Assassin's Creed II

I DESPISE the inability to save when I want to and to save in alternating slots. Assassin's Creed II takes this option away from you. There is no "save" option listed in the menu. There is simply a little diamond shape that shows up on your screen to tell you that the game is saving. There is just no reason for that any more. I understand they are trying to make you just play through and not worry about dying or starting over to do something differently, but I would still like to be able to make that decision myself, not have them make it for me. It's the only blemish on this game so far. Other than that it's compelling, intelligent, well executed, and most of all FUN! In fact the save irritation is not enough to even ruin my enjoyment of the game, considering it saves after pretty much any action I make - starting a mission, opening a treasure chest, synching my map.... but still the annoyance lingers.

Of course there is a reason why they did it this way. It's to force you to just play through and not worry about saves and strategic restarts when you have done something 'wrong'. In the framework of the Animus system, you simply de-synch with Ezio and start back at the last save point if this happens.

However, their 'interact' options came too fast to be caught by those of us that are paying attention to the actual cut scene and not staring at the right hand corner for a 'Press B to Interact' prompt that lasts roughly 5 seconds. I move fast and have decent hand Eye Coordination, but even I have only caught about half of these. They don't change anything in the game, they are simple conversations that don't hurt or help anything, but I still wanted to play them MY way and couldn't. Due to the pesky little save diamond that popped up once the cut scene was over, I couldn't even quit and reload to be ready for the Interact prompt and play it again either and I am certainly not going to play the 30+ hours I have already played all over again, just to see a little bro hug between Ezio and Leonardo.

I don't even mind that the Interact option is on the screen for so little time. If they would just give me the option to load MY save I could easily replay these parts and 'get it right'.

Does this mean I am a perfectionist? I don't think so. I just think I like to get all I can from a game and feel satisfied with the experience it has given me, for better or worse. Lord knows with a home to take care of, a husband, a dog, a full time job, good friends, and other hobbies that demand my time, like writing and reading, I don't have hundreds of hours to sink into games - playing and replaying them until I have squeezed every drop of life from them. I have to make my (usual) single play through count.

Don't get me wrong. Assassin's Creed II is an AWESOME game. I am really enjoying playing it. This is a little flaw. Tiny in comparison to some of the other games I have played and their issues; bugs, freezes, missing missions, missing characters, etc. I only bring it up because it turned a 100% score on my card to a 99% and because when the latest incident of me wanted to turn back the clock happened, it actually lead me to feeling frustrated enough to turn the game off.

Of course though, I will be back there tonight. That is one thing I am completely sure of.

Silliness and Assassins

Amazingly hilarious video using a Dance Mod for New Vegas.

Watch that video if you have played the game. I found myself stiffing laughter as I watched it here at work. Probably not funny if you don't know the characters, but if you do, seeing them bust a move to Lady Gaga is pretty damn amusing.

Speaking of New Vegas, the same problem I had with Fallout 3 has reappeared. As soon as I get close to the end of the game I lose interest. Like in a big way. I was actually in the middle of the big last battle and I saved it and took out the disk. Not sure why, what causes this, but the same thing happened with Fallout 3. I did eventually just buckle up and finish it, but I can't tell if it's a "I don't want it to end" or a "I'm bored" thing. Weird. Most games when I near the end I am pumped to see how it goes, though I am certainly guilty of not finishing games, most I will finish if I get to the last mission!

I bought Assassin's Creed II. I wasn't really all that interested in the franchise until I started reading about AC: Brotherhood, the follow up to II. I realized I really wanted to play the game, but not without know the character's background. (You can miss the first game, since it's about another Assassin as long as you watch a short video on youtube to give yourself a little insight into what you are dealing with, but you can't really skip II since it's all bout the main character in Brotherhood.)

So anyhoo, I am enjoying the game, though I mistrust autosave games and games that don't give you more than one slot to save. That bums me out. I want to be in more control of my saves in case something happens. So we will see if this adventure into the Assassin's Creed franchise ends in horror or happiness.....

Bioware to Announce New Game

Article on Kotaku with small video clip.


Most speculation says that it's the early annoucment of Mass Effect 3, a game we all know is coming, just no info on yet. Though there is talk of it being a completely new IP all together. Exciting says I!

Bioware has put smart phone scan tags on it's different Facebook pages and when scanned it just returns a number that equals the atomic mass of Iron. Not sure what it means yet, but we will find out on December 11th at the VGAs.

