Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

It's an rpg! I love rpgs! I do not love this one. It's got that Elder Scrolls kind of "I can run around and do anything at any time" kind of feel, which is good, but its not the same by any means. They also have a loot doesn't go anywhere system... so when something drops off a mob if stays there forever if you never pick it up... good idea, but in practice doesn't make much sense, especially for a game that is trying out realism (you don't immediately stop when running or walking you do a little slow step thing, when you attack the animation has to finish you can't just start doing something else), I mean if I was walking down the road and saw a dead wolf with something shiny in it.... someone is gonna pick that shit up!! Another thing about loot, when you sell to a vendor that vendor keeps the items forever, so you always have the option to buy them back if needed, and each vendor has his/her own list... so using a central vendor is basically an essential. On that note! You can steal items from other people, but you can't sell them to regular vendors if they are stolen.... how the hell is dink vendor in starting town going to know if the item I stole from the end of the game is going  to be stolen??? And 99% of the stolen stuff is useless, like old letters, and peasant's clothing... how?!

Okay, first paragraph was side-track city... onto number two! Combat! It's a simple real-time system. When in range or engaging an enemy you go into combat camera mode, where it basically stays on an enemy from your third person view. It's not bad. You can block, dodge, attack, and cast. Generally, you'll have two weapons and then specials. All three classes get a shield of some sort, so you block and if you have it unlocked you can do an attack from the blocking stance which will dodge out of the way too, kinda cool. I'm a caster, so with a staff it'll do a little pillar attack if there is an enemy in range and dodge me out of the way. I like it, but often times forget I have it because I have an upgraded blink move which looks bad ass, so I spam it. Ha! Dodging is simple, you have a direction and just roll or blink out of the way. Attacking, you have the two weapons I mentioned before. As a caster I'm using chakrams (duel mid-range weapons) and a scepter (long range). Most of the time I can just spam my attack and it'll interrupt the enemy where I can just spam it on him to death, even if the weapon is broken (makes no sense). Anyways, combat is decent, doesn't remake the wheel, but its acceptable.

Next up, miscellaneous shit you can do in the world. There is soooooo much populating this world. So much useless shit too.... remember the old letters I mentioned? Vendor trash like that is all over and its obnoxious. Most of the time you can't tell what is and isn't useful. Something MMO's seem to have gotten right, but single player rpg's can't grasp. There are also a lot of side-quests. I've played about 10 hours and I think I've done maybe 6 main quests otherwise its just quick travelling around doing side-quests for lulz. They also have a sort of mini game for dispelling and unlocking chests. The unlocking chests, you have a pick and you just keep testing spots on the lock till it unlocks, I'm getting pretty good at it. Dispelling, there is a circle with runes on it, you have to click the runes as a white thing spins around the circle and you have a certain amount of time to do it in. This is fucking impossible! I have yet to successfully dispel a single chest... Regardless, there is a lot you can do, you just have to find it.

Real fast, the quick travel feature. From what I can gather you don't get a horse or anything so its a lot of running around from point A to point B and then back to point A to turn in. The quick travel system is very nice, that you can just go to your world map, click a discovered point and travel there. Since there are a lot of quests that go from this side of the map to that side its ingeniously helpful.

Speaking of quests, this game has them! Mostly mediocre things like picking up remains, killing wolves, blah blah blah. There are some epic feeling ones though, but I feel cheated in the end. I just killed "The Widow"! OOO WEE OOO! It's a spider queen plaguing this town. Spoiler! I guess I shouldn't feel that cheated, I got my own house in the end, but seemed like no loot, which pissed me off.... and the town got bright and happy afterwards.... like I accomplished something.... End of Spoiler. Again, I haven't really even touched the story quests, but one of the big parts of praise on this game was its epic feeling and massive amount of things that mattered. I haven't gotten that feel yet. Dragon Age gave me more of that and that game is supposed to be short compared to this. I'll keep playing until the new X-Com comes out or I break down and get Guild Wars 2 and hope for something awesome....

What else... Combat... quick travel..... loot... quests.... OH! It's an rpg, so there are levels to be had right?! Of course there are! This game is unique for an rpg. You don't have a set class, which I fucking love! You know how normally you pick a class and you're just stuck with it forever... this one, as you level you just put points into whatever tree you're feeling at the time. Then at the end of the level up screen there is a destiny thing, which just gives a little boost to dmg or regen or whatever. The thing that I like is they actually have mutliclass options for this. They promote the idea to use all three classes! Then, get this, if you don't like it.... you just spend some cash and redo it all from scratch! HA!

