Sneak Peak - Skullgirls

With hand drawn animations, lively colors, and wicked characters, Skullgirls by Autumn Games shined brightly at their booth during PAX East 2010. Though only with two characters to play as during the demo, each character was amazing with their handling and personality.

Cereballa wears a hat that transforms into two muscular arms, providing this circus character with most of her moves. Filia, who is an schoolgirl with amnesia, is paired up with hair that has a ferocious appetite for battle. Both girls are quite different but their abilities for battle easily rival each other.

The minute details to the characters are amazing, from the simple reactions to getting hit to their reactions to defending, ducking, and jumping; every last item on their body is animated, and done with such fluidity, it causes this game to look amazing.

Though I didn't have much time to play the demo, I was impressed to see things like the characters and backgrounds in the style they were. Other little things like either going in with one strong character or tag teaming with two characters, custom assist moves, and shadowing of moves leave the audience wanting more and I can't wait to see this in full force later this year.

Infamous - Playing God

Everyone has thought of it, dreamed it even. Asked themselves that one question:

"What would I do if I had superpowers?"

Would you use your powers for good? Or for evil? Take care of everyone around, showing them that there is still hope for humanity? Or would you be selfish, take what you want, using your powers against anyone who stood in your way?

inFamous allows you to do just that. You take control of Cole McGrath, a bike messenger, who wakes up in the middle of a massive crater, ground zero of an explosion with a voice in his ear. Making it out to safety, you  find out that Empire City, Cole's city, is locked down because of the explosion; no one goes in or out. As the city starts to fall prey to gangs and violence, Cole wakes up from his coma, electricity sparking from his hand. Soon, the city discovers just what Cole has planned for them.

As the player progresses through the story, they're forced to make karmic choices, good or evil. While there are many things you can do between these choices that determine your side, these major ones have the most influence. Share the dropped food with everyone or scare them away and take it all for you and your friends?  Destroy an object, making sure no one will ever use it again, or use it, gaining more power than ever? These choices toss the karma meter into the blue (good) or red (evil). Depending on how far you sway to one side or the other effects how people react to you, be it they run up and cheer you on, or yell, cursing at you, tossing rocks in your direction.

Depending on which side you play, you'll see the greatest changes in not only Cole, but Zeke, his best friend, and Trishe, his girlfriend. Though being his best bud, Zeke tries his best to defend your actions while you're evil, and encourages you when you're good. Trish, on the other hand, has no qualms about letting you know how she feels, no matter if your halo is on straight or you've got horns peaking out of your forehead. (Note: You don't get either of those.)

To continue on the path of good, you'll be rewarded with ability enhancements that restore health and energy, siding with disabling your enemies by binding them with electricity to the ground, though the good side is not without its own destructive tricks for the enemies that need that extra fire power to be taken down for good. Evil feeds into the primal lust for devastation, transforming simple lightning grenades into a scatter shots of smaller ones, and turning your enemies into your own weapons: Killing an enemy with a headshot from your bolt causes that victim to explodes, fully charges of your powers, which can lead to other targets around them to become charges themselves and explode.

Side missions allow you to stock up on experience and be rewarded with blast shards, items that expand your energy bar, but also help persuade Cole to one side or the other. For each good side mission, there is an evil counterpart. Do you protect the rioters that are declaring their freedom from the gangs, or do you take them down because they're rioting against you? Do you get into the middle of a fire fight between the gangs and the police, helping the police out, or sit back and deal with whoever is left? Upon completing one mission, its opposite will be locked out. With certain upgrade requiring five, ten, and fifteen completed missions of one kind or the other, so bouncing between good and evil missions locks you out of the final upgrade for said abilities.

The controls are for the most part smooth, though you find that Cole will grab ledges that you didn't know exist, and completely ignore edges that are right in front of his nose. Luckily, these faults are few and far between, and are easily forgiven when the player becomes more familiar with the controls and learn how to recover from falls and tricks for getting around in case you did miss that ledge. The camera rarely becomes a problem unless you've got your back against a wall, then you're left looking at the back of Cole's head, or worse but extremely rare, inside. There are very, VERY, few bugs in the game, ranging from simple clipping problems with dead enemies to falling through the world. It is quite entertaining to watch Cole fall for about thirty seconds before "dying" and winding up at the local clinic.

