Within the past few months, more and more games are requiring an “online pass” to play online. Granted, the code is provided in all new packages of the game. So you run into this problem when you either buy a game used or rent a game, in that you will have to pay $10 (every one I’ve seen has gone for $10 so far) in order to play online. Is this fair to gamers? The game companies think so.

The Defense:

Game developers believe they have a right to charge people who did not purchase the physical game $10 to access the online co-op and multiplayer features. They argue that they should be properly compensated for the time and effort they put into creating and maintaining these modes.

My Argument:

This is complete and utter malarkey. I mean, do these companies really believe I’m buying this bs? Sure, they’re case sounds “fair” to the developer, but the fact is that it’s not the truth behind it. This is really just the developer’s way of snagging a portion of used game sales, pure and simple. Stores like Gamestop aren’t going to come right out and start charging consumers a “used game fee” that goes directly to the developer. Instead, the developers get their kickbacks by requiring owners of second hand games to pay to play online. This doesn’t happen with other items in the world today. If I sold my crappy Ford Focus to some guy, or even if I traded it into the local dealership, Ford isn’t going to see a drop of that money.

Let’s look at it this way too. I purchase a game new on release day for $60. I play it, enjoy it, and then trade it in a few months later to Gamestop for $18. They put it on the shelf and sell it for $30, and the guy who decides to buy that game for $30 is going to have to pay $10 more in order to play with his buddies online. How the hell is that fair?!  Oh, and don’t get me started on if you purchase a used copy of a new release from Gamestop. They will charge you from $45-55, and then you will still have to buy the online pass. You’re better off buying a brand-spanking new game!!! The developer got his money when I bought the game new…just because someone bought it used doesn’t mean they have the right to collect a “fee” for a third party sale. No way, Jose.

How This Has Affected Me: 

This online pass issue has already hit me close to home and ruined my gaming style. When Resistance 3 came out I rented it from Gamefly and couldn’t wait to play the campaign online with a buddy. I was shocked to find that Resistance 3 required one of these foul online passes in order to do that. Mind you, I wasn’t playing a separate competitive mode…I wanted to play the single player campaign through with a friend. There was no reason whatsoever that I should have to pay $10 to do that, and I didn’t. Did I enjoy Resistance 3? Heck yeah I did, but I guarantee I would have enjoyed it a bajillion times more if I had a buddy by my side the entire time. And don’t try arguing with me that this is different because I rented the game…the developers get their money when Gamefly or Blockbuster purchase the copies they rent out.

Now that this is becoming a regular fee to play games online, it’s going to really impact my future gaming. I was going to rent Lord of the Rings: War in the North to play the three-player online campaign. But guess what…you can bet your bottom dollar EA is going to require an online pass, and I am not spending $10 to play a game online for just a week before I send it back on its way. I’m going to be less likely to rent a particular game now knowing that I won’t be able to play the online features.

So game companies think they are entitled to receiving a percentage of used game sales. They can’t come right out and charge a fee for it, so instead they restrict what you can do with a used copy of their game. This is 100% unfair to the consumer. I for one am boycotting online passes just as I have been, and that is something that will never, EVER change. If I want to play a game online in the future, I will either purchase the game new or I won’t play it online at all. Simple as that. Is it going to hurt me? It sure as hell will. But I’m letting the gaming companies know that I will never condone this horrible online pass idea.

Believe it or not, after thinking about my choices and talking with friends, I’ve decided to scrap my pre-order of Resistance 3, and instead go for Dead Island. That may be shocking to hear, seeing how I spent so much time talking about Resistance and I’ve barely said two peeps about Dead Island. But in the end, it came down to replay value, and Dead Island will give me more game for my money than Resistance 3 will.

Resistance 3 offers a campaign that can be played either solo or with a friend, as well as a couple of the usual competitive multiplayer modes. That’s right…the awesome eight player co-op mode from Resistance 2 has been scratched. Now everyone should know by now that I’m not a fan of the multiplayer scene (because I suck), so I won’t be touching that at all. That just leaves a campaign, and it’s probably not too time consuming at all. So all in all, I’ll probably go through two playthroughs at most and then be done with it. Then it will just sit around, collect dust, and eventually be traded in for less than half of what I paid for it.

Then there’s Dead Island.

I love a good zombie killing spree, so I’m a huge fan of Left 4 Dead and the Zombie Island DLC from Borderlands. Dead Island looks to be as good as L4D, but there are some things that get done better. Dead Island will have four player co-op, but each of the characters are slightly unique in their own way, unlike how all four characters play the same in L4D. That gives incentive to play as all four characters and see what each is all about. Also, the whole island is supposedly explorable and almost sandboxesque, so there are no strict levels saying “you must go from point A directly to point B to get to the next level.” Also, the game supposedly focuses a lot more on melee weapons (which you craft yourself from parts you find on the island) as opposed to being gun-heavy, so that makes it a bit more fun and challenging. Oh, and did I mention that Dead Island will have some slight RPG elements such as exploration, quests, and xp? Sounds like Dead Island is offering quite a bit in this franchise’s debut outing.