Unfortunately, the class/leveling system alone isn't enough to make this game great. I'd say its worth a play, but definitely nothing to try to convince your 60-70 year old grandmother to play it and then have your boss steal it and have to use her to defend it and your reputation at work the next day because you were to stupid to make a backup of it, while your neighbor buys a monkey who learns karate and there is a voodoo shaman just hanging out getting high in his basement.... Man, Jurassic Park was a good movie.

Faster Than Light

Faster Than Light,  a 2D "dungeon crawler" in a sense. Think Battlestar Galactica, with no fleet. You got a ship, you have a crew, you go around on a map from place to place fighting ships and whatever else. Each time you land in a new area an event happens, whether that's finding nothing, a ship on fire you can lend a hand to, or an enemy. The objective is to make it through (what I can tell) 8 different sections controlled by a random faction, with randomly generated maps in each section. Going around gathering up scrap, weapons, fuel, or ammo, you try to make your way to the boss and beat the game. Sounds easy right? It's hard as fuck! I made it to the 6th section and bam! random encounter I couldn't get away from and dead. 

I fucking love this game. Once you figure out all the aspects to it... its a lot of fun. I probably spent a good 10 hours on it in one sitting. It's geniusly simple, yet extremely complicated. Sometimes you have to just suck it up and watch one of your units burn alive inside your ship, other times you'll just man handle the enemy with you ion cannon and drones. I guess here I'll get down to the nitty-gritty.

First, I should mention, you can pause at any time and issue orders to your ship or crew. This is a god-send most of the time since otherwise the action doesn't stop. So, you start out, jump to a new location, and encounter (maybe)! Assume its a pirate parading around... He attacks you, you charge up your lil lasers and your crappy missle and pound his weapon systems into submission. He can't attack, but he's probably sent repair teams to that location. So, at this point I'd go for the shields (if he has any), and in the process destroy him (hey, we just started). So, you jump around some more, collect scrap, upgrade your ship, exit the area, and so forth. Once you reach the 4th or 5th sections the enemy starts to get cloaks, ion cannons, big bad ass missles, etc etc etc. The same strats don't work anymore. Not to mention, you're also getting boarded by enemies that seem to be able to kick your head in.....ughhhh........ When you die, you just start over, and this will happen, a lot. It's still a ton of fun!

Another thing I like is resources are very limited. There have been times when I was just absent minded or ran out of scrap and ran out of fuel since I didn't buy more... You just wait there... turn after turn after turn sometimes, I think my record was 6 turns without a whisper... turn on emergency beacon... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT! YES!!!! That's right, you run out of fuel and it's your "oh shit, come save me button." Remember, in an emergency, people pray on the weak... its a double edged sword, if you will. I've had guys send a transmission saying "oh yea, here's some fuel!" "FIRE ZE MISSLES!" Damnit.... It's a cutthroat world, but sometimes it pays off, getting supplies, new crew members, whatever!

What else.... oh! achievements! They have general achievements and ship based ones. They actually unlock new shit for you (cool feature!). It's not just how many times can I headshot you with a M16A4 or carry a gnome statue to a rocket at the end of the game... it's new ships and layouts (not sure the purpose yet, still working on that). 

I think my one beef with the game is the crew. They are smart enough to repair a room they are in, or manage your engines, but holy shit, they die when you look at them wrong. I guess it's two beefs in one.... during these random events, sometimes there are these giant spiders (I love saving people from giant spiders!) and every time I go to save people my guys fucking die! You'd think I'd learn stop helping people but that's just the kind of person I am. Whatever though, I know I'll be coming back for more when I get off work....

That's all! 

P.S. It's on steam for $9 I think... I don't know if its worth the 9... but its closer to fair than $60... 

Next up! Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Probably...)

X-Com: Enemy Unknown. Initial Thoughts.

First and foremost, I have to mention, I'm a die-hard X-Com fan, so this might be a little skewed.... but THIS LOOKS FUCKING FANTASTIC! Gameplay video is here.

