The Hyur watches as his Hume brothers will die a painful death in the next few months

To quote a true veteran player on the FFXIAH.com forums, the new expansion/DLC is "the same old shit with this update, just more waste of time." So why are you still playing? I know why I am back to playing. I've bought the game twice and originally played at release and I don't have one level 75 character to show for it. Should I just quit while I'm behind and wait to crush it when FFXIV comes out? The money doesn't concern me. Assuming I end up going to Korea, I really do have it to burn.

There's no bonus for importing FFXI characters so why are you still trying? Maybe because your discount laptop can't begin to dream of running the FFXIV benchmark? I know my computer scored "Low." Which is exactly what I scored when the original FFXI benchmark came out. This time around, I don't feel bad because I know the Japanese still can't make optimized code to save their lives in the gaming industry.

I don't even know why I want a 75 anymore. It'll take me at least a month to hit 75. Probably another two weeks to hit the new cap of 80. I'll be taking a month break to get adjusted to life in Korea. That leaves me with about two weeks to enjoy my capped RDM. Two weeks to try my hand at a Dynamis, or Sky, or Sea (whatever those are) and you know go after all my merit points. You would be mistaken to think for a second that I'll be playing FFXI once FFXIV comes out. I'm not 14 anymore, I don't have that kind of time to waste. So should I quit already? I feel like I'm at that point. Maybe my friend Scot is just rubbing off on me.

They never did finish this one...

I picked up Alpha Protocol on Steam (a week before the massive summer sale, which makes me furious) much to the dismay of my friends and against the multitude of reviews bashing the game. I've been waiting for this game since Obsidian announced it forever ago. I was ready to see what they could do on their own without Bioware's legacy backing them up. In conclusion, Alpha Protocol was a pretty awesome ride.

Okay, so I lied, it wasn't awesome. It was actually mediocre in practice. However, the overall experience isn't a slow plodding treadmill of mediocrity. It's the logical conclusion from the two extremes. It's like Obisidian knew what they were good at (traditional CRPG sequels) and then they saw Mass Effect and decide "Oh noes, look what our big brother is doing, we can do that too!" In effect, they took their same buggy, unfinished approach and make something even more lackluster of an engine than the depressing experience that is Neverwinter Nights 2. Every single weapon except from assault rifles are depressing in their purest state. However, a lot reviews discredited pistols as useless when all the pistol abilities are disgusting good. Chain Shot and aiming criticals out of cover are almost broken good. I'm digressing from the overall experience though.

The first thing you need to do is play the game as a spy. The game likes to suggest at times, that you can be some sort of super Rambo agent. Don't do it. You will just be frustrated in the beginning and laughing at the foolishness by the end (in a, this makes no sense, sort of fashion). Alpha Protocol rewards stealth and takedowns almost religiously. Only one part of the game literally forced me to fight. When I say it forced me, I mean, I engaged by overpowered instant stealth power and my attackers still saw me and began to beat the living snot out of me. Shame on me for paying in to a broken system and never leveling my hand to hand skills. I wish I had recorded that fight, I barely survived and abused the poor a.i. Now that I think about it, I only survived the Taiwan boss fight due to abusable A.I. pathfinding while my broken stealth skill recharged. Man, I want to complain about the poor a.i. but there are times when I feel like they left it in the game because of how broken some of the fights can be if you're not specialized in killing things. Again, shame on me for maximizing stealth.

So I say play the game as a spy but I complain about the game severely punishing me for it. Well, outside of staged battles, most of the game is stupid easy (as I played on hard mode as the recruit class) if you invest in stealth. Being able to turn invisible at a moments notice is stupid good for stabbing multiple people in the face without so much as chime on the alarms. Man, Alpha Protocol is such a broken and horribly executed game that I can't believed I enjoyed it so much.

The game likes to make you pick locks and hack keypads. I didn't level the skill to make any of this easier. Honestly, they get stupid hard about halfway through without skill in sabotage. So hard, I couldn't actually pass them with the Xbox controller. I had to switch the controls to keyboard and mouse (you can't use both at the same time for some reason) and use the extra speed and precision from the mouse to key the job done. By the way, did I mention that the game is nearly unplayable with a keyboard and mouse? The mouse smoothing makes the stiff WASD movement horrendous. I found myself sitting out of cover and running the wrong way in to cameras and guards far too often for the super spy I like to play. Plug in a X360 controller and it's smooth sailing...of course until you need to crack a safe or bypass a door, which is pretty often actually...

