I Hate Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance

I can’t stand Action RPG’s that are based on Pen and Paper RPG’s. If it’s D&D, or in the D&D world, I want turn based. Or if it’s not turn-based, I at least want a really close approximation of turn-based. Troika’s Temple of Elemental Evil? Awesomeness. If Knights of the Old Republic didn’t have the best Star Wars story since Empire Strikes Back, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Bioware had a kind of passing salute to the Star Wars RPG, but was ultimately changed around quite a bit to make it more action-oreiented. It worked, and I would still give the game 5 out of 5 stars, but for me, it would be even more fun if they had stayed true to the original RPG rules and had it be turn-based with the d20 bonus feats, class features, etc. After all, if Troika can do it, why not Bioware?

There may be an intersection between gamers like me who hate these Action RPG’s and gamers who enjoy “Strategy RPG’s” like FF:Tactics, Disgaea, etc. What I love about Fallout, Wasteland, FF6 and other RPG’s that use turn-based combat is that they come so close to recreating the feel of pen and paper RPG’s and paper-based war games. Turn-based strategy is king. It was even hard for me to like the original Baldur’s Gate when it came out because for me, it blurred the line between turn-based and real-time combat. Much like KoTOR has done. I should note that some action RPG’s are quite fun. I enjoyed Diablo and Diablo II to a certain extent. Dungeon Siege was fun for a few minutes. I’m a few hours into Jade Empire and absolutely loving it, but turn-based will always be my first love.

And I don’t think it’s a problem of repetitiveness. Example: random battles in FF6. Repetitive as repetitive can be, but I’m about halfway through it again, and still loving the game as much as I did 10 years ago.

Lego Star Wars for the win!

Alex at “These Damned Machines Are Killing Me!” (where IS Amit, anyway?) has posted a review of Lego Star Wars. It pretty much sums up how I feel about the game as well, and I would just add that co-op really is a blast to play.

Alex also noted the awesomeness of the scene in Lego Star Wars where Darth Vader debuts. It literally gave me goosebumps. Be forewarned, Lego Star Wars is chock full of Episode III spoilers, but if you’re like me, you know the entire plot for the movie anyway. In case you don’t, let me supply some spoilers here:

Darth Vader wins.

Console Clone Wars

I came across this website. I don’t remember exactly how, but when it said Console Clone Wars, I was immediately sucked in. Apparently, it’s a list of consoles that were pretty much rip-offs of other consoles. Like this one, the SpliceVision, a clone of the ColecoVision:

Here’s another one of my favorites. Apparently this one is an NES clone, that looks like an SNES. *shrug*

Oh, ha ha. Here’s another good one. It’s an NES clone. (I’m not making this stuff up.) Look familiar?

The Time for Inaction has come!

I read this today.

A little part of me died inside. The part of me that loves football, as well as creativity and innovation in video games. Any hope for the kind of advances in gameplay and design that were evidenced by Sega’s NFL 2k5 has just been completely smashed.

I absolutely refuse to buy any EA Games in the foreseeable futures. A boycott, if you will. Here are my terms…
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Well, it’s about time…

By way of EvilAvatar.com, I see that a trailer has been released for a brand new Stargate SG-1 video game to be released on PS2, Xbox, and PC.

I have been waiting for this for soooooo long.

The triailer looks pretty good, and appears to take place before Lost City. Apparently, it’s going to run the Unreal 2.5 Engine. Sweeeeet. Anyway, check out www.stargate-alliance.com for all the relevant details.

Review of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath

When Amit, at damnedmachines.com, declared that he enjoyed Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath more than Halo 2, I was skeptical to say the least. I went ahead and read his review and was intrigued by what was written. I HAD to rent this one.

So I did.
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Evercrack and Pizza

Foton at AFK Gamer noticed that Sony has built an… interesting… command into Everquest II.

I’m not even sure what to say about it. It is indeed a sign of the times. I thought it was a fake at first, if it wasn’t actually on Sony’s domain.

Here, check it out yourself.

Surreal.

“Oddworld: Strangers Wrath” better than Halo 2? I’m skeptical…

Amit over at one of my favorite game blogs, has an interesting review of the new Oddworld game.

Better than Halo 2. Heresy, I know. But I couldn’t prevent that thought from slipping into my head about a quarter of the way through Stranger’s Wrath. And by the time the game was over, I couldn’t make it leave my head either.

Ballsy. I have yet to try out the new Oddworld game, but I can’t help at least renting it, now. If and when I get around to playing it, I’ll let you all know whether or not I agree with Amit’s take on it.

Sidenote: damnedmachines.com and I are not allies, per se. We just happen to be using the same default style sheet that comes with Movable Type. Sorry, but I just don’t have time to re-learn CSS and redesign the whole site.

Uwe Boll: Why? WHY?

I need someone to explain to me one of life’s mysteries. How does this guy keep getting jobs in the movie industry? I averaged the IMDB ratings of the 8 movies that Uwe Boll has both produced and directed.

4.025

That’s somewhere between awful and crappy. I would also like to state that 48 out of 150 people gave Heart of America a 10. These people were probably the same ones that thought Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine was 100% factual. I also noticed that all 3 of the user comments gave it more than 8 out of 10… and surprisingly were not from America. Sorry, if you’re going to grade a movie called “Heart of America” about high school kids, you know, that live in America, I’m not going to take your opinion seriously unless you live IN America. This pretty much solidifies my opinion that people in Europe should NOT be trusted to give opinions on movies.

Which I think is why Uwe Boll isn’t working at McDonald’s or Burger King by now. His movies seem to be well-liked by Europeans. Well, fine. You guys can have him back. Please. Take him back!

If you want a good primer on Uwe Boll, I suggest reading this article written by a potential scriptwriter for Alone in the Dark. Then, read this interview that IGN did with Uwe Boll. It is awesomely powerful in its hilarity. And make sure to read them in that order.

My favorite part of the interview:

IGN FILMFORCE: Hey Uwe.

UWE BOLL: I’m driving to Wilshire Boulevard to go to an agency. I wanted to go to the press screening, but Lions Gate said, ‘Press don’t want to talk to the director.’ It was funny. I’ve never heard this before. They said the director always tries to sell [and] press don’t want thisÂ… So I accepted it.

IGNFF: So you were planning to come to the screening last night?

BOLL: (Laughs) I was not allowed to come.

Excuse me for a minute…

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!111

Oh wow! The movie studio actually requested that the director NOT SHOW UP to the press screening of the movie! *SNICKER*

BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh man… comedy gold.

China bans 50 video games

I wish I could live in China. Because if I lived in China, they would ban video games for me, and also restrict access to Google. China is great.

In all seriousness, they decided to ban games that were being pirated, so they’re spinning it like this:

As part of the effort to protect intellectual property rights and create a good environment for Chinese youth, the State General Administration of Press and Publication (SGAPP) together with the anti-porn and illegal publication offices, created a list of 50 illegal electronic games in a nationwide check-up on electronic publication and software markets.

I love it. So, among some of the titles banned are games like Battlefield Vietnam, Vietcong: Fist Alpha, and Conflict Vietnam. China really cares about creating a good environment for its youth. We wouldn’t want the Youth of China to see what went on during the Vietnam War. Especially not from a greedy capitalist pig-dog point of view.

I noticed they’re also banning The Sims 2. Okay, well, China’s not all bad.