Blasphemy!

To stave off my increasing console gaming itch, I bought a decent PC game controller. I was looking for the wired version, but SM Southmall, with its many PC shops, only has a solitary shop with a solitary model for sale.



The Logitech Wireless Gamepad F710 is supposedly one of the best ones out. I guess I'll find out for myself.

Now to finally play my ginormous PC game backlog. Hmm. WoW kaya?

Phone Story - Apple Cannot Handle The Truth?

Phone Story is a collection of mini games for the iOS platform approved and released for sale just a few days ago. It was removed almost immediately afterwards by Apple from the AppStore for violating a number of their rules.

Well, just see for yourself:
Phone Story Game Play Video

The truth is still out there, at least in the Android Marketplace.

Out Of Topic: Contagion - More Like Contage-Yawn

Out Of Topic delves into the non-gaming side of life. Yes, I do have a life outside of gaming, thank you very much.

Don't talk to anyone about this movie.

A monster of a virus spreads like crazy, killing millions, before the US government finds the cure. It's the 1995 blockbuster hit Outbreak done in a more documentary-like setting. And with a ton more huge Hollywood names.

The movie builds up the outbreak nicely in the first half of the movie. Unfortunately, I felt that they just did not know when to stop building up the pace of the story that my exhilaration became exhaustion during the second half.

The story is completely unfocused: plot threads going nowhere, characters disappearing abruptly, and a half-assed ending. And by half-assed I mean really, really horrible. I feel the movie could have been better without that ending.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Elliott Gould. That's like 3-4 movies worth of huge Hollywood names. Watching the movie also makes you feel like you watched 3 to 4 movies. All at the same time. Such a waste of their talent. And what's up with Jude Law's teeth? Seriously.

Watch it if you like "disaster" movies, but leave your high expectations outside the cinema.

One Small Step - Initial Impressions on Rift (Finally!) PC

Rift is celebrating its 6th monthsary by opening the game for free until August 31.

Like the martyr that I am, I again tried to download the 9GB game. Who knew that I shouldn't have clicked the "Recover" button in the download client and instead click on the "Update" button to continue an interrupted download?

So four time's a charm, and I'm glad I've been persistent.

Game Over: Final Thoughts on Age of Conan Unchained (PC)

I downloaded and installed Age of Conan Unchained last week. After 8 levels and less than a week of playing, I'm ready to call it quits.

Here are the Top 3 Things That Make Me Go RAAAAAAWR Like A Barbarian In Age of Conan Unchained:

For Giggles

I actually might get a real gig.

Insert guitar riff here

As a real game reviewer for a certain tech blog.

Nothing fancy, not even getting paid for it, but at least I will actually be given games to review. "Given" and not "owned". Unlike a certain other paid gig I had a few years back.

Of course this won't include the high-profile game stuff, but hey, it's a start.

Aged Thirty Minutes

After downloading the ginormous 8GB client, I was able to play the now free-to-play Age of Conan.

Got my barbarian to level 6 and was just able to enter the starting city Tortage. Immersive so far and the combat is much, much more interactive.

Excited to get back into the game, I opened the goodness-knows-where-the-downloader-placed-the client and got a warning that my resource database might be corrupted.

Ten friggin' gigabytes

In the manliest voice possible, AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!

Repost: Puzzle Agent (PC) Review

As preparation for my upcoming review of Puzzle Agent 2, I'm reposting my review-of-sorts of the first game from my now defunct blog of negativity and snarkiness. Originally posted 02/11/2011

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Be very afraid!

Agent Tethers of the FBI's Department of Puzzle Research or something to that effect is tasked to get to the bottom of the sudden halt in production of an eraser factory in the middle of nowhere in Minessotta. Minnesotta. Minnessotta. Oh to heck with the spelling.

The Fall of the Nintendo 3DS

Devastating Splat

The Nintendo 3DS hasn't been lighting up the charts since it has been released. May it be due to the high price, the impending release of the more technically-advanced Playstation Vita, or the lack of compelling games, Nintendo announced a huge price drop for its new handheld a few days ago in an effort to boost sales.

In the US, the Nintendo 3DS drops a whopping $80 from $250 to $170. That would mean, in PHP, a possible P4k drop from P13k to P9k. While the price is a whole lot more palatable, the lackluster game library might still put off most of the potential buyers.

End of Summer

The 2011 Steam Summer Sale ended last Monday and thankfully, my wallet has survived unscathed. Theoretically. My brother asked me to gift him some games, and he paid me for them, so the wounds were quickly patched so to speak.