All the reviews are true, the game has bad (often laughable) combat, depressingly poor a.i., and nearly last generation graphical presentation. So what is there to love? Well if you really like role-playing games, you're going to love Alpha Protocol's story. People say it's good but they're used to Mass Effects crap about killer robots from deep space that jump through a lot of hoops to destroy lifeforms instead of just firing a giant laser beam. Modern entertainment magazine don't even recognize greatness these days. Let's forgive them for ripping the Burn Notice style introduction, the character interactions and story depth truly shines in this game. In fact, it's been the best story experience since The Witcher. Scratch that, in many ways, it's more enjoyable than The Witcher. The shining points are the dossier and the relationship on characters. Actively finding intel on characters will affect available decisions and story options. Building relationships with them will also affect how the missions play out. For what the story lacks in depth and scope it makes up for in its dynamic nature. Honestly, Obsidian should just fire all their programmers and project managers since they can't code for crap and fail to release games in a timely fashion but give all the writers a nice Christmas bonus along with contracts to work for CD Projekt and add some dynamic nature to The Witcher 2 (which may be taken care of if the press info I'm reading is any indication; don't even begin to talk about the simple forks, that often break the quest mind you, from the first game count as dynamic storytelling). Or maybe, Obsidian should send them to BioWare and...wait nevermind BioWare is owned by EA and doomed to make trash for the rest of its existence (ME2 showed the signs of being a generic mainstream title, I can't imagine what horrors are in store for Dragon Age 2 or any new IP assuming EA lets them take a break from making ME15 over their lifetime).

Ugh, I'm burned out with hatred and frustration now. If you like story (which you know, is the reason people play RPGs) then Alpha Protocol is the game for you. If you want something to tide you over until ME3 drops this fall/winter, then pass over Alpha Protocol. In fact, you should probably run far away from anyone with a copy. If you look at it with mainstream shades, the game is a horrid piece of trash. But if you can ignore all that, then by all means -- enjoy the story of espionage and betrayal that leads to lasting homicidal friendships. Not nearly worth the fifty bones I dropped on it but definitely an easy purchase at $30 or less (did I mention how much I hate Steam and their sales at times?!).

NOTE: My reviews are highly subjective and never based on pure rational thought. Trust my opinion, it's often fueled by Haterade and to be taken with a heavy amount of salt.

Sega is trying to make another come back. This time, they're annoucing a 2D HD reintroduction of Sonic. This of course, sends a spetacular tingle up my spine but then I quickly yank myself down to reality. When was the last time they actually pulled off a good Sonic title? Haven't they done enough damage? I feel that they came so close with Sonic Unleashed but they proved that they can't resist the urge to throw in a nice pile of crap with everything good they make. If you play the Sonic Unleashed demo it doesn't feel too bad. It's fast and fun like Sonic Adventure -- play the game and you get smacked with the awful Were-hedgehog garbage. Who came up with that? Have they been properly shot? Hopefully, you buried their body next to the person who gave Shadow guns.

What about the other Sega franchises, why don't we give those another go before we start ripping Sonic to shreds again? I think we're due for another Shinobi game. What happened to finishing up Shemue? A proper Phantasy Star Online title? I want to say lets bring on another Panzer Dragoon but no, lets not. Panzer Dragoon Orta was brilliant -- please don't go screwing that up.

Forget suggesting that Sega actually sit down and bring to the table quality new IP. I doubt they could really at this point. When it seems like they're kept afloat by a bevy of collection releases on every system possible and hitting whatever popular platform they can -- I don't think they have more than two ounces of creativity left. Or if they do, they're keeping everyone locked away in a closet. It's a shame quality fighting games aren't popular. Virtua Fighter is always a solid bet -- it's just when you suck at that game, you know you suck and it takes actual skill to get anywhere decent. The tried and true button mashing tactics that save you in Street Fighter and Guilty Gear don't help much in Virtua Fighter.