In the end, I felt that Dead Island simply offered more bang for my buck, so I cancelled my Resistance 3 pre-order and snagged Dead Island instead. Don’t worry, I still have an empty slot on my queue at Gamefly that has Resistance 3′s name all over it, so I’ll still be playing it at some point next week. My hope is that Insomniac somehow reads this and realizes that by making such a bone-headed move as taking out the co-op mode that made Resistance 2 so enjoyable, they lost themselves a sale from this die-hard Resistance fan. Heck, when you’re unemployed you have to spend your trade-in credits wisely, and Dead Island is simply going to give me a longer return on enjoyment than Resistance 3 ever would.

Now please Insomniac, get to work on some sweet co-op DLC that will bring back the mini missions!!!

I’m a huge fan of the Resistance series on the PS3, and played the heck out of both games…especially the co-op missions in Resistance 2. With Resistance 3 less than a month away (comes out September 6th) I decided to trade a few games in to Amazon so I could use the credit to pre-order the brand-spanking new game and have it in my hands on release day. But it is a month away, so what am I to do in the mean time?

I decided to revisit Resistance 2 for two reasons. First, I wanted to re-immerse myself in the game’s campaign mode, and have begun working my way through that. Secondly, I’m on a trophy quest to snag a bunch of missing trophies! I picked up most of the ones I was missing between yesterday and today, so now I only have a couple left. Unfortunately, most of those missing ones are for the competitive modes, and I’m just not a fan of those! The last few trophies separating me from Platinum Paradise are:

• Salute Me: My overall level (between the single player, co-op, and competitive) needs to be at 31. Right now I’m at 26, with most of the points coming over from co-op…I have about 50,000 xp from the campaign and well over 4,000,000 xp from co-op. If I get around to spending more time in competitive modes that should get me to where I need to be.
• OMGWTFBBQ: I need to beat the game on superhuman difficulty, which will require me to beat the game on hard first. I just finished running about the game on casual getting the easy trophies, so I’ll be starting over on hard, attempt to beat that, and then chug through superhuman
• Beserker: This one isn’t too bad, I just have to play enough competitive multiplayer to use all the berserkers at least once. That will require me to level up my competitive player to level 15, and that’s going to definitely be a challenge.
• Point Man: This unlocks after earning 1,000,000 xp in competitive multiplayer. Seeing how I only have 17,000 xp so far, I got a long ways to go
• Killing Machine: Oh, I only need to get 10,000 kills through competitive online play. Too bad it’s not for 10,000 deaths, since I’ll accomplish that feat much sooner.

So those are the five trophies standing between me and a shiny new Plats. Will I ever do it? I doubt it. There’s just too much competitive multiplayer, and I just hate that kind of mode. Still, I’ll give it a whirl, and maybe in a year or two I’ll have suffered long enough to earn my trophies. I wonder how bad the competitive multiplayer trophies will be in Resistance 3…

I’m getting close to unlocking two more Platinum trophies, but I’m not sure which will be hitting first.

In WWE All Stars, I’ve unlocked the vast majority of the trophies. The only ones remaining are the online ones (win 10 matches, win 25 matches, win 50 matches, and win 10 matches in a row) and two massive ones; one requiring me to defeat the entire roster with Triple H and one requiring me to not only defeat the entire roster but also clear all three Path of Champions with Ultimate Warrior. Once I snag these, I will be in Platinum paradise.

The other game I’m getting close to completing is Dead Nation. One of my buddies from co-optimus joined me to blast through the Grim difficulty, and we have also started up the Morbid difficulty today. Once we beat Morbid, we will need to replay the game on Braindead and snag 100% of the loot on each map. Once we do both those things, and complete the first level on Undead difficulty, then I will be hitting up the Platinum trophy.

I’m leaning towards All Stars being the next Platinum, since I think it might require less time. My friend and I beat the first level on Morbid difficulty and got our asses handed to us, so I’m sure the next nine stages will be extremely difficult and challenging. Still, it’s good to know there are two more Platinums in the forseeable future, which is always a nice thing.

This game is one heck of a slobber knocker as THQ redeems themselves for WWE Legends of WrestleMania with their newest title, WWE All Stars. I have been following this game for quite a few months now, and the end product was as good as I expected. First and foremost, this is NOT a wrestling sim like the Smackdown vs. Raw series. All Stars is a fighting game in every sense of the word, from having insane moves, devastating combos, tons of lockables…and the simple fact that it’s easy to pick up and play but challenging to master. That being said, I did not intend to make this a comparison of All Stars and SvR, but I ended up doing just that. This game is definitely on the radar of any SvR fan, so I think it is inevitable to compare the two at some points as a means of giving examples of what to expect.

The roster of characters is pretty darn expansive for a fighting game. There are thirty wrestlers to initially choose from, with at least thirteen more revealed as future DLC. They are divided by old school legends and today’s current roster, and this really does make it the best roster for a WWE game ever. Tons of old favorites are represented like Stone Cold, Rock, Hogan, Macho Man, Andre, Ultimate Warrior and more, and they even have their classic attires. Then you have some of today’s hottest stars including Undertaker, Triple H, Edge, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, and others as well. Together, it is a very well-rounded cast of wrestlers and is definitely one of the biggest selling points for the game.

