I was bored at work yesterday and I stumbled upon an indie game called Din's Curse. What got my attention was the fact that you can build hybrid classes, much like Titan Quest. Looking at the screenshots, I can tell the game isn't exactly graphically groundbreaking, but for a game like this (rogue meets Diablo), it looked good enough for me.

Grabbed the demo and little did I know I was going to spend 3 hours playing it until 1am and also buying the full version at a mere $25.

The engine is isometric, kind of like Diablo II but obviously more advanced. I can do full 1080p which is nice for my TV and also has effects like texture filtering, AA, shadows, etc. I can see this game running on old hardware, even on my netbook, which is nice.

Anytime you start a new game, it randomly creates a town. All quests are random, reminding me a lot of games like Fate (I.e. Kill a boss named blah on level 7). The nice thing is that there are lot of dynamics involved. Some quests involve rescuing an NPC and if you're not fast enough, the minions will kill him/her before you can reach them. At one point I was just around the corner and I heard a cry for help, but it was too late as I was taking my time. It's definitely a different sort of mechanic in a game like this, where we're usually given quests and can do them at our own leisure, fully knowing that the urgency is fake. Well, in Din's Curse, it's not and it makes the world feel more real.

Lots of things work as you'd expect them. Much like Diablo, when you level up, you're given some stat points and skill points. The nice thing about skills, is that you can access any one of them in the tree, but the lower you go, the more skill points (and money) they'll cost. So you have to save up for them. It's a nice change from having to "unlock" certain skills. And with the capability of creating a hybrid class, you can really craft your own build and make the character exactly what you want. It's a very versatile and flexible system.

Other aspects are also familiar, but with some added differences such as killing enemies and having them drop loot. Loot has different levels of quality. What's nice is, identifying equipment takes a few seconds of your time, instead of requireing an identify scroll. So as long as you're not attacked and you have a bit of time, you can identify equipment you find and use it right away if needed. The system is well designed, showing you what you have equipped when you mouse over an item in order to make an easy comparison.

Levels are also randomly generated and are filled with monsters, traps, exploding barrels, locked doors containing treasures beyond, and lots of other stuff I'm still learning. Cave-ins can happen, and while they really hurt monsters, they hurt you too. I've been killed by a few. It's nice though, as it adds an element of environmental danger other than the denizens of the dungeon. There are also random switches that do different things, from opening up far away level waypoints or causing explosions or opening a far away door. It's a nice change of pace from the usual; that is, just killing and looting. In Din's Curse, you have to watch your step and be on the ball, because a few seconds of not paying attention can mean death.

Dying on the normal non-hardcore difficulties means you'll get an experience penalty, but if you find your soulstone at the place of death, you can recover some of that experience you lost. I do believe you have a limited time to do so, however.

Well, that's about all I can remember from my session last night. All I know, is that I can't stop thinking about the game and I just want to jump right back in. I haven't felt like that towards a game in a while now, specially not an indie game.

If you like diablo-style games that are full of innovation and don't mind not having mind-blowing graphics, I highly recommend downloading the demo. It lets you get to level 5, at which point you should know if you'll like it or not.

Well, 5 hours later, I have to say I'm impressed. I did a few missions and races, but more than half of that time was spent just messing around and destroying things, or exploring. It took me well over an hour to get used to the controls, and also to the PS3 controller that I hadn't picked up for quite some time. Suffice to say, that this game has one of the most impressive engines ever. It's not the first game to have a massive open world, but it's definitely the first to make the entire thing feel real and not sparse.

I'm not entirely sure how Avalanche managed to cram that much detail in this game and make it look so damn good. The first Just Cause, which I played and enjoyed, also had a fairly big world, but it didn't look as good and certainly didn't have as much detail. I often found myself running around with nothing to do.

Just Cause 2 changes that, by first having more stuff to fill up the huge world, and secondly because you have the grapple and parachute combo. Once you master this, you can zip around any environment fairly quickly. If that's not fast enough, after a few missions you can unlock extractions which allow you "fast travel" to previously discovered destinations. If you ever find yourself wanting a helicopter, just find a base and there's sure to be one sitting there waiting for you to hijack.