Why am I filling the air with such negativity. Let us let 2010 speak for itself and see if Sega still employs a few designers and not just a bunch of marketing executives and representatives.

For the record, I only care to write so much because I actually care if they get it right. I really like Sega and the IPs they created. Even growing up with a Super Nintendo, I was a huge fan of my first Genesis titles: Sonic 2 and Columns. A lot of my better gaming experiences happened on a SEGA system: NBA Jam, Madden 94, Sonic (duh), Comix Zone, X-Men, Virtua Fighter, Street Figher Alpha, Shenmue, and many more. I just really want to see Sega make something right other than Virtua Tennis.

Source: Sega making 'all new' 2D, hi-def Sonic game for 2010

1. Missing Characters: King, Yuri, Geese Howard...
2. Online Play Lag
3. Nothing really new

Okay, lets address this one-by-one shall we? No King?! It's the only character I can actually play well and they get nix her. There's also no Vanessa, one of the newer characters I wanted to learn. I love that they cut down the roster, I just don't approve of the final selection so much.

I was worried about online play not using GGPO, seems that my worries were well founded.

The fact that nothing has really changed in KOFXII is a blessing and a curse. I feel that KOFXI brought a little too much and I didn't really like it. KOFXII was supposed to drop back to '94 roots IIRC but the idea that they reeled back too hard and it's not really fun bothers me.

Hopefully, I'll get a hands on sometime soon and I can give my real impressions but there's no way I'm dropping cash without some serious time with the game.

UPDATE: Looking at the review on ArsTechnica isn't too promising either but it restores some faith that the actual offline gameplay is solid despite missing some favorites. A solid sit-down still to come.

On to the update:

Things have changed quite a bit. Iujk has passed me and is now a pimped out level 25 WHM with a level 20BLM and level 15 THF. This is the last I heard, it could be higher now. I'm not too far behind: 20THF, 19RDM, 14WHM, 12BLM, 8WAR. I promise to put in more work in to WAR, MNK, BLM, and WHM between now and the end of the week. I'm hoping to get WHM and BLM to 20 while stopping MNK and WAR somewhere around 12-14 unless I can find a forgiving PT willing to put up with crappy gear.

Smithing has improven. I'm a level 10 in blacksmithing now. Also, I have a level in leathercrafting. I've officially given up on all forms of crafting. I've dumped at least 30k in to it and all I have to show for it is a poor set of equipment for my level 20 jobs. I'm going to gear up my RDM and THF (single set people, I don't know who started this 3-set madness) and get to cracking in Qufim. I'll return to crafting when I can farm 10k and crystals like it's nothing.

The AsuraTitans have grown in size quite a bit. Notable members include: Baduno and Trysin (Bad and Trys). These two are my go to guys when it's time to to chat or throwdown in the Dunes. Speaking of the Dunes (or Doonies according to Bad), I hate it so much now.

I'm calling people out because not enough people do it. Or at least, I want to but I forget the names of these people. Vitalis has been the latest offender. I understand you're learning to tank as a Paladin, it's a shame you didn't learn anything as a WAR because you clearly don't know how to Provoke. "I'm saving Provoke incase I lose hate for an emergency." Guess what? If you Provoke as much as possible, you'll generate as much hate as possible -- decreasing the chance that you lose hate. To all tanks: Do not wait for the incredibly touch (IT) mob to smack us mages in the face before you realize we're generating more hate than you. I was a BLM for crying out loud, Blind and Poison alone puts me at the hate threshold forget nuking. I'm not really mad it happened, I'm mad it happened over and over. PLDs, forget about damage, cure and 'voke please let the WAR and BLM handle the killing. In case he ever reads this: after you caused a ruckus, we de-sync'd and grabbed a rabbit and logged safely in Selbina -- all 5 of us.

