Enchanted Arms has been the almost sole focus of my gaming for the last two weeks. I had taken an extended break from it to play Test Drive Unlimited, but have now left TDU to go back and finish it up. The new found dedication has yielded results, as now I am at 84% completion, up from only slightly over 50% not too long ago. I'm really looking forward to finishing up the game and finding out how the story ends. It has been a great time playing this game, and I have to say, it is currently one of my favorite RPGs.

In the moments between my marathon sessions of Enchanted Arms, I have also been playing some High Seize on my N-Gage and Lunar: Dragon Song on my Nintendo DS. I've previously explained my love of High Seize, and I still am enjoying it immensely. I still haven't played enough of Lunar to have a good feel for whether I will enjoy it long term or not, despite my love of previous Lunar titles.

captainzoli

Tags: Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft, RPG, review, video game, fun, gaming, gamer, 360, xbox, x-box, ds, N-Gage, high seize, lunar, test drive unlimited, tdu, driving

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Posted by the Captain at 4:00 PM CDT

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Yep, I'm still playing Test Drive Unlimited on the X-Box 360. Almost exclusively, this past weekend. Almost. I also fit in a bit of Lunar: Dragon Song on the Nintendo DS and High Seize on my N-Gage. Actually, I play a bit of High Seize almost everyday.

As for TDU, I now have forty cars and nine houses (at least I think it is nine houses now, could be eight or ten). Also, I've past the eighty percent mark for driving all the roads on the island, and hope to be finished with that achievement by this coming weekend. I have a few more cars I definitely want to pick up, and have a great many missions and races to finish, so I have a lot left to do in this game, despite the time I have already put into it. Then there is word that more content is to be coming down the pipe on X-Box Live Marketplace, so that should be great as well. This game has most of the makings of a great game, sadly the lack of polish really holds it back and makes it just a good game for everyone but the dedicated race gamer, but we dedicated race gamers have already picked it up anyway. Now Atari would just get the damn market place working so I can buy and sell cars, and fix the club bug so I can race with my friends...

Lunar: Dragon Song is decent so far, despite some unusual (and dubious, to say the least) choices. I don't understand the point of running causing my Hit Points to decrease. It just slows down my travel time, and pisses me off. There really isn't any purpose in it that I can see. The next issue I have with the game is the reward system. Again I must ask why? Why can I only earn experience points or items for winning a battle and not both? It isn't the greatest idea or game mechanic and I don't have a clue what could have possessed the developer to think that it was a good idea. These items are clear indicators that different isn't always better. Despite these shortcomings, I have been able to enjoy the game so far, but I am an admitted Lunar fan from the day.

As for High Seize, it is a great game. Buy and N-Gage and play High Seize as soon as possible. You won't regret it.

captainzoli

Tags: 360, Microsoft, x-box, Xbox, Nintendo, ds, lunar, dragon song, test drive unlimited, tdu, high seize, n-gage, nokia, console, gaming, portable, review

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Posted by the Captain at 12:28 PM CDT

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The title of this one pretty much says it all. I played Test Drive Unlimited all weekend, at least all of the parts of the weekend in which I gamed, that is. Actually, that isn't entirely true. I also spend an hour or two playing Lego Star Wars II, for the 360, with the wife. It has become one of my all time favorite racing games, despite its nagging technical issues (frame rate hits, pop up, club issues, etc.). Percentage wise, I'm a bit over half way through the game. I currently have six houses and twenty four cars, so I'm not doing too bad. I still need to get back to Enchanted Arms and finish that one up. I will probably work on that this next weekend.

Oh, and on the topic of the Lego Star Wars II game, that was a great time playing multi player with the wife. Actually, the game is fun single player as well, it is just mind boggling that they chose to not include co-op, or any kind of multi-player option, over X-Box Live. I would have thought that would have been a no-brainer standard feature in games for the 360 by now, especially games like Lego Star Wars II, but apparently the developer and publisher didn't get that memo. It also has frame rate issues. For those interested in the games, I wouldn't go out of my way to get the 360 version. I haven't seen anything in it that justifies the more expensive price tag, especially if you played through the first one on one of the current gen consoles. A save from the first game will open up playable characters in the second. 360 owners get the privilege of paying more for the game, then we get to buy the extra characters. For the price tag, they should have included the characters in the 360 version for free instead of trying to gouge us 360 owners a bit more.

captainzoli

Tags: multi-player, multiplayer, video game, game, review, xbox, 360, xbl, live, star wars, lego, gaming, test drive, unlimited, tdu, weekend, fun, gamer, ps2, playstation, gamecube, gc

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Posted by the Captain at 9:45 AM CDT

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Finally, months after E3 has come and gone, Nintendo decides to provide the important information they should have shared with us consumers at E3: price point and official launch date. No matter what criticisms one may level at Sony for their handling of the Playstation 3 launch, at least they were forthright with the information on pricing from the beginning. Nintendo, on the other hand, has tried to put it off and dodge the question for as long as possible. All that aside, now we know that $250.00 is what a Wii will run us, including on controller and a game of sorts. All this talk and speculation and this is the best they could do?

Granted, it is the cheapest system to be launched in the so called "next" generation, but let us be honest now: Nintendo's console isn't "next" generation, it is just this current generation with a novelty controller. That's it. Sorry fanboys, but the Wii is a glorified Gamecube. An Xbox with a gimmick, if you will. That is what Nintendo is offering us for our $250.00. I think Nintendo could have done better, but it has become obvious that they don't care to even try. No high definition, not much in the way of updated graphics and a gimmick controller that utilizes technology that was abandoned by other companies in the past because of its dubious value. All this, and we haven't even touched on their "backwards compatibility" claims. Nintendo saying that the Wii is backwards compatible to all their consoles is like saying the Xbox 360 is backwards compatible to the Joust arcade because it runs a port of it. Memo to Nintendo: Backwards compatibility is when I can run the media I've already paid for on the console, not when I can buy a port of it from you.

All this being said, I'm not saying I won't buy a Wii. The price point is lower than the other consoles, and there is bound to be a version of Animal Crossing coming out for it at some point, but I am certainly going to thing twice about it before I do. I already have at least three current generation consoles. I'm not sure I need another one at twice the price.

captainzoli

Tags: rant, editorial, wii, nintendo, xbox, 360, microsoft, revolution, video, game, gaming, fun, graphics, next gen, generation, animal crossing, price, launch

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Posted by the Captain at 11:57 AM CDT

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