The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So I just got done playing like 3, 4 hours of Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer with the Talking Tyrants (I even used the little Clan Tag feature to put a little [TT] in front of my name, so our little sortabutnotreally clan is cool like all the cool kids online) and holy crap, man, that be some good gameplay.
The multiplayer has a lot of modes… your basic deathmatches which are awesome enough, for example… the class system makes them more interesting than normal, because you’re sort of playing your chosen guy. There’s a mode grabbed straight from Counterstrike which I actually ended up enjoying more than I thought… we were playing it in this 3v3 mode with a whole team of Tyrants against random people, and it was a really good time. We used teamwork and shit… and there’s this mode called Headquarters where you fight to capture this point… then the team that captured the point gets their spawns turned off, and has to hold it as long as possible, scoring points based on the time they hold it. Once it’s destroyed, it’s a scramble to the new point… and then there’s Old School mode, where everyone starts with a shitty gun and there’s guns and powerups spread all over the map… it’s a weird mix. But there is definitely plenty of variety in the multiplayer, more than I expected, and that’s a good thing, seeing as that’s most of the reason why I bought the game.
I tried to explain why I just like the Call of Duty feel to multiplayer shooters better previously in this post, and I think it still is fairly accurate. When you’re calm and skillful you win. When you’re not “on,” you die immediately so you can try again. There is no pointless constant struggle like you get in Halo. All the guns feel powerful. It’s great.
Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer is great.

As far as the Single Player goes, it’s pretty nice. I had a lot of fun playing through it, and although I didn’t pay much attention it seemed to have a pretty solid plot, too, which was neat. It is really painfully scripted, though, and it punishes you for playing it safe… there was a point in the game where I stayed back and sniped from this building… I’d clear the whole area… there’d be nobody… it was like everything was paused… my friends wouldn’t advance, everything just stopped… and when I walked out of the building, it was like someone pressed play. All the NPCs started moving and acting again, and a new wave of enemies appeared. It was weird… when it works, it works really well, but moments like that break the illusion.
Apparently Gabe doesn’t like the game because you can’t blind fire, and although I sorta get his point about it being a step backwards, do not let his words dissuade you! The game is good! Very good! Yes! Very good shooter! Having to step in front of a door to throw a grenade is not too bad when you have the healing powers of heavy breathing at your side.

Anyway, if you couldn’t tell, I’m really happy with my Call of Duty 4 purchase. If you’re on the 360 and want to play, definitely let me know.
I still need to talk about Rune Factory, but I want to get a little deeper into it first. I haven’t done TOO much that I wouldn’t do in a normal Harvest Moon game yet… what else do I need to say… um… I guess that’s it.

So, before I say anything else, here is a quick retelling of some lines from Phoenix Wright 3 that made me laugh out loud for longer than was really necessary.

Godot: Well, you know what they say. A cornered fox is fiercer than a jackal.
Phoenix: No, a cornered fox is just scared and confused!
Godot: I tire of your animal metaphors, Trite.

Seriously. Laughed so stupidly hard.
Anyway, I beat Phoenix Wright 3 is pretty great… if you liked the other two. Seriously, there’s no way to jump in the middle. From what I’m hearing, even though Apollo Justice starts a new main character, it’s so entrenched in Phoenix Wright backstory that you’re still going to be lost if you haven’t played all of them up to that point…. which I don’t mind, but again, makes it hard for newcomers. Because of this, there really shouldn’t be a tutorial case in the game, but there was… at least it was interesting, though, and very plot-relevant. The fifth case pulled out all the stops to give Phoenix a great send off, though honestly, I felt like the fourth case in Justice For All was a lot stronger and more emotional. Anyway, reviewing this game is kinda silly. If you’re following the silly lawyer anime turned game, you’ve already bought it or are going to buy it. If you’re not following it, there’s not a lot for you here, and if you want to get started, go find the first Phoenix Wright.

Anyway, I might blog again later about Call of Duty 4, but for now, let me leave you with a picture of the perfect Japanese object of sexual desire. Man, those wacky Japanese. Way to go, NHK. Perfectly executed.