There's a cetain THF that needs to be called out but I forget its name. There's an important note for pullers though -- when the PT leader says we're good: start pulling. You know your job, pull until the mobs run out or the PT needs to stop. Both of these break conditions need to be addressed. When the mobs run out -- you may pull some filler mob to keep the EXP flowing. That's just good practice. You DON'T pull a stronger mob and hope everything turns out okay. It sounds like common sense but it apparently doesn't sink in for people and I've been wiped that way. Also, you need to understand when the PT needs to stop. It's easy to not notice when the WHM/healer is out of mana. Every PT member has their job and is focused on it. Guess what you're job is puller? To watch that little MP bar and make sure you don't pull when it gets low. Yes, the WHM should group notify that he is low on MP but not everyone has a parser and feels the need for an idiot light to go off. Make sure people are ready to kill, wiping your PT is officially grounds for getting kicked in my PTs.

Lessons for PTs:

1. Don't argue with the PT leader -- be heard and then shut up; a good leader will do what's right
2. Be alert: Look out for links, low MP, and idleness or disconnects.
3. Come equipped -- you don't need the latest gear but showing up in a level 1 set is a definite party foul
4. Stronger mobs are not acceptable when you can't find the proper mob to pull
5. Noky on Asura doesn't like to be PT leader but when he is, he doesn't like idiots. If you're feeling a little stupid -- please politely decline the invitation.
6. Do not leave after you level, it's rude. If you know you're going to have to dip out -- give the PT leader a time so he can schedule a replacement
7. If you know something the leader doesn't, help out -- don't try a coup d'etat. (Thanks Bad)
8. If the linkshell says AsuraTitans, they're awesome -- you should definitely keep them around

One more thing about the Dunes: I'd really appreciate it if people would stop power leveling there. Especially with WHMs in the PTs but in general too. The summer brings with it a lot of new players and there are already enough people who don't know how to play the game and their job. The Dunes sucks, but it sucks for a reason -- it's what makes people in to good FFXI players ready to take on Garrison, Dynamis, Maat, and all the other difficult challenges that await. Don't get me wrong, I love the EXP from a PL -- 400xp a pull is awesome stuff that allows you to take care of the Dunes in one or two nights. However, there's a lot of room for carelessness and idiocy because when it hits the fan (and it always does), there's a high level guy taking the heat and raising the few people that got caught up.

This "update" has been far too long already so I'm gonna wrap up. Tropico, my Taruhood brother, is more-than-likely calling it quits. He's a businessman AFK and has things to attend to. Nothing but love and I understand completely. Fortunately, Iujk is here to stay and the LS is growing by the day. Join the AsuraTitans people, it's where the good stuff is hidden. We keep it in little boxes...on the hillside...made of ticky-tacky.

Look for our first official AsuraTitans outing. We have plans to take on Rank 2-3 and N.Gustaberg Garrison.

Man, I got a lot done in Vana'diel last night. Expect this post to be long. Brief overview: 10THF and 7RDM, new friends and linkshell, lots of pics.

I met some new friends last night as well! Synfull and Ansiem are these really cool guys that are much stronger than me. I now play with them and we have a new linkshell, Asura Titans! Check it out, first week and I'm already hanging with the cool people.

I still havent' left South Gustaberg yet but I did get to venture to new territory. I pushed THF to 10 early and then tried my hand at smithing after realizing the new sword I wanted couldn't be bought on the Auction House (AH). I made a bronze ingot! Naturally I forgot to take pics of the hotness! I'll make sure to grab some next time. The store closed on me so I had to stop crafting early. The real issue with crafting though is that fire crystals aren't something I find a lot of. Oh well, smithing seems the coolest of the crafting jobs since I want to be able to make gear for me and my friends (and now my linkshell -- woot!).

Iujk (formerly Fitraubond -- a friend originally met AFK) and I finally touched base in-game. I switched to RDM at that point and killed stuff close to town with him. He's picking up on the game really quickly. He decided not to go with RDM though and is back to playing WHM with a sprinkle of BLM.

With Synfull's help we took on some Land Crabs! They were pretty tough. I also got to fight a Goblin Weaver and, wait for it, a Bomb! It was just like the fire bombs from standard FF titles. That thing almost killed me. It used Beserk and started taking almost half my health with each hit. Synfull is awesome though, so he kept me alive with his super healing power.

I took a bunch of new screens and they're of course awesome. Some of the highlights:

Synfull showed be his mog house! And then asked me to take my gear off. It was very forward of him but of course I did it. What do you think I'm sort of frigid conversative? Of course, I forgot to take pictures of that specific event but I have plenty of his room.