One Small Turn-Based Step: Initial Impressions on Undercroft (iPhone/iPod)

The first "big" PC game I've ever played was SSI's Eye of the Beholder 2, a turn-based-ish, first-person, party-based role-playing game. Wow, that's a lot of hyphens.

The game was my gateway drug to the wonderful world of computer RPGs, and I am eternally grateful.

Shield and dagger? Seriously?

Undercroft is a free turn-based, first-person, party-based role-playing game available in the AppStore. I couldn't resist replaying one of my most favorite games of all time on the go. And did I mention it's free?

One Small Down Forward Punch: Initial Impressions on Street Fighter IV Volt (iPod/iPhone)

I am a button-masher. I'm as casual as it gets when it comes to fighting games. Sure, I enjoy them once in a while, but I just wallow in the misery of single-player modes, and that's because I suck when it comes to going against a human opponent.

Why Volt? I have no idea.

That said, SF4 Volt was recently released for the AppStore, for a dollar, so what the hell, right? Everyone's been raving about SF4 since it was released in the HD consoles and it's about time I take a look myself. Even if the virtual joystick and buttons would probably suck the fun out of the game, what's $1?

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

Game Over: Final Thoughts on Game Dev Story (iPhone/iPod)

Game Dev Story is a management type game not unlike Diner Dash and its ilk. The game is as meta as it can get: you are the head of a videogaming company and it's your task to create blockbuster games for the console of your choice from many available genres and themes using a pool of different types of developers which you can train in many different ways.

Code Monkeys!

Wii 2? Wii U!

Nintendo, not to be outdone in the crappily-named-new-console department, officially announced the successor to the Wii, the Wii U (ugh).

Wii U (ugh) console and controller

Playstation Vita Unveiled

Sony finally unveiled the details on Playstation Portable's successor: the Playstation Vita (ewww).

Playstation Vita

It's Aliiiiive!

After more than a month since the hacking, the Playstation Network is finally available in the Asian regions.

I turned on my grimy and possibly no longer portable PSP and retrieved my two free games.

This is not mine. And this is actually a mod. Ick.

The choices weren't that palatable, but free is free *shrug* And because I historically get bored easily with racing games,I chose Little Big Planet and Killzone over ModNation Racers and Pursuit Force.

And now I have to buy a bigger Memory Card. Bah.

Game Over: Final Thoughts on Earthworm Jim HD (BadaOS)

I am a slightly proud owner of the first gen Samsung Wave. While it boasts of a gorgeous Super AMOLED screen wrapped in a very sophisticated looking body, its BadaOS still leaves a lot to be desired. It is functional, yes, but the different niggles can be quite grating at times.

My precioussssss

WoW Naman - Holy Paladin-ing Revisited

Out of morbid curiosity, I tried out my holy paladin spec, the healing paladin specialization, just to see how much more complicated it is now than it was before. I did not want to make random people suffer by getting into a random dungeon, so I tried my luck in PVP using the random battlegrounds where dying is more the rule rather than an exception.

Holy. Paladin. Skulls. I swear, there's a healer there somewhere

I fell in love. I used to think that Alliance PVP sucks, but since I entered as a Holy Paladin, around 8 or so groups so far, the winning rate is a smidgen above 50%. That's more than I ever experienced PVPing with my other specs/characters. It is also a joy imagining the frustration of players trying to kill me, unless ganged up on by two or more, in futility.

I would like to think I made a difference. Di naman mayabang no?

One Small Step (again) - Initial impressions on The Dig (PC)

Last December, at Steam's Christmas sale, the Lucasarts Adventure Bundle, a collection of classic adventure games went up. It had The Dig, which was, aside from Grim Fandango, one of the last classic adventure games I've been dying to play my whole life.

Ang Sims: Tagalog Version

That would be extremely corny, no? Sims speaking in Tagalog instead of the gobbledygook that is Simlish. Pshaw!

Baduuuuy!

I may be extremely late to the party, but I just found out today that the meaningless gibberish your characters in The Sims mutter could have been Tagalog instead!

IGN + 1UP = ?

I really do not know. And hold me, I'm scared.

The two biggest videogaming websites have joined forces/merged/swallowed each other up.

WoW Naman - Zul'Aman (hee!)

I'm not sure what I ate last night that made me queue up my paladin for a random Zul-something dungeon. My only 5-man memories of Zul'Aman for me so far has been dying countless of times to that bird boss and quitting the group afterwards, either due to healer incompetence, or my PC spazzing out.

Hello!

