All posts tagged Rant

Plus $10, WTF

By | 7 September 2010 | General | 1 Comment

EA’s “brilliant” new strategy of further gouging the consumer seems to be quite the phenomenon. Originally, I was going to post about this when I was first affected by it while playing Mass Effect 2, but I decided to hold off a while and see how things shaped up.

What a difference a few months make. This travesty started back in May, and a mere four months later the price of “Plus $10″ games has plummeted. Is it because the games suck, or is there less demand for games that bend you over? I have no idea. But, what I do know, is that it isn’t very hard to get a new copy of Mass Effect 2 for around $20, 33% of the original retail price.

I cannot even imagine how badly this hurt the aftermarket for this games. Would you pay $10 to play a used game online? I know that I wouldn’t, especially if that is 50% or more of the price I paid to get the game in the first place.

And now, with the rising price of Xbox Live, it is becoming increasingly expensive to game online, and I continually find myself asking, “is it worth it?” Sure, it is great to hammer some enemies and wax some fools with your friends, but how often are they online? Are you spending hand over fist to play with people you’ll never meet in person? What’s that worth?

Crackdown (2007)

By | 7 September 2010 | General | No comments

Is it bad when it takes you so long to write a review of a game that the sequel has already price dropped? Nah, I say its the perfect time!

Crackdown is an open world game with RPG lite elements. Basically you play the role of an elite law enforcement agent withing a corrupt corporation. Your mission is to take out various organized crime syndicates throughout the region.

The strength of this game is the multiplayer, its great fun to jump around the city waxing criminals with a buddy. Whereas, the solo game play is the definition of grind. The game play is repetitive, and the pokemon style leveling system is rather taxing. So, I whole heartily recommend only playing this as a team.

While the game was not extremely long, it was probably too long, by the time I finished the third region (of four) I was ready to be done, but I powered through and finished it anyway.

And, since I am sure everyone has already heard all they ever wanted to hear about this title two years ago I’ll finish up here.

On the undecim scale, I give this game a 1.

Worldwide D&D Game Day – Player Handbook 3

By | 16 March 2010 | General, Rant | 2 Comments

Format: D&D WPN
Location: Whitecap Comics (get directions)
Date: 3/20/2010 (11:30am – 7pm)
Cost: FREE

As per vanlandw’s request I am posting the details of this event. Jason and I are planning on going. We’ll probably get there after I roll out of bed and shower. Wes will probably claim to be exhausted from his fun run and not show up.

I should also note that something called “Weekend in the Realms” will be going on as well, and I have no idea what that is. I suspect it is what they call their weekly RPGA event, however I do not know if they will be running a module, or a my realms adventure.

Anyone who is interested is encountered to come. the Game Day adventure will run 1-2 hours, and you shouldn’t need to bring anything if you’re new. Players will be provided with PHB3 pregenerated characters (I assumed level 1 characters made with DDI character builder will also be valid). No experience is required, but you might want to pick up a set of dice if for no other reason that its cool to have a d4.

Meat Grinder, or Adventures in LFR

By | 14 March 2010 | General, Rant | 4 Comments

Today was my first official RPGA, and 4e adventure. Jason and I went to a local hobby shop to sit in on one of the games. However, the low level campaign was short on players, so I decided to buy punch cards so we could join. The result was somewhat amusing.

We ran the events on low, since it was our first game. Luckily for me that meant that there were minions a plenty. It worked out pretty well, because I played as a wizard that was specifically built to deal with minions. The character was built by Jason based on his struggles with kobold minions in our early combat encounter tests at home. Therefore, I was able to sweep the field quickly, or at the very least bottle neck minions so they effectively were non-factors in the game.

Of course not all battles were heavy with minions so I did get an opportunity to use wizard’s fury and just unleash a storm of magic missiles, which was rather amusing. The idea of kicking ass as a wizard just felt wrong. But, I guess I did something right, because we finished the entire adventure in two hours, and the group awarded me the player award, which was ironically a DM screen.

Now that I’ve cut my teeth, I’m looking forward to the first D&D Encounters adventure this Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Worst Day of the Year

By | 14 March 2010 | General | 3 Comments

Today i s the first day of the anathema that is daylight savings time. Thus, I must write this obligatory post espousing the utter bullshit that is daylight savings time. I particularly enjoy how our cruel and despotic overlords are continuing to expand the length of daylight savings time to further diminish the quality of life. Bastards.

For every one that reads this, please join me in writing my congressman asking for the elimination of daylight savings time.

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