Habits of RPG Players.

Well, I finally got my PS2 back from Fatty’s house. In anticipation of Persona 4, I decided to finally give 3 a full playthrough (one of the few games that I DO plan to finish). I couldn’t help but notice the little details that plague me when I play RPG’s of any sort; especially the console variety.

Have you ever heard of the “Perfect Game” in any RPG? The kind of game where you simply MUST play the game so that you maximize your stats, inventory, equipment and explore the best possible plot? Have you ever reloaded a game twenty times in order to get one plot crucial minigame sequence JUST right so you got the best reward? Have you ever rewound an entire game back to the beginning stages just so you could get a quest from that lone NPC that you overlooked the first time through? Better yet, if we’re talking western RPGs, have you ever spent a lifetime the character creation screen meticulously calculating, planning and rolling stats for your character? Consulted FAQs and guides in order to get an optimal playthrough?

All of these tiny habits break the whole “Role Playing” aspect of an RPG. I see myself commiting to all these various things that ruin an RPG experience. Doesn’t it make more sense to answer an NPC’s questions or respond to a dialogue tree as you would in real life? Isn’t that what imbues your in game persona with your own character? So what if you miss that extra 10,000G or 200 Life Elixirs? What if you don’t want to power level for 2 hours in order to take down the most powerful (but totally optional) monster in the game? Why do you even need a guide, which was written with the bias of another player, to tell YOU how to play YOUR game?

I’ve tried my damned hardest to stray from the “Perfect Game” mentality. It’s hard to do, but if you would just put down the guide, leave the stat calculating to the machine and just play the way you would, an RPG becomes so much richer. Otherwise, it’s just a chore to grind your ass all the way to an ending that half of the gaming population has achieved.

Damn. I hate RPGs.

Console Gaming World: Nintendo

Yes, I’ve finally given in and gone over to the dark side. My PC, while being kept in a state of good repair, is being neglected for the triumvirate of last generation consoles. That’s right, no PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii for me; it’s straight to the consoles of old and straight to the bargain bin for cheaply priced titles. While my friends are busy paying their $60 for a single title, I’m bum rushing the used section for titles that cost $50… 4 years ago. Of course, I’ve had my Gamecube for a while, so there’s quite a library. Naturally, after a decent hiatus with the Gamecube and a 6 month stay with the PS2, I pop in Zelda: Twilight Princess. I get lost in the world for about two hours, wandering on horseback. I don’t even bother to pick up where I left off almost 2 years ago – I just wander around and kill things, and thoroughly enjoy it. Now, this seems like pointless reminiscing, but we’re getting to the point – Nintendo games, then and now; where has two years taken us? From “I’m about taking names, and we’re about making games.” to “More smiles on more faces.” I may have misquoted Reggie there on the first one, but ouch. That WAS the Gamecube era. This is the Wii era.

I dream of a Twilight princess in glorious HD – imagine Zelda on *gasp* the PS3. What blasphemy! If it’s simply too much for your Nintendo fanboy heart, imagine a Wii with PS3 or 360 capable hardware. Instead of this wonderful dream, we have… Wii Music. Seriously, what the hell was that at E3 this year? I’m only reiterating what’s already has been said by industry professionals left and right, but Nintendo has essentially ditched its core demographic. Where the hell is the sheer joy that I experienced when I first popped in Metroid Prime? Smash Brothers Melee? Wind Waker? Those were the last generation’s graphical marvels. I loved every second of those games, and remember every detail fondly. Now? We have Lego-esque avatars doing their thing in the Wii browser. The first sign of trouble for me was when they delayed the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess – I even wanted a Wii back then. Now, 2 years later, I’m completely turned off by the very idea of the white hunk of plastic with my beloved Gamecube inside it. Out of all 3 last generation consoles, I loved my Gamecube the most. In the current era, most of my resentment and dissent is aimed solely at the Wii.

