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Some thoughts about Borderlands

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borderlands-looks-niceI finished Borderlands last week! It’s one of the few xbox 360 games I completed lately.  A game needs to be engaging for me to spend more than a few hours on it thanks to all the other games that I want to play and my backlog.

Things I loved about the game:

  • Diablo loot-a-thon + first person shooter + RPG: This is the main reason why I bought the game. I wished that Fallout 3 was more FPS-ish and thi s is the game that answered the wish.
  • Art style: it’s like a cartoonish, twisted, colorful Fallout
  • Gearbox: I have fond memories of them from their Half-Life 1 days.
  • Claptraps!

Things I liked about the game:

  • Driving vehicles was easy schmeezy
  • I didn’t get lost in the open world
  • Lots and lots of different guns
  • Online co-op was easy to set up and lots of fun with a buddy

Things I didn’t like about the game:

  • Joining a player’s game will make you automatically inherit all their available quests whether you’re ready for them or not
  • The story was pretty generic
  • I couldn’t turn my controller’s vibration off

Things I hated about this game:

  • The path to the end of the game: finally making my way to the vault.
  • The ending

SPOILER ALERT! I’m going to complain about the ending below, so if you don’t want to be spoiled don’t read it.

[Read more…]

Waiting for Diablo 3? Play Torchlight

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screen-shot-2009-11-19-at-32702-pmNo, PC gaming is not dead. Far from it. I’ve been playing a lot of Torchlight during my spare time lately. It’s a dungeon crawling loot-stravaganza for the uninitiated. The UI is great. The art design is whimsical. Your character model changes depending on what you have equipped. Oh, and every class gets a helpful pet!

Pets are one of the best parts of the game. They attack enemies, can be equipped with rings and trinkets, and can learn helpful skills like “Heal All” or summoning minions. They can also be sent back to town with a full pack of loot to sell if you don’t want to be bothered with teleporting into town and just want to stay in the dungeon. Pretty damn awesome.

The sweetest part of the deal is that this whole game is $20! I bought it on Steam so that I could have it to play on my PC and my mac (through Crossover Games).

Ladies of Street Fighter Tournament

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Ladies of Street Fighter Tournament

Me vs. Stacy the Manager

Don’t laugh at my Game Face ™! This weekend was the Ladies of Street Fighter tournament at Arcade Infinity. It was the first tournament I’d ever seen in person, much less played in, but it was a good experience. I hadn’t imagined it would be so nerve-wracking.

I came in 5th place out of 15, which I was happy about. My only goal was not to come in last, which I didn’t, so it was a pretty successful tournament for me. I just wish I practiced doing ultras more on the joystick by pressing three buttons at once instead of the shortcut button. I guess I should have realized the arcade machines only had the three punch and three kick buttons, on the extra two. Oops!

Although I had apprehensions about joining an all girls tournament, it actually turned out okay. All the girls were very nice and not too “Yay girl power,” which was what I was afraid of. It was also nice seeing all the guys who came out to support the girls, or to just yell at the screen.

Thanks Scott, who let me borrow the arcade stick to practice on. I’m taking a break from SFIV for now, but I think if I ever get the hankering to play it some more, I’m going to get my own stick. Also thx to the BF for taking pictures of me and my Game Face. I didn’t realize I looked so serious!

Links:
Results @ Arcade Infinity
Images by Karaface