Also there is going to be an inside look at Batman: Arkham City during the telecast.

I do not normally watch the VGAs. It's kind of awkward and weird, though it is based on something that I love. This year I will at least DVR it so I can see the bits I want to see though.

L.A. Noire First Trailer

This is the first trailer for Rockstar's L.A. Noire game. (It is age restricted, so you may have to log into your youtube account to watch it or follow the link to watch it on R*'s website.)

So far I think the idea for the game is pretty cool and I am looking forward to it, but what I am most impressed with is the technology they have used to film actual actors and use their facial expressions. Just in the trailer alone you can see the difference between a normal video game face and what they have going on here. It could be the start of some big changes.

EA Sale / Bioware Games

Tipped off by my friend Nate and also receiving an email today, I thought it might be good to pass along the news to those of you that might not know!

EA is having a pretty decent sale on many things, but included is Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, both on my list of really awesome games. These items are on Direct Download sale, so you will have to play on your PC if you take advantage of the offers, but from what I am told DA: O is superior on the PC version.

That's it for today - just a quick drive by to hopefully help you save a few coins!

PS3 Move

This is an early and abbreviated review on the PS3's Move capabilities. The hubby and I gave it a test run last night.

First all I would like to upgrade PS3's "C" marks on data transfer to a "B+" from my last post. I checked everything out last night and it appears everything moved over safely and my 'lost save data' is no longer lost. Hooray!! It only stays a B+ instead of moving up to an A because the time it takes to do the transfer was more than 'advertised' and I had to get a LAN cable to do it, as opposed to working with something that comes with the machine. Nit picky, I know, but it remains that it's not the easiest thing to do and anyone with any technofear probably would have had a coronary trying to do it.

But on with the Move Review.

Want the Reader's Digest version? Ok! It's pretty fucking cool. There. Now you can get on with your life if three more paragraphs is taxing your schedule.

A little more detail? Ok. This is my first foray into motion gaming. It's possible the Wii has this thing beat and with 360's Kinect coming out this week as well, I am sure it's got a lot to offer. Since I don't have a frame of reference you will just have to take my opinion at face value. In general I enjoyed my experience and look forward to playing more games with Move.

My husband played Tiger Woods Golf 2011 and was really impressed with it. He said it really felt like playing golf. Then we tried the disk that came with the bundle and played a Gladiator game. (Slashing, hacking, jumping around) I would just like to make it common knowledge that I am House Champ of the Gladiator game and I have the sore shoulder this morning to prove it.

Haven't tried Resident Evil 5 with it yet, but that is on my list of thing to check out. If there was a way to get me off my ass and moving around, it looks like Motion Gaming found it. Not that I want to only play games like this, but it's fun regardless.

Resident Evil 5

PS3 - Yellow Light of Death

A Playstation 3, Xbox360, or Wii is a big investment for anyone to make. I hate to sound like an old lady trying to get unruly kids off her lawn, but back in the day these systems didn't cost quite as much and quite frankly lasted forever. I still see Sega Dreamcasts and those old Nintendos that work perfectly at the flea market on Sundays, yet Sony and Microsoft both seem unable to deliver systems that don't kick the bucket after a few years,over the past two generations. I have gone through at least 3 PS2s and had an original Xbox that died a fairly quick death.

Knock on wood, I have been able to avoid the Red Ring of Death by making sure the 360 doesn't stay on for long periods of time, vacuuming out the fan vents, and making sure it's always free of blockage when the system is on to keep everything vented properly.

Our PS3 was not a release system, but pretty close. I found myself with troubles with it from the get go, but usually a system reset fixed it. Then the Yellow Light of Death came to town. It pretty much completely disables the system due to solder letting go on one of the components inside the machine. Since I was unable to back up most of my saves due to copy protection (another unacceptable and unreasonable issue I have with Sony, but that is for another post) I was not alright with just buying another system and moving on with life. This was not like the PS2 where you just pulled your save card out of the slot and jammed it into the new system and was able to keep playing without missing a beat. All my saves were on the dead PS3. Hundreds of hours of game play was going to be lost with the machine.

Witness the horror of the Yellow Light of Death!

So I took matters into my own hands. This is not to say that I condone that any of you do what I did, but I do want to encourage you to not give up if you find yourself in this same position and find your own solution.

