I don't know how many people here listen to podcasts or watch videocasts, but I just watched Co-Op from last week because I missed it and they take a seat and talk about multiplayer heavy FPS'. It's kind of insightful to see people talking about the two "worlds" of FPS', those being console and PC, and how they compare and what they do differently. Now, I've played both platforms for a long time so I know both sides, but sometimes a heated argument will come up about how FPS' preform on PC compared to console or the community of PC shooters compared to Live and some people just don't get what the other person is talking about. I think this lays it all out very well and it's a good watch. If you have a half hour to kill or are sitting at the computer and have some space to run a YouTube video, watch this.





(And yes, I posted two blogs close together. Blow me. Spur of the moment.)

If you've bough a DSi because it had slightly better hardware inside it, you've probably been disapointed since no one has actually taken advantage of this new stuff. DSiWare sucks pretty hard too. It seems like the DSi was a bit of a flopped idea, which is sad.

But now we have something totally awesome that compliments the DSi...



KORG DS-10 was a little music program for the DS that came, got talked about a bit, then went. It was sad because I thought it was very cool but could never get my hands on a copy. This was made by the music company KORG and it mimiced KORG MS-10 synthesizer alowing you to make all kinds of synth tunes.



KORG made another version called KORG DS-10+ which released in September in Japan. It came with enhanced features over the last version and some only for the DSi. XSEED took it upon themselves to publish this in the US and it comes out February 16.



I can't wait to get my hands on this. I always think DJing and mixing music and synth stuff like this is cool, but to get my hands on something simple like this that I can carry anywhere is exciting. To have something that takes advantage of the DSi is very cool as well.

This is just going to be some random thoughts on gaming I had at around 1am and decided to get down...

--

It kills my soul to see people think originality is a bad thing. On a forum I go to, someone posted a video for Gametrailers GotY pickings. Every console but the Wii was Modern Warfare 2. This obviously pissed people off, but then someone brought something else as equally enraging forth...

"Guys at least that was totally predictable, you should have seen the Gamespot awards, they were such bullshit. Demon's Souls beat Dragon Age for RPG of the year. Yeah, it was that bad."

Now, don't get me wrong here. Dragon Age is a fantastic game, but as far as gameplay goes it is nothing terribly new. Even the story follows BioWare's known four part premise. I'm not bashing it for that. Demon's Souls, on the other hand, gave us completely original ideas and one of the most talked about games of the year (for all the right reasons). Every person I know who has bothered to take a stab at it has come away saying "That was something." And Gamespot, the most well known video game site who I known for reviewing games under questionable standards, gives it their game of the year and that is a BAD thing?

Stop playing video games.


I need to play Uncharted 2 more. I've beaten the story mode and played some of the multiplayer, but not for more than an hour total. Tonight was FNF and we played Uncharted 2 and it was the most fun I've had playing a multiplayer video game in a long time. Not once was I yelling curses at the top of my lungs or slamming my desk in rage over some bullshit death. Uncharted 2 doesn't stop the fun at player versus player tho. Survival and the co-op missions are great. They already supported Uncharted 2 with a free update. I'm willing to pay for DLC additions. I don't often say that.

It also has Elsa's dream perks. When you reach highest rank there are perks you can buy (You buy perks with in game money you ear from matches.) that will put you at a disadvantage. Something like half health, more damage from melee attacks, half ammo. Pretty cool to see that.


Playing Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix makes me wish Street Fighter 4 was true 2D. Me and Yojimbo played a few matches and it was awesome fun. Now that I figured out charge characters (something I never understood for years) I like I think I played a pretty mean Guile. But every time I play Street Fighter 4 I think about STDH come to like the game's graphical style less and less. Yeah, people will probably remember it down the road, but I don't think it will age as well as something like STHD or BlazBlue. At some point people are going to look back and think "Man, Chun-Li looked really fucking weird in that game." Ya know, if they aren't already.

Despite my attempts at not to, I'll probably buy Super Street Fighter 4 too. I hope Dudly is in it, and I hope his gameplay is intact from Street Fighter III. I doubt it is because it was juggle heavy and the only person who uses juggles heavily in SF4 is Sakura, and we all know how well that worked out. (Hint: She's fucking terrible.)


