Moving

My Inner Gamer is moving! I’ve been offered the chance to blog for Hooked Gamers and I decided to take them up on it. It makes little sense to have two blogs on the exact same topic, so from now on you can read up on all my ramblings about gaming on my new blog called “Girl Meets Game”. See you there!

Quality time with the Caped Crusader

I had a chance last night after work to sit down and play the Xbox 360 demo of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Set to release on August 25th, the game lets you take on the role of the Caped Crusader as he’s trapped in Arkham Asylum and forced to fight his way past many of Batman’s classic villains, such as the Joker, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

When I first heard that a game developer was making a new Batman game, I immediately wrote it off as yet another crappy game based on a popular license. Until I saw a video of the first 10 minutes of the game. Then, I was intrigued. Now, after downloading and playing the demo, I’m willing to retract my first impression and admit that this licensed game might actually be a good one.

Stealth has always been a favorite gaming mechanic, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Batman: Arkham Asylum isn’t just a fighting game, but a stealth game as well. I found out very quickly during the demo that if I rushed into a group of armed inmates, I was quickly going to have to reload at the last checkpoint. The stealth mechanic in the game is similar to that of Assassin’s Creed. Bad guys will investigate when you knock out their pals and, if spotted, you can run away and wait for the commotion to die down. At one point during the demo, I was able to sneakily hang upside down from a gargoyle and snatch up a passing badguy. Classic Batman.

The other game mechanic that surprised me was the games “Detective Mode”. Being the “World’s Greatest Detective”, Batman can use his gadgetry to gain more information from his surroundings, including the locations of badguys and hidden exits. I think many game developers in the past have overlooked this aspect of Batman’s character, focusing instead on his fighting skills. It’s a welcome addition that better puts you into the role of the Dark Knight and adds depth to what could have been just a plain vanilla fighting game.

The graphics are well done and the character models in particular are an interesting take on classic comic book characters. The voiceovers are great as well and it was good to hear the familiar voices of actors from the Batman animated series.

No one can say for sure if Rocksteady has managed to pull off the near impossible: a good licensed game. We’ll all have to wait until the 25th to see for ourselves.

An-i-mal!

So, World of Warcraft patch 3.2 is out and the very first thing I did when I logged into the game after downloading the patch was to take screenshots of the new druid forms.

Very sexy.

The next thing I did was an Ulduar raid with some friends where I got to test out the new alleged moonkin buffs. I say alleged because, honestly, I couldn’t tell any difference. Moonkin spec is still highly dependent on the RNG (random number generator) and eclipse still has the annoying habit of procing only at the END of fights. But, I’m sure someone with way more mathematical skills than me could say for sure if moonkins really did receive a buff in the patch.

I also had the chance to try out the new 5-man heroic dungeon. It’s very short and incorporates some of the same mechanics from the Argent Tournament, such as jousting and knocking the bosses off their horses before piling on the smackdown.

Other than the nice new druid bear and cat models, I’d give the new content a big yawn. More dailies and a very quick dungeon (even by WoW’s standards)? I’m ready to move on.

Guybrush is back August 20th!

The new adventures of Guybrush Threepwood will continue on Thursday, August 20th with Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: Seige of Spinner Cay, according to Kotaku. The Wii version will come out shortly afterwards. Yar!

The first 10 minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum

MTV Multiplayer has posted the first ten minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Honestly, I wasn’t very interested in this game’s release but, now, I find my curiosity piqued.

The first thing I noticed about the video is the voiceovers. Batman: Arkham Asylum sees actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill of Batman: The Animated Series fame reprising their roles as Batman and the Joker. As someone who was once a fan of the show, I was very happy by that revelation! The voices were instantly familiar and evoked a sense of nostalgia for the classic cartoon series. Writer Paul Dini, who worked on the animated series, also wrote the script for Arkham Asylum.

The second thing I noticed was another sense of nostalgia the game gave me. Not for Batman, but for Half Life. The opening cinematic of Batman: Arkham Asylum is reminiscent of that infamous tram ride at the beginning of the original Half Life. But, instead of listening to a robotic female voice on an intercom while on your way to work, Aslyum has you escorting the Joker, Hannibal Lecter style, to his cell while he cracks jokes about everything happening around you.