Most don't notice but during the game, as you're attempting to restore power to the city, certain parts will be flooded with enemies. This is a little trick the game pulls on you to stop you from exploring too much, too fast. Without new and powerful abilities, making it past these massive roadblocks force you back on track and corral you back into the area that you're meant to be in. Due trust me when I say that  twenty or so Reapers come around a flat bed semi with a mini gun attached to it will make you back track, the whole time cursing and looking for the next power source to heal up from.

One awesome trait that really makes inFamous feel unique is that some of the major cutscenes are done in the style of a gritty, dark comic book. This adds to the whole "You are a superhero, this is your story" feel of the game. While regular rendered  cutscenes could have been used, I don't feel that it would have produced the same effect, the same feel, upon the player and they way the reacted to the game.

Though the story ends almost the same way no matter which side you pick, the "Aftermath" section of the game is first narrated by Cole before you're allowed to run around. Depending on your karmic influence, you truly see the final outcome of your character, be he a savior of the people or a ruthless dictator, each leaves a mark on the land.

The end of the game leaves a lot to be wondered about, and with sneak peaks of InFamous 2 already out, the gaming community can hope that they tie the two together well, hopefully including your ending karmic alignment from the first game.

Rundown:

Good: Awesome voice acting, comic book cutscenes, twists and drama, amazing variety of powers

Bad: Cole's obsession with not grabbing ledges

And the "You Get to Live" award goes to: Random girl shirt guy. During a fight with a group of Dustmen, a random guy dodged six bolts of lightning, each one of them having instantly killed him if they had hit. After the Dustmen were dead, I saw the guy run away. "No, you earn your right to live today."                                                                                  

Alan Wake - The Waking Nightmare

Nightmares can be interpreted as many things; warnings about the future, reflections of the past, visions from another life. The causes of them are many: Stress, a life changing event, simply little fears that trigger something in the back of our minds and when we go to sleep, they creep up and take hold of the dream world.

Now what if that nightmare, that twisted little dream, became real? Everything you feared lurked in the smallest shadows, and possibly in your own. Corrupting everything it touches, the darkness is its breeding ground, and your only salvation is small patches of light and the flashlight you clutch in your hand.

Welcome to Alan Wake's world.

A bestselling author with writers' block for two years and running, Alan's sleep has been plagued with nightmares, causing his wife Alice to worry about him. Convincing him all he needs is a vacation in the middle of nowhere, the couple makes their way to a small town named Bright Falls. It doesn't take long before things go haywire. The man they're renting a cabin from is nowhere to be found, instead a woman dressed in black meets them in the back of the local dinner, the lights there busted in the small hallway. Crows flock in large numbers around their place of rest once they get there, and soon his wife goes missing in the lake nearby. Diving into the water, he attempts to save her, only to lose consciousness.

He awakens at the wheel of his car, crashed over the edge of the road, his head bleeding and feeling extremely weak, ignorant to how he arrived there. Staggering away from the accident and into the woods, he finds the coversheet to a manuscript of a novel authored by himself with the title of the book he was once working on. At this point, completely dazed and confused, he continues on only to find more pages, each playing out as a sick prophet, forewarning him of dangers ahead, of the darkness that is slowly engulfing the town. Armed with the pages of the novel and a flashlight, Alan tumbles into a situation straight out of a horror movie.

Most games give you control over someone who is has abilities that a normal human don't have, but Alan Wake is just that, human. He can't run forever, has no special powers to fight the darkness, and a few hits with an axe will kill him. All of these, coupled with the human psyche, causes a sense of urgency and fear when playing, especially when you  are forced to go long times without any source of light save for your flashlight.

As a third person shooter, combat, while simple, can become quite hectic with multiple enemies. The basic formula is to expose the enemy to light until the darkness breaks away from them then shoot them until dead. Easy, if you're simply fighting  one of them, even two tends not to be a problem. There are parts, though, where you have a handful of enemies  along with objects that have been possessed by the darkness flying around your head, determined to kill you. With Alan unable to run more than a hundred yards before nearly doubling over, trying to catch his breath, you're forced to pick which enemies to take out and which ones to run from, ducking incoming axes flung at your skull. Sometimes running isn't an option and the pistol and flashlight aren't enough. This is where flare guns, flares, and even more powerful weaponry comes into play, decimating the Taken, the victims controlled by the darkness, en mass.

