Hello delicious Gamespotters!

Its not much of a secret, but they recently made me an iMod here at GS (its like an iPod, only much more user friendly!). Now I know what you're thinking, but if I mod you guys, I'd have to mod everyone who wanted to be modded by me and the mod queue would be quite full!

Anyway I may be gone for a few days this weekend, so I hope you all have a good one!

Sooo I made a dark elf healer, and she started out with two swords. Apparently the dark elves start out in an area called "The Blighted Isle", a place that looks like it has suffered one too many forest fires (must be somewhere in Northern California). Black dragon shaped boats with sharp sails line the coast and here is where many of the introductory dark elven quests take place.

Whats really nice is that any info you need, or that comes along, pops up on screen in boxes or in huge text for a moment. Fighting an imp for a first time? A nifty box pops up telling you that "you discovered an imp!", and it goes into the bestiary for easy reference later. Achievements pop up the same way, "You killed 25 sprites!", and a pop up will tell you so. You get notices for discovering new areas, finishing quests, earning titles, etc. Its like being in an MMO version of Pop Up Video! Not that its a bad thing, its a nice change to have info readily available without needing to download tons of mods.

The mini map shows quest markers and trainers, which is always helpful. Much is standard MMO fare, doing quests and leveling up, getting rewards and xp. Professions include cultivation and apothecary crafts, which I havent fooled with yet. Hey, I'm only level 4! Another nice feature is that in some zones have Public Quests, where you and other players in that zone join in quests to kill a number of different monsters, before taking on a boss monster. Its seamless, theres no grouping up or anything, you enter the zone and you wait for the timer to reset and the public quest starts. It goes through three stages of enemy killing, and it nets a lot of xp. Its kind of a nice touch.

Overall, Warhammer Online makes a pretty good first impression. Starting quests are easy and lots of info is always a plus. Hopefully they can keep it going once its released next month.

Hello yummy Gamespotters!

I hope you guys are all doing okay! Ive been busy snoozing, napping, dozing, and the occasional siesta or two. Actually more than anything else, Ive been watching the Olympics. Not having a TiVO or DVR, Ive been staying up til 2am, watching all the exciting events. Yep, nothing gets me more emotional than a round of air pistol, followed by a good old steeplechase. I'm amazed Baseball is still part of the Olympics. (I'm even more amazed that Baseball is still a sport).

Actually my favorite events have been the swimming (of course), the women's gymnastics (I wish I could move like that!), and watching the US Basketball team plow through other teams.

Anyway, getting to the topic of my blog, I know the Too Human demo received less than stellar reviews. Not being online, I never played it, so I was waiting for GS' review, expecting, at worst, a 6.5, at best, a 7.5. It got lower than that, which is fine, (hey, not all games can win the gold medal. I'm guessing Too Human's score is the equivalent of tripping on the balance beam, falling face forward and comically bouncing back up and backwards off the beam *add appropriate "Tom and Jerry" sound effects here*).

Now if you read IGN's review, they give it a much higher score, while not being much more positive about the game. Ive had a few problems with IGN's reviews in the past, so its no biggie. What does kinda offend me, is the fact that they use the term, "loot wh*re" in the review, saying that these people will love the game, due to tons of drops.

This doesnt offend me as an English major, as a gamer, or even as a writer. It offends me as a loot wh*re. Have my people not suffered enough? We're not all sleep deprived, rabid, drooling over any rare-epic drop in any MMO out there (I mean, I am, but not everyone is). If you prick us, do we not...leak? If you kill us, do we not drop awesome epic items?

Frankly, saying this game is fun for loot wh*res only makes me wanna play it more. Sadly, with games like Spore and The Force Unleashed on the horizon, Too Human may not get the playtime it deserves. Thats pretty sad. Especially for loot wh*res.

Hello my pretties!

Not only did I get Soul Calibur 4 this morning, but we Cali residents also got another surprise, a 5.8 earthquake! I was in the bathroom at the time ("when the bathroom's a rockin', dont come a knockin'"?), but nothing happened, other than a little rocking for about a minute, nothing even fell down. My fellow tenants however, were slightly less calm than myself. They had gathered outside and apparently formed an impromptu end of the world cult (I'm not sure how Los Angeles residents managed to learn to chant in Ancient Greek so quickly, or find enough hooded cloaks for everyone), though it may just have been an oddly themed pool party.

Anyway, I finally got around to playing SC4 and its a lot of fun. There are numerous modes for both single and multiplayer. Single player consists of story mode, a tower mode, arcade and training. Story mode is where you progress through the story, viewing cutscenes between battles. Tower is where you ascend and descend as many floors as you can, earning gold and weapons/armor, arcade is score based and training lets you practice. There's also a nifty create a character feature.