As for the missions / side quests, I enjoy the watching the cut scenes despite what others have said. I think you can't really take this game seriously. I mean, during one of the earlier scenes, your character tosses back a thrown grenade while having a casual conversation during a firefight. You can tell right there, along with the over the top accents (that were obviously done this way on purpose) that the game doesn't even take itself seriously. This isn't a game you play for the story line. This is a game you play because you want to explore and destroy everything you can. And destroying / exploring has never been this much fun.

I can easily see myself spending 40-50 or more hours on this game. They announce lots of DLC upcoming too, so I can't wait to see what they come up with!

If you like open world action games, this is a no-brainer decision: you must own this game.

Since I was 6 years old, I've been playing games on a computer. I started out with the commodore 64 and then when the microsoft platform (dos, window, etc). I played the occasional console back in the day, like the nintendo 8-bit and the SNES for a while, but I enjoyed the complexity of PC games and mainly stuck with them.

Sometime in 2007, a friend of mine invited me over for beers and he fired up his xbox 360 on his big screen TV and showed me gears of war. He asked me to try it, but as I grapsed the 360 controller, I immediately felt uncomfortable. However, I saw the appeal of having a wireless controller and being able to plop down on the couch, press a button, insert a disc and just play a game. No drivers, no installs, no crashes (usually), no conflicting codecs causing issues, no worries about hardware requirements or dealing with poor performance, no tweaking. Just, turn on, and play.

Suffice to say I bought a 360 the week after, and since then have abandoned PC games, never looking back. Lately though, I've been running dry of games to play. As I get older, I find myself clinging to the genres that I enjoy and dismissing the rest. At this point, I'm only able to enjoy RPG games (anything but JPRGs...) and the occasional shooter (1st or 3rd person) but not the multiplayer-based ones, only the ones that focus on atmosphere and a good single player experience (condemned, metro 2033, f.e.a.r, etc).

Having my PC setup on my HDTV means gaming has to be done on the couch. There's no room in my apartment for a computer desk. I've been dealing with a crappy wireless / keyboard combo over the years and decided to upgrade them yesterday. The difference was night and day.

So, I decided to fire up a few old games I had and see how it felt with the mouse and keyboard. It wasn't bad! I had to elevate the mouse to be comfortable, but resting the keyboard on my lap worked well enough. So, I'm ready to try and jump back into the PC gaming scene after years of console use.

Games I've missed out on and want to play are: Stalker (Clear sky and Call of Pripyat), Torchlight, Witcher Director's Cut, and Drakensang to name a few. I just hope my old PC hardware can keep up with these games. I have no idea hold it will hold up. Any game suggestions are welcome!

I'm now 6 hours in. I had an absolute blast playing the game last night, because I'm finally in some of the missions that I can take my time, stealth kill, and explore.

I've had a chance to buy a stealth suit that includes night vision goggles, and I sold all my shotgun shells to buy a crazy sniper assault rifle hybrid with a scope.

One bullet takes most enemies down and they never see me coming.

You absolutely have to sneak around (crouched) and shoot lights if you plan on doing this. Oh, and if you use your flashlight, duh, everyone's going to know where you are lol.

This is the stuff I was waiting for and I can say that it's awesome. The graphics still blow me away, the fog and lighting effects are some of the best I've seen. I was watching a fire cast shadows over a nearby body and it was projecting it on a wall, dancing and flickering. It's freakishly good. I also love the fact that when you kill someone, their headlamp stays on and shines through the fog. Gives the game an even creepier setting and it just adds to the atmosphere, which is what is this game's strong point.

I still don't understand what people mean when they say the shooting is weak. I agree that the starting weapons are garbage (they're makeshift and they even tell you they suck) but apart from that, I find the shooting in this game to be incredibly satisfying. And I have no ammo issues and I'm not playing on easy mode either.

Another thing I noticed last night was how good the audio in the game is. Distant gun shots really sound distant; muffled and echoed, and so do things like a loudspeaker barking out propaganda. Ricochets sound so real I feel like I'm actually there.

I guess this game isn't for everyone, but I haven't had this much fun since F.E.A.R. and Dead Space. Metro 2033 is an awesome game, hands down.

Got a chance to play it for about 3 hours last night.

Visuals are outstanding. It's nice to see another close quarter engine perform so well, other than Unreal. The models and their animation are some of the best I've seen, and the lighting is awesome. I'm impressed the 360 can handle this, just goes to show that even though the hardware is 5 years old, it's still quite versatile.