To really preview this you have to understand what the original and follow-up were. Two fantastic games. Basically, the inital part of the linked video, you sit at your base, researching technology, building new weapons, upgrading your base, recruiting and sometimes enhancing your soldiers. You had funding from different countries around the world based on how well you dealt with the alien invasions. That's basically the overview of it. Then you get into the actual combat. After you shoot down a craft, or your radars detected an already landed threat, you would go in and engage the aliens. It's turn-based combat, where you have a limited amount of actions in your turn. Uncover the map, find aliens, kill or capture aliens, return home to continue research and what not. All in all, pretty fantastic, and not mention a real challenge. If you haven't played X-Com: UFO defense or Terror from the Deep you really should. I won't get into the other titles, since I never played them (couldn't get them to run on my pc at any time), but here's a link to the wiki if you care to learn about them.

Onto the actual preview!!! There is a bit of information about this game out there, and I've only seen parts of it, but what I have seen I like. So, same idea, you sit at your base, research, enhance, build, etc. It has a new "ant-farm" look, changed from the top down grid view you had before. Seems to be just a cosmetic change, but fitting for the updated graphics. I like the UI, a lot of games will show you how to navigate the UI and then you'll forget everything you learned two seconds later but this reboot informs you at all times what you can press and how to get into different menus or other parts of the UI. Fantastic! The base also looks nice, populated with random shit you don't really care about, but adds to the depth of the game. They could have easily just said "fuck it, its a base, let's make it static and boring" but they actually took the time to fill it with... well, filler.

Another nice thing, that I could see getting really annoying, cut-scenes or at least pseudo cut-scenes. They add a lot to the action and just overall feel of the game. If you watched the video, you see when they interrogate the alien and had the little video play or when they launched Raven-1 it actually flew out. Depending on how often, long, and if they are skip-able or not, it could get really annoying. They also put these action shots into the combat portion of the game, but it seems much less drastic and still adds a ton.

To combat! You've landed, exited your ship and are ready to drink milk and kick ass, but you've already finished your milk. They've added a nice cover system, its hard to tell how this will work (full cover/half cover/no cover, I assume) but it makes being a tactician very important. You can't just run in guns-a-blazin' and expect to win, you have to use the terrain to your advantage, and I think they show that off quite well in the video. Another win is it looks like your soldiers have a class system. Who knows how that'll work, but they show off heavy, support, sniper, and assault soldiers. The original you just had soldiers, basically what gear you gave them determined the role they played. No extra abilities like holographic targeting or a medic with healing, only whatever gear you outfitted them with.  Good changes, that I hope are highly customizable.

I'm just really excited for this game, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. It really does look like its going to be an updated version of the original, and I can't complain with that since I have a mega hard-on for these games.

Here's another look at the the title: Enjoy.

As promised: FFXII

Yesterday I promised to do two reviews, one for SoM, the other for Final Fantasy 12. I'll begin with things I love about this game: ....

Done! Scratch one thing off my list. Now things I'm surprised about: The ratings this game has received by popular websites. Almost all of them gave the game a near or actually perfect score. I cannot believe this. I'll give them that the game looks fantastic for the last final fantasy game on playstation 2. Here's the opening. Save for that there isn't much I liked about it.

The story was meh.... you follow some wiener kid named Vann around on his stupid adventures. Some "epic" crap goes down and you wiener you way through meeting some rabbit girl.... ughhhhhh just remembering all the time I wasted on this "hit" game makes me want to cry. All I remember was the ending was so unspectacular that it took like 2 minutes of a cut scene to finish up.  That can be found here. I was wrong, 5 minutes, but who cares, there is a ring and ship, ending complete. Yay! It ends with the kid doing his dream and becoming a "sky pirate." Great dream kid, you wanted to become an outlaw and did it, great lesson you're teaching the youth of today.

Onto the important bits. Combat. It's a real-time fighting system with the Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system. Take the traditional ATB systems and put them into a concept where you don't enter into a battle scene and just fight it out then and there. You still have the bar that charges up before you can do anything besides moving around, or you can just run off without fighting the target. This is both good and bad. You don't have to waste time fighting every little thing that comes at you, but you're also put into situations where you could and probably should kill something just because you need the experience.

