Our Top 3 Games of All Time

About a Year ago I got Steve, Arthel and I to sit down and record our favorite games of all time. I finally got around to editing it and making a video out of it (nothing fancy just a slideshow of box art). While its been a year I can say my list has not changed, I can't say if Steve's and Arthel's lists are still the same but if they really want to, they can update this post with a more recent opinion.

For those that don't have the time to watch the video our top 3 games are:

Steve:
3. God of War 3 (PS3)
2. Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube)
1. Uncharted (The Series) (PS3)

Arthel:

3. Demon's Souls (PS3)
2. Pokemon Gold (Game Boy Color)
1. Uncharted 2 (PS3)

James:

3. Dwarf Fortress (PC)
2. Harvest Moon Back to Nature (PS1)
1. Tales of Symphonia (GameCube)

Actual Play #1 Our First Time and Boy Does It Show

My friends, John and Arthel, and I finally got the chance to do something that I've been wanting to do for months,we played a tabletop role playing game. The first game I chose to play, was Fear Itself. Even though I'm not into the horror genre, the game is fairly rules-light; I figure it would be a good starting game. The story we ran was something that I came up with.

(Sorry for the inconvenience of my dogs in the background)



Before I begin to discuss some of the flaws in the video, I just want to go on the record that I was nervous. It's a little intimidating using my concept for the recording.

Things I could improve upon as Game Master:

- Prior to recording, I asked how my friends wanted to approach the house (i.e: Were their characters teenagers in town breaking in? Ghost hunters? etc.). They decided that they wanted to be college kids and broke down in front of the house to investigate. Now, the confusion between what I thought they wanted and what they had meant, was in stead of breaking down in front of the house, they wanted to break down in the town and then learned about the house from the locals. Obviously, a lack of communication on my part. Granted, even if they had wanted to start at the house, I should have made them stop in town just to create a back story (college students on a road trip learning about the house).
-I railroaded them. Honestly, this was simply due to the fact I'm an inexperience GM and the setting of the story.
-I should have made a lot more stability checks.

Things I accomplished as Game Master:

-I created a fun game and we agreed to play another game soon.

Next game will be Monsterhearts.

My Dwarf Fortress Story

The video below contains my Dwarf Fortress story. It's the story that I tell my friends when explaining why I play Dwarf Fortress and why they should give it a second glance.



If you're wondering what's up with the screenshots being a bit out of place, it's because I took enough screenshots to fill 5 minutes out of 8.5 and I didn't have any other ideas of shots to take without spending a couple hours with the game.


If you want to learn more about Dwarf Fortress check out it's website:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

and it's wiki:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

If your interested in playing or learning to play, check out the Lazy Newb Pack which comes with tilesets to make the game more graphic friendly and utilities to make Dwarf Fortress more user friendly. It helped me get into the game.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0

Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together First Fifteen Minutes

I play Tactic Ogre Let Us Cling Together for fifteen Minutes.... I fail at talking, I take a quiz, I answer my cell phone, and I learned to walk. 


I also play the tutorial battle where everyone talks casually about items and how to walk, as they kill people... oh and I get to throw rocks at the enemy!

PSP Video Test Persona 3 Portable

If the video feels like it just stops its because I had to chop off the last minute because of youtube limits... which doesn't matter because Like I said in the video this is a test to see if I can record PSP games with my Hauppauge HD PVR... and I think its was a successful test (other than me failing at talking at some points) but you can give your opinions if you want. I'll be getting Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together for the psp Tuesday and I'll be doing a first 15 minutes video for it (hence the test) so check back for that.

P.S. I'm still doing that top 10 of 2010, I got the list down already but I suck at writing...

My New Year's Resolutions

Honestly this should have been posted yesterday or Friday but I didn't think about it till today. I'm not sure if anyone will see this but hell if i don't follow through on these I can at least feel bad each time I come to the blog.

• I'm going to post more often with reviews and opinion articles on current gaming news.
• I'm going to try to stop writing "gonna" because apparently my computer is trying to tell me it's not a real word.
• I will try to start using my video equipment to do more videos. (maybe video reviews, or me playing a demo/first 15 minutes of a game and try to be entertaining.)
• I want to learn how to play Dwarf Fortress effectively. (I got most of the basics down but the military aspect eludes me.) 
• And lastly I want to give other video game genres I've usually would just avoid a chance. (mostly fighting, and racing games.)  

Anyway my next post which will be about my top ten games for 2010 should be up by tomorrow or Tuesday.

--Thanks for reading.

Old Cole Vs. Old New Cole Vs. New Old Cole

Old Cole was bland but at least he looked like a badass.



Old New Cole may look like an asshole but at least he doesn't look like the zombie the original was.



Initially I was annoyed by the change but eventually got over it and realized they don't look 100% different. Old New Cole could kind of pass as a happier "I have powers and you don't" Cole...with hair.



New Old Cole...Yay!!!!!?????



When I first saw the newest iteration I was ecstatic. The more I thought about it, the more I hated it. This new Cole doesn't really look as badass as the original. He doesn't look as boring but he also looks more like your average person...if that makes sense. In some screen shots the newest Cole looks sick almost diseased. Now even if the best of the screen shots is what he will look like through out come launch, I have one big problem. They didn't change back the voice. The voice of Cole in Infamous 2 doesn't really match the current character model in my opinion.



I loved the first Infamous and trust Sucker Punch will deliver an even better experience than the first. I guess I'll eventually get use to Cole's voice with his current look. Funny after all this I still have to get use to it. I mean was it really worth complaining about the original character, about the second iteration, and now the third, if in the end it still isn't quite right?