Along with combat, the controls are, for the most part, smooth. Going from a fighting stance with gun and flashlight in hand, to needing to break away and run to the next safepoint, there's very little hitching or problems going from one to the other. When controlling a vehicle, each handles differently; the large SUV is poor at turning but has amazing ramming power while the station wagon is slow to pick up speed and is easily decimated on things like stumps and logs.

Alan comes in contact with a wide variety of characters, from the local radio voice to a pair of brothers who have taken on the names of the Norse gods, each person unique, standing out in the story when it's needed, and falling back when other characters are presented, or the story just doesn't call for them to be a focus at the time. Even when the character doesn't seem like an important person at that moment, they each play their part in the story, bringing something to the overall picture.

The game is presented in episodes, each ending with a cliffhanger, a preview of the next chapter, plus a song that goes along with the feel of that installment, and the following one recapping what happened. With this, the game takes on the feel of a short TV series and the player is driven to continue on, just to see what will happen next.

While the story overall is interesting and catches the player in its dark, sharp claws, pieces fall together a little quick about half way through the game before most of the plot twists and mysteries have been fully revealed. Though this might seem like a major problem, there are a few last minute turns that could not have been foreseen until they actually happen. Because of that, the game is worth completing, and with more manuscript pages able to be found on Nightmare mode, the story demands more attention than normal for those who wish to fill in those tiny gaps. Along with two more downloadable content episodes to go though, and an amazing soundtrack, the five year wait for the game is more than forgiven.

The Rundown:

Good: Thrilling story, diverse characters, and mood setting music

Bad: Attempting to duck a flying weapon at your head while Alan's exhausted from running does not work

And the "Not Your Smartest Move" Award goes to: Alan and his friend Barry for getting completely plastered on moonshine while the forest surround the house they're in is CRAWLING with Taken.

PAX East Picks Boston Indie Showcase Winners

At PAX East, three indie devs are setting up shop for all to see their work and to try out. You've got the following:

Blinding Silence (PC) – Team Uncertainty – A sound-based puzzle game as viewed through the ears of a blind man.  As a wave of darkness has fallen over the land, and as the light wanes, so too does free will.  Using the power of sound, the player must influence mindless drones in order to progress through obstacles, complete levels and return light to a land of darkness.

Smuggle Truck (PC, Mac, Web, iPhone, iPad) – Owlchemy Labs – Smuggle Truck is an over-the-top physics-based driving game where you smuggle your passengers across the border in the least amount of time. Tilt your truck, catch newborn babies, drive over armadillos, and rocket your way over hills, through caverns and over quicksand to save the people!

Snapshot (PC) – Retro Affect – What if a camera captured more than just an image?  In Snapshot, that’s exactly what Pic's camera does.  It actually absorbs objects into photographs, removing them from existence!  Paste one of your pictures back into the world and see all of your captured objects come tumbling out.  Capture even the most unusual objects: doors, light, even copies of yourself! Travel through five unique worlds, collect beautiful and elusive objects, and overcome the most challenging puzzles.

I'm personally going to keep an eye out for these three and get my hands on the demo if I can! All of you should too and see why these three were chosen to show at PAX East! A big win for the Indie world! 

On Hold

I've got two reviews almost done, with a possible third, but none will be posted until after PAX  East due to the fact that I wish to present unpublished reviews to potential employers. Thanks for sticking around! Updates about PAX East to come.

PAX East Confirmation!

I received a phone call from someone from PAX East's media department and was told that I was approved for a media pass! *queues cheers* I know the site has been a bit dry due to complications and my love/hate for Force Unleashed 2, but more should be rolling out, including LittleBigPlanet 2 which comes out January 18th!

See you there everyone!

Assassination never looked so good...

Spending the few extra bucks to grab the special edition of Assassin's Creed 2 was worth it: A 7 and change inch tall figure of Ezio, a small art book, a special "Behind the Scenes" , and all wrapped in a cute metal box with a close up on our hero's face. You can almost see the grin as he spots his next victim.

Assassin's Creed 2 takes place during the mid 1400's where you take hold of Ezio Auditoire de Firenze, a young, handsome man who seems to have been born to climb like his father, and his father before him. But I get ahead of myself here. The game starts with Desmond (You know, your poor modern day man who was kidnapped and put through hell in the first game?) and Lucy, breaking and fighting their way out of Abstergo, and Lucy is no slacker, taking on the guards with some serious ass kicking moves. You soon find out just exactly what Lucy has been up to and planning for apparently some time and quickly take control of Ezio who is thrown into a world of conspiracies and lies.

