Headache!

I must admit this: I'm developing a headache over this game known as Dragon Age: Origins. It didn't used to be this way. The relationship was perfect and everything just felt right, you know?

But my, oh my, how quickly things can change.

Okay, I suppose that is all just a tiny bit over exaggerated. My interests in the game has no changed, but there is still a developing mess as far as this game is concerned. At least for me. You see, this problem bloomed when I read how BioWare decided that they just would not stand for the PS3 version of the game coming out later then the rest and promptly announced that the game would release for all systems at the same time.

A little back story to fill in the blanks: I originally wanted to Dragon Age: Origins for PS3. But the only thing that deterred my decision was because of the later release date. That was the deciding factor and I was more or less at peace with the choice I had made.

And then they had to go and announce their little announcement and I went over the edge.

Now, with just little over a week before it's release, I am scrambling to cancel my original order to be able to place a new one for the PS3. What makes this scramble ever more insane is the fact that I am trying to get a hold of the collector's edition and if I miss the launch day, I lose out on the pre-order goodies.

Yeah, stupid reasons right? But I'll be damned to pass up some extra stuff if I have the means to get a hold of 'em. And I will be damned if I miss this one!

This whole thing has gotten me to thinking if all this of these headaches is really worth the trouble. I would like to say that this is the last console generation I will be a part of. But the truth of the matter is that I said the same exact thing years ago after the PS2 was released. I was going to walk away from video games forever! Ha. And yet here I am anyway.

I guess video games is like being a part of a street gang or something to that effect. Once you join up, there is no quitting, no just walking away. You stay in there until the day you die!

Gah... I think I am going for a bit more dramatic posts these days. Epic video game blog post writing in the works? Dun, duh, DUUUUN!

Game Makers Are In It For The Money?!

I've been reading about the ideas in the works for Fable III, which might include having a in-game store that will deal with real money transactions. Sounds like they want to sell special weapons and the sort in there and that sounds okay. I don't mind the idea of having something like that in the game, I mean how is it different then buying the DLC pack right? It'll just make things a little easier to access.

What kind of blows my mind is how people hit the internet and complain about how game makers are all about the money. Oh these evil bastards should just include EVERYTHING on that disk! All those quests and items and everything should be there, no excuses! And don't you dare delay the game or we'll be oh so mad! And do not, under any circumstances, are you to ever raise the price of games!

Oh the world is evil indeed. Imagine that, a company that is in the business of making video games for profit! What evils plague the world nowadays! Such madness..

Personally, if I enjoyed the game and I had fun throughout, I would put the money down and pick up a DLC pack or two for any given game. I've done that for Fable II, Gears of War 2 and even Rock Band. Hell, I intend to doing the same for Borderlands (whenever that DLC pack is released), as well as Dragon Age: Origins.

If it is/was was a good game, then why not show a little extra support by picking up the extra content? Usually these things aren't even that expensive and they add a little something more to what is already there. And really, if paying for extra content is so bad and so evil of the developers, there is really a simple solution to that "problem" as well.

Do. NOT. Buy. It.

That isn't that difficult is it? I mean last I knew, these things are not forced on gamers to having to buy. You can opt not to pick it up, it won't ruin the game. But then I suppose that old saying is oh so very true in the end: You can't please everyone.

Exclusive Game Stuff

I've noticed a little something different this year, with all of these awesome games nearing release. What is up with all of this exclusive stuff? Is that the new way to try and convince the world to buy the game? Or are these companies paying up for the game makers to come up with shit they think will help them move more of their product?

Now truth be told, I damn near lost my mind trying to figure out where to pick up Dragon Age: Origins up from. Why? Because everyone had some sort of special exclusive in-game item that sounded like it would be like a god's gift to your character. And with these things being available only through pre-ordering, you pass it up and that is it.