But I’ve talked enough about all this basic info over the past three months, so now I’ll go more into what I got out of the actual game.

The first thing I want to talk about is the Create a Wrestler (CAW) mode, since that’s my favorite part of any WWE game. Initially, I felt that the CAW mode was littered with disappointments. While it is still in-depth and gives you more choices than most any other game would, it is nothing like what you’re used to if you play the SvR series. There are only so many hair styles, clothing, and accessory options, and don’t get me started on the fact that you can’t have more than one tattoo on a guy in one area (ie- only one tattoo on chest, the same design has to be shared on both arms.) I threw in some pictures of BigBadBob for a few examples of how the CAW menu looks.

But what I felt was worse (at first) than the downsizing in appearance is the major downsizing in movesets. In SvR you can go into your CAWs movesets and pick out what each move will be, allowing for a ton of customization.This is not the case in All Stars, and instead you have to assign a real wrestler’s move set to your CAW. When I first discovered this, it was like I went back in time and was playing WWF Attitude on my PS1! But don’t worry, you can still choose a separate finisher…ONCE YOU UNLOCK IT! For example, you can have a CAW with Kane’s moveset, and you can give him the Ankle Lock as a finisher…only after you unlock it by playing through a mode with Jack Swagger! There are about five finishers initially unlocked from the get go, and to unlock others you have to play through the Path of Champions mode (more on that below) with that wrestler.

However, as I played the game more, it dawned on my why you cannot make custom move sets in All Stars…it was because of the combos! Each wrestler has combos which were grafted into the game to flow into each other smoothly. So if someone was to try and change these combos and moves by adding different moves in, the combos would not work as well. When I understood this, it made sense, and my concerns about the CAW mode being lame were, for the most part, eliminated.

So overall, the CAW may be a bit of a disappointment to people used to the customization available in SvR, but it is not anything too bad that breaks the game. The main reason I make so many CAWs in SvR is because I don’t know who most of the current roster is…I know the vets, but I have no idea who Drew McIntyre, Santino Marella, and Kofi Kingston are. But with All Stars, there are so many characters that I do know and will play as that I don’t really believe I’ll be making all that many CAWs this time around.

Now let’s talk about controls. This is where the meat of the game is, and it’s a pretty hefty porterhouse if you ask me. It starts off basic enough, with the face buttons used to perform attacks and grapples and the shoulder buttons used to counter moves and interact with the environment. Much like Marvel vs. Capcom, once you perform enough hits on an opponent, you will be able to launch your signature move by pushing two face buttons at the same time. As the match progresses, your finisher bar will fill up, and hitting L1 and R1 with a full meter will store your finisher…just tap it again to unleash it on your opponent. One of the awesome improvements involves targeting, which is now performed by using the right analog to point at the opponent you want to target (sure beats auto-targeting!)

What’s so hefty about these controls, you ask? Well, what I mentioned above was  just the basics…there is a heck lot more to do. The biggest thing is combos. Brawlers and Big Men can chain together nasty punching and kicking combos that can either send an opponent sprawling to the ground or flying across the ring. What’s even better is when you get to pop an opponent in the air and can then “juggle” them with even more punches. While this sounds nasty, the Grappler class’ combos are even more devastating. Instead of chaining punches, you can chain together grapple moves. By learning the moves and pushing a button at just the right moment, rather than ending the move you can actually pick up your opponent and continue the punishment. It’s a very complex system to even learn, much less master, but it can have devastating effects. Jack Swagger is one of the best characters in the game simply because one of his grapple combos can be chained to up to seven different moves. If this is performed perfectly, and none of the moves are countered (which is quite a challenge), by the time it’s over his opponent will have lost half his health. It definitely makes the Grapplers one of the most appealing classes. And let’s not forget the acrobats, as they have chains of their own. Grapplers use their opponents and the ring as a weapon, and have the ability to use an opponent as a staging pad for either a grapple move, or to launch themselves onto the nearest turnbuckle for a devastating diving attack. And let me say this…it is very difficult to avoid a diving attack. Once an opponent makes their way to a turnbuckle, you can pretty much expect to be dropped within seconds. These diverse combos within the character classes make the game really unique and a lot of fun.

The number of different matches is definitely limited when compared to the SvR series. You have your basic one on one, tornado tag, triple threat, fatal fourway, steel cage, handicap, and extreme rules. Unlike the SvR series, these matches are a whole lot tougher. For example, even though it may be a fatal fourway match, don’t be surprised when all three of your opponents converge on you at once. The same can even happen in a tornado tag team match, where both opponents will attack you while your partner stands off to the side, taunting to the fans. Still, when you realize this is a fighting game, that is still quite a few different options to keep the game fresh.