Between flowing battle moves and the ability to quickly break away and hide, only to strike from the shadows. AC2 clears up so many problems AC1 had, everything from being unable to swim (though now no one knows how to) to the flow of the game and free running. With so many ways to do battle, it's hard to get bored of it. First guard? Take him out with your hidden blade, alerting the others. Draw your sword and strike down another. See a weapon you like? Sheath your weapon and disarm him, yes, stealing his weapon only to use it against him in one swift strike.

Aside from dual assassination techniques and fun ways to take out unsuspecting guards and targets, the story will grab you within the first ten minutes as Ezio's world starts to swiftly change, from his family being accused of treason to him taking up the assassin's garb (Which is pretty hot this time around!) Ubisoft was nice enough to toss us a quick travel option to get between one side of the country to the other side so you don't spend ten minutes getting lost between missions though there are a few times where you must travel by horseback while going to a new city.

While exploring the world that is around you, there is a little side story that takes place inside the Animus where Ezio/Desmond is asked to find these apparently random and out of place symbols that are sprinkled throughout the different city. Before you can get the nitty gritty of what each symbol truly holds, you have to solve a handful of puzzles. The one thing that will captivate any player is the conspiracies that are brought forward but not fully into light, ranging from ancient Egypt to World War II. Each little piece leads to a much bigger picture, and that final picture is one of true awe.

Another new feature they've added was the ability to gain gold and buy supplies and new armor which gives a nice feel of realism to the game, though it does come to the point where you can't get hurt enough to spend all your gold, and you've bought every last heavy, blunt, sharp, and generally dangerous item in the land, so the only thing left is to parade around in every single color you can dye your armor (Which I really like.)

While AC2 worked out almost all the bugs that AC1 had, a few still remain. One problem I kept running into was directing my jumps while holding onto a ledge, specifically when I wanted to jump backwards. Turning the camera barely helped and it was even worse when the camera was stuck. This, sometimes, led to the horrific deaths of Ezio, though a few invoked a laugh or two due to the ragdoll game mechanics.

               

Overall, the game was well worth the wait and money, and the few flaws there are (mainly because my TV sucks) are easily overlooked.  With the sequels (#3 and Brotherhood) are also well anticipated, with Brotherhood coming out next month (November). Oh what fun is to  be had when assassins decide to play tag?

Rundown time:

Pros: Beautiful worlds, wonderful story line, colorful characters, combat is just tasty

Cons: The ground is still not your friend, controls seem to be nearly flawless but the flaws can cost you a life

Random thought: How do you say "Ouch" in Italian? Or how about "I don't know how to swim!"?

I call shotgun! (And I don't mean front seat passanger...)

Ah, the shotgun. Such a wonderful weapon that I abused the hell out of it in Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360 (It's for the PS3 too!) I used it so much, it's only second in use to the machine gun attached to the back of jeep. Now, before I continue, I am going to put up a public announcement/disclaimer:

I do NOT condone racism, hate crimes, and anything of similar nature; It makes me sick to know that there are people who hate other due to their race, gender, creed, sexuality, or anything else that makes us different from one another. If you believe that RE5 supports these kinds of actions, you, ma'am/sir/thing, are wrong and need to stop right here and now. No one complained about a blonde haired, blue eyed American shooting Spanish people, I'm sorry, zombies, in Resident Evil 4, did you? No. The whole controversy surrounding RE5 is nothing more than a chance to play the race card in an attempt to reap crops from dried, barren grounds.

Now with that out the way....

-----

Thanks to my brother, this beauty landed in my hands the day after it came out and even got all the little goodies that came with the collector's edition. (He knows I love little extras like art books, soundtracks, and "making of" videos) Took me less than 7 hours to beat it the first time and gods, I was a wuss: Creeping every step, spazzing when those damn dogs came around. Oh yeah, love it. Creepy factor through the roof makes this gamer happy.

RE5 is the latest of the RE series (Biohazard in Japan) and the last of this story line. In it, you play as Chris Redfield who is set to Africa to deal with a rash of B.O.W (Bio-Organic Weapon) reports and other nasties. There, he is quickly paired up with Sheva Alomar and together, they start their investigation in the small town they're in. Things heat up quickly when they find out that the town had been infected and the killing starts.