Case in point, there is a funny little thing about this exclusive content business going on around a game called Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Now if you pre-ordered the game from GameStop, you get a character called Juggernaut. If you didn't? You do not get the character at all! No unlocking in the game, no picking the character up later in a DLC pack or anything. You just don't get jack! Pre-ordering, by all appearances, is a gamer's first and last chance to get the character!

I understand that something like that should not matter, but then I would love to get the most for my money. But it sucks to ultimately have to miss out on a part of the game because you didn't pre-order something ahead of time. So now this sort of thing sure has made the decision making process on which games to buy a true headache inducing affair.

The biggest pusher of this sort of thing appears to be GameStop, who seem to have attached something to just about all the big titles coming out. Some of this stuff sounds cool, others not so much. But it cannot be denied that this appears to be the new thing in gaming. And here I thought it was only going to be about more expensive special edition versions of the games.

After choosing where to buy Dragon Age: Origins, I can honestly say that I will be more careful about losing my mind over stuff like this in the future.

This is getting crazy...

Obsession Leads To The Dark Side

I am not obsessed.

I just felt like getting that bit right out in the open, because these last few posts have more or less been about nothing other then Dragon Age: Origins. I just cannot help it! These past few days have seen a little bit more news about the game by the day and I am going crazy in anticipation!

And today is absolutely not an exception of all of this.

Have you read this madness? BioWare is expecting to support Dragon Age with DLC for at least TWO years! And they are talking everything from full blown expansions, down to those nifty weapon packs! I really have to wonder about how much all of this will ultimately cost and for the love of god, how much space will all this require?!

I almost have to plea for mercy here! My XBox 360 is equiped with but a modestly outdated 20 gig hard drive! And I didn't just pick this sucker up yesterday, so I can safely say I've got some crap stored in there! And lemme tell ya, with all this talk about more and more DLC... She can't hold on forever!

What is worse, next week will see the release of both Borderlands and my own personal yearly plight known as Smackdown vs. Raw 2010.

Borderlands has my interest because of how it has been described as a "Role Playing Shooter" game. What does that mean really? A shooter with RPG aspects? Or is that meant to be the other way around? Considering how my like for FPS games has grown into a sort of love and with how much I love to play some RPGs, this seems to be a good game to me.

And come on, how can you say no to a game that apparently has over a million different guns?! Wait, I just went and looked to be sure and... what is this? The game apparently has over 17 million guns?! How in the fu...

I mean...

Holy.

Shit.

How in the world can a game be packing over 17 million different types of guns? I can't even wrap my head around such a number! What kind of weapons are these? Cow guns? Tire cannons? Super soakers?! Or maybe a full line of Nerf guns!

Huh. War of the Nerf...

Pure Awesomeness

Talk about a video of pure awesome, I am wondering just how much of what the characters in this vid do, can be done in-game? The morphing into the spider deal looks cool and what was that other lady character? Some sort of blood mage? Hmm...

And another wonder to ponder; what of the other races? Can they also do the same things? Or do they have their own sets of powers and what not? Ah, so many questions and November 3rd cannot come soon enough.

Originally I wanted to pick this game up for PS3, considering how I don't exactly make much use of it these days. But after taking into consideration the difference in release dates, that much has changed for me.

Yeah...

So after I got off of work today, I had myself convinced that I wanted Demon's Souls. Yeah I heard how tough the game is and all that and curiosity was winning the better of me for most of the day. With that thought in mind, I walked to Ala Moana after I got done with work and I bought Demon's Souls today.

The verdict?

I was murdered within the first ten minutes, by a huge mutha of a boss (I assumed this was just a part of the tutorial, to get players acquainted with the different aspects of the game.) So even after the first half a dozen times of death, I was okay with all of that. I mean I was expecting as much. Why else would everyone say you'd die a lot in this game right?

Well after being revived in the Nexus, I chose to go to some castle, the name of which I can't quite recall. I had to get souls to get my physical body back huh? Demons souls required you say? Okay, easy beans! Or so I thought.