Okay, so I couldn’t resist, because it was 10 dollars. Could you have? It should have been 10 dollars originally. I can’t believe they were trying to sell this for 60 bucks… this would have been an incredibly kickass XBLA game, for example…
Oh, what game am I talking about? WARTECH: Sendo No Ronde.
Anyway, if Bullet Hell Schmups and Fighting games had a child, this would be the game made. It’s… incredibly interesting. I can easily picture fans of Schmups really liking the game… each character has various patterns that they shoot out that I’m sure someone who was actually good at Schmups would be able to dodge, but I just spin around and get hit a lot… you also have this shield you can put up to halve your damage to bullets you can’t dodge that I always forget to use… oh, and you can transform into B.O.S.S. mode, where you basically get to become a Schmup boss for a few seconds and spew all kinds of crap everywhere… but if someone is actually good they can deal a ton of damage to you like that, too, because you can be attacked like a Schmup boss…
Anyway, I feel like I lack the vocabulary to properly describe this game because I rarely play games from one half of its formula. It sort of feels like Zone of the Enders multiplayer from a top down perspective… in that you have these close and long range attacks for each button, so you can try to rush in and melee or use your various bullet patterns to whittle them down…
It’s… it’s kinda neat. And they’re selling it for 10 bucks at every EBStop… and it’s totally worth that, and comes with some fairly easy achievements… like a whole set of achievements just for leaving the 360 on for like 100 hours or something… though that’s a RROD waiting to happen. Heh. But yeah, I could see someone who plays a lot of Schmups and who wants to challenge other Schmup fans on something other than score picking this thing up and loving it a lot… which probably means it was really fucking popular in Japan, because they’re crazy about such things…
Me, though, I’ll stick to dicking around in it on Very Easy for the achievements… the fact that the final bosses can still kill me on Very Easy shows you how much this game is not for me… oh well.
Call of Duty 4 tomorrow. Wheeeeeee!

You’ve all heard of Gunkata… but have you heard of… Gymkata? It is the ultimate martial art. Seriously.

So the makers of Kingdom of Loathing, my beloved browser game, pointed me towards a game that a KoL fan is making in a similar style and that all of the KoL people were beta-testing… it’s called Twilight Heroes. It’s pretty awesome, actually, although it’s still in beta, so there are things like… missing picture and such. Also, there’s no huge wiki of everything you’d possibly need to know about it out there. Some might consider that a benefit… I admit it’s a different sort of experience, not knowing exactly what to do all the time… at least I’ve been able to figure everything out… the thing is, though, if it ever gets into KoL-levels of puzzlage I’m going to really want a walkthrough or hints or something… some of those KoL puzzles I would have NEVER figured the fuck out without looking at things…
However, I do have to say that the equipment makes me laugh… in KoL land, everything is ridiculous and drawn stick-figure-style, but in Twilight Heroes, most everything is modified photographs of things… which makes me think about my outfits realistically, which makes me giggle. I’m currently wearing a Flak Helmet, Skateboarder style kneepads, Skeptic Sandals, a Leather Jacket, a speedo, and carrying a beanbag gun and a riot shield. Just putting that image into my mind… man, I’m a completely bad-ass looking super hero, aren’t I?
Anyway, if you want something else to play while at work or while you only have a computer or something, you could do a lot worse than Twilight Heroes. I’m poetfox on there, of course, and I’m an Elementalist… if you want my weird Air Shield buff, let me know, I can totally hook you up.

Now I’ll just have to check out Cthulhu Nation sometime… although from everything I’ve heard about that, it’s extra super completely confusing… definitely going to have to find a help resource before I pick that one up.

Essner let me have the two The Go! Team albums… and they’re kinda nice, but I’m liking them less than I thought I would. They’re good music, and nice to just put on in the background, but they have less that really grab a hold of me and thrill me than I thought they would. Hm… oh well. I’m just really stupidly picky on music… as future Listening Time entries will show (there was actually a positive reception to all that liveblog rambling I did for Nich’s CD, so I’ll probably do it for every one I come across. Just a warning.)

Okay, I have some things to talk about… one of them I’m debating writing for an essay for Deadpan… but I dunno how far it would go… then again he wants short essays… hm… I guess I’ll hold onto it awhile longer and see if I can write it up over the weekend or whatnot. I dunno what kind of thoughts about life I’d come up with about it, but it seems like there’s room for interestingness.