There is so much yum in this game to the point where the downpoints are nothing more than a cavity to the sweetness that is this game. Let's start with the graphic: The world is fleshed out with such detail that you sometimes catch yourself stopping and admiring what's around (Just don't do this while there's a horde of zombies after you). From the ripples in the water to the spit that flies from the zombies to the shack that you just blew up, it's all so well crafted that I recommend going through the game at a slower pace later on to actually see everything.

The voice acting is nearly flawless. Save for a few corny lines or a statement that illicit the words, "Thank you for that observation, Captain Obvious..." from me, Capcom did a great job picking the voice actors for RE5. (You can read more about who's who at the IMDb). Couple that with great model design and motion caption for both the body and face, the characters are vivid and have depth to them.

There are a few old friends who come back and say "Hi!" from previous RE games, including this beauty right here. That's right, that's the RE2 B.O.W codename "Licker" and he's coming back for seconds in RE5 but in a much more gruesome, loveable way. Not to mention the fat hispanic chainsaw dude from RE4 who went down with a few shows? Oh, he's got a cousin in here who just loves to eat lead and smile while you're pulling that trigger. Not to spoil anything big, but you ever see a scene in a movie or a game from another movie or game and you get the chills because your brain goes, "Holy hell! It's happening again!"? Oh yeah, you'll get that feeling at least once.

Also, along side with the monsters chasing you is the soundtrack. Ah, that spine tapping music, but get this! The music only starts when there are nasties around. Nice warning, huh? "Oh la la la, I'm skipping through the woods, on my way to Grandmother's -" *creepy music kicks in* "Um... I'm just going to skip a little bit faster..." The music doesn't stop until everything is dead in the nearby area which can rattle you just a bit because depending on how far that last baddie is from you in that area, the music will be really, really low.

The camera is that wonderful 3rd person, over the shoulder view from RE4, and depending on who you play, either Chris or Sheva, you get two kinds of perspective. Since Sheva is left-handed, if you're used to playing as Chris, your aim will probably suck as her and vise versa. (I personally learned this the hard way on Mercenaries Mode.)

The controls have different settings and depending on how you like to play, there should be a setting that you like. I, myself, used the default (Type A) which is identical to RE4's default controls while my friend plays with one of the settings where it allows you to strafe. This is best for him since he plays a lot of first person shooters (FPS) and it keeps that same feeling while he blows the head off of a zombie or two.

The one complaint most people have with RE5 is that it's not really a Survival-Horror game anymore. I blink a few times before I go and pull this little tidbit from Wiki:

Survival horror is a video game genre inspired by horror films in which the player's primary objective is to survive and/or escape a threat typical of horror fiction, usually zombies or supernatural beings of some sort. The genre makes liberal use of both Western and Japanese horror film elements. The term "survival horror" was first used for the original Japanese release of Resident Evil (1996), although several earlier games, namely Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark, pioneered most of the conventions commonly associated with this genre. The term has since been used to describe games of a similar nature, including some that were released before Resident Evil. Although the genre is largely defined by the conventions of horror fiction, survival horror games involve gameplay that emphasizes vulnerability and a lack of preparation.

Huh... Well, would you look at that. Now let's go down the list:

• Are we trying to survive and/or escape some kind of threat? Yup.
• Is that threat a zombie or supernatural being of some sort? Double yup.
• Are we vulnerable in this game, ie: No god mode? Triple yup.

So for those who say, "zomg re5 isnt like teh others lol", please go play Hello Kitty Adventure Island and leave us to play this wonderful piece of work in the dark... home alone... at 3 am... in the middle of the woods.

Overall, this game was well worth the wait and all the hype that followed it. Not only did it meet and exceed my expectations from an RE game, it beat what I expected from a game period. If you can, snag the Special Edition for the little extras. If not... Well, go get the game and play! What are you waiting for?

Let's do the run down:

Grade: A-
Pros: Nearly flawless everything: Voice acting, graphics, story, everything!
Cons: Um.... Zombies?
Overkill Much?: As of today, I have shot the rocket launcher 317 times. I have killed 362 enemies.

Battle of the MMORPGs

Figuring out which is better: Final Fantasy XI (PC, PS2. Xbox 360) or World of Warcraft (PC, Mac)?