Nintendo has screwed themselves to the wall with their current approach – call me a retard for saying that about a 20 million strong console, but what’s going to happen to Nintendo’s dev studios for the NEXT generation? While current generation devs have already grappled with more complex hardware, Nintendo’s studios are stuck in the Gamecube era. Their next gen games are gonna look like current gen launch titles while stuff like Gears of War and MGS4 have already raised the bar higher. It’s harder to do HD – you have 4 times the content to put in these games compared to last generation, but it looks a hell of a lot better. The devs may bitch and moan at the work, but in the end, it’s all worth it. The reason why the Wii was so easy to develop for was because *gasp* – it’s a rebranded, overclocked Gamecube with a DVD drive and a new controller. I mean, isn’t it ironic that Super Smash Brothers Brawl – quite possibly, by popular opinion, the best Wii game out right now – is best played with a Gamecube controller? What the hell happened to revolutionary new controls when the old implement simply worked better?

For the next generation, I don’t think those 40 year old mothers and geriatrics are going to be willing to shell out however much the next generation of consoles cost for another Nintendo box. I know I won’t be, unless it promises hi-def Metroid and Zelda. Simply, PC gaming has proven one thing to me – once you taste the sweet nectar that is the high-def realm of gaming graphics, there is simply no going back. Nintendo loyalists, I applaud you for your faith – I too, hope for the day when they enter the current generation.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go get lost on Tallon IV again. Anyone care to join me?

So.

Once more, it’s PC season again – summertime means game time. I’m finally jumping on the SLI bandwagon with a second 8800GTS [320MB]. Assassin’s Creed started to show some slowdown, so I’m giving the PC another boost. I’ll be back with SLI compatibility updates soon – I just reinstalled Vista again in anticipation for the card – it’ll be  here tomorrow, and I can’t wait.

Also, I’m thinking of getting an X-Fi sound card – If anyone has ideas for alternatives, I wouldn’t mind a bit of advice on this part. I’m not a particular fan of Creative – it’s just that they’re the only card on the damn market.

Compatibility Updated

An update – OH SHIT! Haven’t written since November… BUT… I got more games. This is all under Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, running the latest nForce and Forceware drivers with a GeForce 8800 GTS and a Core 2 Duo e4300 (overclocked to 3.0 GHz).

1. America’s Army
2. Archlord
3. Assassin’s Creed
4. Battlefield 1942
5. Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome
6. Battlefield 2
7. Battlefield Vietnam
8. Battlefield Vietnam: WW2 Mod
9. Bioshock
10. Caesar IV
11. Crysis
12. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
13. DEFCON
14. Doom (download and put DPlay.dll in the directory)
15. Doom 2 (download and put DPlay.dll in the directory)
16. Doom 3
17. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
18. Duke Nukem 3D (yeah, you heard me right.)
19. Fable: The Lost Chapters
20. Far Cry
21. F.E.A.R.
22. F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point
23. F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate
24. Final Doom (download and put DPlay.dll in the directory)
25. Flyff
26. Gears of War
27. Ghost Online
28. Grand Theft Auto
29. Grand Theft Auto II
30. Grand Theft Auto III
31. Grand Theft Auto Vice City
32. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
33. Guild Wars: Prophecies
34. GUN
35. Gunbound Revolution
36. Half Life
37. Half Life 2
38. Half Life 2: Episode 1
39. Half Life 2: Episode 2
40. Half Life: Blue Shift
41. Half Life: Opposing Force
42. Halo
43. Halo Custom Edition
44. Halo 2 (who would’ve guessed…)
45. Hitman – Codename 47
46. Hitman – Silent Assassin
47. Hitman – Contracts
48. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
49. Maplestory (don’t hate – I’m Asian.)
50. Max Payne
51. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
52. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
53. Nine Dragons
54. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
55. Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus (they work. really.)
56. Outlaws (OLD. Very old)
57. Peggle
58. Portal
59. Prey
60. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
61. Psychonauts (yes, I OWN a hard copy)
62. Quake (uses WinQuake)
63. Quake II
64. Quake III Arena
65. Quake 4
66. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
67. Resident Evil 4 (download and put d3dx9_30.dll in the directory)
68. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
69. Rock 24 (Half Life 2 Mod)
70. Sam and Max Season 1
71. SimCity 3000
72. SimCity 3000 Unlimited
73. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
74. Soldier of Fortune
75. Sword of the New World: Granado Espada
76. Tales of Pirates Online
77. Team Fortress
78. Team Fortress 2
79. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
80. The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal
81. The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon
82. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
83. Thief: The Dark Project (even more surprising than the second)
84. Thief II: The Metal Age (a 16 bit classic… working on VISTA?! Oh my.)
85. Thief: Deadly Shadows
86. Tomb Raider: Legend
87. Unreal
88. Unreal II: The Awakening
89. Unreal Tournament
90. Unreal Tournament 2004
91. Wolfenstein 3D (use DOSBox)
92. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
93. World In Conflict