In any case, though, I wanted to talk about what I’ve been doing, which has mostly been a big bunch of nothing, but I did spend the 800 Microsoft Funbucks left on my gamertag to buy Eets: Chowdown. When it came out, I was interested, but I didn’t have any points and it wasn’t worth a trip out to buy a point card, so I never picked it up. (I wonder what will happen when I get around to the downloadable campaigns for Band of Bugs… they’re at a decent price, but downloading them will kill my 0 balance game on Microsoft points… I wonder what stupid crap I’ll buy then…) But during random bootings of Steam for the playing of Team Fortress 2, the little ad for the PC version kept tempting me, and I decided if I was going to buy it, I might as well get some achievement points out of it (since the price was the same) and so I downloaded the demo, tried it again to make sure my memory wasn’t wrong (it wasn’t) and bought it. (Although I look at the website now and apparently the PC version lets you make your own puzzles? But oh well, I honestly wouldn’t have used that much anyway. I doubt anyone else has the game for me to share stupid puzzles with.)
Anyway, the website is pretty clear on what it is. It’s sort of like Lemmings, in that you have this cute guy that you can’t directly control that you need to get to a goal. (in this game, it’s a puzzle piece.) You do this by using these little items you set up ahead of time (some are pre-set) to take out obstacles as well as affect the cute Eets guy’s mood to either Happy, Angry, or Scared. If Eets is scared, he won’t jump off of ledges, and will turn around when he encounters them. Happy Eets will jump when he gets to a ledge a short distance, but will turn around at any barriers. Angry Eets will jump much farther, and will bite and destroy certain barriers that get in his way. So you use that as well as an increasing number of little doodads that you can place on the maps… you have to activate most of them, though… it maps them to a button on the 360, so there’s an element of having to time everything instead of just setting it all up beforehand and letting it go. You get awards for using less tools than it gives you as well as running the levels below a par time. (depending on how you solve the levels, Eets could end up walking for a long while, leaving the running time from start to finish longer than the par… you have as much time as you’d like to set it up)
In any case, it’s a nice, relaxing little game. I enjoy it… I think I’m about a fourth to a third of the way through the puzzles, which is nice. It has a good number in there… and the achievements require you to play without requiring you to do stupid impossibly hard tasks, for the most part, which I appreciate. I like those sorts better. In any case, it’s probably worth your 10 dollars, if you’re into that kind of game play experience. It’s great to play while listening to podcasts…

In fact, I think I’ll get to that. My feet are still hurting like crazy from last night at work, I need to do some serious relaxing.

So, a lot of games i could talk about, but I think I’m going to talk about Team Fortress 2. Brer’s constant hinting and suggesting I not get it on the 360, combined with the 15 dollar price difference, made me get it on the PC… I prepurchased, and I could play Team Fortress 2 right now, so I have been. Short version: It’s pretty neat team mulitplayer action.
It runs well in a window, which is always a plus, though I should have expected it from Valve, who makes some of the more window-friendly games I’ve ever played. It’s really quite intense, and all the various classes do play differently, so I think they succeeded there. I’ve tried to give every class a fair shake (well, except Spy. I’m never sneaky. I’m never going to be effective as a Spy) and tried very hard to find someone to play that was not pure support. I don’t know why, I just felt like I’d rather be bad ass for once… however, it was not meant to be. I’m most effective as the Medic, which is what I would have guessed, and I make a decent Engineer and Heavy when the team I’m playing with needs someone to fill those spots… pretty well exactly what my niche was in Dystopia, only obviously a bit different… I keep wanting to be a Sniper, not because I’m any good at sniping, but because their secondary weapon is an SMG of sorts… I always tend to use guns like that, but there’s no class that uses that sort of weapon exclusively. (The Medic also has an SMG-like weapon in their Syringe Gun, but if you’re using that instead of your Medi-gun most of the time, you’re doing it wrong.) Granted, I think part of the reason is that those sorts of weapons take many shots to kill, of course, and if you attack someone like that you are almost definitely going to get a rocket to the head in this game. You need something to protect you if you’re using a weapon that needs multiple shots to kill, whether that be the Scout’s speed or the Heavy’s intense Hit-pointage…
Anyway, it’s a damn good game in that multiplayer shooter vein. It’s not going to dethrone Halo on the 360, but that’s a shame because it’s every bit as fun and a bit more varied, with all the classes and shite. Hopefully Brer and I will play it together more than a few times… though these last games I’ve played have been filled with lag, I don’t know if it’s my machine not being able to process the huge crazy-ass choke points I was involved in, or what… I don’t think that’s it, because I lowered the resolution of the game, and the lag didn’t go away… (note to self, kick that back up next time you play) Also, I don’t remember that lag playing on Brer’s friend’s server the night before… it might have just been the random server I was on. Oh well.