I was hoping for Zul'Gurub since I at least have seen that to completion. But no.

DOOOOOOOOOOOM!

To my surprise, though, it was the most unbelievably great random group I have ever joined. I was probably the most incompetent player in that group, which was made even more evident when I was the only one who received the achievement after killing the final boss.

We only wiped once, to that group of trash leading to the bear boss, so not even to a boss. I didn't know the tactics for the bosses after the bear one, but I managed to stay mostly alive. We even decided to just burn down the dragonhawk boss because we were gunning for a timed run, and we were successful. Done in just a bit over an hour.

To top that, I got a sweet new pair of boots, a 24-slot bag, and got myself exalted to the Hyjal peeps and scored the plate DPS belt.

Reforging my gear for perfect hit and expertise was more troublesome than the run, imagine.

Oh Sony! Redux

I am sorry. Again.

The fun never stops for Sony. We all thought that the worst was over for Sony. Well, it probably is, but Sony's online gaming subsidiary, Sony Online Entertainment has turned off their services due to more hacking. Supposedly, this was part of the massive hack attack they had more than a week ago and was just found out just a day or two ago. More personal information, credit card numbers, and expiration dates in the wild!

For those keeping count, among the massively-multiplayer online games affected are Everquest, Everquest 2, DC Universe Online, and Star Wars Galaxies.

Welcome Back, Love Sony

I mentioned in a post last week some news regarding the Playstation Network hacking issue. This afternoon, Sony Computer Entertainment held a press conference with updates on the whole fiasco.

The most important thing to note is that they are giving away a free 30-day subscription to their premier Playstation Plus service to all existing Playstation Network users as part of their "Welcome Back" Appreciation program.

Well I didn't even really step foot but hey, I'm not gonna complain. Hello discounted downloadable titles! Hello free PSOne games (for 30 days)!

WoW Naman - Patch 4.1

So, Hi!

After 4 months of staying away from videogame crack, my MMO itch just became too unbearable during the Holy Week. While I always wanted to try out Rift, the patcher was just too unfriendly. So, it's back to World of Warcraft for me, and what great timing too: Patch 4.1 came out a few days after to hopefully alleviate the boredom I experienced the last few days of my previous subscription.

So what's in Patch 4.1? Nothing much, actually. The only "new" content added were the conversion of the two old troll raids, Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, to heroic 5-man level 85 dungeons. I think it's Blizzard's way of apologizing for the lack of troll content in the previous expansion.

Relive the frustration of taking 9/19 guildmates to a night of wipes! This time, with 4 total strangers, all with dubious playing abilities!

Did you miss me?

The new dungeons are DIFFICULT, and it's no wonder that you need an average item level of 346, basically fully-decked out with gear from the old heroic dungeons. Despite my attempts of trying to gear my retribution paladin, I was one level shy from entering the dungeon with my guildies. Fortunately, due to Blizzard's "insightfulness", I was able to eke a point by buying a high item level tanking cloak and just let it sit there in my inventory. I didn't even have to wear it!

My ticket to Zul-whatever

I was having fun again. Running difficult dungeons with guildies is a whole lot better than trusting your luck to a random group. Curse you restoration druid without the talent to make your Cleanse-like spell remove magic! *shakes fist*

Around the Web - April 28, 2011 Edition

First, some bad news: the Playstation Network has been down for more than a week now. Apparently, they've been hacked, and personal information of all account holders may now be in the wild, including, possibly, credit card information. Click here for the FAQs page they set up.

I guess my purchase of the PSOne classics I've been drooling for that would finally wake up my sleeping PSP would have to be put on hold for now. Sleep tighter, my PSP.

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After more than 3 months in the burner, after numerous declarations of more frequent patch releases, World of Warcraft 4.1 has finally arrived.

Nothing substantially new. Carry on. Yeah, I'm trolling.

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The Wii's successor has finally been officially announced. As usual, Nintendo is tight-lipped on what we could expect from their new console, but they did mention that demo units and more specs will be available come E3 this June. Expect the out-of-nowhere name to be dropped a week before that, ala Wii.

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Megaman Legends 3 has been announced for the Nintendo 3DS even before the console was launched. While it is quite some time before the game is actually finished, Japanese 3DS owners will be able to play a demo-ish version in time with the 3DS's eShop launch, reportedly this May.

I'm not well-versed with the series, having only played a few minutes of the PSOne original, but I'm still boggled why a Megaman game doesn't prominently feature the blue bomber.

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Back to WoW. My warrior is 1.5 levels away from cap, finally. No trolls please.