This year, I will complete more games than last year. You can see me listed on the Dtoid Complete Game List 2009 (check out part 2!) with less than a dozen games beaten. That is not even a game a month. That is sad. So this year I'm aiming higher. Even if it's just one over. I'm starting with Torchlight.


I'm going to buy a Wii before the end of the month. Yeah, for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and some other things I missed like No More Heroes (even if it is coming in HD) and MadWorld (even if it was just alright). Yeah, that backlog I indirectly mentioned above is only going to get bigger.


Anyway, that's it. Happy New Year Dtoid.

This is the fifth time I've read this in two days.

Do you know what we call interactive movies?

VIDEO GAMES!

Just saw this over on the Cheap Ass Gamer forums. Atlus announced on their forums that the Demon's Souls Deluxe Edition is no longer in production. If you haven't found it yet, the extra $10 for the guide, art book, and soundtrack is totally worth it. Grab it while you can.

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http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4702

[i]IRVINE, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 19, 2009 -- Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today announced that additional stock of Demon's Souls™, the newly released award-winning action RPG for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, will be making its way to stores across North America this week in response to overwhelming demand.

"We're thrilled at the level of interest and acclaim gamers are showing for Demon's Souls, one of the best reviewed games of the year and one of the highest-rated role-playing games of all time," stated Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales for Atlus. "We're working quickly to get more copies of the game out onto store shelves. We thank fans for supporting a daring, innovative product, and we ask interested gamers to be patient as stock is replenished."

The publisher also announced that the game's Deluxe Edition, which featured a 160-page strategy guide and collectible embossed slipcase, is now considered out of print in North America and will not be remanufactured.

"While the now discontinued Deluxe Edition of Demon's Souls was the only way to obtain the game's official strategy guide, the title already benefits from an in-game messaging system, a tremendous online community, and dozens of online resources for players who are finding the game to be a bit challenging."

Among those online resources is the official Demon's Souls wiki, which offers a central location for community members to share what they've learned about the surprises that await in the Kingdom of Boletaria. As more and more people discover the game, the community-driven assistance tools expand in quality and breadth, ensuring that while gamers are tested during their adventures, they never have to be frustrated.

"Mr. Jabbari," interrupted a frantic worker. "The game-making engines... They just can't take much more of this! They're going to blow," cried the man in a thick Scottish accent before turning about and returning to the game-making furnaces, soon followed by Jabbari.[/i]

I'm not sure if I want to talk about this game I've been playing over the past week. Not only may people be completly turned off as to what the game actually is, but it's pretty depraved, despite being fun and one of the most hilarious things on earth.

First, I need to talk about what the game is. HellMOO is a MUD, specifically of the MOO variant. I have no idea what that means but it has something to do with the codebase to which I don't care about. MUD stands for multi-user dungeon, and if you're taking some hints here then you can safely assume this another way of saying MMO. But wait! MUD's are the MMO's of old, before the term MMO existed. The thing about MUD's that make them stand out, or stand down in some peoples opinions, is that MUD's are entierly text driven. Well, maybe not entirely because some have a minimap and some don't and those that don't suck, but it is 99% text driven. Everything is described and you interact with the world by typing commands such as "strip pants from crackhead". It's very old school and usually has a hell of a learning curve.


This is what you would be looking at the whole time while playing a MUD.

Why would I be playing this, as opposed to a full fledged MMO with graphics like WoW or EVE Online? My brain sometimes get a retro streak in it, which is fine. I play NetHack, try a MUD or two, and then a week later go back to normal gaming life. I'm a bit hooked by HellMOO tho and we'll get to that.

HellMOO is a post-apoc MUD, somewhat based around Fallout but exaggerated to the max. You wake up after the fallout, life sucks, and you're all alone and no one loves you. You start in Freedom City, which is about as lovely a place as Auschwitz. It rains a lot and smells terrible but somehow life has gotten by here. Your first order of business is to check out the orphanage. It's the newbie zone of sorts and will give you your first taste of combat and cash. How? Killing orphans. Don't look at me like that. Some of them a rabid and need to be "put down". You can do it and get paid by oh-so-loving Sister Agnes. It only get's worse from there. You can kill rednecks, whore yourself to NPC's, become a vampire, get so dumb you start talking in 1337 speak, live off severed arms, and I haven't even talked about the players.