Before I move to Zelda, I do want to comment on the Valve Communities. It’s a neat little almost XBL overlay that goes over their games where you can chat and voice chat with people while you play. It’s a fairly great implementation… except for the fact that, if you start a voice chat with someone, you can only talk to them while the overlay is up. This is completely retarded. The moment I saw this, I was looking forward to just pulling in Brer, or all the Talking Tyrants, and just Voice-chatting with them while we play Team Fortress. Instead, now I still have to open up Skype for that functionality. Live lets you do that (and doesn’t make you take an hour to set up a simple game with two people… which is why I’d rather play online on Live in general and why I don’t mind playing a little for online. (it should be less than it is, but a little fee is okay) It’s click, send invite, they’re in, off you go. It’s so low-hassle… but I’ll never convince Brer or PC people of that, probably, so I’ll just move on) and it’s a godsend. I want to talk like idiots to my friends, but I don’t even want to hear random assholes. I might not be co-ordinating with my whole team, but co-ordination between friends still helps the whole team win (Playing 3 or 4 player online Halo proves this. Just Spaeth and Jonathan and I co-ordinating on the couch helps the team along quite a bit.) Anyway, I’m saddened I still have to have another program running to get this on the PC. You’re so close, Valve! Just let me like… click a check box to bring the chat out into the game or something!

I’ve also been meaning to give some impressions of Phantom Hourglass. It’s obviously scaled back a bit to be accessable to Nintendo’s new market… I could really see someone who plays Planet Puzzle League or Elite Beat Agents being able to grasp it, though it’s probably still a bit beyond the reach of the All Brain Training section of the demographic… however, it’s still a pretty good Zelda. By the numbers, but it has Wind Waker charm and cuteness to help it along.
The controls are pretty good, actually. An hour or so and you’ll not have to worry about them anymore… it actually gives the game a kinda lazy feeling… I’ve sat down with the game, playing with just one hand (you can use your other hand for some menu shortcuts, if you want, but it’s not required) and just chillin’ and playing Zelda. It’s nice, actually, and a bit different feel that I remember from Zelda (Note: The last Zelda I played was The Minnish Cap several years ago on GBA) The only control issue I have is that sometimes it’s hard to select your items quickly… clicking in the corner works, but not in high combat situations where you’d want to throw your boomerang a lot, and I feel like the R button quick selection works incorrectly, because when you release the button it cancels what you’re doing, instead of making it happen. I have to lift the stylus to throw the boomerang after drawing a path, for example, and it feels more natural to me to just let go of the R button… but these are minor complaints. It doesn’t ruin the game.
The bosses I’ve been pretty happy with so far too. Though I agree with Parish in saying that Nintendo can only make like 2 bosses, at least they’ve done some creative things with the two screens that made me smile. Not going to spoil anything, but they worked well and made the boss feel a little different, even if, perhaps, they actually weren’t.
As per usual, though, with games like this, I’m annoyed that I can play dress up but I have to unlock all the pieces in difficult fashion. I wanna make my boat look neat WITHOUT pointless sidequesting! But oh well.
Anyway, if you’re a gamer with a DS, you shouldn’t let the stylus controls disuade you. You’re still getting a solid Zelda. So, you know, go play and enjoy. And name your hero Fritzen. Because that’s what he should be named.

Okay, okay, fine. Halo 3.

It’s a shooter and it’s pretty good. It’s obviously well-made. I’ve been skipping all of the plot, though, because I don’t really care… whenever someone talks to us, Jonathan and I yell “WE’VE GOT GUNS! WE WILL SHOOT YOU! VIOLENCE SOLVES EVERYTHING!” I think there’s a plot, though. People on Talking Time seem to be trying to dissect it. There are even Marathon-style terminals, apparently, with more plot. I haven’t found any, though.
In any case, I can’t imagine playing through it and being entertained without Co-op. It’s just that much more fun. I can’t wait to get into some sort of 4 player co-op game on Legendary and bring everyone down! Because I will.

