Two Worlds 2

A long jump forward, a few steps back...

The original Two Worlds was an RPG that actually had a decent amount of hype, but fell short on pretty much all of it. Yet I still played the ever-living hell out of it. Given all of its shortcomings, bugs, terrible voice acting, low framerate and overall clunky and mostly broken system, I loved playing it. It had a certain charm to it, and I really, REALLY like 3rd person, open-world RPGs. I think I'm one of the few people in the world that legitimately liked it.

Now take the original game, with all its failures, and improve almost damn near everything... almost. That's Two Worlds 2. Its name is a bit silly, but my, how it has grown. They learned their lesson and actually made the sequel into something really worth playing, if you like RPGs, that is. Do not make the mistake of calling yourself an RPG fan and then compare it to Elder Scrolls... it doesn't work like that. I hate that criticism, "oh it's no Oblivion, so therefore it sucks". They're on completely different ends of the RPG spectrum, with the only thing linking them is that they are fantasy games.

With that out of the way...
In Two Worlds 2, you are once again the main character from the original game, except the story or the landmarks in the original didn't matter. Your sister and you (the nameless hero) are imprisoned by the evil emperor Gandohar (funny names in this game). Apparently you've been in prison for somewhere around 5 years, so there's enough excuse to make you have to relearn all your combat skills over again. You get busted out by some friendly orcs and get sent on your epic quest to learn Gandohar's weaknesses and free your sister. It doesn't sound as epic to start off, but later in the game, things build up to where there's more than just the rescue of your sister at play.

Almost everything about it is better than the previous iteration. They actually throw in an existing story, hired some decent voice actors, and made things interesting. There's a decent tutorial right from the get-go this time around. The character models are kind of iffy-looking but the environments look absolutely awesome. A lot of the original game got a major overhaul as far as functionality and customization goes. You can still stack "cards" to increase your magic power, but it's even more customizable. Almost everything can be broken down into raw materials to upgrade weapons or armor with. That's one thing I loved about the original Two Worlds, that I'm glad they kept around... the sheer amount of customization and upgrades. This version of the game is much deeper - there's a lot more to do - it definitely feels like the kind of game you'll spend a ton of time on. There's even a good bit of humor in the game, often making pop-culture references or poking fun at how campy the original game was (see videos embedded at the end of this post).

As for your combat, you can deal in magic, melee or archery. I recommend choosing 2 of the 3 for at least a small portion of the game, so you can adequately defend yourself as a mage in close-quarters, for example, by also having some melee until you've improved your spellcasting. You'll want to choose what you focus in wisely for awhile until you start earning extra skill points as you level up. But beware... one thing that I found strange was that not all the skills you can master are actually useful. For example, I might have used alchemy once, but never found a reason to use it again. And I had no real reason to allocate precious points into stealth or armor-crafting. Just go with what works for you and don't venture too far from your set skills.

There's also a multiplayer, which I've honestly spent a decent amount of time on, where you can play a few matches against other players, build a village, or do a secondary campaign with friends. I like this option because instead of importing your solo character, you create a new online character that you can choose more focused and specialized stats in. It's fun to mess around with the different builds you can use and it's actually a good tool in learning what you might want to use in single-player as well. Village mode is like RPG meets RTS meets crack. I check on my village daily and make sure that I build a new building or save the villagers from spiders when needed.

Even though it's wayyyyy better than the original, and more than I could have hoped for, there's still some issues I have with it. For one, and this was something the original was criticized for as well... the horse-riding still sucks. Ok, well they improved on it, but it's still just useless. You're better off walking. The inventory is still clunky and the interface is see-through, so depending on where you are or what's in the background while you're browsing your latest loot, it can be kind of annoying. One thing I liked about the original that is pretty much non-existent in the 2nd game is dragons. NO DRAGONS?! WAAAAAAT?! I loved going dragon killing in Two Worlds and they took it out.

So that about sums it up... I might add to this already-too-long post if I think of anything extra to love on or bitch about. Overall, I love the hell out of Two Worlds 2 and I'm glad TopWare & Reality Pump have my money for it. Well worth it if you like RPGs. And now, for some humor...

(Making fun of the voice acting & general abuse of language in the original Two Worlds)


(A tribute to Monty Python...)

Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Review

The first DLC for Fallout New Vegas, Dead Money, is out now for Xbox 360 (and I assume it will be out on PC and PS3 eventually), costing you 800ms points and for once, more than just a quick sit-down to go through and complete it. In Dead Money, you are lured by a radio signal and captured, forced into cooperating with 3 other individuals to pull off a heist at the Sierra Madre casino. Sounds easy enough, but the only problem is, there's an explosive collar around your neck ready to pop your head into bloody bits if you so much as think about disobeying your given heist plans. Sounds fun, eh? Like most of the DLC from Fallout 3, this one has its pros and cons, but it was honestly a lot better than I thought it would be this time around. And hey, it actually wasn't buggy either. Breakdown time!