Aside from exhibition matches, there are a few other modes of play. One is Path of Champions, during which you will use a wrestler or CAW to challenge either Undertaker (Legends…even though he’s considered an All Star and not one of the legends), Randy Orton (All Stars), or DX (tag team.) Each of these is a ten-match “tournament” of sorts, which will culminate in the end with a match against the story’s main opponent. The matches vary, and Undertaker’s Path had a mix of singles, triple threat, fatal fourway, steel cage, and extreme rules matches. Also, each of these Path of Champions has three unique vignettes that tell a (somewhat lame) story about you challenging said superstar. There is a replayability to Path of Champions, as each time you play through with a wrestler you will unlock their finisher and alternate attires. Some wrestlers, like Hogan, have three attires, so you would have to play through twice with Hogan to unlock all three of his attires. They are a bit challenging, as the opponents are more likely to counter your moves the further you get in the “story”, and it took me a little over an hour to complete the ten matches in Undertaker’s Path of Champions. What’s good about it is that you get ten matches of varying types in a row, which can make for some decent replay value.

The other mode is called Fantasy Warfare, and while it’s good the first time around, it doesn’t have much replay value (aside from a second playthough to nab a trophy.) THQ set up fifteen fantasy matches, each pitting a Legend against an All Star. Some are really fantasy matches that never happened, like Stone Cold vs. C.M. Punk (which used their different “lifestyles” as the selling point), Big Show vs. Andre the Giant (Greatest Big Man), and John Cena vs. Hulk Hogan (Biggest Superstar). Some are matches that aren’t really fantasy matches because they have already occured, such as Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, Rock vs. Triple H, and Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio. Then you have some that you know they just threw in there to fill out the rest, such as Miz vs. Mr. Perfect and Kane vs. Jimmy Snuka.

After selecting a match, you will be treated to a two-three minute video which uses WWE archive footage to create a story explaining why these two wrestlers are facing each other. Some are done very well…the best one in my opinion was the Stone Cold/C.M. Punk one. They were able to edit the footage so it appeared that the two superstars were actually talking smack to each other. The other good ones were obviously the ones that already took place, like Taker/HBK. But some of the others were just garbage and didn’t succeed in setting an epic stage like the others did. After watching this intro video, you select which superstar you want to play as, and then take part in a singles match. Playing through this mode and winning with one of the locked wrestlers (like Jack Swagger) will then unlock that wrestler for exhibition play. So seeing how it’s just a bunch of singles matches with fancy videos playing before it, the Fantasy Warfare is a fun addition to check out (and also a great way to unlock characters), but you won’t be playing it more than twice.

The last mode I want to talk about is the online mode. I did not have high hopes for this, simply because all of THQ’s previous WWE games had horrible online servers that were plagued with lag and people spamming the same move over and over. Fortunately, this is not the case with WWE All Stars. First off, THQ has gone with a new server, so Gamespy (the company that runs the SvR servers) is not handling All Stars. I’m not sure if THQ is doing it themselves or if they went with a different third party, but either way there is no lag once you get into a match. I say “once you get into a match” because I did have issues getting a game started. There is a “quick match” option which, in any other online game, would just find the next available open game and pop you in. In All Stars, that option just quickly creates a match for you, so you have to wait for someone to join. You can also search for open matches, but a lot of the times I was selecting matches that were already filled.

I was planning on using my CAW for my first online match, since there is a trophy for winning a match with a CAW. Unfortunately, I could not get a game going with my CAW. I eventually found an opponent who also had a CAW, and after we selected our characters a bar came up saying “generating wrestler”…and it never went away. Eventually the guy who’s game I joined kicked me out because it was taking too long. After that I decided to find someone and just use a regular wrestler, so I used Kane and challenged a guy using Shawn Michaels. It was a really good match, and it was very back-and-forth in terms of who was in control. I started out strong, but then he got some momentum going and was dominating, but I finished strong. One thing about playing online is that people at home can have a turbo controller, making it impossible to pin them (and I’m pretty sure the guy I was challenging had one, as even after his health bar was flashing red I couldn’t pin him.) Luckily you can win matches by knock out (perform a finisher on an opponent who’s health bar is flashing red), so it doesn’t have to be a button-mashing fest.

I’m happy with the online in All Stars since the game itself is lag-free, though I wish it was a bit easier to get a match going. There are also quite a few trophies linked to online play, so that in itself gives me reason to keep playing online. Since the online is so superior to the SvR online play, I definitely think that All Stars just might have more replay value than it’s older cousin.

WWE All Stars is an excellent, innovative fighting game. Some franchises have tried to get their mitts into the fighting genre, but have failed miserably (see Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi and The Simpsons Wrestling). WWE All Stars successfully takes the WWE universe and transforms it beyond your basic wrestling sim and into a fun and entertaining fighting game. This game appeals to a lot of different people: old-school wrestling fans (like me), current wrestling fans, and fighting game fans. It comes down to the fact that you don’t have to be watching Raw or Smackdown today to get 100% enjoyment out of the game, and I really do believe that this game will have a longer shelf life than the SvR series. Should they make a WWE All Stars 2? No, I don’t think they should. What I do think is that THQ should keep pumping out DLC wrestlers, rather than making an entirely new game every year. It’s too soon to tell, but I think All Stars is on the path to video game greatness.

