After 135h Dark Souls (jebus I can not get enough of this game), I am playing now (parallel) Resident Evil Revelations. First of all, the circle pad pro is a nice "invasion/new gadget" and is comfortable to play. The second big "feature" on this nice game, you can push the 3D effect to "ultra". What that mean? Well, the graphic has much more depth. Maybe not for everyone; but for me, I think is supa-duba ;-)

Wise…what about the game play? That is a very good question, nice and smooth. You aim with the left button (LZ) and you shoot with the right button - CQC is with the knife; means right shoulder-button. The screen on the bottom serves to change your weapons, see your arsenal and the map.

The sound from Resident Evil Revelations keeps the atmosphere exciting and astonishing…
Just completed chapter 1 after 60min…and I want more...

Hi Folks...

Finally got my Nintendo 3DS ;-)...

If you wanna add me as a friend: 5327-1107-9702

Take care

A gamer play games...

That is a simple equation...

Found an interesting text about one of our favorite hobby...

You choose what is REAL...

http://kotaku.com/5816623/video-games-make-lots-of-money+but-is-that-a-good-thing

For a couple of weeks, I read that some sport games will come without booklets. The gamer can download for free, in the language he wants.

Well, I can understand that this practice helps to safe money and our environment is thankful. But what about the nostalgic part of gaming.

Since I am collecting games back in 1989, there were always booklet. Now I should download, from my "laser - black/white" printer? That is not the same; hope this mentality will stay with the sport games. Should one day RPG-Booklets be only "downloadable"…Jebus, doomsday is near…

Now, the article attention is more for the arcade games.
Just download and play - from Xbox online shop or PSN. But wait, what about the game-collectors? I mean the "alte Schule" as I am? The pleasure to open up the case, read and see the beautiful pictures from the booklet and insert the game into the console - always a special moment, special when you waited years for it. Now we just press start and can play after the download.

My hall of games is suddenly no more "complete". One part is in my safe, the other in my hard disk. Was always proud when people saw my collection and said: You played all of them? Of course, but did not finished some of them. Then I should add: there is much more, but you can not see……sad sad

Last thought: at the moment we can always download our games that we paid for in the online shop. But, how is the situation in 10 or 20 years. If one of the shops does not more exist, and your old hard disk is damaged - but you want to play Limbo again?!?

FPS are becoming more and more famous in our lovely community.

With "bombastic" commercials and lots of interviews, the developers "try" to catch our attention to their products.

The recipe is simple: invent or buy a game-engine, mix with an environment, a small hint of a story and then you have your home made product. But wait, did we not forgot something? Oh sorry yes - TIME.

And that fellows is the core problem, not only for FPS but for all games. On the same time, money is the second reason why some games looks like "crap".

We should not forget (that's my opinion), that some games are just putted on the market as an experiment to see how the engine works (Mind Jack), and on the same time the developers earn some money with it. Later, when enough experience is collected - the "real game" is published.

Now, why Bugs VS Money - the formula is TIME = MONEY as we know from the financial world.

From the idea until the release, a game can consume a lot time…example: FF-series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, The Last Guardian (we do not even know when it will be released) etc..

Consuming a lot of time also means consuming a lot of dollars. The result is a horrible, wanna be, bad telling story FPS. We pay the bill for a product that should actually land in the trash…And that folks is a SHAME.

On the other side, buying such bad products, we finance the future games that - hopefully - should be better.

We as the consumers always pay the bill for bad products and ideas.

"That's the mentality here that's the reality here
Did I just hear somebody say they wanna challenge me here??" eminem

This year we can expect some amazing and exciting games for our consoles.

We never know if they will satisfy our hunger for gaming, or if they will change our expectations for future games.

Sure is that the agitation is enormous and almost "killing".

The Last Guardian: Guess the most anticipated game for me. We do not know much about the game, but the trailers and pictures already showed us what we can expect. "Almost pure art" or "digital poetry" wrote some reviewer for The Last Guardian. What I expect is a exactly this feeling of gaming, and hope the soundtrack will be interesting as the one from Ico.

Shadow of the Colossus and Ico remake: Both games from the same creator. Unfortunately, I did not play that much both games. I helped my brother with Shadow of the Colossus with some strategy, but that was all. Definitely gonna buy this "old" games and play trough it.

Dark Souls: Very ambitious to play this game. Demon's Soul was a hard game - heard from my friends. Already bought it, but did not play more then 1 hour. Can not say yet if I will finish the game, but for sure I will buy Dark Souls and play it (until the end :). Rumors say that this game could be more difficult then his antecessor, I do not care…I am ready for the challenge.

Final Fantasy 13-2: No idea what this game will be. Nr. 13 brought (finally) a new fight-system that gave the game some (more) dynamic. Hope 13-2 will also have a similar fight-system and be less linear.

Limbo plus: This game does not exist yet, but it would be great to play a successor.