Load times are very fast, which is nice because when you die, you reload from a previous checkpoints. And checkpoints are generous and are setup in a smart way (/eye RB6 Vegas). And while a new area is loading, you have a narrative to read/listen to, so it goes by even faster.

You can choose to listen to the Russian voices and have english subtitles which is a nice feature.

I'm not sure what others are talking about when they say the shooting is weak. Maybe I just don't see it. I also don't play games like CoD or anything, so maybe my basis for comparison is different. One thing to keep in mind, is that you're using makeshift weaponry and dirty ammunition. Specially at first, your guns are basically garbage. The first SMG looses it's accuracy after just a few shots, but this is to be expected. Shoot a monster or human in the face with it, and he'll go down fast. If you're quick enough to aim with the handgun (magnum I think), you can peg them off from a distance quite easily. Most of the non-human enemies I've fought get close really fast, and if you've got a few of them pouncing on you, it can get really difficult trying to kill them off.

I haven't had a chance to use stealth much, most of the areas I've gone through so far are fairly linear and scripted, and I have an AI buddy tagging along, so I can't take my time. Hoping that this aspect comes into play soon, as that's what I was expecting from this game having watched the previews.

I've also run into a few traps and they kill you instantly. So far, gameplay is quite frantic, because you're trying to get from point A to point B wearing a gas mask with a limited filter. Bear in mind I've only played about 3 hours so far, so I can't really speak for the rest of the experience.

I've seen a few places mention RPG elements, but I haven't experienced these as of yet. Currency is basically military grade ammo you find lying around, and you can buy stuff with it or exchange it for dirty ammo at a higher ratio. So far I've only found a few different types of guns, so I imagine this gets developed later on.

I also have to comment on the HUD and the fact that there is none. Very cool for the immersion factor. Anything you do, from charging your flashlight or pumping the airgun you have to do manually and you see your character doing it. Even when checking your objectives, you take out your lighter, fire it up and peer at your notepad. Very cool stuff, and that's what Metro 2033 is good at; making you feel like you're there.

Looking forward to spending more time playing the game, and plan on doing a full review once I've completed it.

Introduction and differences of UK / NA release:

Risen has been out for the 360 in the UK since October, 2009. There's also an Asian region-free version, which is the one I'm currently playing. I do believe that the PC version also shares this release date.

You're probably asking yourself, "Why did you order it when the game is coming to North America Feb 25th?" and I'd have to say it's a fine question. Well, I'd been waiting for months for them to announce a NA release date, which was TBA 2010, and they did, albeit 2 days after I placed my order for the import. /facepalm.

It arrived at the same time as my Mass Effect 2 copy, and oddly enough, I've been spending more time with Risen.

So far I'd say I'm about 25 hours in the game, but I've decided to start the game after about 15 hours in. Despite all the really low review scores for the 360 version, I'm having a lot of fun. A single patch was released for this version not long ago, and although I hadn't played the game pre-patch, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised so far. Many reviewers complained that the game was very dark, but a brightness slider has been added in the patch I speak of and will no doubt be part of the improvements to be added in the upcoming NA version.

As you are probably already aware, Risen is developed by Piranha Bytes, makers of the Gothic series - a series of action/RPG games released for the PC and known for their difficulty and lack of "hand holding". Although Piranha Bytes no longer hold the Gothic license, risen can definitely be taken as a spiritual successor, and many of those who've played Gothic 3 say it's an improvement.

Wizardbox is responsible for the 360 port of Risen, and I have to admit, it isn't the best port I've ever played. However, even in its current state (before the NA tweaks I mean) it's very playable. There are a couple of really bad textures in some areas, but otherwise the engine runs fine. A few occasional frame rate dips, but nothing compared to Sacred 2, Divinity II or Two Worlds. Most of the time, Risen runs smoothly, but it's not a game that will blow you away graphically, at least not on the 360. The draw distance isn't mind blowing, and the game painfully blurs LOD textures and distant trees / foliage to preserve frame rate. While most console games graphically pale in comparison to their PC counterparts, Risen is even lower on this scale because of the not-so-great port job done by our good friends at Wizardbox. So, I warn you now, the game isn't gorgeous, but it's definitely not as bad as some make it to be.