Macs: Glorified Typewriters

I have a MacBook. It’s crashed two or three times in the six months that I’ve had it and I’ve already had to reinstall the operating system once. So much for the “it just works” or “Unix gives rock solid stability.” Nothing is invulnerable. But for my general tasks, I love it. I’m typing out this post on it. I don’t feel a need to flip the switch on a 700 watt beast to type out my damned assignments. Also, the GUI happens to be pretty pleasing – it helps me cope with the mundane task of typing out yet another paper or finishing my next set of illustrations. It’s also a sort of 21st century status symbol – I like joining the rings of Maccies inside Starbucks and feeling part of the “in” crowd.

I have a custom built Vista rig. It’s crashed a handful of times in the nine months that I’ve had it and I’ve had to reinstall the operating system once. So far, it’s tied with the Mac in terms of formats, but crashing is mostly due my tweaking and overclocking. (Can’t do that on a Mac, now can you?) It’s an epic machine reserved for epic experiences – only gaming merits flipping on the power – and of course, the occasional 40 layer Photoshop job; the poor Intel GMA95 in the Mac doesn’t have enough muscle to handle that. Nor does it (or any Mac for that matter… even the Mac Pros) have the power to handle dual-booting a Windows OS and then running a game on top of that at the same time. If we get into stuff like dual-booting Vista and then trying to run… say… Crysis… That’s when the shit hits the fan.

I’ve run into one delusional Mac fanboy who dreams of running Crysis in all its splendor on a Mac. While dual booted with Vista and with all DirectX 10 effects enabled. On an iMac and a GeForce 8600 no less. Let’s just say, my rig is handling only ONE operating system (Vista) and running a 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo with an 8800 GTS, and I’m barely getting playable framerates, let alone running it at its potential. I’ll leave it at that. Macs are simply workstations. Anything having to do with “gaming” isn’t gonna happen anytime soon, especially with the whole “Games for Windows” initiative and the fact that DirectX 10 is a Vista exclusive. However, all the Linux and Mac people seem to be blind to those things.

It’s time to wake up – certain platforms were meant to do certain things. Windows just happens to do games better than anything else out there. After all, none of those snooty Mac ads downplay on gaming when it comes to Windows comparisons.

Combatibility.

Ok, for all you Vista users or hopefuls that visit this site, I have a bonus post for you fools today. I’m going to proceed to list all of the games that I have which WORK with Windows Vista Home Premium, 32 bit. My configuration consists of:

Core 2 Duo e4300 (3.0GHz), 8800 GTS (320MB), 680i Motherboard, 2GB RAM (DDR2-800), running all the latest drivers from nVidia. I’ve downloaded every available system update and hotfix from Microsoft, recommended and mandatory. All of the following were personally tested by me on my rig using all their latest patches – no BS, even the weirdest shit will work.

Now for the list:

