Ironically I speak no Russian, so perhaps it is appropriate that I discuss this important topic - though those that have met me will tell you that I barely speak English.

Thinking about it all fills me with conflicting emotions - passion, reason and a sense of self loathing.. much like the characters in a Harlequin Presents romance novel. And oddly enough, the back cover of the novel, Harlequin Presents: By Royal Command, sums up my feelings on No Russian precisely:

Prince of Passion!

The only way Lauren can escape from the war-torn island of Sant'Rosa is to marry Guy, a sexy stranger in a fake ceremony.

But reunited with Guy under safe conditions, Lauren is overwhelmed by the mutual feelings of explosive desire!! And he has news for her: he's really a prince and Lauren is obligated to marry him again -- BY ROYAL COMMAND!

 

Oh no they didn't just describe the controversy of Modern Warfare 2!?! Yes they did.

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague (who I won't mention out of respect) this evening about game reviews and how much a reviewer has to play what they perceive as a bad game before they throw in the towel and write a review. To my way of thinking you should try, to the best of your ability, to play that game as far as you can, barring a show stopping bug or design flaw that prevents you from continuing.

So if a game is awful, are reviewers allowed to say at some point "hey I wouldn't play this game anymore than I have to and you shouldn't either" or should they do the heavy lifting and play it to the end? My thought on doing that is that it is wrong and it makes it difficult for an editor to know whether that person was truly playing an awful game or was just being lazy.

As much as I loathe playing crappy games, I take the responsibility of reviewing any game very seriously. After all, times are hard right now and wasting your money on anything sucks, let alone on some middling, crappy piece of software. On the other hand, there are men and women that pour their hearts and souls into developing these games and we have an obligation to  give them a fair and honest critique of their work.

I know where I stand, but what do you think as a fellow reviewer or as a consumer?

Image Credit: pbase.com

I am a masochist; that is why I asked to review Risen, a game by Piranha Bytes - the company best known for creating the Gothic series of decidedly European role-playing games. Gothic is not known for being user friendly; the controls in that game series are antiquated, there’s no hand holding and the system is awesomely brutal and unforgiving to the player.

It's the video game equivalent of climbing Mount Everest; you may lose some toes getting there but at least you can say "hey a survived Mount-Freaking Everest."

Will I survive Risen? I'm halfway up the mountain at this point, and i'm going to finish this game if it kills me. And if you are wondering – Risen is what Gothic 3 should have been.

It is probably not a good thing when this is all that you see for an entire day on a brand new MMO.  Here's what the official web site says:

"A small issue with the patching servers needed our immediate attention. As a result, players can currently not patch the game. As we currently have no time estimate, we will keep you updated as this progresses. Thank you!"

Not the greatest answer. Let's see how long this lasts. 

Update: It came back up at 9 PM EST give or take a few minutes. I was greeted with this lovely scene:

I just finished "Another Marona" in Phantom Brave: We Meet Again, and I have to say that, despite being a little bit disjointed from the original story, I was pleasantly surprised out how interesting it was. I can't really talk about it in this space because i'm wrapping up a review for it, but it is pretty obvious that the story telling in Nippon Ichi's later games is darker. Not that the original game was all sunshine and roses - unlike the Disgaea series, Makai Kingdom or even the incredibly adult Soul Nomad, Phantom Brave toys with the ideas of acceptance, optimism and people's capacity to be cruel.

The light-hearted moments are a little lighter than I care for and - in one of the more serious moments in the new chapter "Another Marona" - there's some jaw dropping dialogue that just hits you right in the face. There's also not a lot of comedy in the game, save a moment or two; this is serious business. But to quote Ash, "Marona is Marona" and you get what you get. Because Phantom Brave is Phantom Brave; a chocolate covered lemon, no mattter what platform it's on. That's why the original was such a great game - it isn't Disgaea.