The NA version of the game, release date 25th of Feb later this month, is rumoured to have some fixes in the interface / controls / textures department. When I asked the publisher (Deep Silver) on their forums if they planned to patch the other versions to match, they couldn't make any promises. They merely said that they were aware that it would be in demand, and that they'll do their best...

This leads me to believe that it's most likely not going to happen, which will undoubtedly anger a lot of UK gamers and importers. As I said, I already own the import, but honestly, I don't really care if the NA version is better because this version of the game is very much playable despite what many reviewers are saying. I have not run into a single game breaking bug, nor any sort of crashes in my 25 hours of playing. And while the graphics in some areas make me cringe, I would not consider the game to be ugly.

The meat & potatoes - Gameplay:

Risen is by no means an easy game. Combat takes a while to get used to, and button mashing is a sure way to spend time staring at loading screens. Even if switched to the easy setting, Risen, specially at first, isn't a breeze. I highly recommend going over to the deep silver forums and checking out some basic hints and tips for beginners if you find yourself getting frustrated. Just be warned that you may run into some spoilers in the hints & tips section.

You're thrown into the world (or Island) of Risen after the ship you're on gets wrecked, and awake on the island shore. From here, you have to piece together the story and politics of the island and eventually, join a faction of your choice. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm not going to go into the story or anything.

There's no character creation screen when you start the game. You have to build your own character slowly and surely by progressing through the game. Once you gain a level, you earn "learning points" that will allow you to visit a trainer of your choice and pay gold to level up a particular skill. That's right, you need to pay gold to increase skills aside from actually leveling up. Most hate this, but it doesn't bother me, I just see it as a higher difficulty and it makes sense in Risen's gameworld. Why would these people share their knowledge for free?

Skills can range from weapon skills, such as sword, axe, bow and crossbow, to increasing your strength or learning how to pick locks, pickpocket and sneak. Later on, you will meet NPCs that can train you in magic skills, but to be able to cast some of the non-offensive magic without needing any scrolls or other expendable materials requires you to become a mage. If this is really important to you, I recommend reading up on it before you progress too far in the game. Most NPCs at the beginning will give you warning signs if you bother to listen to them. I highly recommend paying attention.

As you explore the island, you will face many enemies. Some are going to wipe the floor with you. This is how the game tells you to avoid them and come back later. There's no respawning or level-scaling done here. This is far from being an Oblivion clone. It follows a lot of old-school gaming trends, and it has a lot in common with the company's previous Gothic games. And much like Divinity II, there is little to no hand-holding. Maps have to be found or purchased. There are no quest arrows or lines to guide you on the island. You have to figure stuff out, and keeping a good repetoire of save games is highly recommended.

Doing quests is a good way to earn some gold and experience. They are fairly straightforward and a quest log is there, including character dialog, to keep you updated on what needs to be done. Several quests have many ways for you to complete them, depending on your approach and chosen skills. I like the system, it works well for the game, and NPCs aren't all friendly and willing to help you out for free. This helps with the immersion of the game, because like I said before, it makes sense for people not to go out of their way to help unless you help them back. The inhabitants of the island aren't composed of rich people. They are struggling in their lives and the fighting forces on the Island are complicating it for them. You'll know what I'm talking about once you play the game.

Conclusion:

I can't say I've played enough to give you a proper full review of the game, but hopefully this impression will answer some questions. I look forward to beating the game, and can easily see it taking me another 30+ hours to do so. While the game can be overly difficult and definitely has its frustrating moments, it makes it that much more rewarding. I look forward to seeing all of the changes the North American version of the 360 port will bring, and I hope that the gamers in the U.S. and Canada can open their minds to a different and more challenging RPG experience.

I was a little shocked when I saw this demo on xbox live last week whilst having my morning coffee. I had heard about Divinity II and read some of the European reviews many months ago, and told myself to keep an eye on it, as it seemed like my style of RPG (more action based, and more old school). I had completely forgotten about this, and it comes at a good time, a time when I have no other RPGs to play.

I downloaded it and played it for about 5 hours. At first, I found the engine to be visually jarring... That is, it freaked my eyes out. I found myself holding the left trigger button (over the shoulder view for targetting) most of the time because I found it to be smoother. I even felt a little nausea at first, something that only one other game had ever done to me (Killzone 2). I had to take a break and come back to the game later, but I eventually got used to it.