I opened up my PS3, taking it apart bit by bit, and re-soldered the piece that had come undone. I followed a video on youtube on how to do it. It was not easy. It was a huge pain in the ass, really. I had to buy a special star screwdriver for one of the screws they put in the casing, buy thermal paste, and borrow a heat gun from a friend. When I put it back together I had about 3 screws that didn't make it back to where they belonged.

When the 'fix' was done the system still didn't 'work' in that we couldn't play games. The fan was not working properly now, but I was able to use the dashboard operating system, including the data transfer and that was the most important thing.

Self fixes for PS3s only last so long before the ylod comes back. At best you might get a month or two out of self fix even if you are good enough with electronics to make it work completely again. I took the ylod as a sign to start saving up a few bucks to buy a new PS3 and just played the 360 in the meantime.

Last night my husband finally won the battle that we have had every week for the past few weeks of "Do we have enough to buy the PS3 yet?". He is dying to play Tiger Woods 2011 with the PS3's Move capabilities. So we got the PS3 320 gb with Move bundle. We bought it at Walmart. Not sure how it happened, but I was only charged $349 for it, though even Walmart's website says the package is $399. Mistake or roll back, I wasn't about to complain! I saved $50!

As soon as we got home, the transfer of data began. It was probably foolish of me to begin this process at 8PM, but I knew this was the right way to do it. After system updates (both systems must been upgraded to the most recent version in order for the transfer to work) I started the transfer through a LAN cable.

A word of warning: If you decide to take this particular activity on, please do know that the 'estimated time until finish' is a lie, just like The Cake. I saw '5 minutes left' for about 45 minutes. I looked around online and had read that it 'freezes' for long periods of time, but to just be patient and leave it alone and it would eventually finish, and that was the truth. Yummy sweet truth, with frosting!

Though the wait is the truth...

Of course once this was all done and I put in the Tiger Woods game, that also had a 45 minute download to upgrade the game for Move compatibility, so there was not actually PLAYING done on the PS3 last night. It was after midnight and I had had enough, yet tonight when I go home there is a lot to be explored. I did not have time to check to make sure all my game saves had transferred, nor did I check to make sure all my DLC was available.

Overall, Sony gets an 'F' for ease of allowing consumers to copy saves from their systems in case of system failure, but I would give them a 'C' for ease of entire system transfer between two working PS3s. Of course I retain the right to change that grade if I go home tonight and all my data is missing despite a two and a half hour data transfer.

Dragon Age II - Free Hindsight Belt

If you are like me and are eagerly awaiting Dragon Age II, then it would behoove (love that word) you to pay a visit to the Dragon Age II website and watch the Penny Arcade Motion Comic. When you do you will be given a free special item for use in game, the Hindsight Belt.

This is a no-brainer for anyone that plans on buying the game, especially if you have preordered to get all the extras.

A word of warning, for some reason it seems this motion comic (why couldn't they just call it a cartoon or video?) takes a while to load. Click on the icon and once the video starts up, press pause to allow the video time to load because if you don't you will be attempting to watch it in herky jerky fashion. I paused mine, went to make a sandwich, ate the sandwich, put in a load of laundry, updated my xbox 360, and it still wasn't completely loaded. But it's a free item, so it was worth the wait.

Once the video ends, click back to the website and the icon that led to the video before now will say 'claim your belt'. Click on it and it will prompt you for an email. You do have to sign up for the Bioware email to get it, but if you like DAII anyway getting the email shouldn't be a problem. I am on their mailing list and never feel spammed or annoyed by them.

So what are you waiting for?? Free item! Get it!

Get Out and Vote!

Yeah, yeah. I know I promised no politics, but I'll keep my preaching brief.

Voting is important. When you don't vote horseshit like the action California has taken against 'violent video games' happens. That's the kind of law that cripples game companies and slams game retailers with outrageous fines in place of people doing some actual parenting of their children, and that's really bad for our past time, ya dig?

I'm a proud member of the Video Game Voters Network and I will be voting today. So get off yer arse and go vote! And if you aren't even registered - shame on you! Register now so you can vote in the next election.

Let's kick this off right!

I was tempted to leave my welcome message up for a day or two before writing my first post, but I have ditched that notion, since I already have something to say. Now that I have this platform and I don't feel like I am pissing off my facebook friends with video game chat, look out! I'm wearing my 'I Have Opinions!' pants and I want to show them to you! My opinions, that is, not the pants. Unless you really want to see the pants. They aren't very exciting though, it's not like they are see through or crazy John Daly golf pants, but again, I digress. (Expect a lot of that...)