It’s been a very busy, yet relaxing, couple of days, as I have been visiting with the in-laws in Las Vegas, NV (well, technically Henderson, NV, but it’s pretty damn close to Vegas.) Both of Shell’s sisters live out there so we don’t really get to see them too often…the last time we were out there was almost two years ago. So we decided to take a bit of a break and head out there for a five day weekend. We left from Albany on Wednesday at 11:55 EST and arrived at 2:20ish PST (thanks to Southwest it was a direct flight), so what was a five and a half hour flight technically got us to Vegas in under three hours.

Since this was more of a visiting family trip, we didn’t really hit the Strip. Shell and I did head down on Tuesday for a little while and checked out some of the casinos and what not. So while there wasn’t any gambling, there was a lot of good eating, as we went out for every lunch and almost every dinner. Some of the highlights included Sonic’s (I really wish one would open up near Albany…the closest one to us is in Kingston), Lucilles, The Yard House (which had quite a large collection of beers on tap…I went for the Spaten Oktoberfest), Raising Cane’s, and many more.

As for the family, we had a great time staying with Shell’s younger sister and her boyfriend at their apartment. Lucky for me her boyfriend also owned a PS3, so I got to get my gaming fix in while away from home. Her boyfriend is into a lot of the competitive online FPS, which many of you know is not exactly my cup of tea. I still had fun as I got pwned time and time again playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. I was even happier as long as I got at least one kill per match, though I was embarrassed of my average 18 deaths a match. I also got to check out UFC 2009, which was pretty interesting. I definitely see myself enjoying that game series, so I added UFC 2010 to my Gamefly queue. We also spent many meals eating with Shell’s older sister, who has two cute little kids…a six year old boy and a two year old girl. It took the girl most of the trip to warm up to me (even though she knew my name and called me “Unky Wobby”), as she finally waved to me Tuesday and then FINALLY gave me a hug when we left Wednesday to head to the airport. The two of them are cute and I wish that we could see them more.

We had a nice relaxing time visiting with family and enjoying the 78-81 degree weather, which was a welcome change to the 30s and 40s we were experiencing in New York before leaving. We left Vegas at 4:10PST and arrived in Albany at 11:50ishpm, so while the ride to Vegas wasn’t too bad, the ride home was insane. Also, this huge time difference is why I’m up right now at 1:46amEST writing this blog instead of sleeping in bed.  Still, it was a great trip, and it was nice seeing Shell’s family and just enjoying some time off before returning to real life in Albany.

So that’s why my blog has been inactive the past few days. There’s a lot of stuff I need to write about, so expect a lot of blogs in the next day or two as I play catch up. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be a busy day, as not only will I be blogging away on various things, but I also have to go out grocery shopping in the morning to grab our St. Patricks Day dinner and then chuck it all in the crockpot AND I have an orientation at my new job later in the afternoon (which will be a blog tomorrow.) So it’s good to be back in chilly ol’ NY, and hopefully it will start warming up as April begins to roll near.

Who doesn’t love the simplicity of top-down stick shooters? Now take that genre, and replace the gun-toting hero with a flying dragon, and you have Hoard. Hoard is a really easy to learn, challenging to master downloadable game that lets one to four players take control of a dragon and rain fire down on villages, castles, knights, and other dragons as well.

As the title suggests, one of the main goals of Hoard is to collect as much gold as possible. Using your fire breath (and a few different power-ups), you fly about the map and burn down structures for gold. You can burn down fields, towns, castles, human enemies, carts of goods, and more that all drop gold. You then pick up all the gold you can and fly it back to your lair, where you can safely deposit it to add it to your score (and regain any lost health), and then head out and get some more.  As your score increases, you gain xp which can be used to upgrade your speed, fire breath, maximum amount of gold to be carried, and armor. Your stats start at the very beginning each match, so there is no need to worry if you assign xp to a stat you didn’t want. There are a few different modes, and each one is a little different, so it will probably be best to go over each one separately.

Treasure mode is one of the first, and probably easiest, modes to play. The basic goal is to collect as much gold as you can within the ten minutes. There are a variety of different maps, which support one to four players. If you are playing by yourself, the remaining dragons on that map will be assigned to the AI. You fly about the map, burn down structures and enemies, and get as much gold as possible. If playing with two or more dragons, the dragon with the most gold wins the round. It is a very straight-forward mode and is the best for beginners to play on and get used to the basics.

Princess mode focuses on the kidnapping of the female royalty. In all the game modes, royal carts carrying princesses will randomly appear and head from castle to castle, or castle to town. If you succeed in burning the cart down, rather than gold the princess will be there. You can pick her up and carry her off to her lair, and after some time has passed she will be “ransomed”, in that you will get paid a large amount of gold, and she will disappear. The problem is that knights and other dragons will attempt to rescue her during this period, so after dropping a princess off at your lair you will have to defend her for a time. Princess mode simply focuses on the capturing and ransoming of princesses, and the first player to ransom fifteen princesses is the winner of the match.

Co-op mode allows you and the other dragons to play on the same team. Instead of each dragon having their own lair, all the dragons share a lair. Any gold deposited into the lair applies to all dragons, so during the course of the game everyone will have the same score. The point of this game is to beat the high score applied to the particular map you are playing on. At the end, in case you and your buddies want to see who really was the best dragon, each player’s individual score is displayed.