So for about an hour thereafter, I felt like a lamb to the slaughter. Oh there was blood and there was death! Oh so much death... and after dying quite a number of times all along the way, yeah I'll say it. I cracked, I tapped, I threw in the towel.

Basically I really didn't quite get anywhere in the story during that period of time. So aside from the brief intro at the beginning, that was all I ever saw of the story for the game. And as for the deaths? Yeah, I wouldn't have minded the deaths so much if it were because the enemy was tough or something of that sort. But a lot of times these deaths just came because there were multiple enemies and I happen to be in a doorway or standing next to something.

Okay those deaths were more my fault then anything, that one I'll own up to. The ones I hated were like you see an enemy standing, just standing there and you run up to a bunch of innocent looking barrels. Then ta-da! Said enemy throws a fire bomb at it and you are blown to kingdom come. Ouch.

Then you get to restart the same place all over again!

You know I have seen this sort of "challenging" game before! It was on the NES and the game was called Mario Bros. Seriously, I would think this sort of game would be perfect for people who love to play Mario games because when you die, it is like dying in one of those games.

As for me? I like Mario games to a certain degree and then I hate them. It was that game that ruined my childhood! I swear it! I totally do!

Regardless, I suppose it does live up to it's reputation of being a tough son of a gun of a game. As for it being my cup of tea? Hardly. There are just a lot of things that bugged me about the game during the brief period that I played it and I really just don't want to get stuck with a game I really won't like all that much.

So damn it! I'm going to get this sucker returned today and get my money back as quick as possible! There are a number of other possible games I could put the money to. And at least now I can consider my insatiable curiosity appeased!

It Just Don't Get Better

Going back to what I wrote yesterday about Dragon Age: Origins, apparently I only had the story half correct. What I thought was bad, wasn't entirely correct and even some small bits of info that I was missing are now clear.

So you won't get "The Stone Prisoner" DLC pack for free, even if you buy the game new or pre-order. That is, not unless you buy the Collector's Edition (which is going for about $74.99!). Then and only then will you be able to pick up that DLC pack for free. Damn!

And get this; you could even pick up a Collector's Edition guide for the game and that sucker will run you for another $34.99. Do that math, add up those numbers and damn that is a world of hurt printed on price tags.

Then again, the guide could pretty much be considered expendable. And I suppose the same could be said about the Collector's Edition of the game too. But if you like to pick up stuff to expand the gaming experience (I'm guilty of this), then it certainly is a little hard to overlook the Collector's Edition version of this game.

And as I've come to understand it, this DLC pack in question (The Stone Prisoner) will give you new items, abilities, an additional dungeon and also an additonal party member (a golem no less). Is that worth $14? I sure hope so.

Now the mental debate has begun in my mind; to buy? or not to buy? I'm not sure if GameStop is still taking reservations for this special edition or not, though I have not seen it over on their website so that may very be a no go.

My head hurts...

Dragon Age: Origins DLC!

Another RPG that has caught my attention lately is Dragon Age: Origins, which looks and sounds pretty damn interesting to me. I did think the Dwarves looked kind of funny and the Elves were creepy, but that is all beside the point! Strange looks aside, I am interested in for a big part because you really just don't see that many fantasy based RPGs around anymore.

Interesting little bit of news that I read on Kotaku; apparently there will be a few pieces of DLC on it's release day. Two of 'em to be exact. The first one is called Warden's Keep, which brings a bunch of new things such as items, abilities and things of that sort and then some. The second piece is called The Stone Prisoner, though I didn't see any details on what that one will include. I imagine it'll be more of the same as the other pack (more new items, abilities, equipment, enemies, etc).

Here is the kicker: Warden's Keep will cost ya 560 points on XBox 360 or $7 on PS3. The second DLC pack is apparently free to those that pre-ordered the game or picked it up new. If you don't, the price of the second pack is 1,200 points on XBox 360 or $14 for those that get it for PS3.