Also it should be noted that I am currently playing games on an Xbox 360. I had a PS3, but it shit the bed and I haven't the cash to buy a new one yet. I do not tend to play games on PC. This is not against PC gamers, it's just not my thing, so please don't attempt to convert me. I prefer sitting on my reclining leather couch than at my computer desk to play, since most of my playing is done after a long day of sitting at a computer at a desk at work.

So now that that is settled, on we go!

So today's topic is Bethseda Softwork's Fallout: New Vegas. I will do my best to avoid spoilers for those of you that have not yet played this game, but are planning on doing so.

I bought this game on release day. As it is with most games that you buy on release date, you can expect a certain amount of glitchiness. My game has frozen enough times that I feel like I deserve a 'Walt Disney's Head' achievement or something for it. This is annoying, but I have found that if you remember to save every few minutes and use rotating save slots, this is only a minor annoyance. In all honesty, saving often and in rotating save slots is just smart gaming, no matter what game you are playing. Games that don't give you this option are substandard in my opinion. (I'm looking at YOU, Fable II.)

Now, leaving the freezing behind, I also have found items floating in mid air, including rocks, spoons, and weapons, but again not a deal breaker. I am hearing grumbles about some really awful problems, but thus far I have been lucky enough to avoid them.

I would first like to say that a game has never raised so many moral questions and conundrums for me in my life. I am truly amazed by the ethical gray zone BethSoft has been able to create with this story. Most games that give you a choice of good and evil, the choices are pretty black and white. There is a good way to do something and a bad way to do something. Not in FO:NV!

So far New Vegas has given me numerous ways to complete any given mission, creating a story web that had repercussions and consequences for almost everything I do. I don't think I have ever played a game where upon completing one mission I got almost ten "Mission Failed" alerts, because I had closed my door of opportunity for doing those missions by going down the route I chose. I understand that it would have failed missions regardless of which side I picked, since you can only do missions for the faction you are supporting after a certain place in the game, but it still amazed me just how deep they made the storyline, depending on who's side you took.

Also in the occasions that you are following the 'good' path, sometimes you have to do things that compromise your Karma negatively. For example, I wanted to save someone, but to do that I had to hack an owned computer. Since you get negative karma points for that, I had to take the negative hit on my karma scale, though I was still doing the 'right' thing. It became a sort of Robin Hood issue. Hurting one party to help another party still means I hurt someone. Which party did I think was in the right? Oh, the dilemma!!

Also deciding who's side to be on was REALLY hard. I really thought about it, walking around the wastelands, doing piddly side quests while weighing my options. It wasn't obvious. Everyone had upsides and downsides. Rarely is a game so engaging in this way. Granted games have been striving to become less about white hats versus black hats, but this is the first occasion where I was really torn about what was the best decision. To be completely honest, I am still not sure I made the correct decision but I am going to let my character deal with the fallout (pun fully intended) from his actions.

So far it's amazingly well done. Yes, the game is glitchy, yes my game freezes, yes there are problems that they should have patched before release. Yet, I am 40+ hours into it and can't wait to go home and play some more. That should tell you right there, that despite the technical shortcomings, there is something there. A gem coated in radioactive desert sand.

So, here I am in the bloggerverse......

You know, I am really late to the party. I don't even know if anyone cares about what I have to say or not, but I guess I will say it anyway. Because that's what I am all about.

As you may be able to tell from the title of this blog, I am a girl and I like to play games. Video games to be precise. And to be fair, I am probably not considered a girl any longer, but 'A Woman & Her Games' didn't have the same ring to it.

Anyways, since video games is my hobby and is the thing I have the most to say about, I figure it's the best topic for me to blog about. Politics? Blah. Cooking? While I do make a killer pot roast, there is enough of that out there already. I also know I am not the only girl playing video games or blogging about it, but I've got opinions and I'm going to share them with you.

Don't expect proper grammar every post. Don't expect reviews on Cooking Mama or Animal Crossing, just because I am female.

Do expect musings, opinions, and uncensored diatribe regarding whatever game has my fancy at the moment. I float around genres though I tend to be partial to Action games and RPGs. I may float into comics, movies, or other topics from time to time, though my main focus will be video games. Please forgive these digressions.

So that's it. If all my blathering interests you, follow. I'll be happy to share with you! If it doesn't, happy trails to you, perhaps we will meet again.