Game Over: Final Thoughts on Infinite Space (DS)

I don't have time for this. Let's go.

Hi,

Yeah, I'm sure you're surprised why I'm writing this to you. I'm quite surprised myself, actually, but I guess this is the best way to go about this.

It's over.

I wanted to like you, really. A lot of people said that you were nice, that although it takes a while to really get to know you, the end result is more than worth it.

I guess it's not you. It's me.

I guess I'm just not as patient as I once was. And boy do I get patience. Just ask my friends.

The thing is, there are some things about you that I just can't take any longer.

For instance, you can't seem to remember anything. I mean, I'm sorry but I do get busy and I have to do other things as well, but would it be too much to ask for you to take note of what has happened in our prior engagements?

Also, you seem to be a bit slow in the uptake. It's kinda cute at first when you always ask me whether I'm sure about one thing or not, but after the 84th time, it gets kinda grating.

The biggest thing, though, is the fact that you just don't seem to care at times. You sometimes make me think that we're getting along just fine, that I'm correctly guessing the things that you like. And then BAM! Out of left field, you unforgivingly bring up something that I just can't take. And you leave me staring at you, clueless as to what I could have done better.

It's best if we don't see each other for a while. I don't have time anymore for these kinds of games.

Farewell

xxx

Rift Sale

$10 off? Where!?!

Rift, the recently-released massively-multiplayer online role-playing game from Trion, is selling the game this weekend for $39.99. That's $10 cheaper folks.

Rift's claim to fame? WoW-like and polished from the get go.

A troublesome sign for a 2-month old game? Probably.

Enough for me to splurge? I've been spurned 3 times already by trying to download their 8 GB client without any way to resume a disrupted download. I know when I'm not wanted :(

The martyr that I am, I'll think about it.

Around the Web

More Wii2 stuff: According to IGN, Wii2 aka Project Cafe aka Stream (as in the console streams the game into the controllers' LCD touch screens) will be sporting a customized AMD graphics card which outperforms the PS3's. It will also be released early 2012 with a $350-400 price point. Wii then Stream? Seriously?

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Kotaku blogs that the Playstation 4 and the Xbox, umm, 720?, will be released 2014 at the earliest. If this is true, and Nintendo does indeed release a significantly more powerful console in 2012, Nintendo will have a 2-year free reign of having the biggest bad boy in town. Of course, Microsoft and Sony are expected to bring out consoles that will significantly overshadow the Wii2 power-wise. The question now is, will the Wii2 be a Sega Dreamcast situation, releasing first and dying a quick death, or a Playstation 2 situation, releasing before its more powerful generation-mates and dominating?

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This week's Steam Weekend Deal: Metro 2033 (Metacritic Average 81/100). A gorgeous-looking first-person shooter based on a book set in post-apocalyptic Moscow. As usual, the future of what's left of humanity is in your hands. $10.

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Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and Zelda and etc. etc., has announced that they will do their best to release the next 3D Mario on 3DS this year. A 3D platformer on a 3D screen? That's a lot of D's!

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Peter Vesterbacka, developer of Angry Birds, the most downloaded AppStore/Android Market game, is #7 in Times Magazine's 2011 Time 100 most influential people of the world. I guess selling a reskinned version of an old AND FREE and already derivative Flash game makes you influential now, ey? Ey?

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Gonna reskin Gorilla.bas and sell it on the AppStore. 2012 Time 100 here I come!  

(Pictures owned by their owners. Duh.)

Free World of Warcraft?

According to this thread in NeoGAF, Blizzard has given some Battle.NET accounts with a free base World of Warcraft copy. Yep, that includes a whole month of going around Azeroth minus Outlands minus Northrend minus the Cataclysm maps.

So for those who have Battle.NET accounts, who don't have World of Warcraft accounts yet, login and check your account statuses now. And see you after a month. :p

One Small Step - Initial impressions on Infinite Space (DS)

After languishing shrink-wrapped in my cabinet for almost a year, my failed attempt to renew my driver's license has given me a reason to finally start playing Sega's sci-fi Nintendo DS RPG, Infinite Space. I was initially interested in the rave reviews for this no-name game. I've always been a fan of RPGs and my sci-fi craving hasn't been sated since the quite unmemorable Galactic Civilizations 2 so why not, right?

I've logged in a bit over two hours now on the game and within those 2 hours, I have died around 15 times already. This game is friggin' ruthless. Combat is like bato-bato-pik with the only strategy that I could muster as of this moment is planning when to go in or out of weapon range. And then it throws unescapable encounters at me. Funny that the game does that when my fleet's hit points are at critical levels. Hmm.