So I'm believing now that if I intend to get this game, now would seem to be a realistic time to get it. I mean that will practically ensure that $14 DLC pack will be free, so that is a good thing right? And on the flip side, not buying now will ensure nothing but pure hurt when picking up this rather expensive extra pack of mysterious content. Personally, I hope something that costs that much means there will be an extra storyline or two within.

In the end, however, I suppose this would still be smarter (pre-ordering the game and getting the free stuff) then having to shell out the extra cash later. Either way, all I can say about all this pricey extra stuff is...

Ouch.

Demon's Souls

Now I've been posting out here list after list of games that I have been keeping an eye on. One game that, while I did take notice of, didn't really pay all that much attention to it. What game is this? An apparent RPG by the name of Demon's Souls.

Thinking back now, perhaps I have heard and read about this game. But that was many months ago and I didn't exactly dig around to learn more. Even now, I do not know all that much about the game itself or its story or anything really for that matter. However, today I decided to give it a look into, seeing as it was released today.

And the first screenshot I've seen of it looks like this...

Perhaps the greatest point of interest to me is how all of the reviews I've read for this game say one thing in common: This game is brutally difficult and you will die oh so many times. My first impression upon reading that was "hell on a disk." How else can a gamer think of this?

The other commonly shared fact was how, despite the ungodly difficulty, was a great deal of them said the rewards for surviving and learning were absolutely worth the pain and suffering. Now either there is truly something great to uncover within this game or the people reviewing it are just sick, sick people.

I'm so very tempted to try and find out for myself...

Hell In A Cell

Of all the matches going down at tonight's WWE Pay Per View, the one match I thought I had figured out was the CM Punk versus Undertaker match. Surely because it is a Cell match, that fact does give the Undertaker a heck of an advantage.

But I didn't believe they (WWE) would hand CM Punk a lost this quickly. I mean from what I've read (and from what little I've gotten to watch), CM Punk has been a hell of a bad guy since turning during his feud with Jeff Hardy. Why allow Undertaker to get the title victory so quickly after returning?

The other logic behind my thinking is the fact that Undertaker seems to always end up injured after winning the world title. I mean for nearly every instance that I can recall over the past few years, 'Taker has always ended up leaving on a injury after winning the big one. And considering how he just returned after being out since WrestleMania, that would be a bad, bad thing.

John Morrison versus Dolph Ziggler... eh... I like Morrison, I think he could be a hell of a long running Intercontential Champion. It would be kind of cool to see the title stay with one wrestler for a while, rather then switching it all over the place every other month. But that's just me. With that said, this victory he picked up tonight is a step in that direction.

As for Ziggler... I couldn't care less to be honest.

Mickie James defeating Alicia Fox isn't all that awesome, just because of the fact that I don't think Fox has much wrestling experience. Why the WWE even has two divisions is beyond me, especially when they couldn't even muster a decent division when they had only one title out there. Anyway, maybe this will lead towards a rekindling of James's feud with Beth Phoenix, this time for the Divas Championship.

I feel a little bad for Batista. I feel bad for the guy because he jumps back to Smackdown and ends up right back into a tag team with the returning Rey Mysterio. Don't get me wrong, that isn't bad and the fact that they are facing the Unified Tag Team Champs Chris Jericho and Big Show, certainly helps matters. I suppose this will be the start of a new feud, though I can't help but wonder what is wrong with the few other actual tag teams out there right now (Legecy, Cryme Tyme, Hart Dynasty or how about even MVP & Mark Henry?)...

Randy Orton and John Cena are still beating the living hell out of each other? Wow. I would think that these guys would have managed to kill each other by now, considering how long these two guys have been at each other. Like Punk vs. Undertaker, I am surprised to see Orton winning the title back so quickly. I guess they'll continue on and beat the sh*t out of each other further?

I agree with some fans saying they are tired of seeing these two in matches against each other. But really, who else can fight for the title now? Triple H and HBK are doing the DX thing (again) and basically everyone else hasn't quite been built up to step into the big picture yet. Maybe Edge could...?

