMETHING sometime soon. I’ll try to pick up the pace a bit in my free time. I’ve got plenty of games I still need to review, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Finding the time to actually do the writing will be the harder part.

Wish me luck!

Today was quite the day at Virginia Tech. It started off normally, but ended up becoming extremely stressful. Around 10:30 in the morning, William Morva was reported loose on campus. He was considered armed and dangerous. Because of him, everyone was sent back to their dorms until he was caught around 4:30 in the afternoon.

Sorry about this being so late, I meant to post it before I left for school. I finally moved in and got situated, so I felt like it was a good time to put it up.

When I first started hearing about Dead Rising, my mind connected it with Dynasty Warriors. I’m not really sure why, but I always pictured the game as mindlessly running around killing zombies all day. A few days before the release of the full game, a demo came out on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo changed my thoughts on everything about the game and convinced me to go preorder it.

Graphics: Dead Rising is a gorgeous game. The graphics are extremely detailed and aren’t so over the top that the system lags. There can easily be a hundred zombies on screen without any loss at all. You can wear different outfits and see lots of detail on them. None of them look too similar! You can even see different details on the faces of everyone, zombie or human.

Sound: Dead Rising has decent sound effects. Weapons all sound good, the voice acting is good, and the zombies sound good. The elevator music in elevators and the boring mall type music while you’re in the mall are nice touches. Sometimes the sound can get bad in the game, though. When you’re driving around the maintenance tunnels, the sound can get relatively jumbled and confusing.

Game play: Game play is handled extremely well. The game has a wide array of moves you learn as you level up. When you first start, you’re extremely reliant on weapons because of how easily you can handle bigger groups with them. As you level up more, you gain more freedom in your play style. Some of the combat can be mindless, but at times you have to think about what you’re doing so you don’t get killed too quickly. It keeps a good pace going and holds up with solid action.

Lasting Appeal: If you don’t mind killing zombies over and over, the lasting appeal is pretty good. Certain achievements unlock new outfits or new items for you to use, so if you’re a collector there’s plenty of reason to play through the game multiple times. The wide selection of weapons and ways to beat the game could get plenty of people to play multiple times, too. The normal 72-hour mode has 5 or 6 different endings. Once you’ve finished the different modes, you unlock 2 more that extend the game play and story even further.

Final Notes: Dead Rising isn’t for everyone. The violence can get extremely overboard quickly. I would suggest keeping the game far away from children. Disembowelment, decapitation, and other things similar to that give it a good reason to be rated M. With all of the things you can do in the game, I would recommend it. If you can deal with the game play and the gore, Dead Rising is an extremely solid game that deserves to be up there with the rest of the good action games on consoles. Killing zombies may get old eventually, but for now it’s the most fun I’ve had on the 360 other than Chromehounds.

The Church of Raptor Jesus is growing stronger!

I’m currently on my way to completing my second ascension on Dun while everyone else is still working on their first. I guess finishing once already ended up really helping me go through it faster this time! I keep trying to get more people I know to play, but it just isn’t working.

After asking people, I finally figured that I could come on here and tell everyone how awesome our calendar (3 extra adventures per day!) is and that they should all start playing and join us. Thats right, anyone who reads this.

Is an adventurer you? It should be. Come join the church!

I finally picked up my copy of Dead Rising. I’ll start working on a review and try to have it finished before I leave for Tech.

The demo for Dead Rising, the first zombie game for the Xbox 360, came out today. The game will be shipped on August 8th.  If you’re lucky, you can pick up a copy then.  If you can’t find it on the 8th, you can be sure places will have it on the 9th.

The demo is extremely limited in what it lets you play. You’re confined to one certain area of the mall. It’s 2 stories and has 3 exits. If you try to leave the area or you die, the demo ends. It also ends if you run out of time. You start the demo off with 2 melee weapons and a shotgun. Zombies are all over the mall for you to kill. You can kill them, run past them, take pictures of them, and so on. This game is NOT for children. This game contains massive amounts of violence and blood.

I haven’t had this much fun with a game in a while. It’s a great blend of action, comedy, and potentially even horror. Yes, I said comedy. Personally, I find zombies hilarious. Running around trying to kill zombies with a purse is much funnier than I ever expected. Since you play a journalist, you have the opportunity to take pictures of the chaos. Whenever you see a good picture, you can pull out your camera and take a picture. Pictures are worth points, though I’m not totally sure what the “pp” are. So far, the best pictures I’ve found are point blank death shots. Plenty of different kills are possible making tons of chances to take pictures or rack up your kill count. All of these things will be used for achievements in the full version. Achievements will range from certain kills and kill amounts to rescuing people.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the demo has convinced me to pre-order Dead Rising instead of waiting until I could get a copy of the game.

Pure Awesomeness.

An Adventurer is You!

I heard of Kingdom of Loathing a while back but was never interested in it because I was playing games like World of Warcraft. This summer I had some time to find Kingdom of Loathing again and try it out.

KoL is a web RPG. The entire game is played on your browser and requires no extra downloads. You pick one of 6 classes and start your comical adventure in Loathing. The first day of gameplay gives you 80 “adventures” or turns to use. Every day after that gives you 40. To get more turns, you drink booze or eat food. Every time you level up, the Council of Loathing gives you another quest and you get the option to buy another skill from your trainers.

Once you hit level 3, you have the option to join a clan. I’m currently the leader of my own clan, The Church of Raptor Jesus. Clans allow you to trade items and get benefits from different items in the clan hall. Clans can also fight each other in a “war” mode where they steal things from each other.

If you end up looking into the game, send me a message on my character Dun (#987008). I’d be happy to talk or invite you into the clan.