Also, Synfull has his own Chocobo! Took a bunch of shots of that hotness. They were worth it.

Don't miss the cools shots of me in the new gear sets Synfull let me borrow.

For reference (and I'll link this in every post from now on) -- you can view the album here:

That's most of it. I didn't get to see Tropico (another AFK friend) in-game at all but I'm sure he's busy with stuff AFK. I don't think I'll get much time in today. There's a Street Fighter 4 tournament going down @ UMD tonight (8-12PM EST). I know I didn't show last time but I plan to make my grand appearnce tonight. Especially since a friend seemingly threatened my life if I don't show. Don't worry, I'm not all FFXI-mode, I will be sure to blog about SF4. Man this post was long. I'll try to break it up next time yeah?

EDIT: I've played since then but I'm not going to create a new post. I have uploaded and captioned some of the screens. The post was originally written May 8 but finally posted on May 17. I was waiting on my lazy bum self to upload the most recent images. Link the album link to browse through all of them.

Image via Wikipedia

When I read that EA sent out a press kit for Godfather II that included real brass knuckles, I thought to myself: that is ridiculously cool. Apparently, now they're recalling all of them due to questionable legality of the contents. I understand, from one perspective that you can't publically agree with sending out potentially illegal weapons but the other side of me hates the fact that the legal structure constantly prohibits overwhelming acts of coolness. I say you send a nice thank you letter in the return shipping box and keep the knuckles.

EA would like its brass knuckles back, please - Ars Technica

This is all speculation obviously, but as a current 360 owner, I would love for Xbox to become an accepted platform for tournament play. As a developer, I'm against the closed and proprietary nature of Microsoft even though they make a superior console experience. The advantages that the PS3 offers in the openess of their platform and the available technology (PSP and Blu-Ray especially) make the PS3 a system I'd actually consider making games for.
Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080815-sony-rising-ps3-opens-up-lead-on-xbox-360-in-july.html

Other suspect players include Dell, who of course would want to push to handle rolling out "certified" gaming machines. Acer falls in to the same category, the existence of the both of them makes their presence a little more tolerable but seeing as these people just put pieces together and sell them to us I'd like to see them both off the board.

Logitech, I'm half-and-half with. You want an input device developer on board. However, Logitech has a very closed source, proprietary nature and they don't like Linux (my mouse still uses workarounds for all the buttons).

WildTangent is a nice example of dead technology that no one cares about. It's obvious that they have a seat in order to leverage a chance to come back.

Antec? Why? Just no, please. Have some dignity and don't just take any tech firms money. There's no gaming related information in the Senior VP's bio on the site. Yeah that's right, Antec is on the board.

Razer? We have Logitech -- they're bigger and better, go home and save your money for a new start-up.

People I actually approve of:

Intel, AMD, and nVidia need to be there for obvious reasons. Any uniting of PC Gaming has to involve the key components of playing games: the CPU and the GPU. No worries with this.

Capcom rocks hands down. They make great games and now they're pushing to support PC ports with every major release in face of piracy. And no longer are they offering half-assed support. Word on the street is DMC4 is a prime example of how games should be taken to the PC. It has it's quirks but it's a lot better than the old DMC3 port.

EMA is a solid pick. Distribution is very important here and they need a representative from that sector.

SMU Guildhall is something I wouldn't have thought of off the bat but I approve big time. Educating new game developers is important as what is taught now will come to be the practice of the future.

People I want to see in the future:

Electronic Arts. I hate them but at the same time they are the second biggest developer (thanks to the Activision Blizzard deal) and they need to be a part of this. They ship way too many games for them not to. Also, they handled the PC port of Mass Effect beautifully.

Ubisoft has been responsible for a number of quality PC releases (even if the actual game isn't quality). They should have a say since they're kinda awesome.

A motherboard manufacturer. Gigabyte, MSI, someone. Maybe work towards some BIOS level features they assist with PC Gaming?

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Right now, no one knows what this group is really getting done -- that is we're assuming they're doing something. When large companies get involved and demand large sums of money I can't help be think this is all silly. Especially when their GDC results were piss poor.