Games like Bad Company, Medal of Honor or Black Ops did always give us a "taste" what war is or what it "feels to be there" on the battlefield.

Unfortunately the main story (campaign) is almost linear, the numbers of enemies are limited (almost) and the environment do not take much damage when you - for example - crashes with a tank in a building.

The multiplayer part of those games is what keeps the title "alive". But also here, unfortunately, the fights become "boring" with the time (my opinion you must not feel the same) and after a "short" time the game is over - next round.

My idea - let's say proposal/dream - is to create a multiplayer game which time is not predict but the environment will "decide" when GAME OVER.

The BASIC: We start in a small city (with a lot of buildings + houses, canalization, few factories, some vehicles and it is abandoned but intact) - let's say 5 miles x 5 miles - that's our playground. Now we have two groups, let's say BLUE and RED and both do not like each other :-)

The ART OF WAR: The main goal is to destroy your opponent/enemies headquarters - but first you must find it. Each group starts with individuals "specialists" (one specialist could be: Sniper - Infantryman - Medic - etc…) and more or less the same amount of players. Everything on the playground (small city) can be used and you can access every type of building. Now, when both groups starts to shoot, the environment will take damage - and more they shoot at the same target more damage it will take until it collapses COMPLETELY. The physics should be realistic as in real life. If something explodes then it should start to burn after the explosion. Also, if one building crashes and hits another one, that one should also take damage and so on. The vehicles (school bus, taxi, truck, motorbike…) can be used to transport people or just to block a street. Rocket Tanks and normal ones can also be used but they are hidden. The player must explore the terrain to find the best way to move forward. Now, what should be special on this game? The environment and the soldiers - when the player starts at the beginning, the whole city is intact. With the time it will change his appearance, and mechanics. Time is not important 'cause the goal is another one. When everything works well, it can take hours or maybe days until one side wins. Another possible way to win is when EVERYTHING is destroyed - then there is no more a hideout for the headquarters. Then the side who did more damage to the environment has won (one possible way).

Details: The essence is to be part of a fight that does not just end after 7min. or maybe 15min. The player can left the game after a couple of hours, come back on the next day and the same fight is still on - just with a different terrain.

Guilds could be created; someone for example from your own group betrays you and starts his own headquarters (after some experience points gained on the game) and then we would have 3 of them. Day and night could be included for more realistic; also the weather (rain, snow, fog).

Every player can perfectionism his character and be a ultimate sniper or a deadly Infantryman - there are NO LIMITS.

The whole article is JUST a imagination what could be. I also do not think that at this moment any console could work properly with all those "calculations" on the background.

Again, what matters is the idea - perfectionism will/can be done later.

Microsoft had the idea to create achievements to make games more interesting. Sony took some time, but they also came with the trophy idea.

Nintendo has nothing until yet. We had the chance to discuss with Wisebandit what he thinks about this reward system, do gamers need a reward system and has a future such a reward system.

Question: Wisebandit, do you own an Xbox 360 and a PS3 - how high is your "achievement barometer" and how many trophies do you have.

Wisebandit: On my Xbox I have at the moment a bit more then 10'000 and on my PS3 just a few.

Q: Sorry for my question, but why not more?
W: (Wisebandit smiles) - It took me some time until I bought my Xbox 360 and PS3; also from 2007 until 2009 I was a hardcore WoW player. I had no interest in playing anything else…I am also doing an economic school and I work the whole day, just can play on weekends.

Q: I see, what do you think about the reward system from Microsoft and Sony?
W: It is a great thing. Gamers can see and compare their success with other friends.

Q: Only compare? What about the prestige, the feeling that everything has "been completed"?
W: That is an interesting question. Let me explain what I think: some people do not see as a prestige to have, let me say, over 50'000 or maybe 100'000 points achievement. Or if you have 50 gold trophies and 20 platinum's. I am talking about mature players, gamers that like to play until the end of the game. If you finish a game, you should have less or more about 50% of the achievements/Trophies. We can then compare with friends and see if they also tried to get more. But it should not be a competition to show off - that is childish.

Q: You say the system is a fail then?
W: No, that is not what I said. My generation already completed "tons" of games before achievements/trophies was founded. We also played Nintendo when a lot of people said that is childish. We do not see the point, that if someone has more achievemtns/thropy then you he is the better gamer - the smarter player. He just took more time to get those "smarties".

Q: For the younger generation those "smarties" are very important.
W: Truth, it is in their nature to think this way. Not that is wrong, but competition is a important thing for the younger - and we should respect that. Again my generation played Goonies, Metroid, Castlevania, Gradius and a lot more without memory card. We did not have an internet to see a walkthrough or a boss-strategy. We wrote the passwords on papers, that was our "safe points" and bought game magazines to see the tips and tricks. That is why we see achievements and trophies more "objective".