On top of the ADB system, we are now presented with the gambit system. It's basically your AI for your party. What happens is you setup conditions and then what those trigger. So something like "ally hp < 30%" and then something like "use crappy health potion". It's just as it looks, when any allies health drops below 30% that character uses a crappy health potion on the afflicted character. This can be both a savior and an annoyance. The savior bit is self explanatory. The annoyance... let's just say I setup proper gambits for all my characters and then just walked away on one of the harder optional bosses in the game. I should note that I was wayyyyyy under leveled for the encounter and I did die on it. That's not the point. The point is, assuming your did do a proper setup, had all the items you needed, and whatever other prep you might want to take, you could literally set this up and do an entire encounter without taking a single action aside from walking to the area you needed to be. I don't recall there being a single fight where positioning mattered, so you just walk in and let the game go while you're off getting high or checking your facespace or bobbing for apples or running a presidential election.... whatever you're into doing. This is a major flaw in my eyes.

I already hit graphics, but I'll touch on it again. One of the good points of the game, as I said, is its graphics. It does look pretty good for a ps2 game. They gave areas weather cycles too, a nice added touch. Rain in the Giza plains, dust storms in the.... area where there were dust storms.... ha! Nice looking cutscenes in the game too.

On the topic of graphics, it brings me to how non-linear it is. Granted you have the usual story-line you have to follow, but the maps are setup with a lot of wide open areas so you don't have to follow a tiny narrow path like FF13 has. You can also revisit virtually any area you've been to for whatever reason you might have. To grind out license points (have to touch on this still), items to get money, whatever you need. That brings me to hunts. Hunts are a sort of side-quest you can do. You go around to areas and draw out a certain special monster for some kind of reward. Basically just something entertaining to do while avoiding that lack luster story line.

Over to that license system. You get license points when you kill stuff. Spend the points on a grid to unlock things. Use of weapons, armor types, skills, mp, hp, whatever. Its an interesting system, but fails in my eyes. If you really wanted to (I did) you could basically max out your characters around 3 or 4 hours into the game. It's a flawed way to do things. I know I'm going to take shit for that (maxed out all classes and levels without leaving the first 2 areas in Final Fantasy Tactics for ps1) but its not the right way to do things in a game. It should be stepped throughout the game. Take WoW for example, you can't just make a character and then BAM! Max level with max gear. You have to actually work for what you get. Spending time isn't working for something. Having skill actually matters.... I can't believe I'm saying that after hearing what WoW has turned into...

Anyways, I'm getting sleepy, so I think its time to end this. Overall, 3/10 for FF12. Some good things, but mostly baddy bad bad bad.

Need another suggestion for what is to come next. My current option is Punchout! (I assume for NES, not this Wii version.) I'd like to avoid that if possible. Older games are harder to review in a negative light, since most of them are genre makers. Plus, I'd like to get into some newer games, 2010 and beyond, since I've done a 2006 and a 1993, both older titles.

Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2 (聖剣伝説2^?, lit. "Holy Sword Legend 2") is anaction role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed and published by Square in 1993. Taken directly from wikipedia links and all.

SoM is probably one of my favorite games of all time. It had a beautiful graphics set for the SNES console, and offered real-time (for the most part) combat, which not many rpgs at this time had. It broke up the turn-based system from previous rpgs or even the ATB system that titles such as FF3 (6) offered. The audio was even good, with the uplifting tracks used from the dwarfs in Gaia's Navel to the dark tones of Thanatos and even provoked a bit of sadness while in the Crystal Forest. 

So the game starts out, as I'm sure most of you are aware, on a fallen tree that acts as a bridge by a waterfall. Playfully, your friends knock you off and you're forced to find your own way back into your home village. Using what you can, and lucky for you at the time, you find a sword which sends you into sort of an "oh shit spiral now you're forced to save the world." From there you visit the rest of the Secret of Mana world.

Throughout the game you acquire two companions, The Sprite Child and the Girl, neither of which are named so usually Stupid and Bitch worked out just fine. The Sprite Child is your offensive caster and the Girl is your defensive/healing caster. Both of which are basically useless as melee damage and should be used to spam the hell out of your magic (which gives an added bonus!). The "main" character, the Boy, is basically your melee tank.

The bonus I mentioned, every time you do anything offensive/defensive you get "points" which build whatever you're using. So, using a spear over and over will raise the charge level of that weapon. So, you've found a bunch of orbs and upgraded your spear to level 4. Using that spear over and over will upgrade it and you can hold that charge longer and longer to do bigger and harder hitting attacks on enemies. Same idea for spells but it raises the effect and chance for a critical on the cast. Which I can't seem to find a video of... but I assure you they exist.

