Sacred 2 - First Impressions

I didn't really know too much about this game before I bought it. I knew it was old, cheap, multiplayer and a hack and slash. I had also read/heard that the game is huge and has lots of playtime. Seemed like a perfect candidate to buy. Even if it wasn't the greatest game I'd be getting it for less than $20, so I am okay with something that is less than perfect.

What I didn't know was how awesome (and terrible) the voice acting is! As soon as you go to create a character you hear a female voice declare “I am a Seraphim!” As soon as I heard it I burst out laughing. I just really hoped that the game would continue in that way, because it was awesome.

Then I started the game up for the first time with my wife. I had some trouble picking up the interface and understanding some of what the different skills that my character did. But even with that bit of frustration the base game was really fun. It's a basic hack-and-slash game where your attacks and skills are on the face buttons of the controller. Since you will eventually have a lot of skills the game lets you swap between different sets of attacks using the triggers. This allows you to have 12 different weapons and skills equipped at one time.

There's also a bit of a learning curve when it comes to choosing your skills and abilities. I started with a robotic character who kinda looks like Ra. I had no idea what most of the abilities I had did. One shoots fire from my hands and the other summons a giant ball of energy that shoots enemies. Looks cool, but didn't do a lot of damage. It took me a bit but I realized this character wasn't for me, it was more of a support character. But that's all part of the learning curve for these types of games. And if I had read the manual (not used to actually having to look at the manual) I would have seen right away what kind of character it was.

I have now started a new character and I've played for about 6 hours. I'm playing a Shadow Warrior (who frequently swears at somebody, might be me? I don't know). I now dual-wield swords and I can summon a band of ghost warriors who follow me around and stab dudes. It is really great to walk into an area of enemies and just watch on as my ghost posse kills everything. And I just got a horse! Now that I'm into the game I am really enjoying it. I have looked at the map and it's huge! In my 6 hours I found out I have explored just 3% of the total map. That is amazing. After looking in the manual it looks like the level cap is at least 200. I can definitely tell that this game is going to last me for a long time. It's been a really good 6 hours and I'm looking forward to playing more. It isn't the most sophisticated or complicated game (I'm sure it'll get more complicated in the future) but it's a lot of fun.

And the voices are still awesome.

My Master's Project - An Introduction

For those that don't know, I am currently getting a Master's of GIS (Geographic Information Sciences – think maps and computers and you're on the right track). It's a course-based Master's (not thesis-based) which means there isn't a huge thesis to write; instead I take more classes and do a large project at the end. My classes are now all finished and the project is underway. Because of this I wanted to do a few posts detailing the project for those interested. This first post is going to be the background of the project, how the idea came to be.

I don't have a car. I have to take transit everywhere. This might not make any sense as background for my project right now but it will soon. I promise. One of the topics that I have been interested in for quite some time in geography is the geography of health. Specifically how the environment (both built and natural) can impact a person's health. As I started doing research and classes in health (and health geography) I came across the topic of access to resources. These resources can be anything. Parks, grocery stores, doctor's offices, hospitals, etc. This access to resources really intrigued me, and I decided I wanted my project to be on this subject. Since I was living in Calgary it made sense for me to do the project using Calgary data. Also, since I didn't own a car, and transit is important to me (and lots of other people), I decided to look at access by public transit (see, I told you it would make sense).

My project has been through many revisions since I started my program. At first I wanted to look at every single resource I could think of, and every single area in Calgary. It soon became clear that this was not going to be feasible. With that many areas and facilities my final paper would become too cluttered and the message would become muddled and unclear.

My classes and work (the paying kind) really started heating up and the entire project went onto the back-burner. Then in the summer of my 2^nd year I really looked into my project more seriously. At this point in time I was very interested in local food, so I thought about doing my project on access to local food by public transit. After emailing back and forth with my supervisor it looked like that wouldn't work either. The problem with just looking at local food was I would have to prove that local food is significantly better than non-local food. Since the energy savings and ethics of local food (here in Calgary) has not been proven for most local food providers I would almost have to do two projects. One to prove that the local food around Calgary was actually ethically grown and that there are energy savings; then look at the access to this local food by public transit. If I didn't do that then I would be assuming that local food is better, and that is not always the case. We can't make assumptions like that when doing an analysis, because we are falling into something some researchers call the 'local trap.'