The Awesomesauce:

This one's a game-changer, so to speak. You have to conduct yourself in this DLC differently than you would in the Mohave desert, because you go in stripped of your weapons, food, stimpacks, the works. This provides challenge. I appreciated that Dead Money wasn't just a walk-in-the-park add-on that most could easily breeze through in a single sitting. I no longer felt invincible, storming through the area with my high-powered weapons and armor - I was weak again - and that was a good thing. The new environment added an element of creepiness, and you actually had to pay more attention to what you're doing. There's traps everywhere, and you need to scavenge what you can to stay alive. There's a few new weapons and equips you can find and keep after you've completed the content, adding a little variety. You get your choice (well, it's not a choice, really, since you're forced to work with them or your head will explode) of 3 new companions to help you break into the Sierra Madre casino, and each of your newfound "friends" are pretty damned interesting. Should you think about running away, you die. If your companion dies, you die - you're all linked by your explosive collars to keep you in check for the story... and it's awesome. When you're finally in the casino, you can gamble and get some chips to help you buy much-needed supplies as well. The environment is cruel, and it feels that way when playing Dead Money. Overall, it was just a lot of fun - more fun than I expected to get out of the first batch of downloadable content for New Vegas.

The Buzzkills:

If Dead Money gets anything wrong, it's in the way the environment and enemies grow stale over time. You spend a lot of time in the Villa area before actually getting into the Sierra Madre casino for the rest of the DLC, and the layout is somewhat like a very same-looking maze. I usually like to explore new areas, but when it all started to look the same, I got kind of worried. I found myself taking wrong turns or going to places I shouldn't be yet just because of the way it was laid out. I had a sigh of relief when I finally got into the casino and the layout changed for the better. As also mentioned, the enemies grow old too. Aside from the occasional hologram that you just avoid (kind of like a walking security camera), all you really fight throughout the entirety of the content are these "Ghost" villagers. There are a few minor variations between them, such as one attacks you unarmed while another throws spears at you, but for the most part, they don't change and it feels like they're just there to have something to fight. I would've liked to kill more than one enemy. Finally, the only thing I can think of that actually bothered me beyond the 2 points previously mentioned was the lack of music. There was none. This is just a personal preference, however, since I prefer the music to whatever ambient noises are in the background.

You'll see lots of these guys... because they're pretty much all you fight

Final Thoughts:  For a DLC, this is pretty good, and I gotta hand it a deserved 4/5, if I were to give it a numerical rating according to my opinion. If you've liked everything that Fallout has thrown at you, and you're still hungry for more, you could definitely do worse. Pick this up when you get the chance. It's challenging but not overwhelmingly so, changes the pace a bit, and actually takes a bit of time to complete. If you're an achievement whore like me, you'll get some extra points while going through an interesting break-away from the main story of New Vegas. And I don't think you'll leave disappointed - it even has its own slideshow ending, similar to that of the story ending, before throwing you back in the Mohave. Just don't attempt this DLC until you're at least level 20, or the "ghost" villagers will very clearly define prison rape for you.

PS. Try to find all the little clues hinting at another upcoming DLC

/* Save often on this one, or you'll regret having to retrace your steps a lot */

VGA 2010 Thoughts (and ME3)

Let's get right down to it...
All the clues and little teases that Bioware was dropping for us were all for Mass Effect 3. Now don't get me wrong - I'm extremely excited about this, but I'm a little disappointed because everyone already knew ME3 was coming. Why tease with little clues about London, and the atomic mass of iron and all that shit? It was building up for potentially something different, but lo-and-behold, it was really just what everyone wanted.  That said, the official teaser trailer was awesome and got me amped to hop back into the role of Shepard. In the trailer, the Reapers have decimated (I always liked that word) London, and once again, Shepard has to step up. Look for yourself:



SO, now that you've cleaned yourself up after watching that trailer, there are another few key things to note about the 2010 VGAs. I'm kind of disappointed there wasn't an official Spike webstream of the event, as there was the past few years, so any live stream got shut down within minutes. :(

I cannot tell you how excited I am that Bethesda is working on Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Hopefully they use a different game engine though, because the one they've been working on is getting kind of dated. It's good for environment, but not so good for character models. A lot of their games look similar, so I'm hoping they break that mold with Skyrim. And hey, if they don't, it's still gonna be ES5. Awesome! I can't wait til next holiday.  (UPDATE: Skyrim will in-fact be using a new game engine, confirmed by Bethesda)

Finally,
I'm so thrilled that for once, Halo didn't win all the damn awards. Maybe people have realized that it's not the godsend of an amazing game that everyone thinks it is. Or maybe the fact that it only won "Best Multiplayer" says something. I'm happy that Bioware won "Studio of the Year", Limbo won "Best Indie", ME2 won "Best RPG", and most of all... I'm happy that Red Dead Redemption won "Game of the Year". It deserved it for its amazing story, characters, and just damn good environments and gameplay. If you want to see who all won what awards, go HERE.

/* I'm going to go stash money for next year's game releases... I'll need it */

Change of addy

To anyone that actually bothers to read this,

I'm changing the URL for this blog a bit. Instead of "qismidnight.blogspot...."  it will now be "theqspot.blogspot.com".

It's just easier this way, and goes better with the actual title.

- Q