Hoard mode is the most challenging, and is mostly a survival mode. These maps are the most challenging, and there is no lair to be seen. Due to this, the only way to regain health is to kidnap a princess. The enemies on this map are more aggressive, and there are more castles and wizard towers (towers that fire magical projectiles at you) than usual, making things very tricky.

Some may say that Hoard’s biggest downfall is the lack of maps. There are only a few, and many of them are re-used on the different modes. I personally had no problem replaying the same maps over and over, as they are quite expansive and the game is so fast-paced that you don’t have time to really enjoy the scenery. The fact that the game handles up to four players locally or online is a big plus, as so many games these days give you an either/or option. The easy controls and quickness of the matches, since most last a maximum of ten minutes, make the game a fun and simple one that can be enjoyed over and over. Hoard is definitely one of the best PSN-exclusive games, and if you ever wanted to know how Smaug felt when he attacked Laketown, this is your chance.

I finished up the single player campaign in Two Worlds II today, and I decided that I would spend tonight and tomorrow further exploring the online co-op and competitive modes. As I mentioned in my review of Two Worlds II, the couple of times I tried to get on the servers the week the game was released, I was unable to get any online games going. Seeing how it’s been over a week, I figured I would try again.

I was again unable to get any games going. The competitive multiplayer is totally non-existent, and not one game was available on either deathmatch, duel, or crystal. I did manage to find one co-op game running, but my lowly level one character could not join in a game with the hosting player, who was level thirty-five.

I hate it when games with online features have horrible online availability, whether it’s due to cruddy servers on the developers end or the fact that no one plays the game. I don’t know which is the problem with Two Worlds II, but for a game that’s not even two weeks old, it’s sad to not be able to find an online game to play.

Before it was released, Two Worlds II was getting a bad rap due to the failures of the first game in the franchise. Having never played the first game, I had none of these thoughts in my mind. What I saw was a massive RPG that had many similarities to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and that was enough to catch my interest. I have spent about twelve hours on the single player campaign, and I think I can now give an accurate review of it. I had a semi-complete review ready to go last week, but I ended up writing way too much and it was too in-depth. Instead, I’m just gonna have a list of the good and the bad aspects of the game, and this should help paint an accurate account of the game, while hopefully being more condensed…because there is a lot to say about it!

The Good:

• Classes:

One of the first things I want to talk about are character classes, or should I say, lack of. That’s right…this is an in-depth RPG that has no character class. You are a human man, and what you become is entirely up to you. You gain XP for doing anything, whether you turn in a quest, kill an enemy, pick a lock on a chest, etc. Once you gain a level, you are given stat points and skill points. The stat points go wherever you want them to go to each of the four stats: strength (melee combat), accuracy (ranged/archery combat), willpower (magic) and endurance (health.) So you can do whatever you want, with no regard for class. This proves to be an enjoyable experience, and really makes the game into a more personal RPG.

The skill points are used to level up skills that fall into one of several categories, which include melee combat, ranged combat, magic spells, “assassin” (which consists of stealth attacks, picking locks, and robbing NPCs), and others. This goes further in the customization process, as you can easily put those skill points wherever you want to make your dream character. To unlock skills, you will need to find the skill book for that ability, which is either found lying around somewhere, in a chest, given as a reward for completing a quest, or by purchasing the book from a vendor.

• Combat

First off, you can have three different equipment combos set up, which you can instantly shift between by using the directional pad. This makes it easy to have the right equipment load-out for whatever situation you’re up against. For example, my first equipment set includes dual-wield weapons (two swords), the second one has a bow, and the third one has a two-handed blunt weapon. You can also have different armor sets hotkeyed as well. Combat is simple, where R2 is used to utilize the main weapon, and you can assign various skills to the other buttons so they can be used in combat. While the simple combat is easy to grasp and get into, it can sometimes become dull, particularly early on in the game (but I’ll talk more about that later.)

• Enemies

There is a vast variety of enemies, and all of them are a blast to kill. The first main map of the game has you in an area that is reminiscent of an African savanna. It’s a huge, sprawling plains and desert area, and the local wildlife is also native to the area. That means that along with fighting the undead and giant insects, you will also be taking on cheetahs, warthogs, rhinos, hyenas, and, most annoying of all, baboons…which actually throw poop at you as their attack! The second continent of sorts you reach is more jungle-themed, and you will have some crazy dinosaur-like enemies to fight. What it comes down to is that there is a HUGE variety of enemies to take on, from everyday animals to huge, towering monsters, and it really makes the game fresher in that respect.

• Quests

There are a ton of side quests to partake in between the main quest, which can be picked up either by talking to NPCs or finding jobs for guilds on bulletin boards. The game felt like Oblivion in this aspect as you have a large relatively open-ended world to explore, and could put off the main quest at any time to hunker down and grind out some side quests. For one period I’m pretty sure I spent over ten hours just exploring and handing in side quests before I decided to tackle the next portion of the main campaign. Many of the quests are humorous, whether you’re delivering a head to a necromancer, destroying an invading army of beavers, or, my personal favorite, following in the footsteps of a father and son team as they go on a Crusade to find the “Holey” Grail (complete with a spoof of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, complete with cheesy imitations of Ford and Connery.) However, I’m sure many would call the quests “tedious” as most of them entail go here, kill that or get that, and come back here. Personally those types of quests never bothered me in an RPG, as quests are quests.