I like Kofi Kingston as United States Champion. I like the fact that there are actually legit contenders after him in Jack Swagger and The Miz. I think if given enough time, this feud could potentially make all three guys into top level stars. Wow, did I just say that?

R-Truth and that Drew guy... yeah, just like Ziggler, I couldn't care less about this match all together. Maybe they could form a stable together? They could call themselves R-Drew McIn-Ziggles. Classic! Sounds like a law firm... or a new, futuristic McDonalds sandwich.

DX versus Legacy reminds me of DX versus the Spirt Squad. Wow, I just insulted Legacy that time. I mean this feud kind of reminds me DX's battles against the cheerleaders in that they tend to lose a lot to the pair of veterans. Then again, Legacy did beat the crap out of DX last month so...

So I wonder where this is all going?

Overall, I am glad I don't spend money to watch these Pay Per View shows like I used to many, many years ago. I am content with just reading about what happened, rather then spend $30 to be disappointed with a craptacular show. Believe me when I say that I've fallen victim to that many, many times.

Random, Useless Knowledge...

Wow, I'm a little shocked by this late discovery... I had no idea that Kristen Bell (from Heroes, Veronica Mars) was in the original Assassin's Creed! When exactly did this happen? I didn't even... wow.

What's more, she has returned to her role as "Lucy" (the Animus tech, pictured below) for Assassin's Creed II. I suppose that means she will continue to talk to Desmond throughout the course of the game. When I first saw the posting of this, I thought maybe she would be voicing a new character in the game or something.

Huh.

I guess I should have paid more attention to this Lucy character after all...

Impact? Not quite...

Here is a post of a different kind for me, or at least one based on a subject I just don't write a lot about these days. That's right, wrestling. Pro wrestling to be exact. Tonight was the first time in a while that I've actually gone out of my way to watch a TNA show. Generally speaking, things don't usually make all that much sense and there seems to be a lot of random match ups and what not. Needless to say, tonight was absolutely no different.

Yeah I know not every show in the world will be to everyone's liking, I get that part. But after all of this time, I was hoping that maybe things would have changed by now. You know, maybe their story telling would have gotten better? Well like I said, tonight was absolutely no different I'm afraid.

First off, Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan for Bound For Glory? Now I get there is a bit of revenge to be had, since apparently Morgan had "cost" Angle the TNA World title. But from the way Angle played it off, his losing the title didn't seem to bother him all that much. Hell, I thought it was kind of funny when he said the Main Event Mafia continued their dominance by holding onto most of their titles. Oops! That's right, everyone but you!

Speaking of the TNA World title, AJ Styles as Champion is awesome to me. I've been a fan of his for a long while, definitely longer then I have been a TNA fan. What bugged me is how he came across during his first promo as champ. He called Sting out to the ring and exchanged some words of praise and then Sting goes to leave.

But!

Then Styles says he knows what Sting did for him at No Surrender. What did he do exactly? Well he could have pinned Angle and won the title for himself. Instead he dove out and took out Matt Morgan, leaving Styles to win the title. He (Sting) stepped aside for him and handed him the title!

I don't know, to me that whole promo came across as if Styles was actually undermining himself as champion. What I am hoping won't happen is Styles turns (or Sting turns) heel again. Please! Don't. Do. It!

Another point of confusion for me was the street fight between Suicide and D'Angelo Dinero (formerly Eljiah Burke). Who was the heel here? It sure seemed like everyone was more behind Dinero then Suicide, whom I assumed was the good guy in this exchange.

Truthfully, I don't care much for the Suicide character all that much. On the flip side though, it was pretty cool to see Dinero in action. Glad to see the guy getting more TV time then when he was with WWE. Hopefully there will be a title reign in his future somewhere.

