Force Unleashed Demo on PS3

What a crock...

I downloaded this demo onto my new PS3 and played it. I was sort of enjoying it too. Tossing droids through windows, slashing lightsaber moves, even doing a few sweet combos (more out of luck than actual planning though).

Then I get to the boss fight (fight an AT-ST) and what happens? I'm told to hit a button right on time or get smashed. Then hit another button right on time or get smashed.

The fact that I worked on my combo moves, Force powers, or lightning attacks means NOTHING when you get to the boss so long as you hit the button I'm prompted to hit right on time like some sort of Pavlovian dog.

If that had happened in a game like Doom where you have to just hit a button at a certain point in time rather than rely on your side strafing or rocket jumping to beat a boss there would have been howls of anger from the community.

Indy PS3 Part 2

The issue seems to have been corrected or I did something different. Either way, a child's game held me up from progressing for a few days. How damn embarassing is that. I would try to make myself feel better by playing some Madden '09 but I suck so bad at it that the Browns just beat my Cowboys 14-7. A console requires a whole different set of hand-eye co-ordination which my brain, being hardwried for WASD+Mouse, can not seem to fathom just yet. A small consolation being that I can now shift defense formations on the fly. Perhaps I need to buy one of those guide books for the game.

Lego Indiana Jones (PS3). WTF people!

Fun game but I think it is broken. I'm at the point where you are supposed to jump from truck to truck to steal the Ark. I beat up all the bad guys and then apparently I'm supposed to hop into one of the trucks and drive it. Here's the kicker, the game won't let me get into the trucks and them. I wander all over the top, along the side rails, and even try to do the trick where Indy hangs off the grill. None of it works. Is this damn game bugged? What the hell Sony and LucasArts. Anyone can help, post in the comment section. This is pissin' me off.

100% sell out

So I bought a console. As expected the cost involved was a little high but the store I went to was offering 18 months no interest and my interest in PC games has waned a little bit in the past few months for some reason.

$400 for the 80gig PS3 unit
$100 for two games (Madden and Lego Indiana Jones)
$50 for a protection plan for two years
$50 for an HDMI cable
$50 Taxes and so forth

$600+ later I now own something I didn't think I'd ever own: a high priced Blu-ray player with the ability to play games.

There's a few pluses already though
1. It supports HDMI cabling and the system thinks my Samsung DLP is 1080i.

2. The wireless networking plugs right into my home network so no problems

3. Setup pretty easily despite having to use the controller for typing in information.

Madden looks great and plays a hell of lot better than the last time I tried playing back in 2005 or so. The play by play commentators are annoying as hell though. One bread and butter play is Marion Barber right up the gut. That usually can get you four yards or so. I apparently though couldn't block a dead corpse in the open field. These thumb controllers are a bitch to handle.

I'm such a sell out now.

Fry Cry 2 buddy system

So in the new Far Cry 2 game, it is being stated that if you have an NPC running with you and they die then you lose the ability to explore whatever content or side quests or gear that NPC might have made available to you. Logically that makes sense but given how stupid most companions are in a game, is this really a good idea? You might pay $60 for this game but only get $30 of its content unless you go play on super easy mode. But I hope none of you are that much of a pussy.

EVE Online

Like most gamers I've heard nightmares about the game EVE Online. The learning curve is insane, the people are asshole griefers, and there's been instances of administrators helping certain groups in a not so honest way. Despite that though, I decided to fire it up a little and see for myself. So I signed in, downloaded the client which is paltry compared to the file sizes in EQ2, set up my free account for the 14 day trial and I was on my way.

A storyline was shown to give a backstory, then you create your charater, give it some traits, and off you go. Pretty easy so far. As you start you're given a tutorial about using the camera, flying the ship, how to orbit around things, how to mine resources, and how to blow up an enemy ship. Again, so far so good. At this point I'm even liking the graphics, it's like Homeworld except people might call you an asshole once in a while. No big deal.

So then I go to get my first missions and then the problems start. I get the mission (go blow up a ship and bring back the stuff they stole), so I fly off and blow up the ship. Woo hoo, easy money, right? Wrong. Something in the game goes bonkers. First, the game pops up a message stating, "Hey your graphics card will support the new high resolution graphics, want to download them?" Well hell yes I want pretty pictures. So about five minutes later the graphics are downloaded and the game needs to restart. No problem, I'll just restart the game and then turn in this mission.

So I go back to the game and get ready to turn in the missions. At this point though, the mission takes a turn for the worse. I completed the missions, my game journal says I completed the mission and that I should go back to the starbase and turn in the stolen goods. But the person who gave the missions says I don't have the item. I did have the item, but now it's gone from my inventory. What the hell?

So now I get on the chat channel and explain the situation. Someone says "check the cargo hold" but I already did that so now I'm stuck plus I don't see a way to restart the mission. The tutorial narration keeps telling me to turn in the damn mission but then the person who gave me the missions says I don't have the pieces.

I then proceeded to log out and uninstall the game. If I can't even get the first missions right there's probably not much of a point to keep trying. To its credit the game is beautiful though. It'd be great to have an EVE Online screensaver. Get a free account and use it to test your graphics card.