• Extracurricular Activities

There are plenty of side stuff you can do if you want to take a break from the main campaign. To go back on what I previously mentioned, there are a ton of side quests and dungeons to explore. I would say that, doing the main campaign and all the side quests will run you between fifty-sixty hours, which isn’t too shabby for an RPG. Alchemy is a good chunk of the game, and you don’t need to raise up any particular alchemy skills to do it, so every character can do it as well as the next. You can find raw ingredients either in the wild (plants) or fallen enemies, and use these to craft potions. A nifty feature is that if you discover a recipe you like, you can save it so that you can quickly access and make the potion with ease. Equipment crafting is also pretty in-depth, as you will get better armor and weapons either by picking up new ones or upgrading what you already have. Like alchemy, you will need to find raw materials to upgrade weapons and armor. Unlike alchemy, you will need to spend skill points to raise your metallurgy skill to upgrade your equipment to higher levels. If you need extra cash, you can gamble at a dice table or play an instrument in town, so that spectators will give you money for your impromptu concert.

There are a couple of mini games included to represent less honorable activities, mainly lockpicking and pickpocketing. I really enjoyed the lockpicking game and had a blast opening every chest I could find. It was definitely one of the more enjoyable lockpicking minigames I had ever come across in an RPG. The other minigame for stealing was not as fun, and was very annoying. There are basically three snakes rotating around a sack, and you have to wait for the exact minute when there is a gap between the three snakes. This was very annoying and difficult, and I did not enjoy it. In fact, I hated it so much that I didn’t even do it for the trophy, so that goes a long way in describing how frustrating it is. There is also a mini game that plays similar in a very small way to Rock Band/Guitar Hero for when you play instruments in town. These mini-games do help in breaking up the exploring and fighting.

The magic system also has some crafting to it. To cast a spell, you must first create it using a whatever magic “cards” you have. These can be picked up in chests or purchased from vendors. The basic spell consists of the type of magic (fire, lightning, etc.) and the “carrier”, which can be either a bolt, area effect, or other. For example, using a fire card and a bolt card results in you being able to cast a fireball spell. Some are kind of weird and go beyond simple spells, as a combination of a magic type and summon allows you to summon an enemy to aid for a specific time. Other cards can be chained to these spells to create combos that have greater effects on you and your opponents.

The Bad:

• The First Few Hours

As sad as it is, the beginning of the game is torture. This is due to various reasons, mainly the lack of a decent tutorial, a complex system for looking at the stats of equipment, and, most importantly, that you have no idea how powerful an enemy is compared to you. Many RPGs have some kind of symbol or some other visual aid to let you know that you are too under-level to take on a foe, but Two Worlds II does not do this. Thus, early on, you will die a lot as you will be trying to take on ants or other simple enemies and quickly die. Also, early in the game, combat is very difficult, as you are under-level and have cheesy weapons and armor. Thus, more often than not in the first couple of hours, fighting a simple skeleton could take two minutes! For these reasons and more, the first couple of hours of the game can be trying for many, as it was for me. There was plenty of times when I was ready to call it quits because I was overly frustrated with the game. My advice is to hang in there, and by level 10 you will feel much better and you will appreciate what the game can offer. Patience is key, and it is worth it, trust me.

• Combat

Wait, wasn’t combat in the “good” section? Well while some aspects are good, some are also bad, and I feel that that has to be said. For starters, combat, particularly with melee, is very tedious. The basic attack uses the R2 button, so you will be hitting R2…A LOT! And for those enemies that are tough to kill, you will be hitting R2 a lot for a long time. It does indeed get boring. When I first started the game I was using my dual-wield melee equipment the majority of the time, but it got boring. I then switched to using the bow most of the time, and the ranged melee (and stealth kills) were a lot more fun. I had never played a single-player RPG game as a ranger-heavy character, but I really enjoyed the constant running and gunning as you had to gain space to safely fire off some arrows at enemies. Still, for those who are into melee combat, this game can get lame.

The magic system also falls under the bad category. While creating spells is great, using them just plain sucks. For starters, the basic spells are weak, and do very little damage. When you go for bigger spells, you need more time to charge it up before you cast, and it’s during this time that enemies will kick your ass. The magic system had some great ideas, but it doesn’t transfer over well at all. I ended up avoiding it for the most part, except for casting some basic fireballs and summon spells to get trophies. If you’re preferred RPG character is a mage, this is most definitely not the game for you.