The game's UI is a bit clunky as well. Not only does it throw numbers and choices at you with nary an explanation of what they are, the whole thing is just slow. Having to confirm almost every darn action with fleet customization takes the fun out of what I feel is the essential part of the game. Saving also takes a good 5 or so seconds, and you really need to save a lot.

Those aside, I'm still willing to give this game a try. Some people have compared this to a space opera, and I could actually see glimpses of that 2 hours in. The story is unassuming so far and promises a bit of depth.

Customization is also fun, from changing your ships' attached modules and weapons, to crew assignments. I just wish these were explained better with tool tips and the like.

Right now, I'm reluctant to suggest this to any but the most starved roleplaying gamers for a try. Let's see if delving into it a bit more will change my mind.

More Wii2 details

I initially blogged about the "details" of the Wii2 yesterday thinking that there's nothing more to squeeze out of the rumor mill. The barrage of new info regarding Nintendo's supposedly upcoming new console still hasn't abated, however. Here are some more supposed details:

- Ubisoft, Activision, and Electronic Arts all have dev kits for the new console, and they have had it for months already.
- Motion sensing is still in, and with higher fidelity than the PS3's Move.
- Controllers have a 6" non-multitouch screens that have sub-HD graphics. The console can stream games into the controllers. Whoa.
- A multicore CPU and a graphics card two generations up from what the Xbox 360 has.
- A big surprise is still to be unveiled at E3.

Sources are Nextgen.biz, CVG, and this post from Neogaf.

My take? I personally would rather keep my anticipation in check. Nintendo and high-ish specs haven't been synonymous since the Gamecube. Oh be still my inner Nintendo fanboy heart!

Rockstar Games Weekend on Steam

I've always wanted to play Bully, the sandbox-ish action game about a high school student bullying nerds, kissing girls (and boys), all while dissecting frogs in Biology class.

I missed purchasing the game for a really low price back in the Steam Christmas sale last December due to Bully being region-locked from good ol' Pinas. And then it became unlocked the day after the sale. Ngek.

I grabbed Bully for $3.74, and the same-priced Max Payne bundle as well, as soon as I turned on my PC. Not letting this opportunity pass me again.

+2 on my ever-growing list of games to play. STEAM! *shakes fist*

Wii 2?

Today, multiple videogaming sites reported on rumors about an impending announcement of a new Nintendo console. Sites like CVG, IGN, and GameInformer have almost simultaneously posted articles on the successor to the Wii.

The scary thing is that they are mostly all in agreement with the details: significantly more powerful than the PS3, backwards-compatible with the Wii, a touch screen added to its standard controller, and an unveiling of the details at the E3 this June.

Nintendo has been known to be the most secretive company in the industry, and some have speculated that this is a very calculated move despite the news/rumor not coming directly from them. On one hand, they've been known to spill some info about new hardware before their E3 debut, like the Revolution's rechristening to the Wii. On the other hand, the monthly US videogame sales results compiled by the NPD were released today, with lackluster sales figures for both the Wii and Nintendo's new handheld, the 3DS, and many think that this new console rumor is just a diversionary tactic.

We will find out soon enough, though. If not by the end of April when Nintendo releases financial data to their investors, definite details, whether to confirm or deny all these current tidbits, will surely come out at E3 this June.

Exciting times ahead, definitely. I still remember the geekgasm I experienced while watching the Nintendo E3 conference last year on TV as it was happening. Not this year, unfortunately.

Taym Pers!

Hi folks!

Taym Pers is my attempt at a gaming blog. Yeah, there's a ton of them out there, so now it's a ton + 1!

I had a short stint as a contributor to a locally-published video gaming magazine some years back and was the "gaming editor" of my previous employer's quarterly newsletter. What am I trying to say? Not much, except that I have this huge unspent amount of ideas that has been trapped in my brain for the last few months without an outlet. I guess this makes Taym Pers my videogame idea toilet.

Obviously, just by looking at the layout, this is still a work in progress which I hope to stick to for a significant amount of time. Unlike my last attempt, which I would rather not speak about. Ngwek.

Once in a while, whenever I feel like it, I'll post opinions on the biggest video gaming news, share my thoughts on games that I'm currently wasting my time on, and just do general videogaming non-sense. I'll try to keep things short, sweet, and light-hearted most of the time, but no promises ;)

And with that, I still have a first gaming blog to think about writing about. Taym Pers!