1. America’s Army
2. Archlord
3. Battlefield 1942
4. Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome
5. Battlefield 2
6. Battlefield Vietnam
7. Battlefield Vietnam: WW2 Mod
8. Bioshock
9. Crysis
10. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
11. Doom (download and put DPlay.dll in the directory)
12. Doom 2 (download and put DPlay.dll in the directory)
13. Doom 3
14. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
15. Duke Nukem 3D (yeah, you heard me right.)
16. Fable: The Lost Chapters
17. Far Cry
18. F.E.A.R.
19. F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point
20. F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate
21. Final Doom (download and put DPlay.dll in the directory)
22. Flyff
23. Gears of War
24. Ghost Online
25. Grand Theft Auto
26. Grand Theft Auto II
27. Grand Theft Auto Vice City
28. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
29. Guild Wars: Prophecies
30. Gunbound Revolution
31. Half Life
32. Half Life 2
33. Half Life 2: Episode 1
34. Half Life 2: Episode 2
35. Half Life: Blue Shift
36. Half Life: Opposing Force
37. Halo
38. Halo Custom Edition
39. Halo 2 (who would’ve guessed…)
40. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
41. Maplestory (don’t hate – I’m Asian.)
42. Nine Dragons
43. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
44. Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus (they work. really.)
45. Outlaws (OLD. Very old)
46. Peggle
47. Portal
48. Prey
49. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
50. Psychonauts (yes, I OWN a hard copy)
51. Quake (uses WinQuake)
52. Quake II
53. Quake III Arena
54. Quake 4
55. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
56. Resident Evil 4 (download and put d3dx9_30.dll in the directory)
57. Rock 24 (Half Life 2 Mod)
58. SimCity 3000
59. SimCity 3000 Unlimited
60. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
61. Soldier of Fortune
62. Sword of the New World: Granado Espada
63. Tales of Pirates Online
64. Team Fortress
65. Team Fortress 2
66. Thief II: The Metal Age (a 16 bit classic… working on VISTA?! Oh my.)
67. Thief: Deadly Shadows
68. Tomb Raider: Legend
69. Unreal
70. Unreal II: The Awakening
71. Unreal Tournament
72. Unreal Tournament 2004
73. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
74. World In Conflict

While I find it amusing that I have over 70 games on my computer, most would find it hard to believe. Hmm. Time for a reality check. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE MORE GAMES THAN AN ASIAN KID. Never. My collection continues to grow – as soon as they fill up the 320GB HDD, I’m buying a 500GB to fit even more. Of course, I’ll keep you fools posted.

For all you Vista bashing idiots – PLEASE use the damn thing before you start whining about its compatibility issues… I’m running ODDWORLD and THIEF II for hell’s sake. Even the Doom series and freakin’ Duke Nukem 3D run just fine. No jDoom or EDuke32 – I’m playing them in their raw, untampered with Win95 forms. Vista is a gamer’s platform. The fact that Crysis and Bioshock sit on this list alongside classics like Doom 95 and Duke Nukem make it so. Furthermore, DirectX 10 is a work of f*cking art. For all you Mac or Linux fanboys running blogs telling people how Vista sucks and how gaming is no longer exclusive to Windows – reality check time: all those games proudly sporting the “Games for Windows” banner drives that to moot. And besides, we ain’t gonna see an “Orange Box” for the Mac anytime soon.
Vista sucked 6 months ago. But now it’s time to move on, gamers – it’s a great platform now, and the performance hit is unnoticeable if you have a fast enough rig (and as a gamer, you SHOULD). So suck it up and upgrade for great graphics; for great justice.

Suit up.

It’s time for Crysis. I’m going to fail my calculus test tomorrow. Thanks a lot EA and Crytek.  I love Gamestop for getting this thing in 2 days before release day (Nov. 16).

There is no need to speak for this game. If you haven’t the game, haul ass and go get it now. If you haven’t the hardware, get that, and then get the game. Take out a second mortgage for it if you have to. It’s gonna be one hell of a ride…

I Love Multi-Core.

I’m listening to “Bark at the Moon” on iTunes, reinstalling all my games one after another, updating about five MMOs at the same time, burning a backup DVD, writing a paper for my English class, talking to friends on Trillian, talking to friends on Xfire and typing out this post all at once. If this were my old Pentium 4 Northwood, the computer would have crashed long ago. I’m currently using 75% of both cores on my Core 2 Duo. Overclocked at 3.0GHz a core, the e4300 die will handle just about anything. If the lowest end Core 2 Duo can do this much, imagine what current Core 2 Quads and the future AMD Phenom Quads can do.

Multi-core processing is the way to go. Even if you’re an old granny trying to send an e-mail or type a letter, a dual core processor would help speed things up a bit, especially if multiple programs are running at one. There’s no doubt that even the average teenage schoolgirl will have her AIM, iTunes, Internet Explorer and god knows what else up at the same time. Considering how most programs require a decent amount of processing power (especially media applications), a single core processor will ultimately fry under these demands.