Before I continue, someone out there is going, “Why not Everquest or Lord of the Rings Online?” Why you ask? Because FFXI and WoW are the two MMORPGs I have personally played and at always in the top 5 MMOs. Plus you never hear anyone say, “LotR Online is better than FFXI/WoW!”. And if you do, you should slap them. Repeatedly. With a large blunt object.

Anyway, we’ll break it down by what each game has to offer.

—Costs—

Both games are Pay-to-Play games due to the size of each of them yet each offers something different while paying.

-WoW-

WoW offers three types of subscriptions: $14.99 (USD) for 1 month, $41.97 ($13.99/month) for 3 months, or $77.94 ($12.99/month) for 6 month, accepting Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express debit or credit cards, PayPal, and can even bill it to your home phone. For those with only cash in your wallet, you can buy a “Game Card” that has a specific amount of playtime on it. This also allows parents to control how long they want little Junior or Susie playing (along with the Parental Control feature, but that will come along later.) What does this give access to?

1. Over 200 servers (or Realms as Blizzard puts it) for the North American players, and more being added when needed, with the ability of having 10 characters on each server. They also have servers for Europe, China, and Korea.
2. A world that old school Warcraft players will recognize, with NPCs like Thrall (Horde) and Tyrande Whisperwind (Alliance), and the aftermath of the war on different cities like the Ruins of Lordaeron and Strathholme, both devastated by the Scourge.
3. A wide variety of challenges the will test solo players and groups alike, from simple “go-for” quests to taking down legions of monsters.

And much more. There’s a little something for everyone.

-FFXI-

Square made it simple when it came to the payment plan. It is $12.99 for the account to Playonline and 1 character. Each additional character costs $1. They accept Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, and you’ll be charged the 1st or 2nd of the month, depending on if it is a business day. Simply? Though so. So what does this get you?

1. 33 active servers, 32 open to the public while the last one used by Game Masters (GMs) and approved testers, with a total of 16 characters across all the servers. (If you need 16 characters, there’s a problem.)
2. A beautiful, (sometimes seems a bit too large) world of cities, dungeons, and open areas that form a massive enviroment that will sometimes sidetrack you from what you were originally doing.
3. Several large story lines that each have their twists and turns, and all connecting together in the end.

And once again, a lot more.

—Characters and Classes—

-WoW-

World of Warcraft offers a total of 10 races, 5 for each side, with 9 total classes. While this seems great, certain races do not have access to certain classes, like Blood Elves on the Horde side are the only ones allowed to become Paladins and Dwarves on the Alliance side don’t have access to the major spellcasting classes except Priests. Once you pick a Faction (Alliance or Horde), a race, and a class, you cannot change them unless you delete the character. This tends to cause a lot of problems especially when a group is missing a healer or a tank.

-FFXI-

Final Fantasy offers 5 races and a total of 20 jobs, 6 beginner classes, and 14 more you unlock through quests. All races have access to all the jobs though some tend to be better at others; ie. Tarutarus make better mages due to their high intelligence and MP while Mithra are better Thieves due to their high evasion and dexterity. While this might seems like a hassle, the game allows players to change jobs back and forth when they need to. This tends to help when someone has multiple jobs leveled and a certain niche in a party needs to be filled. The game also allows for a “subjob” to be used, allowing players to adapt to different situations better.

—Quests, Missions, and Group Activities—

-WoW-

Due to the way the game is run, a lot of quests can be soloed at higher levels, though for “raids” and dungeons, a party (5 people max) is always required. The group also tends to be balanced: a tank (someone to take the hits) DPS (damage per second - your standard melees or offensive casters) and your healer(s). Also, due to the variety of the game, replacing an unwanted person in your group tends to be easy, unless it’s the tank, then sometimes, you just have to deal with it.

-FFXI-

This is where a player can truly see the mindset of the Japanese culture. Unless you are extremely skill, damn lucky, or have a lot of patience, you will need a party (6 people max) almost everything in the game. The game focuses on teamwork and if one person screws up, the party tends to follow. Once again, there is a wide variety to create a party, depending on what the situation is, though it tends to follow the typical tank, dps, and healer. At higher levels, many roles change where the tank is also a dps and vise versa.

