Lucasarts has destroyed The Force Unleashed franchise. This game is SHORT. Shorter than a midget in a Chilean mine short. Granted I played on Easy mode but it took me all of 4.5 hours at most to finish. There are truly only 3 worlds. Yes, you read that right….3. In order, it’s Kamino, Cato Nemoidia, Dagobah (for like 2 minutes and there is no combat), Salvation (long and pretty boring indoor sequence), and then, amazingly, back to Kamino again! Annnnnnnnnd, that’s it.  The story is unimaginative. My five year old son could write a more coherent narrative.

Kyle Katarn. Photo Credit: TheForce.net

Although it’s mindless entertainment and was fun to a degree, this is a quite simply a poor excuse for a sequel and frankly Lucasarts should be ashamed. When you have a quality franchise like Jedi Knight laying domant that arguably had better combat and a much better story, I don’t understand how this game was green lit. It’s an insult to the first Force Unleashed to call this a sequel. Kyle Katarn from the Jedi Knight series had a much more interesting story and the multiplayer was awesome on the PC. Heck even Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy were on the original Xbox Live and were passable. But I digress.

Simply put, this game is worth US$20 at most.  I don’t know anyone who could recommend spending the full $60 on this game. Lucasarts very well may have just killed this franchise before it really got started. I liken it to Mass Effect. Mass Effect was a solid first entry for a new franchise that set the tone. Now imagine if Mass Effect 2 were 1/3 as long and had a non-existant phoned in story. That’s TFU2.

 

Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES was released on October 18th, 1985 in the US.  I remember getting the NES on Christmas morning 1985. I still have it and it still works! What else can be said about this console? Some of the best games ever made came out on the NES, giving birth to franchises that endure to this day such as Mario Bros., Metroid, and Castlevania.  I remember playing Gyromite and Duck Hunt all Christmas day.  Soon after I got Super Mario Bros. and the rest is history.

My personal NES favorites are Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Tecmo Super Bowl.  Too bad they didn’t have achievements back then.  I would have unlocked the “Win the Superbowl with every NFL team” achievement in Super Tecmo Bowl!

So Happy Birthday NES and thanks to Nintendo for creating such an amazing product.  I wonder…would I have become such a huge gamer had the NES never existed?

 

Gaming news site Kotaku recently ran a few stories on Gaming Tattoos.  Both tattoos are very well done and look great.  More gaming tats are definitely a Good Thing in my opinion.  Check them out! Also, don’t forget to check out my collection.

 

I was recently accepted into the Xbox Ambassador Program. I am very honored to be part of this special group.  I’ve been a member of Xbox LIVE since 2004 and I enjoy helping gamers on LIVE and answering questions on the xbox.com forums when I can.  Here is a brief explanation of the group from xbox.com:

What are the Xbox Ambassadors?
The Xbox Ambassadors are members of the community, just like you, from all over the world who love Xbox LIVE and are willing to help where they can. Ambassadors can be found on the official Xbox.com forums or playing on Xbox LIVE.

I was very excited to be accepted into the program to help make Xbox LIVE a better place for everyone.  The Ambassador program is managed by DMZilla and MacheteBetty.  The program is run in their spare time along with their official responsibilities at Xbox.  Gamers should be appreciative that Xbox LIVE management has carved out a special team like this to help the community.  In addition to answering questions on LIVE and xbox.com forums, we have “Ambassador Playdates” as well! Check the Xbox LIVE Dashboard on your Xbox 360 console for future events.  We recently had a great playdate where Burnout Paradise was the featured game.

If you are interested in connecting with an Xbox Ambassador please see the list of all U.S. based Ambassadors (My gamertag, The PerfectCr, is there!). Also, be sure to visit the blog of Xbox Ambassador leader DMZilla.  If you like, feel free to send me an invite on LIVE!  See you out there!

 

We are finally done! I’ve had three more sessions since the last update to complete the sleeve! We did Alucard, the Symphony of the Night moon with the Half Life 2 Citadel w/Crackdown Agility Orb on top, JKII, Quake 1, and the background flames, clouds, and smoke. It’s still healing, my artist said it will take a good month for the “sheen” to wear off as the tat goes into the skin more. I just keep putting cream on it regularly. It’s healing perfectly. Since JKII and Quake are the newest they are not as bright yet. Be sure to check out the previous progress (and lots of pics) from my other posts.

Here are some details in case anyone cares. This tattoo was completed over six sessions lasting around three to five hours each. It was done by Larry at Cast Iron Tattoo in Orlando, FL. After the break check out all the pics!
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Session 3 was held October 25. Here are Gears of War, Unreal, and Darth Malak (this will be tweaked more). Certain parts are still in the healing process so we are moving around and comng back for touch ups once eveything is done. I probably have 3 or 4 three-hour sessions remaining.

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The second session was held October 18. Here are the pics!

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The first session was done October 9th. Scorpion from MKII was completed. I will post the reference picture and tattoo picture. Let’s get to it!

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Sleeve 1 ConceptI have wanted a tattoo since I was in college (I am 32 now) but I just never did it. This past summer I took the plunge and got two of them. The two I wanted were basic letter designs on each shoulder. One being my pro-wrestling logo (P.C. = Perfect Creation) and the other being my wife’s name formed with symbols I associate with her (love, wife, mother).

Now here is the big one. This is going on the right leg from the knee down. I’ve always wanted a tattoo that would symbolize my favorite games I’ve played throughout my life. Games that have meant something to me or remind me of fun times. I’ve been playing games since the Atari 2600. I wrote down each system I owned and what games really stood out or made an emotional connection with me. As the list came together I realized that while I grew up on Combat, multiple C-64 games, Mario, Zelda, etc. none of them really made me want to have a tattoo with then on me. I also wanted something different. Most gamer tats I see are Mario, Zelda, etc. I didn’t want that again. I love Mario and Zelda don’t get me wrong, but not that much.

My tattoo artist is going to work with me to create a montage of these pictures. The concept design appears at the top of this entry. Read on to see the reference pics that will be used as the foundation for the leg sleeve. Stay tuned as I will updating each week as we progress! Continue reading »

 

Last week I did one of the dumbest things I think I’ve ever done in my gaming history. I’ve been playing through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on my 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade. I’ve completed the game before (5 or 6 times over the past 10 years) but never got the elusive 200.6% castle exploration. Now that there is a Xbox 360 achievement associated with it, (“Seeker”) I figured I’d go for it, since I never had a real incentive before.

Anyway, I am completing the rooms and got up to 199.9% with only the last few rooms to go where Dracula is in the inverted castle. I saved, exited the game, and went to reload my save so I could check my exploration %. (you can only check this from the file load screen). I must have been moving fast through the menus and I accidentally pressed the D-pad down and selected the “File Delete” menu instead of the “File Select” menu. I dutifully hit A, then A again to (what I thought) load the game. The game didn’t load. WTF? I thought. Then it hit me. I just DELETED MY DAMN SAVE FILE!

12 hours down the tubes. Luckily I love SOTN so playing through again is hardly a bother, but to be so close…

So, any of you have similar stories of lost games, deleted games, or just general dumb moves in your gaming histories to share? Post a comment or join the discussion over at the Tech Report forums!

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