You may have read various opinions on why the new Wii MotionPlus isn't all that great. I honestly could care less about dipping my toe into the waters of that debate. But I do have a bone to pick with Nintendo about something the company should incorporated into its design a long time ago: the ability to recharge your controller directly from the console.

Frankly, the minute that Nintendo saw the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers were capable of this, it should have began work on designing a similar system for recharging the Wii remote. Instead it was left to companies like Nyko, Mewe, Mad Catz and PDP.  That's all well and good for them, but what about the consumer who has to drop extra cash for something that should be built in. Don't worry Wii fans, Microsoft did the exact same thing with charging us for wireless internet on the 360.

The average cost of a rechargeable battery is around $10 USD, while the docking station (which sometimes comes with batteries depending on what model you are buying) cost anywhere from $20 - $45 USD. Mad Catz also offers a (wait for it!) a USB based recharging solution for right around $10. So while others might gripe about Wii Motion Plus I'm pissed off about the little things like a simple solution for recharging batteries (including the balance board - which Mad Catz has also created a solution for). 

The console that is supposed to be easier to use for the average consumer puts a lot of unneeded barriers in the way in my opinion. Perhaps it is time for Nintendo to start thinking less about moving units and more about refining the experience just a little bit. It's not too late for it to create such a solution and bundle it with newer Wii's hitting retail, at the very least.

And on the plus side, at least my Wii doesn't RROD.

Playfish is not the only company working diligently to make a name for itself on social networking scenes like Facebook, MySpace and Beebo, but it is certainly one of the best at providing graphically rich game experiences in that space. We'll be posting an interview with the company very soon, but I just wanted to talk about one game that has kept me busy this week: Crazy Planets.

If you haven't tried this Facebook game out, it is basically a turn-based strategy game similar to Worms in which little soldiers wearing the masks of your Facebook friends battle killer robots on planets for resources, experience points and medals. One thing I really like about the game is the fact that you can bring anyone into the game that is a friend on Facebook. So if you wanted to bring your mom along on a mission and she's connected to you on Facebook, you can drag her along and make her face her worst fear: killer robots..

One thing you cannot do is level up your friends characters; you'll have to rely on them to play the game if you want them to get better, get improved weaponry and more hit points. The other part of the game that is fascinating is the way resource management and research is tied to the social networking aspects of Facebook. The more friends you can get to join the game, the more resources you can get for yourself. You can only collect resources once a day from your Facebook pals, but if you have lots of friends then you'll get a leg up on someone that only has a handful. These resources, along with some separate resources collected from missions, are used to research upgrades. But again, the whole social networking aspect comes into play - the more friends you have playing the game, the quicker your research will go. In other words, 15 friends will turn a real world 24 hour research cycle into a mere 7 hours.

It is these little things that make the game enjoyable to play at lower levels, but Playfish needs to balance out the rest of the game so that when you are at the end it feels less like a grindfest than it is. Of course, the game is still in beta, and in our upcoming interview the company explains some of what it has in store.

I'm at level 16 if anyone is interested in having access to a strong character. I hope Gus Mastrapa will level up his character soon; I'm tired of him being the first guy to die on my team. On the plus side, it's hard to say no to a guy who enjoys eating a pickle shaped cookie while fighting off insane robots.

Despite all the compassionate talk from Microsoft about homophobia and racism, both are alive and well on Xbox Live. While the people employing such colorful language might think they are just being cute and adding some spice to a Stanger’s game of UNO, for example, it is highly offensive and rampant. Here's how a typical game goes. Four players start a Live game. One or two players start insulting the entire room:  

"We don't like n*****s here. We hang n******s for fun," or "You're a f****t. Play the nine f****t."

  Now i'm a pretty thick skinned individual. Having grown up with five brothers i've heard just about every filthy, politically incorrect word on the planet. But imagine if I was an African American or Gay and I had to listen to this kind of talk. These words would be more than just salty words amongst strangers in an unfriendly game of UNO. These words would be like getting punched in the face.