I knew my rusty skills from SC2 wouldnt help much at this point, so I gave Yoda a shot, and he has some pretty nifty attacks. He jumps around like a madman, and is pretty lethal with the lightsaber, using it in overhand swings and circular strikes and even lunging stabs. I went through arcade mode first, to try and get some practice in and it wasnt too much trouble. I had the most trouble with ring outs (due to Yoda's excessive jumping), and against the apprentice, who has some wicked force powers. I then tackled story mode, which is also a lot of fun, and some of the interactions with Yoda make for some funny cutscenes. For instance, one of the opponents said, "I dont even know who you are!", to which Yoda replied, "Know yourself first, you must". Definitely funny stuff.

I then gave the Tower Mode a shot, which was pretty interesting. You pick two characters, and can switch between them at any time, and work your way up a series of floors, defeating a certain number of bosses on each floor. You earn weapons/armor for your created self, and these can be unlocked through a variety of ways apparently, as I got a perfect kill on an early floor, and they gave me a soldiers hat. I also got a set of pauldrons by switching characters more than twice in a fight. Its an interesting mode. I managed to unlock the apprentice, a short ranged cute winged fighter named Scherazade, and the end boss of story mode Algol. I'm gonna have to check out create a character mode soon.

Hope your day was as eventful as mine!

Hello avid Gamespotters!

Long time no see! I hope you guys are all doing well, I'm fine. Not much news lately, aside from some e3 something or other, and some strange Giant Bomb website going live. Is this stuff big news? No. (And by no, I mean yes).

You know those inane quizzes that are floating around the net? I hate those! Nothing worse than looking at porn ...err..homework, when some retina burning flashing neon ad pops up, telling you to take a lil quiz/poll/survey. Oh sure, if you're really bored, you might try it once or twice (or sixteen times), but its usually a pretty boring quiz itself, that doesnt so much as help boredom, so much as add to it (its about as much fun as filling out a tax form, and you dont even have a possibility of a refund). Anyway, I figured every quiz on the net was pretty horrid, until I stumbled upon this one, the choices are pretty nifty and it relates to the Magic: The Gathering card game (usually, the less you know about Magic, the better). I figured it might be fun to post, so feel free to check it out!

http://www.wizards.com/magic/playmagic/whatcolorareyou.asp

Here's the result I got:

Hello My Lovelies!

Its that time again! GS has always been a favorite of mine for e3 coverage, not that I have anything against G4 (does anyone watch that channel, really??) My friend Eric is always excited around e3 time, mostly because he thinks it really stands for Erotic Entertainment Expo and takes a few days getting oiled up. (Just kidding, it actually takes a few weeks). Anyway, since I havent blogged in awhile, I figured I'd do a top 5 list of games I wanna see more of. What games are you guys looking to see more of?

Little Big Planet

I dont have, or have any plans to buy a ps3, but I love the vids and images of Little Big Planet. Those lil sack people are so cute!

Spore

Ever since E.V.O. on the SNES, people have wanted a game that let you evolve from a pool of goo to a multi-world colonizing society. The recently released Creature Creator only made Spore freaks drool even more in anticipation.

Warhammer Online

I'm always looking for a good MMO (WoW is like so 2004!), and while I never played the RTS games or the pen and paper RPG, the screens of this look promising at the very least.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

After seeing those recent trailers, Ive been getting pretty psyched about The Force Unleashed. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but force powers and lightsabers usually add up to a winning combination. (except for Episodes I, II and III).

Fable II

Its been awhile since I adventured in the lands of Fable, so a sequel is more than welcome. The choice of good or evil has never looked so yummy (unless you're choosing between vanilla and chocolate ice cream).

So Friday night, I walked into the theater, eager to see Wall E. From the astounding number of children there, I could tell this wasnt gonna be one of Pixar's usual gore fest, sex romp films. Nevertheless, its a cute story and little kids will love it.

The story involves a lonely little robot named Wall-E, who is the last robot on earth. Apparently the earth is now a huge toxic waste dump and Wall-E has been carefully squeezing piles of trash into compact little squares. He also collects odd little knick-knacks he finds among the rubble, listens to love songs, and watches clips of "Hello Dolly". One day, a sleek, shiny robot named Eve shows up, looking for signs of life and Wall-E falls in love (I guess hundreds of years of watching, "Hello Dolly", will do that to you).

The CG work is probably the best Pixar has done yet. Some scenes, like the early space scenes look great and while other Pixar films have a lot of clean lines, this one is appropriately gritty in places. The music is equally excellent. From the darker opening moments, to the light and airy scenes, its a perfect fit.