—Other things besides killing—

-WoW-

So what does someone do besides kill things? Craft, fish, and /dance on top of the local mailbox. The profession system in WoW allows you to pick two main professions out of 11 and dabble in all three secondary professions (Cooking, First Aid, and Fishing). The system also allows you to learn and obtain new recipes for your craft and through a color coding system, you can see which item you craft will have a high or low chance of skilling you up to a higher level. Being able to also see what materials are need it handy too, instead of sitting there and either memorizing what you need or looking it up every time you need it.

Also, while in the major cities, you will find people who will be looking for someone to craft this or make that, so keep an eye open for someone who is willing to crank out a few gold for a few seconds of your time.

-FFXI-

In Final Fantasy XI, there are 9 crafts that you can take up. Yes, you can do all 9, but with limits. To quote from FFXIclopedia:

“After you hit level 60, you get 40 levels to distribute among the other crafts you also have above level 60. Meaning you can get every single craft up to 60 without any issues, but post 60 you have 40 levels to distribute.

The only exception to this rule is Fishing. You can level Fishing to 100, all the rest of the crafts to 60, and still have the 40 points left to distribute as you want.

If you raise a craft skill past 60, after already having 40 levels distributed to other crafts above 60, the level of the crafts already above 60 will decrease.

In other words, other than fishing, you can get one other craft to 100 while the other crafts will default to 60.”

The crafting system tends to be a bit more realistic and a bit more harsh here. Each “synthesis” requires a crystal of a specific element and up to 8 materials and there is a chance of your failing the synth, which can lead to you losing just the crystal or all of your materials. There is some light out of all of this. Depending on your skill, you have a chance to make a “high quality” version of the synthesis. This can mean a “+1+ version of the item, making is better than its normal version, or more of the item; instead of 2, maybe 4 or even 6. Overall, a high quality synthesis tends to lead to money.

Once again, there are people who will require someone to synth an item for them. But beware: take on a synth too high and lose the person’s materials and be prepared to compensate them.

—Back to the killing—

-WoW-

If anyone knows the Warcraft games, there is always conflict around the corner. WoW offers plays a chance to beat the ever living (or unliving if your undead) crap out of each other in PvP (Player vs Player). Depending if you’re on a PvP server, this can be controlled by turning off your PvP flag. This will stop opposing faction members from acting you. Though if you are on a PvP server, once you leave the safety of a controlled area, you’re fair game. Even if you leave “contested” territory (that’s the areas no one controls) your PvP flag will still be active for a few minutes. During that time, a group of enemies can camp you like it was Woodstock ‘69 all over again. (Don’t get the reference? Follow the white dove.) As long as you’re on a non-PvP server, you will never have to kill (or be killed) by another player.

WoW also offers “Battlegrounds” to players which ranges from “Capture the Flag” to “I’ve got more land than you! Ha ha!“. Some people play for fun, most take them seriously and tend to forget that it’s a game.

-FFXI-

In the world of Vana’diel, PvP is controlled by events known as “Conflict”. This is broken down to three different kinds; Ballista, Brenner, and Diorama Abdhaljs-Ghelsba. Each involves PvP, though Brenner tends to be more strategic than its siblings which are basically “beat the crap out of each other” though Ballista has a scoring system also included.

Due to the way these games are run, very few get serious and almost always tend to be laid back and relax. Though it tends to be serious when someone /shouts “I’ll meet you in Ballista.”, then it’s a matter of someone’s ego getting inflated and their head getting big. Ballista, or rather Diorama Abdhaljs-Ghelsb (since it’s the relax version of Ballista) is also a great way to have some fun with friends and test new idea for job/subjob combinations and equipment checks.

—Community—

-WoW-

Oh, this is where it gets fun. Due to the simplicity of WoW, children (people under the age of 17) flood the chat with infantile remarks and love to /yell obscene comments. Beyond that, there is a slightly more mature group the keeps the IQ average above 100.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system….

The community of WoW tends to be made up of a younger generation of gamers, the ones born after 1990, just after the NES came out and their siblings raged through ever game possible. This tends causes some conflicts in chat between the small generation gap of old school gamers and “new school” gamers. The players are further broken down by the casual players and the hardcore players. At the top of the hardcore players are the self-proclaimed “elitists”, who (tend to think) they have the best gear and the best skills.

As for the social groups, WoW offers the option of making a guild to stay connected with friends or to form large groups of allies fast. Unfortunately, you’re only able to have one guild at a time so switching between a PvP group and a PvE (Player vs Environment; ie dungeons and large bosses) is nearly impossible unless your guild does both.