The real reason I got the game, though, was for multiplayer. I’ve been having so much fun with the Talking Tyrants in Halo 2, I wanted not to miss out on a moment of it. Just last night, I jumped into a huge game of Forge that people were doing… the dicking around was beyond entertaining. I picked up Mr. Beatall in a tank and flew him around the level while he shot at people on the ground… it was fun, fun times. Just that alone seemed worth the price of admission. Add that to all the normal online matches I’m going to play, with great new variants I really enjoy like VIP, and it’s going to be worth the cash in the long run.
Oh, also, you can have up to four guests playing online with you, this time! So I can bring a full splitscreen worth of people into online matches. I expect to do this a lot. Spaeth and Jonathan and I have already played a fair share of Big Team Battle matches, and it was good times. Granted, it’s always better to have the full screen for these things, but the enjoyment of co-ordinating with people in the room with you can’t be beat.

Anyway, with the cool features that make it easy to pull screenshots out of Halo 3, I thought it prudent to reset up the image dump gallery I used to have… I think I’m using a different backend now, but that was just because it was so easy to set this up. (Fantastico is a great resource for people who are only partially knowledgeable about these things like me) I guess all my WoW screenies are lost to time, now, but oh well. No big deal. If I lose these, it won’t be a big deal either. But you can either click here or use the link on the top bar to go look at the gallery if you’d like, though. Yes, it’s ugly and default. I might change it sometime if I get the urge. But it’s mostly just a way to upload pictures and store them easily so I can link them other places with little hassle.

Well, guess I best be getting back to class… fun times… fun times…

Hey hey. New Deadpan. New crap of mine in the Deadpan. Specifically, the opening, a poem, and hey, I got a Greasy Spoon point! Score!

So let’s talk about Worms: Open Warfare 2 for the Nintendo DS.
It’s the best version of Worms I’ve played in a long time.
The Xbox Live version of Worms was pretty disappointing, overall. It’s still fun, but the lack of the wide variety of wacky weapons that the series is known for really hurt it. It was very bare-bones. Coming from that, Open Warfare is a joy. It doesn’t have quite the huge weapon set of Armageddon, but it is very sizable, and contains classic favorites that were completely left out of the XBLA version, such as the Holy Hand Grenade. It has “Hotseat” multiplayer, where you pass the DS between all your friends as you play, as well as Single-Cart multiplayer and, of course, Multi-cart multiplayer. It also has ranked online play over the Wi-Fi connection. I know this is just a list of features, but seriously, the Worms gameplay is classic and hasn’t changed much since the original. What you want are the robust set of features to make playing a great game customizable how you want and easy to get into. This does that, most definitely.
The only real complaints are that you sometimes feel you don’t know what exactly is going on, since Worms is really built more for a widescreen view, instead of the tall vertical view you get over the two screens of the DS. Add in playing Hotseat, where you don’t get to see your Worms exploding because the DS isn’t in your hand when it’s happening, and you can get a little confusing. Also, the lack of Napalm strikes, Molotov Cocktails, and Napalm Throwers is saddening. But there’s not much that can be done about that on the system. I assume all of those are technical limitations, which I can accept. I mean, this is a DS game that has a loading screen. It’s obviously pushing the hardware pretty hard.
In any case, if you like the “pass around between your friends because we’re bored” multiplayer of Advanced Wars and have played and enjoyed Worms (or, if you’re really old school, something like Scorched Earth) before, this is a really easy recommendation. If you don’t like playing Worms, this isn’t going to convert you, though.

Also, damn, I hadn’t seen the Concrete Donkey weapon before, but holy shit that’s overpowered. I was playing online (which you should do with me, if you pick up the game. Check out the new version of my Gaming Info page. It’s linked at the top, too, in that little bar) in a mode where I had infinite everything, and there was absolutely no reason not to use that every turn. It practically guaranteed a kill every time.

In other news, I keep thinking about writing more Role-Playing… finishing up the first story arc and getting it out there and seeing if people are interested in the adventures of Rebecca  “Tailrazor” Ai… but I dunno. I have such problems with focus in all things… we’ll see.