Q: Nintendo do not have any reward system - if they would start one, how it would look like?
W: Hummm…Nintendo was always different and they do not like to be compared with their competitors. I can not say if they will ever start with a system like this. But if they do, in my imagination it could be stars (gold trophy), mushrooms (bronze trophy) or flowers (silver trophy)…stuff that Nintendo always used.

Q: For your gusto, what is better: achievements or trophies?
W: Neither…nor - both systems are ok as they are. What Microsoft could improve is, do an update and show the achievements more specific like: 10 times someone have a 25 point achievement or 2 times a 150 point achievement. It would be like Sony's trophy-system which you can see more detailed…but it is ok just a "huge number" (wisebandits laugh).

Q: Last question Wisebandit: DO WE NEED GAME REWARDS?
W: I guess so…but again, it should not be wrong interpreted.

Q: Thank you…
W: You always welcome.

Humm…where should I start!?

From April/May 2007 until November 2009 I played World of Warcraft with proud and passion.

Now, after almost one year, I want dedicate a small text to this fantastic game which revolutionary the online gaming. The idea of WoW is fantastic and brings players until their limits - but the roots of this game are so dark as the human-soul.

First of all, it is not important to tell you which chars (plural) I had, on which server I played or on which guild I was. More important is, will try to explain, is it worth to play it and CONTINUE until the end?

The first year from 2007 until 2008 I played just for fun and had no idea what to do. Was in different guilds, met some people (some of them real nice, others true "weirdo's") and had my fun. As a gamer was of course my goal to reach level 60 (I did not had the 2. extension at this time), so I did some daily guests and a lot of dungeons with other people (tank, healer and 3 dps). It was a hard time in the game, the money was a problem for me and a lot of time people just left the group and all started again from the beginning - I was just a noob, no a ULTRA noob and tried to "play".

Life was great at this time…until I met a serious guild.

year 2: I was happy to finally find some serious people and true gamers. They explained to me all the important things like:

Armor - Magic - DPS (death per second ;-) - Agro - Professions and how to make money, a lot of money and much more.

At this time, I bought the second extension and the add on. It was possible to reach level 80 and learn how to play with the big boys. We merged with another guild and suddenly we had enough people to raid on the highest level: 25 players.

As you have my "introduction now - let me just explain the GOOD and the BAD side from my experience:

GOOD: You can meet A LOT of interesting people and have a lot of fun. The game is huge and so there is a lot to do. PvP (players vs. Players) fights are included on this game. Many servers for different types of people: RPG-server, PvP server and the Story-Server. WoW sucks you in in the game play, you just can not stop and want more. Many woman's like to play it because of the females chars that you can choose. Kids, teenager and Adults play together. Variety of armors, magic, professions and much more that keeps you on the road. You can play with more then one char (avatar) at the same time on the same server - you just need to pay for 2 accounts. Achievements to hunt and pets to collect - your own flying-mount and much more...

BAD: WoW can NEVER be finished - there will be always add ons to keep people playing. The addiction on this game is SERIOUSLY HIGH - on the 2. year of my "WoW-Life" I played almost everyday 3 - 6 hours (weekends 6 to 10 hours). It takes a long time to get the respect from the guild (invitation for raids, drops from bosses, feel comfortable in the "family"). That's the point a virtual family that YOU should not disappoint…

Suddenly all my friends were avatars on a virtual life - and the real friends asked what was wrong with me :(
Endless discussions about drops, some people left the guild because of a stupid weapon or armor piece (infantile behavior).

All the cool console games that came out on this time , were not important for me (I am playing them now).

Conclusion: I DO NOT REGRET the time I spent on WoW - but I am not proud. The price was high (social life), but there is an exit on this purgatory. Today I just play my console games with friends and I am happy when I can say: I am tired will stop now, let's play tomorrow….

There are many others point of view that I would like to write, but I guess I already said enough…Eventually some people will read this and I can imagine what they will post...

Every gamer must know what they want and what they need.

"for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so…." Shakespeare

Just finished to play MGS: Peace Walker and was pretty impressed about this fantastic game.

Ok, the game is not really finished - there are tons of sub-missions to complete.

But the story - the soul of the game - just wan't let me "go"...

Jack (the Big Boss/Snake) is an incredible charakter and also the story around him is incredible. Hideo-san created a marvelous hero with a sence of justice that cross the borders of gaming and comics.

What really gives me to think is, is it true the message at the end of the game? Do mankind really need nukes to maintain peace?

I guess YES!!

As I am a big fan of Japan - the culture, the food, the history and much more - I understand the fear that the nation have about nukes. The attack in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a huge offence for them, also the "WEST" gave them a lesson that they wouln't forget soon (you must know that the Japanese culture did not know the word CAPITULATE until then).

We live now in a small village; our planet earth. If one day manking is about to launch nukes, I really hope that a hero like the Big Boss will raise up and lead us to Peace.

Wisebandit