So, to start out with, yeah, the game does have some performance issues, akin to Sacred 2 and (not as bad as) Two Worlds. It's been ported from a PC game, and it shows because it's quite obvious that the game could have used more optimization. I couldn't believe it when I later read that the game was designed using GameBryo (the same engine that Bethesda used to develop Oblivion and Fallout 3). I would have never known.

Things I've noticed are dipping frame rates, screen tearing and clunky animations if you're a few feet away from an enemy or NPC (this is used to improve performance on a general scale, but it's usually done from further away). Also, the Field of View in the normal camera view seems unnatural (not sure if that's just me). I was a little disappointed at the lack of options, specifically for the camera / view settings. Your only choice to change the camera view is to hold left trigger as I mentioned previously, which gets tiring after a while.

Now obviously, you can tell that my initial impressions of the game were not good. Like many spoiled next-gen gamers used to AAA titles, I expected to be blown away visually, albeit on a subconscious level. While the game has it's fair share of nice visuals, the engine runs poorly on consoles. It really does. It's by no means ugly, but I definitely recommend downloading the demo and trying it out before purchasing, specially if graphics mean a lot to you.

Despite my initial urge to turn it off after 30 minutes, my love for RPGs told me to keep going and not give up. I'm glad I gave it a chance, because I ended up playing the demo for several hours and will end up buying the game on release day. It's already available in the US as of Dec 29th, but in Canada we must wait until the 5th of January, a delay that has been undoubtedly forcasted due to incessant storms, blizzards and polar bear attacks on the shipping crews and their vehicles.

Well, nove that I've talked about the bad stuff, now here's the good stuff...

I really like the game's combat, questing and leveling up system. Basically you can mold your own character using a mix of classes: Warrior, Ranger, Mage and Priest. You can focus on one or build upon them all. There are also other skills you can invest in, like mind reading, lock picking and passive skills to increase one handed / two handed effectiveness and so forth. I love that kind of freedom, the sort that allows you to royally f*&$ up a build or create an awesome one :)

Combat is done in real time, however you can pause the game at any point and re-target and strategize if need be. I found that to be a nice touch, because sometimes you can get overwhelmed easily, and one mistake in this game gets you killed. When you die, you have to reload a previous auto-save or a manual save; in typical old-school fashion, there's no continue or respawns.

The questing system is simple. NPCs will have a ! on their heads if they have quests to offer. You accept or deny, and then it's added to a quest log. Do the quest, come back and you can usually pick a reward of XP, gold or a selection of items. Note that there is very little hand holding, though. No nifty little arrows like in Oblivion / Fallout 3 telling you where you need to go. You'll need to pay attention and follow instructions. This may seem like a bad thing, but it isn't; personally I find this sort of system much more rewarding and it also prevents me from falling asleep during gameplay.

You have the freedom of moving the main quest along, or doing side quests, or running around in the environments, pillaging and killing if you want. There's plenty of locked chests, barrels and containers that hold random loots. I found that investing only one point in lock picking allowed me to open several of the locked chests, and I've managed to find a lot of neat items in them.

As far as equipment goes, you have your typical slots, chest, arms, legs, rings and earrings, and necklace (I may be forgetting one or two). Loot seems to have random twists a la Diablo; some swords can come inbued with magical properties and the like. I'm fairly certain some of the NPC vendor's loot they sell is randomized as well. ANother thing I love is the ability to insert charms (upgrades) in armor, weapons and jewelery. Charms do stuff like increase a certain stat, add damage or increase mana / hp regen rates, etc. Overall, combining all the equipment possibilities with the versatile class system makes for a very customizable experience, which is something I always look for in RPGs.

More on combat - obviously you can hack and slash with melee weapons, but you also have ranged attacks such as bows and magic. Bows do not require arrows, which is awesome. I find it tedious in games to always replenish arrow supplies, so this is a welcomed feature. Magic cast from the Mage pool of skills are quite powerful as well. Things like magic arrow, fireball (AoE and chance to knock down), a heal spell and magic / mana enhancing passives. The Priest skills focus more on summoning aid to your side, like undead that throw fireballs or offer aid with healing, or filling enemies with fear, invisibility, health to mana conversion, etc.

As you can tell, the game strays from typical RPG elements quite a bit. There's lots of little surprises and I especially enjoyed the story, but I don't want to spoil any of it. In conclusion, my impressions were very good and the demo convinced me to buy the game, but it was a slow start. Divinity II is something that will take you a few hours to get into, and I for one and hoping to see future patches that will address performance.

