I Have Entered The Hellgate

I have been investing time into the newly rereleased game of Hellgate: London. It was been quite sometime since Flagship Studios released the first version of the game. Unfortunately for that company, it was rushed to release in an essentially unfinished state, and it killed the game the first time around. Does Hanbitsoft know what they are doing with the game? This is a small but brief tale of what happened to that game, and a wee bit of a description.

Flagship Studios. The name makes certain gamers cringe. What happened to that studio was both unfair and was more than likely unforeseen. The studio was comprised of developers from Blizzard North, the original team behind Diablo. It seems liked a winning combo: new development studio, new game.

Hellgate: London was released ahead of schedule. More than likely due to pressure from EA, whom was helping them publish and do marketing done for the game. The other portion of the deal was server support for Namco Bandai, with additional publishing from them as well. I was one of the many that hoped the game would be something great and plopped down the fee for the Lifetime subscription.

Not only did the game have an offline single player game, but it also featured an online multiplayer mode. In many ways this functioned like a MMO, having but a free online mode and subscriber models. The game played very much like a 3rd/1st person Diablo game with multiple classes and loot for you to collect.

Unfortunately for Flagship Studios, nobody subscribed, or bought the game. Poor reviews and numerous reports the game was essentially left in a broken state forced the company’s hand. They filed for bankruptcy before they could even prove themselves.

The IP for Hellgate was sold to Hanbitsoft, who promptly took the multiplayer component of the game and made it a free to play MMO in Asia, where it remained, gaining new content as updates. On June of this year, Hanbitsoft made the move to release it here under the same model, and it appears to be back and stronger than ever.

A great deal of time has been put into this version of the game, and I am excited to see that the game made it back somehow. I am hoping I can get farther than I did the first time around, perhaps even beat it. Here is hoping they don’t shutdown the servers prematurely before the game had a chance to shine.

The Reason I Stopped Shopping At GameStop

Power to the players, right? That slogan couldn’t be farther from the truth. This tale is more of a warning. A “buyer beware,” if you will. Also, for the integrity and livelihood of the employees and the location of this GameStop, they shall remain nameless.

It all started when all I wanted was to buy a DS title. It was a copy of Digimon World DS, for those of you wondering. I was rather eager to play it, so right there in the store, I put the game in my DS. That was when the trouble started.

Before I go any further, I need to explain a few things about GameStop’s policies, and how they handle things, for those of you who don’t know. There are a couple things they do that, quite frankly are not consumer friendly.

Firstly, they open games, and label them as “new” when they place them on display. Wouldn’t most of you agree that a new product is sealed in the cellophane and related product packaging it comes with?

Secondly GameStop employees are allowed to check out games, new or used. Sort of like an internal rental service. There is already something wrong with this practice, as demonstrated with what happened with me.

And now, on with the show! So, when I put the game in my DS, while still in the store, there was already a save file on the cart! A @#%$#^ save file! I was quite pissed! They had sold me a game marked as “new” when it was clearly played.

I went back to the counter and asked for a refund. Of course they refused, saying that game, once played or opened they can’t give a full refund. They offered for me to trade in the game. I shook my head, and gave them some lip. The employee who had sold me the game, no less happened to have the same name like the one on the DS save file.

Demanding to speak the manager yielded no results. So I made a point to say that I knew about their employee checkout system. They were probably a little startled, asking where I had come across such knowledge. Kotaku did a story a few years back detailing how their rental system works. At any rate, when they still refused, I demanded to speak to their regional, of which they didn’t want to give me the number. Instead they offered to refund, and save what little face they had left.

Needless to say to say, this probably won’t stop the worlds largest game retailer, but buyers beware. If you are going to buy a "new” product from GameStop, make sure that you buy a sealed copy of the game. As for me, I am not giving them the time of day anymore. I am opting for Amazon, Target, Best Buy, etc. Any place but that @#%RW$ bag of a company.

E3 2011: Looking Forward To The Future

E3 has come and gone, and there are some things that were announced that make me want them RIGHT NOW. However these things are in the far flung future. Games and hardware of the future are coming, and some notable ones I think worth keeping an eye on are listed below.


Tomb Raider


This game is still a ways off. Coming in fall 2012 what was demoed at the Microsoft press conference showed a reboot of the character. A vulnerable Lara Croft, one inexperienced in her travels. It was clear that the character was not over sexualized, and it appeared that she was learning as she went along in the demo. All in all, a great new look and feel. Fear of the unknown and survival are the name of the game.


Battlefield 3


Only having shown the multiplayer at this years E3, EA seems to be positioning this game as the ‘other’ first person shooter this fall to compete with a certain ‘Call of Duty.’ Graphically speaking this game looks astounding. Unfortunately, I am going to have to play the game first, as the Battlefield games have always made me scratch my head. This one has a strong single player focus, but at its heart the Battlefield games have always been about multiplayer. Can it compete with Modern Warfare 3 this year? Only time will tell.


ICO/Shadow of The Colossus HD Collection


I loved, LOVED this games on my PS2. And now they are getting remade in HD on PS3. One Blu-ray, higher-frame, and trophies. I cannot wait for this game. I am going to preorder it as soon as it becomes available. If you don’t know what I am talking about, YouTube is your friend. Seek out these games and just watch. There is a sense of fidelity and emotion when you play those games. Swelling soundtracks, mysterious sounds, and abstract stories make those games a wonder to play.


Catherine


Atlus was showing off this game, and it is scheduled to come out this July. A weird hybrid puzzle/dating sim game. It appears that it it will be telling the story of man plagued by nightmares, and having to decide between two women. Possibly two endings, or multiple endings. The game was lauded for its incredible difficulty when it was released in Japan, and the developers released a patch to fix the difficulty. From I gather this is actually an offshoot story from the Persona universe. Keeping my eye on this one, as it looks like a really good experience.