In case you cant tell, I loved the movie. Its a very cute story and well worth watching. It may not be everyones cup of tea though. There's very little dialogue to speak of, not that it hurts the story at all. It could be described as a sci fi comedy opera of sorts. If you like Pixar, or love stories, or just want to go somewhere air conditioned this summer, I highly recommend Wall-E.

I'll be the first to admit, I didnt want to see Iron Man. Despite the glowing reviews from critics, friends, and the neighbor's poodle, the trailers looked so cheesy. I'm not a huge Marvel/comic book/superhero movie fan either, so that didnt help. I was also wondering why some B movie actor like Robert Downey Jr got the role anyway? Well, I finally went to see it, and its quite a bit better than it looks in the trailers.

Robert Downey Jr plays Tony Stark, the obnoxious, billionaire, genius playboy, who runs Stark Industries, which mass produces various dangerous and delicious weapons, designed to "keep America safe". ("Stark Industries, committed to keeping the world safe, by blowing up small parts of it!"). Terrorists kidnap Stark and want him to build a version of his newest missile for them, and the story gets going from there.

Without spoiling anything, Robert Downey Jr is a pretty good fit for Stark. Underneath the playboy exterior, he's humorous, charming, and vulnerable. Jeff Bridges is also excellent as Stark's longtime co-CEO of Stark Industries, Obidiah. Gwyneth Paltrow is solid as Stark's personal assistant/awkward love interest Pepper Potts.

In the end, Iron Man succeeds, not because of an awesome story, but because of the strength and vulnerability of its protagonist. Its true potential lies in a sequel/sequels, where Iron Man is sure to fight bigger/badder villains, and prove that there's room, at least in the movies, for more than one, "Man of Steel".

Soo I finally got Age of Conan installed and patched, and picked Priest and went through the early quests, killing crocodiles, and evil pirate dudes, finally getting to Tortage. Well it was going okay and I got this quest to kill a few level 5 thugs in a back alley in town. No problem, I figured. I stand waay back, and pull one with a spell and like 2 others come running from like 100 feet away also and proceed to kill me. Probably a fluke, I thought. But it happens again, and again, and again. Essentially, it takes me like 10-12 deaths to kill three pirates that I need for a quest. I never had that problem in other MMOs. Needless to say, its a big turnoff, so I havent played since.

In other news, Ive been fooling around with the Spore Creature Creator Trial, and for those of you that have used it, I know what you've been thinking, "what would Alli make??". Well, stop wondering, cause I have pics! None of the stuff Ive created has been too freaky yet.

This was my first creation, some kind of reptilian thing. Note the webbed feet for easy water travel.

This was my second creation. Check out the lizard like eyes, lobster claws and hooves for feet. He also has a spiked tail for anything that wants to try a backstab.

This was my last creature. I think I saw something like this in, "Jurassic Park: The Musical". Highlights include suction cup feet, large eyes, rows of spikes and a line of shiny scales down its back.

Hello Gamespot!

Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there!

You guys had some great guesses as to my first two 360 games in my last blog, sadly none of you wins the million dollars (which is good, since I spent most of it on Life Savers and Juicy Fruit, now thats a lot of gum!) Anyway, the games I bought were:

And I earned my first achievement points in Assassin's Creed, Yay! I think my gamerscore is like 90 now. Ive only been playing it off and on, since I dont have anything comfy to sit on near the tv, so I cant play for long marathon like gaming sessions yet (like in WoW). Maybe I should get one of those balloon chairs? I've been having fun in Assassin's Creed though. I'm in Damascus, and just got done investigating and now I need to assassinate some dude. Ive also saved like 10/12 citizens. I love the way Altair moves. He could give spider man a run for his money. Sadly, I havent popped Lost Odyssey in yet, but I do want to play it, as I havent played a good console rpg since...umm...what year is this?

I also had to do a complete reinstall on the laptop, twice, due to a virus. Its running good now though and I have Mass Effect back on it, though. I have it maxed out on high/ultra high settings and it looks great, though I had to start over a few times cause I didnt like adept much, and cause I got stuck on some rock. Pretty cheesy. I'm now almost done with the first planet (again).

As if I needed more games, I also picked up the Age of Conan Collectors Edition, plus all the nifty preorder stuffs. Im gonna open it one of these days, its just the box is so shiny, I cant resist staring at it for hours on end.

I'd like to do more on Gamespot this summer, like redesign the headers, and play more games and write more reviews, and vice versa (play more reviews and write more games?). Do you guys have any plans for the summer?