-FFXI-

Not to say FFXI isn’t without it’s immature rug rats running around with Mommy’s credit card, invading the chat with nonsense, but due to FFXI being more complicated than WoW, it tends to draw in an older crowd. That doesn’t mean some of them act like they’re going through puberty.

Once again, the game breaks down into the casual player who goes through the story line or just likes to level, and the hardcore players who spend every moment they can killing the largest monster, getting the best gear, and just love racking up the /playtime counter. These are further broken down to the self-proclaimed elitists once again, though many only have the gear and no skill. There are a few who don’t have the greatest gear (these tend to be item-whores: someone tries to every piece of gear they want no matter how they get it) but their skill more than makes up for the lack of extra stats and an ever smaller number of the former never claim to be elitists, though in many peoples eyes, they are, in a good.

Due to the fact that there is so much to do in FFXI, find a group to hang with isn’t hard. Social and event groups are formed into what is called a Linkshell. This allows people to communicate with each other in mass numbers. Also, because of the fact that there is so much to due, it’s not unusual to find yourself with one or more LS pearls (pearls are the basic form of Linkshells), one for social, another for monster hunts, and so on.

—Time—

-WoW-

To simply put it, you do not have to put in a lot of game time to get anything done. You can log into the game and get ten things done within 30 minutes. The longest duration you might spend on just one thing is about 5+ hours on the final raid which takes 25 people to do. That's if there isn't any problems with people leaving or continuous deaths on a certain boss.

-FFXI-

Once again, this is simple. FFXI takes a long time to get things done. Even if you want to level a job, you’ll need about 3 hours: 1 hour looking for a group, another hour leveling, and the last hour looking for a replacement for you. Sure, there are things that don’t take that long but because of the fact that almost everything is group oriented, finding a group could and will take a while. So throw up your “Looking for Party” flag, grab your Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, and prepare to wait.

—Additional Features—

-WoW-

WoW allows players to customize their gameplay with Addons. These help players keep track of damage, allows them to make notes on the maps and about other players, and mixes up the game a bit. Blizzard allows these because they offer their own for use and there is no penalty using them until a new patch comes out and “breaks” or makes an Addon useless or acts oddly.

WoW also offers Parental Controls to parents who want to limit how long the little ones are playing. This is a great feature, especially when little Johnny has a computer in their room. All a parent has to do is log into the account though the main website (not the game itself) and set it how they want.

A player can also change realms and their name for a price, $25 for the move and $10 for a new name per character. Personally, both are a little over the top, so pick your name and home well unless you want to start forking out more money because you couldn’t spell.

-FFXI-

Square is a bit of a… ahem… stick in the mud about this. If you are caught using and addons or modifications (or mods for short), it’ll lead to a temporary ban, usually three days. After that, if your caught again, then say goodbye. Square throws the proverbial book at you and bans your account permanently.

After some fuss, Square introduced an option to allow the player to run the game in a “window” form, letting players look back and forth between the game and a guide, making it a bit better. The legal “windower” doesn’t have any support for player made addons, so even though it’s available, may don't use it.

FFXI also offers a server change for the price of $25, but you can move one or all your characters to a new home. There is no renaming processes, Drtynsoreknees (Yes, I have seen this name on my server….) so get use to the cat calls and lewd remarks.

—Overall—

WoW is great for someone who is looking for an easy game to come back to every so often, something they can pick up, play for a bit, then forget about it for a few days. New school gamers tend to be attracted to WoW because of that. FFXI, on the other hand, takes time a dedication to actually get somewhere and this appeals to old school gamers who were used to a real challenge. Both are great games with their perks and downfalls:

1. FFXI is time consuming and tends to be more of a challenge while some find WoW too easy.
2. Making money in WoW is too easy while FFXI, it’s a pain to make a single coin.
3. There’s so much variety in FFXI or too little in WoW
4. Many classes in WoW are unbalanced while there are too many jobs for FFXI.

And the list goes on. Neither game is perfect yet both are great depending on the player. And may the gaming community be helped if Square and Blizzard ever collaborated to make the “perfect” MMORPG: FFXI class balancing, WoW’s crafting and experience scaling up as you level, and the beautiful world both have to offer. That, my fellow gamers, would be the end to all MMORPGs for it would be, fearfully, perfect.