Combat works like this: Real-time! Playing as the boy you run up and slash everything you can see, occasionally charging your weapons up. The girl and the sprite child cast, as mentioned before. Here is one of three beefs with the game. When you want to cast something it pauses the action, brings up a radial menu, where you select what spell you want to use and then casts it. Playing the game solo this isn't that big of a problem, but you can play with two friends so it starts to become annoying as hell when you are just spamming the hell out magic. Beef 2: While an enemy is being cast on no one else can do anything to it. So say you're fighting one of the biker bosses and just throwing wind blasts (or whatever) on him, the player (if there is one, which there should be, because who likes that bitchy girl) who is on the boy just kinda fingers his own ass since he's probably going to blow his 7th level charged up sword attack since the boss is still under the effect of the cast.

Beef 3: The AI for when you're not using a character. There is a grid system that basically gives you four options, close up aggressive, close up defensive, ranged aggressive, ranged defensive. <--- Good idea. Unfortunately, the AI is just plain awful and you can never get that right mix of get in there and attack and holy shit your health is almost gone GTFO! Luckily, 9 times out of 10 you're not playing the girl so you can just set her to go sit in a corner and just call up her menu when you need a refresh on your wind weapon buff or a quick heal here and there.

All in all, SoM is a great solo game, and a great multiplayer game. In my eyes it will live throughout the ages and every few years I find myself coming back to all its glory. I honestly think its still in the top 100 greatest games of all time.

One more thing, an added beef, finding that last gauntlet orb, in all my years of playing SoM I have never once gotten that last orb. Not sure if its from something missing in the port from J to US or if Square just sorta left it out but it still frustrates the hell out of me.

Follow up:

So! I'm going to take requests, any game, any genre, anything. You all (whomever you are) can be part of my life. Assuming you enjoy reading this (granted I've just started, but I am enjoying it.... second day, WINNING!).

So (part two)!! Where was I? Ah yes! Video games, its stagnancy, and how to revive it (or not). The problem is primarily who is behind the great machine of gaming. It's big names who could care less about a well-developed title and would rather push out "hit" after "hit", beating a series into the ground until its either 1. unplayable or 2. unrecognizable. The latter of course referring to the Final Fantasy series, and the former... let's go with.... Dark-siders 2. Granted with DS2 its only the second in the series but its been done a million times where its not fun (see the God of War series, DS1, Devil May Cry series, and uhhhhh.... Dante's Inferno). Truly great games come from no name developers who aren't out to make a buck, but are out to make a fantastic game.

In my honest opinion the following are great games or developers:

• First and foremost Valve. Valve strides to make exceptional games and attempts to break the mold. Half-Life? It's about a dude thrown into extreme circumstances. He's nothing special (aside from the fact that he's a scientist) and he rises above to become a God-like figure while he's just trying to survive to see tomorrow. I've also learned they are developing Dota 2, which is in a genre by itself, and fantastic (I never got into it, but I have many friends that are into it and I know the basic mechanics of it). One of the amazing things about Valve is they recognize genius and absorb it (in my eyes, for the good of gaming.)
• Second, Square-soft. Do not confuse this with Square-Enix. Square-soft has produced so many of my personal favorites and favorites of almost anyone who has ever played a video game. The final game they created was actually awful, but that's beside the point. Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy (up to X-2), Vagrant story, Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger, Bushido Blade, Super Mario RPG, Breathe of Fire, Rad Racer. All amazing titles, just plain and simple, straight up and down, left and right, amazing.
• Third, and probably finally, Capcom. Mega-man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil. Nothing else needs to be said.

I know what you're thinking, didn't he just say he hated Street Fighter, and various other games he just listed as great? And aren't Square, Capcom, and Valve all big names????

Yes, yes, and yes... I'm willing to admit Street Fighter is a phenomenal game, and series. Again, I don't enjoy fighting games. I am willing to admit that the original concept for Street Fighter, a primarily 2D side scrolling fighting game is fantastic. My problem is with the fact that there are about 900 Street Fighter/SF variants where its a dead concept to me unless you're entering into tournaments. 

As for the big name companies, Capcom is churning out the same boring games over and over unless you're a die-hard fan of the series. Square is a dead company, taken over by Square-Enix which produces poorly written and confusing, linear wastes of time like Final Fantasy 13 or was it 14... I stopped counting after 7 (lies, I like 9 and 10). And last, Valve, as mentioned before they are the Google of video games. Absorb what's good, produce things people love.