Since access to local food was a bit of a dead-end I decided to instead just tackle access to healthy food in general. There is a wealth of background research into this topic, especially in Britain, USA, Australia and Canada. Since there was so much background information I could use, and it was still related to both health geography and access to resources this seemed like a good project for me to undertake. So my final project for my MGIS degree is to look at access to healthy foods in Calgary, AB by public transit (and potentially walking). In future posts I am planning to go over the background research I have done, how I'm doing the analysis, and then finally my results. If I also get the go-ahead from my supervisor I might also put my entire paper up on here as well.

Choosing the game

All gamers (who pay for their games) at some point have to make the decision on which game they will be buying next (unless they can afford every game). I just thought I'd throw out to the world how I go about choosing the games that I buy. Obviously there are a number of criteria that go into my decisions when it comes to games. Price, length of game, type of game and sometimes reviews are the main things I think about. I don't have a hard and set formula that I use whenever I am looking at a game, and sometimes it can depend on the game (or series) itself.

There are games out there that I buy almost no questions asked for whatever price it's being sold for. Pretty much any game that is released by Bethesda I will buy day-one, full price. And for many of them I'm also going to get the bigger editions because I love their games that much. I played Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind quite a bit. It was frustrating at times though, I guess I'm just not that hardcore a gamer. But Oblivion I plunked down $70 or $80 (I can't remember, I got the Collector's Edition) and I have put at least 300 hours into that game. So when Fallout 3 was released you bet I was there getting the Collector's Edition on the first day. So now that Skyrim is coming out in 2011 I will also be there getting the huge edition of that because I know that I will put tons and tons of hours into it and just love every second of that game. There aren't many companies or series that I will do that for, but some others are Irrational Games (makers of Bioshock), Bungie (previous developers of Halo, now doing something else), Epic Games (specifically Gears of War, which I love) and Bioware (makers of Mass Effect and Dragon Age).

But for most other games it will usually come down to the type of game, how the game plays (or looks to play) and the trappings of the game (what kinda world is it – fantasy, sci-fi, WWII, etc.). My favourite type of game is probably divided between role-playing games (RPGs), first and third person shooters (a la Halo and the previously mentioned Gears of War), and third person action games (a la God of War III). For most of those game types I will at least be intrigued by the game, for other types it will take a bit more to get my interest. If a game blends elements from different genres then I am also more likely to get interested (like Fallout 3 or Borderlands). But even for the genres I like I am not necessarily going to rush out and get all of the games day-one. There are just too many games to do that. For me to spend the full $60 the game will have to get good reviews and something about it will have to draw me in. Moral choices in the game, a good story, awesome gameplay, co-op multiplayer, any of those things can make a game more appealing for me. If a game has all of those then it's much more likely I'll pay full-price.

But for less money I am definitely more forgiving of the game. A game can have way more flaws if I am only going to be spending a fraction of the full $60. For instance I recently picked up Alpha Protocol for $10. I've only played 5 or 6 hours of the game, but so far it has a cool story with great dialogue, but some poor shooting controls. If I had paid $60 I would probably not have been that happy with my purchase, but because I got the game for $10 I am able to forgive more of the flaws. I am just happier overall with the game (though I still get frustrated at points). Other games I have gotten for a good price are Ghostbusters, Red Faction: Guerilla, Alan Wake, Crackdown 2, Army of Two: 40^th Day and more. I probably wouldn't have paid full price for any of those (except maybe Red Faction) but for the price I got them for I am quite happy (except maybe for Crackdown 2, that game is very iffy, but can be fun co-op). But even when picking up a game for cheaper I'm not going to just buy anything. No matter how cheap it gets I will never be picking up a copy of Madden. That's just not the type of game that I want. I still look for games set in worlds I find interesting or in a genre that I am likely to enjoy.

So that's how I pick the games that I am going to buy. Well, that's how I pick the games most of the time. Obviously there are going to be exceptions. One thing I will add is that if you don't have the money to buy brand-new games all the time, that's not really a big deal anymore. There are so many good games out there for every platform that you will almost always be able to find a new (to you) game to play. And places like Steam, Good Old Games, XBLA, PSN and the App Store make it even easier to get a gaming fix for cheap.  

My To-Play Pile

I love videogames, and I love to play new games. Unfortunately my loving new games has left me with a pile of games that I put aside partway through to go onto the next one. It's not that I don't like those games, usually it's just because something else comes along, or maybe I got frustrated with a part. Comes with buying new (to me) games. But maybe by creating a list like this it will give me more incentive to go back to those games. Like a to-read stack of books this is my to-play stack of games. In no particular order. And there are some of these that I don't really know if I will be getting to, but that's okay.