Borderlands Mini-review

I'm about 20-25 hours in, half-way done the game. I've been playing it mostly online with two buddies of mine, and also a little bit single player, so I feel fairly comfortable in being able to mini-review the game at this point.

For starters, let me come right out and say it: Borderlands is a fantastic game in almost every regard. If you like loot-hunting games like Diablo, and also enjoy a good first-person shooter, then you're almost guaranteed to fall in love with the game. The first few hours are a little slow as the game introduces all the mechanics and you're often fighting the same stuff, but once it picks up, it really does pick up. After that, the pace is perfect, and it always leaves you wanting more.

I can easily play for 5 hours straight and not even see the time go by. I'll usually look up at the clock when my eyelids are feeling heavy and sigh in disappointment upon seeing midnight, realizing that I have to go to bed and then go to work the next day.

I'll start by discussing the graphics and art st yle since there seems to be a lot of discussion on this, mainly due to the fact that Borderlands didn't always have that cartoony / cell-shaded / black line look; initially it was to look something like fallout 3. For those that are disappointed about the change, let me say this bluntly: get over it. The game is awesome, and the art and feel are most welcome because Gearbox really nailed it. Personally, I think their decision was brilliant because otherwise it would have looked much too generic and it would have honestly felt a little too fallout-ish. Regardless, it is what it is, and passing this game up because of this change would be a big mistake, specially if you like the genres involved.

So, now that we've past that hurdle, let's get right down to the meat of the game: gameplay. Now, Borderlands is a game that has a heavy emphasis on repetition. You'll be killing lots of the same enemies, but with goals in mind. Your goals will be to always look for replacement weapons, grenade mods, shield mods, cla ss mods and to gain experience to level up. If that sounds like rubbish to you, then this is NOT your game. However, to any huge fan of this genre like moi, this is a dream come true. In my old age, the point-and-click loot-whoring game quickly puts me to sleep (literally) after an hour or so. I need that twitch action, I need that danger of imminent death. I need to know that a few false moves on my part could spell disaster. Borderlands fulfills this role, and does it splendidly might I add.

Story-wise, the game is a little thin in this regard. The environments are fairly large in size, and with the game using the Unreal 3 engine, it means that there will be zones (unlike Fallout 3 / Oblivion where the borders are almost seamless). This is both good and bad. Bad because there are load times, good because it's much easier to get to know the zones, and if you ever want to respawn the chests or enemies in a given area, you just have to leave and come back. Going back to what I was saying, the story is rather thin, but I personally don't care. These kinds of game aren't about the story, they're about killing stuff, leveling up and the perpetual quest of character progression.

One of my few complaints about the environments and the quest system is that it they feel a little empty at times. More outposts would have been nice, and no bulletin boards to take/submit quests at. It feels a little too... MMOish due to this. If you play single player, you're bound to feel really... alone at times. This may be intentional, because you're essentially on a planet that has very little life, but still, I can't help but feel the game could have used a few improvements. Nonetheless, it doesn't take away too much from the experience, and playing with friends solidly fills that gap.

You've probably heard the term 'bazillion guns'. Let me break it down for you. There are several different weapon types, and certain cla sses have 'favorites' that they will apparently be better with. Shotguns, assault rifles, sniper guns, SMGs, repeaters (small automatic pistoles), revolvers and rocket launchers make up the weapon selections. When you kill an enemy, it has a chance to drop a weapon. There are several different grades that it can randomly be; white, green, blue, purple and orange in order of worse-to-best. Orange is rare as I have yet to find one (at level 21) but I've found a few purples and blues. Weapons then have random stats depending on the sub-type. It sounds complicated to explain, or maybe I'm just not really good at breaking it down, but once you play for 10 hours or so, you'll start to see the patterns.

So essentially, you'll always be looking for a better gun, or better yet, better guns. Even though your cla ss has a few 'favorites' that are listed in its description (e.g. the Solider favours shotguns and assault rifles), nothing prevents you from using whatever you want and gaining proficiencies. What are proficiencies? Well, it's simple. The more you use a certain type of weapon (i.e. shotguns) the better you become. Each kill raises its proficiency level, and when you fill the bar, you'll get a bonus, like faster reload time, better accuracy, etc. It's a brilliant system, and it adds a dimension to the usual leveling up, put a point in a skill-type system Borderlands uses.