And now the closer, how to revive the industry! First and foremost, you are the problem. Yes, you and me. Why you ask? Two reasons, 1. you buy the shitty shit shit games these awful companies make and 2. if you're like me and rarely buy a game... where do you go? Gamestop! Buying used games destroys the industry. How much money does a developer get when you go out to buy a used game? Zilch, nadda, nothing. It's basically pure profit for Gamestop and doesn't fuel developers to make a new hit game that actually deserves the daily third prize (dot dot dot). Second, the developers. Again, that shitty shit shit game I mentioned before. They make it, mostly because deadlines are pushed and too much money can't be poured into development because if it flops they can't make up that capitol they put into it. So! Piss poor titles are released. Example: FF13 is estimated to have cost 30-40 million dollars. Let's face it, the game looks pretty but that's basically all you have. They sold a massive 6.7 million copies at around 60 USD. That's 400 million dollars for a dressed up pile of dog shit. Only to churn out another steaming pile known as 13-2 (PRETTY DRESSES!).

One final question you're probably wanting to ask me, "Why don't you go out and make a game yourself??? ASSFACE!". I'll tell you!!! It'll be a shocker when you heard the answer, I know it! 

I don't have the drive, the know how, the time, the team, the patience, the funding, or anything else you can possibly think of. Remember, cynical depressed ass clown? 

Leave comments or whatever, I like feed back... oh and those ideas on games to review. Again, old or new. Any genre, any title. I don't care, I need something to fill my time while I'm waiting for my shift to start again.

Two blogs in one day? WHAT!?

I feel I should elaborate on why I hate Darksiders 2, and more than that, almost all video games today. First you have to know a little about me. Here's somethings in no particular order with bulletpoints!

• I'm cynical
• I'm depressed and depressing
• I was born with a nintendo controller in my hands (my father can attest to this).
• I was a wow addict like so many others (started at release, quit in Lich King).
• Awful at describing myself, so I stop here.

Here's the thing, 90% of video game designers/developers go with what works (good idea) but! when the past 10+ years of game releases have all been the same stagnant crap it gets old. I'll try to stick to recent games to prove my point. 

• RTS: Starcraft 2, the most anticipated release in the category since WarCraft 3. Its exactly the same thing as SC1 with a few new units and a slight, and I mean very slightly updated graphics engine. Whoopity-doo! I played it through in let's say 8 hours, because I was bored and maxed everything I could out instead of going for objectives. The new style of missions was a good addition but its been done before: See Rise of Nations. Aside from that... you get a ranking system on BNet? Cool bro... 
• Shooters: Where do I start? Halo series, Modern Warfare and similar titles series... see Counter-strike, or even Doom 2 LAN play. Same old shit over and over and over. The only redeeming game I've seen out of the genre is Tribes: Ascension. This game is actually worth a play, and its free. You don't even have to pirate it because the Devs are that genius! Granted it is essentially the same as Tribes and Tribes 2, but it brings a new (yet still done before) purchasing system, where you unlock new gear with either real money or fake money you ground out playing matches.
• Racing games: I'm not even going to touch this fail genre. Mario Kart. That is all.
• Rhythm Games: These are essentially party and social games, I'm not going to touch them because they are surprisingly well planned out and designed fairly well. I only play Rockband 3 and that's rare. It is nice that you get new music all the time, yet, the price... that awful awful price.
• Fighting games: I don't play them for one reason, I'm awful at them. BUT! I feel I have to say this, they are all essentially the same game you've been playing since the original Street Fighter. If that's your thing, good for you. Again, I'm terrible, but I can see the fun in competing at a shop or what have you. It's still the same crap for years and probably years to come.
• MMORPGs: My favorite genre. The industry really took off with WoW, I'm not saying its the original, I'm not saying its a great game, but I will say it is, by far, the best MMO out there for the last 8 years. Many have tried to "kill" it, no one has come close. People have stolen ideas from it to put in their games, it has stolen a lot from others to put in itself (talking like its a living thing, funny!). I could literally spend hours and hours talking about MMO's and how they have destroyed an already stagnant art form.

I just realized what time it is and I have to go to work, I'll finish this up later, assuming I remember....