Killzone 2

This actually isn't my own game. It's one that I borrowed from my brother. Haven't even fired it up once. I'm looking forward to trying it out though because there's a new one coming out and it's supposed to be one of the better shooters out there.

Halo 3: ODST

This is a new game I got for Christmas. I started the game with my wife, and I was really enjoying it. When I play Halo nowadays I tend to play Reach, but I would like to get through this game to see the story because I found it pretty interesting. I liked how they created the hub-world for in between missions. Something quite different from the other Halo games.

Halo: Reach

This is a game that I have put a ton of time into. And I intend to put quite a bit more. I love the Halo series and this is easily the best Halo game.

Fallout: New Vegas

I have beat this game, but these open-world RPGs beg for second (and possibly third) playthroughs. I really enjoyed it the first time but there are quests that I didn't get to and I'd like to see them.

Fallout 3 (more specifically the DLC)

I've beat this game a couple times but I haven't played much of the DLC that I bought a while ago. I want to go back to see them because I really love the world that Bethesda created.

FIFA Soccer 09

Bought this during the summer for $10. This is my first soccer game and it was pretty good. I'd like to go in and explore the career mode a bit further.

Dead Space

I only got about 3 hours into this game, and it really freaked me out. It was enjoyable but stressful. I will probably start the game over and just go through slowly. Especially since the new one looks really good and I wanna see the story.

Dark Sector

I got this for $3 so even if it was mediocre it'd be worth the money. I'll get to this one eventually.

Crackdown 2

It's a decent game. Worth the $20 I got it for (Boxing Day deal). It's much better when playing co-op but still alright single-player. I do enjoy collecting those orbs.

Alan Wake

Another game I got for really cheap on Boxing Day. It got good reviews last year and was on some people's Game of The Year lists. A game I will probably be playing soon.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

I got pretty far into this game, and then it just got incredibly frustrating. I might go back, or I'll just look at a wiki before I finally get to playing Uncharted 2.

Saints Row 2

A fun game that I think I got burned out on. One reason I love these open-world games is because they can be really fun to jump back into. I will probably get back to this sometime to finish out the story and complete all the crazy shit there is to do.

Darksiders

A fun game that I also got frustrated by. And then Christmas came and I stopped playing games. I definitely want to go back to see how the story turns out.

Dragon Age: Origins

This game has been my most recent obsession. I finished it once and I immediately started another character. Probably won't finish the game with that character, but that's okay. Plus there is a ton of DLC that came with the game that I want to check out. This one will be a game that I come back to time and time again. I really want Dragon Age 2 now.

Ghostbusters

Got this last October to play around Halloween. I got quite far into it, but then other games came along and I started playing those instead. I was really enjoying the voice-acting and the rest of the game was pretty good too.

Lego Harry Potter

I finished this game but with the Lego games I always go back and try to collect everything. That's what I need to do.

God of War III

Great game. Haven't finished it because I was playing it the same time my wife was. I saw the ending as she played and so I got to see the conclusion to the story through her. I do eventually want to get through and finish it though.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

This is my wife's game, but I want to play it too. I really love Criterion's racing games and this one looks really cool too.

Metal Gear Solid 4

I played this for about 4 hours quite awhile ago. So many cutscenes. That made me frustrated. Lots of people love this game though so I'm going to give it a second chance.

Little Big Planet

I'm so close to finishing the single-player. So close. And there are millions of user-made levels out there. A good game to just pop in every one in a while.

Mass Effect 2

One of my favourite games from last year. I really need to go back for a second playthrough and then get the DLC for this game. Plus the next one is coming out so I'd like to have it fresh in my mind for that.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I have played this game for hundreds of hours, and I still love to go back to it. Could be one of my favourite games of all time. It's definitely a happiness game for me. I play it for a bit and I'm just happy. Plus there is one achievement I haven't gotten in the Shivering Isles so I want to go get that.

Other Random Multiplayer Games

There are a ton of games that I love to play multiplayer and I will probably be going back to those for quite some time. These include Left 4 Dead 2, Borderlands, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Steam games

Steam has so many sales. I sometimes just get a game on there because it's $2. The list of games I have on there is long, but it's cool to know I have lots of older games I can go play on there when I want to. Or I can just go play more of Civ 4 and lose hours.

Wow, that list is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. That's a good thing though, it means I have lots of games to play. Doesn't mean I'm not going to get any new ones though; I always want something new to play. I am going to make more of an effort to get back to some of the ones on this list. Plus I gotta save money for the Holiday 2011 season, because holy crap are there games coming out this year.