This would be a pretty boring game if it wasn't for the other people who play this. I did say MUD stood for multi-user dungeon. The other people you play with make HellMOO pure gold. In the first two days of playing I was minding my own business when someone said they were giving free stuff out in Any Port Bar, which is the general meeting place for the population. Me not knowing how the game works, I wandered over there. Dumb move. About seven people are standing in Any Port, when the next person comes in and the following happens...

Djerk drops a dirty bomb on the floor.
Djerk says, "O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN!"
Djerk brings a vicious blow down on the dirty bomb with his softball bat!
Djerk's softball bat puts a dent in the dirty bomb.
The dirty bomb explodes near Djerk!
*** B O O M ***
Veronica Moser is blown east by the explosion!
Gerelin is blown up by the explosion!
MelissaNova is blown north by the explosion!
Viscen is blown east by the explosion!
Wio is blown up by the explosion!
Lannik is blown east by the explosion!
Harrogate is blown north by the explosion!
Scruffy Benthic comes sailing in.
Scruffy Benthic hits the floor with a dull crack.
Scruffy Benthic looks stunned.
Djerk bursts into flames!
Care Dog crumples to the ground, gasps out his last breath, and dies.
Scruffy Benthic bursts into flames!
Djerk crumples to the ground, gasps out his last breath, and dies.
The body of Djerk's white cocoon capsule deploys around his gear with a foamy whoosh.
Scruffy Benthic crumples to the ground, gasps out its last breath, and dies.

He blew up the bar. I got shot out a window and turned into paste when I hit the ground. I could only sit at my computer completely stunned at what just happened. My brain's plan was to be pissed off, but I laughed instead. The guy got exactly what he wanted: a few dumb newbies to blow up. Which pretty much begins a long line of cockdickery that has yet to stop.

Since then it's been all kind of crazy. I joined a corp soon after, which is a guild pretty much, and it's been a pretty hilarious time since then. Occasionally I'll hang out at our office where not a lot of shenanigans happens, but a fellow corp member walked in one day and started offering me...something...

zomaluct gets out its black pill.
zomaluct tries to hand a black pill to Lannik, but Lannik doesn't want it.
Zomaluct drops a black pill on the floor.
Zomaluct gets a black pill from its bottle of black pills.
zomaluct says, "LET HNGNHH SOME PILLS"
Lannik says, "I don't think I want that."
zomaluct pops a black pill into its mouth.
zomaluct swallows a black pill.
zomaluct's body locks up and falls over.
Lannik says, "See, and you wonder why you talk like you do now."
zomaluct says, "B1UUUURURURUDUUH."

I don't know what it was, but he was stuck there for a few hours, paralyzed.

A few days later, I got this mutation called Salamander that allows me to mend wounds naturally. Cool right? But it take's a skill called Focus to work, which I didn't have leveled. I managed to bring it up a few levels and needed to take some hits to see if I could heal myself, so I walked over to the local crackmansion to beat on some crackheads and hopefully they would beat on me. Then something happened....

[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "OH MY FUCKING GOD"
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "CAN I NOT GET BLOWN UP? PLEASE."
[ KREW ]: Coppelia asks, "Did something happen?"
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "Someone just blew up the fucking crackhouse with me inside."
[ KREW ]: Coppelia says, "Hahahaha damn."
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "Literally, I walked into the middle room, bottom floor, saw a metal suitcase and thought "You have got to be fucking kidd-"*BOOOOOM*"
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "I am SO pissed."
[ KREW ]: Azeral says, "You should have thought 'south south south south'."
[ KREW ]: Coppelia says, "this is why you don't spend an extended amount of time in CM."
[ KREW ]: Coppelia says, "More like s s e e e e e e e e..."
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "I was there for less then 10 min."
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "God. Damn it."
[ KREW ]: Lannik says, "I was tyring to get injured to see if I could use "mend"."
[ KREW ]: Coppelia says, "Welp."

This all happened over the course of a week. HellMOO is dangerous and hilarious, and I enjoy playing it a lot. If you like complete insanity, play HellMOO. Bring back a crazy story, because no doubt you will have at least one.