Microsoft has talked about changing its policy and enforcing the rules a little better, but Xbox Live continues to be the Wild West on online console gaming.  Sadly this is regular occurrence on Xbox Live. I know that you can mute players and sometimes its just best to ignore idiotic behavior, but is it too much to ask that someone enforce at least some of the rules?

Besides, sometimes ignoring the problem is the wrong approach. Instead more players should report this kind of behavior to Microsoft - there's a system for it, after all. Then we can complain to them when they don't do what they are supposed to do.

image credit: max.limitz

Chris Morris reports that sources close to either Atari or Cryptic Studios have confirmed that the pair want to create a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Neverwinter Nights. The article goes on to say that this was Atari's intention all along when it decided to purchase Cryptic Studios.

Cryptic is currently working on two games right now: Star Trek Online and Champions Online. With Atari owning both wizards of the Coast (who in turn own the old TSR Dungeons & Dragons license) and Cryptic Studios (who happens to own the Champions RPG property) it makes perfect sense to create an MMO based on the popular RPG series that BioWare -- and later Obsidian -- helped to make popular through its games and expansion packs.

Read the rest here.

For all of you tough guys (and girls) that are flying in to Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo this weekend (and those of you who are indigenous to the region by fate or by choice) may want to check out the King of Fighters XII Tournament.

The event will let 128 people slug it out in Playmore's latest KOF game for fab prizes and bragging rights. The event is sponsored by Ignition Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, GameStop, and the EVO Championship Series.

So why am I giving this a plug here? Because I'm sad that I can't attend (I won't be at E3 this year) and I feel like Julie from the Love Boat when it comes to E3 events. there are a lot of cool things going on leading up to and during the show that I plan to mention right here in this space if I have the time.The only caveat this year is that I won't be able to go to any of them. So while some of you may enjoy kicking the crap out of each other - or watching other people kick the crap out of each other - in KOF XII, I'll be here having my own special pity party. Nay me! 

Details on the event (From Ignition) below. Tell them some guy named "Prophet" sent you:

You're Invited to The King of Fighters XII Tournament to be held in L.A. this Saturday

This coming Saturday, Ignition Entertainment will kick off the E3 season with a well-deserved roundhouse to the head when they host The King of Fighters XII (KOFXII) Tournament in Hollywood, CA. Ignition will be partnering with Sony Computer Entertainment of America, GameStop, and the EVO Championship Series to host an international championship that gives hardcore King of Fighters fans an exclusive sneak peek at the long-awaited new installment in SNK PLAYMORE's beloved 3-on-3 fighting franchise.

They're gathering 128 of the world's bravest KOF players to battle it out for a killer grand prize of a The King of Fighters XII arcade cabinet imported directly from Japan! They'll also have plenty of nifty KOF goodies on hand for the runners-up, including limited-edition KOF XII collectables designed by the I am 8-bit art collective and exclusive KOF XII posters autographed by the game's lead artist.

It's not only about fist-to-the-face combat, though: The tournament will have oodles of awesome KOF-related activities for people to take part in, along with special guests, prize raffles, and surprises throughout the day. Food and drink will be provided, so attendees need only worry about honing their fighting skills and having fun unless, of course, they're eager to display the depth of their fandom by taking part in the amateur King of Fighters cos-play competition. Feel free to masquerade as any character from any KOF title and the winner will walk away with a valuable prize package.

HOW: Simply shoot an email over to paul@ignitionusa.com with your name and email address and await your RSVP. The first 100 respondents will be registered for the tournament; everyone else will be invited to attend the event as spectators. 

WHEN: Saturday, May 30, 2009 12 - 7 p.m. (KOF XII open practice for tournament players from 10:30 – 12pm)

WHERE: Element, Hollywood 1642 Las Palmas Ave Los Angeles, CA 90028 (323) 460-4632 http://www.elementhollywood.com