Spending the Entertainment Dollar

If you are anything like me then you only have so much money to spend on your entertainment. Questions of how to spend that money are always coming up. I love comic books, movies, videogames, and books. But when you only have so much money to spend then some of those are going to suffer.

Until recently I had been buying comics every week for probably the last 8 years. Maybe more. I really started to look at how much comics were costing me monthly and how much entertainment I was really getting from them. I love the art form of the comic book or graphic novel. I don't think I will ever fully stop reading graphic novels. However, the monthly comic is something that holds less and less appeal for me. I don't need to keep up anymore with what is happening in the Marvel or DC Universe. I'm fine with being months or more behind in the continuity. I also don't really care anymore about having longboxes full of comics. Those just take up room and are much harder to show off than graphic novels and trades, which can sit easily on my bookshelf.

Then you get to the finances of buying monthly comics. For an average comic I can usually finish it in about 15 minutes (sometimes much less). And that comic could cost me anywhere from $3 to $4. So that works out to minimum $12 per hour of entertainment. That doesn't sound too bad, but it's not great. The one saving grace for comics is the digital medium, as long as the price remains lower than the print comics. As of right now, from what I've seen comics range anywhere from $0.99 to $1.99. Even though most of the comics on there aren't new comics (especially from the major publishers) it is a semi-viable option if you're okay with that. So at the low end the digital comics come in at $4/hr and $8/hr at the high end. I don't know how much I will be getting digital comics though, if only because the ones I want to read aren't that readily available yet. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on digital comics because it looks to be a good way for budget-conscious people to read new(ish) comics. But there are other forms of entertainment vying for my money as well.

Where I live going to a movie in theatre costs $12.50 (without snacks) and that'll usually get you around 1 1/2 to 2 hours of entertainment. That's around $8 per hour of entertainment. Even an expensive 3D movie is around $16 and that would be around $11 per hour, still a better deal than comics. Of course you don't have something physical to keep when you're done the movie, no book that you could go back to read over and over again. So that is one thing that comics have over movies (in the theatre). But movies also come out on DVD. I'm not going to go into a breakdown for movies on DVD and Blu-Ray because there are just too many different prices. DVDs and Blu-Rays can range anywhere from $1 to over $100 if you get the huge box-set of something. I will say that I've always found good value in buying cheap versions of movies I like, because there is quite a bit of entertainment to be had there. TV shows sometimes fare even better. A usual price I see for a TV show is $25-$35. At the high end we are talking $60. If there is only 13 episodes and they are 45 minutes, then that could be almost 10 hours of entertainment. At the high end that's only $6 per hour, and at the low end only $2.5 per hour! That is quite a bit better than comics, and you have a physical thing you could watch over again.

I love videogames. I'm just going to come right out and say this from the beginning, I think videogames can be some of the best bang for your buck there is. Prices for videogames range from really cheap to quite expensive. On the really cheap end there are lots of games out there that cost absolutely nothing (and I don't mean the "I found a torrent for the newest game" kinda free). Most of these games are not big budget games with awesome crazy graphics. Some are Flash games, and some are just indie games where the creators just want their work out there and if you happen to pay them then they are all the happier. Some free games are free to play massively multiplayer games, which rely on micro-transactions for their income. For the most part when I am thinking about playing videogames I am not thinking about the free games that are available. I don't know why, but these just don't interest me that much, but they are there for people who want them.  No I am usually thinking about the games that cost money, sometimes lots of money. The average game that you would buy from a Gamestop brand new costs $60. An average length for many of the action games is about 6-8 hours, so that would work out to $10 per hour of entertainment. So a decent deal. For me though, I rarely play a game just once, usually I will play it multiple times, so that drives up the value. Also since there are so many games out there now it's really easy to get a game cheap ($20), especially if you wait for the sales. So then that 6 hour game gives you just over $3 per hour of entertainment. And Steam makes things even better. Games are always going on sale on there, and if you have a good enough computer it is wonderful. I will mention that the one barrier to entry is the price of the console for games, but now that they are going down in price, and how much else they can be used for (for example: Netflix) it makes the initial cost easier to handle. And even with a mediocre PC there are lots of games you could play for a really good price.

Obviously the breakdown is going to be different for everyone. And everyone is going to enjoy each form of media differently as well. Some will prefer reading comics to anything else, some people just really love movies. Or books. For me I really enjoy videogames and they give me a great bang for my buck. Maybe if I ever have more money I will start to buy comics again, because I really do enjoy the medium. Right now though they just cost too much money for me to buy on a regular basis.