Acquiring loot doesn't always have to be via killing things though. Apart from quest rewards, there are several vending machines scattered everywhere that will sell you ammo, weapons, shield mods, cla ss mods, grenade mods and ammo upgrades. Each machine has a special 'item of the day' that's posted for about 20 minutes, and is usually fairly powerful and consequently, more expensive. So it's good to make your rounds once in a while and check them. In one case, I ran into an 'item of the day' that was a really powerful purple 2-ammo revolver that has 4x the chance to deal acid corrosion to enemies. I used that gun for 5 levels and was really sad when I had leveled beyond it's usefulness. So money in the game definitely has its value if you play your cards right. I see a lot of people saying they have too much money, I can't comprehend how because I'm always nearly broke.

Looking up at my previous paragraphs, I'm thinking this review can no longer be described as a mini-review. Apparently I have a lot to say about this game :) In any case, like I said before, if you like first person shooters and enjoy character progression or looting games like Diablo, then this is a must-buy. The firefights never get old, and in a game where you'll be fighting 95% of the time, that's very important. Most enemies will scale up with you, so you can explore previously seen areas at your convenience to grind out a bit, level up or hunt for unique weapons.

I'll post a full review when I've completed the game and tried out New Game+ for a few hours. So far though, replay seems like a guaranteed thing. I can see spending 200 hours in this game, and even more when DLC starts coming out.

Wow, so many good games in so little time. Why the hell did they have to sandwich them all in the same freggin' month!? A few months back I was starving for next-gen RPGs and now I have 4-5 of them coming out in a 60 day time frame.

Anyhow, the one I've been waiting for is Borderlands. Been watching its development for quite som time now, and unlike some, I don't care if they shifted towards cell shaded graphics. To me, it's more about the gameplay elements in this type of game. It's basically Diablo / WoW meets a first-person shooter. The only other game I've ever seen that comes close to this mix of genres would be Hellgate: London, which I absolutely loved and put in at least 250 hours in, if not more. So, in that regard, I have high expectations for the gameplay, but I'm guessing Gearbox Software won't disappoint.

The official console release date is tomorrow, and I'm hoping I'll be able to find it tomorrow and take advantage of a crazy deal we Canadians don't often see. Much like Walmart's temporary Batman Arkham Asylum deal of $39.96 brand new, Borderlands will be sold for that same price at Walmart, Futureshop and Best Buy, for who knows how long. I actually cancelled my amazon.ca pre-order when I found out about that. A $30 savings is huge, specially considering the amount of cash I've spent on games these past weeks.

In any case, I'll have my hands full with gaming for a while now. Demon's Souls, Borderlands, Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition and of course the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins in November. Winter will go by fast at this rate!

It seemed like it took forever, but I finally got my deluxe last night. Thankfully my gf was home studying for a mid-term so she was able to get the final delivery attempt of it. I was happy to see I had all the pre-order bonuses too; the sound track and art book. I wasn't expecting those as I didn't pre-order it; I was stuck buying it post-release because my local store let me down. The strategy guide that comes with the deluxe is also really well done. For $10 extra, anyone serious about this game should go with the Deluxe for sure. I also got my Baroque game at the same time (PS2 RPG). Two Atlus published titles in one day :) I fired it up to test it and it's going to be an awesome game. I love that you can play it in 1st person! I've always wanted a 1st person / 3D roguelike and this looks to be it.

As for Demon's Souls, last night I had time to start out my new character on the new servers (all my savegame data from Asian version is inaccessible and this makes sense). Started as a royal obviously, as I wanted to blast through 1-1 ASAP. I did so, and then proceeded to 4-1 to get my favorite starting weapon, the crescent falchion. Those black skeletons that used to intimidate me aren't that tough now that I've figured out their patterns. Managed to get the falchion, the adjudicator's shield, a kilij, utchigatana, long compound bow, and also freed patches from his cell (so I can use him in 4-2 obviously). I think 4-1 is probably the best place to go after 1-1 due to all the goodies that are accessible. You just have to be able to handle the rolling silver skeletons :) I'm happy to report that I haven't died yet, but I've had some close calls!

I'll kill Adjudicator next so I'll most likely die once. I usually end up screwing up once against that boss.

Anyone have any strategy ideals for him?