If you’re a gamer, you either have a multi-core processor or want one. Games like Supreme Commander will all run single core processors to oblivion (speaking of Oblivion, that game will run single cores down too). Sure, these things require new motherboards if you haven’t made the switch yet, but it’s well worth the investment, especially considering how sockets nowadays are designed for drop-in upgrades. Take the LGA 775 socket for Pentium D’s and Core 2′s – that socket accommodates everything from the lowliest Pentium 4 all the way to the mightiest Core 2 Quad. AMD’s releasing processors with backwards socket compatibility – their new processors for socket AM2+ will run on a standard socket AM2 motherboard, albeit with the upgraded data bandwidth turned off.

It’s a clear choice. For your next PC, go multi-core, or die (your new PC certainly will).

Sweet, Sweet November…

I’m currently enjoying the single-player campaign of Gears of War on the PC. I’m playing it like it was meant to be played – with the faithful combo of mouse and keys. On November 6th, I was looking all over for this long anticipated game – only to find out Microsoft had stiffed me and the TRUE release date was the 7th, despite what their site said. But all gripes aside, the year-old game still manages to blow me away – graphics, gameplay and all. And this thing’s only the tip of the iceberg for this glorious month.

A symbolic event in this month is the opening of a Gamestop that’s less than 10 minutes from my house. This is truly a sweet November – next week, Crysis comes out in all its DX10 glory, and I’ve pre-ordered the collector’s edition at said store. Life is good – especially since this is the first time I’ll ever spend $60 on a game. For anyone who’s played the demo though, one can see its very convincing in getting people to drop the cash. It sets a new bar for what shooters should look like – nothing, not even Halo 3, can top this game. I can go on and on ranting about the game. However, much like trying to describe an experience one has during a beautiful vacation on some tropical island (sans the flying bullets), it’s impossible to try to convey with words what one sees in this game. If you’ve got the hardware and haven’t heard of this game, you’ve been under a rock for the past couple of years, and go download the @#$%ing demo right now. If you’re still running last years machine (which should, admittedly, be just fine for most games), it’s time to upgrade that piece of junk right now. Much like Half-Life 2 justified a major hardware upgrade back in 2004, Crysis does the same this year – only it’s leaps and bounds beyond what HL2 graphics had to offer.

A good gaming PC can be had for a pretty cheap price nowadays. A PC with a Core 2 Duo, GeForce 8800GT, 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM, nForce 680i Motherboard and the works costs less than two grand. Pump it up a bit with a Core 2 Quad and an 8800 GTX,  and it should be able to handle just about everything that’s thrown at it.

With all the new hardware and games coming out this month, there’s never been a better time to be a PC gamer.

Not Again…

Back in March, I had built a $1800 beast of a computer. At that time, I had the best rig of anybody that I knew – Core 2 Duo chugging along at 3.0 GHz, an nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS driving a 22″ widescreen LCD, all plugged into an nForce 680i SLI motherboard. Essentially, everything was bleeding edge, save for the fact it didn’t have DX10 and Vista yet. Every game that was out at the time ran with maxed out settings – but now, over half a year later, I have finally gotten Vista, and the system is brought to a screeching halt by something called Crysis. Well. Not completely.

The 320MB 8800GTS is not enough anymore. I have to back off on the AA and anisotropic filtering settings, as well as tune down the resolution for certain games. The biggest offender is the aforementioned Crysis SP demo. And it’s just a demo for hell’s sake – I have to set the resolution at 960 x 600, turn off AA completely, shadows on medium, volumetric effects on medium and everything else on high. The maxed out settings means everything is at “very high,” not just “high.” The game still looks better than every other game I own running on maxed out settings, but that untapped potential disturbs me. Looking on the bright side, people who own 8800 GTX’es still can’t get the game to run completely maxed out. In fact, nothing of this graphics generation can even handle the game in all its glory, at least not hardware people can buy.

So it’s back to those damn Excel spreadsheets that I used to build the first one. Upgrading is gonna be a bitch, and the old parts are all gonna go to random people I know. In the end, people like me are just chasing waterfalls. But someone’s gotta do it. Anyone wanna buy me a G92 based graphics card for Christmas?