In attempts to keep my resolution regarding more frequent blog entries  (of which I’ve been doing a stellar job to date >.>) I thought  it might be interesting to jot down my impressions of game demos as they come out. Since we’re still a small outfit, we’re limited to what’s available to the public, which means demos probably won’t get covered until they’re release over XBLM and PSN. Hopefully this year we’ll be able to change that.  With that said…

The Halo Wars demo was released yesterday on XBLM, and I sat down today to give it a good play through. To be honest, I haven’t been into RTS games for a while. The last time I played one was back in the mid 90′s when Westwood still owned Command and Conquer. (Ouch!)

The first thing you’ll notice when you launch the Halo Wars demo, is that it feels like Halo; in fact, the menu system looks like it was taken straight out of Halo 3. It’s also impressive how much it feels like Halo when you’re moving your units around on the field. The music, the characters, the landscape:  they all shout out “Halo.” With that said however, there is something very distinctive missing. No, it’s not Master Chief – although I’m certain that may end up playing a factor in some people’s minds – what I feel is missing is that “Boo-yah!” feeling you get when you shotgun an enemy in the face!

I’ll be honest: Halo Wars seems like it should turn out to be a decent game, but I’m not entirely certain who it’s aimed at. The original Halo games were hugely popular because they were First Person Shooters; a genre that’s, in most parts, easily accessible to a large amount of people. Sit a frat boy down in front of a game where you shoot people with a gun, and he’ll feel right at home! Sit down that same frat boy in front of a game where he has to control a bunch of tiny units on a screen at different locations on a map, while being attacked by other tiny units, and then tell him he has to manage to fend off all those enemies while simultaneously taking over their base – and don’t’ forget to manage your resources -  and you may quickly find yourself with a confused  and overwhelmed frat boy.

For fans of the Halo mythos, this game should be a welcomed change of pace. From what I’ve seen so far, the game seems to do a good job of immersing you in the events which took place 20 years before the events of the first Halo game. The cut scenes are visually pleasing and the voice acting is top notch.

It’s no green screening, but hey, nothing’s perfect.

So what did you think of the Halo Wars demo? Do you think it’ll fit well in the Halo universe? Do you think I was too hard on the frat boys? Let us know!

Something I’ve noticed a lot of webcomic artists doing lately are these strips called “hourlies.” They’re essentially quick little strips that each represent an hour of the comic artist’s day, and I think they’re a great way to do micro blogging. So not to be outdone, I decided to try my hand at making my own.  It can be found under the Extras tab, or by simply clicking here.

So what do you think? Are these cool? Are these lame? Do I live an exciting life? I’d love to hear what you think!

And we’re back!

(Well sorta…)

After being sick for the past couple of weeks (me), it turned out that it was both Darren and Eva’s turn this Satruday; therefore, it was up to Bryan and I to pick up the slack and turn our podcasting engines on overdrive!

In this episode, we put a lid on Bob’s Game, we offer our condolences to the members and fans of 1Up, and discuss the future of  video game print media. We then toss around our thoughts on Atlus Online, Red Dead Redemtion and Scott Pilgram VS The Universe.

All this, and much, much more, on our longest podcast yet!

Addendum: I just noticed there’s a glitch at around the 7-8 minute, which lasts for a minute or so. Other than that it should play fine. I’m curently trying to fix the file, and I’ll add a second addendum once the fixed file has been uploaded.

Addendum 2: File should work fine now. Enjoy!

 

 Northern Geekcast: Episode 005 [119:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stuff like this really gets me riled up.

I came across a story this morning on Siliconera that basically outlined some of the differences between the Japanese versions of Star Ocean 4 and the North American version. Take a look:

Japanese Version

North American Version

Notice the character portraits at the bottom? Apparently Square Enix thinks North Americans just aren’t into anime or something. Personally, I would have much prefered they had kept the anime portaits, but maybe that’s just me. If you follow the link to the original story, you’ll see some screen shots of the menus as well. I have to admit, the NA menus look much sharper, but it doesn’t change the way I feel.

So what version do you prefer? Are you as upset as I am about the NA version? Do you think the CG faces are better? Debate!