King of Fighters XIII


Another title announced by Atlus, this SNK fighter looks incredible. The previous iteration, King of Fighters XII, was a broken, unbalanced mess. This has more characters (Mai Shiranui returns!), complete move sets, and what appears to be a competent fighting system. This is the one fighter I am excited for, and I hope that it can compete with the likes of Street Fighter X Tekken, Super Street Fighter IV, and Mortal Kombat.


PlayStation Vita


Sony came out guns blazing with the announcement of the their new portable system. At a selling price of $249.99, its kind of hard not to be excited about this new fangled piece of tech. With enough horsepower underneath to have a similar experience of a PS3 game, two analog sticks, an Organic LED touch screen, Sixaxis motion, and a back touch pad, this system got me pumped for what was to come in mobile gaming. Several of the demos demonstrated how a person could play a game on PS3, save your progress, and then continue that same exact game on your Vita and vice versa. I can only hope that Sony gets their act together with this system, or its doomed from the start.


Wii U


This was the big mystery of E3 this year. What was this new system Nintendo wanted to show us? Could it do HD? Is the controller as crazy as the rumors speculate? Turns out both of those questions were answered with a resounding “yes.” The new system is capable of outputting in HD, up to 1080p, is backwards compatible with Wii accessories and games, and has a tablet like controller with a 6 inch touchscreen. The new controller also sporting two analog sticks, and a full feature set of buttons. The question I have to ask, will it be enough? Will people be intimidated by the new controller? Can Nintendo rope in the publisher’s needed for the system to succeed and compete with the other current consoles that Microsoft and Sony are offering?


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It has been exciting to see what is coming in the near future and I hope that games continue growing and expanding into new areas. It looks to be a rough year with all these games coming out around the same time. The competition has ramped up and gotten tougher. Many of the above titles are a little niche, but they are great games, and I plan on getting them all. Time to start saving…

My Stint With Quake

The following is a story, a recollection of my memories and how I ended up playing FPS games, most notably Quake. This will be the first of many posts I hope to make; ones that involve perhaps a personal history with videogames in some way or a post going over to some kind retro game of sorts. But anyway, on the with the good stuff!

It all really started with the game called Doom. You know that one where you fight off hordes of demons on the moons of Mars? That was my first introduction to the FPS genre, and was really the first FPS of its kind to do anything significant. Full 3-D movement, vast environments. It also set the tone for what most FPS games do now: Blood, gore, guts, and lots of action.

My parents let me play Doom in the summer of 1993, and I loved it. id Software some how managed to create a holy grail in gaming. They knew it was bloody, scary, and well down right blasphemous. I mean you play as a lone space marine; you are all that stands in the way of the demons of hell and them getting to earth. It was something that I couldn't really explain. Maybe it was the way the game presented its action. Maybe it was the fast paced action. Mouse and keyboard controls were second nature to me, left clicks with a shotgun, blowing away the pink demons. I didn't really play many other PC games for two years.

Then in the summer of 1996, the gaming magazines, and the beginnings of the internet were rumbling about some new engine and game that id was creating. A game called Quake. The first time I laid eyes upon that game was when I set out to get at demo disc at the local PC store. It cost me $9.99 + tax. Probably the best ten dollars I ever spent. After I installed that game on my 486 DOS 6.2 PC, the graphics were unlike anything I had ever seen. The difference from this game and Doom was quite simply amazing. Full polygonal environments, and you could now look around with the mouse! And the gameplay was just as fast as Doom. Quake brought something to the table that Doom had introduced, but made it better; Multiplayer.

There was many a night of me and my friends hooking up over the internet with our 56k modems and playing games of Quake. Blood, rockets, nailguns, and giblets were all common place. I got to a point in that game where I would usually win every match we played. Give me a rocket launcher in that game, and kiss yourself goodbye. Those were the days...sitting back and drinking Mountain Dew will electrocuting your friends with the lightning gun.

Some time after Quake was released, id quietly began work on the engine that would eventually power Quake II. If I remember correctly, Quake II was not originally going to be called 'Quake II.” The press called it that, as id themselves had not revealed the name of the game. It became so popular that eventually id just decided to go with that, as it was a name and title everyone new at that point.The multiplayer in Quake II was fast and furious. I couldn't believe how awesome it was. The rail gun was my preferred weapon against people on the internet and my friends. I eventually got good enough that I played in several tournaments. Unfortunately I was not nearly as good as the some other players out there, like Thresh. He infamously won John Carmack's Ferrari in a game of Quake.

Quake II introduced some awesome customization options, one of the most prominent was a feature that allowed the use of custom player models. My preferred player model was one based around the comic Calvin and Hobbes; Calvin's alter ego Spaceman Spiff. Eventually though, time moved forward, with the introduction of Quake III Arena.

In December 1999, Quake III was released to the PCS. The game had no single player component, as its focus was multiplayer. I loved that game...still do, but it was also the last version of Quake that I seriously spent time playing. Combat was fast and intense, moving much faster than an previous version of Quake. Again the rail gun was a personal favorite, but I also enjoyed using the lighting gun. Shocking opponents to giblets was fun and entertaining.

For years after that, I played Quake III exclusively. More and more FPS games followed and I played Quake III until I simply couldn't play it anymore. My tastes evolved a little more as Halo and Killzone 1 came out. Quake simply fell off the radar for me. There is still a thriving hardcore community out there, but chances are if I went back to any one of the Quake games, my head would be blown off the second I spawned.

I love FPS games...and I would love to go and play some more Quake again; get back into that groove. In the mean time, I have an RPG called Final Fantasy XIII. Expect something on that soon.