Keyrock

Shocking Week 1 Revelation: Seahawks still good.

My dislike of KotOR (and, by extension, KotOR2) is due to it having some of the worst combat in any game ever.

I know about Jade Empire, I like it a lot. The game they discussed sounded fairly different, though Jade Empire could definitely have evolved from it. I agree about Jade Empire being better than KotOR, disagree with it being better than BG1.

Oh man, at the end when Feargus was talking about the wuxia RPG Black Isle and BioWare were mulling over, I was getting a super raging boner. Now I'm so sad that game never happened. If Obsidian were to kickstart a wuxia RPG I would wind up pledging way more money to it than I probably should. I love wuxia so freakin' much.

New trailer shown during today's Nintendo Direct They also revealed that the Nintendo outfits in Bayonetta (Link, Samus, Peach, Daisy) will be available in the sequel also, and there is an extra outfit available just for Bayonetta 2, the Fox McCloud outfit. That's the only picture I could find of it right now, but her guns are freakin' Arwings.

A few predictions for the season (make sure to bookmark this post so that you can throw this in my face and laugh at me later on): Reasonable prediction: Lions win the NFC North Bold prediction: Chargers reach the Superbowl Absurd prediction: Bucs win the NFC South

Ah yes, it's almost here. A season where I, a jaded Cowboys fan, can go into the season knowing full well that the Cowboys will once again be the very definition of mediocrity. A couple games down the line, the Cowboys can offer me just enough of a glimmer of hope to rope me in, only to rip my heart out and finish 8-8. Again. Good times.

I hate EA as much as the next guy but staring at metacritic and hitting F5 while waiting for negative user scores to roll in doesn't sound like a fun or productive way to spend an afternoon to me. But hey, if that's what floats your boat, have at it.

Back to Neverwinter Nights for me. I figured out who the hill giant chief's head was for. There's a cave nearby, on the same map screen, with a green dragon in it. The hill giant chief wants the eggs of the dragon and the dragon wants the hill giant chief's head. Since I had already killed the hill giant chief, the choice was simple, I gave the head to the dragon... Then I killed the dragon, because that's how I roll... also, for balance (I had to think up some bogus druid excuse). Really though, it was because the dragon was being a really condescending prick to me, as dragons tend to be, so I had to show him what was up. I took a dragon egg with me. I doubt it serves any purpose now that the hill giant chief is dead, but, you never know. Also, if nothing else, it will make one heck of an omelette.

So I see the games media has entered stage 2 of the Kübler-Ross model.

Yeah I avoided them like the plague. It is not going to be the same type of year, at least until they get Bowman and Aldon Smith back. Well, Ray McDonald (defensive lineman) was arrested over the weekend. Lucky for him, it was a domestic violence charge, so he'll likely just get a slap on the wrist, because to the NFL beating the **** out of a pregnant woman is no big deal. Thank goodness he didn't smoke some weed or snort a line, they'd throw the book at him.

I finished Steamworld Dig. The game wound up being longer than I expected. It took me a smidge over 8 hours to finish the game. I'm sure it could be speedrun in a quarter of that time. Still, 8 hours isn't bad for a $10 game, there have been plenty of full price $60 games shorter than that. I liked the game a lot, they did a great bit with a couple really simple mechanics. The game could have benefited from a few mini-bosses (there's just the one boss at the very end) and I certainly wouldn't have minded if it was longer. Maybe these things will be addressed in a sequel, the game certainly left that door open with the ending. If they do make a sequel, I'll certainly buy it.

Beta launches tomorrow, for those that got in at a high enough tier.

I've mined pretty deep in Steamworld Dig now. I figure I should be getting pretty close to the end (or bottom, as the case may be) seeing as I've purchased almost all the upgrades available and, by all accounts, this is not a very long game. I have a feeling I'll finish the game tomorrow.

That made me think for a bit. I don't think I've played a baseball game since... the 80s on the NES. I wouldn't mind if the made a baseball game for the Wii U, but not a super realistic one, I'd like a Nintendo'd up game, like they've done for other sports, like golf and tennis. They probably have something like that in the Wii shop, but I don't want something with motion controls, I don't want to be waving a Wiimote to hit the ball or whatever. I want regular controls, maybe also something using the gamepad touchscreen, swiping to put motion on the ball when pitching or something like that, but otherwise regular analog stick (or d-pad) and physical buttons controls, but with a Nintendo spin on it, all colorful and charming like. It would be pretty cool to field a team of koopa troopas, maybe have Bowser as the catcher. Fun stuff like that, but not a mini-game as part of a Mario Party or whatever, a full fledged game with team management, stats for players, the whole shebang.

I'm glad my moments of weakness tend to be a lot less expensive than yours. In a moment of weakness, I pre-ordered a Samus amiibo. I almost wound up getting Peach and Donkey Kong too, but my willpower kicked in and held me to getting just the Samus amiibo... for now. Hopefully they make a Bayonetta amiibo in the future. Also, Mallo from Pushmo would be cool too.

I don't own an Oculus, but I do know that there are games out that support it. I own (at least) 2 games that support Oculus: Euro Truck Simulator 2 and World of Diving. Here is a list of games and applications that support Oculus. I'm not sure if all of these are out yet or what the rating numbers mean.

I have to be honest. This won't be a popular opinion here, but it's how I feel. I was never a fan of Icewind Dale, or Icewind Dale 2, for that matter. I thought thety were easily the two weakest entries of the Infinity Engine games. While the combat in them was good, better than BG, BG2, or PS:T, the story... ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.

Metallica, before they sucked:

As ridiculous as it is, and it is ridiculous, Saints Row 4 is one of the smartest parodies I've ever seen in vidya games. It pokes fun at absolutely everything, including itself, and it does so without ever being mean about it. It does it while paying loving tribute to the things it is parodying. That's a rather difficult razor's edge to walk: making fun of something without trashing it.