The TNA Knockouts Tag Title match between the new champs Sarita & Taylor Wilde against ODB & Tara was an okay match. I guess it could have been a lot better or even great, but for whatever reason Awesome Kong walked down and Tara went on the attack, leaving ODB alone against the newly crowned champions.

What does this accomplish? Heck if I know! Are they trying to set up a possible triple threat between Kong, Tara and ODB? It appears that way to me...

Samoa Joe versus Daniels versus Homicide wasn't all that much better. If TNA was trying to recapture the magic of old, it was a failure in my opinion. I mean Joe and Homicide spent most of the match beating down Daniels and it wasn't until the end when Joe and Homicide turned on each other and Joe destroyed him.

Let me put it this way: The match was pretty dull.

Speaking of which, why the hell is Christopher Daniels just called Daniels now? Being a wrestling fan who reads more recaps then is able to watch the shows, I was a little confused for a while when I kept reading Daniels. I think his trip as Curry Man, then Suicide ruined this guy's career. So sad...

Matt Morgan & Hernandez versus Kurt Angle & Eric Young served a little purpose I suppose, in that the divide between the MEM and World Elite seems to be widening by the week. Truthfully I was surprised when Morgan and Hernandez didn't jump out of the ring and attack both the Mafia and World Elite. They have issues with both sides and these guys are freakin' human towers! But meh, that is just me I guess.

Bobby Lashley kills Jethro Holliday. Need I say more?

I'm actually intrigued by the TNA Tag Team Champions, Scott Steiner and Booker T. These two guys have a lot of history with each other and they've exchanged the WCW World title a few times as well. And I have to agree, they do look pretty good as tag team. I never, ever would have thought I'd see one half of Harlem Heat teaming with one half of the Steiner brothers.

As far as Mick Foley and Abyss is concerned... what the hell is this? Foley is mad over a busted picture and Abyss is still an emotional "monster"? I can't believe they wasted the main event spot for this "match," which seemed to only serve the purpose of allowing Foley to beat the hell out of Abyss over said picture. What is even sadder is the fact that actual teams like Lethal Consequences and the Motor City Machine Guns are used in the stupid backstage crap.

Overall, as I'm sure it is a little obvious by now, I didn't really enjoy the show all that much. It was my hope that the show would have gotten better since the last time I watched and to be fair it has, to a certain degree. What saddens me is I felt like I was still watching a WWE show, with all of these ex-WWE wrestlers running all over the place.

Like others have stated, I would love to see the X-Division returned to its former glory. It was a spot fest some days, sure. But the action was a much faster pace and it was certainly different then having to always watch these slower matches. It is a nice change of pace. And hell, if these tag teams of X-Division guys won't ever be used as teams, then why not break it up and have them return to the X-Division? At least they would be able to have matches more often or so I'd think.

AJ Styles as TNA World Champion is cool.

AJ Styles underselling himself and saying the title was handed to him? Not so much. I had flashbacks to when Eric Bischoff handed Triple H the World Heavyweight title, back in the day when Brock Lesner took the WWE Undisputed Championship to Smackdown.

I'm not wrestling genius, but I don't think that is how you'd want to start to build up a World Champion. My only guess to the reason why this was done is because there is something brewing... and I hope my predictions on what is entirely wrong.

One thing I forgot to mention that I actually liked was Alissa Flash's attack on Hamada. The attack seemed to drag a little too long, but I am liking how TNA is actually building up some heels for their Knockouts Division. From my limited knowledge, it sure seems like they are lacking in that respect.

Speaking of whom, where were the Beautiful People tonight?

Last thing here, I wonder where this rivalry between the Main Event Mafia and World Elite is going? Both are heel groups and I can't see either side being able to flip over to being entirely good guys. Hmm...

Overall, I am a little disappointed with the show just because of the fact that I would love to be a fan of this company. But nine times out of ten, the shows just aren't all that enjoyable for me. I guess all I can do now is back off, keep an eye on the recaps and perhaps try this yet again in the future.