The video is very dark and brooding, the way a Batman story should be, and the graphics seem to do a great job of bringing the Dark Knight and his world to life. A demo of the game is supposed to be released tomorrow for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. After watching that video, I’ll definitely be checking it out!

Bring out your dead!

Valve has announced a new campaign for their zombie-blasting shooter Left 4 Dead. Called “Crash Course”, Valve says it will be a 30 minute versus mode that will bridge the gap between the “No Mercy” and “Death Toll” campaigns.

The new campaign is scheduled to be released in September. PC gamers will get the new content for free, but Xbox 360 users will have to cough up 560 Microsoft Points ($7.00).

It’s been a while since I’ve played Left 4 Dead. It’s an enjoyable game that I felt was far too short. Once my friends and I played through the inital four campaigns a few times, it got boring pretty quickly. With a new campaign coming out, though, maybe it’s time to polish off my shotgun and fight off the zombie apocalypse once again.

World of Warcraft patch 3.2 is out!

Patch 3.2: Call of the Crusade was released today for World of Warcraft. The content heavy patch includes a new dungeon, the Coliseum, for 5, 10 and 25-man groups, as well as a new battleground, new Argent Tournament dailies, and updated graphics for druid cat and bear forms.

I’m at work right now, so I haven’t had a chance to try out the new patch yet. I’ll have more on it later.

Census study finds games lack diversity

According to an article on MSNBC, the biggest census of video game characters ever conducted has found a lack of females, Latinos, Native Americans, children or the elderly in the best-selling games of the last few years. And that has some people worried about the impression that could make on young gamers, while others simply feel that the video game industry is missing a good marketing opportunity by ignoring certain demographics (women, Latinos).

The lack of women in gaming isn’t a huge surprise. However, since the census is a few years behind and includes high-selling games such as Madden NFL, which is guaranteed to have a lack of playable female characters, I believe it may be a little bit inaccurate.

The census also doesn’t take MMOs into account, except for World of Warcraft, where there are a lot of customization options and a lot of female characters (mostly played by men).

What do you think? Do video games lack diversity?

Dragon Age: Origins on PC or Xbox 360?

October is one of my most favorite months. A lot happens in October. There’s Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. A new R.A. Salvatore novel will arrive, as it does every October. I’ll have a week’s vacation from work… and I’ll be playing Bioware’s new RPG Dragon Age: Origins.

I. Can't. Wait!

Even though I’m excited to get my hands on the game, I haven’t gone to Gamestop to preorder it yet because I’m not sure which platform I should choose – the PC or the Xbox 360?

The biggest benefit of the PC version is, obviously, the mods. The Bioware modding community is sure to be active. However, I’ve never been a big fan of mods. Not because they’re not well-crafted, but because once I’ve beaten a game and seen  how the story ends, I’m ready to move on. I’ve never replayed a game I’ve already beaten. So, the appeal of mods is somewhat diminished.

On the Xbox 360, there are achievements. While I do enjoy achievements, I don’t go out of my way to get them. But I’m happy when they do pop up on the screen. It’s a nice little bonus. There’s also the comfort of being able to play a game while sitting on the couch in front of a big TV. It’s easier on the backside than hours in a computer chair.

Game performance is always a concern and the PC might win in that department. Where the PC version might also win is in the controls. I had the chance to play Mass Effect on both the PC and the Xbox 360. The 360 controls weren’t bad at all (until you had to drive the Mako) but they weren’t as good as the PC and that could wind up being the case with Dragon Age. However, I’m withholding judgment until more previews of the game come out, or until I can test it out myself.

At the moment, it’s a bit of a toss up. So, what do you think is better? The PC or the Xbox 360?

GameSpy: A Whirlwind Tour of Aion

GameSpy: A Whirlwind Tour of Aion

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Here’s a preview of some of the higher level content in Aion courtesy of Gamespy. High level content is always a big issue with gamers, who fear that once they get to the level cap there won’t be much to do. But, since Aion is already an established game in the Korean market and the version coming out next month is a translation, I would hope it would already have a decent amount of endgame content.

The content I’m most interested in is the open PvP content in the Abyss. I was bitten with the PvP bug back when I first tried out Age of Conan on a RP/PvP server, my first PvP server ever. Although griefers and gankers are always a killjoy, I had more fun with it than I thought I would. I also enjoyed the open PvP and keep seige portions of Warhammer Online. So, I’m hoping Aion’s PvP will be equally as fun.