• The Story

Sadly, like Sacred 2 (though not as bad), the main story is kind of garbled. First off, it is apparent that the game is a direct sequel from the first Two Worlds game, which I did not play. Thus, I was totally lost because there is no introduction or anything to set the stage…all of a sudden you’re escaping from jail as some orcs free you. My first question was “what the heck is going on?” and my second question was “why are orcs helping me?” (Spoiler- the orcs are the good guys!) Once you are free and ready to start exploring, the main campaign is not delivered well, story-wise. There are plenty of conversations, but they are simple and don’t go in-depth to explain what is going on. I eventually gave up on trying to figure out what was going on and instead focused on going where the quest marker told me to go and doing whatever I had to do to advance to the next one. I like a good story with my RPG, and the lack of a structured story in Two Worlds II was a big downer for me.

• Glitches/ Bugs

There are indeed some bugs and glitches in the game which produce some undesirable results. The most annoying glitch (I assume it’s a glitch) is that when taking part in melee combat, you’re attacks do not always register. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that 60% of the time, my melee attacks did not register contact despite that I was right next to an opponent. Maybe this is the game’s version of a “missed” attack that some RPGs implement, but there is no chance to hit% or similar stat that would affect this. It did also happen with ranged attacks, but not as often…may 10% of the time…usually if it was close range.

While the load screens are few (and quick), it’s the down-time after a load screen that gets annoying. After teleporting to a new map/area, the game will continue to load and re-load for some time, which leads to some lag issues. This does happen at other random times as well, most annoyingly during combat. While the game never froze on me, the lag was a pain to endure, and it definitely takes points away from the game as a whole.

There are other glitches, some of which involve quests that cannot be completed. For example, one quest had me go to a locked dungeon to explore it, but the key I was given to unlock that door never worked, and the dungeon was inaccessible for the entire game. Another quest had me kill some boars, but never registered that I did, so after they were killed the quest marker still waited for me to kill the boars. Luckily the boars respawned hours later in the game, and I was able to complete the quest. One of the most annoying bugs was this guy who you could pay off to leave another guy alone. Unfortunately, the bug is that he never registers that you paid him, so everytime you walk by him he will call you a “cupcake” and demand money. The money isn’t the issue, since he asks for an insignificant amount, but it’s the fact that he takes up time as he pulls you aside and initiates conversation. To make matters worse, he is at a central location, so it is difficult to simply avoid him. These glitches and bugs were quite annoying and really brought down the game.

• Online Modes

The game does have a variety of online modes, both co-op and competitive. The co-op mode could have been good, but was implemented all wrong. Instead of bringing your main character into someone else’s game, you play a separate character in a separate side-story that is co-op only, and branches off from the main campaign. There are distinct races and classes to choose from when playing online, so there is not as much creation/customization as the single player story. You and up to seven other players can get together and take part in co-op quest that spans seven chapters of varying length and difficulty.

There are also a variety of competitive modes, including a vs. mode and a “capture the crystal” mode. I tried to get into a competitive game the first week the game was released and was unable to find any games available on the server. I have not tried again, mainly because I don’t like competitive online games.

• Replay Value

One of the last bad aspects of the game I want to talk about is the replay value, which is non-existent. Since there is no set class to choose from in the single player campaign, there is little reason to play through the game again. Since you can build your character anyway you want, you can create a character that is melee, ranged, and magical and be able to use all of those skills during your first playthrough. There aren’t many quest choices to choose from, so it’s not like you can do an action in one game and play another and do a completely different action. The online modes are also not worth keeping the game around for, and I can forsee them going stale fast.

Final Thoughts:

As I’ve laid out, there are good and bad aspects of the game. Two Worlds II had a hard time coming to be, especially because the first game was apparently horrible (I never played so I don’t know, but this is what others who had played it told me.) This bias that some players already had against the series, coupled with the glitches, bugs, repetitiveness, and some aspects of combat that don’t deliver, it has been heavily criticized. HOWEVER, I will say that the good vastly outweighs the bad. The first couple of hours are rough, difficult, and frustrating. If you can hang in past maybe the first six hours of the game or so, it becomes a thing of beauty. While it is nowhere near perfect, the aspects of the game that are spot-on help weave an addictive and, most importantly, fun RPG experience. Between the vast amounts of quests available and the complete control of character development, Two Worlds II delivers a decent RPG. If you liked Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins, I recommend giving the game a rent or picking it up on the cheap. The single player campaign, coupled with the lame online modes, does not warrant the full retail price for a purchase, but it is definitely a good RPG if you’re counting down the days until Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases in November.

With less than a week to go on enjoying my “two games at a time” Gamefly plan, I decided that the last game I rent would be a quickie, seeing how there is a heck of a lot to do in Two Worlds II. I had some Move games on my queue, and some other simple single player games, but I ended up getting the new NBA Jam in.

Now I don’t follow basketball, and I doubt that I could name half of the NBA teams, but I do know that I loved NBA Jam’s simple controls and quick, fun gameplay back in the day on the ol’ Sega Genesis. Many of the reviews said that the new one is a step back in time and will fill players with nostalgic reminiscence of classic gaming, and that was enough to pique my interest. I’ll definitely be giving more thoughts on the game once I get to check it out.

On a side note, as far as Two Worlds II goes, I’ve been meaning to sit down and give a review on it, but the single player game is so addicting that I haven’t even touched the co-op or versus modes yet. I might just do a separate review for single player and multiplayer, since neither mode is connected (ie: your single player character cannot travel to multiplayer).